Disappointed in Dr. James Wanless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqpDAkFx_lw

I want to draw special attention to point 1:05

This is an otherwise stellar video but is marred by Dr. Wanless's apparent ignorance or perhaps willful distortion of the facts of Tarot history. Why do some Tarot readers still continue to misrepresent the history of Tarot cards in this way? What do the other members here think of it.

It doesn't add anything to his presentation, so I wonder why he says it.

I do like the term "predictive fiction."

With a Ph.D., you're entitled to call yourself Dr. So-and-so, but I'm always disappointed when people use that title in a completely irrelevant context, as if their academic degrees have anything to do with the topic at hand. His expertise in tarot is not connected to his academic credentials--his Ph.D. is in political science.

I kept being distracted by the way he was pronouncing "Tarot".

Is the issue with the the video that he claims it was a fortune telling game rather than just a game? We certainly know it was a game, and we know that people used playing cards to tell fortunes as far back as the late 1500's. I don't know that anyone has been able to show where one of the decks used in this way was a tarot deck. It's a bit of an over-simplification but not necessarily a massive one.

I personally use my cards for prediction but I know that's not everyone's cup of tea. I do realize that my claim that we can predict the future with the cards is iffy at best (but I'm willing to settle for iffy).

In the plus column, I rather like the production values of this video, it's quite a step up from most of the tarot-related videos I see on YouTube.

Debra said:

With a Ph.D., you're entitled to call yourself Dr. So-and-so, but I'm always disappointed when people use that title in a completely irrelevant context

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Oh hon, if I ever spend that much time and that much money getting a doctorate you can bet I'm telling EVERYONE, waiters, meter maids, people on YouTube you name it.

That's "Dr. Hon" to you.

O.K. Seen the video. He says the taro' (irritating, but just the way he speaks), is used for creating a future for ourselves. Well, that sounds like a foray into prediction to me.

Mabuse: What do the other members here think of it.

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It's clearly a commercial plug for his deck - along with certain historical discrepancies. Not impressed.

I have no problem with Tarot, or anything else, being used for prediction.

Bee

Loads of people use it for prediction - and fair enough.

I can't get excited about the pronunciation - I know quite a few people who say it that way, not to mention tarrot (as in carrot).

debra said:

I do like the term "predictive fiction."

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So do I. It gets across how we have to take readings as possibilities rather than a view of what will happen.

But I HATE that video. And the PhD all over reminds me of one DV... His may be genuine - but it is a bit in your face, just the same.

Mabuse said:

This is an otherwise stellar video but is marred by Dr. Wanless's apparent ignorance or perhaps willful distortion of the facts of Tarot history.

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I see there is another youtube video debunking him now.

Debra said:

It doesn't add anything to his presentation, so I wonder why he says it.

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It is building up to his "Tarot for the 21st Century" tagline.

Apart from the historical issues which people should keep quiet about if they do not know the facts, I think it is ridiculous to imply that life is so different now to life in the 17th century that they could make predictions and we cannot.

Debra said:

With a Ph.D., you're entitled to call yourself Dr. So-and-so, but I'm always disappointed when people use that title in a completely irrelevant context, as if their academic degrees have anything to do with the topic at hand. His expertise in tarot is not connected to his academic credentials--his Ph.D. is in political science.

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<Letters of the alphabet> don't impress me much.

It is first and foremost a commercial video so ironically he is coming off more as a salesman than an academic.

graspee said:

I kept being distracted by the way he was pronouncing "Tarot".

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I also pronounce Tarot with a silent "t" but with more emphasis on the "a".

Bernice said:

It's clearly a commercial plug for his deck - along with certain historical discrepancies. Not impressed.

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I agree.

I regularly ask authors, publishers, teachers and speakers to be more accurate about the history, but I try to do so as gently as possible, in most cases. Most don't think accuracy matters, mostly because they've never thought about it. It's why a group of us created the TarotL History Information Sheet, which we sent to as many of the above people as we could. Works that came out over the next few years mostly showed the influence of the Sheet - it was working! But, I've noticed in the past couple of years that there's been some back-sliding—even among people who know better.

There's something really tempting and exciting about the power of myth (a term rightly used by Joseph Campbell). I think it would behoove us to understand a little more about its seductive nature and what we tarotists derive from the myths.

I'll start a thread on this in the History Section - unless they throw the topic out as inappropriate there.