"Traditional" vs "Intuitive" tarot reading
lessons from the Six of Pentacles, manipulation vs intuition & more
I keep telling myself I’m not gonna talk about this again. But the “debate” never really goes away in tarot spaces online. I saw it crop up again on threads a couple weeks ago and apparently I’m incapable of watching this happen without shouting my opinion into the void, so here we go!
The conversation usually goes something like this: there are two types of tarot readers. First, you’ve got the ones who adhere to traditional meanings. Maybe they rely on certain keywords for each card, possibly they are into astrological associations or numerology or kabbalah or other correspondences.
Then you’ve got the ones who read intuitively. Instead of accepting inherited wisdom, they might pull from the imagery or gut feelings or even psychic impulses to interpret the cards. They buck the system and take a free-form approach to tarot.
AND NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET.
(With everything going on in the world and in my personal life, it seems trite to even talk about this, but what the hell.)
This discourse annoys me for a few reasons. Mostly, I think the core of this debate is kiiiinda fabricated, and an oversimplification of reality. I think the entire debate falls apart at the seems when you bring more nuance into the conversation. So let’s try to do that.
Do “traditional” card meanings even exist?
In the book Mystical Origins of the Tarot, author Paul Huson attempts to trace the earliest recorded card interpretations and shows how they shifted over hundreds of years. So when you take a closer look, you see that the very idea of “traditional” card meanings actually existing at all is pretty dubious.
As I said on threads, even if you’re someone who ascribes to a particular method of tarot reading (like, say, the teachings of the famous occult society the Golden Dawn), the correspondences and interpretations you work with originally came from someone’s intuition. Sure, their intuition was grounded in some type of theory or methodology, but it is intuition nonetheless.
The person who arguably has had the most influence on the ways many modern tarot readers interpret the cards was Arthur Edward Waite, co-creator of the Waite-Smith tarot. And when you study Waite’s writings you see he often contradicted himself. He wrote about tarot both under his own name as well as under a pseudonym, sometimes giving completely different meanings to the same card.
Even the person who (arguably) held the greatest amount of “authority” when it came to card meanings was reluctant to settle on one “true” meaning for any given card.
Above all else, Waite was a mystic. Yes, he was also a scholar and he did concern himself with studying the cards symbolism and attempting to piece together a system for understanding their wisdom. I think some modern tarot readers picture him as this uptight, close-minded dude trying to force the cards into rigid boxes but I don’t believe that is accurate. Here’s one of my favorite things he wrote in the Pictorial Key to the Tarot:
The pictures are like doors which open into unexpected chambers, or like a turn in the open road with a wide prospect beyond.
So even the poster child for a more systematic approach to the cards believed that memorization and studying correspondences can only take you so far. Eventually you have to open yourself to those unexpected chambers… also known as intuition.
And honestly, I think most readers who consider themselves more analytical would agree. I have met many tarot readers in my days, including some who are far more knowledgeable about occult correspondences than myself. Yet I don’t think I’ve actually met a single tarot reader who would say they don’t bring any element of intuition into their craft. Hence my comment above that I think this debate is kinda fabricated to begin with.
Interlude: the Six of Pentacles
This is a good opportunity to share something I recently learned which I am absolutely fascinated by, and it ties into this whole conversation. In his writing on the Six of Pentacles, Paul Huson shares the first (recorded) interpretation of this card by the famous (infamous?) card reader Eteilla circa the 1780s. Etteilla described the meaning as “the present. Actually, immediately, now, on the spot, suddenly, instantly, at this moment.”
Now, in the 1880s, the founder of the Golden Dawn S.L. MacGregor Mathers translated Eteilla’s writing on the tarot. Except according to Paul Huson, Mathers mistranslated Eteilla’s use of present to refer to the now, as present as in gifts!
This mistranslation has trickled down ever since, up to and including when I began my own tarot studies. The first interpretation I learned for this card was “giving and receiving.” And if you’ve read any modern texts on tarot, you’ve likely seen a similar interpretation for the Six of Pentacles.
In fact, I’m sure I mentioned the theme of giving and receiving in the guidebook I wrote for the Spacious Tarot (pictured above).
To me, this anecdote is a perfect example of how fallible the concept of a card having a “true” or “core” meaning actually is.
Intuitive reading vs manipulative reading
I briefly mentioned this earlier, but the age old debate of “traditional vs intuitive tarot” came to the forefront of my mind recently because of some posts on threads (Instagram’s new twitter clone). Based on my lurking around, I think this round of conversation started with someone posting negatively about intuitive readers, calling them lazy, etc.
At first I was like, yawn. I’ve been in online tarot spaces long enough to remember similar sentiments being expressed way back in the days of the Big Purple Tarot Forum (iykyk). I don’t typically bother engaging in this debate these days because I’m pretty set in my opinion on the matter as stated above.
But to give that original poster the benefit of the doubt, when I looked at some of the replies I realized I think they were actually trying to refer not just to folks who read intuitively, but to folks who read manipulatively.
From what I can ascertain, the original poster is someone who has grown an audience on TikTok. And if you’ve spent any time on “TarotTok” you probably have come across some people positing themselves as “intuitive” readers but they are actually peddling some pretty shady stuff. The whole “what is your person thinking about you, comment to claim this twin flame reading” kind of thing. There certainly are “readers” out there who would pull the Tower and say “this means your soul mate is thinking of you!”
And I think THIS is the kind of “intuitive” reader that is actually problematic. But in that case, let’s call a spade a spade. You can read intuitively and still be ethical, respectful and helpful. There is a difference between this and readers who claim to be intuitive when they are actually just manipulative.
This could easily turn into a whole post regarding the ethics of tarot reading and what have you, but let’s save that for a different day.
Conclusion: how to find the real, correct meaning of a tarot card
To wrap this up I want to share something I originally posted to the Spacious Tarot’s IG account over a year ago:
You may experience pressure to arrive at the ‘correct’ interpretation when you pull a tarot card. But how can you find the card’s true meaning when every book or online resource gives a slightly different perspective?
Joan Bunning teaches to start by identifying your unique beliefs about tarot. Do some journaling around these questions:
What is tarot to me?
Do I believe the cards have set meanings?
How do I think tarot works?
What is my tarot style?
Some readers use elaborate theories to arrive at a card’s meaning. This analytic approach can involve linking tarot to other metaphysical systems such as astrology or numerology; or even linking the cards to psychological concepts.
Meanwhile, some use tarot more intuitively. They may come to the cards with little prior study and still find deep layers of meaning through feeling into the imagery.
Some say analytic and intuitive methods are at odds with each other, but this is a false dichotomy. Most tarot practitioners weave multiple ways of meaning-making. Even most of those who read analytically believe a card’s meaning shifts depending on the circumstances in which the card appears.
As the anonymous author of Meditations on the Tarot says,
Tarot cards are authentic symbols awakening new ideas, sentiments and aspirations. They require an activity more profound than that of study and intellectual explanation. A tarot card is an enzyme whose presence stimulates the spiritual and psychic lives of humans.
Remember that any interpretation you see for a card was suggested by a human being. Some cards have gathered collective themes that many readers agree on, but no two tarot practitioners will ever view a card in EXACTLY the same way. The card meanings have NEVER been static, and never will be!
Tarot is a dynamic and highly personal experience, and there are infinite ways to find meaning in your cards. It is less about HOW you find the meaning - analytically or intuitively - and more about opening yourself to infinite possibilities. Instead of asking what the “real” or “traditional” meaning is, ask yourself: what is the most useful and resonant meaning this card stirs for me in this moment?
Thanks for reading <3
Carrie
Wow! I think that last sentence is one of the most useful Tarot tips I’ve seen for a while.
Such a great post! Grifters aren't "intuitive", they're glib opportunists. And dogmatists are almost as bad! 😁 As a side note, I think WHY a person uses/reads Tarot is also important (Mark McElroy's "What's in the Cards for You?" is brilliant).