Questions re: career, health & interpretations :)

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 04 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

seaweed	04 Mar 2005
Hi everybody! After such a warm reception in the welcome part of the forum (and a night of insomnia LOL,) I thought I'd try posting a few questions. Although I bought my first deck when I was 11, my perspective's matured on life over the last 20 years & I'm coming up with questions now that I hadn't thought much about before. Hopefully you guys won't mind helping me figure them out (and, with the luck of the gods, I'm guessing some of you have even wondered the same things before, so you'll pardon my ignorance :) ) Question 1: Has anybody found a source that matches the cards to different careers or career areas? Something like, "This is a card for Writers," or "This is a card for Merchants," or Actors or Bankers or something like that? (I've read a bit on the forum about various cards & careers, but I was wondering if anyone knew of a collective source.) Also, I'm seeking information re: how the cards relate to health concerns. Something that might indicate that a tooth might need filling, or heart trouble or headaches, etc? Things that relate to specific parts of the body or medical conditions? (Some days it feels like everybody I know if falling apart at the seams! :) ) And lastly, what do you do when the story you see in the individual cards doesn't match the traditional interpretation (or even comes close :) ?) For example, when I look at the 5 of Swords, I can see where the traditional meanings would come from. But I can also see where it could be a story with a totally different tone--like maybe the young guy with all the swords is an armor or armor's apprentice and maybe the other fellows have left their swords off to be sharpened & while they might be down-hearted about not having them for a while, the armor is happy to have the work & happy to be so sought out for the quality of his work. Or maybe the main character teaches swordsmanship to the others and they've just finished up a day of intensive training and instead of looking downtrodden, they're just tired and the main character is happy with the training or proud of his students. (Maybe I'm taking the images too literally :) ) Thanks for your time and consideration, Seaweed

Thirteen	04 Mar 2005
Hi, Seaweed: seaweed wrote: Question 1: Has anybody found a source that matches the cards to different careers or career areas? This can be fairly straightforward given the suits. Swords being jobs having to do with communication, writing, science, being in one's head (that is, if Swords represent Air to you)--or air (flying), Wands being motivational speakers, religion, travel, adventure, leadership (that is, if Wands are Fire to you)--or fire (firemen), Cups being jobs that have to do with helping and healing--or water (sailors), and Pentacles having to do with work that involves either hands on, carpentry, craftsmanship, finance or the earth (farmers). Those should cover just about anything. The Majors are also pretty straightforward given planet or zodiac (varies from deck to deck but generally speaking....)--The Magician being, for example, doctors, stage magicians, etc. You get the idea. Quote: how the cards relate to health concerns. There've been a lot of threads on the subject but two ways to investagate Health is to do either a Chakra Spread or an Astrological Spread (circle 12 cards)--each sign stands for a part of the body, so what card turns up in Aries, the Head? That will give you an indication of what might be in need of attention. Quote: And lastly, what do you do when the story you see in the individual cards doesn't match the traditional interpretation...for example 5 swords... maybe the main character teaches swordsmanship to the others and they've just finished up a day of intensive training and instead of looking downtrodden, they're just tired and the main character is happy with the training or proud of his students We all see all kinds of stories in the cards. What's important is the story you see while doing a reading, and that depends as much on other cards, if there are others, and the TYPE of reading as it does on ONE CARD and it's possible story. If you were doing a past life reading and saw the above story in this card, then fine, great, wonderful, perfect! You tell a person, "In your past life you were a sword master...yadda, yadda, yadda...." If you get this, however, for a young girl excitedly talking about this really cute guy and should she go out with him....? And you've just turned up this card to answer that question.... You could tell her this guy's had a hard workout at a fencing match and maybe she'll say, "WOW, how did you know he was a fencer!"--then again she might just frown at you and say, "He's a librarian and I want my money back!" In which case, you've taken the card too literally. Those swords were books and literature, not sharp impliments. Finding stories in the cards is what we do. But the story in an individual card is not all there is, NOT if you're doing a reading. Consider the question, the spread, the surrounding cards--and metaphorical as well as literal meanings. In the end, whatever interpetation works and feels right is the one you want--be it traditional or fanciful. But it has to work for the reading...unless, of course, you just want to gaze at the cards and create stories from them, which some people do.

The Questions re: career, health & interpretations :) thread was originally posted on 04 Mar 2005 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.