Questions on Christianity and Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 20 Oct 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

niah	20 Oct 2002
Now that I'm a born-again Catholic, I'm not so sure if Tarot cards are OK with God. It even says in the bible that divination is a sin. I thought that the Tarot is just a set of pictures that help one reveal their problems in life. It doesn't really "tell the future." What do you think? :TSTAR

HOLMES	20 Oct 2002
i believe in god, godess, holy spirit, but not the church, bible i just follow what my spirit and my heart tells me,,, my best advice is to just to listen,,

WhiteDrag0n	20 Oct 2002
Heres my thoughts. Putting yourself into a set religious mold puts limitations on you. God doesnt care what faith you are just so long as you have it. I would follow your heart instead of the teachings of men from long ago, but that is just my opioin

jmd	20 Oct 2002
Tarot arose within a very Christian context, and to my mind there is no doubt that the early decks were all Christian. Most later decks, including the Waite, also emerge from within a Christian context. You may also be interested to read Meditations on the Tarot, written anonymously by a Catholic - my review also has a link to further details (including a photo of the Pope with a German translation of the book on his desk).

niah	20 Oct 2002
Thank you so much, jmd! That article was very helpful and laid all my fears to rest. :TCHAR

AmounrA	20 Oct 2002
"The authors who saw in the Tarot the "Sacred Book of Thoth" (Thoth = Hermes Trismegistus) were both right and wrong at the same time. They were right in so far as they traced back the history of the essence of the Tarot to antiquity, notably to ancient Egypt. And they were wrong in so far as they believed that the Tarot had been inheritedfrom ancient Egypt, i.e. that it had been transmitted from generation to generation subject to minor iconographic changes. " quoted from JMD review. JMD, does the author expand on what he means by --"They were right in so far as they traced back the history of the essence of the Tarot to antiquity, notably to ancient Egypt." ?, could essence be seen as a seed?

cjtarot	20 Oct 2002
Niah, You have to decide how you will use the Tarot. For divination..telling someone the future (no changes possible) or as a guide to what can be or what to watch for. I believe that the messages I get are from God, that they are sent to guide. There have been many times when the cards talk about something totally different than what the quarent wanted, they told of something the quarent need to look at and was avoiding. The biggest problem I see you facing is your Church's reaction..The dedicated Christians I have met are against the cards. Blessings and good luck Cj

niah	20 Oct 2002
Yes, you're right, cj. :) But I'll be fine. :TCHAR

ihcoyc	20 Oct 2002
If you look through the Bible's passages on divination in context, you will see that when it disapproves of divination, it means specifically the practice of divination by an unclean spirit. By contrast, there is no specific ban on divination by lots. In fact, divination by lots is specifically approved in several passages. The Old Testament priests had the Urim and Thummim to obtain answers from the Lord. Jonah was discovered on the ship to Tarshish by lot, and the Apostles chose a replacement for Judas Iscariot by lot. I tend to see tarot as a somewhat more elaborate form of casting lots. Of course, you will want to avoid paganized decks, but you'll want to avoid them in any instance. The original images of the tarot were highly and obviously Christian. Even such troubling ones as the Grim Reaper and the Devil were specific products of Christian culture. I see no problems.

niah	20 Oct 2002
Ih, a fellow Hoosier :) Do you think the Colts will leave us?

Dark Inquisitor	20 Oct 2002
Congratulations niah, on your triumphant return! I come from from a long line of Cathoholics, but I am not one myself. The old line church would definitely think tarot is the wrong thing to do. I think the view is that you are only supposed to turn to the Bible, church & members of the clergy for guidance. There are however, new factions that want to change things in the church, (sometimes in direct contradiction to what the church has traditionally stood for), that might be sympathetic to tarot. A nice compromise might be to try the Tarot of the Saints, which looks like a very beautiful deck. Tarotphelia

jmd	20 Oct 2002
In terms of the author's 'They were right in so far as they traced back the history of the essence of the Tarot to antiquity, notably to ancient Egypt', I do not remember him elaborating - but I do not have the book handy. In terms of AmounrA's question ('could essence be seen as a seed?'), I suspect that the author of Meditations on the Tarot refers more to essential spiritual characteristics, which transcends, in many ways, any manifested incarnation. In that sense, the spiritual underpinnings of Tarot may very well harken back to ancient Egypt, without thereby assuming that the ancient Egyptians had a coherent sequence of pictures correlating to Tarot. I would suspect that it is this connotation of 'essence' which the author uses in the book.

AmounrA	21 Oct 2002
" I suspect that the author of Meditations on the Tarot refers more to essential spiritual characteristics, which transcends, in many ways, any manifested incarnation. In that sense, the spiritual underpinnings of Tarot may very well harken back to ancient Egypt".quote jmd. That is very beautifully put, and in that sense, Egypt is stationed as a marker in time. A time we can look back on today and get detailed information about 'way of life', and 'view of life' , although the path did not start there (if it had a start). This all reminds me of 'Sanctum Sanctorum'. The meaning of this, within this thread seems to me, that although the tarot does have obvious links with Christianity, it was created (78card deck) by person/s with a far broader outlook as to the nature of 'reality'.

The Questions on Christianity and Tarot thread was originally posted on 20 Oct 2002 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.