Rootrealm
Regarding use of the "dark" Tarot decks...do you feel that such decks can give accurate readings when they may over-emphasize negative or "dark" interpretations? How do you read with them to get balanced readings? I am thinking in particular of Donald Tyson's "Necronomicon" Tarot, which is the darkest tarot deck I have seen so far (his descriptions of the cards are more gross than even the cards themselves..)...I bought this deck on a lark and now that I look at it, I wonder if I could even use it.
For instance, the "Fool" image is described this way by Tyson: "The blind idiot....blubbering from the corners of his thick lips...his misshapen body is covered with filth...slime seeps from the hollow sockets of his blind eyes...excrement and slime surround him...all is dark and gloom-covered." Now right next to this loathsome description, he writes the meaning of the card as this: "Innocence, simplicity, naivete, childlike wonder, spiritual path, new beginning, journey of discovery, higher guidance, need for prudence." Problem is that NONE of those meanings are suggested by this grotesque image, though one could certainly interpret the filthy deformed creature as an exemplar of PRima Materia, in an alchemical sense, but that is not something Tyson lists as one of the meanings of the FOol.
Tyson says about his deck, "Readings may tend to be bleak and unforgiving if the cards are interpreted in a direct way....a diviner...should compensate by seeking an optimistic interpretation...and minimize the more gloomy meanings of the cards." I think this is problematic, because if you have to somehow ignore what the cards are showing you in order to do a reading, then what is the point of producing the cards with an overwhelming gloomy or dark slant? (Other than to enjoy for reasons other than doing readings...)
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
For instance, the "Fool" image is described this way by Tyson: "The blind idiot....blubbering from the corners of his thick lips...his misshapen body is covered with filth...slime seeps from the hollow sockets of his blind eyes...excrement and slime surround him...all is dark and gloom-covered." Now right next to this loathsome description, he writes the meaning of the card as this: "Innocence, simplicity, naivete, childlike wonder, spiritual path, new beginning, journey of discovery, higher guidance, need for prudence." Problem is that NONE of those meanings are suggested by this grotesque image, though one could certainly interpret the filthy deformed creature as an exemplar of PRima Materia, in an alchemical sense, but that is not something Tyson lists as one of the meanings of the FOol.
Tyson says about his deck, "Readings may tend to be bleak and unforgiving if the cards are interpreted in a direct way....a diviner...should compensate by seeking an optimistic interpretation...and minimize the more gloomy meanings of the cards." I think this is problematic, because if you have to somehow ignore what the cards are showing you in order to do a reading, then what is the point of producing the cards with an overwhelming gloomy or dark slant? (Other than to enjoy for reasons other than doing readings...)
Anyone have any thoughts on this?