'What is Tarot?' in Newspaper

jmd

One recent article in a US News is worth reading, in my personal view, and shows again how Tarot is more broadly accepted than some seem to suggest:

'What is Tarot?', by Jim Wickson, published in The Conservative Voice.
 

Papageno

nice find. the writer definitely appears to be fairly knowledegable and wrote a very even handed article, although I'm not sure why a piece on tarot would be in a publication like that.
 

Mabuse

thanks, people.

Mabuse and Jim Wickson are one and the same. I wrote that article originally for my gaming blog. Trismegistus has raised a good question. I am neither a Christian nor conservative. I am a liberal Democrat who is as skeptical of "mainstream" faiths as I am of New Age or Pagan ones. My submission of the article to a conservative publication was partly in response to some Marsha West articles which sometimes mention Tarot.
I think the cons needed an education on Tarot because in recent years it is they who have become quite concerned over issues of private behavior; termination of pregnancy, the gender one should marry, etc. This is why Tarot cards will more likely be mentioned in conservative pubs than in liberal ones. I would submit it to a liberal publication, but it seems that the live-and-let-live liberals care little about what people do with their Tarot cards and therefore they seldom write about it.
 

Debra

I had trouble getting the link to work...don't give up! It's a real nice article...clear and to the point. I was delighted to see that alongside the nasty "anti-Tarot" articles on the same site are ads for readings and psychics! How fitting!
 

Fulgour

The author seems to have confused playing cards
with Tarot cards, even assuming Tarot is newer!?

When will ranting sermons and vile tax documents
cease to be the official record of Tarot "history"?
 

jmd

Ranting sermons and tax documents that mention tarot will cease to be part of official history if those records, and records of those records, cease to exist (or cease to be found).

As to tarot and playing cards, Mamluk playing cards occur in extant form, for example, earlier than any historical record of tarot (whether as tarot, or as mentioned in various documents, even the aforesaid reviled ones).
 

Fulgour

with love and affection

jmd said:
As to tarot and playing cards, Mamluk playing cards occur in extant form, for example, earlier than any historical record of tarot...
Why should we assume that what is actually "out there" has
been made public...or that what is public is all that there is?

The more I read of Tarot "history" the more I believe that it
is being done by people who are, in fact, still covering it up.

I find it slightly spurious upholding a corrupt historical record,
by defending its inadequacies, embracing its incompleteness.
 

jmd

I do not think any historian would assume that what is currently public is all there is - quite the contrary, and part of their work, I would suggest, is similar to the archaeologist's: uncovering materials that remain to be uncovered, and presenting them contextually.

It is this contextuality that new finds also, with time, transforms. Not that long ago, it was indeed even believed by some historians that playing cards arose from tarot, or that perhaps 'gypsies' (or other migrating group) brought tarot to Europe from easternly sources.

Due to the uncovering of various texts, documents, and cards, those who have delved in history have clarified some points. This does not mean that all that is to be known about early tarot is complete - far from it, as both you and I realise.

Historians, however, bring to our attention important relevant materials that continue to form the basis of our historical understanding. This does not negate any spiritual undertones, nor the manner in which the spiritual may be reflected in tarot's rich imagery, containing echoes of still former times.
 

mythos

Mabuse ... excellent article ... targeted nicely at the conservatives and their concerns. While one could argue that divinatory practices could have played a larger part in the article, as could it's more recent 'occult' history, given the audience to whom it was directed, and the need to educate such people that tarot is not the tool of the 'devil', it was nicely judged and finely balanced.

mythos:)
 

Papageno

mythos said:
Mabuse ... excellent article ... targeted nicely at the conservatives and their concerns. While one could argue that divinatory practices could have played a larger part in the article, as could it's more recent 'occult' history, given the audience to whom it was directed, and the need to educate such people that tarot is not the tool of the 'devil', it was nicely judged and finely balanced.

mythos:)

despite public protestations and displays of indignant outrage, there's always room in "the closet" for one more