…Sitting here with my way battered Hoi Polloi thinking about reading.
I dislike the word intuitive and its variants. It’s a communication trap, falling short of meaning:
Intuition
in•tu•i•tion
Pronunciation: "in-tü-'i-sh&n, -tyü-
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English intuycyon, from Late Latin intuition-, intuitio act of contemplating, from Latin intuEri to look at, contemplate, from in- + tuEri to look at
1 : quick and ready insight
2 a : immediate apprehension or cognition b : knowledge or conviction gained by intuition c : the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.
Intuition has to do with conclusions, insight, without evident rational thought, etc.
“I am learning to read by intuition” says the student, “I’m throwing away the books!” Is that intuition – or is it reading by memory or art interpretation? I really think that they are very different things.
We ain’t even gonna go to memory work.
But lets look at that the word we are loath to use. That evil P word. Why don’t we use it? Because folks will think we’re nuts? Because the P word encompasses something that can neither be quantified or qualified or tested or measured? The P word.
Psychic.
psy•chic
Pronunciation: 'sI-kik
Variant(s): also psy•chi•cal/-ki-k&l/
Function: adjective
Etymology: Greek psychikos of the soul, from psychE soul
1 : of or relating to the psyche
2 : lying outside the sphere of physical science or knowledge : immaterial, moral, or spiritual in origin or force
3 : sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences : marked by extraordinary or mysterious sensitivity, perception, or understanding - psy•chi•cal•ly /-ki-k(&-)lE/ adverb
Often, this is what can often occur during a reading…a perception or understanding with or of that, which
lies outside the sphere of knowledge.
Intuition is, “Gee the children are quiet, I’ll bet they’re up to something.”
Psychic is “Gee the children are quiet – they’ve found the gun.”
I’ve been called an intuitive reader. But I don’t start a reading based on body types and shoe selection (had a conversation the other night at a Tarot gathering about wearing what I call “White Man Shoes” and their evils), I knew a some damn good reader who worked off of shoes, handbags, and body types (endo/meso/ectomorphs). Used the cards as a prop (‘samekh’?), making statements based on general observations. That type of reading uses intuition.
Reading for friends and family can be intuitive, “Oh yes this is about your job blah blah blah…Oh and look this is Uncle Henry…” That’s intuitive – making connections. Albeit perhaps tinted with personal bias.
I like to read for strangers. I don’t want the back-story. I don’t want to make connections.
I ain’t no intuitive reader. I read based on numbers, suits, pictures, meanings I’ve discovered and cultivated along the way – that sometimes parallel accepted meanings and sometimes diverge, sometimes change with the wind; and sometimes there’s outside stuff. Don’t know where it comes from, has zip to do with cards and meanings – an no it ain’t always there…but it ain’t intuitive…or perhaps it is…?
Sometimes, like Kiama once said, “I’m as psychic as a shoebox.” Yup. Sometimes I is and sometimes I ain’t. Sometimes it’s just me and the deck and a head full of stuff. Sometimes, a doorway opens – tapping into a phone call in a parallel universe…
There’s another type of reading – don’t know what to call it – Art Interpretation? That’s close.
I suppose some would call that intuitive. Looking at the pictures and writing about what the pictures do or say.
A while back, Firemaiden and I did a series of readings that we refer to as, ‘
The Green Gargoyle readings”. When we did the readings, we had no idea of the person, their sex, their back-story, and we had no feedback. All the readings were done both blind and in a blind. There was no chance for any intuitive actions. We had the artwork, and whatever psychotic impulses we may have given way to (lol).
I’d argue that they were as far from the definition of intuitive as one could get.
Art Interpretation readings yes. Intuitive no.
Amongst us there are Psychic Tarot Readers, who have in their lives forced to use the term ‘Intuitive’. I think that’s sad.
And how can we discuss what the cards mean, if we cannot even say what we mean?
Then there’s timing and time.
“I don’t get timing…” “I need help with time-frames.”
Somebody always says, “Use your intuition…”
(Portions have appeared in prior posts)
[Time, time, time…
Ever been to Africa? You know, if you ever go to Africa, you’d understand what I mean when I say, “
Africa time.” Things move differently. Out here, we build freeways to get there fast. We know what’s gonna be where and when, and by golly if’n it ain’t ya sure gonna hear ‘bout it!
Africa time.
In Africa, things move in their own time. Trains arrive when they arrive; animal herds arrive when they want…drives westerners crazy. But in Africa, the sun comes up – and the sun goes down…that’s time.
Had a friend who used to be a first-mate on coastal steamers sailing the passage between Seattle and Alaska. Whenever Kurt came back, he had what he called, “Sixty mile an hour disease.” To him it seemed as though everybody was moving at sixty miles an hour. On board ship, things moved much slower.
Time is a concept. It is a human construct to which we assign a prime importance in our lives.
Someone once said that time was invented so that everything would not happen at once.
Even the Calendar...is not real (no I’m not going there today). Wanna do numerology? What’s it based on? What is year 0? Is it the same for a Hindu or a Chinese or Jewish person? Time ain’t real! The Calendar is made up – like a LWB….
Time is just a concept. And does it move? Like the hands of a clock? Or does it stand still and we move through it? Is
now the same for you and me? And how come Bob, regardless of when he leaves the house, always show up 20 minutes late?
I keep a clock in my garage/shop/sacred area that does not work. It didn’t work when it sat in my fathers shop when I was a child. But I can’t throw it away – for as long as I remember, it’s right twice a day…
Tarot time. You
cannot ask the cards, “When.”
Through use, you
will learn their idea of when. My times vary just a tad, sometimes depending on which deck I use…kind of like you speak differently with different friends. Something I had to get used to. How it works for you is something you will have to learn…about you.
Also, sometimes the cards are telling you exactly the ‘what and when’ of an event…but it’s tough to be objective about your subjective life-view. It’s difficult to see what you are looking at, especially when it may not be what you expected to see.
Once I heard of a teacher who taught, that if you were using a Celtic Cross spread, the Ace of Wands would be equal to June 1st. This person had the whole calendar figured out in the cards. Now I’m not saying that it was wrong. But I am saying, I had never heard of that before.
Here is the deal with timing…
I have never met two people with the same personal time, and there is only one way to find your ‘personal time’.
Journaling. One of the benefits of keeping that journal of yours is that you are learning your own system and concept of time. Timings set by cards will always be wishy washy, and over-ridden by your personal time. As you learn and grow, you will find things tend to shift.
Here is a
suggestion for you; start doing readings for friends, but do not reveal the results. Write your readings down, and seal them in an envelope to be opened at a future date.
This way, the reading cannot influence future actions or events.
Secondly, it provides a benchmark as to how your timing works. I can tell in a layout roughly how many weeks or months in the future I am looking at, but it came from my experience, and I know it is not the same for everybody.
And thirdly, like the exercise where we did readings with some cards face down, you may find that your readings vary from actual events and time. Knowing how you work with this concept we call time, is important. It’s part of learning.
The other key to keeping a journal is that when you have major life changes, your timing system may change. My timing has changed drastically in the last five years, and I’m still coming to terms with that aspect of my own readings…hey…I’m human. I now have to add extra time to my readings.
Should you use a static timing system, the old this means this, and that means that, you may soon discover that it is too rigid.
I have found that timing is more loosey goosey than any other aspect. There are so many variables involved not only for you to be ready for an event, but also, perhaps the event will not occur until you are ready for it. And if there is more than one person involved – timing begins to become even more complex.
And the final bit is psychic. If you turn over the card and the little voice in the head says “2:15 Tuesday afternoon” and the card position is about future but not this coming Tuesday…what do you do? Follow what the book says? Follow what your journal says? Or follow what your psychic voice says?[/font]
Psychic, like your voice, is a muscle. Exercise the prior. As for the latter – mean what you say…
You know like...say what I mean. Gotta put this whole thing back on my lap.
I once advocated forced combustion of LWB’s. However I have never advocated forced combustion of books…any books…ever. Truth is, I have read from cover to cover every LWB I have ever come across. I’ve saved a rather large stack of them (although they are for specific decks like Mage, Vargo Gothic, & Tarot de los Muertos), and quoted numerous ones. A large percentage of LWB’s are completely without merit. A waste of recycled forest product. In my opinion.
As for advocating a non-book learning style, I believe that study of the images used on Tarot, will guide one to their own study, “Gee – I wonder what a hand reaching out of a cloud holding a cup ejecting five streams of water really means? Why five?” Book learning can answer questions before they get asked.
Questions should create the path; facts should be discovered in their own time and way…intuitively (hee hee hee). Journaling helps show where you’ve been. How your concepts and perceptions change and grow.
…Like this battered to poop Hoi Polloi…
Perhaps reading is about getting out of our own way, reaching beyond the sorting and capturing and pigeonholing, quantifying and qualifying, and ya just open up somewhere – who knows where it comes from but it does sometimes.
I was once asked, “Well yeah but tell us
how?”
Well…I suppose you could start by storing all your decks away, and read or study only one very very basic TdM, RWS, or Thoth…and only one…for an extended period of time. Past the point of knowing it. Past the point of observation. Past the point of study. Into the realm of beyond knowing.
The realm where intuition stops and psychic begins.
See what I mean?
range and bird. So I split it into two and recombine later. Ok looking at the bird: for the word orange, the first word that comes to your mind: mine was just vivacious. Ok bird: freedom. Then you have two different concepts: vivacious and freedom. Then it's just thinking on the question one more time and what is your first reaction of how they fit on. Again just the first reaction, no thought allowed. Let's say your first reaction was that X finds you have a vivaciousness to you that he finds freeing.
