Feeling The Energy Of The Cards

nisaba

LeFou said:
Hmm, that's the first I've heard of that. Are you willing to elaborate a little?

Western philosophy has suggested something similar.

It's based on this observation:-

If you look back on your life, at all the times when you made a given decision that changed your life, when you "could have made a different decision" ... *could* you realy have made a different decision? Given the life-experience you had then, the hormones in your system, your state of nutrition, your clarity of mind, you ended up making a particular decision because neither your physical state nor your mental and emotional state could permit you to make any other decision at that particular moment.

So you really had no choice, just as you will have no choice in the future. In future, think as carefully as you can about every decision you make, but if they turn out to be "mistakes" afterwards, don't beat yourself up about it, because given what you knew and how you felt at the time it was the only decision you could make.

Zephyros

nisaba said:
Western philosophy has suggested something similar.

It's based on this observation:-

If you look back on your life, at all the times when you made a given decision that changed your life, when you "could have made a different decision" ... *could* you realy have made a different decision? Given the life-experience you had then, the hormones in your system, your state of nutrition, your clarity of mind, you ended up making a particular decision because neither your physical state nor your mental and emotional state could permit you to make any other decision at that particular moment.

So you really had no choice, just as you will have no choice in the future. In future, think as carefully as you can about every decision you make, but if they turn out to be "mistakes" afterwards, don't beat yourself up about it, because given what you knew and how you felt at the time it was the only decision you could make.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

EmpyreanKnight

nisaba said:
Western philosophy has suggested something similar.

It's based on this observation:-

If you look back on your life, at all the times when you made a given decision that changed your life, when you "could have made a different decision" ... *could* you realy have made a different decision? Given the life-experience you had then, the hormones in your system, your state of nutrition, your clarity of mind, you ended up making a particular decision because neither your physical state nor your mental and emotional state could permit you to make any other decision at that particular moment.

So you really had no choice, just as you will have no choice in the future. In future, think as carefully as you can about every decision you make, but if they turn out to be "mistakes" afterwards, don't beat yourself up about it, because given what you knew and how you felt at the time it was the only decision you could make.

That sounds like determinism. Is free will, then, nothing but an illusion?

OT: If the spread requires three cards or less, I'm good with a simple shuffle-and-cut while feeling the energies of the stacks for the one I'll place on top. For more elaborate ones, I prefer to fan the cards after shuffling and searching for the particular cards I'll choose.

Barleywine

EmpyreanKnight said:
That sounds like determinism. Is free will, then, nothing but an illusion?

OT: If the spread requires three cards or less, I'm good with a simple shuffle-and-cut while feeling the energies of the stacks for the one I'll place on top. For more elaborate ones, I prefer to fan the cards after shuffling and searching for the particular cards I'll choose.

The closest I get to this is when doing the first step of the Opening of the Key spread, where you cut the deck into four piles (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, right-to-left) and then find the significator. But I "cheat" by turning over the top card of each pile to see which one is the most prominent (trump, court or pip card), then look in that pile, rather then trying to sense anything beyond intuitively choosing which pile to turn first. Results have been mixed.

Edward Tarot Hands

EmpyreanKnight said:
That sounds like determinism. Is free will, then, nothing but an illusion?

I don't think free will is an illusion, but apart from your actions, all events are linked across the universe. So I think yes you do have a certain degree of control over future events but there are many variables that are beyond control.
But even seemingly random events are going to have a chain of causes
We may think rolling a dice is a random event but the outcome can result on many things; the material of the dice, the height it was dropped from, the surface it lands on, how many times it bounces etc etc etc
This is what I meant that nothing happens by 'chance'

Edward Tarot Hands

nisaba said:
Western philosophy has suggested something similar.

It's based on this observation:-

If you look back on your life, at all the times when you made a given decision that changed your life, when you "could have made a different decision" ... *could* you realy have made a different decision? Given the life-experience you had then, the hormones in your system, your state of nutrition, your clarity of mind, you ended up making a particular decision because neither your physical state nor your mental and emotional state could permit you to make any other decision at that particular moment.

So you really had no choice, just as you will have no choice in the future. In future, think as carefully as you can about every decision you make, but if they turn out to be "mistakes" afterwards, don't beat yourself up about it, because given what you knew and how you felt at the time it was the only decision you could make.

Thanks

EmpyreanKnight

Barleywine said:
The closest I get to this is when doing the first step of the Opening of the Key spread, where you cut the deck into four piles (Fire, Water, Air, Earth, right-to-left) and then find the significator. But I "cheat" by turning over the top card of each pile to see which one is the most prominent (trump, court or pip card), then look in that pile, rather then trying to sense anything beyond intuitively choosing which pile to turn first. Results have been mixed.

Off topic, but whew - the OOTK? You need experience and some expertise to perform this. One of the most complicated, difficult and exhausting spreads ever. At this level, rote memorization and simple book learning is not enough, one must have a subtle mastery of what the cards represent and mix these disparate parts judiciously to accurately weave the story they wish to tell you. I don't think I can truly master this even if I study until next year, but one day I do hope to.

Barleywine

EmpyreanKnight said:
Off topic, but whew - the OOTK? You need experience and some expertise to perform this. One of the most complicated, difficult and exhausting spreads ever. At this level, rote memorization and simple book learning is not enough, one must have a subtle mastery of what the cards represent and mix these disparate parts judiciously to accurately weave the story they wish to tell you. I don't think I can truly master this even if I study until next year, but one day I do hope to.

I suppose it's off-topic in the sense that it's one of the most analytical spreads I've ever used and is kind of the antithesis of the "feeling" approach we're talking about here. The only aspect I might characterize as fully "intuitive" is when deciding whether to "abandon the divination" because what you're seeing isn't squaring with what the querent is telling you. I can't say I've mastered it because I've only done the whole thing a few times; I usually stop after the first counting-and-pairing part, and skip the Tree of Life and astrological components, occasionally doing those as separate activities. My understanding is that this was the common practice among the rank-and-file of the Golden Dawn.

Feeling The Energy Of The Cards

nisaba

Zephyros

EmpyreanKnight

Barleywine

Edward Tarot Hands

Edward Tarot Hands

EmpyreanKnight

Barleywine