Major Arcana Fantasy Experiment

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 07 Jan 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Dark Inquisitor	07 Jan 2003
Thinking back on the fall of the World Trade Center towers , I remembered feeling as though I were watching a living tarot card- an archetype illustrated in horrifying reality on a mass scale. I wondered if I would ever see this phenomena on such a scale in my life again. There was the Tower , fully illustrated & alive , affecting the whole world. The sudden shock , the terror, the destruction. The destruction not only of the buildings, but a way of thinking & existing in the modern world for individuals & nations. As bad as it was, there was the positive side too- the exposure of intelligence failure, security issues addressed, an awakening to things that really needed attention- things that were stagnating from complacency & arrogance. Many people were inspired to have a new respect for life & to sort out the trivial from the truly important in their lives. Which brings me to my experiment: How would you envision the rest of the Major Arcana acted out on a mass scale? Tarotphelia

Dark Inquisitor	07 Jan 2003
I am going to continue by answering my own question: I think the period of the 60's was about the Fool taking over the consciousness of pop culture. Eccentric upheaval, questioning of authority, outlandish dress, psychedelic colors. New lifestyles, all kinds of experimentation, good & bad. Lots of goofiness for sure. New music, great creativity. People setting out on journeys, hitching rides across America & Europe in search of novelty & ideals- like drugs & sexual freedom. Not much regard for consequences, of course. But things certainly got loosened up from the old order in a hurry. I wonder what would happen if the Fool got loose again? Tarotphelia

Ophiel	07 Jan 2003
Actually, I do this sometimes, but in a slightly different way, taking actual news events/leaders, etc. and try to find them in the deck. I limit myself to the Majors since those are more archetypal in nature. It is actually an interesting exercise. I think there was an article about the THE TOWER and the Twin Towers a few issues back in an interesting mag called "Parabola." Being familiar with Tarot, the article didn't strike me as being profoundly written, but might have had an impact on someone unfamiliar with Tarot. This could be very interesting, your thread, and I hope others add their impressions!

lunalafey	07 Jan 2003
We have the Emperor who is an Aries leader....Hitler was an Aries. His motivation was dominace and power. Being the Emporor is being the original, here is where he saw his race as the supreme ultimate race. The down side to the Emp. is the insability of the 'fight', not being able to make decisions and a crumble of command....he didn't win his war did he?

Demonesse	08 Jan 2003
This is a very interesting thread. I think the major arcana can easily be personified as real people (the Magician as several financial wizards I've been reading about, for example), but it's more difficult for me to identify them with cultural periods or events. I'll edit this post when I can successfully think of one - the Devil reminds me of the AIDS epidemic ravaging Africa and parts of Asia, though.

allibee	08 Jan 2003
Laterally thinking, given the technology these days, why isn't there a Nerd or Geek card??? The reason I ask this is I was thinking of Bill Gates as the Magician, but then I thought no. His was a very blinkered view when he created Microsoft. Could he be the Hierophant, what has now become a traditional institution in homes/offices and schools around the world??? ... nah. The Emperor? You could go through all the Majors finding a 'bit' of Bill Gates in each one. So I think a Nerd Card is in order and the number of the card should be 00010101000111010100011110101, *LOL* But back to the original thread, I think the 50's were the Empress, baby boomers ville, giving birth to what was needed after WW2. The 90's seem to be an Emperor/King Swords time looking back. Quote: questioning of authority, outlandish dress, New lifestyles, all kinds of experimentation, good & bad. New music, But depending on how old you are and your outlook, most periods could be looked at like that: the Punk Rock era for example. I'm not just talking about the music, but the whole culture: based on new music .... REALLY outlandish dress, and telling the whole world to **** off! allibee

Trish	09 Jan 2003
I think Death could be the epidemics of AIDS or bubonic plague. Now, I know Death doesn't necessarily mean physical death, but the entire demographics and ways of thinking in the world changed too! ;) So it is both a physical death and a transition -- don't you think?

dangerdork	09 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by allibee But depending on how old you are and your outlook, most periods could be looked at like that... Nah, I'm with Tarotphelia on this one. I was only a little kid, but the 60s had something going on that hasn't happened again since. In retrospect, all that upheaval looks so romantic and idealistic, but it was a painful time too... It just struck me: The 60s may have been about the Fool, but they were also about the Tower. (BAD events, necessary and positive results).

Diana	09 Jan 2003
I've been pondering this interesting thread. And then I suddenly had this image of the Chariot as Jack Kerouac and the Beatnik generation of the 50s. I was too young to be personally influenced by him, but I reckon the whole era affected all of us who were born in the 50s and 60s all the same. He unfortunately never learned to control those horses and died because of this. The Chariot and Temperance are often linked together, and I think that Temperance was also something the whole Beat generation struggled with. His book On the Road is a kind of a Chariot book, no? Or has it been too long since I read it and I am missing the point here.

The Major Arcana Fantasy Experiment thread was originally posted on 07 Jan 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.