shaveling
Silverlyn said:Ok, I agree with how we need to think for ourselves about the cards...yet there are certain agreed-upon, basic meanings for each card..
For instance:
A ten of swords comes up....I can't say (to myself or another) YAY, this is a GOOD card and means that I'm gonna be receiving ten dollars soon, because there are ten swords in the guys back
No, it has a general meaning (which I don't know what, but I think it's something probably NOT good).
See what I mean?
Silverlyn
Oh, dear! Perhaps what I'm going to say oughtn't be said. But there are lots of types of folks here at AT and the tarot world, and so what the heck, here goes:
The type of folk I am is Marseille People. And from my point of view, the guy with the swords in his back is from a deck that pretty much is a book about Tarot. A very poetic and allusive book, not a prosaic A=1, B=2, C=3 type of book. And yet....
Of course it's not really a book. But I don't think our conversation here is limited to just codices to the exclusion of (for instance) websites, correspondence courses, or notes written on each card by the previous owner of a used deck. I'm thinking that "book" in our discussion includes most any commentary on the cards.
In my funny Marseille world, the ten of swords basically just shows ten swords in a stereotyped arrangement. And there's no particular reason in that representation it can't be good news. Most suit + number readers wouldn't read it as referring to money, but it might well mean you'll finally get that PhD, or win a court case with no appeal to follow, or that some awful conflict in your life or at your job that's gone on for ages is going to end.
The people who created the RWS had a particular way of looking at the cards, and the meanings that way of looking at things favored are embodied in the pictures on the cards of their deck. And most of the decks created today take their meaning from those pictures. So, yes "there are certain agreed-upon, basic meanings for each card." But those meanings were developed from a certain tradition, and there are other ways of reading the cards, especially in decks that don't reflect that symbolic tradition and the theories and traditions it is built on.
But I'm responding to a fork in the discussion, instead of the main stream. You've got some good recommendations for books here, and it sounds like you've found some that work for you. Good! Go with that and enjoy diving deep into your cards, individually and in combination.
As for your poor guy with the swords in his back. Don't assume he's you, unless there's some reason to. A defeated and overkilled bad guy really is good news. That's the happy ending in fairy tales and upbeat westerns and the like. And, now and then, in real life. This is a positive reading that keeps the conventional meaning illustrated in the card. I've certainly got a list of folks whose defeat and general downfall would be a benefit for me and the world at large. Surely I'm not the only one with a list like that.
