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Does Tarot make you smarter?


Guest Night Shade

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Guest Night Shade

https://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=83155

by HearthCricket

 

I often see articles that inform us that reading, learning a new language, playing games, solving puzzles, etc., keeps the brain and memory healthy and growing strong, no matter what age. I often wonder, do you think tarot does the same? I do. Reading or studying tarot is a language all of its own. Constantly studying the artwork and symbolism and feeing our brains with new decks and new ideas, must be doing some good to us! And that doesn't even count the books we read, the paths we take, the journeys and studies that a deck or even a picture, a religions, a deity or theme might take us.

 

So, do you feel smarter being a tarot reader/collector/studier/artist? Do you think it does the body good?

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Guest Night Shade

I wouldn't say that I feel smarter from reading tarot, but it certainly makes me think more.  My brain gets a good workout when I try to make sense of a difficult reading, look for new meanings in the cards, or work on deciphering a new deck.

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Studying the true (but not false, occult!) history of the Tarot, makes a person smarter ...because you get a lot of useful links (world history, history of iconography and art etc...) and you become erudite + you can combine IT with your creative thinking = you become smarter )

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I do believe it helps keep the mind active and healthy, but I would not say smarter.  Perhaps smarter when it comes to Tarot but I do not think it impacts my overall intelligence level.

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I remember hearing that learning how to read tarot is about as difficult as learning how to fly a helicopter. Don’t ask me how they made that estimation!  ;D Learning something new is always beneficial and I definitely believe that tarot can add new pathways in your brain. But then I also believe that those who choose to explore tarot are really smart to begin with, since they have such awesome interests  ^-^

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It may make us more educated but not smarter. It fine tunes our brain and we learn to use both sides of our brains. The two halves of our brain don't usually communicate, but they need to in order to put words to our readings and that's difficult.

 

Each half of our brain does a different type of thing. The right side deals with emotions, images, etc. but the left side is the one we use for logic and learning---a b c's and 1 2 3 sorts of things. When I first started reading the cards, I found that I knew what the cards were saying but I found it difficult to translate that into spoken words. To develop a brain in which the two halves would interact and communicate with each other was necessary. It took a little time for me to be able to do that. It was a strange feeling.

 

I guess instead of saying Tarot or any divination makes us smarter, I'd say it makes us more cerebral.

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AnnaInWanderland

I started feeling like I was learning a secret language when tarot started to click for me. Not secret in the sense that no one else knows it (though no one else knows it quite like *you*), but in that I've so far kept my tarot to myself...so it's like no one else knows that I know a secret language!

 

Agree that it might not make one smarter, but definitely a better thinker, and, yes, I like the word cerebral. There is so much knowledge associated with reading tarot over multiple fields and disciplines...I like that I feel like I can just keep learning more and more. We're all perpetual students!

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Well... it certainly makes us practice holistic problem-solving skills, it encourages us to listen to your intuition, it builds empathy through the need to understand the sitter, and there's all the benefit of basically learning a new symbolic language.

 

Does it increase your IQ? Maybe not, because those tests are for very specific traits. But in the context of the question (basically, is it good for your brain function) I'd say in general it has to be... so long as we keep using our brain instead of discharging responsibility for thinking onto the cards!  ;)

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PleiadesHag

Maybe "smarter" is not the right word for it.  I feel it certainly made me "wiser"

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

 

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Maybe "smarter" is not the right word for it.  I feel it certainly made me "wiser"

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

Well said!

 

 

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Nordica De Spell
On 3/20/2019 at 3:09 AM, Grizabella said:

When I first started reading the cards, I found that I knew what the cards were saying but I found it difficult to translate that into spoken words. To develop a brain in which the two halves would interact and communicate with each other was necessary. It took a little time for me to be able to do that. It was a strange feeling.

 

@Grizabella, I understand what you’re saying here, and believe it to be a key point.

 

Having made that journey, do you have any advice on how you went about to develop and further that ability? It’s where I struggle the most, and would appreciate your input!

 

And... Thank you for putting the above issue into words for me.  :heartz: ❤️

Edited by Nordica De Spell
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It depends on what is meant by 'smart'. I have found that reading Tarot as well as doing my art readings for people here has completely changed my way of thinking. Offline I'm an academic, so I'm trained to think in a certain kind of way. But with Tarot and the art readings my brains makes very different connections and follows a way of thinking that is not linear and rational but equally valid. Maybe it's a form of magical thinking that Tarot encourages - a different way of knowing to that governed by the intellect. I guess it's similar to what Grizabella says.

 

So I think it has made me wiser in the way the human mind works and has made me acknowledge that the mind is larger than the intellect.

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Saturn Celeste

Yes I think a serious study of the tarot does make you smarter.  It entails reading and if you study the tarot, you'll read more than just the interpretations of the cards.  You can't go wrong with reading, no matter what the more you read the smarter you'll become.

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I don't see why not. Learning to be more intuitive is definitely something that can be applied elsewhere in life, not just with tarot. And learning the history and culture of tarot wouldn't be too far off from taking a history class imo. It could also teach you to improve on interpersonal skills when giving readings and the symbolism is basically like a language.

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I'm not sure reading tarot makes you smarter but it does change you.  If you read for others then you are finding things out that you wouldn't otherwise have known and it gives you a sense of responsibility - and if you read for yourself then you find out a few home truths.  🙂

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I think reading Tarot can help sharpen your analytical skills. It's a great way to keep your mind active. And it never hurts to keep those synapses firing!

 

🙂

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On 4/30/2019 at 2:52 AM, Nordica De Spell said:

 

@Grizabella, I understand what you’re saying here, and believe it to be a key point.

 

Having made that journey, do you have any advice on how you went about to develop and further that ability? It’s where I struggle the most, and would appreciate your input!

 

And... Thank you for putting the above issue into words for me.  :heartz: ❤️

I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner. Hopefully you'll see my reply after all this time. 

 

Looking back, I can't precisely remember when I finally became able to put what I was seeing in the cards into words, but it was just a matter of hanging in there and trying till I got over the hurdle.  I was baffled and discouraged by the difficulty, though, and I think it was when I started thinking about the two sides of the brain that I finally had my "aha!" moment. In reading the cards, a great big factor is looking at images and images are mostly the realm of the right brain. When our right brain is at work, we're looking at images that incite something in our limbic system. We know what it makes us feel but then comes the difficulty of translating that feeling into words for a reading. On the surface we see what the cards are saying at first glance, almost,  but putting words to it for a sitter requires actual work to use the two hemispheres of the brain together.

 

For instance, liken it to seeing a car accident. When one happens in front of you, it happens in a split second. Your reaction is one of alarm and maybe even horror.  Then as a witness, you're expected to tell the police what you saw happen when the accident unfolded. You use the same process in looking into your right brain and putting into words what you saw---which car may have been the cause of it and why it was the cause of it, etc. as you do when reading cards aloud. You have to put your right brain into slow motion to deliberately take the accident apart into "pieces" that can then be put back together to show as accurately as possible a split second occurrence.  When you look at a Tarot spread, your right brain does a split second assessment of that spread and you know what it says, but then you have to go back, slow down, and parse the little segments that kindled the knowledge of what the cards are saying to you so your sitter can hear the meaning.

 

In some Tarot books (don't remember which ones) I've seen the author advise to "just open your mouth and start talking" or "just start describing what's going on in the card image". I think the reason for this is that if you follow that advice, the two halves of your brain are pushed to work together and while you're nudging them together, the reading appears somehow. In reading professionally, I don't do those things anymore because the client wants answers from the cards. They bought the reading so I'd look at my cards to glean the message and they don't usually care what the images are, so describing the images is just not very pertinent to them. When I read for someone who is also a reader, I do discuss the images sometimes and/or the interaction of the cards in more detail because as fellow readers, I think they do care more what the cards were. I never do a "this card means this" and "this card means that" when I read because I'm not teaching a Tarot lesson, I'm reading a whole spread of the cards and the message from that spread involves the interaction of the cards with each other along with the answers and information that comes to my mind automatically.

 

I hope this helps a little bit. I didn't see this for so long I don't even know if Nordica is still around. Maybe it will be interesting for whoever else reads it though. 🙂


 

Edited by Grizabella
spelled Nordica wrong
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On 4/3/2019 at 10:23 AM, PleiadesHag said:

Maybe "smarter" is not the right word for it.  I feel it certainly made me "wiser"

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

 

Literally EXACTLY what I was going to say.  Smarter makes me think of like.. math, science, linear thinking, processing power, and I don't feel that Tarot helps a ton with that.  But making me wiser?  More in tune with myself, more in touch with my loved ones, more of an old soul?  Heck yeah, it TOTALLY helps with that.  

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I know this is an old thread - but I will respond anyway....I don't believe reading Tarot makes you smarter - I believe the being able to interpret the messages and incorporate new perspectives, approaches, rituals, seeing our blessings, being grateful - shedding what no longer works for us - etc - makes our journey in life easier to bare.

Edited by WildWoman71
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Saturn Celeste
3 hours ago, WildWoman71 said:

I know this is an old thread

That's ok! 

 

I think it makes you work smarter and delve into areas you might not have thought about previous to reading the tarot.  I think you read more as a tarot reader (and not just the cards) which is always great for expanding knowledge.  I also think it helps you develop discipline to commit to such a practice.  I can't help but think anytime you read more and think more that those actions can't help but improve your smarts. :azn:

Edited by Saturn Celeste
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5 hours ago, gregory said:

Quotation-Albert-Einstein-Everybody-is-a-genius-But-if-you-judge-a-fish-36-92-74.thumb.jpg.c9b7fd5929035f79e2b97258ebe89cfd.jpg


Einstein is very appropriate to the subject. They thought he had cognitive disabilities when he was little. IIRC, he started talking late. (Too lazy to google ATM)

And it does depend on your definition of "smart". Tarot is a thing you can learn a lot about, and you can look impressively knowledgeable in some situations. But I don't consider "knowing a lot of stuff" to be quite the same as intelligence. It's RAM, storage. Think Rain Man. He could read a phone book and recite it back to you, but he was functionally disabled. 

And there's the fact that you have to puzzle out what's on the table. That's good for your brain. But so is the New York Times crossword puzzle.

There is the advantage of having something that predicts outcomes, that can help you make an informed decision. This can help you succeed in life, to a point. But you can't use success to measure intelligence. One has only to glance at the news to see a lot of very successful celebs and politicians who don't seem to have two brain cells to rub together. 

Our innate intelligence is what it is. There's different kinds of intelligence, and IQ tests aren't necessarily fair to everyone, but we have what we have - no more and no less. Tarot won't make you any smarter. But it's worthwhile nonetheless, I think.

Edited by katrinka
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You GET me, katrinka. That's it EXACTLY.

 

(He barely talked till he was three, and had an odd shaped head, which worried his parents.)

 

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, with a swollen, misshapen head and a grossly overweight body, causing his grandmother, Jette Koch, to wail, "Much too fat! Much too fat!" His alarmed parents, Hermann and Pauline, consulted the doctor, who assured them that time would heal the deformities, and he was right. Within months everything had become normal, except for the back of Albert's skull. That always remained unusually angular.

But for his parents the worrying was not over, as Albert's speech was late in developing. What in fact happened is in dispute. Einstein maintained he made no attempt to talk until he was past three, and his parents feared that he was mentally retarded. His explanation was that he consciously skipped baby babbling, waiting until he could speak in complete sentences. He stuck to this account throughout his life, responding to an inquiry by his biographer, Carl Seelig, in 1954, as follows: "My parents were worried because I started to talk comparatively late, and they consulted a doctor because of it. I cannot tell you how old I was at the time, but certainly not younger than three."

His version of the facts is contradicted in a letter written by his doting maternal grandmother, Jette. After she and her husband, Julius, visited the Einsteins when Albert was just two years, three months old, she wrote: "He was so good and dear and we talk again and again of his droll ideas." How could he have conveyed droll ideas without speaking?

Albert's sister, Maja, supports their grandmother. Presumably using her parents as the sources, Maja reports that before her birth on November 18, 1881, when Albert was still four months shy of three, he had been promised a new baby to play with. Evidently expecting a toy, he greeted her appearance with a disgruntled "Where are the wheels?" Not bad for a "backward" two-year-old!

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