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© Jay Ray 2008

                                                 THE TAROT –An Inner Way of Knowing.

By Jay Ray

It is interesting to note that much of what is called New Age, is actually old tools, rediscovered and redefined. Many skills that were commonplace in the Middle Ages and before have for many centuries lain dormant in the consciousness of the Human Race. Politics and religion played an important role in what was acceptable, and safe to express, just as it does in many ways and places today.

During the Christian Epoch, many of the earlier skills and understandings were seen as a threat to the establishment of the new ways, and were forced into a sort of "underground" movement that fought to keep these skills from disappearing completely. Information began to be recorded in a sort of "code", that only the initiated could understand. Initiation itself became a way of making it secret and making sure that the person who was being given tuition was in fact, safe to communicate with. Of course, even that did not always work and the Inquisition flourished as a way of maintaining the balance of power.

Many things followed this path into obscurity. Herbal medicine, crystal technology, early forms of psychology, such as astrology, numerology and of course, the Tarot. I call these earlier modalities psychology because their major function was in fact self-growth, and enlightenment. It was only when they degenerated into a parlour game as a method of disguising their usefulness, that they came to be thought of as fortune telling.

It was not until C.J. Jung began his interest in the more intuitive functions of psychology, looking into the I Ching and Tarot, that the modern world began to take them more seriously, and consider their worth. There is still, however, a good deal of confusion around them. Tarot in particular. "Science" has come to be the word describing the output from the left hemisphere of the brain, just as "Art" has come to refer to the output of the right. It is hard for me to classify Tarot as either an art or a science although it could justifiably be described as both.

The Law of Cause and Affect operates on us all while in this physical existence. This Law makes everything functional. It states that for every action there is an equal reaction. We know that when ever we take a certain course of

action, there will be a result. Sometimes it is easy to see. If we jump into water, we will get wet, unless we have taken some precautions to ensure that does not happen, like wearing a wetsuit. Sometimes it is hard to see that these are the results of our actions. That can be due to the fact that we are looking in the wrong direction, or that the impact of the action has not yet reached us. It could be that we refuse to admit that what happens could possibly have been as a result of our choices. This is called denial. However ,the results are always there, and it is in finding these potential results that a knowledge of Tarot can come used.

It can also be helpful to understand another law in conjunction with trying to explain how the Tarot works. We function in a substance that we all largely take for granted. This substance, for the want of a better word, is Time. Time is not static. It is best described as linear. In other words it appears to move in a straight line from the past to the future, minute at a time. It is not that simple though. If you get off the Earth, you would find that time starts to change into light years. This is what we call time in space (space-time).  So while it look fairly reliable, time is actually extremely flexible. I'm sure you have found that for yourselves when you have been having a good time, or just wishing and waiting for the time to go by. Both experiences have a very different perception, dependant largely on the circumstance, rather than the number of minutes involved. Another concept is that time is in fact non-existent as we know it, in other dimensions. This is also true of the Law of Cause and Affect. If you operate on what we shall call Eternal Time, everything exist in the Eternal Now, "at once" as it were. It is because of the “eternal now”, that when we move from our linear “right brain” perception, into our “eternal left brain” perception, we are able to experience things that have not yet happened. In other words, it has already happened on another plane. We just have to wait until it gets to us, as a physical reality. In this way, we are able to actually look into the “future”, so it seems. We can look at the actions we are taking now, to see what the consequences are likely to be.

That brings me to another principal of life that cannot really be separated from the Tarot. Choice and Responsibility! I know that it is common for us all to say we have no choice. To say that in fact "We can't!" It is probably far more accurate to say that we are unwilling to accept the consequences of making that particular choice. Often we are unable to see how we can, because there are still more indirect choices that have to be made first. For example, it may be a difficult for a mother with three children to see how she could become an Astrophysicist. There is certainly no one choice she can make in order to make it so. However, there are choices that she can make to move towards it, as long as she is willing to take the consequences that are inherent within it. For instance, she first choice might be to make enquiries about having her children minded while she goes to University.

Often we feel stuck in our lives, not really willing to take the difficult decisions that need to be taken in order to change things in the way we want them to change. A choice not to choose is one that leaves your life largely in the hands of other peoples choices. That’s the way we end up feeling like victims. Choice is the stuff that power is made of. Not "power over" others but "Power to…..". Power, in fact, to do anything we want to in life. Once again, Tarot can help you see around your own mental blocks.

I have still not attempted to answer the question "how do the cards actually work"? For me, the best way of describing this is to remind you of an experiment that most of us did at school. We would be shown the field of a magnet by placing a piece of paper over it and by tipping iron filings on the paper in a thin layer. Immediately, the iron filings form up in line with the field of the magnet. If you introduce a second magnet, the field changes and the filings will polarise to the magnet whose field is the nearest or strongest.

That is what the Tarot does for us. It forms its symbols up in line with our aura, enabling us to "see" what is being created for us in the Eternal Now by the choices we are making. If for instance, a reading is performed, but no new choices are made thereafter. Any subsequent readings will be the same and essentially say the same things albeit in perhaps different ways. In fact the Aura has not changed and therefore nothing new can happen until new choices have been made to change those circumstances generated by the past choices. Often the exact same cards will come up time and time again. Always the meanings will be the same, even if the cards are different. As soon as a new decision is made however, time and time again, I have seen the cards change overnight. Elderly people who don't change much in their lives anymore will have readings whose validity can last them for the duration of their lives. For people who are changing and growing, consciously looking at what is blocking them and removing those blockages, the readings will change constantly, each choice triggering a new pattern or set of programmes, having new results.

Symbolism is another important aspect of the cards. As children, the very first things we become aware of, we do so through our feeling perception. That perception is a wholistic one. We get it all in one hit. We grasp the concept of mother long before we know the word or consciously associate with it all the implications that go with that perception. Later, we begin to think about what mother actually means and what Society says about it. We begin to have expectations around it, based on our learned beliefs about Mothers and what they should or should not be for us. In the beginning, however, we understood symbolically what mother was without the overlay.

Symbols never leave us. They exist underneath all the words. One symbol will give us instant access to a whole range of information before we break it down into linear thought processes. Feelings are right brain thoughts in a way, and they are always linked to an image or symbol. The more we understand the use of symbolism, the more access we have to information before we have to think about it. This gives us a head start. In this way, the Tarot symbolism provides a system of imagery that can aid the already existing inner, personal imagery of each individual. Each Tarot symbol will trigger off a chain of symbols inside of us with new understanding of what that means in our lives. An experienced Tarotologist is able to be sensitive to the energy, as well as the symbolism, that comes up as a map of your aura, and can help you to understand what wisdom is contained there for you.

As we all live in a type of energetic soup of information that is available to all. Much of the accessing of that information comes with practice and trust. Mysticism? Maybe. Elementary physics, for sure my dear Watson! Everything that we need for our own growth is already contained inside of us. We have our own inner knowing quite naturally, and a good Tarot reader will really only need to confirm what you already knew deep down inside. The time has come for each individual to take charge of their own life. To be responsible for their own choices and the power to run their lives that comes with that. Tarot is one of the many tools that can help each person do just that.