Extispex: Tarot and Tarot Readings

I ran across this little announcement today in the Poughkeepsie Journal, about a class being taught in the East Fishkill Public Library called, “Brush up on your Tarot Skills”.

Its pretty much expected that the Christians would crawl out of their self-righteous woodwork and start hollering about the class corrupting their children, even though I seriously doubt any of their children will be attending the class. In fact its obvious that the class is designed for people who are already familiar with the Tarot, since the article states, “The group is designed to enhance and develop card reading skills, not to teaching tarot cards.”

So the Christians can calm down - the people attending the seminar are already corrupt. No souls were harmed in the teaching of this class.

My main objection is to the commenter called tarot4games, who has the following to say:

Tarot has no historical connections with astrology, Kabbalah or the occult. The tarot deck was created for playing a trick taking card game similar to whist or contract bridge. Descendents of the original tarot card game are still played in France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. Tarot is really for card games, people!

From the The Penguin Encyclopedia of Card Games, by David Parlett
“People are often suprised to learn that Tarot cards were originally invented for playing games, that such games are still widespread and popular in continental Europe, and that the employment of tarots for divination and fortune-telling is a relatively recent perversion of their proper use, dating only from the eighteenth century.”

Mainstream America has been duped by the New Age/Metaphysical publishing industry regarding tarot’s true heritage. Our public libraries are to promote culture and NOT distort it! Tarot reading is a distortion of culture! The connection of tarot cards with the occult is based on false histories concerning the decks origins. The occult activities should not be viewed as genuine tarot. Genuine tarot is a type of card game. The tarot card game is very popular right now in France, Canada, and practically any place the French language is spoken. There is also a similar game played in Austria known as “tarock” I invite mainstream America, conservative Christians in particular, to finally discover authentic Tarot, the card games.Do a Google search on the terms “jeu de tarot” or “tarock” to see what the New Age publishing industries have been hiding from most of us.

What a pedantic jackass. Where do I even begin.

I suppose I’ll begin with his assumption that readers of Tarot, like myself, are ignorant uneducated people unaware of the Tarot’s history as a game… and as a method of divination. Most Tarot readers know plenty about the history of the cards - as well as the many rich myths that have sprung up around the cards.

We know that the tarot was developed in renaissance Italy for the purpose of a game - and we don’t need any pedantic jackass to inform us. The idea that an object - any object - must be used for its original purpose and only its original purpose is probably the most unimaginitive and stale thing I’ve ever heard.

I’ve heard tell that entrails were created for the purpose of digestion and elimination of waste, but they’ve certainly been used for divination. Birds were made to fly and sing, alphabets to communicate, but they’ve both been given a deeper, sacred meaning by those who have observed their ways. Both have been employed for divinational purposes. I’m pretty sure tea’s original purpose was to drink, but when the liquid is gone from the cup and the leaves rest at the bottom of the bowl, sometimes pictures are formed. It might be suggested that the palm was created for the express purpose of self-gratification, but it too has been used to read portents and omens. Though I suspect tarot4games sticks to its original purpose most of the time.

Fortunetelling has long been entangled with the concept of play and childlike wonder, and games have often been adapted to auguries and divination (and vice versa). Dice have been used since prehistoric times, for both gaming and fortunetelling, and even in the most jaded gambling houses, superstitions abound about the roll of the bones. In more modern times, Chess was adapted by the Golden Dawn as an occult exercise, and there is some evidence to suggest that chest pieces were originally totemic in nature and usage.

Many fortunetellers use regular playing cards for their divinations - and with excellent results (where are the objections of the culture-police?). Where numbers, letters, and patterns gather, people often see meaning. The shapes in the clouds, the movement of planets againt the backdrop of the stars, the migration of birds, the mystery of numbers, the rich imagery of art - which includes the art of the Tarot.

Of course tarot4games is incredibly contradictory in his post. He states that the tarot was first used for divination in the 18th century (and this is likely - the occult was seeing quite a revival at this time), then he would have us believe tarot reading is a plot of New Age Consumerism, which, if I have my facts straight, has not been around since the 18th C.

I am certainly not a fan of New Age Consumerism, but the New Age is cashing in on a time honored tradition (as it does with so many time-honored traditions) - it did not create the tradition of reading tarot for divination purposes.

The strongest argument for using Tarot as a form of divination is that - as most reliable Tarot readers will attest - it works. It is a beautiful system with a rich history, surrounded by interesting and inspiring mythology, and filled with evocative imagery and symbolism.

As far as tarot4games’ argument that libraries should “promote culture”, not distort it, well that is precisely what they are doing - promoting it. “Culture” is more than just the “origin’ of a thing. It is the full history, the many uses, the nuances, the changes and adaptations. “Culture” is not the same as “history”, and the library is about much more than history. The library is a public gathering place for people of the community to explore their interests. Hmmm… sounds like precisely what this group is doing.

I certainly see nothing wrong with exploring tarot as a game, rediscovering and learning to play the many games with which is was associated. But for those of us who divine with tarot, it is much more than a game.

Recently:

• Sudden influx of questions this morning
• Tarot Review: the Fenestra Tarot
• Tarot Lessons: The Aces
• Tarot Readings are Back.
• Tarot Readings have been discontinued
• To the Nines
• Astrology: Food and Sun-signs
• Tarot: Game or Divination?
• Tarot Lesson: The Chariot
• Tarot Lessons: The Hermit