In June 2007, the Portland Tarot Study Group covered the 5’s in Tarot and practiced related spreads. A very popular and meaningful spread is one based on the 4 elements plus spirit. There are many variations and ways to arrange the elements around the pentagram.

For this version, the elements are assigned to points on the pentagram with Spirit at the top. Then if we go around clockwise, Water, Fire, Earth and Air. This is the arrangement used in Ceremonial Magic Ritual to invoke or banish elements.

It makes interesting relationship between positions and allows a variety of ways to read elemental dignities. There is tension between the Water & Fire cards on the right. The same thing goes for the Air and Earth on the left. Cards that are diagonally across from each other are supportive (Air & Fire) (Earth & Water). Horizontal cards are neutral.

If you start at fire and go counter clockwise around the points, the elements are in the order of the Pentagrammaton.

1. Pick an element that best describes the subject of the reading.
2. Does the querent with to increase or decrease the element in their life?
3. Select a pentagram to dictate the order and direction the cards will be read.
4. Shuffle, while thinking about the question.
5. Layout the cards around the pentagram. I like to use the opening of the key to get the 4 natural element cards and calculate the spirit card based on adding the numbered cards up and reducing them to a number less than 22. Having a second majors only deck is very helpful for this. You might get a major card twice.
6. Start reading with the card indicated by the pentagram you picked. Continue in the direction indicated.

Examples

How can i improve communication with my spouse?

(Invoking Air) Start with Water, Move towards Air. Water-> Air-> Fire-> Spirit-> Earth

How can I stop obsessing about my application for college.

(Banishing Air) Start with Air, Move towards Water. Air-> Water-> Earth-> Spirit-> Fire.

I spent a couple of weeks trying to come up with a graphic that would help with keeping track of the pentagrams. This is what I came up with.

The colored paths represent the starting paths for each of the elements.

• Red-Fire: Diagonal Line between Spirit & Fire
• Blue-Water: Horizontal line between Air & Water
• Yellow-Air: Horizontal link between Air & Water
• Green-Earth: Diagonal Line between Spirit & Earth
• Light Violet-Active Spirit: Diagonal line between Air & Fire
• Deep Violet-Passive Spirit: Diagonal line between Earth & Water.

Pick your element. Decide if you want to invoke or banish the element. Banishing always starts at the element. Invoking starts away from the element and moves towards it. The first path is the one with the color of the element. The two spirit paths are represented by violet. Since they don’t touch the spirit point, consider the high end of the path to end in spirit to use the diagram. For example, banishing active spirit starts at Air.

Examples

• Invoking Fire: Start at Spirit, move towards Fire. Spirit-> Fire -> Air -> Water -> Earth.
• Banishing Water: Start at Water, move towards Air. Water-> Air -> Fire-> Spirit -> Earth

The Sixes by Ginny Hunt

Sixes in tarot are a welcome relief after the disruptive, conflicting adrenaline-pumping fives. Sixes restore harmony to the chaos, they offer comfort, nurturing, sympathy, and healing to those battered by the losses of the fives as well. Sixes are the kudos you deserve, the solace you need, the balm on your wounds.

Six is the number of the Major Arcana card VI The Lovers and it represents all the qualities of a secure, loving relationship such as harmony, beauty, nurturing, love, marriage, family, responsibility, understanding, sympathy, healing, empathy, perfection, order, duty, comfort, and service. Even its shape is soft and beautiful, its form is a continuous curve without angle, without line. It is almost a spiral, going towards infinity.

Six is both the sum (1 + 2 + 3) and the product (1 x 2 x 3) of the first three numbers. It is therefore considered “perfect.” In mathematics, a perfect number is one that equals the sum of its divisors (excluding itself), and 6 is the first perfect number in this sense because its divisors are 1, 2, and 3.

In alchemy, the upright triangle represents fire, and the upside-down triangle is the symbol for water. Together they symbolize the unity of opposites. The hexagram is seen in the Seal of Solomon, and this symbol is often used in ceremonial magick. It has been adopted as the national symbol of Israel and is a common symbol in Judaism, as there was a 6-pointed star on the shield that David carried to battle Goliath. Another version is the Unicursal Hexagram devised by the Golden Dawn in order to create a six-pointed star symbol in one movement rather than two. Qabbalistically, six represents Tiphareth, or “beauty.” (read the full post)

Hermit’s Journey with Bonnie Cehovet - Tarot and Personal Growth

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom and The Four Insights: The Wisdom, Power, and Grace of the Earthkeepers

Welcome to the Hermit’s Journey. My name is Bonnie Cehovet, and today we are going to be talking about Tarot and personal growth. I have recently been working with a book by Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., entitled The Four Insights: The Wisdom, Power, and Grace of the Earthkeepers. Since I have a tendency to mix and match my work tools, I immediately placed the intent of this book on a level with that of Rachel Pollack’s Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom.

In “Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom”, Pollack sets down a solid basis for the interpretations of each of the card groups - the Major Arcana, the Minor Arcana, and the Court Cards. The Major Arcana is further broken down into three distinct areas of life experience: cards 1-7 deal with the main concerns of society (love, social authority, and education); cards 8-14 represent a withdrawal into self-awareness, with a symbolic death and rebirth; while cards 15-21 represent confrontation, followed by a union with the Divine. Working through the path of the Major Arcana can be equated with working through Jung’s process of individuation, the goal being enlightenment. The Major Arcana can also be seen as the fifth element - Spirit.

The four suits of the Minor Arcana are associated with the traditional four elements: Wands with Fire (action, passion, will, career), Cups with Water (intuition, emotions, love, friendship, joy), Swords with Air (conflict, mental activity, wisdom), and Pentacles with Earth (physical world, work, nature, material things), and the unspoken name of God (Yod - Fire, and the creative spark, the energy needed to begin any enterprise); Heh - Water, the actual beginning of the enterprise; Vau - Air, the development of the plan: Heh - Earth, and finished creation). Pollack notes that the Minor Arcana provide the commentary on life in a reading.

The Court Cards are expressive of personality types, defined by their elemental quality. In general, Pollack references Kings as representing social responsibility, power, and success; Queens as representing deep appreciation of the suit, and creativity; Knights as representing action, responsibility to others; and Pages as representing exploration and study.

The Tarot acts as a mirror for our lives, reflecting on many levels the situations we are facing, showing us different ways of looking at them, how we got into our current situation, and what options we have for dealing with it. It is an active tool of transformation, acting as a gateway between our conscious and unconscious selves.

Music Credits

Opening Music: The Oracle Speaks by William Wilde Zeitler from Elegy for Atlantis

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

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

Closing Music: Above the Clouds Suzanne Teng from Enchanted Wind (Magnatune)

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