I've been thinking about this a little in the last little while. Has anyone come across Tarot in the mainstream media? (I mean, outside of James Bond, heh.)
I ask because my brother introduced me to a Japanese anime series, Persona 4: The Animation, which is based on the Persona 4 (or P4) RPG (released on the Playstation 2). I have the series in my Hulu queue. Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei%3A_Persona_4. Of course, I am confused as hell about the story (apparently the best way to understand this world is to play the game, which I don't have time to do). The basic gist of it though is that a group of high schoolers in a fictional Japanese town fall into a portal (in a TV) and end up in the Shadow World (I think it's called TV World or something). While in this other world, they meet their shadows--their own dark sides. If a person accepts their Shadow, it becomes a Persona--which, in this particular game, are based on the archetypes represented by the Major Arcana. In fact, the personas are called up (while in the TV World) by using a specific Tarot card--whichever card the persona represents in the Major Arcana.
It's actually pretty neat. When the game was initially released, the game publisher included a Tarot deck (the same deck used in the game/anime) as a promotional item. My brother never got it, though he wished he'd been able to. The only way to get it now is through Ebay, where the decks are outrageously priced.
I also read a book called Eight of Swords by David Skibbins. It's the first book in his Tarot Card Mysteries series. It's a murder mystery series that revolves around Berkley, California Tarot reader Warren Ritter. His readings have suddenly become very, very accurate--and they mean that someone's going to get hurt. (In this book, a teenager is kidnapped.) The cards also say that he's the only one who can unravel the mystery.
This book was really good. I don't usually read mysteries, but I was drawn to this one because of the Tarot aspect. I still need to find the rest of the series, but the first book was great. Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Swords-Tarot-Card-Mystery/dp/0312352255?tag=duckduckgo-d-20. Author website: http://www.davidskibbins.com/books.html.
Has anyone else come across Tarot in the media lately?
I ask because my brother introduced me to a Japanese anime series, Persona 4: The Animation, which is based on the Persona 4 (or P4) RPG (released on the Playstation 2). I have the series in my Hulu queue. Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei%3A_Persona_4. Of course, I am confused as hell about the story (apparently the best way to understand this world is to play the game, which I don't have time to do). The basic gist of it though is that a group of high schoolers in a fictional Japanese town fall into a portal (in a TV) and end up in the Shadow World (I think it's called TV World or something). While in this other world, they meet their shadows--their own dark sides. If a person accepts their Shadow, it becomes a Persona--which, in this particular game, are based on the archetypes represented by the Major Arcana. In fact, the personas are called up (while in the TV World) by using a specific Tarot card--whichever card the persona represents in the Major Arcana.
It's actually pretty neat. When the game was initially released, the game publisher included a Tarot deck (the same deck used in the game/anime) as a promotional item. My brother never got it, though he wished he'd been able to. The only way to get it now is through Ebay, where the decks are outrageously priced.
I also read a book called Eight of Swords by David Skibbins. It's the first book in his Tarot Card Mysteries series. It's a murder mystery series that revolves around Berkley, California Tarot reader Warren Ritter. His readings have suddenly become very, very accurate--and they mean that someone's going to get hurt. (In this book, a teenager is kidnapped.) The cards also say that he's the only one who can unravel the mystery.
This book was really good. I don't usually read mysteries, but I was drawn to this one because of the Tarot aspect. I still need to find the rest of the series, but the first book was great. Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Swords-Tarot-Card-Mystery/dp/0312352255?tag=duckduckgo-d-20. Author website: http://www.davidskibbins.com/books.html.
Has anyone else come across Tarot in the media lately?
