Okay, so I’ve been messing around with tarot cards lately, and I got this idea stuck in my head: what if I could make a simple calculator to help figure out card combinations? I’m no coding whiz, but I figured, why not give it a shot? It’s all free, just a little project for myself, and maybe I could share it with others sometime.
The Idea Pops Up
It all started when I was doing a reading for a friend. They were asking about a specific situation, and I pulled a couple of cards that, individually, I understood. But putting them together? That’s where it gets tricky. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have something that could quickly show me common interpretations for different card pairings?”
Starting from Scratch (Almost)
First, I needed somewhere to actually build this thing. I’m not about to install a bunch of complicated software. So, I just went with a basic online code editor. It’s got everything I needed: a place to write the code, a way to see if it works, and it’s all in my browser. Super convenient.
The First Baby Steps
I started super simple. I just wanted to see if I could even get the basic idea working. I created a couple of variables to represent two tarot cards. Let’s say, “The Fool” and “The Magician”. Then I wrote a very, very basic ‘if’ statement. Basically, “If card 1 is The Fool and card 2 is The Magician, then print this interpretation.”
It was clunky, I admit. I literally typed out:
if (card1 == "The Fool" && card2 == "The Magician") {
print("New beginnings and taking action!");
I know, I know, super basic. But hey, it worked! When I “ran” the code, it spit out that little interpretation. I felt like a genius, even though it was the simplest thing ever.
Making it a Little Better
Of course, that wasn’t very practical. I needed a way to easily change the cards and see different combinations. So, I made some simple input fields. Like, two dropdown menus, each with a list of all the major arcana cards. Then, I changed the code to read the values from those dropdowns instead of my hard-coded card names.
Still using those ‘if’ statements, though. Lots and lots of them. One for each combination I could think of. It was getting messy, fast.
Dealing with the Mess
So, I now check what are the common interpretations available on those cards. I found a lot of interpretations there. But to make it simple, I copied some of it.
The Result (So Far)
It’s still a work in progress, obviously. It’s not pretty, and it only handles a limited number of combinations. But it does work. I can select two cards, click a button, and it gives me a basic interpretation. It’s helped me out a few times already, and it’s been a fun little side project.
I might try to expand it later, maybe add the minor arcana, and find a better way to handle all those combinations (maybe a database or something?). But for now, it’s my little tarot combination calculator, and I’m kind of proud of it, even if it’s a bit rough around the edges.
