Volunteers needed for statistic project regarding Tarot!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 19 Mar 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

ZardKravell	19 Mar 2004
Well Met! With the permission of the moderators, to whom I thank very much for their input, I would like to make extensive to all this invitation to join an interesting project I am coordinating. What follows is the message asking for volunteers to the Statistic Tarot Project :) Greetings! Have you ever done a Tarot reading and wondered what would happen if you repeat it? or what if some other tarotist asks the same question in a similar reading? will he or she get the same card? Will he or she reach the same conclusion as you did? I have asked myself that questions many times. So I have been conducting a study to find out :) The objective is not to prove Tarot works (or not)... we all have our own answer to that question, but to ask how is it that it operates (or not). I believe that a short statistical analysis may help answer those questions. To this end, a small group of volunteers, coordinated by myself, have been doing one-card readings and testing the results. The study is in it's initial phase, but even so the preliminar results are promising! But we need more participants, so the results can be truly statistically analyzed. This an open invitation to all of you. The only requisites to join the group is to be able and willing to do a one card reading and interpretation every week, for at least three months, using a Rider-Waite deck or one of it's derivatives. All levels of expertiese are welcome, you do not need to be an uber-expert to join ;) Also, all personal information is kept confidential. The study is coordinated using a Yahoo! group specifically created for this purpose, so if you decide to join, I will add you to it. Needless to say, this is a 100% non commercial, purely for the joy of advancing knowledge idea. To join, you need to send back to me at statistic-tarot@elysium.com.ar the following form complete. It is important that you do not send the questionarie to this forum, bot to me vía personal email. If you have any question, please send them to statistic-tarot@elysium.com.ar and I will gladly answer as soon as possible :) Thank you, and may the stars shine on you! Pablo M. Dotro statistic-tarot@elysium.com.ar wizard@elysium.com.ar SUBSCRIPTION FORM ----------------- Name (optional): Nickname: email address: (note: you will be added to a Yahoo! group using this address) Age (please do not depress yourself :) ): 20 or less [ ] 21-25 [ ] 26-30 [ ] 31-40 [ ] 41 or more [ ] City of residence: Country: Nationality: Education level: High School [ ] College [ ] Other: What is your primary professional activity? For how long have you read the Tarot? Do you read the cards as a professional activity? Do you practice other forms of divination? Which ones? What is your religion (optional)? Thank you very much for your interest and participation! Pablo M. Dotro statistic-tarot@elysium.com.ar

Diana	19 Mar 2004
ZardKravell: Why only Rider Waite decks? What is wrong with a Tarot of Marseille? :eek: (Interesting survey, by the way.)

ZardKravell	19 Mar 2004
Nothing is wrong with it ;) I have two of them and both have seen heavy use:) But I want all readings to be "statistically comparable", so I have to choose closely related decks... And the Waite deck seems to be the most widespread one... May the stars shine on you!

Diana	19 Mar 2004
Okay, that makes sense. May the stars shine on you as well. :)

Phoenyx*	19 Mar 2004
Okay, I'll bite, why not? ;)

ZardKravell	20 Mar 2004
Greetings Triquetra! Well, from a strictly scientific point of view, it makes sense to try to limit all the unkowns in an experiment... you try to keep unkown variables to only on (the one you are trying to figure out), or to a group of related variables which you cannot separate. In a study of this kind, there are several issues that really cannot be tested, Tarot is not physics ;) But some others can. Among those that I aim to test is to see if different persons reading over the same subject get comparable or related answers. To do this effectively, a number of factors have to be standarized, so that every reading is as good as the other... i.e. every participant's work is weighed by the same measure. To do that, I rely on a standard format for the reporting of readings, a protocol on how to transfer that information (i.e. no one sees the gathered results but me until I publish a reading report to the group, which is done during the next week of the reading submission deadline), and a few technical tricks. One of the questions I want to get an answer to is to see if everyone gets the same card, or if that the cards drawn are centered around a few cards. To that, the ideal is that everyone should be using the same deck, as different decks may have different symbolic systems (as for example, do all the Golden Dawn-influenced decks in comparison with the early italian and french decks or some newer, more new age decks). As asking that everyone use the exact same version of the deck would reduce the potential participants ranks too much (it's not easy to find volunteers for this kind of project!), I settled for a compromise: to choose a family of closely related decks that are fairly popular and well documented. And the Waite deck fills the role. Many decks have been derived from Waite's ideas, and tons of books have been written about it. I hope I have been able to answer without boring you ;) May the stars shine on you!

TemperanceAngel	23 Mar 2004
Hello, I just noticed this thread now and I am very but am not sure if I can commit to 3 months, or perhaps I can but not every week? Can I still do it? XTAX

ZardKravell	23 Mar 2004
Quote: Originally posted by TemperanceAngel Hello, I just noticed this thread now and I am very but am not sure if I can commit to 3 months, or perhaps I can but not every week? Can I still do it? XTAX Greetings TemperanceAngel! Yes, you can participate if you wish ;) The ideal solution is that every participant should work in all readings, but it's o.k. if you do only some of them. If you want me to add you to the project's group, please send me the completed subscription form to statistic-tarot@elysium.com.ar May the stars shine on you :)

Ariana	24 Mar 2004
Hi Pablo! Great to see another person from Buenos Aires! Where do you live? PD. Vivis en capital?

ZardKravell	24 Mar 2004
Yes I am ;) I PMed you, so we can continue this in spanish out of the thread... May the stars shine on you!

Silverlotus	04 Apr 2004
I wanted to bump this thread up because the Stat-Tarot group is really interesting. I am quite enjoying participating in it, and it really doesn't take much time at all. Just long enough to do a single one card reading a week and fill out a short form about your interpretation.

inanna_tarot	05 Apr 2004
Thought i'd bump it up too! I've just joined and i cant wait till my readings add to the responses of the group. Its really an interesting project, and i'll be honoured to be included in the findings! C'mon tarot buffs! A card every so often! C'mon.... you know you want to, any excuse to get your cards out! Blessings! Sezo x

TemperanceAngel	06 Apr 2004
I said I may be able to participate sometimes, but unfortunately I have not been able to due to my study commitments and just wanted to let you know :) XTAX

The Volunteers needed for statistic project regarding Tarot! thread was originally posted on 19 Mar 2004 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.