The path to Enlightenment is personal. This is not “Enlightenment” as a grand idea that only special people can achieve, but rather the accumulation of efforts of each individual person in shedding the extra weight and baggage they have picked up over the course of their lifetime and being made light. It is about accepting, integrating, and understanding the darkness and shadows that we each have as part of our being. It is about the path to personal understanding and acceptance.
“Personal Enlightenment” means the achievement of what you set out to learn and accomplish this lifetime. It means to get out of your own way and allow understanding to enter. Whatever the lessons are, whatever emotions and feelings you incarnated to master, whatever personal status you are here to obtain, it means you have been successful in it. Your spirit is that much stronger. You are that much more powerful. You have awakened. You heard the calls to action, and you acted on them. You did not settle for complacency, but rather chose to follow your gut and the voices of the divine even when none of it made any logical sense.
Now your energy can be devoted to further growth and spiritual advancement. You do not need to go back and repeat the lessons of this lifetime again. Sure, they will come up again; both in this lifetime and future incarnations, but you will handle them with much greater ease. Strength it also means you are an inspiration upon the earth. People will sense in you a certain power. You will shine forth a radiance of confidence and knowingness that others will want to emulate. Help these people along the path of their own life. Share your wisdom and your knowledge. It can only help them to hear their own divine guidance and to follow the trail of synchronicities their own divine team is laying out for them.
Remember, the lesson one person may have set out to learn may have long since been mastered by another. Someone who has mastered one lesson may look at somebody who is working on that lesson for their self and ask “What is wrong with that person?” Not appreciating the effort they are putting into getting through this to be a better person.
What they should realize is that they themselves are learning lessons all their own. Perhaps these lessons are not as obvious problems such as drug addiction or alcoholism, but they are indeed here for something. Perhaps the lesson they are working on is to learn compassion or understanding for others.
The following is the Introduction to The Pieces of You Tarot: Illuminating the Archetypes Within by Jim Larsen, available at Amazon.com.
The Pieces of You Tarot by Jim Larsen
Introduction To The Pieces of You Tarot by Jim Larsen
I don’t care to use tarot cards to divine the future. I’ll know the future when I catch up to it. The future never disappears. It’s always just ahead, slightly out of reach. When we get there, we don’t even notice it because suddenly it is “now.” So what’s the point of trying to figure it out when it’s always changing anyway? Just relax and let it unfold as it will.
I prefer, instead, to use tarot cards to gleam understandings of people. This includes myself. I have learned much about myself through tarot cards. I have learned what a Fool I am, willing to take leaps of faith that others will probably never understand. I have learned that I am a powerful Magician, able to draw to myself that which I desire, even when the odds of doing so are profoundly against me. I have learned that I am a Hermit whose Star shines brightly as I meditate and go within to find my talents, skills, and power. I have learned that am more King of Wands than King of Swords, as I am more passionate about my creative pursuits than my intellectual endeavors. I have come to appreciate the Three of Swords and the pain it carries without taking it personally. I have come to honor every aspect of myself as represented by the cards, and that is the purpose of this book, to encourage you to do the same.
Think about it, every tarot card represents a piece of who we all are. When you understand all these pieces, you understand yourself. You understand others. You understand the human race, the human condition, and simple human nature. As you discover these aspects of yourself, so too will you see them reflected in others. You will start to notice their tarot personalities and what their dominate archetypes are, and in so doing, better predict what to expect from them.
A tarot card can remind you of an intrinsic quality that you possess. As you look at a card reflect on its qualities and see these resonating in yourself. For example, take a look at the Fool card. Consider the Fool’s spontaneity and faith in itself. Consider its ability to take a leap of faith into some complete unknown, confident it will land on its feet, undaunted by the mystery of its new environment. Where in you do these qualities exist? Are they on the surface, or are they buried deep inside somewhere, forgotten or barely touched?
Consider the Strength card as another example. Where in yourself is the ability to face any challenge? Where is your ability to take on the weight of the world without being crushed by it? Where is your ability to endure attacks to your status-quo and your ego without taking it personally? These are qualities that sometimes need to be developed. How willing re you to work on them?
Take the Empress as one last example. Examine her ability to love and care for others without conditions. Do you judge those that you love for their faults and weaknesses, or do accept them as they are? Is it important for you to know that they are well provided for and that they have what they need to prosper? These are the hallmarks of a well developed inner Empress.
Don’t expect every archetype to resonate with you. As you read this book, you may discover that some do not feel like a piece of you at all.You may ask yourself, “What is the author talking about? That’s not me.” This is to be expected. Some pieces of you are dormant. They have not been activated. To live the life you are meant to live, and to achieve what you are meant to achieve, the necessary aspects of your self have been ignited. These are the pieces of you that will carry to where you need to be. The ones that remain dormant, while still a part of the overall you, are not essential to your life’s mission, at least not yet. When needed, they will awaken. Chances are, you will experience at least a whisper of each during the course of your life.
To get the most from this book, read it with the intention of gleaming insights into yourself. Read it with the intention of gleaming insights into others. That is what this book is. It is a book of insights. It is meant to open windows to the multitude of personality types that exist in the human race. As you read this book, and as you delve into tarot with your own private practice, reflect on how each archetype is represented inside of yourself. Who do you know who exemplifies the essence of any particular archetype?
When somebody is a constant downer, you may say that this person is a real Nine of Swords, always looking for something to complain and cry about. Or, maybe you know somebody who is always happy and cheerful. You may say of them that they are a Three of Cups. You may also know somebody who is very inquisitive and always asking questions. You could say of them that they are a true Page of Swords. The list goes on.
For your own self, you may be going through a difficult time and are wondering how it will all turn out. In times like that, you may say you are having a Moon experience, and you can’t wait for the cycle of the moon to turn so that you have clarity. You may be facing fears or dealing with buried emotions that have come to surface and are now causing you distress. In such times, you may say you are dealing with the Devil. You may be having the best day of your life, where you simply feel great and never want the day to end. During a day like that, you may say you enjoying your time in the Sun.
This is the beauty of tarot. It gives us a language by which to describe human nature in all its variations. It gives us metaphors to help us make sense of who, what, and how we all are. It reminds us of our oneness, our similarities and our differences. It lets us examine our strengths and our weaknesses. As you read this book, ask yourself which archetypes represent your strengths? Ask yourself too, which qualities would you like to develop? Once identified, you can begin the task of working on those.
The tarot is divided into two major types of cards known as the major and the minor arcana. You may be asking if there is a difference between the major arcana pieces of yourself and the minor arcana. The answer is, yes. Think of the pieces of yourself represented by the major arcana as your divine aspects. These are the pieces that are intrinsically tied to your life’s purpose. They guide you through the obstacle course of your spirit’s journey towards enlightenment. They steer you in the direction to where you need to be and keep you track of what you should be doing to get the most out of your life.
The pieces of yourself represented by the minor arcana, on the other hand, represent your earthly, day to day life. These are your highs and lows, your joys and your disappointments, the fruits of your labor, the reaping of what you have sown, and the ideas and the inspirations that come your way. These are the building blocks of the content of your character, and the sum total of what life has made you. Your minor arcana pieces are what you become by both nature and nurture. The choices you make shape these aspects of yourself, as do your attitudes and beliefs. They are weakened and strengthened by how you handle yourself, relate to others, stand up to challenges, and appreciate the good things.
To see and appreciate tarot as pieces of yourself gives you power. You are taking control over your own destiny by strengthening those aspects of yourself that you feel will benefit you to strengthen, and to maybe back off some on those aspects of yourself that you feel are negative and keeping you from being the best you can be. To use tarot solely to divine your future is to deny the true power of tarot and your own true power as well. Create your own future. Do it by setting your intention on what you want, identifying and activating the piece of yourself that can help you get it, and going for it unrelentingly until you achieve it. — Jim Larsen
So, you have decided to learn how to read Tarot cards and are wondering what are some ways to understand the meaning of the cards. Consider this- one of the best favors you can do for yourself as a tarot card reader is the card a day reading. This is as exactly as it sounds. Every morning, pick a card. Do so with the intention of knowing what energy to expect in the day ahead. Look at this card. Examine this card. Meditate on the meaning of this card. As you go through the day, reflect on how this card is playing out for you. For example, did you pick The Fool? Ponder how The Fool’s energy of openness to new ideas and his propensity for leaps of faith are manifesting for you. Are you open to The Fool’s energy and lessons?
Not sure what the card means? Look up its meanings. Do a Google search on the card. There are many sights devoted to tarot card interpretations. Buy a book on meanings. There are many out there. Do the pack of cards you own have a small booklet with it to briefly explain the cards? Look up the meaning. Look it up as often as it takes to understand it.
It is great to keep a journal of your card a day drawings. Write what your card a day is, and what you expect from that card. What are your meditations on this card? What are your knowings of it? At the end of the day, how did the card play out for you? Where you cognizant of how this card represented its self to you?
Is there a particular card that repeatedly comes up for you in your card a day readings? If so, what does this suggest to you? Perhaps it is telling you to once and for all embrace the energy of the card. Become that particular archetype. Accept the challenges, lessons, and the joy that this card can bring.
Does this frequently pulled card change over time? If you continually pulled one card, does it change in time to another as you absorb the lessons of each from the past? What does this tell you about your evolution? Keep a journal of this. You will thank yourself in the months and years ahead that you read the cards.
In many ways, this becomes your history, the story of your evolution. Mastering the cards will bring about many changes in your life, particularly in terms of how perceive yourself and others. In time, you will categorize your attitudes, other people, and situations in terms of the archetypes. Perhaps you will meet somebody, and sum them up as a King of Wands type, or a natural born Empress. Perhaps you will have a job interview and consider it a total 9 of wands ordeal, although you were hoping for the strength of The Lovers.. Perhaps you will feel like you are having a Strength day, needing to tap into that energy a little extra.
This is much of the strength you will amass as a reader, and recording your card of the day readings will help you track such progress. It will also grant you the opportunity to track how and when your journey through life alters. Does a new relationship or friendship develop? How did your card a day drawings change to reflect it? New job? New family? New hobby? What are the cards telling you about these things? What else can you think of in your own life that the cards may reflect?
Consider too how the cards reflect problems you may encounter in life. Do you feel they are giving you advice on how to get past difficulties? How so? Pay attention to the cards you draw when you are going through a difficult period in life. They offer much guidance on overcoming hard times.
Keep up with your card a day readings. Absorb the meaning of each card. Journal your thoughts and your feelings of each card, tracking how they reflect in the day you have just had. What have you learned from this? How do your feelings and reactions change over time in consideration of any particular card? Be mindful of this. This is how you will grow and prosper as a tarot card reader.
Every tarot card represents a piece of who you are.
With each Tarot card being a part of the overall picture, blueprint of the human soul, then the card you draw exemplifies how a certain situation or time will affect you. Each archetype is a piece of the puzzle. The picture? What does it show? The human spirit, the human soul.
With each archetype being an aspect of who we are and what we experience, individually and collectively on the planet, then mastering the lesson of each and every individual archetype is to master what it means to be human.
Mastering the archetypes, each and every one of them is to master humanity, because now you have a label and an understanding of each feeling, each aspect of what it means to be human. This is incredibly empowering. This is incredibly healing. This is also an opening to intuition and empathy. Each card has a story to tell us about our self. Pick a card. What is the story this card can tell you?
