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.