Category: opinion

In Defense of Indie Deck Review; Also: On AI Generated Images

On By benebellIn cartomancy, opinion, tarot community34 Comments
Source: facebook.com/Indiedeckreview

I don’t have a dog in this fight, no skin in the game as they say. There is more benefit to me opting out of this conversation and staying quiet. In fact, speaking up would be ill-advised; I only stand to lose.

First, a quick statement about my personal background, as that will be context for my perspective. I am a self-taught illustrator and in the late 90s was highly skeptical of using digital art in tarot. Everything people who are against AI are saying right now about AI in tarot art was exactly my perspective of digital illustrator tools in tarot 30 years ago (because I did not understand digital art).

At the time I was alarmed to see how many digital artists could create something with the computer that looked almost too perfect, and do it so quickly, but then if you take away their tech and put a pencil in their hand, they could barely do freehand sketches.

However, my judgmental opinion was on the basis of a very superficial understanding of digital art. As I learned more about the process and was exposed to more digital artists as individuals, getting to know the intricacies of their creative process, the more my opinion evolved. I met more and more digital artists who could do phenomenal freehand sketching, and who had simply chosen digital software as their medium, not unlike deciding on acrylics, or pastels, or watercolor, or clay.

Now for the commentary on current affairs…

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Author’s Thoughts After Three Books

On By benebellIn I Ching The Oracle (book), opinion, personal7 Comments

Posted an author unboxing (actually no, it’s not really an unboxing) and first impressions (is it a first impressions?) of my third book, I Ching, The Oracle.

Then decided to swing by over here on my blog to repost and share some additional personal ruminations. Here are some of my thoughts and reflections after publishing three books.

Holistic Tarot debuted in 2015, then The Tao of Craft came out in 2016. I didn’t publish another book until 7 years later, 2023.

There’s this unspoken pressure on writers to crank out books on a fairly regular, repeating basis. To be clear, no one demands it of us; it’s more of an unspoken self-imposed peer pressure. You look around and all your colleagues are writing a book a year.

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When the Tarot Community Incites Anti-Chinese Xenophobia

On By benebellIn opinion, tarot community41 Comments

There’s been a rise in anti-Chinese xenophobia here in the West, and the tarot community has been no exception.

Yikes, did the well-known public figure in the world of tarot just say, in that above comment, that they “know of no Chinese printing” company that doesn’t steal copyrighted work? And then imply that Chinese people like to “beat the foreigner” aka exploit white people?

Every one of these screenshots were authored by someone I know or know of, someone I am connected to via the tarot community. Many are by well-known public figures in our community– published and celebrated tarot authors and popular deck creators. However, I’ve redacted names and profile pictures because that’s not the focus here. This is not about calling anyone out. Let’s focus on the content of the messages being spread in the tarot community and what social impact it might be having.

If you don’t think the rise in anti-Asian hate and violence here in the US is connected to all of these little microaggressions against the Chinese, then you haven’t been paying attention.

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Tarot Deck Personification (cf. Animism?)

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, opinion, personal20 Comments
Per usual, random photos of decks interspersed throughout the post to keep visual interest.

Yesterday I was invited to live-chat with the Three Fat Readers and one of the topics that came up was deck personification. You can watch a replay of it here.

The timing of our sit-down together coincided with a greater conversation that’s been trending in our community as of late. Tarot Readings From a Bitch covers the controversy succinctly here and gets the ball rolling by asking the question.

I very much enjoyed ScholarBot’s perspective and explanation for not personifying tarot decks, linked here.

Robyn’s Reflections shares why and how she personifies some decks and not others here.

Lisa and Dawn Michelle chat about deck personification here.

This particular issue recycles in the tarot community every so often, so if you go back five years, you can see this video by Katey Flowers on personifying tarot decks.

Since the opening premise of the tarot deck I created, the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, was to explore and experiment with the concept of animism, I thought I might chime in. To that end, I’d like to separate out the discussion on deck personification and the discussion on animism.

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Addendum Blog Post Response to “How to Spot a Fake Tarot Reader”

On By benebellIn Bell Chimes In, opinion, professional tarot, tarot community22 Comments

There was a TikTok video that kinda sorta went viral among tarot people. All my tarot friends were chattering about those “six ways” and so many feels got riled up. Heck, the fact I made my VR two weeks ago and am still talking about it right now with an addendum blog post shows I got a little riled up, too.

In my (probably misplaced) priority of trying to keep videos short and succinct, I didn’t flesh out the thoughts I had wanted to share. And then many tarot colleagues continued and extended the discussion, so now I have even more thoughts. =)

This is a follow-up or written sequel to my VR.

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My Thoughts on the FTC Disclosure Guidelines for Social Media Influencers (Specifically, Tarot Content Creators)

On By benebellIn book review, deck review, opinion, professional tarot, tarot, tarot community3 Comments
Random old photo to accompany the commentary. I’m holding the Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler, which at some point long, long ago I received for free. Do I need to disclose that?

Psst… I have a “TL;DR Short Summary for the Not-Readers” that summarizes this otherwise very long blog post. So if you don’t have the time or you’re only a little bit interested and not that interested, then scroll all the way down to the end for the TL;DR Short Summary.

I’m reviving and sharing a blog post I drafted in 2019 that has sat in my WordPress saved file for the last 3+ years. It’s about FTC-issued disclosure guidelines (“Rules”) for social media influencers, and key takeaways to glean from the Rules if you’re creating content in the Mind, Body, Spirit spheres. I never got around to finishing and posting that 2019 draft, back when the FTC disclosure guidelines first gained traction, but I think now is a good time to reopen the discussion.

What’s of note to me is how the legal minds who are often the ones drafting these Rules seem to be people who have no personal experiences or insights into the communities they’re drafting the guidelines for. Even when they employ subject matter experts, those SMEs tend to be biased, or come from a very particularized segment of the community, and therefore do not fairly represent all interested parties.

There’s consumer protection, which nobody’s against. But then there’s untenable rules of compliance that aren’t clear enough for practical application by the people the rules are demanding compliance from.

By the way, none of this is my legal opinion, and do not rely on it as such. All of this is personal commentary in reaction to the FTC disclosure guidelines as someone who considers herself a deck reviewer but who could potentially be categorized as an “influencer.”

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Gender Discrepancies in Viewership

On By benebellIn opinion, tarot community2 Comments
Data collected from 2023

My interest in this particular consideration piqued earlier in 2023 when I noticed a sharp change in the gender demographics of who views my Yutube channel, which appears to have shifted just as the subject matter of my channel’s content shifted, from being tarot dominant to more I Ching.

Though I don’t have any screenshots to show, back in 2018 and well into 2019, the gender demographics for my Youtube channel was something closer to 20% Male and 80% Female, and that checks out for most of Tarot Tube and witchy content creators, especially among witchy content creators who present as female. I did notice that after 2019 when I started making more Taoist occultism content on the channel, the demographics shifted slightly to 30% Male and 70% Female.

(For clarification, when we say Male or Female, these are per the identifications opted in by the users.)

I didn’t follow the analytics too closely, so I can’t pinpoint exactly when the shift happened, but in early 2023, per the screenshot image above, I noticed suddenly that the demographics were closer to 50/50, which is in fact strange for the tarot and witchy communities and stranger yet for female-presenting content creators like me. You don’t typically see 50/50 demographics for viewership when it comes to tarot and witchy content. There’s typically an underrepresentation of men.

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Reading Your Critiques

On By benebellIn opinion, personal, tarot community23 Comments

In my head I’ve been mulling over a candid video chat I’ve been wanting to make for some time now, but it’s only these last few weeks of stirrings in our tarot community that concretized my motivation to just go ahead and do it. =)

I’ve only chosen one comment to read as an example of a recurring common critique I get, and the three recurring common critiques I’m chatting about in this video are as follows:

  1. I’m pretentious and elitist, and also an opportunist,
  2. My work is imbued with negative, demonic entities and/or I am possessed by or consort with negative, demonic entitles (evil, dark energy, etc., take your pick of descriptive), and
  3. I say insensitive things at all the wrong times (as interpreted from the writings I’ve put out there).

In the video I also reflect on authenticity, the perception of virtual authenticity, and how true, sincere human authenticity will come back to bite you in the ass online, and the only way to appear authentic is to fabricate and manufacture the illusion of authenticity.

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Tarot Tube and Classism

On By benebellIn opinion, tarot, tarot community26 Comments
The photos interspersed throughout this post are totally random, just for Pretty.

It would have made more sense for me to present this topic in video form on my YouTube channel, but I’ve been a bit under the weather with the flu, so my voice is scratchy, my nose is stuffed, and I don’t feel like putting on makeup. A blog post will have to suffice.

Tarot Tubers of Reference

I follow Mixtress Rae on YouTube, which is how I saw her video, “Do I have a shopping addiction or am I just poor? Income equality in the tarot world.” My pathway of clicks must’ve alerted The Algorithm to feed me Nightsong Tarot‘s “Money, Consumerism and Tarottube, VR to MixtressRae” and I am glad for it! I’m also subscribed to MasculineIntuitionReadings, so I caught the replay of “Witchin’ & Bitchin’ about consumerism and entitlement in [the] tarot community.” Sorsha Soaring also makes great points in “Double Standards in ‘Community’ – Tarot Tube.”

You’ll have to watch these videos first because what they have to say is what I’m referencing throughout this write-up. By the way I hope you’ll like and subscribe to them all as I have. ❤

UPDATE: I’d also like to amplify these important voices to the conversation: “An Update and Some Thoughts on Tarot Consumerism” via Elisa’s Magickal Space; “VR to Mixtress Rae & Tarot Tube: Reacting vs. Responding” via Highly Sensitive Tarot; Sylvain’s Deadly Sins responds to both Mixtress Rae and this blog post here, “Goblins & Gardens, Trolls & Tolls (a VR)“; and “Income Inequality VR to Mixtress Rae” via Faith of Cardinal Spirit Readings.

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AI Art Controversy: The Libran Perspective =)

On By benebellIn Bell Chimes In, opinion2 Comments

Everyone from all corners and interest groups have been buzzing over AI art, or at least this is most certainly the case in my world.

Here are some from the online hamlets I lurk in: Juli, Heather, and Sarah chat about AI Art here. Here’s Ethony’s take, “Are AI Art Tarot Decks Immoral or Genius?” Will and Kate touch on AI created tarot decks in this discussion. Goliath, the creator of the El Goliath Tarot, weighs in as well. I’m really loving Chaweon Koo’s perspective in this article, “Will You Burn the AI Like You Burned the Witch?”

If I tried to list out all the impactful video discussions on AI art I’ve been loving, it would just go on and on, so I won’t link to the more popular takes from artists themselves. Plus, you can find them via any quick keyword search on YouTube.

I’ve been quite verbose myself when it comes to sharing my thoughts and commentary on AI art. See below hyperlinks to three past blog posts. As an assist I’ve outlined bullet point lists of subtopics each blog post covers.

But I thought I might add a candid video chat, too. =)

Continue reading “AI Art Controversy: The Libran Perspective =)” →