The nature of the force of our dark nature
God is often associated with the light, with glory, purity, beauty. Our occult training can show us that this isn’t always the case. The alchemists of old used to observe the majesty of creation within dung – a complete representation of the birth-life-death cycle.
Many experience being close to God in terrible times, close to danger, in personal crisis, on drugs, in depression and any other terrible places in this material world we are present in. Not just the ecstatic highs of prayer and praise.
These experiences create a pressure on us to react in a certain way. The shape of form of these shaping forces are critical to how to move on from them. Depression pins us down, and is near impossible to rise from for example. Yet the moment we fight back and move, the pressure releases. Sometimes bigger sacrifices are required to remove the blockage. We may find that getting up wasn’t enough, so we have to create, work or other tasks to bring back a temporary equilibrium.
As we walk the path, challenges arise that present a similar nature. We may find that a new task requires us to summon up great energy to complete, and even after completing that challenge, we may find the hardness increases exponentially. We are being shown how capable we actually are. This smaller self is being guided to greatness.
Mastery of understanding these pressures is key. We may rebel for years against different influences that are circling around us – and these are doors we may, or may not choose to walk through. If we find that something keeps returning to us, we should start to pay attention, and read between the lines as to the message being presented.
We are lazy at our core nature. Quite happy to bath in sunlight. It’s the harder choices that mark us out as different, but those choices themselves can present problems. We may find that we overrun, overwork ourselves as we are captured by a new current of inspiration or energy. There’s an art to working with the occult forces within the self, and balancing is key. Work hard, but play hard.
The principle of opposing forces.
Nearly every card in the tarot shows a force that counters our progression. Each path is that of a hall of mirrors designed to entrap a weak heart or mind. Much detective work is needed to figure some of the harder negative states that immobilise us.
We should take a step back and understand that the problem isn’t present without a reason. All the dread, issues, all that terrible pressure is hinting for us to move in a specific way – the sooner we understand that message, we can formulate our own plan to sate the demand from those unconscious nudges.
Some examples:
Bob keeps getting negative cups in his reading, so he decides to make some key changes in his diet and lifestyle to bring a healthier flow of self perceptions about the self.
Kate gets loads of swords in her readings, and to quell her anxiety she goes for lots of walk and listens to the wind and birds.
Brian gets loads of negative disk cards and is really struggling to get by, so he walks out the front door and does some thinking while walking to get some new options, and then acts on them when he returns.
Floris gets loads of wands, goes out for a walk and meets a guy called Brian and creates a new business with their crazy fantastic ideas. They end up employing Kate as a project manager and Bob as HR.
Flowing with these pressures gives us the opportunity to work with them and unpack possible futures. If you procrastinate, the pressures increase, if you attempt to contain them, they will explode, or get ever louder as a perpetual whining within the mind.
Exercise
If you are familiar with opening and closing rituals, (time to pick some up, if not!) – we can frame the pressures and experience with the tarot in a great way.
Do your opening/invoking, pull 1 card, walk out of house (don’t stay at home, nothing very exciting happens there)
Observe, keep an open mind, absorb
See all that happens through the card that was picked as a lens to look through life.
You may see terrible things, you might see great things, you might notice small situations of chance, you might get opportunities to bring out better natures in yourself and others, who knows!
When you return, close/banish – meditate if you can.
You may find that the tarot lied. Our preconceptions are often imprinted onto the card when drawn, and we don’t get a clear picture of what’s in front of us. This is why getting out to have new experiences is so important, we live in an environment that regurgitates the same energy all the time, and if left unchecked can skew our view of reality. An important state of mind to cultivate is that of ‘What don’t I know?’ – assume a grand level of ignorance.