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Read more about the background and sales of the Nan Yar card game, the Nan Yar Life Counseling personal card readings and the group training that you can do in the Energy Counseling practice, with the Nan Yar card game as a guide.
The Insights relate to the epiphanies we receive, fueled by inner knowing. Insights overrule what is conceived through cultural inheritance. In Tarot ‘Insights’ correspond with Wands. They are the seedlings that eternally live within and come to fruition in the course of time and space.
Element: Air
Characteristic: Intuition, Initiate Knowledge.
The Challenges reflect the incentives every human being encounters on its path that force that person to come into action and create its own life, true to its core. It is the development of the I-consciousness, the nucleus of who you really are, that is at play here, as opposed to the masks people tend to wear in certain situations. Challenges are void of any pretence or make belief. They are so to speak: the real thing, that travels with its rightful owner no matter where that owner goes. It’s the thing one cant hide from or escape. In the game of Tarot, Challenges coincide with Swords.
Element: Fire
Characteristic: Re-birth, Eternity.
The Gifts represent the natural talents and characteristics everyone carries within from the day of birth till the day of passing; giving each and everyone of us our particular and personal traits which enable us, each in our own way to fulfill life’s contract. The catch is however that the rightful owner needs to make them work, again, everyone in their own way. It is for this reason each Gift is personalized. In the game of Tarot, Gifts correspond with Cups, the symbol of immortality.
Element: Water
Characteristics: The Divine Element, Love, Emotion.
The Tools represent those mechanisms that help us to realize a goal in the physical world. Money, for instance is a means to a goal, but also the travels you make, the work you do, the book you write, your meditation practice or physical exercises, are steppin’ stones on the road to personal development. As such they are a Tool, rather than a target. In the game of Tarot they coincide with Coins/Pentacles.
Element: Earth
Characteristics: Consistency, Foundation, Meaning.
The 'Nan Yar - Who Am I' card game for personal development includes four colors - or groups - of fourteen cards each. We know these colors from normal card games and the Tarot game as well. The colors represent the Challenges, Insights, Gifts and Tools that everyone has in his or her life. Besides the colors, the game has 21 Trump Cards, or Archetypes, that each have their own Challenge, Insight, Gift or Tool.
The Page is the student in each person; the archetype of the process of gaining life experience. In each human being, he represents the personal development of the soul.
The Knight is the performer. Where the Page is the student, the Knight has the job, the assignment, the mission. The Knight will do whatever is required to do something, at the same time protecting his honor and that of others, without exaggerating or underachieving.
The King is the representative of Thought, which is part of every development. He lives true to his nature and sees beyond certain horizons. The legendary King Arthur sets a perfect example.
The Queen represents the element of feeling that is part of every development. We can either do things mechanically or as society thinks it should be or we can go about life inspired; engaging, giving, adding part of ourselves.
The Court Cards (Page, Knight, Queen and King) of each color series have their own rank with which they influence reality on soul level.
We all carry characteristics of the court cards within us. Just as humanity as a whole evolves in the course of existence, overcoming new challenges, acquiring new insights, ultimately getting the chance to improve the quality of life with the available tools; each and every one of us, individually, gets a chance to ‘improve’ during a lifetime. In the course of life, we acquire deeper insights that supersede our basic skills. These insights develop within our core, within our soul, adding to the ‘common’ properties of a being human.
The first layer of the Trump Cards (cards I – VII) is the physical layer, or the ‘experience soul’. This layer mirrors the physical conditions on earth through which we gain life experience.
The second layer of the Trump Cards (cards VIII-XIV) addresses the evolving soul or peace of mind. This reflects the journey that the soul makes during its earthly existence.
The third layer of the Trump Cards (cards XV-XXI) concerns the consciousness soul; developing the I-consciousness and act upon it. What you own, or what people say about you, is subordinate to who you really are.
The Nil (0) Card of the 'Nan Yar - Who Am I' game for personal development is The Storyteller, the personification of the I or Higher Self, and not to be confused with the Ego. In the Tarot, the nil card is called The Fool, who essentially represents the blank slate, unencumbered by age, gender or cultural background. The Fool is also a person who is free of convention and unwritten rules.
The Trump Cards, or archetypes are numbered I through XXI, and are distributed over three layers of seven cards each.
1. the Temporal Body (cards I-VII)
2. the Evolving Soul (cards VIII-XIV)
3. the Eternal Spirit (cards XV-XXI)
The Storyteller is the unique Nil Card, who ‘ignorantly’, without preconceived notions, wanders through the experiences of the other 21 trump cards.
Nil is a unique number which exists completely independently. It can’t be divided by anything, and doesn’t allow itself to be increased or decreased. None of the other numbers can exercise influence on the nil. The nil always remains itself.
The 1 symbolizes the potential inherent in a project or life path. The 1 is the beginning of everything. Every other number multiplied by 1 remains unchanged. In that regard, 1 can be included in all the other numbers and be a part of them, without losing its own identity. 1 harbors all potential.
The 2 symbolizes duality, the polarity of a situation. We often learn what we really want by first examining the opposite possibility.
The 3 is the number of creation, of the body, soul and mind, wherein all the elements of being human come together. The 3 represents creation, transformation, change.
The 4 is the number of balance, also called the ‘comfort zone’, that state of being when we feel at ease. This indicates that there is actually more to consider. Therefore, you must move ‘out of the box’ to number 5. The 4 represents balance, decisiveness, action, conformation.
The 5 is the number of quintessence. The truth often lies in the middle, and to learn what you actually want and can do, you go to the core of the issue with the 5, as there are always more options.
The 6 is the number of communication, with your surroundings, but especially with yourself. Not only in a verbal sense, but in regards to everything having to do with the word relationship, in word and gesture, intuition and the spirit, with others as much as with the I. When you clearly know ‘what you’re worth’, your relationship with your surroundings also improves.
The 7 is the number which rounds the basics of what you need. From here, you can add extra’s with the 8, 9 and 10. Seven is the number that completes the conditions for doing something. From here, we add soul and spiritual elements to the physical whole.
The 8 represents the first insights you’ll find behind the veil of illusions. The number 8 begins adding value. We build upon what is already there, and give it our own interpretation.
The 9 adds your own talents to what is already there. The 9 represents the spiritualization of the project we are working on, or of the life path we are walking.
The 10 represents the ultimate manifestation of something. The 10 represents self-realization, but also self-critique, depending on how we choose to interpret it.
Made up of two 1s, it is bursting with potential, as much in regards to vulnerability as in power. Together they form a 2, the number of polarity, when showing vulnerability, on the one hand, creates power, while true power, on the other hand, ensures that vulnerability is possible.
Twelve, added together to make the number 3, stands for creativity. As separate numbers, the 1 stands for potential and the 2 for duality. In this instance: to grow, one must first take a leap.
The number 13 appears often in esoteric history. Separately, the 1 is the number of potential, and the 3 is the number of creation. Added together, the 13 forms the number 4, which stands for balance, but with the caveat that there is more to come. It is scientific law that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The 1 in the 14 still stands for potential. Through only using what you need, and lowering waste, you’ll see enormous profit. The 4 represents, in this instance, the balance between need and completion. Together they form 5, the quintessence of the matter.
As a 1 and a 5, the number 15 includes potential and the quintessence of every situation. Together, they add up to the number 6, which represents the ability to communicate.
The 1 and the 6 stand respectively for potential and communication. At the same time, as the 7, they are the number of all the conditions necessary, in this instance, to become more spiritual.
The 1 and the 7 stand for potential, and the presence of all necessary conditions. At the same time, they form an 8, and thereby add something unique to what is already in motion.
Separately, the 1 stands for all human potential, while the 8 stands for the eight-fold path, the journey of discovery for the I. Added together, the 9 stands for the path to spirituality.
The 1 is the absolute power of everything. The 9 is spirituality. Together they form the 10, the ultimate manifestation.
With only the number 2 wielding power here, the 20 represents duality, and with the nil, we come back to The Storyteller, who is the responsible for what happens to him- or herself during life’s journey. At the same time, what the Storyteller chooses for him- or herself is of utmost importance to the greater whole.
The 2 in the number 21 is the number of duality, of Yin and Yang, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness. With this, we achieve the 1, the potential for everything. At the same time, 21 forms the 3, the number of creation.
Every number has a unique energy, and therefore a unique meaning and role in the interpretation of the card, in combination with the color or the archetype.
