{"id":44508,"date":"2011-08-24T13:22:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T17:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=44508"},"modified":"2011-08-24T23:22:27","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T03:22:27","slug":"meditating-upon-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/reading-tarot\/meditating-upon-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditating upon The World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note:<\/strong> If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator<\/a> using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article<\/a> explains how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here<\/a>. –efc<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sarah Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome to The World … Or The Planet Earth or The Universe, depending on which deck you choose. I’ve been holding off on writing about The World until the time felt right. And this is it. It is also one of the cards that I feel merits two articles — one where I invite you to participate in its unfolding on these pages, and one where I work with it in more detail.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Planet Earth from the Xultun Tarot deck by Peter Balin and The World from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck by Pamela Colman Smith with the guidance of A E Waite. Click on the image for a larger version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of the 22 major arcana cards, from The Fool to today’s card, hold the key to a significant archetype — or blueprint<\/em> — that we encounter within us over our lifetimes. However, The World represents an apex, where one thing ends and another enters. What started out with the Fool’s journey finds full expression here. It holds the sum total of all the other archetypes; it embodies the collective; it embodies you — or, rather, you embody it.<\/p>\n

So, once again, my invitation to you: to sit with The World — whichever version\/s of it calls to you — and discover what it reveals to you in terms of its archetype, and, if you feel so moved, how you have experienced it in your own life.<\/p>\n

As inspiration, I am including excerpts from the accompanying texts of three of the four cards: the Xultun Tarot, the Voyager Tarot, and the Tarot of The Spirit. (If you are a regular reader, you will probably be most familiar with the Rider-Waite Smith version of the card, which I will be writing about next week.)<\/p>\n

You can either comment below, or email me directly if you don’t want your words published (sarah (at) integratedtarot (dot) com). I’ll be waiting with anticipation.<\/p>\n

The Xultun Tarot<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: the Xultun Tarot<\/a> is unique in that its major arcana can be joined together in five rows (one row of two cards, and the next four rows of five cards) to form a picture of the journey of the soul through its lifetime in the body. The images interact with each other, which for me emphasizes the idea of oneness and interconnectivity.<\/em><\/p>\n

” \u2026[L]ike the albedo<\/em> needing the blood of the rubedo<\/em> in the Temperate Man, the creation of the caelum<\/em> [which “represents the corpus glorificationis<\/em>, the glorified, incorruptible, resurrected body, the immortal soul, the residue left by the process of conscious individuation”] was not the end of the procedure. It was then mixed with honey (they joy of life that overcomes inhibition and darkness), chelidonia (a golden, four-petalled flower symbolizing the fullness of life), rosemary (the binding power of love), mercurialis (a herb associated with sexuality), the red lily (symbolizing passion), and finally the alchemist’s own blood. All this symbolized the surrendering of the whole personality, light and dark, to the new center of the personality. All that has been discovered and realized in the journey is now given over to wholeness. Along this row [the fifth, and bottom, row of cards] are a total of eight Flowering Trees growing out of the transpersonal base of the deck. In this last card the eight trees now encircle the earth indicating they have incarnated, transforming an archetypal potential in spirit into form, pattern and wholeness in matter. The Fool has now arrived at an inner certainty which makes him both completely self-reliant but also completely inter-dependent with the world around him, a state that the alchemists call the unio mentalis<\/em>. So the caelum<\/em> is not placed on high by itself but is mixed with plants, healing products of the earth.”<\/p>\n

From The Tarot Codex<\/em> [now The Maya Book of Life<\/em><\/a>] by Jungian psychotherapist Michael Owen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Tarot of The Spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Universe from The Vogager Tarot deck by James Wanless and Ken Knutson and the Tarot of The Spirit deck by Joyce and Pamela Eakins. Click on the image for a larger version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Your whole world is in balance; you move like a dancer with every movement perfectly timed; every undertaking has paid off; your endeavours have been successful; you are at the end of a long “journey”; the world is at your feet; celebrate the great work you have done!; if you want to journey further, the time is right.<\/p>\n

“Because you are freed through new insight, the reality of your daily life is once again in flux. Reality is forever compromised at beginnings and endings. Beginnings and endings, which are one and the same, constitute a window period. Through this window, you see past, present and future with new clarity. You understand the dynamics of the present by examining the dynamics of the past. You know what the future holds by observing the dynamics of the present. You have learned that you can change dynamics at will to achieve the effects you want. This is the divine law of cause and effect in action.<\/p>\n

Through this magical window, you can see your steps laid out before and behind. In reviewing these steps, it appears as if you have been traversing the Earth incessantly. But where have you actually gone? It appears now that you have traveled forever, but you have gone nowhere! And yet, it is not as if you have not reached your goal. On the contrary! You have climbed the mountain diligently and revelled at the peak! You have met your goal, but, even at the very moment of victory<\/em>, you are aware that the goal is not what you expected<\/em>. You feel, in some ways, just like you did at the beginning. Some things have changed. Others have not.<\/p>\n

In pondering the question of where you have gone, you will ultimately realize that the real goal is, was, and always will be, to arrive back at the beginning. The goal is to arrive at the source. And, this<\/em>, however confounded it seems, is the great revelation<\/em> of Key XXI, the Universe.”<\/p>\n

From Tarot of The Spirit<\/em><\/a> by Pamela Eakins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Voyager Tarot<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: I am going on the assumption that the four paragraphs represent four different interpretive approaches.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The Universe symbolizes the law of universality. You are the universe. Like the center stone, you possess within yourself a universe of possibilities. What you can see in your mind’s eye exists. Like Michaelangelo, you can sculpt anything out of yourself — a flower, a city, a god, a star.<\/p>\n

Like the stone, you are whole and perfect; but as the uncompleted sculpture, “The Awakening Giant,” your life is an unfinished process. Always in a state of becoming, you are simultaneously completing and beginning.<\/p>\n

The universe within is emerging as you grow more aware (diamond eye), emotionally expressive (flower), and physically regenerated (chipping away of the old stone). You are re-creating your life through death and rebirth and building for yourself a new universe of new people and places.<\/p>\n

Your problem is where to move and what to do. You are overloaded with possibilities. Confused and indecisive, you become paralyzed. Like the stone, you become stiff and stuck, unable to change.”<\/p>\n

From The Voyager Guidebook<\/em><\/a> by James Wanless.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc By Sarah Taylor Welcome to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}