Is tarot a woman's domain?

It is interesting because the book Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus spends a HUGE amount of time going through the formulas which Papus believed forms the basis of tarot. After hundreds of pages of these mathmatical and philosophical details, he has a section for divination using tarot. Which he immediatly dedicates to the women, which he, in his Victorian age of thinking, thinks simplifiys the use of tarot cards to something they may understand.........

I am so glad I that those thought patterns don't exist in TOO many places in this world any more..........

I agree - men and women both have the capacity for intuition and empathy, but our cultural bias is more encoraging (or at least more tolerant) of women intuitives. Of course, thanks to sexism, a male Tarot reader/psychic/whatever is often given much more respect (and money) than a female one.
Here in the South, there are a LOT more female readers than male ones. Again, I put this squarely at the feet of gender bias.

At psychic fairs

there tends to be more women readers than men. But, I do not think there should be a difference based on gender. --Tao

Re: Well !!!

dadsnook2000 said:

SongDeva, talk about being aggressive. As if you didn't have enough decks already. Hey, list, this here SongDeva is a true, has-it-bad TARAHOLIC. Either that or she is planning to open up the worlds largest tarot deck supply outlet.

So, don't send her any decks. Advise Tarot Garden and other establishments to stop filling her frequent orders for more decks. She needs help. Dave.

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I have never ordered from Tarot Garden, but I'm sorry to be cut off now. This means I'll simply have to sneak into your house, and then Umbrae's, to steal your decks.

The plane fares are gonna be killer. I better take up a collection.

DarkElectric said:

I think tarot is for everybody.
[.. snip ..]
I also think that many men might be selling their own intuitive capacities short, and believing that they have less intuition than women, less sensitivity, stuff like that, which I think is a myth.
Maybe some men are less sensitive or intuitive. But I've met women who are like that too. I think our culture tries to impress false standards of "gender appropriate" behaviour on people, but that is breaking down now (thank the Gods) and men as well as women are freeing themselves from the damage of a sexist paradigm~ ie: what women and men are "SUPPOSED" to be. You are what you is.

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Thank you, everyone, for not thinking I was men-bashing. I appreciate it. DarkElectric, I think you make a very valid point. Our current 'westernised' culture often does bill men as the insentitive oaf & a lot of men seem to buy into that.

DeLani said:

I agree - men and women both have the capacity for intuition and empathy, but our cultural bias is more encoraging (or at least more tolerant) of women intuitives. Of course, thanks to sexism, a male Tarot reader/psychic/whatever is often given much more respect (and money) than a female one.

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Who 'sets' these damn biases & rules, anyway, is what I'd like to know?! Let's take them out & lynch them!

DeLani said:

Here in the South, there are a LOT more female readers than male ones. Again, I put this squarely at the feet of gender bias.

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Interesting. Not that I've been to many tarot readers (or clairvoyants, etc) myself, but I was under the impression that most around here (Australia) were female. Then again, maybe that's the impression given to me by the mass media.

I haven't been to any tarot gatherings of any kind yet (just haven't looked one up), but most other tarot readers I have met are women. However, just as many men as women ask me to read for them, and are just as interested in the interpretations of the cards.

I'm pretty sure they're not just looking at my rack ...

Sillanza said:

I'm pretty sure they're not just looking at my rack ...

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rotfl!!!!!

ROFL

Sillanza said:

I haven't been to any tarot gatherings of any kind yet (just haven't looked one up), but most other tarot readers I have met are women. However, just as many men as women ask me to read for them, and are just as interested in the interpretations of the cards.

I'm pretty sure they're not just looking at my rack ...

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Thanks for my morning dose of humor! Best wishes--Tao

If I read at a festival or faire, I make sure there's lots of jewelery on my rack. That way I know what they're looking at.

I pay much more attention to the spread than I do the rack....hehehe