Tarot Myths

[Barleywine]

I just had me a curmudgeonly rant about some of the dearly-held myths of tarot. I'm sure I missed some (or many). Anyone care to weigh in on the subject? I'm not looking for defense, just identification.

 

https://parsifalswheeldivination.com/2020/06/14/the-myths-of-tarot-sacred-cows-and-tin-gods/

Edited June 14, 2020 by Barleywine

[jenett]

A friend, quite some time ago, pointed out to me that she preferred her decks to go out and interact with the world (and other people) - that she got much better readings that way. I mostly read for myself (not other people), but have found the same thing: that other people handling my decks (so long as it's not causing a problem for the physical cards) makes things better, not worse. 

[Barleywine]

3 hours ago, jenett said:

A friend, quite some time ago, pointed out to me that she preferred her decks to go out and interact with the world (and other people) - that she got much better readings that way. I mostly read for myself (not other people), but have found the same thing: that other people handling my decks (so long as it's not causing a problem for the physical cards) makes things better, not worse. 

I definitely find that to be true as well, at least for decks that aren't rare or fragile (those stay at home). I'm not sure it's a learned behavior on the part of the deck, though. I request all of my sitters to shuffle and cut the deck because it's their subconscious we're trying to plumb.

[katrinka]

6 hours ago, Barleywine said:

I just had me a curmudgeonly rant about some of the dearly-held myths of tarot. I'm sure I missed some (or many). Anyone care to weigh in on the subject? I'm not looking for defense, just identification.

 

https://parsifalswheeldivination.com/2020/06/14/the-myths-of-tarot-sacred-cows-and-tin-gods/

The blog post is spot on.

I tend to spend little or no time at facebook Tarot groups because most of them are pretty awful. The self-styled "masters" you mention, the spam, the free reading requests, the misinformation...it goes on and on. If a newcomer wants to never, ever understand card reading, facebook is the destination for that.

I think the "grounding" concept started with Wicca. Books on Wicca are always telling people to "ground and center." And a lot of them have a little chapter on Tarot. But the old Tarot writers never mention it, even the more magically-inclined among them. (I wonder what Crowley would have to say about the practice? 🤣)

“My deck stopped talking to me/doesn’t like me/gives me the wrong answers” is something that happens when someone doesn't now their deck/system well. It indicates a need for study and practice.

"But lately the one that gets my proverbial goat the most is that it is preferable – even essential – to shuffle the deck in a way that causes (not just carelessly allows) random cards to pop out and fall on the table or floor (a phenomenon called “jumpers”)."

WOW. They're worse than I remember.
Ummm...if you're doing it on purpose, they're not jumpers. If you fumble when shuffling and drop cards accidentally, it's very questionable whether those can be termed jumpers. If on the one hand "intent is everything" and you intend to do X spread, dealing off the top of the deck, but you count every card that falls, you're contradicting yourself. I wish people would think. Card reading is not for unthinking people. A true jumper is mysterious and well, weird AF: "How is that not in the deck?!???" On those rare occasions, I'm just superstitious enough to glance at the card and take it into account.

 

The same goes for all the other perpetual old nonsense like sleeping with decks. We're not Edgar Cayce (assuming he wasn't tricking people.) Knock it off.

"A deck has to be given to you" is just a way of wheedling someone else into buying you a deck.

But I'll take it a step further. Your blog:

"Next up, “You need to cleanse your decks of the negative energies that accumulate when other people handle them.” So, decks have tiny little receptors that glom onto gobs of nasty psychic garbage and cling tenaciously to that residual debris, tainting their testimony until scrubbed? More BS, although perhaps understandable and forgivable among the crystal-and-incense crowd. Cards are only cardboard and ink, not metaphysical sponges that soak up bad vibes."

VS. this:

 

5 hours ago, jenett said:

A friend, quite some time ago, pointed out to me that she preferred her decks to go out and interact with the world (and other people) - that she got much better readings that way. I mostly read for myself (not other people), but have found the same thing: that other people handling my decks (so long as it's not causing a problem for the physical cards) makes things better, not worse.

and this:

2 hours ago, Barleywine said:

I definitely find that to be true as well, at least for decks that aren't rare or fragile (those stay at home). I'm not sure it's a learned behavior on the part of the deck, though. I request all of my sitters to shuffle and cut the deck because it's their subconscious we're trying to plumb.

I can agree that decks aren't sponges. But if decks don't "have tiny little receptors that glom onto gobs of nasty psychic garbage and cling tenaciously to that residual debris, tainting their testimony until scrubbed?" they can't glom onto other peoples' subconsciouses, either.
A deck that has no receptors for bad stuff, isn't going to suddenly develop them for good/neutral stuff.

Letting a client handle your deck may be good for establishing an ambience of give-and-take, but it isn't necessary at all. I've done too many phone readings to buy into that.

Edited June 14, 2020 by katrinka

[Barleywine]

26 minutes ago, katrinka said:

The blog post is spot on.

I tend to spend little or no time at facebook Tarot groups because most of them are pretty awful. The self-styled "masters" you mention, the spam, the free reading requests, the misinformation...it goes on and on. If a newcomer wants to never, ever understand card reading, facebook is the destination for that.
 

I can agree that decks aren't sponges. But if decks don't "have tiny little receptors that glom onto gobs of nasty psychic garbage and cling tenaciously to that residual debris, tainting their testimony until scrubbed?" they can't glom onto other peoples' subconsciouses, either.
A deck that has no receptors for bad stuff, isn't going to suddenly develop them for good/neutral stuff.

Letting a client handle your deck may be good for establishing an ambience of give-and-take, but it isn't necessary at all. I've done too many phone readings to buy into that.

Mostly what I've found on a couple of the better FB pages I visit is a ton of understandably clueless newbies looking for guidance and a modest number of more experienced people who seem to have their heads on straight. The main advantage is that they are very active so there is almost always a topic to engage with.

 

Your other point is a valid one, and that's why I added the comment that it isn't "learned behavior" on the part of the decks. I think something else is at work, something other than "magnetic attraction" or "static cling," something more like "subconscious entrainment." We've had this conversation before.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Barleywine

[katrinka]

20 minutes ago, Barleywine said:

Your other point is a valid one, and that's why I added the comment that it isn't "learned behavior" on the part of the decks. I think something else is at work, something other than "magnetic attraction" or "static cling," something more like "subconscious entrainment." We've had this conversation before.

Yes, it keeps rearing its unresolved head.

I tend to think it's a simpler reason: If you like it, it sticks. If you don't, it doesn't. Your cards, your beliefs.

[Barleywine]

9 minutes ago, katrinka said:

Yes, it keeps rearing its unresolved head.

I tend to think it's a simpler reason: If you like it, it sticks. If you don't, it doesn't. Your cards, your beliefs.

I doubt we will ever resolve it, and I don't think we need to. But I do agree with you that nothing "sticks" to the cards themselves. It sticks in our memory banks through constant reinforcement, with an intuitive "epiphany" to refresh it every now and then.

[jenett]

9 hours ago, Barleywine said:

I definitely find that to be true as well, at least for decks that aren't rare or fragile (those stay at home). I'm not sure it's a learned behavior on the part of the deck, though. I request all of my sitters to shuffle and cut the deck because it's their subconscious we're trying to plumb.

I should clarify! For her, it wasn't just things like having someone she was reading for shuffle (I do the same thing there, I prefer to have the sitter shuffle if it's not a fragile deck). She made a point of having her decks handy, being willing to let other people look through them, etc. 

 

Not that they were sponges, exactly, but that being part of the ebb and flow of her interactions made all her tools work better, including her Tarot decks. Certainly, when I was around when she was doing that, it lead to some great conversations and interactions, that changed dynamics between people over time (in a good way). 

[Grace]

I think many of these little rituals and myths help people build a relationship with tarot as a concept. I don't find anything wrong with the ritual of 'scrubbing' the decks, incense, crystals, etc... but I don't find it necessary either. I have heard some doozies though... here are a couple more...

 

- Leaving the deck in the light of a full moon for cleansing (I actually did this a few times as a teenager... don't judge!!) 

 

- Bad luck to store the LWB with the deck 🤨

 

- Bad luck to keep non-usable extra cards with the deck. Aparantly one should burn it in some ritual before using it the first time... this one I heard from a stall holder at a mind/body/spirit festival. The story goes, that if you should ever read for someone, and one of these cards accidentally gets used, you will be damned to hell or something similar. 🤣

 

 

 

[PathWalker]

I leave all sorts of things out in the moonlight - including myself sometimes But that's a magic idea, not a necessary tarot idea.

 

Perhaps we could invent a really interesting one, and see how long it takes to get back - like Chinese Whispers? Perhaps not.

 

Certainly "jumpers" was enjoyed by someone young, without a bad back - all that bending down ruins my reading mood LOL

[geoxena]

1 hour ago, PathWalker said:

Certainly "jumpers" was enjoyed by someone young, without a bad back - all that bending down ruins my reading mood LOL

Hahahaha, I can relate to that.  Maybe we can invent the myth that the best readers handcraft a basket -- by the light of the moon, of course -- to catch all the jumpers!

[Barleywine]

Maybe I'll get one of these fly-line stripping baskets that are used in fly fishing.

[Barleywine]

2 hours ago, Grace said:

I think many of these little rituals and myths help people build a relationship with tarot as a concept. I don't find anything wrong with the ritual of 'scrubbing' the decks, incense, crystals, etc... but I don't find it necessary either. I have heard some doozies though... here are a couple more...

 

- Leaving the deck in the light of a full moon for cleansing (I actually did this a few times as a teenager... don't judge!!) 

 

- Bad luck to store the LWB with the deck 🤨

 

- Bad luck to keep non-usable extra cards with the deck. Aparantly one should burn it in some ritual before using it the first time... this one I heard from a stall holder at a mind/body/spirit festival. The story goes, that if you should ever read for someone, and one of these cards accidentally gets used, you will be damned to hell or something similar. 🤣

 

 

 

The last two I haven't heard. I used to take the extra cards and paste my own artwork on top to make personal significators.

[Grace]

1 hour ago, Barleywine said:

The last two I haven't heard. I used to take the extra cards and paste my own artwork on top to make personal significators.

While I find the last two silly, you could see where they may have sprung from a more practical reason... kind of like the superstition about 7 years bad luck for breaking a mirror (at the time it would take about that long to save up enough to buy a new one). 

 

I like that idea of doing something with the extra cards to make them personal significators. 

 

And to be cheeky, @PathWalker and  @geoxena idea to make up our own myth would be hilarious. Te he he. The more ridiculous and complicated the better. 

 

 

[Barleywine]

Perhaps we could start with the New Age Bullshit Generator?

 

https://sebpearce.com/bullshit/

[Grace]

I'm convinced this is how cults get started. It's all fun and games, till the mass suicide. 🤭

[geoxena]

3 hours ago, Barleywine said:

Maybe I'll get one of these fly-line stripping baskets that are used in fly fishing.

Oh no, no, no - it must be handmade!  Store-bought will bring bad juju down on your head!

[Barleywine]

5 hours ago, geoxena said:

Oh no, no, no - it must be handmade!  Store-bought will bring bad juju down on your head!

You mean to catch my handmade cards? 🙂

[stephanelli]

1 hour ago, Barleywine said:

You mean to catch my handmade cards? 🙂

Oh, didn't you know you need to make your own cards to in order to read tarot?

😆

[Barleywine]

7 minutes ago, stephanelli said:

Oh, didn't you know you need to make your own cards to in order to read tarot?

😆

If you were in the Golden Dawn you did. I have the skills but not the dedication to do it. I'll leave that to my daughter, the professional illustrator.

[geoxena]

10 minutes ago, stephanelli said:

Oh, didn't you know you need to make your own cards to in order to read tarot?

😆

Yes, and while you make your deck, you must be naked except for  a bundle of sage and a crystal tied around your head with a rope woven by a blind witch and placed over your third eye, with one foot in a bowl of salt and during a full moon, of course!

 

Add that to our list of new myths!

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by geoxena

[katrinka]

Or just follow the "step on a crack, break your mother's back" template. People repeat things that rhyme everlastingly, even if they're utter BS:

"Deck in cotton, meanings forgotten."
"Deck in tin, troubles begin."
"Deck stored high, cards will lie."
"Read before noon, troubles come soon."

Etc.

 

[geoxena]

9 hours ago, katrinka said:

"Deck in cotton, meanings forgotten."
"Deck in tin, troubles begin."
"Deck stored high, cards will lie."
"Read before noon, troubles come soon."

 

BRILLIANT!!! 😎

 

 

[iofthebeholder]

great post @Barleywine, totally agree with all your points!

[dust]

Some of these sound fine if they help the person focus or get in a certain mindset. There's a lot of rituals many people have that just put them into the mindset to do something or other, even mundane things like bedtime routines making it easier for people to fall asleep. What bothers me is when people try to push their own personal preferences or beliefs as the absolute truth on Tarot instead of just that -- personal things that work for this person but aren't one-size-fits-all.

 

Anecdotally, I wanted to get into Tarot for a very long time before I actually did. I'd always heard that your first deck has to be gifted to you and there was no chance of that happening. I eventually took the plunge and bought my first deck myself, and I'm very glad I did, but it would have been nice if I hadn't taken so long to get around to that.