Oztological Addenda

Tarot part 15

Uses of the Tarot

Of course, the primary usage of the Tarot is to define scenarios in Role Playing Games. As each card has a particularly archetypical set of meanings associated with it, those meanings can form the basis of a scenario.

In a dungeon crawling situation, a single card can be used by the Dungeon Master to define what is in a particular room, based on the DMs past experience in defining rooms.

In a general RPG four cards can be used to define a particular situation that requires resolution. 

The first card would be the general overall context of the situation.

The second card the input, or how to get into the situation.

The third card the modification, or what goes on inside the situation.

And the fourth card the output, or how to get out of, or how to resolve the situation.

As an example.

A forest is entered, it is a labyrinth of paths that must be followed as the forest itself is all tangles and thorns. Those entering come in from the west and intend to exit at the south. They expect that by turning to the right at all junctions, that if there is a south exit, that that is where they will come out. As they proceed they return to a glade that they were in before. That seems impossible to them and they are thoroughly confused. What they do not know is that when they entered the forest it turned inside out and they have been circling around the center. In order to exit they have to seek the center and that will lead them out.

The cards that defined this were

Context = Wheel of Fortune Gee Rainbow  Order from Chaos  Potentials affecting Potentials

Here the wheel or rainbow suggested some kind of circling and the meaning "order from chaos" suggested a gradually improving awareness of what the situation is.

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Input = Judgment Pa Fountain of Oblivion Internal Reflection of Reflection beginnings of beginnings

This suggested that entering the forest would involve the beginning of an unexpected situation rather than the plain old forest that the players had every reason to expect.

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Modification = Knight of Cups AA AA of A Ervic Self Negative of Reflection Rush to challenge. In a contradictory situation sometimes only contradiction is a resolution.

Suggested that the forest turned inside out.

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Output = Queen of Coins UU UU of I Chick the Cherub Self Recursion of Limits Gifts Dependence Generosity Contingency Truth more important than useful appearances

Suggested that the way to get out of the forest was to eventually become aware that it was inside out by being provided with clues to insideoutness

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So much for the major use of the Tarot.

A minor usage that I understand some people have been known to do is to detect present potentials of the future. Sorcery. Of course the future can't be known, because if it were known it wouldn't be the future. It would be a present situation that just hasn't happened yet.

If our world is really quantum rocks careening through space then potential aspects of the future could be detected in a fashion analogous to blindsight. That is a condition of being aware of something without knowing that you are aware of it. In that way the random fall of the cards would serve to bring one's own unknown knowledge into awareness.

On the other hand, if our world is really coagulated recursion, then the Tarot having the non causal structure of reality would, if the cards are chosen at absolute random, reveal the present potentials of the immediate future through virtual causality.