Overwhelmed with Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 11 Jan 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Dovanna	11 Jan 2005
It's been a good few months since I've gotten really into Tarot reading. As it is with my nature, when I develop a new serious interest I have to know everything about it. So I've gotten myself a binder and filled it will all sorts of Tarot info, studied it, performed readings with friends, etc... There is so much info out there, I was wondering at what point after starting to learn about Tarot that you all felt that you knew enough to perform a good reading? Even when I think I'm doing a good job I'm always wondering in the back of my head if I need to look deeper, or did I miss something?

inanna_tarot	11 Jan 2005
woah woman! Your not a Virgo are you?! lol I was the same, lots of writing down, learning meanings from books etc. I became more confident when I realised I was looking at it from the wrong angle. The meanings are on the cards! Tarot is often linked to an unbound book of 78 pages. Each symbol has many words and personal thoughts and insights that are personal to you! Books and their meanings show you the way, but tarot isn't really your own, you dont gain any real confidence and intuitive flow untill you stop writing and just gaze at the card. Scan the card, let your eyes start in the top corner and move across, row by row, get to a symbol or a colour find out what it means to you. Look at the clouds, the waves, the hills etc in the back ground, the colour of the sky and then move forward. All the clues are there, you have to just do some detective work. Course, writing down your thoughts on those symbols and how it could mean in a reading is a great plan! You could even compare it to the meanings in the book and see if they are the same. If they aren't no biggy. Every reader has a subtle difference to each card. With tarot you will think you know a fair bit, and then it will astonish you and give you a whole new realm of thinking! Its a life time of study, and one we all relish in :) Sezo x

Nevada	11 Jan 2005
Oh, you've caught that TOS disease (Tarot Obsession Syndrome). It's incurable, you know. ;) Welcome! Nevada

Fulgour	12 Jan 2005
Keep all the stuff you find that you like and want to have, but if it's information you're going to use, copy it by hand. You'll soon realize that very little needs to be written down, and the essentials of understanding are really quite simple.

Azezel	12 Jan 2005
Wow. Sounds like you and I are similar. We are incurable philomaths. Lovers of scholarship for scholarship's sake. That is how I got into tarot, but not what has kept me here. I think ti was a good two years before I performed a reading which I called completley satisfactory. And I still find myslef seeing new meanings in cards which I have laid a hundred times before. Laders of meanings stretching down beyond sight. If there is one person on this forum who thinks they know the lot then I should be surprised. Sometimes my instructress and I will see two diferent things in the same card, in the same reading. Sometimes she will even tell me that she preffers my interpretation to hers, I like that, but she has been reading for ten years, so one would have to read for longer than that to know it all, that's all I can say.

Dovanna	12 Jan 2005
[quote=Azezel]Wow. Sounds like you and I are similar. We are incurable philomaths. Lovers of scholarship for scholarship's sake...QUOTE] Yeah, I've been in college for 5 years, and now I'm going on to grad school for even longer. I figure at this rate I'm going to be in school forever. :) It's been hard to let my right brain do the talking when my left brain is so use to being in control. Thanks for the info everyone!

Gypsy Mama	14 Jan 2005
I have been into tarot for 5 years now and I am only starting to feel I would like to try reading for others . I find it difficult to memorize card meanings from books etc. so I have to know the card on a personal level in order to feel comfortable. But that's just me. In regards to you wondering "in the back of your mind if you are missing something", I was the same way. Now when I have the feeling I may be missing a deeper message, I calm myself even more and simply ask the card what I may be missing. I use the Sacred Circle and it works wonderfully for me.

Simone	15 Jan 2005
First of all, Welcome to the boards, Dovanna, and welcome to AT (Associate Tarotaholics :D ;) ) Practice is the ticket: the more you read, the more you will learn to trust your intuition and knowledge! And the more you read, the more you will discover meanings to cards within spreads and in relation to questions that were not in your books ;) Have fun! Love Simone

cSpaceDiva	15 Jan 2005
Dovanna wrote: There is so much info out there, I was wondering at what point after starting to learn about Tarot that you all felt that you knew enough to perform a good reading? I'll let you know when I get there, I've only been doing it for 10 years. I guess I'm a little slow. LOL I'm still surprised when it happens. I thought that having the right deck helped me get there, because when I started using a certain deck, I noticed that I was finally able to read the cards and didn't need the book anymore. It may have been that, or it may have just been timing because then I noticed I didn't need the book for other decks anymore either, and I'm not quite sure how that happened. (I am not into memorizing.) I think you can perform good readings from the beginning as long as you are open to what is being presented. As far as knowing enough, I probably never will.

mzoltarp	15 Jan 2005
I too have gotten into the mode of reading everything about tarot that I could get my hands on and one of the things I have learned is how much cut and pasting goes on in the texts. I guess its not really cut and paste if several high end authors say virtually the exact same thing about the meanings of the cards, but it is disconcerting that there isn't more insight and variation. I am now to the point that when I read a new book (some of the Llewellyn books for example) I am resigned to finding chunks of different books by the same author(s) having nearly identical text. When I see that I scan through until the text returns to something non repetitive. In all seriousness I think I will write my own book of the meanings of the cards not because I think I'm so brilliant but because writing to learn is a sound strategy for deepening what a person knows about a subject. I'm becoming more and more annoyed with pat descriptions of cards so I need to challenge myself to go deeper inside of myself. Then I think I will be ready to read others. I already read for others but I would like to do this as a professional second job ie to have a side line that really invigorates me as an adjunct to my straight ahead Monday through Friday job.

Sulis	15 Jan 2005
cSpaceDiva wrote: I thought that having the right deck helped me get there, because when I started using a certain deck, I noticed that I was finally able to read the cards and didn't need the book anymore. It may have been that, or it may have just been timing because then I noticed I didn't need the book for other decks anymore either, and I'm not quite sure how that happened. (I am not into memorizing.) This is exactly how it's happened with me too. My first real breakthrough came a year ago when I got my Morgan Greer deck. I feel as if I've just had another breakthrough after getting the DruidCraft. I've been reading for 3 years now and I've realised that in the past few months I've not used a book during readings at all. I feel as if I'm finally getting to that stage where the cards are actually 'speaking' to me; I'm actually reading the cards. Remember you'll get the most out of tarot if you take it slowly. Memorising meanings from books is not reading the cards, it's reading the meanings from a book. You have the rest of your life to become good at reading the cards - take things slowly and you'll get there. what I've found is that I seemed to go for ages when I thought I was making no progress at all, then I go through a phase (a short one) when I just go off tarot for a week or so - this is usually when a breakthrough comes. Love Sulis xx

MeeWah	15 Jan 2005
Before I read any books, I wrote my own takes on each of the 78 cards of the RWS. Their possible significances also assisted by examining their numbers. What began as self-enlightenment continues with the adjunct discovery fairly quickly that the cards lend themselves extremely well to divination. Maintaining a journal on the daily card pulls; a record of the readings for self & others assist the development of the personal meanings. Btw: I began reading immediately in the midst of writing the personal takes on the cards.

tarotbear	15 Jan 2005
When I first 'got into' tarot sometime in the last century, I had no intention of actually learning the cards; I was using them for spellwork and enjoying the artwork. I did not expect to become a card reader, much less publish a book on the subject! However, fate had other plans for me. It was about two years between buying my first deck and actually doing what I would consider my first public reading. Once again, Fate interveined and there I was - doing a reading in the lobby of a hotel - without a book - and having it all make sense. I am a great reader of tarot books and have a shelf of them for reference. However, one day you will realize that 'falling back' a book is something you should get out of the habit of doing and trusting you instincts. It will take time and it will take courage, but someday it will all gel and fall into place. May that day be a joyous one for you! However, if there's only one Tarot book you can buy this year - make sure it is "It's All in the Cards" ISBN 1-4027-0986-2 . The author is a charming, witty, and brilliant person ! LOL!!!

MeeWah	15 Jan 2005
Tarotbear: Ye such a card :D

Dovanna	15 Jan 2005
Seems like ya'll are telling me what my Tai Chi instructor told me awhile ago: "Well, if you want to be decent at Tai Chi then you'll have to work at it for about 10 years. If you want to master it then you'll have to do it for about 30 or 40." Needless to say, I didn't stay in Tai Chi for very long. Ten years of membership fees? You gotta be kidding me! hehe

tarotbear	16 Jan 2005
Dear Dovanna - The Tarot experience is as different as the readers that are a part of it. Sometimes I see ads at New Age stores where they 'Teach You to Read Tarot in One Night!' - quite a trick! To Misquote Ophelia - 'we are not trying to show you the long and rocky road to heaven.' There is a lot of stuff to understand to use Tarot effectively. Some people need no coaxing and some people need a lot of attention. A healthy curiousity is the best thing one can have. As I said earlier, I did not start out buying or using tarot cards with EVER having the intentions of 'becoming a reader' - it happened quite suddenly after a two-year period of learning. Some people may only need a month or two; some need more time. This is why I argue against 'certification' programs - learning Tarot is not in the same category as whipping up a batch of brownies! Some people can cook more naturally than others; some only become expert at defrosting! Regardless, please don't think I am being harsh or negative. I love Tarot! I 'do' Tarot in some way, shape, or form EVERY SINGLE DAY. I also learn something new every single day. One lifetime is not long enough to learn everything Tarot has to teach us! Take it easy and let to flow.

The Overwhelmed with Tarot thread was originally posted on 11 Jan 2005 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.