by Marcus Katz
When you are fully present in your transformed alchemical body you can visualise a portal in front of you with the word VITRIOL upon it:
VITRIOL
This is often taken as an acronym for Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem: ‘Search the interior of the earth and by rectifying thou shalt find the hidden Stone’.
Step through this portal and find yourself in a beautifully ornate and designed garden, with neat hedges, rose-bushes, paths and trellises. This is the Alchemical Garden and will be your meeting-place in vision and dream with the alchemical archetypes. Wander through the garden noting any details; perhaps there are statues, fountains, streams and bridges.
At last come to a central area, a cobbled square, perhaps, or other square space. Some people find themselves on a lawn, or an enclosed part of a hedge-maze.
Call upon the figure of Salt to present themselves to you.
Suggested verse:
Open the Kingdom of Matter,
And come forth, O Sal
That I may know thy secret
And work to Higher Things.
Ask the figure: How may I transform my body?
Which Tarot card(s) do they show you?
Then call upon the figure of Mercury to present themselves to you.
Suggested verse:
Many-eyed Mercurius,
Volatile and Quick,
Present yourself to me
That the medicine is created.
Ask the figure: How may I transform my mind?
Which Tarot card(s) do they show you?
Finally call upon the figure of Sulpher to present themselves to you.
Suggested verse:
Separate the venom,
Sulpher, Oil and Fire
Be Quick to come
And fast to answer.
Ask the figure: How may I transform my emotions?
Which Tarot card(s) do they show you?
Then thank the figures for presenting themselves and gently return in your visualization to your stating point and open your eyes.
Recommended Reading
Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, The Golden Game (London: Thames & Hudson, 1988)
S. J. Linden, The Alchemy Reader (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)
THE IAO METHOD
A Method designed to avoid stagnation and promote change.
There are certain magical formulae which describe fundamental patterns in the Universe, which can be seen arising in every manifestation, whether it be a multi-million dollar building project or the play of children in a swimming pool. These formulae are used by magicians in initiation, in ritual, as shorthand and contemplative devices. They are used to effect change in the world. In this method we use Tarot keyed to a magical formula to resolve a “stuck” situation.
It uses the formula of IAO, which is an acronym of the translations of the hieroglyphs for the Ancient Egyptian Deities; Isis, Apophis, Osiris. This is described by Aleister Crowley:
But before entering into the details of “I.A.O.” as a magick formula it should be remarked that it is essentially the formula of Yoga or meditation; in fact, of elementary mysticism in all its branches.
In beginning a meditation practice, there is always a quiet pleasure, a gentle natural growth; one takes a lively interest in the work; it seems easy; one is quite pleased to have started. This stage represents Isis. Sooner or later it is succeeded by depression - the Dark Night of the Soul, an infinite weariness and detestation of the work. The simplest and easiest acts become almost impossible to perform. Such impotence fills the mind with apprehension and despair. The intensity of this loathing can hardly be understood by any person who has not experienced it. This is the period of Apophis.
It is followed by the arising not of Isis, but of Osiris. The ancient condition is not restored, but a new and superior condition is created, a condition only rendered possible by the process of death.
The Alchemists themselves taught this same truth. The first matter of the work was base and primitive, though “natural”. After passing through various stages the “black dragon” appeared; but from this arose the pure and perfect gold.
Take the following three cards from the Majors:
Hermit (Isis as the Virgin, source)
Death (Apophis as destroyer, transformer)
Hierophant (Osiris as arisen sacrifice, interface)
Lay them out as follows:
Illus. Images from Silver Era Tarot (Kahn & Moon, Schiffer, used with permission)
Now shuffle the rest of the deck whilst considering your stuck situation.
Lay out three cards underneath the IAO cards above.
Read these cards as follows:
Hermit position (I) – Where can I go to find my original inspiration?
Death position (A) – What needs to change and be transformed?
Hierophant position (O) – What will come after transformation?
You can lay a further row of cards underneath the IAO cards to further answer these three fundamental questions. You might also experiment with leaving the cards out for a few days to promote the change desired.
NAME SPREAD METHOD
A Method of turning a name into a Spread
There are many forms of numerology and ways of corresponding the English alphabet into numbers. We present here our own method.
A
1
J
10
S
19
B
2
K
11
T
20
C
3
L
12
U
21
D
4
M
13
V
22 (22)/Earth
E
5
N
14
W
23 (12)/Water
F
6
O
15
X
24 (0)/Air
G
7
P
16
Y
25 (20)/Fire
H
8
Q
17
Z
26 (0) Fool
I
9
R
18
Using the table above you can convert any name into a spread and read the spread for the life of that person, with the four elements and Tarot.
MARCUS
13 + 1 + 18 + 3 + 21 + 19
Death + Magician + Moon + Empress + World + Sun
KATZ
11 + 1 + 20 + 26
Justice + Magician + Last Judgment + Fool
TALI GOODWIN
Last Judgment + Magician + Hanged Man + Hermit
Chariot + Devil + Devil + Emperor + WATER + Hermit + Temperance
Finding Amber Method (Tarot Shaman)
A Shamanistic Style Tarot Walk.
This next method is modified from our Spellcrafting Course which we teach at Magicka School (www.magickaschool.com). I’m betting you’ll have never heard of it, as I’ve never seen anything like it published. It was taught to me almost thirty years ago by a Tasmanian Magician who was a font of pure magick. It is inspired in part by the “Chronicles of Amber” series of books by the fantasy author, Roger Zelzany, written starting in 1970. In this sequence of books, he depicts a universe of many worlds, connected by gates. The Princes of Amber – an idyllic world in the centre of the multiverse - can travel through these gates. They come and visit our mundane world and a character asks them how they find their way back to Amber, as there are no obvious signposts or astral gateways or similar devices.
The Prince responds that it is very easy for him to find Amber, having known Amber. No matter where he is, he looks around him. Something he sees will simply be “closer” to Amber and its nature than other
things. It could be a pattern on a leaf, a roadsign, a person talking with laughter in their voice or an old wooden door in a room. He then makes his way to this object, and from there, looks again and repeats the process. As he then says, ‘the final step to Amber is only ever at most about three or four objects away’. It is a process that is hidden in plain sight, like all pure magick.
So, our “Amber” is going to be the heart of one of the Major Tarot cards. We are going to spend a few hours or even a whole day working with this card in a unique fashion. First spend a moment thinking about the card on a literal level. What is it called? What does it show? Then think about the symbols on the card. What do they mean?
Then begin to extend the card. What does it remind you of? What places and people? What feelings? Now when you have connected to these levels of the card, look around you, wherever you have chosen to do this – it doesn’t really matter if at home or away, inside or outside. Everywhere in the Universe is equidistant and happening at the same time – and in that manner connected - from a magical perspective, so let’s start acting as if we know that all the time, particularly when we make magick.
What connects most to that card from right where you are sitting or standing now? What is closest to those feelings of the card, the symbols – even a literal object on the card?
Now go to that object, person or place. Who knows, something else might come to mind, a person you haven’t visited for a while, a place you only saw yesterday. Our magick ranges all time and space – don’t be constrained. Then, when you are there, look around again – what seems closest again to your sense of the card? What draws you, what feels just so, what feels right? Then go to it. Repeat this a few times until you find yourself with something that feels like it is a gift to you from the card itself - an object that you can purchase, buy, pick up, take freely, or otherwise return to your home.
This object could be anything, but it will be what is called in Fluid Dynamics Sciences a “strange attractor” – and what in Magick is called a “vortex”. Something that functions as a centre of gravity, and about which everything else moves. This is now a magical Talisman of that card and can be used in further Tarosophy spellcrafting.
Pandora’s Box Shuffle System
A Method of shuffling and selecting for questions where the Querent seeks hope.
“But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered, all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils, and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them.”
Hesiod, Works & Days
A Querent often arrives at a divination session and expresses a totally hopeless situation. They seek a divination which will give them such hope – hope that a situation will change for the better, is not as bad as they think, or will somehow turn positive.
Whilst it is not the Work of the Oracle to provide hope if none is to be discovered in the interpretation of the reading, unless they subscribe to such method, we can at the very least look for where hope may be discovered in life. In this method we simply add a little twist to our shuffle.
Take out the STAR card. Inform the Querent that this is a card which signifies vision, clarity and hope. Tell them if you wish about the card, the symbols and their meanings. Ask the client to hold that card for a moment. If you wish, you can ask them to describe what they see in the card. Allow such descriptions to be heard and recognized without judgment.
Then ask the Querent to insert the HOPE CARD into the deck.
Now ask the Querent to shuffle the deck whilst considering their hopeless situation, or the situation in which they are looking to discover change.
Turn the deck up, and look through the cards until you discover the STAR/HOPE card. Then on noting that you have found the HOPE card, you can lay out your regular spread from the cards following the STAR.
You can also make 22 variants of this method by using the 22 Majors as start significations of other usual contexts of questions, such as:
Magician: A question where the Querent requires willpower.
Lovers: A relationship question.
Hierophant: A spiritual question.
Tower: A question where the Querent is dealing with shock.
World: When the Querent has no particular question.
And so forth. These Divinatory Signification cards become the archetypal significator of the spread, based on the field of the question.
THE DIG
A Method of Confessional Cards to reveal the archaeological layers of your soul.
In the work of Teilhard de Chardin, we find a curious yet profound combination of archeology and spiritual mysticism. De Chardin found a hymn to the Universe and saw our role as “communion through action”, which is part of the philosophy of Tarosophy, “Tarot to engage life, not escape it”.
In this method, we use the Tarot to represent three stories on Mysticism written by de Chardin, which he termed histoires.
In this method, we deal with the nature of the Western Esoteric Initiatory System (WEIS as we call it) as a “process of exhaustion” (see THE MAGISTER, a forthcoming series of 11 books on the WEIS in 2014) and use the Tarot to reveal the layers of our soul and the gap between it and divinity.
In one of de Chardin’s histoires he expresses a mystical experience where he realizes that the gap between his awareness and the object being perceived (in this case, a Pyx in a church) is a separation “by the full extent and density of the years which still remained to me, to be lived and to be divinized”.[6]
Shuffle your deck in the morning. Take out one card, leaving it face down.
At the end of the day, turn over the card and read it as a spiritual lesson. If that card were a mentor, what would it be inspiring you to do? As an example, if it were the 2 of Cups, it might be suggesting you make good agreements with others in your life. Review your day in the light of this lesson and confess to the card (in your journal) where you have not met its standard.
The following day, select another card and do likewise. As the days progress, begin to wonder what the lesson or virtue is being expected of you through the card you have not yet seen. When you are able to discern the lesson being taught and it is the same as when you interpret the card at the end of that day, you can complete the exercise.
Blind Man ’s Bluff Method
A method for using tag-cards without the counting system of the Golden Dawn.
Illus. A game of blind man's bluff, drawn in 1803.
The game of blind man’s bluff has been enjoyed since 500 BC in Ancient China. In this method we use each card in a sequence to discover the next card to read in our spread. This is similar to the Golden Dawn method of Opening the Key (taught in our Diploma Tarot course) but without the correspondences and counting mechanism.
Like the game, this spread should be time-constrained, for example, for ten minutes.
Consider your question, shuffle the deck. Take the first card from the top of the deck and read that card. Put it back in the deck and shuffle again. Now find that card and take it out again – with the next card down from it, this has been tagged by the first card and is now read, becoming the jīn dài or “it” card. Take the first card out of play and put the second card back in the deck and repeat. Read the cards in sequence until the time is up. You can also use this method with Court Cards only for seeing how people will interact with each other or energies will flow in a situation.
Sing Song Method
A most unusual method where the Querent determines the time of the divination.
Do you prepare your Querent or ask them to prepare themsel
ves for a divination? In ancient Delphi, postulants to the Oracle were placed through several preparatory situations, including bathing, fasting or being sent away to come back at a later and more propitious time.
In this method, we ask the Querent to call us for the reading only under a particular circumstance. We therefore need the Querent to have our contact number and we need to have a deck nearby at all times.
Ask the Querent to go away and only contact you when they hear a particular song or music, under any circumstances, or piece of dialogue, that reminds them of their situation or question.
They are then to immediately call you and you perform the reading over the phone at that moment – whether you provide them the details of the reading there and then or at a follow-up consultation.
This usually seems to result in telephone calls from shopping malls or restaurants but always adds to the divinatory moment. It also means that the Querent does not take the divination lightly and is involved in the mechanism of the reading on a far more subtle yet profound level.
Sun Meets Moon Spread
A 17-card spread for determining the conscious and unconscious aspects of a situation.
Lay out eight cards in a solar circle and nine cards in a lunar crescent along the lines of the template below.
Illus. Sun Meets Moon Layout.
Where the 3 cards of the Sun section meet the 3 cards of the Moon section, this is where the breakthrough in understanding can be made.