Faith & Belief

Christianity, Mysticism, Quotations

In the western world, notions of Faith and Belief are based on the Judeo-Christian tradition preserved for us in the Bible, especially the writings of St Paul.  St Paul and the other New Testament authors wrote in Greek, the lingua franca of the 1st-century world, and Greek has only one word pistis for our two words “faith” and “belief”. Faith in Greek is pistis. Belief in Greek is pistis.

Let’s start with the English words and come back to the Greek later.

Belief means believing that something is so or believing somebody or believing some source of information: “I believe that the world is round.” “I believe you / I believe what you said to me.” “You can’t always believe what you read in the papers.

Much the same is believe in: “I believe/don’t believe in Father Christmas, unicorns, the Greek gods, mermaids.”

It is what we mean when we say “An atheist is a person who does not believe in God.”

Now, is there any real difference between believing in God and having faith in God?

I contend that there is.

Yet according to John Hick:

The majority of recent philosophical critics of religion have in mind a definition of faith as the believing of propositions upon insufficient evidence.

He goes on:

Many philosophical defenders of religion share the same assumption …

In other words they do not see any difference between “believing in God” and “having faith in God”. For them, having faith in God means believing that God exists.

But wait a moment. “I have faith in my daughter” means I trust her, I know she will do the right thing.

And curiously, “I believe in my daughter” means more or less the same.

How can this be?

The existence of my daughter is not in doubt. When the existence is in doubt, as in the case of Father Christmas, God and mermaids, then believe in means believe that they exist; have faith in never means that.

Having faith in implies knowing. Not knowing of/knowing about (that would be believing in the existence of) but knowing, as in “I know myself,” or “I know my wife”. We cannot have faith in a person we do not know.

So someone who has faith in God is not identical with someone who believes in God. You may believe in God because you were brought up to believe in God (very, very often the case!) or because one of the philosophical proofs of the existence of God has convinced you (rarely now the case, I imagine). But then you are in much the same position as the person who says “I believe there is someone living in that apartment on the 4th floor.” The use of the verb “believe” implies insufficient evidence. If, on the other hand, you have met the new tenant (or the squatter) living in that apartment, then you know there is someone living there. And if you have spent time becoming acquainted with this tenant/squatter, then you know him/her. The statement “There is no one living in the apartment on the 4th floor” will be, to you, simply absurd.

Likewise, you have met God and have got to know Him. He has become part of your life. And knowing Him, you have come to have faith in Him The idea that He doesn’t exist is, to you, as absurd as the idea that you yourself do not exist.

All that, of course, is equally absurd, indeed much more absurd, to atheists and agnostics, and to those who simply believe in God for one reason or another without really knowing Him. However, their incomprehension and derision does not mean that it is an illusion, that “the man of faith” is kidding himself. Try explaining music to the deaf, or even the tone-deaf, or art to the blind, or the simply colour-blind. Try explaining love to one who has never known love …

In a future post I will return to the Greek word pistis, to the Fourth Gospel and St Paul, and to the knowing without which there can be no faith.

Elie Wiesel was a Romanian-born Jew who survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald and went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Tarot and the Aries Moon

Astrology, Major Arcana, Moon Signs, Numerology, Reincarnation, Tarot, The Past

Aries is a Cardinal Fire Sign, its number is 4, it is associated with the planet Mars, and its opposite Sign is Libra: wherever it is a factor in the horoscope it will always involve the urge for self-assertion and for immediate action, for focussing energy on the new experience. 

People born when the Sun is in Aries radiate confidence and vitality. In Aries Moons, this confidence and vitality tends to take on a more negative colour; they are born with an inflated ego. They also lack patience, with situations, with people, and even with themselves, and this inability to tolerate frustration, can come over as childish, especially to other people who are anxious about something and find themselves faced with bad-tempered Aries Moons who have absolutely no patience with them and their concerns.

Indeed, the three Key Words here are Emotion, Passion and (Bad) Temper.

But though outbursts of passion, and indeed of filthy temper, are characteristic of those born under this Moon Sign, they soon get over it. They just can’t repress their feelings.

As one might expect, they fall in love (passionately, of course!) at first sight, but need a partner who reciprocates on the same level, otherwise they quickly become disillusioned.

They are strong under pressure, they are brave, and they are loyal, so at their best they make good partners and good friends, but they continuously antagonise those who do not know and understand them.

As they are impatient with anyone slower or more cautious than themselves (which means most people!) and have no sympathy with normal preoccupations and anxieties, they do not make good bosses. Or good subordinates – they need to feel in control.

Ideally, then, they should be their own boss, but as they are impatient with details they need a partner or manager to handle that side of things for them while they do the dramatic bit – performing as singers or actors on stage or as surgeons in the operating theatre, for example.

The archetype for Aries Moons is the hero, the knight errant, riding off to right another wrong, for there is always a new wrong to be righted. And in their past lives, too, they will at various times have done just that, as a warrior, a soldier, a crusader, a defender of the defenceless and the disinherited. But for this and their other achievements, they demand recognition and admiration – a weakness which frequently results in them lapping up flattery like thirsty sponges.

This dependence on ego-boosting relationships, along with the desire for immediate gratification of every emotional need, is something those born under this Moon Sign need to grow out of and leave behind them during this present life – or failing that, during a future one. But more on that below, when we come to the Tarot Trump card for this Moon Sign.

The Moon Signs and compatibility

Aries is a Fire Sign and is hot with another Aries Moon, or one of the other two Fire Moons, Leo or Sagittarius, but there is a risk of burn-out. Many early marriages followed by divorces are the result of two Fire Moons getting together. In the long run, an Aries Moon gets on best with an Air Moon – Virgo or Aquarius, or even Gemini, though a Gemini Moon might try what little patience the Aries Moon possesses.

Health and diet for different Moon Signs

Aries Moons tend to suffer from tension headaches when under pressure (and especially when the moon is currently in Aries, as it is, of course, for two and a half days each month) but they can get relief by means of vigorous exercise or brisk walking – letting off steam is, for them, the only way to relax. (People born under this Sign were definitely not born to be yogis!)

Understanding the peculiarities of your particular Moon Sign can help you decide on what constitutes a good diet for you. Remember, ONE MAN’S MEAT IS ANOTHER MAN’S POISON, and generalisations about what constitutes “healthy food” for everyone are not only unhelpful but downright dangerous.

For those born when the Moon was in Aries, colorful, live foods such as beets and carrots will purify the blood, and foods rich in protein such as fish, and rich in folic acid and Vitamin B12 such as (wholegrain) bread and rice, suit them best. Spices are good when they feel low but they should steer clear of spicy foods when they are emotionally disturbed.

What to avoid? One thing stands out: caffeine – in coffee, black tea, coke and chocolate.

And so finally we come to:

The Tarot Trump which represents and symbolises this Moon sign

Why that card? you might ask, shocked. Well, first, let’s look at the number: XIII – that is to say 13, which, OK, traditionally is an omen of ill luck but in numerology reduces to the number 4. Four, the number of Aries, is the first number to produce a solid figure, a tatrahedron, and is therefore the number of solidity, of earth. But is also made up of two twos, making it a double dither and, at least on occasion, a number of evil and ill-luck.

Look at the other Fours – things go wrong, things change, there is always something new:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wands – Marriage; marriages can and very often do break up

Cups – Cup drunk, mission accomplished; there’s always another cup to be drunk, another mission to be accomplished

Swords –Life completed, death comes; the next generation takes over the mission – or takes revenge

Pentacles – We’re rich. Markets crash – and anyway, you can’t take it with you

And look at the Queens (the number of the Queen cards is also 13 (=4)):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the Queens are mothers of grown-up children. All are mature and wise and firm in their purpose. But they are far from finished: in each case there are hidden fires that could break out at any time in their respective elements, seasons and spheres of interest. All four are, in short, still dominated by their egos and their lust for life – this life.

In life things go wrong: Death comes, literally or metaphorically. It is incumbent upon Aries Moons in this life to recognise their inflated ego, their self-importance, for what it is: not their real Self but something they must leave behind, either before they die (and that should be their aim in this life) or, unavoidably, when they do. Otherwise they will live their lives with a greater horror and dread of death than those born under any other Moon Sign.

Nothing is Infinite

Major Arcana, Numerology, Tarot, Tarot Trumps Individually

We’re still on The Fool here, but first I want to draw attention to a few typical opposites:

Male – Female
Up – Down
Happy – Sad
Wet – Dry
Day – Night
Odd – Even
Light – Dark
Old – Young
Old – New
Right – Left
Right – Wrong
Good – Evil

Some of these we might think of as opposite poles on a sliding scale: Happy/Sad, for instance, and Light/Dark, and Old/Young. Others seem to be mutually exclusive: Old/New, for instance, and Odd/Even, and Right/Left.

Some are difficult to categorise in this way because, although they are not really opposite poles, there is an in-between state:  dusk between Day and Night, damp between Wet and Dry.

And what about Male and Female? That’s an interesting one! And it brings us to Yin and Yang. Let’s see what someone else lists as opposites under the Yin and Yang headings.

These are all mixed up and many of them a bit too definite for me. And notice that the Yin-Yang symbol above has been straightened out, emphasising and symbolising this definiteness. The one below is more to my taste.

And so we come to the point of all this: what about nought/zero as opposed to a number – any number? Nothing as opposed to something? And is that any different from nothing and everything?

I am a practical person. To me, numbers are not abstract – one means one thing, two means two things, three means three things – you get the idea. And so, to me, just as nill means no goals scored in football and love means no points scored in tennis, so nought/zero means no things – nothing. To a child, when I open my hand, it holds one sweet (one thing) or two sweets (two things) or no sweets (nothing).

Let’s have another look at that sliding scale. Add happiness, you decrease sadness, and vice-versa. Likewise with light and dark, heat and cold, easy and difficult, wet and dry, fast and slow. But this certainly doesn’t apply to odd and even, or left and right or old and new. Does it apply to nought/zero and a number – to nothing and something/anything? Of course not.

Zero/nothing is not part of the something/everything. It is empty space. Nothing there. Something is finite. Everything is finite. Nothing is infinite.

“Nothing is infinite” – the title of this post.

At first glance, that statement seems to be ambiguous, can be understood in two – or three? – ways. Either “There is no such thing as (the) infinite – infinity does not exist” or “No thing is infinite” or “Empty space, the void, is infinite.”

But in fact, if you think about it carefully, you will see that what it really means is any thing which exists is by definition finite. But the nothingness within which things exist is infinite. That ONLY nothing can be infinite.

Getting in a bit deep here. But I am particularly interested in the numerology of the Tarot, and The Fool is clearly the odd one out, the one with no number.

In effect, all the cards except The Fool depict or reflect various aspects of finitude. The Fool alone reflects or depicts an aspect of the infinite.

I will return to The Fool and the infinite, but in my next few posts I shall be saying more about numerology and its application to the Tarot in general.

The Fool

Major Arcana, Numerology, Reincarnation, Tarot, Tarot Trumps Individually

Let’s start with this – surely one of the most memorable of all tarot cards. I mean – Ouch! What man could ever forget that image? The Fool here is the classical Buffoon – the one the dogs chase and the kids throw stones at. In modern idiom, the one who gets his ass kicked – repeatedly and regularly.

A Buffoon, and a Vagrant. This what happened to vagrants in England until fairly recently:  They are to be tied to the cart-tail and whipped until the blood streams from their bodies, then they are to swear on oath to go back to their birthplace or to serve where they have lived the last three years and to ‘put themselves to labour’. For the second arrest for vagabondage the whipping is to be repeated and half the ear sliced off; but for the third relapse the offender is to be executed as a hardened criminal and enemy of the common weal.”[11]

That third one is my favourite. And notice the continuing presence of the bag/burden which represents Karma, the baggage we all bring into the world with us. Is it these poor fools’ Karma tp be a Buffoon/ a Vagabond in this life? Maybe. But we all bring a certain baggage from our past lives with us when we step out in all innocence into this world.

John Bunyan would, I believe, have called the burden that his pilgrim was lumbered with “Original Sin”, but it comes to the same thing. Here is William Blake’s illustration for “Pilgrim’s Progress”:

Or this. That is quite some load of bad karma!

I’ve been looking at some female Fools to see what artists have made of the notion of female folly. I didn’t find any female buffoons. Rightly not. That is a male prerogative. Mostly they seem to depict little more than youthful silliness – not far removed from the rather androgynous figure in the standard Waite-Smith card above.

But what I really want to get into is the significance of the number (or non-number) nought/zero. There are lots of ones, twos, threes, fours, etc, and on up to the nines, in the tarot pack. (Remember that all the numbers reduce to 1 – 9, so for instance the 13s (Death and the four Queens) all reduce to 4 (1+3=4).  But there is only one “0” – The Fool. It is unique. And what does that mean?

The number zero means literally “nothing”, the absence of anything, the opposite of something. But can there be nothing without there being something?

More on that in my next post – HERE

A little about Moon Signs

Astrology, Moon Signs, Reincarnation

When I do a Tarot Reading I always like to know the Querant’s Moon Sign. This is not always possible because many people do not know the exact time and place of their birth, but if they do then I find it really helps.

But first a word or two (or three!) about Moon Signs and why they are important.

The sun, the moon and the planets all move (or at least appear to move) through the sky following a circular route, a route which takes them at varying speeds through the twelve sections of the sky known to astrologers as the signs of the zodiac. So at the moment when we were born, not just the sun, but the moon and the planets were all located in one of those sections, one of those signs. Basically, that is what your birth chart or horoscope is: it charts the position of the sun, the moon and the planets at that moment, and indicates how they relate to each other uniquely for you.

So when you were born, the Sun might have been in Taurus, the Moon in Libra, Mars in Gemini, Venus in Cancer, and so on.

Moon sign astrology is a very old form of astrology, possibly older than Sun sign astrology. Certainly it was practised by the Babylonians hundreds if not thousands of years before Christ.

Some say that the Sun sign shows the yang, masculine, outgoing, active and perhaps more superficial aspects of our nature, while the Moon sign shows our yin, feminine, introspective, passive, deeper and more private side.

Certainly the Moon is about feelings, about aspects of your personality governed by the emotions – parts of you that the rational mind cannot reach, may not even be aware of. To put it another way, the Moon sign relates to the sub-conscious, or unconscious.  It shows how one reacts according to subconscious disposition.

All of which means, for those who believe in reincarnation, that the Moon Sign relates to past lives. The features characteristic of the Sun Sign are analogous to the body – you as you are in this incarnation – while the features characteristic of your Moon Sign are analogous to the soul: they came with you from your past lives, they are there in your unconscious, and they will keep influencing your feelings, your thoughts, and your actions. Another way of putting it is to see the features as conditioned rresponses – conditioned by past lives.

If you are not in touch with your Moon Self then you are in a sense lost, not at home with yourself – living the life of a stranger, a fish out of water.

However, it is very important to remember that the significance of the Sign as a Moon Sign will not be the same as its significance when it is a Sun Sign. People often make the mistake of assuming that being born when the Moon was in, say, Leo is the same as being born when the Sun was in Leo; that it somehow makes you a kind of covert Leo person. But what Moon-in-Leo means is NOT the same as what Sun-in-Leo means. For a start, the Moon in a particular Sign tends to emphasise the dark, the negative, aspects of that Sign.

In future posts, I will talk about each Moon Sign individually.

 

TAROT INTERACTIONS by Deborah Lipp

Book Reviews, Tarot

Let me start by saying that this is one of the best books on Tarot I’ve ever come across – and I’ve read a lot!

What makes it so special? Look at the cover. That’s not simply a random couple of cards such as you might find on most run-of-the-mill books on Tarot; those two cards – those two characters – are interacting. And that’s what this book is all about.

Deborah Lipp doesn’t tell us (yet again) the meanings of individual cards; she doesn’t even spend much time on the interpretation of different lay-outs, apart from one six-card YES-NO spread that I have now incorporated into my repertoire and started using all the time. I’m not going to spoil it by giving away the details, though: you’ll have to buy the book!

What she tells us to look for – and shows us how to find in countless examples – is how cards next to each other, above and below each other, opposite each other, may signify something quite different from the meaning of the cards on their own or even their meaning in that particular spread.
Essential reading for every Tarot reader.

 

The Soul’s Journey: The Beginning – The Fool Steps Out

Hinduism, Major Arcana, Mysticism, Reincarnation, Tarot, Tarot Trumps Individually

To Start at the Beginning, with The Fool

The Fool is actually the Soul stepping into the unknown at the moment of reincarnation. And I do mean the unknown. I do not subscribe at all to the view that the discarnate soul chooses (in any sense) its own next incarnation.

Nor, as I mentioned in my previous post, do I subscribe to the notion that there is justice in the sense of punishment involved – punishment for sins committed in a previous life.

Is Karma then simply a matter of cause and effect? What goes around comes around? In any one life – in this life – if you smoke too much, you might get lung cancer. On the other hand, you might not. And someone who doesn’t smoke might. Reckless drivers can live to a ripe old age, while careful drivers are killed every day on the roads – often by those same reckless drivers, who themselves emerge unscathed.

And from life to life? If we were smokers or reckless drivers, there is no reason whatsoever to think we will suffer the consequences of that in a subsequent life. But if we did in fact die as a result of a car-crash or lung-cancer, we might very well be reincarnated with a fear of fast driving or an aversion to cigarette smoke.

In the same way that a fear, an aversion – even a full-blown phobia – might accompany us into a new life, so might guilt. And this is what might seem at first glance to be some form of justice or punishment. But we don’t suffer from guilt, in this life or a subsequent one, if we don’t feel guilty. A Hindu who eats some beef, even accidentally, may be consumed by guilt; may believe that he will be reborn as a cow – or as a pig or a dog. May in fact be reborn as a cow or a pig or a dog, I suppose. But I believe he would be much more likely to be reborn as a human with a horror of eating beef (or perhaps any meat) even if not now Hindu.

This is where we must decide what we mean by “sin” and the significance of a guilty conscience. Eating beef, for that Hindu and all those hundreds of millions like him, is a “sin”. We can all think of countless other examples deeds considered “sins” at various times in history and in different parts of the world today. “Sins” vary from culture to culture and even from era to era. Guilt, then, is subjective. What I might feel guilty about, you might not, and vice-versa.

Like Love, Guilt is personal, not universal, and feelings of guilt not subject to any “laws of nature”.

But is there anything that is always and everywhere considered a “sin”? Possibly everyone everywhere would consider matricide a sin. Note the way Orestes is pursued by the Furies after he kills his mother in revenge for her killing of his father.

Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Clytemnestra was murdered by Orestes and the Furies torment him for his crime

What I am getting at here is that while perpetrators of atrocities like genocide and human-trafficking might very well never suffer from a guilty conscience, and such monsters (in our view) as the torturers and heretic-burners of the medieval Inquisition and the present-day ISIS might sincerely believe they were/are doing the will of God/Allah, anyone at all who kills his own mother, for whatever reason, is bound to be condemned, not only by society but by his own conscience.

Guilt is only one aspect of Karma, one relatively minor part of the baggage we bring with us (see that bag the Fool is carrying?) when we step out once more into the unknown. (This is an archetypal image, and must be what John Bunyan had in mind when he gave Pilgrim that burden to bear on his pilgrimage through life.) In that bag, too, are Love and Hate along with traumas like the ones I mentioned earlier. But more of that, and of this whole subject, in other posts still to come.