Tarot, Philosophy, and Christian Mysticism
Paul said in Colossians 3:11, “Christ is all and in all.” On its face, this is a rather esoteric concept. But what does it mean Christ is All and in All? Consider this passage from Richard Rohr’s book Universal Christ: “Paul merely took incarnationalism to its universal and logical conclusions. We see that in his bold … Read more
Wisdom 7:25 describes Wisdom as “a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty.” What is an emanation in this context? What does it mean that Wisdom emanates from God? We see the concept of emanation constantly in Neoplatonism, but how does emanation work in Christian theology? Here’s a metaphor I find helpful to my … Read more
Why Am I a Christian? Here’s the story of how I went from atheist to Christian heretic. First I must state how strange it is to describe myself as “a Christian.” It feels much more comfortable to call myself “someone interested in Christianity” or “someone fascinated by Christianity.” My fascination is like a religious anthropologist. … Read more
Are there Prohibitions against the Tarot in the Bible? What does the Bible say about Tarot cards? The Bible actually has many verses that concern the morality of sorcery and divination. In pretty much every context, the Bible seems to say these things are evil and should be avoided. But things are never quite that … Read more
If you type “Are Tarot cards evil?” into Google, one of the top results is the Christian website GotQuestions and they warn that Tarot cards are demonic: God warned His people, the Israelites, against divination when they were on the verge of entering the Promised Land. He lists divination among such evils as child sacrifice … Read more
Are Tarot cards witchcraft? This is a fairly common question for people who really don’t know a lot about either Tarot or witchcraft. Usually, there are two types of people who might be interested in this question. First, there are the Christians who might be interested in learning about the Tarot but are scared of … Read more
If you Google “Do you have to go to Church to be a Christian?” one of the first results is from the United Methodist Church, which writes: John Wesley, one of our founders, taught and practiced accountable discipleship. He put it this way. “There is no religion but social religion.” In other words, without being … Read more
I grew up in a fundamentalist Southern Baptist church. In high school, I deconverted and became a staunch atheist and materialist. That persisted throughout my twenties until I reached my early thirties and discovered a new interest in the occult and other esoteric topics, with a particular interest in the Tarot. I then discovered gnostic … Read more
One might think that Christianity and Paganism go together like oil and water. But it is in fact possible to be a “Christian Pagan” once you loosen the reigns of orthodoxy around what it means to be Christian and open your mind to the many possibilities of paganism. Christianity as a belief system and worldview … Read more