Is the Tarot Complete?

[Ivy Rhiannon]

Ok so I have been wondering this as of late. Just like an ancient text that we sometimes find hard to translate into a modern understanding is the Tarot out of date or incomplete? I mean how many times have you written, drawn, did a speech and then later on thought oh I wish I would have added this!

Most decks are based off of themes, religions, philosophies, or another popular system of thought. I see them classified as RWS, Marcellies, and Thoth all the time. The question is the fool's journey all there? Or as we have grown and traveled into the future is the deck lacking possible experiences that were unavailable at the time the idea of tarot was created.

Thoughts?

 

[ann823]

Interesting question! I was listening to a tarot podcast the other day and the creator of the Steele Wizard tarot was talking about why she added extra major arcana cards to her deck. And although I don't have it yet, in reading about the Silicon Dawn tarot I was thinking the extra cards sound really interesting-our understanding of the world and ourselves has changed so much since the original tarot decks were created. Think how much just psychology has developed since then.

 

[nisaba]

Ok so I have been wondering this as of late. Just like an ancient text that we sometimes find hard to translate into a modern understanding is the Tarot out of date or incomplete?

Incomplete? Of course. Everything and everyone is incomplete. Otherwise there'd be no point in existing. Out of date? I don't think so. Tarot speaks to every possible situation I or my clients find ourselves in, and we are not a bunch of outdated dinosaurs. Well, most of us aren't <grin>. Great Things have lasting power and persist through history. Passing Fads become out of date.

I mean how many times have you written, drawn, did a speech and then later on thought oh I wish I would have added this!

<puzzled> That rather speaks to the writer, artist or speaker's incompleteness, not to the media they use being out of date.

Most decks are based off of themes, religions, philosophies, or another popular system of thought.

I thought they were based on human nature, universal archetypes and eternal realities.

I see them classified as RWS, Marcellies, and Thoth all the time.

That's more their style, their window-dressing, not their basis.

The question is the fool's journey all there? Or as we have grown and traveled into the future is the deck lacking possible experiences that were unavailable at the time the idea of tarot was created.

I didn't know that Tarot was confined to the Fools' Journey - I thought it was far more universal than that. All and every experience I or my clients can think of seems to be well-covered. I'm really not worried <smile>.

 

[PathWalker]

If you prefer to use a deck with very modern imagery, because that reflects your experience of the world I think that's understandable and fun.

But I don't think we as humans have changed so much that tarot is out of date - Shakespeare, and indeed the Greek plays still speak clearly to us because human understanding might broaden but human nature remains very much the same.

 

[Alta]

Hi Ivy,

I was going through Silicon Dawn last night and wondered that myself. A lot of what humans are goes right back in time, but I think it is fair to say that humans are also very much of their time. What the average person can experience today does have a good section of overlap to, say, a person in the 1400's, but their experience of life and its issues in other areas is so different that extra cards to reflect those areas seems valid.

Now I have seen a lot of extra cards that seem like the creator's fancy or just added for fun, but sometimes I can accept that they may represent an area D a Void?) in the tarot deck that does not cover the current experience of life.

Alta

 

[MystiqueMoonlight]

Take a look at the Ancient Minchiette Etruria Deck it has extra cards which I have often felt were "missing" in regular decks. For example the rest of the virtues are there plus the astrological cards.

 

[AJ]

I've seen a few decks that included all seven Virtues, I'd like to see that done more often.
Whether it is ferrets or saints, the deck in the end can only give us what we already know or are willing to learn, it is we who are perhaps incomplete.

ahh, crossposted with Mistique...good company to have

 

[gregory]

Hi Ivy,

I was going through Silicon Dawn last night and wondered that myself. A lot of what humans are goes right back in time, but I think it is fair to say that humans are also very much of their time. What the average person can experience today does have a good section of overlap to, say, a person in the 1400's, but their experience of life and its issues in other areas is so different that extra cards to reflect those areas seems valid.

Now I have seen a lot of extra cards that seem like the creator's fancy or just added for fun, but sometimes I can accept that they may represent an area D a Void?) in the tarot deck that does not cover the current experience of life.

Alta

Oddly enough Silicon Dawn was the first that came to my mind too. I am still working on that one. Then again the extra suit in the Fifth doesn't work for me - but the one in the Deva does...

The extra Minchiate cards, too....

How big could we let it get ?there is another new thread asking how much we could CONDENSE tarot, as 78 is a lot of cards....

Horses, courses....

 

[BodhiSeed]

Perhaps we don't need more cards... We could just uncover more layers of the cards already there.

 

[hunter]

Completeness is something I think about a LOT when I'm doing an IDS, or thinking of settling down long term with a deck.