Introduction & Commentaries: Litanies of the Major Arcana
Introduction: Litanies of the Major Arcana
General Introduction: Skills and Definitions
Simple Canon of Arcana and Litanies
Introduction & Commentaries: Litanies of the Major Arcana
Introduction: Litanies of the Minor Arcana
Commentary: Litanies for the Pips
Commentary: Litanies for the Royals
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
On the whole, the Major Arcana presents the abstract and transcendent. How one uses them in pulp spiritual direction is as a catalyst for moving from abstract to concrete concerning one’s query. Regarding evangelization, they gear toward the more abstract theological arts. They are good cards to summon questions of cosmology, theological-anthropology, soteriology, ontology, hagiography, moral theory, the discipline of virtue, etc. With the Minor Arcana, we will see the opposite, the cards will work concrete/practical to abstract.
The litanies attached to the Major Arcana were often chosen for direct connection to the subject. For example, the Litany of the Nonymous Hermits relates to Arcana IX: The Hermit for obvious reasons. The only qualification needed would be “why nonymous? Why not all hermits?”, which we will explain in the commentary. Sometimes the reason for the selection takes a little more explanation. For example, Arcanas III & IV: The Empress and the Emperor are reflected by the litanies of those males and females who are parents. The family is the primal social community and the overarching social construct. These litanies lead naturally to the more concrete litanies containing kings and queens that are used for the Royal cards. This is a stark reminder that the political order is a constructed reflection of the idea of the family much like the particulars garner reality from the Forms, or the Minor Arcana are instantiations of the Major. The following brief commentaries are meant to help the reader get some basic bearings before entering into research or contemplation.
Commentary: Litanies of the Major Arcana
Arcana 0: The Fool
The Fool card straddles a line on one side is the person who is insane, unable to process the order of the world they live in, and/or unable to communicate the order they may see. On the other side is the person who sees the folly of the perceived order of the world, fabricated by humans, especially in that it doesn't accurately reflect the true order of nature. The latter could possibly communicate the true order, but even if they did they would still be regarded as insane. This Arcana is the card that makes the spiritual journey of the Major Arcana from the naive or ignorant to the enlightened yet misunderstood.
The “Holy Fool” is not an obscure category of Saint. The title itself is very popular in ancient Eastern Christianity. So much so that the litany itself is divided among those saints from the East who officially bear the title and those from the West who were considered mad or insane during their life on earth. The litany of sacred madness is filled with sad tales of people literally institutionalized, or more often homeless, wandering, and mocked by society. But they were able to communicate enough of their experience to enough people to wind up canonized. These saints personify the 0 Arcana through their rejection by society and their refusal to organize their lives according to mundane customs.
Arcana I: The Magician
The Litany of Contemplative Medicine
The Magician is one who has attained a grasp of how to manipulate the elements of their environment. The arcana itself demonstrates the mastery that can be used for good or evil, or possibly no mastery, simple trickery or sleight of hand. The Magician is usually gesturing in a stance that communicates “as above so below”, but his focus is on the table where the elements are presented to be manipulated. The elements present are the suites of the Minor Arcana, which have physical, social, psycho-spiritual, and astrological resonances. The magician is able to manipulate these for a desired outcome.
The litany of contemplative medicine consists of all saints who practice medicine and work in healing the body. This litany does not have miraculous healers but rather includes physicians, nurses, and pharmacists who work with the elements of nature to bring healing. I chose these saints for the magician because the integration of body and soul that makes a human being is not simply parallel. The body is an extension of the soul: as above so below. These saints chose to work with the “below”; the body, and the elements employed to heal the body. They focus on the below in order to raise themselves and others to a higher state. These Saints worked with the most vulnerable and sought to heal their bodies. Some of these saints also organized the material and social world in such a way that they built institutions of healing. Ultimately this path, working from the ground up, led them to sanctity.
Arcana II: The High Priestess
The High Priestess is the guardian of the veil between the seen and unseen world. This bridge could be the physical and spiritual or the conscious and unconscious. Her presentation is more of a feminine personal spirituality working off of intuition as opposed to Arcana V: The Hierophant which is masculine spirituality, or Arcana XVIII: The Moon, which is cosmic femininity. Here spirituality is interpersonally cooperative as opposed to hierarchical and pedagogical and is expressed emotionally rather than axiomatically. The traditional “hierarchy” or clerical structure of the church has no place for priestesses, let alone “high priestesses”. But the church, as the summation of human spirituality, does offer a place for the deeper unconscious spirituality of the High Priestess.
The Litany of the Visionaries consists of saints who received visions of saints, angels, and “the beyond”. Often there is communication or cooperation between the visionary and those who appear. We assume these visions are not hallucinations or simply projections of the mind, but legitimate communication from an “other”. Often the visions do not teach information so much as gift relationship. The visionaries are the types of saints who cross the bridge to the other realm and are changed by their encounters. Consequently, they are changed by encountering them. In that communicative effect, the visionary saints are the door to the spiritual realm. They are able to see with their eyes realities hidden from the rest of our sight. Their various hagiographies offer a wide variety of hues for interpreting Arcana II.
III. The Empress
The Litany of the Imminent Bio-Generators
The Empress is a life card. It speaks of maternity and motherhood in all the carnal and emotive senses. The empress balances the Priestess taking a fixation with the spiritual world and bringing it into confrontation with the carnal world. Passive contemplations of spiritual mystery are contrasted with birth, where the woman’s body is ripped apart in order to create new life and a new humanity. The woman's soul is taxed and tried by the undulating joys and sorrows of child-rearing. This physical begetting is then displaced on the child in the form of a desire to nurture a safe environment coddled in the experience of comfort. As the archetypal mother, The Empress is the primal generator of each instantiation of the suited Queens.
The Litany of Imminent Bio-Generators is a litany consisting of saints who are biological mothers. The length may come as a surprise to those who assume all women saints are virgins. Their various tales show a wide variety of successes and failures as a parent. Many of these women found their spiritual bearings in their motherhood, whereas many others were only able to fulfill their spiritual aspirations after their children were grown or gone. Each saint here can be imagined with the tenderness of a mother and the fullness of a life giving female.
Arcana IV: The Emperor
The Litany of the Transcendent Bio-Generators
The Emperor images the embodiment of the paternal archetype. This is a transcendent creator who generates through material at hand by jettisoning a piece of self into that beloved matrix of creation and then, with patience, awaits development. As a pedagogue, the paternal nature prefers daring, and experimentation with acceptance of consequences. Rather than an environment of comfort, the paternal urge is to impart a stoic acceptance of the order of the universe and a slow and steady adaptation to the demands of life. By this, The Emperor is an arcana of overarching organization in a systematic manner. The Emperor is the primal generator of each instantiation of the suited Kings.
The Litany of the Transcendent Bio-Generators consists of saints who are biological fathers. It begins with the patriarchs, as chieftains as well as fathers. The litany then moves to Christian saints. Among the invoked are kings and emperors if an artist wants to focus more on the organizing principle of Arcana III. However, there are many simple fathers if an artist would rather present the more paternal aspects of the arcana. The hagiographies can inform the arcana as to a variety of expressions of fatherhood.
Arcana V: The Hierophant
Litany of the Celestial Pontiffs
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. In masculine spirituality pedagogy, tradition, rubric, 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 the comfort of stable truth.
The Litany of Celestial Pontiffs is a litany of all popes who have been canonized. The office of Pope literally typifies Arcana V The Hierophant. In the earliest Marseille decks, Arcana V is called “the Pope”. As the pontifex maximus, head of bishops, and head of all priests, the pope is the chief mediator and offerer of sacrifice (the two roles of the priest). As the vicar of Christ on Earth, the Pope is the physical sign of the unity of all sacrifices and mediations of Christ in his Church. The office also symbolizes the unity of the magisterium, the teaching office of the church. The litany has a host of characters who have occupied this office. Some occupy the historical shadows if one were more inclined to let the office stand for itself. The remainder occupy positions in every facet of theology, ecclesiology, piety, and spirituality. If one has a conceptual agenda, they will doubtless find their specimen with enough research.
Arcana VI: The Lovers
Arcana VI: The Lovers is Love in the ideal. 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 kinship or commonality or out of a common task. It finds an exterior common ground, familial relationship, common social structure, and common interest. It 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 as physical and spiritual beings.
The Litany of the Holy Dyads consists of pairs of saints who are married to each other. It is longer than one might suspect, in part because, in the early Roman persecutions, whole families were martyred together, achieving saintly remembrance. The litany is divided between the martyr couples and the confessor (non-martyr) couples. The confessors are titled “signifiers of trinitarian life” because it is by the primordial lovers that trinitarian love is most perfectly signified in the first chapter of Genesis when God made them together in his image. Sacramental marriage seeks this self same signification in the world today. The martyr dyads may have achieved salvation through the sacrifice of their lives, but the confessors' sanctity comes through the lived signification of the sacrament of matrimony.
Arcana VII: The Chariot
Acana VII: The Chariot usually signifies bringing into balance cosmic forces such as have been presented in the preceding arcana of this path. Thus the arcana to this point balances masculine and feminine, secular and sacred, individual and social, and such. The “material” to be balanced is certainly personal traits, such as gender, temperament, social role etc. But the Chariot is not an “internal spiritual balance” (shown by Arcana XIV Temperance). Rather they are the external forces of the world, foisted upon the subject that they must find a home in and utilize according to need and intensity.
The Litany of the Dragons shows saints who have commerce with dragons. The serpents are symbolic of “the world” philosophically, politically, religiously, culturally, and in every way that the world influences the individual. This influence can be for good, like the bronze serpent of Moses, or for evil like the primordial serpent of Eden. Thus the litany of the Dragons must find balance like the charioteer. The litany is divided into two parts, those saints who tame dragons, and those saints who slay dragons. This is the balance of withdrawing from the world or engaging the world. Depending on where one falls on a spectrum of influence, one would need to do one or the other in order to find balance.
Arcana VIII: Strength
Arcana VIII: Strength generally symbolized 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 traditionally shown on the card can signify certain things in general to give a framework. The Lion to be tamed could be a passion, society, chaos of life, or any troubles that come. One key indication of the manner of strength indicated is the often calm and effortless demeanor of the woman who is overcoming the lion. The strength indicated here is not brute force, but a calculated expertise won through long training and patience.
The Litany of the Animal Tamers lists saints who have mastery over animals and insects of all kinds. Like the oft-depicted image of Strength, this mastery is not brute force. The hagiographies suggest a return to the Edenic state when humans and the rest of the animal kingdom live in harmony. It is this spiritual harmony and husbandry found in the perfect order of nature that offers true strength. One who meditates on this litany will find various animals direct to a multitude of purposes.
Arcana IX: The Hermit
Litany of the Nonymous Hermits
Arcana IX: The Hermit symbolizes the striving for a break, a connection to solitude where one can gain different wisdom than 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 Litany of the Nonymous Hermits is one of two “nonymous” litanies. Anonymous people are people with deeds, but no names. Nonymous Saints are saints that are canonized, but there is little to no hagiography. That is to say, they are historical personages whose names we know, but nothing else. They are a powerful testament to detachment from merit and reliance on and identification with Christ. The Litany of the Nonymous Hermits is a litany of saints about which little more is known than the fact that they were hermits. Since a hermit withdraws from society, it makes sense that deeds done and insights gained may be lost to society. The remembrance of these saints is not in any other aspect of their life, but only in their withdrawal, making them perfect candidates for portraying Arcana IX.
Arcana X: The Wheel of Fortune
Arcana X: The Wheel symbolizes the rhythmic cycles of reality and of time. This is experienced in the course of the stars of the vault, the seasons, the rise and fall of civilization, or in waking and sleeping. 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 the exercise of will. The arcana allows one to meditate on the state of their life and consider both hope and humility. The saint will not consider a high or a low as a reward or punishment, only a stimulus for doing the will of God.
The Litany of the Exiles offers all saints who have experienced the highs and lows of exile. Each saint on the list had a home, a place of comfort and stability, that they were forced to leave under painful circumstances. Each case would have been humiliating and sad. Each exile would foment a longing for return. Some saints on this list do eventually return home. Others die in exile. But every saint on the litany ultimately reaches their true home. Thus, the latter reminds us of the state of postlapsarian life, an exile of humanity from paradise until our return in the Eschaton.
Arcana XI: Justice
Litany of Durative Social Justice
Arcana XI Justice generally symbolizes a legal balance in the cosmos, such as the law of Karma. Justice in this respect involves morality, but in the litigious 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. An action is good if it has positive consequences. The arcana of Justice seeks to rule on an action as good or evil or it seeks to objectively mitigate evil and bring good in a situation.
The Social Justice Doctrine of the Church is one that seeks to formulate principles governing how to organize society in a way that reflects justice and respects the dignity of all people. It seems like a “newer doctrine” developing out of the mid-19th century, but the Litany of Durative Social Justice Shows otherwise. This is a litany of saints throughout history who were monarchs, lawyers, and high political activists and sought to use their position to create a temporal order that facilitates true justice and respects the dignity of all people. The purpose of their activity is to create the best possible matrix for just action in the world.
Arcana XII: The Hanged Man
One of the most important aspects of Arcana XII 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. The hanged man queues into the archetype of “the wounded healer” one who must undergo suffering himself in order to heal others.
The Litany of The Hanged Men contains all saints who were crucified as well as all those hanged at their martyrdom. These saints span back to the early persecutions of Rome, all the way to the many English martyrs who were hanged in such notorious places as Newgate and the Tower of London. The hanged man is the sacrificial manifestation of the stylite. The stylite lives on a column in order to symbolize their striving to heaven, yet their binding to earth by their mortal coil. The hanged saint, at the end of their hanging, is also fixed between heaven and Earth but has passed to the next life. Their suspension is the same image as the stylite but “supported” from the other side and the sacrifice is not a living sacrifice, but one involving death.
Arcana XIII: Death
Litany of the Nonymous Martyrs
Arcana XIII: Death symbolizes 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, and 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.
All Saints have experienced death. To fully encapsulate the finality and totality of Death the Litany of the Nonymous Martyrs is one of two “nonymous” litanies. Anonymous people are people with deeds, but no names. Nonymous Saints are saints that are canonized, but there is little to no hagiography. That is to say, they are historical personages whose names we know, and in this case, we know they were martyred, but we know nothing else. This litany epitomizes how death devours self. Only Christ and the Just know what has survived of these people in their new life in heaven. For us, we only know their death. Everything else of them as they are attached to this world has dissolved. From our point of view, this is the irrefutable and irreconcilable nature of Death. Yet the acknowledgment of their celestial existence, equally as mysterious as their now forgotten life, is testament to the new life that springs from death.
Arcana XIV: Temperance
While Arcana VII: The Chariot symbolizes the balance of external cosmic elements, arcana XIV: Temperance, symbolizes interior psycho-spiritual balance. The factors to be balanced are personal dispositions and consciousness concerning factors such as 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.
The Litany of the Repentant Soldiers contains saints who serve in the military during time of war or persecution and were traumatized by a life of active violence. Most of them withdraw and become hermits. Some are executioners who converted and were executed. Others reorganize their lives as around acts of gentle charity in contrast to the violent life they had led as soldiers. These saints symbolize a series of internal maneuvers. First, they must balance the draw to bloodlust amidst the chaos with recognition of consequences internally as well as externally. Second, they must balance a spirit of engagement with a spirit of withdrawal, a spirit of authority by might with a spirit of simple beatitude, and lastly a spirit of indomitable strength with a spirit of broken simplicity. Their lives play out the drama of Christian attunement away from the “things of this world” to a spirit and temperament of beatitude.
Arcana XV: The Devil
Litany of the Demonically Attuned
Arcana XV: The Devil symbolizes those powers that would enslave us to our worst selves. This slavery is self-imposed and can be broken by the subject at any point. This is evident in the Rider-Waite image by the looseness of the chains. Devils have only two powers, the power to tempt and the power to inflict suffering. If one despairs, one is enslaved. But if one is humble one can withstand any suffering. If one exercises will one can resist temptation, and if one fails, still humility is available to thwart the enslavement. The most important aspect of this card is the ability to recognize one’s entrapment and apply the proper remedies.
The Litany of the Demonically Attuned has a collection of saints who present a variety of relationships with the demonic. First are the saints who were literal Satanists, worshipers of demons, or sold their souls to the Devil and converted. This simple turn of will allowed them a whole new life. Second, are saints who were practitioners of black magic before converting. These saints overcome the temptation of manipulating brutal cosmic power. Lastly, there are the saints who were “demonically attuned”. That is to say, they had commerce with demons and came out successfully, some were specifically tempted, some were shown horrors to lead them to despair, and some were even physically assaulted. All of them used their experience to trust Christ, resist temptation, and learn humility.
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Arcana XVI: The Tower
Arcana XVI: 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, one’s tower will crumble. The Arcana absolutely resonates 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. Images of the tower often show their destruction from above, signifying God’s sudden and cathartic grace which frees us from self made systems that entrap us.
The Litany of the Excoriators is a collection of saints who destroyed physical Idols. Idols themselves personify all of the things that the Tower itself does; elemental powers, systems, abstracts that become an ultimate priority, etc. As we give our power over to these concepts we begin to worship them and become trapped by the comfort and protection they offer. If our devotion becomes absolute, eventually the limited domain of the idol becomes painfully apparent. Awareness of this limitation destroys the idol and tosses us into the chaos of abandonment. The excoriator brings renewal in the freedom of Christ from the clutches of the idol, but the freedom comes though cathartic pain. As the idol crumbles so do all of our perceived protections. As a result, the saint seems intolerant or unforgiving. But if one can accept that the exclusive protective embrace of the Idol (or Tower) is actually a trap, the excoriator is a true friend.
Arcana XVII: The Star
Litany of the Astro-Contemplatives
Arcana XVII: 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 coming 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 and guide them through to get to the highest heaven, which is the abode of the blessed.
The Litany of the Astro-Contemplatvives is a list of Saints, Beauti, and holy people who are particularly known as practiced Astronomers and Astrologers. If the latter category shocks the reader, know that this art is not under blanket condemnation by the Church, there are only very specific situations where it is forbidden. The Vatican itself employed an official astrologer through the Renaissance period. A large portion of the astrological saints are biblical, for example, Deborah the judge, Joseph the patriarch, and the astrologers from the east who recognized the infant messiah [traditionally named Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchior]. After the scriptural saints are saints through history known for their astronomical and astrological thought. Their ability to gaze at and gauge the stars offer hope for humanity and a window into a variety of natural theology that has fallen out of favor at present. But that does not mean they were wrong or their knowledge is useless. Lastly is the list of heortologists. Heortology is the study and/or crafting of religious calendars, especially the study of the history and the meaning of the seasons and festivals of the church year. These saints either defended or fundamentally shaped the liturgical calendar of the Church. Genesis 1:14 reminds us how the measurement of time relates to the stars, and one who pays attention will quickly realize how closely the church calendar is specifically attuned to celestial events.
Arcana XVIII: The Moon
Arcana XVIII: 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, the 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. The mode of the physical world is a casualty, but the mode of the dream world is symbology. How somnium spirituality works is presented best in the Moon, as a symbol of the dream world.
The Litany of the Dreamers is divided into two parts, one of the saints who paid attention to their dreams and spiritually profited, and second the saints of whom dreams were had. These saints had some intimate connection to the dream world and show how the deep recesses of our unconscious can show us the deep mysteries of the cosmos. The Visions presented in a Litany of the Visionaries [arcana II: The High priestess] presumably, comes from the “other” and from the outside, but dreams come from the “other” but from inside our self. The difference is shown by the difference between a high priestess who grants or denies access vs a cosmic force that manifests. Thus what we have is a different quality of saint in the Litany of the Dreamers from the Litany of the Visionaries, whose hagiographies are worth deeply exploring.
Arcana XIX: The Sun
Arcana XIX: The Sun 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 daytime 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.
The Litany of the Solar Sphere is divided into a series of solar-related saints. First are the saints who are named for the sun, various Apolloses, Apolloniuses, Apolloinarises, and Heliodorises. Next are a few saints who hail from the City of the Sun, Heliopolis. After that is a series of saints martyred for refusing to worship the Sun. Lastly are those fourteen saints who Dante puts in the Solar Sphere of the Paradisio. Each of these categories celebrates the Sun in different ways. Many of the hagiographies are scanty, especially of the early martyrs and those named for the Sun. But these, by their names and fates, show us the relationship between sanctity and solar virtues.
Arcana XX: Judgment
Litany of the Hereticlly Touched
Arcana XX: Judgment can be taken in two ways. First, there is personal prudence and use of the will. Second is the fact that we are judged. The two obviously work in harmony in that, cosmically speaking, 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 the 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.
The Litany of the Heretically Touched contains a host of saints who were, at some point in their lives heretics, schismatics, or excommunicated, and even one anti-pope who eventually made it to justification. As a group, they demonstrate that going astray from true teaching or from the institutional church is not a surefire way to damnation. Indeed, none of us is perfectly attuned to the truth as we love this life. One must exercise prudence and make one’s best guesses regarding the truth, but continue to learn and God recognizes sincere intent. At that point, one can face “The Judgment'' with little fear.
Arcana XXI: The World
The Comprehensive Litany of Marian Manifestation
Arcana XXI: The World is interpreted as integration, completion, harmony, and enlightenment. In Christianity, these things come with the backdrop of a true person who does not fade or diminish with integration. 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 among self, external creation, and God.
The comprehensive Litany of Marian Manifestation is a litany of the titles of Mary as she appears all over the world. Mary signifies the church. She is both the vessel that brings Christ to the world and the person who is saved by Christ. As queen of heaven and mother of the church, she appears to her people in forms suited to their contextualized eyes. Among these titles, she appears in various ethnicities, cultural trappings, and temporal contexts. While it is true that there is a historical Semitic who bore and birthed the incarnate son of God in time, now, upon her salvation, she has reached integration and actualization. She is beyond the simple context of her earthly life and her role as Mother of the Church warrants her panhuman manifestations.
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