Tarot for Yourself - Ch.2: Best abilities

napaisti

HELP!!!

I know that y'all don't know me (at least not yet, but if I continue with this study group, that will certainly change ;) ), but I need some help with the Best Abilities exercise, so here I am.

I pulled the cards that were "possibles" and then eliminated cards as she described in the instructions. But when I tried to make the comparisons between the cards to get down to 1-3 cards I had a problem -- the cards seemed to be grouped, making it impossible for me to choose between them. I did manage to get down to 5 cards in 2 groups, but can't seem to break things down any more than that. Here's what I have so far.

Ace of Swords & Ace of Cauldrons (I've always been very evenly divided between head and heart, and both are usually in their raw, unadulterated forms)

The Wise One (hermit) & 4 of Swords & The High Priestess (to me the 4 seems to be a bridge between the 2 majors here)

I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking from you, but if you have any thoughts or insight, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance for your help,
napaisti
 

Jewel

Hi Napaisti and welcome to the group! I don't understand your question although I think you are asking us to help you select which should be your 3 cards. I do not have my book here with me to refresh me on the exercise so I will need to go back and respond to you next week. If it is for us to select your cards for you, I do not think we could. This is a choice you need to make. What I would recommend is that you meditate with the cards to determine which ones resonate the most with you. It is always tough when you can only select 3 out of 78 ;).

I will try to post what I did on this exercise next week so you can get an idea of what someone else has done. Keep focusing it will come :)
 

napaisti

Thanks for responding. I'm not really asking you to choose the cards for me. My problem is that the more I meditate on the cards, the more I see the groups I described as units. I'm having trouble discerning my abilities (within individual cards) because it really feels like the groups represent my best abilities better than any individual cards. Does that make any sense?

Maybe if you could help with more insight into the hermit/4S/HP cards, that would help make one card resonate more strongly. To me the three cards represent something of a process (that process being what I feel is close to a "best ability") that goes in both directions. But maybe I'm just looking at the cards in not the best way. I'm hoping that some input other than my own will help me to break the cycle of the way I'm perceiving the cards. Maybe my intuition is stuck in a rut. :)

Thanks for making me really think about what it was I needed from the group. I feel that I have a better grasp of my own difficulty now.

napaisti
 

Jewel

Have you checked out the Tarot Basics Forum by Thirteen? Thirteen has described the meanings of the cards in a wonderful way that I could not even hope to even come close to. You cannot post threads in that section but you can certainly pull up the cards and read what she had to say and comments the group had when we were going through them. Great resource! Glad I could help :)
 

sarahenglish

don't know where to start

I too am venturing to this next excercise and am totally stuck! Am I supposed to know my best abilities? Am I supposed to intuit if the card reflects my abilities? Or do I just pick the cards that I like the best? I don't know where to even begin, much less how to weed out!

It's great to have someone else at the same place I am! Welcome
Napaisti !

Feeling very stupid!
SE
 

napaisti

Sarah English: I took it to be a more intuitive exercise. Some of the cards I am most drawn to don't seem to reflect abilities (or at least not ones I have), so they went into the "no" pile right from the start. And other cards that I don't particularly like the look of went into my "possibles" because they seemed to say that they could be one of my abilities.

Once I had gone through the entire deck, I laid out all the cards I had picked and just began turning over the ones that seemed less likely. At first there was no real rhyme or reason to the way I looked over them or made my decisions, just what felt right at the time.

Warning: this may be where my own problems started, so this might not be the best way to go
When I got down to about 12 cards, I started grouping the cards and making comparisons, for example "these cards deal with intuition, now which one fits me the best?" It really helped at first, I was able to better analyze the specifics of the cards that were related. Unfortunately, when I got down to the last few cards this method backfired, and I was unable to separate the cards within a group.

I think this is a great exercise, and maybe in a few days I try starting all over with it to see if I get better results.

Let us know how you do with it.
napaisti

PS-- Remember (as I always tell my students) the only stupid questions are the ones that don't get asked. This is a learning process for all of us, and it's by sharing our difficulties and successes we help ourselves and each other to grow, so no more saying you feel stupid, please?
 

Jewel

SE ... please do not feel "stupid" these exercises are new, and we are all learning. Please continue to ask your questions. When I did the exercise I did try to pick cards that matched MY abilities, this is an exercise about tunning yourself into Tarot. I recommend you do the same. The book has many exercises overall in some you do get to select the cards you "like the best," but this exercise asks you to find cards that MATCH YOUR abilities.

Napaisti ... I now understand where your confusion was coming from. I love the concept though. I think perhaps in grouping the cards you were looking at many similar yet abilities at once and that made it hard to choose which was the most approprite for you. I would recommend trying to identify cards that you feel best match 3 of your abilities (for simplicities sake).

SE next week I will post a sample for you unless Kaz beats me to it and posts hers ;) ... darn loss of threads!
 

napaisti

I think I've got it

A friend and I talked through my difficulty last night and I was finally able to separate the 3 cards giving me the most trouble.

What I ended up with were:

Ace of Cauldrons (cups): my capacity for love, and receptivity to emotional/spiritual/unconscious influences

Ace of Swords: my analytical mind, and ability to consider situations from variety of perspectives at once

(for me, these 2 usually complement each other, balancing their respective energies)

High Priestess: my intuition, inner wisdom ("just knowing"), and balance of forces and cycles

In talking with my friend I realized that the HP reflects my ability while the 4Swords and hermit deal more with the means by which I access and strengthen that ability. After I had worked through this, she told me that her feeling was that the HP was the best choice for my abilities among the 3 cards I had considered.

I think I mostly needed a sounding board to talk at to break out the rut my mind was in. And the full moon energy probably didn't hurt; she was exerting a powerful influence on us last night. :)

Thanks for your help,
napaisti
 

sarahenglish

Thanks all,
those posts really helped me. It sounds to me like it has more to do with the card's meaning and knowing your abilities. The reason I was so confused is because the excercise before asked you to basically come up with your own interpretation of the cards. The change in approach wasn't clear to me. I am one of those people who like really specific directions, then I can decide whether I want to follow them or not, lol!

I'll take another stab at it this weekend. And let you know how it turns out.

SE
 

Jewel

Nepaisti that was great! I love how the original grouping of the cards led you to see the strategies you use in using your abilities. Very cool.

SE ... look forward to seeing your post. Since the other posts helped you out here I am not going to post the work I did previously. If you need any other guidance just let us know. Like you, I also like to fully understand what I am being asked to do so I can know what works for me and what does not.