Does Tarot Create Reality?

July 25, 2007

Could we be using the Tarot to create our reality as well as to understand it?

A user on my paranormal forum has written a couple of posts about quantum mechanics and paranormal activity. What caught my attention though, was this:

Consciousness is the bringing about of the ongoing state vector of possibilities that runs through the brain. It is all of these breaching and interlaced collections of quantum potentialities weaving together the possibilities. And beyond consciousness, something more. By creating the possibilities that we experience as consciousness and by selecting – by willing – which synapse will fire, mind brings into reality each moment’s thoughts, experience, and actions”

The implications are, that we create our own reality by consciously choosing one possibility out of an infinite number of possibilities – regardless of our awareness of the process.

Two phrases jumped out at me. The first was the ongoing state vector of possibilities that runs through the brain, the second was we experience consciousness and by selecting – by willing – which synapse will fire.

I know he wasn’t referring to Tarot in this discussion, but of course I relate just about any idea to the Tarot. I immediately thought of the Major Arcana, the twenty-two Majors that are sometimes referred to as Archetypes. As Jung defined them, they are the first original model of which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are merely derivative, copied, patterned, or emulated. These are symbols imprinted in the psyche of the universal collective unconscious. That is how many people understand the Majors, myself included.

I wondered if the Archetypes represented in the Major Arcana could relate to different synaptic connections in our brains. One school of thought in Tarot is that the human consciousness or soul must move through all the archetypal energies represented by the Major Arcana to become complete and achieve enlightenment. If you follow that idea, each one of them must represent some part of the psyche that is to be developed or understood.

Now when we lay the cards out, we are seeking answers, guidance or direction. But could we also be unconsciously choosing our reality by, not only how we relate to the cards, but also to which card is chosen? Some people believe that when we shuffle and lay out a spread, we are unconsciously choosing which cards appear in order to receive messages that would otherwise be unavailable to our conscious mind. Is it too far a reach to also believe that we are choosing which cards we need to see to create the reality we expect to experience?

What do you think about this idea? I would love to know.

Posted in Musings