The Cybernetic Arcana: Hexen 2.0 & 5.0 Tarot with Suzanne Treister
Feb 22, 2025
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Suzanne Treister, an artist and researcher known for her Hexen tarot decks, dives into the intriguing intersections of cybernetics, conspiracy, and counterculture. She discusses how feedback loops from cybernetics influence both the Hexen 2.0 and upcoming Hexen 5.0 decks, merging art and science. The conversation explores tarot’s role in activism, the potential of the 'Interplanetary Internet', and critiques of technology's impact on society. Treister also highlights the historical roots of these themes, encouraging a collective reinterpretation of our modern challenges.
Suzanne Treister's Hexen 2.0 tarot deck uniquely encapsulates cybernetic concepts and historical narratives into an educational and philosophical framework.
The forthcoming Hexen 5.0 tarot explores contemporary global issues like climate change, advocating for an ethical rethinking of technology's role in ecological management.
Deep dives
Conceptual Framework of Hexen 2.0
The Hexen 2.0 tarot deck creatively integrates concepts from cybernetics, counterculture, and historical trajectories into 78 individual cards. The creator, Suzanne Treister, initially began her project by crafting extensive diagrams that outlined the evolution of technologies related to cybernetics, ultimately realizing that this complex subject could be distilled into a tarot format. Each card corresponds with significant historical figures and themes, such as the Macy Conferences, which explored the intersection of science and control in society. By aligning these themes with tarot archetypes, the deck serves as both an educational tool and a means to facilitate group discussions on political and philosophical futures.
Historical Context and Ideological Influences
The deck prominently features figures from the Macy Conferences, such as Norbert Wiener and John von Neumann, to underscore the historical association of cybernetics with control and societal management. Treister assigns specific tarot archetypes to these figures, reflecting their contributions to the development of cybernetic thought. For example, the association of Wiener with the Three of Swords highlights the darker implications of mind control and manipulation following World War II. This historical context allows users to explore the philosophical legacies intertwined with the development of modern technologies.
Counter-Narratives within Cybernetics
In addition to the proponents of cybernetics, Treister acknowledges dissenting voices through the inclusion of anarcho-primitivist figures like Ted Kaczynski, who serve as critical counter-narratives to the dominant technological discourse. This inclusion is intended to provoke continued contemplation of technology’s role in society, urging a re-evaluation of its impact on human life. By juxtaposing these contrasting views in the deck, Treister allows users to explore varied perspectives on progress, control, and the ethics surrounding technological advancements. This format supports the idea that history is multifaceted, presenting both the potential benefits and risks associated with the unfolding technological landscape.
Exploration of Future Possibilities with Hexen 5.0
The discussion also touches on Treister's upcoming sequel, Hexen 5.0, which expands on the themes of cybernetics while considering contemporary global challenges, especially climate change. Treister emphasizes the importance of rethinking cybernetics to benefit the planet, contrasting its historical use in societal control with its potential for ecological management. The new deck will incorporate insights from emerging fields like earth system science and spiritual ecology, aiming to redefine how we engage with technology and nature. Ultimately, Hexen 5.0 seeks to inspire users to contemplate new pathways for innovation that are environmentally conscious and human-centered.
Preview Hexen 5.0's: new images: https://www.suzannetreister.net/HEXEN_5/HEXEN5.html
Lars Bang Larson's Essay: https://www.suzannetreister.net/HEXEN2/HEXEN_2_LBLessay.html
Note: if you were watching the tarot deck flip through on YouTube, you are seeing the Hexen 2.0 deck.
About the new deck:
HEXEN 5.0, an update of HEXEN 2.0 (2011), presents a critical, historical and mystical exploration of new global developments in terrestrial and interplanetary technologies, science and communications, corporate and governmental forces, the ecosystem and climate crisis, recent and traditional fields of knowledge and spirituality, new branches of bio/socio/political theory, contemporary countercultural and futuristic movements, new directions in science-fiction, and proposed possible solutions for an ethical survival of the human race.
The visual structure of the works is largely based on alchemical drawings of the 13th - 18th centuries, entwining these subjects into a holistic mystical space where they become differently animated and resonant. In alchemical drawings, science, art and religion/spirituality co-exist, echoing the recently converging fields illuminated in some of the cards, such as Spiritual Ecology, Nexus thinking and Earth System Science, fields which may lead to better solutions for the climate crisis and to returning the planet towards a self-regulating system.
Where HEXEN 2.0 analysed the legacy of cybernetics as embodied in Web 2.0 and systems of control, showing how Web 2.0 works as a societal controlling system, HEXEN 5.0 traces cybernetics' relevance to whole earth systems and how the cybernetic self-regulating feedback loops of the planetary ecosystem, which we have sent out of whack, need to be addressed through an understanding of the workings of the total global ecosystem. This is embodied in the aims of Earth System Science and potentially in an even more holistic system incorporating traditional knowledges and spirituality.
The published deck of tarot cards is intended to be used as a tool for groups to discuss and envision positive alternative futures and may be used in conjunction with HEXEN 2.0 Tarot deck.