Tarot and blindness

I love tarot and am working to understand my cards. Something I find myself struggling with is getting the deeper meanings because I don’t have access to the images on the cards and am stuck just using websites to try and understand. I would like to find a site that just describes the images rather than giving information I don’t want in an image description. I love symbology, but when I want to know what an image is, it just becomes cofusing and distracting. Because then I can’t come to my own conclusions about the symbols. The action suggestions are usually not helpful as many of them assume everyone has the resources to be able to use these actions. I don’t always want someone to tell me what my cards mean, I just want to figure it out for myself. Does anyone have an idea on how I might be able to find info on the images only? I got out of practice as I think I’ve gotten as far as I can with the generic meanings from these sites. Thanks for reading and for any suggestions❣️

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Tarot is definitely a visual art @Vermilion_plus_souls, so I can imagine how you are struggling with the readings. The ultimate way to ‘read’ Tarot is to feel it anyway, so you would be suited perfectly for this if you have a way to purely visualize the images that are presented. I know there are many braille versions of the cards you can purchase, but I don’t know how the images are represented in braille, I would imagine they are lacking in the imagery descriptions you desire to make your own decisions and understandings of the meanings you pull.

One thing you can certainly do while you’re crafting a more sustainable solution would be to ask one of us here to give you a visual description only of a card although that is probably quite time consuming and arduous. Anything we can do to help you, please ask. :green_heart:

My suggestion is to (if you haven’t already) purchase the book:
“ The Pictorial Key To The Tarot: Classic Literature” https://a.co/d/7eFp585 - Written by Authur Edward Waite. It has vivid descriptions of each of the tarot cards - I’ve put one example of the DEVIL card below from an excerpt from his book:



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"…depicts a woman wearing an Egyptian headdress. The first thing which seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial connection with Temperance, and the fact that this designation has always obtained for the card offers a very obvious instance of a meaning behind meaning, which is the title in chief to consideration in respect of the Tarot as a whole.

15 The Devil. In the eighteenth century this card seems to have been rather a symbol of merely animal impudicity. Except for a fantastic headdress, the chief figure is entirely naked; it has batlike wings, and the hands and feet are represented by the claws of a bird. In the right hand there is a scepter terminating in a sigh which has been thought to represent fire. The figure as a whole is not particularly evil; it has no tail, and the commentators who have said that the claws are those of a harpy have spoken at random. There is no better ground for the alternative suggestion that they are eagle’s claws. Attached, by a cord depending from their collars, to the pedestal on which the figure is mounted, are two small demons, presumably male and female. These are tailed but not winged. Since 1856 the influence of Eliphas Levi and his doctrine of occultism has changed the face of this card, and it now appears as a pseudo-Baphometic figure with the head of a goat and a great torch between the horns; it is seated instead of erect, and in place of the generative organs there is the Hermetic caduceus. In Le Tarot Divinatoire of Papus the small demons are replaced by naked human beings, male and female, who are yoked only to each other. Thea author may be felicitated on this improved symbolism."

Also this paper I’ve linked below is excellent and has a few cards in it that are described meticulously. The article is entitled: “ Symbolism within the Tarot and Comparative Visual Analysis: A Proposed Methodology for the Study of the Tarot”
JUSTICE card is pictured below and there are others in there too.

https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/116801/Genevieve%20Alberti%20-%20Symbolism%20within%20the%20Tarot%20and%20Comparative%20Visual%20Analysis%20-%20UROP%20Paper.pdf;jsessionid=3EE8456785506BF7CE9DB3E943ED5287?sequence=1

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An image of the Justice tarot card is at the top of the page. Text reads as follows:

[The figure in the card] looks [the viewer] straight in the eyes to represent truth, honesty, and integrity. She wears a red gown which represents her passion for justice and righting the wrongs of society to ensure peace, justice, and fairness for all concerned.

Her red gown also established the power base from which we grow and develop our
truth seeking and discriminating skills. Her olive green cloak suggests that growth is an
important element for the energy of Justice. In her left hand, Justice holds the scales of equality and fairness used to weigh truth and justice. In her right hand, she holds a blue sword that points to higher truths.

The sword represents protection and defense. The purple drape behind Justice supports the idea that higher qualities back up Justice. She wears the crown of authority with its imbedded square jewel of intelligence. The white slipper from her foot that sticks out below the bottom of her robe, telling us
that purity of judgment is the basis of understanding true justice. The square brooch on the green cape is a symbol of wholeness and of the Self. (Angel, p. 11-12)

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Hi @Vermilion_plus_souls,

Jan has kindly shared some really amazing resources- the only other thing that comes to mind is to listen along with a deck walkthrough on YouTube.

The TarotOracle channel has a neat course (for free) called the Tarot Symbolism Course. While they do talk about meanings and ways one might read the symbolism, I think they do a great breakdown of the imagery and symbols in each the cards.

Here is the first video in the series:

Again, this probably won’t be too helpful for reading the cards in the moment, but perhaps it could help to form a picture and solidify their energy within your mindspace.

Just a thought! Wishing you all the best, Vermillion- blessed be and happy readings! :sparkles:

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OH MY GOODNESS!

@Vermilion_plus_souls - have you ever been sighted? Here’s why I am asking!

My step dad is blind and has been since he was 8. My mom is an artist and she frequently creates raised and textured images for him. I just sent her a message to tell her she should make a set of tarot cards with accessible imagery and she was intrigued… but also reminded me that images mean different things to people who have been previously sighted and those that have not.

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Thank you all for the great resources and suggestions. I looked everywhere for a braille deck and the ones I did find were somewhere in the range of $50 - $70 and were out of print at that. So I bought a $13 deck off amazon and had just enough sight to magnify the card with my phone’s camera about 15x so I could at least read the text and numerals so I could number them in braille. I have very limited sight and was born this way. But I adore my homemade cards! Also, tactile art is so epic! That’s actually how I learned geometry in school. My aid would draw the shapes on foil sheets or with a wheel that made raised lines on thick paper. What I’m thinking is that I’m going to compile a bunch of sites with card meanings / images and write my own meanings and association’s for each card. But I would invest in some tactile cards for sure! Thanks again❣️

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I’ll stay on the lookout for a tarot deck for the visually-impaired! It’s something that definitely should have been created a long time ago. If I find one, I will be sure to let you know.

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