“Do you ponder the manner of things in the dark?”
-from Glitter and Gold by Barns Courtney
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I’ve occasionally summoned the Biblical phrase “through a glass darkly” when describing the tarot reader’s quest for insight as one of murky supposition. Its a useful metaphor to ponder when a reading wanders too far from illumination and conjures only shadows.
I’ve come to suspect that the reason so many people prefer to read the cards “intuitively” (i.e. in a freestyle, impressionistic manner based largely on subjective speculation) is that they can’t make head or tail of the cards’ traditional meanings in a specific situation they’re trying to sort out with a tarot reading. Taking the easy way out, they default to extemporizing. If there are no guidelines to follow there can be no wrong answers, so everything is relative and, instead of painting a precise narrative portrait of the seeker’s circumstances, the diviner is at risk of producing a caricature.
I find that I can’t work that way since a wide-beam, soft-focus interpretive “flashlight is of little use to me in probing the darkness; I like the sharp focus of a penetrating “analytical laser” that can pinpoint the details of a matter before they escape me in the haze of groundless conjecture. The accepted knowledge base provides my raw material, which I chip away at on-the-fly until I’ve fashioned an ideal set of tools for shaping the reading into something that is both informative and inspiring.
When expanding a card’s interpretive reach, I typically start with a single Qabalistic idea, for example the number Five that brings disruption to the stability of the Four, then I consider how it manifests in each of the four minor cards of that number and any other cards that numerate to “5” via various forms of arithmetic “reduction.” From there I create a personal vocabulary of numerological and elemental definitions that I can call up without having to think about it when one of those cards appears in a spread. Finally, I consider the card’s function within the context of the question or topic and the position it occupies in the spread.
I perform very little free-association from the images, instead relying on the deep well of metaphysical and philosophical wisdom that has sprung up around the established baseline. As I’ve said before, I hardly even look at the pictures after I recognize what the cards are since they’ve been etched in my memory for years. They “shine in the dark” even as I call them up in my mind’s eye. This instant recall is the “Holy Grail” of the tarot reader’s art since no physical memory-joggers are required to assist its application.
I believe I’ve reached the point that Aleister Crowley touted as “experiencing the cards as living beings” (even though I refuse to bestow on them the human traits of personality and attitude). The magic is in me, the cards are my subconscious night-stalkers that skewer the nocturnal truth for my examination in the light of day. (Sorry about that, I’m feeling uncommonly mystical today.)
