<![CDATA[WHAT IS THE TAROT FOR? SOME MATERIAL FROM READERS STUDIO]]>As many here know I was one of the featured presenters, with Mary K. Greer and Benebell Wen, at this year’s annual Readers Studio conference in New York. This is a great event, and I have been to all but one of them (I was ill that year) since the beginning, when Mary Greer and I were presenters. So it was special for me, and I wanted to do something special. Rather than narrow myself to a single topic that I could fully cover in the 2 1/2 hours we each had, I wanted to open it up, look at basics, and what’s special.

For several weeks I took lots of notes, writing many pages in my journal about subjects I might cover, readings we might do, aspects of Tarot in people’s lives. Then i wrote up five pages of handouts, covering many, though not all, of those topics. When we began I told everyone that I did not expect to do it all, but I wanted them to have it. Now i want to share some of that here.

The first page of the material was a list of uses people have found in the Tarot. I titled it the same as this post. Here it is. I hope people will feel moved to comment, question, discuss, and especially add things I missed. I should mention that a number of the items came from suggestions made by my friend Zoe Matoff, who is a brilliant and dedicated Tarotist.

I should also mention that I do not necessarily endorse some of the things. They are simply ways people have used the Tarot.

WHAT IS THE TAROT FOR?
Ways People Have Used The Tarot

Playing a game
Fortune-telling
Scamming people
Advice from a wise friend
Healing—through advice from a reading, or directly through the images
Astral travel
Travel to other worlds or stories
Travel on the Tree(s) of Life
Saving lives
Saving yourself
Spying
Discovering secrets—in others or yourself, or in the world.
Self-knowledge
Art—Tarot as an art form or using Tarot to inspire new art
Story-telling, writing, poetry
Honoring/Speaking to/Summoning the dead
Honoring/Speaking to/Summoning spirits, demons, or angels
Controlling spirits, demons, or angels
Visual form of magical doctrines
Magical doorways
Identifying threats or issues in a person’s life, and what to do about them
Legal, medical, financial direction, or decisions
Meditation
Insh’Allah—discovering the divine will
Arguing with God
To go out and come back

The last is deliberately mysterious and suggestive. I would be interested to know people’s reactions to it.

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