Transparent Oracle Study Group - General Discusion/System

I've been talking about my Transparent Oracle a lot on AT lately. And the most common question I get asked is "What kind of system does it use?"

So to start off, I'm going to give my interpretation of the T-O general system.

The cards are divided based on 7 Directions. The cardinal directions: East, South, West and North; as well three more "metaphorical" directions: Above Below and Within.

There is a total of 70 cards. Each Direction has 10 cards. There are different types of cards. Gateways exist for all 7 Directions. The four Cardinal Directions each have an Element card, an Elemental card, a Weather card, and a Time of Day card. Above and Below have Polarity cards instead of Elementals.

Most, but not all of the Directions have Guides (which I have the bad habit of calling Spirit Guides). The Cardinal Directions have animal Guides; 4 each. The Direction of Below has mythological creatures/beings for Guides: Ancestors, Sidhe, Giant and Mermaid. The Direction of Above has only one Guide: the Angel. The Direction of Within doesn't have a Guide, but it does have the Dream card.

Above, Below and Within are quite different from the Cardinal Directions.

Above is focused on Celestial Beings and Astronomy/Astrology. They have the Celestial Gateway, Guide: Angel, and a White Dragon Polarity. (The book explains what Polarities are.) The other 7 cards are Sun, Moon and 5 planets: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter,Venus and Saturn.

Below is focused on the Underworld and Grail Mythology. It has the WorldTree Gateway, the Red Dragon Polarity, and 4 Guide and 4 "Grail Hallows": Cauldron, Spear, Sword and Stone. The Grail Hallows will be most familiar to Tarot users, because they are equivalent to the 4 Tarot suits.

Within is focused on the Self and is (in my opinion) the most unique of all the Directions. There is the Gateway to the Self, Dream, The DNA Labyrinth and The Web. The other 6 cards refer to senses (traditional and otherwise): Touch/Taste, Hearing, Voice, Telepathy, Empathy and Vision.

Myself, I find this system very easy to work with and understand. How comfortable are the rest of you using it?

I think that the Above/Below/Within are harder for me to work on.
The 4 tangible elements of Earth/Air/Fire/Water I can easily communicate with and so working with those 40 cards are fairly easy.

The Above I tend to think of the 'Major Major' arcana. Sometimes they reflect the energies that are beyond our means of control. They can be the bigger picture of bigger background energies of a reading. Above is so 'big' as a direction and a concept that is full of things beyond our understanding, so like humans do we have to break 'above' up into bitesize manageable chunks of planets, constellations etc.

The Below is odd. I confuse Below and Within a lot because for me the two are the same. I think of the Below as the Underworld, that which is the shadow of ourselves, and so is Within. Below is the shadow, which we explore in myth, or in particular the myths of Albion, of the Grail. The lessons are there in the darkness if we are prepared to venture forth with that noble knightly valour!

However, Within is the BALANCE of Above and Below. It is the place where the two meet (of God and Goddess if you like, Chokmah/Binah, left and right) to create in unity the place of contact - ourselves. And sometimes, we get so lost in being ourselves, lost and overwhelmed, or even desensitised due to how much we have in our awareness at one time - so we have seperate senses to focus on, slowly but surely to listen and find the centre within. Silence is my favourite way to do that, or rather the Hearing card, for when there is nothing external to hear, we listen to the voices within.

Great stuff!

Perhaps you would find it easier to deal with Within if you think of it as how the Self connects and interacts with the World. It was the most difficult and abstract direction to define and encapsulate, but in the end I went with these patterns of energy which seem to either emanate from or enter into the inner realm of Self. It is focused on the senses primarily, as that is our contact with the exterior World, our connecting point. There is no guide for Within, as of course all the Guides for the other directions are essentially guiding our Self! In many ways, the Gateway of Self, that blank canvas of the Soul, is also our truest guide. When other guides appear with that card as masks, that can signify a powerful guide connection and totemic identification.

Below is the primal realm of the inner Earth, as opposed to the inner realm of Self. These are often confused, perticularly in neo-shamanic healing traditions. From the inner primal Earth we draw our strength, replenish ourselves and face the challenges that make us stronger. The Below is our Roots, as we walk in the world we are standing on the shoulders of our ancestors gone before us.

Above is the stellar realm of the eternal divine, and those forces which influence us whether we like it or not It is also the eternal light towards which we strive, but without the strength of the darkness Below and the roots, our branches will not truly reach...

I am just off to bed but will return to write more soon

I've noticed that people do seem to have problems dealing with the idea of Below. I did a reading where one of the Below Guides appeared, and I suggested that the person allow themselves to be more open to Below, and in more general terms be more open to the the things that might make them feel "uncomfortable".

The response I got was "I don't know how to open myself up to Below. I look Above when I try to contact my Spirit Guides."

I guess it's hard to recognize that something positive could come from Below.

It intrigues me...

... that , apparently, many people have a difficult time dealing with "Below." I guess I assumed that everyone who eats would feel connected to "Below." There is no life on this planet without a planet under our feet. The food of our food, the rocks for our houses, the crystals for our healing, the deep water essential to life are all "below." We need the support of what is under us to journey into what is over us. I know that there are many negative images for below in our culture -- and it's useful to think about the negativity they spread about the source of life and the needs of the physical. There are many shamanic vision quests that include trance journeys "below," and I'd really encourage oracle users or clients who struggle with this direction to try some of those. Nicki Scully has some that are lovely.

Myself, I'd have to agree that "Within" is very challenging -- it's so hard to get out of my own way!

MadamPince said:

It intrigues me that , apparently, many people have a difficult time dealing with "Below." I guess I assumed that everyone who eats would feel connected to "Below." There is no life on this planet without a planet under our feet. The food of our food, the rocks for our houses, the crystals for our healing, the deep water essential to life are all "below." We need the support of what is under us to journey into what is over us. I know that there are many negative images for below in our culture -- and it's useful to think about the negativity they spread about the source of life and the needs of the physical. There are many shamanic vision quests that include trance journeys "below," and I'd really encourage oracle users or clients who struggle with this direction to try some of those. Nicki Scully has some that are lovely.

Myself, I'd have to agree that "Within" is very challenging -- it's so hard to get out of my own way!

Click to expand...

I agree with you. In modern society, somehow, we have this collective belief that "Up" is where all the good things are, and everything bad is "Down". We bury our ancestors, and yet when we need help we look "Up" for their aid. And yes, in Emily's system "Below" is all about Ancestors.

Yes- and the beings of the inner Earth. It is this primal- PRIME landscape, in which we renew ourselves, and from which we draw our strength, just like the roots of a Tree.

To deny this is to deny the very substance and template of life.

Dealing with the abstractions of Below and Within . . .

Sorry I've been MIA for the last 2 months . . . . love to jump back in . . . .

To me, Below expresses the foundation of anything/everything we build on, and it's the "place" where shamanic journeying occurs; to go "down" through the tunnel (a/k/a birth canal, soul's journey) and find the archetypical symbols at the root of our existence. Within is as wonderful, it's how the energy of "us/we/you" is enabled to interact with the other 6 'directions' - how can we see without sight, feel without touching, hear without ears, feel the pain of others/ourselves without intuition? The Within and Below are as vital to existence as Above, can't have one without the others - yin and yang, the balance of everything must be preserved or everything ceases to have meaning - what's black w/o white? hot w/o cold? Female w/o male? Entropy w/o energy?

The energy of the Universe is a balanced system, and the TO honors that balance; without it, we cease to live a sane life-path. When we lose sight of this basic law - "as above, so below; as within, so without" - we lose ourselves to sickness of body, mind, and soul (and planet!) until we correct the imbalances. The TO is superb at showing us where these imbalances are and what to do to correct them, for until we do, life is chaotic and painful.

At least for this little witch . . .