Is the appearance of a word on a card a simple memory jogger? Is it a straightforward meaning of the thing the word names? Or could the word be a symbol — a shorthand representation of something, a placeholder or allusion, which triggers its own chain of thoughts and associations?
Knight of Cups – Lo Scarabeo Tarot
This post is inspired by my recent purchase of the Deck of Shadows.
One of the goals of this deck’s creator was to treat words as symbols. Each card features a main concept via a title. The title is in large text at the top of the card, such that it takes precedence. (You can see samples through the above link or here at my blog.) This emphasized title is the driving force behind the card.
Besides the title each card has three other words. These words are meant to be symbols that can spawn ideas and associations for the reader. They are related to the title in some fashion, although they might spark an entirely different association train in the reader’s mind.
For example, in the post linked above, Metamorphosis is a card title, and one of the additional words is Disruption. It’s easy to understand how disruption could stem from the process of change suggested by a metamorphosis; yet for me, disruption conveys a different feeling or set of ideas on its own. The title makes me think of change and transformation, which could be gradual, gentle or as natural as a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. The latter word makes me think of electricity, abruptness and strong discomfort. This is two different ways of approaching the same card, with each leading my mind along a different channel.
Although each card includes an illustration — a black-and-white piece of classical artwork — the deck is intended to primarily be read by its keywords and in symbolic terms.
4 of Cups – Lo Scarabeo Tarot
This idea of words as symbols is underrated. Keywords aren’t new but many of us have viewed them as training wheels sometimes used while learning cards. Especially in the tarot world. Sibilla decks, those European oracles originally based on playing cards, feature a title for each card which is read as the meaning of the card. Yet this is not quite the same as the Deck of Shadows, as my understanding is that sibilla words are used to form sentences but tend to be literal rather than sparking associative trains.
Opinions abound on whether or not keywords are a good way to learn, and whether they become a crutch that holds the reader back. I can go pick books out of my collection and some will say writing on the cards is a great way to start cartomancy, while others state succinctly that it’s a waste of effort. However, these authors are all treating words as a means to an end, not an end in themselves.
I have done a couple of powerful and memorable tarot readings for myself using the Thoth deck, which has a keyword on each card. I had suspected then that my readings turned out that way because I made use of these words as a base for my reading. I never thought that maybe I was using these words as symbols.
A friend has spoken often about a talented medium who used to work in New York. This woman was an old-school medium and tarot reader who always marked her cards with words, even though she thoroughly knew the meanings of the cards. Her readings were reputed to be quite good. I suspect that marking the symbols helped her because those words had become symbols, and their absence made the card feel it was missing an integral element. Words became an addition to the art, that just happened to be letters instead of pictures; and they helped her to make intuitive chains of association based on them. In short, I believe the words became symbols for this woman.
So maybe the humble words is as legitimate a symbol as a pictograph or an icon when added to a card.
Do you agree? Do you have experience using words this way? Do you mark up your cards? Let me know in the comments.
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February 9, 2011 at 11:23 pm
theaceofdiamonds
Personally I’m not comfortable with the idea of relying on keywords on cards, mostly because of the reason I’m learning the Tarot, and eventually, divination with playing cards. Adding too many words does, at least in my opinion, give the answers instead of helping me intuit these things, I have a habit of taking words way too literally in general, and getting in touch with my intuition is the main reason I’ve gone back to learning these things. So I’m focusing mostly on the images for now.
To be fair, I’m sure the Deck of Shadows works for a lot of people, but decks like that are not why I’m interested in cartomancy in general right now. What I am really more interested in the process of learning, and when it comes to decks like The Tao Oracle and the Deck of Shadows, I’ve ended up staying away from them because it feels, at least to me, like I’d be cheating. Hell, it’s why I’m taking a moratorium on Tarot books unless they have some good idea and information on spreads that isn’t just a repeat of the Celtic Cross theme.
February 20, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Jason
Nothing wrong with that either. Thanks for the comment.
February 10, 2011 at 6:08 am
Balthazar
This is an interesting topic Jase. For me it depends on how you read the cards. It seems in later tarot the trend became to heap as much symbolism and meaning onto a single card as possible – which implies a “more is better” kind of approach to the semiotics of card reading. But is more better? Look at the Lenormand, where the purity of each symbol is paramount, and it is the combinations and constellation of cards that produce the reading.
Later tarot in my opinion turns each card into a semiotic hall of mirrors. This helpful if by free association is how you read. Essentially kind of scrying each card. Unfortunately this all to often leads to a kind of readers Rorschach syndrome, in my opinion. Increasingly less structured methods of card reading have emerged as a more psychological model of card reading began to dominate the cartomantic scene.
And as the psychological model completely degraded and dumbed down natal astrology in the 60/70′s, I am afraid to say it has done exactly the same for card reading. It’s high time we look back to a more traditional perspective on the cards – because there is that legacy and it is very rich.
As such, I think a word is a perfectly legitimate divinatory symbol. Semiotic theory certainly substantiates that that view!
February 16, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Jason
Hi B,
You make great points. I am not comfortable with the idea of free association or what you describe as scrying each card in a reading. It just doesn’t sit right with me.
I have a foundational set of meanings for the cards, and thus each card becomes a symbolic entity in its own right. Especially the tarot. As I noted to Lis, I like the idea of a “cognitive association” being triggered by each card; this comes from my built up mental concept of a card, not necessarily its imagery.
In tarot, I am working to utilize more of the imagery, especially for more “cutting edge” or experimental types of readings, where intuition and imagination need more free reign to have a relevant reading. But for the typical reading, I am starting with what cognitive associations are triggered by the cards, which can give perfectly good intuitive leaps.
I’ve always liked the idea that a tarot deck should be basically interchangeable; and that the art is basically window dressing for the underlying concepts of each card. Sort of like if each card was a person, and people wear different costumes in different decks. But I can see the value of taking some influence of the imagination from the costumes they show, as well.
This is turning into a new topic and post, so I’d better stop.
February 10, 2011 at 9:52 am
Lis
I actually do use keywords, but I don’t write them on the cards; I just have them memorized. Part of the reason for this is that I don’t think in pictures, so the symbolism of those pretty cards is lost on me. I need to rely on the relevant keywords surfacing in my subconscious in order to be an effective reader.
February 16, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Jason
Hi Lis,
It sounds like the keywords are symbols for you. It does seem to me that non-visual thinkers might do better with keywords than people who are primarily visual focused. It makes sense, too, that the primarily visual people are especially drawn to tarot and visually rich oracles; but of course they then will dominate the thinking, or common approach to using these tools.
A friend described this today as “cognitive association,” which I think is a great term. The presence of a card in a reading triggers mental and intuitive associations, by it’s presence — NOT by the imagery in particular.
February 20, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Lis
Ah yes… excellent summary
February 15, 2011 at 7:45 am
Helen
It is almost too obvious, but yes I agree that words are symbols. They have meaning as much as numbers or symbols or pictures can have meaning. However, a single keyword is often too limiting in reading cards and can inhibit one’s intuition too much (a picture is worth a thousand words). I also believe that phrases, poems and songs are symbols as they can describe and be associated with concepts and feelings.
February 16, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Jason
Hi Helen,
Almost too obvious; but not quite. I mean, maybe I used words as symbols before, but I never sat down and thought about it. Well that’s not true — I did think about it with the Thoth deck a couple of times, as mentioned above.
I guess it depends how well one knows a particular deck to determine if one keyword is too limiting. Over time, the associations triggered by a card should grow, and a keyword should be like the grain of sand that later accumulates more meaning until it becomes a pearl.
You say a picture is worth a thousand words, and often that is true. But what about the pips on a non-illustrated deck, such as the Marseille? People apply all sorts of meanings to the patterns of cups or foilage, but there is no inherent meaning; it’s all projected, and so it’s debatable (in my mind) that those pictures add any value for divination.
And of course the humble, basic playing card deck has no illustrations to speak of. Many people do start with keywords in learning to read that.
I believe that a lot of it has to do with how a person perceives and think; the modes of perception that a person operates in. A non-visual thinker may do better with words for symbols.
I also believe what you say about extra symbols; myself, I’ve gotten song lyrics in particular while reading cards. But in theory, those could be triggered as easily by seeing a word/symbol as a picture, couldn’t they?
February 26, 2011 at 10:43 am
Helen
The pictures on the cards ultimately trigger all the keywords, concepts and energies I associate with the cards from memory. I could probably achieve the same result reading cards without illustrations but I don’t think I would get as much pleasure out of it or find it as easy. However, your post made me realize that I have progressed in my divination studies from illustrated Tarot cards to more simply illustrated Lenormand cards to even simpler rune symbols. The more I read, the less important the images are as long as the energy of the symbol is firmly embedded in my mind.