The Lifetime Cards - Personality, Soul and Year - how do we use them?

Moongold

On another recent thread in this forum we have been finding out what our lifetime cards are. Would people like to share some reflections about what the life cards mean to them?

I might start this thread, and if it picks up, then it picks up, which will be good. If not then nothing is lost. The cards give us quite a lot to guide our journey. Here are my thoughts.

My Soul and Personality card is the Chariot. The night we met, long before my introduction to tarot, my partner asked me what was my most striking quality, and I said determination . I think that illustrates that then, at a soul level, I was attuned to part of my soul’s purpose.

On coming to tarot I picked up on that quality of the Chariot. But now it is much more. The Chariot represents my spiritual journey through this life. Many lessons to learn, including that of faith and trust. See how the Charioteer does not hold the reigns? I need faith in the powers that be and in myself for this journey. This is a great lesson. Another lesson in this, the unspoken, is how do I connect with others? What is the best way to do this? There are many ways, The connection with others gives meaning to the life. I no longer wish to be the solitary traveler.

The Chariot represents strength, determination and will but the hidden lesson is how the act of surrender can bring all of these things together.

My Teacher card is the Tower. On this life’s journey, I must change, learn the lessons before me to become a more loving and conscious person. I also yearn for greater union with God, so the self-absorbed aspect of me has to be stripped away, gently. Is the conscious contact through others, with others? The Life’s journey has presented some significant challenges. Things have fallen away. I aim for integration of the self in this life and that does not need to happen surrounded by material things or the psychological clutter of the world.

My year card this year is the Hermit. Reflection and inner work to become a stronger, more loving and conscious spirit. One lesson I have learned already this year is that the Hermit is not alone. The inner work must happen in connection with others. The inner work requires attention to small things.

Moongold
 

Celtic_Dragon

I had thought about making a post about this but forgot about it, oh well. (plus I don't think I knew how to go about it, thanks moongold!)

My Soul and Personality cards are one in the same as the hermit. I have yet to completely grasp the concept of the hermit but I do know one thing. I'm always looking for the deeper meaning, the hidden agenda, reading between the lines, or more importantly wanting to understand. I have to know why, why this why that. I still remember when I was 5, asking that age old question, why is the sky blue? lol, I don't think that part of me will ever leave. I'm always looking for guidance, and searching for someone paitient enough to be my teacher/mentor. But you can always turn to me for a helping hand, lol :D, even though I hardly know the subject. At the website Learntarot.com one of the definitions is seeking solitude, withdrawing from the world and retreating into a private world. This is sooo true but it's also my downfall since I'm always there.

I'm always off daydreaming in the realm of the moon, which is my shadow (or teacher?). I've spent many hours there, but have this unfortunate habit of retreating and hiding there whenever something troubling happens. Of corse I'm also sometimes dragged there kicking and screaming by my fears, b/c once I'm there I become lost. Thankfully I've got my trusty lamp ;)

This year is the judgement card and I've already dealt with a lot of my past. Fortunatly (what am I saying?) it's not over yet, b/c I'm far from understanding the lesson I have to learn. As of now, I've only enjoyed the fun part of the Judgement card, reminising with old friends. I'm still waiting for the other half, oye vay!
 

Moongold

Hi Celtic Dragon,

I am not going to comment on every contribution but something about your post caught my eye.

It's about the beginning of the process of discovery that Tarot offers, Do you keep a journal? It would be interesting to see how your understanding of your life time cards develops.

Angeles Arrien, who developed this system says ".........your personality card shows your expression in the outer world, your talents, gifts, resources; and how others see you.....". The soul card reveals ".....the deepest core of who you are...."

The Hermit as both Personality and Soul? The phrases Mary Greer uses in connection with your constellation are:

Completing Karma through service, looking within, the seeker.

You might have different perceptions.

MeeWah drew my attention to these threads of a couple of years ago which may be of interest to you and others.

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?threadid=471&highlight=The+Shadow+Card

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=519&highlight=Personality+Card

Have fun

Moongold
 

Celtic_Dragon

Another journal?!! well, ok...

Actually I have been keeping a journal on thoughts of my tarot reading and understanding of the meanings. And I have been writing about my year card and the hermit.

I don't know what interested you in my post but I know that when you wrote Mary Greer's definition, Completing Karma through service, something in me sparked and I had to sit up. Mostly because I really don't know how many lives I've had or what they've been. For all I know this could be my first one. (doing pretty well in that case :D ) If you'd wish to elaborate, please pm me so we may not vier off the subject.
 

Moongold

Greetings Celtic Dragon,

Your post interested me for a couple of reasons. Firstly you are relatively new to Aeclectic and the Tarot (I think) and secondly the Hermit is your personality and soul card and I am in my Hermit year.

I am relatively new to Tarot (only 9 months - another Hermit number!) but I sometimes wish I had kept a detailed journal from the very beginning as a kind of documentary of my journey. Instead I have fragments of thought all over the place which I am gathering together and putting in a folder. You are obviously much better organised than I was, and my heart warms to you for that!

Now the Hermit……when I saw this card initially my understanding was based on past knowledge and experience. Picture diligent, slightly obsessive Catholic kid. Desert Fathers, saintly austerity, and slightly romantic hermit figures disappearing over the yellow horizon to become..?

Can I tell you some interesting things about the Hermit, discovered through my own explorations?

Hermit is number 9 in the major arcana. If you look at the nines in most Tarot decks they usually signal some kind of completion and sometimes even some kind of fruition. Have you noticed that? In ordinary human life this can be so as well, nine months being the gestation period for human babies. Numerologically, nine is interesting too because it always returns to itself: 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9=45, and the sum of 4+5 is 9. Also 9+9=18, and 1+8=9. So 9 is a mysterious number. We could go on here but for me this all somehow adds to the philosophical depths of the Hermit. Wheels within wheels. In the Tree of Life, the Hermit is on the Path between Tiphareth (Beauty) and Chesed (Mercy). Beauty and mercy, such powerful energy flowing along the path the Hermit travels. Lots of rich images and knowledge here for you to explore if you have not already, and you have a lifetime to do it.

It seems to me that you may be at the beginning of this reflective journey with the Hermit and I picked up on this. If I am wrong, please accept my apologies. You may move from the experience you describe in your initial post to a different kind of interior exploration. My own journey in this Hermit year has certainly taken me to a different space. The Year Card has helped me to focus on some areas of personal development.

I have the Hermit from the Tarot of the Sephiroth in front of me now: a really powerful and dynamic Hermit, no lantern in sight and no robe veiling his face. This is a picture of someone who knows himself and who brings the inspired wisdom of his personal experience and reflection to his life’s task.

I feel excited for you in the present and the future, Celtic Dragon, but don’t know a great deal about karma and past lives. You will find people here who do, however.

Moongold
 

Celtic_Dragon

Quite honestly I'm enjoying the attention ;)

But seriously, I never knew the hermit ment so much. I mean now that I think about it, the hermit has always affected me. When I was a child I was very mature for my age, and comming into my teens I was very interested in, well just about anything new age. And now that I'm turning 20 (in my judgement year of all things!) I've become a little more focused on actually bringing out some results. I believe my studdies are over and now it's time to apply some of that knowledge to gain some experience. Of corse, on many ocasions I've coined the phrase forever a student, and what's more important is that I believe it. You may have cought me at a piviotal point. I don't know what exactly is happening but I do feel some major insites happening and I do believe more are on the way. So much has happened so far I'm not sure I could write it all down. Of corse, being the hermit my whole life I'm sort of used to these moments, moments of well.....it's hard to describe but you can feel yourself growing, spiritualy. It's like how you would imagine it would feel watching the nature channel where they've timelapsed a flower or plant. And you're watching something happen in minutes what would normaly take a week or two. It's a wonderful feeling, almost something that you might confuse with experiencing god, but I can assure you it's not, otherwise I wouldn't have made the thread Spiritual connection with the divine

As far as the journal goes, I too wish that I had a journal at the piviotal points when I could feel myself growing, but they're so few and far between that I couldn't keep up with it. I've only kept the journal for tarot for a week now and I'm hoping that I can keep with it, but I'm not new to tarot itself. I've only seriously studdied them for a week or two now. I've been told that I have some real talent for a beginner so I'm wondering what will happen when I truly sit down and learn the meanings through my heart rather than my head.

Ironicly or concidently my favorite number has always been 9, probably because, like you said, it always comes back to itself. And perhaps that is why the hermit is there. There is a phrase, but I forget it's exact words. You may leave home to travel the world over, but when you return you will know it for the first time.

P.S. I didn't want to put this here, I thought I might pm you with it but there was so much information that I would have to send it in pieces. I hope this isn't ruining your thread or pushing people away from making their own posts.
 

Moongold

Greetings Celtic Dragon,

Thank you for responding. I wanted this thread to be placewhere people could share a little of what the life cards mean to them, and how they use them in their lives.

There has been a lot of interest in this aspect of Tarot and I thought it would be helpful if people could see, listen, contribute to some conversations about how others use the Tarot cards in this way.

For me, the Tarot is more a tool for personal and spiritual development than anything else and I learn by these conversations. I am endlessly curious about these things and love speaking with others. So by sharing and responding in this way you are giving something to others and the energy flows on.

You have a fresh perspective and seem to be in the process of discovery, so of course you experience is important to me and to others. Thank you for sharing something of your journey.

Many blessings

Moongold
 

punkangelgcm437

My soul card & my personality card is the Lovers card, which doesnt surprise me at all since I was probably the first girl to actually like a guy and not think he had "cooties" or was "icky" or what not.

Moongold you said earlier that the soul card is ".....the deepest core of who you are...."

I think I get what that means. But if you want to post your thoughts feel free to.

This years card for me is the Emperor...meaning maturity & patience (I been waiting sooo long to get some of that) will be coming into my life. Also confidence and stability. All of which I've been wanting. And for me this makes sense.

Recently, I lost my best friend. No she didnt die, but people grow apart...and I was friends with her for around 12 years. For the past year she had been treating me like a 3rd wheel, or maybe more of the unwanted stepchild is a better analogy. Well, either way, our friendship was basically falling apart. So now, I had enough, I reached my breaking point and I've decided its just better if I end it. I guess thats a sign of maturity, confidence, and the ability to finally stand up for myself and stand by myself if I have to.

Imma stop now before this gets to long,
~Sarah~
 

Moongold

Greetings Sarah,

Greer suggests that to people with Lovers as soul and personality cards personal relationships are of prime importance..."You learn most about yourself through your relationships with other people", she goes on. She also suggests that ultimately your major task in life will be integration of the self! I'll leave you to think about that one, Sarah, as a major task. It's a life long task. But in the end, it's you who decides what all this means for you personally. And, if you are like me, that is an evolving process.

It's helpful to look at this stuff with the Teacher or Hidden Factor card in mind. This might be the Devil card for you? This can imply a tendency to keep things hidden from the self (and who doesn't do that?). It's very interesting constellation.

Greer suggests that after theage of 30, the Hidden Factor card becomes the Teacher Card. 30 is around the age of the first Saturn return, and a fairly major life stage. We have often confronted some major life challenges by then and the Hidden Factor card becomes a friend rather than a challenge. Greer suggests that people with the Devil as Hidden Factor/Teacher often grow to use the magnetism and energy they have in very productive ways in relationships and in society generally. You might be interested to know that, if this is your constellation, you share it with Joanne Woodward, Goldie Hawn, John Lennon, Albert Einstein and Friedrich Nietzsche amongst others.

My own experience begins this thread but initially I was taken aback on discovering that the Tower is my Teacher Card. My personality and soul card is the Chariot, and it seems that one of my major tasks in this life is self mastery through change or growth. At the momen that fits fairly well with who I am. And it helps to bear this theme in mind in daily life, though I do that imperfectly. Change still happens through crisis but it also happens incrementally now.

Working with the Year card is also an evolving process. The more I think about the meaning of the card and the more reflective I become, the more surprised I am by its integration into my life. I'm a Hermit this year. Your example of the influence of the Emperor card in your life is a lovely one.

I think it is really important to stress that the meanings of your life cards, how you discover them, how you interpret them in your life is completely up to you Mary Greer would be the first to say that I think. Her book proposes a framework for understanding the cards in constellations as described in another thread in this forum, but how you use the cards and the framework is your decision. And your thinking will change as your understanding changes and grows. I think it is really important, if you decide to use this framework, for you to continue to reflect on its application in your life so that you continue to own it yourself.


Blessings, Sarah, and welcome to Aeclectic.

Moongold
 

WolfSpirit

Moongold - that book of Greer you were referring to, is that "Tarot for yourself" ? Maybe I should get that, maybe it would make things clearer for me.
Well my personality card is the Sun and my soul card the magician, my teacher is the Wheel of Fortune as you already explained in another thread.
To begin with, I don't really know the difference between the personality and soul card (I think for many people these are the same).
I can see the Sun as my optimistic side, for example many people say how difficult they find it to get older whereas for me I always think things are only going to get better as I learn from past experiences (and mistakes haha).
Don't know where the magician fits in though - I have been thinking about it and I think it means I make proper use of my capacities but I doubt that very much sometimes.
Maybe because my teacher is the wheel of fortune and I sometimes feel there is not so much I can do, if luck is not on my side. But this seems to contradict with the magician though.

My year card is the lovers - I understand this like I am making choices this year not what is most logical or practical but what I want most in my heart. This is what I am very much doing now.

I haven't known about these cards for very long, so maybe I'll come up with something better when I have head more time to think about it.