soo many things to consider give me a headache

[SunChariot]

Lately I took a break from reading because I am now only reading following my intuition. but then i wonder ok now I have to look at the image and see what i get and ALSO incorporate what ive learned? the numbers, the typical meanings for a card, the suits, it drives me mad. i dont know what to do.

I was looking to getting a deck out of my element like the Necronomicon. And then I noticed that some of the cards like the 2 of swords (a couple kissing) do not follow the "traditional" meaning. so what do i do? follow the image of the card without taking into consideration the traditional meaning, or #s. I am confused.

Do you guys take every single thing into consideration or read the image alone or what? ahhhhhhh!

First of all, you don't have to do anything in Tarot. There are no absolute rules. If anything, to me, the only thing you should do is to find what feels natural to you and what you have seen works for you personally and stick with it.

And no one can tell you or know what is right for you except yourself. You are the only one who can know that.

I think what you have to do is experiment. Try one way, try another.... See what is most fun for you and what works best. Then you discard what doesn't work for you and keep what does and what was fun for you to do. In effect, this is not really a queston of what others prefer to do and what works best for them, but of what you prefer and find fun and what works best for you. What works best for one person is not the same was what works best for another.

And no one can find that for you but yourself. Tarot is, to me, a very individual path. The act of learning to read is, in a sense, the act of finding yourself. You may find you are a person who prefers to be intuitive or one who feel better following rules. Or something in between. But it is something you need to find within yourself, and no one else can find that for you.,

One thing I can say is that to me reading should feel more like play than work. You know how in school the subjects we enjoy most and take the most joy from are the ones you do best at? Reading is a lot like that. If you are finding it too hard, the method you are using is not working well for you.

So it does not seem to be your path to both learn all the meanings AND then to look for meanings in the images (to do both at once). Personally I read mainly by analysing the imagery. I pay very little attention to much else.I don't pay much attention in most cases to traditional meanings (a bit more so in the Majors, but even then not that much). In fact i don't even know the traditional meanings for the Minors. The traditional meanings are not important to my reading, the way I read. And really my readings work fine for me. So no, doing both is not strictly necessary.

That is my path, it may not be yours, but no it is not necessary to do both. Maybe your path is to read mainly by learnt meanings or something in between. But you seem to be stressing yourself trying to focus on too much at once. You have to be calm when reading, so stressing yourself is never helpful.

Babs

 

[SunChariot]

Open your mouth and what comes out ... at that moment in time.... is right.

Just love this answer. How true. If you have true faith in the cards, whatever your first thoughts are will be the right answer.

Babs

 

[Pao]

One thing I can say is that to me reading should feel more like play than work. You know how in school the subjects we enjoy most and take the most joy from are the ones you do best at? Reading is a lot like that. If you are finding it too hard, the method you are using is not working well for you.

So it does not seem to be your path to both learn all the meanings AND then to look for meanings in the images (to do both at once). Personally I read mainly by analysing the imagery. I pay very little attention to much else.I don't pay much attention in most cases to traditional meanings (a bit more so in the Majors, but even then not that much). In fact i don't even know the traditional meanings for the Minors. The traditional meanings are not important to my reading, the way I read. And really my readings work fine for me. So no, doing both is not strictly necessary.

That is my path, it may not be yours, but no it is not necessary to do both. Maybe your path is to read mainly by learnt meanings or something in between. But you seem to be stressing yourself trying to focus on too much at once. You have to be calm when reading, so stressing yourself is never helpful.

Babs

thanx babs! your post definitely made me feel a lot better!! perhaps everyone who starts on the tarot journey follows the traditional meanings at first, kind of like using your training wheels and once you get the hang of it the traning wheels can come off and you're free to ride any way that suits you best. and i definitely want to have more fun than feel pressured with a reading. I will pay attention to what works for me and also what may stand out for a particular reading. I like that there are no rules, so then you cant really be wrong if your way is different but works.
thanx a lot babs i feel better!!!

 

[SunChariot]

I'm glad. And you're welcome. Well the point is to get accurate readings, and to enjoy what you're doing. So whatever you find works for you and you enjoy, keep doing it. Doesn't matter if it works for someone else or not. The point is if it works for you, stick with it. Or you can can even develop your own method combining different ways. I think most people develop their own individual way over time anyway.

Actually, I personally never really learnt the traditional meanings fully. And I wouldn't change a thing about my experience. I started with a very untraditional deck (the Haindl). I started to learn to read. with and online course. As the lessons came in I noticed more and more that the meaning they were sending me had very little to do with the meanings of my deck. I read a lot to find out why and my experience taught me from the start that traditional meanings are at best guidelines. I never really learnt to take them all that seriously, and I don't even know them for the Minors...so I did not have much to unlearn when I started reading intuitively.

Just a suggestion, but two books you might find fun, alternatives methods to try...I've personally loved both books

Tarot for Self-Discovery, by Nina Lee Braden
and
A Magical Course in Tarot, by Michelle Morgan

And or you can also read using Tarot meditations. I often do that and it works well for me. Where you enter a card and just have a conversation with the figures in it, ask them what you need to know and let them tell you the answers. I have gotten a lot of deep answers this way...


This is the meditation I use (taken from my book Complete Illustrated Guide to Tarot, by Rachel Pollack). I find it works very well for me. It’s also great for getting to know a card better and/or for developing qualities in yourself. Like if I felt I needed to have more courage, I would meditate on the Strength card. By the way where it says "pause" or "brief pause" those are instructions for it you are tape recording the exercise... Please excuse any typos I make,

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"Meditation allows us to engage the pictures on the cards in a very direct way. There are many forms of meditation. We will look at a “program” that will allow you to enter and explore any card. We begin with relaxation. A relaxed state allows you to step outside the usual movement of your life. Choose a place where you can sit comfortably so that you will have to shift around, but try to sit with your back straight (personally I tend to lie down). Place the card you want to explore close by so you can easily pick it up. Since you do not want to stop and consult the book, or even have to remind yourself what comes next, you might want to make a tape of the following directions. Speak softly without rush.

When you have found a comfortable position close your eyes. Feel that you are coming to a rest, still. Let thoughts and plans and problems begin to slide away from you. Begin to breath deeply and easily. Allow the breath to go right the way down to the center of your body. As you take a breath out, release it entirely, in the confidence that your next breath will be there for you when you are ready for it (Brief pause).

As you breathe in, breathe in a deep calm all through your body. Let it radiate through you. And as you breathe out, let the breath carry away any distractions or worries.

And as you breathe in, let your breath bring you the light of the stars. Let it fill you, shine in you. You are a creature of light. And when you breathe out, send the light down into the Earth. Send it through the floor, the dirt, the rock, deep into the Earth. With each breath you become a link between the stars and the Earth (Pause)

Now, with your eyes closed, and staying with your breath, reach out for the card. Hold it in both hands and feel its energy. Quietly open your eyes and look at it. See it for the first time. Absorb all the details, colours and characteristics. When you have seen it fully, close your eyes again and visualize the card in front of you (Brief pause)

Open your eyes and look again. What details did you miss? What small form or gesture did you leave out? Now close your eyes again and set down the card. Once more see it in front of you, Let the picture become bigger, the size of a book, then a window. And bigger still, until it becomes like a doorway. A doorway to a living world.

Motionless, with your eyes closed, imagine yourself standing before the doorway. Now step through it. Now you find yourself inside that world.

Let yourself look around. The world has grown beyond the picture. Feel the ground, the breezes, smell the air, hear any noises of birds, people or wind (Brief pause).

As you look around, you see the characters from the original picture. They are active now, and you watch them move and speak (Pause)

Now you find yourself drawn to them. You approach them and one figure, a person, or animal, or object draws you still closer. You feel a special bond with this figure, this ally. Allow yourself to explore than (Pause).

And now this powerful figure asks you to come very close. You approach the figure and the being offers you a precious gift. Allow yourself to discover this gift and accept it. (Pause). Now your give your ally a gift in return (Brief pause).

Your recognize that the time has come to leave. You say goodbye to your ally and let yourself step back. As you move away the scene becomes the way it was before you entered it. You look and see the doorway behind you. You step back through it, so that the scene once more lies on the other side. And not the doorway begins to shrink—the size of a window, a large book, a card. Now the picture you have created dissolves before you.

Sit quietly for a moment, then take a deep breath, and when you let it out, open your eyes. Write or draw in your journal what you have experienced."

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I also tend to take it as an opportunity when I am inside the card interacting with the envoronment and characters to ask any questions I have at the time that I feel this ally/source of wisdom would be able to answer, as well as sensing the atmosphere....

Hope some of this helps you on your path.

Babs