Press Release: Mythulu's Official Response to Christian Concerns about Tarot

Sept 11, 2021

 

FAQ: "Are Mythulu Cards a re-skinned form of tarot? I am a practicing Christian. Part of that involves not participating in magic or divination in the real world, and tarot would fall into that.

This heartfelt question deserves a heartfelt response. As a business, we respect all beliefs and strive to empathize from our nearest personal experience. I was raised a devout Christian, so I believe I understand your concerns.

The short answer is no, Mythulu cards are not reskinned tarot. Additionally, we are happy to explain why Mythulu cards are compatible with a Christian life.

Moral use of tarot is debated heavily within Christian communities. On the no-tarot side:

Divination comes in many forms and mediums---reading bones in a fire, tea leaves in a cup, cards, etc. The first concern is that divination of any kind calls on spirits / energy of the universe to guide the cards/bones/tea leaves. If you are a Christian, I assume you believe in both God and his abundant adversaries. Obviously, inviting anyone other than God to influence your life falls outside the teachings of the Bible.

On the other hand, we understand many practicing Christians do use tarot in good conscience, with the intention of breaking past personal biases to reveal God's will. The Bible contains many examples of righteous leaders using "casting of lots" in this way. After the deaths of Christ and Judas, the apostle Peter suggested drawing lots to reveal who the next apostle should be, and the lot fell upon Matthias (Act 1:24-26) who was then ordained. Temple priests also used lots to sort the scapegoat from the sacrificial goat (Leviticus 16:8). Pro-tarot Christians argue that the issue with divination is not the mechanism itself, but the source of inspiration you are calling upon to influence.

As a business, our job is not to take theological sides, but we wanted to acknowledge this turmoil. Either way, Mythulu cards do not call on external forces; We rely on pure randomness, so we fall outside this concern.

With randomness in mind, the second concern about Tarot is that a deck of cards can provide, at best, a random answer. A Christian life is one of intention, dedication, obedience, and seeking the best path at every turn. It is a Christian's responsibility to understand, through prayer, study, effort, and meditation what God needs them personally to do. Even in times of silence where you feel no answer, passionate Christians don't surrender their conscience to the roll of dice. Silence is an opportunity to exercise wisdom and make the best decision we can see, given the information we have available. The cycle of yearning, obedience, initiative, and faith is the meat of Christian life. It changes you in beautiful ways, and we at Mythulu have no intention of interrupting that process.

Mythulu's mission is to stabilize and expand the storytelling industry. We are very focused on the neuroscience of imagination. Mythulu Creation Cards were inspired after I read Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman's work on mental shortcuts (Thinking, Fast and Slow). Kahneman discovered that everyone commits a cognitive error known as Recency Bias---when faced with a hard question, we check our memory for the most recent answers we've heard that addressed that question. Everyone is also subject to a brain limitation called Mental Load---which means we can only retain 6 ideas in our short-term memory before we have to group or memorize them. These mental shortcuts serve us well in most daily decisions, but in storytelling, Mental Load + Recency Bias + Globalization of storytelling (which means we're all feeding our Recency Bias the same stories) is destroying our ability to think independently. It's no one's fault. It's neuroscience. But storytellers who want to maximize their potential do need a way to escape those two critical brainstorming limitations.

Mythulu strives to amplify your identity, beliefs, and experiences. Our goal with every card is to spark your memories, to get you thinking in a way that allows you to dig deep inside yourself and bring the best of who you are to your stories. Look through our cards one by one, slowly, considering what each card reminds you of. If you focus on a Christian angle, I suspect every card has a meaningful connection. Even cards like Prostitute (which on the surface is not family-friendly) can remind us of stories like Luke 7:36-50. Because our cards are designed to cover the full spectrum of human experience, they include humanity's highs and lows. Although we hope challenging cards like this create opportunities to discuss regret, recovery, transformation, growth, and restitution, you're of course welcome to permanently discard any card that doesn't consistently inspire you.

In summary, Mythulu cards are NOT reskinned Tarot. Although 4 cards out of our 300 cards share a name with Tarot cards (Fool, Magician, Lover, Hermit), we are not magic or divination cards. Our versions of those 4 cards focus on story character archetypes, not the traditional tarot interpretation.

I believe Mythulu cards are compatible with a Christian life because 1) Mythulu cards do not rely on spirits to guide the drawing. The randomness itself accomplishes everything you need. And 2) while Tarot cards invite randomness into the choices of your life (where choices matter a great deal), Mythulu cards invite randomness into stories (where choices are theoretical, where you are still in control, and where randomness is only invited to whatever level it serves you).

That said, we created Mythulu cards to help people. If for any reason you can't keep using them in good conscience, you are welcome to return them and we will gladly offer a full refund.

Warmth and Respect,
Laura Crenshaw
Creator of Mythulu

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