I am a Tarot reader and I make no claim of special abilities. In other words, I rely on my hard gained knowledge of the cards to get my interpretation of a reading.
None the less, I have always recognized that each card has a lot of meanings.
The question and the surrounding cards help me decide which meaning applies to a particular reading.
A couple of weeks ago I was reflecting over how much the use of a deck influence a reading. In other words, the same card in the same combination, may be read differently by me depending on the deck I am using.
Why? I believe the artwork, the symbols, influence my interpretation.
What I know about the card does not change, but the symbols present in the card may lead me to go with one meaning over another.
I believe that is one of the many ways that intuition plays a role in a reading.
I reflected on how sometimes I notice something in a card that I had not noticed earlier. Let me give you some examples. The river and waterfall in the Empress card. It has always been there, but I only started to notice it lately. Now I ask my-self, how did I miss it?
Another one is the two of cups. I had never noticed how the man is reaching for the hand of the lady.
In the 7 of swords. Have you noticed how dangerously the sneaky guy is holding the swords by the blades? For years I had not!
Let’s take this a step farther.
Lately I have been wondering why the same symbol in a card will at time suggest something to me and at other times will not. In other words, why it will stand out to me in one reading, but not in another?
The 4 of cups.
During a reading I noticed the 3 cups lined up in front of the man. After a moment, it occurred to me that 3 people were involved in the situation. The client confirmed it.
In another reading I noticed the two coins being juggled in the air in the 2 of Pentacles card. It told me the guy had two kids.
Why is it that a symbol will speak loudly one time, but stay silent in another occasion? Again, I believe intuition is at work.
What do you think?
By the way, in all the examples mentioned above I was using the RWS deck.

