Tarot
Discussion Questions for Small Groups
- Read Revelation 15. Then read the devotional, “Tarot.”
- The author claims that Revelation is a text we read ourselves into at least as much as a text that we read meaning out of. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
- Is it important to you that a biblical text have one clear meaning? Why or why not?
- Does your answer to #2 change depending on the biblical text or type of text?
And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass… – Revelation 15:2 (NRSV)
A colleague chaplain runs a weekly tarot card session, where students do readings for themselves and each other while processing whatever’s going on in their lives. My colleague will tell you that while it’s entirely possible some external mystical force is guiding the cards to tell querents their “fortunes,” the real magic comes from the meanings the students themselves project onto the randomly drawn cards. That, of course, and from discussing their lives with a circle of interested, listening, loving conversation partners.
There are plenty of people who claim to know exactly what the Book of Revelation means, what each weird detail represents. They deliver their pronouncements as surely and dramatically as a bescarved fortune-teller talking to a mark on a busy street down by the docks.
Problem is, they rarely agree. Does the glassy sea represent the giant basin from the Temple in Jerusalem? The Red Sea that Moses led the people through? Something else? Is the fire in the glass the light of God? A refiner’s fire for sinners? Something else? And either way: so what?
I’m not saying there aren’t discernable central themes. The struggles of the faithful. God’s sufficiency and providence. The reality of suffering. The ultimate redemption of creation. Yes.
But which real life nouns correspond to the various nouns in the text, and what we should do about it? That’s as clear as the meaning of an inverted Eight of Wands. What you see is what’s in you, and the best insights are going to come in conversation with others.
Prayer
When your word gets weird, give me questions instead of clarity and partners instead of proclamations. Amen.

Quinn G. Caldwell is Chaplain of the Protestant Cooperative Ministry at Cornell University. His most recent book is a series of daily reflections for Advent and Christmas called All I Really Want: Readings for a Modern Christmas. Learn more about it and find him on Facebook at Quinn G. Caldwell.