Surprising, unexpected or alternative card meanings

[euripides]

The Queen of Pents - 'oh no, the "smothering mother" card. ' ... I was just reading my 2006 Llewellyn Tarot Reader, an article on Working with Shadows by Christine Jette, and as part of describing a study, she made that comment about your likely thoughts on drawing the Queen of Pents. I nearly laughed out loud! Such a witty, insightful and for me, unexpected twist on the card.

I've always seen QofP as the earth-mother in control of her household, all capable and practical. Her take on it really surprised me but at the same time I thought 'yes! of course! Brilliant!'

I had thought when reading the six of swords inverted as 'up the creek without a paddle'.

Have you come across interpretations that were an astute flipside to the 'obvious' ones you'd gotten comfortable with? Or that surprised you initially, but then you realised were spot on?

 

[rebecca-smiles]

Yeah, i was with some non tarot reading friends and doing a spead for us, together, at that moment. One of my friends stopped me short and said of riders the seven of swords "I think that card is me, and I'm picking up tips on tarot and looking behind me so i can get some more later"

It always puzzled me why he carries them by their tips!

 

[Gemini Rising]

I once did a reading on a friend I suspected was anorexic, and the first card that came up was the Moon, and in my Art Nouveau Tarot, the Moon is holding a cloak around her, and I never noticed the expression on her face...it seemed to me like she was clutching the cloak around her because she was ashamed of herself. Quite a spot on interpretation if I say so myself!

 

[Bean Feasa]

Up to now I've worked mostly with RWS style decks, so I suppose if I get a meaning different from that particular spectrum of meanings I might well consider it 'surprising or alternative'.
I've been trying to acquaint myself with the Marseille system recently by doing a daily draw. Yesterday I drew the 10 of swords from the LS Conver deck. Gulp, I thought, what the heck's going to happen today.
So I kept an eye out during the day, in case somebody was going to stab me in the back, lol. Nothing dramatic happened. But at about 4.30 I finished a big heap of proof-reading that I'd been working on (and had been driving me crazy). I handed it back and me boss told me to go on home - no point in starting anything new at that hour on a Friday (normally we work till 5.30). So... it was only a small thing really, but a new take for me on the 10 of Swords.

 

[Psychebleu]

edited

 

[euripides]

Yes.
The Hermit. The meaning was "very lonely". The implied, less than flattering meaning of 'hermit' in everyday language.
It was a case of knowing the personality of the person I was reading for and not being able to make sense of the card given the context, asked myself "What would that mean for and to him?"

Aha!

I've found myself doing this occasionally with recent readings. As a beginner, I've gotten more comfortable with the card meanings and starting to feel that I know the RWS reasonably well, but then I'll turn over a card - even one I know well - and just not have a clue how that could possibly make sense in the current reading. Then I chill out, look at the picture, and try to see something in its story... and there it is. Bang on.

 

[Original Destiny]

When I first started to really get into the tarot...way back in hippydome I tried to learn the meanings off by heart, basic RW, Over the years I have slowly integrated my own experiences and feelings into the cards...some are still the same but others have radically changed and with hindsight I can see this.
My Q of Pentacles has become infused with 2 women I know, their personallities have combined to create an image that immediatly springs to mind whenever I see the card ....so I see a person who in a sense is real to me...Mmmm so that particular card is no longer a list of meanings or possibliities but a person and what I get from the card is how that person would react in a given situation /reading /spread...and this could be radically opposite to the RW meanings...so in a way each time the card appears the meaning is very different

 

[Cielo]

Hmm...yes, it happens all the time, I think that's what's so brilliant about Tarot, that you can see different meanings in the card every time you read them!

Recently I had a 6 of Swords which I usually associate with traveling or some passage in time, but suddenly it occured to me that it mean daydreaming for that particular reading....sailing away in your own little boat to far and exotic places....

 

[EnriqueEnriquez]

In regard of imagery interpretation, I would like to share a quote from James Hillman that some of you may find interesting.

“I have spoke of this elsewhere as befriending, and elsewhere again I have spoken of images as animals. Now I am carrying these feelings further to show operationally how we can meet the soul in the image and understand it. We can actively imagine it through wordplay which is also a way of talking with the image and letting it talk. We watch its behavior -how the images behave within itself. And we watch its ecology -how it interconnects with analogies in the field of my life. This is indeed different from interpretation. No friend or animal wants to be interpreted, even thought it may cry for understanding” James Hillman.

 

[celticnoodle]

Original Destiny--you hit it right on! I, too, have found cards remind me so much of myself and certain people I know well (their personalities or other things). When I see these cards pop up in a reading, I often 'see' the person I know that it reminds me of, and can interept that into the clients reading. As you mention, sometimes it doesn't 'read' exactly like the description found in the books, but it does seem to work. Maybe that is what is meant when you finally 'develop' a relationship with the cards--when they pop up, so does the meaning as it is meant to be read.