A book was published in Venice in 1550 which described the use of cards in gaining the answers to various questions, and when the Gypsies adopted the Tarot pack—probably in the second half of the 15th century— they seem to have used it as a method of fortune-telling from the very start.

This aspect of their history is probably one of the main reasons why they have survived largely unchanged down to the present day.

Certainly they would not be known at all outside the Romance countries if it were not for their fame as shrines of rnysterious occult wisdom and the secrets of the future.

Whether the persistent belief in Tarot cards as a reliable oracle has any foundation in fact is a subject which is not open to rational argument.

Present-day science does not recognise any physical laws which could account for a correlation between a sequence of cards shuffled at random, and the occurrence of events in the future.

But intelligent and responsible people have asserted that in their experience such a thing is possible.

Jung, for example, researched several methods of divination, including astrology and the Chinese I Ching, and his findings led him to develop his "theory of synchronicity" which, stated briefly, claims that all events occurring in a certain moment of time exhibit the unique qualities of that moment of time.

This means that the moment of a person's birth is meaningfully linked with all other natural phenomena occurring at that moment, including the positions of sun, moon and planets in the sky.

Therefore a horoscope—a map of the Heavens as viewed from a particular point on the surface of the earth—erected for the time and place of the birth, will give the trained astrologer insights into the character and destiny of that person.

In the same way, when the I Ching is consulted by manipulat­ing yarrow stalks as a question is being asked, the parts of the text which are arrived at as a result will give a relevant answer to the question.

Jung's theory can be applied equally well to the Tarot cards. In Tarot divination the cards are first shuffled, then laid out in various spreads, and interpreted by the reader.

Whether one accepts or rejects the theory of synchronicity is purely a matter of personal inclination and experience, though it would perhaps be unwise to reject anything so potentially useful without first giving it a fair trial.

When Sir Isaac Newton was upbraided by the then Astronomer Royal for his professed belief in astrology, Newton's reply was: "I, Sir, have studied the subject—you have not." Bearing this in mind, here is a guide to consulting the Tarot cards.

TAROT CARDS MEANINGS

Alfred Douglas

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