What Are Some Methods for Turning "Bad Cards" Into Good & Positive Cards

[RickInBakersfield]

Hello,

 

I just found out about TT&M yesterday and I am really glad to be here.

 

In one of my tarot books there is a quote saying, "There are no bad cards in the tarot, just lessons to be learned." This quote sort of changed the way I do readings. For example, I used to think the 10 of Swords was a bad card and so did one of my querents, until I learned that the card meant the ultimate end of the situation & in the card, we see a figure laying on the ground with 10 swords in his back/spine. He's dead right? But a bright sun pierces the darkness of the blackest night letting you know that a new beginning and a new day is dawning letting you know that a situation is done, it's finished. All of a sudden, it's a good card on the layout.

 

I am sure that most of you know other cards that can fit the above card. Another time the 5 of Pentacles came up on the layout and before I could say anything, he told me that one of his worst fears was "becoming homeless"...I told him "What lesson can be learned from this?" I discovered that he and his family didn't have a written plan for getting the things they were wanting, in other words...they weren't putting themselves in receiving mode.

 

So, my question to you all is, what other methods and techniques do you use to turn a "bad" card into a good one?

 

Or do you believe in just giving someone bad news and just letting it be? I used to be like that, I didn't know any better.

 

Thanks for reading this.

 

Rick,

[Misterei]

1 hour ago, Shuffletracker said:

In one of my tarot books there is a quote saying, "There are no bad cards in the tarot, just lessons to be learned."

This is a truism. It SOUNDS nice to say, but what does it actually mean?

We might say cancer is a lesson to be learned. Divorce is a lesson to be learned. Bankruptcy is a lesson to be learned. These statements are more or less true for spiriutally-minded people. Maybe not so true for non-spiritual types.

 

*Bad* is a somewhat meaningless word. What one team considers bad the other team considers good. Et voila! Politics is born.

1 hour ago, Shuffletracker said:

...I used to think the 10 of Swords was a bad card and so did one of my querents, until I learned that the card meant the ultimate end of the situation & in the card, we see a figure laying on the ground with 10 swords in his back/spine. He's dead right? But a bright sun pierces the darkness of the blackest night letting you know that a new beginning and a new day is dawning letting you know that a situation is done, it's finished. All of a sudden, it's a good card on the layout.

I've observed a trend to *nicewash* tarot. It seems popular with people who expect never to suffer in life.

 

I don't make any blanket statement about any card. 10 swords in the Past position of a spread can show the suffering ended. But what if this card is in the Future position?

 

I've personally heard of only one case where 10 Swords bodes well as the future / outcome card. This had to do with a person *finally* overcoming residual trauma from a terrible past betrayal. It was meaningful to that person in a deeply individual and idiosyncratic way. It's in one of the Forums here but I'm not sure where.

 

Unless there is a unique situation per above, I read 10 Swords as malefic and advise my client accordingly.

1 hour ago, Shuffletracker said:

So, my question to you all is, what other methods and techniques do you use to turn a "bad" card into a good one?

I dont' *nicewash*. Sometimes clients come to me in real pain or have experienced truly devastating events. Sometimes they benefit from the warning that their current course leads to disaster.

I feel nicewashing harms clients by robbing them of the opportunity to Course Correct.  Forewarned is forearmed.

1 hour ago, Shuffletracker said:

Or do you believe in just giving someone bad news and just letting it be? I used to be like that, I didn't know any better.

Not this either. I offer remedies.

 

Vedic Astrology gives remedies for malefic asterisms. I bring the practice into Tarot. Often I can use Tarot or Astrology to predict an end to the painful cycle. For example a man having many planets in H8 and experiencing terrible emotional upheavals while Ketu transits his H8. It's normal and expected,  but it will be over when Ketu leaves Virgo in Spring of 2025. Or a woman is ignoring the signs that her relationship is has no future. Sometimes she needs support to work through the pain of this and see the truth she already knows deep down inside.

 

A good reader has skills adjacent to Tarot. Like counseling and emotional intelligence. It's a skill to offer hope and support in spite of painful circumstances shown in the cards. This skill can be developed with training, experience, and honesty about the nature of suffering.

Edited July 23, 2024 by Misterei

[Rootwood]

Great question! (I am also quite new to this forum and so happy to have found it!)

At this point in my tarot study I have never asked anyone to tell me their question / concern. ( I also have never read for anyone other than the odd friend and family member.)  I feel often people don't even know the right question to ask. We often assume that the biggest issue on our mind at the moment is the critical situation we need help/ information with. But maybe not. Maybe we are focused on something when the real issue we need to be looking into is something else entirely. So I have said to readees, "if there is an issue that you are concerned with, please keep it in your mind but keep it to yourself."  Then I lay out the cards, say blah, blah blah this is what these cards are about. Then I ask them, 'do you see any way that these cards can be applied to your situation? Is there any guidance here that you can put to use?'  At that point if they want to say what they have on their mind and how they feel the reading did or did not apply, that is fine and a discussion can happen.  Or not happen.  I believe/feel that people working out there own issues are more likely to go away changed/helped than if the advice is top down. As a reader I want to give people the tools, guidance, thoughts, nudge to be their own problem solvers.  At least that is my core belief and approach at this time (subject to change without notice).

As for making 'bad' cards into good cards, nope. I do not do it. I also am very wary of telling someone there is a lesson to be learned in, for example, having cancer !  Some bad luck people have is through their own dumb actions. (lots of it in fact). But there are also bad events that happen randomly to people who make all the right choices and live the 'best' lives, because that is the lot of being alive and human. Bad and good luck can be self caused but they can also be random events to which we are all subject (The Wheel of Fortune).  So I would never say to someone whose child has cancer that there is a lesson to be learned in that! Because that is just an inhumane thing to say.  The tarot might offer ways to deal with it, ways to approach the situation, but I can't see any cards telling someone that having cancer is a lesson they need to learn. 

I feel that, for me, knowing the readee's question first will skew my reading towards or away from a certain outcome. My goal is to portray the cards as clearly and completely as possible.  Letting the readee apply the cards to their own situation. Not knowing the question in advance helps me not feel I have to make the bad cards into good cards. 

[DanielJUK]

Yes definitely agree with @Misterei about nice-washing. We read the artwork of the card and it's meaning and position in the structure of tarot. Death can't be changed to mean fluffy bunnies and rainbows, that isn't the artwork on the card. Something unpleasant might happen, you might have to lose something or let it die in your life, but it might be a card that changes your life forever. We can't change bad cards to be good, the purpose of tarot isn't to tell us everything will end wonderfully, we could use affirmations or intentions to do that. Instead it tells us the objective truth, it doesn't care if we will like that or not. It's what we need to hear, not what we want to hear.

 

However I think it's really useful to learn a positive take on each card, a neutral take and a negative take. Tarot is so nuanced in readings and it likes to keep us on our toes 😆. It will throw bad cards in positive positions and it will throw good cards in negative positions. If you ever pull a card each day, you soon learn about how nuanced it is, as the card manifests. The artwork stays the same and the meaning of the card but it's nuanced and changes in the situation and context. The Death card could be really good, a relationship might sadly end but the relationship for the rest of our lives is around the corner, the partner who we perfectly match with! We might lose our job but a career change and a better path ahead is just around the corner from it. That's a positive take but a negative is that you are in mourning and just have to get over it.

 

I think in the artwork, especially in RWS, not everything is all negative or all positive, there are always hints of optimism, it never leaves you 100% despairing. Like the 10 of Swords sunrise. Someone has all those swords in their back in the 10 of Swords, that really isn't good! You cannot change that figure on the floor. The negative is important and readings will be negative, that is important! We can't give only positive readings, it's just not the human condition of life 🙂 . If someone is sick of being single and pulls the 10 of Swords, the positive of that, is that this is the worst it gets! It gets better after this 🙂 . The positive of the 5 of Pentacles is that at least the person is with another person in the world, whatever the conditions.

 

Whilst there are cards which are more bad or more good, it's nuanced and it's better not to think "positive or negative" but rather this is the card in this position and in this context with the others.

Sometimes we have to give a reading that is really bad news and has a negative outcome, we must give what we see! We can't sugarcoat or change, that wouldn't be the message. However you can't say, your relationship is going to break up, you're going to lose your house and there is no hope! If we are reading for someone else, we need to give them advice and options. Don't leave them hanging! I believe our duty in a reading is to give clarity and to make them feel better from it, not leave them upset! So we can sensitively give a bad message from a reading but also give options and advice. I always look for something positive in a negative message. Like sometimes it's just this is the temporary situation ahead. We have to say what we see, that's our role interpreting the cards. Querents have thanked me later on for being honest, it's what they need to hear.

[RickInBakersfield]

13 hours ago, Misterei said:

This is a truism. It SOUNDS nice to say, but what does it actually mean?

We might say cancer is a lesson to be learned. Divorce is a lesson to be learned. Bankruptcy is a lesson to be learned. These statements are more or less true for spiriutally-minded people. Maybe not so true for non-spiritally-minded people.

Misterei,

 

Believe it or not, I actually agree with you more than I disagree with you.

 

I want to be clear here with my words, I don't believe cancer, divorce or bankruptcy is some kind of test or lesson from some kind of "Higher Power", "God", "Mother Nature" or anything else metaphysical. Nor do I believe these people ATTRACTED this condition, as the so-called Law of Attraction philosophy states.

 

I tell people "Life happens" or better said "SH*T HAPPENS" Being raped isn't a test or something that one draws to oneself (LOA). But clearly there is lots of pain involved. I would rather do entertainment types of readings, you know..."Does Johnny like me?" or "Will I win the lottery?". But I still do the painful types of readings because I think I could help someone out. It's not an ego thing either.

 

You use the term "nicewash the cards". This is a term I have never heard before. And again, I want to be very clear with my words here, nice washing the cards for someone who has just lost their house or whatever is doing them a disservice and is probably disrespecting their situation.

 

Basically, I want to try to make them feel "somewhat" better about their situation after they have left the table with me.

 

I don't see the harm in putting a positive spin on cards like The Devil or The Tower if the question isn't a painful one. But again, I believe that it comes back to one's metaphysical beliefs here. You also mention course correcting and having proper counseling skills which I believe is true too. And is something I work on.

 

Nor I am a big believer of fate in my readings, which is why I don't use outcome cards.

 

Rick,

 

 

[Misterei]

7 hours ago, Shuffletracker said:

Nor do I believe these people ATTRACTED this condition, as the so-called Law of Attraction philosophy states.

OMG I think LOA is one of the most toxic "spiritualities" out there. It hits for people b/c it has a kernel of truth---but that kernel gets twisted into Something Else. Off-topic so I'll stop.

7 hours ago, Shuffletracker said:

... I would rather do entertainment types of readings, you know..."Does Johnny like me?" or "Will I win the lottery?". But I still do the painful types of readings because I think I could help someone out. It's not an ego thing either.

I dislike entertainment readings just b/c we CAN'T control which cards appear. I normally turn-down events like Hen-parties or whatnot but I recently took one b/c the pay was good. The saving grace is that people at parties generally *do* attract fairly happy cards. People in dire circumstances don't usually attend parties. Plus the happy vibe of the party itself.

 

But there will always be one Tower or whatnot at the party--- and it's difficult to handle.

7 hours ago, Shuffletracker said:

I don't see the harm in putting a positive spin on cards like The Devil or The Tower if the question isn't a painful one. ...

My observation about working parties [entertainment readings] is that half the *readees* [I love that word, thank you @Rootwood] won't have a question. They sit down and say, "Do your thing".

 

And then Tower appears [again, it's usually only 1-2 as most people at parties are happy]. So when this happened at the Henparty, I was honest. I asked the person if she was struggling with some difficulty. She was.

 

It's a Tarot-adjacent skill to keep a card like the Tower *light* at a Henparty gig. I didn't try to make it *positive* or *good*. I relied on my past experience as an entertainer to talk with her honestly about the painful situation with compassionate humor so she didn't leave the table sobbing.

 

This is why I curate my current practice to mostly avoid parties or short readings. In a private 1-hour session I know I can see the readee through a good cry and in-depth emotional support if something painful arises. Reading Parties is its own special skill.

 

My ex-husband is a gifted coffee grounds reader. He worked as a waiter in a Greek restaurant and made bank doing coffee readings on top of waiting tables. But he finally encountered a Really Bad reading for a woman who turned-out to have an incuable disease. He never read again after that.

Edited July 24, 2024 by Misterei

[Skaye]

Seems like there are a lot of cards with duality at play. 5 of cups is the feeling of hopelessness, looking at the spilled three cups but you still have two full. Sometimes not all is lost. It also seems like the swords can be about victim mentality than actual horrible things happening. For major arcana, the death card can be about transformation, sure the process sucks but sometimes you need to shed old patterns to make way for better ones. I guess it’s a little bit of Ying and yang. Nothing is all good and nothing is all bad. Even the sun can be too strong at times. So you could argue that the good cards have a bit of shadow to them as well. 

[Morwenna]

I believe it is important to leave the client with feeling that no matter how challenging the cards are, they have the means to cope. If necessary, throw out some suggestions. This is not sugarcoating, it's encouraging them to get through the rough times. Sometimes an additional reading or even a pull of a few more cards will give suggestions for this.