On Friday the 28th of August, I was on the radio show Synchronicity. I had a blast doing this interview and am really excited to do more in the future. Marie, the host, is a great person.

We talked about how to learn Tarot and how to use the cards to build the life you want to lead. I give several short readings as well. You can listen to it here. I hope you enjoy and look forward to hearing what you think.

We all probably know people who have done everything. They are master this, exalted that and currently learning the 20 latest techniques. That is all well and good, heck, if you look at my resume it probably reads like that too. The challenge with doing 1,000,000 things is not in any one thing, but in how they relate to each other. Or in how they integrate in you.

The biggest problem, aside from the obvious jack of all trades issue, is in putting them together. It’s like that song by Johnny Cash where he steals the pieces from his job to make a car and when he puts it together, it ends up being a bit of a Frankenstein: 3 headlights, 1 tailfin and so on. Perhaps that is your aesthetic, which is fine, but building a spiritual practice out of pieces designed to be a cohesive whole is a lot easier.

How to integrate your tools!
So this spread takes a bit of a different approach – you start by choosing a card that represents you or your goal. In choosing, I don’t want you to pick a card from the deck, but instead choose one from the following list. If you are not sure which to use, you could pull them all and draw one randomly from them. This card will be put in the middle to represent the core, the center, or, if you prefer, the goal.

Magician – personal power, knowledge-driven
Hierophant – spiritual leadership, groups
Emperor – earthly power and leadership
Empress – for creative endeavours
High Priestess – personal power, intuitive-driven
Hermit – when setting out on your own
Fool – when starting over, or just beginning

So, now you have one card by itself in the middle to represent you, your aspiration, and your goal. Now place one card for each of your practices around this center, leaving a space for another card to be placed later between each card on this outer ring and the center. For example, you might be doing Yoga, studying Qabalah, Tarot, and Reiki – you would then put one card for each making sure to keep track of which is which.

Flip them all over, one at a time, and see what the cards have to say to you about this practice. Is it good? Is it neutral? Is it bad? Does the card match what you are getting from this practice, or its current state of importance in your life? Once you have a sense of the state of the union, it is time to move on to how looking for how to integrate these practices into your core.

Place another card in between each of the practices and the center. These cards will help you find integration, or perhaps point out that a parting of ways might be coming up. Go through each card one at a time and look at how they encourage or discourage the flow between the outer card and the core.

As an example, I might have chosen the Hierophant as my core, gotten the 9 of disks – gain – for my Tarot practice. This is not just a part of my practice, but is also my profession, so getting the 9 of disks is a great card – material prosperity and gain – cool! The next card, for integration, is the 8 of wands – swiftness – a card of communication. I would read this card to say that deeper communication, and success in my work will come from spreading my message. Getting word out about what I do and what I am all about.

If a negative card showed up either for a practice, or it’s integration, you should read it as a questioning of the value of that practice in your life. Though it might be tempting to ask whether it is just for now or for good it might be more fruitful to just carry the question with you into meditation. Questions to ask yourself are things like; have I learned everything I need from this? Is it off point from my primary direction? Am I staying in my strength instead of continuing to challenge myself? I am sure many other questions will present themselves to you.

Let me know in the comments how your integration is going!

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Recently, I have had a number of clients asking me to help them solve the question “How do I know when I have to stop being a dilettante and commit to a spiritual road?” Or perhaps more to the point, “When does narrowing the field of my focus become an asset in my search for evolution?” It’s a bit like asking how does the Fool become the Magician? I think it’s a great question and one I never really asked myself.

I have been asked the question “how did you get here?” too many times in my life to even count. I certainly have a default answer, which is a linear progression of my journey from A to B to today, which I pull out if my wit fails me. However, more often than not I like to say something ridiculous perhaps including monkeys and move on to another subject. Perhaps a little clearing the air is a good place to start. I have dabbled in everything, looked at world religions, joined a wide variety of groups, left a wide variety of groups, and to some extent had a revolving door of teachers along the way. I have treated the world as my buffet and mixed and matched till my belly was full. Eventually I found what worked best for me and committed to it. At which point I sold my heaps of books pertaining to older roads and set out to follow one path instead of many.

I think there are a few different aspects to the Wandering Path in this post I am going to focus on groups and teachers. Others have played a big role in my growth along the way. The progression of the suit of Wands from Ace to 5 provides some good insight into what many people experience. I choose Wands because they reflect the Will and the search for who we really are.

The Wandering Path covers a lot of ground and there are many things that can come up to make us change direction. Our lives may take us away from our practice for periods of time. We may outgrow a practice for a period of time or permanently. Or – the focus of this installment – the perils and politics of working with groups and teachers may shift our course.

In my life groups and teachers have played a significant role – both for good and for the not so good. Regardless of whether things work out there tends to be a pattern that most people experience. This pattern is clearly shown in the progression of the suit of wands from Ace to Five. Whether you stay or go when things change, this pattern continues to unfold.
• Ace of Wands – Newness and the potential to find fulfillment. This card mirrors the aspiration of the newbee or impulse towards growth. Lets face it, any new venture is going to be exciting at first.
• Two of Wands (Dominion) – The beginning attempt to balance the personal with the other. The seed of power struggles is found here. The structure of groups leads to some degree of tension. As we seek to grow our issues create friction with those around us.
• Three of Wands (Virtue) – The truth is seen on some or all levels. The reality and limits of the group are met. Our own limits and foibles are also brought out. This experience of truth or reality is exciting and unnerving all at the same time.
• 4 of Wands (Completion) – Balance is re-established. A harmony is found between personal need and the goal of the group. Growth and the ego find a new way of relating that can lead to evolution.
• 5 of Wands (Strife) – Conflict erupts in any number of ways. The ego rebels. Politics bring conflict. The need of the group no longer matches the need of the individual. The group unravels.

I don’t hear from too many people who do not run through this cycle in one form or another a few times before finding something that works for them. The playing out of this pattern inevitably leads to the question of whether we are on the right road or not.

So lets look at how to start sorting this out.

“Should I Stay or Should I Go” Spread
In the context of this post we’ll use this spread to look at self-evaluating your spiritual journey. However, it can be a handy spread for any situation where it’s not clear if you should stick around or move on.

Put four cards out in a row.
1. What you have.
2. What you’ll lose.
3. What you’ll gain.
4. What you’ll regret.

What you have – This card talks about the things you have gained that are transportable. If you picture the fool with his backpack slung over his shoulder – this card is about what is in the pack. It’s the lesson that can’t be lost.
What you’ll lose – Inevitably leaving, or moving on at the least, changes your relationship to what you did, at worst it can mean closing a door on a group, teacher or whatever forever. This position is not meant to imply negative feelings, but is the card that talks realistically about what cannot come with you on a journey. Once the fool leaps off the cliff he can’t turn around and go back.
What you’ll gain – What’s the benefit of changing? This card is not just about what you think you’ll get but what will really come out of the changes.
What you’ll regret – If there is a negative side to this change, what is it?

It is important to remember using this spread that we are as humans great at rationalizing everything so try and be honest about what shows up. Let negative cards really be just that don’t try and read them positively just to make you feel better.

In the Court Cards are some great examples of human strength and folly. Here are few suggestions on how to read them if they show up.

King of Wands – It’s all or nothing if you make the change and you will not be able to go back if things go awry.
Princess of Wands – Your feeling is not wrong but out of scale. Be careful about over reacting.
King of Cups – Follow your dream no matter what but know that people will still be people.
Prince of Cups – You try and rise above your past, but you have not dealt with it yet.
Prince of Swords – You are caught in a loop. No matter what you do you end up in the same place.
Princess of Swords – Be careful about acting on others behalf. You’ll end up fighting what cannot be changed.
King of Disks – It will happen on God’s time. You cannot make the plants grow faster by pulling on them.
Prince of Disks – Only by staying the course will you find what you want – focus on the daily work.
Princess of Disks – It’s not the time, no matter how strong the urge, is you have to wait till you are done where you are.

If you sit with each of the court cards they will reveal another side of this story.

Next post will be about the balancing of daily life and spirit in regards to walking your path.

I do a lot of divination for myself and for others. One of the most awkward questions for me to answer has always been, “when will this particular thing happen?” Some cards have obvious associations with timelines but others do not. How long a time is suggested by the knight of cups? What point in time is indicated by this card? Well the question can be resolved easily when one sees how the cards fit onto the wheel of the zodiac as depicted in the model we are looking at. This is the first advantage of working with this visual tool, answering the difficult question of “when” actually becomes actually quite simple.

The second advantage to knowing this model is that it can help give clues as to which kind of energy one might want to work with in relation to the question. Sure there are the elemental attributions of cards but these may be too limited, or if you are working on a more macrocosmic level they may not be enough by themselves, and you’ll be asking, “where do I look next?”

So as we go through each card below take a look at the illustration. It may look a bit complicated but it will be simple if you read along and keep referring to the illustration.

The Wheel of the Year and the Tarot

So we all know there are 12 signs of the zodiac. These each rule 30º of the zodiac. It’s a no-brainer we just divide the wheel of the year 360º by 12 to get the amount each sign will rule. But note that the Astrological year starts in Aries, in March, and not as we are used to in January.

The confusion starts to creep in with the small cards and the court cards. Each quarter of the year is ruled by one element as represented by its Ace. So, for instance, the first quarter is ruled by Taurus and Earth. It is also ruled by the Princess of that same suit. After subtracting the Princesses and the Aces we have 36 small cards and 12 court cards left over.

The small cards each rule 10º of the zodiac, three to a sign. Each small card is also governed by a planet. Its meaning is actually the product of that planet in the sign that gives it its meaning. For instance the 2 of Wands is Mars in Aries, in the Thoth deck Dominion, Mars in the sign it rules amplifies the martial energy to create power and control. Each of the small cards can be understood in this manner.

The court cards, like the signs of the zodiac, rule 30º of the wheel. However due to their intermingled elemental nature they are offset from the signs of the zodiac by 10º so each card rules from 20º of on sign into 20º of the next sign. This can also help to determine what energy a person would have in their personality. Sort of like a mini astrological chart.

I have found this to be and invaluable tool for expanding the way I relate the tarot to both the year and to time in general. I hope it helps.

I have been working on some new artwork to go with my new business cards and for out front of the shop. I thought I’d give folks a sneak peak. Let me know what you think. I wanted to capture the essence of what I do for people.

I thought I’d inject a bit of humour into my blog. It is easy to be too serious about what I do and let the great comic moments pass by.

1. You know drinking that (cologne, mercury, other toxic crap) might be why you are seeing spirits.
2. Nope that was not my spirit visiting you last night in your dreams.
3. If you don’t want that to fall off you should show your Doctor soon.
4. I don’t think that big light in the sky is following you. The Sun doesn’t care about people that much.
5. Please, keep your pants on. I don’t need to see it.

If you have not read the last post “Change is the only constant?”you might want to do so before reading this post.

I’d like to carry on last post’s discussion on the Wheel of Fortune and the Sphinx to talk about the other characters in the card. If you look around the wheel you will also see what looks a monkey and an alligator with a snake’s tail. These two are Hermanubis and Aphophis respectively. Hermanubis is a composite of the Roman Hermes and Egyptian Anubis who amongst a number of other attributes is a diety of procreation and fertility. In this manifestation Hermanubis has the head of a jackal and the body of a monkey. Apophis is the deified force of chaos and darkness with head of an alligator, torso of a man with his lower half being a snake’s tail. In the simplest terms we have two forces, that which creates order and that which destroys it sitting on either side of the wheel of fortune.

I look at these two characters as being the hands of the Sphinx. Picture this - as well as having the body of a lion and the head of a man I am saying the Sphinx has one monkey hand and one alligator hand. The Sphinx uses both of these forces to accomplish its ends. Perhaps a clearer way to look at this idea is in the 2 of disks in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. A spitting image no?

Here we have a jester juggling two disks that are creating an infinity sign. The juggler here is the Magician (see below) who is balancing the interplay of the two disks. These disks are not the only things that the Magician is balancing – he is also balancing the four magical tools within him. He has a wand, a cup, a knife, and a disk each representing one of the four virtues. This inner balance is the same process we discussed as the fifth virtue of going in the last post.

It is this balancing within the Magician of the four virtues and balancing outside in the world the forces of creation and destruction that give him his power. And if you have ever seen a juggler – which by the way is an alternate title for the magician – you will know that is not a static thing. Even more so it is not a destination – it is a continuous process. The juggler maintains the flow by constant investment of energy to correct the orbits of the things being juggled. It is a continual process of going.

We all play with these two forces all the time. We create our lives, our families, our jobs, and our environments through choice and by how we handle the events that pass in and out of our lives. We all deal with the forces of destruction when things fall apart, when we have to let go of people, places and things that no longer work for us. It is all in how we relate to this ongoing interplay of creation and destruction that is important.

One of the real secrets behind the Magician is not how to keep all the balls in the air, but how to use the dual power of creating and letting go in order to maintain balance in yourself and your life. Balance might mean dropping a ball or two and starting over, it might mean taking a break, or it might mean working harder.

Jugglers Spread.
The core question of this spread is – “how to I become the magician?” It’s a good one to try on a regular basis since the kind of changes we are looking for are more like corrections when driving than directions to the grocery store.

First card on the left is the Monkey card - what do we need to create or bring more of into our lives to maintain balance.

Second card is the Gator card – what do we need to let go of in order to maintain balance.

Finally a card for what the balance is. The reality is that balance may look very different at different times in your life. What is balanced at one point in life is not always helpful at another time. If you are really keen on using more cards your could break this position out along the lines of the Sphinx spread.

Endnote
In cleaning my basement after writing this I came across an old sweater from the juggling club I belonged to in Junior High School. The slogan or motto for the club was “I juggle therefore I Am” I have since forgotten the Latin. You have to love the synchronicity of this surfacing at this time. It certainly is the “I am” consciousness that feeds the Magician.

Bah… don’t believe it, movement is the only constant.

We have all heard it before ‘change is the only constant’- it’s a favourite line to pull out at hard times. I have been dealing with plenty of change, as most people are today, yet it seems that it is also true that the more things change the more they stay the same. How can both be true? I have been sitting with a variety of cards that speak to the issues that have been shifting around me. It seems that in many ways the “Tarot” – often translated as “wheel” – is all about change, a perpetual flowing set of symbols that shifts between elements, major and minor arcane, and so much more. Out of all these cards it is the Wheel of Fortune that has been really grabbing me lately.

The question I find myself chewing on around all of this is not how to avoid change, or even free myself from change – but how do I go with it. How to become more, to change faster, to sit at the balance between yesterday and tomorrow in that ever elusive now and play with change, encourage and nurture it so that I can just be. Be what? More of what I am of course. Is that too obtuse?

The most common piece of wisdom that I hear people handing out is that the goal is to be the center of the wheel, immobile and free, or even to get off the wheel - all good and noble ideas for that day when you are enlightened. Until we achieve that lofty goal what can we do with the wheel to move towards being able to be freed?

On the Wheel of Fortune we are shown three characters. At the top is the Sphinx, falling down Apophis, and rising up Hermanubis. Cool. Sometimes these characters change, but what is more important is the position they hold. Rising, falling and cresting or peaking - in simple terms life is just these three things. Things start to grow, manifest or peak, and fall into decay. Our lives are the interplay of many events and people that are at various points of this wheel.

If we look at the Sphinx he seems nonplussed to be in this precarious moment at the top of the wheel. Now it may be that the Sphinx is a master of non-attachment and that leaves him free from worry, but I think if that were the case he’d be hanging out in the center. No, I think the Sphinx holds a different secret that might be more helpful to those of us out here at the edge of the wheel.

The Sphinx is known as the master of the four magickal virtues – to know, to will, to dare, and to keep silent all four of which are united by the fifth – to go. In combination the Sphinx shows us what is needed to stay balanced atop the Wheel of Fortune. We must know ourselves, without that we cannot be sure to make a correct choice. We must will, that is be deliberate and clear within ourselves. We must dare, without action we accomplish nothing and the wheel just spins us around. Lastly, we must be silent. That is we must hold or contain within us that which we create. All four of these ideas combine to create the fifth virtue of going to remind us that it is a dynamic and ongoing process. We cannot stop.

Sphinx Spread
We can do a reading where we lay four cards – one for each of the four – virtues to help us become clearer about what can focus on in this process as we seek to build our lives. Of course this can be used analytically on any area, but for this example I’ll focus on bring something into manifestation so each will be framed as a need.

1. Knowing – what is that clarity that we need
2. Willing – what do we need to co-ordinate ourselves internally towards action
3. Daring - what is the action we need to take.
4. Silence – what do we need to contain what we create

Lastly, we can place one card over this row of 4 to remind us of the going – “what it is that unites these different aspects?” Look at the patterns here too between the 5th card and the rest. This fifth card is the key to understanding the others and at the same time is constituted by them.

When I started reading cards professionally for people it never occurred to me that I might do a reading without endeavoring to predict the future. I just assumed that this is what most clients wanted and that is what I had to give them. Over time it became clear to me that the flashy side of reading – knowing the unknowable and telling people – was actually not that interesting. I am going to go out on a limb and say perhaps knowing the unknowable is not even particularly helpful. People were often unable to use this information to their benefit.

Firstly, I should try and explain how I perceive the future. To me there is not a fixed thread that winds forward in time defining our lives but a network of options, obstacles and influences. These forces limit our choices and direct us towards certain outcomes and away from other ones. Also, not everything is possible and so many ‘options’ are not available from where a person is starting. On top of this we have free will. We have the ability to move or not move, go right or left, forward or back at any given time. The final piece of the equation comes from things that cannot be changed. Think of these events as being like a large planet’s gravity that pulls you towards them. You might not crash land on the surface of one of these events but no matter what you do you cannot escape being influenced by them either.

So when I sit with a client, you could imagine us as standing on a cliff with the past behind us and the shifty sea of the future in front of us. Behind the moving of the waves there is a pattern composed of the clients plans, previous patterns, karma, statistical possibilities and everyone else’s free will. As the future slips into the present the waves of that sea crash into the now and create a concrete reality, which quickly slides into the past. In that ephemeral moment between the future and the past predictions are proven correct or not.

“There is nothing more useless than predictions once they have come true. It’s like looking at last years amazingly successful stock picks. What are you going to do about them this year?”
Dmitry Orlov from his podcast on the Long Now website.

Now don’t get me wrong here – I enjoy being right. I think that having predictions come true creates trust and sets the stage for growth and evolution. Think about it – you don’t go back again and again to someone who gives you advice that doesn’t change anything.

As Dmitry points out, it is not the prediction that has passed us by that is relevant, it is the prediction that we can still do something about that is valuable. In the Tarot the Final Judgment card talks about what happens when something has manifested that we wish had not. This card represents end of things and a reckoning – a time when we must be judged for our actions. If we live a lie it will come out. It we steal we will get caught. If we are inauthentic we will be unhappy. On many levels there is this process of facing the consequences for our action or inaction.

Of course we don’t have to wait for judgment day to come in order to figure out what we should be doing differently. When I read for people these days the emphasis is on what can be done to avoid a bad outcome or to ensure a good one. By the time the Final Judgment comes down it is too late, so looking for the actions which will avoid an undesirable outcome becomes key.. Think of it as making a course correction to avoid a bad path. In the end it may change the outcome in your life. The reading may end up being wrong, or more accurately avoided. How great is that.

Sit with your Final judgment card and think about what you might do to avoid a bad verdict down the road. Try doing a spread that seeks out this information. Pick an area of your life – place one card for the Judgment – what is wrong with the road you are on, a second for the thing you could change NOW, and a final one for the new outcome. Repeat this for each area of your life. You could think of this as a Karmic Tune Up Spread.

Is my truth ‘Truth’?
Now you might be thinking to yourself “but there are times to be honest with people regardless of whether it is comfortable or not”. That compassion and friendship might demand we tell an uncomfortable Truth to someone. Of course there are.

I think that the first question is to ask yourself what kind of permission you have from this person. Do they tell you the truth; have they asked you to do the same? If you have talked about honesty with this person you could assume that you have more permission to bring up difficult topics. If you haven’t talked about honesty with them you might want to before launching into touchy subjects.

The Tower card speaks to me of the dangers you might find along this road. The Tower card is shown being struck by lightning and collapsing, casting out the people who were inside. It is a volatile and fiery card that speaks of the dangers of pride and the breaking down of the ego.

Now telling others what you think is true about them is always a complicated thing. When I have this urge I like to ask myself ‘to what end?’ Is it to help them? To help me? To vent frustration or what? If I find the motivation behind my desire points back to me I try and sort out what I actually need to say. This is a time to go back to using language that owns my experience and stay away from statements about others, especially ones that point the finger towards their failings.

Still there are times when we see something that another person might not see. The question to think about next is what will they get out of having their illusion removed and with what will I give them to replace it. We all have our crutches that we rely on to allow us to get through our lives. Having them removed by others’ words can create a whole spiral that might as easily take a person into despair as encourage them to grow. A good rule of thumb here is that unless you are sure you can replace their crutch with something better leave it alone.

If you look at Crowley’s Tower card a flaming mouth seems to knock the Tower down with its flames. Our mouths and especially our words can build and inspire as much as they can destroy. Sit with your Tower card and meditate on the times that others have shaken your faith in yourself with their words. For those ready to do some deeper deconstruction you might want to also meditate of what faulty blocks might be built into your tower.

Let me end with my favourite quote on friendship from Norman Douglas. “To find a friend one must close one eye - to keep him, two.”