Disruption. Like Zebras do.
Each zebra's stripes blend with the stripes of the other zebras around it. This kind of camouflage confuses predators, which tend to see only a large, striped mass instead of many individual animals.
This is exactly what happened when the mystical schools in the 18th century saw Tarot.
I think they mistook what was been camouflaged. They saw a herd of spiritual animals instead of a game animals. To my mind it works as a herd of spiritual animals, but it is forgotten that it is a game.
I was reading an answer to a post in the very enjoyable thread Plato and the Virtues…
Now you have a game that seems to have slipped under the radar of censure, because we presume that it was seen as educational and spiritual as in ‘the mystical staircase’ or Jacobs scala dream or in my musings Vices and Virtues (the fantasy of opposites).The upshot is that while Virtue is all-mighty in the philosophers' world, she has no power at all in the world controlled by Fortune, i.e. the "real" world. The gods won't come to her aid. The moral virtues are up in the clouds. The only one who will defend Virtue is Prudence, i.e. one's wits. That's who, or what, Isabella must rely on, be an Athena.
Now just how would one visually explain using one’s wits in the real world of gaming in the 14th century? How would one visually explain winning a game or the most points?
It seems to me that the images in Tarot whilst appearing to be in the “all-mighty philosophers’ world” are actually down in the gaming room world with a wink and a nod. That is why it could be adapted to personal stories like the PBM Visconti or other Heroes and Villains trump cards, Turtle Doves and Eagles etc etc. but keep it’s basic form of 4 numerical suits + plus one visually numerical suit of images.
~Lorredan