Tarot cards can be wonderfully entertaining and informative and decorative and useful. They can inspire songs and art and sex and machines and all sortsa shit. You can use them for prognosticating, psychoanalyzing, propagandizing, propagating, and parasitizing. You can carry them in your hands, pockets, bodily orifices, almost anywhere. They're much cheaper than therapists and consultants, and give the same results. Groovy!

APPROACHING TAROT

Tarot is a complex, multifaceted realm, with no simple universal consensus. Here are some of the ways you can choose or create a Tarot structure that's right for you:

•  Adopt a tradition. There are many extant traditions involving Tarot practice and symbology - Classicist, Kabbalist, Theosophist, Feminist, Modernist, etc. Study them all and choose the one(s) most suited to you.
•  Adapt a tradition. There are many extant traditions NOT involving Tarot that can be adapted to its use, by appropriating suitable images and meanings. Study them all and choose the one(s) that resonate in you.
•  Create a tradition. There are many aspects of reality and imagination that can be adapted to Tarot forms, by importing appropriate images and doctrines. Study them all and steal whatever works for you.
•  Invent a science. There are many technical-scientific-engineering fields that can be twisted into Tarot structures, by borrowing images and terminology. Study them all and appropriate whatever impresses you.
•  Envision an artform. There are many artistic realms that can be overlaid onto Tarot structures, by manipulating perceptions and inspirations. Study them all and churn out tons of whatever inspires you.

EXPLOITING TAROT

Tarot can be utilized in many ways to benefit yourself and others, maybe. Not all of these ways involve money, power, sex. Bother. Anyhow, consider these possibilities:

•  Predict the past, present, or future. Use the appropriate techniques for laying out and interpreting the cards, based on the doctrines you have chosen. You may or may not choose to extract payment in some form for this service.
•  Analyze people, events, thoughts, feelings. Use the meanings you've assigned to the cards to suggest the significance of any particular phenomenon or entity. Apply tradition, intuition, reason, intimidation, whatever works for you.
•  Meditate on the cards, and your reactions and feelings and inspirations based on the cards. This can be considerably less expensive than psychotherapy, less painful than Yoga, less stressful than self-criticism, and safer than psychedelics.
•  Play games using Tarot cards. Take all bets. Bridge, Bullshit, Strip Poker, War, are just a few of the suitable games. Be careful about cheating, or misusing wild cards — serious damage to the time-space continuum may result.
•  Teach the techniques, doctrines, meanings, rituals of your chosen Tarot structure. Lectures, audio-video recordings, publications, websites, drama, nude encounter sessions -- spread your wisdom to the widest possible audience(s).
•  Produce a wide range of Tarot-related stuff: multi-media productions, new cards and other artistic imagery, trinkets, keyrings, ashtrays, sexual aids, squeeze toys, decorative icons, nightlights, video and arcade and board games, etc.

You needn't be obsessed with Tarot to be able to enjoy and profit grow, although it helps. Even part-time application of Tarot can produce rich rewards. Find your place in the exciting Tarot industry today! Don't wait a minute more! Not one minute!

NOTE: A quick metasearch reveals a shocking paucity of UFO / alien / ET Tarot decks; decks featuring political / economic / ideological /social themes; decks featuring cinema and TV stars and athletes and other celebrities; decks featuring hardcore XXX action; hologram and animated and life-video and audio-video Tarot decks; n-dimensional Tarot decks; decks featuring scientific / engineering / biochemical / technical themes; 20th-century art Tarot decks; etc. The possibilities are endless!

THE MYSTIC PATH

"If the twenty-two cards of the greater arcana, the major trumps, are viewed in sequence... they reveal the theme of Classical Gnosticism remarkable well:

Man's spirit is divine but is imprisoned in a physical body and is ignorant of its divinity (The Fool). A messenger from higher spheres demonstrates his mastery of the material world and therefore proves the existence of something deeper than surface reality. In some accounts (s)he becomes a teacher and companion to the fool (The Magician).

Before liberation can be aspired to, the ruling of the world (represented by The Papess, The Empress, The Emperor, and The Pope) must be withstood and the challenges of everyday existence met and surmounted (The Lovers and The Chariot).

Only when he has attained a degree of maturity can the seeker (The Hermit) commence the journey which will lead him back to his spiritual home. His deliberate introversion (The Wheel of Fortune) demands the overcoming of physical urges (Fortitude) and the reversal of everyday values in a deliberate sacrifice of the lower to the higher (The Hanged Man).

The sublimation of the lower self (Death) leads to an influx of spiritual energy (Temperance) which enables him to defeat the demiurge (The Devil).

This leads to the shattering of his earthly prison (The Tower) and allows the passage of his spirit up through the Heavenly Spheres (The Star, The Sun and The Moon) until he can experience the mystical rebirth (Judgment) and finally merge with the Anima Mundi, the supra-personal Spirit of the World (The World)."

--Alfred Douglas, The Tarot

THE SOFTWARE PATH

Innumerable Tarot decks have been designed and promulgated over the centuries, reflecting concerns that are social, metaphysical, personal, and/or psychotic. My contribution to this oevre is naturally, because of my background in software engineering, the Programmer's Tarot. And as soon as I can dig up my notes, I'll detail it here. [Damn, where did I put that sheet? Stuff is sure piling up here. Keep watching...] Hint: The novice programmer is The Fool, the beta-testers are The Lovers, the project manager is The Devil, stuff like that, if I recall correctly.

TWO YEARS LATER: damn, I still haven't found that list. I know it's here on this desk somewhere...

ANOTHER YEAR LATER: uh, g'z, I guess I'll have to concentrate a bit, try to recreate that list. Maybe some meditation will help. OOOooommmm...

ANOTHER YEAR LATER: Well, it's too late now, someone else beat me to it, and much more comprehensive than my design. See THE SILICON VALLEY TAROT. But that's OK -- now I can work on my DOT.COM TAROT (the 4 suits: BMWs, PDAs, ATMs, IPOs) and the 'BURB TAROT (the 4 suits: Volvos, Barbecues, Dockers, Valiums) and such like. Stay tuned.

SOME TAROT RESOURCES

• Tarot FAQ
• My Tarot-Based SongCycle
• The Pythagorean Tarot
• An Hermetic Origin of the Tarot?
• B.O.T.A. Highlights of TAROT
• Tons of Tarot sites (+more) (+more)
• MetaSearch Tarot History sites
• Playing-Card sites (+more) (+more)
• History Of Playing And Trading Cards
• The Seven Deadly Sins
  
  
• "Aeclectic Tarot is the best tarot deck database online. It lists over 250 decks by category, such as the well-known Rider-Waite Tarot, the classic Thoth Tarot, the remarkable Dali Universal Tarot, and even such self-published gems as the simple Stick Figure Tarot, the questionable Babylon 5 Tarot, the remarkable Curious Tarot, and the mixed-message Rock & Roll Tarot. Reviews and links to order available decks make each entry interesting."   (From MemePool Art)