Jewel
THE WORLDLY SEQUENCE - CHPT. 4
THE MAJOR ARCANA AND PERSONAL GROWTH
NOTE: All text in quotation is from 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollock.
In Chpt. 3 we reviewed the opening trumps as archetypes. Chpt. 4 moves on to cover the other 5 trumps in the first row of seven cards or the consciousness level, which focuses on "the outer concerns of life in society." This first line of the major arcane (Magician-Chariot) takes through the process of maturity, with the Magician and High Priestess setting the principles of the movement between opposites. The opposites come together in the Empress "mingling together in nature to produce the reality of the physical universe."
The 3 middle cards (Empress, Emperor, and Hierophant) are a set that "show us the triad of nature, society and the Church. They also signify mother, father, and education." The Empress represents nature while the Emperor and Hierophant are human constructs.
"The last two cards [Lovers and Chariot] of the line represent the problems of the individual, love, sorrow, surrender and will." It is the development of personality and individuality. "Only when we reach full understanding of the outer life of humanity can we hope to reach inwards for deeper reality."
THE EMPRESS:
The Empress represents the more gentle side of the feminine archetype: motherhood, love and gentleness. She also represents sexuality and emotion. "Both motherhood and sex derive from feelings that are non-intellectual and basic to life. Passions rather than ideas …. The Empress is pure emotion." There is no rational development, she gives and takes experience with uncontrolled feeling.
The number 3 is the combination of 1 and 2 (Magician & HP) and signifies the synthesis and harmony. The Magician and HP are combined in an indivisible unity of life and death, darkness and light, activeness and instinct. The number 3 also represents the child produced by their coming together, but the Empress herself also stands for motherhood, the "basic means by which life continues throughout nature. And because the physical bond of the mother and child is so direct, mother love, in its strongest form, is pure feeling, given without intellectual or moral considerations."
THE EMPEROR:
In past times, as well as today in some cultures, the father figure remains a removed and remote figure, and therefore a figure of severity. An authority figure, the judge, the one who doles out punishment, and the one who taught the child the rules of society and then demanded obedience. "To the child the father is many ways indistinguishable from society as a whole, just as mother is nature itself." Thus, the Emperor stands for the laws of society, good and bad, and he also enforces those laws. "He is the abstraction of society replacing the direct experience of nature." In his best aspect he stands for a stable society that allows encourages the pursuit of personal needs and development, including spiritual development. He is just. In his more negative aspect he represents oppression where stability takes precedence over morality. "Even at his best, however, the Emperor remains limited. Over the spontaneity of the Empress he has laid a network of repression. If we loose touch with our passions then life becomes cold and barren."
There are dual aspects of the Emperor, which are depicted in the RW imagery. The ankh he holds is an Egyptian symbol of life. His holding it symbolizes that he has power of life and death under social law. The rams signify Aries, which in turn symbolizes force, aggression and war; yet at the same as first sign of the zodiac stands for new life and spring, "which can emerge from the stability of a just society." His arms and legs form an equilateral triangle representing the element of fire.
THE HIEROPHANT:
"Waite describes this card as symbolizing the 'outer way' of churches and dogma." Ms. Pollock goes on to say that Waite's description of the card is more suited for those who see Tarot "as a secret doctrine of occult practices rather than a more general embodiment of human patterns." The Hierophant indicates an education and a tradition. He indicates our own inner sense of obedience.
"Called to the priesthood by their own awareness, these people can speak to God for us. More important, they can speak to us, interpreting God's law so we may live proper lives, and eventually, after death, receive our reward of returning to God." As with the social institutions of the Emperor the religious ones of the Hierophant can also become corrupted by the authority they are given, prizing obedience over enlightenment. In his best aspect, the Hierophant (as outer doctrine) can give us a place to begin creating our own awareness of God.
LOVERS:
This card shows the most dramatic change that Wait made to the Tarot. The traditional Marseilles deck shows a man struck by Cupid's choosing between 2 women. Waite shows a woman and a man presided by an angel, suggestive of the Garden of Eden showing enlightenment vs. the theme of the Fall. This card shows adolescence and sexuality, which is the emergence of intellectual and moral independence. This is the card where individuality emerges, a personality able to make important choices and with its own ideas and purposes. Choices are dictated by one's own assessment of desires and responsibilities not based on parental orders.
CHARIOT:
The Chariot implies not only a great victory, but total control. "Plato in Phaedrus, refers to the mind as a chariot drawn by a black and white horse, the exact image of the Tarot." "By controlling his horses, the Charioteer controls his instinctive desires." The plethora of symbols contained on this card are described in detail in the book and each has extreme significance. In essence he is the symbol of maturity. His will extends beyond the individual.
"With its images of mind subduing and utilizing the forces of life the Chariot is the perfect symbol for civilization, which creates order out of the chaos of nature by using the natural world as the raw materials for its agriculture and cities. … By its connection with the Hebrew letter 'Iain' the Chariot carries the quality of 'speech'. Speech has always seemed to humans to represent the rational mind and its dominance over nature."
EXERCISES:
1. How does the Empress in your deck reinforce her role as motherhood and mother nature? How do the symbols in your Empress card differ from those of the RWS?
2. What symbols does your Emperor convey that support or disagree with Ms. Pollock's description of the Emperor? Does he convey the more positive or negative attributes of the card in his depiction?
3. What does the Hierophant symbolize to you? What symbols in the card support your meaning of the Hierophant?
4. How is the Lovers' card represented to you in your deck? What choice(s) do you see represented in the Lovers' card in your deck? What relationship(s) do you see?
5. How does the Chariot in your deck show the strength of his will? If different from the RWS deck, how does your Chariot differ in symbolism? What does the Chariot symbolize to you personally?
THE MAJOR ARCANA AND PERSONAL GROWTH
NOTE: All text in quotation is from 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollock.
In Chpt. 3 we reviewed the opening trumps as archetypes. Chpt. 4 moves on to cover the other 5 trumps in the first row of seven cards or the consciousness level, which focuses on "the outer concerns of life in society." This first line of the major arcane (Magician-Chariot) takes through the process of maturity, with the Magician and High Priestess setting the principles of the movement between opposites. The opposites come together in the Empress "mingling together in nature to produce the reality of the physical universe."
The 3 middle cards (Empress, Emperor, and Hierophant) are a set that "show us the triad of nature, society and the Church. They also signify mother, father, and education." The Empress represents nature while the Emperor and Hierophant are human constructs.
"The last two cards [Lovers and Chariot] of the line represent the problems of the individual, love, sorrow, surrender and will." It is the development of personality and individuality. "Only when we reach full understanding of the outer life of humanity can we hope to reach inwards for deeper reality."
THE EMPRESS:
The Empress represents the more gentle side of the feminine archetype: motherhood, love and gentleness. She also represents sexuality and emotion. "Both motherhood and sex derive from feelings that are non-intellectual and basic to life. Passions rather than ideas …. The Empress is pure emotion." There is no rational development, she gives and takes experience with uncontrolled feeling.
The number 3 is the combination of 1 and 2 (Magician & HP) and signifies the synthesis and harmony. The Magician and HP are combined in an indivisible unity of life and death, darkness and light, activeness and instinct. The number 3 also represents the child produced by their coming together, but the Empress herself also stands for motherhood, the "basic means by which life continues throughout nature. And because the physical bond of the mother and child is so direct, mother love, in its strongest form, is pure feeling, given without intellectual or moral considerations."
THE EMPEROR:
In past times, as well as today in some cultures, the father figure remains a removed and remote figure, and therefore a figure of severity. An authority figure, the judge, the one who doles out punishment, and the one who taught the child the rules of society and then demanded obedience. "To the child the father is many ways indistinguishable from society as a whole, just as mother is nature itself." Thus, the Emperor stands for the laws of society, good and bad, and he also enforces those laws. "He is the abstraction of society replacing the direct experience of nature." In his best aspect he stands for a stable society that allows encourages the pursuit of personal needs and development, including spiritual development. He is just. In his more negative aspect he represents oppression where stability takes precedence over morality. "Even at his best, however, the Emperor remains limited. Over the spontaneity of the Empress he has laid a network of repression. If we loose touch with our passions then life becomes cold and barren."
There are dual aspects of the Emperor, which are depicted in the RW imagery. The ankh he holds is an Egyptian symbol of life. His holding it symbolizes that he has power of life and death under social law. The rams signify Aries, which in turn symbolizes force, aggression and war; yet at the same as first sign of the zodiac stands for new life and spring, "which can emerge from the stability of a just society." His arms and legs form an equilateral triangle representing the element of fire.
THE HIEROPHANT:
"Waite describes this card as symbolizing the 'outer way' of churches and dogma." Ms. Pollock goes on to say that Waite's description of the card is more suited for those who see Tarot "as a secret doctrine of occult practices rather than a more general embodiment of human patterns." The Hierophant indicates an education and a tradition. He indicates our own inner sense of obedience.
"Called to the priesthood by their own awareness, these people can speak to God for us. More important, they can speak to us, interpreting God's law so we may live proper lives, and eventually, after death, receive our reward of returning to God." As with the social institutions of the Emperor the religious ones of the Hierophant can also become corrupted by the authority they are given, prizing obedience over enlightenment. In his best aspect, the Hierophant (as outer doctrine) can give us a place to begin creating our own awareness of God.
LOVERS:
This card shows the most dramatic change that Wait made to the Tarot. The traditional Marseilles deck shows a man struck by Cupid's choosing between 2 women. Waite shows a woman and a man presided by an angel, suggestive of the Garden of Eden showing enlightenment vs. the theme of the Fall. This card shows adolescence and sexuality, which is the emergence of intellectual and moral independence. This is the card where individuality emerges, a personality able to make important choices and with its own ideas and purposes. Choices are dictated by one's own assessment of desires and responsibilities not based on parental orders.
CHARIOT:
The Chariot implies not only a great victory, but total control. "Plato in Phaedrus, refers to the mind as a chariot drawn by a black and white horse, the exact image of the Tarot." "By controlling his horses, the Charioteer controls his instinctive desires." The plethora of symbols contained on this card are described in detail in the book and each has extreme significance. In essence he is the symbol of maturity. His will extends beyond the individual.
"With its images of mind subduing and utilizing the forces of life the Chariot is the perfect symbol for civilization, which creates order out of the chaos of nature by using the natural world as the raw materials for its agriculture and cities. … By its connection with the Hebrew letter 'Iain' the Chariot carries the quality of 'speech'. Speech has always seemed to humans to represent the rational mind and its dominance over nature."
EXERCISES:
1. How does the Empress in your deck reinforce her role as motherhood and mother nature? How do the symbols in your Empress card differ from those of the RWS?
2. What symbols does your Emperor convey that support or disagree with Ms. Pollock's description of the Emperor? Does he convey the more positive or negative attributes of the card in his depiction?
3. What does the Hierophant symbolize to you? What symbols in the card support your meaning of the Hierophant?
4. How is the Lovers' card represented to you in your deck? What choice(s) do you see represented in the Lovers' card in your deck? What relationship(s) do you see?
5. How does the Chariot in your deck show the strength of his will? If different from the RWS deck, how does your Chariot differ in symbolism? What does the Chariot symbolize to you personally?
