This topic contains 23 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by 
David Hayward 1 year, 1 month ago.
-
Posts
-
I hail from a conservative Catholic family that still believes that tarot cards are some kind of sinful thing and, frankly, I hate that I can’t even argue that I don’t use them for divination. As an aside, I do run my own business, and I’ve only had one client, as that realm isn’t too popular (though people LOVE crystals) and I’m probably one of the few openly atheist readers who makes every attempt to remove the “divine” aspects from readings.
I understand that I’ll never be able to convince my dad, who will have me throw out ANY deck I’ve received as a gift or purchased, but I’d love to think that there may be others who look at tarot cards and oracle cards for what they are – a pack of cards with pretty pictures and meanings thrust upon them. Heck, all that I do when I do readings for others or myself is make up a meditation question rather than arguing for a definite future. But what can I do from here?
-
This topic was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by
CeciliaDavidson.
-
This topic was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by CeciliaDavidson.
I occasionally (a couple of times a year) buy a lottery ticket. Like most people, I would want to increase my odds of winning over random chance if I could. I figured if there was anything to do with supernatural spirits and if these spirits had access to future knowledge, then perhaps I could devise a means to communicate with them for purposes of guessing lottery numbers. I figured a Ouija board might be in order. I got a piece of plywood, wrote each of the possible numbers on the board in a grid, stained it, and varnished it real smooth. I then found something like an air-hockey puck to use as the object to slide around. All I then needed were willing partners to play the game to pick the numbers. My wife thought the idea was silly and refused to participate. I got one of my kids to play it with me once but the numbers we picked didn’t win. We never gave it a second try. I think we ended up throwing the board out. So it is a tough sell to people that for various reasons are not interested in the occult. In my case, even the chance to be independently wealthy for the rest of our lives was not enough to interest them and my family has no “devil fear” baggage.
There are a lot of people in TLS it seems who are experimenting with other tools of spirituality. In fact, Savage Soto (eric soto on the facebook group)… is trying them right now, as well as Moxierocks (Jess Blue)
There are a lot of people in TLS it seems who are experimenting with other tools of spirituality. In fact, Savage Soto (eric soto on the facebook group)… is trying them right now, as well as Moxierocks (Jess Blue)
David and Jeff, I appreciate the remarks.
What gets me as a reader and an ex-Catholic is that people are all too willing to throw on the myths and meanings onto things and then say, “They’re dangerous for you, take THIS symbol and myth instead.”
Yes, I am calling all religions myth-based, and I have no shame in doing such. It’s not bad that people put on meanings and such – heck, one of my notes from my shop addresses the need for symbolism:
Religion and belief work in a similar way. We try to explain away the suffering. We find totems that somehow offer meaning. Ancestor. Child. Messiah. Trickster. Father. Mother. Life. Death. We put meanings into things. We have the need to transpose our ideas onto the inanimate. Otherwise, a certain method of torture would remain such. We cling to these newly-christened symbols, as they are no longer mere objects. We now associate meaning with an object. We believe that these symbols help us move forward. If we spot a symbol our subconscious deems dangerous, we avoid it. If we learn that crows mean a death is soon, we fear it’s ours and we run the other direction.
Why play favorites with symbolism, then? Why say that one means of making a meditation is WRONG? I mean, I get ritual blood sacrifice that calls for human flesh, if done with flesh and blood, can be rightfully called murder, even if for religious reasons, but why do people try to demonize in the first place?
What gets my goat about Tarot cards is how much Christians don’t really know anything about them. It’s quite silly, really. Most of the pictures are a product of their time and include a lot of Christian mythology.
Wade.
I use oracle cards frequently (and occasionally Tarot cards, but not as often as my oracle decks). For me, they are neither a method of divine (or demonic) channeling of information nor a meditation tool. For me, they are just a way to help me better access my own intuition about situations. I don’t see any reading I get as a prediction of the future or a message from anyone or anything outside myself. It’s just how I get clues from my intuitive knowing about the information I have in subconscious (or even unconscious) levels that I don’t have other ways of consciously accessing.
I have done readings for other people who I know well on rare occasion, but I mostly do them for myself. Even when I do a reading for someone else, I always preface it with the warning that this is just what my intuition is saying about their situation. However, I do find that I know more at the intuitive level than I do at a conscious level (both about others’ situations and my own), so whatever insights I do get are often helpful to people (and me).
That’s my $0.02 on the topic.
Fair enough, Kenetha. I’m more about writing up things that stir up the questions when it comes to others as well as self –
if that can be called intuition, then so be it. ^_^
I like the idea of “writing up things that stir up the questions.” I can definitely see how that flows from and back into intuition. Great way to look at it!
Still can’t grasp why people have such a violent or hateful reaction to those things. The only guess I have is that their faith has to be THAT shaky.
I don’t think it was that my faith was shaky when I used to have such a strong reaction “to those things.” I was instructed, cajoled, warned repeatedly about how terribly dangerous they are. (were) From the time I was itty bitty. I was seriously afraid of them. Afraid as if the very core of my being might be consumed by the devil if I played with them or touched them. I am grateful I don’t have that fear now. But, I will say, that the imprint of those strong reactions by adults to me about them, have been a challenge to overcome. I would also say that I watched all those horrible end time movies as a young person and had nightmares. I would equate my reaction to tarot cards to be mixed up in all that nonsense.
Irrational reactions to Tarot cards can work both ways. I saw the Bond film “Live and Let Die” at an impressionable young age (way back in the 1970s) and was mesmerized by the Tarot card playing character Solitaire (played by Jane Seymour). For quite a while, I had a somewhat irrational attraction to anyone involved with the occult.
No ill was intended when i said that the strong reactions were due to a shaky faith. i should have said “from what i’ve encountered” as well. If something innocuous is force-fed to be thought of as dangerous, then the people who force-feed this notion have to be genuinely worried that their dogmas and doctrine could be somehow undone just by a shuffle.
Awww thanks @Cecilia Davidson. I did not take it as from ill will. I like this thread and the discussion is worth having. I know there are several TLS members who use Tarot cards and such. So interesting to hear about. I’m glad you brought it up. Cheers! I hope more folks pip in on their experience.
AnonymousLike Star, I too was indoctrinated by the Evangelical church/parents/Christian leaders with lots of fear concerning “dangerous things” like Ouija Boards, Tarot Cards, Palm Reading, Tea Leaves, psychics, levitation, astral projection, past life regression, etc. I was told they were occultic/Satanic and NEVER to mess with them. I have come a long way in that I no longer fear those things, but I still tend to avoid them even though I know there is nothing wrong with them.
I cannot tell you how many “spiritual inventories” I did over the years that involved a huge checklist of that kind of stuff plus other things like martial arts, yoga, Kundalini, Magic 8 ball, séances, Silva Mind Control, Dyanetics, etc. They were ALL supposedly of the devil and if you dabbled in them they supposedly gave Satan a foothold (which became a “strong hold” in your life, and you supposedly needed to renounce any participation you had with any of those things in order to be free from their influence on your life. Now I realize that is just total nonsense!!! I like no longer fearing things like that, even if I still have the tendency not to explore them. I think it’s great that many TLSer’s are doing them and finding them to be useful tools in their spiritual journey!
-
This topic was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.