pos & neg aspects of major arcana

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 23 Sep 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

WillieHewes	23 Sep 2002
Hi everyone, OK, so I picked up on this idea that all the cards have both a positive and a negative side, so that no card is completely 'good' or 'bad', and tried to write something on their meanings on both sides. I thought I got pretty far, actually, but I'd like your opinions on it. 1) Is this useful, or does it only complicate matters? 2) Are there any meanings you STRONGLY disagree with? Or do you have anything to add? 3) Do you think this would make a suitable LWB, ie, is it useful for beginners? Here goes, hope you find it useful. 0 Positive: enthusiasm, innocence, wanderlust, new beginnings. Negative: foolishness, naivity, ignorance, danger. I Positive: individual potential, power, taking action. Negative: weakwilled, abuse of power, egocentric. II Positive: intuition, inner wisdom, hidden talents. Negative: locked up in yourself, dense, need to know facts. III Positive:creativity, protective, loyalty, attainment. Negative: decadence, laziness, clinging to others. IV Positive:strong leadership, authority, structure, fatherhood. Negative: tyranny, rigidity, control-freak. V Positive: spiritual teacher, revelation, tradition. Negative: dogma, false guru, burocracy, spiritual oppression. VI Positive: falling in love, attraction, sexuality. Negative: trouble in paradise, choice, forbidden fruit. VII Positive: victory, self-confindence, success, holding in anger. Negative: ego-centric, losing control, trampling others. VIII (STRENGTH) Positive: mental and emotional strength, endurance, patience. Negative: the beast within, prudish, passive attitude. IX Positive: mental or spiritual search, solitude, enlightenment. Negative: loneliness, social isolation, bizarre beliefs. X Positive: good luck, pleasant surprise, a change for the better. Meanings: bad luck, unexpected disappointment, accident. XI Positive: fairness, order, being balanced, doing the right thing. Negative: insensitivity, strictness, slave to duty. XII Positive: non-conformism, unselfishness, letting go. Negative: inaction, refusing to surrender, temporary insanity. XIII Positive: a change, the end of a phase, clearing out the old. Negative: loss, death, grief, stagnation. XIV Positive: reflexion or meditation, moderating, compromise. Negative: inertia, brooding, self-denial. XV Positive: earthly pleasure, passion, indulgence, extacy. Negative: overindulgence, temptation, a slave to passion. XVI Positive: changes, an opportunity for growth, life-experience. Negative: trauma, adversity, chaos, loss of security. XVII Positive: hope, inspiration, finding your way, realisations. Negative: unrealistic, need for grounding. XVIII Positive: intuition, imagination, visions. Negative: illusions, doubt, dishonesty, hallucination. XIX Positive: success, happiness, conciousness, clarity, sincerity. Negative: blindness to the dark side, unfounded confidence. XX Positive: bettering yourself, another chance, absolution. Negative: bad deeds coming back to you, the reckoning. XXI Positive: completion, achievement, involvement, synthesis. Negative: loss of the self, loss of purpose after achievement.

Laurel	23 Sep 2002
Those look really nice. I could see it being useful to a beginner. I personally find that individual decks "talk" to me in each their own language so that its hard to pin down a definitive short universal meaning. I think what you've done though is useful. Laurel

MeeWah	23 Sep 2002
WillieHewes: Are you working on an LWB for your deck? Your meanings are well-conceived & indicate understanding of both sides of the coin. They present in key word terms some essential components of each card, suitable for the beginner & other than. (Perhaps you would consider including "appropriate choices" with the positive aspects of VI?)

WillieHewes	24 Sep 2002
Ha, thanks. Making a note of that, MeeWah. And, yes, I am working on a LWB. Since they are not very well-loved here, I feel it as quite a responsibility to make something good out of it. :) So, any more suggestions are very welcome. (bring em on...)

juice	25 Sep 2002
MeeWah already covered mine fo VI. XVI p.strong or abrupt chang (since you already have change under X and XIII XXI.n out of touch, disconnectedness I want to add something to XVII.n as well but haven't got the word maybe. Lost? Lost goal? Lost sight of goal? Lost hope? Depression? Blindness? Maybies X.p, set course II.n irresponsible VII.p good sport XIII.p healthy mourning XV.n incorrect beilefs XVI.p structures breaking down? obstructions removed? Words aren't coming out right on this one. I will be keeping this too. Feedback welcome.

The pos & neg aspects of major arcana thread was originally posted on 23 Sep 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.