Part 2 begins with this quote:

“Miracles do not happen in contradiction to nature, but only in contradiction to that which is known to us in nature.” –St. Augustine

Introduction: The Personal Experience

Brennan uses this section to note that what and how we see or feel will change as we develop new sensitivities. We will be more in tune with energy around us. You should be aware of this so you aren’t caught unaware and confused by it.

Chapter 4: Parallels Between How We See Ourselves and Reality and Western Scientific Views

This chapter explores how the scientific view of reality supports that we are all (and everything in the Universe) composed of energy fields. We are all interconnected.

I am no scientist, nor do I pretend to be remotely adequate speaking of sciences, but I’ll do my best to round up what she discusses in this chapter. I suspect I’ll be expressing that point a lot as we read this book.

Newtonian Physics relies upon the physical and solid existence. Physical reactions have a physical cause. But then in the early 19^th century, new physical phenomena (electromagnetism) came about and Newtonian Physics could not be used to describe it. This led to the concept of a field, which is a “condition in space which has the potential of producing a force.” The universe if filled with fields that interact with each other. And in the last 15-20 years, folks are beginning to include themselves in these field interaction concepts.

And then Albert Einstein came into the picture and His Theory of Relativity blew out the principal concepts of Newtonian Physics. Physics could no longer be understood as space by itself or time alone. Space and time are interconnected. And time is relative. No more fixed timeline as was the belief of Newtonian Physics.

Brennan seems particularly excited in the section about paradoxes and quanta (energy packets). Radiated heat is emitted as quanta, not as a continuous stream of energy. Basically, they are stating at this point in study, particles were seen as energy packets. But in the next section (Beyond Dualism—The Hologram), she goes on to say that particles are probability waves because there is no such thing as a “thing.” They are really “events.” Aah, physicists… Let’s simplify. The gist of this part is that we are all made of waves, thus we are all connected as one. “We are a Whole.”

Moving on to the hologram, this concept “states that every piece is an exact representation of the whole and can be used to reconstruct the entire hologram.” Dr. Karl Pribram goes on to state that “the brain employs a holographic process to abstract from a holographic domain that transcends time and space.” I find these interesting points, especially when looking ahead to the questions she asks at the end. One is “Imagine yourself as a hologram. How does that unlimit you?” I can’t put to words easily what I was imagining when I stopped to think about that. Visual energy moving. No limits at all. Oof. It’s fascinating and overwhelming at the same time. What about you? Have a way to describe imagining yourself as a hologram here?

Anyway, I’ll go ahead and try to keep going. I find the dualism concept interesting too. When you evaluate one’s health, you are seeing outside of time or space, hence dual fields. We separate the field from us in order to observe, if I’m understanding that right. Brennan even writes about how hard it is to explain or describe this stuff in words (“because we use words in a linear fashion”).

In the next part of this chapter, Brennan brings us back full circle to the opening of the chapter with how scientists are continually looking for mathematical and experimental proof. Bell’s theorem supports the concept that particles transcend time and space and what happens to each particle affects other particles. And these effect can be “superluminal,” i.e. faster than the speed of light. This theorem was proven mathematically and is now supported by experimentation.

I glossed over some of it because there is just SO much info in this chapter. But the gist is there. Science has some really interesting finds about energy fields and I think understanding some of this will help us become better practitioners. It only helps solidify the understanding that we are all connected. And it’s making me want to do a little Distance Reiki and perhaps a mediation too.

Chapter 4 summary questions:

1. How to have scientific views influenced our self-concepts?
2. Why is the view of a fixed physical world impractical to us?
3. What was so important about Faraday’s and Maxwell’s contributions to the ideas about how the world works?
4. What is superluminal connectedness and what is its significance in our daily lives?
5. How can the idea of multidimensional reality help describe the HEF?

Plus a question to think on:

1. Imagine yourself as a hologram. How does that unlimit you?

Post your thoughts below or out the Reiki Facebook Fan Page Forum. For those of you who want to read faster than this pace, you can chat about future chapters here.

Next up, we continue with Chapter 5: History of the Scientific Investigation into the Human Energy Field.

That’s that. Have a happy day everyone!

Previous Posts:

• Reiki Book Club: Hands of Light by Barbara Brennan
• Reiki Book Club: Hands of Light, Chapters 1-3

The section begins with a quote:

“I maintain that cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest incitement to scientific research.” –Albert Einstein

Chapter 1: The Healing Experience

Brennan begins this chapter by introducing us to a few of the people she has worked with in the past and she recounts a few of their remarkable healing stories. Did you have a favorite story? Or do you have one to share too?

She then goes on to talk about her background some and how she came to learn about “High Sense Perception,” which is what allows you to see energy fields, the colors of which tell you the health and well-being of a person. I find it interesting that she was a atmospheric physicist who worked for NASA.

What I notice most in this chapter is that she doesn’t use the word “Reiki.” However, since she does refer to it as “laying-on of hands” and “spiritual healing,” I’m wondering that perhaps she avoided the use of the term “Reiki” to keep it more mainstream. Or maybe it was to allow her own system and terminology to be used, such as the use of “High Sense Perception (HSP).” What do you think?

Chapter 2: How to Use This Book

This chapter goes over who this book is for what you can expect to find in it. It’s “written for health care professionals, therapists, clergy, and all those who consider themselves aspirants to better physical, psychological and spiritual health.” Brennan sees this book as a handbook for self-healing and the practice of healing others.

Each chapter has questions at the end and she suggests taking the time to answer them before moving on. I’ll post the questions for us to go over them too. I also suggest getting a journal to use while you read this book. It gives you a place to jot down answers to these questions and to write down any notes too.

And this book isn’t really supposed to be used a substitute for classes, because you will need hands on experience to learn. I know, lots of us are Reiki practitioners so that’s a non-issue but she goes over it at some length so I mention it here.

Lastly, she gives and overview of each of the parts of the book. I’m not going to sum this up unless you really want me to. We’ll go over them one at a time anyway.

Chapter 3: A Note on Training and the Development of Guidance

Brennan uses chapter 3 to point out the importance of training and that healers need much technical training to be able work with other health professionals to help heal a client. Plus, The healer needs to understand how things relate together for a more complete, whole body healing. Some subjects for training she includes are counseling, physiology, and anatomy. She also touches on the need for some knowledge for things like acupuncture, nutrition, and herbal cures. She lists more, but this sampling gives you an idea of that list.

She then goes on to discuss the development of guidance by paying attention to discomfort. If you feel discomfort, you should ask yourself what caused it and what you are doing about it. “Any discomfort anywhere in your body/life is a direct message to you about how you are out of alignment with your true self.” Interesting, eh? How many times do you ignore what your body is trying to tell you? I know I do this all the time. But this is an important step toward becoming balanced so that we may attend to the healing needs of others. And the lessons we are being guided on only grow from there.

Chapter 3 offers the first summary questions for the chapter:

1. What kind of technical training does a healer need? and why?

2. What is the simplest form of guidance in your life?

Plus a few questions to think on:

1. What are some of the more profound experiences of guidance in your life, and what effect did they have on your life?

2. How well are you able to follow your own guidance?

3. Do you consciously listen for or ask for guidance for yourself? How often?

Post your thoughts below or out the Reiki Facebook Fan Page Forum. For those of you who want to read faster than this pace, you can chat about future chapters here.

Next up, we start Part 2, The Human Aura, with chapter 4: Parallels Between How We See Ourselves and Reality and Western Scientific Views.

I know, I jumped ahead by going over 3 chapters here when I said I‘d only be going over 1. I’ll give you time to catch up and won’t post about Chapter 4 until August 10.

That’s that. Have a happy day everyone!

I’ll put up the first post talking about the first chapter on July 20 so you have time to find a copy (check your local library!)

You’ll be able to chime in here on the blog or on our Facebook fan page. I’ve set up a thread for anyone who will be reading along with me to talk about the book here.

For those who want to read faster than the group will be reading, I’ve set up a thread on the forum for you here.

I’m hoping that keeping the two reading paces separate will keep us slower readers from getting confused.

If you want to suggest books for the next poll, please do so in the comments below or here. Authors may pitch their titles for consideration here.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

See you July 20th!

In this chapter, Mary explains the value of tarot journaling. She suggests you start by doing readings on yourself and keeping track of them. Make notes for what you see in the cards and a few on what’s going on in your life then. If you do daily draws, you should jot down a few notes for what happened in your day. Then, weeks, even months, later, go back through the journal. See if you notice anything different. Watch for repeat cards and when they show up. I haven’t been doing this but will certainly start now.

Then, she gives examples of readings that make great journaling exercises. First up, the Three-Card Spread.

The three-card spread is a standard spread that is super handy in its endless uses. I don’t know a single tarot reader who hasn’t used a three-card spread at one time or another. That’s because “every question can be examined from three aspects. Every action, for example, usually involves three choices: your current position, a new possibility or opposite action, and the integration of these two in a new way.”

Three cards also means you can look at past/present/future of a situation—past experiences, present emotions, and future expectations. You can also break things down by one of my favorite ways by using body/mind/spirit—urges and habits, thinkings and reasonings, and ideals and goals.

It’s funny that I was taught this spread years ago and never realized that it was probably learned through this book.

Anyway, she then goes through suggestions for color coding your notes and how to shuffle or select cards. I tend to use whatever working pen I can actually find for my notes and I like to shuffle my cards rather than selecting my card by how it feels. I take the top 3 and the bottom card. I use the bottom card as an overall look at what’s going on with the 3 cards (or an underlying reason behind what’s going on with the 3 cards). You should do whatever feels right for you and comes naturally.

I tend to do a body/mind/spirit (b/m/s) spread for my daily draws, but I haven’t been very good at writing them down. I’ll have to start doing that. For learning purposes, whatever style spread you use for daily draws, I’d suggest keeping to that same spread for a few weeks. That way you can see changes easier and see how some cards will repeat themselves.

Here’s a sample reading from cards I pulled today for my cat, Ruki using the Paulina Tarot:

When you interpret the cards, notice your initial responses, colors, numbers, the figures in the cards, environment of the card, and symbols. Describe any emotional reactions you have to the cards too. Also notice the direction the figures in the cards face, do they face each other or away? Jot them all down in your journal.

All I notice in Ruki’s reading is that cat in the Queen of Wands sticking it’s tongue at me. Ruki! Heh. And the big cat in Strength has a heart on its hind leg and is being petted. How cute! The Fool looks so playful. I’ll skip going into more detail, but if you feel like chiming in on anything you see, please feel free!

Next, focus on the card for body, which in this example is Queen of Wands. This card represents the state of your physical body and the environment around you, or Ruki in this case. What you are currently feeling and habits can also show up here.  I see that tongue and sleepy eyes. So she’s feeling playful yet sleepy at the same time. Typical.

Then focus on the card for mind, which is this example is Strength. This card represents what you are thinking and the way you rationalize things. It’s your state of mind. Ruki mindset is happy now because she gets the attention she needs. What can I say? I pamper her.

Lastly, focus on the spirit card, which in this example is The Fool. This card represents your ideals and goals. If it’s negative, it will show what’s blocking you. The Fool looks playful to me. I notice the fish bones on the ground too. I see this as her wanting to play and snack and yeah, these are typically her goals.

After a few weeks pass, go back and review all your daily readings. Jot down anything you notice, repetitive cards, lack of certain cards or suits, and any other new insights. As you continue to do this, you will develop a deeper understanding of the cards.

That’s that for this post.

Next up, more exercises for tarot journaling.

Previous posts:

• Working my way through Mary K. Greer’s Tarot for Your Self
• Tarot for Your Self: Introduction and Roses
• Tarot for Your Self: Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with the Cards, Part 1
• Tarot for Your Self: Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with the Cards, Part 2

I picked these based on some of what’s on my bookshelf already. If you’d like to make a suggestion for a book to be considered for the next book club selection, please post about it in the comments section or in this thread on the forum of the Facebook page. (If you are an author and would like to pitch your book to us for consideration, please do so here only. Thanks.)

Voting will remain open until July 5. We’ll announce the book club reading selection July 6. Then you’ll have two weeks to get your hands on a copy of the book, check your libraries too! July 20 I’ll put up a post and we can start talking about the book. I’ll be posting about a few chapters at a time to allow for slow readers (like me!) to keep pace. So, watch for more posts about the book. I’ll also have a thread set up then on our Facebook fan page that you can chime in on too.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them.

That’s that. Vote away!

Rituals are used to establish rapport with your deck. They are great for helping you relax and get into the right mindset to read the cards. Some people shuffle their cards a special way, or go through the deck turning all upside down cards upright again. It’s the repetition that calms.

Rituals can also include where and how you store your cards (pretty bags or intricately designed boxes for example) and even what time you tend to read (twilight with the sun setting for example).

You should purify your cards regularly to clear off any unwanted energies. Some use incense over their cards,  while others imagine a white light surrounding their cards as their cleansing technique. I like to occasionally reorder my deck, then shuffle it over and over. There are a lot of ways to purify them, so experiment to see what works for you.

Next, she provides a grounding exercise and explains how grounding keeps you balanced with a clear channel. The gist is to breathe slowly concentrating on sending your cares and tensions through the soles of your feet and into the ground. Then, pull revitalized energy back up through your feet and into the rest of your body. The ground, ie Mother Earth, cleanses the energy.

Lastly, she provides an exercise for entering a card and you can also find this on the Aeclectic Tarot forum. We did this meditation in a class and reading the book, I’m only now realizing it came from here.

So, what about you? Do you have a ritual you do? What do you do to purify your cards? And what do you do for grounding?

Did your try the exercise for entering a card? How did it go? I posted about trying that with my year card back in December, but just realized I’ve yet to do that. Whoops.

Well, that’s that. Next up we’ll be moving on to Chapter 2: The Tarot Journal.

A tarot profile helps you gain insight into your own personal life journey.

I’ll admit, I’ve never seen so many personal profile cards calculated at once and I haven’t heard of a lot of these. It’s a bit daunting, but we’ll go through them one at a time. I’m hoping we come back to them in a later chapter, but if not, maybe we can come up with some exercises to explore the meanings behind these cards more too.

Personality & Soul Cards

The Personality Card “indicates [your] life purpose, aspirations, and lessons to be learned,” while the Soul Card “indicates [your] soul purpose and qualities that will assist [you]”

These cards/numbers are calculated using your birth date. You add all the numbers together, combining them down until they reach a number smaller than 22.

For example, if your birthday is October 14, 1947 it would look like this:

10
14
+1947
=1971

Then add each digit together: 1+9+7+1 = 18

This number is your Personality number, or The Moon in this case. If you add the 1 and 8 together, you get your Soul Number: 9, or The Hermit.

My Personality and Soul Cards are both The High Priestess. What I found interesting was that those of us with the same card for both are specifically working on our soul purpose in this lifetime.

Along with the Soul Card, we have four minor arcana cards that correspond to it, representing lessons and opportunities. It matches the number, so in my case I have the High Priestess, or a 2. My four minor arcana cards would be the 2 of pentacles, cups, wands, and swords. This is a new one to me. Interesting though. I’d never though about incorporating minor cards into profile cards before.

Hidden Factor Card

The Hidden Factor Card “indicates qualities [you] fear, reject, or don’t see that can become [your] greatest strengths. Mary lists a chart for finding out what these cards are. In my case, I get two, Justice and Judgment.

I have to think more about what these cards mean in this position. This is one of the ones I’d never heard of before. And I found this section a confusing one to read. I’d love to get your take on this, what did you think?

Your Year Card

This card changes every year. It represents the “tests, lessons, and experiences you will go through this year.”

In this case you add the month and date of your birth to the current year. So for the above example, you’d just swap out 1947 for and add away 2010, ending up with 9, or The Hermit.

My year card is an 11, Justice:

Your Zodiac Card

Each of the astrological signs is represented by a card. I’m a Scorpio so my card is Death:

Along with the Zodiac Card, Mary adds in another element called Your Zodiac Lessons and Opportunities Cards. These are minor cards that correspond to our sun signs. And each sun sign has three corresponding minor cards, which Mary lists on a chart. My cards are 5, 6, and 7 of cups:

What this means in terms of zodiac lessons and opportunities, I have no clue yet. Do any of you have any idea why it would be a zodiac lesson as opposed to a general lesson?

Your Destiny Card

Your Destiny Card is the minor arcana card that corresponds with your actual birth date. It’s pulled from one of your Zodiac Lessons and Opportunities cards. My card in this case would be the 6 of cups:

Persona Cards

Lastly, we have Persona Cards. These are calculated based on your sun, moon, and rising signs. If you don’t know yours, create a birth chart (it’s free!) to find out what they are.

My sun sign is Scorpio, so my Personal Potential Card is King of Cups.

My moon sign is Leo, so my Inner Teacher Card is King of Wands.

My rising sign is Aquarius, so my Mode of Expression in the World can be described by: King of Swords.

I’m apparently all about the kings. I have no idea what these mean at this point since this section is another new one to me.

Now that I’ve gone through the exercise, I need to spend some time with each card and think things over. If you feel overwhelmed by the number or profile cards, maybe start with the Personality and Soul Cards. If you are feeling ambitious, add in Your Year Card. Worry about the other cards another time. Spend some time with each of the few you choose and journal the first thoughts that come to your mind for each card. Don’t hold back and don’t be afraid to write any random thing down. You don’t know where that idea will lead you on your quest to read for your self.

So that’s that for this part of chapter 1. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted, and a bit overwhelmed. How did you do with selecting profile cards? If you posted them somewhere, please feel free to share in the comments by linking to them. Is there any part of this you’d like me to go over in detail? The only one I’m really confused about is the Hidden Factor/Teacher Card but I can look into that too if anyone else is curious.

Anyway, that’s that. I’m going to spend some time journaling on these myself and will be back with part 2 where we’ll talk about tarot rituals.

Have a happy day!

Okay, so it’s time for the first post of working my way through Mary K. Greer‘s Tarot for Your Self. Yay!

The book begins with an introduction section and I thought it would be a good idea that we take a moment to touch upon that. I’ll start with chapter 1 tomorrow.

The major point of this book is to help you establish your own personal relationship with the tarot, as well as to work on developing an awareness of your intuition.

Mary goes on to explain how to use this book, i.e. it’s a workbook. There are exercises in it and you should do them all, in order. It doesn’t seem to be designed for flipping around, although I’m sure on re-reads you could do just that. So, as suggested, I’m going to work through this in chapter order, one exercise at a time.

And she doesn’t even wait for the first chapter to start up with the first exercise: Write down everything that enters your head about roses for a few minutes. Eh. I have to admit, I was on a bus commuting to the city when I read this. I didn’t have paper or a pen with me. Whoops. So the first thing I’ll point out with reading this, have something to write with! Whether you write in the book or on separate paper is up to you. But you need something to write with…and a tarot deck, of course! And like I mentioned in my initial post on Tarot Basics, I’ll be sticking with my Universal Waite Tarot Deck for these exercises.

Anyway, back to the rose exercise. I rambled a few things about it, first running through the various colors of roses and what they mean: red = passion, pink = love, yellow = friendship, white = purity. Then I shifted to random thoughts: petals, delicate, soft, thorns, pain, green, blossom, lush, pungent, inspiration, bud, and growth.

She also adds that you should look through your cards to see the way roses have been used in your deck. Then questions, do the thoughts you jotted down give you insights into why roses were used in certain cards? What do you think? See any of those roses differently now?

I’ll be posting about it as I go through it. I don’t know how often that will be since I have work and other stuff going on too. You know, life. But I will post my way through all of it and I’ll aim to post on a regular schedule…which I’ll figure out by my first post.

If you’d like to join in the discussions, posts will start up March 1. If you have a copy of the book and haven’t yet read it, maybe now is a good time to start! And if you already have read it, maybe now is a good time for a reread!

Hope to see you there.

Have a happy day all!

Tarot journaling is about using the cards to learn more about yourself. You don’t need to be a seasoned reader to do that since you will writing about what inspires you from the cards. I’m finding that I’m not only learning more about myself, but I’m learning more about the cards too. Above all, it’s fun.

Corrine has a website up for the book. Plus, she’s got a Yahoo Group going where you can get prompts and talk to others about them too. It’s been a long time since I’ve been over there so I’m not sure if she’s still posting regularly. But, it’s where I got the inspiration of setting up my own tarot writing prompts section too.

So, grab your cards and have fun journaling away!