USING PERSONAL CARDS by Errol McLendon, CTM, CTI

When I began my study of Tarot several years ago, the use of significators never appealed to me. I respect any reader's right to use significators; however, I always felt that there should be a way to use a significator without compromising the full 78-card deck. As a result of these feelings, I have begun a practice of using a modification on the significator that I call the Personal Card.

Even when I was experimenting with using a significator, I preferred to let a significator be chosen based on a clients gut reaction to the cards, rather than an astrological correspondence or a physical trait. I gained great insight into where a person was in their life at the time of the reading based on the card they picked. With a slight adjustment to these rudimentary beginnings, I suddenly was using a Personal Card to begin my readings.

The first step in using a Personal Card is to find a deck with very clearly drawn Court Cards. My two personal favorites are the Robin Wood deck for a more traditional deck and the Rohrig deck for a more contemporary feel. Both decks work very well for this procedure because the illustrator has done an excellent job of capturing the individual and unique emotions of each of the Court Cards. In other words, each Court Card looks like an individual, as opposed to the same person wearing different clothing and wigs. This must also be a deck which is different from your regular reading deck.

Before I begin the reading, I hand the 16 Court Cards to the client and ask them to pick the one card which they feel represents them at this point in their life. I request that they ignore the gender of the cards and respond only to the emotions emitted by the cards. If the nature of the question involves additional people, for example, a relationship question, I ask the client to choose a card for the additional people involved. It must be a different card for each person. If the client has trouble choosing different cards from the first 16 cards for additional people involved because they feel the other people should have the same card as them, I have a second group of 16 cards from a third, different deck from which to choose. My experience is that when I give the client the second 16 cards, they usually choose a card that represents a very different person than the card they have chosen for themselves. We then talk briefly about why they chose a particular card or cards.

Once these cards are chosen, I place them face up along the side of the table and proceed with the reading. If the counterpart to one of the cards they have chosen appears in the reading, it has even more of an impact, because the reader identifies themselves and others involved immediately. When this happened the first few times, I felt that my job was being imposed upon. I felt that I had lost some of the ability to interpret the cards, and as a result, I nearly abandoned this procedure. On further reflection, I realized my main goal is to get the client to identify with the cards and use them to reach decision in their life. The quicker the client identifies with the cards, the more time is available for self-evaluation and decision making.

One side advantage unexpectedly has grown out of this techniques. I have noticed when my beginning students use personal cards in their readings, they learn the Court Cards much more quickly and personally than they do by filling out a chart with friends' names or reading an article with celebrities' names (both very useful supplements - a special side thanks to Nina Lee Braden for her excellent articles on the Royals). The Personal Card ties the Court Card to the organic interaction a reader has with his client. There is an unforgettable rush of energy exchanged between the reader and the client when one of their cards appears in the spread. A dialogue almost always ensues, resulting in a true shared reading.

Now, every time I do a reading, I am adding layers of personality to my Court Cards and, though I may not remember all the specifics of every reading, I now remember each and every Personal Card chosen for every reading I have done over the past year. I invite you to experiment with this idea. It has been invaluable to me and I hope it adds to your resources.