Joan Oleck, writing in the School Library Journal, says that a library system in Pickens County, South Carolina shut down its summer programs because Christians from a Baptist Church threatened staff and accused the library of promoting witchcraft and drug use.
The programs included a light-hearted look at spies and astrology, tarot and palmistry, as well as classes in tie-dying T-shirts, Zen gardening, and yoga.
Apparently this was just too much for the enlightened Christian stalwarts of public morals, several of whom sent emails the library traced to those bright bulbs of a local Baptist church. Library Director Marguerite Keenan cancelled the programs.
Keenan says that the stream of threatening 20 or 30 anonymous phone calls, plus e-mails, began two weeks ago. Callers spoke of “picketing” the county’s four libraries and made statements such as “We’re going to get you” and “How dare you?”
Keenan adds that she made her decision because she also runs children’s programs and “I’m not going to have preschoolers walk between a gauntlet of pickets.
Dammit, lady, you should have marched your staff down to that church and picketed those pathetic, sick people. You should have plastered their actions all over the local newspaper and you should have called for an investigation by the police. “We’re going to get you” is a threat of harm. Hold these people accountable for their actions. They’ll hide behind their sick religion, the way they always do when they violate other people’s rights. Drag them out into the public square and the light of day, and hold them up for what they are: religious troglodyte cowards, stupid, ignorant, and a threat to the community.
I do not have religious objections to Tarot reading myself, but as a Tarot player, I am disappointed at what appear to be one-sided presentations of Tarot cards only in terms of divination.
Tarot cards, according to playing card historians, were not originally designed for fortune telling. They were created for playing a type of card game similar to Whist. Tarot card games are still played today in France, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. There also appears to be a small but growing number of players outside Europe.
If public educational institutions foster the notion that Tarot is only about divination and the occult, then they are not doing the job for which we pay them.
I think that taxpayer funded institutions such as public libraries and public schools which are designed to educate the public should give equal time to the card playing aspects of Tarot. Tarot is often presented in this country only as something to accept or reject in terms of its alleged accuracy in predicting the future. When other options such as card playing are being supressed, one is not actually free in how one views or uses the cards.
I must ask why must all presentations of Tarot in this country have to be occult related? Why do we not expose the young people to actual card games played with Tarot decks? Teens should be aware that Tarot cards are not just used for the occult or for divination. We should teach teenagers the rules for Tarot card games too. It is highly possible that young people may come to prefer the card games over the divination practices. They should be given an informed choice. We should educate young people about all aspects of culture including Tarot and not present one sided depictions of these matters.
I do not wish for these Tarot presentations to be banned or cancelled as they have in some parts of the country, but I do think they should be more balanced by including some information regarding Tarot’s role in the history of card games.