I am posting the What If theory here to give you an idea of the landscape of the cards as this theory is the inspiration for making the cards way back in 1993.
Some definitions:
Theory - MEANS it's just an idea, you can't prove it isn't what's true, so it can only be a Theory
What if - MEANS it's possible, not necessarily probable
Expansion - MEANS to enrich
THE ‘WHAT IF? THEORY
“Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and
endure mock funerals and mournful obituaries, and
there they stand looking out of the window, sound
and well, in some new strange disguise.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Selected Writings
Phase One:
What if an individual Soul or consciousness exists in wholeness next to other souls and consciousnesses.
Mine is different than yours but it lives in the same neighbourhood as yours. There we’re whole, yet un-manifested, we recognize each other’s energetic vibrations.
These existences [Beings[ are wholly functional on their own but are not yet manifested in a body of any kind.
Phase Two:
The Being, while whole and an entity to itself, is in some way discontented. The mutual agreement of doing something of itself is reached.
The Being [The Fool]
By itself the existence is whole, yet yearns for something new, we liken it to the Tarot Card O, The Fool, the Being.
In the Being's discontentment, the adventure begins and the first step on the wheel is taken.
The Being most likely does not know the whole range of consequences for this action, yet goes forth with excitement.
Phase Three:
In this decision to create comes the first step of manifestation and the first ritual. The Being inherently remembers or realizes how to create and begins doing so, perhaps a sudden shift in movement or by utilizing a sound vibration, like a song or humming or chanting, in this process.
As the existence begins to vibrate, it begins breaking apart into smaller facets. This causes a shock. Each facet is moving to manifestation at the same time but to different bodies, possibly on different planes of reality.
The wholeness is destroyed in the process.
This phase is the where the Being creates the incantation of “making and breaking apart,” or Multiplexing.
The Being feels great shock as it tears itself from itself. It is the first time the Being can “feel”---and is now feels terribly alone and isolated from the other facets and may wonder "What have I done?"
Phase Four:
The facets travel then to new bodies. It is probable that these facets do not all arrive to live at the same time, some may be so frightened that they do not manifest at all, returning to the essential whole source as soon as they can.
Each of the facets may have some vague memories of the creation ritual, but they really cannot access them fully. This must possibly happen so that the Being can focus on the life now being lived.
When asleep, however, the Being may be able to contact other facets of the whole existence. This may be why when in a body and asleep we dream of ourselves as other individuals (possibly in the “disguise” Emerson was referring to in his prose above).
There is in all human nature a deep feeling of wanting to go home, and back to centre or self.
The Greek goddess Hestia was the goddess of the hearth or the eternal home within. She had no temples erected to her for they understood that home and hearth are not a place of the material world, but of the internal home inside one's self.
At Phase Four the facets of the existence enter their corresponding physical forms at the moment the corporeal body draws its first breath.
The facets of the whole may exist in several bodies at one time---each new life has a particular set of circumstances, potentials, talents, trials and opportunities. Each focuses on one life each but ALL parts vibrate with the same essential vibration.
These vibratory rates are the possible signals of communication with each other. What if it were possible for one facet to "feel" when another facet is in a particularly stressful situation and respond by adding to that facet to give them the strength to deal with the stress?
Have you ever dreamed you were someone else going through a particularly difficult or stressful experience?
During this phase of the wheel of life, the Being grows and experiences the archetypes in the major arcana, encountering the High Priestess and its new "parents" The Empress and The Emperor.
The Ancestor [High Priestess] Nurses, Doctors, Priests, Grandparents archetypes
Our Lady of the Streets [Empress] Mother archetype
The Conductor [Emperor] Father archetype
As the Being travels through the major arcana, the experiences are represented by each of the card's images.
Phase Five:
At the death of the corporeal body, the final breath to be exact, the facet leaves the manifested body and begins travelling back to its whole.
Disincarnation [Death]
It makes its way back by the signal vibrations, relating to the below tarot image, Plane Jumping [the card formerly known as Judgement].
Phase Six:
Each facet makes its way back in its own time filled with the new information gained from the life experience. This return to home is reflected in the final card of the major arcana, Expansion [the Universe or World].
Phase Seven:
When all the facets are finally back together they share the information gained during their individual processes of incarnation just as in Phase One, the wholeness.
Once the process of sharing commences and then ends, the existence becomes discontented again, the existence is again The Being. Then at some future point the process of manifesting, of making and breaking apart, can begin again, completing the Wheel of life.
Thus, each existence is capable of having all possible circumstances, lives and potentials.
The awareness and understanding of the whole existence is therefore overall expanded by the cyclical breaking apart and coming back together.
Well, it's a theory...
Some Reading Material on the Subject of Reincarnation:
Head, Joseph &S.L. Cranston, “Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery”, Crown Publishing, New York, 1977
Thornton, Penny, “The Forces of Destiny”, Aquarian Press, London, 1990
_____________________________________________________________
Just as soon as I can I will post a card at a time, with the changes & its various interpretations and would LOVE your input!
I would really like to hear people's ideas, comments, etc. Please though, if you decide you're not keen on the ideas, please don't flame me. Debate & constructive comments, however, are most welcomed so please don't be shy!
