The Lightning Path

An Integral Initiation into the Mysteries
12 Chapters spanning March 22 – Aug 23

Integral: A paradigm of consciousness focusing on holism and evolution. The next emerging worldview in western culture which synthesizes science and spirituality.

Initiation: A rite of passage where the old is stripped away and one is transformed, renewed, empowered, and entwined with life.

The Mysteries: Myths and archetypes for understanding the kosmos, dating back to the dawn of civilization.

The Lightning Path is the moment of sudden illumination, where the true nature of reality is revealed. What is not real is struck down, and what is true shines through. The Lightning Path also describes a series of steps – a pathway of initiation – used by mystics and occultists utilizing the Tarot Deck.

The Course

This journey consists of twelve chapters in which we will count from zero to eleven. In each chapter, we will examine three sources of material: Number Symbolism, meditations on the minor arcana cards from the Tarot Deck, and spiritual and scientific passages across a wide array of traditions. Our aim is to weave together a coherent understanding of the kosmos, and to find our place within it. We are exploring the universal question: Who am I? And The Lightning Path initiation, walked by countless initiates throughout the ages, promises to open new vistas.

Each chapter will consist of the following components:

• A 30-minute pre-recorded lecture video by Matt
• Readings from our two source books: Tarot of the Spirit by Pamela Eakins, and A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe by Michael Schneider
• Selected additional passages from scientific and spiritual texts, curated by Matt
• A 2-hour live zoom call to discuss the course material and experientially engage through guided meditations and practices
• UPDATE: All course engagement will now happen asynchronously through a video platform called Bubbles. 
• Four journaling prompts that you will submit to Matt

Your commitments (every two weeks):

• Watch the course videos (30 min), read the materials (30 min), and meditate with the Tarot cards
• Attend the live zoom call (2 hrs)
  
• UPDATE: We will no longer have live zoom calls. Instead, post and engage through the asynchronous video platform.
• Journal on the prompts and send your responses to Matt (20-60 min)

**Please note: This represents a sizeable commitment, which averages to about 2 hours per week of your time, over the course of six months! You will get out of the initiation what you offer into it.**

Dates

All live zoom calls are on alternate Wednesdays from 9-11am Pacific Time.

March 22nd, April 5th and 19th, May 3rd, 17th, and 31st, June 14th and 28th, July 12th and 26th, and August 9th and 23rd.

UPDATE: Every two weeks, we will explore a new module, covering 12 modules in total. We will begin on March 22nd and end on August 23rd.

Number Symbolism

According to ancient mathematical philosophers, the simple counting numbers from one to ten and the shapes that represent them, such as circle, line, triangle, and square express a consistent, comprehensible language. The ten numbers are a complete archetypal sourcebook. They are the original ten patents for designs found all through the universe. These ideal patterns are the ones that were skewed and veiled in school and that nature approximates in all transitory forms, from the smallest subatomic particles to largest galactic clusters, crystals, plants, fruits and vegetables, weather patterns, and animal and human bodies. Anything anyone can point to in nature is composed of small patterns and is a part of larger ones.

~ Michael S. Schneider

Beginning with Pythagoras and the ancient Greeks, the counting numbers were considered to be primal, mystical archetypes pervading the entire kosmos. Each number has a personality that we can befriend and get to know. Each number describes a function or power of the kosmos. Taken together they provide a comprehensive framework for reality – informing nature, art, religion, and the inner workings of our psyches.

The Tarot

Many readers are probably aware that the Tarot is not a game of cards serving mantic or prophetic purposes. Instead it is a book of initiation in which the greatest secrets are contained symbolically.

Bardon, Initiation Into Hermetics

The Tarot deck is the book of archetypes for western consciousness. Each card is an activating symbol which reaches back into the origins of our culture. When you draw a card, your waking consciousness makes contact with the archetype and the synthesis of the two creates a living message. For this reason, the Tarot is known as the Book of Life. It is a dynamically unbound book which connects across layers of consciousness and epochs of humanity.

We will be utilizing the Tarot of the Spirit deck and book in this course. The tarot deck consists of 79 cards, each of which represents an archetype and each of which can be used as an initiation. This is the occult meaning of the word arcana – the card is a spell or a doorway into a deeper mystery. The Lightning Path initiation covers the minor arcana which consists of 40 cards, numbered one to ten in four suits: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. The suits represent the shamanic and alchemical elements. In Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism, these four suits map to the four conjoined worlds that constitute the kosmos. The numbers of each suit correspond to the ten sacred spheres, called sephiroth, on the kabbalistic tree of life. These spheres describe the powers and functioning of the kosmos. Thus the Tarot deck is a complete mystical map of the universe. It is an archetypal book of life.

Invocation

How to tell if this initiation is right for you

Imagine that you were born as an eagle into the world of humans. However, from the moment of your birth onwards, each person in your life treated you as a person. Your parents, your family, your friends, and everyone in your life saw you as a person. Naturally, you learned how to be a person. You learned how to talk like a person, how to behave like a person, and how to think like a person. You put on person-clothes, went to person-school, got a person-job, and did other normal person-things. 

But deep down in you, there’s an eagle’s wild heart. It has never totally belonged to this society with rules and morals. Perhaps as you came into adulthood, you looked around at other cultures and various religions – maybe this is where I belong? But it’s all still conditioned people doing person-type things. After a number of dead ends, you gave up the search and got on with your person-life. You tried not to pay attention to that place inside of you that longed for something different… something more… 

And then one day it happens. For some it’s through a near death experience. For others, psychedelics. Still others go through an identity crisis or a trauma-healing journey. Some find one specific teacher who speaks directly to their soul. On my path, it was sex that opened me. 

It’s a recognition upon which there is no turning back: 

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: 

and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

~Acts 9:18

Whatever the means, you now recognize that you are an eagle inside this socialized shell of a person. You are wild, powerful, and free in your core. Your body has adapted to person-clothes, but you have eagle wings and talons. Your vision has become accustomed to looking at monitor screens, but in fact you possess the ability to see far beyond the person-realm. It hurts to realize that you’ve never actually used your wings. It’s terrifying to let go of your secure person-life.

And yet, the wild and majestic eagle that you are – your true nature – can no longer be suppressed. There comes a day when you leave your person-house. You slough off the person-clothes. For the very first time, you shake loose your feathers and stretch your wings wide. Even though everyone in your life will think you’ve gone totally crazy, there is something deep in you that knows what to do. 

It is not by chance that you are reading these words. Each and every moment of your life has conspired to bring you here to this place now. The kosmos has whorled and churned for billions of years to produce these exact conditions – to produce you, exactly as you are. Your moment has come: 

The wind sweeps the clifftop, beckoning you to jump.