OCCULT VIEW

I consider the Bible to be an occult scripture.  How so?  Isn’t the Bible supposed to be the exact opposite of anything occult?   I could refer to the Kabbalah or the bible code concept.  Christianity has been the inspiration for mysticism of all varieties.   Occultism has strong foundations in Christianity. 

As an example, here are two versions of the tarot card “Judgment”.  Its imagery is clearly taken from the Christian idea of the resurrection of the dead on the Day of Judgment.  Their meaning is not quite that.  The angel at the top could be interpreted as spiritual guidance from Above, or as our own higher self, the part of us connected to the Universe, often called our higher guardian angel.  Whichever, it is calling on us towards the path to enlightenment and becoming one with the Universe.  Of note is that one character at the bottom who has their back turned to us.  This represents our self in the scene, seeking inspiration, face turned toward the event.  This card invites our direct participation. 

However, with the idea of an Occult Bible, I am referring to something else. First is the definition of “occult”.  Occult is defined as dealing with the supernatural, with spiritual agencies, about matters that are beyond human comprehension, and concerning secret and hidden knowledge. Occult literally means, “hidden or concealed”.   That is the Bible from my perspective…dealing with deep spiritual and supernatural concepts in a cryptic, indirect way.

People assume the Bible is clear-cut in how it defines God and the nature of reality.  I personally don’t see it that way.  I see the Bible as mysterious with multiple layers of meaning.  The first glance is often the incorrect glance.  An example could be how Genesis explains the creation in seven days.  This can’t be literal (first glance).   If we look deeper, we see glimpses of the scientific evolution of the universe described in metaphors.  “Let there be light” can be viewed as starting with the Big Bang, and then a step-by-step process of cosmic evolution all the way down to human life…first plants, then sea life, then dinosaurs/birds, then mammals and finally humans.  It is not described as a simultaneous creation.  There might even be metaphors of what existed before the Big Bang…if only cosmologists had an open mind to consider the possibility. 

Which leads to the most occult document of all…the bible’s book of Revelations.  Thoughts of Revelations lead directly to bible prophecy.  Talk about cryptic!  A lot of people have stumbled in trying to understand Revelations.  As a young guy I’d listen to a TV preacher named Charles Taylor discuss his view of biblical prophecy.  Over the years he gave updates, and I recall him putting great importance on the European Union.  He considered how the emerging 10-nation European Economic Union would transform into a 10-nation world power governed by the Antichrist.  Sounded good at the time.  Except now the European Union has 27 states!  Other proponents of Biblical prophecy like Hal Lindsay also laid big eggs.   Nostradamus had a better track record then these modern sages. 

Therefore, I fearlessly jump into where these others sages tread! I will give my two cents on eschatology.  I think the secret of understanding Revelations is in verse 8:8, the “Second Trumpet”.  It states that “something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea”.  Most of Revelations’ plagues that befall mankind sound remarkably like the byproduct of an asteroid hitting the earth producing an extinction level event on par with what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.  There are vivid verses that visually describe the sky darkened by the debris hurling into the sky and falling down burning much of the planet.  Looked at from this perspective, the verses make chilling sense.  After this disaster will follow the collapse of civilization and all that entails.

When can we expect this to happen?  I sure hope not in my lifetime!  A lot of Christians believe in something called the “rapture”.   This means that before this asteroid slams into the earth, all proper born-again Christians who follow the correct theology will vanish into heaven, leaving behind all the rest of us to endure the end of the world.  “Proper” Christians have nothing to fear and actually look forward to the end of the world. 

Personally, I don’t think God plays favorites.  Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Catholics, pagans, or agnostics don’t deserve to be “left behind” while right wing Christians get to watch us from heaven while we handle the asteroid collision.  What is up with that theology?   I call it Chicken Theology.  Maybe “end times” preaching is too scary without a rapture? 

I will make my one true prediction concerning bible prophecy and the end of the world.  When that time comes, “proper” Christians will be stuck here on earth with the rest of us.  After the asteroid strikes, some Christians will be watching the event on TV and thinking, ”where the heck was the rapture?”  If the end of the world ever does transpire and we all remain in it together, it will mean that God really does not play favorites, favoring one theology over another.  And I will be proven right!  But I’d really, REALLY prefer not to have that last chance to say, “I told you so”.

Not a good day

Ghost hunting is a fun hobby.  It is a nice way to socialize with people from different backgrounds who share this common interest.  It’s a great excuse to get together, hang out and share ghosts stories and unusual experiences.  The best place to for such social ghost hunting is at a haunted pub! 

Once a small group of us ghost enthusiasts went to visit the famed Red Lion Pub in Chicago.  This pub is called the most haunted pub in the city.  It is right across from the Biograph Theater where gangster John Dillinger was shot down in an alley.  The over 100-year-old building had a history of being involved with the Chicago gangsters of the 1940s.   Here is a link to the Red Lion’s website that tells about the fascinating history of the pub: http://www.redlionchicago.com/history.html

Second floor at the Red Lion

The stories about the Red Lion Pub concern multiple hauntings.  The stories of ghosts include a young cowboy, a blond guy, and a bearded man-in-black. The most enduring ghost story involves the ghost of a young lady.  Some stories suggest a beautiful young woman had died (was murdered?) in an apartment over the pub.  Other stories say she is a flapper from the 1920s.  Most convincing are the stories of a mentally challenged woman who lived and passed away at the building.  These hauntings are said to occur on the pub’s second floor.

Tarot reading for the dead

The stories of the manifestations include sightings of vanishing people, objects moved in closed rooms, voices heard when no one is present, cold spots, invisible touches, the scent of a powerful perfume, and ladies getting locked in the women’s restroom…and then released after a few minutes with nobody around.

The evening our group arrived at the Red Lion Pub, we immediately went upstairs where the haunting is said to occur.  Luckily it was empty so we were able to take photos without attracting attention.  Not that it mattered.  We are not the first to visit the pub with ghostly intentions.  We all shared our stories and speculated about the pub and the nature of whatever might be present.  When a ghost story involves what seems to be multiple spirits, that is really baffling.  Solitary ghosts make sense, but what to make of multiple ghosts?  We could only speculate that spirits gather together, just as the living does.  Maybe ghosts like to socialize as well?

I did a tarot card reading, not for the living, but for the dead…for whatever unseen might be present.  There actually is logic involved in tarot card readings for the dead.  A tarot reading in a public place immediately attracts attention.  I have done readings for people at social gatherings as something fun to do, and it always gets noticed.  If it attracts the attention of the living, why not the dead as well?  The dead probably don’t pay

2nd floor women's restroom

much attention to ordinary activity, but something new and unique might pique their interest…and perhaps allow us to take their picture!  Looking at the cards I laid out, using the celtic cross method, I noticed a strong element of tragedy in the cards…very apt for the situation. 

As the evening got late, other people eventually came upstairs and we put our cameras away.  Of the pictures we took, the most intriguing picture was taken by one of our lady comrades.  She took this picture in the second floor women’s restroom.  This is where there were reports of women getting mysteriously locked in the lady’s restroom and then released.  It is a picture of multiple orbs in a swirling pattern.  The most persistent haunting story involves a ghostly female, and it is of note this photo was taken in the women’s restroom.  Mere coincidence?

Myself under the Red Lion

photo by Warner Bros Pictures

It’s great that Heath Ledger won an Oscar for his role as the Joker.  Bravo!  In his performance he created one of the great movie villains.  When I saw the Dark Knight movie in the theatre, it left me thoughtful.  What was the theme of this movie?  It really did tackle some significant themes, something uncommon for action movies.  I had to ponder this movie for a while. 

One of many themes in the Dark Knight film, is both Batman and the Joker are damaged individuals, suffering from severe childhood trauma.  Bruce Wayne’s childhood trauma shaped him for the better, or at least in a better direction.  This was a reflection of the positive nature of his upbringing by his parents.  Wayne channeled his parent’s ethics into a positive direction.  The movie suggests the opposite of the Joker.  The personal stories he tells his victims suggests a horrific childhood.  A child raised in a dysfunctional family will very likely follow in those dysfunctional footsteps.  The Joker seems as intellectually brilliant as the Batman, but his intellect is aimed at trying to prove to the world how unfair life is and how morality and civilization are all a joke.  The Joker’s rage is actually against his childhood. 

The writers of the movie thought this through very well.  The Batman character has evolved through the decades.  From a child’s comic book, it matured under writers like Frank Miller and Alan Moore.  Inspired by these writers, director Tim Burton reinvented Batman along the line of this mature Batman.  Yet, it was only a halfway journey into the direction the comic’s writers had already taken Batman.  Later directors totally sank the movie franchise by going back to the silly past. 

Director Christopher Nolan finally realized the Batman character’s full potential, taking the work realized with the Batman comics and transforming it into his movies.  The themes of the movie were already present in the comics.  The idea of the Joker as Batman’s dark opposite is not a new concept.  That the Joker finds meaning in his life with his duels with the Batman is a common theme in the comics.  What Nolan did that was brilliant was to take the very best ideas of the comics and somehow distill them into a truly excellent series of films.

Lets look at the character of the Joker.  The Joker is an example of a Jungian archetype, the trickster. The trickster is a mythological character who plays tricks on clueless humanity.  They were often malicious, such as the Norse trickster god Loki.  Other tricksters were the fairies whose used their “glamour” or illusion to befuddle mortals.  Or he could appear as the diabolic Mephistopheles who attempts to trick men into selling their souls in a doomed Faustian bargain.  In the Batman movie, the Joker is very much like a Mephistopheles, who presents terrible moral choices without any chance at victory. 

Also significant is the very name…the Joker.  The Joker card is reputed to be based on the Tarot card, the Fool.  If so it is the only card of the Tarot’s Major Arcana that appears in our modern playing cards.  The Tarot’s Joker, the Fool, is the only unnumbered card.  It shows a vagabond wandering with a bag hitched over his shoulder and a dog nipping at his legs. 

What is the symbolism behind the Fool card?  Slung over the Fool’s shoulder is a bag containing the suits of the Tarot. The four suits of the Tarot cards represent the various conditions of human existence, but they are tied up in the Fool’s bag, unrealized and unused.  The Fool is unaware of their potential, and his own. 

The next card in the Tarot is the Juggler.  The Fool’s bag is now opened and their contents are laid out before the Magician on his working table.  The Magician understands his potential and exercises it.  The Fool wanders the earth clueless to his potential in his bag, chased by the dog of mundane everyday life.  The Fool card symbolizes a state of ignorance and unawareness.  The other cards of the Tarot show a steady progress through the various states of human existence on the path to final enlightenment.  But at the very beginning is the Fool, completely oblivious to his great potential.  

Is the Joker the Fool, and Batman the Magician?

The Fool and the Juggler cards

QUEENS OF HEARTS AND CUPS

The Rider-Waite Tarot is a legendary deck of tarot cards.  They are unique in having symbolic imagery for every card of the deck and not just the major arcana. The minor arcana consist of what is now our standard deck of playing cards, except it has the addition of a Page added to the face cards of King, Queen and Jack/Knight.  The Rider-Waite deck is full of symbolism from mystic A.E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith.  It can be fun trying to find all the symbolism in the cards, like a game of spot the symbol. 

Tarot Suits

To understand the symbolism in the Rider-Waite deck, we need to understand that each of the four suits of the cards represents one of the four basic occult elements.  The suit of diamonds represents the element Earth, and in the Rider-Waite deck it is symbolized by the Coin.  The diamond/coin symbolizes matters of money, commerce, and property. 

The suit of hearts is the tarot’s Cup, and it symbolizes the element of Water.  Water represents matters of emotion, the heart, and relationships.  The suit of spades represents the element Air, and is shown as the sword in the Rider-Waite deck.  I tend to disagree with this, I think the spade/sword should represent fire, but so be it.  The spade/sword symbolizes conflict, politics, and power.  And finally the suit of clubs is symbolized by a literal wooden club in the Rider-Waite deck, representing the occult element of fire (as in kindling wood).

The first card of the major arcara is the Magician (or Juggler).  It shows the Magician at his working table and laid out before him are the four suits of the minor arcana (and our modern day playing cards).  The Magician seeks to obtain mastery over the four occult elements and thereby all aspects of the human condition.  Notice the magician points upward towards the Heavens/Universe and downward towards the earth, to call down divine power for dominion over the physical world. 
 

Aces and Queen of Cups

Today is Valentine’s Day, so in honor of the holiday lets look at the Rider-Waite Queen of Hearts/Cups.  Can you spot the symbolism in the Queen of Cups?  Now that we understand the Cup symbolizes the element of Water, we can see all the symbols of water in the card.  She sits on a throne at a beach with the water and sand at her feet.  She holds in her hands the elaborate Ace of Cups.  Her robe has the pattern of the ocean’s waves on it.  And most interesting, engraved on her throne are Undines, which in occult theory are the elementals of the water. 

Water Elementals

In occult theory each of the four elements have spirits that exist in those elements.  In water exist the Undines, in earth the Gnomes, in the fire live the Salamanders, and in the air dwell the Sylphs.  These elementals are a big deal in occult theory.   Some say faeries are the same thing as the elementals.   I sort of doubt that.  Elementals are a cornerstone of occult practices and their power is summoned in ceremonial magic.   Faeries are not so cooperative! 

The Rider-Waite face cards have these elementals represented in them. Knowing the Rider-Waite cards are filled with elemental symbolism, it can be fun to search the cards yourself and see if you can spot the symbols.

Elemental Undines

Quite a while ago I visited the infamous Bachelor’s Grove cemetery with a couple of fellow ghost enthusiasts.  Bachelors Grove is a decrepit abandoned cemetery outside Chicago with a famous reputation for being haunted. 

It was really overgrown when I visited it. We all had our cameras ready, our recording devices on.  We looked around examining the area, took pictures and wondered if we’d possibly capture something out of the ordinary.  What I like to do when I visit a haunted place is to do a tarot card reading there.  It is my personal way of trying to make contact with whatever might be around.  I will do a layout with my deck of cards which I have owned since I was a teenager.  It is the only deck that I seem to get results from.  Perhaps my years of ownership with it is responsible for that.  I have had some interesting readings with that particular deck over the years. 

After looking around, I did a card layout on one of the tombstones.  There are not many intact tombstones left in Bachelor’s Grove, and few remaining I could lay my cards out on (picture above).  Know what?  I felt sort of weird doing a layout on someone’s gravestone.  It almost felt like desecration.   Heaven knows Bachelor’s Grove has suffered terribly from desecration over the years.  The place has a sad atmosphere, a feeling of loss.  I feel the cemetery’s abuse has been partially responsible for it’s haunted state.

Bachelor’s Grove has also been a place where people would practice occult rituals.  Who knows what practices, what acts, have been performed there over the long decades?   I can only imagine everything from amateurs trying to summon the dead or demonic, to genuine occultists, to criminal activity.  An abandoned cemetery attracts this type of activity.  If dark ceremonies are performed often enough in the same place, it will create a link with the darkest regions of the Unseen World.   I believe this is what is responsible for the haunted status of Bachelor’s Grove, a corruption of its original purpose, by the invitation of dark spirits by those summoning them.

And here I was doing the very same thing, if only on a tiny scale.  It is disrespectful to use anyone’s final resting place for such purposes.  I was using the cards trying to contact whatever was there, like a form of channeling.  If there were entities lingering around, the cards were an invitation to make contact.  Spirits cannot force themselves on us, but we can invite them in.  And that is what happened next!

After my visit to Bachelor’s Grove, I experience a bout of bad luck.  Nothing remarkably awful, just random bad events, one after another.  Enough bad luck that I began to wonder what the heck was happening, this was all very peculiar. Eventually I started to worry…I was getting a sense of unease which I can’t quite explain.  I talked with one of my comrades who joined me at Bachelor’s Grove, and he said he was having some bad experiences after the visit as well.  

One evening, sitting at home, I took some random pictures.  I was startled to see orbs in some pictures.  Never before had I ever see any orb in any photo at home.  I don’t take orbs in photos too seriously, as there are many explanations for them, but sometimes orbs can indeed represent something more.  I decided that something might have followed me home from my visit to Bachelor’s Grove.  I had invited something in.  So I thought it was time to purge any potential negative presence. 

The ultimate protection from any possible entity is to have a connection with a higher spiritual source, depending on our belief system…our concept of God or a Higher Self.  As living human beings, we are all mighty spiritual beings, stronger then an entity that we might encounter.  But if we don’t realize this, then we can be victimized by an entity.  Spiritual power is useless if we are passive and don’t understand our potential.  On top of our own inner strength, we can call on a Higher Power, which is superior to our own efforts alone.  We must truly believe in this Higher Power, but if we have this belief, we can banish any threat.  Which was what I did.  Afterwards, my bad luck also disappeared.  I learned a lesson…maybe reading cards on a gravestone is not such a good idea.

There are a lot of tarot decks out there. But first and foremost has to be the old Tarot of Marseilles. This deck’s influence is really significant. Many other Tarot cards’ symbolism is based on these old designs. And in my opinion the Marseilles cards are also the ugliest of the Tarot cards. The images are stiff and blocky. Whoever drew these crude things was no artist. However, the stiff and awkward nature of the cards is probably due to the rigid symbolic structure of the cards. Unlike a lot of prettier modern Tarot cards, the entire image on the Marseilles card served a purpose. The Rider-Waite deck is a beautiful deck filled with its own style of symbolism, but in trying to improve on the Marseilles deck, it also loses something in the translation.

In my previous posting, I wrote about using a “split perspective” to look for meaning in the Tarot cards. Usually, the top half of the card represents a spiritual or mental condition, and the bottom half symbolizes the physical result of this condition. This works with the Tarot of Marseilles, but not with modern cards that don’t follow the symbolic structure of the Marseilles deck. Lets consider the three celestial cards, the Star, the Moon and the Sun from the split perspective.

In the Star card, the stars in the top half are literally the heavens, the universe. The bottom half is a woman pouring water into a pond. This card symbolizes the harmony between the spirit above and the person below, between the individual and the Universe. When our thoughts and goals are in harmony with the universe, then there is serenity and clearness of purpose in life. Pouring water into the pond symbolizes creativity and inspiration gained from having unity with the Universe.

The Moon card symbolizes something all together different. The moon is not the physical moon, but is a metaphor for passivity and negativity. It is a state of mind that dwells in darkness. The bottom half of the Moon card shows the same two characters again as in the previous cards (Devil, Lightening Struck Tower), but now they take the form of hounds baying at the moon. The dogs represent humanity as devolved, lost souls. Unlike the Devil Card where the two bottom characters still retained elements of their humanity, now all traces of humanity are gone. In the Devil card our Ego was our biggest enemy. Now even the ego is stripped away. What is left is a state of emptiness. An emptiness similar to that experienced by people have lost their sense of self, who are overwhelmed by outside forces. Looking at the bottom half of the Moon card, instead of dogs, imagine people lost in self-destructive behavior like crime, abuse, and addictions.

The Sun card is the opposite of the Moon card. The Sun represents blazing positive energy. It is a state of mind full of self-confidence, of belief in our self. Our ego is in charge, but in a healthy way. With the power of our positive mindset, we will attract to our lives what we desire. The Sun card’s bottom half once again shows the same two characters, but now they are fully realized as human. They have achieved their potential.

Using this system of interpretation, it is possible to also see the Law of Attraction demonstrated in the Tarot. Is the Law of Attraction an intentional element of the original Tarot? It was not called that centuries ago, but the occult idea of “as is above, so it is below” was always a core concept of occult thought. Our state of mind will become manifest in reality. The Tarot shows different states of mind, and their consequences.

What is the secret in the Tarot?  To clearly understand the original Tarot, I like to view most of the cards in two, the top half and bottom half.  The bottom half symbolizes the physical world we live in.  The characters in the bottom half are ourselves, the viewer.  The top half represents a state of mind or spiritual condition…the influences that shape the physical world in the lower half.  It is in line with the central occult idea, “as it is above, so it is below”.

There are geninue spiritual connections between what is above (spirit) and what is below (matter).  The most common approach to this nowadays is the Law of Attraction.  The Law of Attraction, as popularized by “The Secret” is that we attract to our lives what we think.  If we think positively, then we attract positive results.  The opposite is also true, if we dwell in negativity, then we attract negative results.  This is all very true.

What is interesting about the Tarot is that it’s almost about the Law of Attraction.  The upper half of the Tarot symbolizes our state of mind.  The bottom half symbolizes the result of this state of mind.  We can pick and choose our condition, the Tarot says.  Are we the Fool card, wandering around in ignorance?  Or are we the clever Juggler card, who understands his condition and masters it?  I have created two examples to illustrate my point.  Lets look at them.

First is the “Lovers” card which I split top from bottom. In the bottom is a man faced with a choice between two women, an older woman to his left, a younger to his right.  I think the card is about choosing between different paths.  In the upper half of the card, a spiritual force (cupid) attempts to direct the man’s attention towards one choice, away from another (cupid’s arrow is aimed at the young lady).  I believe the cupid symbolizes our conscience, our spirituality.  Do we listen to our conscience?  Are we open to our spiritual side?  Or are we closed off to it?  If we lose our connection with our spiritual side…we might become what is the next card to consider…the Devil.

HereThen we have the Devil card.  The bottom half of the Devil card shows two enslaved semi-human beings.  They symbolize those of us who are in spiritual blindness, enslaved by our lusts, doubts, prejudices, negativity.   What is curious is that what ties them down are loose ropes around their necks…they can easily escape if they wish…but don’t!  They remain trapped by their own choice.  Their semi-human nature shows they retain a measure of their humanity, and have the capacity to take another path.  We are trapped by our own thoughts and little else.  The Devil does not force anybody to do anything.  Nobody is kidnapped.  The Devil in the upper half symbolizes the concept of being cut off from our spiritual side.  We only listen to our lower material self, our ego.  The Devil is not a literal Devil, but our own ego at work.  When we lose contact with our spiritual side, we are lost.

In my next post I will examine some more cards from the “split perspective”.

Examples of the Moon Card

There are a few theories about how tarot cards work as divination.  Some say the cards spark our psychic intuition, and while the layout of the cards is random, it is our interpretation of the cards that matter. Others say the spirit world actually manipulates how the cards will play out, controlling the shuffle, causing certain cards to appear in order.  And others suggest the cards are an organized method of trying to tap into universal synchronicity, which creates meaningful coincidences and afterwards our attempts to understand them.

My personal view is the cards are used for channeling whatever spirits may be around.  By trying to read the meaning of a layout, I intently focus my intuition trying to understand the cards before me.  And in focusing my intuition, I am also opening myself to insights from the Unseen World…almost like an Ouija board. The issue with this method is that not all wanderers in the invisible world are positive or wise.  Therefore I don’t depend on my cards and use them infrequently.  If I do a layout, I never expect results, and I am the most surprised as anyone if the layout speaks.  The person receiving the reading will confirm if the cards are speaking (which often happens); I really never know.

I have a personal project to design my own set of Tarot cards, using different approaches to the symbolism.  For instance, above is my drawing of the Major Arcana “La Luna”, the Moon.  Beside it are the traditional versions of the Moon.  The woman depicted represents the Moon itself and is suggestive of the Goddess Diana/Hecate.  Here the skull elements represent the symbolism of the droplets rising upwards towards the moon, as seen in the traditional cards.  According to occult tradition, the moon was a place where souls of the dead were drawn, symbolized by those droplets.   If we look at the original moon cards, they really are sinister cards, with the baying hounds, the crayfish emerging from stagnant water, and those mysterious towers in the distance.