TheTarotisacardgameof78cardsdepictingsymbolicimages. The Tarot is used to gain knowledge about yourself by adressing the unconsciousness. This is also called ‘divination’
While working on my thesis for the Tarot Masters, I had decided that I would find the origin of wisdom in the Tarot. For this I needed to go back to the time of the creation of the first real Tarot Deck: The early Renaissance (1423). An important feature of the Renaissance was that people would begin referring (again) to the classical Roman and Greek philosophers. What I had forgotten since I left Highschool, was that philosophy in ancient times was mainly practical; It was about norms and values and finding the answer to the question: “how should I live?” This is where the word “Art of Living” derives from. Actually, this ‘practical’ Philosophy consists partly of a collection of “things my mom used to say” (also called “aphorisms”). Joep Dohmen – who has written a some very nice instructive philosophy books – expresses himself far better than I do; His definition of philosophy is:
“A coherence of thinking and living living and thinking. Eat as a human being, drink as a human being, participate in social life, learn to deal with ridicule and defamation and tolerate other people”
When I started out studying the Tarot somewhere in the nineties, I would diligently try to search for ‘true’ meanings and correspondences of the cards. I wrote everything down neatly in my Tarot journal and all went well for a while. But then I came to notice that the correspondences of the elements, the astrological correspondences or even the meanings were different everywhere! And no one could clarify what ‘the truth’ was (alltough many claimed they could). This was extremely frustrating!
In our Western culture (but also in others), for centuries The Wheel of Fortune has been associated with the realization that everything is constantly changing and in motion. On a mundane level, in short you can call it ‘fate’. In the Tarot it’s not just about good or ill fate coming your way; It is also about whether you are able to give direction to your life and willingness to change. In terms of symbolism, a lot of attention is paid in various literature to the ‘animals’ / ‘angels’ in the corners of the card: The Taurus, the Lion, the Eagle and Man. They are connected to the zodiacal signs, the elements and the figures from the biblical vision of Ezekiel. Much has been written about it and it is a familiar symbolism to most tarotists. Much less can be found about the ‘animals’ in the middle: The Snake, the Sphinx and the ‘dog’ figure (the Egyptian God Anubis). Why did Waite mix Egyptian symbolism with Christian symbolism here? After all, Waite was of the opinion that the origin of the Tarot was NOT Egyptian; And what does the Sphinx symbolize? You can write a very thick book about this card. I will do that when I grow up, but first I want to share some thoughts about the sfynx.
Last Night a wise knower of a mystery secretly said to me:’The Secret of the Wineseller…hidden from you cannot be’
He then said: ‘Be easy with the way that you treat yourself, it is the nature of the world to treat hard-workers heavily’.
He then gave to me the cup which radiated the sky, so that Venus danced and the lute player said: ‘Drink’, repeatedly.
‘O son, listen to advice, do not grieve for the world’s sake: I speak to you advice like a pearl, keep it in your memory’
‘With bleeding heart still show the laughing lip of the cup: if you are wounded, then crying like reed you shouldn’t be’
‘As long as you haven’t been in the veil, you haven’t a hint: where Gabriel gives news, those who’re immature can’t see’
On the carpet of the knowers of the subtle is no pride of self: Man of wisdom, either speak what you know or sit silently’
O Winebringer, givewine: Hafez’s drunken loving was known by Lord of Unity, Forgiver of faults… Concealer of stupidity
This is one of the poems from “Falnama – Divination Book of Hafiz of Shiraz” by Paul Smith. These Persian Poems – or ‘ghazals’- have been used as divination method for centuries. They are believed to have been written by Shams-ud-din (1320 – 1392), who was later named ‘Hafez’. ‘Hafez’ is a title given to someone who has memorized the entire Qur’an, something Shams-ud-din had achieved in 14 ways according to his own claim. How does this relate to Tarot? Well, maybe not in a literal sense. But there is always a way to relate to the Tarot (as well as to wine…. 🙂
In the Tarot you almost always immediately associate the “mother” with trump III The Empress. She is the caring mother who gives space to everyone and takes care of the growth and development of others. She is close to nature and her energy is limitless. It is a “positive” card whose opposite (negative point) is that the lady in question is often so concerned with taking care of others that she forgets her own needs. Providing unlimited energy to allow everything to grow and bloom can have the disadvantage that you go beyond your own limits. And that is of course not advantageous.
Tarot readers do usually not get much “darker” or “more negative” in terms of interpretation. And that’s funny, because when I had to create an exercise for one of my Tarot courses a few years ago, the Empress also reminded me of Olivia Godfrey from the “Hemlock Grove” series. This rather special mother is brilliantly portrayed by Famke Janssen. She ensures that you navigate the entire series between feelings of disgust and hatred for the bitch on the one hand and then again pity, admiration and sometimes even sympathy. You never know what her ‘true face’ or motive is, there are so many sides (often dark) to her character.
The mother archetype has many aspects; In addition to the (personal) mother and grandmother, it also includes the stepmother, mother-in-law, school teacher and other women with whom one has a relationship. According to Jung, the mother archetype appears in many more concepts and (underlying) associations: the wise woman, loving goddess, mother of god, beautiful young virgin. Places where one is “free” or “safe” have feminine or maternal connotations: paradise, heaven, earth, sea, forest, land, lake, universities, churches, cities, ships. The moon, water and matter are linked to the mother archetype as well as specific places related to fertility and birth: gardens, fields, wells, flowers (rose, lotus) and helpful animals like cows and hares.
Because everything has 2 sides – or rather: is on a scale between 2 polarities – there are also quite a few ambivalent and negative aspects associated with this archetype: Fate (domain of the 3 Fates), the false witch, the dragon ( and any other devouring or strangling animal such as snakes and sharks). The grave, death, nightmares. In the west we often tend to see the “good” side of the mother and that is what they often do in the Tarot as well. As said before, we see the Empress as a mother and a symbol for fertility and growth. But also the The high priestess – who is the ‘same’ woman as the empress but we will get to that in another article – is seen as positive; With her beauty and mystery, trusting in her intuition she is attractive to both men and women.
The High Priestess RWS TarotThe Empress RWS Tarot
The Tarot Queens are all – as “more mature” adult women – dealing with the elements in a nurturing way. Only the queen of the swords is often portrayed negatively, at least in the Rider Waite and the Toth Tarot (both the intellect and – albeit to a lesser extent – the “will” have been regarded as a negative trait in women for the past centuries. But of course the “dark” sides always take part, it is a different side of the same coin. In western culture, occasionally an evil stepmother or a bad fairy pops up, mainly in fairy tales. They are usually portrayed as somewhat pathetic, jealous and lonely women who we either dislike or take pity on…
But in Eastern myths and religions of older times, people knew goddesses that make Snow White’s witchy stepmother look like an angel. For example, the Hindus have Kali (black earth mother) who looks terrifying with four arms with a sword in one of her hands. This reminds you of the Queen of Swords in the Tarot .. in terms of image she comes close to Aleister Crowley’s Sword Queen. Kali is a protective mother who kills demons, drinks their blood and thus keeps the world safe. But her strength and energy can also be completely destructive!
The Greeks have Hecate, goddess of protection AND destruction. She is the goddess of both fertility and death. She rules witchcraft and magic. The ancient Egyptians saw Hathor as the ultimate mother goddess. She was the “mother of mothers” and symbolized fertility and security (hence her name literally means “home”). But the Egyptians also recognized her “terrible” side that everyone feared: she could change into a ferocious lady! For example, she once committed a massacre among the gods: she killed them, drank their blood and could still not be stopped! Because of this “incident” she often got the head of a lion in pictures. As she could get into this kind of ‘mood’ more often (and then threatened to destroy the whole world) she was also depicted as a snake. Later she was identified with the goddess Isis, who was seen as the goddess of motherhood. However, in Isis mainly the positive sides are emphasized, which is why she became the most popular goddess in Egypt.
There are many more examples, but I think the point is clear; The “dark” side of the mother is underexposed in contemporary culture, but also in the Tarot. If you were to list all Tarot cards that represent this mother archetype, you would make a positive personal description for all of them (alltough to many of the tarot readers the Queen of Swords is still the exception). The downsides that are assigned to these Queens are small things, they cannot even be called character flaws. And in general they are mainly detrimental to the person themselves and to a lesser extent to their environment. Let’s look at some examples on how the ‘yin’ cards are interpreted:
The “dark” side of the High Priestess is that she “hides” something, or has knowledge of something that she does not yet share. The Empress is lots of growth and development, the downside to her is that she sometimes has no boundaries, of which she mainly suffers from herself: she forgets that she also needs space and time so that things cannot grow over her head.
The Queen of Pentacles is a nurturing mother, a sensible woman who loves nature and is good with money.She loves beautiful things and a house with a garden.
She is a good hostess, a traditional “mother mother” who often says “That’s the way the cookie crumbles my dear”. The Queen of Cups is sensitive and gentle. She can get into that a little bit and then plays the helpless women card. This then acts like a magnet on men, who fall over each other to “save” her. The Queen of Wands is the most popular given today’s standards: not only is she a nice mother who emphasizes her femininity, but also a smart and spunky aunt, businesswoman and a fun creative “witch” who can express herself well.
The Queen of Swords does not receive a “sugarly” description from many people. Arthur Edgar Waite also seemed not to know what to do with her; He emphasized the “negative” side and it is often the first to be addressed. She is a bitter, single or divorced woman. She’s also bitchy so no man wants her (or no man wants her and that’s why she’s bitchy that’s a bit unclear.). The positive side sometimes comes at the end of the list: that she is not guided by convention, that she is independent and does not accept bullshit. But this is not very valuable (it is for herself, but not for others.). She can look at her feelings objectively, she fights against injustice and stands up for the weak. But just like with Kali, that’s a small detail. Apparently the Queen of Swords is more or less the only one to survive the current of the ‘loving mother’ – trend that started by the ancient Egyptians from 2700 BC.
Carl Jung, however, was someone who found it interesting to look at dark sides. He has elaborated on the mother archetype extensively. The “negative” feminine aspect is sometimes emphasized so strongly in his work that you wonder what is behind it (something in his personal unconscious probably LOL). Yet you also in his descriptions that of the four “main types” there are three types that are slightly more positive (and one that comes off a bit more badly).
I have plotted the Queens of the Tarot to the feminine personality types and mother complexes of Carl Jung and I will happily share that with you in an upcoming article!
The Tarot is so ingeniously put together that you can plot any spiritual, philosophical, occult, psychological or even scientific trend on it. It just depends on what you focus on. What you want to see, you can see in the Tarot. This ensures that you never stop learning and that you can stretch your mind considerably. You will receive different insights over time as you acquire more knowledge.
In ‘The Three Books of Occult Philosophy’ by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, I came across the following. It is an excerpt from a poem about the elements by Publius Vergilius Maro, a famous Roman poet who lived from 70 to 19 BC. I think it is very pretty. If you are interested, you can download or read the books of Agrippa everywhere online (no copyrights). Some of the texts are difficult to read but the part about the elements is doable and also very interesting!
“The highest wealth is that we obtain through an illusion, which indeed comes to us through a gift from God”
Plato (from: “phaedrus” ca 360 BC)
The tarot card Seven of Cups is sometimes called the ‘Illusion Card’; Meanings attributed to it are often negative; For example, coveting superficial things, making wrong choices, living in a dream world, something seems too good to be true, chasing illusions. But when you look at the card with a Jungian perspective, there is another layer in this card with which you can illuminate another side.
“Do not expect to hear the truth from others, nor to see it, or read it in books. Look for the truth in yourself, not without yourself”
Pyotr Demyanovich Ouspensky
At the start of the “Tarot & Jung” course, I always let students perform an exercise in which they choose one or more tarot cards that they find ‘annoying’, ‘difficult’, or simply ‘unpleasant’. Although this might be different for each individual, the High Priest is invariably in the top 3 of unpleasant cards (it often ends up with IV The Emperor and XII Death). If you’ll take on a Jungian approach, the explanation could be that this antipathy is not our own, but our ancestors’. The unpleasant image has ended up in the collective unconscious and that is why we generally might perceive this image in a negative way.
Death, of course, leads us all the way back to prehistoric times where the primal man & women developed an instinctive feeling that this should be something to avoid because it is ‘dangerous’. The Devil and the High Priest are cards that we generally feel to be unpleasant because of 2000 years of church history that is behind us; We have been collectively made afraid of the Devil while the High Priest reminds us of the (Christian) clergy that obtained much power and wanted to make us walk in line by preaching about hell and damnation. Dogmas, abuse, mistreatment, punishment, inquisition… in the western hemisphere we all carry this in the ‘unconscious’ compartiment of our luggage. The treatment that many of our ancestors received – especially women – is not pretty! At the very least, they are severely restricted in their freedom and development.
