Re: Tarot

[IEDSRI@aol.com]

Regarding the suggestion of a Kate Bush-related Tarot deck, Pete
Hartman comments:

 >Using your example, for example, of Kate in
 >ballerina outfit holding a globe as the fool (though
 >I'd argue that the world or something would maybe be more
 >appropriate) leaves out several traditional symbols
 >for the Fool card, including the little dog and the
 >cliff.  Those symbols are supposed to be important
 >at some level; you could omit them, but I doubt a
 >serious Tarot reader would want to use them unless you
 >were serious enough to be able to explain why you omitted
 >them.

 >It's a good idea, but it would be extremely difficult to
 >find even 22 images of Kate with the appropriate symbols for
 >the major arcana, much less worrying about the suit cards.

 > -- Pete Hartman  Bradley University  pwh@bradley.bradley.edu

Many thanks for this fascinating new line of discussion, and for Pete's
insights specifically.  While IED concedes that finding
all of the appropriate Tarot symbols solely from the stock of photographic
and video Kate Bushological images, he does not think the task an impossible
one.  For example, a shot of either
Weimeraner from the cover of Hounds of Love -- or better yet, a shot of a
Bush family canine seen in early biographies -- could make do as the little
dog; and there are several resonant images of Kate atop cliffs or precipitate
hills -- think for example of the tumbling Peter Reich in the Cloudbusting
video. Could such
images not be manipulated and integrated into a larger and symbolically
adequate, not to say enriching and enlightening, whole?  

The question is, is there sufficient interest in this proposed project to
inspire the kind of careful graphic and scholarly 
work that it would undoubtedly require?  IED would like to think so.

-- Andrew Marvick (IED)