The Tao in the Tarot

by Sarita Armstrong

  The Tao

  in

  the Tarot

  A Synthesis between the Major Arcana cards and hexagrams from

  the I Ching

  Written and Illustrated by

  Sarita Armstrong

  The Tao in the Tarot

  Copyright © Sarita Armstrong 2012

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author. Sole exception is in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Unless otherwise stated all citations from the I Ching are from the translation of John Blofeld and are taken from I Ching Book of Changes by John Blofeld first published in Great Britain by George Allen & Unwin; Unwin Paperback Edition 1980

  Paperback ISBN : 978-0-9572640-3-8

  Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9572640-4-5

  Published by SifiPublishing

  2013

  info@sifipublishing.co.uk

  P.V40- EB10 - J31

  ----------------------------------------------------—

  Dedication

  To my Mother and Father who always encouraged me in my endeavours.

  With grateful thanks to

  Hanne Marie Kværndrup for her editing skills and enduring confidence in my efforts and to Simon Fraser for his enthusiastic support.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Part 1

  The Journey

  Figure 1: The Major Arcana Cards Laid out in a Circle

  Figure 2: The Yin-Yang Symbol

  The Hexagon-Star in the Tarot

  Figure 4: The Major Arcana Tarot Cards in the form of a Hexagon

  The Silk Road

  An Oriental Destination

  The Tao - Tarot Connection

  Figure 6: The Major Arcana Tarot Cards set out in a Spiral.

  The Yang - Yin Mindset

  The Language of Numbers and the Octave

  Figure 7: The Triangle

  Our own DNA and the I Ching

  The Weaving of the Threads

  Figure 9: The I-Ching Hexagrams relating to the Major Arcana Tarot Cards

  Excerpts from the I Ching

  Part 2

  Card 0: The Fool

  (The Innocent/The Unexpected/The Integrated)

  The Fool is twinned with:

  Hexagram 25 Wu Wang: Integrity, Innocence, Unexpected

  The First Octave –The Material Sequence

  Card 1: The Magician (Yang)

  The Magician is twinned with:

  Hexagram 1 Ch’ien: The Creative Principle

  Card 2: The High Priestess (Yin)

  The High Priestess is twinned with

  Hexagram 2 K’un: The Receptive-Passive Principle

  Card 3: The Empress (Yin)

  The Empress is twinned with

  Hexagram 7 Shih: The Army

  Card 4: The Emperor (Yang)

  The Emperor is twinned with

  Hexagram 14 Ta Yu: The Great Possessor

  Card 5: The Hierophant (Yang/Yin)

  The Hierophant is twinned with

  Hexagram 11 T’ai: Peace

  Card 6: Lovers/The Beloved (Yin)

  Lovers/The Beloved is twinned with

  Hexagram 19 Lin: Approach

  Card 7: The Chariot/Charioteer (Yang)

  The Charioteer is twinned with

  Hexagram 34 Ta Chuang: The Power of the Great

  Card 8: Strength/Courage (Yang/Yin)

  Strength is twinned with

  Hexagram 51 Chên: Arousing Thunder

  The Second Octave - The Psychological Sequence

  Card 9: The Hermit (Yin)

  The Hermit is twinned with

  Hexagram 36 Ming I: Darkening of the Light, Injury

  Card 10:

  The Wheel of Fortune/Wheel of Life (Yang)

  The Wheel of Fortune is twinned with

  Hexagram 55 Fêng: Abundance

  Card 11: Justice/Balance (Yang/Yin)

  Justice/Balance is twinned with

  Hexagram 52 Kên: Stilling

  Card 12: The Hanged Man (Yang)

  The Hanged Man is twinned with

  Hexagram 49 Ko: Revolution, Moulting

  The Fool as Joker (The Unexpected)

  Card 13: Death (Yin)

  Death is twinned with

  Hexagram 18 Ku: Decay

  Card 14: Temperance (Yang/Yin)

  Temperance is twinned with

  Hexagram 57 Sun: Gentle Penetration

  The Third Octave - The Spiritual Sequence

  Card 15: The Devil/Lucifer (Yang)

  The Devil is twinned with

  Hexagram 12 P’i: Stagnation, Obstruction

  Card 16: The Tower (Yin)

  The Tower is twinned with

  Hexagram 50 Ting: A Sacrificial Vessel/Cauldron

  Card 17: The Star (Yin/Yan)

  The Star is twinned with

  Hexagram 58 Tui: The Joyous

  Card 18: The Moon (Yin) & Card 19: The Sun (Yang)

  The Moon is twinned with

  Hexagram 29 K’an: The Abyss

  The Sun is twinned with

  Hexagram 30 Li: Flaming Beauty

  Card 20: Judgement / The Enlightened (Yang)

  Judgement/Enlightened is twinned with

  Hexagram 13. Tung Jen: Universal Brotherhood

  Card 21: The World/World Dancer (Yin)

  The World Dancer is twinned with

  Hexagram 16 Yu: Enthusiastic Repose

  Spiralling Onwards

  Appendix 1

  Figure10 The Movement of the I Ching Hexagrams around the Spiral of Tarot Cards.

  Appendix 2

  A Comparison between the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot with selected Hexagrams from the I Ching

  Appendix 3

  Bibliography

  Citations

  About Sarita Armstrong.

  Part 1

  In which we weave together the threads from two remnants of antique fabric.

  The Journey

  Human beings in their spiritual quest are a bit like trans-continental travellers who have woken up at a caravanserai, or wayside inn, with a severe case of amnesia. We have forgotten where we have come from and have not much idea of our destination. Most of us just hang around enjoying the food and entertainment, forgetting that we ever set out on a journey in the first place. It has always seemed strange to me that we are set down here for a span of life on earth, and we have no clue as to why! Mankind is suffering from a mammoth case of disorientation – and yet there are many clues as to where we should be heading. We need to hunt for those clues that may lie beneath a load of sand over which we have already travelled without recognising the footprints of those who have gone before. The Tarot and the I Ching give us some clues and some markers but it is a bit like a treasure hunt - a search for the Holy Grail!

  A lifetime of journeying on both land and sea has blessed me with opportunities to expand both inner and outer horizons. The Major Arcana of the Tarot may also be seen as a journey through life – a psychological or spiritual journey to enhance the physical journey on which we travel daily. Twenty years spent on sailing yachts without television or newspapers and with limited access to books fostered in me a way of thinking unfettered by the social norms of the day, so my mind expanded in what some might consider quite unusual directions. Rather than following the normal way of placing the Tarot cards, I intuitively placed the cards of the Major Arcana in an Oriental way, circular like clock patience (see Figure 1). Some of the cards definitely fell into pairs (the Empress and Emperor; Death and the Hanged Man, for example) whilst others (like Strength and Tem
perance) stood alone.

  Back then I did not see exactly how each hexagram of the oriental divinatory work, the I Ching, connected with the Tarot, but I knew it did for the first two numbered cards of the Tarot - the Magician and the High Priestess - stood like sentinels with the first and second hexagrams of the I Ching: the Creative Principle and the Receptive-Passive Principle, whilst the ideas running through that tricky card of the Fool lead us to the fundamental principle of the Tao.

  Figure 1: The Major Arcana Cards Laid out in a Circle

  Simply by being placed in this way, the Tarot and the Tao (which is the essence that runs through the whole of the I Ching), came together in a most amazing way, making me believe that the Tarot itself must go back to an equally early root as Taoism - a root so early that it comes from before the development of the belief systems of the formal religions of our age. Just as geologists talk of Pangaea, the original landmass from which the great continents of the world broke away to form their individual countries and cultures, so it would appear there was an ancient source of wisdom that can be found behind all our varied religions and beliefs, the differences of which we argue about so fervently.

  My connection with an Oriental way of thinking was not so unexpected, for as a teenager I had a spell of working with Tibetan refugees in the Himalayas at a school where the recognized reincarnations of wise teachers were taught foreign languages so they could disseminate the wisdom of their culture, which at that time was being systematically destroyed in their homeland. Some of them were as young as six or eight years old, and to those amazing children I was allowed to teach English. My own teacher of the Tibetan language happened to be a son of the State Oracle. If only I had known the right questions to ask back then! In the winter the whole school went on pilgrimage to the Buddhist holy places of northern India, which included an audience with the Dalai Lama and his personal blessing. Meanwhile, two Tibetan Lamas had arrived in England and were living with my parents. They went on to found the first Tibetan monastery called Samye Ling in Scotland. When I returned home from India another Lama of the Nyingmapa Sect – the oldest and closest to the pre-Buddhist Bön religion – was lodging with us, so he and I lived as brother and sister and I like to think a little of his inner wisdom may have rubbed off!

  Fifty years ago every self-respecting hippie had a copy of the I Ching tucked away in their rucksack, and I was no exception. The I Ching or Book of Changes - a Chinese book of divination - has been a life long companion that has shown me the direction when cross-roads were reached, indicated a route when the way ahead seemed foggy, lent support when I did not know if I had the strength to continue and brought comfort when I had no other companion. Like any travelling companion the I Ching does not like to be relied upon too heavily nor bothered with chatter or inane questions. It needs long periods of silence otherwise it too becomes weary.

  Taoism, one of the oldest religions of the world, which we know of in the West through the commercialisation of the Yin/Yang symbol, has the idea of movement and change as the fundamental principle of life. Tao speaks of two major forces in the world – Yang and Yin – the firm and the yielding, the creative and the receptive, male and female, positive and negative. Neither is inherently good or bad, instead they are described simply as the opposites seen in every form of life. Each opposite has the seed of the other in its heart; hence in the Yin/Yang symbol each contains the eye of the opposite (see Figure 2). Forever flowing between the opposites is the Tao, the force of life, of movement, of change, of flow.

  Figure 2: The Yin-Yang Symbol

  I could not help also noticing a correlation between the name of Taoism and the Tarot – we have the TA(R)O(T) and the TAO, as well as the Jewish TORA. We also have the Egyptian TAU - the symbol for life and resurrection and their TAR RO meaning Royal Way. Surely there must be a connection! I needed to examine the warp and the weft of the fabric, as it were, to count the buttons and buttonholes of this remnant of material that we see in the Tarot cards, after which I might be able to glimpse the whole garment as worn in early days. The I Ching seems more complicated in its weave and more intricate in its fashioning for it has been better preserved with more historical continuity, yet the two come together with so many similarities in their make-up that I felt sure they must have been fashioned from the same cloth.

  In the past we have had a rather myopic vision of the Tarot and a somewhat depressive one at that, but now it seems there is another dimension to it. If we throw off the cloak of medieval symbolism, which is not always relevant to us in this day and age, our journey through the Tarot will become one of light and love, of giving and accepting, of joy and laughter. Although the journey has its dark corners, we reach our destination and find we knew the place all along. Travelling is not only about seeing new places. It can be about seeing old places and faces with a fresh view.

  The Tarot cards that I had designated as having Yang characteristics and their parallel Yin cards, together with the combination Yang/Yin cards that join them form a ribbon of triangles that reminded me of something I had seen elsewhere – something familiar. It looked very like a diagram of our own DNA. (See Figure 3: )

  The Hexagon-Star in the Tarot

  Having drawn a diagram of the Major Arcana cards in this string of triangles and having drawn my circle of the cards in their pairs and combinations (Figure 1: The Major Arcana Cards Laid out in a Circle), I could see I needed to combine the two into one diagram. But it was not going to be easy. How to draw triangles along a circle in the right proportions? The only thing to do was to give it a go and start at the beginning. I took out my compasses and drew a circle of a size that fitted my paper nicely, then I drew an outer circle five centimetres wider and an inner one five centimetres smaller, the size being simply a convenient measure and because it looked right. The outer circle I coloured red for Yang and the inner one blue for Yin. From the centre I marked off the appropriate places for each card then proceeded to join them up. As a natural progression I extended each line to form larger points, the top one of which I called the Fool, though I felt the Fool could have been placed at any of the points outside the circle (Figure 4: The Major Arcana Tarot Cards in the form of a Hexagon).

  I could see that the inner triangles would not be of the same proportion as the outer ones and it did not suit my purpose that the inner Yin triangles ended up joined into straight lines. But what I did end up with greatly surprised me. Not only did I have my series of triangles (albeit not equilateral) but I had a hexagon formed from two interlinked triangles: the ancient symbol for the combination of male and female. The upward-pointing triangle is the accepted male symbol, and the downward-pointing triangle is the female, the whole within the circle symbolising the combination of Yang and Yin. The Tarot cards in the circle were making a six-sided image of themselves, with the two starting cards and the two end cards meeting at the top of the circle. Not only did I have my DNA ribbon of triangles with their Yin and Yang opposites, I had also formed a hexagonal figure connecting the opposites together and relating to the hexagonal format of the I Ching symbols, with its pairs of trigrams forming a six-part answer to any situation.

  If we look at the symbolism of the six-sided star, or hexagon, we should imagine that the energetic, heavenly Yang upward-pointing triangle is actually flowing down from its point, and spreading out into the broad base line. The lower, receptive earthly Yin triangle is opening up from its base point to allow the energy to flow in, so each merges with the other and the separate triangles become a synthesised hexagonal emblem.

  A deeper contemplation of this Tarot hexagon-star as a kind of mandala will reveal many connections and inter-weaving of ideas. One’s eye is drawn to the group of four cards together at the top of the inner hexagon but one should be aware the Magician and High Priestess lie in front of the World Dancer and Judgement/Enlightenment which gives the hexagon a three-dimensional aspect, turning it into a crystal formation. Each person will see something different and new: a small
er six-sided star could be drawn within the hexagon with its points indicating each combination card and the start/stop position of the beginning and end cards. Equally a larger hexagon could be drawn around the larger star which itself determines the angles of a larger hexagon and so on ad infinitum

  Figure 4: The Major Arcana Tarot Cards in the form of a Hexagon

  The Silk Road

  On a purely practical and geographical level there is a further connection between the wisdom of the Tarot and that of the I Ching. It is not so strange to be considering the similarities between them when one realises that both traditions were used and promulgated over centuries along the ancient trade route now known as the Silk Road (Figure 5: Map of the Silk Road). This trading route followed the natural geographical line from China across the Pamirs in central Turkestan and on through Persia ending in many diversions – to Petra, to Byblos (birthplace of Pythagoras and trading source for the Phoenician purple dye), to Ephesus and Pergamum on the Anatolian coast, and even on to Rome where the silks from China were most highly prized.

  The Silk Road was not just a trading route but a way through which knowledge, news and information generally was transmitted. In whatever century BC or AD at intervals of a day’s march one would have come across staging posts or caravanserais around which whole townships developed. Here the old stories and traditions would be told, plays enacted to keep in mind the antique knowledge no less than the current gossip. Undoubtedly games of cards similar to the Tarot cards we know today would have been played through the dark evenings or in the quiet of the noontime heat. It is said that playing cards originally reached Europe from China. Just as the wisdom of the Tarot was passed down in the form of card-playing, the wisdom of the I Ching was passed down (and similarly lost) in the game of Chess, played on a board of 8 x 8 squares (totalling the same number of hexagrams as the I Ching) with pieces that cover the whole gamut of life from king to pawn, each with their own specific ways of behaving or of moving.