Do you believe in The Law of Attraction aka manifestation? Do you use the tarot? People who grow to live life from a process of manifestation tend to be open minded and so a sizable number of readers would answer yes to this question. But did you know that the tarot itself can be a part of the manifestation process, rather than merely guidance, advice or prediction. This is the way I've successfully used the tarot for many years, and the best way to explain how I use tarot as a part of the manifestation process is to give you a recent example.
To give you some background, I live in Phnom Pehn and one of my interests in public speaking in various guises, mainly I give talks to audiences about esoteric subjects and then I have also been performing stand up comedy for a number of years. My initial interest in this stemmed from my rough start in life which left me not only lacking in confidence and socially phobic but practically mute for a significant portion of my life. But I completely overcame this once and for all when I got into public performance and so it is quite important to me.
Recently I've been feeling a bit out of it. I'm quite a bit older than the average person on these scenes and the last one I went to one of the organisers whom previously mentored me not only ignored me but actually pushed in line to get his drink right before me like I'm invisible. It's all a bit of a paradox really because I have a bit of a flat effect, meaning I don't show emotion so much even when I am happy, and that ends to make people keep their distance from me.
Paradoxically, when people do make an effort to come around me I secretly resent it and want to be alone. I wasn't sure how to go forward with my manifestation process concerning this because I had already used manifestation to cure my social phobia and get into public speaking, but it's also socially exhausting to me sometimes and perhaps I was unconsciously manifesting more space for myself.
Anyway, that is that background. I have been less on the public speaking scene recently because of this and so I did a reading to ask the tarot what I should do. I used the horseshoe spread. The cards were as followed.
For the past the king of cups showed up, so I thought yes, that was me in the past, an emotionally mature man who had overcome social phobia using public speaking.
The card for the present was the page of wands. Well I took this to be me also. I have many new ventures I'm working on, such as my website, starting a youtube channel, and so I've been a bit diverted from the scene to do other productive things.
Next, the future card was the knight of pentacles, and I took this to be myself again, actually making some progress in the new business ventures, and so public speaking will still be taking a backseat in the future and at that point in the reading I thought that the cards aren't really judging me.
Well when I do this reading I always leave the advice card for last, incase the outcome seems negative, then I can make a positive end (both of the reading and the situation).
So next I went straight onto the environment card, which was the queen of pentacles. I couldn't weave that into a story of me and I straight away thought that it represents my friend who's been helping me with various things, but I know her from my general social life, going out in the evening and so on, and so I thought the cards are saying that my social focus has been on other scenes since I've been trying to start a business (rather than the public speaking scene).
For the challenge card, the knight of swords turned up. Now I started thinking how this is me yet again, I'm I need to focus on the business, blah blah blah but while I was sitting there looking at all these court cards I felt cheated. I always think with court cards it's a bit of a guess as to weather they are showing an aspect of me or I'm supposed to intuit what external person they represent.
I turned the outcome card and instantly had a shock and an insight. It was the ten of swords. The sight of the murdered dead man and his blood seeping all over the floor shook my thinking and turned it on it's head.
All these court cards aren't aspects of myself or people off the public speaking scene, they are just trying to all be dealt close together to represent all the generic people ON the public speaking scene, and the audience - in fact, the whole scene itself.
The outcome is a metaphor for stabbing myself in the back. This flat affect I have, the way I unconsciously push everyone away, this is the problem and the outcome of this will be a negative. Even if I have a successful business but I end up isolated and not sharing myself in social circles of life, like the old days as a total hermit.
I went back and turned the last card (advice) , the eight of swords. This shows being trapped by the limitation of your own thinking. All these thoughts, that I'm too old for the scene, people don't want me there, I can't show emotion, all the poor self-concepts that I use to push everyone away, this is the problem — and solving this, or working on it, is the solution.
Flat affect isn't always a personality trait but can be a problem. I need to focus on this, deeply, writing speeches and sets, and work on ways to improve it, not drop out completely to focus on a solitary business.
But this is where the PRACTICE of the tarot comes in. The advice card is the eight of swords. Here in the Rider-Waite pack, self-imposed limitation is shown by a woman lightly bound and surrounded by a sparse, patchy wall of swords which she could easily escape but she chooses not to.
I'm showing the Rider-Waite pack here because it's in the pubic domain, but I actually use the Morgan Green, which shows a close up image of bound wrist. This image is the magick, because it becomes my replacement thought.
What I mean is, I live mindfully throughout the day, and when I start to get the self-talk or image, of being too old or people not liking me or being flat and unable to change — I IMMEADIATELY drop that thought, feeling and sensation and hold onto the image from the card. I hold it with full concentration to recall the advice, 'I AM IMPRISONING MYSELF', and then I affirm and positively self-talk until the thought and feeling is fully replaced.
So daily, mindfully, moment-by-moment, this is how the wisdom of the tarot can become part of the manifestation process in itself. Use the images and symbols it gives you to hold onto, to concentrate on, to replace the thoughts they are telling you to replace, as this is the essense of not only manifestation, but every practice in life that is worthwhile.
This human freedom, our only freedom, to choose our thoughts and feelings, is not just the key to the law of attraction, but to spiritual healing and even awakening itself. So let the wisdom of the tarot talk to you, guide you, and then become the chosen contents of your mind, and the chosen manifestations of your abundant life.