Rant

I was just over at Paganspace(.net) and someone had posted how the "new" way of seeing Tarot court cards was that Kings could be women and Queens could be men, and it was impossible to tell men from women in a reading because the genders had been removed by the new experts. (Something to this effect)

Well that set me off. Here is my rant. I have been supr busy lately and not posted in a while, so I am reporting here what I wrote there. By the way, the new Tarot podcast will be out in a few days at http://easytarotlessons.podomatic.com/. We will be covering cartomancy (reading with playing cards) and alternate meanings of the court cards, coincidentally enough. Okay, so here is my rant from PS:

We will be discussing that on the next episode of the Tarot podcast--and as for gender abandonment, I have to disagree completely, along with those who refuse to see anything bad in the Tarot. Fluffy bunny readers and politically correct hipsters trying to reform the Tarot is a bad joke. It is like trying to improve the Great Wall of China by carving holes into it so that bunnies and kittens can frolic safely and pass through from one side to the other, in case the grass is greener on the other side. When we look at the Tarot and say "this is a man, and this is a woman," which is how the elders assigned gender to the cards--which ONLY HAPPENS in the court and major arcana cards, it specifies who is doing what. When you remove that ability to discern male from female you end up with a vagueness that is the bane of true psychics.

Faux psychics and bad readers give vague answers that can be applied in any number of ways (their client is left to fill in the blanks later through their own imaginations). De-sexifying the court cards is neutering them. Male is male, female is female. If the cards don't work then we have one of two problems: the system is flawed (or that particular deck is ill-designed), or the reader needs to develop their skills. There is no substitute for genuine ability. The Tarot makes it easy for anyone to read, but it still takes practice and dedication to develop true ability. It is no different than going to the gym. Some people love exercise, some hate it. Some take to psychic exercise while others avoid it in favor of TV.

I understand your frustration. There are so many "instant experts" roaming the planet right now, pop-metaphysicists, "gurus," "coaches," and "law of attraction" experts (like anyone has ever been an expert on the law of anything--most people spend their time trying to bend of break laws, and suddenly this one tiny part of metaphysics is all powerful and popular). There is just so much CRAP (lies) out there right now, and so many people shouting that it is hard to know the truth.

Forget what ANYONE says: Look at the cards. What do you see? Do you see a man? You have a man. Do you see a thief? It's a thief. Occupation can trump gender (if the card represents a thief to you in this reading then that thief can be either male for female, but in a later reading if that card says to you "I am a dishonest man" then it is obviously a male). Character trait can trump gender (the Queen of Swords can be any of these, but not necessarily ALL of them: Leo woman, Leo girl, Any fire sign female, drama queen, attention whore, female athlete, beauty queen, model, female boss, woman entrepreneur, and so on). Most of those specify a woman--but "drama queen" could be a fussy male with serious issues. When you are in the middle of a spread the card will reveal what it is. Generic meanings are only general guides--at best--and each spread, each reading you give, will show cards meaning different things.

If the cards could ONLY indicate 78 meanings they could not possibly illustrate every conceivable event, action, intent, or entity in life. Cards MUST flow and morph as needed, within their structure of meaning.

Anyway, I hope this helps.