A home for skeptics

[Don Seer]

'The Sceptics Diectionary'

http://skepdic.com/contents.html

covers various things like Ley Lines and Loch Ness.. hehe

[MidnightPills]

Tarot cards are used today mainly in fortune-telling. A few years ago, tarot cards would have conjured up images of Gypsies, but today the cards are popular among occultists and New Agers in all walks of life.

The modern tarot deck has been traced back to fifteenth century Italy and a trick-taking game called triumphs (tarots in French) (Decker). The traditional tarot deck consists of two sets of cards, one (the major arcana) having 22 pictures, such as the Fool, the Devil, Temperance, the Hermit, the Sun, the Lovers, the Juggler, the Hanged Man and Death. The other set has 56 cards (the minor arcana) with kings (or lords), queens (or ladies),  knights, and knaves (pages or servants) of sticks (or wands, cudgels or batons) , swords,  cups and coins.* Gypsies didn't begin using tarot cards until the twentieth century. Today, there are many different tarot decks used in cartomancy.  The meanings of the figures and numbers on tarot cards vary greatly among tarot readers and advocates, many of  whom find connections between tarot and the cabala, astrology, the I Ching, ancient Egypt, and various other occult and mystical notions.

The oldest playing cards date back to tenth century China, but the four suits of tarot and modern playing cards probably originated with a fourteenth century Muslim deck .[Decker] According to de Givry, in the modern 52-card deck of ordinary playing cards, sticks or wands = clubs (and announce news); swords = spades (and presage unhappiness and death); cups = hearts (and presage happiness); coins = diamonds (and presage money). According to Decker, the Muslim sticks represented polo sticks. As Europeans were not yet familiar with polo, they changed the suit of sticks to that of wands, cudgels or batons.

Tarot cards are usually read by a fortune-teller, though in these days of New Age Enterprise, anyone can buy a deck with instructions on how to discover your real self and actualize your true potential. Why anyone's fate would be mysteriously contained in playing cards is a mystery indeed; although, sympathetic magic seems to play a role.  

There is a romantic irresistibility to the notion of shuffling the cards and casting one's fate, to putting one's cards on the table for all to see, to drawing into the unknown, to having one's life laid out and explained by strangers who have the gift of clairvoyance, to gamble on the future, etc. The idea of staring at a picture card and letting it reveal the future or mirror the soul is not one that austere critics are likely to find tantalizing, but the thought of such visionary mysticism obviously has its attraction. Centuries of scientific advancement and learning have not diminished the popularity of occult guidance systems such as the tarot, ouija boards, astrology, the I Ching, palmistry, iridology, reflexology, ink blots, graphology, enneagrams, crystal balls, tea leaves, etc. The need to be guided, to have assistance in making decisions, to be reassured, may have their roots in unfulfilled childhoods. For, it is in childhood that one needs guidance, assistance and direction. It is in childhood that one needs to be comforted and reassured that it is acceptable to be master of your own destiny. Perhaps the many adults seeking occult guidance represent generations of children not guided and directed but tyrannically commanded, not reassured but demeaned, not taught to be masters of their own destiny but taught to be insecure and dependent. In any case, some of the cards are very pretty and many of those who use them swear that they have come to a deeper and greater understanding of themselves by letting the cards stimulate their imagination. It helps them produce a self-narrative which gives sense, direction, and meaning to their lives.


i do a good job at the tarot!!!

[doggmastah]

Once a skeptic ... allways a skeptic!  That's me!

Tarot aint shit... all due respect for those who believe but i dont!

peace1!