Maelin
I waffled for a while on where to post this - Spreads? Readings? This seemed the best place - but I'm happy to move it if necessary. I eagerly devoured the new Llewellyn 2008 Tarot reader, and last evening tried my hand at the Past Life Spread discussed there ( The Reader is always a great sampling of articles from terrific commentators - this was by Mark McElroy) The spread is 8 cards, in a column, starting at the bottom: Card 1: Gender, Card 2 Family, Card 3, Your personality, cards 4 and 5, crossed as per the Celtic cross, the heart of the issue in that life, card 6 what you did, card 7, The Life lesson, and card 8 what you took to this life from it.
I used the Arthurian deck, as I find it lends itself to past life readings. Here's what came up
What I take forward - Sovereignty ( Justice)
What the life lesson was - Swords, 8
What I did Hallows, Sone ( Ace of Pentacles)
The Crisis point or issue Grail 3 ( cups 3)
crossed by stone 5 (5 of pentacles)
My personality Grail Hallow (Ace of Cups)
My family Sleeping Lord ( Judgement)
My gender Sword Hallow ( Ace of Swords)
When I saw the spread and went through the cards, my thought was that this life had occurred sometime in the 18th or 19th century, I was male, and came from a family who saw themselves as very morally upstanding, and I was an emotional and caring person. The crisis, the grail 3 crossed by the stone 5 I saw as enjoyment and celebration crossed by the suffering of others and the need to help and give charity, the action position was the hallow of stone, or ace of pentacles and I thought it most likely that I became a missionary of some kind, and the 8 of swords, which shows in the Arthurian deck, the wasteland, and self imposed exile, meant that I went away to some mission work or some such choice. The thing I bring to this life is Sovereignty, which is Justice, but in the Arthurian deck means an understanding and spiritual oneness with the land, with the earth. Did I bring forward a need to right wrongs? or to make the world a better place? Or even more likely ( because I know myself on this one) A need to always obsess about "doing the right thing "- and what that is?
So far so good, except... in the middle of the night I woke up from a frightening and disturbing dream, which I could source no-where ( no scary movies, no stresses in this direction) and it didn't click until this morning, over coffee. Here was the dream. I was walking through scrub land, scrawny ( maybe olive?) trees and scrub brush. I could see in the distance a tent, blue through some trees, but half torn down. Up the path to the left, there was a body on the ground, and I knew there were others. I was disturbed, but these were not my connections, these were strangers, but I was mostly worried that there was a dangerous world out here. I conversed with a someone I met, and I knew I had to go " back" because things were getting out of hand - 'back turned out to be some place with a series of caves - big, light, but definitely stone - there were people all around but none were my family - my family, my children, were somewhere else. I looked down steep stairs to an underground passage. I knew there were people down there, I knew that none of the people up here were my "group" but I suddenly knew that if I went down, I would not come back, and I made a break for it - not fast, not running, just veering away , with people walking after me, and I became more and more frantic - were my children down in the underground - or out in the dangerous world? If I left them down there, they would be killed, I knew - out in the world alone, probably killed . I woke up in a sweat, as I was hurrying out of the caves These people had betrayed an entire faction of the group, and were going to kill them to ensure the rest had sufficient food. I knew that too.
There were, I know, in early Christian times, whole societies that lived underground to escape being hunted down and killed - this landscape seemed like such a time and such a climate - it just didn't feel very Christian! Now I am wondering if the cards set the dream, or the cards opened the door to the dream. If I'd dreamt of being a missionary, I would have said that my imagination took over from the cards - but this was not where my mind was at all from the reading. The only reason I made the connect was that this morning I suddenly realized that the Stone Hallow card has a cave opening, which seemed very similar to the one in the dream going down to the underground.
Has anyone else had such an experience, where the cards open a dream in a direction you never saw coming? Did you read more or shut that memory down?
Thanks
I used the Arthurian deck, as I find it lends itself to past life readings. Here's what came up
What I take forward - Sovereignty ( Justice)
What the life lesson was - Swords, 8
What I did Hallows, Sone ( Ace of Pentacles)
The Crisis point or issue Grail 3 ( cups 3)
crossed by stone 5 (5 of pentacles)
My personality Grail Hallow (Ace of Cups)
My family Sleeping Lord ( Judgement)
My gender Sword Hallow ( Ace of Swords)
When I saw the spread and went through the cards, my thought was that this life had occurred sometime in the 18th or 19th century, I was male, and came from a family who saw themselves as very morally upstanding, and I was an emotional and caring person. The crisis, the grail 3 crossed by the stone 5 I saw as enjoyment and celebration crossed by the suffering of others and the need to help and give charity, the action position was the hallow of stone, or ace of pentacles and I thought it most likely that I became a missionary of some kind, and the 8 of swords, which shows in the Arthurian deck, the wasteland, and self imposed exile, meant that I went away to some mission work or some such choice. The thing I bring to this life is Sovereignty, which is Justice, but in the Arthurian deck means an understanding and spiritual oneness with the land, with the earth. Did I bring forward a need to right wrongs? or to make the world a better place? Or even more likely ( because I know myself on this one) A need to always obsess about "doing the right thing "- and what that is?
So far so good, except... in the middle of the night I woke up from a frightening and disturbing dream, which I could source no-where ( no scary movies, no stresses in this direction) and it didn't click until this morning, over coffee. Here was the dream. I was walking through scrub land, scrawny ( maybe olive?) trees and scrub brush. I could see in the distance a tent, blue through some trees, but half torn down. Up the path to the left, there was a body on the ground, and I knew there were others. I was disturbed, but these were not my connections, these were strangers, but I was mostly worried that there was a dangerous world out here. I conversed with a someone I met, and I knew I had to go " back" because things were getting out of hand - 'back turned out to be some place with a series of caves - big, light, but definitely stone - there were people all around but none were my family - my family, my children, were somewhere else. I looked down steep stairs to an underground passage. I knew there were people down there, I knew that none of the people up here were my "group" but I suddenly knew that if I went down, I would not come back, and I made a break for it - not fast, not running, just veering away , with people walking after me, and I became more and more frantic - were my children down in the underground - or out in the dangerous world? If I left them down there, they would be killed, I knew - out in the world alone, probably killed . I woke up in a sweat, as I was hurrying out of the caves These people had betrayed an entire faction of the group, and were going to kill them to ensure the rest had sufficient food. I knew that too.
There were, I know, in early Christian times, whole societies that lived underground to escape being hunted down and killed - this landscape seemed like such a time and such a climate - it just didn't feel very Christian! Now I am wondering if the cards set the dream, or the cards opened the door to the dream. If I'd dreamt of being a missionary, I would have said that my imagination took over from the cards - but this was not where my mind was at all from the reading. The only reason I made the connect was that this morning I suddenly realized that the Stone Hallow card has a cave opening, which seemed very similar to the one in the dream going down to the underground.
Has anyone else had such an experience, where the cards open a dream in a direction you never saw coming? Did you read more or shut that memory down?
Thanks
