picture vs meaning

Barleywine

"Layers" is a good way to look at it. I like to say that the tarot is "infinitely flexible and adaptable," although that's probably a bit of an overstatement.
 

Sassyinkpen

RavenOfSummer said:
Even if a card's picture deviates significantly from the RWS, I have found that the creator has generally expressed a particular layer of meaning that very much resonates with the RWS meaning. It is just a different perspective on that meaning. In that way, I feel working with different decks has served to expand my understanding of the cards. It's not that each deck proposes a new and different meaning (although of course some do!), but that they are seeing the meaning of the card in a different way, or expressing it in a different way, which allows you as a reader to expand your own perspective as you work with that particular deck.
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This is very much like what I was trying to say above. I adore learning something new about each card when I study a new deck. I guess to me, it's like each card doesn't have ONE meaning, but more like a constellation of similar meanings based around a theme or idea and you choose the facet that best fits the situation.

I loved your yoga analogy - I think that explanation is spot on.
 

nisaba

gregory said:
If you are simply going to go by the "accepted"/"traditional"/"book"/"generic" meanings - you don't need pictures, so why not just write the name of each card on a piece of paper and go from there ?
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Indeed. In fact, years ago I think I promised Grizabella here that if we ever met, we'd go out and have coffee somewhere where they have those paper-wrapped single-serves of coffee. We were going to write the card names on 78 of them, and do sugar-pack readings for each other over coffee! <laughter> I still think I'd like to do it - there's no reason it wouldn't work. MarcusR? JylliM?

Doesn't work - we NEED the images :) - which tells you everything you need to know.
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Well ... yeah ... mostly. I love scrying into the images. But when faced with decks that don't offer a lot, like the Tarot of Physics or the Tarot of Gemstones and Crystals, I seem to find other ways of reading. :)
 
So what happens when the reading is inaccurate? Deck of the Week : Sign-up Thread: Week 279 : December 3 - December 9