Monday, May 14, 2018

Hermetic Lessons - (Hermetic) Tarot


Introduction

- Explain differences in Renaissance, Modern and Post-modern Tarot

- Show how the disagreements in Kabbalistic attributions of the Major Arcana between the G.D. British (Fool in first position) and the Levi Continental tradition (Magician first) lead inevitably to questioning whether there is any objective (astrological/kabbalistic) meaning to these associations or whether it is based on whatever the person thinks/believes - if so what are the implications for the rest of Tarot symbolism (i.e. that without astro/kab)?  The arbitrary nature of such attributions and questions about their value opens the door to the flowering of post-modern Tarot i.e. oracle decks, and whatever works culture - the subsequent ''return'' to the focus on ''authentic'' Renaissance decks is as much a function of millenial magipsters as it is any actual solving of the original problem, what it effectively does is half-avoid it


Main 

- Purpose of first lesson is to understand what it means to transition from Fool (0) to Magician (1), that the Magician is the idealised magickal self and that journey may take multiple lifetimes, and that this idealised self may be your ally, your teacher, your friend and your enemy depending on philosophical perspective

- Detail the Magician card, what are the primary tools of the magician and how do they relate to the Tarot at large?

  • Wands/Fire - Passion, Ambition, Drive, Creativity
  • Cups/Water - Emotions, feelings, dreams, receptivity
  • Swords/Air - Intellect, destruction/deconstruction, analysis
  • Pantacles/Earth - Material concerns, physical health and wealth

- Through the magickal tools the magician learns to direct his will but ultimately the objects themselves have no intrinsic value and act much like stabiliser wheels on a bike while you learn.  One of the tasks of the trainee is to incorporate/integrate these tools within the body, the mind and the soul.


  • The Wand runs from the base of the spine and culminates in the centre of the brain with the key glands (pineal, pituitary, amygdala) 
  • The Cup is located in several places, clearly the mouth and the stomach are ''cups'', but so are the brain pan and womb
  • The Sword is used for the purposes of elimination and runs down the body from the neck (the hilt), the shoulders (the crossguard) and then down the spine - the kidneys and the immune system can be thought of as sword functions as they eliminate toxins and invading microbes from the body, digestion and internal ''immunity'' of the cell use lysozyme i.e. trillions of molecular sword-enzymes
  • The Pantacle is your feet wherein is contained the wheel of your karma (i.e. DNA inheritance) and also the pains and burdens of your whole body are expressed in the feet and can be relieved/cured by foot care


- Explain that within Hermetic Tarot while the 22 Cards of the Major Arcana relate to the 22 Letters of the Alefbeit and the numbers of the suits relate to the Ten Sefirot (in the Four Worlds)

- Explain how the way in which you view the numbers of the suits can be dependent upon your underlying philosophy (or that of the Tarot creator) - e.g. pantheists see creation and creator as one so therefore all numbers can be equally nice or nasty, but certain extreme (?) Gnostic groups see Earth as a kind of Hell that our original light being selves were drawn into like moths to the flames of realisable desire and passion and are tortured by material existence so for them numbers closer to 1 are ''better'' as they closer to ''out of hell'' 

Activities

- In order to ''level up'' one needs to either study or practice, so here are some simple activities to do everyday with Tarot without needing endless questions about your life or sitting in a cafe waiting for people who are in need of readings

  • Tarot Headlines - Pick a tarot card to predict the first news headline at the hour on the channel you choose.  Apply your knowledge of the tarot to see how the Tarot is describing the headline.  Write this down in a journal.
  • Tarot Selfies - Hold the Tarot deck in your hand as if it is a phone, and ''take a selfie'' with the deck.  After taking the self draw a card this represents the image of your head.  Take a photo of this selfie.  Take one everyday and compare.
  • Tarot MRI - Effectively an extension of Tarot Selfies, use the deck to scan three sections of your body - head, torso, abdomen - and then draw cards to represent each of them.  Take an MRI like this everyday and you will see patterns emerge in the form of suits/numbers etc and you will also see yourself ''digesting'' the various energies that come your way - the head card will be what is immediatly on your mind, etc and the subsequent cards events of several hours or a day past (i.e. the digestion cycle)