Confussed about one card postion

[Silvertiger]

I just started doing tarot readings and when I do them it looks like this but the 2nd card is on top of the first one,

10
3 9
614 8 5 7
My question is how do you tell if the 2nd card is up sidedown or right side up? I don't get that card. Can someone help me and Email me at Silvertiger2002us@yahoo.com please.
Blessed be

[tarotbear]

Hard to tell anything from how the system printed your layout.

I am guessing here that possibly the second card 'crosses' the first card, as in the Celtic Cross spread? If it does, it is neither upright or upside down (Reversed).

When there is a 'cover and cross' situation, the 'cross' card influences the card it is covering; however it is neither good nor bad. For example, the first card is the Ace of Swords, but it's cross card is the Devil; The first card is read as a victory over strife, but the devils influence says that the victory may have been won due to the obsessive nature of the Querent. Thus, the Devil influences the Ace, but the two are read in combination.

[Mithrea]

Well, you could always do like me and not read reversed cards at all. But I think as you draw it from the deck, you should be able to see whether it was upside down in the stack or not and that's what counts. :)

[Silver Venus]

I too dont bother with reversals, but see your dilema and have never thought about it before.. Id tend to go with the 'feeling' you get about the general energy of the card and what it is telling you :)

[Silvertiger]

Thank you so much. That helps me out and I'm greetful that you all replyed you have helped me out so much.
blessed be

[tarotbear]

Mithrea- When I shuffle, I do not get reversed cards. I also do not read reversed cards, but since my clients inevitably reverse cards when they shuffle I do read them that way.

If you do not have reversals, maybe it matters if the top of the 'sideways' card falls to the left or to the right.....? Too many Rules!

PS - you should have a deck that does not have an obvious pattern because you should not know is the card is reversed ahead of time.

[FlamedLilly]

I've just recently picked up a deck, the Cat people's deck, I've found that there are some cards in other decks that aren't in mine and some in mine that others don't have, is this normal. and also in the instruction book that came with my deck it says to read reversed meanings, can you clearify why you wouldn't?

[tarotbear]

As dumb as this sounds, some readers do not 'DO' reversed meanings, but it is a personal preference, usually concluded after some years of study. It ( or should I say mine) comes from not accepting what books had to say about reversed meanings- some over oversimplified, such as 'Reversed means the opposite of upright', or the big mistake beginners make that 'upright is good, reversed is bad'.

As a neophyte ( I say this because it's next to your name - I am not passing judgements here), it's hard enough to develop a working understanding of 78 cards, much less 156 possible and varied shades of meaning!

I don't use reversed cards when I read since don't get them when I shuffle; however, I can tell when a meaning is 'reversed' - but it came after years of experience and I'm not sure if I can define it for you.

Do what's best for you.

[FlamedLilly]

Thanks that does clarify a lot. I don't know if I'm actually going to start doing this as a regular thing or just one of those things you do just to learn more about it.

Calling me a neophyte is fine, and I wouldn't call it a judgement either. I put it next to my name for the simple fact I found it on a website I'm not sure where I first saw it and liked it becuase it does describe me and my life right now.

Do you know anything about the Cat People deck that you could pass on to me to maybe help me better understand it?

[tarotbear]

First - there is 'Tarot for Cats' which is a highly entertaining book and deck set that is NOT the "Tarot of The Cat People", of which I bought the book for a cat-loving friend who had the deck but doesn't read cards.

The Cat people Tarot is excellent, but beware! A 'theme' deck is designed to fit a particular set of limitations created by the artist/designer and they may have altered or bent things to make them fit their vision. You can learn to read tarot with this deck, but you are dealing with one artist's idea and card explanations; if you try to apply them to another ( and different) 'theme' deck, you will not have good results. For example , trying to apply what you learned from the Cat People Tarot to the 'Halloween Tarot' or the 'Baseball Tarot' decks.

This is why we usually tell beginners to learn to read cards with the basic ol' Rider Waite where there is a more universdal appeal, even if you dispense with the deck later on. Many tarot books use the Rider so you will get a more consistant reading using those cards. Also, some artists change a card's title, or even entire concept to fit their design, regardless of what the card's original intent is. So, if you learn ( for example - making this up) from artist A that the Congoleum stands for laziness and sloth but you next buy artist B's deck and they replaced the Congoleum with an entirely different card called the Herculon and tell you that it represents durability under duress, you may have a hard time making the switch. Where will you be when your next deck redesigns it and calls it The Silverstone which means you can slough off all attacks?

Owning a lot of different decks can be great fun. However, learning the basics of tarot before you start learning the variations may be easier for you in the long run.

[FlamedLilly]

the only reason I bought the Tarot of the Cat People deck is becuase it was the "cuter" of the two that were available. I know this wasn't the best approach but I was curious. Maybe I'll put that deck aside and find a rider deck to use until I get more comfortable. Thanks again.

[tarotbear]

You might try 'comparison learning'...that is, you look at the same card from two different decks and see what aspects apply to both, then see where they are diffferent. That way you can learn which threads might run through most cards, then add the specific touches that belong to each particular deck.

For instance, The Devil card in the Rider is standard fare- the Christian Devil stands on a block of half-truth. Two naked humans are chained to it. Darkness and gloom surrounds them even though the chains appear to be quite loose.

In the Robin Wood deck (Ms. Wood is pagan and removed the overt Christian symbolism from her deck) two naked humans try to move a heavy, gem-laden trunk from a cave even though the open trunk is chained permanently to the wall.

In The Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg, the Devil is Joe Stalin.

What themes are running through all the cards? What is specific to that particular deck?

[Nina]

Good advice Tarotbear! I tend to use the Joan Bunnings course and do all her exercises with a new deck. My latest deck is the Goddess Tarot, and I was given the workbook with it, so I'm trying that this time.

Different decks are good for different readings, too... I use the Robin Wood Tarot a lot for my readings for myself, and I still use my Rider-Waite for more formal questions. I like comparing the three decks... sometimes I'll draw a spread with one deck, then find the corresponding cards in the other decks to see if there are any other nuances that spring to mind when I look at them.

[tarotbear]

Nina- that's a good idea, too, especially if you cannot decipher what a particular reading is trying to tell you- do the same layout with a different deck.

Another thought on 'comparitive learning' which is how I teach my classes:
Rather than try to learn each and every card as a single entity, which is what some books recommend, I usually have the class pull all of one card, such as the Aces of the suits and lay them side by side. First we discuss what aspects or qualities they all have in common, then we move into what makes each of them different. This is particularly useful with the Knights. When you lay them out L to R --> Pentacles, Cups, Wands, Swords you can more easily see the progression of speed indicated in the cards. If you read the Knights as changes in a long-standing life situation, you can better see how fast the change is happening.