This is a game played with cards, a conversation which will try to answer a relatively simple question: Can the Tarot deck, or any system like it, describe reality?
I'm not convinced any of them needs to be totally scrapped, but if I had to choose one... I feel that Strength is the weakest link in this chain.
Crowley changed certain cards for the Thoth deck -- Strength, Justice, Temperance, Judgment, and The World, which became Lust, Adjustment, Art, The Aeon, and The Universe. Two of those changes, Justice and The World, seem to be just a matter of semantics, a matter of slight clarification or expansion. With the others he seemed to have a complete image overhaul in mind; perhaps it was a matter of being able to seamlessly foist his own associations onto them, but I can't help but thing that part of it has to do with their fading cultural relevance in the new modern world that was being born.
In the case of Strength, even the updated version seems obsolete to me. The word "lust" doesn't hold any mystery or taboo anymore; also, the Western world has gone through several major sexual revolutions since the Thoth deck was made; also, it just sounds tacky. Crowley tried so hard to turn that card into something that would really ignite the imagination, but I think he underestimated how raunchy and permissive our culture would get, and he failed to produce a concept that delivered any sort of goose in the long term.
So what do we do with it now? Perhaps, like with the Batman movies, we may need to reboot the franchise.
As for the other cards, I think both the Priestess and the Hierophant are losing ground. All the other cards present a recognizable idea even to those who've never seen them before. The pope and popess, are two of my fave cards, but they require far more effort to recognize them for what they are. What can be done about this?
Is it possible for a card to become obsolete? This is a great question, so good that I will totally reconceive it before I try to answer it. Let's say that we have a language with only 78 words in it, 22 of which are verbs, and a loose-leaf dictionary containing all of them. It is possible for certain words to fall out of usage, and thus also lose their place in the dictionary? Of course. Let's say that "to telegraph" was a verb originally placed in the short list; it would retain its meaning, but at some point no one would use it to describe current events.
But, of course, the Trumps are so much more than just verbs! They each have a half dozen explicit meanings, and hundreds of microscopic meanings, so for one could only 'fall out of use' through a rather dramatic shift in consciousness. I would argue, even, that each of the cards have so many meanings that they would have a hard time falling out of use at all, because as their common reading became less relevant, still useful meanings would become primary(as in Crowley's name-changes) or they might even take on new meanings (like the attachment of the Hebrew alphabet to the cards by the Golden Dawn). Even the endless changing of art-styles and iconography could be read as people trying to resignify dying cards.
Because cards tend to shift, then, I think it is much more likely that we might find ourselves frequently having thoughts that would deserve, but not find, any place among the Trumps. Of course, you could argue that if any idea became prominent enough, people would begin to find it in the cards, but I think there are some Great Forces in modern Western culture which tend to get read between, over, and around several cards, though they properly should have their own Trumps:
1) The Body 2) Distraction 3) Network for instance.
Because cards tend to shift, then, I think it is much more likely that we might find ourselves frequently having thoughts that would deserve, but not find, any place among the Trumps. Of course, you could argue that if any idea became prominent enough, people would begin to find it in the cards, but I think there are some Great Forces in modern Western culture which tend to get read between, over, and around several cards, though they properly should have their own Trumps:
1) The Body 2) Distraction 3) Network for instance.
I agree with this a lot, and I don't have any intense feelings about people adding cards to the deck (after all, one could always remove the extras before doing any readings, if one wanted to). A lot of work would have to go into presenting examples that can't be collapsed into the existing cards, though. For example, "Network" immediately made me think of the various elements at play in the World or Universe cards (it also made me imagine Faye Dunaway as the Priestess). And I'm not sure what you mean by "The Body," but I'm not sure I see a place for it in the Majors, especially since the Fool's throwing himself off a cliff seems to invite us to suspend our interest in the body while we entertain a different kind of journey.
PS, I suspect if you pitch that deck to Snapple I bet you could get an promotional deal with them pronto. That is hot stuff, my friend.
I'm not convinced any of them needs to be totally scrapped, but if I had to choose one... I feel that Strength is the weakest link in this chain.
ReplyDeleteCrowley changed certain cards for the Thoth deck -- Strength, Justice, Temperance, Judgment, and The World, which became Lust, Adjustment, Art, The Aeon, and The Universe. Two of those changes, Justice and The World, seem to be just a matter of semantics, a matter of slight clarification or expansion. With the others he seemed to have a complete image overhaul in mind; perhaps it was a matter of being able to seamlessly foist his own associations onto them, but I can't help but thing that part of it has to do with their fading cultural relevance in the new modern world that was being born.
In the case of Strength, even the updated version seems obsolete to me. The word "lust" doesn't hold any mystery or taboo anymore; also, the Western world has gone through several major sexual revolutions since the Thoth deck was made; also, it just sounds tacky. Crowley tried so hard to turn that card into something that would really ignite the imagination, but I think he underestimated how raunchy and permissive our culture would get, and he failed to produce a concept that delivered any sort of goose in the long term.
So what do we do with it now? Perhaps, like with the Batman movies, we may need to reboot the franchise.
As for the other cards, I think both the Priestess and the Hierophant are losing ground. All the other cards present a recognizable idea even to those who've never seen them before. The pope and popess, are two of my fave cards, but they require far more effort to recognize them for what they are. What can be done about this?
Is it possible for a card to become obsolete? This is a great question, so good that I will totally reconceive it before I try to answer it. Let's say that we have a language with only 78 words in it, 22 of which are verbs, and a loose-leaf dictionary containing all of them. It is possible for certain words to fall out of usage, and thus also lose their place in the dictionary? Of course. Let's say that "to telegraph" was a verb originally placed in the short list; it would retain its meaning, but at some point no one would use it to describe current events.
ReplyDeleteBut, of course, the Trumps are so much more than just verbs! They each have a half dozen explicit meanings, and hundreds of microscopic meanings, so for one could only 'fall out of use' through a rather dramatic shift in consciousness. I would argue, even, that each of the cards have so many meanings that they would have a hard time falling out of use at all, because as their common reading became less relevant, still useful meanings would become primary(as in Crowley's name-changes) or they might even take on new meanings (like the attachment of the Hebrew alphabet to the cards by the Golden Dawn). Even the endless changing of art-styles and iconography could be read as people trying to resignify dying cards.
Because cards tend to shift, then, I think it is much more likely that we might find ourselves frequently having thoughts that would deserve, but not find, any place among the Trumps. Of course, you could argue that if any idea became prominent enough, people would begin to find it in the cards, but I think there are some Great Forces in modern Western culture which tend to get read between, over, and around several cards, though they properly should have their own Trumps:
1) The Body
2) Distraction
3) Network
for instance.
Reducing myself with and to absurdity: One could, of course, simply take the 22 varieties of Snapple Elements and use them as Trumps.
ReplyDeleteNegation:
0) Subzero
One Monad:
1) Atomic
Two Near Vacancies:
2) Air (diet)
3) Ice (diet)
Three Planets:
4) Sun
5) Moon
6) Earth
Four Elements:
7) Metal
8) Sky
9) Venom
10) Fire
Five Elemental Outpourings (includes Spirit):
11) Volcano
12) Lightning
13) Rain
14) Meteor
15) Spark
Six Dispositions:
16) Infusion
17) Voltage
18) Gravity
19) Altitude
20) Turbulence
21) Velocity
Because cards tend to shift, then, I think it is much more likely that we might find ourselves frequently having thoughts that would deserve, but not find, any place among the Trumps. Of course, you could argue that if any idea became prominent enough, people would begin to find it in the cards, but I think there are some Great Forces in modern Western culture which tend to get read between, over, and around several cards, though they properly should have their own Trumps:
ReplyDelete1) The Body
2) Distraction
3) Network
for instance.
I agree with this a lot, and I don't have any intense feelings about people adding cards to the deck (after all, one could always remove the extras before doing any readings, if one wanted to). A lot of work would have to go into presenting examples that can't be collapsed into the existing cards, though. For example, "Network" immediately made me think of the various elements at play in the World or Universe cards (it also made me imagine Faye Dunaway as the Priestess). And I'm not sure what you mean by "The Body," but I'm not sure I see a place for it in the Majors, especially since the Fool's throwing himself off a cliff seems to invite us to suspend our interest in the body while we entertain a different kind of journey.
PS, I suspect if you pitch that deck to Snapple I bet you could get an promotional deal with them pronto. That is hot stuff, my friend.