H. R. GIGER TAROT. H. R. Giger

is therefore in no way true that the cards “predict” destiny. Rather, we transfer our present state of mind onto the cards and then, by transferring it back, read the unconscious expectations that we initially projected onto them. The use of tarot cards makes it possible for us to observe the world in the mirror of our inner expectations, and to understand these as a true illustration of the ideas and convictions surrounding our inner meaning. The cards alone can never be destiny; they merely indicate how our inner sense approaches the world. We could say that they try to draw attention to those symbols that are the mirror of our internal and external processes in a synchronic form. When external events occur, they must first take place on the level of the soul before they can actually be translated into the material level. The explanation offered by the cards is one of the many possible ways of feeling these inner currents and recognizing them as the original source of all action, as the plans whose materialization is what we subsequently call experienced reality.

      The Internal Reality!

      In other words, the world as it portrays itself to us always corresponds to the sum of our experiences that we are consciously able to comprehend. We create our levels of reality through the effects of our actions; these effects of our actions simultaneously create the identity of our ego. Each of us creates our destiny through our unconscious traits, and our destiny is then separated from these traits and perceived as an external event. In this way, we can avoid recognizing that our human strivings are directed not towards knowing the world, but rather at constantly affirming ourselves in our inner patterns of destiny. Each moment in time therefore represents only a part of our time/space continuum, while our present attracts the patterns of experience that we are still lacking in order to integrate them into our consciousness. Consequently, each of us creates a quality to life that we realize through our unconscious inner intentions and then call it “destiny.” We would like to recognize these “higher” workings, which form both the basis and the goal of our path through life. But we are playing with fire when we do this because as soon as we think about how we feel inside, we surrender either to limitations in our own patterns of thinking or to the dangerous world of philosophical models.

      The External Path

      Only when we understand that we can never know purely from within ourselves can we put our faith in religious or esoteric models without being consumed by them. This is because the collective creative spirit has established altars in the world upon which we offer our concepts of the images or our own imprinted image patterns (to the spirit that has drummed into us how we must perceive the world if it is to be our world). Only when we know that all answers are in us alone and not in the models, and that these answers cannot be found through external descriptions but only triggered by them, can we discover that these models do not hold any truth: On the contrary, they are a structured form of searching that has been elevated to a quest for the Holy Grail in the minds of the seekers. We must first ask ourselves what inner yearning compels us to select a few similarities out of something that is actually an endless chaos. Why do we give these a structure and an interdependence, conjuring up clusters of notions of the world? Then we can see that only thinking itself is perceived in thought and we can simultaneously regard symbols as tools for expressing our creativity. We could say that the symbols are mirrors of what we project from the unconscious onto the conscious plane. The next chapter outlines various techniques and ways of laying the cards that can bring us one small step closer to the unknown that hides from itself within us because of our incessant thinking.

      THE SPREAD SYSTEMS

      Our symbol is the pentagram. It is also known as the witch’s foot, because it could either repel witches and Druids – or attract them (if reversed). It is still used today in rural areas to keep evil away from cattle stalls, thresholds, beds, and so forth. Whenever this is done, the purpose is to activate the collective spiritual structures, which symbolize protection against evil (the good banishes the repressed part of itself into evil to legitimize the struggle of the good against evil and remain unrecognized as it lives out the repressed part within evil). Consequently, a conscious confrontation with deliberately produced pentagram visions represents a possible form of therapy in the future. This suggests not only the defense of the shadow, but also the defense of defense, the questioning of the defense, and dealing with the inner fears that have only been produced by this defensive behavior in the first place.

      We use two interwoven pentagrams to consult the oracle. The white pentagram, with the head and limbs of the white goddess, symbolizes white magic or the victory of the spirit over the material world. On the other hand, the black pentagram, which points upwards with its two tips and leads to the Devil’s goatee, represents black magic or the victory of the material world over the spirit. Here we have a tool in our hands or before our eyes that polarizes all of the values: There are no questions outside of the polarized values; depending on the type of question, we can decide which psychological explanatory model we want to transfer to the pentagram.

Group 1	Personality Questions
IBaphomet	Who am I? (The secret of the ego)
IIThe Green Angel	Who is he? (The secret of the shadow)
IIIThe Mirror of the Soul	What is the self? (The secret of the soul)
Group 2	Interpretation or Development Questions
IVThe Big Bang	How is the matter developing?(What does it mean?)
VMephisto’s Hammer	What hinders the matter?(What does the crisis mean?)
VIThe Norns’ Wheel	What drives the matter?(What is the sense of the meaning?)
Group 3	Decision-Making Questions or Questions Concerning Trends
VIIFive-Ray Spread	How should I decide?(Way of deciding)
VIIINine-Ray Spread	How do I relate to another person or how does he relate to me?(Relationship Game)
IXTen-Ray Spread	What is the trend?(The joker among the spreads: appropriate for all questions)

      In order to understand how the two first spread groups (spread systems I–VI) function, we must understand that they show us no external reflection of life. This means that they say less about external events than about who we are and why things happen as they must. They do not show us what we can do but allow us to see things in a more comprehensive way and within a broader context. However, if we begin with the assumption that everything we experience in the external world reflects our inner being, examining these series offers us the opportunity for knowing ourselves. As a result, unused energies can be set into motion and become available to us in our external lives. This brings us into the realm that esotericism calls inner inspiration or cosmic consciousness. However, this is not a voice from above but an inner concept that is more than we believe ourselves to be - but less than we believe that God is. It is the threshold over which everything that we have removed from ourselves with all our might can flow back into the soul. It doesn’t matter whether we have raised it up to heaven or sent it down to hell so that we can use this detour to play off God and the Devil against each other through our projections, true to the motto: Evil is always in others!

      Warning

      Before we begin the spread, which means drawing cards as we hold them in our hands like a fan or from cards spread out on a surface, we shuffle all of them so that some of the trumps are “reversed.”

      If this is new to you, it is advisable to begin with the third spread group (spread systems VII–IX). These emphasize what the past or present state of a certain situation and what can or must be done in a specific situation.

      I BAPHOMET

      Questions

      This spread is very useful if you have no specific questions and simply want to ask your subconscious mind what portions of your self should be developed beyond the normal way in which you perceive yourself. Here we find ourselves in the realm of paradoxical processes of the inner nature that normally cannot be understood by means of logic thought. They reveal portions of the soul that