Is it just me or are the minor arcana cards easy

to understand? i find the symbolism easy to understand and remember. the court cards and the major arcana are another story alltogether though!! just me?!

I have always thought it was easy to understand the basic feel of them.

I hate it when people say they are 'unillustrated pips'. They are illustrated. Then 9 swords dripping blood, or them 7 cups with all the green stuff.
It's not a picture like in the RWS, but it speaks volumes.

I too have trouble with the courts.

But that's the same with any deck. I alway have trouble with the courts!

Nope, it's not just you, but it took me a while to see it. I had this deck a whole year and a half before I could read with it. A lot of that was because I found those pips too "simple". I read intuitively and I alwyas thought they would not talk to me as there was not enough detail.

Finally last week, something told me I needed to pull out my deck and use it. The pips were amazing, talking so clearly to me. The cards that came up where like the visual depictation of exactly what I was feeling at the time. Most of it was unconscious too, so once I got to see the image of how I was feeling in front of me, it wasn't hard to analyse it and understand what I was doing unconcsiously and why.

I love the deck since last week, and those pips.

Babs

Lillie said:

I have always thought it was easy to understand the basic feel of them.

I hate it when people say they are 'unillustrated pips'. They are illustrated. Then 9 swords dripping blood, or them 7 cups with all the green stuff.
It's not a picture like in the RWS, but it speaks volumes.

I too have trouble with the courts.

But that's the same with any deck. I alway have trouble with the courts!

Click to expand...

I don't know if this helps Lillie and gorgeousbutterfly, but all I do with court cards is to consider that the represent someone I know, and how that person is affecting me currently (is there something I need to change there?) OR what I can learn from observing their way of being.

Of course it is related to the suit. I.e, Prince of Cups...something about my feelings, ...:

Like last week, when I did that reading with my Thoth, the Princess of Disks came up. I took one look at the card and at the horns the figure has on her head...and the first thing I thought was they looked like goat horns. There is someone in my life whom I am very close to who is Capricorn (sign of the goat), and that is how I knew the message was about him.

And amongst other things I saw this as extending this long white fur coat to me. ...representing the purety of the warm feelings he has for me and between us...(fur keeps us warm, white= purity...) Ok, so I am an intuitive reader. LOL

And just that I am meant to contemplate now how HE reacts to the issues of Discs. And to learn something from him in that area. To me it is just a message to observe that person and learn from them, in that area. Or again to consider how they affect you, is there something you need to change in that?

I hope that is some help.

Babs

hmm, maybe it is just me then who doesn't find them easy at all! Apart from a few of them, I find it very hard to get anything from them (I just started with these cards though and don't know anything about planets, kabalah and astrology). And the keywords don't seem to make a lot of sense to me either. Guess I have to give it another try.

You are not alone gollog. I wouldn't say they are easy for me either. Just got my first thoth. My first impressions, this is a very powerfull deck. Don't see myself mastering it any time soon, in fact it's probably more of a life long journey. Right now am reading "Understanding AC's Thoth Tarot" by DuQuette. This book was recommended to me by members of this forum and I can say this, I'm glad I got it! Am taking a slow approach to the cards themselves, concentrating on learning more about Qabalah, the Rose Cross, etc.

gollog said:

hmm, maybe it is just me then who doesn't find them easy at all! Apart from a few of them, I find it very hard to get anything from them (I just started with these cards though and don't know anything about planets, kabalah and astrology). And the keywords don't seem to make a lot of sense to me either. Guess I have to give it another try.

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Actually, I was like that for a year and a half. When I first got the deck, I could not read with it at all. It was actually the only one I had that with. Tried to trade it here, but no takers. Finally, I figured I was meant to keep it and that it would become useful later on. It was only a year and a half later, which was last week, that I felt the need somehow to try again that it miraculously worked.

Just to confuse things, I had two books on the deck and they were I think part of what made it hard for me to read. I loved the artwork of the deck, still do, but really really hated the official meanings of the cards. It certainly took me a while to get it, but once I did it worked wonderfully for me. And of course, being an intuitive reader anyway as I am, the deck only woke up for me when I had forgotten about the books and just felt the images.

As for the keywords, LOL, one most important card to the reading was the 8 of Cups (Indolence). I actually had to pull out my dictionary and look up what Indolence meant. LOL But actually, it was the perfect answer to the question.

Babs

Connecting people to the courts.

Yeah, other people have said that.
butthat's the problem.
I can't seem to see people as the courts!

Some days I look at my husband and wonder which he is.
and he's either loads of them or none of them.

I'm better with the women actually.
I know I am the queen of swords (though it took a long time to realise it, or perhaps it took a long time for my personality to settle at that!)
The kings and knights, though. I find them very hard.

Gollog. Don't worry about all the planets, astrology and caballa stuff. unless you are already into it and it helps you make sense of the cards.
All that stuff will come along later. If you want it too.
For now the best thing to do is just to use them, look in the LWB or the book and try to relate the card to that. Or the keyword, though a lot of people find that limiting.
Another way to go is just to look at the card and see what thoughts and feelings come into your head.

I have tried these things with the courts, and think I am getting a feel for them, then I try to relate it to a person and it just seems one dimensional!
But it seem to work for the minors, for me at least!

Lillie said:

Connecting people to the courts.

Yeah, other people have said that.
butthat's the problem.
I can't seem to see people as the courts!

Some days I look at my husband and wonder which he is.
and he's either loads of them or none of them.

I'm better with the women actually.
I know I am the queen of swords (though it took a long time to realise it, or perhaps it took a long time for my personality to settle at that!)
The kings and knights, though. I find them very hard.

Click to expand...

Well for me, as an intuitive reader, it's not really a question of thinking or reasoning things out. It's just feeling it inside. Each time is different.

The same card does not necessarily have to mean the same person each time. It's just who it feels it means for that particular reading and nothing more. Or another court could come up next time representing the same person I got with a different court this time. As we all are complex multi-dimentional beings. One day the horns could look like goat horns and Capricorn, another day as someone who is acting defensive, as animals use their horns to defend themselves. It could remind me of someone I know who is acting defensive.

It's not something set, it's different each time, at least the way I read. It's a matter of noticing what's in the card and feeling what it reminds you of and who those features remind you most of. If you know what I mean. At least that is my way of reading.

And yep to me, your husband could probably be any of the cards, it depends on the reading and who you feel it means. If you do enough readings, he could likely end up being them all in time. We all have so many aspects in us, and there are so many parts to an image in a card that can strike us.

Babs

Thanks guys, for the encouraging words and advice. I guess I feel a bit intimidated by them since I'm only familiar with the RW images. I've had the thoth for years now but they never really appealed to me and since they seem to be totally different than the RW I found them to complicated. I only recently took them out to have a closer look at. However, I will keep them out this time and give them a fair go!