Colloquial vs. Pure Tarot

[choirqueer]

Watering things down can be a good thing, too!

For instance, let's say I have company coming for dinner and I'm expecting 4 friends. I go to the store in the morning, get enough ingredients for a pot of soup for 5 people, and cook it all up. Well, at 3pm, I get a phone call from a friend I rarely see, and SURPRISE! they're free for dinner tonight and would LOVE to come over and try my soup, and oh by the way is it okay if they bring two other people? So now I have enough soup for 5 people, I've got 8 people to serve...what do I do?? I water the soup down, add some more spice so the taste doesn't get diluted as much, and voila! More people get to have soup tonight!

To say that we should police ourselves from changing language is like to say that we should never change a recipe that we read in a cookbook. Sure, there are some people who are great at cooking by the book, but can't cook very well from an altered or improvised recipe...those people should totally keep using their cookbooks. But if changing things up a bit (or a lot!) makes YOUR cooking better (I personally hardly EVER use a cookbook, and I LOVE cooking), then by all means do it!

 

[Erzebet]

Like Umbrae, I'm going to use a food analogy... Pizza!

I tend to think of the TdM as a Margherita pizza.. pretty plain to some, but the perfect combination of essential ingredients without other toppings to ruin their taste. It might not be as "true" a pizza as plain cheese (if that really was the true, we don't know!), but it has a history, and I love it for its simplicity, and deliciousness!

The Waite.. um, maybe a Pepperoni Pizza? We've added some meat now and changed the flavor. Still a classic, and probably the most popular.

Crowley comes in with a classic "Deluxe" pizza... pepperoni, sausage, olives and mushrooms. Lots going on here, yet it all works together.

And then we have the thousands of other combinations. Some people like the canadian bacon and pineapple, others anchovies.

They're constantly coming out with new varieties like Thai Chicken, and bbq pizza. Sometimes they change the crust, sometimes they change the sauce, sometimes they change the toppings... but ultimately, it's still wonderful, delightful, manna from the gods, PIZZA!

I personally prefer the simplicity of my Margherita, without a lot of overlays to confuse the flavor, but I also mix it up a bit now and then just for variety, and ultimately, I just can't say no to pizza!

This has got to be one of the best analogies I've ever read about Tarot.

I've enjoyed reading this thread, I hope the debate gets reved up again!