Tips for a 1,5 hour tarot course?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 06 Sep 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

KristinOfNorway	06 Sep 2004
I am going to speak at a new age fair this fall - Tarot mini course. I do only have 1,5 hour at disposal. Although it is unrealistic to think that anyone can learn much about tarot in that time, I will give it a try. I have decided to give the audience some "tips & tricks" on how to get a grip of the card meanings without a reference book. So I will talk about the four suits and their energy/expression. Any tips for a practical approach to this? I want to give the audience something they will remember when they leave the room.

Flavio	06 Sep 2004
Hi! welcome to AT! I think more than a minicourse you can give an introduction to Tarot, the myth, the reality, whan can do, what can not do, how it works and how to learn etc... With such limited time I think your discussion might be more like a great index of themes, so the people interested can go deep on the studies according to their interest.

KristinOfNorway	06 Sep 2004
Hello Flavio, and thanks for your reply. Short speaks tend to be the same, very philosophical and theoretical. Since we have had that kind of lectures earlier, I wanted to do something different and more practical. Something easy and inspiring. Of course you cannot cover all the 78 cards, but get an idea of how to proceed on your own.

Eco74	06 Sep 2004
How about using a few cards as examples, pointing out the general history and then showing the "fools path" through the use of say, the fool, the magician, the high priestess, the chariot, the hermit, death and the world (or any other cards you deem appropriate, just not too many). In some cards you could point out the symbology used and the background for it and give an example of alternative interpretations. Like.. When searching for her necklace and asking the cards, she pulled the chariot and went to search her car where she found it in the coin-box. Still giving a general outline of what the tarot is from the start to how it is used now should probaby be included since not everyone may have heard the previous lectures.

Cerulean	06 Sep 2004
She talked of how each person pictured in the minor suit would respond to the same challenge. The challenge was climbing a mountain. What follows is a summary of my suggestions based on memory of her ideas...you could map it out with your own example of each card and thoughts from one to ten. Swords would run heedless to this from card one, get tired and discouraged easily, end up rather gasping and thirsty and exhausted by Card ten. Friends might have to find them and it might end in a dark and stormy night. Wands would be afire with this idea, but would build up to it and may achieve thier goal, but end up far from home still on Card ten. They may have forgotton to arrange a ride home and not brought enough water. Pentacles would plan the walk carefully and succeed, even have time to take care of other items along the way. They might even be able to plan this walk to include rest stops for elderly and small family members by card ten. Chalices/Cups have the best experience, it is like a walk in the park, a lighthearted picnic and beautiful, refreshing experience. If you use the walk/trip experience metaphor for the majors, it would be what stage of the journey are they? If it was for the courts, it might be how would the court cards respond to the idea of a trip to a mountain? Pentacles with their focus on material or earthy concerns, Chalices with their friendly emotional freshness and relational aspects, Wands with their fire or energy, and Swords with their airy nature or impulsiveness. You could relate the courts as father, mother, sister, brother or whatever type of energy/family/style of personality that you like. Good luck in your outlines and ideas! Hope this is a good start. Regards, Cerulean

NeXoRiouS	06 Sep 2004
Instead of a boring talk on fixed stuffs, make the talk a leisure, lifestyle. Talk about what wonderful things tarot can do. Make the learning fun. If you're going to babble the meanings will just make the people feel tired after sometime. Tarot is based on pictures on the cards. Why not show the cards to the people and ask what they think of it? When they get it right, they will feel that they are intuitive and will be even interested on hearing the next one.

Thirteen	07 Sep 2004
I just gave a 1 hour talk on Tarot (spreads to be specific). My humble observation is this: You just don't have enough time for details and elaboration. I was able to teach 3 simple, very general spreads (7-card horseshoe, 5-card relationship and year spread, which is easy because it's just one card per month). But I barely got in under the wire. And that was less than HALF of what I wanted to do. What you DO have time for--and need to do--is audience participation. My recommendation would be to, yes, focus on the four suits--that's a great idea. But make sure you INCLUDE time for audience participation. Thus, assume that you're going to talk only 10-15 minutes per suit. Go for broad generalities. After each talk on each suit, open it for questions, problems, comments. This is where you can get into details and specifics. Also ASK the audience questions. If you go on about the suit of swords, lay out trouble cards (like 5/wands or 3/swords) and ask them--"Can you find anything positive in this card? How would you interpet this if the person were asking about moving to a new country or taking a new job?" These questions will stimulate not only their minds, but also give YOU direction because you'll get an idea of what the audience wants/needs to know. Five IMPORTANT and pragmatic ideas that will make your talk a success (trust me on this!): 1) You should specify in your description of this talk that those coming to it should be FAMILIAR with the cards--by that I mean, they should at least have a nodding aquaintance, have bought a deck and have looked through the LWB at the very least. If they know something, but are still beginners, you won't have to explain everything from scratch, giving you more time to really get into the subject. And you'll help them a lot. If they know nothing, then that 1.5 hours, in which you're going to cram a lot into a VERY short time, might confuse or scare them. 2) Forget about offering any background or history--again, you don't have time. So as interesting as the history of the tarot is and all that other jazz, it's not relevant. That's for a 10-week class. Not 1.5 hours. If they ask a particular question that requires a historical answer (like the "is 8 strength or justice?" question), go into it briefly, but don't bother with it unless they ask. 3) Remember to let them know that there are disagreements about what suits mean. While most decks have swords as "air" some have them as "Fire" and this switches, as well the "intellect/Passion" assignments. You can use whichever you like in your talk, but let them know this in case the deck they have--which might be their first and only deck--has different designations. 4) Make sure you bring a watch as well as notes--practice a little beforehand, so you know what you're going to say for those 10-15 minutes per suit. So that you don't go overtime and suddenly realize you've only 5 minutes to talk about Pentacles ;) I have a friend who did a reading. He had an hour and was going to read two parts. After the first part was done, I said, "You've got 20 minutes." He said, surprised, "I've got an hour." And I said, "You HAD an hour. You now have 20 minutes." He was completely shocked--he's assumed his first-part reading would only take 10-15 minutes. It had taken 40 minutes! Time goes by fast. VERY fast when you're having fun. Keep an eye on the clock, and don't be afraid to put a time limit on questions and comments. 5) Finally: Have a list of books (or, better yet, a stack of books) and websites (this one formost) that you think are really good beginner books. Give them the names of the books/websites FIRST before launching into your talk--then remind them again at the end of these books/websites.

SongDeva	08 Sep 2004
I've done this in classes before (as a student). Everyone draws one card, and your card is passed around and read intuitively by everyone. Elf just mentioned to me a method she knew of where the teacher had everyone draw one, and they read them in pairs, and were allowed to keep the card, which had her contact info on it. Brilliant! I agree, speak briefly on structure and what not, but let the meat of it be participation.

KristinOfNorway	22 Sep 2004
Thank you everybody for your creative suggestions! I specially like the idea of letting the participants draw one card each (with contact info on the back), and let the others interpret them. As mentioned, they will feel very intuitive, and it will be a fun and exciting 1,5 hour. And they hopefully will come back for more.

SongDeva	23 Sep 2004
Let us know how it goes!

KristinOfNorway	17 Dec 2004
I had my mini tarot course about 1 month ago. It turned out to be only 45 minutes, not 1,5 hour...! Here is the summary: 1. Tarot is more than divination about the future. Self development. Using the unconsiuous language - symbols and images - like your dreams. 2. Briefly about the structure of the tarot deck. Majors and minors - 4 suits. Majors are the soul development, can be hard to understand for a beginner. Recommend to start with the minors. 3. The 4 suits. Drawing a 2x2 table: Wands and swords as active, masculine Cups and pentacles as passive, feminine Wands and pentacles as physical, outward Swords and cups as abstract, internal 4. Excercise: Think about a question you would ask the tarot if you could. 5. The importance of the question (from Joan Bunnings book) so the tarot can answer, and that you can learn something from it. Avoid questions that avoids taking responsibility for your own life (typically Yes/No answers). 6. Excercise: Think about your question again - could you rephrase it according to the rules from no 5? 7. Practice: People voluenteered to draw a card and interpret it. There was time for 3-4 cards, and the persons managed to interpret it even if they were unknown about tarot.

ferrous	21 Dec 2004
Wow. You did well to fit all that in in just 45 minutes. :) Did people, the attendees, respond well to it?

The Tips for a 1,5 hour tarot course? thread was originally posted on 06 Sep 2004 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.