Comments on: Playtarot

Playtarot

me3dia — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 14:34:09 -0800

PlayTarot -- the major arcana depicted with Playmobil.

By: muckster

muckster — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 14:37:09 -0800

[this is good]

By: Grod

Grod — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 15:26:42 -0800

[this is scary]

By: velacroix

velacroix — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 15:32:17 -0800

[this is scary] Why is this scary? This is scary. No. On second thought, it too is great.

By: dragonmage

dragonmage — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 18:50:34 -0800

[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?

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 19:17:56 -0800

[this encourages ignorant superstition] But Playhellboy is pretty cute, velacroix.

By: pxe2000

pxe2000 — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 20:27:04 -0800

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".

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 20:36:00 -0800

so take that and stick it in your "ignorant superstition". I've been told this before.

By: velacroix

velacroix — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 21:46:03 -0800

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.

By: pxe2000

pxe2000 — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 21:53:10 -0800

i can only hope that you view christianity with the same skepticism with which you view paganism. big ups to velacroix, though.

By: muckster

muckster — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 22:14:06 -0800

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.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 23:28:40 -0800

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.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 23:36:27 -0800

...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.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 23:48:05 -0800

(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.)

By: majcher

majcher — Wed, 30 Jul 2003 02:35:08 -0800

What's stupid about the "bright" thing, again?

By: Katemonkey

Katemonkey — Wed, 30 Jul 2003 02:50:41 -0800

Dude, can't we just admire the sheer coolness of it? God, this is fantastic. I really should get my Playmobil out.

By: pxe2000

pxe2000 — Wed, 30 Jul 2003 06:35:14 -0800

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?

By: witchstone

witchstone — Wed, 30 Jul 2003 06:36:39 -0800

I miss Playmobil! Although the Nazi Playmobil officers are rather creepy.

By: Karmakaze

Karmakaze — Wed, 30 Jul 2003 07:23:34 -0800

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.