Whether its the tarot decks for sale at the coffee shop or the offhand references to astrological birth signs as explanations for personality, I’m witnessing the growing popularity of esoteric practices like astrology and tarot, which are part of a larger fascination with the New Age among Gen Z and younger millennials on the political left.

Be Curious

I do wonder why these practices are growing in popularity as they have seemed so clearly meaningless and even dangerous to me in the past, though I’ve not known all that much about them. The instinctive reaction I was trained with growing up would be to just stay away entirely. However, I think it is good practice to lean into curiosity when any trend begins to gain traction in one’s spheres, especially one like this that people intertwine with identity and decision-making. Being curious and educated about what matters to those around us allows for better conversations and increased understanding of the underlying desires and motivations driving the trend and therefore how to interact with it.

So… I sought out books approaching these topics from historical perspectives, written by scholars outside the groups using the practices but attempting to give them a fair historical treatment rather than a defensive apologetic or a thoughtless dismissal. These practices, as used by Westerners (which is not a new phenomenon in the last few years, far from it), seem to gain much of their air of authority through claims to connection with ancient practices and knowledge. A good historical treatment therefore leads to more understanding of the reality of the origins of each practice, their impact today, and how to discuss them.

After reading Whitfield’s Astrology, a History, Farley’s A Cultural History of Tarot, and Jenkins’s Dream Catchers, I feel much more able to have conversations with more than the vague idea that “those things don’t really make sense to me" which I had before. There’s much more to say than I could include here, and much more for me to learn. I'm glad to discuss more in detail with folks who have interest, but here are just a few key thoughts:

Tarot

• Like other elements of New Age practice, Tarot seems to have gained its prestige and authority through association with ancient knowledge systems (Egyptian in this case), but Tarot decks actually originated as playing cards for games in Renaissance Italy, and weren’t used for divination until the 1800s. Decks varied wildly before settling into the forms most commonly seen today.

• Tarot's transformation into a device for divination happened in the midst of two patterns in 19th century Europe - first, a skepticism of and reaction against the church, and second, a fascination with other cultures, especially Egyptian and Indian culture as well as Jewish Kabbalah. Europeans fascinated by these cultures mashed elements of them together with each other as well as existing European elements like tarot with little concern for historical reality. These arbitrarily syncretized creations of white elites fetishizing “Eastern” spirituality made a tidy profit for the sellers of the newly created esoteric literature and merchandise, and they also made their way to England where they became essential features of organizations like the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and especially the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, groups that continued inventing and modifying practices, as well as adding elements supposedly related to ancient Celtic and witchcraft beliefs, creating the foundations of the modern New Age synthesis with little resemblance to the ancient belief structures they claimed to draw upon.

• Thinking through the mechanics of Tarot for divination of the future, it either relies on inherent power in the cards or card system to know and predict the future (which has difficulty fitting logically with the messy history of the development of the deck), or the composition of the deck itself doesn’t really matter and the power comes from connection to a supernatural source, where the practitioner “channels” the knowledge or power of another higher being that gives access to understanding of the future. I do find myself curious how those I know with interest in Tarot perceive what is actually happening here.

• For the follower of Jesus, it seems there’s no problem with Tarot cards themselves, as they are just a deck of cards like any other playing cards, and did originate as such. Many decks are created as forms of artistic expression in a wide array of aesthetics and even activist purposes. That seems fine to learn about and appreciate if one desires. What seems problematic is a system seeking to gain knowledge of the future through channeling the power of unknown higher beings, which Scripture is consistently against.

• How does the practitioner know 1. such beings exist, 2. who they are, 3. that they actually have knowledge of the future, and 4. that their knowledge and intentions are reliable and trustworthy and that they don’t seek to harm?

• For the thoughtful leftist, especially for those who are not white, I wonder, how does this practice grounded in people trying to make a profit, European Orientalism’s badly done history, and an arbitrary synthesis of appropriated symbolism fit with the rest of your worldview? And does Tarot used for divination depend on revelations from a higher being? If so, what is that being, how do you think that works, and what are the implications? Does this distract from or really fit with thoughtful critique of the conditions of capitalist society and action towards justice? Does the pursuit of determined knowledge of the future fit with an activist practice seeking to actively shape the future through advocacy and action?

Astrology

• Astrology is often associated with ancient Babylonian, Greek, and Egyptian knowledge, but modern astrology emphasizing solar position at a person’s birth and their “sign” is a very recent development unknown to those ancient traditions.

• Those ancient societies did make significant use of astrology, which was deeply inseparable from astronomy of the time. Methods for understanding and interpreting the stars have varied wildly over the centuries and across those and would give very different interpretations to the same arrangements in the sky.

• Astrology most often has been a tool of officials in the courts of emperors, giving favorable readings to people with power to gain their favor or to justify actions of violence and oppression or the status quo of hierarchical authority. This seems dramatically at odds with the values of many on the left seeking to make meaning out of these models today.

• More recently, astrology was re-popularized by a range of con artists and cult leaders standing to benefit in profit or power by convincing people of the truth of their systems. Whether journalists selling papers and profiting off of writing horoscopes for people looking for direction in times of uncertainty or spiritualists inventing systems like Theosophy that gained cult followings, these folks mashed together bits and pieces of ancient beliefs into never-before-seen patterns and invented convenient new bits from whole cloth like the birth-sign system that allowed for individual predictions for every reader, resulting in a Western-invented system of profitable predictions with an air of ancient mysticism but little real connection to those past cultures.

• For the thoughtful leftist into birth signs, I wonder - doesn't such an explanatory system of personalities and even current events distract from and cover over thoughtful analysis of the material conditions, power dynamics, class politics, trauma impacts, etc. in the world that offer far more meaningful explanatory insights into why people and events develop as they do? Astrology, like tarot, seems like a distraction useful to elites preserving the status quo - an “opium of the masses”, one might say.

• Thinking about astrology’s mechanics, it’s important to note that these systems rely on an understanding of the stars that relies on a 2-dimensional model of the stars that bears no relation to the actual 3-dimensional universe in which these stars’ relationship to earth not only varies by their visible position relative to one another but also by vast differences in their distance from the Earth, which astrology ignores. Astrology also relies on the idea that the stars and planets impact events on the earth, but astrological models don’t take into account basic realities like the arbitrary nature of the associations attached to a particular constellation or planet that have nothing to do with the inherent nature or realities of those bodies.

• For instance, does the planet Mars inherently have anything to do with war? It’s just red and some ancient people associated that with blood and therefore a god of war. In ancient astrology, the belief in some eras was actually that the planets were themselves the gods in the heavens whose names were associated with them (that belief itself was a large jump from earlier Greek ideas of gods as some very human-like figures living on Mt. Olympus). Since those times, Mars has become associated in astrology with action, desire, aggression, and animal nature. Taking that association and applying it to interpretation of the stars and their impact on life, however, implies an underlying belief in an actual inherent association of the planet Mars with a supernatural being connected to those attributes and therefore implies belief in a particular ancient pantheon of gods. I’m curious how modern fans of the astrological reconcile all this, because I don’t perceive them to actually believe in a pantheon of divinities residing in the sky, and the assigned characteristics of planets and constellations supposedly impacting Earth seem to depend upon such a worldview.

Cultural Appropriation

• Jenkins’s Dream Catchers details the long history of American theft and arbitrary re-working of indigenous spiritual practices into unrecognizable forms for profit, culminating in a range of New Age practices claiming ancient origin but twisting and combining distorted versions of practices from around the world with new inventions into a muddled tangle of practices with no historic relation to each other and little historical legitimacy. This has been a practice for centuries and created warped perceptions of indigenous spirituality ancient and modern, as well as a theoretical fascination with indigenous practices with little real relationship to indigenous peoples and their history and ongoing experiences of colonial oppression. I found it interesting how much Jenkins’s history of the fetishization, distortion, and appropriation in the American context paralleled the development of the esoteric in a European context fetishizing the “East” and perceived “Celtic” practice.

But Why Are People Interested and Why Care?

• Why are folks interested in all this? To me, it seems people have a desire for the spiritual and mystical - an encounter with the divine or at least something beyond the seemingly rational and mechanical world of capitalism and productivity. People are looking for meaning, for truth, for a sense of destiny or direction.

• Why not religious faith as the source? To me it seems like many seeing to fulfill this desire through things like astrology and tarot have skepticism of the church, for a wide range of reasons, and that’s been the case throughout history. Many of those reasons have to do with the baggage of misused hierarchical authority, legalism, and male dominance.

• Practices like astrology and tarot seem to give a path to mystical meaning, identity formation, and direction that subverts problematic experiences with religion and is free of unwanted baggage. It's very egalitarian as anyone can be a practitioner. Also it's interestingly become associated with feminism through the development of “goddess religion” as part of the modern New Age Synthesis (that’s a whole additional tale). I think when one digs into the history, these practices have plenty of the same baggage themselves…

• So, what is the lesson for followers of Jesus? Many people hunger for the spiritual. Misused authority, legalistic systems, and patriarchal dominance have consequences. We need to examine and root out these things in the church that are actually opposite of Jesus, cause wounds, and drive people away. We need to constantly renew what Jesus initiated, a community that is egalitarian, that equally values women, that gives equal access to encountering God, and has a more relevant and radical approach to ethics than the common moralistic legalism many encounter in churches. Jesus actually is far more what many peers are looking for than the sages behind the New Age are, and a posture of curiosity and conversation about what people are into and the reasons behind it, and an approach centered on the life and practice of Jesus rather than reflexive condemnation will be more productive and revealing for everyone.

Want to chat more? Reach out! I'm just learning myself…

Learning for St. Patrick’s Day

As Irish identity is in the spotlight this week, especially here in Chicago, there’s a longstanding and potentially surprising connection you might not know about. Many in the Irish community have been longtime allies and advocates to the cause of justice for Palestinians, due to shared experiences of colonial oppression. Read more about this historical connection here.

Historical Heroes: Joseph the Worker

This Wednesday, the church celebrates Jesus’ adoptive father Joseph, a symbol of God’s solidarity with workers. Here's a bit of his story:

Joseph of Nazareth (1st century BC-1st century AD) was a craftsman and adoptive father of Jesus. Little is known of his life before Jesus’ birth, but he was a craftsman in wood or stone, living in Nazareth, a small village in Galilee. Engaged to Mary when she became pregnant with Jesus, he followed the instructions of a God-given dream to remain with her. He heard again from God to flee with his family to Egypt to escape Herod's persecution. He was involved in raising Jesus but disappears from the narrative and likely died before Jesus' ministry. He is often called "Joseph the Worker". His presence as the adoptive father of Jesus highlights God’s solidarity with workers and the role of creative labor in Jesus’ own development (and in God’s incarnate experience of human life). To honor Joseph is to honor workers and the dignity of creative work that is able to produce something tangible and direct and enjoy the fruits of one’s labor, contrasting with and critiquing the often dehumanizing work of many with no other option but to be cogs in the machine of industrialized production or mass retail.

In Illinois? Action Steps to Fight Gambling Addiction before Wednesday.

I help advocate against the worst forms of gambling policy in Illinois as this addiction has high negative impact, widespread effects, and few advocates.

There is a step we need everyone to take before 4pm on Wednesday 3/19. (Witness slip instructions further below)

HB3080 would allow casino-type gambling to function online legally like sports betting does. It is crucial that we stop this most-dangerous gambling option which would see a large expansion in advertising and participation like sports betting did when legalized. We OPPOSE this bill. Click here to submit a witness slip for HB3080 and make sure to select that you are an OPPONENT.

HB1565 would prohibit gambling operators from collecting data on participants with the intent of predicting their gambling behavior in particular scenarios. We SUPPORT this bill Click here to submit a witness slip for HB1565 and make sure to select that you are a PROPONENT.

HB3733 would close the sweepstakes machine loophole that allows for unregulated machines similar to video slots to operate and bypass local video slot bans. We SUPPORT this bill. Click here to submit a witness slip for HB3733 and make sure to select that you are a PROPONENT.

Witness slips are the key tool for showing our opinions and now is the key window for submitting them.

Instructions for filling out a witness slip:

In Section I, Identification: Complete all required information. 

Firm/Business: "none" or "self."

Title: "self"

In Section II, Representation: “"self.” Do not fill in unless you are designated and authorized to represent a group in an official capacity. Organizations designate only one person to fill out the slip on behalf of the organization. 

In Section III, Position: Select Proponent or Opponent depending on the bill, as instructed above.

In Section IV, Testimony: Select "Record of Appearance Only."

Make sure you accept the terms of agreement and click the "submit slip" button on the bottom right-hand side of the page.