Find the Story in the Cards for Clearer Tarot Readings

Sturdy Foundations and Rainbow Arcs: Meaning and Story in Tarot

Many tarot students waste their time memorizing tarot card meanings. That is one of the most misleading recommendations in the practice of reading tarot. Unfortunately, this red herring is perpetuated by an inordinate number of tarot teachers. And AI’s quick confidence in explaining card meanings doesn’t help. Let’s look at how cards function, what creates card meanings, and–more importantly–why focusing on one card at a time, one set meaning at a time, leads you away from the goal of tarot reading: finding the story in the cards. We’ll explore what creates tarot card meanings and how finding the story in the cards helps clarify your card interpretations.

Ultimately, combining the building blocks of interpretation with the overarching story produces clear, usable tarot card readings. But more than that, I’ll share what kind of stories give direction and clarity to the biggest questions you have in life. 

Tarot Card Meanings vs. Interpretations

First of all, let’s distinguish between card meanings and card interpretations.

Many tarot class descriptions start with, “first we’ll memorize the tarot card meanings.” That’s not the most inviting way to introduce someone to the art and practice of tarot! Instead of believing that cards MEAN something, let’s recognize that we pull from a variety of influences to interpret the cards. In fact, there are more than ten building blocks for tarot card interpretation! You can see that with that many pieces to play with, it’s unlikely that a universal, standardized meaning can be captured for any tarot card. The word “meaning” implies that there is a distinct, dictionary definition for each card. And most readers could tell you a handful of these definitions. But how does that work in practice? When we’re actually doing readings, these supposed definitions become quite slippery indeed.

The Building Blocks of Tarot Interpretation

Then let’s explore the building blocks of interpretation.

So if we don’t use tarot card meanings, what do we do instead? We interpret cards. The crucial distinction is that a “meaning” implies something that is correct or incorrect, whereas an interpretation is much more personal and adaptable.

So what you’re saying is that I can make the card mean anything I want?

No, not at all! We use the building blocks of interpretation to create our understanding of the card. We rely on such things as the card number, suit and element, and the card image. These three building blocks alone will serve you well for many years as your entire basis for card interpretation.

But there are many more building blocks than that when you’re ready to explore! I have a whole blog post on the primary building blocks of tarot card interpretations, if you’re interested (coming next week!).

You can think of these building blocks as the foundations that the cards are built on. No one building block is the meaning of the card, instead we build our interpretation block by block, keeping it simple when we need to and going Frank Lloyd Wright when we’re feeling poetic.

How Cards Work Together to Create Stories

So now that you’ve got an idea of the complexity of the concept of “card meaning”–complex to the point that it’s almost impossible to say any card has a unique, universal meaning–let’s consider something else. Most experienced readers don’t read cards alone. We always read them in combinations or arrangements. This can include reading cards in pairs, in lines or grids, or using positional or non-positional spreads. And by considering cards in combination, different variables influence our understanding of the individual cards. So, the idea of the dictionary definitions of meanings becomes even more diluted. 

But there’s even more than that. Cards work together to create stories–and this is the key that points us toward which of the building blocks of interpretation are relevant.

When reading card combinations, although the meanings become diluted, the story, however, becomes clarified. And the only way to successfully understand your cards is to find the story in the cards you pulled and relate that to your life. 

Whereas the building blocks are the foundation that support each card from below, the card combinations are like rainbow arches that link cards together.

Where do the stories come from? The topic of the story comes from the question asked. Is the person asking about a relationship? A job? A conflict? Money? You know the story elements for each of these stories through your own lived experience, your friends and community, and even from societal stories shared through books, tv, and movies. All of a sudden, the right building blocks shift into position and the story in the cards unfolds. 

Practical stories give practical answers, and that’s what you want to make your reading useful. But there are times people have those big-picture questions of destiny, purpose, and transformation. They need to know how to change their life, not just solve their problem. So where do we find examples of stories like this? Mythology. Folklore. Religious parables and philosophical allegories and psychological archetypes. These stories carry us to the mountain top so we have a panoramic view of our lives.

Sturdy Foundations and Rainbow Arcs

So, while cards don’t have meanings, they have interpretations based on which building blocks you wish to include in your understanding of the card. 

And rather than reading cards in isolation, work with them in combination. It is through combining cards that the story is clarified. 

If you’d like to learn more about how to read cards, my new Mythology and the Minor Arcana program is my best offer for how I can help you build the sturdy foundation of tarot card interpretations and then link them with the rainbow arcs of story.