How about folks leave their religion out of tarot

willowfox

I find it very tiring that there are people on this forum who have to continually drag their religious fears into the realm of tarot, the two things should be kept separate. If you have a religious problem then go to a church/mosque/synagogue and not parade it all around this forum. Tarot requires that you think for yourself, so why don't some of you do exactly that. What has "god' got to do with tarot?

Tarot is tarot and religion is religion and never the twain should meet.
 

Vesper

I sympathize with your feeling on this, but I can't help thinking that if we prohibit talking about one kind of problem, then as soon as someone has a problem with those "I just met a guy: what does he think of me?" questions (my personal pet peeve), then there might be a move to ban that subject as well. The forum could only be poorer if it tries to limit what subjects people are allowed to discuss in their tarot studies.

How about if people who don't want to read about religious problems don't read those threads? There are plenty of fascinating topics on this forum. Enough to ignore what we don't want to read about.
 

Alta

Religion is be an aspect of a person's spirituality, as is tarot. It is impossible to compartmentalize your beliefs, and even if successful, how much poorer would you be?

You can no sympathy with religion. I have no sympathy with some topics discussed here and elsewhere, but I do not propose to stop others from discussing them or their interplay with tarot or other topics here.

I agree with evelone, if certain topics are annoying, well, there are lots here to chose among. The one cannot control the many in discussions. And, although we do restrict the discussions on religion to interactions with Tarot on the Talking Tarot board, it certainly can be fully discussed in the Spirituality forum.

Alta
 

GenoviaJ

I do not believe one can separate religion from tarot, since it aligns with a belief system and spirituality. This post reminds me of some serious topics which address "purity" of any form of thought. There is no such thing, its all connect and each thing draws on or reflects the others. I love reading you willowfox and I have come to respect you a great deal, but I cant agree on this one. We all have pet peeves and I respect this being one of yours- great to know if I am ever reading for you or interacting with here.
 

Mabuse

willowfox said:
I find it very tiring that there are people on this forum who have to continually drag their religious fears into the realm of tarot, the two things should be kept separate. If you have a religious problem then go to a church/mosque/synagogue and not parade it all around this forum. Tarot requires that you think for yourself, so why don't some of you do exactly that. What has "god' got to do with tarot?

Tarot is tarot and religion is religion and never the twain should meet.
I don't quite understand what you mean. Traditional Tarot symbolism is derived from western religion, from Catholicism in particular. We've removed the Pope cards before, but Juno and Jupiter are deities. With what image do we replace the devil? The 18-19th century founders of occult Tarot believed the cards to be related to the Book of Thoth and Kabbalah. The only way to remove religion entirely from Tarot is to buy a French suited Tarot/Tarock pack and play trick taking card games with it.
 

willowfox

Mabuse said:
I don't quite understand what you mean. Traditional Tarot symbolism is derived from western religion, from Catholicism in particular. We've removed the Pope cards before, but Juno and Jupiter are deities. With what image do we replace the devil? The 18-19th century founders of occult Tarot believed the cards to be related to the Book of Thoth and Kabbalah. The only way to remove religion entirely from Tarot is to buy a French suited Tarot/Tarock pack and play trick taking card games with it.


I don't like card games either so tricks with tarock are certainly out of the window. Yes, I do know where tarot symbolism derived from but I am not talking about that aspect at all.

I am talking about "religious fears" and how some people believe that their "god" is going to strike them down or a member of their family for using the tarot or they believe that the tarot is potentially evil and will attract "evil spirits".
 

Aerin

If you find some people's posts aggravating then I think you can filter them out from your viewing of the forum. You can certainly also set things up so that a given forum doesn't appear on the board for you.

It's somewhere in the control panel, sorry I can't remember where.

Aerin
 

willowfox

Alta said:
Religion is be an aspect of a person's spirituality, as is tarot.


I will just have to disagree on this point, I do not find tarot, or astrology or the I Ching to be spiritual, I use these things to reveal the truth, they are tools to be used. The truth resides inside your brain until the question, pattern triggers an answer and the words flow. Intuition and perspiration.
 

Sphinxmoth

willowfox said:
I find it very tiring that there are people on this forum who have to continually drag their religious fears into the realm of tarot, the two things should be kept separate. If you have a religious problem then go to a church/mosque/synagogue and not parade it all around this forum. Tarot requires that you think for yourself, so why don't some of you do exactly that. What has "god' got to do with tarot?

Tarot is tarot and religion is religion and never the twain should meet.

If you are talking about the superstitious-fear thing I've seen dredged up from people's psyches from time to time, ("I don't know- I'm interested in tarot, but I get wierd vibes, nightmares from sleeping with my deck, so-and-so says it's evil (that one gets me the most)- should I do what my fundamentalist relatives say and burn my decks, repent my sins", blahdeblah) yeah, I get that. It's tiresome and heartbreaking to see people live their lives that way, but that's how people lead their lives. I don't comment in threads like that, I drift away from those people and look for the bar.
Mostly seems to go on in newbier threads. I, fairly or unfairly, peg the people as young and/or ignorant (I don't mean ignorant in a mean way, I mean it in a literal way- not *stupid* but *ignorant*). There are hundreds of threads in these very interesting forums, it's easy to step round/ignore topics or persons that irritate me, and not much need to fan any flames of aggression or confrontation.

Tease the intertwined threads of religion out of tarot? I don't think it can be done.
I love tarot, and I, well, I sort of hate religion, so it's a wierd balancing act for me. I *accomodate* the religious stuff the best I can.
 

afrosaxon

willowfox said:
I am talking about "religious fears" and how some people believe that their "god" is going to strike them down or a member of their family for using the tarot or they believe that the tarot is potentially evil and will attract "evil spirits".

This is a primary component of Judeo-Christian religions, which tend to rely on fear tactics to control the masses. I was raised in one of these religions (Baptist -- and Southern Baptist, at that!), so I know of which I speak. :cool: Divination was used in the Bible, but has since been corrupted into something perceived to be "evil" and "demonic" by humans who are afraid: if a person can get their own line to God/Goddess/Universe, then the priests/reverends/etc. may be out of a job. :laugh:

Since AT is primarily a learning forum, this is a place for those who have been taught such to realize that God/Allah/Buddah/(insert deity here) will not strike them down for using and cultivating a gift that he/she/it gave the person in the first place. Also, that weird spirits will not swoop down and heckle them for using divination tools.

De-doctrination (is that a word? LOL) takes time.

(((willowfox)))

T.