The School

Everything a beginner needs to start reading this deck, on one page. The lessons below unpack each part.

Every card in this deck holds an opportunity and a risk together. A parasite is the deck’s lens for that: it lives by an arrangement that is good for someone and costly for someone else. Read both sides.

1. What a tarot deck is: Know where tarot comes from, how the deck is built, and what this deck adds.
2. Look before you read: Practice the most important skill in reading: noticing before interpreting.
3. The Major Arcana: the journey and its mirrors: See the twenty-two trumps as one story, and learn to read them in pairs.
4. The four suits and their elements: Know what each suit covers, and why each holds the organisms it does.
5. Numbers: the grammar of the minor cards: Read any minor card from its suit plus its number, even before you know the card.
6. The court cards: people and stages: Read the Page, Knight, Queen, and King as people, as roles, and as stages of growth.
7. Reversals and context: Decide how you will read upside-down cards, and learn why position changes meaning.
8. Spreads: one card, three cards, ten: Choose a spread that fits the question, and read the cards as one story.
9. Reading as writing: Use a spread to generate a complete piece of writing.
10. Make your own guide: Write your own entries, and start a guide that is yours.