Okay, so I’ve been messing around with Tarot cards lately, and I got this idea to make a little calculator thingy that helps figure out the meanings of card combinations. It’s been a fun little project, so I figured I’d share how I went about it.
Getting Started
First, I needed to, like, actually know something about Tarot. I’m no expert, but I’ve been reading cards for myself for a bit, and I have a few books and websites I usually check. So, I started gathering all that info. I wanted to make this calculator simple at first, focusing on the Major Arcana cards (those are the big ones like The Fool, The Lovers, The World, etc.).
Then, I thought, “How am I even gonna do this?” I’m not a coder, really, so I decided to go with something simple. No fancy apps or anything – just plain old HTML and some basic JavaScript. I figured that’d be the easiest way to get it working without getting bogged down in complicated stuff.
Building the Thing
I started with a simple HTML page. You know, just a basic structure with a heading, a couple of dropdown menus (one for each card you’re picking), and a button that says “Calculate”. Then, I added a little area where the results would show up.
The JavaScript part was where it got a little tricky. First, I made a list of all the Major Arcana cards and gave each one a number (like, The Fool is 0, The Magician is 1, and so on). Then, I created a HUGE “if/else if” statement. It basically says, “If card 1 is THIS and card 2 is THAT, then display THIS meaning.”
- I made two select input.
- I added options to the select input.
- Made an event listener for “click” of button element.
I spent a good chunk of time writing out all the possible combinations and their meanings. It was a lot of copying and pasting from my notes and trying to make it sound… well, not totally robotic. I wanted it to feel like a little mini-reading, not just a dictionary definition.
Tweaking and Testing
Once I had the basic structure working, I started testing it out. I’d pick two cards, hit the button, and see what it said. Sometimes it made perfect sense, other times it was kinda… off. So, I went back and tweaked the meanings, added some extra bits, and tried to make it flow better.
I also added some very basic styling, just to make it look a little less ugly. I’m no designer, but I played around with colors and fonts until it looked halfway decent.
Still a Work in Progress
Right now, it’s still pretty basic. It only does the Major Arcana, and the interpretations are pretty short. I’m thinking about adding the Minor Arcana cards later, and maybe even letting you choose more than two cards at a time.
I also want to make the interpretations a bit more detailed. Maybe even include some “reversed” meanings (when a card is drawn upside down). But for now, it’s a fun little tool that I can use to help me learn more about Tarot, and maybe help others too!
It’s definitely not perfect, but it was a fun little project to put together. And hey, maybe it’ll inspire someone else to try making something similar! It shows that you don’t need to be a coding genius to create something useful (and maybe a little bit magical).
