Tarot Temple Book 1: Create a Tarot Dream Temple

Table of contents :
WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY …
About the Authors
Preface
What is the Tarot?
The Steps to the Temple
The Parts of the Temple
The Inner Guide Meditation
The Major Arcana of Myth
Temple Activities
Conclusion
Bibliography
Kindle Tarot Books & Series
Websites & Resources

Citation preview

TAROT TEMPLE: 1 – Create a Tarot Dream Temple Build a personal tarot dream temple for magickal work

By Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz Copyright © Tali Goodwin & Marcus Katz, 2014 Published by Forge Press, Keswick All rights reserved. Illustrations from the Olympus Tarot, Manfredi Toraldo, illus. Luca Raimondo. © Lo Scarabeo, 2002. Used with permission.

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.

About the Authors “Katz: Are you working today? It’s very quiet that side of the desk. Goodwin: Ah. The deepest wisdom comes from silence.” Goodwin & 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 2015. 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 has also written on his NLP and hypnotherapy client work in NLP Magick (Forge Press, June 2014). 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? The Steps to the Temple Chapter 1:

The Parts of the Temple

Chapter 2:

The Inner Guide Meditation

Chapter 3:

The Major Arcana of Myth

Chapter 4:

Temple Activities

Conclusion Bibliography Kindle Tarot Books & Series Websites & Resources

Preface I set in order the many ways of the art of divination, and I first of all distinguished from dreams the things that are necessary to come about during waking hours, and I explained to mortals chance utterances that are difficult to interpret and signs that one encounters on the road … Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus. You are about to go on a journey and experience real magick. Grab a Tarot deck, and we are good to go! This series develops the work from our previous gated spread booklets into a new realm, both magical and divine – and we enter the Tarot Temple. We will provide ways of using the tarot to connect to the deeper aspects of your life, through the ancient arts of divination as they were practiced in Greece at the height of the oracular civilization. In practicing the exercises of these books, you will soon find yourself reading more meaning into your everyday experience, enriching your life and shaping your relationships, career and pastimes in a new way. The exercises in Tarot Temple are suitable for all levels of experience and we have written them specifically for beginners to Tarot magick. You do not require robes, ritual items or time to conduct strange and elaborate ceremonies – just your imagination, the dream-space of your sleeping time, and a deck of cards.

We have used for this series a specific deck, the Olympus Tarot from Lo Scarabeo. This features Greek myth and is the most commonly recognized mythic structure in the West, made even more popular through contemporary films such as the Titans series. Whilst you can use any particular deck for this series, it is primarily written with the Olympus Tarot in mind.

Illus. 7 of Chalices, the Acropolis of Athens. We have also provided a reading list if you wish to explore the ancient Greek myths, and particularly the role of the seers and oracles in the ancient temples which is the main subject of this series and experiences. You are going to become a modern-day seer, and learn to divine from the entire world around you, which will become a book of clouds, a lightning matrix, and a living journal of the future.

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 Andrea Green 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 Series? Our recommended deck for the Tarot Temple is the Olympus Tarot by Lo Scarabeo. Students have, however, used a range of decks for this experience, and of course the standard Waite-Smith Tarot is a favorite. Another potential deck, using the Greek myth, is the Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke, Liz Greene and Giovanni Caselli. You may also consider actually modifying the instructions here to a mythic oracle deck such as:

The Mythic Oracle (Simon Pulse/Beyond Words, 2012) by Carisa Mellado & Michele-lee Phelan. Olympus Deck (Aquarian Press, 1992) by Murray Hope & Anthea Toorchen. We tend to suggest that students use any mythic-based decks for this particular experience or those with a strong spiritual basis.

When is the Best Time to enter the Tarot Temple? There is no particular time best suited to this experience, which is designed to take about a week – as are each of the seven temple booklets. However, you may choose to commence on a date of particular spiritual importance to you, such as a birthday or seasonal festival. You might wish to take up the practice of the Tarot Temple to coincide with one of the ancient Greek celebrations, such as the Panathenaea, around the 28th July, or the middle of October for the Thesmophoria, or the middle of March or April for the Dionysia. As the Greek calendar for these festivals was lunar-based, and the festivals were often carried out at different times across Greece, there is no one precise date. You may wish to commence your practice on a New Moon, which is most suitable for the dream-work you will be practicing.

The Steps to the Temple For the Greeks, any location might serve as a place of cult, a sacred space (hieron). It was enough for it to be perceived as having a sacred character, either because of some special geographical or numinous quality (the majesty of the terrain, as at Delphi; the presence of a revered tomb) or because it contained some particular manifestation of the divine – rocks, or a tree, or a spring, for instance. Louise Bruit Zaidman & Pauline Schmitt Pantel, Religion in the Ancient Greek City, p. 55 In this booklet, we are going to build a dream temple, a place in which we can create magical resonances between our inner and outer worlds. This may result in an increasing harmony in your everyday life, experienced as a sense of being, of connectedness, or through strange and powerful coincidences or lucky events. Whether you take a psychological interpretation of this process or a mystical one is up to you – the important thing is to work with the practice and see what happens for you.

A dream temple is constructed in our imagination, and is built in what occultists variously refer to as the “etheric” or “astral” plane, depending on which system is being used. In the Tree of Life, the kabbalistic diagram appropriated by occultists, the dream-world corresponds with the Sephirah Yesod, meaning “foundation”, and the world of Atzliluth, meaning “formation”. In this correspondence we can see that to an occultist, the world of manifestation follows the world of formation – of the imagination – so that what we imagine is of primary importance to what happens in our lives. Each night of this practice, whilst you also work daily with the 22 divinity cards (see later section) you will also construct a temple in your imagination as you go to sleep. You will use the first steps of the inner guide meditation to find a “place” within your imagination in which to construct your temple, and then build it nightly.

Illus. V. The Hierophant – Cronus, the God of Time.

As you build your temple, you will also take part in a daily practice to be chosen as an advocate for one particular deity. We will then provide suggestions for working with this deity, although the further books in this series deepen this practice beyond this initial stage. What does the Temple need to make it sacred? In these seven books, there are described Seven Steps to the Temple, which correspond to the stages of temple ritual practice: Step 1: Creating the Temple as a separate space. Step 2: Placing a central altar as a map of the universe. Step 3: Robing and Preparing Yourself, stepping out of the world. Step 4: Banishing the profane, all that is unwanted. Step 5: Purification of the tools and yourself to the task of rectifying your life. Step 6: Consecrating the space, your tools and yourself to the task. Step 7: Invoking the God/ess to assist your work from the highest level. In this first book then, we will create the temple and prepare our space of working, whilst also making an immediate start to align ourselves to a particular god or goddess for later work.

Tarot Temple The Parts of the Temple Then to the west I look'd, and saw far off An image, huge of feature as a cloud, At level of whose feet an altar slept, To be approach'd on either side by steps, And marble balustrade, and patient travail To count with toil the innumerable degrees. Towards the altar sober paced I went, Repressing haste, as too unholy there; And, coming nearer, saw beside the shrine One minist'ring; and there arose a flame… John Keats, The Fall of Hyperion – A Vision. In this week-long experience, we will create a temple in our imagination and then use it for dream-work with the Tarot. This is an essential part of magical training, and here presented in a safe and accessible version for all students. We will be using the structure of a tried-and-tested method, “the inner guide meditation” which we have been working with for over twenty years and hundreds of students. A reading list is also provided at the end of this book if you wish to explore these methods yourself. The further books in this series of Tarot Temple will provide you modular week-long exercises to build into your temple.

First, we will consider what a temple is, and how it is physically constructed. This will provide us a model for our imagination – although, as ever, our imagination should be unlimited. If you come to build a temple entirely of clouds in your dream-work, or one like Superman’s “Fortress of Solitude”, or an abstract construction of digital zeroes and ones like the matrix, go ahead – it is your temple! In ancient Greece, a sacred precinct was defined by an augur. It was called a ‘Temenos’ and its location was based on the observation of a flight of birds or other natural phenomenon. The word “temple” comes from the Latin, “templum”, which in turn comes from the word meaning “to separate”. That is, a temple is somewhere separate from everyday life. Technically, only roman gods had ‘templums’, and foreign deities had ‘fanum’. However, for simplicity, we will use the word “temple” throughout this series, whatever gods and goddesses you choose – or choose you! Dreams and Visions In this series, we reference the Romantic poets, particularly John Keats (1795 – 1821). The Romantics saw that their society was being changed by the industrial revolution and rebelled against that change. They wrote of the dying of the old gods, and a loss of innocence, they wrote of the importance of imagination, vision, dream and poetry. In doing so, they touched upon the magic and mysticism of myth, the sacred in nature, and the majesty of the human soul. It is to this same calling that this series responds; to reconnect ourselves, within ourselves, to the world around us in a purer way, through the faculty of imagination, dream and vision.

This may not appear at first to be a very practical or mundane pursuit; however, you may discover that in making this reconnection, all aspects of your life improve as a beneficial side-effect to your dream-work. The practice of temple-dreaming or incubation (literally meaning, “to lie down”) was commonly used in ancient times for oracular purposes and healing. A petitioner would sleep in a sacred place; a grove or a temple, sacred to the gods, and await a dream from the deities themselves. The dream would then be interpreted by the priests or oracles of the shrine. It is the ambition of Tarot Temple to restore this practice to contemporary life in a personal and accessible manner. We will look in further books of this series more into the interpretation of your dream-visions, however we also suggest reading classical texts such as Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams) by the Greek, Artemidorus. When interpreting dreams which involved commonly recognized myths, he wrote: “One must, moreover, pay attention to stories that are wellknown and believed by most people as, for example, those about Prometheus, Niobe, and all the heroes of tragedy. For even if these stories are not actually true, they are fulfilled in a way that resembles the content of the tales because of the predispositions of most men.

But legends that are completely obsolete and full of nonsense and frivolity as, for example, those about the battle of the gods and giants, the Sown-Men in Thebes, and those in Colchis and so on, do not come true at all, or they signify, in accordance with the previous section, that one's expectations will be thwarted and cancelled out. These legends are also symbols of vain and empty hopes unless, of course, any of them admits of a physical explanation”. That is to say, an obviously nonsensical dream is often just nonsense, but mythic dreams (or nowadays, dreams involving TV shows, films, novels, etc.) are often patterns of prophecy, giving insight into the likely development of events – or deeper insight to existing events. In Homer too we read that dreams may be either true or false – the true dreams passing through the Gate of Horn, and the false passing through the Gate of Ivory. Virgil also wrote of this: Two gates the silent house of Sleep adorn; Of polish'd ivory this, that of transparent horn: True visions thro' transparent horn arise; Thro' polish'd ivory pass deluding lies. Of various things discoursing as he pass'd, Anchises hither bends his steps at last. Then, thro' the gate of iv'ry, he dismiss'd His valiant offspring and divining guest… Aeneid, Book 6, lines 893-898. Interpreting Dreams with Tarot

One simple way in which to interpret a dream with tarot is to perform a reading for the dream as if it were a real event using a standard spread such as the Celtic Cross. However, we can also use a specific spread for dreams which gets more out of the dream. We call this spread the Incubator: Consider your dream and shuffle your deck. Select out 9 cards and lay them out in three rows of three cards, as if making a bed. The first/top row of cards are the conscious aspects of the dream Card 1: What is the teaching purpose of this dream? Card 2: What does this dream suggest I change in my personality? Card 3: What is this dream suggesting I avoid? The second row are the connecting principles between dream and real life - the dynamics of the dream. These three cards are read together, in a linear fashion, as a “storyboard”. Cards 4-6: What is the activity of the dream – the relationships between the characters or events in the dream – reflecting in my everyday life? And the third row of cards are the deeper aspects of the dream. We read these as a one-word exercise, to access our unconscious processing. Take a look at all three cards, and come up with one word which describes what arises for you. Cards 7-9: What is the one word which is at the core of this dream?

You can then present that one word in your dream temple for further development, by inscribing it on a piece of paper in your dream-temple and offering it to the gods as you go to sleep.

The Inner Guide Meditation Methought I stood where trees of every clime, Palm, myrtle, oak, and sycamore, and beech, With plantain, and spice blossoms, made a screen; In neighbourhood of fountains, by the noise Soft showering in my ears, and, by the touch Of scent, not far from roses. Turning round I saw an arbour with a drooping roof Of trellis vines, and bells, and larger blooms, Like floral censers swinging light in air; Before its wreathed doorway, on a mound Of moss, was spread a feast of summer fruits, Which, nearer seen, seem'd refuse of a meal By angel tasted or our Mother Eve; For empty shells were scattered on the grass, And grape stalks but half bare, and remnants more, Sweet smelling, whose pure kinds I could not know. John Keats, The Fall of Hyperion – A Vision.

The Inner Guide Meditation is a technique from the book of the same name by the late Edwin C. Steinbrecher. Since its publication in 1982, we have been using it to teach Tarot and Kabbalah to many hundreds of individuals and groups, with incredible results. We have also more recently used it in therapeutic practice, to work with a range of interventions including inner child work, traumatic memories, grief and self-confidence issues. Its virtue is that it is reasonably straightforward, the client can work with it themselves, and it is extremely flexible. In Tarosophy, it allows us to enter into a psychological dialogue with the cards, specifically the Major Arcana, to effect change internally and externally. The process is self-guiding and intuitive, and contains its own safeguards. It can be used in Tarot dreamwork, Tarot trancework, and for exploring cards and spreads. We are astonished that this book and method is not widely known. It appears in an altered form without any due recognition or acknowledgement in Elias, Finding True Magic (1999) where it is the main heart of the techniques given in that book. A variant form of a “shamanic journey” appears in Mary K. Greer’s Tarot for Your Self.

We would suggest that if you have any interest in integrating Tarot, Astrology or Kabbalah in your daily practice, or offering a technique to do so for your clients or students, you go and buy the book right now! Here we will give an operational précis and offer some additional comments for utilizing the technique with Tarot, using NLP to deepen the experience.

The Inner Guide Meditation Workbook – A Route-map for your Very Soul We can optionally provide an IGM workbook which also covers a wide range of astrological analysis of your natal chart to map across to Tarot correspondences. This provides a means of producing a workbook sequence of pieces of work to engage with one’s own personal psychic structure – what we call at Tarosophy Towers, a “route-map for your very soul”. If you would like such a workbook, providing a guide to working for several months to a year on your own patterns you may order one here from the authors who have worked with leading Astrologer Lyn Birkbeck to provide accurate, personalized and annotated workbooks.  

The Inner Guide Meditation Method The Inner Guide Meditation (IGM) is a visualization technique that follows a number of recognized steps in a specific sequence. Whilst it has commonalities with other techniques, notably “shamanistic” guided meditations, it has its own plane of working and should be treated in its own context before widening it out to other practices or variations. Each night, prior to sleep, follow these steps: 1. Visualize a beach, with your back to the sea, looking at the shoreline. Feel the beach beneath your feet, look out through your own eyes in the scene, smell the air, notice whether it is day or night and the temperature, etc. 2. As you look, see a cave in the shoreline, leading into the Cliffside. It may be large or small, man-made or natural. 3. Walk across the beach and enter the cave. Take a moment before you do to touch the edges of the entrance. Feel the detail of the texture, the temperature, the rough or smoothness, and the humidity. 4. At the back of the cave, find an exit to the left out of the cave. Notice any details within the cave, and the exit is always to the left. It may be a window, a door, a sloped passage, but it will lead up and out of the back of the cave. 5. Exit out into a landscape that is beyond the cave. Turn round once so you can see where you will return on awakening to the cave from this space.

6. Call for an animal to come and guide you to a place where you may construct your inner temple. 7. Await the animal and then follow the animal to a place which seems suited to build an imaginal temple. 8.

Meet with or await your Inner Guide if you have

performed this method before and connected to your Guide. If you have not, then follow these further instructions. 9. Call for your “inner guide” to come to you in this place. Await a figure to arrive. Test your Inner Guide by requesting that they take your hands and transmit their feelings towards you through your hands. This should be an intense and loving experience. If this is not the case, ask your animal to take you to your Inner Guide. 10. Ask your Inner Guide to take you to a representation of a Tarot card with which you wish to work – the Sun is a good starter card. This representation may be a person, an object, or an abstract symbol of the sun, such as a glowing solar orb on a pedestal. 11. Ask the representation of the card what you can do to honor its energies in your daily life, and what gift it has to give you. When you have met your guide, or concluded meeting your Guide, and connecting with the Sun archetype for the first time, return to the temple instructions following.

1. Depending on the card you have chosen for the night, begin to construct the temple. The card deity will define a little how you go about that stage, for example, if you have chosen Aphrodite on the first night, your foundations will be constructed on principles of “beauty” and “nature”. They might, for example, be dug deeply and constructed with tree roots. Every night you will add another bit of detail to your Temple, and rest inside it as you then fall asleep. This will ensure your temple is a unique combination of elements drawn from your own divination at this time. 2. You may notice intense dreams or even oracular feelings and visions during this time, which is to be expected. It is wise to have a notebook by your bedside to record these experiences. The seven nights of temple building are: 1. Foundation 2. Altar 3. Pillars and Walls 4. Ceiling 5. Doors and Corridors 6. Decoration Inside 7. Decoration Outside As a further example, on day six, you might have again chosen the Aphrodite card for the night, and hence the inside decoration would be natural and luxuriant. If you had chosen the Fool card, as Pan, then the decoration might be decadent, wanton, uncontrolled – a frenzy of frescoes!

We have provided under each card a brief idea of what sort of “decoration” each deity might suggest. You should also find that your nightly experiences and card reflect in some way your daily advocate task and card. Always ensure that all 22 cards are returned together before each morning and evening shuffle and draw, to allow for the same card to come up again – a sure sign that the deities are choosing you in a particular manner!

The Major Arcana of Myth Saturn! look up and for what, poor lost King? I have no comfort for thee; no not one; I cannot cry, Wherefore thus sleepest thou? For Heaven is parted from thee, and the Earth Knows thee not, so afflicted, for a God; And Ocean too, with all its solemn noise, Has from thy sceptre pass'd, and all the air Is emptied of thine hoary majesty… John Keats, The Fall of Hyperion – A Vision. The main exercise in this first week of creating a Tarot Temple is to not only build the temple of the imagination each night for a week, but also re-connect our imaginal world with our daily life. The romantic poets saw a disconnection between our inner lives and the increasing industrialization of society, and we are again seeing this in the media-drenched and accelerated information age. The Tarot Temple experience allows us to take a pause and protect a precinct of ourselves – our own identity and inner life, and our unique personal connection to the universe.

Our first task as we build the inner Temple using the Inner Guide Meditation technique is to also become aware of the divine aspects of our everyday life. We will hence petition the very gods and goddesses themselves in order to become an advocate (defender) of one particular deity. You will conduct this exercise over a week, but you can extend it further, say, between two New Moons if you wish. If no clear deity is divined as a result of this practice, then simply put aside the cards for a while and repeat the exercise at some future time. The gods will not be rushed at your behest. Looking for a God/ess In the morning, take the 22 Major Arcana of your deck and shuffle them, considering yourself applying for the role of a priest or priestess in the living temples of the gods themselves. Select out one card and take a note of it. During the day you will act as if you are attempting to live up to the nature of the particular deity which corresponds to the card. You will also look for signs and symbols that the deity is speaking to you through everyday events. We have given some suggestions against each card for how this may transpire (“magical event”) although you are also encouraged to research each deity to appreciate their nature further. Over the week you will also follow the nightly instructions to create your temple and connect to another deity each night. At the end of the week, you will choose a particular deity or have found yourself chosen. It may be that their card repeated more than any other card, or a particularly significant event transpired on their day or night, or that you choose based on your feelings over the week. In many ways do we come to the path of the Gods.

In the following list we present the Major cards from the Olympus Tarot, although any deck can be used, and referred to this list to discover the appropriate deity for that card. If you are using an Oracle deck, choose the cards which represent deities only. 0.

The Fool: Pan. By not caring what other people may

think or feel about you is freedom, wildness and creativity. Live the day without caring about what other people think of you. Keyword: Uninhibited. Magical Event: An invitation to a party, a wild event, a force of nature. Decoration: Wild, frenzied, chaotic, natural. 1. The Magician: Zeus. Make the magical happen in the mundane world - surprise people, do the unexpected. Stop peoples worlds. Use your charisma to charm. Marilyn Monroe was known to possess this ability - the woman Norma Jean could become Marilyn the Goddess, in an instance. Keyword: Charisma Magical Event: A strong character, a ruling, decision. Decoration: Noble, powerful, majestic, magical.

2. The High Priestess: Hera. Honor your mother or feminine principle today, focus on your nurturing side, be nurturing towards those in need. Keyword: Intuitive/instinctive Magical Event: A powerful woman, strong intuition.

Decoration: Feminine, Nuturing, Magical, Priestly.

3. The Empress: Aphrodite: Spend the day perceiving the beauty around you, appreciate and love life to the full. Tell those who matter to you how much you love them. Be creative in all its forms. Keyword: Passion Magical Event: A beautiful woman, love-related. Decoration: Beautiful, sensuous, natural.

4. The Emperor: Ares. Be very active today put plans into motion, honor the masculine principle, push forward and out. Keyword: Assertive. Magical Event: Power-play, breakthrough. Decoration: Man-made, over-the-top, majestic.

5. The Hierophant: Cronus. Today be aware of the progress of time; take time to appreciate the present moment, to appreciate the past, and to celebrate the place where the passage of time has delivered you. Honor tradition and ritual. Let your logical mind rule your behavior throughout the day. Keyword: Analyze. Magical Event: Something timely and opportune. Decoration: Time-based, clocks, traditional, religious.

6. The Lovers: Eros. Celebrate platonic love, appreciate your friendships, and take time to connect with friends or make new friends. A true friend is there with you to the end. Keyword: Enduring. Magical Event: Love, connection, making a new link. Decoration: Social, connecting, links and bridges.

7. The Chariot: Hermes. Be guided today; take advice when it is offered. This response will help to keep you going to where you need to be… on track. Keyword: Focused. Magical Event: Something fast-forwards, travel related. Decoration: Mobile, movement, futuristic.

8. Justice: Athena: Today you need to use strategy and logic to keep you ahead of the game. This you will do with ease, especially if you have higher motivations for the good of others. You are protected. [Note that in this deck, 8 = Justice, 11 = Strength]. Keyword: Objectivity. Magical Event: A ruling, balancing, resolution. Decoration: Harmonious, balanced, precise, regulated.

ILLUS. Justice – Athena.

9. The Hermit: Poseidon. You need to retreat to a place where you can be alone. Once in this place, you must put aside thoughts of others and the welfare of others, your only consideration must be for yourself. Keyword: Unique. Magical Event: A self-realization or insight. Decoration: Deep, drifty, dreamy, unique.

10. The Wheel: The Moirés. Trust in the process today, do not fight or resist, or worry too much as the wheel is already in motion and what transpires is inevitable. Keyword: Acceptance.

Magical Event: A fortunate turn of events. Decoration: Circular, rotating, patterned.

11.

Strength: Hephaestus. Be motivated and fiery today,

give in to your creative power. It is an ideal to time to come up with ideas and make them real. [Note that in this deck, 8 = Justice, 11 = Strength]. Keyword: Innovation. Magical Event: A creation, something novel, completed. Decoration: Fiery, crafted, fashioned, elaborate and ornate.

12. The Hanged Man: Dionysus. Turn everything upside down, do the reverse of what is expected of you. This action will liberate you, delight in leaving a wake of confusion behind you, convention has fixed your behavior, and do some unfixing. Revel in chaos. Enjoy your deliberate disorder - it will set you free. Keyword: Creative chaos. Magical Event: Something turned upside-down. Not what you expected. Decoration: Reversed, unusual, reflected, angular.

13. Death: Hades and Persephone. It is the time to let go of that in your life that has outlived its purpose and you still cling onto to, this could be a friendship, relationship, it could be a belief, a misconception or a wardrobe of clothes that you no longer wear. Now is the time to embrace change and transition, this will open up a new way of being. Time to bring in a new order. If you make a decision today, before you do so, only do it under certain conditions, make sure the agreement you come to is beneficial for you as well as the other party concerned. Keyword: Regulate. Magical Event: A transformation, a new cycle. Decoration: Something half-hidden, in two worlds, split.

14. Temperance: Demeter. Today take time to manage your life at home; this is a case of finding a good work life balance. Let the Goddess Demeter bring new order and balance into your life. It could be a case of just promoting harmony with your home, spend time with family and friends, and be in control of your life. There is a season for everything. Keyword: Balance. Magical Event: A home-coming, a return, something simple. Decoration: Homely, conservative, safe.

15. The Devil: Hecate. Connect with your magical self, let your will have its way. Hecate is a governess of the liminal realms. You can connect to this through dream work.

Keyword: Feyness. Magical Event: Dreams and visions, insight and prophecy. Decoration: Dark and devious, turning and twisting.

16. The Tower: Hestia. Today, do something constructive in the spirit of knowing that often something that we create, can be knocked down, and accept that this is the way. However hold on to the knowledge that once you have learnt how to create and build, you can do it again. Keyword: Regenerate Magical Event: Something old is gone, something replaces it. Decoration: Mobile, contemporary.

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17. The Stars: Hebe. Today try to perceive with ‘new eyes’, recapture the magic, try to avoid tired, outworn thinking, be positive and open to new ideas, look and see beyond the surface, see the beauty that lies there. Regenerate your way of living, come alive again. Avoid being judgmental be generous with forgiveness. Keyword: Renewal. Magical Event: New insight into an old situation. Decoration: Open, New, Innovative, Futuristic.

18. The Moon: Artemis. Today celebrate the restless side of your nature, the side that wants to be wild and free of restraints, put aside the constraints of the modern world, dismantle your devices, turn your back on Facebook, Twitter and go out into nature and become one with it. You can also do something crazy and eccentric and not care - put aside the mask that society has fitted and be who you truly are. Keyword: Authentic. Magical Event: A reconnection to something powerful. Decoration: Dreamy, Wild, Precious, Natural.

19. The Sun: Apollo. Make today a day where you shine for a change. It should be a day of renewal, and where something is outworn it is discarded. It is also a day to focus on expressing what you truly believe-speak your truth; do not sacrifice your own truth in order to pacify others. Keyword: Divination. Magical Event: Something expressed, something revealed. Decoration: Bright, In Your Face, Open, Metallic, Gold.

20. The Judgment: Phobos, Deimos and Harmonia. Today is the day to confront your fears and to do the very thing that you fear most, in order to bring a state of release. It could also be confronting a situation, something that is niggling you and has caused ill feeling, confront this once and for all in order to bring harmony/concord. Keyword: Arbitrate.

Magical Event: A confrontation, a Revelation. Decoration: Something half-hidden (see Death)

21. World: Uranus. Today think about how everything and everyone is connected. We are all part of a big vibrating web, and how that which we do today can influence the future. There is no separation only connection. Think of how you can do something today that will bring positive changes in the future. Try to see life from the perspective of another today; try to come from a place of reason. Keyword: Union/bond. Magical Event: A strange coincidence, a coming-together. Decoration: Holistic, Natural, Woven.

Temple Activities Whilst the further books in this series will provide a sequence of graduated exercises to develop your Tarot Temple practice, we would like to provide for beginners a range of activities you might like to try within your new temple after you have constructed in during the week. 1. Working with a Card. The process of incubation comes from the Latin words meaning “to lie down”. This was an ancient practice of sleeping in sacred places in order to receive dreams. Sometimes, an offering would be made, or the person would sleep in a deep hole or on certain animal skins. In Tarot Temple, we replicate this practice by sleeping on a card! Take a particular card for which you may want to divine deeper knowledge, and place it safely under your bed. We recommend placing it in a transparent bag or small perspex box to keep it flat, dry and clean. Place it under the bed itself, not the mattress as this can bend your cards. Visualize the card, think about it being under your bed, as you go to sleep, and record your dreams in the morning. This practice can be carried out for up to a lunar month (twenty-eight nights) although if you have not received anything in that time, it is best to abandon the method for a while and repeat it after another month has passed. 2. Consecrating a Deck on the Astral.

If you have a new deck, you can consecrate it within your dream-temple. Take a bath before you go to bed, and hold the deck before you switch the lights off and prepare for sleep. Make a particular point of not touching or doing anything else between the bath and bed. This promotes the idea of purification and a direct connection to the deck itself. As you go to sleep, present the deck in your imagination within the temple, to the god or goddess most suitable for its nature. Ask them to consecrate the deck in their name, for the purpose of true divination.

ILLUS. 3 of Chalices – Delphi, Pythia’s Cave. 3. Invoking a Card Energy.

A more powerful and magical way of working with a card, which we will go into more detail in future booklets of this series, is to invoke a card. As the Major cards are images of archetypal patterns, they can be invoked to cause change in the patterns of life. If, for example, you wished to end a situation and transform it to a new level, you could invoke the Death card. Enter the temple as you go to sleep, and visualize that card upon your central altar. Have in your imagination an “offering” that you consider may be of relevance to that energy, for example, the husk of a butterfly cocoon would be suitable for death and transformation, or perhaps a pomegranate. Say something akin to: “In this, my sacred place, I invoke the power of this image for the purpose of positive transformation. I make offering of [offering] and if it is your will, open myself to prophetic dream”. Place the offering on the altar in front of the card image and hold that in your mind as you go to sleep. Record any dreams and notable events, particularly “strange coincidences” or synchronicities. You may find keeping a journal helps, as often these events can be dramatic and powerful, yet you may not notice them at the time – a strange experience of true magic!

You may also perform an offering of the same object in real life to further bridge the inner and outer worlds, should this be possible. You could for example buy a pomegranate and place it in a secluded place suitable for a particular deity, close to a cemetery, etc. This is where we get closer to actual practical magic and is the subject for our following booklets of Tarot Temple.

Conclusion Those whom thou spak'st of are no vision'ries,' Rejoin'd that voice; 'they are no dreamers weak; 'They seek no wonder but the human face, 'No music but a happy noted voice; 'They come not here, they have no thought to come; 'And thou art here, for thou art less than they: 'What benefit canst thou do, or all thy tribe, 'To the great world? Thou art a dreaming thing, 'A fever of thyself think of the Earth; 'What bliss even in hope is there for thee? 'What haven? every creature hath its home; 'Every sole man hath days of joy and pain, 'Whether his labours be sublime or low 'The pain alone; the joy alone; distinct: 'Only the dreamer venoms all his days, 'Bearing more woe than all his sins deserve. 'Therefore, that happiness be somewhat shar'd, 'Such things as thou art are admitted oft 'Into like gardens thou didst pass erewhile, 'And suffer'd in these temples: for that cause 'Thou standest safe beneath this statue's knees.' John Keats, The Fall of Hyperion – A Vision. We trust during this week-long taster experience you have been given a new angle on your Tarot, and look forward to welcoming you even deeper aspects of Temple Dreaming 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 leave you for now with this blessing from Tarosophy; The World is Bound by Invisible Knots - You either Speak with Honey on your Lips from the Book of Clouds, Echoing the Voice of Living Fire in the Trembling Darkness, or you Do Not. There are no half-way Oracles.

Bibliography Begg, I. Myth and Today’s Consciousness. London: Coventure, 1984. Broad, W. J. The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and the Science behind its Lost Secrets. New York: Penguin, 2006. Connelly, J. B. Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007. Corriere, R., Karle, W., Woldenberg, L., Hart, J. Dreaming and Waking: The Functional Approach to Dreams. Culver City: Peace Press, 1980. Faraday, A. Dream Power: The Use of Dreams in Everyday Life. London: Pan Books, 1972. Flower, M. A. The Seer in Ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. Hall, J. A. Jungian Dream Interpretation. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1983. Johnston, S. I. Ancient Greek Divination. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2008. Kaltas, N. & Shapiro, A. Worshipping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens. Athens: National Archeological Museum, 2008. 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.

Steinbrecher, E. C. The Inner Guide Meditation. Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1982. Vandenberg, P. Mysteries of the Oracles. London: Tauris Parke, 2007. Waite, A. E. Pictorial Key to the Tarot. London: Rider, 1974. Webster, L. Dream-Work: Guide to the Midnight City. London: Dryad Press, 1987. Zaidman, L. B. & Pantel, P. S. Religion in the Ancient Greek City. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

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 Tarot Temple Book 1: Create a Tarot Dream Temple Book 2: The Sacred Altar Book 3: Tarot Temple Tools Book 4: Banishing Negativity & Unbalanced Forces Book 5: Purification of your Temple & Life Book 6: Consecration of your Temple & Life Book 7: Divining with 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 booklets. Also includes membership of a private discussion group on Facebook to share and explore your experiences with over a thousand other readers. 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. The book also includes 50 unique exercises for Tarot and an extended method of using the Inner Guide Meditation as given here. 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 2015, 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.

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