tarot belly fire the King of Pentacles the Fool the Knight of Swords reversed the four of Wands the Lovers the three of Swords fuckin creepy. 030423 ... ovenbird I read Tarot, not to divine the future, but to turn over stones in the tidepool of my own mind. I see it as a narrative system, one that can bring order to chaotic thoughts. It can answer questions, not by magic but by providing imagery that initiates an echo in your own subconscious thoughts and feelings. It’s a way of getting unstuck, moving thoughts in a new direction, and developing meaning through synchronicities. The Rider-Waite Tarot is the one upon which most other decks are based and I like it for that reason. It reads like a source text. Other decks have artwork that I connect with more personally, but knowing the Rider-Waite results in a deeper understanding of those decks. Shuffling is meditative, as is the focus that comes with accessing a state of intuition. Reading Tarot is sort of like dreaming, or Jungian active imagination, it requires free association and a willingness to encounter things that feel incongruous. It stirs up the waters, bringing unexpected things to the surface. The symbols feel ancient and esoteric which lends a quality of ritual. The cards mean something different every time you encounter them because they always represent a unique interaction between the card itself and the current state of your life and mind. The other day I was reflecting that blather itself is a bit like the Tarot–combining words and imagery in unexpected ways, acting as a prompt for reflection, or opening doors into novel territory. I am drawn to systems that work this way. Travelling the world has never held a huge amount of appeal for me, but travelling the MIND, I’m up for that any day. 250331 ... ovenbird As an experiment I did a Tarot reading for blather red and what came out was so much better than I'd hoped for! The intention was to explore what blather is, what defines it, what sits at its core. I decided to draw three cards because I like that as a basic (and not too complicated) configuration. This one delivered! Blather Red gets the Queen of Cups, the King of Pentacles, and the final card of the Major Arcana: XXI The World. Here’s how I read it: Court cards like the Kings and Queens represent character traits and these particular court cards perfectly embody my initial impression of blather’s character. The Queen of Cups is the most benevolent incarnation of what the suit represents: love, compassion, empathy, emotion, intuition, care, healing. She is a mother figure who comes to her qualities of deep empathy through pain and grief. She is not a puppies and rainbows bringer of toxic positivity but a character who plumbs the depths of things and offers a compassionate place to land. Blather red itself seems to be ruled over by a similar impetus to write into the rawness of life and to explore, collectively, in an emotionally astute way. The Queen of Cups is joined by the King of Pentacles. If the Queen of Cups represents the emotional qualities of blather red, the King represents its more concrete incarnation. The King of Pentacles is a character of abundance. His robes are covered in grapevines, he is surrounded by plant life and treasures. His throne is ornate. One of my favourite books on the Tarot, Wild Card by Jen Cownie and Fiona Lensvelt, describes this King’s palace as “a wonder trove, a cavern containing the wealth of the world, sparkling and fabulous.” I really can’t think of a better description for what I’ve stumbled into on blather. Every link is like opening some new treasure chest. This place has endless interconnected rooms. And maybe, just maybe, it has a dragon guarding it. The third card, XXI: The World, is an uncannily perfect representation of the function of this space. This is the final card in the major arcana of the Tarot and it represents the forever turning wheel of time. It is both the end of a journey and the start of another. It is a cycle with no beginning and no end. It’s related to the idea of the ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail, an apt metaphor for the recursive nature of blather, the way everything leads to something else and the past and the present become inseparable. You can’t really pinpoint a beginning or an end because everything is so intricately connected. This produces a fascinating opportunity for conversations and introspections that go both nowhere and everywhere. The whole place is a little self contained universe of ideas and words. The World represents the end of a journey but also a return to the beginning, to the first card of the Tarot, The_Fool. The Fool ventures into the unknown carrying only the bare essentials. In Wild Card the authors suggest that the fool “reminds us that, unfortunately, there is no way to avoid hurt and sadness in life–they go hand in hand with joy, the shadow to its light.” The Fool sets out on their journey despite knowing that there will be grief and challenge along the way. I think that the people who have journeyed here on blather would likely connect profoundly with The Fool’s energy–a desire to keep showing up in the world and leaving a trail of words like gifts to anyone who might show up after. It is noted that the Fool in literature is often prophetic, seeing the truth of things and embodying a clarity that can sometimes be frightening. I think that is an essential piece of the communal project here–when words join together they sometimes get at truths that could never be reached alone. I want to extend a thank you to everyone wandering around in here. Exploring the already existing maze of words and having a chance to add my own has felt deeply meaningful in the very short time I’ve been here so far. I look forward to so many more unexpected confluences. 250402 ... raze i can't claim to know much of anything about tarot, but that has to be one of the most fascinating and profound-feeling things i've read in recent memory, here or anywhere. thank you for digging into all of that, and for getting at the heart of what makes this place, its architecture, and its inhabitants so special. 250402 ... ovenbird I'm no expert, more of a dabbler, but it's a fun method of explication. In addition to the book Wild Card that I mentioned above, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack is an excellent place to start. 250402 what's it to you? who go blather from