EmpyreanKnight Posted October 7, 2017 Posted October 7, 2017 Or those who have Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math-based job like in software development, medicine, research, etc. Those on a managerial/executive track in companies that handle these disciplines are also welcome. Let's also include those who are currently pursuing (or aiming to) STEM degrees.
EmpyreanKnight Posted October 7, 2017 Author Posted October 7, 2017 Don't be shy. Reveal yourselves! ;D I've been working as a developer, and I have supervised a few projects. Finished a computer science degree which put quite an emphasis on its thoretical aspects while not neglecting the honing of our skills in the creation of actual real-world applications. I plan to eventually take a masteral at least on financial systems, but that would have to wait a bit since work can at times be punishing. Also, my mentor-of-sorts suggested that I pursue an MBA instead, since he projected that in the long run it will pay bigger dividends. And yup, I'm in the Tarot closet at work. Actually, only my very best friend who I've been previously partnered with on a lot of projects knows about it, tho ironically she doesn't want her cards read (!) since she feels uncomfortable around them. She doesn't feel averse to me because of that tho, we just don't discuss it.
Ephemeridae Posted October 7, 2017 Posted October 7, 2017 Hey hey, there! I am a chemist and environmental scientist currently working in limnology for environmental education, outreach and protection. I manage our lab and run a volunteer citizen science program. I'm very deep in the closet currently. Only my partner knows about it. I don't think the people I work with would be averse to it, in fact I expect they would be interested and supportive (being in environmentalism, there's a lot of old hippies around). I think I can credit a few of my coworkers with leading me onto this path, actually. It's just that it's all very new to me. It's only been a year or so and I'm still feeling it out. I get very science-y about the cards. I've been studying them very systematically. I like arranging them into grids based on symbolism threads, and I've even made graphs of relative symbolism occurrences. I am happy to bring the full force of my nerdiness into the tarot world, lol!
Onaorkal Posted October 7, 2017 Posted October 7, 2017 I had never heard of that acronym 'STEM', maybe because it's in English? But even then, I can't think of an equivalent we would use here in French. But I'm a former animal health technician and I worked a lot in labs, so you can definitely say I'm in the STEM gang I guess ;) I've always been really science & logic oriented, even though some scientific-minded people are getting on my nerves lately...''pseudo-science this, pseudo-science that'', they even say with 100% confidence that naturopathy in general is pseudo-science and should be banned! It's getting ridiculous ::) For me, the most important is not to understand how something works or why it works. The fact that it somehow yields results for me is enough. It's the same thing with ghosts and other paranormal activity. I don't believe so many people around me would lie about their experiences to get attention. I don't believe they all have the same kind of hallucinations or mental problem either. So even though I never saw any ghost myself, I believe in them. Now, I've never been in the closet about tarot and esoteric stuff in general myself. I've always worked in places where people were really open-minded about it really. They wouldn't necessarily hold the same beliefs as me, but they would hear me talk about it with curiosity. Where I live people are open-minded in general though. (I'm in Canada, in the province of Quebec.)
Trogon Posted October 8, 2017 Posted October 8, 2017 I'm not in STEM so much. But with the background I have in submarines, nuclear weapons and things like that, I definitely have my logic-based side. I currently work in law enforcement. I'm a police dispatcher. And, as far as I know, everybody I work with knows I study Tarot and do readings. I often study at work and do a self-reading at the beginning of almost every shift - as long as I can do it without neglecting my actual duties. I've also done readings for several coworkers. Come to think of it, I think I had started bringing my Tarot deck and book to work back when I started. I do know that nobody working there now would have known a time when I wasn't doing study and readings. Well, except for the past few years when I was the supervisor - stress and work load were keeping me from working with the Tarot, not to mention the affect on my health. But, now that I've stepped back from that role, I'm doing a lot better. My recommendation; be true to yourself - pull out those cards at the beginning of the day and do a reading for yourself on the upcoming day. But, I can certainly understand, in many situations, how you might not want to do that ...
chongjasmine Posted October 8, 2017 Posted October 8, 2017 I am not into STEM. But recently, I am learning about web programing. Not an official course, just something from udemy.
EmpyreanKnight Posted November 26, 2017 Author Posted November 26, 2017 I'm glad to know that there are some readers here who have a STEM background too. :) I guess mine had a huge bearing when I was just starting out. I just can't reconcile something as "woowoo" as the Tarot to all that I've been taught. There's a niggling thought that maybe it's all just an illusion/delusion since I can't explain the thing in a rational, logical way. But the thing is - you just can't argue with results. It seems to work, and its accuracy is much higher than if it were all left to chance. There is something else at work here, and whatever it is, I'm going to explore it.
Trogon Posted November 27, 2017 Posted November 27, 2017 I'm glad to know that there are some readers here who have a STEM background too. :) I guess mine had a huge bearing when I was just starting out. I just can't reconcile something as "woowoo" as the Tarot to all that I've been taught. There's a niggling thought that maybe it's all just an illusion/delusion since I can't explain the thing in a rational, logical way. But the thing is - you just can't argue with results. It seems to work, and its accuracy is much higher than if it were all left to chance. There is something else at work here, and whatever it is, I'm going to explore it. Ah! Well, the thing about delusions ... you can't prove to the person having them that they are delusions, can you? "Reality" is relative to the person experiencing it. ;D
EmpyreanKnight Posted November 28, 2017 Author Posted November 28, 2017 Yup, that would be a very unproductive way to spend your time. And even if you did succeed in convincing the other party that they're just delusional, they would hate you for popping their illusions and for proving that they were in the wrong. So it's probably best to just let them be, except if it's going to have a significant impact on you. And who knows, maybe you were the ones having delusions all along. :)
fractalgranny Posted December 3, 2017 Posted December 3, 2017 I am not in STEM at all. However, I work in psychiatry and love science. Philosophy of Science was one of my favourite classes in university. I constantly read research all across the fields that touch on psychiatry, including neuroscience. I'm not really in the closet about tarot but am somewhat discreet about it in certain circumstances. My approach to reading tarot is definitely influenced by critical thinking and logic. When I give a reading, I want to be able to show the card and explain how I arrived at my interpretation. When I have a psychic flash, I say that, and I always point out that the cards are just one perspective on the issue. I also prefer not to read about others ("what does he think of me?") or do fortunetelling ("will I become pregnant this year?") - I have a hard time wrapping my head around how the cards might know that.
Alta Posted December 3, 2017 Posted December 3, 2017 My degree, so many years ago, was in Physics and I worked in meteorology which is applied physics, my entire working life. aka Alta
Chiska Posted December 3, 2017 Posted December 3, 2017 I am an electronics mechanic with a BSET* in Electrical Engineering. I also taught college level electronics. That is sort of STEM-y. *(bachelors of science - engineering technology - less theory; more reality)
Hemera Posted December 3, 2017 Posted December 3, 2017 Molecular biologist here... waving from the closet ;D
katrinka Posted December 5, 2017 Posted December 5, 2017 I'm glad to know that there are some readers here who have a STEM background too. :) I guess mine had a huge bearing when I was just starting out. I just can't reconcile something as "woowoo" as the Tarot to all that I've been taught. There's a niggling thought that maybe it's all just an illusion/delusion since I can't explain the thing in a rational, logical way. But the thing is - you just can't argue with results. It seems to work, and its accuracy is much higher than if it were all left to chance. There is something else at work here, and whatever it is, I'm going to explore it. Ah! Well, the thing about delusions ... you can't prove to the person having them that they are delusions, can you? "Reality" is relative to the person experiencing it. ;D I don't have a STEM background. Growing up, I never really wanted or expected to "be" anything but a housewife, so when they changed the rules on us, I just hadn't developed anything resembling career focus. Other than reading cards, I always just worked wherever, doing whatever, because I had to. But I've thought about the cards a lot. I don't think there's a single explanation. Some it is expectation bias, sure. And there's some illusion/cold reading involved, even though we're not trying to do that. But that doesn't explain the way the cards fall. I'm not talking about "intuitive" readings, I'm talking about cartomantic, direct, Lenormand-type stuff. Systems where the cards have set meanings. Scythe-Significator, you're in danger, that kind of thing. As for illusion/delusion, sure, if you want to get Eastern about it. "Whole universe right inside your boney skull", as Blofeld wrote. But, not having achieved perfect enlightenment, and living in Time-Space, I think this Barstool Experiment is more relevant for us now: "Let's say we were in a bar, having a few pints, and talking about the nature of Universe. You point out that most of what we consider "matter" is made up of empty space; the distance between a nucleus, it's electrons, and the nearest adjacent atom is comparatively large; why, that barstool over there shouldn't even be considered a solid! I respond by saying that as far as we can actually prove, that barstool might simply be a hallucination, for we're not actually seeing the barstool, we're processing electric signals in our heads generated by our optic nevrves that claim certain wavelengths of light have bounced off an object, but none of that says anything about whether or not the barstool actually exists. Then some big mook comes along, picks up the barstool, and proceeds to beat the sh** out of us with it for being such pretentious a**holes." ;D ;D ;D
EmpyreanKnight Posted December 6, 2017 Author Posted December 6, 2017 Wow, I'm kind of surprised at the fields some of you work in. I mean, I'd never have known. :o
Trogon Posted December 7, 2017 Posted December 7, 2017 "Let's say we were in a bar, having a few pints, and talking about the nature of Universe. You point out that most of what we consider "matter" is made up of empty space; the distance between a nucleus, it's electrons, and the nearest adjacent atom is comparatively large; why, that barstool over there shouldn't even be considered a solid! I respond by saying that as far as we can actually prove, that barstool might simply be a hallucination, for we're not actually seeing the barstool, we're processing electric signals in our heads generated by our optic nevrves that claim certain wavelengths of light have bounced off an object, but none of that says anything about whether or not the barstool actually exists. Then some big mook comes along, picks up the barstool, and proceeds to beat the sh** out of us with it for being such pretentious a**holes." ;D ;D ;D ROFLMAO!!! That is hilarious!
RavenOfSummer Posted December 9, 2017 Posted December 9, 2017 So do all you STEM folks enjoy reading with the Science Tarot? It's one of my favorite decks. I'm kind of a science fan girl. My education has all been in social science (bachelor's in Political Science, master's in International Affairs), but as a layperson science seems beautiful and poetic to me. Physics in particular...to me it's like the study of the divine. I wrote a TV pilot, kind of a sci-fi high school drama, about a genius high school student who teams up with his physics teacher to solve science-related mysteries around their small town. That's kind of my ode to science I guess :D I'd like to try writing some more sci-fi at some point, though I've been focused on fantasy and mainstream/realist stuff in my writing lately. I love reading Stephen Hawking, listening to Neil deGrasse Tyson's podcast, watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos or anything by BBC Earth. My husband is the scientist. He's a biomedical engineer, and it's always fascinating to me how differently we think about certain things. I sometimes wonder how much of it is that we were drawn to different areas of study because of who we are, and how much of it is that we were trained differently because of our fields of study. I think it's a combination of both...nature and nurture. He's also a HUGE sci-fi fan!
Chiska Posted January 11, 2018 Posted January 11, 2018 Actually, I do like the Science Tarot. But I like the Tarot of Physics much more.
EmpyreanKnight Posted January 12, 2018 Author Posted January 12, 2018 I never really liked science-themed decks. They just don't move me.
Bookworm Posted January 12, 2018 Posted January 12, 2018 I have the Science Tarot, but I haven't yet used it enough to really know what I think of it in practice. I like the concept, though.
Saturn Celeste Posted January 12, 2018 Posted January 12, 2018 So do all you STEM folks enjoy reading with the Science Tarot? It's one of my favorite decks. Thanks to this thread, I just ordered the deck. I can’t wait for the deck, it looks really cool! I don’t have a STEM job nor any scientific background. On the contrary, I went from cosmetology to an over-the-road truck driver.
Schmendrick Posted January 12, 2018 Posted January 12, 2018 I have a STEM background. I studied Computer Science / Computer Engineering, and currently practice in the field. I'm an INFP, though, and tarot is pretty much my way of relaxing. :D
EmpyreanKnight Posted January 12, 2018 Author Posted January 12, 2018 Welcome to the Forums, Schmendrick! I finished Computer Science too, tho I'm INTJ. :)
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