The Great Card Memorization War!

[Jewel]

Talisman hit the nail on the head when he stated that it was how we were individually defining "memorize" that was giving the term a bad rap. In today's society we fear being mindless creatures so we have given the word "memorize" a somewhat negative meaning. I am posting this because I was guilty of this until 2 seconds ago, when after reading Talisman's post I pulled out the dictionary. I now realize that I was defining the word wrong, and giving it a negative connotation unconsciously. Here is what I found in the dictionary:

MEMORIZE - to commit to memory: learn by heart.

So ... I retract my critique on memorization. Obviously I do memorize, because I look at a card and with my knowledge (learned from books and experience) I have ascribed the cards meanings which I have memorized ... whether my own or based on others ideas or a combination thereof.

P.S. Thanks Talisman!

 

[Cerulean]

I 've been memorizing different styles, different decks...it is easier for me to associate meanings with tarocchi pips than French suited playing cards. So I have difficulty sometimes with things titled tarot and it turns out they look like the playing card pips. I end up playing solitaire with hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs...even though one can translate, it's not like the Italian decks that I learned from and favor...
Mari H.

 

[Major Tom]

*sigh* My friend Talisman can be a bit windy, but essentially he is of course, correct.

He could of said it more succinctly thus:

Before you can read you have to learn the alphabet.

The tarot has 78 letters i.e., the cards.

Yes, you can be very successful just looking at the pictures - but you still end up learning the cards.

 

[truthsayer]

i had not made this connection consciously until i caught up on reading this thread--re-the advantages and disadvantages of memorizing the cards. memorization does lead to learning and comprehension but you have to work at it just like you did when you learned the alphabet. most of us barely need to think about it if we quote the alphabet. where learning takes place is if you know what a letter is even if that letter is out of sequence of the rest of the alphabet. for example, you see the letter "r" and you recognize it and remember the sound it makes and how it might fit into a word that you are spelling. the same with tarot. you have to at least be familiar enough with the deck that you can put individual cards into different reading sequences and it will still make sense even if the cards aren't in the same order that you learned them in.

creating a celtic cross reminds me of what is involved in planning a sentence. you know what a sequence of letters spell and how these sequences make words and then how those words become sentences. when you are learning how to read, you start with little sentences and work up to bigger ones. that's why beginners should not start with the celtic cross. start with one card readings then two, on up to the celtic cross. you spend 12 years learning the basic skills of reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. even then some students do better than others. but doesn't mean the students who have difficulty with reading can't learn how to read. it just may take longer.

so take memorization not as a crutch but as a tool that will eventually lead to more and more sophisticated tarot reading. if memorization is only a crutch, reading tarot will be a struggle b/c you are dependent strictly on the memorized structures.what you memorize should eventually shift to learning with "practice, practice, practice!"

 

[mrsjvan]

essentially the meaning that you end up "memorizing" are your own, right? You take a little from what you learn here and a little from what you learn there, decide what works for you and "learn" that meaning. You start with a foundation and build your house from there. We all may build somewhat different houses but in the end we all end up with a house. If that makes any sense. LOL

mrsjvan

 

[truthsayer]

a few years back i was having short and long term memory problems that were a by-product of long term severe stress and medications. i was really distressed by how much of my life i simply could not remember. simple things on a to do list were overwhelming. but one thing did not leave me and that was my ability to read tarot cards. at the time i'd been reading nearly 25 years. i was as comfortable with the cards as i was reciting the alphabet. so i latched on to my cards b/c working with them helped me remember and made me feel better. if i had had any doubt that i knew the cards backwards and forwards, i didn't have any more doubt after that.

perhaps if you find some kind of memorization trick that would help you learn them it would become easier. for example, when i am learning someone's name, i try to make some kind of play on words that helps me remember who that person is. the best example i can think of was when i met major tom and was trying to remember who he is. i thought about that elton john song with an astronaut named major tom in it. since i also know major tom is creating his own deck, i would add to my mental image major tom the astronaut playing with tarot cards in outer space. strange i know what i've never failed to remember him.

make associations with cards things that are part of your everyday life. so that if you think of pregnancy you think of the empress or if you think of vanna white you remember the wheel of fortune. works for me!

 

[Major Tom]

i thought about that elton john song with an astronaut named major tom in it.

It's a David Bowie song.

 

[truthsayer]

i told you i have memory problems! LOL

 

[Moongold]

Learning and intuition

I am relatively new - just five months at learning tarot.

Perhaps another way of understanding this is through ome of the old learning models.

We don't know we don't know (Unconscious incompetence). We know we don't know (Conscious incomptence). I was in this stage when I first discovered tarot. We set about learning by whatever means suits us best whether it be by reading books, having a teacher, participating in this community. This process takes time and practice (Conscious competence) I am in this stage now. Our knowledge and skill becomes so deep that we can do readings in a way that many people understand as intuitive (Unconscious competence).

I thinkI think there is much more to intuition than this of course. What is intuition? That is a whole other question. The dictionary says "Immediate apprehension by the mind without reasoning; immediate apprehension by a sense; immediate insight".

As others have intimated in this thread, those people who can read purely intuitively right away are probably drawing on a whole lot of prior learning and experience that is both conscious and unconscious. We will all get there eventually but we learn and experience differently.

It's taken me a while to put the whole picture in some sort of frame. The importance of elementary meanings escaped me for a while. I've spent some time learning the basic RW majors and then the characteristics of each suite. It's worth sepnding some time on that.

Now I'm learning in depth by doing a simple three card spread for personal development each week. I really have to think about the cards and their relationship to each other this way. I'm using the Shining Tribe deck but find myself making comparisons with other decks in the process.

I guess I'm just affirming that everyone learns differently and that's OK. Practice is really helpful too.

Moongold

 

[Teal]

I just had a thought on this topic again. "Memorize" isn't all that bad. After all, we "memorized" words and how to speak them, we "memorized" how to balance and then take our first steps, we "memorized" how to ride a bike or roller skate or read or anything else we've ever learned to do. Of course it takes some initial "memorizing" of information about tarot cards because we're not born with a knowledge of them any more than we're born knowing how to do anything else. I think what's being conveyed here is that we should learn the cards by memorizing to a certain extent, but not let that be the end of it. We need to step out from there and learn to read creatively using our own intuitive thoughts. This would be akin to learning to walk and then going on from there to learn to skip, jump, and dance.