AUTHOR’S NOTE: Here I’ve set out to examine the differences between the two main modes of tarot interpretation: objective (or descriptive, akin to the way Lenormand cards are read) and subjective (or suggestive, which displays a more intuitive or psychic bias).

A couple of years ago I was approached by a prospective client who wanted an “esoteric” reading with the Thoth deck. This was music to my ears because I’ve spent decades absorbing the profound symbolism that forms the metaphysical core of the occultist’s art, and I welcome any opportunity to exercise it in practical divination. The answer (and in more mystical systems the antidote) to scholarly elucidation is visual free-association from the images, which will ideally furnish an anecdotal theme that is properly responsive to the seeker’s circumstances.

As I see it, free-association is almost entirely visionary based on the reader’s intuitive sensitivity to the pictures at that moment in time (which is why I see “book-learning” as a crucial safety-net when we go too far out on a clairvoyant limb), while primary reliance on the symbolism is a launch-pad for inspiration, imagination and ingenuity that presents itself as largely matter-of-fact, valuing unsentimental scrutiny over idealistic supposition.

I admit to being slightly more objective than subjective in my tarot reading, but I soften the clinical “hard line” with an impressionistic slant on the symbolism that makes good storytelling fodder while initially staying “inside the lines” laid out by the founders of occult inquiry. From that established vantage point, I frequently branch out into relevant metaphors and analogies that can trigger the querent’s instant recognition of the significance hidden in the often-arcane insights. In the best cases, this epiphany is underscored by shared cultural, social, historical and educational experiences that offer common ground for mutual understanding.

I usually reach that point of picturesque conjecture (or “verbal tap-dancing”) via dialogue with the sitter, whose hesitant reaction to my more routine observations will kick my creativity into high gear. From that moment on, it’s anybody’s guess where the raconteur’s muse will take me, but I always try to steer the narrative back to my main talking points before it becomes completely random. I seldom doubt my first impressions, so I treat them as the conceptual baseline for anything that follows.