Started a journal. Please, feedback!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 25 Mar 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

spunch	25 Mar 2003
So, following advice I've been given by many people on this forum, I decided to put off my Tarot books readings for a while and start searching within, communicating with the cards, writing a journal. So I did The Fool today (Robin Wood deck). Here is what I made of it: (this is the exact brainstorming I wrote in my journal) FIRST IMPRESSION: positive card (for me). Care-free. Pastoral. Would like to be him. He can do whathever he wants. Doesn't need much (I think the dog is his). Has everything he needs. Card imagery / Insights: Young man (care-free). Nature; lots of green and blue (peace, harmony, one with the nature). Butterflies/birds (all friendly). Will fall off the cliff, but this doesn't seem to be a danger (or, maybe he won't - he couldn't care less). Bag on his back (long journey. Doesn't carry much but has everything he needs). Snowy mountains in the distance (maybe he is going away from his cold home, to search where the grass is greaner?). Dog - he will keep him company (ONE IS NEVER ALONE!) KEYWORDS: care-free. Naive. Leaving the past behind. Searching for a better future. Seeking experience, adventure, knowledge. Brave. Travel. MAKING A MOVE. NOTES/ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. He has everything he needs. Watch your step!! Negative (?) - Is it always right to be care-free, resolved of responsibility? Also, he won't probably stay in one place for too long. Will he make friends? Will he miss the people he meets? Does he need them at all? Will they miss him once he is gone? (Because, he will definitely leave) ADDED LATER: Needing some fresh air. Problems (at home). Running away. Other people might see him as beeing foolish. Breathing. Forgetting. Leaving the past, looking into the future. Breaking conventions. Wanting to do something different. OK. That's that. It's now in my journal. Now, the question - should I go and fetch those books of mine and add some more information or is this enough? Will this be enough to interpret The Fool within a spread? Am I missing a lot in this way? Thanks for reading and thank you for your swift answers! ;)

Inana	25 Mar 2003
Your impressions sound good to me. :) Someway are similar about my feelings on this card although i see more negative points on it. I myself dont have a journal. Only a few notes about some cards. In this notes i have information given by other people or descriptions found in the web that i liked. Its a good idea to add more information but only if it tells something different, or something that you forget and found interesting. Keep journaling!

HudsonGray	25 Mar 2003
Something to add to the journal--step mentally into the card, look back the way he came & see what's behind him as well as what's in front, he came from somewhere. Talk to the dog, he'll answer you back. Look around you, talk to the Fool & see what he says. It'll add more dimension to the card.

Alex	26 Mar 2003
to think of people you know who have acted in a similar way, or a time in your life when you have. Or even a character in a book, or movie. Then derive the adjectives from there. The fool card, translated into other languages, becomes "the crazy" or "the idiot". I thought that could help you with this card.

spunch	26 Mar 2003
Thanks a lot everybody. Definitelly, it's easier to learn the Tarot with the help of a journal. Some people observed that writing the things down does something to your subconscious mind and it is definitely easier to remember the card and its simbolism. There is still one thing that troubles me (this was the question at the end of my first post in this thread) - should I, after having written my thoughts in a journal, check some other meanings that other people came up with? Or shal I leave it for some later time? Is my pondering over the cards enough to do a half decent reading and to follow cards' advice?

raeanne	26 Mar 2003
Spunch, Most people on this forum will probably tell you that their journals are never finished. As you see new insights into a card, jot it down. If you want to spend more time with the Fool card now, that's up to you. If you want to go ahead and get a basic meaning for all the cards first and then do some more reading, that's fine too. Either way is OK. If you are using a spiral notebook for your journal, you might want to leave a blank page or two for future notes on the Fool. I use a three ring binder so I can add new pages whenever I need to. Personally, I think I would get a basic meaning for all the cards by doing what you did with the Fool card and then go back to the books. It sounds to me like you are off to a great start!

HOLMES	26 Mar 2003
i must agree with that all heartedly ONE IS NEVER ALONE, as it says , we are the brothers, yourself is myself, and the father/mother/source, and son/daughter/creation are one. a fools transcends ego to see beyond i was looking at it reversed and i was thinking.. NOO I WILL FALL NOO . edited to add. as i hit the button, a phrase came to my head. "we can fly "? "we can fly we can fly" and some weird song, and cartoon children,, OH NO PETERPAN HAS STRUCK AGAIN.

HudsonGray	26 Mar 2003
It's the meaning in the card itself that is what you should use, even to ignoring the LWB. I'd read through it once, looking at each card as you go over them, but stand by what YOU see in the deck. Nobody needs to be a slave to the books. 99% of the meanings will likely be 'seen' by you anyway. Intuitive reading is somethng everyone moves forward to after time, you're just starting out with a leg-up on it by not being tied to the books themselves. Though I would recommend getting a copy of 78 Degrees of Wisdom (for study & reference) for the future.

Faerie Lin	26 Mar 2003
This is just a comment! It was very refreshing to read your journal entry of the fool! I liked it very much and think you are doing a fine job! :D

Jeanette	26 Mar 2003
Spunch, I think in the end that you have to do whatever makes you most happy and comfortable! If you like jotting down your thoughts about the cards and then checking in books afterwards, then that's the way to go. If you like to just write down your own meanings for the cards and never check the books, then do that! After all, I think Tarot card reading is a very personal thing and this is part of the way to personalize it for yourself. I myself like to read every book I can get my hands on! Then I jot down every meaning that applies (my entries can be long). But, since I've started writing, I find I get so much more from the reading. Best wishes to you with your journal! Mine has evolved to more of a diary thing, because I've started keeping track of other things that are important; newspaper clippings, poems, whatever! It's definitely a work in progress!

Mimers	26 Mar 2003
Hi Spunch, Well, it looks like you have pleanty of ideas, but I would just like to add that I love your interpretation of the fool. Also, as mentioned before, leave yourself a couple of blank pages to add things in the future. Talk to you soon! Mimi

spunch	27 Mar 2003
WOW! Guys, you are great! I didn't expect so many replies and I'm SOOOOOO happy for getting that many! Tried to do The Magician yesterday. God, that was hard. This guy just didn't speak to me. All I could do was keep stearing at his deer cap (Robin Wood deck) and ask myself - Why oh why is he wearing this thing on his head? No matter what I did - trying to focus on two candles in the background, his tools on the table, yellow background, red cloak... nothing helped. The image of his cap kept growing and growing in my head and in the end, the whole image turned into some sort of a Bamby scene - everybody happy, butterflies flying, flowers blooming, leaves budding... Everything turned out to be... well... Spring card. Than The Magician became a shaman (I'm not sure about the right spelling of this word), somebody people go to to seek for advice, but all he does is understanding them, offering them goods of nature that he prepared, a nice drink and some berries... He listens to the people and they go home happy because he understood them. He did nothing. Just listened. He was, to me, like 'all people's priest). He triggered something people already had in their minds, and, by talking to them, just put everything straight in their heads... I guess that is what it is: All you need is already in you, so just USE IT!

HudsonGray	27 Mar 2003
She put the horns on him to represent Hern, the forest god in pagan European religions, and the rest of the skin was part of that (Hern was human with deer antlers & possibly cloven hooves). But it represents what you think it represents, actually. She did do a book for the deck which explains a lot, you can pretty much throw away the little white book after reading her larger one because it covers so much. Everything from why she used the colors she did to what the flowers & butterflies mean. But still, the strongest way to learn is to just be with the cards. The magician never said much to me either, when I did the meditation on it, he kept smirking at me & focused on the table. Wait till you get to the Death card, that one was fun! (If you see any tiny Scotsmen in that one, let me know!).

BC Hockey Mom	27 Mar 2003
Hi spunch Thanks so much for starting this thread! I too have my new deck and am starting out. Many have told me to journal and I hesitate to get started....I was told to look at each of the cards and do just as you are doing now! It's helped me out a great deal to see your posts and others replies to the cards...WOW..you are doing a great job...I have the Quest cards and that's about the only one i've really looked at and I could picture it when you described it in your journal....GREAT JOB!! Now I have to get started and I see that if you're doing it right then I'll do just fine... Good luck....maybe you could start a study group for us newbies and we can journal the cards together! (Just a thought) THANKS BC Hockey Mom...

spunch	27 Mar 2003
Bc Hockey Mom Thank you very much for writing your post. Yes, definitely it's easier to do those things if you're not alone in it. Sometimes you think that your insights are the right ones but how are you to know if you have not compared them with the others. It's to me like writing a 'secret' diary that you know one day will be read by somebody and you expect certain aproval of the things you have written in it. I was thinking of starting a study group. Something like 'Journal Entries' or more precisely, choosing only one type of deck to comment on. The thing is, today I bought Morgan-Greer deck and I'm planning to study it and use it in my readings, but I don't know how many people would join in this study group if we did only Morgan-Greer. Maybe than we should start Morgan-Greer Raider-Waite study group. Yes. I'd love to do that. I'm not sure how it's done, though. Do I just start it or do I need somebody's approval? So, for all the moderators out there and the people who are beginners - Should we start a new group called: 'Journal Entries - MOrgan-Greer & Rider-Waite decks?

BC Hockey Mom	27 Mar 2003
I think a Journal Entry (agggghhh Bookkeeping terms again....I thought I LEFT work) Study Group would be fun. The only thing is that I don't have either one of those decks and I'm sure by the sounds of it everyone has different decks....But since this would be for us newbies and also for the wise to guide us, what if we discussed a card at a time, using our deck (as most of us newbies only have one deck so far). That way we will be able to get so much more insight from the cards when we hear eachother describe a different version of a particular card?!...does that make any sense.... I know you described the Fool earlier and although I don't have that particular deck I could see my QUEST Fool quite clearly in my head as you described him. So in most cases maybe the cards are very similar, and maybe we could learn little details/insights from other cards that we didn't see in our own? Anyway...that's my thoughts on the subject...what ever you decide to do I will definately be following! Blessings BC Hockey Mom

spunch	28 Mar 2003
Yes, it could be fun and interesting and educational. I'd love to start a study group for writing journals - for neewbies, where people would discuss cards on the basis of their insights, not burdened by the meanings found in books, where they would write stories on their cards, trying to waken up symbols sleeping in their subconscious. I wrote a private message to Kaz, one of the moderators of study groups and I am now waiting for his reply on some advice of how to start and some guidelines on how to do it best. So definitely, if that works out, all you neewbies out there who want to share their journals, see you there!

BC Hockey Mom	28 Mar 2003
Sounds great...will await the news!!...THANKS!! BC Hockey Mom

VerseJunkie	04 Apr 2003
A Newbie Journal Forum would be a wonderful idea; I'd definitely be down with that... ...keep us posted with information.

The Started a journal. Please, feedback! thread was originally posted on 25 Mar 2003 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.