Lectarot Divina
Hello Friends.
My spiritual practice has evolved a bit over the years. In the past it was all pretty straight forward …
I would read my Bible every morning.
Say some prayers.
And head out for the day.
There was also a season where I would write a blog post every morning to coincide with whatever I had read in my Bible that day or the day before (at one time I did this for 550 days in a row!). There have also been seasons where thinking about God and the Bible and all the things was too painful as I was rethinking the stuff that I believed and so I let my Bible grow dust for a while.
These days?
I read from my Bible a few mornings a week (along with Gnostic Scriptures, Buddhist Scriptures, Taoist Scriptures, Jewish Scriptures, etc.) and also pull a tarot card every morning that sort of sets my focus for the day.
Tarot?
If you’ve been following my journey, you know that I got my first deck of tarot cards about a year ago and have been fascinated with how they tie into so many familiar stories and ideas from the Bible and various aspects of the Christian faith that I grew up with. I was always taught that they were evil and would open up a portal for the Devil to wriggle his way into my life, but that’s not really true at all.
If you’re interested to hear more, check out these tarot episodes on the podcast …
Anyways.
Based upon my current practice of Scripture reading and tarot, I want to start writing down some ideas that may or may not find their way into a book someday and I want to share those ideas with my Patreon and (paid) Substack supporters on a bi-weekly (sometimes weekly) basis in what I am calling “Lectarot Divina”.
Eh?
When I was in seminary we learned about “Lectio Divina”, which is Latin for “Divine Reading”. There are books and books and books written about it, but the short of it is that it’s a spiritual discipline of sorts that couples short Bible readings with prayer whereby the reader/pray-er …
Reads a passage.
Prays.
And meditates on it’s meaning.
… with little to no help from outside sources like commentaries, theology books, etc, etc, etc.
Looking back on my time in school, this was one of the practices that I always loved because there’s a sense of freedom in it that I didn’t always feel in the classroom.
Right?
Because in the classroom we were free to explore the Scriptures, but were expected to arrive at a certain conclusion or place based upon the doctrines and theologies that the institution deemed correct or orthodox or whatever. And so although we were “free” to explore the Bible and it’s many meanings, we were sort of told that we had to arrive back at THE meaning(s) that the powers that be had agreed upon.
In Lectio Divina, though, there was a bit more freedom in that one could read, pray, and imagine all sorts of possibilities for how the text might fit into the specific circumstances of our individual lives without having to worry about what any commentary or theologian or professor had to say about it.
For me, this is how I use the Bible today. And it’s also how I use tarot cards. There are books and books and books about tarot cards and their meanings on my shelf and scattered around the Internet along with books and books and books about what each verse of the Bible means; and all of that stuff is helpful - I read those kinds of books all the time (have you seen my “library”? It’s crazy).
BUT.
What I really love to do? I love to read the Bible and pull a card and just let my mind wander about as I ask God or Jesus or the Universe or whatever “what does this have to do with my life today, what are you speaking to me, help me to see what I’m not seeing and hear what I’m not hearing.”
And so I’m calling this writing series “Lectarot Divina” - the spiritual discipline of using both the Bible and tarot cards to imagine what God might be speaking - and I want to share it with my Patreon and Substack friends over the upcoming months.
To make it simple, I will follow along with the Lectionary readings in each post (the Lectionary is a pre-determined road map of Scriptures that rotates every 3 years within the church so that churches around the world who follow the Lectionary are reading the same stories and verses on the same week) and I’ll choose one story/passage to meditate on along with whatever tarot card I pull. Sometimes the writing will focus on the Bible story without making mention of the tarot card and sometimes we’ll focus on the tarot card without making much mention of the Bible story and sometimes (still) I’ll make reference to both as we explore how they may (or may not!) tie into each other.
Frequency? As I mentioned above, I will aim for every other week. If I’m inspired, some may come out back to back weeks. If I’m having a hard week or a hard few weeks, you may see one a month. I know that '“schedule” is sort of all over the place, but I’m in this season of life where I’m trying very hard to not pressure myself to stick to cemented-in-place routines that leave me little to no space to breath. Some days are easier than others since my dad passed away while others are almost suffocating, but since writing is therapeutic for me … I think this will be a fun adventure for my heart.
My goal is to make the posts relatively short so they don't take too long to read. Much like the art of Lectio Divina, I want to make the writings meditative with a thought or idea that can help us set our intentions and focus for the day/week. Most of them will be written, but sometimes they may be video as well. In those instances, I’ll make a non-public YouTube video and share the link with you so that you can watch, comment, etc.
If you’re not signed up on Patreon or as a paying subscriber here on Substack, you can do that here …
… And no need to sign up for both. If you’re a Patreon supporter, you’ll be getting the posts via Patreon. If you’re a Substack subscriber, you should get them in your email or the Substack app (if you’ve downloaded it to your phone).
Sound good?
Let me know what you think via email - whatifproject.net@gmail.com. First entry will drop soon.
Much love,
Glenn