Words, words, words

On this page I'm going to list the terms and concepts that I talk about often so that there is a quick reference. This will keep me from having to explain things like "shadow work" in every other lesson or post. If there are posts where I talk about these things in depth, I will provide links for those of you who want to explore further.

Shadow Work:  This is a term that you are going to come across A LOT in the beginning of my lessons.  It refers to the process of digging around in the places in your psyche that you don't like to look at. It's a concept originally developed by Carl Jung, but it has been expounded on by literally dozens of self-help and psychology experts. When I talk about it, I am referring to any process that works for you. I don't think that there is a "one size fits all" sort of process that will make Shadow Work easier to explain. We all have to find the processes and teachers that work for us.  I could write for pages about this concept, and in the future I might, but the important thing to understand is that I am talking about serious personal exploration. Not vision boarding, meditating or wishing your "negative feelings" away. 

Technical Truth:   Often I will talk about being honest with yourself, or telling yourself the technical truth, or some variation on that. What I mean is telling yourself the truth as you can best understand it, without an emotional charge. It's not easy. I did a post about it, and I may do more in the future because it's a concept that I think is at the center of being an effective Tarot reader, both for yourself and others. This is where a lot of people get hung up because they aren't ok with the truth, or they have the skewed idea that honesty is the same as cruelty.

Check out my post for an in-depth look at honesty and technical truth-telling.

Tarot Cards: There will definitely be a longer post about this, but simply, this is a pack of cards with images that are used for fortune telling, self reflection, etc. 

Tarot Reader: The person on the other side of the cards, probably you, who is interpreting the messages from the Universe, Spirit, or whatever invisible force talks to you.

Client: generic term for the person being read for, often called the querent in most texts.

Arcana:  fancy word to describe the two types of cards in a tarot deck (major and minor arcana). literally means mystery or secret.

Major Arcana: the 22 cards that describe the archetypes of the Tarot. I.E. the Fool, the Devil, Temperance, etc.

Minor Arcana: The 4 suits and court cards that expound on the archetypes of the major arcana

Reversed/inverted Cards:  I don't really pay much attention to this, but it just means that the card is upside down when you turn it over. Some readers work with this to mean that the card is either the opposite of the usual meaning or it holds a lesser degree of the original interpretation. It is up to you how you decide to read these cards.

For me, when I read, I just turn them right-side up because I believe that there are enough concepts in a Tarot Deck that if the Universe was trying to come up with a way to say "the opposite of Strength" it would have several options in the rest of the deck. And many of those options would be more specific that just "oh, the opposite of this thing here." 

Check out the rest of my Tarot reading series, starting with the FAQ page, the pre-class blogs, and then going into lesson one. 

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Dani Hermit is a long time Tarot Reader with over 25 years of experience with the cards. They are a font of unsolicited advice about everything from reading Tarot to baking cookies. If you have questions about Tarot, cookies, shadow work, or their cats, feel free to contact Dani through their facebook page and they will select from these questions when the mood strikes to do a new blog entry (usually 2X a month).