Positive is really Negative?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 27 Apr 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Marquise	27 Apr 2005
Hello... I just wanted to ask if this has happened to anyone before. I have noticed lately that alot of readings I do for myself on diffrent sunjects come out in readings as positive. However in the end it seems as if the positive message given ends up becoming negative. In other words I get a positive outcome in readings but relating to the situation it is the complete opposite, and the positive message does not end up coming true. Can anyone tell me why this is happening to me?

psychic sue	27 Apr 2005
How often are you consulting the cards? This sounds like a case of "overload" to me. If you ask the same question too often, then this can happen. If this is the case, I would suggest leaving the cards alone for a while. I would also suggest making a log of your readings so you can refer back to them - how do you know the outcomes are negative? which spreads are you doing? If, for example, you are doing the celtic cross, what timescale are you putting on the outcome? Just some things to think about. Sue x

tarotbear	27 Apr 2005
Psychic sue says it, also; what kind of spread are you using? If you are one of those '3-cards is enough' people, you could be short-circuiting your reading. The second question is: is this spread correct for the type of question that you asked? If you tend to ask a yes/no type of question and use a 10-card Celtic Cross you might get some wierd input that definately would not make sense. If you tend to use a Celtic cross for every question you may be 'over-reading' the question, particularly in the 'final outcome' card. {FYI - in my version of CC there are three conclusion cards = #3 - the immediate effect, #6 - the near future conclusion, and #10 - how the situation will eventually manifest itself.}

wandking	27 Apr 2005
Perhaps the real problem comes from using Tarot to predict the future. I guarantee I can take actions in the present that will alter any future that cards predict. The future is fluid, ever-changing and thus unpredictable. In my view, Tarot does have the ability to reflect current issues and allow us see them in a new light. Often, in important matters we can't see the forest because we focus on all the trees. The fortune-telling premise of Tarot induces a type of self-analysis because the cards represent various aspects of life or a personal concern. The concept of Higher Self, theorized by Carl Jung, could be the reason for this phenomenon. Jung postulated that the Tarot has origins in “archetypal images of the collective unconscious.” The belief that the Tarot works in the mystical fortune-telling sense, rests on the premise that individuals create their own reality and thus their own destiny. In a traditional Tarot spread, the final-outcome card results from preceding cards, which represent attitudes, emotions, thoughts and circumstances involving an issue. The client, at some level of awareness, already knows the answers. Performing a reading is like feeding information into a computer (in this case the subconscious mind) and processing the most likely outcome. This is similar to a procedure commonly used in psychology called the Projective Technique. With this approach, the symbolic imagery acts as a trigger for releasing information from the subconscious. Tarot resembles the Projective Technique; based on the Jungian assumption that subconscious mental activity occurs in an unavailable part of the psyche, where memories and desires are not directly accessible by the consciousness. Modern psychologists use projective tests to uncover unconscious material. A familiar example would be the Rorschach Ink Blot Test. The Tarot used in this way does not attempt to predict the future but rather allows individuals to take active roles in creating new and transformed futures.

Marquise	27 Apr 2005
Thanks for posting. No I'am not talking about the same question over and over again I'am talking about diffrent questions. THe spreads I used were the celtic cross and a five card spread called the Horseshoe spread which I find intresting. Card 1-present 2-present desire 3-unexpected 4-immediate future 5-Long term future. It is placed in a kind of shape of a horseshoe. Anyway thank you all for your posts. Wandking you mad every intresting points.

WalesWoman	28 Apr 2005
Do you use reversals or not? Depending on what the other cards are around it might determine whether to use the upright or reversed meaning for the outcome. Also, things are not cemented in stone. What you might see as a negative outcome may actually become a positive in the long run. ie break up with boyfreind... ouch... finding out later he likes to beat up women and lies and is a real all around loser... and you are feeling maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all. Or everything was going pretty much according to the reading, but something happened to change that, some choice you made perhaps, not to pick up the phone and call someone or avoided an issue rather than discussing it... who knows... Sometimes when we want to see only positive outcomes we blind ourselves to a deeper message... that is why when I do readings for myself about things I am emotionally tied up in knots over and can't be objective, I have a freind look at it and get her input... or post it in Your Readings. They bring out things I hadn't even thought about and it makes sense then.

Marquise	28 Apr 2005
THank you WalesWomen for your post.

mercenary30	28 Apr 2005
So you didn't answer Waleswomans question about using reversals? That was the first question that came to my mind as well.

Netzach	28 Apr 2005
I've only been using tarot for a couple of years but before that I used I Ching quite a bit and one thing I've learned is that you can't ask "what's going to happen?" Because we are, as some would put it, "co-creators". There isn't the heavy hand of fate out there decreeing exactly what's going to happen to us. We play a major part in it too. This is, of course, the basic idea of karma - what we do now will affect what happens to us later on. So even asking "what is likely to happen?" can be confusing because you may get a multitude of different options in one answer. The best type of question I've found is to ask "If I do such and such what is likely to be the outcome?" You can then ask several questions in succession about different actions you might take. What I find so interesting about the original question is that all the cards are positive but what is happening to you is negative. So does this mean that the cards are "wrong"? Well, I don't believe they can be, because cards can only show potential and possibilities, not concrete future events. So why the discrepancy? Why are you, as co-creator of your fate, not travelling the road of the positive potential? Isn't that what you should be asking the cards? Try to get some insight from them as to what it is that you are doing that's preventing all the good things being forecast actually coming into being. Netzach

Marquise	28 Apr 2005
That was a very intresting post Netzach, thank you. No I don't use reversals so I guess that might be the problem.

Netzach	29 Apr 2005
Sorry to be nit-picking but I didn't really mean what you were or weren't doing with your readings but what you were or weren't doing with your life. And don't jump to conclusions as to what the answer may be - ask the cards! For example, suppose you were an actress and the cards told you that you would have great success - and then you failed every audition you went for. If you asked the cards why things weren't coming out as forecast, you might getting something coming up about fear (stage fright) or about being unprepared (not knowing your lines). Immediately you have guidance as to what to work on in order to make this great success come into being. Remember that the cards only show your potential. It's up to you to realise that potential. And if you're not realising it, the block will be in you, not in the cards. We all have blocks - the skill is to find out what they are and overcome them. And never be afraid to ask for help. Whether you believe in angels or spirit guides or whatever - they're always available to offer help but they have to be asked first. Netzach

WalesWoman	30 Apr 2005
You don't have to use reversals... I didn't for a long long time, I wanted to get to know the cards and become more confident in my interpretations... learning how cards can relate or tell a story. Then I decided to try reversals, just so I could see if it made a difference in my readings... I've decided I like using uprights and the cards still tell me what I need to know without them. I think postive, negative is all a matter of our expectations. It's sort of the difference between an optimist and a pessimist, they both may have the same exact experience and one will find the bright spot in it and the other won't be able to see anything but the negative down side. Then there is the level of our expectations too, what someone might see as a positive outcome, someone else may not see it as that wonderful at all because they had something bigger in mind, something more than what actually did happen. One thing I do know, I'd rather listen to my daily reading than my horoscope in My Yahoo... that thing is never even close... good thing too or my old man would be falling in love every other week and leaving me about every month or keeping lots of secrets and I'd be flirting with everyone under the sun and we'd both be party animals. LOL Take it with a grain of salt... or even a shaker full. Sometimes Tarot can be very literal, some times it's subtle and something you need to work on from the inside out. Some one said it best... we create our outcomes... no matter what Tarot may predict... we have the final say in the matter. If you want a positive outcome, you need to do your best to create it. Sometimes it may happen to you... like winning a lottery, but you have to buy the ticket first. Mostly you get what you put into it... no matter what it is.

The Positive is really Negative? thread was originally posted on 27 Apr 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.