Timing and frequency of readings

I'm in a quandary as a newbie. I've been using my cards every day and journaling the results. The cards are giving me great advice, but it's the kind of advice that is going to take conscious effort and time to implement. Next day, I ask something else and get another great answer. Day after day I'm writing this stuff down. So here's my question. Do I leave using the cards awhile and start trying to actually do the things the tarot is telling me to do? Or do I keep on reading? Right now I feel like I'm just writing things down and not acting on them. That's not why I got into tarot to begin with! I started in order to help myself grow and change. But everyone here seems to be into their cards so deeply, and I must admit I so enjoy handling mine, I don't want to miss a day using them.

So. How do you handle this problem? Or am I the only one finding it hard to incorporate everything the tarot is asking of me?

Maybe I'm asking questions that are too big too close together. But I don't want to ask the tarot frivolous things like what to have for dinner or when will the snow melt. *shrug*

It's all a matter of perception.

[btw, I'm "stalking" you now and your Buddha looks really nice against your blog's background color. ]

I sometimes think that everyone except me is really into their cards and connecting and learning while I struggle when, in fact, that is often not the case. We all struggle and we all connect and learn at different times in our studies.

That being said, I think in studying and building a relationship with a new deck it is important to be in touch with it everyday (literally and figuratively).

Perhaps you can adjust the type of spread you're doing to one with less cards and/or a different purpose. You could change it from advice-seeking (perhaps make this once a week) to a daily drawing of something to contemplate in the present moment, something non-predictive. This way, you have time to take action on the cards' advice on the one hand, and on the other you connect with it daily and can learn the cards' meanings in a different context (contemplation rather than instruction/advice).

funny

my golden told me to take a break from it yesterday and go in to the real world for awhiile, I forget what cards i pulled because i dont journal.. wish i would but in my life it just wouldnt happen. .. but i knew exactly what it was saying.. i had an esp hard reading on thursday.. one that went places I really would never want to go.. and it took its toll on me...so i needed the break i am feeling back to myself and ready to shuffle today!!!

I feel that call, also..I want to hold them, feel them, experience them. I started with daily readings, ones that made sense, but that kept telling me things I know need handling but I just don't know how yet...I am not totally forgetting what I've been told, but I am not reading on it yet more.

To keep learning, and be able to keep "feeling" my cards, I have turned to doing an IDS. To me, as a beginner, I think I'm doing myself a favor learning ONE deck well, or at least using ONE deck to begin my tarot education. As part of that IDS, I join reading circles here,(CoS, Newbie, and IDS circles) and for days I don't have a reading circle, I do exchanges in the exchange forum (actually I read for feedback..everyone ELSE keeps getting the same readings for me too! So I prefer not to exchange. Yes. I know. I need to make a decision. When I know WHAT decision, and then figure out my choice, I'll do just that dangit!)

Other parts of my IDS are going through M. Greer's 21 Ways on each card that I pull for the 78 Weeks I've also joined. (Actually I'll take this up when I get my blank cards for the drawing way of the 21 Ways. I do the 78 Weeks currently though.) This may SEEM a lot, but it's not that much really.

I feel this keeps me learning, and keeps me READING which is important to developing intuition. Everyone here knows it's a learning forum, and everyone knows I'm new. (They can always "stalk" my posts to find out how I'm doing if they are curious hehe) Plus it keeps my hands on my deck, which is where I like them to be right now!

~Yira

Carla said:

The cards are giving me great advice, but it's the kind of advice that is going to take conscious effort and time to implement.

Click to expand...

Right, so implement it. Otherwise nothing will change in your life and you might as well have looked as a TV screen as your cards.

Carla said:

Next day, I ask something else and get another great answer. Day after day I'm writing this stuff down. So here's my question. Do I leave using the cards awhile and start trying to actually do the things the tarot is telling me to do?

Click to expand...

Well ... <frutrated look>

Do you want anything in your life to change for the better? If so, get off your @rse and *do* something about it. Do you want things to stay the same forever? then just keep sitting in your room doing nothing.

Tarot cards, when they give advice, are telling you that you need to *do* something.

They don't have arms and legs and voices: if they predict that you're going to land a better job, they don't fill in job applications for you and attend the interviews, you have to do that, or the new better job just won't happen. If they predict a better love-life, they don't go out socialising for you and meeting people on your behalf - you have to do it, or the new relationship just won't happen.

It's your life - DO SOMETHING!

Carla said:

I feel like I'm just writing things down and not acting on them. That's not why I got into tarot to begin with! I started in order to help myself grow and change. But everyone here seems to be into their cards so deeply, and I must admit I so enjoy handling mine, I don't want to miss a day using them.

Click to expand...

So ... the way you do readings, means they paralyse you for the rest of the day and utterly prevent you from actually *doing* anything in your life? Or they take twenty hours to lay out and interpret? Surely there is *some* time in a day when you do a reading that you could manage to squeeze some other form of activity in?

Carla said:

But I don't want to ask the tarot frivolous things like what to have for dinner or when will the snow melt. *shrug*

Click to expand...

Nor do you have to. But sitting around in your ivory tower with a zen look on your face and cards everywhere is going to improve exactly nothing. You have to get out there and *do* stuff, and if you have so little time in your life that you cannot both read and do stuff, I suggest giving up something, like eating (that takes time) or sleeping (that takes a lot of time) or, yes, reading, if it is taking up so much time that you cannot do anything else.

yirabeth said:

I feel that call, also..I want to hold them, feel them, experience them. I started with daily readings, ones that made sense, but that kept telling me things I know need handling but I just don't know how yet...I am not totally forgetting what I've been told, but I am not reading on it yet more.

To keep learning, and be able to keep "feeling" my cards, I have turned to doing an IDS. To me, as a beginner, I think I'm doing myself a favor learning ONE deck well, or at least using ONE deck to begin my tarot education. As part of that IDS, I join reading circles here,(CoS, Newbie, and IDS circles) and for days I don't have a reading circle, I do exchanges in the exchange forum (actually I read for feedback..everyone ELSE keeps getting the same readings for me too! So I prefer not to exchange. Yes. I know. I need to make a decision. When I know WHAT decision, and then figure out my choice, I'll do just that dangit!)

Other parts of my IDS are going through M. Greer's 21 Ways on each card that I pull for the 78 Weeks I've also joined. (Actually I'll take this up when I get my blank cards for the drawing way of the 21 Ways. I do the 78 Weeks currently though.) This may SEEM a lot, but it's not that much really.

I feel this keeps me learning, and keeps me READING which is important to developing intuition. Everyone here knows it's a learning forum, and everyone knows I'm new. (They can always "stalk" my posts to find out how I'm doing if they are curious hehe) Plus it keeps my hands on my deck, which is where I like them to be right now!

~Yira

Click to expand...

Thanks, Yira. I'm doing an IDS with Universal Waite right now. Lots of folks have recommended 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card. I am going to have to get that one!

KafkasGhost said:

[btw, I'm "stalking" you now and your Buddha looks really nice against your blog's background color. ]

I sometimes think that everyone except me is really into their cards and connecting and learning while I struggle when, in fact, that is often not the case. We all struggle and we all connect and learn at different times in our studies.

Perhaps you can adjust the type of spread you're doing to one with less cards and/or a different purpose. You could change it from advice-seeking (perhaps make this once a week) to a daily drawing of something to contemplate in the present moment, something non-predictive. This way, you have time to take action on the cards' advice on the one hand, and on the other you connect with it daily and can learn the cards' meanings in a different context (contemplation rather than instruction/advice).

Click to expand...

Thanks, Kafkasghost, I am following your blog, too! Like the lavendar background. I have a tendency to ask questions for self-improvement; they're often not terribly light questions. I'll try to think of some questions that are lighter, or, as you suggest, perhaps do a draw for simple meditation (at the risk of sitting around with a zen look on my face. )

Carla said:

I'm in a quandary as a newbie. I've been using my cards every day and journaling the results. The cards are giving me great advice, but it's the kind of advice that is going to take conscious effort and time to implement. Next day, I ask something else and get another great answer. Day after day I'm writing this stuff down. So here's my question. Do I leave using the cards awhile and start trying to actually do the things the tarot is telling me to do? Or do I keep on reading? Right now I feel like I'm just writing things down and not acting on them. That's not why I got into tarot to begin with! I started in order to help myself grow and change. But everyone here seems to be into their cards so deeply, and I must admit I so enjoy handling mine, I don't want to miss a day using them.

So. How do you handle this problem? Or am I the only one finding it hard to incorporate everything the tarot is asking of me?

Maybe I'm asking questions that are too big too close together. But I don't want to ask the tarot frivolous things like what to have for dinner or when will the snow melt. *shrug*

Click to expand...

It depends on what your goal is now in doing readings. If your goal is to improve your life, then you should give yourself time to implement the advice in your life. If your goal is simply to practise readings, then doing a lot in a short time will give you more practice. It really depends on what you trying to accomplish, which goal is more important to you.

If you want to do both, both practice AND improve your life at the same time, then you will still need the time in between readings to put the card's advice into action. You don't have to do it every day if you don't want to. It's not a race, you have all the rest of your life to learn. And most people say that learning to read Tarot IS a lifelong learning process anyway.

It's not a problem, it's just a question of being clear on your motives and how to best accomplish them. I love my cards and never make an important decision without them. And at times when it is a really important one I get as many readings from different people as I can. But, I don't read every day for myself. Lately it's every week or two. Althuogh my readings generally take over a day to complete, but that's another story. LOL


Although honestly, often I think I should give myself more time also to work on things. I get so preoccupied sometimes with life that I forget.
Babs

SunChariot said:

It depends on what your goal is now in doing readings. If your goal is to improve your life, then you should give yourself time to implement the advice in your life. If your goal is simply to practise readings, then doing a lot in a short time will give you more practice. It really depends on what you trying to accomplish, which goal is more important to you.

If you want to do both, both practice AND improve your life at the same time, then you will still need the time in between readings to put the card's advice into action. You don't have to do it every day if you don't want to. It's not a race, you have all the rest of your life to learn. And most people say that learning to read Tarot IS a lifelong learning process anyway.

It's not a problem, it's just a question of being clear on your motives and how to best accomplish them. I love my cards and never make an important decision without them. And at times when it is a really important one I get as many readings from different people as I can. But, I don't read every day for myself. Lately it's every week or two. Althuogh my readings generally take over a day to complete, but that's another story. LOL


Although honestly, often I think I should give myself more time also to work on things. I get so preoccupied sometimes with life that I forget.
Babs

Click to expand...

Thanks, Babs!

You have already gotten some wise advice, so I won't repeat-except for the parts about just doing some draws for meditation, or maybe just some daily draws to help keep you connected with yourself. There are some simple 2 or 3 card spreads that do this quite nicely without feeling overwhelming.

I, too, am now a 'follower' of your blog-love it!

~BD~