gregory said:
We need the darkness as well as the light. It is all part of the tapestry of everything. And those who deprive, for instance, kids of the REAL fairytales with the blood, mutilation, death etc do them a grave disservice (see Bettelheim et al.)
Hence we also need dark decks. But so many people see so many decks as so very different in their shades of light and dark....
Absolutely. It's funny too, because I've always been someone who preferred lighter things, but I think we tend to seek balance eventually, and what tarot deck we need to help us do that depends on where we start from.
We like to tell teenagers to be more positive, but really they've been fed positive all their growing years, if they're lucky enough not to have been born into a troubled family, and they want to see the other side now, to feel fully prepared for life. Perhaps we make our own initiatory experiences, if our culture doesn't provide them.
As far as a dark deck goes, I think any balanced deck can provide most people with all the darkness they want or need. It's how one works with it that makes the difference. Then again, everyone perceives a deck differently. I'm sometimes told Thoth is dark, but I see it as balanced, and sometimes incredibly light. Some see too much darkness in balanced decks, others can't get enough dark stuff, they hunger for it, and want horrid or fantastical shadowy things like vampires. Myself, I'm not into vampires, though they provide an interesting metaphor for certain types of parasitic greed or energy exchanges.
I guess what I'm saying is that this is a difficult thing to design into a single deck that will suit everyone, because it's such an individual perception. Everyone's at a different place. I think the best you can do is try to find a prominent group or portion of the culture to aim toward. I also think even a dark deck should be balanced, or it will just be depressing to most people. Notice how children combine darkness with fun, with a shivery thrill, or how the Goth trend combined darkness with intricate, subtle beauty. I think we need that, to some degree, to help us keep looking and not shrink away.
A good dark deck should, I think, somehow reach people deep inside at an unconscious level, and help them process difficult emotions and their own shadows, to find balance. How to achieve that is another question. But then any deck can only reach part way. The person using it has to do the rest.
HOLMES said:
it is a matter of personal belief,
i do not believe in duality so I dont' need darkness.
with that being said,, i look at a deck like the bohemian gothic tarot or tarot of the elves and see the light among the darkness.
once that light is revealed , the darkness no longer is there.
HOLMES, I see a non-dualist as someone who has learned how to process what we call darkness, to find balance. I think that's what people are seeking when they look for a dark deck, whether they realize it or not -- to move from duality to non-duality. I think it's part of our spiritual evolution to do so. But most of us today are so removed from the natural world we don't get a chance to experience nature's balance. We live in cultures that call a certain part of nature or life "darkness" -- when of course, as you say, really it's just part of the whole. That's my goal in exploring my shadows, to find that whole or balanced, non-dual perspective. But we have to see things clearly before we can do that, and if we've ignored half of life so far, there's a part we've been unwilling to look at that we still call darkness, and it can no longer be ignored. I don't mind calling this hidden or avoided aspect darkness while I'm exploring it. I know, though, that there will come a time when I just see it all as a balanced whole.
Nevada
