Tarot -My Skepticism, Attraction, Techne and Philosophy
Tarot de Mheob Vol 1
Don’t believe in Tarot ! ~ John Lennon ~ God
Oracles, oracles, oracles deceivers and lires all! ~ Jocasta, Queen of Thebes
My mom wouldn’t like if I asked a questions ! ~my Man in the Desert
Fortune favors the brave ! ~ Matt Damon
It’s Tarot Tuesday, ask away. ~ me
For Sara, Chiva and Minxi Owl & Ian, PCExp and my Man in the Desert
Skepticism
I am in the same head space as Dr. Justin Sledge, who runs the YouTube channel Esoterica, he is a skeptic of the systems that he finds extremely interesting. I am a complete skeptic of the predictive value of the tarot and while I am intrigued by the pseudo-mysticism behind it, it appears it has little historic basis for the existence of the Tarot as a method for use of prediction before 1750 and I believe starts with Etteilla in 1780, there were mistakes and assumptions made that the cards were predictive and had a long predictive history (classical Egyptian mythos exists) , but there is not really any historic support for this. There were tarot decks since 1300s but the were game decks and not predictive technology. The most important deck The Waite Rider was not published unit around 1910. There was a retroactive application of Tarot De Marseilles prior to RWS deck, and Etteilla and others had their own decks and system prior to RWS.
Tarot isn’t an ancient Egyptian system. It had a lot of construction in between 1790 and today. It is a modern invention with an interesting pedigree of coming out of a Egyptomania and the occult and monastic ground sell of a similar time. Even if there were ancient roots to the tarot I would be a skeptic of it as I am of all religious claims, but as with religion I like to read and explore in that intellectual space.
Tarot is a sponge for everything from Freud, Jung, new age, etc. Since Tarot is fungible, flexible and ambiguous. The number of new decks and card layouts and books have exploded. Most books are error ridden and tie into the Egyptomania, or weird non-existent esoteric roots. Part of the pleasure of the tarot is that it is fungible and can be manipulated to almost any situation.
Attraction
I am skeptical of Tarot, extremely skeptical, but like Sledge I am drawn to this interesting system. There are a few motivators. The first is my answering the question can I be a better tarot reader than my former lover who was a true believer? This was an easy yes since Ms. L was terrible reader of the cards. Which lead to the question: Can a non-believer read the Tarot well? I usually fall into this sort of question with a bit of compulsion. So over the years I have come to love reading and have come proficient at reading Tarot. I often ask these can I do this? or how long will it take to get proficient at this? type of question, I always take them a little bit more seriously than I should but it is so intresting to actually be able to know the answer. Yet if the tarot had not been intresting and beneficial to me and others I am sure I would have dropped it years ago.
Tarot has attracted me for a few reasons. The first is that there are several decks that are very beautiful and I love my multi-deck collection. I have several collections, books, paintings, music, and small pieces of Ceramics, tarot is an interesting thing to collect because there is a printing and art history that goes back to the 1300 (playing card decks ) to modern day new designs.
The second reason is that it is a fun version of a coin flip. If I want to say go to a movie and I am not sure, I can pull a spread of cards and get an answer. Also since the cards are vague I can sort of subconsciously lean towards the answer I want, or since I am a non-serious reader go against the cards if I make up my mind.
Thirdly, people love readings and learning to read cards is learning to read people. As part of the art, I often give querents choices instead of answers, also I try to reflect there personalities. I will not read for life choices, like marriage, divorce, which bills to pay etc. My reading are glass 3/4 full, and very non-critical.
Fourthly, there should be a bit of the charlatan in us, there should be that thing that has to be explained away at a dinner party, there should be joys that we cannot explain or defend. Tarot has a large ja nais quoi element to it for me.
I like being honest about the cards. Helen Farley really gives a good history about what the cards are and the history and development of the current state of Tarot. I can live with a myth system as a practice and be a skeptic, this history allows me to know what is really myth vs fact. You are going to have to accept some myth in ones reading, but I think knowing how the cards developed helped me to be more selective in my readings.
Technae
I take the non-serious questions seriously, firstly I don’t read for people who would make poor decisions based on a tarot readings. I do not use the cards for attacks or to run people down. People do take the cards more seriously than expected so I tend to offer choices, or tell them they have a choice. I feel free to let them know attributes that they have that may influence the decision.
From a technical aspect you need to chose a system. There are may flavors of tarot, but most are variant of Tarot De Marseille and the Waite-Rider-Smith.
Most learn on a Rider Waite Smith Deck because the minor cards have pictorial description of the minor arcana which makes it easier to remember then typical pip cards which only have a number of objects Waite-Rider-Smith is on the left below and Tarot De Marseille is on right. The six is about generosity and unequal relationships, the WRS is easier to remember for beginners. There are also many more beginner guide books on Waite-Rider-Smith. I accidently was first exposed to WRS system, ( I was sleeping with a hot WRS girl at the time).
I focused on a system and guide books, you have to read at a textbook trained level before you can start breaking the rules, first you learn the cards and the simplistic meanings. I found you have to commit to a level of memorization and route learning to have a general understanding of the card. I think this is a necessary step and one that will always serve as a basis for reading
In general book reading book on Tarot expose you to a fair amount of BS as well as simple meanings for the cards. Since reading cards for me is a bit of a lark and a bit of fun knowing the symbolism of the decks necessary even if it more recent creation (1700s not 5000 BC) still is enjoyable. To read you are going to have to role with what the cards are.
The cards are a hodge podge of symbols, if you have a well shuffled deck they will be a random set of sample with fixed symbols with vague meaning. To read you have to give the querent a meaningful story or answer based on a random spread. There are 456456 three card spreads in a deck and if you count inversion there ar 3.6 Million. (4 card 34 million and 273 millon with inversions, 2 billions 5 card spreads and 20 billion with inversions.) So a well shuffled deck will give you a pretty random spread. There is a idea that the cards need to be random to be predictive, with the variation on spreads and the variance of the readers and the large numbers of decks out there this randomness is easily gained. Reader often have shuffling and cutting rituals before readings.
The goal is to become story like andvflexible in readings and be able to interpret in a unique way. There are several three card spreads often they are past present or future type order. I like to mix up spreads, to suit the questions but I did and do a lot of simple single card readings or three card spreads. I think repetition and practicing reading is important to getting better at reading. Once you get practice and want to tell stories with the cards you can make up your own spreads.
I find reading the cards as a group in relation to each other is the next step, the be flexible in order of the cards reading, picking out cards that are more about the querent, when to read inversion and when to ignore then, or when to us a reversal as a change or a negative aspect. In tarot there is the contradiction of knowing how much you can break the rules and how many you can break.
I have expanded my reading ability by reading multiple deck. This allows one to be exposed to many different symbol systems and give you a bigger mental library the goal is multiple ideas for each card of he deck this allows this to be more spontaneous and less than route and repeated readings. I also read oracle decks because the have a totally different system of reading.
I have began focusing on Marseille Decks and pip decks and hybrid WRS — pip decks with extra symbolism that reminds one of the WRS. I find you need images from WRS or rules for the Pip cards which make the reading happen in your head instead of reading the cards. It is a great exercise in mental gymnastics. I currently am using WRS equals a pip card strategy but I am also trying to add stories based on classic Marseille symbolism.
A very good book to get an idea of several decks is Taschen Tarot. It is effectively a picture book.
Philosophy
I am a classist by education. My thoughts on prophesy are based on the classical perspective. I find it intriguing that the Sybil’s prophecy are interpreted and have vague and multiple interpretations. The Sybil of Delphi gave double edged prophecies. I like to give two interpretation or multiple options for the querent but less dangerous than the Sybil. So I am for purpose vagueness opacity and flexibility of giving the querent choice. Sybil prophecy rose out of smoke from the vapors in the Delphic cave, her prophecy was babble interpreted by priest, I like prophecy or direction coming out of babble and smoke and having an interpretation coming from it. I like a poly-furication or bifurcation of readings.
Tiresias does not want to let Oedipus know what would ruin him. Tiresias knows the secrets of the past and the future. I feel like since I do not know the past or the future, that like Tiresias I don’t want to answer destructive or any dark questions, he would rather be lonely in his knowledge, with my lack of prophetic knowledge I do not take on overly serious or dark questions. I also refuse questions that may harm or are very dark in where they go.
I do see a lot of catholic and Greco-Roman images in the card since that is my training, I see Venus, Mercury, Medusa, Medea and Leda. I am not able to avoid this so I lean into it. I also like Waite, Etillea and Gray simple rules for meaning of the cards. So I think I will stick with what I have learned to read. I can string an narrative well based on these images on literature and narrative from my reading. I see characters from plays and books and myth.
I am not an esoteric reader, while I like esoteric from totally skeptical experience so I am not going to ape a lot of golden dawn, esoteric practice, numerology or kabala . I feel like the Fools Journey is made of whole cloth and I really find that it is a good way to learn the the cards and their order but I actually like the order from the cards from the Marseille game play. I sometime use card rank but often ignore it.
That said I read very deck specific, so The RWS has a different order to the cards prefer Marseille ranking of the major arcane, I like to be able to switch with a deck and get an inverted order. I like oracles because they are more free association than typical Tarot. I like collecting decks because I can read each one with its own flavor.
