Archived

This Podcast Episode has been archived. It is available for purchase at shop.tarotconnection.net in the Year One Archive mp3 DVD.

On Halloween 2006, I did a reading for a friend who was considering a career change. I’m sharing part of this reading including a yes/no spread, an 3 card exploration reading and a journey into the High Priestess.

Hermit’s Journey with Bonnie Cehovet – Right Speech

Welcome to the Hermit’s Journey. I am Bonnie Cehovet, and today I am going to be discussing the concepts of Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. This topic came out of conversations that Leisa and I have been having about the many things that are going on within the Tarot world, and about the responsibilities that we each carry, to ourselves and to our clients.

This is reflected in the Code of Ethics that each reader is encouraged to develop, but it goes far beyond this code.

The concepts of Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood come from the essence of Buddha’s teaching. They are part of what is termed the Noble Eightfold Path: (1) Right View, (2) Right Intention, (3) Right Speech, (4) Right Action, (5) Right Livelihood, (6) Right Effort, (7) Right Mindfulness, (8) Right Concentration.

Right View and Right Intention are considered to be part of the discipline of Wisdom; Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood are considered part of the discipline of moral/ethical conduct; while Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration are considered to be part of the discipline of Mental Development. Together, they act as a foundation to allow the individual to free themselves from attachments and delusions, and to lead them to an understanding of the basic truth about all things.

What place does this serve in the professional world of Tarot? The same place that it serves in all worlds, and that is to act as a tool to guide the individual in making decisions and taking actions that are right for themselves, without causing harm to themselves, or those around them. It is living in harmony with our environment, and all that comprises that environment.

Tarot Realizations – from Bill Vincent

Knowing When to Take a Break…

Tarot can be challenging. Everything from doing readings, to studying the symbolism, to finding the proper balance in your life for Tarot can be challenging. I am what I would consider an Intermediate Tarot student. I feel I have come a long way in my intellectual understanding of the cards. I have read and studied several of the classic books on the topic. I have worked with the cards doing readings and flexing my intuitive muscles. But, over the course of time I have been working with them, there have been times when I felt the need to take a break from them, in order to be able to process all of the input that the cards themselves and their study present to me.

The first time this happened I had let myself get mentally over stimulated to the point where I put everything out of sight for a few weeks. At that time I felt a sense of frustration and failure at my inability to handle all of the information that was coming my way. I needed a vacation from the intellectual study of Tarot, and I took one. When I finally returned to my cards, books, and thoughts on Tarot, I was much better prepared to understand my limits, and how much I could do without overload. (read the full post)

Strange Bedfellows by Ginny Hunt

Christianity and tarot make very odd bedfellows indeed. One might even say they need separate bedrooms at the very least. That opinion is held not only by many Christians but also by many Pagans and neo-pagans who reject the Christian symbolism in the cards and claim the symbology to be corrupted forms of earlier pagan symbolism. While they have a valid point, I think it’s interesting that both Christian and Pagan belief systems reject the Christian historical roots of tarot.

The Church took offense with the deck almost immediately. Card playing had associations with gambling ever since playing cards had been introduced to Europe and various laws and decrees were enacted to discourage that. However, the earliest known disparagement of tarot cards specifically comes from an anonymously penned sermon, known as “The Steele Sermon” or “Sermones de Ludo cum Aliis,” c. 1480. This sermon detailed the Trumps of tarot and asserts that the Trumps were invented and named by the Devil and as such hotly discourages their use. The blasphemous depiction of The Pope, the inclusion of a female Popesse, the imagery of The Devil, The Tower and so forth created objections and banning by the Church. But it likely wasn’t just the pictures that caused such a ruckus. The politics of the time were more than probably the driving force behind the opposition.

The characters in the tarot “triumph” or trumps were seen in the many Roman Catholic pageantry processions, not too unlike what we see preceding Lent at Mardis Gras and Carnival. These pageants were evangelistic devices of the Church designed to convert. Indeed, the Church has used various forms of earlier pagan imagery in its quest to convert the heathen, so the imagery these pageants used were designed to place the Christian story in a pagan context. As the Reformation took hold in Europe, these pageants disappeared from France, Italy, and England. All religious plays were banned in France in the mid 1500’s and with them went much of the historical truth about what those original tarot trumps actually represented. A very sad loss, indeed. (read the full post)

Music Credits

Opening Music: time release by the Droney Tones.

Hermits Journey Music: Dark Moon by Suzanne Teng from Enchanted Wind (Magnatune)

78 Notes Music: Steamy River by Rhonda Lorence from Winter Moon (Magnatune)

Closing Music: Dolphins from Restrung by Reza Manzoori