Tarot Guidance for Entheogen Trips
By Edith A. Cheitman, Ph.D. MSW
Everyone who travels the Entheogen Highway soon comes to learn that trips thereon have distinctly different moods of their own. Briefly stated, the traveler’s intentions have a great deal to do with determining the nature of the ensuing trip. While there is not yet a formal analog of triple A to help the traveler in case of emergency, the Major Arcana of the tarot can serve as a handy combination trip-tick and road side emergency kit.
For travelers interested in taking responsibility for their entheogenic moods a variety of processes will help to establish attitude and goal for a particular herb-assisted exploration. Perhaps one of the most available and automatically evocative is the system of tarot, particularly the twenty-two cards referred to as the major arcana. Congruent with some of the oldest schools of religious thought, tarot symbology, correlates on a point for point basis with the sephiroth of the Kabbalah and in all its forms relates to the archetypes developed by CG Jung. The richness of imagery coupled with the incisive relation to cosmic thought makes tarot ideal for use in formulating a specific area of inquiry for a “trip” or for establishing its mood or for choosing both.
To bring you up to date as quickly as possible, the tarot is a seventy-eight card deck which can be traced back to the middle ages (1400-1500, in around then.) Depending on the source, tarot is sometimes said to have been developed at the same time as the library at Alexandria and to contain the essence of mankind’s occult knowledge at that time. Allegedly, the wisdom of the ages was condensed into a deck of gaming cards and, thereby disguised, kept safe as it was smuggled throughout the world by various nomads. Stories abound about the “gypsies” or “gypties” (short for “Egyptians”) who guarded these secrets and kept them safe until the planetary culture was ready to utilize them once again. There is a long tradition that speaks of at least two sets of meaning for the cards—the mundane and the occult. The reference to twenty-two of the cards as being “arcana” or “arcane” supports this theory. In the modern psychological tradition the images on the cards can be seen as a kind of Rorschach inkblot or Thematic Apperception Test image on which we fasten our inner complexes. Each card has a mundane or psychological interpretation as well as one that is connected to spiritual and metaphysical study. In using the cards to map psychospiritual activities as we will be doing here it is useful to be aware of both levels of meaning. While “interpretation” as used here is going to refer primarily to personal response to images, it is good to have some familiarity with the expanded interpretations of the cards as well. Ergo the following.
Any study of the tarot inevitably brings us to its relationship to the Kaballah, mystical lore of Judaism, and, as well, to the idea of archetypes as proposed by CJ Jung. The concept of archetypes continues to be lively in the field of psychology, particularly in that of transpersonal psychology where it is used in dream exploration, active imagination and a variety of other methods of expanding the human mind to encompass ever larger concepts.
It is to the archetypal meanings behind the twenty two Major Arcana which we will be referring for our purposes as we look at ways of using their images to set the route for cosmic trips and to locate ourselves in the transpersonal landscape should we become unintentionally disoriented. This latter use is particularly helpful because once we can find out where we are in the cosmos of psyche we can navigate away from it thus avoiding any further extended “bad trips.” It is important to remember that what is commonly called a “bad trip” is nothing more or less than our unexpected appearance unprepared in a cosmic neighborhood we had not intended to visit. Use of archetypal symbols to evoke useful trips greatly reduces the probability that we will arrive at a four-star cosmic resort without our Amex Cosmo-Titanium cards or at a joust of dragons without our shields.
As we proceed in this discussion it is essential to bear in mind that although we will be setting the system out in a linear and discrete fashion all archetypes are contiguous and contemporaneous--adjacent to one another in both time and space. For example, it is possible under the right circumstances to move from archetype Number Six (The Lovers) to archetype Number Twelve (The Hanged Man) without crossing archetypes Seven through Eleven. This is extremely important to bear in mind where traveling in Entheogenia whose topography offers access to the chronosynclastic infundibulum of the cosmos but does not provide a roadmap. The structure of the tarot deck is parallel to the nature of the universe in that the deck of cards is infinitely variable in its shuffling, not the orderly linear laundry list of situations that we will be developing here for the sake of temporary comprehension only.
And so, with the loud caveat that the tarot map is not the territory, let us proceed to studying it as a way of planning our entheogistic experiences in advance and as a way of identifying our location should we get lost while traveling. Given the universal resonance of archetypes there will be little here with which you are not familiar. The following discussion is designed to lead you to have easy comprehension of the subject and give you a sense of accomplishment and superiority—experiences sometimes hard to come by in the world of the spiritual pilgrim—so sit back and relax.
Of the seventy-eight cards of the tarot, twenty-two are designated the major arcana or “Major Secrets/Keys.” This article provides a brief description of each along with suggestions for how to use it in conjunction with your travels. Thousands of tarot decks are available to choose from. If you decide to invest in a deck of your own you might want to depend on synchronicity to pick it out for you. Perhaps within seventy-two hours of reading about tarot and deciding to get a deck you will meet someone who just happens to have an extra that they are giving away. Take it; it is yours. Tarot has a strong functioning archetype that works constantly to expand awareness of its wisdom. It is not unusual for it to provide a serious student with whatever is needed. If no deck appears, visit your neighborhood metaphysical emporium and spend some time looking at cards. Sooner or later the style of a deck will resonate with your aesthetic; get it and don’t worry about whether it’s the “right” one. Defacto, it is right for you the moment you purchase it.
We will be working only with the twenty-two major arcana cards in this exploration so take a few minutes to remove them from the deck and look at them, get to know them, make any obvious connections there are to be made. Start thinking of these twenty two as mentors, guides, mood-leaders who are available to accompany you on your entheogistic trips. Shuffle them, deal them, play twenty-two pick up, war. Pick a card, any card. Just get down with them. If it is going to be a few days before you use the cards sleep with them under your pillow for a few nights. Make note of any dreams you have to use in developing your understanding of the deck and developing the particular ways that you will use it to assist you in planning.
As you go through the cards you will notice that they all have moods that correspond with the moods of certain entheogens some of which induce a sweet, lulled mothering sense of things while others take you out for an Emperor’s joust or summon you to the dark temples of the High Priestess’s wisdom. If you find a strong correlation between one of the cards and the temperament of the entheogen you are going to be using make mental note of it. You may want to consider it as representative of the landscape in which your exploration will be played out.
The primary use of the major arcana in planning a journey is to use it to select an area of curiosity that you want to explore and/or a point of view from which you want to explore it. To be sure not everyone likes this more methodical approach to tripping. Many are like a friend of mine who drops whatever she’s taking, throws open her arms to the heavens and calls out “What’s up for me!” And that’s a fine and brave approach for which I have only the highest regard having drunk a good deal of her beer while tending her during years past. But for those of you who prefer a more orderly approach, tarot can help.
Each of the twenty-two major arcana cards represents a developmental stage that can be applied to body, mind, heart, or soul. It can serve as a topic for exploration or it can be evoked as the “personality” of a guide whom you can request to accompany you.
The rest of this article will deal with the twenty-two major arcana, their general meanings, and the ways in which they can be utilized to enhance the entheogenic lifestyle.
Part II—The Arcana
Up first for our consideration is The Fool, traditionally designated card zero and standing for primal undifferentiated energy about to embark on an adventure in manifestation. The Fool ordinarily carries a bindle or satchel of some sort in which it is rumored that she carries all of her memories from former incarnations. She is often seen stepping off a cliff into an abyss but being restrained by an animal companion which represents innate animal wisdom and the desire for (or addiction to) life. In many ways the Fool is the archetypal symbol for your own psyche as you embark on your entheogenic journey—not knowing what lies ahead, trusting the journey is worthwhile, and being kept safe by your own body wisdom—and perhaps a sitter to keep you from playing in the traffic. Choosing the Fool as your guide for a particular experience is to assign responsibility for the tone and content of the experience to some “authority” which you are temporarily allowing to play the role of being “other than” yourself. (Always to be borne in mind is that every figure, sound, sensation, etc. encountered in an entheogenic journey is an aspect of you, yourself. You may temporarily assign it an identity as “other” for purposes of working through a particular issue but the ultimate nature of things is that All really is One. Which comes with the corollary: And You are It.)
Another way to utilize the Fool is to call upon her, the ultimate taker of trips, to come to your aid whenever you feel stuck in some situation. Bear in mind, of course, that the archetypal Fool can show up in some other guise such as the trail of bread crumbs leading out of the woods or the white bird that flies in to lead you away. (Unless it eats the bread crumbs; that is a bad trip, indeed.)
Second in linear formation in the Major Arcana is the designated Magician, appearing as a figure manifesting the four discrete elements of fire, water, earth and air which he draws down from an infinite source of power, frequently represented by the lemniscate—infinity sign. Here is the figure on whom to call when you want to explore the rules and principles of making and doing in the universe and in your life. To this realm of imagination belongs everything that appears and vanishes, everything that transmutes without prior notice, all trickery and most communication. Here rules the Native American Hosteen Coyote—trickster who knocks over the sacred icons in the midst of ceremony. All of the most entrancing aspects of tripping belong to the Magician—the dragons that turn into butterflies and the dogs who become demons are his.
If you are seeking counsel on creative projects, anything that involves manifestation on any level from buying a car to writing a novel, the Magician is the one to summon. He is also the one to whom to turn for clarity in ambiguous situations where things are not what they seem to be. Magician is the God of Genesis who calls forth and names all the elements and animals from the rich and undifferentiated primordial excitement that existed before logos reigned.
Major Arcana two and three, the High Priestess and the Empress are the go-to women for all things having to do with the Eternal Feminine, that force which is so much under consideration and in manifestation on this particular planet at this particular time.
The High Priestess represents the darkest hidden feminine mysteries--the velvety crimson red of the deep womb and Kali’s bloodiest mysteries all of which are necessary for the profound cycle of death, regeneration and birth to continue. Here is the one to summon to confront the dark female mysteries—the sense of engulfment that harks back to life in the womb when one is totally at the mercy of the Feminine. The deathly aspects of the mooncycle lie here as do intuition and the need to keep hidden the deepest secrets of the mystery schools. The argument can be made that the High Priestess is the most occult card in the Major Arcana, in the sense of being obscure, impenetrable by human thought. Her deepest secrets defy explanation at least in part because they contain diametrically opposite senses at the same time—the deathly stench of the carrion, for example out of which the pure white blossom grows. Consider evoking the High Priestess for anything to do with the dark feminine mysteries, of course, but, as well, when you want to explore a situation to find in what you perceive as its horror the growth opportunities which are sure to come. This is a great card for breaking out of a creative block—those times when the muse isn’t talking or when she has you in her teeth and is shaking the bejesus out of you.
Caveat to the entheogenic traveler: In making High Priestess interpretations of experiences you will do better to do so in soft focus, maintaining the ambiguity inherent in right brained processes rather than attempting to sort things out in a possibly more satisfying linear fashion.
Evoking the Empress, on the other hand, leads to more sharp-edged external interpretations of the female principle. Although they are equally complex these mysteries deal more with issues of fecundity and the bright side manifestation of the darker elements that were presented by the High Priestess. Travels with the Empress are recognizable by their sense of expansion, safety, well-being—all the Jupiterian aspects. A journey in the company of the Empress may be appropriate when you are embarking on a real-world project of expansion—writing a book, building a house, having a baby, franchising a restaurant. It is also a fast way to “re-parent” yourself if you have identified inadequate mothering as a core issue. It is amazing the amount of reparation on a fairly deep and complex level that can be accomplished in the course of a well-engineered trip under the tutelage of the Empress. The efficiency of these experiences may be one of the reasons that the use of entheogenics never became popular in psychotherapeutic circles; it perhaps works too well too fast and reduces the number of paid hours required in traditional psychotherapy.
The generous Empress is followed by the Emperor, fourth in the Major Arcana, who is devoted to setting boundaries and rules and defending the turf established in the Empress phase. You will recognize him from situations in which rules are established, procedures are set outcomes are measured and judged. At times in life when you have been engaging in what might seem to some to be profligate behavior the Emperor may appear to assist you in determining those areas of life in which you need to cut back. As well, if you have been indiscriminately allowing others to get too close to you or to utilize your resources as if yours were their own the Emperor may serve as your protector, pointing out where certain relations need to be terminated. The qualities of an Emperor journey are solidity, balance, moderation, intelligent rule and a somewhat unyielding point of view.
Viewing the Major Arcana from a linear perspective, by the time you have reached the station of the Emperor you have completed the stages in development that correspond to the Animus, Anima, Father and Mother, the stages that are accomplished through the instrumentality of the family.
Next on the developmental agenda will be encounters with the High Priest or Hierophant—archetypal representative of the socialization process as it occurs in the usual early life experiences including school and traditional religion. Here is the phase in which the Fool learns to integrate the values of the culture and to use those values appropriately to bring about the outcomes desired in life. Just as the school and the legal system takes over where the family leaves off, the entheogenic experience of the High Priest is somewhat larger and more severe than that of the Emperor. Journeys involving attending school, encounters with the police, encounters with the law are under the aegis of the High Priest and will serve to help you in comprehending the values of the larger culture should you have failed to integrate them in the normal course of events. Like Emperor experiences the High Priest or Hierophant part of the journey is proscribed, linear, solid and seemingly with logical outcomes.
The next two spheres of the Major Arcana are the last of the phases in development which the spiritual traveler accomplishes as an individual within the culture. Once these two are achieved it will be time to move to the second cycle, that of the internal journey in which the Fool begins to explore psychospiritual reality.
In the sixth phase, that of the Lovers, the Fool searches for the external representation of her internal opposite. Men seek the woman who represents their anima while women search for the animus who stands for the idealized masculine self. The power of the Number Six card can not be overestimated. In trips its hallmark is the sense of merging which can be anywhere from blissful expansion to terrifying engulfment depending on the formative experiences of the person on the entheogenic path. The potentially ecstatic or devastating sensations experienced in these particular journeys make them highly likely to result in noticeable psychospiritual change. The Lovers is a good archetype to court under any circumstance when you are seeking to incorporate new information or new attitudes and, as well, it is the card most likely to represent the nature of the traveler’s relationship to the entheogenetic substance with which he or she is involved. Once you have ingested a substance, literally incorporated it (taken it into the body—the corpus), you are irrevocably in love with it for the duration of the experience.
Last of the cards in the first cycle of the Major Arcana is the Chariot, symbolic of the mature psyche functioning adequately within the society. Not necessarily gifted with spiritual insight or cosmic intuition, this is the mensch mind – the good neighbor next door to whom we all want to live. Entheogenic experiences under the aegis of this archetype are likely to be well-balanced and easy to return from since they are extensions of the well-balanced mundane psyche.
The next seven of the twenty-two archetypes are concerned with the search for the truths illuminated by the spiritual within the psyche by a variety of dynamics.
In the eighth card, Strength, we typically see a “wild” beast being tamed by some symbolic force of intelligence or mercy—a maiden, angel, etc. Here again is a psychological dynamic that involves integration of an “Other” of sorts. This is the card to invoke when doing work around larger “shadow” issues such as were introduced with the Lovers whether you are concerned with being able to identify the elements that represent shadow to you or, having identified them, you are wanting to learn how to integrate them. While shadow is typically thought of as a “negative” element it is just as likely to be something ordinarily considered to be positive which has not been integrated into the psyche. For example, to a person who is unable to accept love, intimacy becomes the shadow material for them more frightening than the worst semi-decomposed ghoul is for most of us. The trick to successfully negotiating the situation when the Strength card appears is to enter into a dialogue with the shadow representation rather than running from it. Often times the monster only wants someone to play with while the ghoul needs to go shopping for a new suit of clothes for the ball.
In Nine, The Hermit, you are called on to face the perils of singularity by exploring the limits of your singular resources. While entheogenic experiences of this sort can easily devolve into desperate ramblings through nebulous landscapes looking for uncertain friendships they can more productively be dealt with by treating them as if they were planned solitary retreats. Due to the usual intensification of experience and telescoping of time afforded by various substances deliberately used a four hour trip can be the equivalent of a five day silent retreat, pushing us down through the chatter of our monkey minds into the clear cold sparkling mental air that surrounds Rumi’s field. If you are going to invoke an experience such as this it may be a good idea to enlist a trip partner who will stay grounded and continually call you back to your silence and stillness. This is suggested because the first instinct of the monkey mind when faced with silence is to engage in endless chatter, motion, and search for diversion all of which are counter indicated for the outcome desired by the Hermit in his or her quest. If the Hermit appears unsummoned in an experience you may be on notice that you are at a point in your development where you cannot turn to anyone else for council. You may be at one of those crucial junctures in psychospiritual progress where elements are conjoined in such a way as to have created a point and perspective unlike anything being experienced by your usual peers. Despite the common need for validation there are times when it is crucial to hold your own truth and keep your own counsel, lonely as that may be.
The Wheel of Fortune is a tricky ride and it’s hard to know while you’re on it whether it’s a benign merry-go-round or a rack. I think of it as the most profound leveler in the Major Arcana because it is a reminder that “That which has come to pass shall pass away.” This is an archetypal force on which to call when you are in need of being roused from the torpors of either long term despair or exultation. The Wheel will shake you up and show you the opposite of whatever coin you are holding at the moment. If it appears unsummoned this archetype is a strong reminder to you not to become enmeshed in your current situation, to look at its reverse for elements which might threaten or enhance your current situation. Encounters with the Wheel can also be opportunities for complete reversal of the life plan in service to the spiritual goal. Opportunities such as this must be carefully considered before a decision is taken as to whether or not to take action (or non-action.)
Justice, eleventh card of the major arcana, is another reminder of the necessity of balance in conducting a proper spiritual exploration although in a much different sense than we have seen in the exploration of the shadow as conducted in the Lovers. In the Justice card we are introduced to a more conditional sense of balance, one that deals primarily with the elements at hand and utilizes a standard method of equalizing them. You might call upon this archetype to assist you when you find yourself in a proscribed situation from which you see no immediate escape and within which you must establish enough balance to stay on your feet. Spontaneous appearance of Justice in the form of a judge, lawyer, lady with the scales may signal that it is time for you to take a closer look at your own ethics and to be sure they have not become unduly situational as you have worked to achieve a measure of comfort in your life despite some malfeasance up to which you prefer not to own.
The Hanged Man, he who sees the world completely the opposite from everyone else, he from the pockets of whose pants all the coins are dropping unattended, is in my opinion the patron archetype of the good trip. Here he is, our most skilled guide, who gently hangs us upside down and takes notes for us of our observations from this newly skewed vantage point. If this archetype comes to visit without being summoned you may be being asked to look at your situation from a radically different perspective, to “reframe” it as used to be the phrase in the psychotherapeutic community. At the same time there is a caveat that we not let reframing become rationalization and yet another way of making the world work out the way we want it to. A Hanged Man experience can be the occasion, as was the Wheel of Fortune, to make a major re-direction in the spiritual journey. This may be the opportunity to fully embrace the newly glimpsed reality and make it one’s own; the opportunity to quit the job and go to live in the ashram, as it were. These junctures in life are few and worthy of careful consideration because rarely are they such that action can be postponed and the chance to enact it still be available later on.
The traditionally numbered thirteenth card, Death, is archetypical of – well, Death. No matter how much transcendent verbiage about butterflies and transformation you read, death is death. Something to which you have been attached is not going to be around any more. So far, given the nature of the universe, something else usually will exist after the other something ceases to exist but it may not be a something which you are able to perceive given your limited array of sensors. All that not withstanding, the best way to approach Death is not to put up a fight because you are not going to win. Poetic advice to the contrary, go as gentle as possible into that night and hope it is indeed as good as has been promised. You will recognize the Death aspect of any entheogenic experience; I don’t think I need to describe it here. If you haven’t had one yet, ask around until you find someone who has and see if he or she will tell you.
Card fourteen, Temperance, is the archetypical guru/angel—he or she who has seen the darkness and the light and has incorporated good and evil within its singular psyche. Here is the soul at stillpoint in both its typical angelic guise and, as well, embodied in the mad saddhus who run filthy, toothless, laughing through the rain because they knew (they know) that ultimately the universe balances out to the nanogram. Temperance comes at the end of the second cycle—that of the internal journey of the psyche. One can decide to halt the journey here and not be faulted for it because one has faced gods and demons and negotiated an honorable place among them and among one’s fellow seekers. The Temperate is the one you hope is witnessing for you during your most profound trips because he or she will see them all for their full value and provide you with a safe space and enough time to integrate all the elements which are of value to you.
If you decide to continue the journey you will embark on the last cycle of seven major arcana cards –the one that begins with the Devil, that deals with Universal archetypes and that raises the ante considerably. While the seven cards in this final or transpersonal cycle can be seen as precisely coincidental permutations of the seven in the psychospiritual series, the permutation is so great that it constitutes an entirely different order of severity. If you have determined to take this last stage of the journey and to do so while using entheogens it is highly desirable that you have with you as a grounded guide someone who has made the journey before you. The energies unleashed through these experiences are considerable and it is thoroughly unwise to try to negotiate them accompanied by a Girl Scout. Which is to say nothing against Girls Scouts other than that they should not try to do more than they are suited to do lest everyone go down in flames.
Where the shadow faced in the Lovers may be the spouse from hell, the Universal Shadow symbolized by the Devil will be something more on the order of the energetic construct that was the Holocaust. Under the tutelage of the Devil you will be asked to visit the killing fields in Cambodia, the chambers of the Inquisition, meetings of the Ku Klux Klan, to experience that level of Evil as it lies within your larger Self and to integrate it into a larger vision of the Universe. In negotiating the energies of this archetype and those of the following three it is wise to allow plenty of time and space (mental and physical) for the enterprise. These are not energies with which to deal during a week at Burning Man no matter how sacred you may have been led to believe that venue to be.
The experiences of the Devil, The Tower, The Star and The Moon are most easily conceptualized as each being a part of a unitary process that is initiated by the encounter with the Dark Gods. Roughly stated, that encounter leads to a complete destruction of whatever construct you may have developed over the course of your many lives to hold you in place in this particular time space location. A glance at the Tower card gives an immediate idea of what “complete destruction” entails as most cards show a tower being deconstructed brick by brick through the instrumentality of a couple of big bolts of lightning (fire), an earthquake (earth), a flood (water),and probably one helluva wind storm (air.) Blessed by this destruction you are free to experience the pure Light of Original creation (out in Rumi’s field again) and to have direct contact with that light through all chakras.
As profoundly enlightening and seemingly desirable as this situation may be it is far afield from ordinary consciousness. If you have any intention of returning to some recognizable form of your usual mind this stage must be carefully negotiated as is demonstrated in Card Eighteen, The Moon. In that card we see the return path from the Light (seen now as the less reliable reflected light of the moon) weaving precariously between the two pillars or poles symbolized by the wolf (wild, mad instinctual mind) and the dog (wisdom tamed in service to the mundane psyche.) Successfully negotiated this path brings you into the clear warm light of Earth’s sun; a misstep leaves you permanently in the company of the wolves of madness unless, like Carl Jung, you have people to sit with you for a year or so while you make your very slow way back, building a little town of stones at the edge of your garden while your wife manages the household.
After some time basking in the light of the Sun – luminescence of the left brain, warmer of the soil in spring and ripener of the fruit in fall we find the spiritual pilgrim experiencing the energies of the Judgment card—the rebirth of the ordinary into the light of the extraordinary. This is the card and the archetype of the Evangelist—the one who returns on fire with what he or she has seen, anxious to tell the world and to awaken everyone else to the transformational vision. With a little thought you can name two or three living models of this archetype. Some of them stay in this role for the remainder of their lives while some take a final step and become the archetype of the number twenty first card – The World -- in which as in the familiar Zen saying “Before enlightenment mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers; during enlightenment mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers; after enlightenment mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.”
And that’s it. The end of the entheogenetically hosted spiritual journey in which life becomes the ultimate trip.
Here we have covered the most basic applications of the tarot as a road map for the journey to the end of the cosmos. If you spend some time with tarot, especially these twenty-two major arcana, you may find yourself forming a personal relationship with the energies of the cards, almost as if you were carry snapshots of notable personages with whom you want to make contact. As you become more familiar with the images in the cards you will begin to recognize the archetypes when they surface either in trips, meditations, or in “ordinary” life. Once you have this ability to recognize them you may find you establish dialogues with key figures, perhaps even find them giving you suggestions for how to proceed or bailing you out of what once might have been a “bad trip.”
Let me know if you have any comments about this article, any suggestions for further discussion, any questions. It’s an enormous and seemingly sometimes random cosmos; better to travel in the company of friends.
Light Work, Unlimited
