rwcarter said:
Meanings aren't fixed. (Well, at least they shouldn't be.) There are times when each of the meanings you've listed for the 2 Swords may be applicable.
As I keep saying, the meanings in a book are those that resonate with the author of the book. They may or may not resonate with the person who's reading the book. So I always tell people to keep what resonates and discard what doesn't. And just because it's in a book doesn't make it gospel.
So I welcome the differences in meanings cause I may see a meaning that would never have occurred to me otherwise. But I know that I don't have to accept every meaning that I see.
Rodney
Exactly...but we are in a position that we can accept other meanings/variations and not get confused by it.
If I were doing a reading on a bad relationship for instance, and the 8 swords came up, then depending on what other cards had come up in the spread, I might well say that the 8 was saying they felt bound and couldn't get away from the relationship even though they wanted to....
But in the same situation, if it were the 2 that appeared, then I would quite possibly say the same about that card.....with a bit added about their feelings too.
Which is all very well for ones who have a grip of it all, but I've seen posts on here, and I've done it myself in the early stages, where till confidence grows, just a bare few words are said about each card, very often the keywords,....cos I think that no matter what we say about going with what we see in the card, there has to be an initial structure, and there has been that structure for many years....a likeness to the meanings.....for the tradition of reading to have been able to carry on as it has.
And so back to the person that thinks about the Tarot and has an urge to get into it, and goes out and buys a deck and a book...
I can understand there being differences with individual authers with decks they have created, the ones that don't follow the RW tradition of images for instance....that auther is putting across what the cards he has created mean to him/her.
But my thoughts are that to aid people who are learning the Tarot, then at least the mainstream/tutor books should all sign from the same hymn sheet as it were...
End of ramble....lol I know what I'm trying to say, but it's getting it out right that's the problem....
Ang x