The Forbidden Zone....Home of The OrangeBox, keepers of Skully, an ancient, quartz crystal skull.

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(OB-A06) The Tarot (Pt I, of IV.)
A radical, and completely unique new way of looking at the Tarot. Suitable for the beginner, advanced and even professional Tarot card readers.
Date posted: 18, April, 2003. By Divina Swan.
This article © 2003: OrangeBox, and must not be used without permission.

I will say, with all sincerity, that this one, short essay will answer every question you may have regarding the Tarot. Furthermore, the reader who fully understands the concepts presented herein will have no further use for any Tarot related literature: Other than to assess its worth in comparison with the bedrock of their own knowledge.

It pays to be open-minded. The real test of any new knowledge or experience is 'practicality.'
"Does it work for you?"
Apply this question to the vast storehouse of occult information you have already accumulated. Has any part of your paranormal treasure-trove been of the slightest use in assisting your quest for enlightenment? The concepts, ideology and methodology that follow were derived from a single channelling session with Skully. It is hoped that these will offer everyone, from beginner to experienced reader a fresh, and radical new approach to the Devil's picture book.

We shall consider the general example of Amanda. For whatever reasons her attention has been drawn to the Tarot. Ever eager to learn, Amanda rushes down to her nearest New Age stockist, where she purchased a nice, shiny new pack of Tarot cards and a basic instruction book

Two hours and several cups of coffee later, Amanda realises a rather scary fact. Before she can impress the hell out of her friends by solving their most complex spiritual and mundane problems with her new-found wisdom she must first memorise all the cards in her deck: All 78 of them… Ulp! As if this major feat of memory were not enough, she also has to fix in her mind the symbolism for the ten (twelve, or however many) houses into which her cards will sit during a reading. Then, there's the meanings for the reversed cards; paired cards; related cards, etc., etc. to remember. It went on forever!

It is a regrettable fact that at least 95 out of every 100 students of the Tarot will give up at this point. Who could blame them? The sheer volume of data that needs to be assimilated before even a basic reading can be attempted is daunting to say the least. However, not to be deterred, Amanda redoubles her efforts and is determined to crack the Tarot.

"Forget about trying to learn all of the meanings for all of the cards, that's too difficult for now. I will limit myself to trying to understand just one of them."

Amanda said, plucking a card randomly from her deck: The Five of Swords. An hour later, Amanda had memorised the ten 'key word's her book suggested were connected in some mysterious way with this card. She felt a bit like a parrot that has been taught to order a pizza: She didn't understand the words, nor would she get to eat the pizza. Amanda then turned to the slim booklet that had come with the cards themselves. Sure enough, this too gave a series of ten mysterious 'key words' relating to the Five of Wands. Just to ensure that she had all the available information about his card, Amanda walked over to her bookcase and removed the 'Encyclopaedia of Tarot' she had received as a Christmas gift some years ago. Now, she had a total of thirty 'key words' for the Five of Swords. Whilst all three books did agree that this wasn't a very nice square of cardboard, none of them seemed at all clear on why it should be so disagreeable. Similarly, there was a good deal of overlap with the key words, but Amanda is left wondering who associated these words with this card in the first place, and why. About now, 4, out of the 5 remaining students will hurl their Tarot cards and D.I.Y. manuals in a bottom drawer with their runes, astrology charts and I-Ching sticks.

Cast your mind back over the Tarot literature you have previously read. Did any of it explain why such-and-such a card meant this, or that?"

Because the book said so!"

Is hardly an adequate answer to this question. It occurred to Amanda than no one really understood the cards anymore. Each new book merely borrowed, copied and distorted the errors of last years' releases. The really eager student may make the time to attend an evening class. But even this merely involves the student receiving the same old superstitions drivel from an oral rather than a written source.

The secret key that unlocks the Tarot cannot be found by cramming your head with as many useless phrases and facts as will fit: This approach will merely give you a headache. To come to a real understanding of the Tarot, you must first forget everything you have ever learned. You must have the strength and courage to put all of your books and manuals into a drawer and resist all temptation to get them out again. Not only this, you also must have enough conviction to deconstruct the images on the cards themselves. Although these may have meant a great deal to the person who originally created the cards you now ponder, they hold no meanings for you. Having found the resolve to destroy your old temple, you must now set about rebuilding it.

The old Hermetic axiom 'Know thyself' is oft quoted as an inspiration to students. As well as the obvious meaning of: 'Understand the person that is you,' the phrase also carries another, usually overlooked meaning. This being: 'Learn from your own unique, personal and first-hand experiences.' Hermetics states that 'Each individual is a smaller scale version of the whole of Creation,' and visa versa. The Tarot cards represent an abstraction of this symbiosis in which fundamental principals are correlated to squares of coloured card. If assertion is true it follows that -as a concise map of everything- all you have to do is to find a better way of filing and organising the information and knowledge already inside your own head. Then relating, or corresponding this with the universe at large. This 'union' of the individual with the whole is the root of all systems of mystical, occult and religious systems of attainment. And that's the trick! That's the secret no-one talks about because it would put every Tarot reader and Tarot card / book publisher out of business. All of us are already intimately aquatinted with the Tarot. We simply haven't realised this yet.

I hear you all murmuring darkly. Yes! It is that simple. Like everything else, it is made complicated to give an air of authority to the -supposed- Masters and to validate the high prices commanded for personal readings, tuition and glossy books. For those who have not grasped what I am trying to say, let's return to Amanda, who will offer us a simple example.

Completely confused and suffering from a bad headache, Amanda tosses her Tarot cards into a drawer and goes out for a long walk in the fresh air to clear her mind. It occurs to her that the world at large can be divided into four broad categories. These being: The Earth upon which she stands; the Air which blows around her; the Water which laps at her feet and the Energy which radiates -primarily- from the Sun.

Amanda has just made her first, and most important connection between herself, the real world, and her Tarot cards, which serve as a symbolic bridge between the two. Flushed with success, Amanda continues with her thoughts and realises that -for example- Energy (or fire) could be used to warm her skin and cook her food, or to kill her. The same applied to the other three principles. Amanda then went on to make an even more important connection: It was possible to fit the different parts of her own body into the same four categories. Her skeleton and skin were the Earth, her lungs the Air. Her organs and blood represented the Water and her nerves and muscles could symbolise the Fire. The more Amanda thought about this, the more clearly she was able to visualise and understand the wider applications of this four-fold division. Amanda saw that: An Energy (Fire) was evoked in her (as inspiration, impulse or need, etc..) This produced an Emotional (Water) response which she, and others reacted (Air) to. And, which finally had a result, a consequence (Earth.) Furthermore, in addition to these general correspondences, Amanda could quite comfortably file her own, personal experiences into the same four boxes: Her mundane, day-to-day life of bills and repairs was symbolised by the Earth file. Her friends and social world slotted into the Air box. Her emotional ties went into the Water file and her inspirations, ambitions and needs sat neatly in the Fire file.

All morning Amanda struggled in vain to understand the basic concepts of the Tarot, as presented in the books. Yet only half-an-hour after casting aside all of the supposed wisdom and hurling herself naked into the abyss Amanda is starting to learn things of real value. By merely by looking at her immediate surroundings she already learned, and understood far more than the books could ever hope to teach her. She has armed herself with a golden key whose name is 'Discrimination.' No longer will she maul the sprawling corpse of Tarot literature like a hunger-ravaged vulture. She will ask:

"Does this expand my own experiences and understanding. Or, is the author yet another fanciful but clueless bluffer who has read one or two more books than the raw student: Who has then coupled this to the slick patter of a door-to-door-salesman?"

Amanda can now spot the frauds, but more importantly, she has gained a seed of real Magick and a single drop of pure confidence with which to water her seed.

But let's not get too carried away! Amanda still has far to journey. Her thoughts turned back to the Tarot's forty 'pip' cards (The 1 to 10 of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles.) She required a means by which these could be further reduced to a more manageable number. All her books indicated that the forty pip cards represented forty different forces. Why didn't any of them tell her the obvious fact? The fact Amanda had just discovered for herself. This being; they actually represented just ten different forces, acting in four ways. It was sort of like adding sugar (for instance) to tea, sand, butter or a radio. In some cases, the added sugar improved the situation; in others, it made no difference and sometimes it messed things up completely. In an instant, Amanda's world developed a new and exciting sense of order and feeling of connection that she had not previously noticed. She could see the necessary flow of one thing into another and wondered if this could be applied to the sequence (I to 10) of individual pip cards? Although none of the Tarot books suggested it, could the Seven of Cups be a consequence of the Six? Could the Five of Cups be a precursor to the Six? Could each of the pip cards both amplify the last and indicate the nature of the next? This made perfect sense and reduced her ignorance still further. She no longer has to cram 400 (40 cards x 10 key words for each) unconnected and meaningless bits of data into her head. All she has to do is formulate a logical sequence of ten connected forces and apply these to four different areas. Her earlier experiences had already shown Amanda that the books were almost completely useless, so, sitting down in the grass, Amanda looked around her for inspiration. She saw a rose bush in full bloom.

A rose begins with a tiny seed (1), as does even the most mighty tree. Inside this shell resides the undeveloped potential of the rose. All it could ever be is safely stored within this protective membrane. With the addition of warmth and moisture, the seed opens. Out pops a tender shoot (2) that stretches towards the sun. To counterbalance this, a root (3) burrows down into the ground. Both will form a complex network of branches and twigs, but only one set will be visible to the eye. Once out of its seed pod, both shoot and root will be at the mercy of the environment (4): The quality of soil and light and the competition for these amongst other plants. The plant's skill (5) and adaptability in extracting the most from its environment will determine its shape and condition as a mature (6) plant. Having survived thus far, the plant must reproduce. To achieve this it develops coloured petals (7) and alluring scents to attract possible carriers of pollen. Also required is a mechanism (8) by which the life-giving pollen can be collected, combined and gestated (9). Finally, the newly created seed is cast to the world (10) to begin again the timeless cycle. Whilst considering the simple growth cycle of the rose, Amanda realised that she was not looking at ten different processes, but ten facets of the same process. She also realised that her own life was a part of this same pattern. Everything that had ever happened to her, or anyone else, could be fitted into one, or more of these ten categories.

Upon her return home, Amanda picked up her Tarot cards. Selecting one at random, the Six of Swords, she looked at the strange images for a while and then lost heart. What did she know about this card? Nothing! What did she understand from the bewildering list of words in the books? Nothing!

"Hang about a minute," Thought Amanda. "Let's simplify things and see if my earlier thoughts can shed some light on this card…"

Having already decided that the suit of Swords corresponded to 'Air' or her 'social environment,' and that the 'Six' was related in some way to 'maturity' and 'adulthood.' Could she think of an experience from her own life when these two words had a special meaning? Yes, she could! Her recent 'A' level examinations. In spite of her natural tendencies to get out into the world, make some money and party, Amanda had knuckled down, ignored her poverty and had studied; hard! She behaved in an adult and mature way in order to gain a qualification that was acknowledged and recognised by her family, friends, teachers and the world at large. Amanda had made a considerable number of sacrifices, but ultimately gained respect, a passport to university and a very memorable holiday in Cornwall with her boyfriend (a present from her proud parents.) For several minutes, Amanda allowed herself to wallow in her wonderful memories of this time. Suddenly, she stopped mid-sentence with a look of astonishment on her face and dashed over to her Tarot instruction books. Laying these on her table and open at the pages describing the Six of Swords, Amanda read all of those meaningless 'key words' once more. They were all there! All of the words she had used to describe her 'A' Level experiences (maturity, sacrifice, qualifications, holiday, respect, pride, study, etc., etc.,) were printed in the books. What is more, another of the books 'key phrases': "The envy of others," suddenly made perfect sense. Amanda's best friend had done very poorly in her own 'A' Level examinations. Because of this she held a grudge against Amanda, a grudge which eventually ended a friendship that had endured for over ten years.

"Wow, I'd forgot about that," Amanda thought. "How do these books know so much about my life?"

The effect was electrifying! Amanda now felt 100% confident that she could talk for hours about the Six of Swords, and with absolute clarity. Whenever this particular card appeared in a reading she was doing, Amanda would know exactly the nature of experiences her client was currently experiencing. That little square of card, which only a few hours ago had seemed so vague and distant, had transformed itself completely. It was now a window through which she could view a living, vibrant and pulsating, four-dimensional re-run of a specific part of her own life.

Amanda then realised that her own memories of her recent 'A' Level results were very different to those of her former friend. Diane (the former friend) would associate a completely different set of memories with the Six of Swords. Her own 'A' Level experience would be symbolised by a very different card to the one Amanda had selected. This brought Amanda to consider the traditional images used on Tarot cards. A dog, for example: This symbol would carry very different meanings for a farmer and a postman! The deck's original creator may have been a blind man; adding a further dimension to the symbol. Amanda quickly realised that she had to make her own deck. This didn't have to be stunningly presented with fabulous artwork. No, it merely had to remind her of the experience she had chosen to associate with the card.

The long, laborious and tedious task of memorising thousands of empty phrases vanished without a trace. Amanda's path to the Tarot was now straight, even and wide. She would define each of the forty pip cards by means of the two words she had invented on her walk (ie: Social and Maturity.) To these she would fit an experience drawn from her own life. That was it! That was all she had to do. She'd only been at this Tarot lark for a couple of hours and was already on intimate terms with forty of the seventy-eight cards: Brilliant! Not only was she forming a deep understanding of the Tarot, Amanda was learning an awful lot about her self!

In the second part of this essay we shall be looking at Amanda's reaction to the Queen of Cup. Why did she paste a picture of Marilyn Monroe over the time-honoured image of the… 'Queen of the Thrones of water. The watery part of water who wears a crown and walks amidst the lotuses of Isis. To her right an ibis and behind her a cup from which issues a crayfish representing Cancer… blah… blah… blah…' Can you guess?

In the Third part we shall be looking at the twenty-two cards of the Major arcana.

In the Forth part we shall combine all of above and incorporate them into a simple 'spread' by means of which all manner of surprising things may be deduced.