Visualization and Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 28 Jul 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

full deck	28 Jul 2003
I've been reading the forum for some months now and other than enjoying it much, I've noticed that no one has really mentioned anything about the use of visualization techniques in their use of Tarot. I use several different techniques for performing readings and preparing for readings by visualizing symbols, people, etc., within a methodical framework. Does anyone else subscribe to this technique in their work and if so how do you use it?

rota	28 Jul 2003
Tell me about it a little bit. What's the source for the practice, and its purpose?

carrielynnsim	29 Jul 2003
Not sure I fully understand the question... but here goes... I use a candle before a reading... I sit and watch the flame changing its color for approx. 5 - 10 min. I do this to make sure I have a clear mind, if a have a thought that comes into my head like I need to call my mom, or whatever, I need to do that before I continue. So, after I call my mom... I do the candle again just to make sure there is nothing on my mind. That way I feel my reading is accurate. It's just my thing. Really the visualization in my case is for me before the reading. During the reading I just use my intuition. I hope I answered your question. Carrie

jmd	29 Jul 2003
Visualisations have been mentioned by some of us in the past, but like any subject, revisiting it leads to new insights and different angles of addressing the same question. For myself, I tend to visualise the cards probably more often than I even get to look at them - which is daily. In preparing for readings, a technique I have at times used is somewhat reminiscent of a combined Kabalistic Cross and 'lesser banishing ritual of the pentagramme' given by the Golden Dawn - with important modifications. Also, either when reading - but even more so when meditating on the cards - the images take on their own life, like when looking at photographs and remeniscing of the full scene which they evoke in memory. With the cards, the scene develops greater presence than the memory of past experience. Personally, I find this last some of Tarot's more important usefulness, for in developing the person's imaginative life, gates to the spiritual open...

Centaur	29 Jul 2003
This may sound rather odd, but when I prepare for readings, I use body awareness to channel energy throughout me. I train my body awareness to stimulate my feet, legs, hands, and arms, and then feel the flow of energy as if being sponged from my feet up through my legs, in through my hands, and arms, up over my head and down into my sub-navel storage centre (told you it sounds odd! haha). I often visualise this energy also as an intensely bright light. C

allibee	29 Jul 2003
An odder reply from me then, LOL My visualisation takes place as I symbolically 'wash' my cards in the fountain of truth and visualise my higher self joining with my hands. There it stops. Maybe it's because I use the Prediction deck with unillustrated pips, but I barely refer to the pictures at all and just use the cards/names as a stepping off point into what may come. Like Alice, going down the rabbit hole :O)

Centaur	29 Jul 2003
I prefer to use the card names also. I let the card names spark off my intuition, and then i'm on a roll :) C

full deck	29 Jul 2003
Quote: Originally posted by jmd . . . For myself, I tend to visualise the cards probably more often than I even get to look at them - which is daily. In preparing for readings, a technique I have at times used is somewhat reminiscent of a combined Kabalistic Cross and 'lesser banishing ritual of the pentagramme' given by the Golden Dawn - with important modifications. Also, either when reading - but even more so when meditating on the cards - the images take on their own life, like when looking at photographs and remeniscing of the full scene which they evoke in memory. With the cards, the scene develops greater presence than the memory of past experience. Personally, I find this last some of Tarot's more important usefulness, for in developing the person's imaginative life, gates to the spiritual open... Exactly. I could have hardly summerized my experience any better. I'd often wondered what Mammonides meant by a prophet requiring "imagination" and I believe such is what you have touched upon. I personally don't draw directly upon Golden Dawn ritual but I'm sure the influence is there in one form or another. The deck and symbolism therein is a kind of chariot for me and this year has seen me get to the point where I can finally drive the "chariot" around the block and honk the horn. My methods are a combination of what I've gleaned from several sources, including such fun people as Crowley, though I do not attempt to emulate him whatsoever. Through time, it had become obvious to me that the deck is only one half of the process and I needed to develop my own methods of using Tarot, even when not holding a deck in my hands. It's almost as if "I" myself am a missing card from the deck. Things Judaica have had a more profound influence upon my practices and, though I'm not Jewish, I feel much more a spiritual connection to the tradition than not. I can see how such techniques could be used by some to do certain things by will, to realize certain things to happen over others but it's not "my" chariot; it's only a leased one so I don't dwell upon that aspect of it much.

full deck	31 Jul 2003
I had just read about an interesting book that is to be released by one of our members in November which like it might be closer to what I've been working with: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16125 "Tarot and The Magus" http://www.supertarot.co.uk/resource/tarotbk.htm

The Visualization and Tarot thread was originally posted on 28 Jul 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.