IT'S ONLY A GAME by Errol McLendon, CTM, CTI

In developing a beginning Tarot class, I came up against the eternal question, "what is the easiest way to learn the meanings of 78 cards?" Do you sit down and memorize them? Do you use word association? Do you just give up and take painting instead?

In order to solve this dilemma, I dug through my past experiences for a key. I have always been attracted to the thrill of a good game (sorry, no noncompetitive stuff for me). The games that have the greatest appeal and durability have three common elements. First, there is some item which is unknown and must be guessed. Second, there is an element of the game which keeps everyone playing from start to finish (no one is tagged out to sit on the sidelines until the round is completed). Finally, the players must push their memory and thought processes to the limit.

I keyed into three games from my past that centered on word association and memorization that fit the above criteria and that would work with unknown items with multiple meanings (Tarot cards). With some subtle rewriting of the rules, I came up with three games which I could use to help my students master the meanings of their cards. I share these with you now and encourage you to look into your own mental game closet and do some revisiting of your own.

Liar's Poker Revisited

This is probably one of the first poker games you ever encountered. It was designed originally to win or lose money in a quick and efficient manner. With the rewrite, it becomes a great way for a group of students to share their perceptions of what the images in the cards convey.

One Tarot deck is shuffled and one card is dealt face down to each player, who immediately picks his card up without looking at it and places it on his forehead facing the other players. If you are doing this right, everyone will look very silly at this point in the game. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each person goes around the circle to his left and gives a key word for each card they see. The added rule here is that you cannot use a word which is printed on or permanently associated with the card, e.g. Strength. Players must use a word which could honestly be associated with the card, but creativity and imagination is encouraged. I have actually seen students studying Thesauruses in preparation for this game.

Now, everyone tries to guess their card. If someone in the circle has trouble guessing their card, another round of hints can be given. This can be repeated as often as necessary, but I always suggest that the hints become more obvious with each round.

I have found that in the test groups in which I have used this game, that the individual players come away with a wealth of new definitions for each card. Because of this result, I would strongly suggest also using this game for intermediate students who are attempting to increase the number of key words per card.

Six Degrees of Brad Pitt Revisited

This is a game which can be played anywhere. I have found students playing it among themselves before class and at breaks. You don't even need a Tarot deck to play. Play it on the bus and frighten the civilians.

This can be played by any number of people. All you need to start is to know the order in which the players are going to respond. The first player names a Tarot card. The second player must give a key word for that card. The third player must name a different card which could have the same key word. The fourth player must name a different card from the first which could have the second key word. This continues until a roadblock is reached or until someone challenges. If anyone in the group disagrees with an association, they can challenge. When this happens, the game stops and the person being challenged explains his particular word association.

This is a very addictive game. It increases the number of key words per card and also allows the players to share insight into how they view the cards. I always encourage discussion after each round. This allows the players to crawl into each other's minds and share the connections made there. This is also a great game for intermediate students as well.

Person to Person Revisited

This is a word-based charades game. For this game you need a watch with a second hand, a deck of Tarot cards and a pad of paper for score keeping. At the beginning of a round, one person (the presenter) from the first team sits before the Tarot deck. A round lasts one minute. As time is started, the presenter picks the top card of the deck and says one key word. As before, the word that is used cannot be a word printed on or permanently associated with the card. The rest of the team must guess the card before the presenter can pick up the next card. The presenter can say the word as often as they want and as many different ways as they want, but they must remain seated, they cannot add a second word and they cannot pass and go on to the next card. At the end of one minute, time is called and the number of correctly guessed cards is added up and tallied. Then the whole process is repeated by other team. For intermediate students, play several rounds and don't allow using a word from a previous round.

Of all the games mentioned in this article, this game appears to do more to burn the meanings of the cards into the players' subconscious. In order to avoid the obvious trap of imposing the presenter's meanings on his team, I always end this game with a discussion of which cards were the most difficult to guess and why. The difficult cards were always a result of a difference of opinion between the presenter and the team about a card's meaning , which opens up a sharing discussion of why the presenter and the team see that particular card differently.

I am certain as time goes on there will be revision and refinement to these rules, if not total evolution into new games. A side advantage to these games is that they put my adult classes in a receptive, childlike frame of mind, hungry to learn and experience the rich world that Tarot has to offer. Play on.