Egyptian mysticism played an important role in the development of Chrysalis Tarot and plays an equally important role in its daily use. At least a rudimentary understanding of Egyptian mysticism can be useful in understanding Chrysalis Tarot’s shamanic attributes and how these attributes help you grow spiritually. I’ll return to Egyptian mysticism and Ma’at directly.

First and foremost among the objectives addressed by Chrysalis is spiritual growth. (Spiritual growth has nothing to do with religion. Indeed, religious dogma often stymies spiritual growth.) Spiritual growth is defined by Chrysalis as the awareness of conscious and unconscious Self in the physical or worldly realm and the awareness of how Self functions or interacts in the ethereal or imaginal realm.

Joan Forest Mage is a shamanic practitioner and teacher in Chicago. This is a link to an excellent piece she wrote about shamanism a few years back. You can follow Joan on Facebook.

If you’ve been feeling “out of sorts” of late, welcome to a very large club. The world is out of balance and in dire need of healing. Consequently, when nature itself is out of balance we humans are similarly affected. We heal the world by healing ourselves; by growing spiritually.

Just as Skehmet is Ma’at’s guardian, Ma’at is our guardian. It is she who maintains cosmic balance. The mantra used to invoke Skehmet is “Sa Sekhem Sahu.” It means, “With each breath spiritual energy enters my being.” The word Sa means the breath of life. It’s Sanskrit equivalent is prana, a more familiar word. Sekhem is the feminine Divine energy or Universal Life Force that animates Sahu, which translates to spiritual awareness.

Each of us is called to mysticism – to become a mystic. We accomplish this feat over many years of study and by always being open to Sekhem. In Egyptian mysticism, which influenced and inspired all mystical traditions, we allow Skehmet to devour us symbolically and to reemerge in a glorious rebirth of spiritual transformation. In Chrysalis, this spiritual rebirth is symbolized by Psyche, a word that means both soul and butterfly in Greek.

One aspect of being a well informed mystic I have not written a great deal about is what science refers to as retrocausality and anomalous psychology refers to as precognition. It’s a straightforward notion: the future influences the present. That is a cornerstone of quantum cosmology. Indeed, past, present and future are all inexorably entangled. It’s a fascinating topic well presented in Robert Lanza’s best-selling book, “Beyond Biocentrism.”

“The future influences the present just as much as the past.” ~ Nietzsche

“We no longer have the luxury of learning only from the past – we must also download information from the future in order to be fully present, fully conscious, in our most embodied and best self now.” ~ Linda Star Wolf

© Toney Brooks 2020