Do you believe in tarot?
I do.
A few months ago I bought a deck for my wedding anniversary, as I was going to give my wife a reading when we were at the hotel. However, I forgot them. Now, it might surprise some people that I am into tarot, but I bought them for some fun only and I don't actually believe in their predictive ability at all. However, I do give them merit for their reflective ability.
So today, I was talking on the phone with a friend and she was talking about tarot cards and how she uses them, which is much like my idea of them, which I have never employed in practice, only in theory. Essentially, each card works like a prompt that depending on current conditions, might recall memories, feelings or generate thoughts that become an internal dialogue, a story. That story has the potential to be transformational.
We often hear of the importance of mindset, yet we don't really pinpoint that mindset is a story we tell ourselves. If we do not change our personal stories, we do not effectively change and even when we change actions, if we don't also change our stories, we are highly likely to fall back into the familiar pattern where our actions play the role they know, the story they have learned.
Of course, we needn't use only tarot cards as the prompts to reflect, because I have been reflecting for many years without them at all, and have still never used them in this way. But, what I have used are photos that I have taken, which have recalled experiences or, have given me ideas to reflect and build upon. While doing this has brought many personal benefits, very little of what I have written has been intended to focus on improving me directly. And I think that is where at least for some people, the tarot cards might be useful, because it creates the conditions for directed self-reflection, because that is what is expected of them.
Reflection won't tell your future.
But it could change it.
While finishing up at the gym tonight I was stretching next to one of the trainers and she was talking about the difference in work ethic of young people today and how it is completely different to her parents, and herself. She owns a law firm, but her fiancé is a hockey talent agent and I was asking how it is going for him, which led to a conversation about what he looks for in young talent. She had asked him before and while not able to explain it fully, he had said that it is the tiny things that show the potential for the future. There are heaps of kids who have talent and can play okay in Finland, but there are only a few who have that edge, where they focus on some tiny part of their game and improve it above and beyond where it is needed.
She didn't need to go further for me to get the story I needed to understand, because it is something that I have talked about many times before - The ability to concentrate and repeat seemingly insignificant and boring tasks over and over again. Because in order to master anything, whether it be on the ice or as a courtroom lawyer, it requires intentional repetition for improvement. All those reps not only give a superpower in one area, but help to build the mindset for high performance across the board, by building the understanding of what mastery takes.
As my friend said today, many people who get into tarot find some book or guide to learn what the cards mean, which she sees as a shame because essentially what they are doing, is taking themselves out of the experience. They are importing meaning. But as I see it, if instead of trying to predict the future they used the cards to affect themselves by healing old wounds and filling gaps consistently and repetitively by using the cards to identify them, they will master themselves.
As said, cards are not needed in order to reflect, but if you think about yourself and those you know, how many people actively and consistently put away the time to identify skill gaps and work conscientiously to fill them? Be honest with yourself and others. Do you put away space each day to reflect on your current conditions and how you can improve them? When you feel uncomfortable, sad, lonely, or happy - do you question what in you creates that story?
We are all a collection of stories we tell ourselves.
On another article for instance someone was saying about not understanding how people who transition "feel like the opposite sex", because how can they know what the opposite feels like? Well, it is pretty simple really, because what they have done is told themselves a story and through that story our feelings change, our actions change, our preferences change - everything changes. They have decided that the way they feel is the feeling of someone else, another story. Through repetition we start to embody the story, and the more we identify with it, the more confirmation we will find that our story is correct. At least, that is the case I think for the majority of transitions these days, which is driven by social stories and repetitive commentary that influences our thinking in the same way advertising influences body image and attraction preferences.
You might not agree with that, but the story you are telling yourself is that there is a difference in how we are influenced as humans, even though there is not - which is why advertising works, because it can make you hungry, angry, or with enough conditioning, do things that you would have never entertained otherwise. Because while genetics plays a large part, environmental conditions also play a large part. Environmental conditions are external from us, they are not the way we were born.
Stories are dangerous.
They can transform us into better people, or into ruthless mass murderers. Stories can push us into charity work, or getting on a bus with a suicide vest and a detonator in hand. We act out the stories we onboard, or we hide them away from others because we know they are not acceptable. Stories tell you what colour person you can trust, or what kind of nose is attractive. Stories cause you to be nihilistic, god-fearing, or hopeless. The stories we tell ourselves matter, as do the stories we tell of others, or they of us.
Because that is what shapes society.
I don't think anyone can intentionally tell the future accurately, even though some will get lucky and then backdate their story to make them prophetic. However, if we are watching all the stories going on around us, it is possible to see where the themes lay and predict what might happen, if the trends continue. As they say however, the best way to tell the future, is to create it. And when it comes to the future of who we are as individuals and a species, we are cobbling together a story that is seemingly leading us down a dark path.
Loneliness. Violence. Extinction.
It is in the cards.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Be part of the Hive discussion.
- Comment on the topics of the article, and add your perspectives and experiences.
- Read and discuss with others who comment and build your personal network
- Engage well with me and others and put in effort
And you may be rewarded.