The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards

When we eliminate the illusion of "reading the future," the Tarot becomes a psychological tool and a tool for self-knowledge. By honestly confronting the characteristics of our personalities that have gone off course—habits, identifications, manias, vices; narcissistic, antisocial, schizoid, and paranoid disorders; personal delusions, crazy ideas, depressive feelings, emotional immaturity, twisted desires, and needs imposed by the family, society, or culture—we can attain knowledge of our real essence, in other words, what is innate in us and not acquired. The individual can stop being what others want so that he can become who he truly is.

If the tarologist succeeds at turning himself into an "invisible man," who then is reading the Tarot? Using a metaphor, I say it is a mirror. The level of the individual's consciousness is reflected by the purity of our mind. Using his own language (if it is a child, for example, we use a childlike language), and taking on the appearance of the other, through our own emptiness, and through our words and gestures, we shall manage to get the individual to read his own Tarot. This reading will bring a response that corresponds to the other's world, not our own.

The person receiving the reading confuses Consciousness (the essential Being) with the act of becoming conscious of something. The purpose of Consciousness is to successfully become yourself in order to offer yourself to the deity. We do not possess a complete self automatically: we start with a seed that develops through successive mutations. Its first level is animal. The individual lives only to satisfy his material and sexual needs. He does not control his instincts and has no respect for others. His fear of losing makes him aggressive. The infantile level is next. Here the individual lives a superficial life because he or she does not accept aging or death. He or she refuses to meditate in order to know himself or herself, collects useless objects and finds various means of distraction, without any sense of responsibility. Later the romantic level awakens. The individual cannot control his or her emotions and is invaded by them. As an eternal adolescent, he or she believes that meeting a man or woman to form a couple is life's purpose. Influenced by cinema, television, and style magazines, he or she creates an ideal of love that resembles a fairy tale. This leads to replacing being with appearance. It is possible that after some painful setbacks, adult consciousness will develop. It is at this level that the Other exists for the first time. The individual, who now realizes that instead of demanding, he or she should invest and become self reliant, can fall into the egotistical error of thirst for power. This gives birth to exploiters, tyrants, unscrupulous businessmen, and swindlers of all sorts. The antithesis of this egotism is that of those people who, to feel noble, spend their time helping others because they are too lazy to help themselves. If this truly becomes aid to oneself, then the level of social consciousness opens. This is when the individual fights for the happiness of all humanity, but also for the health of plants, animals, and the planet. Later it will open to Cosmic Consciousness. Nothing happens in the universe without movement and transformation. Distancing herself from all the stubborn systems and habits that depreciate life, the responsible individual will abandon herself just like the cosmos to constant change, knowing that she belongs to an infinite and eternal world. She emerges from generational boundaries and prepares the terrain for the advent of the new being. Finally she attains divine Consciousness—a level that very few reach. In the dark core of the subconscious, there is a brilliant spot of complete lucidity, a powerful ally that if used well, will manifest like an inner god; or, if used poorly, like an inner demon. This is the level known by geniuses, prophets, and magi.