Dream Interpretation with The Tarot

By Karen Hollis

Tapping the rich symbolism of the dream world is one of the royal roads to personal insight, healing and creativity. Combining the Tarot with dream interpretation is a powerful tool for understanding the meaning of dreams and how dream symbolism relates to waking-life.

Dream Interpretation with the Tarot, developed and taught to me by esteemed Tarot scholar and author, Rachel Pollack, may be done with any Tarot deck that you (or your client) feel in-synch with. It is important that you are familiar with the meaning of the cards, regardless of the deck chosen. When used for dream interpretation (rather than divination), The Tarot cards are used like prompts for triggering connections that help you understand what you experienced in the dream state. Dream interpretation with the Tarot can provide great insight about action you might take (or not take) to fulfill your highest good.

5 Steps for Dream Interpretation with The Tarot

Write down the dream exactly as you remember it. Divide your dream into segments that make sense to you. You might call each segment a ‘scene.’ Be brief and simple. One or two sentences are all you need.
Shuffle the Tarot deck that you prefer to use to inquire about the dream.
Pull cards for each segment of the dream as shown in the vignette.
Read the sentence aloud, and interpret the Tarot card as it relates to the sentence you wrote for each scene or segment.
Piece together the meanings of the cards to form a story of what your dream may have meant.

Tarot Dream Interpretation Vignette

Over the past few months, Anna has been experiencing a recurrent weekly dream. She is walking in a woodsy glen where she meets a tree fairy, or dryad. The dryad has rough, brownish skin, green leafy hair and glowing yellow eyes. Hints of copper shimmer within the dryad’s gossamer wings. She never speaks. When Anna looks at her, the dryad holds a black notebook up to her. She indicates that she wants Anna to take the book. Anna refuses and runs from the dryad. Being faster, the dryad always gets ahead of her. The dryad persists in attempting to get Anna to take the notebook. Just as she reaches out to take the notebook from the dryad, Anna wakes up—sweaty and heart racing.

Anna’s Dream Segments & Tarot Interpretation

Scene 1. Anna is walking in a garden.

Card Drawn: Seven of Rods

Interpretation- You are on guard and afraid that someone or something will challenge you.

Scene 2. The dryad follows Anna and tries to get her to take the black notebook.

Card Drawn: Three of Cups

Interpretation – There is information in the black notebook that will lead to some type of celebration of life!

Scene 3. The dryad continues to insist that Anna take the book.

Card Drawn: Tarot Card – The Tower

Interpretation – Anna is afraid to take the book because it will mean that her sense of herself and her life might change drastically by having it.

Scene 4. Anna keeps running from the dryad so that she does not have to accept the notebook.

Card Drawn: Tarot Card – Six of Rods

Interpretation – By refusing to accept the notebook, Anna’s life remains the same. This feels like a personal victory for some reason known only to her.

Scene 5. Anna is about to take the notebook from the dryad, she wakes-up in a cold sweat.

Card Drawn: Tarot Card – Ace of Rods

Interpretation- The dryad is offering Anna the opportunity to grow in some very personal way and that possibility is too scary to accept.

Anna and I reviewed each card she pulled as a part of her Dream Interpretation with Tarot session. I asked her questions to help her relate the Tarot Cards drawn with the dream imagery and circumstances occurring in her life. The intention here is to draw out of the client that which her subconscious mind already knows but her conscious mind is “guarding.” Some of the questions I asked Anna:

Why do you feel challenged at this time, and needing to fight back?

There seems to be so much in life to “take care of”—children, family, finances. It is a constant challenge for me. Even celebrations or moments of celebration have been lost in the shadow of so many bigger issues.

Are you fearful of your own success in your own right as a person and a writer?

Fearful is, perhaps, too strong of a word. Apprehensive may be better. With apprehension, there is uncertainty and a questioning of confidence. And it is apprehension about how to make things work or fall into place so that all things important to me remain in focus. Going back to feeling challenged, everything seems to be important!

How would this “blow up” your sense of who you – the important roles you have in life, wife, mother and so forth– if you were to focus on the writing you want to do?

I’m afraid to take the book because it represents change and I can’t tell what kind of change, which leaves me unable to prepare for it. And this means preparing my family. At first look, I thought all of this meant if I take that black notebook and focus on that part of myself, I’m likely to blow-up! (laughs) But we have this other card about celebration that is matched with when the dryad first offers this book to me. Maybe taking responsibility for the notebook is what leads to celebration. That not taking book is what is causing the upheaval!

So how is refusing to take the book a personal victory?

On the surface, the victory is that I remain in command or control. Not much changes. As I look at this card, I’m drawn to the character alongside the horseman. The horseman is not alone in his victory, whatever it is. He has a supporter. This reminds me to consider who supports me in my life and to talk to them about challenges I’m experiencing and changes I want to make.

Are you afraid of growing and becoming who you really are?

This Ace of Rods seems a very positive image to me. I am reminded to take up my rod and go forth with courage, even when I don’t know the territory into which I am traveling. In this case, that’s the black notebook. It’s a mystery. But I don’t have to solve the mystery on my own and I can be in command of how the book is written. Things will be okay.

Anna continues to work with this dream by dialoguing with the dryad. In subsequent sessions, we use the Tarot to interpret what different aspects of the dream represent, such as the dryad. The Tarot offers limitless possibilities as tool for dream interpretation.

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Connect with Karen Hollis at http://readingsbykaren.com

Illustrations of the Hanson-Roberts Tarot deck reproduced by permission of U. S. Games Systems, Inc., Stanford, CT 06092 USA.