“Untying All Tangles” — A Syncretic Insight
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I love the following definition of the Tao presented in Benebell Wen’s I Ching, The Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes:
“ . . . the Tao is described as ‘the origin of all things . . . It unties all tangles, it harmonizes all lights, it unites the world into one whole.”
In thinking about how this might be applied in a syncretic way to the art of tarot reading, I realized that the tarot, as a true scion of the Tao in its universal embrace of “all things,” is also adept at “untying tangles,” and its ultimate goal is identical: to weave the individual strands back together into whole cloth in the form of a coherent narrative.
Some time ago I wrote that tarot reading amounts to “running my mental fingers through the warp-and-woof of the fabric of reality, trying to tease out threads of truth.” I still find this analogy compelling although I’m now much less pompous in my attitude than in my previous, overwrought impression. The cards in a spread can appear to be snarled in a web of conflicted meaning that defies deciphering, so the challenge is one of finding the right thread to pull that will unravel the whole thing. There is always an identifiable main theme that can be coaxed out of the thicket even when it seems impenetrable, one just needs to “let it simmer in the consciousness” as advised by author James Ricklef; then it’s a matter of melding the sub-themes in a convincing way.
My favorite approach is the “gestalt overview” that takes in the whole spread in a single comprehensive sweep and then attempts to pick out the “high ground” the way one analyzes a topographical map. Any such dominant features become the “anchors” that tie down the rest of the narrative. What emerges is a constellation of cards forming a matrix of meaning that we can massage into a coherent story-line, one that highlights only as many significant cards as necessary to tell the tale while the rest remain “bit players.” (I no longer obsess over finding a home in the narrative for every single card, and just sketch in enough detail to deliver the core message while letting the sub-plots ride unless they insinuate themselves or I have loads of time to roll them out.) I’m not quite that cold-blooded in practice because I appreciate a “thumping good yarn,” but I find that I often have to rein myself in.
Some readers observe the practice of laying all of the cards face-down and then laboriously turning over and interpreting them one-at-a-time. I find this much too fragmented when taking in the whole thing at a glance and then pondering it is far more conducive to a full understanding of all the nuances and the threads of meaning that unite them. This is an economical time-saving device that I mastered when reading “on the clock” at a metaphysical shop, especially while working psychic fairs in 15–20 minute sittings. In a few minutes I can make general observations about where the reading is headed, then concentrate on the key points for a bit and bring the session to a close swiftly and surely. This allows me the luxury of a couple of minutes for an introductory presentation and a summary wrap-up including a brief Q&A session.
Speaking of wrapping things up, I needed a “clincher” for this essay since it had about run its course. It struck me that trying to break into a stubborn spread can be like a fisherman delving in the ground or turning over rocks, hoping to pull up an earthworm. I once told the story in this blog of how my younger brother and I spent hours with our grandfather long after dark in a schoolyard, hunting the nightcrawlers (a favorite fishing bait) that only come out of their burrows in the late evening. We would pounce on them fiercely but they would sometimes get a grip on the sides of the tunnel with their little ridges and fight back. If we tugged too hard they would break in half and escape to regenerate while the severed half would rot in the bait bucket and spoil the rest. Thinking of wrestling with an uncooperative knot of cards brought this memory back vividly.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on November 8, 2024.
