holy mackerels? I like it already ;)

Hello everyone,

Chanah invited me here, so I figured it was worth it - and having glimpsed at a few threads, I think my thought was correct

I work with all sorts of tarot and with Lenormand - and enjoy them all - but my heart and mind go above all to the Tarot de Marseille, which I discovered a few years ago, 7 years after I picked up my first tarot pack (a RWS). I stopped any contribution to Marseille threads and forums a long time ago, however - mainly because I got a bit bothered by certain tiresome trends I found in all of them - either threads pushing a pet theory about the TdM meaning and history ad nauseam; or posts gunning for anyone with half an original idea; or posts written by lonely voices in the desert full of arcane knowledge I can't hope to match at the moment - these sound interesting but often elicit so few answers; or this plague of contemporary tarot (not only TdM), "anything and everything goes" - without any thinking, depth or originality to back up the "anything and everything". When Tarot means everything, it means nothing. And lastly, because most TdM posts are deadly dull. No playfulness, no fun, no tongue-in-cheek speculation - just dusty stuff. I like the atmosphere in this forum, so here's hoping for some TdM delights!

I put my cards on the table, though: I like to read with tarot - more than I like to speculate about it. Though I don't have his sophistication, and am more "seat of my pants", I am pretty much of EE's school of thought. I love to read about other people's reading systems, they inspire me, though I don't tend to adopt any one system, not being a very systematic person.



Apart from tarot - I love to dance

I like you already. That post took a lot of words right out of my mouth.
TdM is supposed to be fun. Look at it!

Welcome aboard.

Thanks! Yes, TdM is fun. The Noblet particularly so - in a baudy, 17th Century kind of way - but even the earnest Conver is full of visual jokes and "language of birds" wit.

Any TdM. The humor and irony is just built in. The Conver Gabriel looks like he's razzing the risen dead! I think that most non-Marseilles decks take themselves too seriously. When they get too reverent, they become congealed, somehow. Does that make any sense?

And EE's had a huge influence on me, too. Ever since I went to a now-pretty-much-defunct forum to learn Lenormand and the other similar oracles, and the people who were supposed to be the experts there didn't know diddly, but enjoyed playing lords of the manor anyway. Enrique showed up and we started talking about the Dog card from either Biedermeier or Italian Sibilla, I don't remember, but we just riffed back and forth for pages and pages - dog stories, dog anecdotes, legendary dogs - until admin couldn't stand us anymore. That's when I learned we already know the meanings, no sense memorizing other people's opinions. I love what he's done with TdM, especially reading for people face to face. You get that same riffing back and forth, and they always tell me they like this way better than whatever they've seen up to now. I use that, mostly, and a little Jodo, whatever comes to mind.

Wouldn't mind reading Unger's book, though. If I could find it. And get through the french!

Waves hi to everyone, '62 messages waiting for you at GoW' later. I'm glad you could make it, DW.

I got subborned over at Markey's cos one mod flaked, another is defending her doctoral thesis, and apparently there was something in Australia Vogue, with a resultant massive influx of new people.

Ouch. I'm tired. Don't use 70% glycolic acid straight on your skin. More ouch. Do you really want to have skin grafts?

Cheers, all.

I managed to find Unger's book after a long wait...it's somewhere on its way here - not sure it will hit my shores before I leave for my hols in a week's time, if it does, I'm packing it!

Nice avvie!
What kind of dancing do you do?

Mainly African-style, but I like all dancing. I've been learning the sevillana! I like latin-style, but I've still a lot to learn - I would love to learn to tango properly, in a dive in Buenos Aires with live music and fights breaking out... sigh. I'm very enthusiastic, but hardly conventional as a dancer - I tend to dance as I read tarot, more through learning by watching and doing, and by instinct, than systematic instruction. Men who dance in the same creative way, yet with a certain control over their movements and mine, are my perfect match in couples dancing.

Actually, I see reading tarot as very close to dancing. Some readers are solo dancers - they just spout their stuff, they can be spectacular or mediocre, but the reading, even if done for someone else, is really a show of their talent. Some readers dance entirely for someone else, and all their moves are thought out from that perspective. And some readers need a partner, they read not for but WITH someone else, and the reading becomes a dance between reader and querent, with cards as the props. Dancing with others is a conversation using bodies; reading tarot with others is a conversation using cards...

Oh, the avatar is by Diego Rivera

DW wrote:

Actually, I see reading tarot as very close to dancing. Some readers are solo dancers - they just spout their stuff, they can be spectacular or mediocre, but the reading, even if done for someone else, is really a show of their talent. Some readers dance entirely for someone else, and all their moves are thought out from that perspective. And some readers need a partner, they read not for but WITH someone else, and the reading becomes a dance between reader and querent, with cards as the props. Dancing with others is a conversation using bodies; reading tarot with others is a conversation using cards...

YES! Kind of like jamming, like jazz. And if it's flowing, there's something that some people call "IT", sometimes IT's there, and sometimes IT isn't. You do what you do, if it's dancing, painting, music, athletics, card reading, whatever your things are, and you hope that IT shows up. It feels kind of like a presence. I don't think it really is an outside presence, but I don't know what it really is or how to quantify it. Only that when it's there, you can do no wrong. One of those peak experience things.

Quote :

Oh, the avatar is by Diego Rivera

No wonder it's so nice!
Eye feast:
http://www.fbuch.com/murals.htm