Tarot Magic Mini-Course: Lesson 2: Goals of the Course
Welcome to Tarot Magic — a revolutionary new way to use the archetypes of the tarot for powerful personal transformation, practical enchantment, and spiritual growth.
In this mini-course, I’m providing free access to selected material in the full Tarot Magic course. If you enjoy this material, please consider signing up for the complete course here.
2. Goals of the Course
We have no desire to add to the ranks of armchair occultists. The line of our work is an invitation to adventure under the direction of an experienced guide, that guide being the beneficent force behind the Tarot. As a result of this adventure, or quest, we can go through a process of attunement of consciousness whereby we come to an actual experience of the forces, powers and beings of the inner worlds. The aim of all this, it must be said, is not to satisfy an idle curiosity, but to make us, as human beings, better able to serve the forces of light — those invisible forces that strive to bring about the expression of the greater good. It is therefore an invitation to service as well as to adventure.
— Gareth Knight
- Tarot Magic Mini-Course Main Page
- Goals of the course (you are here)
- Creating sacred space
- Definitions of magic
- How Tarot Magic is different
- The aces and the classical elements
- The Fourfold Rite meditation
- Breathing the Elements meditation
- Four weeks with the aces and elements
- Tarot altars
- Tarot Magic at the Crossroads
This course should be considered a suite of software programs that you can install and run in your mind and personal operating system. Because you are a unique biocomputer, you should always feel free to tweak or change any of the programs for optimum experience and results.
You will develop a Primary Goal, as explained in the video. Think about this carefully. When you have your goal, write it down. We will work throughout the course toward it, using a variety of techniques.
For example: Do you want to have less anxiety? Become more social? Get a better job or find a more rewarding career? Be a better partner or parent? Get more people to find and enjoy your art? This will not be the sole focus of your work — not by any means. Instead, it will be one practical goal to work toward. Write it down in your magical diary and commit to it.
This is also a participant-centered course.
This course is also very personalized. Rather than following my rituals or those of others to the letter, you will create and perform rituals of your own, for your own goals. This is a course in how to do magic of your own, not simply reciting someone else’s words — because in order to do magic effectively, you need to learn what works best for you.
Although this is course in tarot magic, it also provides instruction on magic in its various forms — theurgic, pagan, folk, chaos/experimental, and we’ll even utilize rituals from The Arbatel, a ceremonial magic grimoire from the 16th century. So you will get a taste of all of those styles of magic, while still keeping the tarot front and center.
In summary, the goal is to live a more fulfilling and truly magical life through theurgical magic, or aligning one’s self with higher powers, energies, or spiritual forces (you can decide what they are). Magic is a means to deep and long-lasting self-transformation, and this course will give the tools, techniques, and strategies you need to achieve that goal.
Theurgy
A definition of theurgy I recently ran across in a talk by Wouter Hanegraaff that I find very helpful is “creating suitable conditions for the gods to manifest themselves.” We can take that as actual gods or the higher/deeper aspects of ourselves.
I am using a loose definition of theurgy than scholars of ancient magic, but it is applicable to the style of magic will will be practicing that emphasized knowing ourselves and healing ourselves through meditations, visualizations, and rituals.
Optional viewing: This excellent video on theurgy from Dr. Justin Sledge of Esoterica. If you want to skip the history, start around the 20 minute mark.
Michael M. Hughes is a writer, speaker, game designer, and magical thinker. He is the author of Magic for the Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change (currently out of print, but coming soon in a revised and updated edition), the Blackwater Lights Trilogy, as well as numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction, and he speaks and teaches classes on magic, tarot, pop culture, tabletop gaming, psychedelics, and more.
His comprehensive tarot course, The Art and Magic of the Tarot: Foundations, is available here, as well as his most recent course on Tarot Magic.
Michael’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, CNN, The L.A. Times, Rolling Stone, Comedy Central, Wired, Elle,Vox, Cosmopolitan, The Tamron Hall Show, and even the ultraconservative The American Spectator, which wrote: “He may play footsie with the devil, but at least the man has a sense of humor.”
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