Book, No Book . . . or Pure “Glorp”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: There is endless debate in the online tarot community over whether studying tarot literature is of any value when reading the cards from an entirely intuitive or psychic perspective, or whether it merely impedes fluency. It has come up again on one of the Facebook pages I frequent and, although I’ve covered it in previous essays, I was pointed toward an old Aeclectic Tarot forum thread that adds weight to the discussion.
https://www.tarotforum.net/threads/books-vs-no-books.89767/
The main contributors to the exchange were Scion and Umbrae (both long-gone from Aeclectic by the time it folded in 2017), while another departed alumnus, Splungeman, started the thread and provided some key content. What it came down to after 17 pages of posts is that believing one can be applied without the other creates a “false schism;” ultimately, a well-rounded reader needs both “book-learning” and powerful instincts (Splungeman acknowledged that many people have a problem with the term “intuition” [as do I] so he changed it to the invented word “glorp,” meaning a “certain special something” that permeates non-literal interpretation; personally, I opt for experience and well-honed instinct backed up by inspiration, imagination and ingenuity.) My own comment on “glorp” — before I knew its history — in a much more recent conversation (which nobody but me seemed to find amusing) was “We could say that ‘glorp’ is just glop but a little juicier. I ate plenty of glop while in the Army. ‘Glorp’ is what it became when you found you couldn’t keep it down.” I think they were offended by my relating their cherished expression to vomit. Oh, well . . .
But this is a profound question that deserves a serious answer. Tarot books furnish the traditional wisdom and core knowledge that serve as “training wheels” for the mystical aspirant. It is of course possible to dive right in and start slinging predictions based on free-association from the images, but the first time the intuitive reader is at a loss for insight there is nothing to fall back on, no interpretive bridge to carry them over the “bog of confusion,” little that is substantive enough to keep the monologue rolling. I envision them sitting with their mouth agape, staring lamely across the table at an expectant querent. Not a good place to be for maintaining one’s professional credibility. The neophyte should really learn the ropes before attempting a high-wire act with no safety net, especially in a public setting.
In describing these future casualties of the “tarot train-wreck,” I like to put on my best derisive Cheech Marin Tex-Mex accent and say “We don’t need no steenking books!” I’m assuming they’ve chosen not to read any of the published material, but in thinking about it — given the current state of secondary education — maybe they simply can’t; they’ve become addicted to getting their information from “sound-bites” on YouTube, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the talking-head “influencers” who are shoveling that stuff haven’t read much either, so it becomes a case of “the blind leading the blind.” Slip either one a copy of Aleister Crowley’s Book of Thoth and watch their head explode, with disgorged “glorp” flying everywhere!
Aerial “glorp” conjures up a mental image of Monty Python’s “budgie” sketch, with its “huge flocks of soiled budgies” — having previously been flushed down the loo and then breeding in the sewers — “flying out of people’s lavatories, infringing their personal freedom.” (For the YouTube crowd, a “budgie” is a parakeet in England.) When I was a kid we had an especially nasty one (a vicious little “nipper”) but I never considered flushing it down the toilet, so we just sort of ignored it to death as kids who lose interest in their non-interactive pets tend to do, which is amply demonstrated by a trail of dried-up turtles and belly-up goldfish. (They were all unfortunate victims of the compromise between my mother and father over non-shedding domestic animals.) Hey, it’s been said that there is nothing in the world crueler than a little boy; I and my four brothers can vouch for that.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.org on February 14, 2025.
