ÒStudyingÓ Tarot — The Thursday
Night Tarot Way
When I hear a phrase like
Òstudying a subject,Ó I am immediately reminded of school. ÒMarking periodsÓ
were six weeks long. At the end of each marking period we got a Ògrade.Ó We often
took our report cards home with fear and trembling, anticipating a lecture
about how we must do better. Often we wanted to hide our report cards, but
our parents had to sign the report cards before we brought them back to school.
The Thursday Night Tarot is not that kind of studying.
Jason Lotterhand
once said, ÒThe purpose of education is to make us useful to society. The
purpose of metaphysics is to get all the cows [us humans] out of the barn at
night so they [we] can look up at the stars.Ó
Just look at the pictures.
At each meeting of The
Thursday Night Tarot, there are three posters up. One has the 22 cards of the
tarot major arcana, 4Ó x 7Ó size, arranged as in the Tarot Tableau. Here is the
arrangement. Numbers are the numbers on tarot cards, so 0 = The Fool, 1 = The
Magician, etc.
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|
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0 (The Fool) |
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|
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
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8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
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|
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
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Another poster has an enlarged
image of the tarot card we are focusing on. The third is a large color image of
the cabalistic Tree of Life. Look these up on the internet
if you are unfamiliar with them.
ÒTarot exists to evoke thought,Ó Jason liked to say. He did not expand on this
sentence. His eyes sparkled. A smile appeared on his face. ÒThe rest is up to
each of us,Ó he seemed to say.
Of course, there is an
unending amount that can be learned. Some schools of tarot have optional proficiency
tests. Others have mandatory tests. Some give out certificates –
certifying people as experts, masters, and so forth.
The Thursday Night Tarot
operates differently. You donÕt have to attend a certain number of times. You are
under no obligations. As Arisa Victor has often said,
ÒIÕd like it if the same people came to each class and IÕd like it if they came
every week.Ó Then she added with a laugh, Òbut thatÕs not how it works.Ó Arisa also said that Jason told her, ÒThe Thursday Night
Tarot works because each person leading it does it in their
own way.Ó
ÒWhereÕs the discipline in
that?Ó people have asked. The discipline lies in the fact that we are each
pursuing these studies for no other purpose than to be doing so. We are not
pursuing these studies for fame, for gain, for certificates, to impress our
friends, or for any other reasons. A ÒclassÓ is a word we sometimes use for an
evening gathering, but no traditional class with a test or a Òpop quizÓ is
implied. So join us, have fun, write, call, join our email correspondence, and
later in 2020 – hopefully – we will meet again in person.
All are welcome to our tarot
adventures as a central focus or combined with other philosophies, schools of
metaphysics, and spiritual traditions.