The importance of symbolic languages
Or, why astrology and tarot are not 'demonic'
Apart from my monthly newsletters and occasional bits of this and that, my original work here at ‘The Art of Enchantment’ is for paying subscribers. This is because writing is my full-time job i.e. it’s the only way I get to eat and pay the bills. From time to time, though, I offer post previews to all subscribers so you know what’s available here, and in case there’s something that catches your attention. I promise you, though, that I will never be irritating enough to send previews to you that contain no more than a sentence or two. I’ve unsubscribed from several folk who do that, because really, that’s no better than junk mail and I find it offensive. So I only send out previews in which, I hope, there is something that stands alone in a tangible fashion. Even if it’s just a couple of paragraphs that might make you smile.
Jolly-looking candle-fingered demon from the Dictionnaire Infernal (1863)
During the holidays, while doing a bit of research into trending contemporary faith-based perspectives in the context of my new ‘Temenos’ series which will begin next week over at The Hearth, I delved into the writing of a handful of prominent (mostly, but not exclusively, North American) Christians, including a couple of men who seem to be decidedly to the right of Genghis Khan as well as a renowned Catholic exorcist. (I know. What was I thinking?) By the end of my foray into this curious world, I was very much more perplexed than I had been at the beginning – especially when I discovered more than one of those characters declaring, amongst a multitude of other weirdnesses, that tarot is ‘demonic’. A bit more delving demonstrated that apparently this is a thing: the idea that tarot, astrology – and even reiki, for heaven’s sake – opens you up to demonic possession is considered in this milieu to be perfectly reasonable. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I decided to write something about it all here instead. Not because I think you all are likely to believe this kind of thing, but to offer a perspective on exactly why this is nonsense, and to talk a bit about what tarot and astrology are actually, properly, for.
This denunciation of astrology and tarot seems to spring largely from the lack of a proper understanding of their history (and hey – when did that ever stop anyone?) and of the associated philosophical ideas – which also happen to have quite a long pedigree. That doesn’t make those ideas right, but it certainly makes them worth considering. So the subject seemed relevant for The Art of Enchantment community, because as a depth psychologist and (– radical! – actually qualified) mythologist, the importance of symbolic languages of all kinds in my work is axiomatic. This is because, in the oldest cosmologies of Classical Europe, symbolic languages like astrology and tarot – as well as myth – reflect the archetypes which, along with the language of mathematics and music, are seen to underpin the entire cosmos, as well as reflecting the underlying structures of the human psyche. Spoiler alert: they’re really not fortune-telling devices at all.
So what follows is a brief attempt to explain what I mean by symbolic language in this context, why symbolic languages are beautiful and meaningful – and why astrology and other symbolic languages such as tarot are not, FFS, demonic. If you’d like more on symbolic languages in future, let me know in the comments. It seemed important to raise the issues here, but I wonder sometimes about getting too technical in this space.
