Tarot grandma

Not everyone has a tarot grandma. I do. And although I have since owns several hundred tarot and oracle cards, I have never been so happy with a deck of cards as with that very first tarot deck given to me by my grandmother in 1987.

Because as a child I was already was regularly confronted with conversations about paranormal phenomena, prophetic dreams, ghosts, guides and other things around which there was a hint of mysticism, my interest in my early childhood quickly turned to books on mysterious subjects.

As a young girl of around 10, I therefore loved reading Debby's and Tina's; comic books in which witches, fortune tellers and gypsy families often played important roles.

The caravans, the realistically drawn campfires, truth tents, glass globes, amulets, candles and other spiritual ornaments and accessories, I loved it. And still do.

Playing cards

A few years later, little by little, I also became more interested in tarot, astrology, dream psychology and gemstones. Together with my friend Monique, who shared my interest in the mystical, I visited the local library several times a week, where we borrowed piles of books on all kinds of esoteric subjects.

Meanwhile, we had also discovered the monthly magazine Club which always had the 'Out of the Dark' section in the back. About conjuring up ghosts, ghostly phenomena and other scary things we thought were totally awesome.

When Monique's parents bought a video recorder, we were no longer just regulars at the library but also became children at the video store. In the horror section, of course.

When I was 14, I desperately wanted to learn to predict the future with tarot cards. Not only had I regularly seen these exciting cards in my beloved comic books, my grandmother also had a pack of such cards at home. A worn-out cardboard box containing large white cards with an ankh on the back.

Also, my grandmother had a book that explained how to learn how to play cards. Before she actually wanted to teach me the coveted tarot, she advised me to practise with the house, garden and kitchen playing cards that we also just used to tease or play other card games with when I was with her.

Much less exciting than the real 'Tina-and-Debby cards' but, of course, as a teenager with lots of questions regarding love and friendships, not exactly unappealing either.

I soon got the hang of it and couldn't resist card-casting. While playing, I got better and better at it and was allowed to take my grandmother's book home with me so that I could consult the oracle whenever I wanted, which I did all the time. Not only for myself, but also for Monique and my other friends.

Tarot

A few weeks before my 15th birthday when I had been fiddling with my pack of playing cards for over half a year by now, grandma thought I had shown enough commitment and, according to her, I was ready for 'the real thing'. For my birthday, I was given the Rider Waite Tarot. The same cards my grandmother had.

The smell of the plasticised cardboard, the colourful illustrations, the large format cards that I could just about enclose with one hand; this classic tarot deck is still, to date, one of my best birthday presents ever.

The moment I got a really good look at the cards for the first time, I did understand that she had not wanted to confront me with this directly at the time. The swords cards in particular are not particularly suitable for a debutant, minor tarotist.

Of course, I could take quite a bit, after all, I also liked watching horror films but when you draw the swords ten knowing that it is actually about you too, you can still be scared as a young girl.

Even if you pull Death or The Devil without knowing the symbolism behind it, this is not really something to be happy about.

Since I was already used to predicting with playing cards, I could now better understand that even the violent images were meant to be mainly symbolic.

She related the spades cards to the swords cards, the clubs to the bars, the goblets to the hearts and the pentacles to the diamonds.

I looked at all the cards carefully and listened to the stories my grandmother told about the respective images. She also explained to me that the angry cards are by no means always negative.

Precisely because it allows you to learn to recognise your own dark sides which actually allows you to something to change, even the tarot's dark-looking cards can still turn out surprisingly well for you.

Stamps

My grandmother explained to me that when reading cards, it was important to know the meanings of all the cards by heart. After all, if you had to look in your book for each card first, it would block your intuition. To relate the cards properly, it was better to survey the entire laying pattern at a glance than to look at everything card by card.

So it was up to me to memorise the 78 tarot cards as quickly as possible. Since I still found this quite difficult, I developed my own way of making it as easy as possible for myself.

I thought it would be useful to just start with the first set of cards: Swords One to Ten. I started at Swords Ace. I looked at the card carefully and read the meaning in the book. Then I read in the book the meaning of Swords Two and so on up to Swords Ten.

Then I picked up Swords Ace again. This time without a book. I tried to remember what the card meant and then did the same with Swords Two and Three.

Once I got to Swords Four, I didn't know. I picked up the book again, read the meaning of Swords Four, put the book away again and started again from scratch at Swords Ace. When I knew all ten Swords cards by heart, I started the Rod series. Old-fashioned 'mashing', in other words. Just like I had once learned the tables.

Again and again and again and again...

In this way, I went through all the Swords, Rods, Goblets and Pentacles cards and finally the court cards and key cards.

Every time I couldn't remember a card I would start all over again until I understood the meanings of all 78 cards had imprinted in my mind, not knowing this would lay the foundation for my first tarot book that would be published 15 years later....

Course

In 2004, when I now had my own tarot practice at home and had some 15 years of experience as a tarotist, I was told by several people that they would also like to learn the tarot, but that they found it so difficult. Especially memorising the cards turned out to be a problem for many tarot lovers.

Inspired by this, I decided to develop a tarot course. If I could have taught myself as a 15-year-old girl, surely it shouldn't be so difficult for adults?

In the course, I introduced people to the method by which I myself had memorised all 78 tarot cards at the time. With each card, I also wrote down three mnemonics that would make it even easier for them to remember all the meanings. Meanwhile, I had also launched my first tarot website.

On this, as a test to see if online readings worked as well as face-to-face consultations, I offered free e-mail and MSN consultations and had put this tarot course online completely free of charge for the enthusiast.

When I received a surprisingly positive response to this, I decided to take a chance with a publisher. On the internet, I searched for a publisher whose portfolio included mainly books of a spiritual nature. The first publisher I came across was publisher Bark in Amsterdam.

I took the course offline, printed out all the pages neatly and sent it by post in a large envelope to the 'manuscripts' department. The next day, I was immediately called back by David Schors.

'What an incredibly nice idea. I would love to have it!'

With this, The Tarot in Brief - my first booklet - was a reality. As the book has since sold out, I have published the basic meanings put back online. If you still prefer to buy the booklet that also contains all the mnemonics, it is only available as a second-hand copy.

The Tarot in Brief

Update: By popular demand, the revised version of The Tarot in Brief is now available!

Ordering is possible at >BOL.com

Or directly through the printer >Probook.

A fun (free) online gypsy oracle I developed based on regular playing cards can be found >HERE

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