A new way of looking at the Major Arcana

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 18 Jan 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Moongold	18 Jan 2003
The discussions we’ve had here lately about the meanings of various cards and the possible groupings have been exciting and thought provoking. Dangerdork’s hypothesis about the Major Arcana representing stages in the development of civilization was another stimulating idea. Somewhere this afternoon Thirteen suggested that Justice(11) began a spiritual journey in another sequence and I had a look at that and saw that it ended with Judgment (20) and thought WOW - something significant here. Justice and Judgment have been troubling me lately – only because of the meanings I give them at some deep personal level. I sat and played with the Major Arcana for a while with all the ideas floated here over the last few weeks in my mind. And after tea I picked up Rachel Pollack’s Forest of Souls and read that the numbering of the Major Arcana has come to us by tradition and that there has been all sorts of debate about it over the years. She suggests a wonderful exercise where you pick out a Major Arcana card which reflects issues you want to explore, put that card in the position of the Fool, shuffle and deal out the cards in groups of seven. Then you go on the journey through the cards, getting a different perspective on your issues. The card which fell out for me was the High Priestess and I dealt the rest of the cards as follows: …………… 2 High Priestess 1…..14….13…..9…..0…..12…..19 17…18….16….15….8….. 7…….6 5…..4… 20…. 21….10….3…..11 And the High Priestess’s journey, interestingly for me, ends with Justice. Try this spread. It may not be original – I don’t know – but it’s fun and you get some really interesting insights with it. I guess you could play with it a bit as well. Like, have the Magician nd the High Priestess together on the journey, or the Emperor and the Empress or the Hierophant and the Devil. The latter would be a great one. If you can, get the book. It's great reading. Both Solandia and Holmes have done reviews of it which are easily found here though a simple search. Moongold

Ophiel	18 Jan 2003
You might want to check out a book called "Tarot Revelations" which is comprised of a short section by Joseph Campbell (symbolism in the Marseilles deck) and Richard Roberts on the esoteric symbolism of the WRS deck, which is the bulk of this book. The Campbell is so-so, not his best writing for sure, but the Roberts is what might interest you. His premise is that since alchemy and Tarot started up about the same time, he thinks there might be some alchemical concepts buried in the symbolism in the Majors. HE starts out by showing how he thinks three cards each is linked to one of the seven metals, which correspond to 'steps' in alchemy, not of transforming lead to gold, but of a more spiritual nature, the transformation all taking place within the student. I'm trying to work through it myself, but find it difficult (but not impossible) because his way of looking at the cards is so radically different than others I've seen attempting such connections, and one needs to give him the benefit of the doubt on some of this, in order to see his thoughts through to their [hopefully] logical conclusions. The book is out of print, but I found a copy two years ago, so you can too! LOL.

firemaiden	18 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Moongold And after tea I picked up Rachel Pollack’s Forest of Souls... Hi Moongold! Thank you for this! I have been enjoying The Forest of Souls very very much...haven't gotten to this excercise yet, but looking forward to it. How did you like the part about "gambling with the moon" where you ask the cards to invent the spread for you? -- ask the cards to pose the questions. That part just blew me away.

Khatruman	18 Jan 2003
What a wonderful exercise, and suggestion on the Pollack book! Ophiel, I have been debating the Tarot Revelation books, but I have seen so many so so reviews, especially about the disappointing contribution by Campbell. I do wish he had delved more into tarot in his life time. Peace!

Moongold	18 Jan 2003
Firemaiden, I am going to have a go at the Moon thing and some of the other exercises today! It's a great book, one of the best. Moongold

The A new way of looking at the Major Arcana thread was originally posted on 18 Jan 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.