Question About Clarification Cards

[Annee81]

Hi 👋 I hope I’m posting to the correct forum...

When you ask your deck for clarification regarding the cards in your spread, how do you do so? Do you shuffle and cut the deck again? Do you continue pulling from the same stack? Or do you have other ways to help quench your curiosity?

I really appreciate your input! 😊

Thanks!

-A

[ilweran]

I just pull another card from the top. It rarely helps though so I try not to do it!

[Grandma]

Hi Annee81 and welcome!

 

I don't use clarifiers at all.  Of course, I read almost exclusively for myself so if it takes me a while to understand the occasional mystifying reading there is no one across the table looking at their watch and tapping their foot.  I don't like clarifiers because the way I've seen them used often strikes me as taking the easy way out rather than doing the work of going deeper into the cards.  

 

 

[gregory]

I don't use them. It seems to me they are just a way of trying to get a different answer. The cards already told you. Listen to them.

[Saturn Celeste]

I too do not use them.  I draw the cards and then I read the cards in front of me.  No clarifiers, no reading the bottom card and no peeking at the next card in the deck.  The message is in the cards you just drew, read the message. 

[katrinka]

I don't use them, either.
And I think they're a terrible thing to suggest to beginners. I've seen people end up with cards all over the table.
If, for instance, three cards are giving you trouble, why add more?
Read up on what's there. reflect on it awhile. That's your answer.

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

I agree with all of the above. 

Just posting to say Hey! and welcome to the board, and your tarot home! 

[Annee81]

Wow! Thank you All for your input! Each time I do draw an extra card it Does seem to just mystify me more. I will take your advice and work with my original question and intentions for each spread. 

 

Also, there have been times that I feel like my cards get fed up with me asking similar or the same questions. I will take the advise here and trust them And myself with the initial answer. 

 

Thank you all so, so much!!! I’m stoked I found this place and I’m looking forward to growing with all your generous help and insights🤗

-A

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

when I was beginning I was just confused, I think our minds are used to going at zip speed. I'd look at the cards and because nothing came right away I didn't know what to do next. 

 I found when I read the cards out loud it helped me slow Way down, and really put my mind in gear. All the best, and again, welcome home. 

[Arabella]

I agree that drawing more cards is a way to get more and more tangled up, if you are having trouble interpreting the original cards. I used to do it when I first started and I'd end up just a muddled mess. 

 

Having said that, now I do draw a base card for most readings (other than circle exchanges where the spread is very structured and there's not much need to draw another card) 

 

I ask the cards "what is this reading about?" and take the card form the bottom of the deck. I find it gives me and the sitter, a better insight to the situation and why they have asked the question they did. I try to make sure the interpretation of the base card makes sense to original question. It's almost like giving a focus to the reading that the sitter may not have consciously realised.  Almost like "what is at the heart of the matter the sitter has asked about". 

 

In a recent reading the sitter asked if a hobby she had let slide as life got busy, was something she should go back to. The cards indicated yes her hobby was a good way to unwind. The base card showed advice for moderation - she needs some time out to unwind but not to let her hobby take over but also not to let the busyness of life take away from her me-time.

 

I have used used this for my own readings where I have asked a general "what do I need to know" question and read the cards pulled, gotten a good general answer. I then draw a base card "what is this reading all about?" and the card is something pertaining to my work life. Maybe I didn't realise there was something about my work life I needed to look at. So I can relook at the reading as if that where my focus "what do I need to know about my work life?" and it fits so much better. 

 

So for me that extra card is a clarification of sorts but as an overview.

 

just my two cents worth 😄

Arabella ❤️

[Royalalbatross]

I'm very new to this, but I noticed that in explaining his approach to the three-card spread, Robert M. Place suggested that a confusing card can be clarified with three new cards above the one card, and use these to expand on what it means (The Tarot pp.276-277). It worked for me at least 🙂

 

As a side note, he also does not use upside down cards in the readings, and I am thinking I like this too.

[YlvaBlue]

I don't use clarifiers, for the reasons already given! Like Gregory said, people seem to use them when they don't like the card that's there and are looking for a different answer. 

 

The only time I pull additional cards is if the figure on a card is looking in a particular direction but there's no card there. In that case, I pull a card to see what they're looking at; the times I've done that, the additional card has always been relevant.

[gregory]

8 hours ago, Arabella said:

I agree that drawing more cards is a way to get more and more tangled up, if you are having trouble interpreting the original cards. I used to do it when I first started and I'd end up just a muddled mess. 

 

Having said that, now I do draw a base card for most readings (other than circle exchanges where the spread is very structured and there's not much need to draw another card) 

 

I ask the cards "what is this reading about?" and take the card form the bottom of the deck. I find it gives me and the sitter, a better insight to the situation and why they have asked the question they did. I try to make sure the interpretation of the base card makes sense to original question. It's almost like giving a focus to the reading that the sitter may not have consciously realised.  Almost like "what is at the heart of the matter the sitter has asked about". 

 

In a recent reading the sitter asked if a hobby she had let slide as life got busy, was something she should go back to. The cards indicated yes her hobby was a good way to unwind. The base card showed advice for moderation - she needs some time out to unwind but not to let her hobby take over but also not to let the busyness of life take away from her me-time.

 

I have used used this for my own readings where I have asked a general "what do I need to know" question and read the cards pulled, gotten a good general answer. I then draw a base card "what is this reading all about?" and the card is something pertaining to my work life. Maybe I didn't realise there was something about my work life I needed to look at. So I can relook at the reading as if that where my focus "what do I need to know about my work life?" and it fits so much better. 

 

So for me that extra card is a clarification of sorts but as an overview.

 

This is a bit different - you take the base card as a part of your original spread. Clarifiers, to my mind, are the cards people add when they think they are puzzled and haven't taken the time to reflect - some of my readings take literally days to gel; one of the many reasons I would never do it for a living ! (or, in most cases I have seen, don't like the answer they got) and there wasn't a plan to have extras when the reading started.

[Barleywine]

28 minutes ago, gregory said:

This is a bit different - you take the base card as a part of your original spread. Clarifiers, to my mind, are the cards people add when they think they are puzzled and haven't taken the time to reflect - some of my readings take literally days to gel; one of the many reasons I would never do it for a living ! (or, in most cases I have seen, don't like the answer they got) and there wasn't a plan to have extras when the reading started.

In one of his books, James Ricklef said about confusing cards: "Let them simmer in your consciousness. They will eventually make sense; they always do." That works fine when reading for myself. When reading for others, I bring them into the dialogue and together we figure it out. I don't use any kind of additional cards, except in the rare instance that I design them into a decision--making spread when using "hidden" (face-down) cards. I'm thinking about adding a card to show what a court card is looking at when the adjacent spot is empty, but there may be equal merit in borrowing the "mirroring" technique from Lenormand reading. I'll have to think about that one.

Edited July 13, 2019 by Barleywine

[devin]

On 7/12/2019 at 5:18 PM, Annee81 said:

Or do you have other ways to help quench your curiosity?

As someone suggested, using the bottom card of your shuffled pack (or adding the numerical values of the cards on the table together and reducing them to get the value of a major) can be useful in anchoring your draw or setting a general tone for your reading. Otherwise, getting a feel for how the cards operate in different contexts just takes practice. So don't be too hard on yourself. I can still remember standing in a supermarket two days after a reading and suddenly going "Aha!"

 

A great way to learn is by getting into the habit of doing daily draws: Each morning ask the cards what's in store for you that day. Then draw 2 or 3 cards and try to figure out what they might be telling you. Don't worry if this feels like taking a stab in the dark as the real learning comes in when, at the end of the day, you look back and retrospectively work out what they were saying. Just keep in mind that, in daily draws, the cards will almost always be speaking to you in their most mundane and minimal voice. So, for example, Judgement is far more likely to represent a call from your mom than any grand revelation and the Hanged Man might show nothing more upsetting than getting stuck in traffic. 

 

10 hours ago, Barleywine said:

but there may be equal merit in borrowing the "mirroring" technique from Lenormand reading.

I find mirroring works great with tarot. It's a very economical (elegant, maybe) way of doing things - as opposed to laying down extra cards.

 

11 hours ago, gregory said:

some of my readings take literally days to gel; one of the many reasons I would never do it for a living ! 

Go for it and be sure to charge by the hour,

[Annee81]

On 7/13/2019 at 2:30 PM, devin said:

A great way to learn is by getting into the habit of doing daily draws: Each morning ask the cards what's in store for you that day. Then draw 2 or 3 cards and try to figure out what they might be telling you. Don't worry if this feels like taking a stab in the dark as the real learning comes in when, at the end of the day, you look back and retrospectively work out what they were saying. Just keep in mind that, in daily draws, the cards will almost always be speaking to you in their most mundane and minimal voice. So, for example, Judgement is far more likely to represent a call from your mom than any grand revelation and the Hanged Man might show nothing more upsetting than getting stuck in traffic. 

Hello Devin.  Thank you for your input.  I read your comment a few days ago and this advice is so great.  Thank you!  I'm super new to the forums, but its been very inspiring being here.  I feel like I'm finally starting to get to know my cards.  I will keep trying the daily draws as suggested.  Its been really helpful so far.  -A

[Eric13]

@devin Thats excellent advice. And @Barleywine brings up an excellent point also about how different it is when you have a sitter staring at you waiting for your reading.

This is a great thread.

Edited July 21, 2019 by Eric13

[katrinka]

On 7/13/2019 at 4:30 PM, devin said:

I find mirroring works great with tarot. It's a very economical (elegant, maybe) way of doing things - as opposed to laying down extra cards.

Yes.
People think it's a Lenormand technique, but it's actually part of standard cartomancy, or was before the PKT reigned supreme. I was just talking about something similar over in the reversals thread https://www.thetarotforum.com/forums/topic/5303-do-you-reverse-cards/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-110760

The beauty of Lenormand is that it preserved cartomancy!

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by katrinka

[devin]

10 hours ago, katrinka said:

... but it's actually part of standard cartomancy,  ... The beauty of Lenormand is that it preserved cartomancy!

Realizing this made me understand why the 'lenormand wars' were so important. (So thanks to everyone who took part!)

 

Edited July 21, 2019 by devin