Imagine you've found a grocery list at the store with the following items...
- Sliced Cheese
- Bread
- Butter
- Tomato Soup
- Crackers
- Milk
You know what's for dinner. They're having tomato soup and grilled cheese. Not all grocery lists are as informative as that but you get the idea. It it the same way one reads Tarot.
Imagine the above list but if the person already had the Bread, Cheese and Butter. The list would be far less informative. Fortunately this is a problem that doesn't exist with Tarot as one can setup the spread as they see fit.
Take the following lists as an example and see if you can read them similarly.
- Tomatos
- Basil
- Fresh Mozzarella
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Chicken Breast
- Onion
- Celery
- Garlic
- Chicken Broth
- Egg Noodles
- Carrots
- Parsley
- Lemon Juice
- Eggs
- Sausage
- Bacon
- Bread
- Pancake Mix
- Peanut butter
- Celery
- Raisins
- Black Beans
- Red Beans
- Ground Beef
- Chili Powder
- Onions
- Salt
- 5 Hungry Man Frozen Dinners
- 2 Boxes of Doughnuts
- 3 Bags of Potato Chips
- 24 Pack of Soda
- Cocoa Puffs Cereal
- Gallon of Milk
If you've eaten home cooked meals for any length of time here in the US you'll be able to read those pretty well.
The last two I included for instructional purposes.
The list with one ingredient, that being salt, is not very informative at all. This is the risk one runs when doing Tarot readings with only a few cards.
The last list I added because it tells us more than just what is for dinner. That list can allow us to surmise a lot about the person who wrote that list. Beyond the conclusions that the list owner is a single guy with a crap diet, what else do you see?
If we add a...
- Guns & Ammo Magazine
...how does that change things?
Now look at the following list...
- Pork Caul Fat
- Large Dried Lotus Leaves
- 8 lbs. of Non-Toxic Pottery Clay
- Sesame Oil
- Light Soy Sauce
- Shaoxing Cooking Wine
- Star Anise
- Whole Cloves
- One Lower Leg of an Adult Human
- Pork Tenderloin
- Small Shrimp
- Smithfield Ham
- Bamboo Shoots
- Medium Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
- Ginger
- Scallion
- Vegetable Oil
- Ground White Pepper
This recipe is incredibly informative. An experienced culinary artist may be able to spot the dish being crafted here assuming they replace the exotic meat from the recipe with something more pedestrian. An avid consumer of horror television might be able to correctly guess the identity of the chef. If one has experience in both things they may quickly identify this is a list of ingredients used in a dish based on Beggar's Clay Chicken which Hannibal Lecter modified slightly to suit his own tastes.
A majority of the ingredients listed can be used to cook many different dishes. There are four ingredients that stand out above all of the others that point directly to the specific meal and chef mentioned.
- One Lower Leg of an Adult Human
- 8 lbs. of Non-Toxic Pottery Clay
- Large Dried Lotus Leaves
- Pork Caul Fat
This short list of highly important ingredients demonstrate the power of the Trumps in the Tarot deck. The Trumps point directly to the nature of the dish. The Pips (small cards) are seasoning and garnish.
Now, the number of ingredients that can be considered Trumps in a recipe reading probably number in the thousands. Fortunately the Tarot only has 22. I'll be diving into this all important list of ingredients and how to use them in future posts. If you'd like to follow along and are unfamiliar with the Tarot you'll want to use one of the following decks.
- The Rider Tarot - For Romantics
- The Thoth Tarot - For Intellectuals
Until the next post, see if you can read the following basket.
