Position meanings -- flexible or not?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 01 Aug 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Kyrielle	01 Aug 2002
In some spreads like the Celtic Cross, each position can have many different meanings. Position Nine, for example, can be your hopes and fears, or a guidance card for how to proceed next, or many other meanings. Do you need to have the meanings of each position designated before you lay out the cards, or are the meanings flexible according to your interpretation of the cards? I got a card in a reading (Celtic Cross card 9) that made little sense in terms of hopes and fears, which is how I usually think of card 9, but when I changed the meaning to a guidance card, it made perfect sense. Am I cheating, or can you change the intended meanings after the cards are on the table? -- Kyrielle

emily2otters	01 Aug 2002
it really depends on who you are and what your relationship with the deck is like. i tend to stick with the positions i started with, but i know there are many on this forum who don't use positions at all. sometimes we learn best from the things we resist... if the hopes/fears definition didn't grab you, you might consider struggling with it for a while to learn why not, and then see if you still feel like moving to the guidance definition. personally, i don't think there's any such thing as "cheating" with the tarot. :) you must decide for yourself what degree of structure you need in your readings.

truthsayer	01 Aug 2002
i use the celtic cross structure as a guide but i tend to be flexible w/ how i read the cards and in what order. i start w/ card combos that catch my attention like # of courts or a given suit or major arcana. i see the cards in multiple layers. there is a body level, mind and spirit. by what i see in the spread, i decide what category does this spread under. then i go where intuition guides me around the pattern of the CC. that problably doesn't make any sense but being flexible works for me.

Liliana	02 Aug 2002
Sure Im flexible with meanings, in fact the other day i just started reading without a spread or positions, Just thought of a position meaning, laid down a card, thought another, laid another, in a line until I had all the info I felt I needed on my question. Very enlightening actually. :THP

Sorceress_Jade	02 Aug 2002
I watched a friend throw a hand for me once where she laid them out looked them over and told me a bit about it, then with this funny look on her face i watched her carefully move the cards into a different spread and then she was all happy and gave me a complete reading from it. She has the two main spreads that she uses and just that one deck mostly and i think, for her, she always has both those spreads in her head. So it worked out for her, she knew that it was wrong, changed it and all was well. I know that for me as well, even though a card is in a certain position, it also says things about other parts of the throw. Like when you have a run of cups... it may not be so important that there is a cup in any specific position but in that there are just so many of them. It's the same idea with just knowing that a card means something beyond the position it was laid out in. But I always have the positions and meaning in my head as I ask the question, the everything else is above and beyond. Wonderful question, and I love reading everyones beliefs and techniques.

Minderwiz	02 Aug 2002
As a relative beginner, I tend to use positions. However I recognise that there are no objective positions in the sense of a 'correct' Celtic Cross or whatever. Positions are an aid to the reader more than an objective reality. They help us develop the picture of the reading by 'knowing where to look' for something. I do look at overall 'pictures' in the sense of how many cards of each suit (including omissions) how may cards of each number, how many major Arcana cards or other pattern in the whole. I'm sure that as we learn more we may well alter 'positions' or even get to the point where we can dispense with them. I suppose what matters is the extent to which we can read the patterns in the cards and the way in which they interrelate. Positions help in sequencing thoughts and the energy flows but I'm sure they are not essential. Best wishes Minderwiz

Original Destiny	02 Aug 2002
I suppose my approach is organic...I don't follow traditional methods of placing and reading cards...I have, over the years, grown with the Tarot and have my own ways of laying and reading them...a bit of a partnership, I suppose...It isn't "Me" reading "THE CARDS"....not a dual thing...more a combination:TFOOL

Minderwiz	03 Aug 2002
Original Destiny I think you have the essence of the answer there. I have seen several explanations as to why Astrology works but isn't scientifically testable. They come down to the importance of the Astrologer and the influence and impact he or she brings - Astrology works through the Astrologer's interaction with the horoscope. I'm sure that there is a similar reason why Tarot works and that it is not a dualism but a synthesis that is at work Minderwiz

Yodes	04 Aug 2002
While this may not be helpful for you, i remember the first reading i did. I had a few sources of how the celtic cross was laid out, and as i laid out the cards i felt like the tarot was really telling me something about my situation, some cards showed exactly how i felt... When i went to interpret the cards i realised that some of the cards were in different positions, as i had laid them out the wrong way - to the source i was using to inerpret them. I started shuffling cards around to where they should be, and went to interpret them, it was then i realised it didn't make sense anymore, as i laid them out i knew it was true, now however it just seemed garbled, it was then i realised i was trusting a piece of paper over my own feelings, so i put them back, and did a reading which concerned a pretty big part of my life, and the cards showed me the situation perfectly... that's when i knew i wanted to learn the tarot, i knew there was something to it. So i guess my advice is to trust yourself, that is what tarot's about, at least for me. And while i'm sure a few others have said this as well, i just thought you might like to hear my story =)

The Position meanings -- flexible or not? thread was originally posted on 01 Aug 2002 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.