Home » Education & Career » Pagan Homeschooling » Teaching Children Tarot, Part 1

Teaching Children Tarot, Part 1

© Kimberly Moore.

One of the things that readers of this topic have indicated an ongoing interest in is the subject of teaching children tarot. Upon seeing the great amount of interest, I decided that I had to tackle the subject. It is by no means a simple subject, and before tackling ideas on how to teach a child tarot, one first had to understand exactly what tarot is.

Everyone is familiar through television and film mediums with the sight of traditional tarot cards. In movies, we see mysterious gypsies wielding these magical cards with their seeming mysterious pictures upon them, announcing the unavoidable fate of the hero. While we all know this to be fantasy, we know that tarot decks do indeed look somewhat like the ones we have seen in film, and that they are used for divination purposes. What we are perhaps not acquainted with is the fact that cards in general have through the ages been used in this manner. Cards, and by this I mean playing cards, were banned by the Church in ancient times as things of the Devil. This was not because of gambling, nor idle game playing, but because the images used upon them to represent the suites were simple versions of those found in traditional tarot decks. People would make their playing cards and use them for the purpose of reading, often pretending they were "mere" playing cards in order to escape extreme punishment and accusations of witchcraft. Even today decks of playing cards are used for readings, with the numbered cards of the suites holding meanings other than the seemingly obvious ones.

With this in mind, understand that it is not the particular image that then holds the message. It is what the image represents to he who wields the cards. The cards themselves are objects that one channels the magick through, they merely facilitate the seeing and help focus it, and they do not do the seeing. This means that you can approach the teaching of tarot in several ways. With children, you will want to keep it as simple as possible, so in part two I will concentrate on two methods. One uses a traditional tarot deck, and the other uses a homemade deck. Both are equally valid means, and you should not be afraid of trying either method; one may be more suited to your child's learning style than another. It may even be that your child prefers to use one method over another as they begin their exploration into the realm of magick.

The copyright of the article Teaching Children Tarot, Part 1 in Pagan Homeschooling is owned by Kimberly Moore.. Permission to republish Teaching Children Tarot, Part 1 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.