advice needed please

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 20 Sep 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

deee	20 Sep 2004
i have been reading tarot cards for my family and friends, but ive always gone back to the book for the correct meaning. i have tried very hard to study meanings but they dont stay in my head.. i have now been told not to read the book and to get rid of it but to go with what i see and what i feel. i feel that my confidence is lacking to do that. but i have done a reading and no book and it when great....what advice can anyone give me about the best way of reading the cards. i think my biggest worry is what if a reading goes wrong. i dont want to upset the person im reading the cards for.... And does anyone have psychic or spirit connections while doing a reading? and is that ok if it happens ...... many thanx xx

ros	20 Sep 2004
My advice would be just do it! Just start reading without the book. The more you read this way, the more your intuition will begin to work. We all have to learn and if a reading goes wrong just remember you are not the first and not the last to have this happen! Let your people know that you have just started to read this way, most people are understanding. Good Luck, ros

Eco74	20 Sep 2004
Ease the pressure.. If it goes wrong it goes wrong. When you find yourself unsure say so and state what the card seems to say as a question or make it a statement followed by "does that make any sense to you?". Also you can always tell the person you are doing the reading for that you are not sure you'll get it all out right, that way you can relax and the querent won't be overlydramatic about it if you see negative things coming up. It's really all about setting the stage and being a bit blunt.. Also even when a querent says "no, that can't be it" it can well be so never assume you are probably wrong, unless you get that feeling from the cards, and if you get nothing from them, close your eyes and try looking again. After that, if you still get nothing, just say so to the person you're doing the reading for and agree on a later time, or alter the question and try again since whenever this happens it's either because the querent is not ready to find out about what s/he is asking about at this time, or because you are "spent" and not communicating with the cards. The most important thing, aswell as the most difficult, is to trust the bond between you and the message the cards are conveying. The images on the cards are only the messengers, there to give you insight in what the message is. Treat them as such, but reverently ofcourse, and you should be just fine. Though ease the pressure on yourself first of all before you go into to much theory about how to do things. I've found that when it comes to Tarot, what the cards are telling you is worth listening to, and you have nothing if there is no trust in yourself, or rather what the cards are telling you.

Sulis	20 Sep 2004
Hi Deee, Have you tried keeping a tarot journal? I found doing this really helped me to get my own basic meanings of the cards in my head. Pull a card a day - 2 if you like. Write down what you see and what you think the card may mean. I find that describing what I see on the card still helps if I'm stuck for a meaning in a reading. As you go through your day, remember the card and look out for it's meanings in the things happening around you. I find that things really start to gel by doing this. At the end of the day try reading the 'traditional' meaning from a good book - 2 books I've used a lot are 'Tarot Reversals' by Mary K Greer and 'Pictures from the heart - a tarot dictionary' by S A Thompson. The second book gives detailed interpretations of the symbols and imagery used in tarot. Remember - there's no rush - you have a lifetime of learning ahead of you. Have fun on your journey Love Sulis xx

dawns_eve	21 Sep 2004
I just posted a question almost identical to yours. I am having the same issues. I would like to read without the traditinal meanings so that is what I am working on now. Like you, I am unsure of myself sometimes but I guess I have to work through that. I just got a book that suggests reading without cards its called The 2 Hour Tarot Tutor by Wilma Carroll. I just started reading it but it seems like what I am looking for. Good luck.

Ruby7	21 Sep 2004
For me the best way to learn was doing readings without a book or LWB, but after the reading I would always read about a certain card or do some more research into other aspects of the reading. I still do this even if I am satisfied with the reading I always want to look into it further. I pick a daily card every night and read a little bit or meditate on it before I go to sleep and this has become such a habit I think I will always do this. Ruby7

Bosorka	22 Sep 2004
but if it has a scenic pips, search for meaning in book, and than for something in the picture that goes with that meaning. It will be much more easy to remember basics. It´s the way how I learn elements of Majors. Find something that will mean key word. That will allow you to make a "skelet" of a reading. And if you´re not sure, tell person you´re reading for that you´re just starting to read and it doesn´t make sense to you. You would be surprised how much sense it anyhow can make to person you´re reading for!

mingbop	27 Sep 2004
I have read tarot for a long long time. I know the meanings of the cards...but I use the book always. Because the way I read, I need to see the written word, and the meaning for that particular person sort of jumps out at me, off the page. The spirit thing is lovely, go with it--you get help, take it ! Plus the querent will have spirits who are worried, concerned or just plain nosy, and they will crowd round to hear /see what's goin on.

Umbrae	27 Sep 2004
I’m gonna refer you to another post of mine. Add the journaling aspect (which everybody should do), and you may find it works for you. Trust and faith in yourself can be achieved through practice practice practice.

tinkerbell	28 Sep 2004
hello again deee! this is an issue i am working on at the moment also. i think one of my problems is that i really do love my books and as i am still a beginner, i try not to be too hard on myself. but, i do not want to become too dependent on them so when i shuffle the cards, i take some deep breaths and ask for the help of my spirit guides in granting me the intuition to interpret my cards. then i lay them out and give myself a few minutes to study them. i look at their colouring, imagery, see if there is a particular suit which dominates and take things from there really. quite often i find that i do well but have trouble interpreting one or two cards within the spread,( usually a court card but i am spending time focusing on the energies of each individual suit which has helped!)also i enjoy doing the exercises in my books, "learning the tarot" by joan bunning ( my favourite!), and "tarot for yourself" by mary k. greer. good luck! hope this helps ! love and light, tink xx

Little Baron	28 Sep 2004
I think that when we start, we think that any book, because it has been published and there is a load of blurb on the back that tells us the author is a 'renound psychic and has been a tarot reader for the last 750 years', we consider that their understanding of the cards is therefore superior to anything that we can develop from looking at them ourselves. When I began with the Rohrig, I felt exactly that way and didn't trust my own visions or understandings of the pictures. I would constantly look back at the LWB to see if I had interpreted it 'correctly'. I think that it is good to read and get others opinions, which is why sites like this are good. But I also think 'what is the point of having a deck of 78 creative designs if I cannot interpret and understand them personally?'. I may as well have 78 blank cards with the names written on them and no art whatsoever, if I am going to continue to refer to a book and find out somebody elses interpretation. I do read the books. At the moment, studying the Thoth, I am refering to the Banzhaf handbook. However, knowing little about the Crowley deck, I am making the deck personal by drawing a lot of my own conclusions. For example, I have just drawn my daily card and before even looking at Bazhaf's book, I have worked out what it means to me and jotted it down. I will look later to see whether his interpretation and that of Crowley feels in any way similar to how this card affects me. I whole heartedly agree with Umbrae that journaling is the way to go; in my journal, I occasionally jot in things that come from other sources, but on the main, it is about my own personal take of the cards. Once a card pops up a few times, hopefully by then, I will have managed to interpret many layers on to it. I will have a brief background that I have read about the cards traditional qualities (down to suit and number) but I will have developed my own histroy with the card, which is a lot easier to remember than the history that somebody else has woven within it. Hope this helps a little. I would go along with Ros and say 'go for it!'. We all have those times when we don't 'get it'. When reading for someone, if I don't, I will say 'I really don't know what this means in connection with this spread/question; maybe we can take a few minutes to look at the 'image/colouring/how it fits with the other cards etc' together and why it has turned up in the reading for you. Best wishes and good luck. Yaboot Yaboot

Little Baron	28 Sep 2004
Just thinking about this again and thought it may be of some help if I was a little bit more specific. In my Thoth study, a few weeks ago, I drew the '6 of Cups'. In my journal, I jotted down my initial responses, starting by describing this card. "The ‘Six of Cups’ comes into my day today and I think it represents the nostalgic feelings I have for Newcastle, when Stephen and I met. The card looks almost childishly naïve. Even though I see a positive outlook from the golden cups, there seems to be almost a messiness to the cords that connect them. Maybe they are the ties that join us and keep us connected; maybe they are the telephone lines; maybe they represent the new, exciting and hap-hazard feelings you get when you start a new relationship. There is an abundance of emotions and feelings here. My only concern is the dark and unsettled water that lurks beneath them". I described the feelings I had for the images and how they related to my day; noticing the positive in the depiction of the cups but also the shadow side, that I saw in the murky water that lay behind them. Why is there that darkness in the water? Why is it kind of hidden in the background? Is there something laying amongst those depths that I am not aware of? Are the shiny and lit cups 'too good to be true'? Are my memories of a certain situation just a 'glossed up' and idealised version of what the reality really is? At the time, I did not know whether this was true or not, but in time, since I have journaled my feelings, I refer back to it, after the split up of my relationship and feel 'yes, there were things going on in those depths of the dark body of water that I could not see initially and the card urged me to look further and be cautious. After drawing my own conclusions, I look at Banzhafs book and Crowleys original ideas when creating the deck - "Joy, fulfilment, and emotional renewal (also wishes, memories and nostalgia) Richness of feeling (deep and close emotional ties) In the LWB, Crowley says "where new aquaintances are made, where loving couples find a way to one another and have fun". I see all of this, because that was how the relationship that I associated the card with was going. However, the dark seas highlighted the fact that with this actual person, in terms of fun and finding each other, we were working on different levels, which is why it ended up not working. In the future, I will look at this card and see the keyword 'Pleasure' (if I hadn't have trimmed it off, hehe), but in terms of accompanying cards, I will also be able to see whether there is a possibility of this pleasure being darkened by something else. This is something I have learned by adopting my own relationship with the tarot and something I could never learn about from a book. Hope that helps a little more. Of course, this way may not work for you or for others, but that is what makes us all individual readers. Best wishes, as always. Yaboot

Ace	28 Sep 2004
THROW THE LWB AWAY! throw away all the texts!! Reading Tarot is a Do It Yourself activity! That is my opinion anyway! I started by reading all the books, and they do help to find new and deeper meanings but after a while you have to let the Universe tell you what is there, and to see it clearly, you can't say "well, the book says..."

Little Baron	28 Sep 2004
Yep Ace, I agree. The only time I require text is when there are symbols on a card, like there have been on the Enoil Gavat, that I am intregued by. As for the interpretations from a lot of the LWB's, I find most of them to be so vague and contradictory (in the same sentence) that they are little to no use anyway. I always remember that in a lot of cases, the stuff that is written in books is just somebody elses interpretation and it shouldn't be any more or less significant than my own. I am sure that all of those 13th Century decks didn't come with LWB's and 'guide you along' keywords. Yaboot

The advice needed please thread was originally posted on 20 Sep 2004 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.