Tarot Cards and Spirit Portals

[MercyMe]

Even the previous Pope's attempt at exorcism didn't work . Sometimes, bringing priests into a house will make things worse and you will end up with an entity that is not only disturbed, but really angry at you too.

I think this is a perfect example of that story in the Bible where the guy trying to exorcise demons angered the spirits. Many people simply don't believe in spiritual entities, or they don't believe in what the Church believes but call in a priest anyway because they think the priest has power they don't. Or, even the priest is skeptical and doesn't believe in what he is doing (exorcism).

Spirit "portals" are, I think, human beings. I really don't believe any inanimate object draws or invites spirits of any level. I think a person's energies, their focus, their thoughts, etc. are what serves as the "portal." I think the entity may remain because there is plenty of energy to sustain its activities, even if that energy is fear. The energies worked up through a rite of exorcism would be sufficient enough to hold the entity. In any case, I learned from my time with the fundamentalist Christians that saw demons under every rock and around every corner that virtually anything can be pegged as a "spirit portal," any innocuous thing. Here's a website that, sadly, clearly demonstrates the kind of extremist thinking and fear-mongering bordering on if not crossing hate speech: http://www.demonbuster.com/z3cyh.html

~Mercy

 

[tarotbear]

Wow! I guess I have to clear my house of owls and frogs - they are demons! Should I break in my neighbor's house and smash her owl collection to save her? Here In Willimantic, the Frog is a matter of city pride - they even decorate the bridge into town. Should I blow it up before they draw demons into the town?

 

[MercyMe]

I know, poor little froggies. I guess Kermit is anathema, too. And, apparently, you're not supposed to hold on to any pictures of movie stars or anything with an autograph. One list on the site states: "Some accursed objects are: owls, frogs, unicorns, horseshoes; items from other countries such as Africa, China, Japan; American Indian artifacts, carvings, pictures, Buddha statutes. Dolls and stuffed animals - dolls originated in voodoo. Paisley pattern on anything. Nike is a Greek god, according to the dictionary.

Collections, Pictures of movie stars, some items passed down from ancestors, Shamrocks, Any kind of good luck charm, Statues, Oriental objects, African items, Indian items, American Indian items, Any items that are used in witchcraft, The Book of Mormon, satanic bible, Books on other religions, Rock and roll music, etc."

So out with the Nike sneakers, that paisley tie, any and all dolls, stuffed animals, your family heirlooms, and the ubiquitous rock and roll music. In fact the site states that if you can't stand the incessant droning of the midi file that is playing on their site it's because you're "infested with demons."

Sigh. I'd laugh, and occasionally I do, but their rabid ethnocentrism and hatred for anything that is remotely attached to a culture not their own is alarmingly disturbing. Obviously this way of thinking is extreme and not representative of your average Joe or Jane American Evangelical Christian, and I use them only as an example of where the natural progression in thinking of objects as "spirit portals" can end up and does end up when taken to its logical conclusion.

~Mercy

 

[Tarotphelia]

Should I break in my neighbor's house and smash her owl collection to save her?

YES ! (eeeek)

 

[Ankou]

Mercy Me, I think I need to cleanse my computer and office just for opening that page!!!

Used tarot for years but never opened doors while reading or holding the cards or having the cards anywhere near me. I've used some of the symbols found in traditional tarot to open doors, but not the cards themselves. And when the door doesn't want to close... well, like Tarot Bear says, don't open it if your not sure you want it open.

Tarot cards are bits of cardboard with pictures on them. If you hand the same deck to fifty people, you'll get fifty different reactions. Some will like the pretty pictures, but think nothing more of it than post cards, some will swear that touching the cards burned them with Satanic fire...

I'd recommend looking for another answer to the question of how a portal may have been opened. But what a great thread you've started, so much good reading! sigh... Now to light some sweet grass....

Love and Light,

Ankou

 

[linabeet]

Everything is a portal if you put that intention into it. Cards are spirits. The church is mad. Fear is the only problem here.

Don't we all have a relationship with our cards? It's not evil or bad. Fear of the cards put big scary ideas of spirit portals in people's minds. Yes, there are open times and closed times for communicating with the beyond, and sure, cards could play a part in that, but attitude is a big factor here.

Personally, I wouldn't consult the church for anything about the spirit realm, excorcisms, cards or my grocery list. But that's just me.

 

[HudsonGray]

I used to sell stuffed dragons at craft fairs locally and only once did someone get really specific about what I sold. She pulled out a little list her pastor had given her to see if dragons were on it, because she wanted one for her daughter, but sadly, dragons were proscribed. So were kitchen witches.... How can anyone let their individual church dictate things like this to them?

The only person I ever had harangue me (well, not me, but one of the other artists who'd gone together on a booth space with me) was a guy who got all upset about a cast 8" high gargoyle. ??? He said they were devil things. Both I and the artist stood up and told him about the historical significance of gargoyles on European churches, what they were used for, etc. and that this casting was based on one that was from Notre Dame. He was speechless...broke his 'this is evil' speech off and backed away (we were laughing our asses off, the guy never did any research on his own apparently, it was too easy to counter his arguments).

I so want people to do their own thinking, especially when they're told by others that something is bad. First question out of their mouth should be 'why?' and if they don't agree with the answer, they should check it out on their own.

 

[Sophie]

back to the question...

Any divination act opens a door to the unknown - to what Africans call the Spirit World. The cards themselves - as tarotbear pointed out - are just inanimate pieces of cardboard. But what happens when you ask a question, shuffle, lay out the cards with an open and undirected mind, is another matter. You have - at that moment - crossed a portal into a world where time collapses on itself, and you can read signs and symbols that have meaning for you, for others, for now, for the past & the future (the difference in time is abolished during a reading). Traditional cultures would say you are communing with spirits through signs on the cards - albeit perhaps just standing at the doorway with a "please don't come too near, I'm not sure I believe in you" sign in your hand!

Then you finish a reading, put the cards away, cross the threshold back into normal linear life.

It's as complicated and simple as that.

 

[PlatinumDove]

In fact the site states that if you can't stand the incessant droning of the midi file that is playing on their site it's because you're "infested with demons."
~Mercy

What if I fall asleep while hearing that incessant droning? I really think this thing is going to put me to sleep.

Editted to add: I think that red is giving me a migraine as well, maybe its the daemons trying to force their way out of my head.

 

[MercyMe]

Any divination act opens a door to the unknown - to what Africans call the Spirit World. The cards themselves - as tarotbear pointed out - are just inanimate pieces of cardboard. But what happens when you ask a question, shuffle, lay out the cards with an open and undirected mind, is another matter.

Absolutely. But what is the "portal?" Not the cards, the tea leaves, the matchsticks, the bits of entrails, but the diviner herself. She sets herself as the one between the worlds, the journeywoman who both becomes the portal and who crosses through it.

Traditional cultures would say you are communing with spirits through signs on the cards - albeit perhaps just standing at the doorway with a "please don't come too near, I'm not sure I believe in you" sign in your hand!

LOL Yes. You *can* use the symbols and pictures with which to communicate with spirits. I *can* use the symbols and pictures to communicate with Jesus Christ, if I so believe and have faith to do so. I can communicate with my own subconscious, leaving spirits and the supernatural out of the equation entirely. The guy who developed the Bright Ideas tarot (?) oracle (?) deck uses the cards and their wonderful array of archetypal symbolism as brainstorming fodder and eliminates the idea of communing with spiritual entities out of the equation entirely. He says the same can be done with any collection of imagery but since an average RWS-style tarot deck offers such a condensed yet broad depiction of themes common to the human experience, they are ideal, he says, for brainstorming techniques. Therefore, while it is true that tarot cards or any cards for that matter can and are used for divining, it is purely in the intent of the diviner that the portal is opened or not. The cards do not act as a "spirit magnet" as was once told me about Ouija boards: "Don't store the board face up or it will act as a magnet attracting any old entity that wants to come around." If that were true the manufacturing company must be loaded with spirit entities gumming up the factory works.

The fallacy in thinking about objects as "spirit portals" denies personal accountability and intent. If you own a "spirit portal" that's all that need be blamed for your bad luck, ill health, mental problems, and things that go bump in the night. Just dispose of the object and problem solved. In the mindset of such as represented by that website I posted, every possible ill is ascribed to a demon. Even fear is a demon...which causes you to fear demons...which causes you to exorcise them...huh? Even Jesus ridiculed those who liked to claim he was in league with Beelzebub by saying "A house divided against itself will not stand." So, excuse me, folks, a demon of fear might cause more problems for demons than not. And what are those guys on that site doing except fear-mongering, well...they must be responding to some demonic fear-inducing demon. Circular logic. Fun. In that way of thinking no one has to simply say, "I am afraid" and take responsibility for one's own fear and the investigation and subsequent overcoming of it. No, they just blame a demon for it, eject the demon along with its attached objects and problem solved. Psychologically, it works...like a Band-Aid on a boo boo with a kiss to make it feel better. One feels relief in the purging and is confident that one's affliction was because of that object/demon that one believes the affliction to be gone. I was once delivered from nicotine addiction in this manner. The "spirit of addiction" was ejected from my person through a circle of tongue-speaking faithful and laying on of hands. I smoked a cigarette on my way home that night, but I did find that over the course of the next few days, weeks, months, my cigarette smoking ceased and I was "delivered" from the habit for about four years. The ability of the mind to create reality is astounding.

Still, the lack of responsibility bugs me. If I choose to divine or commune with spirits, be they demons or the Holy Spirit Herself, that is something I need to take responsibility for. I need to be aware of myself in such a way that I understand that it's not the objects I use to divine with or the objects that adorn my home that opens that portal but I myself.

Edited to add: I still smoke.
~Mercy