Re: virus: Re: virian tarot

Jason McVean (jmcvean@acs.ucalgary.ca)
Mon, 30 Sep 96 12:00:50 MDT

Ken Pantheists wrote:
> J McVean wrote
> "My main concern with this idea is pretty fundamental. The first
> bit of text on http://plains.uwyo.edu/~astarte/tarot.htm:
>
> What is the Tarot? It is a system of cards often used for
> divination, as well as spells, meditation, and many other
> things.
>
> I understand what you are saying. The belief that shaking a rattle will
> cause it to rain is not very virain, but the idea of using your mind and
> your exert your desires in the world is very virian-- and very
> "spell-like". Casting a spell on someone (a curse, a blessing) is merely
> sending powerfully engineered memes.
> So powerful that the recipient "fulfils the prophecy".

I didn't mean to imply that the Virain Tarot couldn't be done.
But a fine line must be walked. If someone were to pick up a
Virian Tarot deck and not know anything about memetics, it could
be quite possible for said person to use it much as a Tarot deck
is used if the resemblance to too close. The first step to
distancing the idea from Tarot is probably to stop calling the
idea Virian Tarot. At the same time, if you retain none of the
Tarot concepts (i.e., "reading" the cards), there is the risk
that the deck would become a fancy set of flashcards.

Jason

-- 
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Dept. of Physics and Astronomy            University of Calgary         
jmcvean@acs.ucalgary.ca         http://www.ucalgary.ca/~jmcvean


"All my life I've been  waiting, and watching, and  waiting for
flesh that smells familiar." Sara Craig - Thank You (Very Much)
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