Right- or Left Handed?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 26 Nov 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Fuzzmello	26 Nov 2002
Perusing another thread, I saw a post from Umbrae that referred to problems borne by "left-braining it" when reading the cards. This got me to thinking (lol) about how many of us at Aecletic are left-handed. I'm wondering if those of us forced by nature to use the right side of our brains have an easier time of it than our more normal right-handed amigos. So, are you right- or left-handed? Do you think that's helped or hindered your readings? Or does it make a difference at all? I'll go first. I'm left-handed. It certainly has always been a factor in how I go about dealing with the world. I think being just a little different has helped me intuit what the cards have to tell me. Fuzz PS I ask a favor now knowing full well how rude it is, but pull-ezz! Could we please not go off on how left-handed people are supposed to not live as long as righties? :D

cyan	26 Nov 2002
I'm righthanded but i do a lot of things with my left hand that appearently most righthanders do not. I have not kept track of it but every once in a while someone will say, "Oh, are you left handed?" maybe i am somewhat amidexterious.

Sea Sprite	26 Nov 2002
re: PS I ask a favor now knowing full well how rude it is, but pull-ezz! Could we please not go off on how left-handed people are supposed to not live as long as righties? hahaha I'm right-handed and I don't believe it makes a difference for me. :D

Umbrae	26 Nov 2002
I was born left-handed. My mother "forced" me to become right handed. Now my left is almost useless. Of late I have been attempting to re-learn day to day things with my left hand.

Teal	27 Nov 2002
I'm extremely left-handed about some things, but extremely right-handed about others, and I write right-handed. But if I sign my signature backwards with my left hand, when held to a mirror, it's exactly like my right hand signature. Weird, huh?

WolfSpirit	27 Nov 2002
I am right-handed, I can do some things with my left hand which is good for me because I often try to do several things at once. But when I wink I close my right eye, which I have been told is how left-handed people wink, so I have been told I am naturally left-handed but I have been taught to use my right hand... I don't remember this and neither does my mom, so if this is true it must have been very easy to teach me to use my right hand.

Kiama	27 Nov 2002
I am right-handed, but find I use the left side of my brain veyr litle when reading the cards, cuz I guess I'm an 'intuitive redaer'. I don't personally think that the hand we write with has anything to do with how we read the cards, cuz we can 'train' ourselves to read in a certain way. Kiama

Liliana	27 Nov 2002
Im lefthanded but I Bowl, use scissors, and use can openers right handed lol. I think I read the cards more intuitively, Ive always has a problem reading them any other way :THP

truthsayer	27 Nov 2002
i'm ambidextrous to a certain extent. in fact it can be confusing at times b/c i don't notice unless someone points it out to me that i'm doing it like it's a terrible offense. then i have to rethink which hand to choose instead of doing what came naturally. i've taken manual dexterity tests and my dexterity is actually better with my left hand. learning to use both left and right hands is actually a good idea. people who can use both hands adapt more easily to use in case they have a stroke and become paralyzed on one side. my husband is very nearsighted and right-handed. however, his right eye is weaker than his left so he learned how to bat left handed for baseball and has a left handed golf club set to make up for his handicap. ever heard of the book "drawing with the right side of the brain" by betty edwards? interesting idea that happens to work. you do exercises to "liberate" the spatial more creative right brain by using the left hand. i don't remember what to do if you are already left handed. maybe there's a book in that,"learning how to think linearly with the left side of the brain". ;)

dangerdork	27 Nov 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Umbrae I was born left-handed. My mother "forced" me to become right handed. Now my left is almost useless. That's just how it was with me! I recently read the expanded version of "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards ( http://www.drawright.com/ ), and there is one of the best discussions for the lay person of the roles of the right brain and left brain that I've ever seen. I've been thinking a lot lately about how the "Right Brain" (= left handed) side of our personality thinks in imagery and sensation, not words and symbols, how it is holistic not analytical (the "Left Brain" = right-handed functions). And then there's the source of my current fascination - the corpus callosum. That's the bundle of nerves that connects the right and left brain hemispheres and allows them to communicate with each other; where the analytical and the subjective are reconciled, where the images are translated into words and vice versa. I think that must be where the most interesting stuff goes on. This stuff is so totally relevant to tarot, too. When meditating on the cards, the archetypal symbolism opens up channels and connections that allow a freer exchange of information and reflection between our "just the facts" left brain and our "go with the flow" intuitive right brain. We are enabled to examine the events and attitudes of our lives in a different way. That's my theory anyway. And think of the imagery of the Temperance card as symbolic of the above - the two pitchers are the right and left brain... No wonder Crowley calls it "Art." PS - Truthsayer! JINX!

lunalafey	27 Nov 2002
I use which ever hand is easier at the moment. I can write with both hands, but better with the right only because in kindergarden I was told by the teacher to use my right hand. I can play pool with both hands, I kick with my left, goofy footed on a board, a better shot with my left eye on a target. I deal with my left hand as well.

Demonesse	27 Nov 2002
Lunalafey, you're one of the lucky ambidextrous ones. I was, like Umbrae, born left-handed but forced to become right handed, but I somehow prefer it this way. Personally, I don't think it makes a difference tarot-wise; except, perhaps, in the shuffling ;)

Fuzzmello	28 Nov 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Teal I'm extremely left-handed about some things, but extremely right-handed about others, and I write right-handed. But if I sign my signature backwards with my left hand, when held to a mirror, it's exactly like my right hand signature. Weird, huh? I'd probably pay to learn how you discovered that talent, Teal. :) Fuzz

anjocoxo	28 Nov 2002
I write with my right hand, but I do a lot of things with my left hand (I eat with the fork on my right hand, for instance). A lot of people in my family are left handed and I don't know if it has anythign to do with it... Anjo

RedWood	28 Nov 2002
I am right handed...I dont know if it makes a difference or not..I scrub and clean things with my left hand more tho...My sister and grandma are lefties..my sister is very good artist and my grandma alawys had the most beautiful handwriting..she was born in the late 20's (she is dead now) but she was made to use her right hand in school..but when I saw her she always used her left hand.

lawguy51	28 Nov 2002
Lawguy is left-handed. But I bat right. I would be a baseball manager's dream first-baseman! Funny, reading about people being forced into being right-handed, when my sister was a toddler (I'm 5 years older) I kept putting things in her left hand so I wouldn't be the only one in the family left-handed, and sure enough, she's left handed! Many of you know I work at a record company and when I sit in meetings of a dozen or more executives, I can't help noticing that over half of them are left handed. Coincidence? I think not. Lawguy51

RedWood	28 Nov 2002
Lawguy..so ws your sister naturally a lefty or did you kind of..make her be a lefty? and if you did..how does she feel about that? LOL

Ravenswing	29 Nov 2002
i'm left-handed born of two right-handed parents. one of my two brothers is also left handed. (i'm eldest and my brother youngest) i couldn't tell you what difference it makes since i've never been right-handed (at least to my best recollection) sort of reminds me of a history teacher of mine in high school. one day he asked me if blonds did have more fun. i answered him that i didn't know since i'd always been blond. i don't really like statistics... raven

Keslynn	29 Nov 2002
I'm left-handed though I do a lot of things (cutting with scissors, etc) with my right hand. A few years ago, I was messing around and found that I throw a ball better with my left after I had been doing it right-handed for years! I think I just imitated my gym teachers because I was never really interested enough in sports to do my own thing. I think I use both sides of my brain. For a while I was a chemistry major but now I work primarily in history. I could still do chemistry but it's not what I wanted as a career. Both my parents are right-handed but both my grandfathers are lefties. Genetics is fun. ;) :) Kes

The Right- or Left Handed? thread was originally posted on 26 Nov 2002 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.