Tarot and the Magus has gone but the visions continue

My last copy of Tarot and the Magus is destined for someone in Germany, so please do not ask me for any more – my publishers do not have any either. If you have a copy hang on to it, as it is a collector’s item.

Bonnie Cehovet’s perceptive  review of Beyond the Celtic Cross is well worth reading:

“Douglas (Gibb) was quite right when he called the visions that Catherine had after doing this work initiatory visions. (Visions that grew in strength the longer she spent on the journey with Paul.) They involved Pegasus, a dancing High Priestess (sacred dance), and continued visits with the High Priestess. Then there was the child, that she recognized as having come to her before as a baby.”

Both books explore card counting and elemental dignities, and while both techniques are learnt separately, they are in fact two sides of the same coin. Success in integrating and unifying card counting and EDs  is the key to the initiatory visions experienced by Catherine. I too had initiatory visions some of which are documented in Tarot and the Magus.

While visions are by definition passive, initiating visions cause profound transformations within the tarot reader- when they happen you are not the same afterwards. A chicken and egg situation arises where there is a need to transform and develop spiritually in order to have the visions, and when the visions happen, even more change is possible. The inevitable consequence is that learning card counting and EDs is not just an intellectual experience, and students may well find that they struggle from time to time. My advice is to keep on at it, practising the techniques and using them in tarot readings as much as possible.

These initiating visions continue, particularly if you continue to read the tarot and work on your own development, which means that your paradigms about the tarot will also change. This has been my experience, which is why I do not subscribe to the common consensus on tarot, divination or magic. The visions often include spirits, some of whom are known, while others are anonymous. Some of these spirits are Goetic, which magicians in particular find hard to believe, as they thought they had the monopoly of such experiences!

Bonnie is currently running a competition to win a copy of Beyond the Celtic Cross, so good luck.

Hopefully there will be a second edition of Tarot and the Magus soon. In the meantime, I would still like to hear about any experiences you have with the book.