reading intuitively.. completely? or partially?

Hi all

I went to a tarot class on monday, it ended up being quite a few virgins which was cool in some ways. I was helping them read etc. when it came time for my partner to draw for me.. she drew the ace of pents. She interpreted this card with no background as being me doing readings going between two world. In the sharman there is a pciture of a gate with a garden behind it. I thought this was great reading. but I had a hard time breaking away completely from the book meaning. Any ideas??

saleeneh said:

Hi all

I went to a tarot class on monday, it ended up being quite a few virgins which was cool in some ways. I was helping them read etc. when it came time for my partner to draw for me.. she drew the ace of pents. She interpreted this card with no background as being me doing readings going between two world. In the sharman there is a pciture of a gate with a garden behind it. I thought this was great reading. but I had a hard time breaking away completely from the book meaning. Any ideas??

Click to expand...

I normally use the book meanings, but there are times when I'll see a card come up and I'll get a strong impression about it that deviates from the standard book meanings. When that happens, that's the interpretation I'll use.

Such as last night... I was doing a career-related reading for someone and "The Lovers" came up. In that context, it struck me strongly as meaning the person would find a job for which she was an extremely good fit, so that's how I read it.

saleeneh said:

the ace of pents. She interpreted this card with no background as being me doing readings going between two world. In the sharman there is a pciture of a gate with a garden behind it. I thought this was great reading. but I had a hard time breaking away completely from the book meaning. Any ideas??

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you're asking for. I have an "opinion", rather than an "idea". In that reading, you were the client, she was the reader. The deck would have presented her with whatever card she was going to understand in that way, to give you the information you needed to hear - which you certainly seemed to think was relevant. If, in her mind or in the imagery of the deck, say, the Four Cups would have had her saying something similar, it would have been the Four Cups that came out. If a reading is relevant and applicable and "feels right", why question it?

"Reading intuitively" usually sounds like you are using only one part of your intelligence - the intuitive part - instead of using all you've got in your head to interpret the tarot reading.

For me, reading intuitively would mean not parroting everything from the LWB. Means connecting the cards and seeing what they are telling by analyzing them, and not by just recalling the list of keywords you read in a book.

But in the way people usually talk about intuitive reading, it sound like it's some sort of channeling, in which you get the answer apparently from nowhere. You don't use your acquired knowledge, you just let the message reach you without filtering or rationalizing it.

I believe it's impossible to just "forget" all that you've read just because you want your reading to be intuitive. Unless you have some sort of "intuition switch". When it's on, your rational mind and your memory stop working and you just receive messages from another channel.

I don't many people who actually can do it, and since i can't, i don't know whether i read intuitively or not. I don't quote my books during a reading unless the quote is extremely interesting, but then i say that i'm quoting a book), nor do i shut away all that i have learnt and concentrate only on what i'm getting at the moment.

I mix it all. Or, my mind mixes it all. What i'm getting, with what i have learnt, with what i have lived...and there you've got it.

So you could say my readings are partially intuitive. Works well enough for me for the time being.

When I first started reading, I learned the basicmost meanings of the card, and now I "connect" the rest intuitively. If you don't use your intuition at all, the "readings" you'll get will be same each time you pull a certain card, I think. And we all know the countless number of way to read one card.

sorry i was in a hurry when I wrote the first post

I see it didnt make a lot of sense the way i wrote it, my daughter was telling me to "hurry hurry or we'll be late' as I pushed the reply button. I think what I am trying to say is do people read 100% intuitively? I mean how can you do that when you ahave a knowledge of the meanings of hte cards.. she had no prior knowledge but I could see what she was saying made sense. I could not see that from the ace of pents...I guess that was why she was reading and not me right LOL? Just curious if others could turn on/off that intuitive button to that extent. thanks guys..

Ready? Here I go again...

I believe that tarot speaks differently to all of us. As readers, it is up to us to learn the language. Your language is not the same as my language.

My best intuitive (and they are fully intuitive) readings come from the Transparent tarot. Because, when I stack 3 cards on top of each other, I get a completely new image that can only be read intuitively.

For me, intuitive is opening yourself up to what you see in the cards (really look at them!), what you feel emotionally, what you hear, smell, taste, etc. Use all your senses and dive right in. Don't censor that tiny little voice that is begging to be heard! Trust that what you get is right, or that, at the very least, you are beginning to learn how tarot wants to talk to you.

Don't let your logical mind say, "Well it can't be that because this book says it means this." All you will find in books is how the tarot speaks to other people. Books are great at getting other people's opinions. But they are not the final word.

Journal your readings and refer to it later to check not only your accuracy, but also to understand what the cards were trying to tell you.

Take your absolute favorite card and look at it. Why do you like it? What about it appeals to you? What do you feel when you see it? etc.

Then take out your least favorite and do the same thing.

Your deck really wants to speak to you.

Sinduction said:

Ready? Here I go again...

I believe that tarot speaks differently to all of us. As readers, it is up to us to learn the language. Your language is not the same as my language.

My best intuitive (and they are fully intuitive) readings come from the Transparent tarot. Because, when I stack 3 cards on top of each other, I get a completely new image that can only be read intuitively.

For me, intuitive is opening yourself up to what you see in the cards (really look at them!), what you feel emotionally, what you hear, smell, taste, etc. Use all your senses and dive right in. Don't censor that tiny little voice that is begging to be heard! Trust that what you get is right, or that, at the very least, you are beginning to learn how tarot wants to talk to you.

Don't let your logical mind say, "Well it can't be that because this book says it means this." All you will find in books is how the tarot speaks to other people. Books are great at getting other people's opinions. But they are not the final word.

Journal your readings and refer to it later to check not only your accuracy, but also to understand what the cards were trying to tell you.

Take your absolute favorite card and look at it. Why do you like it? What about it appeals to you? What do you feel when you see it? etc.

Then take out your least favorite and do the same thing.

Your deck really wants to speak to you.

Click to expand...

YES YES YES on the Transparent Tarot's ability to induce intuitive readings! I found a whole new dimension to Tarot reading that I never knew existed, until I got this deck. My reaction, when I began using it was, "WOW. Just... wow!" Cards literally interact with one another when they're overlaid on one another to create a new image. That can bring about the "Aha!" moments when we understand what the images in front of us mean, and those meanings will relate, with varying degrees of closeness, to the standard LWB meanings.

My own understanding of "intuitive" readings, BTW, is along the lines of a reading given by someone who's using little or no LWB knowledge... maybe even someone who's never looked at the LWB... who is deriving meanings from what they see when they look at the cards, rather than solely working from the standard book definitions of the cards.

shelikes2read said:

My own understanding of "intuitive" readings, BTW, is along the lines of a reading given by someone who's using little or no LWB knowledge... maybe even someone who's never looked at the LWB... who is deriving meanings from what they see when they look at the cards, rather than solely working from the standard book definitions of the cards.

Click to expand...

That's exactly how I read for years! My first deck was the Matthews Arthurian, which I related to because of a love of Arthurian myth, but also the landscapes depicted in the cards just spoke to me. It wasn't until I started to create my first deck that I was able once and for all to memorise the standard meanings. once you do that, in order to truly read intuitively, you have to be able to shed the shackles attached to the knowledge, assimilating it without letting it rule you, and sometimes ignoring it all together!

I am glad that you both have found the T.T. useful in that respect- my work here is done By creating new images from the combination of cards, you MUST allow yourself to interpret intuitively in order to truly access the meaning! The Transparent Oracle I think will do this even more so, since although it is firmly rooted in the western mystery tradition, it is entirely divorced from the Tarot tradition and structure.

Blessings,

Em x

thanks for your wisdom

I understand what you are saying, now I am off to implement it!