can tarot be bilingual?

I am bilingual and I find myself thinking in two languages sometimes. So it is hard for me to use just one language with the cards... do you think they will work as well in any language or do i need to find one language?

Language as in words ? Any number of languages is fine. For me the cards speak in images - which are universal; how you put that into words doesn't matter, IMHO. One of the best readers I know gets all muddled up as she is multilingual and quite often actually says "what word is it I mean ?"

I do that all the time and I haven't yet mastered one language!

There was a thread recently in which members with two or more languages spoke of their ways of reading. Ive no idea how to search for the thread, but it was about something else altogether and bilingual members spoke of exactly this subject.

I am bilingual and as I read about tarot exclusively in English I find that - despite the universal language of images - it is in English that I read the cards better. It actually annoys me that I can't read as well in Portuguese, as I get requests to read for friends and know that my readings are inferior. Im translating clumsily.

When I read for myself or another English-speaking person, I turn over a card and words come immediately to mind, expressions, quotations, similies; it's like a fast, immediate response from the subconscious. Which is exactly as it should be.

I was thinking about this yesterday. I did a reading for myself about something personal and turned over the 8 of wands and for some reason I just knew that it was saying "avoid wishful thinking". Not a meaning I have ever read or heard anywhere (no idea where it came from), but it just came immediately to find, quite intuitively, regarding the position etc. Then I think how would I do this is Portuguese? Translate badly? (Portuguese doesn' have that expression). I don't get any of the same nuances of meaning when I read in Portuguese even though I am equally fluent in both languages, and it annoys me.

My mother is bilingual and spent some time being first a simultaneous interpreter for international conferences, and a specialist tour guide (specialising in inbound tourists from her own country of origin).

In one of our rare conversations some years ago she told me a story about a group of German tourists she was showing around, one of them had a fairly lengthy question for a local businessperson. So she thought for a moment, then "translated" it to the local.

The local looked stunned. All the Chermans burst into laughter. The guy who had originally asked the question said to her "Now I know you're a very good translator, because you translated it into far better German than I originally used!"

Wasn't there another thread recently, where bilingual ATers were talking about how when they learnt Tarot in one language, they found it hard to read Tarot in the other?

Hmm. Well, I'm bilingual (English and German) and I've learnt tarot in English. I find it a little harder to explain what I mean in German, but if you're 100% comfortable with the languages then I don't see why not.

I think Tarot images are fairly universal and the language in which I express what I've found in the images is really subject to change. Language in itself is just a way to get a grip at reality, for all people, no matter where they were born and in which language they were raised. It's nothing else than a more or less rational concept, an abstraction.

I'm not bilingual but I tend to think and talk Tarot far more in English than in German. (Thanks to ATF.) I'm ok with that. Sometimes I mix sentences, wildly using both English and German. Still, I'm reading (read: forming coherent sentences) better when I can express myself in German, my mother tongue. Doesn't keep me from practicing it in English. After all I want to become fluent someday.

So to answer your question: I think it's possible to use Tarot bilingually. Your deck couldn't care less. It's important that you are comfortable.

Astraea Aurora

I forget sometimes which version I have, don't even think about it when I read with them. For me, the English or the German versions are the same. So, if you are comfortable with multiple languages, it doesn't matter. Unless you need to watch for the different boxed sets out there. Sometimes the German versions are packed differently.

I'm not bilingual, but I know that in some languages there are words that can't really be translated. And I think if you had access to these extra words which are often very meaningful, it could gain you an advantage in reading, providing your querent is also bilingual.

When I ask my cards and I'm connecting the message together and getting the answer i'm looking for in my mind, I ask and speak to my cards in Spanish, Which yes, it's my first language and when I speak to them in Spanish I connect to them better than when I speak to my cards in English or French, Which I can't connect or I feel as if they don't listen to me. Of course when I'm consulting someone online, the majority of times I have to translate it into English or French. Since your bilingual etherial dreams, Talk to them in one language and then the other to see which language they listen to and which you feel you can connect to better.