Why the New Age "Movement" is Unhelpful

As a tarot reader, sometimes I get a tad self-conscious. I find myself discrediting certain bits of my analysis because they're based on a mythology that my querent doesn't regard as necessarily sane. Not having the patience to explain to them in the moment why what I'm saying actually has some academic relevance, I end up leaving these readings feeling like I've let my cause down. Lately I've been questioning where this general phobia of all things occult comes from. Of course, we can easily point to the general Judaeo-Christian bias in the West, which in a post-Enlightenment, post-modern world vehemently frowns upon such things like tarot and magic. But there's something else too inherent in the average person's skepticism, a kind of mocking insistence that practices belonging to the occult are "pseudo-sciences," and are therefore rendered useless. These things become mere entertainments that don't supply us with anything profound.

The more I explore the history of tarot and use it in my everyday life, the more I am convinced it is anything but a pseudo-science. Firstly, we must understand that tarot as we see it today is a product of 19th and early 20th-century occultism. The two founders of modern tarot, Arthur Edward Waite and Aleister Crowley, were both members of the same hermetic order, and were rigorously educated in multiple related systems, namely the Qabbalah, alchemy, astrology, geomancy, and mythology. Each of these systems possesses its own language of symbols that must be assimilated by the occult student. Thus, the tarot operates on an intricate, symbiotic network of symbols and myths from various religions and philosophies, and by doing so professes to divulge a general universal truth. It is literally a deck of hieroglyphics. Secondly, its intended use was for communication with divine powers and to ascertain the nature of one's unique life purpose. The deck is therefore designed with this lofty spiritual purpose in mind, and the original spreads created by orders such as the Golden Dawn were not intended for minor, mundane things, but for deeply important matters. Thirdly, my experience in only a little under two years has proved to me that the system is far from faulty. The tarot, when used properly, will tell you or your querent exactly what you need to know. I only do cold readings for querents, rarely asking them questions so that they will be as unsettled as I am by the cards' accuracy. This unnerving moment is absolutely crucial! It suggests to us that all is not entirely as it seems, and that perhaps there truly is something out there that knows better than we do what's best for us in a given situation. Disputing the reading becomes far more difficult this way, and the querent comes to trust your abilities far more, albeit with a bit of quiet uneasiness.

Therefore, how can we call tarot a pseudo-science? Like science, it is based on a coherent linguistic system; it strives for accuracy; and operates on the assumption of the existence of some pre-existing truth that awaits discovery. However, there is an entire breed of tarot readers out there who create this unfortunate stigma for the art. Here I must entirely blame the so-called "New Age movement," which, at its worst, is a vaguely lucid, barely coherent, hodge-podge amalgam of dreamy, semi-formed ideas, wholly ignorant of effective methodology and solely interested in the touchy-feely gift of intuition. Now, I warrant that self-discovery and individual perspective are wonderful virtues, but there is a fine line between these and ineffectual day-dreaming about auras and crystal healing. While these too are also systematic in scope and effective for certain people, this whole mindset of the new age individual is poisonous. I have met or heard of far too many tarot readers who claim one can read tarot without needing to understand Qabbalah. This would be like suggesting that one can properly evaluate the quality of a house without knowing a thing about architecture and design, as the Qabbalah is literally the framework of the tarot. Sure, I can superficially guess that the quality of said house is good based on its general aesthetics, or by whether or not I "feel good" in that space, but I cannot, without a doubt, make any truly profound or knowledgeable statements about the house's identity or essence as a unique structure.

The decks created today are infused with this same sort of bland understanding of the tarot, and their artists are motivated by new age demands for absurd themes such as fairies, paganism, and vampires. Half of these decks, mind you, have little to no long-term aesthetic appeal. After their novelty wears off, one is left grasping for their original reason for buying such a toy in the first place. This is not the sort of relationship one should have with their deck. One look at the top ten decks of 2010 on aeclectic.net (http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/topten.shtml), plainly demonstrates this trend.

The top-selling deck, the Shadowscapes Tarot, contains a set of soft, fluid, effeminate

images of fairies (surprise, surprise). The cards have no obvious label, nor do they remotely seem to depict anything one could possibly divine from, but I guess they sure are pretty! A deck should be able to speak to both genders simultaneously, as legitimate tarot can help us come to find that we have both genders within our personalities. A deck of all feminine or all masculine images is relatively useless for real introspection.

The Tarot of Vampyres is second on the list, and this too lacks any

coherent language system. This image of IX The Sun from this deck, here on the left, has actually left me stumped. No definition of the Sun I have ever read includes the fusion of opposites like this - that is usually depicted by XIV Art. Why is there a skull on the sun when the sun represents rebirth, not death? Even the mundane definition of love and relationships is rarely, if ever, associated with this card. The four of wands from this pack is

also largely irrelevant. How this naked woman covering herself before a set of four candles is supposed to represent the celebratory and governmental nature of the four of wands is beyond me. The deck's creator, Ian Daniels, writes that, "The vampyre legend is rooted in darkness and seduction, but its enduring message is one of spiritual hunger - to drink the everlasting divine." Right. This sounds like a really poor attempt to fuse the new-age appreciation for mythical creatures like vampires with its misguided quest for accessing God. Vampires are creatures that drink the blood of mortals, usually virginal young women. It is not as if they traditionally do so in order to try and replicate the blood of Christ, or any other sacrificial god. It is to perpetuate their own survival and sexual lust - not much else.

Tarot readers who buy into this sort of nonsense greatly concern me. Recently I had my cards read by a woman in San Francisco, mainly for S & G, as I was curious what "professional" and "psychic" readers were like. I probably should have asked for my money back as soon as I saw she was using only half of poor Arthur Edward Waite's deck, the other half despondently remaining on her coffee table. This is another bit of self-determining bull that compromises the validity of the system. Some readers read only with the majors... To those readers, I would like to ask, "Does the universe often give you a choice to tell it how to constitute itself?" To return to my story, the woman began by placing half-pack of cards against my forehead and invoking the Goddess and the light, and a slew of other stuff. Her selected spread was unique but her reading method was entirely positional. She proved to be a good story teller, but not a good advice giver, asking as she did incorrect questions, or suggesting the exact opposite of things I'd been feeling or thinking in the same day. I knew I was entirely sunk when she told me my chakras were dark and that I needed to have her light a big white pillar candle in order to remedy this. I declined her "generous" offer and instead offered to read her cards, as I had brought my own with me. My reader became immediately concerned and defensive and hastily said, "No, I'm going to say no to that because I've put energy into you and I don't want that energy coming back to me." Indeed. Let me tell you, the ENERGY I felt upon leaving that woman! My goodness, it was exhilarating... Not in the least, my friends. The only energy I felt was the vibes of frugality leaving my wallet, as I was then out $20 dollars.

Ultimately, this is a difficult issue to solve. I'm a strong proponent of using whatever means necessary in order to discover one's personal Truth. But at the same time, Westerners want to believe that beatification can be achieved without methodology, without structure. We want to believe in "spirituality," not religion, as the latter term implies restriction, bigotry, and difficulty. We must remember that the Great Work, or whatever you'd like to call it, is difficult, and requires patient struggle. It's not as if systems such as monasticism, hermetic orders, and priestly hierarchies were invented out of the blue. Humanity needs some sort of structure, even if it's only to understand that God isn't a being who particularly cares for such boring things like structure. Therefore, in order to better use the tarot - truly one of God's many gifts to mankind, and one of the best tools we have in helping the Great Work along - we must accept that the tarot's connotations and defining attributes are deeply, inherently, crucially important. Even if we as a community begin to pay more attention to these things in order to stave off skeptical criticism of non-believers, it will be an improvement. And I also believe that it's perfectly possible to maintain individual perspective while working within a particular guiding framework. The new age movement with its utter diffuse and unfocused nature cannot get us anywhere, and it will only continue to generate meaningless tarot decks, fueled by the whims of capitalism.

The Dreaded 10 of Swords

What makes the 10 of Swords one of the most dreaded cards in the pack? Waite includes "pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation" in his list of divinatory meanings; Crowley writes that it is "reason divorced from reality." For him, it represents the "damping down of the Creative impulse, weakness, corruption, or mirage affecting that principle itself."

But what makes the sun ruling Gemini so disastrous? To understand, we must remind ourselves that 10's are housed in the material, tangible world. As the swords are all about logic, abstract understanding, and theory, it makes sense that they would have little positive capability in this environment. Furthermore, we must equate the sun with the truest, highest sense of self, as well as the redeeming God of creation - the principle which in Tiphareth conjoins physical man to the highest godhead in Kether, and which is a manifested reflection of that godhead. Let us also note that Gemini is a symbol of ultimate division, of two halves constantly struggling against each other to become whole. Gemini's often have "split-personalities," and can change their moods on a dime.

So now we can see the 10 of swords as representing the divine solar principle being refracted by the mercurial principle inherent in Gemini into multiple

parts. The princess of Malkuth (you and I) is unable to perceive herself as one with godhead because she has limited herself by self-imposed mental road blocks. Rather than understanding the freedom of her true self, she has confined her options in order to conform to the incorrect whims of others, and has therefore lost sense of her connection with the solar God through her very identity. Thus, the card represents the breakdown of self, the division of godhead, ultimate isolation as promised by the 3 of Swords. This is the source of suffering - the progeny of Binah/Sophia's great experiment is sadness, complete manifested separation. The card reminds us that the more we think our ways into boxes, the more closed-off we feel, and this is the antithesis to the religious experience as the mystic understands it. The colliding of the sense of "self" with another being is at the heart of the mystical experience, and in order to achieve it, we must shed our mundane, unnecessary, and repetitive thinking, and embrace the possibilities of selfhood as liberally as possible. It also neatly explains Aleister's obsession with destroying Victorianism.

Celtic Cross: A Macrocosmic Approach

Being perhaps the most popular Tarot spread of this century, I thought I would write a piece about it!

The Celtic Cross' mass popularity comes from Arthur Edward Waite's popularity (1857-1942), which began to blossom when he published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot in collaboration with the artistic talents of Pamela Coleman Smith, their resulting deck of course being perhaps the

most influential deck of our time (look at any American tarot deck, and there is a 97% chance it is based on Waite and Smith's designs). The spread was originally developed by the Golden Dawn, which Waite was a member of, and was seen as a kind of abridged version of some of their other techniques (namely the lengthy Opening of the Key spread). This being said, the spread is notably concise, easy to dissect, and useful for just about any kind of question; this clearly accounts for its popularity.

The spread is incredibly malleable, and each position can be custom-fitted to any reader's preferences. The same principle applies to the order in which the cards are placed. Keep this in mind as you work with this spread: it truly is whatever you make it to be. (Honestly, this applies to any spread. It's best not to be dogmatic with spreads.) My only personal complaint with the spread is that it is a positional spread, meaning that the meaning given to each card is affected by the card's position in the spread. This is great for beginning readers, but my

personal belief is that this does not adequately reflect how the universe tends to function; any system is far too complex to partition into isolated boxes, the universe is certainly no exception. Therefore, this post is meant to give you some general tips on how to read Celtic Cross in a more holistic way that treats the cards as intertwined as opposed to isolated countries. After all, as the "venerable" Aleister Crowley writes in The Book of Thoth, "Each card is, in a sense, a living being; and its relations with its neighbours are what one might call diplomatic." (47-48)

To demonstrate each technique, I'm going to use an example reading for an imaginary querent. (This is a good technique for general practice. When reading for yourself no longer becomes helpful or even entertaining, you can always "program" the reading to be for someone who doesn't even exist!) I'll give you a brief

description of my positions (which are pretty traditional) as well as the order in which I place them.

1.) The overall situation.

2.) Primary obstacles or second detail regarding the situation.

3.) Root of the problem. Source of conflict.

4.) Past. What is leaving the querent.

5.) Crown. What the querent is aware of on an intuitive level about the situation.

6.) Upcoming event. Immediate future.

7.) How the querent views themselves in the situation.

8.) Environmental factors. How others see the querent.

9.) Hopes and fears. What the querent expects the outcome to be.

10.) Overall conclusion. Final result that can be known at this point in time.

Ok, so here we go!

Elements: This is a big one for me. I LOVE looking at the relationships created elementally, and honestly, this is the main basis of how I read. Patterns are everything when it comes to reading intuitively, and elements are a simple way to begin noticing patterns. In this example, we can see that the spread is dominated by a strong axis of air cards in the middle as well as an axis of earth that opposes it on the right. This tells us that the air cards are all connected in some way (this can be very subtle sometimes, and may take some gentle prying into the psyche of the querent in order to bring this connection to light), and that this similarly applies to the earth cards. There is one lone water card in the past and one singular fire card showing how the querent feels about themselves. I tend to look at singular elements like these as little signals showing that these are important to the situation, as they represent contrast within the situation. They demonstrate the events that are not well integrated into the situation for the querent, and can show where there is difficulty. Knowing this helps later when you're pressed to give advice.

Here is some general information about elements:

Fire is generally about the querent's energy source. Where are they digging deep, so to speak? Where are they directing their passion? In what form does this manifest?

Water deals with the emotions and the subconscious, dreams and desires. How does the querent feel about a situation? Are they feeling anything at all, or are they too preoccupied? Is the querent being deluded by their emotions and desires?

Air is the element of division, as it involves the intellect and communication (human intellect of course is mainly about categorization of things into separate entities - "thereby commeth hurt"). Therefore, the element tends to have a nasty "problem child" kind of feel to it. It is the element of conflict, anxiety, and entrapment, but is also the element of victory, focus, and inspiration. Where is the querent focused or not? Where are they feeling psychologically burdened? How are they partitioning their reality?

And lastly, earth is the element of stability (but remember that change is stability), material things, and works. It is solid, heavy, dense, and lacks all the abstraction found in the swords suit. Practical sometimes to a fault, earth can be stubborn and dull, but also highly motivated, reliable, and supporting. Does the situation leave the querent feeling grounded? How is the situation affecting them economically? Are they thinking too plainly or too practically, or do they need more simplicity and pragmatism in their situation?

With this in mind, we can see that the querent of our example reading is primarily highly focused on something, and is perhaps under a lot of pressure (large quantity of air). This is most likely connected to their financial situation, as we see an almost equal preponderance of

earth cards. There is some kind of opportunity for a relationship with someone in the recent past for the querent (Ace of Cups), but we can see that it does not develop as there are no other water cards present. The fire card in position 7 is honestly synonymous with the rest of the air cards (in fact, the 8 of Wands is Mercury ruling Sagittarius, Mercury being an airy planet), but we can see that it may be a source of conflict for the querent, being the only fire card in the spread. Note that the two "lone" cards, the Ace of Cups and the 8 of Wands, oppose each other elementally. Clearly these are two situations relatively exterior to the querent's line of thinking that oppose each other and thus bear little fruit when in conflict.

Pictorial Relationships: This can be divided into two categories: symbolic pictorial connections, and literal pattern connections. The latter is a very interesting one for Celtic Cross, but every now and then, you see it come into play. You just have to know how to look. In our example, it's quite obviously present in the form of the two elemental axes. We see that the poor Ace of Cups really has no chance, as it is literally standing up to a wall of air cards. I found it interesting that this meaning was even echoed in the 6th position in the form

of the 2 of Swords: impasse. The androgynous-looking woman has her back turned to the ocean and the moon, symbols of the emotions, and instead fully ignores them, even going to the extent of blindfolding herself. The querent is clearly not going to open themselves up to this new relationship opportunity, and is going to focus on something completely different, mainly their economic aspirations, represented by the pillar of pentacles on the right that seem to be reaching up/aspiring to a conclusion. I worry though that they will be lying to themselves in position 6 about how they feel. I think it's fairly obvious that the querent needs to pay more attention to their heart, since that may be part of what's causing the stress indicated by the number of air cards present. This message can be seen in the Star, which represents the overall situation. The querent is faced with opportunities that they do not usually have, and rather than being thankful, the querent seems to be squandering them!

Notice how the Star is holding two "cups" of sorts, similar to the Ace of Cups. Therefore, we can say that the querent is again choosing to focus on the pool of their thoughts and is perhaps foolishly dumping out the relationship opportunity onto the earth behind him. He sees the relationship as something exterior to where he needs to focus, and therefore wants no part of it. However, the 3 of Swords in position two tells us that there is in fact some emotional baggage affecting his decision-making. One gets the sense that he doesn't believe this relationship to have any hope (another meaning connected to the star) because his previous relationships have left him alone and damaged. This then begs the question, however: is he throwing himself into his work so vehemently (Knight of Swords) because he's trying to distract himself from this baggage? (Remember that the 3 of Swords is connected to the Knight elementally) Or do his relationships not work because he's a workaholic? This is something to discuss with the querent.

One more observation: there is a horizontal line of cards that all have bodies of water on them. In the Ace of Cups, we have a lake it seems; in The Star, we have a pool (the end of which we can't see, probably reflecting the meaning of this card as infinite possibility); and in the 2 of Swords, we have the sea, or rather maybe an inlet, as there is land in the background not too far away; in the 2 of Pentacles we see an open sea in a state of agitation. We can therefore see that chronologically speaking, the querent's emotional life will remain hemmed-in, ultimately by their economic aspirations (distant land in the 2 of Swords being related to earth). The 2 of Pentacles being in position 8, we can thus conclude that others see the querent as having once been overwhelmed by their emotional life (again, we see this in the past, as his

back is once again to the water). It seems that perhaps once they allowed themselves more freedom with their heart, and perhaps this caused distressing turbulence for them that they are now still juggling - hence the stance of the man and his pentacles. Knowing this, we can finally say something about the Ace of Swords in position 3, and simultaneously answer our above question for the querent: the querent sees his newfound focus on his aspirations as a kind of recovery process - a victory over his troubled past (even echoed in the Ace of Swords' imagery: a hand emerging from dark clouds over a barren terrain). Thus, our concern is more with the extent to which the querent turns to his work as a coping mechanism. He can't go through the rest of his life blindfolded to his emotions!

Gender/Age: This is another way of seeing relationships between the many people represented in the various cards of the Tarot. As much as I dislike social constructs of the gender "binary," it is a useful way to categorize allegorically. Kabbalistically or allegorically, masculine cards tend to represent active forces (striving, energizing, originating), whereas feminine cards can represent passive forces (receiving, nurturing, waiting). In this spread, all the cards can be seen as masculine, as the 2 of Swords frankly looks ambiguous to me. The androgynous nature of the 2 echoes its divinatory meaning, as the querent will be unable to commit fully to his feminine emotional side, even though it will still factor into his thinking. In other words, we see that he will turn his back to his usually receptive emotions and will instead devote himself to the action and focus on work represented by the Knight of Swords.

The King of Pentacles is another obviously masculine card, and being in position number 9, we can see that the querent hopes to become more masterful in his craft, whatever that may be. Right now, he is more connected to the Knight of Swords, but he believes that if he continues to devote the amount of energy he is to his career (8 of wands), he will become more mature and able-bodied in his field. (We get this from the fact that the King is "older" than the Knight, and is related to skill in business).

Number: The numbers of the cards themselves create subtle relationships in the same way that Kabbalistic numerology, Gematria, highlights underlying currents of connectivity between words. In our example, notice how the highest ranking minor card is the 8 of Wands. Everything else is quite low, aces or twos and one three, representing beginnings of things, or, in this case, the querent's immobility. We have the Ace of Cups in the past showing freshness in the querent's emotional life, the Ace of Swords and the Star representing new clarity in the querent's goals and ambitions dominating the present, and only the 2 of Swords in the immediate future. Thus, the querent is not going to let this situation take off in the least. He will perhaps ruminate over it for awhile, but nothing more. On the other hand, the earth cards show more progress. The 2 of Pentacles progresses to the King of Pentacles, and culminates in The World. We are then able to reaffirm the querent's greater interest in work and economics, and can begin to pinpoint The World as having to do with this aspect of the querent's life.

Court Card Relationships: Besides the above-mentioned relationship between the Knight of Swords and the King of Pentacles, there are no other court card relationships in this spread. What I mean by this is a familial affinity. For instance, The Queen of Cups in a reading alongside the Page of Cups can perhaps be seen as nurturing the latter (this of course depends on context). Either way, one can either see them as connected by being aspects of the same person, or by being related through affiliation. Usually their age and gender will help determine this. (Remember that Kabbalistically, the Pages are meant to be female.)

Types: In general, it is wise to look at a spread from its different types of cards. Court cards should represent people in one way or another; minors should represent small microcosmic life events within the control of the querent; and majors should be seen as overarching problems or events that are either too large for the querent to manipulate alone, or which represent the main themes of the reading. Therefore, we can see that The Star is a life lesson the querent needs to address right now. Where are they headed? Where are their hopes? How are they limiting their viewpoint?

The final card, The World, seems to be very positive, however. The labor done by the querent will blossom and will culminate, bringing him some kind of advancement. Perhaps a promotion? A new confidence? However, it also strikes me that the woman dancing in The World is in a posture adverse to the one represented by the 2 of Swords. In this case, I would say that this is a very positive development, that hopefully points to the querent being able to liberate themselves from their self-restricting demons. They probably will miss entirely the opportunity presented by the Ace of Cups, but this does not mean they will close themselves off entirely from their social life. Perhaps the success their material efforts will garner them will also reinvigorate their confidence in their ability, and they will be able to reincorporate more strongly the archetype of The Star as an icon of hope and optimism.

I know that this was long, but I hope these techniques and examples have been helpful for you. There are so many other ways of noticing patterns between cards - these are only my personal methods. By all means, invent your own! Experience is the greatest teacher when it comes to the Tarot, and I encourage you to investigate your personal methods of seeing the cards as well. Doing so will truly liberate your reading style, and will free your obligation to LWB's (little white books) and your dependence upon others' interpretations. Good luck, and enjoy yourselves!