CHAPTER 1
THE TAROT
You cannot be aware without interpretation for what you perceive is yourinterpretation.
—A Course in Miracles
The tarot is a collection of 78 pictures presented in the form of a deck ofcards. It is divided into three sections: the Major Arcana, the Minor Arcana,and the Court Cards.
For a long time, most people weren't sure what the pictures represented. Therewere plenty of theories, and opinions abounded, but as far as there being anytangible evidence or any sort of general consensus, the meaning of the tarot,except to a scholarly few, remained elusive. What was clear, however, even fromthe beginning, is that in some way the tarot was a picture compilation ofuniversal imagery and symbology. It contains the symbols found in everycivilization—ancient and modern—in the form of paintings, sculptures, drawings,icons, legends, myths, religions, and to make a very long story short, in everyphysical, mental, emotional, and spiritual form people have ever been able tomold, dream, imagine, express, or squeeze them into. The tarot is cosmogonal. Itis a collection of symbols that crosses all boundaries of culture, time, andspace; a compilation of inexorable imagery which has existed for eons, andcontinues to reside in the collective unconscious of all human beings. No oneknows exactly how old the tarot is, nor do we know for sure who created it. Itis possible that it originated in Egypt or China. It has been associated withthe gypsies— descendants of the Egyptians who eons ago migrated to Europe, thusthe derivation of the name, gypsies. There is also evidence it may be associatedwith the ancient Taoist philosophy of China. Tao means "the way" or "the path"which is what tarot also means, and there are parallels between the ancientwritings, meditational practices, and teachings of the Tao and tarot. However,we do not know for sure where, why, or how the tarot originated, and the onlything we can say positively is that it is, without doubt, extremely old.Officially, the first tarot deck goes back to the 14th century, andunofficially, to pre-dynasty Egypt.
In addition to its two factors of universal symbology and enduring antiquity,another significant factor noticed about the tarot is that the Minor Arcana andCourt Cards are basically the same as a modern deck of regular playing cards. Noone knows how or where playing cards originated either, nor why they aredepicted and arranged the specific way they are. Even though at one time,whoever created the tarot and playing cards obviously knew what they were doing,it hasn't been until the 20th century that a prevalent consensus has beenreached on what the pictures actually represent. It is now generally acceptedthat both the tarot and playing cards, each in their own fashion, arerepresentations of the archetypes. The archetypes, as they are found in thetarot, and in religion, are divided into a trinity.
MAJOR ARCANA
The Major Arcana consists of 22 cards depicting the 22 major archetypes; hence,their etymological root with the words arcana and archangels. They are calledMajor because they are the archetypes which are contained within the collectiveunconscious of humanity and all of life, and thus they are universal in contentrather than individual.
MINOR ARCANA
The Minor Arcana is a total of 40 cards which show the various ways the 22archetypes of the Major Arcana are experienced in day-to-day living. C. G. Jung,the father of humanistic psychology, believed that archetypes tend towardmanifestation. This being the case, it may be said that the Minor Arcana is theMajor manifesting itself on the physical plane, or that universal consciousnessis displaying itself in individual consciousness.
COURT CARDS
The Court Cards are pictures of the sixteen different personality types. You mayask why sixteen types, rather than 10 or 20, or any other number? Whyspecifically sixteen? It seems that, once again, whoever the creators of thetarot were knew exactly what they were doing. Between 1913 and 1917 C. G. Jungwrote his now famous book, Psychological Types, first published in 1923. In hisbook Jung describes eight different personality types. Later, Katharine Briggsand Isabel Myers expanded Jung's original theory of eight psychological typesinto sixteen. Briggs and Myers devised a test, or type indicator, now called theMyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which is so uncannily precise that today itis considered by many to be the most accurate tool available to ascertainpersonality type, and is used in companies, universities, and counseling centersaround the world. The MBTI is based on sixteen personality types according tothe four Jungian functions of sensation, emotion, thinking, and intuition, andit is these sixteen archetypal personality types which the Court Cardsrepresent. Although, as far as we know, Jung and Myers-Briggs were in no wayconnected with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which in the early 20thcentury also described the sixteen court cards, the Golden Dawn's descriptionscorrespond with eerie precision to the personalities established by the MBTI.
The Major Arcana are universal invisible archetypes, sometimes calledArchangels, Angels, Spirits, High Selves, Inner Guides, or the superconscious.The Minor cards show how the Major Arcana are displayed in individual archetypalevents, situations, or in issues that take place on Earth. And the Court Cardsindicate archetypal behavior and personality.
Realizing that the tarot is 78 depictions of archetypes does not, however,enlighten us as to what an archetype precisely is. Psychologists, esotericists,and theologians talk about archetypes without providing us with cleardefinitions. Archetypes form the backbone of modern psychology. They are theimages from whence derive the angels and devils of all religions. The heroes andvillains of fairy tales, myths, modern novels, and movies, the good guy in thewhite hat and the bad guy in the black hat, the good guy's trusty steed, and thehapless heroine waiting to be rescued are all archetypal. Archetypes are paintedon cathedral walls and holy temples, and corporations unwittingly structuretheir hierarchy in their image. They appear in the works of Leonardo DaVinci,Michelangelo, Salvador Dali, and all artists and musicians everywhere.Archetypes form the basis of every book ever written, every movie ever made, andevery song ever sung. Archetypes are found around us in every form and motion.
To discover what archetypes are in actuality, it is perhaps useful to look at afew of the various ways different scholars over the ages have attempted todefine them. Starting far back with the sages of ancient lore, Hermes ThothTrismegistus, the renowned scholar-magician-savant of Egypt, defined archetypesin much the same manner the Bible's first book of Genesis does. Of archetypes,Hermes wrote:
Before the visible universe was formed its mold was cast. This mold was calledthe Archetype, and this Archetype was in the Supreme Mind long before theprocess of creation began. Beholding the Archetypes, the Supreme Mind becameenamored with Its own thought; so, taking the Word as a mighty hammer, It gougedout caverns in primordial space and cast the form of the spheres in theArchetypal mold, at the same time sowing in the newly fashioned bodies the seedsof living things. The darkness below, receiving the hammer of the Word, wasfashioned into an orderly universe. The elements separated into strata and eachbrought forth living creatures. The Supreme Being—the Mind—male and female,brought forth the Word— In this manner it was accomplished, O Hermes: The Wordmoving like a breath through space called forth the Fire by the friction of itsmotion ...
As beautifully poetic as this description is, when it comes to explaining whatan archetype actually is, it may still leave some of us feeling like ourdipsticks are about two quarts low. So let's take a look at a more contemporarydefinition, one that is perhaps more attuned to our modern way of thinking.
C. G. Jung is the man of our era responsible for once again bringing archetypesto public attention. His entire life was dedicated to their exploration, and hewrote volumes about them. Of archetypes Jung wrote:
The contents of the collective unconscious are known as archetypes ... thispart of the unconscious is not individual but universal; in contrast to thepersonal psyche, it has contents and modes of behavior that are more or less thesame everywhere and in all individuals.... The archetype is essentially anunconscious content that is altered by becoming conscious and by beingperceived, and it takes its colour from the individual consciousness in which ithappens to appear.
Jung's definition is apropos to tarot for many reasons, not the least because itdescribes how the Major Arcana ties in with the Minor, how archetypes are firstand foremost universal in content (the Major) and then become personal by beingperceived through the individual (the Minor). It is also, as the more holisticperson may immediately notice, a quasi-clinical way of saying we all create ourown realities by that (archetype) of which we are most aware.
However, Jung's definition, as accurate as it is, may still tend to leave someof us a little fuzzy around the mental edges. Even if we do understand Hermes'and Jung's definition of archetypes, they do not tell us how to apply archetypeson a daily basis in our own lives. So let us move on to Webster's Ninth NewCollegiate Dictionary, where we find archetype defined as: "the original patternor model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies ..."
Now, if we think about these three different definitions of archetypes for alittle while, it might be possible to arrive at a consolidated definition thatgoes something like this:
The original Archetype was a thought in the Mind of God—male and female. TheSupreme Mind became enamored with this thought and created life in Its image bythe friction of Its Word—or by the motion of Its sound. This caused the Universeto divide into ordered strata, and because creation is within the Mind of God,everything is a model or a copy of the original pattern, which is God.
Or perhaps something to this effect. If there appears to be some confusion as towhether creation is patterned after God Itself or after God's thought, that isprobably due to the fact that esoteric scholars have always claimed that thoughtis, God is—that thought and God and Mind and Creation are synonymous. We arewhat we think. And what we think, we are. Likewise, we are also what we speak.
This same concept—of life being patterned after the original Archetype—has beensaid in many other ways. "As above, so below." "What goes around, comes around.""We reap what we sow." "Like attracts like." "What you do unto others shall bedone unto you." "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." "For every actionthere is an equal and opposite reaction."
Hunbatz Men, in his book, Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion, points out that thebible maintains that God created us in the divine image and likeness, andsuggests this is analogous to the idea that God is energy, and that we are areflection of that intelligent cosmic energy, of cosmic consciousness. In Mayan,the body is called wuinclil, which means "to be vibration." This perhapsclarifies again the nature of God's image created by and in the likeness of theword, or sound: for sound is motion, or moving particle waves of light. Inderivation, wuinclil sounds suspiciously close to wunjo, the runestone of joyand light; to unihipili, the low self in the science/religion of Huna whichmeans vitality, energy, body, emotion, and motion; and to the World, the 21stArcanum in one tarot, which means sound, joy, light, life, and dancing, all ofwhich are akin to vibration, energy, light, and sound.
From Hermes, Jung, Webster, and Men, we begin to realize that archetypes aredifficult to define because archetypes are everything—with the additional catchthat "everything," or "anything," is always defined through the eyes of theindividual. Maybe that's why the word itself, archetype, if takenetymologically, also turns out to mean everything as perceived through the eyesof the beholder, for the definition of arch is "something that angles," and thedefinition of type is "a kind," so an archetype is "a kind of angle." Hermesdescribed everyone having his own personal angle on everything by saying theArchetype separates down through the strata, and Jung described it by saying thearchetype is both collective and individual. It would seem that angles, orarchetypes, are everything, but at the same time, it is the way we individuallysee anything that defines its personal reality to us, or the angle in which weare personally perceiving it. That is why Jung says: "the archetype ... isaltered by becoming conscious and by being perceived, and it takes its colourfrom the individual consciousness in which it happens to appear." The tarot is amagic picturebook presenting 78 angles by which people perceive the One GreatUndivided Whole. The power of the tarot lies in its broad application to thisuniversal principle.
The tarot interpretations, correspondences, and layouts which follow are, so tospeak, many angles on the one God, or on the one life of All That Is. And, asJung said, we find collectively, if not personally, that these angles "are moreor less the same everywhere...." We will see the similarities and thedifferences in many of the archetypal interpretations. Where interpretations doappear to be at odds, it is because each author approaches the angel at aslightly different angle.
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By working with the various interpretations, we will eventually understand themany layers of meaning that reside within the archetypal symbolism, but first itis probably appropriate to have a basic consensus of terminology because tarothas a language of its own.
TAROT TERMS & DEFINITIONS
The qualities attributed to the four suits are those usually accepted by mostauthorities. A difference in the understanding of the meaning of words issometimes the reason for some seeming discrepancies found in tarotinterpretations; for instance, note the distinction between the meaning of work(attributed to discs) and career (attributed to wands), and between instincts(attributed to cups) and intuition (attributed to wands). Working with the cardsfor a prolonged length of time usually makes evident the meaning and the reasonfor the attribution of certain words to a particular suit. Following are some ofthe commonly used terms found in tarot.
arcana (plural)—(arcanum-singular): Hidden knowledge, a mystery. The tarot isdivided into the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana (the Minor plus the courtcards), or the greater and lesser secret knowledge.
archetype: A type of arch, or angle, on the Angel(s). Scientifically, anysymmetry perceived to be of like-motion or form.
cartomancer: A person who reads a deck of playing cards or a tarot deck.
cartomancy: The art or skill of reading playing cards or a tarot deck.
Celtic Cross Spread (pronounced "Keltic"): One of the oldest and most popularlayouts of the cards, with six cards forming the shape of a Celtic Cross andfour cards laid in a vertical line to its right. (See chapter on layouts.)
centering: The process of bringing the conscious mind into the center ofyourself in order to become more aware. The practice of meditation, or ofcentering your concentration, usually on the question being asked whileshuffling the cards.
client: The person for whom the cartomancer is doing the reading. Also calledthe querent.
court cards: The sixteen cards of a tarot deck consisting of the King, Queen,Prince, and Princess of each of the four suits. Also called King, Queen, Knight,and Page; or Knight, Queen, Prince, and Princess, respectively. Known by othertitles as well, depending on the creator of the deck. In a deck of playingcards, the court cards are the King, Queen, and Jack, it usually being inferredthat the Prince and Princess are combined as one within the Jack.
cups: One of the four suits of the Minor Arcana. Also called hearts, chalices,goblets, rivers, cauldrons, bowls, grails, vessels, fish, blossoms, and othertitles, depending on the deck. Typically associated with water, feeling,emotions, the heart, dreams, memories, fear, pleasure, instincts, and thesubconscious.
discs: One of the four suits of the Minor Arcana. Also called diamonds, coins,pentacles, worlds, circles, nuggets, stones, shields, beasts, and other titles,depending on the deck. Associated with earth, the physical, material, sensation,the five senses, money, work, and all physical bodies.
