Now there is a book, The Contemplative Tarot, that promotes the occult tarot cards as a Christian contemplative method. Author Brittany Muller grew up Roman Catholic, rejected “Christianity,” discovered tarot, then returned to Catholicism and brought her tarot cards with her as a new way to seek God. “Muller found in tarot the ritual and reflection she missed in religion. Eventually, she found her way back to Christianity–and Christianity and the cards turned out to be … a ‘natural pair’” (“Brittany Muller,” Religion News Service, Sept. 13, 2022). Muller says, “There’s been sort of a revival of tarot just in general in the last five or 10 years, and it’s been really interesting to see the different ways people use tarot now. I liken it to Visio Divina, a contemplative prayer practice that translates to ‘divine seeing.’ It involves praying with images–to look at an image, to insert yourself into the image, to spend time with an image in contemplation and to see if God is speaking to you in some way through the image. This fits well into the Catholic contemplative prayer movement. Of course, Catholicism has always been able to Christianize paganism, but today, this process is happening in nearly every aspect of Christianity. It is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
(Friday Church News Notes, September 23, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)
