What has Gall’s Law to do with tarot? Tarot readers love complexity; tarot is a rich medium full of imagery, arcane concepts, mysticism, magic and philosophies in a smorgasbord of chicken soup. So what is Gall’s law to do with it? Is there any problem with that? You bet. We have lost the wood for the trees. In my view tarot needs to be de-constructed to its simplest forms. Then we rediscover a purity of order and structure that is mathematically based. If we do not, we cannot find new insights and uses for this already brilliant and powerful system.
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.
John Gall
John Gall brilliantly summarises the nature of the beast. Tarot is way too complex – it has lost its simplicity. The complexity of tarot means that we can never know when we have made a mistake in interpretation, or what that mistake might be. The extension of Gall’s Law goes into extreme programming, where systems are kept as simple as possible and then greater complexity is added at a later stage. In tarot terms, complexity is summarised as the divinatory meanings, which are to some extent arbitrary interpretations based upon different systems. Extreme tarot requires that the divinatory meanings are stripped out before real deconstruction can take place.
Mathematics is a pure discipline that does not require dogma or belief, and it is surprisingly easy to take tarot into this arena. My vision is of tarot techniques that rival the sophisticated techniques found in game theory, statistics, and probability. We use this to determine outcomes in areas such as business and commerce to produce new models of reality.
Interesting but frightening for me. I am one of those who was not blessed with a mathematical mind but I have always been so intrigued by it.
Hi Cherie,
I am certain you can count up to 12, and you can make comparisons – oranges and bananas are both fruit, but they are otherwise different.
These skills are the basis of the Opening of the Key spread1
This is also my point of view. The OOTK spread is sophisticated and yet simple in its mechanics, and it works almost as a clock. Elemental Dignities, Counting and Pairing allow us to keep the meaning of the individual cards simple, while providing a rich tool for knowing how different types of energies interact. Interesting post, really looking forward to a follow-up 🙂
I wish I had made those points so succinct! The EDs, counting and pairing quickly become a background process, which frees the mind up to see other things that are going on and interact with the client. Its very similar to the automatic actions we do when driving a car.
There are loads of videos on Youtube I made about the OOTK. What sort of follow-up were you interested in?
Paul
I have a question-What happened to Intuition, where does it fit into tarot? I’m getting the sense that it’s supposed to start simple…First learn about ED, then learn how to count and pair and retrieve info on how all the cards are interacting based on ED etc, then there is the uncounted cards…uh…then more steps for ‘deeper’ reading? This does seem complicated from the onset. I see this is important to ‘understand’ if we are to become experts at reading tarot to the fine tuned point of being utterly specific. (Can’t really stay in the question if going super detailed, can we?) But what of intuition? I thought this was the most basic of all basics…innate. Does intuition come into play or…?
Hi Melissa,
The answer is simple! Using the techniques of card counting, pairing and elemental dignities will automatically improve and enhance your intuition.
Furthermore, you will find these techniques will help you to confirm your intuitive insights. What happens for students is that they start to “see” even more than they ever thought possible.
Paul