All content copyright © 2010-2024 Frank Revelo, www.frankrevelo.com
Deck assumed in discussion below is that of Aleister Crowley, also called Thoth deck. Golden Dawn deck similar, other than some trump cards, notably trump 6, titled "Lovers" in Crowley Deck. Rider-Waite and decks based on Rider-Waite deck are all misleading and should be avoided.
Tarot encodes astrology, alchemy and cabala, which are themselves encodings of esoteric wisdom. Esoteric wisdom can only be understood by the few, and no guarantee these chosen few will be able to find one another and communicate in person. Furthermore, esoteric wisdom easily distorted by those who don't fully understand it, and distortions would accumulate with time until wisdom lost entirely. Encoding in form which appeals to masses and which is resistant to change ensures that wisdom will be preserved intact and widely disseminated through space and time, with esoteric interpretation always available for decoding by those with "eyes to see and ears to hear". This reason for encoding wisdom was especially relevant in olden times, when books were rare (and no internet) and wisdom had to be communicated orally.
Encoding wisdom also protects against suppression by authorities. First, encoding limits those who can receive message, and thus limits threat to society and thus motivation to suppress. Second, suppression opens authorities to ridicule, which they loathe, since literal interpretation of encoded wisdom is typically absurd. Third, harsh suppression typically awakens interest in what is being suppressed ("lure of the forbidden") and authorities anticipate this. Some suppression may still occur, but it is seldom vigorous.
Random selection of Tarot cards can be used for clairvoyance ("clear seeing") purposes, to penetrate veils of illusion within mind. For query "what year is this?", answer almost surely within mind, but no veil of illusion, so no need for tarot to obtain answer. For query "do I want to marry this person?", answer probably within mind, but possibly answer hidden behind veils of illusion, so tarot can help obtain answer. For query "will it rain tomorrow?", either no answer within mind or answer no better than professional weather forecast, so no point using tarot with this query.
Alternative to spiritual interpretation of Tarot in this document is material interpretation at https://substack.com/home/post/p-183981609, which posits Amanita Muscaria mushrooms as key to understanding Tarot, and additionally gives material explication of Christianity and other ancient religions in terms of these mushrooms. Dried Amanita Muscaria mushrooms as Word become edible Flesh and Living Bread, mushrooms processed and converted into liquid form as Wine of Everlasting Life, Body and Blood of the mushroom God hung to dry on a cross followed by 3 days in dark place before coming to life again. Amanita Muscaria mushrooms as Soma in Rig Veda of Hinduism, cup used to hold Amanita Muscaria mushroom potion as Holy Grail, Amanita Muscaria mushroom trance as Dionysian rites and related Greek mystery religions, etc.
Material interpretation might be historically correct, but is less useful than spiritual interpretation in modern society, where most unhappiness is a consequence of mental rather than bodily dysfunction. In primitive times, psychedelic mushrooms and other plant-derived drugs might have been essential for maintaining bodily health or coping with bodily pain. Recall that humans lack the ability to produce Vitamin C naturally and humans at high latitudes can also suffer from lack of Vitamin D. In modern times, most bodily illness is due to lack of control over the mind (lack of self-discipline), resulting in overeating of unhealthy food, lack of bodily exercise, behaviors that cause insufficient or disrupted sleep (like staring at smartphones and other electronic devices until late in the evening), etc. With occasional exceptions, psychedelic mushrooms and other drugs will not help with the modern epidemic of lack of self-discipline and other mental illness.
Outer universe also called material world or world of sense perceptions, meaning that which can be seen, heard, felt, smelled or tasted. Outer universe includes human body. Inner universe consists of changeable and unchangeable parts, with fuzzy boundary between. Some things can be changed in the long-term but not short-term, or changed slightly but not significantly. Changeable part of inner universe called mind or spirit. Unchangeable part called animal self, core personality, soul.
Desire originating in soul interpreted by spirit, which controls muscles, causing change to world of senses, causing change to incoming sense impressions, interpreted by spirit (with possible update to memory stores), causing pleasure or pain, interpreted by spirit, causing new desire, thus completing feedback loop. Desire is motive power of universe. Maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain is goal or purpose of universe. That is, purpose or meaning of life is to quench fire of desire in waters of bliss.
Earth is outer universe, represented by tarot suit of disks. Fire is desire, or male aspect of soul, suit of wands. Air is spirit, suit of swords. Water is pleasure/pain, or female aspect of soul, suit of cups.
As noted, boundary between spirit and soul, or changeable and unchangeable inner universe, is fuzzy. Furthermore, spirit can modify or simulate incoming sense perceptions and outgoing soul emanations (desire, pleasure/pain) to create illusory desire and illusory pleasure/pain. In theory, mind could interpret all incoming sense perceptions or all pleasure/pain so as to generate perpetual bliss. In practice, few can smile like martyrs as they are tortured to death. More common is for those who should be happy, based on pleasure/pain emanations of soul, to be afflicted by some sort of spiritual illness which causes overall mood to be one of unhappiness. Think of physically healthy young people with money in their pockets, who nevertheless commit suicide due to unrequited love or similar spiritual disturbances of trivial significance from perspective of material reality.
Mind is realm of illusion, labyrinth-like hall of mirrors in which it is easy to become lost. Most people in modern society have swollen heads (spirits) and could do with some head shrinking (get out of their heads and focus on maximizing bodily pleasure and minimizing bodily pain as purpose of life).
Though air intervenes between fire and earth, earth and water, and water and fire, middle intervention is most important, which is why astrological signs are arranged in order fire, earth, air, water. Also, water signs in astrology refer more to feedback which brings about future desires than to present pleasure and pain. Water signs are thus transitional signs in astrology.
Bodily/mental illness is functioning of body/mind which results in less happiness (less pleasure, more pain) than would result from alternative functioning. If alternative functioning not feasible, thus no cure possible, "disorder" or "genetic/developmental abnormality" better term than "illness". These are subjective definitions, since they rely on individual perception of happiness. Objective definitions: "body/mind functioning which society disapproves of".
Mind functions using rules to guide behavior, most important of which are moral rules. Mental illness thus implies either: excess rules (e.g. rule inhibiting all sex), missing rules (e.g. no rule inhibiting sex with children), or incorrect combination of excessive and missing (e.g. rule inhibiting sex with adults but not with children). Curing mental illness implies getting rid of excess rules, adding missing rules, and fixing incorrect rules.
Mind normally resists changes to rules, which is desirable, because mind without resistance to change would easily become ill, then switch rapidly between different types of mental illness. Normally, it requires considerable reduction in happiness to force change to mind's rule structure. Often, mind's initial reaction to reduced happiness is denial, either denying reduced happiness itself or denying relation of reduced happiness to excess/missing/incorrect mental rule. Denial often followed by anger: blaming reduced happiness on someone or something other than mind's rule structure. Anger often followed by bargaining: accepting that mind needs to change but then resisting full and effective change in favor of trivial change. Cycling between denial, anger and bargaining also common. Sadness (mental depression) is symptom of mind that has finally begun to make real change. Sadness disappears when change has been completely accepted.
Mind with excess/missing/incorrect rules which do not result in reduced happiness, is not in denial, but rather in fool's paradise. For example, suppose psychopath mind has rule that says "okay to kill people who disagree with you". That rule doesn't cause reduced happiness if no one disagrees with psychopath, or if psychopath is all-powerful despot, or if police don't arrest psychopath. However, most such psychopaths eventually end up in prison, which is specifically designed to reduce happiness. That is, psychopaths are not mentally ill (by subjective definition above) and will not change until happiness is reduced as result of their psychopathy.
Related to psychopathy are hysteria, narcissism, delusions of grandeur, manic phase of bipolar disorder and other types of mental functioning which boost happiness in the short run, during fool's paradise phase, but typically reduce it in the long run, at which point subject can finally be called mentally ill. These disorders can all be regarded as defense mechanisms (denial, anger, bargaining) against depression, which is where mental change occurs. Resisting depression usually postpones true cure. Reduced happiness is what primarily drives mental change.
Baby is animal self. Social programming during childhood and adolescence produces socialized self of young adulthood. Rebellion against excess socialization produces mature self. Further liberation produces enlightened self.
Animal self is Mother ("Mother Nature"). Socialized self is Father (old men define social norms). Mature self is Son (blend of mother and father, with father influence dominating). Enlightened self is Daughter (blend of mother and father, with mother influence dominating).
Enlightenment mostly involves discarding unneeded rules, rather than adding rules, so does indeed "lighten" burden. Regression to animal self ("who we were before we were born") is neither possible or desirable. First, much learned behavior is essential, such as knowledge about laws against criminal behavior or knowledge about which foods are good to eat. Second, we must retain enough reasoning powers to resist attempts by society to reprogram us. Immense powers of intellect are required to resist society's programming processes, which is why weak and uneducated minds are never so pure as they appear to naive observers.
Revelation of truth can strengthen vigorous and adaptable society, by causing it to automatically improve social programming system to make enlightenment more difficult. This is why truth must be revealed anew in every generation, even when there was nothing wrong with earlier revelations. Society adapts constantly, changing social programming imposed on generations of today so as to make revelations of yesterday unintelligible. Revelations must therefore be constantly rephrased, if they are to retain their power to reveal truth.
Related to enlightenment process is switch from child to adult point of view regarding relative importance of inner and outer worlds in determining happiness, which is goal of life. Young child has undeveloped mind, limited control over its own body and almost no control over material world beyond its own body, and thus its happiness mostly depends on what other people think about the child. If other people like the child, they will feed it, change its diaper and otherwise try to increase its happiness. If other people dislike the child, they may neglect it or even hurt it. Child thus learns that what other people think about child is most important factor determining happiness, followed by child's ability to independently control material world (so as to lessen dependence on other people), followed by child's own body and own mind as least important factors (child doesn't even stop to think about these last factors). For children, crying is typically effective strategy to reduce unhappiness, because someone who cares about child may hear its cry and do something to help (feed it, change diaper, etc).
Order of priority reversed in adults: most important factor determining happiness is one's own mind, followed by one's own body, followed by rest of material world, with what other people think about us as least important factor. Even in extreme situations, such as victim in torture chamber, subject to whims of executioner, one's own mind is most important factor because only by controlling our mind can we control our tongue and otherwise behave so as to placate executioner, and if that fails, control of our mind is what allows us to minimize perceived bodily pain. And surely nowhere is it more obvious than in a torture chamber that our own body is more important in determining happiness than other aspects of material world or what people in general (besides executioner) think of us. In particular, opinions of other people that do not direct affect body nor increase control over material world (increased money, etc) and thus indirectly affect body, are worthless. Profitless fame ("applause of fools") falls into this category of worthless opinions of other people. For adults, crying often useless or even counterproductive waste of effort. Other people may not help a crying adult, or they may be so annoyed by the crying as to act to increase unhappiness. Meanwhile, effort of crying distracts adult from actions it could make on its own to reduce unhappiness.
Astrological encoding of enlightenment process. Four elements combine with first three stages of enlightenment process to produce twelve astrological signs:
Four elements combine with final stage of enlightenment process to produce four esoteric astrological signs:
Alchemical encoding of enlightenment process, or conversion of inner lead into inner gold. Fool is unenlightened self, journey is from Universe to Magician. Associated with each trump card is element or astrological sign/planet.
Cabalistic (kabbalistic, qabalistic) encoding of enlightenment process. Ace to ten is path of spiritual manifestation. Ten to ace is path of spiritual development, working back towards primal essence. In practice, highest stage we can reach on temporary basis is four. Highest stage at which we can permanently reside is six. Between three and four is abyss. Correlation with age. Inner personality shaped during first three years of life. To the extent we have no memories of early childhood and cannot change personality traits formed then, there is "abyss" between that part of self and what develops afterwards. By age six, we have most capabilities needed to survive. By age ten, outer personality more or less complete.
36 non-Ace cards. Cycle through suits every three cards: Wands, Disks, Swords, Cups. Cycle through 7 planets every card: Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter. Cycle through astrological signs every third card. Thus, 4 of Wands = Venus in Aries (Completion) followed by 5 of Disks = Mercury in Taurus (Worry). 6 cards for Mars, 5 cards for other planets: extra Martian desire energy needed to set universe in motion.