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Quantum Tarot 2.0 PDF
Quantum Tarot 2.0 PDF
Interpretation
The Magician manipulates and formulates energy, making the invisible visible. He has the ability to
make something out of nothing – to act creatively – which can seem magical from the outside. He
brings consciousness and illumination to mystery, acting as a bridge between the inchoate sea of the
unconscious, and material reality. Whenever we create anything we invoke the Magician archetype.
Magician Questions: What is forming in your life? What are you making a reality? What reality are
you making?
Magician Things to Do: Keep a diary. Cook a meal. Close the curtains, lock the doors and dance to
your favourite music. Give someone a gift that you
Interpretation
The High Priestess embodies this sense of unknowable mystery. She represents all that is secret or
invisible in our lives. Like the weak force, which is an invisible process of change, the wisdom of
the High Priestess operates behind the scenes, often unconsciously. She requires that we gain
knowledge and wisdom from self-examination that goes beyond rational thought and objective
measurement.
High Priestess Questions: What am I hiding? What are my deepest secrets? What do I need to
examine more deeply?
High Priestess Things to Do: Get a therapist! Keep a dream diary. Read the tarot. Meditate.
III The Empress - Gravity
Interpretation
On a symbolic level the Empress is the female creative principle, the power of attraction that draws
humans together in both the literal and figurative act of creation. The force of sexual attraction is
the fundamental human drive towards reproduction. The Empress is often shown as a pregnant
woman, carrying the new life that has been created. This may signify anything in our lives that
needs to be nurtured towards maturity.
Empress Questions: Who or what needs mothering? Can you accept care and nurturing from
another? Who or what are you attracted to?
Empress Things To Do: Cultivate your garden. Treat yourself to something luxurious. Indulge in a
sexual fantasy.
Interpretation
The Emperor, like the strong force, holds things together into an ordered, functioning whole. He
represents leadership and authority, and often symbolises the figures that play this roles in our lives.
Anyone from daddy to the boss. Within the psyche, the Emperor represents conscious will – what
Freudians call the superego. Our relationship to our inner “boss” is often (painfully!) mirrored in
encounters with external authority figures.
Emperor Questions: Who’s in charge in your life? How do you deal with authority? What do you
need to keep together?
Emperor Things to Do: Organise a social gathering. Take charge of your finances. Do something
you’ve been putting off forever.
Interpretation
The Hierophant represents spiritual tradition and in older decks is portrayed as the Pope. Isaac
Newton plays this role in the Quantum Tarot, for his theories represent the bedrock of tradition upon
which all the 20th and 21st century physicists have built.
The Hierophant is about acknowledging and respecting tradition. His authority may be less earthly
than that of the Emperor but is no less powerful. He has behind him many generations of
accumulated wisdom. He offers us a firm foundation for our endeavours – we just have to be careful
that this firmness and solidity does not become too rigid and intransigent.
Hierophant Questions: Who are your ancestors? What is your tradition? Are you building upon firm
foundations? What old habits have you got stuck in?
Hierophant Things to Do: Research your family tree. Think about all the influences of your
formative years; books, pop songs, TV, films, friends, social groups and activities etc – what do they
have in common with your life now? Attend a spiritual or religious ritual, even if you’re not a
believer.
Interpretation
Like a planet and its satellite, or two stars in a binary system, the relationship of two lovers is an
ongoing dance of emotional, physical and spiritual attraction. The Lovers card is a sign of being
drawn to something, or someone, very powerfully.
Lovers Questions: What is exerting a gravitational pull on you? What choice are you being faced
with? What is the power balance in your primary relationship?
Lovers Things to Do: Buy flowers for your loved one (duh!). Watch a romantic movie and cry. Tell
the people you love that you love them. Often.
Interpretation
The Chariot traditionally shows a man struggling to control the two horses driving his chariot. It's
about the exercise of personal will, often a struggle to master our contradictory natures. When the
Chariot shows up in a reading it indicates that we have achieved a certain level of hard-won
maturity.
Chariot Questions: What inner conflicts do you need to control? In what area of your life do you
need to exercise more willpower? Do you still have some growing up to do? Where have you
displayed increasing maturity?
Chariot Things to Do: Create a positive habit (e.g. exercise) and stick to it! Don't lash out verbally
until you've counted to 10. When someone presses your buttons wait 24 hours before responding.
Drive carefully!
Interpretation
The bending of space-time around massive objects can be compared to the subtle power of the
Strength card. Often shown as a woman gently subduing a lion, this card does not signify a display
of brute strength but rather the quiet, persistent, loving application of personal power. The secret of
Strength is compassion; the woman bends to the lion's nature but does not allow it to overpower her.
The lion, in it's turn, responds to her gentle but unflinching loving-kindness by allowing itself to be
approached and subdued.
Strength Questions: Are you displaying loving compassion to others right now? To yourself? What
bestial behaviour have you forgiven? Can you transform destructive emotions into thankfulness and
love?
Strength Things to Do: Try to understand someone you are angry with. Forgive yourself for
something bad that you've done. If you get angry, accept the positive nature of that emotion rather
than feeling guilty. Stroke a cat.
Interpretation
The Quantum Hermit represents this idea of a hidden world just waiting for discovery. He shines his
light into mysterious dark corners and leads us far away from the crowds into reflection and
contemplation. He may signal a physical withdrawal from the world or a more subtle realigning of
attention away from the everyday into the deeper mysteries of the inner universe.
Hermit Questions: Where do you need to refocus your attention? Are you attending to your inner
light? Are you happy to be alone? What mysterious territory are you drawn to explore?
Hermit Things to Do: Go on a retreat. Stay in bed. Meditate. Research or discover a subject by
yourself. Go for a walk alone.
Interpretation
They say that successful people create their own luck. Even if we feel cursed by bad circumstances,
we still have choices. Why not step off the wheel altogether, stop being a victim of chance, spun
round by external circumstances? It is up to us to determine whether to approach life as a victim of
chance, spun round by the wheel like a sock in a washing machine, or to take a big leap of
awareness and get off the merry-go-round.
Wheel Questions: Where are you up? And where are you down? Do you fear that any success will
be followed by failure? Or do you always believe that “the sun’ll come out tomorrow”? Can you
take a big step back and look at how you are being churned around?
Wheel Things to Do: Visit a funfair. Play the stock market (no, actually, don’t!). Play a computer
game. Look at where you’ve been lucky in your life and count your blessings.
Interpretation
Planck’s constant helped to make sense of something that otherwise seem paradoxical. Similarly,
the Justice card brings truth and clarity to the contradictory or confusing. It shines the cool light of
objective truth, a truth that may not always be palatable. In a reading, the Justice card asks us to
take a big step back and look at ourselves honestly and dispassionately.
Justice Questions: Can you open your eyes and see what’s really going on? What is the truth of your
situation? What needs re-balancing? Where do you need an objective opinion?
Justice Things to Do: Hire a lawyer. Write a will. Get a second opinion. Don’t ask your friends, get
someone you don’t know. Be honest with yourself. Forgive yourself. Forgive others.
Interpretation
The uncertainty principle, like the Hanged Man, turns everything upside-down. Physicists in the
early 20th century, trained to think in terms of precision and exactitude, were understandably
resistant to the idea that the stuff of our universe is, at a fundamental level, imprecise and inexact.
The Hanged Man card represents a state of existential confusion, where our old ways of thinking
and being don’t work anymore. The image of a man dangling (apparently willingly) from his ankle
is a resonant and complex one; the essential message is that something must be willingly
relinquished in order to gain something greater. It symbolises the difficult moment when the old has
been sacrificed but the new has yet to be born.
Hanged Man Questions: What has been turned upside-down? What strategy has stopped working?
What habit or way of thinking do you need to let go of? What are you uncertain of? What are you
getting hung up on?
Hanged Man Things to Do: Absolutely nothing. Meditate. Get a tarot reading. Give something
away.
Interpretation
As human beings we are constantly changing and adapting to our environments, but paradoxically
we also resist change because we find it fearful. Even if the change is clearly for the better it often
comes with a certain amount of resistance. Perhaps because change is essentially a form of death
and it reminds us of our own mortality. The Death card requires us to let go and allow the change to
happen. It may be something real and tangible, or it may simply be an outworn idea of ourselves.
The fear, once faced, releases us to the process of change and we can transform like the particles
that compose our bodies into pure energy, into something completely new.
Death Questions: What do you need to let go of? What is changing? What is dying? What are you
resisting? What are you most afraid of?
Death Things to Do: Mourn. Clear our some stuff. Do something that scares you. Sit in the dark.
Interpretation
Supersymmetry was first developed as a way of blending two incompatible theories; Einstein’s
relativistic description of gravity and quantum mechanics. The Temperance card represents this
symbolically as the idea of blending different, often contradictory, elements. Traditional
Temperance cards depict an angel pouring liquid from one cup to another, representing the refining
process crucial to our growth. We continually mix, blend, separate and re-blend the different parts
of ourselves, and when Temperance appears, it reminds us that we are in a particularly fluid stage of
our personal evolution.
Temperance Questions: Are you happy with the balance of your life? What is the quality of your
current “blend”? What new element needs to be included? What needs to be drained away?
Temperance Things to Do: Make bread. Make a cocktail. Read a self-help book. Reassess your
priorities.
Interpretation
The Devil represents this kind of powerful, irresistible force that sucks us in. We may be seduced by
the power of an individual or an idea, such as fame or wealth. Once trapped, we realise we have
paid for our gains with our freedom – but then of course it is too late. The Devil symbolises
relationships of all kinds that involve subjugation. The key to this card is imbalance of power;
wherever we believe we are in someone else’s power, the Devil is present. Underneath the
imbalance, the Devil indicates an immense reservoir of energy that has got stuck. Our challenge is
to set it free.
Devil Questions: Who or what are you in thrall to? What is sucking away your energy? Where are
you not free? Where do you feel powerless?
Devil Things to Do: Examine your addictions (however trivial they seem). Consider what you
irrationally desire. Look at the things (or people) that repeatedly drain your energy.
Interpretation
The Tower is a challenging card, but it is not negative and not to be feared. After the shock of being
thrown out of our comfort zone we often realise how our old ways of thinking and being are
restricting us, and we wake up to the positive side of the Tower’s message – freedom. The lightning
strike is also the flash of illumination or inspiration, where we are filled with a sudden and
unexpected understanding, an experience of total insight or even enlightenment.
Tower Questions: What comfort zone do you need to escape from? What shock have you suffered?
What illumination have you gained? What “eureka moment” have you experienced?
Tower Things to Do: Brainstorm. Break a habit. Challenge your thinking (or get someone to do it
for you!). Do something you’ve never done before, even (in fact especially) if you think you’ll hate
it.
XVII The Star - String Theory
Interpretation
The Star card represents hope and possibility. Traditionally, the Star card depicts a naked woman
pouring water from a jug, surrounded by stars. This is a card of spiritual awakening, of expanded
consciousness, of vision. We become aware of the boundless energy of the universe; how it flows
through everything, including us. The Star takes us to a place of no limits, where anything and
everything is possible. This is a time to allow every possibility to flow through us without
censorship or judgement.
Star Questions: What new possibilities are on the horizon? Are you allowing yourself to feel hope?
Do you need to let go of limited thinking? What would you do if anything was possible?
Star Things to Do: Create a Mindmap. Daydream. Do something you’ve never done before. Make a
list of all the impossible things you’d like to do.
Interpretation
The Moon represents this idea that there is much more to the world than we are usually aware of.
These inaccessible extra dimensions are like the extra dimensions of our lives; hints, hunches,
movements out of the corners of our eye. The Moon represents a fearful mystery to those who like
everything to be explained. To the more intuitively or psychically-minded, this sense of something
extra, something more than we can detect with our everyday, physical senses, is no surprise. The
Moon shows up when the indefinable starts demanding attention in our consciousness – and to the
conscious mind this can seem like a threat.
Moon Questions: What are you struggling to explain? What makes you irrationally afraid? What
intuition is rising into your conscious mind? What strange thing are you desperately trying to
ignore?
Moon Things to Do: Get a tarot reading. Make a note of your dreams. Take notice of your
“hunches.” Go with your gut, even if it seems completely illogical.
Interpretation
the Sun card’s function in unifying the different aspects of our personalities. When the Sun appears
in a reading it shows that we have reached a level of awareness when all of our different inner
voices are singing in harmony. We are one step closer to expressing our true selves, and our inner
light is beginning to shine. People are drawn to us because we radiate a quiet warmth and power, a
strength that is drawn from our increased connection to our inner wisdom.
Sun Questions: What are you becoming conscious of? What areas of your life are coming together?
How is your awareness expanding? Who is being drawn to your inner radiance?
Sun Things to Do: Express your ideas to others. Sing. Look at yourself naked in the mirror (you can
sing at the same time too!). Be true to yourself.
Interpretation
The Judgement card throws down this same kind of mind-expanding challenge. It represents a time
when we must grow in awareness, awaken to a new level of reality. Sometimes this may feel like a
rude and difficult awakening, as the light of understanding may be blinding. We may be pushed way
outside our comfort zone, but Judgement represents a great opportunity, a time of potential where
we can awaken to the beauty and wholeness of our true selves.
Judgement Questions: What lost part of you has been reborn What wake-up call have you received?
How are you being challenged to grow?
Judgement Things to Do: Start believing again in your lost dreams. Take a step outside your
comfort zone. Become aware of what you have previously resisted or ignored. Do something you
believe you cannot do.
Interpretation
The World dancer demonstrates the ability to live happily in material reality while still being aware
of the unseen and unbounded levels of being. The World brings us back full circle to the innocence
of the Fool, but now the innocence is consciously chosen and embraced.
World Questions: In what area of life have you come full circle? What have you completed? Are
you ready to dance?
World Things to Do: Celebrate the completion of a project. Share your wisdom. Start a new cycle.
Ace of Wands
Interpretation
The Ace of Wands expresses the fiery energy of their suit through an upsurge of physical, spiritual
or sexual force. This is Ace-ness in its most basic form - an explosion of sheer energy and life.
6 of Wands - Star
Interpretation
Stars evolve from clouds of dust and gas that condense until nuclear fusion ignites them at the core.
Once the fusion process is stable, the star will continue to shine for billions of years. The birth of a
star is a long process that leads to an apparently sudden success – the star begins to shine. The 6 of
Wands symbolises this moment of standing out, but it also reminds us of the long period of work
and dedication that has gone into our success. The 6 of Wands reminds us to enjoy our victories.
Although the moment of glory may pass, the success is lasting as it leaves in its wake increased
confidence and self-belief.
8 of Wands - Supernova
Interpretation
When a very large star reaches the end of its life, it becomes a supernova. The star swells up while
its core shrinks, heats up exponentially and explodes, flinging layers of material far out into space.
The combustible energy of the supernova is mirrored in the fiery intensity of the 8 of Wands. This
card is the apotheosis of Wands energy; you are filled to bursting with fire and ready to launch. The
eights’ lesson of mastery lies in channelling and focussing this surge of energy into creative,
productive endeavours. Enjoy it while it lasts!
9 of Wands - Pulsar
Interpretation
A pulsar is a type of neutron star that emits radio waves at a very precise rate (Neutron stars are
small, dense remnants of very large stars). Pulsars are regular and predictable, and this sense of an
endless routine reflects one aspect of the 9 of Wands – burnout. If you do the same thing over and
over for long enough, the structure of routine becomes oppressive and burdensome. Here, the
intensity of wands, turned up to full beam by the energy of the nine, is just too much of a good
thing. The 9 of Wands is the card of the old soldier who has been battling for so long he has
forgotten how to stop. The 9 of Wands shows us that we have the staying power to keep going and
endure, but also reminds us that it may be time to call a halt and lay down our arms.
Ace of Cups
Interpretation
The Ace of Cups symbolises the birth of a new emotion, an opening of the heart. Its flowing, watery
imagery shows the boundless nature of pure compassion.
Ace of Swords
Interpretation
The Ace of Swords represents the eureka moment when an idea emerges into consciousness. Its
cutting edge expresses the sharpness and focus of a new level of awareness.
4 of Swords - Neutrinos
Interpretation
Neutrinos are particles with little mass and no electrical charge that rarely interact with other
particles. In fact, they pass through the Earth all the time without doing anything! The un-reactive,
laid-back neutrino characterises the restful quality of the 4 of Swords. Here, the stable energy of the
four has a quieting effect upon the mental energy of Swords. This is a time for reflection and
recuperation. Time alone spent in quiet contemplation and meditation will be beneficial, but this is
not a recommendation to slump down in front of daytime TV!
Ace of Pentacles
Interpretation
The Ace of Pentacles indicates the beginning of a new project in the physical, material world. The
single Pentacle is the first building block, the first step along the road to manifesting something in
reality.
2 of Pentacles - Spin
Interpretation
Spin is a quality of subatomic particles and forms part of quantum theory. The particles do not
literally spin round, but they do have a measurable angular momentum. The strange behaviour of
subatomic particles in quantum theory is reflected in the up-and-down quality of the 2 of Pentacles.
Here, the energy of the twos expresses in a kind of will-they-won’t-they sense of indecision. Things
could go either way. In the physical world of pentacles, the duality is acted out literally – we are
faced with a concrete choice, or we are “juggling” options. There is a sense that everything is still
up in the air and the outcome is far from certain.
3 of Pentacles - Atomic structure
Interpretation
An atom is not a undifferentiated lump of matter but a grouping together of different subatomic
particles; a nucleus of protons and neutrons (which are themselves made up of quarks), orbited by
one or more electrons. The simple, elegant, fundamental structure of the atom can teach us much
about building a solid and suitable foundation for our creative endeavours. The 3 of Pentacles takes
the exciting vision of the 3 of Wands, makes a concrete plan, and sets about putting that plan to
work.
5 of Pentacles - Leptons
Interpretation
There are six varieties of lepton. The commonest is the electron, one of the fundamental particles
within an atom. Another two varieties of lepton, the muon and tau, are unstable and quickly decay
into other particles. The remaining three, all varieties of neutrino, are very stable but almost
massless (see the 4 of Swords). Neutrinos float freely around the universe, but electrons tend to be
bound into atomic nuclei. This contrast between freedom and limitation expresses the fives’ energy
of conflict in Pentacles. Here the battle is against physical reality itself. This is often experienced as
a sense of lack or scarcity – traditional decks often show beggars in the snow. We may be able to
imagine infinity and abundance, but material reality has limits. This card symbolises the struggles
we endure when our infinite spirits collide with the very finite nature of the physical body and the
everyday world.
7 of Pentacles - Quarks
Interpretation
Quarks are the building blocks of our world. Without them there would be no atoms and therefore
no matter and no universe! The 7 of Pentacles symbolises a situation where we have gathered all
that we need to build our future. Often showing a gathered harvest, it reminds us that we have an
abundance of resources and options, more than we’ll ever need. The battling energy of the sevens is
grounded in the 7 of Pentacles. We have already won – or the means for doing so is at our fingertips
– and this card encourages us to count our blessings.
9 of Pentacles - Quasar
Interpretation
Quasars are mysterious, very bright objects that live at the centre of galaxies. They emit an
enormous amount of energy in the form of radio waves and are thought to be powered by black
holes. The 9 of Pentacles symbolises someone who, like a quasar, has amassed an awful lot of
energy with no apparent means of support. Traditionally showing a lone woman in a garden
enjoying her riches, it’s the card of independent means and financial security. The full-on energy of
the nine is grounded in pentacles and becomes material riches and comfort. But this card is not just
about money, it represents self-determination and independence on all levels.