euripides
The various and often deep spiritual thoughts that many people have mentioned are an important and relevant part of Tarot for me. But that said, that word 'structure' is perhaps key.
The basic framework that accretes all our layers of symbolism and iconography, that carries meaning, that supports interpretation...that is Tarot.
The 22 majors from the fool to the world, ....the four suits of coins, wands, swords and staves, the court cards and the numbers one to ten. Within this basic framework there are important aspects - the numbering of the Fool, Death, Strength and Justice, pages or princesses, the attribution of the Elements - that vary, but are nonetheless 'there'.... that is part of the Tarot.
But wait... there's more. Don't take the foregoing comment out of context!
I'd just been considering this, as it seems to me that many decks that are supposedly 'Tarot' are not. They are oracles which follow the core Tarot pattern, in terms of the number of cards. But often something is missing.
Meaning. Those images carry well-established patterns of meaning. The Majors that tell the Fool's Journey, for example. When a deck diverges too far, that story cannot be told, or becomes changed beyond recognition.
I think this is true of the Minor Arcana too. There's that word - Arcana. An aranum: a deep secret or mystery. Specialized knowledge. There's an implication, to me, that Tarot is the carrier of a particular set of secrets. Not whatever secrets the artist and writer care to refer to - limiting or distorting or obscuring..... (I'm talking about the pure form of Tarot here. Artists and writers bringing their unique perspective to tarot is immensely valuable. I'm not dissing that at all.)
The decks I'm familiar with are the Tarot de Marseilles, Thoth and Rider-Waite-Smith. I'm beginning to know something of the TdM history, and to me, its veracity is certain. I feel as though it evolved, rather than being created out of nothing, its roots run deep.
The Thoth and the RWS I know a little of, but not enough to feel I can comment on them in the context of this thread.
I've kinda wandered from one idea to another here, so I hope this makes some sort of sense.
Euri
The basic framework that accretes all our layers of symbolism and iconography, that carries meaning, that supports interpretation...that is Tarot.
The 22 majors from the fool to the world, ....the four suits of coins, wands, swords and staves, the court cards and the numbers one to ten. Within this basic framework there are important aspects - the numbering of the Fool, Death, Strength and Justice, pages or princesses, the attribution of the Elements - that vary, but are nonetheless 'there'.... that is part of the Tarot.
But wait... there's more. Don't take the foregoing comment out of context!
I'd just been considering this, as it seems to me that many decks that are supposedly 'Tarot' are not. They are oracles which follow the core Tarot pattern, in terms of the number of cards. But often something is missing.
Meaning. Those images carry well-established patterns of meaning. The Majors that tell the Fool's Journey, for example. When a deck diverges too far, that story cannot be told, or becomes changed beyond recognition.
I think this is true of the Minor Arcana too. There's that word - Arcana. An aranum: a deep secret or mystery. Specialized knowledge. There's an implication, to me, that Tarot is the carrier of a particular set of secrets. Not whatever secrets the artist and writer care to refer to - limiting or distorting or obscuring..... (I'm talking about the pure form of Tarot here. Artists and writers bringing their unique perspective to tarot is immensely valuable. I'm not dissing that at all.)
The decks I'm familiar with are the Tarot de Marseilles, Thoth and Rider-Waite-Smith. I'm beginning to know something of the TdM history, and to me, its veracity is certain. I feel as though it evolved, rather than being created out of nothing, its roots run deep.
The Thoth and the RWS I know a little of, but not enough to feel I can comment on them in the context of this thread.
I've kinda wandered from one idea to another here, so I hope this makes some sort of sense.
Euri
