Tarot Cards; Understanding Esoteric Divination

Of the many tools humans use for self-discovery and deeper understanding, Tarot Cards, Rune Stones, Tea Leaf Reading and even Ouija Boards are phenomenal things that help the internal world meet the external in a tangible, visible way. Religions and ancient Pagan cultures saw the world in terms of patterns, cycles and vibrations; their sacred symbols are all based on repeated fractal motions within nature that become visible with awareness. For instance, the colloquialism, "all good things come in threes", is a modern manifestation of the ancient symbols of Paganism like Triskele, the three spiralled triangle, or even the comprehensive understanding of the Triple Goddess Glyph, occurring in phases of three (Maiden, Mother and Crone). In Christianity, the trifecta is represented as the Holy Trinity, and in Egypt, and among many, many other cultures worldwide, Pyramids were utilized as infinite energy generators as they carry within them a sacred geometry pattern that cultivates peak vibrations.

When utilizing Tarot Cards, one is consciously tapping into these sacred geometrical patterns of the universe. The matter of space and time is harnessed here, in such a way that the tool itself becomes a part of the pattern of the subconscious, the conscious, and the ether in between. Tarot Cards are an incredible blessing; it is often told that they must be gifted to you, and not purchased for yourself, because the spirit of the deck seeks your energy. These are all phenomenon of the subconscious frequency, the subtle body vibrations in the being that is more primordial and universally connected than the rising egoic "conscious" mind. These are the currents that remain undeniable, and are the same currents that the work we do with Plant Medicines seek to establish within us as we embrace their spiritual guidance within our existence.

Understanding the entire universe as a tapestry through which all things are connected is the truest way of viewing nature and all of her ecosystems. It is a pattern of thought and action we are steadily re-awakening to, and have long been disconnected from, through fear of nature and our own mortality. When a Tarot Deck finds its person, it is purely a matter of serendipitous fate that brings the two together; like two people meeting and falling in love, it is a combination of chance and cosmic divine will that aligns us so the right thing falls into our hands, at the right moment.

In a deck, there are traditionally seventy-eight cards, though there are many variations that extend from this basic original form. The cards are divided into two sections; the Major Acarna and the Minor Acarna. The intention behind the traditional deck is to tell the unfolding story of the human's path through life, and the influencing factors along the way. The Major Acarna is a collection of greatly impactful moments on one's life path, beginning with the Fool at place zero, a card whose imagery represents the childlike wonder of the world; a boy with a dog, about to obliviously step off the edge of a cliff into the unknown, trusting the universe, without a thought of danger. The end of these cards, at place twenty-one, is The World, which expresses our interconnected relationship to all things, and is the goal of harmonious balance and living. In between, there are cards like Death, speaking of transformation through letting go and rebirth; the Lovers, symbolic of integration and romantic, compassionate emotion; the Wheel of Fortune, referencing the nature of chance and spontaneous fulfillment within the game of life; or the Moon, showing us deeper awareness of our subconscious, nurturing insights and often asking us to go inward to explore our deeper emotions.

The Minor Acarna contains, like playing cards, four suits with fourteen cards each. A King, Queen, Knight and Page, portraying the hierarchy of influence, and the journey from Ace to ten. These cards represent the minor influences on the major events within our lives. The four suits are Cups, which represent emotions; Swords, which represent ideas and insights; Wands, which represent transformation; and Pentacles, which represent our material reality. Respectively, their corresponding elements are Water, Air, Fire and Earth. Each of these elements are constantly in flux, depending on what type of energy we are harnessing, or what experience we are undergoing within any given moment. And within the realm of our subconscious, are always playing a factor in how we live and act.

When we pull a reading, or have a reading done for us, what we are effectively doing is asking the universe to reveal to us through a tangible object what energetic influences are at play for us at that moment in time and space. We are opening our energy body to a physical object that allows us to, through chance, or you might see it also as quantum entanglement, unpredictably show us insights into what we are feeling.

The beautiful thing about most esoteric tools for divination is that they are an excellent example of quantum mechanics; it is simply through non-observation that the reality finds consistency, and when the object is directly observed, the outcome changes and begins to decay at a rate unpredictable. If you choose your cards on purpose, you will never find the accurate answer; all you will wind up doing is creating a spread of cards that is effectively entirely meaningless, and forced, with the effective energy so dispersed there is no story to be told, or insight to be had - aside from that of the ego. Instead, you must let the universe choose for you through trust and blind faith, thus allowing the frequency to navigate itself undisturbed, for the most accurate result. The interconnected nature of the energy body of the human with a seemingly unintelligent object such as a Tarot Deck is entirely a resonant frequency that flows like unobserved photon particles, in a symbiotic relationship, creating an invisible mirror that remains unknown in the conscious realm, until the reading is completed and translated.

The style and types of readings that exist range from traditional - a Celtic Cross, which asks you to look at a current issue, its influencing factors, and your relationship to the situation with an end result should things continue as they are; a Three Card reading, venturing into past, present and future - to widely creative, and varying, depending on the deck style, and the interpretive purpose of the deck, as its designer intended.

When seeking your own set of Tarot Cards, there are a few methods that can be used rather than choosing your own and purchasing it for yourself. You can seek a deck whose energy resonates with you, and ask for it as a gift from someone else. You can simply ask the universe to bring you one, and wait to see what surprises await you as you continue with your daily life. You may also just find yourself inheriting one purely by chance! Any way it happens, unless your soul tells you otherwise, the deck in your hands will be a tool of great service to your deeper self-knowing, and will allow you reflective insights into things you might not even be ready to admit. An open heart and a willingness to see into oneself is simply all that is required to become a good reader, and even if you are a skeptic, you are still bound to find nuggets of helpful gold in the words and wisdom anyway, simply by virtue of a different perspective.