Looks like this blog could use a new article for the new year! Yes it has been a while since my last update. A lot has happened around both home and blog including on the mystical front.
Moving mostly. From a bustling, busy, noisy Bellingham, WA to a very quiet Long Beach peninsula home, also in WA. After selling one house, buying another, and dodging elk in the middle of the road at three am in the rain and mist I am ready to write again.
On the mystical side my meditations and exploring non-duality have been eye opening. I think I finally figured a few things out regarding reading tarot cards. Thanks to John Gilbert’s “The Doors of Tarot” which is where I found much of what follows.
From the beginning I have been having trouble with tarot. Trouble lasting for years. I just kept running into this block interpreting cards. Whatever cards I selected for a reading looked like they should be helpful in answering whatever question was at hand.
Yet, my mind would blank. Looking at the Little White Book (LWB) was usually what I would do in the end. Which typically let me construct a solid, insightful reading.
Problem was I didn’t find the process satisfying personally and definitely was not what I wanted to be doing with future clients.
Memorizing interpretations? Didn’t work for me either. Too many variations whether I cam up with them on my own or borrowed from other readers. The connection with the cards wasn’t there.
What got me heading in helpful direction was really simple. Pick one word or concept for each card. Memorize and stick with it.
You see it turns out I was doing tarot backwards. If I start with a word or concept I can begin making connections with elements of the card. What I was doing was trying to pull the idea of the card out of the card during the reading.
Symbols –> Keyword, Concept –> Meaning
instead of,
Keyword, Concepts –> Symbols –> Meaning
This one change simplified everything about working with tarot for me.
If we are going to start picking keywords for our cards we now need a way to pick those words. You can actually use pretty much any word for any card you wish. It is up to you.
What I did was use John’s suggestions. One reason was they made sense to me. Another was he did something i thought was quite helpful. He uses a framework for the cards. A structure in which to place the tarot cards.
Though my explorations are suggesting it really doesn’t matter what keywords you pick. The keywords act as a seed or gateway to the symbols on the card. The keywords, framework, and the spread can add context. As far as I can tell one still gets to the destination regardless of the starting point. The card provides the path to the meaning.
This has been an exciting opening for me in tarot. I finally feel like I can help people without any props.
The next step on this path was a doozy. Inspired by Robert Mathiesen’s book. I started experiencing the tarot cards for lack of a better word, mystically. In other words Union with the tarot card.
While meditating on each of the major trump cards I added in experiencing the cards without layers of perception. Emptying myself of meanings I hold for the cards and the symbols on them. Letting go of words and thoughts. All while stretching into an ineffable sense of the card beyond the card and beyond “Me”.
Kind of a swapping vantage points with the card. We each are perceiving the other but as the other. Or as one? Very mystical.
More so, the connection itself is a thing I can experience in the same manner. Whatever it is I feel is my connection with the card I can empty myself and go beyond words, thoughts and sensation to reach into and touch in a different manner.
As I continue I am getting a deeper sense of the cards. Not always explainable. More curiously I am getting a deeper sense of myself.
There is a wordless, so far, meaning. A meaning pointing I suspect to grand vistas beyond what I am capable of even imagining. Looks like fun.