Tarot for Everyday Life

Course Description

Dynamic, literate, and intuitive, Susie Chang streams the magic of tarot into our daily lives.  She opens the doors of the tarot arcana both ways, inside and out. Our everyday situations are revealed as variations of eternal myths—myths that are reflected in the images of the cards. Once we see what situation we’re moving in, we can act in it more skillfully.

In this 4 class course, Susie immerses us in the language of the psyche through the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck. We hear how to read the book of Fate and how we can creatively engage with our destiny. Living with the figures and forces of the tarot can become a form of magic in the sense that it empowers us to make wiser choices, choices that shape our reality.

Susie’s approach uses the tarot to put people more in the driver’s seat. As a passenger, you might get motion sickness in the car. But as the driver – going to the exact same place at the exact same speed – you almost never do. The tarot blurrs the line between free will and fate.  You don’t take control of your destiny, but live in dialogue with it.

When we work with tarot, meaningful coincidences between internal and external reality arise—not sometimes, but always. In this course, we begin to master the symbolic language that forms the bridge between what is within and what is without. 

Through a variety of demonstrations and thought-provoking, hands-on exercises, we will learn not only to read our fortune but to tell it. In the telling, we discover what the world’s magicians have always known: working with symbols is working with reality itself. We cultivate an inquisitive and open relationship to our own story, and in doing so, shape our own destiny.

This course is ideal if

• You are new to tarot, or, an experienced reader looking for a fresh perspective;
• You are drawn to visual symbolism and want to integrate it into your life in a personal way;
• You are in search of a daily source of meaning and creative inspiration;
• You are seeking a direct relationship with synchronicity;
• You are curious about divination, sortilege, and the magic of shaping your reality.

Course Overview

Class 1. Welcome to the Book of Life!

In this class we will begin to experience the breadth and variety of modern-day tarot, while also learning some of the universal principles which make any tarot deck readable by anyone. We will learn to relate to the 22 major arcana as fluid gods and flexible myths, and archetypal windows into our selves.

Class 2. My Life Story is in the Cards!

In this class we will encounter the four elemental stories that power the minor suits of wands, cups, swords, and pentacles. We will learn to recognize events from our lives in the number cards, and aspects of our personality in the court cards.

Class 3. The Mirror is a Window: One-card readings

In this class, we plunge into the ancient art of interpretation. We learn to look AT and THROUGH the card, focusing on its symbols and its visual language to shed insight on our concerns. Is the card offering prediction? advice? a warning? We will learn to navigate the attitude of the draw to obtain the best results from a reading, using sample readings for actual questions contributed by students in the course.

Class 4. Ask a Question, Solve a Problem: Multi-card readings

In this class, we will learn to use 2- and 3-card spreads to answer more complex, concrete, pointed questions. Using real-life questions contributed by students, we will learn to observe how cards interact with one another and alter each other’s meanings. And we will also discover when – and how – to turn to tarot magic instead of tarot divination.

By the end of this course you will

• Have the tools you need to enter into a lifelong relationship with tarot;
• Understand how to relate symbolic images to your own everyday life;
• Deepen your ability to discern archetypal patterns arising in your narrative;
• Develop the capacity to embrace Fate in all its forms;
• Be able to help others gain insight using tarot.