“The mind craves distraction so much that it becomes quite adept at forging illusions. Illusion is the ego’s trick to prevent you from becoming a seeker of truth.”

That quote comes from our Chrysalis Tarot Companion book. The Illusionist card emphasizes what can happen to a person – even to a society – when the quest for truth and objective reality is abandoned. When we sacrifice facts to feelings and dogma, religious or political, we are on the road to delusion.

In the world today we bear witness to a pandemic of delusion, a psychic epidemic so grisly that this warped condition of the psyche presents a clear and present danger to humanity itself. Delusion is a psychogenic disorder – one caused by the mind; there is no physical infectious agent.

What societal conditions allow widespread delusion to metastasize into full-fledged mass psychosis? The answer is a simple: Fear plus hate and division festering among an ill-informed and insecure population with an astonishingly low self-awareness.

Psychiatrist Joost Meerloo argued in his book Rape of the Mind:

“. . .the totalitarian systems of the 20th century represent a kind of collective psychosis. Whether gradually or suddenly, reason and common human decency are no longer possible in such a system: there is only a pervasive atmosphere of terror, and a projection of “the enemy,” imagined to be “in our midst.” Thus society turns on itself, urged on by the ruling authorities.”

The most menacing “infectious agent” employed by “the ruling authorities” is propaganda, a witches brew concocted of lies and twisted truths. Our media is filled with it! Such propaganda seeks to divide society. That portion of society still able to think critically and seek truth is bemused while the mentally ill and deluded portion is enraged: they simply cannot bear to have their false worldview – which is their religion – questioned.

A Chrysalis enthusiast once asked if Chrysalis was “anti-Catholic.”

I responded that Chrysalis isn’t about “correct beliefs” but rather about personal growth – the process Carl Jung termed individuation. Tarot can be a useful adjunct to all religious beliefs, as Jung explained:

“These four functional [personality] types [represented by tarot’s four suits] correspond to the obvious means by which consciousness obtains its orientation to experience. Sensation (i.e. sense perception) tells us that something exists; thinking tells you what it is; feeling tells you whether it is agreeable or not; and intuition tells you whence it comes and where it is going.”

Sensation = Stones; Thinking = Scrolls; Feeling = Mirrors and Intuition = Spirals.

Arthur Waite, mystic and co-creator of the Rider-Waite tarot, noted tarot provides a gateway to universal truths embedded in the Collective Unconscious. Chrysalis holds that the Divine Child archetype symbolizes your Higher Self and consequently is your personal spiritual director and co-seeker of truth – your inner voice.

While Chrysalis may be agnostic regarding religion, we stand in firm opposition to dogma. We believe dogma – political and religious – stymies personal and spiritual growth and hinders critical thinking.

Past societies that suffered mass psychosis include the authoritarian societies of the 1920s and 30s. Leaders of authoritarian societies (Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, et al.) do not concern themselves with seeking truth, rather they seek power and authority over every aspect of daily life. Frankly, America’s political class act a good deal like the evildoers of the 20s and 30s.

“Indeed, it is becoming ever more obvious” [Jung] wrote, “that it is not famine, not earthquakes, not microbes, not cancer but man himself who is man’s greatest danger to man, for the simple reason that there is no adequate protection against psychic epidemics, which are infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes.” ~ Carl Jung, The Symbolic Life

Chrysalis Tarot was crafted to help you effectively integrate (become consciously aware of) the powerful forces of your psyche via keen discernment, critical thinking, humility and intuition. Note that the emotions of mass psychosis are all low frequency emotions: fear, hate, divisiveness and anger. Don’t expect truth from this lot – only lies.

© Toney Brooks, 2021