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Topic: Relevance of the Tree of Life (Read 1814 times)
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David
Newbie
Posts: 14
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Thanks Paul,
I'm going to use these statements in my tarot classes.
I think that a ladder works both ways, i.e., to climb to the heights or to plumb the depths.
David
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tarotist1231
Newbie
Posts: 29
Between Readings
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As a friend of mine once said,
When you first begin to read tarot,
they are little more than strangely drawn playing cards.
After some study and deliberation the symbols in the cards begin to beckon you to go into them.
Now the cards become shards of mirror, inviting us to self-knowledge.
With more study and reflection, the narcissism of the mirror dissolves into the transparency of a window to the world soul,
where self-knowledge dissolves into self-forgetfulness and the forces of the cosmos take shape as living entities.
With more study and meditation, the transparency of the world soul widens to become doorways into the Universal Archetypes and Aions.
With more study and contemplation the doorways open to the palace-chambers of the King.
In the palace-chambers, we are invited to partake of the treasures and the pleasures of the King and to feast in the banquet hall as a master of all the worlds.
However stay not here O Soul, go to the King himself hidden by the antechamber.
and there find what should not be said.
I usually call this quote the Gnostic Ladder, where levels of imaginative engagement with the tarot lead toward the ultimate encounter with the source of Self.
"If the place I want to arrive at could only be reached by a ladder, I would give up trying to arrive at it. For the place I really have to reach is where I must already be. What is reachable by a ladder doesn't interest me." (Ludwig Wittgenstein) (thanks to Karen Witter of Yahoo Tarot)
This Wittgenstein objection does not apply because it is a willful dualist construal of the ladder metaphor when what is being reached by the ladder is the nature of being here already, just perhaps not properly appreciated.
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« Last Edit: July 21, 2007, 11:36:35 AM by tarotist1231 »
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tarotist1231
Newbie
Posts: 29
Between Readings
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Meister Eckhart said,
“The eye through which I
see God is the same eye
through which God sees
me; my eye and God’s eye
are one eye, one seeing, one
knowing, one love.”
Rhys I agree the Meister Eckhart quote does invoke the intimacy of the reflection of begetter and begotten in the certainity of Love. and I chose as my quote in considering kingship: He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye. --Bhagavad Gita Some musings on the king as theophanic principle.On the intricacy of submission as the basis of kingship.The word king, knee belongs to a cluster of words that go back deep into Indo-European ur-language. The word knee, kneel, following one of my favorite psychoanalytic etymologists, Theodore Thass-Thienemann, is related to the term know. The word knee, kneel meanings angle, bent, to kneel, (also a derivative) is the classic gesture of submission before a superior. This angle may also be an Angel. Angels are divine messengers. Prisms break up the unity of light by bending the light to its own frequency. Each Angel adores the divine reality by heralding some aspect of the divine reality something like color. This knee bending is not only submission but represents a half turn so that the glory which in itself is a catastrophe to the created order is diluted in a sense by being variegated by the Angel. Sitting as a posture is a half-kneel. If one were to invoke a Logos theology. Then the letters and vowels of the divine also introduce angles into the sublime. Each letter is then an Angel. Each vowel is probably an Archangel? What say you, Wald? One could say the Logos itself is the mirror of pre-creation. The King as father also invokes the idea of progenitor. To generate is related to the idea of know. But also to the idea of kneel. knowledge as understanding requires a submission. The ability to stand under something. To hold what it is to be known above one's conception. Understanding as the throne of wisdom. Should be consider the king's lap? It is lost standing or full kneeling. What then is the crown? Perhaps will to love? Another word for a King is monarch. One rule or law. One Standard. An arch is also a curved shape or moving at an angle, curved trajectory, and can be a type of humor, playful, mischievous knowing implicitly shared as in some puns and palindromes. Other words in this King-kneel-beget cluster that are related to each other through their phonemic forms: in Greek the word for beget, generate is gi-gno-mai, angle, corner: gonia, knee: gonu, lap: gonata. In Latin words in the cluster include: beget, generate: gigno, geno; knee, node of plants, herbs, joint of a water pipeline: genu. In old English the words are cneow, cneo: for a generation, for me, and for know, knew. Given that there seems to be a coherent phonemic pattern relating these forms to their disparate meanings. he Egyptian hieroglyph for birth depicts a kneeling woman. Many references in Greek literature also confirmed that kneeling was the natural posture at birth for women. Kneeling is also a common posture for intercourse. Kneeling then does not only represent submission but also suggests the whole full act of birthing. It may be that the primary meaning of beget is to kneel. In this sense in which we now use lie-in. Or in the German nieder-kommen: come down. I have begun to deal with the nature of the King. Now let's add an element or two! |
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TediBare
Newbie
Posts: 4
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I love this Rhys!!
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Rhys
Guest
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I was looking through some of my books, and found this series of snippets - they're about Tiferet of Tiferet, which isn't quite what we were doing in class on Wednesday ( King of Cups), but there is a connection. Think about it. Without further ado... REB YERACHMIEL’S NOTEBOOKMeister Eckhart said,
“The eye through which I
see God is the same eye
through which God sees
me; my eye and God’s eye
are one eye, one seeing, one
knowing, one love.”What do you see when you
look through the one eye
of love?
Where are you blind to
seeing and being seen?
What can you do to open
your eye more often?It is possible to be so humble that humility itself is a stumbling block to you. Know that
you are empty of permanence and be humbled by that. But know, too, that you are created
in the image and likeness of God; be emboldened by that. Use your power to open the
heavens with your prayer. Use your humility to open your heart to heaven.– Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael |
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« Last Edit: May 19, 2007, 03:19:35 AM by Rhys »
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tarotist1231
Newbie
Posts: 29
Between Readings
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Thank you, David  for your clarifying aspects of your practice of centering prayer and the tree of life. I want to sit with the information for a while before I attempt to follow up with other possibilities. I would like to clarify the apophatic/cataphatic distinction is useful to a degree but as I tried to explain in my use of the terms, seeing them solely as oppositional falsifies the inclusiveness of true contemplation that will encompass both the formful and formless aspects of Presence. I think that we as a class and/or group should try to develop a language that encompasses the nature of prayer as we encounter it in our own meditations, tarot practice and in the unfolding subjects presented in the teleconference. So I continued to invite other members of the class to join in where they are so moved or to begin their own thread on the topic of importance to them. Will say hello to you Wednesday evening.  Paul |
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David
Newbie
Posts: 14
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Paul,  You ask that I offer an alternative description for Centering Prayer from my point of view. I do use the Tree of Life during the times that I am involved with Centering Prayer. (Wald would probably refer to my approach as Contemplation.) You might say it is more cataphatic i approach, although I see it as being closer to an apophatic method. Just last week, I sat in Centering Prayer (Contemplation) focusing upon Hod, and allowed my mind to take me wherever it was wont to do. I don't see this as cataphatic in that I'm not following a formatted structure of meditation. But, I suppose, it is cataphatic in that I see the interdependence of my thoughts with the focus at hand. I'm not adept enought at the practice to be anywhere ner the ability to touch the emptiness of my mind, although, there are times when I experience a "flash" of connecting with the transcendental. Centering Prayer for me is a way to connect to the Supernals on the Tree of Life. As a way to coinnect during the practice I suse the Tree of Life as an entry point. I'm appending a portion of a prayer, a mantra, that I use to help me move into an inner dialogue I visualize the Tree and start my meditation by reciting: "May we draw together. May we gather together. May we form a vessel to collect the dew of heaven. May we rise up and go to that holy place of meeting and gather there with the companions of the Light. Let the veil of heaven be drawn back...Hear this....." At this point I move up the Tree from Malkhut to Keter following the Lightning Path -- and step into the stillness of my mind. It's a process that works for me -- So I am able to utilize the Tree and the placement of the Tarot cards as a meditative device, as cataphatic as it might be, to connect me to Spirit. Regards to you and all, David  |
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tarotist1231
Newbie
Posts: 29
Between Readings
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Thank you, David for being willing to get started on this project. I hope a small critical mass of us from the tele-class will contribute regularly to this forum as a way of enhancing our learning experience and of a deepening our understanding of tarot.
We also had opportunity to meet briefly at the Reader’s Studio, where I was keenly interested in knowing that you practiced centering prayer.
Centering prayer is a form of contemplative prayer that has been adapted from a monastic practice, Cistercian and Benedictine as reinvigorated in the mid-20th century. It is mostly lay movement, in that secular priests do not seem to practice it or encourage it. It is a very powerful form of apophatic (formless) contemplative prayer. (It is usually contrasted with cataphatic prayer, which are the prescriptive form-bound prayers that one may know from rote or from prayerbook or liturgy.
Perhaps you, David might want to offer some alternative descriptions of the practice? Have you thought much about the relationship between the tree of life and in the centering prayer?
Apophatic practice of some sort lays a good foundation of approach for understanding without idolatry or dogmatism the cataphatic aspects of learning the tarot and the tree of life.
There is a strong analogy in practice and theory, both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhisms, that the interdependence of all things and consciousness means that nothing in itself is absolute. The emptiness of Buddhism, which is neither a negation nor a nihilism, sunyata, “emptiness” is the apophatic. Whereas the teachings of bottom of that show the interdependence of all things is the cataphatic side of the same insight. Theologically, the necessity of transcendence and immanence as the two poles to a single ineffable reality alludes to a similar insight.
I’ve been practicing some renegade form of centering prayer since around 1982 when I learned it from a Father Keating at a Buddhist-Christian convocation at Berkeley. Every now and then, I dropped into a centering prayer group, for the fellowship of practice. I know that part of the group helps with the discipline of daily practice.
However one of the reasons why I am so keen on centering prayer is that it seems to describe the central discipline of my mahamudra practice in which I was initiated in the late 60s and early 70s. I take Mahamudra as a central Tantric practice for myself as a daily discipline.
The way the Lamas usually teach it now, it is deeply entwined with the basic forms of Buddhist meditation. I learned it in a different context, more shamantic than has usually been the case. For those of you out there who might be familiar with the forms of meditational Buddhism, Mahamudra and Dzogchen are analogous, the lines of initiation however are different as are the descriptions of the advanced practices.
So you can see I’m keen on the contemplative possibilities of tarot but I do not have any practical background in the Kabbalah or working with the tree of life per se.
I do have a background in working with hasiddim and have read that in the classic Kabbalah and Zohar. Of course the reason I did not delve into the tree of life as a meditational form is because of a general bias towards the apophatic. In my old age I have lightened up a little and am more tolerant of cataphatic approaches to the contemplative. So instead of seeing them appositionally, such as, the apophatic plunge into the unknowingness of the divine is inherently superior to the easily self-deluded cataphatic forms of prayer. I have mellowed out some in my absorption within the one to allow the mix of everything in the mess as well as the pure abstract bliss. After all cooks should be allowed to vary their recipes now and again.
One of the reasons it may be clearer now that I am so keen on getting this message board going, is because in order to integrate the tree of life material in the various aspects of reading the cards in this contemplative manner I will want to interrogate it from my own more familiar perspectives. I think that this interrogation will make it easier for me to assimilate an understanding of the contemplative aspects of the tarot.
I use the term interrogation deliberately. I can see some forms of possible analogies in the tree of life with aspects of Buddhist and yoga teachings that I am comfortable with. However I am not particularly interested in developing simple analogies but rather I am interested in creating within myself at least a dialogue that saves all the forms of meditation that is my experience and brings them into alignment with the nature of reality as it unfolds. This reminds me something of Aristotle’s “saving the appearances.” It is easy to get so wrapped up in the simplicity divine unity that one no longer has space for phenomena!
I should remark in passing before I wrap up this partial response to your background with tarot that besides Buddhist forms of meditation I am also deeply informed by Trika mysticism (Kashmir Shavism) [http://www.trikashaivism.org/ ] and I also have a strong background in the Sufism of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi. [http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/] I even do contract work at an Islamic think tank. I include a few URLs if you wish to look up some of these aspects of my interests. I also have to say that my interests does not cover what I have been exposed to, it just expresses of the stuff that I have found most simpatico to my own disposition.
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David
Newbie
Posts: 14
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An interesting post, Paul, thought provoking. You are asking questions, in a previous post, about our connection to Tarot and the Tree of Life, our journeys through time and what our purposes are regarding our metaphysical explorations. But what of your journey? Here is what I had sent Janet by way of introduction: Good to meet you via cyberspace.
I live in San Carlos, CA. Have been here in this house for 43 years (gives you some idea of my ancientude!) and taught High School math and science for 35 years in a public school and 8 more years in a private parochial school. During these years my interest in Tarot developed through a study of Numerology. I studied with Pamela Eakins in Half Moon Bay California as we explored the "Fool's Journey" as course on Tarot and the "Fool's Wedding" a course on the Tree of Life. After several years of work with Pamela Eakins I became certified as a Tarot reader in her school, The Pacific Center. I've been reading Tarot in a local metaphysical bookstore for over 10 years and teach ongoing Tarot classes.
My favorite decks are the "Tarot of the Spirit" a deck by Pamela and Joyce Eakins; the RWS deck and the various clones. I particularly enjoy the Gilded Tarot
I've read, am reading, many Tarot books and Rachel Pollacks, "The Forest of Souls" was amazing. I like Mary Greer's works and Wald and RuthAnn's "Tarot Tips." I working through the companion book to the Victorian Tarot and enjoying that to date.
What piqued my interest in Tarot was my study of Numerology and a referral to the Tree of Life in one of the books I was reading at the time, over 30 years ago! That led me to an exploration of Kabbalah classes in my area and led me to the Pacific Center where I started my studies in Tarot. At present I'm in the Amberstone's Telecourse and enjoying the class material and the wonderful people who are members of the class.
Don't want to ramble here, but I 'm glad to find this messsage board and the ability to connect with people of like mind.As to what I hope to gain through a study of Tarot and the Tree -- inner growth and a connection to the divine. As I move up the Yetizaratic Tree, from Yesod to Tiferet, I get closer to the Supernals each step of the way. Moving out of my ego state, out of my shadow and delusions and illusions from the lunar pull of Yesod I move up the Path of Temperance, the path of Honesty, and dip into my Higher Consciousness in Tiferet. I try to stay there, but fall back, only to start my climb again and again. The Tree works for me. The Tarot opens my eyes, my mind and my heart. The Telecourses with Wald and RuthAnn are a very important part of my spiritual journey and I feel blessed to have found them as way showers. David |
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tarotist1231
Newbie
Posts: 29
Between Readings
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I suggest that this thread be devoted to questions and observations about the significance of the tree of life in general. It might make more sense that when we are dealing with some specific aspect of the tree, its Sephiroth and paths other finer threads might be spun. The following is an observation that I made some months back about when I was reading the tarot for a bunch of Sufis in Turkey. You got to admit those Sufis are tolerant folk, putting up with a fortune teller in their midst!  Years ago I was doing some readings for a house full of Turks, I notice that after I gave my reading (I was using the hippie deck, Morgan's Tarot, then) nobody gave me any feedback or even thanked me for the reading. Now I was not charging, more sort of like lite, evening entertainment from my point of view, finally one old gentleman explained that it was traditional never to thank a fortuneteller, merely acknowledge their news, because fortunes are not made by the teller, only seen, God is the only seer and doer in truth! It's important to keep our talents in perspective! ! …Recently, somebody wanted me to comment upon the observation that God is the only seer and doer in truth. There is no short answer to the sole perceiver- and doer-ship of the divine. Nor is it usually easy to allow that the divine is the sole perceiver of all our sensate experience, mainly because we think our short term lease on life is a deed of possession and ownership in perpetuity! Our ego, our constructed self that is based on our personal and collective experiences, is so deeply rooted that it is even difficult to properly apprehend that a divinity is the real source and end of all our experience. If you attempt to study the tarot in its relationship to the tree of life, this possibility of recognizing how our ego distorts the nature of one's true reality, and cuts us off from the pure light of bliss because of a distorted sense of self ownership, may make more sense. I do want to emphasize however that our deeply rooted sense of self-- even our superficial egotisms --are not the enemy per se, for when we understand and forgive its natural limitations, our ego becomes a vessel through which an invitation to rightly recognize our innate divinity arises like of the dawning sun. Paul |
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