EnriqueEnriquez
Dear all,
I regret to say that we have arrived at our last exercise. It has been enormously fun for me to ‘meet’ with you here, weekly. Of course, this is not a “good bye” since we will be working on some readings for a couple of weeks starting next week, and because we will hopefully keep in touch. I am ‘here’ for you at any time.
For our last exercise we will again look at three cards together, maximum five. Why do I say “maximum five”? because when I have my three cards on the table, and I see that one of the characters in the cards is looking outside the sequence, I find useful to place a card there to ‘close’ the spread and see what is what the character is looking at (I first learned about the idea of following the character’s gaze in Paul Marteau’s book, but I have seen Jodorowsky doing the same, and I know Philippe Camoin suggest the same thing in his method). Since a character may be seeing outside the sequence either at the beginning or the end of the three card-sequence, the original sequence might grow from three to four cards, if only one character is looking out, or from three to five if we have characters looking outside both at the beginning and the end of the sequence. (Wow! so complicate to explain by writing, so simply to actually see!)
Only human characters look out. If a pip is at the beginning or the end of a sequence, there is no need to place any additional card.
So, please, give it a try and work with this simple arrangement: a single row of three cards that you might eventually extend up to five cards.
So far, in our exercises, we have been kind of “zooming out” from looking at specific details in the cards to looking at single cards and then at whole sequences. This way we work accordingly to the way the whole pack of cards, as an object, functions, which is in a constantly changing sequence. Do you know how much is “too much salt”? It is very hard to say if we don’t know what are we cooking, for whom, or for how many people. Same thing happens with each card. What does a card means? It is very hard to say if we don’t know what are we asking, who is asking, and how many other cards are on the table. In our fifth exercise we noticed how we are able to get the cards' message as soon as we look at them. The message is simple and direct. The only real difficulty lies in putting that understanding into words. This weeks’ exercise builds up on our fifth exercise. The idea is to facilitate this process, so we can detect the message in a sequence of cards and know what to say.
The exercise is simple: look at three cards and ask yourselves these two questions:
- What is happening?
- How does this feel?
(Those of you who have my lecture notes will know this questions already. ;-) I saved them for the end because I think they are extremely useful. Specially when a client has no question.)
The first question should lead to a more or less objective description of the image. Here we apply all what we have been practicing in the previous exercises: we define a three-part sentence based on the images (haiku-style), we look for eye-rhymes, rhythms, and patters. The second question should lead to a ‘memory-search’ for those moments of our life that can be illustrated by the card's image. I don’t want a subjective response to the artwork, but a recollection of a moment in which you have felt something similar to what you see happening in the cards. Answer with your memory.
Please, do at least three sequences stating what What is happening?" and "How does this feel?".
Questions are welcome. I am looking forward to your insights!
Best,
EE
I regret to say that we have arrived at our last exercise. It has been enormously fun for me to ‘meet’ with you here, weekly. Of course, this is not a “good bye” since we will be working on some readings for a couple of weeks starting next week, and because we will hopefully keep in touch. I am ‘here’ for you at any time.
For our last exercise we will again look at three cards together, maximum five. Why do I say “maximum five”? because when I have my three cards on the table, and I see that one of the characters in the cards is looking outside the sequence, I find useful to place a card there to ‘close’ the spread and see what is what the character is looking at (I first learned about the idea of following the character’s gaze in Paul Marteau’s book, but I have seen Jodorowsky doing the same, and I know Philippe Camoin suggest the same thing in his method). Since a character may be seeing outside the sequence either at the beginning or the end of the three card-sequence, the original sequence might grow from three to four cards, if only one character is looking out, or from three to five if we have characters looking outside both at the beginning and the end of the sequence. (Wow! so complicate to explain by writing, so simply to actually see!)
Only human characters look out. If a pip is at the beginning or the end of a sequence, there is no need to place any additional card.
So, please, give it a try and work with this simple arrangement: a single row of three cards that you might eventually extend up to five cards.
So far, in our exercises, we have been kind of “zooming out” from looking at specific details in the cards to looking at single cards and then at whole sequences. This way we work accordingly to the way the whole pack of cards, as an object, functions, which is in a constantly changing sequence. Do you know how much is “too much salt”? It is very hard to say if we don’t know what are we cooking, for whom, or for how many people. Same thing happens with each card. What does a card means? It is very hard to say if we don’t know what are we asking, who is asking, and how many other cards are on the table. In our fifth exercise we noticed how we are able to get the cards' message as soon as we look at them. The message is simple and direct. The only real difficulty lies in putting that understanding into words. This weeks’ exercise builds up on our fifth exercise. The idea is to facilitate this process, so we can detect the message in a sequence of cards and know what to say.
The exercise is simple: look at three cards and ask yourselves these two questions:
- What is happening?
- How does this feel?
(Those of you who have my lecture notes will know this questions already. ;-) I saved them for the end because I think they are extremely useful. Specially when a client has no question.)
The first question should lead to a more or less objective description of the image. Here we apply all what we have been practicing in the previous exercises: we define a three-part sentence based on the images (haiku-style), we look for eye-rhymes, rhythms, and patters. The second question should lead to a ‘memory-search’ for those moments of our life that can be illustrated by the card's image. I don’t want a subjective response to the artwork, but a recollection of a moment in which you have felt something similar to what you see happening in the cards. Answer with your memory.
Please, do at least three sequences stating what What is happening?" and "How does this feel?".
Questions are welcome. I am looking forward to your insights!
Best,
EE
!!!