Hindsight-- how/should you use it with past readings?

[Chiriku]

I'm searching for opinions.

This is an informal survey that will depend in large part on how you use tarot cards--as predictive, or as triggers for your psyche/to offer food for thought.

Say you've done a significant reading (whatever constitutes significant for you: a rare self-reading; an important subject; a large number of cards, etc).

At the time you do it, you say "The reading will be about X subject."

You lay out the cards (whether with designated positions or without) and write down your interpretation of each.

You come back a few years later and, with the benefit of hindsight, interpret each card in a totally different way, as related to a subject that wasn't part of your original question but which you can't help but focus on because it's been a significant part of your life in the time since that reading was performed.

The cards seem to make so much sense, fitting perfectly into the new paradigm at which you arrived with the benefit of hindsight.

Which interpretation do you decide holds true to this set of cards, this layout: the first one, or the one years later? Can it be both at the same time?

Is hindsight-based interpretation the scourge that some readers (perhaps purists of the fortune-telling persuasion) suggest? SHOULD we use hindsight to interpret; is there a place for it?

Examples?


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[Chiriku]

My example

I'll give an example.

Almost two years ago, I did a reading that was quite unusual for me in a variety of ways:

First, it was a self-reading, and for most of my life in tarot I have typically read for others, not very often for me.

Second, it was a non-positional spread ( I prefer positions) as well an unusual one, in which a significator is dealt out along with the cards into a chronological timeline, and anything to the left of it has already been undertaken or experienced and anything to the right, I have yet to pass through.

One of the cards I got towards the far right (i.e. further into the future) was The Hierophant . I was using a deck in which the image spoke strongly of a master-apprentice dynamic, and that fit very well with my question, which was career-related.

Now, two years later, I went back to that old reading and saw it as a visual timeline of a very different set of dynamics and forces (i.e. not related to career) that have unfolded over the past year and a half in my life. The Hierophant means something entirely different in this latter schema, focusing more on its aspects of conservatism, religious authority, and tradition.

Each and every one of the cards in that line-up now seems like a very obvious step on the journey I've taken over the past two years, a journey quite different to the one I posited when asking about my career, and to the way I first interpreted the cards.

I'm left wondering what to make of it all. I do not place a large emphasis on predictions in my readings to begin with; I view cards put into future positions more as food for thought or possibilities of things I should learn to deal with.

But I still ponder.

 

[Grizabella]

Use it as a divinatory lesson. Tarot does predict the future. People may miss the predictions either because they don't believe Tarot predicts the future so they don't look for it or else just because they don't have enough experience with the cards to recognize what they're seeing till after the fact but the predictive use of Tarot is where it's fascination has always been. That's why it's so popular. If it wasn't that there's something magical about the cards and prediction, people would just read self-help books or get a therapist.

Therefore, if I were you, I'd write all this in your journal and learn from it. Start looking for the connections between the cards you get and the things that happen in your life after that no matter how far in the future.

I voted for "other".

 

[marimorimo]

I haven't been reading cards that long and I don't put much of an emphasis on predictive readings (mostly due to lack of experience and bewilderment about the host of possibilities) but I'm with Grizabella on this one. About forming connections with the cards and ultimately having a divinatory lesson based on your own experiences.

For example, in one of the career readings I did just recently, 4 of Cups Rx came up regarding a job offer from my agent with promises of calling me within the week for further details. The card baffled me as the position fit my profile for the most part and I was eager for the opportunity. Why reversed? I made a compromise by telling myself that I probably had some qualms about the job and that the details were as yet unclear.

A week passed with no phone calls. By Tuesday morning my agent called again to tell me she was sorry and that the job listing had been cancelled.

So now "opportunity/gifts retracted" has been added to my 4 of Cups Rx arsenal.

(Voted "I like it; anything that can give one's psyche more food for thought is great")

 

[Chiriku]

I'm glad you responded to this subject.

Use it as a divinatory lesson. Tarot does predict the future. People may miss the predictions either because they don't believe Tarot predicts the future

Could be. And the alternate side to that, which also could be, is that the human mind can apply any idea, symbol, or scenario to any set of facts. And some people are more adept at/used to doing this than others; some professions reward this sort of hypothetical thinking. It is rare that I sit there and look at a card without making it fit the question or situation.

Both arguments have things to recommend them.

Start looking for the connections between the cards you get and the things that happen in your life after that no matter how far in the future.

I forgot to write about that in my original post. But I think it's interesting that it's a fairly long time frame (2 years) by contemporary tarot culture's standards. I believe that in previous eras, card readers and other diviners had no qualms about making predictions 10, 20+ years into the future. A different story now. Even many staunchly predictive readers will give a short period--usually "3 months"-- as a statute of limitations on a reading's reach into the future.

 

[Chiriku]

For example, in one of the career readings I did just recently, 4 of Cups Rx came up regarding a job offer from my agent with promises of calling me within the week for further details. The card baffled me as the position fit my profile for the most part and I was eager for the opportunity. Why reversed? I made a compromise by telling myself that I probably had some qualms about the job and that the details were as yet unclear.

A week passed with no phone calls. By Tuesday morning my agent called again to tell me she was sorry and that the job listing had been cancelled.

So now "opportunity/gifts retracted" has been added to my 4 of Cups Rx arsenal.

(Voted "I like it; anything that can give one's psyche more food for thought is great")

Thanks for the example.

I of course have a roster of meanings based on the readings I've done over the years both for myself and others (when the querents would affirm that X card meant a certain something in their situation). I believe anyone who has been reading long enough cannot help but amass such a roster.

This process of going back to compare notes between your interpretation and how things really turned out is an attempt to calibrate one's own interpretation skills.

But interpreting based on hindsight seems to me to be something a bit different. It seems to be situations wherein you have made a solid, plausible interpretation of cards *based on the question you articulated at the outset* and then coming back at a later date and seeing the whole reading in a different context and choosing to re-apply the cards to a different question.

My initial interpretation 2 years ago was plausible and fit with the question I asked. In fact, looking back on it, they all still apply in the original context and question. However, with hindsight, my mind says, "Oh, but these cards could apply equally well to this other situation that's been important of late. Here's how the cards would apply if the reading were about that instead--look how great they can fit!"

So, now I have two sets of interpretations of the same cards, each equally plausible, especially given my knack for finding the relevance of any card to any situation. It feels tempting to go with the situation I want it to be interpreting (the latter). Then the old hindsight debate rears its head...

 

[marimorimo]

I believe that in previous eras, card readers and other diviners had no qualms about making predictions 10, 20+ years into the future. A different story now. Even many staunchly predictive readers will give a short period--usually "3 months"-- as a statute of limitations on a reading's reach into the future.

I think it's because of the "YOU create your own destiny" thrust that has been the popular take on tarot for the past couple of decades or so. I'm not complaining about it (it's what gives me the courage and level-headedness to even approach tarot) but it does make me wonder about the old 'Madame Fortunes' of yester years. In the U.S. and other developed countries with more litigious societies, these disclaimers are a necessity for the reader. The traditional predictive readers are still around though, especially in more far-flung areas. A psychic and tarot reader who had predicted the death of my grandfather complete with month (totally unexpected as he was healthy at the time of the reading) has also predicted that a cousin of mine will marry twice. Said cousin was 5 years old when they visited the psychic. She is currently a teenager and has a tendency to constantly change her relationship status on Facebook. We shall see.

 

[marimorimo]

But interpreting based on hindsight seems to me to be something a bit different. It seems to be situations wherein you have made a solid, plausible interpretation of cards *based on the question you articulated at the outset* and then coming back at a later date and seeing the whole reading in a different context and choosing to re-apply the cards to a different question.

.......However, with hindsight, my mind says, "Oh, but these cards could apply equally well to this other situation that's been important of late. Here's how the cards would apply if the reading were about that instead--look how great they can fit!"

I think... I kind of understand what you're trying to say here. Is it about how tarot cards fit in almost any situation, like a roscharch test? I feel that way, which is a boon when analyzing a personal situation using cards, but a double-edged sword when I attempt any kind of predictive reading (hence why I don't emphasize predictions in my own readings).

You asked: Which interpretation do you decide holds true to this set of cards, this layout: the first one, or the one years later? Can it be both at the same time? .

This is my take in light of how I understand your question: I'm a result-oriented person so especially for readings that were muddy to begin with, the interpretation in hindsight is slightly more valuable to me. Why? Because with time I can now 'calibrate' my interpretation to better fit the original reading. I don't see why this should be a problem. Didn't know other readers were against it.

 

[Scibility]

I'm searching for opinions.
Which interpretation do you decide holds true to this set of cards, this layout: the first one, or the one years later? Can it be both at the same time?

Is hindsight-based interpretation the scourge that some readers (perhaps purists of the fortune-telling persuasion) suggest? SHOULD we use hindsight to interpret; is there a place for it?

Examples?


.

Hi Chiriku,
I always really enjoy reading your posts, they require the reader to use a few brain cells, and become introspective. I love that.

I don't have any examples to share, but what I wanted to share something else. I tend to be a bit backwards in the way I do things. I don't use the Tarot for fortune-telling, and I don't keep a Tarot journal.

I tried it years ago, and it felt like a huge chore. I do keep a dream journal daily, and for some reason that's quite a pleasant experience :shrug: When necessary it sometimes doubles as a spot to enter really insightful daily draws.

At the end of most days I will draw my card of the day FOR THAT SAME DAY. I know this may seem quite backwards, but I realized that by doing this it served two purposes. 1) It gave me "permission" to only document things that really seemed profound, and 2) rather than spend the day trying to see how the COD would play out, I could do it in hindsight. This technique vastly improved my understanding of subtle nuances in the cards!

So to answer your question, I think hindsight readings definitely have a place for anyone who uses Tarot for introspection and self- awareness vs. fortune-telling.

 

[Chiriku]

I don't have any examples to share, but what I wanted to share something else. I tend to be a bit backwards in the way I do things. I don't use the Tarot for fortune-telling, and I don't keep a Tarot journal.

I tried it years ago, and it felt like a huge chore...

At the end of most days I will draw my card of the day FOR THAT SAME DAY. I know this may seem quite backwards, but I realized that by doing this it served two purposes. 1) It gave me "permission" to only document things that really seemed profound, and 2) rather than spend the day trying to see how the COD would play out, I could do it in hindsight. This technique vastly improved my understanding of subtle nuances in the cards!

Hi Scibility, thanks for your kind greeting. That's a polite way of referring to a chronic "over-thinker" like me.

Tarot Journals and cards of the day both have never played a large role in my life. When I was first learning, I kept a journal of all 78 cards with a variety of meanings for each. Then I graduated to regular tarot journals to record readings, but those were few and far between. (Hypocritically perhaps, I have been most interested in going back and reading those precious few journal entries, but I know myself and if I organically don't want to do something, I won't do it. Such it is with keeping journals).

The conventional wisdom of a "card a day" was always lost on me. It wasn't until years later, after I came back from a long hiatus, that I realized that cards of the day, and for that matter, regular self-readings, would never be a part of my tarot life and that I should accept that rather than thinking of myself as a delinquent schoolchild who's not done their homework.

For that reason, I can't say that I will regularly implement your idea of a card at the end of each day. However, I am an advocate of "the old college try" and I'll take a crack at this week. And, I do agree with your last idea here:

So to answer your question, I think hindsight readings definitely have a place for anyone who uses Tarot for introspection and self- awareness vs. fortune-telling

Although I think some people who tell fortunes also use tarot for introspection and self-awareness, I see your point and agree with it: that people who use it ONLY or primarily for those things will obviously get a lot more out of hindsight analysis than someone who is hoping to predict future events or changes.

For instance, whether I should pick Set #1 of interpretations or Set #2 (hindsight-informed) for the reading I described above becomes a moot point if the goal is simply to gain new ways of looking at myself. I can and should pick both in that case.

I think... I kind of understand what you're trying to say here. Is it about how tarot cards fit in almost any situation, like a roscharch test? I feel that way, which is a boon when analyzing a personal situation using cards, but a double-edged sword when I attempt any kind of predictive reading (hence why I don't emphasize predictions in my own readings).

Yes, just so (about the Rorschach test). And yes, as reflected in my comment to Scibility above, I recognize that those who find tarot's main benefit to be a predictive one will find hindsight-interpretation useless at best, and at odds with tarot's purpose (for them), at worst.

You asked: Which interpretation do you decide holds true to this set of cards, this layout: the first one, or the one years later? Can it be both at the same time? .

This is my take in light of how I understand your question: I'm a result-oriented person so especially for readings that were muddy to begin with, the interpretation in hindsight is slightly more valuable to me. Why? Because with time I can now 'calibrate' my interpretation to better fit the original reading. I don't see why this should be a problem. Didn't know other readers were against it.

That's helpful, thanks. Hindsight interpretation for, say, the reading I described above, is useful to me because it gives me a nice little bundle of ideas (encompassed within each card) to help mentally categorize and arrange my life. I can look at a certain situation I'm undergoing and think, "This Hierophant force in my life is something I have to come to grips with." I got the bundle of ideas, the labels and language for it ("The Hierophant," "4 of Wands") from my hindsight interpretation of a reading that was never meant to have anything to do with this part of my life to begin with. Yet, the reading has enriched me more due to hindsight interpretation than if I had kept looking at it as a career-related reading.

As one who does not take a fortune-teller's view of tarot's main benefits, I suppose I am free to embrace that hindsight interpretation. In theory, anyway. In practice, the conventional ideas of testing the cards' predictive powers still seep into the subconscious, hence my pondering of the subject of hindsight interpretation instead of simply accepting its worth.