Tarot and the art of spinning

[Alissa]

I'm a spinner, I spin yarn. First started spinning back in '96 when a back injury forced me into non-movement long enough to finally take up that hobby I'd been meaning to learn for years... spinning yarn on a spinning wheel.

I took a class, the class introduced me to the basics - what the parts of the wheel are called, different styles of wheels and their history, and then the classes' practicum... how to get the fluff in your hands from roving to useable, functional yarn.

"What the hell does this have to do with Tarot, Alissa, or are you just on a tantrum?"

I was spinning today when it came to me... Tarot and spinning. When I came to spinning, I expected to sit down in a 4 week class for one hour a week, and "learn" enough to be able to spin my own yarn. I could even spin yarn for other people, I dreamed... make money from the efforts I enjoyed.

Um... well... yea.

One class, nor a month of classes in my case, can't teach you everything. One website, one book, or even a handful of websites and books, can't teach you ANYTHING without the practice to back it up. There are certain things in life that, without direct experience, you simply *can't* learn how to do them. I could read books and scour the internet till the cows came home and by the end of the day, I'd have a head full of theory, but no wheel to practice on.

So, like spinners, would-be Tarot readers say, "Teach me how!"

"But you can't learn how by reading a book, or checking a website. You have to DO it, and MESS UP a lot while doing it, in order to really REALLY learn how to spin!"

But new folks don't like being told so - I don't blame them. I hate it when people tell me, "You can't (fill in the blank)...."

Stubborn, like a new spinner, we absorb enough theory to get us moving into practice - we often take Western-learning approaches to how we are educated, we attend lectures, read books, and take classes or workshops to Teach Us How... and then the class is over, and we really don't know what were doing yet. Gee, how did that happen?

The yarn I made my first month of spinning was truly and spectacularly bad. Nearly unusable. Like readings from newbie Tarot readers. There's this great potential as the fleece is teased in my hands, soft and silky, and THEN gets bunched up all to hell, looks knobby and then broke in half, and "How The Hell Did Anyone Ever Figure This Out Anyhow?" thoughts spin us into anger and confusion until we're ready to scream or cry or simply walk away.

"Screw this! I'm not a spinner!" (Or a psychic, or a RWS user, or any other category that fits this metaphor).

If someone asked me, "Teach me to spin," I wouldn't hand them the Spinner's Companion book, and pat them on the shoulder with a wheel and some roving. I'd demonstrate, and then I'd insist they Use Their Own Hands and Try It For Themselves. Practice, practice, practice.

I could lecture them for an hour about the evolution of the spinning wheel, the benefits and disadvantages to using a drop spindle as the earliest cultures did, the types of wheels that developed, the side wheel versus the upright (or parlour) wheel.... And an hour later, my student would leave with a head full of Spinning Wheel Theory... and no real information to help them on their path of Making Yarn that Can be Used.

Nowadays, I've been spinning for over 10 years. Sometimes my yarn looks beuatiful, pristine and perfect... especially when it's a lovely, prepared roving I'm creating from.

Sometimes my yarn takes more work - I have to boil the fleece, comb and card it several times to pull out the snags and twigs, and use my own physical efforts to produce a high-quality product. Some yarns have "character;" they're nobby yarns with lots of texture and make a lovely sweater, or they're "high halo" pieces that are meant to be super-fuzzy and soft, and wrap your shoulders in a shawl of angel-softness.

Every yarn is different. Every *project* the yarn can be used for is different. You don't use a baby yarn for making mittens.... Well, if you don't know what you're doing, you might do just that and no one would stop you, but in the end... you'd be mighty displeased with the results.

"What the hell is all this, Alissa, are you just going to keep rambling about yarn and wheels, or are you trying to say something?"

Substitute "yarn" for "Tarot reading"... "project" for "person"... "spinning wheels" for "Tarot decks".

 

[magpie9]

Very interesting...I'm a spinner, too, and I never thought to make this connection. And it is absolutely Spot-On!

 

[darkiscross]

That's great, Alissa. I never knew tarot could be so similar to other art until you posted this. ^^
Reading cards is as much a learnt skill as yarn-spinning. It takes dedication, skill, and a lot of making mistakes along the way. Even tarot masters are newbies once, so we all shouldn't be afraid we will mess up as that's part of the journey.

I don't practice what I preach sometimes. Sometimes I just wish I could chuck the LWB out of the window and read my spread with the poisse of a true tarot master. But the problem is I always read for myself not others and that's when I'm so embroiled in my inquired situation, my eyes are biased to what the card images tell me. When an objective opinion really helps, the LWB that accompanies the deck appears as a good source of objective view. Like another tarot reader telling me what they think of my situation. (Because I rarely listen to myself.)

An opinion that don't come from you sometimes works like ... you've confided a secret in a friend and the friend's telling you what you could do. The decks are very well alive, ready to lead me to the light. Afterall, the job of decks is to lead a "blind" person out of the darkness so it may perceive their situation clearly.

And well, I find that rather impossible if I use my intuition. If I following mostly my intuition have messed up my friendship with a girl, it'd be hard to trust myself to my intuition again. Or maybe I haven't been using my intuition afterall. I don't know ...

But I digress. Back to the topic, drawing pictures is what I do best. Art is one area I excel at. I'm pretty much a washout in other places. In art do I invest my dedication, my skill, and my sketches get nicer as I age. I don't attend art schools, take art lessons or even read art tutorials. All the years, I just let the energy flow through my mind letting the images materialise on the paper. It's a wonderous experience especially when my pictures turn out great.

Now as a newbie tarot reader, I get drawn into the beautiful pictures on tarot cards a lot. In the cards, I'd look at human anatomy, aesthetetics, muscles, backgrounds. I'd be too distracted (happily so) to actually relate the characters themselves to my situation. When you can't find a tarot reader nearby, a LWB helps (not "does", "helps") you back on track.

 

[Alissa]

Thanks magpie and darkiscross!! I'm glad you both "got" my point.

It's a yogic path... like all yogic paths, Tarot reading takes time and experience. It can't be analyzed and considered, it has to be done to learn.

As I told a fellow musician and aspiring card reader, "There's Theory... and there's Practice. You can learn theory all day long, but unitl you actually sit down at the piano and PRACTICE...."

You don't learn high diving by reading books either....

 

[connegrl]

Life is a yogic path. Most people don't practice it that way. I totally got your post. I work with horses and they don't read about theory. It keeps me in a 'beginner' mind. I can read books all I want about a particular aspect of horsemanship. At some point tho, I have to practice what I've read. And the horse is going to make sure I practice alot. Horses don't like to be dominated....true partnerships are the most rewarding. It is one of those things that you either get or don't. I watch lots of people forcing themselves and their horses to conform to a theory without being aware that they missed a big piece. If they're lucky, someone comes along and wakes them up and they can go back and practice without paying attention to what the book said is *supposed* to happen.

Yoga, Tarot, spinning, horses...they're all connected.

Jen

 

[darkiscross]

I got your post. By "learnt" (first para) I meant, learnt from pitfalls. If you found a mistake in your depiction of the woman's arm for example, you have to change it so you draw it properly next time; inversely if you liked something is very much in your character's pose, you're going to keep it, to try and imulate your previous success in your next sketch. That's how an artist improves. Anatomy models usually can't GIVE you skills, you still need hands on, and a lot of dedication. Why is that? Because the model is just a referance.

And tarot books. They're good for reseach and all that jazz. Though books probably can't help you with mastering tarot. your knowledge of symbols and its application in tarot cards are going to add a lot of depth into your readings.

Your very own tarot journey is your true teacher.

 

[hope]

Thanks for sharing your story...

Alissa... I have to thank you for sharing so publicly. I teach young teenagers and find myself constantly reminding them of the importance of trying and trying again. Practice and tenacity. Practice and tenacity. I forget that the advice I give them is the very same advice that I need to follow.

You're an inspiration.

Many thanks,
Hope

 

[Alissa]

connegrl, I love working with horses... that is another wonderful example!! And I agree, life *is* a yogic path, but often we get caught in the "I must win, I must conquer, I must..." mindset... instead of the "beginner's mind" like you mention.

darkiscross, that's a perfect example... sometimes we have to do things *wrong* in order to really get better at doing the *right* more and more often. The perspective you gained from your "mistake" added to your overall artistic eye in other profound ways....

hope, I agree, and teens are at the age when we seem (as human animals) to be the 1. most impatient and 2. most certain that we know better than anyone else how things are done. Put the two together and you get a gaggle of teens who give you the "You Crazy, Lady" look when you rattle their cages and (god forbid) remind them they don't YET know everything....

When you begin to extend the metaphor, you can see how so many disciplines apply -- cooking (ever heard of a cook who only uses theory, no practice?), any kind of sports (reading the scores and rules ain't NOTHIN like playing the game), music, dance, art, drama....

When we realize it's not "wrong" to say, "I can't do this yet, and it's going to take me some time to practice and get it right," we are really learning. Reading meanings on a computer screen or page? Not the same... should only be the jumping off point for out spirits to soar from, instead of the shackles which bind cards to singular, bland and vague meanings.

 

[Alissa]

And magpie my dear, you and I will talk spinning this week toooooooooooo!!!!!

 

[Sophie]

I really don't have much to say, Alissa, not being a spinner. Just wanted to thank you for posting this piece, because I found it fascinating and illuminating, and very relevant to my own tarot experience. And it taught me something of spinning (in theory ), so that's a plus.