Crowdsource Tarot
Jun. 7th, 2009 08:14 pmOne of the key functions of Tarot, or other divination decks, is to be a tool by which the Universe can communicate with us by allowing our conscious and unconscious minds to pull order out of chaos, because it is human nature to find patterns, to make associations, to make meaning out of what we perceive. Humans love systems, especially when we are looking for answers.
Some decks facilitate the process by having complex imagery, or rich histories, or a certain aesthetic which lends itself to coming together nicely. Some decks limit themselves by having an unbalanced set of images. Tarot decks which use the traditional imagery but take out the male-energy cards, or the dark cards, frustrate me. Some decks add extra stories: the Egypt Urnash Tarot's 99 of Pentacles tells stories that would be inconceivable to a medieval reader, but are evocative to a modern videogame player. Some decks are limited for reading purposes by tone, such as the Hello Kitty Tarot. Some decks can only be truly read by their creators, such as Maggie Hogarth's Balance Cards.
A good reader can work with anything. I've given readings with the Cat Wisdom deck which people have informed me changed their lives. But the set of images which you have available unquestionably colors the things you can and cannot say.
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bard_bloom and I were joking about archetypes that would be fun to have available in a divination deck, such as Zucchini. Upright, it's obviously an abundance card; reversed, it represents being overwhelmed with the opportunities available to you. And as any of you who have hung around with either of us very much know, we love systems. We love puzzles. And we love randomness with a certain kind of order imposed on it.
So we'd like you to help us. We're going to have this poll up for the next 48 hours. Each person gets one word. Any word. (English language only, please.) We'll take either the first 78 (the number in a traditional tarot deck), or whatever you give us in that time frame if it's fewer than that. We're going to keep the poll unviewable, because we don't want you riffing on each other intentionally or building the patterns in advance. We'll use every idea somehow, though we may combine ones that are similar, or tweak them a little bit. We won't add any new images that don't come from you guys. We may divide things into suits, or number them, or do gods know what with them. We'll try to construct divinatory meanings that make sense for each card. We won't force them into a balanced deck in any traditional sense, though we may balance things that look like they want to do that. When we're done, we will at the very least indulged ourselves in a puzzle, and perhaps amused you. At best, perhaps we'll have built an image of what our community is like, and the kinds of things we want the Universe to talk to us about.
We're writers, not visual artists, so we won't draw the cards for you. But we will describe the images. The output's probably going to look kind of likebard_bloom's Hacker Tarot, unless of course it doesn't.
One word per person. Send your friends. Choose carefully.
ETA: Um, you guys gave us 86 words when we weren't looking. There are some that are similar enough to others that they can probably be combined, but please stop now. :) And...thank you. A lot. You are all awesome, and this is going to be fun.
[Poll #1412603]
Some decks facilitate the process by having complex imagery, or rich histories, or a certain aesthetic which lends itself to coming together nicely. Some decks limit themselves by having an unbalanced set of images. Tarot decks which use the traditional imagery but take out the male-energy cards, or the dark cards, frustrate me. Some decks add extra stories: the Egypt Urnash Tarot's 99 of Pentacles tells stories that would be inconceivable to a medieval reader, but are evocative to a modern videogame player. Some decks are limited for reading purposes by tone, such as the Hello Kitty Tarot. Some decks can only be truly read by their creators, such as Maggie Hogarth's Balance Cards.
A good reader can work with anything. I've given readings with the Cat Wisdom deck which people have informed me changed their lives. But the set of images which you have available unquestionably colors the things you can and cannot say.
bard_bloom and I were joking about archetypes that would be fun to have available in a divination deck, such as Zucchini. Upright, it's obviously an abundance card; reversed, it represents being overwhelmed with the opportunities available to you. And as any of you who have hung around with either of us very much know, we love systems. We love puzzles. And we love randomness with a certain kind of order imposed on it.So we'd like you to help us. We're going to have this poll up for the next 48 hours. Each person gets one word. Any word. (English language only, please.) We'll take either the first 78 (the number in a traditional tarot deck), or whatever you give us in that time frame if it's fewer than that. We're going to keep the poll unviewable, because we don't want you riffing on each other intentionally or building the patterns in advance. We'll use every idea somehow, though we may combine ones that are similar, or tweak them a little bit. We won't add any new images that don't come from you guys. We may divide things into suits, or number them, or do gods know what with them. We'll try to construct divinatory meanings that make sense for each card. We won't force them into a balanced deck in any traditional sense, though we may balance things that look like they want to do that. When we're done, we will at the very least indulged ourselves in a puzzle, and perhaps amused you. At best, perhaps we'll have built an image of what our community is like, and the kinds of things we want the Universe to talk to us about.
We're writers, not visual artists, so we won't draw the cards for you. But we will describe the images. The output's probably going to look kind of like
bard_bloom's Hacker Tarot, unless of course it doesn't.One word per person. Send your friends. Choose carefully.
ETA: Um, you guys gave us 86 words when we weren't looking. There are some that are similar enough to others that they can probably be combined, but please stop now. :) And...thank you. A lot. You are all awesome, and this is going to be fun.
[Poll #1412603]
