EPIPHANY! A New Take on the Major Arcana

stefficus

yay! another thing to put on my interminable list of Things to Look Into! :laugh:

i will absolutely be checking back when i'm not up in the middle of my night.
 

PAMUYA

Thank you for bumping this tread forward, I am going to pull out my deck now and take a look how this works. "Tarot Revelations" by Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts..it's time for a new book to dive into ;)
 

dangerdork

Further exploration.

Let's see... how to get back into this. I'm refreshing myself on the Seven Stations and have finished rereading the thread.

One way to get back up to speed, I think, may be to go fill in some gaps that appeared early on -- to flesh out some specifics.

Before we get to the focus I have in mind, let's take a look at a bit of tarot history. At the beginning of the "Epiphany" thread, I described how I was inspired by methods of examining the tarot by Joseph Campbell and Richard Roberts, in which the Major Arcana were laid out in a grid or matrix and various correspondences described.

This exercise has been done, of course, by many noteworthy tarot authors and scholars. In particular, I want to examine the work of Paul Foster Case, founder of the Builders of the Adytum esoteric society and contemporary of MacGregor Mathers of Golden Dawn fame.

You will recall that the Seven Stations grid is a 7x3 layout with the Fool off to the side:

xx - xx - 03 - 06 - 09 - 12 - 15 - 18 - 21
00 - xx - 02 - 05 - 08 - 11 - 14 - 17 - 20
xx - xx - 01 - 04 - 07 - 10 - 13 - 16 - 19

for which I have proposed three Paths (the horizontal rows):

The Hidden Path
The Outer Path
The Inner Path

as well as Seven Stations (representing the columns, excluding the Fool):

Your Origin
Your Inspiration
Your Power
The Turning Point
Your Transformation
Your Epiphany
Your Destiny

"But what about Paul Foster Case, Dangerdork?" I hear you asking. Dr. Case, as many tarot students are well aware, also developed a 7x3 grid through which to examine the tarot, also with the Fool off to the side. This grid is well known and looks like this:

xx - xx - xx - 00 - xx - xx - xx
01 - 02 - 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 - 07
08 - 09 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14
15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21

in which the horizontal rows represent

Powers or Potencies
Symbols of Laws or Agencies
Conditionhs or Effects

Now, I'm not here to study Case's methodology, I'm here to develop my own. However, in the initial discussion of his grid, Case says:

Paul Foster Case said:
Careful study of the tableau will reveal certain harmonies of number which are helpful in getting at the deeper meaning of the Keys. For example, the middle card in any horizontal row is the arithmetical mean term between three pairs of keys on either side of it. That is, Key 4, in the top row, is the arithmetical mean between Keys 1 and 7, 2 and 6, and 3 and 5.

... in like manner, every Key in the middle row is the arithmetical mean between the Key above it and the Key below.

... In this tableau, therefore, Key 11 stands as the mean between 10 pairs of Keys... the members of these these ten pairs stand in diametrically opposed positions in the tableau, and Key 11 is at the center of the whole scheme, where it is obviously a symbol of the agency which effects balance, or equilibration, among all the forces symbolized by the other Keys.

Careful inspection of the 22 Keys, laid out in this tableau, will reveal many other interesting and enlightening correspondences. It will also make clear the principle of antithesis utilized in designing the Keys.

- The Tarot, A Key To The Wisdom of the Ages

In case you hadn't figured out why I'm quoting all this stuff, go back and look at the Seven Stations grid again. All of the same numerological patterns as Case's grid apply, even though the card pairings and and trios are different!

I also thought immediately of Post 12 (http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1186172&postcount=12) in this thread, where I note the symmetries of the "Stations" in each row.

And finally, I thought of the Hegelian Dialectic as pointed out by Scion in Post 92 (http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1195594&postcount=92), and further developed in Post 116 (http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=1198688&postcount=116).

And after all that background, That's where I'm going to begin: Let's examine some triads as thesis / antithesis / synthesis. More to come.
 

dangerdork

Index of Triads

So, just for the sake of completeness, lets list out the triads we will be discussing.


Our three paths, with the center being "synthesis" and the other two being feminine / masculine (for now), are:

Magician - Emperor - Chariot - Wheel of Fortune - Death - Tower - Sun

High Priestess - Hierophant - Strength - Justice - Temperance - Star - Judgment

Empress - Lovers - Hermit - Hanged Man - Devil - Moon - World.

We can examine by station or by path...

Let's list the stations' triads first:

Your Origin: Magician / HP / Empress
Your Inspiration: Emperor / Hierophant / Lovers
Your Power: Chariot / Strength / Hermit
Turning Point: Wheel of Fortune / Justice / Hanged Man
Your Transformation: Death / Temperance / Devil
Your Epiphany: Tower / Star / Moon
Your Destiny: Sun / Judgment / World

and our exercise, class, is to pick one of these triads and discuss their energies. What are the factors that are diametrically opposed? How does the "synthesis" path between them combine and balance their complementary or opposing traits? How does the group reflect its station? Plenty of room for discussion here.

But now, for the juicier list, let's look at each Path and its Turning Point with associated pairs.

The turning point of each path has symmetrical pairs on either side like a series of rings:

Origin / Turning Point / Destiny
Inspiration / Turning Point / Epiphany
Power / Turning Point / Transformation

(1) / (4) / (7)
(2) / (4) / (6)
(3) / (4) / (5)

You with me so far?

So our Triads would be:

Inner Path:
Magician / Wheel / Sun
Emperor / Wheel / Tower
Chariot / Wheel / Death

Middle Path:
Priestess / Justice / Judgement
Hierophant / Justice / Star
Strength / Justice / Temperance

Hidden Path:
Empress / Hanged Man / World
Lovers / Hanged Man / Moon
Hermit / Hanged Man / Devil

Again, let's ask ourselves:
What are the factors that are diametrically opposed? How does the "Turning Point" between them balance or reflect their complementary or opposing traits? How does the triad reflect its path?

We have sixteen triads to choose from.

I think it will be fun to take on one at a time and meditate on them in separate posts. That will give me something to write about for a few days. If you want to start discussing right away, have at it.
 

rwcarter

dangerdork said:
"But what about Paul Foster Case, Dangerdork?" I hear you asking. Dr. Case, as many tarot students are well aware, also developed a 7x3 grid through which to examine the tarot, also with the Fool off to the side. This grid is well known and looks like this:

xx - xx - xx - 00 - xx - xx - xx
01 - 02 - 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 - 07
08 - 09 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14
15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21

in which the horizontal rows represent

Powers or Potencies
Symbols of Laws or Agencies
Conditions or Effects
Slightly off-topic, but still tangentially related, THANK YOU for clearing something up for me! The first page in my Mythic Study Journal (from 1991) has Case's layout and my interpretations of it, but I could never figure out where I got that layout since I'm pretty sure it's not in the Mythic companion book. (Or if it is, it's discussed without any diagrams). I had planned on revisiting that layout as part of my current IDS on the Mythic and then doing the Seven Stations layout with the deck. It will be interesting to see how the two layouts compare and contrast.

Rodney
 

Teheuti

rwcarter said:
The first page in my Mythic Study Journal (from 1991) has Case's layout and my interpretations of it, but I could never figure out where I got that layout since I'm pretty sure it's not in the Mythic companion book.
Rachel Pollack came up with the 3 rows of 7 way of ordering the cards entirely independently of Case and discusses it in 78 Degrees (I believe).

Sir Fairfax L. Cartwright wrote about the cards in seven groups of three in his 19th century fantasy: "The Mystical Rose from the Garden of the King."

Jonathan Tenney and Vicki Noble originated their own version of the 7X3 groupings. The round cards of the Motherpeace deck make clear certain insights that are not readily available without looking at the cards in the circle groupings they devised. Furthermore, these make clear a direct relationship to Papus's triads.

Mary
 

dangerdork

Glad to know you're still watching this thread, Mary!

Is the Cartwright still in print? And without resorting to the Tarot of the Bohemians, do you know of any simpler online references to the "Papus triads" you mentioned?
 

Teheuti

dangerdork said:
Is the Cartwright still in print? And without resorting to the Tarot of the Bohemians, do you know of any simpler online references to the "Papus triads" you mentioned?

The Mystic Rose is available for download here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=fa...esnum=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q&f=false

or search google books for
"The mystic rose from the garden of the king"
and is discussed in Blakeley's book - The Mystical Tower of the Tarot

and discussed here (with more links)
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=139263

I relate the 7x3 pattern to Papus's triads in my book Tarot Mirrors.
 

nisaba

Teheuti said:
Rachel Pollack came up with the 3 rows of 7 way of ordering the cards entirely independently of Case and discusses it in 78 Degrees (I believe).
Yes, I can confirm it. I re-read the book recently.

Teheuti said:
The round cards of the Motherpeace deck make clear certain insights that are not readily available without looking at the cards in the circle groupings they devised.
Using a round deck never occurred to me for tge 7x3 thingie. How does that work: three circles of seven cards? I'd love to try that.
 

PAMUYA

Teheuti said:
Rachel Pollack came up with the 3 rows of 7 way of ordering the cards entirely independently of Case and discusses it in 78 Degrees (I believe).
Yes, I too can confirm this...very interesting way of looking at the cards.