Aerin
I would use the word complement rather than contradict when it comes to card meanings. There's a connection there if you look for it IMO, it's just sometimes harder to find but for me often worth the work as it can extend my own personal understanding of the card. Also, sometimes people are working off different bases (i.e. not just RWS) so you take their base system into account. I like finding the links and being a detective. I see keywords and their like as an extra springboard not a straightjacket.
Contradictions which irritated me were the tarot myth type stuff (wrapping cards in silk, singing to them at a full moon, not reading for someone whose name begins with K in a month with 30 days in it, whatever, Egypt, reversals etc etc). That's generally the stuff I leave well alone or giggle at or roll my eyes at, maybe unfairly but I do. I try out different approaches to reading (like 21 Ways, the approach recommended by Joan Bunning's site) because sometimes something from it clicks with me. Sometimes it doesn't.
Mary Greer's book on Tarot Reversals has an extended set of meanings that come from different angles and approaches, upright and reversed. Some books only look at a card from a fairly narrow perspective which is why they may seem contradictory.
This is the way I find different sources useful. Mileage may vary. With (newly designed) oracles I take a different approach because there isn't (usually) a tradition behind them and, quite honestly, I can't be bothered to learn an entirely new system for just one deck. So I'm more inclined to just go by images - or (with something like the Dreamtime where the cards are heavily based on a particular mythology) read the stories and take from that.
ps and to say again, I don't and have never memorised meanings. I rely on my brain to take what it needs and use it unconsciously for the most part - if I haven't understood a connection than it doesn't stick.
Contradictions which irritated me were the tarot myth type stuff (wrapping cards in silk, singing to them at a full moon, not reading for someone whose name begins with K in a month with 30 days in it, whatever, Egypt, reversals etc etc). That's generally the stuff I leave well alone or giggle at or roll my eyes at, maybe unfairly but I do. I try out different approaches to reading (like 21 Ways, the approach recommended by Joan Bunning's site) because sometimes something from it clicks with me. Sometimes it doesn't.
Mary Greer's book on Tarot Reversals has an extended set of meanings that come from different angles and approaches, upright and reversed. Some books only look at a card from a fairly narrow perspective which is why they may seem contradictory.
This is the way I find different sources useful. Mileage may vary. With (newly designed) oracles I take a different approach because there isn't (usually) a tradition behind them and, quite honestly, I can't be bothered to learn an entirely new system for just one deck. So I'm more inclined to just go by images - or (with something like the Dreamtime where the cards are heavily based on a particular mythology) read the stories and take from that.
ps and to say again, I don't and have never memorised meanings. I rely on my brain to take what it needs and use it unconsciously for the most part - if I haven't understood a connection than it doesn't stick.
) I look for ways to help my intuition, see options I may have missed and self-reflection, so some of those you mentioned are lovely additions for me. 