Probably there is something wrong with me because I try to find sense and reason in everything, especially in esoteric matters.
And the only sense I find in most of these modern divinatory products is making money.
The major downside is that something extraordinary, out of the ordinary, has been diminished into ordinary.
And I’m not talking about the loss of Magick, which is tragic, but also the lack of reason and coherence.
When everybody is right, ultimately, nobody is right anymore. And instead of searching for sense and reason in an already confusing world, we only add more layers of chaos to it. Some of us, at least. Willingly or ignorantly.
I know the Oracles are hot topics. While Oracles are increasingly popular divinatory tools, are they truly efficient working instruments?
Secondly, should we follow the popular trends and what the public likes, or is it our responsibility to evaluate rigorously, analyse objectively and educate the public correctly about these products?
Perhaps I may sound harsh, but my professional opinion is that 99.9 per cent of these Oracles are strictly commercial products meant exclusively to generate income on the back of the naïve and uneducated masses.
Apparently, it all comes down to intuition and following gut feeling.
Learning, knowledge and understanding are contraindicated and should be banned.
It is a general tendency to dumbing people down by encouraging ignorance.
Perhaps it is time to crawl back to the caves or, even better, climb back to the trees. Of course, with smartphones in our pockets.
The working efficiency of any tool, including divinatory instruments, is entirely independent of our beliefs.
I often stated that the Tarot deck works because it results from intelligent design of unknown origins. Even when uneducated, unaware persons mechanically are copying classic decks to express their own artistic vision, that intelligent design is an inherent part of the resulting deck.
As I explained, the Tarot is built on an astrological structure, and the cards’ meaning is also astrology related. It doesn’t matter that some people may not accept the evidence, disregard the obvious, and reject the facts. It is utterly irrelevant, and the deck works due to its physical and spiritual architecture and content. It will still work even if someone does not believe in astrology or the Tarot’s connection to it.
My point is structure and system are vitally important.
There is a pretty sensitive balance of energy and matter within the structure which is fundamental for the working efficiency of any divinatory instrument. The four elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth, respectively the three qualities, Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable, are perfectly represented within the deck of playing cards and the architecture of the Tarot.
However, these key elements are ignored and unrepresented within most Oracles and pseudo-Tarot decks. We have many exclusively female, male or gay decks whose energy wise are imbalanced by definition. There is no shadow without the sun and no grey without black and white. A “great big white world” is fake and unnatural and won’t last long.
It might be commercially attractive, politically and gender-wise correct, but practically they are not functional.
Trends and fashions are coming and going, but they have no consistency. No matter how hard some may try, the New Age ideology and cancer culture cannot erase the basic structure of nature and the universe – elements at the very foundation of any genuine divinatory instrument.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of the Oracles lack any structure and coherent conceptualisation. Most Oracles are equally spiritual as any other collection of random sports cards or even postcards. Most of them could be visually appealing and can be artistically executed impeccably, but in essence, they usually lack what I would call content and consistency.
Now let’s talk about technicalities.
I am fully aware that words, signs, symbols and images are portals capable of channelling energies. Most Tarot decks and cards have these features as well.
However, what really makes them work is the structure, the system of which they are integrated part of.
My grandfather and grandmother were both watchmakers and had their own repair shops. As a child, I spent hours in their shops and watched them working, studying how they dismembered and then reassembled complicated mechanical mechanisms.
Most Oracle cards are like gearwheels spread across the table. They can be perfectly functional pieces, yet they are not part of any particular mechanism.
Each time a deck of Oracle cards is landing on my table, instead of looking at the cards, I pick up the accompanying book, and I look for explanations about the “mechanism,” I want to learn how that deck of cards is supposed to work.
Frequently, this kind of information is missing from these books. They are usually filled with beautiful platitudes, abstract concepts and vague descriptions, but they avoid or fail to speak effectively about any particular system which bounds together its components.
In the case of a Tarot deck, I know exactly why it has 78 cards and not 70, 75 or 80. The Tarot deck structure has a mathematical explanation and astrological, numerological, kabbalistic and alchemical connections. One may be completely ignorant of these aspects, but all those things are actively embedded into the deck and make those deck function.
In the case of most Oracles, it remains a mystery why they have 33, 40 or whatever number of cards and why not any other number. It all seems a matter of randomness, accidents or subjective, often artistic choices. We should remind ourselves that we are not art collectors, but we are looking for instruments to improve ourselves and offer answers to some of our day-to-day, life-related questions.
We must also take into account the fact that the power of autosuggestion is significant. Once we find a thing appealing, we easily convince ourselves that we made the right choice and that thing is working. And arguably, the chances are 50/50, which actually are pretty high odds.
If we ask our deck if it will rain today, there are 50 per cent chance of getting the correct answer. That is an extremely high per cent. One’s odds of winning the lottery are about 1 in 176 million.
The more vague our questions are, the more answers received will be more suitable.
It is a game of deceit and self-deceit.
Truth, on the other hand, is rarely joyful. I understand that most people need an escape and choose a beautiful lie over a brutal reality. Yet, we are responsible for being fair and speaking the truth. I feel responsible for asking these questions and trying to guide people correctly.
Thank you for reading this, and please think about it.
Sincerely,
Attila
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