and communication and Earth referring to the tangle experience of
the material world through the five senses. A fifth element of
“Spirit”is often associated with these other four and represents a
transcendental sentient Consciousness energy that permeates all
creation and informs the other four elements.
Are Tarot Cards Archetypes?
A word often associated with Tarot Cards, especially those which
comprise the Major Cards, is the term “Archetype” – a term
popularized by the eminent Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Carl Gustav
Jung and which forms one of fundamental principals of his
scientific method of Analytical Psychology. In Jungian terms an
Archetype may be defined as “an inherited pattern of psychic
(psychological) functioning” described by Dr. Jung as being
similar to a watercourse that a river forms when it channels
through the terrain over which it has flown for millennia. It is an
imprint of collective experiences relating to fundamental areas of
life which all human beings have in common such as the
experience of the Mother (which could be termed the “Mother
Archetype”) and forms a sort of Unconscious reservoir out of
which images in dreams, fantasies, art and visions emerge. The
most important point, according to Dr. Jung, is that the Archetype
itself can never become conscious; it is only an imprint and can
only reflect itself in a secondary way through symbolism. It is
much closer to truth to consider Tarot cards to be glyphs (complex
symbols
whose whole
meaning emerges
from
the aggregate
meanings of the individual symbols contained within them) and
whose symbolism reflects the revelation of a Secret Doctrine; a
spiritual teaching
that
has unfolded
in parallel with the
development of historical religions and represents a viewpoint that
is in counterpoint to several of their most basic assumptions
concerning the nature of the Divinity and the purpose of our
human lives on this earth. Tarot cards express the relationship of
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The Mirror of the Moment
the Principal of Consciousness to Life in a series of tableaus that
find correspondence with actual human experiences and to actual
life situations. Through study and meditation the sincere student
comes to understand what the Principal of Consciousness is; how
the Principal of Consciousness interacts with the material Universe
and how to align one’s life with the activity of this Divine
Principal in a harmonious and beneficial manner so as to become a
center of expression for its creative Will. For the purposes of this
work each Tarot glyph will be viewed from this perspective and
explained in terms of its native symbolism, its practical
correspondences and the aspect of the Consciousness Principal to
which it corresponds.
The Reconciliation of Science and Religion
The great English writer, Dion Fortune, made this incisive
observation in her seminal work, “Practical Occultism.” She wrote
that in the 18th Century when scientists replaced clerics as figures
of social authority they merely dyed the clerical robes a different
color and then came back and took their place on the pulpits to
espouse their new religion - one best described as “scientism”
whose fundamental principal is that only sensory information is
real and the physical Universe as experienced through our senses
and, by extension, our scientific instruments, constitutes the sole
reality and that human consciousness is solely an epiphenomenon,
a sort of accident that emerged out of matter and has no basis as an
independent empirical reality existing in and of itself; let alone the
esoteric truth that consciousness existed prior to organized matter
and is in fact the very organizing and directing principal
underlying all the physical phenomena we experience or observe.
What Can We Truly Know?
Can we truly know the Divine Spirit or enter into spiritual realms
that lie outside the immediate grasp of our limited perception
through the use of meditation, psychedelic drugs, yoga, magic or
other techniques that seek to alter our consciousness so we may
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The Mirror of the Moment
perceive “reality” in a manner different than we generally do
utilizing our ordinary everyday modes of sensory and mental
perception? And if we can do so, do we really want to or should
we rely on divination to gain access to the higher dimensions of
consciousness? Truly this is a profound question but one which
must be addressed if an individual is going to gain any practical
benefit from the study and usage of the Tarot. Associated with the
Tarot are many correspondences to arcane matters related to
systems of thought and practice rooted in earlier history. Some of
these practices sought to perfect the individual human and elevate
their consciousness to a higher state; others sought union with the
Divine Spirit itself or lesser Angelic Intelligences; still others
sought magical control over the forces of Nature so as to acquire
personal power for the practitioner. Many practices and techniques
revolved around trying to predict or see the future and gaining
foreknowledge of untoward events that might cross the path of a
person’
s fate. This knowledge could be used to mitigate dangers or
avoid them entirely or to gain knowledge that would give the
practitioner a present advantage by making choices based on an
already known future outcome. Still others unwisely sought to
pierce the veil of death and communicate with departed spirits in
the belief that they would have knowledge of things to come or
give them access to higher dimensions leading to an increase in
their personal power or prestige. When we divine the Tarot what
we can truly and actually know is that we are seeking access to that
deeper realm of Consciousness – the hither land out of which
dreams and creative visions are born – where the fire of creative
intuition holds sway over strict rationality. As this dimension of
Consciousness transcends the limitations of individual existence
greater insight can be obtained than through the application of
strictly logical constructs. We can ‘
divine”the truth of the matter
inquired about by placing the question before the Tarot we
intuitively perceive from its response what the underlying reality
informing the question actually is. Once we have achieved this
level of perception the truth of the matter becomes clear and an
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The Mirror of the Moment
informed decision can be reached by the individual who posed the
question. This insight can then be applied to his or her own life. It
must always be borne in mind that divination is a highly subjective
experience and it must be left to the individual practitioner of this
esoteric art to articulate the quality and character of t
heir personal
experience and decide for themselves as to whether or not they
have only made contact with their own inner Psyche (what modern
psychology would call the “Unconscious Mind” – the Root
Consciousness) or have actually entered into communication with
the Higher Mind or Divine dimension of consciousness.
Utilizing the Tarot
Of the many controversies which the Tarot seems to attract, none is
more relevant than finding the way to a truthful and effective
approach to interpreting the Tarot as you wander within the deluge
of “spreads” which seem to multiply daily like weeds in an
untended garden. In some manner this situation is like a well filled
with an over abundance of fish – the only practical outcome being
that all the fish starve due to the competition for the limited
resources available in the well. To stay out of this quandary and
accomplish our end in a meaningful way, we must take a more
reverent and focused approach to reading the Tarot and employ a
method that will allow us to read the Tarot Oracle in a respectful
and honorable manner. It is the Tarot’
s usage as an Oracle that this
work will principally focus on in an attempt to provide a clear and
easy to understand method of consulting the Tarot for any
individual who is willing to put forth the necessary effort to
understand and welcome this unique gift to mankind into their own
individual life.
Human cultures from the dawn of time have employed rituals
through which they attempted to achieve contact with the Divine –
the higher plane or dimension of consciousness invisible to the
senses but known to act upon the material reality. These rituals
were carried out with great respect and solemnity even to the point
20
The Mirror of the Moment
that only the highest members of society such as kings, shaman or
priests could perform the rituals and interpret the results.
Fortunately, we have evolved beyond the viewpoint that access to
the higher spiritual realms belongs only to the privileged and the
powerful. Through the Tarot this gateway to the advice and insight
flowing into life from the higher spiritual dimensions of
consciousness is available to all of us to aid us in finding our way
and fulfilling our purpose in life.
Tarot Divination
The art of Tarot reading lies within that aspect of human
experience most frequently referred to as the art of divination.
There are many theories and speculations as to what divination
actually is and why experienced practitioners claim that this
practice yields authentic insights and information concerning the
matters put to it, information which otherwise could not be
obtained. The practice of this art is deeply rooted in human
experience and its usage stretches back to the very dawn of
Consciousness itself for as man’s awareness of himself emerged
and evolved so did his thirst for an understanding of the world in
which he found himself and the forces that acted upon him while
he lived in it. Why does the art of divination claim to be able to
reveal that which is hidden about human interaction with the
natural and spiritual worlds? To answer this question we must first
examine the principals that underlie this human activity as we
cannot move forward to the practical application of Tarot
divination without some understanding of its inner workings and
the basis of this understanding as applied in human social
relationships. Let us begin with the view of our ancient ancestors
and work forward towards a perspective more closely aligned with
modern human consciousness.
In the consciousness of ancestral man there was always the sense
of the “Other” – an intelligence, force, energy or Being
experienced as being above or beyond the circumstances in which
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The Mirror of the Moment
humans they found themselves in Nature and to which was
attributed the appellation of the “Divine.” To this Intelligence,
force, energy or Being was also attributed the power to act
independently upon Nature or to reveal hidden aspects of life for
the benefit of the individual (or society) seeking counsel. This was
accomplished through a ritual of divination. Here we must
emphasis an important point. It was not accepted that a direct
personal communication could be established with this Divine
Consciousness but it was believed that this knowledge could only
be obtained through a specialized ritual – the ritual being the door
through which the channel of communication with this higher
ground of being was established and through which it spoke. Such
rituals were undertaken with the greatest reverence and sincerity
and their practice was often limited to the highest members of the
social order – kings, priests, witch doctors or shamans. In all
manner of these divinations the associated ritual was of the utmost
importance as it established the necessary atmosphere of reverence
that informed the divination itself and elevated it above the
mundane aspects of existence into its own holy space where
revealed truth could be perceived and subsequently acted upon. As
human consciousness evolved into traditional societies there was
experienced a separate reality, named the Spirit world in which
lived Intelligences without gross material form as we understand it
but still possessing a self aware consciousness and who were able
to communicate with the realm of material Nature. Thus divination
within it who served as intermediaries between the diviner and the
Absolute. Since the Absolute transcended both time and space the
intermediary spirit could attain knowledge from the Absolute and
communicate this knowledge to the diviner.
As we move forward into modern consciousness, the act of
divination began to be expressed in purely psychological terms in
which it was postulated that through the ritual of divination the
diviner gained contact with the “Root Consciousness”(a term used
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The Mirror of the Moment
to express a level of universal mind or consciousness beyond the
individual that is common to all human beings and to the universe
itself). This is a much more preferred description than the
“Collective Unconscious” of Jungian Psychology which is a
narrowly defined term used in analytical practice.
So what meaningful conclusions may we arrive at? First and
foremost the act of divination is not a casual matter and if we are
not to fall prey to egotism and self delusion and we must approach
its practice with reverence and sincerity. Without a respect for the
ancestry of this ancient religious practice we cannot grasp its core
meaning and attain truth through the utilization of its unique
revelatory power. Since many approaches could be put forward as
to what would constitute a meaningful ritual to employ in Tarot
divination it may seem difficult to formulate one which will meet
the need for a universal approach and which could be used with
whichever deck the practitioner chooses to employ. Since from
ancient times Tarot symbolism in general has been heavily
influenced by the Hermetic spiritual perspective, this viewpoint
would be highly suitable perspective upon which to erect a ritual
structure for use in Tarot divination, but before we can accomplish
this end it is first necessary to elaborate on Hermetic philosophy
and its underlying principals so its
relationship to the divination
and the Tarot can be clearly understood. However, prior to this
discussion and vital to the understanding of the act of divination, is
a discussion of a vital question: “Can Tarot cards see or predict the
future?”
Can A Tarot Reading Predict the Future?
There have been many readings built based on the premise that
individuals performing the reading could in fact see into the future,
a claim I might add that the greatest of minds in human history
would not have had the temerity to assert as power being within
the realm of their abilities. Thus to attain a realistic perspective on
Tarot readings and the actual benefits that may be attained from
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The Mirror of the Moment
them this question of seeing the future must be addressed for it lies
at the root of what is true and what is false concerning the Tarot’
s
reputation for empowering its user with the occult power of
clairvoyance. To attempt such an understanding, we must first
come to terms, from the view of human experience, of the
experience we encapsulate in the word “time”. From a scientific
point of view, time (or time/space) is considered to be a dimension
equal to the three other dimensions experienced by the physical
senses, those of width, length and depth and having a symbiotic
relationship with consciousness and all other forms of manifested
existence
– both
known
and
unknown.
To
the
human
consciousness time must be considered to be an experience of
successive states of awareness that appear to proceed in a linear