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Fluffy Bunny Tarot vs. Blind Oracle.

I had a conversation a while back with someone who questioned the appropriateness of some of the more violent and gruesome images in The Isomorphic Tarot (seen elsewhere on this site). In this persons mind, the tarot was to be used for healing and reassurance - and to offer solutions or sage advice when harsh messages came through. In many circles, this idea of accentuating the subjective good to the relative, or sometimes total exclusion of any subjective bad is sometimes referred to as the Fluffy Bunny approach to tarot. In this approach, the tarot deck is like a little fluffy bunny that would never think of doing you harm, and on the contrary, will probably comfort you in every way, the way holding a gentle fluffy bunny comforts a little child.

Personally, I do not subscribe to the Fluffy Bunny approach to tarot. I do not agree that tarot is all about healing and reassurance, or exalting a person's awareness that they are part of the divine/creation. I believe the tarot is a mirror held up to the seeker. It does not care if you get the message of how connected you are to the divine, it's going to tell you what's what regardless. The tarot is blind. It does not know your personally, to know whether it should spare your feelings and pull its punches. It does not care who you are - Prince or Pauper, Saint or Satin. It's going to tell you what's what, regardless.

Saying that tarot is all about exalting someone's awareness of divinity shows a definite bias. I don't believe tarot is biased in that way. I don't believe tarot should be made to have that bias.

I believe an oracle should be blind. I believe an oracle should tell it like it is, and be designed with contrast so that a complete vocabulary of human experience is made available to the reader. Where it would then be the task of those who consult the oracle to determine, either on their own, or with the help of a reader, exactly where along a spectrum of possibilities an interpretation of the oracle's message puts them. If they consult a reader who mitigates the bad out of all cards, that person might be more compassionate than me, and put a "good" spin on everything. If they consult me, I might be less compassionate and give them some tough love and a slap in the face. But either way, I believe the cards should have the visual vocabulary for describing both pleasant situations as well as unpleasant situations.

Both The Numerical Tarot, and The Isomorphic Tarot focus on spectrums of possibilities. The images presented don't ALWAYS have to represent their most extreme interpretation. For example: My Wretched Heathen, found in The Isomorphic Tarot (or The Tower - the card my Wretched Heathen is loosely equivalent to) shows a pretty gruesome image of a person being tortured and cut to pieces. I would hope that in your life you never witness and never experience such unspeakable horror. But (obviously) some people do. So my card shows one man's unspeakable horror. Maybe you have an unspeakable horror in your life. Maybe not. Maybe your horror isn't as bad as this guy's. These things are all relative. The idea is that the Wretched Heathen card represents that kind of feeling - however severe it may or may not be compared to others. If you are doing a reading for someone who is, or was, having that kind of feeling, wouldn't it be helpful to have an image that points to that concept?

When you learn the system behind these cards you will understand the idea of spectrums of possibilities and extremes and in-betweens. I could only draw one image for each card. I drew each image to illustrate a high level of contrast. It is your job to LEARN the full spectrum that each set of cards attempts to describe. You may never get this from just using the cards. You might get this if you use the cards knowing the system.

The Numerical Tarot is a blind oracle. If you are reading for someone, you can "lead" them to think which ever way you want. If you are using The Isomorphic Tarot, you can jump up and scream "Oh my GOD! You're going to have your arm cut off by crazed bats from Hell - LOOK it's right here in this card!!" Or you can say "This card represents a disastrous situation of some kind, see this guy, he's having a real 'bad day, have you experienced any disasters lately??" and your client might say "Yes, I was in a car accident and got cut up pretty bad, I felt just like that guy in the card - ripped to shreds, it was a real gruesome scene." It could be a real cathartic thing for them to talk about it, or it could open old wounds and make them sad. But that comes from asking about "any disasters lately" not from the image on my card.

I don't know if The Tower card means disaster in everyone’s deck. But if it does, don't you ask about disasters when it comes up? The point being that the image on the card is just a trigger. It points to the concept of disaster. Then you have to talk about the disaster. You can do that in a sympathetic way or not, depending on who you are. The point being, that the image itself does not dictate the level of disaster, only that something like a disaster is there. You can remove all the "bad" and “scary” cards and have a happy fluffy bunny reading if you like. My deck is a blind oracle.

In your fluffy bunny reading you can reassure and heal. That's a great philosophy. Stay positive. Believe that everything is somehow ok, and just a series of life lessons. I can agree with that approach to life. But I do NOT agree that that is "what the cards want” as some believe. I believe the cards are a blind oracle, and that YOU can choose to interpret everything with your positive philosophy or not. Some people think that life is a shit sandwich ... and then you die. I'm sure they could interpret any fluffy bunny reading 180 degrees the other way, if they wanted.

This is why it is important to understand the primordial patterns that lie beneath the images. Because the patterns are abstract. In the abstract, there is no tower. There is no heathen getting his arm cut off. There is only an abstract concept. When that abstract concept appears in your reading, you must interpret its meaning into the life of an individual. The image is just there to remind you of what the primordial pattern is. You then have to decide where along a spectrum of possibilities you want to interpret meaning. If the card is illustrating the worst possible scenario for this abstract concept, you have to decide whether to interpret it even worse, or minimize the severity. That is your interpretation. But the patterns fall the way they fall, regardless of whether you are an optimist or a pessimist who will eventually interpret the abstract concepts positively or negatively. In other words, it's a blind oracle.

As a reader who choses to mitigate the bad out of every card, you might want to protect and shelter people who have experienced tragedies from the shock of seeing such a gruesome image as my Wretched Heathen. But I believe that such a practice could carry just as much potential for the denial of therapeutic release. It's therapeutic to talk about difficult experiences. In fact, some people LIKE to tell you all about their suffering. On the other hand, if you are doing readings for fun, where perhaps people are only looking for idle entertainment, maybe you don't want to ask them about any recent disasters. You could tell them that The Wretched Heathen just symbolizes difficult times, and allow them to NOT tell you about their recent difficult time. Just gloss right over it, and continue with the entertaining reading they came for. But, if they DO want a serious reading, that really brings out the truth about their life, then I would think that an open discussion about a disaster or tragedy in their life would be beneficial. Or as stated above - cathartic. A tarot reading has the potential to be as beneficial as any session on the psychiatrist's couch. If my imagery brings that out, I see that as helpful.

I think that readers who mitigate and dilute the bad out of every card are being too overprotective of people's psyches, and making decisions for them about what they can or can't take, or what they want or don't want to talk about in a reading. This is a bias - clearly. I don't believe tarot has, or should have, this kind of bias - when viewed in its unadulterated form. And an unadulterated form is what I am trying to present with The Numerical Tarot. A blind oracle.

A story was told to me of a young boy who had experienced the tragedy of the death of his parents. It was suggested that a harsh and gruesome image like the Vicious Beast, seen on The Isomorphic Tarot, might further impact this boy’s grief and offend his sweet and gentle disposition. I suggested that indeed he may very well be a sweet and gentle kid, but that he may also be stuck in the anger stage of his grief process, and be filled with rage. He may be holding it all in, because everyone has come to expect him to be a sweet and gentle kid, so he doesn't know what to do with all that rage. I suggested that The Vicious Beast might be a better card than realized, that it might be cathartic for him to talk about all the rage he feels, instead of just giving him the life lesson of The Hanged Man's acceptance of suffering. Maybe he isn't at the acceptance stage yet, and the mitigate-the-bad bias to see everything in a positive light is denying him an opportunity to express his rage.

The point is, that bad news is bad news. If you can put a positive spin on everything after the fact, fine! But if you're in a plane that is about to smash head first into the ground, you're not going to be thinking "Wow, if I survive this, what a life lesson this will be." No, you're probably thinking "Holy shit, this can't be happening." You're experiencing unmitigated horror. The key word there being "unmitigated." Horror is horror, when it is happening. You may be able to mitigate it in retrospect. Or you might require the assistance of a tarot card reader to help you mitigate it after the fact. But while your in it, it is horrible. Where is the card for that horror, and why can't we (tarot people) talk about unmitigated horror? Why do we always have to mitigate the bad?

The answer might be money. If someone doesn't want to offend, for fear of losing a paying client, or perhaps not getting a book published, mitigated bad becomes the prefered mode. A reader is much less likely to get referrals and return visits if they become known as the purveyor of bad news. But a problem occurs (in my opinion) when these people go out into the world and teach what they believe to others, carrying this "mitigate-the-bad" bias into every interpretation of every card - teaching people that that is in fact what this or that card is intented to mean, not that that is what they have mitigated it to mean so as to not offend. Big difference, in my mind. This same "mitigate-the-bad" bias is also what causes people to preach that healing and reassurance is what tarot is all about, that it's "what the cards want."

I don't believe that healing and reassurance is "what the cards want." I don't believe the cards "want" anything, other than to describe what is going on in the life of those consulting its wisdom. If the life of your client is all sweetness and light, then that is what the cards "want" to tell you. If your client has big problems or is experiencing a big freaking disaster, then that is what the cards "want" to tell you. So if you remove all the cards that might be used to describe a big freaking disaster, or water down your interpretation of what looks to be a big freaking disaster - mitigating it to nothing more than another "life lession" - you are limiting the tarot's ability to do what it "wants" to do. Why? Why would you do that?

What do you say when someone returns to you and says that they experienced a big freaking disaster, and wonders why you didn't see it in the reading you did for them? Do you say "Oh, I saw that big freaking disaster, but I didn't want to bring it up because I didn't want to upset you" or "I didn't see any big freaking disaster in your future because I use a fluffy bunny deck that doesn't have any upsetting cards in it that would indicate a disaster" or "Tarot is about healing and reassurance, that's what the cards want, so scaring you to death by predicting a big freaking disaster would be counter to that objective, sorry."

Ultimately, you have to do what you feel is right. If you are face to face with someone, and don’t want to offend, then by all means use a fluffy bunny deck. However, if you want a deck that has a more complete vocabulary of human experience, and covers a lot more ground, across a wider spectrum of possibilities - both subjectively good as well as subjectively bad extremes and inbetweens - then The Numerical Tarot, or The Isomorphic Tarot may be useful.

Matrix organization and the invented terminology of tarot semantics (as seen elsewhere on this site) provide a degree of clarity to tarot that has not been seen before. Like all systems of tarot (Qabalah based, Astrology based etc.) it will take time to learn. But once mastered, a more complete vocabulary will emerge. A vocabulary capable of discussing ALL aspects of human experience - not just the fluffy side of things.

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EXTRA CREDIT

If your opened mind has enabled you to read this far, perhaps you would be interested in another speculative idea concerning the destructive influence of a mitigate-the-bad bias. If so, please read on...