Run, Don’t Walk — A Critique of “Pathworking”
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I was recently criticized in an online forum for having chosen long ago to avoid taking a “deep dive” into the tarot by not using the Major Arcana for “scrying in the astral vision.” I decided to respond with this broadside. I think these matters deserve a mentor (I’m not volunteering!) since they can be deep waters that run well above (or below?) the level of the “spirit guide” mentality. I didn’t have one (other than books) in the early ’70s when I started or I might be less wary of them in my current practice (my attitude goes back to Dion Fortune, who was big on psychic self-defense).
“Scrying” is a focused act of creative visualization that carries our consciousness into the Astral Plane via disciplined subconscious suggestion. Using the cards to facilitate this effort is intended to open a portal to the Unseen by summoning their personae as we “walk the paths.” The goal should not be “psychic tourism” but rather enhancement of our spiritual and psychological self-mastery. The concept is based on the 22 paths of the Hermetic Tree of Life, which is an adaptation of the traditional Hebrew Kabbalistic Tree, and the practice of “walking” it in a self-induced mystical trance is known as “pathworking.”
Scrying in the astral is not for the occult novice or the faint-of-heart, despite all the optimistic blather about spirit guides and other hand-holding wardens of our mental well-being. Because it harbors our most irrational subconscious desires (the “stuff of dreams”) and taps directly into the Unconscious, the Astral Plane can be an ominous, chaotic place in which our waking consciousness is a tiny spark of sentience in a vague, shifting landscape populated by semi-intelligent, sub-human entities and disembodied human spirits (who may be “stuck” there or “just visiting” themselves), and we must remain anchored or tethered to our bodies by a slender thread of self-awareness to prevent floating off into the void of subliminal disorientation. If there is ever a time when our personal version of Jung’s “shadow-self” might loom large over us, this would be it. I’ve done enough scrying to know that it is serious stuff and not a “walk in the park.”
I’m a pragmatic, action-and-event-oriented diviner with little use for the psychic adventuring involved in pathworking since it doesn’t add anything useful to the art of reading the cards for practical insights. Grafting the Victorian system of thought that is the occult tarot onto the Neoplatonic superstructure of the Tree of Life doesn’t offer much in the way of tarot wisdom beyond a philosophical and mystical exercise in self-realization via profound, visually-centered meditation on the Qabalistic paths. (Think of it as “weight training in the practice of free-association.) On the other hand, I do make considerable use of the esoteric number theory symbolized by the ten sephiroth (spheres of emanation), a numerological system that rivals the Pythagorean model for applicability to divination.
If you’re thinking of dabbling in scrying (which is basically what the emotionally-damaged early users of the Ouija board were doing without adequate safeguards) and don’t have a strong psychological backbone to stand up to the psychic buffeting you’re likely to receive if and when you encounter less sympathetic entities, I strongly recommend that you run, don’t walk, as rapidly as possible in the opposite direction. It’s something you will of course have to achieve if you’re going to pursue any form of ritual magic, but for the average tarot-card reader all it is likely to do is intimidate you for little gain in worthwhile knowledge. Believe all you want that your spirit guides will protect you, but this is “big league” psycho-spiritual bushwhacking that won’t hand you intuitive insights nicely wrapped up with a pink bow.
I haven’t entirely given up on the idea of scrying, but I bought a crystal ball to use for the purpose rather than employing the tarot cards. I like the freedom it offers to chase elusive visions without being shoehorned into an archetypal mode of presentation. I’ve also thought about making a magic mirror with the same goal in mind. I recently tried to reacquaint myself with Edwin Steinbrecher’s 1977 book, Inner Guide Meditation, which purports to make these practices safe for the masses, but once again I found it entirely too “New-Age-y” in tone to meet my serious scholarly inclinations; I take a rather dim view of “woo.”
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on November 18, 2023.
