aranarose
December 9th, 2007, 09:18 AM
Whoo! Back in business!
All righty... This lesson is about looking at the individual suits of the Minor Arcana, and their meanings and correspondences. I use Wands=Fire and Swords=Air. If your deck or system switches these, that's okay, just switch the associations!
Wands - Fire - Passion, creativity, physical work, sexuality, how you make your money
In the body: Nervous system
In love relationships: Sexuality, passion
At work: What drives you to work, why you do what you do
Cups - Water - Emotion, psychic ability, relationships
In the body: Circulatory system
In love relationships: Emotional connections, the relationship itself
At work: How you feel about work, the emotional environment of your workplace
Swords - Air - Thought, the intellect, analyzing, troubles, communication, the spoken or thought word
In the body: Respiratory system
In love relationships: Communication, arguments
At work: Communication, arguments at work
Pentacles - Earth - The home, the physical body, how you spend or save your money
In the body: Everything else
In love relationships: Physical, non-sexual connections, how you interact in the home (if you're living together) or when you are together, the physical, non-sexual things you do together, your relationship as a couple to family members
At work: The physical workplace, how money is spent at work, productivity
Pull out your cards and sort the Minor suits out. We aren't going to look at individual cards here, but at the suits as a whole.
Knowing the basic meanings of the suits, we can do a very basic reading with a single card. For instance, if your question was, "What is causing problems in my relationship right now?" the following might be your answers, depending entirely on the suit, and not looking at the card itself:
Wands - The issue is passion. Perhaps the two of you are consumed by your passion for one another and you find other areas lacking, or the passion has died off a bit.
Cups - The issue is emotion. Clinginess and dependency may be a problem, the feeling that one partner needs the other to survive. There may be emotional blocks between you two, coldness, or it may be that things have become too emotional for you.
Swords - The issue is communication. You may talk a lot, but that doesn't mean you are communicating properly. Communication breakdowns are probably a huge factor in most breakups and divorces.
Pentacles - Your issue may be in phsyical activities outside of the bedroom (and that doesn't mean sex on the kitchen table!) There may also be family issues that are driving a wedge between you and your partner. Analyze these areas of your life.
Now, of course, knowing the individual card meaning gives more depth to the reading, but sometimes just a quick "Okay, this is where my problem is," proves very, very useful!
I want you to understand that as with everything else in this class, these are basic meanings. If they don't make sense to you, that's fine! Find your own meanings. And how do you do that? Look at the elemental associations. What do those things mean to you? Lay out the suits in order. What themes do you see? In many decks, if you lay the Swords out in order you see a very painful progression, giving the idea that this is a very troublesome suit. Pentacles convey a progression of wealth. If you notice, all of the suits have a bit of a setback at the Fives. We all have setbacks in life, no matter how things are going, and the Fives are a reminder of that.
Your assignment for this lesson is to expand on the meanings of the suits for yourself. You can share your associations if you wish. Because this is an Intuitive Tarot class, the best way to do this is to simply look at the cards and find themes. For example, often in the suit of Wands, you see wooden wands that are sprouting leaves. This is a sign of growth. If you consider that plants need the warm sunlight to grow, this begins to make sense.
All righty... This lesson is about looking at the individual suits of the Minor Arcana, and their meanings and correspondences. I use Wands=Fire and Swords=Air. If your deck or system switches these, that's okay, just switch the associations!
Wands - Fire - Passion, creativity, physical work, sexuality, how you make your money
In the body: Nervous system
In love relationships: Sexuality, passion
At work: What drives you to work, why you do what you do
Cups - Water - Emotion, psychic ability, relationships
In the body: Circulatory system
In love relationships: Emotional connections, the relationship itself
At work: How you feel about work, the emotional environment of your workplace
Swords - Air - Thought, the intellect, analyzing, troubles, communication, the spoken or thought word
In the body: Respiratory system
In love relationships: Communication, arguments
At work: Communication, arguments at work
Pentacles - Earth - The home, the physical body, how you spend or save your money
In the body: Everything else
In love relationships: Physical, non-sexual connections, how you interact in the home (if you're living together) or when you are together, the physical, non-sexual things you do together, your relationship as a couple to family members
At work: The physical workplace, how money is spent at work, productivity
Pull out your cards and sort the Minor suits out. We aren't going to look at individual cards here, but at the suits as a whole.
Knowing the basic meanings of the suits, we can do a very basic reading with a single card. For instance, if your question was, "What is causing problems in my relationship right now?" the following might be your answers, depending entirely on the suit, and not looking at the card itself:
Wands - The issue is passion. Perhaps the two of you are consumed by your passion for one another and you find other areas lacking, or the passion has died off a bit.
Cups - The issue is emotion. Clinginess and dependency may be a problem, the feeling that one partner needs the other to survive. There may be emotional blocks between you two, coldness, or it may be that things have become too emotional for you.
Swords - The issue is communication. You may talk a lot, but that doesn't mean you are communicating properly. Communication breakdowns are probably a huge factor in most breakups and divorces.
Pentacles - Your issue may be in phsyical activities outside of the bedroom (and that doesn't mean sex on the kitchen table!) There may also be family issues that are driving a wedge between you and your partner. Analyze these areas of your life.
Now, of course, knowing the individual card meaning gives more depth to the reading, but sometimes just a quick "Okay, this is where my problem is," proves very, very useful!
I want you to understand that as with everything else in this class, these are basic meanings. If they don't make sense to you, that's fine! Find your own meanings. And how do you do that? Look at the elemental associations. What do those things mean to you? Lay out the suits in order. What themes do you see? In many decks, if you lay the Swords out in order you see a very painful progression, giving the idea that this is a very troublesome suit. Pentacles convey a progression of wealth. If you notice, all of the suits have a bit of a setback at the Fives. We all have setbacks in life, no matter how things are going, and the Fives are a reminder of that.
Your assignment for this lesson is to expand on the meanings of the suits for yourself. You can share your associations if you wish. Because this is an Intuitive Tarot class, the best way to do this is to simply look at the cards and find themes. For example, often in the suit of Wands, you see wooden wands that are sprouting leaves. This is a sign of growth. If you consider that plants need the warm sunlight to grow, this begins to make sense.