What is tarot?

[Talisman]

I'm inventing someone who created a deck of cards. She made a collage deck out of images clipped from a plumbing warehouse supply catologue. Her deck has 47 cards.

"Damn," she says, "I got the Flush again."

"Wow! Is that really bad?" I ask.

"No," she says, "see here, in the monkey wrench position, is the elbow-joint. Changes the connection, you know?"

"Huh?"

"Well, if you jiggle the handle up and down, the water stops running."

Is that tarot? Well, it is if you wanna call it tarot. I guess it is. But I don't think so. I'm some kind'a purist. A whole bunch'a decks out there aren't tarot -- according to me. But for you, tarot means whatever you say it means.

Talisman

 

[joya250]

you, Talisman, are too witty! I love it!


that is a great question... especially since I was just sitting here with a lot on my mind, pawing through my cards and reflecting over my old notebook with records of my daily cards, spreads, dreams, etc. ...... Just what the heck is tarot, and why does it work?
I mean really, if it perhaps originated as a silly card game (I often wonder if people of that time, whatever time that may be, could see us now, would they be doubled over with laughter? I mean really, people trying to acquire insight and enlightenment through a silly game? Man, we used to play that when we were bored, and that was only if there were no beheadings scheduled for that day.) Sorry, don't know where I just was. Anyway, back to the point at hand. What is tarot?
Well, what if...
tarot was one of the ways we could speak to ourselves, directly from our heart. what if we do indeed have have angels and guides, and direct contact with God (or whatever you call it, but you gotta admit there is a divine, a pull to the source. I mean how can you deny that, it's all around us in all our expressions.) what if tarot is one of the ways we have access to that which is invisible to us, but all around us, in fact, our very essence. The Energy. what if something that may have indeed started out as a silly game, has now over time buillt up it's own energy, it's own power - and has manifested into something we can all read, all tap. An outlet, or a window to the Picture At Large. And, hey, if not, at least if we WANT it to be, it still is.

 

[Yarnie]

Talisman,

I knew that I had missed you...but I hadn't realized just how much until I read this post! LOL! Fantastic example and done with such wit!

I've been accused of being too "rigid" recently, but I have to agree with you that not all that is marketed as "tarot" is actually tarot.

 

[Kiama]

I agree quite strongly on this. I used to but what has been recently called Oracle Decks, which many say are tarot decks. But I don't find them to have the same quality, history, and feel to them... For me, the Tarot is the 78 cards (Which is why I was unhappy with the Shapeshifter deck which has 81 cards!) and the history it has behind it. And the community of people who also love the Tarot... These other decks which are sold as Tarot, but which to me aren't, seem lacking in something, and I find that trying to read for a querent with them confuses both you and the querent: Usually, they are expecting tarot, and get something like Angels, Reiki cards, or faeries....

Also, many of what is sold as Tarot (See Tarotbear's Firelite Fortune Teller post for example) seems to be one of those 'quick fix' answers to every single question you could possibly know. They're the type of decks which you buy when you first get into this stuff, right at the beginning... Ah, Jeez... I hope you guys understand what I'm trying to say, cuz I'm not very good at explaining anything tonight...

Kiama

 

[Melvis]

I'd like to try to relate the ideas you've been discussing to Talisman's other thread about Archetypes. Please bear with me...it might not make any sense...

Maybe there's an archetype of the tarot, and for Kiama, many of the other decks being published just don't fit into that 'tarot archetype.' For Talisman, the 'Plumber's Deck' he conceived of doesn't seem to fit his idea of the 'tarot archetype' either.

Is that how archetypes work? Would that help explain why some decks seem perfectly 'tarot' and others don't?

Sorry if this sounds goofy. Maybe my brain just needs a good flush.

<>

Peace,

Melvis








Talisman
25 Aug 2001

Melvis, I agree with you. For me, anyway, this is right.

Everyone believes they are open minded, I guess, but when it comes to tarot, alas, I am not. Like Yarnie said he is, my thinking is rigid about what tarot is. Has to fit the way Melvis suggested.

As for an absolutely wonderful definition of what tarot can mean, read joya250 above. Joya, you just expressed it all so well.

Talisman
"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world." -- Schopenhauer








Marion
25 Aug 2001

This is a great thread. I was actually trying to express something like this in my post Tarotic Relativism, but it didn't come out as well, with side tracks into Christiantity and goodness knows what.
I agree and I was trying to say there that Tarot IS something. You cannot make up 41 cards from a plumbers catalogue and say it is Tarot. It isn't. Though I must say your example was hilarious. And Joya, I also loved your response.








joya250
26 Aug 2001

Talisman and Marion - tee hee, thanks guys.








StarShine
26 Aug 2001

To me, Tarot is a tool to help you tap into what you or your client already knows. I do not believe that the Tarot can predict an absolute future. This would be impossible since every decision we make can alter that future. Nor do I believe that the Tarot can tell you what to do in a certain situation. I tell people not to do anything because the Tarot said to. Instead, consider it as you would a suggestion from a friend. Often times, after much contemplation, this is the right thing for the querent to do, but other times, it leads to a different solution that would never have been thought of were it not for the Cards.

I guess what I am saying is that I believe that the Tarot is a way of opening your mind to new avenues of problem solving. It is also a way of facing up to some of the things that we already know, but did not want to accept.








la_dama_de_noche
26 Aug 2001

Talisman

At any change of era, when the ancient religions have to disappear, before being totally destroyed, the Wise Men must find the way to transmit their knowledge to the future generations. This happened also when the Romans first and the Christian expansion later, came to upset the Ancient Wisdom. The Temples of Esoteric Religions were going to be destroyed and all the ancient teaching was in danger.

In the past, books weren?t structured in the modern way, they had not pages, they were a sequence of engraved tablets.
These tablets are, actually, our cards and the contents of the Great Book named Tarot is the Ancient Wisdom, a part of which actually was lost, which hides behind a popular game, an innocent device invented by our Predecessors which granted eternity to their heritage.

In conclusion, Tarot is The Great Book of Wisdom, the Book of Initiation for those who aspire to become Magicians in the ancient and authentic sense of the word

La Dama de Noche








The What is tarot? thread was originally posted on 23 Aug 2001 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.

 

[Talisman]

Melvis, I agree with you. For me, anyway, this is right.

Everyone believes they are open minded, I guess, but when it comes to tarot, alas, I am not. Like Yarnie said he is, my thinking is rigid about what tarot is. Has to fit the way Melvis suggested.

As for an absolutely wonderful definition of what tarot can mean, read joya250 above. Joya, you just expressed it all so well.

Talisman
"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world." -- Schopenhauer

 

[Marion]

This is a great thread. I was actually trying to express something like this in my post Tarotic Relativism, but it didn't come out as well, with side tracks into Christiantity and goodness knows what.
I agree and I was trying to say there that Tarot IS something. You cannot make up 41 cards from a plumbers catalogue and say it is Tarot. It isn't. Though I must say your example was hilarious. And Joya, I also loved your response.

 

[joya250]

Talisman and Marion - tee hee, thanks guys.

 

[StarShine]

To me, Tarot is a tool to help you tap into what you or your client already knows. I do not believe that the Tarot can predict an absolute future. This would be impossible since every decision we make can alter that future. Nor do I believe that the Tarot can tell you what to do in a certain situation. I tell people not to do anything because the Tarot said to. Instead, consider it as you would a suggestion from a friend. Often times, after much contemplation, this is the right thing for the querent to do, but other times, it leads to a different solution that would never have been thought of were it not for the Cards.

I guess what I am saying is that I believe that the Tarot is a way of opening your mind to new avenues of problem solving. It is also a way of facing up to some of the things that we already know, but did not want to accept.

 

[la_dama_de_noche]

Talisman

At any change of era, when the ancient religions have to disappear, before being totally destroyed, the Wise Men must find the way to transmit their knowledge to the future generations. This happened also when the Romans first and the Christian expansion later, came to upset the Ancient Wisdom. The Temples of Esoteric Religions were going to be destroyed and all the ancient teaching was in danger.

In the past, books weren?t structured in the modern way, they had not pages, they were a sequence of engraved tablets.
These tablets are, actually, our cards and the contents of the Great Book named Tarot is the Ancient Wisdom, a part of which actually was lost, which hides behind a popular game, an innocent device invented by our Predecessors which granted eternity to their heritage.

In conclusion, Tarot is The Great Book of Wisdom, the Book of Initiation for those who aspire to become Magicians in the ancient and authentic sense of the word

La Dama de Noche