At a Ministry of Education workshop for “Schools in the Middle” earlier this month, I was reminded of the pedagogy of planning based on the “Big Idea”. This is the notion of using overarching concepts such as social justice, fairness, or inclusion or values and traits such as integrity, courage and honesty during lesson planning to add relevance to lessons for students and include lessons of life in the lessons of school. This led me to think about the idea of the “Big Question” and how it could apply to the Tarot.

This concept isn’t new. Rachel Pollack explores it thoroughly in her book, “The Forest of Souls”. She asks several questions including “What is soul?” and “Did the Tarot exist before creation?”  James Ricklef’s book, “Tarot Tells the Tale”, explores the three-card reading by using fictional characters from film, literature and mythology. The characters ask big questions of relevance to their fictional lives. I’m attending a workshop in early March led by James Wells entitled “Tarot Beyond Ourselves” that, and this is my own assumption based on the description of the workshop, may be exploring the idea of the “Big Question”.

I thought about having a bit of fun with the concept. As an amateur musician (who does have one hell of a home studio set-up, mind you), I was drawn the questions musicians often ask in their work. So I thought, what about using the Tarot to answer some of those questions? Why not answer the Beatles “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” or Five for Fighting’s “What Kind of World Do You Want?” with a Tarot reading.

As a self-proclaimed, life-long learner, I also thought this would be a great way to hone my own Tarot skills in my practice. There are tons of timeless questions asked via the music that enriches our lives every day.  As an exercise, I’ll be exploring these every so often. I might even post them from time to time. If you have any musical questions that are you are dying to see answered :), feel free to share.