1-Please lay out the 22 Major Arcana cards in the following manner
0- FOOL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
(With the fool at the top and the rest of the MAJOR Arcana in 3 rows of 7 cards each)
2-View this as A STORY, STARTING WITH THE FOOL& REACHING CARD 21 ...and back again to 0 and restarting again and again endlessly...! This is the true essence of tarot...a symbolic representation of the spiritual secrets underlying humanity’s evolution!
3-Observe that each line deals with a different stage of life or evolution!
The first line deals with the OUTER,, CONSCIOUS, PHYSICAL experiences! BODY!
The second line takes you to the INNER, SUBCONSCIOUS PLANES. …and its MENTAL growth! MIND!
And the third line takes you deeper…or higher! As both are synonymous! And depicts the DEEPER, SUPRA-CONSCIOUS, BACK ‘HOME’ stage of life. SPIRIT!
4-EACH CARD is a stage, quality, or experience that we must each go through, towards disempowering its weaknesses and expanding its strengths. Each ‘line’ is made up of 7 steps…and ofcourse 7 is a mystical number with the 7 chakra’s, musical notes, colours of the rainbow etc…
So the fool starts his journey (in line one) with the development of his human personality and outer maturity and the delights and experiences of the physical, day-to-day, tangible life! One can of course live life at this line…it gives us all we need in our personal realities!!
But like most of us, the fool realizes there is more…and delves into line 2 towards development of the inner self! And as he moves from self…to Self- encompassing ‘others’ within this expanded Self, his life experiences reflect this expansion!
And then, there is more! But to find this he needed the experiences of the first two lines; and strengthened by these can he move further from self to Self to SOURCE… and union with ‘All’ that is! And then truly experience spirit…heaven…on earth in line 3!
So please follow my story through your ‘book’ of cards laid out in front of you! And what a delightful book, because once we have ‘read’ it we can indeed shuffle the ‘pages’ and lay out a whole new book, in new ways…again and again!
5-STORY IN BRIEF:
FOOL: The fool depicts SPIRIT! The universal URGE to BE…to EXPERIENCE ALL THAT IS! And spirit being SPIRIT trusts Itself implicitly, and leaps again and again into different planes of experience! So that All That Is ….may paradoxically forever be ‘more’…! And in human terms the fool depicts the ‘urge’ to experience, be, grow, enjoy…. it is evolution; it is inherent!
Line 1: The development of a rounded personality is very important to inner and spiritual growth; and thus this line is all about personal growth, the outer personality and its social development and success.
Cards 1 and 2 as the starting points are the MASCULINE AND FEMININE principle, the 2 absolutes required for any further creation on the physical plane: CREATIVE POWER & ACTION and the WISDOM & STILLNESS to give it form. Card 3 is its result= CREATION, LIFE and all its ABUNDANCE and beauty and bliss! It is also thus MOTHER! Card 4 is the STRUCTURE, organization, rules that are then required – and thus also the FATHER, who goes out into the larger world! The human ‘ego’ develops here to navigate beyond the natural world that the fool-spirit in form- has thus far experienced! Card 5 shows that at this stage, we need must move beyond the family unit, into becoming part of GROUPS and exploring social BELIEFS, VALUES, through schools and religious orders and defining what belief system we choose to ‘BELONG AND COMMIT ’ to! And in Card 6 of course, we find LOVE! We seek RELATIONSHIPS and HARMONY with special ‘others’ and we touch the spirit that we are, again, for the first time since we started this journey- albeit through another-the beloved! And in this we make our first independent heartfelt CHOICE beyond mother, father, and often society! Card 7 takes us to the pinnacle of the outer human experience- SUCCESS! Acclaim! We experience MASTERY of self and get a taste of Self for the first time… and real-ize we are indeed the magician and high priestess to manifest what we choose into its tangible expression –its delightful experience! We have come a long way…from being the first urge…the fool…and have CONQUERED all the diverse factors of the game so to say…we have WON…the first round….!
NOTE: card 1 and 2 – the yin-yang dualities (action/stillness- power/wisdom-outside /inside- mind/emotions etc) need to be integrated through the journey for the experiences of card 3. Card 4 gives outer structure to the free flowing nature of card 3. Card 5 gives us the inner structure! Card 6 reflects outer-integration and card 7 inner- integration!
So the fool has done it! We can live life at this line! But as I said above, it is a natural instinct to grow! Evolution is inherent and the fool in each of us leaps again!
LINE 2- so now (through line 2) we go within…! The second line is concerned with inner growth (as different from the first which was more about outside life!) and thus mind-expansion! Which truly is the stepping-stone to what we call spiritual growth!
Thus the cards symbolisms are archetypes of psychological qualities and inner events rather than the first lines very obvious outer symbolism!
In card 8 we see the result of the above inner and outer structure & integration! This union is experienced within as inner STRENGTH and compassion and PATIENCE and coming to terms with WHO I AM! My PASSION! My reason to be! Here the unity of the lovers card and the integration of the chariots card, finds its higher expression! And thus magician and high priestess too combine in powerful ways! This gives us the strength to follow this ‘self’ in CARD 9- which reflects a switch of focus from outer, day-to-day life and its concerns to the inner journey and development! We now have the strength of purpose (of card 8) to WITHDRAW, INTROSPECT, find our OWN ANSWERS! And what the hermit ‘finds’ is that there is no ‘other’…he real-izes it is all about Self! In this, SOLITUDE takes on a new meaning and we come ‘out’ to face the world in enhanced ways…! Because by card 10 - we have understood DESTINY is self-created and thus we can accept and handle life’s CONSTANT FLOW AND MOVEMENT AND CHAIN OF EVENTS better! We understand each turn of the wheel brings us what we have chosen to experience for our ‘higher’ good…and with this LARGER VISION we can rest at the hub, even while we flow along with the wheels experiences! Confident now, that each turn of the wheel/cycle does not bringing us back to the same place as one may mistakenly have thought- but that the wheels motion is more like a spiral leading us, with each new turn, to a newer level of being! And in card 11, (the center point of the journey) we now view the causes of this outer destiny- within us… as our plans, thoughts, and choices…! We understand KARMA is not in past actions only, but in current thoughts and soul plans and through this we understand for the first time true JUSTICE = life! In this turning point we take complete SELF-RESPONSIBILITY for life events, and inherent in responsibility is the power to thus make appropriate JUST DECISIONS! Which brings us to card 12- the hangman! We now VIEW LIFE INSIDE OUT! In this ACCEPTANCE can we truly LET-GO (again two seeming opposites, which are really synonymous) and thus enjoy life and its experiences! In layman terms we are more ‘chilled’!! We EXPERIENCE A NEW KIND OF BLISS, inside! (The higher expression of card 3’s outer bliss) We are now on the ‘way home’ instead on the way in…SPIRIT IS CALLING us back, again…! But the way ‘out’-or ‘back’- or ‘in’ is possible only through Card 13 -. DEATH of all the baggage that the fool has picked up so far! He need must go ‘back’ as light as he entered! We view the need to make changes for a new way of thinking and being so that our lives may be better and move away from the old and worn out. And thus in card 13 we must remove all that is extraneous and not required; the limitations and masks of the ego! Only the expanded self can return to sprit, and thus at this point INEXORABLE CHANGE is required! Or enforced seemingly from the outside! THE OLD AND LIMITED MUST GO SO THAT NEW and EXPANDED MAY BE! Which brings us to Card 14- the HIGHER SELF! And its inherent sense of BALANCE (tentatively experienced in card 10 remember!) And all our experiences and qualities (that we have picked up from each ‘card’) BLEND, MIX, ALIGN INTO THE PERFECT COMBINATION for the journey ahead! ALCHEMY indeed! And having gone through the inner- outer, yang-yin, action- stillness …through the seeming dualities… we are now able to COMBINE it all INTO THE MIDDLE TEMPERATE PATH- neither polarity being a dominant force in our lives! The last card in this line- temperance-is thus a higher expression of victory, different from the chariots hard won outer one!
Note: This line is about a switch of focus from ‘out’ to ‘in’, but to reflect in a better all rounded life! In better tangible experiences! The tarot tells you this line is NOT about suppression or turning away from life- you cannot not hide from life under the excuse of going within! The tarots message is that the inside must be faced, understood, expanded, given light, yes- but always, always to reflect in an enhanced outside Reality! It is about moving from the sub-conscious wily nily playing out your life events, to conscious and thus empowered living! And then is the stage ready for round 3…from conscious living to supra conscious being!
LINE 3- When we first view this line we wonder why so many of the so-called negative/dark cards come here! So high up in the journey! But ofcourse we soon view that it is precisely because of the development that has taken place through the first 2 lines that we have the wisdom/light to face the devil without the horrors usually attached to him and all he stands for! The power to descend into these ‘darkest’ areas that haven’t been touched even though years of self-development; and the strength to sustain us through this final release! These cards could only come now…as enough light and work has been done to make it ‘easier’ for self…!
Thus in CARD 15- the devil symbolizes the FEARS, which can now be entered into and released! And we understand that all the ramifications of these fears- be it LUST, MISUSED POWER, BONDAGE, DEPRESSION, OBSESSIVE MATERIALISM… exist only due to the DARKNESS of ignorance and separation from source! Once we are aware and thus united with spirit within us, these fears appear RIDICULOUS bogeymen! However if we are unable to disempower our ‘devils’, it is in infinite kindness of Higher Self that we then arrange CARD 16- The Tower! Because we are too close to the goal…and it is the ENLIGHTENING GRACE of God or Self that then ensures a SHATTERING of this RESISTANCE! That pierces the devils veils! So that we may indeed be LIBERATED from the limitations of ego to rise like the phoenix that we are! And thus find CARD 17 -TRUTH -PEACE AND UNBRIDLED JOY! The dark pool of the subconscious behind the high priestess has (in card 17) become the pool of the supra conscious! And as we dip into its INSPIRATION we pour out into our world its BLESSINGS & HOPE & CREATIVITY…in which we may REST! For true rest is not in doing nothing, but in joyous fulfilled ‘beingness’ …in eternal play of the creative self! And yet… one last challenge is left in CARD 18! The fear of the UNKNOWN! Often DEEP ROOTED in the distant PAST …resulting in CHARGED EMOTIONS and CONFUSION rapidly spiraling into DISTORTION- self-DECEPTION –even PARANOIA! Yet the gentle glow of the moon invites us to go deep within and VOLUNTARILY make this last CHANGE…and promises us the sun at the end of the night! Card 19 the sun! The fools AWAKENING, KNOWING, LIGHT, CLARITY! And so he CONSCIOUSLY EXPERIENCES the DIVINE CHILD that he is! And REACHES OUT to share his own light and its ABUNDANCE and GLORY! CAREFREE again- spirit unites in DIVINE MARRIAGE with all that is through outer FRIENDSHIPS and LOVE and LIFE GLORIOUS LIFE!! So what could be left you may wonder? Surely the journey ends here! But aha! The fool KNOWS the spirit that he is…but to BE SPIRIT-he must be born again through CARD 20- in which the actual RESURRECTION Takes place!! The old is FOREVER AND COMPLETELY TRANSFORMED and in this SELF- APPRAISAL does he LIBERATE self from old ways of judging and being and finds AT ONE MENT with spirit! The GOAL IS ACCOMPLISHED- SPIRIT IS EXPANDED -and can thus in card 21 simultaneously be spirit and human! Experience HEAVEN ON EARTH! The fool is now the eternal dancer, shiva-shakti, cosmic being and thus CONSCIOUSLY MANIFESTS EXPERIENCES OF ITS OWN CHOOSING! Playfully, wholly, rapturously INVOLVED in its dance and MOVEMENT yet STILL and at rest as witness! Till …the fool…spirit… is ready to start a whole new dance again…at will! It is the right place and the right moment in time!
NOTES : The still dark pool of the unconscious mind, behind the high priestess, is the same darkness the devil and moon enter and death and tower release or shatter! It is the same pool which in awareness becomes the supra conscious which the hangman glimpses, star experiences, the sun knows, and the world card ‘becomes’! It is what becomes the river of live in the empress card, to be wholly entered! And if you observe the devil card is parody of the lovers’ card! Exactly! And 1+5=6!!! So why does the TRUE essence come ‘before’, and the devil so ‘high’ up in the journey to self?? Because at line 1 we would not have been able to bear the true bliss of true love…and yet we are given a glimpse through the beloved to get a taste of it and keep us yearning for its higher expression! Also the last line though laid out in a linear fashion, often happens in real life all in a flash! And is an intensely personal beingness- and not merely to be pondered, experienced or even known!
And yet, each card, each line can be re experienced, known and entered into again and again in its higher expression, till the archetypes of line one are perfected contributed towards and shared with the world in your very own unique ways!
Compiled by divyaakummar@yahoo.com |