Cold Reading Techniques

[iofthebeholder]

At the moment reading Enrique Enriquez's book of tarot interviews "EN TEREX IT" (Encounters around the Tarot vol 1 - highly recommended!). In his discussions with Mary K Greer and Todd Landman the topic of "cold reading" techniques comes up which got me interested in researching that a bit further. As I understand it cold reading basically = the art of fishing for personal information from clients and using that in combination with a bit of neuroliguistic programming to enhance the perception of possessing psychic powers. Mary K Greer notes feeling horrified at the exploitative tone of a lot of the cold reading literature out there. Enrique Enriquez speaking with Landman says he recognizes in cold reading a kind of artistry involving conveying conviction in your own words and tailoring the performative aspect of reading specifically to each client.

 

Personally I incline toward Enriquez's view of tarot reading as a specialized form of collaborative performance art. In that context, so long as a reader doesn't operate with malicious intent, employing a bit of subtle cold reading technique would seem to add value to the experience for a sitter by heightening the sense of having received a highly personalized engagement.

 

So I'm curious to know how others feel about this question and what related experiences you may have had in your own development as a reader? Do you use cold reading techniques to elicit information to better understand your client's needs? Do you consider cold reading ethical? I can definitely see how this could be abused but also how the line between medicine and poison is often only a question of intent and quantity.

Edited July 26, 2019 by iofthebeholder

[katrinka]

LOL.
I used to talk with Enrique quite a bit. He was into mentalism, that's his background. He would do presentations like having everybody draw a picture, and then finding similarities (like several people drawing a house) and making them think something psychic happened.
Don't get me wrong, Enrique is a nice guy. It's just that things are not what they appear to be.
When Jodorowsky's book came out, EE was profoundly impressed with it. But his problem was "How do I do this without being totally derivative?"
He worked out a presentation thing where anybody can read their own cards, there was a big thread at AT that I can't find now. He got a big following from that.
But he backed off. He didn't want the new age crowd (I don't blame him!) so he started that dadaist site he has now.
I like Enrique. But I don't consider him any kind of Tarot expert. He's more of a performance artist.

[iofthebeholder]

I get the sense Enrique would also consider himself more of a performance artist than anything else, but I feel less interested in the question of whether his opinions carry authority or whether we might consider him a bona fide tarot expert than in grappling with the question of "authenticity" in a reading as regards consciously employing persuasive or dramatic devices to enhance the perception of one's own accuracy or legitimacy as a reader / performer? I feel like we probably all do this even unknowingly to some degree, insofar as anything a reader does to create an atmosphere of non-ordinary reality or otherwise gratify a client's expectation of having an encounter with the divine / paranormal through a reading serves a similar purpose. Many of the fishing-for-personal-info techniques of cold reading I already employ to a degree without previously having seen them articulated as specific devices, just by way of always trying to better understand where my client is coming from or wants from a reading to better help them make sense of the drawn cards through that lens. 

 

I suppose it boils down to the question of whether a reader considers themselves a performer or not. If so, considering the client is paying for an engaging, personalized performance in that sense, I see no reason why studying and consciously incorporating mentalist techniques to whatever modest degree shouldn't be considered valid toward the end of delivering a more visceral performance, even within the context of approaching the tarot as an authentic form of theraputic counseling. 

 

the trick it seems to me would be not to pretend to possess psychic powers or presume knowing what a sitter needs or imposing personal opinions, but to ascertain what their own intuitive feeling about a query is, and reflect that back in a way that enhances the perception of this having been expressed through some synchronistic agency in the cards in a highly personalized way?

 

to say there is a bit of acting in reading tarot for strangers just by the nature of the interaction, so why not knowingly play it up a bit for enhanced dramatic effect?

 

 

[DownUnderNZer]

You can read the Tarot or Lenormand without the use of birthdates.

 

Astrology  is another one I think used as though it is a "Psychic power" when it is not.

 

With the right software anyone can chew out an Astrology 

chart based on a birthdate and time.

 

I don't use birthdates or birth times and am not really in to Astrology or Numerology.

 

Over 4 to 6 months before 2009 I went undercover if you like on this one site that may have changed its name now, but was very popular at the time. Still is!

 

All readings started out with the first minute or so for free regardless of price range.

 

I found in my time maybe 5 exemplary readers out of many that were the real deal. However, most of these readers  (they told me) were tarnished by other readers posting as  clients. Fake.

 

One woman in the UK I discovered had under 100 Pseudonym names and would always use "dear".

 

Another was on the nail, but then would bring in curses and the $5000 fee +++

 

The worse discovery when reporting it to the site was that the site was likely behind it and also that they saved your readings.

 

It felt like whoever read you went off of what was saved by another reader or on the actual site itself.

 

 

DND 💓

[devin]

Hey @iofthebeholder, there's a lot to pick through in your post so I hope you'll excuse my use of the quote-answer format. Also, I'm only talking about the kind of reading techniques I personally aspire to. There are other valid ways to approach the cards.

6 hours ago, iofthebeholder said:

... but I feel less interested in the question of whether his opinions carry authority or whether we might consider him a bona fide tarot expert than ...

I think Katrinka's point was that Enriquez's views on tarot, as interesting as they may be, are not particularly representative.

6 hours ago, iofthebeholder said:

I suppose it boils down to the question of whether a reader considers themselves a performer or not.

I've relatively recently come to view each tarot reading as the making of a little artwork. That being said, I'd say it goes far beyond performance art and instead blends a number of artistic disciplines, most of which are brought to bear in the actual reading of the cards themselves. So, for example, in interpreting a lay of cards a reader might: Look to see if the cards and their meanings combine grammatically to form an intelligible syntax, study the rhythm of the cards to ascertain speed or timing, use a significator to determine perspective (what are they facing, what is above, what is below, what is near, what is far), ponder visual affinities to see which cards combine and which stand alone, look for visual rhymes in the cards that may add meaning or rhythm, weigh the balance of good and bad cards, and adapt all of the above to fit the context of a specific question. Then finally, yes, one also faces the challenge of articulating and expressing your reading to another, immediately, on the spot, which is tough, for sure.

 

This is bloody complex stuff! 

 

Anyway, I guess my point in the above is that, for me, the focal point of a reading is the interplay between the cards, the reader and the question (the question represents the querent). 

6 hours ago, iofthebeholder said:

Many of the fishing-for-personal-info techniques of cold reading I already employ to a degree without previously having seen them articulated as specific devices, just by way of always trying to better understand where my client is coming from or wants from a reading to better help them make sense of the drawn cards through that lens. 

Well, I think this is all in aid of adding helpful context, which can be done quite openly in conversation while working with the querent to come up with a good and useful question. 

6 hours ago, iofthebeholder said:

If so, considering the client is paying for an engaging, personalized performance in that sense, I see no reason why studying and consciously incorporating mentalist techniques to whatever modest degree shouldn't be considered valid toward the end of delivering a more visceral performance, even within the context of approaching the tarot as an authentic form of theraputic counseling. 

While presentation is definitely a consideration, for me, aspiring to be specific and accurate is more important than offering a visceral performance. Besides, the aforementioned accuracy and specificity goes a long way to achieving a sense of drama, mysticism, non-ordinariness, etc.

6 hours ago, iofthebeholder said:

... ascertain what their own intuitive feeling about a query is, and reflect that back in a way that enhances the perception of this having been expressed through some synchronistic agency in the cards in a highly personalized way?

I'm not sure I fully understand you here.... could you elaborate?

 

Than again, some of history's most famous fortunetellers, shamans, mystics, etc. seem to have employed dramatic devices like there's no tomorrow. And I should add that while I do fantasise about it regularly, I don't read professionally. 🙂

 

All the best,
Devin.

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by devin

[DanielJUK]

There is a negative with cold reading of course the charlatans, con artists and others with psychics, tarot readers and others. Some of them don't even have an intention of doing a reading, it is all a con. I think it is exploitive because it is not using the systems or skills we learn and study with divination, they are selling a false service. The positive which I think EE refers to are the magicians and showman you see on TV and in the media, they put on a show with their amazing cold reading skills and they are highly skilled at it.

 

I think it's really difficult to cold read online, especially if you are posting the reading on a forum or by email and know very few details. I actually like to know as little as possible, don't need to know birth date or anything. When I don't know anything, I have stumbled across some amazing facts about people that I could not know before and find that very exciting. In person, I think we all cold read all the time, we react to people's mannerisms on a subconscious level. For example if we are in conversation with someone and turn to a topic they don't like, we will subconsciously notice their body language or eyes and if we are have high emotional intelligence will probably change topic or bring it to a close. When we read in person, we do notice how they react to it. Not saying you cannot read for someone without cold reading them but we notice things all the time face to face.

 

I think personally this is about how you see tarot reading and divination. I would say that we learn it as a skill, you study the technique and process of it, there are rules and then you open yourself up to and your intuition and find how to make it really work for you. It's learning and bettering a skill with a technique, like learning a musical instrument, for me it is not performance art. There are performance artist type people who put on a show with their divination, like a gypsy fortune telling set up, they are still using the skills they have learned. There are also performance artists who have never learnt anything at all about the systems and just want to impress people with their amazing skills, they are the ultimate tarot skeptics really.

 

 

[iofthebeholder]

 

5 hours ago, devin said:

I'm not sure I fully understand you here.... could you elaborate?

thinking about it more deeply... what I alluded to seems basically the difference between expressing a shared sense of surprise / amazement at the accuracy or situational relatedness of the cards vs expressing total confidence and lack of surprise concerning this. often it takes a bit of questioning / digging to reveal how the concepts in the drawn cards relate to a querent's experience. as the querent opens up and the reading zeroes in on more specific personal relevance there's often a shared sense of discovery and surprise at the synchronicities manifested in a spread. insofar as adopting the attitude implied by cold reading devices would seem to downplay this in favor of the reader feigning a nonplussed "all-knowing" stance i don't think that's something i want to do, to the extent it fosters an imbalanced power dynamic favoring the reader. 

 

so I guess if I'm going to get any milage from consciously leveraging cold reading devices it might come down to slightly refining some phraseology in how questions are posed, not to pretend psychic powers but to elicit relevant information about the sitter in a more economical or artful way, like a dancer leading a partner less familiar with the steps with a certain flourish.

 

I do read professionally but the level of "performance" depends on the situation. most of my readings occur in a private context where being completely transparent about any ambiguities or uncertainty seems naturally the way to go, whereas occasionally I have offered readings in a more public environment where the pace is faster and the readings generally less psychological in nature. For that type of context I do enjoy taking a slightly more theatrical approach, for example dressing "in character" even to the extent of wearing nerdy looking glasses (I don't normally wear glasses) to lend an air of intrigue lol. All in good fun, but when it comes to more personal / private readings, insofar as people place a surprising level of trust in a reader revealing all manner of private experiences and feelings, I expect probably the less artiface the better.

 

2 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

In person, I think we all cold read all the time, we react to people's mannerisms on a subconscious level.

Yes, perhaps to call it "cold reading" in that sense unnecessarily labels something already a natural and constructive part of the process.

[Raggydoll]

I just want to say that I definitely agree that no one should ever pretend that they have ‘psychic powers’. There are however many people who are genuinely gifted and who must be able to accurately describe themselves as psychic if that’s the case. I feel that this whole discussion around the technicalities of tarot readings don’t really take us psychic readers or spirit workers into account. I do not feel that there is any performance in my readings and during most of my intuitive sessions I don’t even have the querent present in the room (I don’t like to have other people with me when I channel information as I have to go into an altered state of mind and do not want any distractions.) So while I certainly have an energetic connection with the querent, I am in no way able to read their body language or ask them questions. But it’s true that I have a dialogue with the querent before I start outlining the reading, so i guess it would be possible to make some conclusions based on that. Though I think that anyone who’s had a reading by me knows it goes way beyond anything that was shared initially. So I think (actually, I know) that there are plenty of readers like me who do not rely on cold reading but on tarot knowledge and/or intuition/psychic gifts. 

[iofthebeholder]

certainly not to preclude actual psychic vision @Raggydoll, a contemptibly moot discussion in that context no doubt lol. but even absent this i still believe a spiritual agency guides card selection to express itself through various approaches to reading. maybe that's only half what anyone receives from a genuine psychic reading but still better than nothing i hope! 😂 wonderful the tarot a flexible enough instrument to accommodate a plurality of talents and playing styles. storytelling craft plays into all our experiences to some degree so maybe that's a useful way to consider what (if anything) of value cold reading devices might offer. think i'll read "full facts of cold reading"  just to satisfy curiosity.

[_R_]

As I recall, there was a lot of clutching of pearls and gasps of the “shock-horror” variety when EE mentioned the cold reading business on AeT and elsewhere online once upon a time… 

The irony is that none of the Tarot readers who criticise this honest admission seem to realise that so-called cold reading plays a large part in Tarot readings anyhow (no, I haven’t got a statistic for that assertion), and in fact, if we delve into the cartomantic sources themselves, we find this more or less explicitly laid out - see the appendix to Maxwell’s book, for instance. (I forget if this included in the English version however.) As some of the posters have mentioned, this may occur naturally, or unconsciously. 

To be sure, some of the famous fortune-tellers of the past were criticised for cold - or hot - reading, but the lines between Tarot reading and cold reading can be very blurred indeed. One must separate the show-business cold reading from the actual techniques, which may have a legitimate place in a serious Tarot reading.

 

Katrinka has summed the matter up nicely where EE is concerned, i think.

[katrinka]

Thank you.

I suspect Mlle. Lenormand herself used some hot reading. I've seen mention of a "network of spies." This is not to say that she couldn't, or didn't, read cards. I think she used everything at her disposal.

People like us will putter along just reading the cards, but the Big Name Psychics all seem to get caught using cheats. I suspect that fame requires it. Think of the mediums doing television and working stadiums - what you see them doing certainly doesn't match what Raggydoll describes. They may well have started out 100% real, but the public expects these things to be on tap. In stadiums, no less.

OTOH,I can agree that cold reading plays a part in cartomancy, whether we are willing to admit it or not. For example, I did a quick nine card Lenormand reading for a guy I work with. I don't know him outside of work. The cards said that a manipulative woman would try to make a financial deal with him, but that it wasn't on the up and up and he should have nothing to do with it. He told me that a relative left him a ranch(!) and that his other relatives were trying to find a way to get it away from him,  particularly an aunt who was pressuring him to make various deals with her, so the reading was a roaring success. But if that hadn't been the case, chances are some woman would have tried to cheat him somehow, even if she was just a telemarketer. Can you see how cold reading is built into the cards sometimes? I didn't do it intentionally, there was just no way around it.

I think it can be even more pronounced with non-predictive reading. Statements such as "sometimes negative thoughts hold you back" or "you have untapped potential" are pretty universally applicable.

I'm not saying that this is the whole picture of how the cards work, just that it's something that can come into play sometimes whether or not we're trying to cold read. It's still pretty impressive that the cards picked up on the situation with the ranch. I had no idea he even owned property, and having the cards go straight to that issue rather than something less important speaks well of their efficacy.

I'm sure there will be a flurry of people objecting to this - none of us like being "tainted" with the cold reading appellation - but it's important that we're honest with ourselves.

Edited August 3, 2019 by katrinka

[Grizabella]

When I was first learning the cards, I used the term cold reading without realizing the meaning is different in Tarot. I used the term cold reading to mean doing a reading with no background about a client. 

 

When you use the term "performance art" , do you mean dressing up and doing the flourish of the cape, so to speak, when you use the cards, with the intent being that the sitter or audience will be dazzled and impressed?

 

 

[iofthebeholder]

in terms of "performance art" not so much to dazzle and impress but to recognize and embrace there's definitely an aspect of performer and audience to giving a reading. the querant expects you to know what you're talking about and express it with a corresponding confidence otherwise what are they paying you for? 

 

an analog in my personal experience: in high school i participated in extemporaneous speech competitions where we were allowed to bring a file of news clippings for source material and given a few minutes to prepare a speech on a topic selected on the spot. in tarot we arrive with knowledge of various interpretive systems and our personal understanding of the cards, but the specific context of a question and cards drawn are not known until it's time to "perform". in speech you have various rhetorical devices and ways of structuring arguments that are known to produce persuasion, if these are employed confidently a speech is judged good even if the speaker does not actually possess as much depth of personal knowledge on a topic as a well delivered speech might suggest. the power is in the delivery as much as the content. in that sense i can see a similarity between rhetorical devices employed by a speaker and cold reading devices employed by a tarot reader, their shared utility being the projection of confidence which makes the audience relax into the feeling their experience is in capable hands, focusing on the content without feeling distracted by doubts about the competence or knowledge of the reader, to make the reading feel more personal, even if you don't personally understand whatever specific relevance to the querant's life and the things you're saying are general in nature.

 

interesting to see how this question relates to a diversity of reading styles represented in this thread, good & insightful comments.

 

 

 

[Raggydoll]

6 minutes ago, Ruby Jewel said:

As the reader you are "performing" a reading for the client who is the audience

 

This is certain one way of doing it, but it’s not the only way. I don’t know if you are familiar with the works of Katrina Wynne and her transformative reading techniques? She describes two different style of readings, where you can either be the performer and have the querent as your audience or you can be a person that follows both the cards and the querent and merely support and help them to be part of the reading process, by lending them your understanding of tarot so they can have a framework for understanding the deeper meanings of their reading. 

 

I’m not sure how well I described this process, but I think Mary Greers method is the perfect example of it. It’s more of a collaboration and there is no prestige involved. But there are some practical limitations here, especially if you read online and is unable to have a conversation during the reading. Still, it’s an interesting view to keep in mind and I do appreciate Katrinas book even though I don’t completely work the way she does (not online anyway. But when face-to-face its much more collaborative). Personally I think I am both a leader and a follower - and I believe there is a chance to be the student in every situation. I see myself as being taught both by life, tarot (or spirits) and by the querent. 

 

And I want to say that I really appreciate all the different views and angles that’s being shared here. Lots of food for thought! 

[Raggydoll]

46 minutes ago, Ruby Jewel said:

In a way I suppose that is why we are here on this forum at 3:23 am.....the fascination of just keeping on learning. I call it a zest for life. Some would call us the "fortunados".

I’m Scandinavian so it’s not nighttime here! (In fact, I just had lunch 😁) 

[Raggydoll]

4 minutes ago, Ruby Jewel said:

That's downright awesome. You must be having a lovely day. I'm going to bed now. It's 5 am...I might be able to sleep....I have difficulty with sleeping.

❤️

[iofthebeholder]

so far as "performance art" conceived a politically loaded act with a host of post modernist ideas attached, that's not really what i meant. if the term has been formally defined as such by some theorist so be it but i refer to it in the more general basic word definitions sense of a creative act unfolding in real time for an audience (that may or may not be aware of the artist's intentions).

 

kinda funny to find myself somewhat playing devil's advocate as regards "cold reading" because my own reading style is primarily, overtly collaborative and mostly involves asking questions and encouraging a querant to verbally brainstorm whatever personal relevance the interconnected narratives and conceptual associations the cards suggest to their specific concerns, which leaves very little room for any sort of pretense as to my role as anything but a sort of tour guide and analytical assistant. i always note before a reading that even if we wanted to take a skeptical materialist point of view and suppose we're only reacting to curious images printed on cardstock to generate fresh perspectives on our concerns this remains a valuable exercise, though of course the chosen cards often prove quite uncanny in their synchronistic relevance and i do personally believe a subconscious or spiritual agency guides a querant to select the appropriate cards. nonetheless i agree with @Ruby Jewel's sentiment that a bit of intentional showmanship is part of the craft and can positively enhance the experience, which explains my interest in this topic. glad it has generated some interesting conversation in any case!
 

Edited August 4, 2019 by iofthebeholder

[Barleywine]

21 hours ago, Grizabella said:

When I was first learning the cards, I used the term cold reading without realizing the meaning is different in Tarot. I used the term cold reading to mean doing a reading with no background about a client.

 

Same here. There was nothing negative in its meaning; I think that appeared more recently when so-called "debunkers" became popular.

[katrinka]

It's used several times in William Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley (published in 1946), and it means exactly what we're talking about ITT:

https://books.google.com/books?id=S34GAQAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q="cold+reading"

 

I don't know how old the usage/term actually is, though. It appears to be a carny term...or maybe it started in the 1800's when those crazy seances with floating trumpets and the like were big business?

[Grizabella]

The way I meant it, it was like when you start to run, you do a warm-up exercise, and when you don't you're starting "cold".  It seemed to make sense in my mind.  

[devin]

On 8/4/2019 at 9:03 AM, Ruby Jewel said:

Somehow the labeling of the simple act of a tarot reading as performance art is a statement that implies the reading is just an "act" which one decides to call "art" in order to embellish it. In other words...it is more about a performance which is by definition of fleeting endurance.

Well, first of all, a tarot reading is, in a very real and literal sense, an act, in that you, the reader, are taking action or performing a deed. This, coupled with the on-the-hoof nature of reading and it's immediacy of contact with an audience, makes me think that performance is not an unfair moniker to apply to the 'art' of tarot reading. This, to me, in no way diminishes tarot, quite the opposite. And isn't tarot by it's very nature fleeting? Again, why is this a negative? There's beauty and effective power in what's brief (or can be, anyway).

On 8/4/2019 at 9:03 AM, Ruby Jewel said:

it is basically the end of "tarot for tarot's sake."

I don't understand why this would be so? Secondly, I personally feel art for art's sake' to be a rather strange and unhelpful slogan.... mainly because it seems to imply that art can be without responsibility or purpose - a sort of revelling in an imagined lack of utility. Do we really believe that art does not have or should not have explicitly practical uses? At the very least, art, or the artist, carries a responsibility to its chosen subject. A responsibility to try to do it justice (probably ultimately impossible). And since a tarot reading takes as its subject the life (via the question) of the querent, I can't help but feel this carries a degree of responsibility that automatically excludes ideas like tarot for tarot's sake.

 

But, like you said, that's just my take.

 

As for cold reading:

 

I've thought about this a little more, and, If not applied cynically, then I reckon a degree of cold reading is really just a part of communication. Whatever, I think we should keep ourselves honest by sticking to what we see in the cards. This can also help to keep us out of trouble: Tailoring a reading to fit assumptions can, in my experience, be a recipe for f***king up royally. 

 

 

[devin]

10 hours ago, Ruby Jewel said:

Hi Devin......as I said, that is just my take for whatever it is worth for those who understand what I'm saying. As one who received a Masters in Painting and Drawing during the crux of the postmodern movement, the term "art for art's sake" has powerful political implications contingent upon whether you are a capitalist or a socialist. Many artists, such as myself, find the idea that art usurped as a political tool is a political maneuver by socialist doctrine that ends art for the simple sake of traditional ideals such as the expression of something beautiful.....iow...for it's own sake....not as a tool for propaganda. I'm not saying the term has anything to do with tarot, per se.......I'm saying the term itself has negative connotations that I feel do not represent the best interests of tarot.....which today is relatively free of political overtones. In the history of tarot, the church made it a political issue and drove the tarot underground. In our own times, it has resurfaced, and there are no bans...albeit there remains a stigma and a lot of controversy over whether it is a cult or not.

 

Perhaps I am being overly sensitive about an issue that was highly controversial in the past.....but I would prefer not using a term that could be easily misconstrued simply by applying a label that really does not belong to the tarot.....but to the world of postmodern art. You may be aware that artists and intellectuals are among the first to be eradicated by a dictatorship. This is b/c they are free thinkers and therefore anti-establishment. Tarot readers, like artists, are susceptible to persecution under certain regimes. Who is to say that we might not wind up in that predicament once again. So, my point is that it is really not in the best interests of tarot to play into that game. As a reader of the cards, I prefer the idea of anonymity to that of being considered a "performance artist."

Thank you for the interesting reply.

 

Yes, yes, I am aware of the controversies of which you speak. Still, how helpful is it to flee from lumpen politicking and straight into anti-utilitarianism and aesthetics? Beauty is an admirable goal, probably an essential one, but it has neighbours. And, of course, we should probably also mention that their have been more than a few outrightly political artists possessed of a masterly ability to bring astonishing amounts of beauty and light to their chosen subjects. 

 

Not that I'm trying to shoe-horn tarot into any particular artistic philosophy. Not at all. But I do feel the various disciplines of the arts may have something to teach us as readers. 

 

Finally, while I'm not a devotee of Enrique Enriquez, I do suspect he is most likely conscious of the implications of what he's saying.

 

Best,
Devin.

 

[katrinka]

5 hours ago, devin said:

Yes, yes, I am aware of the controversies of which you speak. Still, how helpful is it to flee from lumpen politicking and straight into anti-utilitarianism and aesthetics? Beauty is an admirable goal, probably an essential one, but it has neighbours. And, of course, we should probably also mention that their have been more than a few outrightly political artists possessed of a masterly ability to bring astonishing amounts of beauty and light to their chosen subjects.

Diego Rivera would agree. :)
https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2013/october/29/when-diego-rivera-turned-propaganda-into-art/

[iofthebeholder]

an interesting turn in the conversation. considering how through most of recorded history in most parts of the world, "art" has nearly always involved the patronage of the dominant political class and overtly served to advance narratives about the centrality of political institutions and personalities in the life of the people, the way we think of it now as being about "personal expression" is surely a historical anomaly. that the term has been broadened since duchamp to encompass pretty much anything to which anyone might wish to apply it dilutes it's specificity almost beyond utility. we now imagine the privelege of advancing whatever political narrative belongs to the artist directly, rather than a patron whose commission includes getting to dictate content. 

 

considered in those terms i don't think tarot readings qualify as political acts, so if we're going to call it "performance art" it has to happen in the context of a vastly diluted 20th century definition of "art" (as generally understood by the public rather than the arcane postulations of academic theorists), which empasses pretty much anything. it seems we find ourselves in a period of transition where the ideas and language around narrative-making creativity are in wild flux, hindering agreement as to what exactly we're even talking about.

 

but it's interesting to think of tarot in the context of that older definition of art as image / narrative making in service of political power. seems to me excepting the vizconti sforza decks and a few others commissioned to serve the vanity of political families tarot image-making has always belonged to a more vernacular tradition, something mass produced for use in gambling halls and the streets. even though 19th and 20th century occultists elevated tarot to the "spiritual" realm the decks themselves remain mass produced, in that sense commercially rather than politically motivated. kickstarter has driven this even further by facilitating small batch production that wouldn't be commercially viable at a larger scale.

 

what i really value about enrique enriquez's contribution to modern tarot culture is not so much his specific theories or methods (though those are interesting too) but his penetrating intellectual curiosity and eagerness to probe the tarot and it's implications as it relates to a broad spectrum of diverse concepts and traditions far beyond the scope of most tarot related discussion or writings. whatever opinions one might have of his persona or ideas i feel he's providing an invaluable service by elevating the discussion around tarot to the point of questioning anew all our assumptions and ideas about what tarot even is or how we might conceptualize or engage with it. if anyone hasn't read his two part "discussions around the tarot" books of interviews with various historians, artists, writers, critics, magicians, et cetera i can't recommend them highly enough, certainly an intellectually stimulating resource like no other, he does a good job of pushing conversations in interesting, thought-provoking directions while giving those he interviews ample space to state their opinions even when he doesn't agree with them. 

[fire cat pickles]

On 8/4/2019 at 9:52 AM, iofthebeholder said:

so far as "performance art" conceived a politically loaded act with a host of post modernist ideas attached, that's not really what i meant. if the term has been formally defined as such by some theorist so be it but i refer to it in the more general basic word definitions sense of a creative act unfolding in real time for an audience (that may or may not be aware of the artist's intentions).

If we were to define performance art as "a creative act unfolding in real time for an audience (that may or may not be aware of the artist's intentions)" then this could apply to just about anything, though, couldn't it? When I'm improvising on the organ, for example, or teaching a fire safety class for kindergartners... . Which leads back to tarot reading. I see it as a form of teaching and guiding, of bringing about an affect than will make the experience palpable and learnable. While I am sensitive of my audience's wants and needs in both the above-mentioned situations; as I am with card reading, and I am most probably picking up on subconscious signals from all of them;  I still don't consider it performance art or cold-reading any more than I consider alternative techniques a form of mentalism or magic tricks.

 

 

Edited August 6, 2019 by fire cat pickles