The Levels of the Major Arcana

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 21 Nov 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Jewel-ry	21 Nov 2003
Hi Everyone, In both Rachel Pollack books that I have, she looks at the cards laid out in 3 rows of 7 below the fool. The 1st level begins with Magician and ends with the Chariot she relates this to consiousness. The 2nd level begins Strength and ends Temperance, she relates this to the unconsiousness and the 3rd level begins Devil and ends World and is related to the higher conciousness. When laid out like this you can look at the vertical connections between the cards in the same position. She gives an example (Waite Deck) where the Magician and Strength have the infinity symbols above their heads and the Devil an inverted pentacle. Also the Devil raises his arm in a similar gesture to that of the Magician. I thought it might be interesting to explore some of these connections in greater depth. For instance, I was looking at the Chariot/Temperance/World trio and you can see the Charioteer controlling through will-power, Temperance balancing (one foot on land, the other in water) but also "controlling" her pouring and the World in "unity". Control through willpower, control through calmness and moderation, control through unity. All of these cards bring or keep something together. Anyone else any thoughts on this?

Nevada	21 Nov 2003
I'm going to try this, jewel-ry. I'm suprised you didn't get more replies. Maybe those who would have done so are busy spreading out their cards and studying them. Thank you for sharing. Nevada

The The Levels of the Major Arcana thread was originally posted on 21 Nov 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.