tarot PLUS playing cards for detailed physical descriptions

Traditionally, each tarot suit has been designated a brief physical description. However, providing an entire physical description of a person using just one suit seems limiting. As an African-American, I find the Pentacles’ description as “dark skinned” woefully insufficient to cover all of the brown folks on the planet. This description also creates more questions.

• How dark is dark? 
• What about someone with brown skin, light brown hair, and blue eyes, like actress Vanessa Williams?
• What if the seeker lives in a country where everyone they know has dark skin, hair and eyes? How would you interpret a Cups court card in this case?

Tarot Everywhere (a deck in progress)

In general, I use the court cards to represent roles and personalities of people in the seeker’s life who are influencing their question. However, many seekers can’t identify the person and want more detail. So, for physical descriptions I get out my playing cards.

Here is my method of getting detailed physical descriptions. Get out your tarot deck PLUS your playing cards!

From your playing card deck, shuffle and select 5 cards, one for each of the following:

1. gender
2. physical build
3. complexion/skin tone
4. hair
5. eyes

Use the following key:

Gender
Red = female
Black = male

Build
Clubs = athletic
Hearts = chubby, full-figured
Diamonds = stocky, solid
Spades = thin, lanky

Complexion/Skin Tone (Types based on Fitzpatrick Scale)
Clubs = brown, Type V, VI
Hearts = fair, Type I, Type II
Diamonds = ruddy or medium, Type III
Spades = olive, Type IV

Hair
Clubs = dark brown
Hearts = blonde or light hair
Diamonds = red or brown
Spades = black

Eyes
Clubs = dark brown
Hearts = blue, green, gray, or light color
Diamonds = brown, hazel
Spades = black

What if a face card (the people cards) appears? There are additional descriptions to add.

Build
Jack = recent weight change
Queen = short
King = tall

Complexion
Jack = baby face
Queen = movie star looks
King = facial hair

Hair
Jack = recent change to hair
Queen = long hair
King = gray and/or balding

Eyes
Jack = piercing eyes
Queen = glasses
King = thick eyebrows


EXAMPLE #1

Let's say you've done a career reading and pulled the Queen of Pentacles card in the helpful influences position. This suggests someone motherly and practical, possibly in the role of benefactor, will be a helpful influence. But who is this person?

Get out your playing cards and choose 5 cards. Since the court cards may be any gender, it's wise to pull a card for gender as well. Here are the cards chosen:

Gender. 2 of Hearts = female
Build. Queen of Spades = short, thin
Skin Tone/Complexion. 9 of Spades = olive
Hair. 8 of Clubs = dark brown
Eyes. Jack of Diamonds = piercing, brown

My response: The cards suggest a woman who might help with your career is short with a thin build, olive skin, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. There may be something that stands out about her eyes.

The seeker's response: Thank you so much. That couldn't possibly be any more profound because you described a woman I know almost exactly. She's skinny and petite. She has short, straight brown hair with straight bangs. She has brown eyes. She is tanned. I spent a couple of days earlier this week discussing business opportunities with her. 

Need an even more detailed description?
This time we're going to use our tarot deck PLUS the playing cards for a more detailed description. I use the tarot to describe personality traits and environment. Use the visual cues from your tarot cards and simply say what you see.

EXAMPLE #2

Let's say Beth wants to know what’s on her romantic horizon and the Knight of Cups appears in the present position. This Knight is someone who is ready for romance. Beth wants a physical description of him to see if he's someone she already knows. The following 4 playing cards are chosen for a physical description:

Build. Ace of Clubs = athletic
Skin Tone/Complexion. King of Clubs = brown skin with facial hair
Hair. 6 of Clubs = dark brown
Eyes. King of Diamonds = brown/hazel eyes with thick eyebrows

Next, we select an additional 4 cards from our tarot deck to provide additional information about this person. These cards add information about personality and surrounding influences.

Tarot Everywhere (a deck in progress)

  
Your Knight of Cups is athletic with brown skin and facial hair, dark brown hair, and brown or hazel eyes with thick eyebrows. He might also be competitive or someone who plays sports (5 of Wands),  and a skilled professional (8 of Pentacles). He seems to be carrying a lot of responsibilities (10 of Wands) but he's also quite fun loving with many friends (3 of Cups).

Beth replies, “Oh, that describes Mario, the guy I just met at a party. He’s a professional athlete."


EXAMPLE #3

Here’s another example using tarot PLUS playing cards. I did a Finding Your Soulmate reading for a seeker and wrote to her: You are likely to meet your soulmate after you have released the energy of the King of Spades who may represent one guy or a type of guy.

In this case, I pulled playing cards for a physical description and then four additional tarot cards to visually tell a story.

Tarot Everywhere (a deck in progress)

My response: It looks like he's stocky in build, olive complexion (could be tanned), dark brown hair and light color eyes. Is he a smoker (Page of Swords)? There is restriction (8 of Swords), and a committed partnership (Lovers) around him. He may be hiding something (7 of Swords).

The seeker's response: He has a gut and smokes cigars ... He has olive complexion and dark hair that’s going gray... He doesn't care about what I want in a relationship because he can't give it... He's married!

If you want to get a more detailed description of someone in your tarot readings, remember to use tarot PLUS playing cards!

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