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Recently (the day before I'm writing this, actually), Jeff Belanger, of Ghostvillage.com, came to interview me for a book on communication with spirits, especially the spirits of people who have died. Jeff has decided not to focus on direct psychic communication, or channeling, but rather to look at devices, systems, and techniques that people can use for this purpose. Can we use the Tarot for this purpose, Jeff wanted to know, and if so, how would we go about it? My friend and fellow Tarotist Zoe Matoff sat in and we had a wonderful three way discussion on many topics of Tarot, what it tells us, and what we learn from it.
In the course of the conversation Zoe decided to cut the Shining Tribe Tarot, which was sitting on the table. The card she turned over was the Magician.
The card struck us all as the perfect endorsement of the idea of using Tarot this way. In the picture the shaman reaches up to the heavenly river of the Other World, the world of Spirits, and brings that energy down into manifestation, in the form of the living flower. The flower is blooming in a desert, so that the Magician energy gives life to the world. In the Wisdom tradition that I teach we look to associations and mythological traditions for the particular cards. One of the strongest here is the association of the Magician with the Greek God Hermes. As well as being the God of intellect and consciousness, Hermes is a guide to dead souls. He also is the God charged with bringing the Goddess Persephone back from the Land of the Dead to the world of the living.
Since this card came out so powerfully, I decided to look at the cards that followed. They were 9 of Trees, 9 of Birds, and Place of Trees.
The 9 of Trees shows us in the place of grief. We see a weeping woman, inconsolable before the Tree of Life, which now contains a dark spirit. We can see this as the separation of the living and the dead. When someone close to us dies we not only mourn their loss, we also find our own life invaded by death, a dark and frightening force within the very Tree of our existence.
The next card also is a 9, and so addresses the first. In the 9 of Birds we actually see an image of the Land of the Dead. Two bare trees stand alongside a Stone Age tomb. Above the tomb sits an owl, symbol of the soul (see below, for Ace of Birds), and the willingness to look deep into the mysteries of life and death. At bottom we see an urn with an owl face, while from the tomb itself a Goddess emerges. She is stark and without flesh, but with a golden triangle of rebirth. For the question, this card shows that we must be willing to journey to the dead, to meet them, rather than just stay in our safe psychic space and hope they will come to us. We need to look honestly at the issues raised by our grief, include them in the questions we ask the cards, and thus the spirits.
The final card in this group was the Place of Trees, a picture that derives from a seal from ancient Crete, some three thousand years ago. Suddenly, the stark scene of the previous card-and the grief of the 9 of Trees-is transformed.. Where we had two bare trees, here we have two vibrant trees. Where we had a Goddess who was all stone here we have two living women. There also is a specific connection between the two cards, in that the tomb shown on the 9 of Birds comes from a visit to a Stone Age cemetery I visited on Crete. The Place of Trees tells us we need to create a joyous place for the spirits to meet and celebrate with us.
These cards give us a sense of the way we must approach this subject, what we need to do. They do not, however, show us actions or techniques. So I decided to pull some more cards. I did not really expect them to tell me what spread to use, or anything that specific, because my approach to readings usually involves a discussion with the particular person about the issues and what they need to know. Nevertheless, I asked the cards to give us more direction and they answered.
The High Priestess is the partner to the Magician, card 2 to his 1. Where he is conscious, she lives within the unconscious. Where he acts, she remains still. She represents intuition, and the card tells us that we will need this factor most of all. We cannot expect direct rational communication with spirits, but must be willing to open up our unconscious senses.
But there is more to this card, for she represents the priestess of the inner mysteries of the Greek Goddess Persephone, which is to say, life and death. She shows us Persephone herself, in her role of Queen of the Dead, she who presides over the souls who seek new life (the Star card, not in this reading, shows Persephone returned to the world). This card (and the next) takes us into a place of ritual and honoring the spirits. We do not have to read it this way, but if we wish we can say that it tells us to invoke the Goddess, to honor her, to be willing to enter her realm. The snake, based on the Australian Rainbow Serpent of creation, spirals inward. A reading that contacts spirits is not a light matter (pun intended). We need to fully honor this opening.
We also need to make sure that we do not get caught in that deep place and lose the way back. Thus it is good to honor Hermes-the Magician, our first card-at the same time that we give tribute to Persephone, so that its power of consciousness can lead us back at the end of the reading.
One practical way we can honor and ask the help of a mythic energy is to put out an offering. The High Priestess represents the primal element of Water (the Magician is Fire), and so we can put out a small bowl of water when we do the reading. This idea subtly suggests itself in the very next card, the Ace of Rivers. Usually, we think of this picture as telling us to go to whatever will nourish us, especially emotional or spiritual nourishment. That meaning comes into play here, for the card tells us that the reading, the contact with Spirits, nourishes us, and we must bring our emotional selves to it, the way the woman in the picture brings her water-bags to fill from the river that flows from the divine mouth. But it also can mean our own literal offering of Water, in some beautiful bowl or cup. And to honor Hermes, the God inside the Magician? Light a candle.
The final three cards all come from the Birds suit, aligned with the element of Air. Air signifies the mind. In this deck that does not mean rational analysis so much as art, prophecy, and vision. People all over the world see birds as the messengers, or go-betweens, of heaven and earth.
The 4 of Birds shows a woman who has donned a bird helmet to show her allegiance to those messengers. On a vision quest she has climbed the mountain, heroically in search of some great truth. But it is only when she stops, and allows the mountain to support her, and the pool of dark water to cool her hand, and the sun to warm her, that the Birds come with their message. Thus, in a reading where we want to communicate with spirits we need to allow them to come to us. We cannot force them, or demand the information we seek. This does not contradict the 9 of Birds above, for we still make the journey here, we just need to approach and then allow the spirits to seek us out.
As mentioned above, owls are the birds of the soul. After I drew the Ace of Birds, I read that the Algonkin Indians called owls the perfect soul-birds. And when I asked the cards, in the very first Wisdom reading, "What is the soul" the answer was the Ace of Birds. Thus, we give our soul to this enterprise. We commit ourselves to looking deeply and to asking serious questions.
Finally, we get the 7 of Birds. In my book, The Forest of Souls I described the reading I got when I said to the Tarot "Show me the cards you gave God to create the universe." The first card, in a position I called "source," was the 7 of Birds. The need to communicate. Here it addresses the fact that we need a genuine communication with the spirits, we need to really listen to what they tell us, and be willing to offer our own truths.
Again, these cards do not give us specific instructions so much as guidance, and a challenge to approach such a reading with deep seriousness and honesty. If we do so, the results are likely to be very powerful.
If anyone tries out this way of using cards and would like to share the results, they may contact me at Rachel@Rachelpollack.com.
Go to the Interview with Rachel Pollack about her new book: "The Kabbalah Tree"
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