Tarot Eon » Philosophy

Which Tarot Deck is the right Deck to learn with?

Douglas Gibb — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:37:36 +0000

The choice of Tarot decks that are available today is sometimes overwhelming for people who are just beginning to enter this strange world of divination. With so many options available, what is the best deck to learn with? Is there only one deck that should be used, or can several be learned at the same time?

I get emailed these sorts of questions several times a month, and I’ve got to admit, they’re tough questions to answer.

I’m writing this post as a way of outlining my ideas on the subject which I hope those people new to Tarot will find useful.

Let me start by saying that I was lucky enough to never encounter this dilemma. To me, you buy a deck that you like, you stick with that deck and you learn that deck. However, I know from email conversations that I’ve had that this can end up becoming a major stumbling block for people just beginning so I wanted to share my musings on the subject.

Is there only one correct deck that people should learn with?

The short answer is no, but the longer answer involves some explanation so lets get stuck in.

The most popular Tarot deck is the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, created by A.E Waite. This guy was a member of the Golden Dawn and his deck, although not actually a Golden Dawn deck, is naturally infused with this system. The reason it isn’t fully a Golden Dawn deck is that Waite took the Golden Dawn vow of secrecy with the utmost seriousness, which basically means that he made sure not to reveal any obvious Golden Dawn concepts within the imagery of the deck.

However, you can separate the deck from the Golden Dawn, but not the Golden Dawn from the deck.

Why is this useful to know?

Because most decks are clones of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. This means that they follow the same basic structure as the Rider-Waite deck, but with some unusual and at times enlightening variations on the individual cards.

With that in mind, the odds are that you will end up buying some kind of Rider-Waite clone. This is totally fine and there is nothing wrong with that. As I mentioned earlier, the variations that the artists create are often fascinating and enlightening in their own way.

People say I should avoid learning with the Thoth Tarot deck

This deck was created by Aliester Crowley, who was also a member of the Golden Dawn. The big difference between the Rider-Waite Tarot deck and the Thoth Tarot deck is simply that Aliester Crowley did not take his vow of secrecy with any seriousness, and so his deck reveals what the Rider-Waite does not.

This is actually a gross simplification of the differences between the two decks. The Thoth Tarot is also infused with Thelema and various other systems that Crowley used to understand the universe. This naturally means that it goes beyond simply being a Golden Dawn deck, but for simplicity sake it’s important to know that the creators of these two decks both have origins in the Golden Dawn.

Some people feel that the Thoth is not a good beginner deck because of the complexity of the deck. I disagree with this. However, one big difference between the Rider-Waite and the Thoth is how the Minor Arcana are represented. The Rider-Waite uses complex imagery (like those found in the 22 Major Arcana) whereas the Thoth does not — as least, not in the same. Perhaps some people may find this more challenging, or less engaging on a visual level.

The other major distinction is in how the Major Arcana are numbered. This can also end up being a big sticking point for some people so it’s worth taking the time to think about these things before you decide.

Either way, if learning to divine with the Tarot is the name of the game when deciding which deck to buy, it seems to me that the Thoth is as good as any. After all, it doesn’t matter what deck you buy, you still have to learn to work with it so if you want to learn the Thoth straight away, then go for it.

Themed decks

These types of Tarot decks can deviate significantly from the Rider-Waite or Thoth deck. Is this bad for learning with? No, it’s not. If you like these types of decks, then use them.

I think the big sticking point in people’s minds is this idea of the Tarot having some sort of core concept behind it. Historically, this is not the case. The two most popular Tarot decks today, the Rider-Waite and the Thoth Tarot, were created by two men with a background in the occult. Previous to this, there were hundreds of variations of Tarot decks, each with its own theme — these decks didn’t necessarily have any core truths to them. They were themed decks, and their concepts were based on whatever theme they wanted to use.

What we think of as core concepts are simply the concepts presented in the two most popular Tarot decks, the Rider-Waite or Thoth Tarot. Does the popularity of these decks really mean that these decks are more truthful than others? Was it just a weird set of historical conditions that allowed the Rider-Waite and Thoth to attain such iconic status, or was it because these decks really are the closed thing we have to a core Tarot?

In a nutshell, my advice is simple. Find a deck you like, buy the deck, learn the deck, enjoy the deck.

If your Tarot deck has more than 78 Tarot cards but you want to apply Elemental Dignities, Card Counting or any other Tarot technique then simple adapt them to work with your Tarot deck of choice.

Can I learn with more than one deck at the same time?

In theory you could. However, I would advise against this. The danger is that you’ll end up spreading yourself too thin. It’s much better to stick with one deck that you like and to learn it thoroughly. In much the same way as picking a Tarot spread to learn, it’s important, at least in the early stages, to allow your mind to absorb the specifics of both deck and spread. Trying to learn more than one deck could end up being counter productive.

But there is a counter argument to this. It goes something along the lines of, “when I was learning Tarot, certain cards were harder to learn than others. By buying different decks and exploring each decks unique take on the cards my learning process was actually accelerated. I learned more this way!”

That’s a fair point. It makes sense and seems valid. I guess it all comes down to personal opinion at the end of the day. If there’s one point I have to make about what is the right Tarot deck to learn from, then it would be this — it doesn’t really matter. The only crime you can commit is buying a deck that you don’t personally like just because someone else said it was the best.

Being unsure about what Tarot deck to buy or learn with says more about the myths surrounding the learning process rather than anything else. Perhaps it also says something about the hold Occultism still has over the Tarot. Who knows? All I know is that it doesn’t really matter what deck you choose. Just make sure you have fun doing it.

The question asked in the title of this post was, “Which Tarot deck is the right deck to learn with?” What do you think? Do you think it matters what deck people use? Does Tarot have core concepts that beginners should learn before buying decks that promote variations on these core concepts? Let me know what you think.

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The Role Divination has in the Great Work

Douglas Gibb — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:11:40 +0000

There have been many times during a Tarot reading where I pay little attention to the Tarot cards. There have been times when I’ve only glanced at them.

In a Tarot Reader – How to go from beginner to expert in three easy steps, I discuss the natural learning cycle all Tarot readers go through. They start by learning the basics of whatever technique they choose, then they get competent with that technique, then finally, they abandon that technique. Eventually, the technique itself becomes a hindrance and the reading starts to suffer.

Why is this?

Because a technique is an artificial device that’s designed to help you get results that, under certain specific circumstances, could be achieved without them. Great readings can happen naturally with no technique at all. Of all the methods we learn, the techniques we practice, the decks we buy, the books we learn form, they’re all tools to help us reach a “certain place”. Like a road map they guide us, but once we’ve been there more than once, we already know the way. We don’t need the map anymore. We can get there on our own – and we might even take the scenic route along the way!

What are you talking about?

I’m talking about psychic ability.

Sure, some people are born psychic and they don’t need maps to guide them – they can pick up a Tarot deck without ever having seen one before an make predictions better than someone who has been studying the Tarot for years. However, that doesn’t mean that people who aren’t born psychic can’t become so. That’s what learning all the techniques and methods are about; they’re about providing you with a map to “psychic land”.

There comes a point for all Tarot readers who weren’t born psychic where, eventually, they end up abandoning all the techniques previously learned. Where, without them, they can provide better, more accurate readings. Why has this happened? Because the techniques they spent years learning had served their purpose. They guided the reader to “psychic land” enough times that they instinctively knew how to get back there. And that is what it’s all about – getting back to “psychic land” naturally, without aids.

The Great Work

The Great Work is a term that comes from Alchemy – the process of turning base matter into gold. Throughout the course of history its meaning has developed. The way I like to think of the Great Work is the process ( usually through various techniques ) leading to the mystical union of the Self with the All.

The Great Work is the uniting of opposites. It may mean the uniting of the soul with God, of the microcosm with the macrocosm, of the female with the male, of the ego with the non-ego.
Aleister Crowley

Essentially, the Great Work involves having knowledge of ones own Being.

What does this have to do with Divination?

I finally got my hands on The Qabalistic Tarot: A Textbook of Mystical Philosophy. There’s a section in the back of the book about Divination. Naturally, this was the first place I looked.

Here is what Robert Wang had to say about divination:

It may come as a surprise to some to learn that the primary reason for divination in the Great Work is not to learn the future. Rather, it is for the development of psychic faculties. The more one uses the Tarot cards to find answers to given questions, the more that person taps into unseen currents. Those who have used the Tarot cards for years will attest to the fact that there comes a point where the cards are not longer necessary to an accurate divination. Answers to specific problems are simply felt.

Notice that he’s not saying don’t do divination! What he’s saying is that divination, reading Tarot cards, divining the future, can all be used towards the Great Work.

He continues with some advice:

Most people tend to consider psychism a natural talent, something with which one is born, and that is true. It is, however, possible to consciously develop psychic abilities. To this end, it is necessary to test these growing abilities fearlessly, by expressing feelings about situations and being willing to be wrong! Yet the student of Tarot will find that his “guesses” are increasingly correct, as his friends’ responses will corroborate.
Robert Wang

The rest of the section continues with him sharing his ideas on divination and psychism.

What’s interesting about viewing the Tarot in this way is how divination itself actively aids us in the Great Work.

Conclusion

I wasn’t born psychic. I’m not even sure I would describe myself as such even now. However, I do fall into the category of rarely thinking about what the Tarot cards mean, what technique I’m using or what to do when things go wrong. That’s not to say that I give great readings all the time, I don’t. I let pressure and desire interfere.

Psychism is just one small part of the Great Work, but it’s a part that the Tarot plays a big role in. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Tarot plays a much bigger role in the Great Work than developing Psychic abilities. It helps us, amongst many things, become aware of who we are!

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Predicting The Future: Why A Tarot Reader Must Make A Decision!

Douglas Gibb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:00:20 +0000

Painting by Edvard Munch: The Scream, 1893.

“The Instant of Decision is Madness” Kierkegaard

Have you ever noticed how difficult it can be to predict the future using Tarot cards?

I’m sure you all know the score: the reading is going well, you’ve identified key information from the client’s current and past circumstances, then…well, it’s decision time. What happens next, what prediction will you make?

About two weeks ago I started to notice a feeling of anxiety just before I made a prediction. When I started to reflect on this, I began to realise that this is something I’ve been experiencing in almost all Tarot readings I’ve ever done.

I then started thinking about Decisions; you know the kind – the ones that cause a lot of anxiety, the ones that you can never be sure of how favourable the outcome will be, the ones where the consequences will have lasting implications. In fact, the kind of decisions that you consult a Tarot reader over.

I realised that serious, life changing decisions often cause feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and confusion. Decisions of this type can be thought of as “authentic decisions”.

The person trying to make the Decision feels anxiety and the Tarot reader trying to answer the question feels anxiety.

I think there’s a clear connection between the concept of Decision and Prediction. By having an awareness of this connection, the connection between Decision and Prediction, it helps us keep a Tarot reading fluid and makes us all better Tarot readers.

This article will highlight some of the key ideas that have led me to make this connection, and how it can inform and improve, not only our Tarot readings, but our confidence in making predictions for our clients.

What do Tarot Readings provide?

People go to Tarot readers for all sorts of reasons, but one of the underlying assumptions implied with “divination” is its means of providing “reliable meaning”. It’s also possible that this reason, the search for “reliable meaning”, is why some people are motivated to become Tarot readers.

Many people are looking for certainty, are looking for absolute truth, are looking for “reliable meaning”, and are looking for ways to make “meaning” fully present to themselves. For some people, a Tarot reading provides an immediate access to meaning.

Is the assumption, the assumption that divination can provide certainty based on “absolute and timeless truths”, a useful assumption to have?

Perhaps not!

Although a Tarot reading can provide useful and “meaningful” discourse and insight, it cannot provide a truth that is fully present in-itself. There’s a big difference between meaningful and meaning.

If someone asks for a Tarot reading, wanting to know if their partner truly loves them, a Tarot reading can never provide a fully present truth as such. What it can provide is the possibility of truth – the possibility of something meaningful.

This is because Truth, or meaning, or beings, or anything in fact, can never be truly present; they are always, by implication partially “hidden”.

A truth cannot be present, but it cannot be fully absent either.

Certainty and The Metaphysics of Presence

Metaphysics is a branch of Western Philosophy that can loosely be defined as the study of being as being. In other words, the speculation of what is, of first causes, of rational knowledge of god and of those realities that go beyond us.

The entire history of Western philosophy and its language and traditions have emphasised this desire for “immediate access to meaning”, and thus built a metaphysics around the privileging of presence over absence. By this I mean the desire to guarantee any claims that are made as true by finding an ultimate foundation or source of meaning and truth.

Jacques Derrida, was a 20th Century Philosopher who challenged many of the assumptions of Western Philosophy. I would recommend that you check out his work. This article and its use of the concepts of Undecidability, the Decision and, to some extent, the Metaphysics of Presence were all influenced by Derrida.

Stop! What do you mean by presence?

Okay, think about people you know. Think about your friends and family, think about your work colleges and your neighbours, and ask yourself, in any given moment, are they fully “present” in themselves?

What I mean is, can someone fully embody every single aspect of who they are, every single emotion, desire, thought and belief in one specific moment in time? The answer is no! There are times when someone will express anger, which means that that person’s happiness is hidden, that that person’s essence which cannot be expressed during anger is obscured. There are times when someone will express one ambition, while their other ambitions remain hidden. In other words, an individual is both present and hidden to themselves, and others. The “I” of their individuality remaining, in a sense, obscured.

It is an impossibility for someone, in the sense of that someone representing an “I“, to be fully present, uninfluenced by anything, remaining themselves, remaining as they are, uninfluenced, without outside factors having any effect – it’s impossible.

Outside factors will always have an affect which, unfortunately, means that that person will always be influenced in any given situation. Such influences will always privilege one aspect of the individual over the other. In other words, one aspect is present while the other is absent.

Why is this important?

It’s important to think about the distinction of “presence” and “absence” and how that can relate to things other than humans. For instance, how does this relate to a Tarot reading?

Language and Tarot readings

The concept of “presence” can be applied to things other than individuals. In fact, it can be applied to beings, words, and meaning.

As Tarot readers the most important area within the concept of “presence” is language.

In language we have speech and we have writing. In the Metaphysics of Presence, writing would be considered absent (the author is absent from their meaning) whereas Speech would be considered present, immediate, and in a sense, more representative of the author’s intended meaning. Hence, for example, it can cost more money to have a live Tarot reading rather than an email reading. The rationale being that a live Tarot reading provides “immediate access to meaning” whereas an email Tarot reading does not.

However, my thinking has been greatly influenced by Derrida, and as such I disagree with the above statement.

I do not think that writing can be considered an “absence” of the author’s intended meaning, nor can I completely agree with speech being the presence of the author’s meaning. In a sense meaning can never be fully present nor fully absent.

Consider language as a means of communication! Words are used to convey meaning, and perhaps to also convey “truths”. However, a word, as such, can never be fully present; or the full meaning of a word can never be made fully aware. Rather, meaning is always partially hidden. There’s always a level of ambiguity – and some words can be represented in either (or both) a good and/or a bad sense. There is always this level of undecidability within language.

Words themselves don’t simply have one fixed and unchanging meaning. Let’s take the example of the word pen. A pen can represent a writing instrument, a female swan, a small enclosure for animals and so on. The context usually gives us a sense of what aspect of the word ‘pen’ is indicated.

This is also true of a Tarot card. The 6 of Swords can represent a journey across water, a scientific discovery, leaving behind troubles and so on. Like language, Tarot cards also have a level of ambiguity in the context of communicating meaning.

Of course some words or Tarot cards can be used in a metaphorical as opposed to a literal sense, and, there are other examples I could use to show how the intended meaning becomes even more ambiguous.

Derrida stressed a basic undecidability about language, in the same way that I’ve stressed about Tarot cards. We can never reach a final meaning; Derrida highlights the quality of undecidability within which language, and therefore Tarot readings, operates.

How does this relate to Tarot?

Language is a means of communication – the communication of “truth”, “meaning” ….or, anything really.

The ability for meaning to be understood through language is just as possible as the ability for meaning to be misunderstood. This is a very important point. How many times has someone said something that you’ve misunderstood? To take this example further, imagine the person only used one word to convey information. Would the possibility for misunderstanding, ambiguity and confusion be higher? I would say the possibility for misunderstanding is very high. Likewise, if we only used one Tarot card to covey information would the possibility for misunderstanding, ambiguity and confusion be higher?

A single word can be ambiguous
A single Tarot card can be ambiguous
Language has a greater chance of communicating accurately the more words are used!
A Tarot reading has a greater chance of communicating accurately the more Tarot cards are used!
Language is relational – meaningful use of words occurs in relation to other words
The Tarot is relational – meaningful use of Tarot cards occurs in relation to other Tarot cards

To convey a truth through a single word…well, it’s just not possible. Far too much ambiguity would exist. In order to ensure an increased possibility for understanding, more words are used: words are then built into sentences and sentences are then built into complex patterns of meaning. In many ways, language is relational.

Just like language, it’s impossible for one Tarot card to accurately describe truth, rather, like language, it depends on the relationship between all the cards. A Tarot reading is relational.

The Decision

Science is the perfect example of the Metaphysics of Presence. It uses “timeless”, “universal” and “unchanging” truths, such as the concept of “Gravity”, in which to develop its theories.

Science itself has a long history, but if we go back to Ancient Greece, we can see the concept of “reason” and “rational understanding” develop.

Rational understanding implies that through the use of reason, we can come to know “timeless” and “universal” truths. In other words, reason itself becomes a “presence”. Reason destroys myths, banishes superstition and takes us closer to an understanding of the Universe.

If you think about it, most people say that if you apply reason to any given situation you will most likely make the most logical decision. By implication, by using reason you avoid “irrational” and therefore “bad” decisions.

A person gathers up all the facts, weighs up all the evidence, and through the timeless and universally true laws of cause and effect, is able to come to an appreciation of the most logical choice or action to take.

This, to me, has many problems associated with it. However, this framework is what influences almost everything on Earth today – even Tarot.

In the Tarot community, people think that rationally, the 78 Tarot cards all have fixed meanings and if those meanings are fully learned, they can be made “fully present” in a Tarot reading and…future predictions can be made with “certainty”.

The use of “reason” dictates that the most important feature of a Tarot reading is the Tarot cards themselves, and therefore, the most important thing to learn in order to do accurate Tarot readings are the Tarot cards. This is based on reason, on rationality, and the belief that the Tarot cards themselves have “fixed” meanings which are able to provide, with certainty, accurate Tarot readings.

This isn’t the case.

As you know, a decision is far from a logical, rational process.

A decision is always a risk, an irrational process, “a leap of faith” which by its very definition is a leap into madness. We have a tradition in the West – of Presence, of rational truths, of decisions being made rationally. But decisions can never be rational, because truth is always partially obscured, always partially hidden.

Likewise, a prediction, which is nothing more than a decision, is always a risk, an irrational process, “a leap of faith” which by its very definition is a leap into madness.

Why a Tarot reader must make a decision

Why do we feel anxiety before a major decision? Why do we feel anxiety before making a prediction? Because the possibility for certainty, for an absolute knowledge of the truth isn’t possible.

Although we would all love to believe that with the proper use of reason, the proper use of rational thought, a decision could be made that is based on all the “present” facts; but this isn’t possible. Meaning is always partially obscured because of how language, and therefore thought, operates. Likewise, a prediction can never be made with complete certainty because “meaning” is always partially hidden.

This uncertainty of meaning is the cause of most anxiety prior to making a major decision or prior to making a major prediction. The undecidability of meaning means that nothing can ever be considered completely “certain”. With nothing certain, with nothing absolute or completely reliable, what then are we actually basing our decisions on?

If there’s nothing certain to base our decisions on then every decision made is a type of madness. We make every decision based on pure faith.

This is the same for a Tarot reader making a prediction. Every prediction made as a Tarot reader is always a leap of faith; is always an uneasy relationship with madness.

Tarot cards will never provide the certainty you’re looking for. Tarot readings are always a leap of faith.

For anyone worried about their ability to make predictions try not to be so hard on yourself. There is absolutely no way of knowing for certain what the “outcome” of your predictions will be, just as there is absolutely no way of knowing what the outcome of a decision will be. It’s very easy to let this affect your confidence – you will think that, rationally, “I should be able to work this out”; “I should know what this means”. But you can never know what it fully means.

Next time you’re sat with a client, faced with making a prediction, don’t try and do the impossible – you will never make the “meaning” fully present. Take a leap of faith and smile while you look madness in the eye.

Do you think making predictions is a type of madness? Did you disagree with what I had to say? I’d love to hear your opinions on this. I’ll see you in the comments

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Attitudes of Approach

Richard Reeve — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:30:48 +0000

“Those meticulous researchers who insist upon tying up a medium until the poor creature resembles a fowl trussed for roasting, or who glare their suspicions at him before the lights are lowered, do not realize that they are like people who add moisture to gunpowder and then expect to explode it. They ruin their own results, and then when those results do not occur imagine that their own astuteness, rather than their own lack of understanding, has been the cause.” Sir Aurthur Canon Doyle, The Land of Mist, pg 300

Grateful to have an opportunity to share with an audience whose main interest is a subject I have no practical experience with, it dawned on me that I might make a contribution to the dialogue unfolding here by focusing on what I’ll call the attitudes of approach; some prefer intentionality.

As Jung notes in his forward to the I Ching, “Whatever happens in a given moment possesses inevitably the quality of the given moment.” Wilhelm/Baynes, I Ching, pg. xxiii. One of those qualities giving rise to each moment we participate in is the subjective factor. The idea here to reckon with is that just as the specific cards which emerge through a reading make up the particular details of the moment, so do the attitudes of those participating.

“Synchronicity takes the coincidence of events in space and time as meaning something more than mere chance, namely, a peculiar interdependence of objective events among themselves as well as with the subjective (psychic) states of observer or observers.” ibid, pg. xxiv

The question then becomes one of finding the correct attitude of engagement. If we’ve had any experience of the compensatory role of the unconscious we then can relate how being off in ones attitude of approach might constellate a certain type of response. Like ballast in a ship, the unconscious tends (though not always) to overly depreciate an ego inflation and vice versa; like helium in a balloon it will at times try to lift an undervalued attitude or a depression.

Regardless of the personal factors which might be unconscious to the seeker, Jung highlights the role of expectation in gaining valuable results.

“Lack of interest and boredom are negative factors; enthusiasm, positive expectation, hope, and belief in the possibility of ESP make for good results and seem to be the real conditions which determine whether there are going to be any results at all. In this connection it is interesting to note that he well-known English medium, Mrs. Eileen J. Garrett, achieved bad results in the Rhine experiment because, as she herself admits, she was unable to summon up any feeling for the “soulless” test-cards.” Jung, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, CW VIII, par. 838

Which leaves us with the question of preparing ones intentionality. The poet Charles Olson shares a fascinating African hunting ritual that prepares a tribesman to find success in the hunt. “One draws a ‘picture’ on a bare spot on the ground, 4 palms size. Just as the sun rises you fire an arrow into the picture.” The hunter then moves off into the savanna to encounter the embodiment of his “picture.”

It feels right to me to emphasize the usefulness of paying attention to preparation. I’ll go so far as to advocate that one render the questions one takes to any form of divination in a ritualized fashion. Perhaps this requires some special paper or notebook. Perhaps it’s signified in the supplicants mode by libation. Many at-risk students I work with have learned to use white sage as incense while attending a wilderness therapy program. Larry D. Olsen of the Anasazi Foundation puts the process thus: the making of an asking.

Clearly each needs to make such an activity one’s own. As my teacher of the I Ching stressed with me: one must spend as much time preparing the question as interpreting the oracle’s answer.

____

As a postscript, I’d like to inform folks here of a seminar sponsored by the C. G. Jung Foundation titled Jung and Tarot: Symbolic Bridge for an Archetypal Journey led by Jane Selinske, Dec. 5th 2009 in New York City.

About the Author

Richard Reeve is a first year candidate at the C. G. Jung Institute of New York where he is training to become a Jungian analyst. He is the Executive Director of the Family Foundation, an organization focused on the needs of at-risk teens and their families. He blogs at Catskill Cottage Seed.

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Shamanism: The Role The Invisible World Plays in Tarot

Chris — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:48:36 +0000

I’ve been spending time recently reading Terence McKenna and listening to lectures by Alberto Villoldo on Shamanism. These two men have spent a great deal of time with the Shamen of the Amazon rainforest and both men assert that the worldview of the indigenous people of that region have a great deal to offer the peoples of the industrialized western world. From what I understand, I tend to agree.

There are two aspects to this world

Although the Shamanic traditions can sometimes take the world view that there are two aspects to the world, the visible and (under normal circumstances) the invisible; this is completely different to the idea that there are two separate worlds, this one and the next.

The role of the Shaman

The role of the Shaman is to mediate between the visible and the invisible, often through altered states of consciousness. The skill of the Shaman is in his mastery over altered states of consciousness; which are used to reveal and work with the hidden components of the universe, which ultimately inform and direct the visible, material world. Examples of this would be that of the body, crops, weather and so on.

The Archaic revival

Terence McKenna is a proponent of the idea that the western world is undergoing what he terms an archaic revival. By this he means that rather than relying on science, culture and organized religion to act as mediators between us and the invisible world, we are increasingly returning to the animistic shamanic cultural worldview which was the forebearer of all human culture.

People in the western world exist from this perspective in an unbalanced cultural context that alienates them from the organic world, including their own bodies and many involved in the movement that Terence McKenna initiated would assert that this is the root cause of many of the illnesses and disease – both of the body and of the mind that are prolific in the western world, but virtually unknown to the remaining indigenous peoples.

Contemporary culture

There are many aspects of contemporary culture that we could point to as indicators of the archaic revival – the increasing popularity of tattoos and piercing, dance music with an emphasis repetitive percussion (which is even called “trance music”), mind altering recreational drugs and the urge to be intoxicated are just a few examples. However flawed or poorly reflected these things are, one thing they have in common is that they have their roots in the Shamanic, animistic tradition that predates our own.

The Tarot and the archaic revival

Something that has, for a long time fascinated me about the Tarot is its place in this archaic revival. The invisible world is still very much part of contemporary culture, but for a long time we have confined it to the spheres of psychologies and sciences that make us an object rather than a subject. Tarot is participatory in a way that science and organised religion aren’t. Anyone can pick up a pack of cards and journey into the invisible realms that inform the circumstances of our lives.

A pack of Tarot cards is like night vision goggles, or maybe even Perseus’ shield which he uses to look at Medusa, who would turn him into stone if he were to look her in the eye. It gives us an angle on things that we usually don’t get to see in our waking state and reconnects us with our own mythologies, gods and demons.

The Tarot and the invisible world

Something I always found very difficult when I first started reading Tarot for other people, was the part where you need to address the invisible world. You can often get a validation that you’re on the right track when you talk about financial problems, people and things of the visible world, but what about the invisible?

The tricky part is when you are trying to communicate the often keystone aspects of the Tarot reading that relate to the invisible world. It’s very easy to slip into pseudo-science, psychobabble and cliche when starting to read Tarot. I for one find this particularly disappointing when having my cards read. I’ve found it useful to remember that the Tarot is basically part of an animistic tradition and that the cards that come up in positions in Tarot spreads, categorized in modern parlance as subconscious/unconscious, aren’t cognitive processes that the querent has control over, but are better understood as invisible personalities (or spirits) that the querent is having a relationship with in the context of the reading. They’re participating to some degree and therefore have influence over the outcome of the querent’s question. To talk about them as cognitive, psychological processes is, I feel reductive – they are simply reflected in the cognitive processes.

What makes us anxious about these invisibles? I suspect it’s a fear of the invisible world – it’s out of our control and yet has a certain influence over us. Apart from Casper the friendly ghost, our culture rarely speaks of benevolent spirits. I hope that Tarot in contemporary western culture can reconnect us to the invisible world around us, and help us to enter into a balanced relationship with it.

About The Author

Chris likes Tarot and Astrology; the weird fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu Mythos; and the toxic kiss of the Green Fairy. To find out more about Chris, check out the Christopher Healey Interviews.

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Do We Have Free Will?

Douglas Gibb — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:58:19 +0000

An interest in Tarot cards or divination, will no doubt be at odds with a fundamental concept that we in the modern world hold central to our self-identity: free-will. What do I mean by this?

I mean that free-will is something that is implicit in the very fabric of most societies. As an example, laws are created and enforced, based on the assumption that the individual has responsibility and therefore, as a result, the implications for the Law’s assumption of the individual’s responsibility, is that the Law assumes the individual has free-will to determine their actions.

In other words, it does not matter, in some cases, what the circumstances of the individual were: their relationship with their parents, their financial circumstances etc; because the Law assumes that at the end of the day, the individual makes the final decision. That means that despite other factors having a strong and powerful influence on the Individual at the time, the Law implicitly assumes the individual has freedom of choice.

If we contrast that assumption with fate, in other words, the future is fixed, what then, if anything, happens to our understanding of an individual’s responsibility for actions? If the future is fixed and free-will does not exist, can we rightly assume individuals have any responsibility for their actions? If the individual does not have responsibility then what, or who, does? Is it society, the history of our cultures, Supernatural powers? Can these seemingly incompatible concepts, that is, the concept of free-will, and the concept of fate, exist together?

Let’s take a step back for a moment so that we can ask ourselves if an individual does indeed have ‘full responsibility’ for their actions? If the answer is something along the lines of: “yes, the individual does have responsibility, but not full responsibility; the responsibility is shared between circumstances and the individual”, then that answer is more sophisticated than assuming that fate rules individuals. It’s sophisticated because it implies an oscillation between an individual and the circumstances of that individual. When I talk of circumstances, I’m referring to the history of the individual, the history of society, Supernatural influences and their causal relation to the individual. In philosophy, although I have not defined it in exactly the correct manner, we are referring to a concept called Determinism. This concept can be described, very simply, as every effect, action or thought as having a prior cause. I should make it clear that Determinism is not the same as Fatalism, which marginalises the influence of human choice to zero. We now need to ask ourselves, how much of our future decisions are based on free-will and how much is determined by circumstances, society, social conditioning, parental expectations, Supernatural powers and so on?

There is an interesting tension between an individual’s ability to choose actions and the society’s influence to shape and determine individuals. One is the concept of free-will and the other is the concept of determinism. Having looked at determinism, let’s now define free-will:

Very simply, free-will can be described as the ability to choose, or the freedom to choose one particular action over another. Not only that, but, the individual chooses an action that is not determined, or influenced by historical, external or Supernatural factors.

I don’t really want to get into the debate of free-will versus determinism, simply because I won’t be able to do the subject justice in one post. In fact, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th Century, Wittgenstein, thought that the debate of free-will versus determinism should not even be considered part of philosophy at all on the grounds that it is semantic and hence non-philosophical. For all that, it is still a problem that has occupied humanity for thousands of years.

Why Do People Have Tarot Readings?

People have Tarot readings, in the main, for a glimpse into their futures. They believe that a Tarot reader, through the use of Tarot cards, and certain clairvoyant abilities, will accurately reveal their fate. In other words, they believe in fate.

They need not be conscious of this, in fact they usually aren’t. Normally, in most circumstances, they believe in free-will. They believe that they have the power to choose one action over another and yet, when they visit a Tarot reader, by implication, they believe in fate; a pre-destined outcome.

Divination

There are certain ideas and concepts that are implicit within any Tarot reading or divination that is: Supernatural powers are at work and these Supernatural powers determine outcomes. These Supernatural powers have been given many names: Spirits, Angels, Collective Unconsciousness, God or the gods. Naturally, people still believe they have free-will, despite their limited ability to influence. Any external or historical influence will almost always be stronger than an individual’s will to choose. In other words, these influences have a powerful ability to determine how an individual will use their free will.

Another concept that is implicit within any Tarot reading or divination, is that the divination device itself, when used correctly, can accurately depict the exact influence that these Supernatural powers are having; past, present and future. How does this work? The Tarot, or any divination system, symbolically represents these Supernatural, cultural and historical influences through symbolic representation. A Tarot reading then, helps us better understand the causal influences that these Supernatural powers and influences have on ourselves or the people we give readings for. In other words, a Tarot reader can help communicate to a client, what external, historical or Supernatural influences are determining or shaping their environment. I often speculate, whether or not a good Tarot reading can open the client up to choice. I suspect, that in certain cases, it can.

The Heroes

The Greek Myths are a good place to begin an understanding of historical influences, Supernatural powers and the gods. In Greek Myths, there are many stories that usually describe the extreme end of human experience; with the whim of the gods being integral to these stories. Those exceptional and unique individuals, who were noticed by the gods, for one reason or another, who caused the gods to love them or defy them, were known as Heroes. In fact, they often displayed godlike qualities themselves.

I want to explore the myth of Jason as a way to illustrate and compare the role that free-will and the determining powers that Supernatural influences have on the individual. In particular, the complexity of the subject of free-will and the ambiguity and and unknowingness of our being. In future posts, I will be comparing the myth of Jason with the myth of Achilles as a way to further explore the concept of free-will versus determinism. I think it’s really useful for us as Tarot readers, to try and be as a thoughtful as possible about this subject.

Before we begin to explore the myth of Jason, let’s think about what the Greek Myths were symbolising with their use of gods. To me, the gods in Greek Myth, symbolise certain forces of nature that determine the amount of free-will individuals have. For instance, Persephone was the goddess of Earth’s fertility and as such, her role had a direct bearing on individuals and their choices.

Medea gives Jason a magic potion

In Greek mythology, Jason was the least heroic of all the Heroes; his whole life was determined by circumstances – the gods. This is completely different from the other Greek heroes, such as Achilles or Odysseus, who, in some senses, defied the gods. From the Sandal, to the Golden Fleece, Jason was blessed by the gods. This part of the Jason myth, the quest for the Golden Fleece, is no different to any other story told within the genre of the ‘Heroes Quest’. Once Medea, Jason’s lover, enters the picture, the story takes on a dark and sinister quality. Medea ensures Jason’s success on one condition, that he be faithful to her for the rest of his life, to which Jason agrees.

Jason is no different to many modern day mythological characters, such as James Bond, who rely on the power of Women to help them complete their quest.

They return home, Jason reclaims his kingdom from Pelias; and Medea and Jason have children. Sounds like the perfect ending? Not quite.

Medea, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, convinces the daughters of King Pelias, that with her magical powers she can rejuvenate him if they dismember their father. After the daughters kill him, naturally Jason and Medea were driven into exile. Jason and Medea end up in Corinth where the King offers Jason his daughter, and he agrees; big mistake. Medea, in her revenge, kills the King’s daughter; then, in the ultimate act of horror, kills her own children.

Medea is one of the most fascinating characters in Greek myths. One of the most interesting real world accounts that I have read was from the Greek writer Pausanias. He describes a shrine to the murdered children of Jason and Medea in Corinth as a ‘most frightening statue of a woman’ whom he does not name but calls simply ‘the horror’.

At the end, then, there is a grim irony. Medea becomes a female demon, the kind that we find in folk tales across the Mediterranean and beyond – like La Lorona, the ‘Weeping Woman’, in Mexican belief. She is the spirit of a mother, who, having murdered her own children, spends eternity wandering the earth looking for others to kill. She is the ‘terror’, the female transgressor, the irrational or inexplicable child killer, confined here in her place so that she may be propitiated by all who see in her their own secret fears.
Michael Wood, In Search of Myths and Heroes.

Interestingly, Medea is the prototype for many modern day horror films, such as the Grudge. It shows the enduring power that this bronze age myth still has.

What happened to Jason? He returns to the Argo – the ship that brought him his fame and success. The ship was old, decaying and as Jason sat weeping next to the beam, it falls and kills him. What was Jason’s Fate?

Jason’s fate was to be completely determined by circumstances and the Supernatural powers of the gods. He was the least heroic of all the Heroes because circumstances ruled his life, not his free-will. Made by the gods, destroyed by the gods.

What ever free-will the other Heroes possessed, they used. They defied the will of the gods. In some cases, such as the Rage of Achilles, the gods become afraid that his Will was stronger than their own; or Odysseus, who defied Poseidon; or Herakles, who defied Hera.

What became of Medea? They say that after her death, she married Achilles; ‘a real hero.’

The Rage of Achilles Scares The Gods

What Does All This Have To Do With Tarot Cards?

It is always worthwhile considering the extent to which free-will and determinism play a role in a person’s life. I use the myth of Jason as a reminder that great and exciting things, as well as terrible and horrifying things, can happen to people who never use their free-will.

Free-Will In A Tarot Reading?

The bottom line is, most people won’t use it. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. A Tarot reading can present ways to defy the gods. Naturally, you may anger them; you may, by your actions, get them to notice you. This is not too dissimilar to Crowley’s Lovers or Brothers card, were Cain kills Abel; and in that very monstrous act, God notices him for the first time. The Lovers, the first independent choice, is always a defiance.

We may not have that much free-will in the big scheme of things and some people have less than most. Everybody is different and everybody is unique. Free-Will is not timeless, nor is it absolute. Rather it is relative to the historical context in which that individual stands. By illustrating where choice lies in a Tarot reading for the client, by discussing the options, making the first real choice; the first free choice (just like the Lovers) then you have begun your own journey of Spiritual Independence.

Can a thousand facts compare with that epiphanic moment, when a poet stands tall in a lightning storm, hurling challenges at God? – David Brin

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What Good Does A Tarot Reading Do?

Douglas Gibb — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:00:57 +0000

I’ve been reading Tarot cards professionally for a long time, and I want to share with you what you can expect if you go down the Tarot for a ‘living’ route. Firstly, you may find that the joy of doing Tarot readings goes. Secondly, you can expect many of your presumptions on what a Tarot reading ‘is’ or ‘does’ to come under fire.

One of those presumptions that I had with the Tarot was that the Tarot helps people. I don’t know why I thought that, I just assumed, rightly or wrongly, that Tarot helps people on a Spiritual level; this in turn, I assumed, helps them on a practical level. After the first two or three weeks of reading professionally, this was challenged severely.

I’ve subsequently worked with the Tarot in most mediums; face-to-face, over the phone, text messages and emails. I have a fair background of experience with which to point out some things that doing Tarot readings for a career will challenge you with.

Personally, I assumed that the Tarot:

Helps people.
Develops your own Spirituality.
The Divinatory meanings are important and the backbone of a reading.

All those presumptions of mine were wrong. You may find this to be the case too.

The Divinatory meanings of the Tarot cards are almost irrelevant to a successful Tarot reading and that’s because, what you may think a successful reading is and what the client thinks is a successful Tarot reading are two completely different things.

To go off topic for just a moment; I’ve done Tarot readings where I knew if I ‘went with the cards’; it would have been unsuccessful. In situations like that I just say what ever thought comes into my mind.

I’ve read, and can validate through personal experience that thoughts do not belong to the individual who thinks them; in fact nothing belongs to us. We own nothing; not our possessions or our relationships, other people or even our memories; and least of all our thoughts.

They say that Spirits are thoughts; separate intelligences.

It is in this sense that I will privilege Thoughts over the Tarot card divinatory meanings: consider this, certain anatomies of Tarot posit that Spirits are represented by the cards and that HRU governs the operation of Tarot divination.

The point I’m making is that the study of symbols, interesting though it is, is not required for a successful Tarot reading.

I mentioned earlier that I was under the illusion (and what isn’t an illusion?) that the Tarot developed Spirituality. This presumption is a contradiction. Yes, the Tarot does develop Spirituality (along with everything else) but it can accomplish this with only a few minutes a week devoted to the practice or every day like me; in other words, the frequency is irrelevant, as is the manner in which the Tarot is thought of or studied.

What is Spirituality anyway? I’m using the word to define an awareness of Self; I would also define this as Enlightenment.

I am not Enlightened nor am I Spiritual. In fact, I’m ruled by my desires, baser instincts and all other manner of things (ignorance is the greatest sin) which indicates a lack of awareness in a Spiritual sense. In this sense there is nothing that separates me from a client to whom I’m giving a reading for. I’m not convinced that this is actually helpful for a client – the fact that I can empathise and understand does not necessarily assist or empower the Client. There have been studies done in a Social Work context that illustrate this point. For example, imagine a woman who has been raped and is asked or pursues a mentoring position for other women who have been raped. It would appear at first sight that this woman will be of great benefit to the other woman because of the shared experience. However, evidence does not support this; in fact it can be damaging to both her and the other woman. It is now considered good practice to employ people who have no shared experience with the group they are assigned to mentor. This actually produces a better therapeutic environment.

I want to take a quick second to further clarify what I mean by saying that my understanding of the client may not be the best for them. I will illustrate this by a true story concerning a lecture I attended on Buddhism. During the course of the lecture the Buddhist mentioned the problems of psychism. He told us a story where somebody asked him if, during his many years of meditation (he spent many years mediating in a cave) he developed Psychic ability. He replied that he had indeed developed some Psychic ability. The person then asked if he could see the future; oh yes he replied. The person finally asked if he would use his abilities to predict what would happen for them in the future. The Buddhist replied: You will be miserable, and you will always be miserable.

Apart from making me laugh, this story perfectly explains Spirituality; ambition of any kind does not sit comfortably with Spirituality. It removes a person from being in the moment; and to be in the moment one must simply be aware. Spirituality is often compared to Water, because water is non-ambitious, it flows down stream; it does not seek to go up the mountain (consider the Devil card and the mountain goat).

It also implies that ambition is a necessary part of asking for a Tarot reading and that in some senses Tarot readings can remove us from Spirituality. The following video illustrates the problem with divinatory readings and its relationship with Spirituality.

To go back to the start of the reading where I mention the presumption that the Tarot helps people; I would say that this again is not a black and white issue. Firstly, a Tarot reader is unlikely to know in all cases if the reading helped and secondly, the cases where it obviously did help are in the minority. This is not simply confined to my own experience. I’ve talked with many Tarot readers who all report much the same. It makes it very difficult to accurately assess your own level of professionalism and effectiveness.

Finally, I was watching this video, which is meant to show you how to fake a reading, not just Tarot. I must confess that I saw no difference in their advice for the budding conman and the techniques that I myself use. Granted, I don’t use them often, but I still use them. I use this to build a rapport if I feel the reading is going badly. Although I never saw the Tarot as entertainment, in many ways it is.

Does this make me a conman and a charlatan? Yes, because a Tarot reading doesn’t provide what is needed by the people who seek a reading. A Tarot reading can predict the future; a Tarot reading can be therapeutic, yet the context and perhaps the implication of a reading itself, does not support this.

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Standing at the Crossroads

Douglas Gibb — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:05:25 +0000

Before the birth of this Tarot blog, I had a clear intention and a clear direction of what I was going to write. But now I find myself in a catch-22 as to where to take Tarot Eon. All the paths open to me are uncertainties, and this leaves me with a feeling of uneasiness.

Uneasiness is a good word. It’s the word I want to focus on. Uneasiness describes how I’m feeling. Anxiety; because I can’t predict where it’s going to go. Confusion; because I’ll be discovering things along the way, and in the words of Osho, “a man should contradict himself many times”. The path I had in mind before I started this blog was to share my knowledge, but things have changed.

Essentially I’m looking to move away from saying what the tarot‘is’.

Rather than answer “what is the tarot?” How do you divine? Here are the techniques; these are the best techniques; I’d rather present the dominant trends within the Tarot, with the purpose of providing an ‘anatomy’ of Tarot as a means to answer my own question “why the tarot?”

When I think about the tarot, I think of the word interpretation. The cards themselves are foreign, unknown, and strange. Over a period of time, people can translate this foreignness into something familiar.

When I think about divination, I think of the word interpretation. We interpret the client and we interpret the cards, and we translate our interpretations into linguistics; language that hopefully the client will subsequently translate into something meaningful. In this sense it seems to me that it’s important to bring interpretation under close scrutiny.

The tarot claims universal validity (in the anatomy of tarot, this is simply one position) and seeks to provide an overall explanation of everything. The problem with this position, philosophically, is its reification of its presuppositions. Reification is a good word and one that I have been thinking about a lot. It’s this word that causes me my uneasiness. Reification means: to treat an abstract idea as if it had concrete or material existence. The presuppositions that are implied when we look at this position of the tarot are in effect reified ideas. Wolfgang Iser, a philosopher, calls this type of interpretation the ideology critique.

I feel very uneasy with any theory of the Tarot that elevates its presuppositions to the status of reality. In part, this is due to the transcendental nature of its frameworks. The tarot, in my view, is an act of interpretation. And as such, any attempts to explain the tarot by providing a framework only results in putting a distance between that which it seeks to explain. This in effect is a major criticism of any ideology critique. This is why I find myself at a crossroads, because I’m in danger of falling into this trap. It is impossible, certainly when a framework is provided for the tarot, such as the Qabalah, to avoid distancing oneself and creating a framework, this is because regardless of intention, a stance still has to be adopted.

A way to explain the meaningfulness of the Tarot, or the meaning to be grasped, is from inside itself; inside the interpretative act of Tarot.

Descartes was a philosopher who said “I think, therefore I am.” Wolfgang Iser changes that in a rather clever way. He says “I interpret, therefore I am.” Interpretation is an unfolding act, meaning is constantly unfolded as we interpret or in the process of interpretation, meaning reveals itself and that, interestingly, implies meaning also hides itself; so interpretation never stops from birth to death; we interpret. In the act of interpretation, that which was hidden becomes revealed; its meaning unfolds. For example, I want to read a book of poetry. Its meaningfulness, before I begin, is hidden. In the act of interpreting the poetry, meaningfulness unfolds; I may read that book again, and the meaning that was present to me before has now become hidden as new meanings unfold. In this sense, meaning is never fully present nor is it fully absent. It oscillates between the two. This, in many ways, describes the oscillation in a Tarot reading.

With regards to the above comments, I’m now uncertain as to what to do. I ask that you forgive the lack of structure to this blog that will no doubt arise as I try and answer my own questions. I will continue to provide information that personal experience has taught me works, in terms of divination and so on. However, I will present the information not as something true in itself, but rather I will look to understand the anatomy of these theories (interpretations) in such a way as to make them transparent. I have no idea where I am going with this, nor what will happen next, but I hope you enjoy the ride.