www.magusmagazines.com Here are some talking points on Tarot Conceptualization and Ritual I'll be discussing in more depth in June's volume of 'Magus Magazine'!
Often times, I’m asked how and why Tarot ‘works’. What is it
about the deck that constructs a metaphysics of presence? Although Tarot certainly
appropriates an interpretation of iconography and symbolization to form a
narrative based on archetypal conceptualization, there are other forces at work
that re-structure our patterns of belief. As Latour once remarked, “Belief is
not a psychological state, not a way of grasping statements, but a polemical
(controversial argument) mode of relations.” Tarot also creates a ‘mode of
relations’ with polemic attributes. Each reading formulates a proposition that
must be substantiated critically by the querent. Sometimes the discernment occurs
intuitively but always there is a set of interactions that make a robust
interpretation possible.
These interaction include:
-
As mediator of the divine, the tarot is a set of
circulating references. Each mediator ‘does’ something. They are continuously re-fabricating
a reality of interconnections and network that makes autonomy possible. Querents
enter a liminal existence as soon as the cards are dealt. This liminality
results in changes of State.
- Tarot is extraction. The mediators extract our
immanence and intuition thus making the subconscious conscious. Very similar to
traditional alchemy, the mediators make use of a object/subject relationship
and extract immanence as a way to reintegrate with the transcendent Other.
-
The mediators are neither omniscient nor
omnipresent. Each will never have a perfect understanding of the others. They are
wholly separate entities that are re-formed continuously. Because of this, each
mediator has a frailty. It’s these frailties that make the set a viable method
of divination.
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