The difference between learning from others and seeing for myself

[TarotldMan]

I just wrote this for my personal tarot journal but thought others might enjoy it. If I've posted in the wrong place, I apologize in advance!

 

I've been drawing a single card every day for a few weeks now and yesterday I drew the Devil. This was at 6:00 am so I thought, "Well, my day is shot." I was wrong.

 

Like the other cards I've drawn, I looked at it and asked, "Ok buddy, what lesson do you have for me today?"

 

Once I got past the obvious stuff, my mind went blank so I set the card up beside my monitor and got back to work. Or I tried to.

 

I stopped and glanced at it all morning looking for an insight that resonated with me. One that came close was that we can remove our own chains. A powerful and appropriate insight, but somehow it lacked oomph. I remember thinking something like, "For being the Devil and all, you don't seem to have much to offer."

 

Then I saw it. The Devil was holding a fiery torch in his left hand. And he wasn't holding it just anywhere; he was holding it directly behind the man, the character I'd been relating to. Could the Devil be trying to light a fire under my butt? If so, mission accomplished. I thanked the Devil, got back to work and had an incredibly productive day.

 

Was this a new insight? Clearly not. It seems so obvious. Who could miss something like this? Well, until yesterday, I could. Yesterday, this was new to me. I hadn't read about it elsewhere. So when I saw it, I didn't just see it. It struck me. It had oomph. And that made all the difference.

I've only been working with the tarot a couple of months but the cards have already proven their value. I can't wait to see what other lessons they bring. But then I drew the 3 of Wands today so that doesn't surprise me a bit. 🙂

[LogicalHue]

So I'm not telling you that you posted it in the wrong place, I think its fine, but I'm guessing you don't know that this other place exists and might be interested:

Forums -> Tarot Library -> Journals

 

Also I started a journal (irl paper kind) with a page for each card to fill in in-practice meanings, seems like something a lot of people do, maybe something to think about so you can record these "aha" moments.

 

For a while I had a streak of readings having these really strong visual meanings like this, and I was really enjoying that, but it hasn't been happening lately. I think because I started doing more spreads and fewer open readings. Fun to hear about someone else's!