Gated Spreads of Tarot Collection (Books 1-6)

Table of contents :
(Gated Spreads of Tarot Book 1) The Tarot Shaman Connect to Your Animal Spirit with Tarot - Marcus Katz
TAROT SHAMAN: Gated Spread Book 1
Connect to your Animal Spirit
WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY …
About the Authors
Contents
Preface
What is the Tarot?
Which Tarot Deck is Best for This Gated Spread?
What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot?
The Tarot Shaman
Tarot Shaman: Gate 1
The Guardian of the Gate
The Journey
Tarot Shaman: Gate 2
The Journey
Tarot Shaman: Gate 3
The Summoning
The Summoning
Tarot Shaman: Gate 4
The Spirit Catcher
The Spirit Catcher
An Example
Tarot Shaman: Gate 5
The Invocation of the Animal Spirit
The Invocation of the Animal Spirit
Living the Animal
Conclusion
Bibliography
Websites & Resources
Kindle Tarot Books & Series
Gated Spreads Series
Tarosophy KickStart Series
Tarot Life Series
Also in Print and Kindle
(Gated Spreads of Tarot Book 2) The Gates of Valentine Understand Your Relationships with Tarot - Marcus Katz
Copyright
WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY …
About the Authors
Preface
What is the Tarot?
What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot?
The Tarot & Relationships.
Gates of Valentine: Gate 1 The Ticket to the Tunnel of Love
Gates of Valentine: Gate 2 Twists & Turns
Gates of Valentine: Gate 3 Steal a Kiss from your Favorite Miss.
Conclusion
Bibliography
Websites & Resources
Other books
(Gated Spreads of Tarot Book 3) The Resurrection Engine Change Your Life With Tarot - Marcus Katz
(Gated Spreads of Tarot Book 4) The Palace of the Phoenix Discover Tarot & Alchemy - Marcus Katz
Copyright
Praises
About the Authors
Preface
What is the Tarot?
What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot?
The Tarot & Alchemy
Palace of the Phoenix: Gate 1 The Mystic Sister
Palace of the Phoenix: Gate 2 The Laboratory
Palace of the Phoenix: Gate 3 The Tree of Mercury
Palace of the Phoenix: Gate 4 The Palace
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Websites & Resources
Kindle Tarot Books & Series
(Gated Spreads of Tarot Book 5) The Garden of Creation Create Stories with Tarot - Marcus Katz
About the Authors
Preface
What is the Tarot?
What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot?
The Tarot & Creativity
The Garden of Creation: Gate 1 Garden Plan
Garden of Creation: Gate 2 Stepping Stones
Garden of Creation: Gate 3 Talking Fountain
Garden of Creation: Gate 4 Labyrinth
Conclusion
Bibliography
Other books
(Gated Spreads of Tarot Book 6) The Ghost Train Use Your Tarot to Explore Your Past - Marcus Katz
Copyright
WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY …
About the Authors
Preface
What is the Tarot?
What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot?
The Tarot & The Past
Ghost Train: Gate 1 Carriage Card
Ghost Train: Gate 2 Sepia Photographs
Ghost Train: Gate 3 Spooky Pipe Organ
Ghost Train: Gate 4 Planchette
Ghost Train: Gate 5 Emerging Whole
Conclusion
Bibliography
Websites & Resources
Other books
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TAROT SHAMAN: Gated Spread Book 1 Connect to your Animal Spirit

By Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz Copyright © Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz, 2013 Published by Forge Press, Keswick All rights reserved.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … I am extremely thankful for these exercises. I feel like I could spend years contemplating these results and still not get to the bottom of the insight I have gained. C.C. This exercise as well as the others have spoken volumes. Thank you for sharing this experience with us. R. G. Incredible knowledge so easily shared … This has been a journey in which I have learned a lot of new things and feel very satisfied. L. J. Very moving and effective. I cannot wait for the next gates! Y. I suddenly realized I have been dreaming like crazy since I started these exercises! Very intuitive stuff about my situation, and about my Tarot! L.

We have used real-life examples and authentic feedback throughout this series, anonymously, from our students in Tarot-Town. We thank them for their engagement with these experiences over the years.

About the Authors “I’ve found my Blasted Tower, but I think it’s bent.” Katz to Goodwin, Typical Conversation. Tali Goodwin is the co-author of award-winning and #1 best-selling Tarot books, including Around the Tarot in 78 Days, Tarot Face to Face, and Learning Lenormand. She is also a leading Tarot researcher and is credited with the discovery of A. E. Waite’s second tarot deck, kept secret for a century, published as Abiding in the Sanctuary. She has also uncovered and published the Original Lenormand deck, and with co-author Derek Bain, the original Golden Dawn Tarot images in A New Dawn for Tarot. Her research into the life of Pamela Colman-Smith with new photographs will be published as The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide in Spring 2014. She is co-Director of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide) and organizes the international tarot conventions, TarotCon. Marcus Katz is author of the ground-breaking Tarot book and teaching system, Tarosophy, and is the co-founder of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide). In addition to Tarot books with Tali Goodwin, he is the author of The Magister, an 11-volume opus on the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, The Magician’s Kabbalah, and the forthcoming Path of the Seasons. He teaches students privately in the Crucible Club, available by application.

Contents WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … About the Authors Contents Preface What is the Tarot? What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? The Tarot Shaman Chapter 1:

The Guardian of the Gate

Chapter 2:

The Journey

Chapter 3:

The Summoning

Chapter 4:

The Spirit Catcher

Chapter 5:

The Invocation of the Animal Spirit

Conclusion Bibliography Websites & Resources Kindle Tarot Books & Series

Preface Tarot to Engage Life, Not Escape It. Marcus Katz You are about to go on a journey and experience real magick. Grab a Tarot deck, and we are good to go! The purpose of Gated Spreads is to overturn the common use of Tarot cards as a means of “telling” the future, or providing a brief insight into our life and motivations – and hence our future possibilities. The teaching of Tarosophy encourages the use of Tarot as a divine language; one which connects us to the deeper world underneath the apparent one which we often take for granted. A gated spread requires you to take action in your life, from which change emerges naturally. This is not the empty promise of a feelgood self-help book, but a call to action – your action – to change your life through Tarot. Our Gated Spread experiences have been offered for several years to the public, and now for the first time we provide them in handy self-study packages on Kindle. In each of these individual books, you can experience shamanism, relationship and romance insight, creativity, alchemy, and even delve into your ancestry, all using just a tarot deck.

We have also ensured that this is not a book of fictional examples that sound too good to be true. Our books are based only on real-life testing and the actual experience of real people like you, encountering magick often for the first time. We have taught these methods and have run workshops and gated spread weeks for many years, and have hundreds of experiences which have constantly shaped what you are about to experience for yourself. This book is ideal for first time users of Tarot or the experienced reader who is looking to activate the tarot in their life. We have ensured that you are given the necessary instructions and clarifications (from our previous teaching and feedback given by students) to experience true magick in your time using this book. Before you begin, you may wish to join our free Facebook group if you have any questions about Tarot, and also download our free keyword guide to tarot cards and standard spreads from our site: www.mytarotcardmeanings.com

What is the Tarot? The tarot as most commonly recognized is a family of card decks, most often 78 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards (10 numbered cards and 4 Court cards for each suit) and 22 Major cards. There are presently about 1,000 different decks in print or circulation, and many more out-of-print, rare and collectable decks. Although it can be proven that the tarot was developed in the early 15th century, a lot of books still suggest that it was used by the “ancient ...” and then provide lists of the unproven, non-factual ideas which results in a conflation of tarot and those very ideas. The earliest names for the tarot are Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs), but around 1530 A.D. (about 100 years after the origin of the cards) the word tarocchi began to be used to distinguish the tarot cards from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards. You are actually seeing in the cards some direct examples of the triumphs – the procession of floats common at festivals in Italy at the time – particularly in such cards as The Chariot and the Court cards. There is even a Christian tarot in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the cards were used to depict virtues, the liberal arts and sciences, and other aspirational notions from their earliest development. In fact, it could be said that the cards were originally educational or self-development tools, although that could also be debatable.

There is no evidence that the tarot were used by gypsies, originated in Egypt or were used for divination prior to the 1700s, despite popular occult lore that the cards have embodied ‘ancient teaching’ from time immemorial. It was not until a pseudo-connection between the Hebrew letters and the tarot was published in 1781 – by Comte de Mellet, in Antoine Court de Gebélin’s Le Monde Primitif – that esoteric interest began to appropriate the cards to embody occult teaching. The earliest list of the 22 cards which have become known as the Major Arcana is given in a sermon against their use by a monk writing in Latin around 1450-1470 A.D. This sermon is sometimes called the Steele Sermon as it belongs to the collection of Robert Steele. [This above section which we think is so important to teach is repeated in each booklet in this series, and is an extract from Tarosophy, by Marcus Katz].

Which Tarot Deck is Best for This Gated Spread? Our students have used a range of decks for this experience, and of course the standard Waite-Smith is a favorite. However, students have used these decks with particularly good results: Tarot of the Magical Forest The Shapeshifter Tarot The Fey Tarot

The Legacy of the Divine Tarot

Other decks such as the Druidcraft Tarot, particularly themed on a pagan perspective, will also work very well with this particular experience. You can also use an Oracle deck such as the Shaman Wisdom cards. You may wish to use a deck with a larger number of animals on it during this particular gated spread!

What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? Nature has much to teach us in her vast classroom … What you find in Nature is what works. It wouldn’t be there if it didn’t. Boundless wisdom awaits. Bill Plotkin, p. 178 There are many wrong ideas about the tarot that seem to be popular. We would like to present quickly some common myths about tarot that you may have heard already, and change your view!

1. The tarot did not originate from Egypt, the gypsies, the Templars, Atlantis or a secret order. 2. You do not need to be gifted or given your first tarot deck – you can simply buy a deck for yourself. 3. You do not have to keep your tarot in a silk bag or bag of any particular color. 4. You can let other people touch your cards if you choose. 5. There are no real ‘rules’ in tarot, but some generally agreed good ideas.

6. The keywords for cards are not set in stone; they can be modified depending on the deck, the reading and the question. However, there are basic concepts specific to each card in the deck, which form a basic language. 7. The cards are not evil – no more than any art or printed material is “evil”. 8. You do not have to be intuitive or gifted in some special way – you can learn, and develop your tarot skills in any way. 9. The ‘ancient Celtic Cross’ spread has not been used for centuries, and it is not particularly ancient and it is not Celtic. 10. There is no single right way to read tarot – we encourage every reader to discover their own unique voice.

The Tarot Shaman I’m embedded in this world, yes – but I am not bound, not imprisoned. David Abram What is a shaman? There are many definitions, but for simplicity we will use those given in the popular books of Carlos Castenada. In the Teachings of Don Juan, he gives an account of the requirements of the Shaman, the Person of Knowledge. He says The Shaman must be: Learned Of Unbending Intent Clear of Mind Laborious A Warrior Unceasing Possess an Ally Whilst we see that the Tarot cards of the Magician, the Chariot, the Hermit, Strength, Emperor and the Wheel may symbolize the archetypal qualities of the first six of these qualities, we may also need to locate an Ally – in this case, the Spirit of the Tarot itself, to guide us further. But first we must encounter the Dweller on the Threshold – the Guardian of the Gate.

You may like to note in your journal which cards you personally see associated with the first six qualities that Castaneda gives for a Shaman. You may also like to record your dreams during this week which will often become more vivid. More particularly, a Shaman is one who mediates or travels between the worlds; the visible world and the world of spirits. In this “technology of ecstasy”, through various means of attaining altered states, the Shaman communicates and interacts with the spirits of these unseen places. In doing so, they conduct healing, divination, and other feats of magic. In this book, we provide you a means of using tarot to act as the language – the mediator – between you and the unseen world. Actually, it is the tarot deck which will become your shaman, and you will talk to the unseen world through it. Of course, the unseen world may speak to you directly as well as through your tarot, so be prepared to look for signs and omens in the world around you throughout the week-long period we suggest for this experience.

Tarot Shaman: Gate 1 The Guardian of the Gate Our first Gated Spread tells us what we must overcome to go onto the next gate – it is a warrior’s challenge. We cannot even begin to approach the mysteries unless we prove ourselves in some serious manner. So for your first Gate, take a tarot deck and shuffle, considering everything that frightens you, then lay out 3 cards in a line (vertical or horizontal) as follows:

1. What is the Guardian? 2. How must I Fight? 3. What is the Reward?

Take these three cards and consider how they might relate to your life over the next day. What is the nature of the “fear” that has been divined by the first card? What is the manner in which you must overcome this fear indicated by the second card? What does the third card suggest you will gain as a reward? I take out these cards in my reading:

1: Guardian – The Blasted Tower 2: Fight – Ace of Swords

3: Reward – Empress

I guess I start to see the Guardian as a fear of disruption and sudden failure. The fight is keeping clear to an idea, and the reward is a general natural growth. Now – most importantly, decide on a definite ACTION tomorrow that will meet the requirements of this gate. Something in your life – not too dramatic unless you feel called to do so – that will respond to the divination of these three cards. So I decide in my case that tomorrow, Saturday, I will try and do something extremely surprising, that fits to my ideas, I’ll overturn an expectation and overcome a barrier by starting to write an essay I have been prevaricating over. It’s not much of a challenge in terms of being a warrior, but I’ll determine to do it. The Ace of Swords! We have found in previous gated spreads that there are profound similarities and interesting differences in the lives of those sharing this experience.

Here is a very simple example from a student, showing that the tarot can be very simply interpreted and do not always have to be very dramatic events.

1. Guardian - Three of Wands 2. Fight - Ten of Cups 3. Reward - Queen of Cups

My fear is that I am on hold in my life until some unknown event happens, or that I just put things off in general (3 of Wands). To fight that I need to remember to enjoy what I have, that I have enough, that I am enough (10 of Cups). The reward will be an increased ability to just go with the flow (Queen of Cups). Action: So, for tomorrow I am going to do some cleaning that I have been putting off. Then I am going to bask in the comfort of a clean house.

We will then be given the next Gate by the Tarot Shaman tomorrow and continue our journey into the Tarot Shaman’s Path and meet our animal guide in the Tarot, having proven our worth at the first Gate.

There are many forms of shamanistic practice and at the end of this booklet of the Tarot Shaman Gated Spread we will provide a reading list for those who wish to know more about Shamanism worldwide, from the archaic to the contemporary! Whilst there is no particular connection between Shamanism and Tarot, many of the methods and approaches found in shamanistic practice can be applied to deepen our experience of Tarot in a profound and practical way.

The Journey

In this next gate, having overcome the Guardian, we go on a journey to meet our Animal Guide. Of course, we must travel but we must also do so in a relaxed attitude – the world is closer to us than we imagine! There is a great scene in the book based around a re-imagining of Anglo-Saxon shamanism, The Way of Wyrd, by Brian Bates, where the shaman is taking a student through an exercise – he says; “Relax! You are tying yourself in knots with tension. Relax and your Guardian Spirit will cut through the fog of your life like a sunbeam”. He then jokes that the student must have been chosen by an Owl guardian as he is looking so wide-eyed and intent! Humor is an important part of Shamanistic training, as is trickery! So in our second day of the Tarot Shaman, our Shaman will take us on a dance …

Tarot Shaman: Gate 2 The Journey Our first Gated Spread told us what we must overcome to make progress and we acted upon this divination. You will have received the reward indicated by the spread, or at least deepened your appreciation of what holds you back from progress. So for our second Gate, we set off on our journey to prepare for our later meeting of our Animal Guide - which will follow in the week, with further teaching on Animal Symbolism. You will need at least 10 minutes or more, your deck & a small notebook and pen/pencil – and suitable clothing for the weather conditions and environment in which you are situated, because you may be going outside! To commence the spread, shuffle your deck considering all the journeys you have been upon. Consider what you learnt, who you saw, what you recall. When you are ready, stop shuffling and take the top card from your deck. We do not use REVERSALS (upside-down cards) in this particular gated spread. Make a note of the card in your notepad, and perhaps a brief note (to be expanded later) as to what it tells you about JOURNEYS.

For example, I pull the Knight of Cups from Roxi Sim’s Pearls of Wisdom deck. He tells me that the Journey should always be full of delight, and not to miss the opportunity to go on detours to interesting places along the way! You then make a journey – even if it is only into another room in the house, or outside, based on that card. For example, I chose to go down into the kitchen (Cups) from the library. When you are in that new location, choose the next card, and do the same as before – in fact, I got the Knight of Swords, which told me I must be prepared for a journey and cut through things quickly! So I simply walked across to the drawers and picked out a small (blunt!) knife. Continue to work through the cards, taking either small steps, going on long-distance journeys, picking items up along the way, or simply learning about journeying from the comfort of your armchair! STOP when you reach a place or lesson from the cards that just feels right. If you are in any doubt, it is not the place. Make a note of the final card which you have received to have brought you to this place or taught you a particular lesson about journeying. You may have pulled 3 cards and not moved at all, you may have pulled 30 cards and travelled a hundred miles in the day. It is up to your journey. When you are at this place or point – begin to consider how far you have come since you started the journey. Consider what you learnt yesterday about your fears and what must be overcome. Find strength renewed in this place, which is a “power spot” as it is called in the works of Carlos Castaneda.

When you have contemplated this journey, you can return! You may return to this spot again, or it may just be a one-off visit. You can even make a map of the cards and the locations through which you have journeyed! This is what we call a geographical spread, such as the one included in this download here [it is a PDF file] where we teach how to use your property as a spread and other methods! We will then begin to summon our Animal Spirit and learn about Animal Symbolism in the cards in our next Gate exercise tomorrow. Here is a real account from the journal from one of our students. I start on my back porch. I drew the Knight of Swords – and think about my feelings about journeying. When I go on an adventure or trip or new class, like the Knight of Swords I am feeling inspired, excited, and full of hope and expectations. I also tend to rush in like an excited puppy! Today when I looked at the knight I felt how he was encumbered by his "uniform", the clothing he wears to show he plays a certain role. This connected me with the Gate 1 lesson as I need to let go of expected roles and constraints.

I felt the need to run a bath for myself and go into the tub. Here I have no outer garment. I can connect with the flow and healing energy of the water. I draw the Hanged Man - before rushing into anything I need to feel how I feel in this place. It is a perspective of realizing in some venues some energies do not feel right for me. However this perspective - and I am also able to feel remotely is needed before choosing to partake or go on any adventure. I need to look beneath the surface of things, people and places. I'm in my bed now. It is the place where I have the most relaxation and peace; meditating, journaling or journeying. This is especially in the quiet of morning when my cats are all resting beside me. Here I pull Justice - important because she was my “Reward” on the Gate 1 journey. After the above insight about calibrating the energies I go into, I am given the OK sign here, by spirit. Now I pick out the next card, and it is the Moon staying connected to my intuitive nature. Getting both sides of my brain in harmony, singing the same song, baying at the same moon ... working together on the same goals ... a duet, a team.

My final card is the 9 of pentacles - this is Guardian from the first gate. I look at differently. I see there is nothing wrong but own image of herself. She needs to venture into the world and sit with her insecurities.

my her her out

Is it fear of myself, for who I am? Yes. I go out to a diner in a nearby town bringing my mini-deck of Universal Waite. 5 of pentacles - today this card tells me that everyone has handicaps, pains, struggles. Before I leave the waitress tells me she has trouble slowing down ... I can relate. I think of the Knight of Wands. Home. Back in my bed. I am using again my Sharman-Caselli Tarot. As I pick up my deck I see on the bottom the Queen of Pentacles. I think as I shuffle how she is now the mature me, grounded. She is guarded by the bull head on either side of her. She sits confidently on her throne ... her own life's structure and foundation. The natural elements of nature are all around her being in a lovely wild garden. A rabbit near her feet shows her lightness of step ... she holds her life, the pentacles, in her lap where she can ponder and move through life thoughtfully. I finish shuffling the deck. I turn over the top card. It is the Queen of Pentacles.

Tarot Shaman: Gate 3 The Summoning The symbolism of Tarot is populated with animals – birds, reptiles, fish, and mammals, real and imaginary. A wonderful example of how these are used as complex symbols is the exquisitely-named but hardly-known article here, The Aviary at the Gates of Heaven which discusses the birds used on the Empress Tarot card in the Thoth Tarot. However, in the Shamanic traditions, animals are seen as messengers and guides – spirits in their own right. Whilst we will examine this symbolism more tomorrow, for today we are going to do a very simple exercise to start to summon our animal guide.

The Summoning In this next gate, having proven ourselves and embarked on a journey, we will take our sacred place and begin to summon a spirit of an animal from our Tarot deck. First we must have the animal choose us – by consulting with what the Sufis call the “Counsel”. This exercise is rather simple. Go through your deck and select out all the cards that have an animal on them. If you are using a pagan deck or animal oracle deck this may be all of the cards, of course! If your deck has no animals at all, you may wish to select an alternative deck.

Then shuffle, and place these cards FACE-DOWN about you, on the floor, in any pattern – perhaps a circle. Take any natural object, such as a crystal, stick or stone, and place it at about the centre of the spread. Begin to move the object around, feeling it respond to the cards. When the sensation of calling or pulling is strongest, place it upon that card. Leave the object there. DO NOT LOOK AT THE CARD. Put the other cards away. Now spend the day wondering what the spirit of the card is – try and see its calling you or summoning in the activities of the day. At the end of the day, you can write down your experiences and look at the card – comparing your feelings and the animal you see on the card. Here is a neat example from actual practice:

I performed the exercise this morning. I left the card atop my bedside table which doubles as my altar. We spent the day at my mom's house with family. We came home drained from the sun and playing in the pool. When I walked into my bedroom I remembered the card but did not turn it. I showered and watched TV for a bit.

I tell you all of this because when I turned over my card I had the Queen of Wands which features a black cat at her feet. This is odd to me because I am fiercely allergic to cats. My mom has cats that I tried to avoid but seemed to follow me everywhere today. My mom even teased me saying that they loved me. Then while we were watching TV my husband was watching something about panthers, which are just really big cats. I cannot believe how this has played out.

Tarot Shaman: Gate 4 The Spirit Catcher Now we approach the last stages of our first experience of Tarot Shamanism, today we are going to create a special sigil – magical symbol – to focus the energy of our Animal. We are going to do this by performing a special type of one-card reading called a “drill-down” reading.

The Spirit Catcher This Spirit Catcher is in some ways similar to a Veve in Voodoo traditions or a talisman in the Western esoteric traditions. In a sense it is also a mandala. It acts as a focus of the energies of the spirit. It can be used by placing it on one’s personal altar, hiding it somewhere of import, or carrying it about on ones person. You may wish to take this magical diagram to the place of power you discovered in your Journey Gate and ritually burn it or bury it. Take your deck and shuffle it whilst considering the guardian you have overcome and the journey you took, and the animal which was revealed at the last gate. Concentrate on that animal and ask “How May I honor your Spirit?” Take out one card. Lay the card face-up and make a note of the key symbols, items, objects, colors even, in each of the following areas of the card:

Illus. Spirit Catcher Template So it might be that the upper-left section of the card contains just sky. You could write in that section of the box, “Blue” or “Sky”. Select the most prominent symbol in that area of the card for YOU, whilst also thinking of the animal. Then imagine that this box represents a new SPREAD. The top two sections are “How you Honor me in your spiritual life”, the middle two sections are “How you Honor me in your thoughts and feelings” and the bottom two sections are “How you Honor me in your daily activities”. These are the three levels of the world. Take each of the two symbols and read them as if they were a pair of very simple Tarot cards. What comes to mind? Write down your feelings and impressions. In this manner of reading, each individual card becomes a Mandala. It is also a spirit catcher in that for the next two days you must live according to these divinations before completing the last Gate.

These activities must honor your ANIMAL SPIRIT in all levels of your life. You should also record any dreams or events of note during this time.

An Example Again, here is an actual student example from one card. My animal was the Hare. I drew the 2 of Wands and split it into the squared off sections. How I honor in Spiritual life - the red crystal (passion) and the white crystal (purity of purpose) were the 2 symbols that stood out for me in the top 2 squares. How I honor in Thoughts & Feelings - it was the Key in the middle of the 2 middle squares that stood out. To me that's about opening up, "unlocking" my thoughts & feelings and my intuition. How I honor in daily activities - this one was interesting as it was the closed chest (again in the middle of the 2 squares) that stood out. To me a closed chest stands for hidden truths. It's the Key (my thoughts, feelings) that are crucial to me opening up (hidden truths) so that I can live and act according to my truth. The Key (thoughts, feelings) are also crucial to unlocking the passion and having a purity of purpose. (In the Legacy of Divine Tarot there is also a closed chest in the top half of the card.)

Tarot Shaman: Gate 5 The Invocation of the Animal Spirit “The morning breezes have secrets to tell; don't go back to sleep.” Rumi We come now to the final Gate of this week-long Gated Spreads experience. We hope you have enjoyed learning about the Tarot through the animal symbolism of the cards and by engaging with your life in a Shamanistic approach. We have also looked at the concept of “drill-down” reading with just one card, which you can apply to your general tarot practice, turning one card into a deep reading! In this final Gate we pull together our experience by embodying and being empowered by the animal spirit we have been called by and which we have caught by honoring it.

The Invocation of the Animal Spirit We now invoke and embody the Animal Spirit. This step uses a variation of a magical practice taught by urban shaman and modern chaos magician Jan Fries, whose books we recommend, particularly Visual Magick.

Living the Animal

On a largish sheet of paper, draw a rough sketch of your Animal Spirit. This can be heavily stylistic, symbolic or realistic. Place a cross on 5 places on the diagram. These could be key features such as the eye, a wing, tail, etc. Write in each position, “This is the vision of my spirit”, “This is the spiritual power of my spirit”, “This is the balance of my spirit” or whatever may be appropriate to that part of the animal. Now take your deck and shuffle whilst contemplating the journey that has brought you to this place, the fear you had to overcome, the calling and the catching, and the honoring of your animal spirit. All the Gates have led to this divine moment. Take out a card when you are ready for each of the place on the animal. These cards represent the animal’s response to you. They are the divination for how you can invoke these powers and qualities of your animal spirit. They tell you how to live the animal. So for example, if I had a bat, and I had placed one of my crosses on its ear(s), writing, “This is the secret sense of the Bat, my sprit”, and then drawn the 7 of Disks (Thoth Tarot) in that position, I would read it as follows: “Failure and Sloth – the secret sense of my animal spirit is present and invoked when I give up trying and relax, surrender.”

You will now have five points of invocation of your Animal Spirit. As a Tarot Shaman you can use these cards to draw upon the power of your animal guide, perhaps leaving them visible in your sight before sleep and communing with your animal in dreams.

You may also create a montage of the cards chosen to represent your animal, or otherwise use the cards to remind you of all that you have learnt during this week. Another method to explore is creating an affirmation based on these cards and their relationship to your animal spirit. Here is an example from one student, using her animal spirit of the Horse. The five points were chosen as:

Tail for protection Ear for psychic power Brain/Head for secret knowledge Eye for Vision Legs for spiritual power.

And the cards she received and her interpretations were:

Tail - Strength: strength of character, courage and taming the inner beast. Need to show strength of mind. Ear - 9 Rods: Engage in a high degree of mental and physical activity. Stay focused, concentrate and be disciplined without straining myself.

Brain/Head - Wheel of Fortune: recognize the synchronicities in my life and accept that there is more than the external world. Be adaptable, versatile and have a sense of humor! Eye - Page of Cups: engage in dream-work, active imagination and emotional enthusiasm (seems to be a recurring theme for me lately!) Legs - Queen of Rods: Seize me path and rush enthusiastically forward, devouring details. Follow a path that allows me the full expression of my creative will.

Conclusion “For me there is only the travelling on the paths that have a heart, on any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there I travel – looking, looking, breathlessly”. Carlos Castaneda, p. 185 In honoring your animal spirit, you will discover more avenues and direct communication from that aspect of the universe, and can continue to use your tarot as a tool to bond with that spirit. It will lead you into many new personal discoveries and adventures. There are many other shamanistic methods of exploring the Tarot, and many aspects of animal symbolism which can be pursued. We trust during this week-long taster experience you have been given a new angle on your Tarot, and look forward to welcoming you on our other Gated Spreads in the future. You can share your experiences in our social site, Tarot-Town, and ask questions. The site is free with membership of your national Tarot Association, with many other member benefits.

Bibliography Abram, D. Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology. New York: Vintage Books, 2010. Andrews, T. Animal-Speak. Bates, D. The Way of Wyrd. London: Hay House, 2005. Castenada, C. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. New York: Pocket Books, 1976. Fries, J. Visual Magick. Oxford: Mandrake Press, 2000. Harner, M. The Way of the Shaman. Katz, M. Tarosophy. Chang Mai: Salamander & Sons, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Around the Tarot in 78 Days. Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Tarot Flip. Forge Press, 2012. Plotkin, B. Soulcrafting: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and the Psyche. Novato: New World Library, 2003. Steinbrecher, E. The Inner Guide Meditation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser, 2006. Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974. Wallis, R. J. Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Archeologies & Contemporary Shamans.

Ecstasies,

Alternate

Websites & Resources If you enjoy new learning, and want many more ways to use your Tarot deck, we encourage you to explore our websites. You are also welcome to join us in your national Tarosophy Tarot Association, where as a member you will instantly receive thousands of pages of materials, and tarot video courses for every level. We look forward to seeing you soon on your Tarot journey! Tarosophy Tarot Associations http://www.tarotassociation.net Tarot Professionals Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/groups/tarotprofessionals Free Tarot Card Meanings & Spreads http://www.mytarotcardmeanings.com Hekademia Tarot Course http://www.tarosophyuniversity.com Tarot Town Social Network http://www.tarot-town.com Tarosophy by Marcus Katz http://www.tarosophy.com The Tarot Speakeasy Blog http://www.tarotspeakeasy.com Tarot Book Club http://www.tarotbookclub.com

The Tarot Review http://www.thetarotreview.com TarotCon International Tarot Conventions http://www.tarotconvention.com Fortune-Telling Laws http://www.fortunetellinglaws.com The Original Lenormand Deck http://www.originallenormand.com Learning Lenormand http://www.learninglenormand.com

Kindle Tarot Books & Series Check out all our other books and series for original and exciting ways in which you can use a deck of tarot cards to change your life.

Gated Spreads Series Set 1 Book 1: The Tarot Shaman (Contact Your Animal Spirit) Book 2: Gates of Valentine (Love & Relationships) Book 3: The Resurrection Engine (Change Your Life) Set 2 Book 4: Palace of the Phoenix (Alchemy) Book 5: Garden of Creation (Creativity & Inspiration) Book 6: Ghost Train (Explore Your Past) Set 3 Coming Soon – Enter the Temple of the Gods.

Tarosophy KickStart Series Volume I. Book I: Tarot Flip - Reading Tarot Straight from the Box Book II: Tarot Twist – 78 New Spreads and Methods [paperback] Book III: Tarot Inspire – Tarot for a Spiritual Life

Tarot Life Series Tarot Life: A revolutionary method to change your life in 12 Kindle pamphlets.

1. Discover Your Destiny 2. Remove The Blocks 3. Make Decisions Better 4. Enter the Flow 5. Ride the Lion 6. Connect to Service 7. Find Equality 8. Die To Your Self 9. Entering Unity 10. Becoming the Real [available from October 2013] 11. Your Keys to Freedom [available from November 2013] 12. The Depth of Divinity [available from December 2013]

Also in Print and Kindle Tarosophy: A ground-breaking book packed with original ideas.

Around the Tarot in 78 Days: The ideal beginner book, a three-month course through every card. An award-winning book, recognized by the COVR New Age Industry Award for Best Divination Book 2013.

Tarot Face to Face: Take your tarot out of the box and into life!

The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: Learn the real meanings of the world’s most popular tarot deck. [available Spring 2014]

Tarot Turn Vol. 1 - 3: A massive crowd-sourced reference guide to all 12,200 possible combinations of reversed Tarot card pairs.

May a full deck of possibilities be yours …

THE GATES OF VALENTINE: Gated Spread Book 2 Deepen Your Relationship(s)

By Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz Copyright © Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz, 2013 Published by Forge Press, Keswick All rights reserved.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … Thanks a lot for the fantastic experience, I've now understood a lot about my relationship with relationships! N. T. … areally interesting and powerful experience . C. M. Incredible knowledge so easily shared … This has been a journey in which I have learned a lot of new things and feel very satisfied. L. J. Very moving and effective. I cannot wait for the next gates! Y. I suddenly realized I have been dreaming like crazy since I started these exercises! Very intuitive stuff about my situation, and about my Tarot! L.

We have used real-life examples and authentic feedback throughout this series, anonymously, from our students in Tarot-Town. We thank them for their engagement with these experiences over the years.

About the Authors “A Fox, an Owl, a Bear, a Child and a Sphinx walk into a bar. The barman says ‘I don’t serve Sphinxes. This is a traditional bar’”. Goodwin to Katz, Typical Conversation. Tali Goodwin is the co-author of award-winning and #1 best-selling Tarot books, including Around the Tarot in 78 Days, Tarot Face to Face, and Learning Lenormand. She is also a leading Tarot researcher and is credited with the discovery of A. E. Waite’s second tarot deck, kept secret for a century, published as Abiding in the Sanctuary. She has also uncovered and published the Original Lenormand deck, and with co-author Derek Bain, the original Golden Dawn Tarot images in A New Dawn for Tarot. Her research into the life of Pamela Colman-Smith with new photographs will be published as The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide in Spring 2014. She is co-Director of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide) and organizes the international tarot conventions, TarotCon. Marcus Katz is author of the ground-breaking Tarot book and teaching system, Tarosophy, and is the co-founder of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide). In addition to Tarot books with Tali Goodwin, he is the author of The Magister, an 11-volume opus on the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, The Magician’s Kabbalah, and the forthcoming Path of the Seasons. He teaches students privately in the Crucible Club, available by application.

Contents WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … About the Authors Contents Preface What is the Tarot? What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? The Tarot & Relationships. Chapter 1:

The Ticket to the Tunnel of Love

Chapter 2:

Twists & Turns

Chapter 3:

Steal a Kiss from your Favorite Miss.

Conclusion Bibliography Websites & Resources Kindle Tarot Books & Series

Preface You are about to go on a journey and deepen your relationship to everyone and everything. Grab a Tarot deck, and we are good to go! The purpose of Gated Spreads is to overturn the common use of Tarot cards as a means of “telling” the future, or providing a brief insight into our life and motivations – and hence our future possibilities. The teaching of Tarosophy encourages the use of Tarot as a divine language; one which connects us to the deeper world underneath the apparent one which we often take for granted. A gated spread requires you to take action in your life, from which change emerges naturally. This is not the empty promise of a feelgood self-help book, but a call to action – your action – to change your life through Tarot. Our Gated Spread experiences have been offered for several years to the public, and now for the first time we provide them in handy self-study packages on Kindle. In each of these individual books, you can experience shamanism, relationship and romance insight, creativity, alchemy, and even delve into your ancestry, all using just a tarot deck.

We have also ensured that this is not a book of fictional examples that sound too good to be true. Our books are based only on real-life testing and the actual experience of real people like you, encountering magick often for the first time. We have taught these methods and ran workshops and gated spread weeks for many years, and have hundreds of experiences which have constantly shaped what you are about to experience for yourself. This book is ideal for first time users of Tarot or the experienced reader who is looking to activate the tarot in their life. We have ensured that you are given the necessary instructions and clarifications (from our previous teaching and feedback given by students) to experience true magick in your time using this book. Before you begin, you may wish to join our free Facebook group if you have any questions about Tarot, and also download our free keyword guide to tarot cards and standard spreads from our site: www.mytarotcardmeanings.com

What is the Tarot? The tarot as most commonly recognized is a family of card decks, most often 78 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards (10 numbered cards and 4 Court cards for each suit) and 22 Major cards. There are presently about 1,000 different decks in print or circulation, and many more out-of-print, rare and collectable decks. Although it can be proven that the tarot was developed in the early 15th century, a lot of books still suggest that it was used by the “ancient ...” and then provide lists of the unproven, non-factual ideas which results in a conflation of tarot and those very ideas. The earliest names for the tarot are Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs), but around 1530 A.D. (about 100 years after the origin of the cards) the word tarocchi began to be used to distinguish the tarot cards from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards. You are actually seeing in the cards some direct examples of the triumphs – the procession of floats common at festivals in Italy at the time – particularly in such cards as The Chariot and the Court cards. There is even a Christian tarot in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the cards were used to depict virtues, the liberal arts and sciences, and other aspirational notions from their earliest development. In fact, it could be said that the cards were originally educational or self-development tools, although that could also be debatable.

There is no evidence that the tarot were used by gypsies, originated in Egypt or were used for divination prior to the 1700s, despite popular occult lore that the cards have embodied ‘ancient teaching’ from time immemorial. It was not until a pseudo-connection between the Hebrew letters and the tarot was published in 1781 – by Comte de Mellet, in Antoine Court de Gebélin’s Le Monde Primitif – that esoteric interest began to appropriate the cards to embody occult teaching. The earliest list of the 22 cards which have become known as the Major Arcana is given in a sermon against their use by a monk writing in Latin around 1450-1470 A.D. This sermon is sometimes called the Steele Sermon as it belongs to the collection of Robert Steele. [This above section which we think is so important to teach is repeated in each booklet in this series, and is an extract from Tarosophy, by Marcus Katz].

Which Tarot Deck is Best for This Gated Spread? Our students have used a range of decks for this experience, and of course the standard Waite-Smith is a favorite. However, students have used these decks with particularly good results: The Lovers Tarot The Dreaming Way Tarot Paulina Tarot Shadowscapes Tarot

What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? There are many wrong ideas about the tarot that seem to be popular. We would like to present quickly some common myths about tarot that you may have heard already, and change your view!

1. The tarot did not originate from Egypt, the gypsies, the Templars, Atlantis or a secret order. 2. You do not need to be gifted or given your first tarot deck – you can simply buy a deck for yourself. 3. You do not have to keep your tarot in a silk bag or bag of any particular color. 4. You can let other people touch your cards if you choose. 5. There are no real ‘rules’ in tarot, but some generally agreed good ideas. 6. The keywords for cards are not set in stone; they can be modified depending on the deck, the reading and the question. However, there are basic concepts specific to each card in the deck, which form a basic language. 7. The cards are not evil – no more than any art or printed material is “evil”.

8. You do not have to be intuitive or gifted in some special way – you can learn, and develop your tarot skills in any way. 9. The ‘ancient Celtic Cross’ spread has not been used for centuries, and it is not particularly ancient and it is not Celtic. 10. There is no single right way to read tarot – we encourage every reader to discover their own unique voice.

The Tarot & Relationships. This method of using Tarot is completely unique and is here applied to our relationship(s), with a loved one, partner, husband/wife, family member(s), close friend, working colleague or relationships in general. It requires a week of participation, with a simple drawing of cards taking less than ten minutes each day and then action during the day(s) throughout the week. The aim of the exercise is to explore, develop and change through action our relationship(s). This is why we refer to Tarosophy as “Tarot to engage life, not escape it”. We hope you will find this method entirely revolutionary and useful to you in your personal life as well as a method to teach your own students, friends who are Tarot readers, or clients with whom you use Tarot. Now, to begin our Gates, then, our first spread is a simple one, it is called "Projected History in Relationship": 1. Take out the 16 Court Cards. 2. Shuffle whilst thinking about all the relationships you have had in the past. Take your time. You may use a personal ritual to prepare for this spread, if you wish. 3. When ready, stop shuffling and take out the TOP and BOTTOM cards. 4. Take these two cards and place them about 20cm apart where you can see them.

5. Consider how these two cards reflect your experience of relationships. How do they relate to each other? Make notes if you wish. 6. Within 24 hours, you must be able to move these cards together, so that eventually you can place them together with satisfaction that they are in right relationship. This prepares us to go on our Tunnel of Love experience … As a special bonus, you can select from the list below one link and this will provide you a “guiding card” for the week ahead. This will be selected by the “Seer of Tarosophy Towers” and we will also note a few key-words of what this card portends for you!

Select Your Guiding Card The card you select will call you to recognize one key element of your life during the week ahead. These are selected from the Major cards of the Tarot – simply pick ONE number below to view your card on YouTube, selected by the Seer of Tarosophy Towers. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 This card is for your contemplation and consideration, and acts as a “frame” in which your experience for the week may be seen.

Gates of Valentine: Gate 1 The Ticket to the Tunnel of Love This is the first gate of our Valentines experience, and is called the “Ticket to the Tunnel of Love”. The concept of gated spreads is that they are designed to a fundamental – archetypal – pattern and linked together in a series so that each spread depends on the one before it. Not only that, but each spread requires an engagement in real life in response before progressing to the next spread.

Illus. Steal a Kiss From Your Favorite Miss! In this way, a spread may not make sense unless you have accomplished the task of the previous gates – this is why the technique is called a “gated spread”. Our theme of relationships for this particular journey takes us to the Tunnel of Love, whose first task is to buy a ticket.

To perform the first gate, the ticket, we select out the Minor cards (all 40, Ace to Ten in all four Suits of Pentacles, Cups, Swords and Wands), as we have already utilized a Major Card and two Court Cards. Shuffle the Minors and select one card; this is your ticket card. The ticket card requires you to act on it in relationship within the following day. It depicts a requirement to manifest something – pay in some way – for your ticket. As an example, you might draw the 5 of Wands. In my deck for this experience, the Tarot of Dreams, this shows 5 masculine figures wielding staves in combat against a fiery background. This might indicate to me that tomorrow I need to fight for something in my relationship(s) and perhaps more than once. Not only must you act upon this card as a general theme, a gated spread requires you to actually perform a very deliberate act which you would not have done otherwise, which can be immediately attributed to your chosen card. So I might, for example, make a telephone call or speak to a particular person, or send a document, etc., that I would not have otherwise done. This is directly associated with the nature of the 5 of Wands if it were combative or stressful. Here is the experience of a student:

My Ticket to the Tunnel of Love was the 6 of Swords from the Alchemical Tarot. A loving breeze blows the ship and swords in the same direction. Nature complies when we go with the flow. I read it as “Higher forces keeping us ahead of our troubles”. Get away from troubles and relax. Take a trip. A safe journey ahead of you. With the 6 of Swords, and in observation of my guiding card, the Devil (to recognize dependence and attachment and face up to fear of freedom), I can pay forward to my relationship a space to allow some personal time of each, and also give myself a time to relax. This will allow appreciation of the higher forces blowing the breeze in the direction each of us should go during our own space/time. Then I could bring back a surprise for both of us to share. Whatever that could be! The week ahead will be challenging, intriguing, totally original and magical. We hope that it provides your relationship new insight, development and change - and gives you a whole new way of looking at Tarot.

Gates of Valentine: Gate 2 Twists & Turns This is the second gate of our Valentines experience, and is called the “Twists and Turns in the Tunnel of Love”. As we have seen, Tarosophy turns Tarot into very active, dynamic, oracular experience. You have to relate to the cards in a new way. This also helps you read the cards from deep personal experience – you will have truly lived the Tarot in real life. As we are particularly looking this week at relationship, romance, and love, our next gate lasts for three days – taking us to the final gate of Valentine. On the final day we will reveal who our “favorite miss” is and how we will “steal a kiss” from her! This gate is more flexible, and as we have already encountered the Majors in our first outer courtyard card, the Court Cards in our first gate, and the Minors in our second gate, we use all of the deck for this one. But we do something different – take out all the Cups, Ace to Ten. You should lay these out in a column, in order. Then shuffle the remaining cards whilst contemplating the twists and turns of all relationships and looking up and down the column of cups.

When you are ready, stop shuffling and lay out one card in order from the deck next to each of the Cup cards, starting with the Ace, and ending with the Ten. You should lay out ten cards so that you have two columns, with the Cups in order on one side, and a card paired with each that you have taken from the shuffled deck. The ten pairs represent the twists and turns of the tunnel of love. In every Cup card is depicted an aspect of our emotional life and relationship to the Universe (and others). They also depict our internal self-relationship and the unconscious contracts we create between all the aspects of our self. The card we have taken from our shuffled deck is the divination for how we are best advised to approach these aspects; our attitude or angle. So for all ten aspects of our emotional life in relationship, we are given a card (Minor, Major, Court) that depicts currently the engagement of that aspect in the rest of our life. Together, these ten pairs make a picture of the twists and turns of the tunnel of love! So over the next three days, feel free to explore this spread, and if it prompts actions, take them. It may help wrap up or extend some of the insights achieved already in the week. We have given keywords and phrases below to assist our navigation of the tunnel:

Cups in Relationship Ace: Arousal - what is it that excites you without pause? Two: Proximity - what is it or who that you can get physically close? Three: Similarity - Who are you like and like to be around? Four: Forgiveness - How do you show kindness, appreciation? Five: Inhibition - What holds you back?

Six: Touch - What makes you feel truly in touch with the world and yourself? Seven: Novelty - When was the last time you did something extraordinary? Eight: Vulnerability - Do you remove yourself and avoid relationship? Nine: Disclosure - What secrets do you keep and how open can you be? Ten: Commitment - What do you honor, value and how do make your oaths? So for example, if I pulled the Emperor (IV) against the Ace of Cups, I would be seeing that I needed to be more dynamic about going with what excites me – feeling the fear and doing it anyway! If I then pulled the Page of Wands against the next Cup card, the Two, I would be looking to go on a journey to get close to someone – perhaps a friend. If I next pulled the Seven of Swords against the Three of Cups, that might be warning me of a twist in the tunnel, where someone/something was taking away my ability to be around similar people. And so on for all ten Cups. Here are two of the many combinations which our students have received during their own twists and turns:

3 of Cups (Similarity) – 9 of Pentacles

I am like my sister and like to be around her. The 9 of Pentacles can indicate self-reliance and we are both self-reliant and get on with things. Neither of us likes to ask for help or admit when we need help, except to each other and we are always there for each other.

8 of Cups (Vulnerability) - Do you remove yourself and avoid relationship? Queen of Swords. Please imagine my cackling laughter. Do I remove myself and avoid relationships? Do I ever? Yes. I do it by inventing new problems, new dramas and new reasons to argue. I do it by rationalizing or being hyper-critical of myself, exactly the Queen of Swords. If I can imagine an obstacle between myself and something, you can count on me to do it!

This exercise is designed to be very thought-provoking and provide full navigation of the twists and turns of the tunnel! We look forward to your insights. As you can see, what we have done here – another novel approach of Tarosophy – is extract one area of our lives (emotions) through the map of Tarot (the Cups) and measure everything else against that sequence.

Gates of Valentine: Gate 3 Steal a Kiss from your Favorite Miss. This is the third and finishing gate of our Valentines experience, and is called “Steal a Kiss from your Favorite Miss”. We have travelled together through the tunnel of love, accompanied by our Major Tarot archetypal force, who has been presiding over our journey. We have met two Court cards and brought them together into relationship. We have gone on to buy our ticket and ride the twists and turns of the tunnel. At last, on Valentine’s Day itself (if you are using this book in the week prior to Valentine’s Day), we can steal our kiss. This final day, we reveal that our favorite miss is our very soul. More so, our soul in relationship to the Universe itself. This engagement of ourself and the Universe is the most personal, intimate, presence we hold. It is indeed our Favorite Miss, and has been known in mysticism and magick as the Shekinah, Gnosis, Sophia, all a feminine presence of the divine indwelling in the real world. It is the true mystery of love and relationship - our very own heart open to the Universe. As Crowley wrote, “I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of Union”.

So having dwelt this last week upon our own relationships with regard to others and ourself, we come now to the final gate - the relationship of our soul to the divine. If we have travelled our gates honestly and with courage, we will have nothing to fear from the answer which now awaits our kiss. To perform this final reading, a true divination, simple yet profound, spend a few moments to yourself - for this is a personal reading of the highest order. Then shuffle your deck and lay out four cards in the shape of a X kiss: RECEIVING UNIFIED BY X EXPRESSING

DIVIDED BY

These cards are a kiss from Sophia, from Wisdom herself, accessed by your journey through the gates of the tunnel of love. They tell you truly: RECEIVING: What gift the Universe has for you in love. UNIFIED BY: How you can relate to the Universe spiritually. EXPRESSING: What gift you can bring to the Universe in love. DIVIDED BY: How you avoid relationship and how to transcend that issue.

We look forward to hearing, if you will share, what Sophia has to tell you in this heart of hearts, and trust that this final Day will always be now a reminder of the place of Love in Relationship within the spiritual context of your life.

Conclusion “For me there is only the travelling on the paths that have a heart, on any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there I travel – looking, looking, breathlessly”. Carlos Castaneda, p. 185 We trust during this week-long taster experience you have been given a new angle on your Tarot, and look forward to welcoming you on our other Gated Spreads in the future. You can share your experiences in our social site, Tarot-Town, and ask questions. The site is free with membership of your national Tarot Association, with many other member benefits.

Bibliography Tarot Katz, M. Tarosophy. Chang Mai: Salamander & Sons, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Around the Tarot in 78 Days. Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Tarot Flip. Forge Press, 2012. Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974.

Relationships Lerner, H. The Dance of Intimacy. London: Thorsons, 1999. Person, E. S. Love and Fateful Encounters. London: Bloomsbury, 1989. Rogers, R. Soulmates. London: Pan, 2000.

Websites & Resources If you enjoy new learning, and want many more ways to use your Tarot deck, we encourage you to explore our websites. You are also welcome to join us in your national Tarosophy Tarot Association, where as a member you will instantly receive thousands of pages of materials, and tarot video courses for every level. We look forward to seeing you soon on your Tarot journey!

Tarosophy Tarot Associations http://www.tarotassociation.net Tarot Professionals Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/groups/tarotprofessionals Free Tarot Card Meanings & Spreads http://www.mytarotcardmeanings.com Hekademia Tarot Course http://www.tarosophyuniversity.com Tarot Town Social Network http://www.tarot-town.com Tarosophy by Marcus Katz http://www.tarosophy.com The Tarot Speakeasy Blog http://www.tarotspeakeasy.com Tarot Book Club

http://www.tarotbookclub.com The Tarot Review http://www.thetarotreview.com TarotCon International Tarot Conventions http://www.tarotconvention.com Fortune-Telling Laws http://www.fortunetellinglaws.com The Original Lenormand Deck http://www.originallenormand.com Learning Lenormand http://www.learninglenormand.com

Kindle Tarot Books & Series Check out all our other books and series for original and exciting ways in which you can use a deck of tarot cards to change your life.

Gated Spreads Series Set 1 Book 1: The Tarot Shaman (Contact Your Animal Spirit) Book 2: Gates of Valentine (Love & Relationships) Book 3: The Resurrection Engine (Change Your Life) Set 2 Book 4: Palace of the Phoenix (Alchemy) Book 5: Garden of Creation (Creativity & Inspiration) Book 6: Ghost Train (Explore Your Past) Set 3 Coming Soon – Enter the Temple of the Gods.

Tarosophy KickStart Series Volume I. Book I: Tarot Flip - Reading Tarot Straight from the Box Book II: Tarot Twist – 78 New Spreads and Methods [paperback] Book III: Tarot Inspire – Tarot for a Spiritual Life

Tarot Life Series Tarot Life: A revolutionary method to change your life in 12 Kindle pamphlets.

1. Discover Your Destiny 2. Remove The Blocks 3. Make Decisions Better 4. Enter the Flow 5. Ride the Lion 6. Connect to Service 7. Find Equality 8. Die To Your Self 9. Entering Unity 10. Becoming the Real 11. Your Keys to Freedom 12. The Depth of Divinity

Also in Print and Kindle Tarosophy: A ground-breaking book packed with original ideas.

Around the Tarot in 78 Days: The ideal beginner book, a three-month course through every card. An award-winning book, recognized by the COVR New Age Industry Award for Best Divination Book 2013.

Tarot Face to Face: Take your tarot out of the box and into life!

The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: Learn the real meanings of the world’s most popular tarot deck. [available Spring 2014]

Tarot Turn Vol. 1 - 3: A massive crowd-sourced reference guide to all 12,200 possible combinations of reversed Tarot card pairs.

THE RESURRECTION ENGINE: Gated Spread Book 3 Change Your Life with Tarot & Kabbalah

By Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz Copyright © Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz, 2013 Published by Forge Press, Keswick All rights reserved.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … Wow! I am REALLY going through some changes with this method. S.L. This exercise as well as the others have spoken volumes. Thank you for sharing this experience with us. R. G. Incredible knowledge so easily shared … This has been a journey in which I have learned a lot of new things and feel very satisfied. L. J. Very moving and effective. I cannot wait for the next gates! Y. I suddenly realized I have been dreaming like crazy since I started these exercises! Very intuitive stuff about my situation, and about my Tarot! L.

We have used real-life examples and authentic feedback throughout this series, anonymously, from our students in Tarot-Town. We thank them for their engagement with these experiences over the years.

About the Authors “When you’ve finished 8,000 words, I’ll show you the Sephiroth.” Katz to Goodwin, Typical Conversation. Tali Goodwin is the co-author of award-winning and #1 best-selling Tarot books, including Around the Tarot in 78 Days, Tarot Face to Face, and Learning Lenormand. She is also a leading Tarot researcher and is credited with the discovery of A. E. Waite’s second tarot deck, kept secret for a century, published as Abiding in the Sanctuary. She has also uncovered and published the Original Lenormand deck, and with co-author Derek Bain, the original Golden Dawn Tarot images in A New Dawn for Tarot. Her research into the life of Pamela Colman-Smith with new photographs will be published as The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide in Spring 2014. She is co-Director of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide) and organizes the international tarot conventions, TarotCon. Marcus Katz is author of the ground-breaking Tarot book and teaching system, Tarosophy, and is the co-founder of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide). In addition to Tarot books with Tali Goodwin, he is the author of The Magister, an 11-volume opus on the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, The Magician’s Kabbalah, and the forthcoming Path of the Seasons. He teaches students privately in the Crucible Club, available by application.

Contents WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … About the Authors Contents Preface What is the Tarot? What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? Tarot & Kabbalah Chapter 1:

The Schemata

Chapter 2:

Cogs

Chapter 3:

Fuel

Chapter 4:

Tea Break

Chapter 5:

Struts & Ignition

Conclusion Bibliography Websites & Resources Kindle Tarot Books & Series

Preface Just as it is inconceivable that a ship be without a captain, so too is it impossible that the world be without a ruler. Rabbi Azriel of Gerona You are about to go on a journey and experience Kabbalah. Grab a Tarot deck, and we are good to go! The purpose of Gated Spreads is to overturn the common use of Tarot cards as a means of “telling” the future, or providing a brief insight into our life and motivations – and hence our future possibilities. The teaching of Tarosophy encourages the use of Tarot as a divine language; one which connects us to the deeper world underneath the apparent one which we often take for granted. A gated spread requires you to take action in your life, from which change emerges naturally. This is not the empty promise of a feelgood self-help book, but a call to action – your action – to change your life through Tarot. Our Gated Spread experiences have been offered for several years to the public, and now for the first time we provide them in handy self-study packages on Kindle. In each of these individual books, you can experience shamanism, relationship and romance insight, creativity, alchemy, and even delve into your ancestry, all using just a tarot deck.

We have also ensured that this is not a book of fictional examples that sound too good to be true. Our books are based only on real-life testing and the actual experience of real people like you, encountering magick often for the first time. We have taught these methods and ran workshops and gated spread weeks for many years, and have hundreds of experiences which have constantly shaped what you are about to experience for yourself. This book is ideal for first time users of Tarot or the experienced reader who is looking to activate the tarot in their life. We have ensured that you are given the necessary instructions and clarifications (from our previous teaching and feedback given by students) to experience true magick in your time using this book. Before you begin, you may wish to join our free Facebook group if you have any questions about Tarot, and also download our free keyword guide to tarot cards and standard spreads from our site: www.mytarotcardmeanings.com

What is the Tarot? The tarot as most commonly recognized is a family of card decks, most often 78 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards (10 numbered cards and 4 Court cards for each suit) and 22 Major cards. There are presently about 1,000 different decks in print or circulation, and many more out-of-print, rare and collectable decks. Although it can be proven that the tarot was developed in the early 15th century, a lot of books still suggest that it was used by the “ancient ...” and then provide lists of the unproven, non-factual ideas which results in a conflation of tarot and those very ideas. The earliest names for the tarot are Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs), but around 1530 A.D. (about 100 years after the origin of the cards) the word tarocchi began to be used to distinguish the tarot cards from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards. You are actually seeing in the cards some direct examples of the triumphs – the procession of floats common at festivals in Italy at the time – particularly in such cards as The Chariot and the Court cards. There is even a Christian tarot in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the cards were used to depict virtues, the liberal arts and sciences, and other aspirational notions from their earliest development. In fact, it could be said that the cards were originally educational or self-development tools, although that could also be debatable.

There is no evidence that the tarot were used by gypsies, originated in Egypt or were used for divination prior to the 1700s, despite popular occult lore that the cards have embodied ‘ancient teaching’ from time immemorial. It was not until a pseudo-connection between the Hebrew letters and the tarot was published in 1781 – by Comte de Mellet, in Antoine Court de Gebélin’s Le Monde Primitif – that esoteric interest began to appropriate the cards to embody occult teaching. The earliest list of the 22 cards which have become known as the Major Arcana is given in a sermon against their use by a monk writing in Latin around 1450-1470 A.D. This sermon is sometimes called the Steele Sermon as it belongs to the collection of Robert Steele. [This above section which we think is so important to teach is repeated in each booklet in this series, and is an extract from Tarosophy, by Marcus Katz].

Which Tarot Deck is Best for This Gated Spread? Our students have used a range of decks for this experience, and of course the standard Waite-Smith is a favorite. However, students have used this deck with particularly good results: The Thoth Tarot

What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? There are many wrong ideas about the tarot that seem to be popular. We would like to present quickly some common myths about tarot that you may have heard already, and change your view!

1. The tarot did not originate from Egypt, the gypsies, the Templars, Atlantis or a secret order. 2. You do not need to be gifted or given your first tarot deck – you can simply buy a deck for yourself. 3. You do not have to keep your tarot in a silk bag or bag of any particular color. 4. You can let other people touch your cards if you choose. 5. There are no real ‘rules’ in tarot, but some generally agreed good ideas. 6. The keywords for cards are not set in stone; they can be modified depending on the deck, the reading and the question. However, there are basic concepts specific to each card in the deck, which form a basic language. 7. The cards are not evil – no more than any art or printed material is “evil”.

8. You do not have to be intuitive or gifted in some special way – you can learn, and develop your tarot skills in any way. 9. The ‘ancient Celtic Cross’ spread has not been used for centuries, and it is not particularly ancient and it is not Celtic. 10. There is no single right way to read tarot – we encourage every reader to discover their own unique voice.

Tarot & Kabbalah We will be primarily be teaching ways of approaching Kabbalah through Tarot, and exploring Tarot through Kabbalah. Whilst our “Gates of Valentine” experience covered relationships and the Court Cards, this gated spread covers the Major Arcana and the Tree of Life. We hope you will find this method entirely revolutionary and useful to you in your personal life as well as a method to teach your own students if relevant.

A Brief History of Kabbalah The Kabbalah (a Hebrew word meaning "handed down", or "oral tradition") is the term used to denote a general set of esoteric or mystical teachings originally held within Judaism, but later promulgated to a wider audience in the 12th century onwards through centers of learning such as Spain. It consists of a body of teachings and analysis dealing with the nature of the Universe, the aspects of divinity, and the method of creation. From this set of teachings is derived the role of man in the revealed scheme of things. The history of the Kabbalah is difficult to fix to dates and linear sequences of succession due to its nature as oral, traditional, teachings. Long before printing presses, the Kabbalistic teachings were passed from teacher to pupil as oral teachings and collections of manuscripts, which in turn may have been copies of other sets being used by other teachers. The original impulse of Kabbalah, however, emerged from a first century school of Jewish mysticism termed "Merkabah", meaning "chariot". These mystics utilized secret methods of "spiritual ascent" in order to attain mystical experience. These experiences can be recognized as those common to any modern adept following the occult initiatory system, for example; "the world changed into purity around me, and my heart felt as if I had entered a new world".

The teachings of the Merkabah mystics became part of the "Heikhalot" school, whose name means "palace", referring to the spiritual planes through which the mystics ascended. The description of these journeys seems to bear similarities to the journey of the soul into the Underworld depicted in the Egyptian Book of Coming Forth by Day, with magical words or appropriate names of the gods to be spoken before each door is passed and each palace entered. Three classical texts formulate the basic structure of traditional Kabbalah, being ; The Sefer-ha-Zohar; Book of Splendour - First printed 1558-60 and 1559-60 The Sefer Yetzirah; Book of Formation - First printed in Mantua 1562 The Sefer-ha-Bahir; Book of Light - First printed in Amsterdam 1651 The Zohar was written around 1280-86 by Moses b. Shem Tov de Leon in Guadalajara, north-east of Madrid, Spain, where there was a lot of Kabbalistic activity at this time. Many of the later Kabbalistic schools are formed about these books, finding in them interpretation and meanings revealing the work of God and Creation. The school formed at Safed in the sixteenth century produced many of the leading thinkers of Kabbalah, particularly Rabbi Isaac Luria, called the Ari (1534-1572), and Rabbi Moshe Cordevero, the Ramak (1522-1570). The former is responsible for much of the current structure and cosmology of Kabbalah, as the "Lurianic" school of thought provided answers to many of the more complex issues of Kabbalistic thought, particularly relating to the "breaking of the vessels". The next major historical development of Kabbalah came with the formation of the Hasidic Movement in the mid 1700's, based around the Rabbi Israel, more commonly known as the Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), which means "master of the word", a high mark of respect in Kabbalism.

The Kabbalah later passed into western esotericism through translations via German scholars to English esotericists such as S. M. Mathers and W. W. Westcott, two of the founders of the Golden Dawn. It had already been suggested that Kabbalah and Tarot were associated by Comte de Mellet writing in Antoine Court deGebelin’s “Le Monde Primitif”. It is through these and other occultists such as Eliphas Levi that Kabbalah and Tarot became entwined. We do not delve too deeply here into that history, which you can explore further through the suggested reading list at the conclusion of this present experience.

Resurrection Engine: Gate 1 The Schemata This is the first gate of our Resurrection experience, and is called the “Schemata”. The concept of gated spreads is that they are designed to a fundamental pattern – archetypal – and linked together in a series so that each spread depends on the one before it. Not only that, but each spread requires an engagement in real life in response before progressing to the next spread. In this way, a spread may not make sense unless you have accomplished the task of the previous gates – this is why the technique is called a “gated spread”. For this particular spread, we are teaching Kabbalah and Tarot, particularly the relationship of the Majors to the Paths on the Tree of Life. In doing so, we will also introduce a new concept called “calibrated spreads”, another innovation of Tarosophy. Before we begin our first gate we will perform a calibrated spread which we will examine and learn over the entire week, returning to it so that even if it makes little sense to begin with, by the end of the week, you’ll be able to perform this spread for any event or question in the future. This will be our schemata.

As the theme of our week is resurrection, We would like you to ask this question of this spread – “What aspect of my life which has died requires to be brought to life again?” This is a powerful question, so please do contemplate it before approaching this spread.

The Tree of Life The Tree of Life – the central and most well-known glyph of Kabbalah - provides a comprehensive map of processes and relationships as an idealised structure of creation. The Kabbalistic scholar, Gershom Scholem, writes that the Sephiroth, usually drawn as circles on the diagram: … constitute a well-structured form, in which every part or limb operates upon every other, and not just the higher ones on the lower. The Sefiroth are connected with one another by means of secret “channels,” tsinoroth, whereby each radiates into the other and in which the other is in turn reflected [1]. We will return to these secret channels later, but for now we will use our Tarot and the basic Tree of Life model as a means of examining and exploring the nature of what it is which we wish to resurrect in our life.

Illustration. Tree of Life with roots in heaven.

This method is also particularly useful for exploring a long-past event, one which was traumatic, crucial, life-changing or otherwise notable. It is best used to re-calibrate ones lessons and values which emerge from such events in our lives, whether we believe it to be resolved or otherwise. We would like to thank a particular intermediate group of students who allowed us to test this method with them using important and real-life experiences [2].

This is not just a simple re-imaging of an event in the light of a Tarot reading. It is a comparison of such an event against a congruent structure or map through correspondence. In this manner, we engage with our life experience, calibrating it to a map – refining both in the process. It also honors the structure of both Tarot and Kabbalah in using specific cards for the divination and comparing them to fixed cards on the chosen map – in this case, the system of correspondences as developed and utilized by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The depth of this method and variety of outcomes and insights precludes a comprehensive overview of all potential results. Over this week, the method will be presented and a sample reading given, with a list of some of the main routes of enquiry you might like to pursue on adopting this method. DO NOT worry if this doesn’t make any immediate sense – the aim of this week is to present the method up-front and explore it over the course of the Engine Running! For today, just perform the spread itself and notice whatever you can.

The Method 1. This method uses only the Minor cards. Take the 40 Minor cards, Ace to 10 in each Suit, from your Tarot deck. Set the others to one side.

2. Consider the question “What needs resurrecting?” When you do this spread at other times, you can also ask about a past event, unresolved, or a present unfolding where you wish to explore the lessons being taught or which you need to learn. In effect, this method provides a large contextual frame in which your lifestory can be explored. 3. Shuffle the 40 cards. 4. Lay the top 10 cards out, face-up, in the pattern of the Tree of Life (illustrated below). This is your divination.

Illustration. Tree of Life Layout

The Schemata Analysis Write down next to each Sephirah the numerical difference between the card number (Aces are 1) and the number of the Sephirah. This will indicate the areas in which the event is most aligned and misaligned to the “grand cosmic plan” or “ideal template” of creation.

So if you place a 5 of Wands in the first position, 1, that’s a difference of 4, so write down “4” by that first circle on a piece of paper or copy of this diagram. If the next card was a 2 of Pentacles in position 2, that’s a difference of 0. Example: You notice that the Ace of Swords has fallen into the position of Kether, the first Sephirah, numbered 1 (a difference of none!). Whilst further down the Tree, the 3 of Cups is in the position of Malkuth, numbered 10 (a difference of 7). This would indicate that the event was aligned in its conception, source and root – it started well and powerfully, but ended very misaligned; the 3 of Cups is 7 away from the ideal 10, perhaps suggesting that the nature of companionship (an interpretation of the card) stopped you from fully realizing your ambitions in action. You may also notice whether the alignments and mis-alignments are towards the top of the Tree or the bottom, to the left or to the right. This will indicate whether the event was on rocky ground at its commencement (upper Sephiroth) or completion (lower Sephiroth), or in the aspects of its energy (right pillar) or structure (left pillar).

Example: There are several cards in your reading which are misaligned greatly; these are on the left-hand side of the Tree spread as you are looking at it. These might be the 9 of Wands in position 3, the 10 of Swords in position 5 and the 2 of Cups in position 8. The cards on the other side of the spread seem more congruent, being the 3 of Cups in position 2, the 4 of Pentacles in position 4, and the 9 of Pentacles in position 7. The left hand column has a total variance of 17, the right column a variance of 3 – quite noticeable. This would indicate a major problem in the organisation, structure, rules and regulations or expectations, being on the pillar of Form. The energy of your life is far more successful, on the Pillar of Force, it is just being wasted or mis-applied in the structure. Now look at whether any of these variations or strengths indicates which area(s) of your life require resurrection, according to the associations of the Sephiroth to life. For some I have also given planetary correspondences for those with Astrological knowledge: Kether: Aims, goals, spiritual development Chockmah: Masculinity, power, energy, wisdom Binah: Femininity, understanding, depth Chesed: Expansiveness, love, mercy, charity [Jupiter] Geburah: Rigour, Control, Discipline, Structure [Mars] Tiphareth: Harmony, balance, centeredness [Sun] Netzach: Nature, cycles, habits [Venus] Hod: Learning, knowledge [Mercury] Yesod: Dreams, imagination [Moon] Malkuth: Health & Wealth, Body, Material [Saturn]

So, one advanced student had an example with the 3 of Swords in the position of Netzach, writing: Netzach (Nature, cycles, habits) – 3 of Swords Difference - 4 Divinatory Meaning – A really bad card, in a really bad position. Well, actually, in the right position, and well dignified, I think the Three of Swords can actually be an excellent card – if you're editing a piece of work, or making a business deal the cynicism and critical sharpness of the three make it a fantastic card. Of course, in a spot as emotional as Netzach, it's not so good. Here it speaks to me of an undeveloped, but very sharp, analytical system, tearing apart of Venusian rhythms. A well nurtured Netzach sphere sets the foundations that we fall back on, and the kind of non-book knowledge that we need. The three of swords here speaks to me of imbalance by way of self doubt and destructive thought processes. The overall conclusion he reached on looking over the whole Tree and the differences was quite a revelation to him:

“Interesting, as this spread wobbles. It wobbles quite badly on the left at the top, then gets pulled right back into the middle at Tiphareth... but that in itself is an overcompensation that makes things wobble on the right in the lower part of the tree. All this wobbling and overcompensation creates a stunted product at the end where it's obvious that the whole aim of the process has been more about achieving stability than creating something.”

Illustration: Tree of Life Numbers and Names of Sephiroth

Calibrated Spreads

A calibrated spread is a way of reading the cards against a set template or pattern, an idealized pattern in which the cards are already structured. This is not just a “spread” as it is designed to be read as a measurement against an ideal layout of the cards. The difference between the cards as they are placed and what they “should be” is the indication of how you “measure up” to the perfect situation. There are many ways of doing calibrated spreads and these are more fully explored in Tarosophy, the book. The week ahead will be challenging, intriguing, totally original and magical. We hope that it provides your relationship new insight, development and change - and gives you a whole new way of looking at Tarot.

Resurrection Engine: Gate 2 Cogs This is the second gate of our Resurrection experience, and is simply called “Cogs”. We have the whole of today and tomorrow to look over these loose cogs before we stick them together into our Engine.

The Cogs of the Engine Take a look at these Tarot Cards from your deck: The World The Chariot The Hermit The Emperor If you were to get these together in a reading, what would you think? How would you interpret them? What keywords do you associate with them? Take some time to consider your answer. Now consider them as response to our first gate – “What is it in life I need to resurrect?” How would you interpret these in your own case?

Finally, consider these as four pieces of a single machine. What role do they have in the machine, and if you put something into the machine at the World end of the machinery, how would it come out at the Emperor end? What would each of these cogs do to a piece of light passing through it, or an innocent person such as the Fool? One way of doing this is to suggest lessons for each of the cards mentioned above to teach to the Fool as they encounter the cards on a journey, so for example, the “World” might teach the Fool, “Everything has a purpose”. Then this would indicate that the cog of the Engine represented by the World is “Purpose”. You might also like to consider these “secret” keywords which are from the Tarosophy book, modeled on the responses of almost 50 Tarot readers: World

- Beginning

Chariot – Momentum Hermit – Solitude Emperor – Endurance When you have looked at these four cards as individual cogs and as a sequence, we can now see what we can build from them. See if you can move these cogs around and engage them with each other in different ways, like a jigsaw. This can be done by putting them together and coming up with new concepts, descriptions, lessons, interpretation, divination or keywords to summarize their combinations. You can use these keywords or your own concepts of each card. So for example, put the words for the World and the Chariot together and see what word comes to mind:

Beginning + Momentum = ? (Sprouting, Charging, Spurting?) Then try Hermit and Emperor: Solitude + Endurance = ? (persistence, retreat, resolve?) And when you have done two pairs, put the results of the pairs together, engaging all of the cogs, so for the example above you might end up with: Sprouting + Persistence = A Bulb coming to flower in the Spring. Try this in various combinations.

Conclusion We have chosen these cards for a particular reason which will be explained later. For now we can see how we can work with the Majors as individual cards, in sequence or in combination. These are essential skills for all divination.

Resurrection Engine: Gate 4 Fuel This is the fourth gate of our Resurrection experience, and is where we “fuel” our Engine. This is the first actual proper gate in the sense we use them, as it is an engagement in real life in response to a reading. Which means that you have to do the response before the next spread can be given, otherwise it won’t make any sense! We have the whole of today and tomorrow to look over our previous machining and perform the action required to pass through this gate.

The Fuelling of the Engine Perform a simple three card reading using your entire deck. The question is very simple. What is the first step I can take tomorrow to trigger this resurrection? You then have 1-2 days at most to take this step IN REAL ACTIVITY before the Engine can be completed. Without the fuel of real life, this engine is meaningless.

Further Work (Optional)

If you would like to use your schemata in more detail, you can refer to the MAJOR cards which correspond to the paths connecting to your areas of greatest difference. These will indicate the “lessons” you need to learn to balance this energetic difference or imbalance. So for example if you had a major difference in Chockmah, position 2, the cards connected to that are the FOOL, EMPRESS, EMPEROR and HIEROPHANT. You would then consider what lessons these reflect in that imbalance with regard to your question. A diagram follows below on the Tree of Life and the Major cards.

Illustration. The Tarot on the Tree of Life.

.

Resurrection Engine: Gate 5 Tea Break This is the fifth gate of our Resurrection experience, and is an opportunity for us to continue to fuel our engine, whilst making sense of what we have already accomplished, and preparing for the last few pieces to fall into place. We Resurrectionists call for a Tea Break! We will get back to work tomorrow, but for now let’s take a look at what all of this has been about! We will then complete our engine over the next few days!

The Tree of Life Firstly, of course, we have been learning all about the Tree of Life in Kabbalah with particular respect to how it is used in the Western esoteric system. This is as a map of experience and creation itself. The diagram of Sephiroth (numerical emanations 1-10) and Paths (connections 11-22, corresponding to the Hebrew letters) provides a wonderful framework on which to hang other systems, including Tarot. To further explain, here are some titles, other than those generally given, of the Sephiroth. You may wish to take tea, and now look at these in connection with your Schemata, to see if these explain more about your original calibrated reading.

We have given the English transliteration of the Hebrew letters for each of the Sephirah. You will soon see why this is so important, and discover you have already learnt something quite profound you can do to use your Tarot to understand Kabbalah! The usually given titles are marked in bold, the other descriptions are alternative meanings of the word itself, for example, Kether is usually referred to as the “crown” but it also means “to encompass”. Sephirah

Hebrew

Translations

1. Kether

KThR

Crown, diadem, to surround, beseige, wait, encompass

2. Chockmah

ChKMH

Wisdom, experience, knowledge, intelligence, insight, judgement, science, midwife

3. Binah

BYNH

Understanding, insight, prudence, reason, discernment

Da'ath

DA'aTh

Knowledge, insight, wisdom, understanding

4. Chesed

ChSD

Mercy, grace, piety, beauty, good-will, favour, benefit, love, kindness, charity, righteousness, benevolence, to do good

5. Geburah

GBVRH

Strength, power, force, valour, courage, victory, might, God, hero

6. Tiphareth

ThPhARTh

Beauty, splendour, magnificance, ornament, honour, glory, boast

7. Netzach

NTzCh

Victory, splendour, glory, truth, power, firmness, confidence, eminence. Duration, perpetuity, eternity, lasting, enduring. To excel, be superior, strength, blood, to be chief. Music-master, precentor, to sparkle, shine, win.

8. Hod

HVD

Glory, splendour, majesty, renown, ornament, beauty

9. Yesod

YSVD

Foundation, base, ground, principle, compilation

10. Malkuth

MLKVTh

Kingdom, dominion, realm, reign

Correspondences

Now we can reveal two things you have already learnt: the secret of correspondence and the Kabbalistic technique of the way of permutation, or Tzeruf. These are both powerful techniques and rarely taught or published, so we hope you enjoy your discovery of them both! Firstly, the core of Western esotericism is correspondence – that one thing corresponds to another. Thus, we can correspond the Hebrew letter Mem to the Tarot Card of the Hanged Man and the element of Water. Let us leave aside how this works, why and which system to use, for the moment! So we can see that the Hebrew letters and the Tarot cards correspond: Letter

Path on Tree

Connecting Sephiroth

Tarot Correspondence

Astrological Correspondence

Aleph (A) Beth (B) Gimel (G) Daleth (D) Heh (H) Vau (V) Zain (Z) Cheth (Ch) Teth (T) Yod (Y) Kaph (K) Lamed (L) Mem (M) Nun (N) Samekh (S) Ayin (A’a) Peh (P) Tzaddi (Tz) Qoph (Q) Resh (R)

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

1-2 1-3 1-6 2-3 2-6 2-4 3-6 3-5 4-5 4-6 4-7 5-6 5-8 6-7 6-9 6-8 7-8 7-9 7-10 8-9

0 : FOOL I : MAGICIAN II : PRIESTESS III : EMPRESS IV : EMPORER V : HIEROPHANT VI : LOVERS VII : CHARIOT VIII : STRENGTH IX : HERMIT X : WHEEL XI : JUSTICE XII : HANGED MAN XIII : DEATH XIV : TEMPERANCE XV : DEVIL XVI : TOWER XVII : STAR XVIII : MOON XIX : SUN

Air Mercury Moon Venus Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Jupiter Libra Water Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Mars Aquarius Pisces Sun

Shin (Sh) Tau (Th)

31 32

8-10 9-10

XX : LAST JUDGEMENT XXI : UNIVERSE

Fire Saturn/Earth

Now because Hebrew is taken in Kabbalah as the divine language, reflecting the construction of the Universe, all words have hidden meaning. So if you take a word, such as resurrection, spelt in the Hebrew word for it, ThChYH (Tau-Cheth-Yod-Heh), you can discover the hidden nature of the concept by analysing the letters – and we can do that through correspondence with our existing (or growing!) knowledge of Tarot! So in our system we look at the corresponding Tarot cards: Tau: Cheth:

Universe/World Chariot

Yod:

Hermit

Heh:

Emperor

And we can then discern more about the nature of resurrection from those images and all that we know about them. You may recognize these cards … Yes, they are the COGS in our resurrection engine! You can now start to rapidly unlock Kabbalah with your Tarot knowledge. Here’s one way to start, by analyzing the Hebrew names of the Sephiroth! Students of mine will recognize this technique and may have applied it already, but for others, you can take each Sephiroth spelling as given in the previous table, find the Tarot correspondences for it from the other table, and explore the meanings of each Sephiroth!

As an example, Kether, the Crown, is spelt KThR, corresponding to the Wheel of Fortune, World and Sun. This will tell you a lot about the nature of this most divine Sephirah, and unlock a lot of mysteries to you. When you next read a book on Kabbalah and it talks about Kether, you will already understand a lot about it!

Permutation Another Kabbalistic technique is Tzeruf, meaning permutation. This is a way of re-arranging Hebrew words, particularly names of God, in meditation, to discover hidden mysteries. We of course have been doing this when we performed a Tzeruf on the Hebrew word for resurrection, via illustrations, i.e. Tarot cards! Cool, huh? You may again like to try this with the names of the Sephiroth. That’s a good month’s work for you when you want! Then get a Hebrew dictionary and try more words!

Resurrection Engine: Gate 6 Struts & Ignition This is the sixth and final gate of our Resurrection experience, and combines struts to support our engine, cogged and fuelled, and the ignition key to follow! A summary will complete our work, entitled “Care and Maintenance of a Running Resurrection Engine”.

The Struts The struts which will support our Resurrection Engine are to be found in the Schemata which we received to commence our engineering work! Take a look at the bottom of the Tree of Life and the corresponding Hebrew letters on the paths and Tarot cards:

Illustration: Struts on the Tree of Life. We see here that the three Hebrew letters on the bottom paths leading into Malkuth, the “kingdom” (or World of Action) are Qoph, Shin and Tau, QShTh. This spells the Hebrew word for “rainbow”. Remember a story about a rainbow being set above the earth as a sign?! The Golden Dawn magical order also hinted that this formula was an important magical secret – although they never wrote why! We can further correspondences:

look

at

the

paths

and

see

these

Qoph – Moon – Cycles, Change, Facing the Fear Shin – Last Judgement RESURRECTING

–

Decisions,

Doing,

Acting,

Tau – World – Synthesis, Completion, Wholeness, Finalizing And we can now complete our Engine with three struts by filling in the following – and most importantly in this last gate, ACTING upon them: Qoph: What fear have I faced/will face and did/do it anyway … Shin: What do I DO which makes resurrection happen … Tau: How have I come to finish this event (learning) …

For each strut you can also look at the cards in your schemata reading to see what type and levels of energy (Minor cards) impact upon these being able to support you. So for Qoph, your ability to face fear, look at the two cards you got in Netzach (7) and Malkuth (10) which are connected by Qoph, the Moon. To look at your ability to act, look at the two cards you got in Hod (8) and Malkuth (10), connected by Shin, the Last Judgement. And for your final summary, look at the two cards you placed in Yesod (9) and Malkuth (10), connected by Tau, corresponding to the World card. We would recommend that you complete these sections to ensure satisfactory running of the engine you have built – even if the building was partial, the putting away of it must be complete, otherwise you may trip up over pieces left lying about! You will also see that at least one strut requires that you DO something, perhaps similar to what was implied by the cogs, perhaps something that came out of the schemata.

The Ignition Key The card you select will call you to recognize one key element of your life that has arisen during the week. These are selected from the Major cards of the Tarot – simply pick ONE number below to view your card on YouTube, selected by the Seer of Tarosophy Towers. 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 This card is for your contemplation and consideration, and acts as an “ignition” in which your experience for the week may be seen.

Conclusion We trust during this week-long taster experience you have been given a new angle on your Tarot, and look forward to welcoming you on our other Gated Spreads in the future. You can share your experiences in our social site, Tarot-Town, and ask questions. The site is free with membership of your national Tarot Association, with many other member benefits. We also provide a self-study course in Kabbalah which is only $1/month for 12 months at www.kabbalahcourse.com. Each unit of the course is designed to be studied over a month, with a total of twelve units taking a year to study in total. Each unit comprises a Reading Paper, a Revision Sheet, Exercises, and a Booklist. Selected units contain supplementary material including tables, illustrations, diagrams and further revision material. Available now for only $12.00 for an entire year’s course in Kabbalah! Includes 50 PDF modules, delivered by email monthly.

Notes [1] Gershom Scholem, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead (New York: Schocken Books, 1991), p. 43 [2] Brett Bradford, Liz Manison, Linda Hoyland, Lucy Manera & Tali Goodwin, 2009.

Bibliography Tarot Katz, M. Tarosophy. Chang Mai: Salamander & Sons, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Around the Tarot in 78 Days. Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Tarot Flip. Forge Press, 2012. Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974.

Kabbalah Kabbalah Decoder, Janet introduction, accessible]

Berenson-Perkins

[good

general

Meditation and Kabbalah, Aryeh Kaplan [For in-depth meditations and methods] The Essential Kabbalah, Daniel C. Matt [Extracts from central texts] A Garden of Pomegranates, Israel Regardie [Western esoteric version] The Mystical Qabalah, Dion Fortune [As above] Entrance to the Magical Qabalah, Melita Denning & Osbourne Phillips [As above] The Sefirot, Y. David Shulman [Good descriptions of each Sephirah] Essential Core Texts: The Zohar (ed. Daniel C. Matt), The Bahir (ed. Aryeh Kaplan) & the Sepher Yetzirah (ed. Aryeh Kaplan or earlier version by W. W. Westcott)

Any of the works of Moshe Idel and Gershom Scholem for advanced studies.

Websites & Resources If you enjoy new learning, and want many more ways to use your Tarot deck, we encourage you to explore our websites. You are also welcome to join us in your national Tarosophy Tarot Association, where as a member you will instantly receive thousands of pages of materials, and tarot video courses for every level. We look forward to seeing you soon on your Tarot journey!

Tarosophy Tarot Associations http://www.tarotassociation.net Tarot Professionals Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/groups/tarotprofessionals Free Tarot Card Meanings & Spreads http://www.mytarotcardmeanings.com Hekademia Tarot Course http://www.tarosophyuniversity.com Tarot Town Social Network http://www.tarot-town.com Tarosophy by Marcus Katz http://www.tarosophy.com The Tarot Speakeasy Blog http://www.tarotspeakeasy.com Tarot Book Club

http://www.tarotbookclub.com The Tarot Review http://www.thetarotreview.com TarotCon International Tarot Conventions http://www.tarotconvention.com Fortune-Telling Laws http://www.fortunetellinglaws.com The Original Lenormand Deck http://www.originallenormand.com Learning Lenormand http://www.learninglenormand.com

Kindle Tarot Books & Series Check out all our other books and series for original and exciting ways in which you can use a deck of tarot cards to change your life.

Gated Spreads Series Set 1 Book 1: The Tarot Shaman (Contact Your Animal Spirit) Book 2: Gates of Valentine (Love & Relationships) Book 3: The Resurrection Engine (Change Your Life) Set 2 Book 4: Palace of the Phoenix (Alchemy) Book 5: Garden of Creation (Creativity & Inspiration) Book 6: Ghost Train (Explore Your Past) Set 3 Coming Soon – Enter the Temple of the Gods.

Tarosophy KickStart Series Volume I. Book I: Tarot Flip - Reading Tarot Straight from the Box Book II: Tarot Twist – 78 New Spreads and Methods [paperback] Book III: Tarot Inspire – Tarot for a Spiritual Life

Tarot Life Series Tarot Life: A revolutionary method to change your life in 12 Kindle pamphlets.

1. Discover Your Destiny 2. Remove The Blocks 3. Make Decisions Better 4. Enter the Flow 5. Ride the Lion 6. Connect to Service 7. Find Equality 8. Die To Your Self 9. Entering Unity 10. Becoming the Real 11. Your Keys to Freedom 12. The Depth of Divinity

Also in Print and Kindle Tarosophy: A ground-breaking book packed with original ideas.

Around the Tarot in 78 Days: The ideal beginner book, a three-month course through every card. An award-winning book, recognized by the COVR New Age Industry Award for Best Divination Book 2013.

Tarot Face to Face: Take your tarot out of the box and into life!

The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: Learn the real meanings of the world’s most popular tarot deck. [available Spring 2014]

Tarot Turn Vol. 1 - 3: A massive crowd-sourced reference guide to all 12,200 possible combinations of reversed Tarot card pairs.

THE PALACE OF THE PHOENIX: Gated Spread Book 4 Explore Alchemy & Tarot

By Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz Copyright © Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz, 2013 Published by Forge Press, Keswick All rights reserved.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … I am extremely thankful for these exercises. I feel like I could spend years contemplating these results and still not get to the bottom of the insight I have gained. C.C. This exercise as well as the others have spoken volumes. Thank you for sharing this experience with us. R. G. Incredible knowledge so easily shared … This has been a journey in which I have learned a lot of new things and feel very satisfied. L. J. Very moving and effective. I cannot wait for the next gates! Y. I suddenly realized I have been dreaming like crazy since I started these exercises! Very intuitive stuff about my situation, and about my Tarot! L.

We have used real-life examples and authentic feedback throughout this series, anonymously, from our students in Tarot-Town. We thank them for their engagement with these experiences over the years.

About the Authors “It’s all about alchemy. Everything. It’s all alchemy! Even this! . Oh, it’s cold. Maybe that’s bad alchemy. Is there a bad alchemy? Like an evil alchemy? What about a villain alchemist that goes round turning gold into lead …? I guess that’s actually the mystical quest – to turn everything we think is valuable into the simple matter that it is. Are you making tea?” Goodwin to Katz, Typical Conversation. Tali Goodwin is the co-author of award-winning and #1 best-selling Tarot books, including Around the Tarot in 78 Days, Tarot Face to Face, and Learning Lenormand. She is also a leading Tarot researcher and is credited with the discovery of A. E. Waite’s second tarot deck, kept secret for a century, published as Abiding in the Sanctuary. She has also uncovered and published the Original Lenormand deck, and with co-author Derek Bain, the original Golden Dawn Tarot images in A New Dawn for Tarot. Her research into the life of Pamela Colman-Smith with new photographs will be published as The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide in Spring 2014. She is co-Director of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide) and organizes the international tarot conventions, TarotCon.

Marcus Katz is author of the ground-breaking Tarot book and teaching system, Tarosophy, and is the co-founder of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide). In addition to Tarot books with Tali Goodwin, he is the author of The Magister, an 11-volume opus on the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, The Magician’s Kabbalah, and the forthcoming Path of the Seasons. He teaches students privately in the Crucible Club, available by application.

Contents WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … About the Authors Contents Preface What is the Tarot? What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? The Tarot & Alchemy Chapter 1:

The Mystic Sister

Chapter 2:

The Laboratory

Chapter 3:

The Tree of Mercury

Chapter 4:

The Palace

Conclusion Bibliography Websites & Resources Kindle Tarot Books & Series

Preface Our gold is not the common gold. An old Alchemical Saying. You are about to go on a journey and experience alchemy – the art of turning lead into gold – and maybe more. Grab a Tarot deck, and we are good to go! The purpose of Gated Spreads is to overturn the common use of Tarot cards as a means of “telling” the future, or providing a brief insight into our life and motivations – and hence our future possibilities. The teaching of Tarosophy encourages the use of Tarot as a divine language; one which connects us to the deeper world underneath the apparent one which we often take for granted. A gated spread requires you to take action in your life, from which change emerges naturally. This is not the empty promise of a feelgood self-help book, but a call to action – your action – to change your life through Tarot. Our Gated Spread experiences have been offered for several years to the public, and now for the first time we provide them in handy self-study packages on Kindle. In each of these individual books, you can experience shamanism, relationship and romance insight, creativity, alchemy, and even delve into your ancestry, all using just a tarot deck.

We have also ensured that this is not a book of fictional examples that sound too good to be true. Our books are based only on real-life testing and the actual experience of real people like you, encountering magick often for the first time. We have taught these methods and ran workshops and gated spread weeks for many years, and have hundreds of experiences which have constantly shaped what you are about to experience for yourself. This book is ideal for first time users of Tarot or the experienced reader who is looking to activate the tarot in their life. We have ensured that you are given the necessary instructions and clarifications (from our previous teaching and feedback given by students) to experience true magick in your time using this book. Before you begin, you may wish to join our free Facebook group if you have any questions about Tarot, and also download our free keyword guide to tarot cards and standard spreads from our site: www.mytarotcardmeanings.com

What is the Tarot? The tarot as most commonly recognized is a family of card decks, most often 78 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards (10 numbered cards and 4 Court cards for each suit) and 22 Major cards. There are presently about 1,000 different decks in print or circulation, and many more out-of-print, rare and collectable decks. Although it can be proven that the tarot was developed in the early 15th century, a lot of books still suggest that it was used by the “ancient ...” and then provide lists of the unproven, non-factual ideas which results in a conflation of tarot and those very ideas. The earliest names for the tarot are Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs), but around 1530 A.D. (about 100 years after the origin of the cards) the word tarocchi began to be used to distinguish the tarot cards from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards. You are actually seeing in the cards some direct examples of the triumphs – the procession of floats common at festivals in Italy at the time – particularly in such cards as The Chariot and the Court cards. There is even a Christian tarot in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the cards were used to depict virtues, the liberal arts and sciences, and other aspirational notions from their earliest development. In fact, it could be said that the cards were originally educational or self-development tools, although that could also be debatable.

There is no evidence that the tarot were used by gypsies, originated in Egypt or were used for divination prior to the 1700s, despite popular occult lore that the cards have embodied ‘ancient teaching’ from time immemorial. It was not until a pseudo-connection between the Hebrew letters and the tarot was published in 1781 – by Comte de Mellet, in Antoine Court de Gebélin’s Le Monde Primitif – that esoteric interest began to appropriate the cards to embody occult teaching. The earliest list of the 22 cards which have become known as the Major Arcana is given in a sermon against their use by a monk writing in Latin around 1450-1470 A.D. This sermon is sometimes called the Steele Sermon as it belongs to the collection of Robert Steele. [This above section which we think is so important to teach is repeated in each booklet in this series, and is an extract from Tarosophy, by Marcus Katz].

Which Tarot Deck is Best for This Gated Spread? Our students have used a range of decks for this experience, and of course the standard Waite-Smith is a favorite. However, students have used this deck by Robert Place with particularly good results: The Alchemical Tarot

This is also the deck which features in this gated spread, being based entirely on Alchemical images.

What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? There are many wrong ideas about the tarot that seem to be popular. We would like to present quickly some common myths about tarot that you may have heard already, and change your view!

1. The tarot did not originate from Egypt, the gypsies, the Templars, Atlantis or a secret order. 2. You do not need to be gifted or given your first tarot deck – you can simply buy a deck for yourself. 3. You do not have to keep your tarot in a silk bag or bag of any particular color. 4. You can let other people touch your cards if you choose. 5. There are no real ‘rules’ in tarot, but some generally agreed good ideas. 6. The keywords for cards are not set in stone; they can be modified depending on the deck, the reading and the question. However, there are basic concepts specific to each card in the deck, which form a basic language. 7. The cards are not evil – no more than any art or printed material is “evil”.

8. You do not have to be intuitive or gifted in some special way – you can learn, and develop your tarot skills in any way. 9. The ‘ancient Celtic Cross’ spread has not been used for centuries, and it is not particularly ancient and it is not Celtic. 10. There is no single right way to read tarot – we encourage every reader to discover their own unique voice.

The Tarot & Alchemy Whilst there are many alchemical symbols in Tarot cards, there is no consistent and definite connection between the two. However, many decks have featured alchemy as part of their design in the last two centuries during the “occultism” of Tarot from its original roots. We have provided some reading material suggestions at the end of this experience for those wishing to discover more. We also have a 6-week course in Alchemy and Tarot as part of our Hekademia 2year Tarot course. We would like to begin this experience by sharing with you a section of a famous alchemical text, “the chemical wedding”. It provides us a symbolic invitation, to enter the journey of alchemy and approach what we have called “the palace of the phoenix”. This version was edited, from the Foxcroft English edition of 1690, into modern English by Adam McLean and Deirdre Green, and formed the basis of the Magnum Opus Edition, published in 1984.

The Invitation to the Alchemical Journey “On an evening before Easter Day, I sat at a table, and having (as my custom was) in my humble prayer sufficiently conversed with my Creator, and considered many great mysteries (whereof the Father of Lights his Majesty had shown me not a few) and being now ready to prepare in my heart, together with my dear Paschal Lamb, a small, unleavened, undefiled cake; all of a sudden arose so horrible a tempest, that I imagined no other but that through its mighty force, the hill on which my little house was founded would fly into pieces.

But inasmuch as this, and the like from the Devil (who had done me many a spite) was no new thing to me, I took courage, and persisted in my meditation, till somebody in an unusual manner touched me on the back; whereupon I was so hugely terrified, that I dared hardly look about me; yet I showed myself as cheerful as (in such occurrences) human frailty would permit. Now the same thing still twitching me several times by the coat, I looked back, and behold it was a fair and glorious lady, whose garments were all sky-coloured, and curiously (like Heaven) bespangled with golden stars; in her right hand she bore a trumpet of beaten gold, on which a Name was engraved which I could well read but am as yet forbidden to reveal it. In her left hand she had a great bundle of letters of all languages, which she (as I afterwards understood) was to carry to all countries. She also had large and beautiful wings, full of eyes throughout, with which she could mount aloft, and fly swifter than any eagle. I might perhaps have been able to take further notice of her, but because she stayed so little time with me, and terror and amazement still possessed me, I had to be content. For as soon as I turned about, she turned her letters over and over, and at length drew out a small one, which with great reverence she laid down upon the table, and without giving one word, departed from me. But in her mounting upward, she gave so mighty a blast on her gallant trumpet, that the whole hill echoed from it, and for a full quarter of an hour after, I could hardly hear my own words.

In so unlooked for an adventure I was at a loss, how either to advise or to assist my poor self, and therefore fell upon my knees and besought my Creator to permit nothing contrary to my eternal happiness to befall me. Whereupon with fear and trembling, I went to the letter, which was now so heavy, that had it been mere gold it could hardly have been so weighty. Now as I was diligently viewing it, I found a little seal, on which a curious cross with this inscription, IN HOC SIGNO VINCES, was engraved. Now as soon as I espied this sign I was the more comforted, as not being ignorant that such a seal was little acceptable, and much less useful, to the Devil. Whereupon I tenderly opened the letter, and within it, in an azure field, in golden letters, found the following verses written.

This day, today Is the Royal Wedding day. For this thou wast born And chosen of God for joy Thou mayest go to the mountain Whereon three temples stand, And see there this affair. Keep watch Inspect thyself And shouldst thou not bathe thoroughly The Wedding may work thy bane. Bane comes to him who faileth here Let him beware who is too light. Below was written : Sponsus and Sponsa.

As soon as I had read this letter, I was presently like to have fainted away, all my hair stood on end, and a cold sweat tricked down my whole body. For although I well perceived that this was the appointed wedding, of which seven years before I was acquainted in a bodily vision, and which now for so long a time I had with great earnestness awaited, and which lastly, by the account and calculation of the planets, I had most diligently observed, I found so to be, yet could I never foresee that it must happen under such grievous perilous conditions. For whereas I before imagined, that to be a welcome and acceptable guest, I needed only to be ready to appear at the wedding, I was now directed to Divine Providence, of which until this time I was never certain. I also found by myself, the more I examined myself, that in my head there was nothing but gross misunderstanding, and blindness in mysterious things, so that I was not able to comprehend even those things which lay under my feet, and which I daily conversed with, much less that I should be born to the searching out and understanding of the secrets of Nature, since in my opinion Nature might everywhere find a more virtuous disciple, to whom to entrust her precious, though temporary and changeable, treasures.

I found also that my bodily behavior, and outward good conversation, and brotherly love towards my neighbor, was not duly purged and cleansed. Moreover the tickling of the flesh manifested itself, whose affection was bent only to pomp and bravery, and worldly pride, and not to the good of mankind: and I was always contriving how by this art I might in a short time abundantly increase my profit and advantage, rear up stately palaces, make myself an everlasting name in the world, and other similar carnal designs. But the obscure words concerning the three temples particularly afflicted me, which I was not able to make out by any after-speculation, and perhaps should not have done so yet, had they not been wonderfully revealed to me. Thus stuck between hope and fear, examining myself again and again, and finding only my own frailty and impotence, not being in any way able to succor myself, and exceedingly amazed at the aforementioned threatening, at length I betook myself to my usual and most secure course - after I had finished my earnest and most fervent prayer, I laid myself down in my bed, so that perchance my good angel by the Divine permission might appear, and (as it had sometimes formerly happened) instruct me in this doubtful affair. Which to the praise of God, my own good, and my neighbours' faithful and hearty warning and amendment, did now likewise come about.

For I was yet scarcely fallen asleep, when I thought that I, together with an innumerable multitude of men, lay fettered with great chains in a dark dungeon, in which, without the least glimpse of light, we swarmed like bees one over another, and thus rendered each other's affliction more grievous. But although neither I nor any of the rest could see one jot, yet I continually heard one heaving himself above the other, when his chains and fetters had become ever so slightly lighter, though none of us had much reason to shove up above the other, since we were all captive wretches. Now when I with the rest had continued a good while in this affliction, and each was still reproaching the other with his blindness and captivity, at length we heard many trumpets sounding together and kettle drums beating in such a masterly fashion, that it even revived us in our calamity and made us rejoice. During this noise the cover of the dungeon was lifted up from above, and a little light let down to us. Then first might truly have been discerned the bustle we kept, for all went pell-mell, and he who perchance had heaved himself up too much, was forced down again under the others' feet. In brief, each one strove to be uppermost. Neither did I myself linger, but with my weighty fetters slipped up from under the rest, and then heaved myself upon a stone, which I laid hold of; howbeit, I was caught at several times by others, from whom yet as well as I might, I still guarded myself with hands and feet. For we imagined no other but that we should all be set at liberty, which yet fell out quite otherwise.

For after the nobles who looked upon us from above through the hole had recreated themselves a while with our struggling and lamenting, a certain hoary-headed ancient man called to us to be quiet, and having scarcely obtained this, began (as I still remember) to speak on thus: If the poor human race Were not so arrogant It would have been given much good From my mother's heritage, But because the human race will not take heed It lies in such straits And must be held in prison. And yet my dearest mother Will not regard their mischief, She leaves her lovely gifts That many a man might come to the light, Though this may chance but seldom That they be better prized Nor reckoned as mere fable. Therefore in honour of the feast Which we shall hold today, That her grace may be multiplied A good work will she do : The rope will now be lowered Whoever may hang on to it He shall be freed.”

Illus. Judgment, Alchemical Tarot, © Robert M. Place

Palace of the Phoenix: Gate 1 The Mystic Sister

Illustration. The Mystic Sister Leading the Alchemist. This is the first gate of our Palace of the Phoenix experience, and is called “The Mystic Sister”. In many alchemical texts, we find the presence of a mysterious guide, often female, who leads the alchemist. We must contact this guide to lead us to the Palace of the Phoenix. We will do this by conducting our opening reading with a spread entitled, “The Lights of Nature” spread. You will see in the alchemical image above similarities with Tarot images.

The Lights of Nature Spread

Take your cards, shuffle and cut whilst considering the life of Nature as a teacher. If the whole of the Universe is a teacher, what is it teaching? Consider that it is interesting that we humans are more prone to paranoia – the belief that everyone and everything is conspiring against us, rather than pronoia – the belief that everything is conspiring secretly to help us. Lay out the cards in a circle, face down. Move a card in from each of the four quarters into the centre of the circle. Turn these 4 cards up and place them left-to-right in the order you pulled them and stack the others remaining in the circle. Take the base card from that stack as card 5 underneath the line of 4 cards previously selected.

Asking the Mystic Sister To engage with this spread, we must consult with the mystic sister by asking a series of questions which open up the relationship between the 4 cards we have divined. In this unique spread method we do not use “positional meaning” but rather linking questions between the cards themselves. This is based on “clean language”. Clean language is a system of working with metaphors which was modelled by Lawley & Tomkins, based on the work of the therapist David Grove (1950-2008). [1] This system has been introduced into a diverse range of communications including the work of many teachers, trainers, coaches, researchers and the police. [2]. It is covered more in Tarosophy. You can either carry out a mental, verbal or written dialogue as follows, taking the first card and then asking the second card … 1.

And is there anything else about [card 1]?

What does card 2 tell you about card 1, “is there anything else about it”? Particularly in the light of the question, what is the teaching of Nature? Write down or consider what comes to mind comparing the first card in the light of the second. Then we develop the answer further by summarizing that response and then asking… 2. And what kind of [answer from card 2] is that [answer from card 2] [in the light of card 3]? We then progress by asking … 3. of card 4]?

And that’s [answer from card 3] like what [in the light

And finally … 4. And when [answer from card 4] what does the light of [card 5] teach? As an example, if I drew: The Sun 9 of Pentacles Ace of Pentacles Page of Wands And the Base card: 5 of Pentacles I would have this likely dialogue:

“ … and is there anything else about the Sun (in the light of the 9 of Pentacles, card 2)? Well, the Sun causes things to grow and eventually leads to a situation where everything has grown fully – but this may not be the happiness that was expected at the beginning. The child has grown up and feels a sense of entrapment. So I now see that the Sun has a negative side if not constantly renewed; we mustn’t allow expansion to overwhelm us and entrap us. In fact, this is a very alchemical reading already – and something Nature itself teaches, as anyone with an overgrown garden would appreciate. So I answer the first question with “overgrowing”. I then turn to the next question and ask “… and what kind of ‘overgrowing’ is that in the light of the Ace of Pentacles (card 3)?” Well, it is a gift – and provides the seed for the next season, I see in the Ace of Pentacles. That being overwhelmed can sometimes offer us the opportunity to prune and cut, hack and slash even, and find space for new seeds of opportunity. In alchemy, the philosophers stone was not just the goal – it was then used as a “seed of gold” to turn everything else into gold, like Midas. Again, Nature – the mystic sister – teaches us to regularly take time to clear out old stuff; clothes, haircut, friends, memories and make space for the new. So my answer is “clearing”. I then turn to the next question and ask, “… and that’s clearing like what, in the light of the Page of Wands?” I see that as suggesting that clearing is part of making a new journey, and part of the journey, a chance to gain a fresh perspective on the landscape and set new goals and ambitions.

So I answer “ambition”. I then ask, “… and when ambition [these questions are not grammatical!] what does Nature teach in the light of the 5 of Pentacles (the 5th, base card). I answer, “when we are ambitious, we sometimes have to go through periods of feeling on the outside, impoverished, and not part of the mainstream. We have to use this time to struggle forwards, because it is just like winter – necessary to prepare the ground for the seeds sown to grow forth in Spring”. In an alchemical sense, the teaching of Nature is here something that we might phrase as ‘in the darkness, the seed of gold grows”. Perhaps you can also develop an “alchemical saying” from your reading of your cards in this gate? We trust this makes some sort of sense, as it is quite a radical method of reading Tarot. In Tarosophy we explore free-form methods of developing conversational readings using the whole panoply of clean language questions! Whilst we hold our first converse with the Mystic Sister in this “Lights of Nature” spread, you may also wish to consider the following two Alchemical Images from Atlanta Fugiens, by Michael Maier. What Tarot cards do they resemble, in what way – and are there any significant differences?

Conclusion The gates in this particular spread are constructed upon a particular pattern and will open themselves up to slowly reveal the Philosophers Stone where it is held secret in the Palace of the Phoenix. We have a long way to go, and little time. May the Light of Nature and our Secret Sister in the Work guide us!

Illus. High Priestess, Alchemical Tarot, © Robert M. Place

Palace of the Phoenix: Gate 2 The Laboratory This is the second gate of our Palace of the Phoenix experience, and is called “The Laboratory”. Whilst we are all familiar with the concept of a laboratory, to the Alchemist, these were not simply places of chemical experiment – the inner world and the outer world were both seen as places where the “Great Work” of transmutation could be hastened. In this gate, we really start to experience the nature of “gated spreads” as the spread here feeds into the next.

The Sulpher Spread

Take your deck and shuffle whilst contemplating the following three processes:

Calcination – the slow burning fire, drying out all things to their basic elements. Solution – the dissolution and resolution of a solid into a liquid. Coagulation – cooling something liquid into a solid. These are usually seen as the first three processes of alchemy and often the essential steps as the work progresses. They also relate to the elements – Calcination (Fire), Solution (Water) & Coagulation (Earth). The next process, Sublimation, corresponds to Air, but here we are going to look at just the first three alchemical processes. So we take the next symbol of the essential elements of Alchemy, the symbol of Sulpher, as our spread design, and we are going to add a little sulphur into our laboratory – our life – through the first three processes of Alchemy! We will try not to blow anything up. Incidentally, Robert Place has the following cards as symbolizing these three processes: Calcination - Hanged Man Solution - Which card do you think may correspond to solution? Coagulation -

Devil

Adding the Sulpher

So using the symbol of Sulpher, we take 6 cards from our shuffled deck and lay them out to represent these three basic processes:

1 – Calcination: What do I need put patient work into accomplishing in the next 2 days to progress to the gate of the palace wherein lies the true philosophers stone? 2 – Solution: What must I change my mind about? 3 – Coagulation: What must I fix once and for all? 4/5/6 – What resources can I use to ensure these are balanced? The important thing with these three processes is that you divine from your reading real-world tasks, causing change in your life. Applying these notions of alchemy to the world to see what happens when you work with three processes together. You may find they all inter-relate or all appear separate.

Illus. 5 of Swords, Alchemical Tarot, © Robert M. Place We will examine what transpires and the insight adding sulphur to your life through this gate brings when we reach the next gate. It is important to ensure that you gain some “result” from this “experiment”, whether it be a change in circumstances or a state of mind, a new decision or insight, as that will be the material for the next spread.

Conclusion This is one way that gated spreads work, engaging key esoteric processes in life then channelling them into the next gate/process in a structured magical manner.

Palace of the Phoenix: Gate 3 The Tree of Mercury This is the third gate of our Palace of the Phoenix experience, and is called “The Tree of Mercury”. We now apply Mercury – the quicksilver of the Alchemist – to our result from the previous spread. We should by now have had some direct result from our actions arising from the previous gate. If not, please await a result before continuing on through this gate – the secret of Gated Spreads is that they are indeed gates! So go back to the previous spread until a result is obtained.

The Tree of Mercury Spread

We now use the symbol of the third of the most important elements – Mercury – to lay out our spread. We take the “salt” of our first work, the result of our “sulphur” and process it through the “mercurial” waters into manifestation. We do this by laying out the symbol of Mercury on the Tree of Life. This templating of one symbol onto another is a key feature in the Western Esoteric Initiatory System and arises from the concept of correspondence. In fact, many Golden Dawn rituals are based around these symbols being invisibly (astrally) templated onto the temple floor. So as you move around the temple and encounter various experiences, these relate to the “Sepiroth” of the Tree of Life that you walking across!

So, take the result from your previous Sulpher activities and consider it as a seed for further growth. You may not know how to manifest this as yet, so this is why we add Mercury in our alchemical experiment.

Take your deck, shuffle and then layout the cards in sequence, 1 – 9 as the diagram, starting at the Sephirah known as “Chockmah” and going down the last position of “Malkuth” at the bottom of the Tree. Watch the order – you are making the “lightning flash of creation” zig-zagging from one side of the Tree to the other. When you get to the bottom, lay out the 9th card then start again at the top by laying the next card on position 1, and going back down the lightning flash again to position 9. Then keep repeating until you have all the cards laid down in 9 piles, with the cards in each pile obviously face-up, with one card facing up at the top.

Your “event” is the “Kether” of this gated spread – the top Sephirah in the Tree of Life, so we haven’t laid out a pile for it. The other cards now facing up in each position show how we can manifest this in our lives, using Mercurial clarity and responsiveness: 1 [Chockmah] What must be energized 2 [Binah] What must be structured 3 [Chesed] What can expand and must be encouraged 4 [Geburah] What can contract and must be restricted 5 [Tiphareth] Where to find balance 6 [Netzach] Where to take advantage - opportunities 7 [Hod] Where to find assistance and learning 8 [Yesod] What you will find happening in your life that tells you things are settling 9 [Malkuth] The manifestation of the seed event - outcome The cards in each pile can also be read as a narrative sequence explaining more about that particular aspect of the reading.

Palace of the Phoenix: Gate 4 The Palace This is the fourth and final gate of our Palace of the Phoenix experience, and is the Palace itself. Here we discover the Alchemists Stone and the secret of the Great Work by combining our work with Salt, Sulpher and Mercury in the preceding Gates. First, we would ask you to consider this very early mystical experience described in terms of an alchemical process – it is by Zosimos of Panoplis, 3rd Century A.D.

The Visions of Zosimos The composition of the waters, and the movement, and the growth, and the removal and restitution of bodily nature, and the splitting off of the spirit from the body, and the fixation of the spirit on the body are not operations with natures alien one from the other, but, like the hard bodies of metals and the moist fluids of plants, are One Thing, of One Nature, acting upon itself. And in this system, of one kind but many colours, is preserved a research of all things, multiple and various, subject to lunar influence and measure of time, which regulates the cessation and growth by which the One Nature transforms itself.

And saying these things, I slept, and I saw a certain sacrificing priest standing before me and over and altar which had the form of a bowl. And that altar had fifteen steps going up to it. Then the priest stood up and I heard from above a voice say to me, "I have completed the descent of the fifteen steps and the ascent of the steps of light. And it is the sacrificing priest who renews me, casting off the body's coarseness, and, consecrated by necessity, I have become a spirit." And when I had heard the voice of him who stood in the altar formed like a bowl, I questioned him, desiring to understand who he was. He answered me in a weak voice saying, "I am Ion, Priest of the Adytum, and I have borne an intolerable force. For someone came at me headlong in the morning and dismembered me with a sword and tore me apart, according to the rigor of harmony. And, having cut my head off with the sword, he mashed my flesh with my bones and burned them in the fire of the treatment, until, my body transformed, I should learn to become a spirit. And I sustained the same intolerable force." And even as he said these things to me and I forced him to speak, it was as if his eyes turned to blood and he vomited up all his flesh. And I saw him as a mutilated image of a little man and he was tearing at his flesh and falling away.

And being afraid I woke and considered, "Is this not the composition of the waters?" I thought that I was right and fell asleep again. And I saw the same altar in the shape of a bowl and water bubbled at the top of it, and in it were many people endlessly. And there was no one whom I might question outside of the bowl. And I went up to the altar to view the spectacle. And I saw a little man, a barber, whitened with age, and he said to me, "What are you looking at?" I answered that I wondered at the boiling water and the men who were burning but remained alive. And he answered me saying, "The spectacle which you see is at once the entrance and the exit and the process." I questioned him further, "What is the nature of the process?" And he answered saying, "It is the place of the practice called the embalming. Men wishing to obtain virtue enter here and, fleeing the body, become spirits." I said to him, "And are you a spirit?" And he answered, saying, "Both a spirit and a guardian of spirits." As he was saying these things to me and the boiling increased and the people wailed, I saw a copper man holding a lead tablet in his hand. He spoke aloud, looking at the tablet, "I counsel all those in mortification to become calm and that each take in his hand a lead tablet and write with his own hand and that each bear his eyes upward and open his mouth until his grapes be grown."

The act followed the word and the master of the house said to me, "Have you stretched your neck up and have you seen what is done?" And I said that I had and he said to me, "This man of copper whom you have seen is the sacrificial priest and the sacrifice and he who vomited out his own flesh. To him was given authority over the water and over those men in mortification." And when I had seen these visions, I woke again and said to myself, "What is the cause of this vision? Is this not the white and yellow water, boiling, sulphurous, divine?"And I found that I understood well. And I said that it was good to speak and good to hear and good to give and good to receive and good to be poor and good to be rich. And how does the Nature learn to give and to receive? The copper man gives and the water-stone receives; the thunder gives the fire that flashed from it. For all things are woven together and all things are taken apart and all things are mingled and all things combined and all things mixed and all things separated and all things are moistened and all things are dried and all things bud and all things blossom in the altar shaped like a bowl. For each, by method and by weight of the four elements, the interlacing and separation of the whole is accomplished for no bond can be made without method. The method is natural, breathing in and breathing out, keeping the orders of the method, increasing and decreasing. And all things by division and union come together in a harmony, the method not being neglected, the Nature is transformed. For the Nature, turning on itself, is changed. And the Nature is both the nature of the virtue and the bond of the world.

And, so that I need not write to you of many things, friend, build a temple of one stone, like ceruse, like alabaster, like marble of Proconnesus in appearance, having neither beginning nor end in its building. Let it have within, a pure stream of water glittering like sunlight. Notice on what side the entry to the temple is and take your sword in hand and seek the entry. For thin-mouthed is the place where the opening is and a serpent lies by it guarding the temple. First seize him in your hands and make a sacrifice of him. And having skinned him, cut his flesh from his bones, divide him, member from member, and having brought together again the members and the bones, make them a stepping stone at the entry to the temple and mount upon them and go in, and there you will find what you seek. For the priest whom you see seated in the stream gathering his colour, is not a man of copper. For he has changed the colour of his nature, and become a man of silver whom, if you wish, after a little time, you will have as a man of gold. Then, again wishing to ascend the seven steps and to behold the seven mortifications and, as it happened, one day only did I ascend the way. Retracing my steps, I thereupon ascended the way many times. And on returning, I could not find the way, and becoming discouraged, not seeing how to get out, I fell asleep. And I saw in my sleep a certain little man, a barber, wearing a red robe and royal garments, and he stood outside of the place of the mortifications and said, "What are you doing, Man?" I said to him, "I stand here because I have missed every road and am lost." He said, "Follow me".

And going out, I followed him. And being near to the place of the mortifications, I saw the little barber man leading me and he cast into the place of the mortifications and his whole body was consumed by fire. Seeing this, I fled and trembled from the fear and I woke and said to myself, "What is this that I have seen?" And again I took thought and determined that this barber man is the man of copper. It is necessary for the first step to throw him into the place of the mortifications. My soul again desired to ascend -- the third step also. And again, alone, I went along the way, and as I drew near the place of the mortifications, again I got lost, losing sight of the path, and stood, out of my mind. And again I saw an old man of hair so white my eyes were blinded by the whiteness. His name was Agathodaemon. And the white old man, turning, looked on me for a whole hour. And I asked him, "Show me the right way." He did not turn toward me but hastened to go on the right way. And going and coming in this manner he quickly effected the altar. As I went up to the altar I saw the white old man. He was cast into the mortifications. O Creator-gods of celestial natures -- straightaway the flames took him up entire, which is a terrible story, my brother. For from the great energy of the mortifications his eyes became full with blood. And I questioned him saying, "Why do you lie there?" And he opened his mouth and said, "I am the man of lead and I am withstanding an intolerable force."

And then I woke out of fear and sought in myself the cause of this fact. And again I reflected and said to myself, "I understand well that thus must one cast out the lead -- truly the vision is concerning the combination of liquids." And again I knew the theophany and again the sacred altar and I saw a certain priest clothed in white celebrating those same terrible mysteries and I said, "Who is this?" And answering he said to me, "This is the priest of the Adytum. He wishes to put blood into the bodies, to make the eyes clear, and to raise up the dead." And again I fell asleep for a while and while I was mounting the fourth step I saw one with a sword in his hand coming out of the east. And I saw another behind him, holding a disk, white and shining and beautiful to behold. And it was called the meridian of the Sun and I approached the place of the mortifications and the one who held the sword said to me, "Cut off his head and sacrifice his meat and muscles part by part so that first the flesh may be boiled according to the method and that he might then suffer the mortifications." And waking, I said, "I understand well that these matters concern the liquids of the art of the metals." And the one who held the sword said "You have fulfilled the seven steps beneath." And the other said at the same time as the casting out of the lead by all the liquids, "The Work is completed."

How Does Nature Learn to Give and Receive?

This question is one at the beating heart of the Palace of the Phoenix, which as you may have guessed whilst reading the above text, is none other than your own body. The Phoenix here is the spiritual self purged of its attachments and reborn, and the Stone is what is left once mortification is complete – a temple, a palace, which is a “pure stream of water glittering like sunshine” – your own awareness which arises from the very transformations of Nature, with no reflection other than itself. To ascend these final steps to the Palace of the Phoenix, we will turn back and draw together the previous Gates.

The Palace of the Phoenix Spread

Illustration. The Emerald Tablet. Take your deck and shuffle, recalling the previous work you have accomplished. Take out 3 cards for each question below as your divination:

1. What is the “lovely gift” spoken of in the rhyme at the closing of the invitation of the Chymical Wedding? What is Nature presenting me to “come to the light?” 2. And having seen that gift, how do I apply the lesson I learnt from Nature when I conversed with the Mystical Sister? What do I do in response to the gift? 3. And in taking that response, how do I best utilize the inevitable presence of Sulpher? How do I maintain balance as Nature Gives and Receives? 4. So at last I reveal the Philosophers Stone, the Pure Mercury. What is the Nature of Nature when it only reflects itself in and through my-self? These 12 cards represent 3 steps in 4 stages through the Alchemical process of the previous Gates. They should be used as contemplation pieces for a week if you choose, as they may not always be immediately obvious on first reading. If you require ideas for the meaning of the cards, download our free 22-page guide at www.mytarotcardmeanings.com. Do consider your experiences in each of the Gates as shedding light on each of the first three questions which derive from those same Gates.

Conclusion

We trust you have found this Alchemical experience through Tarot of interest and engaged in your Life. There are many avenues to pursue your interest in Alchemical symbolism – with Robert Place’s Alchemical Tarot, with Jungian considerations, or looking at the alchemical symbolism in the Thoth deck. You may like to read Mary K. Greer’s article on the latter in the special “Thoth” issue (#4) of Tarosophist International, free to members of Tarosophy Tarot Associations.

Conclusion “The Sun and his shadow finish the Work”. An old Alchemical Saying We trust during this week-long taster experience you have been given a new angle on your Tarot, and look forward to welcoming you on our other Gated Spreads in the future. You can share your experiences in our social site, Tarot-Town, and ask questions. The site is free with membership of your national Tarot Association, with many other member benefits.

Notes 1. James Lawley & Penny Tompkins, Metaphors in Mind (London: The Developing Company Press, 2000) 2. Clean Language Site, http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk [last accessed 18th January 2010]

Bibliography Katz, M. The Alchemical Amphitheatre: A 6-month self-study course in Alchemy. Forge Press, 2008. In Entrance to the Alchemical Amphitheatre By Marcus Katz, M.A. (Western esotericism) you will learn to live a Transformative life through Magical Alchemy! This book, reviewed independently on Amazon as “simply genius” is an Alchemy course in six monthly modules available as a download or paperback book version. In this thoroughly researched course, combining a range of learning styles, you'll experience four simple alchemical experiments using household materials, seven unique praxis meditations, the Ritual of the Dew for transforming your life, and Alchemical Adorations, amongst a range of readings and alchemical exercises. Suitable for beginners and adepts alike, using research of the highest academic level, informed through thirty years practical experience of teaching and western esoteric studies. Find out who wrote the Rosicrucian Manifestos, why Alchemy and Dreaming are related, the secrets of the Emerald Tablet, and much, much more! Katz, M. Tarosophy. Chang Mai: Salamander & Sons, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Around the Tarot in 78 Days. Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Tarot Flip. Forge Press, 2012. Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974.

Websites & Resources If you enjoy new learning, and want many more ways to use your Tarot deck, we encourage you to explore our websites. You are also welcome to join us in your national Tarosophy Tarot Association, where as a member you will instantly receive thousands of pages of materials, and tarot video courses for every level. We look forward to seeing you soon on your Tarot journey!

Tarosophy Tarot Associations http://www.tarotassociation.net Tarot Professionals Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/groups/tarotprofessionals Free Tarot Card Meanings & Spreads http://www.mytarotcardmeanings.com Hekademia Tarot Course http://www.tarosophyuniversity.com Tarot Town Social Network http://www.tarot-town.com Tarosophy by Marcus Katz http://www.tarosophy.com The Tarot Speakeasy Blog http://www.tarotspeakeasy.com Tarot Book Club

http://www.tarotbookclub.com The Tarot Review http://www.thetarotreview.com TarotCon International Tarot Conventions http://www.tarotconvention.com Fortune-Telling Laws http://www.fortunetellinglaws.com The Original Lenormand Deck http://www.originallenormand.com Learning Lenormand http://www.learninglenormand.com

Kindle Tarot Books & Series Check out all our other books and series for original and exciting ways in which you can use a deck of tarot cards to change your life.

Gated Spreads Series Set 1 Book 1: The Tarot Shaman (Contact Your Animal Spirit) Book 2: Gates of Valentine (Love & Relationships) Book 3: The Resurrection Engine (Change Your Life) Set 2 Book 4: Palace of the Phoenix (Alchemy) Book 5: Garden of Creation (Creativity & Inspiration) Book 6: Ghost Train (Explore Your Past) Set 3 Coming Soon – Enter the Temple of the Gods.

Tarosophy KickStart Series Volume I. Book I: Tarot Flip - Reading Tarot Straight from the Box Book II: Tarot Twist – 78 New Spreads and Methods [paperback] Book III: Tarot Inspire – Tarot for a Spiritual Life

Tarot Life Series Tarot Life: A revolutionary method to change your life in 12 Kindle pamphlets.

1. Discover Your Destiny 2. Remove The Blocks 3. Make Decisions Better 4. Enter the Flow 5. Ride the Lion 6. Connect to Service 7. Find Equality 8. Die To Your Self 9. Entering Unity 10. Becoming the Real 11. Your Keys to Freedom 12. The Depth of Divinity

Also in Print and Kindle Tarosophy: A ground-breaking book packed with original ideas.

Around the Tarot in 78 Days: The ideal beginner book, a three-month course through every card. An award-winning book, recognized by the COVR New Age Industry Award for Best Divination Book 2013.

Tarot Face to Face: Take your tarot out of the box and into life!

The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: Learn the real meanings of the world’s most popular tarot deck. [available Spring 2014]

Tarot Turn Vol. 1 - 3: A massive crowd-sourced reference guide to all 12,200 possible combinations of reversed Tarot card pairs.

THE GARDEN OF CREATION: Gated Spread Book 5 Explore Your Creativity

By Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz Copyright © Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz, 2013 Published by Forge Press, Keswick All rights reserved.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … I am extremely thankful for these exercises. I feel like I could spend years contemplating these results and still not get to the bottom of the insight I have gained. C.C. This exercise as well as the others have spoken volumes. Thank you for sharing this experience with us. R. G. Incredible knowledge so easily shared … This has been a journey in which I have learned a lot of new things and feel very satisfied. L. J. Very moving and effective. I cannot wait for the next gates! Y. I suddenly realized I have been dreaming like crazy since I started these exercises! Very intuitive stuff about my situation, and about my Tarot! L.

We have used real-life examples and authentic feedback throughout this series, anonymously, from our students in Tarot-Town. We thank them for their engagement with these experiences over the years.

About the Authors “You know, the Tarot is a Blank Bible – for everyone to fill in.” Goodwin to Katz, Typical Conversation. Tali Goodwin is the co-author of award-winning and #1 best-selling Tarot books, including Around the Tarot in 78 Days, Tarot Face to Face, and Learning Lenormand. She is also a leading Tarot researcher and is credited with the discovery of A. E. Waite’s second tarot deck, kept secret for a century, published as Abiding in the Sanctuary. She has also uncovered and published the Original Lenormand deck, and with co-author Derek Bain, the original Golden Dawn Tarot images in A New Dawn for Tarot. Her research into the life of Pamela Colman-Smith with new photographs will be published as The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide in Spring 2014. She is co-Director of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide) and organizes the international tarot conventions, TarotCon. Marcus Katz is author of the ground-breaking Tarot book and teaching system, Tarosophy, and is the co-founder of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide). In addition to Tarot books with Tali Goodwin, he is the author of The Magister, an 11-volume opus on the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, The Magician’s Kabbalah, and the forthcoming Path of the Seasons. He teaches students privately in the Crucible Club, available by application.

Contents WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … About the Authors Contents Preface What is the Tarot? What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? The Tarot & Creativity Chapter 1:

Garden Plan

Chapter 2:

Stepping Stones

Chapter 3:

Talking Fountain

Chapter 4:

Labyrinth

Conclusion Bibliography Websites & Resources Kindle Tarot Books & Series

Preface The business of making up stories has been going on a long time. Alexander Steele (ed.) Writing Fiction, p. 2 You are about to go on a journey and experience magical creativity. Grab a Tarot deck, and we are good to go! The purpose of Gated Spreads is to overturn the common use of Tarot cards as a means of “telling” the future, or providing a brief insight into our life and motivations – and hence our future possibilities. The teaching of Tarosophy encourages the use of Tarot as a divine language; one which connects us to the deeper world underneath the apparent one which we often take for granted. A gated spread requires you to take action in your life, from which change emerges naturally. This is not the empty promise of a feelgood self-help book, but a call to action – your action – to change your life through Tarot. Our Gated Spread experiences have been offered for several years to the public, and now for the first time we provide them in handy self-study packages on Kindle. In each of these individual books, you can experience shamanism, relationship and romance insight, creativity, alchemy, and even delve into your ancestry, all using just a tarot deck.

We have also ensured that this is not a book of fictional examples that sound too good to be true. Our books are based only on real-life testing and the actual experience of real people like you, encountering magick often for the first time. We have taught these methods and ran workshops and gated spread weeks for many years, and have hundreds of experiences which have constantly shaped what you are about to experience for yourself. This book is ideal for first time users of Tarot or the experienced reader who is looking to activate the tarot in their life. We have ensured that you are given the necessary instructions and clarifications (from our previous teaching and feedback given by students) to experience true magick in your time using this book. Before you begin, you may wish to join our free Facebook group if you have any questions about Tarot, and also download our free keyword guide to tarot cards and standard spreads from our site: www.mytarotcardmeanings.com

What is the Tarot? The tarot as most commonly recognized is a family of card decks, most often 78 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards (10 numbered cards and 4 Court cards for each suit) and 22 Major cards. There are presently about 1,000 different decks in print or circulation, and many more out-of-print, rare and collectable decks. Although it can be proven that the tarot was developed in the early 15th century, a lot of books still suggest that it was used by the “ancient ...” and then provide lists of the unproven, non-factual ideas which results in a conflation of tarot and those very ideas. The earliest names for the tarot are Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs), but around 1530 A.D. (about 100 years after the origin of the cards) the word tarocchi began to be used to distinguish the tarot cards from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards. You are actually seeing in the cards some direct examples of the triumphs – the procession of floats common at festivals in Italy at the time – particularly in such cards as The Chariot and the Court cards. There is even a Christian tarot in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the cards were used to depict virtues, the liberal arts and sciences, and other aspirational notions from their earliest development. In fact, it could be said that the cards were originally educational or self-development tools, although that could also be debatable.

There is no evidence that the tarot were used by gypsies, originated in Egypt or were used for divination prior to the 1700s, despite popular occult lore that the cards have embodied ‘ancient teaching’ from time immemorial. It was not until a pseudo-connection between the Hebrew letters and the tarot was published in 1781 – by Comte de Mellet, in Antoine Court de Gebélin’s Le Monde Primitif – that esoteric interest began to appropriate the cards to embody occult teaching. The earliest list of the 22 cards which have become known as the Major Arcana is given in a sermon against their use by a monk writing in Latin around 1450-1470 A.D. This sermon is sometimes called the Steele Sermon as it belongs to the collection of Robert Steele. [This above section which we think is so important to teach is repeated in each booklet in this series, and is an extract from Tarosophy, by Marcus Katz].

Which Tarot Deck is Best for This Gated Spread? Our students have used a range of decks for this experience, and of course the standard Waite-Smith is a favorite. However, students have used these decks with particularly good results: The Dragon Tarot The Tarot of the Silicon Dawn The Waite-Smith Tarot

As every deck tends to follow the “Hero’s Journey” (in fact, the Fool’s journey) in its structure, this particular gated spread experience is suited to any tarot deck – perhaps choose one that you are not used to, or really don’t like – or love! The only deck that won’t work for this is one which doesn’t interest you or cause any passion – this is a creative exercise!

What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? There are many wrong ideas about the tarot that seem to be popular. We would like to present quickly some common myths about tarot that you may have heard already, and change your view!

1. The tarot did not originate from Egypt, the gypsies, the Templars, Atlantis or a secret order. 2. You do not need to be gifted or given your first tarot deck – you can simply buy a deck for yourself. 3. You do not have to keep your tarot in a silk bag or bag of any particular color. 4. You can let other people touch your cards if you choose. 5. There are no real ‘rules’ in tarot, but some generally agreed good ideas. 6. The keywords for cards are not set in stone; they can be modified depending on the deck, the reading and the question. However, there are basic concepts specific to each card in the deck, which form a basic language. 7. The cards are not evil – no more than any art or printed material is “evil”.

8. You do not have to be intuitive or gifted in some special way – you can learn, and develop your tarot skills in any way. 9. The ‘ancient Celtic Cross’ spread has not been used for centuries, and it is not particularly ancient and it is not Celtic. 10. There is no single right way to read tarot – we encourage every reader to discover their own unique voice.

The Tarot & Creativity This method of using Tarot is completely unique and is here applied to our ability to create stories from images – and our own lives. Over the course of about a week, you can use these gated spreads to create a story, novel, poem, or narrative. In doing so, you’ll also be learning how to read tarot as a creative process, and read your own life as a hero’s journey – or heroine’s! The experience also comes with a twist at the end – as should any good story, perhaps – when you see that you can now use the skills learnt in the first few days to divine your life. We recommend you work through this experience slowly, and in sequence, to get the most out of the final few days. These experiences are carefully constructed, and have been tweaked over years of student experiences. Whilst they are deceptively simple on the surface, they can be radical in actual practice. The aim of the exercise is to explore, develop and change through creativity our own awareness of our life as a journey. This is why we refer to Tarosophy as “Tarot to engage life, not escape it”. We hope you will find this method entirely revolutionary and useful to you in your personal life as well as a method to teach your own students, friends who are Tarot readers, or clients with whom you use Tarot.

The Garden of Creation: Gate 1 Garden Plan

Illustration. Forking Paths. This is the first gate of our Garden of Creation experience, and is called “Garden Plan”. The concept of gated spreads is that they are designed to a fundamental pattern – archetypal – and linked together in a series so that each spread depends on the one before it. Not only that, but each spread requires an act of creation before progressing to the next spread. In this way, a spread may not make sense unless you have accomplished the task of the previous gates – this is why the technique is called a “gated spread”.

For this particular spread, we are teaching Tarot to encourage your imagination and creativity, whilst also allowing you to unconsciously learn new methods of approaching the skills of Tarot reading. In this case, we will be installing through our work and exercises the skills of pattern-recognition, connection-making and narrative – leading to the intuitive leaps so much part of the Tarot reader’s repertoire.

The Garden Walk

Illustration: Garden Gate So in this first day we start with a simple spread but an unusual technique – those who have been on other Gated Spread experiences will be used to weird approaches by now! We are going to create a new imaginative piece each by the end of this week – whether it be a project, poem, story, article, essay – something new that is not here yet. The Universe is waiting with bated breath!

Our first step is to sit and shuffle our deck - any deck is “tuned” this method, although I suspect you’ll get best results from a deck which is at the far ends of either your most favorite or least favorite decks, those you are not particularly bothered about will be less provocative and engaging. Whilst doing so, think of all the times in your life when you have been creative, imaginative and playful. Then take the top 10 cards from the deck and throw them to the floor or table, face-up! Spread them out a little – they should be slightly scattered.

Illustration: Garden Paths Cards

Turn the rest of the deck upside-down to reveal the base card (in the case above, the STAR) and place that somewhere suitable to act as a “Garden Gate” into the spread. Then we simply go for a Tarot walk to discern the plan between the various cards. You can choose any route at all, starting from the “Gate” card and meandering through the other cards as you wish. Sketch out the route you take, and pause when you feel you have exited the garden out another card. In the example route below from the garden spread above, I walked from the STAR “gate”, to the Empress, the 2 of Wands, 5 of Pentacles and then exited with the MAGICAN.

Illustration: Garden Path Cards Marked with Route Number these routes (it is best to have at least 3 connections) and write down the connecting cards. In this example: 1: Star – Empress 2: Empress – 2 Wands 3: 2 Wands – 5 Pentacles 4: 5 Pentacles – Magician

Now write a brief impression of the nature of the route between each pair of connecting cards, against each numbered path. This should take into account everything you know about the cards, or merely the pictures. You can use Kabbalistic or Numerological information, intuition, Astrological correspondences, keywords … anything.

So, for example, I might write: 1: Falling from the heavens. Sky to Earth. The drop. 2: Son sets sail, leaving home. 3: Hard times from hopeful beginnings. 4: A mentor teaches those who come inside. Choices. Repeat this path-walking to discover a number of connecting paths in the structure of the garden. See which cards always seem to determine the same meaning to their connecting paths, and which cards suddenly appear to mean very different things when connecting with different cards. See - more importantly - what themes emerge in common across any or all of the paths chosen in the same garden. Here is a student example, using the Dragon Tarot.

1st Path: The Straight path right across the middle of the garden: - Empress (the gate) to the Hanged Dragon - Hanged Dragon - Knight of Coins - Knight of Coins - Four of Swords - Four of Swords - Six of Coins (Leaving the Garden) Setting out encouraged and nourished, meeting with the first obstacle, which is a riddle

Having solved the riddle, the goal and the path become clear and straight-forward. Pursuing the way with vigour, determination and clarity, taking a deserved rest. Making a well-considered decision and going onto the gate out of the garden, where the “treasure” is gained. The Knight is the one who is taking this path. But he first has to find himself (his identity, his gold and his path) through the riddle of the Hanged Dragon. The solving of the riddle involves considerable hardship, probably even a sacrifice (of quite another kind than the Knight would be accustomed to, for example it is not his knighttypical task to slay the dragon). The main stations of this path from Hanged Dragon to Four of Swords fell into a stair-like pattern, which very well shows the steady progress towards his goal (the treasure - a more mature identity and/or control over new resources) The numerical value of the cards together is 20. This relates this path to Judgment. The Knight has to heed a call (solve the riddle) to open an avenue which ultimately leads to a new life/a new level of consciousness/a more integrated Self. 2nd Path: Circle around the complete garden (far side): - Empress to Four of Cups - Four of Cups to Chariot - Chariot to Four of Swords - Four of Swords to Blasted Tower - Blasted Tower to Five of Cups

- Five of Cups to Two of Coins - Two of Coins to Queen of Coins (leaving the garden) This path is taken by one of the Empress’ children (baby dragons): Setting out well-trained in care and compassion by your Empress-Mother, you cannot refuse the dragon who asks for help in feeding his/her young. Having fulfilled this work, the dragon makes good on his/her word and takes you up on a ride to unbelievable new vistas. But all good things have to end and you find yourself at a place of rest. You have to leave, though, because there is a sudden fire in a tower nearby and you have to go and see if you can be of help there. On coming to the Blasted Tower you are hurt by falling stones, but you meet your dragon again, who rapidly explains that he had to dismantle this evil structure by force and fire. Together you flee the scene across the water. With the help of the dragon you are healed in an enchanted forest. When you are recovered you are invited by the Queen of Coins, the guardian of the enchanted forest. She reminds of of your Mother, the Empress, and she gifts you with a golden egg to help you survive in the wider world to which you have to pass now through the Gate leading away from the Garden.

The cards add up to XI - Justice: The works done out of compassion, though they seemed a deviation or hold-up at the time, brought ultimately the reward of (inner) peace, healing and strength. Both paths such have the numerical value of 2, which relates them to the High Priestess, which symbolizes the “enchanted garden” of a closed-off otherworld and the secret which opens its doors.

Conclusion Exercises in making connections can prove to unlock creative thinking but also practice us in connection-making during readings. Whilst we make such connections, we might also sense emergent patterns, which we will explore as we progress through this gated spread. This particular garden spread is a useful change from fixed meaning spreads. There are many ways of learning pattern recognition, narrative, the oracular voice and more and these are more fully explored in Tarosophy, the book.

Garden of Creation: Gate 2 Stepping Stones

Illustration: Stepping Stones. This is the second gate of our Garden of Creation experience, and is called “Stepping Stones”. Here we will take a more linear path through our garden, using the types of cards as stepping stones to take us from one element of a creation to another. This is most suitable for creating a novel, so have fun!

The Stepping Stones 1. Split your deck into three piles containing the 22 Majors in one, the 56 Minors in another and the 16 Court Cards in the third. Shuffle each deck and lay them face ‐ down. Select cards from the appropriate pile as indicated below to create the cards for your story. 2. The first card, choose from the Court Card pile. This is the Hero(ine), and depicts his ordinary life. What sort of character is he (or she) and what sort of life does he lead?

3. The next card is a Major card and is the call to adventure. What changes in this person’s life to start them on their journey? 4. The next card is a Minor card and is the nature of their refusal to go on this journey, engage with this event or opportunity. What do they do? How do they respond? 5. The next card, a Court Card (or you can select a Major Card) shows their Mentor. Who or What encourages them, teaches them, provokes them to change, and how? 6. The next card, a Minor, shows the first threshold that must be crossed, to enter a different world. 7. The next three cards (choose from any pile) indicates the tests, allies and enemies they encounter in this new situation. 8. The next card, a Major, shows the next threshold and the nature of the inmost cave – the secret heart of this story, a revelation, where they encounter the ordeal (select a Minor or Major card) and gain the reward (select a Minor or Major card). 9. They then take the road back to their starting ‐ point (choose a Minor card) and cross a third threshold experiencing a transformation or resurrection. Finally, they return with a boon or elixir, a philosopher’s stone and gift to bring to their previous situation. This is indicated by the final card, a Major. This sequence is based on the mythic journey, or hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell and recast in contemporary style for authors, playwrights and screenwriters in Christopher Vogler’s The Writers Journey.

Creating Your Story

You may wish to refer back to your notes from the garden plan and see if the “thematic elements” which arose from your connecting the cards in that spread can provide an underpinning for your story in “stepping stones”. This is one of the many ways in which Gated Spreads are not like other spreads – they are specifically designed in reverse from a final destination, so that each gate feeds into another, and just doing one in the middle will not be as effective as meeting the gates challenges in sequence. In this sense, of course, each spread and gated spread sequence is a journey! Here is an example from the notes of a student using the unusual deck, the Tarot of the Silicon Dawn. My first card is the Progeny (Page) of the Void. She just wants to get the hell out of there. It's no place to live - it's nowhere at all. Life is bleak and dark, with nothing to look forward to. The only possible option is escape. (Or, to quote Beavis and Butthead, "this sucks. Change it!") Next is the Fool (the wintery one): The Fool doesn't know where she's going, but anything is better than staying here. The only thing to do is to strike off for the unknown! Will she realize she has those wings? The dark shadows of the cliff she's on suggest the darkness of the void.

Resistance: 6 of Cups: Not sure what to make of this; I could say the resistance is about being comfortable in the familiar but so far the familiar has not looked especially comfortable. But the unknown can be scary... Maybe cups = emotions/feelings that perhaps it isn't so bad? Perhaps fear of going wild after finally leaving the void behind? None of my interpretations are terribly satisfactory, because there is really nothing keeping the her in the void, except perhaps perception. P of Wands: This is all about springing forth into the natural world, birthing one's self, coming to LIFE! Having come from out of nowhere, thriving and blossoming, like a sprout pushing up through the soil. As a helper, since they are both Progeny it could be another young adventurer - someone who knows about the natural world, how to forage for food etc, and who offers her encouragement and advice. Besties. But perhaps someone who can't come along on the journey - she is rooted where she is. The blackness of space doesn't bother her as she is strong and vibrant and her energy comes from within. 6 of Swords: The hacker card. Best get ready! Gear must be gathered and prepped! You don't want to go out into the world unprepared. Here's where you could put in a montage if this were a movie. ;-) Tests, allies, enemies: Empress, 0 of Void, P of Cups, 5 of Cups:

I'm having a hard time seeing the Empress as a test. Perhaps the test is that our hero must become her own Empress, but she doesn't know how. That's the point of this journey, to go from nothingness to lush embodiment. But from the beginning, it seems unachievable - an impossible quest. She looms so far above! Is she wearing a mask? Can our hero even see her goal? 0 of Void shows a white butterfly fluttering across the blackness. Drawing unexpected strength from where she came from - using her knowledge of the void to help herself escape it. Progeny of Cups - another ally. She knows her way around out there, and she is warm and welcoming. Buddy sequence in a film! 5 of Cups - another challenge. Don't get carried away! Hang on if you are going to fly! Or perhaps the P of Cups wasn't as friendly as she appeared. In any case, her attempt to help has had unanticipated consequences, and our hero once more travels on her own. Fortitude (aka Strength). Our hero will have to find her way through a strange place, guarded by a lion and a six armed goddess who is also holding up the roof. Definitely a threshold! But unlike the Empress, where she loomed over us, we're on the same plane with this card.

The ordeal: Ace of Cups. A pregnant mermaid with two sets of breasts and a boa. I'm going to go all old-school here and say that the ordeal will have to do with getting in touch with her emotional side and not just being a rootless adventurer. And also this ties back in with the 6C as "resistance" in that she knew her journey would inevitably bring her here and she didn't want to have to deal with it, even though she had to get out of the void. In the void, you feel nothing. Beyond it, there is a risk of feeling too much. The reward: The Hermit. Having found the fortitude necessary to face her own inner emotions, she is now comfortable within herself and has no need of assistance from anyone else. Her inner light glows as she continues her adventure, on her own terms. The road back: 8 of Wands. Going underground. Unaffected by storms outside, planning and orchestrating the next step. Returning to the void but in her own way, on her own terms. Prepared and ready; strong. Final card: The Magician. Our hero is now fully conversant in the ways of the underworld and the overworld. The void might not be so dark if you have a candle (or your own light).

Conclusion We can utilize the cards in specific ways to creative dramatic narratives. These are seen in multiple aspects, where the Majors are archetypal forces at play, the Minors the events in everyday life manifesting those forces and acting as teachers, and the Court Cards personalities embodying these archetypal energies in mixed characters.

Whilst practicing creating these stories in this manner, you are also unconsciously learning (“installed”) a new sense of how these cards represent these elements in a spread for a divination. You may find your ability to read cards progressively increasing and deepening as you practice these gates. There is a universal story pattern which is the “Mono-myth” and all our lives partake of this mythic structure which is revealed in stories and any creative act. You may find that your garden plan and stepping stones already reveal a lot about your own story.

Garden of Creation: Gate 3 Talking Fountain

Illustration. The Talking Fountain. This is the third gate of our Garden of Creation experience, and is called “The Talking Fountain”. You’ll find this part of the journey in our garden somewhat different again from the stepping stones and the plan, as it is even more freeform. In this gate, we start to build some dialogue, rather than connection and narrative, with the cards themselves. So find your favorite or most mystifying deck, and prepare to find its voice.

The Talking Fountain Take your deck and shuffle it. Turn it face-down. Ask one of the following questions (or your own variation if one comes to mind):

1. What sort of story is my life? 2. What kind of magic are you? 3. When the Universe Talks, What is its Tale? 4. What will the world or people grow into? 5. What is being created? These all represent different aspects of “dialogue” which occurs when we read Tarot, perform an astrological consultation or other divination. We have multiple dialogues – conversations – with our deck, our own response, the client, sometimes divine sources and sometimes the symbols and associations of the deck. These questions are based on each aspect of dialogue – 1, You; 2, Tarot; 3, Universe; 4, Others; 5, Creation. Now turn up the first card. Imagine that all these five aspects are answering the one question you have chosen, through the card, you, the Universe, etc. Hear what the card answers – actually hear it as dialogue. So I might have asked, “What is being created” and the first card is the Knight of Coins in my Golden Deck by Kat Black. I might hear, “A single world is being created, slowly, over immense periods of time. My horse is Matter and the muzzled dog is Time. We seek slowly. I hold aloft the staff of spirit, of ascent, but it is carried along by creation itself …” Now ask another question, or enter into dialogue with the deck in response to this first card, by making your own statement, question or interruption.

I might say, “Well, that’s all very interesting, but what about God?” Then pick the next card. I pick the 5 of Wands. Hear what it has to tell you … “God is chaos and confusion, the constant turmoil of life, building to an unknown plan. The cockerel crows for the sun, but time moves on swiftly and nothing is ever complete.” And continue the dialogue – “Ahah? So you are saying there is no plan?” 10 of Swords: “Everything has been fixed and fated. The dog of time comes to chew on the corpse of matter. You cannot escape what is being created out of yourself.” “Oh, well that sounds bleak –“ 8 of Cups: “It is. In the ruins of your own plans you can only hope to pass through unscathed and not get trapped by distractions. Only by movement can you avoid noticing the darkness.” And so on. Have a good old talk with your Tarot – hopefully not as morose or as stern a voice as the Golden Deck gave me on this occasion! If you wish, share your conversation with others on the forum, in brief.

Conclusion

There are many ways to engage with Tarot, but in each we find ourselves in dialogue between multiple aspects. Learning to listen to Tarot as well as see the symbols is an important part of developing our relationship to our own inner voice and oracular talent.

Garden of Creation: Gate 4 Labyrinth

Illustration. The Labyrinth. This is the fourth and final gate of our Garden of Creation experience, and is called “The Labyrinth”. You’ll find this part of the journey in our garden somewhat different again from the previous fountain, stepping stones, and the plan, as it is a far more spiritual and deep exercise. You will see, however, that it draws upon each of the previous gates – you have been practicing and preparing for this final gate in each of those exercises. In this gate, we apply the lesser-known technique of lectio divina, or ‘spirit reading’ to the Tarot to create our own secret story. This technique is centuries old, used within the Christian tradition, and gained a place in contemplative practice following its promotion by Saint Benedict in the 6th Century.

We will combine this technique’s 4 steps with our previous gates and the Tarot in reaching a conclusion of the “Garden of Creation” experience.

The Labyrinth of You The lectio divina has four stages, usually applied to reading scripture, but here we apply to reading Tarot and through that, the Universe of ourself. Take your deck and shuffle it, asking the question: “What is my secret story – the true narrative of my soul, and the creation I am?” Take out the top ten cards, as we did with the plan. Lay them out in any pattern. Read them as your own life story, not in sequence, but as they fork out and connect together in whatever patterns arise. Allow them to suggest to you (as you learnt in the Talking Fountain exercise) what they are telling you in dialogue, and do not question. This is lectio, reading. Take time to find out a few more meanings of the cards from any reference materials you have to hand, make notes as if in study of a novel.

Your Life Pathways

Now contemplate the connections between the cards, the hidden links of the labyrinth. This is the meditatio. Allow your eye to roam over your entire life plan laid out in the cards until you find yourself gravitating to any particular point – usually between a “constellation” of cards. This may not be in the centre of your garden labyrinth, but you will know it when you find it – you may have even sensed it as soon as the cards were laid out in the original pattern.

Illustration. The Labyrinth. Allow your inner spirit to respond to the walking of the labyrinth. If you know any trance techniques, apply them – burn incense or play music whilst you perform this. We would recommend an hour for this part of the practice – don’t rush it, it is your life. Allow yourself to write on these connections and where the centre is found in some poetic or pleasing manner. You may choose to write in a spiral or unusual script.

Entering into Sacred Dialogue

Illustration. Further into the Labyrinth. We now take a profound step in our Tarot work. Take a moment – and this step can follow after a day break from the previous step – and gaze upon your labyrinth cards whilst beginning to go over every painful memory and hurt, embarrassment and regret you have experienced. As you do, and the old feelings arise, offer them into the cards as they are set in place before you. Begin to enter into dialogue (as you learnt in the Talking Fountain) with the cards as a whole – as a divine tool of dialogue with Universe – and allow them to offer healing words in response to your troubles. This is oratio, a consecration prayer. Use the connections you have discovered to contextualize these events in your life, as learning, as constructive paths of the labyrinth, with its secret centre – yourself – gently open and revealed within.

The Labyrinth Complete Whilst the garden paths fork in an endless labyrinth, we are our own centre when discovered in the heart of the narrative we weave. In the next few days following this experience, do not return to the cards but rather observe your life in their revealed wisdom – this is the final stage of contemplatio in the technique.

Experience the living divine wisdom of the Tarot – what we term Tarosophy, to look into the deeper patterns and structures of Universe which we are merely the arising images – as is the Tarot.

Conclusion The gates in this particular spread were constructed to generate the necessary practices and attitudes to engage in the final practice of lectio divina. This is a deep practice and rarely explored in Tarot, so you may be interested in pursuing this practice in your Tarot work and beyond. Your life is a Garden of Forking Paths only whilst you believe in Time and experience it in a linear fashion – Tarot offers a tool to transcend this state and is one of the more profound utilizations of Tarot beyond its common usage.

Conclusion “The beauty of the Hero’s Journey model is that it not only describes a pattern in myth and in fairy tales, but it’s also an accurate map of the territory one must travel to become a writer, or for that matter, a human being”. Christopher Vogler, p. 298 We trust during this week-long taster experience you have been given a new angle on your Tarot, and look forward to welcoming you on our other Gated Spreads in the future. You can share your experiences in our social site, Tarot-Town, and ask questions. The site is free with membership of your national Tarot Association, with many other member benefits.

Bibliography Tarot Katz, M. Tarosophy. Chang Mai: Salamander & Sons, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Around the Tarot in 78 Days. Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Tarot Flip. Forge Press, 2012. Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974.

Writing Alexander Steele (ed.), The Gotham Writer’s Workshop Writing Fiction (London: A & C Black, 1988) Christopher Vogler, The Writers Journey (London: Pan Books, 1999) Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (London: Paladin, 1998) Bobbi L. Parish, Create Your Own Personal Sacred Text Michael Casey, Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina

Websites & Resources If you enjoy new learning, and want many more ways to use your Tarot deck, we encourage you to explore our websites. You are also welcome to join us in your national Tarosophy Tarot Association, where as a member you will instantly receive thousands of pages of materials, and tarot video courses for every level. We look forward to seeing you soon on your Tarot journey!

Tarosophy Tarot Associations http://www.tarotassociation.net Tarot Professionals Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/groups/tarotprofessionals Free Tarot Card Meanings & Spreads http://www.mytarotcardmeanings.com Hekademia Tarot Course http://www.tarosophyuniversity.com Tarot Town Social Network http://www.tarot-town.com Tarosophy by Marcus Katz http://www.tarosophy.com The Tarot Speakeasy Blog http://www.tarotspeakeasy.com Tarot Book Club

http://www.tarotbookclub.com The Tarot Review http://www.thetarotreview.com TarotCon International Tarot Conventions http://www.tarotconvention.com Fortune-Telling Laws http://www.fortunetellinglaws.com The Original Lenormand Deck http://www.originallenormand.com Learning Lenormand http://www.learninglenormand.com

Kindle Tarot Books & Series Check out all our other books and series for original and exciting ways in which you can use a deck of tarot cards to change your life.

Gated Spreads Series Set 1 Book 1: The Tarot Shaman (Contact Your Animal Spirit) Book 2: Gates of Valentine (Love & Relationships) Book 3: The Resurrection Engine (Change Your Life) Set 2 Book 4: Palace of the Phoenix (Alchemy) Book 5: Garden of Creation (Creativity & Inspiration) Book 6: Ghost Train (Explore Your Past) Set 3 Coming Soon – Enter the Temple of the Gods.

Tarosophy KickStart Series Volume I. Book I: Tarot Flip - Reading Tarot Straight from the Box Book II: Tarot Twist – 78 New Spreads and Methods [paperback] Book III: Tarot Inspire – Tarot for a Spiritual Life

Tarot Life Series Tarot Life: A revolutionary method to change your life in 12 Kindle pamphlets.

1. Discover Your Destiny 2. Remove The Blocks 3. Make Decisions Better 4. Enter the Flow 5. Ride the Lion 6. Connect to Service 7. Find Equality 8. Die To Your Self 9. Entering Unity 10. Becoming the Real 11. Your Keys to Freedom 12. The Depth of Divinity

Also in Print and Kindle Tarosophy: A ground-breaking book packed with original ideas.

Around the Tarot in 78 Days: The ideal beginner book, a three-month course through every card. An award-winning book, recognized by the COVR New Age Industry Award for Best Divination Book 2013.

Tarot Face to Face: Take your tarot out of the box and into life!

The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: Learn the real meanings of the world’s most popular tarot deck. [available Spring 2014]

Tarot Turn Vol. 1 - 3: A massive crowd-sourced reference guide to all 12,200 possible combinations of reversed Tarot card pairs.

Gated Spread Book 6 Explore Your Past & Create a New Future

By Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz Copyright © Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz, 2013 Published by Forge Press, Keswick All rights reserved.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … I am extremely thankful for these exercises. I feel like I could spend years contemplating these results and still not get to the bottom of the insight I have gained. C.C. What a great exercise! Thank you so much for sharing it. J. Thank you for this deeply moving experience. S. M. Very moving and effective. I cannot wait for the next gates! Y. There's been a subtle, but powerful shift in my perspective as I go about my usual day's work since the ride. L.

We have used real-life examples and authentic feedback throughout this series, anonymously, from our students in Tarot-Town. We thank them for their engagement with these experiences over the years.

About the Authors “I think I’ve mislaid the Forgotten Oracle.” Goodwin to Katz, Typical Conversation. Tali Goodwin is the co-author of award-winning and #1 best-selling Tarot books, including Around the Tarot in 78 Days, Tarot Face to Face, and Learning Lenormand. She is also a leading Tarot researcher and is credited with the discovery of A. E. Waite’s second tarot deck, kept secret for a century, published as Abiding in the Sanctuary. She has also uncovered and published the Original Lenormand deck, and with co-author Derek Bain, the original Golden Dawn Tarot images in A New Dawn for Tarot. Her research into the life of Pamela Colman-Smith with new photographs will be published as The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot by Llewellyn Worldwide in Spring 2014. She is co-Director of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide) and organizes the international tarot conventions, TarotCon. Marcus Katz is author of the ground-breaking Tarot book and teaching system, Tarosophy, and is the co-founder of Tarosophy Tarot Associations (Worldwide). In addition to Tarot books with Tali Goodwin, he is the author of The Magister, an 11-volume opus on the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, The Magician’s Kabbalah, and the forthcoming Path of the Seasons. He teaches students privately in the Crucible Club, available by application.

Contents WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY … About the Authors Contents Preface What is the Tarot? What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? The Tarot & The Past Chapter 1:

Carriage Card

Chapter 2:

Sepia Photographs

Chapter 3:

Spooky Pipe Organ

Chapter 4:

Planchette

Chapter 5:

Emerging Whole

Conclusion Bibliography Websites & Resources Kindle Tarot Books & Series

Preface Go back, reconnect with what was good, find the faces that cared and the people who helped. Swim in the old lake again, play on the old ball field, march in the old Fourth of July parade … It need not be lost. You can go back again … Dr. Edward Hallowell, Human Moments, p. 77 You are about to go on a journey and experience real magick. Grab a Tarot deck, and we are good to go! The purpose of Gated Spreads is to overturn the common use of Tarot cards as a means of “telling” the future, or providing a brief insight into our life and motivations – and hence our future possibilities. The teaching of Tarosophy encourages the use of Tarot as a divine language; one which connects us to the deeper world underneath the apparent one which we often take for granted. A gated spread requires you to take action in your life, from which change emerges naturally. This is not the empty promise of a feelgood self-help book, but a call to action – your action – to change your life through Tarot. Our Gated Spread experiences have been offered for several years to our private study groups, and now for the first time we provide them in handy self-study packages on Kindle. In each of these individual books, you can experience shamanism, relationship and romance insight, creativity, alchemy, and even delve into your ancestry, all using just a tarot deck.

We have also ensured that this is not a book of fictional examples that sound too good to be true. Our books are based only on real-life testing and the actual experience of real people like you, encountering magick often for the first time. We have taught these methods and run workshops and gated spread weeks for many years, and have hundreds of experiences which have constantly shaped what you are about to experience for yourself. This book is ideal for first time users of Tarot or the experienced reader who is looking to activate the tarot in their life. We have ensured that you are given the necessary instructions and clarifications (from our previous teaching and feedback given by students) to experience true magick in your time using this book. Before you begin, you may wish to join our free Facebook group if you have any questions about Tarot, and also download our free 22—page keyword guide to tarot cards and standard spreads from our site: www.mytarotcardmeanings.com

What is the Tarot? The tarot as most commonly recognized is a family of card decks, most often 78 cards divided into four suits of 14 cards (10 numbered cards and 4 Court cards for each suit) and 22 Major cards. There are presently about 1,000 different decks in print or circulation, and many more out-of-print, rare and collectable decks. Although it can be proven that the tarot was developed in the early 15th century, a lot of books still suggest that it was used by the “ancient ...” and then provide lists of the unproven, non-factual ideas which results in a conflation of tarot and those very ideas. The earliest names for the tarot are Italian. Originally the cards were called carte da trionfi (cards of the triumphs), but around 1530 A.D. (about 100 years after the origin of the cards) the word tarocchi began to be used to distinguish the tarot cards from a new game of triumphs or trumps then being played with ordinary playing cards. You are actually seeing in the cards some direct examples of the triumphs – the procession of floats common at festivals in Italy at the time – particularly in such cards as The Chariot and the Court cards. There is even a Christian tarot in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the cards were used to depict virtues, the liberal arts and sciences, and other aspirational notions from their earliest development. In fact, it could be said that the cards were originally educational or self-development tools, although that could also be debatable.

There is no evidence that the tarot were used by gypsies, originated in Egypt or were used for divination prior to the 1700s, despite popular occult lore that the cards have embodied ‘ancient teaching’ from time immemorial. It was not until a pseudo-connection between the Hebrew letters and the tarot was published in 1781 – by Comte de Mellet, in Antoine Court de Gebélin’s Le Monde Primitif – that esoteric interest began to appropriate the cards to embody occult teaching. The earliest list of the 22 cards which have become known as the Major Arcana is given in a sermon against their use by a monk writing in Latin around 1450-1470 A.D. This sermon is sometimes called the Steele Sermon as it belongs to the collection of Robert Steele. [This above section which we think is so important to teach is repeated in each booklet in this series, and is a short extract from Tarosophy, by Marcus Katz].

Which Tarot Deck is Best for This Gated Spread? Our students have used a range of decks for this experience, and of course the standard Waite-Smith Tarot is a favorite. However, students have used these decks for the Ghost Train with particularly good results: Deviant Moon The Thoth Tarot The Mary-El Tarot

The Gaian Tarot

We tend to suggest that students use “darker” or more “gothic” decks for this particular experience, particularly if they are doing it towards Samhain/Halloween.

When is the Best Time to Do This Gated Spread? The best time to perform this particular gated spread is the week prior to Samhain, Halloween, October 31st. However, as with all gated spreads, it can be conducted at any time over the year – you simply require a week block to devote to the working. As this particular working requires you to look at your past and future, particularly with regard to family, it is an interesting experience to use when you have experienced recent changes in family, or discovered something new about your heritage.

What Are The Top 10 Wrong Ideas About Tarot? There are many wrong ideas about the tarot that seem to be popular. We would like to present quickly some common myths about tarot that you may have heard already, and change your view!

1. The tarot did not originate from Egypt, the gypsies, the Templars, Atlantis or a secret order. 2. You do not need to be gifted or given your first tarot deck – you can simply buy a deck for yourself. 3. You do not have to keep your tarot in a silk bag or bag of any particular color. 4. You can let other people touch your cards if you choose. 5. There are no real ‘rules’ in tarot, but some generally agreed good ideas. 6. The keywords for cards are not set in stone; they can be modified depending on the deck, the reading and the question. However, there are basic concepts specific to each card in the deck, which form a basic language. 7. The cards are not evil – no more than any art or printed material is “evil”.

8. You do not have to be intuitive or gifted in some special way – you can learn, and develop your tarot skills in any way. 9. The ‘ancient Celtic Cross’ spread has not been used for centuries, and it is not particularly ancient and it is not Celtic. 10. There is no single right way to read tarot – we encourage every reader to discover their own unique voice.

The Tarot & The Past I’ve long since retired, my son’s moved away I called him up just the other day I said, I’d like to see you if you don’t mind He said, I’d love to dad if I could find the time You see, my new job’s a hassle and the kids got the flu but it’s sure nice talking to you And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me He’d grown up just like me My boy was just like me. Harry Chapin In working with the tarot, we often concentrate on the potential for the future with little or no regard for the patterns of the past. A common spread such as the Celtic Cross has one position out of the ten available to look at the “past”. In this gated spread, we look at the patterns of the past and use the cards to divine them deeply, providing us insight that in turn leads to a better future. We do this by boarding the ghost train – a series of spreads you will carry out over about a week.

Select Your Carriage Card As you climb into your carriage on the Ghost Train, you see that your car has a particular image of a Tarot card on the side. Pick a number from the links below and see which card is your carriage card. The card you select will call you to recognize one key element of your life during the week ahead. These are selected from the Major cards of the Tarot – simply pick ONE number below to view your card on YouTube, selected by the Seer of Tarosophy Towers. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Note: If for any reason you cannot view your video card, please simply select out at random one of the 22 Major cards from your Tarot deck, whilst contemplating “scary journeys”.

Illustration. Ghost Train.

Ghost Train: Gate 1 Carriage Card Take a whole day to think about your carriage card. What is your Carriage Card? What does that card mean to you in terms of a resource to carry you through a difficult or challenging time? How does the energy or lesson(s) pictured by your Carriage Card assist you in your life? It may be that the thing we fear holds the clues to our resolve in facing the challenges and changes of life – the various turns in the ghost train. Take a moment to look up the keywords of that card in our free guide or online and consider what that means to you in terms of “facing the fear and doing it anyway”. Here are some examples of how students saw their carriage cards: My Carriage Card is the Hanged Man. "You are called to recognize A Call to your Highest Values and must learn To Live your values" Well, synchronicity seems to be the norm when working with the Tarot. I know this. I've known this from the beginning and still it delights me every time it happens.

I am emerging (I think) from a deep, long descent and all signs (and I do mean signs) are pointing to transformation of what was the most difficult challenge of my life. As I layered on survival strategies, deal with aging parents, and new grandchildren, I find myself so caught up in all of it that carving out the time and space for cultivating my soul has left me feeling starved. Then this wonderful reminder shows up, 2 days after I completed a 3 day solo retreat, to take the time. Do some headstands, get a new perspective so that I can remember, recover, my values, take time to align my life with them as I reexamine all the busyness and by at choice with the activities I do and make sure they are in alignment with, or I do them in alignment with, my higher values. And most importantly, at this time in my life, identify exactly what my higher values are. The Hanging Man will remind me, when faced with my fears, to pause, breath, refrain from reacting, remember who I am (my core values) before responding. --My Carriage Card is the Hermit.

The Hermit energy gives me the ability to withdraw instead of reacting and shine a light to see and understand all sides and possibilities. It enables me to stand to the side and observe instead of being involved, especially emotionally. Gathering and processing information to eventually apply creative problem solving. The Hermit, my ability to Just Be.

Ghost Train: Gate 2 Sepia Photographs After at least one full day contemplating your Carriage Card, the next Gate in our Ghost Train is when the carriages start up and we all enter into the darkness together ... the lights dim, the train clatters and clunks, and we are soon engulfed by the acrid smell of smoke and old dust. And then, and then ... we turn a corner and to our left an eerie scene unfolds, in sepia lights; an old Victorian parlor, with photographs on a mantelpiece, and a piano. All of a sudden, the piano starts to play a haunting tune, and the photographs come to life ... all speaking in whispers - they have something to tell us if only we can hear them... To enter this Gate on our journey together, firstly, you will need to list a number (1-10 at most) of your ancestors. These are those family members who are no longer with you. If you can, find photographs of each. Otherwise, simply make a small card or piece of paper with their name written upon it. If you do not know any family ancestors, you can simply "GRANDMOTHER", etc. as you wish.

write

"FATHER",

This is a personal working, and you need not share any of what follows unless you find it supportive and helpful. Our Gated Spread experiences often go deeper than people imagine, so please hold tight onto the handles at all time. I (Marcus) originally used a photograph of part of my family dating back to the 1880's. As it was a photograph of seven brothers – one of whom was my great grandfather, I copied the photo and split it up into seven images (see photograph later of the full layout). Further instructions for this gate will follow for the next day in the section below, follow it when you've had time to locate some photos or make named cards - you can even use old letters, jewellery, gifts, etc. that connect you to those ancestors. In each of these experiences, we provide the basic template and encourage our students to use their own creativity, skill, intuition or background to personalize their experience along the way.

Assign the Court Cards To complete Gate 2, remove all the 16 Court Cards from your chosen deck and place at least one against each of the photographs or name-cards you have created for the ancestors you have chosen. Select them based on your knowledge of these people, your intuition, allow your hands to automatically draw certain cards together with their appropriate ancestor photo, name-card or item. Open yourself entirely to the process. Leave the remaining Court Cards to one side.

Ghost Train: Gate 3 Spooky Pipe Organ As the carriage rounds another bend and another day of this experience, with the memory of those photographs still in our hearts and minds, we see a ghastly organist playing an ancient pipe organ, with discordant sounds echoing in the dark as we plummet further into the tunnels of the Ghost Train... You may also note your dreams at this time, as often they provide a channel for communication with long-forgotten aspects of our personal past as we work through it in this experience. Take your Tarot deck, minus your Carriage Card and minus the Court Cards - all of which you have removed already to complete Gate 2. Now shuffle the deck and then go through it and choose/select out the cards which to you seem to embody the darker side of life, the mistakes, regrets and fears in the night. These are the pipes of the pipe organ, echoing discordantly in our lives. We want you to select out the ‘scary’ cards. Whether you choose one card or many, now fan out the spread of those cards (or just the one card) in front of the layout of your selected Court Cards and ancestor items. Let these sit for a day, and again, see if you dream differently.

Make a note of how these cards reflect any regrets and fears that you have personally experienced in your life. The more honest you can be here, the more powerful the next gate will be for you. In our next gate for the next day we will start to really see how a Gated Spread works, with our first real-world activity bridging two gates. Here is an example of chosen ‘negative’ cards: XVI The Tower - many total breaks in my life (now striving to overcome this and establish/nurture continuity). 3 of Swords - heartbreak, emotional turmoil, tendency to fix myself onto what turns out to be "lost causes". 9 of Swords - disappointment, hardness on self and others, lack of mercy. 7 of Cups: distraction by following too many choices at once. 10 of Wands: overworking, burn-out, fruitless commitment.

Ghost Train: Gate 4 Planchette With the shivers of the spooky pipe organ music still running down our spines, the Ghost Train picks up speed and careers around the next dark turn. In the carriages ahead of us and behind us we can hear the shrieks and gasps of our fellow companions as the Train hurls us into the darkness ... then suddenly we emerge into a huge space, dimly lit, full of cobwebs brushing on our faces, candles burning and in the centre we see a table surrounded by Victorian gentleman and women - at least, we can tell this from their clothes as their bodies have long since turned into skeletons. They are holding a séance, and we see that above them hovers some spectral presence. A ghost of times past, an ancient voice, a call to our own ancestors. It is pointing at us - asking us something, demanding something ... but what? For this Gate, when you have a moment to consider, take your carriage card and place your finger on it. This is best experienced in the evening of about the fifth or sixth day of the experience. Allow it to move so it points to all (or any, or the one) "Regret & Mistake" cards. Gaze at your Ancestor cards. Allow the Carriage Card to stop when it is pointing to a "Regret and Mistake" card which seems most powerful to you at this time.

Now consider the Carriage Card, the "Regret and Mistake" card, and the Ancestor(s) card you were gazing at when the Carriage Card stopped. Consider what this is asking you to do on this night or the days following in your life. How is the Carriage Card to carry you through resolving that regret, fear, mistake, negativity shown by the "R&M" Card? Does that relate to your Ancestry? Perhaps it may simply be a case of sitting down for five minutes and remembering good times, honoring a memory. Perhaps you need to write an email, a letter, go see someone. Perhaps you need to do something to celebrate your living family. Or something else entirely unexpected. Let the cards talk to you.

Illustration. The Ghost Train Layout.

The final Gate should take place the following day. It will require that you have done this activity or at least commenced it, from Gate 4. The purpose and construction (and uniqueness) of Gated Spreads is that they are woven into real-life activities. One student reported intense dreams during this part of the experience; “I had a very strange dream about talking to a ghost which seemed like a younger version of myself. She was on my patio outside the kitchen window and wanted to be let in. I refused but talked to her through the half open window”.

Ghost Train: Gate 5 Emerging Whole Here we arrive at our final Gate in the Ghost Train, following your Séance Night. On our train, we emerge through a forest scene, a long path about which the trees are closed. In those wilds we see dark shapes, moving shadows, bats flitting, red eyes balefully glaring ... all the primitive horrors and dangers woven in amidst the webs of spiders ... But we hold on fast because ahead of us we see a door opening, the end of the ride. Outside, we know our friends and family are waiting for us, those who haven't taken this ride, waiting for us to share in other amusements and pastimes of the fair. So here's GATE 5: Emerging Whole Take the rest of the deck (from which we have taken out the Carriage Card, Court Cards and "regret and mistake" cards) and shuffle them whilst considering your family, friends, colleagues and co-workers. And consider the children, and future generations, those of whom you are an ancestor - or will become one.

Consider particularly the action you took at the previous gate. You are in a place - life - where you can do things, where you can affect the outcome of the world. This is your living situation. What did you do to respond to the voices of the past? What did you do? What can you do?

Now take THREE cards - the LEGACY CARDS, from the deck, and lay them out in front of the CARRIAGE CARD. These three cards give you your Inheritance, Present Situation and Legacy to those who follow you. Here’s the experience of one student: Inheritance: 6 of Water (6 of Cups). Sweet card for this position shows a circle of women standing in the ocean in a sharing ceremony with a playful sea otter watching. I feel held in love and celebrated by my ancestors, they are supporting me and my inheritance is this open-hearted warm embracing support. Present situation: 3 of Water (3 of Cups) shows 3 otters again playing in the ocean. I'm seeking, finding joy with others, again, another circle. Legacy: 8 of Fire (8 of Wands): meteor shower, balls of light streaking towards the Earth. My legacy? I guess it's no more holding back, hiding from the sun. Time to magnetize my visions into reality, break the inherited tendencies to conform and adapt and pass that freedom on to my descendants. And with those lessons in mind, now connecting all the past with all the future, our little carriage rolls out into the light, beyond the most primitive fears, the thrills and spills, of the Ghost Train ...

Conclusion “Each breath the first, the last, the only breath available, to carry us beyond our forgetfulness into the scintillating center of the living truth. May all beings live with death over their left shoulder and kindness in the center of their heart. May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings know the great good fortune of their great nature. May all beings be at peace.” Dying Contemplation, from A Year to Live, pp. 65-6 The Ghost Train experience allows us to contemplate the passage of time, and our own heritage. We can use the Tarot in many different ways to explore the past, which in turn creates a new potential for the future. In working with others, we can also use aspects of the Ghost Train to allow them to explore their family relationships. We trust during this week-long taster experience you have been given a new angle on your Tarot, and look forward to welcoming you on our other Gated Spreads in the future. You can share your experiences in our social site, Tarot-Town, and ask questions. The site is free with membership of your national Tarot Association, with many other member benefits.

Bibliography Katz, M. Tarosophy. Chang Mai: Salamander & Sons, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Around the Tarot in 78 Days. Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2012. Katz, M. & Goodwin, T. Tarot Flip. Forge Press, 2012. Hallowell, E. Human Moments: How to find meaning and love in your everyday life. London: Thorsons, 2001. Levine, S. A Year To Live: How to Live This Year as if it Were Your Last. London: Thorsons, 1997. Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974.

Websites & Resources If you enjoy new learning, and want many more ways to use your Tarot deck, we encourage you to explore our websites. You are also welcome to join us in your national Tarosophy Tarot Association, where as a member you will instantly receive thousands of pages of materials, and tarot video courses for every level. We look forward to seeing you soon on your Tarot journey!

Tarosophy Tarot Associations http://www.tarotassociation.net Tarot Professionals Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/groups/tarotprofessionals Free Tarot Card Meanings & Spreads http://www.mytarotcardmeanings.com Hekademia Tarot Course http://www.tarosophyuniversity.com Tarot Town Social Network http://www.tarot-town.com Tarosophy by Marcus Katz http://www.tarosophy.com The Tarot Speakeasy Blog http://www.tarotspeakeasy.com Tarot Book Club

http://www.tarotbookclub.com The Tarot Review http://www.thetarotreview.com TarotCon International Tarot Conventions http://www.tarotconvention.com Fortune-Telling Laws http://www.fortunetellinglaws.com The Original Lenormand Deck http://www.originallenormand.com Learning Lenormand http://www.learninglenormand.com

Kindle Tarot Books & Series Check out all our other books and series for original and exciting ways in which you can use a deck of tarot cards to change your life.

Gated Spreads Series Set 1 Book 1: The Tarot Shaman (Contact Your Animal Spirit) Book 2: Gates of Valentine (Love & Relationships) Book 3: The Resurrection Engine (Change Your Life) Set 2 Book 4: Palace of the Phoenix (Alchemy) Book 5: Garden of Creation (Creativity & Inspiration) Book 6: Ghost Train (Explore Your Past) Set 3 Coming Soon – Enter the Temple of the Gods.

Tarosophy KickStart Series Volume I. Book I: Tarot Flip - Reading Tarot Straight from the Box Book II: Tarot Twist – 78 New Spreads and Methods [paperback] Book III: Tarot Inspire – Tarot for a Spiritual Life

Tarot Life Series Tarot Life: A revolutionary method to change your life in 12 Kindle pamphlets. 1. Discover Your Destiny 2. Remove The Blocks 3. Make Decisions Better 4. Enter the Flow 5. Ride the Lion 6. Connect to Service 7. Find Equality 8. Die To Your Self 9. Entering Unity 10. Becoming the Real 11. Your Keys to Freedom 12. The Depth of Divinity

Also in Print and Kindle Tarosophy: A ground-breaking book packed with original ideas.

Around the Tarot in 78 Days: The ideal beginner book, a three-month course through every card. An award-winning book, recognized by the COVR New Age Industry Award for Best Divination Book 2013.

Tarot Face to Face: Take your tarot out of the box and into life!

The Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot: Learn the real meanings of the world’s most popular tarot deck [available Spring 2014, pub. Llewellyn Worldwide].

Tarot Turn Vol. 1 - 3: A massive crowd-sourced reference guide to all 12,200 possible combinations of reversed Tarot card pairs.