They're not, they're distinct concepts that are commonly found expressed in religious practices but are not in of themselves spiritual. I'm sorry I'm genuinely confused as to what you're saying.
I'm saying you're way too attached to this and it may be worth exploring, in your own time. This is like if someone latched on to your SN and assume you're into the dark arts and Loki is your patron.
They work as excellent prompts for introspection and for helping you to see connections you might have missed before. The output can ofc be entirely non-sensical but if everyone involved is aware they are simply cards then that isn't really an issue, you just laugh about it and move on.
It's like rubber ducking in programming really, but for whatever issue you "ask" the cards.
In the meme the scenario is made up and we don't know if the two individuals believe the cards can be used for something spiritual or not, but it's just a meme anyways so it doesn't really matter.
Thank you! That's roughly what I thought, I appreciate the explanation. I wonder what the rate of spiritual vs. "secular" use of tarot is, I certainly see it treated with a degree of sincerity far more often than not, but there's a large number of more abstractly spititual people in my social cricles and I assume that's not the norm.
I read Tarot as a mild hobby - I love collecting decks and paraphernalia and then using them. But for me it's like any other creative impetus randomizer machine (scenes from a hat in improv, the artists way, oblique strategies...) - you pull a series of images and then talk about how it makes you feel.
And I wholeheartedly respect that - I know people who view it as a means to enable meditative reflection on their actions, and people who hold to the messages in the cards as truth from the universe. But either way you should be straight with your friends when you see them making a bad call.
I mean, if they're doing what the meme depicts, they've probably already had that conversation in a straightforward way. It does say "the 8th time" after all. If someone is repeatedly asking for your advice and then ignoring your advice, I think a little snark is reasonable.
That's certainly a valid interpretation - though in that case I'd question why they're resorting to snark while continuing to treat with their friend on the issue.
There is no implication that the previous times the subject used tarot to convince the person to stay in their relationship. If anything it's the opposite.
I don't mean to say that they dirrctly convinced them to stay in the relationship - I mean that they spent seven sessions giving their friend a reading and even on the 8th time, with a clear deeply held opinion, they are hiding their actual feelings behind the concit of a card game. They need to speak up and express their concerns to their friend directly, not attempt subtly hint to their friend via the mechanisms of chance.
If you actually want them to do something, just tell them, don't enable them to keep convincing themselves to stay in a bad situation by being disingenuous with them like this.
It's literally relying on a message written in the cards to convey your feelings to them - the entire premise of the joke is about not being direct with your friend.
The meme wants to say that they are trying to tell their friend to dump him and after 7 times of their friend not getting it (or not noticing that getting relationship advice 7 times is not a good sign for the relationship) they need to spell it out directly.
But they didn't get real relationship advice, they asked for a card reading. That their own uncertainty in the relationship has lead them to consult an outside force 8 times is my whole point - if you are giving them readings, at some point you are in part responsible for not speaking up and instead allowing them to convince themselves to stay in that relationship. You are the one aiding their interpretation of the cards - you are, at the very least through your inaction by not directly confronting them, helping them to convince themselves to stay.
But they did speak up see the meme and holy shit it’s only a meme don’t read so much into it. It’s just supposed to be a joke about someone too dense to get the hint.
Spelling words with cards is not directly telling them to do something (or directly expressing yourself at all), and my one sentence criticism of a religious practice that started this is barely taking something too seriously. The previous comment was simply to clarify my position, since you misunderstood what I was saying.
It is perhaps the people leaping to defend the poor behavior in the meme that are taking it too seriously - why feel the need to be defensive over the criticism of behavior in a meme in the first place?
Divination will never tell you to do or not do something. They're really not tools for reading the future so they don't prescript behavior they just describe a scene.
A horrible dark reading can easily be misconstrued if you're lying to yourself. Hence the joke.
Even among people who take their cards "seriously" they aren't religious in nature. It's that "I'm spiritual, not religious" line because there's basically no religion that's welcoming to Tarot.
It's a hundreds year old Italian & French card game that has a reputation. You can play standard card games like War and Go Fish with tarot and you can lay a reading with Grandma's bridge deck.
Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, ethics, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements—although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.
It is not a spiritual practice or religious belief because of the deck of cards it uses - it's because tarot reading is a supernatural means of generating prophecies.
I don't disagree? While I doubt there are many who truly believe in the prediction of punxsutawney phil, it would absolutely be a spiritual or religious observance/ritual for those that do.
87 Comments
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 198d
The card you pull:
Maeve@kbin.earth · 4 pts · 198d
https://artofcartomancy.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-joker.html?m=1 đź¤
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 197d
Accidentally read "pump"
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 198d
Maybe... you should say that to your friend, instead of using your shared religious beliefs that convince them to stay in a shitty relationship...?
WillStealYourUsername@piefed.blahaj.zone · 25 pts · 198d
tarot cards don't have to be religious/spiritual.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 198d
Genuinely I would love to understand your perspective - how are they not a religious practice?
Maeve@kbin.earth · 11 pts · 198d
Jungian archetypes and shadow work reflection prompts.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 198d
I'm not sure how the presence of ideas promoted by Jung or the concept of guided self-reflection are at all mutually exclusive with religious beliefs.
Maeve@kbin.earth · 9 pts · 198d
I don't see how they're wedded.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 198d
They're not, they're distinct concepts that are commonly found expressed in religious practices but are not in of themselves spiritual. I'm sorry I'm genuinely confused as to what you're saying.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 198d
Then you just answered your own question. You really are confused, it's okay to admit it.
Maeve@kbin.earth · 2 pts · 198d
I'm saying you're way too attached to this and it may be worth exploring, in your own time. This is like if someone latched on to your SN and assume you're into the dark arts and Loki is your patron.
WillStealYourUsername@piefed.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 197d
They work as excellent prompts for introspection and for helping you to see connections you might have missed before. The output can ofc be entirely non-sensical but if everyone involved is aware they are simply cards then that isn't really an issue, you just laugh about it and move on.
It's like rubber ducking in programming really, but for whatever issue you "ask" the cards.
In the meme the scenario is made up and we don't know if the two individuals believe the cards can be used for something spiritual or not, but it's just a meme anyways so it doesn't really matter.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 197d
Thank you! That's roughly what I thought, I appreciate the explanation. I wonder what the rate of spiritual vs. "secular" use of tarot is, I certainly see it treated with a degree of sincerity far more often than not, but there's a large number of more abstractly spititual people in my social cricles and I assume that's not the norm.
athatet@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 197d
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 197d
Why do you care?
athatet@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 197d
Why the fuck do you care? It’s a public forum.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 197d
It is indeed a public forum - and you're policing how other people engage with it.
athatet@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 197d
I am not. I never told you what to do or not do. Just pointed out what you were doing.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 197d
If the point was not to criticize the behavior, why post a meme that presents that behavior in a reductive and highly sarcastic way?
athatet@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 197d
You’re literally doing the same thing with the meme I posted to you lmao
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 198d
I read Tarot as a mild hobby - I love collecting decks and paraphernalia and then using them. But for me it's like any other creative impetus randomizer machine (scenes from a hat in improv, the artists way, oblique strategies...) - you pull a series of images and then talk about how it makes you feel.
it's not spiritual at all for me.
Apytele@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 197d
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 198d
And I wholeheartedly respect that - I know people who view it as a means to enable meditative reflection on their actions, and people who hold to the messages in the cards as truth from the universe. But either way you should be straight with your friends when you see them making a bad call.
OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 197d
I mean, if they're doing what the meme depicts, they've probably already had that conversation in a straightforward way. It does say "the 8th time" after all. If someone is repeatedly asking for your advice and then ignoring your advice, I think a little snark is reasonable.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 197d
That's certainly a valid interpretation - though in that case I'd question why they're resorting to snark while continuing to treat with their friend on the issue.
Tywele@piefed.social · 12 pts · 198d
How is saying „dump him“ convincing them to stay in the relationship?
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 198d
The seven other times they didn't say it and the friend remained in the relationship.
FishFace@piefed.social · 13 pts · 198d
There is no implication that the previous times the subject used tarot to convince the person to stay in their relationship. If anything it's the opposite.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 198d
I don't mean to say that they dirrctly convinced them to stay in the relationship - I mean that they spent seven sessions giving their friend a reading and even on the 8th time, with a clear deeply held opinion, they are hiding their actual feelings behind the concit of a card game. They need to speak up and express their concerns to their friend directly, not attempt subtly hint to their friend via the mechanisms of chance.
If you actually want them to do something, just tell them, don't enable them to keep convincing themselves to stay in a bad situation by being disingenuous with them like this.
FishFace@piefed.social · 7 pts · 198d
Laying out the cards like this is not hiding your actual feelings.
Do you realise the post is a joke?
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 198d
It's literally relying on a message written in the cards to convey your feelings to them - the entire premise of the joke is about not being direct with your friend.
FishFace@piefed.social · 7 pts · 198d
Writing "dump him" is directly saying "dump him" my friend.
Tywele@piefed.social · 13 pts · 198d
The meme wants to say that they are trying to tell their friend to dump him and after 7 times of their friend not getting it (or not noticing that getting relationship advice 7 times is not a good sign for the relationship) they need to spell it out directly.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 198d
But they didn't get real relationship advice, they asked for a card reading. That their own uncertainty in the relationship has lead them to consult an outside force 8 times is my whole point - if you are giving them readings, at some point you are in part responsible for not speaking up and instead allowing them to convince themselves to stay in that relationship. You are the one aiding their interpretation of the cards - you are, at the very least through your inaction by not directly confronting them, helping them to convince themselves to stay.
Tywele@piefed.social · 7 pts · 198d
But they did speak up see the meme and holy shit it’s only a meme don’t read so much into it. It’s just supposed to be a joke about someone too dense to get the hint.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 198d
Spelling words with cards is not directly telling them to do something (or directly expressing yourself at all), and my one sentence criticism of a religious practice that started this is barely taking something too seriously. The previous comment was simply to clarify my position, since you misunderstood what I was saying.
It is perhaps the people leaping to defend the poor behavior in the meme that are taking it too seriously - why feel the need to be defensive over the criticism of behavior in a meme in the first place?
Zos_Kia@lemmynsfw.com · 2 pts · 197d
Divination will never tell you to do or not do something. They're really not tools for reading the future so they don't prescript behavior they just describe a scene.
A horrible dark reading can easily be misconstrued if you're lying to yourself. Hence the joke.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 197d
That's interesting, thank you!
hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 198d
They are about as religious as a paper fortune game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_fortune_teller
Even among people who take their cards "seriously" they aren't religious in nature. It's that "I'm spiritual, not religious" line because there's basically no religion that's welcoming to Tarot.
It's a hundreds year old Italian & French card game that has a reputation. You can play standard card games like War and Go Fish with tarot and you can lay a reading with Grandma's bridge deck.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 198d
It's all the same magical thinking that's ruining the fucking planet
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 198d
I am aware of what Tarot is - to quote wikipedia:
It is not a spiritual practice or religious belief because of the deck of cards it uses - it's because tarot reading is a supernatural means of generating prophecies.
hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 197d
So is the Groundhog:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/02/groundhog-day-2026-shadow-results/88393885007/
We read prophecies all the time. They made a whole industry out of betting on such things.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 197d
I don't disagree? While I doubt there are many who truly believe in the prediction of punxsutawney phil, it would absolutely be a spiritual or religious observance/ritual for those that do.
FosterMolasses@leminal.space · 1 pts · 131d
Bwahahaha this is perfect