Card Selection vs Interpretation

[gregory]

7 hours ago, katrinka said:

we have the attention span of a gnat. 

 

Um guilty as charged,.  I will (and do) go off on ANY tangent, and I joined in the music stuff to lighten things a bit. Also because I get silly...

6 hours ago, LogicalHue said:

(Typing on my phone from my bed because I remembered I didn't respond to this part). I did not mean to suggest that with vs, I just use that as a contrast and compare. Only suggesting that maybe they are both things when on this forum only one of them is recognized as part of the process. But I'll say, if you are in a mindset that you might be doing something wrong and failing to get the right cards out and you're just looking at nonsense, that's pretty important.

 

I agree that it's horrid when you feel you might be doing something wrong - but while I take devin's scientific point, I don't see (feel ?) that energy - mine or my sitter's - flows into the cards while I (or they) shuffle. I still find that if the cards don't look right at first glance, leaving them and then coming back to them has ALWAYS fixed that for me. They were always the right cards. My viewpoint was out for a bit.

 

I think you/we are going to have to accept that different things are "part of the process" for different readers. Some people find incense, crystals, low light, having the sitter touch the cards, cutting the deck 3 times (or whatever), mood music - all kinds of things are part of the process that is essential for them.  Others (like me) shuffle  while giving no particular thought except to not dropping the lot, pull cards and lay them on the nearest surface and take it from there.

 

As Brian said "We are all individuals."

Edited May 13, 2021 by gregory

[LogicalHue]

For the record, so that no one mistakenly feels I was accusing them of anything.. I only meant that telling me my whole basis for this conversation was that I must think my tarot cards are wrong when I don't like them was mean. I quoted something specific, and that was what I was responding to.

 

I worked really hard to try and push through one person derailing the thread and keep the conversation going in a better direction, but I guess I have been declared a failure at that task. I'm quite sick of defending myself against the words being put in my mouth and I've been in a constant state of high anxiety for days over how one person is going to react to me. I'm exhausted.

[devin]

2 minutes ago, LogicalHue said:

I've been in a constant state of high anxiety for days over how one person is going to react to me.

 

Someone on this forum? I know it ain't easy but please try not to take these kinds of exchanges too seriously. Personally, I wish you nothing but good vibes. 

[AlbaTross]

I'm not sure I fully understand the question but I'm personally in the habit of shuffling the cards four times, twice by cutting the deck roughly in half and shuffling both halves together, then twice where I cut the deck in half again but flip half of the deck around 180 degrees (to allow for reversals).  Once I do that, I cut the deck into thirds, then what I do next depends on whether I'm doing a three card reading or not.  If I'm working with a spread involving a quantity of cards other than three, I then pick one of the three piles.  I'll often hover my hand over them before picking one that I "feel", or I'll just decide whether I'm in the mood for a surface, middle or deep deck reading (which of the two methods I opt for also depends how I'm feeling).  I'm making the process sound way more complex than it actually is though.  It barely takes much time at all.

 

If I'm working with three cards anyways, I often just forego choosing a pile, and simply turn over the top card of all three.  The first position will be represented by the surface card, the second by the middle, and the third, by the deep deck card.  I think it started as a shortcut, and now it's just a habit I enjoy for spreads of this particular quantity.  Given that the third position tends to be things like "what I need to know" or "what links the first two cards", or in the case of relationship readings, "the relationship", I actually kind of like that this card always comes from the deep deck.  

 

But, to circle back to the original question...I guess for me it's less a matter of skill, and more a matter of methodology.  In the case where I'm picking a pile, there is more of a selection process involved, but one could say that's more of a matter of intuition than actual skill.  That said, my methodology came through practice, and trying different things to see what worked for me, which is a staple of skill development.  I've certainly refined my methods over time.  Now I think I'm pretty set in how I do things.  

[Raggydoll]

After careful deliberation, I have decided to go ahead and lock this thread. I have on two occasions appealed to everyone that they should take a deep breath, step back and allow this discussion to cool down. Clearly it didn't work. Instead we ended up with a situation where people have felt misunderstood, attacked and where the thread starter have been anxious for several days. That is why I am locking the thread. I don't want people to have to keep watching this thread with apprehension or with irritation. I am fully aware that there have been many attempts at staying on topic and that this issue only relates to a smaller number of individuals. I can also see that the last post of this thread did a good job of trying to bring everything back on track, and I am grateful for it. Still, no thread is so important that it should be allowed to cause people to feel attacked or repeatedly misunderstood.

 

In the future, when a moderator asks you to please take a deep breath and step back, kindly do so! The true purpose of that advice is to look out for everyone's mental health. 

 

Now, I am hoping that everyone will be able to shake things off and have a really good weekend. If you feel you need to talk, you can contact us moderators. And please do not carry with you any personal friction into other forum conversations.