Often called a mirror of the soul, the tarot cards provide a reflective way to look deeper into the issues and problems that we struggle with in life. Tarot cards use symbolism and archetypes to illuminate the human journey as well as color, numerology, and the elements of fire, water, air, and earth. At times, answers to our questions are very specific; other times they indicate a more general approach to an issue. This may rely on the specificity of the question, the trust of the person receiving the reading, and the ability of the reader. Although many people associate being psychic or gifted with tarot reading, I have found that with careful study of the cards, anyone can learn to use the oracle to effectively guide oneself and others.
Similar to dreams or intuition, the tarot works on our subconscious to present insights and awareness about certain aspects of our life that we may be overlooking. For example, I have found that although someone asks a question about his or her career, the cards may show a response to a relationship issue. Finding the interconnection between these different parts of our life is crucial to better understanding our soul’s growth and development. We may tend to compartmentalize different parts of our life; however, the reality is that each aspect of our life is connected and dependent to each other.
Tarot helps us to see what is going on below the surface with our relationships and love, money, career, health issues, and spiritual questions. This guidebook explores a fresh perspective on each of the cards and their meanings along with many effective ways to work with each card including exercises, visualizations, and ceremony to help you embody the dynamics of each of the cards. Focusing on the essence of the card using these tools will connect you to the meaning and provide personal insights and growth. You will be able to see more clearly the patterns in your life and make changes as needed.
This work views the tarot as a form of mythic story, a collective dream that appears on our life’s journey to teach us about the nature of the world and the universe we inhabit. When we recognize that life is unfolding as our own personal myth, we create a lens that allows us to step back from our current issues and view them as a journey that happening not to us but through us and for not only us but for the collective. I hold the view that we are each a unique expression of the Universe desiring to experience each and every possible shade of emotion, creative expression, and learning through our relationships, jobs and careers, family, and soul gifts.
The tarot’s symbolic nature provides us with a keen tool to mirror our path and point the direction on our personal mythic storyline. Using the tarot in this way—as a helpful guide to certain outcomes—can prepare us for things in our lives.
When we are able to embody both the positive and negative aspects of our lives and make sense of them through myth, ritual, and ceremony, we have more vivid connection to life’s phases. This embodiment enables us to have a better grasp on what is coming up in the future, how to better relate to others, and navigate changes both welcomed and unwelcomed.
Using Ceremony
The word “ceremony” comes from the Medieval Latin ceremonia and the Latin caerimonia, meaning “holiness, sacredness; awe; reverent rite.” “Holiness” in its root sense is to make whole and thus when we create ceremony, we are aligning our body, heart, and mind to create a sense of wholeness in our spirit. In ceremony, which in many ways is spiritually embodied art, we touch into the human sense of awe and reverence that arises in connection to our soul journey. The ceremonies in this book are inspired by the tarot, the elements, and my work with the earth. When you work with these, you will naturally color and embody them in your own unique way.
Experience the Mystery of Tarot is the map to bringing your connection to the ancient oracle of tarot into embodied, practical, and celebratory form. Ceremony, which in this book includes exercises and visualizations, is a creative container to put a specific intention into form. When we create a ceremony, which can be as simple as lighting a candle, we are creating a direct link to our soul through symbol, forms, and elements. Ceremony may include visualization, sounds and music, light and color, and flowers and stones that help us to embody our intention as well as naturally connecting us to the earth and all that we are related to. Included in the book is a guideline to creating ceremony in general as well as many different kinds of ceremonial suggestions to bring your own tarot work to life.
By setting an intention and performing a symbolic action that incorporates the sensory elements, we communicate directly to our soul. For example, if we wish to create more clarity in our lives, manifest a car, let go of a negative relationship, or cultivate gratitude, we can create a ceremony to put this intention more powerfully in motion. This kind of soul “technology” has been used by humans since ancient times as way to find, share, and cultivate gratitude for our resources; connect with the unseen; and honor major life transitions. Using the ancient practice of ceremony with the tarot effectively deepens not only our connection to the oracle but to life itself as ways to find, share, and cultivate gratitude for our resources; celebrate the seasons; connect to the elements and the natural world; build a relationship with the unseen; practice divination and honor major life transitions.
We can also use ceremony to minimize negative implications in our life. When we learn through the tarot that something negative is on the horizon, we can take steps to embody and act out this information before it has to manifest fully in our lives. For example, in a reading about the future, if my client receives the Five of Disks or Pentacles, which often indicates a physical loss or theft, I then suggest doing a ceremonial offering. This gives my client the opportunity to embody that loss and become aware of it before something is actually stolen. This embodiment can prevent the outcome of actually losing something, as we are using the cards or oracle to tune directly into energetic consequences. This is taking destiny into our own hands, accepting responsibility, and using the power of ceremony to change our life.
I also acknowledge that I am a white, queer American person with recent ancestral roots from Hungary, Quebec, and New England (occupied lands of Iroquois, Abenaki, and Wabanaki nations). I have had the fortune and privilege to travel extensively and receive teachings from indigenous elders in India, Tibet, and Hawai’i. Although I have received inspirations from these teachers as well as expressed permissions, much of my sharing still comes from my own direct experience with dreams, spirit guides, helpers and ancestors. My Hungarian grandmother has guided much of my intuitive work through dreams and meditations. I have been clairvoyant and oftentimes clairaudient and clairsentient since I was a very small child, possibly due to overcoming illness both as an infant and later as a teenager. For all intents and purposes except for two specific ceremonies, the rest of this work is inspired by my own spiritually creative experiences. These two are the Bowl of Light and Tonglen which come from Hawaiian and Tibetan tradition respectively, both popularized for Western minds and taught to me by impeccable teachers. Any errors that exist are my own, not those of my teachers.
I also wish to note for the reader, that because these ceremonies come through me and my soul view which is often a wide-angle lens of gratitude, joy and love, they often focus on an individualized and personal perspective of creating change in one’s life to bring about more harmony, beauty, and clarity. However, these practices and my view does not discount the truth that those with privilege (myself included) may very well be more resourced and supported to do that kind of work. I recognize, as best I can as I continue doing the work, that we humans are also embedded in complicated and nuanced systems of oppression that affects our day-to-day well-being, particularly for those with fewer privileges regarding race, gender, ability, age, sexual orientation, and the like. I recognize that one small ceremony will likely not transform pain into power, so to speak, or resolve complicated trauma that stems not only from personal and familial issues but also the collective and ancestral trauma calling out with such force to be healed in these times. Many of these ceremonies include work with the land and elements; I encourage you to learn the ancestral history of where you live; acknowledge the original peoples of that place; work on understanding of your own ancestral lineage; and approach this work with a sense of reverence, kindness, humility, and the notion that we are guests here on earth for a short time. I strongly believe in the power of ceremony and ritual. Through this work and the use of tarot, I have a sincere wish that folks will see benefit in their lives by using these as well as creating their own that suit them and their practices with magic, their ancestors, and the land.