Dream Tarot
An experiment for 78 nights
Back in something like 2017, I was trying to really learn tarot. I was reading a million books, binge-listening to Fortune’s Wheelhouse podcast, and doing everything I could to wrap my brain around the whole thing. But through discussing something with my husband, Michael, an insight clicked through something he suggested. I decided to sleep with each card under my pillow for 78 nights straight, the amount of Tarot cards in a deck, and record my dreams the next morning. This should get the Tarot inside of me, as it were, and it would change from something I was just reading about to something much more embodied. I should mention I used the Thoth Tarot deck. I have never tried this with the RWS deck, but pondering it now, it would be fun to try and then compare the dreams for each card. i mean, this is how thorough research is done!
Let me just say, that this practice is not for the faint-hearted. If you ever do this, and I highly recommend you do, get ready for the wildest dream ride you may ever go on. The (Thoth) Tarot does not kid around. I’d love to share with you my introductory dreams on my first night in what in hindsight, really felt like a full katabasis experience.
Angel, Mische technique and metal leaf on canvas.
April 17. Day 1. 0 The Fool
Element Air, Hebrew letter: Aleph
Dream I
I was a Being of human form but without any true distinguishing features. I was among a group of similar beings and we were all basic human-shaped, but our features and characteristics were unseen because we were all emanating a glow of light ranging from bright yellow to dark orange. We were somewhere outside the orbit of the earth in space, in a ship of some kind. The surface we were standing on was like a vast disk or observation deck with concentric circles tiled into the ground. It was a beautiful space and the walls and ceilings were a great clear dome so we were looking onto the vast cosmos above us and the Earth below us.
One of the Beings in our group wanted to jump from the spaceship to Earth and they were convinced they’d be ok. This was madness we all said. No one has ever done that before and they would surely die. It was out of the question. Yet they insisted and argued that since no one had done it before, how could they know the outcome? Wasn’t it time someone tried? We couldn’t talk them out of it. In a definitive move, they did jump.
It was a magnificent swan dive out of the observation dome and they made it clear they were not only ready for whatever lay ahead but were thoroughly welcoming the outcome no matter what it may be. We all watched with both horror and fascination as their figure seemed to float and fall, getting smaller as they approached the first layer of atmosphere. We all braced ourselves for the worst.
My focus in the dream shifted from one of the Beings on the space dome to falling a few lengths away from the Being who jumped. I wasn’t one of the Beings anymore, but an observer witnessing the falling Being like in a movie. They were getting closer and closer to the first layer of atmosphere and instead of bracing themselves, they held their diving posture firm. And from one moment to the next, the first layer was penetrated. Instead of being incinerated, like everyone had expected, they were invigorated. A flash of blinding light encompassed the Being and it was obvious to me, the observer, that the Being was just given another layer of life. Layer after layer, the Being flashed a blinding light and more and more was added to them, giving them more depth and form, as they were being born. Finally, they broke through the last layer with a final grand flash and fell firmly onto the Earth leaving a trail of light behind them, landing with both feet at the ready and both hands down on the ground. The Being stood up and I could see Him clearly now as The Fool.
This speaks for itself on many levels. Though I was completely, let me stress this again, utterly completely ignorant of this at the time, this is almost an exact description of the descent of the soul through the 7 planetary spheres from the outer pleroma down to Earth in Platonic philosophy and Hellenistic astrology. Since then, I have taken on Platonism and Astrology as perhaps my main focus of research and inquiry along with my many years-long obsession with Alchemy, but it was totally out of my framework at the time I dreamt this. Coincidentally, I am told there is a corresponding Hindu belief which is pretty much the same. Souls live outside of the planetary spheres and as a child is born, the soul descends and accumulates the karma of each of the planets at the moment of their birth. Here too, this is one’s birth chart. Talk about a good beginning to this whole journey!
Dream II
I was seeing the dark and starry sky as the entirety of my vision. There in front of me was a teapot constellation. A voice yelled into my mind, “The Teapot is the Fool.”
This was too good not to look up. Yes, folks, there is a teapot constellation. Let me say again here if it wasn’t obvious, that I had absolutely no idea that a Teapot constellation existed until this dream made me look it up. It is an asterism and it lives in the constellation Sagittarius. The teapot points to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, whcih of course is a super massive black hole (cue Muse) and it also points to where the sun shines on the Winter Solstice. One little teapot sure points to some big things in the sky. The teapot is most visible and highest in the night sky from July to August, so right now. That’s an augmented picture below of the night sky at 11pm where I live in NorCal.
Now all I can see is instead of Saggitarius holding a bow and arrow ready to fire, he’s galloping and holding a giant teapot ready to pour you a cuppa. But the connection of The Fool, the Galactic Center, the Winter Solstice makes sens to my mind if I don’t try and verbally explain it. They float together in a way that links with the first dream, like the galactic center is where the soul’s emerge from or something. It all kind of just sends me into a reverie and I need a fainting couch to contemplate it all.
The Alembic Call for Art for our Locals Only show is still live for another few days. Apply HERE if you are in the Bay Area.
Speaking of the Alembic, my Alligator Lizards class is this Saturday. Register HERE and I will see you there! Interested in learning more about what we do at Alligator Lizards? You can read more about it in the post I wrote a few weeks ago.
