Tarot Cards and the Language of the Unconscious

The system for using Tarot cards for self-exploration and as a way of examining life themes is, unfortunately, often shadowed by erroneous associations with black magic and such like. For example, consider the "Death" card: it does not refer to physical death but rather external

 

 

 transformation - i.e., the destruction of some aspect(s) of our old lives to make room for the new. Similarly, "The Devil" card pertains not to violence or hatred but rather sexuality (creative energy in its most raw and earthy form), and procreative energy. 

Most of the symbols within the Tarot revolve around the same four elements outlined by the alchemists of antiquity: Earth (Disks), Air (Swords), Fire (Wands), and Water (Cups). Like the Tarot itself, the Alchemists were often mocked and derided by "enlightened" minds that failed to understand the real intent of their work. They were, therefore, forced to perform their research under extremely repressive and fearful conditions thanks to the Medieval Church and the Inquisition. As a result of these pressures, their quest for spiritual expansion had to be recorded in coded language in order to protect it - and themselves. To the uninitiated, the Alchemists were searching for a way to transmute "base metals into gold". But in reality, the aim of their work was wholeness and spiritual union with the Divine (the soul's true gold).

I would propose two reasons why inner work often seems obscure and esoteric to western minds. The first relates to what I've mentioned thus far: that the explorers of the inner realms have, throughout our history, been forced to cloak and enshroud their findings in mystery in order to protect themselves. The second reason is that the inner world does not follow the same laws as our logic-brains. Its logic is the poetry of dreams.

The entire Surrealist movement in the early twentieth century was based upon methods of releasing conscious control over one's art and allowing the unconscious to express itself. The surrealists assumed that any material derived from the unconscious held inherently greater value than that which was produced by the intellect. Their approach was perhaps unbalanced, their philosophy biased. Returning to the Tarot, we can see illustrated in such cards as "Art" and "The Lovers", with their mystical wedding of opposites, the necessity of our conscious and unconscious minds working together rather than existing at odds.

Again we are dealing with a coded language that communicates certain insights to the initiated and appears as something entirely different to those unfamiliar with its symbolism. So how does a person new to any kind of inner work approach methods like Tarot, numerology, and astrology? By keeping an open mind and trying to shed any kinds of superstitious notions that cling to them. Then, over time, the symbols begin to speak to us and we understand, intuitively, what they are telling us. We become fluent in their language.

Author:  Seth Mullins

How to Increase Your Psychic Abilities with Tarot Cards

Tarot cards are an excellent tool to increase your psychic abilities. This article will tell you how to increase your psychic abilities in a way that will keep you accurate. You may be able to read Tarot cards miraculously well if you go by these simple guidelines and practice regularly.

 Our inherent human powers of perception of reality are far beyond what we are normally taught that they are. Let’s push the limits and leave those who believe the mass media version of who we are behind. Being able to read Tarot cards and really show yourself you know what they are is a great way to affirm that you have abilities to see beyond the tangible world. The more confident you become in your psychic abilities, the more you will be able to bring through wisdom. And you can keep tabs on your accuracy regularly by practicing with them.

The concept behind using Tarot cards for readings is that part of ourselves knows what each card is. There are two main methods of picking cards. One relies on the overmind to shuffle the cards correctly so the ones on top, as they will be picked for a spread, will be the correct ones to answer the questions. That means the moment in which a person is shuffling is sacred, and you must be tuned in completely at that moment to be able to pull off such a feat. Often, it is the person receiving the reading who is expected to do this, and without practice, this may be asking too much of a client. Tarot readers may need to explain to people how to tune in, go into a trance, connect with the over-self. People should be prepared to feel out what is the right arrangement through shuffling, and actually create what is the proper arrangement, their hands doing the work of the larger self, without the conscious mind being involved. But the more we can make the conscious mind a good conduit between the two, pure, and well refined, the more we can trust our answers. The practice I describe in this article helps make sure the conscious mind is truly transparent, and tuned into the higher self, and bringing that knowledge through effectively. 

The other method of reading Tarot cards involves carefully choosing each card out of the deck, one at a time, to answer the questions. This is easier to accomplish, as it is more direct, and you can feel the cards’ energy. It can be more casual, not necessarily based on a layout. I am going to concentrate on this method. It becomes a dialogue between you and the cards as you receive immediate answers and you can then ask another question, and tune into the cards, feeling which one calls to you. You may use this also if you are having a reading done, and the psychic tells you to pick the cards. In either case, it is good to know what you are doing, as you may be putting a lot of weight on answers, and you don’t want them to be random. You want them to come from your highest self, filtered down through your psychic abilities to feel or see which card is the one with your answer. You can feel the card by holding your hand over the deck, preferably your left one, as it is the more receptive, sensitive to incoming energies. Feel with your palm, or your fingers, moving your hand across the cards without touching them, feeling their aura. You can feel the aura. You will be able to identify it because of spending time identifying with each card. 

First, to train yourself, it is good to do exercises that improve psychic powers. Breathing in and out of the third eye chakra, in the center of the forehead, is one good practice. Ask that the energy you bring into your intuitive center be focused for that purpose. You may want to imagine the light you breathe in being indigo colored. Then, use the cards to test how you are improving. You can release clutter out of the third eye chakra, breathing it out, and asking for clarity to be brought to you. Open to a pure observance of being, releasing your own personal issues. You want to be able to perceive reality, not your own filters. 

Doing Taoist or Tantric exercises will take the third eye exercise much farther, with complex movements of energies. The more you commit to doing these very physical spiritual practices, the more you will cleanse the pathways of perception, open them for more energy to come through, be able to feel the joys of the energy moving through your pathways, and concentrating that energy in the central channel of your body, through the spine. As you do that, you can become the central channel, which can merge with the spine of the Divine, the tree of life. In Eastern traditions, we are able to commune with God through the practices, rather than remain apart. We are able to tune into that which connects all things. As you feel yourself being the central channel, you can also feel yourself as the energy moving through the channel. Feeling such combinations of movement and containment of energy is the divine love play of Shakti and Shiva, the god and goddess principles. As you feel yourself be the container and the contained, you can feel Bliss, and an overpowering sense of Ecstasy as you participate in their love. Feeling that will naturally increase your psychic abilities. Your frequency is being changed. 

Shuffle the cards and lay them face down. Then, to test the theory that we know what the cards are, pick up one at a time and guess first what it is. Keep a record of how many correct guesses you get each day you do it, and see if your odds improve. You are using a psychic muscle, so by doing so regularly, you should see a gratifying rise in the number of correct answers. I have been able to do this with 100 percent accuracy. So I know it is possible. 

How did I do it? I dedicated my life to this activity for a few months. I lived in the forest in a tent in a mountain in Colorado, and allowed myself nothing but a Tarot book with exercises, pen, paper, and a few toiletries. I climbed mountains, picked berries, which were my only food, did Tantric and Taoist exercises, which cleared my energetic channels, and amplified how much energy they could hold, cleaned the energy, made it vibrate at a higher frequency, connected my charkas, broke down blockages, and allowed clear access to my higher self. Eating nothing but living food picked right off the bushes gave me the auric fields of the berries, with their enzymes intact, requiring me to give up none of my own inherent enzymes. Breathing fresh, clean air with lots of life force and negative ions helped. Drinking crystalline water from the melted snow helped. Being away from electromagnetic interferences helped my own auric field be nice and large, and clear, and also kept the static out of my psychic readings. Having no other distractions kept my larger self focused on its goal. Of course, few people can do this, or would want to, but some version of this is highly recommended if you want to be truly psychic. 

Immersing yourself in the deepest meanings and the magic and symbolism behind the Tarot is important if you are to concentrate your psychic readings on the Tarot. To use them as tools for developing your general psychic abilities in general you may not need to delve as deeply into writers such as Crowly, who use the Tarot cards for dubious but effective methods of transmitting clues about such things as time travel through the etheric planes. You would still want to get a good emotional identification with each Tarot card, however, as it is not only a visual, but a visceral, palpable reaction we feel when picking up a card and feeling what is on the other side. 

Practice using them and also feeling what is on the other side of them, and test your accuracy by asking questions about things you can verify. You may want to ask about will happen the next day, or about details about friends’ lives you can ask them about. The possibilities are endless. 

The more you are able to go into a lower brain wave frequency, the Alpha level, the more you will be tuned into all that is one, flowing together, our consciousness, and the world around us. There are biofeedback machines available for this, and you can also tell if you are in Alpha brainwave generally by whether your eyes flutter when they are closed. Being in that frequency helps you be one with all things, and identifying with your larger self, which knows all. 

Being able to discern what you or others want to know about the world using Tarot cards is gratifying, and empowering, and gives you more chances to be of service to the world. Blessings.

Author:  Tantra Bensko

The Concept of Tarot Cards

Most people these days, in a world of technology and scientific study, seem to take the old fashion tarot practitioners not too seriously. Most people are logical and unusually sceptical when it comes to tarot, and they might second guess the idea that  it is possible to tell someone's fortune by the laying or spreading of cards from a deck.

Tarot has been widely accepted in many metaphysical and occult societies for a very long time. They arrived long ago and are dated back to somewhere around the fifteenth century, but they were not widely recognized and accepted in divination until the 17th or 18th century according to Wikipedia. Tarot cards have changed over time, by interpretation, symbolism and definition. Tarot is constantly evolving, changing and adapting to the spirituality of the individuals still involved in reading with tarot. Tarot cards used to be part of a game like a deck of cards. It is unclear to this day how the cards branched out into a business of looking into past lives and fortune telling.

According to Schuelers Online readings, Carl Jung considered tarot as an alternative to psychotherapy. His perception was that the imagery and randomization of each card and expression related to each card and the concepts portrayed in them were merely a reflection of the subconscious mind in each individual who decided to explore and interpolate tarot.

Over the years and many numerous readings, we can begin to find ourselves melded by our findings and readings as they affect our subconscious mind in many different ways and tend to lead us in different directions and open us up to numerous thought philosophies that eventually change and evolve into something much grander, than we once were. Tarot offers an alternative language system through which we can access in our unconscious. Therefore, we do not just randomly pick cards, but we take what we get with what is presented before us and interpret the meanings around the events in our lives to help guide us through them with a sense of guidance.

The act of tarot reading is a very powerful thing. Its power originates from symbolism and meaning created by individuals who dared to dream and see beyond the physical realm. For them, these power principles lie on the fringes of human experience that we need and use to survive.

Tarot  History,   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot, Wikipedia

Carl Jung & Tarot,   http://www.schuelers.com/chaos/chaos7.htm, Schuelers Online

Source,  http://www.associatedcontent.com

Aura: Auras and ghosts

Except for a few kids movies like Casper The Friendly Ghost and Ghostbusters, ghosts are not very fashionable these days. But at the turn of the century things were quite different. Famous mediums were renowned for the bizarre ectoplasmic apparitions they were able to produce during their seances. Witnesses included some of the greatest thinkers of the time, including Pierre and Marie Curie, and the philosopher Bergson.

I once had the pleasure of visiting Robert Tocquet, whom I have already talked about in an earlier chapter. Tocquet was very familiar with these kinds of experiments. Being a rationalist, he refused to fall into the trap of enthusiastic credulity. At the same time, he was convinced of the reality of a number of apparitions produced by people like Kluski or Rudi Schneider, both well known mediums.

I asked him how he explained these kinds of highly unusual phenomena.

Here's what he had to say:

"To my mind, the apparitions are emanations of the medium himself. They are representations of his subconscious. When a medium produces a familiar face, he does so be delving into the subconscious mind of someone who is present at the seance. I take as proof of the material reality of these apparitions the fact that mediums clearly experience a loss of weight during

their representations. Perhaps the phenomenon is caused by an unknown aspect of their aura emanations. Perhaps physical manifestations of their power, like the twisting of cutlery or the displacement of objects from a distance, can also be caused by this same energy field, once it is focussed and controlled."

Since science has still not been able to offer a satisfactory explanation for these phenomena, we can assume, at least for the time being, that Professor Tocquet may very well be right. 

Only time will tell.

Source:  "Mind Powers"  by Christian H. Godefroy

Aura: Interacting auras

When you caress someone's face or hold someone's hand, two auras interact, and an exchange of energy takes place. Therapists often describe how they are able to alleviate pain through massage, and how, after a session is over, they actually feel some of the patient's pain themselves.

Two researchers, Johnson and Mors, called this phenomenon the 'transfer effect.' Johnson claimed that what he found most interesting about his work with auras was that it showed that our beings extend beyond the limits

of our skin, that we all possess another body made of pure energy, which is in constant interaction with our environment, and the people we come in contact with.

Will the Kirlian device prove to be an important scientific discovery? Indications are that it will. Although its potential applications have not been fully explored even today, forty years after its discovery, there has been renewed interest in the technique of late. On the other hand, perhaps the greatest impact of Kirlian's invention will turn out to be symbolic - for the first time in the history of humanity, science and mysticism seem to be in accord.

Concerning the subtle or energy body, all mystics, from Zoroaster to Heraclitus, from the Hebrew cabalists to Saint Paul, are in agreement. The idea is the same in all their writings: "The vibrant substance that the Creator referred to as the 'breath of life' takes on a subtle form in the nervous system of all living beings. It is transmitted through all our limbs, and its sensations are perceived by the brain. This subtle substance forms a living organism which is just as real as our material body." (Quoted from Vie Great hut kites by E. Shutf, written in 1889).

Although we have not yet seen a complete fusion of scientific and religious thought, we can certainly expect to achieve a better understanding between the two modes of thought as we approach the millennium.

Source:  "Mind Powers"  by Christian H. Godefroy