Do you flash?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 01 Feb 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Moongold	01 Feb 2005
Sorry about the provocative title :) A couple of time in the last few days I have read people's comments that they have flashes while reading. What do they mean by this? Do you have flashes? I had a momentary visions of thunderstorms when I first saw the word. I don't have what I would "flashes" . My insights are more quiet thoughts that just appear. If I am not attentive I can miss them. When I have them I hold them gently in consciousness and often write them down straight away. By holding them in consciousness gently I kind of validate them by referring to the question and looking at other cards. Sometimes they can gather other thoughts around them as I look at the cards and that is also a kind of validation process. Quite often I have a feeling of just knowing (I am a Pisces Moon) but that's not a "flash". It just "is". And I am really careful with that. I always try to validate that with the cards. Sometimes I leave the cards and come back to them to see whether the feeling is still as strong. Sometimes I have overall strong first impressions which will come from colour or from particular cards, but I would not call them "flashes". I'd like to know more about this interesting phenomenum. If you feel like sharing, please do. If you have flashes, how do you trust them? Please note that whilst I find lightning quite beautiful I am inherently distrustful of flashes :). However, I am open to enlightenment or persuasion.

contradiction	01 Feb 2005
i sometimes have these "flashes", though not necesarily, while reading but it does happen then. i call my "flashes", premonitions, i left a thread on this topic in the divination section, it can be found here http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=34130 alot of the time, it will be as you explained, but also i do see pictures, this usually happens, when i "see" something that has to do with what i am looking at right then. sort of like a high speed camera shutter, so it does appear to flash before me. actually it reminds me of a strobe light (yes i remember disco, please do not hold it against me.)

Fulgour	01 Feb 2005
Moongold wrote: Quite often I have a feeling of just knowing (I am a Pisces Moon) but that's not a "flash". It just "is". And I am really careful with that. I always try to validate that with the cards. Sometimes I leave the cards and come back to them to see whether the feeling is still as strong. Reading your comments and questions I had a "flash" of sorts, which I think you'll understand ~ I have a Pisces Moon too. ;) I got an image of spaghetti noodles cooking, just when they start to roll smoothly around altogether in the big pot of boiling water. This doesn't just happen, but when it does everything's doing Ok, and you stand back, look at the clock ~ and it all comes together. In another minute you may be stirring again, or testing al dente, but right then you can see it all, feel it happening, and it's good. When you've done all the work, and the cards are on, it's great.

Alissa	01 Feb 2005
Here's another thread where flashes were discussed... :)

WalesWoman	01 Feb 2005
Flash...more like a news flash. Sudden strike where things suddenly make sense, a flash of illumination if you will. It isn't like I get a vision, maybe I should call them flickers...a bit here and there, trying to figure it out and it comes a piece at a time for me to thread together into something that makes sense. So maybe I struggle and struggle and some thought comes from out of the blue and I know what this relates to...that is what I call a flash.

Imagemaker	02 Feb 2005
For me it's a clear thought that comes from *outside* myself--not a progression of what came before, just a *ping* --it's new to me. Sometimes it's super strong and it stays with me. Other times it's a quick, faint ping and if I don't immediately focus on it, I won't be able to remember it an hour later. And sometimes whatever I learn from the flash doesn't occur or need to be applied for days, weeks, months. That's the frustrating part. Getting the flash and having no clue when it will apply (for me or another).

caridwen	02 Feb 2005
I'm not sure. I look at a spread and the reading is very clear, the problem very immediate but I haven't had 'flashes' as it were - that I've seen described here. Not that I remember anyway:)

WalesWoman	02 Feb 2005
I don't know if this is a flash, but it blew me away. The other day I was reading a friend's daily spread, and an image came to mind, so I described it what I thought the place looked like and how it might apply to her reading. Lo, and behold, the next day she replied telling me about the place where she worked...almost exactly the way I had "seen" it. It sort of freaked me out, because I was simply imagining or thought that's what I was doing and was laughing at myself for this "flight of fancy" at the time.

contrascarpe	02 Feb 2005
I guess I never thought of it as a "flash" (such a negative connotation for a male), but I feel like I experience what you say on many occasions. Often I feel like I get glimpses into the person's life when I am reading - guess the correct word for me would be "vision" over "flash". Not sure if that qualifies me as a freak, but often I get this vision when I am reading a card and see something which is unrelated to the card at hand. My successful hit rate on such things is pretty accurate. Dan

Rosanne	02 Feb 2005
Hi Moongold, I have what some people might call 'flashes'. I will be reading and looking at the cards, and into my head will come a picture- Like a postcard. It comes with the realisation that this is something to do with the reading. I don't call it intuition and it does not seem to relate to what I was thinking about right at that time. If I tell the querent about the postcard, they will usually see the importance of it. I used to ignore these moments, but now I describe them, even when they seem unrelated. A small example- Querent asks about a job change and its effect on their life. Half way through the reading the postcard comes with a picture of cruise ship in Alaska. So I explain and the querent says "I am going on a cruise before the new Job- if I take it" The postcards never seem to be something new and revealing about a card. Wish it was sometimes tho. Regards Rosanne

lark	03 Feb 2005
I flash. When I'm reading and in everyday life. I also film... This is seeing something like a movie film of events in my mind when I'm reading. I always tell my husband when I have a flash. Then if it happens I have a witness :D Here is an example of a flash....Friday I was washing dishes and I got a flash of the Pope.....being sick or dying. So I said to Joe, "Something is going to happen to the Pope." And Tuesday Joe is watching the news and he says "Hey they took the Pope to the hospital he has a bad flu." I'm folding laundry and I get a flash of a light bulb, actually me reaching on a store shelf and buying a light bulb....I go downstairs later to bring down some laundry and when I turn on the light the bulb pops and burns out. I go back upstairs to the cupboard to get a light bulb and we're out of light bulbs. Guess who will be buying some light bulbs? This happens so much that I am not surprised by it anymore, I honor it and keep it safe. I also cultivate this ability through meditation and hypnosis. It's an on going learning process.....that is fun and surprising. As for tarot reading...flashes are spoken first before card meanings. If I pull a card and I get a flash that is what I have to say. If I pull a card and there is no flash then I am to talk about the card meaning because that is what needs to be said. If I don't speak the flash then i end up klunking myself on the forehead with the palm of my hand and saying..."I knew that, I saw that, why didn't I have the courage to say it out loud." Experience has taught me always voice the flash.

WolfyJames	03 Feb 2005
I haven't had many flashes. It happened twice. When I did the readings, I had other cards from other decks appearing to me as an image. One reading, the card was the Queen of Swords. I don't remember which deck I was using, but the Queen of Swords' Rider-Waite version came to me. Another reading, again I don't remember which deck I was using, but the Light and Shadow version of the card came to me. I don't use the Light and Shadow Tarot enough to have it imprinted in my mind like that, as for the Diamond tarot, I never used it, and it's not that version of RWS that came up, the Diamond being very colorful, it's hard to miss.

mooncat2	03 Feb 2005
:) Do I have flashes - no, not that I recall. I don't think I am the flashing sort - lol! I have a Pisces Moon , too. I feel and through the feeling, I know. Which sounds a bit odd but that's how it is. I think it must be gentler than flashing and it goes along with what Moongold has said.

Imagemaker	03 Feb 2005
Quote: Experience has taught me always voice the flash. Good statement, Lark! Alissa has posted here (at AT, in Divination threads) that the voicing is key to keeping the flashes coming, to keeping the info channel open. Intuition teachers say that the knowledge only comes if we indicate we want it to keep coming. It's about being open and receptive to the flashes. And if you want to stop them, you just say no :)

SongDeva	03 Feb 2005
How bout this: Moongoldness, I wonder if you are simply expressing the differences in the ways we receive information? Clairvoyance: Seeing: "Flashes, Visions, Pictures, Movies, Imagining" Clairaudience: Hearing Claircognizance: Knowing Clairsentience: Feeling As a pisces myself, I've always been like a sponge, so all are present, though the last one is perhaps historically the strongest. That and the claircognizance. However, the others have REALLY kick started lately. Example: I was doing a reading last night for someone going considering a new business that she had some doubts about. She's looking for ways to increase her income. I laid the cards out, and decided to go "inside" to see if anything came. So I sat quietly for a moment and trusted that spirit would bring me something. After a moment, I saw....blueberries. Completely unrelated to the business she's considering. I mean COMPLETELY!! But like Alissa says, I know to voice it now, so I say, "Ok, WEIRD question, but do blueberries relate to this issue at all?" And she said: "Oh yes! My hubbie and I just planted a crop of blueberries, and we're going to sell them." Income increase? I think so! I felt bad for not trusting what was shown to me. LOL Most of you will be aware that if you go deeper into a flash, i.e., hold it in consciousness like Moon describes, that the significance will be made apparent to you, perhaps through claircognizance or -sentience!

lark	03 Feb 2005
Imagemaker wrote: Good statement, Lark! Alissa has posted here (at AT, in Divination threads) that the voicing is key to keeping the flashes coming, to keeping the info channel open. Intuition teachers say that the knowledge only comes if we indicate we want it to keep coming. It's about being open and receptive to the flashes. And if you want to stop them, you just say no :) Exactly! Exactly! That is what I mean by honoring it. That Allisa is a smart cookie :D The more you voice the more will come......it's a system of trust really. Like the movie Field of Dreams...if you build it they will come. And as SongDeva says there are many ways of accessing the information. I do it in all 4 ways and with sent. Flashes and filming are probably the easiest to deal with because you get a picture. Holding it in consciousness is such a good way to describe it Moongold. I think you do have flashes, but you wait untill they are reconfirmed by feeling or knowing.

Fulgour	03 Feb 2005
lark wrote: Holding it in consciousness is such a good way to describe it Moongold. I think you do have flashes, but you wait untill they are reconfirmed by feeling or knowing. Flashes may be as common or frequent as everyday thoughts, but just like when you "think" of something, it seems natural, even if it's a great idea. Intuition is in our lives, and we live it.

tmgrl2	03 Feb 2005
Yes. Good to reread the links again, too. I thanked Umbrae again yesterday in a reading I did for someone.... When it happens...sometimes at very beginning of a reading, sometimes part of the way in....I don't always say outloud immediately what I got. I think about it and then, I ask a question ...Does .....mean anything to you? What is.....? I never ignore them anymore. There is a way to bring it into the reading directly if it's an image that I can't make sense of, or else I weave it in, if I feel, for example a particular card is a characteristic of a person in the sitter's life or the sitter. Usually, the sitter isn't surprised or clearly has a connection to what I said...sometimes, they simply say, No...I can't think of what that might mean. I had a reading done for me last summer. The man was quite good...more of a medium, which was fine. He asked me directly...Who's Mary? I told him..."I don't have a clue. " I kept thinking about it and later he said it again, Mary, in blue..maybe the Blessed Mother? When my reading was over, I went down the street to meet my friend who was in from out of town... My best friend, Mary... Duhhh.... terri

Keslynn	03 Feb 2005
Yes, what of it? *holds trenchcoat closed* ;) I often get information as words or full sentences that pop into my head. Other times, it's a feeling/knowing). Usually, they're right on. I should speak them more because every time I have, it's been pretty accurate. :) Kes

WalesWoman	03 Feb 2005
Moongold thanks for this thread and everyone else for describing their "flashes." Because it was sort of freaking me out, not sure if the things I "see" or "feel", that sense of "knowing" were real or figments of my imagination or if I was losing my sense of reality. Now I understand that it is using and developing my intuition and that it has grown and expanded without me really being aware of it. I still don't think I'm psychic, not like on TV, but these things seem to be happen more often and more regularly. I think I know why it freaks me out, because it makes me wonder if I really am getting some sort of glimpse of something that is real, when it could also be emotional delusions. How do you know what is overthinking something and imagining something that comes from subconscious fears and what is a real message? Being where I am I don't do live readings, so I don't get that instant feedback when something "pops" in my head. I think I'll start asking more questions for my online readings and wait for feedback before proceeding...I'm not sure. At this point I'm trying to take it all with a grain of salt. Sometimes readings that I've done for someone made me very afraid for their safety, it was bad, but not as bad as I what I thought I was seeing, so in that case my imagination got the better of me. How do you know the difference?

Milamber	04 Feb 2005
SongDeva wrote: Clairvoyance: Seeing: "Flashes, Visions, Pictures, Movies, Imagining" Clairaudience: Hearing Claircognizance: Knowing Clairsentience: Feeling Based off of those, from what I've seen so far, I'd say any tarot flashes I might have would be of the claircognitive variety. I don't really "see" things. For me, the best description would be that I suddenly realize them. Not as images, or sounds, or emotions, but as thoughts or facts. It's expressed in words, but I don't think it's the words that occur to me. It's just a sudden knowledge or understanding. Kind of hard to explain. Like I remembered something, except that I didn't know it before. Notably, while I'm still not 100% confident about them on a conscious level, at some level I'm always certain of them. Again, hard to explain. It's like something in me knows that the realization is correct, but I'm still not personally confident with it.

Fulgour	04 Feb 2005
WalesWoman wrote: How do you know what is overthinking something and imagining something that comes from subconscious fears and what is a real message? I wrote a reply yesterday and decided to sleep on it for clarity. So much can be said but, first, everything is the real message. Sorting out the underlying impulse and discovering its source may be impossible, because your reactions begin immediately. Like when you hear a distant sound, recognize it but wonder, What was that? and immediately need to go check to be sure. Or there is the pebble tossed in a pond analogy. Splash, it's in, through, down, vanished and so only the rings of ripples remain. If the "flash" is the very instant of stone and water connecting, stay with that, you can't control the resulting chain reactions. Fear likes to come striding in just as it pleases at any old time, but welcome it and say, Glad to see you, c'mon join the party!

lark	04 Feb 2005
Waleswoman you asked how we tell the difference: A flash has no emotion attached to it. It just is...like fact. I might assign an emotion to it later, but when it comes it has no emotion with it. For me if there is fear attached to it it is a worry not a psychic flash. That is how I can tell the difference.

Rosanne	04 Feb 2005
I agree with Lark totally, and add if it has emotions then we can add further to those worries by enlarging them. Regards Rosanne

Moongold	05 Feb 2005
Thank you all for sharing and I hope youwill continue to talk about this. I am very like MoonCat2 and Fulgour. I feel, therefore I know. Not at all Descartian.. Things come together as your pasta cooking analogy indicated, Fulgour. I think I am very *sensitive* and feel things quite acutely. I have to remain quite emotionally strong to manage this well. I don't often get "flashes" but thoughts come. They come as the light comes with the dawn, sometimes quickly, always inexorably unless I have no energy at all and then they don't come at all.

Fulgour	05 Feb 2005
Moongold wrote: I think I am very *sensitive* and feel things quite acutely. I have to remain quite emotionally strong to manage this well. Long before I became aware of what it was that was happening, I used to unexpectedly experience terrible anxiety-panic attacks. What a shock to have it explained to me in an emergency room, even though I was in "counselling" at the time. It was liberating! What cannot be avoided must be endured, and all that will help prevent these is your own awareness of the danger signs, and a determination to not go that way, and resist being overpowered. Trusting yourself is a big part of coping with the illogic of panic, knowing that as bad as it may get, you can hold on and recover.

Cielo	05 Feb 2005
This is an interesting discussion....I would say I definitely have "flashes", not always during a reading, sometimes out of the blue completely unprovoked, and sometimes during deep meditation, it all depends. It can be anything from the vision of people, situations, smells, sounds, and don't have to be connected with anything I'm currently thinking about. Especially so this happens on the issue of pregnancies and births, and illnesses I have no idea why that is, I just know it's so, and it's always been like that for all time I can remember. There was a time where I would conciously ignore those flashes, perhaps because I didn't understand where they were coming from or why they were there, but in latter years I have grown used to them and actually come to like them. I don't know how to control them and I have no idea how to bring them about if I wanted to, though. I can best describe it as suddenly just "knowing" things, as if I had seen it with my own eyes, or been there and experienced it myself. In the instances where the flashes have been persistant and intense they have also been true, in other cases where it's been a bit more vague, sometimes I have not been able to clarify how it might have applied in real life. I'm still wondering how that all works, in terms of energies and intuition....

RedMaple	05 Feb 2005
Milamber wrote: I don't really "see" things. For me, the best description would be that I suddenly realize them. Not as images, or sounds, or emotions, but as thoughts or facts. It's expressed in words, but I don't think it's the words that occur to me. It's just a sudden knowledge or understanding. Kind of hard to explain. Like I remembered something, except that I didn't know it before. Notably, while I'm still not 100% confident about them on a conscious level, at some level I'm always certain of them. Again, hard to explain. It's like something in me knows that the realization is correct, but I'm still not personally confident with it. Yes, that's very much how it is with me, also. Occasionally, I have had experiences where it was as if I was experiencing it myself, so that included all my senses, but that has been rare, and never in connection with Tarot. When reading, I just "know" what certain cards mean in this particular spread. At first, I didn't trust that, and would have to go through all the "logical" ways to the meaning. Now, I just trust it. I have strong "flashes" regarding people sometimes, and it's always been to my detriment if I ignore them through mis-placed compassion or explaining the feeling away. I've felt extreme repugnance, actual physical illness and nausea when first meeting a person, who later turned out to be a dangerous person to me personally and professionally. I foolishly pushed the feeling away. Now, I respect those feelings.

Moongold	06 Feb 2005
On reflection I was going to ask what sort of things people had flashes about but on reading back through the thread I see thatmany of you have identified some content. I don't have "flashes" per se but sometimes the feeling of "knowing" is much stronger and can become very powerful. I usually have to focus quite strongly to ground that feeling. Experience has taught me never to voice it without consideration. When I have, I've usually regretted it. This does not happen to the same extent in readings, although in some readings it is a tangible feeling. The words come without effort. If any of you would like to share accounts of times when flashes or other have proved spot on I, for one, would really like to hear them.

Fulgour	06 Feb 2005
When I was twenty years old, I was flirting with two girls. Believe me, I was shy. All of a sudden they asked me to tell them what their "signs" were. Without trying to think, I looked at the one girl and said, Gemini, and then turned to the other and, even though "Pisces" was trying to come out, I said: Aquarius (I couldn't not say it). I was spot on. I've always half regretted they might've thought I "knew" what I was talking about and that there was some knack.

The Do you flash? thread was originally posted on 01 Feb 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.