The Tarot

I'm relatively new to the Tarot and have recently began studying. It is promoted as great tool for contemplation and meditation that many use to get in touch with their sub-conscious. Some gnostics use it in this manner as a tool for praxis. A lot of the symbols come from the Golden Dawn and the Kabbalah. The Golden Dawn derived much of their symbols from earlier alchemical knowledge.

Each of the 22 major arcana have been mapped to the 22 paths between the sephiroth on the Tree of Life and as such they can be seent to represent the "movement" between the various realms between heaven and earth. The language of the conscious mind is through language where words mean very specific things. Conversely the sub-conscious mind seems to work well with symbols. In the west most of us have developed our left analytical mind at the expense of our sub-conscious mind.

It is the working with symbols that are designed to stimulate and interact with a part of ourselves that we aren't usually directly aware of that the Tarot is used for.

I have found these books pretty informative in the use of Tarot in a contemplative fashion:
The Kabbalah Experience and The Watkins Tarot Handbook both by Naomi Ozaniec

It should be clear that the sacred images of the Tarot serve a spiritual purpose. In common with the vast variety of worldwide spiritual icons, the sacred images of the Tarot serve to feed the contemplative and reflective instincts and as such have rightfully earned a place within the spiritual traditions of the west. The sacred icons of the Tarot form a key aspect of a Mystery School curriculum as doorways leading into the realm of ageless Wisdom. This is the deeper gift of the Tarot.

-from the foreward of The Watkins Tarot Handbook

Peace

The Eternal Feminine

I am the crown of manifold births and deaths:
I am the interpreter of mysteries and the enlightener of souls.
In the elements of the body is love imprisoned: lying asleep in the caves of Iacchos;
in the crib of the oxen of Demeter.
But when the day-star of the soul ariseth over the earth, then is the epiphany of love.
Therefore until the labor of the third day be fulfilled, the light of love is unmanifest.
Then I shall unlock the gates of dawn;
and the glory of God shall ascend before the eyes of men.

- Anna Kingsford

Holy Mary of Magdala

The Gospel According to Mary

Chapter 5

3 Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things.

4 He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?

5 Then Mary wept and said to Peter, My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior?

6 Levi answered and said to Peter, Peter you have always been hot tempered.

7 Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries.

8 But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well.

9 That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said.

10 And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim and to preach.

Gospel of Thomas

The Fool

silly † naive † fortune cookies † La La La † unabashed † kitten † yawn † tripping clumsy † no-thought † late riser † impetuous † curious † conversation killer † bulldoze † impulsive † spontaneous † playful † surfacey † shallow † pretty lights † sparkly † dazed † glazed with sprinkles on top † drunk † thoughtless † treading † right to the edge † daring † jokester † sprawled out † ice cream licker † sharing lollipops † bare feet † no worries † ignorant † innocent † unknowing † happy † trusting † unwitting sacrifice † sleepy eyes † clever


Did I forget anything?

Dark Night

Stanzas Of The Soul

1. One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.

2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! -
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.


3. On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.


4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.


5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.


6. Upon my flowering breast
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.


7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.


8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.

-St John of the Cross

I'm not sure what it all means, but it's beautiful.

Becoming the Crocodile

If you stand only on the safety of the banks spearing fish, how can you know the depths of the river? Can you fathom the darkness under a ledge of rock or understand the life of the fish writhing on your spear? You mistake the teeth of the crocodile as the edge of the abyss, but the chasm is more terrible than teeth, and certain.

I fulfill the law and the law demands your blood. I am Sebek the crocodile, the catastrophe, the devourer, the necessity. Impaled on my teeth, you shall be blessed for you will glimpse truth. I am only the secrets of your own dark heart, your lust, your greed, your anger, your flesh, to tear the darkness from your heart. I am the living power of water, the cry that catches in the throat, the sob that shatters stone.

On my teeth you smell the stink of flesh. To you I seem a living horror. But I tell you in truth, I am your own soul and it is with great sorrow that I crush the life you have made. I weep with the loss, but you do not believe. Such destruction is madness you say. You do not understand. Is it madness to cut the wheat so that bread can be made? When you were born into this bright land, did you not weep for the lost dark of the womb? Whether or not you understand the law, you exist because of it.

When you've reached the lips of the great devourer, you are staring into the jaws of creation.


- translation by Normandi Ellis
From The Egyptian Book of the Dead