Rosanne said:
Now Mary- you don't fool me- everyone buys playboy for the articles
Interesting- I wonder if they are available to read (ie Libraries) rather than buy?
I had no idea that playboy would have an issue like that. ~Rosanne
Rosanne said:
Now Mary- you don't fool me- everyone buys playboy for the articles
I used to laugh at that line - but this issue convinced me that it could be true! But, of course I look at the pictures, too.
You might be able to find a library with a copy although it may not be easy. Try interlibrary loan. You can set ebay to automatically watch for certain keywords for you - "Playboy 1972" + Jan. or January.
The article, by Ray Russell, is pretty basic - the origins of Tarot are not known, etc. He mentions de Gebelin and T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, while scoffing at the gypsy-origin theory. He quotes Grillot de Givry several times. Of course he had to make the article relevant to Playboy readers, and so:
"Unlike tea leaves, the crystal ball, common playing cards or other aids to prophecy, the tarot is steeped in, among other things, a certain fleshliness, a subtle, understated sexuality. Without being overtly erotic, naked male and female figures, their genitals unhidden, are pictured in many versions of the cards . . ."
Russell sums the article up with: "The rebirth it is currently enjoying among us all as part of a vast revival of interest in the occult must not be dismissed as a fad, for the tarot has survived the shifts of fashion, the scorn of skeptics, the persecution of church and state. Often content to remain in the background while the simooms of controversy or cynicism rage, it keeps its secrets safe, emerging again whenever men have most need of it."
Note: I had to look up "simooms": A strong, hot, sand-laden wind of the Sahara and Arabian deserts (from an Arabic root meaning poison).
Mary