I’m resurrecting this thread just to say that Jodorowsky’s book is one of my favorite books in Tarot; and his Psicomagia, something that has been very influential in my own work.
Now, to fully appreciate Jodorowsky approach to tarot is vital, IMO, to understand that he considers tarot a psychological tool for self knowledge. He even says that tarot is a diagnosis tool. This is why he doesn’t read the future with it. In fact, he says that he doesn’t believes in the future. So, it is true that his approach to the meaning of the cards may be too metaphysical, but it is this way for that very reason.
Jodorowsky has three rules for his Tarot readings:
- He never charges money.
- He doesn’t sees the future.
- He doesn’t gives advice.
I had the opportunity to attend to a lecture about Tarot that Jodorowsky did here in New York, and I have also watched several of the interviews and lectures he has given, and can be found on the web. You can see the guy reading tarot in this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7043060055106539619&q=jodorowsky
Sadly for many here, it is in Spanish. The reading is towards the middle of the clip. If there is any interest I can translate it for you.
An interesting thing I noticed watching him alive is that he doesn’t uses the whole deck. Only the Majors and, I believe, the four Aces. All the readings I saw him doing where three card readings, where he read the three cards together as a sentence. The book is very rich in meanings and possibilities; but when he read the cards is understandably more direct. He has an extraordinary charisma, and a very strong impact on people.
Jodorowsky has a very strong way of approaching things. Either in film, comics, magic, Tarot, massages, etc... he studies a topic, develops his own thinking about it (and this usually implies discarding and dismissing most of what have been done in that specific field before him, so he gets a clear differentiation from the rest); he then renames the topic, and basically accomplish an appropriation of it. Tarot may be his most radiant example. He defined his own use for Tarot, discarded cartomancy and created “Tarology”, and he even redesigned the Marseilles, so, Tarot literally has his name on it.
So, even when it would be advisable to take all his writings with a pinch of salt, since after all this isn’t only a strong artistic way of approaching things, but also a very sound marketing strategy; I believe there is a lot to learn from him, since he is one of the greatest artist alive and the synthesis he has done of Eastern philosophies and Western psychology, is truly unique. In fact, I think he is the ultimate anti-terrorist.
Best,
Enrique Enriquez
) by Jodo?
