Column: Rules of the Royal Road

Life beyond the Celtic Cross

by A Conductor on the Midnight

Train of the Mysteries

Only a small, albeit significant, part of working with the Tarot involves reading for others. However fascinating it is to participate in other people’s stories and help them access the wisdom of the Universe (and themselves) through the medium of readings, soon enough it becomes clear that there is a great deal more to the Tarot than amazing your friends and confounding your pets with brightly colored pieces of pasteboard. You’ve read the books, you do a mean Horseshoe Spread, you know your life and destiny cards, your intuitive edge is sharpening nicely -- now what?

There comes a point for many when the images of the Tarot cease to be pictures on pasteboard and become part of the DNA. The symbols, associations and personal meanings one incorporates into one’s practice "move in" to occupy all the levels of the person. You become the Tarot and the Tarot becomes you.

The leap that takes the neophyte from basic reading skill-set to the life-enriching obsession it becomes for so many of us can be seen as a sort of "wrong turn at Albuquerque" process. One takes off across the less traveled and even uncharted realms of the mind using the cards as a sort of metaphysical all-terrain vehicle.

Beyond its divinatory capacity, the Tarot is a toolbox for plumbing the subconscious, an aid and guide to the meditation traditions of the West, a triggering device for associative thought, and an information system. (a familiar! a dessert topping! but we digress…) Our pre-verbal and visual minds are stimulated by the symbols. This capability to tap so many levels accounts for much of the Tarot’s exhaustless fascination. There is a fluidity to the images that provokes inspiration, regardless of the execution of the art (this is blessing in the case of several Tarot decks currently in the marketplace). The associative skills used in reading and studying the Tarot foster echoes in other corridors of the mind. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Tarot alters consciousness.

When you start to feel uncomfortable or stilted by the meanings you’ve pounded into your head, and feel ready to look a little deeper, try this exercise. Be prepared to see the images of the Tarot everywhere. Don’t go consciously looking for them; just be prepared to see everything and anything through the lens of the Tarot. To use an example from life, when a friend of mine wanted to start seriously studying Tarot, we went downtown to buy her a deck. Deck procured we went to a nearby park and were wondering where to begin, when suddenly a young man in colorful but tattered clothes came striding past us, rucksack on his shoulder, small brown and white dog yapping happily at his heels. It was the first time I saw a trump (hint: it was the unnumbered one) manifest in the material world and my first intimation that this stuff worked on more meanings than I had previously been aware of. This sort of phenomena has happened time and again, sometimes subtly (sometimes not), ever since. It needn’t be spectacular to have meaning, but sometimes the show gets pretty darned interesting.

On a more whimsical note (but still efficacious – trust me on this), try reading with cocktail napkins, index cards, poker chips, even a deck you hate (this author has discovered some remarkable insights while being forced by the Universe into using decks at which she ordinarily turns up her nose). Let the blank (or repugnant) surfaces trigger deeper levels of awareness. This stuff works without your needing to consciously try, if you are prepared to open yourself to it. Heck this stuff works. Period.

Next issue: Rainy Day Tarot Projects by Mother Thalassa.