The Tarot Image Is Not Neutral
One of the reasons I keep saying that Tarot is not simply a collection of fixed keywords is that the artwork matters enormously. Two decks can contain the exact same card—the same Three of Swords, Death, or Queen of Cups—and yet give me completely different information because the artist has changed the posture, environment, facial expression, color, direction of movement, or tiny background details.
This becomes especially obvious with heavily illustrated decks. A traditional card might suggest conflict, but another artist may depict the same card with one person clearly winning, someone walking away, a storm approaching, an animal watching from the corner, or a doorway left open behind them. Suddenly the reading isn’t merely “conflict.” It might become strategic retreat, humiliation, an exit, hidden surveillance, unfinished business, or an opportunity that survives the fight. The card’s traditional structure gives us the skeleton, but the artist puts flesh on it.
This is also why I don’t believe readers should be terrified of interpreting something that isn’t written in the little guidebook. Look at the card that is actually sitting in front of you. Ask what is happening in this picture, who has power, where everyone is looking, what is missing, and what detail your eye keeps returning to. Tarot is partly a symbolic language, but every artist speaks that language with an accent—and sometimes that accent completely changes the sentence.
If you are wondering how to actually read Tarot on how it was intended to be, I teach it in my Patreon. And I am dropping a brand new lesson today on this exact topic.
Everything you missed on Patreon this week and what I published on Medium, don't worry I got you!
