Who taught the first painter to paint? What practical book of oil painting or watercolours was around when the first time urge came to illustrate a tapestry with a colourful representation of what was on the artist's mind? Nothing. No teacher was there to criticise or point out the right or the wrong. The first one was the he or she who did what came instinctively. They let it flow naturally. The did what felt right ... free from the criticism of others. Then down through the ages, as recognised styles developed ... it became more and more 'wrong' to express a 'free style' and it became more of the norm to have to paint exactly as it is taught or it is written in books.It is exactly the same at times with mysticism. With clairvoyancy in particular. From bitter self experience I found the world of self development a world lacking in free styles. It is a world where the mystic is expected to follow the same road as all of those who have gone before. If he or she doesn't then they get 'shackles' tied to their ankles and they get criticised. They get operantly conditioned that they are 'not old enough' to read professionally; they cannot have the abilities they claim because they have not followed the pathway that has been apparently laid down as the only way to develop as a medium or a clairvoyant.
The same can be said with The Tarot. With Tarot card reading. The norm dictates that tarot cards must be studied intimately and their 'book readings' .... the 'norm' on what they mean and what they can 'only mean because so and so said so' ... learned parrot fashion. There appears no room or acceptance for freestyle anymore.
Remember, that which is written is only an opinion. It is only what someone else has interpreted what the image means. It doesn't make that meaning as being cast in stone. That first interpretation could have been wrong. It may have worked for the first person who created the image. The first who laid down the pathway at that time. It doesn't automatically mean it is right for each and everyone.
No. I walked away from the world of the Psychic Centre and the Spiritualist Church. There is no room for a freestyle mystic there. Freestyle Mystic can read as a chaos magician, but I don't really care. I have methods which I have developed ... the 'first painter' syndrome in other words ... methods which work extremely well for me. Methods which have reaped uncanny accuracy time and time and time again. Methods I do not force on others because I visualise we manifest in a freestyle world. Each and every one of us has freewill and the right to self expression. In that freestyle world we are all entitled to our own self expression.
Applying this therefore to my freestyle method of divination. To my long sojourn as the 'professional tarot reader' ... I have a deep respect for the 'book meanings' of the tarot images. I respect the subconscious images which are contained within the tarot. I do not begrudge anyone who read the tarot in that way ... but for me I interpret the tarot differently. I find the way which is right for myself .. for my own self expression. It is from this slant that I practice divination. I respect therefore that there will be many experienced tarot readers out there ... who will view my Daily Merlin insights and obtain completely different meanings to what appears in the workings. It does not mean what I have seen is wrong. Remember thus that the primary use of the Tarot is as a key to open the door to the super conscious part of the psyche. It is an aid and a springboard ... nothing more. Tarot is designed as the means to access the altered states of consciousness ... this is why I use the tarot ... as the means to the end like the key to open the door. They are not the end result. They are but the start, the beginning of the projection. They are thus my connection between this world and the others ...