Coaxing the Tarot Muse

[Joan Marie]

At first glance, this may seem like a strange card to pick for Goals - in fact, I considered throwing it back and picking another card, but that would be cheating.

How often does this happen?

Reading tarot, I find, is very often like anything you are trying to do that requires some time to start coming together. You sit there thinking this isn't working but you push through somehow and you come up with a great result. How does that happen?

Anyone who writes or paints or engages in any kind of activity that needs some inspiration to get going, (even cleaning house can be like this) knows that if you sit around waiting for the "muse" you might be waiting for a real long time.

Reading tarot is like this. That's why we have our rituals to get into the mindset. But sometimes we do draw a card or cards and think, "nope" but we have to be patient and stay with it until it happens. Like chiscotheque said, sometimes the urge to "cheat" is strong. In my experience, tossing a card and picking a second almost never works though. Once I cross that line, I'm out.

I recently came across a website where the artist Nick Cave answers some questions from people and he had a really interesting response to someone asking about how to get going when you just aren't feeling it. I think his answer can apply to tarot reading. Here is an excerpt from what he wrote:

Sit down. Be yourself. Be prepared. Be attentive. Defy the voices. Be the thing you want to be. Write. Be playful. Be reckless. Remember that you are uniquely designed for the idea that is moving toward you. You are good enough. The idea is about to arrive.

Here is the link to the full post he made.

I guess what I am seeing here, and in the link above, is a relationship between intuition and the creative muse and I wonder if anyone else has any thoughts on that.

[chiscotheque]

You introduce some good questions, Joan Marie.
As you say, picking a second card almost never works - a reason in itself to disavow "cheating". I remember that feeling cheating induces very well, because as a child I cheated a lot - or maybe I just took particular notice of the feeling. There's a certain frisson from the excitement of getting away with something (or not), but the feeling one is left with is bad, simple as that - the feeling of both cheating others and being cheated by oneself.
Not to sound like a jerk, but as an artist I often come across this issue of both inspiration - getting things going - and authenticity - is it true or just facile and expedient? Like dreams and love and art itself, the tarot is intent on getting one past the meniscus that keeps us bound - the rational mind that evaluates and keeps each thing named and in its designated place. To fight and go against its intent and endowment is to debase it and - simply put - debase oneself. To do otherwise demands, as Nick Cave alludes to, a faith in the process's capabilities and in one's own capabilities.
And here's the real rub - movement doesn't cause injury, rather stasis does, like bed sores. Again, as Cave suggests, the way out is through - getting down to it, doing it, is the answer and its own reward. Very much like fear, where the fear of the unknown or the neurotically charged, is far more damaging and painful than actually facing the unknown. What's more, the unknown only grows more powerful by going unfaced, and so it becomes a vortex of otiosity, a parody of parity.
Better to fail honestly, and hopefully learn and move forward from one's mistakes, than succeed in any other way, since such success is no success at all. The fact that pulling another card - to say nothing of actually choosing a card for a reading in a contrived manner - almost never works is intuition and the creative muse turning their back on you, as you turned yours on them. And like any relationship, they will put up with a certain amount of this but, at a certain point, they will amscray, and for good.

[Libra]

One thing I'll do is conciously choose a card, the one I WANT to see and dig out put and throw out down with the original card and do some compare & contrast with it. That'll usually show me how the deck is showing me what I need instead of what I want! That in itself is often very insightful.

Not really related to any Muse discussion, but rather what brought it up.

[Charlie Brown]

One thing I'll do is conciously choose a card, the one I WANT to see and dig out put and throw out down with the original card and do some compare & contrast with it. That'll usually show me how the deck is showing me what I need instead of what I want! That in itself is often very insightful.

That's such an interesting idea, Libra.

[Amoroso]

Having the discipline to inhibit oneself from drawing extra cards does seem necessary to become a better Tarot reader. Will take this to heart.

[jaq]

As a writer, I'm very familiar with this topic. Generally, I find that if I show up, eventually my muse will, and the more reliably I show up, the more reliably my muse does.

[Anesidora]

For me, reading tarot is infinitely easier than trying to finish the novel I'm working on. I find that I dont need the creative muse nearly as much with tarot, perhaps because I read more analytically.

[jaq]

For me, reading tarot is infinitely easier than trying to finish the novel I'm working on. I find that I dont need the creative muse nearly as much with tarot, perhaps because I read more analytically.

Hah! Ain't that the truth. I'm in the same boat. I've finished a novel and a novella but have a novel that just won't finish. For me, it has something to do with structure. Tarot gives me a structure to work with. The last card is the last card, I better make something of it. Not so with that novel ... having said that, though, what I said in the earlier post stands. I HAVE finished many writing projects, and it wouldn't have happened had I waited for the muse to show up.