Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 83

Although I have been studying and practicing hypnosis and hypnotherapy for a long time, I took my first formal training in hypnosis just 15 years ago. Hypnosis and hypnotherapy are unbelievably powerful tools for personal change. It can help people change beliefs they no longer want to have. It can help people overcome behaviors that are hurtful to themselves or others. The list goes on and on.

One of the most difficult concepts a new hypnotherapist has to learn is what is called the scope of practice. Its formal meaning concerns what you legally may and may not do. For example, legally I cannot cure any phobia. Some people call any personal fear a “phobia,” but legally the term is a medical diagnosis, and as I am not a licensed medical professional I’m not allowed to diagnose anyone. Hypnotherapists can help a person quickly overcome the mental and physiological responses to deep fears, but if a doctor has diagnosed a person as having a phobia, to work with on this with that person requires a written referral from a licensed M.D.

So when a person comes to me and says, “I want to use hypnosis to help me with a phobia of…” I immediately stop them and tell them I don’t deal with phobias. I ask them to tell me about their fears and their emotional and physiological responses to those fears. I explain that hypnotherapists can easily help people overcome long-held and deeply-experienced fears quickly, effectively, and permanently.

But there is another aspect to the scope of practice that extends beyond the legal to the ethical. Specifically, I have no right to butt into your life and attempt to help you change. If I overhear someone saying, “I’ve tried to stop smoking for years and I just can’t do it,” that does not give me the right to walk over and tell the person, “Here’s what you need to do…” Knowing I could give a person help doesn’t mean I have the right to barge into their private life. In fact, that person may want to continue smoking and is simply using their failure to quit smoking as a means to gain sympathy from others.

I have to admit, however, that I’m far from perfect in this. While I don’t market myself in such situations with a cheery, used-car salesman sounding, “Hi, my name is Donald and I can help you,” I will try to open people’s minds to the possibility they can change. For example, when I hear people say they can’t stop smoking or they’ll never get over their asthma, or they can’t make money and have to be poor, I’ll often respond by saying, “That’s an interesting belief you have. I wonder why you choose to believe it?” My goal is to simply present the possibility of there being other beliefs and open their minds to other possibilities.

Sometimes a person is so shocked to hear someone disagree with their belief pattern they’ll give me one or a long list of reasons things must be the way they believe. I don’t disagree with them. In fact, I strongly agree. “Those are great reasons to believe the way you do,” I’ll say. “They’re 100% accurate and completely true. But did you know there’s another word for ‘reasons?’ That word is excuses.”

Again, my goal is to simply present the concept that maybe there’s another way; maybe there’s another possibility. Sometimes I’ll get puzzled looks and the shock of recognizing that maybe there are other possibilities. Sometimes I’ll get more reasons they choose to stay as they are or maybe the previous list of reasons is repeated more stridently. And sometimes I’ll get people angry with me for daring to question their dogma.* I usually don’t go beyond this and agree with whatever they say, not merely to be agreeable with them, but because their beliefs are absolutely true—to them. Perhaps what I said might lead to self-questioning and forward motion on an issue at some future time.

The bottom line here is that I can’t help everyone change, nor should I try to help people change to a way I think might be better for them. Each person needs to decide if and when they want to change. You and I may think it is weird that some people prefer to be unhappy and suffer, but that’s their choice. To them, suffering and unhappiness are the norm and they want things to stay that way…for now. In such situations I should ethically keep my nose out of their business and do nothing. This expands beyond hypnotherapy.

Magick and Doing Nothing

As a magician, I absolutely hate the concept of there being nothing I should do. Of course there is something I can do. There’s always something I can do to make a situation better. It’s called magick. The essence of magick is the ability to cause change. If what you do doesn’t cause change it may be ritual, but it’s not successful magick. So to acknowledge that I should do nothing is…difficult.

And yet, there are times when we are all placed in situations where we can and should do nothing. At work, if you frequently have to “fix” the work of someone who is not doing their job properly, you are preventing him or her from realizing their problems and getting the training they need. You’re taking away their chance to fail and then grow. Always covering for someone because they can’t do the job isn’t helping the person or the company. In such a case you need to do nothing.

Parents frequently invade their children’s experiences to “help” them accomplish something or “protect” them from emotional or even physical hurt. This prevents them from learning from their failure and growing. You can’t prevent a child from hurting when they have their first teenaged romantic breakup. If you build all of your child’s projects so they’ll look and function as you would like, your child will never learn on their own.

Of course, it’s important that parents do help when children ask for help and protect them from harm (there’s a difference between “hurt” and “harm”), but to take away the chance of failure also removes the thrill of true success.

So, in spite of knowing there are things you can do to improve a situation, sometimes you have to choose to do nothing. Sometimes there is nothing you can do. Even though you know you could change things via magick, sometimes the best choice is to do nothing.

It’s Not Always That Easy

When you realize there is a situation about which you should do nothing or about which you can do nothing, it seems logical—even easy—to do nothing. But often, people spend hours useless planning for things they could do but won’t do, or worrying about the fact they did nothing. They concern themselves over what is going to happen even though there is nothing they can do to change it. This worry can carry over into other aspects of their lives, draining them as much as spending hours at a gym or being emotionally or spiritually sucked dry by a psychic vampire. Spending all that time worrying about things when you shouldn’t or can’t do anything to change them can have deleterious effects on people mentally, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually.

Over the years, I’ve come up with some sayings I think are truisms, such as:

Magick isn’t something you do, magick is something you are.

You don’t die when you stop breathing, you die when you stop learning.

I don’t claim that these and others are necessarily original in the sense that nobody ever came up with them before, only that I came up with them on my own.

So to these I add a new one:

When there’s nothing you can do,

give yourself permission to do nothing.

Spending hours agonizing over things you can’t control—and I’ve known many people who do this—is nothing but a waste of time. If there’s nothing you can do, do nothing and move on to dealing with things where you can help. It sounds easy. It should be easy. For some people, however, it’s quite difficult.

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My Next Worldwide Webinar
In Just 3 Days

—This Sunday—
July 28, 2013

12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern

(9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific)
Topic: Tarot & Magic

When people first learn to work with the Tarot cards they usually do so in order to do fortune telling, give readings, or do divination. As they become more advanced, they may use them as keys to Kabalistic Pathworking. However, there is much more which can be done with the Tarot cards, including using them to make positive changes in your life: magick.

In this live webinar you will learn the nature of ritual and magick plus several of magickal techniques that work with the Tarot cards, including:

Using the Tarot cards as talismans
Using the Tarot with colored candles
The amazing technique of “Dancing the Tarot”
Discovering how to use the Tarot as a synchronistic key to sex magick

Previous knowledge of the Tarot is not a prerequisite for this webinar. All you’ll need is your favorite standard Tarot deck and an open mind. This is perfect for Tarot beginners. It will also give people with some Tarot experience new approaches. For professional Tarot readers it will show how you can share magickal techniques with your clients and make your readings more memorable.

Attendance is Limited!

Sign up now so you’re not disappointed.

Please note that this is not a recording. It is a live, online event you can attend. You will be able to interact with me, live, from anywhere in the world. You will hear me live, just as I am talking. You’ll see my presentation slides. You’ll be able to download handouts. You’ll be able to ask questions and hear me respond in the webinar. You’ll see everything and hear me giving the workshop live. It’s as if you were in a room with me, only you can participate from your location anywhere in the world.

Therefore, please make sure to check the time. It’s 12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern U.S.; 9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific U.S. time. If you are outside of the U.S. there is a small app available when you register that will determine the exact time for you from anywhere in the world.

For further details, and to register for this and other terrific online events, **CLICK HERE**. Attendance is limited by what the software can handle. So you don’t forget, click on the link above and register now.

(For those of you who don’t know, I became a Certified Tarot Master through  studies with The Associated Readers Of Tarot over 30 years ago. I became a Certified Tarot Grandmaster through the Tarot Certification Board. I have taught classes in Tarot and given thousands of readings across the U.S.)

 

 

*Recently, this happened on another blog. Without naming me, that blogger was clearly very upset in my questioning his dogma that he had no choice but to be poor and therefore he had the right to steal other people’s work! He gave an additional list of reasons/excuses why he chose to believe and act in accordance with his dogma. To him it was absolutely true.

For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE

The final row represents the quest for spiritual awareness that begins with a decent into darkness and ends with the return of the light. Or what I call The Descent into Darkness and Utter Destruction.

We begin this row, as with all the others, with a description of the basic issue. After feeling all satisfied with ourselves because of our courageous ego death and serene state of Temperance, we begin with the Devil and the Tower.

Again, these are opposite sides of the same issue and that issue is being trapped. The Devil is how we trap ourselves with behaviors and beliefs that may have started out okay but have become compulsive obsessions that now control us. The Devil represents habits or practices and is more person or internal as compared to the Tower which represents philosophies or worldviews that have been carefully constructed over time and have more to do with how we live and structure our lives. The habits that become our Devils and the worldviews that become our Tower could very well have started out as positive things but are now outmoded. They no longer serve your higher purpose and no longer reflect your true self.

I went through a phase in junior high and high school where I was obsessed with horror movies. When I’d go to into town with my mom, I was allowed to rent three of the $1 movies. The cheesier the movie, the better. They were funny and not real. The only movie I had to shut off because it FREAKED ME OUT was Children of the Corn. I grew up on a farm and watched this movie in the summer. There were acres of cornfields near the house, and I had to drive through cornfields when feeding heifers who were pastured on another section of our land. I just couldn’t do it. I grew out of my horror movie phase, but I went to see The Blair Witch Project in the theater. A friend had seen it and raved about it. She loved it and said I needed to see it. It has always taken a lot to scare me. This movie scared the living daylights out of me because it was way too real. I had just graduated from college and was living with my parents when I saw this movie. I came home and being it was summer, the windows were open. I laid down, absolutely terrified to look in the corner of my room because I was afraid I’d see someone standing there, and I heard voices. I froze in terror. I didn’t want to call out to my parents and wake them up (did that once when I thought I saw a UFO outside my window; it was the moon; they STILL bring this up over 20 years later) so I sat there and really listened to the voices. I then remembered that there was an event at the park in Prairie Farm. When the wind is blowing in the right direction, we can hear the football games and live bands from town. It’s probably under five miles as the crow flies. I had given up on horror movies after Blair Witch because they were too realistic. Plus my movie tastes were changing and I wanted more plot, and we all know there’s not a whole lot to the plot of horror movies.

Last week a movie premiered that focused on the true story of a family who moved into a house that was already occupied with ghosts. The Conjuring is based is one of the cases that Ed and Lorraine Warren were involved with and dramatically affected them. The Warrens were one of the very early paranormal investigators who also investigated what most people know as the Amityville Horror case.

I have yet to see The Conjuring because my schedule is jam-packed at the moment, but I have heard excellent reviews from friends, and it debuting at number one in box office sales with $41.5 million isn’t too shabby either.

What really struck me about this is case is this trailer. It features the people who lived there. They haven’t spoke about this in thirty years because of how terrified they were while living at the house. They have finally come forward to tell their story, and have shared it with millions of people.

I saw the first 15-20 minutes of Paranormal Activity but shut it off because I was bored and was ticked that some of the things that were said were flat out wrong. I usually wait for movies to come out on DVD and request them from the library, but The Conjuring is a movie I’m going to see in the theater to get the full experience. Sometimes you just need to be a in a dark theater and scream out loud with the rest of the folks in the theater. It’s a bonding experience. And being that it’s a true story, it just makes it extra creepy….

Have you been to see the movie? What did you think?

Leo, The Lion

July 22 to August 22

Modality: Fixed

Element: Fire

Ruler: Sun

Keywords: Magnetic, magnanimous, confident, generous, hospitable, caring, warm, authoritative, bossy, patronizing

As a Leo, you are known for your outgoing nature; you prefer the limelight, but no matter whether or not you are being lavished with attention you will still brighten the world with your cheerfulness and natural leadership abilities. At times, you do need to be reminded, however, that others need attention, too; don’t be afraid to share the credit. As a fixed fire sign, you are able to not only start things but also finish them; while you get the best of both worlds, you also have a tendency to be stubborn. Whether you consider it stubbornness or determination, this quality will help you get further in life (and will help you even more if you take the time to listen to others when necessary). You take much pride in how others perceive you. The lion also lives life to the fullest, approaching each day with enthusiasm.

Leos are surrounded by a wide, ever-changing circle of acquaintances; you love gatherings and conversation. When it comes to romance, you have quite the flair for the dramatic (sunset beach walks and Hollywood kisses in the rain are usual date occasions). You know how to woo your dates, and each new relationship is a new adventure. You are attracted to independent types; you could do well to pair up with fire signs Aries or Sagittarius. Most Leos look forward to beginning a family; at times Leo parents can be overindulgent, but they make certain to impress upon their kids the importance of values and education.

Leos look for one life-long career as opposed to several different ones, though this is not always a possibility; no matter what career field you find, however, your determination and leadership skills ensure success. You are task-oriented and ambitious, which can be both a positive and a drawback. Keep things in perspective and be sure you don’t push yourself or others too hard. Budgeting comes easy to you, and you can expect to easily build the assets necessary for a comfortable retirement.

For the year ahead:

Affirmation: My family is my foundation.

Jupiter just ended its year-long transit through Gemini (your eleventh house) on June 24, making the last twelve months a time for friendships and networking. Jupiter then moved into Cancer, where it be for the next twelve months. Here in your twelfth house, Jupiter will be a lucky charm, often bringing much-needed help at the eleventh hour.
Saturn continues its transit of Scorpio, your fourth house of family. This transit encourages you to tackle those DIY projects around the home and to resolve any past differences with family members.
Uranus continues in Aries, where it will remain for the next six years. This move may find you wanting to return to school or learning in some capacity; take your time in your research and planning, and this could be a successful time for these academic pursuits.
Neptune continues its transit of Pisces, where it will remain until 2025. Here in your eighth house of money, Neptune may inspire you to become better adept at saving and planning for the future.
Pluto continues its long transit in Capricorn (your sixth house), which is noted for change on a global scale, as well as a personal one. This is a time of transformation, and since your sixth house of health is affected, be sure to follow up with routine dental and health exams. Pluto’s impact could see you transforming your habits into healthier ones, with a nutritious diet, ample sleep, and a cutback on vices.

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Donald Tyson, author of several books, including The Demonology of King James I, Necronomicon, The Power of the Word, and the new Serpent of Wisdom: Essays on Western Occultism.

The thing that has always fascinated me about magic is how it actually functions. What lies at the root of magic? Amid all the bewildering diversity of magical practices around the world, and throughout human history, what is the underlying core of magic that never changes? And how can we reconcile this most ancient of all the human arts with the materialistic and scientific viewpoint of modern times?

I began my own magical odyssey nearly forty years ago with a study of occult symbolism. Over time, as I acquired a broader knowledge of the use of symbols in magic around the world, I realized that there was a universal meaning in symbolism at the most basic level. The line meant something. The circle meant something. The spiral meant something.

Similarly, I discovered that amid all the diversity of magical systems, there was an underlying foundation upon which all magic was built. By understanding the essential meaning of the most basic symbols, and the foundation stones of magical practice, I realized that it was possible to construct a completely unique, yet entirely personal, system of magic.

This was the basis for my first book, The New Magus, and I’ve never stopped seeking to understand as clearly as possible the basics of the magician’s art—its building blocks, its alphabet, if you will. This latest book, Serpent of Wisdom, is a collection of essays, each of which attempts to get to the root of a different part of the Western occult tradition.

I suppose what I’ve really been seeking these past forty years is the universal key to magic. These essays represent my attempt to express the fruits of a portion of that quest. It is my hope that what I’ve learned will be of use to others who seek a true gnosis of magic.

Our thanks to Donald for his guest post! For more from Donald Tyson, read his article “Serpent of Wisdom: Essays on Western Magic.”

For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE

The second row has asked us to take a closer look at our beliefs and how we live them, in good times and bad. We come to terms with the idea that being good, sometimes, is its own…or only…reward. If we have done this, we have experienced Death, particularly the death of the ego. Once the ego lets go of its demands that “if we are good people, then only good things should happen to us,” we become Temperance.

Temperance is a pretty cool card. She is perfect balance and grace under pressure. She is always exactly who she is regardless of whether she is spinning on a Wheel or hanging upside down (as in the Hanged Man). In fact, she is hardly affected by the Wheel because she is the center of the Wheel. No matter how it spins, she remains stable.

No matter how awesome Temperance is, she is not the end of the journey. We must move on to the third row, the one I like to call The Descent into Darkness and Utter Destruction. It’s more fun than it sounds. Really.

Do you know James Arthur Ray? If the name is unfamiliar, events surrounding him may bring to mind why his name has been in the news.

Ray was a “New Age Guru” preaching the gospel of The Secret with its revelation of the Law of Attraction to his well-heeled followers. Energetic and charismatic, he made lots of money, and perhaps developed a bad case of hubris.

He apparently thought he knew how to run a traditional, Native American sweat lodge. He didn’t. Of the fifty-five people who entered the lodge (two to four times what is usually practiced) after a day-and-a-half of fasting, nineteen had to be hospitalized with symptoms that included vomiting, trouble breathing, hallucinations, and physical collapse. Three of his followers weren’t that lucky. They died.

Ray was convicted of negligent homicide and spent 20 months in prison. During that time, the parents of one of the people who died founded SEEKsafely, a non-profit organization whose stated goal is “ to educate the public about the self-help industry, empower seekers and promote professional standards and practices to ensure safety for participants in self-help events.”

I think this is a great idea. They claim not to be debunkers and denouncers, but rather simply a group dedicated to educating people about the safety of various practices as well as encouraging promoters to act ethically and responsibly. That’s a great thing. But as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

Participant Responsibility

If you are going to participate in an event of a spiritual nature, it’s important that you take your health and safety into account. You need to make sure you’re hydrated, nourished, protected from excess sun, heat, or cold. This makes sense. But in their document, which they call their “Event Empowerment Guide,” they claim, with no documentation or justification, that any form of sensory deprivation and “constant repetition of certain words, or breathing techniques that create confusion and disorientation are tactics that cause lack of mental control, NOT better mental focus.” While in some extreme situations this might be true, the implication is that this is always true. And that is completely false. The repetition of words or phrases can help focus you. Certain breathing techniques can help center you and give you more energy. They teach breathing techniques to martial artists and opera singers. There is no brainwashing goal there.

Indeed, they seem to be taking their cues from supposed anti-brainwashing beliefs.

They claim that being embarrassed or merely being made uncomfortable is necessarily bad. “Being publically shamed or ridiculed inhibits safe psychological growth.” Indeed, sometimes this is true. But once again, this claim is made with no supporting evidence and the implication that this is always so. Psychotherapy frequently uses techniques that make a person uncomfortable in order to help that person break through personal limitations.

Then they go on to attack leaders. They state that, “A credible leader will live the values being taught.” This is a particularly Western approach that denies the very humanity of the leader. I would suggest that the values being taught in a group are goals to strive for. That doesn’t mean any one individual will completely live by them. There’s a big difference between striving for goals and having achieved the goals. This policy also denies the possibility of finding wisdom in unusual places. It demands perfection of leaders rather than directions. If someone can point out a way to a better life, why should you care how he or she lives? Shouldn’t you be more interested in your own development? The leader is only a finger pointing at the moon. Do you pay attention to the glories of the moon or do you focus on the finger?

The group states: “A responsible leader will distinguish between theory, opinion, speculation and scientific research and will not deride professional credentials or rely solely on testimonials.” They have thus denied the validity of every major religion.

They do have some good ideas which come down to a simple concept: in any situation you need to be responsible for yourself and your well being. But they have also attacked with such a broad brush that most religions and spiritual paths, as well as their human leaders, would be considered dangerous.

Publicity for a Promise

As with many organizations, they need publicity to get their message out. Upon his release from prison they confronted Ray and tried to get him to sign the Seek Safely Promise. They also sent copies to 175 leaders involved in the “self-help industry.” As of this writing, only seven have agreed to it. I was not sent a copy to sign.

The promise begins by asking leaders to be truthful about their training, experience, and background. I think everyone should do that. They want what is taught to be accurate. By that they mean teachings “will clearly delineate what is personal opinion, belief or speculation as opposed to information that is supported by third party scientific research.” That seems good, but there is often scientific research (they don’t describe what they mean by “third party”) from different sources that supports different theories and results. If 15 studies by independent sources support what the teacher is sharing and one doesn’t, and if you sign this promise, are you obligated to waste time by revealing the one study that doesn’t support what you’re teaching? It just doesn’t make sense.

Next, they ask leaders and groups to be respectful of participants’ opinions. I would agree, but how far does this go? Many times, when I’m giving a workshop and ask if there are any questions, instead of questions I’ll get personal stories that waste time and don’t move the training forward. If I cut such a person off, and I have had to do this at times, could that be considered not showing respect? I think it does show respect to the groups time and purpose. This clause in the promise is unclear by being too general.

They urge leaders and groups to protect participants and send those in need of mental, physical, emotional, etc. assistance to professionals. Unless such professional are in attendance and can help, I think this is a good idea and would do it anyway.

They demand, “The leader will provide personal witness by living the program being taught.” I’ve already discussed this above. I would only add here that the demand uses the phrase “personal witness.” This is an expression that is especially attributed to Christian groups (and ersatz-Christian groups). Thus, they have now moved from being independent to giving the appearance of being a front for an unknown Christian sect trying to gently denounce heresy.

The final part of this “promise” demands, “ If engaging participants in a physical activity, there will be appropriate medical support available in case of injury.” The problem here is that they don’t define “physical activity.” In longer workshops, I’ll have people stand up and stretch. That’s a physical activity. They’re insisting that I would need to have medical support available if someone hurts themselves by gently stretching their arms, neck, shoulder, and waist. Really? Do I need an EMT if we go for a short walk? That’s a physical activity.

Should You Sign?

I have no doubt concerning this organization’s altruism and desire to end dangerous practices when leaders and groups are not trained to deal with problems that can occur. However, this doesn’t just apply to self-help groups, it applies to any group or organization holding a training. I still remember watching teachers in public school insult and embarrass students. All groups and leaders should understand specific concepts for helping participants. When I was assisting as an instructor in computer training at USC I was required to sign a statement that I would do so.

But this “Seek Safely Promise” is simply too general in places for me to ethically sign with an intention of keeping all aspects of the promise. I cannot agree with the details of their principles. It also has hints of being derived from so-called “anti-cult” (actually anti-anything that doesn’t fit a tiny set of specific Christian beliefs) concepts, and presents demands that human beings, being imperfect, simply cannot consistently achieve.

As a result, no matter their intention, the current version of their promise is something I would not sign and cannot support. Respect and assure the safety of participants? Absolutely. But this, in my opinion, goes far beyond that simple and direct ethical concept.

If you’re a teacher or trainer,

would you sign the Seek Safely Promise?

Why or why not?
If you attend various trainings and events

do you agree with all aspects of their

Event Empowerment Guide?

Why or why not?

—Please enter your comments below—

*   *   *   *
My Next Worldwide Webinar
Sunday, July 28, 2013

12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern

(9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific)
Topic: Tarot & Magic

When people first learn to work with the Tarot cards they usually do so in order to do fortune telling, give readings, or do divination. As they become more advanced, they may use them as keys to Kabalistic Pathworking. However, there is much more which can be done with the Tarot cards, including using them to make positive changes in your life: magick.

In this live webinar you will learn the nature of ritual and magick plus several of magickal techniques that work with the Tarot cards, including:

Using the Tarot cards as talismans
Using the Tarot with colored candles
The amazing technique of “Dancing the Tarot”
Discovering how to use the Tarot as a synchronistic key to sex magick

Previous knowledge of the Tarot is not a prerequisite for this webinar. All you’ll need is your favorite standard Tarot deck and an open mind. This is perfect for Tarot beginners. It will also give people with some Tarot experience new approaches. For professional Tarot readers it will show how you can share magickal techniques with your clients and make your readings more memorable.

Please note that this is not a recording. It is a live, online event you can attend. You will be able to interact with me, live, from anywhere in the world. You will hear me live, just as I am talking. You’ll see my presentation slides. You’ll be able to download handouts. You’ll be able to ask questions and hear me respond in the webinar. You’ll see everything and hear me giving the workshop live. It’s as if you were in a room with me, only you can participate fromyour location anywhere in the world.

Therefore, please make sure to check the time. It’s 12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern U.S.; 9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific U.S. time. If you are outside of the U.S. there is a small app available when you register that will determine the exact time for you from anywhere in the world.

For further details, and to register for this and other terrific online events, **CLICK HERE**. Attendance is limited by what the software can handle. So you don’t forget, click on the link above and register now.

(For those of you who don’t know, I became a Certified Tarot Master through  studies with The Associated Readers Of Tarot over 30 years ago. I became a Certified Tarot Grandmaster through the Tarot Certification Board. I have taught classes in Tarot and given thousands of readings across the U.S.)

For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE

There has been a lot of focus on the self. This journey has required a lot of work on our part, what with all the self-mastery, making decisions, and living our own truths. You would think that the purpose of all this work would be to create a good and easy life. If we do all the right things, then things should go well for us, right? Hmmmm.

The challenge of this row is Justice, to always do the right thing, to always be just, to always live in a way that reflects your code of ethics. That shouldn’t be so hard, right? They are your beliefs, you picked them, so it should be a piece of cake.

But life isn’t a cakewalk. The flanking cards remind us of this and show why living our beliefs is not always easy. Both flanking cards, the Wheel and the Hanged Man, reflect the idea of lack of control. Things will happen about which you can do nothing—except be true to yourself. That is not always easy when things are not going your way. But this is the challenge of the second row.

How do we know when we’ve been successful and what will be the result? We’ll find out next time.

As with most ancient traditions, everyone wants to claim that theirs is the oldest and that all other traditions came from them. In the Western Abrahamic religions, both Christianity and Islam arose out of Judaism. Interestingly—some claim due to the monotheistic approaches of these faiths—they all claim that their’s is the real religion and their God is the real God. Well, this is not going to be a discussion of that.

The world’s third largest religion by number of adherents is Hinduism (about 1 billion followers) after Islam (about 1.5 billion) and Christianity (about 2.1 billion). However, I have to question whether it is appropriate to call any of these a single religion. Various Christian sects (the two largest divisions being Roman Catholic and Protestant) have major doctrinal disagreement with some sects derogatorily calling others “cults.” The two major Islamic sects, Sunni and Shia, sometimes have adherents in active, all-out war with each other.

Hinduism is a bit different. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word Hindu first appeared in the 1660s (some other sources date it three centuries or more earlier). It comes from the Persian Hindu (adjective and noun) meanng “Indian,” itself coming from Hind meaning “India.” These words come from the Sanskrit sindhu meaning “river,” specifically the Indus River. Sindhu came to mean the “region of the Indus,” and this gradually extended across northern India. So originally, the term “Hindu” did not refer to the religion, it referred to the area and its inhabitants.

The more accurate name for Hinduism is Sanatana Dharma, meaning “the eternal law,” or the “eternal way.” It more than merely a religion or faith, it is a  way of life—or more accurately, a set of ways. Thousands of years ago, travel and communication throughout India was difficult. As a result, different towns, villages, and cities had different beliefs and traditions. Sometimes, people in different locales would celebrate the same festivals on different days (India had dozens of calendars) and in different ways. They would give the same deity a different name. All of this—the different deities, the different modes of living, the different celebrations, the different forms of worship, the different philosophies—are accepted as part of Sanatana Dharma and are called Hinduism.

But within this massive distribution of various beliefs and practices, one thing does hold primacy: the source of all the beliefs comes from the ancient books collectively known as the Vedas. There are four primary collections of texts that are called the Vedas, and believers hold they are eternal. They’ve always been. This is unique, in that the Abrahamic religions tend to believe that the monotheistic deity is eternal, while in Hinduism the books are eternal. (Well, some of the deities are, too, but that’s another issue.) Buddhism developed much later, due to discontent with the sacrifices, incredibly ornate rituals, and societal control of the Hindu spiritual leaders.

According to “accepted” history, Tantra came later, anywhere from 700-1200 years after Buddhism. Certainly this is when the first specifically Tantric writing appeared, but Tantrics have always claimed that theirs is an oral tradition. It would be expected to not have writings. So when and where did Tantra really begin?

History of India

As I mentioned earlier, most Hindus believe that the Vedas are the source of their religions and practices. However, the major deities found in the Vedas include Agni (God of fire), Indra (God of war, weather, and king of the gods), Varuna (God of sky and rain), and Prajapati (Creator), dieties with few temples in India dedicated to them. They are not an important daily part of modern Hinduism. On the other hand, the traditional Tantric deities, including Ganesh, Hanuman, and especially Shiva and Shakti in her forms of Durga and Kali, are some of the most popular deities in Hinduism today, and India is literally filled with temples dedicated to them. To understand where the traditional Tantric deities come from we have to look at Indian history.

Okay, so here, in a nutshell, is what has been the accepted story of the history of India. There was an indigenous population of uncivilized, dark-skinned people known as the Dravidians. Later, a group of light-skinned people, called Aryans, came from the north, bringing civilization, spirituality, writing, and deities. This idea of the Aryan invasion of India has been popular for well over a century. In fact, one of its popularizers was Helena Blavatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society. And the curious thing is, this theory was invented by one man who was a linguist and not an anthropologist. His name was Max Müller. The only problem with the concept of the Aryan invasion is that there has never been any evidence to support it. There were writings by the indigenous Indians, but none from the supposed invaders who brought writing to India. There has recently been genetic evidence showing no invasion of India in many thousands of years. The idea of this Aryan invasion was popularized for religion, for racism, and for political power. A full explanation of the Aryan Invasion Myth would require a book, even though many people, within and outside of India, still cling to the myth.

So where did the Tantrics come from? As with most early cultures, people  collected around bodies of water. Running through a valley on the west of India was a river known as the Saraswati. This river dried up and the people moved east into the rest of India, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and China. Some moved west into Europe (they may have been the source of the Druids). During it’s high period, its cities alone had a population rivaling that of all of Egypt. They had writing (the translation of the language is still debatable) and expanded their civilization through trade, primarily over waterways, but also over land. And the images of the deities are those of the Tantric deities. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Tantra, or perhaps more accurately “proto-Tantra” developed in the Indus Valley culture, also known by the name of one of its cities, the Harappan culture.

Support From a Surprising Source

Societies do not follow the laws of thermodynamics. Rather than getting simpler, they become more complex. Added population brings added energy to oppose entropy, so societies become more complex. It would seem, then, that rather than Hinduism (and Buddhism) leading to Tantra (as another rejection of Hindu formalism), the actual derivation is just the opposite. Tantra (or rather, proto-Tantra) came first. Its simplicity evolved into the many Hindu traditions and into Buddhism. That’s why so many Tantric traditions and concepts are part of both of these traditions.

Some of you reading this may be familiar with Raphael Patai, author of the book that is very popular among many Pagans, The Hebrew Goddess. In that book he showed how the ancient Jews worshipped a goddess as well as a god until the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 c.e. In his book, The Jewish Mind, he shares the startling information that the people of early India, who did travel to the Middle East, influenced aspects of the Kabalah! By looking at Kabalistic concepts that are neither Middle-Eastern nor Grecian, we have information on the very mystical nature of the beliefs of people living in India during the times of the Harappan culture, as well as some of their practical philosophy, including the notion of the spirituality of sexuality.

So here is a new model of the source of Tantra. It came from the earliest people of India, and they went on to influence Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Judaism (and therefore Christianity and Islam). They had mystical and occult beliefs that were severed from the tradition as it evolved to form what are now considered the more mainstream beliefs found in Hinduism.

For  more information on Tantra, see my earlier post, A Book That Needs to be Written.

 

My Next Worldwide Webinar
Sunday, July 28, 2013

12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern——9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific
Topic: Tarot & Magic

When people first learn to work with the Tarot cards they usually do so in order to do fortune telling, give readings, or do divination. As they become more advanced, they may use them as keys to Kabalistic Pathworking. However, there is much more which can be done with the Tarot cards, including using them to make positive changes in your life: magick.

In this live webinar you will learn the nature of ritual and magick plus several of magickal techniques that work with the Tarot cards, including:

Using the Tarot cards as talismans
Using the Tarot with colored candles
The amazing technique of “Dancing the Tarot”
Discovering how to use the Tarot as a synchronistic key to sex magick

Previous knowledge of the Tarot is not a prerequisite for this webinar. All you’ll need is your favorite standard Tarot deck and an open mind. This is perfect for Tarot beginners. It will also give people with some Tarot experience new approaches. For professional Tarot readers it will show how you can share magickal techniques with your clients and make your readings more memorable.

Please note that this is not a recording. It is a live, online event you can attend. You will be able to interact with me, live, from anywhere in the world. You will hear me live, just as I am talking. You’ll see my presentation slides. You’ll be able to download handouts. You’ll be able to ask questions and hear me respond in the webinar. You’ll see everything and hear me giving the workshop live. It’s as if you were in a room with me, only you can participate fromyour location anywhere in the world.

Therefore, please make sure to check the time. It’s 12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. Eastern U.S.; 9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Pacific U.S. time. If you are outside of the U.S. there is a small app available when you register that will determine the exact time for you from anywhere in the world.

For further details, and to register for this and other terrific online events, **CLICK HERE**. Attendance is limited by what the software can handle. So you don’t forget, click on the link above and register now.

(For those of you who don’t know, I became a Certified Tarot Master through  studies with The Associated Readers Of Tarot over 30 years ago. I became a Certified Tarot Grandmaster through the Tarot Certification Board. I have taught classes in Tarot and given thousands of readings across the U.S.)

 

 

For an overview of and foundation for this series, see HERE

The second row shows the questioning of everything learned in the first row and the inward search for self. Modern psychology really comes into play here, as we confront the illusions of ego, defensiveness, and rigid habits of the past.

The first two cards, describing the basic issue of this row, are Strength and the Hermit.

Like the High Priestess and the Magician, these cards represent opposite sides. Strength is about self-mastery, self-control, knowing when to rein yourself in. The Hermit is about living your own truth. Both deal with inner searching as well. With Strength, we examine and heal our shadows, integrating even the parts of us we despise or are ashamed of. With the Hermit, we examine all that we’ve learned, keeping what is true for us and letting go of what no longer serves.

So the basic issue is when to act out and when to hold back, but even more, what to keep and what to let go of.

Next time, we look at the challenge or test of this row, Justice, and its flanking cards, the Wheel of Fortune and the Hanged Man.