Intuition vs Book Meanings

[BlackFiresong]

Hi all! I'm new to this forum and rather new to Tarot as well. I didn't know anything about Tarot until the cards were introduced to me in some detail at a spiritual workshop I attended about a month ago. I bought my own deck at the workshop and have been doing self-readings since. The thing is, the method taught at the workshop was quite systematic - it involves filling in a table of associations with the symbols on a card and inferring meaning based on those associations. It's a very effective method, but doesn't really bear much similarity to the traditional approach to reading the cards. So I've been trying to read up about the traditional meanings of cards a bit more, just out of interest (and also because I'd like to be able to read for other people and charge for that at some point in the future).

One thing that's struck me so far in my research is that while it's easy to find a set of generalised card meanings in books, I can't seem to grasp how to reconcile these meanings with the use of my own intuition in the context of an actual reading. E.g. I may know what individual cards mean, but if I see several of them together in a spread, I haven't the foggiest idea what to infer, and I just can't seem to tap into my intuition and get a sense of what a set of cards may be trying to tell me. I end up relying on my logical mind and trying to tie together the written meanings of the various cards, which just winds up confusing and frustrating me.

I am generally fairly intuitive as a person and have been told this by several others too - I just don't seem to have figured out how to make use of that intuition in the context of reading Tarot cards! I know no-one other than me can tell me how to tap into my own intuition, but I am just wondering if anyone else has struggled with this and could maybe offer some advice.

Thanks!

 

[Sar]

I learned the traditional meaning of the cards first and then SUDDENLY, after about 8 months the intuition just took over and the readings started to just flow on its own.

 

[TheStarsAndTheMoon]

I had troubles with spreads for a long while and I found myself rather lost in them. I finally ordered Barbara Moore's book on spreads and it all makes sense now. I just needed someone to explain how spreads work in way that made sense to me. A lot of people I've come across either on YouTube or other sites have mentioned writing a story with the cards, drawing cards and not worrying about the right meaning, but composing a story out of what you see on the cards. I tried that and it is a good exercise that helped me figure out how to compose a cohesive message. Perhaps that will work for you. Perhaps also trying some readings and relying on only what your intuition says to you based one what it sees might help instead of using the systematic way you were taught. See if that helps out. ^^

 

[danieljuk]

I use a mixture of both! For the first 2 years of learning tarot I was obsessed with different meanings and associations from many sources. It's important to remember that meanings are just other people's opinions. Whilst quite a few cards have "universally recognised meanings" they are all still from someone else. I do find them useful though and I still sometimes get stuck in a reading and have to look for different ideas.

In the last year I have gone more intuitively. What does the picture or symbols say? I am finding I am looking up a lot more symbolism online and also other people's descriptions of the card images, rather than their meaning.

I guess for me the book meanings are a base of the reading. My own intuition is the bit that personalises it for the sitter and for me. Going more with intuition has really improved my readings. I wish I had got into intuition far earlier in my tarot learning! But it's about confidence. Doing a daily card and looking carefully at which symbols really come at you was the first step in improving my abilities

 

[RunningWild]

I think it really depends on which way you learn best. Me? I like books, so I read a lot of them, in fact, as many as I could afford to get a hold of. After that, I started looking at the cards and the symbols and trying to trust the parts that jumped out at me. I'd write it down, make a story, use complete sentences instead of just keywords. After a while I stopped looking at the books so much. I still love reading about tarot though. Other people's insights can be incorporated or rejected as one sees fit.

 

[seedcake]

I mix both. There's a lot of books with great ideas which can help you to work with Tarot. Never learn by heart (and I know people do this stuff). When you find many resources, not only books but also yt channels etc, and keep up with them you'll feel that you grasp many things. Not thoughts of others but assocations finding your very own way. I'm totally crazy about reading and watching yt channels about Tarot. It can give you a lot inspiration. Just don't learn it by heart but let feel what is the best for you

 

[ana luisa]

I learned the traditional meaning of the cards first and then SUDDENLY, after about 8 months the intuition just took over and the readings started to just flow on its own.

Same here ! Books gave me a basis but the rest came on its own.

 

[BlackFiresong]

Thanks for all the responses! Sounds like everyone has their own way of inferring meaning from the cards, and I just need to find mine The story thing sounds like a good idea... I might try and lay out a simple spread and make a story out of it and see where it leads!

 

[ravenest]

I know no-one other than me can tell me how to tap into my own intuition, but I am just wondering if anyone else has struggled with this and could maybe offer some advice.

I think there are methods that can teach you this. There are a few posts around the forum here on intuition and some people have examined the more technical or 'clinic' aspects of it.

There basically seems to be two view points here; I am of the one that sees it as a 'psychological' process than more of a .... perhaps 'spiritual' one.

I think, (and there is quiet a bit of info the same on the internet) that it is a functional process; I mean that the more you learn and resonate within a field of knowledge the more it is accessible to you ... it embeds in your 'unconscious' (or elsewhere) and then can 'arise' in the consciousness , 'like a flash'.

So, its possible, that in a away, the more you learn (in the right way) and experience the more that is lodged in your 'storage bank' in a way that is different from conscious learning. That process seems to work in a symbol / image form ... and Tarot is quiet suitable for that.

" My first empirical proposition is that there is a complete lack of evidence that, in choice situations of any complexity these [expected utility] computations can be, or are in fact, performed ... but we cannot, of course, rule out the possibility that the unconscious is a better decision maker than the conscious."

http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-co...-research-on-judgment-and-decision-making.pdf

I agree with the making a story from some cards concept ... I have held a few Tarot reading workshops and that method seems to have helped people greatly ... even if it is only a step along the way.

So ; I dont see it as a situation of ' book learning Vs intuition ' ... I think they support each other.

 

[Zephyros]

Try to get a personal touch for the cards by finding events that correspond. For example, in the Five of Cups try to journal about an even that left you disappointed. Try to remember everything you can about it and extract from it the abstract feeling it evokes in you. You can know a card's meaning by heart, but you won't really understand it until you've experienced it, until you make it your own, until the deck is your own life history. This entails some brutally honest self-work and possibly exorcising some demons but hey, that's what it's all about, isn't it.

Another thing you might do is actually recreate some of the cards. Let's say for the Four of Cups, go sit under a tree and meditate, since that's what the figure seems to be doing. Actually do it, since atmosphere is everything. Put yourself in that person's place. They seem dejected, why? Are they looking at the cups, not noticing the ethereal one? Are they meditating so deeply they don't care? How is the sunshine affecting them, is it hot? Things like that, playing out the cards is fun and can be surprisingly profound (while studying the Hanged Man I literally stood on my head).