Tarot Time Traveller

by Marcus Katz

  37. Hall of the Moon.

  Shuffle your whole deck and consider the year ahead.

  Select a time-period from which you will draw your keywords and interpretations, for example, you may wish to select a Golden Dawn era list if you are working magically, or from the Agony Aunt age if you want a more domestic reading.

  Lay out the first card in position 1, which is month one, January, if you are doing this for a new year.

  Go around the temple and lay out a card in position 2, two cards in position 3 (a corner), one in position 4, two in position 5, one in 6, two in 7, and one in 8.

  You should have twelve cards laid out, each of which relates to one month.

  Make a note of how these cards might describe the month ahead, and as you go around the temple, create a story for the year by linking the cards together in a sequence.

  Next pair together the corner cards, so read together pairs in positions 1, 3, 5, and 7. These are the “corners of the year” and illustrate how you might better keep to your most ideal position during the year.

  Now read the four cards in positions 2, 4, 6, and 8. These are the four directions of the temple (east to north) and provide a standard direction or compass for any situation that arises this year.

  Finally, lay a thirteenth card in the centre of the square. This is the “axis of heaven,” and it indicates how you might best retain your centre in the year ahead.

  If your axis for the year is major arcana, it indicates a repeating life lesson that can be resolved during the year; if minor arcana, it tells of a situation that might arise which will be challenging and must be overcome; if a court card, it suggests the type of person you will learn to become more like during the time ahead.

  Advanced Variation

  If you would like to explore this powerful method even more deeply, you can look at the card (or cards for the corners) that are opposite for each card (or cards) and this will tell you what you need to sacrifice or let go in the month.

  So, the sacrifice which will help you pass month 2 best (position 2) is indicated by month 8, which is position 6. The sacrifice for months 3 and 4 (considered a pair) is indicated by months 9–10 together, i.e., positions 3 and 7 at opposite corners.

  Our final two methods to close this present book return us to Kabbalah and tarot, although you do not need to know any Kabbalah to use the methods. The first method allows us to discover the appropriate response to significant moments in our own timeline.

  The Tree of Life Locator

  Take your deck, and consider a situation in your life about which you seek a Kabbalistic and spiritual perspective to guide your response.

  Split the deck into three decks: 22 majors, 56 minors, and 16 court cards.

  Step 1. Courts: What is actually happening?

  Take the court cards and shuffle. Ask, “To which world does this situation actually call me?”

  Take out one court card and consult its rank:

  King: This situation is coming from the highest world and requires contemplation …

  Queen: This situation is coming from the creative world and requires me to create …

  Knight: This situation is coming from the formative world and requires me to organise …

  Page: This situation is coming from the world of action and requires me to act …

  “with regard to [consult suit of the court card drawn] … ”

  Wands: My ambition

  Cups: My feelings

  Swords: My thoughts and plans

  Pentacles: My behaviour

  Example

  I pull the Queen of Pentacles, who says, “This situation requires you to create [new] behaviour.” This is a situation that doesn’t require contemplation, planning, or organisation, but actual behaviour and creativity. In this case, it refers to writing new material—not discussing it or thinking—just writing. So, that’s what I should do—I was tempted to respond in a situation by a longer-term plan, but the time for that may be later; this reading makes me do stuff instead.

  In using this method, you will soon start to dynamically and experientially appreciate the Tree of Life model of the four worlds, and the elements, as they are modelled by the court cards. This brings Kabbalah into your everyday activity through the map of tarot.

  Step 2. Minors: What is the actual problem?

  Take the deck of minors and shuffle, asking, “What is the state of this situation?”

  Select one Minor card and consult its number:

  This situation has only just started and ...

  This situation is full of energy and …

  This situation is starting to get stuck in a pattern and …

  This situation is getting out of control and …

  This situation is getting constrained and …

  This situation is being balanced and …

  This situation is going around in circles and …

  This situation is being focused and …

  This situation is establishing a foundation for something and …

  This situation is finished and …

  Then consult the suit of the minor card and add …

  Wands: is consuming everything.

  Swords: is dividing everything.

  Cups: is splashing over everyone.

  Pentacles: is costing.

  Example

  I draw the 3 of Cups, so put together that this situation is getting stuck in a pattern and splashing over everyone. That makes sense for my question, although it brings my attention more to that it is becoming a pattern, and affecting others—so I need to change my behaviour, which is what people respond to, as indicated by the first card. At least I can see that there is no “cost” in this situation, which was a concern. This method also tells us a lot by excluding the other states and situations, alleviating false concerns.

  This part of the method teaches you how to use the ten Sephiroth in the four worlds via the correspondences of the elements in a real application. You are seeing here how the ten Sephiroth flow into creation, from the source (aces) to the manifest world (tens). In each of those states are the four worlds again, as the pure divine source flashes down the Tree into the world as we experience it.

  Step 3. Majors: In what activity is the resolution?

  The majors are attributed to the twenty-two “paths” between the ten Sephiroth, so in effect arise from the activity between them. This is a perfect mapping because it allows us to use them to see what two Sephiroth (aspects of the universe) we really need to balance, resolve, sort, merge, or whatever we have been advised by the previous two parts of this method.

  Take your twenty-two majors. Shuffle them and ask using the words from the previous two-card draw, “What activity will bring the most divine outcome to this situation [use your words here from the previous two cards].” In my example of the 3 of Cups, it would be “What activity will bring the most divine outcome to this situation requiring me to create new behaviour after being stuck in a pattern that spilled over and affected everyone?”

  For reference, we have given each major card the numbers of the Sephiroth (e.g., 5–6 is Geburah and Tiphareth) so intermediate students can see which two Sephiroth are being worked with by the corresponding tarot card on the path between them.

  Consult the card:

  [1–2] Do something new, novel, totally unexpected. But do it with a leap of faith.

  [1–3] Get everything together, out where everyone can see it. Expose.

  [1–6] Withdraw, find your own centre and source. Remind yourself what the point is.

  [2–3] Weigh up and balance what you are putting in and what you are getting out. That’s it.

  [2–6] Look at one particular matter on which to focus all your energy and effort. Do that.

 
[2–4] Other people can give you advice to expand from where you are. You need help.

  [3–6] Only associate and work with things that are harmonious. Make choices.

  [3–5] Use a set plan to rein in what is happening. Stick to the rules. Drive safe.

  [4–5] This is a card of perfect reconciliation. There is only one working solution. Find it. No blurry lines or grey areas allowed.

  [4–6] As you expand, you must keep everything in balance. Take some time off and away from it. Don’t get dragged down below.

  [4–7] There is an obvious pattern here, again. Do something that changes it. Anything. Take a chance.

  [5–6] It is up to you—the power is with you. Make the best decision you can, no one else can.

  [5–8] You are being asked to raise the stakes. Take a step up, don’t hang around.

  [6–7] Transform. Everything changes. You must accept the fact and go with it now. You’ve done it before; you’ll do it again. Do it now.

  [6–9] Everything needs to be in the mix—include everything and everyone, no matter how difficult.

  [6–8] You must be the bad guy to get what you want, in holding people to their word. Don’t allow others to hide in the shadows, stick to what was agreed.

  [7–8] There is no simple resolution; let it all fall where it may and get ready to rebuild.

  [7–9] Sticking to what is important, keep that vision, even through change. Wait for a while and then continue.

  [7–10] Go back over it and repeat. Repeat again, keep on going on.

  [8–9] Clarity is what will resolve this situation once and for all, even if it burns someone.

  [8–10] Make a decision, shake things up a bit, and call on others to change. You are the one who knocks!

  [9–10] Resolution comes from completing everything, take on nothing new, close the doors, and get everything tidied up once and for all. It is almost done.

  Example

  I pull the Hermit, so (unsurprisingly) I am advised that I need to take a break from being dragged into the situation that the previous cards told me is splashing over others, requiring new behaviour. Given the third card, my course of action is obviously now to get away, not to engage—but to take time to create new things. That is the course of action I choose, thanks to this method.

  Also notice (according to kabbalah) that the advice also counsels and suggests not doing the opposite, as that is likely the temptation. As an example, if you had the Magician, you may have tended to try and resolve the situation by keeping secrets, hiding things, not calling someone out on their behaviour.

  Although it is not necessary, the more you learn kabbalah too, the more powerful this method will prove. We will now finish with another kabbalah spread, requiring no knowledge of kabbalah.

  Kabbalah Middle Pillar Spread

  Take a question and choose a suit corresponding to it:

  If it is about material things, resources, money, or health: Pentacles

  If about clarity, education, logic, decisions, learning: Swords

  If emotional, relationship, or family matters: Cups

  If about ambition, will, values, importance, lifestyle, the big picture, self-development, or spirituality: Wands

  Whichever suit you have now decided covers the question, take the Ace + 6 + 9 + 10 of that suit out of your deck.

  Example

  If it were a job or employment question about resources, you would take the Ace of Pentacles + 6 of Pentacles + 9 of Pentacles + 10 of Pentacles.

  Lay them out as illustrated in the example: a vertical column, ace at the top, 10 at the bottom.

  38. Middle Pillar Spread.

  Llewellyn’s Classic Tarot by Moore and Smith, 2014.

  What you have done is created an illustration of the central pillar of the Tree of Life in the most appropriate of the four Kabbalistic worlds concerning your question. But you do not necessarily need to know that for the spread.

  Look now at the pictures on those cards.

  They will tell you:

  Ace: The crown of your situation. Where it comes from. The absolute thing you really need to get from this question.

  Six: The beauty of the situation. Where you can find balance in it, where it will all make sense and hold together.

  Nine: The foundation of the situation. Where in that world—of money, of love, of ambition, of decision—you can find stability and get it fixed.

  Ten: The kingdom of the situation. How you can act, what you can do, where the activity must concentrate to manifest and complete it.

  Take a moment to look at how those four cards illustrate those things. If you are using Waite-Smith, a variant, or Thoth, et al., you should see those lessons illustrated to some extent.

  Other decks may have surprising things to say in their illustration of those numbers.

  Now for the Kabbalistic magick ... take a breath, shuffle the rest of the deck and lay out a card on each of those four positions, so one card on top of the Ace, one on top of the 6, one on the 9, and one card on the 10.

  Those cards can now be read as the universe telling you how to align yourself to those four essential creative steps: the card on the Ace will show you what to aim for, the card on the 6 how to balance, the card on the 9 how to stabilise, and the card on the 10 how to act and manifest.

  All four cards will work together because you are reading them to the most powerful map of all creation—even if you don’t know any kabbalah!

  Back to the Future

  You may recall a long time ago when you started this book, in the first chapter, we gave you a method of aligning or illustrating your life through the tarot cards in reverse sequence. This was to demonstrate that the major arcana act as a time map of any creative process, including your own life at present.

  Having become expert tarot time travellers, we can now simply reverse the method to plot a new course for our own future.

  Take the twenty-two major arcana and place them in sequence from the Magician to the World. We do not use the Fool, who represents our own awareness and is beyond time. Take twenty-one small pieces of paper and write on each one the corresponding event for the card that you matched in your past.

  In our example is birth in San Francisco as the World card and the move to a bigger house in childhood as Judgment, and so forth. On each piece of paper also write a word or phrase for the specific challenge, resource, and lesson that event introduced into your life. This is your living tarot correspondence to the cards.

  Now take an overview of your history and consider where you want to go from now into the future. Look at the first card, the Magician, and whatever challenge, resource, and lesson this provides to you in life. Match that to the first step of your future.

  Continue through the cards until you reach the World, which should match the completion and success of your ambition or goal. Every stage and every card should reflect your past into your future, because our future is only an extension of our past—as you will see when you look back at your life from every moment.

  The cards have now illustrated that journey in time for you, and we have come full circle.

  The Tarot Wayfarer

  We have seen throughout this journey that the tarot is not only an illustrated map but is also a language. It is a language that transcends time and offers a universal key to the mysteries of life. It is much more … it is the very place in which that language is spoken. Tarot is a space of exploration and revelation, a landscape of our relationship to the divine. As such we can build not a temple nor a church for its worship but a living workshop for its practice. This place already exists and was constructed at the same time as this book was being created.

  There is indeed a world of tarot beyond this world, and it is called Arkatia. In that realm can be discovered further mysteries and magic f
or all those who seek to become a Tarot Wayfarer. We now invite you into that world to continue your unlocking of the infinite gates of tarot. Even in Arkatia, there we are. 185

  Conclusion

  We will leave our travels in time at this point in the time stream. In doing so, we encourage your further wayfaring with your deck of cards, whether it be playing cards, tarot, Lenormand, an oracle deck, or other cartomantic device. We will take a final moment to add to your time-log these words of praise for the tarot from Eliphas Lévi, whom we have seen as such an important nexus in our journey. He knew that tarot was a time travel device and a philosophical machine:

  Such are the twenty-two keys of the Tarot, which explain all its numbers. Thus, the juggler, or key of the unities, explains the four aces with their quadruple progressive signification in the three worlds and in the first principle. So also the ace of deniers or of the circle is the soul of the world; the ace of swords is militant intelligence; the ace of cups is loving intelligence; the ace of clubs is creative intelligence; they are also the principles of motion, progress, fecundity, and power. Each number, multiplied by a key, gives another number, which, explained in turn by the keys, completes the philosophical and religious revelation contained in each sign. Now, each of the fifty-six cards can be multiplied in turn by the twenty-two keys; a series of combinations thus results, giving all the most astonishing conclusions of revelation and of light. It is a truly philosophical machine, which keeps the mind from going astray while leaving its initiative and liberty; it is mathematics applied to the absolute, the alliance of the positive and the ideal, a lottery of thoughts as exact as numbers, perhaps the simplest and grandest conception of human genius. 186

  [contents]

  176 Eliphas Lévi, The Ritual of Transcendental Magic (London, UK: Rider & Company, 1995), 480.

  177 In the mathematical field of dynamical systems (sometimes referred to in part as “chaos theory”), an attractor is a set of numerical values toward which a system tends to evolve. It is “strange” when it has a fractal nature.