Tarot At The Metropolitan Museum

6 Dec

Tarot at The Metropolitan Museum in New York

I’ve been going through some old documents in my computer over the past few days, and in the process, found a piece of writing I’d done after a trip to the United States that happened back in 2013 (I think). Reading through my notes brought it all back - such great memories. I found myself smiling at first, and then laughing out loud. I was in New York City being a tourist for a couple of days with a tick a box list of Things to Do, and because my friends said it was a must, I went to ‘The Met’.

I went with my lovely friend Sue McSweeney who has the glorious knack of seeing the fun factor in even the most serious of situations, so as you can imagine, she is quite unstoppable on a vacation day. Within minutes we were oohing and aaghing over the artworks, but then we had a little incident with a photograph that sent us into an absolute flurry of excitement. You see, there was Artemis, just like in the history books I read at school, but right there out in the open! Being Sue’s favourite Goddess of all time, we just had to get out the ipad and capture an image of her next to this ancient Artemis. We immediately checked the photo and it was astounding. There was the most beautiful blue hue through it, and the effect of the light made it look like some kind of magic was at play. This photographic moment with Artemis was the catalyst that made all those artifacts, carvings and canvasses come to life in a way that I think neither of us expected.

When we made it to the next level and saw the Chariot, life sized, golden, and encased in perspex – a real Charioteers Chariot, we were both in awe. At some point, the obvious words were spoken – “Oh, just like the Tarot” and then it was really on! We were zipping about with eyes open, both seeing these objects of art in that way where you move into connection with them. We were feeling and being with the art, and along the way, the correspondences with the Tarot cards both major and minor arcana were tumbling out of our mouths as we laughed, and sighed, and exclaimed, and stood in silent reverence.

It was a glorious adventure. On a number of occasions I was close to tears. Again, the Tarot was my doorway to a deeper connection with what was around me.

There is such incredible beauty here, and everywhere right?

One of the take homes from this experience is that there is much to be gained by being broader in my interests and interactions with the world, and I definitely need to get out to more galleries! Maybe this link to the top 100 art galleries in the world might be a place to start?