Working with the Oracle

Lectures and workshops with Tayria Ward, Ph.D.

Since ancient times persons have sought counsel and guidance from a trusted source who maintains a connection with an immortal realm of consciousness that can mediate helpful information to mortals seeking such assistance. In Greece and Rome, especially at Delphi and Dodona, the oracular wisdom was transmitted through specially gifted and appointed personages, and people would make pilgrimage for thousands of miles to hear their guidance. Over time, systems were developed in nearly every culture that allowed access to the oracular realm of information. The Chinese developed the I-Ching; and various decks of cards, such as the Tarot, were used in Egypt and medieval Europe. The American Indians used the throwing of stones and sticks to divine information from Spirit. The Irish used tea-leaves. The efficacy of such readings has proven itself for millennia, but, like anything, persons who used such devices to trick others or just take their money distorted the reputation of these methods. Then came priests who thought of themselves as the only reliable mediators between God and man, denouncing any common person’s ability to maintain direct contact. Certainly if an oracular message were to refute their authority or encourage the seeker to find his or her own way, rather that the “way” prescribed by the churches, it was denounced as evil, anathema.

Regardless of misuses and abuses of oracular consultation, the purity and power of this realm of consciousness remains available. Through careful practice and study, a sincere learner is able to develop a relationship with this vast source of wisdom and help. Indeed it seems that the intelligence that is accessed through these methods is anxious to provide insight, relief and healing of our limitations and shortsightedness as humans. A wise, generous and loving counsel awaits our turning toward it.

My initial quest to learn how to use the oracle came through a surprising coincidence born out of a dream. A person I had never heard of was named in that dream, and I thought it a metaphor for something. Not a week later, I found a book on the shelf of a store I wandered into written by that never-heard-of person; it was a book about the Tarot. Of course I had to buy and read it. Thus began a twenty year study and application using these consultations, which have day-by-day helped me achieve much needed insight and direction through a very rocky spiritual and psychological terrain. I have rarely felt so seen, understood, loved and supported as I have through the down flow of precise, exquisite, brilliant, often humorous, always spot on messages that had become available to me.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, one of the founders of psychoanalysis, articulated the principle of synchronicity which he observed as operative, appearing to be almost magical, over his long, successful life of study and practice. He was fascinated and extremely respectful of the synchronicity involved in the use of various systems of oracular consultation, including the I-Ching and the Tarot. Indeed, my own journey of psychoanalysis with trained Jungian analysts has always been invaluably illuminated, supported and assisted by my study of the oracle. Often my dreams and the oracle give me the exact same messages, so that I begin to understand that the realm of dreams and the realm of oracular consciousness are intimately interconnected.

I offer lectures, courses and workshops to help individuals begin their own journey of discovery, offering careful attention to the pitfalls and the patience it takes to learn to be in a conscious and interactive relationship with oracular practice.