Colour and the Tarot with Elizabeth Harper

Today, I welcome a very special guest to the Biddy Tarot community – Elizabeth Harper from Sealed with Love. Elizabeth is just radiant! She's a clairvoyant who specialised in colour. She creates beautiful soul/aura portraits (click here to see the portrait she created for me), intuitively connects with crystals and, of course, reads the Tarot!

When I learned about Elizabeth's unique gifts and talents, I just had to have her on the blog! So today, in a special video guest post, Elizabeth shares:

• • How she personally works with the Tarot (I love learning about other Tarot readers' styles!)
  • How to integrate colour into your Tarot readings
  • Her techniques for reading the energy of the Tarot cards
  • How to use crystals to clear and cleanse your deck

Watch her video post right here:

http://youtu.be/gbTSTblGM5I

Video Transcript

Welcome. My name is Elizabeth Harper and my website is www.sealedwithlove.com.

I have been invited by Brigit from biddytarot.com to share some insights on Tarot – how I read the Tarot – how I started with Tarot – and maybe a little bit about the colour within Tarot, and how that helps me to decipher the information that is coming from a particular reading.

I am going to start first by sharing with you my experience of the Tarot and reading Tarot cards.

I got my first deck when I was 11 years old. My mother – bless her – was psychic so she was already in tune with the psychic and intuitive vibrations. But she was kind of forward thinking and, for me….

She was also a yoga teacher – she was one of the pioneers of yoga in Britain during the ‘50s, ‘60s, 70’s when it was really at its advent. So I had a wonderful upbringing from that perspective. I had somebody who was like a best friend and a soul mate who understood when I was seeing energy, seeing colours, seeing spirits etc.

So it was kind of a natural thing to get some Tarot cards. She bought me my first deck of Tarot cards when I was 11 years old, and I still have that deck of Tarot cards. And, of course, they are the Rider-Waite deck. At that time I am sure there were many other Tarot decks available, but this was sort of the staple Tarot deck – the Rider-Waite.

And at that age, 11 years old, I wrote on them. I wrote on the top of the card and on the bottom of the card – if it was a Reversed or if it was an Upright. I just wrote one word to give me an idea – to trigger any ideas that might come to me.

Just one thing with Tarot cards, they are often big cards. I have many different huge decks – this is another huge deck. I always shuffle my cards from top to bottom, instead of from side-to-side. I find side-to-side doesn’t work for me particularly.

It is not that I have small hands, but I find it much easier to work with the cards this way. I also like to shuffle my cards to shift the energy. It is like clapping. When you clap as an audience when you are going to listen to a speaker or see someone on a stage – when you clap, you are shifting the energy in that room and it is cleansing the energy. And I feel that when you shuffle the cards you are doing the same thing.

You are also working with your hand Chakras – your hand energy. That hand energy comes from your heart, and you are linking with whatever it is that you are asking (whatever your intention is) in your heart, into those cards.

They are really just a tool – a method – to connect with your own knowledge – with your own wisdom.

So this was my first Tarot deck. I didn’t buy any Tarot decks until I was in my 30s. I met someone who had gobs of Tarot decks – lots of them. And so I thought, ‘Great! I will buy lots as well.’

And I must have had about 50 different Tarot decks, and I left them all behind in England, and then I bought more when I came to the United States.

This is my favourite Tarot deck. This is the Voyager deck. One of the reasons I like this particular deck is because it is visual.

I have other decks that you may also have. This one is very popular – it is the Thoth deck, but it has some gruesome images in this particular deck. And I think that when you are reading this sometimes, you probably have to know what the meanings of the cards are to give you a little bit more of a wider perspective. Whereas with this deck, which is more intuitive – to me it is more intuitive – it has a collage of images on each of the cards, and as a consequenceof that, you are not necessarily focussed on what the card means. You are connecting more with an image that most draws your attention, and I like that.

So, let’s just take a card here for the moment, with an intention of: What do we need to know now? What do we need to know at this moment?

[00:05:00]

I would like you to look at the card and see what image most attracts you at this moment.

Then ask yourself: What does that mean? What does that mean for me?

And then see what comes up.

Take a look at this card and see what image you are most attracted to.

It could be a colour that you are most attracted to.

I tend to be attracted to colours, you may be different.

Or is there is just an energy of something that is drawing your attention to a particular area of that card? Where are you drawn to?

And then, again, ask yourself: What does that mean for me?

And see what comes to you.

So, this is the Four of Worlds. The Four of Worldsis the Four of Pentacles. So it says Commencement here.

When I look at this particular card, I am looking at – there are so many different images – but I am particularly looking at the planets here and the colour of the planets. It looks like Jupiter. And this green piece of what looks like aloe that is coming up here.

So, even though the card is called Commencement, and it is the Four of Pentacles, and that kind of starting work and gathering things up energy, I feel with this, because I am looking at the planets, and I am looking at the green – there is some

connection with abundance for me. It feels like there is some connection with abundance, and growth – and with healing as well with the aloe.

Because of that green, it is linking with the Heart Chakras as well.

If you know about the Chakras, green is the Heart energy. So I feel as if – with that beige of the planet….

Beige is a little bit – it is not that it is a boring colour – but it is almost a little bit bland. So it is like a board that is waiting for something to be posted on it. And with the green there, it is like maybe the growth of an idea. And then that idea then will go onto that planetary kind of colour – it will go onto the board – and then that idea can flourish.

That is what I see in that particular card.

I wonder what you see.

When you have worked out what that is, do leave a comment below and let me know what you see in that card. What came up for you?

Another deck that I use is from Aura-Soma. Aura-Soma is specifically colour. They have a Tarot deck as well, and I have never gotten on with that particular Tarot deck.   I think that we resonate with certain decks at certain times of our lives.

This one isn’t a Tarot deck but the Aura-Soma company relate the bottles – the whole range of bottles – to the Tarot to the bottles – and to an extended Tarot as well, because they have 107 or 108 bottles.

But what I would like you to do, is just see if you can get a sense of what that particular card means.

When you look at it with your experience and your knowledge of colour, what do you think that card means – the yellow and the red?

Think of it from a perspective of your Chakras, and then what red and yellow might mean?

Think of it from a perspective of nature, and what is red and yellow in nature?

And then think of from a perspective of what you enjoy to wear. What do you like to wear? Do you like to wear yellow? Do you like to wear red? If so, what does that mean to you when you wear those colours?

This particular card in Aura-Soma is the Hierophant, so it is the Number Five card. So you can relate the Hierophant’s qualities with this energy.

Yellow is the colour of the sun. It is the colour of your Solar Plexus. It is the colour of power. When you wear yellow, everybody sees you. You are

completely visible. If you are in a yellow car – people always spot yellow cars. You don’t necessarily see a black car, but a yellow car you definitely see.

[00:10:00]

The red is kind of “go fast” – it is moving quickly. There can be some anger in that red. The same with fear – there can be fear in that yellow. Red can be a very passionate colour.

When you bring this red and yellow together it makes orange. With the orange there is a sexual energy, there is a sensual energy, and there is a creative energy as well.

So then we have all the Chakras on the physical level – we have the Root Chakra, and the Sacral, and the Solar Plexus – and they are all physical energies.

So then we think of the Hierophant.   This is very much establishing our roots and rooting into the ground – establishing something that is traditional. Our career is in the red – our manifestation abilities – our family – the food we put on the table.

The orange that would come between there is the fun that we have – our creative pursuits – how we learn to be emotional in this lifetime and how we learn to connect to people and relationships – and how we learn to have fun with those relationships.

And then the yellow is that competitive energy and our self-esteem – our confidence – how we are seen by others. And how, again, we connect to others, but on a more powerful level.

So when we move up from this we go into the Heart, which is more of a balancing place. So, these are very physical energies. So the Hierophant then would have that kind of light of physicality about it – an about establishing your physical presence on the Earth.

When you look at a card like the Hierophant, or any card, look at the colours in that card and see how they relate to nature, how they relate to the Chakras, how they relate to you and your life and your likes and dislikes, how they relate to your food and what tastes come up from that food. For example, if you see something that is kind of brown coloured, would that relate to curry? Would it be spicy and hot?

That kind of thing – it is just trying to find what the interpretation is, for that particular card, through the energy of colour. Hopefully that makes sense.

If you don’t know about the Chakras you can read up about them. Red is the Root Chakra, it is linking you into the Earth. Violet is the Crown Chakra and it is connecting you to the heavens.

They are the colours of the rainbow.

But one thing you may not be aware of is that the Chakras move in years. They move in time. The Root Chakra – that red energy – is 0 to 7 years old. You can get an idea then of what that red energy means – what the Root Chakra means when it is 0 to 7 years old on the planet – on the Earth. You can think about what is happening to you at that time. You are learning to walk, you are learning to talk, you are learning to connect, and you are learning to play.

Then the Sacral Centre is, again, 7 to 14. The Solar Plexus is 14 to 21.

So you are kind of getting a pattern of energy. And this again comes up in the colours that you read in the Tarot cards – you can link it to those times as well.

So with the one card you are looking at the one image and the one colour, but then it becomes a little bit more of a story when you are connecting more cards together.

[00:14:00]

So we are going to look at that now. We will do a reading with three cards.

Let’s say that reading is about an Issue, an Action and an Outcome. I like that particular three card spread: Issue – Action – Outcome.

So let’s say the Issue is world peace. That is what we are going to be focussing on – world peace.

What is the Action we need to take?

And what will be the Outcome of that Action?

We will take three cards and see what comes up with our interpretation through colour.

So we have our deck of cards and I am going to just spread them out. Then I am going to focus on world peace – when are we going to have world peace?

So the Issue is – I feel like this is the card that wants to come out for the Issue.

This is the Action.

Now the Outcome – maybe I just want to move my hand over the cards and see if there is a particular card that really feels like it is hitting my hand. I feel like there is more energy over this side, so I am going to go for this one. That is what it feels like at the moment.

I am going to take those cards out, and then I am going to take a look at these cards. I am not going to read the Reverse of them, I am just going to look at the three cards and how the energy resonates from the colour perspective. What colours are moving through those cards?What you can do to begin with – if you want to – this is the Question, this is the Action, and this is the Outcome – what you can do is put your hand over the cards and just get a feeling of what colours are there.

When I feel this one, it feels really hot – that is the Issue. When I feel this one – this one feels much colder – and that is the Action. Then the Outcome feels really expansive.

There are different energies that are moving through here. The Issue with world peace and how we are going to get to world peace, there is a lot going on. There is a lot of passion that is behind it.

When I put my hand over the Action it is almost like we need to be more logical – we need to be more focused on action rather than re-action.

And then the Outcome is expansion. There is a sense of expansion with that.

So it doesn’t matter what the cards say, physically, when we turn them over – that is the sense of the energy that is coming through as I am feeling them.

When you feel cards you can rub your hands together, then shake your hands off, and then put your hand, which ever hand feels like your receiving hand, over those cards and feel the energy. See what comes to you.

Let’s turn these cards over and see what we get.

The first card is Inventor – Man of Crystals.

The second card is Disappointment – interesting!

Then the third card is Hanged Man – interesting!

When we look at those cards it would look like all is lost, wouldn’t it?

But then when we start looking at the colours – for me, when I focus on the Man of Crystals – what are you seeing?

I am seeing these crystals here – I am seeing that violet crystal that is right there. And that violet crystal is like an amethyst. Amethyst is a stone of change. It is a stone of cleansing.

So it is like with world peace, we see there is a lot going on here. This is communication. There is all kinds of stuff that is happening in this particular card, but it is: What are you drawn to?

I am drawn to the violet here. I am drawn to the blue building that is here. There is communication in that blue. The violet is the Crown Chakra – may be everybody connecting together. Then I am seeing this satellite that is right here and it is blue, and it is opening up, and it is the four directions. So with world peace in the question, that is connecting all the four corners of the Earth.

Then the Action – when you look at these glass pieces here that are all broken – it is almost like stuff has been trying to make this happen for a long time and nothing has worked. But what I see with this – I am looking at the reflection in here, and the brown that is here – and I feel almost with that brown that is there, it is moving away from a darkness, and it is getting more into this place of light – orange – it is creativity. So it is like we need to have a creative plan. We need to look at this from the perspective of a child – maybe that age of 7 to 14, when we are learning something new.

I feel as well with this that there is golden energy in it. The Action is very much about using our wisdom, and with that golden energy it is maybe linking to people’s own wisdom, but also linking to their desire to be connected through that gold through a divine belief.

[00:20:00]

So then when we come to the final card – when you look at this card – what do you see?

What is the outcome?

I see this head in the hands of this person. It is like – the Outcome – there is somebody who is going to be gentle, holding the pain. I see this beautiful – it is like a heart – and the hands are pink – and then there is a mirror reflection. And this person is actually looking in a mirror.

So even though this is the Hanged Man, and often with the Hanged Man it is about seeing things with a different perspective, but I see this as a reflection. So we are looking at ourselves.

The pink is love.

The blue in there is communication – in that particular mirror – so there is communication – it is communicating with ourselves.

And I see this little light right there that is the same as that communication satellite right there. So there is a sense that something is lighting up, and it is gold – and that gold links with this energy here.

So when we connect the dots, I noticed the violet and blue, gold, then more gold, and pink and blue here.

So this is change. This is wisdom – wisdom – love – communication.

And so those are the energies that are going to come in to help us with world peace.

See what you see in those cards. What would your answer be?

Let me know in the comments below, what your answer would be.

Something else that I do that links with colour and crystals, is that when I have my cards all kind of stacked out here – I have them all over the place in different areas in my room. I used to keep them in silk bags and wrapped in silk, but these days I put a crystal on top. And I feel that that crystal is almost like a door-keeper. It is protecting the energy of the cards. I feel that it is cleansing the energy of the cards.

And then the crystal – I am not consciously choosing that crystal. I am just asking what crystal wants to go on which deck of cards at that time.

So these cards want my big rose quartz crystal – so they need a little bit of love.

I don’t have enormous crystals on all the decks. On this deck, I have a little piece of citrine. So, again, it is which crystals feel right for that particular deck in that moment.   I don’t keep it to a routine. I just keep it to the routine of putting crystals on top of the cards. I don’t have one particular crystal for one particular deck. It is nice to stay flexible with that.

But when I am looking at the meanings of the crystals, I relate the meanings of the crystals to colour. You can look in books all about crystals and we can get lots of information that come about the qualities and the meanings for crystals, but I link the meanings of crystals more to the vibration of the colour that they are.

Let’s do one last little reading. Let me ask you which card you would like at this moment – if you would like card 1, 2 or 3 for a message for right now?

What is it you need to know?

Ask yourself that question.

Focus on that question.

I am going to take three cards, and then we are going to read those cards together.

I am going to take this card for Number 1 – this card for number 2 – let’s take that one for number 3.

Number 1: you get the Four of Cups.

In this particular deck it says Anger, but it would usually be an overflowing of emotions.

Take a look at that card and see what most attracts you at this moment and then ask yourself:   What does that mean?

How does that relate to my question?

See what comes to you.

[00:25:00]

When I look at this, I see there is a lot of red in here. But I am actually seeing more of a fuchsia colour – more of a pink colour in there. It is magenta.

Magenta comes after violet and, to me that is about rebuilding and change. If we think of the colour wheel – it starts at red and then moves around and goes to violet, and then it goes back to red again. That is what this is. There is a red energy that is in there. It is almost back to the beginning, but it is not quite there yet.

So, for me, an answer to a question, that would say: it is not quite there yet, something is still shifting, and something new is about to start, but it is not quite at that place where it is ready to start.

Just, without knowing what your question is, because when you have a question you have something to focus on. But, for me, when I am looking at that, I am seeing that kind of magenta colour. And sometimes that is about putting all your ducks in a row as well – getting everything kind of organised and sorted out. Again, it is like re-building. It is putting all the bricks in the right place, because something has fallen down and now it is being rebuilt.

Number 2 – let’s look at your card. Take a look at that. 

See if there is anything that you are most attracted to at this moment – if there is a colour that you are most attracted to or an image, and then ask yourself: What does that mean?

Then ask yourself: How does that have relevance to my question?

What does it mean in regards to my question?

When you ask a question, then the answer can pop into your head, provided you have an empty, blank space for it to come in to. It is a like bit like Google. You put a question into Google and then millions of answers come up.

So sometimes it is good to have a specific question, because then when you are focused on that question, you get a more focused answer.

So when I am looking at this, I kind of see the planet. It is it is the Eight of Worlds so there are going to be lots of planets in there. But I am seeing this little orange one right there, and I am feeling almost as if it is very small. It is almost like it is not noticed or it is not noticeable – it can’t be seen amidst all the other ones, but it is slightly coming out.

I feel that if this was an answer to a question, for me – the title of the card is Change – I feel almost as if I am beginning to see something that I didn’t notice before. It is coming into view, and I am realising that that is what I need to focus on. That is what I need to – to get everything else out of the way – all these other bits and pieces – I need to get those out of the way – I need to focus on that one thing – on that one planet – on that one goal – on the one mission. Then when I do that I can get a path that will move me towards it.

Orange in there is the colour of creativity. Creativity can come up when you need a solution to a question – when you need the answer but it needs to be a creative solution. So that orange energy helps you with that.

So let’s now see what we get for Number 3 – your card – take a look at that, and again, what do you see?

What are you most attracted to?

And is there a colour you are most attracted to as well?

And then ask yourself: What does that mean?

And then ask yourself: How does that relate to my question?

This is the Death card, so it is a major card. You probably already have preconceived ideas about what that means for you.

When I look at this card I actually see two things. The first one is this little tiny star up here. And then I see down here there is a reflection of white on the shroud. And I feel almost as if this little star reflecting on there is saying, “There is hope and everything is a reflection of who you are.”

[00:30:00]

If you think something is dead, then it is. If you think something is transformed, then it is.

And there is a sense of this, that there are reflections all around you. But I get this feeling that there is a light that is shining and you may be focusing on something that has been lost. But this is saying there is a new light that is coming, and that new light is already shining, and it is reflecting off of you, you just have to see it.

It is a little bit like that second card, again, of having a focus and seeing something for the first time.

I feel that this is – you know with the stars sometimes they are not going to come out until it is dark. You don’t see them until it is dark. So this is something you haven’t been able to see until you go through that huge change – that huge shift -and then you see it.

It is white, and white is the colour of a new beginning – to me. It is like a whiteboard, so you are wiping the slate clean.

Sometimes for me white is cloudy skies. It could be the snow. I often relate the colours to things in nature, and to the elements as well.

This is a good way to understand colour, and a way to interpret it for yourself, because there is a whole host of colours in our natural environment and you can interpret those colours and that will help you to interpret the Tarot deck as well.

I hope this has made sense for you. I hope it has helped you.

Do check out my website www.sealedwithlove.com and subscribe to my love letter and grab your free colour kit at www.bit.ly/colorkit

Let me know below in the comments if this has helped you to read Tarot cards – maybe in a different way. You may be extremely experienced and this may be something that is irritating for you. But it might not be. It might be something that really adds to your readings and just gives a different flavour, let’s say, to a recipe that is already wonderful for you.

Sending you lots of colouricious blessings.

Bye.

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