Barleywine
Last night three random notions crossed paths in my mind: one was a quote from the first South Park movie, another was the observation from Cherry Gilchrist's book Tarot Triumphs about the unnumbered Fool being able to pop up wherever it wants in the procession of the Major Arcana, and the third was Aleister Crowley's thoughts on the Fool: ". . . it represents an original, subtle, sudden impulse or impact, coming from a completely strange quarter."
I've been pondering the issue of clarifiers for a long time, and how uneven they can be in providing any kind of illumination for original cards that make no sense in a reading (often they create more confusion than they resolve, so I never use them). Seems like it might be a better idea to act like the Fool, take a step back and look over the situation with an entirely fresh set of eyes. Although I like James Ricklef's advice to just let problem cards "simmer in your consciousness" until they make sense, this often isn't prompt enough when a timely answer is needed.
My thought is that, rather than drawing clarifier after clarifier in a quest for eventual enlightenment, we could just pull out the Fool and set it with the problem card, then ponder what the two are saying together. The Fool may provide the missing impulse that's needed to open up the narrative flow. In practice, though, this may work even better with a trump card that has an actual bearing on the situation.
This is probably not something that will help novices with the clarifier conundrum, but more experienced readers could find it instructive in some situations. I already toyed with the idea of a "traveling Fool" in my earlier thread (see post #5 for the final version):
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=269685
I've been pondering the issue of clarifiers for a long time, and how uneven they can be in providing any kind of illumination for original cards that make no sense in a reading (often they create more confusion than they resolve, so I never use them). Seems like it might be a better idea to act like the Fool, take a step back and look over the situation with an entirely fresh set of eyes. Although I like James Ricklef's advice to just let problem cards "simmer in your consciousness" until they make sense, this often isn't prompt enough when a timely answer is needed.
My thought is that, rather than drawing clarifier after clarifier in a quest for eventual enlightenment, we could just pull out the Fool and set it with the problem card, then ponder what the two are saying together. The Fool may provide the missing impulse that's needed to open up the narrative flow. In practice, though, this may work even better with a trump card that has an actual bearing on the situation.
This is probably not something that will help novices with the clarifier conundrum, but more experienced readers could find it instructive in some situations. I already toyed with the idea of a "traveling Fool" in my earlier thread (see post #5 for the final version):
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=269685
