Contemplations about Tarot: Premise and Part 1

Originally published on my blogspot 20.2.2014.  I offer this series here as it was written and published then, with some minor gramatical corrections and edits in formatting and change in accompanying images. Enjoy.

As I've mentioned in the previous post, I'm not much of a traditionalist when it comes to reading any type of cards.

Premise

Tarot cards, for various unknown reasons defy statistical probabilities, anyone who has ever tried them more than once or twice can concur. Ever see a card pop up repeatedly? Ever wonder whether you lost a card, because it never shows up anymore? 

There's different kinds of energies around us, some can be like static electricity, body heat or just the wind. Some can be residual - thoughts that leave a negative or positive traces of energy in the environment, emotions, wishes and prayers. Other energies, like ghosts, demons or god forms, can be intelligent and can actively influence our readings as well as our physical bodies and states of mind.

And all of these, or the readers personal hopes and wishes (one of the reasons I don't do readings for myself anymore) for a particular reading can influence the probability and the amount of times certain cards show up, or just jump out of the deck during shuffling. 

At this point, I must stress the importance of magical hygiene - cleansing an banishing on a regular basis. If you don't actually have the means to recognize the energy/entity that is influencing the cards (you actually do have the means, but more on that later), wouldn't you rather at least make sure there's nothing around that might make your readings nonsensical if not outright lies on purpose? I've had my share of bogus readings, but usually, if you are open enough and not hung up on the cards, you can tell something is off - the cards make no sense all of a sudden, nausea in your stomach, unexplained fear, etc.

Part One

The basic process

Reading cards for me has become more a meditation than detective work. The secret, or the point, is to forget the cards once you pick them up. To forget everything your LWB has told you when you made introductions and shook hands with that new deck. To forget all the books, essays and articles you have read. To let your mind be blank.

And meditate. Concentrate on the question at hand. Chaos magic calls this state gnosis, one-pointedness of the mind. There are various techniques to achieving gnosis ranging from emotional excitement, to exhaustion and even masturbation. Meditation, one of them, is the one I use the most, because once learned, it is readily available at all times, without the need to alter ones energy flow or emotional state (which is not very useful for divining, as it can influence the results). 

Once the mind goes blank, while shuffling cards usually (or holding them, or looking at them, see what works best for you!), I concentrate on the question. I usually keep shuffling until one or another thing happens: either I see in my minds eye a spread that I have to lay out (usually total randomness, no Celtic crosses etc.) and then (no idea how, really, but it happens 90% of times) a sufficient number of cards falls out, or I see the the answer in the form of a vision, a sentence, or I see cards relevant to what I'm asking about, after which I will just throw a few cards out to confirm or start over. 

Et voilá! Reading done.

Working up to it

 Of course, that is how it is now. It took years of practice and most of those years I had no idea what was going on and I just gave readings, and they somehow resonated, were confirmed or came true. Roughly two years ago, I asked myself: "How does this happen, that I'm able to read cards out of the blue, without giving it so much as a second thought?" It really was as if someone was standing behind me, whispering answers in my ear, making relevant cards fall out of the deck or putting images into my head. 

Now to avoid any controversy, it doesn't matter, whether you believe in gods or entities or shared consciousness or ripples from the future vibrating back to the past. It is all the same. The fact is, it is not the cards that foretell the future. It doesn't really matter which cards fall on the table, or what you draw out of the deck. It is what meaning the reader sees in them, and the right meaning comes from the connection with the divine (again, no matter whether a god, or a ripple or your own higher consciousness). Many cards have similar meanings, many cards have two completely opposite meanings, they overlap and overflow and it is only to give your subconscious enough stimuli so that it can overpower your conscious mind. Cards don't work with logic. They are by all means magical. 

When I divine, I am asking someone to answer. In the beginning, when I began to wonder what was happening, I did it unconsciously and hey, someone who had the time answered. He became my patron long before I knew he existed and long before he shared his name. He put me on a path, however misguided, no matter if I wanted it or not. Today, I have a different patron, one much more trustworthy and wise. And I have learned, that it is not the only option to leave things to chance, and when working with tarot (any other oracle, or a pendulum, or a Ouija board or whatever) you can summon anyone/anything of your choosing to help you see the answer in the cards. It's as simple as as a concentrated thought. 

The incessant buzzing of bees

The basic thing that has to be done is to be open to it. That's the starting point. 

Meditation, even at the basic level is the first step. You don't need to keep your mind blank for more than five minutes for basic readings. Just learn to quiet be buzz in your head for a moment or two, see the card shuffling as a cleansing process. You clear your mind and with it you clear the cards of negative influences. It is liberating. Not wanting, not yearning, not fearing anything for just a few minutes a day. And that's when the inner clarity can take hold and everything, including tarot cards, can make new sense and finally has a voice. 

It is too often that I read questions on forums of the sort: "What does this card in combination with that card mean in regards to love/work/a dream?" And then there is the thread with fifty completely different interpretations, that all make sense, but how do you know which one is the one that was meant in the first place? Is the questioner supposed to pick the one that suits them best? 

I'm sorry, but that beats the point. It is logic that kills the prophecy. 

Other than an exercise in mathematics, meticulously combining, subtracting, multiplying, weighing and measuring the meaning of each card in regard to others in the spread is overuse of the mind and consciousness, which by definition don't not allow us to glimpse anything other than the pressing present. 

So, step one. Kill the buzz. Stop thinking about it. Meditate. Even if just for twenty minutes before you fall asleep in the evening.

To learn more, proceed here.