My first Tarot deck

[pegkerr]

I bought this one today, the Druidcraft Tarot. I went to four stores in all and looked through a lot of decks. I'm not totally in love with this deck or even sure that I will use it extensively, since I've never had a Tarot deck before. But I like it, and I thought it might be a good starting point. I have, however, also put the Jane Austen deck on my Amazon wishlist.

_lindsay_ asked to know a little about my previous remark that I'm somewhat wary of Tarot. That's true, I am. For one thing, I probably first learned about Tarot in detail by reading Tim Powers' Last Call--and that book is enough to terrify anybody from ever touching a deck! Tim is a devout Roman Catholic, and--it's funny--although he is a fantasy writer, he doesn't like or trust magic at all! In fact, in his stories, magic pretty much always leads to ruin. Tim has told me that he won't allow a Tarot deck in his house, and he would never dare play a game of Assumption, the game he actually invented for Last Call that is played with a Tarot deck.

Then, too, I have had somewhat of an inner struggle about what to think about Tarot because I am a Christian myself. A liberal one, but a Christian all the same. And Christianity has often been suspicious, if not overtly condemning, of things things associated with the occult, as Tarot sometimes is. I know that Tarot is a pretty amorphous, squishy concept, with connections to many different spiritual and mystic paths, not just Paganism--it has links to Masons, Hebrew, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Egyptian mysticism, Jungian archetypes, and more. I do not condemn Wicca or Paganism myself; I understand them to be different faiths than my own, and not, as some conservative Christians think, the road to the Devil and damnation. I am certainly very interested in many aspects of Wicca/paganism--the cycle of the seasons, the attention to the mother/maiden/crone, the reverence for the natural world, especially trees, male/female energy and balance, etc.--and I think my Christianity can learn and draw wisdom from that.

Do I think Tarot is magic? Well, I don't know what I think of magic, frankly. I am extremely skeptical whenever I step into a New Age shop. But I am interested and curious when I step in. I am not like Lavender or Parvati, credulous and perhaps gullible, but I am not Hermione, the totally rejecting skeptic who thinks divination is probably useless, either. I have had l_a_winter do a reading for me on Easter Sunday every year for probably ten years or so. I do not think that what we discuss when we do a reading is a prediction which will, of course, come true because Tarot is magic. Rather, I think that Tarot can tap into some useful insights, many, perhaps, Jungian, and I am interested in opening myself up to that.

Then, too, I have been to some panels at conventions about how Tarot may be useful to a writer, and that is because Tarot, as I understand it has developed over the centuries, can be a useful tool for intuition. I LOVE thinking and chewing over archetypes; it is one of the reasons I particularly adore fantasy literature, and why, when I write, I am particularly attuned to theme. Tarot is all about themes. And that in the end, I think, is what made me decide (after YEARS of thinking about it) to go out and get a Tarot deck. I have felt awfully stultified and stuck lately, and barren of intuition. I have been struggling with some things for years that my best attempts at using logic and reason have yielded no direction at all (and some of this is writing-related, some of it personal stuff that Elinor Dashwood does not talk about in this LiveJournal). I have been feeling very frustrated lately as a result. Why not try Tarot, with the understanding that I'm using it not as a "magical" device, or a step into a faith that is not my own Christian faith, but as a way to open up a pathway to my unconscious and intuition, the source of my creativity, which, let's face it, has been feeling awfully blocked lately?

So I looked around and after investigating and hesitating over a LOT of decks, I chose this Pagan/Druidic one. And yeah, I must admit I am a little uncertain and uncomfortable with that choice. But the artwork is cool, and I'm not buying it because I'm about to worship the Maiden/Mother/Crone or cast off my clothes to go skyclad or mate with a horned god or anything (no disrespect to my Pagan/Wicca friends on this friends list, I assure you). I may get around to wrapping the deck with silk, or I may not. I am not quite credulous enough to think I will be able to detect "emanations" from the cards, nor do I feel the need to bless my new deck with the ritual elaborated in the accompanying manual--I find it mildly silly rather than inspiring.

But I do want to listen to what the Maiden/Mother/Crone, or the Moon, or the Magician, or the Star or the Hanged Man have to say to me. And especially the Fool.

The Tarot is often described as the story of the journal of the Fool into achieving wisdom and mastery. I have felt a lot like a Fool lately, so I am sure we will have much to talk about.

(If there is anyone local and knowledgeable who might be inclined to meet with me over coffee some Friday night to sort of introduce me to my new deck, let me know. Thanks.)

Edited to add: When you think about it, Harry Potter would make a good Tarot as well. Lupin could be the Moon card, James and Lily could be the lovers, the Tower could be the death of James and Lily (the lovers) and explosion of their house. Judgment could either be the Sorting Hat or Harry's trial before the Wizengamot. Strength could be summoning the Patronus (with the Gryffindor Lion as the Lion on the card), or maybe Strength could be Neville Longbottom. Peter Pettigrew could be the Devil card. Death could be Voldemort, or the Dementors. John Granger has already done a lot of analysis of how the four Houses are associated with the four alchemical elements (earth, fire, air, water) which in turn are associates with the four suits (wands, pentacles, cups, swords). You have wands, of course, and the Sword of Gryffindor. Maybe Ollivander would be the Ace of Wands. Fawkes would be associated with Fire--perhaps the Sun card. Gilderoy Lockhart could be the Fool, or perhaps the twins, with Weasley Wizarding Wheezes. Sibyll Trelawney could be the Priestess. Something with a lot of pentacles could be a trip to Gringotts. (Maybe the twins would be the Knight of Pentacles, with their Triwizard Tournament winnings). The Magician might be Dumbledore, looking into a Pensieve. Etcetera. There are lots of possibilities.

There have been some people who have started developing ideas for a Harry Potter tarot on the web, but I think you'd have to wait until the seventh book is published to do it right, and no deck has been published yet.

Comments

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

I like Tarot decks. It's all about the art for me. I don't do readings, but I sometimes draw a card when I'm stuck on a scene or character and try to think about how it would apply, sort of grenade fishing in the subconscious.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Grenade fishing in the unconscious. I like that.

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

I've read that the tarot was originally developed in the context of Christian religion, and was not seen as "occult." I think to a large extent it's more psychological and symbolic than wooie-wooie weird -- unless you want to make it wooie-wooie weird, of course. ;-) But I spent some years in born-again, conservative Christianity, and read all the "scary New Age" literature, so I can understand the gut sense of resistance if you've been exposed to any of that kind of talk.

In the end, I just decided to rely on my own experience of the Divine, that God works with us in and through our own culture, language, symbolism, and so forth. If cards with symbols and artwork that speak to the human journey through life provide a way for us to be receptive to insight, then I don't see why the Divine wouldn't use those any more or less than any other means of communicating with us. Then again, I long ago ditched the notion that God is a scary control freak and if we don't conform to certain strict rules there is an even scarier Devil figure waiting to devour us and fool us into eternal damnation, and that certainly makes it easier to be comfortable with "unconventional" paths to prayer. Certainly it was a fundamental sense that God is trustworthy that allowed me to feel "safe" to pursue the path of Atheism for a couple of years -- a strange spiritual paradox, if ever there was one!

Just a thought: If you aren't already doing so, maybe you'd like to get a notebook for purposes of journaling your thoughts about tarot, along with your explorations of its symbolism, various decks, readings, etc.

This is correct, Tarot is not always "occult"

[oudler.livejournal.com]

Not only were the original trump imagery based on Christianity, but the Tarot deck was created in Italy for playing trick taking card games which are still played today in France, Italy, and Austria. The Tarot deck was not designed for the occult. The players in Europe though most often use a more modern looking deck with spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. The trumps on these later decks contain a completely different set of images. It is quite sad that these aspects of Tarot continues to remain hidden from the majority of the world. Most of the world is not getting a true picture of Tarot. In case your curious, my user name "oudler" is derived from a term used by French Tarot players and my avatar is derived from an early Animal Tarot used in the 18th and 19th centuries. Instead of "The World" the XXI depicts a bear.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

Why not try Tarot, with the understanding that I'm using it not as a "magical" device, or a step into a faith that is not my own Christian faith, but as a way to open up a pathway to my unconscious and intuition, the source of my creativity, which, let's face it, has been feeling awfully blocked lately?

I recall having read comments on the Tarot by seraphimsigrist or someone, to a similar effect -- here (http://waterstrider.livejournal.com/151342.html) (most of the people involved in the comments are some flavor of Christian or another)...

[vass]

*listens, nods*

Your struggle with the Tarot and your Christianity reminds me of my own, between my paganism and my skepticism. I frequently find myself saying things like "if I believed in this, which I don't".

With the Tarot, what I think I'm doing when I do it is definitely not predicting the future, but getting a different perspective on what I already know. Shaking the pieces around to see them from another angle. I don't expect to find any information I don't already have, just maybe to put it together in a way I hadn't before.

I can definitely see lots of ways it could be good for a writer, from character development to plot to imagery.

Do you know the site Learning the Tarot? I like it: it's very sensible and self-directed.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! I will definitely check it out.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

Hm...comment, take two....

When I'm shopping for a new deck (which isn't very often, since I don't use them as much as I used to), I always go with artwork. My two favorites are the Arthurian Tarot (I especially love the artwork for The High Priestess) and the Robin Wood Tarot. When I was working at learning the cards last year, I was using the latter.

There's a storytelling exercise in one of my books to go with the Arthurian Tarot in which you draw a bunch of cards, and then write the story that they tell (in the order you draw them). I've only tried it once and didn't get a very good result.

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

I've always understood "finding the story" to be the basic task in making sense of a reading, at least a larger, general-reading spread (vs. a one-card or three-card, or a yes-no, etc.). It takes a while, but as I ponder each card in order, and the meaning of the card with regard to its position in the spread, slowly a pattern or "story" emerges which helps me understand what the reading is "saying" about my situation. It may be just a Rorschach effect ;-) but however you explain it, it definitely helps develop the inner eye for Story!

[cheshyre]

1) Re:how Tarot works (and reconciling it with religion) I rather like this comment by Robin Wood:

"I think it's a focus, that lets your own subconscious come up with answers and insights. ... [I]f you look at the cards, and let them trigger your insights and emotional wisdom, if you interpret the visceral reactions that you have to them, and translate them into words, then you will be reading the cards!"

Have you ever seen Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology site? He's described his horoscopes as an exercise in the power of positive thinking, and maybe self-fulfilling prophecies... Yay for the power of mind without resorting to newage...

2) Re:Harry Potter and Tarot, *ages ago* I tried the simple step of mapping the Houses to the four suits, which seemed to fit for me. This is what I came up with:

Gryffindor == Fire == Swords
Hufflepuff == Earth == Pentacles
Ravenclaw == Air == Wands
Slytherin == Water == Cups

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I agree overall with what others have said here. I suspect that people with good intuition are good at giving Tarot readings for others. I think intuition is a combination of experience, knowledge, and observation, processed subconsciously, and using the Tarot may help focus it and/or jog it loose into consciousness in a form that can be talked about.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

One of the things I always meant to do was design a tarot deck, and ended up finishing two cards (one of which was used for either a Stipple-apa or a Minne-apa cover). If I remember correctly Evenstar bookstore (near Raymond & University in St. Paul) used to sell a tarot-like card system...

Sorry, can't recall anything more than that. I'll have to stop by there someday.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

One argument for the classic Rider-Waite deck is that there's a LOT more written about interpreting it; in particular, more different viewpoints on the symbolism of the cards.

[naomikritzer]

The Tower could be the death of James and Lily (the lovers)

I'm not at all a Tarot expert, but I think The Tower would need to be the death of Dumbledore -- he falls off a tower, doesn't he? It's also a moment of total disaster: the (apparent) betrayal of a friend leading to death.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought of that, of course--in fact, it was my first idea. But the Tower as the house at Godric's Hollow fits James and Lily a little bit better: the card traditionally shows two people falling, a man and a woman, and they are traditionally the same two shown in the Lovers card. Also, the betrayal of James and Lily is a pivotal event which affects many, many characters and sets other events in motion early in the series. It also sets up either Peter Pettigrew Voldemort as the Devil card (the Devil card traditionally also shows the Lovers enchained and/or betrayed--see for example, the example from the Robin Wood deck here, where they are chained and reaching for escape), and using the Astronomy Tower as the Tower card leaves the Lovers out entirely and instead casts Snape as the Devil, and I personally think he is going to be shown in the end as fighting on the good side.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

And of course, the betrayal of James and Lily lead to death, too, with immense repurcusions for Sirius (he might be the Knight of Swords, as someone who is very rash) and Lupin (the Moon card), too.

[lauzeta.livejournal.com]

I'm another Christian who was a bit leery of tarot for a while, but one of the things I've been discovering about myself lately is a pretty much unshakeable belief that faith is personal and requires experimentation, perhaps especially in the modern world. Also, as a literature major in university, I find it kind of refreshing to see symbolism in action instead of just happening in the ivory tower. :) (BTW, I've friended you - I hope that's all right with you.)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

You are more than welcome to friend me, and welcome to my LiveJournal.

[nancydruid.livejournal.com]

I'm a professional Tarot reader. If you have any questions in your learning process, please feel free to contact me.

Bohemianspirit is correct that the Tarot was probably originally developed as a Christian game, but no one really knows for sure.

The Bible warns against consulting fortune tellers, and rightly so. My profession has a very unscrupulous reputation, and a lot of people, both 6,000 years ago and in modern times, have thrown away a lot of money on charlatans.

But the Bible is also full of prophets and diviners who are portrayed as the good guys and the heroes of the religion.

If you're going to follow the Bible literally, then, no, Tarot is probably not a good practice for you. But unless you have already given up cheeseburgers, credit cards, and cotton/linen blends, I personally would advise you not to stress about a curiosity in the Tarot. It can be a great tool for spiritual growth, both for Christians and non-Christians. But, really it's up to you and what you feel comfortable with.

Someone has almost completed a beautiful Harry Potter Tarot; there's a link to it at my site at nancydruid.org. There are other resources there, too, for people who are interested in Tarot.

Good luck in your journeys.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting! I did see that Harry Potter tarot when I did a quick Google search the other day, but upon your recommendation I stopped by and took another, closer look. You're right; I quite like it. I like her ideas and will be eager to see the rest of the deck.

[nancydruid.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, its creator can never sell it because of course s/he doesn't own the characters. JK Rowling would be wise to buy it and have it distributed, in my opinion -- but it's not like SHE needs the money. :)