A Symbology Study Group for Tarot

What a fabulous idea, Tabi! I love the study of symbols - from different points of view, personal, cultural, historical, mythical, etc. Symbols are rich enough to fill rows of encyclopedias (and that's just the academic stuff, let alone what we can add to the collective thinking personally).

I'm pleased you chose The Tower as your example. It's one of my favourite cards. Not an easy card - though it has some fun sides to it - but a much misunderstood one.

Some key symbols on it: a Tower, lightning, people falling or leaping, or doing somersaults...

Towers mean different things to different people, and come in different shapes. I evoked some of this on another thread - but there is a difference between a watch-tower, a sighting tower, a space observatory tower, a prison tower, a mirador, a rook on the chessboard, a lighthouse, a birdwatch tower, a skyscraper, a library tower such as had Montaigne,... All these are towers, but when struck by lightning, different things get shaken. The destruction of a lighthouse is a disaster, the destruction of the miradors of the Berlin Wall was a joyful festival...

And lightning has all sorts of different meanings too - literally, being struck by lightning kills you, but metaphorically, it can mean you fall in love, have a sudden idea, are shaken by a shock, are blinded on the road to Damascus, have all your worldly goods burnt up in a stock-exchange crash,...

And then there are the different cards. Some show the whole tower being destroyed, like the Minute. Some show scenes reminiscent of war air-raids, like the Thoth - painted during the Blitz in London of course. Some simply decapitate the Tower, like the Marseille, and some show the tower strongly resisting the elements, like the Llewellyn. We read all these diffently, but will still have cultural referentials for "tower", "lightning", "storm", "surprise", "war".

There is always a shake-up in the juxtaposition of tower and lightning. The question is - a shake-up of what, and what's its effects?

Ahh I was going to ask if we could do them out of order. Alot of studies start with the Fool and work from there but I think it will make it more interesting if the chosen card is random.

I would love to join in. Any chance we can simply start with the Tower? There have been several references/posts already, so it seems like a good place to start. I agree, the randomness would be refreshing.

I really enjoyed the post above describng the various towers. Had never thought of the different types and their uses. Lots of layers, for certain.

Thanks for suggesting this; 2-3 weeks per card seems like a nice time span so we can actually have the chance to engage in a dialogue of sorts before a new card is introduced.

~Nimbus

Okay so there seems to be enough interest generated in this so let me talk to one of the Mods to see about doing this the right way. Once I hear back from them we will begin our group.

And it seems the Tower is going to be first. Tarot4Fun, if you could get a scan of the Golden that would be great, I haven't seen it and am not overly familar with the deck to begin with. Anyone else who wants to pull out the Tower card that they are having problems with please feel free to do so figure something out on the scan department.

tabi

2-3 weeks seems like running through glue but I'm always here anyway, I'd like to do this.
On the other hand I change decks each week, so I could share 2-3 different decks per thread before we moved on.

It would be very helpful to have the deck from which our card came posted at the start of each description and a scan if possible.

I just received the book Secret Language of Symbols by David Fontana yesterday, I started it while having lunch and already learned (in abbreviated form) the basic difference in outlook between Freud and Jung. For those of us not fortunate to have had advanced educations a lot of symbology escapes our eye.

I'm interested in joining.

tabi said:

...And it seems the Tower is going to be first. Tarot4Fun, if you could get a scan of the Golden that would be great, I haven't seen it and am not overly familar with the deck to begin with...

Click to expand...

I've already been wondering how to go about this ... I jes gotta figure out how to scan and post it!

AJ~~for most people two to three weeks seems like a long but I work 50 hours a week. Add in family and just basic life stuff that can pop up out of no where. This gives those of us a bit of playing room

And yes I would like for everyone to bring a card to the table, not only talking about one particular card from a specific deck. There is so many different takes on tarot each one individual in their own right but there are symbols and images that stay the same through out.

By the way you're a braver soul then I because that sounds like very dry lunch material.

Tarot4Fun~~You need a scanner to upload the cards. Generally very easy direction. If you don't have one you can try searching the internet for the card, umm...don't be surprised if you get seriously sidetracked along the way a few times. Or we can ask someone else that may have it if they can post the image for us.

Images are helpful to those of us who are NOT working with that particular card. The description is purely for the person who is working with that card. Like my example of the Tower, I had to break the image down in words so I was forced to look deeper, and even in that brief example it did give me a spin that I didn't even realize.

Side Note: I have contacted a Mod, they were going to talk to another one to see where this best fit into the forum at. Either Using Tarot Cards or Study Groups. I'll let y'all know as soon as I know.

I really enjoyed reading Fudugazi's listing of different towers too. It will be interesting to see what everyone has to say about their particular tower - both card and personal!
I like to compare different decks; this is going to be a great study group.
Thanks Tabi

tabi said:

AJ~~for most people two to three weeks seems like a long but I work 50 hours a week. Add in family and just basic life stuff that can pop up out of no where. This gives those of us a bit of playing room

Click to expand...

I think a lot of the reason that i (and maybe others) haven't previously done the 78 weeks is that you only get one week per card; for the busier people that can put them of in the first place so that the group remains a very select few.

With several weeks per card everybody will get their chance, and for those that have more time and are keen to keep going- well i imagine it can, when one applies oneself, be quite difficult to exhaust a card of meaning; the longer we are at it, the deeper we will go.