"Memorization is a technique that has fallen out of favor"--Le Fanu

caridwen

Le Fanu said:
Perhaps. But if we take an Etteilla deck, there is a word upright and a word reversed which presumably are meanings. I think it's great that we all have these different approaches and that's what makes tarot so rich - and I find myself agreeing with much of Manda's take.

But I am fascinated by what the approach was historically and if you look at historic keywords (returning to Etteilla; e.g 10 of Batons is Obstacles, 4 of Cups is new acquaintances, 9 of Swords is "suspicion and mistrust") there is often very little in the image that relates to the given meaning. Thus not easy to remember. I think a lot of our notions of romantic gypsy style readings in the painted caravan would have revolved around a piecing together of unquestioned meaning. For example, trip + money + disappointment. The idea of images "triggering associations from deep within the unconscious" is very 20th Century and not something we question now. But I do. And early decks did have prominent words on them, like the Etteilla decks and those 17th Century English fortune telling cards. Of course, anyone could read them. Anyone can, in fact. Mme Lenormands cards were playing cards with meanings and astrological associations written on them. I'm sure you would asume - as I do - that she was a fairly proficient reader. At least proficient enough to be remembered. And she was probably responding to those keywords rather than what the image of 8 hearts or 7 clubs was triggering in her unconscious.

If somebody memorises poetry does that prevent them from subtly interpreting it or does the fact that they learn it by rote mean that it is always devoid of real meaning?

Anyone can memorise card meanings you say. Totally unaided, I'm not sure they can. I think you could argue that it is easier to "be intuitive" with scenic Minors. You could argue that it is easier just to look at the picture and respond. In fact, I think looking at a picture and responding to it is easier than memorising 78 meanings that don't always relate to the picture. I also don't think that memorising a meaning prevents someone from creating a reading around that. It doesn't have to be robotic.

It's just that looking at antique decks I feel that there was probably more memorising than there is now. I'm not saying it is better or worse. But I'm intrigued by different ways of reading and I don't think that the approach to reading cards in 2011 is any better than the approach to reading cards in 1870.
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You are not talking about Tarot per se but a specific deck of cards - the Eteilla.

I am sure that if those specific cards were designed with keywords, then learn the keywords. It reminds me of the Lenormand cards or many oracle decks. Some decks are designed with that in mind.

I think Eteilla had a specific use for his cards and designed them accordingly. According to some sources he was the first to take the TdM and create a deck specifically for divination and he was the first to use astrology and elements with the cards. I don't know that much about him but he seems like an interesting character and I'm sure his deck reflects that. Although Eteilla has fallen out of favour it seems as though he was the bridge between the use of cards as toys and their use as tools in esoteric knowledge and many of his meanings remain in the modern RWS.

Romany's who read playing cards memorised meanings and had to memorise the meanings of the playing cards and I also find those forms of divination fascinating. They had to know what each specific card meant or they wouldn't have a clue but they also used other intuitive methods such as scrying, palm reading which again is memorised and tea leaf readings.

I think the reason that we no longer depend on specific keywords is due to the pictorial associations of Waite et al. Tarot developed and changed and our way of reading changed. It became a mixture of knowledge and scrying or intuition. For some anyway, I'm sure there are people who read playing cards in exactly the same way as their grandmother and her grandmother before her and the readings are very effective. I might as an experiment do a series of readings using only keywords and see how effective it is.

Eteilla made a living out of it so there must be something to it:D
 

caridwen

Anyone can memorise card meanings you say. Totally unaided, I'm not sure they can. I think you could argue that it is easier to "be intuitive" with scenic Minors. You could argue that it is easier just to look at the picture and respond. In fact, I think looking at a picture and responding to it is easier than memorising 78 meanings that don't always relate to the picture. I also don't think that memorising a meaning prevents someone from creating a reading around that. It doesn't have to be robotic.
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I don't understand why how difficult or easy something is is important. Why do you have to sit down with a bunch of keywords for 78 cards and learn them by heart? Is it to prove you can or to prove that you are a more effective reader than someone who can't.

I am saying that anyone who buys a Tarot deck has keywords for their deck in their Little White Book. If they are simply memorising keywords from their book (where else are they getting these keywords from?) they are not reading the cards. It would probably be just as effective to roll die. Memorise the number and the associations with that number and give an answer. Or learn Yi Jing which is another form of divination. I'm sure learning all the Yi Jing meanings and variations on those meanings is damn hard especially since they are in ancient Chinese and each character has its own nuances. It would probably take years to master it. Yi Jing readings are very effective and have been used for hundred of years.

The proof of the effectiveness of learning by rote and reading the cards will be in the pudding as they say. I'm also wondering how LWB advocates deal with cards that have nothing to do with the keyword for the querent.
 

Manda

Of course pictures have something to do with the reading. And the word "reading" is integral. If memorizing meanings was all it took, I would have been done with studying tarot in a day. It's not 78 keywords, but how those cards relate to each other in the spread, the question, the querant, and a whole host of other factors. I think that is where the magic comes in, but magic is dependent upon ritual and ritual is the act of doing the same thing over and over, within a structure.

"Meanings" are only a start to a tarot reading, but what a good start! I never squash intuition in favor of what I intellectually know a card means, but having that structure makes my deck respond to me in such a way that intuition and knowledge blend seamlessly and that is thrilling, beautiful, and immensely satisfying!
 

Freddie

The crowned one said:
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 :)
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Hi crowned one,

This is good advice. Once a person learns and understands a simple traditional meaning for each card, then she/he can build upon that information and personalize the Tarot to their liking. Additional meanings will come with experience and study. I still have new meanings coming forth for different cards all of the time.

You have to learn to walk if you want to run.


Freddie
 

MagsStardustBlack

I wouldn't say so re. your title. I have psychic and clairaudience tendancies and my intuition has always been my guiding light. But when i received my first tarot deck OOOooo i made lists - lots of lists and grids and colums and read lots and studied, and made my husband test test and test again my knew found knowledge untill i new every meaning of every card and every symbol and planetery allocation and everything. I didn't stop until i could get 100% accuracy marks and i loved every second of it. Bacause you can be psychic and intuitive and all that all you want till the cows come home, but Tarot is Tarot and has a basic formula, a foundation. Build upon that what you wish from whatever angle but the origional card meanings are very important and in my opinion essential.

Lucky for me i have a photographic colour trigger memory he he he :.)
 

Rosanne

MagsStardustBlack said:
Because you can be psychic and intuitive and all that all you want till the cows come home, but Tarot is Tarot and has a basic formula, a foundation. Build upon that what you wish from whatever angle but the origional card meanings are very important and in my opinion essential.
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Aye -and you, like me can speak and write and understand each other because of the alphabet- which like Tarot has a basic formula and foundation. Building on that we have magic with what is done with those 26 shapes that correlate with how the mouth and tongue shapes sounds. It is all about communication and Tarot is a small form of that. You do not however need long lists of card meanings- because the picture should and does suggest the meaning and your memory does the rest. You even need memory to talk to yourself.

~Rosanne
 

GryffinSong

Rosanne said:
...because the picture should and does suggest the meaning...
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This^^^

If the deck is a good one (in my opinion) then at least a good part of the meaning is expressed through the imagery. Can we study and deepen those meanings? Sure. Can our intuition and individual insight also deepen those meanings? Absolutely. All of us learn differently. Just ask a really good teacher, and look at the kids who get left behind by standard school methods. Some of us learn best through sound, some by writing, some by sight, and much more. And most of us learn the very best through some combination. No method is purely wrong. No method is purely right. Whatever works for each person. :)
 

Debra

Here's an example.

I know a woman who reads cards intuitively or psychically for the colors and forms. Her approach is to have you pull one or more cards, then she looks at the pictures and starts talking. She uses the Connolly deck because she likes the colors although she knows that most tarot readers don't think so highly of it.

She studied at a psychic institute to develop her powers. She says up front that she doesn't know anything about tarot. For example, after doing this for years, she wanted to know "what are those stars in the circles on some of the cards?"

She reads "the picture" she sees. She says she doesn't read tarot, and I think she's right. One thing I love about her, she knows the difference between reading a picture only, and reading tarot.

People read matchbooks and toothpicks and splotches. I don't believe that "reading is reading is reading" and I don't believe that a good reader can read anything--unless "reading" means just imagination and the ability to tell a compelling story.
 

collielin

Thirty five years ago, when I still had a memory, I sat down with my RWS deck and my book and I memorized the meanings. Then I began to learn the elemental associations, then I had a really big break through by learning the rudiments of numerology. Then the symbolism came into play. Then of course the Astrological associations had to be dabbled with....... finally I started delving into the Kaballah. That was the end of that. It was all just tooooooo much. BUT - years later - what I've retained from all of the above have now allowed me to read somewhat intuitively. I say somewhat, because at this point I can't unscramble the egg. That is to say, when I look at a card, I always do a mental check off of all the resources I have stored in my brain........ then I begin to tell a story.

One of the high points of our annual Winter Solstice Celebration is for me to read the cards for whoever wants a reading. After that is over, I usually challenge some of my guests to pick a card -- any card -- and tell us their first impression. Knowing nothing of the cards, they usually come up with very very valid interpretrations, plus some unusual aspects of the card that may not be so apparent.

In other words, they can pretty much read the cards and arrive at the same studied observations that I do.

So. Tarot is an art, not a science. Some of us like to read and learn and yes, memorize and some of us just go on a wing and a prayer. These days I'm usually somewhere in between.
 

Teheuti

Some of us are born with significant handicaps. For me, it's memorization. I have memorized a few things in my life but I can pretty much count them on one hand and the work that was required, plus the constant review necessary to keep them 'memorized,' is enormous! Luckily I have well-developed pattern-recognition, and conceptual and associative abilities. Making associations is my real skill and a saving grace. I got mediocre grades through school until I got into advanced classes in college that were more about thinking than about memorization and then I excelled.

I like to think I've helped others see that there are many ways to work with tarot and to make a contribution to a field, even if you are handicapped in one way or another.

I would love to have been able to memorize things, including tarot meanings, but I soon realized I'd have to give up tarot if that was the only way to do it. And I wasn't going to give up tarot! I had to find another way. So, I'm really good at showing people other ways to read the cards. That doesn't mean it's better - just that it provides alternatives.

Now, my computer is my memory - thank goodness.

Mary K. Greer
 
Tarot and your critters... do they get in the way? Whats your reading style?