'Talking' Cards

[Aine Llewellyn]

Sharysa's post in 'Not Sensitive?' made me think of my own relationship with the various decks I read, which I can only really describe as talking with them. Aside from reading the cards I'm usually not super-duper-sensitive, so it was strange for me when I developed this ability to 'hear' what the cards I was reading were saying. It started when I began reading for my friends, and the cards became very direct about their messages. My main deck is the Well-Worn Path and Hidden Path decks combined by Raven Grimassi and Mickie Mueller, but I'm moving to the Shadowscapes Tarot because a) I want to learn how to read it and b) the Path decks are done and have told me so (it's my last week reading them).



Has anyone else had experiences 'hearing' their cards (or whatever divination method they use)? I'd be interested in learning how that works for other people and how they feel about being 'talked to'. The first time this...ability or whatever really hit home was when I was receiving a reading from someone who was doing a painfully transparent cold reading. I ended up looking at the cards she had laid out, a deck I hadn't seen before, and let them talk to me instead. Ever feel like your crazy when you hear the cards, cause sometimes I feel like I'm just...loony but they always turn out accurate.

[Annie Roonie]

Has anyone else had experiences 'hearing' their cards (or whatever divination method they use)? I'd be interested in learning how that works for other people and how they feel about being 'talked to'. The first time this...ability or whatever really hit home was when I was receiving a reading from someone who was doing a painfully transparent cold reading. I ended up looking at the cards she had laid out, a deck I hadn't seen before, and let them talk to me instead. Ever feel like your crazy when you hear the cards, cause sometimes I feel like I'm just...loony but they always turn out accurate.

Do you mean that you actually hear them talk or that you hear it in your head and know that they are speaking to you there?

If the former, no. I don't get actual sounds from tarot or any divination tool. I get sounds though. Like I hear and even see someone say something and respond to it and apparently they have not spoken. Did not realize that quirk hung around until a few months back when an observant co-worker caught me casually responding to something that wasn't said. She's been watching me since that first time because it cracks her up that I don't know I'm doing it but apparently it happens almost weekly and the other people to whom I am conversing never seem to realize it (probably because it is always uber mundane). And other sounds come too, but they sound real to me like actual noises.

With the cards, I hear them communicate in my head, but they don't have voices that I could hear like a person talking. They have different moods of voices rather than audible tones. I have four decks I like to use and they all sound different. And a reading doesn't take on full voice until all the relationships/dignities are examined. The cards become more of a chorus and often the meanings of the placements as pertains to the little white books lose some or all relevance.

The moods of the voices change sometimes depending on whose cards I'm reading too. I know when I'm out of steam when I stop hearing the cards. Then I rely on the books and tell whomever the reason I'm doing that. Oddly enough, it seems to have little effect on the person for whom I am reading. Nobody has ever cared. But I don't charge money either. I think sometimes by using something like a book, it allows people to hear the voices for themselves. Idk. But tarot is exhausting for me when I read for others. The older I get, the longer it takes for me to wipe my mind of the querant's business.

Edited to add: I know that feeling of looniness. I embrace it usually. If it doesn't harm me or interfere with my ability to function daily, I regard it as a kind of happiness.

[Sharysa]

Sharysa's post in 'Not Sensitive?' made me think of my own relationship with the various decks I read, which I can only really describe as talking with them. Aside from reading the cards I'm usually not super-duper-sensitive, so it was strange for me when I developed this ability to 'hear' what the cards I was reading were saying.

Whoo, I inspired a thread! Anyway, the thing my theater prof says is that when you get down to the basics, listening isn't an ability; it's a skill. Listening to people/things is a lot easier for me since I'm quiet and a bard, and it only got better when I started training as an actor. I guess I just transferred my literal listening skills to the metaphysical kind of "hearing."

In some ways it's easier to listen to gods/spirits and my Tarot cards because they don't have bodies in the human sense, and thus no physical messages to throw me off or confuse me. However, everyone has the ability to listen to things; they just need to develop it by getting used to focusing and paying attention. And for the record, you sound like you've developed it really well.

Ever feel like your crazy when you hear the cards, cause sometimes I feel like I'm just...loony but they always turn out accurate.

Another thing to get used to: Unless they're open-minded, people WILL call you crazy for anything they're not used to. The trick is to ignore them.

[Aine Llewellyn]

Do you mean that you actually hear them talk or that you hear it in your head and know that they are speaking to you there?

Not actually hearing them talk, just in my head. I've had a few experiences with actually hearing something (what I would call Otherworld) outside of my head, but never with the cards, and usually in situations very removed from any divinatory work.

They have different moods of voices rather than audible tones.

That's a lot like what I experience, but sometimes I hear full statements in my head as well as interactions between the cards.

I guess I call it talking/hearing because the main way I process everything is through sound - it's the sense I focus on most. I know some of my friends that read as well read through touch/feeling (pain/discomfort in parts of the body, warm/cold, etc) and some have (I suppose you would call) visions.

The cards become more of a chorus and often the meanings of the placements as pertains to the little white books lose some or all relevance.

I've noticed if I try to force myself to interpret the cards in their layout they stop 'talking', at least for a short time. I find it...interesting that decks have personality and, like you said, moods.

[Aine Llewellyn]

Whoo, I inspired a thread! Anyway, the thing my theater prof says is that when you get down to the basics, listening isn't an ability; it's a skill. Listening to people/things is a lot easier for me since I'm quiet and a bard, and it only got better when I started training as an actor. I guess I just transferred my literal listening skills to the metaphysical kind of "hearing."
...
Another thing to get used to: Unless they're open-minded, people WILL call you crazy for anything they're not used to. The trick is to ignore them.

The idea of literal listening and other sense-based/focused skills transferring to metaphysical ones is interesting to me - I've always been so-so at visualization and am more likely to get feelings and statements/sentences/phrases when interacting with energies and deities, which I think is probably because I spend so much time writing.

I do my best to ignore people that call me crazy. I usually one pause when I find myself honestly wondering about my own sanity, buuuut as Annie Roonie said, it's better to embrace it as a kind of happiness.

[Elani Temperance]

Sharysa's post in 'Not Sensitive?' made me think of my own relationship with the various decks I read, which I can only really describe as talking with them. Aside from reading the cards I'm usually not super-duper-sensitive, so it was strange for me when I developed this ability to 'hear' what the cards I was reading were saying. It started when I began reading for my friends, and the cards became very direct about their messages. My main deck is the Well-Worn Path and Hidden Path decks combined by Raven Grimassi and Mickie Mueller, but I'm moving to the Shadowscapes Tarot because a) I want to learn how to read it and b) the Path decks are done and have told me so (it's my last week reading them).

Has anyone else had experiences 'hearing' their cards (or whatever divination method they use)? I'd be interested in learning how that works for other people and how they feel about being 'talked to'. The first time this...ability or whatever really hit home was when I was receiving a reading from someone who was doing a painfully transparent cold reading. I ended up looking at the cards she had laid out, a deck I hadn't seen before, and let them talk to me instead. Ever feel like your crazy when you hear the cards, cause sometimes I feel like I'm just...loony but they always turn out accurate.

The first time I opened my Olympus deck, I knew the meaning of all but a few of the cards. Reading them has been a breeze. Any other deck I have ever picked up has remained a mystery to me. So yes, I know exactly what you mean, even if it's just with the one deck.