Believe it or not, even though I'm a Catholic liberation theologian, I've also become Tarot card reader. And this despite the teachings of my beloved meditation mentor, Eknath Easwaran, who always characterized Tarot as "Terror Cards."
In fact (pace Sri Easwaran), it's much more focused than that. I'm now using my ability to read Tarot as a fund-raising project for an impoverished women's cooperative in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
Let me address all that by first explaining my understanding of Tarot cards. Then I'll show you how Tarot fits in with Catholic theology and my fund-raising project. Finally, I'll issue an invitation to read your cards.
My Introduction to Tarot
To begin with, I was introduced to Tarot during a year-long sabbatical that my family spent in Spain. There in Andalusia, I unexpectedly fell in with a group of street musicians and gypsies. Most of them made only five or ten dollars a day busking. As self-described troglodytes, they lived in caves without running water or electricity. They explained the cards and their interpretations to me in ways that made me drop my preconceptions and defensiveness. If you're interested, you can read about all that here, here, here, here, here, and here.
In any case, I learned that Tarot cards represent a divinatory tool usually understood as helping "querents" (seekers) answer existential questions connected with work, relationships, anxieties, and what the future might hold. As expressed by Tarot master Joe Monteleone, those consulting the cards typically want to know about getting paid, getting laid, and staying unafraid, so they might reach a happy conclusion of their parade through life.
But as Monteleone insists, Tarot cards are about much more than getting paid, laid, overcoming what makes us afraid. In fact, the 78 cards of the Tarot deck represent a dynamic book about you, me, and anyone who opens the "book." Tarot cards are dynamic because as packets of the universal energy filling the cosmos they meld, tap into and blend with the energy packets of those reading and seeking guidance from the Tarot cards. Put otherwise, like the cards themselves, each of us is a bundle of energy that can select from the deck individual cards addressing our true identities and the granular circumstances of our lives.
Accordingly, the Tarot book is divided into chapters addressing the archetypes just mentioned, as well as spirit, relationships, thoughts, and our physical circumstances such as work, money, and health. All those elements come to light in suits of wands (for spirit and creativity), cups (for relationships), swords (for ideas), and coins (for physical circumstances). Additionally, a final chapter (called "court cards") explores relationships with important others in our lives under images of pages, knights, kings, and queens.
As those images indicate, the relevant cards are replete with references to history, mythologies, sacred scriptures, astrology, and akashic records.
Relative to all that, I've discovered that my background in the classics, history, poetry, and theology has prepared me well for reading Tarot cards. So, I've done it for family members and friends who have recognized (and have helped me see) my ability to interpret card meanings.
In fact, while still in Spain, I did so for two professional readers, who subsequently encouraged me to "go professional." Since returning home, I've even read for my therapist (whom I consider my spiritual director), and she has very generously sent my way several "clients" for whom I've read on ZOOM and SKYPE.
[Oh, and recently during a three-month stay in Florida I read for many absolute strangers poolside at the Regatta Beach Club in Clearwater Beach. (Subsequently, however, I was informed by the Club's authorities that such activity "for monetary gain" was forbidden.)]
What the authorities in Florida didn't understand is that I'm forwarding ALL "monetary gain" to a women's cooperative in Costa Rica. For clarification, here' a flyer I've made to explain my project: click here
As the flyer indicates, our (very poor) Costa Rican friends manufacture simple solar ovens and instruct their neighbors how to make them. They also maintain a large organic garden that provides food for themselves and their neighbors. (By the way, our friends in the co-op find themselves amused that I as a deinstitutionalized priest and theologian should be delving into the occult on their behalf.)
Theological Connections
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