intuitive; what does it mean to YOU?

What exactly do people mean when they talk about reading "intuitively"? The terms is bandied around so much and I wonder whether we all mean the same thing when we talk about intuitive reading.

Let me see if I understand this correctly...

Is it that, regardless of the context of the deck, the history of cartomancy, or the artist's intentions, the reader just goes with his or her own thoughts? Essentially is it just a question of saying what you feel on the spur of the moment as provoked by details spotted in the images?

So many people talk about being "intuitive" and - although I'm not knocking anybody's style of reading - surely being purely "intuitive" when working with some of the more complex decks would be doing the creater and the system/deck a disservice by ignoring the context?

I believe anyone can read tarot, but I do believe that anyone can read tarot better after going through certain phases and thought processes. I think we would all agree that a tarot reader who has studied/worked with tarot for many years is probably going to be a better reader than someone who buys a deck, takes off the shrink-wrap and says what they see in the pictures. Reading intuitively suggests to me that a complete stranger to tarot picks up a deck and says what comes to mind and that it is valid.

I admit, I feel a bit ambivalent about this. Why do I feel that purely intuitive reading exists in a vacuum? When I am reading, I am definitely governed by what I have read/studied/know about the deck, the concept (what brought it into being), plus a bit of numerology and an awareness of the elements. My own reaction to suddenly spotted details in the card, what may be called intuitive responses, is just one of many layers, and doesn't happen with every single card in every single reading. But it exists in conjunction with a whole lot of other things; the context of the deck, the system I am working with, all that I have read, how it has been transmuted through my own thought processes (and this takes time). But essentially, I think the intuitive aspect is probably just one tiny, tiny part. If I picked up a deck of cards which I knew nothing about, I'm not sure I would have much faith in a reading which is entirely intuitive.

I ask this because I have been studying the Thoth, Liber T and now the William Blake Tarot and I am finding that the more I study, the more I go beyond the confines of the image and subsequently, the more I feel I can bring back to the image. I look at these decks and it strikes me that reading purely intuitively with these decks and getting enriching readings would be unthinkable.

Could someone please define once and for all in a single paragraph what is meant by intuitive reading? By that I don't mean how YOU read, but about what you understand by the idea of intuitive reading.

I'm curious...

Reading intuitively suggests to me that a complete stranger to tarot picks up a deck and says what comes to mind and that it is valid.

Click to expand...

I do believe this. This is exactly what I teach my students.

For me, the tarot is a tool that bends itself specifically to the reader. I like to call it tarot language. Your language and my language are different. How I see a card is different than how you see a card. It's based on our own life experiences. That is why we can ask 100 readers to read the same 3 cards and get 100 different readings.

Otherwise, why bother reading? What would make readers different? We would all see the same things every time. Tarot is not a science. When you apply the history, the artist's interpretation, numerology, astrology, books, etc. all you are doing is relying on what someone else thinks it means.

Why not figure out what it means to you?

To me it means responding from my unconscious promptings rather than to my more calculating or emotional conscious mind to the symbols or images on the cards.

I think the more you know regarding traditional meanings, researched both historical & specific deck meanings, the better you are at intuitive card reading. Once these things are ingrained, your mind is much more able to choose a specific path to wander down.

Great question, Fanu I think you nailed it in this sentence:

Le Fanu said:

Essentially is it just a question of saying what you feel on the spur of the moment as provoked by details spotted in the images?

Click to expand...

Although I really like Nevada's response as well; it makes it sound a little "friendlier" :

Nevada said:

To me it means responding from my unconscious promptings rather than to my more calculating or emotional conscious mind to the symbols or images on the cards.

Click to expand...

I agree with the OP's statement that chucking out all the system and content of any given deck is doing its creator a disservice (this applies to a greater or lesser degree according to the deck, obviously). I believe that Tarot and other card-based Oracles (except Lenormand) are fundamentally different in that Tarot and Lenormand follow a pre-set structure which gives you a strong "scaffold",if you will, upon which to build a more stable reading. I think it increases one's "reach" in terms of what you can touch on and investigate during the course of a reading.

Otherwise, why read Tarot? Why not read toothpicks? Tarot has a structure, which is why it's so wonderful and endlessly deep. Other non-structured Oracles give great readings as well, they just don't "work" the same way.

I use a combination of intuitive and studied/structured meanings in my readings. I really like structure, not to lean on, but to set out a framework to address during the reading. Just yesterday, I did a reading for a friend where I began with the Four Aces step of the Opening of the Key spread, which requires that you begin by applying some elemental dignity basics, and then you go from there. It gives you a platform to start from, and I think it makes the whole reading process more open and less . . . forest-like. I like to be able to see both wood and trees . . .

I know, I talk in metaphors . . . hopefully this makes sense to someone

\m/ Kat

For me, the intuitive part comes in AFTER the knowledge of what the card means, study of a particular deck. I do not read like some folks, who simply go off the picture, and I do not think I would ever be able to. The pictures matter, but so does everything else about the card, for me. Every card has range of meaning, and for me, intuition is aptly using the right meaning in that range to convey the given message.

I use everything I know about a card's meaning, from numerology, astrology, Kaballah, Hermeticism, psychology, color use, symbolism, mythology, so and so forth, backed up with that tiny voice to hopefully give good readings. One of my good friends likens it to playing 3D chess, where the more you know the more "levels" you can play on, going up and down as well as back and forth. This is one of the reasons I never get tired of tarot, because there is always more to learn, new nuances to apply.

To me...being intuitive is about recognizing that we are connected to the all, to all the energy of the universe and if we quiet ourselves inside and go into a reading in a relaxed state of mind, the all (the universe) can communicate with us and send us messages and tell us what we need to know.

That is where I believe my answers come from. In my personal belief system I believe my answers come from my angels. But the result is the same. I don't have a ton of book learning to fall back on. I did not memorize many meanings in the way I learnt to read. I know the basic one word meanings of the Majors and the main one work meaning of each of the suits. I have developed a method to do Court cards and 3 different methods of doing reversals. But that is all the book knowledge I have and I do not use books when I read as a rule. I do not have any idea what the book meanings of the minors are, nor do I need to in the way I read.

I just start off with the basic one word meaning, just as a jump off point...to point things in a specific direction. That will form like the first sentence of the reading. The rest (and I write about 1 full page single spaced per card) come from looking at the card, seeing what is in it's image, sensing which parts of the of the image have meaning in that particular reading...and following the train of thought that follows. I just start down a path inspired by things in the image and before I know it the ideas flow through me almost faster than I can type them. Sometimes I feel the associated feelings very strongly. The last reading I did I was almost in tears at the depth of emotion that was coming up.

I can feel if I am in the flow, and I can feel if I have left it. If I have accidentally written something I'm not meant to, that is not meant to be in the answer I feel it immediately. I can feel it my gut and I back track and erase it. And pick up where I was before that. Then it's done, the "dictation" stops. No more ideas come and I have a sense of completion and I know ti is complete. I can tell when I am done with each card. When I am done with each it "feels" complete.

I think reading intuitively is opening yourself up to that (loving) energy of the universe, trusting completley in its wisdom, and allowing it to work through you. That is how i see it.

I don't know if I could have just picked up a Tarot deck though for the first time and known how to connect to that energy. I don't think I personally could have. In theory it is possible, but for me it took me a lot of learning and reading Tarot books to find that link and to learn HOW to connect in that way.

Babs

Manda said:

For me, the intuitive part comes in AFTER the knowledge of what the card means, study of a particular deck. I do not read like some folks, who simply go off the picture, and I do not think I would ever be able to. The pictures matter, but so does everything else about the card, for me. Every card has range of meaning, and for me, intuition is aptly using the right meaning in that range to convey the given message.

Click to expand...

I actually think intuition works both ways, through learning, and simply by looking at the image. There are some things that are universal, and no special learning is necessary to recognize them and make use of them in a reading, while other symbols may be more esoteric -- or simply not well portrayed in the image so they're not as recognizable. Also our experiences (in this life and possibly others) differ from person to person. A person may not be at all familiar with a Tarot deck or Tarot in general but immediately recognize certain symbols because of their background or experience. It's also possible that some people are more in touch (through practice or temperament) with the collective unconscious than others are.

Yep, Nevada, definitely! I just prefer, for myself, to have many layers of information from which to work, and the pictures are only one of mine. Good point!

Recently I had issues with someone with whom I had a hurried exchange of PMs on the subject (and who shall remain anonymous) where we eventually decided to agree to differ, as we couldn't find common ground.

The other person's take on intuitive reading was that it worked off detail in the card images, and the more detail a deck-creator stuffs in, the better, because it gives their intuition "more" to work with.

My theory was that what they were talking about was actually stream-of-consciousness thinking, not true intuition; and that I've done more intuitive readings with decks with very simple, detail-free illustrations and unillustrated minors, than I have with the fully detailed packs, where I read in a more stream-of-consciousness style. To me, stream-of-consciousness reading works and works a blinder, but I can read with decks that give me exactly nothing, like the Tarot of Gemstones and Crystals, in which the images make no sense at all in a Tarot context - they might as well be seventy-eight pieces of blank cardboard with their titles printed on them. Now, reading with that deck or in fact seventy-eight real blank pieces of cardboard with titles printed on them, is intuitive in my opinion, because your *imagination* (as opposed to your intuition) is being led nowhere by the artist's style and imagery, so you *have* to tap into your intuition as you have nothing else to work from.