I like to knit.
Sometimes that means making stuff out of yarn.
Sometimes it means weaving together disparate ideas in a Tarot reading. Or a Tarot blog post.
I’m doing both lately. It’s that Elfcon 5 gift making time of year, but I’d also like to knit together the past couple of blog posts. We’ve looked at a couple of narrow topics, now lets connect them back into the grand scheme of things a little bit.
The grand scheme is how Tarot and intuition actually works – at least the way I go about it.
Recently we talked about the role of imagination in intuition and the idea of accuracy in intuitive processes like Tarot.
My readings do not predict the future. So that kind of “accuracy” doesn’t factor into things even if it were possible, which it isn’t for all of those cause and effect sort of Heisenberg uncertainty-ish sort of reasons. In this case “accurate” means “it contains some sort of useful insight or idea.”
Can we get insight or inspiration from Tarot and imagination? Yes – absolutely. It’s about the most human thing I can think of to do.
Let’s go back to our imagination as intuition example – think of an elephant taking a shower.
When I first learned this concept in an email conversation with Chris Fleming, my first thought was a Babar-like, highly antropomorphized cartoon elephant in a cartoon human shower with a big white towel wrapped around it’s waist a la movie men’s locker room.
Was this a prediction? No, of course not. Was it accurate? Yes – it was whimsical and playful at a time in life where I needed a reminder to be more playful and find more humor in life.
In response to last week’s post, a client said she visualized a real life elephant being lovingly cleaned by an attentive caretaker and seeming to enjoy the experience.
Like a Tarot card in the context of a layout, this image in the context of the person who saw it is a beautiful message from and for a beautiful person.
This person is a natural caretaker in a care taking profession. Her visualization is a tremendous validation that she is on the right path in her work, and even if they don’t say it her clients appreciate her as much as her imaginary elephant was enjoying its shower.
It is also the classic reminder for caretakers to allow themselves to be cared for or at least give themselves a little TLC. It could be a reminder to let yourself be that happy elephant.
These aren’t “accurate predictions” relative to physical events. To make Tarot or psychic readings into that is to strip it of all its depth, emotion, beauty and humanity. Making Tarot and psychic readings about predictions is like taking a living breathing elephant and turning it into a two dimensional rubber stamp shadow image of an elephant.
Imagination is our window to intuition. Tarot is the battery sparks intuition. Together, they let us see marvelous things far beyond physical predictions.
Are you ready for something more advanced than pool ball toy predictions? Are you ready to glimpse the ideas that help you create your future rather than (maybe) predict it? Tarot doesn’t tell you what will happen in life, it helps you figure out what to do when life happens.
Sage Sips / TaoCraft Tarot 