The Tao in the Tarot

by Sarita Armstrong

  A Sacrificial Vessel or Cauldron is undoubtedly a Yin symbol. This hexagram about cooking is really about the need to take our raw materials - whatever we have to hand - and transform them into something wonderful, something worthy of being absorbed (eaten) by the Supreme Lord of Heaven (whoever he may be, if he is not our very selves)! Our inner machinations, however traumatic they may be, are the raw materials with which we can work. If we deny their existence they will simply grow into something worse. We need to transform them.

  This hexagram symbolizes fire upon wood [the requisites for cooking]. The Superior Man,[the Elite Traveller] taking his stance as righteousness requires, adheres firmly to heaven's decrees.

  We do need to look behind our mind barrier and face all the traumas we have kept hidden away, but in order not to be overwhelmed by them we must believe that we can transform them. We have to look at what we have, like looking in our larder, and decide what we can make out of our raw ingredients. If we shut the door on them they will grow all sorts of horrible fungus and rot. Instead, we need to look at what we have and make the best use we can of it. Sometimes the most unappetising ingredients can be of the most value - a truffle would be the perfect symbol - black and ugly and found in the ground by a snuffling pig. Yet, it is the most highly prized and highly priced food ingredient and such a delicacy when properly prepared and added to other ingredients. In my image, the person behind the tower is busy cooking up a meal with the contents of her cauldron - perhaps she has some truffles in there!

  One of the first requisites for cooking a good meal is to like the person for whom you are cooking, which in this case is your real self. You are worthy of this effort of creation, and you must be nurtured and loved and cared for. We are brought up so often to beat our own backs until we believe we are useless and worthless, and women particularly try to overcome this by giving as much as they can to others in the hope of reward in the form of appreciation, forgetting that they can only give out as much as they have inside themselves to give. First we need to feed ourselves so that we can truly nurture others. A small meal each day from your cauldron will be enough to make a big difference.

  Card 17: The Star (Yin/Yan)

  Just as one may wake after a bad illness knowing that a turning point has been reached, so in the dark night of the soul the Star appears. It may seem to come from inside us or it may appear from outside, but in either case it is an unexpected gift, and can only happen when it is not looked for. The Star was always there but we were unable to see it; we could not receive the gift until we put out our hand without conditions. It is the same feeling as the beloved waiting to receive the lover. It is necessary to have the receptivity before the gift is given.

  In fact what has happened is that we have made our connection with the Universe. We have faced our inner enemies and transformed them. The detritus that we have cleared away through the previous cards has left a receptive space. In Buddhist terms, the skandas that have made up the persona – the masks we all wear - have been peeled away like the layers of an onion, until naked and pure we can discover what we really are. Naturally, in the peeling of the onion many tears will have flowed! Now we have realised our small part in the Whole. In the Waite card the naked person gives their soul back to the pool of life. They have connected with the Source. As they pour their own small gift (their own essence) from the cup back to the Source, it appears miraculously refilled. Only when we give unconditionally can we truly receive. At this stage we are beyond the sense of the lover and beloved, beyond the sense of giving and receiving, for there is no differentiation between the source and the soul. Here the soul is the lover and the source is the beloved.

  In the return sequence the Star stands parallel to the Hierophant whose symbol is the cross, the connection of the opposites. Through the Hierophant the light of the creative force was able to flow to the world. In the Star the person in the world is able to connect uninhibitedly with the source of the light. This is only possible if the personality is clear enough to receive the light. Their cup needs to be empty in order to be filled. This is why the Star can only appear when we stop looking for it. Light and love in this instance could be synonymous, and it is also true that one can only give out real compassion and love if it is over-flowing from the self. First the cup must be so full of light and love that it overflows automatically to all beings. One cannot make it happen. It can only happen when our own cup is full to the brim.

  Traditionally, the actual star referred to in the card is the planet Venus, the Morning Star which brings hope and joy for the coming of the new day, and also the Evening Star which lights the darkness and shows the direction for navigators to follow. It would have been a favourite for those travellers on the Silk Road as they made their way across deserts, or equally to the sailor on the ocean out of sight of land.

  In the original Tarot this card was represented by an eight-pointed star reflecting Venus’s eight-year cycle. The card’s number at 17 also reduces to 8 (1 + 7). The course across the skies of the planet Venus during this eight-year period describes a pentagon, that lucky star symbol whose proportions are that of phi (Φ) and the Golden Mean. Phi is one of those numbers with strange properties, the ratio of which governs much – if not everything – in nature, from such simple things as sunflower seed-heads, marine shells, and spiralling plants - to atomic structures, quantum and wave mechanics, hydrodynamics, electrochemical reactions, and molecular bonding!

  That this pentagonal pattern of the course of the star/planet Venus and the numbers associated with it is brought to our notice at this stage of the Tarot journey, reminds us that as human beings we desperately need to understand that we also are part of this Whole and are subject to the same laws that govern other parts of our world. It is not just our own soul connecting with its Source but the realisation that we are part of an incredibly complicated and intricate Universe. We are part of a harmonious cosmic phenomenon, and mankind needs to be aware of it in order to no longer disrupt the innate universal harmony and return to dancing in tune to the Music of the Spheres. Before the phenomena of phi Φ was given that name in the eighteenth century it was known by the more appropriate Greek letter T – Tau – the symbol of life, resurrection, and the way to journey in between.

  This would seem like the completion of our great journey. Here we can rest in perfect knowledge, perfectly attuned, with our cup of love overflowing into our Source. So why is this not the end? Why can we not rest here in perfect harmony with ‘All that Is’? Because there is no end to the circle (or spiral). Like all the heroes of ancient mythology, we have to find our Holy Grail or our Golden Fleece and carry it back - which is onward around our circle - to where we originally started. Our Star is only a reflection of the greater light of the Sun. We have to continue on the long old road, though we could not have travelled on without that Star to guide us.

  The Exhortation: Allow synchronicity to happen!

  The Star is twinned with

  Hexagram 58 Tui: The Joyous

  Upper Trigram: Tui: lake, rain, marsh. Youngest Daughter; Larger Yang. Autumn.

  Lower Trigram: Tui: lake, rain, marsh. Youngest Daughter; Larger Yang. Autumn.

  SYMBOL This hexagram symbolizes two bodies of water conjoined. The Superior Man [Elite Traveller] joins his friends in discussions and in practising (the various arts and virtues).

  This combination Tarot card requires a hexagram made up of double trigrams, and the very beautiful double Tui, the Joyous, is Yin in essence yet is made up of two identical Yang trigrams that are in the process of change. The image of the lake is really that of a tarn, a small lake high in the mountains (very often the source of a stream) and in the double trigram we have the two lakes replenishing each other (so the source is never diminished).

  This hexagram signifies gladness … (To seek) gladness through righteous persistence is the way to accord with heaven and to respond to men. When joyously led, the people forget their burdens; in wrestling joyously with difficult
ies, they even forget that they must die. Joy's greatest quality is the encouragement it affords the people.

  The form of the hexagram is inwardly firm and outwardly gentle, a combination that when found in a person gives great encouragement to another or to others. It signifies the spontaneous gladness that arises unlooked-for, but cannot be found when searched for. Those with the light in them will spontaneously create joy around themselves. Joy cannot be called up or responded to on demand. It just happens when circumstances are right, when happiness prevails, or when we are in the presence of someone with the light in them.

  People who emanate joy are always outward looking, enthusiastic and encouraging of others. They show genuine interest in anything another has to say and rarely talk about themselves. One leaves the presence of such a person feeling enriched just by having spent time with them.

  Another aspect is when things happen as if to guide you to a certain place or to meet certain people yet it would appear there is no reason to you why this should have happened. What has been overlooked is the fact that you needed to be there for someone else regardless of it being right or wrong for you. Events don’t always happen to you. Sometimes you have to happen for someone else! Then it may be that a person is giving ‘a star’ to someone else without even knowing it. Serendipity is happening all around us. I am also reminded of angels, that joyous archetypal image that uplifts, brings aid, and arrives unlooked for.

  Wilhelm, that serious patriarch, reminds us:

  The joyous mood is infectious and therefore brings success. But joy must be based on steadfastness if it is not to degenerate into uncontrolled mirth. Truth and strength must dwell in the heart, while gentleness reveals itself in social intercourse … When … the hearts of men are won by friendliness, they are led to take all hardships upon themselves willingly, and if need be will not shun death itself, so great is the power of joy over men.1

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

  These two cards lie parallel to the Emperor and the Empress on our return route (see Figure 1). Moon and Sun respectively represent the primordial male and female ideals worshipped by primitive man, who was much nearer to the source of his world than we - at the stage of the Empress and Emperor - could ever be. At the start of our journey through the Tarot we were concentrating on personal individuation. Here in the return cycles we see a connection with the world and the universe from which we started. We are actually looking back to our beginnings and to a harmony with that from which we began, but seeing it in a more cosmic way.

  I have felt it necessary to look at these two cards together, firstly because they are so closely connected, and secondly because I am unsure whether the order of the Tarot cards might not have been confused at this point. In Figure 1, we can see that on the first half of the circle all the Yin cards on the inside of the circle come before the Yang cards on the outside of the circle. (For example, the Empress is number 3 followed by the Emperor at number 4). But on the return half of the circle all the Yang cards on the outside of the circle come before the Yin cards, (e.g. the Hanged Man at number 12 is followed by Death at number 13) - except for the Moon at number 18 which is followed by the Sun at number 19. I found it hard to write about the Moon without including the Sun with it, and could see that the order could easily have been confused, although the number 18 traditionally refers to the Moon and 19 traditionally refers to the Sun.

  Alternatively – and perhaps more correctly - it was not the order of the cards that was confused but the idea of the functions of both sun and moon in the eyes of humans of previous Ages compared with how we see them today. As will be seen from what follows, they can exchange roles and in earlier times their roles were in fact quite opposite. This being so and the positioning of these two cards being the way they are, would suggest that the origins of the Tarot go back to the dawn of history.

  Since earliest memory it is through the Moon and the Sun that men and women have been able to feel their connection with the world and its position in the cosmos. In this day and age we think of the Moon as the fundamental female aspect, gentle and nurturing, and the Sun as the masculine life-giving, creative principle. The Moon connects us with earthly things, with regeneration, and cycles of growth - the Great Mother principle represented by Selene, goddess of the full moon. We see this as perfectly natural, for the moon regulates the menstrual cycle of women and the mysterious ocean tides. In order to make all this work, you need the masculine principle which fertilises, represented by the creative energy of the Sun. In our solar society today and indeed for more than three thousand years, the Sun has been the supreme focal point whilst the Moon was a reflection of this great light. The Sun has been worshipped as the prime mover throughout our history and throughout the world in every culture I can think of. We know him best as Helios to the Greeks and Ra to the Egyptians. He was also Sol to the Romans, Lugh to the Celts, Baldur to the Scandinavians, Mithras to the Persians and Vishnu to the Indians.

  But mankind has not always thought this way. If we go even further back in history, particularly to before the advent of the Bronze Age, we will see that there was a time when the Moon was seen as the initiator of the fertilising process, the creative spirit, because it was through timing represented by the Moon that creation, or re-creation occurred. The Moon was the male creative spirit. (Thoth was a moon god for the ancient Egyptians, Nanna the male moon god for the Sumerians, Rahko the same for the Finns, Sin for the Babylonians - and so on). In this aspect the moon was connected with measurement and time. It was through the phases of the moon that early man first measured annual time – the right time for planting, for germination, for gestation and for harvesting. We still talk of ‘the harvest moon’ in August/September, which is the right time for harvesting. The moon’s phases, eclipses, apogee and perigee, were short-enough periods of time to be measurable by the ordinary farmer. In this respect the Moon is more in tune with the Emperor because of his association with the measuring and discipline of the world, than with the nurturing Empress.

  The Sun, on the other hand, was not the prime instigator of regeneration as we see it today, but the nurturing principle that made things grow and flourish through the warm summertime after they had been given birth, so in this respect the sun is closer to the idea of the Empress. Without the sun nothing in the world would grow to maturity and fruition. A seed may germinate in the dark - in fact they often do sprout forth in the middle of the night - but the plant will not flourish without the warming rays of the sun. Humans too cannot thrive in darkness. Without sunlight we become sickly, weak, and slowly die. We need light for our bodies but we also need greater Light (the light behind the visible light) for our souls. The sun is the necessary requirement for physical growth and it is a symbol of the Light necessary for the nourishment and growth of our spirit.

  To balance the moon-gods there are a number of early sun goddesses. In this aspect the Sun is the Celtic fire goddess Brigid and a Celtic sun goddess Olwen; also the Norse goddess Sunna. In Japan Amaterasu is a sun goddess, as was Bast in ancient Egypt.

  Both ways of thinking can be perfectly valid, and one can understand how the order and functions of the Sun and the Moon may have got confused in the compilation or development of the Tarot pack. There are intermediate gods and goddesses that show how the process of change developed from the old into the new, such as Freya - a Norse fertility goddess associated with the sun; or there is Sophia, that cerebral goddess of Wisdom. The ancient Greeks put them in the order we know them today as Helios, god of the sun, and Artemis-Selene-Hecate, the three-phased moon goddesses.

  As the solar period of history developed the lunar aspect became fearful. In the medieval Tarot card of the Moon we are seeing all the dark side of our myths and mysteries going back through time. But we are seeing them for what they are – no more than barking dogs and whistling children. The Waite card reflects a rather negative aspect of the idea of the Moon - one associated with lunatics and the instability of th
e dark side of the mind. It is an aspect that reflects the ideas of a solar society, but we have now gone beyond that and realise that the Sun and Moon may even be able to exchange roles.

  I believed there had to be a deeper meaning to the Tarot card of the Moon, especially if it were associated with Hexagram 29, the Abyss, as I knew it must be, and I mused on it for a long time. Eventually it occurred to me that here we are looking at the Grail Legend. I had not seen it before because I had not been considering the cards of Sun and Moon together.

  The Grail Legend has been popularised and adapted to the needs of various cultures over centuries and particularly Christianised, but the basis of the myth is that a young man, a knight, or a group of men take upon themselves a long hard journey in order to obtain something special, something golden, usually something feminine such as a cup or a fleece, a talisman, or a sleeping princess who holds the key to happiness. We have the legends of the knights of King Arthur, of Jason and the Argonauts, Bran the Blessed. The person or people who set out on their journey are always men and have no women with them. They are usually young, strong, beautiful and clever, but their greatest requisite is that they should be pure of heart, humble, and without earthly accoutrements, though they may carry a sword or staff.

  In the background is an older man, a king, who is sick or wounded in some way, and whose land is suffering because of it. When the young man finds the Grail, the king is restored to health and the land flourishes once more. In other words, harmony will be restored to a dying world whilst making the knight or younger man into a whole person by reconciling him with his own ‘king’. The young man or knight is our Elite Traveller who has reached the stage of realisation that his father the king - who represents the whole person behind the persona - has been neglected along the way. It is the restoration of the whole self that will heal the king and in so doing will restore the land (Gaia) to prosperity.