"Intuition" versus "book learned"

TarotTy

Book learned to intuition...

Hello,

When I first started out, I would have 2 or 3 tarot books in front of me and I would have to flip through them to get an understanding of what the cards meant. Now when I do readings, sometimes like you I need to look up some meanings but I've noticed that now my cards speak to me. Once I see the cards, its like my mind starts to form a story. I always write down what I hear and then I give the paper to the person who I've done the reading for and so far I've been right on the money. I must admit that when I first started learning tarot I was kinda skeptical but now I am in tune with my cards (and myself) and they never let me down.
 

soulsearch

Newbie here...

I was a professional rune reader first before I turned to tarot. And with my handmade Viking Runes, I used a lot of intuition, because all I had to work on was the image of the rune itself, and then traditional meanings behind it. I had to sense which meaning applied to the situation being asked about...

I ignored the Tarot because frankly, I didn't want to memorize the meanings of 78 cards.

Then I found the Soul Cards, and they were a joy to read. As with the runes, I relied on my intuition a lot. But this time I also included some metaphysical stuff I knew... but turning to such info was also done intuitively.

I was convinced by a professional tarot reader that if I could read Soul Cards, I could also do Tarot without having to memorize 78 meanings.

She was right, but what happened, since 2005 when I started reading with the Bright Ideas deck, was that I would read Tarot both relying on my intuition and on "book knowledge." I also put in my two cents' worth of knowledge of numerology and astrology. But what info to access and to communicate, I rely on my intuition too. I would say that the runes and Soul Cards have prepared me for Tarot, in the way I read them.

Now, from the perspective of being a client (since I also consult other readers), I have always been dissatisfied when the reader is obviously just relying on "book knowledge". I mean, I could have then just read the cards for myself!

My worst example was when, as a starting rune enthusiast, I consulted a professional reader who listed runes as one of his tools. What happened was, he made me pull out one of his runestones (the commercial set by Ralph Blum), then took out the accompanying book and handed me the book to read!

Personally, as a professional "intuitive consultant," it would be insulting to my clients, both who pay and don't pay for my readings, if I simply relied on "book knowledge". I am an intuitive first before a tarot reader. But I am also both.

Thanks for this thread, it's helpful and enlightening.
 

SunChariot

soulsearch said:
N

My worst example was when, as a starting rune enthusiast, I consulted a professional reader who listed runes as one of his tools. What happened was, he made me pull out one of his runestones (the commercial set by Ralph Blum), then took out the accompanying book and handed me the book to read!
Wow, can you imagine that. How can they call themselves a professional when they don't do any work. Any novice can pull a Runestone and read the book. You could pretty well have done just as well with him/her there, even if you had never seen a Rune before. Professionals have responsibilities they need to fulfil. Someone forgot to fill this one in.

Bar
 

kisou

My worst example was when, as a starting rune enthusiast, I consulted a professional reader who listed runes as one of his tools. What happened was, he made me pull out one of his runestones (the commercial set by Ralph Blum), then took out the accompanying book and handed me the book to read!

...WOW. It's one thing to admit you don't know something, but it's definetly quite another to call yourself a professional and do things like that! Sorry to hear about your negative experience :0



In regards to the original point of the thread... I haven't really done very many readings at all as of late-- but when I do my card studies every couple days, I've been trying to open up and let the card I'm working on "speak" to me a little bit more, which is actually not turning out so baddly.

I don't think it's more about the booklearning now... as much as I don't really remember what say... the 6 of wands might mean. After a while of thinking of the card and the pictures, having the characters on the card take action in my mind and literally tell me "well, I was on my way to go and do this but THIS happened and then this and this and I feel XXXXXXXXX about it!"--- that sort of approach is working for me considerably better. Not remembering the card's traditional meaning... and then making it up based off what I think the figure in the card is doing and telling me. Since I've started the thread, I've noticed that my interpretations have actually been more accurate and free-flowing when I go that way.

Occasionally I'll go back and look it up in the book and realize that I all ready had deduced the meaning on my own and the book doesn't tell me something I didn't all ready feel the card was telling me in the first place.
 

mollymawk

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AprilFool

mollymawk said:
Intuition is great. Why is reading books so evil?...

...And why does everybody keep saying it's one or the other? ...

...I'm failing, badly, to see the value of illiteracy applied to reading tarot. Or failing to see why literacy is bad. Surely there's room for more than one true way?

Hear, hear, Molly! I agree fully! I haven't been around very long, but I have discovered my OWN intuition developing OUT of the books I've read in the past 4-5 months. One (or MORE) sources of information lead to new sources of intuition.
 

SunChariot

mollymawk said:
Intuition is great. Why is reading books so evil?

And why does everybody keep saying it's one or the other? Am I the only person who does both? Have you never run across a good book about tarot, or about some other area of knowledge that helped you to understand tarot better?

Sorry if this comes across as hostile, it isn't meant to be. Just I'm failing, badly, to see the value of illiteracy applied to reading tarot. Or failing to see why literacy is bad. Surely there's room for more than one true way?

I don't have set judgments that one is great and one is evil. I truly believe that we are all on separate and individual life paths, and the way we choose to read is a refletion or our life path and purpose. There is nothing wrong with or right about either in essense, or in combining both. I think that what is important is finding which reading method feels most natural to you and works best for you. To me it's a matter of knowing yourself, who you are, what your needs are, what you want reading to mean to you....No one can tell you what is right or wrong in these areas. These are very personal and individual things that you need to figure out inside yourself. I don't think there is a right or wrong way to read. Someone's path and their needs are not things to be judged. Just one way might be right or wrong for you as an individual.

So that's what I think

Barbara
 

gregory

To each his or her own way. Exactly. And quite often I will read a card the way I do - no books - and find the book in its wisdom agrees with me ! (that's what all the stuff on the card is for - to get the meaning across - after all :D)
 

Grizabella

I think the either/or developed from something said in jest a long time ago about burning the LWB. That kind of morphed into people not wanting to admit they learn anything from real books for fear of not seeming like a "real" tarot reader.

There's nothing wrong with reading books about tarot. Nothing any more wrong with it than a cook reading cookbooks or a mechanic reading mechanic books or any other skilled person reading books on their area of expertise.

It's being afraid to wing it that's the issue. Being afraid to just leave the books and trust yourself to read without them that's the problem. There's nothing wrong with reading up a little on some aspect before doing someone's reading, or going to the books after the sitter is gone to touch base and see how well you think you covered everything in the reading. But thinking you can't read without a book is the thing----the distrust of your own ability to read and to go with what comes to you during the reading just because you don't have a book handy.
 

Umbrae

If I discover my meaings in my initial months with Tarot, then when I’m sitting doing a reading face-to-face with a stranger and the 7 of Peppermills turns up, I’m not searching my memory for what I once read…

I’m not thinking about which book Mary K Greer said…

I’m not thinking about what Rachel Pollack said…

I’m not trying to recall what Kliegman said…

I’m not sitting singing, “Mr. Crowley, what’s gone on in your head…”

When that card turns over, because I discovered the meaning myself, I lead myself to the meaning…then bang…I know what it means.

I have never condemned the reading of books – provided that they are introduced at the correct time.

LWB’s? I have a nice collection. I actually read them – which is why I can honestly state that most of them should be burned. LOL!!! :smoker: