can we make our own rules in tarot?

[ravenest]

I do not abhor positional spreads, which put interpretive clarification on the cards according to their placement. I draw a few cards lay them in a pattern and 'let them speak' according to my understanding and their positions. I usually avoid anything which strikes me as something I don't want to do (for a variety of valid reasons), such as reversals or elemental dignities, but I do a sort of 'astrological aspects by position (opposition, conjunction trine)

However sesquequadraturing in tarot might be a tad too much and would border on gimmicky for me

 

[AJ]

There are numerous positional spreads, and on top of that we have the choice to use reversed cards, in what way to deal with elemental dignities, and how far to stretch the meaning of each card. Seems we can set a rule, and it becomes a tool in the hands of the divinatory gods to ease our way in the tarot labyrinth, or does it?

.

The only rules are the ones you make for yourself.
All the rest of the tarot rules you can ignore.

I don't believe in divinatory gods. Or fairys. or fortune telling.
But I love my tarot. My cards my rules.
Your cards, your rules.

 

[Richard]

......However sesquequadraturing in tarot might be a tad too much and would border on gimmicky for me

I can't comment on that without going off topic (into Laplace transform theory). However, sometimes gimmicks may work, but they are sort of underhanded. In general, I tend to see rules as offering this challenge: how to break them without getting caught.

 

[Padma]

Considering the "rules" were mostly written by opportunistic gents in the late Victorian times, I can't say I find them all that applicable. I tip my hat to those gents who tried to put an effort into their premises and deductions, and some of them seem to be on point, but overall, I still believe the tarot is a law unto itself, and those who claim to "know it" inside out are children, trying to lay claim to governing the Universe.

Imo, tarot is what it is. And if you treat it as such, you can derive some meanings for yourself out of it, or use it however best it speaks to you. And I think it speaks to each individual differently. I personally don't think rules apply.

 

[ravenest]

I can't comment on that without going off topic (into Laplace transform theory).

No ... a shame as I could demonstrate my complete understanding of it here

In any case the simpler aspects can help even if it is a 'trine' position consisting of something as simple as three cards making a triangle (arrow) that points to another.

Or one inside the triangle; Centrum in trogono centri (something your avatar knows about )

However, sometimes gimmicks may work, but they are sort of underhanded. In general, I tend to see rules as offering this challenge: how to break them without getting caught.

Hmmm ... you don't seem too good at that

I am considering a circular spread with 12 houses and a randomly positioned circle associated with that of 7 positions (or more if one wants the 'new planets'

What do you think of that one Yogiman ?

[How did I do ? ]

 

[tarotbear]

There are rules in tarot???

DAMN! I've been reading all this time without using Rules? NO ONE TOLD ME THERE WERE RULES!

 

[Metafizzypop]

DAMN! I've been reading all this time without using Rules? NO ONE TOLD ME THERE WERE RULES!

That's what I was thinking. Maybe rules do exist, but it's the rules that readers make up for themselves. What people are doing is developing their own style. If they don't do that, the cards won't resonate with them. They need a reading technique that jives with their personality. So yeah, making up your own rules is the only rule.

Oh wait, there's one more.

Shuffle the cards before you lay them out.

 

[yogiman]

But don't we all crave for a little bit of earth element? I don't like upswings and downswings of confidence in what i am doing. Crowley stated that belief should be replaced by science. The same topic i placed at the thoth tarot forum http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=204046, and to my utter disappointment i hardly got any reply. The golden dawn offers a system of astrology interwoven with tarot. Are there so few golden dawn/thelema fans here?

Could we create our own tarot, make our own pictures, card 1 a tree, card 2 a dustbin, card 3 a laptop ..., and forget about 22 trumps and make it into 19 trumps, and 32 minors instead of 40? Like Carl Jung said, we are no tabula rasa when we are born, but there is some apriori order (which should be fluent).

 

[Richard]

.......Are there so few golden dawn/thelema fans here?......

Some of them don't post very often, and I suspect that many of them may not use OOTK. For Golden Dawn or Thelema topics which do not pertain to a specific Tarot deck, there is the Golden Dawn Tradition, a subforum of the Thoth forum, but there is not much traffic there.

 

[zhan.thay]

Could we create our own tarot, make our own pictures, card 1 a tree, card 2 a dustbin, card 3 a laptop ..., and forget about 22 trumps and make it into 19 trumps, and 32 minors instead of 40?

Of course you can. Go for it.

I would guess most are happy to use what's been laid at their table ie the decks we love and enjoy. That's not to say it wouldn't be a great exercise and indeed a few people in these forums are designing their own packs. Personally, I am too lazy, not artistic enough and, for what I would want to achieve, probably not clever enough.

Any phenomenon we experience can have meaning read into it. Next time you put out your garbage bin make an intention that if it's rotated when you come to take it back in that the angle of rotation will determine what your day will be like. See, it's magic.