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How to Activate a Tarot Reading with Your True Intentions, by Denise Hesselroth

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Materially and superficially, the Tarot appear as a set of images printed with ink onto slightly stiffened paper or card; to all sense and purposes, they appear as simple pieces of art. However, the Tarot is significantly more than just pretty pictures; they are a treasure house of images that express a profound connection to a mystery school that was centuries in the making. Elements hid within the Tarot reflect a truth that was old when the world was new. The school of Tarot emerged from an Occulture that was intent on creating a tool that would transform the lives and spiritual wellbeing of its users. They succeeded.

As a fledgling Tarot reader, I often felt out of my depth, isolated from my teachers or those who inspired me. Cut off from the guide books and the information therein that, my fallible memory failed to recall clearly and succinctly. With the eyes of the Querent upon me, I cannot begin to tell you how often my breath would catch in my chest, as pearls of sweat broke out on my forehead to glisten and betray my lack of confidence. Thankfully, most querents were patient and willing to allow a young person to simply have a go, and I am grateful to them for their tenacity and encouragement during my studies. And yet, I often felt so alone in my quest to understand and move into deep relationship with the cards.

That is, until one fateful day when I was to meet the most influential person in my magical life. Her name was Myfanwy Davies, and she hailed from the green valleys of South Wales. For decades she had resided in the North Wales coastal town of Rhyl. She was profoundly crippled by consequence of a road traffic accident; she wore glasses as thick as milk bottle bottles, and I would jest that she could still see Haley's Comet through them things. Short in stature yet huge in heart and magic, she told of me something inherent within the Tarot that I had yet to consider or contemplate—the Spirit within the Tarot.

Aleister Crowley explored this spiritual principle hid within the Tarot in his seminal work The Book of Thoth. In it he discusses the animistic principle held within the cards and stated that the cards themselves are living beings. They appear on the surface of to the untrained eye as inert and stationary and yet they crackle with a life-force and a vitality that is accessible to any student or adept of the Tarot. It was of this that my teacher Myfanwy referred to and then encouraged me to expand on that thought and explore the nature of the Tarot as a landscape of living, spiritual entities. My relationship with the cards were never to be the same again.

It is easy for us to consider that the nature of consciousness only applies to that which we consider as kin or near-kin, fellow humans, our pets, other animals, trees and rocks. We can identify the consciousness in others because we may share a similarity of awareness. We may not immediately consider this when we look at a deck of cards, and yet we would be foolhardy—as students of the occult sciences—to dismiss that the cards themselves reflect a consciousness. As I learnt that day, all of those years ago, as the western winds brought hailstones to beat at Myfanwy's windows: the Tarot are pictorial representations of the natural forces of the universe, and they contain within them the very principle of existence and all of its glorious expressions.

Tarot functions through the occult hypothesis that consciousness is not local, and it is not confined to specific points in space, or places like our brains. But in turn, our brains coalesce that consciousness, like a receiver, into a moment in time, and like the opening of a book and the turning of its pages, consciousness reveals itself in the here and now. This is precisely what the Tarot does: it opens the book of consciousness and coalesces material and information relevant to a precise moment in time (the reading), and reveals it.

It is able to do this because of the immense psychic energy that went into its creation.

In truth, each time you take to your decks, you are accessing a storehouse of wisdom that is more than the sum totality of its creators. For instance, if your deck is one inspired by the Rider-Waite-Smith system, a plethora of energies and influences went into the making of that tradition. From the Kabbala to the complexities and magical endeavours of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, to the profoundly powerful images of Pamela Colman-Smith, to every student and reader of that particular system. All have fed and nurtured a mystery school that is complete in 78 branches of wisdom. This magical heritage gave breath and life to the thought-forms that would eventually rise as living beings in their own right, as the spirit within the Tarot.

If your deck is inspired by the Rider-Waite-Smith system but has another overlay, take for instance my own Celtic Tarot. I have retained the primary symbology and system of the Rider-Waite-Smith but overlaid it with the magic of Celtic mythology. This adds another spiritual dimension to the cards; it does not detract from what is already present in the symbols themselves. By proxy of this, using a modern deck connects you to its creator and artist and the spiritual work that was necessary for them to perform to bring their decks into being.

Tarot is revealed to both reader and querent simultaneously, as each card is turned the spirit within that card sings of its heritage and the connection it has to all that has gone before it. The reader interprets the meaning of the card based on its position or value within a spread, and reveals this vocally to the querent. The most effective of readers are those who can sense and work with the spirits that inhabit their decks.

With this in mind, when one takes to a deck, one is in actuality never alone, for the spiritual beings that inhabit the Tarot are your constant guides to their revelation and inspiration. I sit here now, on a night not dissimilar to that which I enjoyed decades ago, the winds blow and hailstones stammer at my window demanding attention. But in my office, I am not alone, I have a number of decks, too many to admit to, and I sense their companionship. For within these decks are the wonders of the universe and of all life and living, of things seen and unseen and things betwixt and between sense and sensibility. In them are the efforts of occultists and artists and magicians long since dead, the mighty ones of the Tarot. It is the company of Tarot that I share this space with, and the comfort and stability that they offer my adventures into the magical world of Tarot.

Next time I will share some of my techniques for accessing the spirit within the Tarot.

Until then, fare thee well, and keep reading.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2020. All rights reserved.

Throughout my almost 45 years, I have had dreams in which I can fly. I know these are normal for most people, but the experiences I have don't quite match the experiences I've heard about from others. I can clearly remember being taught how to fly as a child INSIDE my home. I remember how I would push off from the corner and how excited and happy I was to be floating! I don't know who was teaching me. I have dreams that I'm either flying or that I'm somewhere I know isn't this realm. I'm certain I'm never alone during these times, but I don't recall names or faces of anyone. During one particularly troubling dream, I recall traveling with others and participating in a battle with a demon - an actual fight in mid air. I know this sounds crazy, but it felt like so much more than a dream. Do you believe astral travel is real? What do you think the purpose of it is? Is this just my way of escaping life or finding more excitement? Tanya

Susyn:

I do believe in astral travel and have had experiences similar to what you describe. In fact, this phenomenon has been documented in every culture throughout the ages.

Though we have limited knowledge of this subject, we have all at least been exposed to the idea that time, space and our physical world are not as solid or static as was once believed. When you consider that time can seem to go quickly or slowly and our physical worlds are constantly changing, the idea of our spirits leaving our bodies to travel to other places does not seem so far-fetched.

Many people experience the initial stages of astral projection as having the ability to fly or a sensation that they are falling back into their bodies after an astral journey.

The fact that you remember doing this from a very young age suggests that you may have practiced astral travel in a past life, and thus come into this life already well-versed in the art. Though it seems you donít know the people you encounter on these travels, they may very well be spirits youíve known before.

The higher purpose of astral projection is to experience life from a soul-based perspective. You describe battling a demon in one of these adventures, which indicates that you are aware of the struggles occurring in the spiritual realm and are participating in them. Many of your travels will be subconscious; though it seems you project on a regular basis, you may only be remembering a fraction of these experiences.

Rather than this being something you do to distract yourself or attempt to live a more exciting existence, it is simply a natural expression of your soul. Because your travels have been somewhat random, it may seem like this is a way you try to escape from the reality of your physical life. As you develop your gift, however, you will be able to pick and choose where you travel, whom you interact with, and what you accomplish.

For instance, you may have a loved one far away who is struggling with an illness or some other problem. With your gifts, you could travel to where they are and look in on them. You could also program yourself before bedtime to visit a place you have never been before. Once you master control of your projections, the possibilities will be endless.

To master this art, you simply need to set some boundaries and learn how to direct your astral projections. Because this is something you have done all your life, moving it to the next level shouldn't be difficult. I encourage you to keep up with your astral journeying and learn more about how to gain control of these experiences.

*****

Mata:

I do believe in astral projection; I've experienced it myself. In fact, I read your question with some excitement, for I too have very vivid memories of attempting to fly as a young child. I remember being about four years old and insisting to my family that I could truly fly. They laughed and told me I must have been dreaming, but I knew it was more than a dream.

I would stand on something like a bench or large piece of furniture, leap into the air, and flap my arms like crazy. I could get airborne for several seconds this way but I always ended up back on the ground. I did remain suspended in the air for far longer than would have happened if I had been attempting this in the physical, however. I've read and heard about many other people who have had similar experiences.

Your question also reminded me of my little nephew, who used to tell us about how he would fly to other places at night. He told us there were certain other people there, none of whom he knew when awake. He also talked about how sometimes, he would just jump up and down, touching the ceiling for fun. He could not understand why he was unable to do this when awake.

As for why we project, it just comes naturally. The astral is a very familiar place; when we aren't incarnate here on Earth, we are all able to travel to and through other worlds. I suppose asking why we have out of body experiences is a bit like a dolphin asking why it is able to leap and fly through the air above the ocean: it is simply part of our nature and our universe.

I love to think of all the little children in the world who have not yet been taught that flying (and all sorts of other wonderful things) are impossible. I love to imagine them knowing that they can fly and having all sorts of spiritual adventures simply because they are still so fresh from the spirit world and so open to any and all experiences.

If you had quit your job and were spending all day, every day, in bed, trying to get out of your body, then I might think you were trying to avoid physical reality. That is clearly not the case. Spontaneous out of body experiences can happen for all sorts of reasons. When trauma is not involved, it may simply be that your vibration is at the upper range for the physical dimension, so it is easy for you to slip up and out into realms that are close in vibration to this one.

It has also been my experience that sometimes, our higher selves bless us with such experiences to prove to us that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience instead of physical beings who may seem to have spiritual experiences now and then.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.