by Marcus Katz
Flowers Fall | Archway and Apex
Children and Cross | Mothers Mantle
In constraining ourselves to this old English form of epic poetry, we release our intuition – squeeze it into new outlets that could not be accessed in any other manner.
Here is a concluding example from a Tarot Edda journal, for the Hanged Man in the Haindl Deck – a deck attuned to this exercise and delivery style.
Ravens Recalling | Rainbow rite
The Hair of the Hill | Hugin Hail!
Hugin is the raven of “thought” and the hair of Odin All-Father creates the roots of the tree which is himself, “given unto himself”.
In this reading of the card, the Hanged Man becomes a poetic stanza of self-sacrifice, memory and tradition. We see that the oracle has to give themselves to themselves and become the tradition. When we come to the Hermit, he is not showing the way, he has become the way.
How You Work
In Tarot, we can reflect upon ourselves in any number of maps. We can compare and contrast Tarot to the levels of the Soul in Kabbalah, the aspects of the Self in Psychosynthesis, or the twelve parts of the soul as seen by Ancient Egyptians. The Tarot is a wonderful system of comparative illustration.
Here we will briefly explore how the Tarot illuminates our levels of being, from the most mundane to the most spiritual, through the eight circuits model of Timothy Leary. This has been brilliantly brought to life in the late Robert Anton Wilson’s Prometheus Rising (1983). We would recommend this roller-coaster of a workbook to anyone interested in kicking open the doors of their perception.
This is also our section here on the Court Cards, as the Minors and Majors are treated elsewhere in this Kickstart book.
Leary proposes an 8-circuit model of the human make-up and our entire evolutionary course. These are, in summary:
I. The Oral Bio-Survival Circuit
II. The Anal-Emotional Territorial Circuit
III. The Time-Binding Semantic Circuit
IV. The Moral Socio-Sexual Circuit
V. The Holistic Neurosomantic Circuit
VI. The Collective Neurogenetic Circuit
VII. The Meta-Programming Circuit
VIII. The Non-Local Quantum Circuit
It is in the realm of the Socio-Sexual Circuit that Wilson takes Leary’s model to apply to the Court Cards of the Tarot. He further presents a model by which these Court Cards correspond to the first four circuits – a model used by ourselves in the development of the Tarosophy Tarot.
Whilst admitting that Wilson perhaps bends the non-proven assertion to say “The clever Cabbalists who designed this pictorial key to the four primitive circuits included a clue to higher consciousness” (p. 114) we can certainly see a useful map.
Fire Wands Circuit IV
Water Cups Circuit II
Air Swords Circuit III
Earth Pentacles Circuit I
This mapping also corresponds across Jungian and Freudian thought, as well as the Kabbalah. It demonstrates how the levels of the psyche take on imprinting and we become our own “full deck of possibilities” having access to all sixteen types of Court Card. How those are developed in us depends on our natural biology, upbringing, and social conditioning – hence we become our own “card of the day”.
To bring these elements into balance within ourselves, in order to escape from this “mechanism of delusion”, Wilson suggests we work with the four extremes of the four circuits:
King of Wands Circuit I Oral Narcissist
Queen of Cups Circuit II Emotionalist Feeling
Knight of Swords Circuit III Rationalist
Page of Pentacles Circuit IV Sex Role
At these poles we see the four corners of our personal mandala. It is an interesting exercise to take these cards and contemplate our relationship to them, how they challenge us or seduce us from our own centre.
For further discoveries and delights, we heartily recommend Prometheus Rising, where you will discover that the Queen of Discs is “earth/water, a mixture of first and second circuit traits – sensational-viscerotonic-oral and emotional-egotistic-political. You better be dammed careful to call her Ms.” (p. 112).
How Your Universe Works
The Universe, in its creation and evolution – and more precisely – our relationship to whatever that Universe is – has been mapped by many systems. From the obscure Tertium Organum of P. D. Ouspensky, the Spectrum of Consciousness of Ken Wilbur, or contemporary models such as Spiral Dynamics by Dona Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan. These systems denote different maps of the universe which can guide our own knowledge, understanding and wisdom, and the decisions that arise in us from these maps. Whilst it is often written that the map is not the territory, there are further rules to that in that the map can never be complete, and one can make a map of the map.
Here we will use Tarot to illustrate the spiritual map of the Kabbalah, embodied by the Tree of Life. This is to inspire you to consider using Tarot as illustrative of other such maps, from the Bardo Thodol of the Tibetans to the Book of Coming Forth by Day of the Ancient Egyptians. By extending your studies, this is no bad thing in itself, however to make comparisons of separate maps allows us to better triangulate our own position. It’s like listening to two very wise friends, whilst still making up one’s own position in wisdom within that triangle.
So in this section, we further illustrate the Tarosophy approach to Kabbalah, by taking the sacred Hebrew letters as illustrated – through correspondence of attributes – by the Tarot Major Trumps. In this way we can perform an illustrative numerology of letters and images, which we call a Tarotria, of the Tree of Life.
We take each of the titles of the Sephiroth on the Tree and spell them in full in Hebrew (see also pp. 179-191 of Tarosophy) and then we illustrate these words through Tarot interpretation. In effect, this is a spread for the ten faces of the divine spirit in all creation.
You are encouraged to read our suggested interpretations and then carry out your own reading of the cards given for each Sephirah. We will then explore some practical usage of this mapping.
1. Kether, Crown: KThR
Wheel, World, Sun
On a cosmic scale, the World comes into being in Light and Motion. The great wheel of interconnectivity spins and throws out great arcs of energy and matter, coalescing the light into galaxies. The Wheel has no edge nor centre and the light is in all things.
On an individual scale, our centre, our root is a point of singular consciousness in a field of awareness. In its relationship to the World, it is enlightened. This is all that there is.
2. Chockmah, Wisdom: ChKMH
Chariot, Wheel, Hanged Man, Emperor
Gravity, strong and weak forces, begin to constrain the Wheel, the “first swirling”, forces aggregate and the dimensions are formulated up and down. Light becomes coherent.
On an individual scale, the sum of our experience of time, its friction and relationships, in awareness, generates a sense of being which is a mirror of all that is not-I.
3. Binah, Understanding: BYNH
Magician, Hermit, Death, Emperor
Now structuring, now containing the light, transformation occurs on a universal scale, devolving into patterns.
On an individual scale, awareness is channeled into a sense of selfness which can transform and be self-activating.
Da’ath, Knowledge: DA'aTh
Empress, Devil, World
This is the Big Bang, spilling the previous unmanifest patterns into manifest existence. Everything becomes attached to everything else. Things appear and disappear. Entropy.
On a personal level, we are born and begin to form attachments to our encounter with the universe due to the apparent separation of our identity. This is the Fall.
4. Chesed, Mercy: ChSD
Chariot, Temperance, Empress
And now the cosmic ripples expand, ever-increasing, something into nothing. All is in fusion and flux, nature becomes manifest, strings gr
ow membranes grow quarks grow atoms grow molecules grow life. Everything lives.
Take those three cards, Google the Hubble “deep field” image, and ramp those up in your imagination together, the Chariot, Temperance (Art) and the Empress. Use the Thoth Deck. This will illustrate the nature of Chesed on the Tree of Life more than a thousand words.
In our personal world, these cards represent love. The paradoxes and duality of the Chariot, the merging and separating of the Temperance card, and the pregnancy of the Empress – all these together are the formulae of Love.
"For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union." (AL I:29).
5. Geburah, Strength: GBVRH
High Priestess, Magician, Hierophant, Sun, Emperor
This Sephirah on the Tree of Life is also called Pachad, meaning “Fear”. It is used in respect of Proverbs 9:10, “fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom” (i.e. Binah, the Sephirah directly above it – did you know many biblical quotes have direct Kabbalistic correspondence?).
So in a cosmic context, these cards represent the organization of matter and energy in various forms. The High Priestess may be taken by many readers as the embodiment of “intuition”, however they conveniently miss the fact she is often depicted with the Torah – the law – in her lap.
We can only intuit something about which we know the laws already – a car mechanic cannot intuit which valve of your heart needs suture when it suddenly bursts, in a moment, whereas a surgeon can, based on nothing more than a hunch. A hunch, an intuition, which is an unconscious and rapid processing of a lifetime of knowledge and experience.
The Golden Dawn, incidentally, referred intuition to the Lovers card, connecting on the paths of the Tree of Life Binah and Tiphareth – understanding and awareness. They illustrated this with the rescue of Andromeda by Perseus from the Kraken. Just in case you were wondering how they got to use that particular image.
So the High Priestess here represents organization at a subtle level, the Magician represents organization at an elemental level, the Hierophant is the interface by which organization is transmitted, the Sun is organization through expansion, and the Emperor organization through focus. These are all in the nature of Gebruah.
Personally, we experience Geburah, illustrated through these same cards, as intuition, channeling, revelation, awareness and will. The upper-level activities of our psyche prior to consciousness in the next step down, Tiphareth.
6. Tiphareth, Beauty: ThPhARTh
World, Blasted Tower, Fool, Sun, World
In the centre of the cosmic tree is Tiphareth, beauty and equilibrium. The Fool of Nothingness collides with the World of Everythingness. The World is actually dual here, to signify the meeting of our experience of reality and reality itself. The Blasted Tower is the connection between the world and the heavens, riven with the lightning flash of creation. There is no distinction here between the cosmic and the personal. All is together.
7. Netzach, Victory: NTzCh
Death, Star, Chariot
Netzach is below the veil of Paroketh - the veil is the noise or dust thrown up by the lower Sephiroth. It vanishes when they are brought into balance and stilled. It is the Sephirah of natural cycles, and given illustration by the combination of Death, transformation, the Star, now forming a materialized heaven in the night sky, and the Chariot, evolution taking its course.
In our personal experience, Netzach represents our emotional life, showing attachments and need/desire, hope, and emotional drive. It is a pure space of momentum and force, reaching out into the world. Many emotional issues can be explored in the framework of these three cards.
8. Hod, Glory: HVD
Emperor, Hierophant, Empress
In the realm of Hod, we have the lower reflection of Binah, formation. The Emperor and Empress sit on their respective thrones, breaking everything down into a simple binary division. Everything is male or female, positive or negative. The Hierophant passes these into manifestation as a bridge.
In our psyche, Hod is the mind. The cards illustrating the title show perfectly again the nature of the Sephirah. It is a space of digital distinction, either yes/no, pure logic, resulting in belief – the Hierophant. It contrasts sharply with the space of Netzach.
9. Yesod, Foundation: YSVD
Hermit, Temperance, Hierophant, Empress
At this penultimate stage of manifestation, now far from the original divine light, the foundation of material life is planted. The Hermit is the consciousness of life reflecting on the light, feeling removed and distant – the soul in exile. The Angel awaits us, in the enduring and abiding alchemy of the world, which calls us to awakening. The Hierophant and the Empress together embody the mystical process of exemplarism; Nature Teaching in its widest context. All that arises in the world is seen as demonstrating something of the divine – our only task is to read it.
To us this is the essence of Tarot spirituality; the use of Tarot to read the world until we can read the world in itself. We see through the pictures to the patterns, and through the patterns to the plan.
10. Malkuth, Kingdom: MLKVTh,
Hanged Man, Justice, Wheel, Hierophant, World
Finally, we have the sacrifice of spirit into matter, the world itself, the law of cause and effect, and the faith that we may return. And this is where the Wheel and the World turn full circle together – they are the two cards (letters) common to both Malkuth and Kether.
Here is a rare Kabbalistic insight illustrated and made obvious through Tarot; that Malkuth is in Kether, and Kether in Malkuth, but after another manner. The difference between them is the light is in Kether (Sun/Resh) and the Hanged Man, Justice and Hierophant are in Malkuth, showing us the paths to reconnect our spirit to the above are those of sacrifice, truth and revelation.
You will also see from a magical point of view that you now have the Tarot cards relevant to any creative act of magick. If you wish to bring about harmony, equilibrium and beauty in a situation, use the cards of Tiphareth; World, Blasted Tower, Fool, Sun, World in a ritual.
If you wish to gain deep understanding, place and contemplate the cards; Magician, Hermit, Death, Emperor, before sleep.
If you wish to discover how someone is attempting to gain victory, explore the cards; Death, Star, Chariot. To magically undo that victory, consider those same cards reversed and utilize them in ritual. In Tarot Flip, we give these cards the simple one-word keywords (reversed) as Stagnation, Darkness and Stop.
It is always incredible how this system holds together so strongly, as every map is based (underneath its geographical, temporal and cultural translation) on the same experience of reality.
How You Find Your Spiritual Calling
The calling card of Tarot is the Last Judgment. It is the trumpet that awakens us from our deepest sleep. It is the calling of the spiritual life in the cemetery of material life. That calling is continuously brief; it is indeed always the “moment” of Last Judgment rather than an entire day. Here is how it is described in the alchemical Cyhmical Wedding:
On an evening before Easter Day, I sat at a table, and having (as my custom was) in my humble prayer sufficiently conversed with my Creator, and considered many great mysteries (whereof the Father of Lights his Majesty had shown me not a few) and being now ready to prepare in my heart, together with my dear Paschal Lamb, a small, unleavened, undefiled cake; all of a sudden arose so horrible a tempest, that I imagined no other but that through its mighty force, the hill on which my little house was founded would fly into pieces.
But inasmuch as this, and the like from the Devil (who had done me many a spite) was no new thing to me, I took courage, and persisted in my meditation, till somebody in an unusual manner touched me on the back; whereupon I was so hugely terrified, that I dared hardly look about me; yet I showed myself as cheerful as (in such occurrences) human frailty would permit.
Now the same thing still twitching me several times by the coat, I looked back, and behold it was a fair and glor
ious lady, whose garments were all sky-colored, and curiously (like Heaven) bespangled with golden stars; in her right hand she bore a trumpet of beaten gold, on which a Name was engraved which I could well read but am as yet forbidden to reveal it. In her left hand she had a great bundle of letters of all languages, which she (as I afterwards understood) was to carry to all countries. She also had large and beautiful wings, full of eyes throughout, with which she could mount aloft, and fly swifter than any eagle.
I might perhaps have been able to take further notice of her, but because she stayed so little time with me, and terror and amazement still possessed me, I had to be content. For as soon as I turned about, she turned her letters over and over, and at length drew out a small one, which with great reverence she laid down upon the table, and without giving one word, departed from me.
From the Chymical Wedding, 1984 Magnum Opus version edited by Adam McLean and Deidre Green, from the Foxcroft edition, 1690.
Every moment is a calling – and we are called by our future self to become more of whom we are to be. This is a fundamental reversal of the “I am made from my past” adage, and one taken up at great length by James Hilman and Michael Ventura in We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World’s Getting Worse (New York: Harper Collins, 1993). Here is how it can be seen, in the words of Ventura, who also refers to the Kabbalah prior to this quote:
