Welcome to the Matrix Tarot

A thought struck me while watching 'The Matrix' trilogy, that many of the characters and events in the films were not just suited for the various archetypes of the Tarot, but damn near perfect for them. So I decided to start working on the images and characters that have created this deck. As seems to be the usual case, I've got as far as the Major Arcana, but I promise you I am working on the rest of the deck! I'll add more cards as I find the right events and characters. I hope you enjoy this version of the Tarot, and I welcome any constructive comments about it.

Hopefully I should not have to say that the images are not mine but the property of the people who made the Matrix. So I cannot grant any right to anyone to use the images. Frankly I'd rather you didn't anyway, and certainly not without crediting the creators of the Matrix and/or me. If you do own the images on this site and my use of them offends you, please contact me and I'll remove them. You can contact me at peregrine @ madasafish . com

   
 

Reading the Cards

If you are new to Tarot you may be wondering what you actually do with the cards. Well, the best place to find out is by reading some of the books I recommend below. However, a quick explaination never hurts.

Tarot cards are the occult equivalent of an adjustable spanner, they are a tool rather than some way to bind people's future. They show only the shadow of what might come to pass if the questioner keeps travelling the path they have started on. Everything can be changed about the future, so you need not panic if you get a bad reading. I think of the cards as similar to the experiment you do in physics lessons with magnets. You put a piece of paper over a magnet and sprinkle iron fillings on top of it. When the iron falls you can see the lines of force around the magnet. The cards a re like the filings, they just show you where the forces in a person's life are. Change the magnet and the filings will be different. Thy reveil what is hidden, but have no efect on the patterns of force themselves.

The most important thing with a Tarot reading is what it says about the past. Many people make mistakes about the direction their life is going because they don't understand how they got to where they are. Tarot shows you the path you have travelled and can make the choices you made clearer, so as to understand where you are going. In Tarot, like in 'hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' it is the questions you ask that are important. If you don't understand the questions, how can you understand the answer?

Doing a Tarot reading is very straight forward. The questioner shuffles the deck to 'imprint their energy on it'. If you don't shuffle the deck, don't bother with the reading. How can the cards tell you anything about yourself if you havn't so much as touched them? When the questioner has shuffled the deck to their satisfaction the reader lays out the cards in a 'spread'. This pattern of card may take as few as two or three cards or be a vast spread of twenty or thiry cards. The spread itself doesn't matter, as long as the reader knows what each position means.Simply put, each position in the spread has a maening, and each card has a meaning, and by putting them together you have a reading.

   
 

Recommended Reading

For more information about Tarot cards and how to read them I'd like to recommend the following.

78 degrees of Wisdom - Rachel Pollock
Rachel is one of the best and clearest Tarot writers I have ever read. She manages to peel away all the mumbo jumbo and waffle but still delve deep into the esoteric meanings and images in the cards. Anything by her is recommended, but 78 degrees of wisdom is one of the most compleate guides I know. Recommended for both beginners and experts.

Tarot for Dummies - Amber Jayanti
I bought this for a laugh and quickly discovered it to be the equal of Rachel Pollock's 78 Degrees of Wisdom. It keeps the standard 'for dummies' style and explains Tarot from almost every angle. It talks not only about the cards and readings, but how to become a professional reader and some of the history of Tarot. There is not so much here for the advanced student (although even the expert will find it useful) but it is a brilliant beginner's guide.

The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volumes 1-3 - Stuart Kaplan
These weighty tomes are essential for any collector of Tarot, and wonderful books to look through for the enthusiast. Stuart Kaplan is one of the foremost collectors of Tarot and also one of the largest producers of decks at US Games Systems. Volume 1 of his encyclopedia details the origins and history of the cards. Volume 2 talks about the old pre-1920 sets, dating back to the Visconti/Sforza decks of the fifteenth centuary. The final volume deals with the modern decks, but it now rather outdated as it was published some time ago. Since the publication of volume 3 there are easily enoguh tnew decks to fill a fourth volume, which I eagerly hope we will one day see.

   
 

Links

Here are a few useful links on the web to do with Tarot and The Matrix. I've not included any 'teach youself Tarot' sites as I don't really beleive that any 'ten day course for $29.99' can do you any good at all. Read some of the books recommended above, and find someone who know the Tarot to set you on the right path for your own studies. Learning to read Tarot is about relating the cards to their positions and each other. Learning the meanings by rote will not make you a reader. In fact, to my mind there is no way to compleately understand the Tarot. You will always meet someone, see a new deck or find something in a reading that will teach you something new.

Matrix Links

 


T arot links

US Games Systems
One of the foremost producers of Tarot Decks in the world.
Also the place to contact Mr Stuart Kaplan who is the chairman.

Llewellyn
Another large Tarot producer and retailer

Lo Scarabeo
An Italian Tarot producer



Tarot for Dummies
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764553615.html

Aeclectic Tarot - good card listing and detail
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/

Salem Tarot, cute witches tarot pages
http://www.salemtarot.com/

American Tarot Association
http://www.ata-tarot.com/

Byzant Tarot - lots of extras on Quabbalah
http://www.byzant.com/tarot/


Tarot Garden - not bad card listing includes small press cards
http://www.tarotgarden.com/index.html

Wicce's Tarot page - useful for lots of other tarot stuff and many reveiws (to sell you stuff)
http://www.wicce.com/

The 80's Tarot
http://www.notsoswift.com/amindandacard/80starot/

Abraxas Tarot - lots of interesting articles
http://www.tarot-decks.com/

The Hermitage - Tarot history site
http://www.tarothermit.com/

Card Games - detail on Tarot games
http://www.pagat.com/tarot/