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On the contrary, divination can actually be helpful (in some circumstances) by providing controlled sources of randomness to get our brains out of their ruts. I
by gbear605 7y ago
On the contrary, divination can actually be helpful (in some circumstances) by providing controlled sources of randomness to get our brains out of their ruts. It’s not a mystical property of the cards; they just provide a structure. It’s essentially rubber duck debugging + randomness.
For a deeper thought (not centered on programming), see https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fnkbdwckdfHS2H22Q/steelmanning-divination-1 https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/fnkbdwckdfHS2H22Q/steelmanni...
- daenz 7y ago>It’s essentially rubber duck debugging + randomness. I think it's the emphasis on the source of the randomness that rubs people (myself included) the wrong way. People attribute some kind mystical supernatural influence as the reason why those cards were chosen, and the culture of people who are into tarot does not minimize those interpretations.
- kerkeslager 7y agoYears ago I arrived at roughly this conclusion, that randomness could be a source of creativity (which then has to be evaluated rationally). But from the first paragraph of the OP: "They act to your soul like iron filings do to a magnet. When you shuffle the cards, the Universe (via entropy) examines all of those myriad inputs and helpfully orders them so you get exactly the message you need most." Uh... this isn't a rational approach to tarot at all.
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y agoI guess I always considered things along the “divination” path to be a antithetical to scientific rigor. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to be spiritual. Things like yoga and meditation have documented and studied benefits — which is exactly why they’re different than tarot cards.