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Tarot – ‘Entertainment’ or Divine?

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If you haven’t already done so, please take a look at Jason’s Wild Hunt blog entry Tarot Problems from 17 May.

Summary:

  • women hired to read Tarot for entertainment for a corporate function
  • at the function, somebody complains on religious grounds
  • she was, essentially, bounced

Before you start howling about freedom of religion, let me throw in a different way to look and approach the problem, and then see what you’all have to say.

Why do we allow Tarot to be labeled for ‘entertainment purposes only’? I know many of the fundie statutes try to outlaw it, and it’s gotten around by labeling it ‘for entertainment purposes only’, but why would a real practitioner agree to come in for ‘entertainment purposes only’?

Would you hire a priest to come in and perform a Mass for ‘entertainment purposes’? A rabbi? You might have a church choir come in and sing for entertainment, but would you allow a ritual that touches the divine to be profaned by lowering it to be pandered for ‘entertainment purposes’?

Perhaps if, instead, she had pushed back and pointed out (in advance) that divination is a part of her religion, and is something she is willing to share with others as part of sharing her religion, there might have been a different outcome (or the company might have run screaming in the first place, but that’s a different discussion). At that point it’s ‘my religion versus your religion’, which would have possibly generated a much different response from the corporation based on the complaint.

And if she did agree to come in as hired, for pay for ‘entertainment purposes only’, then on what grounds can we claim any sort of religious discrimination? If, as Jason’s blog states “One of the assistant managers has promised that she’ll be paid, as initially agreed”, then there is no contractual default (IANAL).

So what’s your opinion? Do we loose moral (not to mention legal) high ground if we allow Tarot to be labeled as merely ‘for entertainment purposes only’? Does the use of divination as a parlor trick lessen its impact as a real divination tool as viewed by the general public? And, if so, then what to do with the legitimate readers who aren’t Pagan?


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