tricky cards

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 28 Apr 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

fotofile2002	28 Apr 2005
Has anyone else done a reading which at first they thouhgt was really positive and then under further analysis discovered it was realyl negative and vice versa ? I did 2 readings, one was full of cups and I thought it was a very positive love reading and turned out not to be and the other was another love reading filled with swords but turned out to be very positive in its advice. Just curious....

Baby Owl	28 Apr 2005
Hi fotofile2002! I'm not sure I completely understand. What caused you to think these readings were positive or negative in the first place -- just the presence of a lot of Cups or a lot of Swords? What caused you to decide that the readings were the opposite of what you first thought?

fotofile2002	29 Apr 2005
I had thought that the reading with a lot of Cups in it was very positive because of the presence of so many Cups, since I generally regard them as a very positive suit and Swords I regard as negative. However, when I sat and realyl analyzed the cards and their positions in the spread in regard to my question and the situation, I realized that the Swords were not as negative as they seem and the cups were a lot more negative.

Baby Owl	29 Apr 2005
That's what I thought you meant but wanted to be sure. :) It sounds like you are learning a tarot "truism", which is that all suits have traits that can be viewed as positive or negative. When I see a lot of Cups in a reading, I expect the reading to focus on emotion, intuition, spirituality, illusion, deception, etc. -- all potentially "negative" or "positive," depending on the question being asked, positions into which the cards have been drawn, and so forth. When I see a lot of Swords, I think "intellect, communication, analysis, detachment, separation," etc. These, too, are not inherently negative or positive, to my way of thinking. I don't know if this helps you, but it sounds to me like you are simply broadening your understanding of tarot! (That's a good thing.) :)

The tricky cards thread was originally posted on 28 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.