Farzon
[emoji1] I like that! Touché, Sir!But one might also ask, "is every Tower experience like falling head-first from a lightning-struck tower?"
[emoji1] I like that! Touché, Sir!But one might also ask, "is every Tower experience like falling head-first from a lightning-struck tower?"
Fascinating. I wouldn't call the Osho Zen male and the rest not spiritual (with exception of the Greenwood).What I do find interesting and a bit lacking are decks that speak to the spiritual side of the male experience. Most of the decks that are cited as being ‘male’ are ones that are heavy on the ceremonial magick or have a homosexual bent and not speaking to the average spiritual male. Just because a deck has harsh straight lines or layers of complex occult symbolism on it doesn’t make it male. By throwing more men into the RWS images makes it look more male but that’s just more of a sausage fest. To me, being a male, when I think of decks that have a more masculine feel but not having to fit into the “ceremonial mold” I think of:
Osho Zen
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/osho-zen/
Darkana
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/darkana/
Aquarian
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/aquarian/
Greenwood
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/greenwood/
Devient Moon
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/deviant-moon/
All are decks that I have had guys pick out of the pile to have readings with. Not all men want to be head of a holy order or need sexual healing with tarot sometimes we to come to tarot out of peace and spirituality to seek wisdom.
Fascinating. I wouldn't call the Osho Zen male and the rest not spiritual (with exception of the Greenwood).
I think this shows how different we connect to decks. The decks I see as spiritual give me mostly a gender-neutral impression.
Not all the decks that I listed are exactly spiritual in nature but rather decks that have more male energy to me then others.
Which is maybe why I see the Osho as a good male deck it has a balance to it. There are oodles of decks out there for feminine spirituality and the feminine experience of living but little to none of the male experience of emerging into the world. Both genders go through puberty but while the experience of a woman going through the cycle of emergence through motherhood to being a wise woman are depicted on card after card after card the male emergence through fatherhood to being a wise sage are not. My personal thinking is that this has something to do with the feminist movement through Pagan spiritual world in the 60s' and 70s'. It got very matriarchal there for a time and only in about the last 10 years are men being able to stop apologizing for being a man and more public rituals are being held to celebrate the changes a man goes through as well. I'm not looking to get into a battle of the sexes but just point out that men have not been courted as much by tarot artist as women have. Straight men have it the worst because there are a good dozen or so decks out there for gay men but just a dude looking for guidance it's not as easy.
What I do find interesting and a bit lacking are decks that speak to the spiritual side of the male experience. Most of the decks that are cited as being ‘male’ are ones that are heavy on the ceremonial magick or have a homosexual bent and not speaking to the average spiritual male........Not all men want to be head of a holy order or need sexual healing with tarot sometimes we to come to tarot out of peace and spirituality to seek wisdom.
Straight men have it the worst because there are a good dozen or so decks out there for gay men but just a dude looking for guidance it's not as easy.
Why can't a gay dude be "just a dude looking for guidance?" Here again you are making a distinction where there is no difference. This kind of use of language is lurching very close to unconscious or unintended homophobia. Again I urge caution.
You contrast gay men with "the average spiritual male." I resent the equation of "average" with "straight" in this context. What is this contrast based on? Also, are you equating the use of a deck like The Gay Tarot, or the very use of Tarot by gay men with our need for "sexual healing?" You know, lots of us do not look upon ourselves as needing sexual healing. We don't feel broken because we are gay, and we don't need fixing. We are quite happy being gay, and use Tarot for the same reasons everyone else does. Careful with your implications.