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sabrinamariHmmm, feeling a little *ugh*. No real, easily-discernable reason. Maybe the car dreams last night. Maybe the excess of household responsibilities.
I probably need exercise. I'll cram it in later today, because childcare responsibilities took over this morning.
One good thing: Trent is unbelievably excited about learning Tarot. I can't understand it. He is so into this---and I just don't see why it is so interesting to an 11-year-old. But he's been asking for lessons for years, and I've been saying no until now, so this interest has been an ongoing thing.
If a few days go by and we don't discuss a card, Trent comes out and says something like, "We haven't done the threes. Let's do the threes." So while we're doing something else (driving, making dinner, whatever), we'll go through the threes. He's *really* fast and sharp, and he picks it up quickly. He doesn't retain it all but he hangs on to a fair amount of what he hears, and he actually even comes back later and says, "OK, quiz me now." What kid does that? Isn't this quite odd?
So far, we've done an overview of the five suits and we've discussed **The Tower, The Star, The Magician, The High Priestess and The Empress, as well as the aces, twos and threes of the Minor Arcana. I'm approaching it differently than I have in the past: usually I teach by suit, not by number. I'm getting some new-to-me insights this way. I'm also concurrently teaching the Motherpeace approach (with round cards) and classic Rider-Waite approach (with rectangular cards). Thus we are working through the upright-reversal of Rider-Waite AND the six points of tilt on the Motherpeace with each card.
I haven't tried this much paradigm-shifting with adult learners before, but Trent is grasping things quickly. I'm also starting to fire off scenarios for him to interpret, even this early. "OK, you've got a querant getting a business reading and she pulls an upright Three of Discs, a yang-tilted upright Star and a yin-tilted upright Magician. What's going on here?"
And the amazing thing is, he can do it.
By asking him to apply what he's learning as he goes, I think we're building more solid pathways in his memory. He's also learning to reason through new material before/apart from what I tell him it signifies. For example, we did the Three of Swords yesterday. I gave him the classic interpretation, added some variations, and then said, "OK, the harshest position for this Three is the upright, because it represents full-scale emotional turmoil jamming communication, and productive interpersonal work being blocked or overcome by fear, probably of loss."
And Trent said, "No. I think the upright yin-tilted Three of Swords is the worst. If a yin tilt means holding things back and not discussing them [and it usually does], then an upright yin tilt means a really rough emotional situation that no one is talking about, and I think that's the worst."
SCORE!!!!
I fell all over myself congratulating him on this piece of reflective reasoning, and I told him that he had convinced me. I do agree with his assessment. An upright Three of Swords with a yin tilt makes a bad situation even worse, because the easiest way to make *any* problem worse is to stuff it down and not talk about it.
This kid is brilliant. He will be an excellent reader when the time comes.
The extra work I'm doing running the household and doing childcare is tricky, but it is worth it just to see him blossom. I hope we can both keep it up.
** He asked to start with The Tower. Where did that come from? How did he know to ask? I insisted on following up with The Star and focusing on the relationship between the two. Without understanding the relationship between The Tower and The Star, those kinds of periods are just too depressing.
I probably need exercise. I'll cram it in later today, because childcare responsibilities took over this morning.
One good thing: Trent is unbelievably excited about learning Tarot. I can't understand it. He is so into this---and I just don't see why it is so interesting to an 11-year-old. But he's been asking for lessons for years, and I've been saying no until now, so this interest has been an ongoing thing.
If a few days go by and we don't discuss a card, Trent comes out and says something like, "We haven't done the threes. Let's do the threes." So while we're doing something else (driving, making dinner, whatever), we'll go through the threes. He's *really* fast and sharp, and he picks it up quickly. He doesn't retain it all but he hangs on to a fair amount of what he hears, and he actually even comes back later and says, "OK, quiz me now." What kid does that? Isn't this quite odd?
So far, we've done an overview of the five suits and we've discussed **The Tower, The Star, The Magician, The High Priestess and The Empress, as well as the aces, twos and threes of the Minor Arcana. I'm approaching it differently than I have in the past: usually I teach by suit, not by number. I'm getting some new-to-me insights this way. I'm also concurrently teaching the Motherpeace approach (with round cards) and classic Rider-Waite approach (with rectangular cards). Thus we are working through the upright-reversal of Rider-Waite AND the six points of tilt on the Motherpeace with each card.
I haven't tried this much paradigm-shifting with adult learners before, but Trent is grasping things quickly. I'm also starting to fire off scenarios for him to interpret, even this early. "OK, you've got a querant getting a business reading and she pulls an upright Three of Discs, a yang-tilted upright Star and a yin-tilted upright Magician. What's going on here?"
And the amazing thing is, he can do it.
By asking him to apply what he's learning as he goes, I think we're building more solid pathways in his memory. He's also learning to reason through new material before/apart from what I tell him it signifies. For example, we did the Three of Swords yesterday. I gave him the classic interpretation, added some variations, and then said, "OK, the harshest position for this Three is the upright, because it represents full-scale emotional turmoil jamming communication, and productive interpersonal work being blocked or overcome by fear, probably of loss."
And Trent said, "No. I think the upright yin-tilted Three of Swords is the worst. If a yin tilt means holding things back and not discussing them [and it usually does], then an upright yin tilt means a really rough emotional situation that no one is talking about, and I think that's the worst."
SCORE!!!!
I fell all over myself congratulating him on this piece of reflective reasoning, and I told him that he had convinced me. I do agree with his assessment. An upright Three of Swords with a yin tilt makes a bad situation even worse, because the easiest way to make *any* problem worse is to stuff it down and not talk about it.
This kid is brilliant. He will be an excellent reader when the time comes.
The extra work I'm doing running the household and doing childcare is tricky, but it is worth it just to see him blossom. I hope we can both keep it up.
** He asked to start with The Tower. Where did that come from? How did he know to ask? I insisted on following up with The Star and focusing on the relationship between the two. Without understanding the relationship between The Tower and The Star, those kinds of periods are just too depressing.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 05:50 pm (UTC)He's something else, totally!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 06:58 pm (UTC)I am ambivalent. On the one hand, the illustrations, while often beautiful, don't speak to me consistently enough for me to be confident that I could read well with it. On the other hand, the titled positions thing is intriguing and seem like an opportunity to fine-tune the mean of cards whose upright and reversed meanings are so wildly different that they don't sufficiently speak to the nuances of most situations. Something I'd love to poke at with a stick... but again, the meaningfulness of the deck's illustrations are very hit-or-miss for me, and I think that would be a hindrance. Hm.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 09:27 pm (UTC)The problem: my readings are now informed by both approaches, and picking them apart/applying them in one particular reading can be challenging.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 09:26 pm (UTC)What turned out to be more important to me than the art:
* round cards coupled with a yin-yang approach
* the way the deck's images and interpretations suggest how to solve difficult conundrums, instead of announcing that you're in them
* the way closely related cards tend to mirror each other's tilts
These assets outweighed my response to the pictures themselves. It just took me awhile to figure this out.
Also, I am missing my Motherpeace High Priestess. I took it out at the last Neophyte and set it on the altar. Might I have left it in the room, perhaps fallen to floor, or elsewhere there? Can you scan Casa for a solo Motherpeace card, or for several isolated cards looking for their deck?
*
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 09:30 pm (UTC)Fortunately, I have an emergency full-sized deck and a super-double-emergency travel-sized deck. Because without a deck, I am missing eyes and ears and cannot see the path ahead very clearly.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 09:35 pm (UTC)I love to teach Tarot and I love to read, but how to do that and still get all the day-to-day tasks done? That's the trick...every moment I teach a Craft class or do a reading is a moment I don't get the household chores done. It's also a moment I don't work on bringing in income. Right now, that's rough.
Haven't figured that out yet.
Probably in the future.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 03:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 09:20 am (UTC)I wish now that I'd outright asked my Grandma to really teach me to read tea leaves, though the interest in divination has lasted a lifetime. That Trent has the amazing luck to actually have a step-mother who he adores and respects, who is a very skilled and experienced teacher of skills that really interest him, and who is prepared to integrate teaching him those skills into day-to-day tasks is fabulous.
Trent's a very cool kid indeed. Mind you, it's hard for kids not to thrive when they're given such good environments to flourish in.