Memorization VS. Instinct
text by Stephanie Arwen Beck
images from the Fairytale Tarot
www.tarotbyarwen.com
www.fairytaletarot.com
How do you memorize the cards? It's a common question
with a simple surface issue. However, if you dip below
that surface, you will find a darkness lurking there in
the waters. What are we really asking when we say, "How
do I memorize the cards"? Is that truly the question
or is the actual thought "How do I trust myself "?
I believe that it is more of a self trust issue than it
is an actual learning problem. Our challenge is to understand
that "gut instinct" can and should be listened
to. The Tarot is a tool of opening. See the cards as 78
keys to your own subconscious. Each one opens a door to
our own inner guide who will help us see what we need to
see. That voice in our heads that we have all been told
makes us crazy if we listen to it is actually what many
people refer to as "psychic power".
I firmly believe that each of us is psychic. It is how
we approach that idea that individualizes us. Perhaps you
were raised to think of psychics as that crazy old lady
down the street with too many cats who reads cards and
burns candles. Or you see a willowy woman wrapped in scarves
wearing enough bracelets to start up her own jewelry kiosk
in the mall. But when you look in the mirror, do you see
yourself as psychic? I didn't think so. It is rare that
any of us do.
We've been taught that it's "just a fluke" when
we know who is calling when we pick up the phone. It's
coincidence that you brake going over a hill in case something
is there and you narrowly miss a deer. It's luck when you
choose one lottery card over another and win $5. It's cheating
when you know what card someone just picked up in the poker
game. Ok, so that IS cheating even if you can do it.
But when you look at a piece of stiff paper brightly colored
depicting a young man with a dog at his heels and a smile
on his face stepping out over a cliff, you probably think "Good
gods, man! Look where you are going"! Then you might
imagine that he is so happy, so full of joy that anywhere
he goes will be a good place for him. Just look at him
with his clothes on his back. He must be heading somewhere!
He's so young though. Does he know all the problems that
may face him?
Now imagine that you are sitting across a table from a
young woman who has told you that she is having problems
in her job. She doesn't know if she should move on or try
to fix where she is. What does your gut tell you when you
see the card above?
Synthesizing the information in the cards with the question
is hard enough. But to then layer that with what your own
instincts are telling you confuses even the best of us
at times. But learn to listen to that small shouting voice.
Remember that the cards are a tool. They are keys, but
you have to pick them up and turn them. You still have
to open the door that they have unlocked. If you stand
outside wondering if you should go in, then you are giving
in to that self-doubt. That question "do I trust myself " is
the one you must defeat.
But how do you defeat it? There are several methods I
would like to share with you. My personal favorite is a
game I play with myself. I will ask a friend to pull one
card. Then I interpret it for them as rapidly as I can.
I don't stop to think what it "should" be. I
tell them what it looks like to me as it might apply to
them.
For instance if I see the Ace of Swords, I might tell
them that it looks like they are being called to pick something
up. That there is a project that they need to apply themselves
too. This is because my deck shows the Ace of Swords as
a hand rising up out of a lake with a sword in it. It is
very reminiscent of the Lady of the Lake handing Arthur
Excalibur.
Another exercise I use is to pull a card before I go into
a meeting. I do the same rapid-fire interpretation just
trying to grab symbols and write them down. Then I pay
attention in the meeting (a bonus side-effect for my manager!)
and compare what happened with what I saw.
You should also utilize the daily card method. Pull a
card in the morning and write down what it looks like to
you. Imagine you are in the card and try to put down smells
and sounds and textures if you can. Write what you get
from the card. Do NOT look at the LWB (Little White Book).
Do NOT read the interpretation of the card. Just let your
mind go free. At the end of the day, go back to this card
and journal about your day. See what your morning interpretations
picked up on. NOW and only now go to the book interpretation
and jot down key phrases from the book. What was accurate
from the book that you missed? What was accurate from your
interpretation that the book missed?
Learn to believe in yourself. Learn that trusting your
own inner voice is the most significant step you can take
to opening yourself up on a psychic level.
Originally published on Stephanie's
website: http://www.tarotbyarwen.com/
musings_memory_vs_instinct.html
Cards from the recent Fairytale
Tarot by Alex Ukolov & Karen Mahony, artwork by Irena
Triskova. http://www.fairytaletarot.com
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