For the past eleven years I have been teaching a monthly class in New York City, which I sometimes call the Tarot Laboratory. Recently, I have begun a similar class here in the Hudson Valley where I live. These classes all have an experimental quality. Rather than the conventional card by card lessons, they focus each time on some new approach to reading and understanding the Tarot. We have done readings for holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Samhain. We have asked the cards whether God has a soul. We have done readings for passion and creative inspiration.


For this past February we decided to explore how to use the cards to find out what God/desses or Spirits are in our lives. The process was in two parts, first to try to identify what Major Arcana cards might represent to us the various mythological figures, and then to do a reading on how we can find them and join with them.


On the train to New York, my friend Zoe Matoff and I went through the Major Arcana and did a first identification of figures with the twenty-two cards (called trumps). Then in the class we all went through the trumps again, doing our best to think of Goddesses and Gods from many sources whose special qualities would match the nature of each card. We made only one rule for our discussion, that each figure cited actually have been worshipped in some culture at some time. So for example, we included the Greek singer Orpheus because an esoteric religion formed around his image. They were called Orphists, with their own version of the Greek myths. We did not, on the other hand, include Merlin, because even though he is much admired as a model of spiritual magic, we did not know of any groups that actually have worshipped him or considered him a God.


Below is the list we all developed. Unfortunately, space does not allow for an explanation of how each spiritual being matches the particular trump. I invite all readers of this column to use the list as a resource both for greater understanding of the cards, and for a way to explore mythology. I also invite you to create your own version by choosing the ones from our list that inspire a kinship in you, and then adding your own. Our list is by no means exhaustive or systematic. It simply consists of the names that came to us on that evening.


You will notice, as you look through the list, that several figures appear in more than one place. This is because many Gods and Goddesses have more than one quality. For example, the Fool evokes the Egyptian God Osiris's innocence, whereas the Hierophant evokes his role as bringer of civilization.


Fool-Dionysos, Osiris, Orpheus, Coyote, Eros, Baldur, Christ, Inanna, Persephone.


Magician-Hermes, Thoth, Coyote, Legba, Odin, Orpheus, Christ, Hecate, Isis.


High Priestess-Isis, Persephone, Brigid, Artemis, Mary, Athena, Sofia, White Buffalo Woman, Tara, Shekhinah, Oya.


Empress-Bast, Aphrodite, Demeter, Hera, Yemanja, Mary, Lakshmi, Freya, Cybele, Hathor, Nut, Gaia, Kwan Yin, Spider Woman.


Emperor-Zeus, Yah, Odin, Brahma, Dhamballah, Jupiter, Buddha, Hephaestus, Horus.


Hierophant-Osiris, Christ, Apollo, Orpheus, Prometheus, Ra, Vishnu.


Lovers-Eros and Psyche, Aphrodite, Erzulie, Oshun, Orpheus and Eurydice, Izanagi and Izanami, Mary Magdalen, Lilith, Krishna and Radha, Isis and Osiris, Shiva and Shakti, Nut and Geb.

Chariot-Horus, Ares, Ogun, Athena, Cybele, Shiva, Yoh-Heh-Vav-Heh, Krishna.


Strength-Athena, Sekhmet, Durga, Oya, Atlas, Kali, Spider Woman, Shekhinah.


Hermit-Kronos, Saturn. Hecate, Legba, Hermes, Obatala, Christ, Shiva, Thoth, Anubis.


Wheel of Fortune-Fortuna, Ma'at, Dharma, Ifa, Lakhsmi, Ganesh, Kwan Yin, Yah.


Justice-Ma'at, Thoth, Astraea, Themis, Horus, Athena, Apollo, Yah.


Hanged Man-Odin, Christ, Inanna, Osiris, Coyote,
Dionysos, Orpheus, Baldur.


Death-Ereshkigal, Anubis, Hades, Kali, Shiiva, Quetzalcoatl, Yama.


Temperance-Changing Woman, Apollo, Buddha, Kwan Yin, Hermes, Hephaestus, Nut.


Devil-Satan, Set, Typhon, Hades, Loki, Surtur, Dhamballah, Cernunnos, Samael, Bacchus.


Tower-Kali, Shiva, Hecate, Oya, Quetzalcoatl, Yah, Nemesis, Ra.


Star-Venus, Lucifer, Freya, Persephone, Kwan Yin, Ganymede, Astarte, Corn Woman.


Moon-Luna, Selene, Artemis, Diana, Hecate, Thoth, Sin.
Sun-Helios, Apollo, Ra, Amon, Amaterasu.


Judgement-Christ, Osiris, Persephone, Kwan Yin, Khepera, Dionysos, Mithras.


World-Gaia, Vishnu, Buddha, Yah, Christ, Mary, Tiamat, Atum.


For the reading, we divided the deck into three parts, the Major Arcana, the Court Cards, and the numbered suit cards (Ace through Ten). Before the reading, we did a short meditation in which we breathed deeply to calm and center ourselves, then imagined ourselves in a great open area, with a vast array of figures in the distance. The act of choosing a Major Arcana card would call one of those figures forward, to become visible to us.


Here are the positions in the spread, done as a pyramid. Position 1 is done with the Major Arcana only, positions 2 and 3 with the Court Cards only, and positions 4, 5, and 6 with the numbered suit cards only.



1.

2. 3.

4. 5. 6.





1. What Goddess or God is important to me now?
2. Who have I been in my life?
3. Who will this God/dess help me become in my life?
4. What task do I face?
5. How will this God/dess help me?
6. How does the God/dess want me to honor hir?



We decided to do a group reading, where Hollis Melton, who hosts the class each month, would represent all of us. The cards came from the Shining Tribe deck, designed and drawn by myself. When we had done the reading and looked at it as a whole it seemed to us that it did not just refer to our own small group but to the current political situation, even though we had not asked about that.


1. The Star. Hollis identified this card with Persephone, in her role as guide and inspiration to anyone making a frightful passage. In the myth, Persephone is an innocent maiden whom Death (Hades) kidnaps and rapes to become his bride in the underworld. Because of the courage of Persephone's mother, Demeter, Hades must give her back for part of every year. When she returns, however, she has become the powerful Queen of the Dead, able to grant new life to the souls who went through her initiation while alive. On the verge of a war that many of us find unjust feels very much like being threatened by Hades. Persephone comes to give us hope, for hope is the very essence of the Star card.


2. Who have we been? Knower of Trees (Knight of Wands). This picture shows optimism, and a desire to embrace life.


3. Who will Persephone help us become? Gift of Stones (Queen of Pentacles). This card shows a grounding and a return to old truths, for it depicts prehistoric temples in the country of Malta. It also shows a joining together with others, for everything in the card is doubled-two temples, two stick figures joined together, two spirals.


4. What task is before us? The Seven of Stones. The card depicts an amulet given to women in India during childbirth. Thus, it becomes the task of helping something be born.


5. How will Persephone help us? The Ace of Stones. This is a card of connections, of seeing how the underworld (the realm where Death takes Persephone), the ordinary world, and the spiritual truths "above" us, are all joined together. It also continues the theme of joining with others, in very practical, grounded ways.


6. How can we honor Persephone? The Seven of Birds. This is a card of intense communication, of listening to others, even as we speak our own truth. The image was inspired by Australian Aborigine desert peoples, who meet at tribal borders and communicate their songs that describe each tribe's territory and spiritual history. Persephone guides us through fearful times, and we honor her through a willingness to speak and to listen.


This was our group reading. I invite others to try it for themselves!


Hudson Valley, March 5, 2003