Jodorowsky rephrases a question

Jodorowsky is currently doing a small tour in Mexico, today attended his lecture on "Tarot, Psychomagic and other healing arts" when the lecture was done, there was Q&A round and short Tarot readings, among other things he showed his analysis of the question background as described in La Voie du Tarot/La Via del Tarot book.

One lady asked "Will I become widow?" he said that according to Georg Groddek (Freud's coleague) some of our inner desires are so shameful to be acknowledged so our mind "tricks" us and make us think we are afraid of that, he rephrased the question to "Why she wants to become a widow?" the 3 card reading showed L'Empereur Le Bateleur (Magician) and Le Soleil (Sun) all three masculine arquetypes, his conclusion was: she wants to become a widows so she won't be tied to any men and will be finally able to live her life the way she really wants to, needless to say the Querent and audience were shocked by this answer.

This experience helped me add another layer to the process of helping Querents rephrase their questions, I'm sharing this in the hopes is useful for someone else.

The first thing that strikes me about this is that he assumed too much.
If someone asks if she will become a widow there are two options really, that she wants to or that she really doesn't want to but is afraid it might be happening soon anyway.
If the second case is true those cards could just as well mean she needed/wanted to keep all those masculine influences in her life.
Or they mean nothing because if the second case is true the whole reading is pointless.
Rephrasing questions is good but you can't assume motive and stating something as a fact and basing a whole reading on it without knowing.

Just my 2c

Angelc

AngelC said:

The first thing that strikes me about this is that he assumed too much.

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You're right but then she didn't complain when he explained about the hidden desires disguised as fears, I think they both are responsible for the reading result.

I read for an older woman once on that exact question. Turned out, on discussion, that she was ripped by this same question. She was terrified to be on her own while at the same time hating her life with an exacting husband.

"Will I be a widow?", especially for older (often dependent) women, is loaded and complex question and I suspect that any time it is asked there are overtones of both aspects.

My point here is that it's quite irresponsible to rephrase a question based on your own assumptions.

If you feel the question is bad, talk to the querent and find a better one together. To take it upon yourself to "know" what the querent wants or feels is simply wrong. If he gets lucky and gets it right this time is irrelevant.

AngelC

I sort of understand what you are saying AngelC. I would shy away from this direct question and ask to look it from different angles. If her husband was ill, that is a very loaded and tricky question to even consider. Getting it wrong would open a terrible can of worms.

If she was unhappy in her relationship and was asking with a sense of hope, again - a question I would not want to answer with a yes or no.


If on the other hand it is borne out of a fear of being alone, that issue itself could be looked at in a positive way without actually bringing in the thought of being a widow.

Definitely one I would have huge alarm bells at.

Davina

PS having said that, it is no way a criticism aimed at the person who did answer this. It sounds like they were put on the spot a little and did what they thought was right. Certainly rephrasing it was a better approach, and as I was not there to hear everything in its entirity I would not criticise. It does rightfully illustrate what is being discussed here - re-wording a question can often be the most appropriate thing to do if it leads to an issue being looked at in a different way whereby the real issue is examined, which may have a bearing as to why a certain question is asked. Certainly a skill or method most tarot readers will use during a reading at some stage.

Davina

Had I asked that question and had he rephrased it that way and given that presumptive answer, I'd have walked out of the lecture. The fact that she didn't might have meant she was in too much shock to leave.

There was a 50/50 chance that she did want to be a widow. The fact that he guessed on that side doesn't mean anything great big other than that he's a pompous, nasty-spirited person who chose to think negatively about someone he doesn't even know. If he hit it lucky----whoopee! With 50/50 odds, he had pretty good odds of getting it right, don't you think?

I wouldn't recommend doing this with any of your sitters who might ask a similar question. If you land on the wrong side of the fence, you could do yourself a great disservice as a reader.

I guess I'm just offended as a widow myself. My husband died of a drug overdose---a suicide. The fact that he kept falling off his sobriety for years before that could have caused me to ask the question "will I become a widow". That certainly did NOT mean I wanted to become a widow.

OK... before it goes out of control, my intention was not to present Jodo's technique as an absolute truth or the right way to do the things, his book and the readings made during the conference made realize that Querent's questions are more than meets the eye and there is a subconscious background that motivates the question, for example the lady who asks if she will get married maybe is also wondering why she isn't found beauty by other persons, if we discuss this assumptions we might very well do a reading dealing with self esteem that in the long run will be more helpful to her.

Grizabella said:

Had I asked that question and had he rephrased it that way and given that presumptive answer, I'd have walked out of the lecture. The fact that she didn't might have meant she was in too much shock to leave.

There was a 50/50 chance that she did want to be a widow. The fact that he guessed on that side doesn't mean anything great big other than that he's a pompous, nasty-spirited person who chose to think negatively about someone he doesn't even know. If he hit it lucky----whoopee! With 50/50 odds, he had pretty good odds of getting it right, don't you think?

I wouldn't recommend doing this with any of your sitters who might ask a similar question. If you land on the wrong side of the fence, you could do yourself a great disservice as a reader.

I guess I'm just offended as a widow myself. My husband died of a drug overdose---a suicide. The fact that he kept falling off his sobriety for years before that could have caused me to ask the question "will I become a widow". That certainly did NOT mean I wanted to become a widow.

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Thank you for sharing part of your history, sorry if this offended you it was not the intention, my mother is a widow herself with a history also.

Just to clear the "guessing" part, the lady wasn't there like a zombie just accepting everything he threw at her without argument, his analysis and her consent lead to that rephrasing, is shocking to found Querents like that, so I guess Jodo was the right Reader for her.

I think it's very important for those here who are not familiar with Jodo to realize that he is a neo-Freudian and if you have read his writings on Tarot, even the little Art of Tarot essay, you will see that his analytical training strongly influences his approach to tarot. Further, in the French style, he is quite emphatic and almost domineering. He is rather "I've had a lot of coffee and I'm ready to talk - so don't you argue!" Tho' you could have a discussion with him, if you are ready for an intellectual scrap of the first order!

If you have heard him talk, you will struck by his charisma and extreme self-confidence. It would be hard to resist him I would think in person. If you go see Jodo, you probably know what to expect! And while it might shock you, you are probably already open to his method, as apparently the woman in Flavio's story was. That he rephrases her question as a repressed desire a la Freud would be something any person who has read Jodo would expect.