The Power of Personal Associations of Symbols in Tarot

 It is super helpful to know what symbols mean to you personally outside of the influence of the conventional Tarot meanings.* It helped me figure out why some cards created a dissonance. 


Example: a pentacle, it bothered me that 5 of Pentacles was such a distressing card, but that's because I don't associate 5 negatively, and t a pentacle (5 pointed star) was a protection symbol to me and it would just bug me, that 5P wasn't reflecting that. Once I knew my own associations I was able to make peace with the 5 of Pentacles as it traditionally is shown. 

I will be breaking these down into sets for easier reading. Also, this is NOT an exhaustive list! 

What is the first thing (thoughts, feelings, images, words, sensations, etc) to come to mind when you read/hear the following words:

CUPS 
CHALICE 
WANDS 
RODS 
STICKS
SWORDS 
PENTACLES 
COINS  
FIRE 
WATER 
EARTH 
AIR 
ETHER
SPIRIT 

***

RED 
ORANGE 
YELLOW 
GREEN 
BLUE 
INDIGO 
VIOLET
PINK
BROWN
BLACK
WHITE 
GOLD 
SILVER 
COPPER 
BRONZE 
GRAY 
>
>With the numbers, is it different when you see numerical representation vs the phonetic representation?

ZERO (0) 
ONE (1)
TWO (2)
THREE (3)
FOUR (4)
FIVE (5)
SIX (6)
SEVEN (7)
EIGHT (8)
NINE (9)
TEN (10)
Infinity (∞)

***

With this list, does a specific type, style, or species come to mind as well?

CASTLE
BRIDGE
FOREST
FIELDS
GRASS
SKY
LEAVES
CROWN
CROSS
CLOUDS
ROBES
FLOWERS
BIRDS
TREES
MOUNTAINS
SCEPTRE
FISH
ARCANA
COURT
MAJOR
MINOR
HORSE
BUTTERFLY
ANGEL


These lists are definitely not exhaustive. What other common symbology do you wish to explore? Explore that! You can go through each card to see the individual symbols used in a specific card and use the the same method, write down the first thing that comes to mind. 

It's a fun way to get the know YOUR deck of cards, and it works for pretty much any deck. 

Blessings to you and yours!

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*The basic idea for this I got from the book "Your Tarot Your Way" by Barbara Moore. I have expanded it a little. :)

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