Literature helps us "read" tarot 📚
Consider the Lobster... and the Moon card at tonight's reading group: 6pm PST
Tarot, magic, and witchcraft tend to attract people who love to read.
I love turning to literature to illuminate the tarot because literature helps us develop the capacity for uncertainty and mystery.
Often books that come with tarot cards are trying to decode that mystery, to pin it down and say: the Devil means addiction, or the 3 of Cups means friendship.
But such richness becomes available to us when we put tarot cards in conversation with literature in all its complexity.
Literature is pleasurable while simultaneously challenging us to reckon with the most difficult issues of our time.
Tonight at our reading group we are discussing David Foster Wallace’s essay, “Consider the Lobster,” and how it relates to the mysterious lobster in the Moon card.
Book lovers welcome!
Reading prompts below. The discussion group goes from 6pm to 7:30pm PST and will include both journaling and group conversation. Hope to see you there!
Reflection Questions for Consider the Lobster
What are some of the uncomfortable truths Wallace asks us to contemplate in “Consider the Lobster?” How might facing these truths help us understand the traditional meanings of the Moon card such as navigating illusion, denial, and the subconscious?
Wallace dissects how language is used to obscure harm (e.g., “suffering” vs. “pain,” “culinary tradition” vs. “torture”); the Moon card is often associated with deception and histories of trauma. How might considering the perspective and experience of the lobster shift our interpretation of the Moon card?
Traditionally the Moon card suggests a journey through confusion or morally gray areas. After reading Wallace’s essay, what teachings are the teachings of the lobster in relation to living with moral uncertainty and feeling through the fog of conflicting values?
You might want to pull your Moon card from your tarot deck to have with you at the discussion group tonight. You’ll also want to bring your journal.
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