If you like philosophy much as I do, and at the very same time you like tarot as much as I do, eventually there comes a point in which the two merge together and you see tarot in philosophy and philosophy in tarot.
That time was actually with Nietzsche and ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra,’ but thats not going to be my first blog post about the two disciplines coming together. That is a much longer project, which will take a much longer time to manifest.
Instead, and because I am currently working on my university paper on aesthetics and Heidegger while studying tarot for myself (and setting up the next tarot meetup, and reading tarot for clients), I am going to explore the connections to tarot that I see while I study his essay on “The Origin of the Work of Art.”
In a very unacademic nutshell, Heidegger attempts to understand what the essence of a work of art is and what makes that essence unique. After all, works of art are some kind of magic. They are a thing (if I start talking about the thingly nature of things, you can safely assume I have slipped into Heideggerianese) much like other things, they are an object you hang on your wall, or an event/performance you attend or listen to, etc.
But they are also something more than that aren’t they? They seem to have more being, more existence, just moreness than mere things. Heidegger thinks so and proposes it in his essay. Reading it and beginning to grasp what he means by this moreness, it didn’t take long before my mind started to wander back to the world of tarot and I was amazed at the connections. They are fascinating, I mean, for starters, what is tarot if it isn’t first and foremost a deck full of works of art? Doesn’t tarot feel like it has this exact same moreness?
For Heidegger, works of art are an event in which aletheia occurs. Aletheia is a greek word that means ‘unconcealedness’, which for Heidegger is the happening of truth.
And isn’t that just what we think about the tarot? We interact with the cards in such a way that truth is revealed, or unconcealed to us. Often we seek the interaction with tarot to discover the truth, its a much more conscious and intentional seeking than what I think Heidegger is getting at with our interaction with art, but stick with me on this and I think you may just love the subtlety as much as I do.
For Heidegger, works of art have performance, they are there to be viewed, listened to – attended to – and we are present in the happening of truth when we are party to its performance. The truth that is unconcealed tells us about our world, our lived experience and the lived experience of anyone and everyone in this life that we live. These are truths that cannot be revealed by another means except when we regard works of art (or when we regard the world as though it were a work of art. For example it is possible to look at a simple rock on the ground as a work of art – you understand what I mean right?). It is this regard, or lens that is part of the performance of art.
As for the truth, we stand in its presence as it unconceals itself to us. We are present in the moment of this truth revealing and we learn, but we also experience our own being in a much richer way. This is not factual truth, or the correctness of a thing, it is more than that.
So the picture in your tarot card operates in exactly the same way, inviting you to be present and experience the happening of truth it brings to you. You don’t force it, but you can consciously observe it as it occurs.
The moment the image on the card comes into your view, you begin to see items you recognize. You see the lamp in the hand of the Hermit. You see his robe and the snow on which he stands. You notice that his robe is grey, and at this point you are simply observing the truth of the image. Once you begin to wonder what type of cloth his robe is, and why he would need that particular type of cloth, or why he is standing out there in the cold with only a lamp to give light, you enter into the aletheia of the card. You enter into the happening of the truth of his world and it unconceals itself to you and the truth of your own world is revealed to you.
Let’s carry on with the Hermit card and see where this unconcealing takes us. Keep in mind that this is only an example. Both the factual truth of the meaning of the card, and the aletheia can be different each time you interact with it. They will both reveal a truth to you about your world each and every time. In case you are wondering, our exercise now runs along the same lines as the example Heidegger uses in his essay, wherein he uses a painting of peasant shoes by Van Gogh. I really do encourage you to read the essay if you can.
With the lantern to light his line of vision we begin to wonder what our Hermit is looking down upon. He stands high on a mountain top, a position from which his view is expansive, but also lacking detail. What could he possibly see from so high up except the general activities of those he looks upon. He is too far up to see their expressions and surmise their intents and reactions. His factual circumstances (his robe, the lanterns and the mountain top) give way to his world, to his solitude and surveillance of those he looks over. His world opens up to us and reveals both the loneliness and the great care he has to watch over his people. The wisdom he has achieved has only been obtainable by his removal from society. He is at once, both the most connected to his people and most removed from them.
This, then is the unconcealing, the aletheia, the happening of truth that is revealed to me when I look at the work of art that is the Hermit card.
You may see something different. That’s just fine. In fact it only goes to prove the correctness of Heidegger’s thesis. The revealing, the unconcealing is not a matter of the factual truth of the items and concepts of the card, it is the unconcealing of the truth of the lived experience of the human condition.
Remember though, that at this point the card is not being read. You are simply present in this unconcealing. From a philosophical standpoint, and with particular respect to Heidegger, the moment you start to interpret the card and read it for yourself or someone else, the application of its contents to your question, the search for meaning in order to answer a question has moved you from aesthetic appreciation to use of equipmental. Now the card has a function, now is a tool now for you to use and as such, no longer holds the centre stage. At this point it recedes into the background, into invisibility, and its use now is strictly as an extension of you and your intuition. Now you are the magic of the interaction between you and the card.
Beautiful right?
My source for this article:
Heidegger, Martin. “The Origin of the Work of Art.” Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2017, pp. 344–357.
Tarot Trish 
Leave a comment