The steps marking the pathway to self-knowledge are expressed in the Major Arcana cards in deep and layered symbols that bring to life the intrinsic detail and meaning of each step forward. Self-knowledge is the discovery not of the ‘I’ but the ‘Self’. In the broadest of terms, our heroic journey of initiation begins as a child flowing with life: we are loved, blessed and, for many of us, we may even be in a state of blissful naivety.
In terms of the Tarot, at the beginning we are The Fool who embodies our primordial state of naivety. At the end of our Tarot journey we are still The Fool but older and wiser, having gradually emerged like a butterfly from its chrysalis cocoon. Although there are variations to the symbolism, the Tarot’s 21 steps on the path of initiation are more or less the foundation of many of the classical myths. Whatever the cultural or ethnic source – European, Scandinavian, Middle Eastern, Asian, North or South American, and so on throughout the World – universally, the myths fundamentally follow the same underlying themes.
As we shall see in chapter 7, ‘Reading a Spread’, the Heroic rite of passage from unconscious naivety to fulfilment runs in three segments: Separation, Initiation and the Return. Joseph Campbell outlines this rite of passage in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces where he tells us ‘a hero [or heroine] ventures forth from the world of common day into a [dark] region of supernatural wonder where fabulous [and dangerous] forces are encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero [or heroine] comes back from his mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.’1
Before the advent of 20th-century psychotherapy, guidance for self-awareness and our spiritual journey came from the archetypal characters in the classical myths and fairy tales – the evil giants, wicked witches, good fairies, wise old men and women, monsters, caves and mysterious happenings or interventions. They tell us how we can face up to and overcome the overwhelming trials and fierce ordeals we will inevitably encounter on our own heroic journey from child-like or childish immaturity to the golden chalice of self-realization. These traditional archetypes, who may epitomize some of the sub-personalities hidden in the shadows of our mind, are similar to the characters we will meet in the Tarot’s rite of passage.
What is this heroic journey we must undertake to fulfil our quest for self-knowledge? At a mundane level, myths and fairy tales may be viewed simply as well-devised stories written to entertain or even frighten children in an attempt to warn them of life’s hazards. At another level, the tales would be viewed as symbolic expressions of the primal nature of human beings which direct us toward what CG Jung called ‘individuation’ – our destiny to become self-realized. At the mystical level, the stories tend to be interpreted as a portrayal of soul experiences and universal spiritual truths.
Myths and fairy tales such as Parsifal searching for the holy grail (a symbol of his own redemption), Iron John’s struggle with himself, Dorothy’s liberation in The Wizard of Oz and so on, are all about a heroic journey ending in rebirth and deliverance. In many other tales the journey ends in a happy-ever-after marriage – the wedding being the integration of the masculine and feminine principles that will transform our life. We can see how the integration of these two principles works in the stories of Theseus and the Minotaur and the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.
The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur tells us that when Theseus was 16 years old he was strong enough to lift a rock to retrieve his father’s sandals and sword. He then went on his warrior-like travels, slaying bandits, criminals and monsters. When he arrived in Athens he heard about the Minotaur – a beast with the body of a monstrous animal and the head of a man – it has bestial instincts and is clever with it! It lived in a deep underground labyrinth where it was fed on the flesh of young men and women. Theseus was prepared to kill the beast but knew that, once inside the cavernous tunnels, he could find his way to the Minotaur but would not be able to find his way back. Then along came his lover Ariadne who gave him a ball of string (sometimes a golden thread) which he could trail behind him to retrace his steps back to the light of day.
Theseus knew he was capable of slaying the beast, but without Ariadne’s thread he would remain imprisoned in the labyrinth for the rest of his life.
In this story Theseus personifies the Masculine Principle – rationality, instinctiveness and activity – all to do with the ‘head’. Ariadne personifies the Feminine Principle – intuition, feelings and passivity – all to do with the ‘heart’. These principles are attributes, if you will, and whether we are male or female they are present in all of us to some greater or lesser degree.
The Minotaur personifies the basic instincts within Theseus himself. The labyrinth is the deep recesses of his unfathomable, unconscious mind which will be referred to later as the shadow.
The discovery of his father’s sandals and sword tells us that he is old enough to begin his own journey and carry a weapon – his manhood. He embarks on a crusade against the evils of the world when he hears about the Minotaur, which, we are told, only feeds off the young flesh of virgins. (It is surprising the victims never worked out how to beat that particular problem!) In other words, the beast exists purely for sensuous gratification. The Minotaur lives in the deep underground labyrinth of our hero’s mind.
Theseus knows he is capable of slaying the Minotaur – he can suppress his own basic instincts – but unless he can bring these controlling traits to the surface of his conscious mind he will never escape these negative aspects of his personality. Ariadne – the Feminine Principle – provides him with the golden thread to guide him back to the light of consciousness and enlightenment.
This myth tells us that whatever our ‘beasts’ may be, merely suppressing them will not lead us further on the path to self-knowledge. But if we accept and recognize them, we will achieve a dynamic balance between the Masculine and Feminine Principles within ourself.
In the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, his mother tells him the cow has gone dry and he must take it to sell in the market. On his way, he meets an old man who persuades him to sell the cow for five beans. When Jack returns his mother is furious and throws the beans out of the window. They grow into a huge beanstalk that reaches up to the sky. Jack climbs up and discovers a giant and his wife who are guarding a goose that lays golden eggs. While the giant is away his wife shows Jack how to take a golden egg.
In telling us that the cow has gone dry, the story indicates that Jack can no longer be dependent on being looked after at home. (Perhaps unwittingly, Jack’s mother does what all mothers should do – she tells her son he must now fend for himself and not be tied to her!)
On his care-free way to market, Jack meets an old (i.e. wise) man who exchanges seemingly worthless beans for the cow. This is Jack’s first act of disobedience, marking his independence from his mother and, inevitably, she shows her fury, as most mothers do, on realizing that her son is no longer under her control. Instead, his intuition guided him to heed the wise old man. The beans represent Jack’s as yet unrealized talents and abilities. The growth of the beanstalk is a phallic symbol personifying his own growing maturity where only the sky is the limit to his potentialities. But when he climbs up it he discovers that the goose that lays the golden eggs – unlimited abundance – is guarded by a fierce giant who lives there with his wife. Again, as with the story of Theseus, the giant is the monster – Jack’s basic instinct – and it is the giant’s wife (the Feminine Principle) who shows Jack how to get hold of the eggs. The beanstalk is a means for Jack to rise up to the heavenly, spiritual realms.
Jack’s goal – unknown at the beginning of the journey – is to find the precious eggs. This goal is sometimes referred to in other stories as the crock of gold, the Holy Grail or an alchemical substance: these are metaphors for our soul or the inner essence of our being. The tipping point that triggers a boy’s first step on the path occurs at the moment when he defies his mother and follows his instinct.
Perhaps one of the finest examples of the tipping point for a girl is found in the classical myth of Psyche and Amor, which is a complete and most valuable study of the psychological and spiritual development of the feminine. The story is taken from the second-century Roman classic The Golden Ass by Apuleius. Amor (also known as Cupid or Eros), a mischievous and immature ‘boy’, was the son of Aphrodite (also known as Venus) the goddess of love, beauty and sensuality. Psyche, a mortal princess, at first obeyed her father’s order that she should be offered as a sacrifice to the gods, but Fate intervened and she left the family home. She then succumbed to the amorous attentions of Amor, but his mother Aphrodite (her future mother-in-law!) felt usurped and wreaked her cruel revenge on Psyche by imposing on her the most horrendous ordeals. Through instinct, intuition, tenacity and, finally, by following the wise guidance of the animated Tower – a symbol for the core of her being – she survived the ordeals. Finally, through the love of a now mature Amor, Psyche was transformed into an immortal goddess. (Psyche was the Greek word for the soul.)2
As we can see, nothing is as it appears to be on the surface and everything has an underlying or inner meaning or, put another way: As above, so below.
The Tarot has been described as ‘an outline of initiation, and as some form of initiation has formed the heart of every World religion, the truths contained in the Tarot symbolism are universal and belong to no one race, creed or culture, but constitute a text book for every serious aspirant on the Path of Light.’3
The Hero or Heroine’s first step on the path is usually triggered by a sense of longing, of boredom, perhaps a desire to rescue someone/something or an experience of an unusual occurrence. Sometimes this is known as the call to adventure.
When confronted with the decision about whether to take the first step on the Tarot’s Path of the Initiate – the way of the Hero or Heroine – we can either retreat into the eternal round of material gratification and ego trips where we are controlled and manipulated by the forces of our unconscious mind, or we can make the commitment and resolve to set out on our quest to satisfy our inner yearnings to become whole, complete, fulfilled and to transcend the unconscious human condition. As we shall see later, what deters us is fear.
Every day we are faced with having to make choices from the options we perceive to be available. Struggling with indecision can dissipate our energies. In the words of the American Protestant theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971), ‘God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’
The word ‘decide’ has the same root as infanticide, suicide, and homicide: it means ‘to kill off’. In other words, when we decide on a course of action it means we have eliminated/killed off the other options which then allows all our energy to be focused on a single goal. Of course, every decision, however minor or major, will have consequences but ultimately every decision we make will be based on either love or fear. If the choice is made out of love – the ‘self-love’ relating to our self-esteem – it will be positive, in the light, and will progress our spiritual endeavour. (The love referred to here is not about erotic love or loved ones but concerns the respect, compassion and spiritual love for oneself – one’s soul – that transcends the ego-centred ‘I’.) If we choose out of fear, the consequences will be negative, dark and constricting to the spirit.
Alan J Lerner, the late American lyricist who wrote such poetic words for My Fair Lady, Camelot and many others, presented a Masterclass on his art and dramatic writing at the New York Athletic Club in the early 1990s. He said that in all good theatre, the first act sets the scene for conflict: without conflict there is no drama! This tells us about the Hero or Heroine, or as we now call them the Protagonists. In the second act, the protagonist is confronted by challenging, even life-threatening forces that threaten to overwhelm him or her. If the protagonist is a character who, like Hamlet, succumbs and is defeated by those forces then the drama becomes a tragedy. If, however, the protagonist is someone like Rosalind in As You Like It, who confronts, resists and overcomes the powerful forces against her, then the drama becomes a comedy.
Day by day, we can all face conflicts: some may be of little import and others could be rather more threatening, but always we have to decide whether ‘to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or, by opposing, end them’.4
By opposing the overwhelming forces the Hero or Heroine becomes a ‘spiritual warrior’: one who never reacts but only takes action on his or her own terms; one who cannot be provoked into action but remains calm as if in meditation, yet still acutely alert at all times; one who has 360° vision – the ability to see even where he or she is not looking; one who never threatens or rattles the sword as a warning, but when the weapon is drawn is prepared to kill and, more importantly, is prepared to be killed. The true Hero knows when to advance and when to retreat and, unlike the immature Hero in shining armour (The Fool in his state of naivety), he does not rely on ‘luck’ or some romantic notion that ‘all will be well’. A spiritual warrior is a calculated risk taker – not a gambler – and never acts in anger. The evolved Hero or Heroine is a person of compassion and love who will live by goodness, beauty and truth.
There is a story of a Samurai warrior whose brother was murdered. After seeking the murderer for several years, the Samurai found the killer and as he was about to dispatch him the killer spat in his face. The Samurai sheathed his sword, knowing he could not kill the man in anger.
How do we begin this journey on the ‘path to self-fulfilment’? From time to time, perhaps more often when a crisis or trauma has occurred, we may be nudged by a sense of gentle pressure on the nape of the neck or a somewhat strange, persistently aching ‘gut-feeling’ that is telling us we need to do something to change direction or to set out on our own ‘heroic journey’. Sometimes it comes in the form of an accident or illness; sometimes it comes to us in our quiet moments of solitude and introspection. To seek answers demands the Hero’s prerequisite qualities of courage, commitment and tenacity.
On the journey there are many trials and overwhelming forces that have to be confronted: there are dragons to slay, dark powers to fight, fatigue and despair to overcome and a retreat into a cave to seek solitude where the shadow is encountered and the Hero or Heroine realizes that whatever the treasures may be they will be difficult to search for, discover and keep.
The ordeals of the Hero or Heroine correspond to the process of initiation in which we face the shadow – that is, face our complexes. These complexes, most of which appear to have been inherited conditioning from an early age, control us and hold us in their thrall. ‘Facing the shadow’ marks the moment when we begin to understand what we have to do to discover our own innate wisdom and knowledge.
When we find ourselves ‘hating’ someone, breathing forceful vengeance and revenge, it is the moment to look inside and understand that the person who is the subject of our attack is more than likely a mirror image of an aspect of our own nature. As we shall see below, we tend to become that which we hate! Of course, we need to exercise discernment whenever we find ourselves either disliking or approving of someone or something. But when judgement and criticism are accompanied by anger and rage, we are then projecting our own faults onto others. If we refuse to recognize the reality of our own being, it will continue to torment us. As we are so acutely aware of the negativity in others because it strikes a chord within our self, by the same token we cannot recognize the positive qualities in others unless we too possess those same attributes: we could not speak of concepts such as love, compassion, kindness and other qualities unless we were aware of those qualities within our self. To test this, ask yourself, ‘What is it that I most like about my partner/spouse/best friend/colleague?’ And then ask yourself ‘What is it that I most dislike about my partner/spouse/best friend/colleague?’ Ironically, whatever it is you most dislike is that which you most need to recognize and understand about yourself.
We can recognize the shadow working in others when we see, for example, a person who gets married and then divorces only to later get married again to someone who has almost the same distinctive characteristics as the person they first married. What is the alchemy of attraction that brings us together with our partner? Is it the pheromones, the glance, the voice from ‘across a crowded room’ that makes us fall in lust and form a relationship or is this the shadow in action? At an unconscious level it is our respective psyches in collaboration. The object of our desire mirrors an aspect of our shadow that needs to evolve into consciousness. And so the two psyches say, ‘she looks good, he feels good, she smells good,’ and so on to get the juices flowing that will keep a couple together for however long is necessary. After a time, a couple can acknowledge the reason they are together and understand that all the traumas and the so called ‘ups and downs’ of a marriage/partnership are a manifestation of our natural reluctance to learn the relevant lessons, and be prepared to accept that our chosen partner is doing a perfect job by helping us to gradually discover a little more about our self. Alternatively, if they resist heeding the lessons and reject these golden opportunities to move on, they will be drawn like a magnet to a new partner who will be teaching them exactly the same lesson, except that the experience will get harder and become more traumatic. Ultimately, if we are willing to face them, we can begin to get to grips with the hidden and often self-destructive forces that control us.
Interestingly, what we are supposed to learn at school are the three Rs: Reading, ’Riting and ’Rithmetic, but in the outside world we learn Resistance, Resentment and Revenge!
To illustrate how the shadow exerts unseen pressures on our life we can take the example of the dependency manifested by abused men and women. How is it that a person who has been the victim of abuse as a child often finds him or herself in a partnership or marriage with an abuser? Surely, anyone who has suffered abuse as a child would instinctively steer well clear of anyone who is likely to abuse them in their adult life. And yet at every Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meeting there will be many dependants – spouses and partners of the abusers – who have a history of being abused.
This is the shadow’s way to guide us towards self-healing. Our progress along the path of life is governed not only by the way we respond to the people we meet and draw into our lives, but also by our response to external events. If we were made redundant, for example, would we consider this to be the worst thing that could possibly happen to us, or would we look on it as an opportunity to make significant changes in our life? And who’s to say that in some mysterious manner, somehow, unconsciously we may have manipulated the chain of events to instigate the apparently unfortunate outcome of being rejected or sacked?
A most erudite definition of the shadow can be found in Thorwald Dethlefsen and Rüdiger Dahlke’s book, The Healing Power of Illness. They suggest that whenever we try to identify ourselves by what we do and what we think – for example, ‘I am tolerant’, ‘I am spiritually minded’, ‘I am hard working’, and so on – we set up conflicting value judgements about who we are. In doing so, we immediately exclude all the things we don’t want to be or are afraid of discovering about our selves – namely, that we are intolerant, materialistic, lazy and so on. Instead, we project what we perceive to be these unpleasant or undesirable traits onto other people ‘out there’.
According to Dethlefsen and Dahlke, shadow creatures do not always remain in the psychological realm: whilst they may be unrecognized, sooner or later they will manifest themselves in the body as symptoms of illness. They go on to say:
What we concern ourselves with most is what we do not want … [The] ‘outer’ world acts as a mirror in which all that we ever see is ourselves – and in particular our shadow, to which we are otherwise inwardly blind. We are partially blind to our own psyche, and are capable of recognizing the part of it that is invisible to us (the shadow) only via its projection and reflection in the supposed environment or ‘outer’ world. Those who inhabit this world without recognizing that everything they perceive and experience is none other than themselves are entangled in a web of deception and illusion. … Yet exactly the contrary is actually the case; the shadow contains everything that the world – our world – most needs for its salvation and healing. The shadow makes us ill – un-well – because it is the very thing that is lacking for our well-being. For this reason every mythical hero desirous of becoming both healed and healer has had to come to grips with horrors, dragons, demons and even hell itself.5
When we banish what we consider to be our negative traits, they do not go away. They become embedded in the unconscious mind, but – inevitably and when least expected – they will emerge unwelcomed from the shadow and manifest themselves in our daily life.
When there is a resolve to continue the journey, the Hero or Heroine emerges from the cave and out of the shadow into the light (of consciousness). This re-birth or resurrection, which carries with it the prospect of complete mastery of ourselves – body, mind and spirit – is known as the return. In fairy tales, this mastery is often represented by the wedding that brings many such tales to an end.
In Carlos Castaneda’s book The Teachings of Don Juan, Don Juan, a Mexican Indian shaman, speaks about the ‘enemies’ we will encounter before we can become ‘a man [woman] of knowledge’. He says that when we set out on our quest to learn about ourselves we have no clear perception of our objectives, nor of the hardships the quest will entail.6
At some point in our lives we set out to explore and learn something about the ‘occult’ or hidden mysteries. For some of us this may simply be an inner need to find the answers to life’s perennial questions. No doubt, the process of seeking the answers will be challenging and often fearful the more we journey into the unknown.
The first enemy we will encounter is Fear, but if we turn away from it our life can become harmless and ineffective. Dispelling the fear leads to the second enemy, what Castaneda calls Clarity of Mind, through which we may become assured and courageous. But if this newly-acquired sense turns into a feeling of invincibility, it will block our pathway to further learning and understanding to the point where we become the immature crusader of lost causes or take on the guise of a clown – the naïve Fool – or, at worst, we can turn into a tyrant.
Having attained clarity of mind, we will then meet our third enemy Power, which can blind us and divert us from pursuing our quest for learning. At this point, the danger is that we may come to the end of our life without ever understanding our selves and the world about us.
By defeating these three enemies, we have no more fears: our clarity of mind and the self-control over power mean that we are almost at the end of our quest, but we must now confront the last enemy – Old Age. This is a battle we can and must fight while knowing that we can never win. Don Juan tells Castaneda that if we give in to tiredness or yearn to rest we will become feeble and lose our clarity, power and knowledge. But, he says, if he ‘lives his fate [and does not succumb to tiredness] … he can be called a man of knowledge, if only for a brief moment when he succeeds in fighting off his last invincible enemy. That moment of clarity, power and knowledge is enough.’7
Our mindsets and automatic responses to given events can tend to impede our journey towards personal enlightenment, but what about all the people we have encountered in the course of our lives? Perhaps the healing process Dethlefsen and Dahlke refer to in their definition of the Shadow (see page 18) largely comes about through forgiveness, because two of our greatest obstacles to wholeness are guilt and shame. This is the universal theme in everyone’s drama of life as set out in this three-act play – our own personal mythical story.
The preface to the drama of life is that most, if not all, of us feel obliged to attempt to make a gift to re-pay a debt we believe we owe to our parents, to society or even to the world at large.
In all good drama there must be conflict, the foundations of which are dictated by where we are born, which side of the tracks, status of family, colour, creed, nationality and so on. This sets up the drama that will unfold throughout the play, and Act I ends as soon as we leave home or get kicked out of the nest when we enter university, get a job, set up home, have relationships, get married, join the army, go to sea and begin to take responsibility for our selves.
Here we meet the good guys and the bad guys: those wearing the white hats are the people in our lives who love, nurture, bless, support and guide us. Those wearing black hats are the treacherous betrayers, the back-stabbers and those who let us down.
The white hats will not change us but simply maintain and sustain the status quo. It is only the black hats who will effect change – these are the people who teach us the lessons and experiences to move us on out of naivety.
As in all good drama, sometimes the good guys turn out to be bad guys and vice versa, bearing in mind that the underlying theme – the sub-text if you will – is that we are intent on making a ‘gift’.
Act II does not end until we come to understand that all these people – both good and bad – are in our drama because it is we who have given them a role to play, so why should we be so upset when they are acting out perfectly what they were supposed to do? We set them up and chose them to be in our life drama. Therefore, we cannot blame them for their actions but accept that they are there for some good reason demanded by the shadow.
The only way we can get off this eternal, spinning and not so merry-go-round of Act II is to begin the process of forgiveness. This means forgiveness of mother, father, sister, brother and everyone else in our life, which ultimately means self-forgiveness. Only when we are released from the burden of blame, playing ‘victim’, and this meretricious obligation that we must make a gift will we be able to complete the play. Otherwise Act II will still be unfinished when we come to the end of this life.
Forgiveness releases the energy we have previously expended on blame and trying to make the ‘gift’. It is only when self-forgiveness has released us from the burden of obligation that we can, if we so choose, freely make a true gift to humanity.
The drama which had all the makings of a tragedy thus ends and the comedy of life begins!
The following is a brief preview of the story of the mythical journey of the Hero/Heroine as told in the graphical, symbolic language of the Tarot. This journey along the Tarot’s pathway is sometimes known as ‘The 21 Steps to Freedom’, and illustrations of the individual cards that correspond to its 21 steps will be found in plates 2–5.
Life is touched with magic and we are inspired to depart from the familiar to set out on a journey. Although we are naïve and immature neophytes or novices, at the back of our minds there is a faint understanding of an unbounded potential and the endless possibilities the good Earth and Heaven have given us.
In our youth we sensed the presence of the invisible world of Spirit, but then we lost our connection to this invisible world. Now, however, we realize that there is more to life than the physical elements of earth, water, air and fire.
At this point, we encounter and appreciate the Feminine Principles (intuition, the Mother Goddess, sex and sensuality) and the counterparts of the Masculine Principles (rationality, Father God, the earthy, earthly nature of the world about us, and material attainment). These two steps represent a ‘marriage’ between intuitive, instinctive thoughts and ‘intellectual’ thinking.
The preceding two steps lead us to seek contact with a wise counsellor and other evolved people who will introduce us to a spiritual discipline and the divine knowledge of the sacred Cosmos.
Here we need to form relationships, and by experiencing both the spiritual and philosophical worlds of mind and body we reach a major crossroads in our lives. Through love and relationships we are given a glimpse of what it would be like to be free from the fear of abandonment and to evolve a balance between our Masculine and Feminine Principles, thus becoming whole and complete. We can also become aware that our experiences so far may have served us, but have stifled the soul. We may have resented the demand to conform and resisted being disciplined in our thoughts and actions, and yet the inner voice urges us to accept the wise teachings and lessons from others to release the soul.
We now stand at a crossroads. This is the critical moment when we must have the courage to let go of the reins and have complete trust and commitment in our quest. It is a journey into unknown, uncharted territory.
This new beginning is marked by an acceptance of responsibility for our every thought and action and a willingness to maintain balance and discernment in all things.
Here we walk between the material and spiritual worlds, seeking periods of solitude and contemplation to discover the self-sufficiency of our inner light.
This is popularly called Karma, otherwise known as the law of Compensation. Acceptance of responsibility for whatever cards ‘lady luck’ has dealt you implies that anybody and everybody whom you have ever met, befriended or had relationships with – including all those who have betrayed you or stabbed you in the back – have been drawn into your life by you! Even to the point that, as a soul, you chose your parents and the time to become a manifested being, because the characteristics, status, colour, creed and nationality of your parents offered you the tools, experiences, conflicts and attributes to enable you to move on to this current incarnation. The Wheel of Fortune is forever turning.
This is the tipping point. We have journeyed this far but as yet remain unconscious of the mechanisms of our persona that control us. Now we must confront the ‘stuff’ of our early conditioning experiences – our inner demons and the fear of the unknown. Here, it would be so easy to succumb to the comforts of the ego, shy away from confrontation and live in ignorance of the shadow. But do we want to live the life of an unrealized person who has been captured and held in thrall by their complexes? In order to move on we must summon up all our resolve and inner strength.
This is the time to pause, reflect, take stock and gather our energies before venturing out of the apparent safety zone of illusionment and into the light. Again, courage is needed to review our values, accept reverses and prepare to be born again.
The idea of regeneration can fill us with fear and dread, but before we can be transformed – re-born – the ‘old’ self must die. Suddenly, and unbeknown to ourselves, we are on the path of initiation.
We now have a resurgence of energy that generates a sense of our innate potential and heaven-sent alchemical power. But this can be a dangerous moment when, perversely, we can easily retreat from our earlier resolve to become ‘that which we already are’ by suffering, fear and self-doubt. This is the Devil within us all.
This step forward demands a sense of humility and a resolve to change our old ways of thinking and behaviour. Here we encounter a critical loss of direction, a breakdown in our ego consciousness and a crisis of identity.
Here we pass on to an understanding of ‘as above, so below’ – the perennial view that what happens in the cosmos or the macroscopic realms is repeated in the microscopic world. With our new optimism and self-awareness, intuition comes to the fore. We become self-nurturing, we tread lightly over the Earth; we understand how to interact with the natural flow of life and become inspired by Nature and the Cosmos.
Heightened intuition and instinctive nature reinforce our relationship with the rhythms of the natural world, but we must beware of self-deception and illusions.
The path ahead is now clear. We have emerged out of the shadows and into the sunlight where we are open and as transparent to our selves as we are to others.
Thus we can live by grace and enjoy being androgynous – to have a dynamic balance between the Masculine and Feminine principles personified by Sun and Moon. We no longer project our needs on to others or seek a ‘crutch’ from anyone. Instead we can give and receive love without conditions or wants. This is the release of the soul – a resurrection of the spirit (not the flesh) – and the realization that spirit is all around us. We are liberated from terrestrial limitations.
Now the world is at our feet, we can dance with an inner joy and wisdom. We have fully realized the longings, wishful thinking and dreams of our naïve youthfulness; we are at one with ourselves and the universe; we are in a state of fulfilment and spiritual freedom.
We have healed our selves, discharged sorrow and have become integrated with the Anima Mundi – the World Soul. Our greatness is fulfilled, and now we must prepare to set out again to climb the next peak.
The Fool encapsulates the whole process: at the beginning the Fool is confused, simple, naïve and indecisive. At the end the Fool becomes the Magus – a wise Fool who has grown in wisdom and knowledge with a sense of humanity. At the end of the journey we are still The Fool but no longer in a primordial state of naivety.
So far we have gained a broad idea about what the Tarot is telling us, but before we can ‘read’ the full import of the cards we must learn the language.