using tarot - for what?

[RiverRunsDeep]

what do i REALLY want to use the tarot for?
how do i honour the tarot if i don't follow its advice?.

Great thread, fractalgranny! Personally, the fundamental reasons I
want to use the tarot are:

1. To stay in touch with my intuition so that, even outside of the cards,
I notice the messages, symbols, and connections that occur in everyday
life as my guideposts.

2. To connect with my inner truths. I have found the cards to be a most
effective way of unburying the harsh realities about myself and my life,
so I can acknowledge them and move forward.

Outside of readings, I use the cards to communicate with my ancestors and
spirit guides which, as others have posted, I believe is different than consulting
my higher self. I also use the cards for directing and focusing my dreamwork,
and for a self-empowerment tool with meditation.

I think you are honoring the cards by consulting them, whether or not you
plan to follow their advice. It is like listening to a wise friend whose advice
we may or may not take. It is great to have someone else's opinion, but we
are ultimately going to choose our own path. Some of our deepest lessons lie
in the choices we didn't make, or the paths we decided not to travel upon.

 

[AnemoneRosie]

I just want to point out how something that can seem frivolous isn't, really.
The other day I asked my cards "should I go on a retreat?" And the answer was yes. So I took the plunge and signed up, which was terrifying to me. I've never done anything like this.

Because, by retreat, I really mean "weeklong intensive mental health program." Like a retreat I'll be away from where I live for week and all of the support around me. It's something completely new and completely different. And it so scares me that I cannot even call it by its real name! I know I need this but I can't face it. The cards are helpful with that.

So on its surface I've used the cards for something silly. But underneath that is a potentially life-changing decision. The same can happen with querents when you read for others. Not every person who is put into that position can read the cards. And while not every question has that level of implication - some do, even if the stated question seems frivolous.

 

[Alta]

Now this is something that I read, not experienced and it was a while ago so I can't give credit. But the reader posted that a woman came to her asking if she could get a new hair style. As the reading progressed it turned out that the woman's husband had left her and after a period of grief she was trying to come out into the world again. The new hair style was a symbol of her trying to begin anew. I was reminded of this because a friend of mine who has finally come to the end of a brutal, like two years of sheer torture, divorce and showed up with a new short haircut, blond streaks, the works. Since I did the same immediately after my divorce was finally worked through, I got it immediately.

Sometimes a minor decision can be a symbol of serious inner changes; not everything that looks frivolous, is.

 

[Thoughtful]

l use the tarot for most everything. l read for others which l enjoy. l also read for myself, such as pulling a card in the morning to see how the day will be for me. l sometimes do a weekly reading to see how the following 7 days will go, its fun to see how the cards come up with advice and it is usually so appropriate. There is nothing l feel that tarot cannot answer be it serious or light hearted. l ask questions about items in the news, who will win Wimbledon, which leader is best to run the country what are his/her best attributes. l have asked which foods are good for me and ones l should avoid. There are so many questions you can ask tarot and l have found it very accurate. l have even asked the tarot about my two little dogs, l used a pet spread, the answers were truly spot on.
The beauty of asking questions is the jaw dropping process of seeing the
answers revealed.
Its all good practice because you learn more about the way your Tarots work with you and keeps you up to speed. Using different decks whilst doing this also shows which ones are best at answering certain types of question.

l have not tried speaking to loved ones who have passed on or guides but l think l will give that a try.

So l say use tarot for anything and everything, it will be a good friend.

 

[fractalgranny]

questions!

as i am reading through your contributions, i realize that for me this is as much about questions as it is about tarot. i have been quite fascinated by the nature of questions, starting with an interest in the socratic method stemming from my childhood (http://changingminds.org/techniques/questioning/socratic_questions.htm). then there was my first introduction to solution focused therapy in the 90s (e.g. http://www.progressfocused.com/2011/07/21-solution-focused-techniques.html). not long after, i started working a lot with recent professional immigrants from china, who, i finally figured out, often saw questions as mostly to be asked by authorities and needing a specific answer structure. then i ran into appreciative inquiry, a collaboration and research method that got me really excited (and helped me with a breakthrough working with extremely cynical people) https://design.umn.edu/about/intranet/documents/AppreciativeInquiry-Asking Powerful Questions.pdf. and just last week, i had an exciting conversation with an emerging technologies health librarian who introduced me to the term "question negotiation" - which is part of what we've been talking about here (it would be fun to translate this into tarot http://image.slidesharecdn.com/info...p02/95/info521-week2-16-638.jpg?cb=1381177408)

the other thing that i'm becoming aware of is the (often, unfortunately, realized) potential for a question to be a two-step process: 1 question, 2 answer. i'm becoming aware of how frustrating i find that. with most interactions, what i want more and more is co-creation: we talk (or do something together) and something new emerges. a new question. a new path. a new possibility.

 

[nisaba]

as i'm delving deeper and deeper into the tarot, a gnawing question comes up for me. it's not fully formed, and that's why i thought i'd start a conversation here. maybe we can start with this:

<grin> You're getting philosophical about Tarot. Isn't it exciting?

what do i REALLY want to use the tarot for?
how can i get lots of tarot practice without asking and answering questions i'm not that interested in?

Questions for you to muse on in the silence of your heart. These ones are really private questions for the self, I think.

what questions are worth asking?

This is also profound and philosophical. It's easier to rule out the ones which aren't worth answering: questions where a little time passing shows the answer (aren't you always amused by people that come to the forum in the afternoon saying "I asked my deck how tonight's date will turn out and I don't understand Card X in the answer"?), questions which make no difference to your inner or outer world (what will I have for lunch today?)

A Tarotista I deeply respect, formerly of our company here, once said they were out with friends in an unknown city, and pulled cards to find out which way to walk to find a good restaurant! I was initially slightly shocked, but then I remembered how much *fun* I have with Tarot (it doesn't have to be serious all the time!), and realised that he was pulling cards at every corner in a spirit of fun. Fun is great.

how do i honour the tarot if i don't follow its advice?

<grin. This is nice and simple. You don't. But you are not honouring YOURSELF, either. I have disregarded warnings in Tarot when there was no sign of trouble in the real world, and each time I've done so, I've fallen flat on my arse with increasing degrees of pain. Is life worth living? Are you a worthwhile person? Then for your own happiness, respect the answers you get.

 

[fractalgranny]

<grin> You're getting philosophical about Tarot. Isn't it exciting?

i'm philosophical about everything. that's what i do

Questions for you to muse on in the silence of your heart.

what a great thing to say. sometimes the philosophical things are best answered in a poetic way ..

These ones are really private questions for the self, I think.

This is also profound and philosophical. It's easier to rule out the ones which aren't worth answering: questions where a little time passing shows the answer (aren't you always amused by people that come to the forum in the afternoon saying "I asked my deck how tonight's date will turn out and I don't understand Card X in the answer"?)

yeah, thanks - i think i'm getting closer to what irritates me about some questions. something about how you phrased this reminds me of "just friggin google it" when someone asks you something online that will give you the answer with one glance at google. does it have something to do with some sort of laziness? like my teenage daughter who yells to me across the house to come to her room so that she can show me another silly instagram picture?

i've just implemented one of the ideas from earlier in this thread, which is to ask people what having the answer will do for them. that has been quite fruitful. it engages people more with their question.

questions which make no difference to your inner or outer world (what will I have for lunch today?)

.... which is quite different from: "what should i make for lunch today? knowing the answer to that will help me stick to my diet plan."

A Tarotista I deeply respect, formerly of our company here, once said they were out with friends in an unknown city, and pulled cards to find out which way to walk to find a good restaurant! I was initially slightly shocked, but then I remembered how much *fun* I have with Tarot (it doesn't have to be serious all the time!), and realised that he was pulling cards at every corner in a spirit of fun. Fun is great.

yeah, i hope that people did read what i said in the beginning - i am really the last person who would vote against fun (as you probably know from our card guessing exchanges). but - okay, here is another metaphor. there is a throwaway feeling to some of the questions that we get asked, and to some of my reactions to some of my readings. like getting a latte, drinking it absentmindedly and then throwing the cup carelessly by the roadside. i don't want to do that.

for my part, it's not that i feel i have to follow each piece of advice. that would be silly. but if i get an idea through the tarot that seems reasonable and helpful, then not making an effort to follow through with it seems like a waste. which is where the problem with getting readings comes in. there is only so much good advice i have time to follow! hmmm ... maybe i could honour the tarot more if i started making a list of good pieces of advice ...

 

[AnemoneRosie]

It sounds to me that, like a fair few of us, you want to use the Tarot as a means of empowerment.

 

[fractalgranny]

It sounds to me that, like a fair few of us, you want to use the Tarot as a means of empowerment.

if you mean assisting people in moving forward with their lives - yup

 

[AnemoneRosie]

I meant a bit more than that, actually.
For example, I do email readings. So I don't have a dialogue with my querent during the reading. Sometimes I have one before, and sometimes after, but it isn't possible during. It sounds to me that that wouldn't work for you because you want to relate the message of the cards to them in a way that includes their input. I can't do that through email (but it's possible through skype or livechat).
So my version of empowerment asks that the querent really sit down and think critically for themselves. It sounds like that wouldn't be enough for you, if I'm reading this thread correctly.
I've seen this referred to as counselling-light, and I've also seen people take umbrage at the term.