Want to play a fun tarot game?

I thought it would be a lot of fun to practice reading the tarot by posting any question, and I will put up three cards after the question and everyone else who wants to practice reading cards can post their personal interpretation of the three cards posted in answer to the question.

It does not have to be a real question, just an average question that people are likely to ask a tarot reader.

For example:

I would like to know about what is going on with my job.

Cards to interpret:

-- --

1. Nine of swords
2. The Tower
3. Five of Pentacles

What story do these cards tell?

Outcome card: Eight of Pentacles



What is the outcome?

Well you didn't state what the individual position of the layout stand for. So I just assumed it represents the flow of time from left to right.

The Nine of Swords - can mean many things. For example, worry, guilt, or despair.

Therefore the appearance of the Nine of Swords suggests to me that the person is either overly-worried about something at work, or they are feeling unnecessarily guilty about something, or they are simply feeling overly-anxious or distraught, perhaps they don't like their job and wish did they didn't work where they do.

The Tower - When I see the tower it just means to me that you need to change things on your own because if you don't they will be changed for you.

Therefore this person either needs to address what they are worried about, what they feeling guilty about, or the simply fact that they don't like their job. If they don't address it on their own someone else will address it for them (chances are that they'll probably be let go for poor performance brought about by their own angst).

If they really like their job, then they need to address the worry or guilt they have associated with it because this is affecting their performance.

The Five of Pentacles - rejection or hard times.

Again, if they don't address the issues associated with the Five of Swords they'll most likely either lose their job, or at the very least lose a chance to be promoted, etc. The Five of Pentacles is suggesting the outcome that will take place if they don't address the issues.

The Eight of Pentacles - success through diligence

I assume that this card represents the outcome should they heed the divination and act in a manner to address the issues.

This could be many things.

If the initial problem was worry, they need to stop worrying and have faith. Then they can apply themselves with the intent that things will work out, thus the initial problem goes away and the Tower Card and the Five of Swords is no longer applicable.

The same holds true of guilty, they need to get over the guilt and move forward with confidence. Or possible even address the issue of guilt. Perhaps reconcile whatever it is they are feeling guilty about.

Finally, if the initial problem was despair about not liking the job, then they need to quite feeling despair over it and start looking for a new career. By doing this they can do their current job much better knowing that they will be moving on by their own choice. Thus avoiding The Tower (someone else firing them). They will also avoid the Five of Swords this way because instead of getting kicked out and not having another job to fall into they will be able to take control and quit to move into a new job.

That's how I would read these cards without knowing more about the person. If you had the actual person you could ask them question, like whether or not they like their job, and whether or not they are feeling worried, or guilty.

For me tarot is an interactive thing. Trying to read cards without having the person there to bounce ideas off of is kind of empty. In fact, I don't like to do readings for other people. I think everyone should read their own cards. So if I were to give a 'reading' that's precisely what I would do. I would simply help them read the cards on their own to decide which of these scenarios makes the most sense to their situation.

There are other possibilities as well. But those possibilities wouldn't be worth exploring without having the individual here to question and interact with the process.

I'm a very pragmatic tarot reader. I always give options. Because to me, tarot (and divination in general) is not a prediction of what will happen but rather it's a prediction of what is likely to happen if you don't change course.

Thanks Abra! Not a bad reading.

(But what you said about the Tower sounds more like the death card to me.)

I find that only reading cards for yourself gets boring after a while and you don't learn much because the same kinds of energy always seems to come up.

On the other hand when someone new comes in for a reading I see a bunch of new cards turn up with a completely different energy.

As for reading the person, I don't do that, so I don't need a person sitting in front of me to do a reading. I just read the cards, not the person.

On this reading, if someone had asked me about their job, here is what I would see in these cards:

The nine of swords is the worried state of mind they are in. They are worried about loosing their job or getting laid off.

The tower is a major arcana and represents the falling apart of the entire structure of the situation. I would ask the person if the company he works for is downsizing or on the verge of bankruptcy or otherwise falling apart. My interpretation here is that the worry is about getting laid off.

The next card definitely says that he does loose his job. Time wise, he may have already lost his job or he may be laid off very soon if he has not already been laid off.

The outcome card tells us that he gets another job and that it is something completely different and he becomes an apprentice and is learning a brand new career.

That is unquestionably how I would interpret this reading.


So the answer to the question, according to the cards is that the company is in trouble (tower) and he will loose his job (five of pentacles) but he will get a new job very soon.

That is a good assumption. The flow of a story or event is always for me, flowing from left to right probably only because we read words from left to right. (Habit I guess.)

Rather than call the positions past, present and future I read them like a story, Beginning, middle and end...of the situation or story.

If an outcome is not clear, then I draw an outcome card. So they read like this:

The beginning, middle and end tell the story of the situation at hand, but that is sometimes information that is already known or has already happened, therefore its not very helpful.

In the example above, (and I have had this happen in several readings) the story has sometimes already happened. (The guy was fired or laid off today or yesterday.)

Other times, the story has not yet finished in real time. (The guy is only at stage one, (worry,) and does not know the company is in trouble; (he has only heard rumors) and he has not yet been laid off.

The cards address the story currently in progress and is not specific about where in the story the subject is located in time (past present or future.)

The outcome card jumps ahead and gives the ultimate outcome of the story. (That is usually in the future simply because if it was the present, the problem and the story would be over and it would not be an issue needing to be addressed.)

I believe that when it comes to divination a person should always go with whatever feels most intuitive for them.

I confess that this is my own intuition on the matter.

"Intuitive" is often substituted for the word "psychic."

I don't consider myself to be very psychic, (at least not like my friend Val who sees visions and knows things she has no natural means of knowing.)

I tend to rely on the cards to relay information to my conscious mind and they have proved to be very accurate. (I would guess about 98% of the time as far as I know.) I don't always get feedback from people I am reading, so sometimes I am not sure if I am on the mark or not.

The only problem I have ever had with them is my own lack of experience using and learning from them. If I do understand the message it is usually accurate when confirmed. If I don't understand it, I just don't understand it. There could very well be a message there, but I just don't see it.

If a question is vague the reading is vague. If a question is specific the reading can be more specific.

If a person asks the wrong question (one that he really does not care about) the card might address a completely different situation (one that is upper most on his mind.)

If they don't ask any question, the cards will reflect the current energy around the person or sometimes they will reveal what is on the person's mind.

These are things I have experienced from reading other people.