As you might already know, at 78 Puertas we read the cards and teach how to read them with the Open Reading system. This implies that there are no fixed meanings or keywords to be learnt by heart for each tarot card.
Then, how is it possible to read the cards? Basically, by paying attention and Looking at the cards.
In our latest video in YouTube we teach you how to read the 2 of Coins of the Marseille Tarot just by Looking at it and analyzing what we see. You can use this same method with other cards!
Do you use fixed meanings or do you prefer the Open Reading?
If you use meanings, how do you read the 2 of Coins of the Tarot de Marseille? What does it mean for you?
I think the trump cards and court cards have meanings. They have titles which represent archetypes that reflect the meanings of a cards. For instance, The Hanged Man is a hanged man and The Emperor is an emperor. I donāt think these archetypes can easily be ignored.
However, the cards can be read in a number of ways and what you draw attention to is what is deemed important. I think a valid method to reading the cards is to look at what is taking place and base your answer on what you see.
Since the pip cards donāt have titles, I think they are much more fluid in how they can be read. However, the numbers themselves have archetypes that are inherently understood. For example, without knowing anything about numerology, you can understand how the number one can represent new beginnings. But, it wouldnāt make sense if you were to say that number eight represented new beginnings as itās almost at the end of the sequence. So, even the numbers intrinsically have meanings.
Overall, I think the context of the question is important and helps direct your intuition on how to interpret a spread. I think that as long as you can back up your answer with the evidence found in the cards, then you are reading the tarot.
You know? The subject of Archetypes is very delicate. You mention the Hanged Man. The first representations of this card were depicting a punishment to a traitor (letās say, in Christian terms, for being a Judas).
But the interpretation of this card has evolved with centuries, and with the esoterism of the 19th century, and the New Age interpretations of the 20th century, a modern Hanged Man has nothing in common with a Hanged Man of the 15th century.
The Archetypes involved in the cards change, as we also change the way we live and behave through Time. In the same sense, we can also say that a person can āperformā a certain Archetype at morning, and a different one at night, one with the family and a different one at work. Iād say that we, as living beings, fluctuate, mutate and change every single day, and thatās why, in my opinion, the card reading has to be more, much more, than a collection of meanings or keywords.
Thatās why I believe that the Open Reading is the most dynamic and easy approach to reading not only the Tarot, but all types of āpipā cards.
I seem to use both ways. If i am stuck and need directionā¦i may fall back on a card meaning as a starting pointā¦ . And there r times where intuition guides me.
For one, I feel like they arenāt necessarily restricted by whatās current. The Hanged Man, for example, neednāt take on the Golden Dawnās remixed interpretation if its āpittura infamanteā origins make more sense in context. Furthermore, they can be mixed and matched depending on the context and narrative of the reading, so knowing all the possible interpretations is actually useful.
Second, thereās an RWS-based modern interpretation of Arcanas 0-5 that I outright reject on principle. Modern interpretation holds that the Magician & High Priestess are a pairing similar to Empress/Emperor, and itās the Hierophant that is the teacher, so the Fool (interpreted as, generally speaking, a foolish person) must experience the effects of the four types of authority before having them contextualized by a holy leader/teacher.
My preferred interpretation leans on the TdM. The Fool is instead interpreted as a jester in the wilderness - one outside of his element. Heās not āfoolishā, heās merely been placed by circumstances outside his control into an environment for which he is not prepared. If La Bateleur is his teacher, not only can he explain the 4 types of power (Empress/Emperor, and Pape/Papess) BEFORE the Fool encounters them, but he can do so using a shared context - both are entertainers. So The Magician as a teacher makes more sense to me in a divination art, as it lays down divinationās feature of seeking fore-knowledge rather than assessment of the past. Furthermore, it undermines the implication that authority should be allowed to act upon the pilgrim before anyone comes along to explain it - and, that the explainer should be one who both holds court over supplicants and has clear ties to the prior authority structure.
In short, I feel like recognizing the Hierophant as teacher reflects a pro-establishment philosophy, while recognizing The Magician as teacher reflects an anti-establishment philosophy.
Circling it back to archetypes, the freedom for a reader to choose and customize their own archetypes allows both flexibility in personal work, and greater choice for those seeking a reading.
Regarding the topic of the 2 of Coins, hereās what I like to do when reading it in the TdM:
A coin has two sides, so this can indicate a choice to be made where both sides have a benefit - the type of choice one might make by flipping a coin.
The coins placed on a personās eyes when they die are intended to pay Charonās fare. The person cannot pay their own fare, it must be provided by the living. So this card can represent needed physical/resource assistance from others that the querent cannot provide for themselves.
TdM cards with a ribbon can represent how two physical/Earth-based matters are linked in fate. For example, If someone is seeking advice for asking for a promotion, this card may advise the querent to highlight how their own need for more money is linked to the companyās need for the unique value they create as an employee.
These are a few examples of what I like to do and I enjoyed this video as well!
I, very naively, just wonder if the deck is to represent the entire human experience, and there are no fixed meanings could one aspect of humanity be lost in any particular reading?
I like to think of it in terms of computer programming. In simple terms, a computer can only act based on what information is stored in its library. So for example if you want to make a computer program that tells you what color something is, you have to give it a list of colors to work from.
Now letās say the computer is being programmed by someone that canāt see the color red, so the computer has no idea that āredā even exists. Or, rather, the computer is capable of seeing the color red, but it doesnāt have a way of telling anyone that itās seeing red.
So yes, itās possible for a tarot deck to have some missing aspects of humanity, and Iāve seen modern tarot and oracle decks trying to address that. The major ones being the use of the gender binary. In my own readings Iāve adjusted by explaining things in terms of yin and yang, but inevitably I do have to acknowledge that yin is basically modern-speak for what was once deemed āfemaleā and yang is what was once deemed āmaleā.
