Learning Tarot

Thanks to a couple of years with B.O.T.A., I'm familiar with the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot, but recently I decided to learn more about the rest of the deck in preparation for doing Tarot readings. I've read a few books, and I'm currently reading Learning Tarot by Joan Bunning, which has an associated website.

One thing I've noticed is that if you look in 5 different books for a description of the same card, you will get at least 4 different descriptions. Even the different decks have vastly different artwork for each card. It seems that Tarot is like a book that is written once for each deck that gets produced, and once again for each author that interprets it. What's even worse is that every author who writes about Tarot has a slightly different way of reading the Celtic Cross spread. This can be very confusing, so I've decided to stick with one deck (the Rider-Waite, pictured above), and one system of readings, which I haven't decided on yet.

My approach to the readings will be: "What's on your mind?" The consensus theory is that the order of the cards is changed during mixing or shuffling to reflect the state of mind of the person for whom the reading is being done. Of course, the cards can't be seen, so this theory only works if the subconscious mind somehow has access to the order of the cards. I'm O.K. with that. Everything I've read, and the practice readings I've done, indicate that it works, and that's good enough for me.