Have you ever woken up puzzled by a dream you had during the night?
Write it down quickly, so you don’t loose the details. Then, when you get a chance, pull out your trusty Tarot deck.
Sure, you could look up meanings in a dream dictionary, but the symbolism of Tarot is far richer.
Interpreting dreams with Tarot is simple but not easy. Keep this in mind.
Some questions you might want to ask the cards around the dream:
- What is my dream self trying to illustrate through this dream? Note I used the word “illustrate” and not “tell”. Dream imagery can be very important. Dreams sometimes “paint a picture” for us that relates to our waking life. Hold up the Tarot mirror and see if any imagery repeats or presents itself in another way in the cards.
- Ask who or what a particular character or image in the dream represents. The great thing about Tarot is that you can cut right to the chase. Ask about what puzzles you the most about the dream. For example: who or what is the character who was attacking me?
- If there are particularly strong emotions in the dream, you might ask how can you acknowledge the emotion. A follow up question might be how you can work with the emotion and ask where it’s trying to flow.
When you pull cards on your dream, it may leave you as puzzled as ever. Be patient with yourself. Don’t keep laying cards trying to get an answer.
Instead leave a card or 2 in front of you and notice what comes up.
The following example may help you.
Example Using Tarot Cards to Interpret a Dream
I am dreaming that I am with a bunch of people in a cave. It starts raining a lot and the cave begins to flood. We all leave the cave, and outside there are a group of men. One of the men says to me that he can get me out of the area if I marry him. He is pretty good looking so I say okay.
I laid 3 cards:
Overall illustration of the dream: The Seeker (The Fool)
What does the cave represent? 4 of water (4 of cups)
What or who does the man represent? 4 of fire (4 of wands)
I made notes about how the cards connect visually which are deck specific. The water in the Seeker card flows to the well in the 4 of cups. There are 3 circles in the 4 of cups (the well, and 2 on the lid). There is one circle pictured in the 4 of wands card.
I also made visual notes about what I noticed on each card along with what I thought that card was illustrating.
The Seeker: open road, freedom, flying creatures, faithful companion, spirit animal, butterfly
The 4 of water – Pisces, peaceful reflection
The 4 of fire – past, man from the AZ desert, boundaries, full moon
I noted that there are 2 – 4’s in the reading: 4 of water and 4 of fire.
This Completes the First Layer of Interpreting Dreams With Tarot
The next layer is all of the correspondences I have with each card. Some people might call these definitions. Basically it’s the bank of labels and prescriptions I have around each card.
For me these layers are happening all at once. But if you are a beginner, it’s perfectly okay to take them one at a time.
But I do encourage you to sit and notice the card images and what comes up for you around the cards FIRST.
Grabbing from my grab bag of labels and prescriptions, this is what I find:
The Seeker/The Fool – a brand new phase of life. New chapter. Clean slate.
4 of cups or water – stable emotion
The 4 of wands or fire – milestone achieved, brief pause or rest and then onto the next milestone
Bringing It All Together
It seems the dream is illustrating the freedom I have right now to “reinvent myself”. It’s important to keep 2 things in mind as I move forward. Peaceful emotions and reflections (water or cups), and outward actions that lead to an outcome (goals). Boundaries are important.
That may seem like a lot of work to arrive at the simple summation, but I find it valuable.