Trusting and Receiving Inner Guidance

“Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up
enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
–Samuel Ullman

Making the time and effort to have a meaningful conversation with God is really about your desire to actively transform and expand your own awareness and deepen your connection with something more meaningful. Divination tools such as pendulums, numerology, astrology, bones, ruins etc., and have been used for thousands of years to help people understand the meaning of life and the world around them. Divination tools can help you focus your awareness, help you learn more about your self and the world around you, and put you in conscious contact with your own intuitive wisdom and a universal source of intelligence. So, the tarot is just one of the many tools available to increase your understanding and self-knowledge. Although the tarot was originally rooted in occult tradition, interest in tools like the tarot has evolved, changed and expanded in the past few decades to include a wide variety of spiritual and religious perspectives.

Of course, you don’t need to use divination tools (pendulums, numerology, astrology, bones, ruins etc.) to help you to communicate with God. However, these tools can help some people before they take the most powerful step of communicating directly with God.

But what if it is difficult for you to believe in using such tools for inner guidance?
The best thing to do in this situation is to suspend your doubt temporarily in order to give yourself the opportunity to try something new. Continue to focus your mind’s attention on the affirmation imagery and repeat the words. Following your breath can also help you stay focused.

How do you know when you are receiving inner guidance?
You may see visions, or hear or feel something. Sometimes as you go about the day, a new understanding will come to the forefront of your mind, or perhaps you will suddenly realize you know something new or you will have one of those “a-ha” moments.

You can become more aware of inner guidance through diligent and prolonged spiritual practice. There are many options, depending on your spiritual or religious background, such as active ritual, contemplative prayer, intensive meditation, shamanic voyage and many more. Additionally, there are many helpful communication tools, like these affirmation cards, which can be a fun part of your understanding of yourself and God.

The Wisdom Cards and Archetypal Imagery – What is an Archetype?
The illustrated archetypal imagery for the 22 wisdom cards was chosen to illuminate the teachings of each affirmation. Archetypes are powerful because they speak to you through both your body and mind in the form of dreams, visions, stories, art, music, metaphors and myths. Archetypes are the symbolic building blocks of a language understood and shared by people throughout history.

Carl Jung believed human beings were born hardwired with these archetypal patterns of meaning and this made people unique in their ability to reflect upon themselves. He believed archetypal thinking was an evolutionary leap in human development since thinking had developed into more than problem solving for survival. Thinking can actually recreate itself in an endless upward spiral of new understandings, meanings and expanding awareness!

Archetypal images will hopefully inspire and interest you to take a closer look into the invisible realms of energy, light and space. Archetypes teach that what is invisible is much more powerful and mysterious than what is visible.

How Archetypes Work
Archetypal imagery functions in your mind as a bridge between your own awareness and the collective awareness of the global human family. A more metaphorical way of understanding archetypes is to think of them as the roots of a tree. The roots are where all people have a shared meaning, purpose and understanding. The branches are people’s cultural and personal beliefs and values.

Every culture has a unique perspective on what is significantly valuable and meaningful for their societies; however, people around the world all share similarities of meaning and value when given a much larger context in which to describe experiences.

The Importance of Our Shared Archetypal Language
Because of the enormous challenges and conflicts facing contemporary people around the world, we must collectively return to the source of our knowledge, rediscovering the universal archetypal language we all share in order to survive. One of the most important adventures of our lifetime and humanity’s greatest challenge isn’t the exploration of outer space, but rather the exploration of inner space.

You can become more fluent in archetypal communication and become more aware of archetypes and their deeper meanings by interpreting your dreams, stories, music and art, and by creating a sacred space for internal contemplation. Paying attention to and understanding archetypes can give you the opportunity to learn a language which can put you in direct dialogue with God. Seeing and then understanding the bigger picture through archetypal imagery is a good place for you to start creating solutions for yourself and others.

About the Major Arcana Cards of the Tarot
The tarot is one of the many tools available to increase your self-knowledge. The Major Arcana cards of the tarot are the first 22 cards of a traditional 78-card deck. The Major Arcana cards are very special because they contain deep and complex archetypal meaning. Like dreams, visions, stories, music and myths, the Major Arcana cards bring together the visual power of archetypal imagery.

They are given added weight during a traditional tarot reading. In the Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess set, the spiritual guidebook and wisdom cards work together with you to tap into your intuitive wisdom. You bring your personality, personal beliefs and values to the experience.
In this set, each Major Arcana card symbolizes some universal aspect of the human experience as you grow in awareness towards self-knowledge and spiritual development. The 22 cards represent the major archetypal patterns of human psychological growth, whether they occur within one snapshot of your life or your whole lifetime. Since your life may be experienced as life lessons in no particular sequence, each card represents a piece of the puzzle and the possibility of more knowledge and understanding no matter what your path to God is.

ABOUT AUTHOR AND ARTIST PAMELA WELLS
Pamela Wells has been working as an artist for over 20 years and specializes in creative work that leads to greater understanding and awareness. Her goddess art incorporates her interest in the study of transpersonal psychology, integral transformative spiritual practice and the evolution of human consciousness. She cares deeply about both men and women and also about the ecological preservation of the planet which benefits all living things. To order a copy of Pamela’s most recent book and card set, Affirmations for the Everyday Goddess, www.ArtmagicPublishing.com.