Are Tarot Decks Magick? Options

This is from my submission to Wise Tarot Mag (www.wisetarot.com) and I thought it was a cool enough topic to fire up a poll here.

There is certainly something quite magical about Tarot Decks, from the legendary history (mythical) to the Renaissance history (fun) to more recent years (magickal) and there can be no doubt that some people have embraced the roll of Tarot decks in practical or High Magick.

From a recent poll:
* 23.1% of respondents use Tarot for divination only
* 7.7% don't use decks at all
* 69.3% who use Tarot as either a mini temple, magickal tool or visualizing aid in magickal practice!

Beyond that, a recent syndicated study of the Tarot Publishing Industry (sneak peak at data below!) reveals how magical we think the decks themselves are (versus their readers), with 40.3% believing their actual decks are magick (either 100% or somewhat) and similar numbers believing the deck has a life of its own. Overwhelmingly, respondents believed at least that the decks were either magickal in and of themselves or magickal by virtue of our skills. (I couldn't paste in the charts, sorry).

Tarot as a Mini Temple

Tarot as a Mini Temple is a concept put forth by several occultists, notably by Donald Tyson in Portable Magic: Tarot Is the Only Tool You Need, famous author of many books. Tyson believes that a properly consecrated deck of cards, empowered by the correspondences of the Golden Dawn, become "symbolic tools; there is no need for the physical tools and space required in traditional ceremonial magic."

Tyson demonstrates how to use the archetypes and power of the cards to build mini-alters, circles and triangles, and also how to use the Tarot suits as mini, yet powerful, occult tools in place of an actual sword (or athame), chalice, pentacle.
Tarot & Magic

In Tarot & Magic (Special Topics in Tarot), bestselling occult writer Donald Kraig, author of the perpetual reference book Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts (Llewellyn's High Magick), outlined a different and more "intuitive" approach, using the Tarot archetypes and universal symbols and emblematic of the results — "Your Tarot deck is a powerful magical tool. Use it to create the changes you desire in life."
Tarot Talismans

Well known chief adepts of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, present an even more detailed and quite straight-forward approach to Tarot Talismans: Invoke the Angels of the Tarot. They map out specific combinations of cards, with slightly different meanigns between decks, and their uses in Talismanic and Amuletic work.
78 Little Cards, So Much Magick

So, whether you believe the deck itself is magickal (over 40% of those surveyed did believe this!) or that the magick comes from within and without via the archetypal symbolism of the cards, one thing is very clear. The 78 humble Tarot cards in a $24.95 (list price) deck contains an entire universe of magickal possibilities.

IMO: Tarot decks are nothing more than ink & bleached tree chunks, but if you think there's more to them there will be. I intentionally avoid thinking of any of my tools as alive, if I can. On the up-side, it improves performance; on the down-side, it's much tougher to get rid of old junk. My computer seems to be glaring at me while I type this, I'm sure it's no coincidence that it fails every time I try to work on another machine within a meter of it.
My first deck really had a bad vibe, bought it out of convenience, it even had extra cards I've never seen in other decks. My second deck ( http://www.facade.com/tarot/palladini/ ) was a little too powerful for my tastes, all of the cards seemed to have a life of their own, excluding the "information about this deck" ones. The double ouroboros-infinity-symbols should have tipped me off. Last time I used it was in High School and my life started to go off-kilter. My worst fears came to life for a few days, before dying ignoble deaths. Grades... peer-pressure... success... those were some fears I liked dang it! They were stupid enough to ignore most the time and helped me to fit in. All that was left were Robots, Shadow Governments, and product recalls.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/badmood.gif)
Uh... summary: trust your gut, don't buy or accept anything your intuition rejects, especially tools. They may be magic, but so are you! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)

I've worked with my deck, the Celtic Dragon Tarot, for almost 7 years now, and it has gotten more accurate and displayed more personality over time than it did originally, when I was first learning.

I would not say that tarot cards are in and of themselves magickal - just as no objective symbol or object is inherently magickal; it is the subjective views and faith of the individual that grants any kind of power to any magickal tool. Even stones and talismans which have inherent magickal potential do nothing until galvanized and applied through a subjective intention.

That said, over time any tool that you work with becomes more magickal over time. My deck used to give rather 'dry' readings - that is, brief and direct, general, but fairly accurate in most cases. Seven years later, it seems to take offense to relationship questions, always points out the problems in your situation accurately, but gives solutions that imply something along the lines of "Figuring it out is half the lesson." It has definite attitude, even the more experienced readers I've traded with note that my deck gives rather harsh readings. The only time it's ever gentle is when it comes to questions about spirituality, or problems that are causing a lot of emotional pain.

I think they can be used in high magick, of course, but that depends largely on the individual's connection with the cards, and their own deck, the symbolism, etc.

peace