3 ms·

They aren't tarot cards. They aren't intended to describe, explain, or foretell anything.

Tao332 4y ago
Mechanically it's the same as divination. It just has all the superstition and pretenses of the supernatural stripped away. E.g. I don't think there's anything magical about the I Ching, but it can be a useful way to consider a situation from an angle you wouldn't normally choose.
- smcl 4y ago
  There's also a principle which I cannot remember the name of, where in some situations when confronted with a set of options that are of similar value, if you're forced to make a choice yourself you end up less satisfied than if a random choice was made for you. There was a segment on this in a RadioLab episode a decade ago or so. It makes a bit of sense - you can easily regret a decision you personally make to various degrees, but with something left to chance there's little to regret or stew over.
  - WalterGR 4y ago
    The Paradox of Choice, maybe? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice
    - smcl 4y ago
      Ah yeah sounds like it
msrenee 4y ago
I was actually thinking that these are a lot like the way I use Tarot cards. They give you a set framework to interpret a situation through. Say I'm unhappy with my work life and I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with the plans I have set out. I'm starting to think that I need to just stop fighting reality and switch to a career I'm very qualified for with guaranteed employment and excellent pay. Unfortunately that career is one that I'm very sure I won't enjoy. It will be a great source of income, but also a lot of stress. I pull a card that is associated with the long slog that it takes to achieve your goals. It's basically just an encouraging little passage that says that the path is hard, but hard work is how you get where you want to be. Looking at it rationally, it's so generic that you could make it apply to basically any situation. Shoot, I could even interpret it in a way that the hard work of the surefire job that I know I won't be happy at will eventually lead me to where I want to be. Instead, I use my knowledge of myself and my current situation and take it as a reminder that what I'm doing will eventually pay off. It helps me view the crappy spot that I'm in as an integral part of getting to where I need to be. It's a tool and a framework. It gives you another lens to view the situation through, which I've found to be incredibly helpful. These cards just seem like a simpler version of that.
- mistermann 4y ago
  Do you think tarot cards might counterintuitively provide the benefit (either by chance or maybe even by design) of overriding the minds tendency to form beliefs (premature conclusions, aka reality) based on heuristics and "facts"? In a sense, using one form of "mysticism" to cancel out another?
  - msrenee 4y ago
    I think that's more or less what I mean. Not my normal vocab, but I think we're saying the same thing or something similar at least. It helps you take a second and reassess assumptions that you otherwise wouldn't have thought to question. There's so many different iterations and styles of Tarot developed by so many people over the last century, couple centuries, or millenia depending on what history you assign to them. It's hard to tell what the intentions were of the groups that originally popularized them. Rider-Waite was obviously the start of what I'd consider our modern Tarot ideas, but everything to do with Tarot has been piled over with so much esoterism and mysticism and general shrouding of the actual history that I don't even care to try to separate fact from narrative. They're useful to me and my deck is pretty and that's about as far as I care to go.

Mechanically it's the same as divination. It just has all the superstition and pretenses of the supernatural stripped away. E.g. I don't think there's anything magical about the I Ching, but it can be a useful way to consider a situation from an angle you wouldn't normally choose.

smcl 4y ago
There's also a principle which I cannot remember the name of, where in some situations when confronted with a set of options that are of similar value, if you're forced to make a choice yourself you end up less satisfied than if a random choice was made for you. There was a segment on this in a RadioLab episode a decade ago or so. It makes a bit of sense - you can easily regret a decision you personally make to various degrees, but with something left to chance there's little to regret or stew over.
- WalterGR 4y ago
  The Paradox of Choice, maybe? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice
  - smcl 4y ago
    Ah yeah sounds like it

msrenee 4y ago

I was actually thinking that these are a lot like the way I use Tarot cards. They give you a set framework to interpret a situation through. Say I'm unhappy with my work life and I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with the plans I have set out. I'm starting to think that I need to just stop fighting reality and switch to a career I'm very qualified for with guaranteed employment and excellent pay. Unfortunately that career is one that I'm very sure I won't enjoy. It will be a great source of income, but also a lot of stress. I pull a card that is associated with the long slog that it takes to achieve your goals. It's basically just an encouraging little passage that says that the path is hard, but hard work is how you get where you want to be. Looking at it rationally, it's so generic that you could make it apply to basically any situation. Shoot, I could even interpret it in a way that the hard work of the surefire job that I know I won't be happy at will eventually lead me to where I want to be. Instead, I use my knowledge of myself and my current situation and take it as a reminder that what I'm doing will eventually pay off. It helps me view the crappy spot that I'm in as an integral part of getting to where I need to be. It's a tool and a framework. It gives you another lens to view the situation through, which I've found to be incredibly helpful. These cards just seem like a simpler version of that.

mistermann 4y ago
Do you think tarot cards might counterintuitively provide the benefit (either by chance or maybe even by design) of overriding the minds tendency to form beliefs (premature conclusions, aka reality) based on heuristics and "facts"? In a sense, using one form of "mysticism" to cancel out another?
- msrenee 4y ago
  I think that's more or less what I mean. Not my normal vocab, but I think we're saying the same thing or something similar at least. It helps you take a second and reassess assumptions that you otherwise wouldn't have thought to question. There's so many different iterations and styles of Tarot developed by so many people over the last century, couple centuries, or millenia depending on what history you assign to them. It's hard to tell what the intentions were of the groups that originally popularized them. Rider-Waite was obviously the start of what I'd consider our modern Tarot ideas, but everything to do with Tarot has been piled over with so much esoterism and mysticism and general shrouding of the actual history that I don't even care to try to separate fact from narrative. They're useful to me and my deck is pretty and that's about as far as I care to go.