The Spirit of the Tarot. Claudine Aegerter

it is so new. We are co-crea tors and as such our perception and discrimination has to be right, for God uses us for witnesses. Suddenly we are out there and it is so new and so different, that we might lose our minds because we don’t recognise anything. Sound is so important, for if we are so lost that we don’t recognise the room we are sitting in, sounding our name can re-crystallise our skills and put us on auto-pilot. Our name is the sound that the family group has given us and it is what grounds and cocoons us. We can also sound a special, sacred name such as Mary, Allah, or a mantra. These will carry us through pain, but our name will remind us of our responsibility to the group.

      Ultimately we have to let go of the concept of freedom. Like the intellect, freedom is separation because it makes us want to stand apart and be different. However, we do not acquire freedom of mind without knowing what freedom is about. A truly free mind, which is a pure mind, has a connection with the divine via the Soul, so it has learnt freedom in the real sense. If it hasn’t understood that freedom creates separation, it will be a rebellious mind and against the idea of God. To reach God the mind has to fuse with an unknown mind vibration, which is the opposite of separation and is a giving up. Freedom is good in that it pushes us up and gives us our autonomy, but it is not inclusive, it is separative. We have to assimilate, love and transmute all the pride and needs so as to acquire a mind free of fear and separation. This is why we have to learn through endur ance to be really tough, as we could get lost on the way to a more rarefied vibration of the higher mind.

      Think of experience as intelligence. An animal doesn’t do an experience; it just lives, whereas we ‘do’ an experience. Eventually we know that no experience or knowledge fulfils, for it is insuffi-cient and lacking, but we really have to do it to find that out, even if someone advises us not to. If we do not do it then we do not under stand. This is why we cannot ever blame the courageous souls who have made all the mistakes, for if we haven’t made the mistakes then we don’t know when to stop. We can only watch in compassion when the experience takes over, for if we know how to stop we must have got lost sometimes before.

      If we look at the pattern of an average life, nobody tries to teach a tiny child something by reasoning; rather we do it by distracting and changing the mood of the child. The minute there are some fac ulties of reasoning then the initial teaching we give a child has to be dogmatic, so we give them hard knowledge and exams. The intellect is developed first for it is the flower of nature, then the true fruit will be the intelligence of the Soul. As a child develops the teaching is less imperative, allowing the child to think for itself more and more. In most cases the child will think as the society around it dictates, for example through TV or fashion, but that cannot be helped. So if you are a teacher you will look for children who aren’t taken up by society, sleeping, or sweets; these are the bright ones who have the autonomy to think for themselves and so can free and separate themselves from the mass consciousness. Then the problem is that they get so used to being separate, that at a later stage that sepa-rateness can stop them working with group, whereas the real intel ligence develops from fusing, co-operating and communicating. We might reach a very high level, but we need to watch out for the mind-set of ‘I am lonely, nobody understands me’. Adaptation is so important; the group work will teach everyone in it how to best utilise the incoming light according to each unique capability of the instruments. Some are receptors, some are translators, some are best at distributing the crystallised outcome to the public and so on.

      Active Intelligence is the instrument and when the fully obedient personality aligns to its Soul/spiritual direction, Active Intelligence rules the waves. People can be full of light but restricted in expressing that light, so their capabilities and faculties must be encouraged and fuelled in the best way, for everything is of use. The idea is to find the best possible way of shining, by letting the light use our skills. Some times a simple pane of glass can be more useful for our purposes at the time than a multifaceted crystal. We can only fly from a solid base, where we know how to use what we have in the most economical way for the task ahead. The Empress will naturally give us the best solution to any question and will hold it humbly for the Soul to smile.

      There are many contradictions in us that scramble our minds. When we go deep into the knowledge, we look into ourselves and humanity and see both good and bad. The contradictions are so painful that we have difficulty finding the way to bring the good into the bad, so we look for the next method or teacher to sort it out for us. As long as we hope for a fix, a book, or a method that is going to do it for us, we live in contradiction and false hope. The mind is lost, so we have to turn towards the Soul, for this is the only com passionate place where our mind can get the cosmic joke when the higher mind winks at it.

      In Dante the envoy of the Soul is Beatrice, whose name means blessed, therefore fusion with the mind of God. We have gone to hell, then we have to come back again; the Soul will guide us out of the darkness. The life of the Soul holds the sum total of all the experiences that the mind as Spirit, has gone through as it dances with matter. Purgatory is not a place but a state of mind in which we allow all the emotions we have to torture our conscience, as our new awareness of responsibility and reality is too hard to take. We have to trace the whole of our lives backwards, to remove the drama of it, in order to love it all completely. All the minute lit tle emotional ties we have with people or with situations will still link us to purgatory. It is only the vision of Soul, in touch with the higher mind, that can dissolve all that. Soul has a link with the higher quality of mind as well as the intellect, so these two have to talk to each other.

      We have to love and forgive all the details of our lives, as we had to go bravely where angels will not dare to tread. This is our job; to live our lives fully and be well equipped in experiences for the Soul to do its work. The Soul will eventually guide us up from the contradic tory experience of the world we live in, with all its thousand and one possibilities or contradictions, then the progressive alignment of light and wisdom will culminate at the Soul’s crucifixion. The veil has to be torn for the Soul to die, as it fuses with its last karmic incarnation. It is a death but at the same time it is a fantastic rebirth, where the atomic substance of our being will have the quality of Soul and therefore the love-wisdom energy, working at one with Active Intelligence.

      The Empress is the quality of mind which determines the nature of whatever is in manifestation. The Soul is in charge of bringing in the divine energy and its manifestation into the awareness of life. All the love-hate relationships we’ve had with the world of illusion are linked with the fact that these two have to recognise that they are one, so that we can have the wonderful understanding behind it. So don’t be attached to what stirs you, it is not yours! See it for what it is; it is the two cosmic lovers wanting to fuse. Our Soul awareness is the third one, making it whole.

      The Empress prepares us for the spiritual life and this is where endurance comes in. Endurance is being able to look into your Soul clearly to see all the things you haven’t done in the Spirit of truth. Until we do that, the Soul is completely lost in the game and all that happens is addiction. We are addicted to life through the part of our Soul which is in biology and has survived by having fiercely addictive behaviour; addicted to survival as it is held in all the different species of nature, in all its kingdoms. We live on the edge of this universe in a very old, dark and dense past vibration. So we have the difficult task of exploring and restoring clear per ception. Meanwhile we are subject to illusion, drama and maya, which are fed by the imagination of our species, thinking we can rule the world! Imagination is a wonderful tool, but we have to recognise those times when we use it to keep ourselves locked into the drama.

      The Soul of nature loves drama, because it is made of feelings; feeling is its nature. Active Intelli gence responds to nature’s spiritual input through the urge of its Soul, so we retrieve our Active Intelli gence through our Soul, which is in touch with Spirit. The Empress’ foot on the inverted moon crescent demonstrates her dominion over the exalted Soul of nature. She has the solutions, she is in control. She can use her imagination, dreams and the whole realm of the astral, yet not be swamped or taken in by them. She is discriminating and can see which part of the puzzle is needed; she has them all and more! She directs rather than follows, using all her resources to manifest the next phase of the vision.

      Without Active Intelligence nothing could work on the