Historical and Phenomenological Dimensions of Construction of Esoteric Reality in Taromance
Кaterniy I.V.
Dr. Sci. (Sociol.), Prof. of the Department of Sociology, MGIMO University; Leading Researcher, Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia. yarkus@mail.ru
Zakieva D.E.
Postgraduate Student of the Department of Sociology, MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia. diana.zakieva@list.ru
Кaterniy I.V., Zakieva D.E. Historical and Phenomenological Dimensions of Construction of Esoteric Reality in Taromance. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2024. No 10. P. 139-150
The article refers to the study of social and cultural apparatus applied for constructing esoteric reality within the discursive practice of fortune telling with Tarot cards, which has shown an increasing market in Russian and global popular culture. The forepart examines the sociocultural background of taromancy as a part of modernization of Western European society starting with the General crisis in the 17th century and down to New Age movement in the 20th century. It is proved that the fortune- telling pragmatics of the Tarot has no any relation to ancient knowledge or archetypal symbols, but is constructed as an initiative and doctrinal systems of new secret societies (free masons et al.) aimed at replacing traditional religions with the discourse of alternative sacred. The second part of the article provides some data from a multi- stage empirical study of the fortune- telling performance as structured with symbolic and social patterns. The social types of tarot readers and their customers, their communication strategies are identified, and the phenomenological network of the fortune- telling ritual and its dramaturgical order are shown.
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