Tarot - An Awakening Art

Are you Awake?

Well you’re not asleep as you’re reading thesewords, but are you truly awake – as in living in theafterglow of an awakening moment or experience?If so, you are blessed and know how precious

such awakening moments are.

They are the times when ourawareness expands and seemsto intensify. We transcendour normal, limited mentalstates and pre-occupationswith day-to-day life, andexperience a sense of elation.

Our perceptions becomemore vivid, more alive, andwe feel a peaceful, authenticconnection with nature, otherhuman beings, and all life. In itshighest expression, we feel serene andone with the whole world - a focal point at whichthe universe becomes conscious of itself.

What Awakens You?

So what triggers such awakenings? For some, itcan be a loss, or suffering that acted as a catalystto see a transformed life beyond our pain. Forothers, it may be induced by the beauty and

stillness of an intimate moment in nature.For many, I surmise, awakening

happens in spiritual practices.An actual moment of awakeningmay be short in duration, howeverthe after-effects can be long andlife-changing, altering one’sperspectives, attitudes, beliefs andbehaviours. They inevitably havea highly therapeutic effect. The art,however, is then to stay awake!A small study at Leeds-Beckett

University of 90 ‘awakening experiences’showed the most common effects were a greatersense of trust, confidence and optimism. Forexample, one person reported that, “even though

the whole experience was brief, it left mewith a little piece of knowing and hope.”

Enter the Tarot

I believe the Tarot can also play a role inawakening. It functions on many levels, not leastas a highly effective learning and teaching tool.

Many people do not see a way through theirproblems as they have no alternative pointof reference from which to know the choicesavailable to them. The Tarot can open a newwindow through which they can view their lives.It can be that wake up call, that starting point.

There’s something profound about ‘seeing’ yourlife story at that time, depicted and representedby the icons, hieroglyphics and symbology ofthe cards. Read well, they enable us to see ourselvesmore from the perspective of the energies andinfluences that shape the patterns in our lives.

We often know instinctively what the cards areshowing us, yet seeing the picture there in front ofus, like a drawn-back veil, resonates more strongly.There is no judgement, no right or wrong, no goodor bad – just what is, dispassionately shown for theenquirer to do with what they choose. More consciouschoice is the essence of what the Tarot offers.

So,how does it work?

The Tarot works largely through synchronicity –described by Jung as the occurrence of related eventsnot explained by conventional mechanisms of causality.

The seemingly random patterns in which the cardsfall are simply revealing parts of a greater pattern.They become a means through which communication,often on a psychic or intuitive level, can take place.

The awakening moments are when we experiencea ‘knowing’ that we are the source of everythingthat is manifesting in our lives. That our thoughts,emotions and behaviours are resonating at the samefrequency as the influences we are attracting, andlargely determining the outcomes we are experiencing.

The Tarot reminds us that it is not so much thesituations or circumstances that are the problems, it iswhat we are making them mean, how we perceive andrespond to them that is shaping and defining our lives.

Awakening to this and accepting personalresponsibility, we become powerful. Wefeel a sense of confidence and trust that weare truly the architects of our lives.

All is exactly as it should be, given the choices we have made, it could be no other way."

And we are free to make new choices, whichcreate new thoughts and emotions, which lead tonew behaviours and experiences, creating newoutcomes. Awakening expands our choices andinevitably brings the changes we aspire to.

We are no longer victims, but creators. And ifwe have created unwanted outcomes, then wecan create wanted ones too. This helps to instiloptimism and a renewed belief in ourselves.