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 | "Through the Portal" | |
| When we look at a layout of the Tarot, the right brain sees them as recognisable stages in the patterns of the map. The left brain is then free to take the events of the Questors current situation and see them as threads in the pattern. One that the conscious mind seldom has the ability to do by itself. |
| Our current civilisation has replaced the symbols with labels. Free-floating anxiety. So and So's Syndrome ... Foggy descriptions that have no meaning in themselves to anyone outside of the new priesthood. They replace imagery with sterile data. The data states that so and so will occur, when all conditions have been met. The power of the imagery of mythic symbols is that while having a generalised meaning, they effect each of us in accordance with our own feeling of them. In "Myths to Live By", Joseph Campbell put it this way: "Now the first and most important effect of a living mythological symbol is to waken and give guidance to the energies of life. It is an energy-releasing and energy-directing sign, which not only 'turns you on,' as they say, but turns you on in a certain direction, making you function in a certain way - which will be one conducive to your participation in the life and purposes of a functioning social group." He goes on to say: "A distinguished professor in psychiatry at the University of California, Dr. John W. Perry, has characterised the living mythological symbol as an 'affect image'. It is an image that hits one where it counts. It is not addressed first to the brain, to be there interpreted and appreciated. On the contrary, if that where it has to be read, the symbol is already dead. |
| An 'affect image' talks directly to the feeling system and immediately elicits a response, after which the brain may come along with its interesting comments. There is some kind of throb of resonance within, responding to the image shown without, like the answer of a musical string to another equally tuned. A ritual is an organisation of mythological symbols; and by participating in the drama of the rite, one is brought directly into touch with these, not as verbal reports of historical events, either past, or present, or to be, but as revelations, here and now, of what is ..." It should be noted that he also has this to say: " ... this potentially very dangerous, often ill-advised interior adventure, questing within for the affect images that our secularised social order with its incongruously archaic religious institutions can no longer render. The ultimate divine mystery is there found imminent within each. It is not 'out there' somewhere. It is within you. ... The problem is psychological. And it can be solved." The emphasis is Campbell's. |
| I have learned that the nodes are not mini theatres wherein one experiences the play, then leaves by the same door. They are event horizons. Portals that lead to greater comprehension of the journey, bringing the benefits of sudden insights and intuitive flashes that light up the unknown. These nodular experiences always have a strong emotional signature. They rouse one above the normal level of emotional awareness, and can cause one to become emotionally sensitive or even vulnerable. That is both a risk and an invitation. They are not to be confused with quick flashes of inspiration that come and go. It is the length of their duration that earmarks them, a time span that can spread over several days, or longer. One may not see them forming, and may even be unaware of their immediate presence, recognition only arriving when the effects start to become become obvious. One becomes infused with unusual energy; euphoric, not manic. Surges of creativity are common. The most frequent indication is that one feels strongly inner directed. Doors in the mind, that have been long closed, can open to reveal aspects of one's nature that have been repressed. To borrow a phrase, the scales fall from one's eyes. Matters are seen in a new light, revealing those aspects of one's character with a startling, often shocking clarity. |
Tarot readers will recognise the situation known as, "The Lightning Struck Tower". Defences that we have built up over years to protect ourselves, are suddenly seen, not as the protection that one thought them to be, but as a prison One Questor described it thus: |
| "I have now learned to live without that armour that had been a weight on my shoulders for years. I wonder how many times it has deflected the good intentions of others. I now see that it was that which drove away both of the women that have loved me in past years. I recall one of them telling me, "I wanted to love you, but you withheld your permission." This sense of personal freedom is something that I have always wanted, but I failed to recognise that I was my own gaoler. I looked outside of myself in the mistaken belief that that was where it would come from. It was within me all the time. All of this happened some months ago, Since then, I have been getting used to it, enjoying it. Striding across The Peace Filled Meadows and the Plains of Contentment. Now I am ready for more adventuring. I do not intend to force the issue, but I will not just idle along in the hope that 'something' will happen. Changes have spread through me like ongoing ripples. The tenseness has been relaxed out of my muscles, and I am more fluid, less jerky, in my movements. My shoulders have dropped from their on-guard position, and I walk more upright. My voice has deepened, is more mellow. I find that I am now a lot better at communicating with others. The ripples continue to spread outwards. I have learned to think with my heart, and feel with my mind." |