As cartas revelam o caminho: prática do tarô no Brasil e novos desdobramentos durante a pandemia de covid-19 (2020-2023)

Abstract

This work analyzes the practice of tarot in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic, between March 2020 and May 2023, in order to demonstrate the changes that have occurred in this habit compared to previous historical periods. During the pandemic, the health crisis required the population to stay away from in-person practices to preserve their health, since COVID-19 was a new disease, with a high mortality rate and no treatment. In this context of concern and increased presence of the population on the web due to social isolation, spiritual practices have become virtual, with the practice of tarot standing out among them, the most popular oracle in the Western world, which has gained new momentum on social media and virtual platforms. This research was developed considering tarot as an object of Cultural History, subject to changes in specific historical contexts and new interpretations or appropriations by different groups, in addition to bringing with it representations (therapeutic and mystical/divinatory) that dialogue with the personal needs of the individual who uses it. Based on this premise, this work seeks to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of the expansion of social presence on the web, catalyzed changes in the practice of tarot by the Brazilian tarot community, considering the importance of spirituality during times of crisis and the new perspectives of a digitalized experience as elements that help in understanding the importance of this oracle to its practitioners during the health crisis. In addition, it also seeks to define what tarot is and in what ways it can be understood, observing its process of historical evolution and its presence within Brazil, bringing new historical sources that help to understand a little better the way in which this oracle established itself in national territory. To carry out this analysis, in addition to national and international bibliographical references and journalistic sources on the history and practice of tarot in the country, data obtained through an online questionnaire developed on the Google Forms platform by the Misticiência Project - which emerged as an extension project of the History Department of the Federal University of Sergipe and currently operates independently, focused on scientific dissemination and studies on tarot and mysticism on the web -, of which the author of this work is a part, and investigations on virtual platforms and social networks, mainly Google and Facebook, were also used to assimilate the ways in which the tarot community modified its practices during and due to the pandemic period, in order to detect changes and continuities in the pandemic practice of the national tarot world.