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Nothing Written In Stone
Due in part to its colorful associations with gypsies, the secrecy in which 19th century occultists once enshrouded it, or perhaps its better known surviving offshoot--modern playing cards--synonymous with entertainment, gambling, and games of chance, not surprisingly, Tarot is often met with controversy, misapprehension, and myth. Its random method of selection adds little confidence or trust to its status as a reliable method.
Among the many misconceptions of the sacred art is that Tarot is synonymous with "fortune-telling," a degraded concept by today's hardened standards, conjuring images of gullible souls surrendering their sullied fates to the double-talking frauds of arcane knowledge. I call this degradation the "miscleofication" of Tarot, in reference to the Jamaican actress and entrepreneur of psychic hotline notoriety. Like most serious practitioners, I see such showings as crass and a disservice to the true art.
In the real thing, Tarot is not so much an exercise in "fortune-telling" as a sincere experiment in "truth-seeking" or better, "self-seeking." The proper approach is more on the order of temporarily suspending everything one knows about a particular condition or concern, and then opening oneself to contemplate its whole panorama, like taking an extended glance over a sunset or perhaps sitting a long hour before a river. Nothing is written in stone, the experiment shows us, though favorable patterns will naturally rise up as the Chinese masters of a related art counsel, and just as naturally, fall away. In the extended glance, one is enabled to catch the inner wave of change and circumstance, and act accordingly.
In the European Tarot, this point is spun perhaps most optimistically in Trump X, The Wheel Of Fortune, associated with the laws of cycles, karma, and change. Like the master comedian or storyteller, The Wheel teaches that timing is everything. Moving forward, moving back, stopping, just so…one attunes to the inner rhythms of the river so as to grasp its natural intelligence. And so it is when turning for advice to the card oracle itself, something ones does sparingly and auspiciously, always with eyes fixed on the subtle patterns of change and possibility.
Homo Tarot Erectus
In a figurative sense, we ourselves are no other than walking tarot decks -that is, pedestrian bundles of universal tendencies, teachings, and challenges that continuously rise up and fall away on the wheel of psychological and spiritual growth. Man the Homo Tarot Erectus. This inner anatomy of our being is comprised of 78 multifaceted lessons according to the Tarot Gods, each deemed worthy of special consideration. Divination, however, takes from the totality only a slice, not unlike a routine blood test, whereby one's current measure of health is assessed from a small sample of the serum, and if necessary, appropriate treatments may be recommended and likely courses predicted.
In those subsets of randomly "pricked" cards (typically no more than ten or eleven units), a remarkable opportunity is thereby given to analyze and reflect upon the whole state of one's health and condition. Why do we take this indirect route? Because as the blood panel alerts the trained physician to the body's internal functioning where a direct physical examination cannot, the Tarot "panel" alerts the trained metaphysician, if you will, to the mind's internal functioning where a direct mental examination cannot. This is what is meant by truth-seeking or self-seeking. The aim is to reveal a mapping of the larger person where a direct examination, either physical or mental, cannot.
Still, it must be understood that alerting the skilled interpreter to the inner workings of the mindstream is not quite identical to psychoanalysis, or other psychological approaches. In this metaphysical exam, our reference to "mind" or "mental" connotes far more than the narrow region belonging exclusively to psychological reality per se; rather, here we invoke the larger domain of Mind, that is, all non-physical reality subject to experience, inclusive of purely psychological structures, but also the philosophical, creative, soulful, and spiritual dimensions of Mind as well.
Two Lines of Experience
Non-material reality, or Mind, as such, can be mapped on two axes of experience-a horizontal axis and a vertical axis-wherein the former extends from subject outward to the world, and the latter ascends and descends at various depths within the subject him/herself. The distinction lies at the heart of all dualities, e.g. subject/object, mind/body, inner/outer, depth/breadth, I/Thou etc. For example, note the dual lines of reference in Trump III, The Empress, when appearing as one of the eleven units of a spread layout. "She" may refer horizontally to the supplying of nurturance and sustenance to the issue in question, a loving facilitator of Earthly power who taps into nature's intrinsic vitality and beauty so as to bring to the situation a certain organic, whole, and natural quality. This lesson, of course, can be expressed on multiple levels and contexts of outer experience and should not be taken literally.
Seen vertically however, The Empress may be speaking to the need for self-nurturance and acceptance. One is encouraged to be more Empress-like in their attitude and disposition, more willing to touch and be touched with passion and sensuality. Yet whatever chord "She" now strikes in the participating subject, no matter his gender, worldly and other-worldly range of reference, "She" will now be pondered, if only momentarily, with a sense of personal significance and urgency. This itself is no small accomplishment.
As with each card in the reading, one or both axial possibilities may generate the biggest "click" with the querent, (always the final authority in the procedure). Following the path of emotional connection-the click-- is always the most productive way to navigate past the treacherous rocks of intellection and meta-babble. Often, however, clarification arrives from neighboring cards in the spread (the so-called 'dignities') where a pattern woven in combination with others reveals the greater tendency. We know this "tapestry effect" playing ordinary Poker when four otherwise dull and unrelated cards of one suit are suddenly "flushed" by a fifth making for a surprisingly strong hand. "Well-placed" dignities give the skilled interpreter further guideposts for the best axial route. But again, as frustrating as it may be to our modern need for "take-it-to-the-bank" certainty, I repeat the divinatory creed: Nothing Is Written In Stone (not at least, in the garden variety mineral). Particularly as this fluid enterprise springs from mind, not matter.
The Dynamic Present
Some reading this brief analysis may also be surprised to learn that true divination focuses less on "the future" (a mental construct existing, paradoxically, in the present alone) than on the more temporally meaningful domain of the "dynamic present"---those many bands or waves of consciousness that cohabit simultaneously the present moment. These inner and outer bundles of who and what we are, both personal and collective in nature, extend beyond the purely psychological realms of ego, shadow, and unconscious. Wider horizons of interpersonal, familial, social, political, environmental, and even cosmic influence exist forcefully on the horizontal axis of the dynamic present as well.
Man is a citizen of his own psyche, but also of his everyday life, the world and environment of which he is part, and beyond it all, the larger cosmos in which he is enveloped. Similarly, "higher and lower" depths of individual and collective consciousness can be traveled on the vertical axis within the subject himself, often with personal psychology giving way to transpersonal spirituality and metaphysics. One quickly realizes from the two axes that the dynamic present is an ocean of potentiality whose parameters and depths are never exhausted.
Though predicting the so-called "future" is a sexy game worthy of late night infomercials on obscure cable networks, it truly is not divination's first order of business. The main thrust of divination is to penetrate the subject's functioning and condition in the context of now, often in relation to visible precipitating circumstances, with special regard to a small randomly-selected bundle of universal tendencies, teachings, and challenges that we call tarot cards.
The Meta-Serum
As mentioned earlier, a single vial of the meta-serum will silhouette only one brightly-wrapped bundle of complexity, leaving innumerable others unopened and unlit. Here the mystery and magic of the procedure comes to fore. Remarkably, the bundle so selected and examined only rarely does not directly and meaningfully relate to the questioner, or his concerns. Science is troubled by this as might be imagined, greatly troubled. But as it often does with such disturbances, Science chooses to ignore, attack, or devalue these strange workings, and with good effect I might add in this highly horizontally-biased age. One may nevertheless attest to divination's amazing longevity and universality throughout the history and prehistory of humankind. The Chinese Book Of Changes (I Ching), for example, for all its modern fascination, is a divinatory system with three thousand year old roots in the traditions of magic and shamanism. After all, is it not a central axiom of modern science that only the fittest survive?
Just as a single unit circulates throughout the entire bloodstream of the body, nourishing and interacting with all its tissues and internal organs, so too each single tarot card circulates through the entire mindstream of the psyche, nourishing and interacting with its internal meta-structure. It is no mere accident that a single vial from one small slice should seem so uncannily fortuitous, relevant, or "accurate." How could it be otherwise when looking into the mirror of the Mind? The cards we choose today merely showcase a unique combination of essential and universal parts. But it's in the timing-the here and now-that makes this enterprise compelling. Why we are given this combination-not any other combinations--for the extended glance now?
The Vaguely Sensed
One final note concerning the real thing that the constraints of this small essay can manage-real divination is less concerned with the much over-rated "mysterious unknown" than it is with what we may call the "vaguely sensed." By this I mean those fuzzy, ambiguous, gnawing, twilight tickles of near insight that surround the narrow band of ordinary focal attention and are commonly called "hunches" or "felt senses." Sometimes they are like the nose on the face, so close, so central, yet so damned from direct sight without a mirror. Tarot is that mirror. The implication here is that while we already exist with complete and universal self-knowledge as bone fide tarot decks ourselves, we nevertheless fail miserably in our ability to access ourselves. Clinically-speaking, we suffer from moderate-to-severe self-myopia with significant deficits of intuition. Divination is the effective corrective lens, with tarot cards serving as intuitive bridges to the bigger picture.
But alas, we must remember that as well-shuffled walking decks, we tend to over-focus on the small everyday hands we've been dealt in life, missing the inner wave of change and circumstance they are part and parcel of. Through this magically-divined operation, Tarot, the once vaguely-sensed opportunity is now brought onto the table. We are enabled to glance upon our own noses, such as they are, plainly and vividly. But one need not bring a bag of popcorn to this viewing as the demands of self-seeking require heartier digestive tracts. As full tarot decks absorbed in our own divination, we may now take our nourishment from more satisfying small bundles.
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