Tarot and education level

Thoughtful

What a pompous woman she is, such bunkum. Its like telling someone they cannot eat an apple until they have been to university and learned what constitutes an apple. Anyone can enjoy an apple, anyone can learn to read the tarot. All they need is the interest and love for it.
 

AnemoneRosie

Definitely not! I don't even think you would have to know how to read words to be a good tarot reader...if you had a mentor and some practice.

I have a deck with no words on it at all... it comes from the days before mass literacy.

I mean really, how many people are highly educated, intuitive and brimming with common sense? Who has all three? I considered it, but there is a case to be made that I'm lacking common sense in some regards.

... me? Although I want to get my masters eventually.
 

gregory

I mean really, how many people are highly educated, intuitive and brimming with common sense? Who has all three? I considered it, but there is a case to be made that I'm lacking common sense in some regards.
Er.....:D

I have a master's and a few other qualifications - so what ?

But I know a little girl who turned out rather good readings the last time I saw her - albeit she didn't see them that way - she'd just say what she saw in the cards - when she was THREE YEARS OLD. I'm pretty sure she still doesn't have a degree - she's in grade school.
 

page of ghosts

Heh, this is a new idea! I've never heard about people having to obtain a degree before reading tarot - like others I don't understand which degree? Just somehow magically you're a tarot master if you have any sort of degree? It doesn't make much sense to me.

I don't believe education necessarily has anything to do with intelligence either. Some people are more bookish and thrive in an academic environment, others are more practical and won't do very good in school since the system favours those with certain qualities more than others. And again education can be inaccessible for people for a myriad of reasons... I myself am very fond of books and would love to go to university (and I know a lot of people expected it of me because of my skills and grades) but I'm sick, low on energy and haven't really gained back my full ability to concentrate so that's not gonna happen anytime soon. Some places in the world it has a lot to do with money so you have to have a lot of that if you wanna study and get a degree, and other places again girls have a hard time being able to go to any sort of school at all. But this was kind of a digression...

The point was, intelligence as associated with degrees and education, and/or any the other skills useful for reading tarot, is not something you'll have to go to school for. I know we don't have a specific tarot degree in Norway's universities so I don't know what this friend is referring to? I think reading books is a lot of fun and my actual practice is coming a bit better along too, but if you wanna skip the books and associated more or less mystical subjects for tarot and just go with your intuition when you see the pictures you can do that too :D it's always something you can pick up later if you'd like to.
 

Trogon

Purest BS and absolutely unnecessary gatekeeping.

Yes, this is also what I thought when I read Ix Chel's post. It is like saying you can't paint without an art degree or you can't write a story without that sheepskin.

As others have said, there are plenty of folks with even multiple degrees who severely lack in "common sense" and other types of intelligence. I work at a University Police Department. I've been a Dispatcher there for over 30 years. Believe me, I have a lot of experience with people with high levels of education who would fall on their faces from tripping over their shoelaces if they didn't tie balloons to their ears. Don't get me wrong, I have a great deal of respect for anyone who can devote the time and effort into getting that degree ... but you don't need one to be a good, even excellent Tarot reader.

I personally do not have a degree, but I have a lot of life experience. Keeping an open mind and caring about people are better qualifications, along with intuition and an ability to communicate with others. There are some degrees that might help a person to be a better Tarot reader, such as psychiatry, philosophy, education and so on. But let's not forget that, to some extent, higher education tries to train your intuition out of you.

That isn't to say that being a good Tarot reader doesn't take study. For some it comes pretty automatically (such as the 3-year old that Gregory told us about), for others (such as me) it takes a lot of study and work to become fairly good. One can do readings with fair results by taking the meanings straight from the LWB and applying them to the question being asked. But there are also myriad levels and depths of meaning one can find with extensive study of the history of the Tarot, the various esoteric and philosophical symbolisms and magical systems involved. None of this requires a PhD in ... well anything.