The Tarot Shaman

by Marcus Katz

  TAROT SHAMAN: Gated Spread Book 1

  Connect to your Animal Spirit

  By Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz

  Copyright © Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz, 2013

  Published by Forge Press, Keswick

  All rights reserved.

  WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY …

  I am extremely thankful for these exercises. I feel like I could spend years contemplating these results and still not get to the bottom of the insight I have gained.

  C.C.

  This exercise as well as the others have spoken volumes. Thank you for sharing this experience with us.

  R. G.

  Incredible knowledge so easily shared … This has been a journey in which I have learned a lot of new things and feel very satisfied.

  L. J.

  Very moving and effective. I cannot wait for the next gates!

  Y.

  I suddenly realized I have been dreaming like crazy since I started these exercises! Very intuitive stuff about my situation, and about my Tarot!

  L.

  We have used real-life examples and authentic feedback throughout this series, anonymously, from our students in Tarot-Town. We thank them for their engagement with these experiences over the years.

  About the Authors

  “I’ve found my Blasted Tower, but I think it’s bent.”

  Katz to Goodwin, Typical Conversation.

  Tali Goodwin is the co-author of award-winning and #1 best-selling Tarot books, including Around the Tarot in 78 Days, Tarot Face to Face, and Learning Lenormand. She is also a leading Tarot researcher and is credited with the discovery of A. E. Waite’s second tarot deck, kept secret for a century, published as Abiding in the Sanctuary. She has also uncovered and published the Original Lenormand deck, and with co-author Derek Bain, the original Golden Dawn Tarot images in A New Dawn for Tarot. Her research into the life of Pamela Colman-Smith with new photographs will be published as The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide in Spring 2014. She is co-Director of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide) and organizes the international tarot conventions, TarotCon.

  Marcus Katz is author of the ground-breaking Tarot book and teaching system, Tarosophy, and is the co-founder of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide). In addition to Tarot books with Tali Goodwin, he is the author of The Magister, an 11-volume opus on the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, The Magician’s Kabbalah, and the forthcoming Path of the Seasons. He teaches students privately in the Crucible Club, available by application.

  Contents

  WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY …

  About the Authors

  Contents

  Preface

  What is the Tarot?

  What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot?

  The Tarot Shaman

  Chapter 1: The Guardian of the Gate

  Chapter 2: The Journey

  Chapter 3: The Summoning

  Chapter 4: The Spirit Catcher

  Chapter 5: The Invocation of the Animal Spirit

  Conclusion

  Bibliography

  Websites & Resources

  Kindle Tarot Books & Series

  Preface

  Tarot to Engage Life, Not Escape It.

  Marcus Katz

  You are about to go on a journey and experience real magick.

  Grab a Tarot deck, and we are good to go!

  The purpose of Gated Spreads is to overturn the common use of Tarot cards as a means of “telling” the future, or providing a brief insight into our life and motivations – and hence our future possibilities. The teaching of Tarosophy encourages the use of Tarot as a divine language; one which connects us to the deeper world underneath the apparent one which we often take for granted. A gated spread requires you to take action in your life, from which change emerges naturally. This is not the empty promise of a feel-good self-help book, but a call to action – your action – to change your life through Tarot.

  Our Gated Spread experiences have been offered for several years to the public, and now for the first time we provide them in handy self-study packages on Kindle. In each of these individual books, you can experience shamanism, relationship and romance insight, creativity, alchemy, and even delve into your ancestry, all using just a tarot deck.

  We have also ensured that this is not a book of fictional examples that sound too good to be true. Our books are based only on real-life testing and the actual experience of real people like you, encountering magick often for the first time. We have taught these methods and have run workshops and gated spread weeks for many years, and have hundreds of experiences which have constantly shaped what you are about to experience for yourself.

  This book is ideal for first time users of Tarot or the experienced reader who is looking to activate the tarot in their life. We have ensured that you are given the necessary instructions and clarifications (from our previous teaching and feedback given by students) to experience true magick in your time using this book.

  Before you begin, you may wish to join our free Facebook group if you have any questions about Tarot, and also download our free keyword guide to tarot cards and standard spreads from our site:

  www.mytarotcardmeanings.com

  What is the Tarot?

  The tarot as most commonly recognized is a family of card decks, most often 78 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards (10 numbered cards and 4 Court cards for each suit) and 22 Major cards. There are presently about 1,000 different decks in print or circulation, and many more out-of-print, rare and collectable decks.

  Although it can be proven that the tarot was developed in the early 15th century, a lot of books still suggest that it was used by the “ancient ...” and then provide lists of the unproven, non-factual ideas which results in a conflation of tarot and those very ideas.

  The earliest names for the tarot are Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs), but around 1530 A.D. (about 100 years after the origin of the cards) the word tarocchi began to be used to distinguish the tarot cards from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards.

  You are actually seeing in the cards some direct examples of the triumphs – the procession of floats common at festivals in Italy at the time – particularly in such cards as The Chariot and the Court cards. There is even a Christian tarot in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the cards were used to depict virtues, the liberal arts and sciences, and other aspirational notions from their earliest development. In fact, it could be said that the cards were originally educational or self-development tools, although that could also be debatable.

  There is no evidence that the tarot were used by gypsies, originated in Egypt or were used for divination prior to the 1700s, despite popular occult lore that the cards have embodied ‘ancient teaching’ from time immemorial. It was not until a pseudo-connection between the Hebrew letters and the tarot was published in 1781 – by Comte de Mellet, in Antoine Court de Gebélin’s Le Monde Primitif – that esoteric interest began to appropriate the cards to embody occult teaching.

  The earliest list of the 22 cards which have become known as the Major Arcana is given in a sermon against their use by a monk writing in Latin around 1450-1470 A.D. This sermon is sometimes called the Steele Sermon as it belongs to the collection of Robert Steele.

  [This above section which we think is so important to teach is repeated in each booklet in this series, and is an extract from Tarosophy, by Marcus Katz].

  Which Tarot Deck is Best for This Gated Spread?

  Our students have used a range of decks for this experience, and of course the standard Waite-Smith is a favorite. However, students have used these decks with p
articularly good results:

   Tarot of the Magical Forest

   The Shapeshifter Tarot

   The Fey Tarot

   The Legacy of the Divine Tarot

  Other decks such as the Druidcraft Tarot, particularly themed on a pagan perspective, will also work very well with this particular experience. You can also use an Oracle deck such as the Shaman Wisdom cards.

  You may wish to use a deck with a larger number of animals on it during this particular gated spread!

  What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot?

  Nature has much to teach us in her vast classroom … What you find in Nature is what works. It wouldn’t be there if it didn’t. Boundless wisdom awaits.

  Bill Plotkin, p. 178

  There are many wrong ideas about the tarot that seem to be popular. We would like to present quickly some common myths about tarot that you may have heard already, and change your view!

  1. The tarot did not originate from Egypt, the gypsies, the Templars, Atlantis or a secret order.

  2. You do not need to be gifted or given your first tarot deck – you can simply buy a deck for yourself.

  3. You do not have to keep your tarot in a silk bag or bag of any particular color.

  4. You can let other people touch your cards if you choose.

  5. There are no real ‘rules’ in tarot, but some generally agreed good ideas.

  6. The keywords for cards are not set in stone; they can be modified depending on the deck, the reading and the question. However, there are basic concepts specific to each card in the deck, which form a basic language.

  7. The cards are not evil – no more than any art or printed material is “evil”.

  8. You do not have to be intuitive or gifted in some special way – you can learn, and develop your tarot skills in any way.

  9. The ‘ancient Celtic Cross’ spread has not been used for centuries, and it is not particularly ancient and it is not Celtic.

  10. There is no single right way to read tarot – we encourage every reader to discover their own unique voice.

  The Tarot Shaman

  I’m embedded in this world, yes – but I am not bound, not imprisoned.

  David Abram

  What is a shaman? There are many definitions, but for simplicity we will use those given in the popular books of Carlos Castenada. In the Teachings of Don Juan, he gives an account of the requirements of the Shaman, the Person of Knowledge. He says The Shaman must be:

   Learned

   Of Unbending Intent

   Clear of Mind

   Laborious

   A Warrior

   Unceasing

   Possess an Ally

  Whilst we see that the Tarot cards of the Magician, the Chariot, the Hermit, Strength, Emperor and the Wheel may symbolize the archetypal qualities of the first six of these qualities, we may also need to locate an Ally – in this case, the Spirit of the Tarot itself, to guide us further. But first we must encounter the Dweller on the Threshold – the Guardian of the Gate.

  You may like to note in your journal which cards you personally see associated with the first six qualities that Castaneda gives for a Shaman. You may also like to record your dreams during this week which will often become more vivid.

  More particularly, a Shaman is one who mediates or travels between the worlds; the visible world and the world of spirits. In this “technology of ecstasy”, through various means of attaining altered states, the Shaman communicates and interacts with the spirits of these unseen places. In doing so, they conduct healing, divination, and other feats of magic.

  In this book, we provide you a means of using tarot to act as the language – the mediator – between you and the unseen world. Actually, it is the tarot deck which will become your shaman, and you will talk to the unseen world through it.

  Of course, the unseen world may speak to you directly as well as through your tarot, so be prepared to look for signs and omens in the world around you throughout the week-long period we suggest for this experience.

  Tarot Shaman: Gate 1

  The Guardian of the Gate

  Our first Gated Spread tells us what we must overcome to go onto the next gate – it is a warrior’s challenge. We cannot even begin to approach the mysteries unless we prove ourselves in some serious manner.

  So for your first Gate, take a tarot deck and shuffle, considering everything that frightens you, then lay out 3 cards in a line (vertical or horizontal) as follows:

  1. What is the Guardian?

  2. How must I Fight?

  3. What is the Reward?

  Take these three cards and consider how they might relate to your life over the next day. What is the nature of the “fear” that has been divined by the first card? What is the manner in which you must overcome this fear indicated by the second card? What does the third card suggest you will gain as a reward?

  I take out these cards in my reading:

  1: Guardian – The Blasted Tower

  2: Fight – Ace of Swords

  3: Reward – Empress

  I guess I start to see the Guardian as a fear of disruption and sudden failure. The fight is keeping clear to an idea, and the reward is a general natural growth.

  Now – most importantly, decide on a definite ACTION tomorrow that will meet the requirements of this gate. Something in your life – not too dramatic unless you feel called to do so – that will respond to the divination of these three cards.

  So I decide in my case that tomorrow, Saturday, I will try and do something extremely surprising, that fits to my ideas, I’ll overturn an expectation and overcome a barrier by starting to write an essay I have been prevaricating over. It’s not much of a challenge in terms of being a warrior, but I’ll determine to do it. The Ace of Swords!

  We have found in previous gated spreads that there are profound similarities and interesting differences in the lives of those sharing this experience.

  Here is a very simple example from a student, showing that the tarot can be very simply interpreted and do not always have to be very dramatic events.

  1. Guardian - Three of Wands

  2. Fight - Ten of Cups

  3. Reward - Queen of Cups

  My fear is that I am on hold in my life until some unknown event happens, or that I just put things off in general (3 of Wands). To fight that I need to remember to enjoy what I have, that I have enough, that I am enough (10 of Cups). The reward will be an increased ability to just go with the flow (Queen of Cups).

  Action: So, for tomorrow I am going to do some cleaning that I have been putting off. Then I am going to bask in the comfort of a clean house.

  We will then be given the next Gate by the Tarot Shaman tomorrow and continue our journey into the Tarot Shaman’s Path and meet our animal guide in the Tarot, having proven our worth at the first Gate.

  There are many forms of shamanistic practice and at the end of this booklet of the Tarot Shaman Gated Spread we will provide a reading list for those who wish to know more about Shamanism worldwide, from the archaic to the contemporary! Whilst there is no particular connection between Shamanism and Tarot, many of the methods and approaches found in shamanistic practice can be applied to deepen our experience of Tarot in a profound and practical way.

  The Journey

  In this next gate, having overcome the Guardian, we go on a journey to meet our Animal Guide. Of course, we must travel but we must also do so in a relaxed attitude – the world is closer to us than we imagine!

  There is a great scene in the book based around a re-imagining of Anglo-Saxon shamanism, The Way of Wyrd, by Brian Bates, where the shaman is taking a student through an exercise – he says; “Relax! You are tying yourself in knots with tension. Relax and your Guardian Spirit will cut through the fog of your life like a sunbeam”. He then jokes that the student must have been chosen by an Owl guardian as he is looking so wide-eyed and intent! Humor is an important part of Shamanistic training, as is t
rickery!

  So in our second day of the Tarot Shaman, our Shaman will take us on a dance …

  Tarot Shaman: Gate 2

  The Journey

  Our first Gated Spread told us what we must overcome to make progress and we acted upon this divination. You will have received the reward indicated by the spread, or at least deepened your appreciation of what holds you back from progress.

  So for our second Gate, we set off on our journey to prepare for our later meeting of our Animal Guide - which will follow in the week, with further teaching on Animal Symbolism.

  You will need at least 10 minutes or more, your deck & a small notebook and pen/pencil – and suitable clothing for the weather conditions and environment in which you are situated, because you may be going outside!

  To commence the spread, shuffle your deck considering all the journeys you have been upon. Consider what you learnt, who you saw, what you recall.

  When you are ready, stop shuffling and take the top card from your deck. We do not use REVERSALS (upside-down cards) in this particular gated spread.

  Make a note of the card in your notepad, and perhaps a brief note (to be expanded later) as to what it tells you about JOURNEYS.

  For example, I pull the Knight of Cups from Roxi Sim’s Pearls of Wisdom deck. He tells me that the Journey should always be full of delight, and not to miss the opportunity to go on detours to interesting places along the way!

  You then make a journey – even if it is only into another room in the house, or outside, based on that card. For example, I chose to go down into the kitchen (Cups) from the library. When you are in that new location, choose the next card, and do the same as before – in fact, I got the Knight of Swords, which told me I must be prepared for a journey and cut through things quickly! So I simply walked across to the drawers and picked out a small (blunt!) knife.