An interesting quote about the practice of tarot, which appeared courtesy of Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle’s interview for Chris Kraus’s Kathy Acker biography:
“Tarot is totemic magic,” Geoffrey said. “The cards don’t tell us what will happen: they show us what to do. They are objects to think with. The spread is more a picture than a story. Everything happens at once. There is no empty time. Time with Tarot is not abstract, ambiance or ether. The cards are less psychology or personality than a plan of action. It’s like pulling up a map when you get lost. The cards make time happen.”
Kraus, Chris. After Kathy Acker (p. 168). Penguin Books Ltd.
I don’t belive in Tarot as a divination device, but there’s the seed of an interesting mode of engaging with the practice here. Tarot as a means of forcing a new perspective on the present, then pushing for solutions that were overlooked or require breaking patterns.
It’s been twenty years since my last tarot reading, but I can see the echoes of that practice in a lot of my non-fiction reading.
Case in point: my recent dive into Cliftonstrengths and how they might affect my writing/work life, via Becca Syms Dear Writer… series.
My engagement isn’t founded on any genuine faith in the science underpinning the system, but rather the way a new system offers fresh perspectives on my current practice and work life, and a way of reframing my frustrations.