Can anyone provide a few tips

[Siochanai]

Hello

I am currently looking for some tips on consistency.

The thoth is tough for a first deck will admit that but I am making progress.
Right now my real issue is consistency. I have times where the cards just click and times when I am totally blank and I have to grab my book for reference.

Does anyone have tips to develop a better concistency so that I do not draw blanks as often. I know it falls around my personal learning strengths but any tips would be useful.

[nisaba]

Read, read, read and read. The more experience I had, the more consistent I became. It took me a few years.

[Barleywine]

And now the microscopic viewpoint . . .

If I'm coming up dry on one of the Minor Arcana, I tend to fall back on its its numerological, elemental, astrological and qabalistic correspondences until my intuition "jump-starts" again. Sometimes just the colors on the card or its overall "mood" will spark my imagination (especially with the Thoth deck). Since I'm also an astrologer, considering planetary and elemental characteristics in relation to the card usually gets me going again. The Major Arcana also have correspondences that can be used in the same way, but I've found them a bit less straight-forward for this purpose. Usually I'll seize on a single important element in the symbolism and enlarge on that until the broader perspective opens up again. If you're reading for someone, these ad-hoc digressions often provide intriguing side-lights to the main thread of the reading that can become whole new avenues of exploration all by themselves. Sometimes if I'm stumped on a card, I will jump over it for the moment and come back to it once its significance becomes clearer in light of later indications in the spread. This can work very well in practice, and it avoids fumbling around for words.

[Siochanai]

Sounds like I should push a bit more on exchange forum for practice. Yes I find elemental dignity helps me out a lot for the way I like to read the cards. I am not a qabala expert or astrologer so I try to use the elements more.

[celticnoodle]

what nisaba and what barelywine said. I'm not up much on astrology or the qabalistic meanings of the cards, but I do fall back on numerology and the elemental parts of the cards.
good luck.

[dawntarot]

One thing I like to try when I draw a blank is close my eyes, take three breaths, then look back at the card. The first detail that jumps out at me I take to be what the card is wanting me to see. Often when I do this I will notice a fine detail I had never seen before -- almost as if it appeared in the card right there and then! That usually gets my intuition going again when all else fails

Dawn

[Siochanai]

Thanks everyone now that my new deck arrived and workbook hopefully things will smooth out a bit. I will keep all these tips in mind because I can see them being very useful thanks again.