In the essay Divine Mechanics it was suggested that a tarot deck acts as a translator between worlds - one chaotic, the other ordered. It was suggested that by using an ordered system (like a tarot deck) in a random way (shuffling) we open a link between opposite worlds, allowing a message to pass through. But who crafts that message? And will all tarot decks yield a consistently identical response? Or are some decks "better" translators than others? To answer this question, consider the following possibility...
The cards that you pull off the top of the deck are arranged in a certain order, to speak a certain message about something you have on your mind at the time of shuffling. The cards are put into this order by an unseen force. What is that force? Perhaps... it is a sort of ghostly version of you, speaking to you from "the other side" as it were, or "another" side - i.e. a psychic buddy! Like a guardian angel (with a direct line of communication to the archetypes of our collective unconscious) this other you is always there looking over everything you do. So, one day it sees that you have a deck of cards in your hand, and that you are asking the cards to answer questions about your life. This "other you" finds this amusing and so... obliges by looking (with its impossibly remote vision) at the entire deck of images stacked one on top of the other in your hand. Then, in spite of, or perhaps with the aid of and the necessary inclusion of your attempts to be as random with the cards as possible, this "other you" picks out images that it thinks will visually, symbolically, metaphorically or allegorically answer your otherwise unanswerable questions about the future, or your hidden unconscious Self, and other things that only a ghostly version of you from another side of consciousness, with a direct line of communication to the archetypes of our collective unconscious, could possibly know.
We are two as one. As portrayed in the book All Things Are Numbers, found elsewhere on this site, we exists as the conductors or conduits of Divine energy, moving from an outer to an inner Absentia, or points of paradox that limit, enclose and contain our minds and universe. This Absentia is in fact... a singularity... in two parts... separated by existence and in need of reunion. It is by virtue of this paradoxically dual singularity that we have both an inner and outer self in constant need of reunion (see the concept of Paradox elsewhere on this site).
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The stages of the model connect the two points of absentia, like intermediaries between the divine and mundane.
The absentia unites the opposites of the model like the binding of a sacred book.
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Because of the concept of "spirit entering matter" and all the focus most mortals place on mundane existence, many never really get to know that "other self" that exists adjacent to the Outer Absentia. But if this theory fits, that other self is there... it exists at the end of a spectrum of consciousness adjacent to the dark and negative outer reaches of our theoretical model of existence - i.e. the SubConscious and UnConscious of our minds (see the essay Dreams and Dreaming elsewhere on this site). Here is a diagram from the essay The Way, that suggest the possibility of this "other you" sending a message across a threshold of consciousness.
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On the LIGHT side is the Self - awake in a realworld. On the DARK side is the Ghost - alseep in a dreamworld. That Ghost is our Psychic Buddy, sending us messages from our UnConscious.
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If this is what is happening, then... differences in results between different decks would occur because of the limitations imposed upon this "other you" by the visual content of each deck. In other words one deck might have a more complete "visual vocabulary" from which the "other you" can pick and choose in its attempt to symbolically, metaphorically or allegorically speak to you. Thus, if you hand it a deck with imagery that doesn't contain images that are able to say what it thinks you need to hear, it will struggle to pick an image that seems "close enough" but might not be as close as it would have liked - thus making the final message not only not the same as another deck, but possibly not as clear either.
If this idea is any good, we who inhabit "this side" would probably theorize it to all be happening on some "psychic" level of consciousness, and take it as evidence of our psychic abilities. But, if it's a good idea, it might be interesting to test it on a not-so-psychic level. What if you were to ask someone who knows you very well (like a spouse who is almost as attached to you as a guardian angel) to stand in as a substitute for the psychic "other you" and ask that person to arrange the cards of various decks in the best way they can, to answer a particular question? This test would probably work best if that other person doesn't know anything about intended meanings of the cards, and only uses the visual content of each deck. If you pick decks that are very different, so different that we can hardly tell they are illustrating the same template of Trumps, would that person pick the same Trumps every time to say the same thing in answer to the same question? My guess would be that, depending on just how vastly different the decks are, they might very well pick different Trumps, and probably more so for Minors, in their attempt to give the same answer to a single question.
Of course, if all one ever uses are decks that have had all the contrast of light and dark concepts removed or watered down... and we ask a question about dark things of life... the limited number of "dark" cards found in a "fluffy" watered down deck might cause the other person, or our "other self," to pick the same few cards every time when conveying dark ideas (see the essay Fluffy Bunny vs. Bind Oracle elsewhere on this site). But... with a deck like The Numerical Tarot, that employs balance, symmetry, contrast and consistency in its design, a more complete visual vocabulary might enable our "other self" to be more precise in how it speaks to us. That's the purpose of the system of analysis being presented on this site anyway.
A byproduct of this idea might be in how it supports the idea that we don't really need to study intended meanings at all, but only need to visually interpret. But... in reality, there is nothing to imply that the "other you" who is always with you like a guardian angel, isn't also reading everything you read... or... hasn't impossibly read everything ever written about tarot and everything else! Thus, it is also possible that this "other you" picks cards out and arranges them NOT by visual content alone, but ALSO by the intended meanings given to them by their authors (see The Reasoned Response elsewhere on this site). It may do this in a completely balanced way, trying to only pick cards that say what it wants to say visually and verbally. Or, it might have a bias toward symbolic imagery, and only include a card for its verbal content when it can't find one with an adequate visual content.
If tested in a not-so-psychic way with a spouse, this time one who knows as much as anyone about the intended meanings of each card found within each deck, they might do the same thing - choose a card for what they know its intended meaning to be, even though the visual imagery might be a bit off from what they want to say to you. Give them another deck, like a deck that uses balance, symmetry, contrast and consistency, and the verbal and the visual content of each card might prove to be more focused or harmonious, thus allowing them to pick cards for you that say, BOTH verbally and visually, what they want to communicate to you in the most complete way possible.
So many of the stories and mythologies of our ancestors include heros AND villains. They include spiritual highs AND dismal lows of life experience. Life today is not much different. So why use a psychically watered down "fluffy" deck to converse with "the other side" about the heros and villains and highs and lows of life? Why tie one hand of your psychic self, behind its back? Just because we don't want our feelings hurt, and want every message to be one of healing and reassurance? I think those sentiments should be reserved for the interpretation process (see the essay Fluffy Bunny vs. Bind Oracle elsewhere on this site). While the acquisition of the psychic "answer" from our psychic self, should be allowed to speak in more frank and open (and most importantly... complete) terms about what it "sees" happening at any given moment... before we put our "good" spin on it, or, as many might be inclined to do... retreat into denial (see The Reasoned Response or The Not-You Factor elsewhere on this site). A deck with balance, symmetry, contrast and consistency allows our "other self" to "tell it like it is" whether we like it or not, making tarot a blind oracle, free from bias. We can then impose our own bias upon the results to do what we want with that information, to suit our personal sensibilities.
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