EP 335 — Russell Sturgess: Tarot For Progressive Enlightenment

Mar 4, 2025

In this episode, Russell Sturgess, a global thought leader on mindfulness and Tarot expert, dives deep into the essence of progressive enlightenment. He shares insights on living off-the-grid, emphasizing stillness as a path to spiritual growth. The conversation explores the meaning of grace in relation to divine abundance and contrasts acquired versus innate happiness. Russell also unpacks the intriguing symbolism of Tarot cards, including the Fool and the Emperor, and discusses how dreams can inspire profound personal transformations.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ADVICE

Use A Daily Tarot Draw As Soul Weather

Use tarot as a daily soul-weather report: draw cards to get your ego out of decisions and let deeper guidance direct your day.
Paul Chek uses a six-card morning draw to plan energy for patient sessions and challenges.

INSIGHT

Spirit Through A Prism Creates The Sevenfold Path

Russell connects the spirit-to-body passage to a rainbow analogy: consciousness through the I Am portal disperses into seven aspects (like chakras) modulated by four elemental faces.
He links this to the Beatitudes as stages.

INSIGHT

Hanged Man As The Poor In Spirit Crossroad

The Hanged Man marks the dark night of the soul: pruning of life, total loss, and the first opening to the kingdom when spirit is broken.
Russell ties this to Beatitude one: poor in spirit leads to a real chance at the kingdom.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

What does enlightenment really mean to you?

For some, it can conjure up images of sitting in silence with monks in an ashram for days on end in prayer. For people like Paul and Russell Sturgess, however, the path to enlightenment means something much deeper, more realistic and illuminating at a soul level.

Paul and Russell explore progressive enlightenment by way of the Major Arcana of the Tarot this week on Spirit Gym. (Download this PDF handout and follow along with Paul and Russell as they review the Tarot!)

Explore Russell’s work at his website where you can book a free 15-minute session to learn more about working with him and take courses on the Cathar Code and join his Pathways to Mindfulness mentoring program. Check out his lectures on YouTube.

Paul will also be hosting an exclusive Q&A session with Russell Sturgess for Spirit Gym podcast members at a future date so sign up for your Spirit Gym podcast membership today!

Timestamps

3:08 Russell lives off-the-grid in a modern hesychasm (stillness).

9:59 “Enlightenment is about spiritual awareness.”

18:19 Do you want acquired happiness or innate happiness?

29:35 Grace: The fuel that opens doors and powers your abundance.

36:53 The Fool.

44:14 The most important symbol in the Tarot card deck.

52:28 Are you more awake when you’re sleeping?

57:05 The I am portal.

1:00:00 The Emperor and Empress.

1:08:07 The Magician (a spiritual billboard).

1:15:55 Programming.

1:24:37 Many of the world’s greatest inventions came by the way of dreams.

1:31:00 In a world based on unsustainable values, what you assume is permanent probably won’t be…

1:42:45 “If a picture is worth a thousand words, an archetype is worth millions of images.”

1:56:52 Are you fulfilled, happy or both?

2:01:11 A skill for learning how to be more aware by not using commas in sentences.

2:19:03 The Cathar and catharsis.

2:30:08 A journey of theosis.

Resources

The Spiritual Roots of the Tarot: The Cathar Code Hidden in the Cards by Russell Sturgess

Get Out of Jail Card: A journey of self-worth by Russell Sturgess

Find more resources for this episode on our website.

Music Credit: Meet Your Heroes (444Hz) by Brave as Bears

Thanks to our awesome sponsors:

Paleovalley
BIOptimizers US and BIOptimizers UK PAUL15
Organifi CHEK20
CHEK Institute
Spirit Gym

We may earn commissions from qualifying purchases using affiliate links.