The Major Arcana as Circles of Healing

One of the grand metaphors of Tarot – though it is a fairly recent innovation – is the that that Major Arcana is The Fool’s Journey with three levels or kinds of work for our Hero Fool to do:  Cards 1 – 7 represent the development of self and the ego; Cards 8 – 14 represent a turning inward to seek a new kind of wisdom; and Cards 15-21 represent fulfillment of the Fool’s seeking and spiritual attainment.  In 78 Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack names the levels as Consciousness, Subconsciousness, and Superconsciousness.

The Fool’s Journey has guided me for a long time but now it’s sparked a new metaphor as I’ve worked through the Journey into the Tarot.  I’ve been playing with a vision of the Major Arcana as three circles of healing with three points of transition.  This post spins out that thread of thought and continues the play.

Both the nature and the shape of the journey changed with the shift in metaphor to circles of healing rather than a progressive journey.

The first spark for this new view of the Major Arcana came from working with and re-assessing the relationships between the male and female wisdom figures of the first six cards of the Major Arcana (which I blogged about in more detail here).  I saw the obvious dance between the Emperor and the Empress, but also how the Hierophant needs the High Priestess’ inner / lunar wisdom to refresh the outer / solar traditions he upholds.  They danced between the Magician and the Lovers.

Using the circle of healing metaphor, The Magician represents the circles highest potential and what exists before a split of masculine and feminine.  He exuberantly uses the male elements of fire and air and the female elements of water and earth to make his magic.  The Lovers shows the joyful connection of masculine and feminine and is the main healing work of this circle of integration.  The connection is possible both within a person and through greater cooperation of men and women in the world.

The Charioteer moves forward from this triumph of integration led by a team of dark and light creatures into the next circle of healing.

Using the attributions of the English School, Strength opens the second circle of healing seeming to continue a theme of triumph and most commonly the image of a woman taming a lion.  But the gentleness of the woman is so different from the boldness of the Charioteer.   Some kind of transformation has taken place.

Paradox now makes its appearance as the trickster teacher because the triumph of the first line is following by the seeming contradiction of dissolution and surrender as the achievements of second line of cards.

The work of this line starts with The Hermit who leaves behind the everyday world for the lonely mountaintop.  He goes inward removing himself from the attention and praise of the world.  This allows him to come to know his inner wisdom.  Rather than being isolating, the work here connects to the Hermit to ever changing movement of the Wheel.  From his wide perspective on the mountain top, he comes to a deep understanding of change internally, in the everyday world, and even in the unseen realms and the widest cosmos.  He no longer fights change but aligns himself with its energies.

This alignment with change brings a greater understanding of the patterns of cause and effect embodied in Justice.  Reaching Justice brings us half way round this circle of healing with Strength and Justice across from each other.  The connection is apt as it takes strength to look at our lives and take responsibility for how we’ve triumphed and failed and to pluck the lessons of self knowledge from its roses and thorns.

The deep self knowledge gained from this encounter with Justice may spark a re-assessment that can be quite destabilizing.  And in this second circle of healing the destabilization needs to be embraced.  The Hanged One meets the challenge by turning every thing upside down and being with the uncertainty created by this new perspective.  Action seems impossible.  A new understanding of what is important is in process of being formed.

The old self faces Death and this is the great work of this circle of healing.  The transition into a new way of being requires releasing what is known, both the negative and the positive aspects.  We are called to let them go without knowing what will next emerge.  There is the phase of the Death process where we enter the void.  If we have prepared well enough in the work of the Hanged One, we may even welcome this place of absence.

We are called forth from the void by the rising of the sun.  The new invites us.  We emerge as stronger because of a greater connection to the whole of creation that is in a constant cycle of birth, death, and re-birth.  The boundaries between self and other have worn away.  We have the skills to commune with our lions (who represent both our fears and our power).  While we appear to have control over these beasts, those who have traveled the healing circle of dissolution know that it is through surrender and death that this deeper kind of power flows.

We’ll need that power when we face the Devil, but that’s a subject for another post.

[Notes:  Images from the Gaian Tarot are used with permission.  It's interesting to note that some people see the Gaian Magician as a man while others see the figure as a woman.  The ability to be both speaks to the Magician as an already perfect balance of male and female.]

My Journey with the Hanged One: Reflections

This week the Tarot of Marseille image of Le Pendu captured my attention as I prepared to journey with The Hanged Man.  Sally Nichols in her Jung and the Tarot pointed me in this direction.  Unusual directionality is the key feature of the Hanged Man and as you might image journeying with the card offered twists and new perspective.

In the Marseille image a man is suspended by one leg from a cross bar held up by trees with their branches cut.  The other leg hangs bent at the knee.  Hands are hidden but it is easy to imagine that they are tied behind his back.  The facial expression is enigmatic, but not the look of someone who is suffering or in pain.  This Hanged Man almost looks comfortable in this new position.

The detail that sends internal sparks of excitement flying for me is that he is dangling into an opening in the earth.  His head is below the level of the earth’s surface.  I see him as being received by the earth and his hair (or in the Rider-Waite-Smith card a halo) is reaching down to the earth.   This reaching invites me to think of this card as indicating a time for the consciousness of the human to commune with the consciousness of the earth.

This is a new perspective, particularly for us in Western culture where the head has been the location of consciousness and higher thinking, abilities that set us apart from all else on the planet.  The Celts saw the head as the place of the soul.  In the Tree of Life of Jewish mysticism’s Kabbalah, the top or Crown is closest to God and the bottom brings the limitless energy into earth form. The Tree of Life can be traced upon the human body with the crown at the head and feet at the bottom.

We have been oriented to keep the superior part of ourselves pointed toward the sky or heaven and away from earth.  In the process, earth has become less than and many aspects of Western religious belief and tradition has fostered a split between the spiritual and the earthly.

But the Hanged One brings us a prophetic message for these times of global climate chaos and the message is given through his body.

In the center of the picture, we have an absence of hands.  Hands are the most frequently used parts of the body in symbolism according to The Dictionary of Symbols by Hans Biederman.  From Paleolithic cave paintings to modern Freemasonry, the hand appears to represent humanity and the individual, postures of supplication and healing, and our ability to act and create.  They are the powerful doers and shapers of human culture.  And they are absent, perhaps even tied up, for the serene Hanged One.  It is a time to give up doing and striving, to surrender to a different rhythm.

While the hands are missing, the feet are in the exulted position.  There is no entry for feet in The Dictionary of Symbols nor is there any information in my Dictionary of Dreams.  The feet that connect us to earth, that carry us faithfully, that most of us take for granted don’t seem to merit much mention.  But for the Hanged One the feet are freed from their usual work to commune with the heavens.

The crossed legs are reminiscent of the Marseille Emperor, but contrary to the Emperor’s posture the right leg is now crossed behind the left.  The conscious, willed action of the Emperor here gives way to a more intuitive and accepting approach.  In her book on the Haindl Tarot, Rachel Pollack writes, The Hanged Man “sacrifices the Emperor’s desire to dominate the Earth, and he reverses his previous beliefs.”  With the world turned upside down, there is no longer a need to maintain what seemed important under upright rules and structures.

The head, of course, is now surrounded and received by the earth.  And with the Emperor energy of building and domination at rest, the crown can open up to receive the wisdom of earth.  Heaven is no longer the ultimate goal, but rather a deep listening to the earth we walk over every day.

I’ve been having a little Facebook conversation with James Wells on his Tarot for Manifestation page about how the Tarot’s nature is integrative and keeps calling us to pay attention to our whole selves.  The Hanged Man teaches us this integration through inversion and the subsequent re-orienting of perspective and importance.  It is a bit of trickster way of teaching that Tarot so frequently offers us.

Body of the Hanged Man Spread

Feet -

Card 1:  What is some aspect of your life you’ve taken for granted that it would be beneficial to honor at this time?

Card 2: How can I do that honoring?

Legs –

Card 3:  In what area of my life have I been applying will and domination to meet challenges but need a different approach for the good of all?

Card 4: What new approach could I take to this challenge?

 

Hidden Hands:

Card 5:  What do I just need to stop doing to advance on move forward on my journey?

Card 6:  What can help me to stop?

 

Head in the Earth:

Card 7:  How does the earth receive me?

Card 8:  What message does earth have for me at this time?

Card 9:  How can I continue to commune with the earth?

Justice and the Annual Review

I’m appreciating how the cards of our Journey into the Tarot sessions are aligning with the energies of this season.

We journeyed to meet the Hermit on December 14^th on one of the longest nights of the year, the nights still descending into lengthening darkness.  The glow of his lantern was most welcome and reminded us that even as we take time out to be in stillness and the dark, we will be called to return and share with others the light found there.

On Solstice eve, the 21^st, the Wheel was a most appropriate theme for the turning of the sun back to lengthening days.  Although most of the guided visualizations for Journey into the Tarot are inspired by Marcia Macino’s Rider-Waite-Smith focused meditations, the image of the Gaian Wheel opened a way for a visit to the Sacred Grove that Exists in Time Out of Time.  The old was released and new visions invited.

Now we have arrived at the last week of the year to find Justice waiting for us.  Although the central imagery focuses our immediate attention on balance, the law, and cause and effect, there is an invitation below these foreground themes to seek greater self-knowledge and step into greater responsibility for the course of our lives.

At the end of the year, I undertake an annual review, looking back through my Sacred Journey Journal to identify patterns, goals achieved and left undone, and the surprise gifts of the unexpected.  I’ve blogged about my experiences here before and in the past few years I’ve been adding things to my process inspired by Joanna Powell Colbert and Chris Guillebeau.

This year I am recognizing this as the work of Justice in that foundational sense of increasing my self-knowledge and taking responsibility for what I am creating.  This is the underpinning for creating an ever more balanced and integrated life in 2012.

As is quite usual for me, it is Rachel Pollack who is a source for this deeper thinking about the cards.  In Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, she writes:

“The Wheel of Fortune represents a vision of a person’s life: the events, who you are, what you are made of yourself.  Justice indicates an understanding of that vision.  The way to understanding lies in responsibility. …  [W]hen we accept that every event in our lives has helped to form our characters, and that in the future we will continue to create ourselves through our actions, then the sword of wisdom cuts through the mystery. 

Further by accepting responsibility for ourselves we paradoxically free ourselves from the past.  Like Buddha remembering all his lives, we can only get loose from the past by becoming conscious of it.  Otherwise we repeat past behaviors.  This is why Justice belongs at the center of our lives.”

I began my year with visions and goals.  In these days of my annual review, I seek the assistance of the sword of truth to assess my progress, to learn about myself through the successes and challenges of the year; and prepare the way for what will come in the new year.

May Justice provide for you, too, guidance and insight at the end of the year.  What does she invite you to do or reflect on in these last days of 2011?

[Note:  The Hermit and Justice are from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot and the Wheel is from the Gaian Tarot.  Used with permission.]

Tarot for the Wheel of the Year

December with its long nights – we’ll have the longest one on Wednesday into Thursday! – offers a secret gift to those who are able to step beyond the holiday noise:  silence, magical light of both sun and moon, and an invitation to deep reflection.  Beth Owl’s Daughter has a wonderful blog post on how these are Halcyon days invite us to step into time out of time.

I love to build reflective activities into these days and a favorite activity these past couple of years has been to gather with a group of people to do a Wheel of the Year spread.  This past Saturday, I was able to do it with a large and lovely group of people at the Massachusetts Tarot Society.   

My spread is inspired by the seasonal awareness that springs from the Celtic and Pagan tradition and includes cards for lessons of season and how to meet them.  This handout, Wheel of the Year 12.17.11 , presents the whole spread and offers suggestions for how to work with it throughout the year.   And as you may already heard (I talk about it alot!), the Gaian Tarot Wheel is my favorite Tarot image for the Wheel and so it had to accompany this post!

January Class in MA: Tools for Lifelong Tarot Learning

I will be leading a three-session class, Tools for Lifelong Tarot Learning, at Groundings at 7 Main St. in Florence.

Tools for Lifelong Tarot Learning will ground you in Tarot basics as well as give you tools and techniques for your continued exploration of Tarot as a tool for personal development, spiritual exploration, creativity enhancement, and discerning the unfolding patterns of life. Sessions are from 6 – 8pm on the 10th, 17th, and 24th of January; hold the 31st for a snow day! Sessions may be taken individually but sign up for the whole series for just $70. Pre-registration required through Groundings (Call 413-320-4919 or e-mail: information@GroundingsLLC.com).

Creating a Spine of Meaning: This is a foundational session for the whole series and can be taken as a stand-alone class. No Tarot experience required! In this session, participants will:

• practice accessing their intuition as a way into the cards;
• get an introduction to the Tarot’s origins and influences (but a very brief one!);
• see how the Tarot’s structure provides a support for developing your personal spine of meaning for the Tarot;
• find resources and continued activities for deepening your Tarot study;
• leave with an information-packed workbook, worksheets for capturing card meanings, and “homeplay” assignments.

The emphasis will be on understanding and developing meanings for the individual cards.

Date: Tuesday, January 10th, 6-8pm * Cost: $30

Meditation and the Mind

The Journey into the Tarot sessions deepen my knowledge of both Tarot and meditation techniques.  The group’s recent experience with the Lovers card shone a light upon how the conscious mind’s expectations are like the mosquitoes that swarm and divert us from our desired destinations, but interestingly, it is our awareness and thinking capacities that can set us back on the right track.  Two participants, Della and Arwen, have graciously allowed me to some of their wisdom with you.

Della began the Journey into the Tarot sessions with an impressive self-awareness of how her mind works and talked about its tendency toward busyness, which would seemingly get in the way of her moving through the prompts of the guided meditation.  She’s been carefully observing her mind as we’ve gone through these first 6 sessions.

Arwen joined us for a second journey and was surprised that she didn’t remember anything between the first few minutes of the grounding and balancing of the chakras and the bell ringing to signify that the meditation has ended.  She wondered where she had gone!  But she said that she knew she was not sleeping as she felt alert and energized. She described feeling “complete” and a sense of “wholeness.”

We who remembered the specifics of the visualization laughed because the focus had been on connecting with a guide to heal anything that felt fractured or disconnected within and then meeting one’s inner masculine and feminine selves to see their gifts integrated.  What she was sensing reflected the meditation’s gifts of that healing and integration.

We discussed our meditations experiences further.

Arwen spoke of how meditation is a growth area in her spiritual practice.  Though she believes and has spoken of how everyone has a different experience, she’s carried her own expectations of what should be seen – and, yes, “seeing” as the ideal has been the expectation of her conscious mind.  But this meditation experience moved her to think differently about meditation and what it yields.  (Arwen’s words struck a chord with me because she was mirroring my very own statements and expectations.)  Della talked of how her experience over the six meditations has allowed her to work with her mind in a different way.  She used to beat back the quick thoughts and ideas that came as she listened to the meditations prompts, but now she lets them come, sometimes floating by and sometimes providing just what she needs.

This discussion stirred within me that knowing that comes when experience and the mind align, snapping into place to create a point of strength for holding a totality of thought, intuition, body experience, and gut insight.  Then these seemly separate ways of knowing loose their edges and become part of an integrated and whole moment of deep insight.

From now on, I’ll be working more as a partner with the mind during meditations.  I’ll be saying the same words, “Don’t judge what comes in the meditation,” but I’ll be doing it from that deeper place. I’ll suggest letting go of the expectations of the mind so that participants can open up to flow of what comes, but also to remember that the mind is not the enemy.  Thoughts that are not needed now can be allowed to float by; there is no need to fight them, stamp on them, try to erase them.  After all, they may be needed later to come to greater understanding of the experience and its gifts.

We also can turn to the Tarot for help in this befriending of the mind because: 1.) in its very structure with the 4 minor suits we see a partnership of mind, body, emotions, and passion/action, and 2.) it loves to receive our questions!  Here is a spread for those working on their meditation practice in particular to try:

• What is the gift(s) my conscious mind wants to offer me now?
• In what area of my life can I let my _____  (you may want to insert an adjective to focus on a particular function of the mind such as discerning, evaluating, judging) mind rest?
• How can I better partner with my mind/thinking capacities?

[Note:  Ace of Swords from Tarot Roots of Asia.  Statue photo from morgueFile.com.]

 

Sample Journey into the Tarot Session for You!

I have a sample from a  Journey into the Tarot session where The Lovers were our guide.   To fully experience it, you’ll need to set time aside where you will be undisturbed for about a half hour and be able to sit or lie with a straight spine.  Don’t listen to this while driving or operating heavy machinery as they say!

To find out more about Journey into the Tarot see my Teaching page.

Loved my time on Beyond Worlds – Your Tarot Tribe

I had such fun discussing the results of our survey of the Tarot community on different decks for different needs with Georgianna and Donnaleigh on Beyond Worlds – Your Tarot Tribe last night.

They are a lively pair and you must listen in to hear their offerings and jokes such as Georgianna’s passion for the Thoth and Donnaleigh’s for the Divine Legacy.  I also got to share my long percolating thoughts on how different decks do things in readings.  And the creative brilliance of the Tarot community was on display with all kinds of ideas on how to work with decks.  A favorite one was creating an amalgamated deck from your favorite cards of many decks.  Then there are, of course, tips on decks for romance/relationship, work/money,  and spirituality/contemplative practice.

Listen into to the show here:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/beyondworlds/2011/11/07/carolyn-cushing-different-decks-for-different-needs

 

We didn’t get to cover everything so you might also want to take a look at the notes I prepared for the show:  Survey Results Notes 11.4.11

Then if you are still game for more exploring you can check the full results of the survey on line until November 15 at https://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=ofGrT7A_2bV2M3Qay5E_2fBoUXv7swi44pFEk_2bHw6Dt5hps_3d

Sacred Practices of the Gaian Tarot E-mail Reading Special

Tonight I’ll be on Beyond Worlds – Your Tarot Tribe talking about lots of wonderful decks and a special reading I’ve developed for supporting sacred / contemplative practice using Joanna Powell Colbert’s Gaian Tarot.

The reading helps you to answer these questions:

PATH:  Use Pile 1 / Majors and Aces to pull a card for the question:  What sacred path would best serve my _________ (examples:  making my current transition, healing, growth, living into my deep purpose) for/in ________ (this season, year)?

PRACTICE:  Use Pile 2 / numbered cards for this question:  What contemplative practice will best serve me to move along this pathway?

POSTURE:  Use Pile 3 / People cards for a question such as:  What attitudes and behaviors will be most helpful to me in undertaking this practice?

For the month of November, I will be doing e-mail readings using this spread and the Gaian Tarot for only $10.  And the first three people who sign up will get a free 20 – 30 minute follow up phone consultation.  If you are not one of the lucky three, then you can add this for only $15 more.

To sign up, send $10 to my PayPal account (carolyn [at] artofchangetarot [dot] com) or e-mail me about making other arrangements.

Also send me an e-mail (yes that’s carolyn [at] artofchangetarot [dot] com) with this information:

• Your full name
• Your birthday including the year
• Have you ever done a contemplative / spiritual practice before?
• What motivates you to explore contemplative / spiritual practice right now?

Looking forward to hearing from you!