Hello everyone...new to Tarot here...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 30 Jun 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Jaykob	30 Jun 2003
I've recently started studying the Tarot. I'm particularly fond of the Universal Waite deck, and after looking at others, is the only one I really feel comfortable using right now. In one of the books I was reading it suggests picking a card from the Major Arcana and actually imagining becoming part of the scene in which the card depicts. Your then supposed to imagine meeting someone within the scene of the card who gives you a gift. I found this interesting. Anyone else have experience with this form of "meditation". If so, what kind of progress have you been able to make in the long run doing this?

Logiatrix	30 Jun 2003
I enjoy this type of meditation immensely. It was called "pathworking" in the tarot book where I initially learned how to do it. At first, I found pathworking to be a good tool for expanding my tarot knowledge and intuition, but I didn't keep it up for very long. As I continued to study the cards, I realized that I tended to learn best by just diving into my books, taking notes, and doing practice readings. My personality is one that demanded I go through Tarot 101 without any frills, I guess. Then, a couple of years ago, I decided to learn about meditation for the purpose of pain control. I read in one book on meditation that it is common practice to focus on an image while meditating. In another book, I read of many types of guided visualisation exercises, where the individual will "go" to another place while he or she is given (or recalls) a series of verbal cues describing the journey. I remembered my brief attempt at pathworking from my tarot studies, and saw the similarity to these other meditation techniques. So, I spent all of last year using pathworking with my tarot cards, but this time for health purposes. About every two weeks or so, I chose a card from the major arcana to "step into." I used the Diamond Tarot; it was excellent for pathworking. The one card I had difficulty with was the Wheel of Fortune, but I finally found a "way in." Now, I don't do pathworking as often, but it is still a tool I turn to occasionally, as an alternative to a personal reading. I am currently using the Cosmic Tribe or the Moon Garden for my pathworking meditations. Good luck with your own meditation experience. Let us know how you progress with it, okay? BY THE WAY... Welcome to AT Forum! :D Blessings and Peace, Tauni

Trogon	30 Jun 2003
Howdy Jaykob and welcome to the forums... As far as pathwork with Tarot, I've never tried it exactly. I have meditated on many of the Tarot Cards, but mostly I am simply doing so to see how they relate to me, my life, and the people around me. This is, for me, not a deep meditation - I save that for other meditations. But thats just me... ;)

Astraea	30 Jun 2003
Aeclectic is a wonderful community, and it's a pleasure to welcome you to the forum.

Minderwiz	30 Jun 2003
Hi Jaykob, Welcome to Aeclectic. I did try that early on - I didn't find it particularly helpful but I do find a variation helpful of meditating on why a particular character looks the way they do or what is happening in a particular scene.

Little Baron	30 Jun 2003
Hi and welcome. It's weird you should bring this up as I did it last night. I was trying to go to sleep and couldn't so I began to visualise a suit. I chose cups. I also use the Universal deck as my main deck. It felt so good when I fell into the first card. I decided to meet up with The Page of Cups and let him show me around. He always looks so sensitive and elegant and I often visualise him as a very important character in my deck. We set the fish in the water and he walked me through the landscapes in the suit of cups; after passing through them all in dreamlike 3-d, we met up with the family of the 10 of cups and rested outside their home, taking in the sunshine and rainbow. I asked him about the characters of the major arcana. He told me that he had not met all of them but has heard of some. He told me that Temperance was a good friend though and visited him and his family sometimes. This probably makes me sound completely nuts!!! However, it was good to walk freely in the landscape and imagine (hear the voices) of some of the tarot characters and what they had to say. In this way, I find it very good to remember meanings of the cards because I look at the characters as friends and remember easily the senarios and conversations we have had. Many years ago I used to pop in on the Rohrigs Knight of Wands for similar wanders through the Rohrig tarot deck. When I open that deck and see his eyes burning into mine, I remember all of the things we said and did on that journey. It's weird how the characters of the Universal Waite come to life when I am inside their world. At first it was difficult to see them move and their expressions change but now it is getting easier. Even though I am human, the characters and world is still in pencil and it is a lovely feeling. I always found a lot of the Rider Waite images too flat but now I do not. I feel so at home in the Universal deck. Yaboot

galadrial	30 Jun 2003
Hi, and welcome, Jaykob. I first came across this concept with the Hallowquest books written for the Arthurian tarot deck. The deck was actually designed with the idea in mind of doing pathwork with it; the outline of the scenes are shaped like doorways. Unfortunately, I found the landscape too harsh to want to spend time in- guess I'm not cut out to be a Celt, though I love the stories. However, I got the Buckland Romani recently and feel downright compelled to walk into the cards. Though I haven't actually talked to any of the gypsies, I feel like I'm looking at the scenes from within the cards; smelling the woodsmoke, hearing the leaves crackle and the wheels creak, and feeling chilled in the snow. This is pretty cool considering I wasn't conciously trying to acheive this. I don't know if I'll ever try to talk to the characters, but walking into the cards certainly makes for vivid and potent readings.

The Hello everyone...new to Tarot here... thread was originally posted on 30 Jun 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.