The Movement of Festival Energies

 With Mardi Gras coming up, I am musing on the magical potentials of carnival traditions.  Because I was not raised catholic, this holiday has no traditional religious associations for me, and as I have never had a taste for alcohol, I also to do not view it as an opportunity for excess.  Nevertheless, I have a romantic affinity for New Orleans, and whenever some intense festival energy is being generated somewhere, I think about the potential magic that can be generated.  In parts of the world where Carnival is practiced, masses of people are brought together, often in masked dances and processions, which moves streams of energy through a community, similar to what I have discussed in my posts on the “feng shui of Halloween.”  Unfortunately, although Carnival is very colorful, it lacks the profundity of Halloween, because it doesn’t make that Ancestor World connection, (even if masking opens spaces for spirits to enter).  There are many other world masking traditions, and most societies seem to have some form of these, even though not all at the same time of year or with the same celebrational intent.  Some sort of anthropological-psychological principal seems to hold that it is less important that societies have such “reversal” holidays at a particular season or for a particular reason, than that they do have them at some time of year, for some reason.

Although I say that masking traditions may be found in different seasons, that doesn’t mean that the nature of the seasonal celebration is irrelevant.  The different practices are more meaningful when viewed in context of what is going on in the world of nature.  In my present case, we seem to be experiencing an early spring, (at least here in Michigan).  As we had a mild winter, there isn’t so much snow melt to speak of, but one nevertheless sees—and hears—the continuous movement of water through the landscape.  The water is not just swelling streams, but moves through otherwise dry ditches and gutter runnels.  This can hearken to what, in New England, they call the season of “Unlocking,”  though it’s a little early still, as Unlocking applies more to March.  This movement of water also involves the movement of chi through the landscape.  By this token, anyone doing some masking and parading at this season might think about aligning with these energies of Elemental Water flowing through Nature, which is all the more appropriate, as this is the Year of the Water Dragon.  By the way, when I drove to town this morning, I saw that the sugar buckets are already out (on the maple trees), which means that the sap is flowing.  The maple sugar producers have to watch the seasonal changes closely and act on them quickly, so as not to miss out.

One can also wonder if ritual movements in early spring hearken to ancient traditions of awakening the Earth.  Although I’m getting a little too far ahead in time, I am reminded of the German belief that on the first day of May, the witches must dance the last of the snow off the mountainsides.  So, the idea is that the actions of magical people move the seasonal cycle forward—but then, the seasonal cycle moves on different time tables in different regions.  This suggests a question you can put to your tarot or oracle cards: “Please show me how to dance my way into Spring, in alignment with the moving energies of Spring.”  You might want to bring in “the principle of the fantastic” by trying this with some whimsical deck like the “Paulina Tarot,” which is partially inspired by New Orleans Mardi Gras.

Plans and Forums

My last chat session/work shop of the year will be on November 7th. I am still thinking about what I ought to plan, but one likely activity is the “Tarot Cards’ Parade,” which we have done in previous years. This is a parade where you don’t have to get out of your seat, because it involves passing certain cards around the circle in a way that moves their chi through our energy fields. (I believe I discuss some of this in past posts on “the feng shui of Halloween,” though you may have to dig for those, because I don’t think I’ve put tags in my older posts.)

While recently reading a book about healing rituals among the south Slavs, I learned of a healing technique that utilizes the energies of a mass of people in procession. In Slavic culture, there are a number of traditional occasions for making processions through a neighborhood or community. Some of these are masked carnival processions, while others are more serious religious or special purpose processions that do not involve masking. On these occasions, sick people will come out and lie down in the path so that the people in the procession will step over them. So here we have a folkloric example of taking advantage of the stream of chi that a procession generates. My tarot cards parade is similarly designed to move beneficial chi through the body and spirit.

I’m also thinking about a magical working that involves the holographic effect of multiple persons directing the energies of specific tarot cards (i.e., the same cards, but from multiple decks), at each person in turn, to help individuals more fully manifest special qualities in their lives. If you are planning to come, you might think about whether there is a special card whose energies you would like everyone to concentrate on, to bring them into your life. The idea behind this is to holographically refresh different archetypes within us, and this engages the tarot itself as an archetype of wholeness.

I will continue to think about additional activities for November, including bringing back the Faery Friends. In the meantime, I have been participating in a discussion forum at “Complete Life Healing,” (see the link in the left-hand column). Some of the ongoing discussion involves the intelligence of the body, (such as body memory, ensoulment, power of the spoken word, etc.), challenges of Asperger’s Syndrome, Tarot and divination, and getting into writing. Feel free to look in on and participate in any discussion threads that interest you.

A Cavalcade of Tarot Characters and Faeries

Next Sunday, November 1st, will be my final magical chat for this year, and because it is the day after Halloween, I will demonstrate the technique of passing Tarot card characters from multiple decks around the circle in a way that lets you participate in a masked Halloween procession without having to get out of your chair. (We did this at the same time last year.) Based on the idea that masked processions circulate chi through a community, the purpose of parading the cards is to circulate their archetypal potencies through your energy field, in a way that has a regenerative effect. (See previous October’s posts I’ve done on the “feng shui” of Halloween—I haven’t had a chance to go back and put tags on my old posts, but hope to do that eventually.

Also, because Halloween is a time of the year when the faery mounds open and the faery people go trooping over human byways, this is a time for faery magic. Because I haven’t done much with the faery cards this year, (other than May Day/Beltane, which is the other big faery high day), I’ll demonstrate readings using the Fairy Ring oracle deck to see what Faery World energies are at work in your life this Halloween-tide. I’ll also pass out faery friends from the Froud deck, and, if there is some time left over, do other sorts of readings with the different faery oracles.