New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
The Moon is such an interesting card. It is one of the cards, along with the Fool and the Hanged Man, whose meaning has really changed over the centuries in ways that really reflect (pun intended) our collective beliefs about the world and symbols. It is only natural that as we evolve, our symbols are affected. However, we may lose something important in our enthusiastic re-imagining of the Moon. Early meanings (from 18th century) are prosaic and mundane, such as "night" or "the moon." De Mellet mentions the wolf and dog as representing wild and domestic animals, something that I always thought interesting, but haven't read much more about. We'll explore this later, though. Moving on, in ...
The Tarot cards have had a checkered past. They have been used for card games, fortune-telling (based on the idea of inexorable fate), serial art projects by people such as Salvador Dali, background structures in novels, symbolism in mysticism, analyses of mythic structure and the psyche, and divination (based on the idea that we have free choice). It is in this last category that the Tarot compares to another divinatory system, astrology. There is a belief among some people that astrology predicts what must happen. This is a belief held by people with little knowledge of the subject and by the debunkers who wish to exploit this false belief. However, astrologers will clearly tell you ...
What to DoWith the situation, issue, or challenge in mind, draw a single card in answer to the question, "What do I need to know most about this issue?" And yes—this strategy is really that simple. If you're new to the process (or if the ideas don't come of their own accord), invest a minimum of five minutes studying the card. On one side of a sheet of paper, list all symbols, images, colors, numbers, titles, and details that catch your attention. When five minutes are up, spend an additional five minutes recording an association for each element in the list—what the symbol, image, color, number, title, or detail suggests to you. When done, relate the observations you've ...
Pathworkings are a type of guided meditation based on the Major Arcana of the tarot. The idea of guided meditation for spiritual purposes goes back to St. Ignatius of Loyola in the sixteenth century, if not earlier. These exercises are based on the Tree of Life diagram, and derive from the Kabbalah, a school of Jewish mysticism dating back at least to the thirteenth century. Such meditations were performed by the Order of the Golden Dawn, and many of the versions in use today derive from Golden Dawn materials. Usually, these are located indoors in artificial settings such as formal temples, and involve angelic forms as messengers and guides. The Tree of Life maps several symbol systems ...
