Masculine tarot decks out there?

Aeric

Feminist Tarot decks originated with the Women's movement and Goddess spirituality. These movements were at their peak force over about 30 years with the rise of second-wave feminism. The first feminist Tarot decks, Motherpeace and Daughters of the Moon, were the result of collectives of women coming together with common purpose through the Movement.

Men have taken no such opportunity in its wake. There was never a flux of God-only worshippers, who only focused on the Divine Masculine. No group of men came together to reclaim the God from patriarchal influence, on his own without the Goddess. There is no "Apollonic Wicca" or whatever would be the male equivalent of Dianic. Men have no Starhawk, no Merlin Stone, no Marija Gimbutas exploring archaeology from a non-patriarchal male point of view, no text like The White Goddess that could form a mythological framework for a God spirituality movement.

And in the 21st century with the onset of third-wave feminism, that places less emphasis on strict divisions between the sexes and the genders, I don't think we will see a God movement, and no Tarot decks. No collective of men has come together to create a Tarot deck for all men of any gender, or orientation, voiced from the general experience of men, and I don't think it will happen. The ones that have emerged are for specific audiences of men: gays, pagans, Wiccans, other polytheist movements.

No deck explores the social or mundane aspects of all men, as the women's decks include, save perhaps the Everyman, which is comparably newer.
 

tarotbear

No deck explores the social or mundane aspects of all men, as the women's decks include, save perhaps the Everyman, which is comparably newer.

Thank you for the recognition! :)
 

Le Fanu

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?
I don't see this as a big deal. I don't feel I need my whole universe to be gay in order to understand it. It may be called "switching" I just think of it as the ability to empathise and enter other skins. Experiencing all Art depends on this. I can look at the outside world and see my experiences in other experiences. It's what allows me to read with cat decks. Each time someone digs out a cat deck, is "switching" obligatory? I can see my love in other Lovers cards. I don't think tarot has to be that literal. Does that sound like I'm repressing something? I certainly don't feel I lead a repressed life. I just feel that the upshot of this is that I don't need a deck to try and spell my life out literally.
 

tarotbear

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?

Without going meta - it is the way most gay people have gone through life - watching 'Streetcar' and knowing Williams probably wrote it for two men but made Blanche female to 'cover it'. Does Crawford's black shirt in 'Johnny Guitar' mean she's a lesbian? it's called 'Be safe in a straight world.'

BTW, do straight people catch on to tarotbear's name? Befriend a bear--furry chests are fun to rub.

Most straight people don't understand Bears are gay because they are too busy looking for the skinny, blonde stereotypes when they go to P-Town during 'Bear Week'! LOL!!!!

Furry chests ARE fun to rub ... could you make your circles bigger, please! :p woofwoofwoof

and - YES - I am on Bear411 .... ;)
 

Farzon

I don't see this as a big deal. I don't feel I need my whole universe to be gay in order to understand it. It may be called "switching" I just think of it as the ability to empathise and enter other skins. Experiencing all Art depends on this. I can look at the outside world and see my experiences in other experiences. It's what allows me to read with cat decks. Each time someone digs out a cat deck, is "switching" obligatory? I can see my love in other Lovers cards. I don't think tarot has to be that literal. Does that sound like I'm repressing something? I certainly don't feel I lead a repressed life. I just feel that the upshot of this is that I don't need a deck to try and spell my life out literally.
I agree on this. I miss gay relationships in pop-culture (at least the shoes I'm watching) though... and I appreciate if Tarot Decks take us into account, for example the Prisma/Light Visions. You have a male couple in the Lovers dancing there, too! [emoji1]
But then, there is no lesbian couple... [emoji20]
Let's not forget about our sisters out the there! [emoji1]
 

Zephyros

Like I said previously, there are many shades of acceptance, even within the gay community, and it is a mistake to label someone as saying something homophobic, because you yourself may be judged in the same manner. I could find arguments for both the Gay and Everyman decks as being homophobic in themselves, just as I've heard second-wave feminists say that any woman who wears makeup is a slave to the patriarchy. I've heard others say that if a woman is butch, she's a slave to the patriarchy because she's not asserting the feminine identity, whatever that is. It goes on and on.

So the definitions for whatever, especially in gender, are problematic. It is always easy to jump the gun and claim homophobia, but it would incorrect to do so. It isn't just "lightening up," it is to assert that there are views other than one's own that are still valid.

As for the "switch," it exists, but actually less so in Tarot, where abstract symbolism is concerned. If we take a look at culture in general, I actually find gay films tedious and boring for the most part, since almost all of them center on the struggles of coming out. This is slowly changing, of course, but to me I've done that part, I've gone beyond it, and prefer to see films that relate to my own circumstances (just as when I was at the appropriate age high-school dramas interested me a lot more).

Same for Tarot decks. To me the Thoth speaks to me personally, both in gay terms and in general terms, simply because I don't see myself as gay inside my head. I mean, obviously I do, but what is for others different is for me the default. One tries to assimilate all the different sides of the personality, and I couldn't tell you where "I" end and where the "gay" begins.
 

Aeric

I agree on this. I miss gay relationships in pop-culture (at least the shoes I'm watching) though... and I appreciate if Tarot Decks take us into account, for example the Prisma/Light Visions. You have a male couple in the Lovers dancing there, too! [emoji1]
But then, there is no lesbian couple... [emoji20]
Let's not forget about our sisters out the there! [emoji1]
Oh WOW I never noticed the male couple! I'm so glad I ordered it. I believe the person in the back right couple may be a woman in a tuxedo, but I'm not sure. I'd like to think it is so that the three types are represented.

But that's exactly all the "recognition" I need in a Tarot deck not focused on gay men. It acknowledges that we exist, we are lovers, and we're part of a collective of all kinds of couples. It breaks the heteronormativity of traditional Tarot and gives us a place in the cards alongside our sisters and brothers. Thus I feel like we're included in the messages of the entire deck even if we only appear on one card.

I might add that Prisma will be very important to me because it embodies many elements that relate to my personal views of ideal masculinity, which are not the classical ideals. The deck feels magical, mysterious, the characters seem to say little and instead express themselves through pose, feeling, and action. There is a quiet stillness to much of the deck that belies great strength. There is the courage to be emotional, and the strength to walk alone as well in be in groups. I feel empowered by this deck as a man, more so now that I see there are more couples on the Lovers. But all of the qualities I listed are equally applicable to women, so I don't see them as anything particularly exclusive.
 

x-man

X-man and the Feminine

Like I said previously, there are many shades of acceptance, even within the gay community, and it is a mistake to label someone as saying something homophobic, because you yourself may be judged in the same manner. I could find arguments for both the Gay and Everyman decks as being homophobic in themselves, just as I've heard second-wave feminists say that any woman who wears makeup is a slave to the patriarchy. I've heard others say that if a woman is butch, she's a slave to the patriarchy because she's not asserting the feminine identity, whatever that is. It goes on and on.

So the definitions for whatever, especially in gender, are problematic. It is always easy to jump the gun and claim homophobia, but it would incorrect to do so. It isn't just "lightening up," it is to assert that there are views other than one's own that are still valid.

As for the "switch," it exists, but actually less so in Tarot, where abstract symbolism is concerned. If we take a look at culture in general, I actually find gay films tedious and boring for the most part, since almost all of them center on the struggles of coming out. This is slowly changing, of course, but to me I've done that part, I've gone beyond it, and prefer to see films that relate to my own circumstances (just as when I was at the appropriate age high-school dramas interested me a lot more).

Same for Tarot decks. To me the Thoth speaks to me personally, both in gay terms and in general terms, simply because I don't see myself as gay inside my head. I mean, obviously I do, but what is for others different is for me the default. One tries to assimilate all the different sides of the personality, and I couldn't tell you where "I" end and where the "gay" begins.

Please let me dispose of a few points before I get to the real reason for this posting. 1) I am not accusing anyone HERE of homophobia; my point was that incautious language can lead to it in the world at large. 2) Re "Lighten up." Please do not demand precision of language where a person is trying to apologize. Won't you allow me a little subtlety? 3) You are watching the wrong gay movies. The coming-out saga is passe now--except perhaps for Shelter, the gay movie classic, which is the way coming-out should have been for all of us. Perhaps you are confusing "gay movies" with "gay-theme movies" (like A Single Man) which are made by straight producers for straight audiences, and carry the message that if you insist on being gay you had better be prepared for a life of unrelenting suffering. That is, for the most part, long gone. Gay movies and most gay-theme movies and television these days are like their straight counterparts--some happy, some sad, some good, some awful. I have a good collection of gay movies. PM me for a list of suggestions for happy, realistic films that show us as living fulfilled relationships, actually having happy sex, and getting on with life. Netflix has SOME decent ones.

Now to what I really want to tell you all. As I see it, this thread began with people simply suggesting various decks as embodying the masculine without much comment. This morphed into a discussion of what constituted masculine or feminine when talking about Tarot in general. It was clear to me, if not to you, that I was the odd man out in this discussion--all of you spoke confidently of what especially the feminine was all about. I said I could accept the term feminine being used like it is in grammar or the I Ching--that is, if you want to organize the world into concave and convex surfaces, passive and active, light and shadow, etc., etc., into a polarity you want to call masculine and feminine I would go along. But, as soon as these words are applied to real people for me trouble begins. (I drew in gay stereotyping only as an example of the imprecision or inaccuracy of using these words to describe people much less than matters Tarot.

I have a problem, but you do not. I thought long about whether or not to post this. I even did two AT readings about it. The first was a 1-card reading: Queen of Cups. As you will see, it went to the heart of the matter, and to my mind, even hinted at the ironic. (I have always enjoyed humour in the cards.) After thinking about it for a few hours and still feeling uncertain, I tried a 3-card spread deciding to read it as passing away/present/coming into play. The cards were: The Hermit, 9Pent, and The World. Decide for yourself how to see the results. It was pretty to clear to me, so I decided to go ahead.

First of all, I am not looking for comments about the reality of the situation I face. This is not a therapy session or a 12-step program. The questions revolve around how to understand and deal with the feminine in readings.

I came out of an infancy and childhood of extreme, nightmarish psychological and physical abuse at the hands of 2 mentally ill parents. I was told much later that if authorities had had any idea of what was happening to me and my younger sister, Children's Services would have had us out of there and into care immediately. But in those times and in that place--a small rural town--people didn't think that way. My father was distant and lost in his own strange world. His real fault was in not stopping my mother from her devilish ways. A shrink once described her as the most thoroughly evil person he had ever run across, one who delighted in causing us to suffer. I told him she would have made a good guard in a Nazi concentration camp. He replied that she would have eagerly led the little children into the gas ovens. I will not go into more detail about what we went through; it is not necessary. I will tell you that anyone who has endured such abuse NEVER gets over it, no matter how much time goes by, or how much therapy you get. It is like a physical disability. I have as my motto the last line of the short story Brokeback Mountain, "If you can't fix it, you have to stand it." Even today, twice a day, I go off by myself and for a little while grief has its way with me. Then I rejoin the world. My sister is an alcoholic, in and out of mental hospitals, a veritable zombie. My mother is my archetype, exemplar, of what the Feminine is all about. When you say "motherly," "nourishing," etc., she is what I see.

I spoke of living long periods in all-male environments; that was by choice. To this day I am on guard around and mistrustful of women, and can count on the fingers of one hand women I have known and can relate to in a relaxed way--I call them "honourary men." When I gave up the life of a seaman and northern bush man and went academic, I still found I do not interact easily with women. As a teacher I was amused to discover that by the end of the first class period at the beginning of term I would know the names of all the men and usually something about them, while the whole term could pass before I knew the names of all the women. I do not wish them ill, nor do I treat them badly. They just are not part of my world. I can't even tell a beautiful woman from a plain one. Where I do have trouble is situations where a woman has any authority over me. The thought of having a woman doctor horrifies me.

This, then, is the reality I have to face. Don't bother telling my my attitude is not good or is bad. Do not tell me I should not generalize from my mother to all women. That would be to demean my intelligence and to state the hopelessly obvious.

I have done only 1 reading for a woman, and she was a friend who acted as my beard" when such things were still necessary, and is one of my "honourary men." It seemed to go well. I have to struggle along trying to read feminine imagery in Tarot in "I Chingy" and intellectually rather objective ways, rather than relating to them directly as you all do.

This situation is not the cause or an outgrowth of my being gay. Thank heavens I am gay. Imagine if I were straight, and were sexually drawn to women at the same time driven away from them. Men in that situation are in an appalling state of cognitive dissonance nothing could resolve.

Any strategies you might offer in helping me understand and to relate to the feminine in regards to Tarot would be very much appreciated. Please don't tell me I just "haven't met the right girl yet!" LOL

BTW closapexa. When I described how I looked to the French-Canadian grandmother who did my reading, you said kindly that I sounded "hot." I should tell you that that look (shoulder-length hair, full bushy beard, tattoos, flannel, denim and boots) is pretty well the default look of men in the north. We had to make our decisions about who to get friendly with on more subtle criteria. I will say that the look did have its advantages when I came south for time-off. Some guys thought they had picked up Paul Bunyan. Hope I didn't disappoint too much. But in my case, like was attracted to like, so we both usually knew what we were in for.
 

x-man

Discouraging

The silence in the face of my posting above is very discouraging. I was very serious in looking for strategies that would help me interpret feminine imagery from the cards (specifically the RW) in an existential position where direct access to it was not available. I mentioned the rather objective way of arbitrarily dividing up phenomena into masculine and feminine the way the I Ching and grammatical gender do, but I was obviously hoping there were other ways of approaching the problem that others knew about that I had not considered.

I explained the reason the feminine was not directly accessible to me. I said as much as I thought I had to in order to explain why suggestions like, “Well, just get to know women better,” were not really an option. I was not criticizing or discounting women in any way. What had happened to me was not their fault in any respect. But it was the reality of the situation I face.

Not all of us came from Leave it to Beaver or My Three Sons (and the host of happy childhood TV sitcoms I used to watch in utter amazement) backgrounds. Surely you can't criticize me for this. I didn't choose it. Nor, I think, can you suggest that I am just not suitable for Tarot. I won't be apologetic for my childhood, for something I had no control over, nor will I let it prevent me from playing the cards I have been dealt in life as best I can. Would you tell a soldier returning from battle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that he or she was forbidden to experience as much of life as possible? Is a glossy picture-postcard life, a conventional and vanilla upbringing, so essential to successful Tarot reading that many of us must forgo it?

I posted my enquiry here because I didn't know a better place, because the discussion of masculine decks seemed to have opened out to include the question of masculine and feminine in general, and because from my readings of the postings here, the people taking part seemed insightful, intelligent, and well able to offer me some good ideas.