Ange said:
I've got a book that discusses all sorts of deeper ways of getting into the Tarot, and one of the things it talks about is Kabbalah.
Now, with the Fybromyalgia, I do have a great deal of difficulty taking new things in, especially if it is in a book and there is lots to read on it....and there are loads of symbols and notes in the book which just trying to find the basics of what it is talking about is to me quite difficult......cos I'm reading a bit, then cos it seems so complicated, it's going straight out of my head....
I wonder if anyone could just give me a couple of lines of info....like is Kabbalah necessary in Tarot....can I do without it....etc...
Ugh, same here with the fibromyalgia.
I've just recently begun learning more about Kabbalah myself. So far, my answer is:
Is Kabbalah necessay in Tarot? No, I wouldn't say it's necessary in Tarot, or even in life. But I find that it gives me another perspective about our existence here, and another perspective about Tarot as a reflection of our existence here. I think it can enhance one's use of Tarot, and one's ways of thinking about life in general.
One thing about it that resonates with me is the necessity of grounding oneself in earthy, physical form and what that brings. Fibromyalgia also has to do with locked up energy, and I think that's really the basis of both Kabbalah and Jungian psychology, so I'm glad to have learned more about both, and I plan to continue learning -- slowly as I may have to go at first.
I don't know which book you read, but I found Rachel Pollack's
The Kabbalah Tree helpful in getting past what seemed to be barriers in my ability to understand what anyone was getting at regarding Kabbalah. Even so, I had to take it slowly and be patient with myself. I plan to reread it later, but right after that I moved on to Rose Gwain's
Discovering Your Self Through Tarot and found it a good follow-up for me, although her writing style is much more abrupt and a little too compact and cryptic compared with Pollack's, especially in the part of Gwain's book that dealt with Kabbalah. Good thing I read Pollack first! Gwain's book is mostly about Jungian typology, and even with that it was a good thing I'd learned something about Meyers-Briggs typing in the past, or I would've been lost. But the two ideas combined -- Kabbalah and Individuation -- seem to easily draw parallels in my mind, the more I read, and I'm glad I finally came to explore both.
I haven't yet incorporated much of what I've learned about Kabbalah in my use of Tarot, but I hope to as I learn more. The concept of in a sense reversing the evolution of energy in the pips -- where the Ace seems to be more desirable as a goal than 10, depending on which direction up or down the Tree you're heading -- both puzzles and intrigues me. But then, I've always liked a good puzzle.
Nevada