Here be Dragons

Here Be Dragons, or how to navigate the country of the mind.
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

Ever stubbed your toe and thought
'Why didn't I see that?' Couple years back, with some serious shit hitting the fan, I started reading Tarot.

To find a bit of shelter from the storm.

I've been Buddhist for over 20 years, and its been pretty useful. But. Some of the answers I was getting were not helping. Relationship problems? Try celibacy!

Don't get me wrong, but reflecting that all of existence is painful only works some of the time for me.

(Not exactly an accurate interpretation of the doctrine of dukkha, btw.)

Carl Jung, bless his heart (and I'm about to misinterpret again) had a theory of a common subconscious. Common to all humanity, if not all beings. But our contact with this other consciousness can become weaker.

Our various cultures keep the exchange alive between ourselves and this otherness. Art, religion, ritual, folklore. Myths and Legends.

The origin of the Tarot is reliably traced to about Renaissance times. It has been suggested that the suppression of the older religions in favor of the Christian church led to the encoding of the Tarot.

'Encoding' is the right word here. The Tarot became a kind of reference manual for all the older wisdom that the Church was trying to eradicate.

I mean the Church in the sense of the very human people who were upholding the teachings of the Christ. People can get really nasty, even Christians and Buddhists.

So there you go; a kind of guerilla spirituality was born in the 15th century.

The obvious question is; in the 21st century is this spiritual resource still relevant? I need a guide, a kind of map/compass/mirror of the soul.

This is one of the ways I use to navigate the country of the mind. The Tarot tells the secrets hidden in my heart, the dark fears and luminous hopes. I am joined to Humanity, angels, and demons.