Meanings Can Be in the Details

Sometimes the relevance of a tarot card to a situation can be in the details. In fact there is a whole technique taught by the Tarot School of New York called The Voice in the Card. You let your eye wander over a card and fix on a detail, which is what the card has to say in that reading. It may have no relevance at all to the book meaning of the card!

Some examples of these details are the many details on the Rider Waite Smith deck which have been chewed over at length by the tarot community. In fact I have previously done a whole post on Hidden Mickeys in the deck.

 

The lizard on the King of Wands, the snail on the 9 of Pentacles, the rabbit on the Queen of Pentacles, and the red ticket in the pocket of the man on the right on the 6 of Pentacles.

Sometimes these meaning-supplying details are still something relevant to the design, such as the plan or mallet on the 3 of Pentacles, or the tents on the 7 of Swords.

And sometimes they can be details of the card which otherwise might be thought to function purely as part of Pam's setting of the scene, such as the wall in the 6 of Cups or the tree (look carefully, I promise it's there!) on the 4 of Pentacles:

In fact I find that tree particularly edifying, especially as the Golden Dawn title for the card is Lord of Earthly Power. The tree and the city in the background make me think of a politician sticking to his guns over preserving the environment for the benefit of the state. This meaning is literally miles from common interpretations of this card as meaning a tight wad, a stubborn bastard, medically suggesting constipation or blockages and in a love reading no chance of anal at all. It's interesting how the details make the card mean something else in these cases, whereas if you think about the plan on the 3 of Pentacles, it doesn't really change the normal textbook meaning.

Sometimes allowing details of a card to rise in your mind brings up things which aren't depicted on the card and arise purely from your connection with the card.

Forget the Fool's dog, this is all about the Hierophant's y-fronts. And they are literal y-fronts. Read into that what you will. And then there is the 9 of Pentacles lady's decree absolute which is of quite extraordinary importance to her even though you can't see it. She told me.

I might do a post of random details suggested to me by the cards and their characters but I fear it would be far too personally revealing....