Blank about the Blank card

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 18 Apr 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

galadrial	18 Apr 2003
With most of my decks I've been able to include a "blank" card- usually by putting one of the "publisher's name/ad for other decks" cards in the deck, though some authors are kind enough to include an artistic one. I rarely get it in a reading, though when I do I usually get it for one or two weeks straight. Unfortunately, I don't really understand it when it comes up. I guess I feel I should get some profound insight about patience, or how wisdom can deepen during times of uncertainty, or that acceptance in the abcense of knowledge can bring grace- neat stuff like that. In actuality, it just shows up for awhile and then it's gone and I've yet to derive much of anything from it. Has anyone else gotten much insight from getting a "blank" card in a reading?

skytwig	18 Apr 2003
Interesting concept for Tarot. It is a Wyrd card? (Runes) I understand the Wyrd rune to be Possibilities/Wishes/Anything that arises from within my deepest Self/ fill-in-the-blank. Kind of like the 9 of Cups - Wish Card or Star/Gifts or Wheel. Interesting that you put it into your decks. What led you to do that?

galadrial	18 Apr 2003
Quote: Originally posted by skytwig Interesting that you put it into your decks. What led you to do that? It was discussed in a tarot book I read when I was first starting out. I no longer have the book nor remember the title, but I kept a note I took from it at the time that explained that the reason for getting the blank card may be to keep us from missing the joy and/or point of the journey, ie: like not knowing the solution to a maze puzzle beforehand. I thought that seemed fair enough, but it doesn't seem to have that sense when I actually get it in a reading.

skytwig	18 Apr 2003
Where does it usually appear? what does it stir in you(fear?)? What are the questions? I am intrigued by this, very tempted to try it in my cards....

Faerie Lin	18 Apr 2003
In the Magic Tarot, there is a "nothing" card numbered 0. http://www.gambler.ru/sukhty/decks/d00193/d0019300.jpg and the fool is numbered 22. http://www.gambler.ru/sukhty/decks/d00193/d0019322.jpg The "nothing" card hasn't been drawn up in the readings I've done so far with this deck... but I have to admit, the card kind of creeps me out, I can't really put my finger on it, maybe it makes me feel like everything is nonexistant. But when/if I get this card I'll post about the feelings I receive from it, for I'm sure the surrounding cards would affect it. I recall someone saying awhile back whenever the blank card is drawn up it means that particular thing (whatever that maybe) isn't meant to be known yet.

Sulis	18 Apr 2003
I usually take the blank card out of my decks. I thought that most decks had them because it`s easier to print 80 cards as opposed to 78. Interesting that you should leave it in. I`ve never heard of that before. Crystalmynx xx

Kiama	18 Apr 2003
I take the blank card out of my decks, but when I used to use Runes and when I included the Blank Rune (I don't anymore!) I would see it as a blank sheet of paper, waiting to be written on by me... So, with a blank Tarot card, I'd be inclined to say that it meant the future is too unclear to be told at the moment, so instead, why not take up the ink and quill, and create that future yourself? :D Kiama

Khatruman	18 Apr 2003
It is interesting that the blank rune, called Wyrd, is often come to be associated with the idea that your future is a blank slate to be written by you. The Anglo-Saxon word wyrd means fate. Anglo-Saxon's believed strongly in a fate that was uncontrollable. Read a translation of Beowulf and you will find the concept referred to a great deal. Before going into battle, the hero would tell how he planned to be victorious, but only if fate, wyrd, were with him, but also resigned to the idea that it might not be, and he may be destined to lose. In fact, wyrd comes to be our modern word weird. It was used this way in Shakespeare's Macbeth, where the witches, the three weird sisters as they are called in the play, pronounce Macbeth's ascension to the throne, and later the fate which will befall him, though it is really a trick to make him believe he is invulnerable, but of course, no human is invulnerable. Weird first was used when something happened that seemed fated to happen, therefore it was "weird" and unusual since we rarely get to really see our fate. In our modern scientific age, where life is seen mostly as random circumstance and clashing of molecules, we just take the strange aspect of wyrd and this weird simply means unusual and odd. Coming out of this is the idea that wyrd as a concept in divination comes to mean the opposite from what it originally meant. To the Anglo-Saxons, wyrd meant that the forces of fate were strongly at work and it was out of their control. Therefore, by using the wyrd rune when I used runes, I took it as meaning something happening that was out of the querient's control. In tarot, I do use the blank card as wyrd. To me, it means that whatever issue is dealt with in that particular position is in some way out of the querient's control. It would have the message to the querient that there is a lack of control. Maybe i would offer the advice that the future is a blank slate to be written by the reader as a way to empower the querient to take control, because he/she currently isn't. But forcing the future is a double-edged sword. Just ask Macbeth, who was told that he would be king, but forced the issue by murdering the current king and thus setting up his own downfalll.

skytwig	18 Apr 2003
Khat, that is how I tend to see the Wheel. I tend to NOT believe so much in 'divine intervention', having arisen in an environment that was literally controlled by such thinking. I am eclectic, so I tend toward FreeWill, so strongly that the Wyrd rune is fun! It helps me to see something about myself that I may be ignoring. It is a get-to-know-myself rune, so I may include, experimentally in my Tarot. Having to imagine what I would 'put in it' forces me to look more deeply within. And that is what I am doing with Tarot, anyway, connecting to Self and the Universe of Living. I mean, nothing, in my mind, HAS to be in permanent structure, does it? (As you so nicely displayed in your history of the word wyrd...... :) So change is good, isn't it? Although, i could see how, for some, a Wyrd card or rune could be as frightening as standing on a glass floor.......

Umbrae	18 Apr 2003
I couldn’t let this slide… There is no Wyrd rune. It was ‘invented’ in the eighties by Ralph Blum. There is no historical reason. It is akin to adding a 27th letter to our alphabet. “And how do you spell that?” “Arr aye eye enn bleck ee arr” “What’s ‘bleck’?” “A new letter for the alphabet! I invented it!” “Riiiight…and what does it look like?” “A blank” “You mean a space.” “Oh no, a Bleck is different from a space…” “Next!” A blank card is a lovely concept. But please don’t compare it to an invention, as though there is empirical evidence for the blank rune. The word Wyrd, on one level alludes to ‘past action’ which is not simply past, but taken on – a part of your being. The three Norns are Urdhr, Verdhandi, and Skuld. Urdhr (Old-English Wyrd) is the past participle of the verb ‘verdha’ – ‘to become’. (OE Wyrd is similarly formed from the verb weordhan). Urdhr means – that which has become or turned or…the past. Verdhandi means that which is becoming, and Skuld comes from Skulu meaning shall, or ‘that which shall be’. But good old Ralph, butchered the old language that he knew nothing about… So a blank card is great. Just don’t call it Wyrd.

galadrial	18 Apr 2003
I forgot to mention that the deck I started with, Hudes, has a nice, artistic blank card that was meant to be used in the deck if the user wished, so, since that was the only deck I used for a long time it was awhile before I knew there were decks that didn't have it. The Wheel of Change, Book of Chaos, and Melissa Townsend's decks also came with such cards; Melissa Townsend's actually has two, one black, one white, so at least I get shades of meaning (heh). Anyway, no, I'm never frightened by getting it, I'm just unsure what is being asked of me. But I feel that Khatruman's idea that it is telling me that there are forces beyond my control at work goes very well with the times when it has come up in readings. The last time was when I was trying to decide whether or not to leave my job (which I finally did). The surrounding cards all indicated dark times behind me, happy times ahead if I left (very true). The present, where I was hoping for something like an answer to Why?, or, But what about...? was consistently blank. I still don't understand the source of the heavy negativity surrounding my workplace, but do think it had little to do with me except to make my work hours miserable. So perhaps the cards were encouraging me to act in the direction I effectively could, and discouraging me from fretting over that which I couldn't affect or control.

skytwig	18 Apr 2003
So Ralph really didn't invent the word wyrd, right? Personally, I've grown somewhat attached to the word wyrd. I like the y, you know, like womyn..... and if wyrd means "to become", cool! Then the wyrd card could be the To Become card...... :laugh:...... (Pound head here.)

Umbrae	18 Apr 2003
No no no. Wyrd does not mean 'to become'! Wyrd refers to the past...kinda like has been...but is now part of your makeup. It is a past tense word, and cannot be used for future tense.

skytwig	18 Apr 2003
Sorry, Umbrae... past participle. I got it! I wyrd it! :) So a blank is a blank is a blank. Wyrd is history or "at this moment?" I am now what I gathered as I became?..... I won't belabor this point anymore; I just find word usage interesting. I like to bend them... I gave up trying to preserve them long ago, when my two year old daughter told me she was conscouraged . (confused & discouraged) Right then and there, as I looked at her I'm-so-grown-up expression, I knew made up words were good!! Who was I to be a stickler?! This tiny child was teaching me....... I've been trying to stay flexible ever since. (But I must admit, interface with still bugs me!!!)

HOLMES	18 Apr 2003
the blank card, i use it for dramatic effect in a reading. if it comes up i say to the client "YOUR'T NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW : for deep down inside i believe it. 1. it is a lesson they have to endure. 2. it would influce their choice. i also find that when a person comes to me for a reading and they ask a question that they asked before ,, it comes up ,, i tell them they cards told you already .. i alwasy stop the reading after that, saying to them, sorry , i can't help you . (i was doing this last year it was one of my first 20 posts i think )

jmd	18 Apr 2003
Call me a stlicker for tradition, but I'm confscouraged here too! Irrespective as to whether some artists, authors or publishers wish to add an additional card, or make something of the spare two cards in the sheet of eighty used in printing the set of 78 cards of Tarot, the others just ain't Tarot... Tarot, as Tarot, has no 'blank' card... though anyone is of course free to add non-tarot cards to their deck if they so wish, and interpret these accordingly as you interface with whomever (})).

Khatruman	18 Apr 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Umbrae There is no Wyrd rune. It was ?invented? in the eighties by Ralph Blum. There is no historical reason. It is akin to adding a 27th letter to our alphabet. ....The three Norns are Urdhr, Verdhandi, and Skuld. Urdhr (Old-English Wyrd) is the past participle of the verb ?verdha? ? ?to become?. (OE Wyrd is similarly formed from the verb weordhan). Urdhr means ? that which has become or turned or?the past. Verdhandi means that which is becoming, and Skuld comes from Skulu meaning shall, or ?that which shall be?. But good old Ralph, butchered the old language that he knew nothing about? So a blank card is great. Just don?t call it Wyrd. My apologies for speaking before researching my facts. I see that what I wrote implies that the so-called Wyrd rune is one of the orginal Nordic runes. It is absolutely an invention of Ralph Blum and his rune stones (if I am correct, the use of runes originally wasn't on stones, as Blum has devised). I won't attempt to debate Old English with you. Though I have studied it and slogged through doing translations of sections from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles with merely a glossary at my side, I would need to really dig out some books to discuss the implications of the Old English wyrd. Though on perusals of ideas about the nature of the concept, it generally has the essence of the workings of supernatural forces or something with the power to control fate. It is looked at now, more or less, as spooky, eery, or odd. Though it is not an historical aspect of the runes, and it is certainly not historically part of the tarot, I like instituting the concept of outside control, and think that it is well represented by a blank image, something that cannot be adequately visualized. It keeps to the weirdness of it, its insubstantiality, and, when it appears in a reading, can generate wonderful discussions about those things that seem to control, but that can be neither explained, nor explained away. I think this differs from the Wheel of Fortune, in that there is an idea in the Wheel either of randomness, or that fortunes can change... whereas wyrd is just...well, weird. Besides, in my view of the universe, I really like the idea of something that cannot be explained, something that leaves things unresolved. I find this generally to be unpopular, but it simply tells me there is more, and I can't know it. I am quite the opposite of a control freak. :D Once again, I apologize for appearing as an expert when I am just another simple slob who likes to spout these odd thoughts that run through my brain. If I were a Shakespearian character, I believe I would play the classic Clown..*s* Maybe the one standing by King Lear as the storm rages around him. Peace.

Khatruman	18 Apr 2003
Quote: Originally posted by jmd Tarot, as Tarot, has no 'blank' card... though anyone is of course free to add non-tarot cards to their deck if they so wish, and interpret these accordingly as you interface with whomever (})). My apologies, jmd, I simply am not a traditionalist. I think knowing where traditions originated and how practices are used is important, but I see a danger in tying oneself to tradtion. I guess this is best illustrated in this famous zen story that I really like (quoted from zenstories): Quote: "When the spiritual teacher and his disciples began their evening meditation, the cat who lived in the monastery made such noise that it distracted them. So the teacher ordered that the cat be tied up during the evening practice. Years later, when the teacher died, the cat continued to be tied up during the meditation session. And when the cat eventually died, another cat was brought to the monastery and tied up. Centuries later, learned descendants of the spiritual teacher wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice." I understand that using a blank card and referring to it as wyrd is not Tarot, as tradition would have it, but it works and has become significant in readings that I have done, using the blank card. Also, looking at Umbrae's expert conjugation of the verb, it seems that what we have taken on, our past actions, have created what we are fated to be. So fate is a direct consequence of that which we have become, or that which is our past. It also does go with the Anglo-saxon emphasis on one's lineage. If your father was a great hero, that figured into your own fate. So past becomes extremely important in one's destiny, as we all seem to see the world in many ways through the filter of our past experience. Now I have even a different sense of this concept, and that makes it even more valuable. That is one of the things I love about these discussions, which involve the brilliance of the aeclectic community!!!

jmd	18 Apr 2003
Thanks for those wonderful posts, Khatruman... I probably came out more strongly than I intended on wishing the opportunity to use two of those wonderful words and concepts previously posted by skytwig. I totally agree that this community really shines forth with brilliance, and I have deep respect for the individuality and peculiar idiosyncracies we each have in our usage and understanding of Tarot. If anyone wishes to include blank or other cards (such as, as another example, the unicursal hexagramme or the three Magicians in Crowley/Harris's Thoth deck), I would certainly not discourage such - I would, however, only re-iterate that they are added to the Tarot, but do not themselves form part of it... and I would re-iterate it for the very reason you so wonderfully illustrated in the zen story: understanding how, why and when these were added prevents the Tarot from continuing to have attachments which are really idiosyncrecies independent of it - as is the tied cat to the meditation...

skytwig	18 Apr 2003
You know, this has been an interesting discourse; through it's meanderings, I find that I have two viewpoints. (2 swords?) One side of me is a traditionalist, a lover of history, a preserver of the sacred places and steps that came before my presence here in 2003. I honor the sacredness of tradition and I love the archetypal flavors that collect as things, i.e. symbols, practices, etc, move through humanity over time. However, there is also a side of me who is the innovator and the Magician, if you will, the Trickster, even, who wants to create new and BUILD upon the olde; who wants to add new dimensions, add new flavors, bounce new ideas off the traditions, reshape it, renew it, find something more. The funny thing about language is that it never stays the same. Nothing does, really. But in language, we see it quite clearly. Wyrd, for instance, is an olde word that was rebirthed into something Ralph wanted to make it. And , as I referenced subtly above, we , as a collective society, like to create words quickly and somewhat thoughtlessly - eg: interface with (yuck!!!) We are torn; or at least, I am. I love the olde, but I love the new and the revised, done with taste..... hmmmmm. That's the qualifier, somehow. Done with respect for the tradition or the archetype or the word (or thing) we change. And maybe that is the reaction to good ol' Ralph and my reaction to interface. Am I an idealist? Probably. But, most importantly, I am not conscouraged. I am inspired - debate, if done 'on the tips of our toes' is grand! :laugh:

HOLMES	18 Apr 2003
some of my decks dont' have a blank card, the blank card that came with some decks were supposed to be used if they lost a card right ?

Khatruman	18 Apr 2003
Quote: Originally posted by skytwig The funny thing about language is that it never stays the same. Nothing does, really. But in language, we see it quite clearly. ... Am I an idealist? Probably. But, most importantly, I am not conscouraged. I am inspired - debate, if done 'on the tips of our toes' is grand! :laugh: I just LOVE your conscouraged story...:D. I love language and its uses and implications. Of course, I am an English teacher, so I should. Language is a living, breathing thing; if it ceases to be so, a language dies. For a language to be valid, it must change, always change. So many people see a dictionary as Holy Scripture: words handed down by God and that is what they mean. Many people don't even realize that a dictionary becomes outdated. When I bring this up, I ask them to look in their dictionary and see if "fax" is there, or "download", or "internet". I am also in the minority of English teachers that has trouble being a grammarian. I very rarely get ticked at grammar mistakes and am more interested in the life behind the words, the breath that comes out of them. I love reading and listening to a person as they write and what they project, regardless of how they spelled or misused grammar. I guess I am kinda wyrd. *L*

Khatruman	18 Apr 2003
Quote: Originally posted by jmd understanding how, why and when these were added prevents the Tarot from continuing to have attachments which are really idiosyncrecies independent of it - as is the tied cat to the meditation... Precisely put, jmd! I like how you phrased this because, to me, it shows the absolute power of KNOWING the history of any practice, especially tarot. One should know where things come from to be better informed in his use of them, and then any decision to deviate comes from full knowledge of the fact that he is deviating. To me, it's like someone breaking grammatical rules in writing. I will tell students that you can break the rules of standard English, as long as you are fully aware of what those rules are before you make the choice to break them.

skytwig	18 Apr 2003
Quote: Language is a living, breathing thing; if it ceases to be so, a language dies. For a language to be valid, it must change, always change. Khat - that is why I am a hopeless collector of dictionaries. (And etymolgies are the storytellers!) :joke:

The Blank about the Blank card thread was originally posted on 18 Apr 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.