Fate Keeps On Happening

        For awhile, it was thought that the left side of the brain was analytical and the right side was creative and intuitive, and that one side or the other "dominates." But that's been completely debunked: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130814190513.htm   Then some people got the ill-conceived idea that if they just ignored left brained things, let all of that atrophy, they'd be amazingly psychic. But the thing is, even if right and left brain theory were true (which it isn't) we need to use our whole brain - even for reading cards. Analysis, logic and critical thinking skills are as necessary as intuition and creativity. Often even moreso.   It's not just aspiring card readers who do this. We've come to a point in time where the willfully ignorant think that facts and logic pose an actual threat. Rejection of science and embracing quack cures in the face of a pandemic, for instance, is hastening our descent into Dark Ages v2. S

 We've all seen it: the aspiring reader asks "What deck should I get?" or "Can someone suggest a good beginner deck?" and without fail, people will pipe up and say " Get the deck that calls to you ." Never mind that pasteboard is obviously inanimate, so "the deck that calls to you" gets interpreted as "Do whatever you want", which is no advice at all. It's saying it doesn't matter . Get the one you think is pretty, or the one in the bargain bin, or whatever. But some decks are idiosyncratic. Others are just bad . Nobody can help this person if their deck is nonsensical. And the available reference material for wonky decks is often the LWB/companion book and nothing else. I'm not saying that new readers should be treated like children. There's no reason not to start with the Thoth, or something similarly complex, if they're reasonably intelligent and that's what they want. But FFS, put some thought into this.

  A line of three cards with no named positions is a spread. So is a line of five, seven, or nine. Cards laid in squares, pyramids, and tableaus with no named positions are spreads. The cards are spread on the table (or on any available surface, like the boots above.) A spread is simply an array . It's something spread out. When you invite people for a big dinner, the available food on the table is referred to as a spread . Nobody says the potatoes are the near future or the meat is advice. A ranch is referred to as a spread, because the land is spread out. The items on a newspaper or magazine page, taken together, are also referred to as a spread. The cover for a bed is called a spread as well, because you spread it on top. I'm not sure how it started, but I've seen people referring to "reading cards without a spread" on multiple occasions in recent years. Stop. It's ignorant not to use a simple word like "spread" according to the definition.

                                                                        Il Meneghello's Sibilla 1850 features numerous "people cards." I think I've talked about the wellness model here before. It's essentially the marketing of pricey quack cures to the kind of people who can spend $60+ on a Gwyneth Paltrow yoni egg just to see if it works. There's a more in depth article about it here . In recent decades, it's been gradually creeping into Tarot. Reading has become progressively more solipsistic. Articles have been cropping up in major publications saying that "Tarot doesn't predict the future", but rather, "it's a tool for self-reflection." Me, me, me. Even the New York Times has jumped on the bandwagon:   Source:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/style/self-care/tarot-guide-for-beginners.html   Do those questions remind you of anything?     They're all self-centered, other than "Why is my mother like that?"