Article about Tarot Cards Are Having A Moment With Help From Pandemic

[Mi-Shell]

Hi guys!

I saw this article  in the Washington Post  and thought you may be interested:

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/12/10/tarot-cards-pandemic-trend/?fb_news_token=lC72N7bEDuA%2FngewV nPcA%3D%3D.w1T49UfX6iZuN5E8lxlbI01nQyoMxw53RgkI 6DQwwEkMcYbTNffNa0mIw2kJ3jVlyQs2U56GandS5e5 R9KO7VS26WzdP45zCr1Fy1u0ug79KVZS30pQYUhhX9eoIofKBFKmpg%2FyM6Rr3HO1qWOTKjYhhmKI SFKp2m5YSWicsnKJdeFnMG12XidBckQJTxX%2FYM5tULb73SgxtzhI6c4p6TeHhwHHpebOjt941eoWIsikTGxK6xeEPrICrvyC4%2FTaRmfKnNSvUMsWbKgoZeCu2jL5LDTi9YXrIGt7snPzRH1mu6qvaDKG5ivXTjQBVsujMhgQ01fabMS4UJZ3%2F5vw%3D%3D&fbclid=IwAR0IV5f_GJCjnWzzpj0yRcf9E08_ASdbQdZjmEoWegdt6nCWMqInTg23VXk

 

Holy Smokes, is THAT a looooong address!

The article is called :

Tarot cards are having a moment with help from pandemic

[RunningWild]

I wonder how it is that the women they interviewed seem to know nothing about modern tarot's christian beginnings.

 

Tarot Cards Are Having A Moment With Help From Pandemic

 

(just helping with shortening the link)

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, RunningWild said:

I wonder how it is that the women they interviewed seem to know nothing about modern tarot's christian beginnings.

 

None of the women they interviewed seem to have an inkling of how to read cards, either. 🤣

 

One of them did mention that Tarot brought her back to the Church. She said, “I would pull cards like temperance, justice, death, judgment, which are very Christian ideas. I never would’ve darkened the door of a church, but I was coming into contact with Christian ideas through a medium that isn’t considered Christian. It showed me very gently how much I missed Christianity.” But there's never any Tarot history in these articles. They just find random people who wear a lot of purple and like to tell people that they "read cards" and "don't predict the future."

I'm sure Mary Greer or someone like that would be happy to talk to the WaPo or Vogue or whatever, but they never interview anybody like that. Just posers.

Edited December 14, 2021 by katrinka

[katrinka]

Are we burying the cannabis or the perception? 😁
 

[katrinka]

Can't we bury her lipstick instead? It's hideous.

[katrinka]

Dollar store Jeffree Star knockoffs do tend to contain some sketchy ingredients. That one probably has a 24,000 year half life like plutonium.
 

[katrinka]

I think we have a much better accuracy rate than the weather man.
But yeah - I've seen articles just like this one in other online papers and mags, and they're all the same, they all find people like that who say it doesn't predict the future and they use Tarot as a pacifier.

 

[gregory]

5 hours ago, RunningWild said:

Tarot Cards Are Having A Moment With Help From Pandemic

 

(just helping with shortening the link)

 

Here you go:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/12/10/tarot-cards-pandemic-trend/?

 

Any link copied from a search using keywords will do that; cut it off after the rubbish starts (usually you can find that from where there's a slash and a question mark...)

 

Just helping for future reference !)

 

She doesn't actually say the cards CAN'T predict, just hat that's not what she does. And if RC people want to use them, that can be helpful because

 

Quote

Pope Francis has condemned the use of tarot cards when used to try to see the future, calling them “idolatrous.”

 - which disappoints me - I thought he was better than that !

 

It's not really about what cards mean - it's an article about  burgeoning use of tarot; basically factual, with nothing about meanings etc. Interesting article which isn't really about TAROT at all. only about trends. But the idea that MIT has stared a library of the self-published is fascinating.

 

And do follow the link to the article by one of those interviewed. She seems to get it properly, though yes, says they can't predict. Not a view I despise as much as some here do...

 

https://baylorlariat.com/2021/09/15/tarot-cards-arent-demonic-you-just-watch-too-many-halloween-movies/

Edited December 14, 2021 by gregory

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, gregory said:

She doesn't actually say the cards CAN'T predict, just hat that's not what she does.

 

She says she can't predict the future: "Before she starts a reading, she always prepares people by saying she can’t predict the future."
If a person knows the cards, they'll get predictions whether they're trying for that or not. The only way to avoid that would be to only read on past events, and nobody does that.
 

And there's this: “Tarot is great for anxiety. While you may not be predicting the future, you can slow down and shuffle and look at pretty pictures and say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m overthinking this.’ ”

 

1 hour ago, gregory said:

And if RC people want to use them, that can be helpful because

 

 - which disappoints me - I thought he was better than that !

 

Every now and then he says something ignorant. Just not as bad as the last guy.
Still, it's good that he said that, ignorant though it is. Too many people are piling on - that article is proof. Here's another quote:
“It runs the gamut of people who are super serious to people who just use it as a lifestyle expression.”
A lifestyle expression? WTH is that? Is it like wearing certain items of clothing in order to communicate your politics, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, etc.? Tribal markers do have their uses. They can give us an idea who might be good to get to know better and who to avoid. But a Tarot deck is not a tribal marker. It's a tool. I wouldn't run up to somebody using a phillips screwdriver and say "Oh hi, I have a phillips screwdriver too! We have so much in common!"
 

1 hour ago, gregory said:

It's not really about what cards mean - it's an article about  burgeoning use of tarot; basically factual, with nothing about meanings etc. Interesting article which isn't really about TAROT at all. only about trends.

 

Yeah, and these people are an embarrassment. They're flakey, and it's a safe bet that some people who read this stuff are going to think we're like that.

I did like this bit, though: “You see witches and cauldrons and psychics reading cards, so people think, ‘It can’t be real. It’s just scary stuff,’ ” she said. “The psychic, crystal ball thing leads people to associate tarot cards with things that can tell their future.” IOW, they're scared of people who read cards for real. Good. I've been missing the old days when cards were considered "occult" and it scared the idiots away. Maybe all is not lost. 😁

Edited December 14, 2021 by katrinka

[DanielJUK]

I've moved this thread to the Tarot in Media section where it will fit better as a discussion 🙂

 

The new (and young people's) popularity of Tarot started way before the pandemic. I posted an article about it in 2018....

 

 

That year was one of the best ever years of selling RWS decks! Sales may now have got even better with decks.

 

A lot of people have turned to divination and eclectic areas in the pandemic as support or to know what is going on. Astrology is also seeing huge sales and support and young people are really into it now, like tarot and other card systems.

 

Obviously people can use tarot however they like, if it fits with their religious beliefs by not predicting 😮 . But many young people all over the place are using divination systems, it's sad that none of them were featured! I see people taking it very seriously in their lives on instagram and they are popular accounts. I feel we didn't get the complete picture here.

 

But it's good to know we are still on trend!

 

 

 

[katrinka]

25 minutes ago, DanielJUK said:

Obviously people can use tarot however they like, if it fits with their religious beliefs by not predicting 😮 . But many young people all over the place are using divination systems, it's sad that none of them were featured! I see people taking it very seriously in their lives on instagram and they are popular accounts. I feel we didn't get the complete picture here.

 

Yeah, this, If there's one thing these articles all have in common, it's a big coordinated push to marginalize readers.
The article you posted is more informed than the one ITT, but it still says this:

“People think it’s about predicting the future, but it isn’t. It’s about the present, and it can be very empowering."

and this:

“I thought it was all about telling the future and predictions and making money off people’s fears. I went in very sceptical (sic) and thinking I would find it all hooey but instead I came out with a huge amount of respect for tarot readers and tarot as a practice. A good tarot reader doesn’t tell you what’s going to happen, they simply allow you to think your question through in a different way.”

 

It's consistent, in every article on the subject I've seen. They never, ever talk to anyone who reads cards normally. If you think about it, the Celtic Cross is a longtime popular spread that everybody knows, and it has positions for Before You/near future and the Final Outcome. There are altered versions, but most of those versions have future positions. You can't tell me that they can't find anybody who uses the Celtic Cross. They're purposely avoiding people like us. I'm sure that a lot of established Tarot authors would be happy to give an interview, but they avoid them too. It doesn't support the narrative they're pushing.

 

I don't know who's behind it or what their motive is, but I do know that their intentions are not good.
 

[gregory]

2 hours ago, katrinka said:

 

She says she can't predict the future: "Before she starts a reading, she always prepares people by saying she can’t predict the future."
If a person knows the cards, they'll get predictions whether they're trying for that or not. The only way to avoid that would be to only read on past events, and nobody does that.

 

She said she can't, not that she won't. I say I don't. Is there a real difference ?

 

1 minute ago, Wildcard said:

If prediction becomes excluded from the mix, it feels unbalanced and gives way to extremes.

On the other hand, if prediction is the sole focus, the same happens! You loose the entirety of "what's up?" if only ever going for "what will be".

They work together - why exclude?

For anyone interested, here's the website (it is german, of course): Tarot e.V.

 

I'm wit the bolded bit. I am happy to leave the actual prediction ("this is what will happen") to others who prefer to do that.

[gregory]

I prefer to showcase my POV, which is that you can't predict the future, as the present isn't even QUITE set in stone.

[gregory]

Probably.

 

I am not comfortable saying this is what will happen. I'm OK going as far as "if you don't change your ways, it will." (Like the time on AT, way back, when a mother asked if her daughter would fail her exams. Everyone agreed - yes. The daughter was horrified, pulled up her socks and started working and passed. Imagine if she'd got one of those "all positive" readers who'd said "Of course she'll pass...")

And clearly (as came up in another thread recently) I will never tell someone on their last legs in hospital that no, they won't die for a long while yet, or that of course they will get to have that holiday in the Azores. There are people who are that stupid. The same people who say "the cards will only reveal a positive message" and who can't hack actual death coming up !

 

Those who get readings from me know what they will get. That's the best way, no ?

[gregory]

Who cannot see an actual death if it is clearly shown in the cards because they are in denial that the cards would be able to deliver such a message because it's so negative. For my mother, for instance, it would have been a delight ! But when I'd say that to people they say no no, she could have lived on, and all that stuff. Some people can NEVER see death as positive, never mind that it is a certainty when you are at a particular stage in your illness. This includes some readers. They simply refuse to see death when it's staring them in the face form the cards they have laid out.)

 

Clear enough ?

 

(hack means cope with, in this context !)

[RunningWild]

6 hours ago, gregory said:

Here you go:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/12/10/tarot-cards-pandemic-trend/?

 

Any link copied from a search using keywords will do that; cut it off after the rubbish starts (usually you can find that from where there's a slash and a question mark...)

 

Just helping for future reference !)

 

Thank you.  I'll get it right one of these days.

 

"But some Christians are finding ways to incorporate tarot into their own religious practice. Brittany Muller, an Austin-based stay-at-home mom who is working on a book about a Christian interpretation of tarot said she got into tarot about six years ago through friends."

 

This is what I was referring to earlier. 

 

As for that whole

5 hours ago, katrinka said:

A lifestyle expression? WTH is that? Is it like wearing certain items of clothing in order to communicate your politics, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, etc.? Tribal markers do have their uses.

 

All I could think of, because it made me laugh when I read it, was that they're using the cards as some sort of talisman.  The cards are cool and now those people are innovative influencers

[katrinka]

45 minutes ago, gregory said:

I am not comfortable saying this is what will happen. I'm OK going as far as "if you don't change your ways, it will." (Like the time on AT, way back, when a mother asked if her daughter would fail her exams. Everyone agreed - yes. The daughter was horrified, pulled up her socks and started working and passed. Imagine if she'd got one of those "all positive" readers who'd said "Of course she'll pass...")

 

A qualified prediction is still a prediction.
Welcome to the ranks of the marginalized readers. We "make money off peoples' fears" with "hooey." The Guardian said so.
 

45 minutes ago, gregory said:

And clearly (as came up in another thread recently) I will never tell someone on their last legs in hospital that no, they won't die for a long while yet, or that of course they will get to have that holiday in the Azores. There are people who are that stupid. The same people who say "the cards will only reveal a positive message" and who can't hack actual death coming up !

 

I wouldn't either, even if the cards indicated they would live longer than expected. That means one thing for someone in hospice and something else for a healthy person. It's called "putting the cards in context", not "not making predictions."
 

[RunningWild]

10 hours ago, katrinka said:

I think we have a much better accuracy rate than the weather man.
But yeah - I've seen articles just like this one in other online papers and mags, and they're all the same, they all find people like that who say it doesn't predict the future and they use Tarot as a pacifier.

 

I don't think I've ever personally found reading the cards as pacifying but then I love predictive readings and don't use them for any sort of wellness routine.

 

11 minutes ago, gregory said:

Who cannot see an actual death if it is clearly shown in the cards because they are in denial that the cards would be able to deliver such a message because it's so negative

 

Me.  I have a hard time seeing physical death in the cards even though it came up recently in a personal reading.  Not because I avoid the negative. I don't view death that way, but because I couldn't place it. 

 

In my experience, tarot has never once alleviated any sense of anxiety.

[katrinka]

6 minutes ago, RunningWild said:

All I could think of, because it made me laugh when I read it, was that they're using the cards as some sort of talisman.  The cards are cool and now those people are innovative influencers

 

Like this?
https://stayglam.com/beauty/fortune-teller-makeup/

 

They can dress up like me if they like. I'm currently wearing flannel pajamas with dog hair on them  and wooly slippers. And my hair is in pillow rollers with the ends sticking out. No makeup ATM, I just got up.

[RunningWild]

21 minutes ago, katrinka said:

 

Like this?
https://stayglam.com/beauty/fortune-teller-makeup/

 

They can dress up like me if they like. I'm currently wearing flannel pajamas with dog hair on them  and wooly slippers. And my hair is in pillow rollers with the ends sticking out. No makeup ATM, I just got up.

 

Six to eight hours to apply the makeup.  Fifty-five minutes of Instagram or Tik Tok video production.  Three hours to scrub that crap off your face so you can go out into public.  One full day.

 

But hey, they have thousands of followers.  I have zero.

 

One day they looked at the cards and were instantaneously tarot gurus. 

 

I consider myself to still be a newbie after 14 or 15 years.  I learn something new about the cards every day.  Life is a struggle.

 

Sweatpants and a hoodie or sweatshirt is everyday wear for me.  No make up for about 20 years now.  Forget about video readings or Skype/Zoom stuff.  You get the voice and that's if I feel like it.

 

It's a good thing it's just a hobby for me.  🤣

[RunningWild]

2 minutes ago, RunningWild said:

I'm currently wearing flannel pajamas with dog hair on them

 

Here, too re:  the dog hair.  I've started to think of it as an accessory. 

[katrinka]

They hate our guts and malign us saying we're hooey and scam artists, yet they try to dress up like us and pretend to be us.
And a lot of the stuff they wear reminds me of those ethnic Halloween costumes. The Roma ones.

 

[gregory]

1 hour ago, katrinka said:

Welcome to the ranks of the marginalized readers. We "make money off peoples' fears" with "hooey." The Guardian said so.

 

The Guardian ? where ? (just curious.)

[RunningWild]

6 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

I've moved this thread to the Tarot in Media section where it will fit better as a discussion 🙂

 

The new (and young people's) popularity of Tarot started way before the pandemic. I posted an article about it in 2018....

 

 

That year was one of the best ever years of selling RWS decks! Sales may now have got even better with decks.

 

A lot of people have turned to divination and eclectic areas in the pandemic as support or to know what is going on. Astrology is also seeing huge sales and support and young people are really into it now, like tarot and other card systems.

 

Obviously people can use tarot however they like, if it fits with their religious beliefs by not predicting 😮 . But many young people all over the place are using divination systems, it's sad that none of them were featured! I see people taking it very seriously in their lives on instagram and they are popular accounts. I feel we didn't get the complete picture here.

 

But it's good to know we are still on trend!

 

 

 

I read the entire article (it's not long, I just lose interest quickly most times).  Yes, it's great that tarot is still popular or gaining popularity but what I mostly get from both of these articles is that these young people, most of them good looking, are launching other businesses off the back of a deck of cards.  Whether that's writing a book, or creating tarot talisman to sell in a shop on Etsy or joining/creating their own tarot reading channel, it's all about making money and being popular while making money.

 

I don't know that that is wrong, it just seems to divert from the article titles swiftly.

 

Like not talking about the elephant in the room.

 

It's 'tarot-lite'.

 

On the plus side, the cards gave them creative license that launched them into something else.

[RunningWild]

6 minutes ago, gregory said:

 

The Guardian ? where ? (just curious.)

 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/19/new-generation-follows-pack-tarot-makes-comeback

 

Here.

 

It's not a new article.

Edited December 14, 2021 by RunningWild
Added for clarification