THE MYSTERIOUS TAROT
Some time during the 13th century there appeared a strange deck of cards called the Tarot. The Tarot deck is probably the forerunner of the modern playing card deck. A close examination of the Tarot reveals that it has elements of astrology, Kaballah, numerology, alchemy, magic, mythology, Egyptology, Christian mysticism and Eastern philosophy. In a nutshell it is densely saturated with esoteric wisdom. The Tarot deck as we have it now is composed of two parts: The Major Arcana(The Greater Secret) and the Minor Arcana (The Lesser Secret) which is probably the source of present day playing cards. The word Tarot may mean "wheel" or "royal way". What are these cards about? We will never know for sure since the creators are long dead... but there are some hints. Enough chatter; let's look at the Major Arcana(the Major Secret) and see if we can find any clues to its mystery. Here are the cards of the Major Arcana in its infinity spread. Notice how card 10 (The Wheel of Fortune) and card 21 (The World) are mated. This spread is known as "The Wheels of Becoming."
CARD 0 : THE FOOL
Card 0 is usually known as the fool. It has also been called Folly, Le Mat, and El Loco - the Madman. In some versions of the card he wears a cap with asses ears. Depending on one's point of veiw these asses ears can either be considered negative or postive. In biblical history the ass is consider holy (ie, Jesus rode an ass to show his role as king). Probably for the same reason an ass was considered holy in the Bible, it was considered a symbol of the fool by others. This would be expected of the Tarot deck which basically seeks to undermine the oppresive Christianity of the middle ages. In Egypt, the ass-headed god Set was made a sacrifice for Osiris-Ra. Often the fool wears green to show his alignment with nature. His special day of the year is April Fool's day. Like a little child the fool enters a harsh world unaware of his eventual consignment to death. Two other things of note stand out on this card. First off the immortal fool is obviously about to take a fall off a cliff. Behind him is the sun. It has been said by various people that this card represents the process of "birth". This is not necessarily a physical birth but can be thought of as a birth from one way of life to another or the process of rebirth. In the infinity loop spread of the Tarot deck it can be noticed that this journey... a going and then a return to the beginning to start the journey all over again. This theme of cyclic return is also emphasized on another important card in the Tarot deck... card number 10 which is the Wheel of Fortune card. Remember that we are dealing with the concepts of time and eternity. Card 0 can be thought of as a fall into time. A fall from eternity, the void, non-entity into the world of forms.
CARD 1 : THE MAGICIAN
On this card we see the magician. The magician is a Moses archetype. The person that has been chosen by God. If we can stop for a moment to think of the role of Moses in the Bible, he was basically a magician... a wizard like Merlin. He is commander of the elements.
We are talking about a state of mind or spirit passed on through words and deeds that becomes a part of our being. The magician understands this. The word is the sword. Hermes and Osiris are both psychopomps or "Conductor of Souls", "Good Shepherds". Through time, the words of such heroes continue to guide our lives. The magician is the awakened soul who has come to realize his past masters who continue to guide him through the underworld. Master and magician are to become one. On the Tarot card are the four hallows; a grail, a pentacle, a sword and a rod. These items represent the powers of the magician and are also a part of the grail tradition.
CARD 6 : THE LOVERS
On the tantric wheel of life, its sixth picture shows two lovers kissing. The meaning of this picture is "contact" an ecounter of self with other.The next picture on the tantric wheel is "feeling" or awakening awareness through the senses. The sixth card in the Tarot deck is similar. It shows a man and a woman. The philosophy behind such images is simple; it is through physical contact that we approach the mystery of reality. In standard mythology it is a male who goes on some quest and is aided along by women(lovers or mother figures) as he progresses on his quest. In the end, he generally wins the hand of the princess he is seeking.
Through history the number 6 has often been associated with the goddess. The number 666 was a sexual charm dedicated to the triple goddess Aphrodite (Astarte). The Pythagorean mystics believed 6 was the perfect number and represented the Mother. In Latin six was sex, in Egyptian sexen means to embrace or copulate. Understanding the Bible's general ambivalence towards sexuality we can see why the number 6 and especially triple six is unfavorable. The Arabic magic word Sesame from the phrase "Open Sesame" is a derivative of the Egyptian word seshemu "sexual intercourse." Therefore the number 6 or the number of sin according to the Bible is elsewhere known as the number of love and sexuality in other belief systems.
CARD 7 : THE CHARIOT
The Chariot is another interesting card which has a meaning that has been often used throughout history. On the chariot card we see a young man riding in a chariot (personally he reminds me of Joseph in the Biblical story). The chariot is guided by two sphinxes; one black and one white. The chariot he rides is covered by a star-spangled canopy. On his belt are the signs of the zodiac. On top of his head is an eight-pointed star possibly relating to the well-known 8-spoked Buddhist life-wheels and 8 virtues of an Enlightened human (Peace, Patience, Humility, Poverty, War, Passion, Glory, and Riches). In his right hand is a scepter showing his divine authority. On the waite Tarot deck there is the Egyptian symbol of the solar disk and wings. Below it is shield that appears to show the Lingam in the Yoni or the Hindu symbol of male and female union.
The card appears to represent the world (the chariot), humanity (the rider) and the heavens(the star-spangled canopy). Notice that rider lies between. The rider has no reins to guide the chariot. Instead the chariot is guided by the pull of the black and white sphinxes. For those who have read Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parsival they will note a similarity. In Parsival, the hero is guided to the grail castle not by his own efforts but by an unknown force. Parsival allows his horse to go where it wills. In allowing the horse to do this he his automatically brought to the grail castle which we are told that no one can find by searching. It is God that supposedly leads one to the castle when they are ready. Parsival's story is full of allusions to the dilema of choosing between right and wrong. Parsival's very name means "Piercing the Valley" and refers to the middle way he has must choose. The Yoni and the Lingam remind us that the two opposing forces are in reality a unity of some greater whole. The belt of the zodiac and the solar disk and wings remind us that our hero is aligned with the energies of the universe. In a nutshell, the microcosm and the macrocosm are one... trust it... trust yourself.
CARD 10 : THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
Another very interesting card. On this card we have four creatures surrounding three in the center on a revolving wheel .On the Waite Tarot deck you will see the word Taro or Rota on the wheel depending on how you look at it. Under the letters are astrological glyphs for T(Taurus), A(Not Sure), R(Aquarius) and O (not sure). Also on the wheel is the Tetragrammaton.... or the name of the Hebrew god Jehovah/Yahweh. The four creatures appear to be the four creatures of Revelation and Ezekiel. An angel/man/serpent, an eagle, a bull and a lion. On the Waite Tarot deck these four creatures are studiously at work reading something. In the mean time three creatures are fixed to the rotating wheel of TARO or YHWH. The wheel possibly indicates the revolutions of time within eternity. On the wheel are a snake(Horus?), on the descent... (I have ruled). And ass-headed Seth on the uprise (I shall rule). The two chase each other endlessly. At the top of the wheel sits the enlightened Sphinx (I rule). On some cards underneath the wheel is a a man on all fours supporting it (I am without rule). The sphinx to his benefit or detrement sits as master atop the wheel and outside of it. He wears the royal Egyptian headress striped with black and white showing his mastery of duality.
CARD 12 : THE HANGMAN
Here we see a man hung on a gallows by one foot. Yet on his face is a look on untroublled serenity. As the sacrificial king he sits confused and humilitiated yet unafraid. His face has a look of peace on it. The Hangman's feet are arranged in a figure four. This arrangement is a throwback to an Egyptian Hieroglyph of similar design. The Egyptian hieroglyph in question means as a verb "to dance", as a noun "heart-soul." Our heart is the beat that we each dance to. Like Shiva dances his dance of life at the center of the universe, the hanged man likewise dances this universal dance whether or not his heart is in it or not. It is said that a person hanging upside down begins to become conscious of the sound of his heart as it beats it endless "I am, I am, I am."
CARD 15 : THE DEVIL
This card represents the lord of the underworld. Persian ideas of duality say that God and the Devil are twins. Both born from a being known as Infinite Time. According to the Old Testament book of Job, God and the Devil were once on much friendlier terms. In Job, the Devil was used by God as a means of testing humanity. The word Satan means "adversary" and in the old testament books that is all he was. It is not until later dualist ideas of good and evil that God becomes ultimate good and the Devil ultimate evil. But to get past the web of confusion we must realize that in the beginning the Biblical God alone took the blame for both (read the book of Job). The Greeks believed that demons(daemons) were guardians of the soul. They were also believed to be guides to buried treasures. The use of the Devil in the Tarot card represents a mandatory meeting with the ruler of the underworld. All heroes have to have this encounter, Jesus meets the Devil in the wilderness, as Osiris meets Sata(Set, Satan) the serpent king in the underworld. Often times the hero must identify with this serpent power in order to gain a better grasp on his own being. Ie. Moses heals his people from snake bites by using a copper snake himself as symbol of his power. Jesus is identified with this copper serpent when he dies on the cross to save the world (see John 3:14). Why is this meeting with the serpent necessary? Because good has no meaning or existence outside of its companion evil. Understanding this, meeting the devil (or Darth Vader in the cave), or your own suppressed evil inclinations is the first step in getting past the guardians of paradise.
CARD 19 : THE SUN
On some decks this card shows two children; a boy and a girl that have apparently returned to paradise. The girl becomes a woman called Life (Lif) and the boy becomes a man called Desirer-of-Life. They correspond to Adam and Eve, Jesus and Mary, Isis and Osiris, Sun and Moon, Mind and Matter, Light and Dark, Self and Other, Microcosm and Macrocosm. Within the walled garden or Mother womb the children live in peace again as in the beginning.
CARD 20 : THE JUDGEMENT
The angel blows its horn and the dead rise from their graves. The echos of the past continued to sound in our present. A new person has been born within the soul. Previously dead(living in ignorance), we are alive again. Jesus said in the Bible that the end of the world would come BEFORE his disciples died. (Luke 9:27, Matthew 24:34). His words were not ambigous. His followers at that time believed that Armagedon and the ressurection would come during their life times. For some, Jesus was right. One must be like children to be born again. The words Revelation or Apocalypse of the Bible book's title mean simply "a revealing/uncovering". It doesn't mean nuclear war, alien invasion, pole reversal, levitating into the clouds, or any of a zillion other delusional dreams. The Second Coming is a form of initiation.
CARD 21 : THE WORLD
This card has many names... Eve, Shekina, Sophia, Mother Nature, Truth, the Bride, the System, Major Fortune, Anima Mercury, the Universe, and The World. On this card we often see either a woman or an adrogyne encirled by a wreath. The four creatures are in the corners of the card but there is a difference. The four creatures are no longer studying the books. They are now at rest... peace. In some cards they are represented as looking outwards... into the world. Whereas on the Wheel of Fortune card they had either been reading something or looking inwards. The wheel is no longer revolving... it like the creatures and the woman inside are at rest. She has come to the center of her own existence and her own unique experience of life. The dog no longer chases its tail. Dog and tail have become one.The conscious and the unconscious are in communion. The sacred marriage has been achieved. Never "born" and never "dying"... never coming, never going, no beginning(Alpha) and no end(Omega) she dances the dance of LIFE.
Suggested Reading :
"The Exoteric Tarot" by Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts in the The Tarot Revelations.
"The Holy Grail" - Malcolm Godwin
TAROT CARD PICTURES TO BE ADDED SOON...
On to more mysteries!!!
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