Intuitive Tarot Reading

[firemaiden]

l'arte di fabulare

Oyez Oyez, in praise of Ooolatek the Seditious One Who Tells Only Lies...

Intuitive. Yes. this is a meaningless word, and in my book, intuitive versus analytic is an entirely false dichotomy. I read a study somewhere (looking at firemen, and the split second decisions they had to make), which determined that intuition is in fact nothing but very fast analysis. Your brain may think it is skipping steps in getting from point A to point B, but in fact steps are there, or they are so practiced the brain can make leaps, but it goes through a linear process nonetheless. In my readings I analyse the artwork, and I analyze the metaphors in the art, and the pictoral coincidences between the cards, and I make analogies. However in so doing, I also use a faculty which has not been mention yet: creativity. I would call the readings Umbrae and I have done together, "creative readings". We make stuff up because it's wacked out fun. And guess what? Some of stuff we fabulate ends up being spooky accurate.

It was in Cosmic Trigger, that Robert Anton Wilson wrote about making up the wildest weirdest imaginable things for his magazine, and it all ended up coming true later.

My advice? Get creative.

 

[Grizabella]

"I think most folks around here are INTUITIVE because it makes them sound special – it bloats an ego residing within self-worth issues.

It is a focus on me me me. Kinda like focusing on that oh so special spread o’ the day that You invented…That’s all focus on self – not the sitter."

I'm not defending the term "intuitive", mind you.

But I think the contrary is probably true for many people, because it's true for me. To call oneself "psychic" is the one that embodies what I've quoted you as saying up there and that's why I think many people call themselves intuitive instead of psychic. They mean psychic but think intuitive is a more humble, less egotistical term.

I think out of that whole long cut-and-pasted post you made there, what I do agree with and can accept best of all is when you say you have "psychic flashes". That I can understand better and accept for myself. If I used just the term psychic about myself, then it sounds like I'm some kind of "ooo-la-la" big shot PSYCHIC and I'm not.

Isn't it really just semantics anyway? When people talk about stuff, they just talk about stuff in the best way they know how. Sometimes it doesn't please everybody and sometimes they don't use terms we think are accurate, but there you go.

As for the use of "intuitive" being an ego thing, maybe it is for some, but maybe it's not for a lot of others. I don't think generalising is very accurate.

But I do hear what you're saying and I do agree that being elitist and egotistical about how one terms their reading style is all about "me, me, me" and not about the sitter. There are lots of people drawn to reading tarot as a prestige thing, thinking it makes them somebody special and better liked by God than everyone else, unfortunately. Fortunately, there's AT to drag them back down to earth.

I appreciate your input here a lot, Umbrae. Don't get me wrong and I hope you don't take offense with me, thinking I just want to argue with you. My intent is to discuss this, not to argue.

Editing to add a thought: Maybe when there's a discussion about "intuitive" reading, people are just trying to establish with themselves and solve the mystery of exactly how they do get the information they're getting. They don't have a word for it and reject the term psychic so they use the word intuitive.

I think the bottom line is---just read the damn cards! And do it to be of service to the sitter. Never mind whether you're intuitive or psychic.

 

[rebecca-smiles]

Umbrae I had read that post. several times. What i still don't understand is why you dislike the use of a term, and yet you have used it to describe a prefered type of reader. You also asked for a definition of intuitive after having already given one, hence all the subsequent questions and descriptions.

The initial posts here may or may not have been ego - centred, but is it not human nature to be curious about how we do things? And if it does not matter; then why state a preference? This isn't a dig, or a defence of the term as such. i am merely curious to understand the (apparent) contradiction. On the one hand it would seem a relevant and note worthy term, (the post with preference for intiutive readers over book) on the other an ego trip and catch all. And if it really doesn't matter how we read, only why (for the sitter) then why write here about how? (those wonderful commentaries, 'the process')

Editing to add a thought: Maybe when there's a discussion about "intuitive" reading, people are just trying to establish with themselves and solve the mystery of exactly how they do get the information they're getting. They don't have a word for it and reject the term psychic so they use the word intuitive .

Indeed. It may not matter how we do it, or who we are, but even the sitter asks...it is a mystery to them too. Yet...

I think the bottom line is---just read the damn cards! And do it to be of service to the sitter. Never mind whether you're intuitive or psychic.

And let forever be a beautiful mystery.

 

[firecatpickles]

I am probably going to slammed for this, but isn't "psychic" and "intuitive" a bit of a "tomato-tomahto" situation? Just because a dictionary gives us two definitions doesn't mean they can't be synonyms in this context.

And perhaps it is not "psychic and intuitive reader," but psychic-intuitive --one word, hyphenated? Like Classical-Romantic?

 

[rebecca-smiles]

I am probably going to slammed for this, but isn't "psychic" and "intuitive" a bit of a "tomato-tomahto" situation? Just because a dictionary gives us two definitions doesn't mean they can't be synonyms in this context.

And perhaps it is not "psychic and intuitive reader," but psychic-intuitive --one word, hyphenated? Like Classical-Romantic?

No, i don't think you'll get slammed. You're quite right. I kinda wish i had avoided this thread now i've read it. It's brought to my attention some thing that perhaps did not need bringing. I see nothing wrong with people calling themselves a psychic/ intuitive/ intuitive-psychic reader. I have always told people that i am neither when asked (even though i feel that there is *something* more at work beyond my ken). That way they can't ask or challenge me on the existence of something i'm not entirely sure about myself.

Anyway, your pragmatism is appreciated, not to be slammed.

 

[Grizabella]

I am probably going to slammed for this, but isn't "psychic" and "intuitive" a bit of a "tomato-tomahto" situation? Just because a dictionary gives us two definitions doesn't mean they can't be synonyms in this context.

I agree. They're pretty darned similar if you put them side-by-side.

 

[Cocobird55]

I agree with you. When I sit down to read intuitively, that is, without referring to books or consciously referring to the standard meanings in my head, I sometimes feel like I get psychic flashes when the meaning of a card, within a spread, becomes perfectly clear to me. I know something, without any conscious idea of how I know, or where the knowledge came from.

I am probably going to slammed for this, but isn't "psychic" and "intuitive" a bit of a "tomato-tomahto" situation? Just because a dictionary gives us two definitions doesn't mean they can't be synonyms in this context.

And perhaps it is not "psychic and intuitive reader," but psychic-intuitive --one word, hyphenated? Like Classical-Romantic?

 

[Sheri]

Originally posted by Lyric:

But I think the contrary is probably true for many people, because it's true for me. To call oneself "psychic" is the one that embodies what I've quoted you as saying up there and that's why I think many people call themselves intuitive instead of psychic. They mean psychic but think intuitive is a more humble, less egotistical term.

This is why I adopted the term and my definition. I would love to think that I was psychic, but in my mind that is asking for people to judge ability based on whether you pick lottery numbers accurately or the favorite color of the querent's long dead, second cousin's uncle.

I have found that frequently, a word's meaning is only as good as the popular understanding of it. The correct, or dictionary meaning of psychic may be better than intuitive, but does it matter if using it causes confusion in the general public or for the potential customer?

If I were to do readings for the public, I wouldn't label myself as an intuitive reader or any other kind of reader...just a Tarot reader - to non-readers, it doesn't matter how the cards are read - other than professionally. Here in the forum, I tend to call out the fact that I don't use book or meanings defined by others to read with because there might be questions on "how did you get that from the cards...don't they mean this?" - oh, that's why she said my chicken was going to lay an egg when she saw that card rather than *insert book meaning here*.

 

[gregory]

I think the bottom line is---just read the damn cards! And do it to be of service to the sitter. Never mind whether you're intuitive or psychic.

Amen. (Didn't I say this already - or was that another thread ?) I have decided not to try to define any of this stuff ever again; it is such a waste of time ! the cards are there; we can read as we like.