INTRODUCTION
The start of it all, the zero, The Fool...
…the first card of what has come to be known as the ‘Major Arcana’ in the Tarot deck, is a distant ancestor of our sole inherited trump of modern day playing cards, the joker. Previously part of a family of 22 trumps, our joker cuts a lonely and isolated figure in not only the modern day playing card deck, but also in our cultural imagination and representation’s of his character. Most recently portrayed in a stark yet stunning performance by Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillip’s 2019 'Joker' movie, the image of the joker, for us today, is now as legendary anti-hero pushed to insanity by a sick society. When Joaquin Phoneix’s joker becomes fully self-realised in the final scene of the movie we see him in a white wall-tiled insane asylum, dressed in white, leaving footprints of bright red blood and dancing in slow motion towards the light of the sun. His self-realisation is complete, his journey has begun… It is in this closing image that echoes of the joker’s ancestor, the Fool, are most strikingly clear.
Yet 'Joker' delivers a disturbingly isolated contemporary narrative and a stark vision. His particular process of self-transformation has been distorted by abuse, by the lack of a loving family, by an uncaring society and by a world that has marginalised him, a world from which he eventually becomes completely disconnected. It is certainly worth noting that the historical re-emergence of interest in esoteric ideas and philosophies (within which the Tarot and it’s philosophies undoubtedly find a significant place) often accompany such moments of social, cultural and political unrest as those that blight the "Joker" story. And so for all of those who approach the Tarot, it becomes The Fool, our original hero and ancestor of the joker, who typically re-emerges in troubled times to remind us of a different narrative, of the potential we have as individuals to re-establish an embodied connection to the world, a connection that has been temporarily lost to us and is acutely represented by our contemporary joker. Symbolically isolated from the broader story of transformation as told by his ancestral trump family in the Tarot, The Fool turned joker is literally disconnected from the world, disconnected from The World card, the final card of the 22 ’Major Arcana’ and the final piece in a narrative that offers us the potential for a different vision.
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.” Mahatma Ghandi
It is my belief that the Tarot is a unique and special tool, capable of something quite extraordinary. However, it is commonly misunderstood, often poorly used and largely incapable of defending itself with legitimate, well reasoned arguments. I therefore hope to establish a further legitimisation of the Tarot in the hope that its central message be more fully received by a world that, in my opinion, remains in need of hearing it. Therefore, in this essay I wish to do a number of things.
Firstly, I aim to move Tarot further out of its confines of common perception and use as a fortune-telling device, expand a little further upon its use as a tool for therapeutic and psychological reflection and to bring Tarot into the realm of art ’experience’: an experience to be viewed, and therefore critiqued, in the same manner as one would an experience of visual art, of cinema, poetry, theatre or music. This re-framing aims at shifting the expectations of what I call ‘The Tarot Experience’ allowing it to be viewed as one of the earliest interactive art-forms and immersive story-telling systems, capable of providing a responsive and deeply meaningful narrative experience. The Tarot may then be viewed within the context of specific key moments within art history and amongst cultural movements that share similar impulses, drives and concerns with what, I believe, it aims to achieve: an immersive and transcendent experience of conscious self-reflection. With this in mind, I will not be discussing the presence and use of psychic prediction, fortune-telling or spiritualism that commonly forms part of many contemporary Tarot consultations. These phenomenon exist and are a complex topic for discussion, yet they are not without their problems. The use of such additional approaches, in my opinion, are a significant achilles heal to the current perception and appreciation of The Tarot Experience. It is my belief, and therefore my aim, that The Tarot Experience should become accessible and deeply meaningful to even the most ardent of skeptics.
Secondly, it is now well understood that the history of Tarot, as opposed to the often claimed mystical origin of influential occultists, suggests that its roots do not pre-date its existence as a popular medieval card game. This is the accepted historical viewpoint from which I wish to launch my discussion. However, this historical denial of an ancient and mystical source need not undermine the Tarot’s more powerful claims or functions. It is therefore my suggestion that Tarot be viewed within the larger metaphor of game-play. This central metaphor being, that life itself is a game with certain rules and that we are the players. This idea lies at the heart of what I believe to be Tarot’s interactive principles. By reclaiming Tarot’s history and the game metaphor in this manner we serve to strengthen its place in a contemporary world that is not only becoming increasingly aware of the important influence of gaming upon culture but also of the frailties of Tarot’s more exotic claims. Historical demystification, in this case, allows for a focus on the mystery of being itself, which I believe Tarot pertains to. And equally, If we accept this point of view, then we are dealing with a system that is perhaps best viewed as an interactive, narrative game with significant transformational potential. The Tarot Experience becomes a profound metaphorical moment where one is able to ‘play’ with personal narratives of the past, the present and the future, therefore enabling us to take a creative role in a personal mythopoesis: the story of who we are. Tarot then becomes a significant resource capable of injecting future narrative art experiences (including electronic gaming) with a profound wealth of meaning, despite any questions of the historical validity of its more exotic claims.
Lastly, and alongside my two central hypothesis of 'Tarot as immersive art experience' and 'Tarot as interactive narrative game-play', I also wish to position The Tarot Experience within a broader cultural context and as part of a contemporary return to the metaphoric or the symbolic. What represents a broader rejection of the often deadening effects of the literalism of the modern age, the effort of The Tarot Experience becomes embroiled in what Iain McGilchrist (2009) describes as an age old ‘power struggle’ between our two inherent and fundamentally different modes of experiencing the world. The effect of this struggle is seen throughout the historical cultural movements of the West and is continued, quite acutely, in the challenges facing today’s emergent immersive arts sector. We are seeing quantum leaps in technology, as well as significant financial investment, in immersive technology such as VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality), whilst at the same time only just beginning to appreciate the extent to which these technologies are able to effect our experience of art and indeed of human consciousness itself. Importantly, there remains a number of fundamental questions and responsibilities for the creators of immersive experiences, who are effectively playing catch up with this technology. How does one create meaningful, individually tailored and responsive art experiences, and perhaps more importantly, for what purpose? Therefore, it is my third and final aim here to present the Tarot system as a narrative blueprint, both in form and function, that is able to transcend the current story-telling paradigm limitations of authorship, audience engagement and meaning within the immersive arts sector by providing a new narrative genesis of significant influence and a source of narrative rejuvenation, capable of quenching the current thirst for meaning, not only within immersive arts but also the world at large. My central hope for this argument is that it serves to establish a deeper foundation for Tarot, one that I believe is necessary, and one that will enable The Tarot Experience to play an important part in culture into the future.
This is the Introduction to my MA dissertation entitled "The Art of Transforming The World: Tarot and the Future of Immersive Experience" written for my MA in Myth, Cosmology and The Sacred in 2020. This introduction and the rest of this paper forms the basis of a book by the same name which I aim to self-publish in 2023
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