Reading without God/ess

I am a Christian, protestant in nature, american. I believe that God gave me a rather unusual gift in that I am extremely intuitive and very sensitive. I take that gift and focus it in reading of Tarot. I also believe I am guided by spirit, whether it is the HS or a spirit guide, I don't know. This is what I do and what I believe.

Baroli

Finding Meaning

I'm one of those that does not believe there is any inherent "power" in a deck of tarot cards, at least as far as divination is concerned.

Whatever power of divination exists, I believe it resides in the reader, not the cards.

Because of this, I begin my own readings by invoking Hagia Sophia (the spirit of Holy Wisdom) to guide me, inform me, infuse me, etc. This is to enhance my reading of the cards, not to somehow empower the cards. Other things might work for other people, to focus the mind, etc.

Not to bore regarding archetypes and such, but they do "speak" to us in their universality. People have a way of seeing patterns in many things, be it coffee grounds, textures of fabric, or clouds. We can actively improve our ability to extract meaning from these patterns, given practice, the right frame of mind, creativity, and insight. Call it intuition if you will.

Tarot cards are a tool, and a good one, to enable the human mind to clarify image and pattern, and to locate the meaning that may lie therein. In theory at least, a person who was truly adept could identify meaningful patterns without using the cards at all. For most of us, the 78 cards in various combinations are quite sufficient. For the most part, tarot is really about insight into ourselves or others.

I hope I'm not being too obscure. In the end, I doubt religious/spiritual beliefs, or the absence of them, really matter in tarot...except as they dispose each of us individually as readers. What works for one may not for another. We each must find and explore that path that works for ourselves.

I voted both for "the cards fall randomly" and "the cards fall into meaningful patterns," because I'm certainly not a psychic, and I'm a Deist, meaning I believe that God/dess created the world and then took an entirely hands-off approach, so that version of things is out for me, too, but when it comes down to those two things, I honestly don't know.

It's one of those things I can't explain, and really don't feel a need to try to. Like WolfSpirit, I tell other people the version where the cards fall randomly and we construct the meaning that we need at the time. But when I'm by myself (or posting here), I'm willing to admit that I don't know.

Sometimes things are so on that it seems they couldn't be entirely random.

WolfSpirit said:

For the record: I don't use the terms God/Godess, I do believe in some sort of universal spirit, but I do not know how this fits into tarot. I don't try to connect with spirit when I use the cards.

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Don't know whether you have heard of him or not, but if you can get hold of the excellent book "Hitch-hiking to Heaven" by Lionel Blue, a famous British rabbi, you'll notice that even the clergy have difficulty with naming Him/Her/It these days.

Doreen Virtue mentioned that the best way is to follow the name you were given in your own culture and beliefs, and that others who know Thingymajig by another name will not be offended.

The cards work how you think they work.

Crowqueen said:

The cards work how you think they work.

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Now there's an interesting thought!

fairyhedgehog said:

So, I would like two things. One is to find out who else out there is also an atheist/humanist/materialist. And the second is to ask for ideas for how to use Tarot when you don't believe in Spirit.

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I'm not an 'ist'. I don't believe in any god/goddes nor organised religion/spiritual path.

I use tarot by shuffling the cards with my question in mind. I cut the deck three times then lay out the cards in a pattern, usually the Celtic Cross, sometimes three random cards.

I don't call on any spirit guide or god/goddess to help me. I use my intuition, experience and learning to guide me.

I hope that helps

I am suprised I didn't comment on this the first time around - but I did vote.

I am not a deist at all, raised in a non-religious family. I just read a book on quantum physics, so I would have to vote for both "the cards fall randomly" and "the cards fall into meaningful patterns". I might even give a nudge to "I am psychic" because who knows what being psychic really is? Maybe some reaction of photons and neutrons and quarks....nevermind.

By measuring the way the cards fall and quantifying them, we make them meaningful.

The universe is a wierd and wonderful place. Mostly, weird.

I do belive i have a tarot guide, i don't call it a God, i call my tarot mentor. So i vote for first option.

I'm glad you bumped this, light2000! I had to think about it for a bit and in the end voted for everything except 'I am psychic.' I believe the cards are both meaningful and random. I sometimes behave as though I'm communicating with a goddess or a spirit, however I believe any advice or messages really come from me. With the caveat that I don't believe 'me' is a localized phenomenon.

I chose the random option. Personally I'm an Athiest who was raised in a Catholic family. I do consider tarot, for me, to be more of an exercise in story-telling, archetypes, and symbolism. I believe that we human beings apply these to our everyday lives and it is, essentially, all in our heads. But that doesn't make it any less useful or true. I haven't really read for others (or for myself in a long time, I'm a newbie around here who is coming back to tarot after a long absence) and I have more of a historical focus right now.