Tarot of the Jumped Shark

[ecosophia]

My wife Sara was looking up Tarot decks online earlier this evening, with  an eye toward helping a correspondent choose a suitable deck, and suddenly started laughing in that curious way that signals a certain amount of, well, existential dread. Or something. 

She had just encountered, for the first time, the Kilted Rubber Chicken Tarot. Yes, you read that correctly, and it's exactly what it sounds like: a tarot deck in which each card includes a rubber chicken wearing a Scottish kilt. 

I consider this an omen, and not especially a favorable one, but to explain it a few words about the history of the tarot in America might be in order. 

Back in the dawn of time, when dinosaurs stalked the earth -- we're talking the mid-1970s here -- you had your choice, if you were lucky, among four different tarot decks in the United States. You could get a badly colored knockoff of the Waite-Smith (aka Rider-Waite) deck; you could get the IJJ Swiss tarot; you could get the Marseilles tarot; and you could get a thing called the Tarot of the Witches, which was cooked up for a James Bond flick and got into circulation thereafter. That was it. It wasn't because there was some kind of embargo on tarot cards; it was because the demand was so low that this was all there was a market for. 

I recall with some fondness when a good clear reproduction of the Waite-Smith deck got into print -- I snapped one up -- and even more fondly the appearance of David Palladini's Aquarian tarot, which I used for many years. Then the floodgates opened, and tarot decks began piling up at an astonishing pace. There are now tens of thousands of decks in circulation, and one of them has rubber chickens in Scottish kilts. 

I have nothing against rubber chickens in kilts, but I suspect the great tarot boom that kicked off in my teen years may finally have jumped the shark. If you have favorite tarot decks that are on the exotic side -- say, anything other than the Waite-Smith or a few dozen others of the more popular decks -- you might want to pick up a second copy and stash it somewhere, as the decade or so to come may see a lot of decks drop permanently out of print. 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I love weird tarot decks. The Voodoo Tarot - I don't know the story of Les Barons but they look awesome. And how Mambo is somebody getting decapitated. Loteria is great as well, and there are also all the comedy and political versions of it - Millenial Loteria, Gay Loteria, female versions of male characters (Musician, Soldier, Brave and Drunk), and individual cards like El Troll, El Pendejo and El Maligno.

You could do some great satire with themed tarot decks - imagine the Techno-Utopia Tarot. :)

Ring Cycle Tarot

[(Anonymous)]

You mentioned sometime ago that you had aquired the Ring Cycle Tarot. How is it working out? I have been looking to find a deck suitable for the Norse Golden Dawn project, and I have been eager to know what you think of it.

BTW, I wrote you a lengthy update on the project, but the Mail For Windows 10 app somehow devoured the draft before I could finish it and send it to you, so my apologies for the endless delays. I have been at work teasing out imbalances in the L.B.R.P., and it has been a lot of nitpicking, since I have had to restructure the Tree of Life accordingly as I go along.

I noticed someone asked about it on Magic Monday. No, we are not on hold. Not at all. I will check in once I actually have a day off at home in front of my computer (a rather rare commodity these days...)

Sven

Joint tarot readings

[(Anonymous)]

Very timely suggestion, JMG, as I have just bought me a second Rider-Waite deck (pocket sized this time). This takes the total in the house to four, because my other half also has two decks, all Rider-Waite. (Yes, you can say that we are a bit unimaginative!)

I hope you don't mind if I take this post as an opportunity to ask you a question I had reserved for Magic Monday, but was late to ask this week. It is about the tarot, so it's not too off-topic. What are the implications of doing readings together with someone else?

Often my wife likes to interrogate the cards just before going to sleep, so it happens that once she has spread all the cards on the bed, she starts interpreting, and inevitably ends asking my opinion. So, more often than not the divination is the result of our joint interpretative efforts and not just hers.

What is the occult explanation for the source of the wisdom emerging from the reading? Is it the shared collective unconscious, as opposed to the unconscious of an individual reader? And, is this a more, or less, effective form of divination?

We find the exercise very useful, but I wonder if we shouldn't keep our divinatory activities separated, especially while we are still learning.

Many thanks in advance for your answer.

[violetcabra]

I've been watching this trend for about long as I've been into tarot! This dovetails interestingly with your main blog post. That is, we've seen wild proliferation with tarot decks in the past few decades, and in the next few decades we'll likely be looking at the formation of a tarot canon. Of course I in no means want to downplay the reality that canons are, as you say, always contested and always unfair, and that a lot of beautiful art may be lost forever.

Personally, I favor the Waite-Smith deck and find Pamela Coleman Smith's art to be both exceptionally beautiful and rich to contemplate. That being said, I had been working with the poor print-job of the 1970's deck for the better part of three years before I learned that there is a carefully done centennial version offered by US games. Of course I snatched up a few copies to have in case they become scarce. Some of the reprints of this classic deck are astonishingly poorly executed.

[ecosophia]

No doubt! I tend to take my tarot fairly seriously, though, and at some point will be designing a tarot deck to go with system of magic I covered in The Celtic Golden Dawn.

I know basically nothing about Loteria, other than that it exists; many thanks for the information!

The other deck that I've been working with a lot recently, in a different context, is the Gypsy Witch Oracle deck -- an American cartomancy deck that takes the Lenormand deck and expands it to 52 cards. I had a character show up in the third Weird of Hali novel who reads cards, and rather to my surprise, these were the cards she turned out to read. I'd like to work with an artist sometime to do a new version of the deck.

Re: Ring Cycle Tarot

[ecosophia]

Good to hear from you! The Ring Cycle Tarot is good but it's all Wagner, all the time -- meaning that it has much more to do with fin-de-siecle European romanticism than to classic Norse mythology, and it also requires a good solid knowledge of the operas. Fortunately I have the latter, and so find that I can get very good readings out of it.

I'm delighted to hear that the Gullna Dagrenning project is still on its feet! And I know how email programs are -- I always write long emails on a word processing program and then paste them into email, to avoid that. I'll look forward to your email when time permits.

Re: Joint tarot readings

[ecosophia]

Some people do joint readings with another reader; some people do joint readings with the client -- if you're good at that, the results can be really impressive -- and some people need to do their readings by themselves. In occult terms, the tarot (like all other oracles) taps into sources of knowledge on the inner planes; some people personify these as intelligences, some like to think of them as aspects of the collective unconscious, but two or more people can indeed tap into the same sources, so if it works for the two of you, by all means pursue it.

[ecosophia]

It's true that a lot of beautiful art will be lost forever, but it's also true that a lot of really ugly art will go the same way. Maybe it's just that I'm middle-aged and grumpy, but there are a lot of decks I really won't miss!

The Waite-Smith deck has become the standard tarot deck these days for good reason. Now that the images are out of copyright, there are some possibilities I'll want to explore with the Waite-Smith trumps, in particular, as tools for occult meditation.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you think the exotic decks work for divination? I know someone who uses a similar silly deck for divination and can't seem to make it work, but I'm curious what you think of this. Personally, I think the further the deck deviates from a default, the less likely it is to work for magical purposes, especially if designed by someone who doesn't have any knowledge of the occult.

Vanity Tarots

[https://openid-provider.appspot.com/bryanlallen]

I’m making my way through the Pixie Smith tarot, slowly, per your previous suggestions, My wife, who has a distinct talent for divination through card decks, has in her collection (long but interesting story) a copy of “Tarot de Rajneesh.” It is a sixty-card deck, with the flip-sides of each card having a picture of Rajneesh. Total vanity deck! Not only do the flip sides have this photo, which means the deck telegraphs which side is up on any individual card, but guess who is card #1? Yep, Bhagwan himself! The accompanying LWB says only that card 1 is “The Ultimate.” Hah hah hah hah! I just about split my side when I saw that, since even I knew that card #1 is in all other decks I’m familiar with either The Joker or The Fool! Now there are numerous positive qualities of The Fool, but I think this is a case where this person/guru, being a Jain from India, had no understanding whatsoever of the associations and history of the Tarot and just decided to make himself be “L’Ultime.” Interesting that this deck predicted so much about the creator of the deck.

Re: Ring Cycle Tarot

[(Anonymous)]

I suppose that deck won't cut it, then. Excited to hear about the CGD deck. Of the various decks I've tried, I seem to get the best readings with Philip Carr-Gomm's Druidcraft deck, but I suppose we need something a little more Teutonic. Maybe I'll have to have a look at Manfredl Taraldo's Viking tarot or something along those lines.

Re: Ring Cycle Tarot

[ecosophia]

Something like that might work. I suspect most people in the Heathen scene simply learn runes and call it good, but a tarot deck makes a very useful addition to the toolkit.

[ecosophia]

It really does depend on the individual. I know people who can divine using pretty much any deck you care to name, and could probably give good readings using the Kilted Rubber Chicken tarot; I know others who need very specific features. Me, I need there to be some symbolic depth to the deck; I can get good results with any standard tarot if it's fairly attractive, and I've also had good results from somewhat exotic decks such as RJ Stewart's Merlin tarot and the Ring Cycle tarot, but most of what's out there now might as well be laundry lists in Old High Martian for all the sense I can make of them.

Re: Vanity Tarots

[ecosophia]

I remember seeing that for sale in Seattle back when Rajneesh wasn't yet a has-been! Yeah, that'd be the kind of deck I'd stick in the cupboard purely as a collectible.

[(Anonymous)]

But I'd still assume that standard decks would work better for more people, right? Which would seem to suggest the losing a lot of the more exotic variants might help improve ease of learning magic for a lot of people...

[oakmouse]

"If you have favorite tarot decks that are on the exotic side -- say, anything other than the Waite-Smith or a few dozen others of the more popular decks -- you might want to pick up a second copy and stash it somewhere, as the decade or so to come may see a lot of decks drop permanently out of print."

Excellent advice. During the past 25 years or so, a lot of decks that were commonly available in the 1980s and early 1990s have either vanished from print or become specialty items that you have to order directly from the artist or on Amazon. I really miss several decks that I foolishly let go of and have never been able to replace.

[ecosophia]

Well, there's a difference between learning magic and learning divination! If all you're interested in doing with a tarot deck is learning how to do more or less accurate readings, the exotic decks probably appeal to about as many people as the standard ones. It's when you get into the other uses of a tarot deck, in meditation, pathworking, and so on. that the standard decks really are more useful. Despite the claims of the chaos magicians, every symbol isn't as good as every other symbol; there are things you can do and states of consciousness you can reach using a well-designed esoteric symbolism that are out of reach of rubber chickens.

[ecosophia]

I've had the same experience. I've also clung to certain decks that are now irreplaceable, and extremely useful to have on hand. Jean Beauchard's Tarots Symboliques Maconiques is at the head of that particular pack, but there are others.

Gypsy Witch Oracle

[(Anonymous)]

(Deborah Bender)

I have that deck! I've never tried reading from it, although I have studied the regular Lenormand deck a little. I would be interested in your experiences/opinions of it, now or later.

When I was a child, my parents gave me IIRC The Black Cat Fortunetelling cards, published IIRC by Milton Bradley. I wish I had kept them.

other decks

[(Anonymous)]

I bought my first and second Tarot decks in 1966. The first was the B&W B.O.T.A. deck, by mail order. It came with instructions on how to color the cards. I ignored them because I did not see the point of coloring a deck to someone else's specifications. (I'm like that, which is probably why I do more natural magic than ceremonial magic.)

The next deck I bought in a store. Rider-Waite, the edition with a pink back with an ankh on it. What do you think of that printing? That was and is my main deck. I still have it, although I lost the Six of Wands decades ago and had to replace it from a later edition with a different color scheme; that card has a white back with a stylized gold sun symbol.

I had a Thoth deck for awhile. The artwork was interesting but I didn't take to it for divination, not being wholly onboard with Crowley's world view.

Incidentally, your assertion that in the mid 1970s only four Tarot decks were available is a slight exaggeration. I'm looking at The New Tarot Deck, second edition 1974. Copyright William J. Hurley and J. A. Horler. This is a small black and white deck, with art I like in a woodcut style. For some reason, Swords are Earth in this deck and Circles (Coins, Pentacles) are Air. The symbolism is Neopagan and Wiccan, and a number of the trumps and court cards depict black people, who look entirely at home. This is a good deck. I don't know whether it is still available.

I meditate on Morgan's Tarot sometimes. The box my deck came in says Boulder Creek, CA 95006 on the side, from which I infer that the deck originated in the Santa Cruz mountains. This deck is oracular. It has a specific and quirky flavor, with an outlook of Eastern mysticism and Theosophy filtered through a hippie sensibility, which sounds awful but the deck is deliberately very funny. All the cards may be viewed on a website with sleepbot in the URL (Google Morgan's Tarot), with a paragraph on each card's meaning and a widget to randomly draw up to seven cards. Some cards from this deck come into my mind from time to time, for example, Du Wacky Du, Your Mission Is Not Yet Complete, and From Here On In, It's Nothing But a Downhill Run.

other decks

[(Anonymous)]

I forgot to sign the comment about Morgan's Tarot et al.

Deborah Bender

Re: Gypsy Witch Oracle

[ecosophia]

I find it's about as useful as the Lenormand; the extra cards add a little flexibility and a few nuances. The deck plays a role in The Weird of Hali: Chorazin because that tale draws heavily on Lovecraft and Lumley's The Diary of Alonzo Typer, in which the inevitable cultists belong to one of America's multiracial populations -- like the Melungeons or the Lumbees -- and so I took the opportunity to weave in various bits of American folk culture.

Is the Black Cat deck this one? If so, it looks charming.

Re: other decks

[ecosophia]

I had a copy of the New Tarot Deck back in the day -- it wasn't available in Seattle until the early 1980s, and it's now long out of print. I was fool enough to let go of it -- a pleasant deck.

I've also got a well-used copy of Morgan's "Tarot" -- of course it's not a tarot deck at all, it's an 88-card oracle deck. It's seriously weird but I get reliably good readings with it. "Pigs and Fishes Surround You..."

I don't think I've ever seen the Waite-Smith deck with an ankh on the back. Until fairly recently the standard version, the one I got back in the day and used to tatters, had a diagonal blue plaid pattern on the back.

Re: other decks

[(Anonymous)]

(Deborah Bender)

After posting my second comment, I went online to find out more about editions of the Waite-Smith (aka Rider) deck. I have a post-1960 edition of the University Books edition, which preceded the blue cross-hatched back edition you have. To see what the fronts of three cards look like, go to https://waitesmith.org/index.php/decks/university-books-decks/ and if necessary, scroll down to where it says "1961 onward" and click on that link.

My edition is considered to be closer to the colors of the original 1909 printing than yours. It was the standard version available in the 1960s. Also rarer than yours, because fewer people were reading Tarot that early. The original box and instruction booklet are long gone, but I started keeping the deck in a nice carved wooden box so it's in fairly good shape, except for the card I had to replace (which is from a later printing than the one you own.)

I agree with your assessment of Morgan's Tarot. "Pigs and fishes" is another memorable card, and an encouragement to study the I Ching. For the curious reader, here is the URL I mentioned.
www.sleepbot.com/morgan/

Re: Ring Cycle Tarot

[(Anonymous)]

I suppose most do. Myself, I find tarot indespensible for divination and mostly reserve the runes for a variety of other uses. What, by the way, are your thoughts on the Thoth deck? I know you're not exactly a Crowley fan, but the old sod had his good days, too, I reckon.