Who holds the power?

[inuzrule]

Hey y'all! It's me again, this time with an actual question *audible gasps all around*.

When it comes right down to brass tacks, is it the reader or the cards themselves that have influence over the direction of the reading?

There have been times when I've been caught unawares with a pack of Tarot cards, simply shuffling them in my spare time to relax and "bond" with them, when a querent comes to me with a burning question or an interest in said cards. I try my best to give a good reading at these times, but often I'm unprepared and off-guard. Yet, somehow, I manage to pull it off, and leave my querent (or querents, if they choose to mob me, as they often do) satisfied.

I believe firmly that it's the CARDS that know what they're doing, and that I simply act as an interpreter, but a friend of mine thinks that the reader's energies cause the cards to fall where they will, and that the cards are merely tools for the psyche. Maybe it's a mixture of both, I can't tell.

Opinions?

 

[FaireMaiden]

Who holds the power?

It's not the cards... cards are just cards... a piece of laminated paper with symbols on them... When we all get psychic enough, cards will no longer be required to tap us into the Big Soup...

In my philosophy, the querent holds the power... or should I say, the querent's Spirit holds the power... The querent's Spirit is the one directing which cards come up and where they fall... And this is directed as well thru the reader's particular bent in interpreting said cards...

If one goes to a Psychic Fair, so to speak, and there are many tarot readers there, how does one choose which to employ???... Again, in my philosophy, the querent's Spirit directs this as well... The querent will choose someone they are drawn to for whatever reason... Maybe it's an energy thing... maybe it's the way the reader is dressed... the jewelry they wear... the deck they're using... Maybe the querent is attracted to the reader's smile... or the bits and bobs on the table such as a candle or the spreadcloth... The querent chooses, and Spirit directs the cards thru the psychic link between querent and reader...

The querent's Spirit is the transmitter... the reader is the receiver... The reader's only power, if you will, lay in its ability, or lack thereof, to be impressed upon by the Spirit of the querent...

 

[thorhammer]

It's not the cards... cards are just cards... a piece of laminated paper with symbols on them... When we all get psychic enough, cards will no longer be required to tap us into the Big Soup...

This is such a good way to put it - Big Soup *chuckles*

I firmly believe that it's the reader whose innate receptiveness is jogged by the images of the cards. I realise that this only really applies to intuitive reading (things like playing cards and suchlike I know nothing about and will not try and comment) but in my experience, I feel like a lightning rod during really good readings. The "Power" is not in me, nor in the the cards, but outside, in FaireMaiden's "Big Soup". Some people tap into it. All are capable of doing so, I think. Just lots don't. Some who do are better at it than others.

The cards are, after all, 78 (79, whatever) pieces of commercially printed cardboard, as has been said ad nauseum. They don't have a consciousness but I believe they can be manipulated by the "Big Soup" (which is maybe where the playing cards and other forms of cartomancy come in?) to fall in the appropriate patterns and combinations.

\m/ Kat

 

[phoenixblu]

yep i agree...its the user... or the energies they use to read for the person..

they are cards but they are oh so pretty! ... which is why i keep on buying them!!

 

[Grizabella]

It's the Great Spirit of the Universe who is in charge of the whole shebang, my friends. Not us, not the sitter, not the cards.

 

[willowfox]

No, its those darn little people who keep switching the cards around when the reader/sitter ain't watching.

 

[mystic mal]

I say to everyone that the Tarot pack could be held out to anybody and you could say X...This is your life"....Everybodies life is in there...it is a big spiritual book that the querent picks out the pages or the chapter that they are on and we have the awareness to interpret them.Yes,it is a big soup if you like and they just take out the spoonful that they are tasting.We are all contained in this same soup or spiritual consciousness so we can all relate to the ingredients.

 

[Major Tom]

Who holds the power?

the querent holds the power... or should I say, the querent's Spirit holds the power...

I firmly believe that it's the reader whose innate receptiveness is jogged by the images of the cards.

It's the Great Spirit of the Universe

These three answers aren't as incompatable as they may seem.

God is everything.

 

[berrieh]

My answer is yes.

Do the cards hold the power?
Yes. (To me.) Though they're imbued with their power mostly by the energies that have been imbued to them previously. But unless it's a brand new deck, even when my decks are "cleansed," they still have my power and the power of every situation they've ever considered. My oldest decks are by far my most powerful, for this reason. I do believe, however, that they hold the power of universal archetypes, of all beliefs -- contradicting and true -- of everything connected to Tarot and it's beautiful artistry.

Does the reader hold the power?
Yes. My hands, my words, my breath, my intent, my thoughts... Their power flows through me and mine through them.

Does the querent hold the power?
Yes. Though I think it's enhanced if the querent touches the cards. But still true if they don't.

Does the Universe hold the power?
The power of the cards, the power of me, the power of the querent... they are all gifted by a universe. (In my worldview, they are all the light and gift of the creator to the creature, the universal giver to the universal receiver. But that's just me.)

All in all, I consider Tarot a conversation with my cards or, if it's for a querent, with the querent, myself, and my cards.

Sometimes, the cards are the most powerful component, and sometimes I am. Every conversation is different.

They, however, tend to be right more often than I. But I don't think that's about power. I think it's about purity of vision.

 

[Starling]

How did the RWS deck become "the standard"? I'm aware that there are other, earlier decks, but for all intents and purposes, the RWS deck is the standard one that most beginners are encouraged to start with.

So, how did that happen with a deck that is not quite 100 years old as I'm typing this? I'm firmly convinced that one of the ways that it happened is that the deck spoke to a lot of people who had looked at the earlier decks and couldn't do anything with them. And as more people used the deck, it began to be imbued with more and more meaning.

Now a brand new RWS deck comes out of the box and out of its wrappings filled with meaning that speaks even to beginners.

So yes, the cards have some of the "power" in the reading. As for who arranges them in meaningful order -- everyone involved.