Egypt being an essential key to the knowledge of the Icons, let us dedicate ourselves to one of the key aspects of its Tradition, the journey of the dead: a metaphorical representation of the Soul’s journey through the Afterworld. Is there a correspondence in the Tarot? We already know that the Fool, being without a number, is considered a card apart. As the creators of the Icons chose in this way to represent all of them, as a sort of iconographical-symbolical summary, let us attempt to understand what this signifies. The Fool is a pilgrim on a journey and the concept of a Way, the notion of a Path, in itself, thus assumes relevance. The Tarot, represented in its entirety by this card, becomes a Pilgrimage, a Research, a Path of 21 stations with the World, the circle of the Zodiac, the Heavens, the Micro- and Macrocosm, as its goal: for this reason, under the feet of the Fool we find the colour azure, representative of the heavenly Way. At the same time, this path, still thanks to the World, immaculate, affirms the sense of purity and of essentiality. In synthesis, we may say that the Tarot is a Path in the direction of the Heavens and Purity. What is the relationship with the journey of the dead? The Fool is a guide, precisely as Anubis who, in the Egyptian cult, is “ he who conducts and guides the souls of the dead ”. The term Mat (in Italian, matto=fool, insane person), because of a presumed and erroneous Italian origin of the Tarot, it has always been associated with a deranged personage, as indicated by the many decks of the past. In any case, as the Icons were not created in Italy, the word derives from the Persian language and recalls the expression “ Shah Mat ” which means the “King ( Shah ) is dead ( Mat )”, an expression used also in chess at the moment of capture of the adversary’s king, in the word “Checkmate.”
The card, therefore, does not symbolize a fool but a dead person in the spiritual sense, somewhat more reassuring. Who would wish to follow a spiritual path indicated by an unbalanced individual? Where would the Arcanum of the Arthur Waite Tarot, denominated “ The Fool ”, lead us? To the edge of a precipice? Or to lose ourselves in some psychedelic meanderings of the consciousness? We would wonder at length regarding the curious opinions of many occultists of the past...
With the Fool representing the dead, the parallelism with Egyptian tradition becomes perfect: Anubis, in fact, conducts the candidate, the dead person, in a boat along a river towards the Chamber of Justice presided over by Osiris...
Fig. 31
Journey along the river in the direction of the Judgement of Osiris
Thus, the fact that the Judgement card expresses the concept of rebirth should not surprise us: who is the dead one, on the initiatic plane, if not he who is not yet awakened in the world of the Soul? Or from another perspective, has renounced the secular and is dead to the material world? For this reason, in the Egyptian initiatic journey and in the Tarot, as testimony to rebirth, we find the symbol of the sarcophagus. This was not used only as a coffin for the deposition of the body of the pharaoh, but was considered the entranceway to another dimension, a sort of mechanism of rebirth. This is why, changing the depth of the field of observation, behind the personage of the Hanged Man, appears the form of a sarcophagus, precisely beside the Arcanum XIII, symbolizing death.
Fig. 32
The sarcophagus
Fig. 33
The XIII Arcanum
Here as well appears a multiplicity of meanings: on one side, physical death; on the other, thanks to the position of immobility of the Hanged Man, a symbolism of meditation. After all, what is this technique if not the access to a new state of consciousness, to a new dimension? The Tarot, in harmony with Egyptian Tradition, invites us to change our life, to follow ourselves rather than others, in order to realize a true identity and to enter into contact with our interior reality. Although these demonstrations are only the beginning of a long series of correspondences with Egypt, we consider them decisive enough to illuminate the secret structure of the Arcana in relation to the journey of the dead, which, through the reawakening of a superior awareness, leads to a second birth. This is the extraordinary teaching, perfectly summarized by the last two Icons, which alive, awaits those who travel the Path of Initiation : to reach a new consciousness (XX) in order to reawaken and achieve contact with the Soul (XXI).
Fig. 34
The Awakening
Fig. 35
The Soul