Process, Prologue

Baroli

"Just a suggestion mind you, but we can take each chap. including prologue and just chew it over a little bit. Go through it a little at a time. There are things in these lovelys,... that perhaps some or none of us have thought of."

At Baroli's suggestion, lets have a look under the hood, and see what the prologue.

It is a very earthy approach, The Process, and begins in this portion with a little time in Dan's garden...

I remember earlier, Griz was wondering how much of the rose gardening was metaphor. In this forst bit, I think Dan sets that up, by telling the student to return the deck, and come back when they are ready to learn Tarot.

"The lessons have already begun" tells us that moving mulch is part of the course, ala wax on, wax off. It is a beginning.

Ok, well first off I am not going to tell you what I think Dan means. I am going to tell you what the things he talks about mean to me. I have the CD in my lap so as I type, I am listening.

I can see the rose bushes in my imaginary garden. All sorts of them and the bottoms just covered with the "muck." You see, the bushes are actually my mind. I spent a good portion of my 30+ years, reading and wondering is this right? Did that forever and to some extent, I still do, but I am learning things,....still. The muck for me is the protective crap that one puts on ones thinking when you have to be correct , when you have to be 'go by the book,' as I have done in some of my early attempts of Tarot. I think you have to give yourself air so to speak to allow the good earth to breathe, just like you would when clearing away the old muck and compost from the rose bushes. I think you need to do that when learning Tarot, or anything for that matter. I think stripping away what you have learned and know about, then start with a clean slate is the what the prolog is telling me. And be willing to get dirty. Sometimes it is pretty gucky.

But now I am posing a question: Why should we go through that?

Baroli said:

Why should we go through that?

Click to expand...

Why indeed. I infer by buying the cd that I'm interested in learning more about reading. But there is a difference between "interested" and "ready", isn't there...

Here's the thing. We are pre-supposing that the muck, the prior information, is now a limiting factor in our readings, or at least, is a limiting factor in coming to learn from this teacher.

That works for me. I'm not overly attached to what I "know" about tarot. I've seen enough of me during readings, spouting forth what I've learned, so eager to appear wise that I'm deaf to any wisdom. (There's more than one manner of muck metaphor.) I know that attempting to serve up platefuls of what I know, or trotting out truths, is a great path to mediocrity.

And I want more than that. So for me, "why go through that" is easy. I'm after more. Clearing away the muck, letting in the air, I constitute myself as an invitation to the magic.


PS Baroli, if you want to listen to the cd, take it out of your lap, and put it in a player of some sort. Just sayin'

But you're missing my question. Why should we as readers drop everything that we have learned previously about Tarot and start over? What is the purpose of getting rid of the muck and airing the rose bushes?

As far as I can see, its "no use pouring water into an overflowing cup".
Clearing this muck makes room for new, elemental change to take place.

KarlThomas said:

As far as I can see, its "no use pouring water into an overflowing cup".
Clearing this muck makes room for new, elemental change to take place.

Click to expand...

Well, yeah,....for me it's like you have so much "knowledge" (can there ever be enough knowledge??), that after awhile I become stagnant. Mind won't function and voila, I begin to suck, BIG TIME!!! Clearing out the old junk definitely gives way to finding new or perhaps relearning old in a different way.



Btw, we never did resolve the question, why 26 chapters, did we???

For me the Roses have many meanings, e.g. the cycle of life, Tree of Life, "sub rosa"[in secret, hidden]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub_rosa, and others that are too personal to comment on.

Mac22

You guys are so much more experienced than I am with tarot but I hope you won't mind me tagging along a little bit as I go through my own process.

Baroli asked: Why should we as readers drop everything that we have learned previously about Tarot and start over? What is the purpose of getting rid of the muck and airing the rose bushes?


At this stage in my tarot journey, I have done the "bookwork" that I feel gave me a foundation in tarot, but now it's time to get rid of the books and go with my intuition. I would assume that getting rid of the muck could be tearing down the walls of "what is supposed to be" and finding out "what really is" for ourselves. This is the stage I'm in at the moment.

Now, Dan said to go and write 3 pages in pencil about why I want to read tarot- I haven't done it yet, but the idea lingers, and my set came with a tarot journal that has pages in the back, and pencils, and a pencil sharpener, so... it's time for me to stop being passive and take action in my process isn't it? I have all the tools, it's time to get busy.

Hey, Disa.

Are you kidding? Of course you are welcome to contribute here, and I like what you have to say about learning the difference between "what it is supposed to be" and "what really is". That lesson is, I believe, getting to the heart of both Baroli's question, and this teaching.

Enjoy writing your three pages, I certainly did.