Tarot legends and Myths (A Rant)

Imagemaker

Coatl, that makes a lot of sense to me. Myths generally start with a seed of reason.

It's the ridiculous superstitions and foggy murk that grow up around the seed that causes later problems. When you "know" about the seed, the belief in all the rest becomes unnecessary.

MareSaturni

tmgrl2 said:
Myths were a way of keeping people safe…from the great possibilities of the unknown.

Of keeping children safe….”Don’t go near that lake, the monsters of the water will drag you in and keep you.”

And isn't it interesting that the same who say the monster or the lake will drag you, are the first one to deny the monster's existance? So, does the monster exists or not? What will a children see? Because the grown up's world is too confusing...adults don't know what they want...don't know if they want the myths or not.

Don't know if the believe in Tarot, Astrology, Magic, Fate...or not. Claim to hate those 'stupid fortune-tellers', but will take any offered free reading just for 'curiosity's sake'.

In the end we all believe in monsters, in myths. You consciously don't believe that just because the deck is used you will be unable to read with it...but you still clean it, try to embed it in you own energy. You know tarot is paper and ink, but at same time you don't believe it. Somewhat, it seems so much more in your hands, not just cards filled with flakies of all the people who touched it...and even with the flakies, the DNA, the fingertips, it's SO yours. Because it has YOUR energy, you say. But "your energy can cancel out the effects of all flakies, DNA, fingertips etc. or others"...couldn't it be a myth too?

And i don't believe in monsters, do i?

tmgrl2 said:
Your first deck must be gifted. Don’t let your sitter touch your cards. Your querent must shuffle and must cut. Used decks may have negative energies.

Hey!

Hold on to your myths and beliefs and dream your possibilities. Just don’t tread on mine.

Exactly! Your myth is the one that suits you...if i were to wait for anyone to give me a Tarot deck, i'd still be waiting. So i had to get rid of this 'myth'...it can't be in my world. But many get their decks from their grandmas, husbands, wives, favorite aunt...and that's what makes everything magical. As if fate has brought Tarot for them. It's *their* myth.

Choose your myths...dare to see beyond them. Don't let them keep you, don't let them scare you but, at the same, recognize they are...yours. Only yours.

tmgrl2 said:
Guess I’ll have to reanimate or reincarnate, ‘cuz I want to be around to

Teleport.

Jump through the wormhole to another reality, to another dimension, to another planet.

Me too

Yuko

tmgrl2

miss_yuko said:
Choose your myths...dare to see beyond them. Don't let them keep you, don't let them scare you but, at the same, recognize they are...yours. Only yours.

Ah.....simply, yet beautifully said, yuko!!

terri

I'll see you on the other side...LOL

Umbrae

Remember, I did say in the thesis post that knee jerking might be a mythtake. I’d prefer folks to ask me why I say something, rather than flat out tell me I’m wrong, or use a hypothetical example, or an example from a thread not referenced.

So let’s examine another myth; that You should be given your first Tarot deck (as a gift).

Never have I seen a post where anybody has even attempted to explore or explain this one. What we get are posts stating, “It’s not true!” “It’s a stupid harmful legend!”

Yeah perhaps it is. Perhaps it’s not. Anybody ever look at it? Examine it for signs of life?

Take a look at the Major Arcana as a Whole System (It’s all inter-related as opposed to static unrelated pieces – Geeze I wish Stewart Brand was a Tarot aficionado…) and you will observe how folks get the ‘Hero’s Journey” thing (or the Heroine’s Journey, or the Fool’s Journey, or…). The twenty-two cards can make a storyboard of infinite complexity… Books and books have been written about this very thing.

In any of the Journey Myths of Tarot, lies the act of Initiation.

And gifting a deck IS an act of initiation…

It tells the recipient that their gift is recognized. This is radically different than going out and purchasing your first deck, which is ego-centric (“I’m special, I have the gift, I’m gonna be a fortune-teller”), a stance not embraced by much of humanity.

And if Granny gives you her deck! Oh my GAWD!!! What a gift! What an initiation! What power!

Okay…so…do you have to wait to get your first deck?

No.

But do you understand the power of receiving your first deck as a gift? Do you understand the power that you can become a part of by gifting a deck?

Just a thought…

:smoker:

Ilithiya

Umbrae said:
But do you understand the power of receiving your first deck as a gift? Do you understand the power that you can become a part of by gifting a deck?

Just a thought…

And one that makes me more jealous of others than just about anything else. Like many others, I'd still be waiting for a gifted deck. And, unfortunately, none of my children seem to show any interest. My youngest breaks into my office and cleans up my readings, for chrissake.

Oh, geez. Now I'm about to go off on a validation trip.

Illy

Click to expand...

Grizabella

OK, if we follow the lines of reasoning here, then are we to give credence to the myth that tarot is evil and a tool of the devil? If all tarot myths have a basis and none should be debunked, then maybe the cards ARE evil. Or is that the only myth that we should tell people isn't true? If that's the only one we should tell people isn't true, how did we arrive at that conclusion and know that that IS the one that's not true?

If memory serves me, I've seen you, Umbrae, tell people that tarot cards are just cardboard and art and can't be angry, etc. at the owners, so does this mean that now you've come to believe they really do have a mind of their own and are an actual entity with emotions? The cards having emotions and feelings is something that's one of the biggest tarot myths.

I do find it interesting and I do believe that we leave a part of ourselves and energy in whatever we touch. However, I think that's been imbued to us by a Power so much greater and more intelligent than we are that we don't have the power to break the energy by passing something through smoke or burying it in the back yard for 20'leven days and nights or some other ritual. If we're meant to leave it, then it's going to stay there and no human power can remove it, in my opinion. I don't worry about evil energy in my cards because someone else touched them. If I sense evil in someone, I distance myself and wouldn't even be reading for them in the first place, much less letting them touch my cards or anything else I own. Should they touch them anyway somehow, I believe that Power in the Universe protects me and I trust that, so I don't worry about it.

All that said, I believe that an individual's personal beliefs pack a lot of psychological power and that carries a lot of weight for them personally. If they believe evil energy is left in their cards and they need to pass them through smoke or in some other way dissipate it and cleanse the deck in order for it not to affect them badly, then they truly do need to do it or it WILL affect them badly simply because of the power their own beliefs have on them.

Alissa

I got yer kneejerk right here, buddy....

Umbrae said:
In any of the Journey Myths of Tarot, lies the act of Initiation.

And gifting a deck IS an act of initiation…

Is it the *only* acceptable method of initiation into Tarot? Of course not. It's one of many that can possibly happen, and not necessarily the only "right" way.

Umbrae said:
It tells the recipient that their gift is recognized. This is radically different than going out and purchasing your first deck, which is ego-centric (“I’m special, I have the gift, I’m gonna be a fortune-teller”), a stance not embraced by much of humanity.

Big time assumptions there, buddy. I bought my first deck, because my sister had read for me for years, and I wanted to read for myself. I wanted to take charge of my own gifts, and I wanted to use Tarot to do that. I didn't read for another soul for about 5 years.

Was I acting like a big shot? Showing off?

Umbrae said:
And if Granny gives you her deck! Oh my GAWD!!! What a gift! What an initiation! What power!

This discounts those who have backgrounds with grannies who told them they would go to hell for touching Tarot cards.

Was one Granny better than another at imparting mythology?

Or was one set of myths just more positive, and easier to accept?

... I still say you're confusing the ability to be an unfettered magickal being with the radically different power of creating stories (superstitions) as a means to influence others' actions.

Further, you have not addressed what the negative myths have done to the overall steroetype that Tarot readers must face. Debunking is a long and tedious process. That doesn't detract from magic. Magic exists on its own. Myths exist because we manufactured them as a means to explain magic.

Sometimes I believe the myth is wrong (I don't care who touches my cards, leave your DNA, I don't mind). But that doesn't detract from mythology's ability to make me feel in touch with the Divine.

It just means we should question our myths, not blindly accept them because "so-and-so said so."

P.s. To those who don't know me, Umbrae is a dear friend of mine, and I am quite comfortable getting in his face and disagreeing vehemently. We both know we respect each other, regardless. My belligerent tone is I comfortably take after years of kicking back together and talking about such things....

lark

Yes, I was just thinking the same thing...
I think the myth of a gifted deck or any magical tool goes way, way back...
I think it is a myth with a real history.
In many cultures with a shaman or medicine man or woman in the tribe the whole community would be observed very carefully by the shaman to see who his successor would be.
And that individual would be chosen, schooled and taught the ways of the elder shaman.
It was an honor and a grave responsibility... not just anyone need apply.
The tools of that Shaman's craft were then passed down to the new intiate.
And I think that is where it all began.

edit: Just another little thought.
Why is it a myth to us now?
I think that there has been a shift in consciousness.
We used to look to one enlightened individual in the tribe to bring us closer to the Divine.
And now many have come to understand that the Divine is within each of us and always has been.
So we have started to bestow upon ourselves our own magical tools.

tmgrl2

Umbrae said:
In any of the Journey Myths of Tarot, lies the act of Initiation.

And gifting a deck IS an act of initiation…

It tells the recipient that their gift is recognized. This is radically different than going out and purchasing your first deck, which is ego-centric (“I’m special, I have the gift, I’m gonna be a fortune-teller”), a stance not embraced by much of humanity.

And if Granny gives you her deck! Oh my GAWD!!! What a gift! What an initiation! What power!

Okay…so…do you have to wait to get your first deck?

No.

But do you understand the power of receiving your first deck as a gift? Do you understand the power that you can become a part of by gifting a deck?

Just a thought…

Yes! and

Yes!

On a very literal level...I bought my own first deck and subsequent decks...and my Tarot books. There wasn't anyone in my environment who was going to "gift" me....nor did I even expect that...nor did I know where the Tarot was going to take me when I bought that first deck.

I didn't even start out with "I'm going to read, I have a gift."

I started out with....Hmmmm....this looks...

fascinating..

filled with possibilties.

Once I got into Tarot....I have developed a practice of gifting other readers with decks or other items related to Tarot....because that act of initiation and sharing is also quite special...Each step was an initiating act...

Buying my first deck.

Gifting someone with a deck.

It is the intent that gives energy to the act...and the ripples begin.

"Once upon a time......"

terri

firemaiden

Yes, I certainly can see, if I had had a grandmother who was into tarot (which she wasn't), and if she had given me my first deck, that would have had a huge power for me, if nothing else, for a sentimental attachment, and if indeed fingerprints carry people's energy, and if she had been a great reader, well, that would certainly make the deck very very special.

The few decks I have not bought, but which have been gifted to me, are obviously very special, and of those that were gifted, the one that was used by the owner before he gave it to me, has a special magic.

Certainly no one is advocating that we all stop buying our first decks...(least of all the owner of tarotgarden!).

Tarot legends and Myths (A Rant)

Imagemaker

MareSaturni

tmgrl2

Umbrae

Ilithiya

Grizabella

Alissa

lark

tmgrl2

firemaiden