A modern twist on a classic method of reading tarot that enables readers to consistently interpret the cards with accuracy and confidence.
The first documented evidence of tarot cards as we know them today derives from early fifteenth century Italy, where they were used in a card game known as Tarocco. Transported to France, the name of the game became Tarot. By the late eighteenth century, there is documented evidence from France that the cards were being used for divination. In the twenty-first century, various spreads, such as the three-card spread or the Celtic Cross, are familiar to most readers. However, among the very earliest methods of divining with tarot cards involved the tableau. Some of the earliest paintings depicting tarot readers show them seated at a table with the cards arranged in a tableau. The French word tableau literally means a “picture” or an “arrangement.”
The tarot tableau technique involves laying out cards in a square or rectangular shape and interpreting them in the way that one might interpret a painting. Cards are read in relationship to one another. Different tableaus utilize different numbers of cards. The tarot tableau blends traditional tarot and European cartomantic techniques, resulting in a system that aims to make tarot effective, useful, and to the point. Over the centuries, the tableau technique fell into obscurity, but it remains recognized as among the most accurate ways of reading and interpreting tarot. Although the system survived in Europe, the technique was less well known in North America, until María Alviz Hernando began teaching and demonstrating it at tarot conferences.
Tarot Tableau Revolution, the first book from author María Alviz Hernando, codirector of the World Divination Association, revives this method for a modern audience, offering tips and techniques for mastery of this system. Tarot tableau reading has become María's signature spread; her presentations and classes have been met with acclaim. Tarot Tableau Revolution covers an entire system, teaching readers to read tarot based on classic cartomantic techniques. These techniques give any reader a very strong foundation with which to work. Readers go on a journey that begins with narrative readings of three or five cards, building up to the nine-card tableau (the flagship of the system), and then expanding into the five-by-five tableau or the Tarot Grand Tableau.
No dot is left unconnected in this system! Readers learn how the cards interact on different levels: elemental, directional, relational. This way, they can easily commit to a concrete answer in their readings—the multiple elements allow them to substantiate their interpretation. The goal with the tarot tableau, as taught in Tarot Tableau Revolution, is to understand a method of reading so solid that on your worst, most uninspired day you can still offer the best guidance.
