Tarot for Yourself - Body, Mind, Spirit Cards

sarahenglish

This evening I started Chapter 2: The Tarot Journal. One of the excercises is to draw cards for Body, Mind, and Spirit. My cards were:
Body - King of Pentacles reversed
Mind - Ace of Cups
Spirit - Temperance

The one that is giving me trouble is the Body/King of Pentacles. I am having a hard time interpreting that card in that context. Should I be reading it reversed or upright? When I cant instantly feel a connection with the interpretation of the cards, I tend to feel like I am hopelessly blocked from the meaning. Is it that I dont want to connect with what I percieve to be a negative card? The other 2 cards are more positive to me and I could instantly feel their significance.

I think the Ace of Cups tells me that I am open and receptive to learning the tarot and the Temperance card is telling me to take it one step at a time and not to overwhelm myself with too much information at once.

If I look at the spread in a past/present/future context, the reversed King of Pentacles could mean that I have been stubbornly resistant to tarot in the past. The Ace of Cups says that I am open and receptive to it now. And the Temperance card could be saying that my openness and interest in tarot will balance me out spiritually. ??

I would love to have someone else's take on this.

Thanks, Sarah English
 

Temperance413

I think your interpretation is just fine. You have to get a feel for the cards and what you described fits you. Tarot card reading is more than looking up a meaning in a book, you have to be able to look at the cards and apply them to the question at hand,or to your own unique circumstances. Looks like you are well on your way!
 

sarahenglish

Thanks for your help, Temperance. I hate to be thick headed, but what about the card in relation to body?

thanks, Sarah English
 

Kaz

Sarah,
Just out of curiosity, what deck do you use?

I re-layed your spread with the Robin Wood deck here, and going with your idea it's about "you and tarot" , I read this:

King Pents reversed: you havent yet really connected with the cards, as you are quite new to using them, if I remember correctly.
Ace Cups: same as you
Temperance: same as you

Putting them in the storyline the book suggests:
Your body tells you have not yet really connected with the cards, your mind is telling you to be open and receptive to the cards (so you will connect), yet your spirit is urging you to take it easy and not overwhelm yourself with too much info at once.

PPF context I get the same as above.

Did you do the other exercises with these 3 cards as well?
And, I think your interpretation on the cards was fine....
Feel free to comment on my take of the King Pents reversed :)

Kaz
 

sarahenglish

Hey Kaz, I use the Crystal Deck (I have tried using the universal waite, but I REALLY havent connected with that one.) Your take on the reversed King makes sense to me, but I still dont see the connection to my body that seems more of an emotional connection (feeling very very stupid.) Am I being too literal? Those 2 were the only ones I have done so far, I was going to work on it some more today. I am not sure I understood what some of the others meant.

I think I get subconcious, conscious, superconcious: sub, I havent connected with the cards, cons, I want to connect, super, with time and patience I will?

As a child I felt disconnected, as a parent I want my children to feel connected? as an adult?

Dont even understand the next 4 groups.

Thanks for your insight

Sarah English
 

Temperance413

In regards to the King of Pentacles,and it being in the body position, my book on the tarot says that there is workaholism involved, too much work, not enough study, discipline, etc. Disorganization, and poor management. It also means you may have to deal with a man who is being rude or dishonest, vulgar, soley interested in money, and then the body would symbolize the action you must take toward him. This person could be a bully, dictator, dullard, sexist bigot, stingy, plodding man. Also, this could indicate some part of your personality conscious or unconscious to you at this point. Were you drawn to the card, or were you repelled? If you were repelled it could be a part of your personality you don't want to face, or an action you regret having taken. Again an action would point to the body.

Hope this helps, by the way I use the Robin Wood deck and the book I looked this up in is "Tarot Plain and Simple" by Anthony Louis.
 

sarahenglish

AHA! Body = action, why didnt I think of that! Makes perfect sense! I think time will tell me more about that card (or perhaps the mirror!)

Thanks Temperance!
 

sarahenglish

Wow many lightbulbs turning on!

I figured it out! I am so obtuse sometimes!!! The King of Pentacles represents my real father! He is a fundamentalist Christian and it's his view or the wrong view. And, incidentally, he is also a miser and I am helping him out at work now. I think it is showing me that in the past, when I was a child, I was physically repelled by tarot because of the fear and evil that my dad saw in it. I think it was reversed because he is/was wrong. Now that I am a parent, my mind knows that a.) extremist views are just that and b.) that I shouldn't limit my children's worlds like he did mine. And, in the future, as an adult, I will be balanced spiritually because I will have the best that both my religion and tarot have to offer.

Thanks for your insights, they really helped.
I have decided to write down the cards I get in daily and three card draws in a notebook with a page for each card. I will put the date, context and impression of each card that I draw. I think that may give me a clearer interpretation for myself that relying soley on the book's interpretation. I think I got the idea of of one of these forums.

It might be interesting to have a thread that takes a card a week and have everyone briefly give their interpretation on that card. I know thirteen did that in her basics, but the object here would be to get many opinions (since everyone has one!)

I think this one post should be divided between about 3 threads or forums, sorry!

P.S. Temperance, I am using the Louis' book also and I really like it!
 

Jewel

Hi Sarah and welcome to the Tarot for Yourself Study group. I wanted to reply to a post you made earlier concerning your confusion on some of the three card spread options in Chapter 2. If you could please tell me what confused you about them we will try and answer those specific questions, shame the earlier posts by Bec, Kaz and myself got deleted as we really walked through the processes we used. We have followed the exercises in the book to the letter so we made sure we were all doing the same thing and could help and support eachother in our learning. Also, if you would like to go back and do Chapter 1 we will also help you there. Next week I will be posting some stuff on Chapter 5 and that will give you a good idea on how we do it. You may also want to print the "Tarot for Yourself - Permutations" thread so it does not get lost because that was complicated (we melded chapters 4 and 6 due to some similarities we found).

Again welcome and let us know how we can help you.
 

sarahenglish

Thanks Jewel. I got the 3 card spread pretty figured out I think. And the cards continue to reveal themselves. My dad showed his miserly side big time today! It was the cards I listed in the first post on this thread. I was being a little obtuse about translating the same 3 cards to different meanings like the book talked about. Ie: Body Mind Spirit / Past Present Future/ Child Parent Adult/ etc.
I'll look for the thread you referred to and print it out for future use.