Hello, Kenney!
It's nice to meet you.
I want to preface this in saying that I am a novice at Tarot. I have had great difficulty finding time to learn it as well as finding a strong interest in the subject. For that reason, until more recently I've decided it may not yet be time for me to dive in.
I still see a lot of merit in studying the Tarot, so I wanted to at least read and consider your post, as well as try to help despite being so new to this domain.
As I try to dive in reading your post after a long hiatus from studying the Tarot:
In the paragraph titled "Archetypes and the Tarot", there's a sentence I noticed may be missing a word.
This was difficult for me to parse when reading. I took it to be instead: "The titles refer to the exact functions each card has as a complex of thoughts." Is this still true to what you were saying?
I am not suggesting my interpretation of what you said is right, but rather want to emphasize my ignorance in hopes to clarify things for myself, and be part of the lesson you are offering.
Continuing to read your post:
Since in a very general sense, I am struggling to understand the Tarot, I am trying to use my inexperience as leverage in helping you by highlighting the most difficult parts for me to read. So here are "more questions instead of answers" that arise in myself from reading this particular paragraph (still regarding the Archetypes and the Tarot).
I remember when I first tried studying the Tarot to follow Ra's suggestions for spiritual growth and understanding, the only thing I was confident in understanding was that the Tarot's interpretation and meaning is more up to the student. I remember Ra insisting that it should be meditated on and internal meaning can and should be arrived from the student, allowing the Tarot to be applied as a learning tool to just about any domain of knowledge/wisdom. *Note: I know I can look this up and verify, but it is a struggle to keep myself focused enough on this thread in a general sense. This is a very heavy topic for me, so thank you for baring with me.
However, I am not sure how liberal this paragraph is in describing how the Archetypes are represented by the Tarot. I could easily see your language lending to the ways the Tarot are best-suited to be used for instead of being easily open to interpretation. A great example of the language used that makes this difficult is seen here: "With that understanding in mind what we see before us now is literally a map to how we think and feel in reaction to the outer world ". In this specific example: if I take the word literally to mean what it does, then it seems you are very strong in your stance on how the tarot should be used and interpreted?
In your paragraph for "Distortions of the one", I really liked your explanation! This really ties things together and kind of made an "aha" moment for me that I wish I had first starting to study the Tarot. Thank you for this!
My mental imagery for illustrating the point you were making was holograms. The way holograms work is that they are composed of many many pieces of the whole picture, but all pieces are distorted in some way. Is this a good analogy?
As I started to read the rest of this helpful "mini-booklet", things began to fall into place more. I attribute some of this to getting more familiar with your cadence in writing/talking, but also some from just getting a more fleshed-out picture of how you make sense of the Tarot in the Law of One.
I am very glad I stuck with it, as it started to really make sense. Thank you for sharing!
I would like to mention how I viewed the Tarot very differently when I first started out. I'd like to mention it similar to how a person that just woke from a dream might share the experience before it escapes them. I think sharing my different view might really help you become more efficient at delivering the message you want to deliver.
My biggest interest in philosophy and reality is the source and nature of consciousness, so I naturally tried using Ra's Tarot study to gain insights to this.
This is my own novice interpretation, but I basically began to have an amorphous understanding that:
Matrix of the Mind: The magician yearns for an experience, and has ability to bring forth experience from the High Priestess, but ultimately doesn't know what that experience will be yet.
High Priestess: The feminine aspect of infinite possibility, but ultimately gives the Magician channels or avenues for him to experience things in line with his yearning.
*Note: I only remember the first two cards off the top of my head, as I am still very ignorant and had a hard time understanding
To apply what I learned, I used a common analogy of smoking. A smoker might yearn for an experience that the buzz from smoking cigarettes does partially bring, and even though the High Priestess part of his consciousness has all possible experiences that yield this feeling (notably more healthy ones), the smoking is habitual and has more "active" pathways in the brain/mind, so it's resonated with first, yielding a higher chance of the person to get the urge to smoke instead of some other activity available to him/her that can yield a similar experience.
If any of my post didn't make sense, I hope you "pick it apart" and "pick my brain" to help me clarify as well.
I hope we learn a lot together!
It's nice to meet you.
I want to preface this in saying that I am a novice at Tarot. I have had great difficulty finding time to learn it as well as finding a strong interest in the subject. For that reason, until more recently I've decided it may not yet be time for me to dive in.
I still see a lot of merit in studying the Tarot, so I wanted to at least read and consider your post, as well as try to help despite being so new to this domain.
As I try to dive in reading your post after a long hiatus from studying the Tarot:
In the paragraph titled "Archetypes and the Tarot", there's a sentence I noticed may be missing a word.
kenny Wrote:The titles refer to the exact functions each card as a complex of thoughts.
This was difficult for me to parse when reading. I took it to be instead: "The titles refer to the exact functions each card has as a complex of thoughts." Is this still true to what you were saying?
I am not suggesting my interpretation of what you said is right, but rather want to emphasize my ignorance in hopes to clarify things for myself, and be part of the lesson you are offering.
Continuing to read your post:
Since in a very general sense, I am struggling to understand the Tarot, I am trying to use my inexperience as leverage in helping you by highlighting the most difficult parts for me to read. So here are "more questions instead of answers" that arise in myself from reading this particular paragraph (still regarding the Archetypes and the Tarot).
I remember when I first tried studying the Tarot to follow Ra's suggestions for spiritual growth and understanding, the only thing I was confident in understanding was that the Tarot's interpretation and meaning is more up to the student. I remember Ra insisting that it should be meditated on and internal meaning can and should be arrived from the student, allowing the Tarot to be applied as a learning tool to just about any domain of knowledge/wisdom. *Note: I know I can look this up and verify, but it is a struggle to keep myself focused enough on this thread in a general sense. This is a very heavy topic for me, so thank you for baring with me.
However, I am not sure how liberal this paragraph is in describing how the Archetypes are represented by the Tarot. I could easily see your language lending to the ways the Tarot are best-suited to be used for instead of being easily open to interpretation. A great example of the language used that makes this difficult is seen here: "With that understanding in mind what we see before us now is literally a map to how we think and feel in reaction to the outer world ". In this specific example: if I take the word literally to mean what it does, then it seems you are very strong in your stance on how the tarot should be used and interpreted?
In your paragraph for "Distortions of the one", I really liked your explanation! This really ties things together and kind of made an "aha" moment for me that I wish I had first starting to study the Tarot. Thank you for this!
My mental imagery for illustrating the point you were making was holograms. The way holograms work is that they are composed of many many pieces of the whole picture, but all pieces are distorted in some way. Is this a good analogy?
As I started to read the rest of this helpful "mini-booklet", things began to fall into place more. I attribute some of this to getting more familiar with your cadence in writing/talking, but also some from just getting a more fleshed-out picture of how you make sense of the Tarot in the Law of One.
I am very glad I stuck with it, as it started to really make sense. Thank you for sharing!
I would like to mention how I viewed the Tarot very differently when I first started out. I'd like to mention it similar to how a person that just woke from a dream might share the experience before it escapes them. I think sharing my different view might really help you become more efficient at delivering the message you want to deliver.
My biggest interest in philosophy and reality is the source and nature of consciousness, so I naturally tried using Ra's Tarot study to gain insights to this.
This is my own novice interpretation, but I basically began to have an amorphous understanding that:
Matrix of the Mind: The magician yearns for an experience, and has ability to bring forth experience from the High Priestess, but ultimately doesn't know what that experience will be yet.
High Priestess: The feminine aspect of infinite possibility, but ultimately gives the Magician channels or avenues for him to experience things in line with his yearning.
*Note: I only remember the first two cards off the top of my head, as I am still very ignorant and had a hard time understanding
To apply what I learned, I used a common analogy of smoking. A smoker might yearn for an experience that the buzz from smoking cigarettes does partially bring, and even though the High Priestess part of his consciousness has all possible experiences that yield this feeling (notably more healthy ones), the smoking is habitual and has more "active" pathways in the brain/mind, so it's resonated with first, yielding a higher chance of the person to get the urge to smoke instead of some other activity available to him/her that can yield a similar experience.
If any of my post didn't make sense, I hope you "pick it apart" and "pick my brain" to help me clarify as well.
I hope we learn a lot together!