Q-State Healing, Tarot
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Tarot
On the day of his rebirth - the day that he had left the cave so that he might find this town - the Centaur had called to him as he had approached the mouth of the cave. The candidate turned to look back into the dark recesses from whence he had come, but could see nothing. Peering within to the darkness, within a few short moments he could feel a slight gust of warm wind brushing past his face and body. With the wind coming from the belly of the cave, the candidate heard the Centaur's last six simple words breathed in a soft whisper, "We are all our own jailor."
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I am sure many of you are familiar with Tarot, especially as it pertains to being used in divination. What many do not know is that Tarot as it is used in the Hermetic Western Inner Tradition is actually a book of initiation. Each card of the major and minor trumps are the pages of the books or better yet the chapters of that book of initiation. It explains to those who have been given the keys to read it, very detailed information about the true nature of humanity, the workings of the mind and inner spiritual initiation, as well as detailed information on the subjects of Alchemy, Qabalah, and Astrology.
My education in this arcane knowledge came from studying the material of BOTA. Anyone wishing to enter into such study should contact the BOTA by going to www.bota.org.
Now, I had mentioned in the first page of this section "that truth shows and expresses itself in various forms throughout the planet, and it is not the domain of any one culture or system." I have also detailed information about some of the tools that I use in Q-State Healing such as The Sedona Method and EFT, two systems that people think are of modern creation. I will now show how much of what I discussed in regards to these two systems is actually demonstrated in one form or another in this Tarot card of the Magician.
On the bottom left of the card you see the number one, this number signifies the beginning or first stage of an event or thing, which in this case represents you. Now the Magician is master of both time, space, and the elements of creation, hence from his power (your innate power of creation) all existence and experience springs. To the lower right of the card is the Hebrew letter Beth, which means house (and in one sense, a container). It reenforces the idea that the entire potential of the universe is contained or housed within the True Self. Thus our work is an inner work, for a house is where the family of inner life occurs.
The roses in the picture represent desire, and it will be remembered that in Sedona it was stated that there are nine basic emotional states (and what are desires except strong feelings or emotions) that each human being can experience. These roses symbolize those states. Close examination of the picture will show that there are actually ten roses, the tenth representing the physical body through which the emotions are given vitality and able to be expressed. The five roses in the garden in front of the Magician also represent our five senses, for it is through our senses that we receive information about the world around and within us (both of which form one world), and set our desires ablaze.
The four white lilies in the garden represent purity (all expressions within Nature are purity when properly understood), and the four types of human knowledge (revealed knowledge, speculative knowledge, scientific empirical knowledge, and practical empirical knowledge).
The four implements on the Magician's table represent the four elements of the ancients and also the four primary motivators for any action that we take. They are: Wand (element of fire, motivation for safety), Cup (element of water, motivation for approval), Sword (element of air, motivation for separation), and finally Coin (element of earth, motivation for control).
The red robe the Magician wears represents the mars or nerve force in the human body the same energy which we seek to manipulate through the practice of EFT. That the Magician is in an a passive focused stance, shows that this work is done mostly through the mind (though, of course, there is some bodily movement in EFT). What is truly meant by the passive stance is that the Magician is exerting control over the physical body by a steady focus of the mind (which is exactly what we do using EFT). The Magician's stance also denotes that he is wholly focused on the moment, his attention firmly fixed on that which happens before him now!
The white robe underneath the red robe also signifies purity, but in this case it represents the true incorruptible purity that always has been and always will be as denoted by the truth of self.
The Magician's upraised hand and lower hand pointing to the garden denotes that we utilize a higher aspect to bring about change within our lower states. Indeed in both EFT and Sedona one realizes that there is a problem and through use of our cognitive capabilities, one sets up a dynamic which re-tasks the energy. The garden in front of the Magician as well as the roses in the arbor above him represent the current mental state of the individual. The more we have control of our thoughts and desires, the more cultivated will be our inner garden.
The infinity symbol above the Magician's head stands of course for infinity - for the True Self is timeless and ageless. But it also stands for the law that opposite effects are caused by identical causes. The determining factor lies within how we perceive a given occurrence: into which garden does one's habitual mentations take them? If you wake up and see it raining do you see a dreary day, or do you see the earth being replenished and revitalized?
Finally the the belt around the Magician's waist represents eternity because the serpent swallows its own tail. It speaks to the occult doctrine of there being only one ever expanding moment named NOW! Yes, how many of us time travel daily by pulling into memory things that have happened in the past and vitalizing or opening old wounds afresh? How much better would we all be to live in the here and now in focused attention on the beauty transpiring moment by moment in front of us rather than the umbra of yesterday or the apprehensions of tomorrow?
This is a high level account of this card, and no doubt an entire book could be written about all its correspondences.
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The Sun must rise, and it just as lawfully, it must set. Even a transfigured being such as himself had to follow the laws of nature. One could bend them but not break them. The candidate released the Sun, and it fell quickly into its slumber. In the quiet of the night, the candidate still felt uneasy. His mind bounced back and forth between those words whispered by the Centaur and those of the feminine Voice. The latter had intimated that there was yet more to do, and the former had hinted at some cryptic statement about freedom.
The candidate meandered to a well at the edge of the town. He drew some water and drank thirstily, the cool liquid cascading down his insides - rejuvenating him, preparing him.
The candidate sat at the edge of the well and breathed deeply, closing his eyes and allowing the gentle sounds of the night to fill his ears. Under the sounds of the crickets and other night insects the candidate could hear footsteps, moving towards him slowly but with purpose. He opened his eyes to see a frail Figure with a dark hooded cloak approaching him. The Figure stopped a few feet away from him, presenting only the profile of his left side. "Beast slayer you are," said the Figure in a raspy shrill voice. "Helped these people, you think you have? Trapped in their own fears are they. Puppets of mine they are."
As the Figure spoke, the candidate's vision took on an eerie alteration. He could see things, and through them at the same time. Extending from the dark hooded Figure were innumerable chains each stretching out to the inhabitants of the town, and beyond the town to other locals. Perhaps most terrifying was the chain which was tethered around his own neck. It was heavy, very heavy, and the more aware he became of it, the heavier it seemed. As the Figure continued to speak, a spectral duplicate of itself attached to the incarnated Figure began to transfigure itself. First a harpie, then a rock-like creature, now a dragon, and finally fixing itself into the form of a monstrous demon composed of a goat's head, female chest, eagles claws, and cloven hooves.
"Comfortable they are in their existence of shadow and light. Why do you seek to change this? Prevent this I shall, even if I have to kill them all." With those words a reddish light traveled out along some of the chains into the homes of the towns people and out to other towns. In a few moments wails of torment could be heard coming from the homes, and being carried softly over distant hills like some hellish lullaby as family members saw loved ones expire right before their eyes.
The candidate jumped to his feet. "I will not allow you to harm these people!" The candidate raised both of his arms, and concentrated on seeing a radiant ball of brilliant white light, "Fiat Lux!" he roared. In an instant the dark square became lighted as if by a thousand noon day suns, blinding even the candidate for a moment.
It took a few seconds for the candidate's sight to recompose itself, but when he could again see, to his dismay it was still night and the dark Figure was still present. The Figure now turned to fully face the candidate. It began to stride towards him boldly with malicious purpose. The dark cavern within its cowl seemed to loom larger and darker with each step that brought it closer to the candidate - its void was all-encompassing. With an unnatural transformational drop in the tenor of its voice, the Figure continued, "Your nascent powers will not effect me boy. They were born of the Dark, and I am the Dark's Father."
The candidate felt himself take an involuntary step backwards. He was afraid - in the grips of mind numbing fear - and it was threatening to paralyze his body and mind. What could he do against such a foe? His mightiest weapon had no effect upon it whatsoever. There had to be something he could do. He looked at the approaching Figure now only seven steps away, back to the houses in the towns, the chains still stretching from the Father of Darkness to each of the town's inhabitants; back to the hooded Figure now only five steps away, back to the town's people...something was strange...something wrong about what he was seeing...back to the advancing dark Figure, three steps away, back to the town...
The chains around their necks hung loosely...loose enough even to...
The candidate turned his gaze back to the hooded Figure who had stopped one step in front of him, the spectral apparition of the monstrous demon looming hungrily above it. The dark void inside the Figure's cowl threatened to swallow the candidate's consciousness - his mind, his being, his very soul. The candidate looked back at the town's people and then at the looming demon and it struck him like a thunderbolt, "We are all our own jailor."
How ridiculous this whole thing had been! There was nothing to fight against, nothing to fear, to to run from or run to. This Dark Figure was real yes, but his power was not. The town's people could easily free themselves from their fears of lack, death, or want, if they but realized their own inner truth. That looming demon began to look more and more like a caricature of all of his inner fears and childhood misery. He realized that this Figure and its demon only had any power because he and everyone else gave it to them.
It was then that the strangest thing happened. Welling up from within the candidate, from the bottom of his belly he began to chuckle louder and louder until he was erupting into a cacophony of full, boisterous, mirth. The candidate laughed so hard that tears filled his eyes and began streaming down his face.
"You dare to mock me!?" the dark Figure squealed, its raspy shrillness now sounding more like the squealing of a pig being led to slaughter.
"I do," said the candidate. "Puppets of yours these people are not! Their 'strings' are too loosely attached! Free themselves at any moment they can, for each of them has the same potential to do as I have done, to see as I have seen. That demon above you looks like a compilation of mothers' tales told to children to make them behave. And this chain you have around my neck is surely heavy, but so loose that I can remove it at will." As the candidate lifted the chain from his neck and shoulders, the demon above the dark hooded Figure began to transfigure rapidly, each form meant to be more terrifying than the previous. It didn't matter. The candidate merely leaned against the well, arms crossed, smiling as he watched this pathetic final attempt of the Figure and demon to regain control.
The form of the dark hooded Figure seemed to join with the transfiguring spectral forms and became a jumble of form and species. A dark vortex appeared where the Figure had stood, and as it spun it became smaller and smaller until it shrunk to the size of a pea. Down came the Thunderbolt of Zeus, and the speck turned a brilliant white, exploding thunderously. As it expanded, from its center emerged the Centaur, presenting the Staff of Mercury. "Welcome," he said, a true smile on his face. "Welcome Hero."