The strange agency of cards

$150.00
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This course in three parts focuses on the strange and peculiar nature of agency in cards. When people ask, ‘surely you don’t do what the cards say,’ we say no, and then do what the cards say. The only time we don’t do what the cards say is when we try to avoid the prediction, Oedipus Rex style. In other words, we still act according to what the cards say, only in the opposite direction. If this wasn’t the case, no person alive would ever consider consulting oracles.

So what is this power that the cards have, apart from being objects on our tables? How do they dictate? How do they make us fear and tremble? How do they inspire us? What place do they take us to and by what ritualistic means?

The idea is to look at how cards not only reflect, but also influence events. In addition to exploring conceptually three interrelated topics in this course, each session is also connected to a process of creation when we will make a thing with the cards. The topics are as follows:

  • Cards and people: active agents and passive symbols

  • Cards and objects: meaning-making mirrors, omens, talismans, and ‘happenings’

  • Cards and smoke: reflecting, shaping, and summoning events through scrying and ritualistic incense burning

The course starts on April 6. Registration opens on March 31 and closes on April 5 at 9PM (Copenhagen time).

See more details below.

This course in three parts focuses on the strange and peculiar nature of agency in cards. When people ask, ‘surely you don’t do what the cards say,’ we say no, and then do what the cards say. The only time we don’t do what the cards say is when we try to avoid the prediction, Oedipus Rex style. In other words, we still act according to what the cards say, only in the opposite direction. If this wasn’t the case, no person alive would ever consider consulting oracles.

So what is this power that the cards have, apart from being objects on our tables? How do they dictate? How do they make us fear and tremble? How do they inspire us? What place do they take us to and by what ritualistic means?

The idea is to look at how cards not only reflect, but also influence events. In addition to exploring conceptually three interrelated topics in this course, each session is also connected to a process of creation when we will make a thing with the cards. The topics are as follows:

  • Cards and people: active agents and passive symbols

  • Cards and objects: meaning-making mirrors, omens, talismans, and ‘happenings’

  • Cards and smoke: reflecting, shaping, and summoning events through scrying and ritualistic incense burning

The course starts on April 6. Registration opens on March 31 and closes on April 5 at 9PM (Copenhagen time).

See more details below.

 

Premise for the course

We investigate into agency and performative divination by looking at the cards as objects on our tables that we play and divine with with for ritualistic games, for instance, when we see them in juxtaposition with other objects on our table, or take them as empowering talismans by putting them in our pockets, framing them, or placing them in vitrines or on an altar.

We also share cards as omens in the form of fortune cookies, or objets trouvé, by leaving them in the streets or in the restrooms at restaurants after a meal. We imagine the ones who find them, and intriguingly muse over their significance and meaning. We also send cards as letters as part of mail art projects. We incorporate them into our sculptures in our gardens or write poems on their backs and give them to lovers.

Cards seen in the context of ‘happenings’ share their ‘agency’ with divination, synchronicity, and the ways in which meaning emerges through interpretation. When reading the cards in ritualistic settings, we’re talking about their agency as it is mediated, for instance, by the burning of incense or the casting of charms. The function of the latter is to shape and summon a desired outcome.

Course format

Three live sessions on Zoom, on Sundays at 9PM (Copenhagen time) of ca 90 minutes each on April 6, 13, 20.

Each session consists of the following:

  • a short lecture

  • a magical practice

  • questions and answers

All sessions will be recorded and sent out to all the participants immediately after the class.

In addition, there is a Facebook group dedicated to the course where students can further practice both the reading of cards and share the results of their magic.

Select teacher feedback on the shared practices is also available in this space.

What you need

Insofar as we will be ‘making a thing,’ have this prepared on your table:

  • For session one you need a gold pen, black ink, and paper.

  • For session two you need a piece of wax, polymer, or air dry clay.

  • For session three you need incense resins and charcoal or a burner.

After the initial short lecture, we perform magic right then and there in our live call.

If you can’t make the live session, you can still perform the magic rituals at a later time convenient for you.