The Truth of Tarot Reading

Hello and welcome to “rewilding philosophy” - your newsletter about ^ekophilosophical health for our times.

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There are many roads that lead to ^ekoPhilosophical health, and many traditions that we can draw on, like stoicism, existentialism, ubuntu, buddhism, yoga, Christianity, or Wicca. While some may debate the differences between philosophy and religion, I think the differences between a philosophy and a religion are not worth arguing about. Or maybe they are, but I am not particularly interested in making this distinction. In my view, both philosophy and religion should assist us in questioning, rethinking, and consciously shaping our lives, including our cosmology, ontology, epistemology, ethics, axiology, anthropology, social imaginary and áskesis, which simply means ‘exercise’ or ‘training’ in ancient Greek. These choices ideally result from a bouquet of knowledge sources, such as scientific, experiential, indigenous, procedural, perspectival, participatory etc.

What I sense is that people who lean towards different traditions also tend to rely on different sources of knowledge. For example, Stoics may favor scientific knowledge, whereas Wiccans may lean towards experiential or intuitive insights. This diversity in sources can lead to different blind spots for each tradition.

Many philosophies that shaped my own outlook, have predominantly emphasized rational thought and scientific insights. That’s why I am interested in exploring magic more deeply.

Measuring magic

Magic isn't a philosophy per se but rather a practice or belief system that can intersect with philosophical concepts. I'm not keen on debating the reality of magic or how science either supports or refutes it. Although research on this is fascinating, I believe it reinforces the prevailing notion that only measurable phenomena are significant. In doing so, we overlook the potential value of magic, which lies in offering alternative ways of understanding that don't necessarily adhere to scientific explanations.

I find this challenging. I am strongly influenced by the belief that measuring things is the most reliable way of understanding, which makes me skeptical of anything outside that framework. Yet, I've had personal experiences that don't fit neatly into scientific explanations but still feel undeniably real to me.

The tragedy of my Tarot reading

On the day I initiated my "healing, hexen, and hummingbirds" project, I conducted my first-ever Tarot reading for myself by drawing cards for the “hero’s journey”. A beautiful card deck by Kim Krans I had bought just a few days prior. The results - without wanting to go into detail as it seems too personal at this point to share on the internet - blew my mind and how I had to make sense of the reading seemed so obvious to me. It felt like I didn’t have to try to make sense of it, but the sense making forced itself on me, it was that obvious.

My inclination about the Tarot reading is to judge it as a bias and mere story that my mind makes up, a lens through which I see magic as “an aspect of our psyche, free from the grasp of our egos”.

As discussed in my previous writing, I find the lens “magic is real and nonphysical” the most interesting one to take, while at the same time realizing that “it’s a complete lot of rubbish; but somehow it also seems to work.” (Ronald Hutton).

So what would that mean for my Tarot reading?

The insights gleaned from the cards suggest significant changes in my life, changes that I'm hesitant to embrace. These changes not only seem irrational to me, but I also have a gut feeling that I am currently at the right place at the right time.

If I were to regard magic as "genuine and nonphysical," would this entail trusting the cards despite my rational objections and gut instincts?

Should I prioritize what the cards reveal over the insights provided by my gut and analytical mind?

My analytical reasoning may be influenced by a lifetime of societal conditioning regarding what's considered right or wrong. Following the guidance of the cards would require embracing a departure from the norm. Additionally, my individualistic upbringing has instilled in me a reliance on making independent decisions and trusting my judgment. Turning to the cards for advice though is advice from an external perspective. Placing trust in the cards implies surrendering some of my agency. It reminds me of people giving away their agency to God by accepting the their fate while the Titanic was sinking, instead of trying to find a way to survive (at least in the movie). Overcoming the believe and trust in my own agency feels like a whole new nut to crack.

And then there is my gut feeling. Maybe my gut just wants to keep me safe and thus dreads taking a risk that’d be far out of my comfort zone.

And lastly, I drew cards for the hero’s journey, so of course I am going to reject the call. What else would I expect?

Making sense of magic

So where does that leave me?

At this moment, I am opting for a cautious approach. I will heed the advice from the cards without rushing into significant changes. Instead, I plan to integrate certain aspects into my life that align with the cards' guidance, introducing them gradually. After all, the era of the solitary hero appears to be a thing of the past anyways.

I want to integrate magic as a different path of knowing. However, this doesn't imply that I wish to rely solely on it. And completely changing major parts of my life just as an experiment seems a bit too ambitious for a research project.

While I acknowledge the appeal of completely embracing magic or other mystical ideologies, I perceive it as a regressive step towards animistic cultures if uncombined with other ways of knowing. While I do believe animistic cultures hold incredible valuable truths, I also believe that analytical thinking in general and particularly the past ca. 600 years since the scientific revolution also hold incredibly valuable truths.

"There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil." Alfred North Whitehead

Our mind is more than our analytic processes. It creates meaning and symbols and creativity. As Heidegger pointed out it’s symbols, and cultural practices that shape our understanding of reality. His idea of “Dasein” emphasizes that human existence is not reducible to mere rational analysis. Dasein encompasses the totality of human existence, including our emotions, desires, and lived experiences.

The philosopher and philosophical counsellor Luis de Miranda writes that

“there are three complementary and effectual domains of intelligence, namely analytic, dialectic, and crealectic, being alternatively or complementarily used in human interactions with the world. The focus of crealectic intelligence is the relative possibilization and local realization of absolute possibility, the becoming real, biological, and social of creation.”

I will write more about his ideas around crealectics another time. What I want to point out here is that he acknowledges those other forms of knowing, forming our various forms of intelligences. It’s not hard to see that in the WEIRD world (western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic), we reward analytic intelligence, reenforced through rituals of analysis, such as scientism. Heidegger argues that rituals and cultural traditions mediate our experience of the world and influence our interpretations of it. Of course we tend to see the world through that lens. How then, would reintroducing magic as a cultural practice alter our perceptions? How has it already begun to shape my own intelligences?

What I don't want to do is to disregard scientific and rational thought. I think magic can actually be more influential if approached with the same logical rigor applied elsewhere. The potential lies in the combination of these different ways of approaching reality and - in combination - they offer a less foolish understanding of it. The clearer we see, the more  ^ekophilosopically healthy we become.