This is Tarot News Volume Three, Number 28
July 20, 2003.

In this issue:

1. Review of The Gospel of Thomas
2. Tarot Dignities - Part One

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1. Review of "The Gospel of Thomas" translated
by Stevan Davies and edited by Andrew Harvey
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In 1945, twelve ancient books were found inside a
sealed jar at the base of an Egyptian cliff. One
of those texts was the Gospel of Thomas. It's a
book of aphorisms written during the First Century
which is attributed to the Apostle Thomas. It
raises one very important question: "Are the New
Testaments versions of Jesus' teachings accurate
or not?" The more scholars ponder this question,
the more their answer is: "No, the New Testament's
versions of what Jesus said are not accurate for
the most part."

The Gospel of Thomas is one of the most important
archeological finds of the Christian era. In my
opinion, it forms proof the Gnostics were right
and that's why the Roman Catholic Church ejected
them from the Church. What the Gospel of Thomas
says Jesus really taught isn't in the best interests of
an organized church and a dogmatic priesthood.
Paganism may be closer to true Christianity than
Roman Catholicism. Read my review at
http://TarotInstitute.com/reviews/thomas.htm

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2. Tarot Dignities - Part One
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The terms dignity and dignities refer to how cards
placed next to a given card affect the meaning of
that card. Dignity is the relationship between
two or more cards. Dignities may be neutral,
positive or neutral. This quality of neutral,
positive or negative is determined by the system
or type of dignities the reader uses.

We'll discuss several systems of determining
dignity. Elemental Dignity is determined by the
Element of the cards. Astrological Dignity is
determined by the planet assigned to the cards.
Numerological Dignity is determined by the
relationship of the numbers assigned to the cards.
Sequential Dignity is determined by the
relationship of the cards to a sequence of
numbers. Royal Dignity provides an interesting
way of handling court cards in a reading.

First, let's define what we mean by the qualities
of neutral, positive and negative. For our
purposes, neutral means the card in question is
not affected by the cards around it. The total
affect of all those cards is no effect. The card
in question is read using it's normal
interpretation. A positive quality means the card
in question is to be interpreted in a positive
light. Negative quality means the card in
question is to be interpreted in a negative light.

Let's say the card we're evaluating is the Ten of
Swords which means intellectually drained. If the
Ten of Swords is neutrally dignified, this meaning
doesn't change. If negatively dignified, it
indicates an intellectual disaster. If positive,
it may only be a temporary situation where the
client is intellectually drained but will recover
soon.

This is just an example. Rather than telling you
what positive and negative dignity mean for each
card, my intention is to give you a set of rules
so you may define the cards the way you want to
define them. Using dignities is a way of giving
three meanings to each card. The neutral meaning
is the meaning you've decided to give the card in
question. Using this definition as your as your
usual meaning for the card in question, come up
with a positive and negative meaning for the same
card.

Let's say the card you're evaluating is the Six of
Cups which means Happiness. If this card is
negatively dignified, it could mean Sadness or it
could mean neither happy nor sad, Neutral. If
positive it might mean Joy beyond description or
Very Happy. There's a whole range of possible
meanings. Each tarot reader needs to decide in
advance which meanings he or she will use for
neutral, positive and negative dignities. Answer
the question: How much positive, how much
negative?

Some tarot readers use dignities instead of using
reversed cards for this reason. Instead of two
possible meanings, the reader has three possible
interpretations anytime two or more cards are used
for a reading. In my own systems, I normally use
both reversals and dignities with my three, five,
ten and twelve card spreads. This gives me six
possible meanings for each card. When using one
card draws, using dignities isn't an option.

My suggestion is for you to learn to use one form
of dignity or reversals first and add more systems
later. My second suggestion is to always use the
same system with the same deck. This suggestion
is to have a different deck for each system and
not use the same deck with more than one system.
The rest of the suggestion is to learn one system
at a time. This is the second thing we needed to
discuss.

To use dignities you need to define each card
three ways: neutral, positive, negative. Or, you
need to devise a set of rules for knowing how
positive and how negative those dignities will
affect each card. You can do this before or after
you've decided what system of dignities you're
going to use.

Your homework, should you choose to try dignities,
is to choose a deck for the system you're going to
build and define each card with three meanings as
described. Next week we'll define Numerological
Dignities. In the meantime, have a great week.

Namaste,
John

Copyright 2003 by John Gilbert and the
TarotInstitute, all rights reserved. Tarot News
may be used by teachers to assist students in
learning tarot as long as the source is quoted
and students are taught how to access the Tarot
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