Speaking of the Cards

Have you ever gotten a tarot reading, or had an astrology chart done, and been frustrated by your reader’s lack of explanation?

Conversely, if you yourself are a reader, have you ever seen something profound, quite clearly, but been unable to articulate it properly?

It happens.  The astrologer tells you that you have Leo in your fourth house, and you know what that means.  She’ll say it in a way that makes you feel stupid for not knowing what it means, and a little worried that you might be missing something huge.

In tarot, it can be even worse, because we do expect people to have some sort of reaction to the card images, even if they don’t know the traditional interpretation of the card.  But pictures speak to different people in different ways.

It’s good to honor your client’s reaction to the cards, but not without also giving your own interpretation.

Sometimes readers, even good readers, are actually quite shy.  It can be hard to share what you see, especially if the cards show up in a particularly powerful way.

If you are a client receiving a reading, make sure you ask questions.  It’s alright to say “No, I don’t know what that means, can you interpret it for me?”  Even if you do have an idea of what something may mean, say, “I know what it means to me, but what does it mean to you?” 

If you are a reader, it’s good to practice your interpretations.  You can do that by reading for others, reading for yourself, or simply going through you deck, pulling cards and making statements for each card, aloud.

The aloud part is important.  If all you do in your tarot study is think and write about the cards, you will feel rusty when you have to speak about them.

So go ahead, lock the door and grab your cards.  Pull a card, and speak about it.  You might start with something like “What I see in this card is. . .” or, the key point to remember with this card is. . .”

Then, graduate to groups of cards, or spreads.  Practice speaking about the trends you see in spreads, and finding the key themes within a spread.  While this practice won’t make you more intuitive, it will train you to communicate effectively about the cards.  That way, you will be less nervous in an actual reading.  And, we all know, nerves are the intuition-killer!

If your words flow, your intuition will as well, and that’s what it’s all about!