TAROT AND ASTROLOGY

Tarot has a deep relationship with Astrology dating back to its early beginnings when the Visconti family began commissioning its team of astrologers and philosophers to create allegorical card games.

In our modern age we rely ever more on the messages from the stars, giving them, once again, credence and a listening ear. The hard part is figuring out how these messages might pertain to our lives precisely, though a good astrologer can do this for us.

What if Tarot was a mirror for Astrology and Numerology? What we know for sure is that Tarot is a constellation of its own- powerful and developed enough to offer meaningful insight and guidance to the seeker who is willing to Hear.

THE BIRTH OF TAROT

Tarot was born in a middle time, a transition period between the end of the Medeival Times and the Renaissance. Life was difficult, death was still quite ominous, and people lived largely in poverty, believing that most of their lives boiled down to God, and their own Four Humors. Bleeding was the common healing practice of the day- literally draining off prescribed amounts of blood, for the purpose of purification… vampiric, no?

To us, it may seem like a horrible time to have been alive, but to those who experienced it, well, I can’t help but wonder if they weren’t more preoccupied with thoughts of relief. After all, the Black Plague had just ended some 50 years before, wiping out anywhere from 75 – 200 million people! Wars and famine were an unfortunate part of Medeival life. Or maybe the living were not relieved, after all, it was a time when all systems of strength and blessing seemed to have failed them, thus creating an environment ripe with curiosity, one primed for change.

This was the vagina of time through which Tarot was born, traveling from the deeper recesses of the human psyche, offering for us a new level of reflection and understanding about ourselves and our roles here. Tarot was born of a time that was not quite old, not quite new, but a step from one form of understanding to another.

TAROT’S MIRRORS FOR 2013

Perhaps one day people will feel the same way about our time- that conditions were poor, that people were unenlightened, that our healing methods were preposterous- but also, maybe they will be in awe of the incredible wisdom that comes to life from the mix of the elements at play… more importantly, maybe some of us feel that way now.  Alas, we are here, for it, today, now, with social unrest, political scandal, the downfall of organized religion, shadow operations, civil wars looming globally… indeed, what a time it is. Just like her cousin, Astrology, Tarot holds keys to our spiritual compass, soul contracts, and, possibly, the purpose of our lives. When matched with the sacred arts of numerology, Qabbalistic Tree of Life principles, and Astrology, Tarot becomes a powerhouse of information, divination, and ultimately, reflective guidance.

Numerologically, the year 2013 adds up to 6. In the Major Arcana of Tarot, this becomes The Lovers. What a year it is, the year of The Lovers… does this mean we will all find a soul mate and live happily ever after? In this world truly anything is possible, so maybe, although it is an unlikely outcome, for the true meaning of the Lovers has little to do with soul mates, and more to do with the power of choice, commitment, and alchemical blending of masculine and feminine energies. Replace the terms ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ with right brain and left brain, anima and animus, conscious and subconscious… this is a year of fusion for us, a year for committing to the integration of our Selves, a year to bring our seemingly separate internal forces together into a whole new humanity, born of the individual human experience.

If it is true that on December 21, 2012 we crossed the threshold of time into a new age with aeons before us, all leading up to the next golden age, then wouldn’t it be fair to assume that we are sowing the seeds for the human who will be capable of enjoying and flowing with life in the golden age? Aren’t we the ‘early ones’, the early golden agers, in some sense? Aren’t we forging the path? I am interested beyond compare at this time in my life with the essence of what it truly means to alchemize and harmonize masculine and feminine energies. Truly, what does it mean to integrate the two?

To consider this, let’s move back into the energy of the Lover’s card and get a little more comfortable there… what, after all, does this card truly mean? When I teach the RIder-Waite deck to my Tarot students, I like to point out a few interesting symbols to take into account:

three pillars composition (Tree of Life):

representing justice, beauty and mercy, the three pillars represent the structure of a tempering and dualities, justice on the left, mercy on the right, and beauty, the resulting blend of the two, in the center.

archangel Raphael- healer angel:

alchemy and healing the separation point that comes in duality- between higher self and lower

sun:

the soul, one’s specific set of karmic and dharmic experiences, lessons learned, what is essential to you.

burning bush with 12 flames:

astrological completion, the passion of all parts of ones self are engaged in a long term commitment of any kind. Energetically, not necessarily sexually, “turned on” or impassioned with a person or project.

fruit tree with serpent:

reporting the experience of physical life back to God/Divine on the tree of life, ripe with fruits of experience and labor.

mountain in center:

A goal or challenge. A mission. The heights to which one must climb. Purpose. Intent and focus. Destiny.

nudity:

exposure, vulnerability, honesty and intimacy. the truth of ones self mutually exposed with another.

Being in a Lovers year, it is a fantastic time for the individual to participate in the process of tempering the conscious self with the unconscious self. In a practical sense, one might benefit from vision quests, spiritual counsel, intensive journaling, soul work, and evaluation of strengths, weaknesses, patterns and themes present in his or her life. In short, its a good year to get to know yourself, both above water and below.

Saturn Retrograde in Pluto… How does it affect the Lovers in us?

One part of being a good lover is knowing yourself well enough to present yourself honestly to another human being. It is a year for us to get to the bottom of the commitments we make. What connections matter enough to come with us through the deep tunnel of intimacy- birth, death, sex, exchange, emotion, power? How can we afford to be deeper? What superficialities have to go? Are the things we want for ourselves of a healthy or unhealthy nature?

Spiritual practice is not about perfection, its about authenticity- a notion I try to remind myself of as often as possible. Saturn teaches us authentic discipline, thus making him the Ultimate Teacher. There are no crags to hide in, no short cuts to take. In Saturn’s game, no one gets a trophy unless s/he does something remarkable. Its easy for us to find a system and blindly adhere to it, hoping it will some day soon manifest safety, security, happiness, our heart’s content. It is much more challenging to go it alone, trust our interior intuitive voices, connect with the God within (Hermit notions) and walk our talk.

In Tarot we are on our own personal Hero’s Journey, a process of maturation and individuation. At times in the process, much like the Alchemical process, we will be solid, shiny and interesting, and at others we will be ashy dust, capable of being blown away by the slightest whisper. Yet somehow, through it all, we return again to a solid state, only to find ourselves stronger, purified, true. Saturn prunes us so that we can be better. In Tarot this is The World- our sense of completion, refinement, success, and ultimate achievement. Its not perfection, its pure truth, quality.

Scorpio, the sign of intense transformation, is represented in Tarot by the Death card. In essence, our sense of achievement and the pinnacle of our mountainous pursuit (a running theme throughout the Major Arcana in the Rider-Waite[-Smith] deck expressing our potential) is going through a transformation. Another way to view it is from the perspective that our sense of what “reaching potential” looks like is completely dying and being reborn.

Returning to the Lovers, in a practical, societal sense, we see the very foundation of our relationships being rocked. From every angle it is clear that our sense of romantic love is totally changing, wether in spirituality, sexual preference and/or gender identification, the meaning of monogamy, the shifting roles between husband and wife (what with the executive mother and the house husband), divorce rates hovering at around 50% – 60% (depending on your source), mental illness, chemical warfare and global revolutions, the very fabric of our relationships is being rewoven.

The deconstruction has been going on for several years, coming to heightened awareness in recent months when we have seen the fall of most of our greatest cultural heroes and the shattering of our infrastructures. If ever there was a time to take the reins and create a reliable inner compass, that time would be now. Healing is important, but relationships are the fascia of the humanity body. Without them, the heart of God cannot speak through us, just like the pulse of the brain cannot reach their destinations in a body without connective tissues.

From an archetypal lens, the astrology of this year seems to be allowing us to unlock the door to our subconscious world and psychic, spiritual senses, Piscean material. We may be revealing the secrets behind our favorite illusions, taking the veil down from behind the High Priestess and revealing what must go. Or we may be turning to our intuitive awareness to make better choices and adhere to long term commitments we feel connected to in our hearts.

Whatever the case may be, 2013 can be said to be a year of conscious transformation and union, a cosmic connection needs to be created between the divine and ourselves as individuals, and then shared in some way with other human beings. Like nerve cells, let us be conduits and connection points for the important signals of the One Great Mind, and leave the rest in the past.

If you’d like to know about how 2013 looks in the Tarot for you personally, based on your natal chart and numerological data, purchase a skype consultation for $65.00 – $125.00 donation range. Message me on my contact page to request a 2013 Year Ahead Consultation!

May you walk well and strong,

Ginnie.

Today we take the plunge into understanding the meaning of the Illuminati, the confusion born from conspiracy theories, and the personal power to transform the world – the spiritual warriors weapon for change, justice and love. Its an in-depth episode, more like a class than an entertainment pursuit. Learn basics of the Tree of Life, the 7 Planes of Consciousness and where YOU fit in, with power, with love, with enlightenment, and with true change and consciousness. I am most satisfied with this episode, among all of the podcasting I have done. I do so much hope you are fed deeply by it, and take action to put the principles into practice. This is part 1, part 2 will discuss the symbolism, metaphor and literary narrative involved with the ‘power’ of the Illuminati. Much LOVE!!!!!!!

Music by:

The Whitest Boy Alive- All Ears

Lamb- Its All in Your Hands

Little Dragon- Ritual Union

Learn more about the Tree of Life HERE

Learn more about the 7 Planes of Consciousness HERE

From there they went straight to work. Many shared their first draft ideas with me and we worked together to create a readable deck. Once all the final images were submitted, Tom Cappelletti, the class instructor, Chris Hopkins, the teacher’s assistant, and I all sat down and decided which cards would make the cut. For some cards we received several submissions, and for others we received only one or none. Interestingly, we had very few submissions for the feminine cards, especially in the major arcana! For a beginner’s class full of mostly newbies to Tarot, I am proud of the product and plan to have my own copy printed A.S.A.P!

It was such a wonderful experience to be the client for this project, and I learned so much about how to communicate Tarot concepts to those who are not exactly familiar with its concepts!

Let me know what you think!

Tarot Deck by

Today we turn the discussion to utilizing Tarot majors to [*hopefully*] understand, and add, to the healing of the Empress and Emperor in our global culture. From other nature’s storms to man’s stormy perceptions, we are in the midst of a deep, grand, and monumental rift between these two forces combusting within ourselves. Listen in as I share some insights I gleaned from a personal reading about healing the masculine and feminine. Form some ideas for working with these energies and urges in empowering and enlightened ways. Make gold, people!

Music by Porcelain Raft: Drifting In and Out, Peter, Bjorn and John: Nothing to Worry About

Listen to the first episode of the Magnum Opus Tarot Podcast at the link below.

http://virginiajester.podomatic.com/entry/2012-12-13T20_57_19-08_00

The first episode of the Tarot podcast you’ve never heard before! Magnum Opus means the great work, referring to our ability to alchemize our experiences. In modern terms we might call this conscious evolution. Tarot can be many things, but when used as a tool for transformation it takes on a very special new quality. For the first episode we will talk about some of the upcoming astrological transits for December 2012 through the lens of their cousins- the corresponding major arcana cards of the Tarot. Correspondences are based on those developed by the Golden Dawn. Download correspondence PDF’s below

Music by:

Porcelain Raft- Unless You Speak from the Heart
Poliça- Lay Your Cards Out, Wandering Star

Four years ago I started sharing Tarot and relationship work with strangers. It was a haphazard, yet necessary pursuit. In response to my Craigslist ads to barter services or goods, I received all sorts of messages- one person felt s/he was a human vampire who could not resist sucking the blood out of his/her own cuts and scrapes, another individual had trouble deciding which arranged marriage to oblige in his community. I was not at all ready for the variety of obscure responses I received after offering my work on Craigslist!

Around the same time I started offering readings to people I met through my podcast, The Empress Project. By that time I had been working with the Art Nouveau and Rider-Waite decks daily in my personal development practice for about two years. Feeling confident with the clarity I gleaned from working with Tarot after a frightening, yet enlightening, near-death-experience, I was enthusiastic about sharing this tool with others, albeit slightly naiive.

As I began offering Tarot readings in exchange for other holistic services, I found that those in the holistic healing arts generally wanted foremost to look into deepening their relationships and aligning their actions with a sense of purpose. I reveled in that realm. Work, after all, was my initial path to Tarot. When I went deeper into the study, I wanted always to look at how to best live with a sense of purpose. I was happy helping others to do the same, based on what I had already experienced and learned.

Nearly everyone else I read for outside of the group of holistic practitioners wanted to know about their love lives (and money, although slightly less). There was not one single thing wrong with this except for the fact that I had never used Tarot to work in that way, I had used it solely as a means of self-development. I did this by working with the archetypes daily to deepen my understanding of them. I also learned about transformation, gaining perspective and patience with the Tarot.But love? Eeesh, what the heck did I know about the holistic implications of that? In doing relationship readings, I found it difficult to relay the information, especially because I had just emerged from an especially unconscious relationship.

I decided that for those interested in relationship help, I would offer other resources that I felt comfortable working with. I turned to my spiritual counseling training and began sharing what I had learned about non-violent communication, healing masculine/feminine relationships and ideals, and learning how to be two complete people meeting in a center place, the place we call ‘The Relationship’, for higher purposes rather than survival-based ones. I shared what I learned in authentic relationships training. I podcasted about observing feelings and mythology. Before too long I made a couple of in-depth videos about the concepts and tools to build a spiritual relationship from, and people seemed to be satisfied, if not intrigued, with what I was passing on from my own teachers.

Well, life has a funny way of teaching us what we need to learn, and before too long, I found myself whisked away into a whole new world with a whole new mate, with the shared intention of living a spiritually based relationship. That old adage, be careful what you wish for, can be loosely tied to that situation… with all the time and energy I spent thinking and talking about spiritual relationships, I guess my Higher Self saw fit that I should try my hand at living in one.

I learned many things during that time, especially about my sense of personal value and how deeply important true self-esteem is to entering a spiritual relationship. Long-temr relationships are hard enough with a firm foundation, without one, they simply cannot survive! Life took other turns too- I got pregnant, found myself in extreme (and I mean Extreme) poverty, gave birth, relived some old traumas with my mother, broke my ankle saving my baby from a freak accident, and altogether went through the wash, so to speak. By the end of all the trauma that ensued I felt battered. Needless to say, I had little to no energy to share with the outside world, so I resumed the practice of reading for myself after getting through a serious crisis of faith, and let the notion of reading for others fall away for the time.

That was true until a series of experiences began to shake me back into waking life earlier in 2012. First, a sum of money that covered all my debt came to me that I had no idea I was owed. It helped me to payoff my outstanding debts and enhance my quality of life significantly. I moved my family into a much more suitable living situation (four people in a studio apt. is enough to make Ghandi mean!), gained access to better foods, had more access to herbs and ingredients to pick up my herbal remedy making practice again, and even started pursuing my creativity by making feather headpieces. If that wasn’t soul medicine enough, then my partner and I took a transformative trip through Europe where I experienced near-psychedellic energy shifts/awakenings within myself (including a Tarot reading with the woman who would later become my teacher, Diana Granger-Taylor of London’s Treadwell’s), and seemingly from nowhere I began to receive a lot of attention for my headpieces. Somehow, seemingly over the course of 2012, all the bad luck in my life was replaced with unpredictable fortune (The Wheel of Fortune is my teacher card, after all)!

Iv’e started to grow back into myself, or maybe to grow into my new skin since completing my Saturn Return not too long ago. I remember who I was before all of this life happened, and all that I transcended in the past. My attitude about myself during that difficult period had become so low that I examine my beliefs about punishment and reward in order to gain fulfilling information. I feel the need to mature my sense of faith beyond such black and white ideals. I intend to continue my life as a whole, empowered human being. My inner work with Tarot has accelerated, and after working with Diana to ground my experience and study with with the system, as well as working with my wonderful coach, Sandy Freschi, sharing Tarot with the public is right where I’m supposed to be. This time, however, my work includes not only the spiritual ideal I cannot help but seek, but also authentic experience with the ups and downs of life and the management of faith in the face of incredible challenges and change. Its like my inner teacher grew from experience.

Around the same time that I started coming into my own again, I also started taking a closer look at my relationship and the principles we had come to live by. It seemed like every step I took to move forward on a positive track caused painful rifts in my romantic relationship. At the same time I started really looking at these very personal truths, the same information was being reflected back to me from others in their relationships as well.

For the last three years I have received an almost constant stream of facebook messages and emails from people seeking support and insight about their own spiritual relationships, the inner masculine and feminine, sexuality, sensuality, and a deep hunger for evolution in this area of life. I’m feeling it too, so I feel like the best thing I can do, since I can’t seem to find a role model or pre-concieved archetype to mimic, is to do what I can to foster the authenticity required to birth the new one we all want but can’t seem to find. It comes from two things, in my opinion; a realized, congruent inner self, and a commitment to creating and following principles that serve the growth of the individual as well as the pair. No wonder Johnny Cash sang about walking the line…

Below is a video of one of the recent relationship readings I did using the new spiritual relationships spread I’m working on. It gives you an idea of what it might look like and what kind of material we cover. This is an actual reading for an anonymous couple. So far it seems to be a powerful, loving and clarifying experience for those who receive this reading. Book your Spiritual Relationship Reading Here. Enjoy!

The intention of this project is two-fold; to teach graphic design students to work for a real client, with real-world limitations and specifications, and to produce an accurate, read-able crowd-sourced Tarot deck . How cool is that??? At the end of the whole thing there will be a printable, appropriately sized, sensible (hopefully) Tarot deck. Of course I agreed to come in and give it a shot!

There were some obvious challenges, namely that of getting nearly 100 people to create usable, relevant Tarot cards who had varying levels of exposure to Tarot, and in most cases, little to none. There were some students who opted out of the project all together, citing religious reasons. In a generally conservative city like Sacramento, a project like this at the local city college is a pretty progressive pursuit. Kudos to Tom and Chris for thinking up and going along with the whole thing! Additionally, I only had a single presentation to infuse the students with the vibe of  Tarot. Sheesh! Somehow I tend to take big bites out of life…

We decided that the best thing to do would be for me to give a 45 minute overview of the history of Tarot, how people use it, and what specifically, needed to be considered (from a reader’s point of view), in creating the visual messages. That, plus a TON (and I mean a TON) of links to videos, articles, and card descriptions, were all I was able to give to the students.

Here is the video of the lecture I gave to the class. Being that I felt a little out of my element, I made a few mistakes, but for the most part, I am quite happy with the information that came out of me that day, and was especially thankful that I didn’t freeze in the midst of cameras, mics and plenty of young, hip, busy students!

Once the lecture was complete, the students’ job as professional graphic designers, was to research the cards and present some mock-ups for consideration. I must admit that I was rather impressed with the cards that were emailed to me! Many of the students embraced the task and worked diligently to bring the archetypes to life.

We are still in the final stages of the project, and I am so very much looking forward to sharing the final deck with you as soon as its finalized! For now, I leave you to ponder with the many wonderful possibilities that are unlocked with the key that is Tarot- a fundamental collection of stories, archetypes, societal norms, processes, maturation, and projections. After all, these characters are the stuff of legend!

Until Next Time,

-Ginnie

By practicing spiritually with Tarot, we move beyond fortune telling and into the realm of consciousness. By bringing the gems we find in the dark up toward the light of awareness, we are able to see their beauty, like prisms shining through Quartz Crystals after they are mined from deep within cold dark layers of Earth. Working with the Tarot can be a vast, bright window into healing, knowing the soul and building that powerful staple of all strong spiritual relationships- a healthy spiritual relationship with ourselves, which must come first.

The way Tarot helps us to do this is by showing us the rules, laws and resources of life with the Major Arcana, and how they are put into practice with the Minor Arcana. Personally, when all else fails, when the walls come crashing down, when even those close to me feel wastelands away, I find it incredibly helpful to see issues and challenges in terms of archetypes, or roles. If the roles involved can be determined, the best course of action can be discerned even when clarity eludes me. Removing ourselves from our situations and looking at them through the Universal western world scope, we can begin to see where our projections and delusions are blinding us, and consequently can find new paths will emerge where no escape or plan could be formed before. Light heals everything. Light is awareness, it is the magic of our consciousness.

Tarot cards are like characters in a play. The cards that come up in a reading are the characters at hand, and their positions in the reading represent their relationships to one another. There are main characters, minor characters, protagonists, antagonists, settings and tones. The type of dialogue and quality of their communication can be determined by the suits and card numbers, among other factors. Different decks add yet another layer of interpretation and perspective shifting, but it all boils down to our feelings and intuitive hunches about the cards in front of us. This, I think, is why a good reader is someone who is able to maintain a relationship with Tarot first through him or herself before taking on reading for others. Projections can be tricky things, and one who is familiar with his or her own weaknesses, for lack of a better word, is one who can also hold that weakness into the light of consciousness.

Getting a reading from someone else is a little like getting a massage- it feels amazing in the moment, but if you don’t take care of yourself the rest of the time that you’re not getting a massage, any benefits will be stifled long before they ever reach their full maturity. It is important then, wether reader or querent, to pay attention to the messages and images that stand before us in a reading, for these are keys to mastering our inner lives- especially when they involve cards from the Major Arcana. Mastery of the inner will harness the power of the outer. Another way to express this idea is through the beloved Alchemical term, “As above, so below.” Above being Higher Consciousness, the Cosmos, Kether (crown), God, Higher Self, etc…, and below being Earth, physical life, the kingdom of man, Malkuth (kingdom), the ground, Gaia. Through opening the door to seeing our lives in this new, more holistic way, we also open the door to our potential, and, ultimately, our purpose.

People who see me for readings talk a lot about purpose, and more often than not the concept of discovering their life’s purpose is mixed in with the intention of the reading somehow. Depending on the spread and the time we have, I can usually find a way to incorporate any messages in this regard into a reading in such a way that the person I’m reading for is able to receive and understand. Sometimes though, the questions are so big, so deep and so thoroughly confusing that typical readings just don’t seem to be enough information. Maybe a person is too close to a painful situation to see the forrest for the trees, or maybe they are being challenged to completely change a long-standing way of life or set of behaviors. When this is the case we need more, we need some basic, core, fundamental understandings, and for this we get into the really juicy stuff of Tarot; its a great time to calculate ones soul, personality and teacher cards.

Mary K. Greer seems to have pioneered the principles of calculating these incredibly personal cards in her wonderful book Tarot for Yourself (I highly recommend it!). Using principles of Numerology, a number is calculated using one’s birthday (and each year of life if they are getting a report also). That number corresponds to a Major Arcana card, the set that represents life’s laws, lessons and resources. That card is a major life-long ally, or a guide, if you will, into one’s deeper resources and potential. Its not for everyone, but when people seek this level of understanding, the effects can be profoundly enlightening and empowering.

In addition to there being so many levels of readings to be received, there is also the added level of variety in the myriad types of readers available. Some readers are heavily tied to Orders and rigorous schools of thought, some are geared toward highly esoteric and mystical notions, still some are inclined to work on the level of the inner child, and there is always that crowd that adores the old gypsy mythology and just wants to put up and fund ‘psychic shops’. Many in the Tarot community have opinions about each of these paths, flattering and otherwise. However, what seems to be most true and helpful is to embrace the fact that there are billions of people in the world, all of which relating and growing on very different levels. A reader that serves one group of people well may not be able to serve another. Maybe, just maybe, we need the variety to reach seekers at all levels with the mystical key to empowered life that is Tarot.

Tarot is a gift, a tool, an opportunity to see the players on the stage of our lives at any given moment and to reflect upon the journey in fulfilling ways. Ultimately, transcending and healing our wounds is the outcome of the process that is bringing light to darkness, transforming our lead to gold, and doing the Magnum Opus, the great work.

If you’re interested in receiving a reading, see my Tarot readings page for more information! If you are interested in learning Tarot from me, please see my Learn Tarot Page for the latest class schedules!

Until next time, take good care of your spirit

xxV

The Devil- the heavy stuff of shadow, the murk of unwanted urges and limited perceptions… It doesn’t help that the world has two-thousand years worth of perilous associations with this word, including hell, fire and brimstone, an eternity of suffering, etc… and yet, in working with The Devil, one can find rich offerings of wisdom and the value of Sight.

As soon as The Devil shows up in readings someone invariably holds their breath, gasps, or silently remarks with wide eyes and pursed lips. I too have had this reaction from time to time. What possible higher purpose could there be for such a hefty card, one, it seems, is made solely of spiritual lead, the base and beginning of the alchemical process?

To understand The Devil, its helpful to understand its place among the various Occult systems and sources of Divination. Beginning with Tarot’s closest cousin, Astrology, the Devil is most relative to the energies of Capricorn, Saturn and the Tenth House. These are the places where we are concerned with others perceptions of us, our status and our ability to provide material or sustenance for those whom depend upon us. Much like the Mayan God, Quetzaquatl’s (The creator of mankind and one who could travel between heaven and earth, the morning star, Venus) panther twin, Xolotl, The Devil’s energy is our unseen shadow and its force in our lives. To see the shadow is to be invited to integrate it, but before we can integrate it we must concur our fear of it.

Quetzacoatl

Moving back into Astrological terms once again, we can see The Devil’s influence in our modern lives in the corporate greed our leaders breed. Common Capricorn in the shadows, currently being visited by Pluto, needing to see his greed, the structures he believed to be impervious now crumble, needing to know a greater truth, needing to grow a sense of faith.

In Astrology the sign of Capricorn marks the coldest day and the longest night. It is the time for us to be visited by our harsher physical circumstance and to balance the outright action of preparing and maintaining with the interior action of attuning and trusting. We are tested, we are cold, we are uncomfortable, and for one season a year we are asked to bear it, so that we might see how we are more than our circumstance, so that we might learn something we would never have understood in the warm sunny playful days of summer: that we are here to thrive, that we need not incessantly seek more, that spring will come again, that if we go dormant it will stimulate the seeds within us.

Capricorn

The planet Saturn is an old devil, to be sure. To this day, when people discuss Saturn in teachings and readings they often tend to do so grimly. We speak of the Saturn return as though it were a time to fear. We speak of Saturn’s placement in our Natal Charts as though it were the representation of a limitation of some sort. And yet, as is so often the case with the shadow, there remains more. Saturn is also the planet of our potential greatness, the fruit of our disciplines and the wisdom of balancing right action with deep trust in the Universe. Saturn is to our lives what practice is to Alchemy; it is not one single stage, nor one sole action that makes us successful, but it is our commitment, repetition, and discipline to feel the discomfort and do it anyway that, at long last, produces our gold. Saturn is the planet of steadfastness, holding true to our highest commitments above all  else and the wisdom that can only be harvested through time and experience.

The Tenth House, Astrologically speaking, is the house of career, status and the way we materially appear to the exterior world. It does not reflect all of our selves, but rather some portion. It is where we find the values that lead to our choice in position. Take, for example, the vocational art of massage therapy. There are as many massage therapy work environments as there are people, from the cozy in-home studio to the coveted celebrity day-spa, there are myriad ways to share this gift. Depending on one’s Tenth House Sign and Ruler, we can learn much about what facets of chosen work a person will be attracted to. We can start to see the role one subconsciously wants to play in the world by the sort of statement the work situation makes. Ultimately this offers big clues about how one feels about him or herself in light of that statement. (This is the beginning of working with and understanding our personal archetypes!) The Devil, too, shows us what we need, materially, to say about ourselves, what we need our status to be, and, depending on other cards involved in any given Tarot reading, at what cost that statement is to be made.

Xolotl

Knowing the Astrological basics gives us some further understanding of The Devil card in Tarot. We touched earlier on the myth of Quetzacoatl, the diety believed to be at the center of the current 2012 Transformational phenomenon taking the global imagination by storm and creating one of the world’s most powerful memes for consciousness and change. His twin, Xolotl, if you’ll recall, is the shadow that must be overcome by being faced.

As the famous quote goes: “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” The things we fear are the very things that keep us chained to our view of the world as a two dimensional material race. It is our fear of loss, in its many forms, that motivates us to shut down to further understanding of our depths. Death, rejection, disease, failure, suffering, these are the things that nag at our subconscious minds, and so these too are the things that we insist upon escaping. This escape usually comes in the form of pursuit of material goods, excessive use of chemicals, hyper sexuality and all manner of sensory distraction.

Fear

The senses are powerful forces in our human experience. We are keen to master them in one way or another. In a recent lecture on French history I learned that Jesuit churches were the first places of faith that were built in Rome to stimulate all of the senses of attendees to mass. From the elaborate statues, singing monks and incense to the candles, marble interior walls, gold leaf accents and glamorous relief paintings, these churches were designed to captivate their audience by way of sensory stimulation. It was a novel idea at the time and soon these churches were propagating all over Europe. Much like the idea the Jesuits had to engage all the senses in spiritual experience, our subconscious mind too knows the medicine of sensory stimulation. It is an incredible distraction to pain, which is what we fear most behind our fear of loss.

Pain. Its a little word with more power over the whole of the human psyche than anything else save for joy. Even joy, however, is closely tied to pain for most of us as we have been trained for centuries to expect the latter and to assume the former as miracles. The long-held Christian belief that man is a sinner and that he must pay retribution for being so is one that we have used to beat ourselves senseless (figuratively and literally) since the birth of the Christian church nearly two-thousand years ago. Oddly, our pursuit of eternal joy has come at the cost of incredible self-inflicted pain. No matter  how you slice it, we are either running from the pain of life in the physical world, or, according to one’s particular world view, an eternity of punitive pain in the afterlife. The Devil shows us how we are running from pain, how we are viewing a situation in a way that keeps us blind to our fears, or if not blind, enslaved.

Allegory of the Five Senses

It takes great courage to face fear and pain. In the ancient indigenous cultures shamans were the spiritual medicine keepers of the tribe who often led young men on initiatory journeys through the jungle to face and ultimately conquer deep fear, often accompanied by pain. According to my limited understanding (admittedly), these young men were not welcomed back into the tribe until their initiatory rites had been completed, symbolizing the official entry into manhood. In our modern cultures we have traded in this acceptance of the shadow and its role in the dance of life for convenience, perceived safety and ease. We have grown fat, clumsy, our demands for order ubiquitous. We have grown terribly afraid, our shadow gone unchecked for millennia. For this reason, when The Devil shows up in a reading, I not only seek its personal meaning, such as how an individual chooses to shut down to deeper truths, be it through drugs, alcohol, sex, obsessions, etc…, but I also seek its collective implication…

2. Èlofilio Murdered, shaman healer, Cusco, Peru. (Vance Gellert) from the website Sacraments heal: Shamanic practices

“How can this person serve the greater good with this issue?” is the general tone of my inquiry here. Knowing that the shadow is a thing we have come to fear so vehemently that we demand its eradication at its appearance, I feel we each have the power to push consciousness to the tipping point of collective impact. You never know who’s decision to face the shadow head on is going to be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back, the final person who transforms proactive conscious evolution from a minority value into a majority value.

So, the next time The Devil shows up in a reading, try pondering the elements involved:

Personal-

Capricorn: the coldest season and the longest night- dormancy and survival

Tenth House: status, career, image and the role we want people to see us playing in life

Saturn: limitations, discipline and the fruit of long labors of love

Collective-

Quetzacotl: The creator of mankind, the light of enlightenment and the God of learning and knowledge, the morning star

Xolotl: God of the shadow, the underworld and bad luck, the evening star and protector of the sun as day became night.

And then apply one or all of these questions:

What about this situation is triggering fear of loss? What kind of loss is the querent fearing? (job > poverty/resources > food > shelter >  death, relationship rejection > pain > unlovability > connection, etc… (pull the threads, often the mind exaggerates logical things into major catastrophes!)

Is there a role or image that is being destroyed or is threatened with destruction in the wake of the querent’s enlightenment, acceptance or deepened perception? What status quos are at stake?

What does the querent want most but feel is impossible to attain (at a deeper level)? What does s/he value most deeply? What is his/her most deeply held passion or sense of purpose and how is that being compromised by the choice to remain numb or blind to deeper realities?

How can the querent transform his or her fear into enlightenment that can serve the greater good or collective in a much needed way?

Thanks for reading! Be sure to share your experiences and experiments with The Devil in your readings here for fellow readers to continue learning and exploring!

-Ginnie