I read Tarot as a mild hobby - I love collecting decks and paraphernalia and then using them. But for me it’s like any other creative impetus randomizer machine (scenes from a hat in improv, the artists way, oblique strategies…) - you pull a series of images and then talk about how it makes you feel.
And I wholeheartedly respect that - I know people who view it as a means to enable meditative reflection on their actions, and people who hold to the messages in the cards as truth from the universe. But either way you should be straight with your friends when you see them making a bad call.
Even among people who take their cards “seriously” they aren’t religious in nature. It’s that “I’m spiritual, not religious” line because there’s basically no religion that’s welcoming to Tarot.
It’s a hundreds year old Italian & French card game that has a reputation. You can play standard card games like War and Go Fish with tarot and you can lay a reading with Grandma’s bridge deck.
Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, ethics, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements—although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.
It is not a spiritual practice or religious belief because of the deck of cards it uses - it’s because tarot reading is a supernatural means of generating prophecies.
They’re not, they’re distinct concepts that are commonly found expressed in religious practices but are not in of themselves spiritual. I’m sorry I’m genuinely confused as to what you’re saying.
So your assertion is that I should understand that it’s not a religious practice because… it shares traits with many religious and nonreligious practices.
I’m sorry, I don’t think in this case that the confusion is due to a fault on my part :/
I’m saying you’re way too attached to this and it may be worth exploring, in your own time. This is like if someone latched on to your SN and assume you’re into the dark arts and Loki is your patron.
I was attempting to explore this by engaging with the person who made the assertion directly when you engaged with me, though. If you don’t want to be here, you’re welcome to leave? Alternatively I welcome an explanation instead of a fairly rude dismissal.
(Also I am an open satanist - their conclusion would not be incorrect, which is in part why I chose this username)
Divination will never tell you to do or not do something. They’re really not tools for reading the future so they don’t prescript behavior they just describe a scene.
A horrible dark reading can easily be misconstrued if you’re lying to yourself. Hence the joke.
The meme wants to say that they are trying to tell their friend to dump him and after 7 times of their friend not getting it (or not noticing that getting relationship advice 7 times is not a good sign for the relationship) they need to spell it out directly.
But they didn’t get real relationship advice, they asked for a card reading. That their own uncertainty in the relationship has lead them to consult an outside force 8 times is my whole point - if you are giving them readings, at some point you are in part responsible for not speaking up and instead allowing them to convince themselves to stay in that relationship. You are the one aiding their interpretation of the cards - you are, at the very least through your inaction by not directly confronting them, helping them to convince themselves to stay.
But they did speak up see the meme and holy shit it’s only a meme don’t read so much into it. It’s just supposed to be a joke about someone too dense to get the hint.
Spelling words with cards is not directly telling them to do something (or directly expressing yourself at all), and my one sentence criticism of a religious practice that started this is barely taking something too seriously. The previous comment was simply to clarify my position, since you misunderstood what I was saying.
It is perhaps the people leaping to defend the poor behavior in the meme that are taking it too seriously - why feel the need to be defensive over the criticism of behavior in a meme in the first place?
There is no implication that the previous times the subject used tarot to convince the person to stay in their relationship. If anything it’s the opposite.
I don’t mean to say that they dirrctly convinced them to stay in the relationship - I mean that they spent seven sessions giving their friend a reading and even on the 8th time, with a clear deeply held opinion, they are hiding their actual feelings behind the concit of a card game. They need to speak up and express their concerns to their friend directly, not attempt subtly hint to their friend via the mechanisms of chance.
If you actually want them to do something, just tell them, don’t enable them to keep convincing themselves to stay in a bad situation by being disingenuous with them like this.
It’s literally relying on a message written in the cards to convey your feelings to them - the entire premise of the joke is about not being direct with your friend.
Within the premise of the meme it’s relying on the cards to tell them for you, and aside from that no matter how you frame it it’s not sitting down to directly express yourself. My criticism is about not engaging with them directly over time, allowing them to stay in what (to the presumed author here) is a detrimental relationship because of your own previous unwillingness to engage with them directly.
Maybe… you should say that to your friend, instead of using your shared religious beliefs that convince them to stay in a shitty relationship…?
Why do you care?
Why the fuck do you care? It’s a public forum.
It is indeed a public forum - and you’re policing how other people engage with it.
I am not. I never told you what to do or not do. Just pointed out what you were doing.
If the point was not to criticize the behavior, why post a meme that presents that behavior in a reductive and highly sarcastic way?
You’re literally doing the same thing with the meme I posted to you lmao
That doesn’t answer my question but raises the further one that if you didn’t want me to engage with it, why did you post it in the first place?
I might even ask, why do you care?
I read Tarot as a mild hobby - I love collecting decks and paraphernalia and then using them. But for me it’s like any other creative impetus randomizer machine (scenes from a hat in improv, the artists way, oblique strategies…) - you pull a series of images and then talk about how it makes you feel.
it’s not spiritual at all for me.
And I wholeheartedly respect that - I know people who view it as a means to enable meditative reflection on their actions, and people who hold to the messages in the cards as truth from the universe. But either way you should be straight with your friends when you see them making a bad call.
They are about as religious as a paper fortune game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_fortune_teller
Even among people who take their cards “seriously” they aren’t religious in nature. It’s that “I’m spiritual, not religious” line because there’s basically no religion that’s welcoming to Tarot.
It’s a hundreds year old Italian & French card game that has a reputation. You can play standard card games like War and Go Fish with tarot and you can lay a reading with Grandma’s bridge deck.
It’s all the same magical thinking that’s ruining the fucking planet
I am aware of what Tarot is - to quote wikipedia:
It is not a spiritual practice or religious belief because of the deck of cards it uses - it’s because tarot reading is a supernatural means of generating prophecies.
tarot cards don’t have to be religious/spiritual.
Genuinely I would love to understand your perspective - how are they not a religious practice?
Jungian archetypes and shadow work reflection prompts.
I’m not sure how the presence of ideas promoted by Jung or the concept of guided self-reflection are at all mutually exclusive with religious beliefs.
I don’t see how they’re wedded.
They’re not, they’re distinct concepts that are commonly found expressed in religious practices but are not in of themselves spiritual. I’m sorry I’m genuinely confused as to what you’re saying.
Then you just answered your own question. You really are confused, it’s okay to admit it.
So your assertion is that I should understand that it’s not a religious practice because… it shares traits with many religious and nonreligious practices.
I’m sorry, I don’t think in this case that the confusion is due to a fault on my part :/
I’m saying you’re way too attached to this and it may be worth exploring, in your own time. This is like if someone latched on to your SN and assume you’re into the dark arts and Loki is your patron.
I was attempting to explore this by engaging with the person who made the assertion directly when you engaged with me, though. If you don’t want to be here, you’re welcome to leave? Alternatively I welcome an explanation instead of a fairly rude dismissal.
(Also I am an open satanist - their conclusion would not be incorrect, which is in part why I chose this username)
How is saying „dump him“ convincing them to stay in the relationship?
The seven other times they didn’t say it and the friend remained in the relationship.
Divination will never tell you to do or not do something. They’re really not tools for reading the future so they don’t prescript behavior they just describe a scene.
A horrible dark reading can easily be misconstrued if you’re lying to yourself. Hence the joke.
That’s interesting, thank you!
The meme wants to say that they are trying to tell their friend to dump him and after 7 times of their friend not getting it (or not noticing that getting relationship advice 7 times is not a good sign for the relationship) they need to spell it out directly.
But they didn’t get real relationship advice, they asked for a card reading. That their own uncertainty in the relationship has lead them to consult an outside force 8 times is my whole point - if you are giving them readings, at some point you are in part responsible for not speaking up and instead allowing them to convince themselves to stay in that relationship. You are the one aiding their interpretation of the cards - you are, at the very least through your inaction by not directly confronting them, helping them to convince themselves to stay.
But they did speak up see the meme and holy shit it’s only a meme don’t read so much into it. It’s just supposed to be a joke about someone too dense to get the hint.
Spelling words with cards is not directly telling them to do something (or directly expressing yourself at all), and my one sentence criticism of a religious practice that started this is barely taking something too seriously. The previous comment was simply to clarify my position, since you misunderstood what I was saying.
It is perhaps the people leaping to defend the poor behavior in the meme that are taking it too seriously - why feel the need to be defensive over the criticism of behavior in a meme in the first place?
There is no implication that the previous times the subject used tarot to convince the person to stay in their relationship. If anything it’s the opposite.
I don’t mean to say that they dirrctly convinced them to stay in the relationship - I mean that they spent seven sessions giving their friend a reading and even on the 8th time, with a clear deeply held opinion, they are hiding their actual feelings behind the concit of a card game. They need to speak up and express their concerns to their friend directly, not attempt subtly hint to their friend via the mechanisms of chance.
If you actually want them to do something, just tell them, don’t enable them to keep convincing themselves to stay in a bad situation by being disingenuous with them like this.
Laying out the cards like this is not hiding your actual feelings.
Do you realise the post is a joke?
It’s literally relying on a message written in the cards to convey your feelings to them - the entire premise of the joke is about not being direct with your friend.
Writing “dump him” is directly saying “dump him” my friend.
I seriously doubt I would consider you my friend.
Within the premise of the meme it’s relying on the cards to tell them for you, and aside from that no matter how you frame it it’s not sitting down to directly express yourself. My criticism is about not engaging with them directly over time, allowing them to stay in what (to the presumed author here) is a detrimental relationship because of your own previous unwillingness to engage with them directly.