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A New Paradigm

Week 1: If you have been raised in the West you have been raised in what I call the Scientistic Paradigm. Science is the ultimate arbitrator of what is real, and only what is scientifically provable can be 'officially' accepted as real. Oh we largely enjoy freedom of religion, you can believe any silly thing you want. But don't rely on the power of God to heal your fevered child, nor tell your co-workers, your pendulum stone talks to you. Not unless you want people to view you as mad.

In truth, we have a de-facto state, no super-state, religion of Agnostic-Scientific Materialism. In week one we explore, and I suggest that the Tarot is one path to a different and more expanisive Paradigm, one that respects science and its areas of excellance, but one that does not exclude/disrespect the spiritual level of reality, science cannot explain away.

A New and Dear Friend

Week 2: This reading will always have a special place in my heart, because through it I gained a dear friend.

I had mentioned in passing to the Q that I would do a reading for her if she liked, and "It just so happened" that my timing could not have been better for her. The Q was ill, and she was worried about the impact her illness was having on her relationship.

Growing up as a reader

Week 3: Why do we become readers, because we are curious if this Tarot thing really works, or if it does, will it work for me. How amazingly cool that must be to touch the energetic world. To see magick in action right before our eyes. To see a strangers life painted with a deck of cards. How cool that must be... and it truly is breathtaking still every time I read a spread.

Yet some reading's remind us of the awesome responsibility we take on as readers. For people will come to us, drawn by the magick, and bare their souls. Trust us with secrets they have shared no one else. Imagine your doing some "fun" readings for free at a local concert. The bands are basically unknowns, the music ranges from good to just loud. Your buddies are selling incense and candles, when a 14 Year old girl, who is thinking about leaving home sits down at your table needing your guidance.

A Contract with your Tarot

Week 4: This week I reflect on a readers "Contract with their Tarot" its an idea that is and is not origanal to myself. For although most books written today stress the importance of intuition over formulea, I dont think anyone else expresses this important Idea just this way. :)

3 Card Spread for New Relationships

Week 5: The Cup of Relationships spread we have seen is one of the most useful spreads I know, it has been a mainstay of my own "practice" for a few years now and I view it as a trusted friend. :) However its rather large, while girls of 14 and women of 45* want to know, "Is He 'The One'" No the One was Neo. :) Seriously though using the 3 cards across the bottom of the cuppa spread we produce find that we have a lovely spead that speaks to the potential of a new relationship. That can be done quickly, and is appropriate for couples that have not developed a history yet.

*Im not being totally sexist here, over the course of a few hundred readings now, I have never had a man ask me about a new relationship. Its only after the relationship has matured a man starts to ask is she the one.

A Question Unasked.

Week 6: I honestly thought I had lost my notes for this reading and had about given up looking for it when I showed up again on its own. Lifes like that I guess. With Daph getting married in a few days, its actually a rather appropriate reading, and certainly one of my favorites amoung those I have cast this year.

Its actually much more rare for a man to ask for a reading at all, but this one proves to be one of the more beautifal and enjoyable spreads I have had the privilege of reading at all.

The Lesson of The Chariot.

Week 7: Very few things in life are perfect, but the Chariot as seen in the Camoin Tarot of Marseille is one of them. The Image of the Chariot in the Tarot of Marseille contains one of the Three great lessons encoded in the Tarot. Today the Image of the Chariot in decks like the Old Path, has evolved radically from the Image in the Tarot of Marseille. As the number of decks and images explodes it is important to maintain our awareness of the Tarots roots, of lessons left us by the masters who created the early Tarots. This essay as much as anything else is my small contribution to keeping alive that tradition.

This essay draws heavily on the vision of the Chariot presented in, Whitley Streibers: The Path. A relatively unknown, but absolutely profound book on the Tarot. Self published only a few thousand copies where printed. It is a must for the serious student of the Tarot. Whitely takes us on a tour of the deeper meaning of the Tarot of Marseille, his text firmly grounded in the images of the cards themselves, takes back to the Tarots roots and shows us a breath taking vision of the trumps as individual cards, and a very unexpected whole. As Im sure you are going to find something of value in this small essay, you will find so much more in The Path.

The Sacred Ground Plan of Heaven and Earth.

Week 8: This particular reading winds up being a unfortunate lesson in the balance between Free Will and determinism in the universe. I speak a lot about intent, because I firmly believe in it myself. I do believe each of us has a path marked out, in the "Great Ground Plan of Heaven and Earth" that is said to be the design on Innana's Robe. Yet we also have free will, we are free to stray from the marked out path. Indeed since time immemorial it is really the true role of the Seer to read signs, Omens, the Cards or the Stars, and provide guidance to the Querant as to where their path is hidden.

The Riding the Tide.

In Susan Millers: Planets and Possibilities she speaks of how her mothers guidance as an amature astrologer was a great help to her achieving her own dreams, allowing her to move with and blend into the flow of the energetic world rather than spend her life battling against the tides. Which is rather the lesson of this reading. The Q sees the chaos swirling around her, but what she does not see and the reading reveals is how the flow of the energies in play ultimatel create oppertunities for her.

Exploring the Rx Cards.

I was going through a very rough patch at the time of this essay, so I asked my friend Aure to pull some cards for me, because I could not imagine that I could pull an unbiased spread when my energy was just in a total uproar. In the end I think she drew an excellent spread, but relecting as it did the chaos and uncertainty of my own mind and situation, it really does work well as an spread for exploring the different aspects of meaning that might be reflected in a Rx card.

Preparing for a Reading.

I mention more than once in the course of the essays invoking Innana. So this weeks essay is not an actual reading, but a detailed examination of just what that truely describes. My own evolution as a reader has rather trecked through the whole gammut of possible explainations as to why the Tarot does apparently work. A Mechanistic - As above so below point of view. A means of communication with ones personal guides, A means of communicating with someone much closer to the ultimate mystery, The Goddess Innana.

Ama tu ANKI, BB.

Goddess Tarots and Sprituality: Talking Tarot.