Playtarot
July 29, 2003 2:34 PM   Subscribe

PlayTarot -- the major arcana depicted with Playmobil.
posted by me3dia (18 comments total)
 
[this is good]
posted by muckster at 2:37 PM on July 29, 2003


[this is scary]
posted by Grod at 3:26 PM on July 29, 2003


[this is scary]

Why is this scary?

This is scary.

No. On second thought, it too is great.
posted by velacroix at 3:32 PM on July 29, 2003


[this is so wrong]

On second thought, its great.

But why does it look like the Fool is being pushed over the cliff by his dog?
posted by dragonmage at 6:50 PM on July 29, 2003


[this encourages ignorant superstition]

But Playhellboy is pretty cute, velacroix.
posted by interrobang at 7:17 PM on July 29, 2003


hey interrobang, i have a tarot deck that i pull out and play with when i'm trying to write and don't know where to turn. okay, sometimes i use it for divination, too...but there are uses for the tarot that don't directly involve divination. so take that and stick it in your "ignorant superstition".
posted by pxe2000 at 8:27 PM on July 29, 2003


so take that and stick it in your "ignorant superstition".

I've been told this before.
posted by interrobang at 8:36 PM on July 29, 2003


interrobang,

Not that I don't like you, I LOVE YOU. But yes, we can't just throw things like Tarot, the I-Ching, Shamanism, etc. away. They're quite valuable me thinks. Can't kill the soul, even if it is a little fruity. Hell if it wasn't for the fruits we'd never dig ourselves out of the hole the other fruits got us into.
posted by velacroix at 9:46 PM on July 29, 2003 [1 favorite]


i can only hope that you view christianity with the same skepticism with which you view paganism.

big ups to velacroix, though.
posted by pxe2000 at 9:53 PM on July 29, 2003


No offense, !? -- but dismissing a centuries-old system of mystic knowledge with a pithy one-liner is what's ignorant. Both pxe2000 and velacroix's defenses seem sensible to me. The tarot is not only used for divination. There are archetypes and myths encoded in the cards that can be useful and instructive in all kinds of ways. (Yes, Joseph Campbell stuff. I recommend Rachel Pollack's book.) And, as velacroix says, why toss away these ancient beliefs and techniques? As long as nobody start wars in the name of their superstition, what harm? I'd imagine diversity in spiritual practices ought to be healthy.
posted by muckster at 10:14 PM on July 29, 2003



No offense, !? -- but dismissing a centuries-old system of mystic knowledge with a pithy one-liner is what's ignorant.


...I'm not brushing off anything that's centuries old as ignorant as much as I would assert that saying something is automatically worthwhile because it's centuries-old is ignorant.

Phrenology has a rich and fascinating history. So does Greek pedophelia.

The assertion that a thing is good because it has a tradition behind it is a ridiculous one. Just because things have been done for a long time does not make it right. Take cannibalism, for example.

Tarot, though, falls into the same category as astrology: make a system that's capable of making possibly useful statements about anything - to the mind of the viewer - and make them so bland that everyone can agree with them.

If this isn't what you're using tarot cards for, fine. Use them when you're writing to povide yourself with a plot when you're unable to come up with one, or use them to guide you when you can't figure out what to do. As long as you're not the First Wife, it's okay by me.

I'm not saying that anyone in this thread actually believes in tarot. I don't know if you are or not. I'm just saying that these pictures are about as useful as this.
posted by interrobang at 11:28 PM on July 29, 2003


...also, watch out: there is a poster here named... the spirits are talking to me... either !? or ?!. I'm getting a question-mark or an exclamation-point in there, somewhere.

And I don't hate any of you. I love all of you. That's why I hang out around here.
posted by interrobang at 11:36 PM on July 29, 2003


(also, pxe2000, I view this stuff the same way I view christianity and every other religion. I'm even kind of mad at James Randi right now for embracing that stupid "bright" thing.)
posted by interrobang at 11:48 PM on July 29, 2003


What's stupid about the "bright" thing, again?
posted by majcher at 2:35 AM on July 30, 2003


Dude, can't we just admire the sheer coolness of it?

God, this is fantastic. I really should get my Playmobil out.
posted by Katemonkey at 2:50 AM on July 30, 2003


interrobang: fair enough. i have my belief system and my way of getting through my writing, and you have yours. (not to split hairs or anything, but it's a little more complex than "when you're writing to povide yourself with a plot when you're unable to come up with one" -- sometimes one little archetype or image will push you in what could be the right direction.)

katemonkey: do you have the playmobil post office, by any chance?
posted by pxe2000 at 6:35 AM on July 30, 2003


I miss Playmobil! Although the Nazi Playmobil officers are rather creepy.
posted by witchstone at 6:36 AM on July 30, 2003


While I don't believe tarot cards can divine the future, they can be useful.

The tarot cards have a number of pretty universal (especially re: Western thought patterns) that, as interrobang says, can resonate on a generic level with pretty much anybody. That's not useless.

Very often if you're stuck on a problem, it can help to think it through in a different way. So you run out a random assortment of universal symbols run through the filter of the situation in question. The randomness of the system can put different aspects of the problem in a different order than you considered before. Sometimes it helps, just as "sleeping on a problem" can, or talking to an uninvolved third party.

Does it mean that you have to do "what the cards tell you"? No. But it can provide useful insight nonetheless.
posted by Karmakaze at 7:23 AM on July 30, 2003


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