Teaching Tarot to Children; suits and stories

I'm probably tempting fate by saying so but we are finding a rhythm with our home education now, still with plenty of maths and English and all sorts of other fun subjects. We've been reading lots of Diana Wynne Jones and have moved on to Norse mythology. Ashley is quite taken with Loki - "because he's clever" - hmm. And we're working our way through the Minor Arcana of the tarot, carrying on with the elemental symbolism we started looking at in our first lesson.

So our next lesson picked up right where we left off - we had looked at fire energy with the Wands and now moved on the Cups, the suit of water. That led to all sorts of interesting discussion about which element was more powerful (conclusion - both of them!) and all the different ways they show up in nature. So far, starting with the literal is a good way in and we moved on to talk about how both fire and water can represent intuition and the different kinds of "inner knowing" they bring. And of course, creativity, which is another favourite subject in this house.

"The High Priestess is cheeky.."!!

Then we moved on to the Swords, which both the kids immediately noted had "colder" or darker colours. So we sidetracked into looking at which suit went with which season - different in the different decks of course - and a little tarot history because I get annoyed at the overly negative take on the Swords and may have ranted just a little about the Victorian patriarchal magicians who embedded that symbolism into the suit. Finally (!) we made it to the basic symbolism of air - communication, study, the conscious mind, connections. All of that was one lesson, which tend to be very meandering. It takes a while to get information across but it's a great way to tune into intuition and an intuitive way of learning.

So. The following week we completed our journey through the elements looking at the Pentacles. Distracted slightly by the Magician, when Ashley spotted the symbols of all four suits on his table. For the element of earth, we talked about health and growth and planet Earth herself. And what it means to root and to ground (not sure how far I got with that one, so much of this is about sowing seeds which will flourish when the time is right. As with all education I suppose) and also wealth and the different ways we might define that.

We also wrote stories, well maybe more like anecdotes, by pulling three cards and looking at the interactions between them. This was an interesting exercise not just because Holly and Ashley had to use their imagination but also for the way they engaged with the images. The tarot is already doing its work, reflecting their inner selves back to them. Ashley talked about a little boy who didn't like being the youngest, Holly about two sisters uniting against a bully. I didn't need telling that they miss their own friends and independent interactions with their peers and the world in general but there it was in the cards anyway #tarotalwaysknows.

So how is everyone else doing? It's hard work, such hard work, but also a gift of a time, in a silver lining sort of way.