There can be no denying the growing popularity of oracle systems like Tarot, the I-Ching, Runes and Astrology. Although they are largely misunderstood, these are spiritual insight systems designed to help people through fearful situations, tough decisions or personal dilemmas that logic can't handle.
Throughout most of western history, oracular systems like Tarot got a bad reputation, beginning in the dark days of the Inquisition. Such was not the case in the Far East -- which gave birth to the world's oldest surviving divination system -- the I-Ching. Also known as the Book of Changes, this oracle system is the source-book of the martial arts, Chinese medicine and Feng-Shui. As an intuitive decision-making aid, the I-Ching has been used in China from before 1000 BC until the present day.
The Tarot derived from the ancient mystery schools of Egypt and Greece, the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet, the Kabbalah and ancient astrology. During the Middle Ages, Tarot took on the trappings of European culture including influences of ancient folk spirituality. For instance, the cloven-hoofed, sulphurous Devil image was actually invented by the Church as late as the 15th century to denigrate Pan, the popular Greek nature-god of celebration and fertility.
Forbidden Spirituality
During the Inquisition, all forms of divination and mystical practice were outlawed by the Church as heresy, punishable by torture and burning at the stake. After that period was over, Tarot continued to be dismissed as a form of superstition. The fact that this collection of mystical knowledge was adapted for fortune-telling by gypsies and charlatans didn't help its image either.
Why was the Church so negative about the use of Tarot and other ancient oracle systems? The answer is simple -- they threatened its stranglehold on religious thinking and authoritarian control. The notion of divining the will of God directly and interactively in real time, as it were, was intolerable to the authorities, who at that time were the political, military and religious rulers. The defense of their domination was paramount. Such rigid religious hierarchy was the shadow side of the age of Pisces, a 2000-year period characterized by black-and-white thinking, feudalistic social structures, oppression and almost total reliance on external authority.
The Domain of Saints and Sages
In the east and in the western folk cultures where divination was practiced, it was traditionally the exclusive domain of sages and experts, often serving at the behest of political or military rulers. It took an exceptional expertise, literacy and wisdom to be able to "read the signs," to consult an oracle.
Happily for us, divination software goes a long way towards democratizing this skill, making classical oracle systems accessible by anyone with a PC or a connection to the Internet. In this day and age, just about anyone can easily go direct for intuitive stimulation, inspiration and timeless wisdom. Although shamans, priests and priestesses still have a role in the leadership of community rituals, when it comes to personal insight, the age of being spiritually dependent upon a controlling, expensive (and not necessarily objective) specialist is over.
A New Age of Spiritual Autonomy
In Contrast to Pisces, Aquarius -- the astronomical age we have just entered -- is idealistic and egalitarian, with an abiding respect for individual freedom. In sync with the spirit of the Aquarian age, modern scholarship combined with the skillful application of interactive technology have made it easy for any seeker of insight to access the divine wisdom from within themselves, without dependence upon any kind of middle-man, minister, guru or "gifted intuitive."
Authentic divination is not fortune-telling or mind-reading. Rightly understood, it serves as an immediate method of meditation, providing an engaging and penetrating way to focus on the NOW. Giving oneself a Tarot or I-Ching reading goes beyond other forms of meditation in that it stimulates insights that have practical value for personal decision-making and/or psychological healing.
As we leave behind a patriarchal age of dogmatic intolerance that made mystical experience more dangerous and difficult -- if not impossible -- interactive divination is a spiritual practice whose time has come for growing numbers of people.
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