The Tao of Tarot

[Michael Sternbach]

As some of you may know, I just love comparing the metaphysical systems of different times and cultures with one another. Frequently, I find that they have central ideas in common. Thus, a comparative approach tells us more about the Collective Unconscious, shared by all of humanity. Looking at an Archetypes from a variety of different perspectives serves to illuminate and amplify it further.

Chapter 50 of the Tao te ching seems to be a good example of what I mean.

From Robert Henricks' translation:

We come out into life and go back into death.
The companions of life are thirteen;
The companions of death are thirteen;
And yet people, because they regard life as LIFE,
In all of their actions move towards the thirteen that belong to the realm of death.

Now, the Death card in Tarot is the thirteenth of the Major Arcana, as we all know. The traveller who comes out into life and goes back into death is The Fool. He stands both at the beginning and the end of the series of the Major Arcana, so he can be attributed with both the numbers 0 and 22.

Cards that share the same checksum are seen as related with each other, like Death and The Fool, since they can both be reduced to the number 4. The fourth of the Major Arcana is The Emperor. He is another important Archetype in Taoism, but we will safe him for later and stay with The Fool.

The Fool is the eternal spiritual seeker, the original Tarot Bum undertaking the adventure of Individuation. He represents our childlike and spontaneous nature which we start out and hope to end up with. He is the wandering Taoist sage so prevalent in both Lao Tzu's and Chuang Tzu's writings. Ideally, he in fact attains (a kind of) immortality.

Chapter 50 of the Tao te ching continues:

Now, why is this so?
It's because they regard life as LIFE.
You've no doubt heard of those who are good at holding on to life:
When walking through hills, they don't avoid rhinos and tigers;
When they go into battle, they don't put on armor or shields;
The rhino has no place to probe with its horn;
The tiger finds no place to put its claws.
And weapons find no place to hold their blades.
Now, why is this so?
Because there is no place for death in them.

On the Thoth version of The Fool (see the attachment), there is indeed a tiger shown which cannot injure the Fool. He is protected by his spiritual "innocence" or, in Taoist terms, state of wu wei.

 

[LeFou]

Very interesting. Some transations see the "13" as rather, "3 people in 10 follow life, 3 people in 10 follow death, 3 people in 10 ... etc." and then there is that 1 person in 10 who is different.

But even then, it still seems to work. People who are "trying too hard" either to seize onto life, or to avoid death, will not reach their goal. But those who are like the Fool (flexible, carefee, accepting, living freely in the moment) will be free of the problems which haunt the ones "resisting, struggling."

Both Fool and Death seem to represent Yin (at least to me). The easy-going Fool is not grasping at a specific (ego-centric) goal, simply living and living simply inside the present moment. Death is the masculine face of the Earth Goddess, the counterpart to birth ("everything changes" which leads us to Eternity, another name for the Goddess).

 

[Michael Sternbach]

Very interesting. Some transations see the "13" as rather, "3 people in 10 follow life, 3 people in 10 follow death, 3 people in 10 ... etc." and then there is that 1 person in 10 who is different.

十有三, has two possible interpretations:
1. Three out of ten.
2. Ten plus three which is thirteen.

Its interpretation depends on its contextual meaning within a phrase or sentence. In the present case, both interpretations are possible.

But even then, it still seems to work. People who are "trying too hard" either to seize onto life, or to avoid death, will not reach their goal. But those who are like the Fool (flexible, carefee, accepting, living freely in the moment) will be free of the problems which haunt the ones "resisting, struggling."

Exactly. Being flexible, carefree, accepting, living in the moment - these define the state of wu wei. It is translated literally as non-action, which in fact means action that is spontaneous, effortless and - in a sense - aimless. The Fool is a perfect symbol of this.

Moreover, he can be likened to hexagram 56 (Sojourning, The Wanderer) in the Yijing.

Both Fool and Death seem to represent Yin (at least to me). The easy-going Fool is not grasping at a specific (ego-centric) goal, simply living and living simply inside the present moment.

Zen Buddhism is pursuing this state as well. Much can be learned about The Fool from these Eastern philosophies.

Death is the masculine face of the Earth Goddess, the counterpart to birth ("everything changes" which leads us to Eternity, another name for the Goddess).

So The Fool and Death form a polarity, of sorts.