Different Meanings For Books&Cards?

[direwolf336]

Hello All,
I have a question concerning different books portraying different meanings of cards. My 1st purchased to learn with was The Guilded Tarot. It came with beginners books of meanings and a few spreads. I then decided to by a second book, which is called Tarot for Beginners by P.Scott Hollander. What is disturbing me is that there are some very radical differences in some of the card meanings.. Is this common to find among books and various different sets of cards?

Jason

 

[Ambrosia]

Unfortunately, yes this is very common, and can be very confusing especially for a beginner.

But dont worry. The more you learn about the tarot, the more you will learn to pick and choose which meanings work for you and your deck.

Sometimes you will find a card can have different meaning in different readings so its best not to have one set meaning for the cards anyway.

I would say the best thing to do at this stage is concentrate on the companion book which came with your deck as that will have been written with those specific images in mind, and maybe also a good all rounder such as Mary K Greer's "Tarot for yourself" as that will help you find your own meanings for the cards.

Have fun.

 

[celticnoodle]

I also have the Gilded deck, and it pretty much follows the Rider Waite deck. so, my advice to you would be to purchase tarot books that also follow the RW deck 'traditional meanings' if you wish to learn more through the books.

but, as Ambrosia says, "Sometimes you will find a card can have different meaning in different readings so its best not to have one set meaning for the cards anyway", so the best thing to do to learn your deck is to play with it, and see what each card you turn over says to you. if you feel more confident with a book for backup--that is fine too, find one that has the RW meanings as mentioned earlier in my post. take notes in your book too! soon, you'll feel comfortable enough to see your own meanings for the cards and they will work for you.

 

[rwcarter]

What's written in a book is relevant to the author(s) of that book. It may or may not be relevant to you. The best advice I can give you is to take what resonates and leave behind what doesn't.

If author A says a card means "blue" and author B says is means "red" then you should accept whichever meaning resonates with what you see in the card. If what you see if different than what either author says, chuck both of their meanings out of the window and go with your own. (Yes, that is not only allowed, it's actually encouraged. But not by most authors cause of course they want you to buy their books.)

Rodney

 

[jrr01]

Or just read the different meanings, get an idea of what they mean and create your own meanings from what you read.

 

[NorthernTigress]

When I got my first Tarot deck, I tried something very interesting. I looked through each card individually, and wrote down my first impressions of what I saw: imagery, color, symbolism. It was only after I had finished creating my own tarot journal that I even touched the LWB. It really helped.

What I learned by doing this is that most of "my" meanings were really close to the "book meanings". But even if they weren't the same, I could still understand what the author was saying.

As a lot of people have been saying here, there a many, many different meanings for a single tarot card. It depends on a lot of things--the deck, the question, the querant, the other cards in the reading.

What I've noticed in the year since I first started Tarot is that I'm moving further and further away from "meanings". Now, I get a lot more from the cards themselves... things that I notice in the picture. The meanings that I have read in different books are still there in the back of my head, but I know that the meanings that come from my own intuition as just as valid.

 

[direwolf336]

I have to say this is a interesting concept to me. Something that I really had not thought about before. However, I do find meanings in the cards that I have not read or perhaps interpret them differently then what the books say, though I didn't realize that you can add this to readings...This opens up the concept of the Tarot to me even more.

Thank you everyone for posting. I am truly leaning allot from this group...

Jason

 

[SunChariot]

Hello All,
I have a question concerning different books portraying different meanings of cards. My 1st purchased to learn with was The Guilded Tarot. It came with beginners books of meanings and a few spreads. I then decided to by a second book, which is called Tarot for Beginners by P.Scott Hollander. What is disturbing me is that there are some very radical differences in some of the card meanings.. Is this common to find among books and various different sets of cards?

Jason

Seems common enough to me. I started reading 5 years ago (will be 5 years next month actually)and that was exactly my experience and feelings on it. I read lots fo books and it felt like each one gave different meanings. Which I remember I found quite confusing when I was starting out. I don't think I had two books that gave teh same meanings, and I read over 30.

That is what made me decide, to heck with that and I am going to find my own meanings inside myself instead. And I couldn't be happier I took that path, it was my best path for me.

Babs

 

[Seafra]

Don't recall the book (was flipping through some tomes at Barnes and Noble a bit ago) but its meaning for 7 of Swords went something like, "You cannot give your heart to this person for they need to feel they have stolen it from you. Also could mean rape." That was it. I mean, whaaa?? lol

Take what you need, leave the rest, and giggle at the ones you feel are really out there.

I used Mary Greer's workbook years ago and it helped me a lot but unfortunately (for me) it didn't deal with reversals at all and I use reversals.

 

[SunChariot]

Don't recall the book (was flipping through some tomes at Barnes and Noble a bit ago) but its meaning for 7 of Swords went something like, "You cannot give your heart to this person for they need to feel they have stolen it from you. Also could mean rape." That was it. I mean, whaaa?? lol
.

Does that even make any sense??? Someone who rapes you might steal your body for a time, but they sure can't steal your heart. There is no way you can get someone's heart, by going about it in that way. Makes no sense at all.

Babs