"Intuition" versus "book learned"

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Lyric said:

But the question wasn't "what is intuition?" It's how much credence do you give to that "thing"---call it what you will--as opposed to book meanings? That's what she asked.

So how much credence DO you give it as opposed to book meanings?

For me, I give it more credence.

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Actually, alhough I would not go so far as to say one is better than the other, my readings suffer when I try to use the book meanings. I have my way of reading that developed gradually over time, trying this and that keeping what worked and rejecting what doesn't...so what I do is what works best for me personally.

I don't really use the book meanings. Maybe a touch in the Majors, but even then it's like 10% of the meaning. In fact the way I read no card has any set meaning. The same card of the same deck usually has very different meanings each time it comes up. I have on occasion gone back and tried to use book meanings and it has pretty well been a disaster for me, the quality of my readings went downhill fast.

Again I am not saying one way is better than another nor do I beleive it is, just that we are all individuals and different things work for each of us. I personally am not the reader who can use book meanings successfully. But we are each individuals with very different skills and talents. There is not right or wrong really, you just have to know what works best for you as an individual.

My personal belief is that the right cards will come up for the individual reader to be read in the way that works best for him or her. If you want to read with the book meanings, the perfect cards will come up to give you the answer. If you read another way, then the perfect cards to read should come up to give you the answer in that way. I don't believe one is better or worse, The universe will work with you to give you the answers in the way you are most comfortable with.

The technique is not really as important as the results anyway. When you find the way that works best for you, then that is the best way for you to read. That's all it is really, finding what works best for each of us, and that is an individual process, and not something I believe someone can tell you beforehand which will be better for you.

Bar

As I understood her question, it was whether (for someone who does know book meanings) if they do a reading and intuition takes over, should they rely on the intuition they got, even if it contradicts what the book meaning is.

So, my answer for myself, once I brought it back to just what her question was----was that I give more credence to what comes to me outside the book meanings, whether you call it intuition or something else. I personally do that---but that's just me. Others may do something else.

Lyric said:

As I understood her question, it was whether (for someone who does know book meanings) if they do a reading and intuition takes over, should they rely on the intuition they got, even if it contradicts what the book meaning is.

So, my answer for myself, once I brought it back to just what her question was----was that I give more credence to what comes to me outside the book meanings, whether you call it intuition or something else. I personally do that---but that's just me. Others may do something else.

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I agree wholeheartedly with what you've just said and want to thank you for getting this de-railed train back on track!

WELL - it is hard to say which counts for more if we don't agree what we are talking about - and we don't entirely, or I would not have found a while back that it was better to give up using the term intuitive altogether . But I would agree with whoever said that if you have to make a choice, the card meanings as laid down wherever can cloud things; if you get a feeling in another direction entirely, I think you have to go with it.

as Lyric said:

I give more credence to what comes to me outside the book meanings, whether you call it intuition or something else. I personally do that---but that's just me. Others may do something else.

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My feelings exactly.

But you have to do what works for you, no matter what you call it. That is the critical issue. If book meanings really do it for you, then go with them. If they don't, don't. It was trying to go with them that stopped me reading at all for years. I can't. Others can and do. I don't see it as an issue of better or worse, or more important or less important. It's like any other skill; you use what you have and what you can. Some people can cook brilliantly without a recipe book. I can for some things - but not cakes. You wouldn't want to eat a cake I made by guesswork. You wouldn't want a reading from me using book meanings either !

And what exactly are "book meanings" anyway - they vary from book to book, too ! Even the "traditional and accepted meanings" are described hugely differently from one writer to the next.

You can't win - so just read !

mollymawk said:

As to which specific direction it goes in--that usually comes up in the context of the reading. I think what it means is that you do know the information when you say 'intuitive', you just process it so quickly when you're reading the cards that it seems like it comes out of the blue. So maybe intuition is educated interpretation, you just don't realise it at the time. Like speaking English, if that's your native language. You don't have to stop and think about every letter and every word. Tarot is a language.

The stuff that really does come out of the blue--like when a client walks in and you know before you've laid a card or they've said a word about how their wife was killed in an accident, or how they're going to Russia in three weeks--I think that's something else.

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Mollymawk, that was brilliantly put. I sometimes said i read intuitively, but i think this is what i mean, so you've cleared something up for me personally

Another awkward one, if you take what the tarot skeptics say (sorry to throw another word in here!) is 'imagination'

"aren't you just imagining that is what is in the cards?" "but that metaphore is just your imagination"

The thing is we use our imagination as an interpretive tool. I'm an empath. I feel other people's emotions, and i can sometimes see them as colours, shapes and movement. But they are not any of those things. My imagination kicks in to reform what i wouldn't be able to expereince in the raw. Plus, i don't think that my ability is psychic- i most likely pick up on people's body language etc etc but far more sensitively than i can be consciouly aware of; and it gets re-interpreted into the emotion that person is feeling (only now i am feeling it) or an image.

When i do a reading i read the cards, as you described 'reading' and then find myself imagining what it means for that person. Like people here have described intuitive or non- book meanings, sometimes that leads away from the meaning of the card.

Just the other day i was wondering if i could get a job with any international environmental charities and drew some cards on it. 10 cups 5 swords queen wands. To me the one card that didn't fit it's traditional meaning was the 10 cups. so i took the image of a rainbow literally, hence - the queen on wands whole heartedly believes in her cause (something i know from books) but the action taken is self defeating; it doesn't win you anything worthwhile (again trad meaning). The rainbow i thought must be a logo. The next day Greenpeace were slammed in the news for one of their rainbow warriors attacking a Japanese whaling vessel.

The one non book meaning i chose i didn't intuit (whatever it means) i came to the conclusion of because it didn't fit what else i saw in the other two. It was a relatively logical process.

Another: i drew 8,4,5 swords and 7 wands. I read the cards and then saw brakes being slammed on, with the swords being used as brakes. This wasn't psychic, my imagination interpreted the information into an image.

I think we need a post to list the terms and put what is meant by each of them, like Umbrae's post he links to but for all of them.

What do we mean by book meanings? using a book, all books, traditioanlly understood meanings?

rebecca-smiles said:

What do we mean by book meanings? using a book, all books, traditionally understood meanings?

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Well, exactly. I have several books listing "traditionally understood meanings" - and they don't agree - and most are by reputable people whose names we would all revere ! As to the ones which come with decks - talk about confusing the issues..... Sure - read books - but you can't use them as gospels. You'd go nuts trying to mesh them all together

You know, all this time there was a perfectly eloquent and apropos perspective right at the top of this forum.

A bit long, I suppose, but look at the go this topic had.

That's an absolutely fantastic post by EnriqueEnriquez. I'm glad it's got a prominent place in the forum so it can be easily found.

Apocalipstick said:

You know, all this time there was a perfectly eloquent and apropos perspective right at the top of this forum.

A bit long, I suppose, but look at the go this topic had.

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I read that just yesterday. Had never seen it before...I love "coincidence".