Is Tarot the same for everyone?? DUH DUH DUUHHHHHHHH

[Just Tsuki]

in an earlier thread by GFSummoner, i found that Mitsh and i saw Tarot card reversal to be different things. Mitsh thought that the reversal in a spread was a negative extention of the card's original meaning where as i saw it as being the opposite of its original meaning.

so last time i used my Tarot cards i tried to use Mitsh's idea of reversal being a negative extension of the meaning but none of it made sense until i went beack to my usual method.

so....... my question is (it's a long one sorry redface ): is there a set fomular/structure when reading a Tarot spread or does every one read the spread in different ways, and - what ever your answer - why???  

[Grey Jedi Knight]

I think, that while the basics for tarot are simmular I do not think that two people read the same. THe end result could be the same but each has their own way of getting there, with my 3 decks each is read differently but all 3 end with the same result.

(did I jsut confuse you LOL)

Anyways in my experence a card does not have to be in reverse for it's meaning to be negitive atleast not in my experence.  

[Just Tsuki]

thanks Angel_Asuan!!

i've nver really thought about how various decks are read by an individual; i do have about 4 different decks, but i only use the first one i have as i feel more comfortable with it.

in regards to the last part, i meant that when ia card is in reverse it's meaning is also reversed but i dont think i explained it very well what to ever. sorry!!!! redface  

[xkotoyox]

Personally, I think it all just depends. What type of reading are you doing? What's the question? The spread? What's your gut feeling of the cards? I'd say it depends on the person, more than anything, but I do agree in that reversed doesn't necessarily mean negative, nor do I think it necessarily means opposite. If it were that simple, our options of our readings wouldn't be very differing, would they? Say, by mere coincidence, you get the same card(s) for a given reading for two separate people. The reading won't necessarily be the same. Are you going to tell both of them that their grandmother on the east coast is extremely ill? Not likely.
Am I making any sense? confused  

[Just Tsuki]

xkotoyox

Personally, I think it all just depends. What type of reading are you doing? What's the question? The spread? What's your gut feeling of the cards? I'd say it depends on the person, more than anything, but I do agree in that reversed doesn't necessarily mean negative, nor do I think it necessarily means opposite. If it were that simple, our options of our readings wouldn't be very differing, would they? Say, by mere coincidence, you get the same card(s) for a given reading for two separate people. The reading won't necessarily be the same. Are you going to tell both of them that their grandmother on the east coast is extremely ill? Not likely.
Am I making any sense? confused

when reading, i use the feelings i get from the card and the context it is in, not just the general meaning of a card. so a reversed card that appears in two different spreads may not mean exactly the same thing.

thanks though, i had forgotten about the various factors that can effect a tarot reading biggrin  

[erinnightwalker]

i think it lies in the person, the deck, and how the person was trained.

the person will have their own set of experiences and associations in relation to symbols present on a card. also, previous experience reading tarot will contribute to how a person interprets the sequence of cards. for example (though it is actually from another divination deck entirely; same principle though), when i am doing a reading to find out the exact deity of a person, the maiden is a very good card to get. it has nearly always showed up in every reading i ever did when i finally found the right deity. however, that is based on personal experience. another person using that deck may have another card pop up as an indicator.

the deck is a big factor too. if you are comfortable with the deck, then you will have more accurate readings. for example, the first tarot deck i ever got, as soon as i got it home, scared the crap out of me. the readings i got were garbled and the deck itself creeped me out. i gave it to a friend, who passed it on (for the same reason) to another friend. that person got excellent readings but also hated it and ended up burying it six feet deep in her back yard in a box papered with seals and cleansing diagrams. in that case, whether it was reversed or not had nothing to do with it- the deck itself negated the whole thing.

finally, how you are trained and what you believe has a lot to do with readings and reversals. if you expect a reversal to mean the exact opposite, then likely that will show up in that context when the situation demands it. if you believe that a reversal dims or modifies a card's essential meaning, then that will happen when the situation demands it, too. the cards themselves are flexible- once you see the patterns that resound to you and that you have learned, then they will present themselves in the best way for you to understand the message.

and of course, context of question, querent, spread, etc. are all also important factors smile

there is a reason no one becomes a master tarot reader in a day XD  

[regina_in_exile]

i think that you and i have a similar method, in that i literally take the reversal of my tarot cards with most decks to be the opposite meaning of what is designated for that card. i have sort of inherited multiple decks from my ex, and having seen her work with those, i do remember that she seemed to go with the negative. however when i read them, it's always the opposite. they still make sense to me. i think it is all in your perception. if you feel comfortable in your abilities to read YOUR cards, then with a little digging, you should be able to discern some sort of meaning one way or the other. the human mind will always look for patterns and routine. it likes those.  

[DKMG]

preparing for and reading tarot is different for everyone....both in the methods used to divine the answer and the interpretation itself. Simply, you can follow as much of the set structure as you want to or can understand, and then continue on using whatever methods you find suitable for yourself. Good luck!! xd  

[Viscerim]

I don't even allow the cards to reverse when shuffling. Instead, I use Aleister Crowley's suggestion to let the element of the card and the surrounding cards dictate whether it's good or bad. Three wand cards (fire in my deck) with one cup card (water) would to me indicate a very negative disposition of the cup card. It's essentially the same, but it allows for varying degrees of negativity or positivity for me.

Before this method, I used inversion to invert my relationship with the major arcana and an indication that in the minor arcana, something was missing.  

[Ishtar Shakti]

It Depends on whose "side" your on.

Tarot is generally seen as being furmulaic relying on certain preset definitions revolving around symbols etc.

Some tarot users would argue that the interactions between cards etc. could only have one meaning and that through the study of tarot and the symbols that one meaning could be gleaned by a very diligent study. (I'd have to quote crawley for this)

I don't Really follow this belief. I believe that tarot is a means of communication much like anything else. It also depends on where you are drawing information for your spread from. I won't go into that too much but if you are drawing the information from your subconscious then it is best to base in off how you feel the cards mean. To internalize the spread. This means the information is coming from your subconscious and thus anything that your reading in the cards is mostly just channeling what you already know on some level.

Or you could be drawing from another sources and then translating it into your subconscious thoughts. Unless you are directly channeling another spirit etc. would the meaning of the cards be more set.  

[Just Tsuki]

Ishtar Shakti

It Depends on whose "side" your on.

Tarot is generally seen as being furmulaic relying on certain preset definitions revolving around symbols etc.

Some tarot users would argue that the interactions between cards etc. could only have one meaning and that through the study of tarot and the symbols that one meaning could be gleaned by a very diligent study. (I'd have to quote crawley for this)

I don't Really follow this belief. I believe that tarot is a means of communication much like anything else. It also depends on where you are drawing information for your spread from. I won't go into that too much but if you are drawing the information from your subconscious then it is best to base in off how you feel the cards mean. To internalize the spread. This means the information is coming from your subconscious and thus anything that your reading in the cards is mostly just channeling what you already know on some level.

Or you could be drawing from another sources and then translating it into your subconscious thoughts. Unless you are directly channeling another spirit etc. would the meaning of the cards be more set.

thats kinda how i see tarot: as a reflection of yourself or the inquirer rather than a message to you coming from a completely independant from you source.  

[Ishtar Shakti]

Just Tsuki

Ishtar Shakti

It Depends on whose "side" your on.

Tarot is generally seen as being furmulaic relying on certain preset definitions revolving around symbols etc.

Some tarot users would argue that the interactions between cards etc. could only have one meaning and that through the study of tarot and the symbols that one meaning could be gleaned by a very diligent study. (I'd have to quote crawley for this)

I don't Really follow this belief. I believe that tarot is a means of communication much like anything else. It also depends on where you are drawing information for your spread from. I won't go into that too much but if you are drawing the information from your subconscious then it is best to base in off how you feel the cards mean. To internalize the spread. This means the information is coming from your subconscious and thus anything that your reading in the cards is mostly just channeling what you already know on some level.

Or you could be drawing from another sources and then translating it into your subconscious thoughts. Unless you are directly channeling another spirit etc. would the meaning of the cards be more set.

thats kinda how i see tarot: as a reflection of yourself or the inquirer rather than a message to you coming from a completely independent from you source.

Then it really is based on how you internalize responses *shrug*

I read cards strictly based on the associations that I feel the cards to have before I ever flip them over. I create signifiers etc. and I explain what the relationship is without knowing what the meaning of the card is so that I know whether its positive or negative before I look at the cards because I might change my interpretation based on whether its flipped or what the card looks like rather then what I'm trying to read.