I’ve seen more than a few online requests for advice and spread suggestions about communication with disembodied entities (spirit guides, ancestors, angelic powers, etc). My personal belief is that our access to such beings is channeled through the Astral Plane, with the inherent risk of self-deception and the psychological peril that traveling the Lunar path entails. The assumption here is that astral spirits will take enough interest in – and hopefully not umbrage at – our poking around in their domain to express themselves willingly through the cards. As a long-time student of the Hermetic Qabalah with little affection for “pop mysticism,” I’m not enough of a “spirit guide” devotee to think that their cooperation is a foregone conclusion, or that their intentions will always be honorable.

Nevertheless, here is a spread that acknowledges the wisdom that can be had if we’re prepared to willingly face our own demons and then sift what we find with great care. It can be a very enlightening and cathartic experience when we’re ready for what might be encountered there and can bring it to bear on our personal self-awareness and self-development. (Modernists might equate it to “shadow work,” something with which I have only a passing acquaintance.) Israel Regardie once cautioned that such work shouldn’t be attempted unless one has undergone psychotherapy, but that seems a bit extreme for anyone who is used to exploring their own psyche with unflinching honesty. Assuming that ritual is our thing, the usual practices of grounding and warding would seem to be sufficient since the objective is to remain “tethered” to our physical reality.

To be honest, it could be said that every time we as tarot readers open ourselves to contact with the Collective Unconscious, we’re exposing our psychological underbellies to uncongenial or perhaps even malicious influences, we’re just keeping our heads down and trying not to attract attention. We’ve all heard the horror stories of Ouija board casualties and the mental damage caused by self-hypnosis among the more unbalanced followers of Norman Vincent Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking (something that practitioners of unchecked optimism such as the “Law of Attraction” would do well to investigate).