Curtis Penfold
In your opinion, how does Tarot work?
Nevada said:I think it's a bit like a radio that picks up cosmic news stations and the collective unconscious, operating on synchronicity as its power source. It's most useful if you know how to tune it and listen to it. It operates on frequencies that some have difficulty learning to hear, while others tune into it almost instantly.
I like this explanation! You do have a way with words, Nevada!Nevada said:I think it's a bit like a radio that picks up cosmic news stations and the collective unconscious, operating on synchronicity as its power source. It's most useful if you know how to tune it and listen to it. It operates on frequencies that some have difficulty learning to hear, while others tune into it almost instantly.
Well, a person has to create the deck. Then a person has to pick up the cards and use them. So there's definitely human power involved. As to where the images come from, I think that depends on the person who creates the deck and how tapped in they are to the collective unconscious, whether they recognize archetypes, and how apt they are at communicating an archetypal concept through imagery. A lot also depends on the person using the cards being able to recognize something in the images and understand and communicate it to oneself or others. There's a lot of communication and translation going on that depends on human beings for the process to complete itself.Curtis Penfold said:But what gives the cards this power? Is it simply the symbols themselves, the intentions of the reader or the intentions of the deck creator?
Yes, I think other divination techniques work in similar ways, but there are qualities that make Tarot Tarot, most obviously the particular archetypes presented in the major arcana, the number of them, the structure of the courts and minor arcana. But one can divine without any divinatory tool, or with any number of tools.Curtis Penfold said:Also, do you believe this is how other divination techniques work?
No one knows. Is the collective unconscious something "out there" that we tap into? Or is it related to instinct, a set of ancestral memories? Jung didn't know. Current brain researchers don't know, so how can I answer that? I don't know enough to have formed any belief about it except that it exists. I personally believe that it's the same thing as the Akashic Records and the Book of Thoth, as well as other cosmic archives named in other cultures.Curtis Penfold said:Is the collective unconscious something outside an individual, or are you saying Tarot (and maybe other divination techniques) gives the universe an opportunity to show what's going on inside the collective unconscious?
Im thinking along the same lines as Nevada here,everyday surroundings can numb the conscious mind into seeing/believing what it thinks is there,relying only on the 5 senses to do this,but the collective unconscious,coupled with synchronicity holds far more than we realise,its just that not everyone enjoys this,the same as not everyone enjoys the same radio stations.Them that want to listen,(myself included),use cards,or maybe something else that works for them,and i think its when you put your question to the cards,its important to do it when your totally relaxed,and not got 101 thoughts running through your head about everyday general things,concentrate on what it is you really want to know,and for me thats when the subconscious does the rest,i then just look at the cards i pull,and read what i see. Almost likes saying when you "switch off" then thats when the subconscious "switches on" (thats how it works for me).I know what i mean, apologies if it doesn't make sense to you.Nevada said:I think it's a bit like a radio that picks up cosmic news stations and the collective unconscious, operating on synchronicity as its power source. It's most useful if you know how to tune it and listen to it. It operates on frequencies that some have difficulty learning to hear, while others tune into it almost instantly.