Devil's Deck of Cards"

When I hear accusations that Tarot is the work of the devil (which is rare, as most people who believe in it don't tell me this directly), I point to the correspondences of Tarot with many other mystical traditions, as well as the fact that many Tarot readers remain deeply religious followers of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, among others.

Mark Patrick Hederman, author of "Tarot - Talisman or Taboo?" (Currach Press, 2003), is a monk and philosopher who has written a fascinating treatise on the relationship between Christianity and the Tarot. Drawing on "Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism" (Element Classic Editions) and Sally Nichols's book "Jung and the Tarot," he presents an engaging interpretation of the Major Arcana that combines Christian Hermeticism with Jungian psychology. This book will undoubtedly be a great pleasure and relief for today's novice Christian Tarot readers. However, Hederman makes an irrevocable accusation against the use of cards for divination and uses the word "occult" disparagingly! He deeply respects the Tarot for its esoteric knowledge and its use in meditation: For three centuries it [the Tarot] has been used by occultists and cartomancers to such an extent that it has acquired a bad reputation. People are running away from it. I have heard it called the 'devil's deck'. It has become something of a scapegoat. And before that, the Tarot was used in a perfectly harmless context and developed within traditional Christian symbolism. That it has been monopolized by profiteers and fortune tellers, proscribed by scaremongers and alarmists, forbidden by both secular and ecclesiastical authorities is understandable. The cards can be a source of personal integration and autonomy that displeases those who seek to control others" (p. 98).

Hederman brilliantly conveyed many profound Christian perspectives in this statement. He "draws" on the profound nature of the Tarot in relation to Christianity (to rekindle Christian interest in the Tarot), criticizes divination (as an effective self-protection technique) AND the spread of panic, and pinpoints why the Tarot is rejected by traditional religion. Hederman represents the radical edge of Christian theology, reverencing the Tarot. Ironically, in the final chapter of his book, after the 9/11 attacks, he performs a reading with a small group of people, which sounds suspiciously like a belief in the divinatory power of the Tarot! "Card number one (which, as it turned out, represented the Sorcerer), as the first year of the new century, represents intelligence, ability, self-confidence, the ability to create one's own life, one's own destiny. Such fluidity is based on harmonic change and the balance between conscious and unconscious. Those who have learned the wisdom that the Tarot can teach will likely be better able to show us the path to progress" (p. 222).

The sad truth is that we likely won't be able to convince those who consider Tarot to be the work of the devil any other way. This prejudice has deep and pervasive roots. The word "devil" derives from the words "devi," meaning woman, and "deva," meaning Indo-Asian deity. It demonizes gods and goddesses worshiped by a community that the oppressing group seeks to repress.