Gilded Tarot Study: Entering A Card

tmgrl2

Last night my friend ( who is in from Wisconsin, and who is just beginning with Tarot, as I am) and I did the "Entering a Card" exercise from Mary Greer's Tarot for YourSelf.

I chose The Tower.

Here is the link to see CM's card:

http://www.ciromarchetti.com/gilded_tarot/index.html

The exercise asks that we notice all of the symbols first. My friend then guided me through a "meditation" on the card. I stepped into the card across the border and reflected on what I saw, heard, smelled and touched. It was a very opening experience.
At the end of the period of reflection, we turned around, stepped out of the card and opened our eyes.

I won't write everything that came to me, since it was long but thought I might make some opening comments about my own meditation and encourage others to do same with this card or a card of your choice from the Gilded.

The tower in the GT looked like a phallic symbol at first to me, with the lightening striking...(I'll leave that one alone) and then the fire bursting out near the top just below the section with the three windows. There is a naked figure falling out, arms and legs akimbo, the background is dark and cloudy in the upper card, but some pink begins to show in the middle (love) and at the bottom the clouds are lighter blue and have a white light around the edges.

The tower in this card also has a total of 7 windows...seven days in a week, seven days to the creation (6+1) two panes in each glass...totaling 14...Temperance?

What "struck" me (no pun intended) when I "entered" the picture was that I came out of a jungle into a clearing and sat far from the tower, because it was so huge that if I moved closer I wouldn't have been able to observe the event, the Tower Experience. It was the size of a Mayan Temple. The base was brownish, the same color as the tower. The base was a solid square (earthly foundation was not shattered). The tower itself, was also intact, despite the damage done by the ligtening.

I could smell only the fire burning at the top of the tower. I could hear only the thunderbolt, the crackling of the fire and the screams of the falling figure. There were no other sounds of nature or anything else around me.

I saw the event as happening in an instant, like a firework that goes off and is magnificent and powerful and gorgeous and sometimes awesome or frightening. It is over in an instant, however. The figure in the tower had "jumped," to escape. This person didn't know any different. The only hope at living was to jump first and think later, like the people who jump from burning buildings rather than burn.

In the instant, I , the observer thought that the figure would be all right. The figure didn't know this, merely had to get out, leave behind and enter "naked" into the darkness.

At the end, I was asked to touch something in the picture, receive a gift from it, and tell what that gift was. I ran over to the figure, now on the ground. When I got there, I gently touched the person's shoulder. The person turned toward me, opened his/her eyes and smiled a weak but alive smile, sat up, one leg crossed under and said:

"I give you my smile as gift to remind you that sometimes you just have to leave everything behind and JUMP. Only then can you move forward into new understandings and peace. I didn't know when I jumped that I would be OK. I just knew that I had to get out. So you knew my foundation was safe, and now you know that I, too, am not only safe, but better for having risked the jump."

That's basically what I got from the meditation. There was more. I love what I got from the card.

Perhaps you will select a card, speak first of the symbols and colors, meditate, step inside...see, smell, touch, hear, feel and share what the card gives you in quiet reflection.
 

tmgrl2

Thanks, Luna, for all the bumps!

I bumped this one, too. The decks are arriving!

This one really doesn't take that long to do, but so much came out of it.

terri
 

janstar17

tmgrl2 said:
Last night my friend ( who is in from Wisconsin, and who is just beginning with Tarot, as I am) and I did the "Entering a Card" exercise from Mary Greer's Tarot for YourSelf.

Perhaps you will select a card, speak first of the symbols and colors, meditate, step inside...see, smell, touch, hear, feel and share what the card gives you in quiet reflection.

That sounds like a great exercise to do with a card or cards!! As soon as I have my "lovely" in my hands, I'll have to try it. The deck's images are so inviting that it can't be difficult to 'step inside.' But I just placed my order with Tarot Garden and decided to save a scheckle by using media mail so I have a few days to go yet!!!
 

tmgrl2

Re: Re: Gilded Tarot Study: Entering A Card

janstar17 said:
That sounds like a great exercise to do with a card or cards!! As soon as I have my "lovely" in my hands, I'll have to try it. The deck's images are so inviting that it can't be difficult to 'step inside.' But I just placed my order with Tarot Garden and decided to save a scheckle by using media mail so I have a few days to go yet!!!

Great! I ordered another set from TG too for my friend!
I'll look forward to your take on a card.

terri
 

September Pixie

Has anyone noticed that the Queen of Wands looks like Elizabeth Taylor?
 

September Pixie

One of the things that struck me most about this deck was that each card played like a scene in a movie or a game.. Nine of Cups almost looks like you can hear his Irish accent asking you to join him for a drink.. while 6 of Swords looks like she is on a quiet escape in the middle of the night.. why? she doesn't look upset.. just that she is letting go...

this will be a great meditation deck!
 

Parzival

Gilded Tarot Study : Entering A Card

Yes, each image seems on a journey, seen in a moment of it. One interesting visualization is to see the character on the card a few moments before and after the the shown moment. The Hermit works well for this. He comes from a precipice where he has stood in unity with the cosmos, observing vast spaces all around him, pondering with patient thought the inner spaces within. Now, he descends downpath into the world of men. Just a start on this. I'm still entering this image.
 

SongDeva

Terri,
Your story reminds me of one of my favorite sayings:

"Sometimes you just have to take the leap and build your wings on the way down."
 

tmgrl2

SongDeva said:
Terri,
Your story reminds me of one of my favorite sayings:

"Sometimes you just have to take the leap and build your wings on the way down."

Ooohhh...I love this saying, SongDeva. That's just what happened to my "jumper!"

terri