Tag: tarot community

Why the Tarot Community is Facing a Cultural Reckoning

On By benebellIn cartomancy, opinion, professional tarot, tarot, tarot community38 Comments
Random photos of my Spirit Keeper’s Tarot deck, Revelation Edition, because I didn’t know what else to use as images for this blogged reflection…

I think it was in 2022 that I first realized what it is I was witnessing: the tarot community as I’ve come to know it was dying, though it was also making way for the rise of something else.

Archangel of Mysteries, Key 13: The Reaper, and The Defector (Eight of Chalices) from the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, Revelation Edition

The “Dying Internet” Theory

First, tarot trends don’t happen in a vacuum, immune to sociopolitical movements. In fact, we can often tie tarot trends to exactly what’s happening in the global mainstream society. Which is why we’ll start by laying the foundation and address the trending theory of a “dying internet.”

There’s this speculative idea that’s been whispered (or maybe more than whispered as of late) in tech circles here in Silicon Valley about how an organic, people-driven internet that echoes physical society is being replaced by manufactured template content and occupied by bots, more and more being generated by AI rather than written from scratch by a human, resulting in decaying authenticity and homogenization. As they put it, “the internet is dying.” It’s a slow, systemic collapse of feral, original human-authored (can’t even believe we now have to clarify) content being outrun by outsourced content mills, ad-driven clickbait drowning out the authentic individualized voices, monoculture, fake engagement, faked popularity, and more and more paywalls.

The theory isn’t so much saying the internet is dying dying, but rather, the internet as Gen Xers and Millennials have become familiar with is quietly fading away and morphing into something that will be unrecognizable to us. What was refreshingly democratizing about the world wide web is what’s dying.

A “Dying” Niche Tarot Community

I think I need to explain myself here. It’s not that I think the tarot, as a niche interest and esoteric study, is dying or will ever die. That will always reinvent itself and persist. It’s the form of the niche tarot community as those of my generation have known it that’s dying and soon to reincarnate into something we may find unrecognizable.

When the tarot first went online (at least as I recall and per my personal participation) back in the 90s, it was almost entirely conversational. We were discussing tarot, and often in a very nerdy, niche way. We were engaging in dialogue, debating, debunking, sharing, and not merely broadcasting canned information about it.

I feel like discourse used to be more in-depth, whereas now, online content about tarot is keyed to quick consumer consumption, because if you don’t, then your content doesn’t generate high engagement, whereas when you do play the SEO game, your content rises to the top. We’re rewarding homogenization.

And again, this isn’t something that shifted overnight. Any of us who’ve been here a bit have watched it happen right under our noses. Many have griped about it, especially back when the online tarot community was still more conversational. Nowadays there’s no more griping or controversial “drama,” no more raw TMI personal ramblings, because it’s all highly-edited strategically produced vanilla content keyed to generate ad revenue, rather than for sincere interpersonal discourse. The disintegration and morphing into the (to me) unrecognizable didn’t happen like a Tower moment; oh no, it’s been slow, gradual, in a normal wear-and-tear sort of way.

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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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The Pocket of Peers Tarot by Jamie Sawyer

On By benebellIn deck review, tarot community4 Comments

I’m the Justice card in Jamie Sawyer’s Pocket of Peers Tarot! What an honor! The two little tiles tilted on top of the guidebook cover are not part of the cover design– I placed those two extra tiles Jamie gifted me with there for the photo.

The Pocket of Peers Tarot was crowdfunded on Kickstarter. It was fully-funded in 95 minutes, which is crazy! Crazy-good that is. I love how supportive the tarot community is toward its members. There’s so much love and mutual respect.

The interior of the box design is magnificent. I mean, just look at that reading table and the library bookshelves behind it, with an Akashic Records vibe. I’m also loving the eight-spoke wheel with the leaf design for the reversible card backs.

To me, it’s also symbolic of what this deck expresses: living knowledge. While there is traditional symbolism on each card to anchor it for RWS readers, the Pocket of Peers Tarot celebrates the living collective of knowledge that the tarot community represents.

Tarot deck art featuring people the artist knows is nothing new; in fact, it’s kind of its heritage. The earliest Renaissance tarots featured portraits of family members from the house that commissioned the painting of that deck. I love that Pocket of Peers is like a time capsule of the tarot community in 2021.

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Anti-Chinese Sentiments and Baba Studio (BabaBarock)

On By benebellIn deck review, opinion, professional tarot, tarot, tarot community75 Comments

I never had any issue with Baba Studio (BabaBarock) prior to learning of their anti-Chinese sentiments, and none of this is personal. In fact, I waited for three strikes, three separate incidences of public anti-Chinese statements before finally saying enough is enough, I need to speak up.

By way of some background, Baba Studio (aka BabaBarock World) is a tarot deck creator and publisher specializing in digital collage decks mashed from public domain images.

See also: 7/07/2020 Edits below

TL;DR Lessons Learned

Deck piracy is a serious problem that creators face and as a collective have had to fight against. When you engage in that battle, however, don’t lose your humanity or compromise your principles against prejudice.

Call out specific bad actors by name and don’t make blanket statements such as “all Chinese…” If you are going to call out a specific culture, reread your statement carefully. Is it a micro-aggression? Be self-aware. Could the phrasing of your statement be revealing of subconscious antagonism toward a specific culture? Be thoughtful about how you can fight the good fight without resorting to xenophobia.

“My legal counsel advised me to never do business with Chinese companies, because all of them will rip off your intellectual property.”

Paraphrased, but an accurate representation of what was said by a very prominent deck creator in our community. She’ll tell you my paraphrase isn’t accurate and that I’ve misrepresented her. She takes issue with me saying she used the word “all.”

I can’t recall if that precise word “all” was ever used, so let’s believe her and say I’m mistaken. She never said “all.” It was me who read into what was absolutely, unequivocally implied in the subtext.

Oh, wait. The below was sent to me, after I started feeling pretty terrible about maybe misconstruing what she had said. I was beginning to second-guess myself, thinking, man, I now feel like crap for thinking she said “all” when she didn’t. Many of her friends were messaging me, privately and publicly, telling me I got her all wrong, I am remembering her words wrong, and she never, ever said “all.”

Some deck creators saw that same post I saw and immediately thought it was problematic and insensitive.

Other deck creators believe she means well, but perhaps she worded her sentiments wrong– let’s chalk this one up to poor word choice. Maybe. But what I’ve seen from her, she is one fine writer.

And still others think I am the one who is way out of line, being overly sensitive, probably because I’m Asian, and poor, poor Karen for getting misunderstood.

I’ll concede that the truth is probably somewhere in that middle “no man’s land” intersecting point of the Venn diagram. I’m not 100% right, but then neither is she.

Here’s the thing. That was not her first offense. From what I have personally witnessed, it was her third. If we consider what the entire community has witnessed, who knows how many times she has repeated this rhetoric.

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