Okay, so I got this idea the other day to make a tarot combinations calculator. You know, something that would let you pick two cards and see what the combined meaning might be. I’m always looking up combinations, so I figured, why not build something to do it for me?
First, I needed to figure out how to even store all the card meanings. I mean, that’s 78 cards, each with their own upright and reversed meanings, and then all the potential combinations! I thought about just hard-coding everything, but that seemed like a nightmare to manage. So, I decided to try using a simple database. I didn’t need anything fancy, so I went with a plain text to store the data, one for individual card meanings and one for describing the meanings.
Then came the fun part – actually building the thing! I’m not a super experienced coder, but I know my way around a basic logic. I Started from the data,and spent way too long just inputting all the card meanings. Seriously, that took forever. But, hey, it had to be done.
Next, I had to figure out the logic for combining the cards. I did some research, read a bunch of articles, and kind of winged it. I decided to go with a simple approach: if both cards are upright, focus on the shared themes. If one is reversed, highlight how it might modify or challenge the upright card. If both are reversed, well, that’s a tricky situation, and I focused on the potential shadows and blockages.
Coding the Calculator
After some trail and error,I finally built the basic calculator. I let the user select two cards from dropdown menus, and then it spits out the combined meaning from the database. It’s not perfect, but it works!
The Hiccups
- The Database:Initially, I messed up the formatting of my database. I had commas in the wrong places, and it caused all sorts of errors. Took me a while to figure that one out.
- The Combinations Logic:It’s really hard make a machine understand the cards! My initial attempts were pretty clunky. I’m still tweaking it to make the interpretations more nuanced.
- So Many Combinations:Did you know there are over 3,000 possible two-card combinations in tarot? Yeah, I didn’t either until I started this project. It’s a lot to handle.
Right now, it’s a pretty basic tool, and I’ve only got the two-card combinations working. I’d love to expand it someday – maybe add more cards, include different spreads, or even incorporate some user-submitted interpretations. But for now, I’m pretty happy with my little tarot combinations calculator. It’s a fun project, and it actually helps me with my readings!
