Tarot University ArkLetters: March 29, 2006 - World Servers' Spread; a 3-Card Reading for the Now

A 3-Card reading for the Now
By Christine Payne-Towler
NewMoon 29th of March 2006

For an introduction to the World Servers' Spread, see Arkletter 5

Standing at the tender edge of spring, watching the trees bud out and the bulbs awaken, there is a sense of hope and anticipation in the air. NewMoon in Aries makes the saps rise within us, motivating us for a courageous, bounding leap into the future. How shall we World Servers use this energy to nourish our Tarot practice, awaken our intuitions and possibly motivate ourselves a few more steps along our unique evolutionary paths?

The Tarot Deck I am using today is The Tarot of the Spirit by Joyce and Pamela Eakins. This is one of the few English-style decks I recommend to students, because I think great care has been taken by this mother-daughter pair to make its underlying Golden Dawn architecture more humane and psychologically friendly to users. Over the years I have been known to complain about the way the modern Tarots over-rely on the card titles given by Crowley, and how difficult it is to avoid scaring clients with images labeled so drastically -- why do we need words like Failure, Cruelty, or Defeat on the faces of the cards? Isn’t it enough that we have Death, the Hanged Man and the Devil to contend with and work around?

In my experience, clients are already uncomfortable enough at the point they make an appointment to get a reading. I see no reason to dun them further with pessimistic and absolutist thought-forms like this. For this reason, I really appreciate the work these women did to clarify the concepts governing the cards and find more explanatory ways to name them. The excellent titles and their colorful, flowing illustrations have made this pack a member of my “top 20” that I happily make available to clients when they are picking a deck for their readings with me. And as a side-note, multiple students have raved to me about the book that was written to explain these cards. For a really great in depth exposition of the psychological and motivational process at work when using cards for counseling purposes, check out the Tarot of the Spirit's excellent book, even if you don't intend to make this deck your primary tool for readings.

The World position: 5 of Fire (wands), The Struggle

The Five of Wands in any deck represents exactly what this card is titled -- a struggle for supremacy between a mixed bag of influences, with the process still unfinished and the outcome still unclear. Everybody has found him- or herself in the position this card represents, wherein there are multiple voices clamoring to be heard and no clear leadership has yet appeared to focus the energy. What is the key to converting this confusion from a battle of individual wills into a unified team of like-minded players?

At the level of The World card, this struggle should probably be envisioned as the clash of contending needs and forces that has now become evident and insuppressible planet-wide. A few examples among too many include increasing battles over water rights in the drought-stricken areas of the planet, the vastly growing size and intensity of hurricanes because of oceanic warming, and an alarmingly rapid collapse of species diversity on every continent. How will we manage to fairly and rationally deal with the shock to the global economy and the disruption of billions of individual lives when glacial melting begins obliterating our coastlines to the point that New York, London and Hong Kong are below sea level, when California's Sacramento Valley and most of the island nations of the globe are inundated? How will we deal with the incredible pollution that will ensue as so many filthy and chemically saturated sites sink into the seas? As the most recent Times Special Report ominously states, "No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth." (http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/26/coverstory/ )

It is not possible to take such macrocosmic events personally, though many of us will witness and experience the consequences in our own private reality, should we live long enough. According to the newest science, we have at best a mere ten years to change our evil ways, or the process will be too far-gone to ameliorate. My own scientist friends are not even that optimistic. Somehow, in the geological blink of an eye, the most retrograde forces in the human collective unconscious are slated to be dragged, willing or unwilling, into the light of "emergency consciousness" as every life form on this planet encounters this life-or-death situation and awakens its hidden trove of survival tools. There is no knowing what the upshot of this global adventure will be, because we have found no comparable event in the geological or historical record. This moment represents a climactic coming-of-age event for humanity, as we demonstrate to ourselves and to the future what we are made of.

Paradoxically, for all of the above reasons and more, this moment represents a chance for a radical awakening, the likes of which humanity has never experienced in recorded history. Speaking as a magical and shamanic practitioner, this looks to me like an opportunity for the sensitives among us to step up to the plate and begin deploying those human potentials that have heretofore been lying dormant, which we are only half-heartedly in touch with. I would advise anybody who is currently doing any kind of self-development work whatsoever to ~lean into it~ and really apply themselves. Right now it matters less who has the "perfect" method, than that all possible methods be mined for whatever value they hold.

The Fool position: #21 The Universe (traditionally known as The World)

As soon as this card went down, the thought came "Divine Sophia is looking down into the solar system, checking up on us!" Here in the intermediary, astral world of the Fool, where forms and essences shimmer and shift, where the hologram of Paradise struggles to organize the density and intractability of matter, a call is being sent forth for Sophia's children to assimilate into their Higher Natures.

The dancing female figure on this card began to dawn on the European mind at the end of the Middle Ages, and you can read about Her in her many guises in the February 2006 ArkLetter essay. To have this icon showing up in the Fool position suggests that this vast level of energy, consciousness and Light is diffusing itself closer to the realm of human experience than has been able to happen previously. Now that "the whole world is watching" via the Internet, we might finally be ripe and ready for the Age of the Holy Spirit, which has been anticipated and prayed for since the last millennium. Even as we press against the biggest emergency of humanity's time on the planet (so far as we know), Great Mother is hovering ever-closer, offering to support, heal and uplift each and every soul that turns to Her in sincerity and trust.

The World card is the archetype of the Transcendent Good, the Eternally True, and the Universally Beautiful, which is why she is seen in a female form. The analogue with Paradise is not an exaggeration. Even as the ecosystem groans in its current dis-ease, our individual bodies are awakening to the cellular memory of our original harmony within the Creation. Every living being on this planet, from single-celled organisms to miles-wide underground fungi, utilizes the same basic chemicals, enzymes, and structures to create its own form of life. We are as if made of one single tissue, but specialized for myriad uses across an infinite number of ecological niches. Therefore there is a basis for hope that the entire Creation can somehow be provoked into a response, activating the submerged DNA strategies that will allow us to make a change, respond to the Great Mother's call, and take the requisite action on whatever the messages might contain.

Using a popular middle-ages concept, we can say that The World is reflecting or mirroring her macrocosmic level of compassion, careful attention and nurturing support into the energy-bodies of every living creature alive right now. The chakras and auras of each sentient entity present on the planet are being stimulated and aroused by the enlivening effect of Great Mother's increased participation into our reality. Of course, Sophia has always been and will always be present in this world, always sub-standing materiality via the web of energies that direct matter from the vibrational level. But this might be the very first time in recorded history that all humans on the globe can simultaneously become aware of Her primacy and collectively receive her guidance, in full sobriety, freed from the veil of superstition and sectarianism. Many different cultures and religions are rediscovering their traditional, often suppressed, representatives of the Divine Feminine. Issues of the global ecosystem and planetary health have finally made it onto the collective radar. A global cadre of spiritually oriented scholars is working ceaselessly to restore the literary and cultural treasures of the ancient world and revive the forgotten wisdom teachings of humanity's ancestors. These and other clues can help us realize that "human potential", such as we have known it so far, is standing at the cliff's edge, ready to take that fateful step into the realm of the unknown. We must trust Great Mother, the Virgin of the World, to catch and carry us to the other side.

None of us will get through this next evolutionary cusp by practicing rugged individualism. Only by humbly surrendering the illusion of control to the larger vital context in which we live and move and have our being, will we become empty, open, and receptive enough to hear that still small voice within. The Fool is pliable enough to be led, and the World is the ultimate destination that we are striving to attain. Dare we hope that these symbols are granting us true insight into an appropriate way of proceeding?

The Magus position: #8, Strength reversed

Here in the position of the individual Imaginal, we see a symbol of our cultural human aspiration to govern and administer the world according to our own wills and visions. Sometimes Hercules figures this card, symbol of human power, subduing Nature and the elemental world, symbolized in the mythical lion. But in this version of the card you see the ancient goddess Hecate embodied in her traditional porphyry pillar, which provides a path or channel for souls to travel between the underworld, the human world and the Heavenly world. Around her twine the caduceus snakes of Hermes' wand, indicating the twisted path and multiple switch-offs through which consciousness must travel to simultaneously anchor Nature and Cosmos into each other.

This image reminds us that humanity has traditionally been seen as the middle term or mediator between the animal/vegetable/mineral realms "here below” and the angelic/demonic realms "on high". It is through our own nervous systems and chakra interconnections (analogized by the Goddess pillar with the snakes twining around her) that the Heavens will speak to the Earth, and the Earth will speak back to the Heavens.

The reason Strength came up reversed, at least in my estimation, is that not enough people are currently taking responsibility for embodying the energetic and astral situation that will allow this multidimensional conversation to happen unimpeded. Truthfully, in this day and age, how many people are bothering to get involved with their energy-bodies, learn the nuances of the vital currents of life-force that animate their mortal clay, and take personal responsibility for the shape their bodily/emotional/willful/intellectual energies are in? However many self-cultivating people there might be, it's barely enough, and the energy-body of the globe as a whole is showing the strain. Following the logic of politics, we must each ask ourselves "Am I part of the problem, or part of the solution?"

If you are aware of the issues I am bringing up here, yet you are not taking some personal initiative to strengthen your intuitions, your spiritual senses, your bodily "knowing" or your physical health, then you could be adding to the reason why this card is reversed. Nobody can do anything with the people who are resolutely too dense to realize there is an imperative upon each of us to cultivate ourselves so we can be more useful to the world. However, there is no excuse for those who are aware of the issues but find themselves too distracted by superficial issues to take themselves in hand and address the next layers of their human potential.

Now it is obvious why it was necessary to choose Tarot of the Spirit for this reading. In almost all Tarot decks, this image indicates a human wrestling with or somehow dominating the wild, aboriginal spirit symbolized by the lion. The implication is one of a struggle, a battle of wills or intentions, and the need for one force to submit to another. Nothing like that appears in the Tarot of the Spirit Strength card! Instead we see a model of centering, integration between the planes, and great inward activity without the need for outer hubbub. This is an excellent visualization that each of us can use when we are challenging ourselves to take fuller responsibility for our own octaves of consciousness. The great stability and strength of the stone pillar, contrasted with the quicksilver vitality and electric buzz of the twining serpents, will help us to recognize the mechanism by which we can reach inwards towards our own Higher Selves, and reciprocally the method whereby the vital force or energy of life can reach back to us.

Meditation, serenity training, and mindfulness appear to be the ground within which this state of inner activity is couched. Therefore, at the most mundane of levels, this card can be read to say "Slow down. Ground yourself and participate in this moment; and let the deepest and highest frequencies reach you. Let yourself be the clearing house for these sacred exchanges."

Looking over these three cards together, it seems as if we are witnessing the descent of "manna from Heaven". Our attention is first grabbed by the image of a primordial Struggle, as forces of stability and change contend all around us, awakening us to the chaos that we were previously ignoring or were simply too distracted to bring into focus. None of us are either the cause or the epicenter of this Titanic struggle, but we each participate in its consequences, and we each hold one spark of that great Light that is trying to ignite into simultaneous consciousness in the hearts of great and small.

As we adjust our focus, we realize that the organizing principle that is coming into dominance is Gaia, Great Mother, Tarot’s Virgin of the World. This Archetype is personified for our purposes as the ecosystem, which is very rapidly mutating and challenging us to recognize the reasons why. Sophia is making each of us an invitation to become more aware of the implicate order, the common thread that stitches together all the lives across the spectrum of incarnation, from bacteria to stars. By simply entertaining this thought-form, and welcoming this over lighting Great Mother into our personal awareness, we begin the process of joining up again with the One Great Body that carries us all.

In the final card, Sophia tightens the message down to the personal level, reminding one and all that we are no longer free to assume that outside agencies, such as regulators, scientists or the court system, will soften these challenges for us. Mathematics has already shown us that we have to leave the plane of the problem to find the necessary solutions. In this situation too, we must start to address the outer chaos and breakdown through creating greater interior order and orientation. By becoming still and going within, we can begin the process of consolidating our energy-metabolism, increasing our innate coherence, and harmonizing levels of consciousness so we can find a "straight channel" between our highest and our lowest functions, our most personal and our most wide-ranging concerns.

Certainly none of us can make a difference to the rest of the world if we have not yet found our Power Spot, that one essential square on our chessboard where we are most solidly plugged into our well being, sanity and self-possession. If you do nothing else with this reading this month, try to define the one most stabilizing and solidifying technique or practice that you have learned in this life so far, and discipline yourself to engage in it for up to half an hour every day. Anything that you can personally do to enhance serenity, promote clarity, and widen perspective will be helpful for the collectivity, and will bring you closer to your true identity as a World Server.

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*Christine Payne-Towler*
Research: Esoteric Tarot, Literature and Practice; Tarot.com
Publisher, The Tarot Arkletters
Bishop, Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Founder: Tarot University;
Author: The Underground Stream;

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The Tarot ArkLetters are a publication of Christine Payne-Towler, founder of Tarot University Online. Christine offers classes, readings, and private sessions.