The 'when?' question
My latest online tarot reading request asked, as an aside to the main question, for an indication of timings. The question of how accurately, if at all, tarot can predict timings is notoriously difficult. There are many different techniques for predicting when something will happen, from the vague to the specific. Most rely on correspondences, linking a card or a suit of the tarot to other systems with a similar energy signature. Using the seasons is a simple way of doing this. For many people, the suit of Wands is linked to spring, Cups to summer, Pentacles to autumn and Swords to winter. So we can look at which suit is strongest in a reading to get a sense of when in the year things might happen.
However these correspondences can be very subjective. Personally, I link (today at least!) Cups to autumn, Pentacles to winter, Swords to spring and Wands to summer, mostly based on intuition. There is no defnitive answer. And if our method of prediction cannot be definitively set, how can the results it gives?
I tend to rely on astrology for timing questions, as the movements of the planets are an objective reality. There are many systems of linking tarot cards to the signs of the zodiac and the planets. The Golden Dawn system is probably the most often used and is seen as fairly definitive by most in the western mystical tradition. A sign of the zodiac or a planet is allocated to each card in the Major Arcana. The Star is linked to the sign of Aquarius, where the sun is at present. The court cards cover the final decanate (or period of ten zodiacal degrees) of one sign and the first two decanates of the next. For example the King of Swords is connected to the last ten degrees of Capricorn and the first twenty degrees of Aquarius. The numbered Minor arcana cards are allocated a decanate each, so that the Five of Swords rules the first decan of Aquarius, the Six of Swords the second and the Seven of Swords the final decanate. Using this method the tarot reader can be much more specific - the King of Swords suggests that the desired outcome will happen between January 10 and February 8.
Correspondences are useful, and can be powerful messages when the synchronicities pile up. But for me, the most useful method of using tarot for timings is simply to incorporate them into the structure of the reading. So you might ask a question like 'What do I need to know about getting a job in the next three months?'. Or you could lay out a spread including a card for each month. In either case, the reading will tell you not exactly when you will get your answer, but the energies around that answer. In the online reading I did recently, all of the cards were fairly static, showing seated figures who didn't move. For me, this indicated that things would not move on soon. Ultimately, the point of a tarot reading is to arm the querent with the information they need to move forward. It may be frustrating when the cards show a lack of movement, but you might take that as a challenge and decide to get things moving yourself. Or you could focus your energies elsewhere, knowing that things tend to happen in their own good time.
And of course, all this is to ignore the bigger questions, like whether time is linear? It's all about the spirals, after all...
However these correspondences can be very subjective. Personally, I link (today at least!) Cups to autumn, Pentacles to winter, Swords to spring and Wands to summer, mostly based on intuition. There is no defnitive answer. And if our method of prediction cannot be definitively set, how can the results it gives?
Correspondences are useful, and can be powerful messages when the synchronicities pile up. But for me, the most useful method of using tarot for timings is simply to incorporate them into the structure of the reading. So you might ask a question like 'What do I need to know about getting a job in the next three months?'. Or you could lay out a spread including a card for each month. In either case, the reading will tell you not exactly when you will get your answer, but the energies around that answer. In the online reading I did recently, all of the cards were fairly static, showing seated figures who didn't move. For me, this indicated that things would not move on soon. Ultimately, the point of a tarot reading is to arm the querent with the information they need to move forward. It may be frustrating when the cards show a lack of movement, but you might take that as a challenge and decide to get things moving yourself. Or you could focus your energies elsewhere, knowing that things tend to happen in their own good time.
And of course, all this is to ignore the bigger questions, like whether time is linear? It's all about the spirals, after all...