Marseilles Seekers Thread (Third Exercise)

EnriqueEnriquez

Hello all.

I have posted a new essay on my site, under the Eye Rhyme section. This week’s exercise will focus on the main idea in that text:

“A person comes to us because they have lost their words. They will never say it like that, but that is basically it. They have forgotten how to talk about a problem, or about themselves. Perhaps they simply haven't yet found the right words to talk about their future. We may have forgotten their future and need a few cue words to remember it. We give them our cards so they can use them to tell us their story, and we look at these cards to find some words we can give back to them.”

If you think about it, having someone talking about our problems, or our experience, having someone naming it, is a soothing act in itself because it make us feel acknowledged by validating our pain. A reading usually accomplishes more than that, but that is a good beginning. Obviously, in order for us to be able to give words to a person, we have to have words to give in the first place. So, this week’s exercise may seem a little bit silly, and it probably needs to be taken in a spirit of silliness, since it should only be considered as some sort of “mental calisthenics’. Our results shouldn’t be memorized nor taken as definitive guidelines for looking at the cards. They should be seen more as “learning to fish” than as “been given a fish”.

The premise is very basic. I want each one of you to create a dictionary of synonyms for the pips. As an example we have Lark’s wonderful interpretation of wands as arteries. Yes, wands can be arteries, but they can also be dog leashes, or as Stella shared, heavily embroidered doors. How many other things can these wands be? What about these swords, these cups and these coins?

I don’t want your responses right away, but I would love to have your responses by Wednesday-Thursday, so we have some time to comment on them. Use this few days to compile a list.

Again, the idea is not to say: “Coins are mirrors, navels, and Mexican sombreros”, but to train ourselves so we can see in the pips, on the spot, things as diverse as those.

Have fun!

EE
 

Hooked on TdM

Aye, Aye, Captain!

Hooked
 

firecatpickles

I love silly.
 

Satori

This is the scariest exercise yet! :bugeyed: Navels? Sombreros? Arteries?

Fun...have fun he says....oh my.

;)
 

firefrost

Oookaaayyy...I'll get on with it and just wait for the men in white coats to come and take me away...

Ooohh...I just had a flash of the Ten of Coins then - white backround with straight gold buttons...

Hmmm...

P.S. - I loved the wand arteries.
 

Satori

So, Professore, are we creating a dictionary with 78 words that need synonyms? I got the feeling that you wanted more specific entries.

This is good for me because so often I look at pips and go blank.
 

Bernice

I want each one of you to create a dictionary of synonyms for the pips.
Right-ho :)
Again, the idea is not to say: “Coins are mirrors, navels, and Mexican sombreros”, but to train ourselves so we can see in the pips, on the spot, things as diverse as those..
Hmmm..... so, DON'T say what the synonyms are.

Errrrr, I see the Coin pips as weights and tower-tops amongst other things. But you don't want me to say that? I'm not being awkward, just not understanding exactly what you mean. Help!

Bee
 

lark

I might have done this wrong, but I looked at each card and wrote down what my immediate impression was at the time...including the way any flowers, leaves, vines ect. seemed to interacted with the suit.

9 coins - a gaggle of geese
8 coins - canning lids
4 coins - family portraits
Ace wands - shed antler
Ace cups - tree house
5 swords - door knocker
9 swords - an ear ache
6 coins - two elephants in a balancing act
2 swords - oyster crackers and a bowl of soup
5 coins - a film crew
10 of swords - the back of a Geisha's head
4 swords - a canoe
7 swords - licorice whips
4 cups - watercolor painting...the act of doing a painting.
2 wands - 2 flutes
9 wands - an outdoor grill
Ace coins - a wishing well
6 cups - a totem pole
5 cups - a birthday party with clowns
Ace of Swords - "Be gone... before someone drops a house on you too!" Glinda's line in The Wizard of OZ
3 coins - donating blood
10 cups - a cruise ship
6 wands - exercise class
2 cups - sign over an old tavern
10 cups - pistons in an engine
3 swords - a pierced tongue
7 wands - a windmill
8 cups - an octopus
2 coins - snake in the garden
8 swords - twilight
7 cups - a trophy buck
3 wands - marching off to war...three muskets
10 wands - tennis rackets
3 cups - pumpkin chariots for Cinderella
5 wands - telescope
7 coins - tinker toys
10 coins - the pie judging at the fair
6 swords - a full tummy
4 wands - strutting your stuff in new high heels
8 wands - a bread basket

This is what I see today...tomorrow it might be different.

If I did it wrong I'll happily do it over, I just wasn't to clear about exactly how we were supossed to do this. :)
 

Satori

7coins, an antique dresser
7swords, something that is stuck, like a glue
Ace Wands, a hungry baby bird
3coins, an upside down woman, her breasts at the bottom. She is pregnant.
4coins, a hidden secret that isn't secret anymore-it doesn't want to be secret
6 wands, fertilizer
5coins, something about to be born that has been nourished and loved
8cups, 2 people from a larger group make a connection
9swords, alot of pressure brought to bear on something that still won't budge
Xcoins, 2 communities and 4 individuals...a governing body
7wands, inability to move, stuck in a cycle
6cups, a social boundary
Ace cups,a pineapple, a community above a flood, a housing project that has gone to seed,sort of like a slum because of the weeds hanging out of the cup,and it is isolated, so no one wants to go there
X swords, An end to arms, a peace agreement
8coins, a box of chocolates
3wands,something spinning, a boomerang, something spinning,turning that creates havoc or brings resolution
Ace Swords, holding a sparkler
3cups, someone being attacked by others out of love-some kind of confrontation or intervention
5swords, a mental breathrough-reaching for the sky of the mind
2 Swords, trying to cage a beast
6swords, needing to care more for making something beautiful, creating beauty
2cups, a divine intervention, a miracle
9coins, a jury, imprisonment
2Coins, being caught in a relationship that won't let you go
2wands, strength
8Swords, a screenhouse
4wands, taking away the bandaid, letting something breathe
4cups, loving something but ignoring something else
6coins, A carnival ride
3Swords, a trellis
Ace Coins, a backpack
9cups, a tarot spread
5Wands, a view of something that you can't quite see, like a blurry vision
7cups, a sacrifice of a few for the many
Xwands, wanting to participate, but being prevented from it
8 wands, a military medal or honor
5cups, a romantic breakfast-LOL
4 Swords, Time away from the kids-some space away for a little while
9Wands, a containment field, a levee or dam that is being built
XCups, a carnival game that you can never win

Ok. This was the most agonizing thing I have ever done with Tarot. It was like a physical process as much as a mental process. The whole time I wrote these up I had a stomach ache, and felt like I might be sick, a very uncomfortable and anxious feeling throughout my entire body.

I kept thinking that I was doing this wrong, that there was no way this could be right or what Enrique meant for us to do. Halfway through I got emotional, I felt that maybe some of these were ok, some were actually beautiful to me, but they seem too philosophical or too much like values or morals or beliefs. I kept thinking I needed to be more concrete, more about nouns not about ideals. So I got a little teary eyed, but I pushed on, even tho I kept wanting to give up and not do this exercise at all.

I made myself laugh a couple of times with some of my answers so there were moments of fun, but I can't say this was fun for me. It was educational.

The wands and swords seem to give me the most trouble. I am so happy I am done. And I admit, seeing lark's answers helped me to get going on this. I thought of how brilliant a few of her answers were...I didn't read the whole list...and then I got onto it.

Edited to add:
I also think that exercises like this show more about the person, about their own world view or ideas, so there is an element of the rorschach test to this...I know that you are trying to show us that we can see more in the pips than we think we can, because that is what happened for me. I really loved some of my answers, even tho I thought they were wrong!!! See, I need therapy. I knew it...LOL.
 

EnriqueEnriquez

Bernice said:
I see the Coin pips as weights and tower-tops amongst other things.

Perfect. Just keep looking, keep coming with analogies. :)

Best,


EE