{"id":33732,"date":"2011-01-26T13:43:29","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T18:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=33732"},"modified":"2011-01-26T13:43:29","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T18:43:29","slug":"tarot-and-ritual-what-are-your-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/reading-tarot\/tarot-and-ritual-what-are-your-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarot and ritual. What are your thoughts?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free\u00a0tarot spread generator<\/a> using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread.\u00a0This article<\/a> tells you how to use the spread. You can\u00a0visit Sarah’s website here<\/a>. –efc<\/em><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Sarah Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This week, we are taking a trip into the realm of the subjective: the use of ritual when it comes to tarot. By “ritual” I mean the way that tarot readers might approach a reading, the ceremony they attach to it, the paraphernalia they use with it.<\/p>\n

\"Ace<\/a>
Ace of Swords from the Camoin-Jodorowsky Tarot, a restored version of the Marseille Tarot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ask a group of tarot readers about their own particular rituals, and you will get as many different responses as there are participants in the discussion. Some have reading cloths, others use a favourite table, while others still are happy to lay them down on any relatively flat surface. Some keep their cards in the original cardboard box, while others carry them around in a purpose-designed bag or container. Some let others touch their cards; some view their cards as being completely off-limits to anyone else.<\/p>\n

Ask tarot readers what their rituals are, therefore, and you will tend to get responses akin to those above. Ask us why <\/em>we use ritual, and the discussion tends to ramp up a few notches. Or maybe it’s my reaction that ramps up a few notches, because I’ve found that at the basis of every ritual lies a question that smoulders away, refusing to go out:<\/p>\n

What is it all for? Or, more specifically: Is ritual even necessary?<\/p>\n

I ask this not because I have an answer waiting in the wings. I ask it as someone who sits in two camps when it comes to the subject of ritual in tarot. I have a purple cloth embroidered with a silver “om” sign; I keep my cards in a velvet drawstring bag decorated with an image of The High Priestess from the Rider-Waite Smith tarot deck; I tend to shuffle the cards and cut them in a certain way; I am mindful of introducing the subject of the reading with due reverence. And yet I believe that all of this is primarily for my own benefit, and no-one else’s. I don’t believe that the message will be any less accurate without them. Oh, the dichotomy!<\/p>\n

Which is why, today, I’m inviting you to take part by putting forward your ideas and reactions about ritual in the comments section.\u00a0To get the ball rolling, here are the two camps that I am referring to — the two seemingly opposed ideas that, together, start to get those questions smouldering in the recesses of my mind.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A disclaimer: these are by no means the only reasons why someone chooses or doesn’t choose to bring ritual into their readings, but they are a particular interest of mine based on what I have been taught, what I’ve heard and what I’ve read from those in the tarot profession.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Ritual is not only integral to a tarot reading, but necessary. It prepares the reader and clears the psychic space, helping to keep unfavourable influences at bay and thereby maintaining a reading’s integrity.<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Ritual is a fear-based set of objects and practises. It is adopted with the belief that a reading is subject to sabotage by outside influences, when in reality those influences are simply the belief, often unconscious, that there is a separation between reader and the origin of the message. Ritual serves to keep at bay our fear that we are undeserving to receive that message.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I am reminded of the words of a lecturer of mine. She, a seemingly rational psychotherapist and trainer in her seventies, told us how every morning, before she set out for work, she said a little prayer to ask that she not get knocked off her bicycle that day. “I don’t know why I do it! But I’m going to keep doing it, because it’s worked so far.”<\/p>\n

    And now, with not a little trepidation, I’ll open this up for comments!<\/p>\n

    — Sarah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free\u00a0tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread.\u00a0This article tells you how to use the spread. You can\u00a0visit Sarah’s website here. –efc By\u00a0Sarah Taylor This week, we are taking … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}