I have been turning into something of a tarot enthusiast here lately. I’ve been fascinated by the tarot since I first played around with a deck back in high school, but I didn’t have my own deck until I bought a Rider-Waite from a game shop during my first year of law school, near to the time when I first started to really broaden my horizons in terms of the scope of my spiritual search. I did a few spreads with it back then, but mostly just let it sit around until a few months ago when I finally started to grapple with the tarot in earnest.
I feel like I have a talent for the tarot. I have done spreads for myself, for my beautiful and sexy wife, and for my brother, and some of them have been shockingly insightful. I’m still using a couple of guidebooks to make connections and understand the meanings of the cards, but I am slowly gaining an understanding of my own through a combination of committing key-words and other peoples’ interpretations to memory, and also through meanings that have emerged from readings I have done. Not every spread I do winds up being useful or insightful, but enough of them seem to be so incredibly on-target that I think I have a lot of potential as a tarot-reader.
While I have not yet written the post I want to write about magic, I will say that I don’t necessarily think that the tarot cards are supernatural. A good deck of tarot cards is composed of powerful symbols that correspond to complex structures in the mind (conscious, sub-, un-, and probably super-), and can be used to make connections or better yet reveal hidden connections between emotions, ideas, and events. So my basic understanding of the tarot is that it is deeply psychological, but psychological nonetheless.
I’m kind of a purist as far as decks go. I’ve looked around at some of the alternatives, and I am generally not impressed. For most decks, I don’t even think the art is all that good, and I definitely would be hesitant to even bother with divination with any deck but Rider-Waite. On the other hand, I realize that my prejudice is purely a matter of personal aesthetics, snobbery, and a persistent nigh-insuppressible orthodoxy reflex. Which means I don’t think you’re an idiot for using a different deck, but I’m going to pretty much stick with the one I’ve got. Although I need a new box or bag for my cards, because the one they came in is rapidly disintegrating, since I habitually take my cards with me, stashed in a pocket of my backpack or rucksack.
Personally, I have grown to identify strongly with the Knight of Cups, and I am considering eventually getting a full-sized tattoo of the card, probably on an upper arm or back shoulder. I imagine at that size and in full color it’s not going to be cheap, so I will probably wait until at least next summer when I have a job and a steady income. Anyway, the Knight of Cups is the consummate questing knight, the grail-knight, on a journey of discovery that is a journey into the depths of the subconscious. Cups have a lot of water-symbolism, and water is an element of mystery and the subconscious. It’s also a strongly female element, particularly when associated with cups or the grail. So there are aspects to the quest and the quest’s object that are associated with the divine feminine, the deep places of the soul, and the mysteries of the unconscious mind, all of which are intensely relevant to me. It’s also the card that I used as a significator—purely because of the color of my hair and the instructions in the little pamphlet that comes with the Rider-Waite cards—way back in high school when I first started to become familiar with the tarot.
I plan on spending a lot more time and effort with the tarot. I’d like to have a deep understanding of all of the cards, even the tricky ones that elude me, and I would like to start moving past individual cards and out into the relationships between them. It’s exciting and compelling stuff for me. And also, it is just plain fun.
Sailing to Byzantium 
I generally seem to identify most closely with the Four of Swords; I pretty consistently need a lot more time for contemplation than I actually get.
You can read my cards anytime. 🙂 Interpret as you will…
As a confirmed Tarot snob, I officially look down on your choice of the Rider-Waite- (ahem) – Smith deck. As a person who appreciates the wide varieties of gorgeous tarot decks in the world, I think it’s cool that you’re getting attached to a particular deck, especially one as nice looking as that one. In my experience, it works the best if you pick one style you like and consistently work with that one, regardless of the shortcomings of whatever deck you’re using. They all have shortcomings.
The Rider-Waite-Smith deck is just one of many modern re-imaginations of the Tarot and is no more orthodox than many other decks also produced in the 20th century (though to be fair many of them are copies or reimaginings of RWS, so it’s become iconic that way.) I don’t like using decks with illustrations on all the minor arcana number cards because I think it forces a particular sort of interpretation that doesn’t necessarily go along with what might be a more appropriate reading of the card – I notice that RWS users tend to have little stories that go along with whatever is going on in the picture on the card to use as mnemonics, and while I guess that’s useful, it means you’re reading the picture on the card and not the correspondences. Might as well just pick up the Fairie Oracle or whatever if that’s what you’re doing (and, I should add, “not that there’s anything wrong with that.” It’s a valid and useful form of divination, but it’s not tarot.)
Ah, but I think having the pictures is the whole point. I’m not really all that sold on all of the correspondences to be honest with you, so I’m interested in the tarot because of the visual symbolism, and the connections that the reader and the querant make between the symbols, pictures, and stories on the cards and what is going on in the world and in the querant’s head.
I do realize that RW(S) is not anywhere near the oldest deck, but i have yet to see one that comes even close: the art is of a perfect style and degree of stylization to convey a host of deep metaphorical images. “Pretty” cards seem like they’re just pretty (and usually I don’t even think they’re that pretty to be honest with you), and themed decks seem ridiculous.