tarotbear
Are there really many - or any straight men on this site? 
Masculine tarot decks out there?
starlightexp
That's the point I was trying to make, thank you for saying that. I do think it is a shame that it's not a greater part of the cultural image for men being spiritual because there have been many great spiritual men out there.
starlightexp
Are there really many - or any straight men on this site?
I know of at least 10
Farzon
That's why I like these neutral decks or animal themed ones. Take the Wild Unknown for example...
And I can understand your point completely - the Gay themed stuff can be limiting, too... that's why I didn't choose to buy the Gay Tarot yet. There's more to us than sexuality, right?
I'm hoping for the Fountain Tarot... it is created by a gay couple but as far as I can judge from the cards we can see up to now, it's a very well balanced deck.
Farzon
Judging from your name: no. [emoji6]Are there really many - or any straight men on this site?
starlightexp
I had to order that one because I thought the art was just stunning
Le Fanu
While broadly agreeing with much of what starlightexp is saying, I find myself following this thread with interest and reflecting a great deal on some of my expectations of tarot and what I feel I look for in a deck. Or what I thought I looked for in a deck.
And I realise how different we all are. You know, if I can just add something into the mix. As a male tarot user, gay, and who doesn't relate to the Gay Tarot, doesn't own it, but respects its presence in the tarot canon - I have to say that I am secretly pleased that there is no deck for me to pigeonhole myself into. If I were a woman, I have no doubt I would hate having stereotypes foisted upon me via tarot - what is it - virgin/widow/crone (yawn). Tarot is full of women creators stereotyping other women. God I'd hate that.
I like the fact that, talking out the LoS Gay Tarot, it is not easy to pinpoint male decks speaking directly to either the gay male, straight male, the spiritual male or a mixture of all. And I hope nobody takes it upon themself to try and sell me one. We have to seek out the deck which is personal to us. Why does the Golden Tarot of Klimt appeal to my desire for a male tarot deck when so little of it is outwardly masculine? I have no idea. It is full of surface detail, decoration, nymphs, few males but somehow it presses all the right buttons for me. I use it a lot to read for men (gay and straight) and for personal emotional issues. And then there are the neutral historic decks.
I think we are more fortunate than women tarotists in not having our spirituality spelled out for us by someone else's deck. I think we should celebrate that. I like that vacuum. I like the fact we can't agree. Actually, I ought to add that even though I love and use the Greenwood (oh those gnarled roots and forests in winter moonlight) and love tarot in general, I don't think of myself as an ostensibly spiritual person. It's something else in tarot that fascinates me ; chance, the unknown, the opposite of logic, an alphabet of sorts, a secret language that I can tune into. But spiritual? No, I'm not spiritual. It is possible to be into tarot and not be interested in the spiritual. So we are all different.
And I realise how different we all are. You know, if I can just add something into the mix. As a male tarot user, gay, and who doesn't relate to the Gay Tarot, doesn't own it, but respects its presence in the tarot canon - I have to say that I am secretly pleased that there is no deck for me to pigeonhole myself into. If I were a woman, I have no doubt I would hate having stereotypes foisted upon me via tarot - what is it - virgin/widow/crone (yawn). Tarot is full of women creators stereotyping other women. God I'd hate that.
I like the fact that, talking out the LoS Gay Tarot, it is not easy to pinpoint male decks speaking directly to either the gay male, straight male, the spiritual male or a mixture of all. And I hope nobody takes it upon themself to try and sell me one. We have to seek out the deck which is personal to us. Why does the Golden Tarot of Klimt appeal to my desire for a male tarot deck when so little of it is outwardly masculine? I have no idea. It is full of surface detail, decoration, nymphs, few males but somehow it presses all the right buttons for me. I use it a lot to read for men (gay and straight) and for personal emotional issues. And then there are the neutral historic decks.
I think we are more fortunate than women tarotists in not having our spirituality spelled out for us by someone else's deck. I think we should celebrate that. I like that vacuum. I like the fact we can't agree. Actually, I ought to add that even though I love and use the Greenwood (oh those gnarled roots and forests in winter moonlight) and love tarot in general, I don't think of myself as an ostensibly spiritual person. It's something else in tarot that fascinates me ; chance, the unknown, the opposite of logic, an alphabet of sorts, a secret language that I can tune into. But spiritual? No, I'm not spiritual. It is possible to be into tarot and not be interested in the spiritual. So we are all different.
starlightexp
Never thought of it that way... I also find it interesting that there are many other gay men that don't connect with gay decks. Oddly the most spiritual deck for me is Tarot of the Crone that with the Osho are my path finding decks.
Aeric
Although the Gay Tarot is one of my favourite decks, I almost don't relate to it at all in a spiritual way. It's very much a mundane deck for me. Goddess decks actually accomplish it. I'm a gay guy who finds some spiritual inspiration from the women's spirituality movement.
x-man
Lighten up? Me?
I sense that some of you think I should lighten-up in my relentless quest to uproot homophobia everywhere, even where it may not exist. Well, OK. I'll try. It's just that I see so much of it--intended, unintended, unconscious, and even interiorized by some gay men. My attitude is analogous to the saying amongst Jews: "If you ever forget you are a Jew, a non-Jew will remind you." Same for us gays.
I think that most gay men would agree with me that gay sexual matters do not comprise the whole of our lives, but there is definitely a difference in world-view, of perspective, between straight people and the LGBT community. The world is most definitely heterosexist, that includes much of the Tarot world, but straight people just don't notice it. For some of us that difference is overcome by the Gay Tarot, and points to the alienation some gay men feel with decks even as relatively neutral as RW. Closapexa's point was well taken that the problem isn't so much found in the masculine versus feminine deck controversy, but feminist decks versus all others. Someone says there are at least 10 gay decks? Is this assertion being made by a gay man or a straight person? If the latter, I would ask how that person knows. This may not be PC, but there are realms of experience that forever excludes straight people. The same is true in reverse. This provokes in us gays the constant need to, as I put it, "translate from straight into gay" in order to be comprehensible on any profound level. Closapexa called it "switching." Are some of you gay guys so used to doing it that you have forgotten you even do it--even though it forces you to view many parts of the straight world through a filter?
BTW, do straight people catch on to tarotbear's name? Befriend a bear--furry chests are fun to rub.
I sense that some of you think I should lighten-up in my relentless quest to uproot homophobia everywhere, even where it may not exist. Well, OK. I'll try. It's just that I see so much of it--intended, unintended, unconscious, and even interiorized by some gay men. My attitude is analogous to the saying amongst Jews: "If you ever forget you are a Jew, a non-Jew will remind you." Same for us gays.
I think that most gay men would agree with me that gay sexual matters do not comprise the whole of our lives, but there is definitely a difference in world-view, of perspective, between straight people and the LGBT community. The world is most definitely heterosexist, that includes much of the Tarot world, but straight people just don't notice it. For some of us that difference is overcome by the Gay Tarot, and points to the alienation some gay men feel with decks even as relatively neutral as RW. Closapexa's point was well taken that the problem isn't so much found in the masculine versus feminine deck controversy, but feminist decks versus all others. Someone says there are at least 10 gay decks? Is this assertion being made by a gay man or a straight person? If the latter, I would ask how that person knows. This may not be PC, but there are realms of experience that forever excludes straight people. The same is true in reverse. This provokes in us gays the constant need to, as I put it, "translate from straight into gay" in order to be comprehensible on any profound level. Closapexa called it "switching." Are some of you gay guys so used to doing it that you have forgotten you even do it--even though it forces you to view many parts of the straight world through a filter?
BTW, do straight people catch on to tarotbear's name? Befriend a bear--furry chests are fun to rub.
