CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Volume 6 | Issue 6 Article 1

2018 Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Avetisian, Elizabeth

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons, Cognition and Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Other Life Sciences Commons, Other Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons, Philosophy Commons, Psychiatry and Psychology Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons, and the Commons

Recommended Citation Avetisian, Elizabeth (2018) "Tasseography From Jung's Perspective," CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century: Vol. 6 : Iss. 6 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Newsletters at Digital Commons @ CIIS. It has been accepted for inclusion in CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ CIIS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography

Elizabeth Avetisian California Institute of Integral Studies

Abstract: Approaching from Jung’s perspective this paper aims to understand how the unconscious communicates through symbolism that may be the basis for synchronicity arising from mantic procedures. A particular ritual of called tasseography will be studied whereby the seer interprets patterns in grounds intuitively and by following a standard system of symbolism to foretell the seeker’s future life events or provide answers to seeker’s pressing life ques- tions. The paper will examine various processes involved in the experience of tasseography and its ritual that enable the reader to predict the seeker’s future or bring light to the present or past situation with powerful insight. Ultimately, this paper aims to understand the symbolic connection in mantic procedures between the seer’s precognition of events—grounded in the seer’s interpretation of the images arising during the divination ritual—and the seeker’s actual life events.

Keywords: Consciousness, , nonduality, nondual consciousness

Tasseography Cup

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552

Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 1 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

Tasseography is an ancient divination method there is another factor in nature which presents to predict future by reading patterns in the itself through the arrangement of events as coffee grounds (as well as leaves or wine meaning. The phenomenon in which coincid- sediments). The images are interpreted by a ing events have the same meaning to the expe- reader (seer or diviner) intuitively guided by a riencer he called synchronicity. As seekers standard system of symbolism which also often report to the seers that the includes visual clues associated with the pat- materialized or confirm that the interpretations tern’s appearance in the cup, such as place- were meaningful and accurate, such syn- ment (near the brim, left/right of the handle, chronous events may be possible to study in on the bottom, etc.), color (light vs dark), den- the tasseography system to gain greater in- sity (think or thin), and pattern grouping (what sights into the inner workings of synchronicity patterns appear near the image). Tasseography that lie at the heart of precognition. is an imaginative instrument that provides random images at the time of the inquiry for a Divination System particular seeker, placing the diviner as a me- diator to connect the seeker’s inner and outer Divination is a structured inquiry through a worlds (Karcher, 1998). Querents (seekers) practice of established ritual, traditionally in often report having had their cups read and conjunction with a symbolic system such as future predicted with astonishing accuracy. , cards, or gazing into a crystal How do the images speak to the diviner and ball, to obtain knowledge about past, present, interpreted in such a way that is meaningful to or future, either from sources within oneself, the seeker? How do the reader-intuits connect or from a diviner, usually to some practical with the querent’s inner and outer world as end such as to make decisions, address anxi- they interpret the seemingly random patterns eties, doubts, and concerns, and have assur- of coffee sediments imprinted in the cup that ance over the unknown (Guo, 2012; Kripal, may catalyze unforeseen events in the seeker’s 2014; Metzner, 2017). All divination methods life? involve a process that includes a specific in- Parapsychological processes like divina- quiry or questions about a life situation by the tion that involve precognition, telepathy, and seeker (intention), use of techniques or tools are viewed in the mechanistic par- to obtain sign(s), and a mediator to connect adigm in light of their probabilities rather than the sign(s) to the particular inquiry or ques- their meaningfulness, Combs and Holland tions through an interpretation (Guo, 2012). (2001) suggested in their book Synchronicity. While many ancient and shamanic divination These events challenge the conventional no- ceremonies involved rhythmic drumming, tions of time and causality, according to which chanting, or use of entheogenic plants to in- connection between cause and effect within duce expanded states of consciousness (Met- the linear time is necessary (Combs & zner, 2017), in psychospiritual Holland, 2001; Jung, 2010). Thus, such events such as tasseography the source of wisdom or are acausal and therefore, are considered coin- insight is accessed directly through a struc- cidences. Yet Jung (2010) believed that be- tured, intuitive inquiry process. The seeker’s sides the connection between cause and effect intention or personal question guides the di-

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 2 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 2 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

viner’s attention and perception through an to guide important political and social deci- intuitive symbol system in the context of the sions, rendering highly important and ritual whereby enactment of centering medita- effective tools. He noted that although cu- tion (or focusing) facilitates the transcending neiform texts from ancient Mesopotamian of space-time boundaries (Metzner, 2017), cultures show that the diviners spent many leading to greater insight otherwise unavail- years learning the highly sophisticated art of able outside the divination system. Any type divination and took up oaths, and that their of ritual, according to Kripal (2014), involving achievements and skills were highly regarded, what he called correspondence between an they also document diviners’ inability “to deal internal or subjective state (psychic) and an with all contingences of life within their external or objective event (physical) with an hermeneutic framework” (pg. 364), as well as intention of influencing or controlling the express doubts about individual diviners’ com- latter does not work through conventional petence and reliability. Yet, according to causation and therefore is considered . Maul’s research, no literary sources challenge In magic physical events have psychic causes, the fundamental efficacy of divination. More- defying the causal thinking which tries to un- over, they show that different divination pro- derstand how physical events have a causal cedures yielded the same conclusions or com- effect upon psychological events but not the plementary insights, enabling the seekers to other way around (see Von Franz, 1980). refine the answers obtained through one pro- Every magic involves symbolism, visualiza- cedure with another, or have signs obtained tion, and concentration, as well as a ritual from one source examined together with an- according to the certified Tarot Grandmaster other for more comprehensive insight (Maul, Donald Michael Kraig (2003). 2007).

Ancient religious cultures considered fate and Furthermore, historical records from premod- future as something that can be intuited and ern China, according to Guo (2012), indicate thereby influenced or avoided, therefore such existence of official professional diviners and “repeated symbolic behavior” (pg. 116) was regulations related to their profession. Such central to their existence (Kripal, 2014). Maul regulations, she explained, described the prop- (2007) wrote that in ancient Babylonian theis- er ritual of divinatory practice and stated who tic cosmology everything was an expression could practice divination, how they should be of the divine, creative will manifesting itself trained, and the degree of the mastery of per- in the material world, and nothing happened forming divination as measured by the per- by chance, which led to the conclusions about centage of accurate performances among the the divine plans for the future on the basis of total number done. In Tibetan culture, Combs exact observations of the changes in the - and Holland (2001) wrote, "the career of a rial world. Thus, divination was viewed as a professional diviner was a somewhat insecure warning of what was to come rather than an way of supporting one's self and one's family. attempt to predict the future, in order to fur- Anyone whose prophecies were not confirmed ther or prevent it by specific action before it by events would quickly lose his reputation, could materialize. Maul explained that divine and his trade would suffer accordingly" (pg. guidance was sought by the rulers to find omi- 151). These findings show that divination nous signs of the future in the present, as well techniques were learned, and accuracy was as in the past that may have been overlooked, objectively measured. Approaching divination

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.3 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 3 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

with integrity and an attitude of respect, rever- a fragment of reality—while divination is ence, and trust was a critical factor in obtain- sought once to obtain psychological probabili- ing meaningful results, so was the cultivation ty on “the whole outer, inner, present, and of a spiritual attitude in the enactment of the future psychological situation” (pg. 52) or the ritual (Combs & Holland, 2001; Metzner, n.d.; “psycho-physical reality” which sporadically Skafte, 2000). Additionally, the following manifests in the coinciding event (pg. 98). three-tiered belief in the efficacy of magic in societies supported the functioning of the div- Kripal (2014) stated that independent of the ination system: 1) the diviner’s belief in his or divination technique, the images are read as her own techniques, 2) the seeker’s belief in signs of the divine guiding the person toward the diviner’s “power,” and 3) the belief system particular actions or potential future. The div- of the social environment in which the rela- ination process, he suggested, lies not in the tionship between the seeker and the seer was particular image seen or sensed by the diviner expressed (Guo, 2012). but in the relationship between the image and the diviner in the context of the divination Divination Technique ritual, so the random or chaotic images be- come meaningful symbols once they are en- At the heart of all divination methods is the gaged in as such by the diviner and process of asking a question and obtaining an interpreted. From this standpoint, tasseogra- answer, much like in a scientific experiment, phy can be defined as a method of divination in fact, the more specific the divinatory ques- that involves reading or interpreting patterns tion, the more specific the answer is likely to in a coffee cup by the seer who engages with be received (Metzner, 2017). In that respect random images to intuit or interpret their Metzner proposed that divination is an empiri- meanings with respect to the seeker’s life situ- cal procedure in which intuitive knowledge is ation. Thus, tasseography is a type of intuitive tested and confirmed by experience, and much divination based on an immediate context like scientific knowledge obtained through interpreted intuitively by the diviner (Guo, direct observations and ordinary sense percep- 2012), not unlike other active methods of div- tion can be unreliable or incorrect, so can be ination, such as or Tarot, in which the knowledge gathered through intuitive percep- random tosses of the yarrow stalks or the ran- tion. Divination uses different and comple- dom layout of cards, respectively, “provide an mentary approach to modern scientific experi- opportunity for a pattern to emerge that re- ment in that if the latter eliminates chance flects a much vaster pattern of events” (Combs event based on its low probability and unre- & Holland, 2001, pg. 153). Such divination peatability, considering it a boundary condi- systems viewed each pattern of events emerg- tion, divination is based on that very unique ing at the moment of observation as holo- objective chance event, taking its existence as graphic, rising from a larger matrix and simul- self-evident, and making it its source of infor- taneously containing the whole within it, mation and center of reflection (Jung, 2010; therefore the divination message was believed Von Franz, 1980). Von Franz (1980) explained to contain all the answers needed (Skafte, that scientific experiment acquires accuracy 2000). These pattern of events “express a and precision by repetition to eliminate common form and meaning in both human chance—and perhaps in doing so eliminating consciousness and in the physical

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 4 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 4 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

world” (Combs & Holland, 2001, pg. 69) and flows in its direction creating a corre- reflect the coincidences that mirror deep psy- sponding lowering of mental energy chological processes. Hence divination, from elsewhere, and this condition enables the psy- Jung’s perspective, rests on coincidences of choid level of the mind to make connections outward manifestation of a physical process with the external world which manifest in and an inner psychological process that have synchronistic events (Combs & Holland, shared meaning (Combs & Holland, 2001; 2001). Basing her inquiries on Jung’s theory, Von Franz, 1980). Jung (2010) called such Von Franz (1980), a Jungian psychologist and meaningful coincidence of a psychic state and a colleague of Jung, postulated that divination a physical state that have no causal relation- methods catalyze one’s own unconscious ship to one another “acausal orderedness” (pg. k n o w l e d g e a n d b r i n g i t t o o n e ’s 100). In tasseography it manifests in the coin- consciousness. She likened divination tech- cidence of the psychic state in the seer with an niques based on chaotic patterns, such as external future event corresponding to that tasseography, to the famous Rorschach inkblot psychic content that can be verified by the test (Rorschach, 1948) in which staring at seeker once it has taken place. Jung (2010) disordered chaotic images confuses one’s con- called such events not available to the seer’s scious mind lowering its psychic energy, field of perception yet predicted or anticipated thereby enabling the unconscious imagination by the seer such that they can be verified after- to unfold itself. The conscious mind gets ob- wards, synchronistic. Viewed from the acausal scured trying to make sense of the chaotic perspective, the past, present, and future patterns—whether one looks into coffee events coexist in each moment of reading and grounds, tea leaves, a crystal, a bowl of water, can only be perceived through signs or within or any such random images—and this moment the semiotic framework (Semetski, 2006; of bewilderment invokes one’s intuition from Skafte, 2000). the unconscious (Von Franz, 1980). Intuition, Combs and Holland (2001) explained, is a Archetypes as Basis for Synchronicity type of knowledge that imparts “an exquisite feeling for certain situations” (pg. 139) and “can involve a sense of contact with a more Jung believed that human connection with the surefooted but ironically ineffable reality from spiritual realm occurs at the level of the deep- which one perceives and acts with a precision er psyche, and therefore he hypothesized that and confidence completely unwarranted by the synchronicities are rooted in the unconscious explicit facts of the situation” (pg. 46). Jung activity (Combs & Holland, 2001). The un- (1993) described intuition as a perception by conscious mind is the realm of creative in- way of the unconscious through which any sights and (Metzner, 2017). Com- content is presented as a whole without the pared to the conscious mind, it is impercepti- implicit knowledge of how that content has ble, or what Jung (2010) called psychoid, and been conceived, hence intuitive cognition has communicates with the conscious mind “an intrinsic character of certainty and convic- through dreams and imagination symbolically tion” (pg. 329). or with symbolic imagery (Johnson, 1989; Semetsky, 2013). Jung (1993) posited that inactivity of the conscious mind generally Thus tassography, like Tarot and I Ching, is a produces activity of the unconscious. When divination method of structuring intuitive the unconscious mind is stimulated, psychic knowledge (Metzner, 2017). Following Jun- Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.5 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 5 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

gian logic, the chaotic patterns formed by This would suggest that the intuitive interpre- coffee granules in the cup confuse the con- tations in tasseography arise by way of ex- scious mind upon focusing, thereby enabling tracting information from the objective psyche the seer to project her unconscious knowledge beneath the layer of the personal unconscious into the images by way of imagination and and are filtered through the diviners’ own psy- interpret the seeker’s psychic situation with che. For example, Von Franz (1980) had ob- powerful insight. The unconscious then takes served when she had palm or horoscope read- over and expresses itself through the imagina- ings that, while imparting accurate informa- tion using the symbolic language of the signs tion, each diviner or medium was only getting or semiotic communication (Semetsky, 2013; the aspects of her personality that were similar Von Franz, 1980). The process of imagination to those of the diviner. She suggested that the is similar to dreaming in which the conscious diviners “get within the area of another’s psy- takes a break momentarily, and the doorway to chic constellation that is akin to theirs. All are the unconscious opens, revealing knowledge true, but all are only partial…We can only about one’s inner and outer situation often not answer to those facets of another personality available in the conscious mind (Von Franz, w h e n w e h a v e a c e r t a i n a m o u n t 1980), including “the future things that are ourselves” (pg. 42). Likewise, when the divin- taking shape and will sometime come to con- er is not in the clear state of mind and body sciousness” (Jung, 1993, pg. 70). This abso- she is generally not able to read accurately. lute knowledge or fore-knowledge, as Jung Von Franz (1980) explained that this “failure” (2010) called it, of the unconscious is not a is generally a projection of the diviner’s per- cognition but a “perceiving” and consists of sonal problem which obscures the other’s “subjectless” images (pg. 78) contained in the problem. This could explain why the tasseog- deeper structure of the unconscious which raphers, as well as Tarot readers, often cannot Jung called the collective unconscious or ob- read or have been traditionally discouraged to jective psyche since its content is not specific perform their own readings, because the ener- to the individual psyche. The contents of the gy of this projection blocks their imagination collective psyche, called the archetypes, are or intuition, as well as could affect their objec- universal images or themes reflecting inherit- tivity (Combs & Holland, 2001; Von Franz, ed patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behav- 1980). It is easier to provide reading for anoth- iors common to all humans which exert force er person, because one can stay more neutral upon the personal conscious. Jung believed when one’s thoughts about one’s own life or that “the archetype is essentially an uncon- anxiety about personal outcomes do not inter- scious content that is altered by becoming cept the reading process, thereby enabling the conscious and by being perceived, and it takes person to read with more clarity and less bias its color from the individual consciousness in (Metzner, 2017; Von Franz, 1980). During which it happens to appear” (pg. 361). Jung group divinations in primitive societies where (1993) wrote: “The archetype is spirit or pseu- everything was shared in what Von Franz do spirit: what it ultimately proves to be de- (1980) called the “fate community” of collec- pends on the attitude of the human mind” (pg. tive problems and concerns, the diviners natu- 97). Thus, how one interprets a symbol or a rally tapped into the group unconscious. This sign, according to Jung (1993), depends upon condition, she proposed, created enormous one’s attitude of the consciousness or what psychic energy and tension, enabling the di- Jung termed “symbolical attitude” (pg. 345). viner to pull out information from the group Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 6 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 6 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

unconscious related to the group situation 54), hence divination is likely to provide rather than relating to her own personal issues. meaningful answers when archetypes have Strong emotions are believed to “electrify,” been awakened. “zap,” or “magnetize” imagination (Kripal, 2014, pg. 251), enabling what is seen or imag- In the similar vein, Jung (2010) believed that ined to be experienced as more real and true. emotionality is a key factor in the effective- Such “empowered imagination” (pg. 245) can ness of mantic procedures as “by touching an catalyze synchronistic events. unconscious aptitude they stimulate interest, curiosity, expectation, hope, and fear, and Oracles in general, according to Von Franz consequently evoke a corresponding prepon- (1980), were consulted when one had a press- derance of the unconscious” (pg. 65). For ex- ing question, was in impasse or in an emotion- ample, Jung noticed that emotional factor ally difficult situation and was concerned with played in J. B. Rhine’s parapsychological ex- a particular problem—in other words when a periments conducted at the Duke University in person was in a state of psychological tension, 1930s as the first experiments that created which Jung believed occurs when archetypes excitement and interest produced the best re- are constellated in the unconscious psyche. sults and quickly fell out as they got boring. According to Jung (2010) “affectivity rests to When a new interest for the subject was a large extent on the instincts whose formal aroused, the results improved again, hence the aspect is the archetype” (pg. 24). Jung (1993) intensity of interest I s a “psychological cata- explained that archetypes have specific ener- lyst” for the synchronistic coincidences getic charge, and their activation produces (Combs & Holland, 2001, pg. 77). Moreover, numinous effects which he described as “spiri- Jung (2010) suggested that “enthusiasm, posi- tual,” even “magical” (pg. 95). This “mystical tive expectation, hope, and belief in the possi- ” (Jung, 1993, pg. 96) of numinosity, ac- bility of ESP…seem to be the real conditions cording to Jung (2010), expresses itself in the which determine whether there are going to be form of emotions, the intensity of which, any results at all” (pg. 18). Thus, the energy of while illuminating a particular content in the positive attitude and interest both the diviner consciousness, withdraws energy from the and the seeker bring to the divination ritual are rest, restricting consciousness and enabling crucial to productive outcome. Yet coinciding the unconscious to manifest itself. Combs and phenomena, while related experimentally and Holland (2001) likewise noted that paranormal meaningfully, cannot be explained scientifical- phenomena such as telepathy, precognition, ly as a phenomenon of energy, so from Jung’s and synchronicity tend to manifest when ratio- (2010) perspective, synchronicity itself be- nal consciousness is reduced to a minimum as comes a hypothetical factor of causality un- in dream state, trance states, and during in- derstood as “a psychically conditioned relativ- tense emotional states. For example, during ity of space and time” (pg. 19). This factor serious situations marked by high dynamic becomes possible when the psyche observes tension significant or archetypal dreams sug- itself, that is when it is engaged in imaginative gesting possible solutions or advance path one activity. Thus, in Rhine’s card-guessing ESP would never have conceived are likely to oc- experiments Jung had observed that the sub- cur (Jung, 2010; Von Franz, 1980). Thus, the ject’s answer was not the result of the sub- archetype is believed to be “a factor of psy- ject’s observing the physical cards but was a chological probability” (Von Franz, 1980, pg. product of pure imagination which reveals the

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.7 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 7 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

structure of the unconscious that produces they are symbolic expressions of the uncon- them, and more specifically, the formal factors scious psyche projected on to the conscious in the unconscious psyche, the archetypes mind by mirroring the processes of nature. (Jung, 2010). Numerous meaningful coinci- Thus, all the motifs humans use to assign dences in his own and his patients’ life over meaning to their experiences, all important the course of years that he could not explain as ideas or views have historical antecedents and chance concurrence lead Jung (2010) to the are all founded on primordial archetypical conviction that synchronicities have ar- forms. Archetypes are imperceptible until they chetypical foundations, at the root of which is appear as active personalities in dreams and affectivity or emotionality. Elaborating Jung’s fantasies during significant life experiences theory of synchronicity Combs and Holland (Jung, 1993) and express themselves by means (2001) explained that the activation of an ar- of symbolic communication. In addition to the chetype releases huge power creating a primordial personalities such as the archetype buildup of energy in the unconscious psyche. of the Mother, Wise Man, Hero, Trickster, and The energy overflows, triggering a coinciding the Self, Jung has also identified archetypes of event linked to the unconscious process which transformation which are typical situations, activated the archetype. They wrote: “The places, or ways that symbolize transforma- activation of an archetype releases patterning tions. Like personalities, archetypes of trans- forces that can restructure events both in the formation are also genuine symbols, and like psyche and in the external world. This restruc- all symbols not only can have multiple mean- turing proceeds in an acausal fashion, operat- ings and references, but also can be paradoxi- ing outside the laws of causality” (pg. 74). cal in nature, representing both good and bad, light and dark, positive and negative, which Symbols at the Heart of the Divination Sys- makes their unilateral interpretation nearly tem impossible (Jung, 1993). Karcher (1998) wrote that a symbol “is both a psychic image and an attitude towards images” (pg. 230); it is Jung (1993) believed that humans have the an active entity that represents something, innate need to map the outer sense experiences revealing greater meaning than the image it- to their inner psychic world, thereby creating self, therefore in divination different meanings myths which are the symbolic expressions of are invoked when the symbol is presented as the outer events and as such, are psychic phe- an answer to a question posed. Likewise, nomena which reveal the nature of the human Semetski (2013) explained that “a sign, by soul. Jung posited that “[unconscious] psyche definition, is essentially a relational entity that contains all the images that have ever given indicates something other than itself which is rise to myths” (pg. 363) and “these images not immediately apparent. It needs mediation have become embedded in a comprehensive between itself and its own other in the inter- system of thought that ascribes an order to the pretive process” (pg. 4). Jung (1993) noted world” (pg. 365). He suggested that all the that a symbol “signifies something different mythologized processes of nature such as the and still greater, something therefore which is seasons, trees, the sun, the stars, phases of the withheld from present knowledge” (pg. 354). moon, animals, rivers, and their interactions do not arise from the conscious psyche that captures these objective experiences, rather

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 8 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 8 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

All divination methods therefore are based on latter, as well as a dynamical interpretant for interpretation and rely on the irrational func- the subject of a reading” (pg. 57). Thus, a syn- tions of consciousness, sensation and intuition, chronistic connection between the collective to formulate the inner unconscious knowledge unconscious and an individual mind through corresponding to the current state of the con- semiotic relation enable the reader’s insight scious mind (Kripal, 2014; Metzner, 2017), into the meaning of a current problematic situ- thereby imbuing symbols with meaning. Sym- ation reflected in the layout (Semetski, 2013). bol has the power to link the visible and the Tasseography works with the same principle, invisible when one interacts with it, changing except that unlike Tarot, in which the ar- one’s awareness (Karcher, 1998). What chetypal images delineate the potential field of emerges from this interaction depends on each meanings for the underlying symbolic pro- seer’s imagination and the semiotic relation- cesses represented in the pictorial layout ship with the images that lead to meaningful (Semetski, 2013), tasseography is an imagina- interpretations of those specific patterns for a tive instrument that provides entirely random particular seeker in that moment in time, shap- images at the time of the inquiry for a particu- ing the psychological probability Von Franz lar seeker (Karcher, 1998), leaving it entirely (1980) spoke of. Reading and interpreting, to the diviner’s creative imagination to Semetski (2013) wrote, enables the seer to “[bring] pattern and process to chaos” (Hollis, “empathically relate to something essentially 2008, pg. 7) and thereby delineate the seeker’s other but nevertheless potentially understand- current crisis using the language of the images able, knowable and, ultimately, known” (pg. (Karcher, 1998). The diviner must disseminate 4), charging the symbols with energy. Thus, from random, chaotic patterns the images that images no longer remain mere patterns; they speak to her imagination at the time of the become enriched when they relate to an object reading, the formative motifs of which she within the context in which they materialized recognizes instinctively and intuitively from and perform a specific function by “[pointing] her own experiences, as well as from the fa- to some real event in the present, past, or po- miliar themes from dreams, fantasies, fairy tential future that may have left its traces in tales, and cultural myths. In other words, the the collective unconscious” (Semetski, 2013, diviner relates to the archetypal symbols pg. 51). which Jung (1993) was convinced represented “the essential content of all mythologies and In Tarot reading, for example, a form of div- all religions” (pg. 97), and she does so by ac- ination based upon the interpretation of the tively engaging the images in her imagination pictorial text expressed in the layout of cards, to create meaning. Jung (1993) called this the archetypal images in Tarot pictures sym- formative process of turning the raw image bolize typical human experiences and events into a living entity of the symbol the transcen- embedded in the collective unconscious dent function. It involves active imagination to (Semetski, 2013). Tarot layout, interpreted reconcile the tensions between the uncon- according to the purpose of a reading, repre- scious and the conscious thereby empowering sents a particular situation embodied in the the symbol with the union of the two psyches. specific pattern of pictures that gives it its Through the symbolic powers such archetypal meaning, “[mediating] between one’s con- imagination “links us to superordinate scious mind and the collective unconscious, reality” (Hollis, 2008, pg. 15). thus serving as a logical interpretant of the

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.9 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 9 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

Active Imagination in Divination and unconscious influences resulting in a “spontaneous amplification o f t h e Karcher (1998) wrote that divination connects archetypes” (pg. 95) vs a reduction of con- people with the divine through irrational scious material to the archetypal images which means of symbols to reveal what is hidden. are unimaginable until amplified (Jung, 1993). This connection between the spirit and human Human imagination, Kripal (2014) wrote, has worlds in divination, he posited, is made by the “apparent capacity to inform, influence, or engaging with the symbols in complex imagi- even ‘project’ (like a film projector) material native ways which empowers the symbols and or quasimaterial events” (pg. 245), thus what facilitates communication with the spirit comes from the empowered imagination is the through the language of the symbol. Symbols imaginal (Kripal, 2014). Semetski (2013) con- are images and pictures that represent highly cluded that “synthetic method thus reflects the complex human issues and usually have dif- future-oriented path to knowledge, the memo- ferent meanings for each person, such as in ry of the future, or what Jung called a prospec- dreams, for example, where the same image tive function of the unconscious” (pg. 52). could have different meaning for different Thus, active imagination amplifies the dreamers (Krippner, Bogzaran, & De Carval- tasseography images much like it does the ho, 2002). To interpret or make sense of their Tarot pictures, turning the image into some- dream and its symbolism in the context of thing other than itself and giving it a new their inner and outer life, dreamers are encour- meaning (Semetski, 2013). aged to consciously interact with each dream image in their imagination and develop a As Jung (1993) had his patients engage in theme through associations and creative fanta- active imagination with their dream images sy (Johnson, 1989; Jung, 1993). Johnson over the course of time he observed that (1989) elaborated it this way: “It consists of “these chaotic assortment of images” (pg. 92) going to the images that rise up in one’s imag- represented well-defined themes, elements, ination and making a dialogue with them. It and qualities that repeated themselves in anal- involves an encounter with the images” (pg. ogous forms with different individuals, their 24). He explained that this process of what various configurations reflecting known Jung termed active imagination is a dialogue mythological motifs. While the abstract fea- that one enters into with the different parts of tures of the images were conscious (good/bad, oneself that exist in one’s unconscious to re- light/dark, quaternity, circle, etc.), their psy- veal information and insights that are radically chological meaning was not conscious and different from those in the conscious mind. It was a product of “spontaneous manifestation is not passive fantasy which is simply “energy of an unconscious process” (Jung, 1993, pg. appearing in consciousness in the form of 91) resulting from the process of active imagi- images or contents” (pg. 314), rather it in- nation. These experiences lead Jung to the v o l v e s “ a c t i v e p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n conviction that “there are certain collective consciousness” (pg. 312) to bring conscious unconscious conditions which act as regula- attitude to the unconscious associations, there- tors and stimulators of creative fantasy activi- by associating them with parallel elements ty and call forth corresponding formulations (Jung, 1993). In that sense active imagination by availing themselves of the existing con- is an organic synthesis of conscious material scious material” (pg. 94). Thus, while con-

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 10 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 10 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

sciously interacting with the image, the person the setting represents the external simultaneously experiences the inner psychic environment, which includes the physical and entity or the archetype the image symbolizes social context of the experience, including the which arises spontaneously out of the uncon- attitudes and intentions of those who provide, scious to appear in the person’s imagination initiate, or support the experience (Metzner, (Johnson, 1989). And this spontaneous effect 2017). From his extensive psychedelic re- empowers the symbol by taking it beyond the search at the Harvard University Ralph Met- symbolical attitude of the observing con- zner has deduced that the content of the psy- sciousness to ascribe it deeper value (Jung, chedelic experience is largely a function of set 1993). Such “archetypal imagination which, and setting—the ritual that is—than of actual through the agencies of symbol and metaphor drug effects. The drug itself simply triggers and in its constitutive power of imaging, not the altered state of consciousness (ASC) in only creates the world and renders it meaning- which certain qualities of sense ful but may also be a paradigm of the work of are amplified. Based on his heuristic model of divinity” (Hollis, 2008, pg. 7). Active imagi- ASC a trigger propels the individual from nation enables the diviner to convert the invis- normal state of consciousness to ASC in ible content of the unconscious into dynamic which set (internal environment) and setting images that are perceptible to the conscious (external environment) bring about alterations mind, thereby bridging the physical and the in thinking, attitude, emotions, sensations, spiritual worlds (Hollis, 2008; Johnson, 1989) and/or perceptions of space/time and self/ to bring transformative insight into the seek- other, resulting in interpretation (what), evalu- er’s inner and outer situation. ation (good/bad), and behavior changes (Met- zner, 2017). Metzner explained that besides Ritual in the Divination System the normal cyclical variations of brain chem- istry that catalyze ASC between wakefulness and sleeping, there could be a whole spectrum Active imagination is initiated through con- of altered states from mild and more familiar sciously performed symbolic acts of a ritual to extreme and anomalous, triggered by vari- which activates the archetypal energy in the ous agents from psychedelics, hypnosis, and image by enabling flow of communication meditative practices, to music, nature, sex, and between the unconscious and the conscious other ordinary activities, each such state creat- structures of the mind, thereby opening access ing perception of different ranges and levels of to the inner world of the individual (Johnson, reality (Metzner, 2017). Kripal (2014) wrote 1989). Ritual is a repeated symbolic behavior that ritual techniques that lead consciousness that has order and meaning (Kripal, 2014), into deeper states of concentration through the more specifically, “ritual is the purposive, action of focusing could create altered state of conscious arrangement of time, space, and mind and energy which can lead to the mani- action, according to specific intentions” (ital- festation of genuine paranormal powers such ics in the original, Metzner, n.d./n.p.). In other as precognition and even materialization of words, ritual is a conscious arrangement of set physical events. Active imagination requires a (question) and setting (context) that deter- meditative state to gain access to the vast in- mines the contents (thoughts, images, feelings, ner world of living symbols (Hollis, 2008). sensations) of one’s experience, where set This suggests that actively focusing on the represents all the internal factors such as ex- random images during the tasseography ritual pectation, intention, mood, and attitude; and Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.11 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 11 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

guided by specific intention likely leads the this transpersonal space/state could reveal diviner to a temporary mild meditative state. greater insight to both participants. Noting again Metzner’s (2017) assertion, in- dependent of the type of method used in div- The Imaginal Realm of Liminality ination system set and setting determine the experience, while the ritual tools or technique Engaging images in this embodied, transper- catalyze a mild altered state in which specific sonal state/time opens the gateway to the inquiry obtained prior to entering any such space between the conscious mind and the trancelike state guides access to inner guid- unconscious (Herman, 2015), enabling intu- ance. With this understanding, the chaotic itive knowledge to pass through the now per- images emerging in the tasseography ritual meable border of the conscious mind (Combs could be viewed as the divination tools that & Holland, 2001). This threshold, or so called catalyze a mild altered state of consciousness liminal space, is the common ground of the in the diviner, enabling her to relate the abso- imaginal realm where the barrier separating lute knowledge of her unconscious to the ego from the unconscious is dissolved, dis- seeker’s inquiry. tancing the diviner from external associations, and a genuine communication between the In his dream work with clients, Johnson two psychological structures is initiated (Her- (1989) encouraged people to engage in a con- man, 2015; Johnson, 1989; Stein, 1983; scious, focused activity in honor of a particu- Thomassen, 2009). larly meaningful dream, because this con- scious activity with intention, in his view, is a Liminality is the term used by the Belgian ritual that registers with the unconscious and ethnographer Arnold van Gennep to name the generates connection between the inner world second stage of a rite of passage ritual marked of the dream and the outer physical world, by transition from one sociocultural state or thereby facilitating synchronous future events status to another, such as childhood to maturi- that link both worlds together (Johnson, ty or virginity to marriage, in which the sub- 1989). In his book Inner Work Johnson ex- jects of ritual fall into a state of ambiguity plained that when the symbols are felt with the between their past and present modes of daily body and mind, the understanding of the inner existence (Turner, 1979). This threshold is world deepens, thus engaging in rituals can crossed and recrossed between sleep and reveal “where the inner world and the physical awakening, and in the in-between state such as world meet and where they reflect each other during deep (Stein, 1983). Ac- as they move in parallel fields of energy” (pg. cording to Stein, midlife transitions are also 107). In group divination ceremonies aware- marked by psychological liminality which ness is amplified through the synergy among awakens the deep unconscious. Stein, who the participants (Metzner, 2017). When the described archetypal aspects of the midlife seer actively interacts with the images during transition and of the experience of liminality the symbolic ritual with concentration and within it in his book In Midlife, noted that specific intention, in the presence of the seek- transitional periods in life are characterized by er who carries the energy of that intention, his the presence and the role of the archetypal or her awareness is naturally amplified, and unconscious. Cultural anthropologist Victor Turner (1979) who spent a considerable part

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 12 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 12 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

of his career studying rituals wrote: “Liminali- tive potential which can channel human action ty is full of potency and potentiality. It may in the direction of specific goals and desires also be full of experiment and play. There may (Turner, 1974). Liminality is a transpersonal be a play of ideas, a play of words, a play of space/state in which the “visceral sense of the symbols, a play of metaphors” (pg. 466). whole situation” felt in the body implicitly Thomassen (2009), discussing the intellectual beneath consciousness, which Gendlin called history of the concept of liminality in his pa- a felt sense or “a sense of meaning that is felt per, stated that liminal experiences have a in the body,” becomes explicit (Gendlin & temporal dimension from a) single moments Hendricks-Gendlin, 2015, pg. 248-249). Jung triggered by sudden events, b) periods related (2010) too concurred that intuitive techniques to critical life changes, or c) epochs that could are methods “for grasping a situation as a last a life span. He noted that liminality can whole and thus placing the details against the also be experienced at different degrees de- cosmic background” (pg. 35). pending on the intensiveness of the liminal moments or “on the extent to which the limi- State of Mindfulness in the Divination nal experience can be weighed against persist- ing structures” (pg. 18), from subtle, to obvi- Metzner (2017) asserted that the insights ob- ous, to profound spiritual. Based on this clas- tained through the divination ritual are not sification and the general understanding of the simply visions of the future but guidance for tasseography system it could be deduced that a an individual’s behavior in probable future state of liminality of a momentary temporal situations much like business forecasts seek to dimension and a subtle scale of intensity is anticipate future trends and economic condi- “artificially” produced in a diviner or is trig- tions, except divination ritual involves leaving gered by the ritual technique as the diviner the limited every-day time-space framework engages with the chaotic images with her of perception and entering an expanded state imagination. Thomassen (2009) described of consciousness in which one disconnects liminal moments as a state of being in which from the time-space dimensions of consensus there is no certainty concerning the outcome, waking-state reality. Expanded not in the rather it is a realm of contingency where sense of seeing what’s not present, Metzner events and ideas, and “reality” itself, can be explained, but having heightened perception carried in different directions (pg. 5) based on of what is there through multiple mental, the “dramatic tying together of thought and imaginal, or emotional associations that are experience” (pg. 14). Turner explicated limi- being evoked, dependent on the perceiver’s nality as “a realm of pure possibility whence intentions and personality. Mindfulness and novel configurations of ideas and relations concentration practices and visionary experi- may arise” (quoted in Thomassen, 2009, pg. ences, according to him, expand conscious- 23). Thus, liminality is the in-between period ness into the “higher” realms, enabling people (Thomassen, 2009) or the “betwixt-and-be- to consciously perceive the subtler dimensions t w e e n , a n e i t h e r - t h i s - n o r - t h a t of reality. Metzner explained that in normal domain” (Turner, 1974, pg. 71) where “inner waking state, perception is focused on the ground shifts, and because the base is not firm sense objects of the external world, and the a person can be easily influenced” (Stein, inner sensations, feelings, and thoughts are 1983, pg. 9). In such state of fluidity imagina- held mostly in the background. In the relaxed, tion charges the symbol’s creative or innova- meditative state, on the other hand, the inner Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.13 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 13 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

world becomes the foreground of attention, sense of time (Metzner, 2017). In Csikszent- and external sense objects become mihalyi’s own words, “We experience it as a background. In dream state, for example, unified flowing from one moment to the next, when the outer world is nearly closed out, the in which we feel in control of our actions, and figural focus is on visual imagery, and emo- in which there is little distinction between self tions, and other aspects of the inner sensory and environment; between stimulus and re- system are in the background (Metzner, 2017). sponse; or between past, present, and future To illustrate this point Metzner quoted novel- (quoted in Turner, 1974). ist and philosopher Aldous Huxley in his book Ecology of Consciousness: “There is a kind of In Summary, tasseography enables the diviner ‘reducing valve’…that functions to keep our to interact with the images it provides, or the awareness focused on the ordinary realities we way German philosopher Martin Heideggar need to survive, but when this reducing valve would describe, encounter the images with is deactivated, so to speak, we can have access totality of involvement that requires no think- to a vastly greater mind-at-large” (Chapter 9). ing such that the diviner gains, in Heidegger’s In hypnotic states, for example, the gradual terms, circumspective knowledge or inner withdrawal of perception from the details of awareness of how the symbols fit within the the current time-space environment and the outer world they appear (Horrigan-Kelly, Mil- increasing focus or concentration of the sub- lar, & Dowling, 2016; Johnson, 2000), thereby ject results in the increasing degrees of discon- illuminating the seeker’s past, present, and nect from the ordinary perception of time- future situation with unprecedented insight. space reality (Metzner, 2017). This knowledge stems from the diviner’s intu- ition or instinctive apprehension rooted in the The thoughts and feelings of the ordi- depths of the unconscious awaiting to be dis- nary personality are still there, but not charged by the intensity of the psychic energy presently in the foreground of aware- oriented toward it (Jung, 1993) and has the ness. You are still in the functional capacity to potentiate synchronistic events. state of time-space reality awareness, Jung believed that consciousness cannot exist but there is an effortless, natural flow- by its own energies alone but needs to be in ing of thoughts, images, feelings, and what he called compensatory relation with the movements—for example, with a paint unconscious which supports the conscious brush or with a musical instrument. situations with unconscious subliminal materi- (Metzner, 2017, n.p.) al through imagination and synchronicity, thereby bridging the world of the mind with The Hungarian psychologist Mihaly the world of matter (Combs & Holland, 2001; Csikszentmihalyi refers to such absorptive yet Jung, 1993). active states as flow in which one is fully im- mersed in the task at hand and is in complete Discussion control of one’s actions without any distract- ing thoughts or perceptions (Metzner, 2017; Tasseography ritual incorporates the triad of a Turner, 1974). It is characterized by effortless seer, a seeker, and images found in a cup concentration without distractions, clear inten- which are random and meaningless until inter- tion and commitment to goals, centering of preted symbolically. The ritual starts with a attention and awareness, and distortion of ceremony of traditional method of brewing, Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 14 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 14 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

pouring the concoction into a designated cup, excerpt from the personal interviews with slowly sipping, appropriately turning the cup, (non-professional) seers illustrates how the and waiting patiently for coffee granules to seers described their own flow experience: dry. It implicitly has a meditative quality as it invites two people to slow down to enjoy a ….First, I take the cup, then right away cup of coffee together, seated side by side I focus on the cup….and all my con- immersed in the ritual, while having a leisure- nections from other things break total- ly conversation that none the less does not ly….my ties to the world disconnect, include direct personal inquiries yet is medita- as though automatically….It [insight] tive and relational in nature. This highly ritu- comes and I say. By coming I mean it alized symbolic process inherently invites the comes into my mind….I feel it, it starts seeker to contemplate his or her own life situ- from here [center of the chest at the ation and pressing questions, and the seer to heart chakra]. It comes up to my tune in to the seeker’s inner state and as well mouth and on my tongue….and en- as to his or her own, organically leading both ables me to start speaking. I don’t push people to a state of embodied mindfulness my mind….When I feel from my heart much like in meditative states. Combs and what I must say, that thing comes to Holland (2001) noted that in meditative states, my mouth and on my tongue as a word according to the transpersonal theorist Ken and I describe what I see…. Wilber, archetypal illuminations and intuitions occur due to expanded consciousness leading ….I become quiet to see what’s going to the activity of archetypes which Jung be- on, maybe to collect myself…Then lieved are at the root of synchronicity. after silence, I start to see things. Maybe [silence] allows me to recon- In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal nect with myself, with my intuition? Experience Csikszentmihalyi (1990) posited Maybe it does something that I am not that “when the information that keeps coming aware of. I don’t think I can start read- into awareness is congruent with goals, psy- ing right away. I need this silence to chic energy flows effortlessly” (pg. 39). By regroup and prepare myself. Maybe psychic energy he means the energy of atten- that’s the inner thing that happens in- tion and how this energy is invested which side me, I don’t feel it, but that silence determines what will appear in the conscious- allows me to be able to read…. (Ap- ness. In a ritual the attention is centered on the pendix) limited stimulus field (Turner, 1975)—the cup with its patterns for example—and the person This flowing state of “centering attention becomes entirely absorbed in the process of on a limited stimulus field” (Turner, 1974, pg. reading, being driven by a specific goal or 87) is a transient moment of liminality in intention. This total involvement becomes an which the external world is suspended, the autotelic experience, a self-contained activity diviner’s ego is relaxed (Hollis, 2008), and her for the sake of its own intrinsic rewards (Csik- conscious mind is subdued by the chaotic im- szentmihalyi, 1990). The diviner is immersed ages, enabling her to cross the bridge to her in the flow and is in control of the environ- unconscious psyche into the numinous world ment and her moment-to-moment actions of the archetypes, thereby gaining “epistemic which follow an internal logic. The following access” (Semetski, 2013, pg. 55) to the abso-

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.15 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 15 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

lute knowledge of the unconscious. The divin- rigid habits of which we are likely unaware. er engages the symbols in her imagination to Nonetheless, they function as real, effective, unearth the unconscious insight by mediation and affective archetypal forces even if staying of symbolism grounded in the cup. The semi- out of one’s conscious awareness” (Semetsky, otic relation, Semetsky (2013) explained, es- 2013, pg. 47). tablished by means of a synchronistic connec- Thoughts are believed to influence exter- tion between the collective unconscious and nal realities if they are played repeatedly. an individual mind, enables deeper insight into Combs and Holland (2001) suggested that, the meaning of the seeker’s current problemat- while every thought does not materialize, “the ic situation. In Turner’s (1974) words: effectiveness of the thought in bringing about an actuality increases…with the number of Even when the symbolic is the inverse times it is thought, as well as with the number of the pragmatic reality, it remains inti- of people who think it” (pg. 33). It is conceiv- mately in touch with it, affects and is able that a future event, or the object of the affected by it, provides the positive thought, materializes because the thought is figure with its negative ground, there- played over and over in the seeker’s, as well by delimiting each, and winning for as the seer’s, mind. Not everything predicted ‘cosmos’ a new territory. (pg. 56) in divination materializes after all. Perhaps only those thoughts that play repeatedly in the Johnson (1989) explained that active seeker’s mind, like a mantra—thoughts imagination to express an inner situation charged with emotion or energy—materialize through a specific ritual activates the uncon- and not others that the seeker dismisses as scious and often generates a great charge of irrelevant, unimportant, or undesirable. The constructive energy in the outer world, shap- emotionally charged thoughts have the capaci- ing external circumstances. “The unconscious ty to activate the archetypes rooted in those connects us to other people and to our entire thoughts, thereby creating synchronistic environment; therefore, when we focus a great events that link the unconscious thoughts with deal of energy within the inner world, a paral- the actual events which the seeker interprets lel energy often arises in the people or situa- as meaningful. Thus, precognition in tasseog- tions around us,” he wrote (pg. 105). Active raphy may be viewed as a type of synchronici- imagination enlivens and empowers the sym- ty grounded in a phenomenon “in which a bols such that the symbol becomes “sediment- thought is followed by the concrete appear- ed into bodymind; it becomes habituated, it ance of the object of the thought” (Combs & becomes part of individual or cultural prac- Holland, 2001, pp. 33-34). tices” (quoted in Semetski, pg. 47). Johnson (1989) posited that “if we do something to Examining the semiotic system in Tarot express the symbol—something that involves Semetski (2006) asserted that “all past, our bodies and our emotions—the symbol present, and future events coexist and appear becomes a living reality for us. It etches itself to be 'frozen in their locations in space and indelibly on our consciousness” (pg. 103) and time'” (pg. 100), and in divination systems this thereby permeates into our thoughts. These a-temporal time is projected in the symbolic thoughts are played in both the seer’s and the map provided by the divination tools. Of seeker’s minds, and hence “may sink deep course, Jung had posited much earlier that the into the unconscious and become fixed and collective unconscious possesses the fore- Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 16 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 16 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

knowledge of past, present, and future events event, according to Von Franz. The memory of not yet available to the consciousness. Divina- the actual event experienced by the seeker in tion technique enables the diviner to gain ac- the future might be “retrofitted” in the seek- cess to the absolute knowledge of the uncon- er’s psyche with the earlier divination insight scious, bringing this insight to his or her or somehow made fit with the qualitative field awareness. According to Jung (2010), “there is by way of interpretation, suggesting that syn- in the unconscious something like an a priori chronicity by its nature is grounded in knowledge or an ‘immediacy’ of events which hermeneutics. Thus, as Von Franz (1980) had lacks any causal basis” (pg. 31). It may be postulated, the absolute knowledge of the possible too, similar to the quantum physicist deeper layers of the unconscious psyche can Erwin Schrodinger's cat experiment, that at contain only a possible or psycho- the time of the divination ritual both possibili- logical probability. ties exist—the prediction actualizing and the prediction not actualizing—until one possibili- As Combs and Holland (2001) elaborated, ty manifests. Thus, the potential of the two much like symbols whose meaning is subject futures might exist in suspended state until to varied interpretations, synchronistic events one is actualized by influencing the mind in are symbolic as well, hence they cannot be the present (Combs & Holland, 2001). Future, reduced beyond the symbolic expression they according to Karcher (1998), represents a spe- represent, therefore the symbolic meaning of a cial metaphysical order of being and is tradi- particular synchronistic event, while tionally understood as that which is in the insightful, still remains a mystery and is numi- process of manifesting itself yet is hidden at nous. “Such numinosity indicates the source the threshold of the present. This understand- of both symbols and synchronicity in the ing, he explained, contains one’s inner world depths of the chthonic underworld” (Combs & of desires, emotions, and thoughts, toward Holland, 2001, pg. 100)—the mysterious un- manifesting one’s future. The divination sym- conscious. While the kind of material the un- bol becomes the bridge between the present conscious contains has been largely deter- and the future by mapping one’s inner world mined, the unconscious content as a whole into this order, thereby enabling the actualiza- cannot be measured, thus the question Jung tion of the potential. (1993) posed during his time: “What is the furthest limit of a subliminal sense Conclusion perception?” (Jung, 1993, pg. 355) remains unanswered. How do we know exactly what is While the seekers often confirm post reading contained in the depths of our psyche at any the accuracy of the interpretations or physical- given time to which our consciousness is ly experience the presentiments revealed in oblivious? Are coincidences mere happen- readings, oracles at large use general symbolic stance or interpretation? Combs and Holland’s picture that can be interpreted multiple differ- (2001) conclusion captures this paradox: “No ent ways, rendering the predicting of the fu- amount of arguing will finally settle the ques- ture events with absolute accuracy nearly im- tion of whether all coincidences amount to possible (Von Franz, 1980). Divination meth- nothing more than mere happenstance. The ods may be offering expectation in the specific real issue is how one chooses, or has learned, area of reality and the qualitative field (good/ to interpret the experience of a sometimes bad luck, illness, success, etc.) of the possible indefinite reality” (pg. 159). In the diviner’s

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.17 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 17 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

own words: “I remind myself that it’s just a interpretive phenomenological re- cup….Nobody knows exactly what’s going on search. International Journal of Quali- except for the Higher Power….But I am [read- tative Methods, 15(1), 1-8. https:// ing] because it’s coming to me, maybe not doi.org/10.1177/1609406916680634 100%. Who am I to tell somebody’s Johnson, P. A. (2000). On Heidegger. future?” (Appendix). The more we zoom in to Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing the depths of the human psyche with further Company. research, the more we might be able to explain the precise mechanism driving precognition Johnson, R. (1989). Inner Work: Using dreams rooted in the divination techniques such as and active imagination for personal tasseography. growth. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. References Combs, A., & Holland, M. (2001). Syn- Jung, C. G. (1993). The Basic Writings of C. chronicity: Science, myth, and the trick- G. Jung. New York, NY: The Modern ster. New York, NY: Marlowe. Library.

Gendlin, E. T., & Hendricks-Gendlin, M. N. Jung, C. G. (2010). Synchronicity: An acausal (2015). The bodily “felt sense” as a connecting principle. (From Vol. 8 of ground for body psychotherapies. In G. the collected works of C.G. Jung). Marlock, H. Weiss, C. Young, & M. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Soth (Eds.). The handbook of body psy- Press. chotherapy and somatic psychology (pp. 248-254). Karcher, S. (1998). Divination, synchronicity, and fate. Journal of Religion and Guo, J. (2012). Divination. In R. L. Nadeau Health, 37(3), 215-228. https://doi.org/ (Ed.). The Wiley-Blackwell companion 10.1023/A:1022933905607 to Chinese religions (pp. 419-440). https://doi.org/ Kripal, J. J. (2014). Comparing religions. 10.1002/9781444361995.ch19 West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Herman, L. (2015). Transpersonal space/time Sons. through the arts. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 34(1-2), Krippner, S., Bogzaran, F., & De Carvalho, A. 111-123. https://doi.org/10.24972/ P. (2002). Extraordinary dreams and ijts.2015.34.1-2.111 how to work with them. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Hollis, J. (2008). The archetypal imagination (Vol. 8). College Station, TX: Texas Maul, S. M. (2007). Divination culture and the A&M. handling of the future. In Gwendolyn Leick (Ed.). The Babylonian World Horrigan-Kelly, M., Millar, M., & Dowling, (pp. 361-372). M. (2016). Understanding the key Metzner, R. (n.d.). Varieties of ritual involving tenets of Heidegger’s philosophy for states of consciousness. Retrieved

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 18 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 18 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

from https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/ 4dc2ad_21d46- Stein, M. (1983). In Midlife: A Jungian per- dae096d463d970a5fe094fddc63.pdf spective. Dallas, TX: Spring Publica- tions. Metzner, R. (2017). Ecology of consciousness: The alchemy of personal, collective, Thomassen, B. (2009). The uses and meanings and planetary transformation. of liminality. International Political Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publica- Anthropology, 2(1), 5-27. tions. Turner, V. (1974). Liminal to liminoid, in play, Rorschach, H. (1948). Psychodiagnostik, Psy- flow, and ritual: an essay in compara- chodiagnostics: Tafehn-plates. Berne, tive symbology. Rice Institute Pam- Switzerland: Verlag Hans Huber. phlet-Rice University Studies, 60(3), 53-92. Semetsky, I. (2006). The language of signs: Semiosis and the memories of the fu- Turner, V. (1979). Frame, flow and reflection: ture. Sophia, 45(1), 95-116. https:// Ritual and drama as public doi.org/10.1007/BF02782449 liminality. Japanese Journal of Reli- gious Studies, 6(4), 465-499. https:// Semetsky, I. (2013). The Edusemiotics of im- doi.org/10.18874/ ages: Essays on the art∼ science of jjrs.6.4.1979.465-499 Tarot (Vol. 55). Rotterdam, Nether- lands: Sense Publishers. https:// Von Franz, M. L. (1980). On divination and doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6209-055-2 synchronicity: The psychology of meaningful chance (Vol. 3). Toronto, Skafte, D. (2000). When oracles speak: Un- Canada: Inner City Books. derstanding the signs & symbols all around us. Wheaton, IL: The Theo- sophical Publishing House. existence, like there is a person here; I feel her warmth…And my ties to the world Appendix disconnect, as though automatically I focus in this direction [inside of the cup]. Then I look Summary of Personal Interviews, at the design in the cup, the patterns in the February, 2017 cup...The first thing that comes up is the per- son’s current [situation], like, whether she is Reader 1: (female, age 59) depressed or uncomfortable or happy, at this moment if she is feeling normal or First, I take the cup, then right away I focus on differently…Then other things come little by the cup. I don’t push myself; I just focus and little…I don’t try to make up something. It all my connections from other things break comes and I say. By coming I mean it comes totally. When I read somebody’s cup, whether into my mind; I don’t push myself to say I know [the seeker] or not, I feel very close to something specific….I feel it, it starts from her. I feel like she is a part of me…I feel her here [center of her chest at the heart chakra]. It

Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.19 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 19 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

comes up to my mouth and on my have an unfortunate experience, that they are tongue….That’s how I can describe it. I feel going to get angry or be heart broken—since that my heart is the closest to what I’m able to we are talking about the heart symbol. And say. It comes from this part [the center of her that’s how I relate….I feel it here [heart chest]. I feel it…and rises to my mouth and chakra]. If there is going to be happiness, I enables me to start speaking. I don’t push my feel lighter; this momentary emotion makes mind….When I feel from my heart what I me feel more comfortable, lighter, and must say, that thing comes to my mouth and joyful….When I am in a very bad mood and on my tongue as a word and I describe what I my mind is clogged, then I don’t have focus. see…..[What I say] depends on the patterns The focus is on my own problem and I am not inside the cup. For example, I look at the pat- able to read a cup. So, when I feel down, when terns surrounding the heart [pattern in the I have serious personal problems, I am unable cup]—what’s above it, below it, what’s on to focus. Nothing comes to me. I must put either side. In another person’s cup that heart down the cup. I will still see the symbols but I may be surrounded by different patterns. can’t say anything….It’s as if I become When I pick up a cup and look inside and see speechless, everything shuts down and a heart, I don’t see it as just a heart. I must say closes…. I can’t say anything—nothing! I what’s related to this heart, the other patterns can’t even try….just like something gets around it. I relate [the symbol] to somebody’s frozen inside me…At that moment if I have current situation. For example, if I see that serious problems or have a thousand things in heart in the darkness and I can feel that the my mind, and somebody expects me to say person is not happy, maybe there is an unfor- things, I can’t say anything….It feels as tunate accident, or a broken heart, or some- though my heart gets frozen. And if I feel that thing like that, and that’s what I see and something good is going to happen to some- relate….[or] I may feel good because I may one, there is no pain, no pressure in my feel something positive…relating to a love heart….It doesn’t matter who it is, I feel the story or something that’s going to happen…If person’s energy next to me and I feel close to I feel down, I feel like pressure coming down them at that moment. I feel closer to their on my heart; I may feel that something is go- mind. Occasionally I may feel what’s crossing ing to bother the person relating to the symbol, their mind….For example, someone who heart or anything. Maybe the person is not might be very anxious, I feel their energy that going to have a positive experience related to they are anxious over something, some love or relationship….For example, when I subject, and they want to know about what see a cross, I know right away that this partic- makes them anxious. And someone who might ular person wants something, maybe they are be very calm and have nothing pressing, no in some sort of trouble and they are praying particular anxiety over an issue or situation. spiritually. And I feel that this person is in And that’s ok with me too. But the person some kind of a need. That this person is reach- who’s anxious, I feel that their anxiousness ing out to God, or Temple or some sort of forces me to dig deeper to say it accurately spiritual place….When it’s positive, I feel because they are eager to know about some- lightness, my shoulders, my nerves and such thing. That this is not just a reading out of fun feel much lighter. I am filled with light and but they need to know something about what’s joy. But when I feel heaviness, when pressure going on….I don’t talk or ask questions. I comes to me, I feel that the person is going to don’t want to ask any questions. I don’t want Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 20 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 20 : Tasseography From Jung's Perspective Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

their words to get mixed up with my reading. I down….I see different patterns in each cup. want to say something directly and then they It’s not just a sun, a moon. I must feel it….I do can say things later.…because what they say get emotional. It’s happened when I see an may affect and change what I am going to image and I am blown away, and I have felt say….If they are happy…[reading] goes very strong emotions that I am seeing such a pow- smoothly, but if I get the sense that they are erful image. I live that image at that moment burdened, tired, or hopeless, it moves heavily and feel that whatever I say is going to happen for me….It’s not difficult for me but the for sure….When I read, I am not detached. I process is not as smooth. I feel the difference am more attached because I do want to read. in energy; I feel their suffering or misery a The only way I might be detached is if I see little bit….If I sense something bad, I don’t something bad. But I always see…good like to say it directly. And I don’t want to be- things. It’s as if my brain is wired to see posi- lieve in something bad either. I remind myself tive things; I don’t wish to see anything that it’s just a cup...I may warn them but I bad….When I say good things, I feel happy won’t say anything directly….I don’t want to because I say it with all my heart….There are believe that I can tell these things…Nobody times when I don’t want to read. When people knows exactly what’s going on except for the come with negative energy and I know some- Higher Power….But I am [reading] because thing bad happened to them. I have fear within it’s coming to me, maybe not 100%. Who am I me; if I see something bad I know which di- to tell somebody’s future…. rection it’s going to go. I don’t want to say it. At that time, I truly feel bad inside my body. Reader 2: (female, age 45) And that’s when I tell [the seeker] I don’t wish to read…It’s better that I don’t read. Because I sense that whatever they wish for is not going I feel here at the top area of my head, near my to happen….[Person’s] energy has big impor- brain….I sense that this is not my cup, this is tance. When the other person has bad things somebody else’s cup….when it’s not my cup, happening to them I don’t want to read….I it is as if my brain registers that this is not sense from their presence. They could hide it mine…Then I start looking. I turn the cup and but I know they are not happy….Energy mat- look inside….And ideas come to me…Then I ters. If you come with happy energy, that posi- take a moment of rest and pause; I become tive energy comes to me. And I read your cup quiet to see what’s going on, maybe to collect in a positive way. But if you come to me with myself, I don’t know what’s going on inside negative energy, I already know I am going to me. Then after silence, I start to see things. see bad things. I don’t want to do that. Energy Maybe [silence] allows me to reconnect with affects 100%. Negative affects me; positive myself, with my intuition? Maybe it does affects me….[I feel] in my body. I feel weak. something that I am not aware of. I don’t think No matter how much I try to ward off the neg- I can start reading right away. I need this si- ative energy and remind myself that this per- lence to regroup and prepare myself. Maybe son came to have a good time with me, still I that’s the inner thing that happens inside me, I am a true believer of energy….If the person is don’t feel it, but that silence allows me to be angry or upset, I can’t say positive things. I able to read….It starts from the wiring in my can say only what I see and I don’t see posi- brain and maybe slowly it goes down and tive things. It affects me….[To read] I get in starts communicating with my organs. But it the cup right away. I don’t like to ask always starts from my head and maybe goes Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p.21 Published by Digital Commons @ CIIS, 2018 21 CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. 6 [2018], Iss. 6, Art. 1 Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century | Summer 2018 | Vol 6 | Issue 6 Avetisian, E., Making Sense of Symbols and Synchronicity in Tasseography.

anything. I want the reading to be based on ready. I prefer not to be asked….[People] what I see, not what she tells me. I don’t ask. I don’t know or understand what’s going on don’t like to get information from them before inside me. It’s better that I read willingly. If I read….If they are sad, that energy is trans- they are urging me to read, I might say wrong ferred to me. I don’t want to lie. I might say a things because it’s not my day, it’s not the few things briefly so it doesn’t affect them or right moment, I don’t feel anything. me, and stop reading. I don’t like to say bad things….I always like to make people happy but not by lying. I can’t see something bad and say something good. That’s not right and that’s why I cut it. I feel it. I feel that their inner world is in turmoil….Even if they pre- tend to be fine and look normal, I feel what’s happening inside the person….[I feel] right here [chest area], all over here, I must be feel- ing whatever feeling they are having. And it affects my whole day….If I am not in the mood, if I am sick, in pain, not in the right frame of mind or not feeling well, I am not able to read. I can’t see things….[Reading takes] a lot of effort. It’s like giving all of my energy to the other person when I read. All my energy goes to them because if I don’t give my energy I can’t read….When I am finished, the head is done with, everything is in my body. Now that I am finished with reading, I am relaxed and away from my head….What makes a good reading session [is] the energy... If you would come here and sit very sad, then it affects me and the reading, I feel very week and unsure whether I should say what I see….I don’t feel energized at the end because I give off my energy, but I am calm because it finished, I am done. There is nothing left to say….I say only what I see. That’s why…if I sense something bad, I don’t want to do the reading… because I don’t want to disappoint them. But I feel it. So out of 10 things, I might just say 2 things….I don’t want to please them. I must say the truth. Honesty is very important to me….I think that it’s better that the person willingly offers to read the cup rather than being asked…When…I volunteer to read [a cup] because I am happy, I am Corresponding author: [email protected] Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/ ISSN 2575-5552 p. 22 https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/conscjournal/vol6/iss6/1 22