Shadow and Quint cards

Skydancer

Now for my 2¢!!

I thought that the Shadow card was the shadow or reverse aspect of the card in question. For me, the normal feel of the Hanging Man is seeing something in a new way, looking at it upside down (among other interpretations, but you get the idea) - and then the shadow side could be; being hanged, deserving of being punished (as someone has posted lately), being mugged (literally or otherwise) and all your 'money' falling out of your pockets. That sort of thing.

The dark, hidden, illusive, misunderstood shadow aspect or considerations.

Does that make sense? I also have a book called Tarot Shadow Work, and it's working with the cards on inner issues, the shadows of our personalities.

Hmmm... I've probably just made this more confusing!

*S*

JoJo and Helvetica - too funny!!
 

jojojo

Helvetica said:
It sounds like the 8 of Swords is blocking the Sun from your life ;) - you need to pull the Sun out of your deck and place it in front of you on your desk! Sorry to hear you're having a cloudy day...
The funny thing is - the sun was my daily card today (along with the 2 of swords and 5 of cups) I think I focused too much on the 5 of cups...and now the sun's gone down...hmmmmpphhh

By the way, Skydancer, I like your interp of the shadow meanings of cards.
 

Sophie

yes, I like what you write too, Skydancer. I would simply call that the"shadow aspect" of a card, as opposed to "shadow card" at the base of the pack - but as I said above, different people might call the base card differently, and use the expression "shadow card" for something else than the base card. I mentioned my own use, and one I've seen in other people.

It might be useful to have a tarot nomenclature sticky somewhere - including a translation dictionary ;)
 

star-lover

the base card to me always means what the reading is based on
excuse the pun
what is really going on /the crux of the matter - the main underlying issue

and the cards drawn are a snapshot of whats going on re the bottom card scenario
 

tarotbear

"only the Shadow knows ..."

I never heard of the bottom card on the pack being called a 'shadow' card --- new one on me! (like I say - I learn something new about Tarot every day!)

I have mostly heard of the 'shadow' card being referred to when you do your Life Cards (discussed several times on this forum).
 

being_chrysalis

me too Tarotbear - I thought this at the beginning but the conversation went a different way and I never knew about the base/shadow card.. that was an interesting new fact to add to the equation...
 

Lula Jing

I was looking up quint cards because I couldn't remember whether or not you included the Ace when calculating quints - ? Does the Ace count as 1? I'm now thinking it does...

Also - I sometimes call the base card the 'shadow' card - but the more I think about it, perhaps I should stick with the term 'base card' because more often than not the base card is the crux of the underlying issue and not the shadow (darker) aspect of the reading.

I've also seen others refer to a shadow card in a different way - like the shadow card of the lovers would be the devil because 6 comprises of 1+5, so the devil is kind of hidden in that card somewhere. Likewise the tower would be the shadow of the chariot, with 1+6=7.
 

poivre

I use the bottom card as the shadow card. This card feels as if it's
standing in the shadow of the reading. It brings some extra light of
information to you.

For the Quint, I add up all the pips from ace to ten...get a number
between 1-22...that's the lesson of the reading. No Majors or Courts
for the Quints.

The Majors are energies that the person should be aware of to get
through the situation...also lessons. Sometimes, I even take the
Majors that were picked and add them together for extra info.

Courts are energies in the reading but when I pick apart the cards
at the end of the reading...they are people with personalities of the Zodiac.

In the reading I also look for repetitive numbers showing.

Just my ideas,
ros
:)
 

Adjustment

I used to bottom card as the shadow card, it shows an aspect of the reading that is sometimes in the unconscious, something that is hidden and nto taken into count.
 

Lula Jing

ros said:
For the Quint, I add up all the pips from ace to ten...get a number between 1-22...that's the lesson of the reading. ***No Majors or Courts
for the Quints***.

Sometimes, I even take the Majors that were picked and add them together for extra info.
That's interesting ros, as I normally count the majors when calculating the quints. That's an interesting way of doing it, so I'll try that and see what comes up.

Shy :love: