THE W A Y
o f T A R O T
The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards
Alejandro Jodorowsky
and Marianne Costa
Translated by Jon E. Graham
Destiny Books
Rochester, Vermont • Toronto, Canada
Contents
Preface by Marianne Costa
Introduction by Alejandro Jodorowsky
PART ONE
Structure and Numerology of the Tarot
Opening: The Tarot Is a Complete Entity
To Begin
Composition and Rules of Orientation
The Numerology of the Tarot
The Ten Stages for Constructing the Mandala
The Eleven-Color Scale
PART TWO
The Major Arcana
Opening: An Architecture of the Soul
To Begin
Le Mat/The Fool
I Le Bateleur/The Magician
II La Papesse/The High Priestess
III L'lmperatrice/The Empress
Mil L'Empereur/The Emperor
V Le Pape/The Pope
VI L'Amoureux/The Lover
VII Le Chariot/The Chariot
VIII La Justice/Justice
Villi L'Hermite/The Hermit
X La Roue de Fortune/The Wheel of Fortune
XI La Force/Strength
XII Le Pendu/The Hanged Man
XIII L'Arcane sans Nom/The Nameless Arcanum
Xllll Temperance/Temperance
XV Le Diable/The Devil
XVI La Maison Dieu/The Tower
XVII L'Etoile/The Star
XVIII La Lune/The Moon
XVIIII Le Soleil/The Sun
XX Le Jugement/Judgment
XXI Le Monde/The World
PART THREE
The Minor Arcana
Opening: The Humble Guardians of the Secret
To Begin
The Degrees of the Numerology
The Aces
The Twos
The Threes
The Fours
The Fives
The Sixes
The Sevens
The Eights
The Nines
The Tens
The Numerological Degrees by Suit
Swords • Cups • Wands • Pentacles
The Honors or Court Cards
The Pages
The Queens
The Kings
The Knights
A Summary of Meaning by Suit
Swords • Cups • Wands • Pentacles
PART FOUR
The Tarot Two by Two
Opening: Consciousness as a Joint Work
To Begin
The Duets of the Two Decimal Series
I The Magician—XI Strength
II The High Priestess—XII The Hanged Man
III The Empress—XIII The Nameless Arcanum
llll The Emperor—Xllll Temperance
V The Pope—XV The Devil
VI The Lover—XVI The Tower
VII The Chariot—XVII The Star
VIII Justice—XVIII The Moon
Villi The Hermit—XVIIII The Sun
X The Wheel of Fortune—XX Judgment
The Couples of the Tarot
The Fool—The World
The Magician—Strength
The High Priestess—The Pope
The Empress—The Emperor
The Chariot—The Star
Justice—The Hermit
The Moon—The Sun
The Pairs That Add Up to 21
Numerical Succession and Transfer
PART FIVE
The Reading of the Tarot
Opening: How to Become a Mirror
To Begin
First Steps to Reading the Tarot
With One Arcanum
With Two Arcana
With One, Two, Then Several Arcana
With One Partner
Reading Three Cards
Reading Four and More Cards
Reading Ten and More Cards
Conclusion: The Tarotic Philosophy
Footnotes
Notes
About the Author
About Inner Traditions
Copyright
Preface
How does one write a book about the Tarot? It is like trying to empty the sea with a fork.
For more than forty years, Alejandro Jodorowsky has been investigating the dynamic and
multiple aspects of the Tarot through readings, lessons, discoveries, conferences ... If it had
been necessary to transcribe this work in its entirety, we would have ended up with tens of
thousands of pages—each equally impassioned and disorganized, each touching on the
various aspects of this art that refuses to let itself be imprisoned within any kind of rigid
structure.
As this was not possible and we needed one book, and only one book, Alejandro and I
chose to present the Tarot from a variety of different perspectives that would allow this book to
serve both as a manual for beginners and a serious tool for experienced Tarot readers, while
giving all its readers a work that would be a pleasure to read.
This is why all the parts of this book include an introduction written in the first person by
Alejandro, retracing the unique path he has carved out over a lifetime in the company of this
demanding teacher and powerful ally known as the Tarot.
With respect to all the technical parts, our chief concern was to be faithful to the extreme
plasticity of the Tarot, which is light and profound, linear and multidimensional, gamelike and
complex. It refuses to be reduced to any one of the countless possibilities it opens. This is why
we sought to create a book that could be read either in sections or straight through, in which
each subject is both summed up briefly and discussed in great depth, and whose illustrations
provide a ceaseless echo to the text, based on the truth that the Tarot constitutes first and
foremost an apprenticeship in seeing.
The book has been organized into five parts. The purpose of the first part is to familiarize the
reader with the overall structure of the Tarot and its numerological and symbolic foundations.
The second part examines each card of the Major Arcana, while the third does the same for the
Minor Arcana. The fourth part represents what we intend to be a first step in the dynamic
reading of the Tarot: the study of pairs, the various combinations between two and more cards.
For all intents and purposes, every element of the Tarot is linked in this fashion to all the
others. Finally, the fifth part is dedicated to the actual art of reading the cards.
We want to take this opportunity to thank Barbara Clerc in particular, who has been
transcribing and archiving the unpaid lessons and readings given by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
She put all these archives at our disposal. Without her, they would have remained only part of
oral tradition.
MARIANNE COSTA
Note: The cards reproduced in this book are taken from the Tarot of Marseille restored by Alejandro
Jodorowsky and Philippe Camoin, and reproduced here with the generous permission of Camoin Editions
(sales@camoin.com). Copyright© 1997. All rights reserved.
Introduction
I first met the cards when I was seven years old living in Tocopilla, a small Chilean port town
nestled between the glacial Pacific Ocean and the mountainous plateaus of Tarapaca, the
driest region on Earth, where not a drop of rain has fallen in centuries. The town merchants
would close up shop at noon until five every afternoon because of the extreme heat. My father,
Jaime, would lower the metal shutter of his Casa Ukrania [Ukraine House]—which sold
feminine undergarments and household items—and go play billiards at Crazy Abraham's, a
Lithuanian Jewish widower who had washed up here under mysterious circumstances. In this
warehouse where women never set foot, the normally competing merchants declared a
momentary truce and gathered around a green table where they showed off their virility by
making cannon shots. According to Jaime's philosophy a child's brain was already formed by
age seven, and should be treated as an adult. So on my seventh birthday he allowed me to go
with him to play billiards. The deafening noise made by the balls striking each other and the
white and red trails they left across the olive-green felt failed to impress me. What did catch my
eye and fascinated me was a card castle. Crazy Abraham was obsessed with building large
castles out of cards. He would leave these huge and imposing constructions, no two of which
were ever alike, on the bar counter far from any drafts until he got drunk and intentionally
knocked them down, only to immediately begin building another. Jaime would mockingly tell
me to ask the "loony" why he did this. Smiling sadly, he would give a child the answer he did
not wish to give to adults: "I am imitating God, little one, the one who creates us, destroys us,
and with what's left of us, he rebuilds."
As an antidote to the boredom of provincial life, my father would invite a group of friends
over to play cards for hours on Saturday evenings and Sundays after lunch while my mother,
Sara Felicidad, the only woman present, served beer and canapes, like a shadow. The rest of
the week the cards slept under lock and key imprisoned in a dresser. These decks fascinated
me, but I was forbidden to touch them. According to my parents, they were only for adults. This
gave me the idea that cards, wild beasts that could be tamed only by a wise man—Jaime in
this instance—had magical powers ... As the players used beans instead of chips, every
Monday my mother, perhaps to release the pain she felt at being excluded from the game,
boiled them for soup, which I would slurp down with the feeling that it was giving me some of
their powers.
Being the son of Russian immigrants, my physical appearance was quite different from that
of the native Chileans and left me without any friends. My parents were wrapped up for ten
hours a day in the Casa Ukrania and had no time for me. Weighted down by the silence and
solitude, I began examining the furniture in their room in hopes of finding a detail that would
would reveal the faces hidden behind their masks of indifference. In a comer of the closet,
between the perfumed clothes of Sara Felicidad, I found a small rectangular metal box. My
heart began beating faster. Something told me I was about to receive an important revelation. I
opened it. Residing inside was a Tarot card called "The Chariot." It showed a prince driving a
flaming vehicle. Tongues of fire had been added with lines of black ink and colored with yellow
and red watercolors. Who had gone to the trouble to transform the original drawing by adding
flames? Lost in my thoughts, I did not hear my mother coming in. Caught in the act, I confessed
my guilt and handed her the card. She took it from me reverently, clutched it to her chest and
broke out sobbing. When she recovered her calm, she told me how her late father had always
carried this card in a pocket of his shirt, close to his heart. He had once been a Russian ballet
dancer who was over six feet tall and had a leonine mane of blond hair. He fell in love with my
Jewish grandmother and followed her into exile, although under no obligation to do so. In
Argentina, clumsy as he was in everything concerning the details of everyday life, he climbed
on top of a barrel full of alcohol to try to adjust the flame of a lamp. The cover of the container
gave way, and he fell into the alcohol, still holding the oil lamp in his hands. The liquid burst
into flames, and my grandfather was burned alive. Sara Felicidad was bom one month after
this atrocious death. One day, her mother, Jasche, told her how she had found the card, intact,
among the ashes of her beloved husband. One night after the burial, the flames of The Chariot
appeared without anyone having drawn them. My mother harbored no doubt about the veracity
of this story. In my own childish innocence, I believed it too.
When I was ten years old, my parents sold their business and announced that we were
moving to Santiago, the capital. Losing my home so abruptly plunged me into a venomous
mental fog. I expressed my suffering by growing fat. Transformed into a little hippopotamus, I
dragged myself to school, eyes glued to the ground, under the impression that the sky was a
cement vault. My pain was compounded by the rejection of my classmates when they noticed
that my penis had no foreskin in the showers after gym class. "Wandering Jew," they shouted,
while spitting on me. The son of a diplomat recently arrived from France spit on the back of a
card and stuck it to my forehead. Bursting with laughter, my classmates shoved me in front of a
mirror. It was one of the Arcana from the Tarot of Marseille, "The Hermit." I saw in it my
infamous portrait: an individual with no territory, alone, numb with cold, feet injured, walking for
an eternity in search of... what? Something, anything at all, that would give him an identity, a
place in the world, a reason to live. The old man was holding up a lamp. What held up my
millennial soul? (Faced by the cruelty of my companions, I felt that my weight was a pain that
had been transported for centuries.) Could this lamp be my consciousness? And what if I was
not a vacant body, a mass inhabited only by anguish, but a strange light that traveled through
time, borrowing various vehicles of flesh in search of that unthinkable being my grandparents
called God? What if the unthinkable was beauty? Something like a pleasant explosion broke
through the barriers imprisoning my mind. My sorrow was swept away like dust. With the
anxiety of a shipwreck survivor, I set off in search of a port where young poets got together. It
was called the Cafe Iris. Iris, the messenger of the gods: she who united Heaven and Earth
and was the feminine complement of Hermes! And someone had stuck upon my forehead a
Hermit! This was the cafe-temple where I would meet friends: actors, poets, puppeteers,
musicians, and dancers. I would grow up among people who were desperately seeking beauty
like me. During the forties, drugs were not in style. Our conversations, fueled by creative fervor,
lingered over a bottle of wine that no sooner empty would be replaced by another one. At the
break of dawn, famished and drunk, we would run to the Botanical Gardens to burn off the
alcohol. A sixty-year-old Frenchwoman, Marie Lefevre, lived with her eighteen-year-old
boyfriend, Nene, in a narrow basement apartment facing the park. She was poor, but there was
always a full pot of soup simmering in her kitchen, a chaotic magma that contained the leftover
food the neighboring restaurant gave her in return for card readings for its customers. While her
naked lover snored away, Marie, wrapped in a Chinese dressing gown, served us full bowls of
the delicious broth in which we could find fish, meatballs, vegetables, grains, noodles, cheese,
chicken livers, beef belly, and lots of other delicacies. She would then do a Tarot reading,
using cards she drew herself, on the stomach of her lover, who even a cannon blast would not
wake up. This bizarre contact with the cards was decisive for me; thanks to this woman, Tarot
remains forever connected with generosity and boundless love in my heart.
Sixty years have gone by since then, and, following her example, I have always given card
readings for free. At a time when I felt like a prisoner on the cultural island that my country was
then, Marie Lefevre predicted: 'You will travel across the entire world, without stopping, until
the end of your life. But hear this well, when I say world I am talking about the entire universe.
When I say end of your life, I am talking about your current incarnation. In reality, you will live in
other forms for as long as the universe lives."
Later in France I worked with Marcel Marceau, who bestowed on me the greatest honor ever
granted in his troupe: to show, while motionless in a suggestive pose, the placards announcing
the title of his pantomimes. This was how, transformed into a statue of flesh, I traveled through
a number of countries for five years. Marceau put all of himself, body and soul, into each
performance. Afterward, exhausted, he would lock himself away in his hotel room for many
long hours. On the next day, without visiting the city, he returned to the theater to rehearse a
new sketch or to correct the lighting. Alone in these countries where often I did not even speak
the language, I visited museums, picturesque streets, and artist cafes. Little by little I took on
the habit of looking for esoteric bookstores where I could buy Tarots. This was how I managed
to put together a collection of more than a thousand different decks: alchemical, Rosicrucian,
kabbalistic, gypsy, Egyptian, astrological, mythological, Masonic, sexual, and so forth. All of
them consisted of the same number of cards, seventy-eight, divided into fifty-six Minor Arcana
and twenty-two Major Arcana. But each of them was illustrated differently. Sometimes the
human figures were transformed into dogs, cats, unicorns, monsters, or gnomes. Each version
included a booklet in which its author proclaimed himself to be the bearer of a profound truth. I
did not grasp either the meaning or the use of these very mysterious cards, but I bore a great
affection for them, and finding a new deck filled me with joy. Naively, I was hoping to find the
one Tarot that would transmit to me what I was so anxiously searching for: the secret of eternal
life. During the course of one of my journeys to Mexico as Marceau's assistant, I made the
acquaintance of Leonora Carrington, a surrealist poet and painter who had had a love affair
with Max Ernst during the Spanish Civil War. When Ernst was imprisoned, Leonora went mad,
with all the horrors that implies but also with all the doors that this malady opens in the prison
of the rational mind. Inviting me to eat a skull made from sugar with my name carved on its
forehead, she told me: "Love transforms death into sweetness. The bones of the skeleton of the
Thirteenth Arcanum are made of sugar." When I realized that Leonora used the symbols of the
Tarot in her work, I begged her to initiate me. She answered: "Take these twenty-two cards.
Examine them one by one and then tell me what you feel is the meaning of what you see."
Overcoming my shyness, I obeyed her. She rapidly wrote down everything I said to her. When I
finished, with my description of The World, I was soaked in sweat. With a mysterious smile on
her lips the painter whispered to me: "What you just dictated to me is the secret. As each
Arcana is a mirror and not a truth in itself, become what you see in it. The Tarot is a
chameleon." She then immediately made me a gift of the deck created by the occultist Arthur
Edward Waite with its nineteenth-century-style drawings that later became very fashionable
among the hippies. I believed that Leonora, whom I viewed as a priestess, had given me the
key to the luminous treasure at the core of my darkened interior without realizing that these
Arcana only act as stimulants of the intellect.
On my return to Paris, I began frequenting a cafe by Les Halles, La Promenade de Venus,
where once a week Andre Breton would meet with his surrealist group. I allowed myself to offer
him this Waite Tarot, expecting his approval while hiding my pride. The poet examined the
cards of the Arcana attentively with a smile that gradually transformed into a grimace of
disgust. "This is a ridiculous deck of cards. Its symbols are lamentably obvious. There is
nothing profound in it. The sole valid Tarot is that of Marseille. Its cards are intriguing and
moving, but they never surrender their intrinsic secret. One of them inspired me to write
Arcanum 17."
An ardent admirer of this great surrealist, I threw my card collection into the trash, keeping
only the Marseille Tarot, or more specifically the version published by Paul Marteau in 1930.
But if, like Breton, I grasped very little of the meaning of these cards—which, next to Waite's
seductive images, seemed hostile, especially all those of the Minor Arcana—I decided to
engrave them in my memory, hoping thereby that whatever my intellect was incapable of
deciphering would be understood by my unconscious. I began memorizing every symbol,
every gesture, every line, and every color. Little by little, aided by my stubborn patience, I
managed to visualize, although imperfectly, the seventy-eight Arcana with my eyes closed.
During the two years this experiment lasted, I went every morning to the National Library of
Paris to study the Tarot collections donated by Paul Marteau and the books devoted to this
subject. Until the eighteenth century, the Tarot had been incorporated into a game of chance,
and its profound meaning went by unnoticed. Its drawings had been mutilated or changed,
decorated with portraits of nobles, using the deck to reflect the pomp and ceremony of the royal
court. Each line said something different, often contradicting the others. In reality, instead of
speaking objectively about the Tarot, authors turned it into their self-portrait interwoven with
superstitions. I found Masonic, Taoist, Buddhist, Christian, astrological, alchemical, Tantric,
Sufi beliefs, and so on.
It could be said that the Tarot was a domestic servant eternally working for a doctrine that
was external to it. But the most surprising fact that I discovered was this: ever since the
Protestant pastor and Freemason Court de Geblin (1728-1784) published the eighth volume of
his encyclopedia, Monde Primitif [Primitive World] in 1781, which attributed characteristics to
the Tarot that were esoteric and not merely related to games, nobody had truly examined the
Arcana, neither he nor his disciples. Not realizing that these cards are a visual language that
demands to be seen in its entirety and in every detail, Geblin mistook his fantasies for realities
and stated that the Tarot came from Egypt—"Hieroglyphs belonging to the Book of Thoth
salvaged from the ruins of an age-old temple." He published a poor copy of the Marseille Tarot
from which he eliminated many details; he granted a zero to Le Mata and baptized it "The Fool"
to give it a negative meaning: "It has no value save what it gives to the others, exactly like our
zero, thereby demonstrating that nothing exists in madness." He added a leg to The Magus's
table; changed The Emperor and The Empress into King and Queen, The Pope and Female
Pope into High Priest and High Priestess; baptized the nameless thirteenth Arcana "Death";
was mistaken about the number for Temperance, on which he printed a XIII; decided that the
person in Arcana VII driving The Chariot was Osiris Triumphant; named The Lover "The
Marriage," The Star "Sirius," The Devil "Typhon," The World "Time," and The Hanged Man
"Prudence" (while placing him right-side up); he removed the original colors as well as the
original framing that consisted of an initiatory rectangle formed by two squares. He claimed he
was correcting the "errors" of the original by doing this.
Following this publication of the first esoteric treatise on the Tarot in Monde Primitif,
occultists began raving in earnest, neglecting to give any deeper examination to the drawings
of the Tarot of Marseille, believing Court de Gebelin's copy and his Egyptian explanations to
be the authentic esoteric truth. In 1783, a then-fashionable seer, the barber Alliette, under the
pseudonym of Eteilla (1750-1810), created a fanciful Tarot with links to astrology and the
Hebrew Kabbalah. Then Alphonse-Louis Constant, alias Eliphas Levi (1816-1875), despite
his vast intuition, turned his nose up at the Tarot of Marseille, which he deemed "exoteric," and,
in Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual,1 drew "esoteric" versions of The Chariot, The
Wheel of Fortune, and The Devil. He established that the twenty-two Major Arcana were
illustrations of the Hebrew alphabet and discarded the fifty-six Minor Arcana. This idea was
adopted by Gerard Encausse, who, under the pseudonym of Papus (1865-1917), created a
Tarot with Egyptian figures illustrating a Hebraic kabbalistic structure. Following these
attempts to graft all sorts of esoteric systems onto the Tarot, thousands of books based on a
nonexistent "tradition" were written seeking to prove that the Tarot was the creation of the
Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Hebrews, the Arabs, the Hindus, the Greeks, the Chinese, the
Maya, or extraterrestrials. Some even mentioned Atlantis and Adam, to whom was attributed
the sketching of the first cards under the instructions of an angel. (For religious tradition, sacred
works are always of heavenly origin. The realization of the symbolic system was not left up to
personal inspiration of the artist but was granted by God himself). The word Tarot would be
Egyptian (tar: way; ro, rog\ royal); Indo-Tartar (tan-tara: zodiac); Hebrew (torah: law); Latin (rota:
wheel; orat: speak); Sanskrit (tat: the whole; tar-o: fixed star); Chinese (Tao\ the indefinable
principle); and so forth. Various ethnic groups, religions, and secret societies have claimed to
be its father: Gypsies, Jews, Masons, Rosicrucians, alchemists, artists (Dali), gurus (Osho),
and so on. In it can be found influences from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Gospels, and
Revelation (in cards like The World, The Hanged Man, Temperance, The Devil, The Pope,
Judgment); teachings from Tantra, the I Ching, the Aztec Codices, Greco-Latin mythology ...
Each new deck of cards contains the subjectivity of its authors, their vision of the world, their
moral prejudices, their limited level of awareness ... As in the story of Cinderella, in which
each of her half-sisters is prepared to cut off one end of her foot so she can wear the glass
slipper, every occultist alters the original structure.
To make the Tarot conform to the twenty-two paths of the Tree of Life that join the ten
Sephirot of kabbalistic tradition, A. E. Waite exchanged the number 8 of Justice for the number
11 of Strength, transformed The Lover into The Lovers, and so forth, thereby falsifying the
meaning of all the Arcana. Aleister Crowley, an occultist belonging to the Order of the Temple
of the Orient (OTO), also changed the numbers and the drawings (and thus the meaning), as
well as the order of the cards. Justice became Adjustment; Temperance, Art; and Judgment,
Aeon. He eliminated the Knights and the Pages and replaced them with Princes and
Princesses. Oswald Wirth, a Swiss occultist, Freemason, and member of the Theosophical
Society, drew his own Tarot, into which he introduced not only medieval costumes, Egyptian
sphinxes, Arab numbers and Hebrew letters in the place of the Roman numerals, Taoist
symbols, and the alchemical version of The Devil invented by Eliphas Levi, but also drew
inspiration from the clumsy version of Court de Gebelin (see his Tower, his Temperance, his
Justice, his Pope, his Lover), appearing to assert that the Tarot of Marseille was a folk—or, in
other words, common—version of Gebelin's Tarot. The thousands of adepts of an American
Rosicrucian sect declared that the Egyptian Tarot of R. Falconnier—a shareholding member of
the Comedie-Frangaise, who drew and published it in 1896, dedicating it to Alexandre Dumas
the younger—was an original sacred deck. Three centuries of dreams and mystification!
A sacred work is by essence perfect; the disciple should adopt it in its entirety without
attempting to add or subtract anything whatsoever. No one knows who created the Tarot, nor
where, nor how. No one knows what the word Tarot means or to what language it belongs. Nor
does anyone know if Tarot was like it is from the beginning or if it is the end result of a slow
evolution that would have begun with the creation of an Arab card game called naibbe (cards)
to which the Major Arcana and those whimsically called the Honors or Court Cards were
added over the course of the years. Simply creating new versions of the Tarot of Marseille,
anonymous like all sacred monuments, by imagining it is enough to change the drawings or
the names of the cards to achieve a great work, is pure vanity.
What was the intention of the creator of this nomadic cathedral? Was one lone human being
capable of giving shape to such a great encyclopedia of symbols? Who was capable of
amassing such knowledge in a single lifetime? The Tarot is crafted with such great precision,
its internal relations and geometrical unity are so perfect, that it seems impossible to believe
that this work was achieved by a solitary initiate. Merely the invention of the structure, the
creation of the personages with their dress and their gestures, and the establishment of the
abstract symbology of the Minor Arcana requires a great many years of intense labor. The short
span of a single human lifetime would not be enough. Eliphas Levi, in his Transcendental
Magic, if we read between the lines, expresses this insight:
It is, in fact, a monumental and singular work, strong and simple as the architecture of the pyramids
and consequently enduring like those—a book that is the sum of all the sciences; that can resolve
every problem by its infinite combinations; that speaks by evoking thought, is the inspirer and
regulator of all possible conceptions, the masterpiece perhaps of the human mind, assuredly one of
the finest things bequeathed to us by Antiquity, a universal key. It is a truly philosophical machine
that keeps the mind from straying while leaving its initiative and liberty; it is mathematics applied to
the absolute, the alliance of the positive and the ideal, a lottery of thoughts as exact as numbers; it is
finally perhaps the simplest and grandest conception of human genius.
To imagine the Tarot's origin (card games had already been banned in the statutes of SaintVictor of Marseille Abbey for those pursuing a religious vocation in 1337), we need to go back
at least to the year 1000. During this era in the south of France and in Spain, it was possible to
see a church, a synagogue, and a mosque cohabitating in healthy conditions of peace and in
close proximity to one another. The three religions respected each other, and the wise men of
each had no hesitation about discussing things with their counterparts and learning from their
contact with one another. The Christian influence is obvious in Arcana II, V, XIII, XV, XX, and
XXI. The four Hebrew letters, Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay, which designate the deity, can be
distinguished in the head of the skeleton of the nameless Arcana, and the ten Sephirot of the
kabbalistic Tree of Life can be seen on The Hanged Man's chest. Muslim symbols appear in
the Minor Arcana. For example, on the top of the Ace of Cups there is a circle with nine points
that by all evidence represents the initiatory enneagram. It is possible that a group consisting of
sages from the three faiths, foreseeing the decay of their religions—which, out of a thirst for
power, would inevitably stir up hatred between the sects—and the forgetting of the sacred
tradition, worked together to deposit this knowledge in a humble card game, which amounted
to preserving and concealing it so that it could travel through the darkness of history until it
reached a remote future where individuals of a higher level of consciousness would decipher
its wonderful message.
Rene Guenon, in Symbols of Sacred Science, writes:
The people thus preserve [in their folklore], without understanding them, the debris
traditions sometimes even reaching back to a past too remote to be determined. In so
function as a more or less "subconscious" collective memory, the content of which has
come from somewhere else. The things so conserved are found to contain in a more or
form a considerable body of esoteric data. 2
of ancient
doing they
manifestly
less veiled
J. Maxwell, in Le Tarot, le symbol, les arcans, la divination,3 is the first author to have gone
back to the Tarot's origins, recognizing that the Tarot of Marseille (the one by Nicolas Conver)
is an optical language and needs to be looked at in order to be understood. Later, Paul
Marteau, in his bookLe Tarot de Marseille,4 in imitation of Maxwell, reproduced the cards,
analyzed them one by one, detail by detail, taking into consideration their number, the meaning
of each color, and that of each gesture of the figures. However, although he pursued the true
path of Tarot study inaugurated by Maxwell, he made two mistakes. On one hand, the deck he
uses is only one variation of the original. His drawings are exact copies of the Tarot of
Besangon published by Grimaud at the end of the nineteenth century; Grimaud was only
reproducing another Tarot of Besangon published by Lequart and signed "Amoult 1748."
Marteau also permitted himself to alter certain details, as this made it possible for him to
commercialize the deck and receive royalties from it as the author. On the other hand, he kept
the four basic colors imposed by the printing machines, instead of respecting the old and more
varied colors of the hand-painted decks.
Unable to find any Tarot closer to the authentic one than that of Paul Marteau, I devoted
myself to it reverently. I realized that if anyone could teach me how to decipher it, it would not
be a teacher of flesh and blood, but the Tarot itself. Everything I wanted to know was right there
between my hands and before my eyes, in the cards. It was essential to stop listening to the
explanations founded on the "tradition," the concordances, the myths, the parapsychological
explanations and allow the Arcana to speak for themselves. To integrate the Tarot into my life,
beyond memorizing it, I performed actions with it that rational minds would probably consider
childish. For example, I slept every night with a different card under my pillow, or spent an
entire day with one of them in my pocket. I rubbed my body with the cards; I spoke in their
names, imagining the rhythm and tone of each of their voices. I visualized each figure naked,
imagined its symbols covering the sky, completed the drawings that disappeared in the frame: I
gave full bodies to the animal that accompanies The Fool and to the Pope's acolytes,
extended the Magician's table until its invisible fourth leg was revealed, imagined from where
the veil of The High Priestess hung, saw toward what ocean flowed the stream that nourished
the woman of The Star and where the pool in The Moon went. I imagined what The Fool was
carrying in his pocket and The Magician in his pouch, the undergarments of The High
Priestess, the vulva of The Empress and the phallus of The Emperor, what the Hanged Man
was hiding in his hands, to whom belonged the decapitated heads of Arcanum XIII, and so on.
I imagined the thoughts, emotions, sexuality, and actions of each figure. I made them pray,
insult, make love, recite poems, heal.
As the word Arcanum—Major or Minor—is not printed on any part of the deck, we should not
see the cards as "a secret, hidden thing, a thing that is occult and extremely difficult to know." It
was up to me to give them a name: Engravings, Cards, Figures, Arcana, Victories, the choice
was open. As the words Epee [Sword], Coupe [Cup], Baton [Wand], and Deniers [Pentacles]
were already there, I opted for Arcana (Major and Minor), then for an alphabetical order: A for
Arcana; B for Baton; C for Coupe; D for Deniers; E for Epee; F for Figures.
I developed my knowledge of Paul Marteau's Tarot for more than thirty years, organized
workshops, and gave classes, teaching it to hundreds and hundreds of students. In 1993 I
received a postcard in which Philippe Camoin, direct descendent of the Marseilles family that
had been printing Nicolas Conver's Tarot since 1760, told me about the auto accident in which
his father, Denys Camoin, had died. This tragic death had affected him deeply, especially as
the municipal authorities had taken advantage of the tragedy to expropriate the property of the
printing house, demolish it, and erect a dental school. He could not get past his mourning and
following futile attempts to rejoin society, Philippe Camoin became a hermit. He spent ten
years shut up in his father's house in the small town of Forcalquier with no other
communication with the world except that provided by a satellite antenna that allowed him to
receive more than one hundred different channels on his television. This was how he was able
to leam the basics of a dozen languages. The cathode screen became his interlocutor. He
thought he could smell the odor of the people appearing on the screen. When he had a
problem or a question, he pressed his remote control at random and, as if by magic, an image,
a broadcast, gave him a response. One sleepless night, when the clock said three o'clock, he
asked this question: "What should I do to continue the family tradition interrupted by the death
of my father?" and he pressed a button. I appeared on the screen responding to a journalist.
Philippe had the feeling I was addressing him in particular. Several days later he repeated his
question, and I reappeared on the screen. This phenomenon occurred a third time. This was
why he decided to return to the world and write me to request a rendezvous.
When I saw him arriving, it was impossible to tell his age. He could have been fifty years old
or twenty; one could have described him as a sage as easily as one could have said a child.
He had difficulties expressing himself. Long silences interrupted every word that fell from his
mouth. He gave the impression of saying nothing that was personally inspired, as if everything
was being dictated to him from a faraway dimension. The transparency of his skin revealed
that he was a vegetarian. He had a tattoo at the base of each of his thumbs. There was a moon
on the left and a sun on the right. He wanted to attend my Tarot classes. The other students
wondered if Philippe was mute. He had immense difficulty establishing relations with human
beings. It was easier for him to communicate with beings from other worlds. The god Shiva
moved him because, although he was a divine entity spreading love and fertility, all the
demons obeyed him.
I decided to undertake a therapeutic initiative using psychomagic. If the death of his father
had broken the bonds connecting his son to the world, it would be necessary to reconnect
Philippe to the family tradition in order to restore them. To do this, I suggested we together
restore the Tarot of Marseille. At this time, I was under the impression that this task would
simply involve eliminating the small details added by Paul Marteau, and perhaps refining some
of the drawings that, over time, copy after copy, had eventually been passed down in a
confused fashion. Philippe welcomed my proposal enthusiastically. He realized that this was
the reason he had sought me out. I spoke with his mother and asked for her help. After the
death of her husband, she had donated a considerable collection of Tarots to different
museums, and she provided us with letters of recommendation. We were always warmly
welcomed, and we were allowed to obtain slides of all the cards useful for our research.
Madame Camoin also kept an important collection of printing plates dating from the eighteenth
century. At the end of a year of research, we realized just how immense was the task awaiting
us. It was not a question of changing a few details or giving a few lines greater precision; it
required the entire restoration of the Tarot by giving it back its original colors, painted by hand,
and the drawings that generations of copyists had erased. Fortunately, while only fragmentary
portions survived on some copies, parts that supplied the missing pieces appeared on others,
allowing the entire image to be completed. We had to work with powerful computers, thanks to
which we were able to compare the countless versions by placing one image on top of the
other, versions that included those of Nicolas Conver, Dodal, Francois Tourcaty, Fautrier,
Jean-Pierre Payen, Suzanne Bemardin, Lequart, and so on.
We worked together on this restoration for two years. Philippe reconnected with the world
and showed evidence of extraordinary skill. He used a computerlike an expert. The complexity
of the task required more powerful machines. With no worry about expense, his mother
provided the technical elements we needed. The difficulty of this restoration work resided in
the fact that the Tarot of Marseille is made up of symbols that are closely intertwined and
connected to one another; if a single line is altered, the entire work is adulterated. A large
number of printers of the Tarot of Marseille existed during the seventeenth century. Eighteenthcentury Tarot decks were copies of the earlier ones. We therefore cannot accept that any
eighteenth-century Tarot could be the original. It is extremely likely that Nicolas Conver's
version from 1760 contains errors and omissions. While the drawings were hand painted
originally, the number of colors the industrial machines used by eighteenth-century printers
could produce was limited. Depending on the printer, the lines and colors were reproduced
with varying degrees of fidelity. Those who were not initiates simplified the symbols
tremendously. Those copying them added errors to errors. On the other hand, we observed that
some Tarots have identical and superimposable drawings, and yet each contains symbols that
do not appear on the others. We deduced that they had been copied from the same Tarot, an
older version that is now missing. It is this original Tarot that we wanted to restore.
We had stumbled upon an apparently insurmountable problem: no museum owned a Tarot
of Marseille that was complete, ancient, and hand painted. Our work was halted for a time that
seemed like an eternity. Suddenly I remembered that on the Plaza Rio de Janeiro in Mexico
City, sixty yards from the house I used to live in, lived the antiquarian Raul Kampfer, a
specialist in Aztec and Mayan relics. In 1960 he had tried to sell me an old "French" Tarot
painted by hand, for which he wanted ten thousand dollars. Obsessed with the Waite version
at that time, I did not find it interesting, and in any case it was far too expensive. And then I
forgot about it... Miracle: near to where I once lived was perhaps the valuable example that we
so desperately needed!
Philippe and I left for Mexico and, gripped by excitement, knocked at the antiquarian's door.
A young man answered: it was the son of Raul Kampfer, who had died. The young man kept
the objects left behind by his father religiously in one room. He did not know if a Tarot was
hidden among them. He asked us to help him look for it. After a long and extremely anxious
time, we finally discovered it in a cardboard box at the bottom of a suitcase. The boy sold it to
us for a reasonable price, and we returned to Paris with our prize. This Tarot served us as the
essential guide for restoring the former colors by computer.
As our work advanced, I was going through a series of actual spiritual short-circuits. I had
spent so many years grafting Paul Marteau's Tarot onto my soul, giving every detail the
deepest meaning possible—something I could do by placing a boundless love in the Arcana—
that certain changes affected me like stabs from a knife.
Basically, the restoration work demanded that part of me, in the name of change, accept its
death. By transforming the two dice of Paul Marteau's Magician—one showing the 1 and the
other showing the 5 (making 15, the number of The Devil), and hiding on their opposing faces
a 2 and a 6 (Yod, 10 + He, 5 + Vav, 6 + He, 5), which allowed me to say that the demon was
only a mask of God—into three in the restored version, the three faces adding up to seven (3 x
7 = 21, The World), compelled the alteration of these symbols into absolutely different ones,
which forced me to make exhausting mental efforts to substitute them for the ones I cherished.
The same thing happened to me with The Emperor's white shoes. I was used to thinking
that the powerful monarch took steps of irreproachable purity as full of wisdom as his white
beard. But in reality the shoes were red and his beard as blue as the sky. These were the steps
of a conquering activity, similar to the cross on the scepter that imposed its mark on the world,
and the beard of a man who was sensitive, spiritual, and open, one more intuitive than
intelligent. In The Lover, to my great chagrin, I had to forget the parallel I had drawn between
the central figure, whom Marteau depicted barefoot, and Moses, who took off his shoes in order
to hear the voice of Him on High in the burning bush. It was painful to accept that this figure
had red shoes as active as those of The Emperor or The Fool, which gave his love a less
divine and more earthly appearance. Marteau's Hanged Man was not suspended by one foot,
whereas he was in our version. I had to transfer from a figure who had freely decided not to act
to another one who welcomed his bonds like a cosmic law against which he could not rebel,
which signified that freedom was, for him, obedience to this law. In Marteau's Arcanum XIII, the
skeleton is cutting off his own foot: self-destruction. In ours he has a blue foot as well as one
arm and a spinal column of the same color, a constructive action repeated in his scythe, where
the old red was blended with this heavenly blue, signifying a seeding of the spirit. Marteau's
Devil brandishes a sword by the blade, stupidly wounding his hand, whereas in ours this hand
is holding a torch, casting light in the darkness. In The Tower three initiatory steps and a door
appear, which implies that the two figures are not falling but have left joyfully and of their own
free will ... and so many other details that changed my vision.
Of course, I needed time to abandon Marteau. I began by mixing the two decks, which I
presented all together to the consultant. Gradually the old deck appeared to wither like autumn
leaves, while the new one seemed to acquire a more intense energy each day. One
Wednesday morning, in the garden of my home in Vincennes, I buried my beloved Paul
Marteau Tarot at the foot of a bushy lime tree with the sorrow of a son burying his mother, and
planted a rosebush on top of it. That very evening at the cafe Saint-Fiacre where I gave my free
Tarot readings once a week, I used for the first time—and forever after—the restored Tarot.
This first time coincided with Marianne Costa coming to my table. My meeting with her was just
as important as that with Philippe Camoin. Without Marianne, I would never have written this
book. Even if it is difficult for the rational mind to accept that nothing is accidental in nature, that
everything that happens in the universe is caused by a preestablished law, that certain events
are written in the future, and that the effect precedes the cause, the appearance of my
collaborator seemed like the work of a destiny established by an inconceivable being.
Marianne was first my student, then my assistant, and we ended up reading the Tarot
together, therefore fulfilling what was indicated by the Arcana: The Emperor—Empress, The
High Priestess—Pope, The Moon—Sun. The initiate needs his female complement, and vice
versa, for both to attain a reading guided by Cosmic Consciousness.
A.J.
PART ONE
Structure and Numerology of the Tarot
Opening
The Tarot Is a Complete Entity
The majority of authors of Tarot books are content to describe and analyze the cards one by
one without imagining the entire deck as a whole. However, the true study of each Arcanum
begins with the consistent order of the entire Tarot; every detail, tiny as it may be, begins from
the links that connect all seventy-eight cards. To understand these myriad symbols, one needs
to have seen the final symbol they all form together: a mandala. According to Carl Gustav
Jung, the mandala is a representation of the psyche, whose essence is unknown to us. Round
shapes generally symbolize natural integrity, whereas rectangular forms represent the mental
realization of this integrity. In Hindu tradition, the mandala, the symbol of the sacred central
space, altar, and temple, is both an image of the world and the representation of divine power,
an image capable of leading the one contemplating it to illumination. In accordance with this
concept, I thought of organizing the Tarot as if I were building a temple. In all traditions, the
temple summarizes the creation of the universe, seen as a divine unit that has exploded into
pieces. Osiris, imprisoned in a chest by his jealous enemies and his brother Seth, was cast
into the waters of the Nile, mutilated, dismembered, then resuscitated by the breath of Iris.
Symbolically, the Arcana of the Tarot are a chest in which a spiritual treasure has been
deposited. The opening of this chest is equivalent to a revelation. The initiatory work consists
of gathering together the fragments until the original unit has been restored. You start with a
pack of cards, you mix up the Arcana and display them flat, which is to say you cut the God into
pieces. You interpret them and put them back together in sentences. In a sacred quest the
initiate reader (Isis, the soul) puts the pieces back together. The God is resuscitated not in an
immaterial dimension but in the material world. A figure, a mandala, is composed with the
Tarot so that the whole thing can be seen with a single glance.
This idea that the cards were not conceived one by one—as separate symbols—but as
parts of a whole did not appear to me all at once. It was a long process fueled by vague
intentions, but over the course of the years I made discoveries that provided convincing proof
that this "complete entity," the Tarot, desired to create union.
I organized the cards by placing the even numbers on my left and the odd numbers on my
right, because in Eastern traditions even numbers are considered passive and the odd
numbers active, and because the right side is considered active and the left passive. I
compared the ornamentation of Western temples with Eastern ones. On the facade of Gothic
cathedrals, for example, Notre Dame of Paris, an androgynous Jesus Christ, standing between
an earthly dragon and a heavenly dragon, gives us his blessing. On the portal to his right (or to
our left as spectators) stands the Virgin Mary (femininity, openness), and to his left we see a
priest dominating a dragon with his staff (masculinity, activity). Conversely, in Tantric Buddhist
temples, the male deities are placed facing our left side and females our right side. The
explanation for this is that Buddha is not a god but a level that every human being, if he or she
performs the great spiritual work, can attain. The believer ceases to be a spectator and takes a
place between the male and female principles, transformed into a temple. Conversely, Christ is
a god, and no believer can become him, only imitate him. Eastern saints are Buddhas.
Western saints imitate their God—which is the reason cathedrals behave like mirrors. The right
side of the building represents our left side and the left side our right. The Tarot of Marseille, a
Judeo-Christian creation, indicates to us in The World (XXI) that we should use it like a mirror:
the woman is holding the active baton in her left hand and the receptive retort in her right (see
p. 40).
Taking these details and others, which it would take too long to list here, as my guides, I
gradually shaped groups of cards that one day finally took the form of a mandala. I obtained a
swastika, the symbol of the creative whirlwind around which the hierarchies it creates fan out.
This symbol, which obviously indicates a circular movement around the center, the action of
divine principle on manifestation, was long considered to be an emblem of Christ. In India it
was made into the emblem of the Buddha, because it resembles the Wheel of the Law
(Dharmachakra), but also the emblem of Ganesh, the god of knowledge. In China, the swastika
symbolizes the number ten thousand, which is the sum total of beings and manifestation. It is
also the original form of feng: it indicates the four directions of squared space of the Earth as a
horizontal expansion emanating from the center. In Masonic symbolism, the pole star is
depicted at the center of the swastika, and the four arms (the Greek letter gamma, whose
shape is that of the square) of which it consists are the four cardinal positions of the Big Dipper
around it (the Big Dipper symbolizes a guiding or enlightening center).
I should acknowledge, though, that the Arcana can be organized into one whole in
countless ways. As the Tarot is essentially a projective instrument, there is no definitive,
unique, perfect form within it. This is consistent with the mandalas drawn by Tibetan monks
using different-colored sand. They all resemble one another but are never alike.
Our study of the Tarot begins with the understanding of this mandala. It is not possible to
analyze the parts without understanding the whole. When one knows the whole, each part
acquires an overall significance that reveals its ties with all the other cards. When one plays an
instrument in an orchestra, it resonates with all the others. The Tarot is a union of the Arcana.
When, after many years, I managed to successfully put it all together in my first consistent
version of the mandala, I asked it: "What purpose does this study serve for me? What kind of
power are you able to give me?" I imagined the Tarot answered me: 'You should acquire only
the power of helping others. An art that does not heal is not an art."
But what does it mean to heal? Every illness, every problem is the product of a stagnation,
whether it be one that is physical, sexual, emotional, or intellectual. Healing consists of
regaining fluidity in one's energies. This concept can be found in Lao-Tse's book, the Tao te
Ching, and in an even more precise fashion in the Book of Changes, the I Ching. Could the
Tarot correspond in some way or another to this kind of philosophy? Knowing that the optical
language of the Tarot could not be imprisoned within one single verbal explanation, I decided
to adopt as my motto the words of Buddha, "Truth is what is useful," by giving the four Suits a
meaning that I would never dare claim to be in any way unique or definitive, but one that would
be the most useful for the therapeutic utilization I sought to give to the Arcana. It seemed to me
that instead of using the Tarot like a crystal ball, making it a tool that enabled exotic seers to
penetrate hypothetical futures, I would put it into service for a new form of psychoanalysis:
Tarology.
My initial tendency, when attempting to organize the cards into a mandala, was to obtain a
symmetrical shape. After many fruitless attempts, I could see the impossibility of such a task. I
remembered that during my first trip to Japan, the guide leading me around the ancient imperial
palace pointed out that no walls were ever constructed in a straight line and that no windows or
doors were divided into symmetrical squares. In Japanese culture, the straight line and
symmetry are considered to be demonic. Actually, the study of sacred art shows that it is never
symmetrical. The door of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris that is located to our left is
wider than the door situated to our right. All symmetrical art is profane. Nor is the human body
symmetrical: our right lung has three lobes, while our left one has two. The Tarot reveals that it
is a sacred art because the upper portion of any card is never identical to the lower, nor the left
side to the right. There is always a small detail, sometimes very difficult to make out, that
breaks the resemblance. For example, the Ten of Pentacles, which at first glance seems
perfectly symmetrical, holds in one of the lower comers (to our right) a pentacle that is different
from the rest. It has only eleven petals, whereas the pentacles located in the other three
comers have twelve (see p. 307). The flower on the lower end of the central axis has two short
light-yellow leaves, whereas the two leaves of the flower of the upper end are longer. I think
that the creators of the deck intentionally drew minute details to teach us how to see. The
vision our eyes transmit to us changes depending upon our level of awareness. The divine
secret is not hidden, it is right in front of us. Whether we see it or not depends upon the
attention we give to observing the details and establishing ties between them.
Once aware that beneath an apparent symmetry the Tarot is forever denying repetition, I
began to realize how the Minor Arcana were arranged in accordance with a law that could be
stated as follows: Out of four parts, three are almost identical, and one is different. And out of
the three that are equal, two have more resemblance to each other. In other words: ([1+2] + 3) +
4. Examples of this are multiple. Here are but a few:
• Out of the four Suits (Swords, Cups, Pentacles, Wands), three bear the names of
manufactured objects (sword, cup, pentacle) and one bears the name of a natural
element (wand). Among the three first Suits, two objects resemble each other more
(cup and pentacle stand on a surface); the third is different (a hand holding a sword
in the air).
• The Pages of Swords, of Wands, and of Pentacles are wearing hats. The Page of
Cups is bareheaded. In the Swords and the Wands, the points of the V's are turned
toward the center; in the Cups it is turned toward the outside.
• In addition to the symbol that corresponds to them, the Queens of Wands, Cups, and
Pentacles are lifting an object with their other hand. The Queen of Swords is not.
• Three Kings are inside a palace; the fourth is in nature. Three are wearing a crown,
the fourth a hat.
• Three of the Knights' horses are blue; the fourth is white.
And so forth.
If we look for examples of this law in different religions, mythologies, or reality, we find, for
example:
• In Christianity, three (Father, Son, Holy Ghost) plus one (Virgin Mary). Of the first
three, two are immaterial (Father, Holy Ghost); the third (Jesus Christ) is embodied.
In other words: ([Father + Holy Ghost] + Jesus Christ) + Virgin Mary.
• In the four Gospels, three are similar (Mark, Matthew, Luke), and one is different
(John). Of the three that are similar, two share almost a complete resemblance
(Mark, Luke), with the third slightly different (Matthew). In other words: ([Mark + Luke]
+ Matthew) + John.
• The Kabbalah makes a distinction between four worlds: three immaterial worlds
divided into two that form the Macroposopus—Atziluth (Archetypal) and Briah
(Creative)—and one that is the Microposopus, Yetzirah (Formative). This trio feeds
the Fiancee, Asiah (Material). In other words: ([Atziluth + Briah] + Yetzirah) + Asiah.
• The Four Noble Truths discovered by Gautama, the Buddha: suffering, desire,
greed, the Middle Way. In other words: ([suffering + desire] + greed) + the Middle
Way.
• The four castes of ancient India. Action in the material world: the sudras (workers),
the vaisyas (merchants), the kshatriyas (warriors). Action in the spiritual world: the
Brahmins (priests). In other words: ([sudras + vai'syas] + kshatriyas) + Brahmins.
• In the four elements, three are similar (air, water, fire) and one different (earth).
Among the three that are similar, two are more so (air, fire), and one is different
(water). In other words: ([Air + Fire] + Water) + Earth.
• On the human face, the ears, eyes, and nostrils are double, whereas the mouth is
single. The eyes and ears are separated, while the nostrils combine into one nose.
In other words: ([Ears + Eyes] + Nostrils) + Mouth.
Thanks to this formula, we can organize the four temperaments of the body (nerves, lymph,
blood, bile); the four trios of the Zodiac (Aries-Leo-Sagitarius, Gemini-Libra-Aquarius, CancerScorpio-Pisces, and Taurus-Virgo-Capricorn); the four phases of alchemy: the work at the
yellow stage (citrinitas), the work at the red stage (rubedo), the work at the white stage
(albedo), and the work at the black stage (nigredo); the four states of matter (gas, liquid, solid,
and plasma); and so on and so forth.
Finally, by studying several alchemical engravings in The Rosary of the Philosophers, I
found confirmation for the Tarot mandala.
NUMEROLOGY
If I give The Fool the role of infinite beginning and that of infinite ending to The World, if I grasp
that the Pages, Queens, Kings, and Knights, as they bear no numbers, could not be identified
within each of the Suits as the numbers 11, 12, 13, and 14, I am left with six series of ten
numbers: Swords from One to Ten, Cups from One to Ten, Pentacles from One to Ten, Wands
from One to Ten, Major Arcana from The Magician to The Wheel of Fortune, and again from
Strength to Judgment. If I wanted to understand the essence of the Tarot, I had to visualize
these ten numbers with their six aspects. For example, the One includes the lour Aces plus
The Magician and Strength. The Magician is represented by a man and Strength by a woman.
The Sword and the Wand are active symbols, while the Cup and the Pentacle are receptive
symbols. What this showed me was that these ten numbers could not be defined as male or
female but were androgynous at all times. In traditional numerology, however, I discovered that
the number 1 was claimed as the first odd, active, male number representing the Father, the
unit, and number 2 was the first even number, one that was passive and female, representing
the Mother and multiplicity. It was impossible for me to support this antifeminist esotericism in
which the numbers, 2,4, 6, 8, and 10, labeled as "feminine," were synonymous with obscurity,
cold, and negativity, and where the odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9, were exalted as male and
associated with light, heat, and the positive. To avoid this, I eliminated all concepts of
masculinity and femininity when defining the ten numbers. I chose to associate the even
numbers with receptivity and the odd numbers with activity. A woman can be active and a man
receptive.
I also found in a large number of books a definition of 2 as duality, 1 + 1 . This seemed quite
clumsy to me when applying it to the Tarot. Because, if we adopt this theory, all that remains to
be done is to interpret each of the following numbers as simple additions of units of one: 3
would therefore be 1 + 1 + 1; 4 would be 1 + 1 + 1 +1; and so on up to 10. There is another
esoteric tendency to give numbers a meaning based on the result of internal additions. The
most complex of all would be 10, whose meaning would be different depending on whether it
was the result of 9 + 1,8 + 2,7 + 3, or 6 + 4 (the result of repeated numbers such as 5 + 5 being
excluded). As there is no reason for this system to stop with simply adding two figures, it leads
to aberrations like 10 = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4, or 10 = 3 + 5 + 2, and so forth.
A symbol is a whole, just like a body. It would be ridiculous to claim that the human body is
the sum of two legs + two arms + one torso + one head and, by continuing along this path, +
one liver + two eyes, and so on. It is similarly absurd to define each of the ten numbers in the
Tarot as the sum of other numbers. To understand its message, we should consider each of
these numbers as an individual with its own particular characteristics.
To Begin
The Tarot deck appears as a complex and disconcerting whole to the beginner. Some cards
seem easier to interpret than others, as they are charged by symbols that are more or less
familiar. Some represent human figures, while others depict geometric designs or objects.
Some carry a name, others a number, and others are not even titled or numbered. This leads to
a great temptation to rely on already familiar structures such as astrology or various kinds of
numerology to start studying this deck. But like all consistent systems and all works of sacred
art, the Tarot contains its own structure that it is our duty to discover.
In many kinds of initiation, it is said that through language, human beings can approach the
truth but never grasp it; and that, conversely, it is possible for them to know the truth through its
reflection in beauty. The study of the Tarot can therefore be undertaken as a study of beauty. It
is through looking, through placing our trust in what we see, that its meanings will gradually
reveal themselves to us.
In this first part of the book, we propose to look at what clues the Tarot gives us to
understand its structure and its numerology. From these foundations, we will construct a
mandala that makes it possible to organize the entire deck into a design that we can
encompass with a single glance. In this mandala, the seventy-eight cards of the deck form a
balanced design and a coherent whole.
To construct the mandala, it is first necessary to become familiar with the Major Arcana, the
four Suits of the Minor Arcana, the function and value of the cards, and the symbology of the
numbers that underlies the entire organization of the Tarot and connects each of its elements
to the whole.
We will then examine the meaning and several different possible systems of organization of
the eleven colors present in the Arcana of the Tarot.
Note: Because we consider the article to be an integral part of the names of the cards in the
Major Arcana, we write them out as The Fool, The Magician, and so on. (See also pages 11819.) Further, we decided to use "figures" to designate the Arcana that depict human beings.
Finally, the order of succession of the Suits in the enumerations and in the descriptions will
be generally as conventionally accepted: Swords, Cups, Wands, Pentacles (or from lower to
higher: Pentacles, Wands, Cups, Swords). The illustrations, however, show the Suits arranged
in the order that is inspired by the laws of orientation reflected in The World: Cups (top left),
Swords (top right), Pentacles (bottom left), Wands (bottom right). See pages 40-50 for more
information.
Composition and Rules of orientation
The Tarot of Marseille is composed of seventy-eight cards or Arcana. The term Arcanum is
derived from the Latin arcanum, which means "secret." It directs one to a hidden meaning, a
mystery defying rationality, and appears appropriate to us to the extent that we are using the
Tarot not as entertainment but as a game charged with an inexplicit meaning that we must
gradually uncover.
The seventy-eight Arcana of the Tarot are divided into two principal groups: the twenty-two
Arcana known as the "Major" and fifty-six Arcana called "Minor." This traditional denomination
is echoed in the popular game of tarot and numerous card games by the dual notion of the suit
and the trump: one category of cards is designated as being more powerful and capable of
overpowering all the others.
The Minor Arcana permit us to examine the more ordinary and also more personal aspects
of intellectual, psychological, and material life. We shall see that they refer to different degrees
of our needs, emotions, and thoughts, whereas the Major Arcana describe a universal human
process, which encompasses all the spiritual aspects of being. The two paths are initiatory and
complementary; it could be said that the Minor Arcana, with their four Suits, are like the four
legs of a table or an altar, or like the four walls of a temple.
IDENTIFYING THE ARCANA
All the Arcana are held within a black rectangle whose proportions are that of a double square.
The Minor Arcana are subdivided into forty numbered cards representing the series of 1 to
10 for each of the Suits: Swords, Cups, Wands, and Pentacles. These cards have no
cartouche; and in the 1 to 10 series in Swords, Cups, and Wands, their numbers are written on
both sides. The series in Pentacles are unnumbered. The sixteen figures of the Minor Arcana,
also called Court Cards (perhaps because they depict individuals of the nobility), are in series
of four: Pages, Queens, Kings, and Knights (the reason for this order will be explained later, p.
51). They all bear a cartouche at the bottom of the card indicating their name, except for that of
the page of Pentacles, where it appears laterally on the right side (from the viewpoint of the
person looking at it) of the card.
To distinguish the figures of the Major Arcana, we have one very obvious clue: the Major
Arcana all include a cartouche on top in which their number is inscribed. This cartouche is
empty in the case of The Fool, but it is present nonetheless, whereas the Court Cards have
only a lower cartouche in which their names are inscribed (except in the case of the Page of
Pentacles, which we shall revisit). The Major Arcana therefore possess two cartouches, the
one on the top with the number and the one at the bottom of the card with their respective
names, except in the case of the Thirteenth Arcana, which is also known as "The Nameless
Arcana."
THE MAJOR ARCANA
First Contact
To familiarize yourself with the Tarot, the simplest thing is to begin by identifying and
understanding the Major Arcana, all but one recognizable because of their upper cartouche.
These cards are twenty- two in number, numbered in Roman numerals from I to XXI, plus The
Fool (who gave birth to the Joker in popular card games).
Spread them out on a table in the following manner remove the first and last card from the
deck of the Major Arcana, in other words The Fool and The World (XXI). Then arrange the
Major Arcana into two rows in numerical order from I to X and XI to XX, and frame them with
The Fool (who appears to be coming to meet this double row) and The World (who seems to
be looking at them while she dances). When arranged like this, it is possible to see that the
Major Arcana are organized into two series (see the following pages).
Look at the Arcana arranged in this fashion and note any details that spontaneously come to
you. Pay particular attention to the direction in which they are looking: sometimes turned
toward the right, sometimes toward the left, and in certain cases straight ahead, with certain
individuals who appear to be looking directly at us (like Justice, Arcanum VIII; the face of The
Sun, Arcanum XVIIII; or the angel in The Judgment, Arcanum XX). Some images may inspire
sympathy or revulsion, joy or fear. These reactions arise from our education and personal
history: the Tarot is a powerful projectile tool in which our gaze will identify already known
models, which will initially cause us to react in accordance with habitual behavior patterns.
The first series of the Major Arcana (I to X) depicts human figures or animals in identifiable situations.
The top of these cards, in most cases, coincides with the head or heads of the protagonists), except in
the case of Arcanum VI (The Lover), in which the sky is sheltering a sun and a child-angel. We could
label this series as "light," as it depicts images with historical or social connotations.
For example, numerous people are frightened by Arcanum XIII, which depicts a skeleton. In
our civilization, this image is identified with death. But on taking a closer look at it, we perceive
that the figure is blue, red, and flesh colored: it is a living, active skeleton that is a force of
transformation in motion. To accept this interpretation of Arcanum XIII, we must begin by
recognizing the first movement the sight of this card inspires in us. The same holds true for all
the Major Arcana: this figure will appear seductive, while another will seem repulsive or
antipathetic. One will remind us of a benevolent grandfather, another an overbearing boss, a
seductive mistress, or a strict aunt. Don't fear to gather your impressions. Note how you feel
during this initial contact with the Major Arcana. You will undoubtedly perceive a myriad of
details, some unique, some common to two or more cards. Trust your eyes; they are the best
tool you have for guiding you through your discovery of the Tarot.
In the second series of the Major Arcana (XI to XX), the figures and situations take on a more allegorical
and less realistic character. We could label this series "dark," as it seems to unfurl within a mental and
spiritual universe similar to a dream. Mythical personages appear, angels and devil; starting with
Arcanum XVI, the sky is full of energetic manifestations of heavenly bodies and divine emissaries.
Next, begin to mark down the common points between the cards that are either below or
above each other, those that share the same degree on the decimal scale.
For example, between the I and the XI, the shape of the hat is almost the same. A similar
situation unites II and XII: one is sitting on an egg, the other is suspended like a fetus or a
chicken waiting to be bom. The common point can also be the direction in which they are
looking, as is the case between Arcanums III and XIII or Mil and Xllll; or even the number of
protagonists and how they are arranged, such as between Arcanum V and Arcanum XV, in
which a larger central figure looms over two smaller acolytes. Between Arcanum VI and XVI,
we see the first intervention by a celestial element, the cherub in Arcanum VI and the
multicolored plume in XVI. We could say that between The Chariot and The Star, the common
point is the starry firmament, depicted in the form of a dais above The Chariot and directly
present as a cosmic element in The Star. Just as in many civilizations the Moon-Sun couple
represents the cosmic parental couple, we can see a couple with a human face formed
between Justice and The Hermit. Finally, The Wheel of Fortune and Judgment clearly
represent, each in its own way, a decisive moment in which a cycle comes to a close and
sparks the opening of a new life.
The Arcana of series I to X perform their actions directed upward.
The Magician is raising his wand, while The Empress, The Emperor, The Pope, and the prince
in The Chariot are lifting their scepters.
The High Priestess is looking up from reading a book; the three figures in The Lover are
united by the cherub flying above them; The Hermit is raising his lantern; and Justice is
pointing toward the sky with her sword like the sphinx on The Wheel of Fortune.
The Arcana of the series XI to XX perform their actions directed downward.
The woman depicted in Strength is handling the muzzle of the animal, which is pushing its
head against her groin.
The Hanged Man is suspended with his head pointed toward the ground.
The skeleton of Arcanum XIII is mowing down the deep black soil with his scythe.
The angel Temperance is pouring her liquids or fluids from a higher vase to one beneath it.
The Devil is ruling over two imps whose feet-roots are buried in the dark ground.
The two individuals in The Tower are walking on their hands while looking at the earth.
The Star is emptying her amphorae into a river flowing by her feet.
The influence of the Moon in Arcanum XVIII is even affecting the crustacean looking at it
from the depths of the water.
The Sun is blessing a pair of twins.
In Judgment, an angel is delivering his musical summons to a man, a woman, and a child,
who are emerging from their tombs in resurrection.
These interpretations are given by way of example. You can agree with them or not; we will
subsequently see how they fit into the detailed study of the Major Arcana (part 2). These details
and others that may catch your eye are all clues that will enable us to gradually identify the
numerology of the Tarot.
THE TAROT IS PROGRESSIVE
Now take a look at the way in which the numbers of the Arcana are written. You will note
something that at first glance will seem to be an anomaly: Nil (The Emperor); Villi (The Hermit);
Xllll (Temperance); XVIIII (The Sun).
Indeed these Roman numerals are traditionally written as follows:
4 = IV = 5 - 1
9 = IX = 1 0 - 1
14 = IXV = 1 5 - 1
19 = IXX = 20 — 1
In the corresponding Arcana of the Tarot they are written:
4 = 1111 = 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
9 = Villi = 5 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
14 = Xllll = 10 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
19 = XVIIII = 15 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1
The numerical notation is therefore organized in a solely progressive manner. The Tarot
refuses to consider the 4 as a [5 - 1], the 14 as a [15 - 1], the 9 as a [10 - 1], and the 19 as a
[20 - 1]. This detail gives us a key to understanding the Tarot. What is indicated here is that it
tends to add rather than subtract. In other words, it describes a process of advancement and
growth by one degree after the next.
This discovery inspires us to proceed by additions and not by subtractions when we study
the Tarot.
These simple observations already allow us to form a consistent organized pattern of the
Tarot based on its own structure. In fact, based on three facts:
the Tarot is progressive
the highest value of the Arcana is XXI
k the Tarot proceeds by additions
we can place the cards in numerical order and connect them in pairs in eleven couples whose
sum total gives us 21. This will then give us the diagram below.
This pattern suggests new parallels and comparisons between the Major Arcana. If 21 (XXI)
represents realization and is the highest value in the Tarot, each of the additions suggested
here can be a possibility and a path toward this realization.
For example:
• The Fool and XXI. The fundamental energy is embodied in total realization.
• I and XX. A young man or a young mind on the path of initiation receives the
irresistible appeal of the new consciousness.
To grasp the twenty-two Major Arcana in a single glance, you can use this pattern that connects them in
eleven pairs that each add up to a sum total of 21, the figure of realization (see pp. 398-99).
• II and XVIIII. A woman, a priestess, relies upon the light of the Universal Father to
understand a sacred text.
• III and XVIII. Another woman, creative, sensuous, and embodied, plunges into the
intuitive mystery of the feminine.
And so on ...
The issue here is not to detail all these encounters between two cards. They will be studied
later (see part 4). But in its simplicity, this first organizational outline of the Major Arcana
permits us to understand that the Tarot is constructed as an organic and harmonious whole. By
using its structural elements, we can construct patterns that allow us to better understand it. If
one accepts the metaphor of the Tarot as a structured being, a mind-body endowed with its
own dynamic, we could say that it is ceaselessly inviting us to dance with it.
The Fool and The World: Spatial Organization of the Tarot
The Fool and The World, the first and last cards of the Major Arcana series, can be considered
as the Alpha and the Omega of the Major Arcana, the first and last rung or grade, the two points
between which all possibilities are deployed. The Fool would therefore be a perpetual
beginning and The World an infinite culmination.
If you place one next to the other in this order, it is obvious that The Fool seems to be
determinedly headed toward the oval of The World, in which the naked woman appears to be
calling and attracting him toward her. The Fool can be considered here as the fundamental
energy that has no definition, meaning it has no limits. This is how the Bible and numerous
divine cosmogonies present the divine creative energy: an activity without limits or precedent
that has emerged from a nothingness that knows neither time nor space. But if The Fool
remains alone, he runs the risk of endlessly revolving around his staff. Creative energy can
exhaust itself purposelessly if it does not materialize within a realization, a world, or a creature.
From this perspective we can see The World framed by four elements like four cardinal points
with, at the center, the woman-sou I-matter inseminated by the energy of The Fool.
But the order of the cards is essential.
In fact, if we place the cards in the order The World, The Fool, the situation is completely
different. The World is no longer the realization of anything but is an imprisonment desperately
gazing into the void of the past, a difficult beginning whose sole possible exit is a pure and
simple liberation. This is what The Fool appears to be doing as he escapes from this
confinement (we can imagine that the blue animal nudging him forward has been stirred into
action by the blue oval of The World). But in his efforts to flee, The Fool is not really going
anywhere in particular. Just like the space at which the woman of The World is staring remains
empty, the path of The Fool here opens on nothingness.
These observations allow us to see that the Tarot, in addition to its progressive structure,
possesses its own orientation in space that will be a deciding factor in the construction of the
mandala as well as in the readings to come. The choice made by its creators to add
cartouches written in French, in Latin letters, should give us yet another clue: the Tarot is to be
read in the same direction one writes, from left to right. We can therefore deduce that its
"timeline" will borrow the same scheme: from the extreme left, what has already been
experienced or done; to the center, what one is in the midst of experiencing or doing; to the
extreme right, what one will be able to do or not do, experience or not experience. These
observations consist, in fact, of placing the Tarot in its cultural context, which is that of southern
Europe during the Middle Ages.
Arcanum XXIMirror of the Tarot and Key to Its Orientation
Let us now give closer examination to the card of The World. We have seen that, as the
maximal value of the Major Arcana, it symbolizes culmination, the greatest realization the Tarot
can offer us.
We are going to see that this card is also a mirror in which the entire structure of the Tarot is
reflected and summarized, and one that presents itself as a key to its spatial and symbolic
organization.
On this card we see an oval of blue foliage surrounded, on the four comers of the card, by
four figures who cannot help but remind us of the vision of Ezekiel: an angel, a flesh-colored
animal that could be a bull (or a horse), a lion, and an eagle. The Christian symbolism is
interpreted here with great freedom insofar as in the middle of these four elements is not the
(male, bearded) figure of Christ that we see, but definitely a naked woman, indicated as such
by her round breasts, the length of her hair, and the curves of her hips. Here the Tarot, although
permeated with religious symbolism, distinguishes itself as an image-maker unrestrained by
dogma.
LE+MOMPE
This female figure dancing in the center of the oval could be an allegory of the soul of the
world, into which The Fool breathes his cosmic energy. The four figures surrounding her can
then be interpreted as the four constituent elements of reality, the four cardinal points, and the
four comers of the real world.
In many cultures the known world is defined as a four-sided form, a square or a cross, to
which is added a fifth central element, an axis or meeting point that joins and surpasses the
four directions. The symbolism of the human hand, with its four fingers opposable to the thumb,
is reminiscent of this structure. We could see in the card of The World a proposition of similar
organization: in the center is the dancing soul, the essential being present in each of us, a
receptive essence animated by a creating breath.
On the four comers are four energies whose arrangement we should note: in the lower part
of the card we find two earthly animals, one a herbivore (the flesh-colored animal) and the
other a carnivore (the lion). There are two winged beings on the upper half: an angel, a figure
representing the unconditional giving of love and bearer of the divine message; and an eagle,
a predator beast, but one whose symbology refers to grandeur, ascension, and the human
capacity to raise itself to the heights. The card of The World is clearly structured with one part
Heaven and the other part Earth. If we look at the shape and proportion of the cards of the
Tarot, we will realize that they are rectangles whose height is exactly two times greater than
their width, hence a double square: the square Earth beneath the square Heaven. It will be our
duty, then, in the study of the cards to keep in mind this dual terrestrial and celestial dimension,
in the center of which the carnal and spiritual process of the human being is developing in
accordance with the geometry of the Tarot.
Let's now look at how the right and left sides break down. On our right when looking at the
card of The World, we find the two active predator animals and a wand in the hand of the
naked woman, the symbol of active power. The eagle and the lion are both carnivores. The first
is a male bird of prey (he has a black phallus between his claws), and the other a wild
carnivorous beast that is also male (lionesses do not have manes). Both are active: the lion on
the Earth and the eagle in the sky.
On our left are two figures who are predominantly flesh-colored, one of whom we have
already seen is an herbivore animal traditionally dedicated to service and sacrifice, and the
other an angel, the messenger of divine love. On this side the woman is holding a purse or a
flask, which is to say a receptive container. Traditionally, psychologically speaking, the left
represents the receptive and stabilizing forces as opposed to the active right. If we use our
study of The World as our basis, the Tarot seems to function like a mirror that reflects the image
of our right and left while preserving the notion of the upper celestial and the lower terrestrial. A
simplified diagram gives us this:
This structure in five parts, or rather four parts plus a center, cannot help but remind us of the
structure of the Tarot itself:
the twenty-two Major Arcana, which represent archetypes capable of casting us back to
the discovery of our essential being, could figure in the central oval;
w the four series of the Minor Arcana should then find their places at the four comers of this
"map of the world," if we are able to organize them in accordance with this dual
composition between active and receptive, between Earth and Heaven.
THE MINOR ARCANA
Organizing the Four Suits
The Minor Arcana are subdivided into four Suits—Swords, Cups, Wands, and Pentacles—that
offer numerous details enabling us to establish a correspondence between them and the four
symbols of The World.
To grasp this, begin by assembling the cards of the four Suits in four distinct packs: Swords,
Cups, Wands, and Pentacles. You will thereby obtain packs of fourteen cards, each containing
the ten cards of a value progressing from I to X and four figures whose "rank" and "family" are
inscribed on the card.
Each of these packs will then be divided into two smaller packs. In the first you will place the
cards numbered I to X, and in the other the figures, ranked in the order Page, Queen, King,
Knight. When you are done you will have eight packs.
First remove the Pages from each Suit and arrange them as follows (see the following
page):
To Tell Swords and Wands Apart
Here are the reference points that will help the beginner:
• Curved in shape, the Swords are displayed in an oval of a predominantly black color, with blue
and red sections. In the odd-numbered cards a sword is drawn in the middle of this oval. The
even-numbered cards have floral motifs in the center.
• Straight, Wands are arranged in the form of an X-shaped cross. They are predominantly red in
color with blue centers and black at the ends.
The four Pages arranged in accordance with the orientation outline (see p. 49)
These Pages provide us with certain clues about their respective symbols that corroborate
the parallel with the card of The World and the spatial organization of the Tarot.
The Pages that we have placed on the left hand are actually holding their symbols in the
hand that corresponds to our left hands in the mirror, the receptive hand, while the two Pages
on the right are holding the Sword and the Wanda to our right. Similarly, the direction in which
their feet are pointing also indicates their degree of receptivity or activity.
The Page of Swords, with his feet pointing in two different directions, is of an active
tendency with a receptive tone. His symbol, the sword, is pointed toward the sky. Active and
celestial, he is kin to the eagle on the card of The World.
The Page of Cups is resolutely heading toward the west—both his feet are pointing in this
direction, indicating total receptivity. Furthermore, his symbol (the cup) is pointed toward the
sky. Receptive to the heavens, the cup would therefore be incorporated into the symbol of the
angel on the card of The World.
The Page of Pentacles, his feet pointing in each direction, could be described as
"receptive/active." His symbol is present both on the ground and in his hand, as gold found in
the mine becomes money, but it is also placed on the left side of the card. Receptive to the
Earth, it is akin to the flesh-colored animal on the card of The World.
The Page of Wands is determinedly headed toward the right. He is active, and his symbol,
the wand, is resting on the ground. Because his activity is directed toward the Earth he is
therefore identified with the lion on the card of The World.
As corroboration for these observations, we can find supporting evidence in the four series
often cards. You will note that three of these series are numbered on the sides with Roman
numerals: Swords, Cups, and Wands. But let us take a look at the Pentacles:
No card in
Four, Five. Six,
and Eight of
Pentades
rhe Penrade
series bears a
number.
In Swords and Wands, the numbers share the identical direction; for example, in the Fives,
the point of the V (which, we shall note, is a little bigger in the Wands) is directed toward the
center of the card. Conversely, in the Five of Cups, the tip of the V points toward the edge of
the card.
rive of Swards and
Five of W a n d s
Five of Cups.
Now let us take a look at the Ace of Swords. Surrounded by shapes that we will call flying
sparks, it is held by a hand (with its back visible) that emerges from out of a shape that we will
call a cloud. The Ace of Wands, also surrounded by flying sparks, is grasped by a hand
(showing its palm side) emerging from inside a cloud. The two Aces therefore share an
important point in common.
The Cup is depicted erect and motionless like a temple.
Finally, the Ace of Pentacles, with its sprouting branches, can be visualized in every
direction, lying like a gold piece sitting on a flat surface. It is different from the other three
symbols. (For more on the Aces, see p. 271.)
Ace of Penraclii
We can also note that the name "Pentacles" is different. Whereas Sword, Cup, and Wand
are written in the singular on all the Court cards, Pentacles is in the plural.
Now let us revisit the card of The World to look at one point of agreement with these
observations. The angel, the eagle, and the lion each have a halo. The flesh-colored animal
does not. Because it is different from these other three, it is logical to think that it corresponds to
the series of Pentacles.
We have seen that the card at our right corresponds with activity, terrestrial for the lion and
celestial for the eagle in the sky. The similarity (both are beasts of prey) reflects the similarity
between the Sword and the Wand. The sword is forged by the hand of man, whereas the wand
grows from the earth. This lets us draw the correspondence between the former with the eagle
and the latter with the lion. The Cup, symbol of the Grail, can be attributed to the angel.
CORRESPONDENCE AMONG THE SUITS, THE ELEMENTS, AND THE
ENERGIES OF THE HUMAN BEING
The four Suits of the Tarot are not the four elements of alchemy or other systems (Sword/air,
Cup/water, Pentacles/earth, and Wand/fire), and even less, as claimed by Eliphas Levi,
influenced by the Arthurian legend, can the Sword be attributed to the earth and the Pentacles
to air! On the other hand, we can inaugurate a system of correspondences that seems
consistent with the symbolism of the Minor Arcana and which, without falling into forced
comparisons, lets us use the Tarot as a tool for understanding human beings. Choosing this
interpretation is in line with what Buddha says: 'Truth is what is useful."
So let us see what we can observe that will allow us to construct a useful reading
methodology. The Tarot is divided in accordance with a structure of 4 + 1: four Suits or
symbols, and one series of Major Arcana. It so happens that in the card of The World, four
animals or beings surround the blue oval in which a female figure is dancing. We can therefore
think that these four elements represent four human energies, distinct from one another but all
necessary, joined by a single consciousness.
The sword, the traditional symbol of the Word, is a weapon that is forged, tempered, and
sharpened, just as one hones one's intelligence, if only in the learning of language. It
represents intellectual energy and corresponds to the eagle of Arcanum XXI, capable of lifting
itself to the heights and adopting a higher point of view. The element of the Sword could be air.
The cup, the Christian symbol of the Grail, is a chalice, a worked tool that is completely
receptive. In antiquity it was a symbol for love. The Cup can therefore represent emotional
energy. The Ace of Cups resembles a cathedral and reminds us that constructing love is the
labor of the goldsmith. It corresponds to the angel of Arcanum XXI, the divine messenger. Its
reference element could be water.
The wand grows naturally; it is not manufactured. On the other hand, one can choose it, one
can prune it. It represents the strength of growing nature, creative and sexual power. The
attraction we feel toward another cannot be forged: desire is not a voluntary action—either we
lust for someone or we don't. Sexuality is not an energy we manufacture, but we can channel
it, and sometimes sublimate it. Similarly, the attraction of an artist for a form of expression, and
the artist's talent, are mysterious givens, but ones that are deployed through work. Inspiration is
received before it is implemented. We have seen already that the Wand corresponds with the
lion of the card of The World. Naturally combustible, its element could be fire.
The pentacle is both received (like the mineral present in the ground) and partially forged
(coins are struck). Similarly, our bodies are shaped by our actions, but nonetheless are
something we receive once and for all. Similarly again, the planet Earth, which is the life
territory for the human race, is one and complete, but it is exploited and transformed by the
activity of its inhabitants. We can therefore attribute to Pentacles the representation of physical
energy, the needs of the body, territorial imperatives, and questions concerning the body or
money. We have already seen that the Pentacle corresponds with the flesh-colored animal. Its
reference element could be the earth.
In English playing cards, the two receptive Suits, Cups and Pentacles, gave birth to the red
symbols of hearts and diamonds. The two active Suits, Swords and Wands, became the black
symbols of spades and clubs. At this juncture, we are now able to provide the following
possible reading of the card of The World (see below) as an orientation key for understanding
the internal organization of the Tarot.
Arcanum XXI, Orientation Key to the Tarot
The Major Arcana represent the archetypes of the path of Awareness and can be attributed to the
element of ether. They correspond to the naked woman who is dancing, joining activity and
receptivity with her red and blue veil, and harmonizing the four energies.
Cup
Emotional Center,
Feelings
Sword
intellectual
Center, Thoughts
Major Arcana
Architecture
of che Soul.
Consciousness
Pentacles
Corporal Center,
Needs
Wand
Sexual Center,
Creativity. Desires
The Correspondences of the Tarot
The energies of the Cup and the Sword are placed in the square of the sky (Heaven square). See
page 42. They presume an awareness and are specifically human. The energies of the Wand and the
Pentacles are placed in the square of the earth. They form the base of all living species capable of
reproducing—human or animal.
CUP
Loving
SWORD
Being
fAt#Jfeecuaf Energy
Language.the
Word, thought,
concepts, ideas.
Intellectual activity.
Ideas transmitted
by culture, society,
myths, arid religions.
Conceived ideas and
consciousness. Mental labor, meditation,
language as weapon or prayer.
Element: air
Body: head
Ernotwfia/ Energy and
feelings, ihe Heon
Love, positive arid
negative s enti men t s.
friendship Talent,
forgive ri « s. genera I ty,
adoration The opening
of the tear c, joy. faith,
myitiosm
E l v m ^ n t : water
Body: rib cage. heart
PENTACLES
Living
Mptcrrcl Energy
The body, health,
physical appearance.
The place where
one lives, territory,
clothing, food, house
Profession, economic
life, prosperity,
money. One's ptece
in the world, social
relations Cells, atoms, oui* constituent
molecules, the planet Earth.
Element; earth
Body: at the level of the feet [flat on
the ground like the Ace of Pentacles)
WAND
Making Or Doing
Sexual crrd Creative
Energy
The rep rod ix live
Instinct, fertility,
desire Creative
energy, ima#nation,
conscious and
unconscious
production, the
possibility of creating, of inventing, Vital
enthusiasm, power, the healing force,
Instinct, The vital force, growth, the
vocation of populating the planet and the
universe, the overcoming of obstacles
through creativity.
Element: fire
Body: at the level of the pelvis where
the genital organs are located, as well as
the hara died in Eastern Traditions
This system of concordances, which is confirmed by detailed study of the Minor Arcana, is
extremely useful for reading the Tarot, because it makes it possible to touch on all aspects of
life from the most concrete to the most spiritual, without excluding anything of what it means to
be human. If we accept this reading grid, it will perpetually enrich our approach to the Tarot
and to ourselves.
initial Contact with the Figures of the Minor Arcana
The figures of the Court Cards also fit into a design that allows us to gain a better
understanding of the Tarot. But because of their posture, the personages of each Suit also
symbolize an attitude and psychological path with regard to their element.
It is interesting to notice the evolution in each Suit of the symbol that is represented by each
of the figures. The Page of Pentacles is contemplating a small pentacle he is holding in his
hand and is unaware of another that is buried beneath the ground like a treasure. The Queen
of Pentacles is lifting in front of her a pentacle that is larger than the one held by the Page. The
King has mastered two pentacles, one that he is holding in his hand and another smaller one
that is floating in the air. This spiritual pentacle grows even larger in the card of the Knight,
reaching the size of a heavenly body. Similarly, the initially rustic wand of the Page becomes
sculpted with the Queen, is even more finely worked with the King, and ends up crossing
through the hand of the Knight like an immaterial object. The initially receptive (blue) sword of
the Page of Swords, then the more active (red) sword of the Queen, grows proportionately with
each of these figures until it has become almost a lance in the hand of the Knight. Finally, the
cup starts as a simple flesh-colored vessel, then becomes a sealed chalice, then open again,
and finally floats above the palm of the Knight of Cups like a truly miraculous Grail.
To understand how the figures are organized, we can place them on stage as if role-playing
around a palace symbolizing their Suit. We therefore have four palaces representing the four
energies. Each Ace will be the castle for the figures of its Suit, symbolizing the corresponding
energetic center: Pentacles, material center (needs); Wands, sexual center (desires); Cups,
emotional center (feelings); Swords, intellectual center (thoughts).
The Pages. Each Page represents a duality and a hesitation with respect to his Suit. "To be or
not to be?" the Page of Swords seems to be asking himself as he prepares to sheathe his
sword. "To love or not to love?" the Page of Cups seems to be wondering, ready to close his
cup. "To do or not to do?" could be the question of the Page of Wands, uncertain whether or not
to raise his club. Finally, the Page of Pentacles seems to be hesitating between the pentacle
he holds in his hand and the more secret one buried in the ground: "Keep or spend? Save or
invest?" We will therefore represent the Pages outside at the door of the palace, hesitant to
enter. The moment the Page enters the palace, he becomes the Queen.
The Queens. The Queens identify completely with their Suits, the center represented by a
palace, scorning the outside world to dwell within. They live as property owners, their gaze
fixed firmly on their respective symbols (for the Queens of Swords, Cups, and Pentacles) or, in
the case of the Queen of Wands, with both hands over her stomach that represents the creative
and sexual center, with a third additional hand that has just added its presence there. The
Queens will therefore be represented as inside the palace, absorbed in their Suit.
The Kings. The Kings and the need for detachment appear at the same time. The Kings know
their kingdoms and castles, but they also realize that there is a whole other world on the
outside, which is to say other energies besides the ones represented by their Suit. All the
Kings carry their symbols with authority (the wand of the King of Wands is even the largest of
this series) but are looking away and into the distance. We therefore represent the Kings as the
top of the palace, contemplating the frontiers of their kingdoms and already aware of other
kingdoms beyond their borders.
The Knights. The Knight is bom out of the acceptance of one's own limits and the awareness
of the Other and others, embodied by the King. This figure carries the energy created by the
work of the Page, Queen, and King to the outside. The Knights are symbols of communication,
supply, and, why not say so, conquest, transmission, and unification. In a certain way they
correspond to the prophet. This is why, as they are already in the process of surpassing their
symbol, the Knights have been named as last in the list of figures.
The diagram of this can be seen below.
The organization of the four Suits according to their place in the Tarot suggested by The World (see p.
49), and the order of the figures around the palace
SUMMARY
p* The Major Arcana are presented in two series often cards (I to X and XI to XX), framed by
The Fool and The World (Arcanum XXI).
The Tarot is first and foremost an art of interpretation that operates through projection.
It advances using addition, not subtraction. It is essentially progressive.
It is read like Latin script, from left to right, and can also be visualized in the same direction
as a timeline moving from past to future.
It is oriented like a mirror inside a double square. The side to our left is receptive, the side
to our right is active. The upper square represents the sky and the lower square the Earth.
In the center a third area represents the realm of the human being.
Arcanum XXI, The World, functions like a condensed version of the Tarot's orientation,
dividing space into four parts (right and left, top and bottom) that form the comers of a
cosmogony.
This orientation reappears in the Minor Arcana:
Swords—active toward the sky
Cups—receptive toward the sky
Wands—active toward the earth
Pentacles—receptive toward the earth
From this we can deduce the foundations for a useful and consistent system of
correspondences in the reading of the Tarot as a tool of self-knowledge, in which the four
Suits are associated with the four vital energies of the human being:
intellect for Swords
emotional center for Cups
sexual center for Wands
material center for Pentacles
The Numerology of the Tarot
The human mind has a frequent tendency to adopt a preexisting system to understand
something it does not yet know. This is how the Tarot has been incorporated into all manner of
structures. Its twenty-two Major Arcana have encouraged a concordance with the Hebrew
alphabet, but others have also applied constructions upon it borrowed from astrology, various
forms of numerology or geometries, or even systems explaining the world created by multiple
cultures. In the final analysis, these comparisons are useful only if they are temporary. There is
a value to shedding light upon a system using the concepts from another, but seeking to force
them to conform at all costs only results in useless mutilations.
In other words, as one of our first tasks, it is our duty to discover and integrate the original
organizational numerology of the Tarot. It is the foundation, the first degree of understanding
the Tarot. It will not yet allow us to read it, but it will enable us to integrate all its principles. This
numerology will later become a measuring system that permits us to read all the decks based
on the structure of the Tarot of Marseille. Integrating the numerical construction is like holding a
key that, like musical notation or a grammar, gives meaning to the projective interpretation of
the Arcana.
This construction is the product of a meticulous observation of the two decimal series of the
Major Arcana and the four decimal series of the Minor Arcana. Several corroborating details on
the cards will be studied more specifically in the second and third parts of this book in which
the Arcana are described individually.
To facilitate matters, the Tarot's numerology is presented in this chapter in a more overall
form without entering into the details of all the cards, but by presenting the most significant
examples.
WHY A DECIMAL NUMEROLOGY?
What are the clues in the Tarot that set us on the trail of a decimal numerology?
The Major Arcana offer two series of ten Arcana framed by The Fool, which can be
considered as the archetype of initial energy, and The World, which can be considered as the
archetype of realization (see pp. 32-33). The number 21, which is the number of this last
Arcanum, could put us on the scent of a numerology of 7 in 7. Aren't the faces of the three dice
on the table in Arcanum I (The Magician) showing figures that add up to 7? And don't the Minor
Arcana each consist of fourteen cards?
This trail is tempting, but it would lead to attributing to the Court Card figures the values
corresponding to the numbers 11, 12, 13, and 14. There is nothing in the details of the Minor
Arcana that permits us to do this. If the Tarot wished to indicate this path to us, the Minor
Arcana would be openly numbered up to 14.
Nor do the numerological systems of 3 in 3 or 5 in 5 apply to the study of the Arcana of the
Tarot.
In reality, common sense indicates to us that just as the Tarot of Marseille includes
cartouches written in French, it places itself within the culture of the decimal system. The ten is
viewed in this culture as a totality subdivided into ten degrees that evolve from one to the next,
in a constant transformation of reality. This permanent impermanence is the incessant passage
from one state to another, comparable to the cycle of the seasons. The sequence of numbers
can be compared to a seed that germinates to engender a plant, which in turn will create abud,
then a flower that will transform itself into a fruit, the perfect product of the tree that bears it.
After reaching maturity the fruit will fall, thereby freeing the seed, which will enter the ground
arid start the entire process over again.
THE RECTANGULAR DIAGRAM OF NUMEROLOGY
Just as we used the card of The World (Arcanum XXI) as an orientation model, we are now
going to establish a model inside of which the numerology of the Tarot will be spread out.
Justification for this model is provided in the following pages by details from the Tarot itself, but
for the sake of clarity it seemed preferable to us to present it first before examining the stages
leading to it.
• Let us take a piece of paper whose height is exactly two times its width. This shape,
which is that of the Tarot cards, is going to symbolize the unit, Totality. Contrary to
certain numerological systems in which 1 is male and 2 female, these figures are
seen here as two polarities contained by the Totality, which is an androgynous
being.
• Let us make an initial central fold, following the vertical axis. On opening the paper
up again, we will see a left/right division, which is to say, using the Tarot symbology,
a division between reception and action. Thus within the unit (the rectangle) the part
to our left and the part to our right are connected around an androgynous center. We
have already seen how pertinent this division is to the Tarot (see pp. 40-42). We
could label the receptive "feminine" and the active "masculine" in reference to the
sexual conformation of the man and the woman, but this is an approximate definition
at best.
• Now, following the horizontal axis, let us fold the new rectangles our first fold gave
us. We now see a new division, a horizon between Heaven and Earth that gives the
appearance of two stacked squares. These two authorities are at work in numerous
traditions in a variety of shapes: Islam represents the Totality in the form of two
squares, one of which is stable with its base placed horizontally, and the other
unstable, standing on one of its points. Similarly in the I Ching, the lower trigram of
the hexagrams represents Earth and the upper trigram Heaven. What we see here
again is the division of the rectangle into four parts that we evoked in the study of
Arcanum XXI.
Heaven
Earth
C
ctiL
cU
al
• Now let us fold the new rectangles the first two folds have given us. Open the paper
back up: with the subdivision of the two squares this caused, the rectangle is now
divided into eight small squares. This subdivision also brings about the appearance
of a third primary square, formed by the intersection of the Heaven square with the
Earth square. If we accept that the top of Heaven plays, in our culture, the paternal
role, and the base of Earth the maternal role (though in the matriarchies of antiquity it
was Mother Sky and Father Earth), we could say that they engender, at the center of
the Totality, the Human square (see pp. 67-68).
Let us now see how we can organize the numbers inside this diagram.
• As we have seen, the Totality is represented by the rectangle. This rectangle
appears to us in two shapes: folded and unfolded.
If we refold the small
rectangle we get after
the first t w o folds, the
final figure is a small
square: the folded
appearance of the
rectangle,
We shall attribute 1 to the folded aspect: like the universe before the Big Bang, like a flower
still sealed within its bud, like the fetus at the very beginning of cellular multiplication, the
Totality is then in a state of potential, waiting to unfurl. The extreme potentiality indicates its
presence by great intensity without experience.
I
The Totality in
potential
We shall attribute 10 to the unfolded aspect. Here the figure has entirely developed all its
potential. This is the ultimate expansion of the universe, the flower that has bloomed; all
potential has been entirely fulfilled: great experience but little intensity.
ID
Beginning in potential and the complete cycle are the two aspects of Totality and of the unit,
the 1 and the 10.
We shall place the number 1 at the bottom of this diagram and the number 10 at the top.
• What remains to be done is to organize the numbers from 1 to 10 inside this structure
knowing that:
IQ
a
9
i>
7
4
5
2
3
• the even numbers are located on the leftside (receptive, stable, divisible by 2);
k the odd numbers are located on the right side (active, unstable, not divisible by 2);
and that logically the numbers will arrange themselves from low to high as the 1 is placed
on the bottom and the 10 on top.
This order follows the notion of organic growth of the vertical dimension natural to living
beings: a plant or a human being grows toward the sky as it develops.
This gives us the final diagram as shown here.
The numerology therefore unfurls like a development of 1 to 10, which should be imagined
as being in constant transformation, like the cycle of the seasons.
• At degree 1, the Totality is in potential. It is a seed, a beginning, a potential where
everything yet remains to be done, in perspective. It can be compared with the first
month of gestation.
• At degree 2, we enter into the square of the Earth. This is still a receptive state of
gestation. It involves gathering one's strength, desires, ideas, and feelings in
preparation for taking action.
• Degree 3 is the first action of the Earth square, a bursting apart and creative
explosion without experience or any specific purpose, such as, for example, first love
in adolescence.
• At degree 4 this action stabilizes. This figure represents the perfection of the Earth
square, domination of material life, clarity of ideas, emotional tranquillity—stable like
a table on its four legs.
• Degree 5 is a number of passage, the last of the Earth square. It introduces an ideal
that unbalances the stability of 4 in order to go beyond it. It is a bridge. It is the
gesture of the sage pointing at the moon with his finger.
• Degree 6 is the first step into the Heaven square. It is the first time that we are doing
what we please in every domain. Beyond material necessities, one dares to do what
one loves.
• At degree 7, this pleasure becomes a strong action in the world, more seasoned and
more intense than that of the 3 because it is founded on the experience of all the
preceding degrees and has given itself a purpose.
• Degree 8 represents the perfection of the Heaven square. It is balance and total
receptivity, a state that cannot be improved: perfect material abundance, perfect
energetic concentration, fullness of heart and emptiness of the mind.
• The 9 therefore brings the sole evolution possible for perfection: entry into crisis to
encourage passage toward the unknown represented by the end of the cycle. Like
the nine-month-old fetus preparing to be bom, the 9 accepts the abandonment of
perfection and sets off without knowing where.
• The 10, Totality achieved, symbolizes the end of the cycle and allows the beginning
of a new cycle to manifest.
THE DYNAMIC OF THE TEN DEGREES
If we look at this numerological pattern stage by stage, we could say we find ourselves with
four "couples" of numbers at four successive levels of the rectangle. This is what we can say
about them schematically:
•
•
•
•
2 and 3 are heavy and energetic, adolescents
4 and 5 are still in the material world, but adults
6 and 7 are refined and active: one knows where one is going
8 and 9 combine to permit evolution
The vocation of each of the degrees of the numerology is to evolve toward the next degree.
The couples listed above could therefore represent either an evolution (from less to more), a
conflict (receptive-active), or a stagnation (from more to less).
IU
a
9
t
7
4
5
5
3
To shed some light upon the dynamic of the ten degrees and make it more concrete, we
shall study it using the Major Arcana of the first series (I to X).
10
8
9
t
7
4
5
2
3
Degree 1 is represented by The Magician (I). This Arcanum represents a young man, a
beginner, an individual full of potential (symbolized by the elements on his table) but still
uncertain what he should choose. If one remains in degree 1, one is an individual in perpetual
beginning, incapable of making a decisive choice, preferring nonexisting potential to a
determinate realization. Degree 1 needs to commit himself and to take the first step into reality.
As the Tao te Ching says: "To travel a mile, one must first take a single step." This first step into
the Earth square corresponds to degree 2 of the numerology.
Degree I
Degree 2 is represented by the High Priestess (II). Seated and cloistered, the High
Priestess is holding a book in her hands, and an egg is placed next to her, the symbol of
gestation. 2 is a passive and receptive number that can mean a reservoir, a promise, a
virginity. Matter is still inert in this degree. The activity of 3 corresponds to the receptivity of 2.
The latter accumulates, the other acts without knowing where she is going in a burst of fanatic
and impassioned creation, which runs the risk of being quickly disappointed.
Degree 2
Degree 3
Degree 3 is represented by The Empress (III). This degree evokes an explosion, an action,
a germination. It is all action and movement. Furthermore, The Empress is looking toward the
right, toward action and movement, whereas The High Priestess is looking toward the left,
toward reception and the past.
If the 2 engenders the 3, this could be a sprouting seed, a hatching egg, a project on which
the first step has been taken. The actress I earns her role (The High Priestess) before playing it
on the stage (The Empress).
If the 2 is in conflict with the 3, it represents the hesitation between doing and not doing, and
the fear of taking action. It is an imprisonment that is suffered but not one of one's choosing.
The Empress could then be an adolescent whose actions are hindered by the inflexibility of a
strict mother.
If the 3 is regressing into the 2, it is an ill-considered or impetuous explosion that tumbles
back into inertia. The action engaged fails; wounded and disillusioned, it ends with an
imprisonment.
To realize itself the 3 must pass to the next degree, the 4: a purposeless action with no
experience establishes itself in security. The creativity of The Empress finds material stability
in the energy of The Emperor.
If 4 falls back into 3 it is a failure of the adult age and the worship of the eternal adolescent.
Degree 4
Degree 5
Degree 4 is represented by The Emperor (Nil). Stable and anchored in the material world,
he rules serenely with a solid base. This can be a good financial situation, a house, a person
on whom one can count. The Earth square finds its motionless and stable perfection in this
degree.
Degree 5, meanwhile, is pointing toward the Heaven square, although he does not belong
to it. Degree 5, seen here wearing the features of The Pope (V), establishes a bridge, a
passage, a transition between the two worlds. His action consists of serving as intermediary
between the Earth square and the Heaven square.
If 4 engenders 5, stability becomes receptive to a new point of view and intentional action
with an eye to expanding the horizon. A man of industry (The Emperor) becomes open to new
techniques that will preserve the surrounding environment. His attitude then becomes that of
The Pope, whose concern extends to the ecological balance and not only his own profits.
CJ
8
9
7
4
5
2
3
If there is conflict between the 4 and the 5, it is the antagonism between materialism and
spirituality, between the concrete and the ideal. For example, it is the short-sighted chief of
state (The Emperor) who refuses to listen to his wisest advisor (The Pope).
If the 5 goes back into the 4, he has lost faith in a new world and falls heavily back into the
security of the old one. He does not succeed in going beyond his limitations.
To realize himself, the 5 should make his ideal a reality and take the first step into the
Heaven square, which corresponds to number 6. After having taught a foreign language for
years (The Pope), one takes a journey to meet the culture that one has studied so long (The
Lover).
If the 6 falls back into the 5, it is disillusionment; it is hard to come back down to Earth after
one has tasted the food of Heaven.
Degree 6
Degree 7
Degree 6 symbolizes pleasure, beauty, and everything that, remaining receptive, surpasses
material considerations. Degree 6, The Lover (VI), evokes the richness of the emotional union
between human beings. Where 5 is looking is where 6 makes itself right at home. But 6 runs
the risk of indulging in narcissism: folkloric art, self-complacent thought, loss of creativity and
the critical spirit. The passage to 7 makes it possible to break free from this narcissism. The
highest of the primary numbers and indivisible, it in fact symbolizes extreme activity on behalf
of humanity.
Degree 7, here The Chariot (VII), represents all forms of action in the world: humanitarian,
artistic, conquering. In any case, it is founded on a union between spirit and matter.
If the 6 engenders the 7, it is an action in the world founded on joy, the pleasure in doing
things.
If 6 enters into conflict with 7, one has on one side an egotistical pleasure and on the other a
joyless action that thus risks leading to violence. The Chariot could then be an intransigent
politician in conflict with a union refusing to dialogue.
If the 7 falls back into the 6, action in the world finds its outlet in narcissism and ceases to be
altruistic. The Chariot could then be, for example, an egotistical television show host, and The
Lover could resemble the members of his crew whose sole thought is to steal his place.
To achieve the 7, pure action must pass into the next degree, the 8, representing receptive
perfection. If the 8 falls back into the 7, this perfection has only been illusory and experienced
as a kind of halt, and the need for action makes itself felt anew.
Degree 8
Degree 9
Degree 8, divisible by 2 and by 4, exemplifies the state of total receptivity. It symbolizes the
perfection of the Heaven square, like the moon reflecting the sun or even like a pregnant
woman bearing a new consciousness in her womb. Under the features of Justice (VIII), who is
holding a sword and a set of scales, it could be said there is nothing to be taken away and
nothing to be added.
Degree 9 is the sole number of the series that is both active (an odd number) and receptive
(divisible by 3). It therefore represents a rift as well as great wisdom. The figure of The Hermit
(Villi) therefore evokes the ability to call things back into question, to abandon or renounce a
position, one's possessions, and so forth. Active toward the past and receptive to the future, he
is walking backward.
If the 8 engenders the 9, perfection has been achieved by the sole means it has of moving
beyond itself: the entrance into crisis in order to create a new world. This is the moment of
giving birth, the ninth month or even the dawn of the new day that is extinguishing the light of
the astral bodies of the night.
If there is a conflict between the 8 and the 9, perfection is experienced as suffocating, and
letting-go is viewed as a sign of weakness. This is also the conflict of the parental couple in
which the mother becomes castrating and the father absents himself.
If the 9 falls back into the 8, it is fear of death that is making itself felt: here the individual
plants himself firmly in his positions, aspires to a rigid perfectionism, and cannot tolerate things
being called back into question. Fear can immobilize the 9, which then consumes itself. This
degree evokes a crisis between life and death—it is either resolved or one dies. The 9 evolves
toward the 10, which pulls it into the cyclical movement—a state of permanent impermanence.
Walking backward, The Hermit encounters the 10, The Wheel of Fortune (X), and accepts
the termination of one cycle of life so that a new one can begin later. In the second series of the
Major Arcana, the new construction of The Sun (XVIIII) culminates in the irresistible appeal of
consciousness in Judgment (XX).
Degree IG
Degree 10 returns to the beginning of the following cycle in order to trigger the start of
evolution on a different plane. The Wheel of Fortune, with its crank, manifests this need for
assistance: the one that will turn the wheel will be the first degree of the next cycle (here
Strength, the Arcanum XI, opens the second decimal series).
If someone falls back into the 9, it indicates an attitude of perpetual crisis that refuses to
evolve: we could say that the animal equipped with a sword at the top of the wheel represents
an emotional enigma. If this mystery is not resolved, The Wheel of Fortune will persistently
return to the crisis state of The Hermit. The individual is then living in the past, trotting out the
same old things, nostalgic for what might have been.
If someone is stagnating in the 10, this is a block that has no exit, one in which all aid is
refused that would permit a return to dynamic movement. No new strength will arrive to turn the
crank.
NUMEROLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN THE SQUARES
We have seen how the rectangle that gives the Tarot its structure can be subdivided into two
squares, Earth and Heaven, at whose intersection a human square is inserted. Using this
diagram, we can visualize the three squares as each containing four figures.
We know now that the 1 and the 10 are in correspondence. They represent two aspects of
the Totality: in potential, and realized.
Similarly, we can establish a correspondence between the four degrees of the Heaven and
Earth squares using a course of progression that goes from bottom to top and from left to right.
9
8
7
6
4
5
2
3
• Degrees 2 and 6. These represent the first step into the Earth and Heaven squares
respectively. The 2 collects, develops, and feeds itself. In the Minor Arcana, this is
the degree in which the symbol is largest (the giant pentacles of the 2 of Pentacles,
the huge flower of the 2 of Swords ...). In degree 6 in the Heaven square, the quality
replaces the quantity: the central element becomes pleasure and love, the source of
all spiritual activity.
Heaven
8
9
6
7
Earth
• Degrees 3 and 7. While 3, like the spring or puberty, represents the blind exploding
of matter, 7 combines matter to spirit in a conscious act that is fully aware of the
world and itself.
• Degrees 4 and 8. The simple square of 4 represents earthly balance, to which the 8
adds spiritual perfection.
• Degrees 5 and 9. These stages represent a transition. But while the 5, poised to
leave the Earth square, can already envision the higher (or deeper) dimension, the
9, in its infinite wisdom and solitude, accepts setting off toward the unknown, as is
shown by the Villi of the Major Arcana, The Hermit, who is walking backward without
looking where he is going. Similarly the twins of The Sun (XVIIII) are separated by a
wall from the past and are advancing toward a new world.
Human
6
7
4
S
In the Human square, the first step is represented by the fourth degree: the adult human who
has achieved stability and is capable of supporting himself. The first action is spiritual: it is the
temptation of the 5 that opens the road to a new world. The perfection of the human world is
expressed in the 6, the discovery of the principle of Love. With the action of The Chariot,
advancing toward perfection (which in a certain way is beyond the human), what we see is the
announcement of another dimension, that of continuity and action in the world.
THE DECIMAL SERIES OF THE MINOR ARCANA
We shall now look at how this numerological diagram is expressed in the 1-10 series of the
Minor Arcana.
Take out the cards from 1-10 from each Suit and line them up in the order. Swords, Cups,
Wands, and Pentacles.
The most flagrant clue permitting us to corroborate the numerology of the Tarot can be found
in the Sword series. Here we can observe that the cards form pairs within the larger series,
starting with the Two of Swords, forming concentric circles (one, then two, then three, then two
circles interlaced with four).
Let us now place the Sword and Wand series from low to high as is shown on the following
page. We shall note, by means of the concentric circles, that the three final degrees of the
numerology are here combined: 8, 9, and 10 build upon each other, forming a kind of "arm" at
the top of the rectangle. We will see later how this union between the three cards is pertinent
for comprehending the Minor Arcana.
In observing the series of the Swords and the Wands, we note that the same phenomenon
appears: the column on our left in which the even numbers appear (2, 4, 6, 8) is furnished with
flowers, 'feminine" receptive symbols, whereas in the right-hand column containing the odd
numbers (3, 5, 7, 9), we have in the one a sword in the center of the oval, and in the other a
wand forming a central axis; these are both active "masculine" symbols. These observations
supply confirmation of the division between a left receptive even number and a right active odd
number.
-
•o
j.
I
i
<5
The decimal series of Swords and Wands. The presence of the "female" symbols in the column to our
left of the decimal series of the four Suits, and "male" symbols in the one to our right, corroborates the
reception/action axis expressed by the numerology (see p. 55).
Let us now place the cards from the Suit of Cups following the same diagram (see p. 71).
We will again find the Earth-Heaven subdivision observed in the card of The World (see p. 42).
If we look inside the cups in the Two, the Three, the Four, and the Five, we can see that they
are striped by black lines over red that descend in a left-to-right direction. To the contrary, in the
cups of the Six, the Seven, the Eight, and the Nine, the crosshatching lines rise from our left to
our right. This is how the Earth square is differentiated from the Heaven square.
As said in the Chinese adage, the ideal state is when the individual is receptive toward
Heaven and active toward the Earth. The degrees of the Earth square thus receive the
influences of the cosmos. On the other hand, the cards of the Heaven square are active toward
the Earth; they draw upon terrestrial energies, then raise them toward spiritual love.
Corroboration for this difference is found in the Sword series: the Three and the Five are the
same color (red) and, in a certain way, they resemble a couple. To the contrary, the Seven and
the Nine, respectively light blue and yellow, are dissimilar. The flower on the Four of Swords is
different from the one on the Six of Swords by virtue of the fact that one is cut from our right to
our left and the other from our left to our right.
The flowers and foliage that are growing from the center to the card edges in the Two, the
Three, the Four, and the Five in the Wands series are all quite similar. Conversely, we note a
large difference between the Six and the Seven, on the one hand, with their exuberant growth,
and the Eight and the Nine, on the other, on which flowers and leaves are absent.
EARTTL
Above: The Cups. The Heaven/Earth axis observed in the numerology that reappears in the decimal
series of the four Suits
Above: The Pentacles. The cards of this series are unnumbered. We note that until Five, the pentacles
are surrounded by branches that separate them from the bottom and top edges of the card. This
changes starting with the Heaven square: matter becomes more spiritualized.
We will later see in greater depth, in the study of the Minor Arcana, how the details of the
cards act as guides for their numerological meaning. But we can briefly explain the most
obvious aspect for each degree of several Arcana:
• The Ace. The Ace of each Suit depicts the symbol by itself, occupying the entire
card like an immense potential ready to be implemented.
• The Two. In the Swords, Cups, and Wands, enormous flowers suggest great
accumulation. In that of the Pentacles, two enormous coins are seeking union with
an eye to a contract.
• The Three. In the Swords, Cups, and Pentacles, the vital explosion is suggested by
the exuberant growth of the foliage among other things.
• The Four. In both the Cups and the Pentacles, stability is indicated by the four
symbols placed at each comer of the card like the cardinal points defining a
balanced world.
• The Five. The emergence of a new point of view, a new look on things, is
manifested by the central element present in the Cups and the Pentacles, and by the
"gap" formed by the interlacing of the wands in the Five of Wands. In the Five of
Swords, we see the blade of the sword at the top of the oval and also by a gap
between the blue curves. This new look at things symbolizes the ideal of the Five.
• The Six. The entrance into the Heaven square manifests inside the Cups by the
emergence of an axis that, like a mirror, joins the two columns of cups: this is the
•
•
•
•
meeting with the sister soul. In the Wands, the shape of the outer leaves changes;
they are as if agitated by waves of pleasure.
The Seven. In the Swords the central sword is a blue color; it is spiritualized and
draws the strength of its action from an extreme receptivity. In the Pentacles we
distinctly find a triangular shape formed by three pentacles framed by four others;
this is the symbol of the spirit acting within matter.
The Eight. They evoke four aspects of perfection: meditative vacuity in Swords,
plenitude in Cups, extreme concentration in Wands, and balanced abundance in the
Pentacles.
The Nine. The crisis of transition manifests here by the monastic lack of
ornamentation of the Nine of Wands, in which all the flowers have disappeared, or
by the faded foliage of the Nine of Cups. In the Pentacles we are witnessing a birth
(the central pentacle is like the baby's head emerging from the womb). In the Nine of
Swords, the yellow blade of the sword has a crack.
The Ten. Each in its own way, the Tens represent the transformation to a new cycle:
in the top closed cup of the Ten of Cups, we see the outline of the pentacle that will
become the Ace of Pentacles. In the Pentacles a white axis appears that joins the
two last orange pentacles, which makes it kin to the Wands.
The Place of the Figures
There are four different figures. Among them is the Knight, who has disappeared from the
regular card game and only survives in the profane Tarot deck, where he is given a value
lower than the Queen in accordance with a logic based on the hierarchy of nobility, which
makes him a subordinate vassal of the royal couple.
However, if we study the restored Tarot of Marseille, the order of the figures imposes a
different arrangement. The figures in this deck symbolize a dynamic of knowledge and going
beyond their Suit in which, by detectable clues, we can establish their order as follows: Page,
Queen, King, Knight.
• The Pages. We know that the posture of the Pages expresses a doubt, a lack of
certainty between action and inaction (see p. 52). Thereby we can say that the Page
is situated in the dynamic of the first stage of the numerological rectangle in the
Earth square, between 2 and 3, between gestation and first action. The Page of
Pentacles would therefore symbolize the desire to experience, that of Wands the
desire to create, that of Cups the desire to love, and that of Swords the desire to
exist.
• The Queens. In total union with their Suit, the Queens also form part of the Earth
square: their position is between stability and the temptation presented by a new
ideal, between the 4 and the 5. The Queen of Pentacles would therefore symbolize
the dynamic of economy and investment, the Queen of Wands the dynamic between
security and sexual and creative novelty. The Queen of Cups is situated between
stable affection and the temptation of a higher love, and the Queen of Swords
between rationalism and openness to metaphysical thought.
• The Kings. Having now achieved full mastery of their elements, the Kings are open
to taking much larger action in the world. They are between the pleasure of 6 and the
irresistible action of 7. The King of Pentacles, a well-to-do tradesman, may be
undertaking the creation of a multinational corporation; the King of Wands, a
powerful creator, is extending his work across the world; the King of Cups may be
attracted toward saintliness; and the King of Swords is promulgating decrees that
have the potential of changing the world.
• The Knights. These figures are situated between the 8 and the 9. Surpassing the
achieved perfection (8) of their Suit, they are setting off on a journey to enter a new
dimension (9). Their action heralds the transformation of the 10 of one cycle into
another. Prophets or emissaries of their Suits, they head toward the following Suit to
begin the cycle anew.
10
B
Knights
9
6
Kings
7
4
Queens
5
2
Pages
3
I
Knight and Cycle's End: How the Ten of One Suit Becomes the Ace of the
Next
Numerology teaches us that the dynamic of the Tarot is that of constant engendering:
corresponding to the end of one cycle is the beginning of the one that follows. This is how The
Wheel of Fortune marks the end of the first cycle of the Major Arcana, and Strength, which
comes immediately after, represents the first level of the next cycle.
In similar fashion, the Tens of each Suit (and the Knights among the figure cards) are
already bearing the seeds of the Ace of another Suit. We shall now study how the Suits, using
this cyclical process, engender each other.
We can perceive a correspondence between the Ten of Swords and the Ace of Cups: in the
Ten of Swords a second sword appears for the first time in this series. We could say it is the
appearance of the Other (see illustration), therefore the beginning of the emotional relationship.
In response, the Ace of Cups has at the tip of its main spire a yellow point that cannot help but
bring to mind the one on the Nine of Swords:
F r o m t h e Swords
to the Cups. A t
the tenth degree,
the O t h e r appears
in (hp shape of a
second sword* In
t h e Ace o f Cups,
The Nine of
Swords, the Ten of
Swords, and the
A «
of Caps
s y m b o l o f love in
its p o t e n t i a l s t a t e ,
•we can
perceive
the l i p of a sword.
The card that gives us the most obvious clue concerning this situation of the 10 is the Ten of
Cups (see p. 76). We see it there above the orderly rows of nine cups in the cup lying on its
side, in which a flower design has formed inside a circle reminiscent of the Pentacles.
Ten of Cups arid the Ace
of Pentacles
From the Cups to the
Penrades. The disk
imprinted with a flower
that doses che tenth cup
heralds [lie Transformation
of [he fen of Cups inro
the Ace of Penrades.
The clues of the two other Suits are delivered by the Knights, who we have just seen
correspond to the level of 8 and 9 and herald the action of the end of the cycle of 10. The
Knight of Pentacles carries a rod that will become the Ace of the following Suit: Wands.
From the P i r a c i e s to
the W a n d s . Tlie Knight
here is giving us a
very d e a r clue: his
eyes are focused upon
a spiritualized pentacle
floating like a heavenly
Knight of Pentacles and
the Ace of V/ands
body, and he is
carrying a wand.
Finally, the transition from Wands to Swords is suggested by the fact that in the Ten of
Wands, the central wand splits in half and lets a white axis appear, the synonym of
sublimation. Similarly, the Knight of Wands is riding a white horse that he is nudging with his
knee to change direction. One will note that the flower adorning this knee is reminiscent of the
central ornament of the crown pierced by the sword in the Ace of this Suit.
What we are witnessing, then, is a kind of cycle in which the Suits of the Tarot engender one
another the completed cycle of the Swords is transformed into the first degree of the Cups,
which, on reaching its end, engenders the Pentacles, which in turn engender the Wands,
which leads into the Swords, and so on.
Ten of Wands.
Knighc of
Wands, and the
Ace of Swords
From the Wands
t o che Swords.
A white axis
In the Ten of
Wands and che
white mount
of che Knight
are Indicative
of che final
sublimation of
the Wand and ics
transformation
into the Sword.
Taking into account the meaning that we have attributed to each Suit, we could say that:
• The Sword—intellect—on arriving at the final degree of its development, will
discover the existence of the Other and make an appeal to emotional energy, which
is that of the Cup.
• The Cup—emotional energy—upon reaching the final degree of its development, is
going to produce a new life or take action on the concrete world, while appealing to
the energy of living matter, that of the Pentacles.
• The Pentacles—living matter—upon reaching the final degree of their development,
will transform and be confronted by the necessity of reproducing themselves; thus
their appeal will be made to the creative energy of Wands.
• The Wand, sexual and creative energy, when it reaches the final stage of its
development, will split in half, sublimate itself, and discover the androgyny that is the
essence of thought, therefore directing its appeal to the intellectual energy of the
Sword.
We could create a diagram of this kind of circulation borrowing the Arcanum XXI, The World,
as the base for orientation (see p. 78). The first element of this circulation, which runs
counterclockwise, can be any one of these centers, inasmuch as in this logic they engender
each other endlessly.
Sword
Wand
Summary: The Dynamic of the Ten Degrees of the Major and Minor
Arcana
• The Fool. Large contribution of initial energy.
Degree 1
Totality, much energy without experience
• I The Magician. Everything is in the state of potential. He must leam to choose.
• XI Strength. Awakening of Animal Energy.
• Ace of Swords. All thoughts are possible. What we think becomes reality.
• Ace of Cups. Our entire emotional life is contained therein, with infinite possibilities
for loving and hating.
• Ace of Pentacles. Material potential: health, money, house, work...
• Ace of Wands. Creative and sexual energy in the state of potential.
The Danger of the 1: remaining virtual, being incapable of taking the initial step into reality.
Degree 2
Accumulation, gestation, inaction, repression of energy
• II The High Priestess. Cloistered, she studies while sitting on an egg. Prepares to
make an action but has not (yet) accomplished it.
• XII The Hanged Man. Bound with his hands behind his back, he does not choose.
Meditation, retiring into oneself, or punishment. Also represents the gift of self:
"Come pick me."
• Two of Swords. Accumulation of thought. Reveries without action or mental
structure.
• Two of Cups. Amorous daydreaming: "I don't know what love is, but I am getting
ready for it."
• Two of Pentacles. A contract in preparation, not yet signed. Promises.
• Two of Wands. Puberty, accumulation of sexual energy.
Danger of the 2: rotting, inability to move into action.
Degree 3
Explosion of all the energy accumulated, adolescence, purposeless action
• III The Empress. Creative violence of spring, cyclical reawakening of nature. Potent
and creative femininity.
• XIII. Demolition, revolution, change, violent action to destroy the old. Renewing
activity, transformation, mutation.
• Three of Swords. Budding, strong mental activity. Intellectual enthusiasm,
fanaticism.
• Three of Cups. First ideal and romantic love—before the lovers move in together...
• Three of Pentacles. New job, first clients, first day after an operation or a house
renovation, onset of puberty or menstruation.
• Three of Wands. The first pleasure, the first creation. First sexual experience.
Sometimes premature ejaculation.
Danger of the 3: disappointment; bursting and doing anything whatsoever.
Degree 4
Stabilization and potency
• Mil Emperor. Power of the laws, rational paternal figure. Authority.
• Xllll Temperance. Spiritual protection, harmonious inner circulation.
• Four of Swords. Rational ideas. System of thought that makes it possible to
understand the world, "square" mind.
• Four of Cups. Emotional stability; family, fidelity, solid friendship.
• Four of Pentacles. Good health, sufficient salary, stable company.
• Four of Wands. Regular sexuality (routine?). A saint who always performs the same
miracles, an artist who repeats the same works.
Danger of the 4: stagnating without evolving.
Degree 5
Appearance of a new ideal, bridge to another dimension
• V The Pope. Instructor, teacher, guide. Communication and union. Serves as link
between two worlds, but does not abandon the earthly realm.
• XV The Devil. Temptation. Deep unconscious: wealth, passion, creativity.
• Five of Swords. A new knowledge appears, a new study presents itself.
• Five of Cups. Ideal love, emotional fanaticism. Amorous temptation.
• Five of Pentacles. Introduction of new consciousness into matter, new section of a
company, yoga classes ...
• Five of Wands. Appearance of a new desire.
Danger of the 5: lies, betrayal, a swindler's promise. Not walking your talk.
Degree 6
Pleasure, beauty, union, discovery of the Other, doing what one loves
• VI The Lover. Three individuals on the same level: union or conflict? Infinite
subtleties of emotional life. Doing what one loves beneath the radiance of universal
love.
• XVI The Tower. What was imprisoned emerges. Return to earth, illumination, joy,
moving house. To dance around the temple.
• Six of Swords. Joy of thinking.
• Six of Cups. Meeting one's kindred soul, mirror love.
• Six of Pentacles. Pleasure of prosperity.
• Six of Wands. Total creative and sexual pleasure.
Danger of the 6: repeating what one loves, establishing systems, becoming narcissistic and
no longer progressing, retiring from the world.
Degree 7
Action in the World
• VII The Chariot. Conquest, triumph. Voyage, resolute action. Union of mind and
matter.
• XVII The Star. Finding one's place and undertaking to improve the world from there,
giving birth to a work of art, living an experience in its totality.
• Seven of Swords. Thought finds its highest attainment in becoming receptive.
• Seven of Cups. Love at work in the world: humanitarian activities, for example.
• Seven of Pentacles. Materialization of the spirit and spiritualization of matter.
Alchemical work.
• Seven of Wands. Total sexual and creative action toward the Other.
Danger of the 7; poorly employed, its immense energy becomes destnjctive.
The Numerological Diagram of the Tarot
RECEPTION
ACTION
10
(X~XX)
End of cycle, "fulfilled experience.
8
(VIII-XVINJ
Perfection.
Receptivity,
9
<Vllll—XVDI1IH
Positive crisj s=
New ccnstruUioa
cai
>
m
ctc.
f
7
£
(VI-XVI)
Openness,
pleasure. Doing
what one lewes
I
l
(VIUXVI1)
Action in the
world.
4
(IIII—XII Mi)
Balance. Siablllty.
5
(V-XV)
New Ideal.
Temptation
to go farther
s_
2
(ll-Xt)
Accumulation.
Preparation
for action.
3
(IIE-XIII)
Creative outburst
or profound
transformation,
TO
U
J
1
(I- X I )
Beg) nning of a new cycle.
Everything is potential,
Degree 8
Receptive Perfection
• VIII Justice. Justice weighs the necessary and cuts away the superfluous. It accepts
useful values (the true is what is useful) and does justice to herself.
• XVIII The Moon. Capable of reflecting all the light of the cosmos, it represents the
perfection of intuition and art. Cosmic mother, femininity, mystery.
• Eight of Swords. Realization of the empty mind during meditation.
• Eight of Cups. Fullness of heart.
• Eight of Pentacles. Healthy prosperity, sound health.
• Eight of Wands. Concentration of the energy that allows the emergence of magic,
desire, and creation.
Danger of the 8: perfection includes the danger of being incapable of effecting further
change and runs the risk of then spilling into either rigidity or madness.
Degree 9
Opportune crisis for a new construction, "between life and death"
•
•
•
•
•
•
Villi The Hermit. Wisdom, essential solitude, trust in the unknown.
XVIIII The Sun. New construction, fraternity, success, warmth. True love.
Nine of Swords. Illumination and positive crisis. New mental insight.
Nine of Cups. Leave one emotional world to establish another.
Nine of Pentacles. Birth as part of the end of a world.
Nine of Wands. Fundamental creative choice: to leave one thing to make or do
another.
Danger of the 9: become mired in perpetual crisis, live in solitude and sorrow.
Degree 10
End of One Cycle and Beginning of a New Cycle
• X The Wheel of Fortune. Everything is frozen, but there is a handle. Complete
cycle. Great experience and lack of energy. Need for assistance.
• XX Judgment. Birth of a new consciousness with the acceptance of spiritual aid.
The manifestation of an irresistible desire that rises toward its realization.
• Ten of Swords. The intellect, full of love, leams how to listen.
• Ten of Cups. With one's love life fulfilled, it is time to move into action.
• Ten of Pentacles. Prosperity engenders creativity.
• Ten of Wands. Creativity touches the spirit.
Danger of the 10: a block, refusal to make the transition to something new in which one
becomes a beginner again.
• XXI The World. Great and total realization.
The Ten Stages for Constructing the
Mandala
The exercise of building a mandala out of the Tarot is undoubtedly the best way to familiarize
oneself with the entire deck and absorb its overall structure. Plan to have a large flat and
uncluttered surface of around five by seven feet on which to do this.
Note: The mandala is constructed like a mirror, in the same way that we read the Tarot. If
one wishes to put together a mandala similar to an Eastern temple (see the introduction), the
left/right polarities will have to be reversed.
1. Let us take the cards of The Fool and The World. In the center of the surface, we lay The
Fool down horizontally so that he is looking toward the sky. He represents the primal energy,
the inner god, the great architect who upholds the world of manifestation. If the gaze of The
Fool were directed downward, he would be turning toward the dark depths and material
density. Having him look up pushes the energy toward spirituality.
2. We will place Arcanum XXI, The World, on top of The Fool. The World, as we have seen, is
the summary of the entire structure of the Tarot. The Fool will therefore not be entirely visible in
the final result, but we shall know that it is he who supports The World placed in the center of
the pattern, just as the inconceivable energy of the universe supports our visible world. The
crossing of the two cards corresponds to the part of the rectangle in which we have located the
Human square, containing the 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the decimal numerology. We could say that The
Fool meets The World at the height of its human horizon. In this configuration The World and
The Fool seem to be looking at each other.
5
W.NTT
3. Just as the establishment of a temple requires it to be placed in relationship to the four
cardinal points, and alchemy requires fire, air, water, and earth to establish the four primordial
elements, so does the mandala need to set its four comers. As we saw earlier, the central
figure on the card of The World is placed between four symbols corresponding to the four Suits
of the Minor Arcana: the flesh-colored animal (Pentacles), the lion (Wands), the eagle
(Swords), and the angel (Cups). We are therefore going to place the Ace of each Suit over its
corresponding symbol in The World card (initially, for greater legibility, we shall show the
center of the mandala "aerated"). For the final correct pattern, see page 94.
4. Then above each Ace, we shall erect a structure with the numbers 2 through 10 of the
corresponding Suit, following the arrangement seen in the numerological rectangle. However,
we shall not put the 10 card above cards 8 and 9 but next to them as if in progression, in the
way suggested in the previous chapter (see pp. 69 and 71). We have now placed the four 10s
corresponding to the four energies. The pattern this gives us is a swastika, the symbol of
cosmic movement (see p. 88).
If this cross were forced to turn, it would do so in a counterclockwise direction, from action to
reception, from right to left. This movement, which is the same movement as the blood in the
human body, corresponds, as we have seen, to the movement of the central figure of Arcanum
XXI, who is looking from our right toward our left. It also corresponds to the dynamic of the
transformation of one Suit into the next (Swords, Cups, Pentacles, Wands, and so on) that we
identified earlier. We could also express it by saying that the active numbers go toward the
receptive numbers.
5. We shall now arrange the figure cards on the horizontal axis of the mandala, which
corresponds to the human horizon. They are organized horizontally in the order Page, Queen,
King, and Knight, from the inside to the outside. The figures of the Cup will therefore find
themselves beneath the Cup arm of the swastika, to our left, connected with the figures from
the Pentacles. The series of the figures from the Swords will be found beneath the Sword arm
connected to the figures from the Wands. In this way, the Page of each Suit will be in contact,
at the comer of his card, with the 2-3 couple of his corresponding Suit. The Queen will be
aligned with the 4-5 couple, the King with the 6-7 couple, and the Knight will be in line with
the 8-9 -10 trio (see p. 89).
6. Finally, we shall organize the twenty remaining Major Arcana into two series often cards
each, as in the numerological diagram (see p. 90).
We have seen how, in the first of the two series, the Arcana principally perform their action
toward the top (see pp. 32-33). The action initiated by The Magician, in which we primarily see
human beings, corresponds to a quest for the Divine, light, the heavenly, air and water, and
supreme consciousness. This series will therefore be placed vertically above The World,
manifesting the work of elevation these Arcana inspire in us.
The Arcana XI to XX, meanwhile, primarily perform their activities toward the bottom. The
series initiated by Strength is by and large composed of superhuman and mythical beings, who
seem to have escaped from a dream, corresponding to the quest toward the infernal, the
obscure, and the underground, the earth and fire, the deep unconscious. It will therefore be
placed beneath The World in descending order: Arcanum XI will be closest to the center, while
Arcanum XX, Judgment, will be at the other end. The series thereby represents the labor of
going deeper that its symbology suggests.
7. The degree corresponding to the 10 (Arcana X and XX) will be placed at the top of the
rectangle and not next to the VIII-VIIII pair, as was done for the Minor Arcana. Here is yet
another occasion on which the Tarot provides us with clue to this organization. Whereas in the
Minor Arcana the final degree indicates a transformation into another Suit, we find ourselves
with the Major Arcana in the presence of a circular return. On the very top of the mandala we
have The Wheel of Fortune prompting, after taking the ascending path (the yellow animal), a
return to the depths (the flesh-colored animal). At the very bottom of the mandala we find
Arcanum XX, in which the light-blue spiritual androgyne emerges from the depths of the earth,
irresistibly summoned by the angelic trumpet (symbol of Cosmic Consciousness) to rise anew.
So here we now have the complete mandala (see pp. 92-94).
8. We see that the center of the mandala is an eight-sided geometrical figure (octagon). This
figure carries us back to the fundamental geometry of Taoism, in which the trigrams of the I
Ching are represented inscribed within a regular octagon, in the center of which is symbolized
the binary principle of creation (Yin and Yang). Each side of the figure has a corresponding
cardinal direction: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest.
Incidentally, baptismal fonts often have an octagonal base, because this shape in Christian
symbology refers to eternal life and the resurrection. We find six cards that have been fit inside
the center of this octagon, and similarly, the hexagon fit inside the octagon as a symbol of the
burial of the individual ego in its tomb before being reborn in the grace of the essential Being:
9. If we draw concentric circles using the crossing of The Fool-The World as our center, it can
be seen that the cards of the same level are always located within the same circle, except for
the 10s of the Minor Arcana pursuing their dynamic of circular engendering, while the 10 levels
of the Major Arcana follow this dynamic from their positions at the top and the bottom (see p.
92).
10. If we visualize the mandala in three dimensions, we have to see it as a cross with six
branches (see p. 93). The axis of the Major Arcana will therefore be the vertical axis, and we
can then arrange the Minor Arcana on the four planes of front and back and left and right, in a
revolving movement.
Concentric circles showing that cards of the same level are located within the same circle
The Mandala of the Tarot in three dimensions
The Mandala of the Tarot The Major Arcana form the vertical, spiritual axis of the mandala. In its final
form, in which the Aces of each Suit are placed on top of their corresponding symbols on The World
card, the Tarot mandala acquires its maximal force.
The Eleven-Color Scale
Every culture, religion, and tradition provides its own version of color symbolism. However,
they all share a common background: the combat (or dance) between light and darkness gives
birth to color. The appearance of the color scale depends on whether light or dark is
predominant.
When the time comes to classify the colors, we should remember that the Tarot shows them
in all their variety without suggesting any specific order—in contrast to the structure of the
cards, which, as we just saw, provides us many clues concerning the numerology and
orientation of the Tarot.
Any classification of the Tarot will therefore have to be put into perspective, and we can
adopt different structures at will to help us interpret them. Colors are always ambivalent: their
meaning cannot be purely positive or negative. With respect to their symbolic meaning, their
significance will vary depending on cultures, and there again we are not able to reduce them to
a system of strict equivalents. The clues in the trail suggested here are therefore open
propositions that make no claim to exhaust the study of colors.
THE SYMBOLOGY OF COLORS
Here are several useful clues forgetting one's bearings in the reading of the Tarot.
Black. This color refers to two opposing and complementary notions. On one hand, there is the
idea of the void: the total absence of light or any color. Zen monks wear black clothing.
Similarly, in The Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross is basically saying that to reach
God, it is necessary to go where one is not. One is reduced to emptiness, one disappears, one
stops thought and returns into nothingness.
But, on the other hand, black is also the creative magma containing all the seeds of life, the
primal matter: the alchemical nigredo, an amorphous rotting mass that serves as compost for
purity. It is the chaos in which order begins; all life first germinates in darkness.
White. Opposite to black, white is the luminous union of all the colors, a realization in which
everything arrives at perfect union and purification. It is the antithesis of flesh and black. From
the negative point of view, white also refers to the mortal cold of snow and fear. It is the color of
God or the color of death.
White and black determine the extremes between which the other colors are deployed. One
can place the color of flesh in the middle.
Flesh. This is the specific color of human flesh in the Western cultural region where the Tarot
is active. The flesh color represented here is the color of living flesh and evokes the present life
—just as black can very easily speak of the past and white of the future if one likes. It cannot be
said that the flesh color is innately positive or negative: it adopts all the mental forms of the
human being, both good and evil. It is the preeminent example of the ambiguous. We contain
both Heaven and Hell within, violence and peace. All the opposites are reunited in the color of
flesh.
Red and green are found in the domain of material life.
Green. The vital color of exuberance, green evokes dominant Nature, eternal birth, and
perpetual transformation. The prophet Muhammad adopted it as the color of eternity. Green is
the bursting of life in one place; plant life is active only where it has buried its roots. This is the
reason why green can also mean absorption and being engulfed. In the unconscious, green
symbolizes attachment to the mother. While Mother Nature gives us life, there is a risk that she
will bind us, deprive us of our freedom, and bury us.
Red. This color could represent the active part of the Earth: the central fire, blood, and warmth.
It is the preeminent color of activity. Negatively, red is evocative of spilled blood, danger, and
taboo. If red is on the outside, it signifies death, whereas when it is circulating inside the body,
it represents life.
We find blue and yellow among the celestial colors.
Blue. The preeminent color of reception, blue is the color of the sky and the ocean, and also
evokes attachment to the father. Its negative dimension could be one of immobility and
asphyxia: when blood is no longer being purified by oxygen, it becomes blue.
Yellow. The light of the intellect and consciousness, yellow has been compared with gold, the
symbol for spiritual wealth. The philosopher's stone of alchemy transmutes all metals into gold.
Its negative quality could be aridity.
Violet. This color is the blend of red, the most active color, with blue, the most receptive. This
union of the two extremes represents supreme wisdom. When Christ began to speak to his
disciples, he was clad in red, but he was wearing violet when he was crucified, symbolizing his
attainment of complete wisdom. However, violet is also the color of sacrifice and is identified
with funeral rites. But in reality, this involves the death of the ego. Very little violet is found in
the Tarot, as it represents the greatest of secrets: domination of the ego to attain an impersonal
life.
With these as our foundations, we are able to draw up the table that appears on the next page.
SEVERAL "MANDALAS" OF COLORS
There are eleven different colors in the restored Tarot: black, deep green, light green, red,
flesh, deep yellow, light yellow, deep blue, azure, white, and several rarely occurring spots of
violet. The question is, how to organize them together?
In every human culture, at the commencement of intelligence, there is a concept of the
universe. In this concept, humans live between Earth and the stars. Currently, the tradition we
now live in tells us that Earth is the mother and the Sky is the father. But the opposite concept
existed in much older cultures, such as those in Egypt and Africa. Humankind therefore takes a
position between these two authorities that produced it, either to separate them or to help them
communicate.
In our tradition, which is that of the Tarot of Marseille, the Heavens are the symbol of
spirituality, and the Earth is that of material life. The human being is situated between the two.
The Colors of the Tarot
Color
Positive Meaning
Negative Meaning
VIOLET
Impersonal, wisdom
Sacrifice, death
WHITE
Purity, ecstasy, immortality
Mortal chill, egotism
AZURE (Light blue) Receptivity to the celestial powers
Dependence upon the father, immobility
DEEP BLUE
Receptivity to earthly powers
Despotism, tyranny
LIGHT YELLOW
Clairvoyance, awareness, active
intelligence
Aridity, cruelty, dry mind without emotion
DEEP YELLOW
Awareness, receptive intelligence
Madness, destruction
FLESH
Humanity, life, carnal pleasure
Materialism, carnal repression
RED
Animal realm, activity
Criminal violence
LIGHT GREEN
Nature connected to the celestial
powers, the plant realm
Dependence upon the mother, envy
DEEP GREEN
Nurturing Nature connected to the
terrestrial powers
Engulfment, absorption
BLACK
Creative magma, work in the depths
Chaos, regression, death impulse
If we accept describing orange as a deep yellow, we can say that three colors can be
divided into light and deep tones: blue, green, and yellow.
Black, white, and violet are hues that have no subtleties. With respect to the colors red and
flesh, meanwhile, their kinship is interesting: to a certain extent we can consider the color flesh
to be a lighter shade of red. The red of animality, which is purely terrestrial and active,
becomes spiritualized in the flesh color that signifies the human being. But we can also
consider these two colors to be completely separate entities.
This allows a group of five "bold" colors to stand out that have no light or dark subtleties.
These colors are black, white, red (the three most common colors of the alchemical work), flesh
(human), and violet (the androgyne).
Organized this way, the flesh color sits at the center just like the human horizon of the Tarot.
At the highest part of the Heavens we have the color white, which contains all the colors and
represents purity, life, euphoria, immortality, and an almost inhuman degree of perfection. Out
of the divine white is bom the celestial blue color, azure, then the yellow that is reminiscent of
the vibration of the sun.
The color flesh forms the horizon, the line of separation or union between Earth and sky. It
symbolizes the human realm, pleasure, and its repression.
At the very bottom of the Earth, at its uttermost foundation, we place black, a vibration
containing no color, the creative magma of the depths of the unconscious. Above it the plant
world, the color green, takes birth. In light green, Nature is involved with celestial forces, and
dark green represents the nurturing nature of the terrestrial forces. Green is then succeeded by
red, the violent, vital, and creative power possessing the gift of life or death.
White
Azure
>g
Deep Blue
Light Yellow
Deep Yellow
Flesh
Red
Light Green
Deep Green
Black
Violet is envisioned as the frame of the rectangle and is like The Fool hidden beneath The
World in the Tarot mandala, as it props up the entire structure.
The flesh color can also be interpreted as an orange blended with white. The color of flesh
also represents the human being, vitality permeated by consciousness, whereas orange would
be the color of vital, active growth without divine awareness.
Yellow would then become the color of celestial light and red that of terrestrial magma—
pure activity.
In this hypothesis the "bold" colors are black, red, yellow, and white (the four colors of the
alchemical work), and violet, the mysterious union between action and reception.
This provides the organizational arrangement of the colors as depicted in the table below.
WHITE
Purity
Azure
Spiritual receptivity
Deep Blue
Intuitive, terrestrial receptivity
YELLOW
Intelligence
Flesh
Human realm, conscious life
VIOLET
Horizon line of union and border between action/reception and
Heaven/Earth
Orange
Vital domain of pure receptivity
RED
Activity
Light Green
Celestial nature
Deep Green
Terrestrial nature
BLACK
That which is buried, hidden, and unconscious
We can also organize the colors in accordance with two other diagrams corresponding to
the numerology of the Tarot. One is based on the double square; the other fits into a circle and
is inspired by the symbolic pattern of Arcanum XXI, The World.
THE CIRCULAR DIAGRAM
This pattern corresponds to a vision of the world that consists of depicting the whole not as a
rectangle but as a circle, the universe in constant expansion, bom from a single central point.
This circle is then crossed by a horizon that, like the one in Genesis, separates the Heavens
from the Earth (fig. 1 on p. 101).
The vertical left/right subdivision then separates the receptive "feminine" from the active
"masculine": this is Eve born from Adam's rib while he sleeps. This divides the circle into four
quarters to which, following the outline proposed by Arcanum XXI (see p. 49), we can attribute
the four elements corresponding to the four Suits of the Minor Arcana: Pentacles or corporeal
center; Wands or sexual, creative center; Cups or emotional center; and Swords or intellectual
center. Each color will find its correct place depending on the symbol one has chosen to
attribute to it (fig. 2).
We may choose to associate Pentacles with the yellow of gold, the green of natural
activities with Wands, the red of divine love with Cups, and celestial-air blue with Swords.
Black remains at the foundation of the Earth and White at the zenith of the Heavens, while
Violet, the color of the androgyne (the central figure on Arcanum XXI), is placed at the center of
the circle. It then becomes obvious that the lighter shades are closer to the sky and the darker
shades are closer to the Earth. In this diagram, the color flesh is associated with light red (fig.
3).
This gives us the following correspondences:
• Earth/active: light green and dark green
• Earth/receptive: yellow and orange
• Heaven/active: sky blue and dark blue
•
•
•
•
Heaven/receptive: red and flesh
Center, violet
Zenith: white
Nadir, black.
THE RECTANGULAR DIAGRAM
The rectangular diagram, with which we are already familiar, includes a receptive leftside and
an active right side. If we assume that so-called cold colors are receptive and so-called warm
colors are active, we can divide them up inside a double square, respecting the Tarot's laws of
orientation:
Reception
Action
WHITE
Azure
Yellow
Light
Green
Flesh
Earth
VIOLET
Dark
Blue
Orange
Dark
Green
Red
Sky
BLACK
This shows us that there is not a single and exclusive way to organize the colors. According
to the reading, these different structures can help us interpret the symbols, but it would be
wrong to claim it is possible to organize the colors into a single diagram that restricts their
meanings.
PART TWO
The Major Arcana
Opening
An Architecture of the Soul
Throwing all the "initiates" and their "esoteric" versions overboard, I decided that the true
teacher was the Tarot itself. This was a long, methodical labor that required enormous
patience on my part. Using a projector, I projected the Arcana on large pieces of cardboard and
copied them down to their most infinitesimal details. I identified myself with each figure,
speaking in its name, but also in the name of its details: I imagined what the red wand of The
Fool was saying, as well as the words of the fetal eagle caressing The Empress, the crown that
is either opening or closing at the top of The Tower, or the bone flute lying on the black ground
of Arcanum XIII. Examining the left leg of the naked woman of The Star, I saw a child's
posterior there; between the flames (or the feathers or the tail of some entity) and the crown of
The Tower I spotted the head of a ghost, and so on. Because the drawings often seemed to
extend beyond their rectangular frames, countless questions surged into my mind. Did The
Magician's table have a fourth leg outside of the card? What is The Hanged Man hiding in his
hands? What is The Fool carrying in his sack? What is behind The High Priestess's veil? Is
the prince of The Chariot a dwarf standing on a pedestal? Is the red of The Hermit's lamp
blood? and so on. Thousands of questions that I did not try to answer with any exact response
—imagination being infinite, there is not one—but I attempted to find one that would
momentarily satisfy me and prove useful to me even if another solution thrust itself upon me
later.
I sat down in meditation and looked at the cards—one by one—in my imagination for hours.
I gradually perceived that each of them acted like a talisman. These were not simple images
but, in a certain way, individual beings, each with a different personality, impossible to define
in words. Having engraved these drawings in my memory, when I held the cards in my hands,
which existed both in the outside world and in my mind, I became aware of their infinite
complexity. When I sought to interpret the optical sentences that the union of two or more of the
Arcana gave me, I found myself obliged to translate them into words, which amounted to
limiting them. Except for giving them names, just who can say exactly what a color is? Every
poet who makes the attempt manages to approach color's essence, but always in a subjective
and imprecise fashion.
But another insurmountable difficulty appeared to join this one when I realized that the cards
"spoke" not only when they were next to each other, but also when they were on top of each
other. Mentally mixing the drawings together, I was able to imagine them as if they were
transparent. When I superimposed them, they indicated that they corresponded to one another
in obedience to complex units of measurement. I was given confirmation that the Tarot had
been created based on transparency in the book The Temple of Man? by Egyptologist Rene
Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz, in which he asserts the same thing concerning the Temple of
Luxor: "In the transparency, if the wall were of glass, we would be able to see for example, a
sign or a figure drawn on the back side that would fill in a blank space left on the front side."
Here are several examples: The Emperor's scepter could be the axis of the sun in Arcanum
XVIIII; The Empress's scepter has the same length as The Pope's staff; the Ace of Pentacles
completes the half circle of the Ace of Cups ... The combinations are infinite. But how can
these messages be translated into words? Everything that has been said, is said, and will be
said about the meaning of the Arcana can only be a subjective explanation, never an exact
definition. Those who declared, "This is the traditional meaning of the Arcanum," were either
naive sorcerer's apprentices or charlatans.
For a long time, though I found it quite difficult to do so, I kept my Tarot in a box, feeling it
was impossible to use it objectively with any success. One night I had a dream that showed me
the road to take.
I saw myself walking naked through a desert of white sand. A blue rabbit with clipped ears
rolled down from the top of a dune and bumped into my feet. When it touched me, the shape of
its head changed to look like mine. Our bodies blended to form one. I was both a human
witness and an animal guide. I/we reached the horizon, which was the color purple. The Fool,
gigantic in size, appeared on this line performing acrobatics. He gave me a glance of
complicity while opening his sack toward the heavens. The stars came loose from the sky and
transformed into fireflies, which flew down into the sack. The Fool turned it upside down toward
the ground, onto which these luminous insects fell and changed into seeds. Creating sounds of
angelic delicacy with his tiny bells, he opened his jacket and, pointing to his green chest,
invited me to enter him. Like a frog jumping into a lake thousands of years old, I dove into the
giant. I had the impression of exploding into a cloud of energy. I was engulfed in a ceaseless
whirlwind of thousands of images, I became countless beings simultaneously, which all boiled
down to a roar of cataclysmic laughter uttered by an immaterial mouth. I remember that having
become this chaos called The Fool, I then launched off toward the firmament, crossing the
cosmos at incredible speeds. I suddenly found myself in a starless sky, shining at the center of
which were two pyramids, one black and the other white, assembled in such a way as to form a
six-pointed volume. This body, which I sensed was endowed with a limitless consciousness,
drew me like a magnet attracts a piece of metal. I allowed it to absorb me. I exploded,
transformed into light. I woke up full of energy, with the sensation of having experienced pure
happiness.
This oneiric experience—which inspired me to create the graphic novel L'lncal with
Moebius—showed me how to study the Tarot. I understood how each Arcanum, having
different characteristics from the others, acts in consciousness like an archetype. As Carl
Gustav Jung put it:
The archetype is a force. It has an autonomy and it can suddenly seize you.... It is the biological
organization of our mental functioning in the same way that our biological and psychological
functions follow a model.... Man has a model, a form that specifically makes him a man and no man
is born without this. We are profoundly unaware of these things because through our senses we live
outside ourselves. If man could look inside himself he would discover it.... This aspect of human
personality, repressed in the majority of cases by virtue of its incompatibility with the image the
individual has of himself, is not composed solely of negative character features but also represents
the whole of the unconscious. It is, almost as a general rule, the first face by which the unconscious
introduces itself to the conscious mind.... We do not know what an archetype is (meaning what it is
made of) because the nature of the psyche is not accessible to us, but know archetypes exist and
that they cause effects.... The better we understand the archetype, the greater a role we play in its
life and the stronger our grasp on its eternal and timeless qualities. 2
To comprehend the Arcana, we have to enter inside them stripped of words. Better, we
should allow ourselves to be possessed by them.
During this time I was lucky enough to be in contact with a group of Vodou adepts. The
deities they worked with reminded me of the Major Arcana. Each of these deities had a musical
rhythm, a costume, personal objects, and a personal way of moving and doing things. There
was Legba, a lame old man walking with the aid of a crutch, who dressed in rags and
appeared quite fragile but possessed a truly terrible strength; Agwe, dressed as a naval officer
with white gloves, who blows with all his strength to imitate the booming roar of a storm at sea;
Zaka, a simple country dweller wearing a blue shirt and a straw hat who is distrustful and
anxious, constantly scared he will be swindled by city slickers; Ogoun, the angry warrior, who
wears a French-style kepi and a red dolman and brandishes a sword or a machete; the
seductive Erzulie, who wears lots of jewels and pink and light-blue dresses, and is constantly
applying makeup to her face; Baron Samedi, death's emissary, who wears a top hat and
several pairs of sunglasses, all the pockets in his tailcoat torn so everything he puts into them
falls onto the ground; and so forth. By means of ritual acts, the adepts go into trances,
becoming "mounts" that are "ridden" by these gods. I said to myself, "I should work with the
Tarot in the same way as Vodou adepts. I should feel each card, allow it to absorb me, and put
myself at the service of its expression."
This is exactly what I did. When I "was" The Magician, I felt the energy of the yellow cord that
encircled my hat uniting me to the remotest reaches of the universe in order to gain a Cosmic
Consciousness that burst into the eight powerful suns nesting in my hair. In one hand I held the
sorcerer's wand capable of capturing divine energies and injecting them into matter to perform
miracles. In the other hand, I held the golden orb capable of healing all the ills of humanity ... I
felt the agile movements of this figure, his intelligence, his shrewdness, his capacity for
attention, and his speed. Thanks to my immense dexterity, I was a metaphysical thief capable
of stealing from the gods the secret of immortality.
Patiently, day by day, I performed this same exercise by allowing each of the other seventyseven Arcana to possess me. When they entered my subconscious, imprinting themselves
upon it as if they had always formed part of my dreams, I tried to make them speak. What would
The Tower, Arcanum XIII, the Page of Cups, or the Nine of Wands really have to say? I ran into
another difficulty. If, when I entered a trance and all the Arcana spoke, sometimes in the form of
poetry, nothing could prove that their words were objective and came from a world outside of
me. In all probability, their discourses were manifestations of my subjectivity: simple selfportraits. I once again visualized the twenty-two Major Arcana to see how I projected myself
into them. Of course The Sun, Arcanum XVIIII, reminded me of the village of my birth,
Tocopilla, built on the edges of the Tarapaca Desert, the driest region of the planet, where it
had not rained in centuries. For me, this Sun held mortal threats of aridity. On the other hand,
by combining its flaming disk with The Emperor's scepter, I could not help but see Jaime, my
very strict father, who was so stingy with his affection and so "dried out" on the emotional
plane. I observed that three cards terrified me: Justice, The Hanged Man, and Arcanum XIII. At
first glance, the three figures gave me the sensation of a punishment imposed by the law. The
implacable judge condemns to torture someone who has committed an illegal act. Death
eliminates not only him but also the whole of humanity, the planet, the stars, the universe. This
terror seemed childish to me, but feeling it embedded in the very marrow of my bones I realized
that Justice was my pregnant mother, that The Hanged Man was me in the fetal state, and that
Arcanum XIII was the desire to eliminate me she poured freely over my body. At the time when
I was conceived, I was not wanted, and my parents detested each other. My arrival caused
their relationship to become suffocating. The nine months of gestation changed for me into a
fight for survival. The result was that I was bom permeated by a visceral terror. Every moment I
felt this command: "It is forbidden for you to live. You are guilty of having invaded our world.
You should not resist against the umbilical cord that was strangling you. To us, you are a
poison." I realized that this was the reason that years later, although relatively happy, around
every nine months I felt a desire to die. I was subjugated by the coldness of my mother, who
brandished an imaginary sword like Justice while decreeing: 'You had no right to be bom;
obey my order, disappear." What could I do?
The study of Tarot became therapy for me. I began working on my projections. An infinite
number of interpretations can be given to a dream—superstitious, psychoanalytical, mystical,
and so forth. I told myself: "If the images that emerge from the unconscious have countless
meanings, and if all of them are mine, I should reject those that are the product of anguish and
choose those that bring me closer to divine consciousness." Although I was raised by an
atheist father who mocked all the sacred books, I permitted myself to speak of "God" because
the word God appears in Arcanum XVI,a and at least half of the Major Arcana have a
connection with religious thought. The Fool, who moves forward while looking at the sky, could
easily be a visionary monk; Arcanum XIII bears the four sacred letters—Yod-Hay-Vav- Hay
—carved on its skull that form the name of the Hebrew God (see pp. 201-2); The High
Priestess and The Pope are studying and passing on a sacred text; there are angels in The
Lover, Temperance, Judgment, and The World; and The Devil, the fallen angel, appears in
Arcanum XV. The Hanged Man could easily be depicting Jesus Christ sacrificing himself. He
is suspended between two trees on which twelve red drops that could represent the Apostles
can be seen. And even though some may find this interpretation fallacious, they cannot deny
that this figure is wearing the ten Sephirot of the kabbalistic Tree of Life on his chest. Not being
able to refute the mystical appeal produced by the Tarot, yet loyal to the atheist teachings of my
father, I tried to elucidate the "God" theme by interpreting The Fool as vital energy, The High
Priestess and The Pope as the Jungian anima and animus, the angel of The Lover as the
power of the libido, The Hanged Man as the ego that surrenders to the Essence, the nameless
Arcanum (XIII) as the will to transformation through elimination of the superfluous, Temperance
as inner communication, The Devil as the impulses of the collective unconscious, the angel of
Judgment as a higher dimension of consciousness, and The World as the universal soul. But
these efforts were futile; I was unable to erase the word "God" from Arcanum XVI. Despite my
deeply rooted atheistic consciousness, I found myself obliged to face this demanding question
from the Tarot: "What does God mean to you?"
For me, the "dignitary" God, the primary actor of all sacred works, can have neither name nor
human shape, nor sex nor age. He cannot be the exclusive property of any one religion.
Whatever denomination or quality is attributed to him, it can never be anything but a
superstitious approximation. He is impossible to define with concepts or images and
inaccessible when pursued. Because he is all, it is absurd to try to give him something. The
only possible solution: welcome him into yourself. But how can you do this if he is intangible
and inconceivable? He is only received through the changes and transformations he brings to
our lives in the form of mental clarity, amorous bliss, creative ability, health, and prosperity. If
we imagine him as eternal, infinite, and all-powerful, it is only through comparison to what we
think we are: finite, ephemeral, and impotent in the face of this transformation we have dubbed
"death." If everything is God and God does not die, then nothing dies. If everything is God and
God is infinite, then nothing has limits. If everything is God and God is eternal, nothing has a
beginning or an ending. If everything is God and God is omnipotent, nothing is impossible.
Being incapable of naming or believing in Him—in That—I could still sense Him intuitively in
my deepest depths; I could accept His will, the will that created the universe and its laws, and
to imagine Him as an ally, no matter what happens. "I support you ... I trust you ..." That is all. I
don't need to say more; words are not the direct route. They can point out the way but cannot
take you there. I accept being part of this incomprehensible mystery, this entity who is and is
not, and who lacks all dimension and time. I accept surrendering to His designs and hoping
that my existence is not a whim, a joke, an illusion, or a game, but an inexplicable necessity of
His Work: to know that this impermanent impermanence forms part of what my mind imagines
as the cosmic plan, to believe that by being an infinitesimal cog in an immeasurable machine I
am taking part in His eternity, that this change my body calls "death" is the door I must go
through to submerge myself in what my heart feels as total love, what my sexual center
imagines as an endless orgasm, and what my intellect names "illuminated vacuity."
How does the Tarot present God to us? It presents Him as The Tower, the mysterious
presence in which the universe dwells, and which, because we are united to it, is our body. We
are the renters of a Master who feeds us, supports us, and keeps us alive for the span of time
determined by His Will. We can make this safe refuge of a house into a garden or a garbage
dump, a place where our creativity flourishes or a dark nook ruled by bad taste and stench;
between these passive walls we can either procreate or commit suicide. The house does not
have its own behavior, it is simply there, and its quality depends on how we use it. We can
make it into a temple or a prison. The Tower shown us by the Tarot carries the treasure of
immortality, but not as a gift. Humanity can only win it at this price. If it cannot succeed here,
because of poor use of this gift, it is condemned to vanish.
In Arcanum XVI we see The Tower giving birth to human beings (see p. 220). An indefinable
shape—lightning bolt, feather, comet, energy—subtracts some power from the crown, rational
human will, so that enlightened individuals, beneath the joyful dance of the stars, can realize
that God is not in the beyond but in matter itself. The two acrobats, perhaps a man and a
woman, are caressing plants; one of them is connected, through a blue extension emerging
from his chest, to the mountains, which are also bathed in light blue. The indefinable shape as
well as the crown, the stars, the tower, the plants, and the mountains form part of the
awareness of these two beings.
This way of understanding the divine unit, the unit that is the origin of all creation, confronts
us with the impotence of rational language that, with its conceptual system perpetually
pursuing differences and limits, seeks to understand, define, and explain a reality in which
absolutely everything is united and forms a single body. If we can accept that each concept
does not constitute reality but is a reduced portrait of it, we will be able to learn how to use
words not as definitions of the world but as symbols depicting it.
A symbol permits an infinite variety of meanings, one for every individual who perceives it.
This is how a cross can have extremely diverse levels of interpretation, going from an
instrument of torture to the sacred central point that generates the four elements of which the
universe consists, or the Christ shaped by the four Gospels in passing through the cross of
time and space. Each Arcanum of the Tarot, with the indefinable presence of The Fool as its
foundation, does not offer only one single definition established in the centuries that came
before. They are Towers open to an infinite number of interpretations. This is, of course,
unacceptable to those individuals whose minds operate exclusively on Aristotelian logic.
These kind of people demand to be given precise meanings and "arrested symbols." "An
Arcanum is this and only this! It cannot be both light and darkness at the same time! There
cannot be an infinite number of interpretations; the subjectivity of the tarologist must be
excluded!" Opposing these "arrested symbols," if we heed the Tarot, are "fluid symbols."
Dreams consist of ambiguous imagery. The objects of the unconscious have infinite aspects.
Magicians and psychoanalysts choose their meanings by forcing them to conform to the
superstitions or theories of their teachers. The patients of Freudian therapists do not dream the
same dreams as patients of Jungian or Lacanian therapists. The first see phalluses and
vaginas, the second see cosmic signs, and the third see plays on words. So how can we think
with fluid symbols?
If we look at them naively, the Arcana of the Tarot contain a simple message. The Fool is a
poor vagabond, The Magician is a vendor looking for customers, The High Priestess and The
Pope are representations of religious authority, and The Empress and The Emperor are
representatives of state power. The Lover is descriptive of emotional relationships; The
Chariot, martial prowess; and Justice, the power of the Law. The Hermit is a solitary sage
looking for disciples, The Wheel of Fortune represents the vicissitudes of fate; Strength is a
dominant woman; The Hanged Man, a punished criminal; The Nameless Arcanum, death;
Temperance, our guardian angel; The Devil is the evil spirit offering temptation; The Tower, the
punishment of pride; The Star, our good fortune; The Moon indicates madness; The Sun, great
success; Judgment, resurrection of the dead; and The World, the ecstasy of realization.
It is possible that the individual or individuals who created the Tarot sought to give it a
content easily understood by the simple folk who used it like a game. But this naive reading is
useless for us today. If we wish to use it as a therapeutic tool, we need to invest our deepest
subjectivity in it. To do this, we should employ it the same way we use a cell phone. When it is
uncharged it serves no purpose; we need to recharge it with electricity for it to function. The
same is true for the cards of the Tarot. They are symbols that do not say anything specific,
which we need to enrich with all kinds of meanings by giving their containers contents that
overflow their borders. A seed holds a forest just like the belly of a woman carries all humanity.
The individual unconscious, inside the collective unconscious, contains the past of the human
race, the planet, and the cosmos. From the initiatory point of view the container is always
smaller than its content, insofar as every atom contains God. If the reading does not fill the
cards of the Tarot with countless numbers of different contents, it cannot have any result. The
Tarot has the value that we give it. If we are mediocre, we will charge it with superficial
meanings; we will talk only of love affairs, economic problems, atmospheric conditions, health,
accidents, deaths, and social successes and setbacks, thereby weakening the reading. To
really "charge" the Arcana, we must leam to see them in their holistic entirety at the same time
as we see their most infinitesimal details. Each symbol does not have one fixed meaning. It is
not a question of finding its "secret definition." It involves giving it the most sublime definition
possible.
For example, almost all the authors state that the figure of The Hermit is lifting a lantern. But
others, conferring upon him the identity of Chronos, think that he is displaying an hourglass.
Those who attribute the identity of Saturn to him declare that the red spot of the lantern is the
blood of the children he has eaten. An alcoholic claimed to me that he saw a pitcher filled with
wine in this figure's hand. Meanwhile, a poet saw it as an enormous glowworm. A Catholic
priest maintained that this lantern symbolized the heart of a saint in which burned the blood of
Jesus Christ casting its light over humanity. Someone else saw it as a miserly priest hiding his
full wallet. No version should be scorned as long as one respects the forms, the number, the
color, and the name of the symbol. (If we accept the hypothesis that the Tarot is French in
origin, we can find hidden messages in the names of the cards. Le Bateleur [The Magician]
would say: "Le bas te leurre" [What is below (the table) deludes you]; La Papesse [The High
Priestess]: "L'appat pese" [the bait is heavy]; L'Empereur [The Emperor]: "Lampe erreur" [lamp
error]; Le Pendu [The Hanged Man]: "Le pain du" [the bread owed]; Temperance
[Temperance]: "Temps-errance" [wandering time]; Le Jugement [Judgment]: "Le juge ment" [the
judge lies]; La Maison Dieu [The Tower]: "L'ame etson Dieu" [The soul and its God].) This use
of fluid symbols allows us to adopt a new attitude toward life. Living beings, things, and events
can also be considered as Arcana that are fluid and not fixed. Everything, absolutely
everything, changes continuously; a person is not a static thing, he or she is a becoming.
A great many of the relations we maintain with reality depend on the content we have given
it. We judge the actions of the people around us by the content with which we have charged
them. They are continuously either surprising or disappointing us. As spectators of our own
behavior, we charge ourselves with a limited content. And others see us as we see ourselves.
Only a spiritual master, when we depreciate our worth in obedience to the negative view of the
family or society, can reveal our inner treasure to us, which is to say charge us with sublime
values. Some say the modem world is violent and live in terror; others think that the world is a
paradise full of violence but that this violence is only an accident, not an essential
characteristic.
This is how the Tarot can become a harmful element in the hands of a perverse reader, or
the opposite in those of a sublime teacher. It is a mirror of our subjective truth, not absolute
truth. We are joined to the Divine by an infinite, eternal, impersonal Consciousness that is
always expanding, like the universe. With the pure witness of this inner eye we are able to see
ourselves live. But incarnation forces this Consciousness to take on the appearance of our
shape/container, which remains fixed because of different traumas. It is from having had adult
experiences in childhood or not having had some necessary experience, or from having been
subjected by toxic parents to intellectual, emotional, sexual, and physical abuse. The
perspective from which we look at life is from that age when we underwent these negative
experiences. When we look at the world, it is a world we form from our stunted thoughts,
feelings, and desires—from restricted actions, we obtain restricted responses. A magic law
says: "The world is what we believe it is." Initiatory work allows us to change the way we look
at things and to observe inner and outer events from a cosmic point of view that is infinite and
eternal.
When I see a person who comes for a consultation, the first question I ask myself is, "How
old is he? What is the point of view from which he looks at things? And I, as tarologist, how old
am I, what is the point of view from which I look at myself?" A Tarot reading by an adult with the
mind of a perverse child is dangerous for the life of the person for whom the reading was given.
The reader, just like the Arcana, must charge himself or herself before starting to work as if he
or she were a shaman or a Vodou adept. Healers and therapists never work in their own
names. Both solicit the aid of various deities. If The Magician takes possession of me, I will
perform one certain kind of reading; if The Star possesses me, I will do another kind.
Developing this further, after many years, I thought to let myself be possessed not by one
Arcanum but by the entire mandala, and imitate holiness. Before this time I had read as an
artist, which gave me a very pleasant narcissistic satisfaction. When I decided to become a
therapist, I could do nothing less than imagine my reading to be an act of complete and
impersonal surrender for the patient's benefit, one in which I developed a boundless kindness
that was totally tuned in to the patient's needs. "Moral beauty is goodness. To be intelligently
good one must be just. To be just, one must act reasonably. To act with reason, one must have
the knowledge of reality. To have the knowledge of reality, one must have consciousness of
truth. To have consciousness of truth, one must have an exact notion of being."3
Working as an initiate with the Tarot consists of changing our point of view, releasing it from
the prison of age to begin observing ourselves with an infinite, eternal, and cosmic regard.
Depending on what blows life has dealt us, we will be different ages in our four centers: a
person can mentally be an adult of forty, be eight years old emotionally, fifteen sexually, and
sixty physically. But the witnessing eye—the inner God, the quintessence, the essential Being
—is as old as the universe. We can constantly expand these four points of view. Illness,
suffering, and depression are narrow points of view and a lack of awareness. The more
Consciousness is forced to work with fixed concepts, feelings, desires, and needs, the greater
its ills. But if we can see ourselves from a cosmic perspective, the problems cease.
To Begin
The purpose of the following presentation of the Major Arcana is not to exhaust the meanings
and energies of each of the cards or each of their symbols but rather to guide the gaze of the
reader through the immense range of possible interpretations. This is the reason why we opted
to present four different approaches to each card. At a glance, the reader can embrace in the
form of keywords some of the meanings traditionally attributed to this Arcanum in particular. A
more discursive text studies the symbolic meanings of several details of the cards. A summary
of a series of traditional interpretations is provided for a rapid consultation of the Tarot. Finally,
we decided to let each Arcanum speak for itself, again knowing that the text we offer is but one
voice among an infinite number of voices that study of the Tarot allows to emerge in the
unconscious over the course of the years.
This multiform presentation responds to one of our dearest concerns: in fact, in most of the
works on the Tarot, the Major Arcana are studied like a series of paintings with meanings that
have been given once and for all. The reader, after having chosen a certain number of cards,
will refer to the text concerning the Arcana he has selected to explain those he drew, and add
up the meanings that are offered him according to an established reading strategy. This
mechanical concept of the Tarot, which can be useful at a certain point in the learning period
as a reference point in the maelstrom of meanings and interrelationships presented to us by
the cards, is reductive and contrary to the profound nature of the Tarot. We have presented
some very different approaches side by side—some of which are complementary and some
contradictory—to help grasp the Major Arcana. We hope in this way to allow the reader to
abandon the illusion of a premade meaning and enter into the contemplative, projective,
dynamic, and boundless study of the Tarot without making it impossible to use this book for an
immediate consultation of the Arcana.
One more word on the way we've chosen to spell the names of the Major Arcana: the written
form of these Arcana seems intentionally ambiguous, which can lend itself to various
interpretations.
The words are sometimes separated by a bullet point:
LE-MAT
LE'BATELEUR (I)
LA'PRIESTESSE (II)
LE-PAPE (V)
L'A'ROVE'DE'FORTUNE (X)
LA«FORCE (XI)
LE'PENDU (XII)
LE'DIABLE (XV)
LA'MAISON'DIEU (XVI)
LA-LUNE (XVIII)
LE-JUGEMENT (XX)
LE'MONDE (XXI)
Sometimes by a simple space:
LE CHARIOT* (VII), which also has a bullet point at the end
LA JUSTICE (VIII)
LE TOILLE (XVII)
LE SOLEIL (XVIIII)
The same holds true for the use of apostrophes:
While L'EMPEREUR (Nil) and L'HERMITE (Villi) each bear one, LIMPERATRICE (III) and
LAMOVREUX (VI) seem to be missing an apostrophe; whereas in L'A*ROVE*DE*FORTUNE
its placement forces us to ask: is it an article, or is it the third person singular of the verb "avoir"
[to have]? And if the latter interpretation is correct, what is the subject of this verb?
Similarly, the merger of two letters in some cards or the addition of a vertical line lends itself
to several readings: should we read LETOILLE or LETOULE? LE SOLEIL or LE SOLEU?
Why is LA JUSTICE spelled with a "J" and LE JUGEMENT with an "I"? Why is the U
sometimes replaced by a V (in Arcana VI, X, and XVI)? Why is L'HERMITE spelled the way it
is?a
We are not here trying to find answers to these questions, which could open several
possibilities of interpretation during the time the cards are being read. But for more simplicity,
we have adopted the following convention throughout the book: the Arcana will be referred to
as Le Mat, Le Bateleur, La Papesse, L'lmperatrice, L'Empereur, Le Pape, L'Amoureux, Le
Chariot, La Justice, L'Hermite, La Roue de Fortune, La Force, Le Pendu, the nameless
Arcanum of Arcanum XIII, Temperance, Le Diable, La Maison Dieu, L'Etoile, La Lune, Le
Soleil, Le Jugement, and Le Monde.b
Le Mat/The Fool
Freedom, Great Supply of Energy
The fool has a name, but he does not have a number. It is the sole Major Arcana card not to be
defined numerically. He represents the original boundless energy, total freedom, madness,
disorder, chaos, or even the fundamental creative urge. In traditional card games, he gave birth
to figures like the Joker or the wild-card that can represent any of the other cards at any time
without ever being identical to any one of them. The key phrase of The Fool could be "All paths
are my path."
This card gives an impression of energy; on it we see a figure striding resolutely, wearing
red shoes, while digging a red staff into the ground with every step. Where is he going?
Straight ahead? It is possible, but it is also imaginable that he is turning endless circles around
his staff. The Fool depicts the eternal traveler wandering through the world with no ties or
nationality. He could also be a pilgrim making his way to a sacred site. Or, in the reductive
sense that many Tarot analysts have given him, he could even be a madman wandering
aimlessly toward his destruction. If we choose the most elevated interpretation, we shall see
The Fool as an individual detached from all needs and complexes and judgments, unbound by
any taboos because he has abandoned all demand. He is an illuminatus, a god, a giant
drawing an immeasurable liberating strength from the energy flow.
Key Words
Freedom • Energy • Travel • Seeking • Origin • Wandering • Essence • Liberating Force • The
Irrational • Chaos • Flight • Madness
His flesh-colored beggar's pouch is lit from within by a yellow light. The bindlestaff he is
carrying is light blue and ends in a kind of spoon. It is a receptive axis that carries the light of
Consciousness, the essential, the useful substratum of experience. A tiny green leaf, the
symbol of eternity, is concealed in his hand holding this staff.
The Fool is also a musical figure, as his costume is decorated with tiny jester's bells. It is
easy to imagine that the music he plays is the music of the spheres—cosmic harmony.
Symbols of the creative trinity can be seen in several elements of his costume: his staff bears a
small triangle composed of three dots; on one of the jester's bells is a white circle divided by
three lines. This is easy to see as the Christian trinity or the first three Sephirot of the
Kabbalah's Tree of Life, or even the three fundamental processes of life: creation,
conservation, and dissolution. The Fool's movement is therefore guided by the divine or
creative principle. The path becomes light blue as he sets foot upon it; he advances over a
pure and receptive ground that he makes sacred as he wanders across it.
On The Fool's belt we see four small yellow bells that could correspond to the four centers
of the human being symbolized by the Suits of the Tarot's Minor Arcana (see p. 50): Swords
(intellectual center), Cups (emotional center), Wands (sexual and creative center), and
Pentacles (corporeal center). The Fool produces an input of luminous energy to these four
centers, which are also symbolized by the four worlds of the Kabbalah: Atziluth, the divine
world; Briah, the world of creation; Yetzirah, the world of formation; and Asiah, the world of
matter and action.
The animal following The Fool, perhaps a dog or an ape (two animals that imitate man), is
resting his paws on the bottom of his spinal column at the level of the perineum, the spot where
Hindu tradition places the nervous system that concentrates the influences of the earth (the
muladhara chakra). If The Fool were a blind man, his animal would be guiding him, but here it
is he who is marching in front like the Visionary Id guiding the Ego. The infantile ego has been
tamed, and there is no longer any need to seduce it in order to dominate its aggressive nature;
it has attained a sufficient degree of maturity to realize that it must follow the essential Being
and not impose its whims on it. This is the reason why the animal, which has become
receptive, is light blue in color. Because he is now The Fool's friend, the animal collaborates
with him and pushes him forward. Half of its body is outside the frame of the card; the fact that it
is walking behind The Fool allows us to think that this animal also represents the past. It is a
past that does not hinder the advance of the energy to the future.
The green leaf in the hollow of his hand
The three dots on the staff
The little white bell divided into four by three lines
The Fool's costume is red and green. He is essentially bearing animal life and plant life
within. But his light-blue sleeves indicate that his activity, symbolized by his arms, is
spiritualized, and his yellow cap bears the light of intelligence. Two half-moons can be seen on
his cap. One of them, light yellow framed by an orange circle, is pointed toward the sky. The
other, located on the red ball at the end of the back portion of his cap, is pointing toward the
ground. The red moon represents the total gift of action, and the yellow moon represents the
total reception of Consciousness.
The receptive crescent moon pointing toward heaven
r
•
V
The active half-moon on the tip of the cap pointing toward the ground
IN A READING
The Fool evokes an enormous burst of energy. Wherever he goes, he brings this vital impulse
with him. If he is looking toward a card, he charges that card with his creative energy. If he is
moving away from a card preceding him, it means he is leaving one situation to place his
forces into a new project, new place, or new relationship. He therefore represents liberation, a
flight (material, emotional, intellectual, or sexual). In other words, this card poses the question
of knowing how the energy of the subject of the reading is going, and toward what end the
subject is applying his or her strength.
The Fool sometimes represents madness or inconsistency when he is identified with a
particular person—and, of course, a pilgrimage, a journey, a force that is moving forward. The
question is knowing where: The Fool has no personal preference in the matter.
This card, an inseminator of energy, will exacerbate, nourish, or despoil the surrounding
cards. The Fool is a mirror of The Nameless Arcanum, which could well be his skeleton. The
Fool shows us that the capacity to act is also acquired through the initiatory crossing through
madness and death.
AND IF THE FOOL SPOKE
"Did you know that transformation of consciousness is possible at any moment, that you can
suddenly change the perception you have of yourself? People sometimes imagine that taking
action means triumphing over the Other. What a mistake! If you wish to act in the world, you
must explode that perception of the ego that has been imposed and embedded since
childhood, and which refuses to change. Expand your boundaries endlessly and without
cease.
"Go into a trance. Let yourself be possessed by a more powerful mind than your own, an
impersonal energy. It is not a question of losing consciousness but of allowing the original
sacred madness, already within you, to speak.
"Stop being your own witness, stop observing yourself, be an actor in the pure state, an
entity in action. Your memory will cease to record facts, actions, uttered words. You will lose all
notion of time. Until now you have been living on the isle of reason, neglecting the other living
forces and other energies. The landscape is expanding. Become one with the ocean of the
unconscious.
'You will then know a state of superconsciousness in which there will be no missed action
or accident. Space will no longer be a concept; you will become space. You will have no
concept of time; you will become the phenomenon as it happens. In this state of extreme
presence, every gesture and every action are perfect. You cannot fool yourself; there is no plan
or intention. There is only pure action in the eternal present.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Long Journey • Long Hike • Madness • Wandering • Instability • Overflowing Imagination • Joie de
Vivre • Liberation • Pilgrimage • No Fixed Dwelling • Holy Beggar • Buffoon, Acrobat • Nomad,
Emigrant • Delirium • Need to Take Action • Vitality • Freedom • Idealism • Prophet • March Toward
Evolution • Visionary • Divine Energy • Input of Energy (if The Fool is looking toward a card) •
Liberation or Flight (if he is moving away from a card)
"Do not be afraid of freeing the instinct, no matter how primitive. Going beyond the rational
does not mean denying the mental force: be open to the poetry of intuition, to flashes of
telepathy, to voices that do not belong to you, to words that come to you from another
dimension. Watch them join to the infinite extent of your feelings and to the inexhaustible
creative force conferred upon you by sexual energy. No longer look at your body as a past
concept but as the vibrating subjective reality of the present. You will see that your body stops
heeding the commands of rational concepts and allows itself to be moved by forces belonging
to other dimensions, by the Totality of reality. A caged animal moves like rational perception.
The free movement of an animal in the forest is comparable to the trance. The animal in a cage
must eat at assigned hours. For action to occur, the rational must be given words. The wild
animal feeds itself and never has any illusions about its food. The actions of an individual in a
trance are not motivtated by what he has learned, but by what is."
I
I
LEBATELEUR
Le Bateleur/The Magician
Beginning and Choosing
The Magician bears the number one. This figure contains the whole in potential; it is like the
original point from which a universe emerges (see p. 59). For The Magician all is possible. He
has a series of elements on the table in front of him that he can use as he pleases, and a
pouch that is easily imagined to be inexhaustible, like a hom of plenty. From his table this
figure acts toward the cosmos and toward spiritual life.
Although represented by a male figure, The Magician is an androgynous individual working
with light and shadow, juggling from the unconscious to the superconscious. He is holding an
active wand in his left hand, while in his right he holds a receptive pentacle. This yellow coin, a
miniature sun, symbolizes perfection and truth, but it also tells us that The Magician does not
overlook the daily necessities. The blue wand in his other hand is seeking to capture the
cosmic force. We can also see an extra flesh-colored object there, like a sixth finger, that will
find an echo in the second decimal series, in the sixth toe of Strength (see pp. 188-89). This
sixth finger is perhaps an indication of his dexterity and skill at organizing reality in
conformance with his intelligence, but it remains a mystery. The Magician could be a
prestidigitator who is hiding something under the table or, to the contrary, an initiate.
Key Words
Shrewdness • Initiation • Beginning • Need for Aid • Dexterity • Youth • Potentiality • Gives Something
Concrete Expression • Disciple • Malice • Verve • Talent • Trickster (sacred)
His table has three legs. It is conceivable that the fourth leg is located outside the card. It is
by going beyond the stage of possibilities and moving into the reality of action and choice that
The Magician gives concrete expression to his situation. But we can also see that the 3 is the
figure of the mind, and light blue is the color of spiritual receptivity (for more on the colors, see
p. 95). Similarly, the yellow shoes of The Magician indicates he touches the Earth intelligently
—an earth saturated with the red blood, humanity—while receiving the summons of divine
strength. This is a spirit that seeks to situate itself within the human world and find solutions for
material life. This card is therefore one that will evoke all the questions concerning
employment, work, and profession.
The small yellow tree between The Magician's feet could be the sex organ of Mother
Nature, which gave him birth: he comes down from another dimension in search of his world,
his public, his field of activity, his art, his ideas, his loves, his desires. He is going to satisfy his
needs, cheat, become initiated, begin to live.
We can see three dice on the table, each of which shows three sides: 1, 2, and 4. Each die
therefore gives us a value of 7, and if we add all three dice together we get 21, which is the
numerical value of the highest of the Major Arcana (XXI The World). We can therefore say that
The Magician has the entire Tarot at his disposal up to the total realization of The World.
Similarly, he has in his hands and on his table the four Suits of the Minor Arcana (a pentacle, a
wand, a knife symbolizing Swords, and a cup) concealed among the objects of conjuring. This
indicates to us that we attain the truth by crossing through illusion. An orange shape
reminiscent of a snake is at the level of his groin, in between the dice. He has placed the
sexual force (or kundalini) in front of him, and he is capable of controlling it.
The "sixth finger"
The plant shape: small tree or female sex organ?
The hat of The Magician describes the beginning of a spiral. He comes from the invisible
insofar as he represents the first point; he emerges from the void to take his first steps in the
world. On his hat a spiritual umbilical cord (yellow) is emerging from his hair, the mental realm,
and opening to merge anew with the sky in union with the universe. The intense desire to
achieve this union is symbolized by the red hump of his hat. His purpose, perhaps, is to
manage to immortalize individual consciousness. There are small orange balls (eight) in his
yellow locks, symbols of his enlightened intelligence, indicating that he is aware of perfection
and has fixed it as his objective. On the psychological plane he could also be seen as a young
man who still has his head full of his mother's ideas (the 8 represents Justice, a maternal
figure).
The three dice and the "serpent's tail"
Four of the eight orange balls in the hair
The Magician's belt is double. If we consider it as a symbol of the will, we can deduce from it
that he is capable of exerting his will over his intellect (the upper part) but also over his animal
nature, his flesh. From another perspective, this duality indicates that he has not yet fulfilled the
realization of his Being; as long as one is subjugated by one's inner dialogue, illumination and
truth will not be there.
The double belt
IN A READING
The Magician indicates a beginning. Reasoning is quick. There is no lack of astuteness and
talent; all that remains is to take action. This card also indicates the necessity of choosing,
deciding, to go into mourning for the "everything is possible" that is the mark of youth.
In the family or the psychological world, this is the boy, the boy one still is even after forty
years have passed, the boy one should have been if not bom a woman, the boy that one has
raised and the boy that one has trouble letting fly on his own wings, the boy one meets and
with whom one is preparing to form a couple in which everything is to be invented.
The Magician shows that something is possible, that a new beginning can be made and that
nothing is opposed to initiating a new action. His wand could represent a request for help or an
inspiration waiting to be charged by a more mature force, or perhaps by the progress of
maturity itself.
Even though he is the first of the Major Arcana and an initiate in his own right, The Magician
still has a road to travel ahead of him. This is the card of the unity that must choose a way to
take action.
AND IF THE MAGIGAN SPOKE
"I am in the present. Whatever action I wish to undertake, it is now time to commit. My entire
future is seeded in the decisions I make at this moment. Do as I do: see all the moments when
you are not yourself, where you are not living in the here and now that is the moment of eternity
and the site of the infinite. What are you waiting for? Drop those useless burdens that are the
remainders of the past and fear of the future. I embody the energy called Consciousness. I am
absolutely present here in this body, among other bodies, within a given space and time.
"I am not separate from my surroundings. I am aware of the breathtaking multiplicity of
everything that is. I invite you to experience this inventory with me. Be aware of all the spaces,
of all matter: trees, planets, galaxies, atoms, cells. If I am aware I am not merely a limited mind
inside a given form, I become the Totality of the divine work.
"How does one become conscious? It is simple: you do not have any past within nor any
future, nothing but one moment, the cosmic moment. You should break once and for all with
the deviations of the ego, the old wounds. You must detach yourself from all plans, all
suffering, all programming. Only then will the light of Consciousness arrive. If you are living for
yourself in the moment, death does not exist. You have suffered losses in the past and you
may suffer more in the future, but here and now nothing is lost. Perhaps you aspire to perfect
yourself, to improve your life, but in the moment there are no aspirations. You are there with all
your potential.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Beginning • Prestidigitator • Con Man • Player • Something Is Hidden Beneath the Table • New
Enterprise • New Studies • Professional Renewal • Beginning of a Relationship • Young Boy or
Mannish Young Girl • Debutant(e) • Shrewdness • Dexterity • Art of Persuasion • Multiple Talents •
You Have Everything You Need to Take Action • Need for Help, Guidance • "To Wish, to Dare, to Be
Able, to Obey" • A Choice to Make • Hesitation • Multiple Potentials • Animus of the Subject of the
Reading, Man or Woman • Beginning of the Quest for Wisdom • Initiate • Magician • Spiritualization of
Matter
"I, The Magician, take a position in the crossroads of eternity and infinity that we call the
present. I am loyal to everything that I am: my body, my intelligence, my heart, my creative
force. My table of flesh has its three feet rooted in the ground; I anchor myself somewhere in
the diversity, and it is from this point that I take action. Out of the infinite number of possibilities,
I have chosen one, my golden pentacle, the traction point that will lead me to Totality."
II
La Papesse/The High Priestess
Gestation, Accumulation
The High Priestess bears the number 2, which, in the most common numerology systems, is
associated with duality. But in the Tarot 2 is not [1 + 1]; it is a pure value in itself that means
accumulation (see p. 60). The High Priestess sits on an egg. The first woman of the Major
Arcana, she appears to us as a cloistered woman sitting next to an egg that is as white as her
oval face. She is doubly in gestation, both herself and this egg.
Symbol of total purity, The High Priestess reveals the intact part inside us that has never
been wounded or touched, the virginal witness we carry, sometimes unknowingly, who
represents for each of us a well of purification and trust, an unexploited virgin forest that is the
source of much potential.
Her imprisonment within the convent, temple, or cloister is symbolized by the curtain
hanging from the sky, which is also curling inward. The High Priestess has often been seen as
an initiator or a sorceress. She has frequently been incorporated into two great mythical
figures: the Virgin Mary of the immaculate conception, destined to bear God in her womb, and
the goddess Isis, magical source of all fertility and transformation.
Four points on her headdress indicate the north, south, east, and west: situated at the center
of the cardinal points, her knowledge is linked to matter, the realization achieved through the
body. Her tiara sticks out slightly above the frame, where it terminates in an orange point. The
High Priestess comes toward us to speak of both our material life and pure mind.
Key Words
Faith • Knowledge • Patience • Sanctuary • Fidelity • Purity • Solitude • Silence • Severity • Matriarchy
• Rigor • Gestation • Virginity • Cold • Resignation
From a negative point of view, her pallor can be read as frigidity, a prescriptive rigidity, an
obsession with virginity leading to castration, a ban on living. As a woman, she could be the
hurtful mother who never lets the egg hatch and sits over it with glacial authority.
The book she holds destines her to study and knowledge. Flesh- colored, it tells us that she
is studying the laws of human incarnation. Because she is not reading it, it gives us reason to
think that this open volume is nothing other than herself, waiting for someone to come to
decipher it, to awaken her. It also refers to the Holy Scriptures: The High Priestess collects the
language of God the Father, the living language. Finally, the seventeen lines signal her kinship
with The Star: the horizon for the accumulation of The High Priestess is the action of Arcanum
XVII. In the positive and initiatory sense, The High Priestess is preparing a hatching. She is
waiting for God to arrive and inseminate her egg.
The three small crosses that decorate her chest signify that, although cloistered in matter,
she belongs to the spiritual world. She represents the pure spirit that dwells within each of us
and summons us to communicate with this incorruptible divine force. Outside any action and
fully receptive, she intransigently purifies everything that could form a barrier to the vibration of
divine energy.
IN A READING
The High Priestess will often refer to a female individual, the mother or grandmother who has
handed down either an ideal of purity or an authoritarian coldness. She will also incarnate the
cold mother, the sexless woman, who finds justification in a religious ideal or morality, and who
does not know how to be tender. But her demand for purity can put us on the trail of a woman
of high spiritual stature, a priestess, a therapist, a female guide, who could be of any age. In
love, The High Priestess is ready to form a couple based on the union of souls.
The orange point at the top of her tiara touches the card edge.
The seventeen lines of the book of flesh
The book she is holding can also direct us to the concerns connected to study or writing of
the subject of the reading. The High Priestess then becomes a writer, the plan for a book or
any other kind of work, the gestation necessary for an action, even an actress who has
received a role to study, or an accountant, or a meticulous reader. Or even the Virgin Mary in
person.
The crosses on her chest
Oval and white, symbol of gestation, the egg in the course of incubating
Cloistered, The High Priestess evokes isolation, waiting, or solitude—of her own choice or
imposed upon her. Her white color can suggest a desire to be reheated by amorous, spiritual,
or creative passion. Sexually, she at best represents sublimation and at worst frustration.
The answer to the mystery of The High Priestess may perhaps be found in her attitude
toward the egg accompanying her. If she incubates it in lofty solitude and is guided by high
standards, a living god may be bom from it. Isn't the ostrich egg in Catholicism regarded as
one of the symbols of the birth of Christ?
AND IF THE HIGH PRIESTESS SPOKE
"I have formed an alliance with this mystery I call God. Since that time I see nothing in this
material world that is not His manifestation. When I contemplate my own flesh, wood, stone, I
detect within them the energy and the presence of the Creator. Every nuance, every tissue,
each variation of reality is one of His appearances that manifests in His infinite variety. I live in
the world of divine energy. I shiver with all of matter; beneath my feet the entire planet
shudders: it is yet another, vaster manifestation of Him. I vibrate in tune with the universe, with
fire, oceans, tempests, and stars ... The energy of all creation comes to me.
"And yet I am a virgin being. Nothing has entered me except for unthinkable God. I do not
know impurity.
"I can make contact with you only in that sacred and untouched dimension of your being,
your virginal essence. If you come to me talking about passion, sexuality, emotion, I will not
understand you. I am far beyond all that, beyond all anguish, and even beyond death. Because
if God is in matter, it is immortal, and I no longer have any fears or desires.
"I therefore invite you to join me with what is divine within you. If you become like me, you
will be able to enter in to me. Your suffering is impure, your past is impure; do not come to me
polluted. Free yourself from that state, because impurity is an illusion, just like guilt. Accept the
virginal splendor of your Being! Within all of you human beings, there is a state that never
gives anything but God, which can only be possessed by Him, and which is constantly
connected to Him. The same is true for the entire living world. In every plant there is an intact
center. In every language there is an ineffable content in the words you speak.
"Know that nothing is yours, that you do not own this body, these desires, these emotions,
these thoughts. All this is His, it belongs to the eternal and infinite unknown in which you dwell.
Give yourself to Him. Receive Him.
"I am pitiless; I demand that you perform this task and that you abandon, in order to unite
with me, everything not worthy of becoming the chalice in which the deity will be able to house
itself. I am like those temples where exorcism is practiced, where you must take off your shoes
before entering, where the air is purified with incense, where the believers are washed with
holy water.
v
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Accumulation • Preparation • Study • Virginity • The Writing of a Book Compatibility • Expectation
Constancy • Retreat • Cold Woman Forgiveness • Actress Learning Her Role • Nun • Harsh Mother
Obstinacy • Weight of Religion • Isolation • Frigidity • Person of High Moral Quality • Strict Education
Gestation • Need for Warmth • Ideal of Purity • Solitude • Silence • Meditation • Feminine Wisdom
Charismatic Female Figure • The Virgin Mary • The Reading of Sacred Texts
•
•
•
•
"In union with the power that I perceive in everything, my weaknesses and doubts
evaporate. I inhabit my body like a sacred place; I can give myself the position I deserve at any
time. I am buried in my work, and no one can cause me to detour from my course. No one can
catch me or bind me with his desires, his feelings, his mental projections. No one distracts me.
No one can make me deviate from what I want. Personally I do not want anything; I obey the
divine will.
"I am not indulgent, I am inflexible. I am not the keeper of any secret because I am empty. I
give myself to God, who is the only secret."
m
Ill
L'lmperatrice/The Empress
Creative Outburst, Expression
The Empress, like all the cards of the third level, signifies a bursting without experience (for
more, see mainly pp. 60, 62, 67, and 79-80).
Everything that accumulated in the second level explodes in thunderous fashion, not
knowing where to go. It is the transition from virginity to creativity; it is the egg that opens to life
and allows the nestling to emerge. In this sense The Empress comes back to the energy of the
adolescent with its extreme vital strength, its seduction, its lack of experience. This is also a
period of life when full growth is taking place, when the body has the potential for exceptional
regeneration. This is also the age of puberty, the discovery of desire and sexual power.
The Empress is holding her scepter, an element of power, propped upon the area of her
genitals. Beneath her hand a tiny green leaf can be seen sprouting: it could represent the
nurturing power of nature and perpetual spring. The small yellow band at the end of the scepter
staff indicates that her creative power is exercised with great intelligence. Her legs are open
and she is quite comfortable with who she is. She could be viewed as being in the position of
giving birth, as if, after a period of gestation, she were giving birth to herself. At her side, on the
right-hand side of the card, a baptismal font is visible. She is ready to baptize or to be baptized,
perpetually celebrated in life like a ceaselessly renewed birth. The crescent moon that appears
in her red robe refers to the receptivity of The High Priestess. It reminds us that we are not the
original source of our sexual and creative power but that it is a divine or cosmic energy that
travels through us. Her receptivity to this power is symbolized by her light-blue throne that
extends above her shoulders like a pair of heavenly wings. It is from this receptivity that The
Empress draws all her strength, seduction, and beauty.
Key Words
Fertility • Creativity • Seduction • Desire • Power • Feelings • Enthusiasm • Nature • Elegance •
Abundance • Harvest • Beauty • Hatching • Adolescence
Her green eyes are the eyes of eternal Nature in relation with the celestial forces. She owns
a coat of arms on which an eagle, still not fully formed (one of its wings is not yet complete),
can be recognized. We shall see when studying Arcanum Mil that The Empress's eagle is
male, whereas that of The Emperor is female (see p. 145). The Empress carries an element of
masculinity within. For example, a very masculine Adam's Apple can be seen in her throat: this
indicates that at the heart of the greatest femininity is a male core. This is the Yang point inside
the Tao Yin, just like a female core can be found at the center of the strongest masculinity.
A yellow pyramid with a kind of door is gleaming over her chest. She is offering us an entry:
if we can penetrate the intelligent light of The Empress's heart, we will be able to exercise our
creative power. In her crown, a veritable jewel box symbolizing the beauty of mental creativity,
we can see great intelligent activity (the red band) that flows toward the yellow of her hair.
We see a white serpent at the feet of The Empress: this snake signifies sexual energy that
has been dominated and channeled and is ready to rise toward realization. The tiled floor
brings to mind a palace, but a luxurious plant is growing on it: this is not a fixed, unchanging
environment; it is constantly enriched by new input, and nature has a choice place here.
The small green leaf that sprouts at the bottom of the scepter
The Empress wears a red costume, active toward the center but blue at its extremities. This
is exactly the opposite of The High Priestess, with her cold and blue dress at the center and
red at the extremities. The High Priestess calls us, but when you enter her, you can be frozen
and broken if you do not know how to treat her. The Empress, meanwhile, is burning on the
inside and dresses in coldness on the outside. To enter her, it is necessary to seduce her,
which is not easy. But once you are past her defenses, you are welcomed into her creative fire.
The Adam's apple
The "pyramid" on her chest
The still not-fully-formed eagle's wing
IN A READING
The Empress will inspire thoughts of creativity, the female part of the individual, or even a
woman full of fire and energy, animated by a boiling enthusiasm. She is prepared to go beyond
boundaries, to "burst out," no matter how old she is. She is the soul of adolescence with its
joyous fanaticism, its inability to recognize the consequences of its actions, its faith in action for
the sake of action. This card is also, when drawn in a reading for an elderly person, the rebirth
of an energy thought long vanished. The Empress recalls the dreams of youth and urges us to
fantasize from them, a thirst for the absolute that may well have been forgotten.
This card will also evoke all the same associations for a man, or simply a seductive woman
who has appeared in his life.
In her splendor, The Empress is also a woman of power, warm-hearted but capable of
dominating impulses. She loves to conceive and to rule.
Seen under a more injurious aspect, The Empress can also indicate an opportunity to act
that was missed or, in contrast, a thoughtless action. She can also refer to sterility, a negative
image of woman, a female energy (sexual, creative, intellectual, emotional) that was blocked
during adolescence. The hand resting on the shield is ambiguous: it can be seen as an outside
element that has taken possession of this woman, one that has sought to imprison or reduce
her. When expression is frustrated, abused, or limited, The Empress becomes capable of
resentment, maliciousness, and venality.
But when she is enthroned at the peak of her nurturing power, we leam that everything living
can be seen in her beauty.
AND IF THE EMPRESS SPOKE
"I am creativity without any determined end. I burst into an infinite variety of forms. It is I who
colors the entire Earth green after winter. It is I who fill the sky with birds and the oceans with
fish. When I say 'create,' I mean transformation. It is I who cause the seed to burst and the
sprout to emerge. If I began giving birth to children, I could breed an entire humanity. If we are
talking about fruit, I produce all the fruits known to nature. My mind never rests: a word, a shout,
and I engender a world. I am the creative spirit. Listen to me and allow me to act within you, for
I bring healing: Every problem and all suffering comes from an ego that has become fixed by
the inability to create.
"I am activity, seduction, pleasure. There is nothing in me that is not beautiful. No
depreciation: I am what I am, ever full and living. From the moment I incarnate within a body, it
becomes sublime. Nothing nor no one can resist me; I am carnal, spiritual, total seduction. In
me there is nothing that is repulsive, ridiculous, or ugly.
m
Among The Traditional Interpretations
Beautiful Woman • Fertility • Mistress • Warmhearted Mother • Seductress • Creativity 'Adolescence
• Charm • Flirtatiousness • Business Woman • Prostitute • Lover • Artist • Production • Beauty •
Abundance • Attachment to Adolescence • Irrational Creative Activity (that does not know where it is
going) • Enthusiasm • Fertile Nature • Ferment • The Vital Impulse as Engine of Growth
"Let me exult in you: I am the pleasure of being who you are, without prejudice or morals.
You are handsome! You are beautiful! Ugliness is an illusion, a limitation imposed by a sick
way of looking at things. All that lives is adorable. I teach you that all your ideas are beautiful.
You may consider even your most atrocious, most criminal, and vilest thoughts in all their
splendor. Abundance of thought is permitted. Let your thoughts shine like the ephemeral stars
in the firmament of your mind. Nothing obliges you to put them to practice. Let them pass by as
so many fantastic shapes.
'Your feelings are also marvelous. All, without exception. What a beautiful jealousy! What a
powerful rage! What wonderful sorrow! Do not remain caged up in your fortified castle! Make it
a temple with all its doors and windows open: all emotions are at your disposal, like a rainbow
of subtleties.
"All your desires are respectable. Allow yourself to be permeated by desire; everything in
your body is in harmony. The smallest cell is a world. Life is a constant miracle.
"If you adopt my ideas, you will become a luminous being. If you believe in my feelings, you
will attain grace. Every sensation you have of yourself is a path to beauty. Trust your power of
seduction. When the Virgin seduced her Creator, I was there. If she had not known me, she
never would have been able to attract him. Seduction is a mystical state: it is the amorous
dialogue between the creature and its Creator."
L'Empereur/The Emperor
Stability and Mastery of the Material World
The Emperor bears the number 4, associated with stability like the design of the square, the
very symbol of material security. The four legs of the table and the altar of the church have a
connection to the number 4. A 4 is incapable of falling unless there is a large revolution. The 4
is also the tetragrammaton, the four letters that make up the sacred divine name for the
Hebrews: Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay. A cross with four branches can be seen on The Emperor's chest.
With it, the laws of the universe are soundly established.
The restoration of the Tarot has made possible the rediscovery that the Emperor's eagle is
sitting over an egg. This detail, which had been erased for centuries, is of fundamental
importance for understanding Arcanum Mil. Just as the feminine Empress has a male core (see
p. 140), The Emperor is accompanied by a receptive eagle, in full incubation like The High
Priestess. Is he absorbing her power, oris he supporting himself on her? The interpretation will
vary depending upon the reader.
The figure can be seen seated and stable or, to the contrary, already standing propped
against his throne, ready to act if he so desires. He is strength at rest. He feels no need to get
agitated, established as he is in the consolidation of his authority. No more effort is necessary
for him. His crossed legs create a white square that confirms his rooted state in matter.
Key Words
Stability • Domination • Power • Responsibility • Rationalism • Support • Government • Matter •
Solidity • Leader • Balance • Order • Power • Father
It can also be seen that his left hand is smaller than his right. Passive and receptive, it is
attached to a double belt like the one worn by The Magician. But The Emperor is already in the
process of achieving the union of the opposites by willful action. His reality obeys him; he is
master of his territory, his body, his intellect, and his passions. In his right hand, which is large
and active, he is firmly grasping a scepter whose shape is reminiscent of the one held by The
Empress. But The Empress, with her orange-handled scepter, works in the shadows, while
The Emperor operates in full daylight. He does not exercise power out of his belly but bases it
on the cosmic laws, for which he compels respect. He has no need for any support for his
scepter; it draws its strength from the universal axis. Like the Queens in the Court Cards (or
figures) of the Minor Arcana (see pp. 53 and 329), he is staring directly at the object of his
power.
His feet, with their red shoes, bring to mind those of The Fool. They are now still, but they
too only walk a spiritual path (the light- blue ground). His finely worked throne indicates the
refinement of his mind. Above his left shoulder we can see the symbol of gold, of knowledge.
His head is crowned by intelligence (the yellow of his helmet, on which an orange compass
can be seen) and radiates like a sun in its red tips. His light-blue beard and hair display his
spiritual experience: the power that he exercises is not only material. Furthermore, we can
detect in the arrangement of the arms and hat a triangular diagram, symbol of the mind, above
the square sketched out by the legs.
The female eagle sitting on an egg
The wrinkles of his neck draw the letter E, which can also be read as a horizontal M. The
white circle nested between his throat and beard could be an O. Based on this interpretation, if
we really wanted to push it, The Emperor's throat would be filled with the sacred Sanskrit
syllable OM.
©
The legs forming a square
The alchemical gold adorns the throne ...
The Emperor is wearing around his neck a yellow chain shaped like blades of wheat, sign
of his purified intentions, from which hangs a medallion decorated with a green cross that
creates the union between horizontal space and vertical time. He is completely centered here,
in the present. This is how he is active.
... and we can find a compass in his helmet.
IN A READING
The Emperor will easily represent the father figure as the central constituent element of the
personality. The direction he is looking can orient us upon the centers of interest to a father: is
it toward the family, or toward the outside? Toward his daughter, his wife, his son? Toward his
own parents? Well placed, The Emperor evokes a stable companion and protector and a
balanced home. For a young man, it could also pose the question of masculinity: how has it
been passed down by the father, what are the means of fulfilling oneself as a man in reality?
On his throat: the letter E or the syllable OM.
Questions concerning money and economicsecurity are also connected to this card. They
refer to the possibility of becoming the master (or mistress) of one's material life, of taking in
hand the means through which one can guarantee one's security.
When he appears in a draw oriented toward spiritual questions, The Emperor can refer to
the patriarchal figure of God imagined as a father, but also with the relations maintained by the
"square" rational mind with dimensions that are beyond it.
A figure of earthly power, The Emperor is seen in profile. Perhaps his gaze is so intense it
could disintegrate us ...
AND IF THE EMPEROR SPOKE
"I am security. I am the very personification of force. When I am speaking inside you, you
understand that weakness does not exist. As long as you have not seen me, you will know
only insecurity. You will not have the power to make or do anything, to express or resist
yourself: you are a victim. But in my presence your fears are over. You will cease to doubt and
devalue yourself. No one can force you to do what you do not wish to do.
"My laws are the laws of the universe in action. When we do not oppose them, they are
infinitely peaceful. But when we disobey them, they are terrible. I am capable of unleashing
illness, heart attacks, tumors, or cirrhosis inside you. If you do not obey the laws I have
organized, I can destroy. I have the right to kill. But if you are sick and I am inhabiting you, I will
bring you through your pain and suffering, dissolving all obstacles. I am the health concealed
within an ailing body.
"I am invincible. I do not hesitate when it comes to conflict: I wage war. I shall never admit
defeat. No one can dethrone me.
"I am an axis. I organize everything around my laws. I make it possible for all kinds of order
to reign, from the most tender to the most ferocious. When I dwell within you and you meet
another Emperor, we combine our forces. There is no competition possible, no combats
between kings. I am a unique archetype who resides in each of you.
"When I manifest inside your body, you enjoy complete balance, and you are incapable of
stumbling. With me, the body is the center of the universe. It is supported by an immense force
and is capable of facing anything. I am terribly calm. When I place myself in your mouth and
muscles, your words are precise, and you do not tremble. Everything in you is pacified: organic
processes, thoughts, desires, heart, memory, time, and space.
m
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Man of Power • Ability to Pacify, Rule, Protect • Stability • Economic Equilibrium • Money •
Administration • Business Success • Financial Ally • Authority • Exercise of the Law • Peace •
Husband • Candid Man • Security • Uprightness • Rational Mind • Power • Stable Home • House •
Powerful or Dominating Father • Protector • Questions Concerning Sexual Potency • Masculinity •
Patriarchy • Tyranny • Dictator • Power Abuse • Rooted in Matter • Respect for the Laws of the
Universe • Balanced Energies • God the Father
"Place me at your center like an inexhaustible spring, as the root of your future soaring flight.
Anguish will no longer forbid you from living or realizing yourself; impotence and laziness will
no longer have any grip on your activity. Fear of poverty will no longer oppose your true work;
you will be capable of building your prosperity. Emotional storms will not distract you from your
work; pain and illness will not prevent you from feeling your power, nothing will be able to
break your concentration.
"Neither your intellectual reservations, nor your timidity, nor your identification with the victim
role, nor past sufferings, nor the poor self-image you have will prevent you from finding me,
your Emperor. If a toxic education or a system of destructive values have imprinted false laws
inside you, sweep them away! Establish your rules, your work system, your actions, out of the
laws I reveal to you. I am there, I appear, and behind me there is an entire army—the sun, the
stars, the galaxies. I protect you and urge you to exhort your strength.
"I am your innerwarrior, the one who sees your weaknesses and does not weaken."
V
Le Pape/The Pope
Mediator; Bridge, Ideal
The Pope bears the number 5. This number has evolved from a complete foundation in reality
(the number 4) to acquire an objective beyond its position. The Pope takes one more step than
The Emperor; he establishes a bridge that makes it possible to proceed toward this ideal. In his
activity as teacher or pontiff, he is receptive to the upper realm, Heaven, and active in the lower
realm, Earth. What he receives from on high, he transmits beneath him to his disciples.
Similarly, he transmits the prayers of his students to the deity, thereby joining Heaven and
Earth. We could say that he represents the point where opposites meet, the center of the cross
between high and low, left and right. He is therefore a site of circulation among these different
poles, which are able to communicate through him.
Seen positively, The Pope is a teacher, an initiator, a guide who indicates to us a purpose in
life. The back of his throne has rungs like a ladder; we could say that he unites, degree by
degree, the body with the spirit. His three-level cross indicates that he has dominated the world
of matter—that of sex, emotions, and his intellect—to create a unity. Similarly, his four-stage
tiara represents the four authorities of the individual (body, sex, heart, and brain) that culminate
into a single point at the top, a tiny orange circle that touches the card frame: inner unity.
Key Words
Wisdom * Ideal * Communication * Teaching * Vertically * Plan * Mediator * Faith * Guide * Example *
To Marry * Spiritual Power • Saintliness
Like The High Priestess, The Pope's vocation is to incarnate divine unity and to teach it to
the best of his ability. The green clasp of his cape at his throat represents a point within a
circle, symbolic of the individual being containing an essential Being in his living core. It is
from this impersonal principle that he receives and passes on his teaching. It can also be seen
as representing the immense labor of concentration that The Pope had to achieve to become
what he is.
Each of his hands is marked by a cross, sign of the fact that he acts in a sacred and impartial
manner. His left hand, which is holding the large cross, is light blue in color like that of The
Hermit. This can be seen as a sign of extreme spiritual receptivity in action, and, if we interpret
this color as a glove, a reference to the Christian religious tradition which maintains that the
gloved hand of The Cardinal is no longer his property but has become a pure instrument of the
divine will. His right hand is flesh-colored; it is reminiscent of the role of union played by The
Pope, mediator of opposites. By uniting his index and middle fingers (the intellect and the
heart), he is blessing the world of incarnation.
His white hair is imbued with purity, but the two red clips tell us that this is an active purity.
Part of his beard is also white, but the area around his mouth takes on a light-blue color as if to
indicate that the word of The Pope is received (blue is a receptive color; see p. 95). We can
also see it as a sign of what is inexorably left unsaid: master or teacher, priest or prophet, The
Pope cannot transmit everything; he keeps part of what he teaches secret and inexpressible.
Two disciples or acolytes accompany him. We should note that this is the first card of the
decimal series in which we find more than one human being. Until this card, the figures were
alone or accompanied by animals, symbols of their instinctive or spiritual forces. But The Pope
would not exist without the disciples that add faith to his teaching. These two acolytes
represent two distinct positions. We can see that the spinning motions of their tonsures are the
opposite of each other. The tonsure of the disciple on the left, who has his hand raised as if to
ask something and his other hand lowered, is spinning clockwise. The Pope is not looking in
his direction. Perhaps it is because this disciple is in error: the movement of his tonsure would
then indicate an involution, a going backward, by comparison to the evolution of the disciple on
the right. Perhaps it is also because it represents what in alchemy is called the Dry Way, that of
study and effort. The disciple on the right, to the contrary, is receiving direct instruction from
The Pope through the cross that is touching the top of his skull. He embodies the Wet Way,
that of immediate reception, illumination, and revelation. His tonsure is spinning
counterclockwise, and he is holding an odd object in his hand, a dagger or a bilboquet [cupand-ball toy], whose interpretations can be spun out infinitely. Does he represent a playful
attitude? Is he preparing to murder his teacher? Is this a son, urged on by the Oedipus
complex, preparing to punish his father? (His nudity is suggested by the flesh-colored patch
facing him.)
His tiara touches the card border.
The symbolic clasp of his cape
The gesture of benediction
The red hair clips
These interpretations impel us to study the negative aspects of The Pope: the hypocrisy of
the guru greedy for riches, the abusive father, the unjust teacher, the hypocrite, the pervert. The
Pope, like all the Arcana, has his dark side. There are good grounds for wondering about the
vague and mysterious shapes that are displayed beneath his belt, inviting his sexuality and his
taste for power to be challenged.
The two-color ball: a child's game or pontiffs secret?
But it can also be said that he is passing on the faith that he has received to humanity. In
contrast to The High Priestess, The Pope acts in the world. We could say that he finds support
from the temple, whose door is closed, to go out in public and communicate his experience of
God to the crowd.
IN A READING
The Pope could represent a master, a teacher, or a guide, but also an idealized paternal figure
(the acolytes would then symbolize his children), a married man, a saint. He also symbolizes
an act of communication, a union, a marriage, and all the means used for communication. As a
bridge or pontiff, The Pope evokes a guided communication that knows where it is heading.
After the accumulation of The High Priestess preparing for birth, the aimless bursting forth of
The Empress, and the stability of The Emperor, The Pope brings an ideal. While remaining
part of the material world, he points the way to an ideal dimension with certainty.
AND IF THE POPE SPOKE
"I am first and foremost mediator of myself. Between my sublime spiritual nature and my most
instinctive humanity, I have chosen to be the place where they interact. I am at the service of
this communication between the high and the low; my mission is to unite apparent opposites. A
bridge is not a country, it is merely a place of passage. It permits the circulation of the creative
energies of this magnificently illusory phenomenon we call life. It is not by isolating myself but
by taking all paths that I am able to announce the good news.
9
Among The Traditional Interpretations
Master • Teacher • Married Man • Spiritual Man • Marriage, Union • Priest • Spiritual Guide (sincere
or false) • Hypocrite • Religious Dogma • Union of Heaven and Earth • Showing the Way • Connection
• Self- mastery • Expansive Vision • Emergence of a New Ideal • All Means of Communication •
Intermediary • Desire to Communuicate • New Communication • Revelation of Secrets • The Father
Facing His Children • Benediction • Questioning Faith and Dogma
"I incarnate benediction. When facing me, you are in the presence of a mystery. Inhabited by
the deity, the most minor gesture I make takes on sacred dignity. To become the site passed
over by divine will, I learned to clear all obstacles from my communication paths, even traces of
my own presence. I betook myself to nothingness so that the Supreme Being could occupy all
space within me. I adopted muteness so that he and he alone could speak. I banished from my
mouth all words belonging to me; I buried my heart in peace and the absence of desires to
make way solely for his love, and I eliminated everything from my will—even the will to
eliminate my will."
"Within me is the same order found in the universe. I am an empty, shapeless vessel that
transports the light wherever the wind wills. I place myself between Heaven and Earth, I urge
its inhabitants with the hope of raising themselves to where there are no longer any limits. To
everything that is rooted in matter or mind, I communicate the higher power that gives life to
what is inanimate. It is through me that the flesh ascends to mind in sublime fireworks. It is
through me that the flock of angelic energies descends toward the coldness of matter to
dissolve it into waves of magnetic heat.
"I repulse all curses. I bless everything I hear, everything I see, everything I sense. I summon
love like a bird to a dimension beyond measure, so that it may perch upon the smallness of a
heart. What can I do about your family squabbles, your hardships, your wounds? I make them
kneel down before me and pray. Let me come into you: I will bless your entire world, including
your problems.
"Invest your actions with my mission, awaken to the strength of the sacred. The least of your
gestures, the least of your actions will then become sacred in turn. You will know the
experience of one who does not speak in his own name.
"The cross in my hand is not an instrument for giving orders. It is the symbol of my joyful
annihilation. I have pacified my desires, transformed this pack of ravenous wolves into a flock
of swallows celebrating dawn with their song. I have turned the tumultuous ocean that agitated
my heart into a lake of milk, as calm and sweet as that which flows from the breast of the Virgin.
Whoever has thirst may come drink from my spirit. I refuse nobody anything. I am the door that
all keys may open.
"He who has entered my soul can advance to the uttermost limit of the universe and to the
end of time: I am the final frontier between words and the unthinkable."
VI
L'Amoureux/The Lover
Union, Emotional Life
The name of this card is not, as often thought, The Lovers, plural, but The Lover, singular.
However, on it we see four human-shaped figures (the three individuals and the angel), and,
taking it further, two more entities that are the Earth and the Sun. Among them, who is The
Lover? The central figure that is often interpreted to be a young man? The figure on the left,
whom some view as a transvestite? Or even the angel, the little cupid aiming his arrow from
the sky? These questions arise because Arcanum VI is, along with The Tower, one of the most
ambiguous cards of the Tarot, and one of those that is most poorly understood. VI represents in
Tarot numerology the first step into the square of Heaven (see pp. 60, 64, and 65). It is the time
when we stop imagining what would please us to begin doing what we like.
The major tone of this card concerns pleasure and emotional life. This is the very reason
why it is so complex and so rich in conflicting meanings. It opens the field to countless
projections, and a thousand meanings can be attributed to it, each of which can be right at a
given moment. What is taking place with this trio? Is it a quarrel, haggling, a choice, a union?
The two figures on the left are looking at each other, while the one on the right is looking off
into space. The whole of humanity can be comprehended through this card. The relations of its
protagonists are extremely ambivalent.
Key Words
Eros • Heart • Choice • Emotional Domain • Conflict • Ambiguity • Trio • Social Life • Community •
Siblings • Doing What You Love
The position of these figures' hands is extremely interesting to observe. Five hands in
various positions symbolize the complexity of the relationships in play. The first figure, on the
left, has placed her hand on the second one's shoulder in a gesture of protection or
domination, either pushing him forward or holding him back. Her right hand is touching the
hem of the boy's tunic. The movement of her extended index finger can be interpreted as a
desire to slide over to his penis or, to the contrary, a prohibition on doing so. The boy has his
right hand pressed against his belt. In passing, we should note that this yellow belt has three
bands and is the same as that worn by the woman on the left. But who is the owner of the arm
touching the belly of the young woman? She and the boy are both wearing clothes with deepblue sleeves that are so closely matched it makes the movement of this arm ambiguous. In
some way they make this a "commonly shared arm." While the young man is touching the
young woman's belly close to her genitals, his gaze is directed away from her toward his right.
The card will have an entirely different meaning if we consider this arm to be her own arm
protecting or pointing toward her belly while the boy is holding his arm behind his back.
The woman on the right is wearing a headdress consisting of four five-petal flowers. It could
represent a splendid awareness, poetic yet nevertheless solid. The violet heart of the flowers
concentrates the wisdom of love, truly the ability to sacrifice oneself. The woman on the left is
wearing a crown of green leaves; it is active (the red band), and if we agree that these are
laurel leaves, we could say that she has the mentality of a victor or a dominatrix.
We can speculate infinitely on the relationship of the three figures: a boy presenting his
fiancee to his mother; a woman discovering her husband with his mistress; a man attempting to
choose between two different women, or, as the traditional interpretation views it, between vice
and virtue; a pimp offering a prostitute to a passerby; a young girl asking her mother for
permission to wed the boy she has chosen; a mother in love with her daughter's lover; a
mother preferring one of her two children over the other; and so forth.
The little Cupid and the large white sun
The hand on the boy's shoulder: protection, provocation, or prohibition?
The interpretations are inexhaustible. All of them lead us to the conclusion that The Lover is
a relational card that depicts the beginning of social life. It is the first Arcanum on which several
individuals are presented at the same level (The Pope's disciples are smaller than he is and
seen from the back). This is a card of union and disunion, of social and emotional choices.
Several clues present in the card direct us toward the notion of union. On the one hand, the
number 6 is associated with the letter in the Hebrew alphabet Vav, "nail," which represents
union. On the other hand, we can see patches of color (light blue, then red) between these
individuals' legs that also represent a continuity, a union between them. On the symbolic
plane, we could say that the three figures represent the governing centers of the human being:
the intellect, the emotional center, and the sexual center joining together to become one.
The emergence of a "shared arm" touching the lower belly of the young woman
The red, active shoes of the central figure are resting on plowed ground, the result of psychological,
cultural, and spiritual labor.
The ground beneath these individuals' feet has been plowed. This means that in order to
reach the VI, it is necessary to have performed some preliminary psychological, cultural, and
spiritual work. This is how we manage to realize what we love and what we want. The red
shoes of the central figure are the same as those worn by The Fool and The Emperor; they can
be considered as three stages of the same being. It can also be noted that the ground ends
between this figure and his neighbor on the right; there is only the red patch. We can then see
them as representations of the animus and the anima, two masculine and feminine aspects of
one single person.
The spelling "AMOVREUX" with the "V" instead of the "U" creates a visual and sonorous link
to the word "Dieu" in "LA MAISON DIEV" [The God House—The Tower], We could say that the
sun spilling its rays upon this scene represents the great cosmic Lover, the deity as the source
of the universal love that guides us to conscious and unconditional love. The small Eros
serves him as a messenger and suggests to us, because of his depiction as a child, that this
love is perpetually renewing itself.
IN A READING
This ambiguous card prompts us to question our own emotional state: how is our emotional life
going? Are we enjoying peace or experiencing conflict? Are we doing what we love? What
place does love hold in our lives? Does the situation that is our chief concern have roots in our
past, and if so, what are they? This card can refer to questions concerning the place we've
been assigned within our family unit, and to work identifying the projections we cast on those
now around us. The Lover will be one of the figures on the card, chosen by the subject of the
reading, whose relations he or she can analyze. Whatever the question may be, it will be
helpful to remember that the central Lover remains the large white glowing sun, which sheds
its light on all living things without discrimination.
AND IF THE LOVER SPOKE
"I am the sun of the Arcanum, the white sun: almost invisible but casting my light upon all the
figures. I am this star: the joy of existing and the joy that the Other exists. I live in ecstasy.
Everything fills me with happiness: nature, the entire universe, the existence of the Other in all
its forms—this Other who is none other than me."
"I am the awareness that shines like a bright living star in the center of your heart. I renew
myself at every moment; at each instant I am being bom. At your every heartbeat I am uniting
you with the entire universe. It is from me that come the infinite connections joining you to all
creation. Ah, the pleasure of living! Ah, the pleasure of becoming one! Ah, the pleasure of
doing what I love! Messenger of the permanent impermanence, I am reborn every second. I am
like a newborn archer launching arrows at everything his senses can capture.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Social Life • Joy • Loving What One Does • Doing What One Loves • New Union • Choice to be Made
• Pleasure • Beauty • Friendship • Menage a Trois • To Fall in Love • Emotional Conflict • Separation
• Dispute • Incestuous Area • Siblings • Ideal and Reality • First Steps in Learning the Joy of Living •
Aware Love • Unconditional Love • The Beauty Way
"I am not kindness; I am not ambition for well-being or triumph. I am unconditional love. I will
teach you how to live in wonder, recognition, and joy.
"When I enter you like I enter the figures of the Arcanum, I communicate divine love to the
smallest of your cells. I blow across your mind like a hot hurricane that eliminates from your
language all criticism, aggression, comparison, spite, and the entire scale of pride that
separates the spectator from the actor. I insinuate myself into your sexual energy to soften all
brutality, and all traces of conquest and possession. I confer to pleasure the sublime delicacy
of an exploding angel. When I dissolve in your body, it is to detach you from the dictatorship of
mirrors and models, the gaze of others, the pain of comparisons. I permit you to live your own
life and assume your own light and beauty. In the heart where I dwell, I drive out the illusions of
the unloved child. Like the bell tower of the cathedral, I spread the penetrating vibrations of
love in your blood, stripped of all resentment, all emotional demands that have become a
travesty of hatred, and all jealousy, which is only the shadow cast by abandonment. I initiate
you into the desire of obtaining nothing that is not also for others. The island of the ego is
transformed into an archipelago.
"Everything works in concert to increase my joy, even what you interpret as negative
circumstances: mourning, difficulty, pettiness, obstacles ... I love things and beings as they are
with their infinite possibilities of development. At every instant I see them, and I am ready to
take part in their blossoming, but also to accept that they remain as they are."
VII
Le Chariot/The Chariot
Action in the World
The Chariot is number 7 in the first series of the Major Arcana. This is a primary number,
divisible only by itself, and it is also the most active of the odd numbers. The Chariot is
therefore the preeminent representation of action in every domain, in the self and in the world
(see pp. 60, 61, and 64-65). In contrast to The Empress, who occupies the corresponding
position in the earth square and indicates a bursting forth without any preconceived purpose,
The Chariot knows full well where it is heading. The card consists of three principal planes:
two horses, a vehicle, and its driver, who can be identified as a prince because he is wearing a
crown. Only half of this prince is visible, the half above the waist. Some readers, swayed by
their projections, see him as a dwarf with atrophied legs or a girl in disguise. But the face he
presents us from the onset is virile and noble. The vehicle, a flesh-colored square, is buried in
the earth, allowing us to say that he is not moving forward. In reality he is moving with the
movement of the planet, the preeminent kind of movement. Because it is one with the Earth,
The Chariot has no need to advance. It is a mirror of the planet's rotation. The prince's chariot
could be the Big Dipper, Apollo's solar chariot, or that of a knight on a quest for the Grail.
The two horses pulling his vehicle are depicted like the dog of The Fool, with light-blue
hides. Once again animal nature has been spiritualized. Furthermore, we can identify the
horse on our right, with its long eyelashes and closed eyes, as a female element, and the other
horse as a male element. The two complementary male and female energies are realizing
unity here. While their front feet give the appearance of pointing in opposite directions, the
heads and gaze are the same: this is because they represent the union of opposites on the
energetic plane. The horses are marked on their chests with the alchemical symbol for gold:
the instinctive animal force is acting here in complete awareness.
9
Key Words
Action • Lover • Prince • Triumph • Ease • To Fertilize • To Colonize • To Travel • To Dominate •
Noninterventionism • Warrior • Eternity
We can see a green drop at the center of the yellow-and-orange coat of arms on the fleshcolored chariot. In the center of perishable flesh, a drop of eternity, set in the mind, asserts its
permanence. Some legends claim that among all the cells of the human body, which are
mortal, there is only one capable of surviving our physical death. The Chariot carries our great
hope for immortality in this green drop, the impersonal Consciousness that is embedded in the
heart of matter.
If we examine the position of the figure, we shall discover that his head, arms, and body form
a triangular shape that fits into the square of the vehicle. A triangle inside a square: spirit in
matter. We shall see this symbolic geometry again in the Seven of Pentacles. The Chariot
therefore evokes the alchemical quest: the materialization of the spirit and the spiritualization of
matter. From this perspective, we can say that the vehicle represents the body; the horses,
energy; and the figure, the mind and spirit. The flesh-colored scepter in the prince's left hand
could mean that he dominates material life, or that he draws his power from its incarnation. In
any case, he performs his action without effort. Similarly, he has no need of reins to guide his
horses. The twelve stars hanging above him indicate he works with the cosmic force. A crown
sits atop his head, which seems severed, as if to indicate its openness to galactic influences.
But a veil remains above him, sealing off the horizon from the sky. The Star (Arcanum XVII) will
be the one to lift this veil.
The alchemical symbol for gold appears on the chests of the horses.
The green drop
Two masks on his shoulders represent, if you like, the past and future, or the positive and
the negative, or time and space, for which he is the meeting point and unity. Acting fully within
the present, he is open to past and future, joy and sorrow, light and shadow. He is a complete
individual who acts on three planes simultaneously. We can distinguish in his right hand the
rounded edge of the white egg or ball we already spied beneath The Fool's armpit. It is a
secret he is keeping, a sphere of secret perfection.
The prince's hand is concealing a small white ball.
Red plants are growing out of the orange ground.
IN A READING
The Chariot is often seen as a conqueror performing powerful actions, or a lover with a
triumphant sexuality. Sometimes he heralds a voyage. Some even see him as an
announcement of success in television or the movies, because the figure appears in a frame
like a marionette in a theater. In all cases this is a card that is moving forward toward success.
His sole dangers are the lack of caution and inflexibility of the conqueror who harbors no
doubts about the validity of his conquest. A virile and extremely active card, it is sometimes
seen as suggesting to a woman that her parents wanted a boy. The Chariot also prompts
questions about the methods one implements for acting in the world and the way one is
guiding one's life.
Red plants full of energy are growing at the base of The Chariot, also adding to the
energetic tone of this card.
AND IF THE CHARIOT SPOKE
"I am full, absolutely full, of strength. Nothing is wasted; I am rooted in the planet and a lover of
all its energies. They propel my movement. Like a knight of fire, I do not budge from my place. I
do not crawl upon the ground. I see on high. I travel with time without ever leaving the moment.
Without past, without future, the sole time possible: the present, like a jewel beyond measure.
Everything here is nowhere else.
"I am the source of all the warriors, all the champions, all the heroes, of all endurance, and of
all courage. Nothing frightens me, not a single task. I can leave for war or feed all the Earth's
inhabitants. I am completely centered in the very center of the universe, traversed by all the
energies of mind and matter. If I am an arrow, I cleave my heart, and this deep wound, this
awareness, transforms me. For he who is awakened, suffering becomes a blessing. I dissolve
the sufferings hidden in my bones; I unite the state of waking to that of sleep.
"I traverse the night of doubt over the abyss of myself. I sever the knot of enigmas, I go
beyond the agony of being, I scom appearances, I free feelings from reason, I destroy all that
opposes me, I am what I am. I wish to live as long as the universe.
"Center of a growing sphere, I invade the dimension where thought has yet to manifest,
where the gestation of pure action takes place in darkness. I reduce swarms of words to dust.
No mirror scares me, not even the soul that detaches itself from the dead like a dried fruit.
"I have made a diamond out of my misfortune and turned each abyss into a source of
energy. All the suns may die; I shall still continue to shine. The inconceivable force supporting
the universe supports me as well. I am the triumph of existence within emptiness. All deaths
and persecutions can do nothing to strike me down, nor the cycles of history nor the
successive declines of civilizations: I am the conscience and vital force of humanity.
v
Among The Traditional Interpretations
Victory • Action in the World • Successful Undertaking • Journey • Dynamism • Lover • Warrior •
Messenger • Conqueror • Prince • Dwarf • Plunderer • Intense Activity • Media Success • Screen for a
Television Set, Computer, or Cinema • Synthesis • Taking the Pros and Cons into Account • Harmony
of the Animus/Anima • Steering Your Energies • Mind in Matter • Triumph • Immortal Consciousness
"When I incarnate in you, all setbacks become new starting lines, and ten thousand reasons
for abandoning something are not equal to a single reason for continuing. I know fear, I know
death; they do not stop me. I am the force of action present in every living being, the triumph of
nature. I know how to create, I know how to destroy, and I know how to conserve, and to do all
this with the same irresistible energy. I am the very activity of the universe.
"I advance toward all the dimensions of space, breaking the horizons until I reach my goal,
which is the mask of the beginning. I also go backward, from void to void, from right to left,
toward high and low, thrusting galaxies aside on my way until I dissolve in the appalling
Absence, which is the Mother of the first cry that supports everything.
"I am the triumph of unity within the crumbling of the words, I am the triumph of infinity within
the cremation of the ultimate boundaries. I am the triumph of eternity; in my heart the gods
vanish."
VIII
La Justice/Justice
Balance, Perfection
Justice, number 8, symbolizes perfection. This is the peak of the even numbers. Following the
accumulation of the 2, the establishment of the 4, and the discovery of pleasure of the 6, the 8
has attained the stage where there is nothing left to add or take away. The 8, an Arabic
numeral, is formed by two superposed circles: perfection in Heaven and on Earth. In the Tarot
numerology, it is also the double of the 4, therefore a double square: stability in both the
material and spiritual worlds (see pp. 60, 61, 65, and 83).
The symbol of fulfillment, Justice balances our lives with her scales. But balance and
perfection are not synonymous with symmetry. Just as the sacred art of the cathedral builders
rejected the symmetrical as being diabolical, the card Justice is structured asymmetrically. The
pillar to the right of her throne is higher than the other one and ends in a small, dark-yellow
sphere absent from the pillar on the left; her necklace goes higher on the left; the plates of her
scales are not on the same horizontal plane; and her sword is not parallel to the column of her
throne.
If we study the movement of the scales, we can see that Justice is influencing it with her
right elbow and her left knee. This "trickery" can be interpreted on several levels. Of course, it
can be given the negative sense of injustice, of false perfection, and of ruse that will be justified
in certain readings. It is also conceivable that by this gesture, Justice is inviting us to avoid
perfectionism: the requirement for perfection is inhuman inasmuch as what is perfect is set and
unsurpassable, therefore dead. She would be inviting us then to substitute for it the sacred
ruse, the notion of excellence that permits action to be dynamic and perfectible.
v
Key Words
Woman • Maternity • Sovereign • Balance • Court • Completion • Taking a Stand • Valor • Judging •
Perfection • Presence • Conning • Authorizing • Forbidding • Balancing
Finally, it is plausible that the uneven nature of the plates of this scale displays the instability
that is proper to Nature, and that she is giving it support inspired by divine mercy. In this sense
Justice is profoundly human. Her flesh-colored hair and her robe burying itself in the ground
connect her to the terrestrial plane. But she is also a point at which the human and the Divine
meet. The white band above her forehead represents her contact with divine purity, and the
yellow red-rimmed circle (see p. 95 for more on the colors) placed on her crown like a third eye
indicates that her actions are guided by a superior way of looking at things, an intelligence
received from the universe.
Firmly seated on her throne, Justice, with her active attributes (the sword) and receptive
attributes (the scales), is the first figure to face us directly, just as later The Sun and the angel
on the card Judgment will also look at the subject of the reading. This is how Justice invites us
to undivided introspection and to dive into the present. This Arcanum therefore removes the
traditional representations of Justice with closed eyes; her gaze meets our own like a mirror
and like a call to realization. This card first and foremost involves dealing justice to ourselves,
to give ourselves what we deserve.
Beneath her right elbow we see a patch of violet, the largest one to be found in the entire
Tarot. This extremely rare and secret color is a symbol of wisdom. Justice is moved by wisdom.
The light blue emanating from the platters of her scales indicates that she is weighing our
spirituality. Her sword is similarly bathed in this essential blue because it is used to cut away
the superfluous and separate us from the useless. With the hand holding the scales, Justice is
making a sacred gesture, amudra in which the four fingers of the hand, representing the
governing centers of the human being (thoughts, emotions, desires, physical needs) meet
together at the thumb. Arcanum VIII is delivering a message of unity here.
The headdress and its "third eye"
The nine climbing triangles that look like birds' feet on her robe are reminiscent of ermine,
the sign of royalty. The nobility referred to here is that of the sublime mind and flawless action.
In this sense, Justice can be seen as the witness of our inner god, who urges us to evaluate
ourselves without any makeup: Shall we be just in dealing with ourselves? Are we merciful
toward ourselves and toward others?
The gesture of the hand holding the scales
The nine triangles of ermine
IN A READING
Justice, the most accessible incarnation of the great female archetype of The Moon (XVIII), will
often represent the mother or a pregnant woman. This card also opens the field for strong
projective interpretations: it can refer to a dictatorial, castrating maternal figure, and to all
destructive verdicts. It will also stand then for a demand for perfection that is so strong that it
hampers the reading subject in his or her realization, prohibiting the subject in advance from
making any mistakes. Similarly, Justice often refers to state institutions (courts, police,
administrative offices) whose decisions cannot be appealed and who awaken in the reading
subject the threat of punishment and guilt.
Seen positively, her qualities of balance, her spirituality (she occupies a double square that
is material and spiritual), and her clear ideas when facing reality can be valuable allies. The
lesson of Justice with her sword and scales is to give oneself exactly what one deserves while
implacably removing oneself from what one does not want. She teaches how to say yes and
no, to distinguish subjective from objective judgments. To achieve this, she knows how to put
herself in the shoes of the Other.
AND IF JUSTICE SPOKE
"There where spirit has the same dimension as matter, there where you do not know whether
density is the root of ether, or whether ether is the midwife of density, there, in this infinite and
eternal balance, is where I dwell. The fulfillment of the universe is my justice, that it may give to
each galaxy, each sun, each planet, and each atom the place it deserves. Thanks to me the
cosmos is a dance. Every birth, every spiral, every dying star has its place in the universe. I
permit every being to be what it is; every piece of dust, every comet, every human being
deserves to achieve the task given it by the Supreme Law. The slightest deviation from this
decree will compel me to pronounce the supreme punishment: He who deviates shall be
expelled from the present.
"The good you do to others I shall return to you. What you do not give I shall take away from
you. When you destroy, I eliminate you. Not only shall I materially dissolve you, but I shall
expunge all trace of you in the memory of the world.
"When I appear in the body of a woman, she becomes a true mother. Giving birth is to
provide a place in the here and now to infinite Consciousness. I, the universal mother, take my
place at the explosive and monumental crossroads where the ocean of matter makes contact
with the intangible soul, which disintegrates like rain to give life to every dense fragment.
V
Among The Traditional Interpretations
Balance • Stability • Confronting Reality • Fullness • Feminine Perfection • To Collect, to Welcome •
Pregnant Woman • Maternity • Inflexibility • Implacability • To Judge • Clarity • To Forbid • To
Authorize • To Give Oneself What One Deserves • Limpid Thought • Trial • Legal Action • The Law •
Desire for Perfection • Perfectionism • Critical Mind • Prescriptive or Castrating Mother • Deceit •
Exactitude • Cosmic Laws • Perfection • Harmony • Present Moment
"I am that perfection which requires no addition and tolerates no subtraction: all that I'm
given, I already had. Everything you take from me did not exist within me in the first place.
Each instant is just, perfect. I remove all subjective intentions from action. I allow things to be
exclusively what they are. I give each thing just what it deserves: to intellect, the void; to the
heart, the fullness of love; to sex, the pleasure of creation; to the body, prosperity, which is
nothing other than health; to the fifth essence, Consciousness, I give its center that is the inner
god"
Villi
L'Hermite/The Hermit
Crisis, Passage, Wisdom
The number 9 distinguishes itself among the first series of odd numbers because it is the first
that is divisible by another number than itself. The 9 (3 x 3) is therefore ambivalent, both active
(odd) and receptive (even). (For more, see pp. 61, 65-67, and 83.) To gain a better
understanding of it, we need only visualize its movement between the card of Justice, the VIII,
and Arcanum X, which follows. The Hermit abandons Arcanum VIII by retreating in order to go
forward, offering his back to the end of the first decimal cycle and the beginning of a new cycle.
By drawing away from the VIII, he is leaving a state of unsurpassable perfection which, if he
lingered there, would lead only to death. He does not go beyond it but abandons it, therefore
entering into crisis. He can be compared to the fetus that in the eighth month has attained its
full development in utero. All his organs are already formed, and he is lacking for nothing.
During the ninth month, the fetus prepares to abandon the womb, the sole environment it
knows, in order to enter a new world.
Along a similar line of thinking, the Gospels teach us that Jesus was crucified at the third
hour, began his agony at the sixth hour, and expired at the ninth hour. The number 9
announces both an end and a beginning. The Hermit actively terminates his relationship with
the old world and becomes receptive toward an unknown future over which he exercises no
mastery. In distinction to The Pope, who cast a bridge toward an ideal and knew where it went,
The Hermit represents passage into the unknown. In this sense, he represents the highest form
of wisdom as well as a state of profound crisis.
Key Words
Solitude • Wisdom • Letting Go • Therapy • Crisis • Experience • Poverty • Shedding Light • Ascetic •
Very Old Age • Walking Backward • Cold • Receptive • Ancient • Silence
The lantern he carries may be considered as a symbol of Knowledge. He holds it up,
shedding light over the past, as would a man of experience, a scholar, or a therapist. This light
could be a secret knowledge reserved for initiates or, to the contrary, a source of knowledge
offered to any disciples looking for it. The Hermit illuminates the path, or perhaps he is using
this lantern to humbly catch the attention of the deity: "My labor is done. I am there, look at me."
Just as the card bears an ambivalence between action and reception, this light can be active,
like an appeal for awakening the consciousness of the Other, or receptive, like the beacon of a
lighthouse.
Just like The High Priestess, The Hermit is a very undercover figure. His layers of clothing
suggest cold and winter—Satum-like characteristics that are often attributed to him and which
also reflect a certain chilliness of wisdom and the inner solitude of the initiate. We can also see
them as "layers" of life experience; and, similarly, the copious hatching that shadows his garb
can be interpreted as the mark of his great experience. His humpback contains, in
concentrated form, all his past memory. Two orange crescent moons, one behind his neck and
the other on the lining of his robe, indicate that he is an individual who has developed his
receptive qualities. In the fold of his hand holding the lantern we can also detect the hips and
pubis of a woman in miniature: a sign of femininity or, if you prefer, the sign that some carnal
desires still remain in him.
Two receptive moons behind the neck and in the fold of the garment
In his forehead, on the other hand, three wrinkles renew the message of mental activity. His
gaze loses itself in the distance. His blue hair and beard make him kin to The Emperor, who
here would have lost or given up his throne, which is to say his attachment to matter. His blue
glove, similar to that of The Pope, gives profound spirituality to his choices, actions, and
itinerary. His red staff and hood, on which the reverse of The Fool's yellow-and-red hood can
be seen, also connects him to this numberless Arcanum. But here, The Fool's staff has
acquired a curved shape; it has taken life, the path has been traveled and the work
accomplished, as testified by the plowed earth. His dark-blue robe is the sign of his humility
and of his receptive, lunar consciousness. The inner panel, which is the color of flesh, evokes
all the organic, not theoretical, life experience of an individual who has drawn lessons from his
own path. But inside, at the center, it is the color green that envelops him. We have already
seen that in Sufi and kabbalistic tradition, green is the color of eternity (see pp. 96-97). The
Hermit, with this initial H that belongs to the alchemist Hermes, may well have discovered the
elixir of long life, and like the wandering Jew, may have touched eternity. Both poor and rich,
having known death and rebirth, he appeals to that part of us that may be eternal and inspires
us to go through the crisis courageously, to go who knows where.
The hand holding the lantern is evocative of female hips.
His wrinkled brow is a sign of wisdom and experience.
The blue hand of The Hermit
IN A READING
This card often symbolizes a crisis that cannot be avoided, a profound change that needs to be
confronted and accepted. It evokes the idea of a teacher, a therapist, or a guide. But in a crisis,
there is an equal possibility that The Hermit will renew himself or die. He therefore also refers
to poverty, solitude, and even decay and degeneration. He can be seen as a "vagrant" or even
an alcoholic who is hiding a quart of red wine in his lantern.
Arcanum Villi is the most human and coldest counterpart of the great paternal archetype of
Arcanum XVIIII. In this way he can depict an absent father, or one who is taciturn, remote, or
has vanished. He also refers, for the subject of the reading, to an inner solitude, to the secret
and dark space where a spiritual transformation is prepared.
AND IF THE HERMIT SPOKE
"I have arrived at the end of my path, there where the unthinkable presents itself like an abyss.
Faced by this nothingness, I can no longer move forward. All I can do is retreat, while
contemplating the road I have already traveled. With every step I take backward, I form a reality
before me.
"Between life and death, in a continual crisis, I hold up my lit lamp—my consciousness. It
serves me well, of course, to guide the steps of those following me upon the path I have
opened. But it also shines to draw attention to myself. I have performed the spiritual labor I had
to do. Now, O infinite mystery, come to my aid.
"Little by little I have freed myself of all bonds. I no longer belong to my thoughts. My words
do not define me. I have vanquished my passions. Detached from desire, I dwell within my
heart as if inside a hollow tree. My body is a vehicle that I witness as it ages, passes, and
vanishes like the irresistible course of a river. I no longer know who I am; I live in total
ignorance of myself. To reach the light, I bury myself in darkness. To attain ecstasy, I cultivate
indifference. To achieve the love of all things and all beings, I have retired into solitude. It is
there, in the remotest nook of the universe, that I open my soul like a flower of pure light.
Gratitude without demand: the essence of my knowledge is the knowledge of essence.
"Taking the path of the will, I have reached the highest peak. I was a flame, then heat, then
cold light. Here I am the one who shines, who summons, and who hopes. I have known
complete solitude. This prayer goes directly from me to my inner god; I have eternity facing my
back. I have waited and continue to wait between two abysses. I can no longer move forward
or backward by myself; I need for You to come. My patience is as infinite as Your eternity. If
You do not come, I will continue to wait at this very spot, because waiting for You has become
my sole reason to live. I no longer budge! I continue to shine until I have consumed myself. I
am the oil of my own lantern; this oil is my blood, my blood is a cry calling for You. I am the
flame and the call.
•
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Positive Crisis • Guide • Hermit • Solitude • Elderly Man • Old Age • Prudence • Retirement •
Therapist • Male Teacher • Pilgrimage • Chastity • Alcoholism • Winter • Doubt and Surpassing •
Shedding Light upon the Past • Going Toward the Future Without Knowing Where You Are Heading •
Walking Backward • Therapy • Absent or Cold Father • Grandfather • Humility • Saturn • Enlightened
View over the World • Wisdom • Impartial Love • Devotions • Altruism • Secret Teacher
"I have completed my task. You are now the only One who can continue it. I am the spiritual
female, the infinite activity of passivity. Like a cup I offer my emptiness so that it may be filled.
Because I have helped myself, now You help me."
X
X
La Roue de Fortune/The Wheel of Fortune
The Beginning or End of a Cycle
The Wheel of Fortune, number 10, terminates the first decimal cycle of the Major Arcana. Its
circular shape and the handle attached to it indicate its primary meaning: the end of one cycle
and the pause to wait for the strength that will set the following cycle in motion. In the continuity
of the Tarot, it is Arcanum XI, rightfully titled Strength, that succeeds The Wheel of Fortune and
sets off the next decimal cycle. More than any other Arcanum, The Wheel of Fortune is clearly
oriented toward closure with the past and expectation of the future. For this reason, the position
held by this card in a reading will allow us to say if a plan for life needs to be finished to make a
place for the new plan, or if a new era is already underway. If we decide to analyze this card as
a setback, it is for revealing that failure is not the end of everything but a chance for
redeploying our efforts: a change of path.
At first glance, this Arcanum gives an impression of inertia in which the movement of waves
is carved into the light-blue ground. The message could be that reality, under the appearance
of solidity, is perpetually changing like waves of the sea. Everything is condemned to vanish;
the real is an ephemeral dream and the Earth an illusion of the cosmic ocean. Here, one single
element can aspire to eternity: the center of the wheel, the anchoring point of the handle, which
will be noted to occupy the exact center of the rectangle formed by the card. Everything
revolves around this heart, which can be seen as a symbol of the divine mystery. Whereas the
outside elements in play on the wheel (the three animals) find their maneuvers culminating in
inertia, the center is the departure point from which change can take place. The message of
this card is clear: the principal factor of change, of life, is this cosmic action, also called divine
providence. We can see that the wheel is double: a red circle and a yellow circle representing
the double animal and spiritual nature of the human being. The human spirit will always be
both actor and witness of all its actions. However, once united in the godhead, the actor and
the witness are one and the same thing. Humankind's purpose, as suggested by The Wheel of
Fortune, is to attain this unity through duality.
Key Words
Fortune • Block • Renewal • Enigma • Solution • Cycle • Impermanence • Change • Eternal Return •
Beginning and End • Body-Heart-Mind • Fate • To Revolve
If we look at the three animals, we can see that one is descending, one is ascending, and
the third remains motionless.
The flesh-colored animal, the bottom half alone of whose body is clothed, is descending
toward incarnation. We see in the color of this element, and the fact that its sexual parts are
hidden, a symbol that tends to be oriented toward matter. The yellow animal, meanwhile, is
clad from the waist upward, and a band placed around his ears seems to obstruct or
emphasize them. We may read this as a vision of the intellect that aspires to climb, with its
tendency to spin in circles around itself and its difficulty in listening. Finally, the blue animal
that looks like the sphinx, wearing a red cape whose shape is reminiscent of a heart, is
clasping to its own heart a sword that has the exact measurement of The Magician's wand, a
figure of emotional life that presents itself both as an enigma and the path to wisdom. It will be
noted, moreover, that this animal has two violet patches on it, a color that, as we have seen,
symbolizes wisdom (see p. 97).
The center of the wheel
The heart is therefore presented as the element that can either unite or immobilize the other
governing authorities, spiritual life and animal life. It is often an emotional enigma, an irresolute
emotional core that is blocking the vital action of a reading subject. The five points of the
sphinx's crown refer to the quintessence of the essential Being, the consciousness capable of
uniting the disparate authorities of the human being like the thumb unites the fingers of the
hand. The moving blue ground seems, furthermore, to be calling the animals toward the
depths, toward a quest for self in the waters of the womb. By going down into our deepest
depths, in acceptance of our unconscious, we can bring about the meeting with the god within
and emerge as enlightened beings. In this sense, the center of the wheel simultaneously
represents the stopping place, the core of the problem, and that of possible movement, the call
to awaken the inner treasure. Once again, the blue animal seems, as a representative of the
heart, to be the means by which awareness can arrive. An indigo oval can be noted on its
forehead that is akin to the chakra of the third eye, Ajha, that of clairvoyance. This clairvoyance
has the power to unite descending material effort and ascending intellectual effort.
The sphinx and its "third eye"
The yellow animal is one of the rare beings of the Tarot that possesses ears.
The moving ground is similar to an ocean.
The paws of the animals, entwined in the spokes of the wheel, seem to be holding it back
and preventing its movement; but we can also think that the three of them may be holding it up
and preventing it from collapsing. Material, emotional, and intellectual activity support the vital
cycle. And this, in order to give birth to a new cycle, needs the intervention of a fourth energy,
one that will be represented by Strength (XI) moving the handle: creative sexual energy.
IN A READING
The Wheel of Fortune is a card with a multitude of interpretations whose reading depends
much upon the circumstances alluded to by the subject of the reading. It indicates the point the
subject has currently reached in his or her life. If it is present at the beginning of the drawing, it
evokes the closing of a past cycle and the beginning of a new one. In a reading it can herald a
work that has squarely come to completion and thus represent the turning of a page, a
complete cycle. But often, coming at the middle or at the end of the draw, it indicates a block
that needs to be overcome. It is then helpful to draw an additional card to see what will turn the
handle or to elucidate the emotional mystery (represented by the blue animal) that it suggests.
Because the word fortune appears in this card, it represents financial profit in folk notions. It
sometimes refers to a center of interest or system that is structured upon a circular shape: the
wheel of karma, astrology, and even the big wheel of the lottery. The cycle of death and rebirth,
in the large sense, can be seen in it as well as the circulation of life.
The Wheel of Fortune invites reflection upon inevitable alternations of ascents and falls, of
prosperity and austerity, of joy and sorrow. It orients us toward change, whether positive or
negative, and acceptance of the constant transformation of reality.
AND IF THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE SPOKE
"I have known all experiences. In the beginning I had an ocean of possibilities before me.
Guided in turn by will, by providence, or by chance, I have chosen my actions and
accumulated knowledge so that I could then burst forth without any preconceived purpose. I
have attained stability countless times. I have tried to keep its fruits on my table only to see
them rot. I have grasped that I must open up to others and share. I have realized that I must
seek within for the great Other, the divine source and the center of my countless revolutions
around this axis. I became lost seeking everything that resembled me. I have enjoyed the
pleasure of seeing my reflection in the eyes of the Other as if in infinite mirrors until that day
when, with an irrepressible force, I took action in the world and tried to change it—only to
realize all I could do was begin to transform it. My spiritual quest expanded to the point of
imbibing the whole of matter, and I attained a terrifying perfection, that state where nothing can
be added to me or taken away. I did not wish to remain petrified this way. So I then abandoned
everything, with only my wisdom left for company. I reached the extreme limit of myself, full but
arrested, waiting for divine whim, universal energy, the mysterious wind that blows in what is
inconceivable, which would cause me to revolve so that the first burst of a new cycle would
blossom in my center.
•
Among the Traditional Interpretations
End of a Cycle • Beginning of a Cycle • Need for Outside Help • New Departure • Change of Fortune
• External Circumstances at the Will of the Reading Subject • Opportunity to Seize • Hormonal Cycle •
Emotional Enigma to Resolve • Blockage • Halt • Impasse • Wheel of Karma, Successive
Reincarnations • Laws of Nature • Providence • Complete Cycle • Fulfillment • Shooting of a Film •
Financial Gain
"I have learned full well that everything that begins will end, and all that ends, begins. I have
learned well that everything that goes up must come down and that everything that comes
down must go up. I have learned full well that everything in circulation will stagnate and all that
stagnates will begin circulating. Poverty becomes wealth, and wealth, poverty. From one
change to another I invite you to unite with the wheel of life, accepting changes with patience,
docility, and humility until the moment Consciousness is bom. Then all that is human, like a
chrysalis, will attain the angelic stage where reality ceases revolving around itself, where it
soars off into the mind of the Creator."
XI
La Force/Strength
Creative Beginning, New Energy
Strength, number 11, is the first card of the second decimal series (see pp. 32-33). It is she
who opens the path for unconscious energies. It will be noted (the sole card among the Major
Arcana to show this peculiarity) that her name is written on the far left of the cartouche,
whereas on the right twenty lines are collected together like a trigger that will enable a new
energy to gather its strength. Twenty is the number of Judgment, the card that ends this
decimal cycle. Here again we see an intimate connection between the first and last cards of
the cycle. Strength holds in potential everything that Judgment will realize, which is to say the
emergence of the new consciousness.
Strength's message is quite clear: this work of consciousness first passes through a
relationship with the instinctive forces. Whereas The Magician, her counterpart of the first
series, works from the waist upward and exercises his intelligence, Strength works from the
waist to the bottom, allowing the teachings of the depths to communicate with the spiritual
authorities of her being. Several details connect her with Arcanum I: her hat in the shape of an
eight or infinity is receptive, like that of The Magician, but hers is open at the top and seems to
be winged, a motif that brings to mind the eagles present in Arcana III, Mil, and XXI. The
intelligence of Strength is ready to soar into the cosmos. She takes support from her single
visible foot, whose six toes correspond to the six red points on her hat, the six black teeth of the
animal, and the six fingers on the hand of The Magician (see p. 127). We can see this as the
mark of an exceptional strength that allows her to be firmly anchored to the earth. We can also
deduce from this that her source is beauty, the most sublime of pleasures (see pp. 64, 67, 81).
The nail on her big toe, like the nail of her thumb, is painted red. Remember that the nails of the
human body symbolize eternity because they continue growing after death. Strength's
exceptional vitality is displayed by the red color of her nails.
Key Words
Animal Nature * Wild Beast * Creativity * Depth * Voice * Puberty * To Speak * To Stop Speaking *
Rebirth • Force • Beginning • To Communicate • To Feel
Strength is conscious from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. We could say that she
is the very potential of Consciousness, in its aspect as the turning point between high and low,
spiritual energy and instinctive energy. No defined landscape is sketched out around her; the
sole support she has is a yellow plowed ground, thus a terrain upon which a work of realization
has been performed. She is not situated in either time or space but is anchored in the present
as the expression of a pure energy.
All her activity is concentrated in the relationship with the animal, in the hide of which the
yellow or golden force of intelligence incarnates in the flesh-colored part. The spirit incarnates
in the animal nature, which, in turn, makes itself available to communication with the spirit.
Strength works with bare hands, grasping animal nature, the manifestations of the
unconscious, and her own bodily sexuality: the animal's head is located at pelvis level. Her
relationship with the forces at play in the movement of her hands in connection with the
animal's jaw opens the field to multiple interpretations. Her hand on our left is pressed against
the beast's muzzle but seemingly without holding or forcing it. The eight spots drawn on this
muzzle indicate that there are no grounds for altering this animal energy; it is perfect as it is.
Strength's hat is adorned with eagle feathers.
But depending on the understanding or misunderstanding that is reached with the mind,
either creativity and illumination will emerge, or blocks and repression. Strength teaches us
that essential stakes are involved in this relationship with our animal nature and that we should
not neglect this part of ourselves. This is also why the six black, pointed teeth of the animal can
be seen again in the six points on the top of her hat. Intellectual nature listens to the voice of
the animal, and the animal hears the influence of the mind. This is the ideal of Strength, a
dynamic in which the hands dance with the muzzle in a communication that takes the perfectly
balanced form of 8, infinity.
The thumbnail and the nail of the big toe are both red, an active color.
The six teeth of the animal are an echo of the six points on the top of her hat.
If we interpret the movement of the hands and the muzzle as a conflict, a power struggle, all
manner of difficulties can be read there. The red of the thumb and the tongue become blood
spilled in combat, sexual energy is repressed, and in its turn the animal nature mutilates the
psyche (we can then see that the woman's throat bears a line like that left by a decapitation).
The lacing of the corset over her chest becomes a closing of the heart prompted by the
repression. The body is then perceived as being split into pieces; the individual is subject to
the aftermath of an incident of sexual abuse, a trauma, or a toxic, mutilating, and rigid
education.
However, the details we just examined can also be interpreted positively. The crossbars
over the woman's chest are formed by four "material" lines, running from left to right, that
represent animal nature, which intersect with five "spiritual" lines, descending from right to left,
representing the labor of Consciousness. These nine lines and the color yellow refer to the
ninth degree of this decimal series, The Sun (XVIIII), in which we see two twins (one spiritual
and the other animal) completing a new construction together in perfect love. The line across
the woman's throat could be a necklace, as the throat is the site of expression and true speech
that does not arise solely from the intellect but also from the depths of the being: speech in
which the conscious and the unconscious find harmony.
IN A READING
Strength refers to the beginning of an activity or a period of life placed beneath the sign of
instinct, of creativity. It can also indicate problems of a sexual nature, or the emergence of one
of the individual's governing centers that was hitherto hidden and is now seeking expression
for the first time. We shall need to ask ourselves if the young woman of Strength is allowing the
animal to express itself or if she is attempting to rein it in. After an illness or the end of a cycle,
Strength represents the return of vital energy.
Of all the animals present in the Tarot, the lion, which we find in the card of Strength and in
that of The World (XXI), is the only one capable of eating the human being. The woman that
finds harmony with it represents the most sublime dimension of the soul, the one through which
the forces of miracle pass.
AND IF STRENGTH SPOKE
"I was waiting for you. I am the beginning of a new cycle, and after all you have accomplished,
you will not be able to live if you do not meet me. I shall teach you to defeat fear; with me you
will be ready to see all, hear all, taste all, touch all. The senses have no limits, but morality is
made of fears. I shall enable you to see the immense swamp of your impulses, both the
sublime and the murky. I am the dark force that ascends inside you toward the light.
"From the center of the depths, from the underground chambers of my being, springs forth
my creative energy. I take root in the mire, in what is the densest, the most terrifying, and the
most demented. Like a burning oven, my sex exhales desires that at first glance seem bestial
but are only the song buried in matter since the beginning of the universe.
v
Among The Traditional Interpretations
Creative Potential • Courage • Nobility of Heart • New Departure • Beginning of an Activity • Supply of
New Energy • Instinctive Energy • Animal Nature • Strength • Anger • Heroism • Self-Discipline •
Relations Between Mind and Instinct • Openness or Repression • Appeal to Sexuality • Sexual
Inhibition • Psychological Repression • Difficulty Expressing Yourself • Opening • Orgasm • Tantra
"My intellect, light originating from the stars, cold as infinity, acts upon the eternal heat of
magma to produce the creative roar. Heaven and Earth unite in this howl, awakening the
world. I can make every humble stone become an artwork. I can cause spindly trees to sprout
with sap-swollen fruits. I can transform the horizon line into a living purple slash, like a long
and endless ruby. Each print my powerful feet leave in the mud behind me is a hive that fills
with honey.
"I let the sublime and ferocious urge the world needs circulate in my body from top to bottom,
like the waves of an unleashed ocean. Call it whatever you like: sexual potential, energy of
matter, dragon, kundalini ... It is an immeasurable chaos that takes shape within me. In my
belly a devil and an angel join together as one, forming a whirlwind. Like a tree, I splay my
branches toward the sky while burying my roots in the earth. I am a ladder with which energy
simultaneously climbs and descends. Nothing scares me. I am the beginning of creation."
XII
Le Pendu/The Hanged Man
Halt, Meditation, Gift of the Self
The Hanged Man, Arcanum XII, corresponds to the second degree of the second decimal
series, the equivalent of The High Priestess in the first series. Like her, he indicates a state of
accumulation, arrest, and reclusion. Like The High Priestess, he has exiled himself from the
human world, to which his only bond is the rope that attaches him to a flesh-colored lintel
between the two trees holding him up. We have seen that starting with Arcanum XI, all the
numbers are going to complete a descent toward the source of the original force in the abysses
of the unconscious. The Hanged Man obeys this attraction toward the bottom and, through his
accumulative nature (the 2), he expresses it by a complete halt, suspended upside down with
his hair diving toward the depths as if to root itself there.
If The High Priestess was incubating, The Hanged Man is incubated: he has entered
gestation to create the new being. We find here again the symbolism of the egg present in
Arcanum II. If The High Priestess is the mother, The Hanged Man is the son. We can imagine
The Hanged Man in gestation in the egg of Arcanum II. Suspended between Heaven and
Earth, he is waiting to be bom. The position of his legs is slightly reminiscent of that of The
Emperor: one is stretched out fully, while the other is bent. But the Emperor's crossing of the
legs is dynamic, with one foot thrust forward ready to move into action. The Hanged Man, to the
contrary, is folding one leg behind the other to better immobilize himself. Even his hands, the
symbols of his ability to act, are crossed behind his back. He is doing nothing, nor is he making
any choices.
»
Key Words
Sacrifice • Halt • Not Choosing • Gestation • Fetus • Meditation • Gift of the Self • Depth • Upside
Down • To Wait • Delay • Suspension • Rest
On both sides of this figure, we see branches that have been cut, sacrificed. For this spiritual
or material birth in preparation, a pause is necessary. This can be the pause prompted by an
illness just as much as it could be the pause one freely consents to make in meditation. On a
spiritual plane, The Hanged Man has stopped identifying with the comedy of the world and his
own neurotic theater; he offers the worries of his ego as a sacrifice to his inner work. In this
sense, his fall is an ascent.
We can also see, in a reversal of vision and perspectives, the upside-down status of his
physical body: the intellect has been thrown down and the rational has ceased dominating
behavior, while the mind makes itself receptive to profound inner wisdom, as shown by his
dark-yellow hair. Our point of view on life changes. We disconnect from a view of the world
inherited from childhood, with its retinue of illusions and projections, to enter into its singular
essential truth. Seen from this angle, The Hanged Man will often send us back, in the reading,
to an understanding of the subject's ties with his or her family tree. The position of this figure,
with his head at the bottom, brings to mind that of the fetus in the maternal womb, and it can
prompt the Tarot reader to question the person for whom the cards are being read about the
circumstances of his or her gestation and birth, or about any traumatic pregnancies the person
may have had in the past. The two trees with their lopped branches can be interpreted as two
"trees" or as the maternal and paternal lines, whose neurotic situation and abusive behavior
leave us hanging as impotent sacrifices, hiding behind our back—like this hanged man with
his invisible hands—shameful secrets. This card will sometimes express guilt, imaginary
crimes symbolized by the twelve bleeding wounds on the trees and the punishment that is
being imposed, or else the sacrifice one may be condemned to make. The traditional folk
reading imagines that money is falling out of The Hanged Man's pockets, that he is losing his
wealth. A more symbolic reading will view this as the sacrifice of the illusory "riches" of the ego.
The cut branches around the figure refer to sacrifice and to the quest for the essential.
At the point where the rope is attached to the heel, a triangle symbolizes the mind, spirit
The Hanged Man can also evoke the figure of Christ, and through that the theme of the gift
of oneself. The twelve lopped branches then would symbolize the twelve apostles, who are
sometimes identified as the twelve deviations of the ego around Christ representing the
universal androgyne. The marks of androgyny abound: The Hanged Man's pockets are
shaped like crescent moons, but one is receiving while the other gives, one is active and the
other receptive. The rope attached to him that is holding him up is doubled: one of its ends
terminates in a phallic symbol while the other, to our right, ends in a shape that is reminiscent
of the female symbol. Furthermore, this same rope at the point where it is attached to The
Hanged Man's heel has a triangle inserted within a circle to signify that he is connected to
spirit, to spiritual androgyny. And this refers to him from toe to head, as we can find among his
dark-yellow locks a round light-yellow solar symbol and a small moon of the same color.
There is a sun and moon in his hair.
The buttons of his clothing could symbolize the Sephirot of kabbalistic tradition.
However, knowing that the Tarot is imbued with the influence of the three great monotheist
religions, we can also see an allusion to the kabbalistic tradition and the ten Sephirot of the
Tree of Life in the ten buttons on The Hanged Man's tunic. The first button, starting from the
throat, bears a dot, the origin of all creation. The next four alternate between an active element
and a receptive element. The sixth button, which corresponds to the Sephirah Tipheret, takes
the form of an eight-rayed sun, perfection of the beauty uniting all the other elements. This is
again followed by a receptive element and an active element, followed by a ninth button
bearing a moon and a tenth on which a square, the symbol of the Earth, has been inscribed.
The Hanged Man's meditation gives him access to the universal wisdom that rests within him.
IN A READING
This card indicates a moment of suspension that we can turn to our advantage for refining our
plans in greater detail, self-knowledge, and inner work. It can also refer to a block or an
inability to take action. Often this card will let us know that the time is not right for making a
decision, that the situation or own view needs to ripen further. The Hanged Man can be literally
seen as the mirror or reflection of Arcanum XXI, The World, in which the position of the legs is
similar. But the woman at the heart of the mandorla of The World is dancing, whereas The
Hanged Man is at a complete standstill. He represents the immobility that is complimentary to
movement, the fetus in the maternal womb, or even the profound contact with the self that gives
birth to all realization in the world.
AND IF THE HANGED MAN SPOKE
"I am in this position because I wish to be. It is I who cut off the branches. I have freed my
hands of the desire to seize, to own, to cling. Without abandoning the world, I have retired from
it. With me you can find the will to enter the state where the will no longer exists, where words,
emotions, relations, desires, needs no longer bind you. To detach myself, I have cut all bonds
save the one joining me to Consciousness.
"I have the sensation of eternally falling toward myself. I am look- ing for myself through the
labyrinth of words. I am he who thinks and who is thought. I am not my feelings; I observe them
from an intangible sphere where peace alone reigns. At an infinite distance from the river of
desires, I know only indifference. I am not my body but the one who dwells inside it. To reach
myself, I am a hunter who sacrifices his prey. I find burning action in infinite nonaction.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Halt • Waiting * Immobility * The Moment to Act Has Not Come * To Conceal Something * SelfPunishment • Fetus in Gestation • Secret • Perspectives Turned Upside Down • To See Another Point
of View • To Not Choose • Rest • Illness • Pregnancy • Gestation Conditions of the Reading Subject •
Tie to the Family Tree • Prayer • Sacrifice • Gift of Oneself • Deep Meditation • Nondoing • Inner
Forces Received through Prayer
"I cross through pain to discover the strength of sacrifice. Little by little I undo everything in
me that could be called 'me.' I reenter myself incessantly as if into an enchanted forest. I own
nothing, I grasp nothing, I know nothing, I want nothing, I can do nothing.
"However, the entire universe crosses through me, arriving to fill me with its whirlwinds
before leaving again. I am the infinite sky that lets the clouds pass by. What remains of me? A
single gaze staring at nothing, aware of itself, which makes itself the last and ultimate reality.
Then I explode into pure light. The 'I' becomes the axis of a total dance, the holy water where
the thirsty come to drink.
"It is at this moment that I am the pure air that drives away the poisoned atmosphere. It is at
this moment that my bound body becomes the cataclysmic source of eternal life.
"I am nothing more than the beat of the heart that propels beauty toward the borders of
creation. I become the peaceful gentleness in all pain, ceaseless gratitude, the door that leads
victims to ecstasy, the sloping path on which we slide toward the heights, the living light that
circulates in the darkness of the blood."
XIII
L'Arcane sans Norn/The Nameless Arcanum
Profound Transformation, Revolution
The most widespread error concerning this Arcanum is the one made by the superficial
tradition that has given it the meaning, and sometimes the name, of "Death." The weight of this
inaccuracy has weighed heavily upon the interpretation of Arcanum XIII. Of course the central
figure we see here is the scythe-wielding skeleton that represents death in popular tradition.
However, there are numerous elements that allow us to move away from this simplistic
interpretation. On one hand, Arcanum XIII does not have a name. After the emptying and
deepening work achieved by The Hanged Man, this card invites a radical purification of the
past, a revolution that takes place in the nonverbal or preverbal depths of the individual, in the
shadow of that black terrain, that unknown region of ourselves, from which emerges, like a
matrix, our humanity.
On the other hand, we can note that 13 is not the last number of the Major Arcana series but
is located slightly past the middle. If this card represents an ending, it would probably have the
number 22. Its position at the heart of the Tarot prompts us to see it as a work of cleansing, a
revolution necessary for the renewal and the ascent that follows after it, one degree at a time,
toward the total realization of The World. Furthermore, this numbered but untitled card echoes
The Fool, who has a name but no number. The similarity of the postures of the two figures is
obvious: the skeleton of Arcanum XIII could be that of The Fool seen on an X-ray. We can
deduce from this that these two Arcana represent two aspects of the same fundamental energy.
But if The Fool is first and foremost an advance, a contribution, a liberation, Arcanum XIII
evokes work similar to plowing or a harvest, preparing the terrain for a new life. Here again an
obvious clue takes us away from the simplistic interpretation: this skeleton is flesh-colored, the
preeminent color of organic life. This is the skeleton we carry inside of us, the bone, living
essence, and structure of all movement, and not the skeleton we leave behind us when we
depart this life.
Key Words
Change • Mutation • Revolution • Anger • Transformation • Cleansing • Harvest • Skeleton • To Cut •
Advance * To Eliminate * To Destroy • Rapidity
A white bone on the ground evokes the dried skeletal structure (the origin of the word
skeleton is a Greek word that means "dried"), but even this bone is moving toward new life.
Because it is pierced with seven holes, it appears like a flute, an instrument that waits only for
a breath to produce its music; this breath could well be divine. Therefore it is unthinkable to
reduce Arcanum XIII to the meaning of "Death." But we can see a major transformation, a
revolution, or a radical change in this card.
The figure, with his vital (red) and spiritual (blue) scythe, is in the process of working his
nature, his deep nature. He is holding the scythe by a yellow handle, the color of intelligence:
the labor has been carried through the wish and thought stage and is now achieved.
Aggressiveness or anger, either suffered or expressed, is often visible in the process of
Arcanum XIII. But it is possible that this work takes place like an outburst of energy, a quick
and liberating explosion. It is a process of elimination that works the ego like a field and tames
it. No useless element is tolerated anymore; the reductive concepts and value systems
imprisoning us are swept away, and with them the complicity that held us to this point within
our unrealized state or neurosis. All bonds of dependency are cut to permit us to recover our
lost liberty, the very freedom of which The Fool is the primordial symbol.
The bone flute, which also brings to mind a musical instrument from Tibetan tradition
The black ground on which Arcanum XIII is working is reminiscent of the nigredo of
alchemy, or the mire from which the lotus emerges in Buddhist tradition. It is the color of the
unconscious, emptiness, deep mystery. On it we see two heads. We do not know if they have
been cut off or if they are emerging from the dark soil—in any case, the skeleton is supporting
itself on them in order to keep moving forward. Father and mother have been dethroned at an
earlier time, so that the profound nobility of the male and female appear in the form of two
purified archetypes. Two human beings of royal tradition are therefore being bom here, just as
two different forms of grass are sprouting: one that is deep blue, the color of intuitive spiritual
reception, and the other yellow, the color of active and solar intelligence.
The two severed heads on the ground could be concepts inherited from one's parents.
The four letters of the divine name on the back of the skull
On the top of the receptive spinal column there is a red, active, flower or knot.
We can also see unattached feet and hands on the black ground, some of which are well
formed and others imperfect. Have they been cut off? Are they sprouting? In this latter case, we
could say that the new being is rising to the surface. If we study the skeletal figure more
closely, we can see more than one face. There is the shadow of a profile, as if the darkness of
the ground had risen as high as the head, and as the mind was emptied. The eye of the
skeleton looks like a dragon biting its tail, symbol of the infinite nature of the universe. The
skeleton's head bears a lunar shape, sign of its receptivity, and on the back of its head, if we
turn the card sideways, we can see among the hatch marks the Hebrew letters Yod-Hay-VavHay, which spell the divine name. The sum of these four letters in the Hebrew alphabet equals
26, the figure of divinity, of which 13 is exactly half.
This figure carries divinity within, but it is not entirely divine; it is working in the plane of
incarnation. The pelvis of the skeleton and its spinal column borrow the colors of its scythe:
azure and red, as if these two colors (vital action and spiritual receptivity; see p. 100) formed
the base of the growth along the column, like a blade of wheat, up to the red four-petal flower
supporting the head. Hidden in the figure's pelvis, a blue heart tells us it works with love. One
of its knees and one of its elbows bear a flower with three petals or a red clover, which again
designates activity at strategic points in the body The knee and the elbow are the site of
charisma, of communication with the crowd. One leg and arm of the flesh-colored part of its
body are a saturated light-blue color. This is an active and communicative being that is both
incarnated and spiritual, human and divine, mortal and immortal. Its mask is terrifying. Even if
we have seen that the skeleton conceals divine activity, we can still allow ourselves to be
frightened by its appearance and see this figure as an empty-headed, lame individual
randomly scything with no respect for life or beauty. It appears as a terrifying threat that cannot
be appealed, like an unjust and merciless death. But its action points the way to the path of
transformation and carries us from mortality to the immortality of individual consciousness.
IN A READING
This card requires great delicacy of interpretation. Negative predictions are toxic and useless:
it is not necessary to read death, mutilation, or illness in this card. Some reading subjects
become terrified from simply seeing this card in a spread. What's called for here is to discover
with them what major transformation it evokes, what changes are desired or already at work,
and perhaps what threats it may permit them to avoid. It can sometimes involve a mourning to
be performed, also sometimes great internalized anger that needs to be expressed. Then
again, Arcanum XIII sometimes evokes an unconscious aggressiveness or the need to
manifest an energy that the consultant does not know how to express positively. It is good in
this case to see if the energy of The Fool (same direction, same movement, but less-negative
connotations) would not be more appropriate. However, when a revolution is what's called for,
Arcanum XIII brings it with radical rapidity, which can inspire a great relief.
AND IF ARCANUM XIII SPOKE
"If you push yourself to go faster, you will catch me. If you slow down, I shall catch you. If you
walk peacefully, I shall accompany you. If you start to turn around, I shall dance with you. Since
our meeting is inevitable, face me at once! I am your inner shadow, the one laughing behind
the illusion you call reality. Patient as a spider, set like a jewel in each of your moments, I am
the one with whom you share your life—or if you refuse this, you will not be living in the truth.
You can flee to the other side of the world; I shall always be by your side. Since the time you
were bom, I am the mother that never stops bringing you into the world. So rejoice! It is only
when you grasp me that life becomes meaningful. The demented who do not recognize me
cling to things without seeing I own them all. There is nothing that does not bear my seal.
Permanent impermanence, I am the secret of the sages: they know they can only advance on
my path.
"Those who incorporate me become powerful minds. Those who deny me, seeking vainly to
escape, lose the delights of the ephemeral. Although they are in Being, they do not know how
to be. While trapped in anguish, they do not know how to live.
"Children cannot imagine me. If they did, they would stop being children, for I am the end of
childhood. Those who recognize me on their path become adults. They know that they belong
to me. I devour their difficulties, their triumphs, their failures, their loves, their disappointments,
their pleasures, their pains, their parents, their children, their pride, their illusions, their wealth. I
devour everything. My voraciousness is boundless; I even devour the gods. But when I reach
the last of them, the authentic one, once the masks dissolve in my entrails, I break my teeth on
him. In his indescribable mystery, in his absent presence, in his present absence, I kill
myself... I only swallow egos. Each has a different taste, each one more bitter and fetid than
the last.
"Thanks to me, everything turns into dust and collapses. But do not think this is a tragedy. I
make destruction a process of extreme splendor. I wait for life to display its most supreme
beauty; that is when I appear to eliminate it with the same beauty. When it reaches the limits of
its growth, I begin to destroy it with the same love that was used to build it. What joy! What
immeasurable joy! My permanent destruction opens the way to constant creation. If there is no
end, there can be no beginning. I am at the service of eternity, your eternity. If you devote
yourself to transformation, you will become the master of the ephemeral moment, because you
will live it in its infinite intensity. It is because of me that desire is bom in the belly, in the
genitals. Coitus serves to conquer eternity.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Profound Transformation • Revolution • Cut • To Eliminate What Prevents Us from Moving Forward *
End of an Illusion • Salutary Rupture • Anger • Revolutionary • Aggressiveness • Harvest • Work of
Mourning Concerning a Person or a Situation • Hatred • Violence • Cleansing • Radical Purification •
Essence of Change • The Work of the Subconscious • The Deity's Destructive Face • Death as God's
Cosmic Mask • Transmutation • Eradication of the Old to Make Way for the New • Work on the
Human Skeleton * Essential Movement * X-Rays * Psychoanalyst or Person Who Accompanies the
Change
"If you did not have a material body, I would not exist. When you become pure mind, pure
spirit, I disappear. Without matter, I no longer exist. So dare to dispose of your flesh and bones
in my mouth! To win, you must give me everything you have, which has truly always belonged
to me. Your ideas, your feelings, your desires, and your needs, all belong to me. If you want to
keep something, tiny as it may be, you who are nothing and possess nothing will lose it. You
will lose eternity.
"Understand this: in my extreme darkness, I am the eye of the unthinkable that you might call
God. I am also God's will. Thanks to me, you return to God. I am the divine door: he who enters
my territory is a sage, and he who cannot consciously cross my threshold is a fearful child
caparisoned in his detritus. You must enter me pure. Get rid of everything, even detachment;
annihilate yourself. It is only when you disappear that God appears.
'You want strength? By accepting me, you are the strongest. You want wisdom? By
accepting me, you are the wisest. You want courage? By accepting me, you are the most
courageous. Tell me what you want! If you become my lover, I shall give it to you. When you
feel me becoming part of your body, I transform the concept that you have of yourself. I make
you dead in life and grant you the pure gaze of the dead: two unattached holes through which
only God gazes. The instant then becomes terrible; everything is transformed into a mirror, and
you see yourself in every being, every form, every process. What you call 'life' becomes a
dance of illusions. There is no longer any difference between matter and dream.
"Don't shiver, have no fear, rejoice! Life, although unreal and ephemeral, reveals its greatest
beauty in the moment. By giving me your gaze, you will finally understand that it is a miracle to
be alive.
"I do not like it when people recognize me before their time. I want people to call me at the
precise moment they grasp who I am. If you rush me by committing suicide, I shall bring no
wisdom, as you have made a travesty of me as vulgar destruction. I am not an absurd
misfortune. I have a profound meaning; I am the great initiator, the intangible Teacher crouched
beneath matter. When I am solicited dementedly, you make me angry, and I am made to act
against my will. Only those who reach me in full awareness give me supreme bliss. But the
majority of beings come to me ignorantly through war, crime, vice, illness, and catastrophes.
Rare are those who reach that state of pure Consciousness in which I become the apogee of
realization. These individuals never cease to recognize me, whereas I come as a surprise to
the others. He who resigns himself with understanding to accept being my prey lives with ease,
in freedom and joy, faces aggression with confidence and without nightmares, and realizes his
desires. By losing hope, we also lose fear.
"Do not offer me your hand, for I shall immediately cause it to rot. Offer me your
consciousness. Disappear within me, in order to finally become the Totality!"
TEMPERANCE
Xllll
Temperance/Temperance
Protection, Circulation, Healing
Temperance, number 14, depicts an angel. This card arrives after the profound work of
Arcanum XIII that has swept away the useless, creating the emptiness necessary for the
reestablishment of inner circulation. The time for peace and health has come. We should note
that "Temperance" has no article, no masculine or feminine.8 We can speak about it in both
genders: he with respect to the angel, and she with respect to Temperance. Just like The
Emperor in the first decimal series, Temperance is a 4, the number of stability. The angel is
anchored in the earth and does not fly, although its light-blue wings give it that possibility.
Temperance has gone beyond the carnal, and he/she can soar into the most subtle regions.
His/her yellow pupil, illuminated with pure awareness, brings to mind the verse by Rilke: "All
angels are terrifying." This superhuman gaze could be that of the only angel to see God:
Gabriel. The gaze and hair of Temperance are filled with divine light, and the five-petaled red
flower opening at the top of the head indicates that he/she bears the quintessence. His/her
thoughts manifest in the form of a marvelous perfume beyond speech.
Key Words
Guardian Angel • Measure • Blend • To Circulate • Harmony • To Heal • To Protect • Benevolence •
Prudence • To Moderate • Health • Even-Tempered
But we have seen that this angel is anchored in the Earth. Two snakes are interlaced at
his/her feet, in a caress. Temperance has therefore assumed all telluric energies and
dominated his/her libido. These two snakes are the sexual poles, the male and female of
Tantra or the two nadis, ida and pingala, that entwine along the spinal column up to the azure
wings. This symbol also brings to mind Hermes's caduceus, as well as Quetzalcoatl, the
feathered serpent of pre-Columbian religions. The angel grows above the power of his/her
sexuality; we find there again the animal force sublimated into the celestial and spiritual energy
of his/her blond hair.
The four yellow triangles on his/her chest evoke the four centers of the human being:
intellectual, emotional, sexual, and corporeal. These centers do not intercommunicate but are
juxtaposed, each with its own law. But we see a yellow circle above, the symbol of perfection,
in which a triangle has been carved that will permit each element to fit into it perfectly. This is
the fifth element, the essential Being in us that communicates with each of the four centers,
allowing harmony to be established in the human being. Similarly, a hand, the symbol of luck
and peace, can be seen in the flesh-colored panel over the angel's chest: his/her heart
radiating charity.
Temperance ensures that energies and fluids can communicate with each other. We could
say that he/she mixes water with wine. Through his/her action there are no more opposing
energies, no more opposites, but only complementarities. It is the secret of balance.
Temperance indicates the return of health, mental and emotional balance, the control of the
passions not through repression but through sublimation. Temperance brings a pacifying
message: "Find your center; your vital pendulum must avoid extremes; go by the middle way."
Beneath the hem of his/her robe, we can see the tip of a shoe, one of the rare violet patches
in the Tarot. This angelic foot has also been tempered. It is the blend of the active red and
receptive blue that shares the body of Temperance. We then realize that inside his/her robe,
the angel is violet. He/she has realized the union of the positive and the negative, the active
and the passive. This is the secret discreetly suggested by this foot.
A red flower on the angel's forehead perfumes his/her thoughts.
Four points and a circle: the four elements and the Essence
IN A READING
This card often appears as a sign of healing or reconciliation. We are protected. It urges the
search for balance amid apparent opposites. People frequently live with an internal rift, for
example between the intellect and the rest of the self or, to the contrary, between the body and
the rest of the personality, if one is very athletic; between the front and back of the stage for
people who are often performing; between a very elevated spiritual concept and imperious
sexual desires; and so forth. In all cases Temperance is calling us to take the middle path, to
seal the union with ourselves, then starting from this point to deal with the rest of the world.
This Arcanum also sends a warning to alcoholics and drug abusers, to all those who know
they are imbalanced because of their own actions.
The flow between the vases
The Angel's violet slipper: point of contact with the ground
The work of Temperance does not consist of cutting but of adding a value that moderates
the passions that cause us harm: trust to jealousy, sobriety to greed ...
AND IF TEMPERANCE SPOKE
"I am with you permanently. Not a single second passes that I am not with you, because my
true essence is to be a guardian. You cannot imagine the number of dangers and illnesses
from which I save you. I am there, I am watching over you. When you are dreaming, I am
watching over your dreams. I drive the nightmares away.
"I love you infinitely. Put your trust in me, because when you stop believing in me, I become
smaller and smaller, and then invisible. I lose some of my power. But once you start seeing me
again, I act more and more effectively, both inside you and in the outside world. Just like a
mother will give her child to a trustworthy individual to watch, you can entrust yourself to me
like a child. I will protect you. How many among you have suddenly become aware of my
existence when I pulled you back just as a car was about to run you down? Or when I
dissuaded you from going onto an airplane that would later explode in flight? Or when I
stopped your steps mere inches from the abyss?
"I am balance and prosperity. I am the inner voice that screams: 'Look out!' and lets you
avoid making the fatal error, having the accident, making the irreversible gesture.
"I am on a state of constant alert on your behalf. I am the kindness of the universe. I
communicate with nature and with all the entities governing the world, ensuring their favor
toward you. I intercept dangers, I guide exchanges. I am present at the north, south, east, and
west, at the four comers of the world, so that you may live your lives in all confidence.
"I've been called 'guardian angel'; that is how the Church imagined me, with the
appearance of a child. I am that, but I am also much more than that. I am a part of your
subconscious, its benevolent part, the part that helps and keeps watch over you even when
you are sleeping. I am there to urge you to act when an action is good for you. Trust me: I am
here to balance you. Those who suffer and torture themselves do not know me, yet I am also
there for them. I am only waiting for them to see me and to call upon me.
9
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Healing • Health • Protection • Dynamic Balance • Exchanges • Reconciliation • The Circulation of
Fluids (blood, water ...) • Energy Flow • The Crossing of a Frontier • Travel • Premonitory Dreams •
Harmony * Peaceful, Even Temper * To Blend * To Balance * To Water One's Wine * Balance of Vital
Forces • Angelic Nature (the angel has no sex) • Excessive Tendency to Moderation • Avarice • SelfCommunication • Messenger of Grace • Spiritual Healing • The Guardian Angel • Evokes the
Deceased (funeral monument) • Transmigration of Souls, Reincarnation • The Feathered Serpent
"I ask only one thing of you: that you recognize that you are not alone. But then you ask,
what must be done to reach me? I shall answer you: you must begin by imagining me. You
may first invoke my childish image of a guardian angel; that's a good start. Play with me like a
child speaking to his angel. Act as if I existed. Imagine me, there, right next to you, all the time,
and that my sole purpose is to help you. Most importantly, like a trusting child, you must accept
my aid.
"Abandon your defenses. When you need something, ask me out loud: 'My Guardian Angel,
help me, intercede for me in this problem, in this difficulty.' I will respond to all your requests
whether they are practical or spiritual. Ask me to protect you; I love to protect you. Tell me: 'My
protector, watch over my health, help me find a job that will truly make me happy and in which I
can realize my full human potential and ensure that my family will lack for nothing.'
"Or tell me: 'My protector, help me stay calm in difficult circumstances, help me progress and
develop my awareness, give me strength, improve my health, and ensure that I make myself
useful to all around me every day. I have confidence in you.'
"Even if you do not believe in me, imitate this belief, and little by little I shall start to appear.
Time is my ally, because it is always bringing you more wisdom. I am with you from the
moment of birth to the moment called death, which is another birth."
XV
Le Diable/The Devil
Unconscious Forces, Passion, Creativity
In the numerological order, The Devil corresponds to The Pope, Arcanum V, the fifth degree of
the first decimal series of the Major Arcana. He also represents a bridge, a transition. But while
The Pope represents a path toward the spiritual heights, The Devil appears as a tempter,
showing the way to the depths of the being. This card is anchored in the large black patch that
we saw appear in Arcanum XIII. The figure of The Devil is carrying a torch and has two bat
wings: these elements indicate he dwells in darkness, in the night of the deep subconscious.
We could say he represents the opposite of The Pope, the light buried in matter. The figures on
this card are a blend of the human and the animal, which makes reference to our primordial
powers, the prehistoric memories buried in the deepest depths of the nervous system. This
feature reminds us, through the various esoteric signs adorning these figures, that the initiate,
to achieve illumination, should not refuse his animal side but accept it, honor it, and guide it to
angelic light.
The Devil, having been an angel, reveals with his torch his profound desire to climb back
from his cave to the cosmos. Similarly, the human soul, buried in the carnal body, has a
profound desire to ascend back to its origin, the Creator deity. The Devil is wearing a hat
whose red edge evokes the activity of desire, and its orange mass is his intuitive and receptive
intelligence that extends over his forehead like a third eye. He is cross-eyed, focused on a
point at the tip of his nose in an intense meditation. His facial expression is ambiguous: on one
hand it seems like deep concentration, and on the other he could be making a childish face.
We could say, crossing through the layers of popular fears he inspires, that he is reminding us
that he is only an innocent creation, a comical being. We could also say that by sticking his
tongue out twice, from his own face and from the deep blue face on his belly, The Devil is
hiding nothing; he reveals a total absence of hypocrisy.
Key Words
Temptation * Passion • Attachments * Sequence » Money » Contract • Depth • Darkness • Fear •
Taboo • Subconscious • Sexuality • Impulses • Creativity
If he is equipped with several pairs of eyes on his face, belly, and knees, it is to better see
the face of his fears. He is an individual with four faces. In addition to the face on his head, a
mask concealing his powerful intellect, there is the surprised look on his two breasts. The halfmoon shape of the bottom half of his breasts indicates an unhindered emotional nature. The
face on his belly, which is also sticking out its tongue, designates the vast extension of his
creative and sexual desires. The gaze from his knees suggests flesh saturated with spirit that
has been assumed like a garment and which scorns nothing of material life. His sex organ is
like the emergence of a third tongue. But his light-blue body indicates that he is first and
foremost a spiritual entity, a dimension of the mind under its Luciferian aspect. He is holding a
torch with a green handle from which gleams a red flame emerging from a circle; this torch is
burning from a great activity, stamped by this sign of perfection and the creative principle.
The three figures are crowned with homs, indicating that this Arcanum is that of passion
above all else: amorous passion and creative passion. This card contains all the hidden
potentials of the human subconscious, both negative and positive. This is also the card of
temptation: a summons to search for the occult treasure, immortality, and powerful energy
buried in the psyche, which is necessary for all great human endeavors. Obviously this card
can also represent a fraudulent contract in the Faust tradition, sexual deviance and
degeneracy, infantilism, deceit, mental delirium, economic rapacity, gluttony, and all selfdestructive attachments.
The Devil's torch can burn up the world.
There are homs or branches on the heads of the two imps.
The Devil is standing on some sort of pedestal or plinth, to which two imps are connected by
an orange rope passing through a central light-blue ring. We could say that the imp on the left
is a woman and that on the right a man by referring to the expression on their faces, although
no sexual distinction has been drawn. The woman bears a small sign on her chest, three dots
arranged in a triangle to indicate she is sacred. These two individuals have feet shaped like
roots that plunge into the dark ground. The feet of the woman have five toes each, whereas
those of the other imp have only four. This is the card that reveals the active dimension of the
female and the passive dimension of the male, the two energies combining to create the
hermaphrodite devil, who has both breasts and a penis on his body. His right foot and hand
have five toes and fingers, while the hand and foot on the left have four. The two imps have
homs on their heads, bringing to mind those medieval legends in which animals remain
imprisoned by their homs in the forest of passion. We can view them as two individuals
attached by their desires, but also rooted in the profound source and transformed into the
servants of The Devil's creative androgyny, free from all prejudices.
The imps' feet are rooted in the black ground.
Three spiritual dots appear on the body of the woman on the left.
In the popular mentality, The Devil evokes money He shows up to tempt humans with a
promising contract, quick and easy wealth; he is also associated with the declaration of a great
passion, temptation, or liaison. All this lies atop the same spiritual reality: a part of ourselves
tempts us with unknown possibilities, just as Christ was tempted by his inner devil. Esoteric
tradition says that when Christ died, he went down from his tomb to look for his elder brother,
the Devil, to unite with him and form one being.
On the ground of the "cave," above the matrix of darkness, we can see an evenly striped
light-blue terrain. In the middle of the black band these same stripes, evidence of the work of
spiritual labor, have formed the action (the red trapezoid) leading to the perfection of the lightblue circle through which passes the bond that unites the two imps. All unconscious and
instinctive activity becomes conscious (light yellow) and spiritual (light blue). The root of this
activity, The Devil, designates it as sexual. The red tip of his sex organ is a symbol of life, just
like the double belt holding up his breasts and the one crowning his pelvis. With these touches
of red, he seems to be indicating that the libido is first and foremost a vital flame, like that of his
torch, with which one can set alight the world with a creative fire. In this regard, The Devil is the
other face of God.
IN A READING
The Devil can refer to a sum of money coming in or everything associated with large financial
transactions, which may sometimes be shady or secret. He is the great Tempter who, in the
material domain, refers to the desire for wealth. He will also represent a promising contract, but
one that needs to be studied closely to avoid being deceived. The Devil can in fact lead,
impartially, to fortune or ruin.
On the other hand, he is always a good omen for questions concerning creativity. He evokes
the depth of talent, the wealth of inspiration, the tendency of a true artist, and intense creative
energy.
Just like Arcanum XIII, The Devil can frighten the reading subject a priori. He is charged with
all moral and religious taboos and reflects the very image of evil. The tarologist should
therefore orient the reading to enable the person consulting him to go beyond the sexual or
creative prohibitions that have been imposed upon him or her, and to reconnect to the power of
the depths in which our subconscious is rooted. This is also the place where the passions are
anchored. The Devil often refers us to the sexual dimension of a relationship: a bond of
passion. He can also refer to the desire to know this kind of union.
Even The Devil's knees have eyes: he sees on every level.
The two faces of the Devil sticking out their tongues: he mocks rational speech.
He will sometimes evoke physical or mental dependencies, whose unconscious roots will
need to be identified. Problems of drugs, alcohol, sexual dependency, self-punishing behavior,
repetitive patterns in emotional life, and so forth are all things that can be unknotted if we
accept undertaking work in the depths.
A penis and breasts: the Devil is a hermaphrodite and unites the two polarities.
In all cases, this card directs us toward our personal nature and commits us to not hiding
beneath a mask. The realization consists of being who one is. This presumes the
acknowledgment and guidance of our desires.
AND IF THE DEVIL SPOKE
"I am Lucifer the light-bearer. My magnificent gift to humanity is the absolute absence of
morality. Nothing restricts me. I transgress every law, I bum the sacred books and constitutions.
No religion can contain me. I destroy all theories and cause all dogmas to explode.
"In the depths of the depths of the depths, no one lives any deeper than I do. I am the source
of all abysses. I am the one who gives life to dark grottos, the one who knows the center
around which turn all densities. I am the viscosity of everything that vainly attempts to be
definite: the supreme strength of magma; the stench that denounces the hypocrisy of perfumes;
the carrion mother of every flower; the corruptor of vain minds who wallow in perfection.
"I am the murdered awareness of the perpetual ephemeral. It is me imprisoned in the
underground reaches of the world who causes the stupid cathedral of faith to shake. It is me on
my knees biting the feet of the crucified until they bleed, who, without any shyness, shows off
my wounds gaping like so many famished vaginas. I rape the putrid egg of your holiness. I bury
the erection of my thought into the morbid dream of hierophants and spit in the face of their
simulacra the cold sperm of my scom.
"No peace with me. No peaceful little home. No candied Gospels. No sugar virgin for the
clammy tongues of hairy nuns. I royally defecate on the leprous birds of morality. I do not forbid
myself from imagining the prophet on all fours being mounted by a homy donkey. I am the
ecstatic songster of incest and the champion of all depravity; with the nail of my little finger I
delightedly slice open the belly of an innocent so I can dip my bread in his tripe.
•
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Passion • Attachment • Dependency • Progressiveness • Adoration • Great Creativity • The Taboo •
Temptation • Bestiality • Drugs • Promising Contract That Requires Close Review • Sum of Money
Coming In • Hidden Powers of the Human Subconscious (both positive and negative) • Fermentation
• Prostitution • Cruelty • Work in the Depths • Psychiatry • Dark Side of the Individual • Sexuality •
Lucifer, the Fallen Angel and Light Bearer • Pride • Possession • Obsession • Black Magic • Refusal
to Grow Old • Great Sexual Vigor • Fantasies • Occult Treasure • Energy Buried in the Psyche •
Going Beyond • Temptation
"However, from the depths of the depths of the human cavern, I light the torch that brings
order to the darkness. On an obsidian ladder I make my way to the feet of the Creator to
present him the power of transformation as an offering. Yes: before the divine impermanence I
fight to freeze instinct, to fix it in place like a fluorescent sculpture. I illuminate it with my
awareness and cling to it, until it bursts into a new divine work, the infinite universe an
immeasurable labyrinth that slips through my claws, a prey that escapes from between my
teeth, traces that vanish like a subtle perfume."
"And here I remain, attempting to attach all the seconds one after the next in order to halt the
flow of time. That's what hell is: total love versus the divine work that fades away. He is the
Artist—invisible, unthinkable, intangible, untouchable. Me, I am the other artist: fixed,
unvarying, dark, opaque, dense, a torch eternally burning with a motionless fire. It is I who
wishes to swallow this eternity, this imponderable glory, nailing it to the center of my belly and
then giving birth to it like a swamp that tears itself to pieces in order to eject the stem at whose
end opens the lotus in which the diamond is shining. Thus, lacerating my entrails, I want to be
the supreme Virgin who gives birth to God and nails him on a cross, so that he will remain for
eternity herewith me, always, never changing, permanent permanence."
if,J
LA'MAISQN-DIEV
XVI
La Maison Dieu/The Tower
Opening, the Emergence of What Was Imprisoned
The message of this card is one of great spiritual comfort. However, until the restoration of the
Tarot of Marseille, people generally saw Arcanum XVI as a reference to the Tower of Babel.
The most common interpretations spoke of the punishment of pride, catastrophe, divorce,
castration, earthquake, and ruin. Oswald Wirth, the creator of the Tarot of medieval
printmakers, imagined a king and queen falling from a tower and added a brick shattering the
woman's head.
If you carefully read the passage from the Bible discussing the Tower of Babel, you will see
that its destruction is far from being a catastrophe. Rather than a punishment, the destruction of
the tower is a solution to a problem: the deluge now finally ended, the entire planet, abundantly
irrigated, has become fertile. But very few human beings remain. Instead of dispersing to
cultivate the land, they are joining forces to construct a tower that will climb into the heavens
and reach God. In principle, this construction is intended as an act of love, a desire to know the
kingdom of the Creator. Now the Creator, knowing this plan cannot be realized, does not strike
the tower with lightning, nor does he cause any of its inhabitants to fall from it. He merely
creates the diversity of languages to separate them. This is a blessing more than a
punishment. Humanity starts off again to conquer the world and start tilling the fields.
Key Words
Temple • Construction • Joy • Overflowing • Shock • Expression • Celebration • Dancing • To Uncork •
Opening • Moving House • Exploding
In the different versions of the Tarot, the tower has no door. The restoration work not only
allowed us to find the tower's door again but also the three initiatory steps leading to it. In
ancient alchemical engravings and Masonic documents, we also see this tower equipped with
a door and these steps leading to it, sometimes as many as seven, and sometimes three. The
initiate must first accept the new knowledge, the symbol of the divine creation, then know how
to preserve it, then thirdly, how to let go of it. This is the moment when the green door, the
symbol of eternity, decorated with a moon emblematic of total receptivity, will open and reveal
the interior of the tower. This tower has sometimes been compared to the alchemical athanor,
the oven in which the primal matter becomes the philosopher's stone.
The Tower (La Maison Dieu) is not the house of God; it is the House/God. The Tarot
indicates quite clearly with the flesh-colored bricks that this tower is our body, and that our
body contains the deity. The half-open door allows a yellow light to escape: the body is filled
with the light of Consciousness. The figures are not in the middle of falling, quite the contrary.
Their hair is yellow, the color of illumination, and they are touching the plants growing out of
the ground with their hands. In reality, they are honoring the potential of the Earth. They have
their heads at the bottom like The Hanged Man of Arcanum XII because they are seeing the
world in a new way. The intellect, the mind, is looking directly at Nature. One of the feet of one
of the figures is pointed toward the sky: his steps are leading him to the mind.
The two imps of Arcanum XV have become humanized and have realized their ascent. The
yellow patches on the ground could be interpreted as an offering to the temple, two gold
nuggets. The two figures have climbed from the cavern of the subconscious to honor the Earth
with their offerings and aid Nature. They bring Consciousness into the world by impregnating
the terrain. Through their action the landscape is colored light blue, orange, and dark green.
The three steps leading to the tower and the yellow patches on the ground
The lightning-like entity either emerging from or penetrating into the tower—flame, firebird,
or lightning flash—is united with the crown of creation: this is not destruction but the
transformation of material power into spiritual fulguration. The diabolic androgynous being of
Arcanum XV has become a flame that has climbed up the entire spinal column and opened the
coronary nervous center to launch itself into the cosmos. This entity bears all the colors of the
Earth (yellow, red, green, flesh). This is an assumption. In it we can distinguish a flesh-colored
fetal shape that symbolizes the seed of a new consciousness, the human race's contribution to
the development of the universe. The creation of a new being is announced, one that will take
on material form in The Star (XVII). The ground, enriched with colors, unites with the figures
emerging from the tower in the same way the "flame" joins with the crown.
:
©
The green half-moon over the door
The hand of the figure on the right touching the plant
m
A fetal form appears in the middle of the explosion of colors.
Sixth degree like The Lover, The Tower evokes the theme of union—here if we wish to
accept the homophony of the original French—the union of the soul and its God.a This alliance
produces colored drops like concentrated bits of energy. In sacred Indian texts it is said that
knowledge is like milk, which, when beaten, eventually releases drops of oil on the surface.
Similarly, these yellow, red, and blue balls floating in the air express the dance of cosmic joy,
as if to say the stars are our allies and are bringing us their energy while awaiting our
awakening. This cosmic explosion could represent drawings of existing constellations; just like
the tower has, through its illumination, a kinship with the lighthouse, these constellation
drawings would then be, if you like, a navigation tool.
IN A READING
The Tower signifies the emergence of something that was imprisoned. This can be a
residential move, a separation, a moment of great expression, the desire to leave for the
country or for another country, or a secret revealed. Or even a lightning strike that causes a
"catastrophe."
It refers, as we have seen, to a dance of joyous separation; the figures are actually acrobats
flying about in a theater. This can be giving birth to something that has long been gestating and
takes dual shape here—the twinship of the animus and the anima, collaborating on a longthought-outwork.
Sometimes, if a person is seeing only one aspect of his question when interrogating the
Tarot, The Tower reveals the existence of a second aspect, a second less-obvious possibility
represented by the figure that has half emerged from the tower. The phallic connotation of the
tower also makes it a symbol of the male sex organ and all the questions connected to
ejaculation.
When it takes on a more painful meaning of abrupt separation or expulsion, The Tower can
refer to an expropriation, a rupture, a difficult birth, or, in the case of siblings, when one child
was wanted (the figure that has emerged entirely) and the other was not (the figure that has
only half emerged). We can also read a reference in this card to a large telluric movement, an
earthquake or other natural catastrophe.
The principal message of The Tower could be: stop looking for God in the sky; let's find him
on Earth.
AND IF THE TOWER SPOKE
"I am the temple: the entire world is an altar I make sacred. My life, like yours, proves at every
heartbeat that the world is divine, that the flesh is a living celebration and life a never-ending
construction.
"With me you will know the joy that is the key to the sacred. I am life itself, the transformation
and the reconstruction, the flame and the energy of everything alive, of all matter and all spirit.
If you wish to enter me, you must rejoice, cast into the fire the infantile whims of sorrow and
fear, and ask yourself every time you awake: What shall I celebrate now? I am the cataclysmic
joy of living, the permanently unforeseen and marvelous catastrophe.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Liberation • Opening • To Uncork • Rupture • Moving House • House Lightning Strike • Revealed
Secret • Explosion of Joy • Prosperity • Theatrical Decor • Ejaculation (sometimes premature) •
Destruction • Divorce • Dispute • Castration • Explosion of Sexual Energy • Dance • The Body as
Divine Temple • Great Burst of Energy • Revelation • Assumption • Breaking Boundaries • Illumination
"A defensive crown once isolated me from the world. A cork of old words covered my mind
and clouds of crystallized, mummified, sclerotic feelings cast a shadow over my heartbeats and
prevented the light from emerging. A thick cloak of desires transformed my appetite for life into
a jailer. I was flesh without God, consuming itself in the flames of its own existence, my ego
converted into a prison.
"Despising myself, isolating myself, believing I was defending an inner territory belonging
only to me, who was I in the darkness of this tower? Master of what? What was my
appearance, what false identity? I was nothing but the rarefied air of an egotistical obscurity.
"And suddenly, from both inside and outside, a nameless force emerged, the love that
sustains all matter. My top opened as well as my inmost depths. The combined energies of
Heaven and matter crossed through me like a hurricane. I knew the burning of the center of the
Earth, the light from the center of the universe. I received the vibrating universal axis; I was no
longer a tower but a channel.
"Then the joy of union burst forth. The high was low; the low was high. Like a queen bee, I
began to engender joyful beings. God was in me and I was only worshipful matter. I knew that I
could burst, that each of my bricks would travel through infinity like a bird. I knew that
everything imprisoned in matter gushed through me. I was the central pillar of a cosmic dance.
I was quite simply the human body in full reception of its original energy."
XVII
L'Etoile/The Star
To Act in the World, To Find Your Place
The ambiguous writing in the lower cartouche gives free rein to numerous readings: Le Toille,3
Le Toule (a derivative of the word for "spring" or "source" in the language of Oc), Le Toi ile (The
Isle of You) ... This Arcanum will be The Star for us. On it we see a kneeling naked woman
beneath a star-studded sky. Beneath the stars, one star: the human being in its truth.
Arcanum XVII depicts the first naked human being of the Tarot, before Arcana XVIIII to XXI.
With her starts the adventure of the being who has attained purity and asceticism. Beyond
appearances, she no longer has anything to hide, she has only to find her place on the Earth.
The Star's attitude evokes piety and submission: we kneel before a temple, or before a king or
queen. We can therefore say she is honoring the place where she has established herself. Her
knee resting on the ground can also be a sign of being rooted: she has found her rightful place
on Earth and is in communication with the cosmos.
In the numerology of the Tarot, 7 is the highest degree of action in the world (see pp. 60, 61,
64-65, 67, and 81). Numerous ties exist between The Star and The Chariot. Both are rooted in
the Earth, and the twelve stars shining on the dais of the chariot indicate its relationship with
the universe. But while The Chariot enters the world like a conqueror, a traveler, or an
inseminating prince, The Star acts on the world by irrigating and nourishing it. The naked
figure's breasts evoke lactation, and we can see an allusion to the Milky Way in the stars
hanging overhead. The stars, eight in number, signify that perfection of one kind has been
attained here: the perfection of talent.
Key Words
Chance • To Feed • To Sanctify • To Kneel • Fertility • Talent • Inspiration • Femininity • Song • Stellar
• Cosmic • Ecology • Irrigate • Finding One's Place • Star
The Star is a being entirely connected to the world. One of her vases seems as if it is
welded to her body, sealed to her pelvis, and the other extends into the countryside. We can
see there the image of a spiritual water (yellow) and an instinctive or sexual water (deep blue)
together nourishing the environment. It is possible that one of these vases may be receptive,
capturing the energy of the blue river, while the other pours a stellar light into it. An orange
moon on the woman's brow evokes intelligence that has become receptive wisdom, which
permits her to transmit the universal force passing through her symbolized by the starry sky.
She is also a being of flesh and blood who forms part of Nature. The sign she bears on her
rounded belly at the level of the navel evokes a seed of life. She spreads fertility; growing
around her are trees with orange foliage bearing yellow fruits. What is received from on high,
The Star, channel of universal generosity, pours toward the Earth to fertilize it. Here the
wandering journey of The Fool, of the primal energy, halts to provide a place for
communication with humanity. The generous individual becomes an unstoppable spring,
receiving and giving in one purifying movement.
From the perspective of psychological work, we could say that The Star, purifying her past,
is also purifying her future and her surroundings. She gives everything to all around her as well
as to herself, asking nothing in return. While she performs her action, she is fertilizing and
clarifying the landscape, earth, sand, trees, and water. The large black patch of Arcanum XIII,
which became the mysterious foundation of Arcanum XV, finds its sublime expression here in
the form of a bird that is preparing to soar off from the top of a tree toward the black spot of the
stars. The force issued from the center of the universe (symbolized by the stars) comes down to
the human being, purifies the Earth, then goes back to the universe in a movement of eternal
return. The figure of the bird can also bring to mind that of the phoenix, which is always reborn
from its ashes (this figure can also be seen in the Two of Cups and the Four of Pentacles). In
this sense, The Star is the canal of the infinite as well as that of eternity.
If we wanted to view her action negatively, we could say that The Star is wasteful or is
demanding instead of giving. She is sometimes represented as squandering her energy on the
past, haunted by the unresolved neuroses of the inner child. This is when a perpetually
unsatisfied vampire-like being, who lives in a permanent state of feeling unloved, invaded, or
abandoned—one who never thinks of giving—will continuously demand constant sexual and
emotional energy. The Star then turns into a bottomless pit or, in contrast, becomes possessed
by an excessive, undisceming passion. She can metamorphose into someone who is
immodest and shameless, a toxic being who pollutes rivers and poisons the spiritual or
material lives of those close to her.
Symbolically, The Star is the spiritual guide we carry within who is connected to the most
profound forces of the universe and to the sacred. She is the unknown part of ourselves in
which we can have faith: our "lucky star."
IN A READING
The Star represents a stage in which an individual finds his or her rightful place to act in the
world in a way that will embellish and nourish it from the spot the individual has made his or
her own. It sometimes prompts us to not decide between apparently irreconcilable options but
to conciliate the two. This card is traditionally seen as a sign of luck, prosperity, fertility. It
symbolizes generous action. It is also associated with divine love, hope, and truth (which
emerges from the well completely naked). It represents a creative realization that presumes its
author has found his rightful place.
The knee resting on the ground is somewhat deformed. A baby's buttocks can be seen on it.
On the brow of the woman is an orange moon ...
... and on her belly, a symbol, mouth, or bud.
For a man, this is the preeminent lover, or the beauty of his feminine interior from which he is
now capable of taking action. For a woman, it is a realization of her presence in the world, an
action conforming to her desires and profound nature. The Star's conscious and generous
relationship with Nature points the way to ecology, shamanism, and all the beliefs that take the
planet as a living being into account. If The Star is spilling her jars into the past or into
emptiness, we will need to ask why she is wasting her energy this way and what unresolved
knot is indicated.
The black bird, substratum of the depths, sings on an orange tree.
Because of its nudity and stellar nature, this card also brings to mind Venus, the shepherd's
star, the most brilliant of the stars that allow us to get our bearings at night.
AND IF THE STAR SPOKE
"In the infinite multiplicity of beings and things, I have found my place—in the world and in
myself, for it is the same thing. I no longer need to keep looking, I no longer hold any image of
myself; I am in my rightful place. Here and everywhere I am attached by my own choice.
"I am in every particle of dust, in every territory, in every waterway, every star, and every part
of my body. And how could I not respect the world, and my bones, and my flesh? All of this
matter does not belong to me; it has only been lent me for no more than a fragment of time. And
I respect it, for it is my temple—the one in which the unthinkable God resides. The mind is
matter and matter is mind, the universe is perpetually being bom and bursting, and at its center,
there where I kneel, I am.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Success • Luck • Truth • Generosity • Altruistic Action • To Carry on Two Actions or Two
Relationships at the Same Time * To Find One's Place * Celebrity * Fertile Woman * To Breastfeed *
Pregnant Woman • Wound on the Knee • Ideal Lover • Gift or Waste (depending on the direction in
which The Star is pouring her jars) • Nostalgia (if she is looking toward the past) • Purification of the
World • Ecology • Spring • Irrigation • Reception of Cosmic Energy • Sanctification of a Place •
Harmony with the Forces of Nature • Paradise • Aquarius • Shaman • Pretty Witch
"If I say 'I am there,' I mean to say I am in what supports all life, in this endless source of
energy that I distribute through my mind, my heart, my genitals, energies of a sublime purity
that, by gushing from me, cleanse the world. I give the atmosphere its fragrance, water its
sweetness, the Earth its fertility, and all the oceans their life. There is not a spot in the cosmos
from which I am absent.
"In every instant, I never abandon the present. Neither past nor future can enchain me, nor
can plans or regrets. Constant and faithful to my place, I receive and I give. And when I say: 'I
am of the world and of myself,' that means that I give myself without reservation, eliminating all
criticism down to its most obscure root. I do not judge. I love and serve.
"I do not divide myself, not even a hair's width. I belong—which is to say I venerate, I obey.
This is the reason I am nude, naked as a tree, a bird, or a cloud. I am my body, my flesh, and
my blood, and thereby I find it impossible to abandon lest I abandon myself. How could I not
love what possesses me amorously?
"Just as I give myself to the Earth, I give myself to my flesh and bones. Just as I entrust
myself to the oceans, I entrust myself to my blood. Just as I surrender myself to the air, I
surrender myself to my skin. Just as I give myself to the stars, I give myself to my hair. And
radiantly full of this slave's love, I act upon the world and upon myself. I act—in other words, I
go with the flow of the world, eliminating obstacles and transmitting the energy that comes from
beyond the stars. All I can do is enrich and purify, nourish, understand, and purify. I act the
same way upon myself; I open myself to the infinite, I let the breath of the gods circulate
through all the pores of my skin; I offer no resistance to the impetuous circulation of my blood. I
permit all the mysteries to pass through me. And from the center of my belly, which has
become infinity, I receive and allow the Totality of light to be bom."
X V I I I
XVIII
La Lune/The Moon
Receptive Female Power
The moon is one of humanity's oldest symbols; it represents the maternal feminine archetype
par excellence, the Cosmic Mother. Its essential quality is receptivity: the satellite body of the
moon reflects the light of the sun. In Arcanum XVIII, we find ourselves in the middle of the night,
but it is a night illuminated by this humble receptivity. The moon is also the world of dreams,
the imaginal realm, and the subconscious, traditionally associated with night. The Tarot
depicts the moon, like the sun, with a face. But it is not looking directly at us. It is a crescent
moon seen in profile. While still forming part of it, it remains invisible. In this regard The Moon
symbolizes the mysteries of the soul, the secret process of gestation, everything that is hidden.
Its face is not that of a young woman but is stamped by an ancient wisdom that also emanates
from its orange rays. The red rays in the background alternating with them indicate great vital
capacity and extreme fertility, one that is contained and occult. In the foreground, the blue sky
is dominant, a symbol of spirituality and intuition. The moon is connected with biorhythms,
water, tides, menstrual cycles, and the transition from life to death.
Key Words
Night • Intuition • Feminine • Cosmic Mother • Dream • Receptivity • To Reflect • Mystery • Attraction •
Imagination * Magnetic • Gestation * Madness • Poetry • Uncertainty • Phases
Beneath the actual celestial body, two animals are facing each other in a landscape in
which two towers can be seen. These animals are apparently dogs, but may be wolves, or
perhaps a dog and a wolf. They are howling at the moon and feeding on it, on the colored
drops it is releasing. We can see this as a symbol of siblings, two children demanding their
food (material, emotional, or intellectual) from their mother, two loving or enemy brothers. The
light-blue animal represents a more spiritual being. Its green tongue is receptive, its tail is
raised, and we should note that the crenellated roof of the tower behind it is open, also
receptive. The flesh-colored animal, which could represent matter, has its tail down and an
active red tongue. It is in front of a sealed tower with no apparent door. At the foot of this tower
we see three white steps that bring to mind the initiatory steps of The Tower, but the tower
remains closed nevertheless; even its battlement is covered by a row of complementary
crenellations, like a clenched jaw. We can deduce from this that the dense, concrete, material
body is turned toward action and has no inclination to receive unless it is to come through the
mind, symbolized by the light-blue animal.
We should nonetheless note that each of the dogs has one ear of the complementary color,
just as in the symbol of the Tao each pole carries the seed of the opposite pole.
The feet of the two animals create what resembles a three-level coat of arms out of the
portion of the landscape in the space separating them. The deep-green top level, the image of
the one on which the moon is shining, corresponds to the receptive mind plunged in deep
meditation. The middle level corresponds to the one on which the dogs are standing: two
plants are growing there, representing a rich emotional life. The lowest part, which is closest to
the water, corresponds to the profound gestation of the sexual and corporeal dimension; we
see three red drops on it, referring to animal nature.
The tower on the left with the open battlements (receptive) and the closed tower
The countryside in the space between the two dogs forms a trilevel coat of arms.
The wild bank
The expanse of water in the lower part of the card is squared out like a swimming pool, but
agitated by wavy lines that bring to mind waves and tides. It could also be a port. Its first bank,
at the very bottom of the card, is made up of rocks and wild natural vegetation. But we can see
that the other end is bordered by straight lines, three black lines demarcating two blue lines, as
if to indicate that the subconscious is constricted at its edge by rational dualism. In the center of
these womblike waters there is a crab or a crayfish that can be viewed as a symbol of the ego
aspiring to contact with the moon. This contact already exists: the crustacean and the celestial
body share the same colors. The crustacean desires union with the moon without knowing, like
all the elements of this card, that it is already in communication with it.
The crustacean is carrying a blue ball in his pincer, an offering from the depths.
We can view the crustacean either as immersed in the deepest depths of the water or, to the
contrary, swimming on top of it. In both cases it encourages us to establish contact with
intuition, this buried treasure we all carry. We can also see that it is carrying two balls like
offerings in its pincers. The ego has something to offer in the spiritual work.
Therefore, depending upon how we look at this card, it will either represent deep intuitive
communication or solitude and separation. We could imagine that the crustacean has come
out to steal the blue balls he is holding in his pincers, that the dogs are fighting him, that
everything feels cut off from the moon and its spiritual force. The drops could represent its
receptive capacity, but could also, in a negative sense, represent an insatiable absorption of
energy. The card then refers to madness and mental chaos.
If we count the lines that surround the inscription "LA'LUNE," we will find ten on the left and
twelve on the right. Ten refers to The Wheel of Fortune: as in Arcanum X, there are also three
animals; but whereas those of The Wheel of Fortune have not yet found the strength to get
moving, we could say that the crab and the dogs are moved here by the magnetic force of The
Moon. Twelve refers to Arcanum XII, The Hanged Man. He is closely tied to The Moon as he
represents a pause, a spiritual gestation, a receptive state; but in The Moon the receptive state
is universal. The red and blue drops on the ground are in the midst of emerging to climb to the
planetary body. This circulation is the mark of an energetic exchange between the Earth and
The Moon.
IN A READING
This card will generally refer to the world of the mother, to all the aspects of the subconscious,
intuition, and the personal mystery of being. We can then direct the reading toward the
relationship of the person consulting the reader with his or her mother, or his or her concept of
femininity. For a woman this card can be the omen of a profound realization. For a man, it is a
prompt to cultivate traditionally feminine qualities like sensitivity, intuition, and so forth. The
Moon is a good omen for anyone wishing to devote himself to poetry, to Tarot reading, to all
disciplines based on receptivity. Equally resonant in The Moon are fear of the dark,
nightmares, and all sorts of worries linked to the unknown, sometimes without constraint. It can
symbolize poorly defined anxieties, but also a voyage across the sea or arrival at a port. It
tends toward reverie, and to all the states of soul generally associated with a "lunar" or "lunatic"
nature.
Its infinite receptive potential is its greatest treasure.
AND IF THE MOON SPOKE
'You ask me to explain myself, but I am far from words, logic, discursive thought, intellect... I
am a secret and inexpressible state; I am the beginning where all deep knowledge begins,
when you immerse yourself in my silent waters without asking a thing, without trying to define
anything, when you stand outside all light. The more you enter me the greater your attraction to
me. There is nothing clear in me. I am bottomless and all nuance, I extend into the realm of
shadow. I am a swamp of immeasurable wealth; I contain all totems, prehistoric gods, the
treasures of times past and times yet to come. Beyond the subconscious, I am creation itself. I
steal away from all definition.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Intuition • Night • Dream • Daydreams • Superstition • Poetry • Divination • Imagination • The Deep
Subconscious • Sensuality • Hidden Truth (to be discovered) • Madness • Solitude • Night Terror •
Gestation • Unlimited Request • Energy Vampire • Child Seeking Maternal Love • Intensely Close
Love • Depression • Secret • Sea Crossing • Ocean • Receptivity • Obscure Life of Matter • Ideal One
Seeks to Achieve • Femininity • Cosmic Maternal Archetype
"I know that people have worshipped me. Ever since human beings developed a spark of
consciousness, they have identified it with me. Like a perfect silver heart, I shine in darkshrouded night. I was the light they dimly suspected reigned in the depths of their blind souls.
There where greedy entities lie in wait for the smallest spark of consciousness, dimensions of
madness, absolute solitude, frozen delirium, that painful silence called 'poetry,' I recognized
that in order to be, I had to go where I was not.
"I fell into myself, and each time I fell more deeply. I lost myself while descending to
nowhere, until at the end, 'me'-the-obscure was no more. Better yet, I was an infinite concavity,
an open mouth containing all the thirst of the world, a boundless vagina that has become total
aspiration. Then, in that vacuity, that absence of contours, I was finally able to reflect all the
light—an ardent light that I transformed into its cold reflection, not the light that engenders but
the one that illuminates.
"I do not inseminate, I only indicate. Who receives my light knows what is, nothing more.
This is already more than enough. To alter myself into total reception, I had to refuse to give.
All the rigid shapes of the night are annihilated by my light, starting with reason. Beneath my
clear light, the angel is an angel, the wild beast is a wild beast, the madman is a madman, and
the saint is a saint. I am the universal mirror, everyone can see himself in me."
XVIIII
XVIIII
Le Soleil/The Sun
Paternal Archetype, New Construction
The Sun, Arcanum XVIIII, looks us straight in the eyes, like the figure of Justice and the angel
of Judgment. He has numerous points in common with The Devil (XV), starting with the fact
that he is slightly cross-eyed. It is plausible that The Devil lit his torch from the fire of The Sun,
the primordial heat and light of the deity. This is, in fact, the first interpretation of the sun, the
symbol of life and love, archetype of the universal Father. Master of the heavens, source of all
heat and light, he gives life to all creatures.
Here this radiant celestial body has climbed to its zenith, eliminating all shadows from its
position in the middle of the sky. The intuitive orange glow of The Moon has given way to the
essential model it reflects: the clear yellow light of The Sun. Beneath the heat of the heavenly
Father, two figures are jointly crossing a light-blue river.
Two significant details make them akin to the imps of Arcanum XV. The one on the left has a
tail like the male imp of The Devil, and the one on the right has three dots on his side like the
female imp. We could say that the energy found in the darkness of Arcanum XV has now
emerged in broad daylight, and that the bond of passion joining those two figures has been
replaced by relations of mutual aid, human love in its pure state. This is a profound and free
friendship under the high benevolence of The Sun. It will be noted that the figure on our right,
the active side, is the one bearing the sign of active consciousness, whereas the figure on our
left is advancing like a blind man allowing himself to be led.
^
Key Words
Heat • Love • New Life • Construction • Passage • Awareness • Cosmic Father • Twinship • To
Radiate • To Cross • Childhood • Success • Evolution
Of the shackles of the two imps, these figures have retained only an active red necklace
around their throats, a place of passage, and a demarcation line on their chests between the
right and left sides, a delimitation and union of the active and the receptive (see pp. 42 and 57).
The figure on the right is standing on a piece of white ground that appears purified; between
his legs the landscape has been replaced by a pure azure space. It seems that he may have
already passed over to another more spiritual dimension on the other side of this river, over
whose waters the other figure is walking to join him again with the help of his hand.
We can see in these twins a metaphor for inner work: the conscious part of the individual
helps the more primitive animal part gain access to a different reality. The adult guides the
inner child to joy.
In this Arcanum, three colors are repeated in the sky, on the ground, and in the human
figures. The central yellow of the sun and its baleful rays are mirrored in the bricks of the wall
and the hair of the two protagonists, as if to indicate an attachment between mind and light.
The red of the straight rays echoes the upper and lower rows of bricks and the collars of the
two figures. The eyes of the celestial body are white with black pupils, like those of the two
figures it overhangs and like the purified land on the right side of the card. This conscious gaze
makes the red-yellow duality (vital action/intelligence; see pp. 97-98) a divine unit. Finally, the
blue of the flowing river seems as if it had just been coiled around the waists of the two figures
in their loincloths. This perhaps means they have accepted their bodies, girded by this wave in
perpetual change like an ephemeral shape. It next rises toward the sun in five light-blue drops,
the eternal Consciousness present in each of us. The union between the celestial, earthly, and
human planes is total. A single green band, evidence of the fertilizing union between the sun's
heat and the action of the river, evokes plant growth. We can read the number of straight lines
in this band of growth according to Tarot numerology, as we read a series of Major Arcana. We
find fourteen to the left of the figure on the left, as if heralding the healing process in which he is
engaged; then two between his legs, gestation of the future world; then seven between the two
figures, the action of the one upon the other; and finally nine on the right-hand side of the card,
which brings to mind the numerological value 9, crisis of the cycle's end and detachment (for
the numerology, see p. 61). But what is involved here is an initiatory crossing-over. The short
red-and-yellow wall in the background indicates that already, at the heart of this crisis, a new
construction is in place. The two individuals, breaking from their past, are triggering a new life.
The figure on the left has a small tail, vestige of his animal nature.
Three dots spiritualize the side of the figure on the right.
The white earth of the new world
The Sun looks directly at us.
IN A READING
The Sun is a good omen for all new construction; it indicates unconditional love is at work and
foretells success based on an ardent and enlightened approach. This is the crystallization of
the amorous couple, the achievement of success, a realization in any domain of human life—in
its emotional, intellectual, creative, or material aspects. It is also the beginning of a new life in
which past difficulties are left behind; the meeting of a kindred spirit, signing a good contract...
The Sun also represents the ideal values of the paternal archetype, including the
awakening of the male spirit and intelligence in the heart of the feminine. It can also indicate
the dominance of the father image in the question that has been asked, that the questioner has
been deeply stamped by his presence (an impassable father) or absence, which would have
led the questioner to forge an ideal image of the father that could well be too mythical to match
reality.
The heat of the sun is available to everyone at every moment. However, we should not
forget that too much sun causes death and aridity and can transform the land into a desert.
AND IF THE SUN SPOKE
"I am ceaselessly renewing myself. By consuming myself, I give my heat to every blade of
grass, every animal, and all living things without exception: it is fine with me if you call it Love.
Cyclically I disappear and come back again. Similarly, to enter my splendor, I expect human
beings to be capable of burying their pasts and starting a new life. I will help them. Where I
shine I dissolve all doubt. I enter the darkest nooks of the soul and inundate them with my light.
Pushed by my breath, you will cross the river of demented impulses and, purified, reach the
region where everything grows effortlessly.
"I shine at the heart of matter, I am its secret brilliance; it is nothing without me. But when it
refuses me and does not see me as its vital force, it is a cadaver. I cease to saturate it with my
drops of immortality. For you, my children, I endlessly engender joy and vital euphoria. Do not
make yourselves impermeable to my eternal light. See how low the wall is that separates you
from me. I created it so that everyone could leap over it—it's child's play. Beneath my rays you
shall know true, naked, sincere affection. I am the solution of all difficulties.
"I am the pure eye, and at the same time I am the resonance of the first shout. What you call
'darkness' is only ignorance of my light and my ever-present love. I ceaselessly herald the end
of night. Everything that is not clear is not me. I am the perpetual and regenerative renewal, the
one people wait an entire lifetime to occur. I am called The Sun, but I have no name; I am the
radiant brilliance of life.
•
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Reciprocal Love • Fraternity • Mutual Aid • Happy Union • New Life • Association • Success, Abundant
Harvest • Happiness • Light • Summer • Radiance * Intelligence • Verve • Wealth * Aridity Caused by
Excessive Heat • Children or Childhood • Twinship • Rivalry • Cosmic Paternal Archetype • Ideal
Father • Absent Father • Breaking with the Past to Build Something More * Construction * Solidarity
"But who am I if no one reflects me? How can I be boundless if no limits are imposed upon
me? What is my immortality without the path of death? What is my eternal present without the
snare of flowing time? What are my golden seeds without furrows of ground in which to bury
them? What is my food if no one eats it? In truth, my love is in large part my need for the Other.
'This is why I reproduce myself without ceasing. I multiply my energy in infinite mirrors; I
become the lover of my own children. I look for myself in their souls; this is where I talk to
myself. All the mothers of the world I've impregnated do nothing other than engender me. The
sun child has all rights. I cede these rights to a conscious humanity."
XX
Le Jugement/Judgment
New Consciousness, Irresistible Desire
All the Tarot's energy is concentrated in the card of Judgment. Following the receptivity of The
Moon and the new construction undertaken in The Sun, we see here the birth of a
consciousness, framed by a female principle on the left and a male principle on the right. This
emergence, summoned by the angel and his trumpet, is introduced to us as an irresistible
desire. The work has been realized. The anima and animus attain peace through prayer. By
themselves, they have created the divine androgyne who obeys the call of supreme
Consciousness represented by the angel.
This being emerging from the depths has been endowed with a light-blue body that cannot
help but bring to mind that of The Devil (XV). Furthermore, if we superpose the two cards, we
shall see that The Devil's legs adapt almost exactly to the body of the blue being of Judgment,
whereas the bodies of the imps extend that of the two figures in prayer. Another coincidence:
just like The Devil, the angel of Judgment seems to be sticking out his tongue in order to play
his trumpet. But while The Devil's tongue is red and aggressive, perhaps charged with cunning
and sarcasm, the angel's tongue is permeated with wisdom and kindness.
Key Words
Vocation • Call • Birth • Renaissance • Consciousness • Work • Union • Family • Transcendence • To
Emerge • Music • To Prompt
After a sojourn in the depths of the subconscious, after a task that may have been performed
in pain or in any case in the shadows, a new life is awakening, as if for a birth or a resurrection.
We think of the Last Judgment when the dead come out of their tombs. Everything that is
hidden or in gestation comes to the surface in aspiration for a new world. This powerful desire
to evolve resonates like divine music. What this Arcanum suggests is that a force defying death
is at work in our very lives: immaterial and immortal Consciousness.
It manifests in the form of an imperious call to live in a new dimension. The angel is looking
straight ahead, and, with his trumpet at his mouth, he symbolizes the announcement of this
awakening. The circular light-blue cloud surrounding him could represent the opening of the
mind. This same opening appears on the head of the being emerging from the depths of the
Earth: the mental emptiness he has realized is symbolized by the small central dark-blue disk,
which revolves around itself in the surrounding light-blue whirlwind in order to then remount
the twenty-two grades of the trumpet up to the golden egg etched on the angel's head, which
represents God in action. We should note that the hom part of the trumpet, from which the
music emerges, is like a repetition of this yellow oval: the sound reproduces the divine nature.
The beautiful is the sparkling of the true.
The flag brandished by the angel includes a flesh-colored cross that divides the orange
background into four squares—the four natural elements, or the four energies next symbolized
by the animals of The World (XXI). We could conclude from this that the flesh-colored cross
indicates that the vocation of the human being is simultaneously to live horizontally in the
world with the union of the essential androgyne between the right and the left, and vertically
from the Earth to the sky.
When someone draws this card, it means that he or she has been called. Difficulties will
arise if, for one reason or another, the individual cannot manage to respond to this call.
IN A READING
The tonsure of the blue figure is a spiral.
The orange cross, contact point between Heaven and Earth
The woman is touching the central figure with her elbow while looking at the man.
Judgment frequently recalls the circumstances of how the person receiving the reading
experienced his or her birth. This includes all the possible variations of a problematic labor, a
disturbed gestation, or a difficult situation surrounding the actual moment of birth that could
have formed an obstacle. The person consulting will then live, to one degree or another,
consciously or not, as an individual who was not wanted, whose birth was not intended. The
neurosis of failure, despair, or incomprehensible difficulties will ceaselessly tug this individual
to the bottom, toward the floor of the tomb from which he or she has been summoned to
emerge.
The man is looking toward the angel.
The meaning of this Arcanum consists of discovering, through therapeutic work or other
means, that every individual being that is bom is absolutely wanted by the deity (or the
universe) that allowed him or her to be engendered. The difficulties the individual will feel
around the desire to live, or artistic or professional vocation, are so many forms of resistance to
his or her deep nature, to the level of consciousness he or she (and all of us) can offer the
angel. This card may also appear to point out a problem related to the act of judging or being
judged. If the call is of divine origin, whoever stands up as judge lies [juge menf\. There is no
human judgment that holds any value here.
For a couple, this card is urging them to undertake a shared task, a real or symbolic child,
suggesting that the meaning of the male/female union is to produce a third element bathed in
love and awareness. The play of looks is interesting: the woman is looking at the man and/or
the child, she represents human love and love of the work; while the man, his eyes lifted
toward heaven, embodies divine and cosmic love. The angel is gazing directly at us. His
action is addressed to everyone. He reminds us that, for want of recognizing our deep desire
and the divine desire that prompts realization, we are only the living dead.
Judgment finally refers to the emergence of a desire, a vocation, a call to some kind of order.
This is a card of ecstasy, profound rebirth, and prayer immediately granted, where energies
are simultaneously rising from Earth to Heaven while descending in the opposite direction. We
should recognize in this card the last step before the total realization of The World.
AND IF JUDGMENT SPOKE
'You have flowed with the black river of Arcanum XIII. You have thrust your roots into The
Devil's darkness. You have been the demon sadly lifting his torch as if nostalgic for the light.
While you were wandering at the bottom of the abyss, I did not forget you. Now I can enter into
contact with you, but only little by little, with infinite gentleness and patience, because I am too
strong. You can unite with me only if you have been prepared, if you have made the journey to
the depths of your being, if you have known all the facets of your masculinity and your
femininity and reconciled them in balance.
"I bring you light from the entire universe. My power requires you to have made peace with
yourself, so that the new Tree has begun growing from the deepest regions of your
subconscious. May your entire being be plunged in infinite prayer and all your cells know
peace. May you be like these naked figures who have placed all their trust in and accepted
what is higher. Without the deity, I could not exist. When the individual becomes a veritable
trusting, tranquil child, then and only then do I appear as complete certainty—as the call that
has been echoing since the dawn of time.
•
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Call • Irresistible Desire • Realization •Announcement • Good News • Vocation • Triumph • Renown •
Future Project • To Give Life • Birth of a Child • Healing • Music • Openness • Hatching • Work of a
Couple • Father/Mother/Child Cell • Dependent Love for Parents • Birth Conditions of the Consultant •
Refusal to Act One's Age • Emergence of Something Buried • Grace 'Awakening of Consciousness *
Sublimated Devil • Streak Toward the Light
"My music, divine essence of the Word, inspires an imperious desire within you to raise
yourself up. It awakens everything that has been sleeping, resuscitating everything that was
dead, and opens the sealed stones of the tombs. I cause all your words to explode so that
through your prayers you may arrive at the domain of the inconceivable where rules the
miracle of vacuity. Me, I know, for I have seen and experienced the Creator. Thus I simply
announce Him. I transport the irresistible call of Consciousness. I am the awakening, the
miracle that takes place within your being.
"Irresistible certitude. When you answer my call, each of your actions is like an order I give
you. You no longer harbor any doubt. You strive to act, think, love, live, and desire in full
accord with divine will. Life is worth the pain of living; everything is achieved in calm,
meditation, kindness, and joy.
"I come from an inconceivable golden egg in which Being and nonbeing are only
undifferentiated light. I am the highest realization of your psyche, your thought that has finally
become androgynous. I free you from the boundaries of male and female. The circle of
celestial clouds surrounding me is nothing other than your exploded azure brain. I erase the
frontiers forever. From incarnation to incarnation, transformation to transformation, with
certainty and constant joy, I allow you to be what you have always been: an angel, emissary of
God."
XXI
Le Monde/The World
Total Realization
This Arcanum bears the number twenty-one, the highest numerical value of the Tarot. It
represents the supreme realization. On it we see a woman dancing in the middle of a crown of
light-blue leaves with a flask (receptive principle) in her right hand, and a wand (active
principle) in her left. As in the Taoist symbol, Yang supports Yin and vice versa. A blue scarf (at
the top behind her) passes over her body and becomes red. Although this figure is undeniably
female, it is the union of principles (androgyny realized) that she suggests.
The final stage of the path of the Major Arcana, The World is a call to be recognized in its
deepest reality and to accept fullness and realization. It is also the moment when, freed from
self-destruction, we begin to glimpse the suffering of the Other and put ourselves at the service
of humanity. In Christian tradition, Christ, the Virgin, and the saints are sometimes depicted this
way inside an oval shape. The mandorla, named for the Italian word for almond, is both a
symbol of eternity and a shape reminiscent of the female sex organ. We can attribute to this
Arcanum the rediscovered unity of the world in its Totality.
Key Words
Realization • Soul • World • Fullness • Success • Heroism • Genius • Holiness • To Dance • Ecstasy •
Universal • Fulfillment • Totality
This also can bring to mind the philosophical egg mentioned among others in the Turba
philosophorum: "The art of alchemy is comparable to the egg in which four things can be
found: The shell is the earth. The white the water. The very fine membrane right beneath the
shell is air.... The yolk is fire."1
We saw in the first part of this book (pp. 40-42) how this card is a mirror of the structure of
the Tarot. Four figures frame the woman in the mandorla, like four basic energies harmoniously
united in the service of the same center. In Christian tradition, the angel, the ox, the eagle, and
the lion represent the four evangelists. Here, these four elements serve us as the basis for
understanding the four Suits, or symbols of the Minor Arcana (see pp. 49 and 50).
The flesh-colored animal at the bottom left of the card cannot be clearly identified; whether
horse, ox, or bull, it is, in any event, an animal symbolizing offering, aid, sacrifice. We could
also consider the point arising above its eye to our left as the single hom of the unicom, which
during the Middle Ages was the symbol of the Virgin's conception of Christ. Here again, this
animal would thus symbolize virgin matter, Pentacles. Contrary to the three other elements,
this animal has no halo because it does not share in eternity. Similarly, Pentacles, unlike the
other Suits, do not bear any numbers (see p. 45). In this card, material and corporeal energy
arrives at its fullness. The body is ephemeral but cleansed of all taint. The realization of
material life can be embodied in the figure of the champion who performs an athletic or vital
feat.
The other three figures are cosmic elements: the angel represents emotional perfection,
holiness, and a heart full of life devoted to giving (Cups). The eagle, with its halo, would
symbolize the fulfillment of the mind, genius that is also a void which cannot be identified in
words (Swords). The lion, also bearing a halo, represents the culmination of desiring and
creative energy, a sublimation that leads untamed effort to conscious creation, the figure of the
hero who does not hesitate to sacrifice his life (Wands).
@
The woman of The World is holding a receptive flask on our left...
... and an active wand on our right.
Her foot is resting on an energetic (red) base that has been plowed.
The four energies radiate around this center entirely realized. And inside its blue egg, filled
with consciousness and love for the entire universe, the central figure is dancing while looking
toward the left, receptivity. Her foot sits on red ground in which six furrows have been plowed:
vital activity has been performed with pleasure, the world has been accepted for what it is in
full awareness. Beneath this living soil, barely concealed by a yellow interlace, is a white egg.
This egg, which we could identify as the one of The High Priestess, has been incubated in all
its potentialities. When this cosmic egg opens in our spiritual work, we reach The World. This
card could represent the anima mundi, the universal agent that is within everything and
connects us with everything.
An egg is concealed within the interlacing at the foot of the mandorla.
IN A READING
Because it has been placed as the final point and in the position of fulfillment, The World
indicates a major realization. It is an accomplished woman, a soul in full joy, a perfect world, a
happy marriage, worldly success. This card can also inspire travel: the discovery of the world
in the literal sense of the term.
Just as Arcanum XVI, The Tower, can evoke a male penis in the process of ejaculating,
Arcanum XXI brings to mind a female sex organ inhabited by an exultation (orgasm) or an
individual (pregnant woman).
On the other hand, if the card appears at the beginning of the reading, it will represent a
difficult beginning: realization is demanded before any action. The card is not in its rightful
place and becomes an imprisonment. We could then look for traces of the first traumatizing
experience in the intrauterine life or birth of the person receiving the reading, which has
therefore formed an obstacle to future development. If we wish to avoid these kinds of
speculations, we will need to take into account the closing evoked by Arcanum XXI placed at
the beginning of the spread, and ask ourselves how and why this person is "stuck in his or her
shell."
AND IF THE WORLD SPOKE
"I am there before you, all around you, and inside you with feelings of immense pleasure. I am
a complete being. There is nothing inside me that resists me. Everything is in complete unity.
Everything is in its place; I am an invulnerable Consciousness; I am the perpetual dance of
Totality. The one who does not know me says 'no' when the entire universe is saying 'yes,'
and this negation of my vast acquiescence leads this individual to impotence. But the one who
becomes entirely pure and concave, who allows me entrance, will begin to dance with me and
to say what I say. This individual experiences universal love, complete thought, cosmic desire,
and inconceivable life force.
"If you reach me, which is to say if you develop me within yourself, you shall taste the
supreme happiness that is the happiness of living. To achieve this you must dissolve within the
ardent jewel of my presence. Like four rivers returning to their single source, leave behind the
blind swarm of bees that are your concepts to melt within my bliss; leave behind the herd of
your feelings to drown within my infinite exaltation; offer me the demented mob of your desires,
so they might enrich, like an exquisite delicacy, my constant creativity. And may all your
physical matter with all its inescapable needs surrender to this transparency that animates me.
You shall then be master of your world. Inside your libido will no longer be in revolt, your
desires will cease to drown you, your thoughts will not destroy you, and your body will pose no
obstacle to your life. You will be full and united to me in dance, joy, and immeasurable
celebration.
Among the Traditional Interpretations
Renown • World Travel • Realization of Potential • Success • Perfect Accord • Reunion • Ideal Woman
• Fullness • Difficult Beginning • Belly of a Pregnant Woman • Female Sex Organ • Orgasm •
Supreme Realization • Happy Outcome • Labor • Birth • What Was My Birth Like? • Imprisonment •
Feeling Stymied • Egocentricity • Realization of Spiritual Androgyny • Cosmic Egg • Realization of the
Four Centers • Ultimate Perfection • The Universe Reaching Its Limit • Maximal Expansion
"Through obedience, I permit your intellect to learn how to be; through absolute peace, I
teach your heart how to love; through learning reception, I teach your sex how to create; and
through acceptance of death, I teach your body how to live. If, like a famished and thirsty lion,
you abandon the prey to raise yourself to the soul, you shall finally find me. I am the taste of
living and realization.
"I am the ephemeral flower always being bom of the abyss; I represent the materialization of
all dreams, the soul without which the world is not the world but a sterile desert, the end of
hope. I am the purpose of every path.
"Ineffable joy.
"Like a holy virgin, I carry the deity inside my womb. I am the concrete expression right here
of the sacred energy of The Fool. I am The World created by God so that He could love it."
PART THREE
The Minor Arcana
Opening
The Humble Guardians of the Secret
I collected and studied all kinds of Tarots for years without ever being truly satisfied. I always
found that these cards were never in any way impersonal but rather the very portrait of their
creators' limits and characteristics and—why not say so?—their illnesses. Especially the
Edward Waite Tarot with its often-negative images and bad taste. For example, the Ten of
Swords, on which a man lies dead on his stomach, his back pierced by ten swords: pain,
affliction, tears, sorrow, desolation. Or the Nine of Wands, on which a young man with a
bandaged head is leaning on a stake while impotently looking at a wall of eight staffs:
obstacles, adversity, calamity. Or the Page of Cups contemplating a poison flowing over the
edge of his cup: the sense of being tied down, seduction, deception, artifice. Or the Five of
Pentacles, showing five beggars chilled to the bone by the cold: disorder, chaos, ruin, discord,
libertinism, and so forth. Contact with Waite's work gave me the impression that the cards of
the Minor Arcana were the bearers of human or animal figures.
I relentlessly continued searching for a deck whose figures made me feel the force of the
mystery. I found only drawings of dubious quality lacking any profound meaning. Although I
accepted the fact that the human mind possessed an admirable capacity for abstraction and
concretization, and that it is possible to read what one wants into every system of objects and
designs and to infer from each of them the ideas that are most convenient, these clumsy cards
never made it possible for me to charge them with any meaningful content.
One day, through a chance event I dare label miraculous, one of my seven cats caused the
Tarot of Marseille to fall from my bookshelf. All the cards fell onto the ground backside up
except for the Ace of Cups, which turned over. Under the shock of the surprise, my imagination
was literally swallowed by this drawing. I suddenly discovered a profound sacred meaning in
it. It stopped being a cup: with its seven towers, the one in the middle decorated by a circle
containing nine dots—like the enneagon of the Sufi mystics—it was a temple that seemed to
ask us to unearth the treasures it concealed. It was the chalice of the mass holding the blood of
the Savior, the inner fullness human beings have always sought. It was filled with divine love. It
also appeared to me like the holy sepulcher, in which God is sealed so that He may be reborn
as a being of light. It was also the alchemical athanor, a womb inside of which physical and
moral transmutations took place. This Ace of Cups, full of the inexhaustible immensity of divine
love and offering me the world mind and the spirit of life, became a mirror for me. Its message:
'You, too, are a sacred receptacle."
This experience compelled me to patiently examine each of the Minor Arcana of the Tarot of
Marseille, which, obsessed with the ridiculous Tarots then fashionable with the hippies, I had
scorned as being cold, vain, incomprehensible, too simple, too geometrical, and, in a word,
boring. The initiates are correct when they say that the most difficult secret to discover is the
one that is not hidden. These Arcana are hardly saying nothing: what happens is that the eyes
of the noninitiated do not know how to see. The art of expressing the spiritual process through
geometrical shapes was primarily developed by the nonfigurative artists of Islam, who were
inspired by the Pythagorean, Greek, Hindu, and Persian traditions. Although the Koran does
not forbid the depiction of animated beings, there is an entire series of precepts traditionally
attributed to the Prophet (the hadiths) that condemns this practice: "On the day of resurrection,
the most terrible punishment will be inflicted on the artist who has imitated the beings created
by God," declares one.1 Because of this prohibition, all Muslim art is exclusively geometrical
and decorative. To understand the forty numbered cards of the Minor Arcana, I had to look at
them a long time, comparing them to each other, clearly noting in what ways they were akin
and what differentiated them, seeking any miniscule detail that broke their symmetry, until I
was able to feel I knew each one as its own individual.
We find two exceptions in the geometrical expression that is the rule in these Minor Arcana:
the Two of Cups and the Four of Pentacles. In the first card we see two fish and the bird, the
phoenix, depicted with two angels, one of whom is probably blind. In the Four of Pentacles, the
phoenix that is red in the Two of Cups is now yellow and emerging from a pyre.
The alchemical reference is direct: in the Great Work, the red phoenix represents the third
stage, the rubedo, the dawn, which is the mother of the sun and heralds the end of the night.
(The blind angel could represent the first stage, the black stage of the work, the nigredo; the
other angel could represent the second stage, the albedo, the purification stage.) In this way
the red extremities of dawn announces the end of darkness: symbolically death. The yellow
phoenix, meanwhile, represents the mysterious fourth stage, citrinitas, symbol of air, of day, of
the light being, of immortal Cosmic Consciousness.
Because the legendary phoenix is reborn from its own destruction, therefore living eternally,
Christians considered it to be an emblem of the eternity and cyclical perpetuity of the
resurrected Christ, of the transformation from our transitory earthly condition to an immutable
state beyond death.
The two fish could signify the reception of divine love. In the Gospels (Matt. 14:17-21),
Jesus, to feed the crowd following him, multiplies seven loaves and two fish. Later, after his
resurrection, Christ calls seven of his disciples and offers them a loaf of bread and a fish:
"Come eat" (John 21:12-13). These stories contributed to giving the symbolic fish its
eucharistic meaning. When two fish are depicted together, it means "a banquet with guests."
The Two of Cups, the accumulation of amorous energy, promises the end of darkness and
solitude and the reception of limitless divine love. The Four of Pentacles, symbol of the perfect
incarnation, promises eternal life.
I grasped that the true study of the Tarot of Marseille began with the Minor Arcana,
continued with the Court Cards, and finished with the Major Arcana. When representations of
animate beings appear in other Tarots, understanding veers off course because of the age of
the figures, their sex, their gestures, and the expressions on their faces; it is very easy, using
personal projections, to charge them with relatively superficial meanings. Personal projection
in the Minor Arcana of the Tarot of Marseille, to the contrary, is at first glance impossible. And if
our eyes have been trained, by penetrating the secrets of the Minor Arcana and Court Cards,
then the Major Arcana will show themselves to us under their true appearance, which is
sacred.
The first thing the student of the Tarot must leam is to see. From the beginning, the
esotericists have chosen the wrong path by giving each Arcanum a precise meaning.
Sometimes these meanings are naive—strength, death, love, chance, and so on; and
sometimes they are complex—alchemical, Rosicrucian, astrological, kabbalistic, and other
deliriums. The esotericists also took the liberty of changing the drawings in accordance with
other interpretations, introducing mythological, historical, Egyptian, Mayan, Hindu, and so
many other figures, among which we can find gnomes, dogs, and cats.
In reality, a sacred text or symbol needs to be seen and all its minuscule details have to be
read. The whole of an Arcanum is the sum of its details. This is the reason that no one can
boast of knowing how to read the Tarot if he or she has not entirely memorized the many tiny
symbols on all the cards, as well as the number of lines, colors, positions, facial expressions,
and alleged "errors" or "blunders" in their designs. The hidden complexity of the Major and
Minor Arcana of the Tarot of Marseille is so great that it definitely requires a number of years to
see the details in their Totality. There is always a detail that escapes notice. This is because it
is not only the surface of a single card that matters, but many details also become visible when
one Arcanum is compared with another.
For example, why do The Pope and The Hermit both wear a blue glove on their left hands?
Are the red necklaces around the twins of The Sun the remnants of the ropes that bound the
necks of The Devil's slaves? And in this same pair of Arcana, are the three dots on the side of
the woman on the left the same as those on the side of the twin on the right? What relationship
is there between the red staff of The Fool and that of The Hermit? Is the egg sitting behind The
High Priestess the same one that the eagle of The Emperor is sitting on? The Hanged Man is
crossing his right leg behind the other, while the woman of The World is crossing her left leg
behind her right leg: is one the mirror of the other? And what difference is The Emperor
expressing in comparison to the two others by crossing his right leg above his left? The
possibilities seem infinite.
To detect these details, which have been brilliantly parceled out by the creator or creators of
the Tarot, the student must develop the ability to pay attention and hone his or her vision to be
razor sharp. This is the role played by the forty numbered cards of the Minor Arcana. They are
difficult to interpret; at the beginning, the ten cards of each Suit seem similar. But after a while
they begin to disclose their essential differences. And after a much longer period, they begin to
"speak." That is to say, they prompt a transformation in the student's way of seeing. It is
impossible to tackle the study of the Major Arcana—which initially appear more accessible but
which later reveal their immense complexity—without memorizing and understanding the
Minor Arcana.
Among the Minor Arcana, we also find the figures that in some way summarize them on the
human and social level: four individuals for every Suit. As they are not numbered, their order
has posed many problems for esotericists. While the Page, Queen, and King are easy to place,
if one's ability to see has not been educated by observation of the four series often numbers,
the Knight remains an enigma. Since the time of Eliphas Levi, by way of Papus and his
disciples, "initiates" have organized the Court Cards as Page, Knight, Queen, King, without
prompting any serious interrogation of their choices. Others, like those who eliminated twentysix Arcana from the Tarot of Marseille to create the English deck of playing cards (as 26 is the
number in the Kabbalah that identifies Jehovah, we could say that the entire set of cards is a
godless game), not knowing what to make of the four Knights, purely and simply ignored them,
and the figures became Jack, Queen, and King, in other words Page, Queen, and King.
Aleister Crowley (see the introduction) turned them into Princes and Princesses. Now, after
close examination of these Court Cards, we have reached the conclusion that the correct order
is: Page, Queen, King, Knight.
If we take Arcanum XXI, The World, as our center and place a Knight at each comer (the
Knight of Swords corresponds to the eagle, that of Cups to the Angel, that of Pentacles to the
flesh-colored animal, and that of Wands to the lion), we obtain a circular movement of Knights:
the Knight of Swords leaps to that of Cups, the Knight of Cups descends toward the Knight of
Pentacles, the Knight of Pentacles advances toward the Knight of Wands, and the Knight of
Wands climbs toward the Knight of Swords. This enables us to comprehend the transformation
cycles of the Suits (see part 1, p. 78 in particular).
While the Pages are always on the grounds outside the palace, which they enter to
transform into Queens and Kings, the Knights leave the palace for other lands (the color of the
terrain of the Page is never the same as that of the Knight). The Knights are messengers who
pass on to the other Suits what they have acquired from their Suit (see pp. 52-53). This is
confirmed by the fact that the Knight of Pentacles is already carrying a green wand in his hand
pointed at the next series of Wands. The symbols that identify each Suit undergo a
transformation from the material and terrestrial to the spiritual and celestial.
After it has been worked and handled by the Queen and King, the wand that the Page rests
on the ground will finally be lifted into the air by the Knight, its top end opening into a luminous,
receptive mouth (receptive to the Heavens, active to the Earth).
The two ambiguous pentacles of the Page of Pentacles, one buried in the ground and the
other held up in his right hand, expand and merge into one pentacle for the Queen, then divide
again into an upper and lower pentacle for the King, before finally floating in the sky of the
Knight, transformed into a single luminous celestial body (the materialization of the spirit
becomes the spiritualization of matter).
The sword that the Page might be thinking of returning to its scabbard because of
intellectual doubts (he is resting it against his hat) next goes to the Queen, where it is
accompanied by a kind of cuirass protecting her belly. It is then balanced by the measuring
device the King holds before being transformed by the Knight into a small lance pointed toward
the cosmos, while he is carried by a floating horse after having vanquished gravity with a
magnificent leap (the intellect defeats its rational boundaries and melts into the infinite mind).
The cup of the Page (an individual neither young nor old, a man- woman who covers this
symbol with a modest veil and is unsure whether he is going to close it or leave it open so he
can surrender to it emotionally) is closed by the Queen, who guards it with a sword. It then
appears open—but only slightly—in the firm grasp of the King, before being finally levitated
like a Grail behind the Knight's hand, who does not carry but follows it (the heart is the master:
it bestows with love all that it receives).
First there are the mysterious laws of the universe; next comes the human being who, with his
limited mind, transforms into superstitions, religions, and symbols whatever he does not
understand. In Nature we find repeated the formula of four elements countless times: three
similar and one different (see part 1, pp. 24-25). In his book Le Tarot des Bohemiens, inspired
by the kabbalistic theories of Guillaume Postel and Eliphas Levi, Doctor Gerard Encausse,
alias Papus, believed he had discovered the absolute key of occult science in the Tarot, which
was nothing other than the symbol of the name of the Hebrew God. According to him, this
name, composed of four letters, would give to the mortals who discovered its correct
pronunciation the key to the human and divine sciences. This word—which the Israelites never
speak, and the high priest only says once a year when surrounded by his cheering people—is
found at the top of all initiations, shines from the center of the radiant triangle of the thirty-third
degree of Freemasonry, and is inscribed on the portals of the old cathedrals, formed by the
Hebrew letters Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay. The letter Hay is repeated. Each letter of the Hebrew
alphabet is also assigned a number. Yod equals 10, Hay 5, and Vav 6. The total numerical
value of Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay is 26. Papus thought that this word by its very formation brought to
mind the attributes human beings have given God.
It seems to me that Papus's mistake was to consider the Tarot as illustrating this quartet,
thereby turning the Arcana into servants of the Hebrew Kabbalah, a word which signifies:
"What has been received, what has come from beyond, what is passed from hand to hand." For
him, Jehovah was the key to the Tarot.
However, the deity's qualities existed long before human beings learned to speak and write.
The mathematical law existed long before there was Hebrew. The Tarot does not illustrate the
Kabbalah; it is rather the portrait of the universe. We are speaking of an optical language that,
perhaps as a reaction against literary fanaticism, takes an opposite stance to an oral language.
For Papus, Yod represented the principle of things, the absolute affirmation of the Being by
itself, the Yod unit, image of masculinity and the father. In the optical language of the Tarot, this
Yod would thereby be represented by the Kings of Swords, Cups, and Pentacles.
Hay is the opposition of the nonego to the ego. It is a form of division of the unit, the origin of
duality, opposition, and the binary, the image of femininity and the mother. It represents the
passive face to the active Yod, substance facing essence, life facing the soul. In the language
of the Tarot, this aspect is represented by the Queens of Swords, Cups, and Pentacles.
Vav is bom from the opposition of the ego to the nonego, and it represents the relationship
between these two principles. It is the image of the son. These would be the Pages of Swords,
Cups, and Pentacles.
The second Hay—given that nothing exists beyond the Trinity—indicates a transition from
the metaphysical world or, more generally, from one world to another:
[(Father + Holy Ghost) + Son] + Virgin Mary
This transition is represented in the Tarot Court Cards by the King of Wands, the Queen of
Wands, and the Page of Wands (a father, a mother, and a son who form a new family).
If we leave the Knights—whose mission is to transmit consciousness and who revolve from
right to left around The World—on the side and arrange the Kings, Queens, and Pages based
on the direction in which they are looking, we shall obtain an order that turns from left to right:
King of Swords, King of Cups, King of Pentacles (the active principle, par excellence), facing
the Queen of Pentacles, Queen of Cups, Queen of Swords (passive principle par excellence).
Beneath them, the Page of Pentacles, the Page of Cups, and the Page of Swords (the
relationship of active and passive). Facing the Pages is the family consisting of the Page of
Wands, the Queen of Wands, and the King of Wands. This family is the fourth element that is
different from the others (where there are two that are similar Kings and Queens; and one that
is slightly different: the Pages) and is the nut that contains the seed of the future tree.
[{3 Kings + 3 Queens) + 3 Pages] + Family of three Wands
If 26 is the number that designates God, the Tarot, consisting of 78 Arcana, is three times 26.
Three gods? Why not? If we imagine that this marvelous deck was created by sages from the
three most important religions in the Western hemisphere around the year 1000, Christians,
Hebrews, and Muslims, it should definitely contain three gods: Christ, Jehovah, and Allah. Can
we apply the law of four to this? If it does fit there are two similar ones in the first trio: Jehovah
and Allah, and one slightly different, Christ. And the fourth? The incarnation represented by the
Tarot reader with his inner god:
[(Jehovah + Allah) + Christ] + tarologist
To Begin
The study of the Minor Arcana, like that of the Major Arcana, will be based on the vision of the
reader but also upon the numerology of the Tarot and the system of correspondences between
the four Suits of the Tarot and the four fundamental centers of human life: intellectual,
emotional, sexual and creative, and material and corporeal (see p. 47).
It is from this perspective that we propose a consistently open reading of the fifty-six Minor
Arcana. The person who says "I," reader or consultant, is not just one but at least four. We have
at least four systems for perceiving the world: rational (the Logos), emotional (the heart),
libidinal (desire and creativity), and corporeal (the vital needs).
When these four centers are going in different directions, a person is in crisis. But the desire
for the four centers to be one single energy is Utopian, as shown, for example, by the study of
the 8 in the four Suits. We have already seen that the number 8 corresponds in the decimal
numerology of the Tarot to a state of perfection (see p. 60). Now, by examining the Eight of
Swords, we see a card holding at its center a simple blue flower with a red core and no stem.
This Arcanum seems to be telling us that perfection of the intellect is in the void, the emptiness
obtained through meditation, when the mind (the container) no longer identifies itself with
words (the content). On the other hand, the Eight of Cups is the fullest card of its series: cups,
flowers, and foliage fill its space, as if to show us that perfection of the heart is in the "all full,"
the plenitude of love constantly prepared to give itself away, which does not live in being
asked for. The extremely concentrated Eight of Wands indicates to us that the perfection of this
center resides in the focusing of desires upon a single action, whether it is creative, sexual, or
energetic. Finally, the profusion of the Eight of Pentacles, whose foliage seems to be serenely
extending in every direction of the space, puts us on the scent of material and physical
perfection: prosperity and health. This example demonstrates that each center should be
realized in its own direction of perfection: the empty heart is not realized, nor is the
overabundant intellect.
We have decided to establish reading paths for the Minor Arcana in the following manner: first
we shall study the first ten degrees of the numerology of the four centers in ten chapters in
which each Suit will be studied in comparison to the others, and where study will be based on
the symbols.
We shall next give a glimpse of the progression of the cards in each Suit: Swords, Cups,
Wands, and Pentacles, each seen successively from Ace to Ten. This presentation, whose
goal is to summarize the principal meanings of each card, will strive to minimize repetition of
material from the preceding section. The last section will be dedicated to a study of the Honors
or Court Cards, Suit by Suit and level by level.
This choice allows us to visualize the Minor Arcana using two "entrances," each equally
meaningful.
Note: To determine the top of the card on those that have no obvious directional elements,
look for the copyright mark on the left at the bottom.
The Degrees of the Numerology
The Aces
Everything in Potential
Out of the four Suits of the restored Tarot of Marseille, two are receptive, Cups and Pentacles;
and two are active, Wands and Swords. Among the receptive Suits, Cups essentially reflect
this quality, but the Pentacles are already sprouting plant branches indicating their conversion
to activity. The Wand is an essentially active symbol, yet a crown appears in Swords that
indicates the beginning of a receptive tone. If we like, Cups could be identified with the
language of the heart. Pentacles would then represent everything having to do with material
life (body, needs, job ...). Swords symbolize the Logos and intellectual activity, while Wands
represent creativity and the sexual domain.
One of the first esotericists to speak about the Tarot, Eliphas Levi, intentionally led his
students astray, faithful to the notion, a common one during the time of Pope Pius VI, that the
knowledge should be revealed only to a select few initiates. Levi therefore identified Pentacles
with air (mental activity) and depicted the Sword with the point turned toward the ground, thus
giving it the meaning of the element Earth and the domain of material life. It is obvious, though,
that the Swords are pointing toward the sky, as their Ace is piercing a crown, an object
intended to be worn on the head.
Cups
Penta-cUs
THE ACE OF WANDS, THE ACE OF SWORDS
Creativity and Intellect, Two Sources of Strength
A kinship exists between these two Aces. Both are surrounded by sparks of energy, both are
being held by a hand emerging from a dark-blue, luminous semicircle traversed by a light-blue
wave, sign of a powerful creative activity. However, careful examination permits us to
distinguish a clear-cut difference. The hand holding the wand emerges from the center of a
shape that, for the sake of convenience, we will call a cloud, and is showing us its palm. The
hand gripping the sword emerges from the surface of the cloud, and we see its back. We can
speak of two impulses. The first is central, authentic, pure, and creative (the wand). The
second is peripheral, formal, reflexive, and mental. We shall use the word mental here
because in many traditions the sword is a symbol of the Logos.
The hand holding the wand grips it by its most slender part; it grows wider as it nears its top.
Its phallic energy converts into a shape at the top that brings to mind the female sex organ.
Creative energy is androgynous. The sections of branches appearing on the wand tell us that
choice is essential in the management of the energy at our disposal. This energy is something
we cannot manufacture; we can only decide the direction in which we wish to channel it. This
is why a yellow light is being emitted at the place a branch could sprout. This indicates that at a
given moment, this "green" energy (organic) can be sublimated. We can note the yellow
chevrons on the ray of light, identical to those appearing on the cloud, which can be interpreted
as circulation of the same divine Consciousness. The sword, to the contrary, although its grip
is green (initially organic), next transforms into an object that has to be crafted. Intelligence is
not received readymade, it is a part of the self on which you must work to make it
simultaneously strong and flexible through study: the sword is large at the bottom and thin at
the top. Just as the steel of a blade is tempered to test its perfection, the perfection of the mind
needs to be tempered by the experience and emotional suffering (the blade is red) that tests it.
To attain its realization, the sword pierces through a crown; it does not remain imprisoned
within the individual mind governed by the notion of power. The two branches growing out of
the crown symbolize the two greatest functions of the mind: the open, receptive palm branch
represents space and infinity, and the branch of mistletoe with its green fruits represents time
and eternity. By becoming eternal and infinite, the mind discovers Cosmic Consciousness. The
crown with five flowers, with one of the central flowers bearing a red half-moon, symbolizes the
five senses. These all constitute the perceptions that shape intelligence and which can bind
the mind to material interests, but divine energy, far from fleeing or becoming lost in the world's
mirages, enters the crown and travels through it.
Let's now pursue our comparison of the two cards and study their differences. The sword
goes from more to less (from its largest part to its tip), whereas the wand expands as it leaves
its base. Furthermore, a stem is larger the closer it is to the trunk and becomes thinner as it
grows. This means that the thinnest part of a branch is its future. The hand holding the wand is
therefore in the future. Creative sexual energy is a call to the deity who is in the future.
Conversely, the sword leaves the past (its guard) to travel through the crown of the present and
reach the source (unity in Consciousness).
These two active cards evoke two forces whose sources are distinct. The intellect, the
Logos, is at the beginning of creation of the world, whereas creativity is a call from the future.
After the Tree of Good and Evil in Genesis, from which Adam ate, it is said in Revelation that
the Tree of Eternity awaits us in the future (in the center of the heavenly Jerusalem). We can
summarize the message of these two cards this way: the purpose of the mind is to overcome
the past by surpassing it to reach the origin, whereas the purpose of sexuality is to carry us
toward the future, until the end of time.
Ace of W a n d s . Expansive
sexual energy, whose
vocation is populating
the universe, obeys
a summons from the
future.
Ace of W a r d s , [ h e
intellect, forged energy,
grow* thinner a: it
nears the unity of
Cosmic Consciousness.
THE ACE OF CUPS
Symbol of Love in Potential
The Cup series in the Tarot represents the entire process of emotional life. The Ace (1)
represents the Totality in potential (see pp. 58-59). Everything is possible. We have only to
choose or let ourselves choose.
The card starts with a flesh-colored base with no hatching, a flesh that is new, virginal.
Emotional virginity remains intact, and love ceaselessly renews itself, as if a material chalice
housed a bottomless well that found its source in eternity. But behind the cup, above the flesh
color, we find a light-blue band with crosshatching, meaning that the mind, the spirit, is formed
in flesh through experience and suffering. The base of this cup, which could also be a temple,
is a pyramid with three sides. To the reader's right, the beginning of the yellow line, placed in
the light, indicates a perpetual birth that extends along the base of the cup. The central side,
decorated by a red pyramid, evokes stability and permanence. The crosshatched shadow of
the left slope suggests by this obscurity the realm of death. These three sides of the pyramid
refer to the three aspects of life: creation, conservation, and destruction, which we can also find
in the Trimurti of the Indian gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, whose three complementary
activities form the very dynamic of life.
Once above the light-blue horizon, we find a yellow flower with five petals opening toward
the bottom, which could correspond to the five senses. This flower represents the process with
which we can intelligently absorb the pains of incarnation in order to reach the yellow summit
of the cup, where, like a call to the infinite, the creative Logos is echoing—it is depicted, as is
often the case in the Tarot, by the tip of a sword.
The flower is surmounted by three concentric circles each holding three circles. The two
circles on the outside correspond to the past and future; they are green in color, as they chiefly
consist of hope and reminiscence. The red concentric circle in the middle represents the
present, pure and instantaneous experience—nontheoretical. Why the three circles in each
time? The outermost circle could correspond to intellectual life, the second to emotional life,
and the central circle to sexual life. If we wanted to find another explanation, we could also say
they symbolized body, soul, and mind.
Continuing toward the top of the cup, we find ourselves in a red semicircle crossed by
horizontal lines. This red mass could be total love, which, plowed and worked by its red
furrows, has become conscious love. It consists of the self-love that we project into love of the
Other, love of the universe, and divine love. This humble and vast sentiment of giving supports
the body of the cathedral. All human wisdom is based on love. As Walt Whitman put it so well:
"And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral dressed in his
shroud."
Beneath this edifice we find three light-blue palm leaves, whose dynamic lines suggest they
are in full growth, with five, seven, and four tips respectively. Adding them together gives us 16:
XVI, The Tower in the Major Arcana. We recall that this card depicts a divine tower giving birth
to two individuals who are going to caress reality with their outstretched hands. Here the blue
palm leaves evoke the pure intuition that communicates with the spiritual experience of the
horizon, that painful blue band. The mind has crossed through suffering, and there it is
vanishing in the white light that surrounds the cup like a purified atmosphere.
This cup, this temple that is so full, has value only if it pours itself into the world. At the base
of love is the desire to give away everything that it has collected.
Ace of Cups. This is the chalice of total love in potential. It is an open temple, the opposite of a
fortress.
THE ACE OF PENTACLES
The Last Shall Be First3
While the essences of the three preceding Aces are different (the Ace of Swords representing
intellect, the Ace of Cups representing the emotional center, and the Ace of Wands the dark
zone of sexuality and the luminous energy of creativity), they nonetheless have one point in
common. We can imagine all three standing erect like giants: the cup with its pillars like an
immense initiatory cathedral, and the Sword and Wand, proud and sparkling, moved by a
divine hand.
But the Ace of Pentacles must be imagined horizontally, lying on the ground. Humble as the
flower it bears at its center, it is both plant and mineral. The Pentacles symbolize material life.
In numerous mystical schools, this material life is scorned. The advice that one must "be in the
world and not of it" amounts to fleeing from matter. However, Pentacles are the true teacher.
At its heart, the Ace of Pentacles bears a lotus. This sacred flower plunges its roots into
muddy and stagnant waters in order to grow and open toward the light. The famous mantra
from Tibetan tradition, om mani padme hum, means "O Diamond in the Lotus!" This diamond is
the transparent being, pure essence without personal ego: the Buddha, Universal
Consciousness. In the central red circle of the Ace of Pentacles, we see twelve points
arranged in four rows. If we draw the lines that tie these points together, we obtain the drawing
of a diamond. Meanwhile, if we add up the numbers that run before the figure twelve, we find
the number of cards that make up the Tarot:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11+12 = 78
Ace of Pentacles. This card metaphorically represents the lotus, which grows out of filth and carries at
the core of its material being the diamond of Consciousness.
The conclusion we can draw from these observations is that divine, impersonal energy, the
Totality, resides at the heart of matter. Alchemists grasped this realization: they sought to
materialize the spirit as well as to spiritualize matter, a dream symbolized by the quest for the
philosopher's stone.
We could say that the pentacle consists of three circles: an outer one that flowers and
pushes its branches toward the world, a second (middle) that bursts like an inner sun, and a
red third (central), bearer of the universal secret, which gives birth to four petals like the four
elements of matter, the four triads of the Zodiac, or the four cardinal points. These three circles
provide a guide for self-discovery. The evolved being can begin by perfecting himself or herself
without separating from the world as indicated by the outer circle. We are working for ourselves
by creating a fertile, prosperous, paradisiacal reality. Ecological consciousness works hand in
hand with inner discovery; we are one with the Earth, the world. This is why one of the
important activities in Zen monasteries consists of cultivating gardens, which can signify the
improvement of our work, our family, or our country. The sentiment guiding this approach is the
sacred motto: "I want nothing for myself that is not for others."
Once this stage has been concluded, we can enter the second circle: the discovery of the
inner sun we carry. It is similar in all points to the sun we see in the sky. Vital energy is
ceaselessly streaming from it, symbolized by the green triangles. Practical intelligence spreads
throughout the orange triangles (color of life in all its forms). The power of love, which is the
essence of matter, is expressed in the red triangles. The base is golden yellow: pure and
luminous organism. All this forms a ring of joyful action that invites us to love ourselves, not in
a narcissistic manner but as a wonderful work of the divine will.
In the third circle we find the flower of felicity. Action has reached its culmination. The soul
exhales its fragrance while awaiting the inseminating arrival of the essential Truth. The dots in
the red circle are seeds ready to hatch in a collectively transfigured humanity. They are
displayed in the form of four lines of two, three, four, and three dots. The first two, on the top,
indicate receptivity toward Heaven. The three beneath indicate activity toward the Earth. The
seven median points (3 + 4) represent the union of spirit (3) with matter (4). As Eliphas Levi
said: "Every true thought corresponds to a Divine Grace in heaven and a good work on earth."1
He means that all grace of consciousness produces an action, every action shifts a truth in
consciousness.
The first circle reveals the four personal qualities of the initiate. His or her spiritual work is
then transmitted from circle to circle, from one spiritual hierarchy to the next, until it reaches the
central diamond of impersonal consciousness. By searching for essential individuality, we
reach universal collective consciousness. This is where the secret of the Ace of Pentacles
resides: a humble coin, treasure from the depths of the Earth, it is raised through meditation to
the Heavens where it becomes the halo that illuminates the heads of the saints.
The Twos
Accumulation, Preparation, Receptivity
While the Aces (1) are the symbols of potential capabilities, a vast extent of possibilities
waiting for only a choice to be made, the Twos (2) represent the accumulation of information
without realization. The key word for understanding the Twos is the concept of passive and
receptive accumulation. The High Priestess (II), degree 2 of the first decimal series of the Major
Arcana, is cloistered. The Hanged Man (XII), degree 2 of the second decimal series, is bound
with his hands behind him. He does not choose but dives into himself (see p. 60).
In the Minor Arcana, in which the Sword is the symbol of intellectual life, the Two of Swords
shows us a huge flower (the largest of the series) with eight petals and eight branches filling
the entire oval holding it. It is the daydream that sprawls across the mind, a collection of plans,
myths, information, and theories. The center of the flower contains a black spot in which the
void one attains in the perfection of meditation can be sensed in gestation. The two interlacing
swords have an active, vital red center that echoes the two horizontal red petals. Before it has
been crafted, thought appears in the brain as chaos. Then the two vertical yellow petals allow it
to spread toward the light and order, supported by the receptive nature of the light-blue petals.
The swords' blades are essentially black: the purpose of the mind is to reach the void. In this
Arcanum the eight petals and eight branches, as well as the eight orange ovals attached to the
blades, indicate a profound desire for perfection (8 represents perfection in the numerology of
the Tarot). We shall also note that throughout the entire Tarot the Twos are aspiring to the 8:
from receptivity to plenitude and perfection.
The Wand symbolizes sexual and creative energy. In the Two of Wands, the flowers,
instead of a cut stem, have a base that is a finely worked, light-blue bulb, which represents the
accumulation of desires. The red stem then leads to seven yellow petals that will awaken the
seven chakras (sacred nerve centers). Flowers with three orange petals are growing at the
spot where the two wands cross. By adding them together (3 + 3 = 6), we find that the essential
quest of Wands is that of pleasure and beauty (represented by 6 in the numerology of the
Tarot). The center of the wands is dark blue, indicating that its basic creative energy is
received. This reception spreads out in the red of action. A Chinese saying teaches us that it is
best to be receptive toward the Heavens and active toward the Earth: the artist's inspiration is
given to him, but his work is the fruit of his action and decisions. This card represents the
accumulation of as-yet unrealized energy, virginity, the first part of puberty, but also the first
fruits of all work.
The Cup symbolizes emotional life. The Two of Cups therefore represents the accumulation
of feelings, the preparation for love. Two angels at the bottom of the card are revealing the
source of love: a red phoenix on a yellow pedestal. The angels represent purity. The one on
the left, who is blind, is suggesting to us that the choice of the beloved object is not made by
the intellect but by reasons of the heart. The light-blue color, covered by scattered patches
similar to ermine, like a royal cloak, is an indication of divine protection. The yellow pedestal
and crown on which the immortal bird is forming are so many symbols of Cosmic
Consciousness. The mythical phoenix has the ability to bum and be reborn from its own ashes,
just as love dies and is reborn time after time. Love is not individual: it is a universal force. A
root is sprouting from all this that blossoms into the first red-and-yellow flower, symbol of love
incarnated in the human heart, then extends in a light-blue stem that gives birth to two animals,
pertiaps fish, who are licking a huge flower. These two flsh refer to the narcissistic division of
the ego, necessary for the development of love: all love starts in the fascination with oneself
and the projection of one's soul upon the beloved being. By licking the flower, the animals help
it grow and prepare it for a marvelous insemination. The future lover will be nothing other than
a projection of the original phoenix. From a psychological point of view, the Two of Cups refers
to incestuous love. The angels (sublimation of the animus and the anima) are preparing to
sacrifice the phoenix. The Oedipal love will be immolated for the construction of a reality, a
family symbolized by the Four of Pentacles.
The Pentacle is the symbol of material life; this is why it can be found in the depths of the
Earth and why, once it has been crafted, it can serve as money for exchange. In the Two of
Pentacles, an immense ribbon attempts to unite one circle to the other. At the bottom of the
card, inside the inner curve of this sinuous line, we can detect three serpents, crawling
animals, which suggest to us that the work leading to awareness begins with acceptance of the
matter that will subsequently become spiritualized, the pentacle transformed into a halo. There
are two dates in the upper curve, 1471-1997, recalling the date of the first-known printed Tarot
and that of the publication of the restored Tarot. But they also indicate the transformation that
goes from the past toward the future, from the depths to the heights. If we add 1 + 4 + 7 + 1, we
get 13, the number of transformation of matter, death. By adding 1 + 9 + 9 + 7, we get 26, the
figure of God and eternity. This is the entire aspiration of the Two of Pentacles: this ribbon that
never stops growing, as shown by the flowers at both ends, to reach the 8 of infinite perfection
by seeking to realize the spiritualization of matter.
The Threes
Bursting Apart, Creation or Destruction
Numbers have their own lives as distinct entities. Following the Aces (1, the Whole in potential,
fundamentally androgynous) and the Twos (2, accumulation of an experience, essentially
receptive), the Threes (3, creative explosion) are the first essentially active cards. But their
active nature is twofold: toward life and death, toward reproduction, construction, the euphoria
of being alive; or toward destruction, depression, and the implacable transformation that
demands the elimination of the old. The vital aspect of the Threes achieves transformation by
the birth of the new.
These two aspects of the Threes are manifested in The Empress (III) and the Nameless
Arcana (XIII). It is obvious that The Empress, with her scepter propped up on her belly and
adorned by a green leaf, is in full gestation. The figure in Arcanum XIII is meanwhile using his
scythe to cut down the bad growth so the new being can develop.
The two branches surrounding the sword reveal the potential of the Three of Swords card. If
we count the leaves and blackberries growing on them, we obtain the number 22, which
represents the Totality of the Tarot's Major Arcana. The red sword symbolizes active,
enthusiastic, boundless, and idealistic intellect. The four flowers outside the interlaced swords
give security to this impulse. They indicate that all thought is supported by a clearly oriented
space; they represent the four cardinal points. A popular expression describing a state of
mental confusion is "losing one's bearings." This card, like all the Threes, has an adolescent
tone. Here, every problem that can arise comes up; there is confusion between believing and
knowing, and we think without being united to the world, motivated by the energy of an ideal
that could just as easily be fallacious as true. The energy of the Three of Swords is closely
connected to the sexual energy of Wands.
Cup5
Peiitttbt
Swords
Wandt
In the Three of Wands, the three wands intersect, forming a center expressing their desire to
invade the world, represented by the leaves growing out of them. Where the Three of Swords
marked out an oval where a desire for pushing deeper was in play, the Three of Wands
explodes toward the outside like a conqueror. It wishes to enter the world as much as it seeks
to seduce and swallow it. This Arcanum corresponds to the first experiences of carnal
pleasure, the onset of puberty, dominating violence, and the joy of someone who thinks he is
the center of the world. It is also desires that explode without knowing where they are heading.
It is the seed that violently opens its shell without knowing what plant it is going to become.
The black dots on the three wands symbolize impersonal action and are reminiscent of the tips
of the swords, which are also black. This indicates to us that the essence of sexual energy is
spiritual. Each of the wands is embellished by four orange rectangles corresponding to the four
elements: the greatest wealth of action is life itself. The deep blue of the center suggests that
desire is received and that no one has any control over it. We can only channel it or enjoy bliss
from it, but we cannot prompt it, nor can we annul it. The leaves growing on the side are
showing their light-yellow interior, a field of vital joy and energy that enriches the world.
The Three of Cups represents ideal, romantic love. These are the first heartfelt emotional
experiences. The base of the top cup, well protected by its two leaves, is resting on the inside
of a heart. Its foot is caressed by two bulbs full of daydreams. Ideal love can later lead us, if it
fails, to deep disappointment. But being the first, it is the most splendid to experience. An entire
construction at the base of the heart protects and supports it. The red spindle shape divided by
three black lines with three orange petals at its base represents the androgynous deity. This
ideal love is a projection of divine love. The two cups on the bottom of the card represent the
male animus and the female anima that join to create this dream.
In the Three of Pentacles, we see a construction that appears similar but which is quite
different in reality. The top pentacle is inside the foliage construction, and the two bottom
pentacles are outside. While the action of the Cups goes toward the Heavens, the action of the
Pentacles goes toward internalization, submersion in matter, and the obscurity of gestation. It
is the assertion of a treasure buried in the world that we need to take possession of. This
Arcanum represents the departure of the ancient hero in search of the Golden Fleece, an
ambivalent symbol of material wealth and Cosmic Consciousness. Three being an explosive
number, in the Pentacles it can signify the enthusiastic beginning of a matter, with an uncertain
investment: we could multiply our wealth or lose it.
The Fours
Security on the Earth
The equivalent of 4 is a square, the geometrical shape that best symbolizes security in the
material world. In the Major Arcana, The Emperor (Mil) represents terrestrial stability, while
Temperance (Xllll) indicates mental and spiritual balance.
If we look at the center of the Four of Pentacles, we see a coat of arms on which the bird, the
phoenix, is being immolated to be reborn from its own ashes. At the center of what seems
immutable, there is perpetual impermanence. The person who has health and security should
remain conscious of the ephemeral nature of all material goods. At this level the one who does
not advance, and refuses to change, goes backward. Health depends on constant care. The
apparent stability of the Four of Pentacles conceals sacred instability. If the Four does not
commit itself to action, it will gradually petrify. The Four of Pentacles guarantees daily life but
not spiritual life. However, this spiritual life is its foundation, just as the altar is the base of the
cathedral. What good is an altar that is not being used to celebrate mass serve? Similarly, what
would be the point of a grocery store in which all the food had gone past its expiration date?
New, fresh products are necessary to bring health to the consumer. A fortune kept locked in a
strongbox without being used depreciates. In this case, it should be invested and the wealth
allowed to enter the flow of life. A seed pod that does not open will not produce any plants.
In the Four of Pentacles, the four elements are organized around the center (the phoenix),
but in the Four of Cups, the arrangement shows evidence of an aspiration toward the heights
instead. The two cups on the bottom, helped by the two large leaves, hold up the two cups at
the top. We can see an impulse toward opening here. Cups being the symbol of emotional life,
we can therefore say that in this love we are seeking a being higher than ourselves and not a
"kindred spirit." As a stage of emotional life, the four is a wholesome moment that represents a
foundation, acceptance of the couple, or the plan to have a family. But while the Three was
searching for ideal love, the Four marks the passage to real love. This is something that can
occur only if we accept being loved with complete trust.
Cup-5Pemades
Sword i
Wandi
The quest for the heights that is at work in the Four of Cups represents, in the best cases, an
aspiration for higher dimensions of love that will be experienced in the following degrees. But if
the person is not yet capable of loving herself, she is compelled to place all his or her hopes for
realization in another. The emotional relationship is not then one between equals but one of a
heart submitting to a powerful individual. If you hate yourself, if you despise yourself, if you do
not love yourself, the demand for security becomes insatiable. Even if we do not have all the
love we would like, we tend to cling to relationships for security. This is the case of a longlasting marriage in which the couple may perhaps have lost their love for each other, but their
union stands because it offers security. A love that does not evolve is condemned to congeal.
In the Four of Wands, we are in the presence of a sexual and creative security. Everything is
going well, but there is a risk that this situation will become routine. In this domain, repetition
chills enthusiasm. For lack of novelty, ecstasy declines. Once again the Four is a wholesome
passage that asks to be surpassed: what would we think of an artist who establishes one style
and repeats it until the day he dies, thereby content with earning a guaranteed income? The
security of the Four is doomed to evolve into the temptation of the Five.
Similarly, the mental security of the Four of Swords is marvelous when it represents the
practical spirit, an intelligence capable of embodying itself and organizing material life. It is
also the basis for scientific intelligence. But it can also mutate into a self-contained rationalism
tending to exclude intuition, the wealth of the subconscious, poetic pleasure, revolutionary
ideas, and so many other things that we find when establishing a bridge to the mysteries of the
mind. This will be the labor of the Five.
In all the Suits, the Four is a platform of security necessary for inviting new experiences that
will help us advance along the path of self-knowledge, with its ultimate purpose action in the
world. Taken this way, the Four is essential. Taken as an end in itself, it leads to
ponderousness and decay.
The Fives
Temptation
In the esotericism of the beginning of the twentieth century, magic students and numerologists
attributed a harmful and tragic effect to the number 5. This is understandable, as in the Major
Arcana the fifth degree is represented by The Pope and The Devil. The esotericists in conflict
with the Catholic Church therefore confused the two cards and viewed the curse (XV) as the
shadow of the benediction (V). It is also easy to understand that in a series of nine numbers
(the 10 is considered a repetition of the 1), numbers is at the middle, as if between two worlds.
Before it, the series of 1 to 4 represents material life; after it, the following series of 6 to 9
represents the spiritual life, which is marvelous but filled with uncertainties when viewed from
the physical plane. In reality, The Pope and The Devil are invitations to go farther, to go
beyond the limits of the material and the rational. The Pope, without abandoning his disciples
who belong to this world, establishes a bridge, a communication with the other world: the
divine or cosmic dimension. The tempter, The Devil, offers a descent into darkness and the
subconscious to reach the impersonal magma that is the source of all creativity.
The 5 opens the ways for self-knowledge or offers brilliant ideas. It suggests the prudence of
not abandoning our assets in material life, but invites us to surpass them.
In the Five of Swords, we see appearing between the interlacing swords the red of the
central sword, which looks outside through a diamond-shaped opening. This is the first time in
the process of the series of the Swords, symbol of intellectual activity, that the mind accepts
union with the Other and attempts to cast its gaze outside itself, outside its little intellectual
world. An idea appears that can be transformed into an ideal, a path to follow.
Cups-
Ptniaeks
Swords
Wands
In the series of Cups, which represent emotional life, the Five of Cups depicts a central
container that has given birth to a luxurious floral construction. We could mistake it for a
pagoda or a temple. For the first time we see the enthusiasm of faith, or, to be more precise,
fanatic love. Praises are sung for a teacher, Christ, or different gods, or Mother Nature, or, why
not, a political theoretician. We think we have found the definitive direction that our heart and
that of humanity should take. If we carefully examine this card, we shall see a yellow heart
formed at the foot of the central cup by the branches of the bottom-most plant, which has
flowered. But because this heart is at the base, it is acting on the material plane. In other
words, we turn our hearts toward God, yet without scorning human affections. With this card we
can understand, for example, the young disciple who returns pregnant from a stay with her
gum.
The Five of Wands represents two temptations: sublimating the sexual force through
meditation techniques, and, thanks to them, opening the door of spiritual illumination; or else
by a more profound exploration of the path of desire that does not neglect investigation of any
impulse. This second path can be as revolutionary as the first, for it is an invitation to abandon
old habits that dull the mind. Likewise in creativity, it is the artist opening to themes that go
farther or deeper than personal anecdote.
With the Five of Pentacles, the material security of the Four allows for a new possibility of
enrichment to be bom in its center, one that will dispel the great danger of the previous stage.
As we have seen, if the Four does not change, it will age, rot, and collapse. We can see
practical examples of this every day: large supermarkets are forced to consider opening an
organic food section so they will not lose customers; a patient treated with no tangible results
by standard medicine will contemplate looking for a shaman abroad or a folk healer in his own
country; a long-married couple will suddenly decide to have a child, or even decide to invest
their savings in an activity that can multiply their capital.
The Five therefore represents a temptation, an aspiration, a bridge, a transition toward a
new world, but one that keeps part of its activity based in the old world.
The biggest danger posed by the Five of Swords would be to lead us to follow crazy and
overly idealist ideas that carry a promise of huge disappointment. The danger of the Five of
Cups is enthusiasm. The idealized Other cannot correspond to the plans made in his or her
regard. In the Five of Wands we risk following the path of The Pope, one that could lead us to
sexual impotence through excessive mysticism, or that of The Devil, which will wear us out
with depravity. In the Five of Pentacles, we run the risk of investing our money in pipe dreams
and losing it, as often happens to the small players in the stock exchange.
The Sixes
Beauty and Its Mirrors
In the Kabbalah, 6 is considered to represent beauty. In the Tree of Life, under the name
Tipheret, it is at the center of the ten Sephirot. If human beings are incapable of attaining the
unknowable Truth, they can at least reach its essential radiance: Beauty.
In The Lover (VI), degree 6 in the first decimal series of the Major Arcana, the cherub is
responsible for the descent of the beauty of love from the Heavens. In The Tower, Arcanum
XVI, another manifestation of 6, the Earth is sending an explosion of elation and joyful energy
from its center toward the heights that causes the two initiates to dance in ecstasy. It is also
possible that the sky is responsible for sending this flaming manifestation down. The Tarot
allows the same symbol to be interpreted two different ways without forcing a choice between
the two responses, both of which can be right at the same time.
In the Minor Arcana, this number, synonymous with beauty and realization of what one
loves, takes on four different tones. If we really want, the beauty of the Six can be considered to
be the root of reality. If we add up three successive out of the infinite series of numbers, we will
always obtain a number that can be reduced to 6. For example:
1 + 2 + 3 = 6; 4 + 5 + 6 = 15, and 1 + 5 = 6; 7 + 8 + 9 = 24, and 2 + 4 = 6; and so on infinitely.
Cups and Pentacles are receptive symbols.
The Six of Cups is presented as the result of [3 + 3], two columns of three cups facing one
another. They have found each other in the way a human being finds his or her kindred spirit.
This is a static love with a narcissistic tone, which has a tendency to seclude itself and shares
only in private. This is a love relationship in which one member of the couple is the soul of the
other. With the Six of Cups you can say: "I am the world, and the world is me."
In the Six of Pentacles, we can clearly detect the addition [4 + 2]. In the center of the card are
four coins representing the reality principle and stability, which open to the top and to the
bottom. In the Six of Cups we saw the meeting of two trios, the number 3 being an idealist.
Here, in contrast, we start from a material center that will seek its ecstatic realization in these
two extremes. This refers us back to pairs of complementary notions like past and future,
higher consciousness and subconscious, macrocosm and microcosm, light and shadow, and
so forth. It is a card that opens up to the world, which strives to open itself to the Other. Its motto
could be: "I leave in search of everything that surpasses me and is already in me."
Between the Six of Swords and the Six of Wands, both active symbols, one intellectual and
the other sexual-creative, there is also a difference.
In the Six of Swords, we are witnessing an act of internalization. We attain beauty through
meditation, by going toward the ecstasy that is the heart of our awareness. The central flower,
whose stem has been cut, separated from its plant and consequently the world, is blossoming
in solitude. It is single. Assuming its individuality, its solitude, its uniqueness, is the primary joy
of the intellect.
In the Six of Wands, we see a great thrust outward. Emerging from a burning center (the four
red lozenges), sensuous leaves are opening toward the four comers of the world, and as a
vertical axis. Instead of the unitary wand, we see flowers that are also cut and different from
one another, but nonetheless complementary. The flower on the bottom has curved and
receptive leaves, the one on the top has leaves that are pointed and active. We could describe
them as a male flower and a female flower. The Six of Wands expresses the beauty of the
sexual encounter. Here the solitude dear to the Six of Swords becomes masturbatory; it is not
acceptable. The Six of Wands is essentially a card of meeting.
The Sixes, despite their excellence, can turn into a narcissistic trap, especially in Cups and
Swords. We like what we are doing so much that, egotistically, we seek to satisfy ourselves
while forgetting the needs of the surrounding world.
The Sevens
Action in the World and upon the Self
The 7 is the most active odd number, the most powerful primary number of the series 1 to 10.
The best way to define it is by the notion of action in the world. In the Major Arcana, this action
manifests quite visibly in Arcanum VII, The Chariot, and Arcanum XVII, The Star. In The
Chariot, energy comes out of the Earth, and the prince lets himself be carried by his vehicle
buried in the planet and is as one with it. He is not acting of his own volition but going with the
flow of the action. In The Star, the energy comes from the cosmos, and the woman is naked:
pure truth. Scorning the general for the particular, she selects a place that she sanctifies, one
knee on the ground, to achieve purifying and germinating action there. This enables us to
grasp that there are different forms of action in the world, as the four Sevens of the Minor
Arcana are going to show us.
The Seven of Wands is a card of explosive, glorious energy that starts from a red lozenge
overlaid by the intersection of dark and light- blue parts of the wands, which then spread
through their red extensions to their black tips. There is a yellow articulation at every spot the
color changes. This means that we are departing from the vital fire of the red lozenges, a
natural fire that is received and not manufactured. Thanks to intelligent reflection (the yellow
articulation), this fire passes from inner intuitive concentration to the large red action of opening
to the world. Sexual and creative energy is impersonal and offers itself via its black tips to
whoever can skillfully employ it. Yellow leaves with red stems (there are four in number) are
opening triumphantly on the sides, expressing the unconstrained bursting of sexual and
creative pleasure.
In contrast, in the Seven of Swords, the sword is still inserted within its oval, symbolizing the
space of thought, initially conceived as an imprisonment. It opens only in the middle of the
card, in the short passage of red color that indicates a minor activity toward the outside. Inside
this oval we find a light-blue sword placed between four exterior cut flowers. These fourflowers
are very different from the living yellow foliage of the Seven of Wands: they represent
conceptual rather than organic reference points. The Sword is at the peak of its active
nondoing here. The maximum of action for Wands is "creating everything," while that of Swords
is "emptying everything." This is why the entanglement of the blue stems is at the center of the
Seven of Wands and at the two outside extremities for the Seven of Swords. We also can note
that the sword's blade enters beneath this weaving and is held prisoner by it: the mind neither
moves nor acts. To act in the world, the mind ceases to believe that reality is what it thinks it is
and seeks for objective vision. To do this, it must leam to receive.
Cups
Peniuks
Swords
Wand*
In the center of the Seven of Pentacles, we see three circles arranged in a triangle pointed
toward the top, surrounded by four other pentacles at each of the four comers of the card.
These forms symbolize the mind, the spirit (triangle) in gestation in the center of matter
(square). We can conclude from this that extreme action in the physical world is the gestation
of the mind, an internal ideal. This triangle will eventually invade the entire square, exactly as
Christ entered into gestation inside the womb of a human being, Mary, so she could give birth
to him and be converted into a sacred being. We could also say that what we are witnessing at
work in the Seven of Pentacles is the action of consciousness upon the heart of the cell.
Similarly, in the Seven of Cups we find the 7 in its [3 + 4] form, but in a different
configuration. Four cups form what we could call a rectangle on the outside. Three other cups
draw a vertical axis in the center. The bottom cup of this axis is in the midst of actively creating
the emotional world, with its action influencing both the inside and the outside. The other cups
are full of the content they have collected, but this cup at the base is producing an action
symbolized by the branches and leaves climbing from it, like an aspiration for the celestial
world. The second cup in the center is in gestation, caressed and loved, and is spreading its
effect upon the whole world, not yet in the dazzling way we shall later see in the Eight, but in
an intimate, secret, and withdrawn manner. This is emotional fire gestating in darkness and
solitude that finally opens toward the cosmos in the third cup. Love then goes entirely toward
the outside and reaches the edges of the universe. We can compare this axis to the intense
appeal of the Virgin Mary, who would accept no lover but God himself.
The Eights
The Four Perfections
Justice and The Moon of the Major Arcana belong to the 8. This number is the most receptive
of the entire 1 to 10 series. If 2 is accumulation, 4 stabilization, and 6 union in beauty, then 8 is
the preeminent symbol of perfection in matter and mind. In Justice (VIII) we see a maternal
archetype responsible for the rule of Law. Her motto could be: "The only freedom is obedience
to the Law," the greatest obedience being to become yourself and allowing the cosmic laws to
take action in your mind and material life. The sword of Justice cuts the subjective, and her
scales balance the objective. The Moon (XVIII), meanwhile, represents pure reception. It has a
tendency to withdraw into itself in order to reflect the solar light. This reflection of the solar
"truth," which we could call beauty, can be looked at directly, as opposed to looking straight at
the very source of light—which blinds.
In the Minor Arcana, we can see a clear difference between the receptive symbols of the
Cups and Pentacles, and the active symbols of the Swords and Wands. The first are full, while
the latter are almost empty. This permits us to revisit the different aspects of the notion of
perfection, which are often poorly understood and undifferentiated.
It is obvious that the intellect, symbolized by the Sword, must attain a maximum quantity of
emptiness to reach its perfection: the practice of meditation, among others, trains the mind for
this purpose. In the middle of the Eight of Swords there is only a small blue receptive flower,
whose center is formed by a minuscule red circle stamped with a dot that represents the eye,
the impartial witness. The four outside flowers, which in the other Swords' cards are yellow
and red (active in intelligence), adopt a blue color here, symbol of spiritual receptivity. The
Eight of Swords represents the Buddhist ideal of emptiness.
Cups
Pentacles
Sworfo
Wands
This "total void" cannot be applied to the emotional domain. In the Eight of Cups we find
ourselves in the presence of the "completely full." In the center the same small red circle
marked by a dot represents the eye, the active witness. Around it the same light-blue petals
indicate a receptive center. But the four dark-blue petals alternating with them take a dynamic
form here, one that brings to mind the swastika (also see p. 88).
Opposed to intellectual quietude, this impersonal aspect of the heart could be called God in
action. Four of the eight cups depicted on this card are placed at the four comers, indicating a
state of emotional stability. There are two cups side by side in the middle, surrounded by
branches and flowers demonstrating the exaltation of the male-female couple, or the activereceptive couple (which does not exclude the homosexual couple). At either end of a vertical
axis, two other cups are displaying love of the Earth (the bottom cup) and love of Heaven (the
top cup). These vertical cups are accompanied by two blue flames or flowers. The one on the
bottom bears an active red drop, and the one at the top bears a similar drop but striped with
vertical lines that make it receptive. We see confirmation here of what we saw in the central
dots of the Ace of Pentacles: activity toward the Earth and receptivity toward the Heavens. The
Eight of Cups symbolizes the Christlike ideal of the flaming heart, all charity and all love.
At first glance the Eight of Pentacles appears to be giving the same message as the Eight of
Cups, but in reality there is a large difference. Here again four pentacles at the four comers
form a stable square: material life is assured. But here, four other pentacles at the center are
depicting another dynamic and spiritual square. Here, too, in the middle we find a flower with a
circular heart. But this time the center is yellow and marked by a cross. This indicates to us that
at the center of matter there is an awareness of eternity (the vertical line) and infinity (the
horizontal line). In the central square we have two pairs of pentacles, one on the bottom and
one on the top, separated by foliage. The mind buried in matter, preeminently active, is acting
in the material world and in spiritual life simultaneously. This interaction of worlds engenders
total prosperity. The Eight of Pentacles represents true wealth, health, happiness in the home,
and the harmonious realization of needs. Matter saturated by spirit, perhaps incorruptible,
gives off an odor of holiness.
The Eight of Wands eliminates the lateral foliage that has been present up to the Seven of
this Suit, leaving only two small vertical cut flowers. These should not be scorned, for it is in
them that the creative force is gripped anew. Here sensuality becomes sublimated; we make
the transition from being scattered to concentration. It is the Freudian concept of the
sublimation of the libido. Creatively, the Eight of Wands represents a situation in which we give
all our energy to the present creation without the slightest distraction. The eight is the last
opportunity given to us to create a perfect work. Next will come either change or death. If the
Arcana of Wands is sexuality, the Eight of Wands would be sexual energy employed in service
of the spiritual work, such as with Mother Teresa or a great healer. During the eighth month of
pregnancy, the mother allows the formation of the fetus to be finished so it can prepare to be
bom the following month.
The Nines
Crisis and New Construction
The 9 has a characteristic that separates it from the other odd numbers of the first decimal
series: it is divisible by three. On the one side it is therefore active (the side toward the 8), and
on the other it is receptive (toward the 10). An androgynous number and the stage of crisis, the
9 heralds a change that will lead to the end of a cycle. It is illustrated in the Major Arcana by
The Hermit (Villi) and The Sun (XVIIII).
The Hermit, a sage who has reached the end of his path, has retired from the world and is
raising his lantern to show the new way. In The Sun, we see the new consciousness (the sun)
casting its light upon two individuals, pushing them to a new construction. These cards are
both similar and opposites—similar because they mark the end of one life and the beginning of
a new era, and opposed because The Hermit finds realization in solitude, while the figures in
The Sun are creating a relationship of mutual aid and loving union. We will encounter
analogous contrasts in the Minor Arcana.
We should note that in the so-called esoteric tradition, The Hermit was not viewed as a
sage, generously showing the way, but understood as a secret teacher, miserly with his
wisdom, who hid his lantern beneath his cloak, reserving his knowledge for an elect group of
disciples. It is unthinkable that the Nine would strive to retard humanity's passage toward
expanded consciousness.
In the Nine of Cups, what has already been experienced has been eliminated (the three
cups on the bottom between which wilted leaves are hanging), and six other cups are exalted.
They are rising toward a newer, more universal love, symbolized by the pointed leaves
surrounding the center cup at the top. When we see this card, we are receiving the message to
sacrifice feelings that once nourished us but are now chaining us down, to moum them
appropriately, then leave for larger emotional dimensions. In this card the 9 is presented as [6 +
3],
Cups
Penlades
Swords
Wand:
In the Nine of Pentacles, on the other hand, we find an [8 + 1]. The concept of elimination is
not present; what we are witnessing instead is a birth, the creation of a new dimension. We can
clearly see the center pentacle as the head of the baby being bom, surrounded as it is by
branches forming a blue (receptive) oval surrounded by red (reception of life), in which we
perceive a female sex organ. This birth is not solitary; it is emerging among the perfection of
the eight other pentacles. When we see this card, the message we are receiving is the
imminent arrival of new material conditions: a child, a new job, an inheritance, a stroke of
fortune, a return to health, and so on. But to obtain this new element, we should take special
precautions to avoid being distracted. Precautions are a must. The slightest mistake will
destroy the birth.
In the two active symbols, Swords (intellect) and Wands (instinct and creativity), we find two
different positions.
The Sword, which symbolizes the Logos, has traveled an entire route of concentration to
reach the Eight, which, we should recall, represents the meditative void. In the following stage
of the Nine of Swords, the sword bursts from the light and begins to expand. It is ready to leave
subjective imprisonment to advance into the world and become one with it. We can see a
broken horizontal line in the center of the blade that indicates a crack. The sword is cut in two
as if to indicate the intellect is not only a "me" but a "me and you." The message of the Nine of
Swords, for the subject of a reading, would be: "Learn to listen to others. Your ideas are a part
of the world but not all of it."
The Wand, to the contrary, has followed an expansive, creative path. Here it is becoming
more concentrated and eliminating all decoration, no foliage or flowers, joining its axis to the
red and blue central interlacing. The Nine of Wands is always between life and death. Its
attitude could be summed up in this motto: "Win or die." We think of a warrior who has
performed impeccable deeds without making any compromise. He is freed of desire toward the
world and collects within himself the energy to build a new work. If we heed this card, it will tell
us: "Make no concessions; be yourself. Act as you must. Be responsible."
The Tens
The End of One Cycle and the Announcement of the Next
The Wheel of Fortune and Judgment are the two cards that close their respective decimal
series. Of the tenth stage, both point toward the end of a cycle. In The Wheel of Fortune (X) we
observe a pause: the three animals are being held back and waiting for Providence to come
turn the handle that will restore them to motion. They are clinging to the wheel and holding it up
because beneath them everything is in movement: everything could fall apart. Go down, go up,
stay balanced, resist until a savior arrives that could simply be a new piece of information. The
Wheel of Fortune marks an appeal to the depths of the blue Earth covered with wavy stripes (it
might be an ocean) on which the wheel is placed. In Judgment (XX), the situation is different:
the cycle is ended, but we are receiving help. The Heavens are opening, the irresistible call is
echoing, the new being is rising out of the depths of the Earth to move toward the celestial
dimension. In this ending, the new beginning is already present.
Arcanum X is therefore a card of the cessation of activity, whereas Arcanum XX is a card of
transformation. In the first we are waiting for help; in the second we are waiting for realization.
Both these characteristics are to be found in the Minor Arcana.
On the Ten of Cups, we see nine open but full cups and a tenth cup, which is sealed
because it has received everything. The nine open cups have five divisions or sections,
corresponding to the five senses, whereas the tenth has seven sections, which corresponds to
the seven nerve centers or chakras. The emotional request—with its shadow, resentment—has
stopped. The full heart becomes potential for action. We are approaching the ideal of holiness:
"Nothing for me that is not for others." In Christian terms, we could say that the chalice is full of
divine blood: communion has been realized. We find a parallel here with The Wheel of
Fortune, as in this state of potential giving the heart is waiting to be employed for a work.
Cupi
PenIacta
Swords
Wands
In the Ten of Pentacles, we also see a Totality closed upon itself in expectation of the Other.
Four pentacles at the comers of the card form the material square that stabilizes the world. We
could compare them to the four animals of The World. If we then accept that the six remaining
pentacles draw out a shape similar to an oval, we will be able to see it as an echo of the blue
mandorla that surrounds the figure of Arcanum XXI. The light-blue and red flower could then be
compared to the naked woman holding the active wand and receptive flask in her hands. In the
orange center of the flower, we can see a sign that looks like a comma that we could identify
with the creative Logos, the first embryo of all reality. The axis of this floral cross is continued
by two orange pentacles united by a white axis. This is the first time we see transpierced
pentacles forming an axis.
We can consider these two pentacles to be immobilized this way, with the white axis
bringing to mind the white rays of The Wheel of Fortune. What might be evoked here is the end
of prosperity: we have attained all we could receive in material life. Counting the petals of the
second circle, we get 11 +11 = 22, the number that, in the Tarot, symbolizes the ftjlfillment of
the Totality.
We are waiting for a miracle. This is the moment in the Gospels when Christ (the miracle)
places his hands on Peter (the Ten of Pentacles) and tells him: 'You are Peter, and on this
stone I shall build my church."8 Once prosperity has been obtained, there is a complete
spiritual work to be accomplished with the riches we've amassed (the twenty-two Major
Arcana). If riches are not used to exalt life, they will lead to the destruction of the person who is
the subject of the reading.
In the Ten of Swords, we are witnessing the long-awaited miracle: until now, all the swords
were imprisoned within the oval. The work of mental realization is fulfilled in a certain kind of
positive autism that we shall call solitude, meditation, the dark night of the soul, or, in reference
to Arcanum XX, Judgment, the tomb. Here, with the two swords entering the oval from the
outside, we are finally hearing the voice of the Other. They are coming from the left and the
right—in other words, the masculine and the feminine. These two polarities unite on the inside:
the mind has achieved unity. The Suit of Swords has had four flowers outside the oval. But
here only the top two remain; the bottom two have become the wombs of the swords. From the
Earth (the bottom zone), activity is bom. The flowers at the top indicate that we continue to be
receptive to Heaven.
While the Ten of Swords represents the upper part of the card Judgment (the angel), the Ten
of Wands represents the lower portion of this Arcanum: the three figures. We see, in fact, that
the central axis is divided in two, with the colors of red and blue (reception and action). But the
sharpened eye will discover a third white wand representing the child emerging from the womb
in a state of complete purity. The wand to our right will thereby be that of the father, that of the
left the mother, and the third the child. Looking at the entire card, we can say that it is an
angelic entity underscored by the light of the seven white wands hidden between the red
wands. The white flowers open like branches toward the top and like wings toward the bottom.
This reveals that the three figures of Judgment are in communion with an angel who is their
reflection in the mirror of heaven.
Smnfa
Cups
Windi
Pentad?!
The Numerological Degrees by Suit
SWORDS
Ace of Swords. This card is great intellectual potential and great mental capacity. It is akin to
the Ten of Wands, which is heading to meet it: after the end of a creative and instinctive cycle,
the intellect moves into action. The Ace of Swords could mean a victory by cunning,
intelligence, determination, or discernment. It also indicates the ability to take a position, to
decide. When it becomes negative it evokes verbal aggression, wounding words, refusal of the
material, and overestimation of the mind's abilities.
Two of Swords. The accumulated growth of the central flower evokes the imagination,
daydreams, or preparation of a project—a lot of mental possibilities, none of which have been
used yet. The intellect remains passive, waiting for an action. The person has a tendency to
hop from one subject to another. The negative connotations evoke a lazy mind, intellectual
pessimism, a paralyzing duality in thoughts, and lack of concentration. We can also identify it
with foolishness, identification with certain received notions, the necessity for a complement to
study, or even dissimulation.
Three of Swords. This Arcanum refers to the fanatic bursting forth of primary ideas and first
opinions. It is a sign of an intellectual enthusiasm that can easily combine with a passion for
studying and reading. The stillimmature intellect acts purely spontaneously and discerns no
difference between believing and knowing. We also can see a desire for intellectual
development in this card—for example, a student's desire to pass an exam. The negative
connotations fall under the heading of all kinds of fanaticism, obstinacy, refusal to push deeper,
and dispersal. The Three can also point to a lack of follow-through on ideas.
Four of Swords. Here ideas become stabilized. This card evokes rationalism, all the aspects
of a solidly positioned thought and a certain intellectual maturity. It is also the practical mind
capable of acting usefully upon reality. The intellect is organized and stable; it knows how to
operate through generalization. There is a conservative tendency to its opinions. It can lack a
spark or a certain spice. The negative aspects of this card refer to everything concerning
obtuse rationalism, fixed notions, the mind as a prisoner of its concepts, but also the nonlived
theories of someone who is all talk and the refusal of intuition. In the worst cases the intellect
becomes tyrannical.
Five of Swords. This is the appearance of a new point of view, a new idea. In the strict sense,
it is represented by the "point of view" that lets us see two ovals intersecting over the red blade
of the sword. Deeper, more spiritual thoughts appear. We resume a study; we perfect our
knowledge or become a specialist of something. Without abandoning its convictions, the
intellect turns toward new ways of viewing the world, or exploration of the world inside. These
new kinds of information can then enter daily life to transform it. The negative aspects of this
card refer to a discord between the material and the spiritual, religious dogmatism when it
opposes inner evolution, cynical or hypocritical political opinions, and fraud.
Six of Swords. This first step into pure joy (the 6) is also an intellectual experience. The
pleasure of thinking, the beauty of ideas, and the playful mind are all indications of mental
blossoming and refinement. We love what we think and say. The mind becomes positive and
knows finesse. It discovers itself in solitude, assuming its individuality. Poetry finds its source
in the Six of Swords. It also permits meeting a person with whom you may establish an
enriching dialogue. Seen from the outside, this will be someone thoughtful, an original thinker.
The negative connotations of this card are intellectual narcissism, exaggerated aestheticism, a
sense of the beautiful that is never put into practice, as well as a lack of self-confidence.
Seven of Swords. The intellect, touching its greatest activity and on the verge of its perfection,
becomes extremely receptive, as shown by the blue blade of the sword. It is an active
meditation turned to the needs of the world. The pacified mind can put its potential and
spirituality into service to the Other. We can now step out of ourselves; we are able to be selfeffacing in order to be more giving. This can be a scientist who puts his science to work for
humanity, or even an enlightened leader, like a saint in power. When this card becomes
negative, it evokes knowledge used for cynical purposes, malicious gossip, calumny,
aggressive ideas destroying the world, or toxic theories.
Eight of Swords. The intellect achieves perfection: emptiness. This card indicates that the
mind has ceased to identify with its concepts. It is a powerful concentration, a trance state or
deep meditation in which the duality of opposites dissolves in celebration of the present. The
solution to problems becomes obvious, beyond the powers of reasoning. In this state of
nonthought, all revelations are possible. If we want to read this card negatively, we see it as
intellectual blocks; all illnesses affecting cognition, from coma to amnesia or aphasia; the fear
of emptiness; or stupor.
Nine of Swords. The yellow sword evokes illumination, the appearance of a new
understanding, the mutation that permits the breaking of old mental habits, or even
intellectually letting go. After a long search, the light has appeared. It is the end of the duality
between actor and spectator. This unity brings past concepts entirely back into question. The
negative connotations include a state of crisis, mental uncertainty, the fear of losing your
individuality, or to be precise, depression. We can also read a cerebral lesion or senility into
this card because of the sword's cracked blade.
Ten of Swords. The transformation reaches its end; it is no longer one but two swords. They
have left the oval, showing that thought is no longer a prisoner of itself. This is the appearance
of affectivity in mental life, a different viewpoint from one's own. The two swords evoke
androgynous thought, which is both male and female. It is the greatest intellectual maturity, one
that achieves harmony with the heart. The individual has acquired a complete picture of reality,
an entirely magnetic thought. Negative connotations could be refusal of the Other, an
emotional block creating an intellectual conflict, the fear of being hurt, a dispute, or ingratitude.
CUPS
Ace of Cups. Symbol of love in potential, a cathedral that is still closed yet full, it can
symbolize all the feelings, all the possibilities of the heart from amorous enthusiasm to
mysticism; a great disposition to loving and being loved; a capacity for love that is as yet
unemployed but immense. With the Ace of Cups, love appears like a chalice, a question on the
horizon that will color the quest of the reading's subject. It is also the base of communication,
religion, in the sense of connecting to the Other and of transcending yourself to reach the
Divine. Its negative aspects would be suffering, jealousy, bitterness, lack of affection, a neversated neediness, and smothering affectivity.
Two of Cups. What we see here is the collection of amorous daydreams. The thirst for love is
bom in an individual who has no experience of love, or after a long period of solitude. We are
imprisoned in the Two of Cups; the Other has not yet appeared, and we necessarily imagine
this Other to be similar to what we know of ourselves. The only reference point for this idyllic
partner that has not yet taken shape in a virgin heart is familial. This is the stage when the
entire myth of the kindred spirit is bom. Oedipal love serves as the foundation for future
projections. In this preparation for love, there are reservations and a great sentimentality as
well. The negative aspects include emotional immaturity, isolation, the inability to establish
relationships, an affectivity held prisoner by family ties, fear of commitment, the passivity and
disunion of a couple, and infantile amorous fantasies.
Three of Cups. The birth of first love with all its freshness and inexperience, as well as the
idealization that characterizes it, is expressed in this card. It is a fervent union, a youthful love
whether consummated or not, the appearance of the Other in a vast romantic explosion that, if
it causes disappointment, can cause terrible wounds. It is also, for example, the adoration of a
mother for her son. The two flowers holding up the top cup and sketching out a heart with their
stems resemble poppies, suggestive of the intoxication caused by this feeling. It is also the
fervent rediscovery of love—at any age. Its negative aspects are a lack of amorous enthusiasm
or the direct opposite, excessive and destructive idealization of love, an erotomaniac's
delirium, or fixation on an impossible love.
Four of Cups. Here love is established solidly and surely. The foundation for a family can be
constructed on the Four of Cups. It evokes self-confidence and trust in the Other, with love
seen as a pillar of reality. But it can also turn into the search for an individual offering security,
"a father for my children," "a good mother," "someone wealthy," which can lead to the type of
bonds between a dominating and a dominated individual. The risk is placing your hopes of
realization in the Other. These negative aspects also include insecurity, a lack of freedom,
smothering as well as restriction of feelings, or an excessively materialistic love.
Five of Cups. Here the central cup decorated by glorious flowers marks the emergence of new
feelings that can even go as far as fanaticism. It is the discovery of faith, a euphoria that carries
us toward a higher being or someone we view as such. It is also the first time the heart opens
to a solution that may be good for humanity. The negative aspects can be blind trust in any
guide, an emotional imbalance, as well as lack of faith, disappointment, and bitterness.
Six of Cups. Two columns of six cups are facing each other around an axis; this is the
realization of self-love in the noblest sense of the term, in fullness, acceptance, and inner
contact with divine love. This can also be the meeting with the Other, the appearance in reality
of the kindred spirit dreamed of in the Two of Cups, an individual with whom we correspond
exactly and with whom, in the joy of a mirror relationship, we discover feelings like esteem,
fidelity, pleasure, and sensuality. This is a general love that includes intellect, heart, and
instinct. The negative aspects of this card reflect an overly egotistical couple cut off from the
world. It evokes all the aspects of narcissistic love in general, withdrawal into the self, scom of
others, and excessive self-indulgence.
Seven of Cups. Here love enters into complete action in the world. It is colored by humanism
and generosity. It is the discovery of the power of kindness, the force of conscious love that
rejoices in the existence of the Other. We can give without advertising it, implement the work of
a charitable chain, and undertake a humanitarian action. Connected to universal love without
thereby neglecting daily life, we embrace the motto: "Nothing for me that is not for others."
Negative aspects could include being unhappy because of the ills of the world,
aggressiveness, and a compulsive tendency to help people who have not asked us for
anything. This card can also refer to a person who sees only his or her own self-interest, or a
sour misanthrope.
Eight of Cups. At this level, the Cup has reached perfection manifested by fullness. The heart
is completely full on every level. We love in the past, the present, and the future; we love the
planet, our neighbors, ourselves, the universe, and even the unthinkable. The question of
being loved or unloved does not arise: we are all love. This is harmony, peace of heart,
balance, and also what we habitually call grace: a profound union with divine love. The
negative aspects of this card are nonacceptance of love's perfection. Also seen here are lack,
perpetual dissatisfaction, or an overabundant love that pretends to be giving when in reality it
is only taking.
Nine of Cups. For the first time in the series, leaves are turning down as if wilting. It is the end
of flowering, the autumn of the heart; a period of mourning is required so that a new dimension
of love can appear. This is a stage of wisdom where we accept the end of an emotional cycle
and let go of what has already been lived. This sacrifice presumes a profound love of humanity
present in each being, a detachment, a denial, produced by conscious love. Negative aspects
are all states of emotional crisis, nostalgia, unwanted solitude, fear of lack, and despair.
Ten of Cups. Reaching the end of its development, the way of the heart offers us universal
love in the form of nine open cups topped by a larger one that has been sealed. This latter cup,
which is no longer part of the giving-and-receiving dynamic, is waiting to be put to work like a
saint who calls himself an instrument of God and is waiting to be employed by Him. In
Christian myth it was divine love that made itself flesh in order to spread love throughout the
world and to serve, no matter what the cost. This card indicates a heart that has attained
fullness, a concrete action to be taken (by becoming the Ace of Pentacles), and that emotional
realization has already taken place. If this card is negative, it can mean a block,
nonacceptance of self, venality, or refusal to evolve.
WANDS
Ace of Wands. A large amount of vital energy in the state of potential. We have the means to
create and reproduce, and enough courage to overcome difficulties or lead a project to
success. The Ace of Wands has strength. If fighting is called for, you will be capable. It is also
the domain of sexual potency and desire. Perhaps it could signify the appearance of creativity
in a domain where it was not expected. If the Ace of Wands is negative, it can indicate sexual
problems, a creative block, a loss of vital energy, a lack of finesse, or heaviness. It also refers
to brutality, physical violence, the abuse of power, and possible sexual abuse.
Two of Wands. This is a state in which an individual is still virgin, but where desires are
collecting in preparation for the first experience. Sexual energy is passive and contained but
can be quite intense in its repressed state. This card may also refer to creative potential in
gestation or to a latent moment of the libido. Negative interpretations include sexual blocks,
shyness, a creativity that is eternally embryonic, and any and all prohibitions weighing upon
the instinctive powers and preventing their birth. This card can engender doubts about one's
creative or sexual capacities: the intellect is interfering and blocking energy.
Three of Wands. The first burst of vital energy. This is, for example, the time of puberty and
first sexual experiences. Energy gushes forth with a springtime zest. It is also creative
enthusiasm full of spontaneity and vigor, but with no preestablished goal. Whatever activity is
undertaken, the impulse to get started is hugely enthusiastic and accompanied by a joyful
desire to create. In a more negative sense, this card concerns being scattered and a tendency
to not finish what you have started. Sexually this could be premature ejaculation, voracious
sexual appetite, or an exaggerated, hysterical attitude of seduction. The Three of Wands can
push the individual who feels he or she is the center of the world to abuse his or her power. In
creativity, it can lead to gratuitous performance.
Four of Wands. In this card, desire has become reality. The work of the artist enters the world
and enjoys success. Sexuality is assured with a stable partner, or functional sexual habits.
This Arcanum symbolizes a person making a living on his creative efforts and a person who
has assumed her power. The danger, in all domains, is falling into a routine. The Four of
Wands will then become a card of boredom, monotonous dissatisfaction, in which erotic life is
reduced to mere gymnastics and artistic creativity to commercial manufacturing. This card can
also refer to a dominating attitude, or even a weak person who does not assume authority, who
is scared of not being up to the task.
Five of Wands. The Five of Wands carries a temptation, a new desire, and an energy to go
beyond what has been known to this point. This can be initiation into hitherto unknown sexual
practices or, in the creative domain, evolution toward unsuspected depths and a larger
dimension. This is also the strength of the teacher or saint who is not afraid to use the energy
of the Wand to heal and bless. In its negative meanings, the Five of Wands concerns perverse
sexual practices, a conflict between sexuality and spirituality, creativity that requires drugs or
alcohol to express itself, or a desire for evolution that has not been acted upon.
Six of Wands. Here, Wands touch upon their essential expression, which is pleasure. We
have surrendered to temptation and entered ecstasy, the supreme voluptuousness, the joy of
creating. Sexuality and creativity are fully experienced and we are happy to be who we are, to
do what we do. For an artist, this is the time when he or she meets or finds his or her unique
personal expression. Working is a joy. For martial artists or other energy workers, this is the
manifestation of Ki, the divine dimension of vital energy. The negative dimensions of this card,
as in all cards of level 6, reflect excessive narcissism. The artist begins self-complacently and
perpetually repeats the same work; people fall into egocentricity, superficiality, or creative or
sexual navel-gazing. We can also be lacking in joy or be blocked by refusal of pleasure.
Seven of Wands. This card reflects a moment of great openness and irresistible action. In
terms of artistic realization, this is success, creativity blossoming in service of self and others.
The ego becomes the channel of creative sexual energy and, fully aware of its impersonal
dimension, distributes it to the entire world. This can be a passionate relationship, talent, a
triumph, or insemination of the world. If it turns negative, the power of the Seven of Wands is
terrible. This card then evokes dictatorship, fascism, sexual proselytizing, pimping, torture,
sadism, and destructive power in all its forms, which debases the Other instead of using his or
her strength in service to the world.
Eight of Wands. The perfection in this center is displayed by extreme concentration, things
reduced to their essentials, represented by the two cut flowers. Creativity has become
extremely focused: this is the perfection of someone who knows how to draw a circle in a
single line. In sexuality, we reach sublimation, pure creative energy, orgasm. Power becomes
nonviolence, the ideal of the martial arts: combat without combat. Authority emanates from the
individual and imposes itself without a gesture. In this state of extreme contemplation, effort no
longer exists, and we are tireless. If this card should have a negative side, it would be
paralysis, the stopping of all movement, an extreme perfectionism bordering on asphyxiation.
Nine of Wands. On this level, the Wand is confronted by a choice between life and death. In
this card, which has been stripped entirely bare, where foliage is no longer growing, the
element attains implacable self-domination. It is the experience of the true or symbolic end, that
of the ego. For the artist it is the acceptance that someone else will use his work. For the fighter
it is the assumed risk of being killed. In the sexual domain it is renunciation, the essential
choice. The negative aspects of the Nine of Wands refer to the fear of dying, the refusal to go
over one of life's changing points, artistic setbacks, impotence, and infertility.
Ten of Wands. Having completed its cycle, the Wand divides into two, opening up to make a
place for a white axis. In the following stage the next element will be the Ace of Swords. It can
symbolize an angelic vision of sexuality; energy no longer circulates inside or outside but
crystallizes like an androgynous diamond and becomes pure spirit. The individual is no longer
in the sexual or creative domain and has passed on to other interests: for example, an artist
who has become a teacher, a person who has discovered a vocation as a healer. The negative
aspects include bitterness, the uprooting of reality, a lack of faith in life, the painful surrender of
power through a loss of energy, or a failure.
PENTACLES
Ace of Pentacles. This card signifies material energy in all its potential forms: body,
resources, the position we hold in the world, territory. The fact that pentacles are always
referred to in the plural shows that this energy is essentially collective. The Ace of Pentacles
orients us on our relationship with incarnation, family life, the home, money, and health. It
directs our questions to the concrete aspects of life. Its negative meanings can refer us to a
financial problem or denial of matter; or, to the contrary, an excess of material preoccupations,
illness, physical neglect, malnutrition, or poverty.
Two of Pentacles. This card evokes the desire to tie up a contract that has not yet been
finalized. It could be a financial plan still in the embryonic stage, a house still being built, the
desire to get married or to form a partnership that will prompt a successful conclusion to a
business matter. It is also a still-forming embryo, physical rest, and recuperation of strength. In
the negative sense, the Two of Pentacles can signify a financial problem (difficulty in making
ends meet), a lack of means, or laziness; or paralysis, refusal to eat, a whimsical and inefficient
attitude toward the material world, or a suicidal tendency.
Three of Pentacles. This card can symbolize a material investment that has produced its first
return ... or its first loss. It is also fertilization, in which a male cell and a female cell have
created a third being. It is a company that has released its first products without knowing if they
will find buyers who want them. It is taking an economic risk or a high-stakes wager in a game
of chance. It could be the absorption of a substance whose effects are unknown, a plastic
surgery operation with uncertain results, or even the decision to live in a foreign country. Its
negative aspects include a hasty investment with a poor prognosis, problems connected with
fertility (false labor, an extrauterine pregnancy), hyperactivity that is physically exhausting, the
merger of two companies creating a monopoly, or a genetic manipulation creating a monster.
Four of Pentacles. Here the phoenix that the two angels are preparing to sacrifice in the Two
of Cups is burning. At the very heart of the greatest material stability, there is the perpetual
renewal of the mythical bird that is consumed and reborn from its own ashes. This card evokes
the home, health, a territory whose good working order is assured by refusal to let any assets
stagnate. The Four of Pentacles symbolizes the life of the body, whose maintenance assumes
the constant death of certain cells and the consumption of energy in the form of food. The
negative aspects to this card call our attention to all states of material stagnation: prison,
physical problems tied to immobility, excess, overweight, a work that does not allow one to
blossom, a stagnant economic situation, a family that is sealed within itself.
Five of Pentacles. In the heart of stability (the four pentacles located at the four comers of the
card) a new interest is opening connected to a spiritual, planetary, or cosmic dimension. This
could be an industrialist who invests in "clean" energy that is good for the planet, a large store
that launches a new line of organic products, or even the construction of a temple or spiritual
center. With respect to the body, it could be the beginning of a practice that goes beyond
simple physical exercise, a dietary change, or an interest in alternative healing methods. The
negative dimension of the Five of Pentacles can be a reversal of fortune, a bad doctor, a
descent into drugs or alcohol, a venal financial advisor, a swindler, an unscrupulous
industrialist, a stock exchange crash, or nervous depression.
Six of Pentacles. Here the relation to matter has been deployed in an ecstatic vertical
arrangement. We are anchored in the Earth and the Heavens, in full acceptance of our
incarnation, like a tree that both plunges its roots into the soil and its branches into the sky.
This is a card that evokes generosity to yourself, physical pleasure, the enjoyment of money
and a well-managed economy, the sense of beauty in daily life, gastronomy, and sensuality.
The Six of Pentacles celebrates the beauty of the world and feels as one with it. We can invest
in the things we love: this is the money of the patron of the arts, the purchase of an artwork, and
so forth. The negative aspects concern physical narcissism, obsession with appearance, and
venality. There is a tendency to abandon who you really are for appearances and profit. Guilt
surrounds money issues, or it is overvalued, which can lead to avarice. This card is also the
one of physical complexes and the illusion that money can buy happiness.
Seven of Pentacles. In this card we see a central triangle pointing upward, framed by four
pentacles at each of the four comers. Spiritualization of matter and materialization of spirit have
been achieved. Ideas move into action in the world and produce money. The money is used to
finance research and information, and to help humanity evolve. This card evokes generosity,
triumphant sports performance, deep knowledge of the body, and vast material power based
on awareness. This can be a humanist, a patron, business genius, or the worldly success of a
company. Negative aspects focus on a fracture between body and spirit, scom of the spirit and
overvaluation of material life, slavery, economic voraciousness, multinationals destroying the
environment, drug cartels, and pharmaceutical monopolies.
Eight of Pentacles. The perfection of Pentacles is manifested by abundance and in
prosperous fullness. This card evokes harmony and wealth; all needs are fulfilled. The body is
in complete health and balance. It is family understanding, a home in which all have found
their rightful place, their space. It is paradise on Earth, the planet seen as a flourishing garden.
It is also the harmonious flow of energies. Negative aspects include physical or material
imbalance, a paralyzing concept of money, or poverty viewed as inescapable and inevitable.
Nine of Pentacles. A material stage has been completed, giving birth to a new one. This could
be, for a pregnant woman, the moment of giving birth. It is also material detachment, someone
who has left everything to begin a new life, or else a profound financial transformation that
leads to a new project. The Nine of Pentacles can refer to bankruptcy, inheritance, or winning a
game of chance; whatever the case, it is a situation leading to a new construction. The
negative aspects of this card refer to a poorly handled economic crisis, a theft, an eviction or
being forced to move, a dismissal, poor experience of old age, an inheritance problem, or exile.
Ten of Pentacles. The material cycle has been completed, as shown by the color change of
the two orange pentacles and, especially, the white axis that joins them vertically. The way of
prosperity has closed. In the material domain, it is time for creativity to enter into action. Money,
matter, will move into another dimension of consciousness and pure energy. This card refers to
all questions concerning the beyond, the body, reincarnation, miracles, and eternity. The Ten
of Pentacles heralds the Ace of Wands: the next stage will take place on the path of creative
and sexual energy. Negative aspects concern refusal of the body because of its sexual
identity, the impossibility to let go of a past life, the sensation of having wasted one's life, or the
position of someone who possesses great wealth but has never known happiness.
The Honors or Court Cards
The Pages
Placed between levels 2 and 3—in other words, between accumulated potential and action—
the Page harbors doubt. His energy is still young and inexperienced. It is asking to be worked,
known, exploited, and organized. He hesitates: will he or will he not use his possibilities? This
is the position of an obedient hireling who is not in the habit of taking the initiative. He can
remain in the security of the 2 or launch into the 3 without knowing what the result of his action
will be. The danger of the Page can either come from an excess of doubt or an excess of
carelessness orfoolhardiness.
AND IF THEY SPOKE
The Page of Swords
"Delicacy and elegance are my essential characteristics. But they can quickly turn into
hypocrisy. Unlike the pages of Wands and Pentacles, I am no primitive. I understand nobility,
political and diplomatic strategies, and the twists and turns of an intellect that is its own
purpose in living. In one hand I carry the scabbard of my sword, which symbolizes the Logos
and the intellect. I have collected much knowledge, and I have prepared myself, but I still do
not know the practical use of my erudition. I have my scabbard all ready to sheathe my sword,
but I am not disposed to take any action. At the same time I am questioning myself: the tip of
my sword is pointing toward my hat. I doubt. My feet are pointed in opposite directions. My
thoughts are still contradictory. I hesitate before the duality of concepts. I do not know how to
cut, to give the blow that will separate subjective from objective. I am not a party to anything: I
am still incapable of taking part, of committing myself."
The Page of Cups
"Ah! The heart has many mysteries and ambiguities ... I do not know how old I am; I could be a
naive young man or an old romantic or, why not, a young girl or an old woman. I am advancing
to the reader's left, to the side of his heart, but I could stumble. My steps are short and timid.
I've covered my open cup with a veil for fear of having my sensitivity wounded. This is why I'm
keeping the cover in my other hand, permitting me to close back up and enclose this heart that
is too unsure of itself. Always an idealist, my head wreathed by a crown of flowers, I am still
ready to offer myself and even become a martyr. I hesitate between the fear of being hurt and
the desire to give all of myself. I am capable of sacrificing myself but also of fleeing. I am ready
to idealize the Other as well as nourish resentments in his or her regard. I can dance in an
endless spring or shrivel up in an eternal winter. I have both joy and sorrow within me, egotism
as well as generosity."
The Page of Wands
"I am strong; I am simple. I resolutely steer my way in one direction. My natural animal energy
collects in the huge green wand that is my symbol. That aspect of my nature that shares in the
2 collects, and with the other part of my being, the 3, I am ready to act without any purpose:
action for action's sake, like a powerful explosion. My hands cross with two different intentions.
Either I shall continue to accumulate my energy, in which case I will prop my club upon the
ground, or else I will raise it to strike a formidable blow into the unknown. For me this is what
creation is: a formidable blow into the unknown, a blow that will change the course of my life,
after which I shall never be the same again. This is why I am hesitating. However, my face is
turned toward the reader's right. In this way I am promising to go forward. The creative act is
announced, insemination is prepared; war is threatened, because my action can also be
inspired by the 3 in the form of the XIII, the Nameless Arcanum, and be destructive. In that
case, I am nothing less than a bomb ready to explode."
The Page of Pentacles
"I identify with the Earth, the entire planet. I move toward countless paths. I can head just as
easily toward action as toward reception. Like all sacred terrain, I contain a treasure that can
prevent me from advancing as long as I keep it secret, buried, and untapped. Like the weight of
the entire past, of all traditions, it can transform into the ball and chain on the ankle of the
prisoner I am. But at the same time I am raising toward the heights the best of myself, which is
nothing other than the best of matter: the gold that is the essence of Being. The riches I collect
remain unused and do not bear any fruits. The riches that I lift toward Consciousness promise
the transformation of matter into spirit. You could say that the alchemical work begins in me
with its two simultaneous processes: materialization of the spirit and spiritualization of matter. I
am the dawn of action, but not the act itself."
The Queens
The energy of the Queen is positioned between the 4 and the 5, between security and the
appeal of an ideal. The Queen rests upon something that has been established, all the while
knowing a new point of view exists. She owns and directs something the Page was only
starting to grasp. She is a pragmatic and active figure who knows her symbol well; she has
gained her experience of it without restraint and is centered on it. The Queen can become
excessive, submerged by her element, dedicating a veritable obsession to it.
AND IF THEY SPOKE
The Queen of Swords
"I wear a shield over my belly. There is a scar on this shield. Might I have sacrificed my
entrails? I do not allow needs, desires, or emotions to invade me. I live in my mind. I present
my symbol, the sword, sheathed in a red scabbard, waiting for someone to draw it and for its
sparkling yellow blade to appear. I am waiting for the individual who will recognize my
intelligence, my mind. Transcendence is my ideal, outside of flesh, outside of matter, toward
the androgynous state in which I will be capable of negotiating the snares of thought to reach
this impersonal center that is Cosmic Consciousness. Can I realize this? Can I attain oblivion
of myself? I am my own worst enemy. My sole knowledge is the knowledge of my
impermanence. My sole realization would be the realization of my emptiness."
The Queen of Cups
"How tender, how delicate, how vulnerable is my loving and ceaselessly wounded heart! I am
not searching for anything. I am a castle that must be besieged and conquered. Unlike the
Queen of Wands who seduces, I wait to be seduced. The cup I hold, symbol of my heart, is
closed—not empty but filled with passion. Who could treat me with all the delicacy I ask for if
not me? Impossible. I should resign myself to offering myself in injury and in sacrifice, and it is
precisely this sacrifice when I am loved that is my ecstasy. But heed me: I carry a white dagger
with a curving blade, symbol of my timid purity. I will strike anyone with it who approaches me
to use me to obtain what I am not: wealth, sexuality, intellectual knowledge ... Every one of
them will be exterminated with staggering cruelty. I do not concern myself with feelings, but I
really hesitate to let them blossom. All my fears collect in my 4 aspect. In my 5 aspect, my
ideal, I await the kindred spirit that will be my complement. This waiting is the center of my
entire existence."
The Queen of Wands
"I have dived into the incessant river of desire. Everything in me is exuberance. With the
gluttony of a tornado I offer my burning cavern to every insemination. My voluminous hair is the
foam of an ocean that gathers itself in a single wave. Universal power manifesting as sexual
action gives me the supreme strength of seduction. I am ready to incubate countless eggs, to
make all deserts flower, and to people with my works the harsh kingdom of the Queen of
Pentacles. This is why I never stop opening myself and never stop calling. Without a
generative intake I would not exist. It is this incompleteness that gives me my giant stature.
Beneath my being outside of omnipotence I need to be used, fertilized, and directed. This is
what seduction is: a lack transmuted into strength by desire. If I did not acknowledge this lack,
if I aspired to complete myself, I would become castrating."
The Queen of Pentacles
"I, the Queen of Pentacles, place my desire for going beyond not in the beyond, but right here,
in the heart of matter. Stretching with all my might toward a single point, I become concentrated
within the golden circle that is my symbol. I do not hold the slightest hint of going beyond
myself. I am everything toward which I aspire. You could say that I am greedy, narrow-minded,
stubborn, and egotistical. I would say rather that I am immanent. Who can distract me? Who
can dominate me? Who knows how to make me deviate from my interests? I defend my
territory with a strength beyond measure. If there is a past, it is right here. And right here is
where my entire future is. Country, fortune, possessions, practical mind: if I were not there, who
would be the cement of the kingdom? I am the guardian of the treasure; I am the dog that
defends the sun buried in her heart at the cost of her life."
The Kings
The Kings of Wands and Swords are young and active. The Kings of Cups and Pentacles are
old and receptive. Placed between levels 6 and 7, they are like a bow stretched between the
pleasure of ruling over their domains and the call of the world. As realized archetypes, they are
now on the path of detachment. Unlike the Queens, they are not looking at their symbols, nor
are they obsessed with themselves. They possess everything while directing their gaze at the
future. This is true mastery. The danger of the King is falling into complacency and negligence,
or into despotism.
AND IF THEY SPOKE
The King of Swords
"How refined I appear! Everything that in my cousin, the King of Wands, is rigid and armored
becomes flexible and elegant in me. I am not dressed for war but for intrigues in the court. My
trumps are intelligence, the sibylline verb, the ruses of strategy, and the seduction of irony. I
prefer the might of new ideas to the voice of arms. To the bluntness of the club I oppose the
cruel flexibility of my sword. I do not demolish; I transfix and assail. I rule with laws, reforms,
and the play of alliances. Instead of eliminating, I divide, the better to impose my will. I clarify
concepts, I establish their duality; I perfectly define what is and what is not, what one should
accept and what one should reject. My army is made up of lawyers, scribes, and jurists. I have
a court of official artists and noble parasites around me. I use popular naivete to declare myself
God's descendent or Truth's emissary. I could have been an absolute monarch in the history of
France or a revolutionary creator of a new nation."
The King of Cups
"I am clad in soft silk. My hat opens like a cup to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. This is not
a crown of command but a receptive headgear. I obey the universal will of love. With the
experience of age, I've grasped that there is no greater wisdom than kindness. My open cup is
lull of fine feelings offered to those thirsty for peace. Around me everything is growing. Beneath
its aggressive appearance, I see the true essence of the world: simple and full of tenderness.
The business of my kingdom is flourishing, because everything I receive I give away; nothing
for me that is not for others. I good-naturedly express my contentment before the existence of
conscious beings. People can count on my collaboration and assistance. I do not command
but am at my subjects' service. I am not the way; I am the welcome mat. My palace is open to
the four cardinal points. He who approaches me is healed. I am the ideal that animates
legends like that of St. Louis. I could have been the Christ-King.1'
The King of Wands
"My finely crafted scepter stretches from my heels to my head: instrument of the supreme power
I wield as a warrior. My royal costume is a suit of armor demonstrating my might. I conquer and
take possession in a direct, simple manner without any frills. I ignore political and diplomatic
strategies. When it comes to conquering, I act. I dominate. I assume the power of life and death
over all. When it comes to creating, I have no doubts. Valor never poses any problem for me. I
never allow my authority to be questioned. It is my actions and my works that define me. I can
build as easily as I can destroy. In my kingdom there is no discussion: it is my will that speaks. I
come from the people and they give me my strength. If I were a sovereign from the history of
the world, I would be a great dictator, a great conqueror, a great murderer, a terrorist, or a
leader of armies."
The King of Pentacles
"I hesitate to call myself king.' Having abandoned my palace, I appear in the midst of Nature. I
have swapped my crown for a hat that protects me from the sun and rain. I look more like a
merchant. I do not have a mind for conquest and conspiracy, nor do I practice charity; rather I
rule by nonaction. It is wisdom I pursue, represented by a pentacle floating in the sky. My
earthly possessions, represented by the pentacle I am holding in my hand, have been reduced
to a minimum, and I leave them in their rightful place without wasting them. I compare myself to
no one. I live off of my work. I am in the present. I accept the endless accidents and changes of
material life. I allow myself to be carried away, knowing that the universe has mysterious
purposes and that if I do not know them, I should obey them without casting doubt on them.
The entire planet is my kingdom. I have neither court nor army; my knowledge consists of
knowing nothing, my power of being unable to do anything, my being at being nothing. I could
be a monk, a Buddha, who mediates having accepted his body as a temporary vehicle. Or I
could be a captain of industry with his figureheads, serene within his fiscal paradise."
The Knights
In the numerology of the Tarot, the Knights are positioned between level 8 and level 9 and are
carrying the dynamic of the 10 (see p. 74). The Suit each one represents has attained its
perfection. To continue growing, it is necessary to enter into the renewing crisis of the 9, the
letting-go that will permit the Suit to transmute into something else. Like a messenger or
prophet, the Knight brings into the world this mastered and accepted energy, which is called
upon to dissolve in the following element. His leap out of the Suit to which he belongs (see p.
53) permits the closing of a cycle. The danger lying in wait for the Knight is remaining in crisis
and not allowing himself to be bome away by universal impermanence. He can then represent
a blocked state or the potentialities of new energy that remain unrealized.
AND IF THEY SPOKE
The Knight of Swords
"My horse, strong as that of the Knight of Wands, is both more refined and more agile. I guide
him in a large leap that projects me from the realm of the intellect into the mystery of the
emotional. My horse and I are as one. While the Knight of Wands acts with the strength of will,
my horse and I act with the force of courage. Cleansed of parasitical concepts, we have
eliminated, among other things, hope, and with it fear. We have to transmit the very essence of
mind: we know that we are the final manifestation of action. Over my helm I bear a yellow halo,
the symbol of holiness. With my red sword similar to a lance and my agile horse, I am the lifebearer. What shall I pierce with my sword? The heart of others, the Logos made love. I have
sacrificed my desire to be in order to enter sacred obliteration."
CAVALLE R-DECOUPE
CAVALIER DEPEE ill
C AVA LI ER-EE-DEKTERS CAVA LI ER-DE BATON
The Knight of Cups
"While the Knights of Wands and Swords are riding stallions, I, like the Knight of Pentacles, am
mounted on a gentle mare. I am not guiding my mount; I have no need to. With open hand I am
pursuing my symbol: the Cup. I do not hold it in my fingers; it is guiding us, my horse and I,
floating in the air. It is an open Cup from which a spring of love is emerging. It is this love that is
my guide; I have no idea where I am going. I am following it without any doubt that it will lead
me to my realization, which is the state of grace. Talent flows naturally: I do not force my will to
find the right path. I do not employ my courage to leap beyond my limitations. All I do is simply
obey. Whatever I receive, I give away. My sole desire, to realize this endless talent with which
I've been invested, is to survive so that I may remain in its service. This is when, while blessing
the world, I enter the realm of incarnation—of Pentacles, of matter and needs."
The Knight of Wands
"When I was a Page, my symbol rested upon the Earth. Henceforth it has grown into the sky,
toward spiritual development. I am not separate from it; it roots itself in my hand and grows of
its own volition. My animal, my large and powerful horse, has become white, the color of purity.
It symbolizes the extreme sublimity of my desires. I, the knight who embodies his will, make
him turn from right to left, from action toward receptivity. I have learned how to detour the path
of destructive energies toward the life of the mind. My energy, detaching itself from selfsatisfaction, from the temptation of totalitarian power, and from bestial war, has become
immense. Through an act of supreme will, my animal nature, this white horse, becomes
condensed, turning into the red sword of the Knight of Swords. I represent the moment when
the Eros of sexuality becomes the enriching spring for the mind."
The Knight of Pentacles
"I do not know if I am a man or a woman. I am rather a hermaphrodite who walks over a ground
in which no treasure is buried. Terrestrial and celestial, the dual pentacle of the Page and the
King of my Suit has become a single star floating in space. Matter has been spiritualized. It has
become fertile and is the mother of eternal life. I am like the flesh of the Virgin Mary, which at
the end of her process becomes immortal and rises to reign at the center of the universe. This
is my destiny. My mare is not as gentle as that of the Knight of Cups; she advances with
measured but sure, precise steps. She represents my health. She goes neither too fast nor too
slow, walking at the rhythm that corresponds to her present. This infinite peace stems from the
fact that we have vanquished death. I am ready to undergo endless changes knowing that
within my profound essence, there is an immutable core. This is what will give origin to the
new riches of the Earth that will take on concrete form in the Wand. I am already carrying in my
right hand the beginning of a new cycle of activity, a creative wand."
The Court Cards In a Reading
Depending on the reading strategy employed, the Court Cards or Honors can either represent an
actual individual or an attitude or experiential state with respect to the symbol of the Suit involved.
We can also attribute a temporal value to them: the doubt of the Page thus indicates a long duration
without a clear ending; the static contemplation of the Queen, a resolutely stable and fairly long
period; the detachment of the king, a denouement or imminent change; and the dynamism of the
knight, a rapid transformation.
A Summary of Meaning by Suit
SWORDS
The Page of Swords
The central thread of his sword stops before the point: the intellect of the Page still needs to
honed and shaped. Aware of his inexperience, he hesitates: does he know how to use his
weapon, or should he put it back in its flesh-colored sheath? This figure, who possesses the
foundations of intelligence, lacks self-confidence. He could be a student or a young seeker. He
has been intellectually devalued; perhaps this Page did not complete his (or her) education.
Like all the Pages, his position demands both caution and perseverance. The negative
aspects of this card would be lies, self-depreciation, intellectual confusion, verbosity, halting
and poorly organized thought, and verbal aggression.
The Queen of Swords
Is the hand she is holding over her belly defending an old injury, or holding a shield? Her gaze
is fixed on the red sword she is proudly holding. She represent a powerful intellect capable of
useful and effective ideas. She can defend her ideas with great stubbornness. She knows how
to say what she wants to say, but she is not closed to new ideas. Her negative aspects would
include a denial of the body or sexuality, perhaps a scar on her belly (from a Cesarean), the
closing of the heart, rationalism pushed to the extreme, or frigidity.
The King of Swords
Like The Chariot (VII), he is wearing two lunar crescent-shaped faces on his shoulders. This is
a king of the court, skillful at handling words and concepts and new ideas. In his left hand (on
our right) he is holding a measurement device on which twenty-two lines have been carved,
the number of the Major Arcana. He can represent a just and enlightened ruler, a jurist, a
university professor, an architect, a scientific thinker, someone capable of summing up a
situation with great intellectual serenity. He supervises his thought and puts it into action in the
world. His negative aspects evoke the power of slander and criticism, verbal aggression, legal
errors, a corrupt politician of totalitarian views, or an intriguer who makes a place for himself in
society through dubious means.
The Knight of Swords
On his armored horse and clad in armor and a helmet himself, this emissary of martial
appearance, equipped with a sword as long as a lance, is setting off to go beyond thought. He
is attempting to make the leap into the unknown. His intellect has experimented with both
emptiness and silence. Having reached the stage beyond perfection, he is going back upon
the way of love: henceforth he will travel only on those paths that have heart. He could be an
intellectual who has become receptive to love or to the sacred, a man fighting for a spiritual
cause who wants to bear testimony of it to the entire world, a prophet, the bearer of good news,
the solution of a problem, or the end of a mental conflict.
CUPS
The Page of Cups
His head girded by a flower crown like the young girl of The Lover (VI), he is walking with a
cup that he is hesitant to keep either open or closed. This is a shy figure that has never loved
outside his family unit or has long been out of the habit. His androgynous appearance can also
indicate to us an individual who has not yet assumed his homosexuality. The discovery of the
emotional world both tempts and terrifies him. His heart first says yes, then no. He could
embody a desire to live mixed with fear, someone who anticipates refusal and being hurt. He
also evokes the passage of the child into adult life, and first love with its doubts and great
enthusiasms. He can also signify an elderly person who no longer dares to fall in love. He can
signify a lack of trust in life and emotional relationships, and a pessimistic concept of love. In
the negative, he would be an emotional block originating in childhood fears, emotional
immaturity, a tendency to daydream too much, or the ghost of a failed love affair.
The Queen of Cups
Her face looking toward her closed cup, in her left hand (our right) she is holding a kind of
sword with a wavy blade. She seems attentive to her emotions and determined to defend her
feelings, for which she opens her heart and which give her what she has to give; you must earn
her trust. She represents familial love, kindness, a good mother. In her aspect close to 5, she
will evoke a charitable individual inspired by faith, one for whom her ordinary emotional world
is the mirror of divine love. Her negative aspects could be jealousy, possessiveness, a
smothering and limiting emotionality, or, to the contrary, a lack of love for those close to her, a
false charity, exploitation, or social scom.
The King of Cups
He seems to be a man of advanced years, and we can credit him with vast emotional
experience. The left side of his chest (our right), that of the heart, is exceptionally wide. This is
a big-hearted man (or woman); his cup is open, and he generously gives conscious love, the
joy of living, and the serenity of mastered emotions. He is capable of a vast action founded on
his loving vision of the world: he could be a great therapist, a counselor, a doctor, a patron, a
good and generous individual. If he becomes negative, the King of Cups will pour his hatred
over his family and upon the world. He could be an alcoholic, a narcissistic pervert, a
hypocrite, or a pathologically jealous individual; or he could represent false advertising.
The Knight of Cups
On his delicate blue horse, he is following the path indicated to him by the cup floating above
his right palm (on our left). The way of love has reached its conclusion: it will now become a
concrete force. This could be missionary work, a humanitarian undertaking, a person who
comes asking forgiveness and wishes to make right his errors, a good action, or sincere love. It
could also be a saint who puts himself in service to the world, builds a monastery, or becomes
a healer.
WANDS
The Page of Wands
Seen standing in profile, the Page of Wands places both hands on a huge wand. Is he going to
pick it up? Will he leave it resting on the ground? This is the hesitation between doing and not
doing, creating or not creating, or obeying or not heeding his desire. Energy is undifferentiated
and needs to be channeled. This could be hesitant sexuality, a creative project that needs to
be refined and carried through at the same time to the end with perseverance ... Negative
aspects of this card would include clumsiness, sexual or creative energy blocks, a lack of
vitality, or even brutality.
The Queen of Wands
A sculpted wand is propped upon her lower belly; she is holding it with her right hand (our left),
while with the other she seems to be shaking a small artificial hand that is colored yellow. She
is a sensual and seductive individual who shares points in common with The Empress (III). In
full possession of her sexuality and creativity, she can be passionate, capricious, instinctive,
and independent. She represents the satisfaction of a person who has begun to live on her
creativity. Her sexuality is fully experienced, and she can symbolize an artist or an energy
working, but she can also, in a more negative sense, represent someone obsessed with sex,
venality, or excess.
The King of Wands
His wand is a large scepter that is propped up by his heel on the ground with its other end
touching his headgear. Like all the Kings, he has mastered his energy: vital, creative, and
sexual. He can be a renowned artist or someone who is creative in everyday activity, a man of
power, a sincere lover, a warrior, or a martial arts master. His negative aspects can be
despotism, boasting, or a powerful sex drive amputated from love. He could then be a seducer,
a tyrant, a self-obsessed artist.
The Knight of Wands
Riding a white horse, the symbol of sublimated desire, the Knight of Wands so dominates his
mount he can force it to change direction. His wand has become natural again: sexual and
creative energy are simply viewed for what they are. It crosses through his hand as if to
indicate there is no duality between him and his energy but only complete trust. This card
represents channeled instinct, creativity in full mastery of itself, supreme courage in the
presence of life and death, peace, healing abilities, or even a sage who gladly abandons the
pleasures of the world to enter the kingdom of thought.
PENTACLES
The Page of Pentacles
With his two pentacles, one raised in the air and the other buried, he is questioning his place in
the world, his body, his financial means. The buried pentacle is an obstacle that prevents him
from advancing; the raised pentacle is his wish. He is holding in the fingers of his left hand a
small yellow circle that could be a gold piece like that of The Magician. Should he start a
career, and if so, which one? How to enter active life? Is this investment worth the trouble? Will
I get my health back? These are the questions that the Page of Pentacles asks when
considering taking a physical or financial risk. If this card poses problems, they can be related
to not knowing what one's place should be, remaining inactive, or, to the contrary, carelessly
playing with your security or life.
The Queen of Pentacles
She is looking at a large pentacle that she is firmly holding in her hand at eye level. Mirror,
mirror on the wall? Or is this a profound meditation? The Queen of Pentacles clings to her
money, her position, her health, and her assets. She can deploy great energy to keep things as
they are, but she can also be innovative with unexpected projects. We could say that she is a
person with the courage to look herself in the face. She is susceptible to avarice. She can
represent a prolonged effort to guarantee material security, to build a house ... Her risk is not
seeing farther than the end of her nose, of fixing her material security without thinking to invest
it, to resist taking another step forward, or to consider other aspects of reality.
The King of Pentacles
Clad comfortably and without pomp, no crown but a hat, his throne is set up outside in the
middle of Nature; he has based his power on matter and stays in contact with the Earth. He
could perhaps be an industrialist, a businessman, or a well-to-do farmer. He knows two forms
of wealth: the pentacle he is holding in his hand represents the money that he already knows
how to earn without excessive efforts and with pleasure. The pentacle floating in the air that he
is looking at represents his action in the world, virtual money, or already spiritualized matter.
The King of Pentacles could as easily be a billionaire as he could be an entirely detached
individual who is living off the miraculous prosperity of the present. His negative meanings
include fraud, dirty money, and stock speculation. He could also be an arms dealer or a seller
of toxic products.
The Knight of Pentacles
Wand in hand and astride a receptive blue mount, this knight is advancing through a
countryside lit by a star in the form of a pentacle. He represents the act of going beyond matter
into creativity, a culmination that opens new horizons. He is also someone wealthy enough to
create something new or a new purpose beyond material considerations. In the strict sense,
the Knight of Pentacles can represent a journey or a move; in this instance a quest connected
to the body, creativity, and one's place in the world.
The Mandala of the Tarot The Major Arcana form the vertical, spiritual axis of the mandala. In its final
form, in which the Aces of each Suit are placed on top of their corresponding symbols on The World
card, the Tarot mandala acquires its maximal force.
The Mandala of the Tarot in three dimensions
A c t ol Cups
Ace of Swordi
Ace ol P m t a d e s
Aci cl Wands
The Aces of the Four Suits Cups, Swords, Pentacles, and Wands
PART FOUR
The Tarot Two by Two
Opening
Consciousness as a Joint Work
If we agree that the Tarot does not work like a crystal ball and that the tarologist is not a seer—
a talent that, according to esotericists, permits a vision of the consultant's future—but a reader,
we shall see that the Arcana form a language in which drawings and colors take the place of
letters and words. Just as people speak French, Spanish, English, Japanese, and so forth, we
can speak Tarot. And just as any human being, if he or she studies it, can leam to speak a new
language, he or she can leam to read and translate the messages of the Tarot without needing
to be a magician, a seer, or someone endowed with parapsychological powers. The Tarot is a
language within everyone's grasp.
When Marianne and I started giving courses, we asked ourselves what would be the most
accessible way of teaching this language. We discovered that after describing the cards one
by one with their many possible interpretations, which is the equivalent of learning the
alphabet, the most effective method for our students was to leam to read the message that
resulted from the combination of the Arcana. The action of a solitary individual is different from
that of a couple, that of a family, and finally that of a social group. A single note does not make
music; two notes create harmony and a new auditory dimension; three form a chord; four or
more together compose works.
The majority of books teaching the Tarot are satisfied to describe the Arcana one by one
without explaining that these cards change depending on the other cards with which they are
related. Before forming sentences, letters—consonants and vowels—must form syllables that
change depending on the order of their composition. Ma leads to other concepts than am, is is
different from si, no from on, and so forth. These syllables are the pillars for words, which then
form sentences, then essays, then poems, gospels, or infamous texts.
Thinking along these lines led us to the conclusion that a study of the Tarot that did not
include the study of the pairs of syllables could not lead to a correct reading. A whole world
thus opened before us.
While literary language is composed of vowels and consonants, with every syllable obliged
always to contain a vowel, thereby reducing the number of combinations, in the Tarot language
all the Arcana can serve to form a syllable. Presuming that the card selected was a consonant,
it will not only have the option of a small number of vowels, but that of the twenty-one
remaining cards. This creates an immensely more vast language that reveals a great many
more meanings.
Given the fact that the Major Arcana cards are numbered (as in the Hebrew alphabet) and
run from 0 (The Fool) to 21 (XXI The World), it is interesting to analyze the change in meaning
depending on whether the card with the lower number comes before or after the other card.
Other pairs to study in connection with the mandala are those with the same numerical
value, such as 1 and 11,2 and 12, 3 and 13, and so on. These pairs share a profound union;
and sometimes in a reading, just as an illuminated solid casts a shadow when someone
chooses one of these two cards by chance, we can easily complete its meaning by taking the
other card of the same numerical value to repeat or reinforce its message.
In his unfinished novel, Mount Analogue, Rene Daumal writes: "Because we are two,
everything changes. The task does not become twice as easy. No, the impossible becomes
possible!" We can apply this to the Tarot, which unquestionably emphasizes the importance of
the couple. The High Priestess accompanies The Pope. The Empress couples with The
Emperor, as does The Moon with The Sun, and the Queens with the Kings in the Court Cards.
In addition to these couples, we can see pairs that are brought together by certain details,
which are not absolutely binding, as any Arcanum can be coupled with any other depending
on the reader's projections. While the hats that look like a sideways 8 join The Magician to
Strength, this same Strength, being accompanied by a wild beast, can also be connected to
The World, in which a lion also appears. Based on physical posture, we can associate The
Hanged Man with The World because of the crossed leg. The Fool and Arcanum XIII are
brought together because they picture the same manner of walking. Because both depict the
same number of people beneath an angel, we can couple The Lover with Judgment: there are
three clothed individuals and a naked angel in the first and three naked individuals and a
clothed angel in the second. Because each card contains three figures—one dominating two
others that are immobilized in some way—The Wheel of Fortune and The Devil are joined
together. Temperance and The Star resemble each other because both are carrying
amphorae: on the first, the liquids or fluids are blended inside, and in the second, the contents
are being spilled over the ground. If we give The Chariot the possibility of a victorious martial
feat, we can easily associate it with The Tower, in which a tower appears to be exploding. Of
course, by virtue of the fact that two figures are emerging from the tower with their feet toward
the sky and heads toward the ground, The Tower can also be paired with The Hanged Man.
And The Hanged Man, with his hands hidden behind his back, can be coupled with The Devil,
where two imps are also hiding their hands behind their backs.
With respect to couples, it is important to realize that the Tarot, which probably already
existed by the year 1000, declares the importance of women in a paternalistic world. It clearly
shows that it is abnormal for an infallible priest, The Pope, to be a guide and God's
representative without having a woman of the same spiritual level by his side, The High
Priestess. It shows that an Emperor without an Empress cannot govern his domains correctly. It
demonstrates that solar activity is not conceivable without lunar receptivity, that day and night
complement each other.
In the three following couples, which by all evidence represent the three different faces of
the symbols father and mother, the Tarot first introduces the woman followed by the man. This
is how the reader, using the cards like a mirror, will see the mothers to his right and the fathers
to his left: II The High Priestess and V The Pope, III The Empress and Mil The Emperor, and
XVIII The Moon and XVIIII The Sun.
Using the Arcana like a psychological test, we were able to see that the reading subject had
three visions of his mothers and fathers: first he saw them on the physical and sexual plane
(The Empress and The Emperor), then on the spiritual plane (The High Priestess and The
Pope), and finally on a mythological plane: cosmic mother and cosmic father (The Moon and
The Sun).
The Empress and The Emperor are looking at each other. Whereas the first exercises the
laws of nature, creativity, and reproduction, the second exercises the laws of the social world.
Both are completely realized not only in the practice of material and sexual power but also in
the way they join together as a total gift to each other. The material world is not the only thing
that unites them; both have an eagle, which signifies that there is also a projection of their
union on the spiritual level. If we reverse the order of these two Arcana and place The Emperor
before The Empress (llll-lll) we obtain a conflict, a divorce: they are not looking at each other;
they are joined by material proprieties or bound by a family, each remaining imprisoned in his
or her own world. The spiritual plan cannot be realized because the eagle sitting on an egg in
the card of The Emperor (see p. 145) has become the still-forming bird held by The Empress
(see pp. 140-41) we are going from more to less.
The High Priestess-The Pope (II—V) couple is formed by two individuals who are
essentially operating in the spiritual world and therefore have no need to look at each other;
back to back, they are giving each other mutual support. No bond of the passions unites them;
both have sublimated their sexual impulses, and they have reached a level of consciousness
where the most important thing is to transmit what they have gathered over the course of their
meditations and studies to the world. When placed in the order V—II, they are looking at each
other and, absorbed by their relationship, which is mental by nature, they forget the world. They
then form an egotistical couple and stop being the bridge joining Heaven and Earth, thus
disappointing the hopes of the world.
If The Moon (XVIII) appears before The Sun (XVIIII), the mind in its initiatory journey is
advancing from night to day, from ignorance to wisdom, from total reception to the light of
Grace, from me to we, from the subconscious to higher consciousness. If the pair The Sun-The
Moon appears, the process is reversed: it goes from day into night, from joy to sorrow, from
dynamic realization into stagnation.
If in the graphic structure of the family tree we place the mother to our right and the father to
our left, this could imply that during childhood the mother was masculine (dominant) and the
father feminine (passive). This triggers confusion, and we grow up not knowing very clearly
whether we are a man or a woman.
There is another couple, if you like, that could be the screen for the mother-father archetype
projections. If Justice (VIII) is accompanied by The Hermit (Villi), we find ourselves in the
presence of the perfect mother and the wise father. But if The Hermit comes before Justice, he
turns into an insensitive, absent, or dead father, and she becomes a castrating, neurotic
perfectionist, or intrusive mother.
Guided by the study of these couples, we began to analyze the Arcana two by two looking
for other meanings in the different planes indicated by the four Suits, but for other human
interrelationships besides the parental archetypes. Taking a single card as the main "actor," we
formed pairs from it with the twenty-one remaining cards, first in increasing order, then in
decreasing order. Each time we obtained different answers. For example, The Magician-The
High Priestess pair was not the same as The High Priestess-The Magician pair. And if, for
example, The Fool contributed energy to The High Priestess when he came before her, he
weakened her by carrying away her knowledge when he appears after her.
These pairs appeared to correspond to the syllables used by the old methods for learning to
read. As we said earlier, the syllable ma is quite different from the syllable am, and so forth. If
an Arcanum is a letter, if two are a syllable, three will form a word. More than three could
constitute a sentence.
Mother and Father, Yin and Yang, black and white, red and yellow, stagnant and fluid,
Heaven and Earth, left and right, obscurity and light... human beings leam how to think from
poles that are not opposites but complementary.
If, in order to find ourselves, we spend a large portion of our lives in search of the light, at the
end, by finding it, we can fearlessly enter our shadow.
To Begin
As we have seen, the Tarot cannot be considered as a series of entities independent of one
another. Each of its Arcana is related to the rest of the deck and, consequently, each Arcanum
maintains a close relationship with every other Arcanum. Furthermore, the Tarot offers us
several couples or pairs, in other words, obvious relationships between Arcana (King and
Queen, The Sun and The Moon, and so on). It thereby seems to be indicating a reading path
that begins with study of pairs, couples, and duets: the grammar of the Tarot begins with this
dialogue between two cards.
If we go only by the Major Arcana, any one of them can be studied paired with another,
which would give us 131 pairs for the entire Major Arcana. It is impossible to study all these
relationships in detail here. We therefore suggest, to initiate the reader into the resonance of
the Tarot created by two cards, to study the three types of pairs that make sense in three
distinct setups, then see, by way of example, how we can read other associations of two Major
Arcana.
First, we are going to revisit the duets of the same numerical value that we studied in part 1,
considering them as light and shadow, as conscious and unconscious aspects, and as the
spiritual and incarnate aspects of one single energy.
We shall then concern ourselves with the couples formed by certain principal Arcana of the
Tarot, which would represent aspects of human love as well as the meeting between
complementary mental archetypes. In addition to the seven principal couples, we shall study
the encounter between all figures clearly indicated to be human beings.
We saw in part 1 that one of the organizing structures of the Major Arcana consists of
establishing eleven pairs whose sum adds up to 21. Because this value is, in the symbology of
the Tarot, the symbol of highest achievement (XXI The World), we shall see, by studying each
of these pairs, how they suggest eleven paths of realization.
Finally, several examples will be given, particularly with the cards that do not fall into series
of couples, of the study of the Major Arcana in duets, then in trios.
When the cards are alone, they can be considered as isolated protagonists. In the theater
they would be giving monologues; this is Homer reciting the Iliad or a troubadour singing. The
meeting of two cards makes a dialogue; and it is starting with three cards, as is also the case
when starting from three people, that the Tarot becomes dynamic. With three cards, a dense
artistic phenomenon is created.
The Duets of the Two Decimal Series
As we have seen in our study of the numerology of the Tarot (see pp. 32-33), the duet of The
Fool-The World frames ten degrees that are spread out in two decimal series, the cards of the
first cycle responding to the cards of the second cycle, from I to X and XI to XX. We could say
that each card of one cycle is the shadow of the other. If we draw The Empress (III) from the
deck, her shadow would be Arcanum XIII, and vice versa. Similarly, if we draw Temperance
(Xllll), her shadow will be The Emperor, and vice versa. This means that beyond their apparent
differences, the Arcana that form these duets maintain a relationship of mutual dependency,
each nourishing the other with its apparent opposition and allowing it to deploy all its strength.
During the course of the reading, it will be helpful to keep in mind that these numerological
pairs share a profound bond. For example, when one of the cards of the duet has already been
chosen, we can consult the other not to contradict it, but to echo it—truly repeating and
reinforcing its meaning.
Remember, the two decimal series each include ten degrees in which each Arcanum
symbolizes a step toward the Totality. The first series (l-X) essentially depicts human beings
hard at work raising themselves toward the spiritual world. These figures correspond to
energies, to possibilities of manifested, concrete lives that are more obviously connected to
everyday life. We could say that this was a series in which matter tends to become
spiritualized. In the second series (XI-XX), supernatural beings or archetypes undertake the
journey to the depths. We could say that the tendency of this series was the materialization of
the spirit. These Arcana correspond to extremely active forces in us that sometimes escape
definition, which emerge out of our everyday concerns. We could say that the Arcana of the first
cycle fall under the jurisdiction of conscious life and those of the second, the subconscious.
We are going to see how the Arcana in these duets interact and collaborate, tracing their
parallel paths toward the heights and toward the depths, and how each inextricably represents
the light and shadow of the other in such a way that their work blends together and completes
it. The energy of one is necessary for the other to manifest.
I The Magician—XI Strength
The Two Beginnings
Degree 1 of the Tarot numerology refers to a potential and the opening to a new world
(see p. 59). The Magician is undertaking an intellectual, perhaps emotional, spiritual
work, connected to an expertise and a desire to achieve knowledge (see pp. 128-29).
Strength represents the establishment of contact with instinctive and animal energies,
creativity, the libido, and, to be precise, the subconscious. The Magician contributes
his spiritual enthusiasm and his desire to understand the mysteries of the mind.
Strength goes deep within itself and matter, causing the emergence of sexual,
creative, and telluric forces. These two aspects complete one another like the roots
and branches of a tree. To grow, a tree needs simultaneously to bury itself deeper in
the ground and raise itself higher in the sky. Strength without The Magician can fall
into either extreme passion or extreme self-repression: she has no words to express herself,
nor a structure in which to unfold. The Magician without Strength grows feeble. He runs the risk
of becoming superficial and unstable, devoted to an intellectual concept of himself in which his
thought spins in vicious circles, ignoring the voice of the depths.
II The High Priestess—XII The Hanged Man
Gestation and Inferiority
Degree 2 of the Tarot numerology concerns accumulation, a state of incubation, and
meditation for preparing a future action. With her book, The High Priestess evokes an
accumulation of knowledge, a quest for wisdom, an erudite introspection capable of
expressing itself through language. The Hanged Man, to the contrary, has shed all his
knowledge and returned to ignorance in his acceptance of the most high: sacred
nonknowing. His meditation is beyond words. Without the energy of The Hanged
Man, The High Priestess could preach motivated by pride and spill over into
dogmatism, coldly applying the letter of a sacred text without making contact with its
interior silence. Without the rigor of The High Priestess, The Hanged Man could fall
into laziness, inaction, a state of "anything goes," or an apathy that delusionally
passes for a profound meditation.
III The Empress—XIII The Nameless Arcanum
Creative or Destructive Explosion
Degree 3 of Tarot numerology falls under the heading of an explosion that is ignorant
of its purpose. They are two active revolutionary principles lacking experience that
change the state of the premises. The Empress represents the bursting of life in its
constant and unceasing creativity, endlessly producing with no concern for what will
become of the thing created. Arcanum XIII meanwhile represents constant
transformation, a transformation that comes at the cost of total destruction, if
necessary. If Arcanum XIII happens to be missing, The Empress can fall into a
limitless productivity: overpopulation, invasions, epidemics, and excess. She requires
a destructive moment to bring her to a stop at a given moment. If Arcanum XIII finds
itself without The Empress, his transforming action becomes sterilizing: nothing can
grow upon the scorched earth. We can imagine a terrain covered with wild growth by The
Empress, then cleared and plowed by Arcanum XIII, then once again sowed by The Empress,
followed by Arcanum XIII then taking responsibility for the harvest, and so on—infinitely. These
two Arcana unite creation and destruction like the seedcase that opens to allow the plant to
germinate, like an egg that breaks for the bird to emerge, like a woman who bleeds and gives
life to a newborn. Without death there is no life, without life, there is no death.
Mil The Emperor—Xllll Temperance
Security on Heaven and Earth
In Tarot numerology, degree 4 is the level of stabilization and balance. The Emperor
ensures that cosmic laws are applied on the material plane: he is responsible for the
world operating properly; he is someone on whom we can count and whose financial
solidity is up to any challenge. He is an unshakable reality principle that manages
material power. His duty is to protect others. Temperance adds to this concrete
security a spiritual security, intimate knowledge of oneself, and a great equanimity in
action as well the mystery of spiritual protection. If Temperance is missing from The
Emperor, he will tumble into harshness and tyranny and boundless exaltation of the
material world. He becomes obtuse and rational, and, losing kindness, loses himself.
He ceases to concern himself about the Other in all its truth. Without The Emperor's
reality principle, Temperance is only an illusion, a dream in a chimerical Heaven without any
anchoring in the incarnate. This is an excessive kindness that protects the useful and useless
alike. We can then lose the notion of reality, and with it, the ability to distinguish the differences
on which embodied intelligence and good sense are based.
V The Pope—XV The Devil
Temptation in All Its Guises
Degree 5 in the numerology of the Tarot points to the appearance of a new interest
that is still in the planning stages or is still a temptation. The Pope is a mediator who
communicates with faith, one of the mind's highest values. He represents a calling
and, like the shepherd, leads his flock to virtue. But these luminous values are the
transformation of dark impulses found in The Devil. If The Pope is the lotus flower that
symbolizes the flowering of consciousness and receives solar light, The Devil is the
mire in which this flower sets down roots in order to transform its putrid emanations
into perfume. The Devil directs our attention toward the deep subconscious nature,
beyond good and evil. He forces us to know our desires, impulses, and compulsions
—all the energies that expand outside morality. If The Pope does not absorb The
Devil, all his teachings are Utopian, artificial, disembodied fantasies. If The Devil does not
accept The Pope, he becomes buried in excess, destruction, and a demented urge driven by
pride to exceed all limits.
VI The Lover—XVI The Tower
The Appearance of Pleasure
In Tarot numerology, degree 6 represents the first step into the Heaven square, the
first access to love in action. For the first time we are seeing what pleases us. It is
therefore a dimension that encourages immobility and the repetition of pleasure. In
The Lover, where the figures are closely joined, emotional life unfurls through the
entire scale of relationships, from friendship to symbiosis, with the risk of transforming
the couple into an island cut off from the world. In The Tower, everything that has
been imprisoned emerges in freedom: it is a huge explosion that permits union with
the cosmos. The Lover, without the opening of The Tower, risks falling into narcissism
and fusion. The Tower, without The Lover, risks becoming a separation: in the
opening it has created, what was bound can be pulled apart. It can lead to such strong
euphoria for living that it individualizes and isolates each person, causing them to lose the
relational core. These two Arcana work in concert so that union and openness can give rhythm
to our emotional lives.
VII The chariot—XVII The star
Action in the World
The 7 is the most active degree of the numerology: everything experienced up to this
point is set into motion in the world. If The Chariot represents the advance, the
conquest, The Star has rooted herself into one place to help it prosper, and to
cultivate and purify it. While The Chariot launches a holy war, the Star is building
Eden. If the energy of The Star is eliminated, the action of The Chariot becomes
sterile and fruitless; he does not receive the gift. It is a continuous advance that may
revolutionize the premises it crosses through but does not enrich them and finally
amounts to nothing, like so many great empires that were won, then lost, by emperors
who lost their lives as well in the end. Without The Chariot, the action of The Star is
reduced. Her gift, limited to a narrow space, will build up like a lake that floods the
villages surrounding it.
VIII Justice—XVIII The Moon
Faces of Perfection
With degree 8, as we saw earlier, perfection has been achieved, and there is nothing
left to be added or taken away (see pp. 60 and 65). In The Moon's case, this
perfection consists of shrinking itself cosmically and living in darkness so that it may
reflect the infinite light of The Sun (see p. 235). This is a purely receptive perfection
even if the consequence of it is to affect the movement of the tides. What Justice
receives, meanwhile, are the universal laws, with the mission of embodying them and
applying them to the extent humanly possible: excellence and perfectibility rather than
perfectionism. Justice, without The Moon, risks losing sight of her cosmic and
receptive dimension and becoming voluntaristic, standardizing, and intolerant. The
Moon, without Justice and her anchorage in reality, can get lost in the dark from which
she originates and become synonymous with fatal melancholy, madness, and anguish. The
Moon is ever-changing, whereas Justice is immutable: together they combine mutability with
implacability.
Villi The Hermit—XVIIII The Sun
Crisis and Regeneration
Degree 9 is a movement that goes beyond the perfect and therefore presumes the
entry into a crisis for the building of a new world. The Hermit with his lantern carries
light, wisdom, and experience. He has decided to exile himself from the world and
pass on his treasure to a select few who have come in search of him in his solitude.
He has realized individual wisdom. The Sun, to the contrary, works in abundance: he
offers his light and knowledge to all. He accepts all beings and goes beyond
individuality, creating collectivity. Without The Sun, The Hermit falls into the depths of
solitude and spiritual avarice. He no longer transmits his teaching to anyone. His
lamp remains hidden within the dense folds of the ego, and he lifts it only to be seen
by a higher entity. Without The Hermit, The Sun extends itself without discernment
and loses the directive capacity provided by individuality. He creates only an amorphous mass
of vague principles. In The Hermit, everything is experience; in The Sun, all is renewal. Each
needs the other.
X The Wheel of Fortune—XX Judgment
What Begins Comes to an End
Degree 10 of Tarot numerology represents, as we have seen, the Totality that spreads
out after all experience, but where exists—in expectation or seed—the impulse that
will engender the new cycle (see pp. 59-61). The Wheel of Fortune, the end of the
first cycle, closes a path of active seeking, reflection, and study. The figures return to
their fates, being disconnected from all will. They are in the circle of death and rebirth
waiting for a miraculous force to free them from this eternal repetition. Judgment
concludes the second decimal series, where all the receptive centers are open and
where faith and the ability to make oneself flesh have replaced the spiritual quest. The
figures have learned how to collaborate with one another and to pray in active
reception. They can give concrete form to help from the other dimension and have
opened to the transformation of a new awareness. Without Judgment, The Wheel of Fortune
finds itself in a state from which all faith and hope have been excluded. It is reduced to a block,
a vicious circle from which there is no escape. The cycle of life and death is presented like an
enigma that no principle is capable of solving. When Judgment ignores The Wheel of Fortune,
a state of fleeing from the world and refusal of the incarnate is created. It is the delusional
desire to attain the divine world without going through the human world. It can also be a birth to
inexperienced parents who are prisoners of their subconscious neurotic attachments.
The Couples of the Tarot
Several Versions of the Male-Female Relationship
If we examine the Tarot objectively, we shall see that an equal number of men and women are
represented in it. Furthermore, it clearly indicates that some of these men and women have
joined to form couples. In the Minor Arcana, the Queens are accompanied by Kings. In the
Major Arcana, The High Priestess (Arcanum II) is united with The Pope (V), The Empress (III)
with The Emperor (Mil), and The Moon (XVIII) with The Sun (XVIIII). In The Devil (XV), we see a
man and woman bound together at the foot of the devil; and in Judgment (XX), a couple, a man
and a woman praying together, are looking at an individual emerging between them (perhaps
a child or a the result of a joint task). If we decide that other couples can be found among the
Major Arcana, we can join The Magician (I) and Strength (XI) through the shape of their
headgear. Knowing that The Chariot (VII) and The Star (XVII) belong to the same
numerological degree lets us couple The Chariot with The Star. And in consideration of the
sum of their experience, Justice (VIII) and The Hermit (Villi) could also form a couple. Finally,
the preeminent metaphysical couple: The Fool, who crosses through all the Arcana of the
Tarot before reaching his ideal partner, The World. This concept corresponds to Chinese
philosophy, in which Yin and Yang are complementary.
There are two active elements in the Tarot (Swords and Wands) and two receptive ones
(Cups and Pentacles). As we have already mentioned (see pp. 42 and 49), this union of
elements is reflected in The World, in which the carnivores, the eagle and lion, are facing an
angel and a flesh- colored herbivore, symbols of sacrifice and giving. To make this clear, the
woman of The World is holding a phallic element (a wand) in her hand on the same side as the
eagle and lion, and a receptive flask in her other hand. Today, when women are struggling
mightily to obtain a balanced relationship with men after centuries of humiliation and slavery in
a culture that is male dominated, it is very moving to see the Tarot, probably from the year
1000, proclaiming the necessary complementary nature of the sexes.
We are therefore going to look at each human figure here, what its corresponding couple is
in the order of the Tarot, and what couples it can form with other figures. For readers of this
book who are in homosexual couples, it is necessary to clarify one point in this chapter: in
symbolic language, masculinity and femininity are metaphorical forces. A woman can easily
feel best represented by The Emperor or The Sun, whereas a man can receive The Empress
or The Moon. In the descriptions of the following couples, and to the extent that the Tarot is
infinite and a book's space is necessarily reduced, we have not developed couples formed by
two men or two women. It is up to the reader to perform this research. It can make sense for
anyone, inasmuch as these couples can also represent familial relations: father-son, fatherdaughter, mother-daughter, mother-son, brother-sister, and so on.
In similar fashion, the short text evoking each of the following detailed encounters is not
capable of exhausting all the subtleties of the relationship between one archetype and another.
Like all the interpretations we've proposed in this book, it is rather an approach of a path
toward the infinite echoes that the Arcana of the Tarot can awaken in our consciousness.
We will tackle the couples in the following order:
The Fool and The World (XXI)
Magician (I) and Strength (XI)
• The couples formed by The Magician with other female cards
• The couples formed by Strength with other male cards
High Priestess (II) and The Pope (V)
• The couples formed by The High Priestess with the remaining male cards
• The couples formed by The Pope with the remaining female cards
The Empress (III) and The Emperor (1111)
• The couples formed by The Empress with the remaining male cards
• The couples formed by The Emperor with the remaining female cards
The Chariot (VII) and The Star (XVII)
• The couples formed by The Chariot with the remaining female cards
• The couples formed by The Star with the remaining male cards
Justice (VIII) and The Hermit (Villi)
• The couples formed by Justice with the remaining male cards
• The couples formed by The Hermit with the remaining female cards
The Moon (XVIII) and The Sun (XVIIII)
THE FOOL—THE WORLD
Order The Fool—XXI. We have seen that these two cards represent the
alpha and the omega of the Major Arcana, the first and second echelon, the
two points between which all possibilities are deployed. But what kind of
couple are they? In this order, The Fool is moving toward The World,
equipped with a beggar's pouch and red-colored staff, heading toward a
naked woman dancing in the center of an oval of blue leaves. The Fool can
be considered as the fundamental energy without any definition, which is to say boundless.
This is how the Bible presents divine creative energy, boundless unprecedented energy
emerging from a timeless nothingness where space does not exist. But if The Fool remained
alone, he would run the risk of just endlessly spinning around his staff [wand]. And here is The
World offering itself to him with its four elements like the four cardinal points, and at its core the
woman-matter inseminated by The Fool's energy When these cards are drawn next to each
other in this order, they evoke an energy going straight to its realization, a plan or project
encountering success, a concretization.
Order XXI—The Fool. But the order of the cards is essential. In fact, in the
order The World-The Fool, the latter is in the process of leaving. The situation
is therefore completely different. The World is no longer the realization of
anything, as no card comes before it. Instead it is an imprisonment, a difficult
beginning—to be more exact, a difficult birth. The woman, enclosed within her
oval, is looking toward an empty past; she has no future. Meanwhile, The
Fool is fleeing or freeing himself from a situation that does not suit him, but without knowing
where he is going. The woman remains fixed, and the man is running away at top speed. This
could be a situation where one individual remains obsessed by her past, without giving any
energy to the present relationship, while the other prepares to go meet his destiny elsewhere.
This could also be the start of a relationship in which the woman represents something too big
for the man, either because he is idealizing her or because he does not feel ready to make a
commitment. He will then have a tendency to flee the relationship. The situation could ripen
and both protagonists cede to their mutual attraction. In this case The Fool would change place
and come before The World.
When These Cards Encounter Others
The Fool and The World are separate to the extent that they represent absolutely impersonal
archetypes. Their energy does not permit them to form an actual couple, in the common sense
of the word. Here is what we can say when they pair up with other cards:
The Fool. He can be either an energy coming in or an energy that is being lost. Facing another
card, he does not form part of a complementary couple but exacerbates the Arcanum's
characteristics. By definition, he has no personal characteristics. He is a free energy in search
of channels through which to manifest. These individual channels will eventually lead him to
the wholeness of The World. Because he is totally active, he is represented by a male figure.
When a female card finds herself in his company, he is either bringing energy to her or taking it
from her by leaving. In this case, the consultant should draw another male card to leam the
definition of this energy. If, for example, this card were to be The Magician, it would be
strengthened by The Fool's enthusiasm, and his natural characteristics would be accentuated
more than ordinarily.
The World. Just like The Fool, this card does not represent any particular aspect but rather the
Totality of the other Arcana. We are therefore not able to talk about her characteristics singly.
As an essentially receptive being, The World is represented by a woman. When a male card
appears next to The World, this means its complete realization from a positive point of view, on
condition The World is to its right. It would mean an initially frustrating difficulty if The World
came first (to its left). The consultant should draw a female card to know what Arcanum XXI is
referring to in this reading.
THE MAGICIAN—STRENGTH
Order I—XI. Placed this way, these Arcana form a balanced couple made up
of two individuals endowed with great aptitudes. Each of the two begins an
activity in his or her own domain. That of The Magician is more intellectual
and has to do with his expertise and numerous talents. That of Strength is
artistic or organic; she works with deep creativity. In this configuration, the
sum of the two cards (I + XI) refers to the aspect of self-knowledge and
profundity suggested by Arcanum XII, The Hanged Man. The Magician works with his spiritual
forces and Strength with the wealth of her impulses. They accompany and comprehend each
other, and, given the similar shape of their hats, it is plausible they share a similar conceptual
notion of the world. This brings to mind the traditional Japanese poem: "The fish in the water,
the bird in the sky ..." Each of these individuals is happy in his or her own field of experience.
They could be two adolescents, two beginners, but also two people who are experiencing the
beginning of something in their lives, no matter what their age.
Order XI—I. Here, we can dread a crisis that leads to immobility, the other
aspect of The Hanged Man (XII), because each card is interfering in the
domain of the other. The Magician is metaphorically attempting to change
Strength's lion into an eagle. Strength is trying to transform The Magician's
scientific table into a powerful wild beast. The fish in the sky suffocates, and
the bird in the water drowns. The two members of the couple need to realize
that they are not ready to meet the other face to face before they have each fully experienced
their respective fields of action. They need to leave themselves the space necessary for their
emerging expertise to develop, and then they will be able to find each other again in a spirit of
union.
The Other Couples with The Magician
The Magician and The High Priestess
Order I—II. A young man focused on his success, full of good qualities and
possibilities and completely centered on himself, performing research
directed primarily by the mind, finds support from a mature woman who has
collected a lifetime's worth of creative energy. Incapable of putting her
knowledge into practice, she makes The Magician not only her lover and/or
spiritual son, but will use him to manifest herself in the world. With each
helping the other, creative possibilities are open.
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j Order II—I. We find here a woman imprisoned within herself who has
transformed her ego into an idol. She behaves like an initiator. The Magician,
who is obsessed with her, considers her more like a mother than a wife. He
views her as all-powerful. His creative energy dissolves into devotion. This
symbiosis can last for years without The Magician ever being able to become
an adult.
The Magician and The Empress
Order I—III. This couple could be one formed by a poor student with a
princess. She will appreciate and love the enthusiastic and poetic
consciousness of The Magician, but he will keep his freedom, not asking The
Empress for protection. However, The Empress's royal scepter is joined with
The Magician's wand to charge it with her creative force and her potential.
With her admiration for him, she gives him security. The Magician allows The
Empress to feel beautiful because he remains with her without asking for anything.
Order III—I. The two members of the couple are facing each other, and The
Magician is surrendering to the greater power of The Empress. She is already
in full action and exploding creatively, while he is still only a beginner. In this
relationship he will therefore be submissive and run the risk of being scorned
by her, like a novice actor in love with a star.
The Magician and Justice
Order I—VIII. Next to Justice, whatever her position, The Magician is just a
child. She incarnates the perfect mother for him; he carries her in his mind in
the form of eight dark-yellow balls buried in his light-blond hair, and his figureeight-shaped hat seems to indicate that she represents the cosmic mother for
him. When a man meets a woman who is so much higher than he, he will
tend to become her disciple rather than her lover. In this order, Justice
interposes her sword between them to avoid their relationship falling into fusion. She applies
all her love and awareness to tell The Magician: 'You are you, I am me. We are going together,
but we are not one."
Order VIII—I. In this configuration The Magician is looking at Justice thinking
that she represents his total realization. Here the couple fuses together as
one. The Magician seems to be saying: "I am the fetus in your belly; you must
perpetually create me." If Justice accepts playing this role, and ceases
showing The Magician what is good and what is evil by means of her scales,
she will reveal a certain immaturity. She runs the risk of becoming entirely
dependent upon The Magician's reverence, to the point of collapsing if one day this adoration
is absent.
The Magician and The Star
Order I—XVII. There is an immense difference between these two cards. The
Magician is waiting for the world to come to him and is asking for realization;
he is in the midst of still shaping who he is. The Star, however, has found her
truth and is in the process of giving it to the world. The Magician receives
what The Star gives him, but it is such a generous gift that he lets it circulate
through him and becomes in turn someone who gives. It is similar to the fable
of the fox who thinks he is powerful because, having become friends with the lion, he believes
he has the lion's strength: because the lion walked behind him, he gained the respect of the
entire forest. In other words, this could be an agent or press spokesman who forms a couple
with a famous woman and represents her. He serves by making it possible for his client's talent
to manifest itself in the world.
Order XVII—I. Here, the situation is absurd. The Magician thinks he can give
to The Star the force that is coming from him. He is prisoner of his spiritual
illusions. But The Star receives her generous forces from the cosmos; The
Magician is only a little tag-along. She cannot take him into account. All she
can do, with infinite kindness, is to let him take part in her action by
generously allowing him to believe that he is very important. In this position,
The Magician will always be living in anguish that another man will appear who better
corresponds with The Star's energy. He could even be pathologically jealous. The Magician
and The Moon
Order I—XVIII. With his wand, The Magician receives all the strength and
mystery of The Moon. He thus becomes whole. He works with the purpose of
spiritual clarity and, voila, the doors of the subconscious are opening for him.
It is the wizard or the poet who, through constant effort, suddenly finds himself
illuminated by the Cosmic Mother. This can be a student or a disciple
receiving initiation from a female guru or teacher.
Order XVIII—I. The Moon in this configuration instead represents madness or
anguish. The Magician, weak and inexperienced, risks being submerged in
the erratic psychic forces of a woman, which may lead to madness, drugs,
alcoholism, or a self-destructive dependency. This can also be a relationship
between an insatiable and unsatisfied woman, easily spilling over into
psychological drama, with a man of little experience who clings to the most
concrete aspects of life to pull away from this neediness he does not understand.
The Magician and The World
Order I—XXI. Finally The Magician has found everything he has sought in
himself! This couple represents a metamorphosis for him. The coin he is
holding in his hand finds its echo in the flask of the woman of The World, and
their two wands are similar. Rather than with a woman, he is forming a couple
with his realized soul. If The World in this drawing represents a real woman,
we could say that she represents the realization of this man.
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Order XXI—I. This is a man who feels incapable of obtaining realization. It
could involve either an impossible love in which he feels the woman is too far
above him, or a relationship with a woman imprisoned like him in difficulties
connected to realization. Each is then the mirror of the other's difficulty, and
the initiatory dimension of their meeting will go through their realization of this
situation.
The Other Couples with Strength
Strength and The Emperor
Order Mil—XI. We see here a couple each member of which is vigorously
relying on the other. The Emperor contributes security, Strength creative
energy. Material and social power finds support founded on instinctive forces.
Here the man knows his reality, his affairs, his undertaking, and it is all under
his control. The woman has an infinite number of projects she can realize,
thanks to the economic, material, or legal support provided by The Emperor.
Thanks to his contact with Strength, The Emperor is enriched by new vital interests and feels
motivated.
Order XI—llll. The encounter here is explosive! Each party is attempting to
sway the other. They are always taking stock of their respective power and
can go so far as to oppose each other, but they also desire each other,
become friends again, and once again start to squabble. This is an endless
dialogue that goes through phases of opposition and adaptation. Who will
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give in? If both are able to bring this power struggle to an end, they can find
themselves with an enormous force of realization, which will only be effective if they undertake
a joint task.
Strength and The Pope
Order V—XI. The Pope is accustomed to having acolytes, as he represents
the highest spiritual voice. But here he meets an essentially virginal woman
(in XI, degree 1 in the numerology, everything is still in potential) who, by her
strength of character, will not allow him to be her master overtly, and through
whom speaks a voice to which The Pope is not accustomed: that of animal
nature, which is also divine. The Pope admires her, respects her, and needs
her. He subtly passes on to her his knowledge and level of consciousness. She is in contact
with the freedom of nature and understands things to which The Pope, because of his
established position, does not have access. For her, The Pope is quite useful, because he
supports her quests in the dark world of the subconscious by offering her a structure and a
spiritual justification.
Order XI—V. An inhibition of the animal forces is created here. The libido,
symbolized by the animal, is forced to enter the path of sublimation. The
animal becomes one of the disciples of The Pope, who has promoted himself
to the position of spiritual director. The world of the subconscious is infinitely
more vast than the rational; therefore, when The Pope guides Strength, he
reduces its opportunities because he does not see it in all its splendor. This
can be a man who, faithful to his beliefs, imposes them upon his wife. This is what's involved
with the religious morality that made women slaves for centuries out of fear of their sexual
energy.
Strength and The Chariot
Order VII—XI. Both these individuals are completely self-sufficient and
possess immense energy. However, in this order they complete one another.
Their actions are quite different: in reality, Strength has no landscape. Her
action is vertical. She goes from bottom to top and from top to bottom. We
could say that this card involves inner energy consisting of establishing a
close relationship between the animal and spiritual energies. The seductive
power of the woman of Strength is staggering. Hers is not the strength of a soldier but that of a
tamer. The prince of The Chariot, to the contrary, acts within a horizontal dimension and within
a landscape. His chariot, which seems to be mired in a swamp, goes with the world's
movement. He does not establish any dialogue with his horses but allows them to carry him.
Strength is on equal footing with the lion. Without Strength, the prince would lack this inner
domination of his primordial instincts. Strength without The Chariot has no world in which to
act. She becomes lost within herself. Their meeting creates a very rich relationship. She brings
him inner knowledge, and he offers her the world of incarnation. Each of them realizes that for
which they have been destined. Each is oriented in the direction that interests him or her, but
while their support for each other is solid, they can each attend to their own tasks. They are
then beneficial for the world.
Order XI—VII. There is a risk animals will start to fight here or at least begin
an unsupervised activity. Animal nature will then prevail over the mind. There
can be a very strong sexual attraction on both their parts. But while Strength
is capable of controlling her lion, the prince of The Chariot has no control
over his horses. Their instinctive encounter can be strong—unbridled, to be
exact—but their spiritual meeting is at risk of not taking place. She is looking
for action within herself, while he is concentrating on action in the world. It will be difficult for
them to find any accord, unless Strength allows The Chariot to take her on a trip and enter into
action with him in the world.
Strength and The Hermit
Order Villi—XI. This is a complementary couple representing both extremes.
The Hermit is lifting his lantern as high as it will go in the spiritual life, and
with all the doubts that emerge in his metaphysical search. Strength deepens
her search into the obscure regions of the subconscious with an animal
certainty. It is not in her nature to doubt. He has all the experience of a whole
lifetime while she, who is still young, has all roads open before her. For both
of them, this is an exalting relationship.
Order XI—Villi. Each interferes in the Being of the other. She asserts her
shadows before The Hermit's light, and he, with his lantern, sows doubts on
what should remain in darkness. Both feel as if they are going through a
crisis. They are at risk of becoming intolerant. Worse, Strength can start
burning and fall into a mental crisis, and The Hermit can be devoured, in
other words, lose faith in himself. The solution of the conflict is reached when
The Hermit, instead of advancing, begins walking backward, opening the path for Strength with
tolerance. She, instead of surrendering, which is impossible for her, will then find the space
necessary to do what she has to do in complete freedom.
Strength and The Sun
Order XI—XVIIII. When she meets the Cosmic Father, Strength understands
that her solitary work has found its realization. The animal, kundalini or
libido, uniting with male force, becomes a Sun, a center of spiritual life.
Strength then abandons all her efforts to create a couple consisting of twin
souls. The meeting with the male principle fills her entirely. She can admire
him, trust him, and abandon herself to him. He was waiting for this woman to
arrive: she brings him the material that produces this explosion of light. They begin a new life.
Order XVIIII—XI. Here Strength doubts The Sun and does not bring her
creative energy into the couple. She feels alone and observes the love of the
Cosmic Father as something she is not allowed to have, something given to
all other beings but not her. She is constantly demanding. This could be a
woman whose father was absent or unloving when she was a child. Now an
adult, despite the need she feels to unite with him, she will persist in all her
amorous and spiritual encounters to deny the possibility of meeting, seeking to show man his
egotism in an endless grievance that conceals an immense demand for love. The Sun,
satisfied with himself and his world, offering his life-giving action to the multitude, will accept
his responsibility and these complaints addressed to him as a weight that he will be unable to
get rid of. He will tolerate it until she heals herself of this fundamental wound.
THE HIGH PRIESTESS—THE POPE
The High Priestess is a woman of wisdom with something to teach. She is bearing knowledge.
She contains the potential for action and, whether she is aware of it or not, she is in a state of
understanding. She is a woman who knows. She is powerful, capable of sacrificing herself and
initiating. But symbolized by the egg sitting next to her, this knowledge is not passed on; it is
potential and in a state of incubation. For it to hatch, the action of The Pope is required. The
High Priestess is virginal: there will always be something dedicated to what is most pure
within, her spiritual life. Something in her will never be touched. This is what gives The High
Priestess her charm, her power, and her danger.
Her ideal partner is The Pope. As much as The High Priestess is cloistered and separated
from the world, The Pope is working toward others in a spirit of transmission. So what is he
transmitting? The knowledge The High Priestess holds in her book. The Pope is a mediator, a
bridge between the material world and the spiritual world. He communicates.
•Mdteart [• ^j^hjt i Order II—V. If we put them in this order, for the reasons we mentioned
earlier, The High Priestess and The Pope have no need to look at each
other. They are back to back. They have already gone beyond sexuality and
passion and have reached a stage where they should give away everything
they have hoarded. She brings her knowledge, and he transmits it. This is a
company of two individuals of the same value. As both are already mature,
neither one expects his or her partner to be his or her realization. They coexist at the same
spiritual level. They have much to give others, driven by an ideal, which can be of any nature.
In this position, back to back, they are well accompanied and solid, busy acting upon the world.
Order V—II. But if we place The Pope before The High Priestess, the couple
finds itself in a problematic situation. In this configuration both figures are
looking at each other, forgetting their mission, and asking for energy and
attention from each other. They will eventually exhaust each other, as they
are not made to isolate themselves from the world in this way. A Pope and a
High Priestess work in union with the Totality. They cannot form a closed,
egotistical couple because of the fact that they do not reproduce. Their message is purely
spiritual. The world has granted them power because it needs them. In this position, face to
face, they could create children. But these children would remain behind doors to spy on a
mother and father tearing each other to shreds. They would be abandoned and play no part in
this couple because there is no room for a third party in this union. The High Priestess and The
Pope must constantly keep their spiritual duty toward the world foremost in their minds.
The Other Couples with The High Priestess
The High Priestess and The Emperor
Order II—Mil. The High Priestess, who has an elevated level of spirituality
and is incubating the appearance of Cosmic Consciousness in humanity,
needs the material assistance of The Emperor. This makes it possible for her
to continue her work and research, because this will give her constant
support and protection. The Emperor, meanwhile, sees his highest
realization in her. The eagle at the base of his throne represents his desire to
rise to a sublime ideal. In the company of The High Priestess, he has found the woman who
realizes the vocation of this metaphorical eagle by permitting the egg to hatch. In Christian
symbology, the egg represents the cradle in which Christ the Savior was bom.
Order Mil—II. Here The High Priestess makes a gift of her mind to The
Emperor, but he is primarily concerned about establishing his power over the
woiid. He can use this woman's knowledge, but its spiritual dimension will
be lost, and the egg will not hatch, because all his energy is directed toward
the earthly reality. The High Priestess will then feel imprisoned because her
highest vocation will go unrealized.
The High Priestess and The Chariot
Order II—VII. The prince of The Chariot has found the superior women to
whom he entrusts his ardor and desires for conquest. He becomes a knight
and places himself in her service. In this couple, The Chariot is only an
offering: a proposition for action that obeys the command of The High
Priestess if she needs him. He will always act on her behalf. For The High
Priestess, this man represents a source of energy, a weapon at her disposal,
a burst of enthusiasm for acting in the world and spreading her knowledge there.
Order VII—II. In this couple, The Chariot runs the risk of using The High
Priestess as a political and religious excuse for his conquests. This can be
done in connivance with her if she is seeking to enrich her temple or convert
the world to her beliefs. This could also be a mother whose son brings her to
a party, or any intellectual woman providing a role and means for a man that
lets him move into action in the world.
The High Priestess and The Hermit
Order II—Villi. The couple seen here is more likely to share a deep
friendship than a passionate love. Sexuality is of no importance, and
sentimentality is equally valueless. We are seeing a soul-to-soul relationship.
While The High Priestess is in the process of coming to terms with the world,
The Hermit is in the midst of distancing himself from it. This relationship is
founded on impermanence; knowledge is communicated and deployed
there. She is covered by the veil of her institution and is consequently not free. He is cramped
in his own robes, conserving his individual light. The High Priestess knows that The Hermit is
her future, but the moment has not yet come for her to follow him. This relationship is a long,
serene farewell.
Order Villi—II. The Hermit runs the risk of abandoning his solitude and
freedom here. By walking backward, he finds himself in the domain of The
High Priestess, who absorbs him and keeps him at her side and holds back
his enthusiasm for abandoning the world. The couple becomes stable within
a certain reality in which The High Priestess inspires The Hermit to accept
the written law. The Hermit, although his deep nature is crisis, finds himself
immersed in perfection. He is singing like a bird in a gilded cage. With the constant presence
of The Hermit, The High Priestess attains her highest level, which will allow her to one day
restore to the sage his freedom.
The High Priestess and The Sun
Order II—XVIIII. The time has come for The High Priestess to attain her
highest level of consciousness. She is daughter to the Cosmic Father, who
gives her the heat necessary to incubate and hatch the perfect Son, which is
to say spread her doctrine throughout the world. She knows unconditional
love in this configuration, like that of the Virgin Mary for the Holy Father. She
can lose the virginity of her deepest depths, thanks to contact with a being in
whose presence she finds herself so infinitely inferior that her strictness dissolves into
obedience, humility, and love. The Sun needs her because his speech and his active wisdom
find a channel in her through which he can reach human beings. This could be a female saint
who, in obedience to the teachings of her God, devotes her life to saving abandoned children.
Their meeting is of great usefulness to the world.
Order XVIIII—II. Placed in this way, The High Priestess forgets the world
because her gaze is ceaselessly focused upon the object of her adoration.
She remains imprisoned in a trance, forgetting the task she needs to perform
for humanity. In this seclusion, however, she could write poems or ecstatic
prayers, texts that would later become a source of inspiration and comfort for
humanity.
The Other Couples with The Pope
The Pope and The Empress
Order III—V. The Empress is essentially a creator on the intellectual,
emotional, sexual, or physical plane. She dominates the spatial and
horizontal plane. The Pope is a man who has developed his spirituality and
acts on the temporal plane, forming a bond of union with the higher planes.
The Empress establishes a relationship of fervent admiration with him. She
begins seeing the world through The Pope's eyes and becomes his student
—in a filial attitude. The Pope accepts this devotion as nourishment and as a principle of
reality. The enthusiasm of The Empress regenerates him.
uraer v—in. in mis uuupm, n is i ne r u p e wriu sees me wunu Lnruugri ine
eyes of The Empress, entirely seduced by her attractions. He then leaves his
teaching mission to the side and passionately devotes himself to raising The
Empress from the spatial plane that is rightfully hers to the temporal plane for
which he is the privileged teacher. But while in the previous order, The
Empress willingly accepted becoming his disciple, here she demands that he
treat her as an equal. This risks creating conflicts, given their different life experiences.
However, if The Pope profits from this experience by leaving his role of eternal teacher that
only knows disciples less developed than he, he can take advantage of this relationship to
unite the horizontal plane with the vertical plane through their two areas of expertise. The
understanding they share will then be like the centerof a spatial-temporal cross.
The Pope and Justice
Order V—VIII. The Pope feels profound admiration here in the presence of
perfection. This meeting is immense to him, to the extent that Justice could
represent the archetype of the Holy Church to him. Despite his experience,
The Pope becomes son and servant when facing Justice. He is ready to
second her in everything. In myth, we could compare their relationship to that
of Joseph the carpenter and the Virgin Mary. It is one of deep respect
coupled with a love that reveres. Justice has higher purposes that tend to work toward the
balancing of humanity. She transmits a spiritual and material truth to the world. She finds her
ideal emissary in The Pope, who permits her to communicate. She can also be a woman in full
possession of her equilibrium and her maturity united with a responsible man who admires her,
or even a company that has found its ideal leader.
Order VIII—V. Here The Pope grants himself the principal role and keeps
the perfection of the woman who shoulders him and gives him balance a
secret in the background. She accepts this situation, as she is inclined to
balance it with her acceptance of the fact that the man deploys his ego in
social action and grants her the role of mistress of the home. She knows that
she is indispensable to The Pope's action.
The Pope and The Star
Order V—XVII. This couple has attained great wealth and great
communication. The Pope contributes his experience and The Star her
eternal youth. Everything The Star receives from the universe she offers to
The Pope. Everything The Pope receives from the Godhead, he offers to
The Star. Nature and the sacred form a magnificent union. The mind of The
Pope takes material form in The Star, and the cosmic materiality of The Star
is spiritualized in The Pope. The Pope, a mediator, allows communication to occur between
Heaven and Earth, between the material and spiritual worlds, and consciousness and the
body. He is a spiritual bridge. Placed this way facing The Star, he retains his attachment to the
world. The Star, who purifies rivers and nourishes the Earth, receives from the cosmos to give
to matter. The Pope receives the gift of The Star: it reaches him through his disciple and rises
up to his light-blue-gloved hand. He is then able to pass it on to human consciousness. Both of
them together perform good work. The Pope does not distance himself from material life to
attempt to attain a purely spiritual life—such a thing does not exist. The body and soul are
intimately bound together; their work needs to be performed together. We cannot develop the
mind without deepening its relationship with the material world. When he communicates his
disciples' prayers to his deity, The Pope is receiving from below and transmitting to on high.
He is receiving illumination from on high, which he communicates to what lies below.
The Star receives from on high and gives to what is below, which means that she applies
her intellect, her emotions, and her sexuality to heal and make the Earth fruitful. But we see in
the tree that has grown out of the Earth a bird preparing to fly toward the stars. This bird is the
essential void of her consciousness liberated from parasitic ideas. We were dust, and dust we
shall become again. But there is also this: we were light, and light we shall become again. The
Star and The Pope, when they are together, say, "I am dust, but luminous dust." The Star
teaches us that we are dust, but it is stardust, and The Pope tells us that it is to this luminosity
that we must return in material life. The Pope makes a gesture of union with his hands so that
both of them are sanctified by a cross. He is in the process of uniting his two acolytes. With one
of her vessels, The Star is giving luminous yellow water that comes from the four yellow stars.
With the other, she is pouring dark-blue water that comes from the three dark-blue stars. She
unites light and darkness, intuition and intelligence. Finally, The Pope teaches his students
that the naked woman is sacred not only in her role as mother but also by her beauty,
intelligence, and creative sexuality, which allows life to continue.
Order XVII—V. Even though they are together, The Star and The Pope are
turning their backs to each other. Each is in his or her place: she in Nature
f
<1 and he in the temple. Each acts in his or her way, we could say by keeping
r
1
\ , i J'4 their relationship secret. She is naked; he is clad. She acts alone; he teaches
i. v Jt
several students. They are a couple formed of a man of substantial mind and
f i r
a woman who is substantial on the Earth. Both retain their respective activity
and own way of doing things. They mutually accompany each other, and the pleasure they
draw from this is intense in the secrecy of their complicity. Their sexual relationship does not
exist (or at least not yet). He is ceremonious and can enter into conflict with her by trying to
make her his student, while she is insistent on asserting her freedom.
The Pope and The Moon
Order V—XVIII. The Pope finds himself in the presence of a woman who
represents the feminine face of the deity, the Cosmic Mother. It so happens
that he is not the Cosmic Father, merely his representative. He will then
become the faithful servitor of The Moon. If The Moon symbolizes madness,
The Pope could become a therapist and spend his entire life taking care of
her. This could also be a professor who, unable to create poetry, devotes
himself to making his students love poetry. In any case, he allows himself to be absorbed by an
infinite joy. The Moon, in her meeting with The Pope, attains peace: she will not be forced to do
anything. She can finally be herself without any hindrance. In her dark night, The Pope will
never dare light a torch.
Order XVIII—V. Here The Pope knows he is in communication with the
intuitive forces of the Cosmic Mother. He reveals her secrets and exposes
them to the light of day, rationalizing her subconscious powers. If The Moon
is a poetess, he will publish her poems and strive to help her win literary
prizes for them. If she is a visionary, he will transmit her teachings in the form
of an organized religion. This can cause anguish for The Moon or, to the
contrary, offer her a path to take action in Nature.
THE EMPRESS—THE EMPEROR
The Empress (III) represents the bursting that follows accumulation (see p. 79). She flowers
like Nature in the springtime after winter. She acts without knowing where she is going, solely
out of creative enthusiasm. She is full of ideas that can culminate in adolescent fanaticism or
fill her with an ideal love, boundless sexual desires, and physical effervescence. Because her
scepter is propped up on her groin, she is primarily exercising the power of her sex. She is
holding a male eagle under her arm, the symbol of the gestation of consciousness. On the
ground between her feet we can see a white serpent, a symbol of the universal libido she is
absorbing from the center of the Earth. Her green gaze transmits the gift of eternity.
The Emperor (Mil) symbolizes everything that is stable and material: his is the ultimate power
of matter. We can look at him only in profile because his direct gaze has the potential to
disintegrate. He rules effortlessly with no need to prop his scepter on his body. He is powerful
because he obeys the laws of the universe. He is accompanied by a female eagle sitting on an
egg—the egg of the wisdom imprisoned in matter. His light-blue hair indicates great emotional
receptivity, whereas the blond hair of The Empress indicates great intellectual activity.
The Emperor without The Empress is excessively materialistic and passive. The Empress
without The Emperor is extremely idealistic and active.
Order III—Mil. Placed this way, the two figures are looking at and completing
each other. We could say that The Empress bears the animus (active mind)
of The Emperor in her eagle, and The Emperor carries in his eagle the
anima (receptive soul) of The Empress. When they are together, activity and
receptivity complete each other. The spirit (3) dwells in matter (4) and
becomes stable. Both together, they can engender consciousness.
Order Mil—III. When The Emperor and The Empress have their backs to
each other, The Emperor loses all his ideals and becomes a pure
materialist. The eagle's egg does not hatch but rots. Having no purpose,
he pursues power only for the sake of power. But for lack of energy he
remains inactive, staring toward a sterile past. The gaze of the Empress,
meanwhile, is fixed on the emptiness of the future. She can support
herself on The Emperor's back, but she has not realized it. She becomes
bitter. The indifferent stability lent her by The Emperor leads her to
disappointment and a lack of interest in activity. Lacking an amorous gaze fixed upon her, she
despises herself. This situation is that of a quarrel between a couple, who, soon becoming
aware of what they have to lose, waste no time in putting themselves back face to face.
The Other Couples with The Empress
The Empress and The Chariot
Order III—VII. This encounter permits the creation of an extremely
energetic couple, overflowing with possibilities for action, creations,
conquests, and domination. The two understand each other almost
completely, except for one important point. The Empress acts from a
single point, the territory that is hers. She establishes its laws and
lifestyle. This could be a woman who is very attached to a home or a
piece of land. The prince of The Chariot, meanwhile, is a nomad who is
constantly moving and ceaselessly conquering new lands. To win The
Empress, The Chariot must sacrifice himself and agree to set down roots. But if he is unable to
colonize new lands, he will attempt to make himself master of those owned by his companion.
This could either engender a permanent power struggle or a large family.
Order VII—III. The figures here are not looking at each other. Each has
realized his or her characteristics without asking the other's participation.
He is in constant search of new horizons; she creates and declares her
empire from a central point that is its base. Their communication is
spiritual and of great intensity, but there is a risk they will rarely see each
other.
The Empress and The Hermit
Order III—Villi. In this couple we can either see a great difference in age
or a great difference in experience and temperament. They are closely
united; she brings him company, beauty, and vital juvenile enthusiasm,
while he offers her wisdom, experience, and a benevolent gaze on all
that exists. With The Hermit, The Empress leams to be, and he with her
leams how to live. The Hermit teaches the young woman detachment,
and she awakens sexual pleasure for him. The Hermit is an excellent
advisor for The Empress. When she desires to act, he discreetly retires,
walking backward without ceasing to cast his light on her. The Empress feels accompanied
and inspired, but free.
4.—
XL
U . .A
XL.
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u r a e r vim—in.
i riey are tuyeiner,
UUL
iney uu nui
KTIUW
wny.
N
IS
difference that joins them together. He is in the process of retiring from
the world, while she is on the verge of entering it. She does not know
where she is going; he knows where he has been. This is a disparate
couple that can easily be united by drugs or drinking, by pain, or even by
a sense of lack—perhaps she lost her father and he lost his daughter.
She may have a psychological wound and needs to form a couple with a
man who does not represent any danger. Each leaves the other alone
and respects his or her mystery—this is what binds them together. They do not know where
they are going, but they are going there together, content in their mutual company.
The Empress and The Sun
Order III—XVIIII. The Empress, in the presence of the Cosmic Father,
knows she should leave her past behind and set off into a new life. The
light of the solar body is reflected by the globe of her scepter as if it were
a miniature star. She has become aware that her creativity does not
belong to her and gives herself to unconditional love with her
characteristic fervor, producing enthusiastic creations. The Sun, facing
this enflamed priestess, deploys all his compassion to enable her to
move from the terrestrial plane to the spiritual plane. This man is a
teacher; he is there for humanity, and she joyfully accepts no longer being alone in her life.
Order XVIIII—III. In this situation The Empress wishes to keep all The
Sun's strength for herself alone, like the eagle on her shield. She will be
able to make herself the only woman in the life of The Sun, but she risks
spending her life considered by his entourage as nothing more than the
teacher's wife, a minor figure. This can give her the opportunity to find
herself—outside of this dependent relationship—and to create her own
work, stimulated by the heat of this presence.
The Other Couples with The Emperor
The Emperor and Justice
Order Mil—VIII. The Emperor, who is the perfection of the Earth square, is
followed by Justice, who is the perfection of the Heaven square. This is a
4 followed by a double 4. While we see material strength in The
Emperor, this force is also present in Justice, but it is completed by
spiritual strength. In this couple the woman is more developed than the
man and becomes a valiant ally. The Emperor humbly accepts Justice's
vision and applies it to his numerous actions. A perfect understanding
exists between them along with the ability to overcome the obstacles
posed by the world. This couple is united more by power than by love.
Order VIII—Mil. Here The Emperor's action degenerates. Instead of
dominating the world, he seeks to dominate his partner, knowing she is
superior to him. The couple can go into a crisis that will end either with
its destruction or with a profound change in the natures of each of the two
partners. In his attempt to dominate Justice, The Emperor could develop
the spiritual dimension he is missing. Justice, who could be tempted to
relegate herself to a maternal role, should leam to communicate as a
woman and as an individual with the one she has chosen as reality
principle.
The Emperor and The Star
w\
m.
Order Mil—XVII. The Emperor wisely channels the immense activity of
The Star. He will create ports, bridges, and other beneficial uses of the
energy from this endless river. The Star, who acts in one place and one
place alone, finds in The Emperor a means to extend her action over the
entire planet. The mind can embody itself here. This couple is united by
their love for each other and their devotion to their work. We could say
that the black bird of The Star has formed a relationship with The
Emperor's eagle, perhaps to teach him how to fly. Subconscious forces
meet a flexible rationality that puts them to work in everyday life.
Order XVII—llll. Here The Emperor claims to direct The Star's activity.
He wishes to be the source, to rule over what it is not possible to rule
and rationalize the untamable impulses of the subconscious. He would
rather that all the energy of The Star was turned toward him and not
toward the world. In the best case, he protects her and permits her to
continue her activity, but this protection can take on a domineering
appearance if The Emperor expects The Star, fundamentally free and
sacred, to sacrifice herself for him.
The Emperor and The Moon
Order llll—XVIII. The Emperor, supported by a woman representing the
Cosmic Mother, goes through an essential transformation: his action
becomes intuitive, poetic, and perhaps a little crazy; and his power, like
that of King Lear, can veer into the capricious. In the case of a great
artist, he will be driven to create a masterpiece. The Moon, meanwhile,
finds in him a root in reality, a secure home, and a mental structure
allowing her to express everything she has within her infinite self that
has no shape. This would be the situation for an extravagant surrealist
woman painter who was married to a photographer who took identity photos. This man permits
The Moon to live within her magnetic limits without betraying herself.
Order XVIII—llll. Here the couple goes into a kind of madness. Intuition
rules. The Emperor loses all sense of measure and contact with the
physical world; he becomes a lunatic. He is capable of giving his partner
fifteen children. The Moon will transform him into her son among her
multitude of children. It is she who rules the home, and the other family
members are all her subordinates. The Emperor, if he decides to make a
show of his male power, can help restore order to this family, though. He
will become the organizer of daily life and the worship of the mother.
THE CHARIOT—THE STAR
The VII and the XVII are the most active numbers of their series. As we have seen, the VII goes
from the Earth toward the sky: it represents the spiritualization of matter; whereas the XVII goes
from the Heavens toward the Earth, and represents the materialization of the spirit. Together
they produce the Great Work. In addition to their numerological relationship in the Tarot, we
should note that these two Arcana respectively represent a man and a woman, who can be
joined as a couple by several details. The Chariot travels beneath a dais covered by stars,
indicating his actions extend to the entire planet. The Star, kneeling beneath an open sky on a
chosen piece of ground, speaks of the extension of cosmic space. The prince of The Chariot
has two allies, his male and female horses, who are advancing with the intention of obtaining
something. The Star's two allies are her two vessels, which represent the gift of something.
She appears nude, indicative of her detachment from all definition and all material wealth. Her
power is that of humility. He, crowned, clad, and invested with all the signs of power,
represents the value of sacred pride: he recognizes himself as messenger of the cosmos. Each
of these two individuals bears a sign of fertility: the green drop on The Chariot represents, if
you like, the seed of immortality, whereas the symbol in the form of a bud or a mouth on The
Star's belly indicates a fertile reproductive capacity, one going beyond organic life.
The meeting of these two Arcana creates an action in the world of great intensity. They are
of equal strength but have two different attitudes. The prince of The Chariot conquers but
allows himself to be carried by the world. He is not necessarily a warrior but could have as his
mission the sowing of spirit in the material world. The Star acts from a specific spot. She has
found her sacred place and gives to the world what she has received from the cosmos in a
perpetual flow.
Order VII—XVII. The Chariot can bring The Star along on his
adventures. They then leave together to conquer the world. With his
nomadic nature, he helps her emerge from her sedentary nature. Or else,
without bringing her with him, he is able to transmit her work.
Order XVII—VII. These two individuals are so
similar that in this order all their values stay the
same. The sole difference from the preceding
couple is that the mobility of The Chariot is brought
to a halt by the static nature of his partner. Here,
therefore, their com-mon activity takes place in
The Star's territory, where The Chariot represents
a contribution. There is no longer any conquest,
just an immense gift.
The Other Couples with The Chariot
The Chariot and Justice
Order VIII—VII. In this situation, all the actions of The Chariot are judged
and given balance by Justice. She subjects the prince of The Chariot to
her own desire for perfection, putting the brakes on him, incapable of
accepting his spontaneity. She spends her time weighing good or evil,
the usefulness or uselessness of her actions. She can also halt the
excess of his actions—a potential risk of clumsiness or violence—by
evening it out and correcting it. It is possible that she will use The Chariot
to impose her laws upon the world. In his admiration for her and his
feeling that he has met the ideal mother, he puts himself in her hands in total obedience. He
may, however, feel a valid sense of frustration.
Order VII—VIII. The Chariot retains all his qualities of conqueror acting
upon matter and in the world, but this time he has found a partner who
justifies him completely. The world of his actions, whether correct or
mistaken, receives the unconditional approval of Justice. This maternal
woman, absolutely loyal and in complicity with him, gives him her
unreserved support. Better yet, she gives him a weapon, her sword,
which we can consider as a theoretical justification, a constitution, a
discourse that allows him to impose his whim—whether it is beneficial or
destructive for the world. She, living in balance, no longer has any field in which to develop.
Alone, she grows bored. Her encounter with The Chariot gives her the opportunity to launch
into adventure, into action, into the marvelous imbalance of excess. She feels alive.
The Chariot and The Moon
Order XVIII—VII. In this configuration, The Chariot loses his interest in
the world and desires to entirely win this woman, who represents the
archetype of the Cosmic Mother. This action presents some dangers:
The Moon is so dark and mysterious, so concentrated and so receptive,
that she is infinite. The prince could manage to deny his essence and
transform himself into a meditative individual as well as set out on the
path to madness. This realization could lead him to holiness or drugs.
For The Moon, in this case, the prince is one more thing to ingest, one
more food, one more energy that she delightedly devours. She would do better to resist her
fascination and suggest objectives for him that are foreign to her. If The Moon transforms into a
well-intentioned teacher for the prince, their relationship can be fruitful.
The Other Couples with The Star
The Star and The Hermit
Order Villi—XVII. The Hermit, having experienced everything and
attained wisdom, has forsaken his bonds with material life. He is now
retreating to find refuge in Nature represented by The Star. This woman
incarnates the pure, direct, and original bond with the cosmos. The Star's
extreme generosity allows The Hermit to give and pass along this
accumulated wisdom to the world. She finds in The Hermit a person who
adds rational and metarational thought to her activity. The Star attains the
most sublime form of the mind, and in return she gives The Hermit
her power to give, becoming in some way the oil of his lantern.
Order XVII—Villi. The Hermit becomes the source of action here in such
a way that the natural activity of The Star is disturbed by the extreme
ratiocination of the sage. The Hermit's crisis lodges a doubt in the gift of
The Star. Does it serve any purpose to divulge her knowledge and help
the world? Or should she withdraw into herself? The Star could lose her
faith and spontaneity here, becoming overly reflective. This could be the
couple formed by a woman who feels the absence of her father with a
substitute archetype. The entire stakes of this relationship will be to
interrupt the doubt and return to heart-inspired action, for both parties involved.
The Star and the Sun
Order XVII—XVIIII. The Star, who receives the knowledge of the eight
stars symbolizing the perfection of the cosmos, performs her action in a
place that she has discovered and chosen. But she retains a nostalgia for
the higher spheres, symbolized by the black bird perched as if ready to fly
back to its point of origin. This nostalgia for the grandeur of the supreme
Father is suddenly dissolved by meeting The Sun. The yellow-and-red
eighth star acquires a human face in Arcanum XVIIII, giving her the
possibility of forming a couple with a man of her level. The vital stream
flowing at the bottom of The Sun symbolizes his immense love for The Star. After meeting him,
the peaceful waterway she helps nourish can transform into a tumultuous river that offers itself
to the entire world. This is a couple dedicated to humanity and universal love.
Order XVIIII—XVII. Here, The Star, instead of offering her forces to the
world, restores them to the stars from whence they came. We could see
this as the triumph of the black bird: instead of giving herself to humanity,
the naked woman worships The Sun with so much energy she risks
drowning him. Wishing him solely for herself, she separates him from the
world. The Sun, in his paternal role, allows himself to be imprisoned by
his incestuous daughter and shines only for her, depriving others of his
heat and inseminating light. This couple should leam to open itself to the
world and make a place for the Other, with The Sun triumphing over his weakness and The
Star her jealousy.
JUSTICE—THE HERMIT
Justice, Arcanum VIII, is the number of perfection: balance in the flesh, balance in the mind.
Nothing can be added to her, nor anything taken away. To others as to herself she gives what
they deserve. The light rising from her crown toward Heaven indicates that she is a channel
implementing the laws of the cosmos. The dark-yellow circle in the middle of her crown
symbolizes the gaze of the deity. The red bow girding her hat indicates that she is God in
action. The white band around her forehead represents the purity of her thoughts. She is
looking straight at us: she is our mirror. The rope she wears around her neck designates her as
being completely attached to her mission. The throne behind her contrasts with the sylvan
ground on which her feet are resting: this points to the fact that her perfection is both inside and
outside. In her right hand she is brandishing a light-blue sword, symbol of the Logos, the
sacred text of the Law, with which she cuts away everything that is superfluous, everything that
is subjective and a product of the individual ego. In her left hand, where she is forming a
symbol of peace and union with her fingers, she is holding up scales that balance the
opposites and makes them complementary. Clad in red with nine patches of ermine on her
side, she is displaying her royal origin and telling us that justice should be the principal aspect
of human power. She combines punishment (her sword) with reward (the scales). While the
red of her dress represents action, the cold nature of her blue robe expresses the ability to
reflect that precedes all actions. The left side of this robe buries itself like a root into the earth:
like a spider in its web she waits in a fixed position, completely in the present. She is perfect.
She cannot change. She is the immutable axis of impermanence, the empty hub of the wheel.
On the other hand, The Hermit (Villi) represents crisis and passage, progressing by going
backward. With his light-blue hair and beard (total spirituality, see p. 95), with his thick hood
and robe that lock his flesh in darkness so that he may become mind, with his lantern and red
staff (wisdom become pure action), he is abandoning perfection. Nine is the first odd number
divisible by 3, which makes him active toward the past and receptive toward the future. He
detaches himself from the 8 to go farther, he knows not where. He is cutting the circle of
perfection to transform it into an active spiral. He lifts his lantern, the symbol of wisdom, not to
light his way but so that others can follow him as he walks backward. The light of wisdom is not
made for display but to be seen. Chosen by fate, he is like The Fool, who has traveled the
entire path of the first decimal series, experienced all beliefs, all loves, all desires, and all
actions. Now he pulls back while awaiting the arrival of a new cycle.
Order VIII—Villi. When Justice is followed by The Hermit, it causes
something good to happen. The Hermit brings Justice a new point of
view that, by freeing her from perfection, liberates her from death. The
permanence of Justice is balanced by The Hermit's impermanence. Next
to him she becomes the ideal Mother, and he, next to her, becomes the
wise and benevolent Father, capable of granting forgiveness. When
Justice is accompanied by The Hermit, she becomes more human and
seeks to understand rather than punish.
Order Villi—VIII. When The Hermit is followed by Justice, there is a risk
of conflict. With her sword Justice cuts away all compassion and all
ability to enter a positive crisis. She becomes an absolutist and will not
accept any charitable thoughts. The Hermit can no longer walk backward
because the standardizing sword of Justice arrests his movement to
detach himself. Losing hope in the future, he is at risk of becoming
sealed within his solitude and focusing on the past, which carries the
additional risk of his adopting self-destructive behaviors like alcoholism.
Holding his red staff in a light-blue hand, he who had controlled his passions suffers the
negativity of Justice in this situation. Justice has to completely lower her sword and verbal
attacks and allow him to go beyond himself.
The Other Couples with Justice
Justice and The Sun
Order VIII—XVIIII. A judge, when he metes out praise and punishment,
can always make mistakes and let himself get carried away by the
darkness of subconscious impulses. Judging is difficult and an immense
responsibility. When she meets The Sun, Justice receives the absolute
security of delivering just and luminous verdicts. But in this couple, The
Sun has a higher level of consciousness than Justice. He will
necessarily become her guide. She will give him everything of which she
is capable: her loving and complete trust, putting her sword and scales in
his hands. The Sun, thanks to this faithful servant and through her, can achieve huge changes
and new constructions, cleansing the past. She is his principle for incarnating in reality.
Order XVIIII—VIII. Here The Sun takes the central place and relegates
Justice to the background. The danger is that a conflict will ensue in
which Justice can risk reducing his action and depreciating it to lower
him to the level of a hermit withdrawing from the world. For his part, The
Sun will attempt to transform Justice into The Moon, a woman of his
level, but this attempt will be fruitless because she will feel stripped of
her material reality. The problem with this couple is that neither accepts
the other for what he or she is. He would like her to be more than she is;
she wants him to be less than he is. The solution is to accept each other as they are and stop
making demands.
The Other Couples with The Hermit
The Hermit and The Moon
Order Villi—XVIII. In Zen it is said that a grain of sand in the noon sky
will darken the entire heavens. In the case of this couple, the reverse is
true: a single lamp lit in the darkness of the night will illuminate the entire
world. The Hermit is retreating, bearing his treasure of light—mental
concentration and the intense point of awareness—toward a being that
functions exclusively with intuition and the subconscious. With a single
stroke he becomes the luminous heart of the night, and everything
makes sense. We can imagine him as a therapist who has decided to
form a couple with one of his patients. It's possible. Or even a sage who forms a couple with a
celebrity astrologer, a philosopher who unites with a poetess ... Both enrich each other in this
relationship.
Order XVIII—Villi. In this situation, it is night that has the upper hand.
The Hermit's lantern has become insufficient here. Madness is beyond
the therapist's abilities; the star transforms the sage into a jealous lover;
the philosopher starts raving ... or secludes himself, being unable to
reach any understanding with his poetess. Here, the risk for The Hermit
as for The Moon is the abuse of toxic substances, alcohol, or drugs. The
sole possible solution is for The Hermit to illuminate himself and become
The Sun, attaining holiness and the total power of love.
THE MOON—THE SUN
In Jungian psychology as in Amerindian or African myths, as well as in
primitive European iconography, the moon-sun couple incarnate the
fundamental encounter between the Cosmic Father, the sun, dispenser
of light and life, raised to the rank of a god by the name of Ra in Egypt,
and the archetypal Mother, the moon, queen of the night and of the
kingdom of gestation and intuition, the mistress of the waters who
governs the movement of the tides. According to modem science, the
oceans are the fundamental womb for all life on Earth. In the Tarot, the
symmetry between the two cards is obvious: on the top of both cards there is a celestial body
endowed with a face, which projects its influence on earthly life in the form of multicolored
drops. In The Sun, there are two twin boys who are receiving the benefits of the paternal star;
and in The Moon there are two dogs or wolves—symbols of animal life and the human ego—
and a crayfish hiding in the depths of a lake or ocean, like a baby in gestation in the waters of
the maternal womb.
These cards have numerous meanings, but often in a reading they refer us to an idealized
father or mother, either because they were truly perfect, or because they were absent from the
life of the person receiving the reading. It is common to see a woman with an absent father
draw The Sun as her desired partner. The man who falls in love with her will have to make
immense efforts to be equal to her little-girl dreams, and his efforts will never be quite enough.
Similarly, any man who thinks, "No woman cooks as well as my mama," has in mind the
mythical and solemn Moon as his desired partner—someone who is never tired, whose hair is
never a mess, and who is never in a bad mood, someone who is always sublime and
mysterious.
To sum up, only The Moon is on an equal footing with The Sun, and vice versa. In each of
us exists a trace of this fabled femininity and masculinity, a wealth of clarity and intuition,
courage and tenderness, an enterprising spirit, and the ability to tune in. These cards also
come to remind us what our valuable qualities are and that it is time to cultivate them.
Order XVIIII—XVIII. When The Sun is followed by The Moon, the values
of receptivity and activity are reversed. This can mean that the woman of
a couple is more masculine and the man more feminine. This will induce
a cosmic disorder, because The Sun cannot reflect The Moon; it is not in
its nature to reflect. The Moon, meanwhile, being a satellite and not a
star, cannot shine with its own light. Much mental suffering can be
created by this displacement; becoming aware of it is the first step toward
healing.
The Pairs That Add Up to 21
ELEVEN PATHS OF REALIZATION
We saw in part 1 that one of the possible organizational strategies for the twenty-two Major
Arcana consists of assembling them in pairs that together add up to 21. This outline gives us
eleven pairs: Fool-XXI, X-XX, ll-XVIIII, III—XVIII, Mil—XVII, V-XVI, VI-XV, VII-XIIII, VIII—XIII,
VIIII-XII, X—XI.
In the center is the pair formed by The Wheel of Fortune (X) and Strength (XI), which we can
consider as the heart of the Tarot. If we examine the figures in these two cards, we could say
that they have between them all the elements needed to make The World. In fact, the woman
and the lion of Strength could take the place of the woman and the lion in The World. Then we
could, if we wanted, attribute to the three figures of The Wheel of Fortune the following roles:
the descending flesh-colored animal could be the flesh-colored animal of The World; the
winged sphinx could be the angel of The World; and the yellow animal, who is ascending,
could represent the eagle of The World. This is how the union of these two cards makes it
possible to re-create Arcanum XXI.
This clue encourages us to read all the pairs surrounding the X-XI pair that added together
form XXI so we can understand in what way the meeting of these two energies constitutes a
path of realization. With these eleven pairs, the Tarot offers us eleven combinations, energies
that, when combined, "make a world," a XXI.
The Fool and The World are complementary, but they do not have the same action. The Fool is
depicted walking, advancing from the beginning of the Tarot to its end. The World is depicted
fixed, with the woman standing on one foot as if to indicate she has found her place. In his
highest level of interpretation, The Fool is the energy we could call divine, for believers, or
cosmic, for nonbelievers. The Fool, because he has no limits, no number, no definition,
because he is pure energy, tends to saturate all matter, is 100 percent active. He is the central
motor for the entire universe, for all of life. The World, to the contrary, while we cannot label her
as receptive, can at least be said to consist of capturing and inhaling: an activity that is
deployed from a given place. The entire world is inhaling at every moment the fundamental
energy, which in turn is saturating and penetrating it. This is an act of constant love. Certain
esoteric thinkers of past centuries attributed the number 22 to The Fool. This would be an
aberrational situation for him, which would correspond to making him come after The World.
This would fundamentally mean that matter was ceaselessly refusing all divine or cosmic
energy and that this energy was abandoning it at every instant. The fundamental energy of The
Fool seeks The World, and The World needs The Fool's energy to live.
The Magician, ever seeking to go higher, and seeking the magic and powers from on high,
meets in Judgment what is the most elevated: the ultimate evolution of consciousness,
symbolized by an angel. This is not so much a quest as it is a transformation. The coin in The
Magician's hand—his material existence, his quest for treasure—corresponds to the angel's
yellow halo, the golden egg placed behind his head. This could also be a young individual
who is entering life with the intention of starting a family. For his part, the supreme
Consciousness is looking for an initiate to undertake the path of awareness.
The High Priestess, devoted to collecting and studying inside the cloister, receives with
Arcanum XVIIII light, freedom of movement, and the possibility of transmitting the sacred Word
to the entire world. She is no longer alone with her book; the Logos has made itself flesh and
heat: her egg will be able to hatch. If she represents a writer, an actor, or an actress, The Sun is
her success and entrance into the world. For the Sun god, The High Priestess is virgin flesh,
the Virgin Mary. The total love within us needs an entirely virgin space in which to sow its
seed. The High Priestess also represents the practice of prayer, dialogue with the Creator. On
the light-bathed landscape of The Sun, The High Priestess's cloister provides a friendly zone
of shadow and coolness.
The boundless action of The Empress encounters the limitless reception of The Moon, two
aspects of the creative woman. This encounter is like a bomb in which the lit fuse is The
Empress and the explosive powder is The Moon. The Empress's capacity for creation,
absorbed by the immensity of The Moon, is increased to cosmic proportions. She is no longer
a woman but femininity itself. With The Empress, The Moon experiences the intoxication of
action. She who for so long placed all her hopes in The Sun finds in The Empress a
welcoming womb that will give birth to her—for if The High Priestess represents virginity, The
Empress represents fertility. The Empress represents the body, sexuality, feelings, and fully
healthy intellect in which The Moon can incarnate.
The Emperor encounters prosperity, health, fertility, and purity of intention in The Star. His
entire rule is affected by this meeting: she embodies the generosity of this universe whose
laws it is his duty to apply. Thanks to her he leams how to connect directly with the cosmic
forces. Love of creation colors his all-powerful rule with humility and gentleness. For her part,
the generous action of The Star has no meaning unless she finds a reality in which to pour it.
The Emperor protects her and gives her his empire. She is like a river whose course will be
adjusted by the concrete strength of The Emperor, whose power to act she will reinforce in
return.
The Tower gives The Pope joy, fantasy, sexual liberation, and all the vital enthusiasm and
supreme instruction the teacher needs to be a teacher, how to free his students from his
teaching and encourage them to leam from themselves. With The Tower, The Pope tells them:
"I am your final teacher, not that I may be the best, but because I teach you how to leam from
yourselves." He is also a visionary figure who has returned to the present: the theology or
mysticism preached by The Pope lives in the direct experience of the Divine. Celestial
inspiration, the desire to go deeper, should not lead him to escape the present. The Tower
finds in The Pope someone who can dwell in it like a temple, who will restore to its explosive
burst a sense of hierarchy, discernment, and the very notion of God: under the eyes of The
Pope, the body, existence, every terrain, every joy, every intoxication, is sanctified as a
manifestation of the Divine. The festival is full of meaning: the supreme festival is the meeting
with Consciousness.
On one side an angel is outlined against a sun. On the other, an angel of darkness is
brandishing a torch. The Lover is a card of union that evokes the pleasure of doing what one
loves and freely consensual emotional attachment. The Devil, meanwhile, represents the
sexual force that arises from the dark depths of the individual: passion and impulses, creativity,
the breaking of boundaries, and rebellion against the rational forces. The figures of The Lover
are standing on cultivated plowed ground. It is a surface that tends to communicate with
celestial values, to grow as high as the central Lover, who loves everything and everyone
without reservation: the white sun. The Devil is the antithesis of this. The figures are inside a
primordial cavern with their feet on a dark magma, denying the light of the deity. The Devil
lights his own torch, his own illumination. While Arcanum VI is social, Arcanum XV is
individual. If Arcanum VI is the card of freely consented choice, Arcanum XV is a card of
passion that one has no choice but to obey. These two Arcana complete each other: one offers
the light of Consciousness and the other the darkness of the subconscious. The richness of
these opposites is the path that leads us to realize the amorous passionate life; love compels
us to encounter passion-spawned desires and identify our projections. Conversely, the mystery
of taste, of what irresistibly pleases us, reminds us that in the domain of love and passion, we
are both divine and diabolical. What truly gives us pleasure is anchored in our subconscious
and in our profound creativity.
VI! The Chariot-" <-XII!l Temperance
The Chariot, the essential conqueror, forgets himself. He is one with the movement of the
world. Temperance returns to spiritual values and communication with himself. The two are
complementary: the pure action of The Chariot, turned toward an outside objective, could
become destructive without the inner presence and moderation of Temperance. When The
Chariot is fighting, Temperance blesses and calms his aggressiveness, protecting him from his
excessive energy. Similarly, just as the prince's light-blue hair is the engine of The Chariot's
material activity, the light-blue wings of the angel of Temperance are the motors of his spiritual
activity. The Chariot's movement is horizontal and is deployed in space, whereas that of
Temperance is vertical and develops along the line of time. The Chariot seeks wisdom in the
Earth, whereas the angel is bringing the wisdom of the celestial world. We need to look at the
cards not one after the other but at the same time, like a musical chord. Temperance's action
without The Chariot can remain in a closed circuit, unconscious and hesitant. The Chariot
gives him a means of taking action in this world, materializing his harmony. What is on the
inside transpires like what is on the outside. This pair also evokes the fact that one accepts
being protected and guided.
VIII justice-* <-Xlil The Nameless Arcanum
The perfection of Justice, which tends toward paralysis, encounters in Arcanum XIII the
possibility of transformation and the comprehension of impermanence. This union permits her
to not hold change back but to welcome it. The true balance of Justice consists of accepting
transformation. Her message could be of giving people what they deserve, and with Arcanum
XIII there is a risk that this course will incite a revolution. This union indicates that the sole way
to feel right with oneself is to accept self-transformation. Everything that remains fixed inside
causes us harm. Being alive means being in perpetual transformation. Arcanum XIII finds a
meaning in his revolution in Justice. Just as order feeds on chaos, chaos needs order to
acquire form. The cleansing of Arcanum XIII makes sense if its purpose or foundation is
balance, a new notion of perfection, or the Law. The Hebrew term tohu bohu* means "chaos,"
the egg of order.
These two Arcana reflect the two paths of knowledge that alchemical tradition called the "dry
path" and the "wet path." In the dry path, seekers study, read, and read again, pray, confining
themselves to strict practices and a flawless discipline until they find wisdom. In the wet path
we are not looking. We receive, as illustrated by this Zen saying: "Door open to the north, to the
south, to the east, and to the west." The Hanged Man makes no effort. He surrenders, accepts
emptiness, and abandons all choice and will. The Hermit spends a lifetime searching to reach
—at the end of an immense labor—holy ignorance. This is what unites him with The Hanged
Man; what The Hanged Man finds after deep meditation is what The Hermit transmits as the
result of a research path whose substratum is concentrated in the light of his lamp. The
essential muteness of The Hanged Man is the root of the precise words of The Hermit. This
could be the master who guides the meditation of his disciple, both sharing a relationship of
reciprocal necessity. This could be a doctor and a patient, one bringing the knowledge
necessary to affect a cure and the other a subject for study and practice. In a more everyday
context, we could also see The Hanged Man as a baby in gestation and The Hermit as the
father full of experience who supervises his development. The fetus is then the hope of the
mature man to perpetuate himself into the future.
With this pair, the Tarot teaches us that if we truly wish to enter ourselves, we should not
forget our responsibilities in the presence of life, facing transmission and teaching. We cannot
fall into a trance all alone, like The Hanged Man.
We could say that these two cards are the heart of the Tarot. Everything is in the process of
ending, and at the same time everything is on the verge of beginning. Eternal ending, eternal
beginning. If we consider this couple this way, it is easier to grasp its profound meaning.
In The Wheel of Fortune, all experiences have been lived. Between ascent and descent,
repeated cycles have turned into vicious circles. It is missing a new impetus that will break this
rhythm so that the circle can open to the vertical dimension and be converted into a spiral. This
is what Strength brings. She represents an energy in the state of potential that finds The Wheel
of Fortune a propitious terrain in which to expand. Like a traditional business will invent a new
product to find its way out of a commercial dead end, we can use the sexual and creative
energies that Justice places continuously at our disposal to get out of a rut if we allow them to
circulate freely and intelligently in our being. This could also be a new remedy that makes it
possible to cure what had been an incurable disease. It is every authentically new creative
solution that is both created by a block and allows this block to be dissolved. It is also the end
of one economic situation and a new possibility for making money. In every financial setback
there is the possibility for ingenuity and a launching pad for a different activity. These two cards
share a profound interaction, because without the immobilizing experience of The Wheel of
Fortune, we could hesitate to contact forces from depths perceived as dangerous or terrifying.
Often a difficulty or block will pull us toward an artistic or therapeutic form, a practice that we
would never have imagined before. Arcanum X is a launch pad that allows us to enter into the
new experience of Strength.
The Tarot's message with this pair is that every time something ends, we need to think that
something new is beginning, that this end and beginning are one.
Numerical Succession and Transfer
Keys for the Reading of Two Cards
While it is not possible for us to study all the pairs that can be formed from the cards of the
Major Arcana, we wanted to conclude this part of the book by providing several additional
examples that allow us to give two more essential elements for reading these two-card
"syllables."
In the first three examples, we study three sets of two Major Arcana that follow each other in
numerical order: XII and XIII, XV and XVI, and XX and XXI. We shall see that the numerical
order can be taken into account when reading the cards that have been drawn: if the pair of
cards chosen expresses passage from a receptive even-number level to that of an active oddnumber level, the interpretation dynamic is not the same as when the cards are going from
active to receptive.
Furthermore, we decided to study the transfer of the symbols that takes place between
Arcanum XV, The Devil, and Arcanum XVIIII, The Sun. The purpose of this example is to
inspire the reader to identify, by enabling both cards to echo each other, which elements are
found in both, and how these elements are transformed. This dynamic reading work is a key
element for reading a Tarot spread as a whole and not as a succession of isolated elements.
Along the same lines, we propose the reading of three, then four cards with this same key
that constitutes the transfer of the symbols. As one example, we have the series XVII—XVIII—
XVIIII, with the blue river flowing across the three cards, and as another, the "breakdown" of
The Lover (VI) into three individuals: The Magician (I), The High Priestess (II), and The
Empress (III).
FROM RECEPTION TO ACTION, FROM ACTION TO RECEPTION
XII The Hanged Man—XIII The Nameless Arcanum
The relationship between these two Arcana is one of extreme tension, similar to those concrete
girders that have a taut iron armature inside. The XII is an extreme stop; the XIII is an extreme
transformational explosion. We could say that both change the world: The Hanged Man
ceases to decide and stops the world by stopping himself and burying himself in his inner
search; Arcanum XIII destroys the old worid so the new world can be bom. These two actions
at opposite poles have the common effect of destroying the old reality. The numerical order of
the cards is XII-XIII: this fall into oneself, this looking back upon the world to seek only what is
true, and this seedlike state of nonaction prepare the way for the hatching, the birth, the
explosion.
XIII. This is a magnificent time of explosive creativity. Everything that
was contained in The Hanged Man bursts out in the Nameless Arcanum.
The great change takes place—transformation and revolution—but their
results are not yet known. To shed light on this point, it is necessary to
draw another card or several more.
XIII—XII. In this configuration, we find ourselves in
the presence of great frustration. All the
transformational energy of the Nameless Arcanum
(XIII) collides against the dam presented by The
Hanged Man. This situation can lead to selfdestruction or rage.
XV The Devil—XVI The Tower
Here, too, we move from a card in which the figures are bound (XV) and buried in an
underground world to a card depicting an explosion, a joyous emergence into the open air.
The numerical order is XV-XVI. The Tower then represents this first ascent of the energies
from the depths.
XV—XVI. We are in the presence of underground forces manifesting
themselves. Everything that has hitherto been hidden is said,
discovered, or brought into the light. Both marvelous and shameful
secrets are revealed. A profound creativity finds expression in an artistic
or festive form. This can be a moment of great bliss or huge shame, but
in any case it is a purifying stage.
XVI—XV. The mind descends into the depths of
the subconscious, becomes attached to matter,
and feeds the torch of creation. After the joyous
explosion comes the rooting in adoration. This can
be the herald of a great passion, but it may also
indicate a tie that is hard to break.
XX Judgment—XXI The World
XX—XXI. This is complete success; what the angel offers has been
realized. The irresistible desire culminates in its satisfaction. Through
the intermediary of the angel, we know grace; through that of the eagle,
illumination; through that of the lion, cosmic orgasm; through that of the
flesh-colored animal, trance and divine peace. The four supreme hopes
of the human being can then be realized. In material life he becomes a
champion capable of defeating all obstacles and triumphing. In vital
force (the lion) he makes himself a hero, capable of defeating death. In
the intellect (the eagle) he attains genius, capable of discovering what no one has ever seen.
In the emotional center (the angel) he becomes a saint wanting nothing for himself that is not
also for others.
XXI—XX. We are in a tragic and painful situation. Arcanum XXI (the end)
is placed at the beginning. Here it represents imprisonment, absence of
communication, autism, or, even more precisely, a difficult birth. This
negation of birth is so strong that in Judgment, the person attempting to
emerge from the tomb (the alchemical athanor) remains a captive of the
density of matter and, despite the work and the prayers, cannot achieve
his ascent. The irresistible desire does not find satisfaction. Because
The World has been snared this way, it is impossible for the four
supreme hopes to be realized. The individual feels like a loser, a coward, a mediocrity, and an
egotist Obviously this situation is not irreversible: in an actual reading, which is to say with a
minimum of three cards, the following card would indicate the way to get out of this painful
situation.
THE TRANSFER OF SYMBOLS FROM ONE ARCANUM TO ANOTHER
XV The Devil—XVIIII The Sun
We could consider The Devil as representing the most buried, dark, and
deepest side of the Tarot. The Sun, on the other hand, is the most
luminous symbol of all. In Arcanum XV, we see an androgynous being
holding a torch in his left hand that casts its light upon a rooted malefemale couple, who are bound and inactive and probably imprisoned by
their own will. The female has three dots on one side at rib level,
representing, if we like, the spiritual dimension. We could say that we see these two figures
again in The Sun, but now they are free. But where they refused the gift in The Devil, hiding
their hands behind their backs, we see them here in a relationship of mutual aid. The figure on
the right is helping the other across the river, symbol of eternal life that flows like perpetual
change. This figure has his hand at the nape of his partner's neck, thereby affirming his
intention of conscious development. The other is stretching his hands toward the three dots
that his companion has on his side, in other words, toward the divine ideal. The individual on
the left still has the tail we saw on the imps of Arcanum XV, but where the appendages of these
latter extended indefinitely, limitlessly outward, the tail of the figure in The Sun, to the contrary,
folds back toward the inside. Similarly, the figures of The Sun wear around their necks a red
remnant of the rope that bound them to The Devil; the animal nature of the ego has not been
eliminated but honored and tamed.
The three dots have shifted: in Arcanum XV, the figure on the left is wearing them, and in
The Sun it is the figure on the right. The female mind is the first to take the step toward
illumination. To reach his goal, the man should awaken his anima. In The Devil, the light-blue
river appears to have ceased flowing; it is static and dead: the ego claims to fix time to a set
position. But this undertaking only results in fixing oneself to this set position; the individual
snares and roots himself. The trio in The Devil turns his abode into an imprisoning pedestal. It
is the animal quest for territory. In The Sun, a short wall, like an endless enclosure, separates
past and present and allows the construction of a new life in love and giving. The thirteen
drops rising toward the sun bring Arcanum XIII to mind, the symbol of transformation. They
represent the aspirations of all aware beings on the Earth who climb toward The Sun, image of
our eternal Consciousness, the central fire that animates us. The sun is made up of red and
yellow: blood and light. This luminous life permits the construction of a wall, it too of blood and
light, which does not imprison but eliminates the notion of possession. It simply protects us
from ties to the past.
XVII The Star—XVIII The Moon—XVIIII The Sun
It is possible to think that the expanse of water we see in The
Moon is contained by its boundaries in such a way that the
crayfish found there is held prisoner. However, this body of
water cannot be understood unless we place The Moon back
in between The Star and The Sun. We then find ourselves
facing a river that comes from far away and continues to flow
even farther away. It comes from Arcanum XVII where a
naked woman, symbol of the anima, of inner truth, has found
her active spot on the red ground where she is resting her knee. Through her contact with the
ground, she sanctifies it. With her two vessels she is purifying the current that comes from the
past (from the left in the direction of the reading). This purification is achieved by means of two
energies: sexual energy (dark blue) and spiritual energy (yellow) that we also see in the seven
minor stars (blue and yellow) in the card's sky. The two vessels, however, bear the red and
yellow colors of the central star.
The orange half-moon that the female figure bears on her brow points to her mental
receptivity to the cosmic energies. It is not she who desires, it is the cosmos that desires her—
that desires us. It is not she who spiritualizes, it is the cosmos that sends her awareness. She
is in the position of servitor to the universal Great Work. The black bird perched on the
branches is the symbol of her human part (the ego) that has been reduced to the volatile state,
to a docile and active nothingness.
The purified river reaches the pond of The Moon, but the crayfish does not obey the current.
It does not wish to go forward; it wants an ideal—symbolized by The Moon. The nocturnal body
bears the same colors as the crayfish, indicating that it is only a projection of this mad and
idealistic animal. The howling dogs (or wolves) feed on this desire for the ideal, but without
giving any assistance. Each is concerned only for itself. To advance, the crayfish will have to
take this satellite that is the moon as its model: become more and more transparent until it is
only a reflection, a minor of solar light, the light of love. In The Star, the stars are faraway suns.
The idealist Moon gazes at the faraway Sun. When the receptive labor has reached its end, the
face of The Moon, which is the essence of the crayfish (light blue), dissolves in the river of The
Sun. There in Arcanum XVIIII, the duality of the two vessels in Arcanum XVII and the two dogs
of The Moon unite together, the two individuals helping each other under the loving gaze of
The Sun. They are walking over the river of life, separating themselves from the past with the
wall that can be seen behind them and by building their new paradise. The love sent them by
The Sun, by germinating in their hearts, climbs back to him in the rising drops. Everything that
we give is given back; everything that we do not give is taken away.
Basically, what The Star is striving to do is to conciliate the two great universal archetypes:
The Moon, which represents the most sublime values of the mother, and The Sun, which
represents the most elevated values of the father. Without a balance between these two
archetypes, no task can be completed successfully.
In the drawings where these three Arcana appear, The Star generally represents the
consultant; if it is a man, this Arcanum evokes his feminine, artistic, mediumistic, receptive part
(anima). But attention should be paid: if we invert the order given us by The Tarot (this order
being The Moon on the left and The Sun on the right), we find ourselves with:
XVII—XVIIII—XVIII. The mother takes the place of the father
and becomes intrusive, cruel, and dictatorial. And the father
takes the place of the mother, becoming weak, childish, and
absent.
XVIII—XVIIII—XVII. The Star
never ceases to look at The
Sun and The Moon. She
remains dependent, wiping
away the future and falling into
childish daydreams.
XVIII—XVII—XVIIII. The Star takes the father's place and lives
to seduce the mother, whose metaphorical fiancee she
becomes, relegating the father to the background.
XVIIII—XVII—XVIII. The Star,
by appropriating the immense
receptivity of The Moon (her
mother), becomes the wife of
her father. This
is
an
incestuous
relationship
in
which the young woman will
play the role of mother for her
brothers and sisters.
I The Magician—II The High Priestess—III The Empress, and Their Mirror: VI The
Lover
It is necessary to understand that the Tarot is an optical language and that in certain regards it
is similar to the language of music. A single note does not resonate in the same way as a
chord of two or three notes. In music, the chord, although made up of several notes, is
perceived by the ear as a single unit. To leam how to read the Tarot, it is necessary to be able
to conceptualize the "chords" of several cards.
For example, The Magician next to The High Priestess could very easily bring to mind a
person who draws his strength from a secret knowledge (the cloistered High Priestess). An
action is in preparation; it is incubating as The High Priestess's egg indicates. If we add The
Empress (l-ll-lll), a sudden explosion is created, an explosion of creativity. And if we add
together the numerical value of these cards, we get: 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. VI is the card The Lover, the
one that provides the tone of the "chord"—The Magician between The High Priestess and The
Empress, mirroring the three figures (a man and two women) that appear on the card of The
Lover.
By studying the Arcana in this way, we shall see that the feet of The Magician are pointing in
two opposite directions like the feet of the young man of The Lover. We could say that he is
placing himself simultaneously on two diverging paths. The Magician is holding a magic wand
in his left hand, the symbol of extreme creativity. A yellow sphere or coin in his right hand
symbolizes accumulation and concentration. What path will he take? The Lover gives us an
indication that he will realize the union of the two tendencies. To his right we in fact see a
woman wearing a blue crown, corresponding to The High Priestess. She is holding him by the
shoulder and the bottom of his tunic, as if to restrain him, but at the same time is lending him
support and granting him her experience. To the young man's left (our right), a woman wearing
a flower crown represents The Empress. She is pointing to her companion's heart with one
hand, while the other hand, amalgamated with his, is pointed toward her womb as if to say:
"Impregnate me." Similarly, The Empress is holding an eagle in her arms like a child or an
awareness in gestation. The scepter she is propping up with her belly is sprouting a tiny green
leaf, sign of a perpetually renewing creativity.
The three figures in Arcana I, II, and III are separated. They find their union in The Lover.
The coin, the book, and the eagle, three degrees of the work in gestation, have risen into the
sky, creating the divine awareness that is nothing other than love—exaltation of the miracle of
all life. In this loving union, we hearthe chord uniting past, present, and future. This harmony is
the union of opposites, or of concepts that are separate in appearance: conservation,
destruction, and creation. The VI also tells us that the highest love is the love of beauty and the
acceptance of the existence of the other.
Let's take the three Arcana. If we look at them going l-ll-lll, there is no communication
between the figures.
In the sense ll-l-lll (see preceding page), we find The Magician futilely attempting to provide
a means for The High Priestess and The Empress to communicate. For this union to succeed,
we should read the cards in the order lll-l-ll. Here all the figures are looking at one another,
putting their forces to work for their shared harmony.
It is interesting to note that this order is not the exact reproduction of what we see in
Arcanum VI, but its mirror image. This is yet another clue the Tarot provides us: it is not the
projection of our situation, but our mirror. It is up to us to see our reflections in it and to reflect
upon them—to better understand ourselves.
PART FIVE
The Reading of the Tarot
Opening
How to Become a Mirror
During my first years studying the Tarot, seeking the meaning of its symbols, I considered them
to be a tool for self-knowledge. Influenced by my reading of books on alchemy, the Kabbalah,
and other initiatory traditions, I believed that whoever aspired to wisdom had to work in
solitude. The seed, to germinate, needs the darkness of the depths of the Earth, just like the
fetus requires the darkness of the maternal womb; and the soul, according to Saint John of the
Cross, to reach union with God, must pass through the dark night of the soul in nakedness and
purgation:
In the happy night,
In secret where none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide,
Save that which burned in my heart.
This is why, combined with the commercial use of the Tarot by the fashionable
fortunetellers, I disdained the reading aspect. From an initiatory but also a scientific point of
view, it seemed shameful to me to use the cards to predict the future. A passage from the Bible
corroborated my feelings:
"There must never be anyone among you ... who practices divination, who is soothsayer, augur, or
sorcerer, weaver of spells.... For anyone that does these things is detestable to Yahweh your God."
(Deut. 18:10-12, Jerusalem Bible)
However, having decided to confer upon the Arcana the role of my only teacher, and
committing myself to obey them totally, just as I had accepted the clue of Arcanum XVI, The
Tower, to clarify my notion of God, I had to take into account a clear message from The High
Priestess. Each of the major Arcana quite clearly indicates an action that can be summed up in
one verb. With The Fool, it is possible this word would be travel; with The Empress seduce;
with The Emperor command; with The Pope teach; with The Lover exchange; with The Chariot
conquer; with Justice balance; with The Hermit enlighten; with The Wheel of Fortune accept;
with Strength dominate; with The Hanged Man sacrifice; with the Nameless Arcanum
eliminate; with Temperance calm; with The Devil tempt; with The Tower celebrate; with The
Star give; with The Moon imagine; with The Sun create; with Judgment live again; with The
World triumph ... And in the case of The High Priestess: read.
The flesh-colored book that the nun is holding in her hands does not show words but
seventeen wavy lines. On one hand, this tells us that it is not an intellectual but an emotional
message; and on the other, it refers us to Arcanum XVII, The Star, in which a nude woman
gives to the world what she has received from Cosmic Consciousness. This confirms that The
High Priestess is not reading her book but offering it. The thumb of her right hand is resting on
one line, while that of her left hand is placed on two lines, which it joins together. The same is
true for the ribbons crossing over her chest: on the one closest to her body there is a cross, and
on the superposing one, there are two. This can indicate an individual who has moved from
solitary study to giving to the other.
This convinced me that the purpose of the Tarot was fulfilled when it was used to help
others by means of a reading that consists of presenting Arcana to an individual that have
been transformed into a mirror of his or her soul.
I am absolutely opposed to reading hypothetical futures. The notion of fate transmitted by the
Greek theater of antiquity, this superstition according to which "everything has been written"
and that no one can escape his destiny, repulses me. If, from the moment we are bom, a god is
directing every step we take, what is the good of striving for anything at all? Should we believe
that our life is inevitably laid out in advance and all we are allowed to do is submit? To confront
the idea of reading the cards, I had to define my notion of future. The reading subject either has
or does not have a purpose in his life; he acts in accordance with projects, and he makes
plans. When he starts worrying about knowing his future, he is depreciating his present
actions, which he doubts. But the present is a fleeting instant: what weighs upon the
development of the person receiving the reading is the past, which can act like ballast that
tends to cause the future repetition of traumatic experiences from childhood (I will either do or
not do what others have done or did not do to me), or as a source of energy that pushes us to
progress, to change—in the best cases, transform ourselves. If I have to accept the existence of
a preordained future, I would visualize the present as a point from which a fan of infinite paths
departs. An intentional action or an accident, something that happens by chance, projects us
forward and obliges us to live one of the countless fates possible. This would allow me to
declare, even when "everything has been written," that the divine menu does not consist of a
single dish but a huge selection. Free will consists of choosing one of these infinite sentences
Fate hands down.
When we eliminate the illusion of "reading the future," the Tarot becomes a psychological
tool and a tool for self-knowledge. By honestly confronting the characteristics of our
personalities that have gone off course—habits, identifications, manias, vices; narcissistic,
antisocial, schizoid, and paranoid disorders; personal delusions, crazy ideas, depressive
feelings, emotional immaturity, twisted desires, and needs imposed by the family, society, or
culture—we can attain knowledge of our real essence, in other words, what is innate in us and
not acquired. The individual can stop being what others want so that he can become who he
truly is.
I began, with infinite precautions, to read the Tarot for patients that Dr. Jean-Claude Lapraz
sent me in order to leam if their illnesses were the consequences of psychological problems.
As a tarologist, I set myself the responsibility of respecting four expressions: "Based on what I
know" (reality being infinite, no one can know everything); "Up to a certain point" (nothing is
definitive or absolute on a general level; there is always the possibility of an exception); "At the
risk of fooling myself (nothing a human being says is infallible); and "If you really want it this
way" (things are the way they are because earlier we have adapted our languages to others;
every notion is the result of a collective agreement).
Initially I read the cards as if they were a psychological test. Before analyzing the drawings
and their relations, I interpreted the way the patient placed the cards, side-by-side or apart,
closer or farther, superposed, horizontal, or slanted, and so forth. As my experience grew, I left
this aside and restricted myself to interpreting the drawings. However, for greater effectiveness,
I refined my observation of the individual seeking consultation, the way he used his voice, the
dynamic of her gestures, physical posture, skin quality, breath odor, age, profession, sexual
characteristics, emotional state, and finally family tree, as far back, if possible, to the greatgrandparents. Over the course of the years, grasping all these aspects in a single glance, I
concentrated exclusively on reading the cards, always warning the person that he was not in
front of a magician but a tarologist, and that the Arcana were basically small printed cards that
could quite easily deliver an absurd message. The reading was made up of three acts of
chance: the one that led this individual to me, the one that had put me in the presence of this
individual, and the moment when the cards were chosen. The reading recipient had a perfect
right to accept, to discuss, or to ask for more precision on the reading.
Starting from the principle that the Tarot had been introduced into the world as a game, I
realized that the reading had to be structured like a game. In addition to the players and the
laws that govern it, the place where it takes place is equally important. You cannot play
basketball on a football field, and a chess board is different from the Monopoly playing board. I
grasped that the interpretation of the cards depended upon the meaning given to them before
the reading. Depending upon the "terrain," the strategy, the Tarot became different, the
interpretation of the cards changed; for example, they could be positive or negative. It became
clear to me that to obtain a correct reading, I had to above all define the roles played by the
Arcana, by employing strategies adapted to the questions and level of consciousness of the
person requesting the reading. On the other hand, because a game is almost always a combat
with a winner, it was also important to define the players—in other words, the individual
seeking the reading and the reader. In competitive games the goal is eliminating the adversary,
which amounts to killing him metaphorically. In the tarological game, the objective is to heal
the adversary and help him live.
This work became difficult: the contemporary human being can be described as a
marvelous substance imprisoned inside a sick container. He has limits he stubbornly defends
because, although they are painful, he identifies with them. His mind has been inhabited by
crazy thoughts since childhood. A patient who refuses to admit that his thought has the ability
to heal him becomes an enraged adversary facing the tarologist. He says his heart is empty to
conceal that it is full of resentment. He lives apart from others, rejects sublime sentiments,
devalues his ability to love and be loved, inhibits his sexual capacity or exacerbates it by
scorning it. He has lost faith in his creativity and is ashamed of his own desires. He reduces his
infinite capacity of physical movements to a small number of quotidian gestures. His rigidity is
the result of prejudices implanted by a morality that was once upon a time religious.
The individual feels guilty about his actions, his desires, his feelings, and his thoughts. This
guilt allows him to say that what happens to him is a just and necessary punishment. Or else
he denigrates himself nonstop by believing, through a deficiency of values, that he does not
deserve to be free of his suffering. Or he justifies his mistakes by making excessive and
sometimes ingenious excuses, without ever making any effort to change. Or else he desires to
love, desires to create, desires to dare, desires to imagine, desires endless things, and is
drowning in the inactivity of desiring to desire. Or he even ardently but impotently desires to
destroy those who bother him, eliminate those who have hurt him, or get revenge, only to
finally destroy himself. Or else he hurls himself into sexual activity without ever managing to
find complete satisfaction with any one individual. Or he needs notoriety like a drug and suffers
from not having it or having to tolerate it, which makes him a psychological deaf-mute painfully
spinning around himself. Or he behaves like a merciless critic, a permanent judge, incapable
of recognizing the values of others, which compels him to obsessively compare himself to
others, diminishing them to assure his own value. Or, because of fear of transformation, he
refuses to integrate new knowledge, flatters his own ignorance, and denies on principle: he is
the person of "no" and "maybe."
On the other hand, the reading subject has the notion of a habitable space based on the
idea of private property. He is accustomed to living in a reduced space with straight walls, in
cubes. This creates a resistance within him to the idea of infinity. He cannot accept that he is
living in the cosmos. He confuses home with prison. Conditioned by the politico-economic
interests of the era, he has been taught that life is short. In the Middle Ages it was considered
natural to die at the age of thirty. In the Renaissance it was forty; in the nineteenth century,
sixty; and today, it is eighty. A few scientists grant us one hundred twenty for the twenty-second
century, but in reality no one knows the true human life span. If someone said the true span
was thousands of years like certain trees, people would think he was crazy. In order to qualify
time as money society banishes the idea of eternity. The citizen is a consumer who must have
a short life for industry to function. But are we really so ephemeral in reality? Why shouldn't we
have the right to live as long as the universe? Because the individual has been told, 'You are
only a part," he has trouble accepting that he is a whole. He has learned to fight to defend his
"individuality" by seeking egotistical powers. Living on a psychological island, he does not
realize that there is only one atmosphere, that the pollution in Mexico, Bombay, or Paris
poisons the air of the entire planet; that remote wars and the ignorance and poverty of others
attack his happiness. What happens to the world happens to him. An economic crisis over
there has repercussions here, in his pockets. The greater his separation from others, the
smaller his awareness. As a victim of abusive ideas, the person seeking a reading denies his
ability to realize miracles (we mean by "miracles" the fact of being able to grasp that reality
does not behave according to a pre-established model but in a way that is incomprehensible to
a mentality imprisoned in a logical system) and, dispossessed, thinks he is living alone,
without suspecting that the universe—"the subconscious"—is his ally Accepting the idea that
he is worth nothing, he does not deign to meditate to find his inner god.
The person receiving the reading confuses Consciousness (the essential Being) with the act of
becoming conscious of something. The purpose of Consciousness is to successfully become
yourself in order to offer yourself to the deity. We do not possess a complete self automatically:
we start with a seed that develops through successive mutations. Its first level is animal. The
individual lives only to satisfy his material and sexual needs. He does not control his instincts
and has no respect for others. His fear of losing makes him aggressive. The infantile level is
next. Here the individual lives a superficial life because he or she does not accept aging or
death. He or she refuses to meditate in order to know himself or herself, collects useless
objects and finds various means of distraction, without any sense of responsibility. Later the
romantic level awakens. The individual cannot control his or her emotions and is invaded by
them. As an eternal adolescent, he or she believes that meeting a man or woman to form a
couple is life's purpose. Influenced by cinema, television, and style magazines, he or she
creates an ideal of love that resembles a fairy tale. This leads to replacing being with
appearance. It is possible that after some painful setbacks, adult consciousness will develop. It
is at this level that the Other exists for the first time. The individual, who now realizes that
instead of demanding, he or she should invest and become self reliant, can fall into the
egotistical error of thirst for power. This gives birth to exploiters, tyrants, unscrupulous
businessmen, and swindlers of all sorts. The antithesis of this egotism is that of those people
who, to feel noble, spend their time helping others because they are too lazy to help
themselves. If this truly becomes aid to oneself, then the level of social consciousness opens.
This is when the individual fights for the happiness of all humanity, but also for the health of
plants, animals, and the planet. Later it will open to Cosmic Consciousness.
Nothing happens in the universe without movement and transformation. Distancing herself
from all the stubborn systems and habits that depreciate life, the responsible individual will
abandon herself just like the cosmos to constant change, knowing that she belongs to an
infinite and eternal world. She emerges from generational boundaries and prepares the terrain
for the advent of the new being. Finally she attains divine Consciousness—a level that very
few reach. In the dark core of the subconscious, there is a brilliant spot of complete lucidity, a
powerful ally that if used well, will manifest like an inner god; or, if used poorly, like an inner
demon. This is the level known by geniuses, prophets, and magi.
If the tarologist, without advance preparation, tries to lead the reading subject toward a
transformation that raises his level of consciousness, this individual will react as if his teeth are
being pulled. To change, there must be a wish to change, the knowledge that this change is
possible, and that, finally, the consequences of this change can be accepted.
At the time of reading the cards, the tarologist should observe his subject as a doctor would
—examining both body and soul. You should take into consideration the physical posture,
muscular tension, stature, weight, skin quality and color, breathing, and the points where the
voice resonates; next feel the person's sexual preferences; ask yourself if the person loves or
is loved, and also what kind of ideas dwell in his or her mind. All this provides a revealing
portrait of the consultant's level of consciousness. This portrait should be obtained with the
greatest precautions: it could be that the consultation is motivated by superficial curiosity, or
because it is not a revelation that is being sought so much as a sedative that will make it
possible to painlessly tolerate something about to happen. Giving is one thing, forcing
someone to receive is something else entirely. A reading can easily become toxic. It is quite
tempting for the "all-seeing" reader who takes his subjective conclusions for absolute truths to
make catastrophic predictions that, although motivated by a sincere desire to help, can poison
the person's mind. I read the following article in the papers of January 20,2003:
Mircea Teodorascu, a fiftv-one year old Romanian livina in the department of Bacau (eastern
Romania), found what he thought was an unbeatable solution in his own suicide. Several days
earlier, he had consulted a fortuneteller who predicted a death would affect him in the very near
future: his or that of his twenty-three-year-old son. Returning home, Mircea Teodorascu, to "save"
his son, stabbed himself with a long kitchen knife. He died shortly after being taken to the emergency
room of the hospital.
The tarologist, leaving aside the prediction of the future, should be capable of realizing the
motives that drive him to read. Does he want to obtain power over others? Is it to earn money
by putting together a clientele? Is it to be admired? Is it a way to share his anxieties or a means
of sexual seduction? If our position as reader is unclear, the reading will not be clear either.
The Tarot being a set of symbols—which are obscure because they are initiatory—it becomes
an essentially subjective language. The tarologist needs to know what kind of psychological
content his subconscious is projecting on the reading. No one can boast of knowing himself
entirely. We know ourselves only at the time of our introspective examination, but the mind, like
the universe, is in constant expansion. Constant attention and a strict state of alert, and a
sincere acceptance of the impulses that ask us to control and direct them toward objective
interpretations, should guide our reading. It is possible that one individual resembles our
mother, another member of our family, or someone who forced us to do something as a child in
one way or another. If we are not aware of this, we will treat the person seeking consultation
with the same resentment that we would treat the one who harmed us. It is impossible to say, "I
will not make any projections," but it is quite possible to tell yourself, "I will be conscious of my
projections." For that, we should know how we feel about things when we read the Tarot.
Observe if the person seeing the reading is sympathetic or antipathetic to us, if she scares us, if
he or she attracts us sexually, if we admire him, if we judge her mercilessly. One of the greatest
dangers of reading is that the reader will morally judge his subject—because "the judge lies"8
(Arcanum XX).
So how can we read without manipulating, without directing, without setting ourselves up as
a master?
In order not to fall into these errors, I made a vow to myself never to give advice, but to
structure the reading in such a way that the solution comes to the person. To manage this, I
relied on my study of dream analysis: the psychoanalyst should not explain to his patient the
meaning of oneiric symbols. This amounts to playing the role of father-mother and plunging the
patient into a persistent childhood. The patient should personally penetrate the messages his
subconscious sends him. The analyst can present different solutions. The individual should
choose the path that best suits him.
To this end, the reader should attain a state of perfect neutrality by ignoring his desires,
feelings, and opinions, in an extreme act of self-sacrifice. If the tarologist succeeds at turning
himself into an "invisible man," who then is reading the Tarot? Using a metaphor, I say it is a
mirror. The level of the individual's consciousness is reflected by the purity of our mind. Using
his own language (if it is a child, for example, we use a childlike language), and taking on the
appearance of the other, through our own emptiness, and through our words and gestures, we
shall manage to get the individual to read his own Tarot. This reading will bring a response
that corresponds to the other's world, not our own. Our solutions are not his solutions. If the
person does not agree with our reading, do not try to persuade him. Because it is his own life,
we should always let him be right. In reality, the subconscious is our ally. If it refuses to reveal
a secret to us, it is because we are not yet ready. We should never force its revelation. We
should obtain it with the greatest caution.
We have talked not only about the words of the tarologist but also of his gestures. To use
them wisely, we need to set the position of the reading subject, first of all. Should we place her
facing us? Next to us? Will we leave him in front while we guide his reading from behind like a
shadow? The choice depends on the tarologist's motivation. Face to face, it is the fascination
(danger of a grab for power: the other individual could submit like a child). Next to us, it is an
emotional exchange (danger of incestuous transfer: the person could try to envelop us in a
symbiosis). From behind his back, like a shadow (danger of deification: the reading subject
could mistake us for an all-powerful magus). All these possibilities have their uses—and their
dangers. A clumsy or overly energetic gesture, one that is too insistent or disorganized, can
lead the reading subject's understanding astray and undermine her confidence.
I had the luck to attend a tea ceremony performed by a master in Kyoto, Japan. I was
permanently stamped by witnessing such deep awareness in every gesture involved in the
preparation of a "simple" cup of tea—they revealed such humanity, beauty, and economy of
movement. I promised myself to establish gestures for reading the Tarot that had the perfection
and humility of a Zen tea ceremony.
First we give the deck to the person seeking the reading, so that she can shuffle them, with a
precise, moderate gesture that ends at a point that is neither too close nor too far from her. Half
of this step (the offer) should be performed by the tarologist. The other half should be by the
individual (active reception). While the person is mixing up the order of the cards, the reader
remains motionless and composed. The voice he uses should not echo in his skull but in his
chest. It is a gentle voice, the one used to address children, one coming from the heart and not
the intellect. It is a tone of kindness, one quite difficult to obtain. To succeed, the tarologist
should approach a state of holiness. I am not talking about the outside appearance, the
stereotype of a saint in religious tract, but of a true, poetic, and sublime feeling. The various
religions have taken possession of the concept of holiness, giving it restrictive meanings.
Among these restrictions is the negation of sexuality, reproduction, and the family, combined
with exaltation of the martyr and rejection of the real world for some mythical beyond. We
speak of Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Hebrew (the just) saints, and so on, but we have no
notion of citizen holiness. The citizen saint can love an individual of the opposite sex, have
children, start a family, and have a healthy enjoyment of life without belonging to a sect,
without worshiping doctrines dictated by a god with a face and a name, and practice a morality
that is not founded on taboos but on the concept of actions useful for humanity. The reader of
the Tarot, while he is not a saint, should imitate saintliness. In certain Eastern cultures, parrots,
apes, and dogs are described as sacred animals that represent the individual ego because
they are capable of imitating their masters.
How do we leam to imitate a saint? Saintliness is not innate, nor is it a gift that comes from
outside; it is something that is obtained little by little. To be strong in the large things, it is
necessary to be strong in the little everyday things, by practicing to give without expecting
anything in return: neither thanks nor money nor admiration nor submission. It involves not
comparing ourselves or competing with others while humbly accepting their values. It is by not
erecting our viewpoint as measuring unit of the world, by accepting differences with kindness
...By learning, among many other things, to concentrate our attention, to control our thoughts,
our desires, and emotions during the reading; to vanquish our laziness, always to finish what
we start, not to get upset if the individual for whom we are reading refuses to grasp
Consciousness, to do what we are doing the best we can, to eliminate vices and manias, to
perform acts of generosity without witnesses, to purify the mind by eliminating superfluous
interests without falling into either excessive self-criticism or excessive self-indulgence,
consciously to give thanks for every gift, to meditate, to pray to the inner god, to contemplate, to
have conversations with ourselves on profound themes, to develop their meanings, to stop
defining ourselves, to know how to listen, to not lie to others or to ourselves, to not revel in our
pain or agony, to help our neighbor without making him dependent, to not seek to be imitated,
to make lucid use of time, to make work plans and accomplish them, to not take up too much
space, to not squander, to not make useless noise, to not eat unhealthy food only for pleasure,
to answer every question as honestly as possible, to overcome fear of life and death, to not
only live in the here and now but in the elsewhere and after, never to abandon our children by
watching over them from the time they were infants, to appropriate nothing or no one for
ourselves, to share equitably, to not overadorn ourselves with clothing or objects out of vanity,
to not deceive, to sleep only as much as is strictly necessary, not to follow styles, not to
prostitute ourselves, to respect scrupulously every signed contract and every promise made, to
be punctual, not to envy the success of others, to say just what needs to be said, not to think of
the benefits of a work but to love the work for itself, never to threaten or curse, to put ourselves
in the shoes of the other, to make every moment a teacher, to want our children to do better
than we did and to accept their success, to teach the consultants how to leam from themselves,
to overcome pride by changing it into dignity, anger into creativity, avarice into wisdom, envy
into admiration for beauty, hate into generosity, lack of faith into universal love; not to applaud
or insult ourselves, not to complain about ourselves, not to give orders for the pleasure of
compelling obedience, not to contract debts, never to speak badly of others, not to keep
useless objects, and, first and foremost, never to act in your own name but in that of the inner
god.
Card reading at this time was in the hands of fortunetellers who used the Tarot not like a
language but as tool for prediction like a pendulum or a crystal ball. They did not read the
Aracana; they waited until the cards prompted "flashes" that they interpreted according to their
whim.
I remember my meetings in Paris with Madame Robin, a famous clairvoyant who had
earned her notoriety thanks to the publication of a pocket Tarot (only the twenty-two Major
Arcana) with extremely simple explanations at the foot of each card—explanations that
obviously limited the projective power of the cards by reducing them to "This and nothing else
is what this Arcanum means." The lady, intrigued by my film The Holy Mountain, wanted to
make my acquaintance. When I entered her apartment, expecting to find a temple, I found
myself in a charming bathroom. The clairvoyant, who was around fifty, tiny, plump, and wearing
a pink bathrobe, was sitting in a cozy armchair. Two men who looked like they were of
working-class origin were kneeling at her feet gazing at her devotedly while cutting her nails.
At the same time she was clipping the claws of her cat. A table offered several plates of
cheeses, salads, pastries, fruits, and wines of good quality. Her customers waited patiently in
another room until the sibyl had dined. This is what she now did in the company of the three of
us, gluttonously devouring an incredible quantity of food. Film gossip interested her much more
than my ideas on the Tarot. She granted me the honor of sitting in on her consultations.
Madame Robin knew only the names and numbers of her cards. Their details had never held
her attention. She used the Tarot like an element intended to impress her clientele, striking
them down with the air of a magician and spreading them out with no reading strategy, letting
fall from her lips whatever popped into her head. It was a kind of forced delirium to fill the
consultation time with a lot of desultory predictions. Before beginning she asked the customer
his place and date of birth. She then strung together this rosary of unrelated predictions, most
of which referred to love, work, and health, intermixed with a host of astrological idiocies. Every
time she predicted an accident, a broken leg, an injury, a troubling boil, or a legal problem, she
would give me a wink, letting me know that this impressed the client. This minor sadism, added
to a large quantity of imminent success—"A bed of roses," 'Your problems are resolved," 'You
will receive an excellent job offer," 'You will win a lawsuit," 'You will marry a rich man," "I see
you living in the house of your dreams"—had the purpose of creating dependent clients who
would consult with her on a regular basis. This monstrous and commercial way of using the
Tarot was not solely the fault of Madame Robin; her superstitious audience demanded this
kind of thing from her. They were anxious to know their future, to feel important by acquiring a
destiny at an affordable price. The sibyl only gave that what they wanted, subconsciously hers
to manufacture.
I meanwhile aspired to a true reading of the Tarot, one that took into account my projections
and those of the people consulting me, based on the vision of the cards' details. One Arcanum
was a note; two, a duet; three, a chord; more than three, a musical phrase. For two years I
spent my weekends this way, reading the Tarot for sick people, then little by little for the
patients of psychoanalysts, osteopaths, and various therapists interested in the experiment.
When working with them I observed that the ancient forms of reading the Tarot copied in the
"traditional" treatises no longer worked for me. They were constructed for predicting the future,
something that, as I mentioned earlier, seemed childish and dishonest to me. Predicting that
things can happen makes them happen: the brain has a tendency to automatically realize
predictions. I needed a system that allowed me to read the present, a present in which the
illness represented the past from which a person was incapable of extricating himself or
herself. In this search I started by using the Tarot like a psychological test, using the Rorschach
for my initial inspiration and other forms later, which brought elements of the patient's
subconscious out in the open. I baptized this activity "Tarology." The tarologist reads the
present, which is the true unknown for the consultant, even when this individual is in search of
information on what she thinks to be her future. At the base of every problem, every illness,
there is a lack of awareness of the traces of the past and the potentialities of the future.
I began giving courses and workshops as a tarologist, and gradually this teaching spread—
my former students number in the thousands around the world—even if the term Tarology,
having experienced an unexpected vogue, henceforth serves to designate practices that have
nothing at all to do with this notion of the Tarot. I inaugurated that unfortunate practice of
telephone Tarot from which so many charlatans profit today. When I did this, during the era of
the first free radio stations, I wished to successfully complete an experiment: could someone
read the Tarot without knowing anything about an individual except for his or her voice? My
hypothesis was that the entire personality was contained in the voice, and that it could bring
knowledge into my subconscious that the Tarot would help release in waves. I sat in front of
the microphone, I shuffled the cards, and I asked the person consulting me to tell me three
numbers between 1 and 22, while posing a question. The telephone never stopped ringing;
there were two or three thousand calls during that session, and I had to read until 5:00 in the
morning. It was a revolution. Unfortunately, the commercial aspect was so mouthwatering, with
the attendant privilege of anonymity, that the spread of this practice was accompanied by
considerable degradation.
When I saw these businessmen not only exploiting the naivete of the public but also treating
their "tarologist" employees like slaves, most of whom were poor students, individuals of no
profession who did not have any previous therapeutic training, I realized that I had to deepen
not only the symbology of the Tarot but also the ethical code for reading it.
For more authenticity in the reading, which is to say so that there is the least possible
potential for a projection of the reader's problems, his personal morality, or his intellectual
notions, which are always erroneous when it comes to feelings and desires, the tarologist must
do it in a trance. Contrary to what is commonly thought, a trance is not an unconscious or
irrational state. It begins with an intensification of attention and ends with the abolition of the
spectator/actor reality. The person in a trance does not observe herself; she dissolves into
herself. She is an actor in the pure state. By "actor" we mean not the performer on a stage but
an entity in action. For this reason, for example, trance does not allow the memory to record
words, events, and actions performed. For the same reason the trance can presume the loss of
the notion of time. Generally we use the rational position to distance ourselves from other living
forces and energies. In everyday life, the rational part of the brain is experienced like an island.
The rational does not disappear in a trance, but the landscape expands. The island sees
bridges connecting it to the subconscious. The trance is a state of higher consciousness. In a
trance there is no such thing as a missed opportunity or an accident. We have no notion of
space, for we have become space. We have no notion of time, for we are the phenomenon that
is happening. This is a state of extreme presence in which every gesture, every action is
perfect. We cannot deceive ourselves, because there is no plan or intention. There is only the
pure action in the present. In a trance, the rational part of the mind is no longer afraid to liberate
instinct, primitive as it may be, but becomes one with it. It also combines with the inexhaustible
creative force conferred upon it by the individual's sexual nature. The body is experienced not
as a concept of the past but as the vibrant subjective reality of the present. The body makes no
move commanded by rational forces; forces belonging to other directions direct it. We could
say that its movements are dictated by the collectivity or Totality of reality. An animal in a cage
has movements comparable to the rational position. The movement of a free animal in the
forest is comparable to the trance. The animal in a cage needs to be fed at set hours. In order
to act, the rational part of the brain needs to receive words. The wild animal feeds itself and is
never fooled about its food. The individual in a trance is not moved by what he has learned but
by what he is. Falling into a trance while reading the Tarot does not mean "seeing all." The
tarologist concentrates and "sees" one single thing: what he needs to see and nothing more. In
this case, a trance is not all-seeing but, quite the contrary, an acute concentration of attention
upon a single detail that, of course, is hidden from ordinary consciousness.
To Begin
The purpose of this part is to familiarize you with the reading of the Tarot. Rather than quickly
explaining several reading strategies, we wanted to go deeper into this art and present
numerous examples that provide illustrations of the various kinds of reading. Instead of
allotting one and only one function to each card, and interpreting the cards selected as a series
of sentences, we can deal with the Tarot like a language in which two by two, then three by
three, then by increasing number, the cards respond like the instruments of an orchestra.
The rules of orientation we presented in part 1 of this book will be valuable for structuring
the reading. For example, it will be useful to remember that the Tarot places the receptive
(feminine) to the left of the reader and the active (masculine) to his right. Following the order of
the Latin alphabet, the space to the left of the cards will most often represent where one is
coming from, the past, and the space on the right, the place one is heading.
We shall first present reading practices with one or two cards, which will be especially
helpful for familiarizing yourself with everyday life with the Arcana, and learning how to make
them echo each other. A long chapter will then be devoted to the reading of three cards,
considered to be the basic "sentence" of the Tarot language.
We shall then present several reading strategies for more than three cards, which can be
developed to reading, if desired, all twenty-two Major Arcana.
We should add that we have intentionally mixed extremely varied reading levels in the
examples we are presenting. In fact, the Tarot can be used to explore very concrete issues as
well as for exploring the depths of the soul, and to dissolve psychological problems. Ideally, a
Tarot reader should be able to adapt to the request, language, and age of the individual, and
answer him in the terms most suitable to his request. We can consider our duty as a tarologist
to consist of translating a message from the individual's subconscious and helping the person
understand it in way that he can grasp it in his daily life and apply it to his most vital concerns.
The reading should take place on the individual's level. In no case should the tarologist pass
herself off as a superior individual. It involves doing something that is useful for the person
consulting her. Our sole power is the power to provide help, if we are asked for it.
Furthermore, we give no example of reading with reversed cards. This is a conscious
decision: utilizing the cards upside down amounts to integrating negative potentialities into the
reading. When we read the cards upside down, we are digging into the negative and will end
up eventually creating more negatives. It is easy to read atrocities in any card, but what
purpose does it serve? We chose not to.
Finally, we left many trails aspiring tarologists could follow to read the Tarot themselves. In
fact, the practice of reading for oneself is one of the best means for gaining a deeper
comprehension of the Tarot. It is both one of the easiest things to do (all you need is a Tarot in
your possession) and one of the most difficult things in the world (you are both the person
seeking the reading and the reader, and you run headlong into your own areas of resistance).
But it is also an awesome device for going deeper and for learning humility, which allows us to
put our finger on our defense mechanisms.
In the practice of reading, every tarologist will discover that her intuition is gradually
developing. An entire reading will sometimes emerge with complete pertinence from a single
detail on one card. You are then touching on the true art of the Tarot... We would be happy for
this chapter to be a modest introduction to this art.
First Steps to Reading the Tarot
The best way to memorize the meaning of the Tarot cards is to use them in daily life for
exploring the questions that truly affect us. Before reading the Tarot for others, it is a good idea
to spend a period of time when you apply it to yourself. Not only does this permit us to
familiarize ourselves with it, but it also helps us face up to its paradoxes, difficulties, and
incomprehensible points that will expand our vision. We can also, as we suggest here, form an
alliance with a person who will serve us as a fictional person seeking a reading and perform
reading exercises.
For reading the Tarot on yourself, there is one fundamental postulate: I do not know myself
in the present, therefore questioning myself about my present situation is essential.
9
Handling and Reading the Tarot
A peaceful atmosphere is recommended. To take care of the cards and lay them out easily, you can
use a solid color cloth that will not interfere with the illustrations of the Arcana (violet encourages
concentration). Rearrange the order of the Tarot like a regular card deck, without shuffling them in a
way that causes the cards to lose their regular up/down orientation. Then, after forming them back
into a deck, you lay the cards horizontally face down on the table. Contrary to a tenacious tradition,
there is no need to cut the deck. You can do this, but you will change the card that is on the bottom
(see pp. 475-76). Once they have been laid out, using either the right or left hand, pick one or more
cards depending on which reading strategy has been selected. Next turn them over by pivoting them
to the right in a way that does not turn them upside down. The cards can be uncovered one by one,
interpreting them as each is turned up, or they can all be turned over at once and read using
synthesis.
EXERCISES AND SAMPLE READINGS WITH ONE ARCANUM
The Spirit of the Day
To make the Tarot a presence in your everyday life, draw a card from the Major Arcana every
morning and interpret it in at least three different ways. For example, you could interpret it on
the concrete level, the psychological level, and the spiritual level. You could also do it on the
personal level, the relational level, and the transpersonal level, and so forth. Observe how
these three levels resonate throughout the day (see the example that follows).
Draw: The Fool
Reading: Concrete Level: A great deal of energy. Make sure not to lose sight of your goal!
Perhaps a trip or expedition is ahead. And if I traveled by foot? Psychological Level: A great
freedom breathes upon this journey. All is permitted. Spiritual Level: All paths are my path.
No definitions today. How can I live my life in relation with the unthinkable?
The Ally
This drawing consists of bringing up a difficulty, a source of sorrow, or a project dear to our
hearts and pulling a single card from the Tarot that will be the ally necessary to guide us
back to health, joy, or success. After analyzing the message of the card, you can carry it
away with you, memorize it, put it under your pillow when you sleep, rub it against your
heart, your brow, and so on, in order to absorb its aid (see the examples that follow).
I have too much work; I am overworked. What should I do?
Draw: VIII Justice
Reading: Justice prompts you to settle into the present, get rid of the useless, and focus on
what is truly useful and necessary. On the psychological plane, it can evoke a desire to be
maternal. Finally, it inspires the need to free yourself from this demand for perfection that
may be the origin for this feeling of being overworked.
How can I stay calm in all circumstances?
Draw: II The High Priestess
Reading: The message could be the following: Make sure that you have a place to which
you can retire and meditate at your disposal. This will help you recover the calm that is part
of your depths. The reading of words of wisdom can be of great help to you. Do not
underestimate yourself: you are a person of high spiritual value; act like one. Think of the
projects you are cherishing (the egg of The High Priestess) and concentrate upon them. Part
of your irritation may perhaps only be a request for tenderness.
Sounding Yourself
This drawing is best used for getting to know yourself better, for drawing a spiritual or
emotional self-portrait. It consists of placing an Arcanum drawn by chance on a part of the
body and asking: "What is in me at this level?" The card provides the answer (see the
examples that follow).
What is in my heart?
Draw: XVIIII The Sun
Reading: A great love, joy, a new construction, my father, my children, vacations ...
What is in my gut?
A man draws Justice (VIII).
Reading: My mother! She made so many nice dishes for me; perhaps it is time I lost a little
weight.
A woman draws The World (XXI).
Reading: A desire to have a child! I have all I need to realize myself; I am beginning to feel
that my creativity, my reproductive organs, are a great wealth. I love my femininity.
Exercise of Humility with the Major Arcana
A good tarologist should be able to call into question everything he considers as being
evident a priori, starting with his own personality, his beliefs, and the events of his daily life.
This calls for humility and a certain sense of humor.
This exercise consists of drawing a card concerning yourself and the situation in which
you find yourself, one with which you are already quite familiar. When you practice with the
Major Arcana, you can approach every domain from the most pedestrian to the most
elevated. You will interpret the Arcanum in a way that makes it apply perfectly to the
situation, even if you are seemingly confronted with a paradox (see the examples that
follow).
How is my emotional life going?
Draw: X The Wheel of Fortune
Reaction of the person receiving the reading: "It is true that I am in the process of ending
a cycle."
What is my dearest wish at this moment?
Draw: XVII The Star
Reaction of the person receiving the reading: Yes, it's true, I really want to find my place.
I feel that I have a lot to give, and it is necessary to position myself to be able to perform this
action."
Exercise of Humility with the Minor Arcana
The exercise of humility is also useful for entering into the reading of the Minor Arcana.
Shuffle the order of the fifty-six cards and ask a question whose answer could pertain to
material, sexual, creative, emotional, or intellectual life. The next step is "to play the game" of
humility, based on the useful principle that the Tarot is always right, and the point is to
positively interpret what it tells us.
This reading assumes that all the cards ceaselessly correspond to one level or another of
our being: "Nothing that is human is foreign to me" (see the examples that follow).
What is my principal concern at this moment?
Draw: Seven of Wands
Response: That my creative strength goes into action in the world in the form of a new
project that I have conceived by myself.
What is the highest value in my life?
Draw: King of Pentacles
Response: The happy and prosperous world I've built with my husband, centered around
our business ...
What am I most afraid of?
Draw: Five of Swords
Response: The aggression and verbal domination of fake teachers, heartless professors,
and lying politicians.
What Are My Limits?
A card can also serve to indicate what the difficulties are in each center: intellectual,
emotional, sexual-creative, and physical. To do this, we pull a card with the decision of
applying it to one center in particular, or even the same card to all the centers in succession.
In the reading examples following this strategy, we will take The Emperor as the limit in all
the centers, with other examples that vary depending on the centers.
My Intellectual Limits?
Draw: llll The Emperor
Response: Obtuse rationalism imprisons me. I refuse everything that is not straightforward.
Draw: The Fool
Response: I have no limits. I spread outward. I need to adopt a more rational position to
frame my thought.
Draw: VIII Justice
Response: My limit is rigidity. I can only envision one point of view. Another way of thinking
can outstrip what I know today.
Draw: III The Empress
Response: I indulge in daydreams; I am at risk of falling into fanaticism. My intellect is too
romantic.
My Emotional Limits?
Draw: llll The Emperor
Response: A female: I am too masculine or too stamped by the love I bear for my father, and
incapable of making a place for someone else. A male: I wield too much authority and am
not indulgent enough. I do not know the way of the heart.
Draw: XV The Devil
Response: I am too possessive.
Draw: X The Wheel of Fortune
Response: I have difficulty imagining a new relationship; perhaps I need to finish a cycle or
learn to accept the notion that it is over.
My Sexual or Creative Limits?
Draw: llll The Emperor
Response: My sexuality or creativity is repetitious and routine. Let's face it: Am I getting
bored?
Draw: VII The Chariot
Response: A female: I suffer from "Don Juan syndrome." Am I a repressed nymphomaniac?
Or do I have the crazy idea that in order to create I need to be a man? A male: The desire to
conquer comes before desire itself—I need to leam the difference between quality and
quantity. An Artist: The desire for recognition comes before creative pleasure.
Draw: VIII Justice
Response: A maternal figure prevents me from reaching my creativity. Perhaps my sexual
desire is limited to having a child.
Draw: Xllll Temperance
Response: I take myself for an angel, denying the force of my libido.
My Material, Physical Limits?
Draw: llll The Emperor
Response: I refuse to invest or maybe to grow. My body is still under my father's thumb, and
the idea of investment is foreign to my material life.
Draw: II The High Priestess
Response: I do not get out enough!
Draw: Villi The Hermit
Response: I inevitably see myself as an old, poor, and lonely individual. I cannot conceive
the notion of abundance.
EXERCISES AND SAMPLE READINGS WITH TWO ARCANA
Advantage-Drawback, Strengt h-Weakness
For a given situation, a decision you have made, or anything that raises a question in your
mind, draw two cards. One represents the advantage, the strong points of your situation or
decision, and the other its drawbac <s, its weaknesses, :he potential dangers that await you.
Advantage
Drawback
I live in the city and I want to move to a place out in the country that
is less polluted.
Advantage: VI The Lover
Reading: A life far from the city corresponds to a deep-felt wish, to
something you love. Your emotional life (as a couple or family) could
-S3f 1 benefit enormously. Your children will grow up in a happier, more
peaceful environment.
Drawback: XVIII The Moon
Reading: It is possible you will be affected by solitude, and even fears of the dark, if, for
example, you decide to live in an extremely isolated location.
iPSLIk
UFAI>>ULI lut^uua
lam thinking of working part-time.
Advantage: The Fool
Reading: Go for your freedom! You will be able to put your energy into a
ton of things; you are not sure which yet, but you will have plenty of
enthusiasm.
Drawback: XII The Hanged Man
Reading: Looking at your pockets that are hanging open above the
ground, the question can be asked if you have the financial foundation
for this reduction of working time. Keep an eye out that you do not find yourself doing nothing.
This year we will be spending the holidays with the whole family.
Advantage: XVI The Tower
Reading: Great joy awaits you; there will be more than one party, and it
will be a true holiday.
Drawback: V The Pope
Reading: Make sure all communication is clear and tactful. One out-ofplace word could spoil an entire evening. Is there a male individual in the
family whose authority you dread, a father or grandfather?
The Conflict
This is a dynamic reading strategy. It consists of placing one card faced down and crossed
beneath a second card. The first card represents the wish, the situation in which we find
ourselves. The second card represents the conflict, the obstacle that prevents us from
advancing. We can do two readings from this basis. The first takes place when the conflict
card is on top of the other and thus victorious: in this configuration the conflict, the obstacle
seems insoluble. The second reading takes place after the conflict card is placed beneath
the card representing the situation, the wish: this configuration indicates the overcoming of
the conflict or obstacle (see :he examples that follow).
A
B
Hiding I
Reading 2
A; The situation, the wish
B: The conflict, t h e o b i t a c l e
A screenplay writer is having difficulty beginning to write a project that
she has been given.
Situation: XI Strength
Conflict: III The Empress
Reading 1: With XI, you are trying to begin something using your creative
or instinctive force. But the III is crossing you: you perceive your creativity
as an obstacle because you do not know where you are going, and this
causes you anxiety. Because 3 is lower than 11, you are afraid of lacking
experience, or you feel that your inspiration is too superficial or too juvenile. Here, The
Empress is closing the jaw of the lion in XI. Strength can only begin what she has to begin.
This is a lack of self-confidence. The adolescent has gotten the psychological upper hand over
the experienced woman.
Reading 2: If The Empress is placed beneath Strength, the situation
changes; you are relying on adolescent energy and the explosion of The
Empress to courageously start work. Strength rediscovers the sense of her
maturity here: certainly she represents a beginning, but she also has the
first ten Major Arcana behind her. The Empress here symbolizes creativity
put into use for a new project without any more questions.
—
I
want to change my life.
js^Jv
Situation: XIII The Nameless Arcanum Conflict: XVIIII
The Sun
Reading 1: You are experiencing a great dynamic of
change. You want to revolutionize your life, do a huge
cleaning out, and start over on new foundations (XIII).
But with The Sun, it seems that an earlier construction is
holding you back. Are you attached to a particular notion
of the couple, the family? To some old childhood ties or traumas? Are you perhaps looking for
the ideal father?
Reading 2: The Sun, as the plan for a new life, tempers the destructive
ardor of Arcanum XIII and channels its activity toward an objective filled
with love.
The Most Favorite and the Least Favorite Card
Begin by picking from the deck the card of the Major Arcana you prefer and
the one you like least. Examine them and define what attracts you or
repulses you in each of these cards. Then draw a card for each of the two that will allow you
to deepen your relationship with it.
Favorite Card: XVII The Star
I love the image of this naked, generous, beautiful woman in a warm paradise. I can easily
identify with her. She is my life's ideal. Unfortunately, I do not feel like this every day.
Least Favorite Card: XII The Hanged Man
This card makes me think of torture, despite the calm expression on the figure's face. It is
empty; no one is there. I do not like the idea that he is at a standstill.
Drawing: The person covers the card of The Star with VIII Justice.
Reading: It is here and now, in the present of your incarnation, that your Star comes out. You
are united with her, even when you are in a social situation, at work, and given the task of
weighing, judging, and acting in a less-idyllic reality. You are The Star! Do not doubt it! Give
yourself what you deserve.
Drawing: The person receiving the reading covers the card of The Hanged Man with XVI The
Tower.
Reading: Look at these figures who are also upside down with their heads at the bottom. They
are indicating the future of this standstill you dread so much! The Hanged Man is only
preparing himself for a joyous emergence, a birth. His fate is openness and joy. Everything you
have imprisoned inside can express itself. Perhaps you need to work more on the
circumstances of your gestation and birth to better understand what disturbs you about The
Hanged Man's posture. Do you have some pent-up anger?
Favorite Card: XIII The Nameless Arcanum
This is my preferred card because it scares other people but not me. I am not afraid of
transformation; I love it. I am an empty room in a house that has no master.
Least Favorite Card: XXI The World
This is a final card that has already been realized and has everything. There is nothing left to
do afterward.
Drawing: The person covers the card of The Nameless Arcanum with VII The Chariot.
Reading: In reality, the transformation you are living through is the constant change of the
world and the universe. Like The Chariot, you are rooted in time and space, and you live with
them.
Drawing: The person covers the card of The World with XVIII The Moon.
Reading: Develop your receptivity and you will discover that even in perfection, life goes on—
in the contemplation of the beauty of the world.
EXERCISES AND SAMPLE READINGS WITH ONE, TWO, THEN SEVERAL
ARCANA
Once you have become familiar with the interpretation exercises, the best means of moving
over to actual card reading consists of enriching the interpretation of a card by one or several
others. This is how you can enter into the relational dynamic between Arcana, which forms the
very essence of reading.
Explaining One Card by One or Several Others
You choose a card whose meaning you wish to explore more deeply. Of course, this reading
will be both "objective" (study of the elements of the source card) and "subjective" ("What am
I seeing in this card?").
VI The Lover
Question: What kind of union is The Lover expressing?
Drawing: One card corresponding to each of the three figures
in The Lover: The Fool, Xllll Temperance, and XV The Devil.
Answer: The Lover expresses the union of the irreconcilable:
the initial energy, the angel, and the demon! It is the
overturning of the morality imposed by Judeo-Christian
culture. Taste (loving or doing what one loves) makes this
revolution possible.
VIII Justice
^ ^
••
Question: What is Justice cutting?
Drawing: One card to correspond
to the sword. Here it is VI The
Lover.
Answer: She severs the emotional
I conflicts that waste her time,
perhaps intrusive social relationships.
Question: What is she weighing?
Drawing: The person receiving the reading draws two cards
corresponding to each platter of the scales. Here is it XI
Strength and XX Judgment.
Answer: The balance between her instinctive sexual energy
and spiritual call.
Xllll Temperance
This card symbolizes the harmonious
intermingling of distinct entities.
Question: How to realize union?
Drawing: The person pulls one card to
symbolize the flow that unites the two jars:
XVIII The Moon.
Answer: Through intuition, by being tuned in
to yourself. It is time to stop denying yourself
and to accept the messages that come from
the depths of your subconscious, poetry,
receptivity, inner immensity.
I The
Magician
Question: What
does he have on
his table?
Drawing:
Villi
The Hermit
Answer:
Beneath
the
apparent
disparity of the
elements,
The
Magician
possesses
wisdom: perhaps
the legacy of a
father, a guide, a grandfather.
The process of questioning an Arcanum can continue ...
Question: And what does The Magician have beneath his table, then?
Drawing: VII The Chariot
Answer: He has immense capacity to act, on condition he establishes contact with "what is
under the table," which in The Chariot corresponds to the two horses: inner strength, animal
nature, and creativity.
Introduction to the Transfer Process
Draw two cards at random and examine the details that are repeated or are changed from
one card to the other: colors, objects, shapes, the direction the figures are looking ... The
interpretation can vary depending on the order in which the cards are placed.
VII The Chariot, VIII Justice
Transfer: The transfer shows us that The Chariot has two horses
and a scepter, a symbol of power. Justice, meanwhile, has two
plates and a sword, a weapon. Justice imposes her will upon the
world, while The Chariot accepts being carried away as the world
desires: his horses have no reins. The Chariot's crown is receptive,
open on top, while that of Justice is projective; she shows evidence
of an active intelligence.
Reading: In a very concrete reading, we could say that The Chariot
is trying to escape Justice, perhaps as well as his mother's
influence or an idea of excessive perfection.
f ine magician, Avim me
Sun
The w o h o n e s of [ h e Chariot, the
two platei of Justice; the crown of
The Chariot and that of justice
TJie Magician's g o l d t i r c i e
Reading: In this order, the small
round circle in The Magician's hand
could be a representation of The Sun
in miniature. Still in this order, we
could say that the young man on
Arcanum I is "taking The Sun in hand."
He is assuming his own success, or
using the influence of his father or a
man that supports him. He can then
absorb this energy that strengthens
him.
b e c o m e s the Sim,
Reading:
Order
XVIIII—I. In
this
The Sun's value is reduced.
configuration, the small yellow circle can be viewed as a reduction, a sun turned into a piece of
money. We could say that The Magician is manipulating this force in a reductive or dishonest
manner. This could be a swindler or a daddy's boy who does not understand the value of
money and squanders it.
XI Strength, XVIIII The Sun
Transfer: These cards show a more spiritual being acting upon (or
in collaboration with) another more animal-like being. In Strength,
the woman has placed her hands on the jaw of a lion; we could say
that she is trying to tame it or perhaps keep it quiet. In The Sun, an
individual marked with three dots (see pp. 215 and 243) is guiding
another individual who looks like him but who has a small tail that
seems to indicate that he still has ties to his animal nature.
Reading: We could say that the quest begun in Strength has led to
the construction of a new life in The Sun. An individual has
established contact with his creativity and profound self, his
subconscious, but still feels distinct from this entity seen as an
animal. In The Sun, the two governing centers of the individual are
collaborating like twin entities: the individual has found complete
accord with himself. To start the profound changes of the new life,
the spiritual part of our being becomes an inner guide whom we can
trust completely.
[lie spiritual being of Strength
acts upon the animal being,
the lion; the spiritual being of
The Sun (the one on c u r right
n a r k e d by three dots] guides
a mare animal-like being
(tha one on our l i f t
EXERCISES AND SAMPLE READINGS WITH ONE
PARTNER
Questions and Answers
One of the two participants chooses an Arcanum to ask it a series of
questions. The other participant takes the floor in the name of this
with a small tail).
Arcanum and answers in accordance with what his or her intuition
suggests. This exercise, which is quite helpful for Tarot students,
permits you to expand your understanding of the cards (see the example that follows).
Questions for Xllll Temperance
Why do you have two serpents entwined at your feet?
Because I have assumed all the energies of the earth. These two snakes are the
male and female sexual energy that are entwined inside me and sublimated
throughout up to my azure wings. I protect you in Earth as in Heaven.
Why are you pouring the contents of one vessel into another?
I help energies, fluids to communicate. Through my action, there are no longer
any opposing energies or opposites, but only complementary ones. This is the
secret of balance.
What is the meaning of the geometrical symbols you have on your chest?
The four yellow triangles on my chest represent the four centers of the human
being: the intellect, the emotional center, the sexual and creative center, and the
corporeal domain. These centers do not communicate directly with each other but
are juxtaposed, each with its own law. But the yellow circle above them in which
a triangle has been notched represents the fifth essence. This is the essential being that is
within each of us and who communicates with each of the four centers, allowing harmony to
rule the human being.
How does your presence manifest in my life?
When I arrive, a marvelous fragrance is released. I have a red flower on the top of
my head, which indicates that my thoughts are aromatic. Ideas manifest in me not
in the form of words, but like a perfume.
Why are your eyes yellow?
Because my spirit is pure light. I am everything I look at.
The Tarological Conversation, or Tarot Poker
Each of the two partners draws five cards at random, which they place next to one
another going left to right, in the direction of the reading. The first turns over his cards one by
one and asks one question per card. The second person answers him by turning his cards
over one by one. Then each of them takes five new cards from the decks, and they exchange
roles.
The questions can pertain to life in general, problems that concern the individual asking the
questions, or even about the relationship shared by the two partners if they know each other
fairly well.
This reading exercise is excellent for developing personal interpretation of the Arcana of the
Tarot and dialogue (see the example that follows).
Villi The Hermit: Where will the crisis I am now going through take me?
The Fool: To liberate yourself!
VIII Justice: Can the trial to which I am party bring me any money?
XV The Devil: Yes, a lot!
XI Strength: I am beginning an activity. Will I have the strength to succeed?
X The Wheel of Fortune: Yes, but with the help of an outside person (the handle on the
wheel).
I The Magician: What can I begin right here and now?
XXI The World: You can begin by remaining in permanent contact with the four dimensions of
yourself: your capacity for being, loving, creating, and living.
XIII The Nameless Arcanum: What should I now transform in my life?
Ill The Empress: You need to get in touch with your creativity, your enthusiasm, your
adolescent dreams!
Tarot Poker Variation
A variant of poker Tarot can be played between a person seeking a reading and an
experienced tarologist. The individual will allot a heartfelt question to each of five cards, based
on his knowledge of the Tarot or how the drawings inspire him. The tarologist will arrange his
own cards starting with the one that poses the most problems and ending with the one that
offers the greatest realization, so as to guide the answers along an evolutionary path. This
brings about a kind of "positive corrida"3—in which the person explains his difficulty and the
tarologist offers answers that help him. The tarologist's job consists of organizing the response
material so as to aid the individual to draw up a positive evolution (see the example below).
VIII The Hermit: What should I abandon?
XIII The Nameless Arcanum: Clinging to what is destroying itself.
XII The Hanged Man: What new viewpoint should I adopt?
XV The Devil: To live your creative passion.
XI Strength: By what means?
V The Pope: Through teaching.
llll The Emperor: Is it this means that will give me peace?
XVII The Star: This means will bring you peace if you cease demanding and work on giving.
VIII Justice: What other mother can be found?
XXI The World: The cosmos.
Reading Three Cards
Working with three cards is where the real work of Tarot reading can begin. It is its simplest
structure, a basic "sentence" that offers almost infinite possibilities. There are numerous
strategies for reading with three cards. We have the choice of using structures in which the
three cards represent three preestablished elements—past, present, and future, for example.
But gradually the art of reading will loosen itself from these rigid structures. We learn to let
ourselves be guided by the details that unite or oppose the cards: symbols, direction in which
the figures are moving or looking, the numerical value of the selected Arcana, and so forth. The
three-card reading is an art that the Tarot student will never finish carrying to deeper and
deeper levels.
To initiate yourself into the reading of three cards, you have a choice between three
directions that span a course going from the most simple to the most elaborate:
Choose a reading strategy in advance.
Adapt the reading strategy to the question that has been asked.
Determine the reading strategy once the cards have been turned over, according to their
design or numerical value, by relying particularly on the elements that recur from one card
to the next (symbols and colors) and on the direction in which the figures are looking.
We can also take into account how the consultant physically arranges the three cards on the
table. If the order of the cards is neutral, meaning they are lined up horizontally with a
consistent space between each of them, this can indicate that the individual is balanced and
organized and the question has been posed with equanimity, or with a desire to have control
over events. If the consultant arranges the cards in an ascending design, we can detect in this
an optimistic tendency, whereas if the line descends, it would be a good idea to ask what is
motivating his pessimism. If the first two cards are placed close together and the third is farther
away, or the opposite, the reading strategy should be modified accordingly. There will be a
union between two elements and a feeling of distance with respect to the third element.
If each card, instead of being vertical, is tilted forward, this can indicate an enthusiasm bom
of a mental decision to forge ahead. When the cards are tilted backward, we can imagine that
the consultant has no desire to move ahead, or is advancing against her will. All these
interpretations are, of course, given for information only and should encourage the tarologist to
engage in dialogue rather than being taken as definite clues.
Finally, during a three-card reading, you can always draw one or more additional cards to
shed more light on a situation, lend clarity to a doubt, or see how a block can be overcome or
how the transformations will become stabilized. If the Tarot seems to evoke a difficulty, there is
no reason to stay there. We can ask ourselves what its origin is and how it might be resolved.
The tarologist should be an ally for the individual, without loading him or her down with
predictions, judgments, or diagnoses. If we believe the Tarot delivers a message from the
subconscious, our work, as reader, is to translate this message as best we can in order to
allow the individual to move forward in a helpful direction, toward the resolution of conflicts, on
the path of realization and progress, toward greater joy, creativity, peace, and prosperity.
READING WITH A PREESTABLISHED STRATEGY
The reading with three cards is both quite simple and very rich, and practically inexhaustible.
However, we can single out already structured readings that, initially, permit the "sentence"
chosen by the consultant to make sense.
The first difficulty to confront the tarologist resides in the belief that the Tarot is used to
predict the future. Now Tarology, contrary to cartomancy, consists not of determining
hypothetical future events but answering a question as helpfully as possible by relying on
images rich in symbols. To do this, it is necessary to put Tarot reading back into a context: this
is when the reading strategy can come to our aid. It gives meaning to the interpretation in the
same way the field or the board (for football or chess) provides the game with its orientation.
The strategy is decided upon by the reader, either in advance or after seeing the cards. The
number of strategies is potentially infinite.
Here are five very simple three-card reading strategies, classified in order of the most factual
to the most psychological. In all the examples, the cards are respectively designated by A, B,
and C. The answers provided in the reading are intentionally ordinary and simple. You can
obviously craft more profound responses by referring to the texts on the Major Arcana, but in
the absence of an actual person seeking a reading, the reading process is presented in its
most accessible form here.
Strategy 1
Past, Present, and Future Aspects of a Situation
A, B, and C respectively represent the past, the present, and what is being prepared for the
future (see the example on the following page).
A
B
C
A : Past aspect o f t h e situation
B: Present aspect o f t h e situation
C: A s p e c t t o c o m e of the situation
Ami finally going to get my driver's license?
Drawing: A: VII The Chariot, B: XIII The Nameless Arcanum, C:
XVIIII The Sun
Reading: In the past you took this exam and failed (The Chariot is
driving a vehicle). But today you have changed (XIII,
transformation). Perhaps you have acquired the awareness of
danger that makes a good driver. In the future you will prepare to pass the exam successfully
(XVIIII) on condition you consider the examiner as an ally and not an enemy.
Strategy 2
Beginning, Deployment, Result
In this chronological development, A is a beginning that develops into B and C (see the
example that follows).
A:
B:
Beginning
Deployment
C : Result
How can I help my daughter in her difficult situation ? (She
is a shy teenager who is failing school.)
Drawing: A: XVIII The Moon, XVI B: The Tower, C: XVIIII The
Sun
Reading: You are her mother, her feminine model, and her
essential reference, and your daughter is at the exact age when
she becomes aware of her femininity (The Moon). She needs joy,
parties, and to see new landscapes (The Tower): allow her to put
some gaiety into her life. Finally, the role of the paternal archetype is important (The Sun), for it
is also his gaze that permits your daughter to grow. Or else, The Sun could inspire you leave
on a family vacation.
Strategy 3
The Reasons for the Present Situation
The beginning is in C and one revises what must be done to arrive there (see the example
below).
C
A
B
A a n d B: W h a t n e e d s t o b e d o n e o r w h a t h a s
h a p p e n e d for this situation t o o c c u r
C : T h e situation
What caused the conflict with one of my colleagues at
work?
Drawing: A: llll The Emperor, B: Villi The Hermit, C: I The
Magician
Reading: This situation faces you with either the necessity of a
choice, or with the fact that someone owes you money (The
Magician is holding a gold coin in his hand); in any case, the
resolution of this issue is in your hands. Do not have any doubts that it is in your power to fix
the matter. The conflict arises out of the fact that you and your colleague do not share the same
values or the same means: whereas you are richer spiritually and less powerful materially (The
Hermit), you are dealing with someone who is much more materialistic (The Emperor) whose
goals lie somewhere else than in your collaboration (The Emperor's back is turned to The
Hermit).
Strategy 4
The Family Trio and Its Influence upon the Consultant
Mirroring the order of the figures in the card Judgment (XX), the cards are represented in the
order mother, child, and father (see the example that follows).
B
C
A : Feminine influence
8: Central element
C: Male influence
Why am I having so much trouble getting pregnant?
Drawing: A: VI The Lover, B: X The Wheel of Fortune, C: II The High
Priestess
Reading: You are represented by The Wheel of Fortune, which
points to a block in the present connected to an emotional mystery
(the sphinx). Your fertility is not the issue, but you are still held
prisoner by your parents' contradictions. Your father (The High Priestess) seems deeply
marked by his own mother, an idealized woman who may have passed on a religious or
intellectual ideal to him. Seeking his approval, you tend to behave like a pure spirit, denying
your body and ability to procreate. Your mother (The Lover) seems to have fallen prey to an
emotional conflict. Did her mother-in-law interfere excessively in her life as a couple (the
figures on The Lover would therefore represent the couple with the mother-in-law on the far
left)? What kind of vision of love, maternity, and femininity did this pass on to you? How might
this vision have put a brake upon your desire to become a mother in turn?
Strategy 5
The Forces at Work: Reception-Action
Along the same line of ideas, but on a much more symbolic plane, you can decide that the
cards represent the union between active and receptive forces giving their energy to a shared
task (see the examples that follow).
Case 1. The union can be harmonious: union of A and C for result B that lifts the person or the
shared task.
c
A: Receptive forces
B: C e n t r a l e l e m e n t
C: Active forces
How can I best work with my spouse to successfully realize
our plan to open a bed and breakfast in the country?
Drawing: A: VII The Chariot, B: The Fool, C: Xllll Temperance
Reading: The plan is carried along by enthusiasm (The Fool). Your
spouse is capable of acting with a great deal of force and
determination (The Chariot). You represent the forces of balance
and moderation, which are just as necessary to guide the plan
forward successfully (Temperance).
Case 2. The union can also be disharmonious, if not dangerous: cards A and C pose a risk of
burying the individual in B.
B
A: R e c e p t i v e f o r c e s
B: C e n t r a l
element
C; Active forces
What is preventing me from writing poetry?
Drawing: A: Villi The Hermit, B: VI The Lover, C: Xllll Temperance
Reading: You have an infinite love for poetry (The Lover). It is both
a vocation and a source of joy for you. But for the moment, your
muse is in crisis (Villi). Perhaps you feel poorly loved and
insufficiently recognized. Or perhaps you are simply in the midst of
preparing yourself for a new creative outburst, because The Hermit
can also mean a positive crisis. In any case, the decision to put off
taking action (Temperance on the active side) is not helping you. You should perhaps write,
even if it is only a single line a day, even if you do not feel inspired, for patience and inaction
are not your allies.
Five Strategies Around One Question
Here is how the five strategies we just studied on the preceding pages allow us to respond
with different subtleties to the same question. We can begin by providing a simple diagram of
the forces present in cards A, B, and C by using one or two key words per Arcanum. We will
then be able to find more subtleties or combine the observations obtained from each strategy
by having a dialogue with the consultant to end up with the answer that will be the most helpful
to him or her.
Is this particular person worthy of becoming my teacher?
Drawing: A: The Fool, B: llll The Emperor, C: XVIIII The Sun
Key Words: The Fool: Energy, enthusiasm. The Emperor: Power,
stability, rational mind. The Sun: Union, realization, ideal father, new
construction.
Strategy 1 (past, present, and future): In the past, you have
devoted a great deal of energy to this quest (A). Today, you are in full possession of your
rational mind, and you have the power to judge what is good for you (B). But you feel that in the
future you will need, like the person on the left side in The Sun, to accept the aid of a spiritual
individual who has already gone beyond the rational, in order to explore new regions of your
mind (C).
Strategy 2 (beginning, deployment, and result): You are taking the step of going toward (A)
a man of power (B), and you will achieve a spiritual union with him (C).
Strategy 3 (the reasons for the situation): You have already found and chosen this teacher
(C). This process has required energetic determination (A) and acceptance of the teacher's
power (B).
Strategy 4 (the family trio): You are a stable individual (B). Your mother was perhaps
somewhat disorganized (A) and your father an ideal model (C). This is both the reason why
you are seeking a teacher (who will make up for the disorder of your mother), and why you
have doubts about him (he cannot equal your father).
Strategy 5 (the forces at work): (Case 1) You are able to join together in yourself the order of
The Sun (C) and the chaos of The Fool (A) to gain the power and balance you desire. The
teacher is first and foremost inside you; an outside teacher can guide you along the path of
your own value. (Case 2) Be careful to avoid causing a conflict between these two forces that
we just mentioned (A, madness, and C, wisdom). For under the pretext of a conflict with the
teacher, you will be truly engaging in conflict with the feminine part of yourself, which you
cannot stand (represented by The Fool, maternal influence).
THE INDIVIDUAL'S POSSIBILITIES FOR ACTION
Strategy for Reading and Working on the Question
The previous examples show us that we have several possible three-card reading strategies
available to us at all times. When we are no longer prisoners of finding the right answer, Tarot
reading becomes a therapeutic conversation. With the consent of the consultant and starting
from a predetermined reading strategy, we can work on the formulation of the question.
How Questioning the Tarot Makes Us the Actors and Authors of Our Own Lives
Questions from consultants often express anxiety about the future: "Which thing will bring
success?" "Will my wishes come true?" "Does this person love me?" We cannot answer
questions like these, because that amounts to predicting the future. But we can rephrase them
in such a way as to allow the consultant to once again become master of his fate: "What can I
do so this thing is successful?" "In what direction should I work?" "What should I change for my
wish to be realized?" "What is the nature of the relationship that connects me to this person?"
When the questions are posed like this, they include the consultant as an active subject in her
own life and not the toy of an all-powerful fate.
Here are two reading strategies that also rely on the same three-card draw. The one chosen
will allow the determination of what forces are present that can benefit the person asking the
question.
Initial question: What is going to happen in my job?
Drawing: A: XVIIII The Sun, B: XIII The Nameless Arcanum, C: VIII
Justice
Strategy 1
Evolution of a Situation
Instead of asking, "What is going to happen?" we can reorient the question by focusing on the
notion of evolution. This reading, which is the past-present-future type, will cast light on the
way the individual has experienced her work until recently (card A), her attitude in the present
situation (card B), and the evolution that she envisions in the near future, as well as the forces
that will permit her to implement this evolution (card C) (see the example that follows).
Following this strategy, we work to reorient and reformulate the question. It then becomes:
Question: What development can I see at work in my job?
Reading: In the past (A) you were happy and content with this work, but it corresponded to a
male domain or perhaps to a desire inculcated by your father. Currently (B) you are in search of
a transformation, because in the future (C) you are looking for (and preparing to find) an activity
that corresponds more deeply with your feminine nature. You feel a need to give yourself what
you deserve: perhaps a more gratifying kind of work, or one that allows a hitherto unexploited
talent to blossom.
Strategy 2
Read Like a Sentence
Another possible strategy is the grammatical reading, in which the cards take the place,
respectively, of the subject, verb, and object. The purpose of this strategy is to restore the
individual to his position as active subject. Card A represents the subject of the sentence; card
B represents the verb, the action; and card C represents the complement, the object (see the
example that follows).
Following this strategy the question becomes:
Question: What am I now doing, and what can I do, in my job?
Reading:
p" A (subject). The Sun here symbolizes the consultant, the subject in search of a transition,
a spiritual transformation that will free her from the past and permit her to start building
something new.
p" B (verb, action). With the Nameless Arcanum, this new construction necessitates a radical
transformation. But what needs to be transformed?
p* C (complement, object). Arcanum VIII gives us the answer: the individual has to rid herself
of a certain idea of perfection. This perfectionism may have been inculcated by her
mother, or the image the family tree has created of the woman's role. The person receiving
the reading, represented by The Sun, is integrating positive values that will allow her to
undergo a transformation (Nameless Arcanum) to find her true feminine nature and her
personal balance (Justice).
Summary: The reading can perhaps be summed up as follows: You are experiencing a
moment of important transition, in search of your true being. This is demonstrated by your need
to transform your submissive attitude toward the authorities and to recover the meaning of your
profound value.
LEARNING HOW TO REPOSITION THE CARDS TO FIND THE MOST
HELPFUL ANSWER
There is nothing fated in a Tarot reading, nothing that has been already staged beforehand.
The cards placed on the table are rectangles of printed paper and not an irrevocable sentence.
An advanced tarologist should abandon the notion of fate as well as that of prediction. He or
she is not there to give advice but to show people their own possibilities so that they may
personally discover what they should do.
At the time when the person seking consultation is choosing the cards corresponding to his
question, he is providing what can be described as an instantaneous photograph of his
subconscious with which you will be able to work. This is why, after reading the "sentence" the
way it was formulated by this individual, it is possible to change the order of the cards to
establish, with the same elements, an attitude of life that will make it possible to provide a more
positive and effective answer to the question, one that is better adapted to the person's
deepest desire.
We can always have six possible readings from three cards: A-B-C, B-C-A, B-A-C, C-A-B,
C-B-A, and A-C-B. Placement in progressive numerical order generally indicates a path of
realization, inasmuch as the structure of the Major Arcana follows an increasing numerical
order. But like everything in the Tarot, this is not an absolute. Sometimes the structure of the
cards will suggest another order of realization.
Repositioning
To start, let's take the example from page 464, but changing the order of the cards this time:
/ want to meet a teacher in the domain that interests me.
Drawing: The Fool, XVIIII The Sun, llll The Emperor
Reading 1: In this order, we can say that you are putting a great
deal of energy into your search (The Fool) for an ideal to replace the
A
B
father (XVIIII). But you risk being disappointed because you will be
confronted by a living man (llll).
Repositioning: Here is what the other configurations will evoke:
Reading 2: In search of the ideal (XVIIII), you will meet a normal
man (llll) and flee as fast as you can (The Fool).
Reading 3: You are an individual of great value (XVIIII). Why go
look for (The Fool) a teacher who will be inferior to you (llll)?
Reading 4: Your quest for the father is successful: you leave the
rational (llll) to set off toward general teachings of a solar figure
(XVIIII).
C
Reading 5: You find the teacher, but
you leave him immediately: the
meeting was enough to liberate you.
Reading 6: Bome along by great
energy (The Fool), you find a
teacher who is both real and
powerful (llll), who enables you to
move into a process for building
something new (XVIIII).
A
C
We can also read the six possible
configurations and determine which
is best for the person. In the previous
example, it is probably the last
solution (the numerical order of the
Arcana) that is most favorable. Second example:
Repositioning Strategy:
Out ol all the possibilities, keep
(he most positive and those that
reveal an aspect of the situation
f l a t can be helpful to the person
receiving the reading.
rwM
A man and a woman pose a question pertaining to their
desire to have a baby.
Drawing: III The Empress, XX Judgment, llll The Emperor
Reading: The order in which the cards have been drawn is quite
favorable to this couple, inasmuch as the individuals in
Judgment appear to be welcoming a new birth. Arcanum XX is
framed by a card on the left representing a woman and a card on
the right representing a man, who can respectively be assigned
to the person receiving the reading and her companion.
Consequently, the increasing numerical number is not the
absolute value.
Repositioning: Order A-C-B
Reading: In this order, the reading is
also positive: The Empress-Emperor
relationship culminates with the
emergence of a new consciousness.
C
B
A
Repositioning: Order C-B-A
Reading: On the other hand, if the cards are presented in this order, the sexual energies are
reversed in the couple: the female is masculine and the male feminine. Although
complementary, it will be necessary for them to take steps not to break the reference points for
the child yet to be bom.
In the third example below, the reading strategy will be to consider the center card as the most
stable, the profound and immutable state of the individual. The first card is the one in which
everything was bom, and the third is the one in which all is undone: birth, conservation, and
dissolution, as in the divine Indian trinity. We are therefore able to reverse the order of cards A
and C, which amounts to reversing the meaning of the reading.
Repositioning Strategy:
lei this case the individual's
request is to begin something.
Tin corresponds to card A
(Strength). We reorganize the
spread to make it end with
this objective (Strength m the
third position).
Actor asks: Willi be hired to act in this film?
Drawing: A: XI Strength, B: XVIII The Moon, C: XV The Devil
Reading: There is a great receptivity in the middle and an
immense need (XVIII). This young actor's central interest is his
need and his desire to be chosen. We are not making any
judgments, but we can wonder if perhaps a little action might not
be called for on this person's part. The Moon needs a provider
(the Sun's light); it is in a permanent state of receptivity. In a
domain like art and in an industry like cinema, is this kind of
attitude viable? It requires steps to be taken in reality. Strength
wants to take action, but she turns into a needy Moon. With XV,
she gains a connection. XV can represent a contract. The film
could come through provided Strength is strong enough to get
beyond the obstacle of its own passive expectations.
Repositioning: Order C-B-A.
Reading: The first step (XV) has
already been taken, whether in the
form of a contract or that of enormous
creativity. Here the artist has resolved
the problem. He has landed the
c
B
A
desired contract, or he has decided to
forge ahead, on the strength of his own talent, to produce the film or shoot it himself. The Moon
is then in a state of acceptance and enters into action in Strength.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TAROT READING
To read the Tarot, it is necessary to be aware that everything in the universe is in movement.
Consequently, the person receiving the reading is too. If we see the person facing us as
dynamic, we will prevent ourselves from making predictions that will fix him or her in a set
position. To the contrary, we shall be more prone to letting the individual orient his or her
movement in the most helpful direction.
The aspects of past, present, and future are within us simultaneously. The education we
received during childhood from our family continues to shape our behavior. This present,
greatly influenced by our past, contains the future in the form of a seed. It is by changing the
way we look at our current situation that we are able to direct ourselves to the goal we cherish
most.
This grasp of awareness is just as valuable for Tarot readers personally, who, conscious of
the power conferred upon them by the position of facing a person in search of help or advice,
should consider the exercise of their art as an opportunity to identify their projections with
increasing delicacy and deftness, and to be more and more simply in service to the individual.
HELPING THE PERSON RECEIVING THE READING RESOLVE
CONTRADICTIONS
Often the objectives that lead a person to consult a Tarot reader are made confusing by
conflicting desires. We are not formed in a solid block: we want one thing and we want its
opposite, a fear conceals a desire, we project on an outside element a solution that in reality is
to be found inside ourselves. It is therefore helpful to work on the diversity of inner forces. We
can have a "yes" and a "but" for the same situation, an acceptance and a refusal, an
enthusiasm and a fear. Becoming aware of the presence of these forces helps the individual
redefine his or her objective and clarify his or her path. When we collide with the outside world,
it is often the expression of our own inner conflicts and contradictions. If we do not know what
we are doing, we cannot do what we wish.
Strategy 1
"Yes, But ... Therefore!"
This reading with three cards can be made with or without a question beforehand. A simple
method, it can be applied to the domains of material, psychological, or spiritual life.
A: The yes. This is the person's situation, his principal desire, his trump cards.
B: The but of the sentence. It is the obstacle, the difficulty, the unexpected, what he does not
want to do or cannot do.
C: The therefore. This card provides clues for resolving the situation and finding a middle path.
You can draw one or several more other cards to shed more light on the therefore (see the
example that follows).
Person receiving the reading has no question but simply
wishes the Tarot to speak to her.
Drawing: A: Xllll Temperance, B: V The Pope, C: II The High
Priestess
Card A: The yes. You are in a position of balance. You feel quite
fine with the way you are and feel secure. However, we can note
that the angel of Temperance is asexual and only communicates with himself. This indicates to
us a more or less intentional situation of isolation. The Angel is looking toward the past, where
there is perhaps an attachment or a memory remaining that draws you away from the present.
Temperance can signify that healing is taking place. Perhaps you are still in the process of
healing from a past emotional wound.
Commentary of the person receiving the reading: "It's true, I am still mourning my father,
who passed away."
Card B: The but. You do not wish to remain in this position. The Pope indicates a new idea, a
bridge that you can prepare to cross, a desire for union. Furthermore, this card is not looking
toward the past but toward the future (toward the right). Finally, it represents a man animated
by a spiritual ideal and/or a teaching mission.
Commentary of the person receiving the reading: "I do, in fact, want to meet a life
companion."
Card C: The therefore. To form a couple with The Pope, it is necessary to become The High
Priestess, the most appropriate companion for him. This consists of accepting the man in his
spiritual dimension: acknowledging his ability to be a guide, a teacher, a master... In a word,
allow him to outshine the deceased father. This Tarot drawing commits you, in order to fulfill
your desire, to accept crossing through a stage in the mourning process.
Strategy 2
"Protagonist, Mediator, Antagonist"
When we find ourselves in conflict or when we feel an internal dilemma, we can decide that the
three cards represent the protagonist (A), the mediator (B), and the antagonist (C) of a situation.
These aspects symbolize individuals opposing each other in a given project or inner forces of
the person receiving the reading. The mediator indicates a conciliatory position at the center of
the conflict (see the example that follows).
Going through a divorce, the person finds the attitude of his
ex-wife with their children unacceptable and toxic. He is
looking for a solution.
Drawing: A: XIII The Nameless Arcanum, B: Xllll Temperance, C:
llll The Emperor
Reading: Oddly enough, you have drawn the cards "backward": the
mother, perceived as toxic, should normally correspond with XIII, The Nameless Arcanum, and
yourself with The Emperor (the stable father). However, it is in the place of the protagonist—in
other words, your place—where you put Arcanum XIII, whereas your ex-wife, your antagonist,
is represented by The Emperor. Temperance, in the middle, is meanwhile prompting
communication, moderation, and the union of opposites.
The message the Tarot is sending you is quite subtle: to overcome your negative vision of
this person, whether justified or not, you have to be capable of putting yourself in her place.
Your ex-wife's behavior reactivates an old anger: understand that you chose this woman to
start a family with her. It is a certainty that she corresponded to a deeply anchored model in
your subconscious. The power struggle leads nowhere, nor is this the appropriate time to try to
find out who is right. The sole solution indicated by Arcanum Xllll, Temperance, is to adopt a
conciliatory and spiritual attitude, making a return to dialogue possible. However, this can only
happen if you realize the true origin of your anger—directed against a castrating maternal
archetype, or a sister perceived as an enemy.
Reading the Card at the Bottom of the Deck
We saw in part 1 how we can consider the Tarot to be a whole whose fragments, taken
separately, put us back on the road to unity. When the person rearranges the order of the
cards, he is creating his own chaos, his universe. In this universe we can establish the basis
that the cards from the top half of the deck pertain to the spiritual aspiration of the consultant,
and those from the lower half represent his darkest depths, the subconscious.
The card found on the bottom of the deck would therefore represent both the most profound
and the most visible, just like a striking dream that you still remember on awakening. In many
cases this card can helpfully orient the Tarot reading, furnishing a clue to the tone of the
reading. The tarologist has the choice of stealing a glance at it while the individual is
rearranging the cards and keeping this clue in mind during the reading, or he can decide to
openly interpret this revealing card, which will provide an additional illumination of some kind
to the cards that were drawn (see the example that follows).
A young twenty-five-year-old woman whose parents are of
two different nationalities asks: "What is my country?"
Card at the Bottom of the Deck: VI The Lover
Drawing: XX Judgment, VIII Justice, Villi The Hermit
Reading of the Card: Here is how the card from the bottom of the
deck allows us to color the individual's question. The Lover reveals
an emotional conflict and a desire for union. An individual in
between two others wonders: "What is my country?" This figure is
placed in the center, at the heart of the map. One first response
would be: 'Your country is in your heart." We can also see that this
central figure is wearing red shoes; we can then comment: 'Your
country is feeling 'good inside your shoes.' The Earth belongs to
you; you are a citizen of the planet. Wherever you feel good is where you may consider
yourself to be in your country."
Reading of the Drawing: While keeping in mind the trail suggested by The Lover, we can
read the three cards this way: "You ask this question because you have a desire inside to unite
your two parents (VIII and Villi), who are of different nationalities, without betraying either one.
You experience yourself as the child in the middle of XX. But it is time to accept the death of
this childish desire. You are not responsible for your parents' union. Instead of placing yourself
in the center of the family, it is time now to find your own center, like Justice (VIII): in full
perfection of the feminine. You will cease asking your parents for a nationality; you will take
one on your own initiative by choosing the place you like best. The way of The Lover,
remember, is pleasure, the choice of doing what you like."
Choosing a Positive or Negative Reading
In addition to the reading strategy and the work around the question, the reader's attitude is
essential. Just as in life, at every moment in a Tarot reading a choice is offered us: we can
interpret the facts (the Arcana) in a positive or negative sense. We have seen that this choice is
not predetermined, insofar as in the Tarot, no card is innately negative.
But what is certain, whatever direction we choose to carve out, it will lead us to infinite
developments. In other words, there are no limits to ugliness, sorrow, and being cursed, just as
there are no limits to beauty, joy, and trust.
It is not a question of turning the Tarot reading into a undertaking of systematic benediction:
extravagant predictions can prove to be as disastrous as curses because the individual could
have the tendency to stop living actively and simply wait for the announced miracle to take
place. But we can choose to approach the reading, even when it presents obstacles and
difficulties, as a path of growth and joyful acceptance of life.
The example that follows illustrates how we can interpret the same drawing in one direction
or the other.
Remember, these readings can both be right. It is up to the tarologist to determine the
orientation, in full consciousness, and toward which vision of the world he wishes it to be
directed.
A person can, consciously or unconsciously, want a negative reading. This is often the case
for depressed or pessimistic individuals. It will therefore serve no purpose to try from the onset
to impose an overly optimistic reading on such a person. To the contrary, the tarologist would
be well advised to first carefully present a rather negative reading. Then, with the individual's
consent, this reading will be oriented step by step toward more fruitful perspectives that will
become approachable because they are anchored in what the person considers as her reality.
It can then be interesting to give her the two versions, and also clarify the way she chooses to
look at her situation.
What will my new job be like?
Drawing: A: X The Wheel of Fortune, B: I The Magician, C: XVI The
Tower
Negative Reading: You are not advancing (X) because you are not
working to open your mind (I). You keep staring at a block (I looking
at X) and because of this, you do not take any joy in life. Your
instability is destroying you; cycles follow one upon the other and repeat, and, because you
live like an eternal beginner, you see your ideal collapsing (XVI).
Positive Reading: Your mind is ready to open (XVI). A cycle is ending (X); you have gone
through a profound change, and you have drawn a valuable asset from it. The past is past.
Henceforth you have everything you need to take action (on The Magician's table) and joyfully
realize your most cherished plans (XVI). Your new job will allow you to open up and free your
energy. You can finally discover the pleasure of playing and dancing, your gaze turned upon
the fruits of the Earth.
READING THREE CARDS WITH NO PREESTABLISHED STRUCTURE AND
WITHOUT QUESTIONS
This final stage of the three-card reading is the true art of Tarot reading. All the strategies,
although helpful for the beginner—and quite often for the confirmed tarologist as well—have
their limitations. They are rigid, whereas the human mind has infinite plasticity.
Sometimes people interrogate the Tarot on one theme: emotional life, work, and so forth. But
often out of shyness or indecision, people will have no question to pose. The tarologist should
then be capable of helping the underlying question to emerge in order to answer it precisely
without falling into long, vague speeches. Without a question, there is no answer possible.
Similarly, a time will come where we should be capable of reading three cards just as we
understand any sentence spoken by someone in a language with which we are familiar.
Sometimes, to perfect this understanding, we are right to request some additional information.
In the same way, the three-card reading can then be enriched by new cards, and we thus move
on in this way, easily and imperceptibly, to much larger readings, until we are able to read a
drawing consisting of the twenty-two Major Arcana, truly all seventy-eight Arcana of the Tarot.
Strategy 1
The Tarot Asks the Question
When someone asks for a Tarot reading but does not wish to ask a question—either because
he or she does not have one or does not want to say it out loud—the danger for the tarologist
then is to launch into a reading that deviates from the concerns of the person receiving the
reading. We can go astray in psychological discourses when the individual really has material
concerns, or into a spiritual reading when the person is concerned with emotional issues, or,
conversely, give a very down-to-earth reading when the person really needs a deep
realization. In a case like this, reading strategies allow us to frame the drawing and respond in
the direction most likely to satisfy the individual.
When a person wishes to consult the Tarot without formulating a question, he or she can
choose an Arcanum that symbolizes a question or concern. Here are some of the questions the
Major Arcana can pose. Obviously this list is not exhaustive:
The Fool: What am I in the midst of (or what should I be) releasing? What is my path?
How should I channel my energy?
I The Magician: What am I beginning? What am I in the midst of deciding? What are
my possibilities in potential?
II The High Priestess: What am I accumulating? What in me remains untouched?
What should I study? What kind of relationship do I have with my mother?
III The Empress: What am I creating? What is it that is flowering, bursting in me? What
experiences am I in the midst of living?
llll The Emperor: How is my work, my material life going? What am I in the midst of
building? What kind of relationship do I have with my father? How do I relate with the
notion of power?
V The Pope: What does tradition, the law say? What should I communicate, and with
what? Am I in the midst of transmitting something, and to whom? Do I have an ideal?
VI The Lover: What pleases me? In what relationships am I currently involved? How is
my life going emotionally?
VII The Chariot: Where am I going, and where do I come from? What is my
vehicle? (For example, a mystical doctrine, mathematics, the Tarot, my body ...)
What is my action in the world?
VIII Justice: What should I balance or harmonize? What should I rid myself of
that is useless in me? What is my notion of perfection? How do I face
maternity?
Villi The Hermit: What does my wisdom say? What am I in the midst of
distancing myself from? What should I renounce? What do I believe in?
X The Wheel of Fortune: What should be changed? What cycle has ended in
my life? What are my opportunities? Who can help me? What am I in the midst
of repeating?
XI Strength: What is my strength? Where is it situated? To what purpose do I
employ my sexuality? What are my desires? What do I intend to tame? What is
my creative project?
XII The Hanged Man: What should I sacrifice? What am I hiding? What should
I stop? What should I listen to (the figure of The Hanged Man is the sole human
figure in the Tarot with an ear)? Where should I direct my inner seeking?
XIII The Nameless Arcanum: What inside me should die? What is it that I
should let go? What is in the process of transforming inside me? What is my
anger?
1 A I U - 1
—
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x i.:
i _r
i_a:
ij
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AIIII
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emperance: vvnai pruieuis rne r vvnai Kinu ui reiauunsnip snuuiu i
establish with myself? What am I in the midst of healing? Whom should I
bless?
XV The Devil: To what am I bound? What is my temptation? What is my
creative ability? What are my negative values? What are my impulses?
What frightens me?
XVI The Tower: With whom am I in the process of breaking up? What
am I freeing myself from? What are the energies becoming unblocked
within me? What is the feast that awaits me?
if*
XVII The Star: What is my hope? What is my place? To what purpose
should I employ my energy? What have I to give, to whom, and how?
XVIII The Moon: What is my receptive capacity? How is my femininity,
my intuition going? How do I view my mother? What is my impossible
ideal? What is in gestation inside of me?
XVIIII The Sun: What gives me joy, energy, success? Am I loved? Am I
building something new? What image do I have of my father?
XX Judgment: What is in the process of awakening inside me? What
are my irresistible desires? What are we in the midst of creating
together? What is my position toward starting a family?
XXI The World: What is the result of what I have done? Where is it
leading? What imprisons me? Am I in the process of blossoming? What
is my realization?
Reading the Tarot without a question being posed is a perilous undertaking. In a three-card
reading, in any event, the simplicity of the sentence opens the field to far too many
interpretations, and you can touch upon personal domains in a way that can strike the person
negatively. The best strategy consists of accepting that the person has not formulated a
question and to say to him: "If you really want it, we will see what the Tarot wishes to speak
with you about." You will then define the question by basing it on one card. You may either
decide to use the card from the bottom of the deck, or you may ask the person to draw a card
that symbolizes the question, then three for the response. It is a good idea to first find
agreement on the orientation of the "question posed by the Tarot," then answer it using the
three other cards (see the example that follows).
In this example an actress without work chose to have the Tarot formulate her questions. We
see how a three-card sentence can be interpreted quite differently depending upon the
question.
Question 1: The person draws a card XXI The World. She accepts
the question posed by this Arcanum: What is my path toward
realization?
Question 2: The person pulls a card that will symbolize her second
question: XI Strength. She accepts: What is my desire?
Drawing: A: Villi The Hermit, B: II The High Priestess, C: XX
Judgment
Reading 1: XXI The World. You must accept the crisis (Villi) and
use it to your advantage to reconsider your past. The High Priestess
represents a period of fertile waiting: perhaps you are studying a
role or a new technique for your metier. Perhaps you are also in the
midst of writing a play or screenplay in which you could act. This
serene and fertile attitude will lead you to a new project, an
irresistible call to realization (Judgment).
Reading 2: XI Strength. You are represented by The High
Priestess, a pale white woman who seems to be waiting for
someone to come warm her up. But the object of your desire, The Hermit, is in a state of
solitude and not offering himself for the moment as a passionate lover. However, because he is
walking backward, he is advancing toward you. An irresistible desire can be bom out of this
encounter... or the emergence of a new consciousness (XX). We should note that adding The
Hermit (Villi) and The High Priestess (II) together gives us 11—XI, the very card that poses the
question. We will therefore favor the idea that the man represented by The Hermit is the object
of desire of the woman represented by The High Priestess.
Strategy 2
Reading Three Cards Based on Their Numerical Value
In the context of a drawing, you may also add up the numbers of the Arcana to obtain a new
reading element: their sum provides a number corresponding to an Arcanum. In this technique
known as "theosophical addition," if the sum of the numbers is higher than 22, we add those
numbers together to come up with a new figure that will correspond to the number of a Major
Arcanum. In this strategy, The Fool, who has no number, is considered as the twenty-second
Major Arcanum and thus corresponds to the figure 22.
We can add the numerical value of each of the three cards of the
sentence together:
A + B + C = the underlying aspects of the question
And the cards two by two:
• A + C = the exterior aspects of the question
• A + B = maternal or receptive influence, left side
• B + C = the paternal or active influence, right side
HlHMr
rrtijax
LLAMKLT
Why can't my thirty-five-year-old son
start the family he wants?
(In talking with this individual, we learned that
the father of this child was absent and that she
raised him by herself.)
Drawing: A: VI The Lover, B: V The Pope, C:
XVIIII The Sun
Underlying
Aspects
of
Question (A + B + C)
III The Empress
(6 + 5 + 19 = 30;3 + 0 = 3)
the
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In i hti- mjir(y kno-n n
"(hto.'gphKJ| JddM
i n," Ht rjn
idd Iht Ihwe ijrdi tojerhfr it
wil at jdding liim lira by (wo.
The first element of the response
could be: Your son is looking for the
ideal woman, The Empress adorned by every
seduction. But to seduce her, he needs to be
The Emperor, which does not appear in this
spread. It is The Pope who is in the center; he
is a man who is spiritually strong but who
corresponds with The High Priestess.
Exterior Aspects of the Question
(A + C)
VII The Chariot
(6 + 19 = 25;2 + 5 = 7)
In appearance, your son is active in
the world and sure of himself. He has
no problem.
Receptive or Maternal Influences (A + B)
XI Strength (6 + 5 = 11)
The mother is very strong in the psychological scheme of this young man. He might
be afraid of finding a desire to flee toward the paternal archetype in every woman.
Active or Paternal Influences (B + C)
VI The Lover (19 + 5 = 24; 2 + 4 = 6)
But when we add together the right side, we find The Lover: there is no male
reference point. The figure of The Lover is surrounded by two women: there
where your son needs a masculine influence, we still find the mother.
Synthesis: To succeed in finding the woman that is right for him and to become the man who
is right for her, your son needs a reference point, a teacher to play the role of paternal
archetype and give him the missing information: the transmission of the masculine.
Should I change jobs?
Drawing: A: VIII Justice, B: XVI The Tower, C: XI Strength
Underlying Aspects of the Question (A + B + C)
VIII Justice (8 + 16 + 11 = 35; 3 + 5 = 8)
This Arcanum indicates that you have something to weigh, a balance to be found.
Exterior Aspects of the Question (A + C)
XVIIII The Sun (8 + 11 =19)
In appearance, you are aspiring to build something new.
Receptive or Maternal Influences (A + B)
VI The Lover (8 + 16 = 24; 2 + 4 = 6)
However, the job you currently hold pleases you; from a receptive viewpoint, you are
rather tempted to remain in the same place.
Active or Paternal Influences (B + C)
Villi The Hermit (6 + 11 = 27; 2 + 7 = 9)
On the other hand, from the active viewpoint, you feel in crisis, and you want
to leave.
• m
Synthesis: It would be preferable to announce the change quite cautiously,
to balance (Justice) the desire to stay (The Lover) with that of wanting to
leave (The Hermit). The internal conflict is too great to take the risk of throwing yourself into a
new venture: the part of yourself that refuses to change could hold you back despite yourself.
Strategy 3
Following the Eyes, Gestures, and Clues Given by the Cards
A decisive step in the development of your relationship with the Tarot, this stage consists of
following the direction in which the card figures are looking, or the appeal of a symbol, and
answering this question: "What is this person looking at?" Or even: "What aid is The Magician's
wand summoning? What is Arcanum XIII transforming? Who is turning the handle of The
Wheel of Fortune?" The cards echo each other this way, creating a dynamic that makes it
possible to read them without a preliminary structure or question, as we would decipher a
rebus or a story told in pictures.
As the base, you draw three cards; if card A of the sentence opens a question toward the
left, to answer it, it is appropriate to draw a new card for this side. The same is true if card C
leaves an opening toward the right. We add cards this way until the sentence is finished and
the interactions of the cards within it have been stabilized. Similarly, if the meaning of one of
the cards is not clear, you can pull another card above it to make its message more precise.
A forty-year-old woman
Drawing: A: X The Wheel of Fortune, B: VIII Justice, C: XXI The World
Reading: Here the sentence is closed and does not require another
card to be pulled from the deck for the right or left. In fact, The Wheel
of Fortune is followed by Justice, who shows herself capable of
setting the new cycle in motion and orienting herself toward
realization. Having reached the end of one period in her life, the
person receiving the reading is taking a position in the present,
recognizing her own qualities, and redirecting herself toward her
realization. Only the sword of Justice can prevent this realization:
from the design of the cards, we can see that the passage from the
old cycle to the new cycle is made through a rift. Instead of moving
the handle, Justice makes a clean cut from the past. We could say
that she judges or detaches herself through strength instead of
giving herself aid. Justice accepts her triumph (the scales are on the
justice oppose: her swordtot h e
side of The World) but she will not accept helping herself: she
handle on The Wheel of Fortune.
opposes her sword to the handle.
Drawing: If the cards were arranged in the ascending order of VIIIX-XXI, this would mean that the person receiving the reading has
cut with the past, finished a cycle, and that she is accepting the help
of The World to achieve her realization. It is therefore helpful to
clarify the position of Justice here. The individual draws another
card to put on top of it: XV The Devil.
Reading: Two interpretations converge
here. On the one hand, The Devil can
signify a subconscious fear, a return to a
childhood state. This psychological
interpretation leads us to venture a guess
that the person is afraid of her mother,
The Devpl is able to turn the
which she confirms. The education she
handle of the W h e e l of fortune. received at her hands was marked by an
ideal of intransigent perfection, which forbade her from winning if she was not beyond reproach
—something that is impossible. She thus has a tendency to fall into a neurosis of failure. But
The Devil is also a symbol of creativity. By going beyond perfectionism, by accepting that
excellence consists of doing her best and knowing she can make mistakes, this individual can
establish contact with her deepest creativity. This is when The Devil turns the handle of The
Wheel of Fortune, permitting her to triumph.
A fifty-year-old bachelor
Drawing: A: I The Magician, B: Xllll Temperance, C: XI Strength
Reading: First observing the directions in which the figures are
looking, we can unite The Magician and Temperance, who are
looking left; Strength, meanwhile, is looking toward the right.
Furthermore, Temperance is acting between the two cards,
blending the fluids from two vessels. We could say that the left
vessel represents The Magician and the right vessel Strength. In
this way, Temperance makes it possible to establish a new
relationship between the two Arcana. But the angel's gaze is turned
toward The Magician: this means that there is something to heal—a certain self-image, or a
past beginning—to be able to start something new (Strength). It will therefore be necessary to
pull a card to know where The Magician is looking and another to leam where Strength is
looking.
Drawing: The drawing becomes XXI The World, I XIIII-XI, XX Judgment.
Reading: Temperance is in the process of healing
The Magician from a difficult birth or beginning,
symbolized by The World in the first spot. Once this
cure is underway, his forces will allow him to begin
a new action (Strength) turned toward the future, perhaps toward the creation of his own family,
or the discovery of his profound vocation. Symbolically, Judgment indicates a rebirth and the
emergence of an irresistible desire.
A young man chooses three cards without posing any
question.
Drawing: A: XVI The Tower, B: VI The Lover, C: II The High
Priestess
Reading: The first thing we note is that this sentence runs in
descending numerical order, and it contains both Arcana of degree
6 (see p. 64). We could say that there is a movement here from a great love (XVI) to one that is
less great (VI), culminating in an imprisonment (II).
Person receiving the reading: The Tarot seems to be directing us toward the emotional life of
the person receiving the reading, who does not want us to address this theme. The tarologist
should respect this sense of modesty. Finally, the individual chooses to ask a question:
"Should I move from the house where I am living to live in another house that I own?"
Reading: The Tower does, in fact, indicate moving from a place and could put us on the scent
of a move. But with The Lover, then the High Priestess, we could venture a guess that the
consultant is returning to the maternal bosom. Symbolically, this is true because the house to
which he is planning to move is located in his childhood town, two steps from his mother's
house.
Drawing: Here, although the sentence is closed,
we can enrich the Tarot by drawing one more card
for the extreme left to understand the origin of this
desire to change houses, and another card for the
extreme right to leam what this change will lead to.
The sentence then becomes: XVII The Star, XVIVI—II, XII The Hanged Man.
Reading: The move could have been triggered by a woman from his past (The Star, which
depicts a woman and also symbolizes a place, spilling water from its jars toward the left). The
person confirms this: his moving is connected to the end of an emotional relationship. Initially,
as The Hanged Man shows, this change will lead him to enclose himself in a period of
solitude. He is passively waiting for a new impetus, a new relationship that can give him the
desire to go out into the world.
Drawing: By adding another card after The
Hanged Man, we can try to see what is
possible for the individual to do to get out of
his imprisonment: XVIIII The Sun.
Reading: By falling in love again, the
person can recover the desire to build
something new. This card indicates that the solitude and inactivity to which he is destined are
necessary for him. He must accept going through a crisis, the task of mourning, to heal himself
of the past relationship and return to himself. He will then discover again the ability to love and
the joy of living symbolized by The Sun.
The Projective Reading: Two Ways of Looking at Something to Resolve a
Question
We have seen that all Tarot readings are projective. There are no other means of interpreting
the cards selected by the person receiving the reading than by making them resonate inside
our own subconscious. With the cards he has chosen, the individual forms a "sentence" that
the tarologist "translates" based on her own mental structure, life experience, the path she has
traveled, and the knowledge she has of the Tarot.
This is the reason for which work on projection forms an integral part of the education of a
good tarologist. This work is never done: the purpose is to arrive at a transpersonal reading,
then, ideally, an impartial one. The ideal tarologist would then be a mirror that contains the
entire universe.
As an exercise in this direction, we suggest a simple reading that consists of recognizing
this projective dimension rather than masking it under some kind of alleged objectivity. We can
then use it to enrich the tarologist-consulter relationship, by eliminating the grab for power that
is assumed by the position of the all-seeing "clairvoyant." This requires a double effort on the
tarologist's part: to confront her own limits so that she can continue to advance, and also to
acknowledge in the other's presence that she can make mistakes.
For this reading, we use two decks, taking the 22 Major Arcana from each. The person
receiving the reading and tarologist rearrange the cards of their respective decks at the same
time, then each draws three cards. We can also take into account the card on the bottom of the
deck, which provides the overall tone of the drawing.
The tarologist first examines her own projection concerning the individual's question. The
three cards she has selected allow her to formulate her opinion, or her intuition, of the possible
answer.
We next read, with the three cards drawn by the individual, the image that he has of the
situation. This second reading is quite standard, like any other three-card reading.
Finally, as a third step, we create the synthesis of the two drawings. It is this encounter
between the projection of the tarologist and that of the person receiving the reading that turns
the direction to the resolution of the problem (see the example that follows).
The projective reading demands that the tarologist develop a true sense of dialogue. It is
possible that the two drawings will prompt opposing responses—at least in appearance.
Person receiving the reading asks, Where am I going?
Drawing by the tarologist: Card at the bottom of the deck: VI The
Lover. A: VIII Justice, B: X The Wheel of Fortune, C: XIII The
Nameless Arcanum
Drawing by the person receiving the reading: Card at the bottom
of the deck: V The Pope. A: XVI The Tower, B: Xllll Temperance, C:
XI Strength.
Reading: After examination of the card
that remains at the bottom of the deck
once the cards have been rearranged, the
i
card that gives the tone of the reading, we
see
that the tarologist perceives the
The Projection of the tarologist
person receiving the reading as being in
search of an emotional solution, but
already in the process of heading toward
what he loves (degree 6). The individual
still envisions himself on the threshold of
this realization, in the domain of the ideal
(degree 5). (For more on this numerology,
see p. 55.) The tarologist's projection,
The Vision of the person
b a s e d o n h i s drawing, is this: the person,
receiving the readitig
w ho has long been confronted by his
mother's demand for perfection (VIII), is in the midst of completing this past cycle (X). He is now
heading toward a revolution, perhaps driven by his anger at the maternal ideology (XIII). The
individual's drawing evokes a shock, an expulsion (XVI) that could go back to the time of his
birth, which was a traumatic experience, but could also mean a rupture. However, healing is in
the central spot (Xllll) followed by a new creative beginning (XI). Both readings reflect the fact
of leaving an old oppressive situation by passing through a transformational healing in order to
head toward what one truly loves.
Analysis by the person receiving the reading: "My underlying question was in fact knowing
how I would be truly able to leave my mother. This reading makes clear to me that this process
is actually central to my life; it is painful but necessary."
m
Reading Four and More Cards
The reading of duets (or syllables) is preparation for approaching the basic grammar of the
Tarot: the three-card "sentence." Once you have mastered and integrated the basic elements,
reading becomes easy, no matter how many cards are used. In fact, as we shall see, the
reading strategies for more than four cards are simpler in a certain way than the variations on
the reading of three cards.
We are presenting several structures here in which the placement of each card represents
one aspect, one force acting within an entire group. Beyond three cards, Tarot reading is
generally done within such a scheme or design, inside of which each level corresponds to an
element of the response. With these strategies we are able to work without a question. Most
importantly, they are expandable: starting from a five-or seven-card strategy, we can place
three cards at each position instead of one and read a duet or a sentence instead of one
Arcanum. This is how, little by little, we can become capable of reading increasingly complex
drawings, but proceeding by simple units.
The reading strategies presented here are among our favorites, but there are many others.
In fact, they can be invented in infinite number, as we shall try to show with the last example.
The reading examples we give are generally based on the Major Arcana, but we can
indiscriminately apply these strategies by mixing all the cards of the Tarot, or even using the
fifty-six Minor Arcana by themselves.
The Tarot of Doubt
Once you have accepted that the Tarot is not used to read the future, you can use it as a tool
for introspection.
When a doubt of material, creative, emotional, or intellectual origin causes us anxiety and
holds us back from taking action, the Tarot allows us to examine the problem by breaking it
down.
This is what each of the cards in this four-card reading strategy corresponds to:
A: the person receiving the reading
B and C: the aspects of the person's doubt
D: This is the resolution, the guide that will allow the person to resolve the doubt.
A very young girl with a metaphysical doubt; she wonders if
reincarnation exists.
Drawing: A: III The Empress, B: XVII The Star, C: XVIII The Moon,
D: VIII Justice
Reading: A: The person receiving the reading, represented by The
Empress, displays herself in full juvenile enthusiasm. She does not
know where she is going. She asks questions like an adolescent
haunted by a romantic vision of death and would like to know all the
answers right away. B and C: Her doubt is based on the following
processes: The Star that receives influences from "on high" (the
stars, the cosmos) gives what she receives to The Moon (maternal
archetype of gestation and creation), through the metaphor of the two
vessels pouring water. But then again, in The Moon, the material
word ascends (the crayfish rising toward the astral body). This is a
cycle: what goes up comes back down and starts to go back up.
Reincarnation is based on a cyclical concept of life. D: Justice looks
straight ahead. She is situated in the complete present, weighing
what is useful and cutting away what is not.
A
The Tarot of Doubt
A. Tli? person receiving th-e reading
B - t . The aspects of the doubt
D. The key for resolving the doubt
Synthesis: Inasmuch as time contains cyclical rhythms, why not think that reincarnation exists
if this idea helps us? When a disciple posed the question, "What is there after death?" to a
famous Zen master, he responded: "I don't know, I'm not dead yet." We can advise this young
girl to wait until she has lived and place her trust in divine (or cosmic) justice.
The Tarot of Liberation
We can also call this reading grid with five elements "The Tarot of The Fool," as this Arcanum
symbolizes essential enthusiasm and freedom. Example:
A: What prevents me from being myself?
B: With what means can I free myself?
C: To undertake what action?
D: To lead into what transformation?
D
The Tarot of Liberation
A. Restraint, obstacle, blockage
IS, The means of liberation
( . The action of undertaking
D, Transformation
E, Obstinacy, the destiny to achieve
E: What is my purpose, my destiny to realize?
(See the example that follows.)
A woman around thirty years old wishes to change her life.
Drawing: A: Xllll Temperance, B: III The Empress, C: XVIIII The
Sun, D: XII The Hanged Man, E: XVII The Star.
Reading: A: What prevents you from realizing yourself is perhaps
an angelic and disembodied vision of yourself that leads you to
accept every compromise and show evidence of an excessive
indecisiveness. B: To free yourself, you need to go back to your
creative forces and reconcile with your adolescent plans. What
gives you enthusiasm? Where is your desire heading? Freedom
begins with this question. C: You can then envision building
something new—a couple founded on mutual esteem and equality,
a professional partnership with a colleague. D: Your transformation
is that you have made contact with yourself, your true essence. You
deepen your relationship with yourself. E: You can mount a
successful action in the world. Generosity will be one of your
guiding values. If you choose one place as a base for your activity,
you will be able to radiate from there.
Person's commentary: "I've had difficulty embodying myself. I had
a vocation as an actress, but received no encouragement for this; it is time to begin practicing
theater, which will help me be in my body. I have been offered a job being in charge of public
relations for a circus that has moved into my city. The Tarot confirms that I am on the right
path."
The Hero's Journey
This five-card structure is inspired by the great mythological theme of the hero's quest
popularized by the works of Joseph Campbell. In its most simple form it consists of five cards
drawn by the individual: A represents his starting position, B corresponds to his objective or the
object of his quest; between these two cards two more are placed close together: C and D
represent the obstacles to be overcome to attain his objective. Finally, the individual draws a
fifth card. E represents the key, the ally, the forces he has at his disposal to attain his objective.
This card will be read in two positions, before and after the obstacle. The reading is
progressive, with each card turned over in the order indicated (A, B, C, D, and E).
Person receiving the reading finds herself at a professional dead end and feeis a strong need for
change.
E
A
C
D
B
The Hero's Journey
A. The situation
B. The objective
C - D . The obstacle
E. The key
Drawing: A (situation): VIII Justice; B (objective): XV The Devil; C-D (obstacle): V The Pope,
VI The Lover, E (key): I The Magician. Reading: Your initial position represents you seated in
a balanced state (VIII) but also in the presence of a demand for perfection that paralyzes you.
Your objective (XV) is to practice a creative trade that impassions you. But creativity is always
imperfect! To create it, you must accept error. The obstacle that separates you from your goal is
the regard of the father (V) that creates an emotional conflict in you and a difficulty in choosing
your path (VI). The demand for perfection to which you are subjected was imposed upon you
by your father and prevents you from realizing yourself creatively. The key to the problem (I) is
simple. You must begin at once to do what you love without fear of being a beginner, but
without quitting your job to do so (The Magician is holding a coin in his hand). The Magician
indicates an activity that is rather spiritual, or intellectual, like journalism. If you fear you don't
know how to write well enough, ask for help from an editor for your first articles!
Person's commentary: "My situation has been depicted quite well. I do, in fact, want to start a
career in journalism, but I don't dare believe I could make a living at it. The solution consists of
starting while keeping my current work, which can help give me a sense of security."
We can enrich the Tarot of the Hero's Journey by placing an additional card at each position.
Here is an intentionally very simple example.
Drawing: A: XVI The Tower, Villi The Hermit; B: llll The Emperor, XVII The Star; C-D: V The
Pope, II The High Priestess, X The Wheel of Fortune; E: VI The Lover, XX Judgment.
Reading: Evicted from his home (XVI), the individual does not know where to go (Villi). His
objective: find a new stable (llll) place (XVII). The obstacle: the means employed (V, rental
agencies; and II, reading the classifieds) have turned up nothing (X).
The key: Discuss it with those around you (VI) because the solution (XX) can be by word of
mouth.
The World Tarot
This reading, which requires no question, makes it easy to mix Minor Arcana with Major
Arcana. The basic structure, modeled on the diagram of Arcanum XXI, is made up of five cards.
Card A in the center represents the essence or Higher Self of the person receiving the reading.
On the top right, the position of the eagle, card B represents the state of the individual's
intellectual energy. In the angel's spot on the top left, card C represents his or her emotional
energy. Card D in the lower right, the lion's spot, represents the state of the individual's
creative and sexual energy. And in the spot of the flesh-colored animal in the lower left, card E
represents the state of his or her material energy.
A man in his forties draws five cards from the Major Arcana.
Drawing: A (essence): Villi The Hermit, B (intellectual life): X The Wheel of Fortune, C
(emotional life): XVI The Tower, D (creative and sexual life): XVIII The Moon, E (material life):
VII The Chariot
Reading: A (essence). You currently find yourself in a time of crisis, which the cards in the four
comers will clarify. In fact, The Hermit lights the receptive side (emotional energy and material
life), but he has his back turned toward the active side (intellectual and creative life). The cards
on the right express the fear these domains inspire in you because you do not yet know where
you are going. C (emotional life) and D (material life). It may be that you are experiencing a rift
or rupture, which has compelled you to move. (The person confirms this: recently separated
from his wife, he has accepted a position abroad.) B (intellectual life) and D (creative-sexual
life). For the moment it seems to you that you have reached a stopping point in your notion of
the world (X). This calling into question is no doubt connected to the emotional ordeal you
recently went through (the "sphinx" of The Wheel of Fortune often represents an emotional
enigma). Your creative and sexual energy is for the moment absorbed in an interrogation about
the feminine (XVIII), and about the image of the ideal mother. (The individual confirmed that he
thought he had found the mother of his future children, and this new situation calls his notion of
things back into question).
6
c
A
E
D
The World Tarn:
A. Essence
E. Intellectual life
C. Emotional life
D. SeKjal and creative life
E. Material life
Conclusion: After a drawing like this, which provides a kind of general status report, it can be
interesting to begin the reading over, for example by following the strategy below, by posing
the question: what energies are at my disposal that I am not yet using?
We worked with the same individual following a slightly different strategy. The entire Tarot
pack was brought into play, but divided into five decks. The person drew a Major Arcanum,
which he placed in the center; this was the essential energy he had at his disposal. Then he
drew a card from the Swords deck and placed it in the upper right. A card from Cups went on
the upper left, a card from Wands on the lower right, and a card from Pentacles on the lower
left.
Drawing: A: I The Magician, B: Queen of Swords, C: King of Cups,
D: Knight of Wands, E: Five of Pentacles.
Reading: Essentially, you have the possibility of beginning a new
stage of life connected with your new activity (The Magician). Your
ability to love has not been damaged (King of Cups), and you bring
about the emergence of a new ideal in your material life (Five of
Pentacles). But your emotional wound makes you cautious in
thought (Queen of Swords) and could perhaps be momentarily
influencing your vision of women. Your creative and sexual energy
is currently sublimated (Knight of Wands) to allow you to attain a
new form of thought, a mental rebirth.
A
^ki)
Initially with The World Tarot, it can be interesting to let the
person receiving the reading choose the order in which he draws
the cards, once you have indicated to him which center corresponds
to each position. For example, if he decides to first place cards on
the right side (intellect and sexual-creative center), this can indicate
that action is more of a priority for him than reception.
The Tarot of the Two Projects
We choose three cards to leam what our Utopian project is, in other words, the most remote
horizon we offer for our personal realization. The purpose is not to leam if we can or should
realize this project, but to become conscious of the fact that we live by projecting ourselves into
the future. It is therefore essential to know what kind of future we envision for ourselves. We
draw three more cards to place under these three. They represent the plan that has been
imposed upon us, the one given us by our families, the task we have inherited from our family
tree, which quite often restricts our personal development. For example: 'You shall be a doctor,
my son!" when the individual is dreaming of becoming a tennis player; or 'You are going to
stay an old maid," a curse that can weigh heavily on the life of a woman. This reading can
therefore offer an opportunity to gain awareness of those future perspectives that shape our
daily lives.
The Utopian project
Utopian Project: The Fool, XV The Devil, XVIIII The Sun
Imposed Project: III The Empress, II The High Priestess, XI
Strength
Reading: Your Utopian project is the total realization of your
creativity and ability to earn money (The Fool gives all his energy to
The Devil), which will lead to a total success (The Sun). But the
project that has been given to you is to always restrain your
creativity and enthusiasm (The High Priestess imprisons and chills
The Empress's desire); you have thereby been condemned to
eternal beginnings. (Strength represents a creative conflict here; she
is closing the mouth of the animal.) How can this be resolved? By
reorganizing the imposed project.
Repositioning: XI Strength, II The High
Priestess, III The Empress
Reading: Strength becomes a creative
project here that ripens with the
gestational work of The High Priestess
and finally sees the light of day with The
Empress,
who
represents
selfThe imposed project repositioned
expression,
creativity,
and
selfrealization. You have to rid yourself of a crazy idea: "To be wise and pure like The High
Priestess, I must remain inactive."
The imposed project
The Tarot of the Choice
This strategy is very helpful when a person is hesitating between two paths, as it serves to
visualize the way she is imagining the situation. The tarologist's role is obviously not to push
the individual toward one option but to shed light on the possibilities so that a conscious
choice may be made. The person pulls one card to place in the center, which symbolizes her.
She is then asked to visualize a path toward the left of this card and another to the right. A duet
of cards is then added to each of these that will allow a more precise understanding of the
possibilities offered by each of these paths.
A
The Tarot of rhe Choice
A. The cons LI I rant
B - D - E . First possibility
C - F - G . Second pcssibiliSj'
Person receiving the reading has a choice between two jobs.
Drawing: A: XI Strength, B: XX Judgment, C: VII The Chariot, D: X The Wheel of Fortune, E:
XII The Hanged Man, F: XVIIII The Sun, G: XXI The World
Reading: Strength is looking at the second path; you seem more prone to decide in favor of
that path. This is confirmed by the cards: Possibility 1: The seductive call (XX) is blocked (X)
to end in a waiting state (XII) that seems to go nowhere.
Possibility 2: This evokes a strong action in the world (VII) under the sign of a fertile
association (XVIIII) that leads to success (XXI).
Reading Ten and More Cards
Amplifying The World Tarot
This is a reading with fifteen cards using the Major and Minor Arcana. We have already studied
the structure of The World Tarot (see pp. 498-501). It is possible to make it more complex by
placing a three-card sentence at every position. This can be done either by using the Major
Arcana alone, or by using the Major Arcana for the central cards and the deck of fifty-six Minor
Arcana mixed in random order for the other four placements.
This will give us the possibility of seeing cards of one Suit in an energy that does not
correspond to them. If, for example, the upper-right position, which corresponds to the intellect,
is filled with cards from the series of Pentacles, we could deduce that, for the moment, the
individual's major preoccupation is money. Conversely, if the position corresponding to the
emotional center is filled with Swords, we could see that the mind is having a chilling effect
upon the heart.
To read the Tarot using this strategy, it is a good idea to be already extremely familiar with
the Arcana. Moreover, it is essential to have a dialogue with the person to confirm or invalidate
whatever has been grasped from this reading (see the following example).
G
H
I
D
A
B
E
F
K
L
C
Amplifying The World Tarot
A - B — C : Essence
D—E—F: Intellectual life
G - H - l : Emotional Ufa
J—K—L: Sexual and creative energy
M - N - 0 : Material life
Person receiving the reading is stricken by a serious illness that he regards as a stage of
spiritual growth.
Drawing: A-B-C: XIII The Nameless Arcanum, XVIII The Moon, XII The Hanged Man; D-E-F:
Queen of Swords, Knight of Swords, Three of Cups; G-H-l: King of Cups, Six of Pentacles,
Page of Cups; J-K-L: Nine of Swords, Five of Wands, King of Wands; M-N-O: Five of Cups,
Knight of Cups, Seven of Pentacles.
A - B - C (essence): You are fully engaged in the task of transformation (XIII). Your essential
activity consists of working on your cancer (represented by the crab present in The Moon) by
practicing meditation and gaining a deeper understanding of the causes of the disease (XII).
The sum of the cards (see pp. 483-84): 13 + 18 + 12 = 43; 4 + 3 = 7, gives you VII The Chariot.
This card represents the underlying state of your health and energy of this ordeal that you are
going through. It is also the card of union between mind and matter.
D - E - F (intellect): The Knight of Swords represents a shift in your intellectual makeup: you are
in the process of moving from a rational, scientific, and purely intellectual notion of thought
(Queen of Swords) to the discovery of the love at work in intellectual energy (the Three of Cups
gives the impetus to the Knight to make this leap).
G-H-l (emotional center): The Page of Cups perhaps represents a young family member, a
son or daughter, who is shyly approaching you. You (King of Cups) are now ready to welcome
this person, who will remind you of life's pleasures (Six of Pentacles).
J - K - L (sexual-creative center): The mental work you have performed through meditation has
produced illumination (Nine of Swords), which permits you to embrace a new creative ideal
(Five of Wands) and to finally fulfill your purpose (King of Wands) by producing a work. (The
individual confirms this: his inner work, triggered by the illness, has led him to recognize his
vocation as a painter.)
M - N - 0 (material and corporeal center): Here again, love is at work. Your new creative ideal
(the Five of Wands of creative energy) creates a new idea of life, founded on your love for what
you have done (Five of Cups). The force of this enthusiasm transforms matter (the Knight of
Cups becomes the Ace of Pentacles) and redirects you toward healing and recuperation of
physical energy: Consciousness penetrates even to the heart of the cells (Seven of Pentacles).
The Tarot of the Realized Self
This is a reading based on a draw often cards.
Each of us has a maximum potential. Just as, in the Major Arcana, realization is represented
by the card of the value 21 (Arcanum XXI, The World), we can ask ourselves what the value of
our realized self could be.
c
A
B
Tarot of the Re-ali?td
A: Proiagcnifit
B; Antagonist
C: Mediator
D-E: Camiti
F-G: AsKroldt
H-l: The Md
i de
l
|: Tit* Secp-ei
You will then suggest to the individual to step beyond his ordinary consideration and
momentarily leave his limitations on the side.
When thoughts of the type "I am not worth much," "I am good for nothing," "Everything goes
wrong," 'The world is a mess," "I am not satisfied," and so on are interrupted, it then becomes
possible to interrogate ourselves this way: "And if everything went right, what would my
perfection be? How much do I need to do to get there?"
This is what this reading proposes to explore. Essentially psychological, its tendency is to
study the soul and not events.
Here is the structure of this reading:
A: Our protagonist, how we conceive of ourselves, the individual to whom things happen.
B: Our antagonist, the part of ourselves against which we struggle.
C: The mediator, the result of what takes place between the protagonist and the antagonist.
D-E: The "comets"—our protagonist leads us to positive encounters and individuals who do
good things for us.
F-G: The "asteroids"—our antagonist brings us events that serve us poorly, we fall in love with
someone who treats us badly or places us in a dubious business arrangement. We see where
this, like a demon that tempts us, risks leading us.
H-l: The protagonist and antagonist should produce a personality that is a result of both, who
is neither exaggeratedly positive nor exaggeratedly negative, who advances as best he can
with respect to the necessities of life. Too much of a positive attitude leads to laziness and
softness, too much severity leads to destruction. It is necessary to find a middle path. This is
the position that will ensure the two are not opposed but complementary.
J: The secret, the most intimate place within ourselves.
Reading Example
Drawing: A: XI Strength, B: VIII Justice, C: XVII The Star, D: VI The Lover, E: XVIII The Moon,
F: Xllll Temperance, G: XXI The World, H: X The Wheel of Fortune, I: XX Judgment, J: II The
High Priestess
A (protagonist): The person receiving the reading, represented by Strength, is in the process
of beginning a new creative activity, anchored in her deep strengths. She confirms that she is
in the midst of studying a method of dance therapy.
B (antagonist): This is the maternal image, with the requirement of perfection. One part of the
subconscious has adopted the mother's position. The individual confirms: "I am cold and
intransigent with myself; I am always asking myself to do better, I am led to doubt and devalue
myself."
C (mediator): While Strength is an energy that emerges from an individual's core, and Justice
is an impassible position, The Star chooses a place from which to take action in the world. She
lends Justice her thirst tor truth and Strength her capacity for giving.
D-E (comets): Strength attracts love and warm social relationships, and allows feminine
potential to deploy.
F-G (asteroids): Justice breeds imprisonment and a lack of communication with yourself, a rift
between the high and the low: on the one side there is an opening (VI and VIII), with
imprisonment on the other (Xllll and XXI), hence conflict.
H - l (the middle way): When the two tendencies are combined, an opening of consciousness
and the closing of an old emotional cycle is created. The cycle of imprisonment is over, and
you can open yourself to a greater calling: the opening of consciousness or the desire for a
child.
J (secret): The individual's secret resides in her spirituality. She confirms that her work on her
spiritual quest has permitted her to become conscious of this inner rift and that her vocation is
to be able one day to guide others.
The Tarot of the Hero Applied to the Four Centers
Our four centers (intellect, heart, creative-sexual center, material life) do not necessarily follow
the same path. Where our hearts may carry us, reason can hold us back, and our desires are
not necessarily in agreement with our material needs. It can prove useful to apply a reading
strategy to the four centers and then create the synthesis that will permit the individual to unify
his action (see the example below). The structure of the Tarot of the Hero, which we have
already studied, can be deployed with the twenty-two Major Arcana following the structure on
pages 32-33 .
A fifty-year-old-woman is wondering whether to continue working as her husband's assistant or
to move into her own activity, in this instance Tarot reading.
Drawing: See page 513 to view the cards selected in this reading.
A: Essential being. XXI The World, a complete woman, someone in full realization.
B: Essential objective. V The Pope. You wish to transmit, guide, teach. Your goal is to be a
teacher. But the specific difficulty in attaining this goal resides in the fact that you visualize this
function in the masculine, whereas you are a woman. Let's see how, by examining the four
centers, you can resolve the obstacles that keep you from your objective.
Intellectual Center
C: Self and situation. XI Strength: everything remains to be done. The situation looks good; it is
a beginning.
D: Objective. Ill The Empress: your desire is to burst out, hatch, and create.
SELF A N D
SITUATION
OBSTACLE
interior Exterior
KbT
ALLY
OBJECTIVE
G
C
D
INTELLECTUAL
G
C
A
G
C
SEXUAL
CREATIVE
G
C
E
F
D
MATERIAL
THE TAROT OF THE HERO APPLIED TO THE FOUR CENTERS
A-B: The essential being of the individual (A) and his essential objective (B) frame the spread as The
Fool and The World frame the other twenty Major Arcana (see pp. 32-33).
For each center (intellectual, emotional, creative-sexual, and material), draw the following cards:
C: The identity and the situation of the person in the four centers
D: The objective of the person in the four centers
E-F: The obstacles in each center. We consider card E, closer to the self card, as the personal inner
obstacle of the individual, and card F will represent an outside obstacle, one connected to life's
constraints.
G: The key for each center
Preferably, the cards will be placed with the intellect at the top, followed in descending order by the
cards representing the emotional center, then those pertaining to the sexual-creative center, and then
the material center at the very bottom.
In the body, each of the centers respectively corresponds to the head, the heart, the pelvis, and the
feet
E: Interior obstacle, llll The Emperor. Paternal authority weighs on the opinion you have of
yourself...
F: Exterior obstacle. XII The Hanged Man:... and leads you to inaction. Not taking any action
has become a habit for you, and you do not know where to begin.
G: Key, ally. XVIIII The Sun: It is a matter of assuming your full worth, but calmly, step by step,
and without throwing everything into chaos between one day and the next. You can work halftime, gently investing more time in the activity that suits you best.
Emotional Center
C: Self and situation. The Fool: You have a huge amount of energy, but it remains
unchanneled. The need for freedom is making itself felt.
D: Objective. Xllll Temperance: You want to work to heal others. Your vocation as a tarologist
originates in your desire to help others.
E: Interior obstacle. XX Judgment: In the position of obstacle, this card can be interpreted as a
repression of the vocation that leads to not realizing what one desires. We can also ask if at
your birth your parents wanted a son rather than a daughter.
F: Exterior obstacle. XVI The Tower: As an obstacle, this card evokes imprisonment and the
fear of expressing oneself.
G: Key, ally. II The High Priestess: It is a question of becoming aware that you have something
to say, to write, to pass on. The High Priestess is the female figure corresponding to The Pope,
considered to be the preeminent teacher. The key consists of changing his image into the
feminine, to accept feminine wisdom.
Sexual and Creative Center
C: Self and situation. XV The Devil: Your energy is immense! The Devil is perfectly in his
place in the sexual/creative domain. It is he who, in the form of a deep desire, inspires you to
become aware of your true value.
D: Objective. XVII The Star: An action in the world that has two different aspects (the Star's two
vessels). This could be your desire to continue collaborating with your husband, while
beginning a personal activity.
SELF A N D
SITUATION
OBSTACLE
Interior Exterior
KEY
ALLY
OBJECTIVE
INTELLECTUAL
EMOTIONAL
SEXUAL
CREATIVE
MATERIAL
The Tarot of the Hero Applied to the Four Centers
E: Interior obstacle. X The Wheel of Fortune: You find yourself at a standstill. Your creativity is
blocked, perhaps by the fear of not being loved if you leave your traditional role.
F: Exterior obstacle. VIII Justice: The idea of perfection prevents you from doing the things you
should. Creativity cannot be perfect.
G: Key, ally. XVIII The Moon: Dream! By plunging deeply into your intuition, you will be
capable of getting past your creative block.
Material Center
C: Self and situation. VI The Lover: Your situation at home is pleasant. You work with your
husband on the same wavelength. Each has his own domain and does not tread upon the
other's.
D: Objective. VII The Chariot: You take a position based on your husband's work and find your
form of action in the world as a tarologist because this is your desire.
E: Interior obstacle. I The Magician: You feel like a beginner, too much a student and too
inexperienced to take action. Perhaps you are afraid of not being able to earn money (the little
gold coin in The Magician's hand).
F: Exterior obstacle. XIII The Nameless Arcanum: The transformation appears revolutionary to
you. You fear for your balance as a couple. Sometimes women are taught from infancy to be
dependent, and the image of the father is slipped over that of the husband. This dependency
then becomes a "proof of love"; there is fear of losing the person you love by leaving the
material dependency.
G: Key, ally. Villi The Hermit: By ridding yourself of the ideal of perfection of the VIII, by
abandoning the status of beginner, The Hermit advances backward toward transformation. You
must begin to have confidence in yourself and read the Tarot for strangers: The Hermit is
heading into the unknown. You can just simply install yourself in a public place with your cards
while taking notes, and wait for people to come ask you: "Do you read the Tarot?" The Hermit
has no fear of poverty. Initially, you will be able to work for nothing.
The Tarot of the Choice Applied to the Four Centers
We can apply the Tarot of the Choice the same way to this 2 0 + 2 card structure (see pp. 5023). We happen to have choices to make in all the centers.
As in the Tarot of the Hero applied to the four centers and to the image of the human body,
the sets of cards corresponding to each center will be arranged from top to bottom in this order:
intellectual center, emotional center, sexual-creative center, and material center (see the
spread for this drawing on the facing page).
State I Hnd Mysalf In
Receptive
Possibility
Active
Possibility
lnrelfe«uai
<=
D
Emotional
D
Sexual
Creative
A
Material
THE TAROT OF THE CHOICE APPLIED TO THE FOUR CENTERS
The two first cards frame the spread.
A: What I am essentially
B: What I essentially want
In each center, the choice will be represented by five cards, as follows:
C: This central card represents the state in which we find ourselves intellectually, emotionally,
creatively (sexually), and materially.
On both sides of C, two duets of cards depict the two options that each center offers.
D-E: This duet, placed to the left, represents the most receptive possibility.
F-G: This duet, placed to the right, represents the most active possibility.
You can, before turning the cards over, assign a question or a possibility to each center.
The Artistic Reading
This final strategy allows you to create all the spreads you want. It is particularly (but not solely)
adapted to reading the Tarot for children. It consists of organizing the cards to form a design.
As practice, you can begin by creating strategies inspired by one Arcanum, as we have done
for the World Tarot. For example, we can invent a Tarot, based on the structure of The Star.
Reading Example
A: From where do I receive my energy? XII The Hanged Man:
from the depths of my being, or, more simply, I need rest to be in
top form.
B: What is my concrete base? XVII The Star. The place I live; the
landscape I love, there where I feel at home. You can also say it
is my body (The Star is naked), and I should take care of my
health and watch my diet.
C: To whom or what is my action devoted? X The Wheel of
Fortune. It is devoted to completing a cycle, to terminating a
work.
D-E: What are my means of action? The Fool, XVIIII The Sun.
My means to act are my great energy, the ability to travel, being a
free spirit (The Fool), and my generous sense of collaboration
and love of the Other (The Sun).
F: What has started singing, what is the consequence of my
action in the world? Villi The Hermit. A greater wisdom, maturity,
and a new way of looking at things.
Principles and Development of an Artistic Reading
ARTISTIC READN
I G INSPIRED
Once you have mastered this type of construction, you can move
BY THE STAR
on to what an artistic reading can truly be.
A depicts rlit- nar fining in nht
tenter of the iky oi Arcanum XVII. i
The tarologist asks the individual to imagine an object or an
E dtpKU the plici when th« wnninindividual that can be represented by the drawing.
rflsCi liFr knee
i Next the person rearranges the cards into a random order and
C depidj the river
gives them back to the tarologist, who should rely on his
D E are ttie two v«jeb.
imagination to use the number of cards necessary, which he will
F depicts the Hack bird pirthsd on place face down on the table to represent this object in a
(hE branch*.
satisfactory manner. You can use the principle of the four
elements (intellect, heart, sexual and creative energy, matter), particularly by setting
up spreads in four stages. You will treat the diagram according to the orientation
laws of the Tarot: the part that is on the right of the consultant represents action and
the part to her left, reception.
You ask the individual to pick which part of the design represents her. She places an
object on the cards to give material expression to herself.
The individual writes three questions on small strips of paper that she folds into
fours, which you ask her to place in the drawing on the spot of her choice.
To interpret this Tarot, you will start by seeing where the individual is located in the
design and at what level in the design she has placed her questions. Then you will
read the question and turn over the cards or groups of cards concerned.
If you wish, you can read not only the card or group of cards on which the person has
placed her questions, but also the surrounding cards, which form the entourage of
the responses—the complementary aspects.
In the example that follows, the individual chose a butterfly as the shape of the design.
A young nineteen-year-old woman wishes to take her entrance exam and begin literature studies
in the university.
Symbolically, the butterfly represents a state of realization after the long gestation of the
chrysalis. This corresponds to the position of this young woman who has changed cities,
moved away from her family, and is living alone for the first time. We use the twenty-two Major
Arcana here to schematically represent the butterfly. The triangle symbolizes the place where
the person has placed herself. Her questions are indicated by the three arrows.
The Individual's Self
A: III The Empress. You have placed yourself at the center of the butterfly's body. This means
that you are fully balanced and in accord with yourself in this new life. With The Empress, you
could be said to be in full health and creativity.
Because the individual is placed at the center of the butterfly's body, we can read the cards
surrounding it in the following manner: the card above her could be her higher self (C) and the
card below it could be her subconscious self (B). The four cards around her would be, as in the
World Tarot, her four energies: D, intellect; E, emotional energy; F, sexual and creative energy;
and G, material energy.
A: III The Empress, which we have already interpreted, is a card of
energy and enthusiasm.
B: XVIII The Moon. A vast but still unexpressed creativity has
perhaps guided your decision to study literature. Your subconscious
world is rich with dreams and intuition.
C: The Fool. Your spiritual energy is vast but still lacks purpose. You
do not yet know what your ideal or what your mission in life is. With
maturity, you will discover your spiritual orientation.
D: Intellectual energy, llll The Emperor. Your mind is well organized
and solid. You have the necessary foundations to be successful in
your studies. But the somewhat "square" aspect of your intellect
points out that you have not yet made contact with the more
phantasmagorical world of The Moon. You still view yourself as a
rational individual.
E: Emotional energy. XI Strength. You are ready to begin a new love
relationship based on attraction.
F: Sexual and creative energy. XVII The Star. You are full of
seduction and generosity, and your creative potential is quite vast.
You have the means to realize yourself, on condition, again, that you
reconcile the logical and poetic aspects of your personality.
G: Material energy. XVIIII The Sun. You have total support for this
new stage of your life, perhaps from your father. (The person
receiving the reading confirmed that her parents let her rent a small
studio in the city where she is studying and are actively looking after
herwell-being.)
The body of the butterfly
The Individual's Questions
H: Am I capable of succeeding in my
studies? The question is placed on the
butterfly's right antenna (H), which is to
say on the point of her activity. This is the
highest goal, the one that engages her
future life.
Response: VIII Justice. You have all it
takes to succeed, inasmuch as Justice
represents perfection. But you have
doubts. We are therefore going to turn
over the cards representing the head and
left antenna of the butterfly to understand
The head of the butterfly
the reasons for this doubt.
Card H on the right antenna represents the question concerning your studies. In the head,
on card I, we shall find the reason for the doubt. In card J, we shall get a deeper understanding
of the past aspects of this doubt.
I: XVI The Tower. This Arcanum represents an outburst, an explosion. You have left the world
you know for an unknown one. Some aspects of it are already familiar to you. (In The Tower,
they correspond to the complete figure emerging from the tower.) These aspects make
reference to your past, represented by the left antenna. To the contrary, the aspects presented
by the right antenna are like the second individual of The Tower, still half-imprisoned in the
building. You do not know what awaits you, hence your doubt.
J: Villi The Hermit. The high school years are over. Just like The Hermit who walks backward
shedding light on the past, you know what you are leaving, but you do not yet know the world
to which you are heading. The university offers new methods of working and a new form of life.
You do not know yet if you will be able to adapt. But you have no reason to worry: as shown by
Justice, you are well prepared and have what it takes to succeed.
P: Question 2. Are you going to fall in love? The question is placed at the very tip of the
butterfly's right wing, where the motor force is most intense. Love gives wings!
Response: XX Judgment. There can be no doubt about it! It is highly likely that you will meet
someone. We do not read the future, but rather we see what paths are there to lead to this
meeting.
We have seen that the meeting takes place in P. It is
framed by two paths that start in K and L and meet in M.
Cards N and O represent the circumstances framing this
encounter.
K: X The Wheel of Fortune. A cycle has ended; take the time
to finish with the past and do not rush. You have changed
cities and educational establishments. Followed by:
N: I The Magician. A meeting with a young man will trigger
the new cycle.
L: Xllll Temperance. Similar message: Temperance takes
the time to establish balance to the situation. Followed by:
O: XV The Devil. With angelic Temperance comes a
passionate attachment!
M: VII The Chariot. This is the central card. The prince
L
^
iE£4£
emerges right in the middle of your life There is nothing
-
special to do, everything will happen naturally.
Q ; Question 3. Am I talented?
This question is placed on the card located in the center of
The right wing of the butterfly
the butterfly's left wing: it is the most secret because it is
enclosed inside the wing.
Response: XII The Hanged Man. He expresses both a situation in which no action is taken
and a gestation. The consultant confirms this: she would love to write poems, but she cannot
get down to it. "It is by painting that one becomes a painter," as the proverb says. Talent is
expressed and developed through action. We do not know if we have talent before putting it
into action. This idea can be developed by reading the cards surrounding The Hanged Man.
Q: XII The Hanged Man. Talent still in gestation, where no action takes place. The butterfly's
wing is immobile.
Q^
1
:>•
'••^w/
R and S (the first efforts to take to put the wing in
motion): VI The Lover, II The High Priestess. The question
is not: "Am I talented?" but "Do I love (VI) to write (II)?" To
leam this, you must work on it every day; the sum of these
cards (6 + 2) is 8: VIII Justice, who flawlessly executes
whatever she has to do.
T and U (result of this action): V The Pope, XIII The
Nameless Arcanum. By being willing to express yourself
and communicating what form yourself. The Hanged Man
will hatch into the next degree, the XIII. The sum of the two
cards (5 + 13) is 18: XVIII The Moon, which in your drawing
would represent your subconscious self: the poetry that was
latent inside of you manifests into reality.
V (the actual talent of the individual, once manifested):
XXI The World. This is the card that brings this beautiful
drawing to a close. Have no doubts, you have things to say
and the ability to express them with much talent.
Conclusion
The Tarotic Philosophy
My long years of contact with the Tarot have given me new ways of understanding the world
and others, by allowing intuition to dance with reason and to be combined into what I call
"Tarotic philosophy."8 Describing this Tarotic thought would be the subject of another book, so I
will be content to simply offer a few examples.
The Arcana have multiple meanings that go from the particular to the general, from the obvious
to the extraordinary. Each Arcanum must be considered as a set of meanings. These
meanings will acquire more or less importance depending on the cultural system of the person
interpreting them.
In reality, every human being is an Arcanum. We may well have spent our entire life close to
someone; still we cannot say we truly know him or her completely. We are used to this
person's thoughts, feelings, desires, gestures, and routine activities, but all it takes is for some
extraordinary event—an illness, a catastrophe, a defeat, or a triumph—for us to discover some
exceptional aspects of this person, which can come to us as a happy or painful surprise. One
part of reality is what we think is reality. One part of another person's personality is what we
project onto it. The defects or qualities we see in the Other are also our own. These
unexpected forms of behavior of the world and others that surprise us prompt reactions that
depend on our level of consciousness. On a level of consciousness that remains barely
developed, all changes frighten us and make us distrustful. This can cause us to flee, paralyze
us, enrage us, or prepare us to go on the attack. A more developed consciousness accepts
constant change and moves ahead with confidence and without goals, enjoying the present
life, building step by step a bridge that will span the abyss.
To reach these readings that heal, I first had to overcome my antipathies and sympathies.
Every inhabitant of this world represents a new and distinct point of view that did not exist
before his or her birth. Everyone represents something original and unique. When an
individual dear to us leaves us, we have the impression that the entire universe is empty.
Whoever he or she is, the person seeking consultation deserves to be respected as a divine
work that will never again be repeated, one with the possibility of bringing seeds into the world
that could offer an unknown benefit.
There is no impartial tarologist. Every tarologist bears the stamp of an era, a territory, a
language, a family, a society, and a culture.
Just as in literature we no longer see novels narrated by an author-witness—regarded as a
god—who lets the plot unfold without taking part in it or being affected by it, but are now
accustomed to hearing the story told by a storyteller intimately connected to the events as just
another actor, I was compelled to do the same in Tarot reading. There is no way that I could
tolerate putting myself in the position of the seer who knows the present and future of the
consultant, observing him or her from a magical, impersonal height, lending his or her voice to
entities from another world . . . As the Arcana are projection screens, it was necessary for me to
realize that everything I saw in the cards was saturated with my own personality. Not being
able to free myself from myself, I asked myself: "Who am I when I read the Tarot? Is my thought
male? Is it Latin American? European? Is it adolescent or mature? Is my morality JudeoChristian? Am I a believer, an atheist, a communist, a servant of the establishment? Am I
perceiving the characteristics of my era?"
To be able to give a reading that would be helpful, I had to realize that, being incapable of
detaching myself from my personality, I would have to "work" on polishing it until I reached its
essence. I promised myself I would not be a slave to fashion; I would not fall into the snare of
any tradition or folklore. I attentively observed my image of the world and tried with all my might
to alter my male mind and accept the feminine, to meld the two together to achieve
androgynous thought. While I was bom in Chile and educated in Mexico and France, inside of
myself I stopped having any nationality. In all sincerity I can say I have succeeded in becoming
a citizen of the cosmos. This led me to takes tock of my limitations as a human being. My
consciousness was no longer prisoner of a mineral, plant, or animal body; it was the essence
of the entire universe. This allowed me to put myself not only in the place of other people, but
also of objects. What is my cat feeling, what is that tree feeling, what is the watch I wear on my
wrist, the sun, the cobblestones on which I walk, my organs, my guts, and so on, feeling?
In this work of detachment and refinement, I lost not only my nationality but also my age, my
name, and the labels of "writer," "filmmaker," "therapist," "mystic," and so many others. I stopped
defining myself: I was not fat or thin, not good or evil, not generous or egotistical, not a good
father or a bad father: I was not this thing or that thing. I also stopped claiming to achieve ideal
goals: I was neither champion, nor hero, nor saint, nor genius. With all my energy I tried to be
what I was. I stopped clinging to one language alone and developed love and respect for all
languages, while at the same time realizing that if words do not become poetry, they turn into
traps. I believe that the root of every psychosomatic illness is an arrangement of words in the
form of a taboo. Imposing one vision means forbidding others. The universe is limitless and
functions with a set of laws that are different and sometimes contradictory, in each dimension.
The more I expand my own limitations, the more I see those of the Other. Today, when I read
the Tarot and enter into a trance, my ego almost transformed into you. In the presence of the
person seeking a reading I feel like a blue sky receiving a passing cloud. In reality, we are not
reading to tell an individual who he is but to understand him. The day when we fully
understand ourselves is the day we disappear completely. I basically believe the real
individual consulting us is death. Let's try to understand him. When we die, which is to say
when we become death, we finally dissolve into the Truth.
No tarologist can speak the truth. He can only speak his interpretation of the truth. When we
read the Tarot, we do not know. Because he reads in order to understand, the tarologist should
continue to read even if he does not understand what he is seeing. Just as every interpretation
is fragmentary, the abundance of interpretations brings the consultant closer to knowledge.
There are no meaningless questions. Superficial and profound, intelligent and stupid alike, all
questions have the same importance: as the interpretations for each Arcanum are infinite in
number, the value of the question will not depend on its quality but on the quality of the
tarologist's response.
I realized that understanding what I saw was an illusion. To truly understand something, it
would be necessary to decode what the universe is. Without embracing the whole, it is
impossible to know with certainty what one of its parts is. The person who wants a reading is
not an isolated individual. To know who he is, the tarologist, in addition to his life since the time
of his conception and birth, should know that of his siblings, his parents, his uncles and aunts,
his grandparents, and, if possible, his great-grandparents. He needs to leam what kind of
education he received, know the problems of the society in which he lived, as well as the
archetypes and culture that shaped his mind . . .
Given that it is impossible to capture the whole of the Other, it is, by the same token, impossible
to judge him. The positive and negative aspects of an event are not intrinsic parts of it: they are
only subjective interpretations. In deference to the individual, it is preferable always to look for
the positive interpretation.
At the same time it is lifting its branches to the sky, a tree is plunging its roots into the earth.
Light is infinite; darkness is infinite. Rummaging through the suffering carried inside our
subconscious leads us to saturate ourselves with the suffering of all humanity: the pain is
infinite. Once the tears and rages have been expressed, it is more helpful to look for the values
hidden like treasure in our essential being. Peace is infinite.
The tarologist should not compare the person seeking a reading to other people resembling
him or her physically. Comparing, as a way of defining, is a lack of respect toward the essential
difference of every individual.
The individual seeking consultation does not truly know herself and most of the time
overlooks the influences she has received from her family tree. If she only speaks one
language; if she has not traveled in faraway lands; if she has not studied other cultures; if she
has never held her body motionless to meditate; if, having a choice between doing or not
doing, she chose not to do by fleeing all new experiences out of fear of failure, we can say that
her subconscious presents itself to her not as it really is, which is to say an ally, but as an
alarming mystery, an enemy. Never will she know what the true base is for what she thinks,
feels, desires, or does... This is why, during the Tarot reading, her questions, as superficial as
they may appear, conceal profound psychological processes. "Should I go to the beauty salon,
dye my hair, and change my hairstyle?" An apparently very frivolous and simple question can
receive a profound response. If it were only what the words said, what need would the person
have of advice? It would be enough for her to make up her mind by herself. We can see in this
dyeing and change of hairstyle the individual expressing her desire to change her life, to no
longer be alone; or, to the contrary, to have done with the couple of which she forms half; or,
beneath another aspect, to undertake new experiences, seek recognition—she could be
expressing her dissatisfaction with herself or her discovery of new values that oblige her to
detach from her former personality. The Tarot teaches us to respect all questions: each one is
an opportunity to deepen the discovery of ourselves in order to live set like a precious stone in
the jewel that is the present. The majority of individuals do not feel like something that is but as
something that will be.
Every generalization is illusory. Events are never alike. When we give someone else an
example, the person citing it always produces his personal notion. The Other is different for
every individual.
Because the Other forms part of an infinite whole, it is impossible to imprison him inside one
definition. When he is grasped and interpreted by us, he receives the limits corresponding to
our level of consciousness. This Other is a blend of what he shows us and what we add to him
by making him our own reflection. The qualities we see in him, as well as his flaws, form part of
our own qualities and flaws. By judging, measuring others, by attributing labels to them—good,
bad, handsome, ugly, egotistical, generous, intelligent, stupid, and so forth—we are lying to
ourselves. Every judgment we express is always made in comparison with the limited, and
thus artificial, image we have of ourselves.
The real is neither good nor evil, nor beautiful nor ugly in itself, nor does it have any other
quality. The divine unit cannot have any qualities or be defined by a tarologist who does not
understand this, because he is incapable of containing it. The Whole is all its parts, but all its
parts are not the Whole.
At no time can the tarologist set himself up as judge of the person consulting him, or accept
as real or correct the way he sees the members of this person's family or the individuals he
mentions in the reading.
In an infinite world, we cannot declare: "Everything is this way." The correct way to say it is
"Almost everything is this way." If 99 percent are considered to be negative, we cannot exclude
the positive nature of the 1 percent. This positive 1 percent is more worthy of defining the
whole than the 99 percent negative. It is this small amount of the positive that redeems the
great negativity.
This is why is it wise not to state that the world is a violent place. We can admit that violence
exists in the world, but we should not define the world with this error. The world is as perfect as
the cosmos. So is the human being. We cannot declare that we are sick. As long as life gives it
breath, the human body is a mysterious, complex organism endowed with health. To be alive
is to be healthy, physically and mentally. We can have sicknesses or psychotic attitudes, but
as serious as they maybe, they do not make us a "sick person" or a "madman," they do not
define our being but our present state. The infinite human spirit cannot tolerate labels. The
tarologist, rather than show an individual his many defects, should try to grasp his qualities,
which, while they may be small in number, will give him more help to become who he truly is.
We should not define the person receiving the reading by his actions but define the actions he
has accomplished. He is not "stupid," he has done stupid things. She is not a "thief," she has
appropriated something belonging to someone else. If we define the individual by his actions,
we separate him from reality.
The value of a reading depends on the tarologist's level of consciousness. If she is wise,
she can obtain valuable messages no matter how disconcerting the Arcana chosen by the
person may be. The elevated consciousness of the tarologist grants wisdom or stupidity to the
reading, but the Arcana are not innately wise or stupid: they have no qualities. It is the person
who speaks them that possesses these qualities.
The readings, despite their importance, are always the personal interpretations of the
tarologist, and for that very reason should never be accorded the quality of absolute truth. No
reading can constitute the proof of a fact.
Exactitude and precision, in a constantly changing reality, are two obstacles to
understanding.
The desire for perfection, exactitude, precision, and repetition of what is known and
established are the manifestations of a rigid mind that fears change, difference, error, and the
permanent impermanence of the cosmos. This stubborn rationalist attitude is opposed to
Tarotic thought, which is akin to poetry. We hear the poet Edmond Jabes say: "To be is to
interrogate the labyrinth of a question that contains no answer."
When you interpret an Arcanum, you can later modify that interpretation. The interpretations do
not form an integral part of the Arcanum. The Arcanum cannot change; the tarologist, yes, he
can change to the extent that he is an individual who transforms himself. Never to change an
interpretation is simply stubbornness. Every message obtained by reading the cards can be
contradicted by a second reading of the same cards. The messages are not extracted from the
cards but are the interpretations you give to these cards.
To respond to a statement with "No" is an error. Nothing can be denied in its entirety. It is
better to say: "That is possible, but from another point of view we can say the opposite."
Illness is essentially separation, which is to say that it essentially stems from the belief that
you are separate.
Some authors of personal-development books advise that we should not think of ourselves
as a body that has a spirit, but as a spirit that has a body. I initially adopted this point of view
with fervor; subsequently, thinking that the correct solution to the problem would not create a
winner and a loser but two winners, I accepted—in accord with the purpose of alchemy:
spiritualization of matter and materialization of spirit—that I was both a body that had a spirit
and a spirit that had a body. But if we examine the first statement, was I really a spirit, which is
to say an individual entity different from all? Yes, I was a spirit, but at the same time I was a
planet, a galaxy, a universe, and if I accepted a Creator principle, God. This obliged me to say:
I am a body that has a god, I am a god that has a body . . . Could I, though, separate my body
from other bodies, the Earth, the stars, universal matter?
Health is divine Consciousness. The path that leads to it is information, on the condition that
information is considered not as words but as experiences of a knowledge that, inscribed in the
body, introduces itself as a demand for what is missing. And what is missing is the experience
of union with the inner god. Suffering is ignorance. Illness is the absence of consciousness.
The individual, being completely relational, to attain health needs to receive the essential
information. To be able to get well, someone who is ill needs to be put into contact with his
inner god.
If the world is infinite, no order is real. The only things that can be putin order are those with
precise limits. We can look for the momentary utility of an order, but not its veracity. The world
is a subjective representation that can organize itself in infinite ways. It is proper to look for the
order that causes us the least suffering.
The magic key that permits the consultant, just like the tarologist who asks the question, to
positively organize his or her passage through the world is: "Do I rejoice in my life?" Do these
people, this job, this city, this house, or this piece of furniture, make my life happy? If they do
not make my life happy, that implies that they do not suit me as company, as ambient milieu, as
territory, as activity. This invites me not to chain myself to them.
Every notion is dual, made up of a word that is spoken and an opposite word that is not. To
assert something is also to assert its opposite. The tarologist should seek the relationship of a
concept with its opposite. For example: ugly (in comparison with something beautiful); small
(by comparison with something large); defect (by comparison with a good quality); and so forth.
Out of relationship, the concept makes no sense.
The person seeking consultation cannot figure out who he is without comparing. The
acquired, not the essential, personality is formed based on comparison. A comparison is hiding
at the root of every problem. From the time we are children, appearance is demanded of us, not
being. If the child does not correspond to what the parents think she should be, she is made to
feel guilty. Fashion magazines exhibit women who obey criteria of beauty that are far removed
from human reality. The same is true in movies and television. When a person suffers from a
complex of feeling ugly, it is of fundamental importance for the tarologist to discover to whom
she is comparing herself. The way her parents and teachers look at her forms the child's spirit.
If no one looks at her for who she is—subjecting her to critical looks or comparing her to her
brothers, sisters, or friends that are "better" than she is—the child grows up with the sensation
that she is nobody. She has not been granted the right to realize her potential. The schools that
establish canons of intelligence, with the thought that there is only one correct way to think,
trigger tragic devaluations. The tarologist must dig like an archaeologist in the individual's
memory, looking for the "perfect examples" to which she compares herself to free her from
envy. The person to whom she compares herself, the desire she has to possess what this other
individual possesses and to be who she is, follows her like a bitter shadow. Some hurtful
parents, at the same time they are demanding that their offspring triumph, are tangibly
forbidding them to realize what they themselves were incapable of achieving. The neurosis of
failure ensures that many people hardly recognize themselves. The tarologist should start his
reading by accepting the fact that he is addressing someone who is what her family, society,
and culture wanted her to be, the reason why she believes she has goals that are not hers,
with artificial obstacles and mirages in the guise of solutions. The Tarot will be able to indicate
to her nature, her goals, her obstacles, and the true solutions by helping her see the mute
region of her life.
What he does not know forms just as much a part of an individual's life as what he knows.
What he has not done is just as important as what he has done. What he will be able to do one
day forms part of what he is in the midst of doing. What he has been and what he has not been,
what he is and what he is not, what he will be and what he will not be all make up equal parts
of his world.
Some people, out of fear of losing what they believe to be their individuality, do not want to
be healed but to have someone take an interest in them. Rather than obtain solutions, all they
want is to be heard, to be pitied. When confronted by the revelations of the reading, they
become defensive. Although they are suffering, they maintain that everything is going well in
their families, that they were loved as children, that they were never affected by any abuse, and
that they are leading a comfortable life. They do not regard anything that you can reveal to
them to be true. Facing this attitude, the tarologist must have the patience of a saint. It is one
thing to give; it is quite another to oblige someone to receive. By accepting these defenses,
instead of attacking them directly, the tarologist needs to skirt the negations until she can find
an opening through which she can introduce a tiny realization. Then she should invite the
individual to meditate on this revelation, taking all the time he needs, and once he has
thoroughly grasped it, to return so that they might continue to dig into his memory with the help
of a new reading. "To advance one mile, you must take a single step" (Tao te Ching). However,
the therapist should not try to create a clientele out of a personal desire for power. These would
be "clients" who would place a childlike dependency on her while paying a prostituted fathermother who was dispensing emotional aspirin to them. The Tarot does not cure; it helps detect
the so-called illness. Once this has been revealed, it is up to a psychoanalyst, a psychiatrist, or
a psychomagician to continue the work.
The Arcana all belong to the Tarot. This is why two cards observed together, even if they
appear to contain completely different meanings, possess details in common. No matter how
many cards are in front of you, you must always look for the greatest number of details common
to all of them.
All human beings belong to the same species and live in the same territory, planet Earth.
For this reason, two people together, although they may be of different race, culture, social
status, or level of consciousness, possess common characteristics. The tarologist, by
abandoning all vague impulses of feeling superior, should capture these resemblances and
first center his reading on the experiences that unite him with the consultant. There is no better
person for treating a "sick person" than a former sick person.
The bad tarologist, who mistakes thinking for believing, delivers whimsical interpretations and
then searches in the Arcana for those symbols that can confirm his conclusions. For him, truth
is a priori, followed a posteriori by the quest for truth.
To adopt a conclusion, it is necessary to examine the Arcana under the greatest possible
number of viewpoints. Then pick the viewpoints that best suit the individual's level of
awareness. Next you draw the conclusions from comparing the interpretations you have
selected over those you rejected. Every conclusion is provisional and only applies to a
moment in the person's life, because it was drawn from interpretations that are limited,
because they are the tarologist's points of view.
The testimonies, despite their importance, are always personal interpretations of a fact, and
for this very reason, we do not grant them the quality of absolute proof. Nothing that the
tarologist has read can constitute the proof of a fact.
Giving advice to an individual—"You should do this," 'You should not do this"—is a power
grab. The tarologist should offer possibilities of action, while letting the person make his own
decision. Nor should the tarologist threaten—"If you do not do this, then this will happen"—
because actions performed out of obligation, even if they are positive, have the effect of curses.
If the reader is first and foremost her own "ego," being incapable of becoming the mirror that
reflects the Other, in reality she is using the person consulting her to heal herself. Instead of
seeing, she is looking at herself. Instead of understanding, she is imposing her own vision of
the world. Instead of awakening the individual's self-worth, she is submerging him in a
fascination in which she is the adult and he a child. The tarologist is not the door but the
doorbell. She is not the path but the straw mat on which the person getting the reading cleans
the mud off his shoes; she is not the light but the light switch.
The tarologist should not make lyrical promises or give high praise: "You are a noble soul, you
are good, everything will go well, God will reward you," and so on. These are so many useless
words that prevent the grasp of awareness. To heal, the individual should not flee suffering but
face it directly, assume it so that he may later free himself from it. A suffering identified is worth
a hundred praises.
When my son Teo died at the age of twenty-four in a brutal accident, an indescribable
sorrow disintegrated my spirit. I attended his cremation like a plague victim. Just as I reached
the point of thinking I could find no possible consolation, I saw my son Brontus approach his
body and place a Tarot of Marseille in his hand. Accompanied by this Tarot, he was burned. I
was given the ashes of these two sacred beings in an um. This moment with the Arcana
entwined with my son will forever, until the end of my life, occupy a throne in my memory. What
we truly believe and what we truly love are one and the same thing . . . The huge loss of
someone we love destroys the image we have of ourselves. If we have the courage to rebuild
ourselves, we will make ourselves stronger and at the same time better understand the sorrow
of others.
Footnotes
Introduction
a. Mat also means "Death" in Arabic and Hebrew, and has come into the common French
through the game of chess, meaning checkmate. The posture of Le Mat and Arcana XIII are
exactly the same, as if Arcana XIII was an X-ray of Le Mat. The main thing is, many of the
Tarot's names have plural meanings in French. For instance le matd'un navire is the mast of a
ship. [Mat is an archaic word meaning "madman" or "beggar."—Trans.]
Composition and Rules of orientation
a. [Baton can mean both wand and staff. For the sake of simplicity I have chosen the traditional
Suit name of Wands, though in some instances the cards of this Suit are depicting what we
would call staffs rather than wands. —Trans.]
Opening: An Architecture of the Soul
a. [The Tower is known as La Maison Dieu, "The God House." —Trans.]
To Begin
a. [Conventional French spelling would be ermite. —Trans.]
b. [These cards will generally be referred to by their English-language equivalents in the body
of the text, save when questions of orthography and similar symbols connected to the original
French names of the cards are involved. —Trans.]
Xllll: Temperance/Temperance
a. [In French and other Romance languages, the articles indicate the gender of the objects they
modify. —Trans.]
XVI: La Maison Dieu/The Tower
a. ["L'ame et son Dieu" sounds like La Maison Dieu—the French name for this Arcanum.
—Trans.]
XVII: L'Etoile/The Star
a. [Toile means "canvas." —Trans.]
The Degrees of the Numerology
a. [An untranslatable play on the word Denier [Pentacle], which, with the addition of the letter r,
is dernier, meaning "last."—Trans.]
The Tens
a. [Pierre is both the name Peter and the word for "stone" in French. —Trans.]
The Pairs That Add Up to 21
a. Tohu va bohu is used in the second verse of Genesis to refer to the earth immediately after
God created it, translated in the KJV as "without form and void."
Opening: How to Become a Mirror
a. [Jugement = jugement, or "judge lies," in French. —Trans.]
First Steps to Reading the Tarot
a. In this bullfight metaphor, the tarologist is the matador and the individual's ego, the bull. Like
Gurdjieff said, when a person comes to a teacher (or a therapist, or a tarologist) with a
question, he or she is actually aware of the two possible answers to it—one is generally the
easy way out, with no growth or change involved, and the other is the uneasy answer, the one
that causes us to evolve by letting go of some aspect of our habitual identity. Most of the time,
the person expects the therapist (or teacher or tarologist) to take the responsibility to either
allow them to be content with the easy, non-evolutional answer, or "bully" them into the more
difficult path. In which case they can blame the teacher (or tarologist) for being too hard on
them, not compassionate enough, and so forth.
Most of the time, people who seek help do not want to change. They expect to be taken care
of, listened to, confirmed, and pampered.
So, for an honest teacher or therapist or tarologist, givi ng the true answer, the one that points
toward the path of evolution, is a difficult task, as risky and deadly as the matador's elegant
killing of the bull. But we do need to kill that bull (the individual's craving for the easy way out)
if we really want to help the person. This is why a Tarot reading can be compared to "a positive
bullfight," because the outcome is the death of the Beast, our general laziness to evolve, and
the tarologist has to be as skilled and fearless as a matador, dancing with the bull's anger and
lust for life.
Conclusion
a. In a philosophical-poetical fashion, without mentioning that I was referring to the Tarot, I did
this in La Escalera de los Angeles: Reflexiones sobres el arte del pensar [The Angels' Ladder:
Thoughts on the Art of Thinking] (Barcelona: Obelisco, 2006).
Notes
INTRODUCTION
1.
Translated into English by A. E. Waite as Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual (Chicago:
Kessinger, 1942).
2. Rene Guenon, Symbols of Sacred Science (Hillsdale, N.Y.: Sophia Perennis, 2004).
3. J. Maxwell, Le Tarot, le symbols, les Arcanums, la divination (Paris: Librarie Felix Alcan, 1933).
4. Paul Marteau, Le Tarot de Marseille (Paris: Arts et metiers graphiques, 1949).
OPENING: AN ARCHITECTURE OF THE SOUL
1. R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, The Temple of Man (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 1998), 463.
2. Carl Gustav Jung, The Symbolic Life (London and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977).
3. Eliphas Levi, The Key to the Great Mysteries (York Beach, Maine: Red Wheel/Weiser, 2001).
XXI LE MONDE/THE WORLD
1. Julius Ruska, Turba philosophorum (Berlin: J. Ruska Editions, 1931).
OPENING: THE HUMBLE GUARDIANS OF THE SECRET
1. Quoted by Andre Paccard in Boukhari, Le Maroc (Paris: Ed. Atelier 74, 1979).
THE DEGREES OF THE NUMEROLOGY
1.
Eliphas Levi, Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual, trans. A. E. Waite (Orchard Beach,
Maine: Weiser Books, 1968).
About the Author
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a playwright, filmmaker, composer, mime, psychotherapist, and
author of many books on spirituality and tarot, and over thirty comic books and graphic novels.
He has directed several films, including The Rainbow Thief and the cult classics El Topo and
The Holy Mountain. He lives in France.
Marianne Costa has worked with Jodorowsky since 1997, co teaching workshops on Tarot and
family tree-therapy. The author of No Woman's Land, she lives in Paris.
About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
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Destiny Books is a division of Inner Traditions international
Copyright © 2004 by Editions Albin Michel
English translation copyright © 2009 by Inner Traditions International
Illustrations © 1997 by Camoin Editions
Originally published in French under the title La Voie du Tarot by Editions Albin Michel, 22, me Huyghens, 75014
Paris
First U.S. edition published in 2009 by Destiny Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jodorowsky, Alejandro.
[Voie du tarot. English]
The way of tarot: the spiritual teacher in the cards / Alejandro Jodorowsky and Marianne Costa ; translated by
Jon E. Graham.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.
).
ebook ISBN 978-1-59477-656-4
print ISBN 978-1-59477-263-4 (pbk.)
1. Tarot. I. Costa, Marianne. II. Title.
BF1879.T2V6513 2009
133.3'2424—dc22
2009028132
Inner Traditions wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by the government of France through the
ministere de la Culture in the preparation of this translation.
Nous tenons a exprimer nos plus vifs remerciements au gouvernement de la France et le ministere de la Culture
pour leur aide dans le preparation de cette traduction.