Intuition or Out-tuition?

[Ratty]

Tarot is an intuitive medium. I view the tarot as sparking the reader's intuitive faculties by reminding them of various archetypes, of the human condition and common tropes. To me intuition is a faculty of the mind, a pattern recognition system of the subconscious that lets us connect apparently unrelated things.

 

Consequently, for me, when inspiration strikes from the blue it comes from within. When I read tarot, I believe the answers come from within too, or at least how I apply the spread to the external question.

 

For others, when inspiration strikes with no apparent source it is a reflection of the divine. It comes from outside. The universe is speaking. Is this how the same people also view tarot, that it is a conduit to something else?

 

I have linked these two things, inspiration striking and tarot reading, but are they really linked? Is it possible to think that inspiration comes as a message from without while tarot comes from within, or vice-versa?

[Flaxen]

This is a really interesting question...I think I’m more inclined to agree with idea that intuition and inspiration come from the same place.

 

Our mind is always busy making connections for us between seemingly random events. This process plays out clearly in REM sleep when our dreams take on a fanciful nature. It’s the pattern recognition mode at work.

 

I think that when we read Tarot we are tapping into that - our brains help us make the random connections which make certain details leap out at us.

 

I suspect there is also a connection between good tarot readers and being well-read, well-travelled or lots of different life experience. There are more potential connections to make in a random draw of cards.

 

 

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

I know when I started reading for others it was  my judgement not intuition that saw the cards. Breaking myself of that was hard...

[DanielJUK]

really agree with AJ, the hardest thing to get an intuitive message is breaking our conditioned or learnt associations with symbols and things in life or out-tuition! The intuitive message comes from our instincts from the subconscious, Jung talked a lot about the "Collective Unconscious" where these messages come from. I don't know where the messages come from but I do think you have to go past the conscious to get a good message!

 

When we look at a card and see a cup, it will trigger a learnt association for us (drinking wine yesterday, being refused a bottle as a child, etc) and the trick is to get the message by going beyond that! This is especially important for reading for others, the associations are not for us!  :)

 

edit: just to add, I think intuition and the messages we get come from somewhere beyond us and our perspectives, ideas and memories. Some people say from the universe or maybe from a god or goddess and other people from spirits from another ream. We all have different beliefs. I am not sure where from, I think mine come from some sort of universal source. It's more than just inside our head but we have to go beyond the external influences outside to go inside ourselves to connect to that source.

[ThreeCircleTarot]

I prepare myself for a reading, performing actions to sustain and nurture me. When I'm ready I shuffle purposefully, focusing on the question and querent. Every action I take is affected by my internal state; if I were experiencing a different internal state, my actions + external reality (and thus the cards that show up) would be different as well. What cards do show up act as triggers for my intuition. So it begins and ends with internal states--this coming from an idealist, mind you.

 

I happily ride the wave of associations in conscious mind. The trick is to think critically about those associations; what is their message/relevance to the querent?

[Court de Gébelin]

One could write a doctoral dissertation on this question!  ;D  I've studied tarot symbology, and consequently have a storehouse of learned associations to bring forward into my interpretation of the cards.  But that learned stuff is only the springboard for my imagination.  My feeling is that the learned stuff leads me in certain directions where my intuition or imagination then takes over.  And when that happens, I am certain about it.  It is a good feeling!