Don't Be Afraid To Live!

Don't Be Afraid To Live!


by Madeline Montalban

Throughout the passage of centuries, many of the Tarot cards and their meanings have undergone so many changes and deletions that the true meaning of certain cards has become obscure. Take the Six of Swords, for instance. In prediction, it is said to mean "a voyage or the arrival of a traveler or messenger". If reversed, "a gain from an unexpected quarter".

But that is a very filleted meaning of the Six of Swords. If, like me, you have had your own Tarot pack made, the Six of Swords should carry the figure of a man passing over a river, while the swords thrown by enemies fall harmlessly around him. Students of occult ritual and practice who have "'Passed the River" will know how learning certain things, and becoming skilled in a certain other alphabet, opens up their own occult powers and helps them to make life better for themselves.

For those to whom the deeper teachings are unknown, here is an explanation of how the Six of Swords lost a lot of its mystery when the Tarot became nothing but a fortune-telling device. But before I go any further, I must tell correspondents that I cannot advise them where to obtain a pack of Tarot cards like those that illustrate this Paper. These are not made today, so you will have to make your own if you want one. Every keen Taroist should make his own pack.

To get back to the main point, let us analyze the mystery of the Six of Swords more closely. “A voyage, or the arrival of a traveler or messenger," says the divinatory aspect of the card, when it is upright; but in occult studies one "travels the path to arrive at wisdom"; or "when the pupil is ready the teacher cometh". That is the meaning of the inner symbolism of the Six of Swords. That is, if you have reached the stage in your mental and spiritual development where you can learn to use occult power or ancient rituals and get results. "There is an arrival of a messenger" who represents the teacher who "comes when the pupil is ready". This may not be an actual person; it could be some information, or even a letter, that puts you in the way of learning these things.

When I was a would-be student of magic and mystery, longing to learn, but not knowing where to start, my "messenger" came in the form of a letter inviting me to meet a certain person. Mind you, I had done all in my power to "open the temple door", by inquiring of anybody I thought might know anything about it. As a result, I received a lot of ill-informed but well meant advice about such things being dangerous. Also numerous pamphlets from organizations that dealt with other aspects of the occult. But not the one I wanted to learn, which was the ancient rituals and practice. In time, persistence won through, as it always does. The person I was invited to meet told me that if my horoscope indicated that I had the ability to learn, then I would be offered the opportunity, and so, I eventually "got in".

I am often asked why some people have the ability to make occult rituals work, while others, who may have had access to similar knowledge, cannot get them to operate. The answer isn't easy, but so many of you ask the question that I will try to give a simple explanation. It all depends upon whether or not you have a certain planet in your natal horoscope that is both "in its dignity" and also in significant aspects with certain others. I cannot go further into this here, as the explanation is too lengthy, but if you want to know if you possess inborn occult ability, and you will send me your correct birthdate and stamped addressed envelope, I will advise you.

Turning to the Six of Swords when in reverse, and dealing with the divinatory explanation "a gain from an unexpected quarter", we come to a most interesting explanation of the inner meaning of the card. According to ancient beliefs, there are times in our lives when the higher powers take a great interest in us, and do their best to make that interest known by dropping a windfall of good luck in our lap. This is the gain from an unexpected quarter, though "an unknown source" would be a better term for it.

Now, such strokes of good fortune happen to us all occasionally. We all get odd runs of luck, which result in our gaining something we have hoped or wished for. But most people just accept it as good luck and don't try to see behind it, or to fathom the cause why this particular thing should have happened to them (nobody ever questions good fortune, but only bad)! In some cases, the rewards are karmic; that is, we have earned the reward by something we have done in the past. Only a portion of our lives and experience, however, are devoted to the working of karma, so there must be times when things happen that are intended to awaken our higher perceptions. The trouble is, with most folks, they don't.

But anybody keen on trying to see behind the working of cause and effect must agree with this – that there are times in our lives when a good angel gives a helping hand, or brings some joy to us. The word angel signifies "of God", since the suffix "el" always refers to divine origins. So, when such unexpected gains occur, we have been brought a little nearer to the source of all good things – or we have reached a state of development when we have eyes to see and ears to hear – if we but use them.

Putting the whole arcana of the card together, we get "an impending traveler or messenger" plus "unexpected gain from an unknown source". We come out of the maze with the true meaning of the card: that when you are ready to know certain things, a messenger arrives, and the result can be "gain from an unexpected quarter". In my opinion, these are the times when you not only get nearer to beings higher than man, but they are signifying that it is time you did, as you have other things to learn besides just living.

We humans should be the masters of our fate, and not the victim of it. Those who put down every misery to karma are wrong. Some trials are karmic, but many others are self-induced, simply because we don't realize that there are benign powers that will help us to help ourselves, and because we make no real effort to understand the mystery of our own existence. The swords of enemies falling harmlessly around the figure crossing the river are emblematic of trials in life that could miss us, or pass us by, if we crossed the River of Knowledge and reached the shore of Understanding Effort.

The stepping-stones the figure treads are the many small events that lead up to realizing why we are alive; and what our purpose ought to be. Once we understand why we are here, that there is knowledge and power available for us all to help ourselves, we no longer fear life, but regard it as an adventure, the ship of destiny we can ourselves steer.

So many people are afraid to live. They fear the future, and yet they cannot be sure they will even have a future to worry about! We none of us really know that we shall live to see tomorrow, so worrying about the future is quite absurd. Worry never did anything but hinder us. Only by taking life into your own hands and shaping it the way you want it can you make the future nearer to your heart's desire.

Many people live dreary lives because they are afraid to make changes, to take chances, and to "cross the river" into new experiences and probably a better life. It is not the slightest bit of use to worry about the future. If you want to know your own future, then look at your past. We all tend to make the same errors over and over again until we learn how to prevent the causes that result in unhappy effects.

Years ago I received the best bit of advice I have ever had in my life. It was this. "Live one day at a time. It could be your last day on earth, so disregard the trials that may come tomorrow. Deal firmly with the troubles of today, so that those of the future will not arise."
[Prediction, May 1959]