Tarot Symbolism, Divination, and Tarot Card reading
Academic Year:
2016 - 2017 (June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017)
Funding Requested:
$500.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
Graduate Student/Postdoc:
mswilson
jtroysamu
Overview of the Project:
Our class, Ancient Magic and Witchcraft, covers the history of Magic in the West but focuses on the Greco-Roman legacy of magic. There are 150 students in the class. One component of the course focuses on Renaissance magic and the use of symbolism taken from Greco-Roman antiquity. We are studying the history of Tarot and the students are making their own tarot deck, based on themes relevant to 21st century students but rooted in Renaissance magic. For example, we thought of creating the "Black Lives Matter" Tarot or the "Climate Change" Tarot. After drawing, designing and printing the decks, students will learn how to do Tarot divination. We will spend a class session on the Diag (Dec. 1) offering readings to anyone and also teaching them about Tarot and about the relevance of the Tarot themes. For this purpose, we need funds to print the decks at printyourowncards.com. The cost is about $12 for each deck and we are trying to bring the costs down for the students. The money will go to printing the decks that we design and create.