The tarot and other tools of insight, counsel, and deep knowing, in the ways that I use them, are not substitutes for using our mental capacities, but are ways to tune in to other pieces of feedback that exist within us and around us. I get a little worried when someone’s advice to another person is only, “Trust your intuition. It will tell you everything you need to know.” Intuition is simply one more sense in the panoply of human perceptions. It is neither less nor more important than sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, thinking, or proprioception. Too many people mistake impulse for intuition, thereby making less-then-helpful decisions. Impluse carries emotional attachment whereas intuition simply provides information.
When I use the tarot for myself and clients, one or both of two things often happens. Either we’re surprised into discovering a fresh angle on an issue or question and/or knowledge we already possess is confirmed as vital to the issue or question. The client and I weigh what comes through the tarot experience alongside the facts and feelings at our disposal so we can get a fuller sense of the topic of exploration and more informed choices can be made. Our wisdomsource, as consulted via the tarot, is not very different from any other trusted friend or mentor. We can choose to heed all of the advice, some of it, or none of it. Just because the information comes through an intuitive, other-than-rational source that many people perceive as “superior” doesn’t mean we’re beholden to it.
(Article continues below the Priestess and Four of Crystals images)
Unhealthy dependency on the tarot is discouraged. Healthy, respectful use of that tool is encouraged. As long as we’re not just obsessively turning over cards to look for the anwer we want, we can use the tarot as often or as seldom as we want. I wouldn’t want to start pulling cards to respond to, “Should I have eggs or porridge this morning?” I make important decisions using intellectual knowledge blended with other ways of knowing, including tarot insights. It’s empowering to have the human capacity of choice! Neither the cards nor “fate” make things happen, people do.
So, remember to use as much of yourself in your choice-discovering, decision-making process as possible. By all means, use “alternative” ways of evaluating an issue, but please also remember to honour your intellect. It’s one of your great gifts. The tarot and thinking are not opposed to one another, they are excellent friends indeed.
**Card Images from the Voyager Tarot by James Wanless and KenKnutson, www.voyagertarot.com
Hi James:
I like the way you describe the process. Mine is a combination of knowledge of tarot, intuition and what I perceive directly from the client. Sometimes more inclined to one or another – and I always trust the mood the reading naturally takes – but always knowledge maintains me in the arena of reality.
Blessings
Hi, Aurora:
Whatever comes into the field of the session is fair game for use and exploration. I remember talking with someone about a particular card in their layout while we did the consultation outside on a table under a tree. As we said a very bold thing about the card, a woodpecker proceded to tap very loudly on a branch above us. We both felt that Life was telling us that what we had just said was a key insight for the client to remember.
Cheers and blessings,
James
Each reading interaction brings in its own magic…
Thanks for sharing, James.
Excellent advice, James. There have been studies recently done on intuition and so far they have not found it, as you have stated, any better or worse than intellectual or rational thinking. It is certainly beneficial to listen to one’s intuition as valuable input to the multi-faceted array of information we should sift through before making a decision and/or processing through a problem. And tarot itself supports this. We have the intellect (swords), impulse (wands), emotion (cups), and practical considerations (pentacles) all represented therein.
Exactly, Ginny. As I mention in a previous article, http://jameswells.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/the-essential-minor-arcana/ ,
the Minors remind us of our wholeness. The tarot is a wholistic map reflecting our entirety, not just our intuition, not just our mind, not just our body…
Thank you for your valuable input here!
Great post, James. To your intuition plus information yielding a form of knowledge that we may call wise, I’ll add tenderness. Any relation of genuine and useful friendship is informed by tenderness as a process. It is through this process that we get a real sense of what our moral stamina is made of and what ultimately tests our courage.
Mmm…yes, tenderness. And compassion, “feeling with” someone. Thank you, Camelia, for this reminder.