Die To Your Self
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2 of Cups
The card of affinity and accord, this can be chosen if you have met with someone special today, met a like mind and soul, or shared something of yourself with another. It can be a moment of intimacy, or simple sharing with a relative stranger – all that gives rise to the unique feeling of sympathy or empathy.
If you have felt more balanced today, in love with your own life, this is one of the two cards for your day.
In the spiritual realm, this is the card of divine love, by which, as Waite suggests, “Nature is sanctified”. If you have felt the outpouring of union with all that is not yourself, this is one of the cards you can remove for today.
2 of Wands
If you have something in planning today, this may be the card to choose. On the absolute literal level, it is the card of looking from a higher place – getting a good view.
If you feel that you have grasped something, but it is not yet what you wanted, this is also the card to choose. It is the problem of achievement; that it is never quite what you thought.
On a spiritual level, this is the card of comparing your model of the world with the reality as it is presented to you. If you have found yourself adjusting your world-view, this is one of today’s cards.
King of Pentacles
The hard-headed man, down-to-earth, calls a spade a spade, this is our King of Pentacles. If you have bumped into a straight-forward kind-a-guy, you know you can pull out the King of Pentacles for sure. He may be a manager, a farmer, a fixer, a mender, a banker. But he is just as he is.
If you’ve had to think practically, work out what is the real deal, build something, or do some maths, geometry with a practical result, this is one of your two cards for the day. It may even be quilting, or working out how much your cat weighs for his tablets – this is as down and dirty as the card gets.
When something manifests, right there before you, something real that was only visioned, then at a spiritual level, this card is active and can be drawn from the deck.
King of Swords
If you have used a knife today, to cut through something, then this is one of the easiest and most literal events that correspond to our King of Swords. Of course, you may have been involved in a cutting decision, an act of command, or exercised authority. You may have received a parking ticket – all of these fall under the King of Swords.
Internally, this card is active when you are considering or acting in your own decision-making. Any tough call is under the influence of this card, which also reflects the Justice card in the Major Arcana.
At its highest level, far above the bread-knife, this card can be chosen when you have received insight into the mysteries of life and death. If you have felt cut-off from life, or singularly separate in a spiritual sense, this is the card.
King of Cups
An example of creative thinking today can be assigned to the King of Cups. His foot hovers above the waters of the unconscious and can produce intense inspiration from the deep. You may have met someone who has shown themselves to be emotionally experienced and wise.
If you have held your temper and been responsible, this is one of your cards for today.
You may have counseled someone in a spiritual concern or deep dilemma. This is also the way of the King of Cups, who can be a man of “business, law or divinity” according to Waite.
King of Wands
An honest man who sticks by his word – maybe hard to find, according to the songs, but is here found with the King of Wands. An “ardent” man, who is passionate about his values and beliefs, whatever you may think of them. If you have strongly encountered a King of Wands today, this is the card to choose.
It may also be that you have been a bit of a “King of Wands” yourself; sticking to your guns. This is not the same as some of the other Wands cards, where you take to the fight, struggle, or defend your position (can you name those three Wands cards?) but rather you sit in your own conviction. Waite says this card, and the other Kings, all wear “what is called a cap of maintenance” beneath their crowns. This is a sign of special honor, and mentioned in Freemasonic lists of symbols, from which Waite would have taken it.
So, in a spiritual sense, if you maintained your spiritual dignity today, you have been a King of Wands, and earned your cap of maintenance. Take this card and remove it.
Ace of Pentacles
The seed of Gold, and all that glitters in the material world, this is the financial invitation, the start of a practical idea, even a decision to sort out ones house or garden. Practical, down to earth sort of days, even DIY to some extent, will all be your living tarot version of this card.
It can literally mean a seed, or a coin, so any day in which a coin appears by itself in some significant way, particularly if it is given to you, can reflect this card.
In a spiritual sense, this card is that of just being – in the right place, the right time, and having that honest and authentic sense of contentment.
Ace of Swords
The card of the winner – either you or someone else today triumphed, scored, won an award or recognition, money, a competition, or other conflict. Perhaps someone tried to fight you in some way, in an argument, debate, or persuade you of their way of thinking.
If you felt somewhat out of control mentally today, as you were over-caffeinated, manic, or obsessed with one particular thought, this is also a suitable card to chose to represent the day.
This is also at its highest the card of the source, Kether, the crown, in the Tree of Life. It is the lightning flash of creation. You will have experienced this as an overwhelming connection to the creativity of the divine. If you had a sudden illumination today, this is your card.
Ace of Cups
The card of high emotions, and suitable to chose for the day in which emotions have indeed “run high”. Particularly when they have been close to the heart, unbound, either for good or bad.
This card is of the “house of the true heart” as Waite calls it, and is spiritually the card for when you have felt your vision, your quest, your calling, overwhelming you with love.
Ace of Wands
This card can be chosen if today you experienced a new beginning, a birth, a project launch, or were given new impetus to start something.
It is also applicable for days in which you felt a sense of power, creativity and enterprise.
At a spiritual level, you may find this card appropriate for days when you totally felt aligned to your will and purpose in the world.
Conclusion
The Corn was Orient and Immortal Wheat which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from Everlasting to Everlasting. The Dust and the Stones of the Street were as precious as Gold. The Gates were at first the end of the World, the Green Trees when I saw them first through the Gates Transported and Ravished me; their Sweetness and unusual Beauty made my heart to leap, and almost mad with Ecstasy, they were such strange and Wonderful Things; The Men! O what Venerable and Reverend Creatures did the Aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And the young Men Glittering and Sparkling Angels and Maids strange Seraphic Pieces of Life and Beauty! Boys and Girles Tumbling in the Street and Playing, were moving Jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die….
Thomas Traherne.
In the final four booklets in this series, we will use the living tarot method installed in this month to work through – in real life - all the information we have gathered in our previous gates. At this stage of the process, corresponding to Death and transformation, our magick turns inside out – from here, we use real life as our spread, our cards, and our place of change, not our “inner” world.
In doing so, we may find that there is less difference between the “inner” and the “outer” than we ever thought previously.
We have also provided in the final section a list of reading materials and website resources to discover more in the very best of Tarot and Tarosophy®.
In this series, released monthly over
2013:
1. Discover Your Destiny
2. Remove The Blocks
3. Make Decisions Better
4. Enter the Flow
5. Ride the Lion
6. Connect to Service
7. Find Equality
8. Die To Your Self
9. Entering Unity
10. Becoming the Real
11. Your Keys to Freedom
12. The Depth of Divinity
What Follows Next Month
In next month’s Tarot Life, we draw together all the preceding gates within the context of the living tarot method you have practiced in this month. In “entering into unity” we will consolidate four aspects of our life into one whole, in the process of which we will see gaps, cracks, holes, contradictions, and more. In having a full map of our being – through the tarot – we will weave these aspects into a more harmonious and luminous self; a self entering into unity.
.
The Tyldwick Tarot
The Tyldwick Tarot, whose images grace the covers of this Tarosophy Kickstart series, is a fully complete Tarot deck published by Neil Lovell. It can be viewed and purchased online on the comprehensive and beautifully designed site:
http://www.malpertuis.co.uk/tyldwick.
The theme of the deck is that of an elegant house, through which one can wander without “being distracted by a cast of characters” as might be found in other Tarot decks. The cards are beautifully layered and suffused with tonal casts from the international travel that the designer has enjoyed – and not so enjoyed - as described in some fascinating cases which are revealed in the extensive interview on the site.
The deck reminds us very much of the film, Last Year in Marienbad (1961, dir. Alain Resnais) which is a dream-like excursion into an environment which may or may not be real, in which the characters not so much inhabit the place, but are extensions of the place itself. In the Tyldwick Tarot, the few characters we see are the Court Cards where faces are reflected in mirrors – or perhaps are even looking out from the other side of the mirrors themselves.
The deck is available for purchase and you can view a straight out of the box review at: http://youtu.be/NX9qzCAdatM or type “Tyldwick Tarot Review” into Youtube.
We highly recommend this deck.
The KickStart Guides
Look out for more titles in this innovative series of Tarosophy KickStart Guides.
Volume I.
Book I: Tarot Flip - Reading Tarot Straight from the Box
Book II: Tarot Twist - Finding a Spread for Every Question
Book III: Tarot Inspire – Tarot & Western Esotericism for a Spiritual Life
Volume II.
Book I: Tarot Switch – Methods of Engaging Tarot in Life
Book II: Tarot Solution – How to Read in Real Life Readings
Book III: Tarot Decode – Signs, Symbols & Portents in Tarot
Also
Tarot Turn Vol. 1 - 3: A massive crowd-sourced reference guide to all 12,200 possible combinations of reversed Tarot card pairs.
Tarot Life: A revolutionary method to change your life in 12 Kindle pamphlets.
Bibliography
Copenhaver, B. P. Hermetica. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1992.
Katz, M. Tarosophy. Chang Mai: Salamander & Sons, 2012.
Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Around the Tarot in 78 Days. Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2012.
Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Tarot Flip. Forge Press, 2012.
Traherne, T. Centuries of Meditation (c. 3rd C)
Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974.
Tarosophy Websites & Resources
Tarosophy Tarot Associations: http://www.tarotprofessionals.com
Tarot Professionals Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/tarotprofessionals
Hekademia Tarot Course: http://www.tarosophyuniversity.com
Tarot Town Social Network: http://www.tarot-town.com
Tarosophy by Marcus Katz: http://www.tarosophy.com
Tarot Book Club: http://www.tarotbookclub.com
The Tarot Review: http://www.thetarotreview.com
For the Ithell Colquhoun Deck:
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/tarot/art_tarot19.html
Join the Tarot Life Facebook group at:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/150952695052327/
There are many threads, questions & answers, examples, discussion and sharing of this life-changing technique.
If you cannot locate the group, contact us directly at tarotlife@tarotprofessionals.com and we will be delighted to add you to the group.