general reading question

HertzogIsGod said:

I find it extremely difficult not to project my hopes and fears into a reading. I do a weekly reading for the following seven days so there are no questions, only this hazy interpretation of what's in store for me.

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This is why it is pretty hard for a lot of people to read for themselves--they are too close to the situation(s).

Maybe you could draw cards and think about how you would read them (blind) for someone else without any frame of reference to yourself. Picture someone you don't know sitting across the table from you and think about what the cards might be saying to him/her. That, of course, is not ideal because the situation or question (or your life) is an integral part of the reading. But it might give you some practice with being more objective.

I don't approach weekly reading with a specific question. Maybe I should. But how would I phrase it? Should I be specific?

You could ask if there is anything the cards want you to know...

Or you could ask what does the week have in store for me...

Anything like that...

Ang x

HerzogIsGod said:

I don't approach weekly reading with a specific question. Maybe I should. But how would I phrase it? Should I be specific?

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Well that all depends on what you want to know. Are you wanting a general outlook? A heads up? What to watch out for? What energies will be present? There are countless things the cards could tell you. It also depends on how many cards you are throwing. If there is something specific coming up in the week, I would do a separate reading for that.

It helps to have a context with which to read the cards. For instance, you could draw 7 cards and each card corresponds to a day. Or you could draw one card each day. But what is it you want to know about that day? When I do dailys I ask what I need to know about that day. If you are just throwing cards without having an idea of what you want it's more difficult to make sense of them. General reading doesn't mean unstructured or blind reading.

This is why I ask what is your purpose for weekly reading, what is it you are wanting to know? Use that answer to construct your focus.

Even if you were to ask, "What does this week have in store for me?" You will probably get a fuzzy answer. This is because perhaps one day or a couple days will have more action for you than the others. I would narrow it down and go daily. That way you are sure to have a specific time frame with which to work from. With practice you should be able to come up with a weekly throw that works for you.

Sinduction said:

Even if you were to ask, "What does this week have in store for me?" You will probably get a fuzzy answer. This is because perhaps one day or a couple days will have more action for you than the others.

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Ah yes....sorry....my days are all the same...and I mean exactly the same, so where that works for me it wouldn't probably do for someone who was out at work meeting folks, out in an evening, or who had a family to interact with...

Best forget that one eh...

Ang x

Thanks

Yes, with just a general "what does the new week have in store for me" I get fuzzy answers and just end up projecting.

Sorry Ange, I posted that without reading yours. My days are all the same too! So I don't do weekly readings.

I read only for myself the first 6 months or so are a reader and the key for me to not getting emotional about readings about the future is to really remind myself that IF somethings comes up that is not what I have hoped one of two things is going to happen either (there are just these two choices, there is no third way it could go): 1) armed with the knowledge given by my cards I can turn that future into the one I want OR if it cannot be changed that means that what is set to happen is truly in my best interest and I will see that in time and be truly grateful in time. As we can't always see the big picture at the time when we are right smack in a situation, sometimes what we think we want more than anything might actually not be what is in our best interests. Anyone who is divorced can attest to that.

So this is how I see it. The future predicted by the cards is not "THE" future, in the sense taht there is only one future that could possibly happen. It is one future amongst many that is possible. It is simply the future we are headed towards at the exact moment in the time the readings was done. It is not locked in. Tarot tends to work at predicting the future because we are all creatures of habit and tend to react in predictable ways. But there is nothing to say that we can't decide to change a future we don't like. I have done it many times. If I don't like what the cards predict, I do a series of readings on how I can change my future to the one I like, that the steps and it is very effective in changing the future. And then again, the only time we can't change things is when the universe stops us because it is truly in our best interest. At those times I take a step back and accept that it knows more than I do and it must be right.

OR put another way, think of this. If something unpleasant were heading towards you, you can't change paths unless you know it's coming, right? So if that thing were coming and if you did not know, you would not change paths and one day BANG it would just hit you. If you knew you could have sidestepped it and avoided it altogether. So if something you don't want were headed your way, wouldn't you rather know?

If cards only told you what you hoped to hear, there would be no point in asking. You could tell yourself the same thing and would not need the cards. Let's say that you ask about the future of a relationship with your SO and the cards say that in the future things are heading towards an unpleasant ending....and you feel like you don't want to hear that because you don't want it to happen. But the real point to me is that if that is what the cards have to say then that IS where you are heading. Would you really want your cards to tell you all is well if it's not? If you think all is well you will make no effort to change things and then...a short time later there is the unpleasant ending.

If you are armed wtih the truth, you can take those steps to change that future. But you can only avoid it if you know it is coming. Otherwise it will inevitably come. I have done this myself. I got that in a reading, and I loved the guy and did not want to lose him. And I have to say I panicked a bit at the cards. But I am glad I found out. I then did a series of readings on why we were headed there, and how to change that and get on a path to happiness. And I took all the advice and steps fo the reading and afterward the cards for our future were very happy. There is no doubt in my mind that I changed my future. And that I could only have done it if I had know what was coming.

So that is what has always made it easy for me to read for myself. I remind myself that I don't want to hear just best case scenarios or what will make my heart leap with joy. I want TRUTH. If it's good, great. If it's not, even better. Because that means that now I am armed with information that will let me MAKE my future great. And I would not have this info had my cards not been perfectly honest with me.

I hope this works for you. This is always what has most helped me.

Babs

That is some very wise advice SunChariot. I think there is a lot of wisdom in those words. (Was it you, that not too long ago I was thanking for taking the other side of a debate? )

And I also agree very much with Sinduction. I have also found that if you ask vague questions, you get vague answers (although not always). If you don't ask a question at all, you get the vaguest answer of all. I think spreads and questions (or rather the forming of the questions) help narrow, concentrate, or focus the meanings of cards.

Focus more on trying to hear what the Tarot is saying and less on trying to hear correctly.

HerzogIsGod said:

I don't approach weekly reading with a specific question. Maybe I should. But how would I phrase it? Should I be specific?

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I think that you could do a general reading, but make each card less ambiguous, with a clear question....
for example, instead of just saying "what will happen this week?" and drawing some cards, you could draw a card each for questions like these
-"what will be a general theme this week?"
-"what concrete events will shape my week?" (maybe more than one card?)
-"who will I interact with that will influence me this week?"

depending on the answers to those questions, you might ask additional questions based on them.....

You could also ask proactive questions, like,
- "what choices are in front of me this week?" (draw a couple cards to compare)
- "what actions can I take to have a good week?"
- "what should I be mindful of while doing __________ this week?"

Also, about hopes and fears influencing, you could try a 'reality check spread' (sorry, I'm not sure who to credit for this one.... I think I found it on this forum once...) with positions of:
-best case scenario
-worst case scenario
-reality

or one like
-what I hope will happen
-what I am afraid will happen
-what will actually happen
and then
-what will I perceive has happened - to interpret after the first three.

Often, I find that what I hope for, what I'm afraid of, what I think rationally, what I feel, the choices availabe to me, the action I take, etc... are all really different things. So, if I'm feeling really hazy and biased about a situation in my life I want to do a spread about, I include separate positions for all of those things, so I don't have to speculate about which part of me an interpretation applies to.