I’m glad you enjoyed the post

Great comment

I had been reading cards for about three years and thought I knew it all. I suppose this happens to everyone now and then.

Yes, this happened to me as well. I’d been studying for a while, and thought that I had all the answers. Luckily for me, this phase was short lived when a similar event happened to me

…wave theory and disambiguation with regard to source and medium. Also, EPR paradox & Synchronicity principle parallels, fractal geometry in stock market analysis, and the golden ratio & recurrence relation in chaos theory.

That’s very interesting. I studied some of those same subjects at a time when, on reflection, I was pushing my self hard to make similar connections.

I also studied various philosophical systems, Derrida, Heidegger, Gadamer and so on, in an effort to find a system of interpretation itself.

I looked into the Philosophy of Science as a way of getting to grips with what I was reading.

I read the theories, then I read the philosophy and so on – one informing the other.

This is an awesome comment because it looks like you went down a completely different road – in terms of how these theories inform your practice.

I’m looking forward to trialing out this system – trying the exercises you suggest and seeing how this furthers my own understanding.

What you’ve written is really innovative as an approach to the Tarot and I’m looking forward to reading more

Thanks for dropping by

I’ve written a few posts on this blog on why I don’t like the “card a day” method. However, you’ve raised some good points as to its usefulness in helping you learn the “grammar” of the Tarot. I especially like how, through the use of this technique, you’ve been able to extend your understand of the cards in a unique and specific way to you – “the Page of Disks – an employee”.

It seems to me that this technique can be used to great success when approached correctly.

Thanks for sharing

I won’t go into a lot of detail just now, but I would like to share the basics of how I came to understand the Tarot as I do.

Let me begin with this. I had been reading cards for about three years and thought I knew it all. I suppose this happens to everyone now and then. But, as is usually the case, I discovered just how little I knew when I was dumped by my first, “true love,” lolol. I couldn’t understand how I had been so blinded, that I didn’t realize she had been sleeping with another guy the whole time we were together. I even lived with her for a short span while my Mother had a nervous breakdown. Yes, I saw that coming well before I started tarot, (I was a complete nuisance as a child).
Anyhow, when I’m upset I study. I have to learn everything I can so that I might avoid another catastrophe. (Never works though) heh!

If I’ve been fooled, knowledge is really the only thing that can restore any modicum of self respect. So I went to the library. I wanted to know what made the Tarot tick. I’m not just speaking of divinatory meanings or elemental science. I really needed to understand the connection on a practical level. I won’t bore you with the particulars, but I would suggest you look into wave theory and disambiguation with regard to source and medium. Also, EPR paradox & Synchronicity principle parallels, fractal geometry in stock market analysis, and the golden ratio & recurrence relation in chaos theory. I’m not suggesting you understand anything more than what patterns these studies exhibit and what they have in common with Tarot. I certainly don’t have all the answers either, but I’m smart enough to recognize a trend. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. Once you do, you can help me figure out exactly where neurophysiology fits into the equation.

For now, however, you can simply take out your cards. Find the system that’s wrapped up inside, and begin to tear it all down. One of the first books I read after this girl, “woke me up,” was about boosting the intelligence quotient. The author stated that any subconcious process done on a concious level would constitute compound intelligence. I wish I could find the book, as I don’t remember the title and would love to share it with you. However, it was written by a man who later became head of the psychology department of Whittier College. I wish he had written one on memory as well. lol. Moving on…he contended that the subconscious went through several finite stages of evaluation in achieving knowledge. Yet another parallel we can use to understand the tarot, and maybe get a little smarter.

Stimulation, awareness, quantification, qualification, analogy, identification. and reaction. These were his seven subconcious processes. I challenge you to now take a look at each card. Pull the first and take a look. You see it, (stimulation). You acknowledge it, (awareness). How much doesit weigh? There is only one, (quantification). What color is it and how does it feel? Is it hot or cold? (qualification)? What is it like? It reminds me of, (analogy). You name it, (identification). You use, discard, fight, or flee it, (reaction). Repeat the process until you’ve run out of energy! Then, if your anything like me, you do the same to the different suits, arcana, and deck. Then the system is called into question…

Maybe it occurred to you in the last exercise that the stimuli reminded you of the Ace. If so, did the awareness of it remind you of the Deuce? How about qualification and qualification, are they the feminine principles of thought? Surely the emperor would define and utilize it as necessary. So what happens to it now that the king is done with it? I guess that depends on his Karma, (V). Did he use it in the best manner possible? Furthermore, how will it service the kingdom and what will take it’s place, (VI)? If he directed the elements, how will they be encountered, (VII)? How will I survive, (VIII)? What do I now understand, and how will I react to this in the future, (IX)? If the Emporer had given me a directive, How would the world have received me? Better still, How will they deal with me? We see all this again after, (X) my friends. Only then, the cycle has doubled and returned. The energy of the greater cycle is complex and we will discuss that at another time. Until then…

Love and Light,
Bulal

I agree, for many people the possibility of “experience” can lack “safety”, and this does seem to create a tension between allowing experience to unfold, or seeking safety in a book. This tension can create a block that’s hard to overcome. Great comment

This technique is especially good for the small cards/pips and court cards which can often be more elusive than the major arcana. An example of this would be the page of disks which usually means “employee” for me and means that I know that the reading is referring to someone at work either someone at my work or perhaps someone who in the context of the reading is fulfilling some kind of work duties. This helped me get to grips with the grammar of the Tarot.

There are lots of other examples of course….even on a scholarly level…and it could be the same of tarot…..maybe it is a block….it is easier to read and learn than to do…because once “doing”…once “experiencing” one may encounter things they perfer not to face…or it may open up new ways of thinking that are harder to deal with or it may present questions that one wishes to avoid…IDK….but just a thought as to why it might be hard to move from reading to doing.

Thanks for your kind words

9 of Swords – Awesome!

Now if I see someone smoking a cigarette (a chain smoker) and seems stressed out, I might see that as the 9 of Swords.

Cheers!