Connection?
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 11 Apr 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| Jaggedstar |
11 Apr 2005 |
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Is there a connect between tarot cards and magick? Becuase one book I read said their is no connection but another said their is. It's confusing me greatly.
Jaggedstar
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| Eco74 |
11 Apr 2005 |
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Like many other tools and items, tarotcards can be used for magick.
There are tarot-spells and books related to the subject of combining the two.
However, there is no need to use tarot to make magick, and there is no magick automatically linked to tarot.
And then there are the many faiths, theories and convictions.
Some feel that tarot in itself and its symbology has a basis in magick and therefore has magick embedded in the images. Others feel that while some symbols used in magick are also used in tarot they are quite different and a comparison is like comparing a hunting-knife with cutlery. Meaning that the same basic item can be "forged" in very different shapes and used for very different purpouses without ever being linked, unless they are linked manually by the person wielding both items.
In the same breath, one could also say that tarot and astrology are linked - or not, and that tarot and numerology are linked - or not, or that tarot and religion is linked - or not... The list goes on...
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| amyel |
11 Apr 2005 |
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As Eco said, there are many people who practice magic who use tarot cards, but many who don't use tarot at all. I suspect - but have no evidence to support this - that there are far more people who use tarot but do not practice any magic.
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| EricTheHermit |
11 Apr 2005 |
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In his tarot book The Book Of Thoth, the late, legendary occultist Aleister Crowley opined that tarot cards were a form of symbolic magick related to the Kabbalah and astrology. Wiccans and other pagans have used the tarot as part of their magickal practices for centuries, along with other forms of magickal divination like scrying. As Eco74 noted, magickal use of the tarot can include spell casting.
Of course, one does not need to be a Wiccan / pagan / magick practitioner in order to use the tarot and become a good reader. This is why Christian tarot readers feel that they are not violating the doctrine of their religion when they use their decks. But then, the bible contradicts itself in that regard. In one part, divination is completely forbidden; in another, divination is allowed for self-defense.
The word divination is used vaguely in both cases. There are many forms of divination, some of which require the practice of magick. Others, like astrology, have nothing to do with magick. Astrology is the study of one's relationship to the stars, planets, and moons, and how that relationship affects not only the person's future, but his present and past as well.
- Eric
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| tarotbear |
11 Apr 2005 |
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I 'got into' tarot using the cards for spellwork, using "Tarot Spells' by Janina Rene.
Tarot cards are paper and ink (have we heard this discussion before on AT?); they can be used as tools. However, people have this intensely weird notion that 'somehow' when you read cards and they predict things you may not find likable that 'somehow' the cards will cause them to happen. As a child, did you ever say the rhyme 'Step on a crack and break your mother's back' as you walked home from school? Did you ever step on a crack? Did your mother's back break every time you stepped on one? Of course not! Saying a dumb nursery rhyme won't 'make it so,' any more than some disagreeable cards popping up in a spread.
Have you ever seen 'Six Degrees of Separation'? You can link tarot to just about anything (if you want to.)
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| HudsonGray |
11 Apr 2005 |
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Just like you can burn candles because they're romantic & pretty or use them in a magic ceremony, you can use tarot with no magical interest at all, or incorporate them into visualization exercises or spellwork. They're both completely unrelated experiences, but useful when put together for a purpose by someone who wants to go that route if they so decide. Just as any tool can be used.
Don't stress the magic connection, for many it's not there at all, and it needn't be.
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| SunChariot |
16 Apr 2005 |
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Is there a connect between tarot cards and magick? Becuase one book I read said their is no connection but another said their is. It's confusing me greatly.
Jaggedstar
Tarot is a tool: you can use the tool in whatever way you want. It will become for you what you make of it. You can use it for magic, but you don't have to. Each of us is on our own Tarot path, and each path is very individualized. Tarot will be for you exactly what you need it to be.
Bar
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| Fairawen |
18 Apr 2005 |
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Ha. There is one easy way to find this out: Do you think it does? I suppose, if you think it does, then it will. I personally have no affiliation with magick at all, so I should probably keep my big nose out of this. :)
~Fairawen~
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| Fudugazi |
18 Apr 2005 |
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Well cards are like candles - both can be put to magical use, neither are originally magic.
The only real magic is in you :)
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The Connection? thread was originally posted on 11 Apr 2005 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.
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