When Thought Becomes Theater

I recently came across The Decolonized Tarot Illustrated Guidebook and realized I had no idea what the title meant. The more I thought about it, the less obvious the answer became.

Tarot originated in Renaissance Europe as a set of playing cards. It was not imposed on indigenous cultures, nor was it itself a colonized tradition. Over the centuries, however, tarot has been embraced by esotericists, spiritualists, Jungians, New Agers, art nerds, cat fanciers, Babylon 5 fans, and everyone in between. It has always been a tradition that absorbs new ideas.

The artwork in The Decolonized Tarot Illustrated Guidebook is attractive and clearly rooted in the Rider-Waite–Smith tradition. Many of the images closely follow Pamela Colman Smith's original compositions. That makes the title even more puzzling. Rather than replacing the traditional structure, the deck largely works within it.

My concern isn't with drawing on Filipino-American experience. Tarot has always evolved by incorporating new cultural influences. My concern is with using the language of decolonization without clearly explaining what, exactly, is being reclaimed, rejected, or transformed.

Filipino-American culture itself reflects a long and complicated history of encounter and exchange: indigenous traditions, Chinese trade, Islam, Spanish colonialism, and American influence have all left their mark. That complexity is fascinating. It deserves to be explored rather than reduced to a slogan.

By the time I finished reading the website, I still wasn't sure what had actually been decolonized.

Perhaps the title is intended metaphorically rather than historically. If so, I wish the authors had explained that more clearly. Instead, the word decolonize seems to function more as a moral signal than as a historical description.

I'm all for cultural change. I'm even in favor of syncretism, provided we acknowledge that it is syncretism. Traditions have always borrowed from one another, and tarot itself is an excellent example of that process.

But we can't think clearly if the words we use no longer have clear meanings. Every tradition deserves careful questions rather than fashionable slogans.

The most useful and perhaps radical thing we can do is ask questions that make sense and use language that helps us think.