Which grade are you in?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Jan 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Aoife	16 Jan 2003
In my experience of working with children, it is between eighteen months and three years of age that they are at their most intuitive - and then for most begins the process of erosion. I started to imagine what it would be like if education systems placed emphasis on the development of intuition and the inner teacher. People here often mention how many years they've been involved with the tarot. But where would you place yourself in terms of tarot skill and intuitive development? Are you still in primary/grade school? Or have you reached the dizzying heights of university/college? Indeed, are there any professors of tarot here???

mrsjvan	16 Jan 2003
Kindergarten, definately. I've been looking at a lot of pictures, but I wouldn't say i'm reading without help yet. That's why I spend a lot of time here. I need good teachers :)

Logiatrix	16 Jan 2003
yes, kindergarten--definitely and forever! why not? that's where we still get nap-time and plenty of recess! i will never wish to think less of tarot than a splendid part of my existence, just like kindergarten. tarot reminds me to enjoy story-time, cookies and milk, and drawing OUTSIDE the lines as much as possible!

Alex	17 Jan 2003
That's when you finally realize that you know nothing, that whatever you once knew has been forgotten...and that it's a waste of time to have an ego about knowing or not knowing something. And that feels good and it doesn't matter whether it's something I've been learning for 15 years or 15 months: all knowledge feels about the same to me right now. Downright plain illusion. As most other things in life. Alex.

Aoife	17 Jan 2003
Gosh, Alex I just felt these pictures come to mind when I read your post: I am a very little girl. I've seen you across the way coming and going from the very grown-up school. You always look so clever and serious but when you see me you always smile. You feel so sad today. I go over and take your hand. You smile at me but follow when I lead you back across the road into the playground. I'm not big enough to use the swings so to get me started you push me and I feel the momentum build and I'm laughing with joy. And then as I'm feeling the thrill of flying, I sense you beside me and then I hear your joyful laughter as we both fly through the air in the sunshine. 'Come on' I say, taking your hand again, 'I know someone who'll share their milk and cookies with us'. With love, Eve

Diana	17 Jan 2003
Admission into kindergarten was refused to me. "Try again next year", was what I was told. "Why?" I asked bewildered. "Study your cards and they will tell you", they answered. "How can I understand my cards if you don't let me learn?", I asked. "You've just answered your question," they told me. And then they showed me politely to the door. So I joined Aeclectic.

patter	17 Jan 2003
Can/should intuition be 'taught'. I think schools do there best to allow it to grow by allowing childs to work with art materials, book, and play spaces without too much imposed structure. Being a professor -- don't put to much faith in that being an elite level ;) I think I am a competant journeyman -- out of apprenticeship -- based on the fact that I rare;ly have difficulty interpreting spread anymore, and the readings tend to have some degree of effectiveness -- still not quite hitting the right nail on the head more than 1 time out of 4 tho.

Khatruman	17 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Aoife I started to imagine what it would be like if education systems placed emphasis on the development of intuition and the inner teacher. Ahh, as a high school teacher I imagine that quite often too, and I work on developing intuition. The problem that the system has with it is that it is hard to measure objectively and give tests for, and to compile figures and load down in beaurocracy and tell constituents that education works, and to explain to parents that you are getting them ready for a good career... ad infinitum... I am an idealist at heart, and my primary goal is to hel[ students become self teachers. in fact, last night in my folklore class i introduced our unit on tarot, and dealt with intuition. i started them with something non-tarot, by having a student draw from the creative whack pack, and the card happened to be titled, "think like a kid" and gave an anecdote about a teacher putting a dot on a blackboard. a high schooler sees a dot on a blackboard, but a kindergartener will see a squashed bug, or a rabbit's eye, etc. somewhere along the line, the kid-like imagination takes a back seat. the card suggested thinking like a kid and being imaginative, which went perfectly with my lesson where i had them looking at a card and imagining a story that went with it. [quote]Originally posted by Aoife But where would you place yourself in terms of tarot skill and intuitive development? Are you still in primary/grade school? Or have you reached the dizzying heights of university/college? [/b][/quote] I am still in kindergarten and playing with the cards myself. Actually, I thought that was bad, and I had to learn a lot of knowledge before I could use them, and that I had to look up meanings in books. However, thanks to this forum, I realize that it is ok for me to be playing, and developing intuition... Toothpicks anyone???? :D

jema	17 Jan 2003
i would have to say i was being homeschooled by a strict but confused mother who spent time first teaching me the recipie and then told me to throw it away and try anyway. i find the people who i think are very good with the tarot is that because they are simply stubborn and refuse to take short-cuts. it has little to do with what they know but a lot to do with how they apply themselves. i strive to one day be like that.

Centaur	17 Jan 2003
I would have to put myself in beginners grade! I am constantly learning new interpretations of cards, and being drawn to new decks. A very interesting journey!

Umbrae	17 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by metaz yes, kindergarten--definitely and forever! … and drawing OUTSIDE the lines as much as possible! Quote: Originally posted by Alex That's when you finally realize that you know nothing…Downright plain illusion. As most other things in life. Alex. Quote: Originally posted by Diana Admission into kindergarten was refused to me... And then they showed me politely to the door. Quote: Originally posted by Khatruman A high schooler sees a dot on a blackboard, but a kindergartener will see a squashed bug, or a rabbit's eye, etc. Somewhere along the line, the kid-like imagination takes a back seat... Toothpicks anyone???? :D In the Dedication for “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” (book one of “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis), the author writes to his Goddaughter Lucy Barfield; “…As a result you are already too old for fairy tales…but someday you will be old enough to read fairy tales again…” The more we know, the more we realize how little we know. The closer you look at atomic structures, the more you become aware of the empty space contained in a solid…the more illusion is revealed; the dot becomes a bug once again, lines blur, edges diffuse – and we are told by the self proclaimed wise ones we are quite mistaken. Hand them toothpicks and tell them they are correct, and remain with me, in kindergarten. I prefer the flavor of the red crayon to the blue…how about you?

Jewel	17 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Umbrae I prefer the flavor of the red crayon to the blue…how about you? Ohhhh I mix them ... purple for me :D! I think they might have kicked me out with Diana ... I was so busy doing my own thing with the cards that I was really not paying attention to them so I am not sure. But the best school of all has been Aeclectic. As to why we are not taught to develop our intuition ... well because then we might all become leaders and there would be no followers ... what would happen to our socialization then? - I cannot defend this statement in any way, it is simply how I feel ...

reds97	17 Jan 2003
I am in playschool still. I am just playing and getting nervous when i push people off their chairs.

Mojo	18 Jan 2003
I'm hanging out in the corner of the schoolyard robbing the kids of their lunch money by providing illicit tarot readings and then running like hell before the authorities catch me.

wavebreaker	18 Jan 2003
School? Nah, I've had enough of that, of people telling me there's only one truth and only one way to learn... So I went off to find my own path of learning. Sometimes I pop into a class, to see if there's something I can pick up there, but I usually leave before the end, because I get bored. I prefer talking to the people I meet on my path, and learn from them and from anything else that I encounter on that path. And the good thing is: I can keep on walking and learning, because there's no end to the path...

Trogon	18 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Umbrae I prefer the flavor of the red crayon to the blue…how about you? Neither... library paste... It has that yummy wintergreen flavor.... ;) What grade? I'm afraid none... I keep playing hookey... (an American colloquialism for skipping school to go fishing). When I fall in the stream... I learn to swim.

divinerguy	18 Jan 2003
"I am only an egg." Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein).

firemaiden	18 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Diana Admission into kindergarten was refused to me. "Try again next year", was what I was told. "Why?" I asked bewildered. "Study your cards and they will tell you", they answered. "How can I understand my cards if you don't let me learn?", I asked. "You've just answered your question," they told me. And then they showed me politely to the door. So I joined Aeclectic. Je commence à voir, Diana ... "The God of magic invented Tarot to liberate us from measurements" (p. 19 Rachel Pollack: Forest of Souls)

firemaiden	18 Jan 2003
:D Kindergarten, HA, what losers! I am in Doctoral Program in the World's Greatest University!! Wondering why the World's Greatest Visiting "Grosse Tête" (big head) has a classroom full of auditors, and I was the only one stupid enough to take the course for credit. Wondering how it is possible to scribble down his every word, without understand ONE SINGLE THING... I am at that moment of comic terror, when I realize, no one else understands a word either, they're all faking it, except they knew the lectures were profound, because they were able to spoon out the required magic words in the soup of talk: "ontologie", "herméneutique", "sémiologie" and "paradigme" as well as the required great and terrible names of the magicians: Foucault, Derrida, Hegel, Heidegger, and Kant being bravely pronouced, To which the only proper reaction is to bow the head in terrified reverence, and mutter, "ah, oui...".

Violet Gargoyle	18 Jan 2003
I would be Homeschooled- I have a different criteria of learning, and everything is mixed up level-wise.....somewhere between arts n crafts with popsicle sticks, and the thesis paper about what it really means to the national economy when you get a royal flush while playing poker with Tarot cards. Its hard to really tell where I would fall among my peers. Red Crayon, Blue Crayon- I prefer the sweetness of paste.

Demonesse	18 Jan 2003
Mfff. I think at my level... I'm still in diapers.

Laurel	18 Jan 2003
I graduated high school convinced that I'd make something of myself in college and squandered those years, forgetting half the basics I'd learned to even get there. Now I stare at the future, knowing I need to take the GRE but convinced that I should first take a year ~really~ learning the material I always thought I knew and studying for a love of studying, rather than to just get a "good enough" grade. ~LAS

tarotbrat	18 Jan 2003
i would have to say that i am in pre-school. just starting to learn the basics. from trusting my intuition, looking at pictures (observing the colors and shapes and numbers), listening and taking into consideration what other people believe in and sharing what i know and learning my first keywords. i definitely have plenty to learn and so far, i am enjoying pre-school. lol...

Silverlotus	19 Jan 2003
There's a school? lol! Seriously, I'd say I'm floating around somewhere in primary school. Sometimes things make all kinds of sense and I'm sure I'm getting somewhere. Other times it's like I've forgotten how to read and I'm trying to read a 5th year Engineering text. I guess it's all about finding a middle path between those two extremes for me. I feel that I learn a little more about myself when something clicks, but I know I will never know everything, that something will always elude me. And that is just fine with me, as it gives me another goal to work towards.

HOLMES	19 Jan 2003
i am still in the womb of the tarot god listening to frank sinatra records and the occosional records thinking when in the world do i come out , hey can i get some tarot milk , yummy , or even better *pulls on the umbrical cord hey pass down some apple juice * look who;s talking one movie

Marion	19 Jan 2003
I don't know... I just keep muddling along. I guess you would have to be a high order Golden Dawner with many years experience to claim to be a tarot professor. I have been doing this for a long time, but length in the service of tarot isn't a key to whether you understand or can do "The process" as Umbrae points out. :D

The Which grade are you in? thread was originally posted on 16 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.