The Tarot of Mindfulness. How the Tarot has helped to remain mindful and on the path.

The Tarot of Mindfulness

My experience of Mindfulness through the cards

Many years ago I read Siddhartha by Herman Hess. It so moved me, the life of the Buddha, that it brought me to make an oath to dedicate my life to enlightenment. I have kept that oath, and although not following Buddhism, my eyes stayed fast on the goal.

At the same time I was also in possession a deck of Tarot cards that a friend had given me. He told me that every mystery, truth, path was contained in these cards, that nothing else needed. I looked at the cards and was befuddled, they were interesting with the little allegoric drawings but there was nothing much to indicate they could reveal much more than telling fortunes.

Yet I stuck to them.

Life has many twist and turns and having studied and practiced aspects Daoism, Kabala, Gnosticism, Yoga, Magick I came full circle and am now practicing Dzogchen meditation. Why not Buddhism if it was my original inspiration? The body of works on Buddhism were so extensive and the intellectual rigor so demanding as to take many life times. For me it appeared heavy and unappealing. The Buddha aimed at simplicity and clarity.

So in saying this perhaps a flaw is revealed in my character: there should be some joy to budge me. It is action like doing Yoga, Martial Arts, Rock-climbing that moves me. It is to learn by doing, by pitting my body against the difficulty and over coming it, something not as heroic as it sounds – I had a dogged curiosity that would often lead to disaster as well.

More importantly this whole process led me to search for a more universal path, as did the Buddha, one of acceptance and inclusion. One can learn and advance through trial and error so I just jumped right in.

Back in those early days the cards told me my first step was found in the twenty-first card: ‘The World’.

This card is situated on the tree of life between the sphere of matter and the realm of reflection. The world of matter is where we develop the delusion that we are separate individuals.

The realm of reflection is just like when we see the moon reflecting the sun – Here is the foundation of all that will experience as we rise from the mundane existence of a daily grind to refined joy.

On the card the central figure is a nude female. It could indicate a stripping away of artifice, fear and shame, which are all obstacles to achieving calm reflection. I had with me at the time a book on Pranayama (Hindu breath control), so I began to practice and as these breathing exercises stilled the body my imagination became more focused.

On the four corners of the card were icons representing the four elements. With my heightened imagination I could visualize these elements and experience their function. I would envision a rock worn to sand on top of which rotting vegetation becoming soil and this below a lake where the soil became mud then muddy water then as the waters settle they become clear; above the waters were the winds or still airs and then the clouds. Above the clouds the fiery sun with its rays lifting the waters into the clouds that turn to rain.

These were my contemplations as I sat in my asana (Yoga meditation posture); all I knew of yoga at the time was the full lotus. I would sit in the lotus and do breathing exercises then go through my contemplations on the elements. At first, being a raw beginner, and a sickly mouth breather, I ran into innumerous obstacles such as: clogged nostrils or bowels, fidgety body, racing mind. What kept me going though those ordeals is beyond me but I did keep on and eventually the Asana stopped hurting and I could do the breathing exercises smoothly. This went on for several months as rather blissful feeling appeared through out the day. That’s when strange phenomena began to take place. After a session I would rise and whirl about the room like a ballerina or a dervish with angels wings. I should mention that I was at my Aunt’s house and she was a collector of fine porcelain from around the world, in my wild cavorting I damaged not one piece!

Then came the time to move on. I took a bus up to Kinston, NC to visit my uncle and work on his tobacco farm for the summer. The card guiding though this part of my spiritual journey was the Last Judgment. My chores till the tobacco was ready for harvest were to slop the hogs, gather the eggs, and weed the vegetable garden, otherwise I had time to wander the forest and fields at my leisure.

One day while walking though an enchanting part of the forest I saw a stick that told me to pick it up. The stick had in mind that I should make it a magic wand. On one end I was to carve a horned God on the other end a pointing finger. It went fairly quickly and over a couple of days it was finished and I was in possession of a magic pointer of the way. I could spin it then follow the course it would point to.

I felt an urge to charge it with a spirit. I had no idea what a spirit was but associated it with the dead. Now the Buddha talks of death and how clinging is the objective world is the cause of our suffering. You have got to let things go. That this would be clearly taught to me was now in the works.

It was getting late in the day and I decided to spin one last time then head back to the house. This spin brought me to some old and abandoned graves with tombstones marked “Best” I decided this was my source of spirit! It would be best! As I rammed the wand into the grave the finger pointing down the dinner bell rang.

After dinner I read some poetry and then went to bed – it had been a long day as we rise at 5:30. That night the Best sisters visited me. It was a sensation like no one that I have had before or since. There was no doubt that my visitors were not of this world. They asked why I had disturbed their grave.

I said, “Because I thought it best!”

This actually got a giggle, they then told me, “We are waiting for Jesus to take us to Heaven.”

I said, “Heaven is ever coming; rise and rejoice!” They then thanked me and rose. These are certainly events in life that we can’t plan for.

If you Google the Last Judgment you will see a card with several spirits rising from the grave. This experience opened me up and gave me the space to evolve. It made me realize that life was too important to take seriously. There is no truth, no dogma, no teaching worth clinging to; let life come at you, deal with it then let it go.

However this is not the end but just the beginning there are nineteen more cards to guide us through the labyrinth of life, to point out our missteps and direct us toward achievement. Just like life this book of Tarot can be shuffled and produce new out comes. There is success.

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