A companion to the Equilibrium cards
Not a reference manual — a way to walk through the world with the cards, one at a time.
What is the Tarot
Tarot is not fortune telling. It's not about predicting the future. The Tarot is a language of change. It shows us how any living thing moves through a natural process of beginning, maturing, ending… and beginning again.
To someone illiterate, the words on this page are just random squiggles. Turning those marks into meaning seems supernatural.
But it's not magic. It's something far more mundane. It's just a way of thinking. And half of our brain is designed to do it.
The cards are pictures for a reason. They are questions, ways of seeing, patterns that can be recognised. The moment we turn the cards into words, we lock them down to a particular moment, a specific context and limit them. These patterns exist in every context, so, any use of words is temporary, any name is just a pointer, the real meaning is not in the words.
But images come with their own baggage. The Tarot has accumulated symbols from particular cultures and times too. And we have to deal with all sorts of issues around Death and The Devil. So, the Equilibrium Deck points to something underneath the symbols - to the position the cards hold in the cycle of life.
The Equilibrium cards are a teaching tool: they ground the traditional tarot in the natural world. In this course you work with both decks side by side. The Equilibrium card gives you a natural anchor, a way to link the card to something that you already know deep in your very bones, while the traditional card gives you the rich symbolism that makes the Tarot so powerful.
In this course, we are going to be taking some time to practice seeing the patterns of the cards. It takes time. No-one can tell you exactly what to do. You just have to keep looking around you until you learn to notice how the cards are just reflecting the world.
So, we do this together. You just do your best to hold the cards in your attention as much as possible throughout your day.
The things
You need a deck of Tarot cards. I recommend the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (the original, or any faithful reproduction), it's simple and easy to connect with. Don't use a cute cat tarot or something that has artistically reinterpreted the images.
Hopefully you will have a deck of Equilibrium cards.
Three days per card.
The physical practice: put the current card somewhere you'll see it, like a bedside table. Look at it in the morning. Carry the question into your day. Post thoughts and observations through your day if you want to, or just maintain your own notes. Try to write things down. It keeps the enquiry present.
Don't wait to understand before you start. You already know this pattern - you've lived through seasons, we're just developing your ability to read.
As we move through the cards we'll work with these stages bit by bit.
| Stage | Principle | Solar (1–10) | Lunar (11–20) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boundary | Seed / Magician | Harvest / Hanged Man |
| 2 | Polarity | Root / High Priestess | Falling Leaves / Death |
| 3 | Pattern | Sprout / Empress | Preparation / Temperance |
| 4 | Structure | Blossom / Emperor | Reflection / Devil |
| 5 | Permeability | Pollination / Hierophant | Transition / Tower |
| 6 | Contact | Fruit / Lovers | Hibernation / Star |
| 7 | Navigation | Bounty / Chariot | Night / Moon |
| 8 | Integration | Heat / Strength | Stillness / Sun |
| 9 | Understanding | Union / Hermit | Solitude / Judgement |
| 10 | Completion | Light / Wheel of Fortune | End / World |
Don't believe any of this. It's all made up. But that doesn't mean it's not useful. Or even perhaps a fragment of a "truth".
The relationships between cards taught in this course are not drawn from books, they are drawn from working with the cards themselves. From laying them out and seeing how they connect, tracing patterns, watching how their meanings relate to and influence each other.
There are no books recommended in this course, just your own observation and the cards themselves. The goal of the course is to give you a solid grounding that will allow you to trust your intuition. The intuition this course seeks to cultivate is not the ability to just make up random stuff - but to sense real patterns with as little prejudice as possible.
You don't need to believe in the Tarot. But use the Tarot to test what you believe. What is The Devil? Why does Death fit where it does? None of these cards are arbitrary, each has its place. The card meanings don't come from the symbols, they come from the position in the cycle. There are no bad cards. No card sits on its own.
Don't worry about not knowing. You're welcome to do whatever research you want into card meanings using a wealth of sources online. Feel free to doubt and challenge my explanations. Let the journey begin.
Let's plant the seeds.