Saturday, February 1, 2014

Tarot and healing


Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop, Imbolic 2014 edition. Today's subject is Tarot, creativity and healing. In light of that I thought that I would talk a little about a healing effort going on in the ceremonial magic community.

Simple layout for Tarot healing spells.
A few weeks ago, the ceremonial magic community learned that Donald Michael Kraig, best known as the author of Modern Magick, was suffering from stage four pancreatic cancer. Upon learning this news, several members of the ceremonial magic community started to post rituals to magically help Kraig survive this illness.

Donald Michael Kraig--author of Modern Magick.
I will admit that I find it interesting that I have yet to see anyone suggest that we need to do a divination before warming up our cauldrons and circles. One of the things that Kraig writes about in Modern Magick is that one should always perform a divination before doing magic. Basically, his position (to the best of my understanding) is that good intentions are not enough to prevent a spell from going dark--rather it is the eventual outcome of the spell that determines whether you were doing white, black, or grey magic.

No, I am not suggesting it either. While I might be using Tarot cards in my spellwork, they are for focusing purposes. My personal opinion is that this is one working that it is probably safe to skip the divination on.

(For the record, healing magic can turn negative...let's say you save the life of the next Adolf Hitler, that's probably dark mojo there. Or a child abuser. Or a drug kingpin. Or a serial killer. You get the idea. But in general, most healing spells can be assumed to be white magic, or grey at worst. Generally, most of us don't sweat the idea that a healing spell can lead to bad things.)

The idea behind using Tarot cards in spell work is that just like we use the symbols of Tarot to communicate with the universe about events, we can also use them to communicate with the universe about what we want to happen. In practice, it is like playing a game where you present a situation and guess what cards (forces and events) would come up in a reading that would be read as representing that situation.

(Practical hint--if you have never done this before, buy a separate Tarot deck for your spell work. It has been my experience that spell work with a deck hinders its use in divination.)


The first card of the spread represents the client to be healed. In this case, I chose the Magician because Kraig is a ceremonial magician and a writer.


The second card of the layout represents the illness to be healed. This does not have to be a physical illness; this layout can also be used for emotional, mental, and spiritual illnesses. In this case, I was undecided what card to use, so I looked up the astrological ruler of cancer in Rex E. Bills' The Rulership Book. According to Bills, cancer is ruled by the Moon and zodical sign of Cancer. D'oh! He also suggests looking up the organ in question, which in this case is the pancreas, which is also ruled by Cancer. Being someone who still uses the Golden Dawn attributions for the Tarot cards, that means it would be represented by the Chariot.

(Interestingly, I understand cancer to be a set of cells that are growing out of control--therefore, the symbolism of the Chariot does seem to fit the issue at hand.)


The third card represents the healing force to be activated and used in the curing of the illness. Honestly, I am not sure what force to use (while I have Reiki, I only have the first level of it). In general, healers (including doctors of modern medicine) are ruled by Virgo. (Except for faith healers, who are ruled by Neptune--they pull power from above, aka God.) So I figure using the Hermit (Virgo in GD terms) would be the proper card to use. Kraig will be undergoing procedures with doctors, so hopefully it helps the procedures to take and put the cancer in remission.


The final card of the spread is the hoped for outcome. In this case, it is a personal choice. I feel like I owe Kraig a drink or three, and hope to someday be able to buy him a drink or three.

(This involves me also overcoming my own health issue of moving vehicles being one of my migraine triggers, as well as my budget problems--gee, this spell has two layers to it...scary, isn't it? Yes, I just realized that.)

The reason I feel like I owe Kraig a drink or three is the fact that I was reading his book, Modern Magick, when my Golden Dawn sponsor first spotted me. If it wasn't for that book, my sponsor and mentor wouldn't have spotted me, and I might have ended up being a self-initiate, rather than being a Vaulted member of one of the many branches of the Golden Dawn system of magic. So I figure that if I ever meet Kraig that I should buy him a drink or three, just for getting me entry into the Temple.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like this spread Morgan. And speaking of Reiki, whenever I've sent it to people going into surgery etc, I've also sent to anybody who may be working on them. I've always done this by visualising where they will be and who will be there and filling the room with symbols... I think in future, I'll try sending in the Hermit. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Great spread and I resonate with the way you've expressed it in detail, Morgan! Happy to have such an astute and thoughtful troublemaker for a BlogHop neighbor!

Tarot By Arwen said...

I like how you dig through the layers and blend things. I had not heard DMK was ill so health to him as well.

Unknown said...

This post was very insightful for me. Love the spread. I too use Tarot cards for spell work, more to focus my intention. thanks for sharing Morgan!

Anne North said...

This was a great post Morgan. In the past I have always just heard people say that if you need to do healing all that is required is to get their permission before doing so, and that makes it all ok. I have always felt that something else is required. The ego of the healer needs to be placed in check…you should ask yourself 'what are the reasons I am allowing my will and energy to become involved'. It all adds up into the karma of the healing. Who knows what has occurred in the past for this being to become sick. Your post really touches on this issue. Cheers Anne. BB

Olivia Peters said...

I'm sorry to hear he is ill, and your spell/spread is beautiful, and, I hope, powerful! I think it's a good idea, as you said, to set a deck aside specifically for spell work - makes sense!

Sharon Cumming said...

I loved your spread and multi-layered interpretation! I haven't used my cards before spellworking for a while now so thanks for the inspiration too!

Ania said...

Interesting spread

Unknown said...

Thank you for this. I have had the pleasure of meeting DMK a few times. I always enjoyed our conversations and sought out his company when possible.
I am saddened beyond belief by his current challenges, but pleased with the heartfelt magickal work being done.

I often quote Don about the same thing you pointed out - performing a divination to see if the magick is appropriate. I also point out what he always says next. He acknowledges that sometimes we will do the magick regardless of the outcome of the divination.

Don gets people, the good, the bad and the ugly within us all, really well.

Thanks for this great post.

Anonymous said...

I've never used the Tarot for healing spells and such. This is fascinating new territory for me. Thanks, Morgan!

Unknown said...

I have a question on this healing does the person have to be present for this or can this be done at the house