i Pollack

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Shining Woman
Tarot Guide
 By the same author:

Seventy-eight Degrees of Wisdom Part 1

Seventy-eight Degrees of Wisdom Part 2
The New Tarot
Tarot Readings and Meditations
Shining Woman
Tarot Guide

Rachel Pollack

Aquarian/Thorsons
An Imprint of HirperCoiUnsPuhlishers
 The Aquarian Press
An Imprint of HarperCoWinsPublishers
77-85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

Published by The Aquarian Press 1992

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

© Rachel Pollack 1992

Rachel Pollack asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

ISBN 1 85538 098 6 (pack)

ISBN 1 85538 265 2 (book)

Typeset by Harper Phototypesetters Limited

Northampton, England
Printed in Great Britain by
Woolnough Bookbinding,
Irthlingborough, Northants

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the publishers.
 1

Contents

Dedication 7
Acknowledgements 9
Introduction 1

Part 1 Major Arcana 25

Part 2 Minor Arcana 69
Trees 75
Rivers 87
Birds 99
Stones 113
The Vision Cards 125
Part 3 Readings 147
For ideas, criticism, support, and so much more. Shining
Woman Tarot is dedicated to Helle Agathe Beierholm
 Acknowledgements

In the years of work on Shining Woman Tarot many people have

helped with enthusiasm and support. I want especially to
thank Christine Thiery, who showed me possibilities, and
Maryanne-Renee Vrijdaghs, who first told me I had to do my
own pictures. And I want to thank my editor, Eileen
Campbell, for taking a chance. Others who kept me going
include Edith Katz, Tana Dineen, Niki de St Phalle, Mary
Greer, Maria Fernandez, Milton Teichman, Caitlin and John
Matthews, Vicki Noble, Witta Jensen, Frank Jensen, Susan
Coker, Donna Hutchinson, and Susun Weed. And all the
students from the workshops.
A special thank you to Carol Herzer Abrams for all her
practical help as well as her enthusiasm and encouragement.
 Introduction

Shining Woman Tarot is a radical version of the ancient Tarot,

inspired by mythology from many lands, shamanic journeys,
esoteric traditions, prophecies, 'found art' (rocks,
stories,
branches, mountain views and other encounters from sacred
places and simple walks along the road) and especially
prehistoric and tribal art from around the world.
Shining Woman may appear strange to someone used to the
classical Tarot. And yet, these cards are born out of Tarot
history as much as their sources around the world. They owe
their structure, their inner messages, and their very existence
to the wisdom and the power that have come together in the
Tarot over the last 500 years.
No one knows the Tarot's origins. We do not even know the
origin of the word. The first known deck appeared in the mid-
fifteenth century in Italy. The earliest decks come to us
complete, with the same structure and names for the cards as
later versions, suggesting some earlier process of evolution.
The Tarot's earliest known origin is as the game Tarocchi, an
ancestor of bridge. As far as history tells us it remained a game
for several centuries, and was used occasionally by fortune
tellers.
And yet, from those earliest decks onward, the pictures have
suggested secret messages. The startling image o{ a man
hanging upside down, his face radiant; a woman dressed in the
robes of a pope; a carnival juggler holding a magic wand and
wearing a hat shaped like the sign for infinity; a hermit on a
mountaintop holding a lantern; a chariot drawn by a black

11
and a white horse - such scenes arouse in us a sense of
mystery.
In 1781, aFrench scholar and occultist named Antoine
Court de Gebelin made a startling claim. He wrote that he
had discovered the ^ook of Thoth, a legendary work of
universal knowledge created by the Egyptian God Thoth for
his magician disciples. This book did not lie hidden in some
secret cave, but existed in plain view - as the game of Les
Tarots, the French name for Tarocchi. Since that moment,
esoteric writers have expanded on Court de Gebelin's
suggestions. People have linked the Tarot to Egyptian
initiation rituals, matriarchal underground teachings.
Christian Tantra (Indian esotericism), Chaldean
heresies,
astrology, and especially the vastly complex system of Jewish
mysticism and magic known as Kabbalah.
Some 200 years after the time of Antoine Court de Gebelin,
the Tarot has taken a new direction. Rather than arguing over
the one correct interpretation, many Tarot creators have used
the Tarot form as a way of expressing a particular vision.
Among these, many cultural Tarots have emerged, with
imagery from Native American society, Basque mythology,
Romany (Gypsy) tradition, and many others.
Both the old and the new versions of Tarot have influenced
the development o{ Shining Woman. Some of the cards contain
Kabbalist and other Jewish symbols, some derive from
standard Tarot figures, many display actual images from Native
American rock art, or prehistoric cities in Turkey, or ancient
Chinese art, or giant drawings in the pampas of Peru. Still
others take their inspiration from myths or fairy tales, or
African dances, or symbols from Australian Aboriginal
painting.
Two factors unite these many sources. First is the Tarot itself.

Despite changes in the names of the suits or particular cards,

I have followed the traditional Tarot structure - 78 cards in

two parts, the 'Major Arcana' and the 'Minor Arcana'. The
themes grow out of traditional Tarot as well. These include the
Major Arcana as a map of the soul's journey from birth to
enlightenment, and the four suits of the Minor Arcana as a

12
kaleidoscope of human experience in all its varied forms.
Though I have changed the names of the suits from human
artefacts - Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles in traditional
decks " to aspects of nature - Trees, Rivers, Birds and Stones -
the new names belong to the same four elements of life - Fire,
Water, Air and Earth.
What has changed is the underlying emphasis. Shining
Woman is a sacred Tarot, rather than an esoteric one. By
esoteric I mean a code of precise symbols outlining a detailed
system of ideas about existence. Shining Wo-man is more fluid.
While it does contain recurring symbols (such as
the concentric circles and energy lines, the Goddess stones
and the guardian animals), it does not work according
to an intellectual plan. Instead, it seeks to open a sense
of wonder, an awareness of the life energy underlying every
moment of our lives. With its many sources, it joins us
to humanity's visions and art over tens of thousands of
years.
The second unifying principle is the way the pictures came
to life. Virtually none of them were designed to fit a
preconceived idea. They arose from encounters with images,
stories and ritual practices (including dance and song) of
A
different cultures. number of cards grew out of meditations
with the traditional Tarot. The first card I drew, the Fool,
depicts a vision I received during the first meditation I ever
gave to a class, some twelve years before I sat down to draw
the picture. The last card drawn, the 9 of Rivers, came as an
idea during a discussion of Jewish mysticism held in the
synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
In several pictures, the number of some objects - stars, rays
of light, marks on a path - signifies connections to other
cards, or to the Tarot as a whole. For example. Awakening
contains twenty-two windows and twenty-two rays of light
around the spirit being's head (there are twenty-two cards in
the Major Arcana). In each of these cards, none of the
correspondences were planned. Instead, they were drawn
spontaneously and only counted afterwards.
Many of these pictures come from my travels to temples,
13
power spots, and other sacred places in Greece, North
America, Malta, Ireland, England, France, Denmark, and the
Netherlands. Sometimes actual images appear, such as the
Maltese temples on the Gift of Stones. At other times a scene,
or a moment, or an object found along the way, inspired a
picture. Sometimes an action led to a card. On the last day
of the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which the Goddess Persephone
returns from the dead, I enacted a ritual on a cliff on the Greek
island of Crete. The ritual, based on the ancient texts,
involved pouring water into two cracks in the Earth. After I
had done this, I realized that the traditional Tarot card of the
Star shows a woman pouring water from two gourds. And so,
in Shining Womany the Star has become the Goddess
Persephone. Again, what unites the personal experiences, the
different cultures and images, is the Tarot itself, with its Star
maiden pouring out her water.
I travelled to the sacred places as a healing journey and

vision quest, but also for a book on the theme of the body
of the Goddess. In Western culture we have learned to think
of God as disembodied, separate from the physical universe.
But in most cultures the physical world carries a hidden
meaning which we learn to recognize when we open ourselves
to see in a sacred way. When we discover power in the shape
of a mountain, a cave, a pool of water, a particular stone, or
the sight of a bird, we allow the hidden world of the sacred
to emerge into being. We act as its agents. And when we allow
such experiences to inspire images or stories, we give form to
the divine body.
Around the world, various traditions describe the cosmos
as a single being, sometimes a Goddess, sometimes a perfect
human. In the Western esoteric traditions we see this idea in
the Kabbalist vision of Adam Kadmon (the primordial man),
or the alchemical idea of the divine hermaphrodite. Many
Tarot interpreters have found both o{ these influences in the
culminating card of the Major Arcana, the World. In Shining
Woman Tarot this idea of the human body as the cosmos
becomes explicit in the deck's version of the World card.
Shining Woman herself. Her dancing form contains mythic

14
images, for cosmos contains not only the physical
the
universe, but also stories, visions, and symbols.
Shining Woman is the body of the Goddess. All Tarot decks
form the divine body. The Tarot takes our sense o{ awe - our
accumulated human wisdom, and puts them into images -
cards, something that we can hold in our hands, play with,
enter in our imaginations, mix and interpret.

The name Shining Woman, then, refers to the last card of the
Major Arcana, usually But it also refers
called the World.
to a stick-like figure seen on different cards throughout the
deck, most clearly on such cards as the T^wer, where it
appears inside the triangle, the 3 of Stones, where it appears
above a similar triangle, and Awakening, where three figures
together greet the return of the sacred. The figure looks
like this:

The arms arched above the head form found in many

a gesture
paintings and statues from prehistoric and ancient cultures,
particularly those of Crete and early Egypt. In our time the
gesture has become known as *the horns of consecration', a
term borrowed from a giant abstract sculpture excavated at the
palace of Knossos on Crete. Commentators have compared it
to the horns of the bull or cow as well as the horn-like sickle
of the waxing and waning Moons. More important than its
origins is the gesture itself. Stand in this way and you will feel
your body open up. You will feel a joy and a peacefulness.
Therefore, the Shining Woman 'glyph' represents celebration
of life. It signifies the human being healthy in all ways, life as
a vibrant web of body mind spirit.
The rays about the head of the stick figure Shining Woman
signify revelation. All over the world paintings and rock

15
carvings show figures with rays emanating from the head. The
halos painted above Christ and the saints in Christian
iconography belong to this tradition. Some mythographers
(charters ofmyth) describe such figures as solar deities. Others
suggest that they could signify shamans in ecstatic trances.
Though the name is Shining Woman I do not mean it to
refer only to female humans. As a spiritual term it moves
across genders, and even across species. It symbolizes the
perfected person, and we all have learned from the Native
Americans that 'people' describes the plants and the animals
as well as ourselves.
As well as the Shining Woman glyph, certain other images
recur throughout the deck. The descriptions of the individual
cards will make specific meanings clear, and in fact there are
no fixed formulas for these images. Instead, each image carries
a complex network o{ meanings built up from its presence in
the different cards. We can, however, list them and describe
their general significance.
The concentric circles (found, for instance, in the face of
Shining Woman, or on the landscape of the Fool card) derive
from the 'roundels' of Australian Aboriginal art (also the
carvings and standing stones in Ireland and Britain). In Shining
Woman Tarot these cards signify concentrations of energy.
Sometimes, as in the Fool, lines radiate from them. These
indicate energy patterns in the Earth itself, but also
the creation of boundaries and territories (as in the 7
of Birds).
Certain animals recur throughout the deck. Their meanings
(simplified) run as follows: the turtle, or tortoise, signifies quiet
strength and the spiritual power that sustains the world. It also
indicates prophecy and divination. The toad represents the
Mother Goddess as well as the active (or 'yang') principle in
life. The snake indicates life energy, sexuality and the
unconscious. The fish signifies the soul and the journey of
rebirth.
The birds are more complex in their meanings, for they form
an entire suit, as well asappearing on many cards in other
suits. In general, birds signify journeys to the spirit world,

16
creativity, wisdom, and prophecy (for the combination of
tortoises and birds, see the Knower of Birds). Owls, including
abstract versions such as the pot on the 9 of Birds, or the
painted trees in the 6 of Trees, symbolize awareness of death
and its mysteries. On several cards, such as the 9 of Trees, a
bird and a snake appear together. The combination follows a
pattern found in many mythologies. In our modern
psychological age the snake signifies the unconscious, while
the bird represents 'super-consciousness', or spiritual
awareness.
Trees appear throughout the deck, as well as in their own
suit (as do all the suit emblems). They symbolize life and good
health. A tree with its roots in water and its branches in the
stars indicates the Tree of Life, a symbol found throughout the
world to indicate the connections between all aspects of
existence.
Several cards, especially the Emperor and the T^wer, display
abstract symbols. These form actual writing, even sentences.
They developed from the images - and the story on the
Knower of Birds.
As with the recurring figures, the use of colour does not
follow a fixed scheme. Some Tarot designers treat colour as
absolute, believing that each shade produces precise physical
and emotional effects on the person viewing the card. Black
and white decks will sometimes come with specific
instructions for colouring the cards. As described above,
however, the Tarot has become more fluid. The colour scheme
of Shining Woman Tarot changes from card to card, while still
keeping to certain principles. Dark blue, for water, caves or
holes in the Earth, signifies the unconscious. Lighter blue,
especially in water, represents emotion. Blues in general also
signify femaleness, as well as stillness, the complex of ideas
called yin by the Chinese. Red, on the other hand, may
indicate yang - maleness, activity, consciousness. However, as
the colour of blood, red also may symbolize the lifeblood of
the Goddess. All over the world, people have used red ochre
to signify menstruation, birthblood (including the idea of
rebirth), and the sense of life in the Earth itself. Purple, in its

17
various shades, represents truth and sometimes the union of
masculine and feminine. Gold indicates light, either actual
light or revelation. Green signifies life, the growing Earth and
good health.

As described above, many of the images in Shining Woman

Tarot derive from indigenous traditions from Australia, Africa
and the Americas. I have tried to use these forms and symbols
with respect for their history and their living power. At the
same time, I have let the images themselves, rather than their
cultural meanings, inspire their use. This means, for instance,
that Algonkin abstract shaman (resembling Shining
the
Woman) found on the 6 of Stones does not carry the
symbolism associated with it by the artist who drew it
hundreds of years ago. Instead, it represents creativity and
inspiration drawn from nature.
And yet, in many cases, after I adapted an image, I
discovered information about its traditional meanings that
fitted perfectly with the card. For instance, after drawing the
Speaker of Birds as an African dancer with a bird on
her forehead, I discovered that in West Africa the kings
displayed beadwork birds on their headdresses, so that they
might speak with authority. Birds enable us to speak propheti-
cally, for birds alone can leave the ground and travel through
the invisible air to 'the world above', the world of the
spirits.
all the cases where I used an existing image I have altered
In
it;sometimes greatly, sometimes a little. I have done this partly
for the needs of the particular Tarot card, but mainly so that
I would not be repeating an exact sacred symbol out of its

original context. Sacred images often carry the life of a culture.

Out of respect for the people who created them I have
gratefully accepted their inspiration while avoiding making
copies of images fundamental to people's lives.
Despite the prestige given to successful artists in our culture,
we have marginalized art. In modern secular society, art
does nothing. It exists only for aesthetic appreciation,
entertainment or propaganda. In most societies art serves a

18
primary need. It conveys the traditional pictures and ideas
which bring people to sacred reality. The Tarot is a humble
art form, but people use it. They do readings, they meditate
with it or study the symbolism, they map out their own
spirituality with it. Because people use it, they take it seriously,
and because they take it seriously its use grows deeper over
time. I hope that this usefulness justifies my adaptation of
cultural images.
Five cards, one for each suit, bear the title Dreaming. The
term comes from the Australian Aborigines. I borrow it with
the respect and honour due to a network of traditions
reaching back as far as 50,000 years. Once again, I do not
attempt to use the expression in the same way as the people
in Australia do. In Shining Woman the five Dreamings represent
pictures of special intensity which act as gateways to the inner
mystery of the suit.

The Structure Of Shining Woman

Like the traditional Tarot Shining Woman contains 78 cards, in
two parts, the Major and Minor Arcana ('arcana' means
'secrets'). The Major Arcana consists of 22 named and
numbered cards, beginning with 0, The Fool, and ending with
21, Shining Woman. Most of these cards bear their traditional
names. Four, however, have changed titles. Card 5,
traditionally the Hierophant, has become Tradition. Card 10,
traditionally the Wheel of Fortune, has become the Spiral of
Fortune. Card 20, traditionally Judgement, has become
Awakening. And card 21, traditionally the World, has become
Shining Woman.
The Major Arcana of the Tarot has developed into one of
the world's great works of wisdom. In 22 evocative pictures it
encompasses a vast range of teachings. If we can try to
synthesize its ideas we might say that it gives us a map of the
soul's journey from birth to enlightenment and harmony with
the universe.
The Minor Arcana consists of the four suits, similar to

19
modern Most Tarot decks name these suits after
playing cards.
human made objects which appear on the cards. Usually these
are Wands (sometimes Staves or Rods), Cups, Swords, and
Pentacles (Coins in older decks). Shining Woman Tarot has
changed the suit names to aspects of nature: Trees, Rivers,
Birds and Stones. The Tarot took shape in the Renaissance,
when European culture emphasized human achievements as
the focus of the material world. The Renaissance saw nature
as wild, needing human transformation to fulfil its
possibilities. In our time we have reversed this idea, literally
going into the wilderness to find our most basic truths. We
have turned to the ways of indigenous peoples, those who seek
to live within the rhythms of nature. Such movements as Deep
Ecology, or Eco-feminism, have led us to revalue nature, both
for itself and for its symbolism of our own spiritual
development.
Each suit contains 14 cards, Ace to 10, plus four 'name'
cards. In traditional Tarot decks these are the Court Cards:
Page, Knight, Queen and King. Many contemporary Tarot
creators have found these titles weak or unbalanced, and have
changed them to such groups as Mother, Father, Daughter,
Son, or Sage, Man, Woman, Child.
Shining Woman removes the Court Cards completely,
replacing them with the Vision Cards: Place, Knower, Gift and
Speaker. These will be explained fully in their own section, but
we can describe them briefly as a progress of learning and
using the energy of each suit.
This concept of allotting a particular energy to each suit (for
the numbered Minor cards as well as the Vision cards) derives
from the idea of the four elements. The European form of this
widespread idea goes back to ancient Greece, where
philosophers argued over the basic nature of all the creatures
and objects in the material world. Eventually, this idea
of primal elements settled into four: Fire, Water, Air and
Earth.
We no longer believe in these as fundamental reality. In fact,
we have learned that each o( the four elements contains a
mixture of substances and chemical reactions. Nevertheless,

20
the idea of these 'elements' holds a potent psychological truth.
We each encounter life in different ways at different times. The
world gives us different experiences at different moments.
In astrology and Jungian psychology as well as in Tarot,
the four elements help us organize the variety of human
experience.

21
PARTI
 Major Arcana

In the time of Antoine Court de Gebelin, people dismissed

the Tarot as a game. Today, most people think of it as a device
for fortune telling. As Court de Gebelin recognized, however,
the Tarot is a book of wisdom, and the Major Arcana carries
its primary message. The 22 trump cards show us a vision of

the universe and our individual progress through life. At the

same time, they give us the tools to aid us in our lives, for their
symbolism and spiritual images arouse in us a sense of who
we are,and what we need to do to grow and to live our lives
in a sacred way. The very word 'trump' derives from the Italian
for 'triumph'. Triumphs of the spirit, of the soul.
What does it mean to 'live life in a sacred way'? It does not
mean following the doctrines of any particular religion or
church. We know that many people have found links to
specific doctrines in the Major Arcana. But the very fact that
the cards can accommodate so many competing ideas only
shows their variety and strength. Td live in a sacred way means
recognizing the power and presence of God/dess in all
existence, uniting what seems isolated, filling the smallest and
largest aspects of life with radiance and meaning. The cultures
represented in Shining Woman Tarot show us the ways in which
others have expressed these truths before us. They help us
discover our own path.
At one time, the Catholic Church banned Tarot cards,
referring to them as 'the Devil's picturebook'. This
condemnation may have come from their use in gambling, but
it may also have stemmed from something more serious. The
25
Church at that time based its authority on the idea that
salvation could come only through the intervention of the
priesthood. The Tarot images contradict this. By their progress
from a Magician to a glorious dancing figure they show us that
we can create ourselves. We can achieve enlightenment, even
knowledge o{ God, without priests to direct us.
Each of the cards in the Major Arcana carries a double
message. It helps us develop special skills and awareness, and
at the same time it shows us a stage in our development. For
example, card 8, Strength, gives us an image of confidence and
passion connected to the power of the Earth. It also tells us
that after the Chariot, card 7, we need this kind of strength
and commitment to begin the next stage of our journey. The
following card, the Hermit, teaches us that the journey
involves separation from the ordinary concerns of life.
Cards 1-21 follow an obvious sequence. But where do we
put the Fool? While some Tarot interpreters see card as the
start of the journey others place it at the end. Shining Woman
Tarot treats the Fool as the first card in the deck, but in fact
it belongs everywhere, especially in the gaps between the

stages of development: means nothing, no-thing, that is, no

fixed place.
In the image of the Fool flying after the bird, we show our
willingness to follow the sacred ways. We leap from the safe
reference points of our lives into a new way of being. Even if
we have studied the cards and their symbolism we still cannot
know the destination of our Fool's journey. The Tarot does not
tellus what we will find. It gives us a pattern for the search
and the tools to make that search possible.
Tarot commentators will often divide the Major Arcana.
Some see it as two halves, with card 10 or 11 as the mid-point.
In my own work I have found it valuable to view the 21
numbered cards as three groups of seven. Cards 1-7 show the
Fool journeyer facing the tests o{ ordinary life. The Magician
and the High Priestess symbolize the basic principles of
existence - male and female, light and dark, knowledge and
mystery, action and stillness, consciousness and intuition. The
Empress and the Emperor symbolize nature and society, but

26
alsoMother and Father, both the ideal images of these figures,
including the Goddess and the God, and also our individual
mothers and fathers, with all the importance they carry in our
lives.
In traditional Tarots, the Hierophant (also called the Pope)
signifies the teachings and traditions of society, especially the
religious teachings. It indicates the path society lays out for

us to follow. In Shining Woman Tarot, this card is Tradition, an

image of the more personal path laid out for us by our own
inner being, along with the idea that the spirits protect each
of us on our particular journeys. The Lovers depicts the
importance oi passion and sexuality in our lives. Finally, the
Chariot represents the person who has successfully
encountered these tests and stages.
Only a Fool would leave behind a successful life to look for
something deeper. So we need that foolish willingness once
more to leap off the cliff, this time after the bird of self-
knowledge. In Strength, passion seizes us and we become
lions, all the time aware of our roots in the Earth. As the
Hermit, we joyously seek an inner truth. With the Spiral of
Fortune we break out of old patterns into the unknown. Then
we must face Justice, also called Shadow Woman. For before
we can Shine with our full light and glory we must face our
shadows. Card 11 comes exactly in the middle of the Major
Arcana. It balances the past - all the experiences and
influences which have shaped us - with the future - our new
selves which have yet to emerge. Having looked deeply at
ourselves, we experience a peace and a connection to all life
in the Hanged Woman. This confidence allows us to 'die', to
let go of whatever is no longer authentic. This symbolic Death
liberates our inner truth. The angel in Temperance is

ourselves.
Having reached such heights we are certainly Fools to go
further. The Devil may represent a fall from the peace of
Temperance, but it also shows a willingness to encounter the
dark energy hidden deep in our own psyches. The Tower
releases this energy. Most Tarot decks show the T^wer as a
violent overthrow of illusions. In Shining Woman Tarot we see

27
the tower in flames, but we also see the woman dancing in the
fire. For the card signifies revelation, and release o{ divine

energy. As the Goddess Persephone, the Star brings peace,

hope, new life. With confidence we follow our Moon journey
through its strange landscape and symbolism until we reach
the clear light of the Sun. Having gone through these
experiences we Awaken to a full knowledge of our own being.
Finally, in Shining Woman, we join ourselves to the universe.
Many of the figures in the Major Arcana wear masks. Others
appear as semi-abstract, as Shining Woman stick figures, or as
stones, or without faces. These images show us the Major
Arcana as a process of discovering and creating our own
identities. In our culture we tend to think of masks as
disguises. Thieves wear masks. When we hide our feelings from
our friends or families we talk of wearing a mask. In many
other societies masks have signified a greater reality. When
shamans or ritual dancers put on sacred masks they allow the
spirits to enter their bodies. They become this larger being.
The very word we use to indicate authenticity - 'person' -
derives from 'mask'. In ancient Rome 'persona' meant the mask
worn by actors to assume their characters on stage. As well
as giving them a new identity the masks amplified their voices.
That is, the masks enlarged their being. Since many actors

portrayed Gods, mythic heroes and tragic sufferers, the mask

created a mythic truth.
We stillneed to balance this greater self with our own
individual humanity. In the Fool we see a profile - a glimpse
of our true selves. The Magician and the High Priestess then
appear in masks, for they signify principles rather than
individuals. The Empress and the Emperor are both non-
human, the first a partly abstract figure, the second an animal-
headed man. They indicate dealing with issues of life beyond
our human constrictions. Paradoxically, we create human
culture and personality only when we can bring these greater
experiences into our daily lives. In Tradition the spirits appear
as rocks, but they have come to protect us in our efforts to
find our own pathways, unique for each of us. In the Lovers
we see the human emerge. The angel and the person show

28
their faces, for in sexuality we become individuals. In the
Chariot we see the charioteer's face, for she/he has achieved
this individuality. And yet,the Chariot itself, the vehicle for
this successful life, appears as a mask. We see the mask
breaking open to reveal new worlds beyond the construction
of personality.
In Strength we see no people, only the lion, for here we find
the animal power of our passion. In the Hermit we see a stick-
like figure, for in this new level we again must find ourselves.
The Spiral of Fortune and Justice continue to show these large
forces, but in Justice a face emerges from the rock. The Hanged
Woman appears naked, and peaceful in this playful world of
the spirit. In Death we see the soul as a face liberated from
itsnarrow existence, while Temperance shows the angel as
human, calm in her/his own power.
The Devil shows a human as well, but one distorted,
compressed and boxed in. The dancing figure on the Tower
appears only in silhouette. We are returning to abstraction
here, but with a difference. Before, the stick-like figures and
animals indicated an unformed individuality. Having
achieved self-awareness with Temperance, we now move to
knowledge beyond the personal. In the Star the human figure
of the Goddess reminds us that we bring our humanity into
these great levels of being. Then, the semi-abstractions of the
Moon and the Sun carry us into other worlds. In Awakening,
the Spirit appears in the sky with a human face, while the
people on the ground appear as Shining Woman glyphs,
though these glyphs are now more individual. At the same
time, the urban setting reminds us that these experiences
belong in our daily lives. Finally, Shining Woman herself
appears as human but with a face o{ pure energy.
Any short description of the Major Arcana inevitably
becomes simplistic. We need to enter into the pictures and
explore their possibilities. We need to fly with the Fool, to burn
with the passion of the Lovers, to give ourselves to Justice, to
dance with Shining Woman.

29
The Fool
She walks through the mountains.
She flies through the circle.

She hears the birds singing.

She plays tricks on her brother.

The Fool the eternal child within all of

is

us, innocent and pure of belief. Older

Tarot decks showed a beggar bitten by a dog or cat. The Rider
Fool, a beautiful youth, dances on a cliff edge, as if about to
step off. In Shining Woman Tarot the Fool has become still
younger, and has taken that leap. She follows the bird, and
without any thought, she too begins to fly.
Some time after I drew this picture I met a woman who told
me of a teaching in the Native American tradition she was
studying. According to her teacher, we each contain within
us a 'child spirit shield', a being who knows no fear or
we allow this
limitations. If child to overcome our conscious
doubts then we could fly.
The brown landscape
bird of instinct carries the Fool over a
dotted with green hills. The three middle hills on the left form
a figure of the Great Goddess, for they mimic what a child
sees as it emerges from the womb: the mound of the mother's
belly in the middle,framed by the two breasts. According to
art historian Vincent Scully, this mountain formation was
known in ancient Greece as Winged Artemis, the Goddess of
the Moon and the hunt, who was also Goddess o{ the
wilderness and the beasts, as well as of childbirth. Winged
Artemis appears on other cards, especially the Moon.
The mountains at the back symbolize the unknown Spirit
world, for we all take our leap without knowledge of the
destination. Seven lighter mountains appear in the front, five
in the back. 7 is the Chariot, 5 is Tradition. Together, they
make 12, the Hanged Woman. An energy line comes out of
the mountains and then breaks up into branches. All life
comes from the spirit, becoming many things in the material

30
world. The lines travel through a stone circle on the right and
then through the concentric circles before passing under the
Fool's own robe of many colours. This robe symbolizes the
variety and wonder of experience. At the bottom of the card,
the dolmen (a horizontal stone balanced on two vertical
stones) opens to another world. It also forms the first letter
of the Hebrew word 'Chai', meaning Life. The second (and
final) letter of the word *Chai' appears as the tree on the hill
beside the dolmen.
have referred to the Fool as 'she' but the figure is
I

androgynous, for s/he represents a state where all things are

possible.

Upright
Act on your instincts, take chances. The child
trust, follow
within, intuitive knowledge of sacred ways of being.

Reversed
Hesitation, confusion, need for more information, need to
think things through. Sometimes fear.

The Magician
He turns on the lights.
He waters the desert. 44
He
He
raises the storm.

cools the hot Earth.

1
A
1
He starts up the engines.
The MAC) :iAn
1
1

A masked shaman, the Magician stands in a desert, while

behind him we see a dark river, and then the scattered lights
of a dying city. He raises his magic wand - a simple twig - to
bring down the life-giving power of heaven. His left arm
extends downward, for he does not seek this power for himself,

31
to hold in the body, or to perform tricks, or to become
important. Instead, he acts as a vehicle to bring the life energy
into existence. And so the flower grows at the touch of his
finger. The Magician pose, one arm up, the other down,
appears in traditional art of many lands. In Algonkin rock art,

such a figure represents a shaman. Because the gesture is so

vital, a simple hand in a drawing can symbolize shamanic
power, a fact that tells us something about the handprints
found everywhere in rock art. Close your eyes and stand in
this way and you will feel a sense of openness in your body,
an energy moving through you.
The twig is one of the four Gifts from the Minor Arcana,
the Gift of Trees. The other three appear on the Magician's
right. They are the bowl for Rivers, the flute for Birds, and
the Goddess rock for Stones. The Magician knows and uses
all the gifts o{ existence. Above his head we see an abstracted

bird and two roundels, joined by a jagged river of gold

containing a fish, a toad-like stick figure, and a vulva symbol,
all images of the Goddess. These things show the spirit world,

the source of the Magician's magic. Artists and scientists as

well as magicians know that their training and skill only allow
them to serve as agents for creative energy, which they
experience as something beyond their bodies. The roundels
are dark and symbolizing the duality of existence. The
light,
river, however, connects them. Below, we see two Shining
Woman glyphs of the same dark and light colours. Again, they
signify duality, including male and female. Separate, they both
stand on the green road of life. Later, in the Sun card, we will
see them joined together.

Upright
Creativity, life-giving energy, thought, science. Using your
power to help others. Consciousness, action, connecting the
different levels of being.

32
Reversed
Suppressed energy, feeling blocked, weak. A
need to accept
your own power. Alternatively (with other cards indicating
stillness) a time to avoid action.

The High Priestess

She stays in one place.
She swims in the water.

She talks with the serpents.

She knows all the secrets.

She says nothing.

The High Priestess's robe and mask derive from Kono, Guinea,
in Africa. The headdress and braids of cowrie shells link her
to African divination which often uses By
co\yries in castings.
its and therefore the
shape, the cowrie symbolizes the vulva,
Goddess. The snake below her comes from the Rainbow
Snake of Aboriginal Australia. Its spiral form suggests the
'kundalini' - sexual/spiritual energy coiled like a serpent at
the base of the spine. The two pillars, a motif found on many
versions of this card, ultimately derives from the Kabbalist
tradition of the dark and light pillars of the temple of Solomon
in ancient Jerusalem. The High Priestess card reaches into
many cultures, for she is not the priestess of any particular
religion, but of the inner way of the soul.
Where the Magician acts, she remains still. Where the
Magician draws down the light, she looks into the darkness.
She does not seek answers, or confrontations, but wishes
simply to touch the wholeness of existence. We think of the
High Priestess as containing secrets, does not mean
but this
forbidden knowledge, or even specific information. Rather,
she understands truths she cannot explain in ordinary
language.

33
 two pillars are black and white and signify
Traditionally, the
the poles of existence. Here the green and red represent first
of all the plant and animal worlds, for she is Priestess of the
physical as well as the metaphysical. Green and red also
symbolize growth and the blood mysteries of life and death.
The different worlds intermingle through the opposite circles
at the top o( each pillar.
The tail of the snake becomes a pathway leading inward to
the snake's mouth. In Western culture, the story of the Garden
of Eden leads us to think of the serpent as evil, but in some
cultures the bite of a snake, or a taste of snake's blood, brings
revelation (we find this described in stories, but in fact, the
venom of some snakes, such as the cobra, acts like peyote or
'magic' mushrooms to induce mystical states). The pathway
spiralscounterclockwise, leading to detachment from the
outer world, with all its distractions. However, once we have
found the inner peace of the High Priestess we need to follow
the spiral out again, back to our daily lives.
The fish, with all its colours, swims from left to right,
bringing myths and dreams, for only through such images can
the conscious mind glimpse the truth of the unconscious.

Upright
Inner truth, stillness, intuitive knowledge, peacefulness. A
time to look inward rather than get involved with others.
Sometimes secrets, or mysteries. What lies hidden within a
situation.

Reversed
Passion, emerging from a time of detachment. Directing all

your energy outward, sometimes as a way to avoid looking at

yourself.

34
The Empress
She lies on the couch.
She stands in the mountains.
She rides the white horses.

She dances with lovers.

She sings for the children.

This semi-abstract Empress follows a figure from a prehistoric

figurine painting, 4,500 years old, discovered in Romania.
Mountains rise from her shoulders, and together with her they
create Winged Artemis. On either side we see trees, with their
roots in the River of Being. The
scene recalls the Biblical
Garden of Eden, with its Tree of Knowledge and Tree of Life.
But here there is no prohibition, for in the pre-Biblical version
of that story, the Goddess freely offered her fruit of eternal
life.

Instead of apples the Sun and the Moon and the Stars shine
above her and the mountains. The Sun represents the number
1 (the Magician), the Moon 2 (the High Priestess). One plus
two makes three, the number
of the Empress. Three also
symbolizes the multitude of the physical world, and so we see
the Stars, 22 of them for the number of cards in the Major
Arcana. The stars link the card to the Star, which occupies
the same position in the third line of the trumps.
Amuch deeper connection links the Empress and the Star.
The Empress symbolizes the Great Mother, the original
Goddess creator. The Star, as Persephone, signifies the
Daughter, who separates from the Mother and returns to Her.
All of us, male and female, must separate from our own parents
to become individuals. And yet, we only complete that process
when we can 'return', that is, acknowledge the bond between
us and our origins.
The spirals on her buttocks link her to the Spiral of Fortune,
the card in the third position of the second line. These spirals
connect her as well to Shining Woman (21, 2+1=3).
The
35
opposing spirals imply the double helix of DNA
(as well as
involvement and detachment). In a fertilized human egg the
mitochondria - primitive cells similar to plants - derive from
the mother's genetic material. The mitochondria link us to our
most ancient history.
As the female principle she signifies passion and sexuality
motherhood. This seems odd to Western people, but
as well as
only because we do not want to acknowledge our origins in
female bodies and the sexual act. Without sex, women will not
conceive.
And of course, sex for conception links her to the male.
Because 1 + 2 = 3 the Empress contains the Magician as well
as the High Priestess.

\]prig\\,i

Passion, for life in general as well as sexual passion. The world,

nature, the Earth in all its variety. Motherhood, including our
relationships to our own mothers.

"Reversed
A time for reflection or rational analysis rather than passion.
Withdrawal from involvements. The Empress reversed mirrors
the High Priestess right side up, and vice versa.

The Emperor
He lays down the rules.
He marks out the places.
He arranges the horses.
He builds the tall buddings.
nKCHPlKOR
In some modern Tarots, the Emperor sym-
bolizes the oppression of patriarchy, the
of rules and laws. Maleness, however, is more
stifling quality
complicated, embracing creative ideas and healing powers.

36
The head reminds us of the many cultures where the
stag's
God takes on the animal power. The antlers branching from
the head symbolize male sexuality, but also creative abstract
thinking which branches out in many directions. Similarly,
the black squares symbolize ideas which open to worlds
beyond the physical.
The figure is based on a photo of a shaman encountered by
Tsar Nicholas II on a journey across Siberia. A tsar is a legal
emperor, but a shaman travels beyond human laws to the
Spirit world. He wears a blue crescent to symbolize his
connection to the Triple Goddess of the Moon (the Empress,
card 3). His red hands and eyes, as well as the red stripes on
his green robe, signify the complex issues of blood and
maleness - the blood of sexual erections as well as the blood
of violence.
Behind him we see a city, image of patriarchal civilization.
At the same time he stands on a bull from the cave of Lascaux,
a painting l^}d^^ years old. Above his head we see a glyph
for a (male) shaman, showing that he journeys to the Spirit
world above and the Land of the Dead below to bring back
healing power. To his left the glyphs describe transforming
aggressive energy into creative healing power. We see first a
phallic image, symbol of masculine forcefulness. In the middle
a double line shows that the shaman moves in different
dimensions. Finally a phallic image with a snake inside
signifies a power greater than simple forcefulness. On the right
we see more glyphs of the shaman's journeys and creativity.
The Emperor teaches us that we do not overcome male
violence and dominance by suppressing male energy or
keeping men as children. Instead, men can transform their
vital energy into creativity and service and love.

\Jprig\ii

The play between aggressive and healing energy. Abstract

ideas, rationality. Setting firm boundaries, ruling your own
territory, taking responsibility. Emotional remoteness. Sexual
vitality. Fathers and fatherhood.

37
Reversed
Power corrupted. Problems with rules or restrictions. The
aggressive side of male energy. Alternatively (and the other
cards will help determine which direction the reversed card
goes) a softening of the Emperor's harshness. Overcoming the
repressive Father.

Tradition
They cast the great circle.
They clear the clogged highways.
They share all the gossip.
They teach all the children.

In 1981 1 visited the Dead Sea. By the oasis

of Ein Gedi, near the site of the Dead Sea
Scrolls and the waterfall where David hid from Saul, I found
five stonesarranged in a circle by the edge of the water. I
imagined them as spirits disguised as rocks to avoid the stares
of humans. I have recreated the circle here, bringing out my
fantasy of them as 'spirits' whom I call the Old Women. They
meet to uphold the world and protect their troubled children.
In many we find the idea of secret beings,
traditions
sometimes enlightened humans, sometimes spirits or angels
who maintain the world. Usually they act in secret, without
reward.The card of Tradition links this myth to the Tarot
trump 5, which usually symbolizes religious teachings. The
Old Women open paths for their children, pathways of life as
well as knowledge. The
green pathways symbolize the physical
world, the gold the spiritual. In one direction the material
world travels into the circle, where the Old Women transform
it into sacred energy. But the paths also go outward, that is,

spiritual energy sent out into the ordinary world of our daily
lives.
The flower in the centre gives us an image of nurturing. In

38
times of fear or stress we can meditate with this card, placing
ourselves in the circle and feeling protected. The flower grows
in the desert. Similarly, a fish leaps from the dead waters. The
card promises us that our lives can change, and what seems
dead can come alive with joy. The card signifies more than
trust and protection. We build that trust by learning from
ancient wisdom. We find ideas and personal power in the
vitality of traditional teachings and rituals.

Upright
Finding your path, either through tradition or your own
searching. A sense of protection, of trust and hope. Wisdom,
also responsibility. Commitment to help others without
emphasis on credit or reward. Sometimes social institutions,
especially marriage.

Reversed
Unorthodox behaviour or ideas, liberation from rules.
Difficulty in staying on a path, or completing specific projects.
Lack of trust.

The Lovers (Red Angel Dreaming)

(dedicated to Sue Alexander)

They burn in the mountains.

They dance in the lightning.
They float on the water.
They slide down to the dirt.

The traditional card called The Lovers

shows a young man choosing between two
women. It was sometimes subtitled Choice and symbolized the
power of sexuality, especially in adolescence. The Rider Tarot
changed the image to an adult man and woman, naked, before
two trees, with an angel blessing them. Shining Woman Tarot

39
merges the human and the angel, showing the ecstatic power
of sexuality.
Below the two figures, the trees and mountains and river
recall the Empress. That card indicates passion as a pure thing
within the self. Here we see the acting out of passion. Usually
this will refer to a romantic/sexual relationship, but it may
indicate acting on any passionate desire.
Both the human and the angel appear androgynous, not
specifically male or female. This enables anyone to project
themselves into the picture. That is, a lesbian may see both
figures as female, a heterosexual man may see the human as
a man, the angel as his (ideal) female partner, and so on.
Neither figure dominates the other. The angel's wings wrap
around the human, while the human's legs enclose the angel.
The idea of sacred sex suggests actual practices, such as the
Indian Tantra, with its sexual yoga. It also refers to awareness
that sexuality pervades all existence. In her book Oya, In Praise
of the GoddesSy Judith Gleason describes the West African
myth of lightning produced by the Goddess Oya and her lover
Shango. She then gives a scientific description of lightning,
with the Earth as electrically negative and the sky as positive
and points out that meteorological versions 'avoid erotic
overtones as best they can'.
In the card we see a darkness between the faces. At the same
time, lightning sparks out from their fierce kiss. Sexuality is
dark, and moist, and mysterious. And yet, it can burst forth
in explosions of light.

Upright
Desire, acting out of passion, a deep and committed
relationship. Sexual expression, ecstasy (not just sexual), free
sharing with others, trust and commitment.

Reversed
Blocks to something not working out in a
sexuality,
relationship, immaturity. Being alone, by circumstance or
choice. A time to avoid sexual involvements.

40
The Chariot
He climbs the wide mountains.
He races the flood.
He takes charge of the horses.
He answers the riddles.

The Chariot is sometimes called Victory.

Military heroes in ancient Rome drove
their chariots in victory parades. The practice comes down to
us today, with generals and other heroes riding in limousines
instead of chariots. This military model gives us a Chariot card
concerned with triumph and conquest. The mature person
overcomes the challenges of the previous cards and forges a
successful life, But personality limits us
a powerful personality.
as well, for in order to maintain the illusion o{ single, unified
personality we commit ourselves to fixed beliefs about who we
are. Personality and success can become masks over the
hidden or mysterious aspects of ourselves and the universe.
In the Shining Woman version of the Chariot the front of the
chariot itself forms a crude mask. At the same time, this mask
has broken open, revealing an unknown country hidden
within.
The image comes from two mythic sources. The first is the
Book of Ezekiel in the Bible, where the prophet witnesses a
heavenly chariot of fire. This vision has had a deep effect
on both Jewish and Christian mysticism. People who
contemplated the Chariot had ecstatic experiences of God.
This sacred level of the Chariot card takes us beyond the outer
face of personal victory. The Charioteer wears a multi-
coloured coat for his delight in the myriad aspects of this
world. But he reaches up into the river of fire which pours
from the world beyond. The wheel above his head contains
eyes,an image from Ezekiel.
The other myth, from India, tells of the God
Shiva using
the other Gods to create a chariot fromthe parts of
all

existence. In the card, the Sun and (dark) Moon form the

41
chariot's wheels. The world
within the mask suggests that the
body of the chariot is the Earth itself. Instead of the firm
ground of outward reality, the chariot rests (or rides) in the
sea of the unconscious.
I have referred to the Charioteer as 'he' because of
traditional masculine associations with the idea of victory.
Like all the cards, it can refer to both women and men. While
the image derives from masculine myths, the Charioteer wears
a lunar symbol, an opening to the Goddess's inner power. The
Chariot symbolizes the quality of will. Often this becomes
reduced to wilfulness, a determination to triumph over life.
Will means much more than this. The card teaches us that will
flows like a river when we join ourselves to sacred power. The
card of the Chariot is among the most complex of the Major
Arcana.

Upright
sometimes aggression. Strong personality, with
Will, victory,
and sometimes the need, to break through to
the possibility,
a deeper knowledge of life (or the meaning of a specific
situation).

Reversed
Lack of willpower, breakdown of fixed ideas, openness to new
methods, especially cooperation.

Strength
She roars in the morning.
She touches the fire.

She licks the dark hill.

She gives food to her children.

Traditional versions of this card show a

woman opening (or closing) the mouth of

42
a lion. She symbolizes the human spirit taming the 'animal'
passions. Here we see only the lion, indicating the release of
passion. This does not mean
wildness or self-indulgence.
Shining Woman Tarot teaches us to join ourselves to patterns
found in teachings, in art, myth and meditation, and
especially our own inner sense of what is right (we can describe
the Tarot as a tool to help us reach this inner sense). When
we do this, our passions shed their destructive or fearsome
and we experience the strength that comes from
aspects,
harmony with life.
The lion stands before a Tree of Life, on the peak of
a rounded hill, like an egg. Together, the tree and the
hill suggest the glyph for Shining Woman, an image made
more the following card. At first it appears
explicit in
that the roots in the hill extend from the tree. At closer
inspection we see them stretching out from the lion's paws.
Strength comes when we root ourselves in our Mother, the
Earth.
The from ancient Persia. The symbols on the
lion derives
hill are based on frescoes uncovered in the Cretan palace of
Knossos. The figure 8 (based on Cretan shields) contains a
cocoon-like form. The flames around it suggest the cocoon
bursting open, even though this has not yet happened. As the
first card of the second line the card of Strength promises that

self-discovery will bring forth a new

the butterfly
life, like
emerging from the 'death' of the caterpillar. The images along
the bottom of the card symbolize the elements of the physical
world. The pink sky filled with stars gives us an image of
spiritual truth.
Ifthe Chariot indicates victory over the outer concerns of
life, Strength takes us to a fresh beginning. Its female lion

shows us a strength that can be fierce and gentle all at once

(the female lion both hunts and cares for her cubs).
Uncontrolled, she reminds us that our natural state is free and
expansive. She extends a paw forward to a new beginning,
while looking back to her past experiences. This theme of
balancing the past and future becomes more explicit in Justice.
In most Tarot decks. Justice is card 8, and Strength is 11. 1 have

43
followed the example of the Golden Dawn and Rider Tarots
in making Strength number 8.

Upright
Inner strength, belief, personal power, confidence. Gentle
firmness.

Reversed
Feeling weak, mistrustful of your own power. Confusion. Need
to believe in yourself and find the basic qualities which will
give you confidence.

The Hermit
He climbs hills at evening.
He calls out to the Moon.
He steps through the doorway.
He finds the old lantern.

The of the Major Arcana set up

first line 9
I

a sexual polarity in the male Magician and

female High Priestess. The second line reverses this with a
female Strength and a male Hermit. This is not a simple
turnaround, for the lion exemplifies traditional masculine
qualities, while the Hermit withdraws from masculine striving
to find a feminine inner peace and wisdom. Traditionally, the
number 9 belongs to the Moon Goddess, for it is 3 x 3. In
the Tarot the Moon is 18, and 1+8
= 9.
Most versions of this card show a wise old man standing on
a peak and holding a lantern, the light of wisdom. Here we
see a semi-abstract figure joyously mounting the hill, a seeker
after enlightenment. Bird-headed, to symbolize his ascent to
the spirit world, he carries a staff with a woman's head carved
at the top, to symbolize his trust in the Goddess. The staff was
inspired by a ceremonial staff from Angola, while the form of

44
the Hermit derives from a style of rock art found in many
lands, especially the desert areas of Africa and Australia.
The curved hill, the tree with its upraised branches, and the
Sun shining at the top together form the glyph for Shining
Woman. We see the same image in the Hermit himself, and
in the purple flower on the side of the hill. Though the Sun
shines, the grey sky of evening tells us that the Hermit has
turned away from the outer world, the bright simplicity of the
Sun, to seek the inner mysteries of the Moon. Within the hill,
the tortoise, upholder of the world, begins a journey from the
Sun to the Moon. The lower Sun, for the lower world, is
darker than the Sun in the sky.
The journey to self-knowledge involves sadness as well as
joy. The nine branches on the tree connect the card to the
9 of Trees, with its painful confrontations. Nevertheless, the
Hermit eagerly accepts whatever he will learn on his inner
journey.
A dark doorway opens in the air. It leads to the 'astral' world,
an inner reality found through meditation. Occult tradition
teaches us that entering the astral level allows us to create
reality out of thought, even to leave behind artefacts for others
to find. Beyond the doorway waits the lantern, a gift from
previous Hermits the journey before him. On
who have made
a more mundane symbolizes the wisdom of
level the lantern
all those teachers who have given up the concerns of daily life

to find truth on the spiritual path.

Upright
Withdrawal from ordinary things, a quest for inner truth, a
time to be alone, exploration of self. Mature acceptance of life.

Reversed
Need to be with others. Looking outward. Action rather than
contemplation. Sometimes immaturity.

45
The Spiral Of Fortune
It spins like the Sun.
It shines in the waters.
It springs past the darkness.
It calls to the children.

The traditional card 10 the Wheel of

is l"*'^ o"^*^***l
Fortune, showing an ever-turning wheel
symbolizing the idea of life as a closed circle, carrying us
upwards for the first half of our lives and down to death for
the second. Many people also have seen the Wheel of Fortune
as the Great Wheel of reincarnation and karma, an endless
cycle of experience which continues until we know the truth
and liberate ourselves from rebirth.
Shining Woman Tarot replaces the closed wheel with a spiral.
The image derives from a rock carving in Nine Mile Canyon,
Utah. The red spiral goes round and round within the blue
circle. Red here symbolizes life and all its experiences, while
blue represents the great sea of existence, the underlying
formlessness of the cosmos. Through spiritual teachings and
in meditation we glimpse this sea, we perceive that all the
myriad details of the physical world and daily experience
simply float on the waters of a deep reality. This is the
understanding which the Hermit seeks and finds.
The Spiral of Fortune, then, comes to the Hermit as a vision.
It nourishes us as we follow the path of self-knowledge, it
prepares us to face the following trump. Justice - recognition
of the truth of our lives. Having seen the Spiral vision we can
look at ourselves without fear.
Acircle of purple light surrounds the blue sea. The closed
circle symbolizes the limits of the known universe. The spiral
goes beyond this limit, showing us that we can break open our
repetitive patterns. Outside the circle the spiral becomes the
neck and then the head o{ a bird. When we take new actions,
or change the way we have always looked at ourselves, we
become conscious, almost for the first time. Two faint dots

46
appear in the centre of the circle, like eyes symbolizing the
possibility of self-awareness which will take form in the bird's
head. The theme of eyes continues in Justice.
The four small circles symbolize the four worlds of
Kabbalah. Kabbalah teaches that the world emerged from
God in stages. The movement here goes from upper right to
upper left, to lower right to lower left.
Look at the spiral inside the circle. Stare at it. You may find
that the blue begins to shimmer, or that the red vibrates with
energy. When this happens, allow your eye to move up to
where the spiral breaks free. Let yourself experience that
freedom in your own body.

Upright
Breaking out of old patterns, change that liberates. Gaining
a wider vision.

Reversed
Repetition, security, staying with known situations.

Justice
(dedicated to Tana Dineen)

She sits in the smoke.

She whispers her secrets.

She stares at her children.

She throws the old stones.

As trump 11, Justice sits in the centre of

the Major Arcana. It represents the truth
of who we really are, what we have made of our lives, and the
need to take responsibility for creating our own future. Self-
knowledge brings liberation from fear, and guilt, and passivity.
All of us contain qualities and memories we do not wish to

47
acknowledge. Jung called this dark side of ourselves the
shadow, and showed us how it can rule our lives if we do not
acknowledge it. Looking at this card, psychologist and Tarot
teacher Tana Dineen named her Shadow Woman, a fitting
name for a figure halfway to Shining Woman.
The image comes from a stone given to me by a student of
Dr Dineen. The stone contained the hint of a face, which I
have brought out, and the suggestion of a child clinging to the
woman's side. Sitting in her smoky cave, she also represents
the oracle at Delphi, in ancient Greece. The temple of Apollo
at Delphi bore the words 'Know yourself. Above the ground
we see two pillars; multi-patterned, they signify the variety of
experience. A single eye shines between them. In Justice we
look at ourselves with complete honesty. The person who
came to Delphi purified himself in a spring. The river at the
base of the card signifies memory, and the truth, which flows
and shifts. The path resembles the snake on the High Priestess
card. The original Delphic oracle contained serpents sacred to
the Goddess. The serpent's bite, along with the powerful
vapours, may have produced visions.
The faces on either side of the cave derive from Australian
Aboriginal 'child germs', faces painted on rocks to symbolize
the souls of unborn children. Here, the figures on the left
represent our past experiences which have set into the rock
of our history, while the faces on the right signify our future
possibilities which have not yet emerged.
The usual image of Justice holds a scale with balanced pans.
Here we see two pans on the ground. The pebbles inside and
around them suggest divination by casting stones. We see five
in each pan, the four physical elements plus the spirit element
of 'ether'. The pans are in harmony with each other. Justice
balances past and future, our actions and the actions of other
people, opportunities and responsibilities. The discarded
stones teach us that we must weigh our experiences, look
carefully and honestly at our lives.

48
upright
Honesty, self-knowledge, commitment to truth. Fair
treatment, a just outcome in legal situations.

Reversed
Avoiding truth, projecting problems onto others, something
we do not wish to see. Possibly, unjust treatment.

The Hanged Woman

She plays with the angels.
She climbs the tall branches.
She rests on the water.
She listens for laughter.

The earliest Tarot decks bear very little I

resemblance to the classic Tarot of

Marseilles. At the other end of the Tarot's evolution, many
modern decks have changed virtually all the images. And yet,
trump 12, the Hanged Man, instantly stands out from every
deck. Though I have changed the figure to a woman and
added details, this central image remains. The Hanged Woman
is so compelling because she shows us the Tarot's great 'secret'.

We achieve genuine independence when we attach ourselves

to the rhythms of the universe.
In the number 12 we find the reverse of 21, and if we turn
the Hanged Woman around we will see her strong resemblance
to Shining Woman. She hangs from the Tree o{ Life, its roots
in the formless sea (remember the Chariot), its branches in the
heavenly stars. Her red body symbolizes vitality, while her
golden hair signifies revelation. Some Kabbalists give the
meaning of water to this card. Having accepted Justice, we
become willing to dissolve the artificial barriers between
ourselves and the rest of existence. Trump 12 comes below 5,
Tradition. There we saw the idea of protective spirits who

49
maintain the world. Here we show our surrender to that
spiritual power.
Surrender is not solemn or grim. It is playful, joyous. And
so we see a kind of children's version of the card, with the Sun
and Moon as toys hanging from the tree, a miniature Noah's
Ark flying a lunar flag, an angel reading a letter or a book,
even a city, for the Tree of Life contains many regions and
experiences. At the upper right we see a Goddess figure,
reminiscent of the so-called 'Venus' of Willendorf, the world's
oldest known sculpture (approximately 30,000 years old). A
multi-coloured fish leaps from the water, recalling the High
Priestess as well as Tradition.
The
reversed posture figures in various spiritual disciplines,
notably yoga, where practitioners stand on their head. For
men, this originally involved the idea that semen would travel
up the spine to the brain and bring revelation. For the Hanged
Woman the change is less physical, more symbolic of reversed
values. The milk of her breasts will flow down to the sea,
signifying that of us, men as well as women, experience true
all

joy when we nourish the world around us.

Upright
Attachment to what truly matters. Inner peace. Independence
from public opinion or pressure from others (especially when
joined with the Fool). Reversal of previous ideas, sometimes
the need to sacrifice or give something up.

Reversed
Concern for other people's judgement, difficulty in
connecting with what really matters to you. Need to find peace
through attachment to spiritual sources.

50
Death
She flings up the lid.

She plucks all the flowers.

She swims in the evening.

She rests in the sunshine.

The image of this Goddess of Death

derives from a gold belt buckle found in
France and dated to the sixth or seventh century CE. We find
this connection of a fish and a death Goddess in many
cultures. The fish swimming in the sea becomes the symbol
of the soul returning to the Great Mother. The Hebrew letter
for this card, Nun, means 'fish'.

At the same time, the fish suggests rebirth, for it recalls the
foetus in the waters of thewomb. And so the Death Goddess
becomes the Mother, even the Goddess of Love, the different
aspects united by water and the fish. Aphrodite, Goddess of
Love emerged from the sea. Various texts suggest her role as
a Death Goddess. The Sanskrit term for 'Goddess of Love'
literally means 'she who has a fish as her emblem'. Remember
that trump 13, Death, comes below 6, the Lovers. Both cards
involve the surrender of ego. Orgasm has sometimes been
called 'the little death'.

The theme of rebirth is echoed in the butterfly on Death's

robe. As we saw in Strength the butterfly symbolizes dying as
one form and emerging as another. In trump 8 we saw the
cocoon as a promise of transformation. Here the promise is
fulfilled. A can only crawl slowly on the ground.
caterpillar
A butterfly dashes freely through the air.
We also see the idea of rebirth in the red robe. In many lands,
people buried the skeleton (see the 5 of Birds) with the legs
curled up like a foetus and the bones painted red to symbolize
new life. The green outline around her robe also signifies life,
while the purple indicates wisdom. The golden globes at her
hands indicate the radiant Sun of spiritual truth.
Behind Death we see a box with multi-coloured streamers

51
pouring out. At the top of one streamer we see a face, golden,
with red hair. The box recalls the myth of Pandora. In its late
Classical version a foolish girlopened the box and released evil
into the world. Her name, however, means 'all-giver' and
originally signified the Goddess of Earth. Here, the box
symbolizes the confinements of ego and rigid thinking. Death
opens the box and liberates the souls into a new existence. The
bird on the box unfurls its wings. The dove was the companion
of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, while in the story of Noah a
dove signals the discovery of land reborn from the flood.

Upright
Death does not indicate someone dying. Instead, it signifies
the death of old patterns or worn-out behaviour. It implies
radical change and trust in the future.

Reversed
Resistance to change. Clinging to old ways. Refusal to
recognize that something is finished. Alternatively, the new
life that comes after we have already 'died'.

Temperance
He juggles the waters.
He stands in the river.

He drinks rain in the morning.

When the outer reality dies, the inner

radiance emerges. We see an angel, serene
and powerful, whose giant wings stretch
off the card. He stands in the heavenly
water, whose waves and currents contain a star as well as fish.
The star tells us that this is more than the water of emotion
or the unconscious. It is the sea of being, which we have
glimpsed in such cards as the Chariot and the Hanged
Woman.
52
 The Chariot celebrates the victory of will. shows us a
It

dynamic active figure. The is one

Victory' in the second line
of surrender and attachment. And so we see an image of calm
and confidence. Many people who first meet the Tarot find
Temperance boring. It seems to urge caution, even timidity.
Sometimes they will prefer the Devil, finding there a fearsome
excitement. And yet, Temperance has never been weak. It does
show us avoiding extremes and combining different elements
of life. But this middle way emerges from serenity, not
repression.
Echoing the Suns on the hands of death we see concentric
circles of energy over the hands o( the angel. Their light and
dark colours represent the duality we first saw in the separate
figures of the Magician and the High Priestess. A green river
flows back and forth between them. Having surrendered to life
and passed death, we combine the different qualities of action
and stillness, rationality and intuition, masculine and
feminine.
The angel's robe flows like water, like rain, for he does not
keep himself rigid and separate from nature. Asoft light fills
the sky, indicating his serene radiance. At the top of the card,
and reaching beyond the picture, concentric circles of gold
and red pulse with energy.
The fish on the left, swimming to the right, echoes the fish
on the High Priestess. On the right, and moving left, we see
a fish with its bones visible. This 'X-ray' style of art appears
in shamanic cultures, where the shaman sees into the essence
of reality. The central part of the skeleton forms the glyph for
Shining Woman.
Temperance is card 14. Each suit contains 14 cards.
Therefore, we can look at the four suits as four ways of
achieving the peace and harmony of the fourteenth trump.

Upright
Balance, finding the middle way, avoiding extremes. Calm and
serenity, power without aggression. Caution.

53
Reversed
Recklessness,moving from one extreme to another. Along
with the Fool, reversed Temperance may urge us to take a
chance.

The Devil
He leans in the doorway.
He turns out the lights.
He whistles in cellars.
He calls to his children.

If we think of the Major Arcana as a

sequence, trump 15 raises questions. Why
does the Devil appear so late? Why does it come immediately
after the seeming fulfilment of Temperance? And why does it
begin the final line of seven trumps?
We can think of several possibilities. The Devil represents
the darkest side of ourselves, the areas we do not wish to
acknowledge. We need to reach the level of Temperance before
we can face the hidden desires and fears symbolized by the
Devil.
There another answer. Temperance shows us genuine
is

freedom. Such openness can become frightening. Perhaps we

hide ourselves in the hard layers of the Devil to escape from
free will.
The card is jagged, almost abstract. The doorways and the
Devil stand on barren rock, with frozen faces hidden in the
folds of stone. Compared to the glyph for Shining Woman,
he presses his arms against his sides. And yet he shows a
certain seductiveness, for that suppressed energy builds power,
especially sexual power. The Devil is 15, and 1 + 5 = 6, the
Lovers. In a repressed, distorted culture, sexuality can become
twisted, so that manypeople find themselves attracted to
brutal images, and lovers who despise or abuse them.
He stands in darkness, a symbol of fear rather than the
54
radiance oi the unconscious. In occult tradition those who
seek in meditation to enter the inner temple must first face
a fearsome demon called the Guardian at the Threshold, lb
pass this being we need to recognize its essential illusion. The
Guardian takes form from our own fears and unrecognized
desires.
The distorted layers actually contain symbols of health.
Beyond the dark we see a purple doorway, partly covered over
with jagged black. The colour suggests wisdom hidden when
we overcome our own Devil. We then find green for the
promise of life if we can transform the repressed energy. In the
outer doorway we see flowers and stars and the waves of
the sea, all in rough symbolic form. All these things promise
wonders if we can tap the hidden power. In the green layer
we find a sword, symbol of violence. And yet the light purple
blade suggests hidden wisdom if we overcome the violence in
our own psyche. We see the same colour in the figure on the
bottom left signifying the possibility of new consciousness.
Outside the doorway, lightning builds up in the dark sky.
Repression builds up energy which can explode disastrously -
or bring revelation.

Upright
Suppressed energy, denial of problems. Obsessions, especially
sexual. Illusions and oppression. Desire, seductiveness.

Reversed
Release of energy, seeing through illusions. Overcoming
oppression, freedom.

55
The Tower
She shouts with the thunder.
She dances in fire.

She grabs hold of the dirt.

trump shows two people

Traditionally, this
thrown from a tower destroyed by
I
lightning. Here we see an image of ecstasy,
with a dancer on top of the tower, aiid a
Shining Woman glyph in the Earth below. The two figures
restore the balance of inner truth and outer experience. The
arms of the Shining Woman reach into darkness, for she has
faced the depths of the Devil.
The card shows an upheaval. Lightning strikes the tower,
even the woman. The tower burns. The stars are rough,
irregular, with geometric faces inside recalling the faces in
Justice. At the end of the line Shining Woman will shine so
freely because she has faced her own Devil and burned it up
in the Tower.
Revelation does not come gently, nor does the mask of the
High Priestess melt gradually away. The Christian Bible tells
of Paul struck by lightning on the road to Damascus, and how
it changed him utterly. From Tibet we hear stories of disciples

meditating for years only to receive enlightenment when

struck on the head by their teacher.
While the flames rise up to the spirit world, the blue triangle
points down into the unconscious. At the same time, the
symbols within that triangle speak of uniting the different
worlds. Shining Woman is essentially a symbol of conscious-
ness. The three roundels, taken from Australian Aboriginal
painting, here symbolize three states of being - our existence
before birth, our life in this world, and our souls after death.
The red lines connecting them are the rivers of birth and death.
The ladders leading to the stars are a common shamanic
image. Shamans sometimes will carry actual ladders, which
they will symbolically mount to heaven during their ecstatic

56
trances. The stars, and the faces emerging from them, point
to the next card.
16 reduces to 1 + 6 = 7, the Chariot. The Chariot carries
the quality of human speech, which allows us to construct the
world and the self as masks. Here we see Godspeech, the
lightning of revelation. God speaks to us in stories and images,
and so we see picture-writing on the sides of the hill (see the
Knower of Birds for the creation of writing out o{ images and
prophecy). On the left the writing forms actual sentences, a
prayer to the Goddess. The sentences are vertical. The left
column reads, 'Blessed is the Mother who has given us shape'.
The middle reads 'Blessed is the breath of her sky', and the
right 'Blessed is the beat of her Earth'. The glyphs on the right
of the triangle form a progression of ideas. The top image
represents the underlying patterns of existence. The second,
a Tree of Life, indicates the cosmos in all its wondrous reality.
The eye symbolizes revelation, while the hand signifies action.

Upright
Upheaval, breakthroughs, revelation. Dramatic, possibly
violent change. Overwhelming or ecstatic experience.

Reversed
Less extreme change. Resisting a breakthrough. Holding on to
old structures.

The Star
(dedicated to Maria Fernandez)

She walks among flowers.

She waters the garden.
She sings to her mother.

She shines for her children.

57
After the upheavals of the Tower we find the gentle peace of
the Star. The point of revelation is not to experience extreme
situations, but to reach a greater harmony.
The Star maiden is the Goddess Persephone, from the
ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries of life and death. In the
myth, Persephone was gathering flowers when Hades, Lord of
the Dead, kidnapped her for his wife. Her mother, Demeter
(whose name means Grain-Mother) turned the world barren
in her anger. Finally, the Gods ordered Hades to send
Persephone back. But there were changes. Persephone did not
return simply as a daughter, but as Queen of the Dead, wife
of Hades. Because she had tasted a pomegranate seed during
her time in the underworld, she must return to the
underworld every year for three months. And the final
change, Demeter did not simply restore the grain, but taught
agriculture to humans.
In terms of the Star card, this tells us that we must learn
from our Tower experiences. Td work with the Tarot, to go into
our own darkness and emerge, these are equivalent to
Persephone tasting the seed in the land of the dead (some
versions of the High Priestess display pomegranates on the
curtain veiling her mysteries). She gains wisdom and so can
never return wholly to being who she was. At the moment
of return, the Star tells us to commit ourselves to life. Behind
Persephone we see a locked gate to the underworld (in Crete,
on the last day of the Mysteries, I tried to visit a prehistoric
cemetery. The entrance was locked, with two wildly barking
dogs guarding the path).
At the end of the Mysteries, in which people had celebrated
both the rebirth of the Earth and the promise of their own
eternal life, the celebrants viewed an ear of grain. They then
returned to the light where they poured water into two cracks
in the Earth. This last action links the Mysteries directly to
the Star, whose traditional image shows a woman pouring
water from two gourds, an action symbolic of open emotions,
and confidence that life will never empty us out.
The Empress represents the Great Mother. The Star, in the
same position in the final group of seven, signifies the

58
Daughter who has found her own sense of self. And yet, this
very individuality allows her to return to oneness with the
Goddess. In the Eleusinian Mysteries, all the celebrants, men
as well as women, became Demeter (a Roman emperor
received the official 'Goddess' because he had been
title

initiated at Eleusis). Midway between the Empress and the

Star, we find the Spiral, taking us beyond our known
experience into the mysteries of existence.

Upright
Optimism, hope, return. Harmony between people, especially
parents and children. New life in a situation, wisdom,
individuality.

Reversed
Need to shake off negativity, and blocks to hope.

The Moon
She lets loose her arrows.
She unfolds her wings.
She speaks to the creatures.

She sweetens the evening.

If the Star is Persephone, the Moon

belongs to Artemis/Diana, ancient
Goddess of the Moon, the wilderness and childbirth. Goddess
of the Hunt, Artemis, like her brother Apollo (the Sun), was
an archer, and so we see the crescent Moon as a bow, the stars
as the string, and lightning as the arrow drawn across the full
Moon face. The arrow about to fly does not signal death, but
rather inspiration, for the Moon is the realm of imagination.
Imagination as life, as our basic energy transformed into
images, dreams, fantasies. The strange half-light of the Moon
shows us the unconscious emerging into consciousness.

59
 Below the Moon we see the mountain formation known as
Winged Artemis. The wings of the side mountains spread j
protectively around the central hill, for even though the lunar *
territory can be dangerous, or fearsome, the Moon promises
peace if we surrender to the experience.
The central rock derives from the backstone of a passage
we find a vulva image, promising
grave in France. In the centre
new life. The hooks resemble the Hebrew letter Yod, found on
many versions of the Moon as a symbol of healing and grace.
The concentric arcs in the ground are inspired by Australian
imagery, and by carvings at graves and stone circles in Ireland
and Brittany. Some believe such arcs trace lunar patterns over
time, and thus form astronomical markings. The suggestion
of lunar patterns reminds us of the Moon's link to
menstruation, tides, and thus the basic rhythms of nature.
The spider-like fantasy creature at the bottom of the card
resembles the crab or crayfish found on many versions of the
Moon. Its pincer claws suggest the dreams that grab us as we
wake from a deep sleep. They also hint at the powerful images
of myth, for we might describe myth as a communal dream.
Many people try to explain dreams and myths. Books tell us
how to control or program our dreams, how to make them
work for us. In the Moon card we remember that dreams lose
their power when we try to explain them in the solar light of
consciousness.
The Moon sometimes frightens us, for it touches something
deep and primal. Tarot Kabbalists assign the Hebrew letter
Kaph to this card. Kaph means 'back of the head' and implies
the pre-human layers of the brain, behind the cerebral cortex.
In this part of the brain animals howl at the Moon, and
strange creatures crawl halfway out of the waters only to sink
back again before daylight. The Moon tells us to accept the
power and strangeness of our own imaginations.

Upright
Mystery, inner journeys, dreams, creative impulse. Strange I
experiences, sometimes fear, even madness (lunacy). Female
power, especially the rhythms of menstruation.

60
Reversed
Resisting the Moon power of imagination or deep body
rhythms. Alternatively, a need to move towards solar
consciousness.

The Sun
He roars in the morning.
He heats up the waters.
He fires the ovens.

He opens the flowers.

In the Tower we danced ecstatically with

revelations. In the Star we experienced the
peace oi returning from the underworld. The Moon took us
on a journey through the halflight of dreams and mystery. In
the Sun we emerge into the light. At night, under the stars,
we feel a remoteness. When the full Moon shines we feel
inspired. We may dance, or howl. In the light of day, the
ordinary world restores itself. Just as when the dawn comes,
everything becomes clear.
The Moon waxes and wanes, changing shape, dying and
being reborn. The Sun remains constant, only changing its
path through the sky, and then at a much slower rhythm. The
Hebrew letter for this card, Resh, means 'head', and just as
many commentators connect the Moon to the limbic system,
seat o{ animal instincts, so the Sun symbolizes the cerebral
cortex, centre of human consciousness.
The Sunwheel on the card derives from a Native American
rock carving from Klikitat County, Columbia River,
Washington. The layers of colour suggest a pulsating
movement through conscious and unconscious energy to
emerge into life. That is, the orange gives way to blue, then
turquoise, then green and brown, the colours of growth. At
the centre we see a partial circle of purple, with a keyhole-

61
shaped opening. Purple signifies spiritual wisdom, the source
of the Sun's energy.
The concentric circles recall the Spiral of Fortune, and in
fact, the Sun number 19 reduces to 10 (1 + 9 = 10). There,
we broke loose from our limited understanding to discover a
greater universe than we had thought possible. Here, we find
the power at the centre o{ our lives. We can also describe 19
as a higher level of 9. In the Hermit we turned away from the
Sun to discover our own inner worlds. Now we discover the
light which shines both within us and in the bright universe
of the physical world.
Just as 19 reduces to 10, so 10 reduces to 1, the Magician.
With that card we spoke of solar consciousness, as opposed
to the inward looking mysteries o{ the High Priestess. Now,
having passed through the Tower, we have overcome the
illusions of opposites. The Sun shines outward, yet carries an
inner quality. At the bottom of the Magician card we saw two
Shining Woman figures, one light, one dark. Here they have
come together, joining hands (traditional versions o{ the Sun
often show a boy and girl holding hands in a garden).
The bull above the Sunwheel hints at the same union of
opposites as the glyphs joining hands. The bull epitomizes
masculine energy (as in the Emperor card). At the same time,
a schematic bull's head, seen from the front, exactly matches
the shape of the uterus and fallopian tubes (particularly when
a woman is lying down). Many ancient Goddess shrines show
bulls' heads painted or sculpted onto the walls.

Upright
Simplicity, optimism, joy. Relief after a time of struggle. Energy
and excitement. Friendship, especially between men and
women.

Reversed
Clouded optimism. A need to be more positive in a difficult
situation.

62
Awakening
They rush from their houses.
They stop all the traffic.
They shout from the windows.
They build homes for their
neighbours.

The traditional name for this card is

Judgement. The standard image shows a

man, a woman and a child rising from coffins (often the coffins
float on the sea) while the angel Gabriel blows his horn. The
scene is a popular view of the Last Judgement prophesied in
the Christian Bible. Rather than the idea of judgement, most
commentators have emphasized the promise of resurrection,
which is, in fact, what the traditional Tarot scene shows.
Significantly, this card comes below the Lovers and Death, so
we see a progression from a small ego death in sex, to a
surrender of old ways in the card of Death, to the new life
implied in an image of rebirth.
Rather than a Christian image, Awakening shows three
Shining Woman glyphs and a birdlike spirit in an urban
setting. In the Magician card we saw a dying city with the
promise that the shaman-like Magician would restore it. Here
we see a city alive. The 22 windows, one for each card of the
Major Arcana, glow with golden light. The head of the spirit
shines with 22 rays.
What restores the city is the life energy of a spirituality based
on the Earth, and personal experience of the sacred. Because
shamanism and ancient traditions have inspired this new
consciousness, we think of it as a return of old ways. A return
of shamanism. Areturn of the Goddess. We might think of
it more as a turn of a spiral (20 is 2 times 10, the Spiral of

Fortune). While we learn from the past, and from the living
traditions of other peoples, only our own creation, based in
the psychological outlook of our culture, can truly bring us
back to life.

63
 In psychological terms resurrection means to move from a
fragmented state to a state of wholeness. From isolation to
unity with others. In the Magician we saw two separated
Shining Woman glyphs reach towards each other. In the Sun
they joined hands. Here we see a feminine and a masculine
version of this figure, and in between them a child. When
opposites join together they create something new and
wonderful.
The three celebrate the spirit who fills their world with life-

giving joy. Together they rise from the underworld, just as

Persephone rose with her beacon o{ hope in the Star. Here,
hope fulfils itself. This is a card of realization, of the actual
experience of seeing the world in a new way, of an action or
a moment that changes every detail of a person's life.
The urban setting, and the presence of a family, implies
responsibility to others. When we Awaken we understand our
connections: to the Earth, to people around us, to our society,
and to the web of life which is breathing, sleeping and waking,
all across our world.

Upright
Transformation. A moment, possibly an event, that brings to
life a change which has built up over a long period of time.
Joining with others. Responsibility.

Reversed
Denying a change which has already taken place. Hesitation.
Getting in your own way. A need for confidence, a promise
of success.

64
Shining Woman
She knows all the stories.

She gives shelter to turtles.

She opens her arms.

She shimmers with laughter.

The Fool flew towards the mountains.

Instead of a place, however, her journey
ends in her own perfection. In cultures as different as the
Aztecs, the Jains of India and the medieval Jews, we find the
idea of the cosmos as a single perfect being -
a Goddess, or a God, or simply a human. Often, the myths
picture a Goddess whose body breaks apart (sometimes her
brothers murder her) to form all the bits and pieces of
existence. In other traditions, the perfect being becomes the
ultimate goal of creation. In Kabbalah, the original cosmos
broke apart, and now each of us bears the responsibility to
restore it to wholeness (see the 9 of Rivers). And so, Shining
Woman, the cosmos restored, follows Awakening. The
traditional name for this card, the World, implies its truth -
that each of us contains the universe.
She dances on one foot, her posture recalling the Hanged
Woman (21 is 12 reversed). She holds out her arms joyously, one
hand dark, for unconscious life energy, the other bright, for

perfect awareness. Her arms bear double-headed snakes,

symbol of awareness that moves freely between all ways of
being. The bird of instinct, which the Fool followed as
something outside the self, now appears above the heart. The
double spirals on her breasts derive from the path the Sun takes
through the course of a year (for information on this pattern,
see The Stars and the Stones by Martin Brennan, or my own book
on the body of the Goddess). They also signify evolution, and
further, the many spiritual traditions, prehistoric and living,
which have taken the spiral as a symbol of life.

The images of myth appear within her body, for the cosmos
contains the imagination as well as the material universe. We
65
 and the turtle, slow-moving
see the fish, creature of the soul,
symbol of the world's endurance. And we see stone circles and
tombs, the form on the bottom recalling both ancient
Goddess temples and the Christian cross.
In Awakening we saw the illusory opposites of male and
female join together to create a new being, a child. Tarot
tradition often describes card 21, the World, as an
hermaphrodite, having both male and female organs. On
Shining Woman we see a phallic Tree of Life rising from the
female vulva, which itself joins light and darkness. We
described the Fool as androgynous, having both male and
female qualities. An androgyne suggests potential devel-
opment in all directions. The hermaphrodite symbolizes
fulfilment.
She dances in a void. Beyond her, beyond the emptiness
pulsing with her own light, we see waves of energy. They fill
the four corners of the card. They symbolize the inexpressible
mystery beyond even the totality of Shining Woman. Now
move your attention away from the woman herself, or the
energy lines, to the white space between them. Notice how the
whiteness also forms an image of a dancing figure with its arms
out (this may be easier to see if you hold the card away from
you). This blank form may carry the true meaning of
perfection.

Upright
Success, wholeness, recognition of your own power,
recognition of the sacred roots of your own being.

Reversed
Denying your own power, accepting less than what is possible
for you. A promise of success when you are ready to accept it.

66
PART 2
 Minor Arcana

Since serious study of the Tarot began, most attention has

been directed at unlocking the secrets of the Major Arcana.
Most commentaries have explored the symbolism of the
trumps while ignoring the Minor Arcana completely or fitting
it in at the end with only a few phrases. Usually these phrases

have dealt with fortune-telling ('a journey by water' or *a

mysterious message'), creating the impression that the Minor
cards deal with trivia compared to the lofty truths of the
Major.
The Minor Arcana is more than a collection of predictive
formulas. While it lacks the Major's grand vision, it shows us
something just as valuable - the wondrous variety of life on
all its many levels. It shows us nature, love, anger, grief, joy,
work, commitment, fear, confidence. And it shows us all of
these in relation to each other, how one experience or attitude
influences another, how people's actions change the lives of
those around them. It reminds us that life takes many forms
and teaches many lessons, and that no path is ever the final
one, or the only path possible. The Minor Arcana shows us
our choices.
The Major Arcana presents us with a vision of spiritual
development. It teaches a lesson about how we achieve
understanding. It creates its own myth. This vision can give
the trumps an almost single-minded quality. They turn and
dance and twist back on themselves (going, for instance, from
Temperance to the Devil), but they always keep their goal,
their ultimate destination.

69
 The Minor is freer. It delights in the world, in the
all

possibilities o( life. If the Major represents spirit which seeks

to rise upwards to unity with the cosmos, then the Minor gives
voice to the soul which goes down into experience, which
rejoices in variety and change. The Minor reminds us that all
our struggles and satisfactions, our desires and loves, our anger
and hope, create depth and meaning as they play and dance
in and around each other.
The Minor Arcana lies in the valleys over which the Fool
flies. She does not fly straight to the distant mountains. If only

the Major existed, the Fool might follow such a direct route.
Because of the Minor she descends. Possibly she never will
reach the mountains, for in fact, most of us will go through
many lifetimes before we reach enlightenment. And even that
formulation comes from the Major, which assumes life must
have an ultimate purpose. In the valleys of the Minor Arcana,
life does not have to have a goal, and experience does not have

to teach us any lessons outside itself.

Yet none of this means Minor Arcana takes us away

that the
from the sacred. After all, the valleys on the Fool card contain
the dolmen, the stone circle, the lines of energy. The Minor
Arcana helps us see that we can find the sacred in the ordinary
moments of existence. At any instant our daily lives may open
to the underworld of dreams, myths and desire. Or reveal to
us the spirit world of perfected knowledge. The Minor Arcana
reminds us that the Tree of Life may send its roots into the
dark waters and extend its branches among the stars, but its
trunk grows through this world that we move through as we
go to work, or make love, or worry about our children.
The pictures in Shining Woman Tarot have emerged from
encounters with sacred images, world mythology and
experiences in different countries. At the same time, they grow
out of Tarot tradition. In some cards (for example, the 2 of
Birds) a completely new picture will convey a theme from older
Tarot decks. In a few cases (the 9 of Stones, the 3 o{ Birds) the
picture was inspired by the classic Rider deck of Pamela
Colman Smith. Where the cards do refer to older versions,
they also go beyond them, in a kind of dialogue with Tarot

70
tradition. For example, in a number of Tarot decks the 5 of
Swords depicts an image of defeat and humiliation. The
Shining Woman 5 of Birds shows us how we can go beyond
shame to get back our power.
The Minor Arcana follows the four elements. This means
that each of the suits expresses a particular type of energy. The
individual cards show the variety of ways we experience that
energy in our lives. The correlations run as follows:

Trees - Fire (traditional Wands)

Rivers - Water (traditional Cups)
Birds - Air (traditional Swords)
Stones - Earth (traditional Pentacles)

The use of natural symbols over human-made objects (such

as cups or swords) shifts the emphasis from human society to
our place in nature. However, the cards do not dismiss
civilization. As humans we transform nature through art and
cultural traditions. A number of the Minor cards depict art
inspired by nature. In both the Ace and the 10 of Birds we
see human pictures of birds. The Gift of Birds is, in fact, art.
And in the 6 of Stones we see how images on rocks may have
inspired the first artists who then went beyond naturalism to
create visions of ecstasy.
The usual suit emblems have not disappeared entirely. In
slightly different form they return as the four Gifts. Wands and
Cups appear as the stick on the Gift of Trees and the bowl
on the Gift of Rivers. While we see a rock instead of a Pentacle
for Stones, the rock connects us with the ancient Goddess,
as does the Pentacle symbol (and enough decks have changed
Pentacles to Stones to make this a modern 'tradition'). The
only emblem I have changed totally is the Sword into the flute.
Air symbolizes the mind, and while the human mind has
certainly given us great empires built on weapons technology
it has also given us that unique human activity, art. The flute

also links mind very directly with birds; just as the first drum
imitated the heartbeat, so the first flutes (among the earliest
artefacts) imitated the songs of birds.
In the section for each suit we will look at its special

71
qualities. Here we can list them quickly for comparison. Trees
show They give us images
us Fire rooted in living creatures.
of connectedness, growth, optimism and joy. Rivers depict
emotion, journeys, change and joining with others, in love or
friendship. Birds bring us inspiration, conflict, ideas, dreams,
pain, anger and prophecy. Because of the link birds have
always had with the Gods, the suit of Birds connects us most
strongly with the Major Arcana. Stones show connections to
the Earth, nurturing, security, work, discipline and the link
between nature and spiritual traditions.
Some Tarot decks organize the Minor cards very carefully
by number. In other words, just as each suit represents special
qualities, so does each number, and the meaning of the card
derives from the combination of the number and the suit.
Shining Woman Tarot does not follow such a strict plan. There
are links between the same number in the different suits, but
they are more subtle, for the meanings emerge from the images
and not the other way around. For instance, all the twos show
a resolution of the tension created by opposition. In the
optimistic suit of Trees this becomes a breakthrough, with the
two trees acting more as partners than opponents. In the Birds
suit, which deals with conflict, we find the emphasis on the
tension. They do not notice the unconscious energy which
binds them together. Rivers and Stones are quieter and more
gentle than the other two suits, so we find images of yin and
yang, active and quiet, blended together. Since Stones are
hard, and fixed, the 2 of Stones gives us the choice, one state
or the other (depending on whether we view the card right
side up or reversed). Rivers, however, flow, and so we see the
two fish swimming around each other.
Here is a brief description of the themes in various numbers:

1 basic power of the element

2 resolution of tensions
3 harmony
4 celebration of life's gifts

5 inner healing
6 power of the unconscious

72
 7 exploration of inner and outer territory
8 movement, release of energy
9 sadness, overcoming sorrow
10 fulfilment

As well as their particular qualities, the suits belong to

all

seasons of the year. Trees are Spring, when the buds open with
new life. Rivers belong to Summer, when we swim in the
waters. Birds are Fall, when the migrating birds inspire diviners
with their patterns across the sky. And Stones bring us
Winter, when the land lies barren as the ancient rocks. None
of these distinctions represent rigid separations. The Knower
of Trees shows Fall rather than Spring. The Ten of Stones
depicts a desert, more an image of Summer than Winter. In
Shining Woman Tarot opposites blend together.
Cultures close to nature have always marked the seasons by
the four solar points of the year. The solstices form the two
extremes of light and dark, while the equinoxes bring the
opposites into perfect balance. Each of the Aces symbolizes
one of these moments with hieroglyphs signifying the season
for that suit. The abstract signs remind us once again of the
sacred quality of those special days.

73
I

I
 Trees

The suit of Trees presents us with a paradox. When we think

of fireand trees we think of destruction (and, in fact, the 8
of Trees shows a fire burning trees and a house). Traditional
associations of the element Fire often mention movement,
frenetic energy, formlessness - all qualities that seem the
opposite of trees. These ideas, however, belong only to the
kind of flames we can see leaping in front of us. A much greater
fire fills every day of our lives, in fact makes life possible in

the first place. Without the Sun we could not exist. The suit
of Trees symbolizes the energy of the Sun rooted in living
creatures.
As the Sun in Spring restores life to the world, so the suit
of Trees shows us images of growth and optimism. We see joy
in the 2 and the 3, confidence in the 6. The growing plants
and trees give us inspiration as well as the food which keeps
us alive. On
the 4 we see some of Fire's gifts. These include
a stone, for the hard rock which now seems impervious to
flames once was molten fire.
Growth takes place internally as well as physically. In the
7 we an image of the Tree of Life within our own bodies -
see
the spinal column. And sometimes we grow quiet and slow,
like a tree. The 5 shows us an image of secret nurturing and
healing which leads to finding our own fiery power. And yet,
we remember that Fire also destroys. The 8 tells us to leap like
a flame over theburned out crises in our lives. The 9 depicts
a more complex state, when we feel our lives invaded, and need
to recognize and claim the destructive fire within ourselves.

75
Ace Of Trees
The central image of this card, the
umbilical cord becoming a tree, was
inspired by a similar image in the Brain-
Heart Tarot of Dirk Gillabel, a visionary
creator of Tarot decks. I have expanded
Gillabel's picture (a detail on his card of
the Lovers), making the tree explicitly a
Tree of Life, and placing the foetus in a sea
of light surrounded by circles of energy.
The suit begins and ends with a Tree of Life. The Ace is

personal, even intimate. The 10 takes us beyond our

immediate lives to a vision of fiery joy filling all existence. In
Major Arcana
a sense, then, the suit follows the pattern of the
inmoving from a personal image (a child in both cases) to a
union of our own lives with the world around us. There are
22 stars, a direct link to the trumps. The card tells us that our
lives may appear isolated, or imperfect, but looked at from a
different perspective, all our actions, all our moments, can
open to the world around us.
In the womb
the umbilical cord brings us food from our
mother. Here the 'mother' is the universe, for the cord reaches
beyond the closed sac of personal experience to touch the
stars. The light around the baby signifies the perfection of our
inner being. Since the colour is the same as the stars it reminds
us oi the famous dictum. As above, so below'. Since we now
know that all molecules on Earth came originally from
exploding stars, the connection between the foetus and the
heavens is not simply a metaphor. The rings move from blue,
for the unconscious, to green, symbolizing the life-giving
realities of the physical world.

Upright
Spring, fresh beginnings, something in your life about to be
born. Your world growing from your own truth.

76
Reversed
Focusing on immediate problems or events. There are wider
connections.

Two Of Trees
This picture is based on actual places
along the Hudson River of New York
State, one of the world's most beautiful
rivers. The rolling feminine mountain can
be seen looking downriver from the
Vanderbilt Estate, now a park open to the
public. The remarkable trees grow along
the railroad line to New York City.
Along the mountain we find the same
celebration of the Creator Goddess we saw in symbols on the
Tower: 'Blessed is the mother who has given us shape'. Here
the sentence is written out, for the Minor Arcana moves from
symbols to direct experience.
The trees form a gate opening to new experience. At the
same time their roots touch, like secret lovers. The setting Sun
shines on the waters, a promise that as one phase of life ends,
it will lead to a joyous beginning. We might compare this card

to Awakening, with the two trees acting as the opposites

joining together, and the woman as the new consciousness.
The woman recalls the many indigenous nations who lived
along the Hudson before the European conquest. The revival
of their teachings has (re)opened spiritual awareness of nature.
She wears a tattered dress. We can think of this as emphasizing
spiritual rather than material values. We might also say that
an old level of experience lies and we soon will put
in tatters,
on new clothes (compare the 4 of Rivers).A hole on the left
of her dress reveals the curve of her back and hip, a shape that
matches the line of the mountains. This subtle match reminds
us of the link between our bodies and the Earth.

77
upright
Breakthroughs, new
beginnings, opening to a higher level of
awareness. Friendship, union.

Reversed
Reluctance. The breakthrough is still possible, but we need to
trust in what will happen if we go through the gate.

Three Of Trees
The central image in this picture, whom
I call the Grandfather, derives from a
photograph of a Manitokan, a spirit image
formed from a tree by the Ojibwa people
of Canada. Sometimes the Ojibwa will
take logs or posts and do nothing more
than carve marks for eyes and a mouth. At
other times they will dress the Manito-
kanac with elaborate clothes, even hair
and beards, and carve detailed faces.
The form of the figures on the card invites comparison to
scarecrows. Where the farmer seeks to drive away the birds,
the Ojibwa invites spirit beings to enter into these tree forms
and give life to the material surroundings. Possibly scarecrows
derive from older European creations, such as corn dollies, or
Green Man figures, which blessed the crops in the spiritual
world as well as protecting them in the physical.
The Trees suit reminds us how photosynthesis transforms
the Fire energy of the Sun into organic growth. With humans
the process goes both ways, for the imagination transforms
natural objects into spirits. The card is a celebration, filled
with the laughter of the Grandfather. He welcomes and
protects us with his open arms. The slightly comical aspect of
the smaller figures indicates delight, and no disrespect. At
their feet the colours of the wild grass and flowers remind us
of the great gifts from the Earth and the Sun.

78
upright
Pleasure, abundance, laughter, creativity.

Reversed
We need to trust what life gives us and open our arms to joy.

Four Of Trees
The 4 continues the theme of gifts found
in nature. As with the Hermit the forms
of nature join together to create the glyph
of Shining Woman. The Sun becomes the
head, the birdlike twig the arms and body,
and the hill the legs. In this card we see
the unity of nature and imagination. The
grain on the right represents the food that
gives us life. It recalls the gift of Demeter
and Persephone on the Star.
The three branches all form images. On top of the hill the
twig raises branches like arms or wings. In the air we see a stick
like a fanged snake. At the bottom we find a branch which
suggests a leaping deer with female breasts, similar to the part
animal, part human figurines uncovered by archaeologists. All
three came to me during my journeys to sacred places in
Greece and Ireland. We do not find the sacred only in human-
made temples, but also in the simplest objects. The stone in
the centre, like a figure sitting in meditation, links the card
to the Stones suit, as well as to Tradition and Justice.
The abstract images on the hillside derive from the markings
on a bone carved in the shape of a female torso. Some 10,000
years old, the bone was found in Romania.

Upright
Making the most of the ordinary things in life. Finding special
meaning in everyday experience.

79
Reversed
A need to look within events for their deeper meaning.

Five Of Trees
The religious experiences and teachings
known as shamanism exist all over the
world, with many remarkable similarities.
One story found in different cultures is

that of a great tree where future shamans

rest in cradles. Sometimes this tree exists
in dreams or the spirit world. One shaman
told of lying in the topmost branches of
such a tree before birth and witnessing a
shaman come to battle a spirit for the soul of a sick person.
When the new shaman from the tree came to this world he
kept his memories. Later in life he encountered the shaman
who had battled the spirit, and told the astonished healer
what he had seen him do.
I have shifted the tree and cradle to an urban setting, with

the four buildings added to the tree to fulfil the number on

the card. In the sunlight of the suit of Trees the world appears
simple, 'normal'. And yet, the 'other world' exists all around
us, at every moment. The card is filled with paradox. Though
the Sun appears, the sky is dark, and we see lights in the
windows. There are 21 windows. With the Sun, they make 22
lights. The buildings seem ordinary, but their doors are black,
opening to hidden mysteries. We see no people in the street,
only a wild animal, drawn semi-abstract, a creature from the
unconscious, set loose in the outer world.

Upright
Inner meanings, things going on under the surface,
withdrawal, especially to nurture a 'secret' self.

80
Reversed
Emergence, clarity, a time to bring out qualities developed in
private.

Six Of Trees
This jaunty image shows us the optimism
of Trees. The woman walks through a
forest of strange tree spirits. Below her feet
we see the forms and symbols of the
Underworld. And yet she takes no notice,
feels no fear. Her supreme confidence
carries her forward. The beast of the
previous card follows her like a pet.
The markings on the trees follow
decorations on a series of bones excavated at Almeria, Spain,
and dated some 5,000 years old. I have made the resemblance
to owls explicit by including owl eyes both above and below
ground. The owl suggests knowledge of the world of the dead
as well as mystery and wisdom (see the Ace of Birds).
The images below ground signify potential knowledge and
power. The three columns on the left symbolize balance, with
green, for life, mediating between the blue and the red. The
large red triangle, outlined in gold, indicates rebirth, while the
smaller triangle, pointing upward, leads to spiritual awareness.
The snake with its eggs and markings outside its body
symbolizes rebirth as well, for snakes grow by shedding their
old skins.

Upright
Confidence, optimism, sometimes arrogance. Inspiring others.
Walking lightly over serious matters.

Reversed
A crisisof confidence. Possibly pessimism, but also looking
more deeply, seeking to know and understand experience.

81
Seven Of Trees (In Country
Dreaming)
(dedicated to Milton Teichman
and Sharon Leder)

With image we go inward to ourselves

this
our own bodies.
to find the Tree of Life in
The picture shows us the spinal column
with branches growing like the body's
nervous system. Around the sides we see
symbols of the Goddess in nature and art.
Upper left, the temple (see Gift of Stones)
resembles a human body. Below left we
find the hemispheres of the brain
represented as concentric arcs. On the right the triangles
symbolize the Goddess as life. Below, the snail on the water
reminds us that our strongest symbols, such as the spiral, come
from nature. When we see these images alongside the spine
we recognize that we find the sacred in the union of ourselves
and the greater world. As without, so within.
The spine and the nervous system enable us to exist, to
move. The spine also contains a hidden truth. From yoga we
learn that sacred energy resides at the base of the spine.
Through spiritual discipline (of many cultures: Joseph
Campbell has shown how Navajo sand paintings match the
teachings of yoga), this energy, sexual in origin, moves up the
spine and opens out through the crown of the head, that is,
through the brain. The In Country of our bodies opens to the
Great Country of the cosmos as we discover that the two are
the same, there is no separation.
The heart marks a kind o( border between the
sensory/emotional levels of experience, and the spiritual
truths of the final openings. According to Campbell, only the
deepest Navajo initiates follow the dance beyond the place in
the sand painting that signifies the heart. The other dancers
exit back the way they have come. In Kabbalah we learn of
the invisible abyss which separates the higher and lower
sephiroth on the Tree of Life. The heart is not just a border,

82

i
but an active energy which looks both ways, above and below.
The heart is the seat of love, and it is love which connects the
sensory and the spiritual. And so we find on the spinal tree
a radiant Sun at the place of the heart.

Upright
Inner truth, personal power, self-discovery. Love, revelation.

Reversed
Expressing inner truth to others. Taking action from a basis
of personal power.

Eight Of Trees
In this card we see the destructive side of
Fire. The groundis barren, except for the

trees, and has ravaged them. The

fire
house - the eighth tree - is on fire, with
flames leaping out of the windows. At the
same time, a golden-haired figure soars T
through the sky, leaping above the
destruction and danger. One tree and one
bush remain green and whole.
The 8 of Trees symbolizes situations out of control, bringing
the unwelcome fires of anger or pain. It may indicate a time
when plans or structures in our lives seem to burn up around
us. And yet, the card - and the situations it symbolizes - is
less pessimistic than it seems. The green tree and bush
represent the qualities and experiences which have taken root
in our lives and cannot be destroyed in this time of crisis.
The leaping figure represents our ability to free ourselves
from destruction by an act o{ will. It tells us we do not have
to remain in a burning house. The image comes from Catal
Hiiyuk, a prehistoric city excavated in Anatolia, Turkey (see
also the 5 of Birds).

83
upright
Emotions or situations out of control. Anger or pain.
Freedom. Confidence in times of danger or collapse. J

Reversed
Things are not as bad as they appear. Focus on what remains
whole and healthy.

Nine Of Trees
(dedicated to Fiona Green)

This picture comes from a myth of the

Goddess Inanna, the most ancient
divinity for whom we have written texts.
Inanna, 'the young queen of heaven, the
morning star and evening star', descends
to Earth where she finds the first tree, the
Huluppu, floating in the Euphrates river.
Inanna sets up the tree as the joy of her H
9oniizs
life. At the same time, she wonders when
j

she will have a throne and a bed.

One morning, she goes to her tree and finds invaders have
claimed it. A
serpent has wound about the base, a bird resides
in the crown, and worst of all, 'the dark maid Lilith built her
home in the trunk'. And Inanna, 'the young woman who
loved to laugh, wept. How she wept!'. When the Gods refuse
to help Inanna, the human hero Gilgamesh comes with his
axe and cuts down the tree. He then uses the wood to carve
Inanna's bed and throne.
Now, this is a deep and complex story, and the 9 of Trees is
a deep and complex card. Td fully explore it would take a book
of its own. But we might ask, who is Lilith? As a mythological
figure she has had various incarnations, from Babylonian
Goddess to Medieval Jewish sexual demon, to modern feminist
icon. In this story, however, we might think of her as Inanna's
own dark side, her 'shadow' as the Jungians say.
84
 When we world only as light and joy, we not
try to see the
only distort reality, we our own power. Inanna yearns for
limit
a bed and throne, but does nothing. When Lilith invades her
tree, she only weeps. Gilgamesh must rescue her. So the card
shows us grief and pain for something precious in our lives that
has gone wrong. But it tells us as well to look inside ourselves
for the cause of this pain. What have we refused to look at?
What part of our power have we given away?

Upright
Grief for something lost. Emotional pain. Deep sorrow which
takes away our joy. Need to seek help.

Reversed
Taking responsibility for crises. Exploring inner darkness.
Emerging from pain to take action.

Ten Of Trees
From Inanna's corrupted tree we move to
the Tree of Life bursting forth with energy.
We find the actual number of the card in
the ten small trees in the background.
These represent the variety of our life
experiences. The cosmic tree in the centre
signifies the basic energy which unifies all
the events, emotions and perceptions
which make up our personal histories.
The form of the Tree recalls the T)wer, suggesting an ecstatic
union of the two cards. The TDwer ecstasy is that of revelation.
In the 10 of Trees we see the pleasures and satisfactions of daily
life, when all things grow in harmony. The multi-coloured

pillars of the Tree also link it to the robes of such figures as

the Fool and the Chariot.
The Tree stands in a series of circles representing the solar
85
system. These too form ten, for we have the Sun (source of
energy for the suit) and the nine planets. At the top of the
Tree the branches merge into spirits. Consciousness grows out
of experience. Through the course of the suit, the foetus from
the Ace has moved from the root of the tree to maturity in
the topmost branches.

Upright
Bursting forth. Seeing your own experience as the centre of
your world. Freedom from greater awareness.

Reversed
Tension, containing or denying your own power. A need to
let it out without fear. I

I
86
 Rivers

The four suits dance in and out of each and Water

other. Fire
can be said to be opposites, for water will quench a flame,
while fire can boil water off into steam. Air and Earth are
opposites as well, with air so thin we cannot even see it, and
the ground the very essence of hard reality. At the same time.
Trees and Stones belong together, symbolically, because plants
grow in the dirt, and psychologically because the two suits
look outward to the 'real' world of action. Rivers and Birds
show us images of feelings. They also share qualities of dreams
and fantasies.
Water is the element of emotions, especially the gentler
emotions of love and friendship. In the way that different
streams will flow together to form a river, the pictures
emphasize people joining with each other, as in the 3, or the
10. Where we find sadness in the suit, or loss, we also find
reconciliation, as in the 5. Though we do not find specific
images of romance, we do find a (symbolic) hint of it in the
2, and a picture o{ sensuality in the 6.
Water flows and changes, so that we find several cards of
adjustments, or emerging from one state to another. Because
water cleans us, and carries away whatever seems fixed and
rigid, many rituals involve water (compare, for instance, the
Christian baptism and the Jewish ritual bath). The suit shows
us two images of transformation and new life, in the 4 and the
8. Without any definite shape, water symbolizes the constantly

changing forms of our fantasies. The 7 gives us scenes of

wondrous journeys. Just as we cannot hold water in our hands,

87
so we need sometimes to give our fantasies a vessel in the shape
of actions that bring them into reality. We find this idea, and
deeper meanings as well, in the 9 of Rivers.

Ace Of Rivers
As in several other cards we find a multi-
cultural mix of images. The woman and
the eland are taken from the elegant Tassili
rock frescoes in the Sahara Desert. The
head from which the river issues comes
from a carved piece of flint uncovered at
the great mound of Knowth in Ireland.
Knowth is a burial mound, though it also
(possibly primarily) marks the sunset on
the two equinoxes. The spiral eyes (the actual carved head
displays a spiral at the back as well) suggest change and return,
while the open mouth symbolizes origins and beginnings.
Many of the earliest human creations, such as pots, drawings
or carvings, show a Goddess or an animal with an open
mouth. Neolithic potters sometimes made their vessels in the
form of birds with open mouths. As Marija Gimbutas says in
her great work. The Language of the Goddess, the mouth
symbolizes the Goddess as the source of all life. Here the river
flows from the head, and the human and the animal come to
drink, to nourish themselves, both with actual water and with
the divine energy which makes life possible.
The landscape contains four posts, marking the seasons.
Despite Knowth's link to the equinoxes, the card, in its gentle
warmth, belongs to Summer. A
fish with a spiral star swims
upstream. It symbolizes the soul returning to its origins, either
in death or, more simply, in meditation and love.

Upright
A peaceful time. Life flowing with good experience. Knowing
where to go for nourishment.

88
Reversed
A need to return to your own sources of strength and
understanding.

Two Of Rivers
In the Major Arcana the opposites of life
become united in Shining Woman. In the
Minor we see images of the opposites
moving back and forth as experiences flow
one into another. This card (and the 2 of
Stones) connects the Tarot to the I Ching,
the Chinese Book of Changes. Many
people will know the yin-yang symbol, a
circle divided into black and white halves,
with a white dot in the black half and a black dot in the white.
Here the circle has become two fish swimming head to tail.
The tails extend past the midline of the circle, symbolizing the
way new experiences have their roots in what has gone before.
Unlike the Chinese yin-yang symbol, the two fish produce an
empty area between them. While we may think of the world
as sharply divided into opposites, all experience emerges from
the centre, which is neither one extreme nor another. The
space between the fish is egg-shaped.
We think of yang and yin as strictly philosophical symbols
of light and dark, male and female, active and still. Originally,
the terms referred to the bright and shadowed sides of a
mountain, with their qualities of dry and moist. We see this
idea in the mountains beyond the river.
A single bright fish swims away from the centre, signifying
new experience. Two dark fish return on the left. In between
we see a stone well. The I Ching hexagram 48, the Well,
reminds us that generations pass, cultures change, but the
simple needs of life remain constant.

89
upright
Change. Something that seemed fixed is shifting. People
moving together. Romance.

Reversed
Trying to hold on to something which is already leaving. Need
to appreciate the emergence of new things.

Three Of Rivers
(dedicated to Mary K. Greer)

The mysteries of creation are mirrored in

the mysteries of the female body. Not only
do women bring forth new life, males as
well as females, but non-pregnant women
bleed without being hurt, without dying.
And this bleeding matches the time
phases of the Moon. In our culture we
explain pregnancy and menstruation in
physical terms and think that that
removes the mystery. To explain how something happens does
not change the wonder of it.
Earlier societies celebrated these mysteries. They also
understood the power of women menstruating together as a
source of harmony and strength within a community. Some
modern researchers have suggested that human culture
actually began with 'menstrual synchrony'. The 3 of Rivers
shows this mystery in symbolic form. We see three downward-
pointing triangles: symbol, for thousands of years, of the
female body. From each triangle a red river flows to a bowl
at the bottom, symbolic of human culture (see the Gift of
Rivers).
Each Goddess symbol. At the top we see
triangle contains a
a vulva opening. On the left we find a triple spiral for the Triple
Goddess of the Moon's three phases. On the right we see a
pomegranate, whose red fruit symbolizes rebirth. At the top

90
we find a labyrinth, image of the path inward to the Goddess.
The labyrinth is green and red, the colours of life.

Upright
Harmony, friendship, especially (although not only) among
women. Recognition of mystery in ordinary experience.

Reversed
Isolation. Possibilities include both disharmony and
independence (surrounding cards will give the emphasis).

Four Of Rivers
The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah,
begins a ten-day period of repentance
leading to Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement. To make a new beginning,
people symbolically cast old clothes (or
bread) into a river or stream. We see a
version of this ancient ceremony, called
Tashlich, in the 4 of Rivers.
The ragged robe floating in the water
represents more than mistakes and wrongs. Psychologically it
signifies a way of life, or a relationship to others or the world,
that no longer means anything but to which we cling like old
comfortable clothes. The person does not simply discard one
pattern for another. In the picture he wears a tallis, a Jewish
prayer shawl, symbolizing that atonement means entering a
life of greater meaning.
We from each of the four suits, for at-one-ment
see a 'river'
means harmonizing all the different elements. For Trees we see
falling leaves (Rosh Hashanah takes place at the beginning of
autumn). At the top of the card, for Birds, we see golden light
and a bird flowing from a shofar, the ram's horn blown on the
New Year. For Stones we see two rocks at the bottom, struck
together to create sparks. According to a Jewish legend Adam

91
became frightened on his first day in Eden, when the sun set.
God told him to strike together two rocks, Shadow and Night,
for the first fire.

The crossed roots at the bottom right form the Hebrew

letter, aleph, a silent letter which begins both the Hebrew
alphabet and the ten commandments (in Kabbalistic Tarot the
Fool is aleph). On Rosh Hashanah of 1991 I went to the
Hudson River for my own tashlich ceremony and found
crossed roots in this shape at the edge of the water.

Upright
New beginnings, casting off old limitations, admitting past
mistakes.

Reversed
Refusal to accept responsibility, need to recognize
opportunities for change or healing.

Five Of Rivers
This simple image comes from Native
American mimbre earthenware, dated to
around 1000 CE. In the original a lozenge
appears in the crane's belly. Here we see a
dark Sun, matched by the Sun shining in
the sky. According to some myths, a fish
carries the Sun at night to its place of
rebirth in the east.
The extended neck of the crane recalls
the Spiral of Fortune, and signals that this card teaches us
about change, about flowing with the ups and downs of the
events in our lives. In many Tarot decks the 5 of Cups shows
a picture of loss, and the need for acceptance. The Rider deck
version of the card depicts a sorrowful figure standing rigidly
in a dark cloak while looking down at three spilled cups.
Behind the figure, unnoticed, stand 2 upright cups.

92
 In Shining Woman Tarot the rigidity has given way to
acceptance. The river flows up and down but remains one
river. As creatures of water the fish adapt to the bends. The
card helps us accept where we are at this time in our lives,
reminding us at painful moments that no situation remains
forever. In the famous words of an Anglo-Saxon bard who had
lost his place at court, This too shall pass'.

Upright
Accepting loss, sorrow or grief, adapting to new situations.

Reversed
Rigidity. A need to let go of past experience.

Six Of Rivers
(dedicated to Ann Ogborn)
From the sorrow and loss of the 5 we move
Water in the 6. We see
to the sensuality of
the flowing river-like curves of an ab-
stracted figure, similar to some of the
ancient Goddess figurines excavated across
Europe and Asia. The figure emerges from
between the rivers, like a sprite who
embodies the beauty and flow of the
waters. We think of the connection be-
tween women and water as lunar - that is, the Moon controls
both the tides and menstruation. We also think of the sea as
the womb, for all life originated in the salt waters of the oceans.
And yet, there is something female about a river.
At the same time, while the figure is feminine, 'she' is also
androgynous, for the abstraction shows no genitals or breasts
(the Goddess statues in Malta were carved with wide female
hips and flat chests). The card is not really about sex, but
enjoying the body, a sensuality open to both men and women.
We see her as shy, holding the flower before her face, which
93
remains hidden from us. The deep red of the flower signifies
passion, which is often deepest when it emerges from a hidden
place inside us.
Place this card alongside the 9 of Trees. Notice the similarity
between the figure here and Lilith on the 9. The dark body
has changed to light while the wild red hair of Lilith has
become the flower before the face. The mystery of sensuality -
which joins something deep within us to nature - heals the
split between the ego and the unconscious.

\Jprig\ii

Sensuality, pleasure, love. Deep feelings emerging out of

shyness.

Reversed
Boldness, expressing physical needs, acting out of passionate
feelings. Alternatively, a need to acknowledge desire.

^even Of Rivers
This card celebrates fantasies, their power
in our lives, their great variety, their
delight. Fantasy is an aspect of Water,
which shimmers with images that come
and go in a moment. And just as we sense
vast worlds hidden in the depths of the
unconscious, so the rivers and the seas
conceal mysteries under their shifting
surfaces.
The rivers contain creatures o{ myth alongside natural fish
and snakes. In dreams and stories all beings belong to the
imagination. We see a fantasy lizard, a mermaid and the fish
who inspired her, a river of multi-coloured light, a fish with
a Woman inside its body like a joyous Jonah, spirals
Shining
intwo directions, bright jewels like stars, and boats resembling
the shamanic soul boats of rock art.
On the left bank we see a series of cups and bowls, human
94
creations for drinking the water of fantasy. They are the stories
which contain the images flowing up from the unconscious.
On the right we see a trio of rocks. They symbolize 'hard'
reality, and yet the middle rock suggests the form of a
Goddess, reminding us that Water obliterates lines between
nature and myth.

Upright
Fantasies, inspiration, wondrous journeys.

Reversed
Action to make fantasies real, choosing between possibilities.

Eight Of Rivers
This card pays tribute to the magnificent
textiles and masks of African ritual dance.
As we saw in the Major Arcana, ritual
masks do not disguise, but reveal. They
reveal the divine spirit hidden within
everyday life.
On the simplest level, the card speaks of
dressing up, of holidays and special
moments. Western culture teaches us that
we are always the same person, and a change of clothes should
not make any difference. Yet if we think of how we feel when
we dress up we get a sense of transformation. Think as well
of the new clothes Christians wear for Easter, or Jews for Rosh
Hashanah.
The card also means taking on new aspects in your life,
especially a liberation. In connection with the 8 of Birds, the
8 of Rivers shows the powerful new self who emerges after the
liberating effect of anger. The card says: if you feel like a new
person, trust the feeling. The celebrants dance in a procession,
suggesting the idea of movement, of changes in a person's life.
Along the sides, between the tributaries of the two main

95
rivers, we see and human creations supporting
natural
spiritual awareness, from simple flowers to a mask and a series
of cave-like huts.

Upright
Playfulness, dressing up, a new identity, movement, leaving
something behind.

Reversed
Holding back, staying with an existing situation, quiet.

Nine Of Rivers
This card derives from a creation myth
found in Kabbalah. The great mystic of
the sixteenth century. Rabbi Isaac Luria,
taught a radical view of creation which
emphasized exile from God and from our
deepest spiritual nature. According to
Luria, when God decided to create the
universe, He withdrew into a point to
make room for the cosmos. He then
created vessels to contain the light He would send into the
void. However, the light overpowered these pots and shattered
them. Our universe and our own lives consist of broken
shards, pieces of truth in which the light lies buried.
If the myth taught only this, it would counsel despair.

However, Lurianic Kabbalah tells us that each of us has the

power to liberate the portion of God's light contained within
our own souls. This is no simple task, and Luria taught that
it takes many lifetimes to achieve this (most modern Jews do
not realize that orthodox Jewish belief includes the idea o{
reincarnation). Luria called this work of the soul 'Tikkun
Olam', restoring the world. In the card of Shining Woman
(traditionally called the World) we saw an image of creation
restored to its perfect state.

96
 In the 9 of Rivers we see eight broken pots, symbolizing the
fragmented areas of our lives. But we also see one pot already
healed, shining with the dark waters of the unconscious. On
the front of this pot we see three waves, a symbol for Water.
Above this symbol, the fish swims to the right, to
consciousness. Lines radiate from its mouth, as if it speaks.
Restoration requires that we help others, by sharing our truth
and by action. For many contemporary Jews, Tikkun Olam
has become a symbol for commitment to social change.

Upright
Healing, acceptance of responsibility, rebuilding after a loss.
Action to help others.

Reversed
Focusing on what lies shattered. The need to recognize
possibilities of healing, or a fresh start.

Ten Of Rivers
(dedicated to Marilyn Graman
and Vishnu Jay son)

The showed us the transform-

8 of Rivers
ative power of feasts and rituals. Here we
see more permanent celebrations of home
and family. We see a couple standing in the
waves of the sea, the ten 'rivers' of the
card's title. Their inner hands blend into
each other, for they are true partners.
Their outer hands, symbol of their
individuality, extend outwards as a gesture
of gratitude to life.

Beyond the empty beach we see sand dunes and hills, with
treesand plants. Through the actions of people, the barren
sand becomes planted with new life. A fence protects the
dunes as well as separating them from the uncultivated sand

97
of the beach. The man and woman look at their house. They
have built this home from their life's efforts. At the same time
it symbolizes their commitment,
for they will live here
together. The windows shine with golden light. The people
raise their arms as well to greet the bird, messenger of
Aphrodite, Goddess of love and the sea (and a link as well to
the following suit). The bird's colours match the woman's
dress and the man's shirt.

Upright
Family, home, appreciation of life's gifts, love, commitments.

Reversed
Solitude, separation from family, possibly anger.

98
 Birds

Humans have always seen birds as messengers of the Gods,

or even Gods
themselves. Birds fly through the invisible realm
of air, seeming to disappear in the bright light of the Sun. Birds
sing, a language suggesting beauty and secret knowledge. In
many lands, stories tell of a hero who eats a drop of food from
the Gods (or tastes the blood of a snake or dragon) and learns
'the language of the birds', granting him
knowledge. But if
all

birds take us to the heavens, they also look into the otherworld
of death. For birds hunt, and some eat the flesh of animals
already dead. As one of the two great mysteries (the other is
birth), death suggests all mysteries. Prophecy links birds with
death, for techniques of divination have .always included
interpreting bird patterns and speaking with dead spirits. We
see these two themes in the Ace. A
third technique of
prophecy involves dreams, an experience of mystery which
comes to us every night. Birds are often said to bring dreams,
an idea we see in the 6.
Birds are the suit of Air, and Air signifies mind, which like
air, cannot be seen or held in the hand. In Scandinavian myth,

the All-Father, Odin, received information from all over the

world from two birds named Thought and Memory. As well
as prophecy and information, mind suggests anger, tension,
and sorrow. We find these qualities in the suit. Unlike some
Swords cards in traditional Tarots, the suit of Birds seeks to
give us transform the energy of those difficult
tools to
experiences. This does not mean avoiding them. Only by
entering the pain or disturbance can we take hold of the

99
energy and change it into something else. The combination
of mind and inspiration leads to art. When we look at the
vision cards for the suit we will find both music and writing.
Among the numbered cards several depict human creations
inspired by birds, including a design from the world's largest
series of rock art, the giant images at Nazca, Peru.

Ace Of Birds
Many people think of owls as wise and
eccentric, an from Walt Disney and
effect
other cartoonists. But the link between
owls and wisdom goes much deeper.
Archaeologists such as Marija Gimbutas
have traced the image of the owl Goddess
back thousands of years. According to
Joan and Romas Vastokas, the Algonkins
considered the owl the perfect soul-bird.
The owl gets its reputation for wisdom partly from its ability
to turn its head a full 180 degrees. Symbolically, this means
it can look into the past and the future. The owl hunts by

night, making it a bird of mystery and death. The solar point

marked by this card is the vernal equinox, beginning the
season when the plants seem to die and the birds fly south.
In many cultures, death and birth are extensions of each other.
The Bird Mother Goddess rules death as well as life, while art
historian Buffie Johnson tells us 'the owl became an emblem
of the uterus'.
The bird on the card is a stylized human creation,
symbolizing the creations of art inspired by birds. Though the
grey background suggests night, the light of wisdom surrounds
it. The green and red colouring makes the owl a bird of life

as well as death. The owl looks out at us with an intense stare,

symbol of a commitment to truth. The eyes are purple, the
colour of wisdom. The image in the lower right-hand corner
is symbolic of the vernal equinox.

100
upright
Truth, wisdom, sadness, honesty. Looking deep into the
mysteries of life and death.

Reversed
Anxiety, confused thinking. A need for honesty.

Two Of Birds
The image for this card comes from a
Chinese altarpiece of lacquered wood,
carved in the Chou dynasty over 2,000
years ago. Thematically, the picture speaks
to the 2 of Swords in traditional Tarots.
The 2 ofSwords often stands for a truce,
or an uneasy peace. The Rider version
shows a woman who has blindfolded '*^""^
I

herself and sits with a sword on each

shoulder, ready to strike at anyone who approaches her.
Here we see two birds who stand resolutely with their backs
to each other, each refusing to acknowledge the other's
existence. Their elaborate (and almost identical) decorations
symbolize the complexity and richness of their minds. That
mental energy now goes into antagonism. And yet they
cannot really escape each other. A
snake winds around their
legs, making it impossible for either of them to leave. The
snake's colouring recalls the serpent of the inner mysteries
found on the High Priestess, and the snake road of Justice.
Now, snakes and birds are deeply linked in mythologies from
around the world (see, for instance, the 9 of Trees). To use
Sumerian terms, the one brings us to the Great Below, the
other to the Great Above. Whenever we think of ourselves
as most detached, most 'purely' mental, then we know that
the trickster snake o{ the unconscious will soon be stirring.
Each of the birds thinks of itself as apart from, or superior to
the other. The energy of their own denied anger binds them
together.

101
upright
Antagonism, a truce or apology which denies the anger which
still remains. Setting yourself above your emotions.

Reversed
Acknowledging a conflict. Recognizing a bond. Overcoming
denial.

Three Of Birds
(dedicated to Witta Jensen)

This one of two cards paying direct

is

tribute to the Rider Minor Arcana of

Pamela Colman Smith (the other is the 9
of Stones). Smith's 3 of Swords showed
three swords piercing a heart. Here we see
three swords with bird-headed hilts
crossing in front of a hill. Where they
meet, each sword transforms into some-
thing new " a snake, a ray of light and
a river. Behind the hill we see a red hand before a large rising
Moon.
The 3 of Swords speaks to us of the agonized heart. It tells
us we can do nothing but accept sorrow. The 3 of Birds takes
us to another stage. It tells us that we can take hold of the

energy of pain and transform it. This does not mean escape,
for transformation comes only when we go deep into our own
experience. The blood-red hand symbolizes this willingness to
enter sorrow, as if we touch our own wounded hearts. The
Moon signifies willingness to turn away from the solar
consciousness which explains away pain, analyses it
intellectually, or finds distractions in outer activities, such as
work or amusement. The Moon also represents the Goddess,
who supports and heals us.
When we feel pain, depression, or grief, it is always the same.
These things bind us and hold us down. When we begin to
release that bound-up energy it can go in many directions. The

102
snake symbolizes visions, the light represents self-knowledge,
and the river, released emotion.

Upright
Pain, sorrow, heartbreak. Transformation through willingness
to accept these experiences.

Reversed
Denial. Minimizing an experience. The hand pushes away the
pain instead of taking hold of it.

Four Of Birds
(dedicated to Ingrid Toth)

This image comes from a heating

meditation of a woman recovering from a
long illness. In her vision she saw herself
resting on a ledge, warmed by the Sun
with a cool breeze blowing, and mist from
a waterfall spraying over her. All the
elements supported her healing: Fire from
the Sun, Water from the mist, Air from the *'^''*°°
i

wind, and Earth from the mountain.

The 4 of Birds links this image of healing and rest to the
vision quest found in several Native American nations. We see
a woman wearing a bird mask who has climbed a mountain
to seek an encounter with spirits. Despite her dedication she
must stop to rest, and we see her relaxed (though she still wears
her mask), with one hand resting in a small pool of water. At
this moment, when she does not actively seek or call for it,
the vision comes. The bird swirls down to her side.
Many of us work diligently for growth, self-knowledge,
inspiration, or enlightenment. These things, however, do not
come from determination. We cannot command a vision to
appear to us. Often, such hard work may mask a fear of the
emotions which will come if we let ourselves relax. We tell

ourselves we want change, or wisdom, but we try to control

103
what happens. And so the card promises truth and healing
in those moments when we stop struggling.

Upright
Rest, withdrawal for the purpose of healing, discoveries and
knowledge when we leastexpect them.

Reversed
Return to the world. Renewal.

Five Of Birds (Mud

Body Dreaming)
(dedicated to Kate Bomstein)

The picture here comes from the

Vulture shrine* in the 9,000 year-old
city excavated near Catal Hiiyuk,
Turkey. On the wall of the shrine
archaeologists found a huge fresco
showing vultures with wings like red
brooms swooping down to headless
SofBUDS
corpses lying in the dirt. I have altered
the picture to add more colour to the
birds, and an internal skeleton of light to the single body. The
vulture in the centre has 21 feathers, (10 on one side for The
Spiral of Fortune, 11 on the other for Justice). The vulture
facing it has 22 feathers, 11 on each side (like all the other
correspondences these numbers were not consciously
planned).
The picture has a double perspective; many people
confronted with this card turn it around several times, trying
to find the 'correct' viewpoint. We look down from the air on
the dead shaman, but we look up from the ground at the
vultures who circle overhead. The image is deliberately
disorienting, for it shakes us out of a fixed way of looking at
our situation.

104
 Western culture has developed an ambivalent attitude to the
body. We consider the soul, or the mind, as separate from the
flesh, and yet we do everything we can to preserve the corpse
in the most life-like manner possible when someone dies.
Thus, we find the idea of vultures eating dead flesh a
nightmare. Various other cultures have deliberately exposed
dead bodies to carrion birds. When the birds eat the decaying
flesh, the people then take the bones and ceremonially bury
them. The bones symbolize the part of the self which cannot
die.The vultures liberate this true self.
Shamans will experience visions in which spirits come and
cut them up, or boil away their bodies, exposing the bones
which the spirits change to with light. In the
crystal or fill

picture, we see this body of light shining through the 'dead'

body which surrounds it. Light spreads out from the head,
signifying understanding and self-knowledge.
In many Tarot decks the 5 of Swords shows an image of ruin,
defeat, or humiliation. The 5 of Birds does not deny these
experiences but takes us beyond them. If we feel violated by
some situation we can offer the pain as a sacrifice to our own
power, letting the process of healing take away what has died
to release the inner body of light.

Upright
Allowing old pain to die away, sacrifices to recover from
wounds, honest acceptance of loss. Power from confronting a
situation.

Reversed
New beginning. Release of strength and optimism.

105
Six Of Birds
The stylized woman sleeping on her stone
bench comes from a pair of small statues
found in an underground temple on the
island of Malta. The Maltese temples (see
the of Stones) featured Goddess
Gift
and figurines (from ten feet high to
statues
small enough to hold in your hand)
standing upright in formal poses. The
unusual form of the 'sleeping ladies' has
led some researchers to think of them as worshippers or
priestesses who have come to the temple (excavators found the
statues in an inner shrine) for a special purpose - dream
incubation.
This term refers to the practice found in many countries of
following special methods to ask the spirits for a dream of
healing, wisdom, or prophecy. The seeker goes to a particular
temple, fasts or eats special food, prays and performs rituals,
and sleeps in a special room or facing a certain direction.
Because we enter a different world when we sleep, and because
dreams are slippery and mysterious and detached, many
people think of dreams as coming from the land of the dead.
The sleeping lady statues were found in an underground
temple dedicated to burial. In the 6 of Birds, we see dark pillars
of stone behind the woman, like doorways to other worlds.
A snake slides underneath her bench, a fierce bird descends
with a dream.

Upright
The power of dreams, especially sacred or psychic dreams.
Opening doors to the unknown. Taking special steps to seek
healing or change.

Reversed
Ignoring dreams or other unusual sources of wisdom. Fear of
the unknown. Alternatively, returning to involvement with
the world after a time o{ dream-like separation.

106
Seven Of Birds
Because bird songs stir our aesthetic sense
with their loveliness, we tend to think
unconsciously that birds sing as an
expression of beauty or joy. Birds may very
well sing for this reason; very few humans
(mostly shamans) have ever tried to enter
the consciousness of birds. Behavioural ^^HEflE__
studies, however, indicate that male birds I
^"^""^ I

sing to establish territory.

The Australian Aborigines, humanity's oldest living culture,
use song in a similar way. Bruce Chatwin's book The Songlines
describes how the Aborigines have mapped out the continent
in great detail, using myth and song rather than our
measurements and two-dimensional diagrams on paper (a
diagram is no more real a description of nature than a song).
Individuals travel over vast distances, guided simply by the
songs.
At the same time, each tribe bears responsibility for the
songs for their territory. Each individual in each tribe carries
a part of the song as their heritage and their duty. At borders
between tribes, people will sing their songs to each other. This
establishes boundaries while sharing an experience of art.
In the card we see both birds and humans singing to mark
territory. Behind the humans we see rolling hills reminiscent
of the Goddess shape seen in the Empress and other cards.
The song serves a practical purpose. At the same time, its
beauty and its religious meaning give it a depth and power
lacking in technical descriptions of borders. In a harsh
environment, the system of interlocking songs helps to avoid
conflicts and war.

Upright
Setting boundaries, cooperation with respect for differences.
Creative solutions to practical problems.

107
Reversed
Conflict, blurring of boundaries. People needing to listen to
each other.

Eight Of Birds
This picture was inspired by the poetry of
the Creek poet Joy Harjo, in particular her
poem, *We Must Call A Meeting'. In this
poem Harjo writes of the pent-up anger,
the despair and the madness that come
when a people loses its culture, its very
language. And yet something refuses to
ofBMDS
die, coming to life through memory of the
ancestors, of the animal spirits, through
'the curled serpent in the pottery of nightmares'. Anger is a
'smouldering volcano' circled by birds. 'I begin to draw maps
of stars'.
'Give me back my language' Harjo writes, 'and build a
house/Inside it And the spiral of the sky above it. /And
. . .

the sun. /And the moon. /And the stars to guide us called
promise.'
In the card we see a woman whose body has lost its natural
grace and freedom. She is drawing stars, or perhaps casting
stones. She sits before the volcano of her rage, while the birds,
symbol of liberation, fly above her. She cannot just become
a bird. 'I, but get caught.' Instead, her path to
too, try to fly
freedom lies through the volcano itself. The house in the
mountain bears a glyph for anger above the door - three
jagged lines with speech lines radiating from the sides. Anger
must be spoken, we need to create the language to speak our
feelings. The marks along the frame of the house - not yet
words or glyphs - suggest this process of creating a liberated
language. The key to this language is memory - of our own
truth, our own experiences, the history of our people (whoever
they might be). The eye on the door symbolizes the memories
which unlock the house of speech.

108
upright
Anger, difficulty expressing feelings, oppression. The need to
remember and create one's own truth.

Reversed
Speaking out, finding a voice, unlocking doors in the self.

Nine Of Birds
In the 9 of Trees we saw the dark Goddess
Lilith. According to mythologists, the
name means 'screech owl', so that Lilith
was originally a Goddess of the night, and
perhaps of death. Here we see a large owl
perched above a burial mound flanked by
two barren trees, like a gateway to the land
of the dead. The stylized owl at the bottom
is based on a burial urn, about 5,000 years

old, excavated on the Greek island of Lemnos. I have extended

the 'wings' so that it resembles the blade of an axe or a scythe.
As with other cards suggesting death (including the trump
Death) these images do not suggest (and certainly do not
'predict') a particular person dying. Rather, the card takes us
into grief, and mourning for the sorrows and losses in our
lives. We must experience such feelings. If we deny we have
them, or try to talk ourselves out of feeling them, we only bury
them in ourselves, and our lives become tombs of buried
emotion.
When we allow ourselves to pass through grief we come to
rebirth. This is the great message found again and again in the
images of the Goddess of Death. The urn bears an image of
a vulva at its base. Before the open door of the tomb we see
an image based on a bone figurine found in Bulgaria and dated
1,500 years earlier than the urn from Greece. The enlarged
pelvis bears a giant pubic triangle as the figure emerges from
the grey world of sorrow.

109
upright
Grief, sadness, empathy for the suffering of others.

Reversed
Suppressed emotion, especially sadness. Alternatively, first

steps out of a time of mourning.

Ten Of Birds
Near the city of Nazca, Peru, the
pampas display vast drawings, some as
simple as parallel lines or triangles,
others depictions of birds, spiders and
monkeys. Etched into the rock by a
people lost to prehistory, the 'Nazca
lines' are huge, some actually kilo-
metres long. The animal drawings are
smaller, from a few metres to 300
metres. Virtually all of them need to be viewed from the air,
although, of course, the people who made them lived
centuries before the invention of the aeroplane. In fact, to see
them properly a plane must dip and climb, sometimes
extremely low, because of the variant size. In other words, they
are best seen, not by humans all, but by birds.
at
The 10 of Birds, taken from Nazca drawing, is a human
a
creation, a dream bird. Inspiration and creativity come from
the birds, with their gifts of song and flight. In the drawing
we return the gift, to the Air, to the spirits. If birds are spirits,
then their tracks across the card (the ten birds of the title)
show the presence of spirit in our lives, something we see
mostly by footprints (that is, by results), and not as something
we can view directly.
At times in our lives we need to perform the trick of looking
at our situation as if from high above. If we can lift off the
ground of our experiences, see all the details as a whole, we
might discover a composition, a perfect creation, invisible
from close up, but seen clearly with the eyes of the Birds.

110
upright
Detachment, taking a high view, seeing the whole rather than
the individual details.

Reversed
Caught up in the fragments. A need to see the tightness and
truth of a situation as a whole.

Ill
I
 Stones

'The purest essence of the energy of the heaven-earth world

coalesces into rock Within the size of a fist can be
. . .

assembled the beauty of a thousand cliffs'

Preface by Kong Chuan to catalogue of rocks written by 'Hermit of
Cloudy Forest'.

Of the suit emblems, Stones are the oldest and the most
all

permanent. Before the seas, before even the atmosphere, the

Earth hardened into rock, and even though erosion from Air
and Water wear down the mountains, and even though the
Fire of a supernova will one day consume this planet, the
Stones give us a sense of eternity.
If we think of spirit as the opposite of matter, then the

Earth - and our own bodies - becomes a prison. But if we

think of physical existence as the expression o{ divine energy,
then the simplest rocks and pebbles become alive with power.
A number of cards in the suit of Stones (the trio of 4, 5 and
6, plus the Gift) take images from actual stones or fissures in
rocks. Such 'messages' come to us all the time. There is no trick
to finding them. All we need is a willingness to look and to
see. As we find in the 6, art may have originated with the
realization that rocks held images.
The element o{ Earth in Tarot often symbolizes work and
money (the emblem used to be Coins). Though Shining Woman
mutes this theme we find it in the practical choices of the 2,
the discipline of the 9, and the prosperity of the 10. The
sculpture on the 7 implies hard work, but also achievement,

113
for what we make in stone lasts beyond our own lives.
Stones are winter, when the Earth appears as barren as rock.
And yet, even in winter, the Earth remains our Mother. On
the 4 we see this promise in the flowers growing from a fissure
cut deep into limestone.
Prehistoric cultures understood both the practicality of
stones and their spiritual power. If they had not carved and
painted their sacred images on rocks and caves we would not
know that art, religion, science and sophisticated symbol
systems go back tens of thousands of years. From their hard
work in creating the rock paintings and stone circles we learn
two vital truths - that there is no such thing as a 'primitive'
human being, and that the soul travels to spirit through the
work we do in the reality of the Earth and our own bodies.

Ace Of Stones
Inmany lands, but primarily in what is
now Western Europe, we find the
phenomenon of standing stones - huge
cylindrical rocks set upright, either alone,
or in circles like Stonehenge, and some-
times carved or painted with abstract
images. Modern researchers have put
forward any number of theories about
these stones, from territorial markers to
astronomical computers, sun dials, and even psychic batteries.
Symbolically, they act like the world tree; they form a
connecting line, a vertical axis, from the underworld beneath
our feet to the invisible world of the spirits above our heads.
This line passes through the 'horizontal' world - the surface
of the Earth, where we live our daily lives.
In the picture the stone rests on the dark blue entrance to
the underworld (compare Persephone in the Star). The stone
is dark at bottom, but as it rises the colours change until they

meet the light of the Sun. The Sun shines from behind clouds
to indicate that this card signifies the winter solstice, the
darkest time of the year, when the movement of night and day

114
shifts to ever-increasing light. All around the base we see
concentric arcs, like those on the Moon card. There are 13
pools, the number of Death as well as the number of full
Moons in a year. As mentioned before, the arcs resemble the
roundels of Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime painting, as well
as the carvings on the standing stones of Ireland and Brittany.
Psychologically, if the underworld is the unconscious, then
these arcs represent the wealth of visions and actions that pour
from the hidden sources of our being.
In prehistoric Crete, people worshipped the Goddess as a
pillar of rock in caves found in horned mountains. We see such
a cave in the upper left. The lines of energy flow out to a simple
pile of stones, and a pyramid.
In India, people worship stones in a different way. A
standing stone in a pool of water forms a 'lingam and yoni',
the phallus of Shiva and the vulva of Shakti; in other words,
the creative power of male and female joined together.

Upright
Connecting many levels of life, anchoring yourself in ordinary
things, creative power, long-lasting achievements.

Reversed
Struggle, difficulty getting something done, unstable
situations.

Two Of Stones
This card forms a tribute to the Tarot's
Chinese sister, the I Ching. One way to
cast the I Ching involves throwing a set of
coins, with one side designated yang, or
active, and the other yin, or receptive.
This picture is an idea for such a coin, with
the toad as yang and the tortoise as yin.
Nine stars on the tortoise link it to its sister 2ofSTOnCS

on the Hermit, trump 9.

115
 According to Marija Gimbutas and others, both toads and
tortoiseshave signified the Goddess, the toad for its active
energy and its resemblance to a woman squatting to give birth
(see the 7 of Stones), and the tortoise for its long life and slow
deliberate movement. They remind us that God/dess - and we
ourselves - has many sides, many aspects at different
moments. The tortoise has an extra significance, for the
ancient Chinese used tortoise shells for divination, and some
scholars believe that the I Ching hexagrams developed from
the interpretations of the markings on the shells.
Unlike the yin and yang fish on the 2 of Rivers, the two
images here seem very different. They do not flow into each
other, but instead signify distinct choice between one quality
or the other. A
coin comes down on one side, yet it can easily
flip over. Neither side is superior, and neither aspect lasts
forever. This is the true lesson oi all oracles and divination.

T>ivinatory meaning
In the manner of a coin there is no upright or reversed side
for this card, but simply two equal parts. If the toad appears
on top it signifies action, creative power and involvement. The
tortoise on top indicates intuition, peacefulness and
withdrawal.

Three Of Stones
This card balance and comple-
signifies
tion, and therefore accomplishments,
success, mastery and healing. The snake
moves down the left side of the triangle
while the birds rise up the right. We have
seen in such cards as the 9 of Trees and the
6 of Birds the mythological link between
birds and serpents. They represent such
opposites that we know they must go
together. Here they do indeed blend, for in the snake we
descend deep into our own mysteries, while the birds release
the understanding and joy gained.

116
 The triangle pointsdownward, a symbol of energy bringing
results in the form of finished work. Within the triangle we
see a movement upwards, in the turtle and the three roundels,
which now, in contrast to the Tower, have joined together. On
the flat top of the triangle we find Shining Woman raising her
arms to the Sun and the Moon. She is active, powerful. Far
below her we see a figure in a cave, meditating. The cave fills
with light, yet the meditator keeps the peace of her own inner
mystery. Six mountains signify love, for trump 6 o{ the Major
Arcana. The figure in the cave makes seven, the number of
spiritual victory.

Upright
Mastery, accomplishment, success in work. Recognition.
Working well with others.

Reversed
Dissatisfaction, especially with work. Mediocrity, with the
potential for greater achievement. Need to develop skills.

Four Of Stones
In the woods near Peterborough, Canada,
stands a large rock covered with over 900
carvings. Known to present-day Native
Canadians as the 'Teaching Rock', the
stone was probably the work of the
Algonkins approximately 1,000 years ago.
The carvings, which include spirits, boats
and turtles, are not the only pictures on
the rock. On the Teaching Rock itself, and
all around on the limestone formations, deep natural fissures
create powerful images reminiscent of the human-made art
found on so many stones and rock walls around the world.
Of the four pictures shown here, only one is a human
117
carving.The Goddess on the right is based on a picture incised
on the Teaching Rock around two natural holes, the one by
the throat, for creation out of the voice, the other at the vulva,
for creation out of the body. Originally a red mineral seam ran
between these two holes, suggestive of the female blood magic
of menstruation and birth.
The other three figures all come from natural fissures. The
bird (or bird-human) at the top of the card, with its
outstretched wings, runs along the edge of the rock. The other
two figures, the shaman on the left, and the Goddess-like
figure in the centre, come from fissures on rocks about 100
metres from the Teaching Rock itself. The Algonkins
sometimes drew the human form as an elongated triangle with
a circle on top - exactly the image of the fissure shown on the
left. When I visited the stones, grass grew from deep in the

'Goddess' fissure at the place of the heart, and multi-coloured

flowers rose up from the area of the Goddess's Vulva'. This
perfect juncture of human art and natural images, of million-
year-old fissures, thousand-year-old carvings and seasonal
flowers, forms a central mystery of Shining ^oman Tarot.

Upright
Life-giving energy, security, a coming together of seemingly
random events or situations.

Reversed
Lack of communication. Events that seem random or
pointless. A need to return to basics.

118

d
Five Of Stones
The theme of rock art and natural images
continues in this card and the next. The
shrouded figures lit by fire derive from a
photograph by artist Steve Fitch of
paintings on the wall of Horseshoe
Canyon in Utah. However, the image on
the chest of the foremost figure - a
lavender triangle, with three tendrils at ^"^^^^~ ,
i

the bottom, containing a golden shell

formation with a female symbol - appears on a quiet road in
the town of Rhinebeck, New York. I found it while walking
under a dark red Sun a few days before the vernal equinox.
Of the four rocks at the bottom of the card, the central one
with its crocodile head, and the rock on the right with its
animal-headed form and dancing figure reminiscent of
Shining Woman, also come from stones found on that same
walk.
The under the surface, within the self,
picture takes us
lives. Other Stones cards show the
within the mysteries of our
sky. Here we find ourselves deep in a canyon, lit only by a
human-made fire. The card has links with the High Priestess,
the Hermit, the 4 of Birds, and other cards which take us
inward. Because it is Stones, however, it implies that
something substantial and long-lasting will emerge from this
inner journey.

Upright
Finding your own values, making discoveries, recognizing your
own power. Changing a situation or the way you live because
of inner conviction.

Reversed
Changes going on under the surface, confusion. Doubt about
what to do next.

119
Six Of Stones
As the final card in the trilogy o{ natural
and human rock art, the 6 addresses the
very concept of art derived from nature.
The five actual stones all come from rocks
found on walks and sacred journeys in
Europe and North America. All five are
drawn exactly as I found them. The small
corsronts
stones at the upper right and left were
found on the way to a temple of the
Goddess Artemis. The stone at the bottom right was found
along the Hudson River on the summer solstice. The markings
suggest Scandinavian runes - a straight line which forms the
rune for 'necessity', flanked by two Xs, the rune for a 'gift'. The
inner arms of the gift-runes meet to form a canopy over the
line of necessity.
The image, the spirit or shaman, with its strong
sixth
resemblance to the Shining Woman glyph, comes from
Algonkin rock art. According to Joan and Romas Vastokas
this figure would likely represent either Kitchi-Manitou, the
'Great Spirit', or a Jessakkid shaman and prophet. The most
developed of the Algonkin shamans, the Jessakkids drew their
power from dreams of the Sun.
Did art originate from nature? If rocks can give us pictures
and shapes of animals and birds, of the Sun shining its rays
on water, even runic messages, did they inspire humans to
begin making similar images? And yet, the Algonkin image is
not a natural figure. When humans draw or carve pictures,
they use their imaginations and intellects to create ecstatic
visions of spiritual power.

Upright
Art, new from ordinary things, expressing
ideas, inspiration
your own vision. Making your fantasies real.

Reversed
Cooperation, especially in work, helping others realize their
visions.

120
Seven Of Stones
The image in the top part of this card
comes from a medallion brought from
India by writer Rosemary Dudley. Known
as the 'Seven Standing Birth Goddesses',
medallions such as this one help women
invoke their local Goddesses when giving
birth. I have coloured the Goddesses with
the progression of the rainbow, the same
colours found in the human body at the
seven chakras (energy centres found along the spine).
Below the medallion we see a soft hilly landscape with a Sun
rising like a pregnant woman's belly. In the foreground stands
a toad, yet another symbol of the birth-giving Goddess. Marija
Gimbutas has written of the toad's resemblance to a woman
squatting to bring forth a child. Here we also see the
resemblance of the toad form to the Shining Woman glyph.
Gimbutas describes the many associations of the toad which
still hold power in European folklore. Women in labour will

sometimes pin a dead toad to the door of their homes. Others

will make toads of wax, iron, silver and wood to give as
offerings to the Virgin Mary, the Christian image o{
motherhood.
These many images of the Mother Goddess connect this
card to nurturing in all its forms.

Upright
Mothering, feeling supported or supporting others, help with
a difficult project, protection.

Reversed
Labouring to give birth, or to create ideas or work.

121
Eight Of Stones
This unusual statue comes from a stone ^
carving found in Southern Europe. In the
card the horse stands on a fence o( seven
stones, bringing the number (with the '^J^S^^
horse itselO to 8. if ^|
The idea of a flying horse expresses the L^L,^ V_
human love of paradox, and the power of i'HrjBB
-^
the imagination to envision creatures |

impossible to find in nature. The term

'monster' originally meant a hybrid animal, such as a sphinx,
a centaur - or a flying horse. Many theories exist as to the
origins of such ideas. Some say early Greeks saw men on
horseback and assumed they were one creature, and that this
mixture inspired others. Further suggestions are that hybrids
imply a mixture of cultures and mythologies. Whatever the
origins of these images, they have survived in art and literature
because they express something powerful in the human mind -
- the ability to transcend contradictions.

The very idea of a flying horse is a paradox. It becomes more

so when we think of this horse as being made of stone, the
very body of the Earth. The mind can think of something
impossible and then give it a reality in art and stories. Through
the unity of imagination and work we take a material
substance (stone) and transform it into something still
material (for the stone does not vanish), yet also imaginal, of
the mind.

\]pr'\g\ii

Contradictions. Even more, the creative potential of

contradictions and paradoxes. Accomplishments in work or
business.

Reversed
Problems with contradictions. Confusion. Facing difficult
challenges, especially in work.

122
Nine Of Stones
Even more than the 3 of Birds, this card
pays tribute to the Minor Arcana of
Pamela Colman Smith. The Rider 9 of
Pentacles shows a woman in a garden with
a falcon on her hand and pentacles
growing on her bushes. My version of this
picture, with chaotic stars embedded in
large rocks, comes from a vision a student
had in a meditation. When she entered
the 9 of Pentacles she saw the pentacles as actual stars which
had come down to the ground to be part of her garden. In
the 9 of Stones we see seven stars on Earth and two remaining
in the sky. In creating our lives we do not seek to master nature
(either our own nature or the outer realities of work, material
needs), but to transform what nature gives us. The stars are
chaotic because she has not tamed their energy, but used it.
The card expresses the idea of self-creation. She stands on
her own land, pointing to the stars. They symbolize her own
success and power. The hooded falcon on her wrist symbolizes
the discipline she has developed. Behind her we see seven
brown peaks, the victory number of the Chariot, and five
green hills. Five is the number of Tradition, which suggests
that she has followed her life's path.
She has faced difficulties and has had to make choices, and
sacrifices. She is alone. She frowns slightly, and we see a
shadow on her face. The position of this shadow and the angle
of her head indicate that she turns away from the Sun - that
is, away from spontaneity. Instead of pure freedom she has

chosen a life of creative discipline and self-development.

Upright
Satisfaction, a good life, self-discipline, self-reliance,
achievement.

Reversed
Spontaneity, seeking the help of others, lack of discipline.

123
Ten Of Stones
Western society tends to split aspects of life
from each other. If someone is wealthy we
may think of him or her as spiritually
impoverished. In some cultures, however,
a tribe may measure its collective wealth at
least partly in terms of how many sacred D V
objects it possesses.
10 of STOICS
We see a harsh landscape, a desert and
grey mountains, suggestive of such places
as the Kalahari Desert in Africa, the Australian Western
Desert, or the Sinai of Egypt. Despite the barren land, the
stones, with their many symbols, give us a sense of abundance.
They suggest the churinga stones of the Australians - very old
painted stones said to carry the power of the ancestors.
The stones on the card signify what a person has made of
her or his life. Some of the images are natural, some painted,
with no separation between the two kinds. Rivers of colour
move across the sky. To the left of the stones we see tracks of
light, symbolizing the possibilities in a person's life. On the
right these potentials have changed to the reality of ten lines
of coloured pebbles.
Footprints approach from the left, symbolizing those of
someone who has made a pilgrimage to the sacred place of the
tribe. On the right we see bird tracks leaving the rocks. Along
with the light in the sky, they hint at a transformation that
can take place when we allow ourselves truly to experience
prosperity as a gift.

Wealth, both spiritual and material. Going to the sources of

good experience. Security. Finding great value in what life has
given you.

Reversed
Dissatisfaction, a need to recognize the good things around
you. Taking risks.

124

k
 The Vision Cards

Like the numbered cards of the Minor Arcana, the Vision

cards vary from suit to suit, depending on the quality of the
element belonging to that suit. For example, the Knower of
Stones and the Knower of Trees differ according to the
dissimilarities between Stones and Trees. However, whereas
cards Ace to 10 of each suit join together to show us the variety
of human experience, the Vision cards follow a more definite
progression. They link more sharply to each other, a little like
the Major Arcana, with its own step-by-step journey from the
Fool to Shining Woman.
The Vision cards also teach us more directly about the
elements than the numbered cards do, for their theme is
understanding and using the power each element can give us.
The four cards follow a pattern of withdrawal and return,
resembling Joseph Campbell's 'monomyth' of the hero's
journey. We can interpret them for their separate meanings,
but we also can follow their story through such techniques as
meditation or guided visualization.
In the myth created by the Vision cards we first enter the
Place of the particular suit. This card takes the qualities of that
suit and shows them as a physical 'place' so that we can
approach the element as an experience rather than an abstract
idea. The Knower then gives us a feeling for what it would
mean to understand and know those qualities in our own
lives. In myths and folktales the hero who has had the courage
to leave our world and enter the magic world of the spirits
receives a gift. The Gift cards depict this moment in the story.

125
They also help us recognize the gifts we receive in our daily
As a further
lives. attribute the Gift cards connect Shining
Woman Tarot to the traditional Tarot suits, for the Gifts recall
the usual emblems. The four Gifts appear together on the card
of the Magician. On receiving his gift, the hero returns with
it and uses his powers to achieve a quest, or simply to help

others. As we often find that our achievements only become

real to us when we share them with others, so the Speakers
give us images of acting from a place of power within ourselves.
Despite their sense of service, they are not altruistic or self-
effacing. They speak or act with authority and confidence.
People who know traditional Tarot may be tempted to
compare the Vision cards to the Court cards - the Page,
Knight, Queen and King. We cannot really do this, since the
Court cards all depict people and the Vision cards contain two
images which emphasize experiences. We might, however,
compare the Knower to the Queen, and the Speaker to the
King, for the Queens may be interpreted as a mature
appreciation of the qualities of the suit, while the Kings carry
the responsibility for using the suit's power. Unlike the Kings,
the Speakers do not control or take charge. Their authority
comes from their unity with the power of the suit.
Interestingly, the Knowers emerged as primarily male and the
Speakers as primarily female.
This does not mean that the Knowers symbolize men in
readings and the Speakers women. Any person will go through
many experiences in the course of a life, some labelled as
'masculine', some as 'feminine'. The Tarot gives us the chance
to see ourselves and others in different guises and aspects. In
general, the Vision cards do not signify actual people (in
readings) theway the Court cards sometimes do in traditional
Tarots. Nor do they represent character types. Instead, they
give us a chance to discover and use the powers of the
elements.

126
Place Of Trees
The Place of Trees is a sanctuary, a sacred
grove in the heart, where we can feel our
lives flourish like healthy trees in the light
of the Sun. The picture comes from a
miniature seal from ancient Crete,
possibly the most developed civilization of
the Goddess in pre-Greek Europe. We see
a Goddess sitting by her Tree of Life in her
garden of paradise. She holds three flowers
in her hand, for the three aspects of the Moon Goddess -
maiden (waxing Moon), mother (full Moon), and crone
(waning Moon). We also see a worshipper and the double axe,
the labrys, found in Crete only with female images (the word
'labia' is connected to labrys). According to Marija Gimbutas
the labrys derived from the butterfly. The opposing curves
may have symbolized the waxing and waning Moon. And yet,
the woman by the tree is not simply a Moon Goddess, for
above the triple river of light in the sky we see the Sun as well
as the Moon. She is the Goddess of life and death, and all
places where we feel whole and at peace, and rooted in our
lives, are Her garden.
In the card we see two trees, recalling the Empress as well
as the Trees of Life and Knowledge in Eden. Before the Genesis
story of disobedience and punishment the myth of paradise
told of a Goddess who gave her worshippers a fruit or flower
of eternal life. The second tree in the picture - the Tree of
Knowledge - tells us that joining ourselves to the sacred -
becoming like trees in the garden - does not mean mindless
vegetation, but rather genuine growth, of individuality as well
as good health.

Upright
Growth, feeling safe, rooted. A positive environment, good
health.

127
Reversed
Moving out into the world, travel.

Knower Of Trees
Though the season for this suit is Spring,
Trees change throughout the year, just as
we humans experience many changes and
seasons throughout our lives. We see a
woman standing like a tree herself, with
vines growing over her. The vines and the
red flower before her suggest Summer,
while the leaves in her hair and floating on
the river remind us of Autumn. All about
her, and on her face, we see stars, 19 of them, the number of
the Sun.
The picture comes from a meditation done in a summer class
on the Tarot, in which a woman entered the world of the
Empress. In the woman's vision, the Empress dressed her in
a beautiful dress and a crown of stars. They journeyed together
on a river, where the Empress told her she had the power to
awaken love and healing in herself and in others. As a gift to
take back with her, the Empress gave her a flower with stars
throughout the leaves and petals.
Putting this woman's meditation into the card of the
Knower of Trees allowsof us to partake of her vision of the
all

power of love. Because it is Trees, the card tells us that this

power comes when we find our own connections to nature and
the roots of our experience.

Upright
Awareness of nature, confidence, ability to love and help
others without losing our own sense of self.

Reversed
Over attention to the needs of others, loss of self.

128
Gift Of Trees
The central figure here, the tree magician
with its wand of power, comes from the
same workshop as the vision on the
previous card. Instead of a meditation,
however, this image came from an actual
object found on the grounds of the
workshop centre.
Drawn exactly as I found it, this literal
'gift' from the trees mimics both the
Shining Woman glyph and the Major Arcana Magician, for
in traditional Tarots as well as in Shining Womany the Magician
raises amagic wand in his right hand. In this card the emphasis
shifts from the stability of Trees to the power and radiant
confidence of Fire. The snake-like figure draws down the
lightning with one hand and makes a fist of determination
with the other. All up and down its body are marks like
mouths, while Its 'head' resembles a bird, with a fiery plume
and a triangular beak. The
triangle points downward. Now,
even though this is a out of nature, we can still look at
gift
it symbolically, for it is one of the lessons of Shining Woman

Tarot that symbols are not arbitrary, but emerge from the mind
encountering the world. In esoteric tradition, mouths
symbolize consciousness, while a downward triangle signifies
manifestation, that is, the formless energy of Fire anchored in
the realities of bodies, of actions. Both our physical existence
and our ability to think and to communicate are gifts of the
Fire that animates the universe.

Upright
Confidence and power as gifts at this time in a person's life.

Eagerness, determination, leadership, belief.

Reversed
Doubt, pessimism. Reaching out to others for help or
cooperation.

129
speaker Of Trees
This abstracted Tree of Life 'speaks' ^s^^l/^
without words or even a mouth but rather C^ y^p
with an inner Fire rising to a breakthrough >yi» It^g^
of consciousness. Once again, the form ^ yT
reminds us of the Shining Woman glyph, =JjJjL£=S=
but now with extra arms along the sides. l^ If ^
Twelve small trees on these branches recall ^.^j:^::^
the Hanged Woman, whose own Tree takes snMmdma
a similar form. Seventeen rays of light
surround the head at the top of the Tree. They suggest trump
17, the Star, with its message of hope and new confidence.
We see a handprint and a footprint at the bottom of the
Tree. The narrow heel of the foot hints at an ape rather than
a human. The hand, however, is a human attribute.
Handprints are a feature of rock art around the world.
Algonkin art sometimes indicated a shaman simply by a hand
(a more complete version showed a figure with the right arm
raised, the posture of the Tarot Magician, and the Gift of
Trees). The rays of light around the head of this Speaker recalls
the Algonkin Jessakkid shaman from the 6 of Stones.
The heads, however, do not come from North America, but
Australia. They are inspired by the 'child germs' we saw on
the hillside of Justice. The heads on right and left signify solar
and lunar consciousness, while the central face, with its violet
ring, symbolizes spiritual unity transcending opposites. The
form of this Tree resembles (though not precisely) the
Kabbalist Tree of Life, with its ten sephiroth (the three heads,
six branches, and one base form ten points), where the middle
pillar of the Tree resolves or unifies the tension between the
two sides.
A snake up the centre of the Tree (look again at the
rises
form of the we encountered the idea
Gift). In the 7 of Trees
of the kundalini rising up the body to release enlightenment.
Yoga describes the kundalini snake coiled asleep at the
as a
base of the spine (see the High Priestess). When it rises, people

130
experience great heat, for the Universal Fire has opened
within their bodies. On the Speaker of Trees, the kundalini
has awoken.

Upright
Confidence, brilliance, communication of new ideas and
plans. Great energy. Enlightenment.

Reversed
Unrealized potential. Something asleep in a person which
needs to be awoken.

Place Of Rivers
The Place of Rivers is an inner world of
peace and contemplation. We see a figure
(who may be male or female) kneeling
before a pool of dark water. We have seen
earlier that a dark pool symbolizes the
unconscious, with its depths and
mysteries. Here two rivers of lighter water
feed into this pool. When we enter this
Place (and we can do so simply by stopping
our compulsive outward rush of attention and turning our
awareness inward) we discover how all our actions, and
emotions (joyous and painful) feed back into the mystery of
our inner existence.
Beyond the forked river we see a cave, similar in form to the
outer contours of the pool (water has no form but is bound
into the shape of its containers). People have often gone into
caves to turn their attention away from distractions and find
that place in themselves we have called the Place of Rivers.
Above the cave we see a dolmen, entrance to the otherworld
of the spirits. On the other side of the pool from the meditator
we see an outcropping of rock in the form of a serpent. The
energy patterns of the Earth lie at rest in the Place of Rivers.

131
upright
Meditation, quiet, inner peace. A chance to revitalize
emotions through a time of withdrawal.

Reversed
Activity, movement, keeping busy.

Knoiver Of Rivers
(Deep Water Dreaming)
In the previous card we saw a cave as a
place to withdraw into the element of
Water. Here we see a figure emerging from
a cave holding a fish and a snake, while
another fish - recalling the skeleton fish
on the leg Shining Woman - and
of
another snake swim through a river at the
lUIOWEJt o( RIVERS
figure's feet.The red face and flaming hair
tell us that this Knower has returned from

an inner journey within the cave and is now returning to the

world. The purpose of going to the Place of Rivers is not for
permanent detachment, but for renewal of the self through
knowledge of the inner darkness that transforms itself into
radiant light.
Above the cave, on top of the hill, four Shining Woman
glyphs, two light and two dark (with the dark contained
within the with three trees to add up to the
light), alternate
number 7, the Chariot number of victory. This is not a victory
over the outer world, but a victory for the self willing to enter
the deep and limitless waters of the mystery, the formless
Water which cannot be explained or charted, but can only be
known by knowing. The Knower holds the fish and snake,
symbols of the awakened soul, in a grip that is firm but
without harshness. In the outer river the more elaborate fish
and snake swim freely through the lighter waters of emotion.

132
upright
Looking deep into one's own nature. Self-knowledge,
intuition. Confident action.

Reversed
Tearfulness, unwillingness to look at oneself.

Gift Of Rivers
The Speaker of Trees showed us the
widespread idea of solar and lunar
consciousness, the right and left hands,
united, transfigured in the central pillar o{
the tree which is where the
also the spine,
awakened kundalini snake has risen from
the base to the crown of the head.
According to Joseph Campbell, Hindu
teachings sometimes describe the base of
the spine, known as the root chakra, as Three River Junction'
comparing the streams of energy to a meeting place of rivers,
the Allahabad of the Jumna, the Ganges, and an invisible
river, the Sarasvati.
Here we see two streams flowing into one. Where they meet
we find a bowl of happiness, its water dark and limitless in the
way of magic bowls and cauldrons of all mythologies
everywhere. The three roundels with their rivers shown on the
Tawer hillside now decorate the bowl. In the Tower they
formed a line; here they connect into a circle, so that only one
of the roundels is visible. The bowl is the Holy Grail, God's
gift of love and abundance. To the left we see a snake winding

between two plants. On the right stands a red rose, symbol

of fulfilled desire. Above the bowl a fish-headed woman, the
Water aspect of the Goddess, dances joyously.

133
Upright
Happiness, abundance, love. Different aspects of life flowing
together.

Reversed
A need to recognize life's gifts. The Grail of happiness remains,
but we have trouble recognizing its presence in our lives.

Speaker Of Rivers
If we wish to Speak the experience of
Water we cannot expect to do so in direct,
clear terms. Instead, we must let the
imagination tell us its messages through its
own language of metaphor, myth, riddle
and story. A multi-coloured fish, its
colours symbolic of the endless variety
SfTAKCK RIVCKS o(
and movement of the imagination, leads a
school of fish, each with its own colour.
Though we all hear the same words, a genuine myth gives each
of us something different, bringing out the colour concealed
within the greyness of our daily lives.
On the fish's tale appears the phrase And on the way I told
a tale of such power'. The words come from an eighteenth-
century mystical teacher named Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav,
who gave up direct teaching and instead told stories to his
disciples (his school). The full sentence ends of such power
'.
. .

that all who heard it had thoughts of repentance'. Stories are

life-giving; they return us to knowledge of ourselves. The fish
has 11 sharp teeth, the number of Justice, for stories sometimes
bite but they tell the truth.
At the bottom of the card we see a bowl, similar to the Gift
on the last card. Now, however, light fills the dark bowl,
symbolizing the power of myth to bring back marvels from the
formless surges and instincts of the unconscious. At top we
see a trio of buildings (based on actual works by the architect

134
I.M. Pei). They remind us that theworld' of 'real human
culture flows from the River of Imagination.

Upright
Storytelling, imagination, the power to inspire or heal others.

Reversed
Instinct. Feelings or desires hard to put into words.

Place Of Birds
The Places are creations in the mind where
we encounter the elements as visions
within ourselves. This would be the same
even if we went to an actual place for such
an encounter, for the mind would still
'create' that place as a meaningful symbol
for our own understanding of life. The
Australian Aborigines map the landscape
as the bodies of the ancestors. Ancient
temples and stone mounds may have been built as a way of
harmonizing aspects of landscape (such as a triple mountain,
or a stream and a hillside) into a sacred image. The Place of
Birds shows us an imaginary landscape transformed into a
human creation, a work of art.
We see a labyrinth covering several mountains and formed
from trees, rivers, birds and stones. The 'story' of this card
supposes that a person came to this remote spot and observed
the way the caves and bushes and curving rivers, and even
the circling birds, suggested a labyrinth. The person then
arranged rocks and drew lines in the dirt to complete the form,
that is, to bring into reality an image that only the mind could
have perceived as already existing in the random elements of
nature.
The and the element of Air teach us about art
suit of Birds
and the mind. There are many physical labyrinths in the

135
world, some made by laying out stone,some by growing
bushes or trees in a particular form. All of them share the same
source - the human need to create images which will express
a sacred idea suggested, but not directly expressed, in nature.

\Jprig\it

Remoteness, separation from emotional involvements.

Creativity, realization of projects.

Reversed
Involvement with others. Hard work needed to bring ideas
into reality.

Yinower Of Birds
A Chinese myth about the origin of
writing tells us that 'as Tsang Chieh . . .

looked up he saw images dropping down,

and these he combined with footprints o{
birds and tortoises'. In ancient China
diviners read the will of the Gods (which
is to say, predicted the outcome of events)
KnOWERoTBUUK
by touching heated iron to the shells of
dead tortoises and then examining the
cracks. People all over the world have divined omens by
watching the flight patterns of birds. Many stories tell of the
hero who gains all knowledge by learning to speak the
'language of the birds'. So we can describe 'the footprints of
birds and tortoises' as a sort of code for divination.
Interestingly, the Algonkin Jessakkid shamans, whose high
status derived partly from their expertise as diviners, received
power from the spirits of Turtle and Thunderbird. And
Hermes, the Greek God of writing and all the arts, invented
the lyre from a tortoise shell. He then gave the lyre to Apollo,
ruler of divination. (When I visited the oracle at Delphi I
encountered an aged tortoise on the road entering the town

136
and, several days later, a baby tortoise on the road leaving.)
Tarot writer Mary Greer has pointed out that those first
diviners who sought meaning in patterns on tortoise shells
may have worked solely through personal inspiration. Quite
soon, however, the human need for a system required a list
of images and their meanings. The same holds true for flight
patterns. Writing, therefore, may have developed out o{ the
need to codify the images of divination. To be a Knower of
Birds is to be a master of images.
Many researchers believe that women, rather than men,
invented writing. Women stayed in the village when the men
went hunting, so they had more opportunity for creative
discoveries. Also, writing shares qualities with the women's
secret lore of spinning. The great oral Maria Sabina, who
poet,
used writing as a metaphor of power, told an interviewer, *I
see that language falls, comes from up above, as if they were
little luminous objects that fall from heaven'. In honour o{

Tsang Chieh, however, I have drawn the Knower of Birds as

a male sage receiving beams of knowledge to both the right
and the left sides of the brain.

Upright
Wisdom, knowledge, development of ideas.

Reversed
Need to seek knowledge, to investigate the source of ideas.

Gift Of Birds
The sword in traditional Tarot decks
symbolizes not only analysis and cutting
through confusion, but also conflict and
emotional pain. The bird-headed shaman
on this card holds a feathered shield to
defend himself against mental aggression.
At the same time, the flute floating to the
ground shifts the suit from analysis to art, Qirrof BIROS

from aggression to inspiration.

137
 The flute is not a 'safe' creation of mind, for the sound may
evoke a wild abandon that can carry us beyond the rational
restrictions o{ human culture. Like the bird songs it imitates,
the flute suggests ecstatic journeys. According to some Greek
stories, Hermes invented the flute as well as the lyre, but left
the flute behind due to its disturbing qualities. Other versions
describe the flute as the invention of Pan, from whose name
we derive the word 'panic'. The flute represents danger because
it invites us to dance, freely and wildly. It shakes us loose from

all the rules we've learned, it liberates us from self-

consciousness and fear. It allows us to become birds, if not in
flight, then in song.

Upright
Passion, wildness, liberation. Music, abandon, outpouring of
ideas.

Reversed
Conformity, resisting temptation. Following a safe path.

Speaker Of Birds
What does it mean
Speak with the
to
authority of the Birds? We have seen how
birds inspire art and liberation, even
madness, but above all, knowledge of the
Gods, the spirits who dwell in the Great
Above, where only the birds can travel.
Just as temples poetry
(Place), and
(Knower), and music (Gift) are the ways of
SrtAMJt o( BIRDS
the Birds, so is prophecy, the inner
knowing that allows us to Speak truth.
The idea for this picture came from an African chair on
display in the Royal Ontario Museum
of Toronto. After
drawing the picture (and changing the form to an African
dance posture, for dance, like song, is the work of the birds),
I came across the following passage from Judith Gleason:

138
'Royal Authority ... activated by a beaked bird or birds
is

perched on top of the crown, or by a bird motif worked into

its surface design'.
Birds give authority because they speak, and because they
travel in the empty along the wind, the invisible force o{
air,

the Goddess's invisible body (compared to Her visible body,

the Earth). We too have invisible bodies, for our minds travel
to the stars, to the deep waters, to the many worlds of story.

Upright
Communicating from our deepest truths. Sharing ideas and
information with a sense of inner authority.

Reversed
Difficulty in convincing others. Keeping silent.

Place Of Stones
In the Speaker of Birds, we described the
Earth as the Goddess's visible body. Pre-
historic cultures of different lands have
made this idea explicit by creating burial
mounds and temples in the form of a
reclining woman. In the Gift of Stones, we
will see an actual temple. Here we see an
PUCE STORES
of

imaginative expression of this concept in

the form of a stone structure based on the
carving known as the 'Venus of Willendorf (we see her as well
on the Hanged Woman). She has the ample form characteristic
of Stone Age figures for, above all, the Great Goddess is the
Mother of life and death. This double quality appears in the
double line of stones. We see a green egg-shaped rock in the
temple's first chamber, and then a golden Goddess stone at
the entrance to the second level, the level of the heart. From
there the way is open to the head, the place of revelation. The

139
abstract figures on the sides suggest both the liveliness of
prancing horses and the devotion of humans at prayer.
Above the hill we see three sets of stone pillars. They mark
the sunrises at the four points of the year; one for each of the
solstices and one for the two equinoxes. Many Stone Age
works marked exactly such events in the sky, linking the
Goddess's body on Earth to the heavens. With the discovery
of agriculture, these seasonal highlights became vital as clues
for the correct times for planting and harvesting. By recording
the seasons in temples and circles and mounds the builders
brought together the practical and the spiritual.
At the bottom we see a deer with a human-like face. The
image comes from a 5,000 year-old temple of Ninkursag,
Sumerian Goddess of birth and rebirth. The flame antlers and
the red stones of the temple recall the red ochre that all over
the world symbolizes the life-giving power of the Earth.

Upright
A safe environment. A place of wealth and security. Security
that allows adaptation to change.

Reversed
Moving out into the world. Sense of fresh beginnings.

Knower Of Stones
This electric image derives from rock a
painting on the wall o{ a T^xas canyon.
Shamanic ecstasy often appears in art as
the hair standing up. This is not simply a
symbolic idea. Moments o{ awe excite the
nervous system so that the hairs on the
arms or neck stand on end. Almost
everyone has felt this;shaman
the enters
into the experience of awe more fully than
the rest of us.

140
 The arms fling open to accept the wonder that comes with
knowing the power found in the suit of Stones and the
element of Earth. The face appears grim, for ecstasy is not a
simple or even a pleasant experience. As we saw in the Tower,
it transforms all previous assumptions and understanding.

Symbols surround the central figure. We see an abstract toad

at the lower right, and the solar/uterine bull from the Major
Arcana Sun at the lower left. The mystery of Stone includes
the way actual rocks can contain images that we thought
belonged entirely to the mind. The 'dragon' at the shaman's
feet and the headless Shining Woman glyph on the upper right
both come from a pebble found in California. On the pebble
itself, the horn of the dragon curls around the other side to

become the arm of the stick figure.

Upright
Finding inner meanings in ordinary objects and experiences.
Conviction, certainty.

Reversed
Confusion, artificial boundaries between different aspects of
life, such as work and emotions.

Gift Of Stones
(Gift Mother Dreaming)
(dedicated to Eva M.)
The two temples in the centre of this card
derive from the oldest freestanding build-
ing in the world, the temple of the
Goddess on the Maltese island of Gozo.
Known today as Ggantija, the 'female
giant', the temple (and its 'daughter'
temple beside it) takes the form of an
abstract woman lying on her back.
In recent years people from many

141
countries have travelled to Ggantija as a way of recovering the
Goddess in their own lives. Because Stones, more than the
other suits, emphasize physical reality, I have put my own
experience most directly into this card. The images chronicle
my journey to the temple, where everything happened in pairs.
Below the larger temple we see a snail shell of the sort found
all over Gozo, which may have inspired the spiral motif

adorning the 6,000 year-old stone blocks. At the upper right

an altar contains five snail shells arranged as a five-pointed star
(the Tarot pentacle which usually represents the element of
Earth). A German woman named Eva, who had come to the
island on a pilgrimage, had set the snails there. On my own
last day on the island, when I went to say goodbye to the
temple, thousands of butterflies filled the air; they must have
broken free of their cocoons that morning. I looked at the altar
and the snails had vanished, replaced by the sand drawing of
half a butterfly shown at the bottom left o( the card. Across
from the butterfly, on the right, two Shining Woman glyphs
signify myself and Eva, but also all the women and men who
have sought the Goddess in Her ancient stone places.
The smaller temple (the daughter) was built when the style
of architecture had done away with the back chamber which
formed the head of the mother temple. This headless Goddess
matches the statues found at various sites on Malta (we see
an example directly above the daughter temple), for the
ancient creators built the head separately to allow the priests
to move it on the statue's shoulders, as if the Goddess was
speaking. On the far left of this statue appears a small drawing
of a column of stone carved with a snake. This large work
stands in the Gozo Museum. Directly to the right of it, the
small rock with a natural snake image and the twig in the form
of a horned serpent were found by myself and Eva. With no
previous discussion, we brought them on the same day to give
as gifts to each other in celebration o{ the temple.
Above these objects we find a stone arch open to the water.
In a cave within this natural Moon shape (the arch is found
on the island's north shore), a cleft opens in the rock. In many
cultures a natural cleft symbolizes the Goddess as creator. On

142
the day came to this arch I brought a torso-shaped stone
I I

had found near the site of an unexcavated temple. After I

placed it in the cleft, as a gift to the Goddess, I sensed that

if I reached down into the water with my foot I would find

something in return. When I did, my toes curled around the

Goddess stone shown below the temple of the Daughter. This
single stone - representing the wisdom found in natural stones
and human-made temples throughout the world - symbolizes
the Gift of Stones.

\]prig\it

Intimate sharing, links between parents and children, or

between friends. Finding deep meaning in your own
experience.

Reversed
A need to make a journey or to reach out to another person.
A need to recognize or record your experiences.

speaker Of Stones
This remarkable image of a woman formed
out of geometric shapes derives from a
20,000 year-old engraved mammoth tusk
discovered in Moravia, Czechoslovakia.
The spiral of red dots above the Speaker
comes from the cave of Pech-Merle in
France (site of finger-painted female
nudes), while the series of abstract forms
below are part of a variety of signs found
among the naturalistic paintings in the great cave of Lascaux,
whose bull appears on the card of the Emperor. Through the
voices of paintings and carvings on rock and bone, these vastly
old cultures still Speak to us, telling us of the power of the
Earth and the mysteries of the human intellect.

143
 Some time after drawing this picture and naming it Speaker
of Stones, I came across a discussion of the engraving in G.R.
Levy's ground-breaking history of religion, The Gate of Horn.
Levy describes this picture as a possible prototype of the later
cultural idea that the cave formed the Goddess's body. She
compares the geometrized forms with the ground paintings of
the Australian Aborigines (entwining two major strands of
Shining Woman Tarot). She further describes the radiating lines
around the central oval in the 'belly' area as suggesting a bull-
roarer, the whirling instrument made of bone to mimic the
voice of the spirits. And so we find the idea of Speaking
literalized in the picture itself.
The Earth speaks to us most fully through Her creatures, the
millions of species which have poured out from Her body,
which once was lifeless rock. The vulva shape in the lower
'abdomen' radiates lines of energy, like a shout to celebrate the
endless Speech of creation.

Upright
Speaking from absolute conviction. Persuading others
through the power of one's own certainty. Fecundity, fertility
in many aspects, wealth.

Reversed
Uncertainty, seeking approval from others. Need to accept
one's own truth.

144
PART 3
1
 Readings

Despite the Tarot's long tradition as a book of wisdom, most

people still think of it as a device for fortune telling. Tell people
of your interest in Tarot and they will ask 'Can you read my
cards?' And when people do go to someone for a reading they
will judge it only by its 'accuracy' in predicting the future. As
a result, Tarot commentators have sometimes dismissed Tarot
readings as a distraction, or even an insult to the Tarot's
genuine purpose.
begun to use readings
In recent years, however, people have
in a new
way, based more closely on the cards' spiritual
meanings. Instead o( revealing secret facts, Tarot readings
now lead us to deeper knowledge of ourselves. Instead of
predictions, they give us directions for personal trans-
formation. They show us what we have made of our lives, how
we fit into theweb of lives and events around us, where we
are heading, and what we can do to change.
Most important, they give us the tools to make those
changes. These tools are the Tarot pictures themselves.
Suppose the cards show us fixed in a negative Devil approach
to life. We feel ourselves locked in, frightened of our own
feelings. We then ask the cards, 'What should I do to open up?'
and receive Temperance. This of all a recommendation.
is first

It says to take a slow balancedapproach (the Fool would have

been an entirely different recommendation). It does not just
suggest this but tells us that such an approach is possible and
will work in this situation. And then the picture itself helps
us move from a Devil attitude to one o{ Temperance.

147
 The unconscious thinks primarily in images. Consider
dreams. We may receive important phrases or messages in
them, but dreams still come to us mainly as scenes. Because
of their symbols and primal colours, Tarot cards touch us on
a deep level. If we need to develop a Temperance attitude we
can do so through a deliberate programme of action, speech,
journal writing and so on. But we also can do so simply by
keeping the figure of Temperance in our minds, picturing it in
the moments we need it, carrying the card with us and looking
at it from time to time, entering the picture through
meditation and using any other method that allows us to live 1
with Temperance on a daily basis.
Shining Woman Tarot arises from tribal and prehistoric art
from around the world. In these traditions people sought to
follow their own sacred path which the spirits had given them
in their lives. Therefore, while we can use Shining Woman Tarot
in the usual ways - for fortune telling, psychological insight,
advice in relationships, etc. - it speaks most deeply when we
ask it to show us our own paths of personal power and truth,
how we may have lost our way on those paths, and how to
return to our own true selves.
This does not mean that the Tarot controls us or tells us
what we must do. The purpose of Tarot readings is to increase
free will, not to diminish it. Readings do this by helping us
become more conscious of who we are and what we are doing.
Our choices always remain with us.
There is another reason for doing readings. We can learn
about the Tarot pictures by studying the meanings in books,
or pondering the pictures, or entering them in meditations.
However, the best way to get to know them - and their
messages for us - is by seeing how they act in readings. The
Tarot is a book which recreates itself every time we shuffle the
deck. When cards come up against each other in readings we
discover new meanings. For instance, only when we see the
9 of Trees beside the 6 of Rivers, and observe the similar form
of Lilith in the tree and the woman in the river, do we have
a chance to ponder the relationship between our own
alienated 'dark' selves and our emerging sensuality. Many of

148
the interpretations given in this book first arose in actual
readings.
The divinatory (upright) meanings given in this book do not
attempt to exhaust the possibilities. They are suggestions, a
first attempt. As more people work with Shining Woman Tarot

the meanings will grow. For each card I have also given
reversed meanings. These come in when the card turns up the
wrong way around. Many people prefer not to use these
meanings, feeling that they complicate interpretation. For
those who do wish to use reversed interpretations, they do not
change the basic meaning of the cards. Instead, they show the
qualities of the card blocked in some way, or channelled into
a slightly different direction, or liberated if the picture shows
suppressed energy. Often they point to an unrecognized need.
We do not need special psychic powers to read Tarot. We do,
however, need a basic knowledge of the cards and a sensitivity
to their images. Both these qualities develop over time. Do not
hesitate to read the cards with the deck in one hand and this
book in the other. Do not worry if you do not grasp the
connections between the pictures or get an overall message.
Skill will come with experience.
The technique is simple. Mix the cards face down. If you
use reversed meanings make sure to turn some of them around.
When you have finished shuffling, use the left hand to separate
them into three piles, then reassemble them, placing the
bottom pile on top (some people pass a hand over each pile,
choosing for the top the one that gives off the most heat).
Then lay the cards out according to the 'spread'.
A Tarot spread is a pattern of positions, often with titles such
as 'past influences' or 'hopes and fears'. The interpretation
becomes a combination of the card and its position. Various
books on Tarot will give a wide choice o{ spreads for many
different issues. The simplest spreads involve one, two or three
cards. Here are a pair of spreads with three cards.

149
1 Lay the cards in a row as follows:

The card in the centre shows the current situation. The cards
on either side show two choices the person faces in dealing
with this situation.

2 This time the cards go in a different order:

The card shows the person's 'spiritual history'. This

on the left

means the pattern the person has been acting out to arrive
at the present situation. Theon the right indicates the
card
person's 'spiritual challenge', the issues which the person needs
to face. The middle card then shows the 'spiritual gift', what
is given to us to meet that challenge.

Though both spreads use only three cards the second clearly
explores more deeply than the first. By emphasizing the

150
archetypal dimensions of experience it aligns itself with Shining
Woman Tarot's emphasis on the sacred path.
We can use any of the many traditional spreads with Shining
Woman Tarot. We also can create spreads for particular
situations. This involves making up positions based on the
person's issues and questions. Here are two examples. Both
include the 10 of Stones as a promise of health and prosperity
and both involve a symbolic death to make room to receive
this promise.

151
1 A woman recovering from a serious illness wanted the cards
to show her the connections between three levels o( self. The
lower level would describe the subconscious patterns shaping
her life at this time. The middle level would indicate what was
happening to her in the world. The upper level would show
the direction of her future development. The cards came out
as shown opposite:

At the lower Chariot reversed and the Fool indicated

level the
a need to surrender control of what was happening in her
world. She needed to give up the control and willpower of the
Chariot and be willing to leap into new experience with the
Fool.
The Sun reversed and the 5 of Trees at the middle level
signified that she was still physically weak and needed
watch to
herself carefully. The Gift of Stones affirmed that she had
found a good place which would give her the gift of nurturing
and healing. The reading came just before a planned trip to
a healing centre on a Caribbean island.
On the upper level the 5 of Birds suggested that she needed
to surrender the image of herself as a sick person in order to
fully recover. She needed to release the shamanic body of light.
The 10 of Stones told her that surrender would lead to new
health and abundance. As a powerful link with the 5 of Birds
(which she had never seen before the reading), the woman
had, earlier that day, come upon five huge ravens eating the
carcass of a squirrel.

152
 ^
9
QifTofSTones

153
2 A woman who had achieved recognition in her profession
found she was bringing in little money for the work she was
doing. She decided to take a workshop which would help her
look at what she was doing with money in her life. The day
before the workshop she asked for a reading on the best way
to approach it. We set up three questions: what she brought
to the workshop, what she might get from it, and what she
needed to do for the best result. The cards came out as follows:

Shining Woman said she was more powerful, more successful

than she realized, and she needed to recognize this. The 10
of Stones indicated that the workshop would lead to the
wealth, spiritual and material, that she had blocked herself
from receiving. When we saw Death as what she needed to
do, we decided to ask two more questions. What needed to
die, and what would result if she allowed this death to happen?
The two cards were the 10 of Rivers and Temperance.

154
When I told the woman that the 10 of Rivers signified family,
she identified it as a reference to her parents' attitudes and
beliefs about money, which she had absorbed and acted out.
These included fear and passivity. As the card which follows
Death, Temperance strongly endorsed letting go of these
beliefs. Some days later the woman told me that the workshop
had not only focused on her parents' 'lessons' about money
and work, it had also shown her that she saw herself as a child.
Shining Woman and Temperance helped her recognize herself
as an adult. I reminded her that the cards not only gave her
this information, she also could use the images to overcome
that deeply conditioned picture of herself as a passive child.

These few examples can only begin to show the possibilities

of readings. As a radically re-imagined Tarot, Shining Woman
is an unexplored country. Enter it, find your own way, discover
its hidden places, receive its gifts. I will give the last word to

Shining Woman herself. Choosing one card at random has

brought forth the 2 of Trees. Let this image of breakthroughs
and joyous acceptance end this first journey into the world
of Shining Woman. Blessed is the Mother who has given us
shape.

155
 By the same author

Seventy-eight Degrees
of Wisdom
A Book of Tarot in two volumes

The Tarot is a perennially fascinating set of strange and

beautiful pictures. But beyond this is a world of potent
symbols - a path to self-knowledge, personal growth, and
freedom. Seventy-eight Degrees of Wisdom is a complete but
concise guide to the origins, meaning and psychological
applications of the Tarot. Its aim is to demystify and to make
Tarot symbolism an effective and accessible means of self-
enlightenment.
In Part 1 the age-old wisdom enshrined in the Major Arcana
,

of the Tarot is analysed with considerable skill in relation to

contemporary psychological disciplines. With primary
reference to the Rider-Waite book offers an
deck, this
authoritative and pertinent guide wisdom.
to Tarot
In Part 2 of her study Rachel Pollack examines in depth the
Minor Arcana or suit cards of the Tarot, with particular
reference to the Rider-Waite deck. The second section of the
text concentrates on how to give Tarot readings, bringing
together the cards of the Major and Minor Arcana and giving
many illuminating insights into the complex and subtle nature
of Tarot divination.
 Tarot Readings
and Meditations
The Open Labyrinth

A Tarot reading lies before us, all of its images laid out on the

table. not simply a puzzle to be decoded but a complex

It is

pathway deep into ourselves.

Here Rachel Pollack presents interpretations and
commentaries o{ a collection of readings undertaken during
the past few years. The approach is exhaustive, yet specific,
going steadily deeper into the cards and the patterns they
form. Each full interpretation sets the person's concerns in a
context of light and dark, the Magician and the High Priestess.
Through recognition of this context, the subject and the
reader open up their lives.
In her highly successful Seventy-eight Degrees of Wisdom^
Rachel Pollack described how we can form meditation
patterns - Tarot mandalas - to help us go beyond the reading.
In thisbook she goes on to give examples of these mandalas
and describes how the people involved used them and their
subsequent experiences.
 The New Tarot
Modern Variations of Ancient Images

The last two decades have seen what many people call the
'Tarot Renaissance'. In addition to new approaches to
interpretingand reading the cards, a great number of new
decks have appeared, and this book provides a survey of these
many decks.
book Rachel Pollack carefully examines the messages
In this
behind all the modern variations of the ancient Tarot form.
In the past, artists confined themselves to using traditional
images - contemporary designers, however, have allowed
themselves a greater freedom in order to use Tarot as a medium
for new ideas and personal expression. They have used the
versatility of Tarot to tailor its images to their various themes,
including storytelling, humour, spiritual tradition and
cultures, psychology, esotericism, women's spirituality and
astrology - there is even the monumental 'Tarot Garden' in
which huge sculptures tower over the trees.
Lavishly illustrated. The hJew Tarot not only provides a
general survey of this work and current trends, it also looks
critically at over 70 decks produced in the last 15 years,
indicating their strengths and weaknesses, and comparing
them with each other and with those traditional decks which
have inspired them.
78 DEGREES OF WISDOM Part 1 85030 220 X £6.99 \J
78 DEGREES OF WISDOM Part 2 85030 339 7 £7.99 \J
TAROr READINGS AND
MEDITATIONS 1 85538 049 8 £6.99 \J
THE NEW TAROr 1 85538 058 7 £8.99 Q
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 SWnirig Woman Tarot
Shining Woman Tarot is a sacred divination pack, awakening
in the reader a sense of spiritual power and beauty. It is the

result of decades of work with the Tarot, myth, dreams

and the spiritual realities of the imagination. Its roots are

I
in traditional Tarot, but it is also a radical departure.

The images, painted by the author herself, are drawn from

many cultures and traditions, ranging over six continents

and tens of thousands of years. The names and symbolism of

the Major and Minor Arcana have been amended to reflect

this — the four suits are Trees, Rivers, Birds and Stones, while

the Court cards are now Place, Knower, Gift and Speaker.

Unique in its linking of the Tarot to tribal and prehistoric

art, Shining Woman Tarot opens up many new possibilities for

the use of the Tarot today, and provides a valuable tool for

personal development.

Rachel Pollack has worked with the Tarot for over twenty
years and has written many books on the subject, including

Seventy -Eight Degrees of Wisdom and The New Tarot.

Her work has received wide praise for its innovative and ,

"

sensitive approach to the Tarot.

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