Different views on the Majors

[Jyscal]

Basically what im thinking, is how do you see and act on the involvement and degrees of the Major Arcana. Do you see each card as an experience to go through in seperate distinct stages or an ever flowing, repeating cycle of life? In other words, do we experience the characteristics of The Chariot once and thereafter know exactly what to expect and how to approach it, or is it a continual learning process? And each time we experience it, we are affected differently or learn something new each time. I feel we are continually learning, and experience each card numerous times so that we can make the best of the situation and then help others through our own experience. But no card or "stage" will ever be seen the same way twice.
Id be interested to see what you guys think about this, as how we ever tell if we fully understand, and make the best of what the cards are trying to teach us. When you think of each Major as a state of mind given to us as certain aspects of our lives at that point in time we need to focus on, rather than an alternative method of expression.

 

[rwcarter]

Hi Jyscal,

I think we're constantly presented with opportunities to learn the lessons of each of the Majors. Your boss may present you with a situation that challenges you to meet the Chariot one day while your kid may present you with another challenge on another day. What you do in one situation will probably be different from what you do in the other.

We can understand the message of that card in that moment in that particular situation, but the card will manifest in a different way at another moment and in another situation.

Rodney

 

[Gypsyspell]

Hi, I think the same as Rodney. Although i have had majors repeat and repeat in readings,as though i have'nt received that message. This indicates my life not moving forward generally i know about the situationand want to move on, eg
change job,but am caught up in some sort of rut.

 

[Scion]

The idea of "finishing" with a trump seems bizarre... on the order of saying you're finished with breathing or digestion or memory. It's the reason I'm such a critic of the "Fool's Journey" Majors model... which is at best a simplistic mnemonic with zero divinatory application. Eden Gray has some things to answer for.

I'm with Rodney as well... I have never seen ANYONE proceed like a robot through the Trumps in serial order, and can't imagine why any system that literal would be useful. It's one of the reasons I've never liked the idea of assigning people's birth years to Majors or the idea that you're in a "Tower year." Whose life is that formulaic?

One of the reasons we can get such specificity is that the entire deck can affect the cards with which they appear to produce a matrix of meanings. For me the Majors are refractive and polysemic... repetition inevitable and context eternally shiifting. I may know what the symbolism of the Priestess is, but I won't know what the Priestess means in the next reading I do until I do it. Every time you read a book or see a play or look at a painting, it changes, so why would a Trump be any different? To paraphrase Crowley (I think) every Trump a circle whose center is nowhere and circumference is everywhere. The only way any card could mean the same thing every time is if I wasn't reading but just regurgitating soundbites out of a LWB. Unless, of course, you're reading for an insect.

 

[Jyscal]

Thanks for the help everyone. I mostly agree with what everyone has said here. As i said i just thought it would interesting to see how others view it as well, because i think there are so many possibilities out there its good to explore them all, not everybody thinks exactly the same way. For example i read how one person described the Majors as a ladder, and each step can be represented as a card. Every now and then we lose our footing and fall down a notch until we regain our balance and find our way back up to next rail. But then again, if life were that simple i think alot of people would have reached the top of their ladders a long time ago. But then again, how will you know when you've reached the top of your ladder? And will we able to see each other once we get there.

 

[Firewind17]

I've become aware as a relative newbie that I find it
not helpful when people give answers by sequence.

eg "The previous card is the 3 of cups and so the fact that you are
drawing the four of cups goes back to the sequence established by
the one, two and three of cups."

Maybe that works for a lot of people but for me I just take each
card as it comes in that particular reading and don't assume it is
related to cards not drawn in the layout.

I'm not really on a linear journey myself. All kinds of things are
always popping into my life, good and difficult.

While I feel, personally, that something like a humogous membrane connects all things in the Universe, for me it isn't helpful to try to
line things up in order to get a message from the cards.

Each card seems to have such a range of meanings, some seem to
have nothing to do with each other. Maybe that's just because I'm
still learning, but I think it also just has something to do with the
way my mind works. All our minds work in different ways and what
works for one, doesn't always work for another.

I would have to squash my intuition, creativity and so many other
things to read in a linear fashion. For others, this does work for
them without any distortion of their intuition, creativity etc.

Previously, in my spiritual studies I felt that we were sort of spiraling
up, increasing our understanding of life and ourselves and others as
we continue our life experiences. I'm not so sure that I still believe
that even in my spirituality. In a way, it was as linear as 1, 2, 3. lol

It just feels there is so much randomness, things we have control over,
things we don't. Life feels kind of messy to me now. and I'm just
trying to embrace that instead of organizing a program that defines
life in logical ways. Sharon

 

[rwcarter]

Maybe that works for a lot of people but for me I just take each
card as it comes in that particular reading and don't assume it is
related to cards not drawn in the layout.

Firewind,

That's the great thing about tarot - what works for one doesn't necessarily have to work for another. When interpreting the cards, I don't even think about the cards before and/or after the one I'm currently interpreting. But if consecutive cards within a suit do appear in a reading, then I will pay attention to and relate those cards to one another when interpreting them.

Rodney

 

[Seafra]

If we are to be constantly evolving beings within our own lifetime we can never be done with the lessons of the Major Arcana. Reminds me of that adage which states we can never stand in the same river twice. The river changes. We change. Standing in the river at another time means the water has changed, we have changed. The experience is not finite. The evolution of the lesson is never 'done'.

 

[SunChariot]

Basically what im thinking, is how do you see and act on the involvement and degrees of the Major Arcana. Do you see each card as an experience to go through in seperate distinct stages or an ever flowing, repeating cycle of life? In other words, do we experience the characteristics of The Chariot once and thereafter know exactly what to expect and how to approach it, or is it a continual learning process? And each time we experience it, we are affected differently or learn something new each time. I feel we are continually learning, and experience each card numerous times so that we can make the best of the situation and then help others through our own experience. But no card or "stage" will ever be seen the same way twice.
Id be interested to see what you guys think about this, as how we ever tell if we fully understand, and make the best of what the cards are trying to teach us. When you think of each Major as a state of mind given to us as certain aspects of our lives at that point in time we need to focus on, rather than an alternative method of expression.

If I answer that I think I will just get confusing, but I will try to answer anyway. LOL

Generally, to me each time a Major card comes up in a reading it is a separate incident unrelated to any other incidents of the same card. As we tend to ask different questions most of the time, the answers are in different areas of our lives. To me, btw, Major Arcanas simply indicate important life lessons our life is working to teach us on the topic of the reading.

Let's say if the Chariot comes up one day in a question about your love life. It could indicate some problems that you will face but that you can solve as long as you don't give up and keep at it. Months later, things are solved and yuo get the Chariot again in response to your work situation this time. It means once again that you will face some difficulties in your work situation and can be resolved if yuo don't give up and keep at it. ....

Just becasue you managed to solve your problems in your love life does not mean that all your problems you will ever face in your life have been solved. If later the Chariot comes us later on, that means some problems have cropped up in another area...

That is how I see the Majors in readings. Each incident is new and unrelated to the last. They are just life lessons and we will never perfect ourselves in this lifetime so there will alway be mroe lessons to learn and lessons that are sent to us and that is a good thing.

On the other hand, when it comes to Majors in your year cards. Those tend to indicate, to me, progressive lessons more than isolated incidents. Mainly because when you calculate your year cards for life (or the next 50 years or so)....which I have to admit I once got bored enough to do. LOL....you see that at a certain point certain of your year card disappear, never to return in this lifetime again.

In my life, a few years ago when I was almost 50 I had my last Lovers' year in my lifetime. There is not one that comes up again for at least 55 years...So when that happens, that a year card drops out of your life for the rest of your life, it is supposed to mean that you have completed your major and most important life lessons on that theme in your life. So for me, it meant that while I still may get a few lessons here and there, my most important lessons about love have already been learnt...

Hope this post was not too confusing.



Babs

 

[SunChariot]

For example i read how one person described the Majors as a ladder, and each step can be represented as a card. Every now and then we lose our footing and fall down a notch until we regain our balance and find our way back up to next rail. But then again, if life were that simple i think alot of people would have reached the top of their ladders a long time ago. But then again, how will you know when you've reached the top of your ladder? And will we able to see each other once we get there.

That's interesting. I don't see the Majors as that ladder, but I could certainly envision life that way. No life is not that simple, we do meet obstacles on the way that can make us slip down a rung at the time, but ultimately teach us how not to slip nex time when we are done processing the information we have learnt.

Well depending on your belief system, if you believe in reincarnation as I do now, how you would know when you reached the top of your ladder....As for the top of the ladder of this lifetime, when you reached it (meaning learnt all you were meant to learn in this lifetime) your life would end and you would then start the next sometime soonafter. If you are still here then you have not yet reached it. As for reaching the top of your ladder ultimately, when that is done you have no more need to come back to earth and can stay there however you envision that to be (heaven...)

Which basically means that if you are here on earth now you have not yet reached the top of either ladder...those are my views. But of course there are many different ways to view this.

Babs