Posts Tagged ‘tarot interpretation’

Perfect Tarot Divination by: Robert Wang is a book intended for anyone who has been uncomfortable with the completely arbitrary way in which, over the centuries, attributions of meanings have been attached to the cards. This remarkable book offers the first comprehensive system of tarot interpretation to combine Kabbalah, Jungian psychology, and three thousand years of astrological tradition with clear documentation of the source of each attribution. Beginners may find the system to be very challenging at first, but experienced astrologers will immediately be able to interpret each card and will discover that the system yields remarkably accurate results a surprisingly good and reliable balance to their astrological charts. (Volume III of the Jungian Tarot Trilogy.)

read more

also check The Jungian Tarot Deck

by Alison Day
We all have times when we feel like we’re fumbling around in the dark, full of fear and anxiety, unable to see the way out of a difficult situation. The bright, fiery Ace of Wands illuminates the path ahead!

All the Aces represent new beginnings, and in the case of the Ace of Wands, this can indicate the arising of exciting new opportunities – especially in the area of work and career.
Read the rest of this entry »

by Cheryl Lynne Bradley

“Being the source of virtue, woman is the best means of reaching heaven.
Man’s efforts to be virtuous are impossible outside of conjugal virtue…
There is no doubt that women are a source of happiness.”
Vatsyayana

An ancient principle of Indian civilization was the teaching of the Kama Sutra and the sixty-four arts that a woman should acquire as knowledge. This was called kala. These were considered to be accomplishments in the teaching of erotic techniques and were taught to all girls regardless of their social standing.

It was advised that women should teach this subject to young girls as long as they were trustworthy, well born, independent and understood the meaning of the words. She could be a woman used to sleeping with men, a girlfriend who was already initiated, a maternal aunt close to her own age, a serving woman treated as an aunt and confidant, a nun known for a long time or an older, trusted sister who has had experience with men. Even if it was not possible to master all sixty-four arts, it was felt that at least some should be practiced.

Courtesans were highly respected in this society for their beauty, knowledge, usefulness and their social role. Princes and princesses were sent to them for instruction in the arts, social graces, pleasure and music.

In keeping with the flexibility of Tarot interpretation, I have applied these arts as qualities and attributes of the Tarot Queens. Court cards can be confusing for although they can represent specific people, they also represent universal patterns of behaviour, the feminine side of your nature and the mental, physical and spiritual development of the individual. As a person grows, matures and acquires wisdom and knowledge or declines in these areas, the changes can be marked by changes of the suit of the Court cards which represents them.

For the purpose of this article, each of the Queens of the Tarot will represent 16 of the sixty-four arts which a woman (or a man) should achieve mastery of. No blushing is required here.

Queen of Cups
Water represents the origins and the unconscious. In India, water is the symbol of superior consciousness. The rivers in this superior world produce soma, the drink of the gods, symbolizing the rise of libidinous urges. This is a vital force which is closely guarded as it stems from animal instincts that require mastery before true pleasure is available.

1. Vocal music
2. Instruments
3. Dance
4. Drawing
5. Cutouts
6. Carpets of flowers or coloured rice
7. Bouquets
8. Dyes and colorants for the body
9. Mosaics
10. Bed arrangements
11. Musical instruments made from bowls of water
12. Water games
13. Use of charms, drugs, magic wands
14. Garland making
15. Crown and head ornaments
16. The art of dressing

Queen of Wands
Fire is the vital cosmic force which transforms and transmutes. Since fire was originally produced by rubbing two sticks together, the act of making a fire this way symbolizes sex in folk stories and legends from around the world.

17. Ivory or mother of pearl ornaments
18. Preparation of perfumes
19. Jewellery
20. Conjuring
21. Magic
22. Manicure
23. The art of cooking
24. Preparation of drinks
25. Needlework
26. Lacemaking
27. The art of playing the drum
28. Conundrums
29. The art of completing quotations
30. Riddles
31. Bookbinding
32. The art of telling stories

Queen of Coins
Earth is the symbol of the Universal Mother, motherhood, fertility, regeneration and receptivity.

33. Quoting the classics in answering questions.
34. Weaving, plaiting
35. Woodwork
36. Carpentry
37. House furnishings and decorations.
38. Expert knowledge in stones and gems
39. Mixing and polishing metals
40. Valuing the shape and colour of stones
41. Arboriculture, the care of trees
42. Stock breeding
43. Teaching birds to speak
44. Massage and care of the body and hair
45. Sign language
46. Foreign languages
47. Regional languages
48. Decorating vehicles with flowers

Queen of Swords
Air is the symbol of spiritualization, where divine inspiration is manifested. Air is the intermediary between heaven and earth, fire and water.

49. Observing the omens
50. Fabricating machines
51. Developing memory
52. Alternate reciting of texts
53. Puns
54. Knowledge of the dictionary
55. Poetic meter
56. Versification and literary forms
57. The art of cheating
58. The art of disguise
59. The art of gaming, the art of dice
60. The game of chess
61. Children’s games
62. Good manners
63. The rules for success: “Even when conquered by fate, man wins by a battle.”
64. Physical culture (prepared to defend what is hers)

A fun reading to ascertain the future of potential relationship or just to understand the ladies in your life, involves separating the Queens from the deck. You then proceed to lay the Queens cards out side by side in this order: Cups, Wands, Coins and Swords. Assign a name of someone you are involved with, friends, coworkers or just interested in to each card. You can choose “Unknown” for one of them. Shuffle the cards and ask a question. ie: Who do I have the best chance of having a successful relationship?; Who will I marry? Who will I date next? Who will I hear from next? Who will marry first? Who will be pregnant next? Who is most loyal to me?

Deal out the cards face up, laying them out one at a time on one of the Trumps, proceeding across all four and returning to the beginning if required. Your question is answered when you deal a matching suit on one of the Queens. Ask another question and start laying down cards from the beginning of the row again, stopping again when a suit matches a trump. After all of the cards have been dealt, pick up each stack and count the number of cards of each suit. Consider the interpretations offered above, as well as standard tarot definitions, as you read the cards presented for each of our ladies. The more you have of one suit indicates the predominant influence or potential asset of that relationship or within that relationship.

Perhaps this will allow us all to look at these ladies of the Tarot with a deeper understanding of their potentials and recognition of abilities. If we follow “The Three Aims of Life” as outlined in the Kama Sutra, we must realize ourselves on three levels. Virtue, wealth and love must be harmonized so that none of them are prejudicial to the others.

“An excess of charity is an obstacle to the fulfillment of duty….An excess of ascetism…destroys material success…an exaggerated pursuit of riches… grief in virtue and love.”

It is interesting to note that the Kama Sutra recommends abstinence and study in an isolated spot until your studies were completed. It was felt as essential to study music, because it belongs to the heart of love, as it was to study your sexuality. If a girl studied the erotic sciences she would know how to behave in her youth, in her married life and ignorance would never be her trap.

Thought provoking isn’t it?

Sources:

“The Complete Kama Sutra” Translated by Alain Danielou

The Mammoth dictionary of symbols

L. Doherty/Witchypoo ©2002

by Gerald Schueler, Ph.D.

Abstract.

The Tarot deck contains archetypal symbols that can be related to the analytical psychology of the Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung. The Tarot deck, especially the major arcana or trump cards, can be used effectively in therapy. The client, with the assistance of the therapist, conducts a reading or uses several cards to tell a story and then discusses possible meanings of the symbols in his or her own words. The therapist then relates the symbolic meanings given by the client to the client’s problem in much the same manner as in Jungian dream analysis. This therapeutic process can be explained by using a chaos model. Using a chaos model of therapy, a period of psychic instability is deliberately induced by the therapist through stimulation of the imagination via the Tarot symbols. Concentration on the Tarot symbols induces bifurcation points that the therapist then uses to direct change toward desired attractors. This is similar to the well-known techniques of paradoxical communication, paradoxical intervention, and prescribing the symptom, all of which induce a temporary condition of psychic instability that is required for a bifurcation.

Introduction

Loye and Eisler (1987) see the roots of modern chaos theory, as it pertains to social science, extending all the way back to the ancient Chinese Book of Changes or I Ching. The I Ching, the oldest oracle still in use today, (Bannister, 1988) was used to make predictions by casting stalks, straws, or sticks. Today, this is usually done by throwing coins (Cleary, 1986). In the West, the oldest oracle still in use today is the Tarot card deck.

The Tarot is a deck of cards which can be used for meditation, psychic stimulation, or divination. It also can be used as a psychological tool to look inside the unconscious (Bannister, 1988; Nichols, 1984). The Tarot is medieval man’s equivalent of today’s highly respected Rorschach and Thematic Apperception tests (Schueler & Schueler, 1994). Wang (1978) describes the Tarot as “a system accepted by many respectable sources such as the school of Carl Jung, which views the Tarot images as agreeing perfectly with the archetypes of the collective unconsciousness” (p. 8).

The Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, saw all of the Tarot images as “descended from the archetypes of transformation” (Jung, 1959/1990, p. 38). These archetypes include several of the primary archetypes that are encountered during Jung’s individuation process, a process of psychological maturation similar in nature to the aging of the physical body (Jacobi, 1942/1973). These include the shadow, the anima and animus, and the wise old man. The Tarot also contains symbols representing other important archetypes of transformative processes such as the hero, the sacrifice, rebirth, the mother, and the Self. In Jung’s analytical psychology, these archetypes comprise the major dynamical components of the unconscious which affect the human psyche in many different ways.

Modern chaos theory addresses complex systems, which are systems with a large number of interrelated parts. It also addresses dynamic systems. Every complex system, and especially every living system (living systems are usually referred to as self-organizing systems), is also a dissipative structure. Ilya Prigogine won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1977 for his work on dissipative structures, which he defined as any structure that takes on and dissipates energy as it interacts with its environment. A dissipative system, unlike one that conserves energy, gives rise to irreversible processes such as the growth of organisms (Nicolis & Prigogine, 1989). All systems that exhibit disequilibrium and self-organization are dissipative and have a dissipative structure (Briggs & Peat, 1989, p. 138). Dissipative systems are those which are able to maintain identity only because they are open to flows of energy, matter, or information from their environments (Prigogine & Stengers, 1984).

Not only is our body a dissipative system, but our psyche as well. Jung designated the ego as an ego-complex, because of the numerous components and processes with which it is comprised, and taught that the ego was one of many complexes that exist in the psyche. “The psyche is a self-regulating system that maintains its equilibrium just as the body does” (Jung, 1954/1985, p. 152). Designating the psyche to be a self-regulating system, Jung (1968) states that “Dreams are the natural reaction of the self-regulating psychic system” ( p. 124). By assuming the psyche to be a complex dynamic system, as well as a dissipative system, we can look at it through the lens of modern chaos theory.

Chaos, as an archetype, is well known in the Tarot where it is depicted fully in card 16, a trump card titled the Lightening Struck Tower. According to Wanless (1986), this card represents transformation. Jung taught that we can become conscious of the unconscious contents in our psyche by examining the symbols that come to us in our dreams. He details many of these archetypal symbols in his Symbols of Transformation (1956).

by David Cherubim

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

The Devil of Tarot not only represents the darker elements, limitations and illusions of mankind, but beyond the Veil of Appearances, the Devil represents a much higher principle, being that the Devil also symbolizes Pan – the All – and Baphomet, who is both Male and Female, Two in One, uniting all things, integrating all parts of the Self.

In Magick, the Devil is a door to a Great and Eternal Mystery, which can only be understood by fearlessly passing through the door and entering into the Temple of the Unconscious. One Mystery of the Devil Atu of Tarot is, in fact, that there is more than meets the eye, and that we must look beyond the Veil of Appearances to Understand the True Nature of a Thing. The Devil Atu also informs us that the only real enemy is the self. But again, there is a much higher and more spiritual interpretation of the Devil, not as the false image of the self, but as the Integration of All. The Devil of Christianity is a perverted form of Pan, the All. Pan represents both the human and the animal united into One, symbolizing a perfect balance between Nature and Humanity.

The Devil represents the Unconscious Self for various reasons. The Devil can signify one’s unconscious fears, limitations, and the unknown and hidden elements of the Psyche. Or it can signify one’s Animal Self, which these days is very unconscious in its basic and pure form, but which must be accepted and integrated. Or, on a much higher level of thinking, the Devil, as Pan, can represent the Secret Self, or the True Self, the Spirit of the Middle Way and the Perfect Balance of All Things.

The Hebrew letter that corresponds with the Devil Atu of Tarot is Ayin, the Eye, which has two fundamental implications: As the Human Eye, it represents the limiting of consciousness to outside appearances or external conditions, which is ignorance. As the Third Eye, it represents the expansion of consciousness beyond the veil of the external into the interior World of Understanding. It has a double meaning, as does the Devil. The same applies to the inverted Pentagram, which is often only seen as a symbol of negativity, but in actual fact it conveys the formula of initiation itself.

The Devil is the Shadow Self, which is another term for the unconscious self or personal unconscious. It is the Natural or Instinctive Self, the Primitive and Animal Part of our natures, and pertains to all that we do not want to know or accept about ourselves due to the false beliefs and imprints of our society and a general fear of the unknown. It is called the shadow since it relates to the image that is cast upon the screen of life when the Light of Divinity illuminates the self. When the light emerges into consciousness, via the works of initiation of whatever kind, the shadow self appears and must be accepted, integrated and ultimately transcended, so that true equilibrium may be attained in the soul of the initiate. Without accepting our shadow self, we remain imbalanced. And Balance is the basis and the end of the Great Work!

Love is the law, love under will.

Copyright © David Cherubim. 1998 e.v. All rights reserved.