Tarot: Talisman or Taboo?

Imagine... a book about the tarot written by a Benedictine monk. I have discovered such a book. And I look forward to reading it. It is written by Mark Patrick Hederman, the Abbott of Glenstal Abbey in Limerick, Ireland. He is a well-known philosopher and the editor of a cultural journal, The Crane Bag. How did I come to discover such an interesting tome? Well, it was through a most lively discussion about pentagrams and pentacles, and their symbolism as it relates to various traditions, ranging from Christianity to Wicca, to agnosticism and atheism. Of course, this topic merits a blog post all its own, which I shall do some day, but for now, this book has captured my attention. It looks to be a most interesting book. Here is an excerpt from the author himself:

“The last century was a hell for many people, a hell of our own creation. In many cases, those of us in charge of others, whether in concentration camps, schools, parishes, orphanages, families, had lost touch with ourselves, had failed to tap into our unconscious lives. Many of the great monsters we can now parade in public with the clarity and courage of hindsight, are no more than the rest of us writ large. Every one of us was potentially an oppressor. And why? Because we had repressed the Mr Hyde in us and were living the Dr Jeckyl, which is what happens when we neglect the major part of ourselves: our unconscious.

At the most basic and almost negative level, we are required to do something about this untapped source in ourselves. It is almost a matter of hygiene and health. But there is another more pressing reason why we should get in touch with our unconscious. Because this is also where the springs of our creativity are hidden, and where God can enter our lives. Most of us are related to this subcontinent in a passive way, through our dreams. This book suggests that there are active ways to engage with this area. One such way is through the Tarot cards.

Getting in touch with the unconscious can be difficult and dangerous. Our ordinary approach to life, our trained and cultivated ways of thinking, are allergic to this swampy unknown. We lose our bearings, we panic. The Tarot cards are like 'an idiots guide' to the unconscious, an easy way to subvert the rational and allow the energies beneath to creep up through the floorboards. If you learn to shuffle and to deal the twenty-two major cards of this ancient museum of the unconscious, it will help you to familiarise yourself with a symbolic way of thinking and domesticate an underworld of otherwise meaningless shadows and shapes.

This book gives an introduction to the Tarot, a history of its uses and abuses, a practical guide to its value as an underground map. It also provides a meditation on each one of the twenty-two major arcana which can help the reader to undertake their own spiritual journey.

The important books in life are not the ones which we read; they are the ones which read us. That is the way the Tarot should be read.”

Wow! I look forward to the meditations and hope to spend time exploring the tarot through the eyes and mind of Mark Patrick Hederman. It should be an interesting exploration on many levels. I can hardly wait!