A Comparative Analysis of
Fortune Telling and Divination,
Chinese Perspectives, and Tarot
benebell wen
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
The Orbifold Tarot by Michael Bridge-Dickson
Fortune Telling
Divination
算命
卜筮
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
Important:
No Community is
Homogenous
• One Tarot Reader
Can’t Represent All
• One Asian Can’t
Represent All
Discussion &
Opinion Sharing
Oswald Wirth Tarot deck used with permission of U.S. Games
Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902. All rights reserved.
1000 B.C.
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
800 B.C.
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
200 B.C.
200 B.C.
suan
ming
Seal Script
200 B.C.
Fortune Telling
Script Source: Center of Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts, bsm.org.cn, www.bsm-whu.org/zxcl/
Fortune Telling Theory
S
Seeker
P
Practitioner
(Tarot Reader)
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
shi
bu
Divination
Shaman
Witch
Sorcerer
Medium
“Spirit
Communicator”
Script Source: Center of Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts, bsm.org.cn, www.bsm-whu.org/zxcl/
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
zhan
gua
Seal Script
1000 B.C.
(Divination)
Script Source: Center of Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts, bsm.org.cn, www.bsm-whu.org/zxcl/
Image Source: Cornell University Library
Compare:
gui
Divination Theory
S
Seeker
P
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
Practitioner
(Tarot Reader)
DIVINE
Divination Theory
Fortune Telling Theory
S
S
P
P
DIVINE
divination
“For five centuries or more
“ForTarot
five centuries
cards
or…True
more Tarot
cards
Western
rests upon
the occult
have been used in Europe,have
ostensibly
been used
for in Europe,
ostensibly
for
Perspectives
on
truth that the causes
games and fortune-telling…
games and fortune-telling…
Fortune Telling
of all events in
Fortune
Telling
Future
is the result of chance and fate.
…but really
[thethecards
are]
…but
to really
preserve
[the cards
are]life
toare
preserve
human
really
It
is
beyond
Seeker’s
control.
vs.
Divination
the essentials of a secret doctrine…
the essentials of a secret
doctrine…
internal,
proceeding
from the Cause of
Divination
…Tarot divination is not fortune-telling.
Causes—the
Dynamic Relationship between Personal Qi
The practice
ofandfortune-telling
is based
Universal Intelligent
(Microcosm)
Cosmic Qi (Macrocosm)
on the false notion that human life is
Energy or Lifegoverned by luck, chance, or fate—by
power.”
obscure powers that work outside the
Paul Foster Case
Oracle of the Tarot (1933)
personality…
New Earth Tarot by Kate Silver & Charlene Delong (newearthtarot.com)
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler (Noreah Press
The Orbifold Tarot by Michael Dickson-Bridges
“I shall therefore confine myself . . . to giving .
. . instructions which will enable my readers to
utilise [Tarot] for fortune-telling. . . . I shall
now give several modes of laying out the cards
for divination.”
S. L. MacGregor Mathers
The Tarot (1888)
“These interpretations are comparable in
every respect to the divinatory and fortunetelling meanings with which I shall have to
deal in their turn.”
A. E. Waite
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910)
(No apparent
distinctions
made between
fortune telling
and divination.)
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
“All manifestations in the universe can be
generated by the practitioner’s physical body,
through the hand.
“The function is determined by the will
of the practitioner.
966 A.D. Tablet Carvings
of the
Huang Di Ying Fu Jing [circa 618 A.D.]
“The mechanics is determined by the
(The Yellow Emperor’s Classics of the Hidden Talisman)
practitioner’s mind.”
Image Source Courtesy of Special Collections
YellowUniversity
Emperor’s Classics of the Hidden Talisman
Fine Arts Library, Harvard
600-900 A.D.
“The function is determined by the will of the practitioner.”
Determined By
WILL
“All manifestations in the universe
can be generated
by
the
practitioner
Function
. . . through the hand.”
Fortune Telling
Divination
the Holy
by Christine
Payne
Towler
TarotTarot
of theofHoly
LightLight
by Christine
Payne
Towler
Determined By
WILL
Fortune Telling
Divination
Practitioner acquires Sight
Practitioner acquires Connection
Practitioner is inserted
into the Seeker’s Path
Practitioner is a passive bystander
on the Seeker’s Path
Source of Knowledge:
Ego, Sentience
Source of Knowledge:
Divine
Perception
Revelation
Transcending to Union
with the God Principle
Receiving and Submitting
to the God Principle
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne Towler
“The mechanics is determined by the practitioner’s mind.”
Determined By
MIND
Mechanics
Fortune Telling
Divination
Determined By
MIND
Fortune Telling
Divination
Intuition
Knowledge
Intuition
Knowledge
Core, “Gut”
Accounting
Crown
Signs & Omens
Projecting
Outward
Direction
Projecting
Inward
Mediation
Bottom Heavy
Giver
Top Heavy
Recipient
Induction & Deduction
Invoking Spirit
Determined By
MIND
Fortune Telling
Divination
Intuition
Knowledge
Intuition
Knowledge
Core, “Gut”
Accounting
Crown
Signs & Omens
Bottom Heavy
Direction
Top Heavy
Mediation
Empathic
Giver
Psychic
Recipient
Induction & Deduction
Image Source: Free-Pictograms.com
Invoking Spirit
Determined By
MIND
Fortune Telling
Divination
Intuition
Knowledge
Intuition
Knowledge
Core, “Gut”
Accounting
Crown
Signs & Omens
Bottom Heavy
Direction
Top Heavy
Mediation
Empathic
Giver
Induction & Deduction
Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (Public Domain) via sacred-texts.com
“Kneeling before
the Hierophant”
- Richard Palmer
Psychic
Recipient
Invoking Spirit
“The function is determined by the will of the practitioner.”
“The mechanics is determined by the practitioner’s mind.”
Fortune Telling
Study the Self
To know the Universe.
Knowledge
Divination
To know the Self
Study the Universe
What is the rationale for
making a distinction?
Fortune Telling
TAROT
WORDS
READING
INTENT
begets
THE WORDS
Crafted by Function
and Mechanics
New Earth Tarot
by Kate Silver & Charlene Delong
(newearthtarot.com)
The words you speak are
INFLUENTIAL
Divination
The words you speak are
A SACRED MESSAGE
“Before every event, there are
opportunities that Heaven avails
to the practitioner to exercise
metaphysical force to transform
the path of nature [or fate].”
Yellow Emperor’s Classics of the Hidden Talisman
600-900 A.D.
P
S
Fate
P
S
Free Will
Meeting
of the
Minds
S
Fate
S P
Window of
Opportunity
Free Will
The Tarot
reader’s role
is to identify
I possess
the ability
to See.
I know the
future. I
know you.
I am
Divine.
I possess the
ability to
Connect.
I read signs
and omens.
that window
of
opportunity.
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
The Divine
speaks to me.
I possess
the ability
to See.
I know the
future. I
know you.
I am
Divine.
“Before every event, there are
opportunities that Heaven avails
to the practitioner to exercise
metaphysical force to transform
the path of nature [or fate].”
Huang Di Yin Fu Jing
“The causes of all events in
human life are really internal,
proceeding from the Cause of
Causes—the Universal
Intelligent Energy.”
– Paul Foster Case
I possess the
ability to
Connect.
I read signs
and omens.
The Divine
speaks to me.
Words are the metaphysical force.
Fortune telling or divination,
words are the practitioner’s craft.
Image Source: “N11B In Large Magellanic Cloud” [NASA] via copyrightfreephotos.hq101.com
“Words and magic were
in the beginning one and
the same thing, and even
today words retain much
of their magical power.”
Fortune Telling or Divination?
Sigmund Freud
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1916)
Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (Public Domain) via sacred-texts.com
Fortune Telling
The words you speak are
INFLUENTIAL
Divination
The words you speak are
A SACRED MESSAGE
Tarot of the Holy Light by Christine Payne-Towler
Jiao Bei
Divination Moon Blocks
Theoretical Mechanics:
• Place yourself in a
position of passivity.
• Invoke a deity or Spirit
Jiao Bei
(“Divine”).
Divination Moon Blocks
• Connect to that greater
Divine.
Most commonly found in
• Listen to the answer from
temples for communing
Spirit.
directly with deities.
Key Word:
Connection
Feel the “connection” at your
crown, near the “third eye.”
The Orbifold Tarot by Michael Bridge-Dickson
Let’s Discuss.