Here's a fun interview I gave for someone's blog/article space.
Recently I was asked by the creators of Spirit Board (an iPod app that acts like the Ouija Board) to give an interview on their MySpace Blog. I can't provide you any links due to Keen policy, but here is the full interview and I hope you enjoy reading my answers as much as I enjoyed writing them down.
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Today, Spirit Board has the pleasure of meeting Darin, a truly caring Tarot reader who wants to help insure your growth and progress to a brighter future and avoidance of pitfalls.
As the proprietor of Thelemic Waves, Darin puts your future into your own hands. He follows the teachings of Thelema, as presented in Aleister Crowley's Book of the Law, which may be summarized thus: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will."
Spirit Board: Is the Tarot more psychic or psychological for you? Do you feel a mystic force guiding you in your readings?
Thelemic Waves: It’s
a mix of both really, and I’m glad you asked. I have the opinion that
many people “over-mystify” their readings, which perhaps can give the
impression of being so picturesque that it could apply to any situation
or person. I definitely take a strong psychological approach in my
interpretations of the cards – I like to think that my clients are
seeking a practical, do-able course of action for their future needs. I
am more likely to suggest to someone that their reading indicates it
would be a good thing to sit somewhere calmly, thinking about the
issues they’ve been through and how relaxed it is now that they’ve
found a quiet calm – instead of something about “meditation” or
“burning sage” to eliminate the “negative vibes” they might be sensing.
“Mystic
force” can have so many meanings to so many people. I do have contacts
that are “beyond this world,” and they do guide me from time to time,
but I’m striving more to enlarge my own intuition and my technique is
what I would call equal right brain and left brain in method. But
there are moments when the unexplainable seems to happen, and also,
there are times in a reading I will recognize the serious “mystery” of
my querent’s path.
SB: Are you self-taught as a Tarot reader, or were you mentored?
TW: Like
with the above answer, this one is going to have two answers. I was
mentored on how to be self-taught. The woman who gave me my first deck
of tarot gave me direct instructions on how, when, why and so forth for
readings. She also guided me to read as many things about tarot as I
could find (not to depend on them, but practice after reading books and
go back to books in order to grade myself on that). I was told not to
read for others until at least a year of reading for myself and
learning. I did readings on myself for a year under her guidance,
showing her my notes and journals – and then she became the first
person beside myself that I read for. After that, the direction our
relationship went was other than tarot – but contained the same
magickal language in a more active “doing” way.
SB: What drew you to Thelema, the philosophy defined by occultist Aleister Crowley?
TW: Like
many successful things in my life, it just sort of happened on its own
regardless of any plans I may have had. In fact, it was happening
before I knew it – much, again, like all the things I still do and hold
as successful.
The short story is that it began with some
books on loan from a friend, books Crowley wrote, that I read while
also going through my degree work in Blue Lodge Freemasonry. There was
a ton of it that I didn’t understand at the time – Crowley can be
rather abstruse and he uses references to topics or people that today’s
education usually falls short of teaching us about. Not to mention
that Crowley’s writings are madly self-referential.
What
ultimately led me to full-on acceptance of The Law of Thelema was a
combination of things. After my Blue Lodge and Temple work, I got
interested in the Golden Dawn works (which, as you may know, was were
Crowley got his first initiations). I was in a correspondence with
Chic Cicero when Chic suggested in a letter that I was moving beyond
what he had to offer and he lent Lon Milo Duquette my address. Lon
sent me a business card and I responded back – we had a few
conversations and letters when Lon, being very busy as he was with two
new books he wouldn’t tell me about in detail, recommended I look into
the OTO [SB: Ordo Templi Orientis] in order to further my
studies. At that time I was becoming supremely aware of all the
actions of my life and how it all had led to the place and time I was
in. You can call that a mystical experience. I was studying
psychology at the time (and anthropology) as “filler” in my roster so
as to maintain “full-time student” status for the grants. I realized
that these studies as mere filler to my business administration major
were indeed no accident. I switched majors.
SB: Crowley cautioned against dogmatism. How does your interpretation of Thelema for your own life depart from Crowley’s?
TW: That’s
not an easy question to answer. For one thing, I hardly have as much
knowledge and experience as Crowley. Certainly, I haven’t broken any
mountain climbing records like he did. Perhaps unlike Crowley, I’m a
little more lenient with the Christian mindset. If that’s where
someone is, that’s where someone is. It takes all kinds to make the
world go around.
Where I do tend to differ isn’t so much about
Crowley’s Thelema (if we call it that), as it might be that I differ
from how other people interpret Thelema. “Behold! the rituals of the
old time are black. Let the evil ones be cast away; let the good ones
be purged by the prophet! Then shall this Knowledge go aright.” That’s
a quote from The Book of the Law. Many Thelemites automatically take
that to mean that there is no value in so many of the rituals of the
Golden Dawn or Freemasonry (or other lodges). I disagree. And the
meaning of The Hanged Man tarot card didn’t change because of this,
only our perception of him changed. Sacrifice isn’t “evil” and
“black,” as some even renowned Thelemic Scholars might say, but instead
has been misunderstood by those who focus on the loss instead of the
progress made.
I do not sacrifice, I increase. Giving the last
shirt on my back to the homeless is a great defeat in my eyes, a defeat
of my own chances at staying safe and healthy and a defeat of what
little pride a person may have in themselves. Better I give what I can
and expect something in return, like a promise to go to work now that
he’s wearing something nice and clean. If a man wants to live in dirty
squalor, I say let him earn it as heartily as any man who wants to live
a life of bling.
SB: Have you had many querents who seek your guidance in getting through these difficult economic times?
TW: Things
aren’t as bad today as it may seem, and certainly not as bad as it
seemed shortly after President Bush addressed the nation on television
about the crisis. Yes, quite a number of clients have come to me
seeking to know how to best prepare for an uncertain financial future,
but I would hardly call it a majority.
This reminds me of a very
funny story Crowley had written about during his Paris Working period.
At the time, the man was a bit of pauper, living from day to day in a
small flat in Paris. For necessary money, he would rent a small room
in a parlor near his residence. He offered tarot readings for pay.
One day, he says, he was feeling a little surly and in walks a middle
aged woman who was not obviously without means. As soon as she passed
through the curtain leading into his chamber, Crowley says mysteriously
“ah, I see a lady and a man together, I see you, dear lady, I see you
have come for help with matters of love.” He never once pulled a card
or anything. The lady said “Uncanny!” and quickly left the room in
shivers without even seeing a tarot reading (but she did drop the money
on the table). Later, as he relates this story to Jane Wolfe, she asks
“how did you know that about the woman?” “I didn’t,” says Crowley,
“93% of all my readings are for women who want to chase or be chased by
some man. So I chased her out.”
SB: Have you tried other methods of divination, such as rune casting, palmistry, or the I Ching?
TW: Yes.
I use I Ching on occasion. I also use astrology to see my trends
ahead. I have another funny story, and this one is about runes.
When
I was dating my future wife (currently my ex), she taught me the
Futhark system. So I decided to make her a set of runes. I spent the
day hunting for just the perfect stones. After performing an
invocation of Loki [SB: Viking god of fire and mischief], I
found a wonderful pile of rocks and took them home. I painted the
Futhark runes on them. Before giving them to her, I tested them a
couple of times. I noticed that not only where these rune stones
giving divinations through the system, but tended toward also looking
exactly like English words. That’s Loki for you.
Anyway… when I
gave them to her, she was delighted and tossed the runes out while
asking her question. Her question was about our relationship, were
might it go and so forth. She poured the bag of stones on the carpet
and read the runes that fell face up. They were
Berkana+Isa+Raidho+Tiwaz+Hagalaz. The divination stated birth/growth +
either a standstill or inner reflection (within) + rhythms and movement
+ honorable sacrifice + loss of power or something destructive. She
didn’t like that, but the obvious thing was that she was giving birth.
Anyway, long story short, we got married and had a child together.
Okay,
it isn’t really that funny – but it was odd the way it worked also in
English. She ended up giving them back to me a few weeks later because
she couldn’t stand the way they kept using English words.
SB: Do you approach a phone or Internet reading differently from a face-to-face reading?
TW: Actually,
the approach is no different, although the fun I can have with readings
face-to-face is much more energizing to me. I get tired of typing, so
readings through my chat windows can be cumbersome. It isn’t the
approach from me as your reader that changes in those situations, it’s
the energy I get back in return that is different. So if anything, I
would say I have a preference for which I would approach but no change
in how I approach.
SB: Is it possible (or desirable) to read the Tarot without introducing your own wishes and feelings?
TW: It
is most desirable to read the Tarot without introducing your own wishes
and feelings about how the answers come. That isn’t to say that it is
easy by any means. This is why many Tarot readers have such difficulty
doing readings for themselves. But it boils down to not wanting to
involve your personal ego in the work of divination and trusting your
cards/intuitions to be accurate and honest. But it is, of course,
usually about your own personal desires/wishes and it is okay to have
those – just don’t expect it to always be easy to learn how to get them
fulfilled.
I read for myself very accurately. There have been a
few times when instead I have followed my own wishes and intentions
even contrary to the information provided by the reading, and I’ve paid
dearly for it. It’s like walking up a large mountain to ask a Lama for
some important information. Then if you don’t do what you learned,
you’ve pissed on the wisdom and surely it can and does piss back.
My
readings do not come with sugar added. If there is joy to be seen, it
will be there, but if not – I would rather help you around it or
through it instead of pretending for the sake of making you feel happy
in the now. But that’s more to do with how and why we are asking our
questions. I don’t want to read “what’s going to happen,” because
generally we can already assume the answer in a lot of cases and it
isn’t often good news – but when we ask “how do I make this happen,” we
are accepting the responsibility of the situation and we have to
already admit that it isn’t easy or we wouldn’t be asking. So I’m not
suggesting that we pretend we do not have personal preferences, only
that we do our best to remove our personal desires when it comes to
learning which path to take. It isn’t all roses.
SB: Do people generally have realistic expectations of the Tarot when they ask you to read their cards?
TW: I
think people generally do show realistic expectations. But then again,
I haven’t read for everyone. The clientele I attract tend toward the
educated and a good percentage of them are very familiar with Tarot and
do readings themselves. Like I said, many readers don’t feel very
confident about reading for themselves. But there is the occasional
person who does want the Tarot to give information not really suited
for that type of divination work.
Many questions you’d put to
Astrology you can put to Tarot – but if you want some timing
information, I’d recommend Astrology first then come back to the Tarot
and ask “is that truly a good opportunity?” If I were to locate a lost
object or buried treasure, I’d use geomancy instead of Tarot. And for
the most important life questions, those questions of the nature of
deep impact, deep philosophy and life changes, I’d go to the I Ching.
One
of my biggest hang-ups is when a client calls me, almost always brand
new to me, and they want to know about a particular person they are
interested in. Then they want to know about another person, but this
is one who either the first person we looked at might be interested in
or this person might be interested in that first person. Then a new
person is coming up that might have to do with that second person.
Then they might ask me to answer about this new third person, or fourth
persons and so on as if this information had any real value. There’s
nothing in that line of questioning that suggests you are looking to
create your own sense of personal power and happiness. In such a case,
I never doubt the accuracy of the cards. They are merely another facet
of the Universe, one of its many moving parts – and we are all
connected. But this goes so far from actual sympathetic range, and I
will become aware that I’m not able to pick up more than scant pieces
of information through my intuition. I tend to drive the reading back
to our center and try to educate the querent about personal power and
staying close to our own experiences in life.
There’s also the
quality of question that suggests that the querent is assuming what is
required to be happy. You’d be surprised. Just believing that being
wealthy will make you happy is a mistake. Money is not happiness. So in
that sense, I’d say that people do not generally seem to have too high
an expectation about Tarot readings, but too high an expectation that
they already know what is right and wrong in their lives and what will
fix it. I guess that reminds us of your last question about personal
desires.
SB: What reactions do you experience most frequently from querents after you’ve read their cards?
TW: Most
frequently I get “Wow, that made so much sense.” I’m not looking to
mystify my clients and I try to avoid future casting as being the main
point of a reading. Future casting is a fun parlor game and can be
accomplished with a great deal of success, and when I give party
readings one right after the other because everyone wants their turn, I
do shortcut to the forecast. But for an individual reading I will get
into the circumstance very deeply and involve past and present
information in a way that is designed to give the seeker the clarity
they need. Then we can discuss the future options available to them,
and let them decide which path is the preferred path. But my main
objective isn’t just to calm your heart by telling you a future you
desire. My objective is to get you to recognize what has brought your
current condition to you and what you can do to improve it.