What is Tarot?

I know what tarot cards are because I can touch them and hold them and see them and do things with them.

But if all the tarot cards in the world disapeared overnight, and there was not a single physical card left.... Would Tarot still exist? How would we know it?

What is this Tarot we are speaking of?

What does it do?

What does it look like?

What is it's purpose?

Does it have an essence that exists beyond the cards.... and if so, can that essence be destroyed? Can it change or is it fixed and eternal?

Has it always been there waiting to be discovered since the dawn of time, or did someone, or a group of someones, create it? And it so, how? And why?

When you get right down to it, what the hell is Tarot?

I know what tarot cards are because I can touch them and hold them and see them and do things with them.

But if all the tarot cards in the world disappeared overnight, and there was not a single physical card left.... Would Tarot still exist? How would we know it?

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The way you described it, tarot would still exist in our memories and could be re-born. But say along with the cards, all memory of them disappeared?

What is this Tarot we are speaking of?

What does it do?

What does it look like?

What is it's purpose?

Does it have an essence that exists beyond the cards.... and if so, can that essence be destroyed? Can it change or is it fixed and eternal?

Has it always been there waiting to be discovered since the dawn of time, or did someone, or a group of someones, create it? And it so, how? And why?

When you get right down to it, what the hell is Tarot?

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Most of the world manages to get by without any knowledge of tarot, so, I suppose it is not absolutely necessary to life. At least, the un-evolved life.

I think that it may be one of many paths to the same destination.

It externalizes inner experience, so we can look it out of its dream-like setting and achieve understanding. Psychology does this, as does much of religion and the philosophical 'schools'.

I expect we all have different views on this.

For me Tarot is many things.

It's the cards I use, and the cards I don't use (but for me the ones I don't use are less tarot than the ones I do...)

Tarot is also a way off seeing things, things as symbols, things as images.
I lay down my cards and let the symbols speak to me.
They use a language I have tried my best to learn, that I am still learning.
I try to listen to what they say.

Tarot is also a map of the universe, and I try to see the universe in them.

I don't know about it's purpose.
I don't know about it's essence.

I'll have to think about that bit of it all.

If we can see everything in the tarot, then that might mean that the tarot is everything, and that would mean that they couldn't be destroyed.

If they are, as I said before, a map of the universe....
The M5 still exists if I burn my road map.

If the tarot represents archetypes, then they still exist whether we have our cards or not.
They exist in our sleep and in our dreams, they live in the dark places in our minds and whisper to us when we aren't looking.

No answers, many answers.
Anna, I don't know.

I think that as a map of the universe it has always existed in many forms.
People speak about the tarot coming down to us from ancient Egypt, perhaps it was around even before that.

There are stones from ancient times, stones with marks on them, stones with carvings.
These, possibly were their maps of their universe.
Their tarot.

People were seeing the symbols and recognising the archetypes long before the cards were ever produced.
To say that Tarot is nothing more than a deck of cards and to say that tarot dates from the moment the first cards were created is rather naive, and narrow.

Tarot is more than that.

It might be ever changing, or never changing.
Does the world change?
Yes.
Look at a city, covered in snow in the depths of winter.
Is that what the city is?
yes, but not just that, it is also the city in summer, in spring, the city a hundred years ago, in a hundred years to come, the city before there was a city and when it was 'all fields round here'.
Ever changing.
But if a person stands there, in winter or summer, in the future or the past, for him it is always now, and always here.
Never changing....

I have no idea Anna.
Big questions!

A tool created by man, for man to discover the unknown. Tarot is inert, it has no life of its own, the same with the I Ching and runes, it is brought to life by the ability of the reader to comprehend the symbols and translate those symbols into a language we can all understand. I suppose it is like a wise teacher.

Anna said:

I know what tarot cards are because I can touch them and hold them and see them and do things with them.

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Yes, tarot is a material thing. It is a deck of cards. It's a tool we use in the physical realm to explore the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical.

Anna said:

But if all the tarot cards in the world disapeared overnight, and there was not a single physical card left.... Would Tarot still exist? How would we know it?

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Well, if we could remember it, it would exist in our hearts and people like us would surely seek to rebuild it.

Anna said:

What is this Tarot we are speaking of?

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It's a practice and a discpline. It's a form of artistic expression.

Anna said:

What does it do?

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It doesn't 'do' anything, it's what we 'do' with it. It sits in it's box unless we get it out and use it.

Anna said:

What does it look like?

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It's a deck of cards which is offered in many different themes.

Anna said:

What is it's purpose??

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To comfort, enlighten and inspire.

Anna said:

Does it have an essence that exists beyond the cards.... and if so, can that essence be destroyed? Can it change or is it fixed and eternal?

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I believe it's essence lies within our spirits...we are what brings it to life.

Anna said:

Has it always been there waiting to be discovered since the dawn of time, or did someone, or a group of someones, create it? And it so, how? And why? ?

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I believe it was created by humans, for humans.

Anna said:

When you get right down to it, what the hell is Tarot?

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The Tarot is a tool for self exploration, self development and personal guidance. It helps us connect with ourselves and those around us.

It's simply a way of laying your problem out on the table to look at it from another perspective.

The Tarot has many uses, but to me it is a material item which I personally cherish.

I consider to Tarot be my passion, my hobby, and my friend. It inspires me and helps me to help others.

The Tarot is a wonderful tool for spiritual, creative and practical insight.

To me tarot represents the archetypes,mythologies and godforms that have been around since mankind developed the capacity to commune with the creator.They are a part of our collective unconscious.Tarot does not need to excist in order for these images to show up in books,movies and art."For by names and images are all powers awakened and re-awakened".Just the other day I was in downtown L.A. and was struck by how much graffiti street art reflected the tarot.Archetypes spray painted on walls.Street art done by people with no conception of the tarot tells me that whats below is a reflection of whats above............

To me the tarot is a means of accessing universal knowledge. It helps me focus and receive information which may otherwise appear to me in a quite scattered and jumbled up mess.

D

Tarot is . . .

Tarot is a mirror. It gives us a different perspective of ourselves and our environment. Some call this "displacement". The subject of the reading is asked to suspend the rules of ordinary life and permit the Tarot world to offer its views, displacing our "reality" and substituting another reality. This gives us a perspective, an alternative way of seeing familiar things in unfamiliar or even unacceptable ways. Jolted out of our reality, thrust into a another world view, we often free ourselves to see new truths.

Tarot, in the above sense, is a process. Tarot, for some, is a set of cards and an ambiance created by the reader. Tarot, for others, is a mystical or deeply inner-felt process of letting go of the present and taking in other places and times as an aid to seeking understanding of concepts, thoughts, insights into other cultures. Tarot reflects and mirrors many aspects of life depending upon how you tilt the mirror. Dave.

It is whatever you want it to be which is why I love it so much. There are no rules. Well other than Thou Shalt Not Bend!

If tarot went then something else would appear to fill its place.