Tag Archives: celtic cross

Significance of death for the Death tarot card?

Posted on by
Reply

The Death card is one of the most feared cards… by tarot readers, and they try to dissemble when it appears in a reading, and say, “it doesn’t always mean death, it means change”.

The problem is that the way Tarot is generally taught is all about the meanings of the cards, there is an obsession that is entirely unhealthy, so that when Tarot readers have problems remembering the divinatory meanings, they worry, thinking that something is wrong with them. Unfortunately, remembering the primary meaning of the Death card is rarely a problem.

We all have issues with death – where we go when we die; do we get punished or rewarded? Maybe we saw someone close to us die in a painful way. Divorcing ourselves from these perceptions and experiences is not easy.

As if that was bad enough, the Tarot community has seriously shot itself in the foot with its fondness for one particular kind of spread, the Celtic Cross spread. Why is that a problem? When the Death card appears in a Celtic Cross reading, the Tarot reader will try to smoosh over it in an attempt to reduce its significance. Oh the illogicality of it all. Why? By definition the Celtic Cross spread (and other positional spreads) seek to increase the significance of the cards by only using the first ten cards off the top of the deck – all the other cards are ignored. If the Death card is in the top ten it is very significant, while if it is in the the ignored, covered up, and hidden other 68 cards, then it has no significance.

The same applies to any card, such as the Tower, 9 and 10 of Swords, 10 of Wands, etc that is awkward for the tarot reader.

There is also a problem with the so-called positive cards – let’s say that the Empress and the Lovers appear in the Celtic Cross spread – what a wonderful combination! A fruitful relationship… with the distinct possibility that there will be a baby soon! But what if the client was a mother desperately worried about her under-age daughter’s relationship with an older man?

No wonder so many tarot readers lack confidence – they leave themselves in the permanent quandry of desperately trying to find significance in the divinatory meanings and then having to backtrack when the difficult cards turn up.

Do I have this problem? Nope! I use the Opening of the Key spread, which utilizes all 78 cards – the Death card will always appear somewhere, and I have the luxury of looking at the context of that card in relationship to the cards around it. In the Celtic Cross spread, it is easy for the client to see that tricky card in all its glory, while in the Opening of the Key spread, unless it is on the top of any of the four piles, it is tucked away, and the client may not even notice it. As a Tarot reader, I have the choice, I have the luxury, I have the option of drawing attention to the Death card, on my terms.

Try doing that with the Celtic Cross spread.

Looking forward to TABI in Birmingham

Posted on by
1

Only a few days to go before the weekend. As ever, I am not exactly sure what I am going to say in my Workshop on Sunday, but I am sure the muse will strike.

A big highlight will be seeing Catherine Chapman again – we only me once after we wrote the book  – she drove down to Brighton on the longest day of the year, and it was windy and wet. I am sure the weather will be better this time.

We will both have copies of our book Beyond the Celtic Cross, which means that for the first time ever some lucky person will be the first to have one signed by the both of us.

I am taking the camcorder and I hope to put the results on youtube…

See you there.

blogtalkradio: demonstration of beyond the celtic cross

Posted on by
3

Catherine Chapman has done a brilliant job of demonstrating the tarot techniques of elemental dignities and card counting as first she reads using the Celtic Cross spread, and then the same cards in a string. These techniques form the basis of our book, Beyond the Celtic Cross.

Listening to the radio show I am very impressed with how well Catherine does in demonstrating such a visual medium on the radio.

You can see the tarot spread here. There are lots of good psychological insights demonstrating how tarot is more than fortune telling.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Tarot and the Magus has gone but the visions continue

Posted on by
1

My last copy of Tarot and the Magus is destined for someone in Germany, so please do not ask me for any more – my publishers do not have any either. If you have a copy hang on to it, as it is a collector’s item.

Bonnie Cehovet’s perceptive  review of Beyond the Celtic Cross is well worth reading:

“Douglas (Gibb) was quite right when he called the visions that Catherine had after doing this work initiatory visions. (Visions that grew in strength the longer she spent on the journey with Paul.) They involved Pegasus, a dancing High Priestess (sacred dance), and continued visits with the High Priestess. Then there was the child, that she recognized as having come to her before as a baby.”

Both books explore card counting and elemental dignities, and while both techniques are learnt separately, they are in fact two sides of the same coin. Success in integrating and unifying card counting and EDs  is the key to the initiatory visions experienced by Catherine. I too had initiatory visions some of which are documented in Tarot and the Magus.

While visions are by definition passive, initiating visions cause profound transformations within the tarot reader- when they happen you are not the same afterwards. A chicken and egg situation arises where there is a need to transform and develop spiritually in order to have the visions, and when the visions happen, even more change is possible. The inevitable consequence is that learning card counting and EDs is not just an intellectual experience, and students may well find that they struggle from time to time. My advice is to keep on at it, practising the techniques and using them in tarot readings as much as possible.

These initiating visions continue, particularly if you continue to read the tarot and work on your own development, which means that your paradigms about the tarot will also change. This has been my experience, which is why I do not subscribe to the common consensus on tarot, divination or magic. The visions often include spirits, some of whom are known, while others are anonymous. Some of these spirits are Goetic, which magicians in particular find hard to believe, as they thought they had the monopoly of such experiences!

Bonnie is currently running a competition to win a copy of Beyond the Celtic Cross, so good luck.

Hopefully there will be a second edition of Tarot and the Magus soon. In the meantime, I would still like to hear about any experiences you have with the book.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tarot and the Magus out of print? What’s the alternative?

Posted on by
2

It had to happen… there are no more copies available of Tarot and the Magus… unless of course you want to pay over £200 for a second hand one.

I have been talking to my Publisher about a reprint, and I hope to have news soon on that front.

Meanwhile, you could always get Beyond the Celtic Cross, co-written with Catherine Chapman, which covers the tarot divination techniques of Card Counting, Pairing, and Elemental Dignities.

There are also my videos on Youtube, to which I will be adding to very soon. Also, I have two workshops coming up, one 25th April in London, and the other on Sunday 25th July at the TABI conference in Birmingham.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Meeting Catherine Chapman

Posted on by
Reply

Catherine and I wrote “Beyond the Celtic Cross” via email. It was nearly six months after she contacted me about her tarot reading that we finally met on a wet, wintry, windy day on Brighton seafront – it was the longest day of the year – but the few hours in her company flew by.

Since then she has gone on to bigger and better things, in particular her tarot blog which I thoroughly recommend. When the book finally came out in December 2009, Catherine was having all kinds of problems with her computer and internet connection, and other circumstances, while there were all kinds of delays to the book launch. These things are sent to try us. Writing a book on tarot means that suddenly people are interested in booking me for speaking engagements, and I was very pleased to accept an invitation from TABI to do a workshop on Beyond the Celtic Cross at their conference in July this year in Birmingham. I suggested a Facebook page for the conference would be a good idea, which now exists as you can see. Catherine has been in TABI for many years, and I am very pleased to see she is an administrator for the conference. This will only be our second face to face meeting in two years. We will have a lot to talk about.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tarot workshop at TABI in July 2010

Posted on by
Reply

I will be speaking and giving a workshop at the TABI Conference this summer. This will be a great opportunity to talk about my new book co-written with Catherine Chapman, Beyond the Celtic Cross. I will talk about the powerful divination techniques of Card Counting and Elemental Dignities, and how they played their part in the creation of Beyond the Celtic Cross.

I will also discuss a very interesting thread that runs between this and my earlier book, Tarot and the Magus, whereby the use of the divination techniques results in spiritual development and insight.

Way back in 2004 I spoke at the TABI conference in Birmingham, and I had a great time, and I am sure I will again. Looking forward to seeing you all again.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]