Hi jmd, an interesting viewpoint that avoids the two usual logical traps of the extremes. The usual responses would be "If you believe in an original meaning, then lets get searching for it", or "if you don't believe in an original meaning, why waste your time on Tarot? Why not study ...

jmd, do you believe that a) the tarot major arcana was created by someone(s) with a meaning behind it, or b) it started as an attempt at a), but evolved over time due to influences. c) its just a bunch of images from the times - a tower that got hit by lightning, some notable figures of the time, li...

For my opinion, I'd like to warn that Occam's Razor can be over-used. If we always applied occams razor, then we would probably be stuck with newtonian physics, and Einsteins theories would never have been given a chance. Physics seems to be able to cope, remembering what is a theory, what appears t...

Regarding Chastity, consider the Empress to be the Virgin Mother (not jsut mary, but many religions have the same myth of virgin mother to the sun god, including egyption, Greek astrology, mithraic).

If you are interested in Tarot and Plato, consider the Chariot and Plato's description of the intellect trying to contorl the fair and ugly horse pair of the emotions. There are also vague possible connections to Plato with Justice, and Temperance. And eve vaguer - The Hermit as representing the Gno...

I don't have the quote handy either, but there is a good chance that the hanged man represents the soul, inverted, entering into human/ material form. - Plato's concept. And the World likely represents Plato's World Soul. It sort of explains the woman dancing, instead of a lump of dirt or rock or so...

Hi all, crackpot Beanu here. Sorry I haven't been around... To answer some of the questions.... I use the RWS deck because the original work came about from a suggestion to study the background colours in the RWS, and I primarily worked with the RWS. But it works just as well with older decks also. ...