“Right, Right, You’re Bloody Well Right”*
*From Bloody Well Right by Supertramp
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I debated whether to title this essay “The Woo of We-Are-All-One” (in the saccharine spirit of The Tao of Pooh) but decided to leave that cynical observation for the body of the essay.
Current wisdom in the tarot community is that no matter how we read the cards, we (or at least the cards themselves) are never wrong (until the evidence proves us — and them — otherwise), and in that sense everyone has an equal chance of being just as right as everyone else (as long as we nod sagely and don’t try too hard to confuse it with the facts). To my mind, this nonjudgmental attitude manifests the “Woo of We-Are-All-One,” which — unless we take it to the most basic level where we’re all made of the same stuff, breathe the same air, metabolize the same way and excrete the same wastes — is “bloody well” hard to defend in other than purely mystical terms (although Spinoza did make a respectable run at it with his concept of deistic immanence in all things). We may be sympathetic to one another but that hardly makes us interchangeable. I certainly don’t want to be you (unless you’re a multi-billionaire who isn’t a nonagenarian), and there are times when it would suck to be me.
As far as “rightness” goes, it’s always nice to be recognized by the Universe for the puissance of our predictions, but it’s infinitely more useful to be of help to those who seek our advice. I try not to talk to my sitters in terms of “you will or won’t achieve your goal,” but rather “you could” if you do “thus-and-so,” but “you most likely can’t” if you fail to make a reasonable effort along the lines indicated by the cards. Spot-on though the predicted outcome may seem, it’s never a foregone conclusion that it will occur precisely as foretold without a bit of prodding (or, with less-favorable auguries, discouraged through active suppression). In that sense a tarot reading represents an opportunity to make a difference in our own cause and not an oracular “slam-dunk.”
I’ve been chided for striving too hard for accuracy in my readings, but that quest for precision has little to do with being right or wrong; it’s more about interpreting the cards in as meaningful a way as possible from the standpoint of objective reality. Most querents (at least those who have more on their mind than idle curiosity) want something they can latch onto that has a chance of taking them where they’re trying to go. They don’t come to hear about their character or personality, they already know who they are and only want actionable insights from the tarot, not psychological hand-holding.
That seems to be the major failing of most of the popular metaphysics of the social-media era. Another blogger of my acquaintance also uses the term “fast-food tarot” that I coined a few years ago to describe the instant-gratification mentality that permeates much of our modern tarot culture as a subset of the overall 21st-Century mindset. Despite the sunny assurances of YouTube influencers, tarot reading is not a one-size-fits-all panacea for our personal and social ills; at its best it is an uncompromising look at our subconscious underbelly, warts and all. If you don’t want it gritty and real, don’t ask me for a reading.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on September 29, 2024.