Along the Tarot Path

I have the gift

tarotschool — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 06:55:05 +0000

A Cup Full of Tarot

Notebook #2: Unmesha
05 – I have the gift

I have the gift of being able to look reality in the face and deny it, and then build a life on that denial. That would be a reasonable description of insanity, I think. But I have an inner life that is rich and satisfying and an outer life that is as good as anyone else’s and better than most.

In a few days, I will be teaching an intensive on “Will and Intent,” surely an act of my own brand of insanity. The premise on which this intensive is built is so opposed to, so radically different from, the current standards of reality that it’s comic. But the participants are hungry for an improvement on a reality that leaves them inwardly poor and malnourished.

That is what I do at The Tarot School, and that is what people come for, and stay for. The teaching that Ruth Ann and I do is pleasing and useful to a surprisingly large number of people, come to think of it.

Even though the song of the world has been sung to them since birth, they are ready, willing and able to replace it with something better if only something better would appear. To such people I can speak. Then, the song that I’ve laboriously learned to sing leads to a faint but steady answering chorus.

Apparently, teaching has provided me with the only community of thought I have. Without students I would be, I guess, quite alone. Scary thought. It never actually occurred to me before so starkly. If I hadn’t learned to teach, I would have had to learn to keep silent. To stay safe. A perfect schizoid corner to have painted myself into. A perfect nightmare for someone who loves to talk.

As I write, a solution to this dilemma occurs to me. Instead of talk, how about act? Turn life into act instead of thought, will instead of talk, example instead of argument. That way, community can be there or not, but being alone need not be lonely.

This, in a nutshell, is “Will and Intent.” At least for me.

– Wald

I was glancing through a book…

tarotschool — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:52:47 +0000

A Cup Full of Tarot

Notebook #2: Unmesha
04 – I was glancing through a book…

I was glancing through a book today that purported to provide a pragmatic way to discover meaning in any individual life, to awaken energy and provide new directions. Maybe it does that. The picture that springs to mind is of a person in a lifeboat adrift on an endless sea, conjuring chores to attend to and directions to set.

In the face of an endless mystery, meaning is a coin with no value. It may exist, but it buys nothing.

Meaning is an issue in the midst of the busyness of an anthill. An ant may well search for meaning in the midst of a drudgery that seems pointless.

But for any consciousness that faces existence by itself, there are no words for what it witnesses. And without words, there is no meaning. Meaning is nothing but a word in search of itself.

So what task shall I set myself? And for what reason? Buddha set himself the task of finding the root of suffering and a way to overcome it. And then, when he had done this successfully, he set himself the task of teaching his method to the world. His reason was compassion. That’s a good reason. And it was a good task.

But suffering has not been overcome. Nothing much has changed. Had he done and said nothing, you’d scarcely notice any difference. What could I do or say or think or feel that would do better than that? Certainly, the world would not benefit or change in the slightest. However the mystery of things came to be, it will not be in any way affected by me, or anyone else.

I can surely affect myself. I choose how I wish to live. I can set my craft to sail in any direction I choose on the endless sea. Such choices have no meaning. They don’t affect the sea, and I will one day sink beneath its waves without a trace.

But already I have achieved something. This situation no longer upsets me. The situation will not be affected by anything I do or anything that happens to me or anything I have or don’t have. I am free to turn inward if I choose and ignore or become the sea.

I have heard it said that the root cause of suffering is ignorance. And what is the root cause of ignorance? I would say that it is limit. And the root of limit is the separation of consciousness into the bits and pieces of individual awareness.

And that’s the nature of mystery — the individual awareness adrift on the endless sea of consciousness. That’s how it’s set up. That’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s an unsolvable, unresolvable mystery by its nature.

The funny thing is, it’s no problem if you don’t have an obsession with solving puzzles.

— Wald

I saw something…

tarotschool — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:49:28 +0000

A Cup Full of Tarot
Notebook #2: Unmesha

03 – I saw something…

I saw something this morning. I saw an answer, a good answer, to the question “What is evil?”

Whatever impedes the flow of emergence as it emerges, and whatever impedes the flow of return as it returns, will be perceived as evil.

The impedance would have to be more apparent than real, and the evil would have to be in the eye of the beholder. The beholder of evil could be the doer or anyone else. All that is necessary for evil to occur is for someone to observe it.

In the eyes of a predominantly emergent person (if there is or could be such a thing), any act of return could be viewed with either reverence or aversion.

To a predominantly returning person, emergence in various forms could be viewed with anything from joy to revulsion.

The relationship between pure emergence and pure return would probably be the predictable relationship of reverence to joy. Insofar as neither emergence nor return is ever pure, or at least rarely so, each is contaminated by a limited impulse and a limited vision.

A predilection for either direction that is simultaneously strong and limited probably is responsible for the perception of evil. The degree of evil perceived would then be a direct function of intensity and limit. The greater the intensity and the limitation, the greater the evil perceived. As either intensity or limitation diminished, the perceived evil would decrease.

— Wald Amberstone

Tonight…

tarotschool — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:19:21 +0000

A Cup Full of Tarot
Notebook #2: Unmesha

02 – Tonight…

Tonight I would normally be teaching a teleclass. Because of a sore throat, I’m not. Instead, I’ll be adding some insights to a class I would have given that will either deepen or confuse it, or both.

The class is on the symbolism of The Blindfold. I’ve already written the notes for class, but the extra week my illness has given me before presenting it has lead to a deepened understanding.

A blindfold can produce either an inner light or an inner darkness in addition to an obvious external darkness. A blindfold can be more subtle than a cloth tied physically over the eyes. It can be a word or an idea, a feeling or a predilection, a deed or a memory, a talent or a samskara.

In the case of a non-physical blindfold, its effect is to focus or filter; to redirect immediate contact with the world as it is happening through a pre-existent perspective; to darken or lighten reality; to add qualities to it or remove qualities from it; to transform it; to give meaning to plain facts; in short, to make reality into a symbol.

This transformation can be experienced as taking place inwardly or externally; it can be felt as positive or negative. It can be a transformation to be sought after or undone.

The blindfold in the 2 of Swords is the first kind. In the 8 of Swords, it is the second kind.

– Wald Amberstone

Kashmir Shaivism speaks about…

tarotschool — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:41:14 +0000

A Cup Full of Tarot

Notebook #2: Unmesha
01 – Kashmir Shaivism speaks about…

Kashmir Shaivism speaks about the experience of the Truth as unmesha, a flashing forth. In a split second you perceive it. Within a moment, you realize it.

Let the Truth flash forth and then hold on to it and contemplate it. In this way, instead of living your mental projection, you will learn to live in the experiences of the Truth, the Truth that is unmesha, that flashes forth here and there: in the laughter of a child, in the noise of a machine, in the sound of footsteps, or as you watch a bird flying through the sky. It doesn’t matter where or when unmesha happens; the Truth, the light of the Self, will shine forth.

Hold on to it. In it, great strength exists. In it, wonderful understanding exists. Learn to hold on to the flashes of the Truth, the light of the Self.

As you begin to experience the Truth in every grain of food, as you begin to experience it in every word, in every action, slowly but surely, you become more and more established in this experience.

— Swami Chidvilasananda

I study tarot for the flashing forth of the Truth — in an image, a number, a word, or an idea.

— Wald Amberstone

WATTS Next!

tarotschool — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:16:25 +0000

We’ll be presenting a brand new class on Tarot and Color at the Wisconsin Area Tri-State Tarot Symposium which is happening the weekend of July 13-15 — just a couple of weeks away!

This is shaping up to be a fantastic gathering and we’d love to see you there. You can get all the details at http://www.wisconsintarot.com

The conference is being co-hosted by Julie Cuccia-Watts and Corrine Kenner. Julie is the creator of the Maat Tarot and used one of its cards to illustrate this stunning poster!

It is possible for anyone…

tarotschool — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:11:52 +0000

A Cup Full of Tarot

Notebook #1: Notes & Comments
03 – It is possible for anyone…

It is possible for anyone, no matter the level of spiritual development, to harmonize the four elements and thus establish a “covenant of peace” between body and soul.
—————–

The fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the awareness of duality. To eat of this fruit is to descend into the illusion of separate existence, of polarities and opposites, of birth and death.

—————–

Between two thoughts, there is said to be a gap, a gap which is very subtle, a space which can be seen, felt, sensed, as stability and silence. It is in the space between arising and subsiding, between in-breath and out-breath, that the Self, Consciousness, can be experienced.

Around every card and between any two cards in tarot there is such a space. When a spread is laid out, cards are joined across these spaces by a web of continuity. This continuity is the sense of an individual life; the web of connections between changeless moments, the joining of the eternal “now” of separate cards, is a “story,” a drama. This ever-changing drama of separate existences obscures the changeless moment from which every drama arises.

It can be said that the root energy of creation, from which all form, substance and activity is derived, is Time which manifests as Change. All that arises, arises in Time. And all that arises in Time subsides in Time.

Time is the root of every story, of all its characters, objects, places and actions, and of its plot as well. The movements of Time as change are revealed as the story itself.

In tarot, what changes is a spread, a web of connected cards that reveals a bit of the story of a life. What does not change is each individual card, each one a changeless moment containing the entire message of that moment for whoever pauses to hear it.

The power of the message contained in any moment is greater than the significance of any bit of the continuous web of drama.

The power of the message contained in every moment, in every card, is that it connects the one who hears it to timeless consciousness. The power of the message in any spread, in any bit of the continuous drama, is that it perpetuates the drama.

One level of teaching about tarot concerns itself with reading the drama. On another level the emphasis is on reading the changeless moment from which each such drama arises. Finally, tarot teaches us to join the eternal moment with a steady flow of time in a single understanding and experience.

In the same way that a drop of water contains all the essential properties of the ocean, each tarot card contains the essence of the whole deck. There is no real difference between the deck and each of its cards.

The apparent difference lies in the mind’s attachment to drama. If the mind did not have this attachment, the drama would not exist. There would be no need for spreads and readings; the web of connections would evaporate and each card would stand alone as the complete message. In the same way, each moment of every life stands alone and contains the message that it is the purpose of each life to hear.

An aspect of the magick of tarot is to allow time to stop so that we can examine a single moment, in the form of a single card, in its fullness. Ironically, this process takes patience, care and time.

– Wald Amberstone

Street Reading

tarotschool — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 23:00:50 +0000

Wald and I like to take walks after midnight when the weather is nice.Yesterday I finally bought a digital camera and decided to take it along in case I spotted a picture worth taking. The Universe obliged by presenting three face-down playing cards in the middle of the street!

This is the one I turned over.

Anyone care to offer an interpretation of this message from the Universe?

If you know how to read standard playing cards, you can read it as is. If not, I would translate the Jack of Diamonds to the Knight of Pentacles in tarot.

- Ruth Ann

It seems to me…

tarotschool — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:39:23 +0000

A Cup Full of Tarot

Notebook #1: Notes & Comments
02 – It seems to me…

It seems to me, from a lifelong immersion in the culture of my times, that a fundamental principle of science is that the universe is not alive. Life is thought to be rare, and as far as anyone can tell at the moment, limited to this planet. Life is understood to be only and necessarily organic.

Magick, on the other hand, has always seen life everywhere, in everything. Life, and consciousness, are known to pervade nature in all Her forms.

It may be a bit extreme, but on the whole fair to say, that for science the universe is basically masculine and dead, while for magick the universe is feminine and alive. For science, life is an aberration, an accident, an add-on and an afterthought to a superbly abstract creation. For magick, life is the point, the reason, the very stuff of an intensely personal creation, although finally it is just as abstract.

The difference between science and magick in the end is between an impersonal, dead, and essentially pointless creation, and a living, personal, intentional creation.

Psychology, as it is taught in school and practiced in offices and institutions, is of the scientific persuasion. Psychology is the name given to the scientific study of consciousness. The systematic magickal investigation of consciousness has no name of its own. It must, perforce, borrow a name from science, and call itself magickal psychology.

The Four Attributes of a Magickal Universe

1. everything is connected

2. everything is significant

3. everything is alive

4. everything is divine

The connections between things are subtle and therefore hidden from common view. These connections form the basis for magickal practice.

The significance of every created force and object leads the magician to treat everything with respect. There is no such thing as a casual attitude in magick.

The life force includes sentience of some kind, awareness in some form, the constant implication of responsibility, duty, right action, appropriateness — dharma. There is a natural and appropriate way-to-be inherent in being alive. Fire burns, wind blows, waters flows, earth supports; seasons turn, night and day alternate; lions roar and rend, cattle chew their cud and birds fly. Each force and object was created with qualities and consequences of being. Each has its place. Each endures in its proper path. Each affects the others.

Everything is divine. Everything flows from the same, single source. Everything comes from No-thing. Every thing partakes of that same mystery. From the divine love, the divine will, and the divine energy, everything is formed and made, given life, meaning and connection, and ultimately gathered up and withdrawn once again into the mystery of No-thing, a divine cycle of out-breath and in-breath.

It is this cycle of out-breath and in-breath that is the energy and secret of emergence and return, descent and ascent, manifestation and apotheosis.

It is this circular process, this rhythm, that is the secret knowledge of the magician. It is the secret that contains the mechanism and the reason of being. It is this mechanism that magick manipulates and it is this reason that magick serves.

– Wald Amberstone

A human being…

tarotschool — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 06:56:29 +0000

A Cup Full of Tarot

Notebook #1: Notes & Comments
01– A human being…

A human being, on one level, is recognizable as human by possessing a human body, as distinct and identifiable as the body of any other creature. And one human being is distinguishable from another by equally concrete, physical, means. Creatures of every kind and level demonstrate the same type of discrimination.

But human beings fancy themselves, perhaps correctly, unique among living creatures in possessing the invisible quality of self-awareness, a quality enigmatic by definition, a mystery far more defining than the physical shape that contains it. But self-awareness, too, seeks concrete manifestations to know itself by. It is for this reason that humanity creates symbols. By means of symbols, self-awareness becomes visible and thus knowable, and self-knowledge becomes the final and defining task of every human being.

Among symbolic constructs, tarot is one of the most powerful and versatile and is capable of reflecting self-awareness with great depth and precision. And this is accomplished with a great economy of means. In small mirrors made of tarot symbols, each differently constructed, the varying shapes, shades and levels of self-awareness can be clearly seen.

One such mirror is made of the four Aces. A rich symbolic universe, complete in itself, it can both reflect and explain the durable sub-stratum on which and from which individual personalities are built. And personality, with all its attendant complexities, is the form of self-awareness which commands the lion’s share of our attention. It is in the mirror of the four Aces that personality, the individual human face of self-awareness, begins to reveal itself in tarot.

The Mirror of the Four Aces

Tarot is simple. The personality is not. Yet the personality can be seen reflected in the symbols and structures of tarot.

This reflection is simple. To understand it is not. Yet this understanding is attainable through the systems and practices of tarot.

The symbols of tarot are complex. Its structures are not. Yet these structures contain the symbols and become a body of systems and practices.

These systems and practices are complex. Their results are not. Yet their results lead to the understanding that unravels the complexities of personality.

Finally, everything is simple. In the end there is no confusion. Personality, and the symbols, structures, systems and practices needed to understand it, becomes clear as glass.

This is an affirmation, a truth that is more believed in than experienced. What follows are a structure, a system and a practice called The Mirror of the Four Aces, in which is reflected a tantalizing experience of the simplicity of personality.

– Wald Amberstone