SunChariot
Rosanne said:I find this a very odd statement.
Of course you are free to see whatever you want in a symbol- that does not mean symbols can mean anything you want them to mean.
Although the full explanation of a symbol cannot be captured within the bounds of a written word/s- there is a traditional way of explaining many symbols that is almost an International language on it's own. Of course how you apply that symbolic language within the reading is limitless. A Hand is a symbol- but it clenched into a fist does not mean the same as an palm up open hand. If an Owl was on the Fool card would you think foolishness? I think you need to have a working understanding of Tarot symbols.
~Rosanne
Most people do assiciate Owls with wisdom because our society does, and I'd imagine that most of us have no real experieince with owls and thus no basis to create a personal experinece with it. I know I personally have never come in contact with a real owl, except maybe in a zoo once.
Personal symbolism comes into play more from personal life experience. What one sees in a card, if you don't study symbolism, is what comes up instincitively. In cases where you actually have no personal experieince of the thing, the only thing that comes up might be the meaning most people would get. But in cases where you do have a personal assocociation with the object, what comes up will be personal.
Even though, yes if I saw an owl on a card I would likely thnk wisdom, for the above reasons, it did not require any study of symbolism for that thought to come up. It is already a part of my way of thinking. If not an original part. But I did not have to study symbolism in any way for that thought to come up,It just comes up on its own.
Well I don't mean symbols can mean anything you want them to mean so much as they can mean anything at all that you feel they mean.
It's not like I decide randomly in my mind for no real reason that chocolate means monkeys. There would be no purpose to doing that. But if in a reading I see chocololate and the first thing that comes to my mind is monkeys, then the chocolate in the card image means monkeys for the purpse of that reading. It's about feeligns and instinct, not thinking things out. It may have a completely different meaning the next time, it means the first thing that comes to mind on a particular occasion (with no thougth involved). At least that is how I read.
In the same vein, a clenched hand does not of course mean the same thing as an open hand. But a clenched hand in a card image does not have to mean the same thing each time we see it either. One time it might feel like it means anger, another time like someone has something to hide (what is that person holding so tightly in his hand that he doesn't want others to see?), another time it might mean fear....like the person's muscles are drawn tight with fear and they are afraid to open up and let others see who they really are inside (we can't see the inside./palm of a hand that is clenched)...or there are many other things we can see in that same hand in that same card image. Each time we can see different things.
For me anyway, I never studied Tarot (or any other) symbolism and it has not hurt my readings one bit.
Babs