Rainring: post-tarot psychological cards

The fundamental ninefold division of Rainring.

Introduction

When you first approach Rainring, it may seem overwhelming because of its apparent complexity. The sight of card after unfamiliar card can seem very daunting. It is true that it will take the novice time and effort to begin to find their way around this unfamiliar universe. However, one advantage of Rainring for the beginner is that it has a simple structure running right through it. For example, the division into groups, which we touched on in the first class, can be developed now in this second class, during our exploration of Rainring’s fundamental spread. We will look at the anatomy of this spread, and in so-doing we will consolidate our knowledge of the basic nine-fold division into groups which is the foundation of Rainring.

 http://www.rainringcards.com/VisualDirectory/Groups.aspx  

Reading by spread

We will study the method of dealing with a typical Rainring question: Where am I at right now in my life? A Rainring reader will normally want to use more than one card to explore this matter. The message of several different cards will be amalgamated to produce an overall impression. The tentative interpretation of a certain card will be reinforced, or perhaps negated, by one or more others. Patterns emerge, fitting together we hope to give an overall picture. Most Rainring spreads have a central card, and in most spreads this will be the summariser. (In some it represents the average or typical situation, rather than the summary of all the others.)

 The Bi-Polar Octagon spread 1) Introduction and background: the ‘Rainring’.

The spread we are going to look at in this class is called the bi-polar octagon. On the web, where it is the only octagon spread, we call it the centred octagon. It can normally be laid out in two forms, as shown on the web site:

http://www.rainringcards.com/SpreadsIntro/BiPolar_Octagon__The_Anatomy-2.aspx  

To make things workable for the web site builders, the one we have chosen to use online is the chess-board formation, in which all the cards are laid out with the same north-south orientation.

Offline, I personally prefer to use the other form, which is the one we need to look at here (see below). It actually gives its name to Rainring, which is a rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) extended into a ring. This involves the addition of another, eighth colour: magenta, which is between violet and red, and is a mixture of both. This circle is then given a centre, which is the site of the ninth colour – grey/brown.

This formation is known as the Rainring octagon, and we can use it as the basis of a spread (explained in the instruction booklet available with the hard copy of the cards but not featured on the web).

The starting point for this formation is that we identify nine colour vibrations in the cosmos. One of these is not yet manifest: there is no magenta colour vibration on the Earth plane at present. Rainring, therefore, is a map of the future, not of the present. The cards which make up the magenta group represent psychic elements which are so far only partially manifest. (The exceptions in magenta are Will Denial and Spirit Denial, which we do have.) As for grey/brown, this is merely an optical device for representing white, the source.

In the case of seven of these colour vibrations, we find them reproduced in the human body as the seven energy centres or chakras visible to some people. The energies which we assign to these colour vibrations in the psyche will be seen to correspond largely with those which sensitives have assigned to the energies in the chakras.

 2) The bi-polar octagon itself

In the bi-polar version of the octagon – the ‘centred octagon’ on the site – the positioning of the cards is different, though the building blocks of each octagon are identical. This different positioning derives from the fact that the bi-polar octagon describes the present, not the future. In particular, it places red (female pole) and violet (male pole) opposite each other, which is where they are in the dynamics of the psyche at the present time.

   We are now going to see how this nine-fold structure is actually applied in a reading. Back to our question: 

Where am I at right now in my life?

The way we approach this question is to consider me (or who/whatever is the focus of the question) as an atom of the psyche, a microcosm (cosmos) in my own right, and study each of my constituent vibrations. In other words, we disassemble me into the same component parts as those of the universal psyche itself. These components of the spread are called aspects. We have nine groups of cards representing the fundamental elements of the universal psyche and nine individual cards representing elements of my psyche, or of any ‘psychific’[1] event, circumstance, situation or relation which we may wish to explore.

This means that in this class I can now kill two birds with one stone. If I explain the constituent elements of the whole psyche, I am explaining at the same time those elements or aspects which constitute the spread. I examine my target - the present state of my own psyche in this case - by breaking it down into nine elements/aspects. If I understand the nine constituent colour vibrations of the universal psyche, I will understand the nine ingredients/aspects which go to make up this spread.

The aspects – as shown in the second image above – have the same names as those of the groups. Taking the north-south axis first, we have Form at south and Unconscious at north. Form (corresponding to the belly chakra) represents the material world, consciousness, daily life, facts, the realm of the senses. The Unconscious (corresponding to the third eye chakra) is the invisible world, the one we can access only indirectly, through art, dreams, visions, intuition, omens, oracles such as Rainring or tarot. These two are opposite poles, one representing the external world, the other the inner world of the individual. This means that, just as they are positioned opposite each other in the circle, so Rainring is concerned with seeking a balance between them. (See ‘Using Rainring’).

At east and west we have Spirit and Will respectively, and these represent the other primordial polarity of the psyche – male and female. This is not meant primarily in sexual terms, though sexual polarity forms a part of it. It is, rather, a case of complementary psychic vibrations, such that psychic wholeness, whether of an individual or the cosmos, requires a harmonious and balanced relation between the two. Spirit, the male pole (corresponding to the crown chakra) is about imagination, perception, ideas, discrimination, penetration – the values which attach to seeing and thinking clearly and without partiality or bias. Will, the female pole, (corresponding to the root chakra) is the seat of emotion and sexuality, as well as being the survival chakra. The female side has been severely repressed and judged against, and still is in large parts of the world, yet it must come into balance with the male polarity if we are ever to have psychic well-being in both individual and society.

The bi-polar octagon gets its name from the fact that it is built on four pairs of opposites, or four different polarity tensions. The previous two are major, the following two less so, yet still of vital importance. On the south-west – north-east axis we have Self and Quest-ion? (goals) Quest-ion is the name of group 9, which strictly speaking is the centre. However, we view the centre as being in evolution, so that Quest-ion? represents the momentum for the psyche as a whole to evolve, grow, change, proliferate, diversify, seek self-realisation. The dynamic here is thus between Self (corresponding to the solar plexus chakra) as the atomic unit responsible for the protection and conservation of identity, and Quest-ion? (corresponding to the centre) concerned with the totality and animated by the urge to move forward, explore new territory, cross frontiers, go beyond existing limits, challenge the status quo. Self is the guardian spirit of the individual and particular – the single atoms from which the psyche is constructed; Question? looks after the big picture, the universal aspect, the totality.

The final pair again involves one chakra correspondence – Communication is the position of the throat chakra, and one non-chakra pole – Conjugation. Here we are concerned with two opposite forms of proliferation: sexual (physical) and artistic (non-physical). It could be said that two forms of creativity are involved: the creation of physical children, or the giving birth in spirit which is the hallmark of the artist.  Communication involves resonance – the ability of a work of art to trigger a response in the recipient by way of primarily of sight or sound. Conjugation, by contrast, is centred around touch: babies are the product of physical contact. It has been said that children represent the psychific issues which we do not deal with: we pass on a problem to our children, delegate them to solve it for us. Creative work, on the other hand, can be seen as an attempt to explore and resolve our neuroses.

The bi-polarity of this pair is perhaps less symmetrical than in the other three pairs, since Conjugation also involves male-female psychic balance, and this aspect of it is not directly opposed by Communication.

We said that Rainring is a future disposition of the psyche. For this reason, the symmetry of the Rainring form of the octagon does not correspond to our present reality. At present, violet/purple (Spirit) and Red (Will) are the operative male and female polarities. This is why, when studying the dynamics of polarity in any person(s), event or situation, we re-jig the nine elements into the bi-polar version.

The final position, in this formation, is the centre, occupied by Heart. Heart’s own vibration (corresponding to the green chakra) is that of friendship, companionship, affection, children and the non-sexual aspects of love. If we want to read for this vibration, we can simply tell the cards that we will do so, and switch the north-east and centre positions. We read Heart at north-east and goals (Quest-ion?) at centre. This can be done on the web site whenever it is desired – an instruction to the cards is sufficient.

However, in the bi-polar octagon, Heart takes the role of summariser, or man-in-the-middle. It is the central chakra of the human body, so is quite naturally able to fulfil this function: as mid-point between male (Spirit) and female (Will), conscious (Form) and Unconscious. The summary card weighs up and averages out the different influences: Heart is the balancer.

To sum up: the ninefold division of the cards as shown here is the key element in the structure of Rainring. Once it is grasped, it will be like the ball of string in the labyrinth – able to give you the freedom to roam through Rainring without getting lost.

 (This revision has come about as a result of a critique by Hacina and subsequent discussion. Comments from readers having problems following anything in these classes are particularly welcome, as they may enable us, in the same way, to clarify still further any points which are badly explained.) 

[1] I think a new word is needed here. ‘Psychic’ has very particular references and associations which confuse my present purpose. Psychific means ‘of the psyche’ – neither more nor less.