Major Arcana: Card by Card Analysis / A User Guide to R.M. Place’s Tarot of the Saints
A User Guide to R.M. Place’s Tarot of the Saints
Meditations for Pulp Spiritual Direction Through Applied Contemplative Prediction
Major Arcana Introduction: Balance and Development
Major Arcana: Card by Card Analysis
The Suit of Cups: Self Presenting Love
The Suit of Swords: Love Considered
The Suit of Staffs: Love Made Real
The Suit of Coins: Sacramental Engagement
Keyword Guide to Tarot of the Saints
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
Major Arcana: Card by Card Analysis
0 The Fool: Saint Francis
Hagiography
Saint Francis of Assisi was the Son of a rich cloth merchant. Though he had a good education and became part of his father‘s business, he also had a somewhat misspent youth. A street brawler and some-time soldier, he was captured during a conflict and spent over a year as a prisoner of war. During this time he had a conversion experience, including an experience of Christ calling him to leave this worldly life. Upon release, Francis began taking his faith seriously.
He took the Gospels as the rule of his life, Jesus Christ as his literal example. He dressed in rough clothes, begged for his sustenance, and preached purity and peace. His family disapproved, and his father disinherited him.
Francis visited hospitals, served the sick, preached in the streets, and took all men and women as siblings. He founded the Franciscans based on a simple statement by Jesus: “Leave all and follow me.” Visited and preached to the Muslims during the crusades, composed songs and hymns to God and nature, lived with animals, worked with his hands, cared for lepers, cleaned churches, and sent food to thieves. While in meditation on Mount Alvernia in the Apennines, Francis received the stigmata, which periodically bled during the remaining two years of his life.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In the Rider-Waite portrayal, the Fool is walking carelessly toward the edge of a cliff. He seems free, but it is a freedom fraught with danger. His clothes are bright and festive, covered in flowers to match the flower he holds in his hand. He carries a vagabond's knapsack and seems heedless of any peril. At his feet, a dog seems to be trying to warn him of his jeopardy. The Tarot of the Saints portrays Saint Francis in the middle of the image, dressed in his plain brown Franciscan robe. The environment is lush and filled with growth as opposed to the barren terrain of the standard Fool arcana. This forms a contrast between the life focus of the self interested individual and the life that demures and projects beauty outward.
Rather than a cliff, there is a mountain in the recesses of the picture. Francis is not walking, but holding up his hands revealing the stigmata, which he received on Mount Alvernia (possibly the mountain in the background). The dog at his feet is not warning him, but rather standing obedient and Saint Francis is additionally surrounded by a host of other animals, a rabbit, and several birds. The animals bring to mind Francis’ patronage of animals, especially the birds, whom he legendarily preached to. The visual image evokes the calm and serenity of one who abides in the cosmos in a well ordered fashion as opposed to being antagonized by the environment or ignorant of it.
Meditation
In the standard Tarot deck, the fool is almost always the 0 arcana. The Fool is generally interpreted as the self, as it makes the journey of the Major Arcana. His station in the deck is both beginning and the end of Arcana in number, in trump (in the game), and in the significance of the arcana. He begins as a fool who is ignorant, naive, or unobservant. But when the progression ends with arcana XXI (The World) the next step is the “enlightened fool”, who has successfully navigated, differentiation from the unhealthy relationship they had with the world, and reintegration into a sense of perfect harmony so rare, that it appears foolish to the multitude who has not gone through the process. The enlightened Fool objectively presents in almost exactly the same way as the ignorant fool but does so with a sense of purpose and by means of the skill of detachment. Thus, if the Major Arcana portrays a journey, the Fool is the traveler.
Francis himself makes this journey as every saint does and every person is called to do. It can be seen in his hagiography, where he must learn to reject worldly glamor, material comfort, and violent resolutions. He undergoes a process of humiliation and humbling and ultimately realizes his place in the world. He symbolizes the hardship of that journey. There is no mastery of the external that can help one avoid the suffering entailed; no dog to pay attention to, no sack with necessary possessions. Instead, he extends outward and lives his journey for others. This journey leads to the mountain, rather than, possibly, over a cliff. The Mountain is the height of enlightenment, but there Francis receives an empathetic experience of universal suffering, the stigmata. With that experience comes a knowledge that looks to the world like foolishness, because the reaction is to use compassion to extend love, a process the world denounces as weak or vulnerable. Saint Francis’ methodology for this extension is to embrace “Lady Poverty” in marriage which reminds us of the Gospel connection between Christ himself and the poor, the outcast, and the dispossessed. What we do to the poor we do to Christ, so by this marriage Francis extends absolute union with the impoverished and through them to Christ as well. The state of poverty is called blessed and is held up as an evangelical council that allows a facile ability to relate to the deep mysteries of life. Francis’ as the Arcana “the Fool” seems to convey all that is good about the Fool, the Fool for Christ, who is not ruled by worldly concerns and is thereby gifted a deep peace and protection from anxiety.
The Fool arcana has no “balance” in the Major Arcana, nor does it relate to a specific arcana for “progress” through path III. This is because it is symbolic of the progress as a whole through the Major Arcana. It is the process of the Fool that must balance the cosmic forces of path I and the Interior forces of path II and the progress of path III simultaneously since he is the arcana that makes the entire journey. Rather than having an arcana that balances him, the Fool is his won balance, his balance is of the oppositional of each path as well as the shifting balance of the two types of fool we have been discussing, the naive fool, whistling toward destruction, and the holy fool, who presents peace and is deemed a lunatic by society.
Application
To meet Saint Francis the Fool in a reading can draw the querent to a sense of the beauty of simplicity. When regarding the situations look for evidence of best inclinations of purity and simplicity that is free from domination by the material world, and takes any hardship as a lesson or chance to sacrifice. The arcana can also imply the apt use of the skill of detachment in the situation. Francis as the Fool also leads the querent to question their relationship to poverty. How does one relate to those seen as “impoverished” especially regarding the situation? How is one’s self impoverished, and how does one relate to their own poverty?
In Reverse the querent should look for the worst of the traditional Fool in the situation. Someone who is seeking to be worldly and is attracted to all the glamor and excitement of the terrestrial realm, but they lack the skill to pull it off well. Thus they end up with nothing to show for their work except the suffering they invested. One can use oppositional Fool to ponder inordinate attachments or attachments to the wrong thing or in the wrong way. Oppositional Fool may also imply that a Holy fool in the situation is being regarded as a “useless” fooland their wisdom or beauty is not regarded. Lastly, since the Fool represents the extremes of ignorance and enlightenment, the querent may regard the polar fool as indicating the development process between the two in the situation.
Path I: Cosmic Balance
I. The Magician: Saint Nicholas
Hagiography
Saint Nicholas of Myra was a priest, abbot, and ultimately Bishop of Myra (in modern Turkey). He is seen as generous to the poor and special protector of the innocent and wronged. He is one of the council fathers of Nicea and reportedly “smote Arius upon the jaw”. Many stories grew up around him prior to his becoming associated with Santa Claus. His hagiography tends to focus on how the miraculous combats the darkness of the world. Some examples are
Upon hearing that a local man had fallen on such hard times that Saint Nicholas was planning to sell his daughters into prostitution, Nicholas went by night to the house and threw three bags of gold in through the window, saving the girls from an evil life. These three bags, gold generously given in time of trouble, became the three golden balls that indicate a pawn broker’s shop.
Saint Nicholas raised to life three young boys who had been murdered and pickled in a barrel of brine to hide the crime. These stories led to his patronage of children in general, and of barrel-makers besides.
Induced some thieves to return their plunder. This explains his protection against theft and robbery, and his patronage of them.
During a voyage to the Holy Lands, a fierce storm blew up, threatening the ship. Saint Nicholas prayed about it, and the storm calmed – hence the patronage of sailors and those like dock workers who work on the sea.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In the Rider-Waite portrayal, the Magician is a young man with a disinterested face standing at a table. Laying on the table are the four suits of the Tarot. Below the table is an array of roses and lilies in bloom and roses on the vine drape down overhead. He is dressed in white and red robes with an ouroboros as a belt and over his head is a halo in the shape of the lemniscate (∞). His right hand is raised skyward. In it he holds a white rod vertically. The ends of the small rod are shaped like tongues of flame. His left arm is extended downward pointing below. The position of his hands speaks to the connection between the Major and Minor Arcana. The standard evocation, “As above, So below”, speaks to how the terrestrial reflects the celestial, or how the microcosm presents the macrocosm. That he stands at a table with the suits on it makes the observer realize that he is the master of the elements in the terrestrial realm because of his ability to relate them to the celestial realm. Both the lemniscate and the ouroboros speak to the fact that access to such knowledge and/or skill is an eternal and stable part of the cosmic order.
The Tarot of the Saints also portrays Saint Nicholas as having a relaxed detached face, dressed in red and white robes. He stands in profile and is looking down. But instead of a table, below him is an open barrel. Out of the barrel three children, only a little older than toddlers, are reaching up to Nicholas as a child reaches in a gesture to be picked up by a parent. The difference here is jarring. The terrestrial realm here is not seen as elemental but composed of persons, whom “The Magician” has raised from the dead. In gratitude for the miracle, they are reaching up implying the harmony of terrestrial and celestial existence. Nicholas for his part holds his crosier rather than a wand, which, along with the miter he is wearing, reminds the reader that he is a bishop, a practitioner of the sacred magic in a sacramental cosmos. It is clutched close to his chest. In his left hand, he holds the three balls of gold up to his chest, symbolizing his effective ability to change the cosmos in order to effect charity in time of need. This is the magical power of intercession The general image evokes magic that is practiced in order to have an interpersonal or relational effect, especially in that the magic is used to protect the vulnerable.
Meditation
The classical Magician is saying, “As above, So below” as he demonstrates the ability to manipulate the cosmos as a system. The manipulation is his magic, but there is no “judgment” regarding its use. The skill is seen as amoral and bereft of intrinsic meaning or purpose. This approach demonstrates a dynamistic cosmology where magic is viewed as knowledge of some sort of cosmic law which is then manipulated. Conversely, the Christian experience of magic is not wholly geared toward simple knowledge of cosmic laws. Christian Magic consists of two elements, sacred magic (sacraments) and miraculous intercession. Both of these take into account that the cosmos has a direction, and magic has a purpose, to bring people to the Eschaton. It is a process of reaching toward unity with the greater celestial realm. Any ability in Christian Magic should be used to effect that end. Skill for the sake of skill is simply demonstrative arrogance. Those saints who have already achieved such unity are there to help us and we can call on them via intercession to seek the miraculous.
Saint Nicholas’ life here on earth and in the celestial realm speaks to magic that is conditioned to a narrative that expresses charity to specific people in specific situations. His life reminds us that below is striving for unity with the above. Saint Nicholas's left hand demonstrates this striving through intersessional abilities and the material effect we must employ to set conditions for progress. But with his right hand, he also reminds us of the ever present sacred magic of the Church, the ritual sacramental system which conveys grace. Each of these varieties of sacred magic is a catalyst for new life. Indeed they both spring from the same source, the creation of the cosmos is both the first miracle and the first sacrament. The creation imbues the whole of reality with a sacred magic that lays mostly dormant due to the effects of our sinful slumber. Saint Nicholas’ hagiography demonstrates how he is able to tap into that magic to alter the elements and bring life. But these things he does to a purpose, to change humans from slavery to sin and corruption, to fully realized followers of Christ. Once he demonstrates his ability his magic must be cooperated with in order to fully actualize its potential. Thus in the image, as the children reach upward, they have already been brought back to life by the Saint. Their reaching is minimal compared to the miraculous gift already bestowed. But their effort is not in vain. This is the dynamic of grace and will that is ever present in Christan magic, a dynamic of gift and acceptance. Saint Nicholas himself demonstrates the evolutionary process of this dynamic across the expanse time. He was once a child and his current status is not beyond possibility for those children. His methodology for cooperation was rejection of false teaching, conformity to the sacramental system, an interior life that allowed him to become a conduit for the miraculous, and finally a properly ordered and directed use of his abilities.
Saint Nicholas the Magician forms a dyad with Saint Valentine and the Lovers. The Magician practices sacramental cosmic extension through the material of the environment, whereas the Lovers present interpersonal relationships expressed through corporeal signification. The Magician shows personal extension through intercessory relationship, acts of charity, and through the sacramental charged cosmos. The Magician's skills are externally focused, that is to say, and involve both confluential sacral matter and auxiliary sacral matter. The skills of the Lovers are person centered and involve the body as an extension of the soul as well as the body as significant and receptive sacral matter. The Lovers convey the sacramental cosmos by means of their being.
Application
To Meet Saint Nicholas the Magician in a reading most generally implies skill and its use in the situation. It can also lead one to ponder the miraculous in the situation. Are miracles being observed or is one missing them? Are they ready to respond appropriately if they are the reception of miraculous intervention? As a sacramental indicator, this arcana can also point the querent to how physical reality conveys grace and can signify the deep mysteries of life. Lastly, if grace or gifts are present in the situation, what is one doing to cooperate with them, use them and grow them?
In Reverse Saint Nicholas, the Magician warns against investments in physical reality that entrap rather than convey grace. It could also indicate an approach to the environment that is overly mechanistic or deistic, seeking to manipulate by law rather than cooperate in harmony. Lastly, the arcana in opposition could indicate an arrogant display of ability rather than one of humble service.
II. The High Priestess: Mary Magdalen; Apostle to the Apostles
Hagiography
Saint Mary Magdalene was one of the women who traveled with Jesus and helped support his ministry "out of their resources", indicating that she was probably relatively wealthy. Seven demons had been driven out of her. She is a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus and, in the Synoptic Gospels, she is also present at his burial. All four gospels identify her as the first witness to the empty tomb, either alone or as a member of a larger group of women. She is the first to testify to Jesus's resurrection, earning her the title “Apostle to the Apostles”.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In the Rider-Waite portrayal, the High Priestess is seen seated between two pillars marked with a B and a J, for Boaz and Jachin. These pillars are mentioned in the description of the First Temple in Jerusalem. They were a decorative gate that one would pass through to enter the Temple. These pillars become a symbol of the various extremes or complementarities that one must pass between in order to enter the sacred mysteries. Between the two pillars is a curtain, much like one would have been in front of the Holy of Holies. The curtain is the thin veil that stands between what is observable and the true glory of divine mystery. On the curtain are pomegranates. Pomegranates were engraved on the pillars of Boaz and Jachin and the ephod of the high priest had pomegranates embroidered on it. The fruit has a cross cultural connection with life and abundance. Behind the curtain seems to be a body of water, symbolizing the deep recesses of the unconscious. The priestess herself sits before the curtain. The foot of her blue robe seems to take the form of the water behind spilling out into the conscious realm. Her breast bears the solar cross, implying universal application of her role. In her hand, she holds a scroll with the word TORA, (God’s Law) as the visible title. She wears the crown of Isis, a sola disk resting on a waning moon or bull horns, and her foot rests on a waning moon. Most basically she symbolizes the gate to the unconscious, the intuitive, and the mysteries.
The Tarot of the Saints portrays Mary Magdalene as the high priestess or Papess (the original title from the Marseilles deck) standing between two pillars. Rather than the temple (a palace of levitical sacrifice) the pillars lead to the tomb of Christ (the result of the perfect cosmic sacrifice). The pillars are marked with the Alpha and the Omega. These letters indicate the span of the cosmos, the beginning, and the end. They comprise a title Jesus ascribes to himself in the book of Revelations. There is no veil behind her. Rather the large stone door is removed and laying behind her to her left, seemingly cast aside. This variance hints at the temple veil being torn in two in Matthew’s gospel. It implies that the mysteries within are accessible because Christ has conquered, but since it is a tomb, the access is foreboding to most who would seek it. Christ’s sacrificial death broke the barrier between the terrestrial realm and the divine mysteries and neither the Temple nor the Tomb could contain his accomplishment. Mary Magdalen stands in front of the entrance on her own two feet. She has her hands cupped over her heart. Her face is warm and inviting, almost mischievous.
Meditation
The High priestess suggests the feminine end of the gender spectrum regarding spiritual engagement. This end implies the deep unconscious and intuitive aspects of what spirituality entails that tend to gear internal and introspective. Feminine spirituality is receptive and envelopes and conforms, just as the subconscious takes in sensory data and then uses this to present the deep mysteries of the self to the self. Thus the High Priestess is more in tune with Apophatic theological methods than Kataphatic ones. Feminine spirituality involves cooperative spirituality, where listening and intercommunication is valued as opposed to pedagogy. This type of spirituality seeks communion through sharing and cooperation. It is a spirituality founded on relational combination. Feminine spirituality is dynamically creative and continually develops seemingly random representations of spiritual life presenting to a dazzling pageantry. Lastly, feminine spirituality operates via emotive experience. Either it utilizes the emotive experiences present to craft a responsive spiritual engagement, such as how mysticism operates according to desire, or it seeks to evoke emotion as a measure of spiritual influence and effect.
Mary Magdalene presents the same implication of deep sacredness that the High Priestess offers. But the differences between her as a person and the “High Priestess” as an ideal lead to verdant reflection. As she stands before the entrance she portrays strength rather than passivity. This is the strength of someone who has been helped by Christ. She may ask, “who will move the stone for us?” but when the time comes, the stone is moved and she is the first to witness the resurrected Christ. Her investment as “High Priestess” resides in her title, “The Apostle to the Apostles”. In that office, she is the messenger that brings the news to the twelve and even to the Mother of God. She is the communication from the tomb, signifying the deep mystery of death, the darkness of sleep (the unconscious) to the hierarchical structure, the masculine element of the Church. Her ability to channel this great knowledge comes from her purity. According to the gospels, seven demons were driven from her by Christ. This may be taken as a negative judgment on her former character, but more likely the intention is to note her perfect nature after the exorcism. As the high priestess, she is the guardian of the mysteries of life and death, especially as the concern the fulfillment in Christ. Between the Alpha and Omega is the matrix of life, either the span of creation itself, the span of subjective experience of creation, or the span of phenomenological perception. Mary Magdalen’s life stands as both an example and proclamation. She exhibits abidance with Christ and the process and experience of coming to perfection through him. She represents the messenger coming to urge others to see and know the paschal mystery. This mystery is not easily expressed in rational syllogism. It’s the deeper experience of the mystery of divine justice and mercy which operates via an emotive drive and attachment through perfect devotion. But it is built into the deeper parts of consciousness of humanity laying dormant and ready to be awakened by Christ through his Apostles.
The High Priestess and the Hierophant form a dyad of masculinity and femininity as it regards meaning, transcendence, mystery, and religion, as opposed to The Emperor and the Empress whose dyad speaks more to terrestrial parental archetypes, and thus represent the organizational structures of human society. Inasmuch as feminine spirituality is receptive and envelopes and conforms, masculine spirituality proclaims, penetrates, and seeks to form. In as much as feminine spirituality involves cooperation, masculine spirituality employs pedagogy. The High priestess symbolizes dynamically creative and continually develops spirituality whereas the Pope implies stability and tradition. Whereas the High Priestess conveys a spirituality operating via emotive experience, the Hierophant operates scholastically, by means of rubrics, and by passing on traditions.
Application
To Meet Mary Magdalene the Papess in contemplation immediately directs the querent intuition and relationship with the unconscious realm, especially as it relates to the paschal mystery. One may want to probe the deeper meanings of sacrificial death, saving action, oppressive destruction etc., and how one encounters them as Mary Magdalene encounters them. Typical of a “High Priest” arcana it could be helpful to stop and take stock of one’s dream life.
In Reverse One may want to question the effectiveness of their view or seek harmful subconscious manifestations in their life. Or one may take this arcana as an opportunity to look outward for more institutional support concerning problems one is having. The Papess is balanced by the rigid and legalistic Pope. Such form and structure are often helpful concerning queries.
III. The Empress: Saint Helena
Hagiography
Saint Helena of Constantinople was converted to Christianity late in life. Married to the co-regent of the western Roman empire, she was the mother of Constantine the Great. When her son ascended to the throne he treated her as royalty and gave her a strong position in the empire. She used her position and wealth in the service of her religious enthusiasm and helped build churches throughout the empire.
Late in her life, she led a group to the Holy Land to search for the True Cross. She and her group unearthed three crosses. At the suggestion of Saint Macarius of Jerusalem, she took them to a woman afflicted with an incurable disease and had her touch each one. One of them immediately cured her, and it was pronounced the True Cross. She built a church on the spot where the cross was found and sent pieces to Rome and Constantinople. Thus in art, she is usually depicted holding a wooden cross.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In the Rider Waite deck, The Empress is seen seated upon a throne in a field of grain with a forest behind. The throne looks to be constructed for comfort and warmth. It has a shield laying next to it with the symbol of Venus upon it. She is crowned with twelve stars and wears a robe adorned with pomegranates. She holds a scepter aloft as she emits a deep sense of maternity and loving warmth.
The Tarot of the Saints portrays Saint Helana the Empress standing in a barren rocky terrain. She is dressed royally and adorned with a crown, but to contrast the opulence of her dress she is holding the true cross close to her. This contrast brings to mind the dichotomy between the “kings of this world” who lord their authority oppressively and the King of Kings, who demonstrates Christian power dynamics, the greatest serves the least. In this case, the cross shows the sacrificial love of the regent, the ability to do what it takes for the good of the people.
That contrast speaks to the contrast between the two cards. The Rider Waite deck easily conveys “life and fecundity”. The wheat field, along with the reclined position of the figure suggests fertility in every way and is almost reminiscent of the book of Ruth. Saint Helana also emits a sense of life, but it is couched in Christian soteriological motifs. The barren terrain is the cursed land from the third and fourth chapters of Genesis. Since the first parents were cut off from the tree of life in this postlapsarian world true viability is hard to come by. Saint Helena the Empress holds in her hand the only access we have to the Tree of life, the cross, whose fruit is the death and resurrection of Christ.
Meditation
The Empress arcana generally means life as fecundity and growth through a medium of motherhood and nurturing. The Empress in Tarot decks is the archetypal maternal figure, she is a portrayal of the access we have to Eve in this world. As such the arcana conveys every sense of intimate support and nurturing. The Empress is the social aspect of femininity as opposed to the spiritual aspect presented by the High Priestess. Therefore, here interpretation is more externally geared. The arcana comes to imply the feminine secular social role, the home, intimate friendships communities, or what can be called the gemeinschaft. These communities are comfortable enough to be ordered by intuitive principles rather than public rules. Such communities typically offer emotional and spiritual support rather than seeking directly to solve material problems. Concerning the material, the feminine organizer takes material and develops it toward a delivery such that it sustains in a way that is intimate, comfortable, pleasurable, meaningful, or invested with a sense of security. It is this way that The Empress arcana connects the macro-social to the micro-social.
The fecundity of Saint Helena as the Empress is the same motif, but better synchronized with Christian theodicy. It marks the struggle for life that is necessary in postlapsarian existence. The paradox of the cross presents the suffering of self sacrifice that is needed to attain a true fulfilling life. Saint Helana herself journeys to find the origin of this life giving act. She symbolizes the spiritual journey of attaining a meaningful life. For the Empire she is the spiritual organizer, bringing the culture to the roots of spiritual life and working on an intuitive emotive level (rather than a legal public legal level) to draw the people toward divine truth. She arranges the causal conditions for a more intuitive emotive environment in which Christianity can thrive. By providing the relic of the True Cross she offers a deep connection to the experience of the passion in ways that laws recognizing the status of Christianity never could. Saint Helena was not the Empress of the Roman Empire, rather that was her daughter in law Fausta. The ultimate title she received was Augustea, which is tantamount to empress but not the “official” governmental position. This seemingly insignificant quirk turns out to be important for our meditation because it drives home the intimate relationship between the mother and son as the organizing principle of her role rather than the more litigious official role of wife of the Emperor. The grandmotherly role of society is the wise feminine elder who has the time and care to intimately connect in all of the special ways that the arcana of The Empress is trying to convey apart from natural, biological, fecundity. In this role, she is the spiritual support of the empire and if Constantine is the public symbol of the structural empire, she is the empire's mother, just as intimate communities are the progenitors of organized social structures.
The Emperor and the Empress form a Dyad of terrestrial parental archetypes and thus represent the organizational structures of human society as opposed to the religious impetus of humanity symbolized by the Pope and Papess. The Empress is the feminine secular social role, the home, intimate friendships communities, or what can be called the gemeinschaft. While the Emperor is the masculine social role, the “world” outside the home, social structures, organized communities, the Gesellschaft. The Empress’s social organization is informal, whereas the Emperor is formal, and her orientation is a community that serves the person as opposed to a person who serves the community. The Empress is involved and nurturing, while the Emperor is abstract and pushes to independence. These two forces well balanced create a tension but also help to balance those in their care to be adaptable in life.
Application
To meet Saint Helena the Empress in contemplation begs the querent to consider life and developmental generation. Beyond birth Heleana also speaks to life and legacy. A querent may want to look at the fundamental root causes in the situation or look forward to development. Also focus on maternity and motherhood are possible considerations. Also, the Empress may be used to analyze the nature and role of intimate community in the situation. The arcana can speak to conditions set in the situation that have a positive effect. If the situation consists of many hardships, one may look to the theodicy implied in this arcana for some insight into the meaning of the situation.
In Reverse Saint Helena, the Empress brings focus to the harshest characteristics of scheming motherhood that is self interested and emotionally manipulative. For example, the mother sets the condition “for you”, the child, but really they are self motivated. Oppositional Empress could also imply a lack of life or generation, a stagnation of creativity. Lastly, polar Empress could evoke paternity, fatherhood, or social litigiousness.
IV The Emperor: Saint Constantine
Hagiography
Blessed Constantine was the son of an imperial Roman officer, Constantius, and Saint Helena, Constantine attended the court of Diocletian and later fought under Galerius, the Eastern Emperor. With a small army, Constantine invaded Italy during a time of political upheaval to assert his claim to the throne. Assured by a vision that he would triumph in the sign of Christ, he marched on Rome and completely defeated his chief rival. Shortly after, he issued the Edict of Milan, granting liberty of worship to the Christians.
He remained a catechumen till shortly before his death when he received Baptism. As Pontifex Maximus, although he protected the rights of heathenism, he abolished offensive forms of worship. He bestowed many favors on the Church. He forbade the abduction of young girls and did much for the welfare of children, women, and slaves. He adorned the churches magnificently, and strictly obeyed the precepts of Christianity.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Emperor in the Rider Waite deck is portrayed seated on a stone throne amidst mountainous terrain. The throne is adorned with Rams, a symbol of Aries, the god of war. He is robed in majesty, but his lower legs reveal that beneath the opulence is an armored frame ready for battle. He is crowned, holding an ankh scepter and a sphere, signs of power and dominion. His face is serious and he wears his beard long. His entire demeanor portrays transcendent majesty.
Saint Constantine is once again seen standing like Saint Helena. He is on a plain with mountains in the background. If the Rider Waite emperor conveys masculine transcendence by being atop a mountain, then Constantine counters that with imminent mediation that leads off to the ultimate transcendence of the deity. This is especially highlighted by the rising sun dawning over the mountains. The image portrayed him as more of an involved manager than an abstract organizer. He has no sphere because all the earth belongs to God, but his staff is mounted with the Chi-Rho, the symbol under which he conquers.
Meditation
The Emperor arcana generally symbolizes abstract and legal leadership at the highest level. The Emperor in Tarot decks is the archetypal paternal figure. The arcana conveys every sense of a secure, stable, and well operating society. The Emperor is the social aspect of masculinity as opposed to the spiritual aspect presented by the Hierophant. Therefore, his interpretation is more externally and socially geared. The arcana comes to imply the masculine secular social role, civil life, the market, bylawed social structures, or what we might call the Gesellschaft. These communities are formal and run by public laws. Concerning the material, the masculine organizer provides material sustenance for the group by going externally, acquiring it, and delivering it to those in need. It is this way that The Emperor arcana connects the micro-social to the macro-social.
Constantine the Emperor does symbolize much of what the standard Emperor arcana stands for. He is the paternal figure in the Empire that gives structure, creates rules and systems where otherwise there would be chaos and infighting. He also signifies where the secular touches the sacred. The “father” of the Christian family with the mother, is the head of the domestic church. It is the job of the dyad to synchronize culture with the gospel and make the home a place where the children can comfortably relate to the gospel as an integral part of every aspect of their lives. As the one who made Christianity legal in the Empire, Constantine seeks to do this on an imperial scale. The job of a Christan civil leader is to inculturate the gospel and make it available to the populace in a way that is receivable for them. The first great inculturator is Paul, who does this on a micro-scale. But Constantine is the Emperor who began the process on an empire-wide scale, and can thus in some ways be the understood as the founder of “roman” Catholicism, as opposed to other cultural manifestation of ancient Christianity such as the Egyptian Coptics, the Russian Orthodox, or the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India, which was founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle. Constantine as “The Emperor” in the Tarot of the Saints offers a window into how the masculine teaches and brings truth as transcendent and tries to organize it in a way that is presentable to the people under his authority. Archetypally this operates equally on the imperial and familial levels. One last interesting fact is that Constatine does not get baptized until he is near death. The practical reason for this is considering the absolute cleansing of the guilt of sin that comes with baptism. To wait maximizes that effect. However, the delay also speaks to the abstract organizer who ponders and considers far more than they act. In this Constantine speaks to theory rather than potency, leaving the conversion to the actual empire rather than himself, much as a father may have a general plan for a house, but the details and execution fall on the partner.
The Emperor and the Empress form a Dyad of terrestrial parental archetypes and thus represent the organizational structures of human society as opposed to the religious impetus of humanity symbolized by the Pope and Papess. The Emperor is the masculine social role, the “world” outside the home, social structures, organized communities, the Gesellschaft. While the Empress is the feminine secular social role, the home, intimate friendships communities, or what can be called the gemeinschaft. The Emperor's social organization is formal, whereas the Empress is informal, and his orientation is a person that serves the community as opposed to a community that serves the person. The Emperor is transcendent, he provides and pushes towards independence, while the Empress is nurturing and personally involved. These two forces well balanced create a tension but also help to balance those in their care to be adaptable in life.
Application
To meet Constantine the Emperor in meditation leads to a line of inquiry revolving around authority, regulation, organization, and paternal attributes. The querent will want to consider father figures in their life and how they impact the situation. Or they may want to consider people that play these roles in the situation. This arcana may indicate that the querent should take a more abstract view of the situation or consider the formal rules implied and how best to navigate them.
In Reverse the querent may want to consider whether or not they are being too abstract or exacting in their judgment. The oppositional Emperor conveys the worst attributes of patriarchy; harsh judgment, tyranny, unfeeling application of rules, and a lack of empathy for the individual. Or the polarity may direct the querent to maternity, empathy, and nurturing. Lastly, oppositional Emperor may be a sign that communication in the situation is not effective, that what is being “brought in” is not being “conveyed” and thus needs to be adapted.
V. The Pope: Saint Peter
Hagiography
Saint Peter the Apostle was a professional fisherman. Brother of Saint Andrew the Apostle, who led him to Christ. Apostle. Renamed “Peter”(rock) by Jesus to indicate that Peter would be the rock-like foundation on which the Church would be built. One of the three pillars among the apostles and portrayed in the gospels as the (often ineffective) head among equals of the apostles. He presents in the gospels as excitable, but with little follow through. He matured and became the leader of the Church after the ascension. He became the bridge between the original generation of Christians, who were Jewish, and the gentile Christians as they inculturation the gospel under the leadership of Saint Paul.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Pope (or Hierophant) in the original Rider Waite deck is seen enthroned between two ornate columns, which portray authority and grandeur. Before him, two acolytes are receiving wisdom, knowledge, and blessings from him. His hand is raised in blessing, two fingers are extended upward toward heaven signifying him as the link between heaven and Earth. He is wearing priestly robes, a Papal Tiara and in his other hand, he holds a pectoral cross. At his feet are two crossed keys, the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Peter the Pope holds the keys in his hand rather than a staff. The contrast portrays the original call he received from the Savior saying, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven”. His possession of these keys is not a traditional lineage, like that being passed on in the original Hierophant, but personally connected to who he is and how he was specifically called by God. His right hand is also pointed skyward with two fingers extended, but tucked closer to his body, before his heart. The contrast makes Peter seem more humble and considerate of his position regarding divine things. He sits on what looks to be a carved wooden throne adorned in simple robes with one bare foot protruding forward. Divine light shines from above and bathes his upper body. Again there is a stark contrast with the grandeur of the original Hierophant. Peter is much more connected to the root of the incarnation and seems bereft of the trappings of royalty that attach to the chair of Peter over time. His portrayal brings to mind the humble fisherman much more than the Pontifex Maximus
Meditation
Traditionally the Hierophant arcana conveys a meaning of well ordered tradition passing through the human community from generation to generation. As a figure, the hierophant is the connection between the terrestrial and the celestial. His transcendent nature connects him to masculine spirituality, and thus the arcana comes to represent the masculine end of the gender spectrum regarding spiritual engagement. This end implies immediate conscious activity, such as awareness, thought, and rational connection. Thus the Hierophant implies a kataphatic approach to theology rather than an apophatic one Masculine spirituality tends to gear external and demonstrative. For example, it concerns acts of morality rather than intent of action. Masculine spirituality tends to want conversion of the other rather than cooperation with the other. It tends to desire to conform the world for the good rather than envelope the good of the world. In masculine spirituality pedagogy, tradition, and ritual are keys to passing on what is known in a stable manner that preserves Truth. It is a spirituality founded on objective recognition. Masculine spirituality is traditionally stable and repeats rhythms that immerse the soul in a comfort of stable truth. Lastly, masculine spirituality operates via illuminate experience. Either it seeks to understand the operation of truth, such as scholastic theology, or it seeks to teach it by means of how it understands.
Peter as the Pope definitely conveys the link between the terrestrial and the transcendent. But his connection necessitates a personal touch. Peter is that connection, not because he inherited an “office”, but because he knew Jesus as a friend and was tasked with care of the Church after the ascension. If the purpose had been to convey the typical “Hierophant” the arcana could portray Pope Saint Gregory the Great, the supreme organizer of the ecclesiological hierarchy, or one of the Pius’ who constantly reinforced tradition. But Pope Peter’s bare feet intrinsically imply the compassionate humility of the hierophant much more than the structure. Peter himself does not convey stability well. In the gospels he is excitable but loses heart quickly, he is the seed scattered on “rocky” soil. So the arcana is a marvel. As “the Pope” the arcana conveys the rigidity of the office, but the images connect back deep to the dynamism of its founding giving one the breadth of history that makes such institutions beautiful and dear. Peter holds the keys because he is the rock that the Church is founded on. His imperfection is a constant reminder that knowledge imparted comes from illumination that must first be sought. The relationship between the two is the process of conscious existence and communicative exchange. Even as pope he teaches by example, but makes mistakes as he goes.
The Hierophant and the High Priestess form a dyad of masculinity and femininity as it regards meaning, transcendence, mystery, and religion as opposed to The Emperor and the Empress whose dyad speaks more to terrestrial parental archetypes, and thus represent the organizational structures of human society. Inasmuch as masculine spirituality proclaims, penetrates, and seeks to form, feminine spirituality is receptive and envelopes and conforms. In as much as masculine spirituality employs pedagogy, feminine spirituality involves cooperation. The Pope implies stability and tradition. The High priestess symbolizes dynamically creativite and continually develops spirituality. Whereas the Hierophant operates scholastically, by means of rubrics, and by passing on traditions, the High Priestess conveys a spirituality operating via emotive experience. Peter balances Saint Mary Magdalene, who is stable, remains with Jesus and is the first to meet him resurrected. She is the deep intuitive element needed to keep institutions from becoming rigid systems of oppression and death, but Peter is the order that needs to develop if an institution is to last to its fulfillment.
Application
The traditional interpretation of the Hierophant applies to the Pope arcana. If taking this track the querent will want to ponder implications of tradition, social organization, convention, conformity, and education. The arcana especially calls to mind how these things are passed on through time. Given the particular nature of Peter, the querent may want to consider the deep roots and the dynamic generation of any tradition they see as having bearing. What was the original impetus or emotive connection or need that generated such a convention? Or one may be inclined to meditate on what seems like a rigid institution and look for a more profound connection, or a way to reconnect it to that profundity.
In Reverse the Hierophant speaks to rebellion, non-conformity, and ignorance. Or more positively dynamic approaches to a situation using new methods. Considering Peter, one may want to look into initial enthusiasm that does not have staying power. Lastly, the reverse may imply the balance. This would lead the querent to consider the intuitive unconscious, or feminine spiritual, rather than the masculine analytic.
VI. The Lovers: Saint Valentine
Hagiography
There are two Saint Valentines whose stories slightly differ, Saint Valentine of Rome and Saint Valentine of Terni, but the stories probably relate to the same person. The priest in Rome was possibly a bishop. He was also a physician who was imprisoned for giving aid to martyrs in prison. While there he converted the jailer by restoring sight to the jailer‘s daughter. He was beaten and beheaded c.269 in Rome. The bishop of Terni, on the other hand, was a noted evangelist, miracle worker, and healer who was much loved by his flock. He was imprisoned, tortured, and beheaded by order of the prefect Placid Furius during the persecution of Aurelius. He was beheaded in secret and at night to avoid riots and revenge by the people of Terni.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The portrayal of the Lovers in the Rider Waite deck literally portrays the Edenic state, recalling the ideal of interhuman, inter gender/sex love. The observer sees the Lovers standing on either side of the card with the angel of Raphael blessing the couple as he emerges from a cloud with the Sun rising behind. Behind the couple is a mountain. Behind the man is the tree of life and behind the woman is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (with the snake coiled around it). The image is ornate and gives an immediate impression of the cosmic union of opposites.
The Lovers and Saint Valentine is bare by contrast. The human figures are isolated in the environment. The background is simply a blue sky. The couple does not stand apart, but rather sit on a small cushioned couch. They are dressed in modern clothes which present as slightly formal. The presentation of figures in modern clothes in the deck comes off as striking (though there are many modern saints, none are chosen for the deck). The dress takes the setting outside of the ideal and abstract realm. But their position makes their connection more carnal and experiential. The woman is sitting on the couch with a book in her lap left unread. She holds her lover’s hand and her eyes are closed in anticipation of his coming kiss. He hovers over her leaning in for the kiss. Their presentation places the onlooker directly into the frame of eros in action. Rather than an angel, Saint Valentine stands over them offering blessing. He is dressed in his bishop's robes and holding out his hands embracing.
The contrast between the portrayals is the contrast between the abstract and idealized and the incarnate and actualized. The carnal nature of the arcana is epitomized by Valentine himself. He signifies the Church as the matrix for spousal love as a sacrament. Corporeal signification and its sacramental nature which are expressed via matrimony and priestly ordination is a key to understanding the portrayal of this card.
Meditation
The arcana of The Lovers presents the ideal of interpersonal love. We originally see the Edenic state before the fall and it implies compatibility, relationships, communication, openness, receptivity, and cooperation. The arcana symbolizes the full use of self for the other, who reciprocates in kind. Thus the Lovers is the summation and integration of the three loves, eros, philia, and agape. Agapic love is self emptying love, that is invested in complete concern for the other and seeks to discover and facilitate their best interest. Filial love is love based on a kinship or commonality or out of a common task. It finds an exterior common ground, familial relationship, common social structure, common interest, and seeks to build a deeper intimate relationship upon the existing condition. Eros is the desire that draws you to another. It is emotive, and immediately self presenting. These varying interrelations bind people together and physical and spiritual beings. Valentine and the Lovers is an arcana of vocation and Corporeal signification. The arcana balances the Magician, who signifies the sacred magic of manipulation of the elements with the sacramental nature of the human body itself. When a Catholic undergoes one of the vocational sacraments, their bodies become sacramental matter. There are two sacraments of vocation (both portrayed on the card) matrimony and ordination. These vocational sacraments assume the initiation of Baptism, which sacramentally conforms the body in a general way to the Church as priest, prophet, and king. The ordained body becomes confirmed as a priest in a more specific way and is able to stand in persona Christi in the ritual system of the Church. His body signifies (that is, makes present what it symbolizes) Christ in the ritual life of the Church. The nuptial dyad is bound together by nuptial love the same way the Father and Son are bound in the love of the Spirit. The nuptial dyad signifies the trinity in creation, as they have since the beginning of Eden.
The arcana “The Lovers” in the Tarot of the Saints represents the two sacramental vocations that conform and bind in specific ways to present divine mysteries on earth. The mysteries are the complexities of human loving relationships. The dyad signifies mutual love in itself and how it inspires others. The summation of this as a sacramental sign is marriage. The nuptial signification was part of the first plan of creation in Eden. It is slightly distressing that Place did not use any of the number of saints in the Litany of the Holcy Dyads as the married couple sitting before the ordained. That litany demonstrates that the hurch has a host of saints who are married to each other. Priestly love is more formal, taking the form of ritual engagement and sharing in the sacredness of the environment for others. The priestly signification is a function of how humanity relates to divinity as a result of postlapsarian reality, particularly as it involves sacrifice. These loves form a synchronistic whole in the arcana which presents how one uses one’s whole being, spiritual and physical, to express and present the mysteries of God as love.
Saint Valentine and the Lovers form a dyad with Saint Nicholas the Magician. The Lovers present interpersonal relationships expressed through corporeal signification, whereas The Magician practices sacramental cosmic extension through the material of the environment. The skills of the Lovers are person centered and involve the body as an extension of the soul as well as the body as significant and receptive sacral matter. The Magician shows personal extension through intercessory relationship, acts of charity, and through the sacramental charged cosmos. The Lovers convey the sacramental cosmos by means of their being, whereas the Magician's skills are externally focused, that is to say and involve both confluential sacral matter and auxiliary sacral matter.
Application
To encounter Saint Valentine and the Lovers in a reading is to consider love, unions, partnerships, significations, and relationships of all varieties. The querent may want to ponder how members of a relationship balance each other as a complementarity, or how various relationships as units themselves according to the three loves, eros, philia, and agape. Lastly, the Lovers invites the querent to consider how people in the situation use their whole being to “signify”.
In Reverse the arcana brings to mind disharmony, imbalance, conflict, and detachment. The querent should consider how the relationships in the situation are dysfunctional and look for ways it effects the situation or can be brought into balance in or by the situation. Or, one may look to the balance, how one uses or regards the environment as opposed to the persons in the situation to gain some clarity.
VII. The Chariot: Saint Christopher
Hagiography
Saint Christopher was a third century martyr whose fame derives from the pious legend of him being a “Christ-bearer” (= Christopher). He was a powerfully built man who wandered the world in search of novelty and adventure. He came upon a hermit who lived beside a dangerous stream and served others by guiding them to safe places to cross. The hermit gave him instruction in the Gospel. Christopher took the hermit‘s place, but instead of guiding travelers, he simply carried them safely across the stream.
One day he carried a small child across the stream; the child‘s weight nearly crushed him. When they arrived on the other side, the child revealed himself as Christ, and he was so heavy because he bore the weight of the world on himself. He then baptized Christopher with water from the stream. Christopher’s service at the stream led to his patronage of things related to travel and travelers, people who carry things, etc.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Rider Waite portrayal has a man in a chariot driving toward the observer. It is being pulled by two sphinxes, one black and one white, which symbolize the cosmic dualities presented in this subcategory of the arcana that must be brought into balance. The charioteer masterfully balances the two sphinx with an expression of calm and dispassion. In his hand, he holds a rod of authority and ability. On his chest is a square symbolizing the four corners of the earth and he is adorned and surrounded by celestial accents. These imply the cosmic nature of his meaning, the arcana of the union of opposites as exterior or environmental.
The Tarot of the Saints is starkly different from the traditional portrayals of the Chariot. Rather than using a saint riding in a chariot, such as the Ethiopian Eunuch who Saint Philip the Apostle converts, Saint Christopher’s body actually forms the Chariot and Christ is the driver. One sees Christopher fording the river of his baptism with a walking staff in one hand and the other steadying the Christ child who is on his shoulder. He is regarding the Christ child, who is looking at the observer and raising his right hand in blessing.
The contrast plays out as a difference in cosmologies, much like the arcana of the Magician. The original charioteer is manipulating cosmic forces, a built in duality to the structure of the cosmos. Whereas the significance of Christopher as the Chariot is that we are here to convey (carry) Christ to others. The image on the card, which originally evoked control and manipulation of cosmic forces, now evokes an engagement of self in the cosmos that facilitates service and apostleship.
Meditation
The Chariot usually signifies bringing into balance cosmic forces such as have been presented in the preceding arcana of this path. The “material” to be balanced is certainly personal traits, such as gender, temperament, social role etc. But the difference between the classical interpretation of the Chariot and the portrayal in the Tarot of the Saints lies in the interpersonal nature of how they play out. Christianity cannot be done in isolation. No person is alone in the cosmos trying to balance all opposing forces. Even Christ found twelve friends.
The struggle of Christopher to cross the river is the struggle of a Christian in postlapsarian reality. We carry Christ and the burden is real and personal. But the reality is that he is carrying the burden of the world. Rather than mastery of impersonal archetypes, the image portrays interpersonal sharing of burden, where our skills and spiritualities balance one another out in a process called cross-spectral mutual pedagogy. Christopher carries Christ and Christ saves him. This mutuality brings balance but is itself a balance. We must offset our gender extremes by carrying others and allowing them to carry us. We must offset our extreme stasis or dynamism by forming working relationships with people of the opposite temperament. If we are litigious we should pair with the merciful. It is burdensome, but the burden is the burden of Christ, who brings the cosmos into balance. The imbalance of our extremes is, in part, the sin of humanity Christ carries. We see someone who should complement us and complete what we are lacking, and instead of finding joy in that, we react against what we perceive as an enemy by radicalizing our extreme. In that competitiveness and combativeness, we lack in love and charity and diminish in our humanity. When Christ brought reconciliation and an image of compatibility between the divine and human the reaction of the self justified was horror. When he sought to bring the self justified into balance and complete what they lacked, they reacted by persecuting and killing him. Christopher reminds us of the difficulty of carrying Christ in us, the ability to carry the burden of sin. It is only by coming into relationship with others and through that recognizing our mutual destiny that we can utilize the cosmos and find balance.
Saint Christopher as the Chariot is the binding fulcrum of the Path of Cosmic Balance and coordinates with Saint Benedict as Temperance who is the fulcrum of the Path of Personal Harmony. The Chariot implies forces or aspects of the exterior that need to be brought into compatibility and harmony. This coordinates with Temperance which seeks to balance the interior and its disposition to the exterior. These two arcana surmise the classic categories of nature and nurture, will and determinism, objective and subjective. Together they are a constant navigation as one advances on the Path of Progress and Reintegration.
Application
To meet Saint Christopher the Chariot in a reading generally implies balance. It especially brings to mind questions coming into balance with others, especially as they present Christ. It can be seen as a chance to look at relationships in the situation and ponder the balance that they offer. The particular avenues of balance that have been relevant in the Path of Cosmic balance include gender, social roles, and spiritual practice and expression. The querent may want to analyze how well these are balanced in the situation and how balance or imbalance in these fields is effecting the situation.
In Reverse Saint Christopher, the Chariot turns attention to extremes and imbalance that is out of control. The focus here may be the company in the situation that may feel affirming but actually accentuates inordinate zealousness that then runs amuck to devastating ends. The arcana could also be a chance to notice how one may need to calibrate on a spectrum being discussed in the situation. Lastly, balance is important, but in certain situations extremes serve, and the arcana may help one realize how to position one’s self.
Path II: Personal Harmony
VIII. Justice: Saint Michael the Archangel
Hagiography
Saint Michael the Archangel was the leader of the army of God during Lucifer’s uprising. In the Book of Daniel (12:1), Michael is described as rising up to defend the Church against the Anti-Christ.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Rider Waite Justice is pictured seated on a stone throne flanked by two stone pillars. There is a curtain between the two pillars behind him seeming to indicate that his realm of interaction is the known and observed world rather than mysteries. Added to this, the image is not blindfolded like the more modern images of Justice, because this is a probing justice of knowledge and evidence. He is crowned and elaborate robes. He holds a sword aloft in his right hand and a pair of balanced scales in his left.
Saint Michael is also imaged holding a sword aloft and scales in his other hand, but he is not sitting. Rather he is standing on a vanquished serpent (the Devil). The imagery brings the just calculation out of the realm of the objective and into a strictly moral realm. Justice can be “fairness” according to rules that are determined and manipulated. But in this case, the triumph of justice is not a balance of two compatibilities. Rather it is a vanquishing of evil and triumph of good. It is not simply justice toward a status or passivity, but justice to an end. Michael is seen arrayed in armor reminding the observer that this justice was won through struggle and combat, not cold calculation and compromise.
Meditation
The Justice arcana generally symbolizes a legal balance in the cosmos, such as the law of Karma. justice in this respect involves morality, but in the pharisaical sense of Law as opposed to intention. This is what distinguishes between cosmic Justice, which is objective and cosmic Judgment, which is personal and regards intention and circumstances. Justice is more related to evil than sin. Evil is consequential. It regards cause and effect and is objective to the actor. An action is evil if it has negative consequences. This is as opposed to sin, which is intentional and offends relationships. We noted the difference in the treatise Relativism, Conscience, and The Magisterium
Again, an “evil” act is different than a “sinful” act. You can accidentally do great evil, you cannot accidentally, unknowingly or unwillingly commit great sin. In fact you cannot accidentally sin at all. You can be forced to do great evil, but you cannot be forced to sin. You can unknowingly do great evil, you cannot knowingly sin. You cannot accidentally or unknowingly offend God even though you can unknowingly do action that have negative effects on your relationship with God, for example missing mass.
The moral weight of the “evil” action is independent of one’s knowledge or belief about the action. Again, in the Catholic worldview there is an objectively “right” and an objectively “wrong” way to act. That is to say, any given action can be objectively calculated as good or evil to a greater or lesser degree. This calculation can be done at least by God, and church teaching on conscience implies that it can accurately be done by humans, given the right circumstances. But if sin implies culpability, there are not objectively “sinful” actions. Any action could be done by accident, or without proper knowledge.
Thus justice is more mechanical and judgment is more circumstantial. The arcana of Justice seeks to rule on an action as good or evil or it seeks to mitigate evil and bring good objectively in a situation
Saint Michael the Archangel as Justice brings to mind the cosmic struggle between good and evil that plays across created reality. The image on the card is combative and dominating and displays the end result of the cosmic process, good defeats evil. This is the justice of God. But this triumph is executed in the most unexpected ways. Though justice implies cosmic law that calculates rewards and punishments, God’s justice is a rectifying of the cosmos to order around goodness, and any means necessary is taken, even the self sacrifice of the Son of God. The arcana of Justice as Saint Michael gives confidence in the end result of creation. It inspires hope in God’s plan and allows one to trust that good will prevail. But it also challenges one to the struggle as it exists now. The armor and weapons are illuminated in the scriptures, “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The means of encountering this justice is not one of contractual calculation or manipulation of law. Rather it is an alignment with cosmic order and struggles to live the gospel.
That alignment is given an intense motivation by the presence of Death, which balanced Justice in the Path of Personal Harmony. In the case of the Tarot of the Saints, the arcana of “Death” is rebranded “Martyrdom”. Justice in the cosmic context is balanced by our personal ability to die to our attachments to this world, especially our attachment to how we think things “should be” if they were just. It is the ability to die to Evil (a lack of good) that must be replaced by (filled with) goodness according to Justice. But each human does not have an infinite amount of time (or lives) to accomplish this. Rather when one notices the balance in the chiasm, one sees that Death prompts one to live by Justice and at Death one is measured by cosmic Justice in the Judgment.
Application
To encounter Saint Michael as Justice in contemplation should awaken a sense of true divine justice in the querent. The arcana beckons questions concerning soteriology and morality as they relate to the situation. With that, the consequences of choices regarding how well one navigated or navigates these issues should also be considered. The querent is assured that Justice will ultimately put the cosmos aright. But the querent is still obligated to seek and calibrate according to divine justice.
In Reverse Saint Michael as Justice hints at danger regarding one’s sense of justice and this may need to be contemplated. It asks for an honest assessment of justice in the situation, which may be askew. It could also imply the temporary triumph of evil or injustice. In this, the skills of calculated demonic attunement are helpful to consider for restoration of order through divine justice.
IX. The Hermit: Saint Anthony of Egypt
Hagiography
Following the death of his parents when Saint Anthony was about 20, he ensured that his sister completed her education, then he sold everything he owned, gave the proceeds to the poor, joined the anchorites who lived nearby, and moved into an empty sepulcher. At age 35 he moved to the desert to live alone; he lived 20 years in an abandoned fort.
Anthony barricaded the place for solitude, but admirers and would-be students broke in. He miraculously healed people and agreed to be the spiritual counselor of others. His recommendation was to base life on the Gospel. Word spread, and so many disciples arrived that Anthony founded two monasteries on the Nile, one at Pispir, one at Arsinoe. Many of those who lived near him supported themselves by making baskets and brushes, and from that came his patronage of those trades.
Descriptions paint him as uniformly modest and courteous. His example led many to take up the monastic life and to follow his way.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In the portrayal of the Hermit in the Rider Waite Deck, the figure stands erect holding aloft a lantern after the fashion of Diogenes. In his other hand, he holds a staff and his head is facing the ground. The entire portrayal is solemn and ascetic. The Hermit seems to have failed at finding an honest man and thus is more content with solitude and his own devices.
Tarot of the Saints portrays Saint Anthony as the Hermit. As his hagiography notes, he epitomizes the Egyptian Hermetic tradition which eventually developed into Christian monasticism. He is seen standing slightly hunched rather than proudly erect, a sign of humility over self reliance. He is supported by a cane rather than a staff, again, a staff can connote authority, whereas a cane is a sign of infirmity and aid. Rather than a lamp held aloft, Saint Anthony holds a bell. If the lamp is to mockingly look for honest men, the bell could be a call to others to accept the gospel. Or it could carry the resonance of a leper, who rings a bell to drive off those who are healthy so that they will not get sick. These are acts of caring rather than arrogance. Though most likely the bell is there because bells are used to call pigs, and Anthony is pictured standing next to a pig. He is related to pigs as the patronage of swineherds because skin diseases were sometimes treated with applications of pork fat, which reduced inflammation and itching. As Anthony’s intervention aided in the same conditions, thus he is often shown in art accompanied by a pig. People who saw the artwork thought there was a direct connection between Anthony and pigs – and people who worked with swine took him as their patron.
This is not unhelpful for the image in Tarot of the Saints as a tool of pulp spiritual direction, because pigs are the food of Gentiles, not Jews and Anthony is one of the great figures who synchronized Egyptian spirituality (hermeticism) with Christianity. This inculturation of the gospel could be intuitively queued by the pig.
Meditation
Classically the Hermit arcana is modeled after Diogenes was known for his confrontational nature with the citizens of Sinope. His school of thought, the Cynics, often comes off as arrogant in the face of humanity, which it deems as self deluded. Diogenes is known for aggressively breaking convention and taking to task anyone who dared object. The image of the aged man holding a staff and a lantern also brings to mind “Father Time” the matrix by which one experiences, uniquely, their search for truth. The arcana traditionally focuses on the contemplative nature of solitude. The Hermit symbolizes the striving for a break, a connection to solitude where one can gain a different wisdom that one would through a social experience or academic exercise. The Hermit breaks social norms by being purposely anti-social. It is in solitude that one can center and gain a particular type of wisdom. The arcana generally symbolizes inner knowledge or journey, contemplation, or the solitary search for truth. But it carries the anti-social connotations of one who may not be able to convey that truth well to others. The solitude of the Hermit is a solitude of reorientation for Christianity. The Christian religion is impossible to pull off alone. You at least need Christ. But it is also assumed that we need our fellow members of the Body of Christ in order to do Christianity well. Thus the original Desert Fathers who were hermits, quickly realized that they needed mutual support in order to successfully practice the Christan lifestyle. The anchorite in Christianity only detached temporarily in an attempt to re order their relationships and re attach to a community better. This pattern is seen in Christ, especially in Mark’s gospel, where he frequently goes off alone to pray.
Regarding solitude geared toward reorientation, Saint Anthony is more suited to the Hermit arcana, whereas Diogenes more indicates a reverse Hermit. Saint Anthony’s life shows a deep desire to escape the temptations of the world. Spiritual battle is difficult and the hermetic life seeks to minimize the variables by minimizing stimulus. But what Saint Anthony and all of the Hermits find out is that temptation is an interior disposition that one brings with one into solitude. The difference of temptation in solitude is that one has no support or help when one is faced, one may feel no accountability because one is alone, and finally one may not even be aware of the faults one is falling into when one is alone. Moreover when one uses their solitude well, one acquires skill, insight, and grace. In Christian life, love dictates that we share these acquisitions with our fellow humans. Therefore,. the solitary Christan anchorite should not exist in a vacuum. When Saint Anthony seeks solitude he is sought after for his wisdom. At first, he moves from local to local seeking to maintain his seclusion. But like a good student of love, he learns one of God’s first observations about humanity “it is not good for man to be alone”. He then institutes monastic communities that allow for the interface of contemplation and community.
Anthony the Hermit’s personal quest for solitude is balanced by Blandina the Slave’s active social role. Saint Anthony seeks to escape the structures and temptations of society. Saint Blandina suffers the structures and sin of society by abiding in them to her death. Anthony presents self mastery and self possession with the hope of living gospel. Saint Blandina the Slave sacrifices by her life and how she lived it. Though the world sought to be her master, she detached from suffering and self and instead lived only for Christ. Together they offer a balance of self care and self sacrifice, physical withdrawal, and physical engagement, of self denial in order to self master and self denial offered self to the other.
Application
When one meets Saint Anthony the Hermit the querent is invited to consider the benefit of solitude or withdrawal in the situation. The querent may look at aspects of the situation where contemplation and detachment may be helpful. Also, the querent may want to probe things that are causing harm in the situation that may need to be gotten rid of in order to foster a more simple life. Lastly, one could look to the situation and examine relevant people to see if there is a solitary figure who may have advice to offer or skills, born out of that isolation, that may be helpful.
In Reverse the Hermit is the worst self centered anti-social. Consider looking for harshness in cynical criticism of humanity or people in the situation. Also, it can indicate an isolation that hyper attunes beyond the ability to successfully communicate. Oppositional Saint Anthony can help one bring into focus the role such social awkwardness may play in the situation. Or, lastly, the polar hermit may be inviting one to engage in social interaction and sharing, or seek help from one’s community.
X. The Wheel of Fortune: Saint Catherine
Hagiography
Saint Catherine of Alexandria: Born to the nobility. Learned in science and oratory. Converted to Christianity after receiving a vision. When she was 18 years old, during the persecution of Maximinus, she offered to debate the pagan philosophers. Many were converted by her arguments and immediately martyred. Maximinus had her scourged and imprisoned. The Empress and the leader of the army of Maximinus were amazed by the stories, went to see Catherine in prison. They converted and were martyred. Maximinus ordered her broken on the wheel, but she touched it and the wheel was destroyed. She was beheaded, and her body whisked away by angels.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Rider Waite deck portrays an eight spoked wheel crowned by a sphinx (the height of consciousness) with Anubis at the bottom (the depth of primal self evolving) ascending up the left side, and a snake descending down the right. In the corners are images of the four evangelists and upon the wheel are markings indicating the elements and knowledge. The portrayal of the Wheel arcana is one of the more fluid in the Major Arcana, but the symbology on the Waite image speaks to the basic intent of the arcana, a revolving cycle of evolution and devolution, either in luck, consciousness, civilization, order, etc.
Tarot of the Saints chooses Catherine as the personification of the Wheel. She is seen in the center of the image. Her hand is resting on the eight spoked wheel. The wheel is wooden resembling a helm. At the top is a white circle and at the bottom is a black circle. On either side are circles that are half white and half black. These marks indicate the phases of a cycle. Catherine is crowned and in her right hand, she holds the palm of martyrdom. At the four corners are the four winds blowing into the center of the image. The image evokes order and balance, as well as cyclical revolution.
Meditation
The Wheel symbolizes the rhythmic cycles of reality and of time. This is experienced in the seasons or waking and sleeping, or the rise and fall in civilization. The standard tarot interpretation of the Wheel encompasses the cycle of ups and downs in life and the revolution of both personal experience and cosmic determinacy. That rhythm is not considered a determinism, but more of a matrix for exercise of will. Contemplative prediction makes use of the recurrent rhythm of myth and salvation history. However, in Christian cosmology, the rhythm has a trajectory. Salvation history revolves and repeats in a family resemblant way, but it ultimately “resolves”, first by the incarnation, then by the Eschaton. This we might consider a breaking of the Wheel. But the lesson of the Wheel is that we abide in these rhythms and can utilize them while we are here. As we abide we learn acceptance and passivity as well as to intuit predictability.
Saint Catherine has a fairly typical martyr who excelled in Christianity, but is then captured by authorities and suffers death. This is a typical mythic cycle or rhythm we see in the hagiographic template. But just as the narrative invests in the rhythm, it also invests in the eschatological break. The end of the narrative reveals a breaking of the Wheel. After one buys into the myth, there is more than just the drudgery of the cycle itself, well exercised use of the Wheel breaks the Wheel. This system is Catherine in every way represents engagement in the Wheel, but also in a powerful way her narrative displays the halting of the Wheel. One can see this first in her conversion of non believers. With each conversion, there is an investment in the rhythm of salvation, but then they are martyred, personally halting the cycles of postlapsarian life. We in turn read the lives of the martyrs and there encounter self sacrifice, suffering, theodicy, virtue, and Glory. We seek to pinpoint our current position on the Wheel. But the end of each story of martyrdom reminds us that in Christianity there is a personal halting of the cycle at death as one experiences the transitus to eternity. That personal halting is a foretaste of the ultimate halting of the Wheel in a cosmic sense, at the eschaton when the rhythms of suffering cease and give way to rhythms or order, peace, and beauty.
The Wheel of Saint Catherine is balanced by the strength of Saint Jerome. These present the balance of passive rhythm and willful struggle against determinism of Strength encompassed in the center of this chiasm that forms the Path of Personal Harmony. Whereas Catherine implies a rhythm to creation and a passivity of playing one’s role according to the order, Jerome implies assertion over the order and tending it to one’s own will. To navigate personal harmony one must learn to balance use of Strength and acceptance of the Wheel. The best reflection is this skill is the serenity prayer, which sums up the harmony of these two arcana: Lord grant me the Serenity to accept the things cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.
Application
When one encounters Saint Catherine and the Wheel in contemplation one is offered an opportunity to reflect on both the cyclical and linear in the situation. One can look to observe what template is being presented in the forms and rhythms of the situation and who is playing what part. With this ponderance, one may well be able to discern if one is on an upward or downward “trajectory” in their narrative. These rhythms may be external historical narrative, virtuous disciplines or psycho-spiritual dispositions.
In Reverse Saint Catherine and the Wheel can offer the standard interpretation, the Wheel of fortune is turning downward, or the situation presents some stuppering of consciousness. But the Wheel, as Catherine presents it, offers a fresh interpretation, which is, time to take up will and act against the grain of the rhythms. One may look in the situation to see if someone is using will against the grain of determinism, the flow of narrative, character, or determined causality. Lastly, polar Saint Catherine may very well break the Wheel. In this case, a cycle in the situation is coming to a halt and radical transformation is in the work.
XI. Strength: Saint Jerome
Hagiography
Saint Jerome became a monk, living for years as a hermit in the Syrian deserts while he studied scripture. There he is reported to have pulled a thorn from a lion‘s paw; the animal stayed loyally at his side for years. He was ordained and was secretary to Pope Damasus I who commissioned Jerome to revise the Latin text of the Bible. The result was 30 years of work which we know as the Vulgate translation. It was the standard Latin version for over a millennium.
Friend and teacher of Saint Paula, Saint Marcella, and Saint Eustochium, an association that led to so much gossip that Jerome left Rome to return to desert solitude. He lived his last 34 years in the Holy Land as a semi-recluse, writing and translating works of history, biography, the writings of Origen, and much more.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The portrayal of Strength in the Rider Waite deck is a woman subduing a lion, not in an aggressive or dominating way, but by calmly clenching its jaws with her hands. She seems to have subdued the lion out by means of some sort of gentle soothing. She holds its jaws in a sure sign of control, but not cruelty. She is robed in white and over her head is the lemniscate (∞) just as the Magician has, but in this case, it is eternal nature of fortitude, the constant need of strength to control nature or passions.
The Tarot of the Saints deck shows Saint Jerome in profile standing at a table. He has a writing quill in his right hand and is holding a book in his left, with the bottom wrestling on the table. On the table, there is an extra quill in a well, and two books stacked. Resting at his feet across the bottom of the image is a large lion, who seems to be asleep. Saint Jeromes as Strength, shows a complete conquest to the point of disinterest. Jerome’s conquest seems to have moved on from the act of taming to pursue intellectual interests. The image of fortitude is rather focused on expression of knowledge (through writing) than any means of physical force. The lion sleeps but is ready to be awakened if needed.
Meditation
The general meaning of Strength is the ability to “overcome. The most pertinent question of the arcana is, “overcome what?” The answer is obviously going to be particularly conditioned by what is happening in any given meditation, but the lion can signify certain things in general to give a framework. The Lion to be tamed could be passion, society, chaos of life, or any troubles that come. Biblically in the book of Danial, the lion is a sign of a corrupt society [Babylon] that may devour the pure of heart, but with prayer and faith, one can survive. Or the lion could be the “Lion of Judah” as it appears in Revelations, the slain lamb of God. The image particularly suits Christian theodicy and cosmology because, according to Genesis 1, the entire world is created good. It is disorder and lack of fulfillment that creates the struggles we encounter. But that assumes that we can struggle and conform. Whether the lion be external, such as society or objects of temptations, or internal, such as concupiscent dispositions or poor point of view, there is a possibility that they can be ordered to the good. The oppression of Rome can be evangelized as Roman Catholicism and Joseph’s pride in Genesis can foster humility. These things do not happen without grace, but once grace is received it necessitates cooperation. The arcana of Strength is such cooperation through recognition, will, and implementation of skill.
What is interesting about Jerome is that his skill is language. That is not the language of vocabulary and grammar. Rather it is the language of the scriptures and the gospel. His great achievement is the ability to take these and put them into his language and the language of the people around him. This is the great evangelical call of inculturation. For Jerome, it is a bedrock strength of translation of the ultimate power, the power of the message of God to his people. To augment that, the act of subduing the Lion shows up in Jerome's hagiography. It is not a samsonite feat of strength. Rather than subdue or conquer, he tames by compassion. This is yet another hallmark of inculturation, the ability to take all that is good in a culture or a people and to enliven is with the yeast of the gospel. If the balance of Strength is the Wheel, Strength represents the ability to maneuver by will against the determined cyclical structures of the cosmos. We have framed these narratively in mythic time. These narratives repeat and are available for buy in by individuals. But the strength is the ability to tame the narrative, both by the gospel and by the particular grace of one's life. One must make the gospel one’s own language, then by living its compassion tame the lion of life, that chaos that specifically presents to the person. This takes exercise of intelligence and will, not just imitation of cycles and existant narrative.
The Strength of Saint Jerome is balanced by the Wheel of Saint Catherine. These present the balance of passive rhythm and willful struggle against determinism of Strength encompassed in the center of this chiasm that forms the Path of Personal Harmony. Whereas Jerome implies assertion over the order and tending it to one’s own will, Catherine implies a rhythm to creation and a passivity of playing one’s role according to the order. To navigate personal harmony one must learn to balance use of Strength and acceptance of the Wheel. The best reflection is this skill is the serenity prayer, which sums up the harmony of these two arcana: Lord grant me the Serenity to accept the things cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.
Application
To meet Saint Jerome as Strength in meditation is to meet one’s will against the flow of determinism or chaos. One may want to look at facets of the situation that require use of such strength, assess the skills needed, and contemplate plans of action. If the meditation thus far has taken a standard narrative, this arcana may be an invitation to focus on the personal manifestation of that narrative, how to resist the standard story, and make the situation one’s own. Of course, it could also be used to consider a strong personality in the situation.
In Reverse Jerome as Strength may beckon one to invest more deeply in the standard narrative and draw one’s power from the traditional form. It could be an invitation to consider passivity in the situation. Or, lastly, it may be a chance to assess whether the situation presents brutal oppression, some sort of significant weakness, concupiscence, insecurity, or self doubt.
XII. The Hanged Man: Saint Blandina
Hagiography
Blandina was a Christian slave in imperial Rome, during the persecutions of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. With several others, she was set upon by a pagan mob, arrested, tried, and convicted of the crime of Christianity, along with a number of typical charges like cannibalism. Blandina’s companions greatly feared that on account of her bodily frailty she might not remain steadfast under torture. She was bound to a stake and wild beasts were set on her, but they did not touch her. After enduring this for a number of days, in an effort to persuade her to recant, she was led into the arena to see the sufferings of her companions. Finally, as the last of the martyrs, she was scourged, placed on a red-hot grate, enclosed in a net, and thrown before a wild steer who tossed her into the air with his horns. In the end, she was killed with a dagger.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Rider Waite deck portrays the Hanged Man hung upon a Tau cross. The edges of the cross beam are hung with vines and the crossbeam itself seems to be springing twigs. The man is hung upside down by one leg, with the other dangling behind the tied leg. His hands are placed behind his back, possibly tied, possibly of his own will. His face is calm and serene. He is crowned by a halo.
Despite the hagiography of her being tied to a pillar, the Tarot of the Saints portrays Saint Blandina hung upside down as well. She is hung from what looks more like a scaffold than a Tau cross. Her feet are both bound on around the ankle and tied up to the knees and she is hanging from the top bar by the rope. Her hands are bound behind her back. She is robed in white with a red belt and she is also crowned with a halo signifying her martyrdom and being washed in the blood of the lamb. Her face is also calm, but the Waite deck has the man looking straight at the observer, whereas Saint Blandina is looking slightly askance. Rather than the blank background, one sees the columns and stadium seating of the Coliseum in the background. The major contrast in the pictures is the context of the stadium and the connotation of non contextual willing sacrifice vs sacrifice in a specific medium of social cruelty.
Meditation
One of the most important aspects of the Hanged Man is the calm face. It allows the reader to understand that the position the figure is in is one that is voluntarily undertaken. The Hanged Man resonates at least as far back as the Crucified Christ and in terms of mythic history much further. Biblically and in myth beyond, the tree is a place where a person receives important knowledge concerning divine mysteries. One need only consider Elijah under the broom tree, Moses and the Burning bush, Abraham at the Terebinth of Mamre, or even Eve in the Garden, not to mention Buddha under the Bodi tree, Odin on Yggdrasil, or Black Elk’s vision of the sacred tree. Christ was hung on such a sacred tree and achieved salvation. The Hanged Man hangs willfully on the tree as an act of sacrifice. That sacrifice is generally seen as a temporary discomfort, set back, or delay in order to reach a higher end. The encounters with the trees often entail a change and a new way of engaging the world. If one is sacrificed on the tree, such as Christ was, then often the hero still comes back to engage in a new way. This implies that the tree offers the opportunity for living sacrifice. The concept of a living sacrifice is discussed in Romans 12 and 1Peter 2. The living sacrifice is when one dies to one’s self, but lives for Christ, rejecting one’s own will and adopting Christ’s will as one’s own. It is to become a slave to Christ.
Saint Blandina’s particular significance as the Hanged Man is in the context of her death. Many commentaries on the Hanged Man discuss how his posture and face relay that he has willingly put himself in this situation in order to reach a higher good. Saint Blandina will reach a higher good. She was willing to go through the ordeal, but that is different than placing oneself on the instrument of torture. Her feet tied together and the menacing arches of the coliseum in the background let the reader know that there are other members of this narrative, ones who seek her destruction. The difference lies in her state of civil slavery. She is accustomed to not being her own property or having a will of her own. Her state in life was such that she only exercised the will of others and was never willed for herself. Thus when she suffered, it was easy for her to see her suffering not as her own, but Christ's suffering. Her offering was to “make up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ ''. She was able to detach from this suffering and accept a sacrificial life that did lead to death, but all life does. Her sacrifice is not in her death (as the next arcana Saint Stephen is). Thus, again, her hanging is not of her own volition, nor for her own “benefit”. It is a sacrifice others make to satiate their blood lust and a sacrifice that Blandina makes of offering her life for God even unto death. Her sacrifice would not need to happen if not for their designs. This reminds the reader that sacrifice happens in relation to others, either for them or because of them.
Blandina the Slave’s active social role is balanced by Anthony the Hermit’s personal quest for solitude. Saint Blandina suffers the structures and sin of society by abiding in them to her death. Saint Anthony seeks to escape the structures and temptations of society. Saint Blandina the Slave sacrifices by her life and how she lived it. Though the world sought to be Blandina’s master, she detached from suffering and self and instead lived only for Christ. Anthony presents self mastery and self possession with the hope of living gospel. Together they offer a balance of self care and self sacrifice, physical withdrawal and physical engagement, of self denial in order to self master and self denial offered self to the other.
Application
To meet Saint Blandina the Hanged in meditation provides opportunity to contemplate sacrifice, especially as detachment or renunciation in action as these apply to the situation. Blandina could also indicate the relinquishing of will in the situation and conformity to the will of others. The arcana can call for looking at how corrupt or cruel systems and structures effect the situation and cause a need for renunciation. Or, lastly, it could be a chance to look in the situation for how civil structures can be an avenue to sacrificial love.
In Reverse Saint, Blandina requires the querent to consider how their will (as their own) is affecting the situation. One may look at how selfishness or self centeredness present in the situation. Or the arcana could be presenting an opportunity for withdrawal from engagement in the situation. Or in the oppositional Blandina may be implying a comforting environment that is lulling one out of spiritual excellence.
XIII. Martyrdom [Death]: Saint Stephen
Hagiography
Saint Stephen was the first Christian martyr. After being elected deacon by the apostles he entered into debate with members of the Synagogue of Freedmen. Unable to defeat him they accused him of blasphemy. At his trial, Stephen recounted the narrative history of Israel told in Genesis and Exodus but ended by pointing out the house Solomon built for God could not contain him. Stephen ends his speech by deriding the audience for persecuting the prophets and not following the law. They dragged him outside the city and stoned him to death. In the crowd, on the side of the mob, was a man who would later be known as Saint Paul the Apostle.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In the Rider Waite deck Death is portrayed as a skeleton in black armor mounted on a pale horse, reminiscent of the horseman of the apocalypse. He holds a black flag with a white rose (a sign of complete destruction; historically a war during the Tudor dynasty). Before him are all manner of people in various states of relinquishing mortality. No person can withstand Death’s power. Behind him, the Sun sets between two towers, showing the end of an age or civilization.
Saint Stephen the Martyr is pictured quite different. He is the central figure, standing on top of the skull and crossbones, which form part of a hill of stones. Stones are the instrument of his death, but the image is also reminiscent of Calvary (the palace of the skull). A rose is growing out of the skull symbolizing new life that comes from death. Steven is carrying the palm of martyrdom in his left hand and the lectionary of a deacon in his right hand. His portrayal runs contrary to the Waite deck. He does not portray the destructive power of death. Rather his presence seems to indicate the method for conquering death and making death his servant. He, being the singular figure rather than one figure who brings death to others, indicates that death is not a cosmic force, but a personal experience. This experience can be used as a powerful spiritual motivator and as a means of sacrifice. Christ having concord death, it is no longer to be feared but seen as a servant of spiritual progress and effectiveness.
Meditation
The arcana of Death has many varied presentations across differing oracle decks, but its meaning is generally the same, the end of an old and the beginning of a new. For anything to change, transition, or survive, something must die or dissolve. Thus death comes to mean flux, transition, new birth. The arcana offers an opportunity to reflect on and assess one’s engagement with thanatosian piety. This would involve conscious metrics for what constitutes a “happy death” and understanding how to work toward that death. Thanatosian piety employs an awareness of death to cultivate gratitude and humility in one’s life. And lastly, thanatosian piety employs the power of death in a sacrificial manner to “kill” those parts of one’s self that require dissolution in order to live a pure life.
Saint Stephen the Martyr uses his life to demonstrate the method by which Christ has conquered death. In the image, he is standing on Calvary Hill, traditionally the burial mound of Adam, who introduced death to humanity. Saint Stephen draws the observer back to Christ who made sport of the principalities and powers and robbed death of his sting. Now Death works as the servant of the Christan, a power that is available to allow for sacrifice of self and a gate to new life. Stephen’s death is the manner of absolute relinquishing of life in this world. But death itself can be the death of anything that must die in order for the sacrificial practitioner to attain a better position for justification. It may be the destruction of the presence of objects or neutralization of relationship with people the subject has an inordinate attachment to. It may be the death of parts of the self that operate contrary to justification. It may be death to this world completely so as to be a sign of the transitory nature of this life. All of these deaths happen in the context of life and thus are known as constituting a living sacrifice.
Death is also the limit of time on this Earth and therefore operates as the great motivator. It motivates one to be moral and in that it relates to the Justice arcana. It is the motivation to seek the good, to understand and act according to divine and moral truth, which is presented in the Justice arcana. Death motivates us to have a sincere conscience. It also motivates one to experience life to the fullest, to find their meaning and purpose, because time is limited. It motivates us to appreciate those we love and those experiences we take for granted because we will not always have them.
Application
Typically meeting the arcana of Death in meditation is one of transition to renewal; the ending of one phase of life and the beginning of another. One could also look to the situation and discern possibilities of necessary sacrifice. Another possibility is that the arcana is offering a motive analysis of the situation. Death could also be used to note a limit of time in the situation. Death can bring to mind an aspect of or person in the situation that is being taken for granted that requires appreciation. Lastly, Saint Stephen could also allow one to consider the use of blunt truth, even at a cost.
In Reverse the martyrdom calls one to look for the new life that has begun (rather than being catalyzed by the death). It could also beg the presence of all the negative attributes mentioned above, lack of purpose, lack of appreciation, or gratitude. Particularly, oppositional Saint Stephen the Martyr could urge one to consider tact or imply a hesitancy to use blunt truth when it is needed.
XIV. Temperance: Saint Benedict
Hagiography
Born to the Roman nobility, while studying in Rome, he was dismayed by the lack of discipline and the lackadaisical attitude of his fellow students. Saint Benedict fled to the mountains, living as a hermit in a cave for three years. There he was fed by a raven. Benedict’s virtues caused an abbey to request him to lead them. He founded the monastery at Monte Cassino, where he wrote the Rule of his order. His discipline was such that an attempt was made on his life and he returned to his cave. But he continued to attract followers and eventually established twelve monasteries. A summation of the Rule of Saint Benedict is “Pray and Work.”
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In the Rider Waite deck, Temperance portrays an angel calmly pouring liquid from one chalice to another at an “unnatural” angle. The angel stands in the edge of a wetland that gives way behind it to a dry path leading up to a highland. Floating over then height is a glowing crown. The angel has one foot on dry land and one foot immersed in a body of water before it. Its wings span the width of the card and on its chest is a triangle. Everything about the image relays balance toward a goal, the crown in the background. In the image of Saint Benedict in Tarot of the Saints, he stands before a water clock holding a crosier. He is pouring water into a water clock from a pitcher. At his feet is the raven that fed him in the cave. In the background on the wall is a crucifix.
The contrast between the temperance of the angel and the temperance of Benedict is the contrast of balance between substance or temperament, vs a balance of time and temporal engagement. This is made plain by Benedict's effort to fill the water clock, verses the angel, who pours water from chalice to chalice and has one foot in the water and one foot on the ground. Benedict’s image seems to shift from paths and actions to an organization of time, no matter the environment. Another difference is that the environment of the angel is an environment to be balanced in a particular way. The objects in Saint Benedict’s environment are there to help rather than be manipulated. The Crucifix and the Raven remind one of exterior grace and blessings that give one strength and ultimate salvation. These two symbolize the natural and supernatural aid that we all experience as we navigate the time we have and seek to balance our interior virtues.
Meditation
Temperance symbolizes the interior balance of the entire Path of Personal Harmony. The factors to be balanced are personal dispositions and consciousness concerning what has been thus far discussed, motivation and termination, solitude and service, detachment and engagement. The arcana offers a window into the ability to find harmony in the tensions of perception and disposition. The skill takes great introspection which, true to the arcana, must be balanced by a certain vacancy of self. Temperance calls for a particularly deep sense of self that harmonizes all reactive skills and learns to apply them as needed to the situation. Whereas the Path of Cosmic Balance sought to gain mastery of how one achieves balance from the exterior point of view (the Chariot as a vehicle that takes the force of balance), the Path of Personal Harmony seeks to demonstrate the same type of balance, but the point of view is interior and spiritual (temperance as a spiritual virtue). As we noted in the treatise Temperate and Sacrificial Detachment,
Virtuous spectra are to paradoxically abide within the subject simultaneously. In the treatise Paradoxes and Disorders we pointed out that the spectral approach to paradox operates differently than the substantial or process approaches to paradox. The spectral approach is less object-oriented and focuses more on the relationship. One generally approaches intangible paradoxes in spectral ways. By defining the extremes of these intangibles one comes to a categorization of “object”. The flow of the spectrum is the gradation or quality of the relationship that binds the extremes together. A spectrum of virtue is particularly dangerous because one can be doing great harm to one’s self or others while easily convincing one’self that one is practicing virtue.
This last point is the true import of temperance. It is easy to believe that one is doing good by going to an extreme of virtue. But if that extreme is absent any balance, it becomes a demon disguised as an angel of light.
The entire life of Saint Benedict’s monastic rule is meant to subdue the passions and bring balance to life, both interior and exterior. The balance of the benedictine rule is work and prayer. These two things are temperate realities that everything else must fall under. If an action does not fit into one or both of these categories, or if a disposition cannot be made to serve them, then these things are rejected. The monastic life, in many ways, is a life of escape. The original hermits of Egypt were seeking to escape the corrupt world. As the hermits organized into monasteries, they ordered their lives by a rule that sought to withdraw from corruption of the secular life. This is the hermetic and sacrificial balance, withdrawing, dying to the world, and having the world die to the monk. The Rule seeks to ready the monk for death by implementing an environment ordered around the justice of the Rule. The Rule seeks to build strength through the cyclical rhythm of monastic life. It operates by careful synchronization of phenomenological time and mythic history so as to facilitate an environment conducive to maximal appropriation of the virtues demonstrated by Christ and his sanctified. All of the arcana of the Path of Personal Harmony are brought into balance and work toward Christian perfection. Benedict’s method for mitigating such extremes is a simple rule that maneuvers time between work and prayer such that the practitioner has no time for excess of any kind. The constant rhythmed toggle creates an environment that sets the conditions to bring the interior life into balance.
Saint Benedict as Temperance is the fulcrum of the Path of Personal Harmony and coordinates with Saint Christopher as the Chariot, who is the fulcrum of the Path of Cosmic Balance. Temperance seeks to balance the interior and its disposition to the exterior. This coordinates with The Chariot which implies forces or aspects of the exterior that need to be brought into compatibility and harmony. These two arcana surmise the classic categories of nature and nurture, will and determinism, objective and subjective. Together they are a constant navigation as one advances on the Path of Progress and Reintegration.
Application
To meet Saint Benedict’s Temperance generally evokes seeking balance, finding middle roads, looking at one’s spiritual excesses and seeking the virtues that balance them. Benedict specifically draws the querent to consider the balance of time in the situation. How much time invested in the situation is engaged and how much is introspective.
In Reverse Temperance, again, draws forward everything one would expect; extremes, excess, imbalance. But again with Benedict can also bring one to ponder whether time is unevenly proportioned. It could also lead one to wonder whether intemperance may be a useful temporary strategy. Or that temperate detachment, which is a practice of detachment as an introspective process that involves the practice of temperance along a spectrum of identity and personal function, may be necessary in the situation.
Path III: Progress to Reintegration
XV. The Devil: Saint Margaret
Hagiography
Margaret’s father was a pagan priest. Her mother died when Margaret was an infant, and she was raised by a Christian woman. Margaret’s father disowned her, her nurse adopted her, and Margaret converted, consecrating herself and her virginity to God.
One day a Roman prefect saw the beautiful young Margaret as she was tending sheep, and tried to seduce her. When she refused, the official denounced her as an outlaw Christian, and she was brought to trial. When she refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods, the authorities tried to burn her, then boil her in a large cauldron; each time her prayers kept her unharmed. She was finally martyred by beheading.
Considering the Tarot of the Saints, the relevant part of her story involves her meeting the devil in the form of a dragon, being swallowed by the dragon, and then escaping safely when the cross she carried irritated the dragon‘s innards.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Devil arcana in the Rider Waite deck shows a Baphomet style demon, half goat half human, who has enslaved a male and a female human. He is crowned with a reversed pentagram between his large curling horns. He holds his hands similar to the Magician, as above so below, but his raised right hand is open is a sign of self recognition rather than pointing to the heavens. His left hand holds a crud torch rather than a wand, that threatens to burn up and devour his arm. He is perched upon an obelisk. From the obelisk, two chains proceed from a ring and are loosely securing the humans, who are naked. The humans seem to represent the first parents, or more likely, humanity in general.
In the Tarot of the Saints, we see Margaret standing in the center of the image. She holds the palm of martyrdom and is dressed identically to Blandina save she also dons a green cloak. Her head is crowned with red flowers and her face is calm and pensive. Around her, the serpent’s mouth is opening to devour her and seems to form a terrifying mandorla. It frames her in the image so completely that the only thing that draws attention to it as a living being is its comically large eyes staring at the observer. Its feet are perched surrounding Margret’s feet. In general the image conveys a stalwart faith amidst an all encompassing danger.
Meditation
The Devil is the first arcana on the last path of Major Arcana as we divided them. This path is not a balanced chiasm, but a rising trajectory from the depths of spiritual turmoil to the height of enlightenment. But being a Christian deck, Christian theodicy is on display. All things work to good for those who love the Lord, even here at the bottom, where the Devil seems to devour the just. But the trajectory of the path as it develops over the next few arcana shows how Christ turns the cosmos on its head, and even tribulation works toward justification. The suffering imposed by The Devil starts us on the path to reintegration and fulfillment. The Devil invariably brings to mind the fact that often we are ruled by our possessions or enslaved to our passions. The chains of the Waite deck are real, though loose and able to be escaped. The image is terrifying, but we place ourselves in this imprisonment. With Margaret and the Devil, there is an interesting variance. First, we do get an excellent sense of the environmental aspect of the entrapment. It is not as simple as if we came across a being that we could have otherwise avoided. The influence of temptation and disorder is a constant presence, often symbolized by serpents, dragons or wild beasts in Christian myth. This disorder and temptation is the summation of postlapsarian reality, the domain of the Devil. But it is not a domain that is his properly, he only exists as a functionary to drive humanity between the spaces of Creation to the Incarnation and the Incarnation to the Eschaton.
This subsidiary role is the most unique aspect of how Margaret is portrayed in this image. The all encompassing nature of the image of Margaret contrasts with the carceral imagery of the Waite deck. Saint Margaret’s portrayal plays up how the entrapment of the demonic can be one’s entire environment, not simply one external being who has “tricked” the human. This aspect is less observable in the Waite deck. The environmental aspect is only noticed in the reverse pentagram. There the “Devil” is much more obviously an agent, whereas with Margret, though the serpent is sentient, her relation to is environmental, she is enveloped by it, left with only the small agitation of Christ to save her. The arcana speaks more to how all of reality was effected by the Fall, rather than a Manichean dualism, where the cosmos are a neutral battleground fought over by counterposed sentient forces. Depressing as the totality of the image may be, The fact that the demon forms the mandorla speaks to Christian Theodicy and gives the observer hope if they understand the skills of calculated demonic attunement. This attunement recognizes that, whether he likes it or not, the Devil’s role is the same as all the angels, to usher us on toward salvation. It is simply that his role is the one we do not appreciate because it makes life hard for us. To understand what this means one must first realize that the Devil has no power to damn any human. We do this to ourselves by our choices. As we noted in the treatise Calculated Demonic Attunement demons do two things, they tempt and they torture. In that work, we pointed out how each demonic strategy can be turned by the subject to a sanctifying regard if one is disciplined and has faith. The temptation allows humanity true freewill and therefore offers the exercise of true love. The torture offers the ability to sacrifice as well as exercise fortitude. To fail in the pure exercise offers the subject humility, a valuable asset against pride. If Christ has truly conquered the principalities and powers and subjected them to himself, then the Devil now works for our salvation.
It is by accepting Christ’s grace that the gaping mouth of the demon serpent can be turned into a mandorla for each one of us. But the Progress of Reintegration is not easy. We are trapped and need to humbly acknowledge our weaknesses. We are tempted and need to exercise our will to resist. We suffer torment and, as the next arcana demonstrates, our cleverly constructed towers crumble and fall leaving us feeling vulnerable before God and the elements.
Application
To meet the Devil in a reading in an opportunity for the querent is to consider aspects calculated demonic attunement. One may analyze the situation for temptations present and consider base passions or the glamor of this world. One may consider how suffering is manifest in the situation and how it can be turned to good. The querent may want to look for opportunities in the situation to exercise fortitude, will, or humility in the face of moral failure.
In Reverse Saint Margaret and the Devil may offer a window into justification in the situation, it may indicate a person who is properly ordered or who has achieved healthy relationships with God, neighbor, and environment. It may guide one too well exercised fortitude, will, or humility in the situation demonstrating the beginning of reform. Or it may indicate grace or existing well ordered aspects of the situation.
XVI. The Tower: Saint Barbara
Hagiography
Saint Barbara: A beautiful maiden imprisoned in a high tower by her father for disobedience. While there, she was tutored by philosophers, orators, and poets. From them, she learned to think, and decided that polytheism was nonsense. With the help of Origen and Valentinian, she converted to Christianity.
Her father denounced her to the local authorities for her faith, and they ordered him to kill her. She escaped, but he caught her, dragged her home by her hair, tortured her, and killed her. He was immediately struck by lightning, or according to some sources, fire from heaven.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Rider Waite portrayal of the Tower shows the edifice sitting atop a high crag. It is ablaze, with fire pouring out of the three windows. The top is being struck by lightning, blasting the crown of the tower off. The lightning emerges from a dark cloudy sky. Raining from the sky is a host of Yods, the tenth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, generally indicating Divine action or blessing. Two figures, a man and a woman (possibly from the previous arcana, but now clothed in tragic majesty) are jumping in terror or being cast from the tower.
The Tarot of the Saints image also shows a tower whose top is being struck by lightning. But there is a solitary crowned figure falling from the tower, Barbara’s father. The bolt of lightning is coming from a dark cloud situated in the top left corner of the image, but the rest of the sky is completely clear and blue. The tower itself is being held by Barbara, who cradles it in an almost maternal fashion. She is standing in a bucolic environment, surrounded by shrubs and leading off into rolling hills. She stands in profile, also wearing the white robe with the red belt. At her feet lays the sword of execution. The image evokes a more personal connection to the tower and a certain awareness of it as a thing to be mastered rather than feared. There is also a sense of “otherness” in the image that makes one approach the Tower with a sense of “in the world but not of the world”.
Meditation
The Tower generally symbolizes a system or structure that has been built to protect one from outside forces. But when the outside force is God or fate, then one’s tower will crumble. The arcana absolutely resonants with the Tower of Babel and, in that, the tower can signify linguistic systems, systematic ideologies, psychological defense mechanisms, social structures, or any number of constructs that keep a person or society viable. But these structures cannot be an end in themselves. These systems often carry serious negative consequences and when over invested in they become a tomb rather than a tower. The Yods of the image of the Tower are God’s gift of destruction of these false and imprisoning systems that keep us trapped.
Saint Barbara and the Tower offers many of the lessons that the standard portrayal of the arcana does, but with notable variance. Again, we see the Tarot of the Saints more focused on the personal rather than a simple environmental statement. The “tower” as an edifice is only part of Barbara’s personal story, not the story itself. The two figures on the Tarot of the Saints image more readily demonstrates the two paths regarding suffering. One can hold it, as Barbara does, and utilize it for sanctification. Or one can both inflict and be inflicted by it, allowing it to lead to one’s downfall. The Waite deck implies the theodicy, but it also almost assumes a mechanistic spiritual development. It is not easily ascertained whether one could stagnate along the path. It is not clear at all that one can be the instrument of the suffering one’s self by one's choices. Barbara’s image better illustrates these vagaries. Saint Barbara holds the tower, this is a sign of some sort of control. It is the flip image of the Devil arcana where the environment is enveloping the saint. Here the “system” is an oppressive, hierarchical, and cruel paganism that is shot through with misogyny. This system has protected society but at great cost. Now a divine intervention has happened, the incarnation, and that system is in the hands of Barbara, who has learned all the deep philosophies and arts of the culture. This learning is the sword of her intelligence that she uses to strike at falsehood. She is poised to inculturate this structure, infect it with the Gospel, and convert it. R.M. Place points to the three windows as having been installed at Barbara’s behest, to signify the Trinity, a creeping inculturation already begun a mark that nothing that exists (in that it exists) can be totally bereft of Gods. But the patriarchal structure is not so willing to cede its comfortable position of power. Her father also has a sword, the sword of brutality. It is after beheading Barbara that her father is struck by lightning. This arcana seems to imply first a violent rejection of grace by an entrenched system, then an awakening by sudden tragedy and dissolution of the system. Yet all the while Barbara holds the Tower, always ready to reform what is built and utilize it for the greater glory of God.
This arcana signifies the catalyst that is needed to begin the freedom from the chains of the Devil in the previous arcana and starts the ascent of the rest of the set. In both of these cards the “problem” is an environment, but the environment is useful to our end, the progress of reintegration. The next arcana, the Star, offers an opportunity to shed this world and ascend, the motion is upwards, but also within.
Application
To meet Saint Barbara and the Tower in meditation calls one to question one's carefully crafted constructions effecting the situation. They are prone to isolation and are weak compared to the penetrating grace of God. One may want to consider whether these structures are prohibiting the flow of fruitful dialogue. The arcana may also be hinting at a cataclysmic dissolution of such a structure. If so one may consider how one can exploit it for healing and humility. The querent may want to probe the situation and regard who in it aligns with who in Barbara’s story, the saint or her father. Do they enjoy the protection of the Tower or do they see it as a prison?
In Reverse one may look to disaster near avoided and take Barbara’s help. Can the structures in the situation be used for reform short of complete upheaval? Or an oppositional Tower could lead the querent to observe structures that exist and are operative to a negative effect. In this case, one must consider how to abide in the structure as Barbara.
XVII. The Star: Saint Therese
Hagiography
Born to a pious middle-class French family of tradesmen; daughter of Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, and all four of her sisters became nuns. Her mother died when she was only four, and the family moved to Lisieux, to be closer to family. Therese was cured of an illness at age eight when a statue of the Blessed Virgin smiled at her. Just before her 14th birthday, she received a vision of the Child Jesus; she immediately understood the great sacrifice that had been made for her. From this, she developed an unshakeable faith. She tried to join the Carmelites but was at first turned down due to her age. When she was finally allowed to join the Carmelites at Lisieux she became known for her complete devotion to spiritual development and to the austerities of the Carmelite rule.
Therese was plagued with health problems resulting from her ongoing fight with tuberculosis. At age 22 she was ordered by her prioress to begin writing her memories and ideas, which would turn into the book History of a Soul. Therese defined her path to God and holiness as The Little Way, which consisted of child-like love and trust in God. When she died the cloudy skies opened to reveal a sea of calm stars.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Rider Waite deck portrays the Star with a nude woman kneeling on the ground. In front of her is a pool of water, in which her foreleg is immersed. The ground is covered in small plants and saplings. The terrain leads off to hill country with one noticeable hill sporting a single large tree at the top with an ibis perched in it. Above her in a clear blue sky are seven white stars surrounding a large yellow star in the middle. The woman’s face is calm and focused. She has a pitcher in each hand and is pouring water simultaneously behind her onto the land and before her into the water.
For the Star, the Tarot of the Saints deck shows Therese of Liseux in the throes of rapture. She is dressed in the Carmelite habit clutching her heart gently, with her face staring vacantly beyond the observer. Above her are the seven stars surrounding the larger star but all are white. Also, the sky is not clear, rather there is a ring of dark clouds forming a vortex around the stars that shine out of complete darkness.
The immediate visual contrast implies the difference between the hope of the nude woman “The Star” that is achieved by the wisdom, knowledge, or skill (the ibis of Thoth, the act of pouring, the clear skies) and the hope of the Little Flower that finds its root in mystery, gift, acceptance, and the mystical darkness of the via negativa.
Meditation
Traditionally, at its most basic, the Star is a sign of hope. Stars are the one thing in the ancient world that was absolutely predictable. They come to mean the order of creation and show that life is not random; there is rhythm and determination. This can be deduced in how the stars come to predict the rhythmic changing of the weather every year. When the entire planet has died and storage is running low, stars are a sign of hope that spring is common and life will create anew. Stars are what chart the course in open sea navigation and give direction when there are no other means of finding one’s way. To experience the stars after a storm means the clouds have parted for sailors in such a situation is an impactful sign of hope. The seven stars are the planets and luminaries that “wander” against the grain of the vault of stars, which all move in unison. They mark the seven celestial spheres that one would need to travel through to get to the highest heaven, which is the abode of the blessed.
Saint Therese was a Carmelite, and therefore immersed in their contemplative mystical tradition. Her path through the stars to the highest heaven is dark and surrounded by clouds. This imagery is reminiscent of her fellow Carmelite Saint John of the Cross and his mystical theology in the Dark Night of the Soul. This type of prayer relies heavily on recognizing what one does not know, as opposed to what one knows or the skills they have. The Star in the Waite deck has the alchemic skill of union of opposites, as demonstrated by her posture and her gesture with the pitchers. This cosmological manipulation is a skill that can be a path to relationship with God. But in the via negative one denies knowledge until one is emptied of assumptions about the nature of God. One is only left with their desire for God as a guide, and one is open to God’s penetration rather than telling God how to operate. This mystical union is the rapture present on her face. The hope of Therese the Star is a hope in the steadfastness of God who is mysterious. Her image is the perfect example of what should come after the destruction of the Tower, a structure that made one so sure of themselves but turned out to be vulnerable. Stars offer guidance, but ultimately we are not omnipotent and we must empty ourselves of all preconceptions in order to fully accept God’s grace and his plan for us without qualification.
The Star arcana follows two arcana on the Path of Progress to Reintegration that signifies tragic bondage and destruction. But those arcana are also a matrix for growth, the Star is the beginning, the springtime of that growth. This neophyte status can be seen in the new growth of the Waite image, and it can be seen in the life of Therese, dying at 24 years old, and in her childlike little way, that follows Christ’s observation, “lest you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” The first step, the first hope, for something new in life is to let go of the old. To let go of presumptions and assumptions, to let go of the pain and the comfort that comes with the old. This is the earnest beginning of the last leg of the journey of the Major Arcana. It beacons toward existential fulfillment. To effect its motion we must let go of all our assumptions, all of our selfish desires, even our very self and submit to the benevolence in “otherness” that is the greatest goal, the center star, God himself. When we do this we rise to the heavens and become beacons of light, stars, to others.
Application
In contemplation, Saint Therese the Star brings one to consider hope in a new start. But to rekindle that new start one must consider what needs to be left behind. First one may want to probe the situation for avenues of new beginning or signs of hope for renewal. But one will also want to look for what assumptions one is carrying into the situation that they may need to let go of in order to allow the rejuvenation to take root.
In Reverse Saint Therese, the Star could lead one to look for those in the situation exhibiting hopelessness and consider its effect. It may help one probe active skills or assumptions one already possesses that can be employed in the situation. Or one may look back to those things that entrap us and keep us from seeing hope that is present.
XVII. The Moon: Saint Mary
Hagiography
The traditions of the early life of Mary are set out in the proto gospel of James. In that account, Mary is dedicated to God by her Mother Anna in utero. When she is three years old, she is delivered to the temple to be raised. Fearing that her menstrual blood would render the temple ritually impure, the Priest cast lots and the aged widower Joseph is chosen as her husband/protector. Mary’s fiat is a pivotal point in salvation history. Her ability to accept God’s plan and become a vessel of his action allows her to magnify his greatness. She bears the second person of the trinity allowing him to be carved from her flesh the same way Adam was carved from the Earth. Because of this, she is called Theotokos (God-bearer), the new Eve, and even the New Creation. She is a disciple of Jesus during his ministry, she stays with him through his execution and witnesses the resurrected Christ before the ascension.
Mary is assumed to be the subject of a vision in the book of Revelations,
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
The Ark is the dwelling of God and thus becomes a title for Mary as she is with Child. In this passage, she is likened to the ark in that she is with child, her physical being encasing the incarnate Word of God. The image of the Sun, Moon, and twelve stars brings the reader back to the dream of Joseph in Genesis 37 where the Sun, Moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to him (the twelfth star). The celestial bodies are symbolic of Israel, and the vision of Revelations implies the reconfiguration of a New Israel through the action of Mary.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Image of the Moon in the Rider Waite deck shows a brightly shining yet waning moon looking down on a bifurcated scene. At the bottom of the image is a pool with a crayfish crawling out of the water. The crayfish is starting a journey up a path between two dogs, one wild and one domesticated, and two towers. The path leads over a plain and up distant mountains. Over the entire scene, the Moon rains Yods down from above.
In the Tarot of the Saints, one sees a black sky with Mary standing on the Moon She is surrounded by the twelve stars from Revelations, signifying the new creation. Her hands are emitting intercessory grace.
The contrast between the arcana is again clear. The Waite deck immediately gives an impression of an evolutionary journey from the primitive crayfish all the way up the mountain of spiritual enlightenment. On the journey, the being must navigate all the choices that would take them from one extreme to the other. The Yods imply divine action or favor, but it seems tangential to the path and the evolution of the agent. Place’s deck has intercession and aid as the focus. The bifurcation is an encompassing grace emitted from Mary’s hands rather than dichotomous choices and the Moon as a cosmic power is subjected to a celestial personal companion.
Meditation
Generally in Tarot, the Moon is interpreted as cosmic femininity, unconscious, evolution from the primal, mystery, and illusion. As the celestial body that rules the night, it has dominion over the dream world, a world that operates vial symbology rather than causality. It is from encounters with this world that the arcana are made known to humanity. The operation by symbology allows us to give meaning to the narratives we see in the waking world even though they operate by causality. The experience of the dream world also allows humanity to craft myth, the history of the two worlds mingled together. Lastly, experience of the dream world is the most powerful and immediate experience of signification. When abiding there, all realities convey what they symbolize in an immediate way. It is recognition of this experience that gives us the possibility of understanding our sacramental cosmology, by understanding that the world we live in is not that different. How somnium spirituality works is presented best in the Moon, as a symbol of the dream world. Its life is rhythmic, it forays into the day and out, it shines and dims, it is not linier like the Sun.
Mary as the Moon is a well known analogy in Christan aesthetics. The general meaning is twofold. The first is one of reflection. The Moon does not have light of its own, it reflects the light of the Sun. Similarly, Mary’s Magnificat makes clear that the glory is God’s and she is the magnifier. All glory belongs to God, all graces gained “through Mary” are gained by intercession, by her praying with us, for us. In the dark night, when the Sun seems gone, all we can see of it is its light reflected from the Moon. Sometimes, when God seems transcendent or beyond our ability to reach, we can look to Mary whose light is God’s light and the Moon can light our way. The second way that Mary presents as the Moon is through the Moon’s significance as cosmic femininity. Mary, as the mother of Christ, is the Mother of the Church. That ecclesial maternity invests her with the role of cosmic femininity. In all cultures, she appears as maternal feminine in that culture and brings. She presents all aspects of femininity in that she is both virgin and mother, lowly and exalted, intuitive and emotive in her joys and sorrows. The lesson of Mary as the Moon is a lesson of background as foreground or magnifier allowing vision. The unconscious becomes primary. The traditional feminine, which “builds up the masculine” becomes the focus. The mother who bolsters the son becomes the summative example of the Son’s mission. Behind the Moon is an array of Stars, beautiful in their own way, but lesser in light. This is just as behind Mary there is an array of Saints, beautiful in their own way, but deferential to the Queen of Heaven. Yet even she gets her light from the Son, just as the Moon gets its light from the Sun. When the Sun rises all stars are subsumed in its light. The Moon may stay visible, but only as it reflects the Sun. Thus we progress after the Moon to the next arcana, which will aim at giving light to all and subsuming all in glory.
The Moon is the beginning of the “journey” on the Path of Progress to Reintegration. Previous to the Star, external “things” had been trapping the soul by their glamor. The glamor was illusory because all these things offer when worshiped or sought in and of themselves is suffering and enslavement. The Star pivots a new hope and a new orientation toward attachment. Now with the Moon one sees a new “object” of attachment, holiness and sanctity, either in the form of life with meaning (the dream world) or humanity that carries divinity or brings divinity into creation (mary). These objects are illusions because they have to be “translated”. The meaning of the moon (the illusory dream world) must be translated to the waking world, where the Sun shines. The Moon is a catalyst, conveyer, and a crutch to reaching the next level of spiritual union. The glory of the Moon turns out to be merely reflective of the Glory of the Sun, Mary does not “create” through her own power, only by cooperative will. This “translation” is the translation of somnium spirituality where we bring the dream world into the waking world.
Application
Mary as the Moon in contemplation normally presents an opportunity to reflect in the subconscious and primal as it relates to the situation. The arcana offers a chance to engage in any relevant dream interpretation, to seek aspects of the situation that may be more or less than they appear, or to look for foundational or hidden motivations and causes. Or it is a chance to analyze the effect of cosmic femininity in the situation and apply lessons learned. It could offer a chance to look for help from or present as a strong feminine role in the situation. Lastly, it could also be an opportunity to look to any aspect of the situation that may be amplifying some aspect, or an unnoticed foundation.
In Reverse Mary as the Moon can invite contemplation of the darker terrors of the dream world and how they manifest in the situation. It could be a chance to look for despair or clandestine manipulation, especially of the querent’s emotions. One may also look for a person in the situation that self glorifies rather than giving glory where it is due.
XIX. The Sun: Christ
Gospel
It is extremely difficult to succinctly relay the life of Christ and adequately relay the meaning and significance. The easiest way is simply to change the section heading from “hagiography” to “gospel”. This is not a reference to the four writings, but to the Gospel as a reality of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection itself. The Gospel is the liberation that comes from the life of Christ. This includes not only his teaching and miracles but his saving life, death and resurrection, and continued abidance as head of the Church.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Rider Waite image portrays the Sun brilliantly shining with a calm disinterested face. In the foreground is a young child riding a white horse bareback toward the observer. The child is nude and carried a large flag the unfurls across the side of the image. The child has their limbs stretched to the extremes and the face of the child is joyful. The head of the child is crowned with sunflowers. Behind the horse is a grey wall with large sunflowers growing from the top.
The Tarot of the Saints has Jesus as the Sun. He stands in the archway of what could be a stained glass window. Over the arch on each side are roses. Behind him are radiant rays emitting from his Halo. Jesus’ Face is calm as he stares at the observer. He seems to float over the bottom frame of the window with his left foot barely breaking the edge of the frame, letting the observer know that he is not an image, but a real person. His one foot in / one foot out posture is reminiscent of Temperance in the Rider Waite deck. But in this case, it is the breaching of the ideal (picture of a) human, with the actual human (both of whom he presents). His loosely flowing robes expose his chest, out of which shine two beams of light red to Jesus’ right, white to the left; replacing the red flag and white horse. Jesus’ left hand is touching his heart and his right is raised in blessing. The stigmata are visible on each of his hands and in the center (oddly) of his chest emitting the light.
Both arcana have a disinterested face that conveys the masculine transcendent and analytical nature of the Sun. But the Waite deck shows the Sun as the life giving forces, whereas in the Tarot of the Saints, it is clear that the Sun is an “image” and the living reality in the picture is Christ himself.
The “Radiance” of the image streams from the heart of Christ in red and white, relating to the water and blood that flowed from his side when he was pierced on the Cross. The principle imagery is taken from Saint Faustina who had a vision popularly called “The Divine Mercy”. She described her vision in her diary thusly
In the evening when I was in my cell, I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in a gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast, there were emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale. In silence I kept my gaze fixed on the Lord; my soul was filled with awe, but also with great joy. After a while, Jesus said to me, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and [then] throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I myself will defend it as my own glory.”
It is through the piercing and the flow of blood and water, baptism and sacrifice, that life is given to humanity anew. They represent the mercy offered by the Father through the Son even as we reject grace offered. The Waite deck shows life causally given the Sun, which sets every day and will one day cease to exist. Christ as the life force portrays that absolute gift of life and mercy that can be accepted and received.
Meditation
The Sun arcana generally is an awakening of self and consciousness, to life that is received and taken with confidence. Because the Sun is the ruler of the day it is the cosmic masculine, pointing to transcendence. The Sun is the steward of the day time and the waking world. It is at this time that we are most aware and use causal and syllogistic reasoning as opposed to emotive and symbolic reasoning. The Sun as the sign of this implies a high transcendence that radiates light, which allows us to see and gather data for analysis. The light also draws us “up” to the Sun itself, but it is mysterious because we cannot look directly at it for long.
Christ is never called “The Sun” directly in the scriptures, but he is referenced as “light” which comes from the Sun just as The Son comes from the Father. He is “the image of the invisible God” so just as one cannot look at the Sun, but does experience the benefit of light from it, no one can see the Father, but we can see the Son in Christ.
Isaiah likens the messiah as light in chapter 42 where he says, “I, the LORD, have called you for justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations.” John’s gospel takes that theme and develops it, beginning in chapter 8, where “Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The same dynamic of light coming from the Sun plays out for the rest of this chapter. Jesus talks much about where he “came from” that is the Father. When pressed on the issue he states, “If you knew me you would know my Father also.”
The collapse of Trinitarian theology which allows for the three persons to abide as one God leads us to understand that the Sun is the light and the light is the Sun. This becomes even more profound when one collapses that ontology (where all is simple and manifold at the same time) into the observer who perceives both the Sun and the Light. In the next chapter of John Jesus heals the blind man. The catalyst for this is the disciples asking the question of theodicy when they see the man, “who sinned that this man was born blind, him or his parents?” Jesus’; answer does not play into their assumptions. “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the work of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.” The healing of the man born blind then shifts the focus from light to the utilizer of light, the subject.
All three of these, the Sun, light, and the eye make for the profound experience of sight. Just so all three aspects, The Father, the Son, and the subject make up the Church. In Chapter 1 of Zechariah the prophet speaks of the New Jerusalem where the Lord is King, “There will be one continuous day—it is known to the LORD—not day and night, for in the evening there will be light.” Revelations chapter 21 goes on to develop this theme specifically using Christ as the light, “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. The city had no need of Sun or Moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light.”
The light of Christ is not simply the light of “reason”. It is the light that allows for fundamental sight, life, or experience itself. When the arcana of the Sun is applied to Christ, there is a deeper immanence and relationship to the subject. Via his immanence, the subject is swept up into transcendence. Via the dying and rising of the Sun and the Son, Humans are allowed access to the height of transcendence. This access is on all levels, rational, mystical, aesthetic, existential etc. To encounter Christ in the Spirit is to encounter him as other and as a reality to be actualized in one’s self and then through those mutual encounters be drawn to the Father. A successful experience of this (tailored the individual’s person and relationship with Christ) will facilitate successful navigation of the Judgment and full integration (the World).
When one has reached the Sun on the ascent of Progress to Reintegration, one meets God and one meets a human like one’s self. The experience of this person is the best data for what reintegration can mean for a human who is not the Logos incarnate. We are destined to be one with the Father as Christ’s human nature is. We do this by binding to his human nature consubstantially in baptism, possible because we are of one human nature. By this maneuver, his hypostatic union of human nature and divine nature “relays” us to the Father ontologically via the consubstantial relationship between the Father and the Son. All of these “bindings” and “unions” happen within the spirit, who is the loving union that facilitates them. So the experience of Christ is not simply a rational learning, it is learning with the whole self and ultimate integration. But the grace that allows this to happen must be cooperated with via the human will. How well we were able to do this is the subject of the next arcana, Judgment.
Application
The Sun is generally interpreted as an indicator of new life, harmony, and interconnectedness. Christ signifies this in that he is the summative example of the harmony of the human and the divine. One may probe the situation and look for examples of harmony or synchronicity. To meet Christ the Sun particularly in meditation is to call to mind mediation between one’s experience and ultimate transcendence. One may want to look into the situation for participatory examples of such mediation. One can also take this arcana as an opportunity to reflect on the employment of mercy in the situation. The light of the Sun is a gift for all and all experience its benefit. Mercy is the same from God and should be the same for us.
In Reverse Christ the Sun can focus one on the mystery of God, the apophatic approach to the situation that reminds one that certain knowledge is impossible and faith is necessary in all things. Or one could look for examples of a lack of mercy or examples of self centeredness that can lead to destruction. Lastly, the Sun arcana could be an indicator of disharmony or a lack of synchronicity.
XX. Judgment: Saint Gabriel
Hagiography
Gabriel is an archangel and messenger of God. One of the three angels mentioned by name in the Bible. He appeared to the prophet Daniel to explain the prophet’s visions relating to the Messiah and to Zachary in the temple to announce the coming of Zachary’s son, John the Baptist, and to strike Zachary mute for his disbelief. Lastly, he appeared to Mary to let her know she’d been selected to bear the Saviour.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
The Rider Waite deck shows an angel taking up the entire sky facing the observer blowing a mighty horn with the Flag of Saint George hanging down from it. Below tombs are opened and the dead are emerging with raised hands to greet the sound. They are from all walks of life, but all are stripped bare. The tombs seem to be situated in the sea, calling to mind the scene as Revelations 20 describes it,
Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls. The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades gave up their dead. All the dead were judged according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire. (This pool of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the pool of fire.
The Tarot of the Saints image is in many ways similar. The angel is noted as the angel Gabriel. Gabriel is in profile taking up the left half of the image. There are three stages of resurrection happening before the angelic being. The first is a skull laying on the ground. The second and old man wrapped in a shroud sitting and staring away from Gabriel. The third is a young woman standing up as she drops her shroud revealing her new reconfigured body. She reaches to the heavens, even past the angel himself.
Though the basic imagery is the same Tarot of the Saints does lend itself to a certain “progress” of judgment and resurrection. That progress could be interpreted as those who pass the judgment versus those who don’t. Or it could be seen as the motivation judgment has on us to strive to better ourselves and reach out of our state of death to a new life.
Meditation
In General, the arcana of Judgment implies both personal prudence and use of the will as well as the fact that we are judged, the two obviously working in harmony because the subject of one is the subject of the other. There are two judgments the Christian undergoes. The first is the personal judgment. This happens when one dies and stands before God. One is judged on the sincerity of their conscience (that is whether they tried to form it by the best sources to their knowledge) and then how well they followed the content of their conscience. This implies a learning and an exercise of the will via judgment concerning what one has learned. From here the soul goes to one of three destinations, heaven for those ready to enter, purgatory for those who need time before they enter heaven to work off their trauma that sin has caused them, or Hell for those who have shaped themselves such that they cannot accept the grace and forgiveness offered to them. In this “incomplete” state the souls await the Final Judgment.
It is at the Final Judgment when the bodies of the dead are resurrected. Whatever that resurrected body is, it is continuous with the body one has now, but differs in qualitative ways. This Final Judgment is not a re-judgment of the individual. Rather it is the judgment of “Humanity” as a unit. As we noted, in Christan ontology everything is simple and manifold at the same time. This, there are individual humans and there is the unit of Humanity. It is judged when humanity has run its course between Eden and the Eschaton. Humanity is judged as a whole and all reality is created anew. It is at this point that the resurrection happens as described in 1 Corinthians 15,
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality. And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Though a Judgment of Humanity may seem redundant and impersonal in our individualistic society Christanty assumes it quite the contrary. First, humanity is a reality and must be judged as a whole. If the outcome seems a foregone conclusion given the collective personal judgments, then so does the individual judgment “as an event” given your life is done action by action, yet the taken whole is still worth assessing. Second, the last line quoted from Paul above sets out the serious difference between Judgment and Justice. The arcana Justice was the cosmic struggle between good and evil. Sin had entered through the law. Moral law works mechanically as a law of the universe. Thus Justice is “objective”. Judgment is personal, it judges a person on their action, their intention, and the circumstances. The guilt is correlated to personal knowledge and will. Thus though there is objective good and evil, sin is a personal matter that depends on one’s knowledge and will. We noted the difference in the treatise Relativism, Conscience, and The Magisterium
Again, an “evil” act is different than a “sinful” act. You can accidentally do great evil, you cannot accidentally, unknowingly or unwillingly commit great sin. In fact you cannot accidentally sin at all. You can be forced to do great evil, but you cannot be forced to sin. You can unknowingly do great evil, you cannot knowingly sin. You cannot accidentally or unknowingly offend God even though you can unknowingly do action that have negative effects on your relationship with God, for example missing mass.
The moral weight of the “evil” action is independent of one’s knowledge or belief about the action. Again, in the Catholic worldview there is an objectively “right” and an objectively “wrong” way to act. That is to say, any given action can be objectively calculated as good or evil to a greater or lesser degree. This calculation can be done at least by God, and church teaching on conscience implies that it can accurately be done by humans, given the right circumstances. But if sin implies culpability, there are not objectively “sinful” actions. Any action could be done by accident, or without proper knowledge.
Thus, judgment is much more circumstantial and much less mechanical than justice.
This individual personal struggle of judgment in moral action is one way that one comes to know Christ and by which one actualizes Christ within themself. In this our human nature is conformed to Christ’s after having been collapsed into it consubstantial in baptism. As we noted in the former arcana, by that collapse our nature is collapsed into the Father, all the while remaining an individual. The Sound of the Trumpet is the primal sound that reverberates and reintegrates all reality. It sets the stage for the final arcana of the Major Arcana, which is the individual abiding as one but fully integrated in the World.
Application
To come across Judgment in a reading prompts one to consider aspects of personal reckoning, reflection, and awakening. Or one can look to the entire situation and consider how the resolution could reflect as a judgment on one’s self. One can reflect on the elements of conscience regarding the situation, how one forms one’s conscience (sources one gets knowledge) concerning the situation, how much and how well one is employing one’s will. Or one may analyze themselves or others in the situation via the classic moral categories object (action) circumstances and intention.
In Reverse one might look for a lack of self awareness or uninformed (lack of information) or malformed (bad information) conscience, perhaps even an insincere (not looking for information) conscience. One may reflect on poor use of the will or how well intentions consider mal intention.
XXI. The World: Saint Sophia
Hagiography
Mother of the three virgin martyrs Faith, Hope, and Charity. She brought them up carefully as Christians and encouraged them during the horrors of their martyrdom in Rome under Hadrian early in the second century. Faith, Hope, and Charity were put to death at the ages respectively of twelve, ten, and nine years during the persecutions. Three days later Sophia peacefully passed away while praying by their tomb.
Visual Symbolic Analysis
In the Rider Waite deck, the World arcana shows a naked woman hovering in a wreath, with her legs crossed in the fashion of the Hanged Man. She is wrapped around by a sash and holds a baton in each hand. At the four corners of the image are the four symbols of the evangelists, the man, the eagle, the ox, and the lion.
The Tarot of the Saints image identifies the woman as Saint Sophia. The corners do have the symbols of the evangelists, but there are many stark contrasts. Sophia is circled by a red sash, but she is not naked. She is wearing a white dress and a crown. In her hand, she holds a sword (left) and a flaming heart (right) rather than batons. She is encircled by a mandorla with a radiant interior. Saint Sophia is not floating. Rather she is standing on an orb and beneath the orb are a heart, a cross, and an anchor, symbols for her daughters, Faith, Charity, and Hope. The image evokes a feeling of integrated experience both interior and exterior.
Meditation
Generally, the World is interpreted as integration, completion, harmony, enlightenment. In Christianity, these things come with the backdrop of a true person who does not fade or diminish with integration. There is no extinction (nirvana) or Moksha (mergnace). Rather, their integration or actualization happens through who they are. The most striking example of this in Christendom is the fact that Christ keeps his wounds when he resurrected. Whatever suffering one sanctifies in postlapsarian existence, becomes one’s glory in the Eschaton. This arcana also represents a successful navigation of the three tiered integration of the self. The three tiered integration of the self is a collapse of three tiered field of experience into self, such that one experiences Christian ontology as a reality, that all is simple and manifold at the same time. Thus, one’s interior life, one’s corporeal life, and what one had perceived of as “the external world” are all now perceived of as one’s self. The methodology sees the interior self expanded through the auxiliary self (the body) into the exterior world. All of this happens in the context of perception, thus, point of view remains, but with an assumption of ontological unity.
While the Waite deck is abstract and ethereal, the Place deck seems to be more grounded in integration of the “actual” world (the globe) including the globe and one’s history and relationships. The name of Sophia’s children are the cardinal virtues, and she holds a sword for intellect and a heart for compassion, two things that are needed to manifest her name “Sophia” meaning “wisdom”. All these symbols together show that her integration is “hers”. It springs from her history and relationships. It is not just a typological template for all people. Saint Sophia comes to integration with Christ via witnessing the suffering and persecution of her daughters, Faith, Hope, And Charity. Sophia brings her mind and heart to her actualization, but she stands with her children, so dear to her in life. Our integration is not a solitary affair, but one we achieve with the help of Christ, and all those who bring Christ to us in this life. The integration achieved is with the Father. It is not dissolution or merged with ultimate reality. Rather it is the fullness of Christian ontology, where the relationship that binds persons as one is fully actualized, thus persons are one reality and multiple realities. As we noted in the meditation on the arcana of the Sun, we are destined to be one with the Father as Christ’s human nature is. We do this by binding to his human nature consubstantially in baptism, possible because we are of one human nature. By this maneuver his hypostatic union of human nature and divine nature “relays” us to the Father ontologically via the consubstantial relationship between the Father and the Son. All of these “bindings” and “unions” happen within the spirit, who is the loving union that facilitates them.
If one can make the journey through the balancing of the exterior in the Path of Cosmic Balance of the Major Arcana with the balancing of the interior on the Path of Personal Harmony, then traverse the Path of Progress to Integration to experience Christ as all in all, one can reach integration. At this point, to the world, one will appear the Fool, because the standards one has for a good life will in no way reflect the standards applied to the world by the values of postlapsarian humanity. Thus the Major Arcana begins where it ends. When one sees a wretch or a fool, one can never be sure if one is seeing the Fool or the Fool reversed. Therefore, if one wishes to progress on the path, one will treat the least like Christ, for what you do to them, you do to him.
Application
To come across Sophia the World in meditation prompts one to seek connections, how do things come together, especially how does one relate intensely to facts of the situation. Look for harmony in the situation, where compatibilities play well and differences work in synchronicity. The best strategy is to objectify aspects of the situation and then identify the relationships that bind them together. This can give one a sense of the connectivity the arcana represents.
In Reverse look for alienation or gaps in connection between aspects of the situation. Look for incompatibilities that are working against one another. Pay attention to feelings of alienation from people or aspects of the situation. Lastly, notice how alienation effecting the actions one is taking in the situation.
Comments
Post a Comment