Intùiti, or the game of existence
They would be the compass of a world called Intuition, announces the website Intùiti. The designer Matteo di Pascale came up with the idea in his quest to understand the creative process. His cards are essentially based on the skeleton of the Tarot. The same number of major and minor arcana. This is probably where the comparison ends, although the manual will give the equivalence of titles with the traditional system.
All the cards are reinterpreted, both in design and in the symbolism behind them.
In a TED talk, the designer explains that his intentions were misdirected, however. If the aim was to promote creativity, it was not so much these cards that could initiate it. No great ideas came out of the sessions he organized in the cafés. However, something else was awakened in the test subjects: the realization that they were trapped somewhere in their existence. A company director had lost his heart, a woman realized that her marriage was a prison, another that her passion for her beautiful lover was a delusion.
This is often what happens in the creative process. Whether painter, writer, dancer, or whatever, and especially after the soporific impulses of youth have long been distilled into failures, the mind locks itself into habits, conveniences, or sits on deserved laurels. The creative process is always a matter of "cracking the whip", a concept otherwise described in "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg". In this sense, di Pascale has not discovered anything. The merit of his cards lies in this reinterpretation of the Tarot.
But we don’t do as in Tarot, picking cards at random so that fate reveals itself to us. There is nothing that governs us, we have some control over our universe. At the very least, we consciously undertake the journey on the ocean that seems to be ours. So, in this contemporary game, we observe the revealed sides of the cards instead, selecting what, in the present moment, moves us. It is a game, between the cat of our body and the mouse of our dreams. It is not divination, but guessing and exploration.
What is the value of the exercise? I could not conclude immediately. The author suggests three first tests and I have only done the first one. In this one, di Pascale invites us to choose two cards. Card A will be the one we are most attracted to while card B will be the one we feel a spontaneous repulsion for.
I chose these:
The Complete Guide is available without purchase on the Intùiti website. Page 94. Card XXII is the one I chose first. In traditional Tarot, it is the Fool. In Intùiti, it is the Butterfly. This suits me. Have fun, go crazy. Haven’t I always been a bit crazy? But what has become of this madness, have I locked myself into propriety, too afraid to lose my precious salary? At 62, what does it mean to be mad, to have fun?
For the B card I have chosen the 16th, the Tower in the traditional Tarot, Tabula Rasa in Intùiti. Page 84. This is true disruptiveness. We now know our truths and we live them. The question is: “What am I not saying out loud? Why don’t I say it? What would the consequences be? Would it really be that terrible?” ... The archetype invites to embrace the downfall: celebrate after being fired, feel the explosion of life spiraling down, rejoice in the will to get up and start again. If we got rid of a certain situation it means it wasn’t meant for us, let’s cheer! ... T Tell the truth. Dismantle everything if it’s necessary."
Whatever. Perhaps, if I had chosen other cards, I would have felt the same truth, but I won’t. I feel uncomfortable with the clean slate, with the wall that I will describe in a future post. I’m still trying the adventure.
I like this little card game. It stayed in its box for six months after I bought it. I had to open it to shake up my little fears. I will try to play it often because what really counts is to always pierce the thin film that Time, that spider, weaves around our existence whose death is already announced. The obstinate passion of a madman who is certain of his illusions and who, the next day, will invariably change his certainty and gaze.
