Possibly really stupid question(s)

[faylie]

Is it okay to read purely through intuition? I have dabbled with tarot on and admittedly mostly off for nearly 20 years and do see myself as an absolute novice, this is the most serious I have been with it, I think part of the reason I kept stopping was because I didn't trust my intuition with it, I kept trying to go by the book, I bought the Beginners guide to Tarot maybe 10 years ago, really didn't like the cards and although I am finding the book useful now, I couldn't memorise them and then found it hard to intuitively read the cards. 5 odd years ago I got a copy of the Shadowscapes which I find generally easy to interpret, intuitively, but get very different meanings from books. E.g. 10C today said to me that a relationship could end up being unhealthy and off balance with one person being overly dependent on the other. On a different day I will probably interpret it as mutual support and a blissful relationship which is more in line with the original meaning and looking at books and other decks I can see how it should be read, but intuition says otherwise, which makes me really doubt myself. As an aside, is it normal to get such different readings from different decks?

Thanks for reading such a rambling post and any thoughts

 

[Grizabella]

I hated the Rider Waite and all the versions of it when I first started learning. I thought it was just plain ugly. So I bought a bunch of other decks trying to learn and it never worked. After a whole lot of wasted time and money, I finally gave in and got the Universal Waite and a book I think was called Tarot for Dummies or something like that, and set about studying. It worked! I learned the card meanings and now I can read with most decks quite well. I just needed to buckle down and get busy with Rider Waite.

I can read any deck now that's based on Rider Waite. The ones based on Thoth trip me up sometimes and I don't read with Marseilles type decks, but the rest are quite readable for me

What I recommend to others now is to suck it up and learn with Rider Waite. Once you get the basics of that you can read any deck based on it, no matter how loosely it's based. It's possible to learn with another deck like Shadowscapes and other loosely based ones, but in the end you can only read with Shadowscapes or whatever one you've chosen instead of being able to read with lots of them.

Good luck with it. I'm sure that with enough determination and some time, you'll improve. I did and I've seen many, many, many others who have come here to the forum become really good readers if they stuck around for awhile.

 

[yannie]

I can rely just on my intuition, yes. My first deck was the golden Botticelli, & I had 3 non-RWS decks after that too. I went with the LWB, Internet & my intuition with those decks before I got a book on tarot. I've only recently started reading RWS, but find that when I go back to my golden Botticelli, that deck still sings to me...I connect with those images more than any other deck I own.

 

[NightVision]

Not a stupid question at all.

It sounds like you might benefit from keeping a tarot journal, to gauge how your purely intuitive readings turn out - and then you'd be able to see if the technique is working for you.

 

[Farzon]

In my experience reading the Tarot is like playing Go. You get better when you practice AND read at the same time. Reading the cards trains the intuition, reading the books trains the intellect. For me it was easier to get a grip of the intellectual side first, reading into GD and Thoth related stuff. My intuition is just building up I think.

As for the Smith-Waite-Deck (I prefer this wording) I despised it in the beginning. Everyone had it, even worse, everyone began with it! I couldn't stand beginning with a beginner's deck. But I purchased an app that was based on it to be able to learn on the go. The cards grew on me and when I first saw them in reality I had learned to appreciate their iconic simplicity and subtle symbolism.

 

[Michellehihi]

Faylie this is a very good question and I am glad that you asked. Personnally, I started by studying the RW and its definitions of each card. At the same time, I was buying many decks because I was attracted by the artwork. Then, when trying to match the RW meanings to my decks, it just did not work because they were not RW based. And even those who are, many times the intuitive answer I have does not correspond to the definition in the LWB. This is especially happening for minor arcanas because the major begin basically archetypes are easier to read. But even so, there can be huge differences.

I can give you a funny example with yesterday's reading. I took the beautiful Victorian romantic, which is RW based and quite easy to read. I did a 2 cards draw: 1- what I want to do tomorrow, 2- what I will in fact do tomorrow. I got 9 of cups and Hierophant.

That is hilarious because on that deck, the 9 of cups depicts a man with a beer in his hands, and this is what I do every Friday, I have a beer a relax. But I was thinking to skip this Friday because I have a hard training day tomorrow. This leads me to the second card, what I will in fact do: hierophant, reading Scriptures! Haha! I wanted a beer but I'll end up meditating!
This reading was fun, intuitive and easy to understand. But then I rad the LWB and got all those ready-made definitions of the cards, and it was irrelevant to my question.

This experience reminded me what reading tarot really is: an inner journey, a conversation with our selves. We have all the answers inside us. Tarot is there to help us reconnect with our truths. We don't need to search outside. What this 10C told you in your reading was really what you found in the card at that moment, if you honestly listened to your inner voice.

All this to say that you can totally read intuitively even if your answers do not match the LWB. some decks even don't come with LWB which is great!

Thoses were my little thoughts on your question. I like this exchange.

 

[gregory]

I hesitate to just say YES - as ALL tarot readers rely on intuition. But I'll say yes anyway. You might like to test this by joining in the Intuitive Study Group here - a monthly reading circle where you MAY NOT use anything you "know" about the cards, or chakras, astrology, numerology, qabalah etc - just when you SEE in front of you.

We seem to manage OK....

 

[Tanga]

Hey - there are no stupid questions.

In the end it's a marriage of both intuition and a studied “system”, that brings out the best readings IMO. These - used to best advantage in relation to the specific question.

There's nothing wrong with sticking to the side that's most comfortable for you until you get more practiced. And you will tend to lean more to the side that you're comfortable with.
With practice, you'll find you're learning how to recognise when "book meanings" makes sense in a particular context and you'll settle into the differences that come up with different deck imagery. Plus get to grips with one card having many meanings in different contexts.

Tarot is a great framework for the subconscious mind - which is deep and twisty and secret…and multi-faceted in meaning.



I never liked the artwork of the RWS - but was forced to use it when I signed onto a "formal" one-year course which used the system (Smith-Waite is a nicer name. It gives a more balanced ‘hail’ to the artist who originally wasn’t recognised in publication - but there’s a more general recognition of the title RWS, so I stick with that. Just like Thoth - is more recognised than using the name Crowley-Harris or Harris-Crowley deck).
Later - when I attended a number of seminars on the life and times of Pamela Coleman Smith
(the artist) - I began to appreciate it more.
However, I don’t use it as a go-to, as her artwork still doesn't ring my visual bells - unless I'm at a group Tarot meeting where it's the model being used, and there are lots of newbies there.
(less confusion when trying to learn - if everyone's working from the same image).

 

[Barleywine]

For me, intuitive reading (by which I mean the three "I's" - imagination, inspiration and insight - creatively woven together from the imagery and not merely a form of "subconscious trawling") brings out the magic in tarot. The inspired leap of insight that cuts straight through the thicket of memorized keywords is one of the best moments you can have. Without intuition, "reading the cards" seems more like an exercise in recitation. I'm sure I have a reputation here as an "analytical" reader, but that's usually just the "end game;" every reading I do starts with an intuitive flash that suggests where to start "unpacking" the meaning in the spread, usually advancing from the most tenuous hints to the most concrete testimony.

I've been reading with the Thoth deck since 1972 and didn't start with the RWS until 2011. I've never felt that the narrative "stories" that have grown up around the scenes on the RWS minor cards are especially appropriate to the divinational meanings, so I don't take them literally and largely ignore their conceptual "baggage" much of the time. Instead, the images fire up my imagination, and I go with what they hand me as a first impression, then elaborate with greater detail from my own knowledge and experience. I follow Waite's suggestion that the scenes provide "hints of possible developments" and that they "prove a great help to intuition." When I read with the RWS deck, it's almost entirely intuitive; I bring in specific correspondences and associations only as necessary to flesh out and "shade" an intuitive insight. I reserve the use of a "studied system" to my Thoth readings, where it is a major part of the core knowledge.

 

[bonebeach]

I agree with Gregory's answer even though I had no idea that study group was a thing. I need to go check it out.

It feels like a cop out answer, but I think it's the truth here: do what works for you. I've had some great readings with people who read purely based on intuition and who probably didn't even know who AE Waite was.

I love reading about tarot history and applying different scholarly approaches to tarot, but I also go out of my way to have decks that look like they have nothing to do with established tarot meanings, so I can force myself to read more intuitively.