Same and Opposite; Positives and Negatives

[Anyankah]

I'm just beginning to learn the cards, and here are some ponderings I'm having.

Same and Opposite

In some contexts, such as advice, sometimes a card is interpreted as what it shows and sometimes as the opposite of what it shows.

Take the four of swords and the ten of wands. The four of swords is likely to be taken as a suggestion of rest and the ten of wands is likely to be taken as a suggestion to step back from tiring work, to rest. It doesn't quite make sense to me for two cards that show such different things to mean such similar things. So I would like to just take them to be what they represent, or rather some aspect thereof, in both cases.

Positive and Negative

It would be aesthetically pleasing, and make some things make more sense to me, if every card in the deck had both a positive and negative side. The ten of wands could have the good side of having accomplished a lot and of shouldering that burden, and the bad side of that burden being heavy. The four of wands has the good side of rest, and it could have a bad side... he does look dead... perhaps the bad side is that if you do nothing but rest you aren't really living. Of course the negative side of the ten of wands is much stronger; he does look like he's having trouble with his burden and about to bump into something. The negative side of the four of swords is rather subtle one that I made up myself. Perhaps the relevance is that if the cards were in a position that didn't specify whether it was good or bad, that would be the side that dominated, but if the position does tell us whether it's good or bad then we know what aspects of the card to look at.

But while I would like this to be the case, it's hard to see the three of swords as positive or the three of cups as negative, and this isn't necessary for every card to be interpreted in every context. To take my example of advice, something where I would expect to be looking for positive energy from a card, it could mean a negative thing one needs to go through to reach something better. But there are aspects of these cards I haven't come across yet, and perhaps they could fill in these gaps.

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Do these questions make sense to ask?

How do you answer them?

 

[Mellifluous]

For the first, I think there is a subtle difference between the cards you chose as examples.

Four of swords represents rest and recuperation, possibly meditation and solitude. Ten of wands represents being overburdened.

You might see the ten of wands and interpret it as advice to reduce commitments or rest, as you said, or you might just acknowledge that the person in question is/was overburdened or the situation was that way in the past, etc. (depending on where the card falls in a reading). It's a subtle difference, but ten of wands doesn't itself mean 'rest' if you see what I mean. It indicates a lack of rest, and being tired or under stress.

You're not always going to be reading any given card as advice. They have different purposes and connotations in different readings.

There are cards that represent similar things, but there's always some sort of difference. Playing around with grouping or listing them by similar themes is an exercise you see often in books on tarot (if you read them, lol).

I'm not sure what you mean by, "So I would like to just take them to be what they represent, or rather some aspect thereof, in both cases."

As for the second question, learning the positive and negative aspects of cards is something that comes over time. In a way, most of the threads you'll see here or anywhere else to do with reading tarot address those questions for every single card or card combination both in general and in particular readings. That's an ongoing thing to ponder.

You're hardly alone though in wishing that certain cards didn't have such negative artwork (and probably the same for many people about positive images, as well). There are so many decks out there now that I wouldn't be surprised if you found at least one that managed to work more connotations into each picture's artwork, but generally speaking it's part of the skill or spiritual growth of learning to read the cards to remember multiple possible meanings in your head and use your intuition as to what it means in a particular reading.

Each image simply represents things, just like a single word can have multiple meanings or represent big, complex concepts. 'Learning to read' is an apt phrase to describe working with the cards, I think.

So, yeah, good questions. Stick with it!

I hope that helps some.

 

[Windhorse]

Yeah, that's the tricky part when one is starting out - when does "black" actually mean "black" and not "white"...

A few tips that I found helped me:

Don't take the 'standard' interpretations so literally - these images are symbolic, and have deeper implications to them; yes, even the so-called 'minor' arcana I feel have important, deeper meanings. If you are a 'head'-type person, someone who likes to think, examine, deconstruct symbols to get at the truth (a perfectly valid approach), then perhaps learning Tarot from a comparative approach will help you get to your own understanding of the cards. Get hold of a few decks (and not just all RWS-clones) and see how they approach the various cards.

Also, remember to develop your intuition. Symbols are meant to trigger our meta-sensory perception, our psychic abilities. They are vessels for information from somewhere other than our memories and intellect and rational faculties.

Also, given your examples: look at the suits. The symbols of the suits/elements show which realm these phenomena are occurring in. What do the swords represent? What would four swords represent? What do wands represent, and what would ten of them mean? The elements are different manifestations of the same energy: what is the quality of energy as air; what is the quality of energy as fire?

I don't believe there are clear, cut lines of definition. The Tarot IMHO is full of overlap and contradictions. Mastery of this art is learning to harness these chaotic energies and read them....

Enjoy your journey.... this is good place to be learning, as there are hundreds of good Tarotists around here!

 

[Anyankah]

Thanks to both of you for your responses. They are helpful; I will include your thoughts in my ponderings.

If you are a 'head'-type person, someone who likes to think, examine, deconstruct symbols to get at the truth (a perfectly valid approach),

I am very much so. How common is this among people interested in tarot? Tarot seems a very patternified thing that has to do with things that are not readily patternified (like life.) So I can see how it would appeal to people on very different parts of that spectrum.

then perhaps learning Tarot from a comparative approach will help you get to your own understanding of the cards. Get hold of a few decks (and not just all RWS-clones) and see how they approach the various cards.

This suggestion sounds like a good excuse to get Fairytale Tarot as the stories are a whole new way of representing the concepts of the cards.