Morwenna
Without the context, that original quote seems to be merely an observation, for good or ill. And there springs this discussion. 
"Memorization is a technique that has fallen out of favor"--Le Fanu
The crowned one
Reasoning is often mistaken for intuition, as are implicit thoughts even more so.
(implicit memories are like knowing when to use the brake pedal in a car, you do not recall the lessons of when, how, and how hard to push every time you use the brake, you just know how without recalling when you learnt it.)
I find true intuition's are more empathy/social/culturally based: sort of the implied without stating it lucidly situations, for example: a mad or sad partner who is trying to hide it from you, rather then science based in a generally speaking sort of way.
Nevada
Same here, as to reading many books - and reading with a variety of decks.
The crowned one
Yes understanding is key to using what we store in the memory.
"cingulate gyrus" is easy to memorize even its relationship to other bits around it, but it is not good for much if you do not understand it. I always ask myself after a chapter in a book: "what the heck does that all mean to me" and answer in my own words, if I can not give a good answer then I need to memorize with more focus and understanding
SloughSister
The dang power cord
I had just written one reply when I found out from the suddenly-black screen that my power cord had been pulled out. Drattit. I was happy to see this topic!
I very much want to memorize the original meanings of the RWS system because it clearly works, and has for years. The Purple Pages' many, many stories and seemingly effortless ability to get 3 or 11 or 18 meanings out of one card bear witness to that. I want to get to play with my intuition, because it's a wholesome and satisfying feeling to have very large, strong intuits. I suspect that once I move along a little more in learning tarot, I will find myself using both kinds of knowledge.
In the meantime, I become annoyed with myself trying to memorize things unless I a) remember that it's supposed to be fun along the way - the journey and not the destination, and all that or b) remember that when one is a young child, the world is a very big place with a ton to learn and the we do so by repetition and practice, with incremental absorption along the way. The less you know about a thing, the longer and larger its learning curve is. Right now the 78 worlds seem vast!
I'm far enough along in life that has been a really long time since I had to learn something totally from scratch, from the bare beginning. And a very long time since I had to learn the type of knowledge which relies on memorization at its base. I'm not being very patient with the process of memorizing, memorizing, memorizing - but I believe in its worth and am very glad to have the resources of AT to help me along.
I had just written one reply when I found out from the suddenly-black screen that my power cord had been pulled out. Drattit. I was happy to see this topic!
I very much want to memorize the original meanings of the RWS system because it clearly works, and has for years. The Purple Pages' many, many stories and seemingly effortless ability to get 3 or 11 or 18 meanings out of one card bear witness to that. I want to get to play with my intuition, because it's a wholesome and satisfying feeling to have very large, strong intuits. I suspect that once I move along a little more in learning tarot, I will find myself using both kinds of knowledge.
In the meantime, I become annoyed with myself trying to memorize things unless I a) remember that it's supposed to be fun along the way - the journey and not the destination, and all that or b) remember that when one is a young child, the world is a very big place with a ton to learn and the we do so by repetition and practice, with incremental absorption along the way. The less you know about a thing, the longer and larger its learning curve is. Right now the 78 worlds seem vast!
I'm far enough along in life that has been a really long time since I had to learn something totally from scratch, from the bare beginning. And a very long time since I had to learn the type of knowledge which relies on memorization at its base. I'm not being very patient with the process of memorizing, memorizing, memorizing - but I believe in its worth and am very glad to have the resources of AT to help me along.
caridwen
Readings. Journal those readings. Learn from mistakes. More readings. Read for yourself, read for your pet, read for your friends and their friends. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from your successes. Do more readings. Compare decks and their iconography. Observe situations and people and give them a Tarot card. I often meet people and assign them a court for example. Do more readings ad infintum
I don't understand how anyone parroting keywords to a querent has the audacity to call themselves a tarot reader. They can read the LWB themselves
Debra
That's an oversimplification, Caridwen, she said in an annoyed tone. No one is advocating parroting the lwb.
Cleverly getting the cards to tell a story using imagination isn't the same as reading the cards--it's more like reading "into" them to make it all seem like it makes sense.
For example. A local pro reader ("Susan") got a reading from someone in the shop last year. Susan had been very worried as her own cards kept coming up with health troubles for her husband--Susan was afraid he would die. The shop reader ("Rachel") described the cards to me, there were indeed some worrying ones but she thought it would be ok--"there's no card for a widow," Rachel said breezily. Well, the Queen of Swords is a widow, I said, and her face fell, because Susan had drawn the Queen. But Rachel hadn't bothered to learn even this suggested meaning, which let's face it isn't all that hard to remember. That's when I first came to believe that purely intuitive reading is bullpucky.
Cleverly getting the cards to tell a story using imagination isn't the same as reading the cards--it's more like reading "into" them to make it all seem like it makes sense.
For example. A local pro reader ("Susan") got a reading from someone in the shop last year. Susan had been very worried as her own cards kept coming up with health troubles for her husband--Susan was afraid he would die. The shop reader ("Rachel") described the cards to me, there were indeed some worrying ones but she thought it would be ok--"there's no card for a widow," Rachel said breezily. Well, the Queen of Swords is a widow, I said, and her face fell, because Susan had drawn the Queen. But Rachel hadn't bothered to learn even this suggested meaning, which let's face it isn't all that hard to remember. That's when I first came to believe that purely intuitive reading is bullpucky.
caridwen
She may not have been a very good Tarot reader Debra. As you full well know, the keywords are in every LWB and can be read by anyone with a new Tarot deck. Knowing the keywords in the LWB does not a tarot reader make. It takes experience which no amount of keyword memorisation can make up for.
After some years and countless readings and journaling you will eventually have your own meanings for the cards. Those meanings will have been proved time and time again by your readings. You will learn from your mistakes and also from those you have right.
Any fool can memorise a bunch of keywords and call themselves a tarot reader as I'm sure you're aware
GryffinSong
It all depends on WHY one reads. Speaking for myself, I'm not interested in fortune telling, in trying to divine the future. I'm interested in learning about and working through and healing my own personal issues. Sharpening my intuition is a very powerful path to self awareness. Book meanings don't even begin to tap into whatever the card says directly to my instincts.
If I were a fortune teller, if I were interested in traditional divination, perhaps I'd feel differently. I don't know, because those things have never interested me.
That said, of course I've studied the tarot in a variety of ways. But my mind doesn't work well with detail. I'm a conceptual person, always have been. It's just about impossible for me to memorize 78 card meanings, especially with all the varients out there. So I do some reading and trust that whatever's important for me to know will bubble up from my subconscious when I need it. Personally, if I'm reading for my own personal growth, if a specific meaning of the card doesn't bubble up, perhaps it isn't necessary for that particular moment in time.
Your mileage may vary.
Debra
Yes. Caridwen, you're right--she's a crappy reader. And Gryffinson, the purpose does matter, that's true. I only wonder then why tarot rather than anything else?
