The Sun. Good card, right? Great card, in fact. Happy, happy, joy, joy! Happy nekkid dancing and carefree innocence. But I can't seem to get any farther than the "book meaning" with this card. Oh sure, if it comes up as an outcome, I'm pleased to report all things will be fine. If it comes up as advice, I might say one should spend some time relishing in the simple joys of life, remembering what it was like when you were a child and had fewer worries and concerns. Approach the issue without judgment and cynicism. But then it stops. Is that enough? Well, it can be, but I feel like I always give the same report with this card, whereas with other cards the meanings are more fluid and change with the reading, with the query, with the position. This one seems more static to me and that feels off to me. If there's one thing I have learned about tarot is that the cards do "speak" individually to each question and situation. Sure, each one has a basic meaning, but then it can flow and branch out from there. Not so with this card for me and maybe a couple others, too.
What can we do to enlarge our perspectives on these flat interpretations? It's harder when one is doing a live reading and feels the pressure to say something, anything, right away. Much better to work on this when one is not rushed. Better still not to do it when reading for oneself on a particularly sensitive issue. I rarely "meditate" on a card, but in this case it might do some good. It also may help to do some background research and look into the history of the images, digging into what the various items pictured on the cards mean symbolically. I do that regularly here at 78 Notes To Self because it has been a great help to me in digging deeper into a card's meaning. For example, in my post on the 3 of Wands, I looked into the ancient cross-cultural symbolism of boats, even though the boats are not front and center in the card image. For a long while, all I could focus on with that card was the feeling of waiting in positive expectation for something or someone. The boat symbolism added a lot more to the range of meanings for this card and allows a reader a much wider berth to work with.
Another action to take is to post one's dilemma on a forum of tarot readers, such as Aeclectic Tarot Forum, to receive varied perspectives from different readers. Since others don't always struggle with the same card, you're bound to get insight from others' views. Interacting with other tarot readers has always been beneficial to me. Besides, not all readers use the same deck, and since decks vary widely in their depictions of each card, you're liable to get varied interpretations based on which deck the reader uses. Thoth-based decks, for example, have different associations for the card, as do Marseilles-based, and, of course Rider-Waite-Smith. Historical decks, modern decks, themed decks, art decks, all have various takes on the images and each artist often chooses which aspect of the card to draw to the eye. By examining various decks, either your own or at a site like Trionfi, helps to break one out of the frame of the card you have always known.
Doug Gibb, author of the blog Tarot Eon, explored this question in this post from last year. He suggests that one reason we might have consistent trouble interpreting a card or card combination is because the issues represented in those cards are ones we ourselves need to work on. We haven't yet faced nor dealt with those particular "karmic challenges" to the degree that we need to in order for that card to flow easily from us.
I remember speaking to Paul Hughes-Barlow a couple of years ago about how some combination of cards were easy to understand while others weren’t.
Paul suggested something that was truly inspirational. He had observed, through his own experience, that even doing a Tarot reading for other people can teach us about ourselves. One of the most interesting things Paul said was, “you spend months trying to understand a combination of cards, and when you finally understand them, you’ll never see that combination again”.
It’s almost as if, in understanding a difficult combination, in the very act of doing a Tarot reading for someone else, we ourselves begin to heal.
For instance, he would spend months “seeing” the same combinations of cards appear before he finally understood their significance. Almost as if, in understanding that combination, in being able to accurately interpret them for a client, he had healed an area of his own Karma.
So, the very act of delving deeper into that card will, in turn, provide us opportunities to grow, not only as a tarot reader, but as a person.
In many ways, the Tarot is our best teacher. It teaches us, not only through personal study, but also in the very act of reading for other people.
I'll give my perspective on the cards you all mentioned in your responses in a following post, and I'd like to hear what others think about my nemesis The Sun as well.
