Our solar Yang traveller on the spiritual path in search of his Grail necessarily encounters terrible obstacles as represented by the abyss upon abyss in the double hexagram for the Moon card. But if he perseveres and keeps the light within himself, keeps his purity of heart and maintains his courage, then he will reach his goal, which lies at the heart of the abyss. It lies in the heart of the Yin – the most dangerous place for him to go - and there he finds his Holy Grail. But what does this Holy Grail, this golden fleece, this cup or key – this talisman - represent?
At the centre of the abyss there lies a deep still pool of water as clear and tranquil as a mirror, and what he sees there is the reflection of his own face, the face of Light. Just as the light of the sun is reflected by the moon, so our heroic traveller finds his own self reflected in what he always perceived as his opposite. In the depths of the abyss he finds a golden cup of love and compassion overflowing into his own self. Now he can return to his homeland carrying with him the treasure he has acquired by being pure enough and courageous enough and confident enough to undertake the journey.
We last saw our Elite Traveller in the guise of the Devil, which seems a long way from where we are now. So what changed our Devil into a mythical Hero? It was the experience of the Tower by which he looked behind his conscious mind, behind the mind barrier - and he did not like what he saw. In fact all he could see was his pride and an empty space where he had thought his light was safe. He concluded he was not even worthy to hold the light, let alone be ‘the Light’ - as he had thought he was. After so long in his state of stagnation a dreadful restlessness came upon him, but all was dark and he did not know in which direction to turn.
It was in this dark night of the soul that at last he glimpsed a tiny speck of light: the Star. Although he knew it was not ‘his light’ he knew he must follow that star. All through the dark night he walked in its direction with a growing joy in his heart, though as he did so the star grew fainter and closer to the horizon of the earth until it disappeared altogether, and our Hero realized he was walking through a grassy meadow on the Earth itself in the pale grey light of dawn - his own light and his own dawning.
As he walked on with the joy of the Star still in his heart, the light grew brighter around him. He walked all day bathed in his own light until it grew dark once more, and just when he thought all was lost again the full moon rose and he was so filled with gladness at its sight he fell forward into its pool of reflected light with no thought for himself, and was embraced by the arms of the Earth. All night he lay enclosed within the orb of the Earth and bathed in the cleansing silver moonlight. In the morning he discovered that the harsh brightness of the light that surrounded him was tempered with gentleness, with glad acceptance, compassion, and even devotion.
Apollo, the god of light, was born from Leto who was a goddess of night. His major shrine at Delphi originally belonged to the oracular goddesses of darkness, and even when it became under Apollo’s jurisdiction, the light and wisdom of the oracle was uttered through the mouths of the dark goddesses. Apollo is a complete god: a sun god who has passed through the abyss and united with his own soul which he found in his opposite. He is actually one of those transitional, or combination gods who is primarily a sun god but to this is added the ability to be a god of music, of the arts and those various other right-brain attributes. In Apollo one sees the symbolism of the complete Yin/Yang combination of Sun and Moon.
The Moon is the part of the Earth’s orbit that reflects the Sun’s light. The Moon represents the mirror through which our Elite Traveller discovers the talisman, the Grail, when he travels through life’s abysses. It is a two-way mirror for it is not only through this that the Sun finds his connection with the deep unconscious of the Earth, it is also the mirror through which the Earth can perceive the light of the Sun, for when something is very bright it is hard and even dangerous to look directly at it. This is why the goddess Psyche was never allowed to look at the face of her lover, Eros, who only came to her in the night.
During our solar era that has lasted since the Bronze Age, our philosophers have never really grasped the nature of the Holy Grail because of their denial of the holiness of the feminine aspect of Gaia in their concentration on the solar aspect. There was an awareness that the acquisition of the Grail led to holiness, but in spite of the very obvious symbolism of sword/staff, and cup/chalice it would seem the connection was not made until latterly as we move once more into a new era. Simon Parke in The Enneagram gives a wonderful image of a group of young men standing on a cliff top and diving from it into a deep pool of water in the depths of which they have perceived a golden key - the key to their own home.1
Before the Bronze Age, when folk worshipped in stone circles in times of sun/moon eclipses or midwinter sunrise, the benefits of combining sun, earth and moon, were patently obvious. These things needed to be kept in order to benefit ‘the king’ or ‘father’ of mankind, including one’s own larger self. For the right ordering of the fertility of the land, Gaia-Earth and Sun needed to be in total accord, and this required the Moon’s gift of the knowledge of Timing. We could refer again to Figure 7 with its triangle of Positive and Negative, Sun and Earth, who can only come together with the third element, the hypotenuse, the Moon, which was our first and primary way of measuring Time and seasons, and therefore an equal necessity in the re-creation of life.
On the shortest day of the year the light from the mid-winter sun, even though at its weakest, enters the narrow sixty-foot long passageway into the earth at the Neolithic site of Newgrange in Ireland to illuminate the inner sanctuary just when the winter nights are longest. It does not need a lot of imagination to make the connection between the amalgamation of the opposites, of male and female, light and dark, creative and receptive, Yang and Yin. In later times alchemists would refer to this combination as the sacred marriage, believing they had invented it!
The Moon is closely related to the Earth - born from the Earth, we believe. From the Yin point of view, we are suddenly aware of the deep penetrating light within ourselves. We have been aware of it throughout the whole journey, but now - because of the infusion of the Yang - we are aware of it in a conscious way, in a creative way, in a way that allows true cognition of the nature of all that exists. Just as our heroic traveller needed the experience represented by the Devil in order to proceed on his journey, we can now see that the experience represented by the Tower as a Sacrificial Vessel or Cauldron is an equally essential part of the equation. It is the cup, the Grail, which has to be emptied of all the detritus that has built up in it, so that it can be refilled to overflowing with what we rather inadequately term love and compassion.
In the Ryder pack of cards, the Moon shows us the scorpion emerging from under the stone, crazy dogs baying at the moon, and so on. Yet, because of the light that is ignited in our hearts we are able to embrace all these things, for we see them for what they are and feel compassion for them as they are - for their existence in that form without the need to change them. In her two-part book on the Tarot, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollock writes, “The crayfish [pictured on the card] half emerges from the water.” With a sense of relief she relates, “Waite tells us it never comes completely onto land but always falls back again.” After the grail experience of the person in the Moon card, the crayfish actually would come onto the land and be embraced for what it is. Waite might have a problem with this, for he still sees the crayfish as something unpleasant and frightening, whereas it is simply what it is, and is behaving in a way natural to itself. Like St. Francis of Assisi or Daniel in the lion’s den, our ‘Integrated- Innocent’ would not be harmed because of the outpouring of compassion encompassing all creatures great and small. When I was four years old my father’s work took us as a family to East Africa, where in those days we could roam with our own jeep amongst the plentiful lions and elephants in the game reserves. I am reminded of my Auntie Mary who used to go into the Game Park to sketch the scenery
. Once, after she had spent a happy afternoon absorbed in her painting, as she got up from her canvas chair to leave she noticed a lioness with her cubs had lain down beside her. “What did you do?” us children asked in horror on hearing the story. “Well, I tried not to disturb her because she was so contented there. I quietly packed my things and came home.” No harm came to her because she was totally in tune with her environment - had she not been, the lioness would not have lain down beside her!
In our solar society the moon has been associated with the inexplicable, with magic, and with the intuitive, supposedly illogical nature of women. (Auntie Mary was true to type)! The medieval Tarot card for the Moon portrays a fear that is not really valid in the broader scheme of things.
The Exhortation: Proceed with caution, fearless traveller!
The Moon is twinned with
Hexagram 29 K’an: The Abyss
Upper Trigram: K'an: abyssal water, cloud, moon. Middle Son; Lesser Yang. Winter.
Lower Trigram: K'an: abyssal water, cloud, moon. Middle Son; Lesser Yang. Winter.
SYMBOL This hexagram symbolizes water flowing on and on and abyss upon abyss. The Superior Man [Elite Traveller] acts in accordance with the immutable virtues and spends much of his time instructing others in the conduct of affairs.
At this point in the Tarot it was a brave choice to pick such a potentially disastrous hexagram to go with such an important symbol as the Moon, but the I Ching itself links K’an with the symbolism of the Moon, and it was one of the double trigrams still to be assigned. My image for the Moon shows the path through the abysses represented by the hexagram along which our Elite Traveller must pass.
Hexagram 29, the Abyss, is made up of the double trigram K’an, which Blofeld describes as representing water and a pit. It is a totally Yin hexagram in its aspect of double water (water being an essentially feminine element) but each trigram is named for the middle son which is Lesser-Yang. This conflict - or symbiosis as I prefer to see it - again reflects the dual aspects of both Sun and Moon.
In spite of its potentially disastrous aspect: Abyss upon abyss – grave danger! (reflecting the dark side of the lunar aspect as in the Tarot card), Blofeld upholds a positive aspect:
All will be well if confidence is maintained and a sharp hold kept upon the mind; activities so conducted will win esteem … like water flowing without ever spilling over, he traverses the abysses without ever losing confidence (in his ability to succeed).
This is a true picture of our knight on his journey to find his holy grail. We are then reminded:
None can escape from dangers sent from heaven, but earthly dangers are (nothing worse than) mountains, rivers, hills and precipices.
I am reminded again of the attitude of the solar society that the Yin is dark, negative, hidden, not very good, and I cannot help feeling that there is a larger meaning behind this hexagram that has not been properly explained in the translation, or has become lost over the centuries, otherwise why would the commentary not be saying 'all is lost' instead of all will be well?
Wilhelm explains the hexagram a little more fully:
First, man finds himself in danger, like water in the depths of an abyss. The water shows him how to behave: it flows on without piling up anywhere, and even in dangerous places it does not lose its dependable character. In this way the danger is overcome. The trigram K’an further means the heart. In the heart the divine nature is locked within the natural inclinations and tendencies, and is thus in danger of being engulfed by desires and passions. [The dangers of entering the abode of the Yin]. Here likewise the way to overcome danger is to hold firmly to one’s innate disposition to good.1 [The Hero’s purity of heart in his quest for the Grail].
If we look at the trigrams again, we notice that in each case the Yang line has entered in between the two Yin lines, as one might enter an abyss. Our Elite Traveller, in the guise of the Sun, has entered the feminine abyss and found himself echoed there. Now he returns to where he came from with the knowledge of how everything depends on everything else. The Yang has been embraced by the Yin and found it not so frightening after all!
The Sun is twinned with
Hexagram 30 Li: Flaming Beauty
Upper Trigram: Li: fire, brilliance, beauty, (sun, dependence, lightening). Middle Daughter; Lesser Yin. Summer.
Lower Trigram: Li: fire, brilliance, beauty, (sun, dependence, lightening). Middle Daughter; Lesser Yin. Summer.
SYMBOL This hexagram symbolizes fire rising in two tongues of brilliant flame. The Superior Man, [Elite Traveller] by perpetuating the brilliance (of the ancients), illumines every quarter of the earth.
Hexagram 30 is our final double hexagram made up of the two trigrams representing fire, brilliance and beauty. The I Ching itself associates this hexagram with the symbolism of the Sun. The symbol represents:
… fire rising in two tongues of brilliant flame.
The Superior Man, by perpetuating the brilliance (of the ancients), illumines every quarter of the earth.
This essentially Yang hexagram is made up of two lesser-Yin trigrams, and I find it interesting that the text points to the nurturing aspect of the Sun (usually associated with the feminine).
Flaming Beauty … Success! Rearing cows - good fortune!
The I Ching represents the Sun by two lesser-Yin trigrams, which indicates to me that it regards the Sun in its feminine, nurturing role: the pre-Bronze Age aspect of the Sun. This may not seem surprising if we consider the work is said to be 5000 years old.
The Confucian commentary in Blofeld’s translation tells us:
This hexagram implies dependence. The sun and moon depend from the heavens; the myriad kinds of plant life depend from the earth. Immense clarity (of mind) depending upon what is right can transform and perfect the world … The yielding lines, being dependent, are suitably centred between firm lines (in both trigrams); that is why the hexagram presages success and why (the symbol) rearing cows is used to denote good fortune.
If we look at the form of the trigram Li we can see that the Yin line is embraced by the arms of the Yang lines. It is the opposite of K’an the Abyss when the Yang entered in fear and trembling. Now the Yang is supporting the Yin.
Wilhelm comments:
Here the co-operation of the two world principles is shown. The light principle becomes visible only in that it clings to bodies. Sun and moon attain their brightness by clinging to heaven, from which issue the forces of the light principle. The plant world owes its life to the fact that it clings to the soil … in which the forces of life express themselves. On the other hand, bodies are likewise needed, that the forces of light and of life may find expression in them.1
The differences that were so evident at the start of the circle are now really unimportant. Sun and moon depend upon each other just as we earthlings are entirely dependent upon both the sun and the moon for our existence in the world. The sun is no longer seen as shining down on the poor earth, but is an intrinsic part of the whole way the cosmic system works. The Earth is no longer a convenient place in which to live, it is the very heart and soul of all of us.
Card 20: Judgement / The Enlightened (Yang)
This card and the final one are in the same relative positions as the Magician and the High Priestess in the start/stop place on our DNA functioning chart (see Figure 3: The DNA of Tarot). The Magician and the High Priestess led us into the material world and now Judgement/the Enlightened and the card of the World Dancer lead us out of it (providing we have fully learnt all the lessons in between).
I used to consider this to be a most unfortunately-named card with its moral overtones of Judgement Day and bodies rising from the graves. Nevertheless the message comes through like the clarion call of the trumpet shown on the Waite card: we have succeeded on our difficult journey and can truly celebrate with joy. This is the aspect my image attempts to portray with its circle of people celebrating the Light in dance.
But why is it called Judgement? Having unders
tood all we need to know - having almost come full circle - why are we now being judged, and by whom? Why have we awakened to just another day on earth? In fact, this card is a wake-up call to all of mankind. There is a sense of judgement, for it is brought to our attention that we cannot say, “Stop the world, I want to get off” even if we have reached the level of an enlightened being! The number of this card is 20, a combination of the 2 of the High Priestess who stands at the entrance to the world and 0 the number of the Fool who is on the point of stepping into the void beyond the world. The Elite Traveller is at the point of the Integrated Fool who has the ability to step away from the round of worldly existence but is held back because he has absorbed the compassion of the High Priestess.
We are all born of this world and the light of the sun is such that we are all touched by it. The dependency that we learnt about in hexagram Li for the Sun has shown us that we cannot and do not act alone. We are all interconnected and interdependent. We all contain the essence of Light, (the Light behind the visible light) within ourselves, and if we do not care for that true Light, if we do not nourish it with joy and nurture it with kindness, then both the small light within ourselves and the larger Light which nourishes the world, will expire. We will not die with it (as we might prefer at the end of our three-score years and ten) but we will live on in darkness – which is much worse. In a very real sense this will happen if we do not care for our physical world, and in a metaphysical sense we will become like Tolkien’s character Gollum in Lord of the Rings if we lose sight of our inner light. In both Christian and Buddhist terms heaven is above and hell below and we are in a kind of purgatory until we decide which way we are going. Tibetans believe in many levels of being: more refined gods and goddesses above us in various heavens, and heavier spirits that live in hells below, in a denser environment. Their positioning of Earth is as the first of the hells. Having travelled the path we can now appreciate the unfortunate state in which humanity finds itself.
The Tao in the Tarot Page 14
