tarotbear said:
I was offended because my first impression upon reading it was that the comment was somehow directed at a particular recent thread 'Dinner With Tarotbear' in which participants tossed a deck they could not connect with into a bonfire. This thread was a parody of other similar threads (Dinner with Waite, Crowley, Miss Smith, and Stu Kaplan - to be exact). The 'burning' at the end was strictly symbolic - a cathartic reaction carried off in the most humorous way possible.
The comment, however returns us to that historical anomaly of book burnings and Nazis destroying knowledge to keep the masses ignorant. Book burning will always and eternally be associated with Nazis, and the implication - intentional or not- that the members of AT ARE Nazis is deeply offensive, indeed.
Book burning has a history
going back BC. I always associate it with Ray Bradbury's
Fahrenheit 451 myself. There have been many more serious burnings than those of the Nazis; and some short time ago there were many jokes here at Aeclectic about the burning of the Little White Books that come with decks.
Methinks we should not take ourselves too seriously
.
I now wonder why certification arouses such passions. Once I thought certification might be necessary if people were masquerading as counsellors and taking money for it. But now I think potential querents should and do use any means to assess what might work for them.
Looking for a professional reader recently I chose one who was a member of the Australian Tarot Guild. I knew her by name and knew she conducted workshops around the place. I must say that the fact that she was a
Professional Member of the Guild did influence my decision. I didn't think they would list her if she did not know her stuff. I also knew she was about my age and had once worked professionally in education. That did matter to me.
But 'good' depends on what you want and need. I spoke with her before the reading and she explained the principles of her practice very openly. It was a good starting point for me and the reading was everything I could have wanted. It was really meaningful and accurate in what it picked up about my life and current concerns. She gave me a more than an hour of her time and a tape of the reading. I have decided to go back and do some of her workshops.
I'm not sure that we have TABI type certification here but this reader's status in the Guild did influence my choice. I needed someone good and did not want to take a chance on someone in a local bookshop. I did that once before and it was not worth the money. This is not to say that it is always like that.
So although this reader did have something equivalent to registration she also had many other attributes which attracted me to her. And I do think the onus is on the person who wants the reading to check out the reader.
But I don't think registration should be mandatory. I assume that people who read Tarot professionally are completely committed to their art. If they want to make their living through Tarot and it helps to have a piece of paper, then all power to them. It's just another way of putting yourself as a Tarot reader on the market.
'Certification' should not be compulsory, though and I don't think now that it ever will be. It is probably just another market force, and although that is dreary, we should not be surprised in this day and age.