SYNERGY TAROT

The innovators of the modern Tarot like A.E. Waite, Paul Foster Case, and Aleister Crowley were Hermeticists. The tradition of Hermeticism holds as its central philosophy that all that truly exists is a single, all-encompassing Life Power. The Life Power is constantly participating in a cycle of involving itself in matter (manifesting itself as something out of nothing) and, at the end of the process of materialization, evolving beyond its earthly constraints, back to its former status of being Limitless, Eternal, Undivided, and Ineffable (i.e. "involution" and "evolution"). This tradition has been charged with transmitting the knowledge, received only by initiates of the Mysteries who until recently modern times were sworn to secrecy, that the Life Power, the Cosmic Egg, the great Monad, in its isolation conceived the impulse to know itself. From this Will spiraled forth the phenomena of Sound and Light: created by the One, out of the One. From Sound and Light, everything else that exists spiraled out into creation. Sound and Light are characterized by vibration. From its inception, the Hermetic tradition has transmitted the teaching that vibration underlies Sound and Light, that it is vibration that is the characteristic of all phenomena, and that it is vibration that forms the matrix that underlies all of manifest existence. This is an amazing feat considering the fact that modern quantum and particle physics tell us exactly the same thing. And for all the importance we afford modern science (and for the most part rightly so), it's at least a few hundred years late to the party! It has only recently confirmed what the Mysteries have been saying all along. 

​

The Nondual Shaiva (Shiva-centric) Tantra of India is even older (or at least can be traced back further). It saw its zenith around 900 c.e. when a great sage and polymath named Abhinavagupta synthesized the teachings of many disparate and even more ancient Tantric traditions into one all-encompassing system that he called the Trika. One of the schools of Tantra that was absorbed by the Trika was called the Spanda school. "Spanda" translates from its original Sanskrit to "vibration" or "pulsation." The ancient Shaivites worshipped Shiva in the form of the Lingam (typically a stone in the shape of an egg), a ritual practice that continues down into the present day. The Trika, and the Tantric traditions before it, also taught that a Cosmic Egg (Shiva/Consciousness/the Monad) spontaneously had the urge to know itself and so, from itself, vibrated forth the succession of phenomena that, together, compose the universe. By this Emission, the One who is undivided creates something that appears to be apart from itself, thus creating the triad of the Knower, Known, and process of Knowing. Everything that exists is nothing but an "appearance" or a "flashing forth" of Consciousness. These appearances are able to flash forth, the Trika tells us, because Shiva, by his own power of Concealment, voluntarily subjects himself to ignorance of his own Essential Nature. Because of this ignorance, the individual regards itself as separate. But in reality, it is nothing but Consciousness. By its own power of Grace, Consciousness restores itself to its former status of perceiving itself as undivided in any way whatsoever. Consciousness becomes limited and many by a process they term "Contraction" (nimesha) and "Expansion) (nimesha). These are exactly the same thing as the "involution" and "evolution" of the Hermeticists. 

​

We can draw a number of conclusions from these observations. First, The appearance of the primary texts of the Spanda tradition in the early-to-mid 9th century informs us that the theory of waveform nature of light described by them existed almost a thousand years before it was proven by Thomas Young in 1801, even though the credit is officially given to the Dutch astronomer, Christian Huygens, for proposing it in 1678. This makes me tend to believe that a lot of the other incredible sounding claims made by Hermeticism and Tantra might just hold water as well. For example, the Tarot, which is essentially a set of symbols intended to visually depict the cycle of involution and evolution described above, is a popular divinatory tool. For many, its merit is self evident. To others, divination is nothing but gullible people getting suckered by their own confirmation bias. In their eyes, these poor saps give away their agency to the cards, attributing to them a power that they don't possess. The fact that the cards often predict the future or impart to the reader information that they couldn't have known through conventional means, then is nothing but a feat of mental gymnastics the querent and/or the reader undertake subconsciously in order to make their experience match their expectation. I have a different theory: namely that, since everybody is a manifestation of the same essential and undivided "own nature" (to borrow a term from the Tantras), everybody has the capacity to tap into an innate intuitive faculty simply by tapping into a higher part of themselves. Furthermore, since the Tarot is a system that is based upon the mathematical, elemental, astrological, and symbolic observations of at least a few hundred years of people who have really been putting their minds to this task, because it is essentially a microcosmic representation of the universe and the principles which govern it , it has a special status as a divinatory system and as an aid in awakening one's intuition. 

​

These traditions also tell us that, through determined self effort, one can come to remember their own fundamental identity with Consciousness-absolute. Hermeticism makes use of the Tarot as a tool for meditation and self-enquiry toward that end. The Tantric tradition also makes use of ritual, visualization techniques, sacred diagrams, letter mysticism, and words of power similarly to the Hermetic tradition. It also utilizes modalities whose expression I haven't encountered within the Hermetic tradition like breathing exercises and antinomian behavior/intentionally being shunned by society. Initiation is an important aspect of both, but adherence to this requirement seems to have fallen by the wayside for the most part, especially in the Hermetic tradition, with the advent of the electronic age and the unprecedented access to knowledge that has come along with it. For my part, however, I have been formally initiated into the tradition of Guru Param-para; that is, I follow the teachings and advice of a man who has achieved "jivanmukta," (liberation while still embodied). Subsequently, I was initiated into the Giri Sannyasin Order in an ancient Vedic fire ritual in which the participant symbolically dies and is reborn a renunciant. Now, this doesn't have to be your cup of tea in order for you to receive (or even to give!) a good Tarot reading. However, I have seen things that leave no room for doubt in my mind that we live in a magical, self-aware universe where the ultimate goal is simply an act of blissful remembrance. As such, I am able to give spiritual readings containing a certain amount of technical detail and with a certain experiential foundation beneath them. Additionally, for those unique individuals who are moved to investigate initiation, that is a function that I carry out as a lineage holder of the tradition that I belong to. This is a service that is separate from those listed on this website, and one that is not monetized. For more information, please see my other website and blogs: Synchro Swami and Consciousness is Everything. 

​