TAROT CARDS

CARDS

Cards function in the religious context both as instruments for performing divination rituals and as repositories of esoteric sacred teaching. Current historical evidence suggests that cards originated in China and that their sacred usage developed from shamanistic or Taoist divinatory rituals that predated cards themselves. The oldest extant card, found in Chinese Turkistan, dates from no later than the eleventh century. The design of Chinese cards was copied from paper money first used in the Tang dynasty (618–908 CE). The design of an arrow on the back of the oldest Korean cards suggests that those cards developed from a divination technique for interpreting the pattern of arrows randomly cast onto a circle divided into quadrants.

   Number and pattern, and their orderly transformations, are in sacred mathematics symbolic expressions, or hierophanies, of the eternal divine essences and processes that manifest themselves to us in time as the visible cosmos. The pack of divination cards is a homologue of the set of divine mathematical potentialities that can manifest itself in the time and space of the cosmos. The spontaneous play of the cards, like in any other particular act of divination, reveals a meaningful structure homologous to the divine creative process, which manifests itself within worldly events. The interpretation, or reading, of any particular play of cards is essentially a matter of intuiting from the sacred mathematical symbolism of the cards the worldly events whose structure corresponds to that symbolism.

   It is not certain when and where cards first appeared in Europe. One hypothesis is that they were brought into southern Europe by the Moors as early as the eighth century. The earliest mention of numbered cards is in Covelluzzo’s Istoria della citta di Viterbo (1480). Covelluzzo says that they were brought to the city of Viterbo by the Saracens in 1379.

    In her extensive study A History of Playing Cards (New York, 1966), Catherine P. Hargrave says that these early numbered cards were probably European copies of Chinese cards that arrived through Venice. The oldest extant European cards are several tarot cards from a pack designed for Charles VI of France in 1392.

   The two most prominent packs of cards used in Europe for divination are the ordinary pack, consisting of fifty-two cards, and the tarot pack, consisting of seventy-eight cards. The ordinary pack is divided into four suits—diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades. Joseph Campbell (in Campbell and Roberts, 1979) has suggested that the four suits represent the four estates, or classes, of the medieval social order: clergy (hearts), knights (spades), merchants (diamonds), and peasants (clubs). The four suits of the ordinary pack possibly developed under Protestant influence from the earlier tarot suits of chalices, swords, coins, and staves. The fact that the four suits of the ordinary pack culminate in the figures of knave, queen, and king leads Campbell to suppose that the pictorial symbolism of the cards expresses a medieval esoteric initiatory tradition wherein ascent along any of the four lines represented by the suits leads to spiritual realizations of equivalent value and importance.

   The tarot pack falls into two sections: the “minor arcana” of fifty-six cards, divided equally into four suits, and the “major arcana” of twenty-one numbered picture cards and one unnumbered card, the Fool. The origin of the tarot deck is not known. The first history of the tarot, Le jeu des tarots (Paris, 1781), was written by Court de Gebelin. Gebelin claims that the deck originated in ancient Egypt and represents the esoteric teaching of the god Thoth, recorded and expressed in a hieroglyphic alphabet, in which all the gods are symbolized by pictorial signs and numbers. While Gebelin’s theory of Egyptian origins is clearly itself of a mythic nature (the Rosetta Stone, which made translation of hieroglyphics possible, was not discovered until 1790), the evidence of recent research on the history of symbols indicates that the deck is indeed, as Gebelin supposed, a repository of sacred teaching and esoteric knowledge. The pictorial symbolism of the deck is known to have much in common with the symbolism of spiritual initiation rites and instruction in Hellenistic mystery cults, ancient astrology, and medieval alchemy, wherein the processes of manifesting divine energies are represented in the progression of visual and numerical symbols.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

   Tarot Revelations by Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts (San Anselmo, Calif., 1979) is a detailed work summarizing the phenomenological evidence linking the tarot to Hellenistic religion and alchemy as well as the tarot’s place in nineteenth- century esoteric societies.

   New Sources

   Baird, Merrily. “Card Games.” In her Symbols of Japan: Thematic Motifs in Art and Design. New York, 2001.

   Giles, Cynthia. The Tarot: History, Mystery, and Lore. 1992; reprint. New York, 1994.

   Preston, Cathy Lynn and Michael Preston. “Catholic Holy Cards: Visual, Verbal, and Tactile Codes for the (In)visible.” In their The Other Print Tradition: Essays on Chapbooks, Broadsides, and Related Ephemera, pp. 266–283. New York, 1994.

   Richard W. Thurn, Cards, Encyclopaedia of Religion, Vol. 3, 1987, pp. 1412 - 1414

 

 

 

ECOPSYCHOLOGY

Theodore Roszak:

   “Most of the world's mystic and occult traditions have been worked up from the gnosis of primitive and pagan cultures. At bottom, these traditions are sophisticated, speculative adaptations of the old folk religions, which preserve in some form their antique wisdom and modes of experience. Behind the Cabbala and Hermeticism, we can still see the shadowy forms of ritual magic and fertility rites, symbols of a sacred continuum binding man to nature and prescribing value. In all these mystic traditions, to know the real is to know the good, the beautiful, and the sacred at the same time.”

   Theodore Roszak, The Monster and the Titan: Science, Knowledge, and Gnosis, Daedalus, Vol. 103, No. 3, Science and Its Public: The Changing Relationship (Summer, 1974), pp. 17-32 .

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Where Psyche Meets Gaia", in Roszak, Theodore, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner, ed. Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 1995. [ONLINE HERE]

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Spirituality in the Work of Theodore Roszak: Implications for Contemporary Ecopsychology, Tristan L. Snell, Janette G. Simmonds, and R. Scott Webster, [Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton, Australia. Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia.]

ABSTRACT

“Despite the recent flourishing of ecopsychology research, risks may be involved if ecopsychology remains a loosely defined paradigm. We suggest that drawing from some of the central themes of Theodore Roszak’s The Voice of the Earth (1992), a seminal text of ecopsychology, may help to elucidate the unique contribution of ecopsychology and its sustained relevance for environmentally focused psychologies. To provide a comprehensive review, we consider The Voice of the Earth by placing this text in the context of Roszak’s broader body of literature, discussing his earlier and more recent works. We particularly focus on the theme of spiritual experience throughout Roszak’s literature, as we believe that this is one of the more unique and important aspects of his work that has implications for the future development of ecopsychology as a paradigm and social movement. In conclusion, we suggest that Roszak’s emphasis on the value of a spiritual or animistic experience of nature, as a means of fostering empathy toward the natural world, may assist in providing meaningful focus to contemporary ecopsychology.”  [ONLINE HERE]

CREATIVITY IN CHAOS

   The most exquisite carved Chinese jades were created during a period of great chaos in Chinese history. Even when a house is burning down, we wave a blanket. Creativity continued in the Concentration Camps. Though I make my bed in Hell, &c. The process of reconstruction begins from the centre of destruction. It is not that we ignore the pressing issues of the day. We have to concentrate on the Causes, and not the Effects. And who is to decide what the Causes are? Especially when a misinformation campaign of industrial proportions keeps the Causes from being Revealed?  An inspiring view is given by Karl Paulnack:

“One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany. He was captured by the Germans in June of 1940, sent across Germany in a cattle car and imprisoned in a concentration camp.

   He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him paper and a place to compose. There were three other musicians in the camp, a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist, and Messiaen wrote his quartet with these specific players in mind. It was performed in January 1941 for four thousand prisoners and guards in the prison camp. Today it is one of the most famous masterworks in the repertoire.

    Given what we have since learned about life in the concentration camps, why would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy writing or playing music? There was barely enough energy on a good day to find food and water, to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to escape torture­ why would anyone bother with music? And yet­ from the camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn’t just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, “I am alive, and my life has meaning.” 

   From a welcome address given to the parents of entering freshmen at the Boston Conservatory, given by Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of the Music Division. 

TERENCE MCKENNA

 

Dennis McKenna, Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna, North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2012

For those who lived through what is sometimes called the Psychedelic Revolution, Terrence McKenna is a legend. Once referred to as "the intellectual's Timothy Leary." Terence attained iconic status as a radical philosopher, futurist, cultural critic, and raconteur. His unorthodox ideas about the evolutionary and cultural impact of psychedelic drugs shocked many and resonated with many others. In 1971, we embarked on an expedition to the Amazon, bent on uncovering the real mystery behind psychedelic experience. Terrence died in 2000, never to learn if his predictions about the end of the world, in his particular sense, were true. As Terence's younger brother and only sibling, I grew up with him in a small town in western Colorado during the fifties and sixties. Traveling together in the Colombian Amazon in 1971 with a few other kindred spirits we called our band "the Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss." As Terence's brother, I helped him create and develop many of "his" ideas. Terence became the spokesman for the alien dimensions accessed through psychedelics, a philosopher of the unspeakable, a beloved and sometimes reviled bard of the marvels and occasional terrors waiting in the recesses of human consciousness. By choice and inclination, I stayed in the background, pursuing a scientific career in disciplines that ranges from ethnopharmachology and ethnobotany to neuroscience. Since Terence's death, we've witnessed the first decade of a new era that by all early indications will be as strange and disturbing, as full of hope and despair, as any period that humanity has yet endured. I've been drawn to look back at how our personal world began. I wanted to retrace the journey that took us from our childhood to our separate destinies, stopping to revisit the people and ideas that shaped us

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Charles Hayes, Terence McKenna, Tripping: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures, Penguin Compass, 2000

Taking a balanced, objective approach, the book depicts a broad spectrum of altered states, from the sublime to the terrifying. Included are fifty narratives about unforgettable psychedelic experiences from an international array of subjects representing all walks of life. Supplemental essays provide a synopsis of the history and culture of psychedelics and a discussion of the kinetics of tripping.

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Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, Chaos, Creativity, and Cosmic Consciousness, Park Street Press,  2001

Three of the most original thinkers of our time explore issues that call into question our current views of reality, morality, and the nature of life. A wide-ranging investigation of the ecology of inner and outer space, the role of chaos theory in the dynamics of human creation, and the rediscovery of traditional wisdom. In this book of "trialogues," the late psychedelic visionary and shamanologist Terence McKenna, acclaimed biologist and originator of the morphogenetic fields theory Rupert Sheldrake, and mathematician and chaos theory scientist Ralph Abraham explore the relationships between chaos and creativity and their connection to cosmic consciousness. Their observations call into question our current views of reality, morality, and the nature of life in the universe. The authors challenge the reader to the deepest levels of thought with wide-ranging investigations of the ecology of inner and outer space, the role of chaos in the dynamics of human creation, and the resacralization of the world. Among the provocative questions the authors raise are: Is Armageddon a self-fulfilling prophecy? Are we humans the imaginers or the imagined? Are the eternal laws of nature still evolving? What is the connection between physical light and the light of consciousness?

Part ceremony, part old-fashioned intellectual discussion, these trialogues are an invitation to a new understanding of what Jean Houston calls "the dreamscapes of our everyday waking life."

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McKenna, Terence, Food Of The Gods: the Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge, Ebury Publishing, 2010

A journey is some of the Earth's most endangered people in the remote Upper Amazon. . . . a look at the rituals of the Bwiti cults of Gabon and Zaire. . . . . a field watch on the easting habits of 'stoned' apes and chimpanzees - these adventures are all a part of ethnobotanis t Terence McKenna's extraordinary quest to discover the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. He wonders why, as a species, we are so fascinated by altered states of consciousness. Can you reveal something about our origins as human beings and our place in nature? As an odyssey of mind, body and spirit, Food of the Gods is one of the most fascinating and suprising histories of consciousness ever written And as a daring work of scholarship and exploration, it offers an inspiring vision for individual fulfilment and a humane basis for our interaction which each other and with the natural world. 'Brilliant, provocative, opinionated, poetic and inspiring. . . . . Essential reading for anyone who ever wondered why...

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Rupert Sheldrake; Terence McKenna, The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination & Spirit, Monkfish Book Publishing, 2013

Stimulating and often startling discussions between three friends, all highly original thinkers: Rupert Sheldrake, controversial biologist, Terence McKenna , psychedelic visionary, and Ralph Abraham , chaos mathematician. Their passion is to break out of paradigms that retard our evolution and to explore new possibilities. Through challenge and synergy they venture where few have gone before, leading their readers on an exciting journey of discovery. Their discussions focus on the evolution of the mind, the role of psychedelics, skepticism, the psychic powers of animals, the structure of time, the life of the heavens, the nature of God, and transformations of consciousness.

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Terence McKenna, Dennis McKenna, The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching, HarperOne, 1994

A thoroughly revised edition of the much-sought-after early work by Terence and Dennis McKenna that looks at shamanism, altered states of consciousness, and the organic unity of the King Wen sequence of the I Ching.