Not long after I moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia years ago, I went to a dinner party. After dinner, one of my friends said causally, "Sure. Jean knows how to read the tarot. Maybe she'll do some readings for us."

After an unsuccessful attempt to back out gracefully, to say I was just a novice at card reading, I allowed myself to be seated at the table with my old A.E. Waite deck and BAHM! Sure enough, the first couple I read the cards for was in deep trouble. He was having an affair; she didn't know it. Great. I bumbled my way through the rest of the evening, trying not to say what I really saw, and left as soon as possible.

The problem with the tarot is that people don't think it will work.

And it doesn't, not really. We are the ones who do the work. The tarot, like many other tools, is what is called a method of divination. This is a fancy term for getting in touch with information which we generally may not access.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

One of the first English scholars of the twentieth century to study the Tarot was a man by the name of Alfred Edward Waite. As you can see from the story above, I prefer to use the deck Waite created over any of the innumerable other decks which have been created, because Waite was a scholar of religious symbolism, mysticism, and the Kabbalah. The deck he developed along with Pamela Coleman Smith draws on their mutual understanding of Judaeo-Christian symbolism, as well as the more ancient history of these symbols. Because of this, even the most minute detail of the Waite deck (sometimes referred to as The Rider/Waite Tarot) is steeped in symbolism and can be counted on to trigger images and ideas, even for those who know nothing of the tarot.

This is not to say that other tarot decks, of which there are many, have no importance, but only that I prefer the Waite deck because each card contains a picture (untrue in some of the older tarots), and because the imagery contained in these pictures is easy for me to access because of my own background. There are several tarot decks of more recent origin than the Waite deck which emphasize different symbols: the feminist tarot; Robin Woods' more fantasy oriented deck, and the occult deck developed by Alestair Crowley, to name a few.

Waite claims that the word tarot comes from the Egyptian, in which language Tar equals way or road and Ro means king or royal. For this reason, the tarot is sometimes called the Royal Road.

Whether or not this is an accurate statement about the origin of the tarot, we know at the very least that the tarot dates back to the late thirteen hundreds when the painter Charles Gringoneer created some cards for Charles VI, the King of France. It is rumored that the European Gypsies (known also as Gyps or Egyptians) carried the mystical traditions of ancient Egypt in these cards which, with the exception of the twenty two cards called the Major Arcana, ultimately developed into today's playing cards.

SOMETHING TO DO WITH DREAMS

For the purpose of divination, the tarot is generally laid in what is called a spread. There are a number of these, used for different purposes, the most common of which is known as the Celtic Cross.

But for working with dreams, such a spread is not necessary. What I would like to do over the next few months us discuss a variety of ways that the tarot can be used to help us better understand ourselves and our dreams.

For this month's exercise, let me suggest something I have used to good effect in dream groups I've conducted. It is something you could try alone, as well, or with a group of friends interested in dreams. This method is very close to what Sigmund Freud labeled free association and works well even for people who have never seen a tarot card in their entire lives.

I suggest that the group form a circle on the floor, not for any occult reasons, but simply because it is easier for everyone to reach the cards.

Put the cards in the middle of the circle, and let everyone shuffled them, spread them around like you did when you were kids and used to play Go Fish.

Then each person draws a card, leaving it face down on the floor.

One by one, going around the circle, let people turn over their cards and explore them for personal meaning, looking on the card as if it were a dream.

For the Jungians who read this article, let me say that I have seen a great many people, some of whom are entirely unfamiliar with the tarot, exclaim over the synchronicity of the symbols. "Yes, that's the issue I've been dreaming about." "Oh, look at that lion. It looks just like my cat who is sick."

Even for people who have some understanding of the traditional meaning of the tarot's symbolism, it is useful to approach this exercise with a new eye, to talk about the feelings engendered by the card rather than to fall back on what someone has said the card means. This could be likened to the difference between interpreting our own dream symbols and using Zolar's Dream Dictionary.

Looking at the individual card as a dream, with personal significance, lends itself well to the Rev. Jeremy Taylor's well known exercise, "If This Were My Dream." This exercise allows others to comment about the dream (or card), but only from the perspective of each of us owning our own personal perspectives or perceptions. I once watched two friends, one of whom had drawn The Star, and the other who had drawn The Fool, first remark, independently, how they hated their own card and loved the other and then touch deeply on the qualities they saw in one another.

This is only one way in which the tarot can be used to work with dreams. There are many more to explore. Also, if you have used a dream technique with the tarot which you would like to share, why not post the message on the message board? Dreams are the realm of imagery and symbols. What better way to pursue their meaning than through a medium which is totally focused on imagery?