New to forum - Hello, can you give me some advice?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 09 Jul 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

White Jasmine	09 Jul 2003
Hi everyone, I'm new here and firstly would like to say hello to everyone and secondly wondered if you could give me some advice? I've owned tarot cards for a few years now and have recently picked them up again and really want to start working with them. My friend has a deck and we did a reading for each other and she told me to try not using the book for the meanings, but think about what the cards mean to me. She was taught by another tarot reader this way. I think this is the way to go but am not sure how to open up and tune in. I've always felt I am very intuitive and have had premenitions about people close to me, but didn't realise until afterwards that they were premenitions. I'd like to know how to open up this side of me - any advice?

raeanne	09 Jul 2003
Hi White Jasmine, Welcome! I am sure you will hear lots of different ideas on how to get to know each card but I will start off with my suggestions. When I get a new deck, I take one card a day (not always in order, just any card I want for that day) and I spend the day getting to know it. I start with a clean sheet of notebook paper with the card’s name at the top. I write down the word Major for a Major arcana card or the suit name and what that might mean to me. Then I write down the number (or court card level) and what that means to me. Third I write down the word “Impression” and next to that any gut feeling I get when I look at the card. After that, I start at the top of the card and work my way down and I list everything I see on the card on a separate line. This usually starts off with the background color. When I am done listing all the details, I go back and write a few words beside each one that explains what that might mean to me. If I get stuck on something, I skip it and come back later (sometimes years later!) and fill it in when I understand more. I also do some simple role playing. I look at the card and then stand the way the person in the card is standing and pretend I am that person. By this time I usually have a fairly good idea of the main energy behind the card. I try to personalize it by identifying a time in my life when that card would have been the perfect card. If I can’t think of a personal event, maybe an event in the life of a friend or character from a book or movie will be perfect to connect with this card. I tell stories about how the picture came to be and what will happen next. It takes me 78 days to get to know a new deck but I think I end up with a really good idea of what each card is trying to say. The Five of Cups from the Rider/Waite deck might start off something like: Five of Cups Cups:---------------------emotions Five:----------------------problems, static Impression:---------------sadness, loneliness, depression Gray sky:-----------------depression, rainy day, gloom Tall slender figure:--------grim reaper Black figure:--------------depression, mourning, sadness Bowed head:--------------prayer, supplication, penitence, regret, giving up Back turned:--------------rejection, ostracism, left out, loneliness Feet stationary:-----------immobilization, rigidity Town in the distance:-----home, support network, friends and family at a distance Trees around the town:---healthy growth, thriving environment (this is at a distance) River:---------------------divides, separates, crossing over Barren land:---------------no growth, no nourishment Spilled cups:---------------loss Red fluid:------------------sacrifice Green patch:-------------new growth from the sacrifice Standing cups:-----------remaining resources Bridge:---------------------re-connection This is just my idea but it might get you started. Enjoy!

White Jasmine	09 Jul 2003
Wow, thanks so much for that Raeanne! That's really helpful, I'll give it a go.

Little Baron	09 Jul 2003
Hi there and welcome White Jasmine I do pretty much the same sort of exercises when I study a new deck. I keep cards that I can consistantly go back to and enter new information. Maybe jotting this information onto the filing systems of the computer may be a good way to organise yourself. I find it exciting to try and find my own meanings first, before reading what the books have to say. Later, when I do that, I often find things I agree with and some I don't - there are many times when I stick to the theory that means most to me. Reannes advice was very good. I might adapt my own learning experience from what she has said as her perceptions and views of the example were very thorough. Once your own insights have been listed you can discuss those cards on the forum and add to them. Others will have seen things that you have missed and the other way around. A card a day is a very good way to learn if you can stay disiplined. If you can, you will have a good knowlege of the deck after the 78 days. Incidently, what deck do you read with? There may be a study group here for you to join up with. They really are a godsend when you are trying to get to grips with the tarot. Best wishes and just enjoy yourself. Yaboot

Thirteen	09 Jul 2003
As everyone will repetitively tell you, it's up to you. What works, works. Nevertheless, here's contrary advice--don't use the little white book that comes with the cards, it's rarely any good. But don't limit yourself to JUST your own impressions. There is often a fear of books and a feeling that your own impressions and imaginations are superior. Truth is, neither rigid book learning or pure impressions is "superior" or the way to go. A combination works best. Why? Simply because knowledge is power. If you read something, it can give you insight that your own impressions, limited by what your experiences, might not give you. It can also inspire, illuminate, even let you in on tricks and secrets. For example, reanne just said "cups = emotions." Why? Why not "cups = intellect" or "cups = the body"? Well, either she's remarkably intuitive, or she read that in a book. Cups symbolize water, emotions, psychic abilities, also addiction--relating to "thirst" and consumption. Perhaps you already got this impression--but reading up on Tarot symbolism can let you in on some really cool secrets about the cards. Rather like examining Rennissance art and learning the symbolic language artists used with colors. It enhances your own feelings, and gives you deeper insights. Writers and artists use not only the visions in their heads, but the inspiration they gain from the world around them, from the headlines in the newspaper, from other things they read or see, to create. The best tarot readers do the same. My advice, don't ignore a good book just because you feel it might limit the imagination. To the contrary, it could make the cards snap right into place, and open a whole new universe of ideas and inspiration. Mary Greer is one author that people swear by on this forum. Also, take a look at the very excellent Table of Contents stickies you see near the top of this section. They list threads discussing EVERYTHING about the cards--meaning, symbolism, numbers, etc. Both scholarly observations and people's impressions. Any question you have, you're likely to find a dozen or more answers there. As for learning the deck a card a day--that's up to you. If you really like that idea, by all means, do it that way. If you feel excitement and the wheels of the mind turning, if you want to race ahead through two or ten cards a day, by all means, do so. However you need to learn the cards is the best way for you to learn them.

Trogon	11 Jul 2003
Hi White Jasmine and welcome to Aeclectic! You've gotten a lot of good advice already. I definitely second Thirteen's notes about combining knowledge gained from books along with your own intuition. For me the real intuitive part doesn't really start until I'm doing a reading for someone. That's when my intuition will say to me oh, that card fits this way with this person. Sometimes I even get intuitive "flashes" that just don't fit with meanings I already know for a card. That's the way intuition works for me. For example, I did a health reading just a few hours ago... we did a 3-card "issue - blockage - advice" spread. The "blockage" card was the Ace of Cups - reversed. I looked at that and said, "you're dehydrated. There are other issues at work, but part of why you're feeling so poorly right now is because you haven't been getting enough water." Then I took the back of her hand and lifted the skin a little... it didn't spring back down like skin normally would. Who knows, perhaps I'd subconsciously noted this before I got to that card... but it is not a meaning I normally associate with that card, but it is what came to mind. As for learning what the cards normally mean to me... There are two things which really started bringing it all together for me. The first was joining Aeclectic Tarot. The discussions and the tremendous amount of information available here can't fail to help you. The other thing I did was to buy a second Tarot deck, one which was very different from my first, and start to study the decks side-by-side. This way I could see things differently, see how different images can mean the same things, or how the same cards can mean very different things. My first deck was the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, the second one I bought was the Röhrig Tarot, which is Thoth based. I hope my ramblings have been of some assistance....

Little Baron	18 Jul 2003
I work side by side with the RWS and The Rohrig. I think that despite differences, they work very well together. Good luck Yaboot

genna	22 Jul 2003
Welcome,White Yasmine! When I first started studying the Tarot one book helped,and still helps,so much with getting in tune with the cards,and that is the text- and workbook"Tarot For Yourself" by Mary.K.Greer.So many great exercises for deveoping "an awareness about your intuition and how it works"(page 5).You are not adviced to look up her interpretations of the cards in "Appendix A" at first,but when you do,you will find that they are very varied,and not at all limitating. I also find keeping a Tarot journal for my card-a-day,and other readings very helpful.Best of luck!

Wisp Wings	04 Aug 2003
Fabulous advice already on this thread from everyone. First, Raeanna wonderful advice! I do a write out somewhat similar to yours. It is very helpful. I do have a thought on how you could earn some cash, lol. I for one would buy a ticket when you role play the position of 'The Hanged Man'. :-) As soon as I read that, I had 'The Hanged Man' pop in my mind, "Wow, that would be a feat!" LOL. Joking aside, I do recall once having wet hair and was laying on the bed with my head over the edge, (one of those exhausted, but have to be somewhere times). So that was to catch a breath for me first moment. Any how, I did think of 'The Hanged Man' with my upside down view at the time. Silly, I know. White Jasmine, when doing something and the cards surface in your mind as "This is like this", "This makes me thing of ___ card", that is a learning. Having hands on contact of looking at, thinking, and meditating on your cards helps. Reading about Tarot as much as you have time to and being on Aeclectic relating to others of what they've experienced helps. I don't want to be repeating much of what already has been said, but it is a combination of blending any printed or handed down meanings from other people and developing your own meanings. Everything you gain from outside yourself and your guidance is just expansing your range. Your mind will sort the new and it will either accept or reject it, due to what is right and true to you. It is like anything else that is learnt too. With use/practice you gain experience and with experience you come to master it better. The longer you've done it, time will make a natural flow of it and instinct will result. Your intuition will also develope more and will get stronger with time of using the tarot. Relax and always trust yourself. Occasionally when you sense that this card at this time means this, and it doesn't relate to anything you've read or known, even if it counters all you know it to mean, go with it. If you are reading for another person on such as occasion, just say "I'm seeing this or that" or "I am being impressed with ___". Then ask "Does this make sense or mean anything to you?" If it didn't and doesn't later to you in the reading, drop it. BUT REMEMBER IT. Make you a file, mine for this is named "It What?!". Stick such strange happenings and popped meanings in this. This is learning your own imagery. When you do this file, set you a pattern of how you order your cards and use the same here for ease of referencing it. You won't have to fish later for finding it. My notebooks that I use for myself aren't spiral or the big, normal notebook size. I do have one packed that is that size, having all types of the meta-physical in it. But the ones I love and most use is about 7.5"x 9.5", using 5.5"x 8.5" paper. Pages that I intend to forever have, I use the ring protectors stickers on. When you run across something that really resonates well with you, you want to remember it, add it. This is your treasure book. Spreads you think you will later like to use, add it. You can put dividers in for the different class groupings you make for the book. I like having several of these small type books for the different needs. Example of mine: "Treasured Tarot" notebook (as just spoke on prior), "Personal Reading Journal", "Readings" notebook (which is reading for people), "Fellowing Faes" Journal ....This isn't tarot, why an extra book needed. Its for my "The Faeries' Oracle" deck. These notebooks have the plastic inserts on all of the outsides, some are front insert only. You can create a theme. Like making a bag for your deck and then something with the same colors or same fabric for the insert. If artistic draw something for the inserts. :-) When you are creating something for your deck/s, you are honoring it, holding it in esteem. Your mind isn't just on the process of the creating, but on the cards too and how what you're creating is connected. It is expansion. Tarot will cover into all areas of your life, this is learning Tarot.

Astraea	04 Aug 2003
There are so many wise and generous people here, as this thread attests -- what great counsel! Welcome to the Aeclectic community, White Jasmine.

The New to forum - Hello, can you give me some advice? thread was originally posted on 09 Jul 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.