Daily Mail ‘Psychic Feature’
(Extracts from a double page spread published Saturday July 12, 2003)

‘New research claims that 3 out of 4 people have special powers. Are you one of them?
Most of us dismiss it as the fantasy of cranks – but believers claim psychic phenomena are, in fact, extraordinarily common. But what is a psychic experience and how do you tell if you’ve had one? A new book by psychic expert Paul Roland claims not only to answer these questions but also to help you develop your own hidden psychic powers….
The word psychic is derived from the Greek word ‘psukhe’ meaning soul. It is applied to a person who has developed either a ‘sixth sense’, or an ability which appears to be outside the possibilities determined by natural law.
This would include telepathy, all forms of extra sensory perception and the ability to foretell the future.
Paul Roland stresses that psychics are not cranks. He cites as an example Winston Churchill, who seemed to have a sixth sense which warned him of danger.
Once, during the blitz, Churchill was about to climb into a car – the driver was holding the left-hand side door open for him – when he heard an inner voice say Stop. Then, to the bafflement of the poor driver, he walked around the car and got in the other side.
During the journey a bomb exploded nearby – piercing the left side of the car with shrapnel. Had Churchill been sitting in his usual seat, he would have been killed.
Psychics use their powers in many different ways, from the full-blown mediums who speak to their spirit guides in trances, to those who interpret dreams and read Tarot cards.

YOUR PSYCHIC RATING
If you answer Yes to three or more questions, then you clearly have psychic ability.
(1)Have you ever had an out-of-body experience?
(2)Do you sometimes ‘know’ in advance that a friend or family member is going to phone you or visit unexpectedly?
(3)Have you ever found yourself in a situation which seems strangely familiar and yet you are sure that you haven’t experienced it before?
(4)Have you ever been overwhelmed by an unaccountable negative feeling towards a stranger or someone you have just met?
(5)Have you ever sensed that someone has had the ability to calm and comfort you just by being near you?
(6)Can you ease physical pain simply by laying your hand on the affected part of your own or another person’s body?
(7)Have you ever been disturbed by a negative atmosphere at a particular place which you later learnt was the location of a violent incident or the scene of suffering?
(8)Can you sense the serenity in a sacred place such as a church or in room where people practice meditation?
(9)Have you ever seen a ghost or sensed an unseen presence?
(10) Have you ever smelt the distinctive fragrance of a loved one who is deceased?
(11) Are you sensitive to the energy of minerals and plants? Can you feel a tingling sensation when handling a crystal?
(12) Have you ever sensed a presence when there was no one near you or felt what could be described as cobwebs touching your skin?
(13) Have you ever had a vision or knowledge of a future event that you have been able to verify?
(14) Can you see a vivid blue outline or any other colours around people with whom you have an affinity?
(15) Do you have dreams that seem more real than your everyday experience?
(16) Have you ever dreamt about a loved one who has died and woken with a sense that it was not a dream at all?
(17) Have you ever been apart from someone who is close to you and instinctively known what they were doing and later discover that you were right?
(18) Have you ever seen a single unblinking eye staring back at you when you close your eyes and are relaxed?
(19) When someone tells you of their plans do you ever have a strong feeling how it will turn out? And have you been proved right?
(20) Do you have a strong affinity to a particular period in history and a nagging suspicion that a particular place and time were significant for you in a past life?

Learn How To Free Your Mind
Psychic expert Paul Roland believes that we can all develop our own psychic powers by simple exercises, training and practice. This will give us greater self-confidence and self-realisation.
Psychic healing and reading the aura – the haze of coloured light that some claim to be able to see surrounding every living thing – that just two of the psychic abilities that you should be able to use he says, once you have learned to trust your intuition.
Roland even gives instructions – and tutors classes – in how to get in touch with your personal Guardian Angel.
But most of us should, perhaps, start with simpler things such as learning to expand our consciousness.’
[More follows on the subject of Pendulum Power, Seeing the aura, Scrying, Tarot, Dreams, Out-of-body experiences, I Ching taken from my book]
Adapted by Julian Champkin from ‘How Psychic Are You?’ by Paul Roland (Hamlyn)

‘Psychic News’ feature 12 April 2003

‘Kabbalah Cards – The New Tarot?’
Spiritual counsellor and author Paul Roland has created the Kabbalah Cards (to be published by AGM Muller in August 2003) with artist Sylvia Gainsford (who illustrated ‘The Tarot of the Old Path’) as a visual aid to simplify the ageless wisdom of the Kabbalah and as a practical tool for self-discovery. By using the cards in spreads similar to those used in tarot readings anyone who wishes to take control of their life can discover the underlying themes of their life and the means by which they can overcome difficulties and make the most of their opportunities.
There are a number of Kabbalah tarot packs currently on the market, but the Kabbalah Cards are unique in that they do not predict events as random episodes in our lives, but instead provide a psychological and spiritual profile using the ideographic meanings of the Hebrew letters. These explain why we find ourselves in certain situations, what lessons they are trying to teach us and how we can use them for greater self-awareness and spiritual growth.
Paul Roland is a teacher of spiritual development and meditation. He is also the author of more than a dozen books including 'Angels' (Piatkus), ‘Meditation Solutions’ (Hamlyn), 'The Complete Book of Dreams' (Hamlyn), 'Kabbalah’ (Piatkus), 'Investigating The Unexplained' (Piatkus) and 'How Psychic Are You?' (Hamlyn). His work has been translated into several languages including Hebrew, Hungarian, German, French, Norwegian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch and Portuguese.
His own mystic experiences began when he was still a child and led him to study various aspects of the esoteric, including yoga, meditation, Buddhism and the Kabbalah, the latter with one of the foremost Masters of our time.
Paul told Psychic News: ‘Problems arise for a reason, not as obstacles to our progress.
I have been writing books on various aspects of mind, body and spirit for major publishers for many years and enjoyed a certain amount of success, but a few months ago I came to an impasse. For no apparent reason the work dried up and I couldn’t hustle up new projects. My frustration was compounded by a delay in the publication of a set of Kabbalah cards that I had created with the artist Sylvia Gainsford (who illustrated the Tarot of the Old Path). But instead of blaming the publishers for being slow and others for not seeing the potential in the other ideas that I proposed I instead asked myself, ‘why has this situation arisen and what is it trying to teach me?’ I’m still reeling from the answer.
When an avenue of activity is closed off to us it is not necessarily to test our resolve. More often it is an indication that it is time to take a detour.
I had created the Kabbalah Cards a year ago after having made a radical reinterpretation of the Tarot in the light of its relationship to the Tree of Life, which is the symbolic diagram used by Kabbalists to explore the inner worlds of the human psyche. Kabbalah had a reputation for being archaic, impenetrable, theoretical and infinitely complex. I was determined to reveal its profound truths as being of practical use in everyday life and divinely simple. The cards (which are based on the ideographic meaning of the Hebrew letters) do not make predictions, but offer a psychological profile revealing why we encounter certain problems and how we can overcome these difficulties and make the most of our opportunities. 
Now the way ahead was clear, broad and straight. I had to leave the security of my writing sanctuary and prove the validity of the cards by giving readings and in so doing develop my intuitive abilities which writing alone could not have developed to the same degree.
If all ‘problems’ open as many doors as wide and inviting as this one had done I personally welcome them!’

Second feature published in ‘Psychic News’ 26 April 2003

The Tree And The Tarot – a radical new interpretation of the tarot by Paul Roland
'...the Tarot, the most satisfactory of all the systems of divination, rises from and finds its explanation in the Tree and nowhere else...when it is realised that the initiate works the Tarot and the Tree together, and that they dovetail into each other at every imaginable angle, it will be seen that such an array of correspondences could be neither arbitrary nor fortuitous.' (Dion Fortune)
 
It is my understanding that the Tarot was devised primarily as a Kabbalistic teaching tool to imprint the archetypal images on the unconscious and to facilitate exploration of the upper worlds in pathworking visualisations and not as a means of divination. That practice appears to have developed after the cards were adopted by practitioners outside the tradition, specifically the Romany peoples and the Christian occultists.
The relationship between the tarot cards and the Tree of Life is quite striking. In each tarot pack there are four suits (most commonly called wands, swords, cups and pentacles) corresponding to each of the four Worlds (Emanation, Creation, Formation And Action).
Each suit comprises ten cards, one for each sephirah, plus a King, Queen, Knight and Page which equate with the four elements (Fire, Air, Water and Earth) which exist both in nature and in finite form within ourselves. Fire being equated with our spirit, Air with the Intellect, Water with the Emotions and Earth with the physical body. These four trumps and the ten number cards are commonly known as the Minor Arcana.
In addition there are twenty-two trumps or picture cards known as the Major Arcana which relate to the twenty-two paths connecting the sephirah on the Tree of Life which symbolise the stages of individual evolution leading to self-realisation or Enlightenment.
If the Tarot cards are to be placed on the Tree they must reflect the natural world, the life cycle of the individual and his or her increasing self-awareness in the ascent back up the Tree to the Source. For that reason I have reassigned all the cards of the Major Arcana according to Kabbalistic principles which I believe adds to a new understanding of the Tree as an expression of these universal laws and also to each individual's progress through life. In this logical fashion all the elements in the system are consistent and can be validated by the reader for themselves according to simple common sense and what they see reflected in the world around them. 
The tarot cards on the lower paths represent the forces at work in the physical world. The first is the universal law of cause and effect known in the Hindu tradition as karma (symbolised by The Wheel of Fortune). The second is freewill and self-determination (symbolised by The Fool). These complimentary impulses seek balance in discernment, which is the principle lesson of this life (represented by the tarot card known as The World). On either side of Yesod, the sphere representing the ego, (also known as the ordinary mind or Lower self), is The Hermit symbolising curiosity and the search for self-awareness and its opposite, the Tower, symbolising false pride and ambition.
The struggle between the intellect and the passions is symbolised by The Lovers at the lowest point of the emotional realm while on the vertical path between the ego and the Higher Self is the Hanged Man who personifies self-doubt and indecision.
On a psychological level the Devil symbolises the struggle between the intellect and the Higher Self. In a reading the Devil represents self-deception, indulgence and enslavement. The latter being the state we create when we over commit ourselves in order to satisfy our ambitions or prove ourselves superior to others.
If we can transcend this impulse for self-aggrandisement we open communication with the Higher Self and strengthen our connection with the Life Force (The Sun) resulting in increasing self-awareness and a sense of well-being. This awakening invariably finds expression in the development of psychic and intuitive powers (represented by The Moon). The Moon and The Sun also symbolise the qualities of inner reflection and worldly wisdom which come with maturity and experience. In this context The Star could be seen as representing the inner guiding light which leads us from self-gratification and desire to Unconditional Love on the first stage of ascent back to the Divine.
On the higher axis, balancing the qualities which we simplify as Justice and Mercy is the card known as Temperance, which corresponds to restraint, moderation and self-discipline.
On either side rising from the sphere of the Higher Self to the spheres of Binah and Hokhmah are the cards of the High Priest and the Priestess. These equate with the acquisition of spiritual knowledge and the strength of one's convictions which lead to Wisdom and Understanding when balanced with experience of the world. These cards symbolise the inner growth of the individual.
I have placed the Death card between the High Priest and the Priestess on the vertical path leading through Daat to indicate that there has to be an ending to the idea of a separate self if we are to cross the abyss of Daat to attain union with the Divine. In a personal reading this card will translate as the need for change to overcome an obstacle in order to reach a specific goal. It is a fallacy that the Death card is a negative 'omen' and neither, for that matter are the cards known as The Devil and The Tower. If these are drawn during a reading they should be regarded simply as self-defeating impulses which are there to be overcome on our inexorable path to fulfilment.
Once we have transcended our limitations and come to terms with our fears we cross the abyss into the realm of Adam Kadmon (The Magician), the fully realised human being who has command over the four worlds within himself and, thus, over his own life.
Completing the supernal triad are the Emperor and Empress symbolising the fulfilment of the male and female principles within each of us.
Beneath them on the outer pillars in order of descent are the cards of Judgement and Justice which in the individual equate with compassion and a sense of responsibility .
It will be seen that the cards assigned to the outer paths in my scheme reflect the structure of society with the Heads of State (symbolised by the Emperor and Empress) above the law of the land (Justice and Judgement) which is in turn enforced by soldiers and police (Chariot and Strength) who are the outer expressions of order and civilisation.
Again, in accordance with tradition, I am obliged to say that the above is my personal interpretation and it may not accord with that of other initiate.