AUTHOR’S NOTE: “Empowerment” is one of the most common personal-growth buzzwords enlisted in the performance of divination. Nobody dares offer a prediction without at least mentioning it for fear of being branded a “fortune-teller.” We nearly do back-flips trying to erase any hint of predestination from our readings (you know the shtick: the future isn’t carved in stone, so dust off your free will).

I recently closed an essay with a paragraph on the current fixation of the self-help industry on the concept of manifestation. I believe it deserves its own essay.

“I’ve suspected that ‘manifestation’ is the next ‘flavor of the month’ in the self-help community, and a little sleuthing proved me right. It seems to have replaced attraction, mindfulness and “be-here-now” immediacy as the new super-power. The most interesting point I came across in my digging is that it relates to the ‘law of resonance, not the Law of Attraction (other entrepreneurs have already claimed that one). The Kybalion calls this the ‘Principle of Vibration’ through which we can attain self-mastery by attuning our cerebral frequency to a higher level of consciousness. It’s an act of alignment with the Universe in an ‘as above, so below’ manner. All we have to do is determine what this larger reality is offering that we want to make our own and then aspire to it via a focused effort of Will. We don’t just wish for it, we create it through mental conditioning and appropriate action to reap the benefit. Empowerment does us no good if we don’t seize the power.”

Seekers love to hear that the cards pulled for a reading will “empower” them to pursue the goal that brought them to consult the tarot. But it mustn’t stop at facile incitement because there is still work to be done. Empowerment is not a word that should be tossed around lightly since it doesn’t mean “entitlement.” I once misappropriated the legacy of Rene Descartes by noting that he didn’t say “Volo, ergo accipio” (“I want, therefore I receive”), or as the Everly Brothers once sang “Wishing won’t make it so.” The power must be wielded; otherwise, hyping it will amount to little more than pointless cheerleading. If it’s your objective, you may still attract that “soul-mate” but to turn raw potential into a promising actuality you will have to show him or her that you’re worth the time, and “actions speak louder than words.”

While the Cosmos has been described as a totality of the spiritual and the material, the exercise of personal power has its most telling impact on the latter. The enterprise may start out mystical but its completion will ideally be pragmatic. We can put ourselves in the proper frame of mind for success, but if we don’t follow through with the necessary degree of hands-on commitment we will have gained nothing but a “warm, fuzzy feeling” about the future. Then we will pay for another reading to find out what will happen next even though we failed to heed the advice of the previous one. I don’t mind, I’ll take the money.

I’m more interested in dispensing enlightenment than empowerment because I don’t believe that, without reinforcement, the symbolism in a pack of cards can impart the power of self-transformation no matter how cleverly we interpret it. Illumination, on the other hand, can instill in its recipients a vision of how they might manifest their own transcendence as long as they have the determination to carry it out. In that regard I hope to give them a “WYSIWYG” (“What You See Is What You Get”) epiphany that will convince them to seize the moment (and the momentum). You might find my essay “Carpe Momentum!” instructive in this regard.