Lesson 03
This is not about reading like me
Observe first. Interpret second. Research third.
I am not training a little Maggie. The world already has one of me, and she is busy.
The aim of this course is your relationship with tarot, not a copy of mine. If you finish sounding like a photocopy of my sentences, I have failed, and so have you.
Your mouth, your sight
I will be clear. I will be opinionated. I will tell you when I think a habit is lazy. That is teaching, not cloning.
You will learn traditional meanings as a foundation. You will learn how I want you to look. You will hear my examples. Then you will have to sit with a spread and say what is there in your own mouth. That last part is the point.
A reader who can only repeat a teacher is not a reader. They are a speaker for hire. I want you able to see a card, know it, and speak from the meeting of the card and your life, or the querent's life, with honesty.
If you differ from the book, or from me
You have not failed if your interpretation differs from a traditional definition. You have started doing the work.
Differing is not the same as ignoring. If you cannot say why you moved away from the traditional meaning, you are not being intuitive. You are being vague. We will practise the difference until you can feel it in your body.
The same goes for me. If something in an image stands out to you that I have not mentioned, that can be the reading. Bring a reason. Bring the picture. Do not bring a performance of being special.
Same card, two honest mouths
Two students sit with the Knight of Wands. One sees the heat, the speed, the risk of burning through a room. The other sees courage that will not wait for permission. Both can be true. Both should still be able to say: this is a Knight, this is Wands, this is fire in motion.
The shared foundation is the card. The voice is yours. That is the Method. Not seventy-eight Maggie captions you recite at a table.
Activity
Whose sentences are in your mouth?
Think of the last time you explained a card, even to yourself. Whose words were you using? A book, a teacher, a website, a clever version of you? Write the borrowed line, then write the same thought as you would say it to a friend in the kitchen.
Practice
One card, your words
Pull one card. If you know a traditional meaning, write it in one sentence. Then write a second sentence that is only yours: what the picture is doing, or what it made you feel, or what it reminded you of. Do not make the second sentence fancy. Make it yours.
Open the practiceReflection