Further Thoughts on Rational Journaling
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Several times over the last five decades, I’ve started and stopped recording my tarot observations and reading results in a journal because I tend to overthink and consequently overwrite, then I never go back to look at any of it. Here is another way to tackle it.
It’s one of tarot teaching’s accepted maxims that in order to move beyond a nodding acquaintance with the cards one should create and persistently update a written journal to capture any thoughts and ideas that arise during study and practice. There is nothing wrong with this in theory, but its application can become a tedious slog. Anyone with even a marginally retentive memory will absorb the gist of the cards that appear over time in their readings, so even if one’s recall is at first unreliable, through regular use it will eventually jell into a sturdy foundation of personal knowledge. However, those with a “mind like a sieve” may have less auspicious results, and this essay is for them.
It is standard procedure when reading the Lenormand cards to apply only one or two key meanings to each of them, and I once wrote an essay that recommended using the same bare-bones technique when first working with the tarot cards. In the interest of rational journaling, consider the following approach:
Place a tarot card in front of you and, independent of any “book learning” you may have already acquired, throw your mind open to the first couple of impressions that cross it, in approximate order of significance according to your own judgment. This should be a purely visual exercise, and one or two keywords or phrases will be sufficient for the purpose of internalizing the basic concepts. Write these in your bound journal, which I would lay out in advance, card-by-card, with space for only a few sentences between entries (call it a self-limiting design that avoids the boundless depths of a digital note-taking app like OneNote). I don’t necessarily endorse the “one-card-per-day” learning drill, so take them on as the mood strikes you, either randomly or in “textbook” order.
Then, during the course of a reading, riff on these brief notes in “storytelling” mode, using intuition to decide between the primary and secondary meanings based on how well each one fits into the context of the question. At this point on the learning curve you will be practicing mostly on yourself, and it’s appropriate to keep your journal handy. But when reading for other people this kind of “look-up” will both undermine your credibility and sabotage the spontaneity of the experience so — unless you have a sympathetic sitter who accepts that you will be referring to your notes as a training aid — it’s best to keep it private until you become comfortable with “thinking on your feet” in a face-to-face setting.
When the reading is over, if necessary go back and amend your journal entries to reflect anything worthwhile you learned from the occasion. Keep this as brief as possible since you will most likely be adding to it as your wisdom grows. When reading for yourself, spend some time contemplating the outcome of the session before writing anything and then ruthlessly condense your conclusions; if reading for someone else, your subject’s immediate feedback is your best source of inspiration.
Just as you would with any published tarot literature, refer to this material as sparingly as possible during your readings, and push yourself to bring the awareness you’ve already gained to the tip of your tongue without prompting. Resist the temptation to dip into your journal for as long as you can; it should be a last resort in any attempt to develop proficiency. This is a build-it-as-you-go effort in which making the journey can be more valuable than reaching the destination: you won’t always get it right but you will be learning every step of the way. Eventually you will establish a reliable vocabulary of personalized definitions, and you can retire the journal to a shelf, seldom or never glancing at it again.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on March 23, 2024.
