Tarot for Divination
Introduction
Course 8, Module 0
By: John Beckett
Transcription by K.D. Echols
Hi, I’m John Beckett, Druid, priest and writer.
I remember the first time I ever picked up a deck of Tarot cards. I was 10 or 12 years old. The cards belonged to my much older brother. He was living at home while he went to college. One day, he was out and I was in. I went looking through his room, trying to see what cool grownup stuff I could find.
I found a deck of Tarot cards, and I was intrigued. I had seen Tarot cards before in TV shows and movies. While I knew that what TV shows and movie showed was fiction, I also knew there was a truth behind the fiction. So I knew what Tarot cards were for, I just didn’t know how to read them. But hey, how hard could it be?
So I shuffle the cards and laid them out in the Celtic Cross spread. I got out the little white book and looked at the meetings. I looked at the cards and looked at the book. I looked at the cards and looked at the book. I looked at the cards and looked at the book. I got nothing. It was the very definition of “word salad”, words and concepts thrown together with no hint of a coherent meaning behind them. I put the cards back in the box, put the box back on the shelf, and pretty much forgot about Tarot for about 20 years.
Then I discovered Paganism and witchcraft. As many of us do when we’re beginning, I went on an acquisition spree. The very first thing I bought was a deck of Tarot cards.
Once again, I shuffled the cards and laid out in the Celtic Cross spread and looked them up in the little white book. I got a little bit out of it this time, but not much, certainly nothing that I could do anything with. This time I was an adult and a determined adult. I wanted to learn to read Tarot.
I begin practicing on a regular basis. I read a book, then another book. Eventually I got to the point where I could read Tarot, kinda sorta.
Well, fast forward another 10 years or so, and Dolores Neighbors came to Denton CUUPS. Dolores was a wonderful person and a great friend. She lived 88 full years before passing on to the Other World in 2021. Dolores offered to teach a class in Tarot, and of course I signed up.
Every week for, I think it was seven weeks, a handful of us went over to her house. Dolores talked about the cards and their meanings and spreads and combinations. While she was doing that, she mixed in stories of the times when she was working as a professional Tarot reader.
So we’re toward the end of that class and something clicked. All of a sudden, I could read Tarot. I could read it with clarity. I had some confidence in my ability to read.
But then I get busy and I set the cards down. About six months later, I had a question I needed answered, so I picked the cards up and it was gone. I had learned Tarot, but I hadn’t retained it.
Fortunately, Dolores taught her class again the next year, and of course I signed up for it again. This time, it stuck. Between the years of practice, the reading and the study, and the in-person instruction, I finally had enough exposure and experience with Tarot to where I could read it the way I wanted to read it.
For some time now, people have been asking me to teach a course in divination. For me, divination means Tarot. I learned Ogham as part of the OBOD Ovate studies. But other than that, every time I had gotten the idea that maybe I need to learn some cool new divination system, like, say, bone reading, I asked myself, “Do I want to spend the time and energy to learn a brand new divination system from the ground up? Or do I want to take that time and energy and put it into getting better at Tarot.” I’ve always chosen getting better at Tarot.
This is what I do. This is what I know, so this is what I teach. Now, I am happy to announce the opening of the eight online class from Under the Ancient Oaks, Tarot for Divination.
Goal For the Course
Normally in my classes I have two or three goals. For this class. I have only one goal: I want everyone to become competent and confident in reading Tarot for divination.
What is Divination?
Of course that raises the question, “What is divination?” Divination – this is my definition – is obtaining information through non-ordinary means so you can make better decisions. It’s not, “What should I do?” Never hand over your agency to a deck of cards or the spirits who may or may not be behind those cards. Divination isn’t there to tell you what you should do. Divination is there to tell you, “If I do this, then what’s going to happen?” If you like that, great! Keep going down that path. Do you not like it? Then you better do something else.
Divination is also how we can ask questions of Gods and spirits who tend to not answer in verbal means. We can confirm messages from Gods and spirits. I’ve gotten pretty good at hearing the voice of Morrigan and understanding when it’s Her. But if another deity speaks to me, I may be unsure. Am I really hearing the God, or am I hearing what I want to be true? Divination can help confirm, “Yes, this is a God you’re hearing from and yes, you should go ahead and proceed with this.”
Divination always shows us what will be, not what must be. If you don’t like what you see in divination, take action to change it.
Of course, there are many forms of divination, of which Tarot is one.
My Approach to Tarot
I teach what I do. I teach what I know. This is my approach to Tarot.
We’re going to begin by getting familiar with the cards. That begins with learning the consensus meanings. Quite literally, Tarot cards are artwork. If you’ve ever had an argument about what a painting means, or what a story means, or what a movie means, you know that it’s hard to pin down exactly what the right meaning is. Is it the meaning the author intended, the artist intended? Is it what you got out of it? Is it something else?
People who are a lot more knowledgeable about art than I am argue about that stuff all the time. There are no fixed meanings of the cards. There are consensus meanings that we have developed over the years, over the centuries. We need to start by learning those consensus meanings, understanding that that’s all they are, consensus meanings. Mainly, we need to learn to see what’s in the artwork. What’s actually on this card. What are the images that can speak to you if you will see them?
Once we get familiar with the cards, we learn to read the cards. How does the imagery relate to the question that we asked, that our querent asked? How do the cards relate to each other?
I think anybody can do these two things. The third thing is how to read intuitively. That’s a little harder. I don’t know in an 11- week class, if everybody’s going to get to the point where you can read intuitively. You can certainly get on the road of learning how to do that.
Who Should Take This Course?
So who should take this course? Anybody who wants to learn to read Tarot. It is geared toward beginning and intermediate readers. If you’re an advanced reader, you’re welcome to take a class. I don’t know that you need to. But if you want to, come on in.
No previous experience is required. If you’ve never picked up the Tarot cards, honestly, I think this is a good place to start. No experience required.
As with all of my classes, it is geared toward Pagans and polytheists and witches – people for whom the existence of magic and Gods and spirits is a given, but it is open to anyone with an open mind. So if you’re a Christian, if you’re an atheist, if you’re something else, and you want to try to learn to read Tarot, come on in.
What This Course is NOT
Let’s talk about what this course isn’t. It’s not self-help through Tarot. I know some people who will take The Fool’s journey and turn it into a journey of self-discovery and really, almost a quasi- therapy. If that’s what you do and if it works for you, great. That’s not what I do.
It’s not Golden Dawn-style esotericism. There’s a lot of Christian and Jewish mysticism in some Tarot decks, especially in the Waite-Smith deck. That’s not what I do. I’m a Pagan and a polytheist. That’s one of the reasons why – we’re going to talk about decks a little later on – it’s why I like the decks I do.
It’s not a bunch of tables of correspondences. I know there are people who will rattle off: well, the swords mean this, and this color means that, and this number means this. Yes, there is meaning in there. There is consensus meaning in there. It’s not what I do.
It is not the Tarot de Marseille. The Marseille Tarot is very popular right now. I’ve seen some people saying it is the most authentic Tarot deck, it’s the original Tarot deck. It’s not the original Tarot deck. It is one of the older decks of which we have all 78 cards. It’s a perfectly good deck. It’s very different from Waite-Smith and some of the other decks that are a little newer. I have the deck. I really struggle to read with it. So, we will not be using the Tarot de Marseille in here except for the odd example. If that’s what you want, there are people who teach it. That’s not this.
It’s not the One True Way to read Tarot. This is my way to read Tarot. There are many ways. This works for me. This is Tarot for divination as I practice it.
Course Format
The course format is the same as the other Under the Ancient Oak classes. There are weekly videos, typically released early on Thursday morning. They are on demand, meaning you go watch them whenever you’re ready, whether that’s Thursday morning, or Thursday evening, or over the weekend, or in 2025. That’s the advantage of this format. You can do it when you’re ready to do.
There hasn’t been homework in the last couple of classes. There will be homework in this class. I don’t know how there could not be homework in this class. You have to practice or you’re not going to learn this. There’s just no way around it. I’m not going to be doing homework reviews because, how am I going to review readings from everybody who signs up for the class? There’s not nearly enough time to do that, and it’s not really necessary. But you’ve got to practice.
There will be two video Q&As. I’m always available to answer class-related questions, but as I was putting this together I thought, you know, we probably should put two Q&A’s in here.
I’ll put one after Module 2, after the two introductory modules, in case anybody has any questions about theory or history or the approach we’re going to take going forward, because like your teacher in school says, if there’s one person who asked the question, there’s probably four or five people who are thinking it, but didn’t ask.
Then we’ll do another Q&A after Module 8, after we finished going through all the cards, their consensus meetings, their artwork, and that part of getting familiar with the cards.
UTAO Tarot Facebook Group
There will be a new Under the Ancient Oaks Tarot Facebook group, a new group for this course only. This is for class feedback. Post your readings. Perhaps I asked you to do a three-card reading. Post a picture. Say, ‘Here are the cards I drew. I think this means this. What do you think it means?’ It’s a chance for you to get feedback from a bunch of different people.
I will be more active in this group than I had been in the main UTAO Facebook group. I’m not going to promise that I’m going to respond to every reading that’s posted, but I’m going to do my best to read them all, and also to weigh in when I think I have something to add that other people haven’t already added.
As with all of the homework and discussion groups, participation is voluntary. It is highly encouraged.
Modules
What are our modules? This is the introduction. We start off by talking a little bit about the history and theory of Tarot. Where did it come from? How does it work, or at least how do I think it works?
We’ll talk about the process of reading Tarot. What do you do? You start with a question. Then you draw cards. Then you figure out what it means. How do you do that? There’s a process involved. That’s a process that anybody can follow, that anybody can use to gain meaning from their readings.
Then we’re going to go into the cards. We’re going to go into those consensus meanings. We’re going to look at the artwork. We’re going to explore the cards in depth. You need to learn to see the cards before you can read the cards. The Major Arcana is going to take two weeks. Then we’ll do one week for each of the four suits.
When that’s over, we’ll talk about patterns and combinations, some of the spreads you can use and how to pick the right spread for the right reading.
We’ll talk about ethics. I thought about putting this module earlier in the class, but I think it will be more effective if we wait till near the end, when you’ve really got a chance to see what this will do, and you see for yourself where somebody could go wrong. It’s no longer just some hypothetical. You’ve seen where, you’ve all of a sudden got access to some very sensitive information. How do you use that information ethically?
The final module puts it all together in the Art of Reading. Reading is both a science and an art. We’re going to spend most of our time on the science of reading, but we’re also going to spend some time on the art of reading, giving you the foundation you need to begin to develop your own art.
Teaching Decks
The primary deck is the Robin Wood Tarot. It came out in 1991. I saw a review that said it was a very 90s Wiccan deck. I think that’s a fair assessment. It was made in the early 90s. It has that early-90s Barnes and Noble Wicca vibe to it. I like it because it keeps the structure of the Waite-Smith deck while using only modern Neopagan imagery. I had a bad experience in Christianity growing up. I needed to make a clean break with Christianity. I needed to have a deck of Tarot cards that didn’t keep shoving that Christian imagery back in my face. That was this deck. It was the first deck I bought. It was the only deck I had for many years. I find it a very easy deck to read with. This is the deck that I’m going to be using as the primary teaching deck.
We’re going to use two secondary decks. We’re going to use the Waite-Smith. It used to be called the Rider-Waite deck until people realize that Rider was just the company that published the deck, and that was ignoring the work of artist Pamela Coleman Smith who is responsible for these amazing pictures that you see in the Waite-Smith deck. We will be using it.
We’ll also be using the Celtic Tarot. There are there are several decks called Celtic Tarot. This is the one by Kristoffer Hughes. It came out in 2017. I read really well with this. It also follows the structure of Waite-Smith, kinda sorta. Kris broke it up a little differently and of course the artwork is grounded in Welsh mythology. So here we’ll have our primary deck, the deck that more people are familiar with, and a deck kinda sorta like these, that, again, I find easy to read with.
You must have at least one of these decks. Now, I say you must. It’s not like I’m going to come to your house and check your shelves to make sure you’ve got one of these three decks. You’re going to have a hard time following the class if you don’t have at least one of them, preferably Robin Wood, but certainly one of the three.
I will bring in other decks from time-to-time, primarily to compare and contrast and just because I think some of the some of the other decks are cool. I love Aleister Crowley’s Thoth deck. I think the artwork is absolutely beautiful. I struggle to read with that deck, so I rarely pick up for divination, but I love the artwork. That’s true of several decks. There’s a million decks out there these days. I have a few of them. I want to bring some of them in, but our work is going to be with these three.
Regular UTAO Facebook Group
There is the regular under the HLS Facebook Group. If you’ve taken classes, before you’re probably a member of it. If you’re not, send me a friend request. Let me know you want to be in. I will send you an invitation. It’s for all Under the Ancient Oaks class participants beginning with Course 1.
It is in addition to the Tarot group. We want to try to keep our Tarot specific stuff in the Tarot group because there may be some personal questions in here. We need to all be operating from a sense of mutual confidentiality.
This group and the new group are secret so only members can find the group. See who’s in it and what they post. Don’t go looking for it. I have to send you an invitation.
There is also a Discord server. I spend almost no time on it. Some people like it. It’s there for your use.
Participation in any of these things is completely voluntary. If you just want to watch the videos and work through the material on your own, you’re perfectly welcome to do that. Again, I do encourage you to participate in the Tarot Facebook group.
A Necessary Ethical Boundary
I need to draw an ethical boundary up front. I do Tarot readings on a consulting basis. My rates are $75 for a half-hour, and $100 for a full hour. I don’t do a lot of them, but on a not too irregular basis, people will contact me wanting me to do a reading for them and I’m happy to do that. But not while you’re taking this class.
I see an ethical issue there. If you have an emergency, I’ll try to connect you with another reader.
I see an ethical issue with teaching Tarot and, “Oh, by the way, if you want me to do a real reading, for $100 I’ll do this for you!” That strikes me as, if not necessarily unethical, but certainly could be seen as that. The optics are not good. It is a conflict of interest, so I’m just not going to do it. If you sign up for the class, I’m not going to read for you for the duration of the class. If you sign up for it sometime in the future, then I’m going to count basically count three months out and I won’t read for you during that time.
Cost
There are online Tarot resources available at every price point from free to thousands of dollars. When I look at what people like me charge for classes like this, when I look at what I charge for an individual Tarot reading, when I look at the amount of work that I’m putting into this class, this class is going to cost $150. I prefer PayPal. 98-99% of you in the past have used PayPal with no problems. If you don’t like PayPal, don’t use PayPal if you have a problem with PayPal. I can take Zelle. I actually like Zelle because they don’t charge fees. I can take credit cards. I can take some other form of payment. I prefer to work with PayPal. If you can’t, let me know what you can do and we’ll figure something out.
Scholarships
As with the other classes, there will be some scholarships available, but there will be a very limited number for this class. The more paid registrations I get, the more sponsorships I get, the more scholarships I can offer. Some of you have been very generous with recent classes about funding: Hey, I want to fund one student. I want to find two more students. In the class at this price point, I can see we’re probably not going to get people funding multiple scholarship students. But if you can fund another student, if you can find a half a student or a third of a student, that goes to more scholarships. Every full sponsorship that I get, whether someone’s paying for an extra one or a combination of three people paying for third, every sponsorship I get fully funds one student, and it counts also counts toward the number of students that I can fund.
Priority will go to previous Under the Ancient Oaks’ students. I’m expecting to get more applications than scholarships this time. First priority will go to previous students. If there are any left after that, then they would go to new students.
The deadline to apply for scholarships on January 21.
Schedule
Let’s look at the schedule.
January 10, Module 0 is released. Registration opens. Scholarship applications are accepted
January 21 is a deadline for scholarship applications.
January 23, scholarship applications will be notified: Yes, your scholarship application has been funded. No I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to fund this.
Thursday, January 26, Module 1 goes up.
There are eleven weekly modules, with the last one scheduled to be released on April 6.
As always, I tell people, This is my plan. If life intervenes, the schedule is not guaranteed. I haven’t missed one yet in seven classes so far. I don’t expect to miss one this time, but ,you know, if life interferes, these be delayed a little bit. I don’t expect if.
Questions
If you have questions about the course, I will do my best to answer them, whether that’s a question right now while you’re trying to figure out if this is the right class for you, or if you’ve already signed up for the class and you’ve got a question about the material. Ask and I will do my best to answer it.
The response format will vary. I may include it in the Video Q&A. I probably will. If it’s something I can answer by email, I’ll do that.
I may ask you to post it in one or both of the Facebook groups, particularly if it’s something where, “You know, I have some feelings about that but not strong feelings. Maybe somebody else can do a better job of answering that than I could.”
Ask something deep enough and I’ll turn it into a blog post. I don’t do that often, but it’s happened before.
I’m always available to answer class-related questions. Again, if it’s 2025- 2026 and you’re just now seeing this, as long as I’m here, I will do my best to answer class-related questions.
But I don’t do casual conversation. That includes a question that leads to a question that leads to another question. At some point, it’s no longer a question about the class, it’s a conversation. I don’t do conversation. I don’t like conversation. It’s not you. It’s me. But by all means, if you have questions, please ask.
Signing Up
To sign up, send me an email john@undertheancientoaks.com. Tell me you want to sign up for the Tarot class. Or use the contact form on the website, but it’s easier for both of us you just send me an email. I will send you a PayPal invoice. When that’s done. I’ll register you for the course.
Expect the 24-hour turnaround. If you catch me when I’m sitting at my computer and I’m not terribly busy, you may have a five-minute turnaround. Catch me during the week when I’m busy with my paying job, I may not see it till late that night or even the next morning and I’ll get to it as soon as I can. In general, it’s rare that I take longer than 24 hours to get back with somebody unless I’m traveling, which I don’t expect to be during the registration period for this class. But again, if this is 2024, maybe you caught me on vacation. I’ll get to you as soon as I can.
Optional Resources
There are no books required for this class. There is no required reading. There are two books I would like to recommend as optional resources.
The first is Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners by Joan Bunning. This book was very helpful to me when I was trying to learn on my own. It is based on the Waite-Smith deck. If you want it for reference, there’s a million Tarot books out there, this is the one that was helpful to me.
Then Robin Wood wrote a book to go along with her deck. (Robin Wood Tarot: The Book) If you’re going to get the Robin Wood deck, go ahead and get the book. You get some stories. You get her idea of what went into the cards, the imagery that she chose and why she chose it. Does that meant that’s the official meaning that you have to use? No, it really doesn’t work that way, but it certainly helps to know what the author intended.
If you buy the Celtic Tarot, it comes with the book. It doesn’t go quite into the depth that Robin Wood goes into hers, but it still goes far deeper than your typical little white book that comes with a pack of cards.
That’s it. I’m ready to start talking about Tarot. I’ve been doing this for a long time now. On one hand, it is very simple. On the other hand, it is it’s very deep and complex and mysterious. It is the best tool I have found for divination, for getting that Other Worldly information so that we can see what’s coming and we can make better decisions because of it. I’m excited to start teaching this class. I hope you’re excited to start taking the class. Sign up and we will get started on January 26.