Hold On - You asked the cards WHAT?!

powdermonkey

Rogan, I'm not sure why you feel your initial questions weren't answered. In the space of nine pages I saw your topic adequately discussed, new theories and considerations brought in, and I also saw people having a lot of fun. So, I present for you, powdermonkey's Best of the Thread - I went back and picked out what seemed to be your main points, and what I found to be some very perceptive, interesting, and altogether un-frivolous replies. First, you asked:

rogan said:
Inane, every day things suddenly become subjects for Tarot - What happened to people just making decisions? .. Don't you think it can become a little obsessive when you can't do something as simple as ordering a pizza without consulting the cards first?

A sample of the replies, concerning the nature of 'important' vs. 'trivial' questions, and obsessiveness/addiction..

cielo said:
Asking the cards about "important" issues can be equally questionable if you rely only on their answers, by this line of thought..."Should I get a divorce/abortion/quit my job" for instance, should probably be decided by far deeper considerations than what the cards may or may not have to say...

kiama said:
Personally I think that there is a line some people can cross between doing it for fun and becoming dependent on the cards. When you have to ask the cards before making a decision, in my opinion you are 'addicted' to Tarot - just as an alcoholic cannot function properly before he's had a beer, perhaps.

marion said:
tarot addiction does not come from trivial questions, it comes from fixations. Picking that emotional scab again and again.

You asked if..

rogan said:
those who take tarot as seriously as I do find it a little... I dunno... Insulting?

As you'd expect in a group qith varying opinions, some felt as you do and some didn't.

elven said:
Ive never had the deck spit on me, or walk off in a huff, for asking the 'wrong' question yet

a_shikhs said:
Ive had my friends asking me such stupid questions.. I just look at them and wonder, "How lame can they get.. " According to me, tarot is to be consulted only for spiritual growth and when you have a serious problem

memries said:
When you stop to think of it ..how many serious questions can you really ask about life shaking events...they just do not come every day. You handle them and move on so when you stop to think of it, using the cards for fun things and every day things is the only way you can use them every day.

The only question you had which didn't generate indepth discussion was the following:

rogan said:
Because doing so leads to other problems - People then get confused, as we've seen in the forums here too... "What does the reversed magician mean in regards to me crating my puppy?" "I drew the three of swords, should I join that gym?"

The way I see it, questions like those on the forums are not so much a consequence of what's asked of the cards, but more indicative of a problem in how people are attempting to interpret them. I feel they come from people trying to memorise specific card meanings for every combination, situation and spread position imaginable. The confusion comes not from the unsuitability of tarot to trivial subject matter, but from people expecting the cards to have a specific meaning for each instance in an infinite field of variables.

The question of 'what does the magician mean for my puppy' is the same as frequent questions such as 'what does the wheel of fortune and the knight of pentacles rx mean in the outcome positions of a relationship spread'. These will keep cropping up no matter how many times they're met with 'look at the cards in the context of the spread and try to feel how they comment on your specific situation', and I feel they have very little to do with the original topics people are reading about.

powdermonkey

Whoa, sorry that got so long x.x

Anyway, I just pulled the 9 Pentacles from my Morgan-Greer as my 'midnight-snack' card. So I'm headed down to the all-night supermarket to see if purple grapes are in season.

Oh yeah, one more quote, from the ultimately frivilous South Park: "There are no stupid questions, only stupid people"

maszat

found the thread very interesting

I really enjoyed this thread and learned quite a bit from it. I mostly use the cards for serious questions and yes, it made me realise that by doing so I am not using my cards often enough. I am still struggling with the concept of daily reading as I just don't know what to ask. This thread showed me how some people use the cards EVERY day and also made me realise how much fun I am missing out with my cards.

Talisman

Larry, Moe and Curley

maszat said:
I really enjoyed this thread and learned quite a bit from it. I mostly use the cards for serious questions and yes, it made me realise that by doing so I am not using my cards often enough. I am still struggling with the concept of daily reading as I just don't know what to ask. This thread showed me how some people use the cards EVERY day and also made me realise how much fun I am missing out with my cards.

Exactly ! Fun.

You may put me completely on the side of the frivolous if you want. But there are many ways to have fun with Tarot, and in the process you may discover something within yourself that is important to know.

Try this: Lay out a three-card spread. Do not assign postions to them, as in Past-Present-Future, or Body-Mind-Spirit. There is no question here, 'cept a kind'a general "What to think about ?"

Turn the cards over, one by one, and read each card individually and then in connection with the other cards. Do not superimpose a pattern on them, but do move them around. Horizontal line, vertical line, triangle. Shift the positions of all the cards. Look for the energy vectors that flow between the cards. Perhaps one card and it's meaning for you this time stands out, something to think about.

Try this: You must be familiar with the room you are in, the things in the room that surround you. Now climb up on the table your computer sits on and look at the room. From the new perspective, the room will look very different. Try to look at things from a new and different perspective. Try to retain a sense of humor about the whole thing. There is too much serious goin' on.

Doesn't matter a bit how silly the question may be.

Should you clean out the cat-litter box ? (I'm psychic. The answer is yes.)

Should you order a pizza ? (Dunno. I'm not that psychic. What do the cards say ?)

Talisman

magpie9

What an interesting thread--I wish I'd found it sooner. What I don't get is why anyone should care what others use tarot for. It's not as though anyone is being forced into practices they consider unsuitable....or even asked to watch as others ask unspeakably frivilous questions of the cards--or desperatly serious life-and death questions, come to that.

Could it be that we are all really discussing by what criteria we judge ourselves and others? :bugeyed:

Nah. That'll Never Happen.

firecatpickles

Just two comments about what I have personally taken away from this interesting conversation... One is about tarot being addictive:

Helvetica said:
[T]urning to tarot is simply a symptom of obsessiveness, of addiction - it is not the addiction. The addiction is hanging onto a bad or dead relationship.

All obsessions manifest into some sort of activity/addiction: no obsession, no addicition. Some turn to work, some to sex, some alcohol, some tarot. None of the above, although potentially deadly, is immediately fatal, save for alcohol. If there is anything someone may turn to in order to keep them away from "the people celebrating down the hall" then I say go for it!
And on a completely different note, this one that is the best argument for intuitive reading I have seen so far...

powdermonkey said:
I feel [trivial questions] come from people trying to memorise specific card meanings for every combination, situation and spread position imaginable. The confusion comes not from the unsuitability of tarot to trivial subject matter, but from people expecting the cards to have a specific meaning for each instance in an infinite field of variables.

Hold On - You asked the cards WHAT?!

powdermonkey

powdermonkey

maszat

Talisman

magpie9

firecatpickles