Everyone has heard of tarot cards for divination, but few people know just what these cards were intended for, spiritually speaking, by our ancestors. The tarot cards were utilized as early as the 16th century, most likely earlier, by underground sages and mystics to carry forth their spiritual knowledge. As you can well imagine, they had to go underground to avoid the wrath of the religious fervour of the day.

There is still much debate about the origins of these cards – were they created as a game in Italy, or were they first created for spiritual work by our Medieval forefathers? But this matters not to me. I couldn’t care less! Why? Because I know, first hand, the value of these cards as a profound mystical tool for enlightenment. The Western Tradition is a very wise and uplifting system. Though we have all heard of and are still surrounded by the Eastern Spiritualities, our own has been with us for just as long though it is still debased as ‘occult’ by many. When you look up the word occult in the dictionary, it primarily means ‘hidden’. And yes - our Western Occult Tradition was very much hidden until not so very long ago!

Now, if you were to walk into a metaphysical bookstore today, you would be barraged by a sea of tarot cards, each with its own theme and focus. There are decks with animal themes, moon garden themes, Celtic focus, Goddess themes, Angelic focus, etc. Some retain the more traditional meaning/symbology of tarot, while others go off on a wide tangent. Not that this is bad. Tarot/Oracle decks are great tools for opening and expanding your intuitional skills. However, if you want to do deeper spiritual work with these cards, you will need a more traditional deck. Some newer decks just make it harder for us to see the hidden teachings of tarot. Indeed, some of the newer cards are truly ‘oracles’ rather than ‘tarot’ decks. But don’t despair, these more esoteric decks are still at hand. For instance, in my view, the Rider-Waite deck is the deck that comes closest to depicting the wisdom of our own Western Sages. Yes, it’s true: we do have a long-standing Western Spiritual Tradition. It’s just been kept underground until the 20th century. Well, it’s easy to understand why – speak your truth and you get burned at the stake, or tortured, or starved to death, or all of these, etc. Hmmm, I don’t know about you, but I’d keep quiet under those circumstances.

So, let’s get back to the more traditional tarot decks, the esoteric type, and what they offer. Tarot, by the way, simply means ‘the law’. It means spiritual law. This means that the cards are depicted in such a way as to guide you on a system of self-mastery and initiation into higher and higher consciousness. It is a graded process. This is where Kabbalah comes in. Kabbalah is a very ancient tradition, taught orally in the beginning (to males 40 and over). By the way, Kabbalah has two other ways of being spelled: 1) Qabalah - the more ancient esoteric Jewish tradition also taken up by Western Occultists over the centuries; 2) Kabbalah - the more universal term used today; and 3) Cabala - the more mystical Christian tradition. I have looked into all three and have worked predominantly with Qabalah and Kabbalah. You have to be careful with Qabalah because this can go into some pretty weird ‘magical’ stuff. So your safest bet is on Kabbalah. However, it’s always a good idea to look into all three to have a well rounded knowledge on the subject.

But I digress! Kabbalah has this wonderful diagram for working through spiritual mastery: the tree of life. Without going too much into detail, the tree of life is a schematic diagram that leads you from delivery of personality foibles and weakness into Soul alignment and embodiment, and then into full Spiritual Union with your Divine Self and reawakening into God. And guess what? Yup – our Western mystics developed a system to utilize (or perhaps created) the cards to progress upon the tree – the tarot. The cards are used in ‘pathworking’ the tree. The cards take you from level to level to level.

How can this be? The symbols on the cards are arranged and portrayed in such a way as to unlock the wisdom of your own Soul/Self and even union with God/Source/Creator. You do this through meditative practices mostly. It takes years of practice and study to reach any type of proficiency working with this system, but it is so incredibly worthwhile.

But if you are not interested in putting in that type of time and effort, tarot can also be used to discover your own soul patterns and life purpose. This is done through numerological work. Once your own personal cards are discovered, you can work with them to bring more alignment into your life’s path and purpose.

Lastly, tarot can simply continue to be used for divination. I have used them for this purpose for years. Do I avidly follow them to make my decisions? Certainly not! But I do like to use them when I feel ’stuck’. I usually always get some ‘aha’ revelation that helps me get unblocked in a situation.

You see, over the years, I have come to see all spiritual tools as such – tools! Not more, not less. You don’t place a bunch of meaning on a frying pan – you simply use it as a tool to fry your veggies, eggs, etc. You don’t carry the pan around with you and try to do everything with it. It has its place and it stays there. Tarot is very much the same – you use it to divine when you feel the need and then you carry on with your life. Even the tarot cards would tell you so!