Do you have a religion?

[celticnoodle]

I am a christian and sometimes, Christianity can be quite harsh toward tarot cards. What about you? Do you have a religion, and does it oppose the tarot cards?

I was also born and raised Catholic. But, I guess, like Wolfy--very liberally so. I was raised in a somewhat strict Catholic home, but my mother was a psychic medium who did read the cards. Many of the women in her family--all born and raised Catholic--very devout---were psychic and practiced some form of divination. This has been for many generations as even my grandmothers mother was a psychic and practiced divination.

At any rate, while my family can accept these abilities towards any form of divination, be it cards, crystals, tea leaves and the like--the Church does not look kindly at it.

I'm not a practicing Catholic and I don't really agree with all the "rules" of the Church. not just the one on divination. However, I still classify myself as a Catholic and I still practice reading the cards and other forms of divining too.

As was already mentioned, many of the cards do depict religious pictures. Kat Blacks Golden Tarot is one that does so beautifully, and is one of my favorite decks. I also have a deck of oracle cards that depicts different saints from the Catholic Church.

While the Catholic Church and other faiths cannot see how using our God given abilities is a beautiful blessing bestowed upon us by the Almighty, I do not know. I see it as such. The CC does support praying novenas and other simple prayers to obtain things that we wish for. We can light candles and pray as well for answers to our prayers. Every Saint in the CC has a gift that is assigned to them for us to pray to--if we are wanting of that same gift. I see the prayers as a form of meditation, though some Catholic Priests would tell you that to participate in meditation classes is a sin, as is practicing yoga. But then, the CC would like to tell us many ways for us to believe and not believe - as to not follow the rules of the CC is a sin.

So, I'll hold onto a lot of my Catholic beliefs and will continue to practice them as well as other beliefs - such as tarot card reading, psychic reading, and meditation and yoga--and I will merge the two together for my spiritual practice.

Hopefully, one day the CC and other religions will realize that however we find our spiritual truth and practice it--as long as it does not inflict pain and suffering on another- is a good thing.

 

[Chiska]

Chiska, I am confused, because the OP specifically asked about that...? (see quote)

Yes - but the point of my note was to ensure that people don't go off on tarot discussions BEYOND whether or not one has a religion and whether or not tarot is an issue.

Recommendations of specific tarot decks or discussions of the imagery of the cards will either be removed or the whole thread will have to go to another part of the forum. Because this is a subscribers only portion (read: not public) of AT, some people are more comfortable discussing their religious views. Because of that I would prefer to not move it to a public portion of the forum.

Chiska

 

[Padma]

Thanks for clarifying - I edited my post

 

[BodhiSeed]

The short answer is no, I don't have a religion. The long answer is:

Religions tend to want a person to agree to a set of specific beliefs in order to be a part of their group. I can't force myself to believe something that I don't, which is why I left the tradition I was brought up in (fundamental Christianity). For me it was just a label, one that often separated me from others instead of bringing us together. Now I can connect to Something greater than myself without having to explain it or make sure it stays within certain boundaries. I can love others without being a Christian, I can meditate without being a Buddhist, I can live according to the 8 limbs of yoga without being a Hindu, and I can study the Tao de Ching without being a Taoist. And yes, I can use the tarot as a spiritual tool as well. There is something very freeing in choosing a practice rather than a dogma and in forming a relationship with Mystery rather than a predefined deity.

 

[celticnoodle]

oh great post, bodhiseed!

 

[Padma]

There is something very freeing in choosing a practice rather than a dogma and in forming a relationship with Mystery rather than a predefined deity.

I love this! I agree with CN - Perfectly said, Bodhiseed

 

[danieljuk]

When I was in my teens I went though quite a religious period of my life and was really involved with a Church of England Church (the religion my family is, but my family was not religious like I was then). I also went to a strictly C of E School. I have to say in both places I never had a conflict between my tarot or my sexuality. There was no judgement against both those areas in my life. However they were just ignored and not mentioned (a very British way of dealing with a situation ).

I got bored of the Church really, I didn't like what I was seeing in the congregation and the gossiping and hypocrisy that I saw. I removed myself from it. They didn't really care or look after the community, just discussed if people were having affairs and tried to get more popular with the Priest, because being close to him was seen as the most important thing.

I then became really humanist in beliefs for years. In the last 2 years I have got back into an old interest I had with Paganism / Wicca.

I don't think I could be involved in an organised religion which didn't agree with my tarot or my sexuality, they are fundamental parts of me. So where I am now in my life is perfect

whatever your beliefs are, I think it's important that you feel comfortable with tarot cards or the decks you use and the actions you take in life. I don't like the forced 'moral guidance' or judgement that something is bad or a sin. I think it's up to us as individuals to decide what is right or wrong to us, based on our own beliefs (not what is imposed on us).

 

[ivanna]

I grow up on a very catholic family, school and environment. But I leaved for many years as I do not understand many of the obligations and rules of CC. There are some things of the CC that like me, and I think I have some kind of devotion for a Saint of a little little town in Mainland Spain, but I think that what is behind all this are energies, as I feel something very special when I am in the Cathedral of the city where I was born, or when I go to the Sanctuary of this little town.
I thing all must be some kind of energy, and that must be the same for CC, Judish, Budisth, or whatever religion you wanna find in the world.
There must be only one god, or only one energy, or whatever you wanna call it, but just one, the same for all religions. But we are so stupid to have many religions, and each believes his truth is only the one valid, and all other are wrong. And then we have stupid wars like the Guerra Santa of muslims, I dont know how does it calls in english. Holy war? Stupid name. No war can be santa or holy.
So I think I am a bit aeclectical person.
Im very happy with my tarot relation and I do not have any problem, but I know there are many sckepticals and closed minded people, so for the moment only 3 or 4 persons very closed to me know that I study tarot.

 

[Garnet-Flame]

I was raised Catholic, but my mother was a very liberal Catholic (she was very religious, but she interpreted things in a more liberal way. Her beliefs were similar to the new Pope) and my father only went to church because it made my mom happy. He was never confirmed or anything. I spiritually left the church and became an agnostic theist (I knew there was a god, but I didn't know what the nature of him/her/it/them was) around the beginning of high school, and physically left along with the rest of my family when I was 16.

They joined an Episcopal church, I tried but it wasn't really for me. When I was living in Massachusetts I went to the Episcopal church for a while, but left for the Unitarian one because it had a better youth group. It turned out that I liked it, but I got bored with it and tapered off going. The majority of the people I talked to there were atheists/humanists. This was when I was 18, and I'm almost 20 now.

I believed in some form of god for the next little while, but didn't bother with anything spiritual or religious (except prayers to the universe when I was really stuck) until I found Paganism. That was in spring of this year. Now I suppose I'm an eclectic Pagan/Witch? I don't really do magic or anything religious very often at all. I mostly leave offerings for a few specific Goddesses and do spells like once a month when I can pull together the energy, along with my tarot and divination. I want to pray more but I never know what to say. There is no real Pagan community where I live, and I find it hard to build a real relationship with the Gods and a more effective, and well... frequent magical practice on my own. But I'm working on it at my own pace.

 

[VGimlet]

No, I don't. I was raised in a family that believed in things of a spiritual nature, but we didn't attend church. We had debates about spirituality, including the existence of a Christian god. So, my family was open to my curiosity about ALL different religions, but overall my dad was not a fan of Christianity or other organized religions on general principle.

My family was fine with me reading tarot. Always.

It was interesting to me when I joined DH's family that his Catholic side of the family was more accepting of it than the Baptists, but both of them got readings from me.