I didn't want to include your whole post, Bhavana, but know I fully, fully agree with you. I do find it a hard time at times to go to Mass every Sunday in my NY home area, as I do not get along well with the church here. In VT, I LOVED my church. still didn't agree w/all that went on, but it was the best church I ever belonged to. I love my faith, but I don't feel like I have to follow all these man made rules set up by the Catholic Priests and the Pope, when they are just like me--a human being. some good and some bad. its conflicting for me really.
I also get angry with those readers who want you to buy more and more--spells, ect. It drives me nuts they prey on gullible and desperate people!
It's worth noting that while the Catholic church did have concerns about gambling, tarot cards did not create quite the same level of concern as regular cards. We have examples of regional bans on playing cards, imposed by the church, that specify tarot as exempt from them.
this I didn't know. I thought especially tarot cards and oracle cards were banned. If I had the nerve, I'd ask my priest about this, but I don't.
The earliest cards we have were not titled, though the identity of the characters would have been obvious. Such figures as Death and Devils were not uncommon to Catholic art an in the context of the tarot trumps, they do not seem to have raised any concerns. Nor is there any indication that the church tried to especially discourage tarot - at least not outside of Spain, where it would seem the Christian figures were not considered suitable subjects for games. Religious concerns about tarot do not really get underway until the popularisation of occult tarot and divination - and today, so far as I've been able to tell, the Church line on the matter (in both the Catholic and the Anglican churches) is that they are not concerned with the cards as a game, just when they are used in occult or divinatory contexts.
ah! okay, this makes sense.
Many (not most) Christians don't know the basis for the prohibitions against divination or fortune-telling and when asked about the source of the prohibition they can't really answer.
I know some of the answer but you know, when confronted with someone so firm in their beliefs who wants nothing more than to get me or you to turn away from our "evil ways," I, personally, can't help but use the opportunity to my advantage. This probably only serves to confirm to them that I'm "evil" but hey, I have to have my fun. And in the end I can wink and say, "The Devil made me do it."
oh! and thnx for the link--will read it later.
Bhavana, I completely agree with you. You know, it makes me laugh mockingly when I see all these sinners, hypocrites and immoral people going to a temple everyday and thinking that they are absolved from their sins.
I fully agree too! That previous Priest who threatened to excommunicate me, listened every Sat. to the congregations confessions and absolving them. But then, there he is abusing young boys!!!
I stopped going to confession after my very First confession at age 7, as the ol' Priest yelled at me so loudly, everyone in the church turned to see who it was in teh confessional--my parents included. My mother was so angry--(I was 7!) that she refused to let me go again and she stopped too. I did try a few times in my adult life--but I just feel like I don't need a go between to absolve my sins--I can go right to God! and so I do.
It depends where you are. Here in the UK (and perhaps the rest of Europe) Tarot is mostly seen as a bit of harmless fun. Although you still get the weird looks.
It must be taken into consideration that almost half of Europe are Atheists. In America Atheists only make up about 10%, it's still a very Christian country.
A lot of Europe just bunches religion and the occult together as superstition, so they generally pay it no mind.
heck, I was raised in a psychic household, our mother read cards and was a psychic - medium, her mother and sisters and aunts all had their specialities too and my maternal grandfathers family did too. a lot of my cousins and so on, and some of my siblings are STILL so weird about it.
oh, they'll ask me for a reading now and again and share their psychic experiences, which they have often, but God! don't let the neighbors know!!!
I don't read for them anymore. I use to laugh about it, and still read, but decided a few years back that I was just done. I got tired of it.
A CARD READING NUN?!!! 