Process, Prologue

KarlThomas

soaring feather said:
To have them put away their books and use their instincts in learning a new application. Perhaps that is his intent?

I think that is one intention in this teaching, Soaring Feather, yes. I'm also looking into the implied dialogue in the narrative, which it would be impossible to get at without the cd, I think.

Dan, after going into the roses and the muckmoving maneuvers, presumable after a question from his student,says this:

"Well, give me your deck back, and come back when you're ready to learn tarot."

pause.

"Oh no, the lessons have already started".

I take it to infer that the student was like

"Hey, what's with the gardening, can we move it along here?" or something to that effect.

It follows that the author is essentially saying "Hold it. Walk through these doors as guided, or go find other doors. I have a method here, and getting mud on your knees and yes, getting your hands dirty, is part of the method, as or more important than sitting at a table, laying down cards. Are you in, or not?"

What value does this bring to us as listeners? It comes at the very beginning, and I don't think its there by accident. I think its an invitation to put away our preconceived ideas of how this teaching should go. (Quite on parallel, Soaring Feather with what you say regarding tossing the books.)

How can we benefit from tossing our views on how a tarot course should be conducted?

soaring feather

KarlThomas said:
I think that is one intention in this teaching, Soaring Feather, yes. I'm also looking into the implied dialogue in the narrative, which it would be impossible to get at without the cd, I think.

Dan, after going into the roses and the muckmoving maneuvers, presumable after a question from his student,says this:

"Well, give me your deck back, and come back when you're ready to learn tarot."

pause.

"Oh no, the lessons have already started".

I take it to infer that the student was like

"Hey, what's with the gardening, can we move it along here?" or something to that effect.

It follows that the author is essentially saying "Hold it. Walk through these doors as guided, or go find other doors. I have a method here, and getting mud on your knees and yes, getting your hands dirty, is part of the method, as or more important than sitting at a table, laying down cards. Are you in, or not?"

What value does this bring to us as listeners? It comes at the very beginning, and I don't think its there by accident. I think its an invitation to put away our preconceived ideas of how this teaching should go. (Quite on parallel, Soaring Feather with what you say regarding tossing the books.)

How can we benefit from tossing our views on how a tarot course should be conducted?

Since I am just now beginning to look at serious material and have made some attempts at reading, I can see the sense in what you said. I need to get the CDs asap, thought I truly prefer books because I can make notes in the margins. Perhaps the reason for a journal. I am only going by what I have seen posted here and the 26 weeks (which is confusing me throughly).

Baroli

Karl Thomas said:
Dan, after going into the roses and the muckmoving maneuvers, presumable after a question from his student,says this:

"Well, give me your deck back, and come back when you're ready to learn tarot."

pause.

"Oh no, the lessons have already started".

I take it to infer that the student was like

"Hey, what's with the gardening, can we move it along here?" or something to that effect.

Ahhhh, but you also have to remember,..... WE are the student.

Disa

I'm going to listen to it again now, to see what I can hear in the silence

------------------------
ETA: Ok, I totally missed the pauses the first few times. I can see now where the student might be protesting. If the student isn't ready to get down and dirty(and listen to the message in the pauses

) then the student should come back when they are serious about learning. Is that it?

KarlThomas

Yes, Disa, it is. I also read into it that "getting down and dirty" means forgetting what we think tarot instruction should look like.

I think the student in the book, who represents us, is balking at the gardening work, and asking the teacher to get down to it, and failing to see that the lessons are taking place right there, at the rose plants.

To me, this is like a good vaudeville act throwing in a surprise backflip early on in the show, to show the audience "stay awake... you never know what's coming". I think Dan included this prologue to clue us in along similar lines.

He is letting us know not only that this is going to go a little differently than what we might expect, but that our expectations might be obstacles to learning in this course.

Disa

KarlThomas said:
To me, this is like a good vaudeville act throwing in a surprise backflip early on in the show, to show the audience "stay awake... you never know what's coming". I think Dan included this prologue to clue us in along similar lines.

He is letting us know not only that this is going to go a little differently than what we might expect, but that our expectations might be obstacles to learning in this course.

This method of learning reminds me of the the storytelling methods of great TV dads such as Andy Griffith and Bill Cosby, and my own, dear old dad. Rather than pounding discipline and lessons into your head forcefully, the lessons are allowed to subtly unfold and blossom as understanding grows. By having the student come to the realization in their own time, the message sticks. It's the moment you realize that the story wasn't really about what you thought it was about after all, that you get the "Aha" moment, the feeling of triumph, the lesson is learned.

As I lay awake this morning waiting for the alarm clock to sound, I listened to the silence in the room. There is no need to be inpatient while the roses are being tended to, such is life. Learning Tarot comes in the living of life. If we take the time to notice the similarities and the differences and draw our own conclusions, we will apply our own life lessons to the lessons of the tarot, and they will "stick". Though reading the cards is about the sitter, learning the cards is very much about us. How do we learn, what makes things "stick". But then again, we come full circle with unlearning everything that's stuck. Life is fluid, ever changing, so to, are the cards.

KarlThomas

Disa said:
Though reading the cards is about the sitter, learning the cards is very much about us. How do we learn, what makes things "stick".

That is an excellent observation, Disa. We want to nurture a relationship with card and meaning which is tried and trusted enough to allow us to "feel" the card in a spread before giving over to our thinking mechanisms. This ability ideally stems from a relationship to meanings which aligns with our world view, beliefs, and ideals, because it grows from within us.

I'm also in agreement regarding the voice of these teachings. There is something about the tonality which is a real fit for me, and you are right, the lessons unfold more and more as we grow into them.

This is one reason I think the threads here, exploring the lessons, are valuable. Just looking closer at the content of the cds, in order to submit here, renews my interest, as I find details I had overlooked.

Then, perspectives from fellow jedis like yourself underline other parts
of the book, waking me further. Thanks for playing!

Grizabella

Humility is a huge part of the lesson he hopes to teach the student and nothing is more humbling than getting down on one's knees in the dirt and mud, especially in winter. If you're not humble enough to get down in the dirt and muck and actually touch it, then you might as well forget reading for others, because you're going to have to get humble enough to get down on your knees with them in their "muck" and work with them through it.

Seafra

KarlThomas said:
Then, perspectives from fellow jedis like yourself underline other parts of the book, waking me further. Thanks for playing!

Sounds to me like the point is to become a Padawan so such Jedi talk is what we are asked to leave behind? Am saving my dimes to buy this but understand a Padawan approach is one Dan and that other guy would request for this adventure.

Great stuff -- and I do miss pruning my roses. There is a certain beauty in working with the earth and especially so with roses. They do not feed the body, they feed the soul. You aid in the creation of beauty and the scent of Angels. They are not unlike onions with the multi-layered bloom. Knowledge often comes from trial and error with rose gardening; a wise tender of roses will pull a sucker off rather than cutting it, recognize where it grows beneath the bud rather than going by the leaf count to stop an unwanted bush.

Oopsie. Got a bit lost there. Anyway, great stuff.

soaring feather

Seafra said:
Sounds to me like the point is to become a Padawan so such Jedi talk is what we are asked to leave behind? Am saving my dimes to buy this but understand a Padawan approach is one Dan and that other guy would request for this adventure.

Being a Star Wars fan I would have never thought of that. becoming a Padawan. Even though I do not have the CDs I am picking up a little bit from the forum.

Process, Prologue

KarlThomas

soaring feather

Baroli

Disa

KarlThomas

Disa

KarlThomas

Grizabella

Seafra

soaring feather