magikmax wrote: Being a complete beginner, I'm unsure of the difference between the different types of Tarot cards, the Mareilles and the Rider-Waite, if it's just a case that this one is easier to learn, or more traditional, the book doesn't explain the difference, so it would be interesting to know what the board's feeelings are on this.....
.....I like this approach, however, there's a couple of things that I feel are missing:
1. There's only a few spreads shown
2. Other people have mentioned something about different meanings if the cards are reversed? This isn't covered.
3. As a complete beginner in this fascinating allied art, I have NO experience of any sort of reading, other than so called psychic radio readings. Mr Hart gives you a few tips on setting the atmosphere, ie, a darkened room with candles, but doesn't really give you a suggested 'script' as it were, as to what to say, although he does tell you what to avoid saying, so you don't make any Tarot 'etiquette' gaffs.
Now, based on the above, I'm not entirely sure if I would be comfortable giving a reading unless I knew about the reversed cards thing, and also, how on earth I would stretch a reading of 4 or 5 cards out to 20 minutes to half an hour? Would a reader typically have the sitter deal more cards? Also, if this is the case, do the original cards get shuffled back into the Tarot, or left aside, and what if the next set of cards give a completely different answer?
I have just read Magikmax's message after sending my own contribution so there may be a risk of me repeating a little bit, apologies!
The Marseilles is an older deck but it is not as easy to learn as the Rider Waite. Every deck out there is another artist's/philosopher's impression of each of the cards.. eg if the 2 of Cups is a card of relationships, there are many different approaches to the painting of a scene that would illustrate "relationships". The problem with the Marseilles deck is that with the 2 of Cups, you just get 2 Cups on the deck.. it's a bit like a pip card.. the only cards in the Marseilles Deck that have illustrations are the Major Arcana, ie the ones with the names to them eg The Lovers, The Devil, The Moon etc.
I wouldn't get too caught up in being worried about "Tarot Ettiquette Gaffs" and "Reversals".. because in my experience in the world of Psychic fairs, the highest profile readers are doing their own thing with the Cards.. in many ways if you start opening a reading with laying out the Celtic Cross, you will probably loose credibility points because that is the "amateur", "merely mechanical" way, and will be looked down on compared to the truly intuitive, clairvoyant style of reading, ie improvisational stylee!
I will never forget starting out and doing a particular Psychic Fair years ago and seeing the highest profile reader of that particular fair working only with the 22 Major Arcana.. and dismissing the 56 Minor Arcana cards... her excuse being that she was a clairvoyant intuitive and Spirit worked through her with the most powerful archetypes... there was a cynical voice in me thinking "yehrite.. you just couldn't be bothered learning the whole deck!" but she was busy busy busy! Because she exuded confidence! And there was I, filling my pants because I wasn't entirely sure if I'd got the meaning of "The Hierophant" straight in my head yet or not.
I think the beginners' fear of someone saying to you "NO that isn't the correct meaning of the Wheel of Fortune!" is merely the voice of an understandable lack of confidence and nervousness about getting a reading wrong.
The ultimate "out" to use is that the meanings of the cards shift with each reading, with each person being read for, with each position they appear and with each card they appear NEXT to. Each card has multiple meanings and all the stuff out there is merely to stimulate your creative (psychic?) forces into action.
A reversed card could minimise, block or maximise the energy of that card, depending on what your intuition was telling you! I don't use reversed cards because I don't like pictures that are upside down.. it just messes with my head.
And in 10 years no one has ever pulled me up on this.
As for how many cards to use in a reading and whether to put them back or not? It's up to your intuition to decide those things! And it could vary from reading to reading.. you must find a system that suits you and be your own authority that validates that system.. in other words... it is so, because you say it is so!
Ultimately, the client in front of you, doesn't really give a monkey's nuts about what you think the Wheel of Fortune means when sitting next to the 6 of Swords compared with what "the book" says. What they care about is themselves, their lives, their problems and their angsts.
You won't be deemed a successful reader if you get the meanings of the cards right if they don't like what you are saying to them. You will be deemed a successful reader if what you say empowers the Client. Conventional meanings be blown!