When Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world," he did not mean to be the model citizen. What he meant was that when there is war outside of us, for instance, we need to look for the war inside of us, and correct that. Like most people, I keep forgetting this.
I've got a little war going on, and it's the strangest one that I ever could have imagined--over the Tarot cards. At first I thought it was a joke. I thought it was initiated by someone I'd had a falling-out with as a kind of a sick joke, but I did my homework and this is for real.
There is this group of people--amazingly, more than one--who stalk me and other Tarot readers with any kind of success. They try and sabotage my reputation through videos, through blog comments, etc. They believe it is their job in this life to make Tarot a game. Tarot began as a game, sure, but they are hell-bent on bringing Tarot readers down who use Tarot for divination purposes. Astronomy began, really, as astrology--closer to a religion. Does this mean the stars should only be used for zodiac purposes? That penicillin, derived accidentally when one was looking for a cure for food poisoning, should only be used for what it was intended? It is all so silly.
It's quite perplexing. I mean, there are people dying of hunger, AIDS... surely there are more worthy causes to put one's energy into than fighting a one-sided war that perhaps maybe only about ten people in the entire world care about anyway. Fighting a cause where no one is hurt and some are maybe even helped?
So, I have to turn back to Gandhi, and to myself, and say, "Just what the heck is going on here?" If everything is a mirror, as the Qabalah, from which the Tarot is intentionally or unintentionally (and therefore, miraculously) structured (see two blogs ago for more on that), then I need to look at my feelings for these people. The first is a feeling of attack, which I understand from my spiritual work as coming from a place of feeling utterly powerless and needing to matter, in any way that can be recognized. So I know that, even with my successes of out of the country symposiums and conferences, of publications and media appearances, there is a part of me that still feels this sadness too.
The second thing that I feel is simply overwhelmed by the incredible waste of time! I know that I have a judgment on these people and any meaningful purpose they have in this world. Have these people NOTHING better to do than to harass a person unknown to them? And so, I must turn to myself again: Where am I wasting time? Am I running so fast and hard toward purpose that I forget I already have it (and so do they), just by being a child of God? That is something to look at. While I consider myself to be a fairly efficient worker and high producer between my writing, scholarship, teaching and Tarot, there can always be some pockets of my schedule better-spent. I will work on that.
I thought this might be a carryover from negative feelings left from that person I'd had the falling out with, whom I mentioned earlier. I searched my soul, and even did some detective work on the Internet because I'd had some uneasy vibes and dream communications from him. I consciously banished all bad feelings. After all, if I had kept this person in my life, none of my successes or happinesses would have ever happened. Knowing him was a spiritual and creative blessing to me, and his leaving was a greater one still. And should he search his heart, he knows the same is true for him.
The people that I have not-so-affectionately coined "The Tarot Crazies" will probably continue their crusade. I will battle them, I suppose, by working to correct the places within me that still struggle with peace, with wanting to waste time, and with not believing I'm enough. Maybe if the rest of us are the change we want to see in the world, games will not become wars and Tarot will be viewed with an open mind, for any purpose one wants for it. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be glad these people once wandered through my life, too.
© Julia Gordon-Bramer 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Fox 2 News
I was on Fox 2 News and KPLR Channel 11 yesterday reading Tarot for pets. Check it out here.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Tarot, Ancient Symbols, and the Qabalah
Sometimes people wonder how the Tarot corresponds to the Qabalah Tree of Life (also spelled in derivations of "Kabbalah," for the Jewish system, and "Cabala," for the Christian brand).
Here is an easy visual to explain:
If you'd like to read more, there is a pretty good overview here.
The illustrations on modern day Tarot cards all incorporate elements of myth, alchemy, astrology, astronomy, practices and rites going back to ancient times. Look at the Magician card, number one in the major arcana, for example:
He represents Hermes Trismegistus, the ancient Greek's god of magic and communication melded with the Egyptian Thoth. He is for whom Hermeticism, or practitioners of occult Qabalah, take their name. Hermes holds his wand to the heavens and his hand points to the ground, representing the Hermetic principle, "As above, so below." He is the number one, so he is the initiate, learning. The tools on his table represent the four elements of the earth (and the four suits of the tarot): air/swords, water/cups, fire/wands, and pentacles/earth.
Another example of ancient symbolism is the High Priestess card:
She is the Egyptian Isis, the most powerful and spiritual woman in the Tarot deck. She sits between King Solomon's pillars of Mercy and Severity ("Boaz" and "Jachin"), written of in the Bible. Behind her is a veil, representing the occult (meaning "hidden"), and pomegranates, the fruit Persephone ate that kept her in Hades for one dark season of winter (this myth representing the triple goddess of maiden, mother and crone). Isis sits with her foot on the crescent moon, as the moon's 28-day cycle reflects the feminine on earth.
There are many other legends and symbols built into Tarot cards, with the idea being that these, like Jung's universal archetypes that touch the collective unconscious in us all, open intuition and understanding of one's self and others.
While it's true that Tarot started as a card game, the evidence shows it to be much, much greater than that.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to send me your questions and I will blog on them as I have time.
© Julia Gordon-Bramer 2012
Here is an easy visual to explain:
If you'd like to read more, there is a pretty good overview here.
The illustrations on modern day Tarot cards all incorporate elements of myth, alchemy, astrology, astronomy, practices and rites going back to ancient times. Look at the Magician card, number one in the major arcana, for example:
He represents Hermes Trismegistus, the ancient Greek's god of magic and communication melded with the Egyptian Thoth. He is for whom Hermeticism, or practitioners of occult Qabalah, take their name. Hermes holds his wand to the heavens and his hand points to the ground, representing the Hermetic principle, "As above, so below." He is the number one, so he is the initiate, learning. The tools on his table represent the four elements of the earth (and the four suits of the tarot): air/swords, water/cups, fire/wands, and pentacles/earth.
Another example of ancient symbolism is the High Priestess card:
She is the Egyptian Isis, the most powerful and spiritual woman in the Tarot deck. She sits between King Solomon's pillars of Mercy and Severity ("Boaz" and "Jachin"), written of in the Bible. Behind her is a veil, representing the occult (meaning "hidden"), and pomegranates, the fruit Persephone ate that kept her in Hades for one dark season of winter (this myth representing the triple goddess of maiden, mother and crone). Isis sits with her foot on the crescent moon, as the moon's 28-day cycle reflects the feminine on earth.
There are many other legends and symbols built into Tarot cards, with the idea being that these, like Jung's universal archetypes that touch the collective unconscious in us all, open intuition and understanding of one's self and others.
While it's true that Tarot started as a card game, the evidence shows it to be much, much greater than that.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to send me your questions and I will blog on them as I have time.
© Julia Gordon-Bramer 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012
I am absolutely delighted to announce that I will be presenting on the poem "Ariel" at the Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012 at Indiana University, October 25-28.
Here is my abstract:
Plath’s “Ariel”: The Feminine Arrow into the Apocalypse
By Julia Gordon-Bramer
“Plath’s ‘Ariel’: The Feminine Arrow into the Apocalypse” explores the fifteenth and title poem from Ariel, examining its numerical correlative Tarot card, Temperance, as the poem matches with Temperance’s meanings and symbols. Excerpted from Fixed Stars Govern A Life: the mystic reinterpretation of the work of Sylvia Plath, the poem “Ariel” is matched directly to the six facets of Qabalah: Hebrew/Tarot correlations; alchemy; mythology; history and the world; astrology and astronomy; and arts and the humanities. Plath’s genius with language is still mostly unrecognized, as a single poem such as “Ariel” contains so much complex detail. This presentation will take the reader line-by-line to reveal the Hebrew, gematria, and numerological correspondences, as well as an occult initiation rite. Plath wove in details of classical literature such as King Arthur and The Little Mermaid, and Irish Medieval, Celtic, Norse, and Babylonian myth in celebration of female power and fire. Astrologically, the poem “Ariel” explores the Age of Pisces as it moves into Aquarius, and the Mayan prediction of the end of the world in 2012. Perhaps most impressively, however, is the juxtaposition of the real-life history of the World War II bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the sideline tales of American fighter pilots and female foreign correspondents. Incredibly, these thirty-four lines do it all.
Most have understood the poem “Ariel” to be about a wild ride on a runaway horse. And that might still be true—as one small and less-significant meaning. We have always known that “Ariel” is one of Plath’s greatest poems. Now, it is time to understand why.
Here is my abstract:
Plath’s “Ariel”: The Feminine Arrow into the Apocalypse
By Julia Gordon-Bramer
“Plath’s ‘Ariel’: The Feminine Arrow into the Apocalypse” explores the fifteenth and title poem from Ariel, examining its numerical correlative Tarot card, Temperance, as the poem matches with Temperance’s meanings and symbols. Excerpted from Fixed Stars Govern A Life: the mystic reinterpretation of the work of Sylvia Plath, the poem “Ariel” is matched directly to the six facets of Qabalah: Hebrew/Tarot correlations; alchemy; mythology; history and the world; astrology and astronomy; and arts and the humanities. Plath’s genius with language is still mostly unrecognized, as a single poem such as “Ariel” contains so much complex detail. This presentation will take the reader line-by-line to reveal the Hebrew, gematria, and numerological correspondences, as well as an occult initiation rite. Plath wove in details of classical literature such as King Arthur and The Little Mermaid, and Irish Medieval, Celtic, Norse, and Babylonian myth in celebration of female power and fire. Astrologically, the poem “Ariel” explores the Age of Pisces as it moves into Aquarius, and the Mayan prediction of the end of the world in 2012. Perhaps most impressively, however, is the juxtaposition of the real-life history of the World War II bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the sideline tales of American fighter pilots and female foreign correspondents. Incredibly, these thirty-four lines do it all.
Most have understood the poem “Ariel” to be about a wild ride on a runaway horse. And that might still be true—as one small and less-significant meaning. We have always known that “Ariel” is one of Plath’s greatest poems. Now, it is time to understand why.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Plath, the Tarot, and author Lawrence Durrell
I am very excited to announce that I'll be presenting on Sylvia Plath's poem, "A Secret", as it relates to the Tarot and author Lawrence Durrell's great work, The Alexandria Quartet, at the Lawrence Durrell Centenary conference in London, England.
The event will be held at London's Goodenough College and the British Library, June 13-16, 2012.
Details forthcoming.
The event will be held at London's Goodenough College and the British Library, June 13-16, 2012.
Details forthcoming.
Monday, January 16, 2012
On Accuracy, and "Fortune Telling" vs. Tarot
Every now and then, people call or write and ask me the question about my Tarot readings, "How accurate are you?"
It's kind of a hard question to answer, because it depends on what the questioner means. I'll explain.
Have I ever been wrong? Absolutely. That happens. There are some people with whom, for reasons unknown to me and probably varying, I just can't make a connection. I would say, on average, that at every big party or event where I'm reading for a lot of people, churning them through one after another, there is maybe one person who just doesn't "hit." It can be as frustrating to me as to that person. Oftentimes that person might feel left out, especially when friends around him or her are howling with surprise and laughter, or moved to tears from the cards.
There are a couple of ways I explain this. In my own defense, most often, this will be in a noisy place like a conference or a party (although even that is usually not a problem). Sometimes, I feel a bit challenged by the client--they have set out to prove me wrong--and the whole situation can feel combative and uncomfortable from where I sit. Sometimes, the person is so personally guarded and fearful of what I might see that he or she is not "letting me in." I have had some individuals who have done a lot of spiritual/New Age work and may have a belief that they are much further along than I see they are. And I have had more than one occasion when someone told me, "No, that's totally wrong, I'm not like that..." and then friends who had been watching pull me aside later and say, "You were exactly right. She just doesn't see this about herself..."
One needs to know a couple things about the Tarot. First and foremost, it is a tool for opening up the subconscious; it is psychological, and less about hocus-pocus. One needs to approach a Tarot reading understanding that everything in this life has been created by our own power. We've all seen people, or have ourselves been in a downward spiral, right? When you're on the outside of that, watching someone fall into the abyss, it's quite easy to understand how someone attracts bad things. Their minds are programmed for misery and looking to create more of it. They are actively seeking misery and failure, and finding their 'proof' in everything. We've all been there--hopefully not for long. I have not been immune.
I like to tell people that upward spirals are just as possible (and common). Our life results are set by our mindset, which is changeable. What we THINK is what we get. We see what we think and get in the Tarot cards. Likewise, the Tarot can be a powerful tool to offer suggestions to change any negative results coming up that are in our control.
So what about the fortune-telling aspect of Tarot? Will I get the job? Will I marry? Will I be rich? Well, it is my belief that this is all within the control of our attitude, as well. My cards will show you if you are on the right track, and they will offer you advice on how to do things differently, if that's your path. It may be that you think you want something in the moment, a mate or a corporate job, perhaps, but maybe that's not right for who you truly are. Maybe that's something you are not yet ready to face, because you've been trying to live up to other's expectations, and you've been missing that important part about knowing your own needs. These are the kinds of answers the Tarot will reveal.
Like any Tarot reader, I have experimented, misusing the cards and asking inappropriate questions. An example of an inappropriate question would be what horse will win a race, what are the lotto numbers, or who will win an election (the cards once gave me John McCain over Barack Obama, clear as day). I think the cards mess with us a bit in these situations. Tarot is NOT "fortune-telling" in that sense. It is only about what we can control in our lives. The fact is that presidential election or horse race (same difference, right?) is out of my personal power. Had I been reading for John McCain, Barack Obama, or the owner of a race horse, the reading would have been different. Those people are personally invested in a way that I am not.
That said, I did pick up a pack of Madame LeNormand fortune-telling cards (from the French courts of Napoleon and Josephine) which have a very different feeling to them, and yes, they are the ones to warn of losing fortunes and such. If you'd like me to bring them to your next Tarot appointment, just say so. I still need the book to translate these cards, however. I consider these cards "entertainment-only" with no promises. I have much greater trust in the Tarot.
A last word about "wrong" readings: because I believe that we are all in the driver's seat with regard to our lives, and we are creating everything to teach us what we need to know to take us to the next place on the journey, I believe that sometimes that "wrong" reading is exactly what we need to hear. I have had clients tell me that after leaving an appointment with me they were sure it didn't fit, that it felt all wrong, and then three or six months later everything I said came true.
As a never-ending student of mysticism, Tarot and Qabalah, it's my goal to risk it all and put it out there--betting one hundred percent on my intuition. I try to let go of the ego that fears I could be wrong. I know that the words I say will be exactly right for that person in that moment, because that person called me there. I still have my fearful moments. I still have that ego voice spring up now and then, wanting to make the client happy and tell him or her what they want to hear over what I see. I try to let that go. My clients might not always like it.
I hope that you'll come to me if you are open, honest, and brave enough to take control of your own life. It's not all about chance and fortune--it's about taking control of your own direction and owning your own power to create the life you want.
© Julia Gordon-Bramer 2012
It's kind of a hard question to answer, because it depends on what the questioner means. I'll explain.
Have I ever been wrong? Absolutely. That happens. There are some people with whom, for reasons unknown to me and probably varying, I just can't make a connection. I would say, on average, that at every big party or event where I'm reading for a lot of people, churning them through one after another, there is maybe one person who just doesn't "hit." It can be as frustrating to me as to that person. Oftentimes that person might feel left out, especially when friends around him or her are howling with surprise and laughter, or moved to tears from the cards.
There are a couple of ways I explain this. In my own defense, most often, this will be in a noisy place like a conference or a party (although even that is usually not a problem). Sometimes, I feel a bit challenged by the client--they have set out to prove me wrong--and the whole situation can feel combative and uncomfortable from where I sit. Sometimes, the person is so personally guarded and fearful of what I might see that he or she is not "letting me in." I have had some individuals who have done a lot of spiritual/New Age work and may have a belief that they are much further along than I see they are. And I have had more than one occasion when someone told me, "No, that's totally wrong, I'm not like that..." and then friends who had been watching pull me aside later and say, "You were exactly right. She just doesn't see this about herself..."
One needs to know a couple things about the Tarot. First and foremost, it is a tool for opening up the subconscious; it is psychological, and less about hocus-pocus. One needs to approach a Tarot reading understanding that everything in this life has been created by our own power. We've all seen people, or have ourselves been in a downward spiral, right? When you're on the outside of that, watching someone fall into the abyss, it's quite easy to understand how someone attracts bad things. Their minds are programmed for misery and looking to create more of it. They are actively seeking misery and failure, and finding their 'proof' in everything. We've all been there--hopefully not for long. I have not been immune.
I like to tell people that upward spirals are just as possible (and common). Our life results are set by our mindset, which is changeable. What we THINK is what we get. We see what we think and get in the Tarot cards. Likewise, the Tarot can be a powerful tool to offer suggestions to change any negative results coming up that are in our control.
So what about the fortune-telling aspect of Tarot? Will I get the job? Will I marry? Will I be rich? Well, it is my belief that this is all within the control of our attitude, as well. My cards will show you if you are on the right track, and they will offer you advice on how to do things differently, if that's your path. It may be that you think you want something in the moment, a mate or a corporate job, perhaps, but maybe that's not right for who you truly are. Maybe that's something you are not yet ready to face, because you've been trying to live up to other's expectations, and you've been missing that important part about knowing your own needs. These are the kinds of answers the Tarot will reveal.
Like any Tarot reader, I have experimented, misusing the cards and asking inappropriate questions. An example of an inappropriate question would be what horse will win a race, what are the lotto numbers, or who will win an election (the cards once gave me John McCain over Barack Obama, clear as day). I think the cards mess with us a bit in these situations. Tarot is NOT "fortune-telling" in that sense. It is only about what we can control in our lives. The fact is that presidential election or horse race (same difference, right?) is out of my personal power. Had I been reading for John McCain, Barack Obama, or the owner of a race horse, the reading would have been different. Those people are personally invested in a way that I am not.
That said, I did pick up a pack of Madame LeNormand fortune-telling cards (from the French courts of Napoleon and Josephine) which have a very different feeling to them, and yes, they are the ones to warn of losing fortunes and such. If you'd like me to bring them to your next Tarot appointment, just say so. I still need the book to translate these cards, however. I consider these cards "entertainment-only" with no promises. I have much greater trust in the Tarot.
A last word about "wrong" readings: because I believe that we are all in the driver's seat with regard to our lives, and we are creating everything to teach us what we need to know to take us to the next place on the journey, I believe that sometimes that "wrong" reading is exactly what we need to hear. I have had clients tell me that after leaving an appointment with me they were sure it didn't fit, that it felt all wrong, and then three or six months later everything I said came true.
As a never-ending student of mysticism, Tarot and Qabalah, it's my goal to risk it all and put it out there--betting one hundred percent on my intuition. I try to let go of the ego that fears I could be wrong. I know that the words I say will be exactly right for that person in that moment, because that person called me there. I still have my fearful moments. I still have that ego voice spring up now and then, wanting to make the client happy and tell him or her what they want to hear over what I see. I try to let that go. My clients might not always like it.
I hope that you'll come to me if you are open, honest, and brave enough to take control of your own life. It's not all about chance and fortune--it's about taking control of your own direction and owning your own power to create the life you want.
© Julia Gordon-Bramer 2012
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Another Plath Publication
If you follow Sylvia Plath, you may be interested to read about my mystic interpretation of her wonderful poem, "Fever 103", in the latest Plath Profiles 4.
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