The Fool is the "Zero" card of the Tarot, said to be the beginning and the end of the path of the Tarot. It's message is that, no matter what we own or what we know, we are all still "The Fool" in the end. The Fool stands in the moment of now, the past is a receding landscape and the future is an unformed ocean, all else is illusion to one degree or another. Many wise people that have spent a large part of their lives learning and trying to figure these things out, have reached a point where they realize just how little they know, the old adage "the more you learn the less you know" has a deep truth to it. When the Fool appears in a reading, it is a reminder to live "in the moment", even though this may appear "foolish" to others. And, honestly, aren't you completely in the moment when you have just done something foolish or embarrassing? To sum up, "the present is a present that presents itself perpetually" and if you try saying that 10 times really fast, you will most certainly end up feeling The Fool.

In the long dark night of the soul, the light that appears at the end of the tunnel is the Star. The Star is your inspiration, your guiding light, the wish that your soul makes. When following that wish, think of a ship at sea using the stars to guide it- the ship is never meant to reach the stars themselves, only to use them as a guide. The Star is a light above the horizon to find direction by. When The Star comes up in a reading, inspiration is close at hand- make a wish!

In the Tarot, the personality is symbolized by the Chariot, or, put more directly, your personality is the Chariot that your soul rides in it's journey through life. Your Chariot is important, it tells the world "who you are", and is the interface through which you interact with others. It will attract some people to you, and keep others at a distance, in essence, protecting you and nourishing you. If you are "true to yourself", then your Chariot will be an accurate reflection of your inner reality, and will draw to you what you need and deflect that which will harm you. When The Chariot comes up in a reading, you are being asked to examine your Chariot. Are you presenting yourself honestly? People are noticing you right now and you'll want to be sending them the right messages.

Can you see the opposites in one? Seeing things from the bird's eye angelic view, where opposites can be seen as two sides of the same coin. Temperance is sometimes referred to as the "Daughter of the Great Reconciler", it's a reminder that the creative forces of the universe work by uniting opposites- fire with water, substance with void. But of course, the opposites in our own life aren't quite so grand in scale, although sometimes they can seem to be. When Temperance comes up in a reading, you might find in yourself a part that is akin to the Great Reconciler, and that part has the ability to synthesize those opposites in your life into something greater than the sum of it's parts. So, grab some fire in one hand, some water in the other, and mix well... You're ready for it!

Have you ever bit your tongue and held back a reaction, then, in retrospect been glad you did? Realizing that the short term satisfaction from a "smart" remark would have been bought at the expense of someones feelings (possibly even your own). This is a smaller scale example of the self sacrifice indicated by the Hanged Man. Like Odin, who saw that his people were too fixated on war and conquest, and hung himself inverted in the Great Tree with his head in the water to recieve the vision of the Runes, he was able to give his people the gift of written language. Can you see things from a different angle? Set aside self interest for something larger than yourself? Well, when the Hanged Man turns up, signs indicate that it's time for an inversion of perspective. See if you can turn your swords into ploughshares.

Do you know your wish? Casting a spell is a process of using the substance of intension, empowering it with your will and then casting it out into the world. Now, it is said, that the true secret of magic, is getting out of the way and letting it happen, but the only way to do that is to have a true harmonization of the heads wish and the hearts wish. When the Magician shows up in a reading, you just might be approaching an opportunity to bring these two, often divergent, parts of self into convergence. The act of visualizing a possibility takes both the head and the heart to be effective. When you just use your head, it can be flat and lifeless, when just using the heart, it can lack focus and clarity. So be sure to use both the scroll (head) and the wand (heart) when making your wish, and then, the hardest and most important part, get out of the way so that it can happen- a watched pot never boils and an over worried wish never flowers.

Ah, love sweet love. Everyone knows what love is, right? Well, once you start defining it, you start to see that everyone has their own unique idea of what love is. In some older decks, The Lovers card was a depiction of a man standing between his king on one side, and his wife on the other. This indicates the primary theme of this card- choice. Where do you choose to let your love shine? So, in a general sense, The Lovers card is about the multitude of choices we make everyday in regard to how and who we choose to entwine our intimacy with. This is not something that is done on a purely conscious level- we don't purposely choose how we feel about people, that choice is made on a deeper level, like an arrow from the aether that pierces our heart, we know not from where it comes, but only decide what to do with it once it's there. So, when The Lovers card comes up in a reading, it's indicating that a choice is being made, whether you are aware of it or not, about where you will share your love- who will you let see your shine?

Well, you've had your vision and you've made your plan, now the time is ripe to put it into motion! An important thing to remember when you're trying to make something happen is that no one lives in a vacuum- learn to delegate. Who has the best skills, aptitude and resource to do a task most effectively? Are they ready, willing and able to participate? If not, what do they need to become so? When the Emperor comes up in a reading, you might just find yourself in a position to answer these questions- you might even find people seeking you out for leadership- just keep your eye on the big picture is, while being mindful of the details, which of course means, be humble about it, while the leader may direct the action, it takes the effort of everyone involved to make it happen- the most balanced leadership comes from the realization that the most mundane task is as important as the grand directive in any worthwhile undertaking, and the best leaders bring out the best in everyone!

You know you got a fire in your belly? Yes you do, and it's drives you further than you've been before- sometimes in anger, sometimes in lust, and in many other ways as well- wherever you find your passion, that's your fire. It's not a bad thing in and of itself (despite what some may tell you), but it is something you need to keep a handle on- the fires that forge can also be the fires that destroy! The best way to keep this fire contained, or in other words, "keep the beast at bay" is equal parts insight and intuition- paying attention as well as going with the flow- too much of one or the other and it is like using only one foot without using the other- you go in a circle. Put your beast in a cage and it will rail against the bars, let it roam free and it will make a mess. The Strength card in a reading indicates this balance is easy to achieve right now, so show your Strength with grace and certainty!

Give the Devil his due and he won't come back to haunt you... well, sort of. The Devil is the part in the Tarot where you see the way you're bound to the material world. The experience often involves feeling the grip of a need we cannot control- from lust and greed to more basic needs like hunger and thirst- they are reminders that we are inside of a living, breathing, needing body. At times, coming to terms with this can be overwhelming, but, understanding our limits and making peace with our boundaries can be a very liberating experience. In contrast, struggling with these chains (beating yourself up and falling into cycles of self-loathing or worse, projecting it onto others through hatred) will usually just serve to draw us deeper into a sense of bondage. The important thing to keep in mind, while dancing with the Devil, is to see yourself, and every other living individual, as nothing less than sacred, it is through dehumanization (demonization) that monstrous acts are perpetrated. On a more mundane level, how much of what you own, owns you? How much of what you possess serves a genuine function? Fulfills an actual need? And how much is possession for possession's sake? What do you hold higher- a person, or a possession? Did you remember what to hold sacred when dancing with the Devil? In the end, you will get higher returns when you honor the life that is ongoing, than when you cling to that which is fleeting. So, we all have to dance with the Devil sometime, when you do, make sure to hold onto what you really own and don't give it up for something shiny that will be gone tomorrow, leaving you with a big hole to fill.

What is it that's in between things? That bit in the middle that's hard to make out? What is the pattern in the universe's mysterious ways? The High Priestess is the guardian of those secrets. She holds the keys to the deeper mysteries. In those silent nights it is her voice that whispers to you in song. Ever get the feeling that your dreams are trying to tell you something? Well, guess what, they are! And the High Priestess holds the Rosetta Stone that might help you decipher them. So when the High Priestess come up in a reading, keep an eye out for those subtle signs that are pointing to something usually unseen, a deeper context for the things unfolding in your life right now. Keep your eyes open, you might get a glimpse of what normally is very hard to see.

It can be very difficult to tell in this day and age, but Justice is not the same as vengeance. Justice is about balance, whereas vengeance is about blame. One of the keys to this balance is taking responsibility- acknowledging and claiming your own role in a situation and then putting your trust in the Universe to balance out the other side. Justice is very mathematical, in math, you use an equal sign as the midpoint between two sets of variables, and what you do to the variables on one side, you have to do equally to the variables on the other side, this maintains the equilibrium and allows you to "solve" the equation- much like the scales of Justice. The trick is in remaining objective and fairly applying reason to your own side as well as to the other side of the equation, that is when you might find that you can come to fairly equitable solutions to pretty much any problem or conflict- the trick is in maintaining that balance.
When the Justice card comes up in a reading you might just find that something is coming into balance- it might not be how you expected or "wanted" it on a purely emotional level, but if you look objectively, you can probably see the scales have actually been evened out, especially if you have honestly filled in your own side of the equation.