This month’s Mindset discusses “archetypes”- symbols or themes. Photo by Steve Bonner.
By Michelle Crandell
In Tarot as in literature and psychology, “archetypes” refer to recurring symbols, characters or themes found in shared human experience. These themes appear in myths, stories, poems, numbers and dreams across cultures and time. Many of these universal human learnings, truths, and experiences are found in Tarot imagery. For example:
PERSONAS represented in Major Arcana and Royalty cards.
- DEVIL: Saboteur, court jester, Pan, coyote.
- QUEENS: Mature feminine power.
- PAGE OF CUPS: Curious young lover, ingenue.
PLACES found in Major and Minor Arcana imagery:
- THE TOWER: Skyscrapers, penthouse suites, castles, prisons.
- KING: The throne.
- TEN OF CUPS: Home, the hearth.
PATTERNS: how people think, feel, use energy, manifest, and experience consequences are represented by the Minor Arcana.
- ACES: The seed, origin stories, initiation.
- RODS: The flame, the Mystic.
- TEN OF PENTACLES: What is your legacy? Amulets, talismans, heirlooms passed forward.
INITIATIONS from Major Arcana:
- DEATH: Thanatos. Facing annihilation. Making Death one’s life coach.
- THE WORLD: Anima Mundi, all that is. Dissolving the illusion of boundaries. Shared consciousness.
- THE LOVERS: Eros, the energy of passion. The primal longing to merge with what we desire and are drawn into.
Archetypes are patterns that underlie individual objects, events, and narratives. Archetypes are timeless and universal. Archetypes include both light and shadow expressions. Archetypes utilize symbols that must be decoded.
Colors, flowers, animals, crowns, swords, numbers, astrological symbols, etc., are images designed to stimulate the Tarot interpreter’s archetypical archives. Try thinking of everything as a representation of something archetypical. See where it leads you.
Michelle Crandell provides individual Tarot readings for a fee. Once a year, she teaches LEARN TO READ TAROT. Call if interested in her next class. To learn more, email michelle.crandell@gmail.com or call 501-655-6242.
