The Holy Trinity of the Third Eye: Tarot, Psychic Awareness and Imagination
“I’m sure it was just my imagination.”
“You’re imagining things!”
“What an imagination you have!”
How often people dismiss intuitive feelings, visions and visitations as simply “imagination”! We assume that imagination, while creative and amusing, is the fanciful opposite of truth-seeking. More Seven of Cups than Ace of Swords, if you know what I mean. But perhaps imagination is part of the process of truth-seeking. Perhaps imagination is part of the psychic process, inherently entwined in the psyche of the diviner, the seer, the mystic and the medium.
Popular culture has recently turned its focus to the ancient yet relevant Law of Attraction. This concept, based on the idea that “like attracts like,” calls our attention to the process of creative visualization. Here we use our imagination to visualize the future we desire. As our visualization takes material form we create our destiny and bring it in to being. This is one of many examples that prove imagination is an important tool for psychic work, spiritual growth and personal development. Another strong example is related to the Brow Chakra.
Like many of my peers, I first learned about the concept of chakras, or energy centers in the physical body, back in the Eighties. More than twenty years later, I am quick to think of discomforts such as physical ailments and psychological distress as “chakra issues.” I also associate talents and gifts with the chakras. As a professional Tarot reader, I consciously focus on my chakras, and those of my clients, to help me conduct Tarot readings.
I also use the Tarot to read the chakras, and even use the images of the Tarot to heal the chakras. The Ace of Cups, for instance, can refer to, and offer energy for, the healing of the Heart chakra. The Ace of Pentacles can refer to, and offer energy for the healing of the Root, or Base chakra. A Tarot spread that uses one card to represent each chakra can give a good sense of the general balance and wellness of the client’s seven major chakras.
If a student were to ask me “Which chakra is most important to Tarot reading?” I would have to answer “All of them”! We stay grounded during a reading with the Root chakra. Without the Throat chakra, how could we actually speak the reading? The Crown chakra allows us to connect with Spirit, while the Heart chakra allows us to know the heart of our client. Each of the seven chakras is a special tool to be used in the process of divination with Tarot, or any psychic work.
For any psychic work, however, the Brow chakra, or Third Eye, has special significance and function. Traditionally, the Third Eye is seen as the seat of eyesight as well as the source of psychic vision. It is connected to intuition and dreamwork. It is associated with the ability to perceive colors, shapes, images and symbols. This makes the Brow chakra especially important in the process of Tarot reading.
Most interesting is the fact that imagination is also associated with the Brow chakra, or Third Eye! That’s right, the energy center that relates to psychic work also relates to imagination!
As a teacher of Tarot and psychic development, I see many students who are struggling to become more psychic, or at least to perceive themselves that way. They are concerned that the visions, images and feelings that they get not be “only their imagination.” They actually shut down their imagination in an attempt to be more authentically psychic! But, since the imagination literally comes from the same place as the intuition, their efforts backfire miserably.
Mary Greer tells a great story about an experience that is common to many of us. Early in her career she was performing short readings in public, one after the other. Tired, hungry and long past the time she had thought she would be finished, she took a final person who begged for a reading. Haven’t we all been there! Mary was so tired that she just began telling stories based on the cards she saw. She was too tired to filter what she was seeing and saying, and to her the stories seemed outrageous and improbable. She was too tired to care. The funny thing is, her fanciful, imaginative stories made complete sense to her client!
What happened here is that in her tiredness she allowed her imagination to run wild. She was able to use the cards to trigger her imagination which allowed her to psychically tap in to what was happening in her client’s life in great detail. From her perspective it felt like nonsense, but it was actually a true psychic experience.
Many readers report this phenomenon. It can feel like being “in the zone.” It can feel like story-telling. Heck, it can even feel like you’re making the stuff up! The truth is that we are actually better readers when we allow our imagination to flow.
And there is the case for the “holy trinity” of the Third Eye. The Third Eye, or Brow chakra, is able to process Tarot images and use them to trigger imagination, which will allow the reader to tap into legitimate psychic information. Tarot, imagination and psychic awareness blend together within the mystical Third Eye to make us the best readers that we can be.
