Since I�m just giving an example of Shadow Tarot, and am not trying to find anything specific, I chose a spread that doesn�t require any sort of questions. It�s purpose is to provide deeper insight towards our unconscious mind so that we might perceive the world more clearly. It�s called The Baphomet Spread
The Baphomet Spread
Card 1: (The Great Spirit) This card represents a God persona, more than what you are, yet does not exist outside of you. It looks after your interests, and you can call upon it in a personal way.
Card 2: (The Horned One) This card represents the unconscious fears lurking deep within you.
Card 3: (The Devil) This card represents those parts of yourself that you repress or hold unacceptable, because they frighten you for compensating for your shortcomings.
Card 4: (The Hidden) This card represents those things you realize you don�t understand. This aspect feels sorry for itself because although it perceives the truth, no one listens to it. It signifies the mysterium magnum, which penetrates all material bounds, understands all secrets, demands the truth, and recognizes God.
Card 5: (Baphomet) This card represents the actual understanding of everything, the cosmic consciousness that is aware of itself. It represents the highest level of spiritual perception available to us.
Card 1: The Sun
The Sun signifies a breakthrough and decisive step towards wholeness, or being complete. It is inviting you (well, me, since I�m doing my own spread) to realize your longing for the peak, the height of completion. For you, the Sun beaming over everything is a symbol of the life force upon which you can ascend to God. Here, harmonious success combines with your creative will.
This is your private heaven that you discover in your surrounding world and in which you encounter all desires and longings as personal goals. The Sun describes the ascent into light, which means that you receive the acceptance and support for your goals from your environment. Cooperation and harmony unite in your soul to form a radiant force of mutual energy that triumphantly overcomes all midnight powers in the light of the Sun.
Card 2: Judgment Reversed
This card shows that you attract the dark shadows of others to you, because you are somehow caught in the old karma of your goals, which reveals your deep-seated but unfounded fears. You are forced to fight against them even though you unconsciously cling to the obstacles blocking your goals. You are therefore often painfully aware of how much is still unresolved within your soul. The wish to achieve your goals usually turns into the fear of having to deal with the uncanny darkness.
It is therefore necessary to distance yourself in order to recognize these entanglements and learn to contemplate them in a positive manner instead of wanting to overcome them in exterior reflections. Perhaps you will want to teach yourself that it is not the outer circumstances, but your own inner limitations that hinder you in achieving your goals.
Card 3: The Empress
The condition embodied by this card places the main emphasis on joint action. It shows that you are concerned with thoughts of love and harmony. In physical proximity to someone you love, your unconscious yearnings are connected with the conscious love of the soul, and your union with the partner of your heart contains intimations of immortality. The Empress therefore gives you what is perhaps a unique gift. She enables you to combine the things that are essential in your life with deepest fulfillment in harmony with your anima (the image of your inner femininity), thereby placing you on the path towards your true calling.
Card 4: Alchemy
This card stands for the harmonious unison of body, mind, and soul. It signifies that you are in equilibrium with yourself in regards to the pros and cons because you objectively evaluate the significance of every situation, even if you do not fully understand it.
Card 5: The Star Reversed
In your self-image you parade yourself as a spiritual person. In your deepest feelings, however, the situation is completely different: Your conviction that you stand above it all (view life from a spiritual perspective) is combined with your fear of truly confronting things. You are like someone who longingly glances at the surface of mysterious waters but sends out others to explore the depths because he is afraid of drowning. Instead of examining your illusions, you withdraw from the conflict and try to live out your own impediments through these illusions. This is a contradiction, and the Inverted Star signifies this: the act of hope so enriched with spiritual longing that it has become impossible for you to locate your goals in ordinary life.
Well, that�s Shadow Tarot. While I�m sure I lost most of you, I find it all incredibly interesting, and just in that example, I found things that I can use in everyday life.
Tune in next time when I try to figure out how to achieve the Great American Black Out.
Oh yeah, in another little bit of news, I passed the CBEST, which means I can be a substitute teacher in Southern California. Lock up the little ones!
