A 3-Card Reading for the Now
By Christine Payne-Towler
ArkLetter 30, September 2007
For an introduction to the World Servers' Spread see ArkLetter 5
As I was shuffling this little gem called the Papus Tarot, my thoughts were drifting into the Memory Castle I have been exploring of late -- the Mantegna and Lazzarelli emblems. I picked the Papus Tarot this month because this suit of Coins has planets on all of its single-digit pips, sending an echo back to the Spheres images in both of those early series...
The imaginal 'Castle of the Ideal' has a geometric and mythic perfection about it that nothing on the Earth can replicate fully. Receiving no impinging obstruction from the weight and coarseness of matter, the realm of the Ideal is similar to the abstractions of the whole numbers, which likewise make no allowance for shades of approximation. Sometimes this quality of exacting perfection allows Ideas to persist over time despite the fact that people and circumstances that brought them into first expression have long since passed. Sometimes that purity of realization and vision will pull the Idea so far away from human life as lived that, for awhile, the Ideal might fail to communicate anything to living humans. But, by nature, if something is Real - meaning persistent in the Imaginal - then there is very little humans can do to discard or destroy it entirely. It will more likely reappear, clothed in different concepts or terms perhaps, but still remaining present and accessible if a given soul can reach the matching pitch of consciousness.
What the 'objects' in the Imaginal do have, to an infinite degree, is resonance. What I mean to say is that, like an instrument tuned to an exact frequency with a pitch-finding device, the Archetypes are so exactly centered on their own particular vibration that they are not mistakable for any other note, color or value. These non-material 'things' have been the focus of human contemplation for many centuries across many cultures, so their existences have been repeatedly refined and 'trued' as they have been passed from generation to generation and culture to culture.
Further, the resonance of these Arcana is so penetrating that once they are activated, they make everything on their frequency hum and vibrate along with them as well. Some Ideas are so numinous that, even though they might have lain dormant and ignored for centuries, when a similarly-tuned individual finally encounters them, they will leap out unbidden and reveal themselves whole. Historical accounts of philosophers, shamans, mystics and even ordinary people give us many instances of just such occurrences, sometimes mediated by words or images, but sometimes sparked by the ineffable movements of the life force itself.
It was Jung who began the systematic study of the repeating themes that seem to transmit themselves like viruses throughout human consciousness. He took up a concept first framed by Cornelius Agrippa, that of the Archetypes, to illuminate the nature of these 'things' that are not things, but energies. In a conversation Joseph Campbell had with Jung, (which I read on the fly many years ago), they found agreement with each other about the Archetypes in this way: The one thing that every human has shared in common from the dawn of time is the fact that we all live within the same organs, enzymes, and biochemical process.
This realization accords with myriad worldwide medical models; it has seemed evident to all that human existence draws its vitality and consciousness from the ‘humors’, the basic biopsychic, elemental dispositions. A given person's amount of well-being is directly indicative of excess or deficiency between governing functions (and organs) making up the body. Astrologers have followed those humors by charting and analyzing the patterns of the elements, signs and planets within a person's horoscope. Our Tarot decks use the very same vocabulary to this day, perhaps not coincidentally.
Jung's observations over time also revealed that the interior, imaginal landscape is as subject to radical realignment from natural or man-made disasters as is the outer landscape. Hence when viewing these timeless constructs we need to take in the temporal viewpoint we ourselves bring to the exercise -- because what we project from our own body of assumptions gets added to (or subtracted from!) whatever is already 'there' to begin with. In a way, the Ideas of the Imaginal are uniquely suited to be projection-objects for human individuals, so much so that it can be hard to discern sometimes where the Idea itself leaves off and our own projections begin.
That being the case, I was hoping that the cards in my hands would give me a reflection of the essence that still remains with the Tarot after all these centuries, all these users, all these different ways of stating the Trumps, the Royals and the Pips. From just what we have remaining of the earliest playing-cards, Tarots, and non-card emblem series, we can see that there were numerous directions the Tarot could have gone in its history. Various experiments have been made, alternatives posed, adaptations amended and appended. What we have now, going into the 21st century, is the fabulously seminal and creative but eroded remainder of everything that has gone before. The Memory Castle of Tarot reflects and is impacted by some the huge tectonic shifts that have taken place in the collective psyche in the last century or so. Perhaps we can discern some responses coming back to us from the Ideals themselves as well. In any case, how are we to understand the construct as a whole? What part of Tarot's original impetus is still reaching out to us across the intervening years?
For an introduction to the World Servers' Spread see ArkLetter 5
The World Position = 3 of Cups
This
card speaks of the joy of relatedness, whether it is family bonding,
celebration of friendship, or community support. In the illustrated
Tarots we often see three women dancing together in an aura of mutual
admiration. Their spirit is one of agreement and fellow feeling, an
affirmation of all that is good, true, and beautiful. Many packs call
this card "Yes" or "Unison", suggesting that we find those things that
we can all agree upon, even despite our differences.
These ladies could be seen as the pagan Triple Goddess, the Maiden, Mother and Crone. Then again, these lilting ladies could be the Graces who stand next to Apollo's throne at the top of the ladder of the Muses -- Aglaia as Splendor, Thalia as Freshness and Euphrosine as Pleasure [see musical image by Gafouri; scroll down for the picture - these three ladies are at the top to his left]. Some would prefer to see the dancers as the chaste Theological Virtues -- Faith, Hope and Charity. In every case what we see pictured forth are the Values that civilizations enshrine as holy, which are universally experienced as feminine, receptive, lovely, warm and joyful.
What this card tells me is that at the macrocosmic level, Tarot in any era contacts a very essential stream of love and devotion within humanity. There is a desire for guidance and communion with the world of Spirit that is not being met fully through other channels. Tarot is one of the tools available, in this disconnected culture, whereby a lone individual can enter into conversation with wise guidance and non-manipulative optimism. This tool has the virtue of 3-ness, meaning that it allows for the systematic examination of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. In this position, then, this Three of Cups represents the egregor of Tarot, bringing convergence, integration and harmony to humanity's competing agendas. It looks as if the heart on the card makes a direct Eros-magic link to whatever we each hold most dear in our own hearts, whatever in our lives makes us say "yes".
The Fool Position = The Popess
In
this spread, the Fool position is 'between the worlds', in a manner of
speaking. S/he is also between consciousness and unconsciousness,
between male and female, and between incarnations. All shapes are
shifting as the visible becomes invisible and vise versa. This is the
soul unhinged from all identifications, no more important than a grain
of sand on the beach, no less important than the star that is our Sun.
The Fool is the archetype of unrealized but infinite potential.
The Priestess comes closer to the realm of the Ideal (without losing her center) than any of the other Trumps. To get there she has learned to become detached from ego, will and personal agenda. She wants to be left alone in the Temple, to withdraw into the Stillness and con-template the Mysteries. Whereas the Magus is the will expressing in action, the Priestess is transparent, conscious responsiveness rippling through the matrix of awareness. She witnesses changes in the shimmering shadows of the energy-world that stand behind the material plane, and thereby sees the future shaping up in the flow of imminent events. Her ability to unerringly sense incoming developments makes her the seer or prophetess of the pack.
To me this is a perfect combination to explain the proper pose and attitude of the Tarot reader. With a practiced stillness of soul based on trust in the medium of the Arcana, the Popess enters the zone of the unformed and totally surrenders to it. Without inserting any of her own projections into the process, she mirrors and reflects whatever has come before her gaze. She does not judge, she does not personalize, she only reveals what is innate to the flow. With unerring accuracy the Tarot Popess gives people their own information back, their feeling of power and sense of meaning, which are easy to lose track of in the hustle and bustle of the common world. The Popess in the Fool position has the special gift of renewing people's contact with their wiser more evolved future self.
The Magus Position = 7 coins reversed, Saturn
As
I said before, the Magus points us to the exercise of personal will. He
appears in those moments when an unpremeditated act of inspiration can
make all the difference. The Magus represents the individual pushing
back against fate and predestination, foregone conclusions and pre-set
agendas. He knows the odds, he realizes that many who have arrived at
this very intersection have made wrong choices and suffered the
consequences. But in the overall analysis, the Magus would prefer to
take his chances, even if it means going down in flames, rather than
never to have tried at all.
The Seven of Coins is the card of the farmer, hard at work tending his crops. He is not allowed very much extra-curricular activity because then weeds, predators, and excess wetness or dryness will overtake the field and ruin his crop. Not everybody can do a job like this because they don't have the temperament. They want instant gratification without all the patience, vigilance, and repetitive labor that are required to bring a fine harvest. Plus, people want a guaranteed safety net; they are afraid to wake up every day starting from scratch, not being able to predict what Nature is going to dish out this time.
With Saturn on these coins, time and experience become ingredients in the process. The reversal inclines me to think that it is not necessary to be older and wiser to get benefit from this card -- one can instead 'speed up time' by being observant and willing to learn from the results of others' experience. The reversal also suggests that it's especially instructional to scrutinize what has shown promise but failed in the past, just in case it was hastiness and lack of attention to detail that defeated the effort rather than incorrect practices. One has to undertake the necessary labors with a sincere desire to provide the best conditions for success, without pandering to one's own laziness or low motivation. In relation to the Tarot, I would think this means going back to the time-tested classic sources for refreshment in the Archetypes, no matter where one's opening to Tarot first emerged.
Put together into an overview, this spread seems to be discussing the consistent and persistent value of Tarot to each era that it is popular in. Our beloved Art helps keep the Good, the True and the Beautiful alive to the collective mind -- not an easy thing to do in a time when junk music, junk entertainment and junk information are flooding the airwaves! Tarot also gives form to our formless sensations and intuitions, divined from between the lines as life plays itself through our sensitive wetware. The Tarot cards tutor us in the art of living, granting us a vocabulary and syntax with which to communicate with parts of ourselves that don't speak any formal modern language. They mark out distinct nodes in the great Web of Life, and give us guidance on the natural laws that govern the territory when we (inevitably) get lost. Further, they become great art-of-memory storage boxes within which we can organize our life learning as it flows through us.
Now that it is possible for us all to meet here in the electronic Imaginal, this timeless, spaceless realm of pure thought called the Internet, perhaps the Memory Statues of the individual cards will find it easier to become apparent to modern consciousness. Amazing things are happening here at the intersection of all the world's Mysteries. Amazing things are coming out of all the people attuned to this frequency. I give thanks for the opportunity to be involved in this magical moment of human history, and may the Archetypes accompany each of my readers along the way.
ArkLetter 30
September 11, 2007
copyright christine payne-towler 2005-2007, all rights reserved
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