Developing your Intuition

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 28 Jan 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Karenwhe	28 Jan 2003
Ok, I have been reading all the threads about the Right brain and art of Zen, tooth picks etc.... and it made me think..... and I have a question or a problem, or just lets call it a challenge.... Tarot makes me feel like I am using my imagination not my intuition (and I have quite a creative imagination). However, I do have a strong intuition but it ain't coming with tarot, but randomly or in other words when I shut down my LB (which doesn't happen with reading tarot). So, how do you read tarot and shut down your LB? I get more about a person just by looking at their picture than reading their cards. How do you explain this? I am hoping that Umbrae will be kind enough to shed maybe some light on my question/dilemma.

le-mat	28 Jan 2003
After reading the posts about developing one's intuition and toothpicks readings I remembered a couple of techniques that you may find useful. 1- The Water Exercise (this is actually similar to the toothpicks exercise) Pour some water over a table or other non-absorbing surface. Then start playing with the water, making shapes, etc. Continue playing for about 10 minutes. Don't try to see images or anything, just gaze at the water while you move it with your fingers. Repeat this exercise for a week. Your intuition will start to speak, so be sure to listen or its voice will begin to fade. I have to admit I haven't tried this exercise yet, something is telling me it's not the right time. 2- This is actually a different way of laying out the cards for a reading. You just have to dispose the cards in a scattered fashion, all 78 cards, and the gaze at them for insight. You can use this method for a question reading or to awake your intuition. In this case you should stare at the cards for 15 minutes each day and repeat until you see something. My experience is that I couldn't see nothing the first week or so, so I just forgot about it. But yesterday I did it again and I fot a very strong and personal message, so I started writing this post.

Hedera	28 Jan 2003
Le-mat, that water exercise sounds great, where did you get the idea? I am definately going to try that. Sort of a general exercise, based on the Forest of Souls (Rachel Pollack): reading birds. Any time you see a single bird fly, or a flock of birds, open your mind and watch, listen. Absorb the movement, breathe with it. See if they have anything to tell you. You can read anything; flying birds, raindrops on the window, the way the wind moves the trees. Try, with your mind, looking at it 'sideways' - like the way, with your eyes, you can see better sideways when it's dark. It's hard to explain, and it has only worked a couple of times for me, so far. It seems to work better when I'm tired. Guess the left-brained part of me stops paying too much attention, allowing the right half to come through. :) Hedera.

Mojo	28 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Karenwhe So, how do you read tarot and shut down your LB? You don't read Tarot by shutting down your left brain. For Tarot, you need a balance of right and left brain working in tandem. So if you're naturally a right brained person, you need to learn how to engage your left brain without letting it take over. If you're naturally a left brain person, you need to work on trusting your right brain without slipping into pure imagination.

Umbrae	28 Jan 2003
We have had an unquenchable quest for knowledge in the last 500 years. We have moved from mud huts to placing a man on the moon. We can examine DNA strands and find the genetic causes of diseases. We can examine molecular structures. And we know nothing. We still have married couples killing each other, mothers killing their children – surrounded by man’s inhumanity to man…knowledge has not made us either smart or wise. We are no better than Ghengis Khan, no more civilized; we simply have more tools. So what’s it mean? Knowledge is not the answer. You already know, what your spirit need to know. However some time ago, we moved into cities and stopped looking up. We started to forget when we stopped looking up. We began to forget about the sky. Our day to day practical world is so full, and so distracting, that we do not forget the spirit once we touch it; we lose interest. It is still there, just not for us. Our minds are too busy; unless we focus and immerse ourselves into the mystery. We never lose the magic; we instead turn our backs to it. My first wife, Barbara once said, “How often we forget that once we could fly”. Playing with the water, walking the dog, feeling the wood of some toothpicks…it’s an effort towards meditation…an effort shut down the “committee”. To still the beast within… The man walked to the top of the mountain and asked the Guru, “I am looking for a good book to teach me how to achieve enlightenment, can you help me?” To which the Guru replied, “You have already failed.” You may have been tricked into the knowledge trap. The space between knowledge and spirit is wide. Ultimately you must find what it is you most desire? Do you want to read by rote formula (“this card means this, this card means that”), or do you want to read from the heart…from the spirit. They are two paths that are quite different, and not to be confused. What do you want? "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" T.S. Eliot, Choruses from "The Rock"

Teranar	28 Jan 2003
Here's another thing you could do - forget what the meanings of the cards are! Do a reading, and blank out the part of your brain that knows what each card means! Blank it! Now start running your mouth about what you feel and draw from the cards, and remember - you don't know what the cards mean! I'm basing all this from how I learned Tarot - except I didn't actually know the meanings of the cards at all, and almost all of my reading is intuitive.

Karenwhe	28 Jan 2003
Ok, lets shed some light here. It is not that I can't read tarot. I read cards for longer than I can remember. However, because tarot have pictures, I fail to identify when I am using my imagination and when I am using my intuition. The stories flow in my readings without a problem but the question is what if flowing? My intuition or my imagination? I specifically asked the question about the effect that tarot can have on ones imagination vs intuition. This can't occur with tooth picks or water or whatever else, I can see things in the white foam of a an egg. And that is ok. However the tarot have pictures, pictures work on the imagination which is the LB not RB. So, I can have a typed up reading of 5 pages from 3 cards only, but I am finding hard to know how much of it is imagination and how much intuition. On the meanings of the cards. I have never learnt the meanings of cards from any book. To be quite honest I don’t own any tarot book or any other book for any of the deviation systems I use other than dreams. The only books I own are business and technology. So, I have nothing to forget to be quite honest, everything is made up by me, this also poses the question of how much was made up by my imagination over the years. I know that so far most of my readings are very insightful, but I also must admit that I don’t get the reading from the tarot cards in some cases, but from the persons energies. I can’t explain this in simple words, though I feel it is a very simple thing. I can recall a reading about a month ago for someone over the internet. The reading took about an hour, however when I analyzed the reading (or analyzed myself) I noticed that 90 percent of it had nothing to do with the imagery of the cards. Nevertheless, it was accurate and insightful but it didn’t have much to do with the cards, I just picked up the persons energy. I guess it is ok to do that, however if ok, then where does it leave the tarot and their imagery? So, to summarize, if I read the tarot then I feel I am really reading the cards and in those cases I don’t know how much is my imagination and how much my intuition. But in other cases I just read the person and in those cases I could just put away the cards and it would be just the same, because I am not looking at them I am just typing away. Further more I can’t control this, I can’t determine when I read the cards and when I read the person. It is just one of those things.

Keslynn	28 Jan 2003
Must there be such a wide gulf, a dichotomy, between imagination and intuition? I think they are really two variants of a similar energy. As children, we explore the world almost as much with imagination as we do with our senses. Think about it: when you were young and no one you knew had died, did you still think you knew what it would be like to grieve? Probably. How? Because you had imagined it, played it out in your mind. Of course, your imagination can't compare with experienced feelings of loss, but imagination does fill in the gap somewhat where we actually know nothing. I lived whole lifetimes when I was a child. I could be whoever I wanted. Usually, I was the princess, but I could have been anything else. As Umbrae has pointed out, we lose some of that as we get older. Imagination is silly if you're not an author, an artist, a musician, etc. So who up and decided where it was appropraite to express imagination? Also, what is empathy but imagination in action? To empathize, you imagine what it is like to be the other person. I think a similar mechanism kicks in when we read the cards. Intuition acts in a similar way I think. I'm finding it really hard to explain but... with tarot, we're assuming that there are certain emotions/situations that are human, not restricted to one culture. Yet at the same time, you and I certainly have vastly different experiences due to our seperate life paths. It's a delicate balance. Thus, with the palette of cards for that person laid out on the table, we are asked to use our imaginations to try to apply it to this person's life. We might not know what they are going through exactly, but intuition fills in knowledge where we otherwise would have none. It's the same as imagination worked when we were young. You're filling in what you cannot otherwise touch, taste or emotionally experience. I hope that made sense. It was sort of stream of consciousness. :) Kes

Dark Inquisitor	29 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Karenwhe On the meanings of the cards. I have never learnt the meanings of cards from any book. So, I have nothing to forget to be quite honest, everything is made up by me, [/b] I would love to hear the meanings you have made up for the cards on your own! Tarotphelia

Umbrae	29 Jan 2003
I never really read any books on tarot for the first 25 years of reading. My meanings came from reading and journaling.

HOLMES	29 Jan 2003
it seems to me that your psychic eye is attuned to reading auras, and hence when you look at an actual person it in facts becomes a tarot card in a sense as you can subsconsicouly see symbols and colours around the person. for the true gift, it flows with flow of the universe, thus reading a card will help you in some regard, yet reading the person would help in a differnt matter. i suggest this,, next time you start to read the person, explain ot the person that the tarot for you just a tool yet at this time you don't need it as you can read the person as a book. hey john edwards used to use card, now look at him, you too will go far. may i also suggest travelign within each of the cards to futher develop your eye. also i get the feeling that your ear charka is opening up and at a higher level you can just read the person like that for you have guides , angels telling you important information about the client which in the begining feels like imagination, as opposed to inuition yet as you devleop it and get more confident you will grow in leaps and bounds.

Karenwhe	29 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Tarotphelia I would love to hear the meanings you have made up for the cards on your own! Tarotphelia - I post them here once in a while when people ask about meanings of cards. I think the longest interpretation I posted here was the comparison between Death and the 10 of Swords. First of all I would like to mention that ONLY since I am on Aeclectic I read about other interpretations and go to web sites to read about tarot, the cards and decks. But that is all, and I guess this is when I started feeling like a nut case. I see everyone studying and learning them like science and I never done that. I also started looking into symbology and the origins but it doesn't move me, meaning this is insignificant information for me when it comes to readings, so I quit researching about Crowley and stuff like that. Umbrae - journaling ........wow this is a big word for me. I did journal quite a lot but that is about my intuitions and my visions and I follow up on them. This I have been doing for 15 years and I lived to see things come true 5 years later and more. Also numerology and pattern that I find in things according to numbers. However, tarot cards I started journaling quite late and only much later did I become consistent at it.

Karenwhe	29 Jan 2003
Holmes, I think you said a few very interesting things, and I would like to reply but I need to think about it first. By the way forgive my ignorance. Who is John Edwards?

Karenwhe	29 Jan 2003
HOLMES, I sat and I read carefully what you wrote. The first thing that I don’t understand is the aura reading thingy, I don’t see auras, so maybe reading them is a different thing? Anyhow I will look that up. The other thing; what is the ear charka? I know of the seven charkas but none of them are called “ear charka” from what I read so far. However I also know that the seven are only the main once and there are about 120 points of energy in the human body (I wouldn’t quote me on that number, that is from something I read). About the telling important things, this is what really triggered me to think about everything and take a close look and understand your post. I always had a problem with stating/telling things to people things that don’t make sense (not in readings but in general conversations, meetings or whatever) and after the fact I don’t feel that I was responsible for what I said – I feel like, why did I say that? What has it got to do with anything anyway?. This has happened to me more times that I can count. However I do not channel I do not read spirit (I don’t even know if I can, because it scares the hell out of me). Why? Go figure, I never had any bad experiences and in essence I shouldn’t have a problem with it.

HOLMES	29 Jan 2003
subsconsciously in the context i see means that though you don't see them yet consciously, on a deeper levle not yet known to the conscious mind you see them, and thus that is how you can read some people well as they auras are open as a book. (we all had those guarded people we can't read) one can read the aura as well with hands by sensing around the person with one hands, yet you never did it eheh. john edwards is that psychic off of crossing over. the ear charka is the part of the head above the ears on the side. they connect to the piah,, which also has the third eye connect to it(that is why some clairvoyants only see the one third eye for example) it can be aking to channeling the nature you describe,, in fact most channels start that way at the beginnign recieving broadcasts to the soul. yet here it is slighty differnt. i sense they speak to your ear charka, and show stuff to your eye center. (just my sense ,, other people may be able to sense more) yet the thing is to grow so one becomes responsbile and can control what they say.. that is the beuty of tarot readings, we as tarot readers learn ethics, and control of our abilities and our knowledge .. how much to share with a newbie client, or a client in the know about the tarot.

Minos	29 Jan 2003
I can sort of see what you're getting at, I think. How can you get readings that aren't just plug-and-chug the LWB meanings; something like that, right? This is one method I've used for myself: I've found it useful, after laying a spread and looking it over silently, to put it into a 2 to 4 line poetic utterance. It doesn't have to rhyme, but it should have some vivid imagery (the cards make that easier) and sound appropriately oracular. We're not talking great literature here, just advice and predictions fixed into more or less rhythmic and imagistic language, kind of like Nostradamus's quatrains. After you practice it a few times, you'll find the words come to you quicker and quicker. I don't tell words that come to me to other people when I'm reading for them, but they do often form the basis of the reading. Anyways, it's one way of getting around the little internal censor inside you. I suppose you could draw a picture or something as well.

amyel	31 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Karenwhe I know that so far most of my readings are very insightful, but I also must admit that I don’t get the reading from the tarot cards in some cases, but from the persons energies. I can’t explain this in simple words, though I feel it is a very simple thing. I can recall a reading about a month ago for someone over the internet. The reading took about an hour, however when I analyzed the reading (or analyzed myself) I noticed that 90 percent of it had nothing to do with the imagery of the cards. Nevertheless, it was accurate and insightful but it didn’t have much to do with the cards, I just picked up the persons energy. I guess it is ok to do that, however if ok, then where does it leave the tarot and their imagery? So, to summarize, if I read the tarot then I feel I am really reading the cards and in those cases I don’t know how much is my imagination and how much my intuition. But in other cases I just read the person and in those cases I could just put away the cards and it would be just the same, because I am not looking at them I am just typing away. Further more I can’t control this, I can’t determine when I read the cards and when I read the person. It is just one of those things. Karenwhe, I respectfully & humbly would like to suggest that *perhaps* you are overthinking this!!! I tend to be an intuitive reader, and like you, I sometimes think I am reading the person more then the cards. But what does it matter? If your readings are accurate and you've helped the person, does it matter? And perhaps the cards are guiding you to pick up on certain signals, for example, if there are alot of cups, you focus on more relationships and emotions, etc. Anyway, perhaps not a deep, intellectual response, but my "intuitive" one.

Alex	31 Jan 2003
in this whole subject, because I often have the feeling I don't even know what is being discussed about here when the word "intuition" is mentioned. What does it mean, to read "intuitively"? What is "intuition"? A couple of years ago, actually, three years ago, I was talking with a colleague and it crossed my mind that she was growing a tumor. Out of nowhere. Recently it has come to my knowledge that she was diagnosed with cancer last year, and that she is in treatment. Well, was it "intuition"? I often know when people are sick years before they develop any symptom. It's a gift I have that really doesn't serve anyone (no use bringing it up, no one believes me) but I have it. However, I often wonder, if it is not JUST that I am able to notice minimal changes in skin color, eyes, general vitality, whatever physical indicators of illness which are not obvious to everybody around... but to a few... But is that "intuition"? When people are really "sick" everyone can see it. Why is the former (the ability to perceive illness in the absence of obvious symptoms) "intuition" and the latter (the ability to perceive illness through the presence of obvious symptoms) "not intution"? What is, and what is not, intuition, and why are creativity and intuition exclusive rather than complementary? Why is reason to be set appart, or told appart, from intuition? We are nowadays willing to look at the universe from a more holistic perspective. Why not look at the mind from same? Why is this or that mental function "better" or even "separable" from the others and regarded as "superior"? If one reads Tarot mainly intuitively, so what? Is it helpful to the querrennt? Is it MORE helpful to the querent?. If not, why bother? If you can help with your immagination, your analytical powers, your cultural background... that's really matters? Just questions. Alex. Quote: Originally posted by Karenwhe So, how do you read tarot and shut down your LB? I get more about a person just by looking at their picture than reading their cards. How do you explain this?

jema	01 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Alex We are nowadays willing to look at the universe from a more holistic perspective. Why not look at the mind from same? Why is this or that mental function "better" or even "separable" from the others and regarded as "superior"? If one reads Tarot mainly intuitively, so what? Is it helpful to the querrennt? Is it MORE helpful to the querent?. If not, why bother? If you can help with your immagination, your analytical powers, your cultural background... that's really matters? i read the thread and this comment is the one closest to my own thinking. i really don't see why there is such a contempt for analytical thinking among so many tarot-readers. most of us have a good grounding in the history and the symbolic language of the tarot that we use in readings as well as that more fluid and etherical thing that is intuition. i see it as both are valid. very few of us here at the forum are exclusivly one or the other of the two "systems". i would say that in general we do use both imagination/intuition and our analytical mind. and if the result is good - why change it? i also see very little difference between imagination and intuition. if pressed i would say that intuition is "knowing" and imagination is "expressing"

Karenwhe	01 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by amyel Karenwhe, I respectfully & humbly would like to suggest that *perhaps* you are overthinking this!!! You are absolutely correct are there is no doubt about this in my mind. It all started with when joining Aeclectic. Oh, don't get me wrong I love the place like no other. However, until I came here I didn't notice and didn't know that there are "supposed" to be somewhat common meanings to cards. And then my journey of doubt started, and I felt like a nut case. Because I read (not books), the cards, I just read them and what comes for the querent at the time, and some times it has nothing to do with the card meanings and imagery. There is more to it but I won't bother you with the details. However, this doubt and journey also ended quite quickly thank to Umbrae, Holmes and to all the participants in the about the "throw the book" thing . So, thank you Umbrae and Holmes and all the participants in the about the "throw the book" thing .

Karenwhe	01 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Alex Why is this or that mental function "better" or even "separable" from the others and regarded as "superior"? My humble opinion is that there is no issue of superiority only an issue of use. Some things get better done by the LB (left brain) and others better by the RB. Just like every other part of the body has its unique purpose. A good example would be that people don’t try drawing or writing with their feet, as god gave them hands for that. Though I have seen documentaries of people that draw and write with their feet (however, this is rare and I would assume it is not the purpose of the feet, but it can be done). But leaving the poor brain alone for one second; there is such a thing as a sixth sense and it has its purposes. Therefore the sixth sense is good at some things and the other five senses are good at other things, there is no issue of superiority only purpose and use. That is only my opinion. And one day when I will get better grips with English grammar I will write and article of my own findings about the High Priestess’s so called secrets and the sixth sense.

lawguy51	02 Feb 2003
LB RB, intuition, analysis, books, no books, meanings, no meanings..... Please, I'm not dissing anyone here, but this is, for me at least, a case of different strokes for different folks. I might read about Umbrae's experience for instance and it sounds great...throw away the books, stare at toothpicks (I've tried it...fun but haven't had that breakthrough insight yet!) but that's not going to work for everybody. Me, I've been reading every Tarot book I can get my hands on. I write all sorts of other people's meanings into my journal. If I buy the Thoth deck, I need three books on the deck. But that's me. The thing is, when I do a spread I don't go through a catalogue of interpretations one by one. I see the whole spread and instantly know at least 3/4s of what it's telling me. I may study the spread for a half hour in order to tie that last 1/4 into the reading. I may pull a few books to better be able to verbalize what I am thinking or feeling about a card or a relationship of cards. Is that intuition? Did I analyze the spread? Both, probably. But we haven't mentioned the most important thing, something we have all agreed is the most important thing...that we are helping others and ourselves be it with intuition, reason...or toothpicks. Lawguy51

Alex	02 Feb 2003
That's a good way to put it. I'm not sure it's even possible to separate some mental functions. People's minds work differently, too. It's counter-productive to force one's mind to act in a different than it's preffered mode; even though developing other mental functions might be a good excercize.... as such. We all should be more worried about shutting down our ego during readings, rather than our left brain. A lot of the discussions regarding what is and what should be in readings comes from ego needs rather than the degree of helpfulness of the reading itself. If what I want is to impress, cause impact, find a way to be proud of myself, I sure will look less ordinary if I have wild insights and can see one's whole life in front of me with four cards etc. But... is that of use to the querrent? Is it useful information, helpful information? If each one of us concentrate in taming our own ego and try to be of service, we will find the right and the best way we can be of service, according to our own limitations and potentials. Alex. 'If you know something that is hurtful and untrue don't say it If you know something that is hurtful and true, don't say it If you know something that is helpful and untrue, don't say it If you know something that is helpful and true, find the right time" Quote: Originally posted by jema i also see very little difference between imagination and intuition. if pressed i would say that intuition is "knowing" and imagination is "expressing"

Karenwhe	02 Feb 2003
Stuff about "intuition" as it seems to be a greatly confusing word. I am not sure this article will actually resolve the confusion but it may be a little stepping stone in the process of ones growth and understanding (then again it may not). Intuition & Reality Testing http://www.globalpsychics.com/lp/SpiritWays/intuition.htm

Minos	03 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Alex We all should be more worried about shutting down our ego during readings, rather than our left brain. Maybe we should try shutting down our right brain instead of the left one for a change! Maybe instead of trying to reach down into our unconsciousses all the time, we should try to let our ego have completely free reign and just jive away without compunction for once. I'm not quite sure if the above are meant to show the futility/undesirability of priviledging one side over the other, or if they're really meant as serious suggestions. :)

Karenwhe	03 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Minos Maybe we should try shutting down our right brain instead of the left one for a change! Cool idea........ only one problem........... we first have to switch the RB on before shutting it down......... Most of the latest threads speak of the problems we have using our RB after we learnt to use it (switch it on) then we will actually have something to shut down, at the moment I don't think that there is anything to shut down to start with. Our RB default settings are "OFF" to start with. While our LB default setting are "ON". This is why we speak of "Developing your Intuition".

Alex	03 Feb 2003
to a side of the brain, it's a social construct. At least according with some theories. Some people who claim to be "hightly intuitive" would easily qualify for a diagnosis of narcissistic personality. I've met two in my life, who exploited my family, and I've become VERY weary of "intuitive types". They were all about themselves, "I" was their primary word of every day. They could "sense" spirits, predict future events, and perform little cures here and there,,but still it was all about themSELVES: they could not handle the pride and ambition that came along with their "abilities". Had they tried to shut their egos and be of service to others, may they would had found out that their brilliant visions were of no use to that purpose_ I mean, the purpuse of helping others.They were mostly to the servive of controlling, impressing and manipulating others. They were to the service of their own, distorted egos. Alex. Quote: Originally posted by Minos I'm not quite sure if the above are meant to show the futility/undesirability of priviledging one side over the other, or if they're really meant as serious suggestions. :)

Aerin	03 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Alex Some people who claim to be "hightly intuitive" would easily qualify for a diagnosis of narcissistic personality. I've met two in my life, who exploited my family, and I've become VERY weary of "intuitive types". They were all about themselves, "I" was their primary word of every day. They could "sense" spirits, predict future events, and perform little cures here and there,,but still it was all about themSELVES: they could not handle the pride and ambition that came along with their "abilities". Had they tried to shut their egos and be of service to others, may they would had found out that their brilliant visions were of no use to that purpose_ I mean, the purpuse of helping others.They were mostly to the servive of controlling, impressing and manipulating others. They were to the service of their own, distorted egos. Alex. Ohhh yes, I've met with that. Someone who kept saying she knew things about people because she was psychic and then gossipped incessantly behind their backs on the basis of this supposed 'knowledge'. Very nasty. (I chose not to believe a word she said: if it was true, then it was none of anyone's business but their own; if false then just plain ugh.) I think she believed what she was saying, and used it to have power. Regarding left and right brained: I do some tutoring on creative problem solving and what I tell students is to develop their intuition and creativity by trying lots of different things. So if you tend towards the analytical, try some crazy sounding so-called 'right brained' techniques - stretch yourself and feel the discomfort of stepping outside your habitual approach And if you never/ hardly ever exercise your logic, then do that - analytical, linear thinking can unearth new possibilities that your intuition may have missed altogether. Then combine the two.... and you get more than twice the creativity. Either/ or is limiting. Do 'and'. And then find some new ways to stretch your boundaries. Aerin

Minos	03 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Alex to a side of the brain, it's a social construct. The same has been said of what have commonly been called 'left-brain' and 'right-brain' thinking. See for example: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~dlk/Learn.styles.html http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbru9905.htm Quote: Originally posted by Karenwhe Our RB default settings are "OFF" to start with. While our LB default setting are "ON". I find this a bit difficult to believe. Most people I know (including myself) tend to have a deficiency of critical thinking rather than an unmanageable surplus of it.

Minos	03 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Aerin So if you tend towards the analytical, try some crazy sounding so-called 'right brained' techniques - stretch yourself and feel the discomfort of stepping outside your habitual approach And if you never/ hardly ever exercise your logic, then do that - analytical, linear thinking can unearth new possibilities that your intuition may have missed altogether. Then combine the two.... and you get more than twice the creativity. Either/ or is limiting. Do 'and'. And then find some new ways to stretch your boundaries. I like it!

Karenwhe	03 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Minos I find this a bit difficult to believe. Most people I know (including myself) tend to have a deficiency of critical thinking rather than an unmanageable surplus of it. That may be correct nevertheless the LB doesn't deal only with critical thinking. There is lots more to it that has to be "shut down", things such as prejudice, indoctrinations etc., etc., they all reside in the LB.

Umbrae	03 Feb 2003
Perhaps…Left Brain…is a metaphore… :smoker:

Karenwhe	03 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Umbrae Perhaps…Left Brain…is a metaphore… :smoker: he he he he he he, I just can't stop laughing........ Umbrae, I see that you are determined to confuse the hell out of people....................... and why do you alway pick the easy jobs................ :D :D :D :D :D

Alex	03 Feb 2003
I often think of 'left-brain' and 'right-brain' thinking as models to explain certain trends in brain physiology. Women seem to use a larger area of the brain when solving logical problems, whereas men tend to concentrate more on the left side of the brain. Phisiologically, men's and women's brains work differently: women seem to employ larger areas of the brain, when thinking, whereass men have the ability to use restricted areas of the brain, for different cognitive functions. That is good to solve some problems, bad to solve others. There's a lot to find out yet, about all this. Alex. Quote: Originally posted by Minos The same has been said of what have commonly been called 'left-brain' and 'right-brain' thinking.

Minos	03 Feb 2003
Right brai

Talisman	04 Feb 2003
'Lo all, During the last Super Bowl, television sports commentator John Madden carefully explained all this "brain" stuff. (Madden was a successful football coach, but developed a phobia against flying in airplanes. Now he enjoys a hugely successful career as a television announcer, traveling around the USA in a bus.) (This is paraphrased, but not far off the mark.) "Look," he said. "Your brain is divided into two parts. You got your front brain and you got your back brain. And your front brain and your back brain sometimes think two different things. (He is talking about offense and defense in the game of football.) So, sometimes, you gotta do what your front brain and your back brain tell you to do and follow your instincts." Karenwhe, Umbrae obviously has a huge talent, and we all profit by his ideas, but his toothpicks are just splinters of wood , or plastic -- without his front/back brain thinking. Listen to lawguy51 and read everything. Everything. Your front/back brain will quickly kick out the dross. Listen to me, Karenwhe! I mean it! If reality is the sum of our perceptions, to acquire more varying points of view is to acquire, LITERALLY, more reality. Don'cha think sometimes your imagination fuels your intuition and your intuition feeds the flames of your imagination? And stripped of intuition and imagination, what could you ever expect to see in your Tarot cards? Just follow your instincts. Talisman

HudsonGray	04 Feb 2003
Right Brain, Left Brain Conscience, Uconscience Instinct, Intuition Don't they mostly all come from the subconscious? Overanalyzing them doesn't make using them any easier, and if you end up in the trap of the logical side of your brain trying to make sense of it all, I figure you loose out on the majority of the connections. Doesn't it all sort of just come down to trusting yourself to come up with an accurate reading regardless of what the mind has to do to journey there? Knowing how eating & digestion works doesn't help much when you're sitting in a great restaurant with the best tasting steak in front of you--you savor or appreciate the things that come up strongest for you & get the most out of whatever experience you're having, in that way. Trust yourself & accept whatever it is that makes the connection for you. (I'm not going to go off on a side tangent & say angels or higher powers do it all, since I don't believe that--this is completely internal, reading cards connects on so many levels that it makes no sense to toss that into the mix).

Karenwhe	04 Feb 2003
Toothpick readings is the best thing invented after reading in mud coffee. Toss away reality, toss away ego, toss away fears, toss away expectation, toss away excitment and basically eveything you know to be as the way it is or you think it should be - what have you got left ? and what do you see?

purplelady	04 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Karenwhe Tarot makes me feel like I am using my imagination not my intuition (and I have quite a creative imagination). In my opinion the two are entertwined. Perhaps "imagination" is the active form , and "intuition" is the passive form of the same thing?

purplelady	04 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Minos This is one method I've used for myself: I've found it useful, after laying a spread and looking it over silently, to put it into a 2 to 4 line poetic utterance. It doesn't have to rhyme, but it should have some vivid imagery (the cards make that easier) and sound appropriately oracular. We're not talking great literature here, just advice and predictions fixed into more or less rhythmic and imagistic language, kind of like Nostradamus's quatrains. After you practice it a few times, you'll find the words come to you quicker and quicker. Ancient oracles used the same method for their acurate predictions.

Karenwhe	04 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by purplelady In my opinion the two are entertwined. Perhaps "imagination" is the active form , and "intuition" is the passive form of the same thing? From my personal opinion, it is not............... but for the life in me I can't explain this in words, those who will experience intuition will know immediately the difference. However, I did have a problem with the Tarot and I also found a wonderful exercise to rectify the problem. When I will perfect it I will post it. Similar to the toothpicks, but not really the same, a type of trusting you intuition where there is nothing but a void, not even shapes of toothpicks.

Khatruman	04 Feb 2003
Holding his left and right brains with his hands over his ears so they don't spill out of his aural canals Wow, what a discussion, and one that I feel inadequate to even jump into!!! These are threads that reaffirm the level of wonder I see in the students of tarot since I began coming here a few short months ago. If anyone tells me that tarot followers are a bunch of devil worshipping idiots, I will lead them right here!!! Anyway, I think some debating has gone on here to an amazing level, and, reading through the wealth of ideas and understandings, I feel like coming to a point of saying... Stop Making Sense!!! (does his David Byrne-in-a-big-suit impression). I think you come to a point where you hear ideas and philosophies, be they from books, other tarotists, deck creators, ad infinitum, and you must simply compost that knowledge and sit back and see what fertilizes. The whole debate over intuition vs. book study, imagination vs. intuition, right brain vs. left brain, or whatever, comes to a point where it is purely academic to keep debating. One must finally sit back and feel what is true to him or her. I am not saying the debate is invaluable. Quite the contrary. It is necessary for one to find study however one finds that comfortably, whether it is as Umbrae did, through intuition building, or as lawguy does, through immersion in text. Some kind of experiential knowledge has to feed through, but then it comes to a stop and one must act on that deeply composted knowledge and let things grow. For some reason I am thinking of having watched Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse a wonderful documentary about the journey of Francis Ford Coppola and his making of Apocalypse Now. First rememberance is a discussion he has with Dennis Hopper, who has not learned his lines for the movie. Coppola tells him that, once he learns his lines, he can forget them. Hopper retorts that, well, he is doing that in shortcut by not even learning his lines. Coppola comes back that, in order for him to be that character and forget the lines, he must first learn them, then he can forget them. I think this anecdote says kind of what I mean by finally forgetting what everyone says and doing what you have composted. You had to hear it all first, THEN you can forget it! The other part of bringing up the documentary is towards the end of the movie. Coppola is writing the movie as the filming progresses, and he comes to a very dark and fearful period, where he doesn't know how it is going to end, yet he has gone so far into it that he HAS to end it. He is almost suicidal at this point, realizing that he has set up the movie with some very profound questions that need some kind answer, and to not answer them would be failure. Finally, he just lets go all worries and the natural and appropriate ending surfaces. He had all the parts in him, it came to a time when he just had to let go of fear of correctness for correctness to come. I don't know if I added anything valuable to all the amazing contributions in this thread, but I hope I put a piece of something in here. Peace!

lawguy51	05 Feb 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Khatruman [i] I don't know if I added anything valuable to all the amazing contributions in this thread, but I hope I put a piece of something in here. Peace! Added to it and nailed it imho! Lawguy51

The Developing your Intuition thread was originally posted on 28 Jan 2003 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.