working with the 2's

Hello!

As part of my Tarot Process, I started to analize every card on my deck (Marseilles) and to relate to other cards. Right now I'm working with the 2s. I'm trying to understand why this number is speciall and what his energy does on each specific suit. The problem is that some of my conclusions don't match the idea I previously had of some cards.

For example, take the 2 of pentacles. I always thought it meant balance, flexilibity, but as I took a closer look on the card I started to wonder what would happen if 2 people with the pentacles characteristics were working together. Yes, they could balance things out and find a way to meet every deadline and get the work done, but they could also get trapped inside each stuborness and leave no room for creative thinking. So now what happens if I get this card on a reading? Does it mean flexibility or stuborness?

The same thing happened with the 2 of swords. I know it means blocked emotions and denial but I relate it more to stability, balance, imparciality. On the RWD the woman has a piece of cloth around her eyes but I don't think that means she is refusing to see what's in front of her; I think she was wise enought to close her eyes and be impartial, that way she can give the same treatment to everybody.

I don't want to think my impressions are wrong but on Joan Bunning's card description she doesn't mention any of my interpretations at all, and I don't know if that means I'm way off and not doing this excercise right. Any comment will be greatly apreciated.

Some people utilize reversals to determine between positive and negative aspects of a card. Others look at the surrounding cards for guidance, and still others trust their intuition for a card's meaning. These processes are not exclusive from one another and often all three may come into play for a reading.
Personally, I lean heavily upon numerology for my base meanings of the cards as well as my intuition. The twos cause problems for many people and I think it's because they are between the very primary Ace and the expansive three.
Go with your feelings on a particular card, they will often be more accurate than any book you may read.

Lain_82 said:

For example, take the 2 of pentacles. I always thought it meant balance, flexilibity...Does it mean flexibility or stuborness?

Click to expand...

The beauty of tarot cards is that they can mean more than one thing given the situation.

2/Pents is good, for example, if you have some young person, living alone, balancing their checkbook, balancing business, fun, and household chores. We all did that sort of thing when we were young and living in our first apartments--we'd skip one bill to pay another, party and work....

But if that 2/Pents shows up for a family man, now it's problematic. This is a man who feels he has to keep things balanced or everything will come crashing down--his mortgage, his business, his family. I wouldn't say this is stubborness--it's still flexablity. But what you get in this case, as you'd get with two people, is entrapment. Neither one can leave because that creates imbalance and it all falls apart.

See? It's not interpetation, it's situation.

Ditto with the Swords: when I read 2/Swords it means compromise--but that compromise comes from denial. It's the belief that balance and stablity can be maintained between two arguing parties. The denial comes on the part of the person trying to maintain the peace. Yes, the blindfold creates impartiality, but there is denial here as well. The denial is in the belief that this balance, this peace, can be maintained--that the two swords/two enemies can be kept from fighting. It can't. The stability is temporary, a stop-gap balance that will come to an end.

So, once again, you get both. There is peace, balance, stability--but also denial and a blocking of emotions (to maintain impartiality)--a blindfold to be fair, but also blind to a larger truth.

In short, you interpetations are fine. You just need to remember that context is everything. For a mother with fighting kids, a solution which brings peace to the household may make her believe "Ah, at last, they'll never fight again!" and you'll have to say, as you put down that 2/swords, "Um, sorry, but they'll only stop fighting for now. This solution of yours isn't magical, it's only temporary. You need to see that."

lain_82,

I think one thing that has to be said about your question is that you are working with a Marseille deck. Joan Bunning's site refers to the RWS tradition. Of course, one could intepret Marseille and RWS the same, but most people who work with the Marseille decks use other ways of interpreting or a different other basis for meanings.

So, it would be natural that the Marseille deck would bring to you a different set of meanings. So I'd encourage you to work with developing the meanings that work with the Marseille deck.

Nuncle

Thanks a lot!!!!

I've done some research on other sites and finally understood what you're all telling me here.... Sometimes I look at the cards alone and forget about the context, when the truth is that the situation surrounding the reading and the cards is a key element to do a good reading. It's just that is hard to trust my intuition, I always feel that the interpretation done by other people is better than mine because of their experience, and I tend to block my own perspective.

thanks again!

Lain_82,

Just work with it. Because the pip cards in the Marseille are not illustrated, many people think they enhance intuitive reading, even if one relies on various numerological systems.

I'd say it's a good way to enhance your intuition if that's the direction you wantto go.

Nuncle