William Lammey was living in Austin, Texas in the 1980's - working as an architect and functioning as the owner of a bookstore. As Lammey himself states, the quality of life in the mid-80's in Austin was not good - partially due to the crumbling oil economy, and partially due to the impact of the aids epidemic. To help cope with this, Lammey fell back on his studies in Eastern philosophy (including Zen Buddhism and Taoism) - taking them from the realm of intellectual pursuits to the realm of everyday living. We have all benefited from the system of reading that came out of his work. Lammey's aim with this work was to create a system that would enable our intuitive Soul/Spirit self to communicate with our objective Mind/Emotion/Body self. I believe that he succeeded (indeed - this is what Tarot is all about)!
One of the first things that Lammey does is give working definitions of the principles of karma and reincarnation. Reincarnation is defined as the belief that the soul never dies - that it is reborn in a series of lifetimes, which is the process of the evolution of our consciousness. Karma is defined as the belief that the soul's purpose (agenda) for any given lifetime is determined by your progress on the path of your evolving consciousness. Each lifetime is driven by the power of free will, and by the Karmic Contract that our soul made coming into it. Our challenge is to stay centered on our path.
Credit: Bonnie Cehovet (Certified Tarot Grand Master, a professional Tarot reader with over ten years experience, a Reiki Master/Teacher and a writer)
