Putting the Tarot to Work

Mark,

Thanks for the suggestion. I have to make this quick as I am running late for work this morning. I did the exercise and posted it in "Your Readings" here is the post:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21633

I will fill you in on how it went tonight.

Thanks again,
Mimi

Wow! Wow! Wow!

What great ideas! You're a natural at this.

Please do let me know how things go ... and thanks for sharing a peek at your own brainstorming and planning process!

Mark

Just a quick note to also welcome you, Mark, and thanks for ongoing contributions...

It is wonderful to see the myriad ways, situations and applications which Tarot continues to legitimise itself in - thanks in part to not only the many wonderful people applying it thus, but also to people such as yourself who, importantly, publish about it and thus make it both more broadly known, legitimise it, and most importantly add their insights in the public arena.

Hi Mark,

I just wanted to let you know that I posted some feedback for the excercise I did yesterday morning. I think you will find it interesting.

I also managed to pick up your book yesterday at a Borders store. My boss and I were on are way back to the office from an offsite meeting and he stopped for me. I showed him the book and he said I was the weirdest person he ever met (it was said in fun). I actually have done readings for his wife and he makes fun of both of us. Anyway, I read to him in the car some of the excerpts from your first chapter. He admitted that that visual brainstorming was actually a good idea.

Take care,
Mimi

Results!

JMD: Thanks for the welcome. Since I first reached out to other online Tarot enthusiasts back in 1996, I've been pleasantly surprised at how warm, friendly, and open to new ideas the community can be.

Mimi: Thanks again for sharing your experience with the focusing exercise. I find investing a few minutes in an application like this one can make a huge difference in my entire day!

Keep up the great work! Here's to your continued success!

Mark McElroy
www.tarottools.com

Thanks for the great exercise you posted, Mark.

I'm thinking of using the same sort of exercise to think of ways to jazz up my resume and cover letters. I'll let you know if I do it and how it goes.

Mimers: I'll have to mosey on over and check out your results. Sounds pretty exciting!

Kes

Hi Mr. McElroy

I would like to extend a hello to you also.

Seems I was browsing my local Border's Book Shop when I happened upon your book, and it caught me immediately (though my paucity of fund prevented the impulse buy). I did, however, come on here to start a thread here in this forum, to see if anyone was familiar with the book.

Lo, and behold, here is a thread already working and the author himself is posting. I've got the book on my wishlist at Amazon, and as soon as money ceases to be so tight, it is mine.

Not having read your book, I am only getting impressions from others' reviews, but it strikes me that your philosophy is similar to mine. I am one who is a proponent of the creative process. I do use tarot in a creative sense quite often. To me, these ideas of the creative possibilities of tarot in the "normal" areas of life, such as business, aren't startling, they are second nature.

There was a time in society where oracular devices weren't looked upon as some superstitious mumbo jumbo, but simply devices for clearing one's thoughts.

Are you familiar with Roger von Oech and his Creative Whack Pack? He has intensively researched the creative process and how oracular devices work to jolt the mind out of the standard patterns and kick it into creative mode. In fact, I used the Creative Whack Pack in a Grad school paper, relating it to Robinson Crusoe, bibliomancy, and the idea of the business pioneer. I actually posted an attachment to a thread with that paper somewhere on this site.

In any case, I look forward to getting this book and seeing what suggestions you offer. Thanks for being here.

Lee said:

Here's a review if you haven't seen it:

http://www.tarotpassages.com/mcelroywork-lb.htm

-- Lee

Click to expand...

Great review Lee....but could you tell me which deck that wonderful Bagatto comes from?
G.

Hi, Khatruman. Thanks for your enthusiasm for _Putting the Tarot to Work_!

Like you, I'm really excited about creative applications of Tarot. I appreciate every aspect of the cards, but I use their power as a creativity tool and idea processor every day. When I need a gift idea, I draw a card. When I need an idea for a weekend getaway, I draw a card. When I work with a client to come up with ways to improve his marketing plan ... we draw cards.

I purchased my first Creative Whack Pack some years ago. (I have the ThinkerToys deck as well.) Roger has done a magnificient job of getting corporate America to pay attention to the value of using random input to shift perception and gain perspective.

The Whack Pack, as you know, essentially randomizes passages from Roger's book, _A Whack on the Side of the Head_. There's no question the deck works, and works well.

At the same time, I was really surprised that a creativity deck was so "texty" -- when I work with it, I find that cards with so much text tend to shift me into "linear-logical" mode instead of a more creative, associative mindset.

That's why I love brainstorming with Tarot. Unlike any other tool on the market, Tarot cards serve up intensely evocative images. Each card amounts to a visual encyclopedia of related ideas. As a result, I think Tarot cards make for a superior grade of "creative fuel!"

I hope you'll enjoy the book! Thanks again for your interest.

Mark
mark@tarottools.com
www.tarottools.com

MarkMcElroy said:

The Whack Pack, as you know, essentially randomizes passages from Roger's book, _A Whack on the Side of the Head_. There's no question the deck works, and works well.

At the same time, I was really surprised that a creativity deck was so "texty" -- when I work with it, I find that cards with so much text tend to shift me into "linear-logical" mode instead of a more creative, associative mindset.

Click to expand...

Absolutely! I have seen that also, and have found that to be one of its failings. The whole linear-logical thing amazes me. I am a teacher now, but I did spend a not so successful couple years in marketing. During that time, I read about many techniques in business and found that the more successful ones allowed the creative team to be a creative team!!! Creativity involves that unstructured play by its very nature. Some just don't understand that forcing their creative teams to work like structured workers stifles the very process of creativity. To create means to do something new, undone. How can that possibly be achieved through following the same paths?

It is like on of Roger's cards, the one where the Indian village is catching fewer and fewer deer. So the medicine man crumples a piece of leather, lays it out with the crease lines and draws a new map. By following it, all of a sudden the deer catch rises. Take the same path, you get dimished results.

Ok, I am rambling.. I am done..*L*