HallowQuest Lesson One: Meditation and Diary Keeping

PathWalker

HallowQuest Lesson One

Meditation - we will be required to enter the card we are studying through the black doorway on the card. Once we step within, the scene is not static but rather filled with other scenes, animals, characters etc which the doorway is hiding. We need to be alert and receptive, our clear perception and remembrance of subtle reality is important. Use the first images which come on entering a card. If interacting with a character, it may be silent verbal or symbolic. Accept the first gift you are given even if it seems extremely odd and unlikely/ silly and ask the giver for its significance and qualities. Be flexible and adaptable, go with what seems right rather than following the instructions to the letter.

Breathing - From the diaphragm, very deeply, so your stomach rises. Spend 2-3 mins before each meditation breathing in and out at least five times. Visualise your system being oxygenated on the in breath and worries and problems leaving you on the out breath.

Earthing and grounding - Make sure that you ground yourself after the meditation e.g. by reciting some ritual words (we get to do this in a later lesson), eating and drinking, making sure we perform mundane tasks with full attention and commitment.

Diary record - we need one. Ideas for entries:
date
time
moon phase
weather
meditation subject
report
card chosen today, and how it resonates with the day's events
reading
important events today


***I won’t say I’ve got to grips with all this yet. My work is sporadic, and sometimes brief, but I still to think to try is better than to wait for the perfect time :)



Tasks:

1. Look through the book. What preparations do you need to make? What changes to your routine? Take out the cards and shuffle, asking 'What is the most important factor in the course for me? Take 3 cards at random and note them in your diary along with expectations/ doubts/ questions on the course


*** “I will need to push and press myself forward, not to fall away with time. I will need to make sure I find the time and space for each week’s journey.

The most important factor:-
STONE SEVEN – broken wall. You are not alone on this ancient path, but you are called to travel and repair – N.B. Do not lose heart, accept assistance.
GRAIL FIVE – grail ship. Making an otherworldly voyage which is truly life-changing. Accept mistakes, do your very best to travel well in the future.
STONE TWO – river in winter. Seeing at last the right route, and now being unafraid to walk it, whatever the surrounding situation.


2. Practise breathing and note how you feel

3. Choose one image to meditate on, or one of the speeches that preface each card description. Meditate for 10 mins. Record findings

4. Begin your diary record. Do Daily Companions Reading (either for today or tomorrow). NB: The deck does not use reversed meanings, so use cards upright. First sort the deck into 3 piles, Greater Powers, Court Cards and Lesser Powers:

Shuffle Lesser Powers: What experience will I learn from tomorrow/ today?

Shuffle Court Cards: Who will be my guide tomorrow/ today?

Shuffle Greater Powers: Who will be my teacher tomorrow/ today?

Pick one card from each pack to be your Tarot Companions, to find hidden life patterns and understand them better.

*** Seem to have not written anything more from this lesson! Maybe I didn’t really do it, or had done it on a previous occasion when I began, and so didn’t do it again. My comments in a previous post about using the cards probably begin here.

Pathwalker
 

Aerin

I think it is best to do what feels right, while at the same time trying to use the structure as some kind of discipline. Sometimes it is hard to know whether to just go with it anyway or to adapt...

tigerlily, nothing to stop you just posting "I did this and it was useful/ not useful" if you don't want to post more. I know what you mean about the rituals.

I rather like the 3 card readings and use them a fair amount.
 

tigerlily

I'm on the verge of (re)dedicating myself to this thing... I just realized that I bought this course TEN YEARS ago! And I started and then things happened and I stopped and forgot about it... story of my life lol
 

tigerlily

I don't know how long I'll keep it up this time, but I have the best intentions to actually finish the course this time! So...

1. What practical preparations do you need to make?

Well, I got the deck, the book, and lots of paper :) so I think I'm good on the practical side of things. Also, what helped me with the meditation is Robert A. Johnson's book Inner Work - it deals with dreamwork and Active Imagination. From it I got reassurance that it is ok to write your meditation down while "seeing" it, instead of writing it down afterwards.

It's a bit like writing fiction (transcribing the movie playing before your inner eye), just with the important difference that you don't follow a preset outline or design, you just jot down whatever's happening on its own. The advantage to me is that the meditations are much more detailed and profound - the impressions are not as fleeting as in a "pure" meditation. I found some old Hallowquest meditations and was amazed at how powerful they were. Reading them after all this time drew me right back in (and is probably the reason I felt drawn to this course again).

What changes to your routine will it entail?
Well, I need to set aside time for the meditations, obviously. And I need a reminder in a prominent place so I don't forget them :rolleyes: I have NO self-discipline!

What mental preparations do you need to make?
It seems I can't follow any rules - I have to poke at and alter every self-study thing I come across *sigh* so of course I had to alter the elemental correspondences (Water is east/spring, Earth is west/autumn and Air is north/winter) and the Majors that "belong" with each quarter/season. It just made more sense to me, but can you still call it a Hallowquest course? Can I even post in here, or is it already something else?

What complicates matters is that recently I've come to appreciate the classical correspondences (Air=East, etc), so now I have two sets that make equal sense to me! It's mind-boggling, really! The fact that I start each quarter six weeks earlier (I mean, it's called mid-summer, because it's the middle of summer, not the beginning - so the beginning would logically be May 1st) is just a minor point of divergence by comparison.

But since it won't matter for the first five lessons, I'll just stuff this problem under the mattress for now *phew*...

What is the most important factor (my personal focus) in this course for me?

Stone Maiden
Ha! She's totally unlike me! Practical, down to earth, sober, disciplined - a Virgo :D but yeah, those character traits would serve me well in this course. If I manage to be a bit more like her, there's even a chance that I'll finish the course this time. I get the feeling the Hallowquest is scolding me a bit ...

2. Practise your breathing. Notice how you feel afterwards.
I'll leave my breath well alone. I can't seem to do it right - I'll either get dizzy or start yawning. Instead, I'll listen to some entrancing music while doing my meditations, that works much better for me.

3. Choose a tarot card image or a sentence or one of the speeches to meditate on
Rebel that I am, I rather chose to distill the focus of the course from the many introductory chapters - I need to know what I'm meant to accomplish here in order to keep at it. The sentences are straight from the book, but I left a lot out in between that is (to me, right now) more distracting than enlightening (moderators, I hope this doesn't raise any copyright issues? If so, just remove it):

"The Hallows or "Holy Things" are the essences of the prime fourfold energies of creation. Each land has its own symbolic representations of the Hallows which have a presence and power upon which all inhabitants of that land can call. But the Hallows are often withdrawn or inoperative due to various factors.

Every age has to solve the problem of Evil and find within its people those who are willing to go on quest, putting themselves at service of the Grail. For the Grail does not just appear in medieval and celtic story, it is an ongoing cycle. It can be an act of real seership to recognize the unfolding patterns and protagonists of the Grail in your own time and place.

The object of your quest is to seek these primal energies and to clear the way to help make their influence manifest in the world. Manifesting the Hallows is the responsibility of us all.

The guardianship of the Hallows remains in the Innerworld, but the Guardians cannot mediate their powers unless we keep open the channels by which the Hallows are manifested to the Outerworld. In whatever land you live, relate closely to its tutelary inner guardians and learn to work with their cooperation.

Although the quest for the Hallows is a way to discover our inner resources that resonate with the holy objects, the Hallows themselves are much more than psychological functions or skills. They are truly otherworldly beings, objects of numinous and mysterious powers that will never be fully revealed to us.

All the sources warn that the Hallows are dangerous to the unworthy; they bring injury or death to those who seek to abuse their power for selfish ends, and will break into pieces or become otherwise unattainable.

If they are wielded by one who is worthy of their trust, then their gifts are brought through for all to wonder at. Our quest is to cultivate those virtues that will make us a clear channel through which the Hallows can mediate their power."

It's a strange coincidence that discussions about Jung and Tarot sprung up around the same time I was contemplating the above. It sounds a lot like the power of the archtypes (which has come to mean to me nothing more but a new fancy name for the old gods and spirits) and how you are warned against doing AI or any other deep psychological digging for fear of developing a psychosis. The virtues that you need to develop in order to manage the high voltage of an archetype (for lack of a better word) then seem another way of saying that you need to strengthen your psychic "structural integrity" (yes, I'm borrowing from everywhere *g*).

So, first you do this course for "self-development". But this isn't an end in itself, it's just preparation for the "greater work" of serving the community and ultimately the planet...

4. Begin your daily diary record
Hm. Perhaps I'll do it in the Daily Draw subforum - or just at home, for myself. I already babbled more than all other posters in this thread together :rolleyes:
 

PathWalker

Aerin said:
I rather like the 3 card readings and use them a fair amount.
I just recently read something in a Motherpeace workbook about the three sets of cards, and how to view them (which worded it differently than "experience, guide &teacher" thing).
It made sesne when i read it LOL

I'll try and find it, and post it here in case anyone else finds it helpful :)

Pathwalker
 

PathWalker

tigerlily said:
I don't know how long I'll keep it up this time, but I have the best intentions to actually finish the course ....... I need a reminder in a prominent place so I don't forget them :rolleyes: I have NO self-discipline!

:rolleyes:
I know that feeling exactly :)
I just pick up and start again if I find that I have lapsed - be kind to yourself, but do keep trying.
Pathwalker
 

DaisyDragonfly

PathWalker said:
I just recently read something in a Motherpeace workbook about the three sets of cards, and how to view them (which worded it differently than "experience, guide &teacher" thing).
It made sesne when i read it LOL

I'll try and find it, and post it here in case anyone else finds it helpful :)

Pathwalker

That'd be great! I find the guide/teacher to be similar ideas, and I'm not sure how to view them in a reading...

:)
 

PathWalker

Ways to see the three 'sets'of cards

This is taken from the book "Rituals and Practises with the Motherpeace Tarot" by Vicki Noble. From chapter two, Fate and Personal Will.


Majors
"The majors represent forces much larger than our individual egos and therefore things we are unlikely to be able to change on our own......try to align with something much bigger or higher than your own ego-structure. You can't change the situation represented by the major arcana cards. The personal work indicated here involves getting out of the way - trying not to resisit the events and happenings in your life...."

Whilst I don't quite like the "getting out of the way" emphasis, I did feel it helpful to see the cards as illuminating one of those huge forces, allowing them to teach you, to try aligning with (if appropriate) and not resisting, as there may be a needful lesson there.


People cards
"...an interestin area between fate and personal free will. Daughters and Sons(in her pack) represent younger parts of the self, Priestesses and Shamans (again, her titles) are older more mature expressions of our individuality."

She has more to say - all interesting stuff - but what struck me here was that although the court cards (in Hallowquest)are seen as outside of ourselves, guides, they also may resonate with something within ourself, something which is there, but needs to be recognised and accessed?


Number cards
"The area of manifestation, the place or sphere in which the whole situation will resolve itself or come to completion."

So in terms of our own Hallow Quest, this could be seen as an inner area which we might travel to, to help us understand something in a physical (inner) way.


This may just all be another way to express what the Matthews' had already written LOL, but it helped me see a way to use the three sets of cards more effectively.

I have changed the emphasis of Vicki Noble's sentiments to link with HallowQuest, so please understand her ideas were not exactly as decribed, they sparked me to see differently, and I thank her for that.
 

witchychris

Oh my word. Looking at the dates in this thread has made me realize how long it has been since I last looked in on this.
I got on quite well with the 3 card reading that is in the book but I must admit I do like the 2 card reading that Pathwalker came up with.
 

Aerin

I use the 3 card reading with other decks too and I get on quite well with it.

I think of the "teacher" as the card that tells you things (sage on the stage) and the "guide" (guide by your side) as the one that asks you questions that helps you to realise how your experience links with the teaching. The former imparts knowledge, the latter gets you to use your existing knowledge and realise that you know more than you think you know.