Tarot cards are pictures. Pictures represent things in real life.
This can be quite literal.
Here on this card, the 5 of cups, we see a man in a black cloak.
That cloak reminded me of a stone I have, which you see in the picture.
I don’t remember what the stone is.
It reminds me of obsidian, but it’s not obsidian.
What I do remember about it is that it is protective in nature.
As the man in the picture draws his cloak tightly around him, I think, protect yourself with the cloak, with the stone.
Protect myself from what?
Perhaps further disappointment. Perhaps feeling that all is lost. Perhaps thinking that there is no way to cross the river.
Do you see now?
Do you see how what you see in the card adds to the meaning?
And how that meaning is very specific to me, or to you, or to the person I’m reading for?
This is Tarot.
Wonderful! This is, indeed, tarot.