21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card

21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card by Mary K. Greer. 2007 Tenth Annual Coalition of Visionary Resources COVR Award Winner - Winner in Best Books - Divination.

Drawing on nearly forty years of tarot experience, Mary K. Greer has developed a new energizing approach made up of twenty one stimulating techniques to interpret or deepen your understanding of each card. Just as the twenty one letters of the alphabet can be combined to form billions of words, Greer's twenty one methods can be used in any combination for gaining amazing new insights and perspectives.

Emphasizing both traditional and personal methods of interpretation, Greer's techniques involve storytelling, sketching, symbols, metaphors, dialogues, acting, and other imaginative exercises. Designed to bring about interaction, transformation, and empowerment, this twenty one pronged approach to tarot can help readers expand standard interpretations and evolve new ways of connecting to the cards.

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Editorial Reviews: Mary K. Greer's 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card

"This may be the only book you'll really need on the tarot. All the other books are, so to speak, icing on the cake baked by Mary K. Greer." Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D., in The Beltane Papers

"If you buy one book this year, make it this book! There is such an incredible amount of material presented here, researched and presented in a thoroughly professional manner... There is something in this book for every student, at all levels."
Bonnie Cehovet, TE, on Aeclectic Tarot

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Table of Contents: Mary K. Greer's 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card

Contents
Acknowledgments, ix
Introduction, xi
How to Use This Book, xix
step 0 Stepping Out 1
Step 1 Name 3
Step 2 Description 7
Step 3 Emotion 15
Step 4 Story 25
Step 5 Number 33
Step 6 Mode, Suit, Element 47
Step 7 Synthesis 59
Step 8 Metaphor 67
Step 9 Query & Snapshots 77
Step 10 Meanings 89
Step 11 Range 103
Step 12 Modification 115
Step 13 Symbols 129
Step 14 Dignity & Theme 147
Step 15 Dialogs 163
Step 16 Drawing 173
Step 17 Embodiment 183
Step 18 Imagination 191
Step 19 Myth & Archetypes 201
Step 20 Deck Comparison 219
Step 21 The Possible Self 231
Step 00 Full Circle 239

Appendix A: Emotions List, 243
Appendix B: Number & Rank Keywords, 245
Appendix C: Mode, Suit, Element Keywords, 251
Appendix D: Elemental Dignity Combinations, 257
Appendix E: The Empress Vision, 261
Appendix F: Archetypal Motifs Chart, 265
Appendix G: Reading Styles, 271
Appendix H: Traps & Solutions in R.I.T.E., 275
Appendix I: 21 Ways Worksheet, 283
Glossary, 285
Bibliography, 297
Index, 305

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Excerpt: 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card

Step 1
Name

Action without a name, a "who" attached to it, is meaningless.
-hannah arendt, the human condition

The Way of the Apprentice

Preliminaries: Choosing Your Card

Now's the time to select the card that you'll use through each of the twenty-one ways to read a tarot card. That's right; you might as well jump right in. Choose a deck that has storytelling images on all the cards, and shuffle it thoroughly as you ask, "What do I most need to look at in my life right now?"

Draw three cards and turn them to their face up and upright positions (see Glossary). Which card is most intriguing? Which one is most unsettling? Which card has the most detail? Which card has the least detail? Decide which one of the three will be your "chosen card." It should have enough symbolism for you to explore in depth and, perhaps, be more interesting than pleasing. Aces are not your best bet or the Eight of Wands, as they usually have few details. It helps if one or more people are actively doing something in the image. If in doubt, pick a Major Arcana card.

You'll be working with your chosen card throughout the book. Do not look up its meaning until you get to Step 10. If you feel truly drawn to do so, you can change your card at any time, but remember: the greater the challenge, the greater the potential growth. If you change your card, go back through the previous steps to get an overview of the new card before continuing where you left off.

Activity
1:1
Say the name of the card you have chosen aloud:
"I've drawn 10, the Wheel of Fortune."
"You received the Four of Pentacles."
"This card is the King of Cups."
"I got 13, Transformation, which is usually called Death."

That's all there is to this first step. Say the name of the card! It seems obvious but don't overlook doing it. Time after time, I see students look at a card in desperate silence, with no idea of what to say or where to begin.

Saying the name of the card opens your mouth and starts it moving-what I call "priming the pump" or getting the ideas flowing. You'll then find it's easier to say the next thing and the next. Naming something helps you own it and thus connects you to what you know about it. It's like a key that unlocks a gate sometimes a floodgate of information.

Activity
1:2

If you are new to tarot or have just purchased an unusual deck, shuffle it and then examine the cards, one by one, saying their names as you do so. This simple exercise will help familiarize you with this particular pack.

The Way of the Adept

You can continue exploring this step now or come back later, after trying out the other ways to read a tarot card.

Before beginning a reading, you should have psychically grounded yourself, paid attention to your breath, and shuffled the cards. Step 1 establishes an essential quality in a reading: a focused state. Now you bring your focus to bear on a single card and what it has to offer. Naming the card is a formal introduction to the energies before you, an acknowledgment of the players in the game.

The tone and emphasis you use when naming the card will convey a tremendous amount of information in itself. You might surprise yourself with a feeling you didn't know you had. For instance, you might greet the Empress with a sense of letdown-"Oh, the Empress"-only realizing later that you were hoping for a little more dynamic and assertive card. If reading for a querent, you can disarm their assumptions about a card by your manner of naming it. For example, you might greet a disturbing card by cheerfully exclaiming, "How exciting, you've drawn the Tower!" The task then becomes to convey what makes this card so exciting. Don't overdo it and definitely don't fake a response. In general, you are best served by being open and curious about why this particular card appears at this place and time. Always pay close attention to first impressions, both when reading for yourself and with a querent.

When reading for another, empathize with their first response to a card. Acknowledge and support their response before continuing.

Activity
1:3
Shuffle your deck. Ask the question, "Who am I?" Then turn over a card and say its name. Notice any physical response in your body as you first see the card and name it. Did you hold your breath or did you inhale, as if to take in the card? Did you move subtly back or forward? Was there any tenseness or relaxation? What was your very first sensory impression-a flush, a chill, an increased heartbeat, surprise, disappointment, satisfaction, nostalgia? Try this with two or three more cards.

Activity
1:4
Have another person draw a card for the same question. Say the name of the card. Simultaneously note the person's initial physical response. Tell the person what you observed and then ask what her first impression was. For example, Amy draws a card and I tell her, "It's the Ten of Coins." Then I say, "You moved forward slightly when you saw it and seemed to smile. What's going on?" Amy responds, "I'd like having that many coins and my own family." Was the response what you expected?

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Far too many people worry about reading tarot cards the 'right' way. I find instead that there are more helpful and less helpful reading techniques, depending on the situation. It is also believed that when reading for others we must do what the client expects. This all too often means to predict the future and tell people how to obtain their desires. Is the job of a foot doctor to cure lung cancer? I feel that as readers we have a right, even an obligation, to discover what we do best and to offer that in readings both for ourselves and for others. The task becomes learning what we do best and offering that with clarity and confidence.

In Mary K. Greers 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card I decided to lay out the contents of my bag of tricks for everyone to see, try and choose among for themselves. I am proud of these techniques, as I have learned them over several decades of teaching and taking classes, reading and trial and error practice. They are the beloved tools of my trade, gathered as time and life have brought me new challenges and ways to meet them. Not everyone needs to be the most versatile reader possible. Many have focused on doing one thing well. My greatest gift that I can share with you has always been exploring a variety of perspectives and synthesizing what I have found. I search for where different approaches connect and diverge so as to go deeper than I can with any one of them.

For over 30 years I have used, refined and taught these tarot interpretation techniques, and am confident that each will, in its own way, benefit the person who gives them a fair trial. Mary K. Greers 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card offers flexibility. By experimenting with all the techniques, a person can eventually mix-and-match to produce his or her own preferred set, resulting in an unique approach to reading tarot that best serves that readers skills, strengths, purpose and world-view. Furthermore, working through this book makes sure that tucked into the corners of that bag of tricks are additional options that can be pulled out, dusted off and applied when others just are not doing the job.

I wrote most of my books because I felt there was a need to clarify areas of confusion and to explore new possibilities and techniques. My first book, Tarot for Your Self came into being because all the books prior to that time said never read tarot for yourself, yet almost everyone I knew secretly did. These books also advised memorizing card meanings before trying a spread, which I found difficult and unbearably boring. My failures led to searching out alternate approaches. If reading for yourself doesn't work according to traditional understandings of what a reading does, then, I asked, what does it do? And, how could that be its strength? I experimented with breaking every tarot rules I could find. My own rule became: use something only if it makes sense, it is enjoyable or it works. As a result, I integrated several tarot traditions into my own practice but never unquestioningly.

In Mary K. Greers 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card, I include meanings for suits, elements, numbers and symbols, but the emphasis is on teaching principles and techniques that draw on each persons knowledge, life experience and inner wisdom. As much as integrating new information, I want both readers and querents to learn to listen to themselves. This book concentrates on ways to access the wise self that lies within each of us. Each person accesses their inner wisdom in different ways. For some, it is visual; others are auditory or tactile. One person may find meaning in system-based patterns emerging from number and suit symbology; another responds most strongly to shape and color. For others, the cards speak directly. Relevant information can even lie in the muscle tension necessary to juggle two pentacles, wield a sword or reach for a cup. There are so many ways to find the message in a tarot card and some of the more unusual methods are most revealing precisely because they bypass previously established assumptions and resistances.

Moving beyond surface meanings, no matter how correct they are, gives access to deep, soul stirring insights. I tried in this book to convey the power of what I have come to call a reading that is interactive, transformational and empowering (R.I.T.E.). The task in a reading, as I see it, is to discover how to meet whatever happens in the best possible way to help you grow, develop your potential and work out difficulties in your life. The 21 ways in this book will help you do that.

Liven up your own tarot readings by incorporating the things you learn with 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card.

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