Ep 5: Divining Your Next Adventure: Tarot as a System for D&D
Is Tarot actually information architecture? Is any effort to make sense of information a form of mysticism?
In this episode, Sara walks us through the art of Tarot and divination. In part two, we review the newly released Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck.
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Sara (00:00):
Hey, I'm Sara Shepherd
Keith (00:02):
And I'm Keith Hazen-Diehm
Sara (00:03):
And this is Dungeons and Documentation. On today's episode, I'm gonna be talking to Keith about the Taort deck. What is it? Is tarot information architecture, and is information architecture a form of divination?
Keith (00:17):
And can tarot help you to understand and play Dungeons and Dragons more effectively?
Sara (00:22):
We're also going to be giving our review of the first edition of the official Dungeons and dragons tarot deck, which was just released last month.
Keith (00:30):
It's a beut. So stick around,
Sara (00:32):
Brew a cup of tea and, uh, come tarot with me. *Musical Break*
Sara (00:53):
Keith, what comes to mind? When I say divination,
Keith (00:58):
I think of the Romans, what do they do? They like threw a chicken on the deck of their ship to see if they would win a battle or not, or maybe they cut the head off. That's what I think of.
Sara (01:11):
So sort of weird rituals.
Keith (01:14):
Yeah. Yeah.
Sara (01:15):
To tell the future. Do you think about the school of divination spells?
Keith (01:19):
Uh, you know, that's not the first thing that came to mind. Interestingly enough,
Sara (01:24):
What does this mean to you?
Keith (01:27):
That means that that guy is kicking ass. Cuz he is got a lot of swords. He's got three of 'em and those two dudes drop their swords.
Sara (01:34):
Yeah. This is the five of swords. So either he's stealing his enemy's swords and they're gonna get fucked tomorrow or he's just gather, you know, he's he looks sneaky to me.
Keith (01:45):
He, I mean they look like they're walking away in shame.
Sara (01:47):
Oh they gave up.
Keith (01:48):
Yeah. Yeah.
Sara (01:49):
That is us. When we recorded this episode the first time and the audio didn't work and this is us now we're prepared. We are preparing for the battle. Uh, this is the five of swords we're talking today about tarot.
Keith (02:03):
tarot
Sara (02:03):
And mysticism as a form of information architecture and the new Dungeons and dragons licensed tarot deck product, my review.
Keith (02:14):
All right, well, let's start off at the beginning. Um, let's talk about what tarot is. What is a tarot deck? How do you use it? What do you think about it?
Sara (02:23):
Um, tarot is a form of divination done with cards. Probably everybody has seen the most popular tarotdeck, which is the Rider Waite deck, um, depicted in films and TV across many decades
Keith (02:36):
Or Waite Smith deck. If you want to give credit to the person that actually drew all the cards.
Sara (02:41):
Oh, I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Smith. Um, and it is a tool of divination. So each card has a meaning that you read, whether it's an upright card or upside down, which is the reversed meaning. And then when you do a tarot rating, you choose what's called the spread, which is the orientation of your cards on the table. So there's a seven card spread, three card spread. So many kinds of spreads and each position on that spread corresponds to another meaning. So we've got three layers of meanings. Initially you draw a card. Is it upright or reversed? Mm-hmm <affirmative> and what position in the reading is it? So with those three things in mind, you then Intuit the meaning of the card for that reading, which is often a question.
Keith (03:27):
Got it. So card orientation position. And let's talk about the cards themselves. So, uh, tarot deck has four suits, right? Yes.
Sara (03:35):
They've got four suits, which are the minor Arana
Keith (03:38):
Much like a modern playing card. Yeah.
Sara (03:41):
Like poker,
Keith (03:42):
But different suits. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so there's swords. We saw swords. Yes.
Sara (03:45):
Swords, Pentacles, wands, and cups are the most common. If you get other decks, like they've got cat TA, maybe you'll have mice yarn. Yeah. But the idea is you've got 56 cards that make up these four suites of the lesser Arana. And these are sort of mini lessons each contained within, uh, a larger idea. So cups is generally thought of as the emotional life Pentacles is sort of the intellectual money driven life. Mm-hmm <affirmative> swords is analytical and wands is something else.
Keith (04:18):
Got it. So you said 56, a normal displaying card deck has 52 cards, ACE through king of four different suits. What does tarot deck have?
Sara (04:27):
Well, it's got 56 lesser or con cards.
Keith (04:30):
Is it not ACE through king of, uh, each suit? Is there another one in there?
Sara (04:34):
There is an ACE and then it goes to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And then the page Knight queen and king.
Keith (04:43):
Ah, so page night, queen and king, as opposed to Jack queen king. So there's extra face cards. You might say okay. So that's the lesser. And then, and then there are great cards as well. Right? What are those all about? Major arcana, excuse me.
Sara (04:58):
So there's 22 major arcana cards in the Rider Smith deck, and most other decks as well. And these represent sort of like the big lessons, the universal lessons that we may or may not all experience, but most of us will in the course of life. :ove and loss hope and fear and shame and all of those good things. Whereas like the, the minor arcana might represent a very small idea, like, oh, losing a job. A major arcana, uh, would be death, whether that's an actual death or death of letting go of something.
Keith (05:33):
got It. In fact, death itself is an one of the major Aon cards.
Sara (05:36):
It is. Yeah. It's one of the most feared cards, but it's one of my favorites.
Keith (05:40):
Is there a birth card or is it just like death upside down would be birth?
Sara (05:44):
You could interpret that other people might interpret the sun as the birth that has this baby that's coming out on a horse and it's like the greatest time of your life. This is the summer of new beginnings and happiness or the Empress. Actually the Empress is very explicit about if you're a woman having children.
Keith (05:59):
Oh, okay. Got it. And then each of the major arcana cards in some circles or in some interpretations are also associated with astrological signs, is that right?
Sara (06:08):
So are the minor, AANA certain cards correspond to astrological people? The only one I can remember off the top of my head is that strength, which is a major arcana corresponds to a Leo person. So yeah, there's actually another layer of interpretation. If you wanna go that route. And some people do, which is the astrological significance, either determined by the number of card or the symbolism of the card mm-hmm <affirmative> and that wasn't a later edit. So when the Rider Smith deck was made later on, Mr. Rider kind of made a few adjustments in the order to make sure that it also nicely corresponded to astrology, which his secret society was really into.
Keith (06:45):
Yeah. So they sort of shifted it towards that, the astrological interpretation. And that was around the turn of the 20th century. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> 1909 or something like that. I don't know. Wade Smith that came out. I think that's
Sara (06:59):
I saw you reading that Wikipedia
Keith (07:00):
Article. I did. Yeah. <laugh> I did read a whole Wikipedia article about it. Um, but tarot has been around for long before that. Right. Um, into the like 15th centuries.
Sara (07:12):
Yeah. So the, the idea of actual plane cards as divination in the form of tarot was 15th century. But before then we had people using cards and symbols and pieces of paper mm-hmm <affirmative> to do divination work or statues, or like you say, cut the head off of chicken and see which way the blood scatters and right. Sure. You know, we've got dice and bones and mm-hmm, <affirmative> various ways of using a random collection of objects that are given a meaning like Palm reading, for example. And then through the system, random information seems to become more meaningful.
Keith (07:44):
Yeah. You're using it as sort of a vessel to imbue with meaning. And the what's interesting about the tarot deck is that you sort of use the pictures on the cards just as we did at the top of the episode, right?
Sara (07:54):
Yeah. So you could, if you got a tarot deck or you have a reader, they might tell you the interpretation interpretation of the card mm-hmm <affirmative> but a big part of tarot is supposed to be intuitive. So when you look at a card, you might notice something different. Like when I show you the king of wands,
Keith (08:11):
He looks uncomfortable.
Sara (08:12):
And I just noticed right away that there's a lizard at the bottom.
Keith (08:15):
Oh, there is a lizard. Look at that.
Sara (08:17):
So the reader
Keith (08:18):
That he's uncomfortable because the lizard <laugh>, although my interpretation is that he is uncomfortable cuz he's got like a hemorrhoid or something.
Sara (08:24):
He's not that's your medical,
Keith (08:27):
Medical <laugh>
Sara (08:28):
Yeah. Yeah. But so your reader might be like, that's interesting that you notice that. Can you tell me more and it's almost becomes like a psycho analytical experience. Yeah. Like, well, I noticed this and this is what's important to me. And this is kind of leads you through an exploration of what is on your mind. Sure. Um, which is what makes tarot and other divination tools. So great. Not that they're necessarily connecting you with some spirit world mm-hmm <affirmative>, but that they're providing a framework through which you can kind of sift your own mental chatter and experiences into a way, a new way of thinking. Right. Or even surprise yourself by realizing, wow. I really have been thinking about that. I'm fixating on it. Every, every, you know, it's like when you go and look at clouds in the sky and every cloud looks like a butt. Yeah. That's just my experience.
Keith (09:14):
Yeah. <laugh>
Sara (09:15):
Or food, if you're hungry. Right.
Keith (09:17):
I mean, so you already, I mean, you, you kind of already said it, we're talking about it as a structure of information architecture for like understanding your subconscious almost.
Sara (09:25):
Yeah. Yeah. That's my way that I approach tarot. Yeah. Is that it's not telling me the future. Mm-hmm
Keith (09:31):
<affirmative>
Sara (09:31):
It's just asking me to think about my patterns of behavior and examine that, or think about my own past, in a way, you know, like it can help you work through trauma, you know, if you really are open to it and do that.
Keith (09:46):
Right. I mean, what you could also go so far is to say that it could tell you your future. I mean, there's, there's the schools of thought out there that, you know, believe in sort of determinism based on like the structure of events and neuro uninspiring in your brain and like that if you understand the sort of physical world on a minute, enough level, that there is like a fixed path that things are going towards.
Sara (10:09):
Yeah. And you know, most spreads do include a card that shows the outcome. Sure. I always read that as the outcome, if you don't do anything to avoid it, like when Scrooge was shown his future, but he could change it. Sure. Yeah. I'm not a deterministic person. Yeah. But all that being said, although I am a skeptic and I think that this system is just useful for intuitive understanding mm-hmm <affirmative> I have had experiences with DERO that are spooky mm-hmm <affirmative> and weird. Even beyond like hindsight is 2020. And of course, now I can look and see that that card meant X. So yeah. I think there is an element of it that's out there.
Keith (10:47):
Do you want to give an example of that?
Sara (10:49):
Well, I was giving her reading to a friend who had, I I've read for her many times. It's like a thing we do, you know, just light a candle, have some wine and do a reading. We have a really good relationship. Um, but this time it seemed like it just wasn't the right tonight to read like the cards weren't making any sense. The cards were showing me, she was in danger, there was a man pursuing her kind of a stalker situation. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so I stopped the reading and I was like, I'm sorry. I think that we should restart this doesn't make any sense to me. And then she was like, well, I didn't wanna tell you, but I am, I do have a stalker. I was in know an online dating app and the guy got super aggressive and he is been calling me. And then he called right there during the reading, which is freaky.
Keith (11:31):
Yeah, totally.
Sara (11:32):
So that was interesting. Right. It's like, doesn't mean anything.
Keith (11:37):
Yeah, sure.
Sara (11:38):
I don't know.
Keith (11:38):
I, yeah. So in that example, you were doing the reading and that was your interpretation of the cards
Sara (11:43):
At the reader. Yeah. And I'm like pretty explicit. Yeah. Like it, when I read, I, I like verbatim will read the interpretation from my tarot book. Cause I haven't memorized all the cards. Sure. So it's not like I'm doing anything beyond flipping cards for somebody. So I don't know, you know, I don't wanna speak too much cuz then people will think that I'm not analytical. I'm an information architect, but I think information architects are also like mysticism people because information is nothing. Yeah. There's no thing I can hold and say, this is information. Sure. Yeah. I can gather facts and present them through information architecture to tell a story mm-hmm <affirmative> but that's just an interpretation of reality.
Keith (12:23):
Yeah. I mean, and I think there's room for, in a person's life to be analytical and still sort of have room for the unknown or understanding that there are things that you do not understand.
Sara (12:31):
Yeah. And to that end, if we think of tarot strictly as an interpretive tool for our intuition, mm-hmm <affirmative> maybe I intuited through my friend's micro expressions and weird behavior that I hadn't really noticed. I sort of did notice. Right. It was under the surface. Sure. So either way the terror revealed the truth.
Keith (12:48):
Yeah. Yeah.
Sara (12:49):
I also don't like that when I read the tarot, I almost always pull the same card, which is crazy. Cuz there's so many cards.
Keith (12:55):
Yeah. What's the card.
Sara (12:57):
The five of wands, which is this dude who's got all these wands. He's like, oh I'm carrying them. And it means you've burned
Keith (13:03):
With
Sara (13:03):
Wands. You're taking on too much and not doing your work.
Keith (13:06):
Well, let's talk a little bit more about that. Formation. You talked about positioning. You can have what, three cards or five cards or
Sara (13:13):
Any number there's
Keith (13:14):
Yeah. I've seen any number of big
Sara (13:16):
Spreads, lots of spreads and layouts you can choose from.
Keith (13:19):
So do you wanna give us like a basic example or two of what those,
Sara (13:22):
Yeah. Like the seven card layout as the name implies, you're gonna draw seven cards and then make up a V. So you've got three cards on one side going down three cards in another and then at the bottom of your V is your answer card. So the first position represents your past. You draw a card and put it there. And then the second represents your present. And as you're doing, this is the card up upright or reversed mm-hmm <affirmative> that's gonna interpret your meaning. There mm-hmm <affirmative> card three is a very popular position for almost every layout, which is called the influences sort of like what is affecting your thinking. It can actually be something for your past something that's blocking you mentally or a person like, oh the mother, your mother's blocking you. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> um, card four in my spread represent your answer. So it can represent you right now. If you don't, if you don't ask a question, it could just represent where you are currently. Okay.
Keith (14:17):
So that's the peak of the V then mm-hmm
Sara (14:19):
<affirmative> yeah. And then card five represents your house. So it's another influence card, but it's directly to related to the people in your life that are influencing the matter at hand, your question at hand card six, what should you do about all of this? And card seven is sort of confusing cuz we have our answer card, but the seven is sort of the final outcome. So in anywhere from like six to 18 months, what will be the outcome? And I always read that as like here, I'm guiding you and if you choose to not take any of this wisdom what's gonna happen is this
Keith (14:51):
Mm-hmm <affirmative> so it's sort of like the it's like the future card. Yeah,
Sara (14:56):
Kind of. Yeah. Okay. Like my husband asked me, should I take this job Uhhuh, which was a couple jobs ago. And uh, the answer was very clearly no. Yeah. It was the tower. Yeah. Uh, specifically we a, we added another card to it, you know, what is, what you can do with the tower. And it indicated like health, health problems. And then, uh, what, what will be the outcome was like, you're gonna do the same thing all over again. Like you're gonna, so then he ended up quitting his job because the insurance was terrible and he had health problems and he took another job. And uh, he did not ask me to do a terror reading that time.
Keith (15:31):
Huh? How about that? Cause I mean, that seems pretty on the nose.
Sara (15:34):
So like yeah, in hindsight it does. Right. But that's also, as we know from all time travel movies, it's like, what good is knowing your future, if you refuse to change your present. Yeah. So even though I read that layout and I've done that myself, right. Like I draw the freaking wands card again and I continue to take on more work mm-hmm <affirmative> and not finish my shit. Mm-hmm <affirmative> um, as to whether that's some sort of weird divination or chance, I can't speak to the matter. Sure. Yeah. All I know is that regardless of learning that information, my husband proceeded.
Keith (16:05):
Right?
Sara (16:05):
Yeah. Which I've done too. Like when I asked, should we move into a van? The answer was the tower card. The tower card generally represents massive upheaval Uhhuh, which I don't think it's a bad thing. That was the point could be that could the point yeah.
Keith (16:18):
That you
Sara (16:18):
Need to. And I proceeded, even though it was like, the outcome is you're gonna be super depressed and have marital problems and we worked through all of that te deck. So
Keith (16:27):
Yeah.
Sara (16:27):
It was a lesson that I needed on the journey of life.
Keith (16:31):
Yeah, sure. I mean, that's what the deconstructionist would say for sure.
Sara (16:35):
Yeah. And it's sort of like, I used to be a scrapbooker. Do you remember when scrapbooking is, it was really
Keith (16:42):
Popular. I'm familiar. <laugh>
Sara (16:43):
Scrapbooking had a huge surgeon popularity when I was in like middle school was just the perfect time to be a scrapbooker and you make a scrapbook of your life. And of course, what are you doing? You're not choosing the worst pictures. You're always choosing the best pictures and you're organizing them to tell a story that may or may not actually exist. Sure. I have scrapbook pages that claim that I was a track person. I was in track for like a week. Yeah. I just took a lot of pictures. Yeah. Uh, so it's sort of like, I don't know, the tarot deck is a similar idea of looking at your life and making a story, but less flexible. So it kind of holds a mirror up to you. Yeah. And you know, can cause some discomfort if you're willing to engage in such a way,
Keith (17:19):
Maybe less flexible and less prone to like a positive filter or whatever
Sara (17:24):
And less expensive scrapbooking really adds up. <laugh> any Jolie's boutique sticker fans out there. You know what I'm talking about?
Keith (17:31):
I want to ask a little bit about, uh, Oracle deck. So what is an Oracle deck and how is it similar and how is it different from a tarot deck?
Sara (17:40):
Yeah, my understanding is that an Oracle deck is not necessarily meant to be used in a spread. Okay. It's more, more like a single card draw, meditative idea. Mm-hmm <affirmative> I think Eckhart tole has a, an Oracle deck mm-hmm <affirmative> that just contains some of his teachings. And I have an Oracle deck that's like famous women in history. So you draw one of the cards and then you're supposed to either like journal or meditate or use it throughout the day or put it up on your
Keith (18:08):
Mirror. Right. It's like, what does Susan being with Anthony mean to you today?
Sara (18:11):
Yeah. And you can do a single card draw with the TA. I don't like to do it. Some of my favorite psychics say don't do it cuz it disrespects your deck. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, you'll like, you know, you're being too impatient. Um, but I will take my favorite cards from a reading and put them on my mirror for the week. Mm-hmm <affirmative> like the big takeaways is sort of an Oracle idea, but it's less standardized. It's not like, you know, cause with the tarotdeck you could actually play a game of cards with it. It's got a full deck, not so with the Oracle.
Keith (18:37):
Right. So it doesn't have the suits. It's basically like if you took the major kind of figures and maybe expanded it to however many cards you wanted to
Sara (18:45):
Have, we spoken enough about this concept, that all information architecture is mysticism and divination because there's no such thing as exact truth. And you're just picking and choosing and creating a story that's presented as truth through the system. You choose to present it through. Sure. Whether that is a tarotdeck reading or a book or a newspaper article or a website or your resume, a resume is a great form of truth making in information architecture. What do we highlight? What do we exclude? Tell a story, play the game. It's not true.
Keith (19:20):
So I mean, I, I, I buy that that mysticism is information architecture, but that all information architecture is mysticism is maybe a different idea.
Sara (19:31):
Maybe. I mean, do you believe in objective truth?
Keith (19:35):
Yeah. I mean, I believe that there is objective truth. I don't believe that we have, uh, access to it necessarily.
Sara (19:41):
Okay. That's fine. I'll accept that answer. <laugh> because I think that mysticism is an effort to get at that objective truth, Uhhuh <affirmative> and information architecture is an effort to present an objective truth. I see. But both ultimately fail through our own limitations and our own biases and the fact that we just can't include all information when we present something to the world. Sure. Like when I work, it's always, are we gonna include this or not? And that's through my own lens and my sort of limited understanding of the audience. Right. And when I do a terror reading, am I gonna include this reading or not? Right? Yeah. I will present what I understand to be most, be beneficial to the person receiving the reading. Yeah. Or my own biases. If I'm doing my own reading, depending on how open I am as a person, I think they are exactly the same. Keith, look what I have.
Keith (20:38):
What do you have Sarah, look at that. That's a Dungeons and dragons tarotdeck.
Sara (20:43):
I have a black box with gold letter lettering. It opens up to reveal a booklet.
Keith (20:48):
Shiny booklet
Sara (20:49):
Is the official first edition recently released Dungeons and dragons tarotdeck, including 48 cards and a guidebook. So my husband gave this to me because it does combine two of my loves. Uh, but I think it combines them poorly.
Keith (21:07):
Uhoh so wait a minute. Right off the bat there. 48 cards, 78. Oh I'm
Sara (21:12):
76. Sometimes seven looks like a
Keith (21:13):
Four. Okay.
Sara (21:15):
First of all, I hope that no one would ever get this deck as their first tarotdeck, which I'm sure probably know this is a novelty item, but it is a very poor job of explaining how to use a tarot deck. It even says that halfway through the reading, you can switch so that the person asking the question becomes the reader. And I think that's terrible.
Keith (21:34):
Why? Because like a reading is specifically about one person.
Sara (21:37):
Yeah. Reading's about a question. Like I, I guess I could understand like a joint interpretation Uhhuh. I know it's just, or if you're
Keith (21:43):
Like a couple or whatever. Yeah.
Sara (21:45):
Yeah. It's just very clear that they did not set out to explain tarot, which I guess is fine. Sure. They're putting the work on other tarot decks to do so. Yeah. Um, but the biggest issue with this deck and I think it's a printing error is that they don't differentiate anywhere on the actual card. What suit the minor Arana are for. So they've renamed them instead of wands, swords cups and Pentacles. We have strength, intelligent wisdom and charisma mm-hmm <affirmative>. But then when I look at the cards and I'll post a picture of this on our blog episode page, uh, they don't tell you like, what is this? Yeah. Page page of something.
Keith (22:25):
Like if you see a sword in the picture, it's easy to figure out that
Sara (22:28):
It's a swords, a sword, but yeah. What's intelligence. Like I have no idea. I'm looking at a picture of an angel maybe. Yeah. King of something. There's no guide, there's no numbers.
Keith (22:38):
So for comparison's sake, the D and D deck there, it says the number, but it doesn't say what it is. Is that right? That's right. And on the weight Smith deck there mm-hmm <affirmative> it says, does it say the number?
Sara (22:51):
It says the number
Keith (22:52):
And then it has the picture and clearly,
Sara (22:55):
Very clearly shows there's no confusion. This is the 10 of cups. Yeah. And also there are 10 cups. So there's multiple ways of
Keith (23:01):
Knowing, right? Not only does it have a 10, but it clearly shows 10
Sara (23:04):
Cups image. This one is a nine of something,
Keith (23:09):
Nine of a guy eating a Turkey leg and drinking beer.
Sara (23:13):
Yeah. So I have a feeling they'll correct. That I hope they'll correct it if this gets a second run, because it's very frustrating because then you've gottarottake this booklet and leaf through four different.
Keith (23:23):
You gotta, yeah. You gottarotlook at each of the nines and figure out which one that is. Yeah. I see. That's frustrating.
Sara (23:27):
But the, the cool thing is that each of the cards, uh, well the cards are beautiful.
Keith (23:32):
Yeah. I will say that man sitting drinking beer and, and I would
Sara (23:36):
Say that's woman. Okay. Look at that. Okay. Maybe not.
Keith (23:39):
I mean, <laugh>, it's not safe for work if it's a woman, cuz there's no top on there. <laugh> I mean, that's a, that's a really awesome artwork. And I find the aesthetic of this deck to be very pleasing, the sort of tone and art style of it.
Sara (23:53):
Yeah. It's super relax. Really cool. And every card tells a story. Very detailed. Love it. But to use it as a tarotdeck, I would not do, but every card in addition to having a sort of tey, uh, meaning in this booklet, they give you an adventure hook. So for example, the hermit, which is a Majorana card, okay. They interpret it as being a light unto yourself and finding your own way through the darkness. That's an interpretation beyond what normally we'd see. Okay. But then the adventure hook underneath you meet a monk who is looking for a worthy adventures to defeat a magical monster. And then at the front they have a way of doing a spread, which they call an adventure spread. So you draw three cards and then you look at the meaning which can include the adventure hook and create an adventure out of that out of three things that are happening. So that's pretty cool.
Keith (24:45):
Yeah, that is cool. I like that idea. I like that. The idea that you can divine yourself an adventure
Sara (24:50):
Or even I was thinking like, oh, I threw out some random MPC and the party ended up really liking them. Now I've gottarotcome up with a backstory mm-hmm <affirmative> you can just like draw a couple cards, be inspired by what you see or look at the reading. Okay. He ran from a red dragon and then he lost at gambling and ended up with some evil DDS growing fruit.
Keith (25:14):
That's that sounds good. That all sounds good. Or he will soon be with some evils
Sara (25:18):
Growing fruit. That's his adventure hook cuz can
Keith (25:20):
Me with
Sara (25:21):
Harvest?
Keith (25:23):
So
Sara (25:23):
This is really fun. That's
Keith (25:25):
No, I like that idea a lot.
Sara (25:26):
I'd like this, uh, the idea that tarot helps you cut through the noise to arrive at a meaning. Mm-hmm I think that this could help because when I go to plan a session, the number one feeling I feel initially is overwhelmed. Actually, I feel that the entire time, because I've got so much in my head, I don't really know what to focus on and ultimately ends up being sort of futile because the party does what it wants. Mm-hmm <affirmative> but I think if I were to use this as a tool, it would help me focus what to, you know, put my energies towards or you could even use it in the game, like with straw.
Keith (25:56):
Yeah. So intrad, there's the AOA deck mm-hmm
Sara (25:59):
<affirmative>, which is, which is like an Oracle deck
Keith (26:01):
In the adventure. Each character draws a card mm-hmm <affirmative> and then that drawing of that card makes that thing exist in the world of the game.
Sara (26:10):
Yeah. It's either an adventure hook, which can be super specific. Like you got the sun sort
Keith (26:16):
Sun sort sun sort card. Yeah. Well actually I think it's called something else, but it's exactly the same as a sun sort.
Sara (26:21):
Yeah. Um, or it can give you background information about straw and how to defeat him. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so it's interesting cuz every time you play it you'll of course draw a different card. The number of players you have running Raven law will determine it. Right. Um, I think you, you can go back to the gypsy camp and ask to draw again.
Keith (26:38):
So yeah. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm <affirmative> sure. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. And they're all, they're all like tools, it's either a tool or a piece of information to help defeat fraud. Yeah.
Sara (26:45):
And I think that's a really cool in game experience as a player, especially now they have the printed deck, you can go and buy it and hand it out to your players. Right? Yeah. Um, so I was wondering, can I do the same thing with this deck? Mm-hmm <affirmative> you know, like, oh, you meet an NPC and they hand you this card.
Keith (27:00):
Yeah. And then you're like, oh, now I have to find the Nome and his wife who reside in an apple orchard that is being haunted by a bear and a elk spirit that noms dope.
Sara (27:16):
Yeah. And then as a DM, I could use my player's interpretation of this random card to generate an adventure and be like, oh you were right. All along. Yeah. Even
Keith (27:23):
Though I, and then you're like, all right, let's go to the Grove. Yeah, totally.
Sara (27:27):
So I would say that as a D and D fan, this deck is fun. Yeah. If I was just a tarotperson or a tarotelitist, I would not be happy with this mm-hmm
Keith (27:36):
Deck. Yeah, sure. I, I hear you. Yeah. The other thing, going back to the like adventure hooks, that one that you read actually made pretty decent sense. The hermit mm-hmm <affirmative> and then the adventure hook is, is about a monk or whatever, but some of them are a little incongruous.
Sara (27:50):
Yeah. Like they got a little lazy. I feel like they probably had one person writing the interpretation of the card and another person writing the adventure hooks and then just sort of randomly put them together. Yeah. Um, it's just not quite specific after the interpretation of the cards, I think.
Keith (28:05):
And then how does the interpretation of the card line up with other te deck interpretations?
Sara (28:11):
Yeah. They're pretty short. Uh, like some of them are one sentence and they, they don't quite align with, you know, the interpretations that I've seen, but maybe that they are interpreting them through the lens of a dungeon master. Sure. They have a particular thing.
Keith (28:24):
Well, I guess I, I guess that that comparison is pretty limited because the only ones that are really the same is traditional te deck would be the major Arana. All the minor Arana are different suits.
Sara (28:36):
Yeah. Like they don't even really tell you what, like is strengths supposed to be Pentacles? I assume it's swords, but they don't ever get into that. Sure. Okay. So their interpretation of the devil card, how we deal with our shadow self, the card calls, calls us to cut through lies and see how honest we can be with ourselves. Whereas in the writer Smith deck, the devil is interpreted as a reliance on the material world. Mm-hmm mm-hmm like actually the pictures, like people with the chains around their neck mm-hmm <affirmative> so chaining yourself to materialism whether that's in body or actual stuff. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so that's a very different reading. It feels lazy. It feels like they saw that everybody has a te deck and they can make some money. So let's jump on that. Yeah. But am I unhappy to now own it? No, because it's beautiful. It's fun. I can put it on my shelf. Yeah. And show everybody like how woke I am or be a super lazy dun dungeon master and just use these cards to plan my next adventure.
Keith (29:31):
You're having a dinner party you want there. Someone's like, Hey, let's play some D and D and you're like, bam, I can roll out an adventure in no time.
Sara (29:39):
You meet a beholder. Who designs? Custom armor. Yeah. He needs you to help him with his evil or boss who ripped out someone's heart today. And there's some children, oh, look, there's a beholder in that card too. I'm seeing a pattern here. Yes. Well that is what I wanted to talk about today. Twofold a twofer. I wanted to review this tarot deck and I wanted to talk about TA. I think that tarot is information architecture and vice versa.
Keith (30:06):
Well, I gottarotsay it is a, it's a very handsome deck. Um, I would encourage folks to check it out.
Sara (30:11):
Maybe wait for the second edition.
Keith (30:13):
Yeah. Maybe wait for the second edition. Get yourself a standard tarotdeck first, if you really want to dive into tarot itself, maybe. But I, I do think it's very, very attractive. Very pretty.
Sara (30:23):
That's it. Now, when am I gonna do your tarotreading?
Keith (30:26):
I don't know. That's a good question. I need to get myself in a place where I can feel vulnerable and
Sara (30:32):
Give you some drugs.
Keith (30:34):
Yeah, maybe that's it. <laugh>
Sara (30:36):
Great. Well, if anyone out there's listening and wants to share how their tarotexperiences have affected them as DM. Yeah. Or how their information architecture experiences have affected them as a tarotreader. Mm-hmm <affirmative> please drop your comments in this episode's page.
Keith (30:48):
There you go. Or if you, uh, have a D and D tarotdeck and you want to turn a three card formation and have Sarah interpret it. Go ahead and post
Sara (30:56):
It. Oh yeah. I'll interpret it as an adventure. Yeah.
Keith (30:58):
There you go.
Sara (31:03):
Dungeons and documentation is a production of Keith and Sarah's free time. Our introduction song is written by Ian post. Our executive producer is Oslo cobble
Keith (31:13):
Plot. This episode of Dungeons and documentation was recorded and produced in the tomb of the smiling glitch. Underwriting is provided by shepherd creative enterprises, LLC.
Sara (31:23):
This episode of Dungeons of documentation is brought to you by lower back pain. Are you over 35? Have you done some sort of activity today? Get ready for it. Lower back pain.
Keith (31:37):
This episode of Dungeons and documentation is brought to you by DM tools. DM tools need a Tavern in which to do Aero reading. You can find it at dm-tools.vision.app, DM tools. It's super cool.
Sara (31:51):
Just like the guy who made it,
Sara (31:56):
Do you have questions about your upcoming D and D session? Do you wanna know if you are going to get it with the NPC you love and a door, send an email to info, dungeon docs.com and all of your questions will be answered for a limited fee date, some card ASMR that's cards. That's not someone.
Keith (32:25):
What if you flip it at the
Sara (32:36):
Really makes you respect those sound effect, artists.
Sara (32:39):
Oh yeah. Pick a card. Any card.
What is tarot?
Rider-Waite Tarot has set the standard for hundreds of other tarot decks, which follow the archetypal images created by Pamela Colman Smith in 1909 under the direction of Arthur Edward Waite.
The tarot began in the middle of the 15th century as a deck of playing cards in various parts of Europe. It was not until the 18th century that tarot began to be used for divination, which led to the creation of special decks for “occult” uses.
The three most common decks used in divination / esoteric tarot are the Tarot of Marseilles, the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot deck, and the Thoth tarot deck.
The 78-card tarot deck used for divination has two distinct parts:
The Major Arcana (greater secrets), or trump cards, consists of 22 cards without suits:
The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World, and The Fool. Cards from The Magician to The World are numbered in Roman numerals from I to XXI, while The Fool is the only unnumbered card, sometimes placed at the beginning of the deck as 0, or at the end as XXII.
The Minor Arcana (lesser secrets) consists of 56 cards, divided into four suits of 14 cards each;
Ten numbered cards and four court cards. The court cards are the King, Queen, Knight and Page, in each of the four tarot suits. In modern occult tarot decks suits is often called wands, pentacles, cups, and swords.
How do tarot readings work?
When it comes to a tarot reading, you may imagine a robed psychic leaning over a candle-lit table. None of that is needed for you to benefit from tarot, and no, you likely won’t discover the winning lottery numbers from your reading.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn says, "The most powerful sources of information come from within; the Tarot aids in coming in contact with one's Higher Self."
So, take a deep breath and open your mind to the truths your subconscious already knows. Then follow these steps.
There are four steps to divining from the tarot:
Pick your spread - this is the layout you’ll place your cards on. In a spread, each position has a meaning. There are also one-card draws, use to answer a brief question or provide guidance for the day. Here are 11 tarot spreads to get you started.
Draw a card and place it on a spread position. Note if the card is reversed (upside-down) or right-side-up, as this will affect the interpretation.
Interpret the card using its meaning (usually found in the booklet included with your deck, or through another source such as a book or the internet) within the context of the card’s position on the spread and the question you asked. For example, the Devil card placed upright on a Surrounding Energies position on a 7-card spread might imply you are too focused on physical positions, so much so that you are prevented from being fully free.
When all the cards are placed on the spread, see what you can interpret from the whole of the spread. Do you see themes? Is one minor arcana suit dominating the layout? What do all of the cards tell you as you consider the final placed card (usually “the answer” position).
The Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck: Our Review
This summer saw the release of the officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons tarot deck, illustrated by Fred Gissubel. The deck is certainly beautiful, but is it worth the buy?
The good:
78 cards, each with a gorgeous and highly detailed illustration
An “adventure spread” to help inspire your next session
Quest hooks on each card for quick adventure ideas while in-game
A new way to think about session planning
The bad:
The minor arcana cards aren’t labeled, making it difficult to find the corresponding card and its meaning in the included booklet
Quest hooks are only slightly related to the card, so they feel a bit lazy
Card interpretations are brief and contrary to standard tarot, making it a poor first deck for anyone wanting to use these cards for traditional divination tarot.
Should you buy it?
Maybe, but not to actually use as a tarot deck.
For D&D lovers, it’s hard to pass up another shiny, pretty item for your shelves. While Sara has her criticisms of the deck, we both love the artwork so much that it almost makes up for it. If you’re wanting some visual inspiration for your games regardless of the tarot portion, it’s worth picking up.
Using the cards with other spreads, like our free dungeon master tarot spreads, will provide additional inspiration!
