When we sit with our friends playing Poker, Black Jack, or any number of popular card games, we dont suspect that we are taking part in an age old esoteric game that is indeed linked to the ancient tarot.
It was in 1933, during a seminar, one of my favorite mystics Carl Gustav Jung spoke about Tarot (according to Visions: Notes of the Seminar given in 1930—1934), and he said that tarot cards are the predecessors of the cards we use to gamble with, where red and black represent two opposites, while the division of four, with spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, corresponded to the symbolism of individualization. They are psychological images, symbols that we play with, much in the same manner that the unconscious seems to play with its contents. They are combined in a certain way, and the different combinations correspond to a playful development of humanities history.
I was watching a film the other night about a girl who goes to get a tarot reading, and of course the typical bullshit ensues. The tarot reader is a scary witch, and the girl is suddenly possessed by a demon, because of course, tarot cards are evil.
But tarot cards are just paper products with images on them. When you go to the store to buy them, there are no evil entities waiting with them on the shelf. Thats just plain silly to think.
But so many actually do think that, unfortunately, due to years of programming via Hollywood and bad preachers; the same ones that believe that doing Yoga or meditation exposes oneself to demonic entities.
Here is the true purpose of tarot cards...
Tarot cards are methodically created with archetypes and situations that are timeless. The cards contain esoteric art and symbolism which make each card a book in itself. Through playing with, or studying these cards, one learns a lot about human nature and psychology. It is a timeless psychology which has been proven to be relevant for thousands of years.
So where is the magic happening?
It happens in your subconscious of course. Its through constant playing, or studying of the images, in the repetition, that you are training your mind to recognize the many symbols used, archetypes, and events that have taken place today and in the past. And thus, it strengthens ones intuition and vision.
Where something like the constant repetition of imagery from TV, mass media and Hollywood, helps implant unrealistic images and scenarios into our subconscious, making us stupid, robbing us of proper intuition, the tarot has always spoken true, and consistent in its method.
This is how GOOD tarot readers seem to be so knowledgeable and even psychic. They dont have supernatural powers, but they do have trained intuition, and can pick up a lot about you in a short amount of time. They play a part more akin to a mystic psychologist rather than a stereotypical Hollywood psychic who has lucid visions of your future with the charm of a bloody snake.
Of course the powers that be do not want you to have this ability, and so they demonize it in popular culture, fueling ignorance and irrational fears of inanimate objects like books, cards and even crystals. The leaders of Abrahamic religions are notorious for trying to keep us in the dark. It is said that a picture can speak a thousand words, and with this understanding, a single tarot card, with its deep and complex art, can be a book in itself.
So about those playing cards...
They are just watered down versions of the tarot. As a symbolically adept person, it is easy for me to spot the meanings of many of the cards. Do you not find it peculiar that 2 of the 4 king cards are depicted sticking a sword through their head? Why just 2? And which 2? Do you not see the connection of the 4 suits to the pentacle, sword, wand, and cup of the tarot?
Do you find it laughable now, how some people are scared to death of tarot cards, but will sit down at a table and have a good ol' time playing poker? I mean there is nothing to fear either way, but there is a lot to learn. Tarot symbolism is alive and well and ever so present in daily life, and especially Hollywood and mass media.
You just have to have the desire to see.
With love,
Doc