The Path and Elemental Guide

Message from the author

Thank you for believing in the independent artist. This is the Path and Elemental Deck. With these cards, you will be able to test for ESP, meditate, perform divination, connect deeply with the tarot, and more. This text will cover how I devised the deck, some history of card-guessing, a list of ESP phenomena you may experience, and how you can use the deck.

Notation

I have made an attempt to notate where specific information comes from to the best of my abilities. While everything is in my own words I also wanted to be able to show you where to find the information online. Wikipedia has proven to be a great resource to gain a surface understanding of some of the topics I will talk about in this text.

At this time I am using a modified Chicago notation system that has a footnote number matching the bibliography.

Part 1: Inspiration, Card-Guessing, and the Origins of the Path and Elemental Deck

Inspiration and Card Guessing History

I was inspired to create this deck from my experience with the Golden Dawn teachings and working through an online Parapsychology diploma. Before making this deck I had an interest in learning about intuition and heightening my senses. The Golden Dawn material recommended card-guessing as a way to improve intuition. Further material from my online studies in parapsychology showed me the feasibility of testing myself for ESP.

My parapsychology studies covered the Zener card deck. This is a deck of cards designed by Karl Zener used for testing ESP. The deck has twenty five cards and is made up of five sets of five symbols a circle, a cross, three wavy lines, a square, and a star.¹ During a test, the subject would guess one of the five shapes. The results are then calculated to determine the subject’s ability to make a correct guess.

The main takeaway from the history of card-guessing is as follows. Given a deck with five sets of five symbols, one should be able to achieve five correct guesses if given twenty five guesses.² This is your measuring stick for everything that happens with card-guessing. It will always be roughly a 20% chance to score a correct guess.

This represents the main body of statistical research in ESP with card-guessing in the early 20th century. Scientists like J.B Rhine and Karl Zener were a few of the pioneers of parapsychology using card-guessing to detect psychic ability.³

I recommend you read more about Parapsychology, but it isn’t necessary to use these cards. All you need to be able to grasp is the Zener card decks structure and the statistics for card-guessing.

The Creation of the Deck

Instead of acquiring a Zener card deck, I devised something that would do what the theoretical structure of the Zener cards. I used the symbols for the five western elements air, fire, earth, water, and spirit to make the Path and Elemental cards.⁴

I created an extended deck that contains twenty five sub-elements and ten copies of the primary five elements. In total there are seventy five cards. This gave me more than enough to do card guessing tests.

The sub-elements are elements within elements. There are twenty of them that and contain two separate elements. Five out of the twenty five sub-elements contain only one element being that they are elements within themselves.

The structure of this deck poses an unusual scenario for card-guessing. When you get a sub-element in a draw your guess counts towards either of the two elements.

If the deck is configured to the full seventy five cards there is a 26% of drawing a sub-element. Again, if the whole deck is used one draw would have a 73% chance of getting one of the fifty regular elements or one of the five sub-elements that are elements within themselves. This allows for two sets of odds. With any given draw you could have a 73% chance to get a regular element, or a 26% chance to get a sub-element that has two different elements on it. In the end these two sets of odds give you a 25% chance to be correct when card guessing with the sub elements.

Part 2: Testing for ESP

The Challenges of Testing ESP With Card Guessing

You will experience many interesting things when you test yourself with these cards. In this section, I will cover all the considerations in testing for ESP.

Sensory Leak

The primary challenge of card-guessing is a sensory leak. Sensory leak occurs when the test subject can use something in their physical environment to gain a correct answer.⁵ This leak can come from the experimenter’s expression creating a subconscious clue, the physical state of the cards, or even the method itself.

Let’s say a particular deck has a nick on one of the cards. If the subject knows what that card is, they can improve their odds of a correct guess. To control for that kind of sensory leak the experimenter must ensure the materials are clean and free of physical alterations.

Another cause of a sensory leak in card-guessing is when the subject is tested with a closed deck. This test method has the experimenter removing the card from the deck after each guess.⁶ If the subject has their answers revealed during the test it may improve their ability to track their guesses.

Sensory leak from the method can be avoided if the subject is tested with a deck that is always being shuffled after every guess.⁷ This is called an open deck test. It allows the experimenter to reset the statistics for every guess. Shuffling the deck for each guess removes the possibility of the subject tracking their answer. Open deck testing is the ideal way to test yourself and others.

The experimenter may choose to not reveal correct answers to the subject during the test. Subjects who give correct answers more often may feel confident in their next guesses. This inflated confidence could be something to control for.

To create an accurate test take care to avoid a sensory leak, and understand what can be controlled. Doing this will generate good test results to work with.

Fatigue

Testing ESP with card-guessing can cause fatigue in a subject and should be considered when testing other people. Performing a test that requires twenty five or more guesses will create mental fatigue. While fatigued the subject will second guess themselves and overthink their guesses causing wrong answers.

Reducing the number of guesses to at least five can help avoid mental fatigue. This allows for the smallest test sample to align with historic statistics while putting more emphasis on each guess.

Recognize that twenty five guesses needs a lot of time to perform. In some cases, it can take up to thirty minutes or more. Take care to respect the subject’s time and energy to ensure you are collecting good data.

If you are testing yourself then you have a better insight into your mental energy. You can take as much time as you want, and make as many guesses as you think you can handle.

The Ideal Test

The open deck test is the best form of testing. This is when the card is shuffled back into the deck after each guess. This will maintain consistent statistics for the deck and remove the possibility of subconscious tracking. Before performing a test you should consider the following.

The deck contains seventy five cards. Twenty five of these cards are sub-elements and the rest are regular elements. Twenty of the sub-elements have two elements on the card. Your guess will count towards either of the two elements on the card. If you want to use the sub elements then you will increase your chances of getting a right answer to 25%.

I created five sets of ten regular elements. This will give you enough cards to alter the size of the deck. It will be up to you to choose what size will fit the test you want to run and to include the sub-elements or not.

Use either paper or an application to document the guesses and the answers. Decide how many guesses will be allowed for the test sessions. My recommendation is to keep it as few as possible when testing someone else. If you are performing the test for yourself then you will know exactly how many guesses you are capable of.

You have the option of revealing the answer to the subject during the test or after. If you choose to not reveal the answer to yourself during a self-test then you will need a video recording device. You will also need to create a strategy to record the card without seeing it.

Using a smartphone with a camera is a good way to record the guess. It should be easy to mount it in a way that it can record the card on a surface. Start recording, close your eyes and make sure the card is recorded. Without looking at the card return it to the deck and then stop recording. Shuffle the deck again and continue the process of recording your guesses. Whatever way you decide to do it make sure there is no sensory leak while collecting the data.

Decide as the experimenter if you will be attempting to send information about the card to the test subject. This would test for telepathy. You may also choose to not influence the test at all. This will allow other phenomena to appear.

After having considered all of the above you can now test yourself or a subject. Shuffle the cards well. I like to riffle shuffle the cards, and then do overhand shuffling at the end. You are free to shuffle the cards in any way you like as long they get shuffled. This is to ensure that you have cleared any potential clumps of cards from previous testing.

Give the subject time to settle. Begin the test by drawing one card off the top of the deck. Let the subject make their guess. Record the answer and shuffle the card back into the deck. Repeat this until you collect enough guesses for the test session.

Record the conditions of the test and then calculate the score. One correct answer out of five will give you a 20% hit percentage. This will be the most common result.

The Phenomenon’s To Know

I learned about these phenomena from my online diploma in Parapsychology.⁸ All of the phenomenon’s described here are in my own words to the best of my ability. If you choose to you can also learn about them individually by searching the internet.

Many phenomena can occur during your ESP testing. You will no doubt experience any of the following.

Clairaudience: This is a phenomenon where the subject can display some ability to detect paranormal information aurally. The subject may hear something from the environment that others cannot. They may even hear a strong sound/voice from within that delivers paranormal information. In the case of card-guessing, the subject may express that they heard something that aided in their guess.

Clairsentience: This phenomenon involves the physical sense of touch. During card-guessing your subject may express that they felt a presence around them, or they may state there was a physical sensation. You could interpret that sensation as an expression of clairsentience.

Clairvoyance: This type of ESP may depend on your subject’s ability to visualize. The subject may report that they can see in their mind’s eye paranormal information. This is clairvoyance and is sometimes referred to as second sight. This maybe the most common phenomenon experience during card-guessing.

Telepathy: You will only be able to experience telepathy if an experimenter is testing a subject. In this case, the experimenter will try to send information about the guess to the subject. If the subject can guess the card with accuracy it could be said they experienced telepathy.

Missing PSI: The term “psi” denotes general psychic ability. Missing psi can be interpreted as missing psychic ability. This will occur only if the subject is not making any hits. When a subject is consistently performing poorly, it could be a case of missing psi.

In these cases, the subject may be trying to guess with accuracy, but for one reason or another, they are not making any correct guesses. Missing psi comes from the subject’s using ESP subconsciously to avoid correct answers.

Cluster Illusion: As you look at the results you may see patterns form in random data sequences. You may also see patterned events in your results as you track your experiences. These experiences may end up being cluster illusions. This may even lead you to create a false hypothesis.

I can attest to falling hook line and sinker for a cluster illusion at the beginning of the Zener Card diary. This is something to look out for when you analyze your data. Make sure you apply rigorous thought, logic, and sound method in your experiments.

Confirmation Bias: This is not what you would call an ESP phenomena, but you will be challenged to overcome confirmation bias when analyzing your card-guessing data. This is a cognitive dissonance where one will seek out conclusions, information, and experiences that align with their desires and beliefs. Try to avoid this bias in your experiments.

My Zener Card Diary Experience

During the Zener Card Diary, I encountered many of the phenomena talked about in this text. The most interesting experience was being in a cluster illusion.

To write the diary I had to perform tests on myself. At the beginning of the diary, I saw patterns in the data I collected. My own biases spilled into the tests influencing the results, and I drew conclusions that lead me nowhere.

I would witness an odd pattern in the data, make a hypothesis for it, and run a test. Something completely different would happen and I would chase this new thing. Each subsequent test would never reveal what I was looking for.

Performing these tests felt like a psychic load was being discharged during each card-guessing trial. Once discharged it could never be replicated again exactly.

I was stuck in a loop of trying to recreate these unusual moments. I came to understand that no matter what I attempted I could never replicate what I saw and consistently produce results over the expected levels of chance.

Knowing that I could never break the expected levels of chance I considered another way to approach my testing. I began to investigate the intimate experience delivering a correct answer in card-guessing.

The Diary of a Right Answer

During the diary, I had a chance to test other people. My personal experience in card-guessing seemed to match those I tested. I found that a correct answer happens in a few different ways.

For some, a correct answer feels right. The subject can’t pinpoint where it is coming from, it just felt right. Classifying this is hard because it is not a clear case of clairsentience. There was no phenomenon of physical touch reported only a latent gut feeling that seemed to steer the answer.

Another type of correct answer was the subject seeing the answer in their mind’s eye. In these cases, clairvoyance is the best explanation to describe what happened.

What I find to be the most consistent thing about registering correct guesses is the time it took for the subject to determine a correct answer. In the majority of all correct answers, the subject acquired a hit with speed and strong sense of conviction that the answer was right.

The majority of cases the subjects I tested scored at least one hit. There were a few potential cases of missing psi when I was testing myself. Some sessions I would score no hits, and then eventually it evened it self out. Missing psi is difficult to detect, but it is something to consider.

In all cases, correct answers came in waves after a series of incorrect answers. It was uncommon to see correct guesses next to each other.

My recommendation is that when collecting your data try to capture the qualitative experience of the answer. You will have to set this up ahead of time in your test conditions and determine the best way to record this.

If you want to read more about the Zener Card Diary and my experiences testing for ESP to the links at the end of this article. Additionally, you can watch this half time video demonstrating the use of the Elemental deck.

Part 3: Magical Associations

The Elemental Associations

The Path and Elemental Deck is based on the western elements, but it also contains playing card

symbols. This allows the deck to be a companion to both the tarot and playing cards.

These symbols each have associations that are connected to systems of occult magic. The tarot is the most well known system that has a clear relation to the symbols of playing cards and the western elements. The associations for the tarot cards, elements, and playing cards are as follows.

Swords are the element air. The element air is a yellow triangle. Swords are associated with the spade in playing cards.

Cups are the element water. The element water is an upside-down blue triangle. Cups are associated with hearts in playing cards.

Wands are the element fire. The element fire is a red triangle. Wands are associated with clubs in playing cards.

Pentacles are the element earth. The element earth is a black upside-down triangle. Pentacles are associated with diamonds in playing cards.

The major arcana trumps are associated with spirit and is represented by a white circle.

Each member of the court has an element associated with it. The princess or page is earth. The knight or cavalier is air. The queen is water. The king is fire. Each element of the court exists inside of the suit’s primary element to create a sub-element.

Spirit’s sub elemental sets are represented in four major trumps. The Fool has an air association. The Hanged Man has a water association. Judgement has a fire association. The Universe has an earth association.

With these elemental associations, you can make connections to the tarot and playing cards with the Path and Elemental cards.

How to Understand the Meaning of the Elements

Each element can be understood as the sum total of all the tarot cards in that elemental set. The western elements can also be an analog for the spectrum of your conscious states. Breaking your consciousness down into five separate elements can help you understand them individually. You will also begin to see that certain elements harmonize well.

What follows is the interpretation of each of the five western elements in my own words. Each of the descriptions also contain the meaning of the numbered cards as they relate to the Path and Tarot deck.⁹

Fire

The element of fire is transformative. It burns away impurities in your psyche and allows a clean slate. In nature forest fires are dangerous, but they serve a purpose. They burn away all the dead trees to allow new growth.

Fire can bring vitality to your spirit. It is a lively element and allows your character to become animated.

Fire is active masculine energy. You will experience dominance, might, creation, conflict, victory, courage, haste, authority, domination, persistence, drive, dedication, and energy.

Water

The element of water is pervasive and will get into every part of your psyche. Water is the foundation of your emotions and contains all the ups and downs that go with it.

Water is passive feminine energy. You will experience relationships, plenty, excess, disappointment, enjoyment, delusion, abandonment, bliss, completion, innovation, extremity, contemplation, and imagination.

Earth

Earth is your physical reality and is everything you can touch, see, and hear. The element of earth is the substance of your material world. Earth’s elemental power will help you learn the structure of your reality.

Earth is passive and feminine energy. You will experience balance, great work, command, loss, accomplishment, promises, prudence, growth, wealth, creativity, determination, revitalization, and engagement.

Air

The element air helps us move and take action in the world around us. With the element of air, you will be able to focus on communication and thought. Your mind is powered by the element air and is the foundation for your mental processing.

Air is active masculine energy. You will experience tranquility, grievance, recovery, defeat, triumph, volatility, imprisonment, hopelessness, annihilation, revenge, cognition, coldness, and imbalance.

Spirit

Spirit is the combination of all four elements. It is both active and passive. The element spirit connects us to the divine and infinite. With spirit, we experience only vibration and energy.

We can look at spirit as a spectrum of archetypal energies. It can be observed as the hero’s journey through the tarot’s twenty two major trumps. The hero starts as a fool and transcends physical reality to become one with the universe, the divine infinity.

Part 4: Divination

Elemental Card Spread

The Path and Elemental Deck can be used for simple divination. What you will be able to find through divination is what elements you need to work on. Set your intentions and ask the cards what are the important elements at play.

The card spread I am about to describe is the same card spread described in the Path and Tarot Deck booklet.¹⁰ I have adapted the same nine card spread to use with the Path and Elemental Deck.

Remember, this elemental deck contains seventy five cards. Twenty five of these cards are sub-elements and the rest are regular elements. You can decide if the sub-elements are included in your divination.

The card spread is as follows.

Begin by shuffling the deck well. Cut the deck once and draw the top card. Place this card in the center of your reading space. This is the beginning card and represents the primary element of your focus.

Draw the next card and place it in any space around the center card. In this way, you will be surrounding the center card with eight others. Keep drawing until you have created a three-by-three matrix.

As you place the cards you have to know the following.

Air matches with Air or Fire. Air miss matches with Water and Earth.

Fire matches with Fire or Air. Fire miss matches with Water and Earth.

Air and Fire are active energies.

Water matches with Water or Earth. Water miss matches with Air and Fire.

Earth matches with Earth or Water. Earth miss matches with Air and Fire.

Water and Earth are passive energies.

Spirit is the culmination of all the elements to make the fifth element. It is both active and passive. Spirit matches with any element and becomes stronger if matched together. This will create a spirit node that empowers everything in the card matrix. Using the element spirit will act as a bridge between energy sets.

Matching elements help expand the influence of the active or passive elemental sets. Miss matching elements create demarcation points in the reading. This helps define the borders of the energies present in the readings.

Reading the card matrix you have to consider what sort of matches have you made? What patterns have emerged? What is the most important element at work and where does it lead? Use all the possible directions in the nine card matrix to learn about your intention.

Meditation on the Power of Color

When performing the above card spread you can also take an opportunity to gaze into the mixture of colors. Notice that the placement of these colors is by chance, rules, and choice.

If any sub-elements are apart of the card spread they will intentionally draw your gaze and create an interesting visual effect. Take note of how these colors alter your perception.

Additionally, you can choose to meditate on just one card of your choice. This is a more focused meditation.

Let your gaze soften. When the card begins to vibrate as your focus changes. This is a sign you are gazing the right way. Fight the urge to focus on any one thing. It will feel as if you are not looking at any one part of the card. If you have ever looked at one of those 3D puzzles, your gaze should feel like that.

At this point, you may not have blinked, or have blinked little. You will begin to see that the card is glowing. The color that glows appears on the opposite end of the color wheel to the color that is on the card. This is what the Golden Dawn calls a flashing color.¹¹

Red and Green, Blue and Orange, Yellow and Violet, Black and White are the flashing colors. You will notice that the sub-elements that are elements within themselves are flashing colors.

At this point the the image should be temporarily burned into your vision. Close your eyes and use your mind’s eye. What do you feel? What comes to you? What colors do you see? What other things can you see? Record what you experience and visualize.

Flashing Color

It is interesting to note that this flashing color phenomenon is not a magickal occurrence, but a natural part of the physiology of the human eye.¹² Staring long enough at a color will create an after image. The colour of the after image is found on the opposite end of the color wheel.¹³ If you transfer your gaze to something that is flat white you will see the flashing color more clearly.

Using the Path and Elemental Deck With a Tarot or Playing Card deck

The western elemental symbols can sometimes appear on tarot cards. If the western elements do not appear literally in a tarot deck their meanings are usually illustrated into the cards. Playing card symbols are also known to show up in some tarot deck designs. Because the of the pervasive nature of these symbols the Path and Elemental deck can connect with any tarot or playing card deck.

Treat the elemental cards as confirmation of the most important element in play when using either a tarot or playing card deck. You can match and miss match the elements and the suits to pinpoint the most important card in play.

The easiest way to incorporate the Path and Elemental deck is to draw from it in succession with other decks. After a few draws you will have a handful of cards. See what connections can be made from them.

More advanced divination’s can be achieved when you devise your own way of incorporating the elements into your regular methods.

When connecting the Path and Elemental deck to playing cards you may want to consider re-configuring the elemental deck. By removing spirit you will be connecting with only the playing card symbols.

Part 5: Wishes and Resources

Best Wishes

I hope that you can make good use of these cards. I think they make a great addition to your tarot card divination’s. It is also fun to test other people for ESP. Usually, subjects become competitive and are excited to get correct answers. This is what makes the process a joy. Test your friends or family members when you have the chance. You will be surprised by what phenomena you can detect.

Get involved and talk with others about improving your intuition and having unusual sensory experiences, but remember this one thing. Even though we are in the 21st century this subject is still not widely accepted. Have compassion for others who lack interest in ESP. Do not push people into this these tests. Always remember that no matter what others believe, it is always worthwhile to believe in yourself.

A Note About the Bibliography

I have made every attempt to write this text in my own words, and I think I have succeed in doing so. While I have not directly quoted any one author or text you should know that this information is derived from many sources.

The nature of the elemental associations is largely found in texts relating to the Golden Dawn. You may also find information about the western elements in many occult books relating to alchemy or magick. This information is also commonly found in tarot guide books, or books about the tarot.

As a whole the western elements play a large role in how we understand each suit of the tarot. For this reason you can find information about the elements in many other books not mentioned in this bibliography.

The idea of flashing color is largely from the teachings of the Golden Dawn. Flashing color is also a natural visual effect produced by the eye to create an after image. I urge you to explore the physiology of the human eye if you are curious.

Wikipedia was the main reference for the statistics of card-guessing. However, some of it is also found in The Parapsychology Revolution and ESP In Life and Lab.

What follows after the notes are the books that influenced this writing and acted as my sources for creating this text. Look back to notations in the text for the related source.

Notes

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_cards

2. Ibid.

3. Ibib.

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_leakage

6. https://psychicscience.org/esp3

7. Ibib.

8. Centre of Excellence. (2020). Parapsychology Diploma [Module 1 – an Introduction to Parapsychology]. Part 3: Glossary of terms found in parapsychology. https://www.centreofexcellence.com/shop/parapsychology/

9. https://pathandtarot.com/the-path-and-tarot-web-guide/

10. https://pathandtarot.com/the-path-and-tarot-card-spread/

11. Cicero Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, Golden Dawn Magic: A Complete Guide to the High Magical Arts (Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications), 52, 99.

12. http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=134

13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel

Bibliography

Centre of Excellence. (2020). Parapsychology Diploma [Module 1 – an Introduction to Parapsychology]. Part 3: Glossary of terms found in parapsychology. https://www.centreofexcellence.com/shop/parapsychology/

Cicero, Chic, and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. Golden Dawn Magic: A Complete Guide to the High Magical Arts.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2019.

Cicero, Chic, and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot: Keys to the Rituals. Symbolism, Magic & Divination.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1991.

Cicero, Chic, and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1995.

Donald Michael Kraig. Modern Magic: Twelve Lessons In The High Magigkal Arts.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2010.

Eden Gray. A Complete Guide To The Tarot.United States of America :Bantam Books, 1970.

Kenner, Corrine. Tarot for Writers. Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2007.

Neven Paar. The Magus: Kundalini and The Golden Dawn .Toronto, Ontario: Winged Shoes Publishing, 2019.

Regardie, Israel, and Michael Greer. The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order.Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 2015.

Rhine, Louisa E. ESP In Life and Lab: Tracing Hidden Channels. United States of America: The Macmillan Company, 1967.

Schoch, Robert M. Ph.D., Logan Yonavjak. The Parapsychology Revolution: A Concise Anthology of Paranormal and Psychical Research. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 2008.

Wikipedia and Web Link Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero’s_journey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetic_Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Banks_Rhine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Zener

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_leakage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_cards