Elsewhere

Bailey Crone is an Atlanta based “dream pop” artist and musician whose new single is called “Tarot Cards.” It was released a week ago, and is starting to get some web links. The overall effect is of a watery mood, appropriate. Though no particular card is evoked, the water, the “fragile mind,” and the “softness,” may possibly indicate the Page/Princess of Cups. Her music is heavy on guitar, which is her main instrument, and synthesizers. Her playing style and tone is reminiscent of Kurt Vile’s, though with much more reverb.

Today, the newspaper of the University of California at Santa Barbara has run a short feature article regarding tarot. The article is very short, and other than advice “not to overthink it,” it is simply a three card draw (Six of Wands, Seven of Pentacles and Eight of Pentacles) and a few sentences each regarding what each of the cards represent. Short as it may be, the article stands as an indicator that the popularity of tarot, once again, is growing in our society.

An interesting opinion/analysis article regarding divination appears on the web today from the Reporter Magazine of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Karina Le approaches astrology and tarot from a health and wellness viewpoint. The analysis of astrology relates the spatial positioning of the constellations and planets (astrology) as a metaphor of our relationship to the universe. Tarot, it is said, helps people “open up” about what they’re going through. The conclusion is that “the real magic in divination” is the experience of “expanding one’s horizons and thinking more deeply in the introspection of self, and the way we handle our lives.”

I was pleasantly surprised to see Elle magazine reporting today on a new collection of high end cosmetics being marketed with packaging that evokes tarot cards. MAC Cosmetics commissioned South Korean artist Park Hye-Min to create packaging using the Sun, Moon and Star cards for the new line. It is clear that tarot is both trendy and popular. Market research that estimates the size of the tarot market, which in our hyper-materialistic society would be the surest measure of tarot’s popularity, is difficult to come by. That such research has been done should probably be proof enough that tarot has achieved some level of popularity and economic success. It has long been my suspicion that the popularity of tarot climbs in uncertain times; Britain on the eve of World War I, the U.S. during the depression, and again during the 1960s, which in addition to being a stressful decade was also the decade of the greatest explosion of worldwide arts and letters since the renaissance (in my opinion). And now, the U.S. (indeed, the world) is once again witnessing stressful times. Perhaps part of tarot’s popularity is that it may offer some answers in times like these. If Tarot’s popularity continues to rise, and if we survive long enough, perhaps some future critics will hold up some tarot decks as proof of the vibrancy of art in our strange and stressful times.