by Marcus Katz
Six: Touch - What makes you feel truly in touch with the world and yourself?
Seven: Novelty - When was the last time you did something extraordinary?
Eight: Vulnerability - Do you remove yourself and avoid relationship?
Nine: Disclosure - What secrets do you keep and how open can you be?
Ten: Commitment - What do you honor, value and how do make your oaths?
So for example, if I pulled the Emperor (IV) against the Ace of Cups, I would be seeing that I needed to be more dynamic about going with what excites me – feeling the fear and doing it anyway!
If I then pulled the Page of Wands against the next Cup card, the Two, I would be looking to go on a journey to get close to someone – perhaps a friend.
If I next pulled the Seven of Swords against the Three of Cups, that might be warning me of a twist in the tunnel, where someone/something was taking away my ability to be around similar people.
And so on for all ten Cups.
Here are two of the many combinations which our students have received during their own twists and turns:
3 of Cups (Similarity) – 9 of Pentacles
I am like my sister and like to be around her. The 9 of Pentacles can indicate self-reliance and we are both self-reliant and get on with things. Neither of us likes to ask for help or admit when we need help, except to each other and we are always there for each other.
8 of Cups (Vulnerability) - Do you remove yourself and avoid relationship? Queen of Swords. Please imagine my cackling laughter. Do I remove myself and avoid relationships? Do I ever? Yes. I do it by inventing new problems, new dramas and new reasons to argue. I do it by rationalizing or being hyper-critical of myself, exactly the Queen of Swords. If I can imagine an obstacle between myself and something, you can count on me to do it!
This exercise is designed to be very thought-provoking and provide full navigation of the twists and turns of the tunnel! We look forward to your insights. As you can see, what we have done here – another novel approach of Tarosophy – is extract one area of our lives (emotions) through the map of Tarot (the Cups) and measure everything else against that sequence.
Gates of Valentine : Gate 3
Steal a Kiss from your Favorite Miss.
This is the third and finishing gate of our Valentines experience, and is called “Steal a Kiss from your Favorite Miss”.
We have travelled together through the tunnel of love, accompanied by our Major Tarot archetypal force, who has been presiding over our journey. We have met two Court cards and brought them together into relationship. We have gone on to buy our ticket and ride the twists and turns of the tunnel. At last, on Valentine’s Day itself (if you are using this book in the week prior to Valentine’s Day), we can steal our kiss.
This final day, we reveal that our favorite miss is our very soul. More so, our soul in relationship to the Universe itself. This engagement of ourself and the Universe is the most personal, intimate, presence we hold.
It is indeed our Favorite Miss, and has been known in mysticism and magick as the Shekinah, Gnosis, Sophia, all a feminine presence of the divine indwelling in the real world. It is the true mystery of love and relationship - our very own heart open to the Universe. As Crowley wrote, “I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of Union”.
So having dwelt this last week upon our own relationships with regard to others and ourself, we come now to the final gate - the relationship of our soul to the divine. If we have travelled our gates honestly and with courage, we will have nothing to fear from the answer which now awaits our kiss.
To perform this final reading, a true divination, simple yet profound, spend a few moments to yourself - for this is a personal reading of the highest order.
Then shuffle your deck and lay out four cards in the shape of a X kiss:
RECEIVING UNIFIED BY
X
EXPRESSING DIVIDED BY
These cards are a kiss from Sophia, from Wisdom herself, accessed by your journey through the gates of the tunnel of love.
They tell you truly:
RECEIVING: What gift the Universe has for you in love.
UNIFIED BY: How you can relate to the Universe spiritually.
EXPRESSING: What gift you can bring to the Universe in love.
DIVIDED BY: How you avoid relationship and how to transcend that issue.
We look forward to hearing, if you will share, what Sophia has to tell you in this heart of hearts, and trust that this final Day will always be now a reminder of the place of Love in Relationship within the spiritual context of your life.
Conclusion
“For me there is only the travelling on the paths that have a heart, on any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there I travel – looking, looking, breathlessly”.
Carlos Castaneda, p. 185
We trust during this week-long taster experience you have been given a new angle on your Tarot, and look forward to welcoming you on our other Gated Spreads in the future.
You can share your experiences in our social site, Tarot-Town, and ask questions. The site is free with membership of your national Tarot Association, with many other member benefits.
Bibliography
Tarot
Katz, M. Tarosophy. Chang Mai: Salamander & Sons, 2012.
Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Around the Tarot in 78 Days. Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2012.
Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Tarot Flip. Forge Press, 2012.
Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974.
Relationships
Lerner, H. The Dance of Intimacy. London: Thorsons, 1999.
Person, E. S. Love and Fateful Encounters. London: Bloomsbury, 1989.
Rogers, R. Soulmates. London: Pan, 2000.
Websites & Resources
If you enjoy new learning, and want many more ways to use your Tarot deck, we encourage you to explore our websites. You are also welcome to join us in your national Tarosophy Tarot Association, where as a member you will instantly receive thousands of pages of materials, and tarot video courses for every level.
We look forward to seeing you soon on your Tarot journey!
Tarosophy Tarot Associations
http://www.tarotassociation.net
Tarot Professionals Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/groups/tarotprofessionals
Free Tarot Card Meanings & Spreads
http://www.mytarotcardmeanings.com
Hekademia Tarot Course
http://www.tarosophyuniversity.com
Tarot Town Social Network
http://www.tarot-town.com
Tarosophy by Marcus Katz
http://www.tarosophy.com
The Tarot Speakeasy Blog
http://www.tarotspeakeasy.com
Tarot Book Club
http://www.tarotbookclub.com
The Tarot Review
http://www.thetarotreview.com
TarotCon International Tarot Conventions
http://www.tarotconvention.com
Fortune-Telling Laws
http://www.fortunetellinglaws.com
The Original Lenormand Deck
http://www.originallenormand.com
Learning Lenormand
http://www.learninglenormand.com
Kindle Tarot Books & Series
Check out all our other books and series for original and exciting ways in which you can use a deck of tarot cards to change your life.
Gated Spreads Series
Set 1
Book 1: The Tarot Shaman (Contact Your Animal Spirit)
Book 2: Gates of Valentine (Love & Relationships)
Book 3: The Resurrection Engine (Change Your Life)
Set 2
Book 4: Palace of the Phoenix (Alchemy)
Book 5: Garden of Creation (Creativity & Inspiration)
Book 6: Ghost Train (Explore Your Past)
Set 3
Coming Soon – Enter the Temple of the Gods.
Tarosophy KickStart Series
Volume I.
Book I: Tarot Flip - Reading Tarot Straight from the Box
Book II: Tarot Twist – 78 New Spreads and Methods [paperback]
Book III: Tarot Inspire – Tarot for a Spiritual Life
Tarot Life Series
Tarot Life: A revolutionary method to change your life in 12 Kindle pamphlets.
1. Discover Your Destiny
2. Remove The Blocks
3. Make Decisions Better
4. Enter the Flow
5. Ride the Lion
6. Connect to Service
7. Find Equality
8. Die To Your Self
9. Entering Unity
10. Becoming the Real
11. Your Keys to Freedom
12. The Depth of Divinity
Also in Print and Kindle
Tarosophy: A ground-breaking book packed with original ideas.
Around the Tarot in 78 Days: The ideal beginner book, a three-month course through every card. An award-winning book, recognized by the COVR New Age Industry Award for Best Divination Book 2013.
Tarot Face to Face: Take your tarot out of the box and into life!
The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: Learn the real meanings of the world’s most popular tarot deck. [available Spring 2014]
Tarot Turn Vol. 1 - 3: A massive crowd-sourced reference guide to all 12,200 possible combinations of reversed Tarot card pairs.