Spelunking in Plato's Cave

[Joan Marie]

Plato's cave is a really strange and fun place to explore the unanswerable questions of life.

I have made a certain assumption though when I go spelunking and I am just wondering if others share it.

The way it works is, you ask a question, draw a card, then explain how that card (or cards, it's up to you) answer the question at hand. Then discussion ensues. Wonderful.

Here's where my assumption comes in. I don't pretend (myself anyway) to truly "answer" the question at hand. I often assume the tone of an expert though, just for fun, like any good debate-team member.

In debate, typically you are assigned a position on a topic (pro or con) and your job is to create an argument that supports that position. It doesn't necessarily reflect your actual views. That is the challenge, and the fun of it.

So if the given topic is something like "Trees are more important than cars" and you get assigned to argue that, no cars are more important, if you have language skills and a wily imagination, you can make a pretty compelling argument for cars even if you don't believe it at all.

Thankfully, the topics explored in Plato's Cave are always a lot more nuanced than that, so you don't have to take on the persona of a super-villain to play. But it is the card(s) you draw that "assign" your position on the subject, right? Or maybe, you have a strong view on the answer and you use whatever card you draw to extrapolate support for your argument.

This is how I see it anyway. And once the "argument" is stated, then the discussion ensues to support or dismantle that argument and that's where all this wonderful discourse takes place. It like a thought-generating exercise, a mind-sharpener. Personally I enjoy the writing exercise of it, putting my thoughts and ideas into words in a convincing or entertaining way.

I guess my point is mostly for people who see Plato's Cave and mistake it for some kind of intellectual sparring match, when really, although dealing with serious questions, is all meant in fun. No one is actually "right," however to play the game, you have to position yourself as if you are. And that's the fun of it.

[Diana]

It's indeed a lot of fun and is the best thing that has happened in the Tarot since sliced bread (sliced by the sword held in the hand of Justice). But I think the intellectual sparring that takes place is also great. And that this intellectual sparring is part of the fun. Serious fun. The threads have really made me think long and hard about certain issues and I still dream sometimes of Trolleys hurtling down the railway tracks.

[chiscotheque]

... it's the card(s) you draw that "assign" your position on the subject, right? Or maybe, you have a strong view on the answer and you use whatever card you draw to extrapolate support for your argument.

for me, the former is true. i often have opinions about things, but i try to let the cards speak for themselves. i suspect, however, that the way i phrase the answers as i see them may lead people to believe that i fully feel and believe the line of argument i am taking up. further, when people sometimes query my reading, i tend to defend my position - not so much from a personal investment with the sentiment expressed as such, but more to explain the hows and whys of my argument. all this said, there are a number of qualifiers; namely, try as one may to avoid one's own bias, it's nevertheless always there. also, one can simply be wrong about a reading, as with any tarot reading. a subsidiary error can occur by getting too entrenched defending one's initial interpretation and not modifying one's outlook. i use my own decks because i know them from the inside out and feel most comfortable with them, especially when the questions are tough. i feel more sure of my bearings, like if my spouse told me her dream - i'd feel much more secure interpreting what it maybe meant than if someone who was only an acquaintance wanted me to interpret their dream. in the end, of course, PC hopefully gets people thinking - thinking philosophically and thinking about tarot in new ways. having fun is the windfall - after all, we' ain't actually about to solve any age-old existential questions, are we?



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[Joan Marie]

i often have opinions about things, but i try to let the cards speak for themselves. i suspect, however, that the way i phrase the answers as i see them may lead people to believe that i fully feel and believe the line of argument i am taking up. further, when people sometimes query my reading, i tend to defend my position - not so much from a personal investment with the sentiment expressed as such, but more to explain the hows and whys of my argument.

Exactly. This is what I was getting at.

I wonder sometimes if people don't pop into The Cave, and mistake what they see to be a kind of entrenched debate, when really it's just people having some fun using tarot cards to discuss unanswerable and age-old existential questions.

I wouldn't change a thing! I would just like to see more people realise what fun it is.

[Diana]

after all, we' ain't actually about to solve any age-old existential questions, are we?

Oh, that's a shame. I was thinking we'd land up soon with the number 42 and our questionings would be over.

I'm disappointed.

[dodalisque]

the number 42

Eek! I have been haunted by the number 42 for the past year or so. It has been EVERYWHERE around me cropping up in the most unlikely places. Does the number 42 have some kind of special symbolic significance? The number has pestered me so much that I have been reading the TdM lately with a 42 card deck - Majors + Courts + Aces. Which is also a nice excuse to enable me to ignore those pesky pips. I'm surprised this 42 card deck isn't more popular - lots of faces, expressions, actions. But the bigger spreads do tend to look like a crowded railway platform.

[dodalisque]

spelunking

Shouldn't that be "spielunking"?

[Diana]

the number 42

Eek! I have been haunted by the number 42 for the past year or so. It has been EVERYWHERE around me cropping up in the most unlikely places. Does the number 42 have some kind of special symbolic significance? The number has pestered me so much that I have been reading the TdM lately with a 42 card deck - Majors + Courts + Aces. Which is also a nice excuse to enable me to ignore those pesky pips. I'm surprised this 42 card deck isn't more popular - lots of faces, expressions, actions. But the bigger spreads do tend to look like a crowded railway platform.

Well apart from the number 42 being in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything", calculated by an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years, there are also many symbolic significances, at least according to this website : https://thephoenixenigma.com/the-number-42/. I didn't double check their indications though so I can't vouch for it all.

[Pen]

the number 42

Eek! I have been haunted by the number 42 for the past year or so. It has been EVERYWHERE around me cropping up in the most unlikely places. Does the number 42 have some kind of special symbolic significance? The number has pestered me so much that I have been reading the TdM lately with a 42 card deck - Majors + Courts + Aces. Which is also a nice excuse to enable me to ignore those pesky pips. I'm surprised this 42 card deck isn't more popular - lots of faces, expressions, actions. But the bigger spreads do tend to look like a crowded railway platform.

42 is Deep Thought's answer to the question of the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything. (Deep Thought is/was a computer designed specifically to answer this question). I can't remember how long it took - millennia I think.

[Diana]

Pen: we were posting at the same time!

Took a bit longer than a few millenia though for Deep Thought to figure it out. I love that movie!!!

[Pen]

Pen: we were posting at the same time!

Took a bit longer than a few millenia though for Deep Thought to figure it out. I love that movie!!!

I just realized that and tried to delete my post but wasn't allowed to as you'd replied to it!!! I don't think I saw the movie, only the original series, which was brilliant. Peter Jones was wondrous as the voice of the book and I'll never forget that the dolphins were clever enough to leave before Earth was demolished, or how the mice had been experimenting on humans for years without anyone knowing!

[Joan Marie]

spelunking

Shouldn't that be "spielunking"?

It should be, but it isn't .

[Diana]

I went to look a bit more at the website I referenced which gives the siginficances of the no 42.

It's a rather startling website, you may like to have a look. https://thephoenixenigma.com/

[dodalisque]

I went to look a bit more at the website I referenced which gives the siginficances of the no 42.

It's a rather startling website, you may like to have a look. https://thephoenixenigma.com/

Thanks, Diana. This is amazing stuff. I feel quite proud of my subconscious for having chosen such a significant number to make all these synchronicities possible. My wife and I celebrated our 42nd anniversary in January. Maybe all the other 42s were just a way of reminding me of that, and the number 42 will leave me alone now. Though the sudden appearance of your email seems to suggest the opposite. The actor Jim Carey, who is mostly known for off-the-wall slapstick humor, had a similar experience in his own life with the number 23 and wrote a film script about it that was turned into the psychological drama "The Number 23". I never saw it, maybe I should.

[dodalisque]

having fun is the windfall - after all, we' ain't actually about to solve any age-old existential questions, are we?

Speak for yourself.

[chiscotheque]

Speak for yourself.

i'm not really qualified.

that website is interesting. actually, everything's interesting if your spend time with it. the gematria for mecca is 42 - i wonder what else? it's no wonder that Dodalisque likes 42, since he's all 6's and 7's (6x7=42). i've always had an undiagnosed connection to the number 1026.

[dodalisque]

Speak for yourself.

i'm not really qualified.

that website is interesting. actually, everything's interesting if your spend time with it. the gematria for mecca is 42 - i wonder what else? it's no wonder that Dodalisque likes 42, since he's all 6's and 7's (6x7=42). i've always had an undiagnosed connection to the number 1026.

1026 = 10 + (2+6) = ten + eight = tenacious

[Diana]

i've always had an undiagnosed connection to the number 1026.

dodalisque tried a Dr. House thing, but I'll see if I can come up with something better. It may take some time. Possibly 1026 minutes/hours/weeks.....

[dodalisque]

i've always had an undiagnosed connection to the number 1026.

dodalisque tried a Dr. House thing, but I'll see if I can come up with something better. It may take some time. Possibly 1026 minutes/hours/weeks.....

Hmmn, 10 = wunder...something/tense/tents/trench
2 = tooth/toot (i.e.fart)/tomb
6 = sex/sick/sticks/sucks/sacks ....there's an idea out there somewhere. I don't know if we'll beat his "6s and 7s". It's not always smart to get in a pun battle with this guy. I flatly refuse to play him at Scrabble.

Don't fall for it, Diana. He's trying to distract us, so we don't notice what rubbish he's spouting. But I'll pay you $5 per insult if you come up with anything.
Keep it clean, by which I mean grammatically correct, but the ruder the better.

[Diana]

It's not always smart to get in a pun battle with this guy. I flatly refuse to play him at Scrabble.

Don't fall for it, Diana. He's trying to distract us, so we don't notice what rubbish he's spouting. But I'll pay you $5 per insult if you come up with anything.
Keep it clean, by which I mean grammatically correct, but the ruder the better.

Oh no, chiscotheque is my Cult of Tarot guru. I could never do anything of the sort!

And I will do all I can to help him diagnose his 1026 issue. There must certainly be some kind of dark saying behind this number. Perhaps one as yet undiscovered.

[Pen]

I went to look a bit more at the website I referenced which gives the siginficances of the no 42.

It's a rather startling website, you may like to have a look. https://thephoenixenigma.com/

Fascinating stuff - thanks Diana!