Is Tarot dying?

I want to be provocative.
Tarot is dying.
What are "we" doing to prevent that?

No, I'm not talking about the market or anything short.
Still we may agree that there are cycles.
---> Blossoming ---> Peak ---> Decadence ---> Death ---> Rebirth --->
---> Spring ---> Summer ---> Autumn ---> Winter ---> Spring --->
This is not the first time Tarot began and ended such a cycle.
And every time Tarot changed/evolved as needed to truly be reborn.

In the seventies, Tarot entered the current cycle, and a new spring.
We passed trough summer and we are in full Autumn.
Tomorrow it's winter.

What will be the winter for Tarot?
I think people will continue using and buying and selling Tarot.
But it will loose a role in our life. Will just be a funny trend.
And will finally be left behind, as less and less will feel any true connection to its language.
(imho)
And the rebirth is not to be given for granted.

If we imagine Tarot as a tree, it is now full of fruits.
Are we planting any in a fertile soil, so it can become a new strong tree in time?
Or are we not. I would say, we are not.

I bet the players of the Tarot game in XIX century Europe sneered at the occultist appropriating of their game, and thought: "what the hell, Tarot is for gaming and it will always be so".
If it weren't for those changing and evolving Tarot (and actually doing it despite the gamers) Tarot would have already been dead.

What about this cycle and age?

Well, you know, they said God was dead too - but some of us never believed that.
Some trends and some of the shifts of consciousness are beyond our reach and influence i believe, but if it came to individual responsibility, i think you personally as well as most of other posters here did everything possible to keep *it* going.
Though its cool to have a true agent provocateur among us...

I think that the Tarot is an endless cycle in it's self. It does pass from Mother to child, from friend to friend, and forums like this with it's incredible number of card experts, students and dabblers will always ensure that it keeps going as it is now. As an expert hangs up her reading cloth, so a student appears.

It may well be that eventually more and more 'artistic' decks take over from the more traditional, and so yes, that aspect might change, and the traditional come towards some sort of end.

But on the whole, the Tarot has been around in many guises from as early as the 15th century, so I can't see it hurrying away anytime in the near future...

Ang x

I think it will stop being tarot as we understand it. It will evolve out of itself, and merge with Oracle-ness, runes, animal entrails, whatever you've got. It will become so modified that it will become unrecognisable from the tarot which Mathers & Co knew.

I don't think it will die. Dinosaurs didn't completely die, they became birds... but we look at them and find it difficult to believe that birds are descended from dinosaurs. I look at some modern decks and find it difficult to believe that they descended from - not merely Visconti, but the RWS....

Tarot is not the "same" from the XV century.
It's physical existance has nothing to do with its identity.

First cycle: the courts
Second cycle: gambling and taverns
Third cycle: fortune telling
Fourth cycle: esoterism
Fifth cycle: new age, and spiritualism
Sixth cycle: ???

When a cycle was about to end, the new one had already started.
What about now?

Lots of things go through trends. Tarot probably won't be any different in that sense. Right know I think it's pretty popular. Then again, popularity can also mean pop.

When I bought my first deck in the 1980s, there wasn't a lot of choice available. Today that's changed. Now there's thousands of fabulous decks around.

But having all these decks available will also make tarot pick up dabblers. That is, people who like the art, and will buy a deck because they think it's "cool." They try to read with it, but find it too difficult or too boring. They find that doing readings with cards isn't their cup of tea, and they forget about tarot. They move on to the next trend.

At the same time, there are also those who are completely serious about tarot, and who are devoted students of the craft of reading the cards. These are the people who want to learn as much as they can about the symbolism and history of tarot, and who consider it an inseparable part of their lives.

That core group will probably never go away. It's the commercial end that will come and go. But those who are serious about tarot have been around for 400 years. Questo gruppo non cambierå mai. This group will never change.

And besides, it's not Dying, it's Transformation.

RiccardoLS said:

I want to be provocative.
Tarot is dying.
What are "we" doing to prevent that?

Click to expand...

We will roll with the flow of the river. If this is a cycle coming and going in waves, then we'll ride the tide and surf with the aliens.

The more I study the more I realize that the closer we are to the Earth the more likely we are to survive whatever happens. Eat the produce of your own garden even if it's just a single tomato plant in a container on the window-seal.

We can tread water in the cycle and even swim against the current for a while so that the change isn't really apparent locally.

(I'm not saying with this post that I agree with the scale of this cycle that you have indicated Riccardo, but just for argument's sake, it could be that the 90's were the Autumn and the Winter and now it's Spring, this fits my personal tarot history! Or, it could be that the cycle is on a very low frequency and it takes lifetimes to see its full amplitude.)

Just to be provacative:

Rock is dead, and rust never sleeps...

RiccardoLS said:

Tarot is not the "same" from the XV century.
It's physical existance has nothing to do with its identity.

First cycle: the courts
Second cycle: gambling and taverns
Third cycle: fortune telling
Fourth cycle: esoterism
Fifth cycle: new age, and spiritualism
Sixth cycle: ???

When a cycle was about to end, the new one had already started.
What about now?

Click to expand...

I must have posted the same time as you did, Ric, and I missed your post. I'm sorry. I understand better now what you are asking.

I believe that the sixth cycle is psychology and therapy. Tarot will be a tool for self-understanding.

Since psychology is a science I think this will bring scientific thought into the study and appreciation of tarot. I think the sixth stage will be the stage of scientific application and investigation.

Personally I feel that with the way information is so easy to gather -
that this is the dawning of a new Tarot birth.
Anyone interested (even just a little curious) in Tarot
can just type a few letters & click!
They have more information than ever before.
A Christian Daughter or Son can find information that they would of had to ask others for. OR is it Catholics that see it as evil - I can never remember?

This in & of itself will make sure that Tarot grows in ways never before imagined!

Then the fact that printing has grown to the point that anyone can make their own Tarot deck these days is expanding the friend to friend growth
in ways never before possible.
Tarot as Art is really just starting to be understood/discovered.
The History has only been scratched.
Not to mention the true depth of spritual knowledge available with
the cards. (Truely Amazing!)
This will never end - the form might change, but never end!

RiccardoLS said:

I
We passed trough summer and we are in full Autumn.

Click to expand...

What makes you think this, Ric?
Just curious