Intuition is Analytical? Tarot without Books
I would love to hear the community’s thoughts about the video below, especially the notion that intuition is an analytical process that transcends the conscious mind!
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I’m inclined to agree that intuition is analytical.
In reference to tarot cards, I think it’s one of those in-between situations of… The drawings/pictures/numbers in the cards have their own specific place in divination that are equally, if not, more important than the written definition. Tarot cards are a system of their own and I think it’s worth while to explore the given meanings to the cards/their historical symbolism/ etc.
Now, if someone were adept to tarot reading, they can probably throw outlined meaning out the window and focus on their own relation of what 1-10 means or feminine/masculine polarity or what each the suits have value in. Which, is probably the goal, no? Where the analyzation of one’s intuition comes in. Original Tarot and its intended meanings are in the past and we are in the present with vastly different social views and needs. It would be hard to restrict reading to old definitions unless that is a system one wants to adhere to.
As far as transcending the conscious mind, if you wanted to go a Jungian route, then yeah, that is given in all things. What the subconscious seeks to convey, it does through symbolism (see A Man and His Symbols). I don’t have a devil’s argument the other way.
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Really nice video, I enjoyed it. At one part it made me realize how wonderfully “divine” divination is, near the part where she spoke of having an ethical duty to know the cards as a tarot reading. I also like her pointing out of the wonderful chain of transmission, the different traditions developing from one another.
Now, personally, I believe that the Tarot has some objectivity towards it. I guided someone through their first tarot reading once, and told them to tell me the meaning of the cards pulled intuitively. Now, their predictions were completely wrong, but the cards were absolutely correct about what transpired (from their established meanings).
Similarly, I’ve had other readers make predictions for me, but their interpretation was incorrect from the cards they read, but Crowley’s attributions of the cards were instead correct.
So, I believe there is some objectivity to the Tarot. And Crowley explains nicely in his The Book of Thoth that there can be no doubt that the creator of the 78 card deck modeled it after the Kabbalah.
He shows that the deck has 22 Trumps, fitting the 22 Paths of the Tree of Life, 10 Small Cards in each suit, fitting the 10 Sephiroph, 4 Suits, fitting the 4 Worlds of the Tree of Life, and 16 Small Cards, giving 4 Elemental combinations for each Element. This is too perfect for it to not have been modeled after the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
So it has a foundation. And so it makes sense to me that there is objectivity in this. For example you cannot change Geomancy and have Puella, a figure of Venus, suddenly foretell of warfare and bloodshed and death (But you can certainly try!).
But it is not entirely subjective either, and variances can be made that will be found true as well. But its foundation is Kabbalah, and I don’t think you can change that, at least not easily.
So Oracle decks are more appropriate for a completely different system.
With that, to me the Tarot depicts higher forces and Ideas in the Divine Mind that descend to the world. Certain Patterns in the Anima Mundi. Rather than being abstract symbols that we have made. No, I believe it is in a way separate from mankind.
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My first introduction to Jung, and probably my favorite.
A good point 
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Very interesting!
Would you equate this with archetypes?
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If you mean archetypes in a psychoanalytical way (although my understand is in no ways extensive), then I wouldn’t say so, depending on what you mean.
I believe these “patterns” in the Anima Mundi are above and beyond mankind, existing outside of us. And, to me, these images in the Tarot and such are very real, not simply imaginary.
Let’s take a look at Saturn quick. He rules over occult knowledge, and so may signify a wise man or woman skilled in esoteric arts and having profound knowledge. However, he also rules over the roots of plants, and over moles and other animals that live beneath the earth, and he rules over hidden places.
This is to say, there is a quality within esoteric knowledge, you might say 'hiddenness", and this quality is not simply manifest in one thing or in human life, but in all things in the cosmos. It is a very real quality that is manifest in all things in one way or another, and goes above and beyond mankind.
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Agreed. I liked your explanation of divine ideas filtering down toward earth/mundanity as well. Rings very true to me and is why I like my own devised spreads, or even simply my own freehand readings, over any others. (Not to disparage established spreads at all since I know they work.)
Also gave me a chuckle since I have a deck named Anima Mundi (I bought it ages ago when I saw Myth posting with it; I had to have it) and it seems to throw as many non-court Sword-suite cards into the reading as it possibly can. Beautiful but cruel. For me anyway.
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I think the use of tarot gets mixed up between pure divinition, psychology, self development, magick system…
I believe someone who never learnt the tarot but got how divination works can be a better psychic that someone who over learn and use just analysis.
Pure divination is about reading a sign.
If one person gets the High Priestess for me, say “i feel like it’s your mother” and another say “it represents your inner world that is secret…” I would more trust the first one for a divinatory question.
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Because my life in Magick is chock-a-block full of egregious mistakes I counsel that when starting on Taro, you throw away the nasty little booklet that comes with most decks. Then I counsel learning about the cards and their interrelationships by studying the cards.
Starting with the major Arcana, remove The Fool and numerically lay the cards in three lines of seven cards each. Try working out the relationships of the major Arcana from this arrangement – horizontally and vertically. Do you notice any repeat symbolism? Why?
Study the four suits of fourteen cards each – one suit at a time. Any strong reactions to a card or cards? Repeat symbolism? Why?
Then you should study The Fool.
Look at a card until you can close your eyes and still see it. You use it as a door.
And of course, keep notes about everything you do. Just performing the exercises above should take months of constant work – it’s a hard slog. But after all that, please study what other people have stated. Dictionary of the Tarot by Butler is fantastic. As is The Tarot: The Origin, Meaning and Uses of The Cards by Alfred Douglas.
There is method in my madness – trust me.
Al.
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