Business Tarot

Instructions for how to use the Tarot of Business deck can be downloaded at TarotOfBusiness.com.

The Tarot of Business is a collection of cards with all-original designs using the pattern of a classic tarot deck, with both minor and major arcana. The difference with the Tarot of Business is that all of the symbols and suits are taken from business culture in the 21st century, rather than from the archaic patterns of medieval society.

You can use the tarot side to seek insights on professional questions, like you would with an ordinary tarot deck, but as a bonus, on the flip side of every card is a different question meant to provoke you to think about the deeper philosophy that shapes your work in business.

The Tarot of Business is not magic. It's just a tool for getting your mind out of its conceptual ruts.

The Tarot of Business? Are we supposed to take this seriously?

No, you shouldn’t take the Tarot of Business seriously. The objects in this deck are just cards. They’re paper-thin ideas. They don’t have any magical ability to predict the future. It’s just a game.

However, yes, as a game, you would be wise to take the Tarot of Business seriously.

The culture of business has become overloaded with literal, practical, precisely-measured, data-driven, rationally-justified tactical thinking. It’s reliable. It’s based in cold, hard reality. It’s also dreadfully dull and ploddingly predictable.

Business organizations have become expert in gathering intelligence, but have lost their intuition. They have gathered more information than previous generations had imagined to be possible, but have retained less space for imagination than their predecessors employed. As game theorist Johan Huizinga pointed out, “Real civilization cannot exist in the absence of a certain play-element.” The greatest pretense of play is that, because it is make believe, it has nothing to do with what’s real. We need play to step outside of the rules that keep us secure and stiff.

In a society characterized by increasing disruption, the business that cannot play cannot thrive.

The Tarot of Business gives your rational consciousness a chance to rest for a bit, communicating instead to your intuition - the subconscious pathways of unusual association upon which much of the decision-making of business leaders actually takes place. Human brains are not, after all, like computers. They’re organic systems, integrated with our physical bodies. A person who works through logic alone is only using a fraction of their cognitive power.

So, relax. You’ve got nothing to lose in playing around with the Tarot of Business. No New Age guru is going to confront you in the elevator. You won’t be possessed by any dark demon of the warm and fuzzy dimensions.

It’s time for you to engage in some lateral thinking, and to begin asking: What if? There may not be any actual relevance of the cards that you pick, but place yourself for a moment to wonder what might happen in the future if the cards did become relevant? What if, in an alternative universe, your business did match the situation described by the cards? What would you do then?

The goal of this set of cards is to shift the relationship between information and imagination in business, creating a space to play with ideas that are not real, but might be important nonetheless.

We all know that there’s no Blue Fairy of corporate life who will come and grant all your wishes if only you believe. However, if you can’t let your mind explore the possibilities beyond what you know, you’ll be stuck with obvious strategies, and you’ll have a devil of a time making truly innovative leaps.

The Tarot of Business is not designed to provide you with information about what your future will be. It is designed to provide you with ideas about what your future could be. It’s about contemplation, not confirmation. It’s a tool to get the typical cognitive routines of the business world, the ones that all your competitors share with you, to shut up for a while and allow a more original, less bossy voice to come up onto your stage of mind for a few minutes. For this moment, it’s time for you to take your own mental prowess a little less seriously, and just see what comes into your head.

The future of your business is in play... so play!

For details about gameplay, visit TarotOfBusiness.com