The Gamble Hounsome Tarot: The Tarot of Gnosis

By Steve Hounsome

Visionary Artist Patrick Gamble has collaborated with Tarot Author and Tutor Steve Hounsome to realise this inspirational Tarot deck and book.
It became clear that the archetypes within the Tarot had asserted themselves through Patrick’s work and it was realised that this is ‘‘the Tarot deck that created itself’’!
The cards present a strong elemental influence together with a beautiful expression of the wonder of nature, beings seen and unseen, and a sense of the oneness of all life. The Gamble-Hounsome Tarot allows the user to respond to the images in their own way, whilst embracing the profound truths and teaching at the heart of traditional Tarot. It is this that leads us to learn our own Gnosis (knowing) from each card.
The book includes a unique method of working with the deck, known as the Gnosis Reading. This enables the user to access their own inner knowing and wisdom, then follow guidelines to apply this to everyday life.
Entering the Gamble-Hounsome Tarot is to journey into a world of wonder, beauty, inspiration and positive possibility, drawn from both its unique imagery and therapeutic teachings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Hounsome
• Release date: Feb 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781899878543

Steve Hounsome

Steve has been involved in this field for thirty years now and has completed a wide variety of studies and activities in this time.Steve holds qualifications in the following subjects -* Progressive Healing* Psychic Studies* Esoteric Soul Healing* Tarot* Bach Flower Remedies* Basic Counselling SkillsThe training Steve has completed is as follows -* One year Progressive Healing, Sanctuary of Progress* One year Psychic Studies, Sanctuary of Progress* Meditation - 2 years, private tutor* Natural Magic, 1 year, Marian Green* Ritual Magic, 1 year, The London Group* Esoteric Soul Healing, 2 years, Isle of Avalon Foundation* Bach Flower Remedies - Foundation Level Certificate* Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids - 12 years, now initiated Druid memberSteve has also attended lectures and workshops too numerous to mention over the years and continues to add to his knowledge and experience by attending events as they occur and maintaining his own regular sacred practices in Meditation, Yoga and Chi Kung.Steve has had articles published in many magazines, on a variety of the subjects he works in. These include Positive Health and Pagan Dawn, as well as many of the smaller titles produced in the Pagan and holistic communities.Steve has appeared on TV, twice alongside Derek Acorah on Granada TV's show 'Psychic Livetime' and acted as examiner on the Living TV series 'Jane Goldman Investigates', overseeing the work of Michelle Knight who taught the Tarot to Jane.Steve acted as advisor and consultant for the New World 'Music of the Tarot' CD, for which he also wrote the accompanying booklet.Steve has had ten books published -* Taming the Wolf: Full Moon Meditation* Practical Meditation* Practical Spirituality* Tarot Therapy Vol. 1: Tarot for the New Millenium* Tarot Therapy Vol 2: Major Arcana, The Seekers Quest* Tarot Thrapy Vol 3. Minor Arcana: The Map of the Quest* How To Be A Telephone Psychic* The Tarot Therapy Deck* The Gamble-Hounsome Tarot: The Tarot of Gnosis* Tarot for GriefSteve also plans to produce his own 'Tarot Therapy' deck and a major new course and workbook, called 'Sacred Living'.Steve has taught in person across the South of England and by distance learning internationally. Apart from his own private events, Steve has taught at Adult Education Centres in Hampshire and was tutor of the 2-year Tarot course at the prestigous 'Isle of Avalon Foundation' in Glastonbury, Somerset. Steve has tested and trained psychic readers for some of the leading telephone psychic companies in the UK, working across the world.Steve was a Founder Member and Secretary of the Professional Tarot Society and was also Secretary of the British Psychic Registration Board, although both these organisations are no longer in existence.Though a member of these Groups, Steve's approach to spirituality is an eclectic one, as he feels that every path has something to offer. He reads widely on spiritual subjects and incorporates what he learns into his teaching, in its various forms.Steve feels that a sense of the sacred for each individual is vital to the maintenance of health and well-being and for the fulfillment of our potential and development. More personally, Steve has a deep love of many forms of music, runs long-distance and cycles. He follows his own programme of yoga and chi kung. He enjoys visiting sacred and natural sites and watching football, remaining loyal to his origins by supporting his home-town team, Brighton & Hove Albion.

Book preview

PATRICK GAMBLE

Patrick Gamble was a builder by trade who underwent a life-changing experience many years ago, when he encountered his spirit guide. Prior to this, Patrick was a non-believer in the spiritual worlds but has since dedicated his life to expressing its beauty and wonder through his artwork and using these to guide people on their own spiritual path. The originals of his paintings now sell across the world to therapists, healers, centres and private buyers alike.

Patrick’s spirit guide was an artist who lived in London in the 1800’s who calls himself ‘John’. It is via him that Patrick receives his messages in the form of images. The visions he receives are accompanied here by the messages and wisdom of the Tarot.

Patrick’s gifts act as a bridge to help us receive comfort and inspiration from the world of spirit. Patricks also works offering private sittings, during which he paints whichever spirit guide or loved one in spirit comes through for the client. Patrick then provides guidance based on what he has received.

Patrick has also studied spiritual and psychic subjects widely and teaches psychic art workshops regularly, as well as appearing at Festivals, healing events and Fairs all over the country. He also conducts house clearances where energies need to be released.

Patrick’s images are always accompanied by healing and loving energies, which here find perfect expression with the Tarot. Patrick’s paintings repeatedly bring a little more joy and understanding in people’s lives.

STEVE HOUNSOME

Steve Hounsome has worked with the Tarot since he was in his teens and this has always been the backbone of his spiritual exploration and development. Steve has always felt that there has to be more to life than what we see before us and this Tarot deck is the ultimate realisation of that.

Steve is also the creator of ‘The Tarot Therapy Deck’, with its accompanying book. He is the author of the three-volume ‘Tarot Therapy’ series of books, plus three additional titles, ‘Taming the Wolf: Full Moon Meditation’, ‘Practical Meditation’ and ‘Practical Spirituality’.

Steve is a qualified Healer, as well as holding qualifications in Psychic Development, Counselling and Bach Flower Remedies. He has also completed training in Meditation, Natural and Ritual Magic, and the Qaballah, and is an initiated Druid member and mentor with the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

Apart from his writing, Steve also teaches Tarot Therapy, a wide-ranging programme of workshops and development groups and hosts a Tarot Club. He gives consultations to individuals and lectures at groups across the country. He also appears at Fairs and events, appearing on stage regularly demonstrating the Tarot. He has also appeared on TV and radio and featured in many magazines.

BACKGROUND TO THE DECK

The Gamble-Hounsome Tarot is the perfect combination of two different abilities in its Creators. All images and artwork are by Patrick Gamble, who has said he is much happier with a brush in his hand rather than a pen. All the writing is by Steve Hounsome, who loves words, both in written and spoken form, but who cannot draw at all!

The deck is named ‘The Gamble-Hounsome Tarot’ in homage to the ‘Rider-Waite’, ‘Morgan-Greer’, ‘Hanson-Roberts’ and other decks that have employed this same ‘double-barrelled’ style. The deck is subtitled ‘The Tarot of Gnosis’ to provide some definition of its style and use – as a guide to our inner wisdom, knowledge and innate knowing; of the sacredness that lies at the heart of all life.

Without knowing it, Patrick had been creating images over a number of years that were either Tarot cards complete in themselves or lent themselves perfectly to adaptation to a Tarot deck. With the knowledge and experience Steve could offer, it was really a matter of slotting the pieces of this particular jigsaw together to create the complete deck.

Such is the wealth of arcane and spiritual knowledge and wisdom within the Tarot, together with its rich and varied archetypal expression, this deck can safely lay claim to being ‘the Tarot deck that created itself’.

When Steve originally sat down to look closely at the paintings, he realised that Patrick had almost created a finished deck without knowing it! Steve credits this both to Patrick’s amazing ability, with the help of his spirit guide, plus the presence, energy, wisdom and power of what he refers to as ‘the Spirit of the Tarot’.

The Gamble-Hounsome Tarot opens-up a world that is full of enchantment, wonder, inspiration and possibility, just as our own lives could and should be. Taking the natural world as a basis, the cards express the idea of our links as human beings with this world, the separation of which lies at the root of so many individual and collective issues. Further than this, the cards also express those spiritual realms which have been neglected and forgotten but are gradually being re-discovered and are here re-imagined. It is only by embracing these unseen worlds that we can become fully whole and content, both individually and collectively. This Tarot deck offers just one way in which we can learn to become closer to them and receive the guidance and knowledge we sometimes so badly need.

This Tarot deck acts as a guide for each of us on our path towards wholeness and a greater awareness and experience of the journey and purpose of our lives. It can help us find our place in the grand scheme of things, inwardly and outwardly. The cards feature images that are closely related to the traditional images of the Tarot, yet express these more as human qualities that we each need to learn to integrate and absorb into ourselves and our lives. It is this that is the ultimate task we all face. As we do this, we also find our place on this earthly realm of existence and alter in the wider Universe. This deck also shows us this, embracing both the inner and outer realms of existence, on this Earth and beyond.

Those that are familiar with either the Tarot or receiving spiritual information and guidance will know that such things never dictate or command. This deck is no exception to this. As such the cards are presented, both in image and word, as offering a means to realise your own inner wisdom or ‘gnosis’. Close attachment to and understanding of the natural world and its energies allows us access to this. The cards here offer images of these, as they are expressed through the sacred bounty of the Tarot.

Sticking with tradition, there are 78 cards, which the vast majority of Tarot decks now have. Again, following the norm, these are divided into the Major and Minor Arcana, of 22 and 56 cards respectively.

The Minor Arcana is comprised of 4 suits, which are here based closely on the four Elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire. These in turn offer their energies and power to their corresponding levels in the human being: Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual respectively.

For those unfamiliar with the Tarot, a brief introduction follows.

BACKGROUND TO THE TAROT

EVOLUTION

In truth, no-one knows what the Tarot is, for we do not know where it came from, who first made it and why. Earliest references however, trace it to the early 1400’s in Northern Italy, with decks being hand-made for rich courtiers as a parlour game. These cards were in a far different form to what we have today and, just like humanity, it has evolved into the ubiquitous, much-loved and much-misunderstood thing it is today, arguably also rather like humanity.

It was only in the 19th Century that the Tarot began to be associated with spiritual and what were then called, occult (meaning secret) matters. This was through the works of Antoine Court de Gebelin, Etteilla, and Eliphas Levi. Later this was extended through the works of such luminaries as Samuel MacGregor Mathers, Oswald Wirth, Gerald Encausse (Papus) and of course then the infamous Aleister Crowley.

At the start of the 20th Century the most widely-known and accepted Tarot deck was published, known today variously as the Rider-Waite Tarot, or Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Created by writer, magician and theologian Arthur Edward Waite and artist Pamela Coleman-Smith, under the auspices of the magical order the ‘Golden Dawn’, still in existence today. There have since been many such decks produced as a collaboration between artist and writer, each bearing the double-barrelled name approach (Morgan-Greer, Hanson-Roberts et. al). It is in this fine tradition that we humbly submit our offering.

The Rider-Waite was the first ‘pictorial’ deck, meaning it featured an image on each and every card, rather than for example, six Swords, ten Cups or eight Pentacles, arranged in a pattern. Loaded with esoteric symbolism (specific to the workings of the Golden Dawn, something many do not realise now), this deck enabled the Tarot to be used by those uninitiated into the inner mysteries of spiritual and occult groups of the day.

This meant the accessibility and popularity of the Tarot spread, a process that was accelerated in the publishing boom of the 1960’s (and the eventual repeal of the Witchcraft Act in 1951) and further expanded by the technological advances in the last 30 years or so.

So it is we now have thousands of Tarot decks available, with every conceivable theme amongst them (and a few possibly inconceivable!). Each has something to offer and we now have the luxury of finding, or even creating (as is the case here!) the perfect Tarot deck to suit our interests, fancies and whims.

STRUCTURE

Over the years of its evolution the Tarot has settled, with a few notable exceptions, into an accepted format of 78 cards, comprising two components called the Major and Minor Arcana. Between them these deal with aspects of our task of life, offering signposts, guidance and choices along the way, to help us find wholeness, individuation or enlightenment, depending on what tradition you are working in.

The 22 cards of the Major Arcana are often known as the Journey of the Fool. The Fool is a depiction of the human soul as it makes its way through each lifetime. Along the way it is required to assimilate and learn certain lessons, common in essence to us all. These major events and realisations are depicted in these cards and pertain to those key moments in life of realisation, learning and subsequent adaptation of what we absorb.

In this deck we have chosen to replace traditional names of some cards which can cause confusion and fear in people, in order to make them more accessible and hopefully more easily understood. Facing our fears can be an important part of our growth, but we do not have to do so in ignorance. In doing so we have taken care not to dilute the power and energy of the card and what it is about. Indeed we hope that where changed, the names given have enhanced the energy and meaning of the card as they apply in this deck. This is also for the purposes of expressing the fundamental qualities we are required to first identify, then accept and finally embrace and absorb into our personality, character and actions in our lives. Expressed traditionally thought the Major Arcana cards and names, we have here replaced the accepted names, such as the Magician and High Priestess, with their prime qualities and energies, e.g. Magic and Intuition. Where changes have been made, these are made clear in the text for each card.

The 56 cards of the Minor Arcana are divided into the four suits, each covering an aspect of the human being and its methods in life. These can be given different names specific to the theme of the deck, the most accepted being Pentacles, Cups, Swords and Wands. Here we have replaced Swords with Arrows, these relating more to the Native American influence of this suit in the images used.

The suit of Pentacles relate to the physical level of the human being and our life, as depicted through the Element of Earth. These cards guide us in the everyday, practical level of our life, showing us the influence of the energy of our body and what we do with it in life, together with our home life, work, money, health and so on. This suit then deals with anything that is tangible in life. The images focus mainly on animals of the Earth, Deer and Horses, using the analogy here of our own energy as horse-power and how we are deploying this in our lives.

The suit of Cups shows us the emotional influences at work in ourselves and lives, through the Element of Water. Our emotions require appropriate expression and need to flow, just like Water, in order to avoid becoming a poisonous pollution in our being and life. These cards use water and its inhabitants in various forms for their illustration, showing us the workings of energy at this emotional, feeling level of the human being. There is also a strong Faery influence to these cards, demonstrating the soft and gentle nature often required in our emotional make-up and understanding.

The suit of Arrows relates to our mental level and the energy and influence of our thinking on our well-being. Dealing also with communication and therefore movement, these cards depict the power and energy of the Element of Air and how we relate to this in our lives. Birds and wolves relate closely to the areas of Air and our communications and mental-workings, as shall be seen in each image. Carrying the symbols of Arrows, these should be seen as our thoughts and their impact both upon ourselves and others.

Lastly the suit of Wands relates to our spiritual existence, well-being, and growth, expressed through the workings of the Element of Fire. As distinct from the Soul, our spiritual selves and lives are seen as the inner fire, as the energy that motivates us; our instincts along with our inspiration and creativity, perhaps the most primal and pivotal influence in the working of the human being. These cards depict fiery workings in many forms, including Dragons, Lions and not least a certain magic.

In the Court Cards of the Tarot, we find four belonging to each suit, typically going under the titles of Page, Knight, Queen and King. They are perhaps best thought as being in alignment with the Element to which they belong, these being Earth, Fire, Water and Air respectively. It is this combination of Elements that tells us about the power or energy that each of these cards have. It is important to realise here that these do not only represent people, but also an approach, attitude or aptitude we may need to employ, or that we may being affected by. As we shall see, these influences can come into our selves and lives through many different ‘people’, taking many different shapes, sizes and forms. It is these that are of importance, rather than the individuals themselves. To reflect this approach, the titles have been allotted as per the table below, for each of the cards in their respective suits.

TRADITIONAL TITLE GAMBLE-HOUNSOME TITLE

PAGE WORKER

KNIGHT INSPIRER

QUEEN FEELER

KING THINKER

These show us the primary role each takes in ourselves and our lives, however they might come to us. The manner in which these influences may need to be carried out will depend on the suit to which they belong. For example, the work that the ‘Pages’ indicate will be in the mind for Arrows and in the Heart for Cups. The Thinking of the Kings is done in a practical way for Pentacles and in an inspirational way for Wands and so on.

CARD BACKS

The image on the back of the cards is known as ‘Grandfather’. Here he is a depiction of that inner knowing inherent in all human beings, however detached and remote from it we may feel we are and can become at times. There is always a part of us that ‘knows’ what is right, whether we call this our intuition, gut-feeling or conscience. Here we refer to this as ‘gnosis’ meaning ‘wisdom’ and it is to this gnosis that the Tarot guides us always.

Seen as a Grandfather figure, here he is depicted in space, to show he is not limited by the boundaries of earthly existence and dimension. His gaze rests and ponders on the symbols of the four suits as they appear before him. He is then able to have a detached and objective view, which we need to view ourselves clearly and which the Tarot is able to offer us. As such it is also possible to see him as the personification of the human soul, the embodiment of the Major Arcana.

That he is male is irrelevant (and possibly shown as such as the creators of the deck are both men!) since at the soul level we are beyond gender, this being something of earthly existence and limitation. That he creates a circle from his energy is a reference to the circular nature of life; that as energy we cannot die, only