By Heather Mendel
At this time of New Year’s resolutions, whether starting something new, trying something for the first time or revisiting something familiar with new eyes, we acknowledge that life is an adventure. By learning to trust our intuitive sense, we awaken in consciousness and realize that the spiritual wisdom traditions of the past have great relevance for us today.
Barbara Marx Hubbard, the “planetary midwife of conscious evolution” reminds us that what is awakening within us is an awareness of the deeper interconnection between ego and essence. Ego is that vital aspect of ourselves we need to navigate successfully through space and time, and essence—the eternal spiritual impulse that drives the human journey forward. By reinterpreting ancient wisdom sources such as the Kabbalah and Tarot in contemporary ways, we rediscover or recreate new tools to enhance our intuition, imagination and insight, empowering us to reshape our lives and beliefs about our own possibilities and potential.
The famous writer Anais Nin said that rather than seeing the world as it is, we see it as we are.
Combining Spiritual Tools
As a Jewish mystic encountering the Tarot, I was fascinated with its relationship to Kabbalah and finding ways of using the hero’s journey inherent in the Major Arcana cards as a daily spiritual practice. Each religious tradition has an outer teaching and an inner core—differing aspects of the same tradition. Kabbalah, the hidden facet of Jewish wisdom, is a growing repository of mystical teaching and practice, whose ancient origins are mysterious. One of its fundamental tools is the Tree of Life—a paradigm for understanding the connection, interrelationship and interdependence of all life and consciousness. Its 10 sefirot (energy centers) are linked by 22 pathways, set in three vertical columns on seven horizontal levels.
To the right of the central column is the Pillar of Expression/Expansion—Wisdom, Compassion and Innovation. To the left is the Pillar of Reception/Containment—Understanding, Strength and Tradition. Choice is only possible when we have such alternatives. The sefirot on the active Expression Pillar constantly radiate energy outwards, while the sefirot on the Receptive Pillar contain the energy, keeping the system organic and functional. The central path shows the direct connection between Divinity and humanity, starting at Spark and passing through Harmony, the Place of Soul, Imagery, Realm of Personality and Malchut, the physical arena of self. It is from this level, as we reach for connection with our origins, Kabbalists teach that we can access three different levels of soul energy— nefesh, animating our physicality, ruach, driving imagination and neshamah, the energy of love and compassion.
Like Kabbalah, the origins of the Tarot are mystifying, the earliest cards emerging in medieval Europe.
Its teachings, however, timeless and timely, are believed to predate this period, some believing that through the diaspora of the gypsies, Tarot carries the wisdom of the ancient Egyptian mystery schools. Wherever these cards originate, their mythic themes are universal.
The 22 cards of the Major Arcana trigger varying emotional responses ranging from fascination to fear which has kept many from working with these intriguing illustrations. Some, for example, assuming only a literal reading of the cards, dread the possibility of drawing a card entitled “Death”—especially one illustrated with an armor-clad skeleton, mounted on a horse, trampling bodies beneath its feet. While this image may have been an appropriate symbol of medieval turmoil, it now begs reconsideration. For many raised in the Christian tradition, the cards may be considered “the work of the devil.” For many Jews, the Rider-Waite cards (the most familiar nineteenth century deck) seem unwelcoming with strange imagery of “The Devil”, “The Hierophant”, “The Hanging Man” — all unfamiliar to Jewish sensibilities.
We each yearn to fulfill our own potential and actualize the purpose for which we are here.
Within the legends and myths that exist in cultures across the world there is a common theme referred to as the three-stage Hero’s Journey— departure, initiation and return. The hero, uncomfortable in everyday circumstances hears the call to adventure and responds. Receiving help from mentors and guides, she/he sets out from home and, as everything familiar disappears, is tested by threshold guardians, allowing personal transformation to begin. Overcoming obstacles, she/he returns, forever changed, and bearing a spiritual gift— an awakening consciousness that changes belief and therefore sight.
A New Oracle Emerges
In studying the cards, I discovered their patriarchal layering can be lifted to reveal a timeless and timely revelation of intuitive wisdom in a sequence of insightful, profound and empowering teachings. By placing each of the Major Arcana cards on one of the pathways of the Tree of Life, I looked at how the reading of each card can be affected by the sefirot on either end. Placing the cards in a circular route that returns to the place of origin, as Kabbalah implores, the 22 steps in the hero’s journey becomes more obvious. I further wondered how inspirational the readings could be if the imagery on the cards replaced masculine archetypes with feminine ones.
Curiosity led me to create 22 illustrations that, renamed and renumbered in correct association with the magical Hebrew alphabet, reinterpret the cards as a spiritual tool for women in their daily practice. Aligning each card with the appropriate Hebrew letter, the reading offers an opportunity to connect with nefesh (the level of soul energy animating our physicality) through the letter itself as a building block of belief; with ruach (the energy driving imagination) through the number and patterning of the card; and with neshamah (the energy of love and compassion), through an archetypal story that is empowering and inspiring. The black background of the cards, onto which light and color are added, honors the unknown in our lives, from which intuition and imagination spring to life.
By drawing a card daily or weekly, it is possible to gain insight as to where we stand on our individual path to conscious evolution.
Connected to the Tree of Life, the cards remind us of our appreciation of the intuitive gift we have all been given as we acknowledge that “All is One.” We recognize that the pathways on the Tree are all interconnected, and that with insight, we can access deeper levels of learning as we commit ourselves to the magic and miracle of life’s process that is continuously unfolding.
In this contemporary reinterpretation and blending of diverse ancient wisdom traditions, we empower our decisions to make choices. For example, Card 15, named “Transmuting” (a verb instead of a noun) is based on the card “Temperance” from the Rider-Waite deck. This alchemical card reminds us that with conscious awareness, once our hearts have broken open through experiencing the powerlessness of loss, we have the potential to transmute grief into compassion. Its mantra and meditation is “I transform.”
She is a “The Shape Shifter,” a woman of two worlds. Her foot is in the waters of spirituality yet she is part of a physical reality.
Between her hands runs the golden light of awareness informing her choices as she draws on the power of the intuitive. As the 15th card in the deck, she is aligned with the Hebrew letter samech, whose circular shape reminds us of Divinity’s eternality, ongoing support and protection. Samech begins the Hebrew word Sod (meaning the hidden dimension in our lives) of which “The Shape Shifter” is now aware. Samech’s outline creates the fabric design in her robe. On the Tree of Life’s pathway between Tradition and Harmony, this card reminds us to honor everything in our belief system that brings us in touch with the oneness of all life. Additionally, we have the opportunity to transmute traditional either/or beliefs that no longer serves us in the building of a compassionate and just society.
Coincidence and Kabbalah, symbols and synchronicities, metaphors and mantras interweave to enrich and deepen our life experiences.
When we believe we can find connections between diverse wisdom pathways, we see them. We develop meaningful spiritual tools that sanctify life as we celebrate our diversity as we evolve fresh meditative and inspirational tools for a satisfying daily personal practice that enhances the intuitive in our lives.
Heather Mendel is a mystic, author and artist. Her latest book, The Syzygy Oracle: Transformational Tarot and The Tree of Life (Dodona Books, 2013) offers, in image and word, a primer on Kabbalah, Tarot and conscious evolution with a daily spiritual practice for developing trust in our intuitive wisdom. For more information on the book and her original oracle deck visit www.heathermendel.com or www.sacredfemininekabbalah.com.