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The use of tarot decks for divination dates back only to the 18th century, well after magic stopped being useful (because all the skilled or talented magicians
by juped 7y ago
The use of tarot decks for divination dates back only to the 18th century, well after magic stopped being useful (because all the skilled or talented magicians rebranded to "scientists" or "naturalists"), so I'm skeptical of its value as a system of symbols and motifs. (You will find preachers condemning it much earlier, which is often cited wrongly as evidence of its use for divination, but they were condemning card games, not divination.) For me, it's like squeezing blood from a stone, despite the cool illustrations that look like they should form a symbolic system of Rider-Waite (1910!).
If you're serious about your magic, you should probably cast the I Ching for this sort of thing (imo).
- geofft 7y agoCertain versions of UNIX even had a command for casting the I Ching on stdin, though I can't seem to find a modern system (of any heritage) that does: https://www.unix.com/man-page/v7/6/ching/ https://www.unix.com/man-page/v7/6/ching/
- juped 7y agoIt's in NetBSD. It somehow went missing from BSD at some point, but NetBSD added it back later.
- adrianN 7y agoWhat's the point of being serious about magic? I doubt that the I Ching works better at predicting the future than other RNGs.
- lou1306 7y agoTarots, the I Ching etc. can guide creativity. Not because they are magic in any way; it's just that their rulesets act as a framework for thought processes. See: The Man in the High Castle (PKD wrote it by using the I Ching) and The Castle of Crossed Destinies, by Calvino (based on tarot readings).
- C1sc0cat 7y agoBrian Eno (Producer on Bowies Heros) actually produced a deck of cards to help with inspiration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies
- jelliclesfarm 7y agoAlso Anthony Piers’ Tarot series. It was interesting..and I guess, confusing?
- techer 7y agoAnything that makes you stop and think and maybe reflect is worthwhile in my opinion...
- bfuller 7y agodivination helps you navigate the field of potentiality.
- kixiQu 7y agoYour exact dates are debatable; here's a good piece (https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-surprising-origins-of-tarot-most-misunderstood-cards/ https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-surprising-ori...) that has a good history of the older decks. (tl;dr: a bit older than that, though the 'divinatory' use was much more like kids playing MASH (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASH_(game)) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASH_(game))) The thing is, when they did make up the Tarot meanings, they were basically just mappings onto ideas with an older provenance: the four suits became the four elements, elements map onto astrological meanings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology_and_the_classical_elements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology_and_the_classical_el...), and so on and so forth. You get to those astrological houses, and you've gotten back to the Babylonians. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_(astrology)#Early_forms_of_house_division https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_(astrology)#Early_forms_...) From my understanding, the interpretations and methods of the I Ching have been just as historically variant. I think there's nothing more or less serious about these different systems if you like one or another better.