Finding Your Teacher, continued

So, we have been considering how to approach major tarot figures as teachers, based on a reading exercise utilizing the Wizards Tarot, and in the previous post, I cited a reading that got The Hierophant as master teacher.  (The other flanking cards in this reading were the Four of Pentacles and The Magician, and the Hidden Teacher card was The Wheel of Fortune—I will get around to these in a bit.)

To continue with the example, in the Wizards Tarot, the Hierophant is represented as the centaur Chiron as master teacher, and he functions as professor of mythology in the “Mandrake Academy,” the magical school around which this deck is structured.  Because Corinne Kenner designed this deck with Golden Dawn correspondences in mind, the Hierophant is conceptually paired with Taurus.  I believe the person who got this as her teacher card is a Taurus, but I wasn’t focused in on the astrological aspects when this card was drawn, and so failed to mention that.  Otherwise, this would have been one of those “Aché!” moments.  (As mentioned in my posts of last September, Puerto Rican practitioners of Espiritismo, Santeria, and brujeria bang on tables, ring bells, and shout “Aché!” whenever an interesting synchronicity manifests, as a way of thanking the Spirit World for the confirmaciones.  (I think that the Aché may come from the Yoruba Ashé, which is an expression of spiritual force.)

If you happen to get a teacher card which corresponds to one of your special signs or planets, (such as your sun sign, moon sign, ascendant, and their planetary rulers), that says something about a teacher who can also help you learn to be yourself, by exemplifying traits that you may have suppressed in the process of trying to accommodate the rest of the world.  If you can identify people who exemplify the qualities of your planet or sign, notice what sort of knowledge they have to share, as well as their teaching styles.

Also, if you are into astrology, you could take a look at what’s going on with the planet or sign in question.  In the case of The Hierophant as portrayed in the Wizards Tarot, in addition to seeing if anything interesting is transiting through or aspecting your Taurus house, you could also look at the activities of the planetoid Chiron.  Since the discovery of Chiron, some astrologers have come to see Chiron as ruler or co-ruler of Virgo because of his detail-oriented approach to healing and problem solving, though some argue in favor of Sagittarius, as it is the sign of the Centaur.  Because expansive tarot archetypes like The Hierophant cannot be confined to one planet or sign as delimited by any single imposed system such as the G.D., you might think of what other astrological qualities this card suggests.  For example, we can see that the Hierophant has Jupiter/Sagittarius/9^th House qualities in his concern with the cultivation of the Higher Mind, as well as his dedication to transmitting a Grand Vision of cosmic harmony, achieved through religious and philosophical systems and institutions that uphold an idealized social structure.

Getting back to the other cards in the example reading, the Magician was the flanking card to the right, which suggests this person’s learning experience is likely to involve finding practical ways to apply the lessons of the Hierophant, because the Magician is concerned with manifesting change in the material world—especially in ways that actively and consciously engage the elemental qualities of Fire, Earth, Air, and Water.  The left flanking card was the Four of Pentacles, which is the most materially oriented of all the cards in the deck, what with the Pentacles representing the Earth element and the Fours representing solid structures and foundations.  Taken together, all of these cards point to a year of learning experiences in which she gets to work with a variety of materials and see practical results, which also jives with a Taurean concern for the material quality of daily life.

Because these cards add up to Ten, (4 + 5 + 1 = 10), her Hidden Teacher card is The Wheel of Fortune, which, in the Wizards Deck, is personified as the school counselor.  This would suggest that the lessons she gets out of this semester in The School of Life will put her in a position to counsel others, which also suggests that people who have need of the sort of knowledge that she has to share will be attracted into her life, and may especially need help in taking their lives in new directions.  When the student is ready, the teacher comes; when the teacher is ready, the student comes.

Finding Your Teacher, continued

I continue to think about the work we were doing with the Wizards Tarot and what the Major Arcana cards in their personas as teachers at a magical academy can teach us about the school of life, so I have been reviewing the cards drawn at the workshop last Sunday. (The special techniques we were applying to these cards are outlined in the previous post). Although I have occasionally touched on how the cards can be viewed as personal teachers with teaching personalities, I have not had a chance to give this concept a great deal of thought, so the group practice sessions are learning experiences for me, too. Seeing how different cards come up for people with different situations provides opportunities to make new discoveries about the cards. Then, when I sit down to work on this blog, the writing process also becomes a process of “writing for discovery.”

One participant got the Hierophant as her master teacher, who, in this deck, is personified as Chiron, and serves as the professor of mythology. In classical lore, Chiron was the centaur who was teacher to Aesculapius, (who, under Chiron’s tutelage, became a physician, and then the god of healing), as well as to Heracles, Achilles, Perseus, Theseus, and a number of other heroes. Indeed, Chiron as the Hierophant is a teacher’s teacher. In the “Mandrake Academy,” Chiron serves as professor of mythology, and we can relate this to the Hierophant’s concern with the transmission of lore and tradition.

If you happen to draw this card, you might want to delve into how the subject of mythology can be relevant to modern life by consulting Jean Shinoda Bolen’s books, “Gods in Everyman” and “Goddesses in Everywoman,” because she explains how the archetypal qualities of different Greek gods and goddesses are active in different areas of our lives. Also, Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book, “Women Who Run with the Wolves” draws on archetypal themes in folk and fairy tales to find meaning in different experiences. These are genuine healing stories, which Estes relates and explains in her wonderfully incantatory style.

The centaur Chiron is sometimes also discussed in line with the archetype of “the wounded healer,” because he was accidentally wounded by Heracles, and, despite all his healing arts, he was not able to cure himself. When I think of a great teaching personality who fits this archetype, I think of Milton H. Erickson, sometimes known as the father of medical hypnosis. Erickson often used story-telling as one of his healing techniques, as do many traditional healers. (In fact, one of my ongoing sideline research projects involves cross referencing the works and techniques of Erickson with those of shamanic and other folk-magic healers from societies throughout the world.) Erickson himself was crippled and in terrible pain from polio and post-polio syndrome, so he had to use all kinds of hypnotic techniques on himself, just to be able to function. Some of the books I have read on this subject include “Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D.” by Jay Haley, “My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson,” as edited by Sidney Rosen, and “Milton H. Erickson, M.D.: An American Healer,” by Bradford Keeney and Betty Alice Erickson. Many people—not just Erickson’s patients, but his friends, students, and even chance acquaintances—have stories of how Erickson would casually tell them some little anecdote or adage, or make some other passing comment, and it was just what their Unconscious minds needed to hear, because their attitudes would be forever altered (reframed), or in some cases, they were able to shed bad habits on the spot. Unfortunately, Erickson did not believe in psychism or supernatural anything, despite the fact it seems no one has been able to reproduce his successes.

In one of Erickson’s notable cases, he created a character known as “The February Man” to help recast an individual’s memories and reactions to negative experiences; this was as part of a more comprehensive program of therapy to help a patient whose anxieties about parenthood were stemming from a cold and loveless childhood. Erickson hypnotically regressed this woman to different ages of childhood, and introduced himself into her memories as a (fictitious) family friend, who showed up at different times over the years and came to be known as the February Man. In this persona, Erickson sort of walked her through different memories and life events, while helping her to reframe them in a new and more positive light, and derive insights that would enable her to respond more positively to new situations.

I have often thought about how, through creative visualization, one could introduce different tarot figures with the ability to offer different types of guidance into one’s fantasies, and as a way of reframing one’s memories. (In line with this, the King of Cups would make a particularly good February Man.) You could do this using any tarot deck for images to concentrate upon, though the Wizards Tarot lends itself exceptionally well, because of the engaging portrayal of some of these different “professors.” Tarot artists do differ a lot in this respect, as there are some decks where the characters look out of the picture space to meet your gaze, and/or also project distinct personalities. In other decks, the human figures may seem preoccupied and distant. Of course, the portrayals can also differ within any given deck.

OK, now that I’ve written this, I find it necessary to take another look at my Wizards deck--that’s part of that “writing for discovery,” I discover things that come out of the writing as I go along. So, I find that most of the teachers don’t meet the viewer’s gaze, as they are focused on their different subjects of study. (Perhaps it’s an indication of my level of engagement that I imagined it to be otherwise.) All the same, with the idea of a tarot figure as a personal teacher, you can use your imagination as to how that teacher could take you in hand as his or her student. In the case of the Hierophant, in his historical role as the instructor of initiates in the Eleusinian mysteries, he explained and revealed what they needed to know through “things said, things done, and things shown.” So, when imaginatively engaging with tarot figures, whether the Hierophant or any other, think about what teachings they might convey to you through “things said, things done, and things shown.”

To be continued … I will pick up on more of this reading in the next post.