CHAPTER 1
Two Simple Layout Looms And How to Prepare for a Reading
Here are two simple card setups that you can use right now, or when a situation arises that drives you into a frenzy or deep freeze.
The first couldn't be easier: one card a day. It's always necessary to focus, to put your mind to the task of asking and listening for guidance. Find your serene place, geographically and mentally. Shuffle your deck for as long as you like, and use that shuffling to consider what you want to receive guidance about. Maybe you just want some general wisdom to get you through the day. Maybe you wonder what you need to know about your love life, or your career. Find the subject of this reading while you're shuffling, frame subject in a way that doesn't need a yes or no answer. "Show me what I need to know about this subject" is the better way to phrase it. Once you've got the topic and framed your query you're ready for the next step.
Cut the deck into three piles, then restack them back into one, in any direction you choose. Repeat this two more times, keeping your subject matter in mind. I like to use the left hand in cutting the cards I feel it connects to the intuitive side of the brain, and uses a hand that most of us are not in such control of. But that's up to you as you create your own rituals in handling the cards.
You're now ready to pick your card. If you're going to choose your card by cutting the deck, decide where you're going to pick the card from: top, bottom, or middle of the deck. If you prefer to pick more intuitively, spread the deck, face down, into a fan. Run your hand across, slightly above, the fanned deck until you sense the right place to stop; some people get this sense because a certain spot feels warmer, some close their eyes and get the message intuitively; see what works for you. Pick your card.
Read about the card. Keep it in mind as you go about your hours. At the end of the day, consider if and how it applied to your experiences. Do this for a few months. You may pick more than one card a day, but don't abuse your advice seeking: too much perfume overloads the senses. Come to know all 78 stories the deck provides, one at a random time.
When you're more familiar with the Tarot stories, use the following three-card reading. Cut the deck and prepare your inquiry as instructed above. Then divide the entire deck into three stacks representing Body, Mind, and Spirit. Turn face up the top card on each of the stacks. Each stack's card tells you what's going on in the arena the stack covers.
Body tells you about the material plane – the condition of your everyday, manifested life.
Mind tells you about the state of your thought processes and communication with people.
Spirit tells you the overview, what your soul is and is not activating, what your Highest Good is advising you to be aware of.
All of the cards in the reading apply to the subject matter you're inquiring about, according to the arena the card falls in. Body expresses what's going on in real life, the manifestation of the event. Mind tells you your own mindset in the matter, and the condition of communication with others involved in this matter you're inquiring about. Spirit speaks of the state of your Life Purpose, your soul, in this situation. It says, if negative, how you are and need not to be; if positive, it prescribes where you need to be directing your life. You can always add another card signifying the outcome or final message; and even another card for each of the three stacks if you feel the need for further clarification. But try to interpret the pattern of the three cards before depending on more.
CHAPTER 2
The Twenty-Two Cards of THE MAJOR ARCANA
The Primary Patterns We Work Through
We begin as The Fool, full of vision, oblivious to pitfalls and practical considerations. In the beginning, we're blithe in our spirit of optimism. Unseasoned by experience, we tune totally to the Moment's Muse, blithe like the enlightened yogi who turns away from the boiling soup at the very moment a bubble rises and bursts in the exact spot his face had been; blithe as when you turn a corner, you don't know why, and there walking toward you is the very person you were thinking of.
When you pull The Fool from the deck, the message is: if it feels right, go for it, trust your hunch, give in to the wisdom of folly, leap for the strawberry on the other cliff. The Fool advises you leap, to take the unusual route, the path less followed, especially if the unusual route interests you intensely. Trust your True Will to guide you as you leap across the chasm for that strawberry; it's the only guide when traveling uncharted territory.
The Fool reminds you that you are composed from the essence of All wanting to experience Every Thing. The Fool offers you the beautiful chaos of creation. This ties it perfectly with the astrological emphasis of its planetary affinity, Uranus: independence, uniqueness, creation through radical change. The Fool, like Uranus, has no attachments, and so must it be for you when the Fool emerges from the deck. The Fool in your reading is saying: give in to the wisdom of insecurity; listen to your spirit, not the taxman.
What is the universe, and more: what is the purpose of it all?
The universe is a poem with one theme: Experience. (uni=one; verse=poem.)
Mind, with all of its attunements, all of its synaptic pathways, is the domain of the Magus/Magician. In most depictions of this card, you see the Magus/Magician standing before a table set with the symbols of the four elements: a Wand for Fire, a Cup for Water, a Sword for Air, a Disk for Earth; above his head coils the infinity symbol. The infinity symbol above the Magician's head stands for attunement to life's essential, timeless, composition: the electrons, molecules, quarks and more that flow through and link all and everything. From this attunement, the Magus/Magician draws inspiration; as does the Fool before him. Unlike the spontaneous Fool, however, The Magus/Magician plans, so that Idea can become reality, a reality composed of, and fed by, the four elements.
The first element of reality the Magus/Magician seeks is Fire. We experience Fire within us as Volition. The Impulse that lights your fire, makes you want to leap out of the chair and start moving, that's the Impulse the Magician/Magus needs to confirm the drive is there to forge to completion.
The second element of reality the Magus/Magician seeks is Water. The invigorating Impulse needs the quenching, cooling, nurturing of loving feelings. The Magus/Magician must immerse the idea in the stream of desire. This immersion to affirm that this Impulse is now a beloved Purpose.
The third element of reality the Magus/Magician seeks is Air. The realities of energy and nurture – Fire and Water – now join the Idea, symbolizing Air and its Sword, rulers of intellect. Like birds, ideas fly in Air (intellect) from point to point, creating a pattern that the Magus/Magician can use to design and communicate the Idea. The rational pathways of mind bring the Idea into a plan. Visioning begins, mental blueprints flow from synapse to synapse, research is conducted, phone calls made, meetings held, ideas circulated, helpers gathered, to bring the plan to fruition.
The fourth, final, element of reality the Magus/Magician seeks is Earth – manifestation, reality itself. Earth gives the stable ground from which we make the bricks that turn the blueprint into the house. The foundation is laid for the building, the canvas is stretched for the painting, the clay is turned for the urn, the first sentence of the novel, poem or play is written. And the Magus/Magician continues, empowered by interest, love and vision, to build, paint, shape, write, until the original idea has been translated completely into the manifestation of form on Earth.
The Magus/Magician is associated astrologically with Mercury, the planet of communication, thus adding another method to his thought process: getting social, giving and receiving information, and from each interaction learning osmotically – "A gradual, often unconscious process of assimilation or absorption. "
When the Magus/Magician shows up it's a message to focus on all the elements of your being to figure things out: be aware of what fires you up and interests you; tune in to your desires; think about how to create these interests and desires; visualize the actual things you'll need to manifest your Idea. The Magus/Magician reminds you that your mind has everything you need to show you how to turn sludge into lotuses. He also advises you to have some friends over, get social, interact.
"Idea: Something, such as a thought or conception, that potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity. Root: weid=to see."
The Priestess represents your virgin self, the part of you that is untouched by culture that, regardless of relationships, belongs to no one but you. When the Priestess shows her face, you are being asked to have conversations with that virgin self, to go within and listen to the counsel of your own truth of spirit. Bring your question, your dilemma, your request, to this virgin self. You are looking for your truth now, not the practical solution. You'll work that out later, once you've found what's preparing to be born. Simply listen. Hold the stethoscope of awareness to the womb of your subconscious. Listen for the heartbeat of the new creation forming within you.
The Priestess symbolizes the embryonic fluid that cradles the conception of new endeavor. In the ancient days of fortune telling, if The Priestess card was turned up, the reading was over because her meaning to these fortunetellers was that the future had not yet been written, was yet to be determined. But the process The Priestess personifies is her true message. The Priestess calls us to prophecy, to see our future as it is taking shape. She is the intuitive, wordless spiritmind, the inner guide we often name the Higher Self or the Holy Guardian Angel.
The Priestess is astrologically associated with the Moon, a feminine, intuitive symbol with a correspondence to the nurturing element of Water and the embryonic fluid that feeds the growing seed. She also relates to the Hebrew letter Gimel, which means Camel. It is in the deeper listening, The Priestess reminds us, that we find the waters that quench thirst when traveling across life's deserts.
When your interest is parched, when you're confused by opinions around you and cannot hear your spirit voice, The Priestess needs to be visited. When she shows up in your reading, it's time to listen only to your true voice, your guardian angel within. Take time alone, set the opinions and counsel of others aside, leave practical considerations for another hour. Ask your virgin self, that self that is bonded only to your spirit's fulfillment, to show you what the next Work is. Listen, visit that virgin self for days if need be, until you've seen the shape of your new creation. Then figure out how to make what you've seen pay the rent!
How do you distinguish the true prophetic voice from that of an irritated crank?
Listen with your prophetic ears. Cranks make a lot of noise.
The Empress is the symbol for the Feminine aspect of existence. All things given the appellation 'she' and 'mother' are referred to in The Empress. She is the yin side of the Chinese yin and yang polarity; the spiraling life force, Shakti, in the Hindu pantheon. She is an avid appreciator of life. In her three distinct stages of expression – virginity, motherhood, menopause – she mirrors nature's trinity of phases: emergence, blossom, end. The Empress is the doorway through which we all enter life. She is both mother and warrior. She will nurture her children with her own heart's blood if that is all there is to sustain them, but she will defend them with it too. She is the archetype of creativity: the root of 'create' is ker2=to grow, which comes from ker-es=cereal, which derives from Ceres=Goddess of Agriculture.
The prominence of creativity in the feminine nature is symbolized in astrology by the planet Venus. Venus is given affinity with art, joy and love; with the feminine principle, and thus with The Empress. In these affinities you will find the answer to the often-asked question: What does woman want? Woman wants relationship, certainly with a lover, and with children, but also with all life. Woman wants beauty to surround her, she wants to create harmony in form. Woman wants everything – heaven here and now, not there and later. The message of The Empress when she shows herself to you is: love life, embrace life, solve your dilemmas with the creative force of love.
Another word for love is affinity ("a natural attraction or feeling of kinship")
The Empress, like our Mother Earth, reminds us of our affinity and kinship with all life's creatures – rock, spider, saint and murderer. The Empress resolves by caring. She is the Salt of the earth – the inactive principle of life, which is associated with The Empress. She sees every emotional wall as a door to be opened: She confronts for the sake of creation and the continuation of Life in all its beauty.
When The Empress chooses to appear in your reading, her wisdom advises you to consider the ways you can create, "... cause to exist, bring into being, produce." Your vision, your truth, your wish, your journey. The Empress reminds you to love and to include yourself in that love – it's what you love that becomes is your Path. She also says: have a dinner party!
How can I grow up to be a real princess? (Asked by Amber, seven Years old).
By always remembering that you want to be a princess; by doing a lot of research, reading, investigation of what a princess has been in the past and what princess is today. A true princess glows joy from her heart, is loving, kind, and compassionate toward people, is not stuck-up or vain about being a princess or being pretty or being special. A true princess uses her very nice position in life to help others who are not so fortunate.
Oh, Writer in the Window, how does one keep from becoming too dependent on your loved one?
Keep busy with the creation of your own life.
Please write about Menopause: Men – a pause; a joy for the independent soul free at last from teasing, lipstick and figure-worry.
The Emperor represents all things masculine. He corresponds to the yang side of the Chinese yin and yang polarity, to codes of behavior, maintenance of order, focused attention. The Emperor is principle itself. The Latin origin of 'principle,' princeps, means leader, emperor. And what is principle? "A basic ... law. ... the principles of democracy. ... A rule or standard, especially of good behavior: a man of principal. ... The collectivity of moral or ethical standards of judgments. ... A fixed ... policy or mode of action. ... Principle and principal ... both ... go back to the same Latin word, princeps, meaning 'first, as in time, position, or authority." The Emperor expresses the principles of patriarchy and, in its association with the first sign of the zodiac, Aries, the beginning of male dominance in world affairs. Many negative opinions have been leveled against patriarchy since its onset, particularly since the women's liberation and anti-war movements of the 1960's. These negative charges have evoked slow but steady alterations in the behavior of men: in the way they see their roles as lover, husbands and leaders.
The Emperor archetype of the 21st Century will be more Father than Ruler. The new Emperor will husband – in the verb of that word – the family, the business, the nation, into full flowering. The Old English word husbonde meant "mistress of the house," and this feminine, nurturing component will be active in the 21 Century Emperor. He will temper the volatile sulphuric energy – the fiery, active force of nature – he has always been associated with, and respond more as protector than Master, directing his fire and focus to raising the quality of life and making war a thing of the past. There is already a gentling in play. A study, completed in the first five years of this 21 century, showed that when men were distressed, it wasn't a gun or a woman that calmed him down; it was a baby!
When The Emperor card is picked, it is a message to study the nature of the male principle in society, in your life and in your self. Regardless of your gender, the male and the female, the yin and the yang, both dwell within you. Do you give them equal respect? If you are a woman, are you schmaltzing out too much in emotional outbreaks? Do you need to bring your mind into focus on the things you want to achieve? If you are a man, are you being too authoritarian, or too rational? Do you need to bring feelings of care and nurture into your relationships? The Aries aspect of The Emperor is to be considered too. Aries, the beginning of spring, correlates with fresh starts, commencement of the new book, business or outlook. When The Emperor appears, his advice is: focus, pay full attention to the endeavor in front of you, find your Place on earth and inaugurate your new empire!
