This is my first column for Meta Arts, and I want to thank Rhonda Crowder and Robbie Goldstein for the opportunity to share thoughts on Tarot, spirituality, and hopefully much else besides. My desire to do a column came from a simple fact one of the great gifts of life that ideas and experiences never stop. I don't consider myself special in this. To bring inspiration to yourself is in fact a simple thing. The cards actually will help you, for among its other attributes, Tarot is a sort of exercise program for the imagination. Look at the cards with an open attitude and they will begin to work on you. Think of it as raising the wand of the Magician.







You do not really need to learn tricks, or study and memorize, to bring down magical power, you just need to raise your arm. And once you do open such channels, the experience on in-spiration (a word that means the breath of spirit flowing into you) simply does not stop. It becomes a habit.


Here is another acronym for "Soul" (along with the one above, below the title): Supreme Openness Unleashes Learning. In my book, The Forest of Souls (yes, the column title comes from the book) I tried to suggest that doctrines can become springboards rather than boxes, that if we let go of the question "Is it true?" we can jump beyond our limitations to a place of discovery. Tarot, the instrument of our wisdom, as I called it in the book, can be a constant takeoff point.


All of this really is preamble to the point of this column, and the subject of this first edition. The point? Just because a book has appeared doesn't mean no new ideas or subjects arise. Quite the opposite, which is why I'm grateful to Meta Arts for the chance to share some new ideas. And the subject of this particular column? A way to understand inspiration through the imagery of the Tarot's Major Arcana.


Recently I attended a service at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation. In preparation for reading and discussing the Ten Commandments we talked about what it feels like when inspiration literally, divine energy flows into us. As people struggled to find ways to express this experience it occurred to me that we could look at in terms of the opening cards in the Tarot.


Those who have read my books, especially 78 Degrees of Wisdom, will know that I tend to look at the twenty-two card sequence of the Major Arcana as the Fool plus three groups of seven cards each. The first group runs 1. Magician, 2. High Priestess, 3. Empress, 4. Emperor, 5. Hierophant, 6. Lovers, and 7. Chariot. To me, this group represents the basic issues of life, the things we all must struggle with to establish a place for ourselves in the world. The Fool, as the soul, moves through the different stages, from the fundamental duality of the Magician and the High Priestess (light and dark, active and receptive, conscious and unconscious), to mother and father (Empress and Emperor), to education and tradition in the Hierophant, to sexuality and individual choice in the Lovers, and finally the Chariots ability to move through the world as a conscious adult.


Because the issues shown in these first cards are so basic, we can apply them to specific issues. If we accept the idea that inspiration, in-spiritedness, can flow into us constantly, then the Tarot can help us see how that works. The Fool, leaping or flying from his/her high place into the valleys of experience, can symbolize the willingness to receive inspiration. We may say, oh everyone wants that, we all would like creativity, or divine energy, to fill us, but is that really true? Doesn't it require a willingness to take chances, to dance, and fly, with mystery? Divine energy especially is not gentle; neither is the flow of creativity. It can thrill us, but it also can overwhelm. Only a Fool would jump blindly into such an experience.







The Magician, with his upraised arm, shows us that we can draw inspiration into ourselves. We only need to allow it to happen, to act as a conduit. Notice the arm, or finger, pointing down to the flower or some other aspect of physical creation. The Magician does not seek to hold power for itself, but rather to use it, or let it use him. Almost all writers, painters, dancers, or any other creative group will tell you that they do not themselves create anything, but rather allow something to move through them.







he High Priestess contains the power. In her silence, her sense of mystery and wholeness, she teaches us that we do not need to do something, or create a product, with inspiration. As long as we do not try to hold it in a place of ego ("Look at me, I'm inspired, I'm special), or super-ego, that sense of watching and judging ourselves, we simply can sit with the wonder of it all.


The Empress pours it forth. In her Earth Goddess generosity, she shares all the joy of the inspired experience, like a lover, or a mother. The famous expression "My cup runneth over" suggests the divine energy can spill into us endlessly, without limit. The Empressís cup does not just run over, it pours into everyone elseís. Have you ever been around someone like that? Have you ever felt like that yourself? Genuine emotional generosity is not saintly moralism, but a natural outpouring of an overflowing vessel.







And yet, to do something with that energy, we somehow must go beyond the simple experience of it. The Emperor shapes and structures inspiration. The Empress knows how to analyze, to plan, to build. Many of us find the Emperor difficult to face, or to see reflected in ourselves. We identify him with rules, and therefore repression. As with all the cards, however, the key is how we approach it. If the Emperor in us sets up structures just to control others or to admire his own abilities, then yes, it becomes repressive. But if we serve the inspiration that flows through us, then the structures we create will allow something real to emerge from formless energy.


The Hierophant gives us the benefit of tradition to guide us in our experience of inspiration. People have gone through this before, why not let them teach us their knowledge? Artists work best when they learn the history and craft of their form, for otherwise they must reinvent everything that has gone before. And mystics who seek to encounter Goddess or God directly, "face to face", usually will direct their energy through the framework of a recognized tradition.







In the Lovers we express our inspiration passionately and directly. We share it with others, we feel blessed, we feel in love with the whole world. Modern Tarot decks, based on the famous Rider Tarot of A. E. Waite and P. C. Smith, usually show a variation of an angel or a spirit blessing a naked man and woman (Adam and Eve in the Rider). The intense directedness of the Magician and the inner mystery of the High Priestess come together in the Lovers.







In my own Shining Tribe deck a human and a spirit embrace passionately. They too symbolize the experience of inspiration, when the human and the divine in us come together, and we break down the false separation of me inside myself and the divine somewhere far away.


Older decks, based on the classic Tarot de Marseilles, often showed a man between two women, with Cupid about to shoot an arrow. Because of the two women, interpreters have associated the card with choice. Sexuality indeed leads us to make choices. Cupidís arrow, however, suggests that we do not actually make our own choices so much as allow the path to choose us. This, too, is a hallmark of inspiration, the sense that it moves us where it needs to go, just as we cannot rationally choose whom we will love but must follow the mystery of desire.


Finally, the Chariot puts it all together. For people on sacred quests or inner journeys, the Chariot becomes the image of the vehicle that will carry us between worlds. In many cultures people have created a meditative chariot out of their own experiences and the wonders of creation (we have done this in classes I've taught, with wonderful results).







The Chariot unites the previous cards. The Magician's conscious intent, the High Priestess's ability to contain energy, the Empress,s flow of energy, the Emperorís sense of structure, the Hierophantís knowledge, and the Lovers' willingness to surrender to passion, all work together to create a vehicle for the Foolís inspiration.


I hope this summary illustrates the Tarot's ability to develop and illuminate an idea (or inspiration). And yet, the Tarot does more, for once we outline a concept with the cards we can then create a structure for readings. Here is a spread based upon these approaches to inspiration. The spread contains eight positions, each one inspired by one of the cards.


0. (based on the Fool) How do I open myself to inspiration?


1. (based on the Magician) How do I bring inspiration into myself?


2. (based on the High Priestess) How do I sit peacefully with what inspires me?


3. (based on the Empress) How do I pour out my inspiration?


4. (based on the Emperor) How do I structure my inspiration?


5. (based on the Hierophant) How can I learn from others?


6. (based on the Lovers) How do I experience inspiration?


7. (based on the Chariot) How do I use inspiration in my life?