With the True Black’s figures emerging as light in the void, it would be easy to see darkness and shadow work in every card. The Devil (reversed) shows me right off that that’s not its purpose for me. Sure, it can be used that way—just like any deck—but it’s got something quite different to tell me, and that’s in a story of rebirth and recycled lives.

One of the first spiritual beliefs I articulated for myself when exploring different religions as a teen was my belief that souls can return to this world over and over. I’m not sure that reincarnation involves a unidirectional evolution or that there’s a clear purpose to the returning, such as continued enlightenment. Who can say with certainty? I’ve heard more than a few people wonder whether their beloved pet is a soulmate of some kind, such as a lover or (same-species) family member in a previous life. Maybe it’s an economy of souls that leads to reincarnation. But I’d like to think that there’s some kind of purpose to it, to everything really. And I think that’s what this deck is here to help me understand—not the full picture of spiritual belief but the past lives part of my own belief system. Why? It’s all in my interview with the deck below.

Deck interview spread with True Black Tarot — Interviewing the True Black Tarot

**What major lesson are you here to help me learn?** *The Devil (reversed)*
**Through which divine energy can we best communicate?** *Knight of Coins*
**In what area can you aid me to help others?** *The Hierophant*
**In what area could your guidance be easily misunderstood?** *10 of Coins*
**What can I do to keep our communication clear?** *8 of Swords*
**How can I use your guidance for the highest good?** *The Sun*
**How will I know when we’re ready for a new lesson?** *9 of Cups (reversed)*

The first card of this interview functions quite differently from other interviews, a sort of lesson in the anti-lesson thanks to the Devil in reverse. Instead of seeing the Devil reversed in a traditional way, such as releasing toxic bonds, I saw this card in connection with the horned Knight of Coins. Together, it seemed to be a call to connect in a different way to tarot and the energies through which I can work them, a suggestion to move beyond the predefined Western esoteric archetypes I’ve come to know and instead look to my own ancestral lineage (Northern and Western Europe) and its histories. While there aren’t great written records of Celtic mythology or anything like the Prose Edda of Norse mythology, to which I’m drawn, or epic poems of the Greeks and Romans, there is plenty of art depicting a horned god that is now often called Cernunnos (presumably an amalgamation of many different horned gods with various names).

I used to read about Celtic and Norse mythology, even as a young adult (I was a Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology nerd as a kid), but I’ve forgotten so much of it. And because of astrology and the Roman naming convention of planets and asteroids, I’ve begun to (more or less arbitrarily) connect with energies that I think of in terms of Roman deities. But why? I used to think of them as cheap knock-offs of Greek mythology. While it’s true that I’ve come to like Mars, Vulcan, and Venus more than Ares, Hephaistos, and Aphrodite, I think it’s just because of learning more, of looking at more than the superficial kids-book version of the gods. The reversed Devil and the Knight of Coins (with his book!) are a call to return to some scholarly pursuits related to a mythology that I feel in my DNA.

This structured connection to divine inspiration and knowledge is something that I can also pass along to others, as demonstrated by the Hierophant. The work that I can do with the Hierophant, as the card associated with Taurus, shouldn’t be thought of in material terms since we have the reversed Devil and the 10 of Coins with its Hierophantine elephant on the opposite side; instead, it’s about receiving knowledge and letting it be nurtured over time. So while the Taurus energy of the card and the luxury of this deck might encourage readings into finances and prosperity, that’s probably not as useful a direction. Instead, my work with this deck should be about finding wisdom that’s contained within our bodies, memories, and souls. Of course, that’s the Hermit’s (and my) goal in general, but this is definitely a different iteration. I think that here it’s about recognizing what’s contained within us that can be put to good use for us (the 8 of Swords) rather than to think about what we have that can be put into circulation to benefit our place in the external world.

For me, the big distinction from other decks is that the inner work that this deck encourages isn’t about actually doing anything in particular with the knowledge. I know! What? That feels like my whole thing. Most of my inner work readings have actionable advice about how to use shadow work or spiritual investigation to understand and change our interactions with ourselves and in the world. This deck has more of a receptive feel to it. No wonder I waited until now to buy it: COVID precautions have been great for encouraging Taurus energy (for good and bad).

That said, the knowledge has a purpose, and it’s one that is freeing and energizing, as seen in the Sun, and it’s a good reminder that that’s the end goal. When looking at ancestral and spiritual connections, there can often be a lot of baggage that is uncovered. That can be useful while doing shadow work because we need to learn how to manage that baggage. But that’s not the point here. The glowing figures of these cards are illuminating something in the dark. This knowledge, this spiritual connection should be freeing and illuminating. I love shadow work, but not everything can be shadow work. It gets to be exhausting. Spiritual connection can be so uplifting, and it’s good to remember that.

I think it may be some time before I’m done with this first lesson from the deck. The ways that it’s encouraging me to work are so different from the direction that I’ve taken my tarot work over the years. I think that it’s going to be a fairly quiet deck as well, an introvert finding its way into a meaningful but slow conversation. And that’s okay with me. I will probably need a new type of tarot reading to use it properly. The type of reading that I’m imagining is similar to my coaching through tarot in its connectedness, but that has explicitly actionable goals which are what I’m not supposed to focus on. Whatever comes, I’m excited to see what develops as I just look at and listen to this beauty. It’s probably not going to be what I expect, and that could be a nice change.

Deck Interview: True Black Tarot