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theparanormalperiodical · 2 years

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The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Tarot Cards: A Brief History, How To Read Them And Choosing A Spread feat. Cheat Sheets

Cast your mind back to 2020. Well, if you can. I’ve blocked most of it out.

The national lockdowns were a hellish period for us all, unless you were one of the few billionaires able to profit from the global peril. But aside from OCD, I did take away a few things from that time.

And that was my love for tarot cards.

I’ve had my deck since my first year of university, so for about five or six years now. At first, I struggled to shuffle them, I found it hard to understand them and I just never really knew what to do with them. They were an ornament, not a hobby.

But it was only about three years later, when we all had to stay inside for months on end, that tarot became a crucial part of my weekly routine. Every Sunday I’d light a candle (preferably sandalwood or sage), put on the Life is Strange soundtrack and have my iPad on standby to help me research the meanings of the cards.

Then, I’d pull out my Rider Waite deck, take a few deep breaths, and call on the spirits to communicate with me through the deck. I’d pick up the deck and just hold it in my hands, inhaling, exhaling, inhaling, exhaling. I’d envision my energy rising from my chest up into my shoulder down through my arms, pulsating through my fingertips and right into the deck. And the energy from the deck would be pumped back into me. I became one with the cards.

And then, to complete this holistic, peaceful ritual I’d chuck ‘em on my bed and mix them together before compiling them back into a deck. Then, I’d lay them out in front of me (only now, when writing this sentence, do I realise that I don’t know any card terms, like I kind of put them in a stack and then smush them in one line so they’re fanned out?).

I close my eyes, hold out my hand, and let my fingertips select the cards representing my past, present and future. I collect the other cards into a deck and lay my selected cards in front of me. One by one I turn them over, using the booklet to help me decode my subconscious and messages from the spirits. I’d then use my iPad and a very helpful tarot website to help understand them even more.

Despite having a personal process that I’ve practiced many times now, there’s still so much I don’t know. I want to be able to read them without the assistance of a personal device, and ask for more than my past-present-future.

Why not tag along and join me on my tarot journey?

In today’s blog post, we are going to find out what tarot cards are, where they came from, the best ways to use tarot and how to read them.

Let’s start with an easy one: what is tarot?

So, tarot is a pack of playing cards used since the mid-15th century. Today, they normally consist of 78 cards which are split into Major and Minor arcana. Originally, they were used in “trick-taking” games (to be honest, I don’t really get what this means, it’s a type of card game that’s hella complex, kk) in Europe, but in the 18th century, the occultists got involved.

They started using it to read the future. That being said, they’ve always been surrounded by occult themes, from a Dominican preacher calling out their inherent evil in a sermon - which we think is related to their use in gambling - to the introduction of astrological symbols in Florence at the turn of the 16th century.

The word “tarot” is derived from “tarrochi”, an Italian word which basically means “foolishness”. This was probably due to its association with the drinking, gambling and debauchery that surrounded them.

However, according to some spooky weirdos, tarot really began all the way back in ancient times and has links to Egypt and the Kabbalah (a critical school of thought that informed occultism).

"The origin of this pack of cards is very obscure. Some authorities seek to put it back as far as the ancient Egyptian Mysteries; others try to bring it forward as late as the fifteenth or even the sixteenth century ... [but] The only theory of ultimate interest about the Tarot is that it is an admirable symbolic picture of the Universe, based on the data of the Holy Qabalah."

- Aleister Crowley, probably the most famous occultist ever

They even say the first tarot deck exclusively used was derived from the Book of Hoth, and it was chockful of references to ancient Egypt. It’s still one of the most common decks used by occultists, alongside the Tarot of Marseilles and the Rider Waite deck.

So, what’s tarot card reading?

Tarot card reading is a type of cartomancy where people try to gain insight into the past, present n’ future. Or is it? Some believe it’s really about getting in touch with ourselves; our subconscious and our intuition. Somehow this helps us understand where we are coming from and going better, thereby “predicting” our future.

How you use them is completely up to you.

Each card has its own images and story, with the major arcana representing spiritual lessons and the minor representing our daily trials and struggles.

Personally, I call upon the spirits and believe they communicate with them by selecting the cards, giving me insights not only into myself but also my future.

The basic tarot card reading process

There are plenty of decks and ways to read the cards to pick from. But let’s start with a basic set of steps to get you started.

Set the scene: I like to create a calm, relatively tech-free environment and kick things off with lots of deep breathing. If I was cool enough to meditate, I would, but normally I grab a diet coke, put on some soothing music and just sit quietly for a mo.

Clear the deck: shuffling the cards is critical. Not only does it give you a fresh set of answers every time, it gives you a chance to connect with the cards. At the same time, think about what you want to ask the deck, or in my case, the spirits. I like to visualise this energy flowing between my arms and hands into the deck and back into me.

(If you’re doing a spread) Do your spread - aka how you lay out cards: pull out the cards for your spread one-by-one until you’ve completed it. For each card, look up in the little booklet that comes with your deck the basic meaning of the card and think about what it could mean for you. Look at the card and see how the symbols relate to you. You could even consider researching meanings online as they can offer more depth into other perspectives.

Complete the spread: When you’ve finished going through the cards one-by-one, take in the meanings of all the cards collectively, like how your life might progress from past to present to future.

Finish up with some questions: ask a question, pull a card from the deck and decode the answer.

Here’s a couple of different spreads to try

One of the most off-putting things about tarot is how much there is to take in. It’s not just this set of weird-looking, multiple-meaning cards in front of you, it’s what you’re supposed to do with them. Most occultists would tell you to start with asking some simple questions and pulling a card - the answer - from the deck. But what’s stopping you from getting your hands dirty and tryin’ out a spread?

I still only do one spread - the past, present and future. Now, I want to see how else I can up my tarot game.

So, what are the best spreads for novice tarot readers to start with?

Celtic cross: this 10 card spread highlights not just the past, present and future but also external influences and outcomes.

Five card spread: here, you stick with the basic past-present-future spread but add a card above and below the three cards, one which represents what’s driving this situation, and the other which is a potential outcome.

Horseshoe: this spread takes into account advice you should follow, obstacles and gives you an optimal action to resolve the problem at hand. This is great for tough decision-making.

How to read individual cards: the meanings of key symbols, images and themes

I’m a basic w*tch, k?

I still gotta use the booklet and use my trusty tarot site to properly uncover all the potential meanings of the cards. I’ve never taken the time to really learn how to read the cards myself, but it’s actually not that difficult. Tarot cards, particularly the Rider Waite deck, share themes, symbols and images that make reading the meaning of individual cards pretty straightforward.

Let’s run through them, shall we?

Cups: this suit is all about your emotions, openness and imagination

Wands: these cards represents your energy and your creativity

Swords: this one’s about your mind, so how you think and solve problems, and even communicate

Pentacles: this suit represents the physical world and how we interact with our work, homes and money

The court cards (King, Queen, Page and Knight): if multiple ones come up in a reading, you can interpret a progression as you move up or down in terms of authority. The Page and Knight often represent youth or inexperience, whereas the Queen and King represent adulthood and mastery. But they can also have more specific meanings, too.

King: leadership; success; attainment

Queen: empathy; compassion

Knight: taking action; mature energy; moving forward

Page: youthful; service

Each number has a specific meaning, too:

New beginnings; unity

Relationships; balance or duality

Creativity

Stability; structure

Conflict and change; growth

Harmony

Spiritual growth; life lessons

Understanding; accomplishment

Success; coming up to the completion of a cycle

Completion; enlightenment

The colours used in each card have different meanings:

Black: protection; negativity; illness; darkness

Red: safety; passion; anger

Pink: love; forgiveness; femininity

Orange: creativity; optimism

Brown: stability; earthliness; lack of boundaries

Yellow: opportunity; spontaneity

Gold: mastery; divinity

Green: healing; harmony; envy

Blue: peace; sadness; judgment

Purple: intuition; spirituality; reason

White: higher self; newness; birth

Silver: emotion; sensitivity

There are also a few critical symbols to watch out for:

The moon: change; passage of time; reflection

Keys: knowledge; discovery; opportunity

The ocean: possibility; emotion

Ship: personal journey; transformation

Tree: shelter; regeneration

Flag: pay attention for a major change

Major arcana: they represent big events or figures, or major influences and revelations

Minor arcana: they represent everyday events and influences

I know, I know - it’s a lot to take in!

While I recommend you review this regularly and use this list when doing tarot so you can “actively revise”, it might be easier to have a cheat sheet on-hand to begin with.

So, here’s some links to the best-rated tarot cheat sheets: Cheat sheet 1 Cheat sheet 2 Cheat sheet 3

Ready to get your tarot on?

You should now be ready to take your first steps into the world of cartomancy. Ya welcome.

But before you grab your deck and start shuffling, I want to leave you with one final tip: find the process that works for you. Tarot is all about self-reflection, as much as it is about being a spooky bi4tch. Take your time, try different things and make it your own!

If you liked this post, make sure you like and reblog to let me know. Want to hear something spooky uhhh okay not every weekend but like every fortnight, okay, I’m getting back into it? Hit follow.

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nightingaleflow · 2 years

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Nightingale's Ghost Story

This is the story of why I still believe in the supernatural.

This story happened about a decade and a half ago, when I was 14. It was the middle of summer, and at the time, my mother had just started working at a little antique/retail shop in a tiny town that shall remain nameless. It was in a building that I think might have been a house at some point, because once you went down the stairs in the back, you found a back yard and porch attached to the basement.

On this particular day, I went with her to work while I was waiting for our local library to open so I could just hang out there. Genius that I was, I hadn't brought anything with me to do, so wanting to stay out of the way, I went downstairs and just sat out on the back porch.

Importantly, the stairs - which were old and creaky - were the only way in or out of the basement. Either side of the yard was flanked with tall, spiky hedges, and about 10 feet forward into the yard, there was about a 5 - 6 ft drop into the creek. So there's literally no way anyone could have been down there with me without me knowing about it.

Here's a poorly drawn MS Paint diagram to give you a visual:

Anyway, I was chilling on the porch for about an hour, thinking about whatever as I waited for the time to pass.

And then, right next to my right ear, I heard a voice say "GET OUT."

It was harsh but quiet, like a stage whisper. And it was angry.

Naturally, I shot up in the chair and looked around frantically. But there was no one there. Not a single soul was in the basement or yard, and I didn't hear or see anyone going up the stairs. I was completely alone.

Now, I've been a lover of horror cinema since I was a kid, and I'm always that person yelling at the protagonists to gtfo.

So when it was my turn, I heeded my own advice and got tfo. I then just stayed upstairs in the main part of the store until I could leave.

I only went back to that store a few times after that. I usually just stayed upstairs and refused to go anywhere near the basement, but one time, Mom forced me to go downstairs to help her with something and I almost started crying, I was so scared to be back there. Even now, a decade and a half later, I still get chills whenever I go back home and I pass by that store.

Nothing like that had ever happened to me before, and nothing like it has happened since (thank god). I've spent a lot of time theorizing about what it could have been, and the best I can come up with is ghost or spirit because idk what else it could have been.

And there you go. That's my ghost story.

@silvermadara here you go. <3

#nightingale speaks #just in time for spooky season #ghosts #true ghost stories

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shrinrei-shashin · 2 years

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The Chichibu water tank murder case and haunting (秩父貯水槽死体遺棄事件の)

On December 9, 1977 the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported the discovery of the heavily decomposed body of a pregnant young woman found in a water tank used by local firemen near Eifukuji temple in Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture. A tragic and gruesome incident in it’s own right, but what makes this case truly special are the mysterious reports made at least a year earlier. Reports of “a ghost with a crumbled face in a sweater”

In the summer of 1976, a taxi driver reported seeing a woman crouching by the roadside close to the water tank one night. The man approached her to see if she was alright, but as the woman looked up, the cab driver to his horror saw her face start to seemingly “melt” before he speedily drove away. Another driver would see the same woman walking alone by the roadside one night, what stuck out as particularly odd to the driver was the fact that she was wearing a black sweater despite it being a hot summer night. As he looked back in the side mirror after driving past her, she was gone.

Other stories from drivers started to appear, including reports of a woman standing on the water tank or the sound of weeping, and by 1977 the stories of the mysterious woman in the black sweater was known locally.

Aditionally, a week before the discovery of the body, a heavy black rock with “A ghost appears here!” scribbled on it with white chalk would seemingly move on it’s own in the direction of the water tank, despite it being so heavy two men were needed to lift it. A possibly hint from the woman?

December 9, horrified local firemen would finally find the body during a maintenance check, and soon the boyfriend of the woman, now referred to as “Y-san”, was arrested and confessed to her murder. November 8, 1975, the man and Y-san had a quarrel regarding her pregnancy and enraged, the man strangled her to death with a towel and dumped her body in the water tower.

In the official newspaper the details differ slightly. Here it is reported the woman had been dead for about 3-6 months. It also reports sightings of the woman appearing in people’s headlights, causing the drivers to hit the brake in a panic, only for the woman to be gone.

After the discovery of her and her child’s bodies, and the arrest of their murderer, the ghost seemingly disappeared. Although not for long. From 1985 onwards to this day, reports of the Woman in the Black Sweater would reappear. In 2005 journalist Takehiko Koike and his crew was planning on visiting Y-san’s family for a program. But after typing in the address of the family, the car’s navigation system didn’t lead the team to her parent’s house, but to a graveyeard. The graveyeard Y-san was buried in.

Besides the gruesome truth behind these ghostly tales, the similarities to the Elisa Lam case and the 1996 Koji Suzuki’s short story Floating Water, later to be adapted into the film Dark Water (2002) adds another layer of eeriness to this case.

May Y-san (soon) rest in peace

#true crime #true ghost stories #ghost stories #paranormal #j horror #japanese ghosts #jhorror #yurei #true stories #ghosts #ghost

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thoughtsofabooknerd · 11 months

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My Ghost Experience (first story)

Back in 2006/7/8 the Harbour Inn pub (Kent uk) had a paranormal investigator and Tarot reader in for the evening doing mostly readings upstaris where the restaurant bit was.

While I was having my tarot done the investigator stopped and looked over to one of the pillers, he said there was a ghostly figure in guy fawks dress standing behind the piller and watching us.

Apparently this figure wasn't nice.

At first I couldn't see anything but then I saw a shadow of a figure on the side of the piller.

When we finished my reading, we went back down to the bar downstairs, as I was walking down the stairs I looked up and saw a face of the man, I can't remember what he looked like but he had an old hat on.

The owner at the time hated the pub because he kept seeing a lady in an old dress and whenever he worked she was randomly there.

Later in the evening the investigator and I went back upstairs and tried talking to this bad ghost man, he kept knocking on doors,

I was also told that there is was a little boy that kept following me around the pub, the investigator told him that his name was Charlie and that I reminded him of someone he knew. One point in the evening we were talking with my hands dropped over the chair when I felt a little hand grab around two of fingers.

Nowadays it's been run by someone else and often think if the new owners have had any strange happenings.

When I walk past I look up at the window and smile up to Charlie.

Sadly I couldn't find anything online about the place or the people there.

#personal #supernatural #paranormal #ghosts #ghost #harbour inn #kent #uk #my ghost experience #haunting #hauntings #true ghost stories

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mrhyde-mrseek · 2 years

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Hey y’all want to hear some ghost stories? Well too bad, you’re getting ‘em!

To preface: my house is 230 years old (it was made in the 1790’s), and it currently has at least one ghost. I don’t know her name or how she died, but she’s probably around six years old. My sister and I have both had very vivid dreams with identical girls in them, so we think she was in them. She’s deathly pale, with white-blonde hair and cartoonishly large, pale eyes, and wears a white nightgown-type garment. I’ve tried to do some research on my house, but I haven’t found anything on her.

Now for the stories:

I was coming down the kitchen stairs one morning, and CLEARLY heard a voice say “Come play with her!” Nobody else in the room heard the voice.

A few months later, I was standing near the same staircase, and heard someone crying. It sounded like my sister, but she was perfectly fine when I went up to see if she was okay.

I was alone in the house singing (as you do), and I stopped to say hi to my dog when he came into the room. When I stopped, I heard a voice humming a few notes before stopping. Again, no one else was in the house, and as far as I know my dog cannot hum.

My sister was closing her door to change her clothes, and while she was trying to do so, she felt a pressure on the door at child height pushing it open.

When my sister and I were babies, my sister woke up in the middle of the night, alerting the baby monitor. When my dad came into the room, she said she saw “bubbles” (orbs) floating around the room, and asked my dad to stay so “the shadow man didn’t come back”. The SHADOW MAN. (As far as I can tell, the shadow man is gone.)

After coming back from a walk, my dad let my dog, Buddy, and my old dog, Elsa, into the house with their leashes still on, and went to get the mail. Elsa was a small dog and had a leash that clipped onto her harness, When he came back, her leash had been unclipped—which she could not conceivably do on her own—and lay on the floor. Buddy’s leash was one of the chain ones that go around a dog’s neck, which is a bit harder to take off than a clip leash, and his was still on.

This happened AGAIN under the same circumstances, and the second time, Elsa’s leash was stretched out under the coffee table facing the door to the dining room. My dad has photos of both.

The ghost has never caused any real trouble, she’s quite peaceful. I haven’t seen or heard from her in a while, but I’m willing to bet she’s still in the house.

#ghosts #ghost stories #true ghost stories #haunted house

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