The tarot is a really cool tool to learn. Learning the history, meaning, and internal significance of the symbols and archetypes present in the cards exposes you to the untalked about undercurrent of esotericism and superstition in the “western world”. We tend to think of “western” civilization as one built on rationalism and reason, but the reality is that a lot of the “age of reason” was developed to justify the mission of the age of colonization.
Western European Mysticism was supposedly suppressed and lost first during the rise of Christianity, then the “age of reason”, and finally at the birth of the modern nation state. This is of course not the case. We all still have a sense of the power of the moon and the subtle vibe shifts during the changing of the seasons. How many people partially define the experience of autumn by the blending of potent (pumpkin) spices that evoke memories and emotions, and how is that different from a spell?
So the tarot. Once you get a feel for the symbols and patterns of the cards, you can begin to mash these archetypes and symbols together by shuffling a deck and drawing a couple cards. Looking at the two distinctive symbol sets and forming a connection is where the magic starts. You are suddenly confronted with not just both archetypes, but also the ways your mind connects them. Pausing and seeing what those connections are, why you made them, and what that says about how you understand and feel about the archtypes, that is the power of tarot.
A long time ago, I don’t really remember when, I began to see my photos the same way. I went to a setting, snapped a bunch of images. Days, weeks, or months later, I would sit down and edit the images. There is meaning to be drawn from the exposure and there is an entirely different layer of understanding and meaning that can be seen in the final edit of the image. I do my best to confine my discernment to the period between the shutter snap and editing. Letting myself pick which raw files to process.
When I’m really cooking, I spend a lot of time writing about the end result “photos”. That is the tarot reading. I see the composition and try to understand the mood or headspace I was in. I see how I edited the image and see the same. Then I see them together and I see not just a photo, but a progression. I then take a step back and connect certain images together and find new meanings and understandings through how I connect them.
I’ve often call this “photographing the unconscious”.
There are different ways of looking at the tarot, but all of them involve the creation of meaning through a combination of chance and the experience you bring with you. I choose to treat it as an opportunity to learn and understand new things about my perspective. By doing so I’m given the gift of the opportunity to explore what changing that perspective might show me.
I’ll admit that these kinds of pursuits have not always been the best for my mental health or made me the most coherent person to talk with late into the night, but I do feel like it has made my life much richer. Applying these ideas to my photography has led me to despair as often as it has to joy. Regardless of which, it has taught me new things and helped me better understand myself.
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