Divinatory, esoteric and occult tarot

Tarot reading is a subset of Cartomancy, which is the practice of using cards to gain insight into the past, current and future situations by posing a question to the cards. Variations on the reasons for such belief range from believing on guidance by a spiritual force, to belief that the cards are but instruments used to tap either into a collective unconscious or into their own creative, brainstorming subconscious. The divinatory meanings of the cards commonly used today are derived mostly from cartomancer Jean-Baptiste Alliette (also known as Etteilla) and Mlle Marie-Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1776-1843). The belief in the divinatory meaning of the cards is closely associated with a belief in their occult, divine, and mystical properties: a belief constructed in the 18th century by prominent Protestant clerics and freemasons.

Major and Minor Arcana

Tarot decks of seventy-eight cards have fourteen cards per suit plus the twenty-two trumps or only the twenty-two trump cards. The trumps and suits were part of a trump style game with many historical and national variations. It was Ellic Howe, writing under the name Ély Star coined the terms 'major arcana' and 'minor arcana' In modern times suit cards are Pentacles, Swords, Cups, and Wands. Trumps are cards like the Fool, The Magician, et al. Since the introduction of the cartomantic and occult tarot there have been ongoing attempts to "get it right." Subsequently the names of both have been played with over time.

Tarot (album)

Tarot is the sixth full-length album by the Spanish power metal band Dark Moor. The songs of the album are all named after the Major Arcana deck in the Tarot card game. The first single extracted from the album was "The Chariot". Manda Ophius of the Dutch symphonic metal band Nemesea is the guest female vocalist on Tarot.The final track, "the Moon", samples Ludwig van Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" and "Moonlight Sonata". The bonus track, "Mozart's March" is based on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Rondo A'la Turca". It was also performed live in Granada, Spain, Piorno Rock, back in 2002, five years before it was even released.

Track listing

Personnel

Tarot (comics)

Tarot (Marie-Ange Colbert) is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe.

Publication history

Tarot first appeared in New Mutants #16-17 (June–July 1984), and was created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema.

The character subsequently appears in The Uncanny X-Men #193 (May 1985), Firestar #2-4 (April–June 1986), The New Mutants #39 (May 1986), #43 (September 1986), #53-54 (July–August 1987), #56 (October 1987), #62 (April 1988), The New Warriors #9-10 (March–April 1991), and apparently died in The Uncanny X-Men #281-282 (October–November 1991). The character made posthumous appearances in The New Warriors Annual #1 (1991) and #2 (1992). Tarot mysteriously appeared alive again in X-Force #87-90 (February–May 1999).

Tarot appeared as part of the "Hellions" entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #5.

Fictional character biography

Marie-Ange Colbert was born in Lyon, France. As Tarot, she joins the original Hellions. Tarot is generally of a kind and sympathetic nature. Mirage's psychic abilities reveal that Tarot is in love with one of the New Mutants. It is later strongly hinted that the New Mutant in question was Cypher, but nothing ever comes of her supposed infatuation with him, and she instead falls in love with one of her teammates, Empath. He does not return her feelings, and leaves the Hellions in order to pursue his seduction of Magma, leaving Tarot heartbroken. Tarot's flying constructs sometimes serve as transportation for the Hellions.

Messiah (Fear Factory album)

Messiah is a compilation album by American heavy metal band Fear Factory released in 1999 by Roadrunner Records. It includes one song from Soul of a New Machine, six from Demanufacture, two from Remanufacture and one from Obsolete. It is the soundtrack to the video game, Messiah.

Track listing

Messiah (Starling novel)

Messiah is a thriller novel by British writer Boris Starling, published in 1999. Following the success of the novel, a sequel, Storm (2000), was also released.

The novel became the basis for the popular BBC TV series Messiah, starring Ken Stott.

Plot summary

The novel opens with the discovery of the body of Philip Rhodes, a London caterer, who is found hanging in his underwear from his banister, his tongue cut out and a silver spoon in its place. When the body of the Bishop of Wandsworth, James Cunningham, is found beaten to death, but with his tongue replaced by a silver spoon, DCI Red Metcalfe and his team must discover the pattern behind these killings and save the rest of the men who are destined to be murdered. The novel has many twists and turns and it describes the killings in great detail adding to the intense atmosphere. Starling manages to create a novel which is difficult to put down and which explores the mind of a man who has thoughts of a higher being.

Messiah (Derren Brown special)

Messiah is a Derren Brown special originally shown on Channel 4 on 7 January 2005 at 21:00. In the episode, Brown travels to the United States to try to convince five influential figures that he has special abilities in their particular field of expertise: psychic powers, Christian evangelism, New Age theories, alien abduction and contacting the dead, with the objective of getting them to endorse him as a practitioner in their field.

The concept of the show is to highlight the power of suggestion with regard to beliefs and people's abilities, and failure to question them. Brown makes it quite clear that if any of the subjects accused him of trickery he would immediately come clean about the whole thing, a rule similar to one of the self-imposed rules of the perpetrators of the Project Alpha hoax. Using a false name each time, he succeeds in convincing four "experts" that he has powers, who openly endorsed him as a true practitioner. The fifth expert, the Christian evangelist Curt Nordheilm, is reserved in his response; whilst impressed by Brown's performance, he does not agree to a public endorsement without at least meeting him again. Brown concludes with his impressions of the experience and summary of how belief systems work.