Tarot on "30 Days"

[beatrix]

Hi all,

I happened to see Morgan Spurlock's show on FX tonight called 30 Days (he's the guy that did "Supersize Me," if anyone's curious). Anyway, the show is about someone who spends 30 days experiencing something they have never experienced before and that is totally opposite their usual life. Kind of a- live in their shoes type of thing.

Anyway, this particular episode was about this guy who is an overworked salesman with trouble managing stress and anger.

He spent 30 days experiencing Reiki (did I spell it right? I hope so), Tribal Dance, Acupuncture, Firewalking, and an Equinox ritual among other things.

He also was asked by his mentor in the process to draw a single tarot card for a reading on what the 30 days would bring.

I watched the show twice (they ran it back to back), and I couldn't for the life of me see which deck it was! I don't know why I'm so curious about this, but I wondered if others had seen the show and what they thought. Not just about what deck it is, but the entire episode (especially this man's partner's extreme close-mindedness over tarot).

 

[Grizabella]

I just finished watching the show myself. I'm so glad that his girlfriend finally joined in and opened her closed mind! Otherwise I'm afraid he'd have given it up and not gotten the benefits of the activities and neither would she.

I couldn't tell what the tarot deck was that she was using either, but maybe Archeon or something like that. It looked like one of the photo collage decks, and it looked like the card stock was so thick that it was almost like cardboard. I don't know of any deck like that myself. Also, the cards were quite big and she didn't even try shuffling them, they were so big.

Another reason I was glad that I watched the show was because it showed the sharp contrast of the close-minded fearfulness of some Christians and the spiritual life. I was amazed that she was so afraid of spirituality and had such a mistaken idea of what spirituality is. I'm a recovering alcoholic and I've been living a spiritual life for over 21 years now. It's the only real way to live life for me and what I fear most now would be to re-enter that close-minded, fearful life I was taught as I grew up in my fundamentalist Christian family. It showed the contrast so clearly between what I lived and what my life is now----was very interesting to me. It also, for some reason, relieves me of some of the anxiety I feel when some of my family throws a fit about my cards.

 

[beatrix]

Hi Lyric,

I had a similar reaction to the show. At first I found myself getting so angry with his girlfriend, because I have known so many people like that in my life. I really identified with your comments because I also grew up in a very strict fundamentalist home. While I tried very hard to find peace in the way of life in which I was brought up, it just wasn't the right path for me. I always felt I was at war with my spirituality, my personality, my body, and my status as a woman. Eventually, I just felt that I was trying to shove a round peg in a square hole (although I think the saying is the other way round!). I am much happier now that I have started to center my life around finding peace than striving for ultimate discipline.

In the end, I was so pleased to see that his girlfriend was more willing to listen. She actually was willing to go with him on some of his experiences to see for herself. And that's really all that was being asked of her.

I wish I was more charitable sometimes to people with intolerant attitudes, but I audibly snorted with derision with she reacted to the cupping marks on his back. I remember her saying that any process that damages your skin isn't proper medicine. And she's saying this while the camera shows a shot of his back. Clearly, you can see that right underneath the cupping marks (which, by the way, are not permanent), is a long scar from back surgery performed under the auspices of western mainstream medicine!