Want to clarify? Don't use a "clarifier."

I have noticed many threads lately where people draw a card, are confused by it, so they draw a "clarifier" to help them, but end up being more confused. It seems to me, especially for new readers, this is a big mistake. Often the more cards, the less clarity. I think a lot of times we are not patient enough, and that it might be that we just need to take some time to ponder and explore all of what a card might mean, instead of thinking we need to have an instant answer. I think clarifiers can be helpful if you have predetermined you will be pulling another card for a question and that the second card is intended to clarify the first, but often it seems a reader decides after the fact to pick a second (or third!) card in a kind of desperate flailing. Your thoughts?

pasara said:

I have noticed many threads lately where people draw a card, are confused by it, so they draw a "clarifier" to help them, but end up being more confused. It seems to me, especially for new readers, this is a big mistake. Often the more cards, the less clarity. I think a lot of times we are not patient enough, and that it might be that we just need to take some time to ponder and explore all of what a card might mean, instead of thinking we need to have an instant answer. I think clarifiers can be helpful if you have predetermined you will be pulling another card for a question and that the second card is intended to clarify the first, but often it seems a reader decides after the fact to pick a second (or third!) card in a kind of desperate flailing. Your thoughts?

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I think you are correct and also, pasara, what you said about patience and taking time to ponder is absolutely right on. If I draw a card in the morning, I can spend all day letting it sit in my mind and speak, and find it has a lot more to say than I initially might have thought...patience is key, as is a quiet appraoch to the cards...deep breathing, relaxing, making a scared space for the cards to speak in. Anyone can toss a bunch of cards down...but unless you take the time to listen, they will never have a chance to speak! And listening to one card is easier than listening to three or five or ten all trying to speak at once...

Thanks for saying this and starting this thread

Lotus Padma said:

I think you are correct and also, pasara, what you said about patience and taking time to ponder is absolutely right on. If I draw a card in the morning, I can spend all day letting it sit in my mind and speak, and find it has a lot more to say than I initially might have thought...patience is key, as is a quiet appraoch to the cards...deep breathing, relaxing, making a scared space for the cards to speak in. Anyone can toss a bunch of cards down...but unless you take the time to listen, they will never have a chance to speak! And listening to one card is easier than listening to three or five or ten all trying to speak at once...

Thanks for saying this and starting this thread

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Absolutely agree with both of you. Is it perhaps a feature of today's instant society that we find it difficult to wait for anything at all? The ability and willingness to have any peace and quiet is becoming obsolete. Not that we're perfect ourselves, of course - we even expect our new decks to come yesterday But people seem able to follow the so-called rituals of laying out a cloth or whatever, and shuffling several times, even laying out a huge spread - but that's activity. And what's needed next is focus and a letting go.

I fear the next gen will be worse. Most of them have never known stillness. And it's not entirely their fault. But that's another topic. Yes - why pull a clarifier? You'd still need to meditate on it to find out what it says!

It seems to me that many people who are using clarifiers are not using them to make sense of a reading( and if a reading does not make sense another card will not make it so) but rather to make it fit what they thought the reading should say, "this reading makes no sense, I better draw another card to clarify it...AH! that's better" bringing the reading into their expectation. It's to fit a square peg in a round hole The other use I see is to make negatively perceived cards less weighted in the reading with a lucky extra draw: the clarifier. Personally I do not use them.

The crowned one said:

It seems to me that many people who are using clarifiers are not using them to make sense of a reading( and if a reading does not make sense another card will not make it so) but rather to make it fit what they thought the reading should say, "this reading makes no sense, I better draw another card to clarify it...AH! that's better" bringing the reading into their expectation. It's to fit a square peg in a round hole The other use I see is to make negatively perceived cards less weighted in the reading with a lucky extra draw: the clarifier. Personally I do not use them.

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Yes to all this. Another card won't make things clearer if the reading itself wasn't clear. It always seems to be a sort of desperation ting. That said - I have seen experienced readers here do it to good effect - but I never understood why they felt they needed to. I have never found it helped, and like Rodney, I don't use them.

This "patience and it will come" thing is also why I don't like to read face to face. I have often had a reading take a couple of days to gel, and I really think my sitters would lose patience - also I'd have to have them all stay over...

Agreed!!! I don't use clarifier cards, myself, and I always quietly shake my head when I see others mention using them.

Clarifying cards usually just add to a reader's confusion.

Ha, Gregory, funny having your sitters visit for a few days!

I am thinking now though that when I do a Celtic Cross, rarely do it but when I need to, I will look at the bottom card of the deck first, because it usually gives me an encapsulated view of the question...like, the actual question is in that card. But I don't think of this as a clarifier, so much as a condensed form of the question I am asking. It usually corresponds perfectly...and it is not an answer card. However, I never pull any after the outcome card. Things are as they are.

And, if my cards confuse me, then I put them away and wait for a better time to read them, when I am feeling more focused. It's as though the cards reflect one's state of mind.

I would comment on the Crowned One's statement as well - I think it was very astute. I know that when I go through very difficult times, or if I am reading for someone having intense problems, the temptation to find a happier card is certainly there! But also, what I have come to realise, is that even the very difficult things in life are intensely necessary, and not to be shied away from - rather, to be met with non-resistance...acceptance, and a willingness to learn from the hard times, and find the silver lining...tarot has taught me that.

I use clarifiers sometimes. But I limit it to ONE clarifier. The temptation to just keep pulling cards is great. If the clarifier doesn't help things click into place (which for me is rare--clarifiers almost always help me), then I just ignore it and go back to the original card draw. That's just the way I do it. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. Everyone has their own way of drawing meaning from tarot...

I'm really glad I read this thread, because this thought had occured to me that pulling an extra card actually is a superfluous act and negates the necessity to allow the final card to speak for itself when it's ready. I like this thing about letting the reading settle and gel and have found it to be true - I've gone back to readings days later and had the eureka moment on a particular card. When I'm reading for myself in particular, and it's something emotionally charged, the temptation on the final card being a tricky or disappointing one is to either say "I don't like that answer gimme another" (usually under the pretense of not understanding what it's saying), or to say "oo er, I'm scared I'm too emotional right now to really interpret that card objectively, gimme another to clarify!" In either case it's a response to fear and anxiety, which is never conducive to the flow of intuition and inspiration IMO. I've actually altered the final outcome card to simply an advice card now on most celtic cross spreads I do as I dislike the finality of the final outcome card, and there's already a future influence card in the cross bit. Thing is though that there are in my memory many famous and great "final outcome cards of my life and times" which have come spectacularly true (and to some of which, at the time, I didn't want to listen either, or didn't "get" for one reason or another.)

Thank you all for your input. I am glad I am not alone in this feeling.