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Tarot
Gateway To Tarot
by Bonnie Cehovet
Tarot Master
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Tarot is many things to many people - an oracle of divination, a focus for meditation, a tool for personal growth, a tool for counseling others - the uses are limited only by one's own perceptions. The one thing that remains constant in all of it's many facets is that the Tarot, with its archetypal energies, acts as a gateway to higher understanding, an access portal to the voices of the ancient ones.
These are the things that we will be talking about in this column - the things that Tarot can be, and how we can apply them to our own lives. In this months column, I am going to take a look at how to create a Tarot "personal profile" - a way of using the Tarot to take a look backwards - to see what energies we brought with us into this lifetime, and how to best use them. I have chosen to use the Personality, Soul, Persona and Personal Year cards.
Our Personality card identifies the gifts and talents that we came into this lifetime with - it is the external (outer) expression of who we are. To determine your personality card, add your day, month and year of birth together, until you get a number that adds up to 22 or less.
Example: December 29, 1948
12
29
1948
1989
1+9+8+9 = 9
In this case, the Personality card, taken from the Major Arcana, is number 9, or the Hermit. To work with your Personality card, set it out where you can see it. Allow your thoughts to flow, and listen to t he messages that come to you. Think about the archetype, and what it has to teach you. "Enter" the card, introduce yourself, and speak with the Personality in the card. When you are done, thank them and come back to consciousness. Throughout your life. the energy of this card will be with you to act as an anchor, a mentor and a source of balance. This energy is the very basis of where you are "coming from".
The Soul card shows us what we are here to learn - what our lessons in this lifetime will be. To determine your Soul card, add the two numbers of the Personality card together. If the Personality card is a single number, as in the example above, your Soul and Personality cards will be the same. There is one case where you will have two Soul cards. If your Personality card is number 19, your Soul cards will be number 10 (1+9=10) and number 1 (1+0=1). The Soul card is worked with in the same way that the Personality card is.
There are three Persona cards: Personal Potential, Inner Teacher and Mode of Expression in the World. They are direct correspondences with the Tarot court cards for your Sun sign (Personal Potential), Moon SIgn (Inner Teacher) and Rising Sign (Mode of Expression In The World).1
Court Card Correspondences.2
Aries: Queen of Wands
Taurus: King of Pentacles
Gemini: Knight of Swords
Cancer: Queen of Cups
Leo: King of Wands
Virgo: Knight of Pentacles
Libra: Queen of Swords
Scorpio: King of Cups
Sagittarius: Knight of Wands
Capricorn: Queen of Pentacles
Aquarius: King of Swords
Pisces: Knight of Cups
The Personal Year card shows the opportunities and challenges for the year ahead. It is determined by adding the day and month of birth to the current year. Continue to add the numbers until you reach a number of 21 or less.
Example: December 29, current year 2003
12
29
2003
2044
2+0+4+4 = 10
The Personal Year card is number 10, the Wheel of Fortune. Studying this archetype will provide insight into the opportunities and challenges for the coming year.
For someone born December 29th, 1948, their Tarot profile would look like this:
Personality card: Hermit
Soul card: Hermit
Personal Potential: Queen of Pentacles
Inner Teacher: Queen of Pentacles
Mode of Expression In The World: Queen of Cups
Personal Year: Wheel of Fortune
For this person, their Personality and Soul cards are the same. In cases where the Soul and Personality cards are the same, the purpose of the lifetime is a very focused one. The Seeker here will express their inner and outer lives in much the same way. The archetype of the Hermit indicates intense inner reflection. In some manner in this persons life there will always be a search for truth, and the attempt to live their truth in their lives. There is a constant search by the Seeker for their inner center, that point of balance for the spirit. As the number nine is indicative of completion - of ending one cycle and getting ready to begin another, this lifetime can very well be one of healing on all levels for the Seeker.
As the Soul Card, or lesson for this lifetime, the Hermit gifts the Seeker with the journey that ends with the understanding that the answers they seek lie within themselves. They are to be the light for themselves, and the light for others as they are to share their knowledge and wisdom.
The Seeker's Card of Personal Potential here is the Queen of Pentacles. What potential does this Queen hold? She is Water of Earth, she is a practical Queen, with a love of the earth and her environment. The Seeker's potential will be best brought out in fulfilling this role in their own lives - through nurturing and protecting the physical environment around them, and through a strong connection to the earth (and showing a respect for earth natured things).
The Seeker's Inner Teacher is also the Queen of Pentacles. Journeying with this Queen will help the Seeker understand themselves and walk their path with greater ease.
This Seeker's Mode Of Expression In The World is the Queen of Cups. This Queen is of the psychic world - she deals with emotions, sensory perceptions, dreams and intuitive knowledge. The Seeker will find their path in dealing with the world not through logic, but through intuitive understanding of what is and what isn't.
The Personal Year for this Seeker is the Wheel of Fortune. This archetype is one of cycles, and working within them. That is the key - that life is a series of cycles, and that no thing, whether good or bad, lasts forever. This is also basically a card of change. The interesting thing here is that the opportunities and challenges are for the most part the same thing - that challenges are found in the opportunities, and the opportunities are to be found in the challenges! This is a year in which the Seeker will learn about objectivity.
Our Tarot Personality Profiles provide a wonderful gateway into who we are, and why we operate in the world as we do. They give us a window through which to better understand ourselves and others. I hope that you have enjoyed this Tarot journey, and that you will visit again next month.
Please feel free to contact me with thoughts about what you would like to see discussed in this column, and any Tarot related questions that you may have. I will address all questions via this column.
Sending warm wishes to each of you for a July filled with joy, celebration, opportunity - and a path well walked.
Footnotes:
1. Greer, Mary K. Tarot For Yourself. Newcastle Publishing Company. 1984
2. If you use a different set of astrological correspondences, please use that one.
Bibliography:
Amaral, Geraldine and Cunninghan, Nancy Brady. Tarot Celebrations: Honoring The Inner Voice. Samuel Weiser, Inc. 1997.
Greer, Mary K. Tarot For Yourself. Newcastle Publishing Company. 1984.
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Bonnie Cehovet,
Tarot Master, and Reiki Master/Teacher.
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Bonnie Cehovet is a Tarot Master, professional Tarot reader and Reiki Master/Teacher.
Bonnie has been reading the Tarot professionally for over ten years. She has served in various capacities with the American Tarot Association, including Secretary and Web Assistant For Links. She is currently Certification Director and Secretary for the American Board For Tarot Certification. Bonnie is also a founding member of the World Tarot Network.
Bonnie has had her work published in the ATA newsletter, in Geraldine Amaral's "Celebrating The Tarot" print newsletter, on the World Tarot Network and other internet sites. She is editor for her own monthly newsletter "Gateway To Tarot" (Yahoo Groups).
www.tarot.thecrystalgate.
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