From:	Wafflemeisters <evamarie@**********.NET>
Subject:	Re: RM Tarot Mage in SR
Date:	Wed, 13 May 1998 06:01:10 -0500

>
> Re: RM Tarot Mage in SR (Alfredo B Alves , Tue 20:14)

> Hmmm.... why make the Major Arcana Health? and what about the Minor
> Arcana? How would you reccommend matching suits with elements / spell
> categories? Also, I was thinking of requiring that Tarot Mages have Hard
> Copy Libraries ... do you think that makes sense or should I just leave
> it be?
>

The suits ARE the minor arcana, and each minor arcana is tied to an
element, tradtionally, and hemetic elements are tied to spell types;
Cups- water - illusion (emptions and perceptions in readings)
rods - earth - manipulation (power and change in readings)
coins / pentacles- air - detection (wealth and knowledge in readings)
swords - fire - combat (conflict in readings)
Health has no element, and the major arcana represent, among other
things, the "state of man" in readings, so are good for health and
metamagic.
I'm no authorataive source- I've always prefered some "hard" astrology-
now THERE'S a hermetic pursuit! You could get tons of this from any
book on tarot, I'd guess, at least any book on the HISTORY of tarot, not
those cheasy "how to" books.

As for the hard copy libraries, ETC, I also think that the "tarot mage"
is best made a normal hermetic- historically, thathas been the tarots
use. They would have some role-played choices as to fetishes ETC, which
could maybe also be used as geas from magic loss or intitation ordeals
(I also think Geas make a good "flaw", if you use those).

-Mongoose