THE
ARCANE
ARCHIVE
a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.


TOP | OCCULTISM

The Lord of the Rings Tree of Life

To: alt.astrology,alt.tarot,alt.magick,alt.divination,alt.magick.tyagi
From: glass@panix.com (Robert Scott Martin)
Subject: Re: The Lord of the Rings Tree of Life
Date: 21 Jan 2003 13:48:27 -0500

In article ,
nagasiva   wrote:

[Kitsch Divination: The Sgt Pepper Tarot]

>do you think that such constructions can yield the mysteries
>of the universe in novel form? or are their cutting edge
>qualities too much to connect with tradition?

My first response would be to downplay the value of "novelty" or
"tradition" in favor of intimacy. I think these types of kitsch pop
divination systems provide an extremely intimate vehicle for communicating
their content -- since the target audience already has a fan attraction to
the imagery, the learning curve is smoothed into something approaching a
straight line. If I give a 10-year-old girl in 1978 a Sgt Pepper deck, 
it should speak to her intuitively. If I give her a Therion deck, she's 
going to have to do a lot of homework before the deck starts speaking to 
her.

But that's on the level of engineering the communicative channel, the 
way the pipeline connects the user into the divinatory system. On the 
level of architecture, it helps to build channels back into "tradition" -- 
the Pepper deck, for example, was basically a Thoth structure only 
starring the Bee Gees -- to allow your users to participate in 
meta-conversations with users of other (variant and "standard") decks. The 
more robust these channels are, the better chance your audience has to 
establish itself within the larger field.

The "novelty" inherent in the idiosyncratic deck or divinatory lexicon is 
mainly of interest to me as it relates to the individual user, not the 
larger field of past and present users. That is, if a deck resonates with 
(possesses "intimacy") a user, then it is communicating information that 
is novel TO THE USER. If you haven't seen it, it's new to you, and the 
world is created anew again. 

That said, the formal restrictions operating in these kitsch decks do
generate novelty by deforming the "traditional" structure (or model) to
fit the materials at hand. The Pepper deck, for example, highlighted the
love story elements of the arcana because those were the snapshots I had
to work with -- the initiatory journey from zero to twenty-one became
something more like Snow White, complete with the death of the maiden (and
not a male initiate) in the middle.

Works a lot like the process of doing a reading, only concentrating on a
different level of the process. "Novelty" (the specific cards drawn) is
always interacting with "tradition" (the received symbolic universe or
deck), and the reader resolves the interaction to create an "intimate"  
explanation for the deal, an interpretation of the moment (spread/novelty)  
in terms of the general (deck/tradition) that makes sense
(intimacy/meaning).

The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org.

Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small
donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site.

The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories,
each dealing with a different branch of
religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge.
Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit:
interdisciplinary: geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness
occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells
religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo
societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc.

SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):

Search For:
Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase

OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST

Southern Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo, including slave narratives & interviews
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice by cat yronwode: an introduction to African-American rootwork
Lucky W Amulet Archive by cat yronwode: an online museum of worldwide talismans and charms
Sacred Sex: essays and articles on tantra yoga, neo-tantra, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
Sacred Landscape: essays and articles on archaeoastronomy, sacred architecture, and sacred geometry
Lucky Mojo Forum: practitioners answer queries on conjure; sponsored by the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Herb Magic: illustrated descriptions of magic herbs with free spells, recipes, and an ordering option
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers: ethical diviners and hoodoo spell-casters
Freemasonry for Women by cat yronwode: a history of mixed-gender Freemasonic lodges
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church: spirit-led, inter-faith, the Smallest Church in the World
Satan Service Org: an archive presenting the theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists
Gospel of Satan: the story of Jesus and the angels, from the perspective of the God of this World
Lucky Mojo Usenet FAQ Archive: FAQs and REFs for occult and magical usenet newsgroups
Candles and Curios: essays and articles on traditional African American conjure and folk magic
Aleister Crowley Text Archive: a multitude of texts by an early 20th century ceremonial occultist
Spiritual Spells: lessons in folk magic and spell casting from an eclectic Wiccan perspective
The Mystic Tea Room: divination by reading tea-leaves, with a museum of antique fortune telling cups
Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
Yronwode Home: personal pages of catherine yronwode and nagasiva yronwode, magical archivists
Lucky Mojo Magic Spells Archives: love spells, money spells, luck spells, protection spells, etc.
      Free Love Spell Archive: love spells, attraction spells, sex magick, romance spells, and lust spells
      Free Money Spell Archive: money spells, prosperity spells, and wealth spells for job and business
      Free Protection Spell Archive: protection spells against witchcraft, jinxes, hexes, and the evil eye
      Free Gambling Luck Spell Archive: lucky gambling spells for the lottery, casinos, and races