Tarot General issues of tarotology: systems, approaches, methods of interpretation of the Tarot. I don't mind fortune telling, but I thank my gods that I have other sources of income
General issues of tarology: systems, approaches, methods of interpretation of the Tarot
This short article touches on several theoretical issues, but at the same time directly related to the practice of predictions using Tarot cards.
The more you communicate with fellow tarot readers, the more convinced you are that we all work with Tarot in different ways: each has its own principles, methods and approaches to work. These differences manifest themselves in many ways. In this article I will touch on only a few of these parameters.
IAbout the three main approaches to predictive work with the Tarot.
What does a tarot reader work with?
There are three main approaches to working with Tarot. These approaches are determined by the basic basis on which the tarot reader primarily relies.
1. The first approach is the system approach.
As you know, at the moment there are several generally recognized, most widespread schools of Tarot. Many tarot readers rely on one of them in one way or another.
Representatives of the French system adhere to the canons of the first occult Tarot, which was developed by E. Levy, P. Christian, O. Wirth, Papus and their followers. Everything else for them is a distortion of the primary system.
The Waitites (perhaps the largest “clan” of tarot readers) are convinced that their deck (+ its clones) and their system are the most workable and the easiest to learn and understand: after all, they have the plot of the Minor Arcana! And their Strength is in the “correct”, eighth, place, because it is associated with Leo, and the order of the Zodiac signs should be direct (... Gemini - Lovers, Cancer - Chariot, Leo - Strength, Virgo - Hermit, and now Libra , and they are Justice!). And the Fool is zero, since it is impossible without zero: everything begins with absence, with creative emptiness, and only then one appears...
For Crowleyans, the most faithful, accurate system is the system of A. Crowley and the Thoth Tarot deck. Everything else for them is dilapidated, since it does not reflect the changes that have occurred as a result of the transition to a new Aeon, the Aeon of Horus. And Tzadi is not a Star!.. But an Emperor... And this, naturally, is easily explained, because in the Zodiac there is a double loop... And Justice is not Justice, but Correction, because “justice... is not inherent in Nature; however, Nature is characterized by precision”... And so on, and so on...
What is the essence of the systems approach?
I, as a tarot reader, choose a specific arcanological Tarot system and, in accordance with this system, select a deck that best reflects the essence of this system and matches my aesthetic tastes. In other words, I choose a certain system of concepts, concepts and ideas, encoded in a certain way in a deck of cards.
For example, if I choose the French system, then I will look for a deck that meets the requirements of this system, namely:
A) the lasso Justice is number 8, and Strength is number 11;
B) the jester lasso has number 21 (or, additionally, 0), the world lasso - 22 (or, additionally, 21);
C) the drawings on the Major Arcana fully correspond to the descriptions that were given in the works of representatives of the French Tarot system (Christian, Wirth, Papus) or in the works of their followers (G.O.M., Shmakov);
D) if attributions are given on the cards, then they must be “French”: Magician - aleph, air; Popess (Priestess) - bet, Moon; Lovers - wow, Taurus; Jester - shin, fire; The world is tau, the Sun...
D) it is desirable that the Minor Arcana be not drawn, without plots, and if drawn, then with such plots that reflect the meanings of these arcana in the French system. This requirement is met, for example, by the Medieval Tarot of Scapini. For Papus, the 7 of Wands has the following meanings: negotiations, conversation, meeting, conversation... talk, say, converse, chat, etc. In the 7 of Wands card of the Scapini Tarot, these meanings are conveyed through the image of an orator who uses the 7 of Wands as a platform.
If I choose the Waite system, then I take the canonical deck of this system, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, or some clone of it that meets the requirements of the Waite system. Etc. And so on.
2. The second approach is the approach from the deck.
What is it?
I have a Tarot deck. It doesn't matter to me at all whether this deck is made within the framework of any system. Yes, I may not even know that any systems exist at all! I just like this deck and I understand its “language”. I deduce the meanings of the cards from the images and symbols depicted on them. Studying each card, one by one, delving into the symbolism, I compile for myself lists of the meanings that cards can have. In essence, so-called deck studies (on forums or in groups) are a study of the symbolism of a specific deck, and not of an arcanological system. The supporting basis for work in this case is precisely the symbolism of a particular deck.
3. Third approach.
It is also possible to combine the first two approaches, when I know the system, but at the same time, in addition to those meanings that are considered traditional, I also use those that I independently derived from the symbolism of the cards. This approach (which combines both a universal system and the individual symbolism of the deck) is perhaps the one used most often.
II. Methods of interpretation: intuitionists and rationalists
This is another division. It is based on the starting position held by the tarot reader.
1. Some believe that the process of prediction itself is an exclusively intuitive process. And if this is so, then there is no need to learn the meanings of the cards, much less know everything by heart. The message that the cards carry during the fortune telling process will be read purely intuitively, based on the images captured on the cards. If this method is chosen, then, as a rule, a deck is chosen with the Minor Arcana drawn, which is quite understandable. A card that shows, for example, only 2 swords on a blank background gives few associations. It’s another matter if it depicts some kind of plot. For example, a blindfolded female figure holding two crossed swords and sitting against a background of water. The image in this case performs a meaning-generating function: all meanings flow precisely from the image, and not from any of my knowledge or ideas about the meaning of this card.
2. Another method (one might say the exact opposite) is based on a different point of view, namely: in order to work productively with a deck, you need to know the meaning of each card by heart, and a deep knowledge of each card is necessary. In other words, you need to keep the whole system in your head! This method can be called rational. With this approach, it does not matter whether the Minor Arcana are drawn or not drawn.
From own experience I can say that you need to know the meanings of the cards. Otherwise, there is a risk of “drowning” in the boundless ocean of symbolism. One way or another, there must be some kind of coordinate system in your head, which will allow you to orient yourself when reading maps.
However, something should be said here about the other side. If you adhere to a certain rigid system of card interpretation (that is, consider that “this card” means only “this” and nothing else), then the effect can also be negative. Excessive dogmatism can lead to the fact that the meaning of the card, which lies on the surface in a particular layout, is simply not perceived by the tarot reader, since it does not fit into its rigid framework and is initially ignored.
Therefore, when interpreting cards in a layout, it is necessary to harmoniously combine all two principles: both rational and intuitive.
Reading any layout is both an intuitive, irrational process, requiring absolute freedom and purity of our consciousness (in order to be able to perceive information from “special” spheres), and a rational process, based on logic and, therefore, requiring some kind of basis.
In order for the interpretation of the alignment to be deep and consistent with reality, truthful, you need to adhere to the middle path: not to drive yourself into narrow limits, but at the same time know the limit of freedom.
Published 08/25/2017This is my joint work with Konstantin Vereshchagin (Lavo). We decided to write this article primarily for ourselves, in order to gather experience and answer our questions: what are the current areas of practical application Tarot systems and how you can understand the Tarot system from the perspective modern concepts consciousness. They sketched out an outline for the article, and it (the outline) spanned several pages. In fact, at the moment this plan has become a kind of preliminary article, indicating topics that are to be thought through, discussed, and described.
Introduction
As historians note, Tarot cards originated in Italy and were originally used for gaming. Later they began to be used as a divination tool. Nowadays, Tarot cards are most often associated with predicting the future. However, Tarot is a multifunctional tool. And this is connected with the very specifics of the Tarot system, the figurative and symbolic structure of the cards and the “spaces” that stand behind the cards.
We have identified three types of practices that use the Tarot system:
1) occult-esoteric practices;
2) psychological practices;
3) spiritual practices.
In this article we will try to describe in general terms how the Tarot system is used in various practices.
When describing and studying any system, as a rule, three main aspects of the system itself are distinguished: structural (what elements it consists of), semantic (what meanings the elements of the system carry) and functional (how the system and its elements function).
Tarot is a system. We suggest that through understanding how the Tarot is used (functions) in various practices, we can come closer to understanding what the Tarot system itself is.
Before moving directly to practices that use the Tarot system, let us specifically mention several key points.
Card and Arcana: what is the difference?
We distinguish between two concepts: “card” and “Arcanum”.
Arcanum is a special space of consciousness, part of our psyche.
A card is a means by which the Arcanum is expressed in a symbolic way: a picture, geometric shapes, color, number.
A card is an element of a deck. Arcana is an element of the system. Arcana can be considered as special spaces. Maps are like doors and keys leading to these spaces. Or as signs directing to these spaces.
Different levels of reading the Arcana
Actively practicing tarot readers (practitioners of tarot consulting) and “arkanauts” (practitioners of Arcana research) know from their own experience that the Tarot Arcana can manifest themselves at the following levels:
1. Bodily level.
2. Vital level: the general energy of the individual, his vitality.
3. Emotional level: emotions, feelings, experiences.
4. Mental level: thoughts, ideas, fantasies, imagination, planning.
5. Event level: flow of events, cause-and-effect relationships.
6. Value level: internal values, convictions, ideals and principles.
7. Existential level: essential meanings (death, guilt, shame, meaning of life, freedom, etc.).
8. Existential level: general worldview concepts, cosmogonic ideas, concepts of space and time.
9. Transpersonal level: perinatal, prenatal, systemic, generic.
10. Transcendent level: deep mystical experiences.
An explanation for this phenomenon must be sought in understanding general structure consciousness and the place of the Arcana in it. But it is precisely this feature of the Arcana system that allows them to be used both in highly specialized areas and as an integral tool.
I. The Tarot system and occult-esoteric practices
We include among the occult and esoteric practices that use the Tarot system:
1. Study of the Arcana of the Tarot as a direction of theoretical occultism.
2. Application of Tarot cards in mantika.
3. Use of Tarot in magic.
II. The Tarot system in the practice of psychological counseling
In the last 20 years, this area of using the Tarot system has turned out to be in demand and therefore is being actively developed. Domestic psychological authors, such as Antonina Velichko, Galina Bednenko, Alena Solodilova (Preobrazhenskaya), described in their books the variety of their own experiences in using the Tarot in psychological counseling.
Tarot cards can be used to analyze personality according to the principles of projective tests; they turn out to be a good tool in such methods as art therapy, fairy tale therapy, psychodrama, psychosynthesis, gestalt therapy, symbol drama, emotional-imaginative therapy, archetype therapy, transpersonal methods (rebirthing), Ericksonian hypnosis; combined with NLP methods; used by analytical psychologists, etc.
Tarot cards, representing archetypal images and symbolic glyphs, allow you to come into contact with deep unconscious psychic material, “open the door” to this material and help you process it accordingly.
The possibility of practical application of Tarot cards in various methods, working with different levels of consciousness, is a feature of the Tarot system, emphasizing its universality, multi-level nature, complexity and simplicity at the same time.
III. From psychology to spiritual practices
We consider spiritual practices to include:
1) the practice of meditative immersion and living the energy states of the Arcana;
2) modern spiritual constellations using Arcana;
3) Magical Theater of Arcana (V. Lebedko).
Before moving directly to the practices, let's outline some important contexts.
The sequence of the Major Arcana as phases of the development of human consciousness
The sequence of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, according to the occultists of the past, represents the path of Initiation, which has its own steps. This idea was first expressed by Antoine Court de Jablelin in 1781, attributing ancient Egyptian origin to Tarot cards and calling them the “Royal Path,” that is, the path of priestly Initiation. The idea that the sequence of Trumps (Major Arcana) of the Tarot represents the Path of Initiation was subsequently developed in one form or another by Etteila, Eliphas Levi, Paul Christian, F. Barlet, Papus, Oswald Wirth, as well as S. Mathers, A. Waite, A. Crowley.
On the other hand, the stages of development of human consciousness have been and are being studied by representatives of science. After the discovery by psychiatrist K.G. Jung’s process of individuation (growing up, formation and development of a person’s personality, its achievement of completeness and integrity) and after the classical works of cultural scientists M. Eliade, J. Campbell, many experts started talking about the Hero’s Path, the path of human development, symbolically reflected in myths, legends and fairy tales different peoples.
The symbolism of the Major Arcana of the Tarot and their sequence also began to be considered by researchers in the context of the Hero's Path. Hayo Banzhaf in his book "Tarot and the Hero's Journey" combined occultist ideas about Initiation with modern scientific concepts and interpreted the sequence of the Major Arcana of the Tarot as a series of sacred symbols describing the stages of the path spiritual development person.
Psychotherapy and spiritual traditions and practices
Psychotherapy and spiritual tradition: what do they have in common and what are their differences? This is a very difficult question. Where is the border between the psyche and the Spirit? Does it (the border) exist at all? What is the soul anyway? How to open up to the Spirit? How to contact Him? There are more questions than answers.
In today's understanding of these complex topics, leading experts in various fields (philosophers, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, spiritual teachers) agree that, despite significant differences, psychotherapy and spiritual practices have many common features. Thus, Robin Skinner in his article “Psychotherapy and Spiritual Tradition” clearly identifies the similarities and differences between these systems. We will list them in the order and form proposed by R. Skinner.
Common features:
1. In both systems there is the idea that a person’s perception is clouded and distorted, that a person does not see things as they are, as he wants to see them. In Eastern teachings this is the idea of the veil of Maya, in psychotherapy - defenses: denial, projection, idealization, withdrawal into fantasy.
2. In both cases, both the spiritual teacher and the psychotherapist see the person in a state of separation and believe that the roots of the problems lie in this separation and lack of integrity.
3. Self-knowledge, thanks to which a person is able to find the lost parts of himself and become whole again, is considered the key to the secondary discovery of wholeness, so that he could not remain divided into Self and Not-Self, not identify himself with certain parts of his being and not reject others, which are then perceived in a negative form by those around them.
4. In both processes, such secondary discovery and secondary acceptance are expected to be painful, but these processes are considered a bitter medicine that can be beneficial and lead to growth. The unconscious becomes conscious, projections decrease, disparate parts return to a new level of acceptance and unity. In both spiritual traditions and psychotherapy, it can be seen that this deeper self-acceptance and greater objectivity are followed by a clearer perception of the world and an increased capacity for understanding.
5. Both processes see a person as having hidden resources that, without this deeper knowledge of self and integrity, remain unattainable.
6. Most of the pain and suffering of man in both processes is not considered necessary, but is a product of ignorance and blindness, delusion and complexity, resulting from internal division. Therefore (and this is the whole point) negative feelings, suffering and pain, at least those that do not serve a useful purpose, gradually decrease and disappear both in the course of psychotherapy and in following the sacred tradition.
7. Both processes require that the seeker be in regular personal contact with a teacher, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst or leader who has already gone through the same process, has the same experience, i.e. who saw, understood and accepted at least some aspects of himself, got rid of some of his own fragmentation, delusions and distorted perceptions, and therefore, being able to perceive the seeker more objectively, could help him become more objective in relation to to myself.
However, despite the apparent coincidence of these directions, there are fundamental differences between them, and they should be understood. Differences (which, according to R. Skinner, “immeasurably exceed similarities”):
1. All sacred traditions begin with the idea of an orderly and rational universe, where the central idea is occupied by the idea of hierarchy, where each level is related to the other by mutual dependence. On this scale of existence, a person’s place turns out to be very low, although strictly defined, and the person himself serves goals that exceed his own and are necessary for the entire structure as a whole.
2. In sacred traditions it is assumed that a person has the opportunity to choose one of two purposes that he can serve - God or Caesar; the ordinary world of appearance or the world, as traditions believe, is more real, hidden behind the world of appearance: one’s natural inclinations and desires or inner voice, conscience, which may come into conflict. Traditions say that it is possible for some people to awaken to the everyday situation and see another task, another opportunity that they can accomplish, an opportunity to free themselves to some extent from the blindness and bondage of everyday existence. Higher energies and higher intelligence may become available to a person, and they begin to change all the goals and the whole meaning of his life. Everyday life. Man still serves Caesar, but also God; life becomes an infinitely rich source of knowledge and experience.
3. Psychology and psychotherapy lead to the strengthening and growth of our everyday “I”, making it more effective, more fruitful, more pleasant and less contradictory. The desire for knowledge on a different level and the beginning of an understanding of sacred traditions begins with disappointment in the ordinary “I”, with disappointment in ordinary knowledge, with a search for new meanings, a different consciousness, a different energy. “When we awaken, we must die in order to be reborn.”
4. Sacred Traditions are a manifestation of the highest level that they tell us about. And contact with this level can only occur within the person himself.
Psychotherapy, continues R. Skinner, refers to ordinary life, to the development of a person from birth to death along a horizontal line of time, to preventing threats to mental stability, eliminating obstacles and interference that appear in the process of growth, when a person moves from the position of a child to independence adult.
Sacred traditions are addressed to the vertical line of development: this is a person’s constant awareness of the chain of mutual transformation and exchange between levels of more high spheres, connection with this chain and service to it.
The place where both of these dimensions meet is at the crossroads within each person, where the line of time intersects with the line of eternity, with its level and scale, concludes R. Skinner.
The Tarot System and Spiritual Tradition
The great eastern spiritual traditions have been preserved for centuries and passed on from teacher to student during long-term training in specially organized places, in monasteries, and ashrams. The history of the Western esoteric tradition is dramatic, the line of centuries-old direct transmission of knowledge has not been preserved, and therefore some researchers wonder whether it even exists. But there is also the opposite opinion: the Western spiritual tradition exists, lives, develops, and one of its elements and ways of preserving and transmitting it are Tarot cards and the Tarot Arcana system.
In Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, there were esoteric schools that studied the Arcana of the Tarot. The Moscow one was headed by the Rosicrucian Vladimir Shmakov, the author of the fundamental work “ Holy book Thoth. Great Arcana of the Tarot. In St. Petersburg, the prominent Rosicrucian Grigory Ottonovich Mebes, known by the initials G.O.M., led a circle for several years and gave his famous lectures, recorded by his student and published under the title “Course of the Encyclopedia of Occultism.” In his course, G.O.M. combined Kabbalah and Tarot into a single whole. G.O.M. calls the Arcana of the Tarot an initiatory alphabet, systematizes the methods of studying the 22 Major Arcana as one of the forms of studying Kabbalah. Fundamental works on the Arcana of the Tarot also include “Symbols of the Tarot” by P.D. Uspensky, “Sacred mysticism of Egypt. 22 steps of the initiatory path" N.P. Rudnikova and Valentin Tomberg’s book “Meditation on the Tarot. A Journey to the Origins of Christian Hermeticism."
It is known that one of the spiritual practices of these schools was meditative immersion and living the Arcana of the Tarot. Fortunately, it so happened that this practice was preserved and was transmitted to one of G.O.M.’s students along the teacher-student chain, and currently the line of transmission lives on.
Meditations on the Arcana of the Tarot as a practice
We tried to systematize the technologies and types of meditations on the Arcana. In this text we will only identify them, but will not describe them in detail.
Technologies can be classified as follows.
1. According to the method of immersion in the Arcana space:
· visualization of the map or its elements;
· visualization of the image read by the conductor;
· visualization of the letter of the Hebrew alphabet corresponding to the Arcana;
· associative;
· others.
2. According to the object of meditation:
· Meditations on the Major Arcana;
· Meditations on various combinations of the Major Arcana: pairs, threes, fours, sixes;
· Meditations on the Minor Arcana;
· Meditations on the Arcana on the Tree of Sephiroth.
Practical results of meditation practice
By plunging into the space of the Arcana and living it, we first of all meet our own inner world, with its splitness and gain a chance to accept it. “Accept yourself” is a simple phrase, often repeated, seemingly understandable, but extremely difficult to implement. Self-acceptance and agreement with oneself should occur not at the level of words, but at the level of the depths of the psyche. The Archetypes of the Arcana provide energy for diving into one’s own depths, for meeting one’s Shadow, one’s repressed psychic material. Energy appears that allows you to integrate repressed material into consciousness, heal traumas and thus see yourself a little more objectively, a little more “real” and whole, freed from habits, states, and stereotypes of thinking that have formed in the process of life that limit your nature. The practice of meditative immersion in the Arcana makes it possible to agree with yourself, with your own imperfections and learn to deal with this knowledge or, on the contrary, to see your dormant abilities and talents and give yourself the right to develop and realize them.
Is there a change in character? Yes and no. Yes - because a lot changes in human behavior, in the perception of people, relationships (in a broad sense) and the world around us as a whole. The main thing is that there is greater responsibility for one’s actions and words, and greater external or internal activity. No - because, in fact, a person comes to his true self, the way he was “conceived” by nature or God and embodied by his parents.
And this part of such results corresponds, according to R. Skinner’s classification, to psychotherapeutic work, that is, strengthening his personality and growing up, horizontal movement. We would call this the hero's first journey. But regular meditative contact with the Arcana, with the symbolic form of transmission of spiritual tradition, contributes to the awakening of the practitioner, the desire for more high level knowledge, to meet higher energies, a vertical (as defined by R. Skinner) component opens. The hero's second journey begins, but it already has a vertical component. Strictly speaking, the hero’s journeys turn out to be many; in their upward spiral movement, they contribute to a significant change (expansion) of human consciousness. And the Path appears, clearly represented by the Arcana, the Path card appears - the Arcana. Arcana, which, as we have already written, can manifest themselves at different levels, at those that we named at the beginning of the article, and at those that were not named, since we do not yet know how to name and classify them.
Tarot Card Constellations
Currently, the method of systemic constellations is being intensively developed. The creator of the method, Bert Hellinger, and many of his followers practice spiritual constellations. These are “constellations in which the movement leading to a decision comes not from the constellator, but from a higher third authority, which is greater than us. The appearance of this Greater transformed the arrangements from solving the search problem " good decision"into spiritual practice - seeking contact with the Big One."
Technologically, arrangements are performed in different ways; there are quite a few methods. Among them, the use of Tarot cards as an auxiliary tool turned out to be effective and convenient. For the first time, the use of Tarot for constellations was described by A. Solodilova (Preobrazhenskaya) in the book “Tarot Cards in the Work of a Psychologist.”
Since 2011, we began to practice the use of Tarot Arcana in group work. We experimented with the following approaches:
· arrangement psychological portrait according to A.A. Chrzanovskaya;
· placement of the Arcana of personality;
· Arrangement of the Arcana of the problem;
· arrangement of the completed layout.
IV. Other field practices using the Arcana Tarot
"Live layouts" on Tarot
We practice layouts in which the client's field is mapped. We call this practice “live layouts”. This method of work arose for us as a result of the synthesis of predictive and constellation practice. Our colleague Victoria Verik played a significant role in the development of this method. This practice can be called constellations conditionally, since it is largely a method of reading information.
The essence of the method is as follows. The cards that the client takes out are laid out by the consultant not according to a rigid pattern (as in layouts, where each card has its own place), but according to feelings. The consultant leisurely, slowly tries to find a place for each card on the working field, which has its own boundaries (for example, a table). First, the cards are laid out face down.
When laying out cards, many interesting phenomena occur, for example: you may get the feeling that in a certain place there should be more than one card (2-3 or even a whole stack); some cards are taken out of the working field, since it is felt that their place is somewhere near the working field or completely far away. In addition, such work takes into account those feelings and sensations that come from the card. For example, a card can give off a feeling of cold or, conversely, a feeling of warmth or even heat. Cards can tremble and vibrate, move energetically downward (as if they are very heavy) or upward (as if they are trying to fly away), etc. Different cards in a “live layout” can give completely different sensations.
All these phenomena are given special significance, and they are interpreted by the consultant. How are they interpreted? There are no hard and fast rules here; to a large extent, these are individual interpretations. When interpreting, we use constellation experience in reading the field.
And only after all the cards have been laid out and there is a feeling that everything is in its place, the cards are opened and read (either all at once, or in stages). At the same time, the interpretation of this or that card also takes into account the sensations that came from it when we laid it out in the working field. Not only traditional (“systemic”) meanings are taken into account, but also spontaneously emerging associations.
An important factor is also the place where the card “lay down”. The workspace (field) has its own layout. This marking is similar to the field marking. And besides, it is important how the cards interact with each other (which ones are closer, which are further, etc.).
Thus, in “live layouts” the following are taken into account: 1) sensations coming from the card; 2) position in the working field; 3) interaction with other cards; 4) the semantic content of the card itself (meanings of the card and associations).
In this practice, several channels for reading information are simultaneously used: projective (associations), field (direct reading of the client’s field or the client’s system field), systemic (traditional card meanings).
“Living layouts” are especially interesting and productive to use for analyzing various kinds of elements of a system and their relationships (for each element you get a separate card). For example, when the task is to analyze relationships in a work team, family, etc. This method is also productive when working with the “internal parts” of the client, with subpersonalities.
Resource rituals with the Arcana of the Tarot
In addition to the above practices, field methods of working with the Tarot include resource rituals with the Arcana. This type of work uses arranging technology with floor anchors and the technology of archetype concentration from archetype therapy by V. Lebedko.
Conclusion
In this article, we have identified topics that interest us, which we will think about, discuss and describe in the future. It is important for us to find common ground between esoteric, psychological and spiritual knowledge.
Velichko A. Tarot cards without mysticism and secrets. – M.: Rostkniga, 1998; Velichko A. Psychology in the mirror of the Tarot: The path to the origins of fate. – M.: Rostkniga, 2002.
Bednenko G.B. Terrible Arcana of the Tarot. Theory and practice. – M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2009; Bednenko G.B. Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Theory and practice. – M.: Tsentrpoligraf, 2010.
Solodilova (Preobrazhenskaya) A. Tarot cards in the work of a psychologist. – St. Petersburg: Ves, 2012; Solodilova (Preobrazhenskaya) A. Tarot Archetypes. Psychological workshop. – St. Petersburg: Ves, 2015.
We will not consider the Magical Theater of Arcana, developed by V. Lebedko, in this article. For more information about this practice, see the books and articles by V. Lebedko and E. Naydenov.
Psychotherapy and spiritual practices. The approach of the West and the East to the healing process. – Mn.: Vida-N, 1998; Deikman A. Observing Self - M.: Enneagon Press, 2007.
Skinner R. Psychotherapy and spiritual tradition // Psychotherapy and spiritual practices. The approach of the West and the East to the healing process. – Mn.: Vida-N, 1998. – P. 40-62.
Veselago E. Modern systemic constellations: history, philosophy, technology. – Kyiv-Boston: Toliman, 2013. – P. 48.
Seminars by Elena Veselago.
This is another one of my favorite works. When I became interested (as it turned out for life) in the late 90s in Tarot cards, there was very little literature. I wanted to collect everything that could be learned about the Waite Tarot in one summary. The result is a book that has been republished many times since 1999 under different titles and in different formats. I constantly corrected translation inaccuracies, added (by at will show off his scholarship) and removed (at the request of publishers to save paper and make the book cheaper) various historical and theoretical materials. There were several versions of my preface. Below I present a lightweight (without many footnotes) online version.
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Answer the question “What is Tarot?” is not as simple as it seems. An entire book could be devoted to this topic alone. The easiest way to say that Tarot is a special kind of cards used for games, fortune telling and meditation. (By the way, contrary to popular belief, “ordinary” playing cards do not originate from the Tarot. Historical evidence suggests that the opposite is true—in 15th-century Italy, playing cards, who came to Europe from the Arab world, someone decided to add a certain number of “trump cards” - additional cards, each with a special picture.) But in almost every work on Tarot you will read that it is not so much cards as a hieroglyphic book, containing the key to ancient esoteric knowledge. I would suggest this general definition:
Tarot is, on the one hand, a whole complex of human practices, and on the other hand, a special class of things necessary for these practices.
This formulation, of course, requires clarification. By practices I understand Tarot as:
- a game (more precisely, a whole family of card games);
- a divinatory system (more precisely, a whole class of divinatory systems, mainly belonging to the category of fortune telling, that is, using a random number generator);
- a symbolic system (again, it would be more correct to say “class of systems”), encoding certain philosophical, religious, etc. ideas.
(Tarot is also special genre fine arts, in which, for example, Salvador Dali himself was noted. But still, the finished work is designed as a deck of cards for fortune telling or philosophical contemplation, so I would not put this practice in a separate paragraph.)
Which of these aspects of the Tarot is primary remains unclear. Serious historians unanimously declare: the first, gaming. Occultists say: third, symbolic. It is curious that almost no one believes that Tarot cards were created specifically for fortune telling.
Tarot as a thing can be a deck of cards or just a set of drawings in a book; According to some occult theories, the prototype of Tarot cards were frescoes in a secret ancient Egyptian temple or engraved gold sheets.
This book is dedicated to the Tarot as a divinatory and symbolic system. But it is no accident that I clarified that in relation to the Tarot we can only talk about classes, or categories, of practices and only about a fairly broad class of things. There is no such thing as a “traditional,” “correct,” or “standard” tarot deck. There are a lot of Tarot decks; There are very significant differences between them, and which one is considered “standard” is a matter of personal choice. Likewise, there is no single, “traditional” or “standard” method of divination using Tarot cards. And there is no single “correct” Tarot symbolic system. So, our book describes only one Tarot system out of many - the one developed by the English occultist Arthur Edward Waite (1857 - 1942). For this system, Waite came up with his own deck of Tarot cards, which, under his direction, was drawn by professional artist Pamela Colman-Smith (1878 - 1951). First published in December 1909 by the London publishing house "Rider", this deck was later called " "and became the most popular in the world. We will talk about the reasons for this unprecedented success a little later. At the beginning of 1910, the same publishing house published Waite’s book, which gives the fortune-telling and symbolic meanings of cards and the method of divination - that is, the Waitean system itself. The book also became very popular, was reprinted many times in all major languages (this collection uses extensive fragments from her), and for many people (especially in England and the USA) the Waite Tarot is, in fact, the Tarot as such.
But, as we have already noted, the Waite Tarot is only one system among many, and in order to understand its features, it is useful to at least superficially become familiar with other decks and systems of the occult Tarot.
“Occult Tarot” is usually called those decks that were created specifically for fortune telling and (or) illustrating certain esoteric teachings - as opposed to decks created primarily for card games, and Tarot as a genre of artistic miniatures. The words occult and occultism cause a negative reaction in many people, associating them with black magic. They actually come from Latin occultus(“secret”, “hidden”) and have long been applied to teachings about the as yet unknown forces and phenomena of Nature: astrology, numerology, alchemy, Kabbalah, etc.
Research by historians indicates that in all ancient cultures, games similar to today’s cards, chess, dominoes, “snakes and ladders,” etc. were sacred practices closely related to divination and meditation, and only over time degenerated into ways of spending time , winning money or a simple competition of intelligence. Apparently, the creators of the Tarot trumps (namely, these cards, which later became known as the Major, Major or Major Arcana, and are of main interest to the occultist) also wanted to introduce some esoteric ideas into the card game. There is still no consensus among historians (that is, people who study antiquity using a strictly scientific methodology) about what these ideas were and who drew the first Tarot cards in Italy. On these pages we will talk about the ideas contained in the Tarot, as they are seen by occultists (that is, people who rely largely on tradition and intuition in the interpretation of objects and phenomena).
And here we need to start, of course, with the French Antoine Court de Gébelin (1728(?) - 1784) and a certain “Comte de M.” (apparently Louis-Raphael-Lucres de Fayolle, Comte de Mele, 1727 - 1804), whose essays "" and "" respectively were published in the eighth volume (1781) of de Gébelin's major work " The primitive world, its analysis and comparison with the modern world" These are the first surviving printed works that speak of the occult content of tarot cards. In particular, de Gebelin and de Mele were the first to correlate the 22 trumps of the Tarot with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This connection plays a vital, if not central, role in all subsequent occult Tarot systems. In addition, de Gebelin was the first to publish, as illustrations for his essay, a Tarot deck “corrected” for occult reasons. (It consisted only of trumps and aces and was based on a design then widespread in France, which later became known as “ Marseille Tarot" De Gebelin renamed some cards “in the Egyptian style”, and the Hanged Man (trump XII) not only turned into Prudence, but also redrew it, putting it “from its head to its feet”). Both de Gébelin and de Mele also discussed the divinatory uses of the Tarot.
The tradition of the occult Tarot was continued by another Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Alliette (1738 - 1791), better known under the “kabbalistic” pseudonym. For the first time in recorded history, he:
- wrote a book entirely devoted to Tarot fortune telling;
- created a complete occult deck (it was, on the one hand, specifically designed for fortune telling, and on the other hand, it was supposed to reproduce the ancient Egyptian " Book of Thoth»);
- established correspondences between Tarot cards, days of Creation, astrological energies and the primary elements of the universe;
- divided the tarot cards into major And minor.
Since de Gebelin, all occultists have created a “corrected” or “restored” Tarot. The basis for the “correction” was first the Marseille Tarot, and over time the decks of previous generations of occultists began to be “corrected.” Looking ahead, I will point out as an example that the Waite Tarot, to which this book is dedicated, was a “correction” of the deck; in turn, Waite was "corrected" and "added" by authors whom I will list later. Etteilla corrected the Marseille Tarot very radically: he redrawn all the cards, changed their names and, most importantly, the numbering of the trump cards. Subsequent generations of occultists could not forgive him for this, who considered the Marseille Tarot either the oldest, or as close as possible to the hypothetical ancient Egyptian prototype, but, in any case, “traditional”. (And all because once upon a time the learned Freemason de Gebelin accidentally came across a deck that was not the Bolognese Tarocchino, not the Sicilian Tarocco, but the Marseille Tarot.) Nevertheless, as shown by a textual analysis recently carried out by James Rivac (USA) , about half of the fortune-telling meanings of the cards in the book of the same Waite come from Etteila, or from his students. In addition, Etteilla's minor cards were borrowed for their own decks by such prominent occultists as (Ernst Kurtzan). Therefore, we can safely say that Etteila is also
- laid the foundations for the fortune-telling meanings of Tarot cards;
- contributed to the iconography of the occult Tarot.
The divinatory-symbolic system of Etteila exists and develops to this day and has given rise to many interesting variations, to which I intend to devote a separate book. But now we are interested in another branch of the tradition, the founder of which was Alphonse Louis Constant (1810 - 1875), better known as Eliphas Levi Zahed or simply Eliphas Levi. In his system of esoteric philosophy, the Tarot for the first time turned out to be closely connected with the Kabbalah - and with almost all other branches of the Western occult tradition, since Levi liked to divide his encyclopedic works into 22 chapters, which corresponded to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and therefore the trump cards of the Tarot.
Levi categorically rejected Etteilla's system and took the Marseilles deck as a basis. He declared the Tarot to be the key to all occult sciences and practices and the most perfect instrument of divination. Here are the most important innovations for the history of the occult Tarot, proposed by Levi:
- he associated the ten point cards of each suit with the ten Sephiroth of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and the four suits with the four Elements and the four letters of the Tetragrammaton (Yod-He-Vau-He);
- although the correspondence of Tarot trump cards to Hebrew letters was mentioned in “ Primitive world ", Levi was the first to associate the Magician (later called the Magician) with the letter aleph, Popess (who later became a Priestess) - with the letter bet, etc. Levi assigned the 21st letter to the Fool (the unnumbered trump card of the Marseille Tarot), tires.
So Levi integrated the Tarot with the Kabbalah, and it was a complete system that Levi's followers continued to develop. Dr. Papus (Gerard Encausse, 1865 - 1916) made a particularly great contribution to it. He, in particular, in his classic book “ Gypsy Tarot"(1889) assigned astrological attributes to the Tarot trumps, using the Kabbalistic book " Sefer Yetzirah", in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (already correlated by Eliphas Levi with the trump cards of the Tarot) are compared with the three elements, seven planets and twelve signs of the Zodiac. This system, with certain variations, was soon adopted by occultists in Germany, Russia and other countries, but since it originated in France, it is usually called French. Graphically, the French system was first implemented by a Swiss (1860 - 1943). In 1889 he published a Tarot deck of 22 trumps; these same maps of Wirth served as illustrations for “ Gypsy Tarot» Papus.
The French Lévy-Papus system, for all its vitality and influence, is not without its shortcomings. The placement of the Fool in the sequence of trump cards (Major Arcana) between the Court and the World looks especially strange and illogical. On the one hand, if the Fool corresponds to the 21st letter tires, in theory it should stand between the 20th letter decide(Court) and the 22nd letter tau(World). But, on the other hand, in pre-occult decks it either had no number at all, or had number zero, or (in the Belgian Tarot) was numbered XXII, completing the sequence of trump cards. In all variants of the Tarot as card game The fool is a special card that obeys special rules (like the joker in other games). If we believe that the creators of the Tarot game conveyed to us some kind of encrypted esoteric message, we must definitely pay attention to the isolation of the Fool. If you match the Tarot trumps to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, it is more logical to assume that the Fool must either open the sequence or complete it. That is, correspond to either the letter aleph(1), or letter tau (22).
Both of these options were implemented after Levi's death, which ultimately led to the creation of two more occult tarot systems.
The progenitor of the first of them was another Frenchman and student of Levy, Jean-Baptiste Pitois (1811 - 1877), better known under the literary pseudonym Paul Christian. In his occult writings " " (1863) and " History of magic"(1870), in particular, describes a special a complex system astrology. Numerology, Tarot and a special “alphabet of magicians”, or “Egyptian hieratic alphabet” (in principle, these are the same 22 Hebrew letters, only written and called slightly differently) are woven into this system. Describing the Arcana of the Tarot (by the way, it was Christian who first called the Tarot paintings "Arcanas"), he follows the order of Levi (the Crocodile, Christian's analogue of the Fool, has number 0, but stands between Arcana 20 and 21).
In 1888, Eli Star (aka Eugene Jacob) published the book Mysteries of the horoscope", which describes the Christian version of astrology and Tarot. Eli Star renumbered Crocodile (the Fool), placing him at the more appropriate 22nd place.
In 1896 (the events are still unfolding in France), R. Falconnier’s book “ Twenty-two Hermetic Divinatory Tarot Sheets" It was accompanied by illustrations by Maurice-Otto Wegener, as the book's subtitle stated, "fairly recreated from the sacred texts in accordance with the tradition of the Magi of ancient Egypt." It is unlikely that Wegener’s illustrations were specially created for this book, and here’s why. Falconnier introduced his own nomenclature and numbering of the “sheets” of the Tarot. Wegener’s cards have neither signatures nor numbers, but there are letters of the same magical alphabet that Christian gives in his books. But if we arrange the cards in letter order, we get not the Falconnier numbering or even the Levi-Christian numbering, but the Eli Star numbering (in other words, the card with the crocodile and the fool corresponds to the 22nd and last letter of the alphabet).
The Lévy-Papus system is called French. I would call the Christian-Zain system that spun off from it American.
Now we move on to the English system - and come close to the topic of this book, for Arthur Edward Waite is a prominent representative of this particular school of Tarot. It also spun off from the French system and took shape in the bowels of the famous British Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, founded in 1888.
For the general public, the name of this order is associated mainly with numerous scandals, schisms and lawsuits that were organized by the celebrities who were part of it. However, the Golden Dawn played an important role in the occult renaissance of the early twentieth century, giving rise to a huge number of affiliated schools, orders and occult systems. The main rituals and theoretical documents of the Order were compiled by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854 - 1918); He also developed the Golden Dawn Tarot system. In 1888, Mathers published a small book " Tarot: A Brief Treatise on Card Reading", in which he describes a Marseilles-type deck and gives French (i.e., according to Levy) correspondences of trump cards to Hebrew letters. But already at that time he was working on a completely new system. In the end, his new, English Tarot was described in the so-called " Book T", intended only for members of the Order. Mathers' wife drew a deck that met the new requirements. Students were required to copy it with their own hands and keep the copy solely for personal use. But everything secret someday becomes clear. Over time they were published as " Book T", and the Tarot of the Golden Dawn itself. English system ceased to be a secret, but this only contributed to its spread.
Mathers, like his predecessors, “corrected” the Tarot deck. He radically changed the iconography of several cards, assigning the trump number VIII to the Strength trump, and the number XI to the Justice trump (in the French school and the old Marseille Tarot it was the other way around). He placed the fool not at the end of the trump sequence, but at the beginning. Thus, the Fool began to correspond not to the letter tires, as in the French system, and not tau, as in American, and aleph! In addition, Mathers changed the general order of the cards in the deck: aces come first, then face cards, then point cards (in a complex astrological sequence); accordingly, the trump cards do not start, but complete the deck.
Rearrangements of the cards made it possible to assign more appropriate, from Mathers' point of view, astrological and Kabbalistic correspondences to the trump cards. Indeed, the occult system of the Golden Dawn cannot be denied integrity and thoughtfulness of details. But it was still far from perfect, otherwise there would not have been so many people willing to reform it. Two of the most popular tarot decks of the 20th century were created by occultists who were at one stage prominent members of the Golden Dawn. We are, of course, talking about Arthur Edward Waite and Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947). The reader can become acquainted with Crowley's system by referring to his " Book of Thoth", published in my translation. And we will finally deal with Waite directly.
Waite was an extremely erudite occultist and a man of varied interests. Having started his career as a Catholic, he was successively interested in spiritualism, theosophy, the teachings of Eliphas Levi, Rosicrucianism, Martinism, esoteric Freemasonry... He translated and wrote dozens of serious books, but became famous primarily as the author of the most famous and best-selling Tarot deck. Waite, who enthusiastically collected various occult initiations and degrees, joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1891; soon left it, then returned. In 1904, during another crisis of the Order, Waite created his own group of schismatics - the "Reformed Order of the Golden Dawn" - and dissolved it in 1914, then forming the "Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross". All of Waite's biographers claim that his inclinations were always less magical than mystical, and he tried unsuccessfully to reorient the Golden Dawn from practical cabalism to a more contemplative mysticism. Nevertheless, he was well versed in Kabbalistics, happily translated Levi and Papus from French, and perfectly mastered the magical system of the Golden Dawn.
Waite devoted several small publications to the topic of cartomancy and Tarot and finally decided to publish his own - naturally, “corrected” - Tarot deck. By that time (late 1909 - early 1910), only Etteilla's decks were widely used among occult decks, but "serious" occultists since the time of Levi despised Etteilla as a cheap charlatan. The deck of Oswald Wirth enjoyed authority, but it contained only 22 Major Arcana cards. Wegener's Egyptian Tarot was in circulation (see above); they say that theosophists used it, but Levi's followers also rejected it. And that's probably all. (As already noted, only members of the Order had access to the Golden Dawn Tarot.) There was an urgent need to publish a complete occult Tarot deck that would not stray too far stylistically from Wirth.
And in 1909, Papus’s book “ Predictive Tarot”, which was accompanied by an album - a complete deck of 78 cards. The cards had to be cut out and glued onto cardboard. Waite took a different path. At the very end of that year he released a complete deck of finished cards; book " Key to the Tarot" and the second edition of the maps were published in early 1910.
Reprints of Waite's maps and book on different languages and in different formats there are dozens, if not hundreds. The Papus Tarot never gained such popularity. Why? The Major Arcana of Papus illustrate the descriptions of Paul Christian (see above), and the Minor Arcana are borrowed from Etteilla. On the score cards there are only signs of the suits in the appropriate numbers and some strange talismans. Waite took a different path here too. He had his artist, Pamela Smith, give each score card except the Aces a unique design. The drawing was supposed to reflect the divinatory meaning of the card. Contrary to popular belief, Waite was not the first to think of this (and he honestly admits this in his book). But these were decks known only to collectors. And Waite and Smith made Tarot for the people - widely accessible, understandable, ready to use. The theoretical part of Waite's book (like all his other works) was written in a very sophisticated language, in a meaningful tone, but the descriptions of the cards and their meanings in different positions and combinations are quite simple and, moreover, elegant.
Waite gives no astrological correspondences, no Hebrew letters, or anything other than the common names and numbers of the cards, either on the cards themselves or in the book. He reports that there is a Secret Tradition (Doctrine) in the Tarot and leaves us in no doubt that he himself is initiated into it, but declares that he cannot reveal much, because “there is a question of honor here... I feel that it has come it is time to say what can be said to minimize the influence of the present quackery and unreasonableness.” The name "Golden Dawn" is not even mentioned in the book. Waite touches on the question of the Hebrew letters (the most important, as we have seen) several times, but is very reluctant to go into it, getting off with excuses: “The truth is that the real arrangement of the cards has never become known.”
The Fool, numbered 0, is placed between trumps XX and XXI, as in the French tradition, but Strength is numbered VIII, and Justice is numbered XI (as in the Golden Dawn tradition). At the same time, Waite never mentions the Golden Dawn! Since this arrangement of the trump cards Strength and Justice was first published in his book, and the source (Mathers and the Order of the Golden Dawn) was not indicated, it is not surprising that Waite was credited with the authorship of the rearrangement.
Waite's intention, judging by the introductory chapters of his book, was to publish an external, exoteric version of the esoteric system ("Secret Doctrine") of the Tarot and to provide healthy competition to charlatans and dropouts (hints at the followers of Etteilla and the French tradition). In terms of competition, the plan was certainly a success. The public received a Tarot that appealed to intuition, depicting archetypes (“universal types”), not loaded (to the uninitiated) with complex astrological and cabalistic attributes. Perhaps this is the main secret of the worldwide popularity of the Waite system: that there may well not be a system! Everything you need for fortune telling and philosophical meditation is contained in the cards: look and interpret as your intuition suggests. A list of divinatory meanings can be useful, but in principle you can do without it. All of Waite’s cards “speak” - and this quality has become almost the standard for many dozens of later Tarots. When developing new fortune-telling decks, modern authors increasingly illustrate the score cards so that they remind the user of their meanings and appeal to his intuition. Some come up with their own plots, but more often they are borrowed from the corresponding Waite cards. So the system still exists: at least a system of images.
To unravel Waite's "Secret Doctrine", you need to be a student of the English school of occultism. One of these, David Allen Hulse, published in 1994 a monumental work “ The key to it all" (the title quotes Crowley's " Book of the Law", III, 47), in which, among other interesting occult discoveries, he demonstrated the hidden symbolism of the Waite Tarot cards. Hulse's most important observations and reflections are included in our collection; here we only state that this researcher has convincingly proven: the Waite Tarot contains astrology, Kabbalah, and other magical attributes, and the entire system of images is built in the tradition of the Golden Dawn (although in some ways it diverges from the classic Mathers Tarot).
So, the Tarot of Arthur Edward Waite is ambivalent: on the one hand, it is a product of an esoteric (that is, secret) school that has developed a clear system of hierarchies, correspondences, attributes, rituals, initiations, etc. - that is, a fairly rigid structure of theory and practice. Divination in the Golden Dawn is a highly ritualized sacred practice that requires serious preliminary preparation. The results of divination are expressed in terms of spiritual evolution, astral influences, energies of the Elements, etc.
On the other hand, the Waite Tarot was published by the author, which means it is intended for everyone. Using these cards, you can tell fortunes on purely mundane, everyday topics (which people have been doing for decades), without even suspecting the existence of any occult tradition. These two aspects of Waite's system may be called esoteric and exoteric, respectively. This publication attempts to present both aspects. But the reader must be aware that to fully understand the esotericism of the Waite Tarot, one must seek initiation into an occult school following the tradition of the Golden Dawn. You cannot get all the necessary knowledge from any book: you need systematic study and work under the guidance of qualified mentors. As for the exoteric, or intuitive, understanding of this Tarot, we hope that the descriptions of the cards and exercises we have collected from various sources (primarily from Waite’s own book “ Illustrated Key to the Tarot"), will help the reader take the first steps on this path.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the story of the Waite Tarot did not end with the publication of his deck and book. Firstly, over the years Waite himself became increasingly disillusioned with the ritual magic of the Golden Dawn and his own Tarot deck, created under its influence. In 1919 - 1923, artists Wilfrid Pippet and Joe Brahms Trinick created a new, more mystical Tarot for Waite - the 22 "Great Symbols of the Paths [of the Tree of Life]". These drawings were used in Waite's "Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross", which we mentioned above, and did not spread outside of this school.
K. K. Zain in the school “Brotherhood of Light” he created ( www.light.org ) initially promoted the Waite Tarot, but in 1918 published your own deck, in Egyptian style.
Paul Foster Case, another Golden Dawn alumnus, used the Waite Tarot in his Sanctuary Builders school (www.bota.org), but in 1931 he published his own deck, based on Waite's, but with many modifications.
Dolores Ashcroft-Nowitzky for her school “Servants of the Light” (www.servantsofthelight.org) in the early 1990s commissioned a deck based on Waite’s, but with many modifications in the spirit of the classic Golden Dawn system.
Boris Monosov, founder of the Russian school of magic “Atlantis” (www.avvadon.org), uses the “Tarot of Avvadon” deck (1993) in his Tarot system. It is based on the Rider-Waite Tarot, but drawn in the “Russian style”.
Eileen Connolly, an outstanding tarot reader and numerologist of our time, who developed her own system of interpretation of the Waite Tarot, in 1989 created (together with her artist son) and your own deck , differing in many details from Waite's.
How to treat such a huge number of “improved” versions? Of course, this can be taken as evidence of the imperfections of the original, the Rider-Waite Tarot, but it can also be taken as proof of its viability and effectiveness. One way or another, Arthur Edward Waite's system will soon be one hundred years old! And she approaches her centennial anniversary alive and well and surrounded by systems—children and even grandchildren.
Composition of the deck, tarot school
| The patroness of the secret knowledge contained in the Tarot deck, and the patroness of the deck itself, is the Pope, or High Priestess(second major arcana) |
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| Among the metaphorical cards, the owl from the Saga deck could be a symbol of wisdom and secret knowledge |
The tarot system is a path of initiation through the sequential mastery of each arcana. The practical embodiment of this system is a deck of tarot cards on which you can tell fortunes and on which you can meditate. The Tarot deck consists of 78 cards. Of these, 22 cards are the Major Arcana, and 56 cards are the Minor Arcana.
I’ll immediately make a reservation that starting from the middle of the 20th century, the so-called “ White card". In some decks it is (23 major arcana, i.e. 79 cards in the deck), in some it is absent. This card symbolizes divine influence and is the energy of another level, as if uniting the energy of all the major arcana. In layouts it has the meaning of fatality, the inevitability of an event, and often a pleasant divine gift, so I prefer to have it in the deck.
Major Arcana
The major arcana are higher powers, egregors that influence our lives. This different ways divine manifestation in this world. The sequence of energy movement along the major arcana is the path of development of the divine idea from its original concept (first arcana, Mage card) to its full embodiment in the world (twenty-second arcana, World card). From the point of view of Taropsychology, it is important for us that the major arcana indicate the path of evolution of the Soul.
Each major arcana card is the whole world, which can be explored indefinitely. In readings, the major arcana most often speak about the influence of higher powers on the situation. Those. what they bring with them is almost inevitable (with the minor arcana everything is different).
The major arcana can be used separately for meditation and comprehension of the secrets of the structure of the world. Contemplating these cards and working with their energies is a wonderful teacher. It is believed that when undergoing priestly initiation in Ancient Egypt, a novice came to a temple on the walls of which the major arcana of the tarot were painted, and after spending many days in contemplation and meditation, he emerged as a master.
1. Tarot is an analog model of the world.
2. Tarot is a tool for communicating with Higher Powers.
3. During fortune telling, that is, modeling processes, states, objects, interactions, Tarot allows you to obtain static and dynamic information about processes, states, objects, interactions.
- Static information - characteristics of an object at a specified time (electron as a particle)
- Dynamic information - characteristics of changes in an object in given parameters (electron as a wave)
4. The classic Tarot deck is structured as follows:
- Basic set - 78 cards.
- Major Arcana (SA) 22 cards, Minor Arcana (MA) 56 cards.
- The Major Arcana have a name and a number.
- In the world Tarot there is more than one variant of SA numbering. No numbering option can be considered the only correct one.
- In the world Tarot there are many variations of the name SA. No name can be considered the only correct one.
- The Russian School of Tarot accepts next system Numbers and names of the Major Arcana:
- 0/XXI. Jester
- I. Magician
- II. Priestess (Popes)
- III. Empress (Mistress)
- IV. Emperor
- V. Hierophant (Pope)
- VI. Lovers
- VII. Chariot
- VIII (XI). Justice (Justice)
- IX. Hermit (Sage)
- X. Wheel of Fortune
- XI (VIII). Force
- XII. Hanged
- XIII. Death
- XIV. Moderation
- XV. Devil
- XVI. Tower
- XVII. Star (Hope)
- XVIII. Moon
- XIX. Sun
- XX. Judgment (Last Judgment)
- XXI/XXII. World (Universe, Universe)
- The Minor Arcana can be divided into Situation Cards (SC) and Court Cards (PC), as well as four suits. In total, the deck contains 40 SC and 16 PC.
- Each suit includes 10 situational cards, which have their own serial number from 1 to 10, and 4 court cards, which have their own rank. There are 14 cards in total in the suit. Card No. 1 has its own given name- Ace.
- The Russian School of Tarot has adopted the following system of names of suits (acceptable options are indicated in brackets):
- Staves (Scepters, Wands)
- Cups (Bowls)
- Pentacles (Coins, Discs)
- The Russian School of Tarot has adopted the following system of rank names (acceptable options are indicated in brackets):
- King
- Lady (Queen)
- Knight
Recording examples:
SA17, SA8/11, Hanged Man,
King of Cups, Queen of Swords,
1 Cups (Ace of Cups), 3 Swords, 7 Staves
- Suits can be indicated by the following icons:
- White Card and any others additional cards are not an integral part of the Tarot deck.
5. Suits and ranks have their analogies in the elements.
- In the world Tarot, there is more than one option for the relationships between suits and elements. No variant of the relationship can be considered the only correct one.
- The following ratios are accepted in the Russian Tarot School:
- Element Fire - suit Staves - rank King
- Element Water - suit Cups - rank Queen
- Element Air - suit Swords - rank Knight
- Element Earth - suit Pentacles - rank Page
- The interaction of the elements in the Tarot is not identical to the interaction of the elements in astrology and has its own characteristics.
- Major Arcana cards can be associated with more than one element.
- Court Cards correspond to the elements by suit and rank:
Page of Staffs > Land of Fire,
King of Pentacles > Earth Fire.
6. The Russian School of Tarot has adopted the concept of non-simultaneous development of parts of the Tarot. This had a significant impact on the formation of the visual image and complex of meanings of the map.
- Visual images of the Major Arcana were formed in the Middle Ages and were consolidated in the so-called “Marseilles design”. At the same time, the meanings and meanings of the Major Arcana were formed, which included many religious and philosophical ideas, significant for that time. However, the meanings of the Major Arcana were formally described only in the second half of the 19th century.
- Simultaneously with the images of the Major Arcana, visual images of the Court Cards are formed. In the Russian School of Tarot it is believed that since their meanings and meanings were defined and established only at the end of the 20th century (S. Savchenko), the images of the Court Cards still remain formal and uninformative.
- The meanings of Situation Cards were first developed by Etteila in late XVIII centuries, and they largely predetermined modern understanding Situational Maps. The modern visual solution for Situation Cards is based on the Waite-Smith deck, published in 1910.
- Aleister Crowley’s “Tarot of Thoth” deck occupies a special place in the images and meanings of the cards.
7. Card meanings.
- In the Russian Tarot School, each card is defined as an ideogram that has many meanings.
- The set of values has the following structure:
Semantic core (SC)- words-concepts expressing such features that are characteristic of this particular card, by analogy with the main one lexical meaning, which does not include the entire set of features inherent in any object, phenomenon, action, and so on, but only the most significant ones that help to distinguish one object from another.
FUNCTION: nominative. Even if a word expresses an emotion or state, it is only the name of the emotion or state. Signs of the Semantic Core - recognition, reproducibility, frequency of use. It is a systemic property of the semantics of Tarot cards, that is, it can be recorded (by analogy with explanatory dictionaries) and accepted in a certain community, as minimum unit sense.
Semantic or precedent formula (SF, PF)in essence - a repetition of the basic concepts of the semantic core with the addition of an emotional-evaluative function. Due to the expression of one’s own assessments and attitudes, a transition occurs from systemic (generally accepted) components of meaning to individual-authored ones, but the main features of the semantic core must be preserved - recognition, reproducibility, average frequency. As a rule, similar properties (a combination of nominative, denominative and emotional-evaluativefunctions) in the language there are phraseological units, catchphrases, less often - individual words of bright stylistic coloring.
Semantic field- lies beyond the boundaries of linguistic connections proper; you need to look for them in the fact that D.S. Likhachev called “certain potentialities of meaning”: something that is directly connected with a person, his national, cultural, professional experience and knowledge, age, gender characteristics, individual characteristics of the psyche and reflective abilities, and the like.
Any associations, analogies, visual images and cultural allusions can constitute the periphery of the field; by analogy with linguistic semantics, they can be called potential components of meaning. homefunction(provided that the nominative is preserved, otherwise the unit ceases to belong to the field) - cognitive, cognitive. It’s not a fact that they (background knowledge, background) will ever be used, but as the heroine of one film said: beautiful underwear on the first date is like nuclear weapon: you don’t know where the negotiations will lead, but you feel much more confident.
- When forming the meaning of a map, its historical and modern interpretations are taken into account.
- Historical and modern visual solutions of the map are also taken into account.
- Not all interpretations and visual images have the same semantic value for understanding the map.
- Reading cards in the process of fortune telling at the level of the Semantic Core corresponds to the “Hermit” technique, at the level of the semantic field to the “Priestess” technique.
- In the Russian School of Tarot, it is accepted that the basic meanings (semantic core) are the same for all tarot readers, and the semantic field is formed by each tarot reader individually and uniquely for each tarot reader.
- Expansion of one’s own semantic field occurs, among other things, through the study of semantic fields proposed by other tarot readers.
- The card can also be interpreted as a sign or as a symbol.
- There cannot be just one correct meaning for a particular card. But there should not be mutually exclusive meanings for a particular card.
8. Areas of application of Tarot.
- Tarot cards were originally created for playing. The game Tarok has survived to this day.
- The esoteric scope of application of Tarot cards is fortune telling and magic.
- Today, Tarot is actively used in psychology, from applications in counseling to transformational games and psychological constellations.
- Tarot as an object of self-realization - collecting, creating decks, writing books. The teaching of Tarot should also be mentioned here.
- These are the most obvious areas of application of Tarot; there are probably others that are not so noticeable, for example, trading in Tarot products and Tarot printing.
9. Principles of fortune telling.
- There are technical and moral and ethical restrictions for answering the request. The tarot reader determines the amount of moral and ethical restrictions for himself individually.
- The lack of modern protocols for the fortune telling procedure negatively affects the image of the Tarot.
- A significant part of clients do not see the difference between prophecy and fortune telling and are focused on prophecy.
- The accuracy of fortune telling can be affected by a negative position:
- From the client side:
- waiting for a miracle
- waiting for prophecy
- passive position (What will happen to me?)
- From the tarot reader:
- corruption and karma are the reasons for everything that happens
- emphasis on a negative perception of the world.
- From the client side:
- Participating in fortune telling:
- Client (querent, questioner). His role is to give a request in the form of a question to the Higher Powers. The purpose of fortune telling is to obtain an answer to a request.
- A description of the situation is not a request.
- Maps as a tool. It should be remembered that it is not the deck that tells fortunes, but the tarot reader. One thing to be aware of is the danger of anthropomorphizing the deck.
In the process of work, it is preferable to consider the deck not as a person or subpersonality, but as a complex technical device that requires calibration and adjustment. - Tarot reader (fortune teller) as a translator and intermediary between the Higher Powers and the client.
- Higher Powers as the addressee of the request and the source of information for the client.
- The cards dropped during fortune telling represent the answer of the Higher Powers as a metaphor, understandable intuitively or requiring special decoding.
- The tarot reader must give the metaphor as it is and, if necessary, interpret it, separately identifying the metaphor and separately interpreting it.
- In the Russian Tarot School, it is customary to actively involve the client in the fortune-telling process, to make him a full participant in a three-way dialogue between the client, the Higher Powers and the tarot reader.
- The client is not obliged to tell the truth during fortune telling.
- The client is not obliged to accept or agree with the tarot reader’s interpretation.
- The task of a tarot reader is not to overcome the client’s psychological defenses.
- The will of a person takes precedence over any forecast. A person, through his actions or inaction, can change any forecast in any direction.
- Higher Forces can have a force majeure effect on a situation or object, changing the situation or object in an arbitrary direction.
- The tarot reader is not obligated, but can help the client formulate a request.
- The tarot reader must ensure that he adequately understands the client's request before transferring it to the Higher Powers.
- No forecast is comprehensive, immutable or completely accurate. A forecast is a hint, not a guide to action.
10. Fortune telling as a process.
- For fortune telling, you need a request, Tarot cards and an interpreter of the answer.
- The tarot reader creates rituals and surroundings for the fortune-telling process himself, based on his sense of psychological comfort, but does this at his own peril and risk. No ritual and no surroundings are an integral part of the fortune-telling process.
- The procedure of work, duration of the session, number of sessions per day, payment is determined by the tarot reader independently.
- The Russian School of Tarot uses two methods of fortune telling.
- Layouts. This method is based on the "Way of the Hermit"
- "5 cards" method. This method is based on the "Path of the Priestess". The closest analogue is the shamanic throw in runes.
- The cards drawn do not necessarily contain the full answer, or any answer at all. This could be the beginning or development of a dialogue with the Armed Forces.
- Also, an incomplete answer or distortion of the answer may be due to the influence of all or any of the three participants - the querent, the tarot reader or the Higher Powers.
- Also, an incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate answer may be the wrong choice of tool (Tarot deck) or incorrect work with it.
- The absence of an answer or an incorrect answer may be due to a ban on receiving information from the querent or tarot reader.
11. Competencies of a tarot reader
- The minimum condition for reading maps is knowledge of the meanings of maps at the level of the semantic core.
- Knowledge of any esoteric discipline (for example, Kabbalah, astrology, numerology, etc.), other than knowledge of the meanings of the cards, is not a necessary condition for reading the cards.
- Since today the requirements for the profession of “tarot reader” have not been determined, all instructions for studying certain disciplines can only be of a recommendatory nature.