Turning Inward
by Wald Amberstone and Ruth Ann Amberstone
Tarot is a tool, an instrument. This is true for most tarot people most of the time. It was created to serve, and serve it has for several hundred years. It has served long and well as a tool for divination, and for many, that is its only function. For some, tarot serves as a mnemonic device for an elaborate system of ceremonial magick, and also as a ritual tool in the workings of that magick. Because that magick has philosophical and mystical implications, tarot acquired those same qualities and serves those purposes as well.
In recent times, the psychology of personality has been added to tarot’s resume. Using tarot as a tool for psychological insight has been the leading edge of tarot theory for several decades now and it still dominates the attention of a large number of modern tarot thinkers. This dominance led to the wonderfully defining question, “Psychology saved tarot from esotericism. What will save tarot from psychology?” asked by Rachel Pollack at the 2006 Readers Studio.
In fact, tarot has been “saved” more than once and will be again. Divination saved tarot from the trivialities of play. Esotericism rescued tarot from the melodrama of early fortune-telling. Victorian scholarship saved tarot from the mythologies of 18th century esotericism, and psychology has saved tarot once again from 20th century versions of 19th century esoteric spirituality.
Each of these salvations has simultaneously moved tarot forward and left each preceding layer of development in place and essentially untouched. We think this is as it should be. Each “salvation” has looked back on what preceded it with a combination of fondness, condescension, relief and incomprehension, mixed in varying proportions according to individual taste.
Each has moved progressively inward over time. From the original competitiveness of play all the way through the modern insights of personal psychology, the flow of interest has moved like a great, lazy river in one general direction.
Like travelers on a river, our individual visions of tarot are limited to what lies between the bend behind us and the bend ahead. We experience the current as it is happening. We understand it only as it passes into history behind us. Of what is to come, we hear a little and see nothing. But it is a cliché used by all modern readers that the future is ultimately ours to make out of what we have been given. In tarot, what we are given is our history, our experience and our imagination. We propose a perspective that combines all three ingredients and makes a vessel on which anyone who likes it can sail into their own future. It can be called “tarot turned inward.”
There is an outward and an inward tarot, an outward and an inward vision. The outward vision is the perspective of small beings looking into an immense universe. From this perspective, tarot does its best to help us and to explain us to ourselves in the context of what is called reality. But in that reality everything is an object, including us — our physical selves and all our qualities, seen and unseen. Our thoughts, feelings, intentions and activities are all objects seen in a mirror.
There is always a “we” looking at “us,” a mysterious subject observing and experiencing a complicated object. In tarot, “we” look at, talk about, work with and help our various selves in every manner and form we can think of. We do this equally in a reading, a ritual, a meditation or a self-examination. Even when the object of our attention is as rarified as our soul, it is still an object, and tarot is still turned outward. This perspective is so self-evident and pervasive it seems inescapable. The natural question arises, “What else is there?”
We think there is something else. It has always been there. It is made of the same stuff and looks pretty much the same. That “something else” is tarot turned inward. When tarot turns inward, it ceases to be a mirror in which objects are reflected. It isn’t interested in helping or understanding anyone. It predicts nothing, expresses nothing, counsels no one. It does better than that.
What might that be? And how could it happen? It’s a very high kind of magick and tarot is nothing but magick. We can start there, with a high kind of magick, a sleight of hand that reveals instead of deceives. We can use tarot to slow and eventually stop the outward-turning vision that creates a world of objects. Then tarot turns our vision inward and begins to reassemble our selves and the world before our eyes. A transmutation occurs, and we experience alchemy.
This is worth doing. It takes awhile, but we’re trying to slow things down anyway, so there’s no harm in that. The trick is to make a beginning, which we think we can do. Shall we?
About the Authors
Wald Amberstone and Ruth Ann Amberstone founded The Tarot School in 1995 in New York City to provide ongoing education in tarot, beyond the weekend workshop, the 6-week course or books.
But what exactly is an education in tarot? For Ruth
Ann and Wald the study of tarot is really a study of yourself - the way you see and interact with the world and the people you meet. The Tarot School philosophy is that tarot is a window through which you can learn to see the future. It is a mirror that deeply and accurately reflects your feelings, thoughts, dreams and aspirations. It is a compass that can help guide you through the landscape of your life. The more you understand about the cards, the richer your world becomes. The more you know about yourself, the more powerful a reader you become and the more help you can be to others.
At The Tarot School, an education in tarot is a continuous education in practical, powerful self-knowledge. The TarotSchool offers innovative course content that is continually evolving and expanding in continual growth.
Together Ruth Ann and Wald teach, write, speak and publish about tarot on all levels from divination to psychology to esotericism and magical practice. They are perpetual pioneers of new tarot techniques and remain lifelong tarot students.
They are authors of The Secret Language of Tarot (Weiser) and Tarot Tips: 78 Practical Techniques to Enhance Your Tarot Reading Skills (Llewellyn). Articles by the Amberstones have also been published in most of Llewellyn's Tarot Reader almanacs, and their Tarot School Correspondence Course has has been enjoyed by students all over the world since 1998.
For further information visit their website at www.tarotschool.com.