AUTHOR’S NOTE: Tonight I’m coming to you from the Viking Sky Mediterranean cruise ship in Barcelona, on which we’re traveling to Italy for a destination wedding. (I managed to connect on my iPad.)
There is an intriguing notion in Benebell Wen’s Holistic Tarot that a tarot reading should not be obliged to portray future developments as literal transitions. Instead, it should be tasked with delivering a “common-sense” explanation that consciously informs the seeker of plausible changes that until the time of the reading he or she had only discerned vaguely as subconscious presentiments, if at all.
It’s a matter of unearthing that subliminal awareness with the individual’s active participation rather than inviting it to fly in on the wings of intuitive speculation entirely at the reader’s behest. In this way, the only subjective bias that enters the reading is that of the querent, who is entitled (and expected) to project it into the cards.
This aligns with my own impression of “how tarot works.” The latent knowledge is waiting to be brought to the surface by the act of shuffling the deck, which arranges the cards in the correct order to present the story that must be told. Under the banner of “common sense” I would include the assumption that tarot reading can only show likely trends, tendencies and possibilities, not unequivocal truths that are “carved in stone.”
This lack of specificity provides the latitude to embark on what I think of as “side-trips” suggested by a more spontaneous interpretation of the cards, as well as the opportunity to investigate whether some of those “possibilities” can be turned into “probabilities” by applying supplemental modes of analysis that go beyond the normal linear deconstruction.
But there can be a fine line between imparting the assumed facts to the extent they are discernible from the cards and presenting an inspired fabrication. As I see it, when intuition comes in at the door, common sense often flies out the window. Thus, I would also include in the definition a judicious curtailment of any urge to indulge in an excess of intuitive guesswork. The cards carry a sufficient weight of common knowledge to preclude the need to get too creative with their delineation, as long as the reader has taken the time and made the effort to learn it (which may be a tall order in this age of “instant gratification”).
The awareness that tarot reading is a storyteller’s art encourages anecdotal embellishment, which is why it is best to concentrate on analysis first and narrative second. In other words, don’t open your mouth until you’ve engaged your brain. What sounds good to the ear might not be intelligible to the mind that has to turn it into personal meaning, so getting too cute with the wordplay risks being misunderstood. At least if we have an established definition to go by when the inevitable questions come up, we can reference it while describing the card in a way that speaks louder than the voice of our own imagination.
Being asked “Why do you say that?” and responding “My spirit guide told me to” just isn’t good enough when we’re trying to assist a client in making the right decision in a complex situation. Traditional card meanings carry the authority of long use while intuition may only be able to come up with a thin tissue of conjecture, something that the serious seeker should be able to see right through.
Although it hasn’t happened in a very long time, in the past I was occasionally caught out on that very shaky limb when I kept talking but should have just shut up and gathered my thoughts for a moment. We could paraphrase the old Rabelaisian quote by saying “Tarot abhors a silence” but it is usually better to let it drag on a bit than fill it with disjointed gibberish just to keep on talking. Most sitters are amenable to a “bridging” segue if we warn them it’s coming so we don’t just sit there with our mouth gaping open.
