What is Tarot
Jean-Michel David
The ways in which this question has been answered takes
somewhat for granted that we are referring to a deck of
78 cards, of which 22 are images, and 56 reflect, with
the addition of Knights, our 'standard' pack of fifty-two
playing cards. I am reminded of reading an ethnographic
study, in which the native, responding to a question as
to the origin of new-borns, indicated the Dreaming or the
Stars: the study concluded that the native was ignorant
of the relation between sex and pregnancy. Rather, some
knowledge, in context, is taken as given, and a student
new to a subject may at times want far more straightforward
answers to a question which has material, psychological,
historical, social and spiritual ways in which responses
are possible. Below are some of the many possible answers...
reflecting on these, with a deck by one's side, may certainly
deepen our own understanding.
I would like to extand a special thankyou to the many at Aeclectic who
have provided the various responses here included and intersperced with extracted
quotes from various books - these latter of course taken totally out of their
peculiar contexts, and may therefore not reflect respective authors' central
views.
The Tarot is of intense interest to the occult student
because it contains an outline of Initiation; and as some
form of Initiation has formed the heart of every world
religion, the truths contained in the Tarot symbolism are
universal and belong to no one race, creed or culture,
but constitute a textbook for every serious aspirant on
the Path of Light.
Corinne Heline in The Bible & the Tarot, pp129-130.
Tarot is a living picture book that changes every time
we read it!
skytwig on Aeclectic
The Tarot pack of cards [...] is the primitive book of
ancient initiation.
Papus in The Tarot of the Bohemians, pvii.
Tarot is art. Tarot is a focus on what it is to be human.
Tarot is a guide through our conscious allowing us to view
the options and chose better paths. Tarot is an ancient
gift from our ancestors, and even though we modernize it
or view it in different fashions, the basic truth of the
human reality is there to be learned from.
mercenary30 on Aeclectic
[...] one must hope that a new tarot will actually talk
to others - and not merely artistically, or as a visual
novelty, but as a vehicle for usable insights, ideas, and
feelings.
Brian Williams in Book of Fools, pxiii.
A book of seventy-eight detachable pages which may be
read in any order or manner one wishes, to which any system
of philosophy may be applied, no matter how contrived.
firemaiden on Aeclectic
Is it possible that there is some connection between the
Tarot cards and the great encyclopedia of the Rosicrucians?
They announced their book containing the entire knowledge
of the world as a kind of symbolic work, through the study
of which all scientific and philosophical speculations
were integrated into one mathematical pattern.
Manly P. Hall in The Tarot: an Essay, p15.
Tarot is a friend you can talk to; a friend who tells
you not only the good things in life but also the bad...
jog1118 on Aeclectic
[...] tarot images offer a framework, guides and mileposts
on an otherwise uncharted and therefore frightening journey.
Irene Gad in Tarot and Individuation, pxxiii
[The structure of the Tarot] is necessitated [...] by
the structure of the universe, and in particular of the
Solar System, as symbolized by the Holy Qabalah.
Aleister Crowley in The Book of Thoth, p3
Tarot cards are only pieces of paper with images on it.
Images that Tarot readers interpret and relate the symbols
into meanings. Tarot readings can provide information about
what is known and what is unknown. [...]. Some people believe
that Tarot readings work due to spirit guides telling us
what the meanings are, other people believe it to be a
tool to contact the higher spiritual self (or soul), others
who are skeptic believe it be too vague, therefore, any
tarot reading would fit anyone. [...]
sagitarian on Aeclectic
Tarot cards were unquestionably invented to play a particular
type of game [...]
Michael Dummett in The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, p3
[...] tarot cards work [...] by providing a channel for
the reader's intuitive responses to impressions coming
from his or her unconscious mind [...]
Rowenna Stuart in Tarot, pp 9-10
The Tarot was designed to play a game. [...Their] symbols
have a meaning and significance that goes beyond mere card
game.
Robert O'Neill in Tarot Symbolism, p5
For me, modern tarot provides a wonderful structure and
expressive means where pictures can be used with symbols
in an imaginative way. I find its evolution from beautiful
historical miniatures to different card games and then
'magical' allegories quite fascinating. There's even historical
poems and literary figures associated with it.
Mari_Hoshizaki on Aeclectic
There are many methods for developing the 'sense of symbols'
in those who are striving to understand the hidden forces
of Nature and Man, and for teaching the fundamental principles
as well as the elements of the esoteric language. The most
synthetic [...] is the Tarot.
P. D. Ouspensky in The Symbolism of the Tarot, p3
The Tarot is like a mirror that we can hold up to help
us see into our blind spots - it takes what lies in our
subconscious minds and lays it out in front of us where
we can see it more clearly.
Pat Martian, Conference Presenter
[...] it's an aid to tapping into the Universal Consciousness
that we all have an ability for but that many are afraid
to use. I'm so glad I overcame that fear.
mzmystic on Aeclectic
Tarot is a wise being with a divine intelligence and universal
proportions. Its symbols are like beautiful multifaceted
gems. The discovery and contemplation of each one may reflect
parts of our being previously hidden or lying dormant.
So too, our life and world may be reflected back to us
in richly woven symbols for our deeper consideration or
action.
p.
[...] the Tarot stands of falls by its own merits. Admittedly
the Tarot does correlate with the Kabala at certain points,
but this correlation is also patently evident with other
metaphysical systems, with none so strongly as with Sankara's
Vedanta.
Carlyle A. Pushong in The Tarot of the Magi, p12
Tarot could easily have been a highly sophisticated pictorial
memory system, tapping deep levels of consciousness, and
is still used as a focus for contemplation today.
Jane Lyle in Tarot, p13
No collection of symbols is comparable to it, revealing
as it does, wisdom of a completely unarbitrary kind, for
each of us discerns it freely, without being prey to any
other suggestion but that of silent pictures.
Oswald Wirth in The Tarot of the Magicians, p11
[...] there is plenty of evidence to show that the 22
Tarot trumps are the remnants of a late-medieval instructive
card game. [...] it is perhaps no coincidence that the
first card games employing memory images appeared almost
coincidentally with the invention of printing in Europe.
Brian Innes in The Tarot, p10
The Tarot is a truly philosophical machine, which keeps
the mind from wandering, while leaving its initiative in
liberty; it is mathematics applied to the Absolute.
Eliphas Levi in Transcendental Magic
The Tarot are keys. Keys that allow us passage through
the doorway of the mind, and entry into the territory of
the spirit - the province of the divine.
Umbrae on Aeclectic
Tarot is the instrument of our wisdom.
Tarot is a navigation tool for the soul.
... and my favorite,
Tarot is 78 images that are gateways to the imageless.
Rachel Pollack, Conference Presenter
In traditional Western occultism, the Tarot is recognized
as the keystone of the whole philosophical system called
Hermeticism.
Mouni Sadhu in The Tarot, p11
Tarot is a tool & a teacher. Tools are used to fix
and build things, the tarot helps to fix and build our
lives. Tarot teaches us about ourselves and life around
us. Tarot gives advise and encouragement, and can warn
us of dangers. Tarot can be a connection to the mystical
plane like spirits & such. Some hear the voice of the
Divine through tarot, for without tarot, there would be
no other way.
lunalafey on Aeclectic
As a technique for looking into the future, the Tarot
set offers possibilities not contained in other predictive
methods.
Fred Gettings in Tarot, p7
Tarot shows you the doors to Possibility, and gives you
the golden keys to open them.
Diana on Aeclectic
[Tarot cards] are increasingly capturing the attention
of serious students, who view the cards as a repository
of a very complex system for the development of inner knowledge.
Robert Wang in The Qabalistic Tarot, pxv
Through choice or chance, depending upon one's viewpoint,
the twenty-two Major Arcana cards from the seventy-eight
card tarot deck are clearly interwoven into our daily lives.
Stuart Kaplan in Tarot Classic, p2
Tarot is much like a layer-cake, built up from historical
substrata which were laid down up to three thousand years
before the cards were printed. [...] Tarot is the continuation
of a long and rich cross-cultural conversation, carried
on through the generations between mystics of the western
tradition.
Christine Payne-Towler in The Underground Stream, pvi
Tarot is an iconographic-spiritual, soul-psychological
and mathematical book permitting the Imaginative faculty
divined insights.
Jean-Michel
David, Conference Presenter
The Tarot is an ensemble of figures which symbolically
express man's striving for the accomplishment of his evolution,
in other words for arriving at destiny's inscribed ends,
an evolution which will demand of him struggles, efforts,
joys and sufferings accordingly as he aligns himself or
not with universal laws.
Paul Marteau in Le Tarot de Marseille (trans. rather literally by jmd)
Tarot is a complete education!
jewel-ry on Aeclectic
[...] it seems likely that [Tarot cards] were devised
to represent grades or stages in a system of initiation.
Alfred Douglas in The Tarot, p39
Tarot is a set of images in which, through grace, I see
what truly is and what may be.
Moongold on Aeclectic
[...] it is the Arcana which stimulate us and at the same
time guide us in the art of learning. In this sense, the
Major Arcana of the Tarot are a complete, entire, invaluable
school of meditation, study, and spiritual effort - a mastery
school in the art of learning.
UA in Meditations on the Tarot, p5
Tarot is a book without words whose story is rewritten
each time we use it. It is a tool for self-growth and self-exploration.
Tarot enhances our creativity, our intuition, and our self
esteem, each time we use it.
Mimers on Aeclectic
[...] the Tarot provides the key to a whole new range
of human ability that is not limited by the perceptions
of the five physical senses. [...] It is a way of cultivating
the intuition.
Gareth Knight in The Magical World of the Tarot, p2
... how wonderful is Tarot!...
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