The Open-Face Tarot

[Mallah]

@Tarotbear

Well, the way I've come to understand the "forcast" in Tarot is that it looks (actually) at what is happening NOW that you are planting...that will come to fruition later....same way the meteorologists do it. They look at what's happening NOW, and say, given this and that is happening NOW, then all scientific laws of averages and past trends show that THIS is what will be happening tomorrow....

the card shows you the THEN (Future,) but you have to bring it into NOW and say "how am I creating that now".

"Well I don't want to have a TOWER day so what am I doing now that's perhaps contributing to that...and what can I do to change it?"

To me, it makes no difference if the higher self is taking part in "arranging" how the cards will fall, or if it's truly random. We shuffle. Intentionally. To get our conscious minds out of the loop...to confound them, as it were. Given that we "randomize" the deck in such fashion, it is true that our higher selves (or the gods, or whatever you want to call those infinitely more subtle powers...) know better that we do consciously what we want and need....and yet, those same powers have given us the CONSCIOUS intending power to CREATE what we want...consciously! The self focused ego takes part in the intending process... So, yes, random is good, for leaving ourselves out of the picking process, but we can also USE the cards to Make a suggestion to the unconscious/super conscious mind... empowering us as "magicians" as it were, to use the tools on our table to manifest the "dreams" we desire.

 

[tarotbear]

Right, but you don't need a Tarot card to make your dreams come true. They are just a springboard. If carrying a shined penny from your birth year in your pocket will give you the same affirmation as seeing the WORLD card ... what do you need the World card for?

 

[Mallah]

You don't....well, it's good for scoopin up dead spiders....


But that's if the penny serves that function for that individual! If I use a penny as an affirmation of what I want to become, (symbolically) I'd have to be in line with who Abe was (I suppose), and what COPPER is, etc etc....unless we are just saying it's "LUCKY" which isn't as in-depth as the world card. If we pick the world card (either face up OR face down) and we KNOW it's symbolism, and all the different deep meanings that are depicted there, there's some level of DETAIL that can be implanted in our unconscious mind as an affirmation of the realized, individuated, powerful dancer we want to become!

I for one, look so much better in flowing taffeta than I do in a tophat, LOL

 

[GryffinSong]

Right, but you don't need a Tarot card to make your dreams come true. They are just a springboard. If carrying a shined penny from your birth year in your pocket will give you the same affirmation as seeing the WORLD card ... what do you need the World card for?

A tarot card is much prettier than a penny. Seriously. It's a rich, many-layered, beautiful image that gives our brain a lot more to work with.

 

[Carla]

When the "future" part of Tarot is done through a random shuffle...when we see a suggestion of a possible future...and then find it comes to pass...is it any wonder? Haven't we in fact taken that "suggestion" and seen it come about thru the "miraculous" workings of the universe...BECAUSE we saw the card?

Say we do a daily draw in the morning...to see what the day might bring...and then carry the card mentally, looking for it expectantly...isn't that a self fulfilling prophesy? Didn't we set the intention and then repeat it thoughout the day, only to find it manifesting before our eyes? "Woah...the cards were right!" And isn't that more than a little passive? Would it be more empowering to CHOOSE a card...FACE UP...OPEN FACE...based on what we'd like to see happen?

I have done "spellwork" before in this fashion, using the tarot to set clear suggestions to the higher self. I've found it to be EXTREMELY effective. I've also found it to be EXTREMELY dangerous, too! (My forewarning...)

But, now, here's another aspect to this whole question....and hopefully you can see how it is related....I am basing this whole thing on my personal belief in what we could call "Law of Attraction" which is a "new" rewording of ancient knowledge....I first heard that SPECIFIC phrase/term (Law of Attraction) thru the channeled spirits Abraham, (Esther Hicks)and then of course we had the mass-market version, "The Secret"...but knew the basic workings of it thru much older stuff. I learned it, I think, thru B.O.T.A. and their materials which I used to take. Their stuff is based of course on ancient philosophy. Indeed, it can be argued that this was the message of Jesus and Moses before him. So it's nothing new. Nor are Tarot cards. But to get back to my point...

Were card readers of the past...long past...more FATALISTIC then we are now...more inclined to tell their sitters, "It's Fate, it's in the cards". And were (gullible) sitters brought back by that?

The random shuffling of cards that are then offered as "future"...well, we NOW say this is not carved in stone, the future is malleable...this represents the way things are flowing now, you can change it....

Might we be better served in our daily draw, or if, in working "Future" aspects with a sitter, to conciously choose the future cards, and using those as a powerful suggestion for what we want...rather than "luck of the draw" and waiting to see if it was right or not.

Could we...SHOULD we...perhaps leave in the random card(s) coming up, as we do now, saying "Look, this is the way it's going now...this is what you are intending (consciously or not)...this is what you are setting yourself up for...is that what you want? If not, let's change it, NOW." Then guide the querant, first in understanding how the random future card is somehow the intention that they are currently setting (it is in fact, actually the PRESENT), and then assist them in the conscious choice (with our help, of course, being the cards expert...) of a card or two that depict/suggest what they DO want. Or is this, as a reader, too dangerous/meddling...if you get my drift. (As I mentioned above, I've seen the dangers of spellwork, too!)

The "shuffle-shuffle, bang, Future, thank you come again" norm doesn't seem very empowering. It seems sort of passive on the part of the person receiving the reading. And maybe this is where the average querant is at...maybe we need to help them get involved? Am I making sense?

This is beautiful and I love it! I think I will try some daily draws using this technique. I like the notion of carrying the card with me, because I tend to forget about what card I drew in the morning...

 

[tarotbear]

I for one, look so much better in flowing taffeta than I do in a tophat, LOL

Good! I look great in a tux! So, if we go out dancing, who is going to lead?

{Trying to picture Hal in red taffeta ..... }

 

[Mallah]

Ooo...can you imagine a "world" card with Tarotbear in a white tux!

 

[kisou]

I tend to believe the former, that cards are not just random, at least at the best of times, but I might still add this to my repertoire. I was just thinking that an interesting exercise might be this:

As a daily draw, from your chosen deck do, first, a conscious choice of the card you want to put to your use for some kind of change. Then shuffle and cut and choose one that way. Can you discern which one will truly benefit you the most?? It might be interesting to keep a journal of this for awhile, and see what trends appear, both in the cards and in your life.

Oh wow- this seems like it'd be a wonderful exercise!

I'm all about using the cards for self improvement... tried doing the spreads on how to make myself more ME and have also carried around cards individually hoping that they'd rub off on me a little more xD but to do a reading exercise like described would certainly be interesting!

 

[Zephyros]

To me, Tarot not only shows me what was, is and will be, but it could also show what should have been or what should be. I don't always know what I want, let alone what I need, and whatever people use Tarot for, it is first and foremost a way of sitting down and thinking about how to improve your life, and the answer isn't always readily available.

In your post you mentioned The Secret, and the problem I have with that book (other than the usual "instant enlightenment" that pop gurus tend to sell) is not the message that if you concentrate on something you will get it (for better or worse), but what it tells you to concentrate on, which is usually the obvious answer. I want that new car, I need this person to love me, this something or other is what is missing in my life to make me happy. While it may be empowering to decide what you want and choose a card to go with that, I think that one of the true values in Tarot is in that it shows us what Thelemists call your "true will."

In essence, I do not always know the root of my problems or the roots of the problems of others, so I may not know which card to choose, but Tarot allows me to ask myself questions and confront issues I may be avoiding or even unaware of, simply because it gives me a different point of view. For example, a battered wife may want her husband to stop beating her, but her "true" calling may be to leave him and join the Foreign Legion. I'm human and fallible and as an extension Tarot is, too, so I may not know what card to choose for this woman, and she may believe her husband can be "saved" but I think it is important to keep your mind open to possibilities that show you, again, not what you may want (selfishly) but what you need (the "higher need," if you will).

This may not sound empowering, but I believe that it is, perhaps not personally, but using Tarot itself in a more empowering way, sowing the seeds for ideas, getting you to actually ponder what the cards are telling you. Even daily cards that may not give me a lot of information, and may not be better than having a "hm" moment, still plant a seed for contemplation of yourself. In a way, choosing a card for what you want is Ego, and I try to release mine when I read, in order to better understand the reading, myself and both of their relations to the world around me.

In other words, I believe that some people could be happiest as tramps, or missed their calling when they didn't become exotic dancers or bunjee jumpers and many other things, and that Tarot could hint at the right directions they should take their lives in, even if they don't know it themselves.

 

[Mallah]

@ closrapexa

Brilliant! Thank you!

It's very much what I think too...

Personally I've always gotten more out of my present and past cards than my future cards. And thru deep reading, I've come to acknowledge many things about myself, even the things I didn't like...and acknowledging those things helps to release them (if I care to do that).