Help with the Tarot

[DoctorDopamine]

Good evening my friends.

I come tonight with a question that has been lingering in my head as of lately. I've been reading Donald M. Kraig's Modern Magick, and specially have been using his Split Hexagram Spread with my Raider Waite deck. I've been doing readings for myself for over a year, usually with the Celtic Cross spread (and having relative success with it). I'm pretty used to working with the Minor Arcana. Somehow, I've had some sort of success with Kraig's spread, but I still feel a bit iffy about the readings. I feel being limited by using only the Mayor Arcana, and have trouble understanding how could Donald arrive to conclude that each spot on the spread represents what it representes.

Maybe I'm overthinking, but I would like to read your opinion on the matter.

D.D.

[RoseRed]

I think that being so rigid in the readings can strangle it.

It's a divination tool. Lay the spread, get into the groove and let the cards talk to you.

Rigid practice has it's place. Interaction with the oracle on a personal level is different.

[Eremita]

Good evening my friends.

I come tonight with a question that has been lingering in my head as of lately. I've been reading Donald M. Kraig's Modern Magick, and specially have been using his Split Hexagram Spread with my Raider Waite deck. I've been doing readings for myself for over a year, usually with the Celtic Cross spread (and having relative success with it). I'm pretty used to working with the Minor Arcana. Somehow, I've had some sort of success with Kraig's spread, but I still feel a bit iffy about the readings. I feel being limited by using only the Mayor Arcana, and have trouble understanding how could Donald arrive to conclude that each spot on the spread represents what it representes.

Maybe I'm overthinking, but I would like to read your opinion on the matter.

D.D.

Hi there.

Like RoseRed said, Tarot is a tool for tapping your own unconscious mind. The particular spread you use is not important. There are sometimes many different versions of a single spread, and all of them are valid.

Donald Kraig likely just made up that spread and gave his own meanings for each position. If you like the spread, then use it; if not, stick with your Celtic Cross.

I think the reason he stipulated using only the Major Arcana is because he was assuming the reader would have no prior knowledge of Tarot, and recommended learning the Major Arcana before adding the pip cards. The spread provided is an exercise for a beginner Tarot reader.

I hope this was helpful.

[RoseRed]

I don't use tarot to tap my un or sub or any other conscious mind.

It's an oracle that I use for divination. What I call 'the voice behind the cards' is from outside of myself.

It is true that some people do use tarot for self work. Personally, I don't.

[Eremita]

I don't use tarot to tap my un or sub or any other conscious mind.

It's an oracle that I use for divination. What I call 'the voice behind the cards' is from outside of myself.

It is true that some people do use tarot for self work. Personally, I don't.

Apologies if I misrepresented you in my first post.

At the risk of derailing this thread to some extent, can you elaborate on what you mean by 'the voice behind the cards'? How did you come to view the Tarot as connecting you with an external entity? It's a point of view I've not encountered before.

More broadly to the forum at large, does anyone else have a similar view who would like to share some insights?

[RoseRed]

That's sweet but there's no need for apologies. Some people do use tarot for self introspection. It never worked that way for me.

The 'voice behind the cards' is what I call it. I don't know what exactly it is - entity, spirit, oracle - I don't know. It's never manifested. It's more like a current or an energetic strand between what lies behind the cardboard with the pictures on it (the physical cards) and myself. I 'know' when my cards have something to tell me and will throw a spread. There are times when the voice is quiet and I have to do a cold reading. Usually, when it's quiet it's for a several different reasons. The spread itself says it all and nothing extra is needed, it's something I shouldn't get more than surface level involved in or the cards just have nothing to say.

When it comes to intuitive readings - there are many cards that have many different meanings and directions. It's the intuition (the part that tells you) which meaning the card has in it's position within the spread. It's also that intuitive connection that people seem to have a difficult time describing exactly what it is.

[Shinichi]

More broadly to the forum at large, does anyone else have a similar view who would like to share some insights?

I treat the symbolism and nature of the Tarot as something objectively "alive," where each card is its own cosmic force or even a collection of such. For the practice of Divination the whole of this comes together to form a spirit, group of spirits, or egregore that is most simply called an Oracle. In order to Divine with a Tarot, then, you need two things: first, the Deck itself, which is your physical gateway to communicating with the Oracle; and the Diviner, where learning to "listen" to an Oracle is an entire discipline unto itself.

When casting a Spread, then, the best way to do this is to do it somewhat ceremoniously where you offer Chance or Fate up to the Oracle with a small prayer or something else to that effect. The Oracle then arranges Chance while you are shuffling, and by the time you get the cards laid out, you are looking at what the Oracle is trying to tell you. And this can be anything from the answer to a question, or even something far more complex like the consequences of a particular series of decisions. At that point, the success of the Divination depends on the skill of the Diviner and their ability to understand the cards presented.

And this relationship between Oracle and Diviner exists in any traditional method of Divination. The Tarot, the Runes, the I-Ching, Geomancy, and so on. A decent, general article on the subject can be read here: Divination

The Tarot can be used in a lot of other ways, though. Franz Bardon used the 22 cards of the Major Arcana to represent the 22 Initiations, schools like the Golden Dawn I think did Pathwalking exercises into them, some use them for psychological introspection, and I have personally used the forces of the Tarot for spell casting even without having a personal deck at the time. The Tarot is a very deep system with many mysteries to unveil, for those willing and able to explore them.

To the OP: If you don't like a particular spread, don't use it. [happy2] There are plenty. Some are useful, some aren't; some are traditional, some are outright made up; and some just won't jive with you even if they work perfectly for others. Explore and experiment, but as a general rule: if it doesn't work, don't use it.



~:Shin:~

[DoctorDopamine]

I thank you all for your advice, it has been insightful in my road to master the tarot. I'll take everything that has been said into consideration, and further my studies.

D.D.