Intuitive tarot readers - questions and poll

[Nemia]

Would you call yourself an intuitive tarot reader? I'm intrigued by the definition "intuitive reading" because in a way, it's a tautology - you can't read cards seriously without using your intuition. (Can you?)

But of course, we're not all blessed with intuitive skills. Some of us have to learn to trust their intuition (I'm one of them) and wouldn't call themselves "intuitive reader".

Can an intuitive reader read the cards without any resources except for the cards themselves? Do you have the feeling too much "book learning" ruins your intuition? (I confess I'm a bit suspcious when people use intuition to defend their unwillingness to learn; I have met such people in the art world and I think different mental abilities don't neutralize or cancel each other out but empower each other).

Are there ways in which we can strengthen our intuition, learn to trust it again? How is the role of intuition in the triangle cards - querent - reader? Do you intuit the querent as well as the cards?

What other reading styles are there? Narrative - creating a story from the pictures. Esoteric - relating to the esoteric structure of tarot (astrology, mythology etc). Traditional fortune telling.

Tell us a bit about your reading style - and I made a little poll about intuitive reading; you can choose two options if you can't choose only one. I was born curious and it's my first poll so bear with me!

[litefoot13]

I think in the future I could possibly become more intuitive.
Right now, though, I'm trying to learn the 'basic' meanings first, so any card pulls I do are accompanied by much flipping of books and googling. xD

It can be a future goal, at least. x3

[Joan Marie]

I have my doubts that anyone can read the cards through intuition alone. I also don't think anyone can read without it.

I think a learned approach exploring the many topics that surround the tarot enhances the intuitive abilities.

Compare it to playing an instrument. At first you are focused entirely on the mechanics of the instrument. Then you begin to learn structures and cords. Then at some point you can play without having to focus on those things. You begin to "feel" the music.

But even the most masterful musicians are still always learning, trying new instruments and styles. And their playing becomes more and more "intuitive."

There have been studies done that show what is called intuition is very often the workings of the subconscious mind using experience and knowledge that is so deeply ingrained that the person doesn't even realise that's where it is coming from.

But I think for this to happen, to get to this point where you can let go and "hear" what your intuition is telling you and then to trust it and soar with it, takes some practice, some work. You've got to learn to still the waters. And when reading Tarot you have to know if what you are sensing is intuition or projection. This is tricky business.

I think it is important to always be exploring your craft, learning and challenging yourself to grow. Then learn to let all that knowledge and experience come into play when you need it, in strange ways, to mix and combine way deep inside of you and manifest as intuition.

[velvetina]

I don't believe that I am any more intuitive than the next person.
I do believe however that I try to cultivate my intuition and pay attention to it.

Having said that, I'd like to stress that
- my "intuition" is often something else entirely; sometimes a prejudice or bias that I can do without.
- my "intuition" isn't always to be trusted. It's probably more likely to be the voice of my id than the voice of my Higher Self. It always needs checking.

However, I do have mad, wonderful moments of intuitive insight, that comes from a source outside the cards.

Nonetheless, I read the cards according to particular formulae. I trust to 'fate' that the querent will select the 'right' deck, the 'right' cards and I interpret according to their position and context. Everything else is icing on the cake (and sometimes it's just cake, no icing).

Even without the "intuition" the Tarot can still deliver astonishing and helpful messages. Most people can access it for themselves, if they wished to.

[BlueStar]

Great thread!

Would you call yourself an intuitive tarot reader?
I'm trying to be. I do try and hone in on what I feel the card is telling me and use my intuition, rather than lean too heavily on book meanings, but I'd say I try and use a mixture of the two. If I don't feel I'm understanding what a card is showing then I will rely on the book.

Can an intuitive reader read the cards without any resources except for the cards themselves?
I've seen someone just pick up a new deck and get their own interpretations straight off without a guidebook or resource. My perspective is that cards are just a tool to tap into that intuition and I've been thinking recently that for those of us not so intuitively developed or confident you could say guidebooks and traditional meanings help us learn a Tarot 'language' with which to interpret cards until we become fluent in that 'language' and no longer need them 'translated'.

Are there ways in which we can strengthen our intuition, learn to trust it again?
I really feel that Tarot is a great way to strengthen intuition because we are actively trying to use it when we read the cards. It's like anything else learnt - the more we do it the better we probably will get and the more confident and trusting we will be with it. And then that in turn can help us with using intuition in our everyday lives.

What other reading styles are there? Narrative - creating a story from the pictures. Esoteric - relating to the esoteric structure of tarot (astrology, mythology etc). Traditional fortune telling.
I don't have any other suggestions for this, but am fascinated by the different styles. I think you can use a mixture of all of these in Tarot.

[BlackTarotCards]

Some people prefer to read spreads exactly how they were taught, either from a mentor or some other source. There's innumerably different ways to approach tarot and to me this seems to exclude much of the tarot's richness.

The moment you start to consider different interpretations or approaches, you have to think about which takes priority when they deviate. The wider a pool you draw from, the more cumbersome this can be.

The way I see it is that my interpretations are all intuitive, and it is on me to make my intuition as informed as possible by doing research.

[uscss.Nostromo]

Since we're given an option to select 2 choices, I chose #'s 2 and 3 like a cocktail, (1/3 #2) ( 2/3 #3), stir gently.

[uscss.Nostromo]

What other reading styles are there? Narrative - creating a story from the pictures. Esoteric - relating to the esoteric structure of tarot (astrology, mythology etc). Traditional fortune telling.

the narrative quality of the imagery is extremely important for me but the esoteric structure as it relates to astrology, Kabbalah, etc have no place whatsoever in my reading style.
Mythology is a different matter, I regard that as an important element of the narrative.

Fortune telling, I straddle the fence with that one.

[Amoroso]

My intuition isn't the strongest but it's getting better.

[Anesidora]

I have seen people who read purely on intuition be successful readers and I attribute that to a deck becoming attuned to a reader in a sense. I'm a believer that the universe will get you the answer, no matter your reading style.

However, I prefer a combination of "book" learning and intuition. Every reader, imo, is somewhat intuitive since cards can have different meanings in different combinations or positions in a spread. Readers must be able to intuit which meaning fits the card and question.

Intuition can certainly be taught or developed. Theres a lot of good resource material out there on different methods.

I think that in order to be a successful reader, you need to study all different types of reading and find your own style. But I agree, I am often wary of people who claim intuition and use it to reject further learning on a card.

[Grizabella]

I had a hard time choosing which answers to pick. I learned all the meanings at an early point in my Tarot journey but now I rely on that plus intuition, but heavy on the "intuition". For the poll I chose number 1 and number 2. I always find it difficult to try to describe what I do when reading.

Whether you learn book meanings or not, you still rely on what people call intuition to arrive at the answers you're seeking in my opinion. I learned the meanings but I still have to rely on intuition to tell me what the card means in the context of the other cards. The positional names, relationship to the overall question the sitter is seeking and images on the cards also play a part. No card ever means the very same thing for every single reading. It's a matter of just having the instinctual feeling of what it means at the time.

[SaturnCeleste]

I voted for Not really, my intuition is a supportive player in my tarot toolbox. I am more of an intuitive reader/writer. It's hard to explain but when I write up a reading I get impressions and words just come from me in relation to the reading. I've found through the years that those additional thoughts I include sometimes are what my clients feel the most. So intuitive yes, but not so much in reading the cards. I'm a firm believer in knowing the meanings of the cards first and then let the intuition flow.

[Night Shade]

I chose number 2 "yes my intuition is my strongest but not my only tool". I always consider the traditional meanings of the cards when I'm doing a reading, but if my intuition contradicts them, I always go with my gut instinct.

[katrinka]

Would you call yourself an intuitive tarot reader? I'm intrigued by the definition "intuitive reading" because in a way, it's a tautology - you can't read cards seriously without using your intuition. (Can you?)

There's a lot of semantics at play here. The word "intuition" is defined as "The ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning" or "A thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning." But the way it gets used a lot these days with regard to card reading is "making up stories about the pictures without having learned the card meanings."

I do use intuition in the sense of having studied the cards for so long that seeing them laid out gives me an instinctive reaction, before I've analyzed them. I still analyze them, though. So I picked "Not really, my intuition is a supportive player in my tarot toolbox".

What I don't do is read off the pictures with no background as to the card meaning. To use a very simple example, let's look at the Dog from the Dondorf Lenormand:



The Dog is a loyal, trustworthy friend (normally male), a literal dog or other domestic, non-livestock animal, or, in a health reading, the tongue and teeth. That's how I read it.

What I don't do is say "Look at that poor chained dog with just a dry bone and no water. I feel that this is talking about neglect..." "Neglect" is not a Lenormand Dog meaning, and Lenormand is the method, not the deck.

With Tarot the boundaries are a bit looser, but I still wouldn't use anything I got off the pictures that contradicted the card meaning.

But of course, we're not all blessed with intuitive skills. Some of us have to learn to trust their intuition (I'm one of them) and wouldn't call themselves "intuitive reader".

Can an intuitive reader read the cards without any resources except for the cards themselves? Do you have the feeling too much "book learning" ruins your intuition? (I confess I'm a bit suspcious when people use intuition to defend their unwillingness to learn; I have met such people in the art world and I think different mental abilities don't neutralize or cancel each other out but empower each other).

Book learning is virtually always a good thing.

We're in dangerous times right now, and the "books are bad for intuition!" trope is symptomatic of a larger problem. People are ignoring evidence of all kinds of things. Look at all the antivaxxers, for example, they're causing measles to make a comeback. Polio and other preventable diseases may do the same, because a segment of the population has adopted the debunked theory that "vaccines cause autism". We're being dragged into a new Dark Ages.

I've given this some thought. I suspect that (with card reading, at least), it ties in to another debunked idea: left brain/right brain theory. https://www.verywellmind.com/left-brain ... in-2795005 People have this idea that if they avoid "left brain stuff" like science, math, logic and reasoning, their "right brain" will grow stronger and more "psychic" and "intuitive".

Are there ways in which we can strengthen our intuition, learn to trust it again?

The best way I've found is not to ignore it. I'm with Clarissa Pinkola Estes on this one. See her comments on "the instinct-injured woman" in Women Who Run With The Wolves. "His beard is not so blue..."

How is the role of intuition in the triangle cards - querent - reader? Do you intuit the querent as well as the cards?

We pick up nonverbal cues about people whenever we're around them. Body language, manner of dress, etc.
We have to be careful, though. It's very easy to make incorrect assumptions.

What other reading styles are there? Narrative - creating a story from the pictures. Esoteric - relating to the esoteric structure of tarot (astrology, mythology etc). Traditional fortune telling.

Esoteric meanings, if any, are part of the rote meanings for me, and I use them in a traditional fortune telling manner. I'm not sure you can separate those two.

Tell us a bit about your reading style

I think I already have.

[Lysergicka]

Interesting discussion.

I voted for Options 2 & 3. Many of my querent tell me that things I say resonate with them for weeks, and end up really hitting home. but I am not easily intuitive.
My default is practical instruction based on the vision and teachings of the Thoth. This is imbued with behavioral psychology that I add in as well for practical assistance with their future decisions.

I feel many of us raise our intuition through dedicated and enjoyable exploration known as tarot / divination, and magick.

I have met only two true psychics, fully intuitive. One's reading for me bounced off of the archetypal portal of a single tarot card, and I was both floored and impacted by the mirror he held up that I had been refusing to look into.

Love this stuff...

[Blissful]

Hello all,
I just joined this forum (I posted a little bit about myself in an intro thread).
I saw this topic and figured I can jump in here, since I primarily read the tarot intuitively.

When I first started getting into tarot, about 40 (!) years ago, I bought a big thick book on it and tried really hard to memorize the meanings of the cards. About ten years later, a mentor of mine (not a mentor in tarot, but she also read cards), suggested that I "throw the book away" and simply interpret what I saw in the pictures.

It was the best advice I ever received about reading tarot. I have always been a visually-oriented person and in my life had experienced many instances of psychic ability (which we all have), so using my intuition just worked well for me. I also stopped using predetermined spreads and just pull however many cards feel right.

The word "intuition" literally means "inner teacher" or "inner knowledge." We know so much more than we think we know; the amount of information our brains process is huge, while the amount we consciously comprehend is tiny in comparison. I see psychic "messages" as sort of chunks of information coming to the surface from that repository of data in our brains. And intuition is the inner interpretation of that information, which, I've been told, is somehow transmitted along neural pathways from the solar plexus. Hence, the word "gut" or "guts" has often been associated with the concept of intuition ("gut instinct," "gut reaction," etc.). Trusting my gut can be challenging or confusing, so I have taken courses to learn how to trust my inner teacher, which helped.

Although I do occasionally look up the meaning of a card (about once in a blue moon, and only when curious or feeling blocked), I feel that following the so-called "traditional" meanings ascribed to the tarot by others who lived in a different culture and different time period from my own, with very specific religious or spiritual beliefs, to be inauthentic *for me*, an agnostic non-theist. And difficult, as well. I read the cards sort of like scrying, in a way, or as if the cards are talismans or personal effects a querent might hand me that help me connect with and intuit things about them. I actually see reading tarot as more about reading the querent than the cards, and the symbolism/stories in the cards guide my intuitive senses along the connection established between us.

I've pretty much forgotten most of what the cards are "supposed to" mean or represent, and have had lots of good, positive feedback on my intuitive readings.

[Diana]

When I first started getting into tarot, about 40 (!) years ago, I bought a big thick book on it and tried really hard to memorize the meanings of the cards. About ten years later, a mentor of mine (not a mentor in tarot, but she also read cards), suggested that I "throw the book away" and simply interpret what I saw in the pictures.

It was the best advice I ever received about reading tarot. I have always been a visually-oriented person and in my life had experienced many instances of psychic ability (which we all have), so using my intuition just worked well for me. I also stopped using predetermined spreads and just pull however many cards feel right.

A few months ago, I started up a thread called "Imagine you'd never heard of a Tarot card" which was to experiment how one could read the Tarot of Marseilles without ANY prior knowledge at all. Not even knowing what a Tarot deck is. viewtopic.php?f=143&t=1780 I stopped after a few posts as it didn't seem to be of of interest to anyone on CoT and there was no point in clogging up the forum with posts that have interest only to me. But I did continue by myself for a while and it's actually helped me a lot to trust more my intuition.

Intuition plays a huge role in reading cards. So I think it's good that you got this advice to throw away the book meanings. The vast majority (more than 95% I'd say) of the decks on the market can be used without any help of the LWB or traditional meanings. The pictures on them usually say it all. They're very straightforward. However, there are some decks which I think merit a bit of background knowledge - even more than a bit in fact. That would be specifically the Thoth deck of Alesteir Crowley to a huge extent, and also the Tarot of Marseilles. The first requires knowledge of Thelema, the second background on mythology, symbolism and also some understanding of the mindset of the people in the Middle Ages. If one is into Golden Dawn things (but there are few today I think who are interested), then for the RWS, there are some useful things to know (for instance that the design on the blanket in the 9 of Swords has something to do with one of the Hidden Chambers of the Golden Dawn - I think it had that pattern on the wall or the floor. I forget the name of the Chamber. They gave these things very solemn names - they really took their antics very seriously).

The word "intuition" literally means "inner teacher" or "inner knowledge." We know so much more than we think we know; the information our brains process is huge, while the amount we consciously comprehend is tiny in comparison. I see psychic "messages" as sort of chunks of information coming to the surface from that repository of data in our brains. And intuition is the inner interpretation of that information, which, I've been told, is somehow transmitted along neural pathways from the solar plexus. Hence, the word "gut" or "guts" has often been associated with the concept of intuition ("gut instinct," "gut reaction," etc.). Trusting my gut can be challenging or confusing, so I have taken courses to learn how to trust my inner teacher, which helped.

They call the gut, the belly "the second brain" and there is more and more interest by psychiatry in this issue as they are starting to realise that our gut also has a big role to play in our mental well-being. There are neural networks in the belly that are similar to those of the brain apparently. Almost like a second brain.

As to the inner teacher, yes, that's a very nice way to put it. The Tarot itself is our inner teacher. We think it's cards that are outside of us, but actually all they contain is already within us. The cards help us become aware of what is already within. They sort of shine the right light in the darkness.

[Monk]

I chose option 2, I lean quite heavily on intuition. As someone mentioned before, everything is in flux. Card positions, situations, nature of the query, my mood, his/her mood, seasons and space time.. you name it. My intuition leans on my understanding of people and how they affect and are being affected within a cyclic system, the Tarot seemed very fitting as a means to make sense of what I feel and called upon me. Now my quest is to sharpen my skills in binding my intuition to the other layers of the cards, the mythology, iconography and such aspects.

If one is into Golden Dawn things (but there are few today I think who are interested), then for the RWS, there are some useful things to know (for instance that the design on the blanket in the 9 of Swords has something to do with one of the Hidden Chambers of the Golden Dawn - I think it had that pattern on the wall or the floor. I forget the name of the Chamber. They gave these things very solemn names - they really took their antics very seriously).

Diana, it happens to be so that I am very much so called to the Golden Dawn view on things. I use the Etherial Visions deck (which leans heavily on the RWS my first deck) and the "Hermetic". I came across some read worthy passage on the web dealing with the 9/Sw. The blanked was mentioned there aswel. Any chance you could point me to the info you mentioned about the chambers?

[Diana]

Diana, it happens to be so that I am very much so called to the Golden Dawn view on things. I use the Etherial Visions deck (which leans heavily on the RWS my first deck) and the "Hermetic". I came across some read worthy passage on the web dealing with the 9/Sw. The blanked was mentioned there aswel. Any chance you could point me to the info you mentioned about the chambers?

Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark the document at the time. But I'll try and remember what led me to it, what I typed in Google exactly. I'm pretty confident that I'll find it. It was a very interesting website.

[Diana]

Diana, it happens to be so that I am very much so called to the Golden Dawn view on things. I use the Etherial Visions deck (which leans heavily on the RWS my first deck) and the "Hermetic". I came across some read worthy passage on the web dealing with the 9/Sw. The blanked was mentioned there aswel. Any chance you could point me to the info you mentioned about the chambers?

Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark the document at the time. But I'll try and remember what led me to it, what I typed in Google exactly. I'm pretty confident that I'll find it. It was a very interesting website.

Well, I found something. It's the second reference I was thinking of that I had read. I can't find the first one. I love this website so I'm glad I went looking because it gives me a chance to revisit it again. It was buried amongst a whole lot of unsorted bookmarks.

http://www.elfindog.sakura.ne.jp/rwssw09.htm

The English is a bit funny. It's a Japanese website and the automatic translation is not always very accurate to say the least. But one manages to get a good gist.

9 of Swords RWS

The scene that this card depicts is not just a grief picture. It's Dark Night of the Soul, the dark night of the soul that you must experience when you play as a master. Some women are sad and grieving because they are humans and face their ugly jealousy and hatred, but the pattern of the blanket that warms their cold heart is a patchwork of roses and zodiac signs . It shows the wall of the "underground burial place" used for the ceremony of entry into the "Ruby Roses and Gold Cross" team of the Golden Dawn Company.

Pictured on the chaise longue is an episode of Genesis's "Cain and Abel," a sight of the original sin of killing his brother for jealousy.


The Japanese have contributed a lot to the Tarot of Marseilles. They have some very fine scholars over there who have treated this matter with great care and respect and reverence. I always have a sense of deep gratitude when I think of what they have done to uphold the tradition and to make it even stronger with good mortar.

Who would have thought, huh ? That the Japanese would play such a big part in the preservation of the Ur Tarot.

[Raven]

I have my doubts that anyone can read the cards through intuition alone. I also don't think anyone can read without it.

I think a learned approach exploring the many topics that surround the tarot enhances the intuitive abilities.

Compare it to playing an instrument. At first you are focused entirely on the mechanics of the instrument. Then you begin to learn structures and cords. Then at some point you can play without having to focus on those things. You begin to "feel" the music.

But even the most masterful musicians are still always learning, trying new instruments and styles. And their playing becomes more and more "intuitive."

There have been studies done that show what is called intuition is very often the workings of the subconscious mind using experience and knowledge that is so deeply ingrained that the person doesn't even realise that's where it is coming from.

But I think for this to happen, to get to this point where you can let go and "hear" what your intuition is telling you and then to trust it and soar with it, takes some practice, some work. You've got to learn to still the waters. And when reading Tarot you have to know if what you are sensing is intuition or projection. This is tricky business.

I think it is important to always be exploring your craft, learning and challenging yourself to grow. Then learn to let all that knowledge and experience come into play when you need it, in strange ways, to mix and combine way deep inside of you and manifest as intuition.

I have to say that I agree with you completely, Joan Marie. I don't believe that anyone can read the cards through intuition alone. From my own experience, I know that consulting knowledge, whether it be what I already know or, because I use so many different decks, how the author of the deck I'm using sees the cards she or he created, enhances my intuition as though it were a gateway of some kind.

It is vitally important to be exploring one's craft all the time because there are always new decks with new understandings of, and new perspectives on the cards. I also think that stilling the waters before one embarks upon any reading is communion with oneself and perhaps, even, communion with a collective unconscious that is connected with card reading.

[Diana]

There have been studies done that show what is called intuition is very often the workings of the subconscious mind using experience and knowledge that is so deeply ingrained that the person doesn't even realise that's where it is coming from.

In the word intuition there is the word "tuition". Although the etymology of intuition is not the same as tuition, there is the language of the birds - the green language. Therefore we have tuition that is within. All our experiences and knowledge that we have acquired are all concentrated when we do a good reading. So our tuition within is exteriorised.

[AeonHorus]

Would you call yourself an intuitive tarot reader? I'm intrigued by the definition "intuitive reading" because in a way, it's a tautology - you can't read cards seriously without using your intuition. (Can you?)

There's a lot of semantics at play here. The word "intuition" is defined as "The ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning" or "A thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning." But the way it gets used a lot these days with regard to card reading is "making up stories about the pictures without having learned the card meanings."

Now here it is!
I too have had a long battle with what is currently applies to as "The New Norm" --- "Forget the books and simply read the image"

If this was true then why the need for a system?
The system is in place for a reason and that to me is so that your interpretation (as a cartomancer) rings true to the querent for one and not only that but it is something (as I have done many times in the past) to fall back on to back up what you are telling your querent. Especially is you are touching onto dodgy grounds and they suddenly spark up with .... "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?"

The Dog is a loyal, trustworthy friend (normally male), a literal dog or other domestic, non-livestock animal, or, in a health reading, the tongue and teeth. That's how I read it.

What I don't do is say "Look at that poor chained dog with just a dry bone and no water. I feel that this is talking about neglect..." "Neglect" is not a Lenormand Dog meaning, and Lenormand is the method, not the deck.

With Tarot the boundaries are a bit looser, but I still wouldn't use anything I got off the pictures that contradicted the card meaning.

Again this I have to agree with, boundaries are set into place for a reason and that reason is to be able to glean some truth in how the random cards have fallen. At the end of the day card reading all stems from reading the everyday 52 card, playing cards set and probably arose through games such as Bridge (not poker lol) which also have a rigid rule set.

But of course, we're not all blessed with intuitive skills. Some of us have to learn to trust their intuition (I'm one of them) and wouldn't call themselves "intuitive reader".

Ha, you're not the only one. Takes time and efforts and a lot of reading and seeing how the images fit to the set system.

Can an intuitive reader read the cards without any resources except for the cards themselves? [/quote}

I have children telling stories from the images they see. Even my 3 year olds can do it a little, but as for them telling a meaningful enough story that pertains to the question in hand without having read or learned from any resource. This I think not but I am very open to being proved wrong on this!

Do you have the feeling too much "book learning" ruins your intuition?

(I confess I'm a bit suspicious when people use intuition to defend their unwillingness to learn; I have met such people in the art world and I think different mental abilities don't neutralize or cancel each other out but empower each other).

Book learning is virtually always a good thing.

I have to agree with Katrinka on this one, as much a pain in the arse it is lol, it is there to help.
I mean you wouldn't go try fix up your car without at least looking up in your Haynes manual first right ? Even just as simple as an oil change! Without the prior knowledge then you are most likely to f@(k it you rather spectacularly

We're in dangerous times right now, and the "books are bad for intuition!" trope is symptomatic of a larger problem. People are ignoring evidence of all kinds of things. Look at all the antivaxxers, for example, they're causing measles to make a comeback. Polio and other preventable diseases may do the same, because a segment of the population has adopted the debunked theory that "vaccines cause autism". We're being dragged into a new Dark Ages.

Yes we are!
And it is quite scary!

How is the role of intuition in the triangle cards - querent - reader? Do you intuit the querent as well as the cards?

We pick up nonverbal cues about people whenever we're around them. Body language, manner of dress, etc.
We have to be careful, though. It's very easy to make incorrect assumptions.

When sat face to face yes I do believe that we do "intuit' the querent, as far as to say there is always a two way thing going on. Telling them what you see and then confirming if that is correct or not and then conversation sprouts up from there and then other things may well spring to mind or other images and symbols in the cards may jump out to confirm their presence. As indeed deeper meaning and keywords/key phrases associated with the cards laid out before you

What other reading styles are there? Narrative - creating a story from the pictures. Esoteric - relating to the esoteric structure of tarot (astrology, mythology etc). Traditional fortune telling.

Esoteric meanings, if any, are part of the rote meanings for me, and I use them in a traditional fortune telling manner. I'm not sure you can separate those two.

Without this then there can be no personality in the cards, the esoteric meanings are what give the normally flat and 2d cardboard images life and (dare I say it) soul!

If I am truly honest I have known true intuitives and by the book readers and both work extremely well but the intuitives I have known have done considerable amounts of readings and research into the hidden symbology, card meanings, meditations etc.
I am yet to meet anyone (outside of YouPube and FarceBook) who intuitively reads WITHOUT EVER reading a book on the meanings.
Even everyone who blurts out "Put down the book, you don't need it" they themselves have spent half a lifetime studying lol

anyway that's my two pennath

Aeon