A Crash Course in Tarot for Newbies #1Written by Sam Stevens
The Tarot is not just a divinatory tool, but it can also be utilized in appropriately trained hands as a tool for providing counsel and advice with which we can navigate life. It is an antique form of divination that predates popular psychology, but has been shown to have archetypal energies that work well from a Jungian perspective. Tarot becomes a book of wisdom offering you a living parable or myth that reflects your life journey in hands of right Diviner. It describes a journey that mirrors your path in life. Usually story is a direct description of what is going to happen in a particular window of time although talented readers can tell you much more than that from looking at symbols in cards! One of main purposes of use of cards is to construct a future narrative so that you can make decisions to change your fate. The reader shuffles cards and lays them out in a specific pattern usually called a "spread." This can be compared to a snapshot or map of your life. Each card position in layout of spread represents a characteristic of situation in question --what forces are beyond your control, what your particular strengths are in current or future situation, and what likely outcome is if you continue as you have been doing. As cards fall into their positions, meaning is created by unique placement of symbolic meanings of each card. Together they weave a synchronistic tapestry that may seem random at first, but in reality is a very careful map which you may follow or not as you wish to bring about or avert outcome of your reading. Synchronicity is a principle that is not only referred to constantly in psychology, but also in quantum physics. The entire system of Tarot cards can be described as a pictorial or numerological expression of human condition. The Tarot cards can be compared to a wise friend who we can turn to when we wish to make a wise decision regarding a relationship or a career. The wisdom found inside Tarot, is actually same wisdom that is found inside each and every one of us. The whole purpose of a reading is to tell you what you don't know so that you can use your free will to take appropriate actions that are good for your soul. Now, this does not necessarily mean telling you what you want to hear – but instead what you NEED to hear. It's hard to believe, but Tarot cards were not originally designed to tell future! They were first used in 16th century Paris to play a card game similar to Bridge. As there were no soap operas in those days, cards were also put to another entertaining use. The face cards, such as Queen of Cups, King of Swords and so forth were modeled on personas of popular celebrities of day. These cards were shuffled and then arranged into scandalous story lines. This parlor game was a source of great amusement for both royalty and peasants alike. In addition, 16th century poets used cards to compose poems called tarocchi apporporati. The poems would be constructed about characters in trump cards in deck, such as Queens, Kings, Knights and Pages to tell a tragic or romantic story. Tarot cards were not associated with divination until 1800s, when a secret order of magicians in Venice, Italy found significance in their numbers and symbols. Before that these decorative cards were not used for fortune telling. As these magicians were Illuminati of their day, their reading methods were kept very secret. The first known records of divinatory meanings assigned to Tarot cards did not appear until 1700s in Bologna. Ordinary playing cards have been connected with divination as early as 1487. The gypsies were adept at reading plain playing cards for centuries before Venetian magicians got their hands on a French Tarot Deck. It is safe to assume that Tarot card meanings and spreads that are used today are based on a hybrid of techniques derived from Tzigani system of reading playing cards, French parlor games and Venetian interpretations of occult symbols! To understand Tarot you need to familiarize yourself with meanings of four suits and meanings of their symbols. The cups, coins, disks and wands of Tarot deck derive their meaning from cartomancy. Cartomancy is art of reading playing cards. There are 78 cards in a traditional Tarot Deck. These 78 cards are divided into Major and Minor Arcanas. The Minor Arcana relates to ordinary playing deck. Most of cards in Minor Arcana represent events or qualities. The additional 22 Major Arcana cards included in traditional Tarot deck represent stages of a person's individual passage through life, from non-existence, birth, love, marriage, death spiritual ascension and back to non-existence again. The Fool Card, numbered 0, is indicative of this eternal cycle. The 22 Major Arcana cards are an addition to what otherwise could be described as an ordinary playing deck that consists of four suits. The meanings of 22 Major Arcana cards are based on an old French parlor game that was used to predict lives of celebrities of day. Since then, they have mutated to symbolize major life events and personal attributes. When you are first learning to read Tarot cards, sometimes it is valuable to have a list of card's abbreviated meanings to refer to while you are throwing cards. Though not all diviner's use same correspondent meanings. Here is a list of classic meanings of each of 22 cards of Major Arcana. 0 The Fool - choices offered, folly, going in circles 1 The Magician - creative energy, psychic power 2 The High Priestess - mystery, hidden influences, female supremacy 3 The Empress - abundance, fertility, motherhood 4 The Emperor - leadership, control, fatherhood 5 The Hierophant - convention, society, restrictions 6 The Lovers - love, relationships, intimacy 7 The Chariot - mind over matter, conflicts, war 8 Strength - courage, power, stamina 9 The Hermit - wisdom, spirituality, connection with Higher Self 10 Wheel of Fortune - unpredictability, changes of luck for good or bad,
| | Van Morrison, spiritual rock starWritten by Alma De La Cruz
Here I am gazing on Web for extraordinary witnesses of enlightenment yet very popular in entertainment realm, so that at least everybody that read newagenotebook.com could say “hey, I've seen or heard that person!” As my research focuses randomly on any performer from our time, some pages choose to cite art of singer Van Morrison. His work is thoughtful, often spiritual in nature, and combines elements of jazz , R&B , Celtic traditions, and stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Van Morrison was born in Belfast , Northern Ireland , in 1935 and was named George Ivan Morrison. Better known as Celtic sorcerer, Morrison began playing different instruments and composing songs in an Irish band during his teen years. His musical heritage was inevitable since h e was exposed to music from an early age with his father collecting American jazz albums and his mother being a singer. Journalists have described Morrison as one of most serious singers with high moral values, something that lacks in music business. His lyrics and music are influenced on works of poet and New Age prophet William Blake, Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, J.D. Salinger, occult and spiritualist poet W.B. Yeats, Alice Bailey, and of many other religious visionaries. Those authors add mythic powers to Morrison's singular musical vision and his articulation of emotional truths. Astral Weeks was his first album after he moved to America . It gained good reviews from critics. Rolling Stone magazine once reported that a man claimed to see God while listening to this album under influence of nitrous oxide . If you listen to record you'll notice that artist uses a form of symbolism instead of current narrative. Very much like using spiritual images because they are stronger than words. And this work was released in late 1960s, when a New Age consciousness was spreading in U.S. His idiosyncratic and spiritual musical path has lead him to create more than 30 albums, among them are Moondance, Tupelo Honey, A Period of Transition, Beautiful Vision, No Guru- No Method- No teacher, Irish Heartbeat, Avalon Sunset, Enlightenment, Days Like This, and The Healing Games.
|