An archetypal approach to the tarot means that I interpret the cards as reflecting what is present in the psyche. It’s a mistake to think that a tarot spread is random. The cards appear based on synchronicity – the idea that the universe is singular and that each apparently separate “thing” is both caused by and the result of every single other thing. This is another way of saying that everything is connected, but in a much more intimate and entangled way than you might imagine. The constellation of dirt on the sidewalk will also tell us about your psyche, but I haven’t trained in how to read that! I have trained in the symbolism of the tarot cards.

In this approach to tarot, divination is “seeing the divine in the mundane,” according to Ken James. We are not looking at what will happen in the future, though I do believe the cards can tell us that. It’s both more empowering and more useful to take a psycho-spiritual approach and look at what is happening in our psyches right now. When my own psyche is illuminated and clear to me, I don’t have to wonder what the best choice is. My deepest internal compass has already made the choice, I only have to listen closely and follow the simplest and most obvious next step. Looking at the cards in this way sometimes stirs up more questions and does not immediately bring the clarity we all wish for. But it does show us the sometimes winding pathway to finding that clarity. The tarot does not give answers: it guides you to the answers that are tucked away inside your very self.