To Cuddles on Tarot: Books vs. Gut
cuddles said:
i'm still sorting out all this card meaning stuff...after 4 months i'm at the point where they are more familiar to me and i'm working out how much meaning to put into what the books tell me/assist me and how much to go with my gut...knowing the gut can be misleading if you don't wanna see it!
I understand your confusion, Cuddles, and here's the thing. There are cards out there, Vision-type cards, decks with pretty pictures, shapes, blank cards, where all you're suppose to do is gaze at them and see whatever it is you can see, like a Rorchach's ink blot. Like looking into a crystal ball or a scrying bowl.
But the thing is, these are TAROT cards. And as much as folk here might urge and urge and urge you to follow your gut, in the end these cards DO come with baggage, with history and libraries of books detailing their meanings. This includes SOME agreed upon interpetations. Not a lot, mind you, but some. If there were none, if you were SUPPOSE to just pick them up and interpet them with no respect at all for historial/agreed--argued over--interpetations, they wouldn't be tarot cards.
so why can't the card mean exactly what she sees? if we are going with out intuition and NOT what books say, why isn't her vision right for her? hasn't umbrae said recently the meanings of the cards are changing for him?
1) She can. There's no Tarot Police looking over her shoulder as she does a reading saying, "You can't interpet that card that way! Against the law!" But here we are again--it's a TAROT deck, and discussing all the symbolism, history of meaning, and various interpetations is part of what Tarot is all about. If it mattered not at all, she wouldn't have bothered asking the question. But it's an interesting question, isn't it? Books say, "Rest," and "healing," but the image is of a coffin lid--why? Why this HISTORY of meaning?
Part of interpeting THE TAROT isn't JUST intuition--it's also a body of information, discussion and learning that ASSISTS that intuition and DEVELOPS it. We learn from Mojo about knights laying in their coffins, and suddenly a whole new way of reading the card comes to light. The more you know, the more flexable and layered the readings. Which brings us to....
2) I'm sure the meaning of the cards will continue to change for Umbrae. As it will for you, as it does for me, as it does for all of us. Meanings change, grow, develop not ONLY as we change, grow and develop, not only as we learn more, but with every reading. I'm quite sure the 4/swords could indicate Death in a given reading. Like words, the cards can form new sentences with new interpetations. That DOESN'T mean that each word doesn't have some agreeded upon definition, though, does it? Words, however, can also change meaning, gain more meanings, lose meanings or have more than one meaning.
It's like a recipe. The first time you try to bake a cake, you follow the recipe exactly (interpet the cards according to the book). And it's not easy, and things go wrong. But you keep at it, and it finally it comes out right. You get confident at making the cake. And NOW is when you can decide what you want to change a few things--the spices, the amount of sugar, the type of frosting. You follow your intuition, your gut, and play with the recipe. Because now you know what you can do to the cake to make it more to your taste--yet not destroy it. The original recipe is still there, still the foundation for the cake, but in the end, it becomes very much your own recipe. And as the years go by, you change it and change it again. That's the tarot.
Does any of this help quiet the wonderful confusion?
