Entries Tagged 'Using Tarot cards' ↓

Image via WikipediaLife is a process of cycles. Using a symbol tool like Tarot is a way of finding out which cycle is in operation in our life, and where we are in each cycle.

The Tarot cards cover all forms of experience, and existence as we know it. When we draw a card, the cardboard and the symbols on it become a clear mirror in which we see ourselves and our situation.

Buy a set of Tarot cards.

Also, buy a blank, unlined notebook to use as your journal. You want the pages to be unlined, because you want to be able to create pictures in it. A few pens of  various colors are also useful, as are coloring pencils or paints. Even if you decide that you will write your journal on a computer, do get the blank unlined notebook for your drawings.

You can’t draw? Nonsense. If you can draw a line, a triangle and a circle, you can draw. We’re not selling your drawings as works of art here. They’re not meant to look good. They’re meant to exteriorize your feelings. Let me give you an example.

I’m going to suggest that every morning, when you come into your office, before you start working, you sit down and draw a Tarot card so you can get in touch with your subconscious mind and use its help throughout the day.

The card you draw is your Daily Card. As you calmly and quietly contemplate the card, a number of feelings may come up. You take your journal, turn to a blank page, and start doodling.  Just draw a doodle, using as many colors as you wish, or just use a pencil or a pen.

Doodling is fun. In fact, keep pads and pencils around your house, so you can doodle as the feeling strikes you.

L.J. Read of The Enchanted Mind, wrote:

“It is well established that much of our creative expression is birthed in the unconscious mind. To use creative expression and solutions in your everyday life, it is necessary to dip into the unconscious at will. Doodling is one way of doing this. Doodling allows the unconscious to render in symbolic expression. Symbols have universal as well as personal meaning. When you are stuck for an answer to a problem or looking for creative innovation, the technique of doodling will unleash the hidden symbolic powers of the unconscious mind.”

By no stretch of the imagination would you ever call your doodles works of art. They’re not meant to be. They can be as ugly and as meaningless as you wish. The thing is, they won’t be meaningless. They are you, communicating with you.

Image via WikipediaHighly successful people are successful because they use their intuition.

Why not try using the Tarot cards and other esoteric symbol systems to help you to focus your intuition, and to make it work for you?

If our conscious mind makes up 10% of our mental abilities, our subconscious makes up the other 90%. Our subconscious is also the gate to the collective unconscious. The Buddha says that we live in a mental world, and the physicist is saying the same thing.

So if our total mind contains such wonders, how do you get in touch with the whole thing? How can you communicate with the other 90% of you which is normally closed off to you?

You use the Tarot, or a similar symbol system, through which to focus your intuition. This is not complex or difficult. Forget anything you may have heard about developing ‘psychic’ powers. You’re not developing any supernatural ability at all. You’re simply bringing your true knowledge into awareness.

Think of yourself of two people. There’s you, and your subconscious mind, whom we’ll call Fred. In the movie Drop Dead Fred, the Fred who caused such havoc was an aspect of the heroine’s subconscious mind.

You have your own “Fred”. Your Fred knows and understands much more than you do, but he has no way of communicating with you, other than through emotions, memories and symbols.

For example, let’s say you get to work this morning, and a memory pops into your mind. The memory involves a trick you played on an old girlfriend, twenty years ago. Being slightly more mature now than you were when you were seventeen, the memory makes you squirm.

Beyond the embarrassment, wrapped around the memory is a feeling of vague discomfort, a tightening in your stomach muscles. You couldn’t call this mix of emotions real anxiety, but it’s close. At ten o’clock you’re due to sign a contract with a new supplier. You don’t connect the memory of the old girlfriend and the trick you played on her with the signing. Six months later, when it turns out that the plastic conduit the supplier sold you was shoddy, costing your company big bucks, you still don’t make the connection.

Tarot helps you to focus your intuition, and to make connections.

Image via WikipediaMy friend Jenny is a fan of Julia Cameron, and her Morning Pages system. She uses her daily card as a jumping off point in her daily journal. She describes the image on the card, and then just goes on from there.

You can also draw the card. I find this helpful. I draw a rough sketch of the complete card, and then, if I have time, I color it in. If I’m pressed for time, I only draw a symbol from the card. This seems to help by impressing on my subconscious that I really want help with this.

You can ask yourself questions about the card. For example, what is the person in the card doing? How does this relate to my business concerns today?

The effect of using the cards is that you activate your subconscious mind: your daily activities will be an expression of yourself.

Another effect of using a tool for intuition is that you will come into better control of your emotions. If fear or anger have always been a problem for you, you will understand why. You will see that your emotions flow through you. They don’t necessarily demand a response from you.

Here’s how to decide whether you will use the cards face up or facedown: if you want inspiration, use them face up, if you want guidance, use them facedown.

There are NO NEGATIVE CARDS. Each card, and every symbol in every card, is an expression of yourself. See the card items as symbols and tools which are there you to use in any way you wish to use them.

Initially, when you begin working with the cards, and they seem to foretell the future, you can become quite spooked by this. It seems—psychic. The cards seem to predict the future.

How do you come to terms with this aspect of the cards? I can only tell you that sooner, rather than later, you will grow beyond this wonderment. You will come to expect it. You can certainly use the cards to predict whether a stock will rise or fall, or whether you should invest in a new development. Remember that you’re using your intuition, and the cards are helping you to focus that intuition.

You should pay attention to any feelings which come up as you use the cards. For example, let’s say that you draw a card, and a picture of a certain intersection of roads into your area pops into your mind. You get a definite feeling that you should be extra careful next time you drive through this intersection. Take your intuition’s advice. Be careful.

Image via WikipediaLet’s say you’re starting a business, or you’ve already done so. When you own your own business, you’re lonely, because you’re betting on yourself. There’s always the chance that you’ll blow all your money and go broke. The Tarot cards can guide you. They can give you access to all of you, not just the part that happens to be wearing a suit of clothes and that you think of as ‘you’.

Begin by using the cards in a simple way. Just familiarize yourself with them. For example, when you first walk into your office in the morning, draw a card for the day. This will activate your subconscious mind. When you’re first learning the cards, draw a card from the major arcana: the triumphs. Look on it as asking yourself how you will triumph today. This is your touchstone, the card that will bring you success today.

What if this card is one of your least favorite cards? Later, in your work with the cards, you can  stick with this card, knowing that it is a part of you as are all the other cards, and even 13 Death will let you feel cheerful and optimistic—Death means a change for the better, most of the time. However, if you turn up a card and you don’t like it, just pick up another card. Or, you can pick from the majors all face up—choose the card which will give you most inspiration today.

When you’ve chosen your card, whichever method you’ve used, sit for a moment and look at the card. Don’t strain, just take in the card. Close your eyes, and  see if you can image the card clearly. If not, open your eyes, have another look, and then close them again. There is no need to spend more than five minutes on this exercise, but if you do it every day, you will soon find that you are learning all the cards, and are enjoying working with them.

Keep the card where you can see it during the day. If you have a couple of moments, doodle the design of the card. Even if you think to yourself “I can’t draw”, tell yourself that this is not for anyone else to look at. It’s simply another way of connecting with the cards. This is enjoyable, and relaxing. You can be like me, and keep a tin of colored pencils on your desk, so that anytime you are pressed for inspiration, you can doodle the design of one of the cards: you will soon find that you’re relaxed, and the idea that you’ve been waiting for will come to you, without any effort on your part.