By Gary Meister, CTM
For a brief outline: we’ve looked at the Tree of Life’s Spheres from #1 to #10 looking at the steps of creation, ANY creation. The first ten “pip cards” belong to these ten steps. As we go along, we’ll need to account for the Court Cards. They are assigned to the Major Arcana of the same numeric value (without reducing them as one does in numerology).
I want to stretch your imagination a little bit, here. We are looking at the Tree of Life as a two-dimensional diagram. Since we live in a three dimensional world, we can only work with two or three dimensions. But—in reality—this diagram is only a simple representation of an immense multi-dimensional process, whirling and twirling through space and actually containing all of reality as we know it. Just bear in mind, as we go along, that this represents something way beyond anything we can presently imagine. Don’t try to understand it—we are all too far below the level that can—but just bear it in mind.
I’m using the BOTA deck as I told you at the beginning of this course. I hope you got a deck of them for yourself and colored them according to the directions in the booklet. In case you haven’t and would like to, Visit www.bota.org; they are very reasonably priced. However, these cards aren’t good for divination purposes because they aren’t coated and will fall apart if shuffled too often. For divination, I use the Rider/Waite/Smith deck. They are very similar to the deck we are using for study.
Last time we followed the path of The Fool as he enters into a new life as pure awareness and travels the path of awareness from The Crown (The Creative Principal) gathering knowledge to Sphere II, Wisdom. Then, since he is only a representation of All There Is at this stage of development, he returns to The Source. While there, he internalizes what he has learned so far.
He has learned that to continue with his creation, he must give it his full Attention, the key word of The Magician.
As The Magician, he travels the path of Attention, Path 1, to Sphere III, the sphere of Understanding. As he travels this path (and remember, this is all symbolic) he turns his Attention to what he learned as The Fool and begins to really Understand it! Having reached Understanding, his attention returns to The Source once more.
This process can be readily seen in the development of a baby.
(Remember, the Tree of Life is repeated over and over from the Great Creative Principal, God, to the tiniest atom. This is being scientifically proven day after day in the various fields of modern physics. Absolutely nothing is really the way it appears to us. The fact is—nothing is solid; all so-called solids and liquids are primarily empty space.)
Okay—back to the baby… We see the child. In his first few weeks, beginning to notice things, his feet, his hands, the mobile over his crib. She soon realizes that she can control some of these things. And little by little, by giving it his full Attention, he gains more and more control by sharpening his motor skills. We don’t teach her this. It’s something she remembers from past lives—and—it begins as she gives it her Attention, and this leads to Understanding how powerful he can become.
Now: say you have a good idea about a new business you can start and you really want to do it! Here are the early steps: At first, you become Aware of this idea. It seems to have popped-into-your-head already formed. You need to polish it up and make plans around it, but the original idea seems to have come out of nowhere. It is probably a construct of your Super Conscious. Your primary job, at this point, is to become Aware of it.
Once it is part of your Awareness, you must give it your Attention in order to formulate it at all in your reality. Little by little, you begin to understand the meaning of the idea and what it can mean to your life. There are many steps ahead of you, but absolutely nothing can be accomplished without Awareness, Attention, and Understanding.
In A Reading: In this system, The Magician carries the key word Attention. In the Elemental system, all of the Major Arcana cards are of the fifth Element—Spirit (not shown on the tables). What this means is that each of the Major Arcana cards has something to say about ones spiritual life. When I draw The Magician, I might say, “this is a time when it is important for you to pay Attention to your spiritual path,” or, “In the hardship you are facing right now you will find great inner strength if you pay Attention to your Spiritual Self. You are much more than the physical body you usually identify with; you are a Spirit, who is using this body as a means to learn the spiritual lessons you need to learn. Pay Attention to this situation and what it has to teach you, spiritually.” And, of course, I expand upon it. You might want to bone up on the spiritual messages each of the major Arcana cards has for us. You might find some good ideas at: http://www.tarotmeister.com/spiritualtarot.html. That’s my website and there’s a lot of good information there, if I do say so myself!
Okay—Work with The Magician this month; see what new ideas you might come up with yourself. What symbols jump out at you? Can you tell a story about The Magician? What is he doing in the picture. Meditate on the card… Try to go into the picture and talk to him. See what he might have to tell you. And remember his path on the Tree of Life.
See you next time….
Bright Blessings ~ Gary Meister, CTM