Tarot Inspire Page 5
Cheryl Savino: I am in the circle of oracles. on my bright pillar is the King of Swords and on my dark pillar is The Hermit. I offer just and ethical insights as my gift, and remove from this place seclusion and introspection in that service.
Sissi Fraley: I am in the circle of Oracles. On my bright pillar is the 5 of Swords (rev) and on my dark pillar is the King of Swords (rev). I offer forgiveness and change and remove from this place anger, bitterness, and resentment.
Shay Lefebvre: I am in the circle of Oracles. On my bright pillar is the Seven of Pentacles and on my dark pillar is the Three of Wands. I offer appreciation of what you have before you and remove speculation that the grass may be greener elsewhere.
TarotCard-reader Mohini: I am in the circle of Oracles. On my bright pillar is Two of Cups and on my dark pillar is The Tower. I offer the vision of highest love and partnering with divinity.... and remove from this place the need to have any facade to protect the truth.
Susa Morgan Black: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the 5 of Pentacles and on my dark pillar is the Page of Wands reversed. I offer a vision of sanctuary for the wounded as my gift, and remove from this place all aimless wandering in search of sanctuary.
James Wells: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the Tower and on my dark pillar is the Five of Pentacles. I offer an unwavering voice of thunder as my gift, and remove from this place all that is injurious and penurious.
Pauline Devlin: I am in the circle of oracles, on my bright pillar is the 3 of swords and on my dark pillar is the lovers. I offer a vision of discernment in relationships, of accepting the teachings and loss from within them, and remove from this place all choices that I truly know are irresponsible and will love myself as much as I love another.
Katie-Ellen Hazeldine: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is The Chariot. On my dark pillar is the 8 of Swords. I offer mirrors and words for harmonization and congruency, supporting peace of clarity within, enabling progress of thought and action without. I serve to remove bars from cages that needlessly oppress and confine, that are prisons not sanctuaries. I help the difference to be known, in order that there shall be liberation from confusion, which blinds and shackles.
Barbara Moore: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is Death. On my dark pillar is Strength. I offer guidance through the darkest hours of transformation and remove from this place the need the need to be a savior.
Prema Lawrence: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the Fool. On my dark pillar is Judgment. I offer the rites of passage and the path to the journey and new beginnings with absolute child-like innocence and remove any rules and regulations that will hold the butterflies from coming out of their pupas. I let go of any stereotype perceptions that may hold back people from finding themselves. I embrace the uniqueness of each one's purpose.
Janine Hall: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the Four of Wands and on my dark pillar is Six of Swords. I offer celebration and my confidence in your truths, passions and ambitions as my gift, and remove from this place the storminess caused by upset minds.
Sarah Schuster: I am in the Circle of Oracles. On my bright pillar is the Magician and on my dark pillar is the Dancer Prince. I offer potential in communication as well as in intelligence and the tools for inner strength, power and understanding as my Gift and remove from this place obsessiveness and all senses of been stifled by undesired emotions.
Emma Morley: I am in the Circle of Oracles. On my bright pillar is Temperance and on my dark pillar is the 2 of Wands. I offer guidance with calm, centered deliberation, delivering tactful and sympathetic advice without sugar-coating as my gift, and I remove from this place old fashioned, stunted views and feelings of self-doubt.
Den Elder: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is 4 Rods and on my dark pillar is 7 Cups. I offer a happy partnership as my gift, and remove from this place the waste of time of wishful thinking without action.
Carole McCleery: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the Hierophant on my dark pillar is the 10 of Wands. I offer counselling and spiritual support as my gift and remove the burdens of your life in that service.
Ivy Lieberman: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is 7 of cups and on my dark pillar is 9 of swords. I offer vision and clarity as my gift, and remove from this place the madness of false hope in dreams.
Kim Cadotte: I am in the Circle of Oracles. On my bright pillar is Elder of Earth and on my dark pillar is the Three of Air. I offer a lifestyle of simplicity and self sufficiency as my gift, and I remove from this place old patterns and the tendency to over think things.
Stacey Riley: I am in the Circle of Oracles. On my bright Pillar is the 10 of Cups and on my dark pillar is the six of coins. I offer my imagination at its fullest potential as my gift and remove from this place my want for more than I have.
Krsna-Nandini Main: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the 8 of swords and on my dark pillar is the 3 of swords. I offer the ability to show you your restrictions as my gift and I remove from this place the heartache associated with feelings of unworthiness and lack of belief in myself.
Alan John Wilkinson: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the 10 of Swords and on my dark pillar is the 6 of cups. I offer hope when there appears to be none, and remove from this place stuck memories from the past.
Lori Grace Petroff: I am in the Circle of Oracles. On my Bright pillar is The High Priest. On my dark pillar is the Nine of Pentacles. I offer an earthbound magic, bring respect and clarity to the very real and touchable side of magic, as my gift. I remove from this place the ego, the need to hoard and hide away skills and gifts, and the traps of money.
Sarah Perks: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the King of Cups and on my dark pillar is the 7 of Swords. I offer kindness, compassion and support without judgment; I try to facilitate harmony through my actions, as my gift. I remove from this place, self deception.
Marcia McCord: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is the Ace of Swords and on my dark pillar is the 9 of Pentacles. I offer new ideas and perspectives as my gift, and remove from this place the limitations of the Comfort Zone and complacency.
Sherry Warner: I am in the circle of oracles. On my bright pillar is Wheel of Fortune (rev) and on my dark pillar is Knight of Cups (rev). I offer insight into the ups and downs of life, karmic awareness & change as my gift, and remove from this place illusion, deceptions & emotional imbalances.
In reading these oracles, perhaps we can hear the spirit of the Tarot telling us of its gifts, and perhaps we can consider each of the cards mentioned in a new light within a reading – as giving a gift or challenging an attachment.
With blessings and thanks to the living oracles of our Facebook group at:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/Tarotprofessionals/
Magick and Tarot
We have given several kickstarts in this book to the relation of Tarot images to various facets of the spiritual life. In Magick, a more dynamic approach is taken to “cause change in conformity with will”. Here we offer a brief and simplified form of ritual into which you may consider placing any work with your Tarot.
The practice of Ritual is a poorly appreciated part of our heritage. Ritual survives in our daily lives, but has become unconscious; our daily ritual of going to work, or the ritual of preparing a cricket pitch for play; a Punch and Judy show, the weekly rituals of the Lottery; and so on. Magical Ritual aims to perform a ritual as a dynamic, active, conscious event, to focus our intention and channel all available energies towards a specific goal.
Each element of a ritual represents a part of the process we are “acting out” within a defined area, the “temple”. As such, each prop, movement and word becomes symbolic of the project we have chosen to magically empower by the ritual, be it a new job, a change of house, or a work of art.
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p; The ritual “tools” also embody specific aspects of the environment around the magical worker, both the psychological and the physical universe. Although the tools have a variety of roles dependent on the rite, they can be basically seen as;
The Temple the world around you.
The Circle your own sphere of influence.
The Altar the basis of your work in the world, the fixed point.
The Wand your Will, or Energy.
The Cup your Understanding of the situation.
The Sword your Reason and Mind.
The Pentacle/Table the Material with which you work.
Thus, when one drinks water from a cup and then walks towards the table, we are in effect saying, “I understand the situation I am in and now I know which things I need to work with in order to change the situation.” By taking the Wand from the Table you further make known that you are to devote your energy and direction to making that change. All that in a simple series of actions!
Your location in the Temple during the ritual is also of significance, as the Temple floor is “invisibly” designed to represent the plan of the Tree of Life, and the other symbols which might be being worked. In some rituals, the symbol of the sign is actually drawn out on the floor of the Temple as a guide to movement throughout the ritual.
It is obviously important not to change any one part of a ritual without considering its relationship to a number of levels and systems into which it has been placed. The design of a ritual is a magical act in itself, and although there may be inharmonious elements left in the rituals due to attempting to weave diverse stands together, we must try to minimize them.
The ritual stages of purification, consecration, banishing and invocation serve to achieve the following ends, which are explained in further detail below,
Purification Removes all elements in the environment antagonistic to your aims.
Consecration Dedicates the remaining elements to the task in hand.
Banishing Prepares yourself and defines the area in which you are working.
Invocation Calls the forces and energies appropriate to the project at that point.
Purification
One purpose of the Purification is to ensure that the Temple is receptive to the forces which are to be invoked. You may have experienced going into a building or room and being struck by an oppressive atmosphere; this is the result of use for purposes which are emotionally charged, which has caused a build-up of the emotion in the fabric of the building and its location (such charges can outlive the building itself, if strong enough). All such places should be regularly purified by use of a simple technique such as this one. It is also possible for a building or room to pick up pleasant feelings, which can be equally strong. In such cases, purification seems to cleanse the room of specific associations without removing the atmosphere itself.
Strong emotional or purpose-specific contamination of a Temple can limit the effectiveness of later invocations - or even repel the influence altogether.
A second, equally important, function of Purification is to help develop a receptive state in the Celebrants. It is useful to focus on receptivity during the Purification in order to enhance this effect. Relax and encourage your mind to become dark, silent and still. In this way it will have the same effect on you as on the Temple.
Consecration
This is the active complement to Purification. Its function in the Temple is to complete the clearance of build-up, by forming an 'active readiness' to receive new influences.
Celebrants should also encourage this state in themselves during the consecration.
At the end of the Ceremony, the function of Purification and Consecration is to eliminate after-effects of the ceremony and ready the room for its next use.
Ritual Format
PURIFICATION
Say: So therefore first the priest, who governeth the works of fire, must sprinkle with the lustral waters of the loud resounding sea.
CONSECRATION
Say: … and when all the phantoms have departed, thou shalt hear the voice of the fire, that voice which darts and flashes throughout the hidden depths of this universe (from the Chaldean Oracles).
The Four Elemental Weapons
The first teachings of ritual are of the four elements, and their corresponding temple tools. You can also use the Four Aces of the Tarot to represent these tools. Each of the tools is a symbol of the elements and their basic correspondence to Nature.
All attributions commence in the East, the place of the Dawn, and complete in the North, the place of Earthing.
The Sword or Athame Air East Clarity
The Wand or Staff Fire South Will
The Cup or Chalice Water West Depth
The Pantacle, Disk Earth North Completion
To activate and recognise the four elements in your life, you can use your hand to call forth the four elemental weapons and their powers:
Palm facing upwards : "This is my Pantacle, where my life is lived"
Palm Cupped : "This is my Chalice, where my love is lived"
Palm Sideways: "This is my Knife, where my decisions are lived"
Palm Sideways, one finger pointing, others under thumb: "And this is my Wand, where my Will is lived."
"My life is in my hands"
Mysticism and Tarot
The power of Tarot to express the mystical experience was fully appreciated by A. E. Waite, whose first Tarot project with Pamela Colman-Smith has proven the most popular and de-facto setting for Tarot iconography for a century. We have illustrated and explored his much more profound and considered “second Tarot”, executed by the stained-glass artist J. B. Trinick, in our book Abiding in the Sanctuary (Keswick: Forge Press, 2011).
In this second Tarot, Waite returns to depict the images as an ascent – a Christian ascent – of the human presence up the Tree of Life. In making this ascent, accompanied by the Shekinah (presence of God, usually depicted as feminine) the initiate eventually attains a state Waite terms Unitas, a sacramentalism of our inward nature.
Waite writes on this in his often overlooked The Way of Divine Union (1905), which was written just before he embarked on illustrating the path with the Waite-Trinick Tarot. His writing, whilst couched in Christian terminology, is suffused with highly emotive divine longing and mystical experience. He writes, “God is immanent within us but is asleep for us till we awaken Him, and it is often a work of many years to learn the secret of the quickening kiss. It is a secret of joy and tears” (p. 287).
In describing this path, Waite points out that it is indeed a personal path, unique to each of us; “The truth is that life is individual and to each therefore shall a path at his need be given” (p. 145). However, the road, no matter how travelled, and from whence commenced, is always the same; certain experiences are catholic in that words truest sense, “the developments differ, but it is the same in essential nature everywhere … the field of consciousness is without limit in its reception of experience, but it remains that which it is” (p. 147).
We would recommend this book by Waite to all those looking to understand his Tarot, particularly the Waite-Trinick images. The secrets of the Mystical Marriage and the Christ-Life are integral to his Tarot as a truly spiritual illustration and inspiration.
We will now recommend further reading for those wishing to explore various avenues of mysticism, personal work and magick through the auspices of each of the Major Arcana.
The Fool: The Cloud of Unknowing, Anon.
The Magician: Magick in Theory and Practice, Aleister Crowley.
The High Priestess: Daughter of Fire, Irina Tweedy.
The Empress: Finding God in the Singing River, Mark I. Wallace.
The Emperor: The Fourth Way, P. D. Ouspensky
The Hierophant: Meister Eckhart, trans. Edmund Colledge & Bernard McGinn
The Lovers: The Crucible of Love, E. W. Trueman Dicken
The Chariot: The Illusion of Conscious Will, Daniel M. Wegner
Strength: Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl
The Hermit: The Art of Contemplation, Ramon Lull
The Wheel of Fortune: The Book of the Die, Luke Rhinehart
Justice: Straight and Crooked Thinking, Robert H. Thouless
The Hanged Man: Life in the Labyrinth, E. J. Gold
Death: A Year to Live, Stephen Levine
Temperance: The Book of Abramelin, Georg Dehn
Devil: The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes.
Blasted Tower: Prometheus Rising, Robert Anton Wilson
The Star: I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, Philip K. Dick
The Moon: Meditation and Kabbalah, Aryeh Kaplan