The history of Tarot Cards According to History
+:::::{#historyoftarot .has-images}
+An +hypothesised and randomly factual History of Tarot Cards
+What follows is the story of a deck of cards and of all the +more-or-less believable claims that were made about its origin. This +brief history was complied following sources that attempted accurate +historic recalling instead of the most commonly shared semiotic, +occultist story. However, despite all efforts all the found sources +told a convoluted story due to the misinterpretation of age, sources and +authorship common in any ancient text on magic and mysticism (Dummett, +1993). As such, the following text will recall the disproven stories +that were told about the origin of Tarot, some factual sourced material +and a modern description of its usage.
+When we talk about Tarot cards we are talking about a deck of playing +cards composed of ten numeral cards and four court cards(Jack, Knight, +Queen and King) for each of the suits, Swords, Batons, Cups and Coins. +Alongside these more common cards Tarot includes 22 ‘trump’ cards with +allegorical illustrations. The trumps form a sequence, usually numbered +from 1 to 21, with the single card of the Fool being separated (Decker, +Depaulis & Dummett, 1996).
+This specific deck of cards’ history begins at the bottom of a well +in Norther Italy, in the 1440s, where we place its first appearance in +history. From there we can easily find links to the common usage of +these cards in Norther Italy, from Milano to Bologna e Ferrara (Steele, +1900). These cards, initially called Trionfi and then +Tarocchi are thought to have been intended to be used for card +games, regardless of their occasional usage in future-telling (Dummet, +1993). This finding helps us trace a factual beginning of Tarot but +leaves an open question to how these cards gained their place as the +primary tool used in modern occultism and mysticism for cartomancy.
+
+
+While this is where the story began to intricate itself, it can still +be seen that the first wide spread future-telling uses appeared in +France in the 18th century.
+At this point the history of tarot beings to be influenced by what +each fortune teller imagined the history of the cards to be. To fully +disclose this I will first attempt to estimate the most notable +occultists that used the cards and wrote historical notations about +their deviance and then the stories they told about them.
+The first encounter we have between Tarot and magical theory and +practice happens in the Monde primitif, an incredibly long +essay about Tarot cards written in 1781 by Antoine Court de Gébelin. +With this text, the pastor began what would be the endless repository of +arcane esoteric wisdom within Tarot that will follow the cards for +generations (Chisholm, 1911). In this text, Gébeling attributed the +cards’ origin to ancient Egypt, a theory that is to this day shared as +truthful. This belief was based on an erroneous link to “The Book of +Thoth”, an ancient Egyptian text about magic that is believed to have +been spread through Europe by Romani people. This belief was then +substantiated by a similar essay by the by the comte de Mellet(Decker, +). Promptly, a Parisian fortune teller named Jean-Baptiste Alliette, +professionally known as Etteilla, having found these theories, adapted +the esoteric view of the cards to his own uses. He switching his own +practice from traditional French piquet cartomancy to the use of a +self-made Tarot card deck. This deck was based on the previously shared +Hermetic ideologies and was named “The Book of Toth”(same).
+
+
+The next fundamental spin that was given to the cards’ background was +down by Éliphas Levi, another French esotericist. Levi repudiated +Etteilla’s theory and integrated a version of the cards that was closer +to the original to his own Cabalistic magical system. However +historically mistaken was Levi’s understanding of the cards’ travel from +Egypt to Judea into Jewish tradition, it nonetheless revolutionised the +cards in ways that live on till today. His Cabalistic theory about signs +being letter, letters being absolute ideas and absolute ideas being +numbers can be seen in even modern iterations of tarot.
+From here on over, Tarot’s journey speeds up as the cards leave +France and become absorbed into new esoteric movements like +Swedenborgianism, Mesmerism and spiritualism (Decker, Depaulis & +Dummet, 1996).
+Before we make a jump through time to the next biggest relevant +development of Tarot, I will share the last of the three false +widespread theories about the origin of Tarot, the first two being Egypt +and Judaism(despite its influence in modern tarot).
+This last theory is harder to trace back to one esoteric influence, +but nonetheless claims a Chinese origin to the cards. Most likely, this +is due to the similarity with the I Ching, a divination manual from +around 1000 BC. The manual was grounded in cleromancy, the production of +random numbers to predict divine intention. However, there is no +traceable connection between Chinese cleromancy and Tarot divination. +Modern analyses of Chinese Tarot divination draw direct correlation +between Western occultism and Tarot divination, leaving little room to +imagine any direct causation starting from China (Fu, Li, Lee, +2002).
+For the purpose of this recalling but unsurprisingly for those +familiar, the next big step will bring us to the late19th century in +Britain, in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn was a +secret society devoted to occult Hermetic Kabbalah and one of the +largest single influences on Western occultism as a whole (Jenkins, +2000). While the society itself had a wide curriculum, including +astrology, alchemy and geomancy(soil divination), our only concern at +the moment is with their links to Tarot cards.
+In 1909, two mystics and members of the Golden Dawn, A.E. Waite and +Pamela Colman Smith published with the Rider Company a deck of re-made +Tarot cards based on the society’s magic system. These cards, later +known as the Ride-Waite Tarot(Dean, 2015). This deck was based on the +Sola Busca deck, with symbolism being taken from Levi’s descriptions and +Egyptian and Christian symbolism. This deck has become the paradigm and +touchstone through which modern occultists think of Tarot. Between the +distribution of this deck and the use of the cards in the Golden Dawn, +it became axiomatic among followers many traditions of mysticism that +the Tarot is an essential component of any occult science.
+
+
+Nowadays, Tarot is emblematic and incredibly wide spread as the most +common future-telling method and device. Thousands and thousands of +different formats exist, often falling under the category of Oracle +cards and as such not having the clear formatting rules of Tarot but +still implicating divination and self-reflection through the +interpretation of allegorical illustration.
Some Gossip on gossip
+:::::
+Colophon
+Photography and Illustration
+Unless otherwise stated, all photography and illustrations in this +publication are created by the same authors as the text. That which is +below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that +which is below, to do the miracle of one only thing.
+Digital Tools
+This book was created with the help of a collection of not-so-small +and extremely sharp open source tools, to name a few; paged.js, pandoc, +pdfimpose, pdftk, and our darling demon inkscape. So was the world +created. From this are and do come admirable adaptations where of the +means is here in this.
+###Printing and Binding Just lil old us.
+Fonts
+Work Sans by Wei Huang. Consolation by us.
+That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished +and ended.
+:::::
+rituals_archive will go here
He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes; he
-who dreams of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While he is
-dreaming he does not know it is a dream, and in his dream he may even
-try to interpret a dream. Only after he wakes does he know it was a
-dream. And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that
+ Introduction The last trimester was an attempt to understand the notions of games
+and rituals. Instead of introduction we will try to unravel this
+mysterious journey as well as keep questioning and collaging. We mapped the common characteristics and the differences between the
+latter in relation to ideology and counter-hegemony. We practiced,
+performed, annotated rituals that were connected (or not) with our
+cultural backgrounds while we questioned the magic circle. We dived into
+the worlds of text adventure games and clicking games while drinking
+coffee and talked about class, base, superstructure, (counter)hegemony,
+ideology, materialism. We discussed about how games and rituals can
+function as reproductive technologies of the culture industries. We
+annotated games- focusing on the role of ideology and social
+reproduction. We reinterpreted bits of the world and created stories
+with it (modding, fiction, narrative) while focusing on community,
+interaction, relationships, grief and healing. The eventual product of this process is a console, a magical object,
+a wooden container, a promising healing. How the unpacking of notions of
+games, rituals, ideology, superstructure in relation to the
+witch-hunting can become the midwiferies of a healing box? How practices
+of heal and care can work as counter-hegemonic acts that can cure and
+liberate our souls and bodies from patriarchical and capitalistic
+fetters? We didn’t manage to provide you with comprehensive and solid answers
+or conclusive statements. The truth is that this wasn’t our plan. Our
+intention was to create openings for debate or even conflict, to map a
+territory, to invite those who would like to join us. “What if you are playing tetris and the tetris gods give you
+something apart from the usual seven tetrominoes, like an unexpected
+pregnancy or the end of capitalism?”,(Steven) Starting with rituals we can claim that they can be understood as
+instruments in the struggle for the exercise of power. Organized by
+repetition, they (re)connect the individual to the collective,
+creating a vision towards a given perception of society. Participation
+in this creative act is determined by several factors, for example, a
+ritual’s function, its relationship to hegemonic power, a collective’s
+politics and objectives, etc. *“Ritual is a means of performing the way things ought to be in
+conscious tension to the way things are in such a way that this
+ritualized perfection is recollected in the ordinary, uncontrolled,
+course of things. Ritual relies for its power on the fact that it is
+concerned with quite ordinary activities, that what it describes and
+displays is, in principle, possible for every occurrence of these acts.
+But it relies, as well, for its power on the fact that, in actuality,
+such possibilities cannot be realized.(Smith,1980)*” “Ideology talks of actions: I shall talk of actions inserted into
+practices. And I shall point out that these practices are governed by
+rituals in which these practices are inscribed, within the material
+existence of an ideological apparatus(...)Ideas have disappeared as such
+to the precise extend that it has emerged that their existence is
+inscribed in the actions of practices governed by rituals defined in the
+last instance by an ideological apparatus”,(Althusser,1970) Similarly, videogames create worlds. Often, those worlds mirror our
+own, reproducing certain ideals and values as norms through their
+narrative, game play, design. This trimester we explored world-building
+characteristics found both in rituals and videogames. We critically
+considered those worlds, identifying the key points and elements through
+which specific videogames and rituals circulate political, cultural and
+social values. While this world-building might be interpreted from an
+angle of implicit and explicit bias rooted in hegemonic values, we
+investigated the generative, creative possibilities of such
+characteristics. “The main task of mass culture is to create, reproduce, and
+manage particular kinds of subjects — workers, consumers, individuals,
+citizens —required for current conditions. To perpetuate their own
+existence, mass media must succeed at representing the violent coercion
+of capitalist systems as natural laws: Of course you have to pay rent to
+live inside; of course you have to buy food to eat; of course you have
+to work if you want to survive. The production of a fungible, disposable
+and migratory working class requires the alienation and atomization of
+communities into individuals, which involves destroying the village,
+kinship structures, indigeneity, and many other previous forms of
+meaning-producing structures, leaving a gap which ideology must fill.
+While the fundamental structures of domination — racism, patriarchy,
+heterosexuality, etc. — form the bedrock of this ideological apparatus,
+the complexity of the always expanding and changing capitalist system
+requires an equally flexible set of subsidiary tools capable of rapidly
+adjusting ideology en masse. In general, media emerge not to meet the
+demands or desires of individual users but to accommodate what the
+predominant mode of production requires.”,(Osterweil,2018) Our intention was to look into rituals and their overlap with video
+games as a way to explore "forbidden" or otherwise lost knowledge erased
+by oppressive systems (e.g. witch hunts). Understanding games and
+rituals as gateways to alternative ways of relating to Nature, each
+other and (re)production of life, labour, etc, we played together by
+writing fan fiction and spells, developing rituals, analysing and
+creating games together. “Sims as just social reproduction: some values are certainly
+given by the game (make money to buy nicer things, progress in your
+career by doing tasks that improve your skill, charisma is a skill but
+not kindness) , but also ideology is put into the game by the player.
+The player chooses what to reproduce and often share in the "gallery" or
+on social media. Community being so important in this game then means
+that the crux of the social reproduction is happening when the choices
+you have made in the game are broadcasted. Did you create a
+heteronormative white thin nuclear family that made a lot of money? or
+did you choose to play differently?“,(Ada) “The Communist Party of Second Life (CPSL) aims to be a Marxist,
+internationalist and revolutionary organization for all communists in
+Second Life. The CPSL aims to spread understanding of Marxism among SL
+citizens, to organise support in SL for the class struggle in RL,
+including all struggles of the working class against imperialism and the
+bourgeoisie, its state and wars.”,(Lydia) “The act of the modder’s appropriation of the pre-existing game
+is also similar to Michel de Certeau’s cultural ‘poaching’.De Certeau’s
+everyday bricolors make do with remixing the privatized spaces and
+products of consumer society that they find themselves inhabiting and
+using. Rather than being passive consumers, ordinary people invent
+varied subversive tactics for stealing back the given of everyday life.
+De Certeau writes, ‘Everyday life invents itself by poaching in
+countless ways on the property of others’.”(Schleiner,2017) Meanwhile, we went through the witch as a magical practicioner, as a
+resisting body, a border figure. “Federici presents the witch”as the
+embodiment of a world of female subjects that capitalism had to destroy:
+the heretic, the healer, the disobedient wife, the woman who dared to
+live alone, the obeha woman who poisoned the master’s food and inspired
+the slaves to revolt.” Behind the witch hunt, she uncovers a joint
+effort by the Church and the state to establish mechanisms of gendered
+control of bodies that immanently resisted newly instituted regimes of
+productive and reproductive work”(Timofeeva,2019). “Sorcerers have always held the anomalous position, at the edge
+of the fields or woods. They haunt the fringes. They are at the
+borderline of the village, or between villages. But sorcerers not only
+exist at the border: as anomalous beings, they are the border itself. In
+other words, the borderline passes through their bodies.”,(Deleuze,
+Guattari,1980) How the understanding of the witchs’ hunting that happened a few
+centuries ago in relation with the figure of the witch as marginal,
+rebellion entity can shed light on the contemporary witch-hunting. How
+this knowledge can provide us with tools of empowerment, emancipation,
+resistance and make us reimagine counter-hegemonic practices of
+collective care and healing? Console is an oracle; an emotional first aid kit that helps you help
+yourself. Console invites you to: open the box and discover ways of
+healing; Console provides shelter for your dreams, memories and worries. Face the past and encounter your fortune. Console gives you a new vantage point; a set of rituals and practices
+that help you cope and care(of yourself and of the others) Console asks everyday questions that give magical answers. Console invites you to self reflect, explore your subconscious, spin
+the wheel of fortune (and pick a card), explore what is possible beyond
+what is obvious, guide you into... [the future and past], creates
+stories … ::::: They who dream of drinking wine may weep when morning comes; they
+who dream of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While they are
+dreaming they do not know it is a dream, and in their dream they may
+even try to interpret a dream. Only after they wake do they know it was
+a dream. And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that
this is all a great dream. And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Zhuàngzi Zhuàngzi 莊子 Have you ever woken up feeling like there is a word, at the tip of
your tongue, in a language you don’t quite understand? It’s the same feeling you may have felt when a dream has left too
@@ -101,6 +402,8 @@ these patterns. You may also choose your own path, disregard what I said and make
your own game, read old or future dreams or even play the lottery. The
tools are now in your hands. ::::: On Rituals and Traditions What is a ritual? And tradition? What makes
+a ritual “ritual” and how does it differ from the traditions? Or are the
+two the same thing? What do rituals and traditions mean through the lens
+of culture, location and time? These and other questions we asked
+ourselves and one another during the first few collaborative sessions of
+this Special Issue. For hours, we kept talking and reading about the
+commonalities and differences between the two. There’s a lot to explore!
+We went down memory lane and shared a lot of memories, childhood
+recollections, and personal stories. Perhaps, dear reader, you have your
+thoughts on this too? But let’s enter a parallel universe! On Game and Play What is a game? And play? What makes a game “game”
+and how does it differ from the play? Or are the two the same thing?
+What makes a game? It is the rules, the limitations, or perhaps the wins
+and losses. Do you really need to win in order to play? Or were you
+being played? To try to answer some of these questions we read and
+annotate collectively the chapter “Defining Games” of the book ‘Rules of
+Play - Game Design Fundamentals’ by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. What
+we discovered was that games and rituals alike are the gateways to
+alternative ways of relating to Nature, each other and (re)production of
+life. We played together by writing fanfiction and spells, developing
+rituals, and analysing and creating games together. What emerged as a
+tangible result from all these discussions is this experimental
+publication you are holding in your hands right now. We named it
+Console. Transition to the weekly rituals: Another thing that came out of our
+first two sessions was the ONE SENTENCE RITUAL. Each week for 6 weeks in
+a row, we wrote down a ritual of our own and took turns in performing
+the ritual from the list. Coffee fortune-telling, Hard drive
+purifications, Collective eating, Sound meditations, and Talking to
+Worry dolls, made us reflect on the content of the week and on our lives
+also. The Wheel of Fortune (not to be mistaken with the tarot card) is a
+tool for self-inquiry that you, dear reader, can engage in a daily,
+weekly or any frequency that suits you best. Beware, the game can be
+played individually or in small groups. The main components of the game are a virtual spinning wheel,
+accessible via this link here https://issue.xpub.nl/20/wheel, a deck of
+20 photo slides, a notebook, and a pen(cil) to store the potential
+insights you might find for yourself. To start the exercise, you need to visit the website on their devices
+and spin the virtual wheel. The Wheel of Fortune spins for quite some
+time, and then it gives you a random question. Take these questions as
+an invitation to an explorative conversation with yourself. The list of
+404 questions is carefully collected, modified (where needed) and
+presented to you through a random web generator. Psychotherapists,
+philosophers, writers, and students from XPUB 2023 are among the authors
+of this long list of sentences ending with “?”. Another collection that can help you delve deeper into your inner
+world is a deck of photo slides. Hopefully, these captured memories of
+other people, paired with a random question on the screen, would evoke
+new emotions or prompt you to imagine possible futures. The use of collective resources in this piece highlights the power of
+collaboration in creating works that encourage people to engage in
+self-reflection and introspection, making it a valuable addition to any
+art publication that explores the human experience. The use of collective resources in this piece highlights the power of
+collaboration in creating works that encourage people to engage in
+self-reflection and introspection. As such, it may contribute to any art
+publication exploring the human experience. Courtesy to: Casey Horner (https://unsplash.com/@mischievous_penguins) Reference list: “The Myth of Normal. Trauma, Illness, & Healing
+in a Toxic Culture’, by Dr Gabor Maté Nadia Piet and Sandra Reeb-Gruber,
+https://nadiapiet.com/know-thyself/ The School of Life WNRS, We’re Not
+Really Strangers Excerpt from the 404 Questionnaire: What do you want? Why do you do
+what you do each day? What do you think you’re here for? What are you
+doing with this day, today? What are you searching for? What are you
+looking at? Have you learned something new today? This week? What
+filters would you apply to your mood right now if it was an analogue
+film frame? Is this what you really want to do or it is your way of
+delaying your realisation? What would your day look like if you were a
+pirate? If you could be any animal for a day, which one would you choose
+and why? If you could be any animal for a day, how would you experience
+the world differently? Do you speak horse language? (wild question) If
+you were Kim, who would that person be? (wild question) What does your
+body need today? What does your mind need today? What does your soul
+need today? If your life was a treasure hunt, what would you be
+searching for? What is your personality? What would a person that loves
+you tell you if know you’re suffering? If you were in search of a new
+identity, what clues would you need to find it? If you could see the
+world through the eyes of any animal, which one would you choose and
+why? If you were a pirate, what kind of treasure would you be searching
+for? If you were a pirate, what obstacles would you face on your
+journey? If you owned a boat, to which destination you would go first
+and why? Think of your favourite food. How does it make you feel when
+looking at it? And when eating it? What is one “yes” that you’ve been
+ignoring lately? What advice would you give to someone else who is
+experiencing loss? What emotions have you been experiencing lately? How
+has my relationship with others changed in the last 5 years? How have my
+thoughts and beliefs about life and death changed in the last 5 years?
+What positive memories can you hold on to about a person you’ve lost?
+What activities or hobbies bring me comfort in times of grief? How can
+you take care of yourself during difficult times? What were the 6 things
+you wanted to be when you were a kid? What is time? How can you describe
+it? What is beauty? How can you describe it? What is happiness? How can
+you describe it? What is love? How can you describe it? What is faith?
+How can you describe it? What is hope? How can you describe it? What is
+fear? How can you describe it? What is play? How can you describe it?
+What is a ritual? How can you describe it? What is a game? How can you
+describe it? How does your body feel when you are in pain? How does your
+body feel when you are in love? How does your body feel when you are
+anxious? Do you talk negatively to yourself? Are you mean to yourself?
+If yes, why? If not, also why? Think of all your past partners. What are
+some qualities and traits they had in common? Is sex usually the best
+aspect of a relationship or the worst for you? What do your friends say
+about your partners? Did you ever have any kind of unwanted touch from a
+friend, a partner or a family member? Did you ever have any kind of
+unwanted touch from a stranger? What does sex mean for you? How does sex
+make you feel? What words, metaphors or images do you associate with
+sex? What is your attitude towards your body? Do you have any tendencies
+for self-sabotage, procrastination or self-doubt? Have you tried to get
+advice, help or guidance from professionals? Do you sometimes feel like
+a victim? How much sex is normal for you? Were your first sexual
+experiences positive or negative? How did you learn about sexuality?
+What are your values around sexuality? What losses have you experienced
+in your life, and how have you coped with them in the past? What
+self-care practices can you incorporate into your daily routine to help
+you cope with grief? What self-care practices can you incorporate into
+your daily routine to help you cope with anxiety? What new perspectives
+have you gained about life as a result of loss in the past? What
+triggers your feelings of grief, and how can you manage them when they
+arise? How has your sense of identity been affected by a loss? How can
+you stay connected to someone you lost even though they are no longer
+physically present? What role does forgiveness play in your healing
+process after experiencing loss? What can you do to take care of your
+physical health during times of grieving? How can you create a support
+network that will help you through difficult times? What have your
+friends taught you about friendship? What have your friends taught you
+about life? What have your friends taught you about love? What have your
+parents taught you about friendship? What ideas have changed your life?
+What subconscious behaviours are keeping you from the life you want? In
+which direction has your life expanded in the last five years? Are you
+afraid of being who you truly are? Have you adapted to a certain way of
+thinking? Do you suppress your feelings? Have your thoughts been chosen
+for you? Who do you trust? Why? Have you forced yourself to forget
+something painful? What is art for? i deleted it woops. i want to write a paragraph about my mindfulness
@@ -775,12 +1233,86 @@ of grief and seeks ways to cope with grief and ease himself. He tries
different rituals throughout this process, builds his new identity and
overcomes his troubles.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+✧ Preface
+✧ Preface
Documentation
+of Games and Rituals, Kick off sessions
+We
+are looking at rituals and their overlap with video games as a way to
+explore “forbidden” or otherwise lost knowledge erased by oppressive
+systems.
+
+
The Wheel of Fortune
+a tool for self-inquiry
+
+
+
+
+