A Cornerstone of Spiritual Study
A priceless and indispensable treasure. The seventy-eight cards are a full-color visual textbook of the wisdom of the ages – a living talisman that distils in breathtaking pageantry the essence of the spiritual education, and insights of the ancient mysteries. The cards are hauntingly charming and exceedingly effective at divining truth, and yet too few will ever truly appreciate the esoteric value of the cards though some may sincerely hope to.
An Origin Story
In the beginning was the Source, and the Source became the Force that would evolve through dimensions of space, time, sense and mind, investing itself with varying limitations and capacities, until settling into physicality to experience itself in the Human Condition. This is the story of Tantra. It is also the story of Kabbalah, the origin story of Classical Tarot.
The Kabbalistic Tree of Life traces the zig-zag Lightning Flash of Evolution, downwards across three existential pillars of reality named Benevolence, Severity & Equanimity in the words of the Hebrew Sages. The Tantriks call these pillars ‘channels’ and named them Ida, Pingala & Sushumna on the right left and center. These pillars or channels are understood to be represented at the energetic levels of our physical bodies, too. The ages-old axiom is pertinent here. As Above, So Below.
Tarot Traces the Rise of Kundalini
The human phenomenon of a so-called experience of Kundalini Rising is a story of the awakening of a human condition from the depths of a slumber coaxed since birth by such external forces as social education, diet, and any number of experiential sources that have attached to the mind mechanism, lingering in the form of memory and manifesting as habit. Being unconscious of the fundamental human condition, it often comes as a shock to learn of something that lays just beyond the veils of our slumber. That shock takes on many extreme symptoms, too.
In the world of Yoga, we are able to Analyze the Construct of Reality with a series of principles, called Tattvas. This analysis is applied practically to the life on a variety of paths called Yoga, or Tantra. There are several approaches to these paths depending on the disposition and proclivities of the spiritual seeker. Similarly, in the world of occult sciences, Tarot & Kabbalah allow us to Precisely Trace the Flow of Force and the Manifestation of Source within our body/mind vehicles, by applying the Tarot cards to the Tree of Life.
A reader skilled in the application of divine intuition and learned in the constructs of classical wisdom traditions will be able to discern spiritual development precisely and provide valuable insights to apply to the practice of consciousness development and self-actualization.
Tarot as a Meditation
Traditionally the Tarot were to be used as a meditative vehicle. In particular, the twenty-two major arcana, or keys to the greater mysteries of life, would be contemplated at length, the symbolism allowed to seep into the subconscious mind and unlock channels to higher wisdom. The classical mystery schools would often recommend that the aspirant to higher knowledge begin to familiarize themselves with the twenty-two paths of knowledge by becoming more intimate with their cards and personalizing them with your own colors.
Notice the card at the right side of the image attached to this post. This is a representation from the Rider-Waite Deck. Notice the Fool’s dress and stance, what he carries, who follows, the general mood, the symbols and archetypes. If this image were given to you in B&W, how might you decide the color scheme? There’s no right or wrong. Would you like to try to color your own? Download a set here.
Psychic Potential
Hint: It’s Not the Pineal Gland – No DMT Required
Remaining lucid during theta brainwave activity is one of the keys to mystic transformation. Actively inducing a theta-state, via meditation, trance, or in the later stages of path-work, allows the operator access to augmented sensory awareness. A salient issue now becomes how the sensory input is brought back to surface-level awareness and synthesized in the normal waking beta-state in order to actively communicate or otherwise practically apply the mystique, in a reading, or any number of advanced magical operations.
During meditation, ritual trance, advanced path-work or other exotic means, the brain passes from beta brainwave activity, into a more relaxed alpha state before entering theta. Between alpha and theta we find the hypnagogic region of astral projection and lucid dreaming. This realm is one of the dimensions from which the psychic reader draws information. It is the realm of High Magic & a gateway to the Akasha. Healing operations are also conducted in theta because the noise that blocks perception when the beta brainwave state is active is now absent, allowing the operator to work more freely with expanded capacities akin to a child who hasn’t yet been bound by the chains of belief, and yet remaining as an adult with full access to wisdom, wit and intention.
The problem with theta, however, is the same problem with shadow work in general and that is the proximity to the subconscious – the collective unconscious – and if one is not prepared for the imagery, or otherwise suffering from repressed thoughts or feelings of any kind, the operator can be thrown off balance by the images arising as the phantasms of the astral. There’s a bit to flesh out here, but the long and short of it is that there are meditation approaches for theta-awareness enhancement – safe, healthy, approachable paths to explore if you would develop the higher senses of the mystic.
People can get caught in the imagery, and they start chasing chimeras. Or they establish cults.
Emma Giannini
A contemporary of mine brought up an interesting point, quoted above, when she read this piece in my Tarot Group on Facebook insofar as one needn’t be a megalomaniac to be so profoundly enchanted by the imagery of the mind, and the beliefs attached to the imagery, so much so that even unbeknownst, the operator’s communications may become tainted and suddenly voila! The cult of 5d ascension is born and millions are enrolled.
The ability to recognize a Chimera when you see one is imperative. Further, one needs be enabled by the wings of a Pegasus to fly above that Chimera in order to better aim the arrows of truth. The same wings of Pegasus found on Hermes’ cap. In other words, swift, keen & decisive discernment is the only way to deal with the illusion and get to the quick of that which one has come for – inspired knowledge.
Tarot Workshop 3.0
…is a Saiva Tantrika, Gyana Yogi and founder of Uma Maheshwara Yoga & Ayurveda. David has an MA in Semiotics, lives in Japan with his family and works as a coach in L & D, devoting his time to developing science-based tools and programs that help people reach the fullest potential of the human condition.
