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.
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.