Latcho Drom [Was: Tantra and the Tarot]

[Guest guest]

As many of you probably know, the Gypsies worship a female deity they

call Kali Sara, who is a kind of amalgam of the Hindu Kali and the

Roman Catholic Virgin Mary. The Gypsy-India connection is

compellingly explored in the early chapters of Isabel Fonseca's "Bury

Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey" (Vintage Departures). But

by far, the most amazing emotional case is made in the 1994 musical

documentary, "Latcho Drom" -- easily one of my Top 5 favorite films

of all time. The film traces the common threads of gypsy music,

beginning with extended and gorgeous singing-and-dancing footage from

a nomadic tribe in Rajasthan's Thar Desert, then moving west through

gypsy groups in Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, France and Spain

(including a devotional sequence in France, where Kali Sara is

submerged in the local river -- sound familiar, anyone?). I would

strongly recommend this film to *anyone* with the slightest interest

in this topic:

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-

/6304263198/ref=pd_ecs_v_b_a/002-7586267-8767214?v=glance&s=books&st=*

 

Having said that, I'd like to return to the original question, which

was, Do any of you know about possible connections between Hindu

Tantra and the Tarot mysteries? The Exotic India online art shop

(http://www.exoticindia.com/paintings/Tantra) has begun posting Tarot

miniatures done in the Indian Tantric miniature style -- I'd never

seen a Tantra/Tarot correspondence suggested before. Finally I'd not

that a shy member sent me the following link in response to my query,

featuring a new, completely Goddess-oriented set of Tarot cards:

 

http://www.artandwords.com/goddesstarot.html

 

Pretty interesting! Have any of you comments or thoughts on all of

this? Thanks to all, as always, for your participation and excellent

contributions to the Group.

 

Aum Maatangyai Namahe

 

 

 

, "Frank Martin

<sriprank>"

> I never commented on this thread because i know nothing of tarot. I

> have known some Gypsies and have noted many similarities in customs

> and language to people from India. Many years ago an Indian man

told > me that after a great war many men were killed and tribes of

women> migrated eastward. This man was not a scholar but merely

relating an> oral tradition that had been passed down to him. f