Mysterious and magical, the Tarot has been a subject of much misconception, considered dangerous, dark, or even evil!
The most common misconception of all though, is that Tarot cards ‘’predict the future’’. In reality, the Tarot serves as a wonderful tool for self-awareness and empowerment, offering a guideline, and the reader is simply interpreting the probable outcome based on the forces presently at work.
I was always interested in the tarot and the idea of getting involved with it in some way was always on my mind. During the first quarantine wave, on a quest to find something to occupy myself with- I got it. I had already created the Hermina Tarot Charms collection, so why not also a Tarot deck? After a whole lot of reading and investigation, with the help of my beloved Tade, we went on to make our very own Hermina tarot deck of cards.
So what is the Tarot exactly?
The ancestors of what we today know as Tarot cards can be traced back to around the late fourteenth century. Artists in Europe created the first playing cards, which were used for games. Actually, tarot cards were not used for divination purposes up until the 18th century.
The tarot consists of 78 cards, each with its own imagery, symbolism, and story, divided into the Major and the Minor Arcana.
Arcanum in Latin means profound secret. The minor Arcana consists of 56 cards and concerns the events of our everyday life: love, work, money, health and so on. The Major Arcana though, is where the magic happens; 22 cards named after specific archetypes, describing the path towards self-actualization, known as the Fool’s journey.
The Majors are like chapters in the story of a quest- the universal human quest for understanding and divine reunion.
Moving through the cards, the naïve young man represented by the Major Arcana’s first card, the Fool, goes off on a quest of endless possibility. Along the way, he meets teachers and tricksters (tricksters are teachers too), angels, and devils, all of whom have their own lesson to teach him.
In order to fulfill his soul purpose, he must pass through all; From the loving nest of the Empress to the spiritual wisdom of the Pope and the Hermit, the taming of the ego of the Strength, the self-sacrifice of the Hanged Man, the temptations of the Devil, the healing of the Star, the calling of the Judgement, among others, all the way to the actualization of the World.
In essence, the tarot is like holding a mirror:
reflecting on yourself so that one can access their subconscious mind and tap into the wisdom (and answers) that live inside all of us.
