Zephyros
It depends on who you are and what you're looking to achieve. For someone who knows and works with these things they are as essential as the images. You can imagine seeing a card as an iceberg with the image as the surface. It's what you see and it can be in itself quite profound since it is the externalized experience of the idea the card conveys. Many people choose to stay there and are quite successful in terms of readings they do.
But, beneath the surface you have the 90% that you can't see. It is the building blocks of the card and is why the image is what it is and not another. It introduces you to a deck's inner movements and interconnections. Many of the most important symbols pertaining to a card aren't even on it but have to do with its background or can even be found on other cards. Instead of a vaguely threaded narrative that you have when looking at the pictures you have complete connections and reasons and causes and effects, etc.
Plus, the material really isn't difficult. It does mean actual "study," though, the old-fashioned kind with book open and taking notes, working things out and stuff like that. Just reading a book can be bewildering because you have to work it to get it. But in terms of objective difficulty, it's actually much easier than many people think. As Barleywine said you're dealing with specific aspects of it, a kind of "Tarot-astrology" and "Tarot-Kabbalah," and it is all very relevant.
Now, many people feel that dealing with these technical aspects of Tarot robs it of its creative, intuitive sides. This isn't true because behind those kabbalistic diagrams and definitions lie powerful emotions, creativity and intuition. It is just written in shorthand so as to make connections, symbols to be used. But it really is a very creative process, an "informed intuition."
But, beneath the surface you have the 90% that you can't see. It is the building blocks of the card and is why the image is what it is and not another. It introduces you to a deck's inner movements and interconnections. Many of the most important symbols pertaining to a card aren't even on it but have to do with its background or can even be found on other cards. Instead of a vaguely threaded narrative that you have when looking at the pictures you have complete connections and reasons and causes and effects, etc.
Plus, the material really isn't difficult. It does mean actual "study," though, the old-fashioned kind with book open and taking notes, working things out and stuff like that. Just reading a book can be bewildering because you have to work it to get it. But in terms of objective difficulty, it's actually much easier than many people think. As Barleywine said you're dealing with specific aspects of it, a kind of "Tarot-astrology" and "Tarot-Kabbalah," and it is all very relevant.
Now, many people feel that dealing with these technical aspects of Tarot robs it of its creative, intuitive sides. This isn't true because behind those kabbalistic diagrams and definitions lie powerful emotions, creativity and intuition. It is just written in shorthand so as to make connections, symbols to be used. But it really is a very creative process, an "informed intuition."