The Wall

The Conscious/Unconscious/Subconscious

Imbedded in our subconscious is a world of symbolisms.  We dream in symbols and our dreams communicate about our past, present and sometimes hint at our future.  We recall a dream because our subconscious is trying to get through to us to help us deal with a situation, trying to provide us insight, reasoning or awareness.  Our dream is often meaningless until interpreted.

The Tarot uses a different approach to awaken these images sleeping in our subconscious.  Instead of interpreting a dream, we interpret the symbolism of the cards as representing our past, present and future.  When we realize that our subconscious remembers our past, reflects our present and divines our future, then the mechanics of what goes on in a reading become more clear.

Wytchwood

The Wall

Actually the human species is all about symbols and symbolism - asleep or awake - and most people never even realize it.

"When we realize that our subconscious remembers our past, reflects our present and divines our future, then the mechanics of what goes on in a reading become more clear."

The unconscious/subconscious is a huge store house of information.  It contains everything you have ever seen done, smelled, felt, experienced, and so on.  Plus there are things in there that you shouldn't know at all.  For example the feeling of deja vu nearly everyone has experienced.  So it's my belief our unconscious/subconscious probably contains the memories of at least a few of our past lives.  The unconscious/subconscious may be our 'twilight' brains working at 100% efficiency.

On the other hand we have the conscious mind which is direct and to the point (most of the time) and every so often gets 'jolts' from our unconscious/subconscious in the form of intuition, a gut feeling, a hunch, and so on.  The conscious mind/brain only uses a very small part of it's full potential.

The problem comes with what I call 'The Wall', or 'The Fog', or 'The Dam'.  The Wall separates the conscious mind from the unconscious/subconscious mind.

Conscious .. The Wall .. Unconscious/Subconscious

Believe it or not the Wall is actually a very good thing.  If it weren't there we would probably all be driven insane with the massive avalanche of information, emotions, and various projections the unconscious/subconscious would bombard the conscious mind with.  It would just be to much for our conscious mind to handle.

The trick for the tarot reader, astrologer, and so forth is to penetrate the Wall in some way so we can gleam just enough goodies to do us some good, to bring us a little more enlightenment, insight, and build on our intuitive powers each time we manage to sneak a peek over, around, through, etc. our internal Wall and delve into the mysterious world of our unconscious/subconscious minds.

One way to do this is to develop keywords and phrases so that our conscious mind can speak to our unconscious/subconscious mind.  Once the two have specific meanings in common this creates a weakening in the Wall that we can peek through.

Let's look at Wytchwood's sentence again:

"When we realize that our subconscious remembers our past, reflects our present and divines our future, then the mechanics of what goes on in a reading become more clear."

The word 'Remember' is very, very significant and one you ladies will probably love.  Remembering and Memories are some of the meanings you can apply to 'The High Priestess'.  The pillars are the Wall and she guards the entrance f the Wall, she is the Wall, she is our unconscious/subconscious.  But she also keeps our conscious, outer, active, masculine self from tapping into the secrets of our unconscious/subconscious.  In the Major Arcana she and the Magician are both in the wrong place - in a sense.  The following image will explain what I'm talking about.

Notice the numbers.  All the even numbers but the number 2 (The High Priestess, 2's) are on the right hand 'active, masculine' half of the graph.  The (even) number 2 is on the left hand 'passive, feminine' side of the graph.  The Aces/Magician at 1 is the only uneven number on the right hand 'active, masculine' side of the graph.

The cards on the left side are (Passive, Feminine):
The High Priestess (2)
The Empress (3)
The Hierophant (5)
The Chariot (7)
The Hermit (9)

The cards on the right side are (Active, Masculine):
The Magician/Aces (1)
The Emperor (4)
The Lovers (6)
Strength [or Justice] (8)
The Wheel of Fortune (10)

And look what happens if we put the numbers 1 and 2 where they should go (imo).

The cards on the left side are (Passive, Feminine):
The Magician/Aces (1)
The Empress (3)
The Hierophant (5)
The Chariot (7)
The Hermit (9)

The cards on the right side are (Active, Masculine):
The High Priestess (2)
The Emperor (4)
The Lovers (6)
Strength [or Justice] (8)
The Wheel of Fortune (10)

The Magician (consciousness, outer worldly knowledge) blocks the feminine side of the unconscious/subconscious and The High Priestess (unconscious/subconscious, inner knowledge) blocks the conscious from the unconscious/subconscious.

Here then we have ... 'The Wall' (or walls) we have to work so hard to break down/through.

One way to look at it, and what I think is a rather humorous way, is that The High Priestess is a 'Virgin' wearing a chastity belt and you need to find the key before she will reveal her secrets.

Note
One way we have of teaching our conscious to communicate with our subconscious is through the use of keywords and phrases. You must let both your conscious and subconscious know what you are doing at all times so they learn to work together and not become confused - especially your subconscious.

Don S.