1

THE MAJOR ARCANA

by Christine Payne-Towler

The Fool
This Arcanum has mutated profoundly pulling off his loincloth
throughout its history. Its original image was to reveal his insatiable
the Beggar, who appears sound of limb but arousal. Clearly, no
vacant-minded, raggedly dressed, with feath- respect was being
ers in his matted hair (Pierpont Morgan- accorded to anyone who
Bergamo Visconti-Sforza tarocchi, mid- embodied this archetype
1400s). Stuart Kaplan (Encyclopedia of Tarot, in the fifteenth century!
Volume 2), in his essay on The Fool (pp. 158-
9) explores the significance of the white shirt By the next century, this
and pants, the droopy stockings and the character harnessed his
feathers worn in his hair or on his belt, all entertainment potential
associated with the spirit of Lent during the by becoming the more
spring carnival in Renaissance Italy where formal Jester with his
Tarot was born. trademark multicolored THE FOOL
outfit and puppet- SPANISH MARSEILLES
The Mantegna Tarot of headed wand (anony-
1459 shows us Misery mous Parisian deck, early 1600s). The village
by portraying the idiot image had not faded away, however
lowest level of human (Mitelli, 1664).
life, an injured and
exhausted beggar being The Marseilles image (1748) merges the
attacked by a dog. entertainer with the idiot, giving us the multi-
Tarots from this same colored costume and now-familiar walking
era used the image to away pose of the Fool, with a snapping dog
editorialize about the pulling off his pants from behind. The Arcana
causes of such misery: of Court de Gebelin (1787) and Eteilla (late
the Charles VI Tarot 1700s) repeats this image exactly. The Tarocco
(1470) shows a Mad- Siciliano cards of 1750 differentiate the Fool
man wearing a hat with (No. 0) from Miseria (unnumbered), including
bells and rabbit ears, both for good measure.
tattered shirt and
THE FOOL loincloth, teased by A century later, Etteilla’s Fool had mutated
ERCOLE D’ESTE boys in the street, while into the Alchemist, still dressed in his tradi-
Ercole d’Este (1475) tional jester garb but walking tentatively
shows him prey to lust, with the little boys forward with his hands over his eyes. This
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concept is further revealed on the leaning over his table, left hand reaching
“Alexandrian” Blind Fool card, who stumbles down, right hand raising his chalice (fifteenth
his way between the shards of a fallen obelisk century). Catelin Geoffrey’s Tarot (1557)
while a stalking crocodile lurks in the shad- crowds the card with
ows. onlookers, and the
Mountebank is clearly
All these versions of the Fool comprehen- doing tricks with cups
sively depict a person who is ignorant, driven and dice, still with
by the basest needs and urges, and who has both hands down,
fallen into the lowest human estate of poverty again one holding a
and deprivation. At best he is a carnival wand. In the
entertainer, a shyster; at worst he is lost and Rosenwald images
vulnerable because of his self delusion. Not from the early six-
until the twentieth century do you see the teenth century, the
Waite image of the soul before its fall into interesting detail is the
matter, untainted by contact with the city and rabbit eared hat which
its ills. Modern decks take from this image the we saw first in the
mountainside scene, the butterfly, the potential 1470s on the Charles MAGUS
misplaced step that will send him tumbling, all VI and d’Este Fool. WAITE TAROT
on faith that this is a historical Fool image. In Most Tarots of this
truth, the Fool was meant to represent already century emphasize more or less the perfor-
fallen humanity prepar- mance aspect of his workings by the presence
ing to take the first step or absence of an audience (anonymous Pari-
toward self knowledge, sian Tarot, early seventeenth century, and later
and eventually, The Piedmontese or Tarot of Venice, late seven-
Gnosis. teenth century). The anonymous Parisian Tarot
shows a dog and a monkey at the feet of the
The Magus Magus, another indication of his variety show.
Earliest versions of the
Magician can be seen in The Juggler card by Mitelli (1664) assumes an
the Visconti-Sforza entirely different aspect, the magician dancing
family of Tarots (mid- with a dog and a drum. However, this version
THE MAGUS 1400s). Named the was not taken up in the common Tarots. The
DE GEBELIN Mountebank, he is ubiquitous eighteenth century Marseilles deck
seated on a cubic has- brings us back to the traditional image, with
sock, manipulating objects on the table before the suit symbols on the table before the stand-
him. This image continues largely unchanged ing operator. Both the Marseilles and the
for centuries. Both hands are down close to contemporary de Geblin Arcana (1787) add
the table, although the left hand holds a long, the lemniscate hat, the “sideways 8” symbol
slender, upright wand. of eternity crowning him. The Magus image
from Etteilla (as in the Grande Oracle des
The d’Este Mountebank seems more active, Dames, 1890) continues the tradition of the
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prestidigitator working the crowd; he lacks the The High Priestess

lemniscate and bears the dismal title Maladie. Earliest versions of this image portray the
Popess (Bembo’s Visconti-Svorza, 1475)
In the earlier versions of this Arcanum a much robed in gold, with triple tiara, holy book and
stronger emphasis is placed upon the perfor- bishop’s staff. She lacks only the pectoral
mance aspect of the Magician than in twenti- cross to complete her High Church costume.
eth century Tarots. Although this card is The various versions of the Mantegna proto-
named for the Magus, a person who could Tarot (1470) modify this image on the Pope
calculate astrology charts and shamanically card, but she remains unambiguously female.
enact magical rituals for special spiritual In the same pack, No. 40, Fede (Faith), shows
effects, by the debut of Tarots in Europe, this a woman holding a cross on her left and
sense of the word “magician” was lost. The elevating a chalice with the right over which a
presence on the table of suit symbols, how- shimmering Host levitates. The Cary-Yale
ever, implies that this person is adept at more Visconti (1440-45) also includes an Arcanum
than sleight of hand. called Faith, an enthroned woman with a large
gold crucifix in her left hand, her right making
We are used to thinking of the Magus as one the single-finger sign of the Monophosytes; an
who can demonstrate true hands-on magic (as aging and shrunken Pope sits below the dais at
in healing, alchemical transmutation, charging her feet.
of talismans and the like). The modern Magus
is understood to be a person who can complete We can only gaze in
the circuit between heaven and earth. We awe at these images
sometimes forget that at the birth of Tarot, because at the time they
even a gifted healer who was not an ordained were in circulation, the
clergyperson was considered to be in league Catholic Church was
with the Devil. For protection’s sake, the line waging holy war against
between fooling the eye with hand jive and the Gnostic sects who
charging the world with magical will was left promulgated these
vague in the early Tarot imagery. Waite’s pictures and allowed
image of the solitary ritualist communing with women to seek ordina-
the spirits of the elements, with the formal tion to administer the
arrangement of symbols and postures between sacrament. The idea of a
left hand and right, is a token of the freedom female pope or priest
we have in the 20th century to declare our was a heresy of the THE PRIESTESS
spiritual politics without fear of reprisal. The highest order. The mere VISCONTE-SFORZA
older cards were never so explicit about what ownership of such an
the Magus was doing. Keep your mind open image could have you condemned to death!
with this card, and imagine yourself manifest-
ing something unique, guided by evolutionary Volume 1 of Kaplan’s Encyclopedia gives us
forces that emerge spontaneously from within. some tantalizing clues about who this Popess
might be in history. The Fournier Visconti-
Sforza cards show her in a brown nun’s habit.
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The Catelin Geoffrey Tarot from 1557 shows prayer in order to quiet their minds and de-
her with the key to St. Peter’s Cathedral! Even velop receptivity to the boundless mind of
the “Alexandrian” Tarots, whose provenance God. Seated between the twin pillars of reason
is unknown though definitely medieval if not and intuition, she is a witness to all but par-
older, show the Priestess as an educated, high taker of none.
ranking member of a temple community, with
the same book and triple crown. One remark from Volume 2 of Kaplan’s
Encyclopedia deserves special attention. On
A number of Tarot artists took the noncontro- page 161 he states, “The Popess holds a book;
versial option of dropping the High Priestess in art, a sealed book often appears in the hands
as such but substituting something else to fill of the Virgin Mary after her ascension into
the space. Moors and satraps replace the heaven. The Virgin Mary enthroned with a
Popess and Pope, Empress and Emperor in the book personified the Church.” He also men-
tarocchini di Bologna from the 18th century, tions that there is a painting of Isis in the
and the Spanish Capitano replaces her in the Vatican wherein she sits between two pillars
Vandenborre Tarot, an eighteenth century that hold up a veil stretched between them; an
Belgian pack. Another device used was the open book rests upon her lap. This version of
substitution of Juno and Jupiter for the Popess the Popess, whether Egyptian, Gnostic or
and the Pope (J. Gaudais Christian in origin, has had real staying power,
pack, 1850). Mitelli’s as we do not see any significant mutations of
Tarot of 1664 doubles up this image again until the mid-1700s.
on Popes, one bearded
Pope sitting and the Etteilla’s Tarots portray the Priestess as Eve,
other standing, the beard first mother of humanity, about to make the
a shorthand reassurance fateful decision that precipitates our kind out
of maleness. of mythical time and into history as we now
know it. This image has several variations
We see more triple because the Etteilla Tarot was “adjusted”
crowned Popess cards several times over its last three hundred years
reemerging through the of existence. Earliest Etteilla decks show the
sixteenth and seven- Tree of Life beside Eve and a vortex of energy
PRIESTESS
teenth century Tarots around her, the Magus being recast as Adam
EL GRAN TAROT
(the Rosenwald Tarot in such decks. Later printings changed the
and the anonymous Parisian Tarot in the vortex into a snake twined around the tree.
Bibliothèque Nationale) as the power of the
Church to suppress the spread of cards waned. This image intentionally casts the Priestess
This version of the High Priestess as Head into the era preceding Christianity, reviving
Mother of a nunnery would be familiar to a the ancient Snake and Bird Goddess from our
Renaissance eye, representing a woman’s one preliterate past. Guler’s El Gran Tarot
opportunity to become literate and powerful in Esoterico, commissioned by Fournier on the
her own right. In her role as teacher and guide, six hundredth anniversary of Tarot in Europe,
she would train new initiates in meditation and also depicts the Priestess this way but puts a
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pomegranate into her hand to indicate the Court de Gebelin (1787) kept to the older
mysteries of Persephone. (Demeter is corre- arrangement. At this same time, the bulbous
spondingly portrayed as the Empress.) In finial which had earlier been a mere detail on
keeping with the Gnostic character of earliest her wand (occasionally a fleur de lis) began
Tarots, there is no judgment placed on either appearing as the now-familiar orb and cross
the Eve archetype or the earlier Popess version talisman, usually at the top of her wand. Stuart
despite the Church’s ongoing campaign Kaplan tells us that this talisman “signifies
against women’s involvement with matters sovereignty over the earth. Surmounted by a
sacred. cross, it was used by the Holy Roman Em-
peror” (Encyclopedia, Volume 2, p. 161).
In overview, this Arcanum represents human
Wisdom, whether as the Gnostic Popess, The title Empress has also shown remarkable
Priestess of Isis, the ancient Snake and Bird constancy, although during the French Revo-
Goddess, Persephone or as Eve before the lution, when titles were out of favor, she was
“fall” into historical time. For the accused occasionally given
heretics who revered her in the fourteenth and other monikers such as
fifteenth centuries, she was the prophecy of La Grande Mère (“the
the coming Age of the Holy Spirit, female Grandmother” from the
personage within the Christian Trinity. On the French Revolutionary
journey of self transformation, once the Fool Tarot by L. Carey,
decides he wants the self mastery to become a Strasbourg, 1791). Her
Magus, The Priestess or Popess serves as his image suffered far less
first teacher, representing the Inner Life and erosion than the Priest-
contemplative study of Nature and the Myster- ess because it was more
ies. easily explained to the
Church.
The Empress
There have been two THE EMPRESS
In the Visconti-Sforza Tarots, the Empress has
notable exceptions to G RIMAUD ETTEILLA
nearly the identical attributes that she has
today. Seated on her throne and robed sumptu- this stability. Here they are mentioned in
ously, she holds on her left side a shield with a chronological order, based on when they first
black eagle emblazoned upon it and in her appeared in card form for mass production.
right hand a long, slender, golden wand. She is However, the second could be older than the
given four servants in the Cary-Yale Visconti first, we just don’t know (see “The Continen-
deck but not in any of the others from this tal Tarots”). The Etteilla Tarot first appeared at
group. She always has a crown, occasionally the end of the eighteenth century, right on the
large and ornamented. This image is near- heels of the Court de Gebelin/de Mellet
universal among the early Tarots. manuscript, after the Tarot of Marseilles
assumed its present form. Etteilla’s Empress is
Starting with the Jacques Vieville Tarot from not personified at all; we see instead an Eden-
the 1660s, the image was reversed, and she like image he calls “the Birds and the Fishes.”
seems to have stayed that way ever since. This card has caused endless confusion among
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encyclopedists and is almost always even adds a live eagle on her arm. Wirth and
misattributed. The title “Protection” tells us Waite include various plant forms, perhaps in
that Etteilla equated the Empress with wild reference to Etteilla. Of the “traditional-style”
nature, fertility and the modern esoteric Tarots, only the El Gran Tarot
stability of natural law. Esoterico has used the Marseilles as the
foundation for her image, and in that deck she
The second exception is was given two lions from the Strength
the “Hermetic/ Arcanum, the four phases of the moon on her
Alexandrian” stream of crown, an ear of corn (signature of Demeter),
Tarots drawn from the black bat wings and Mars as her planetary
Fratres Lucis document attribution (as in the Gra version of the Sephir
published by Paul Yetzirah).
Christian in 1870 (see
“The Continental Tar- It seems safe to say that this Arcanum, from
ots”). The Falconnier ancient to modern, portrays the Great Mother,
THE EMPRESS Tarot is the first public as in her title in the Revolutionary Tarot. This
IBIS TAROT version of these images, is the ancient, aboriginal, pre-Christian God-
used as illustrations for dess for whom the Priestess serves as
a book called Hermetic Pages of the handmaid. In medieval Europe it could have
Divinitory Tarot published in 1896. They were been argued that the Empress was a represen-
meant to be cut out, colored and applied to tation of whatever Queen currently ruled the
cardboard for a do-it-yourself Major Arcana land, an explanation that may have satisfied
pack. Here the Empress is Isis-Urania, the Inquisitors. But the scholars of the Renais-
barebreasted and in profile, sitting on a cubic sance and beyond would have had no doubt
throne covered with eyes (a reference to about her inner identity, although she could
Hermes). Behind her is the glowing orb of the not be shown as the “woman clothed with the
sun, twelve stars arch overhead, her feet rest sun” until after the French Revolution. The
on an upturned crescent moon, and instead of Empress is the fertility principle of the planet
a shield in her left hand, she holds the eagle who feeds us all, delights us with flowers and
itself. The staff in her right hand has a crossed fruit and terrifies us when her mood swings
orb on the top. destroy our plans with heavy weather and
plagues. She is the Mother of Embodiment,
These two exceptions have been the primary the source of natural law, and she who re-
inspirations for the modern Empresses of cycles us when we die; we upset her at our
Waite, Wirth and Knapp-Hall. The men who own peril.
created these decks were Tarot scholars
attempting to present a “definitive” Tarot, yet The Emperor
all three were more influenced by the maver- We find several versions of the Emperor
ick Tarots than the very steady traditional among the earliest handmade Tarots: in the
image repeated so often from the 1450s to the Brambilla Tarot, 1440-45, he is middle-aged,
present. All of them added the nimbus of solar seated, holds the wand and crossed orb in his
light and the crown of stars; the Knapp-Hall hands, and wears a long gold robe to the foot.
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In the Cary-Yale Visconti Tarot at Yale Uni- minimalist; he is face-front, crowned and
versity, the Emperor is wearing armor and bearded, and holds a wand on the left and orb
seems younger. His servants stand in the four at right. The Catelin Geoffrey Tarot cards
directions. Both these Emperors show the from 1557 show the Emperor fully armed
imperial eagle on their clothing and/or hat. under his robe, holding a sword clutched
against his breast and crossed orb on his knee.
In the Visconti-Sforza Tarot of 1450, the In all these cards so far, the Emperor either
Emperor is older, has a long white beard and looks out of the card full-face or is turned
gloved hands, and the crossed orb is raised away at a 45-degree angle.
before him. He’s not looking at it, though—his
gaze seems to search the far distance. Perhaps In the Piedmontese or
these Emperors show a resemblance to the Tarocchi of Venice cards
noblemen they were created for. (late 1600s) the Emperor
is shown for the first time
The Mantegna proto-Tarot (1470) includes in profile, a detail that
several images that have influenced the Em- may be linked to the
peror Arcanum. Re (the King), a young, clean- proposed emergence of
shaven man, sits ramrod-straight on a hard, the Fratres Lucis manu-
backless throne, wears a spiky crown and script or an earlier proto-
holds a narrow wand. Imperator (Emperor) is type version, to which
older and full-bearded and sits on a padded the early Marseilles
throne embellished with curtains. His long Tarots were adjusted in
robe cocoons his this very decade. This
slouched figure, but is Emperor sits on a more THE EMPEROR
pulled up to show his chairlike throne with arm VISCONTI-SFORZA
shins and feet crossed rests; the eagle is por-
at the calf. One hand trayed on the shield at his
holds the crossed orb feet and his crown is now an elaborate helmet.
of sovereignty. An He brandishes a very formal and decorated
eagle stands at his feet. wand. For contrast, let’s look at the Hermetic/
Elements of both these Alexandrian images, (the Falconnier Tarot
images have found published in 1896 but quite likely older): Here
their way to the Em- we see the Emperor with body facing forward
peror Arcanum over but face in profile, holding the usual wand
THE EMPEROR time. with (uncrossed) orb at the top. His legs are
EL GRAN TAROT crossed under a short pleated skirt, and the
In the Charles VI Tarot of 1470, the Emperor crown on his head represents his mastery over
is an amalgam with armored torso but the skirt the material world. If there is a connection
of a long robe. His crown is smaller, the orb is between these two, it is the head and face in
lacking the cross, and his wand has a fleur de profile and the different but equally odd-
lis finial. Two small servant boys kneel at his shaped hats they both wear.
left. The Rosenwald Emperor (early 1500s) is
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The Mitelli Tarot (1664), in excluding both the “Gnostic Tarot”).

Popess and the Empress, has added an extra
Emperor and Pope. The first Emperor is The Waite-Smith Tarot returns the image to
seated, is bearded (older), and holds a geo- more familiar territory except for the addition
graphical globe and a wand. The second of ram’s heads prominently displayed to
Emperor is beardless (younger), is standing, override more traditional associations of the
and holds the usual wand and crossed orb. The Emperor with Jupiter (as shown in the previ-
anonymous seventeenth century Tarot from ous two century’s Arcana from Etteillla, Levi,
Paris (p. 135 in Kaplan’s Encyclopedia, Papus and Wirth to the Falconnier family of
Volume 1) shows us a new view: The Emperor decks). Variations in the intensely interesting
is standing, striding through the landscape, Emperor from El Gran Tarot Esoterico include
dressed in armor and carrying something that deer horns in a leather crown, a feathered
looks obscure but is more likely to be his cloak much like that of the Empress who
shield than an eagle. His spiky crown has a preceded him, and a black bird sitting in a tree
long feather billowing from it. in the background. These trappings cast him
into the deep prehistory of Christianity, as
Etteilla, a contemporary of de Gebelin in the does the glyph of the sun hanging in the air
late 1700s, eliminated the human imagery (the earliest Hebrew correspondence to the
completely from the Emperor, and promoted it number four and the letter Daleth). I see him
as No. 1 in his amended order, representing as the Grain King who is sacrificed after a
the first day of the divine creation described in year of royal living, his limbs thrown into the
the Hermetic Pymander. Stuart Kaplan would fields in the fall fertility ritual.
disagree with me, but I feel The Ideal (aka
Chaos) is Etteilla’s Emperor card, and he In the development of this Arcanum, common
means it to represent “everyman,” the male themes of the historical stream of images are
querant. It is alternately pictured as either a remarkably similar, with even the lone dis-
radiant sun beaming between parted clouds senter, Etteilla, opting for a more grandiose
(late 1700s) or the earth surrounded by the version of the same idea. The Emperor is the
rings of the planets (1800s). boss or leader, the head of state, the most
exemplary and powerful person in the realm.
The latter variant is an image of great antiq- His word is law, and the positive outcome in
uity, used by early Kabbalists and later affairs of state is directly proportional to his
Gnostics (it also appears in the Mantegna well being and happiness. The more enlighten-
cards) to represent the descent of the soul into ment and cosmic perspective he possesses, the
matter. Later variations of Etteilla’s Emperor better life is for all under his reign. He has
call it “Enlightenment,” as in the dawning of mastered the realm of the Cube, the world of
higher consciousness (nineteenth century matter and of manifestation.
Etteilla version, p. 142 of Kaplan’s Encyclope-
dia, Volume 1). Because we now know that The Heirophant or Pope
Etteilla was a Mason and studied the Hebrew This image has been subject to several modifi-
and Greek creation myths, I am inclined to cations due to the political and religious
rename his Emperor “Adam Kadmon” (see climate of the times in which Tarot first
 9

appeared. In the Visconti-Sforza Tarot from

Bembo, the Priestess is called Popess and is large scenes of Tarot players, either sitting in a
often dressed in ecclesiastical finery, under- room with a checkerboard floor (a fresco now
mining the exclusivity of the Pope’s role and at the Sforza castle in Milan, circa 1450) or
making both genders of equal rank. The male, framed in the checkered arches of a fresco in
bearded Pope is shown in triple crown making one of the arcades at the Issogene Castle in
ecclesiastical gestures, but holds no tokens of Val D’Aosta, circa 1415-1450. Perhaps the
his rank. The Von Bartsch Visconti-Sforza checkers on those
(date unknown) at least gives him a proper early decks show a
papal staff. Among the published versions of relationship to the
the Mantegna cards, the Pope is unambigu- “scene” those fifteenth
ously female, although referred to by the century frescos repre-
encyclopedists as if male. Perhaps that is sent. (We notice that
because Albrech Durer’s version of the the checkered theme
Mantegna Pope (from the early 1500s) is so disappeared until it
clearly masculine. was recently revived
on the Tarots of the
The Goldschmidt cards from the mid-fifteenth French and English
century show a more typical patriarchal Pope lodges of the late
with the fascinating variants of a Catholic nineteenth century. I
bishop’s mitre, a mysterious anchor inlaid in take it as a signal of THE POPE
the wall beside him, and a checkerboard black their various Masonic GOLDSCHMIDT
and white floor mosaic repeated in several affiliations, since their TAROT
cards from this deck (said to be from either rituals were always
Provence or Italy) and in the contemporary played out on a floor similarly checkered in
Guildhall cards (possibly German). One of the black and white.)
Visconti-Sforza
tarocchi cards from the The Gringonneur Pope from the mid-fifteenth
Victoria and Albert century is shown with cardinals flanking him.
Museum also shows a His profile is left-facing, and he holds the key
checkerboard floor to St. Peter’s Cathedral in his right hand and
under the Death card. the Gospel on his lap with his left. The con-
We notice that in the temporary Pope from the d’Este cards wears a
early 1400s, this more elaborate triple crown, holds up the two-
checkered pattern fingered blessing with the right hand and
shows up several times grasps a chunky, gilt Grail Cup on his lap in
in relation to Tarot, his left hand. In the following century, the
still a rare subject in Rosenwald Tarot shows the Pope in face-front
those days. The two pose, with triple crown and scroll in right
examples given by hand. Catelin Geoffrey’s Tarot from 1557
Kaplan in Volume 2 of gives us a triple-crowned Pope with the triple-
PAPA crossed staff as well as the keys to St. Peter’s
MONTEGNA his Encyclopedia show
Cathedral. The Mitelli Tarot from 1664 in-
 10

cludes two Popes as mentioned in the Priestess the Marseilles, the N. Conver Tarot and the
entry, both bearded, both wearing the triple Lando all seem to have adopted this device.
crown; one Pope is seated on a throne with a Court de Gebelin repeats the pillars, puts
paper in his right hand, while the other stands servants at his feet, and introduces the name
empty-handed. The Heirophant. The same Tarots that replaced
the Popess with the Spanish Capitano (the
A refreshing break Vandenborre and the pack by Jean Galler)
from all this Catholic have replaced the Pope with Bacchus astride a
symbolism appears wine keg, with a headdress and loincloth made
upon the French of grapevines, swigging from his bottle with
Revolutionary Tarot by evident glee.
L. Carey (1791). Due
to anti-royalist politics Etteilla, ever the iconoclast, replaces the
of the time, the Priest- personification entirely with “Secrets,” show-
ess became Juno and ing the zodiac filled with the stars of day and
the Heirophant became night. I believe that this was his way of em-
Jupiter. He is nude phasizing that the teacher of the Mysteries is
save for a strategically not as important as the Sacred Sciences
NO. 5 SECRETS floating scarf, and he themselves. The Pope or Heirophant has from
ETTEILLA TAROT straddles the back of ancient times represented the head teacher in a
an eagle, holding sacred university, an institution that the Ro-
thunderbolts in both hands. (His counterpart, man church had overtaken and co-opted to its
Juno, is tastefully dressed but barefoot, and curriculum by the fifteenth century. Etteilla
riding on a peacock.) chose to point to the university of Nature from
which his students should seek initiation and
Notes from Fournier’s Catalog of Playing where they would not be denied.
Cards Volume 1 tell us that, in regard to the
contemporary tarocchino from Bologne (No. As this Arcanum developed into the twentieth
36 in Fournier’s section on Italy), “. . . the century, we see the older debate over the
Popes and Emperors are shown with heads gender of the Heirophant returning. Knapp-
and shoulders of Negroes and satraps accord- Hall and Papus make it unambiguously fe-
ing to the dictates of the Papal Authority.” male, while Waite-Smith and Wirth show him
Perhaps the Pope didn’t want these Arcana to with full gray beard. In the end, there is no
be confused with any historical Europeans difference, really. The Heirophant teaches
past or present! practical applications from the book of natural
law, revealing those secrets hidden in every-
In the eighteenth century Tarots, two pillars day matter, the cycles of moons and tides, the
appear behind the Pope, perhaps another clue links between the body and the cosmos.
to the timing of the appearance of the Because the monasteries were the only places
Alexandrian/Fatidic Egyptian Tarot which a person could learn to read and write in the
places the Pope between them (though in Middle Ages, the Heirophant is the one to
those decks he was called the Master of the whom a student would petition for entry, and
Arcanes). Contemporary decks by Jean Payen,
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s/he sets the curriculum for the neophytes’ Apollo, and No. 43, Venus, suggesting the
course of study. With right raised hand in the identities of the royal couple who come
attitude of blessing, s/he links herself with the together under the auspices of this Arcanum.
ancient lineages of Melchezidek, first initiator
of the Hebrew priestly tradition, and passes on The Rosenwald Tarot cards from the sixteenth
the lineage teachings. All self-generated century reveal a man on bended knee before a
shamans of any tradition inherently belong to woman, while above them a blindfolded angel
this lineage. with female breasts and male genitals prepares
to shoot the woman in the heart with an arrow
Lovers of love. Note that this ambivalent gender
The Pierpont-Morgan Bergamo tarocchi association shows up a century later as one
“Love” card (mid-1400s) shows a handsome characteristic of the “new” Devil Arcanum
young man advancing from the left and a influenced by the reforms of the 1660s. We
beautiful woman standing to the right, both in know this angel is not meant to be a devil
medieval clothing reflecting royal status, as if figure, however, because the wings are dis-
they were reiterations of the Empress and tinctly feathered rather than black and leathery
Emperor. They are meeting and shaking hands as would be those of a demon.
below an upright, blindfolded Cupid who
appears to be ready to drop an arrow onto the In the mid-1600s we enter a time of mixed
man’s head. The contemporary Cary-Yale influences. This card tends to have a large
Visconti portrays the same couple but on numbers of variants through the years, giving
opposite sides, in a manicured garden under a us numerous subtle changes in interpretation
sumptuous canopy furnished with a bright red from one pack to another. Several that might
couch. A blindfolded cherub flying above is be especially interest-
now about to drop the arrow on the woman. ing are mentioned
This image too was called Love. Kaplan, in below. But the image
Volume 2 of his Encyclopedia, likens these that eventually became
images to “betrothal portraits” popular in standard, first on the
Germany and later in Italy. Such portraits Marseilles family of
typically show the couple linked by Cupid, Tarots and later on
who carries two arrows but no bow. The Etteilla and all the
arrows are meant “that they might love each French Esoteric cards,
other equally” (p. 164). was the Two Paths,
showing a young man
The Charles VI Tarot from 1470-80 calls this at a fork in the road,
Arcanum the Lovers, and shows several standing between two
couples dancing and romancing; two cherubs women who represent NO. 6 THE LOVERS
are at the ready, bows drawn, to pierce some different possible ANONYMOUS PARISIAN
members of the crowd with their barbs of destinies for him. This
love. Kaplan, in Volume 1 of his Encyclope- image first shows up on the Jacques Vieville
dia, says the Lovers card is represented in the and Jean Noblet Tarots, both from the early
Mantegna Tarocchi (1470) by cards No. 20, 1660s in France.
 12

Aside from these amusing but inconclusive

By the early seventeenth century, the anony- variations, the primary image for the Lovers
mous Parisian Tarot shows a very quizzical goes forward as some variation on the “new”
version of the Lovers. The woman appears on (in the 1660s) Two Paths image. In that for-
the right, human but with what seems to be mulation, the young man (the Magus?) who is
gray angel wings that standing at a fork in the road must choose
match those of the between a modest angel and a primitively
cherub overhead. Her dressed nature girl (meant to imply sexual
gaze and hands are availability). Between them, the two women
focused on his lap. We represent virtue and vice. The cherub is
see him diagonally from aiming the arrow at the man in the center of
behind as he straddles a the image as if to imply that the responsibility
hassock, looking at her for all consequences of this Choice will be
face and embracing her borne by the chooser (meaning the person who
chest. The cherub has draws this card).
an arrow ready to
release, pointing at the The main variant of the Choice card is shown
man. Is he receiving by the Jean Payen, Marseilles, Court de
sexual attention from an Gebelin, N. Conver and Vandenborre Tarots.
THE LOVERS angel? Is this love or All show a marriage ceremony being per-
SPANISH MARSEILLES lust? Gioseppe Maria formed by an older priestess who stands in the
Mitelli’s Tarot (1664) does not help us with same position the “vice” woman would have,
this question, as he shows only the chubby to the left of the young man. This produces the
cupid standing on earth though possessing same silhouette as The Choice, but the tempt-
wings, arrows holstered, wearing a blindfold. ress image is replaced by the priestess (or
He holds a flaming heart in his left hand. Holy Mother) image.

One Tarot from 1750 shows an interesting This priestess is ceremonially uniting the
variation (Tarocco Siciliano cards). This pack couple at a crossroads in the manner of a
presents the Arcana in a different numerical pagan handfasting. The priestess sometimes
order than usual, so the Lovers image is has her back turned to the viewer of the card,
numbered 8 instead of 6. A woman and a man which can make it unclear whether she is
are in the open landscape, the requisite cherub older and making a marriage or younger and
on a cloud above them. The cherub’s bow is competing with the bride for the attentions of
drawn, ready to shoot the man. This man is the young man. Usually the artist will have
caught in a moment of shock, recoiling at taken the time to detail a headdress for the
what the woman is presenting. She is holding extra woman if she is meant to be more than a
up another arrow, which has apparently flirtatious competitor of the bride.
already been released into her. It seems the
man is not as receptive and peaceful with the In each case, the cherub hovers overhead
prospect of love as the woman! either targeting the groom or aiming between
the bride and groom. Almost never are either
 13

of the women made the explicit target of the silhouette. Even the Milanese Tarot by F.
cherub’s arrow. A modern version appears in Gumppenberg (late eighteenth or early nine-
the F. Gumppenberg Tarot, 1807-1815 teenth century), which is the deck the indi-
(Kaplan’s Encyclopedia Volume 2, p. 344). vidual members of the Golden Dawn school
This card shows a beautiful young girl having were instructed to work with before they each
to choose between a young king and a hand- created their own personal decks, shows the
some warrior. The cherub is aiming at the Two Paths/Marriage formula.
warrior, while the young king is trying to pull
her away with him. Even in this case, it is not The Waite-Smith Tarot offers a surprising
the girl who is in the sights of the cherub! formulation of this Arcanum, depicting a
There must be an implicit lesson showing naked Adam and Eve apparently before the
through in this Arcanum, implying as they all events of the “fall.” He stands on the right
do that in this kind of situation the man (sym- before a tree with ten flaming leaves (repre-
bolically the ego and the will) is the deciding senting the Kabbalah Tree) and she on the left
factor rather than the woman (referencing the before a tree laden with red fruit and where a
heart). serpent is climbing into its branches. One can
say that Waite is projecting the Bembo-style
Etteilla returns the Lovers to the church, now Royal Couple backward into the primordial
presided over by a priest in the nave of his myth, and reminding us of our august origins,
chapel. We have no particular evidence to link our original divine natures, before we misused
Etteilla to the Church, although we can now our powers of will. A similar Adamo & Eva
be sure that he was a Mason and esteemed card exists from a card game called Labyrinth
among his peers. He may be echoing the by Andrea Ghisi (1616), and perhaps that is
Adam C. de Hautot Tarot (1740s) or the what Waite is referencing.
Sebastian Ioia Tarot (mid- to late 1700s), both
of which show the sacred marriage being In choosing to add these Gnostic and Hebrew
performed by a man. But it is just as likely implications to the meeting of the Queen and
that Etteilla picked this version of the Lovers the King, he has superimposed a biblical
card because it allows him to transplant the mythos onto an otherwise pagan Sacred
Heirophant onto the Lovers Arcanum. In this Marriage image. This has not been a bad thing
way he frees up one card to name after him- in itself—Waite’s Lovers card is one of my
self: No. 1, Etteila (also called “le Consultant” favorites in his Tarot. But in so doing he left
and “Ideal”) implying, it seems, that he is the aside the important lesson of The Choice at
Heirophant of the Tarot. In other Etteilla-style the crossroads, the challenge to mature and
Tarots, this card gets the label Chaos, which in commit, which has been the dilemma of the
light of the Poimandres theme that Etteilla young man on the Lovers Arcanum since the
was following, was referring to the primordial 1660s. He also eliminated the Priestess,
state before creation began. representing feminine Wisdom, the link to the
Sophia bonding force that draws the partners
The Lando Tarot is less specific about which together and binds them over time.
version of the Lovers we are seeing, but in any
case it includes the classic “Two Paths” The Lovers card in all its glory and variety has
 14

referred to the sex/love/commitment/conse- They are coming at us full-front. The No. 45

quences continuum and how to stay balanced Marte (Mars) card from the Mantegna cards
within it. This card has been more variable seems directly related.
than some because there are so many nuances
of opinion about sex and relationship across In the Rothschild Tarot (late fifteenth century
cultures and centuries. But doubtless this or early sixteenth) at the Louvre in Paris, the
Arcanum is about the issues raised by real Chariot shows a male figure with winged
human relationships, since the protagonist is helmet on a raised platform. The horses
shown in the act of making a life-changing pulling his vehicle, while looking at each
choice. One cannot have it all. To partake of a other, are in fact diverging. With his hands full
higher ideal requires self discipline. The path of the symbols of authority and victory and no
of pleasure eventually leads to distraction reins in sight, one wonders how he will con-
from spiritual growth. The gratification of the trol the implicit dilemma. The Rosenwald
personality eventually gives way to the call Tarot from the early 16th century depicts the
from spirit as the soul matures. charioteer in the same dilemma, but standing.

The Catelin Geoffrey Tarot (1557) gives us a

Chariot more controlled image: The man is holding a
The Cary-Yale Visconti Tarot (1440-45) bouquet of flowers and the groomsman is
portrays a man directing a pair of horses who holding the horses’ bridles. In the early seven-
pull the Chariot, occupied by a robed noble- teenth century anonymous Parisian Tarot, the
woman under a blue canopy with gold stars. laurel crowned man is piloted by a youth or
She holds the Visconti cherub who holds a whip over the steeds. The
dove that has a nimbus bottom part of the card is difficult to read
of energy around it. In because of clumsy coloration over faint
the Visconti-Sforza outlining, but it looks like the steeds may be
Tarot, the horses are swans.
winged, and the lady
seated in the cab gets Mitelli’s Tarot (1664) shows Venus in the
along without a driver. chariot, nude except for a golden ribbon
In her gloved hands around her ribs and a golden scarf billowing
she holds a thin wand behind her. Her chariot has no steeds, consist-
on the right and a ing instead of a rolling throne with stairs
crossed orb on the left. leading down to ground-level in front. The
“ground” in question is, however, a cloud, as
The Charles VI Tarot evidenced by the birds at her feet. She pulls up
THE CHARIOT on a set of reins which pierce downward
(mid-1400s) changes
MITELLI TAROT through the cloud, presumably to the world
the gender of the
person in the Chariot. below. Her empty right hand is outstretched,
It shows an armored warrior wearing a red hat, her expression benign. To my eye, this card
holding an ornamental ax and standing on the has a distinctly Gnostic flavor.
dais of a float pulled by two white horses.
 15

The Tarots I have identified as the “turning Wirth, Knapp-Hall, and the Waite Tarots, a
point” from folk Tarot to esoteric Tarot are the lingam and yoni image, sometimes winged,
Jacques Vieville Tarot and the Jean Noblet appears on the front wall of the Chariot. This
Tarot, both from the early 1660s. The Vieville symbol often refers to the sexual mysteries of
pack shows the interesting detail of human combining the opposites. But in this context,
faces upon the Chariot. This may show a because only one person
relationship with the prototype manuscript for is riding the Chariot, the
the eventual Falconnaire Tarot, which I have implication is that this
suggested started circulating in the Secret one person is becoming
Societies at this time. In that stream of Tarots androgynous. This
which has emerged from this source (includ- approach is made
ing the St. Germaine Tarot and the modern distinct in a 1935 pack
Ibis Tarot), the Chariot is pulled by sphinxes called the British Tarot,
with human faces. which shows a distinct
pair of breasts on a
Stuart Kaplan suggests that the Vieville Tarot seemingly male chari-
is the prototype for the Belgian Tarots, but in oteer.
those that he illustrates (Adam C. de Hautot, THE CHARIOT
1740s, Antoine Jar and Martin Dupont in the In every case of this V IEVILLE TAROT
1800s), the horses just look like horses. The card’s appearance, there
Jean Noblet form seems to represent the is a triumphal feeling, as if the charioteer is
standard model from this time forward. Some- being celebrated for a victory at battle or is
times it is difficult to tell if the person in the being paraded through the streets as a hero (or
Chariot is male or female, with the crescent- heroine). The card appears to congratulate
moon shoulder pads and the beardless face high achievement, a signal of a soul empow-
now becoming standard features. In some, the ered in the world. The huge wheels and frisky
arrangement of the armored breastplate could steeds speed up the rate at which the driver’s
suggest a female figure. will can be realized, and make more of the
world accessible to one ambitious enough to
By the eighteenth century, the male charioteer take the reins. There is real danger here
clearly outnumbers versions where the rider is because of the increased rate of change and its
a woman or a goddess. Occasionally the power to magnify mistakes in judgment, but
image proceeds away from the viewer or is in like a seasoned warrior, the charioteer stays
profile (as in some of the Etteilla Tarots), but attentive to the road before him.
more often it comes straight out of the card
toward the viewer. The sense of dynamic Justice
motion is always emphasized, often with In the Visconti-Sforza Tarot of 1450, the
oversized, studded wheels which, it is implied, seated image of Justice, her sword held up-
are whirling the Chariot along the road. right on her right and scales held up in the left,
is vaulted over by a fully armored, beardless
In the esoteric Tarots from the cusp of the knight with chin-length blonde hair who sits
twentieth century, for example the Oswald astride a skirted horse, unsheathed sword in
 16

right hand. I think what we are seeing here is variations aside from the occasional pair of
the two sides of Justice—the contemplative wings or a two-pillars
side and the active side. Alternately, the allusion formed from the
Charles VI pack depicts the Justice seated on a uprights of her throne
cubic throne, holding an upright sword in her rising behind her. Nei-
right hand and a hand-held scales in her left. ther Etteilla (whose
Resemblance to the Justice Arcanum can be images we know were
seen in the Mantegna card No. 37, Justicia deliberately skewed
(with both sword and scales, plus a leggy bird from the usual order) nor
with a fruit held in one foot). The Rosenwald Waite felt free to editori-
Tarot images present a version of the same alize much on the image,
thing (early sixteenth century). although in the Waite
Tarot, Justice was JUSTICE
In the early seventeenth century anonymous switched from position 8 EL GRAN TAROT
Parisian Tarot, Justice is shown standing in a to position 11. ESOTERICO
field, sword and scales in hand but blind-
folded, and with the Janus face (a young One interesting image from the illustrious El
woman to the front, a bearded old man to the Gran Tarot Esoterico shows Soloman as the
back). This device harkens back to antiquity figurehead instead of a female Justice. He is
and usually implies the benefit of hindsight holding aloft a small infant by the feet. With a
that comes with long reflection. In this case sword in his other hand, he prepares to cut the
both faces share the blindfold. infant in half. This image represents a famous
incident from the Bible in which Soloman was
Mitelli’s Tarot shows Justice unblinded in an able to determine which of two women was
outdoor setting, her one-shouldered dress the infant’s real mother by their individual
flowing in the wind and revealing one breast. reactions to his proposal to divide the baby
Her right hand holds equally.
the sword, the left the
scales. In the inter- The standard meaning of this Arcanum is
vening century conscience, the moral sensitivity that is sup-
separating this from posed to put us into others’ shoes and evoke
the Sicilian Tarocco our compassion and sense of fairness. The
(1750), the only thing great antiquity of this image has represented a
that has changed standard for humane and equal treatment
significantly in this between humans of all kinds since the time of
Arcanum is that Soloman. By providing a fulcrum that helps
Justice is seated in balance competing needs against the greater
the later pack, and good, and by using the two-edged sword to
her emblems have symbolize the exactitude necessary to make
switched hands. these adjudications, this Arcanum puts us all
JUSTICE
From this point on on notice that not one detail misses the inner
ANONYMOUS
she has almost no eye of the conscience. The treatment we mete
PARISIAN TAROT
 17

out to others will be received in our turn. backbone. Another early sixteenth century
image from the Rosenwald Tarot shows the
Hermit bent old man on crutches, but it has left out
The very oldest image the wings, hourglass, staff and/or pillar en-
we associate with the tirely.
Hermit of Tarot is
probably an illustration In Catelin Geoffrey’s Tarot (1557), the Hermit
of the poem I Triumphi is shown as an older tonsured (or balding)
by Petrarch, composed monk with rosary in his belt, walking away
during an 18-year from us. He is entering a curtained doorway
period starting in 1356. with a lantern held low before him. It doesn’t
Stuart Kaplan shows a appear to be an hourglass. In the anonymous
set of fifteenth century Parisian Tarot from the early seventeenth
illustrations of the century, the Hermit is now emerging from the
Triumphs, and the curtained archway, and he has a cane as well
THE HERMIT Triumph of Time is a as his hand-held lamp. (The shape of whatever
ROTHSCHILD DECK perfect prototype for it is he is carrying is indistinct, but it seems to
the Hermit. He stands have a lampshade over it.) The secret door in
on his float or chariot on crutches, bald, both cases would most probably represent a
bearded, robed and winged. Two stags pull portal to the Inner Sanctum where the inef-
him, and two hourglasses stand on either side fable mysteries can be contemplated without
of him. Stuart Kaplan tells us that “the hermit interruption.
is well-known in medieval and Renaissance
art as a man of great virtue and spiritual Gioseppe Maria Mitelli
strength. Often in paintings his presence is a (1664) evokes the
reprimand to sinners who are frolicking and classical image of
carousing” (Encyclopedia, Volume 2, p. 167). Father Time, a naked
old man with flowing
In the Visconti-Sforza Tarot of 1450, an old beard and large gray
and bent but sumptuously dressed man with a wings. He shows no
tall staff carries before him an hourglass, visible infirmities, but
contemplating the passage of time. The leans on crutches
Charles VI version (mid 1400s) shows a anyway, reminding us
similarly well dressed old man, lacking staff again of our original
image from I Triumphi. THE HERMIT
but still contemplating the hourglass, with
As of 1750 and the EL GRAN TAROT
cliffs rising beside him. The uncut sheet of
publication of the ESOTERICO
Minchiate cards from the late fifteenth century
(p. 128 of Kaplan’s Encyclopedia, Volume 1) Tarocco Siciliano cards,
shows the well-dressed old man on crutches, the essential details had been codified as a
bellypack at his waist. A pair of transparent robed and hooded old monk with flowing
wings rises behind him and between them white beard, a lamp held up on the right; a
rises a six-sided pillar along the line of his short crutch on the left supports him.
 18

versions, complete with a stylized serpent at

In the late sixteenth century decks from their feet. Few maintain loyalty to the oldest
Jacques Vieville and Jean Noblet, a new detail formulations, especially after the Marseilles
enters the picture—the arrangement of his became the prototypical “traditional Tarot.”
cloak partially covers his lantern. This detail,
found in all the Falconnier Tarots modeled on Given the many parables to be found in
the Fratres Lucis document, which I think has spiritual literature about “entertaining angels
been circulating since the 1660s, also appears unaware” (as implied by the Hermits with the
on the Jean Payne Tarot (1743), the Marseilles angel wings), and considering also the inter-
(1748) and the Court de Gebelin images esting later variation of cloaking or
(1787). A serpent at the feet of the Hermit is a uncloaking the light, it seems obvious that this
feature of the Egyptian-style Tarots as well, Arcanum’s major intergenerational theme
but that doesn’t appear until the F. reminds us that the most powerful and inter-
Gumppenberg Neoclassical Tarot from 1807. esting souls will often appear unbidden in a
“plain brown wrapper,” wearing the simple
Other contemporary decks followed the garb of an anonymous monk, often appearing
example of Etteilla, whose Hermit Arcanum aged or infirm. The pillar or column behind
reveals his light unshielded. The Tarocchini di him in some cards reminds us not to judge his
Bologna cards (eighteenth century) sidesteps power by his apparent fragility.
the issue by portraying the Hermit in his older
form as a well-dressed old man on crutches, The challenge of The Hermit is to be able to
downcast but with large wings, standing in recognize the Teacher in this humble disguise.
front of an unbroken, ornamented pillar. He will not make it easy for the student to
acquire his wisdom because it takes time and
Another eighteenth century image from an long contemplation to fathom what he is
uncut set of Minchiate cards (Kaplan’s Ency- illuminating with the lantern. He often speaks
clopedia, p. 52) reinstates the lame old man wordlessly or in ancient and barbaric tongues,
but adds an arrow piercing the hourglass and a communicating with the elements, the ani-
stag resting beside him. We see the stag again mals, the laws of Nature. While the hourglass
in the Spanish El Gran Tarot Esoterico, which was an identifying feature of the earliest
we are using in this CD Rom to represent the Hermit cards, the more modern ones have
ancient Hebrew correspondences. This image, shifted the metaphor, showing more or less
attributed to Eliphas Levi, includes a serpent light released from his lantern. But every
at the Hermit’s feet leading him into hidden Hermit card reminds us of the value of time
knowledge of the Kundalini. spent away from the everyday hubbub of
community life in order to destimulate the
Turn of the century Tarot “experts” differ as to soul and learn to join with the mind of Nature.
which version they emulate. The Waite-Smith
Tarot falls with Etteilla into the camp of the Wheel
uncovered lantern, in a land where no serpent The Brambilla Tarot ( 1440-45) shows the
lurks. Both Oswald Wirth and Knapp-Hall classic blindfolded Dame Fortune at the center
show the occulted light of the Levi-inspired with four people around her on the stations of
 19

the Wheel, embodying the various States of the perimeter of the Wheel, but crowning the
Man. (In some cards with this formulation, the Wheel is a male monarch with a pitchfork or
stations are labeled “I have reign” at the top, trident, apparently missing half his left arm. It
“I did reign” on the descending side, “I shall is not clear whether this entity is human or
reign” on the ascending side, and “I have no demonic, as the clumsy coloring obscures the
reign” at the bot- shape of his feet. If they were cloven or
tom.) This image chickenlike, the reference would be to the
holds steady through Devil, which I would consider a strongly
the numerous Tarots Gnostic statement.
from the workshop
of Bonifacio Bembo By the mid-1660s most Wheel of Fortune
(1445-80). The cards had settled down around the Marseilles
blindfold indicates style of presentation. Here the rising and
that Lady Fortune falling characters on the edge of the Wheel are
rewards people with dominated by a crowned creature with a sword
no respect for their who sits motionless at the apex. Sometimes
relative goodness or the entity at the top of the Wheel is a sphinx,
badness. sometimes a monkey. As Stuart Kaplan men-
tions, the characters rising and falling on the
WHEEL OF FORTUNE A deck of Minchiate Wheel vary in the amount of human and/or
BRAMBILLA TAROT Cards from late animalistic characteristics they portray from
fifteenth or early deck to deck.
sixteenth century (Kaplan’s Encyclopedia,
Volume 1, p. 128) shows the Wheel and its Mixing animal and human forms is standard in
four riders but not the central figure. Standing alchemical and magical arts, indicating incom-
atop the Wheel is a robed bear with a heavy plete development on the part of the magician.
club in the left hand and the crossed orb of Doglike characteristics represent greed, while
power in the right. The other three stations of references to the monkey indicate malice,
the Wheel are occupied with humans in their vanity and cunning. The sphinx is a very old
variations. The bear may allude to a royal composite entity which represents the Gnosis
lineage, a tribal or initiatory affiliation with within Greek mythology.
the astrological Great Bear (totem of the
mythical Arthurian clan.) If that were true, this The later emerging Hermetic/Alexandrian
Tarot could be representing its author’s loyalty Tarots, drawn from the Fratres Lucis docu-
to the families who were still tracing their ment or its prototype, refine this metaphor. In
lineage back to the children of Mary them one can see the ascending force as
Magdalen and Jesus. Azoth, the dog-headed human, the person of
desire. This person could become godlike if he
An anonymous early seventeenth century worked on himself, and he can be seen carry-
Tarot at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris ing Hermes’ wand, another symbol of the
gives another spin on the image. It portrays Gnosis (see “Confluence” essay). Meanwhile
the expected people rising and falling around the descending force, called Hyle in Greek
 20

and Typhon in Coptic, is pictured with the a wagon wheel (Delarue Etteilla, circa 1880-
qualities of a reptile, suggesting the uncon- 90).
scious, instinctive residue of our animal
nature. So the visual formula is “change is In the nineteenth century the images return
certain; learn to control impulsiveness and again to a more traditional look, but the
embrace the law of cycle. Wisdom will grow creature at the apex begins to mutate afresh,
through experience.” showing variations of a crowned woman
resembling Justice, a
Mitelli (1664) changes the approach drasti- little king, or an
cally, putting a wagon wheel under the seat of indeterminate
naked Lady Fortune. She is posing with it, “beastie” that could
holding up an open purse from which pour be a variation on the
coins and jewelry. Her hair is blowing in the Sphinx.
breeze. The logo for his card could be “easy
come, easy go.” This image was not taken to One “modern”
heart by the masses, and by 1750 and the concept of the Wheel
Sicilian Tarocco, we have a fairly conven- has followed the
tional image again. Waite-Smith “wheel
in the sky” image
Etteilla, on the other hand, uses the image of a that includes the four
crowned monkey on a tree branch, perhaps creatures of the
making a statement about inexpert leadership elements and quar-
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
among the “royalist” lodges. A man, a serpent ters. Others have
GRAN TAROT ESOTERICO
twined around him, is descending on the left followed the Oswald
while a little gray mouse is ascending on the Wirth version which uses a very stylized
right. The rolling hoop hovers mid-bounce Wheel on an elevated frame in a crescent
above a rocky landscape. The angle at which moon boat, bobbing on choppy waters as the
the monkey holds the wand hints that it is he Wheel turns with the action of Azoth (the
who is keeping the hoop rolling. When we rising force) and Hyle (the falling force). This
think of the times in which Etteilla lived, a image is a near-exact copy of the Egyptian-
period that encompassed both the American style Arcana, which I see as the influence for
and French democratic revolutions, one can all the Wheel cards with a sphinx at the top. El
imagine the poignancy Etteilla must have felt Gran Tarot Esoterico combines the crowned
as he designed this card! monkey of the Etteilla with the white bear of
the late fifteenth century Minchiate, here seen
Eteilla’s Tarots were the most popular of the rolling a great stone Wheel of Time. This is
end of the eighteenth century and the first part the plight of the secret royalty of Europe, the
of the nineteenth, and a Catalan version was clan of the Holy Blood, to patiently wait out
the first standard Tarot printed in Spain a the reign of the “crowned monkey”—the
century later. Because of this, variant images Church and its made-up royalty.
crept in, including a revival of blindfolded
Lady Fortune, this time robed and standing on A simple explanation of this card from its
 21

most ancient form to the present is change; the breaking a pillar with her hands. The
Wheel will keep on rolling, churning events in Mantegna tarocchi (1470) presents us with a
a ceaseless progression of ups and downs. No similar image called Force in which the
one can escape its action, which feels good woman is wearing a
when we are rising and terrible when we are lion-embossed
falling. The figure balanced on the top has a helmet and breast-
moment of eternal clarity, but the only unmov- plate with a live
ing part of the Wheel is the hub that pivots on lion in the back-
the crossbar that holds it up. Whether it is ground. She holds a
moved by the action of the Angel of Time, a wand with a knobby
disembodied Hand of Fate turning a crank or end in her right
the natural law of eternal return, we are each hand and breaks the
bound to occupy all the roles at one point or pillar with her left.
another in our life’s journey. The predictability
of the Wheel is its lesson, and that’s some- In the Rosenwald
thing we can take comfort in. If you don’t like Tarot from the early
the look of things right now, just wait a bit— sixteenth century, a STRENGTH
it’s bound to change. Of course, if you do like mild-looking VACHETTA TAROT
the look of things right now, enjoy it while it woman sits next to
lasts because it’s bound to change! an unbroken pillar, her arms wrapped around
it. A contemporary deck, the anonymous
Strength Parisian Tarot found in the Bibliothèque
In the image called Fortitude from the Cary- Nationale in Paris, shows us the familiar
Yale Visconti (1440– image of a woman wrestling with and/or
45), a beautiful lady taming a lion. She leans down from her throne
with a corona- to handle the beast, and her scarf billows
patterned aura rides behind her.
the golden lion
sidesaddle. The Giuseppe Maria Mitelli’s deck (1664) retains
Pierpont Morgan- the woman standing with a broken pillar,
Bergamo Visconti- although there is no indication that the woman
Sforza tarocchi broke it. Her one-shouldered dress exposes her
(1475), also called left breast, and she holds a scarf in her right
Fortitude, shows a hand.
strong young giant,
probably Hercules, A French pack circa 1720 (see Stuart Kaplan’s
swinging a club to Encyclopedia Volume 1, p. 146) shows us a
kill the lion at his man of royal rank opening the jaws of a lion
STRENGTH feet. The Charles VI with his bare hands. This hearkens back to the
ETTEILLA TAROT Tarot of 1470–80 Hercules image of yore. But the Tarocco
depicts a young lady Siciliano of 1750 prefers the symbol of the
with a dark halo, seated on a cubic throne, woman with the pillar instead of the lion.
 22

Etteilla’s images are all versions of the lady youth in his undervest with tie-on sleeves and
with the lion, although the beast is usually hose is suspended, upside-down by his left
asleep at her feet. This approach emphasizes leg, from a square frame. The right is crossed
the taming power of Lady Strength rather than behind the left, and his hands are tied behind
the brute force of Hercules. This theme is also his back. He gazes
reflected in the Falconnier Tarot from 1896, pensively into the
first of the Alexandrian-style Tarots to be distance as his hair
published, but quite possibly older than hangs around his
Etteilla’s Tarots. face. Alternately, the
Charles VI pack
A most beautiful Major Arcana tarocchi with from the mid-1400s
art from 1893, the Vacchetta, shows both the shows the Hanged
lion and the unbroken pillar with the calm and Man holding bags of
lucid Goddess standing between them. She gold coins in his
looks away into the distance, while the lion hands, hanging from
frolics beside her and licks her hand. This his right leg, with an
¡
synthesis combines the most non-violent orange feather
HANGED MAN
elements of the earlier themes we can trace in peeking from behind
CATELIN GEOFFREY
this card. him like a tail.

In the Strength Arcanum, the animal nature, so The Mantegna (1470) introduces the first
fierce and frightening in its primal form, has image of Prudence, a woman holding an
been tamed and brought to heel under the elaborate mirror in her left hand, a caliper in
direction of our finer, more subtle (feminine, her right. She has a Janus head—young
interior) self. The will and passion of our female face looking forward, older bearded
untamed nature does not need to be “broken” male face looking back. This symbol is usu-
but instead refined and brought to conscious- ally employed to suggest sober reflection in
ness so that all levels of creation, inner and the light of past experience. The same face
outer, might come into harmony. The feminine also appears on the Mantegna Theologia card,
soul-force shows a strength and persuasive implying that the state of mind behind those
power that can induce cooperation from two faces participates in two worlds at once,
others, stilling disruptive energies and bring- presumably with the “feminine” side in the
ing the planes of being into harmonious world of spirit and the masculine side in the
relationship. world of matter.

Hanged One/Prudence The Rosenwald Tarot of the early sixteenth

Illustrated in one version of this card is the century shows the hanging man again, arms
medieval custom of hanging traitors or their untied, holding a full bag in each hand, pre-
effigies by their feet. This shaming image venting the contents from spilling out. The
represents punishment or, alternately, the state Catelin Geoffrey Tarot (1557) also returns to
of debt and delinquency and its repayment. In this earlier image of a hanged man, but in this
the earliest Visconti-Sforza image (1450), a case the man is tied by both feet, hands bound
 23

behind him, swinging from an L-shaped upside-down Hanged Man on his left foot with
gibbet. There appears to be a ruffle of red the right leg crossed behind, hands on hips.
feathers around his waist which could refer to The Vandenborre Belgian Tarot from the
the Lenten Fool, No. 0, harbinger of the spring eighteenth century follows suit. But the
carnival. In keeping with the Hanged Man’s Tarocco Siciliano cards from Modiano, Italy
traditional attribution to Libra, those feathers (1750) take the image to its lowest common
could symbolize the Spring Fool being sacri- denominator: We see the back view of a
ficed at the onset of fall. gentleman in frock coat, knee britches and
hose, hanging dead from the branch of a tree,
In the early seventeenth century anonymous arms tied behind him. Versions like this
Parisian Tarot, the Hanged Man’s hands are violate the unwritten rule of this card, which is
free, and with the right hand he holds some- that however painful or tortuous the treatment
thing so it will not drop. The left hand makes of the Hanged Man at the time, it is specifi-
an open-palmed blessing like a priest. He’s cally not fatal.
hanging from his left leg with the right one
crossed behind, and his foot is tied with a A most interesting form of the Prudence card
rope. emerges in Etteilla’s Tarot, which we now
know was an attempt at restating the Hermetic
Never one to conform, Mitelli (1664) features creation mythos as detailed in The Pymander.
a man asleep on a Here she resembles the Hebrew Matronit and
throne, with his the Gnostic Sophia, aware that the serpent at
head resting in his her feet is an initiator and teacher, not a
arms on a pillow. demon. Her subtle smile and lifted skirt imply
Another man an understanding of the serpent’s place in the
stands behind him, great scheme of things. No longer does she
arms raising a contemplate only, but instead she actively
large mallet over- accepts her fate and whatever are its natural
head, ready to consequences in the world in which she finds
strike a blow from herself.
which the sleeping
man will never Both the Falconnier and the Waite packs
awaken. This represent the Hanged Man, as do the majority
image is so spe- of Tarots in history. This seems to imply a
cific and so unique certain fatalism compared to the Prudence
PRUDENCE that it looks like an formulation, with its suggestion of learning to
MANTEGNA event from local work with our fallen state instead of against it.
history. This shows again that the Etteilla Tarot was
not just a whimsical distortion of the Arcana,
A card called Prudence in a French pack from but an attempt to upgrade the Arcana at the
the late eighteenth century (p. 337 of Kaplan’s dawn of more liberal times. If he failed in
Encyclopedia Volume 2) shows us an effemi- some cards, he succeeded with others, includ-
nate or beardless youth standing like an ing this one.
 24

he chops away at the pope, cardinals, king and

This card invariably indicates the lack of others who are being trampled underfoot. The
ability to help yourself through independent early sixteenth century Rosenwald Tarot
action. Whether this is because one is trussed echoes the Charles VI image, but with less
and awaiting judgment or because one is drama. In Catelin Geoffrey’s Tarot (1557) the
female or too young to be taken seriously and reaper is standing,
therefore relegated to a passive role, there is shovel over the
no avenue for the will to win back its freedom right shoulder and
until this situation has passed. This is a time to scythe skimming
be philosophical, to study and meditate upon the ground on the
your circumstance, to make your resolutions left. A wan crop of
for the moment when you become free again. straggly hair and
Only those who possesses wisdom, patience empty eye sockets
and optimism will be able to see through the are especially
present humiliation and limitation in order to ghastly. The land-
grasp the inspiration one can gain from such scape is unremark-
an experience. able.

Death Stuart Kaplan, in

In many of the oldest Tarot decks, including Volume 2 of his
the Cary-Yale Encyclopedia of
Visconti from 1445, Tarot, states that DEATH
the reaping skeleton “beginning with VIEVILLE TAROT
rides a pale horse Vieville’s deck of
over fields filled with the mid-seventeenth century, the figure of
the body parts and Death is seen on foot with his scythe. . . . This
blood of various image persisted until Waite revived the old
Arcana characters. form with his depiction of Death as a skeletal
Alternately, Death is knight on horseback, carrying a banner instead
an archer in the of a scythe.” He seems to be correct on that;
Pierpont Morgan- although we see one standing Death a century
Bergamo Visconti- earlier, the convention changed precipitously
Sforza tarocchi after Vieville’s Tarot. Several Arcana display
(1450), with the this radical change appearing in the mid-1660s
curve of the bow in the Vieville and Noblet Tarots, and I assume
DEATH articulated like a the Devil card is one example of this phenom-
VISCONTI SVORTZA TAROT spine. He stands at enon. When we look at the Falconnier Tarot,
the brink of a preci- which I am suggesting is one of several
pice, testing the edge with his bony toe. The Alexandrian-inspired versions of the Fratres
Charles VI pack (mid-1400s) shows a skeleton Lucis manuscript circulating in Europe since
dressed in a yellow smock riding a dark horse. the Middle Ages (the manuscript I suggest
His big deaths-head grin expresses his glee as inspired these changes), we see a standing
 25

Devil reaping a field of severed limbs, much

like Vieville’s modification. Temperance
In the Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo Visconti-
By the early seventeenth century, Death had Sforza pack (mid-1400s), the Temperance card
sprouted what looks like wings, as in the depicts a long-haired blond woman in a blue
anonymous Parisian Tarot. Little gore is dress covered with
visible, and the scythe is the reaper’s only gold stars, pouring an
tool. A lone plant grows in the background. In invisible substance
the Mitelli Tarot from 1664, the skeleton from a silver urn to a
benefits from a better sense of anatomy, but gold one. She stands
seems bland, with scythe on the left and at cliffside looking
hourglass held aloft on the right. A little down as she pours.
pyramid stands in the background on the left
side. (The attributes of scythe and hourglass The Charles VI Tarot
are also associated with Father Time as well as of 1470–80 makes the
Death.) substance pouring
between the urns
In every case, Death represents the time of more visible, but that
harvest, as the ubiquitous scythe testifies. and the woman’s dark
Unless the fruits of summer are harvested, halo are the only TEMPERANCE
they are lost to winter’s harshness and the outstanding features. VIEVILLE TAROT
people do not eat. This Arcanum portrays the The Mantegna tarocchi shows Temperance
action of winter on the landscape—lush pouring the invisible substance again, with a
greenery is cut back, revealing the bones of dog at her feet looking at himself in a mirror
the earth. The season of that has a snake eating its own tail as a border.
dark and cold separates
the annual plants, which In Catelin Geoffrey’s Tarot (1557) Temper-
live and die in one year, ance pours from an urn to a basin, showing
from the perennials, less association with alchemy than with
which can take refuge in washing up. She is at least making a signifi-
their root systems until cant health statement in her times! Another
the following spring, variant of the Temperance image in the early
then sprout anew. As the centuries of Tarot might show her seated, but
scythe cuts the cords it seems to make no difference to the meaning
that link us to the past, it whether she is enthroned or afoot.
liberates us to go for-
ward without fear, The Temperance from the anonymous Parisian
TEMPERANCE
because we have noth- Tarot from the early seventeenth century
WAITE TAROT
ing to lose. We can see seems unremarkable, unless you can make
that everything pruned away is recycled for sense of the jumble of forms to the right of the
the fertility of the future, so there is no loss woman. It is also difficult to read what hap-
despite the changes the seasons bring. pens to the stream pouring from the upper
 26

urn—does it land in a second one at her feet? did not feel it necessary to display every
The paint job makes the underlying image single Temperance card.
unclear. She may be standing cliffside or next
to a body of water. Mitelli (1664) has turned The consensus on this card appears to be
her back to us, but nearly complete. The female figure is a refer-
otherwise she is as ence to the soul, and she is mixing a blend of
we would expect her, subtle energies that will presumably be em-
pouring from the ployed in the further evolution of the personal-
right-hand urn to the ity. The key to meaning in this card is its title,
left-hand urn. a pun on the process of tempering metals in a
forge. The metals must undergo much violent
The Vieville Tarot, handling, extremes of temperature and endless
which with the folding and pounding, but the end product is
Noblet Tarot marks a infinitely superior to the original raw ore,
turning point in Tarot fresh from the earth and utterly unrefined. In
history, gives us an this image, the soul volunteers the ego for a
interesting variant on cleansing and healing experience which may
the Temperance turn the personality inside-out, but which
Arcanum. In this brings out the gold hidden within the heart.
case, she holds a
THE DEVIL bird-topped wand (or Devil
ROTHSCHILD DECK a wand with an Authentic early images of the Devil in the
elaborate fleur de lis) Tarot are extremely scarce. For some reason
on her left and pours from the urn in her right this card is missing from nearly all the oldest
hand into another vessel at her feet. A banner Tarots. Perhaps the controversial nature of the
imprinted with the words Fama Sol waves image made it more
beside her, clearly an alchemical reference. subject to abuse. A
This version persists among later Tarot decks, very early image of
but less often than the image which the the Devil Arcana can
Marseilles Tarot immortalizes, that of Temper- be seen in the
ance pouring the liquid between vessels held Rothschild Tarot or
in each hand. Minchiate cards at the
Louvre in Paris. The
Over time, Temperance acquired wings, image is of a compos-
although exactly when is difficult to pinpoint ite demon with
because Kaplan does not always include chicken feet and legs,
Temperance in the groupings of Arcana he a remarkably human
displays. Vieville’s Tarot lacks them, but face in its abdomen,
Noblet’s Tarot has embraced them. As Kaplan wings, tail, horns, goat
mentions in Volume 2 of his Encyclopedia, ears, shaggy fur or WOODCUT OF THE
this Arcana has seen less variation than others feathers, and a huge DEVIL
in the first four hundred years, so he probably gobbling maw with the remains of several
 27

people hanging out of it. legs, face in his abdomen, bat wings, hairy
arms, tail and an insane expression. He holds a
A figure very similar to this appears on the red pole with fierce raking claws at one end
Tower card of the Catelin Geoffrey Tarot and a heavy iron chain hanging from the other.
(1557). This is a conception right out of the The red tongue sticking
ancient stone churches dotting Europe, which out of his gray beard
were carved inside and out to represent the completes the look. The
teachings of the Gospel (interwoven with Mitelli Tarot (1664)
pagan tradition) for the non-literate masses. shows a powerfully built,
The reference is to the “hairy wild man” of nude man/demon with
paganism, Pan the god of the wilds, and the bird feet, pointed ears and
animal side of ourselves. The image from a curving horns growing
Parisian woodcut circa 1530 shows very from his hairline. He
clearly the same kind of creature. Kaplan says carries a trident, has
“He is the Devil of the folk, rather than fine leathery wings, and sits
art” (Volume 2, p. 172). The Hebreo Devil with his feet upon a
card from the sixteenth century, cited by dragon-snake. THE DEVIL
Kaplan in his Encyclopedia (Vol. 2, p. 297), is IBIS TAROT
another classic folk-style Devil. Later Tarot On an alternative track, the Jean Noblet Tarot,
decks which want to reference this theme one of the earliest examples of the Marseilles
show the Devil and its minions covered with Tarot decks (this one published in Paris in the
hair. early 1660s) introduces important changes to
the older demonic image. This shift adds a
This image was new gender alignment to the Devil, that of the
predominant even androgyne. Female breasts and male genitalia
into the seventeenth introduce new information on the card. The
century, and ex- Devil also acquires for the first time a male
presses the traditional and female demon chained to the pedestal
concept of the lamia, upon which s/he stands. It looks as if a dis-
werewolf or vampire, tinctly new image began circulating among
the monster that cartomancers at this time which influenced
haunts the supersti- their thinking and showed up on nearly every
tious mind in the Tarot after this pivotal date.
dark of night, threat-
ening to steal one’s The Pierre Madenie Tarot of 1709 continues to
soul. This primordial make the Devil androgynous with the new
THE DEVIL fear was cleverly feminine breasts just above a curvaceous
JEAN NOBLET TAROT harnessed by the waist, complimented with black bat wings and
Church when it was accompanied by the two primordial humans
equated with the biblical Satan. The anony- chained to his pedestal. Madenie and his
mous Parisian Tarot features a terrifying Devil contemporaries are a little ambiguous about
as a composite demon with chicken feet, goat what is below the beltline of this Devil, but
 28

the Claude Burdel Tarot of 1751, showing Scapini’s modern restorations of the missing
umistakable male genitalia, again makes Devil cards from the Pierpont Morgan-
explicit the issue of mixed or double gender Bergamo Visconti-Sforza tarocchi pack and
for the Devil. The Grimaud Marseilles deck, the Cary-Yale Visconit tarocchi deck (fifteenth
first published in 1748, presents the image we century) are wonderful, as is all his work, but
are now accustomed to see as traditional. it is not likely that the originals were similar.
The Scapini images show the two people
All the Tarot decks from this era seem to be chained to the pedestal under the Devil, a
reflecting this new, more esoterically com- detail which emerged only in the later 1600s
posed version of the Devil. Court de Gebelin in response to the Hermetic/Alexandrian
mirrors it nearly exactly, Etteilla has a rare document that inspired the Falconnier Tarot.
moment of accord with the collective consen- Of the other modern Esoteric Devil cards, the
sus, and we see a near-total agreement on this Waite-Smith image is the most familiar,
image right up to the twentieth century. Even showing us the very early, male, bird-footed
among those dissenters who revert to the Devil but including the chained demons on the
older, all-male lamia version of the Devil pedestal. Dali’s image deliberately echoes the
(e.g., Edoardo Dotti, 1862; the Tarot pack by Fool, showing a hermaphroditic soul being
J. Gaudais of 1860) often choose to include pushed into his/her deepest desires—a very
the later addition of the wild man and woman Gnostic image!
chained to the pedestal.
An overview of the Devil Arcanum shows us
This card’s sudden mutation in the mid-1660s the realm of the Taboo, the culturally created,
is a powerful argument for a new source of rejected and undigested shadow side that each
inspiration entering the Tarot canon at just this of us is burdened with due to our accultura-
time. And if we compare this new mutation to tion. This is in fact the core of our individual-
the Typhon card of the Alexandrian Tarots, ity which we cannot get rid of but will never
one sees the salient details of the change succeed in taming. From its earliest versions,
prefigured; the female breasts and male showing the lamia or vampire-demon, this
phallus, the bat wings, the horn(s) on the head, card evoked the Church-fueled fear that a
the two figures, male and female, chained at person could “lose his soul” to this wild,
Typhon’s feet. Although the Westernization of animalistic force. The amended version that
this image thinned the Devil’s waistline (in emerged in the mid-1600s shows us a more
later times made very narrow and feminine) sophisticated version called Typhon, a her-
and gave it a goat-like rather than crocodile maphroditic amalgam of the four elements,
head, it would be very difficult to argue that enslaving the animal nature in men and
the Typhon formulation had nothing to do women.
with the transformation of the Devil Arcanum,
from the shaggy figure out of a medieval By the 1800s the concept had refined into the
bestiary into the refined Baphomet image of scapegoated Goddess, whose esoteric name is
Levi, Papus, Wirth, Esoterico, Balbi, and the Baphomet. Volcanic reserves of passion and
other Continental esoteric Tarots. primal desire empower her labor to overcome
the pressure of gender-based role assignments
 29

and experience true freedom of soul. demon with mad humanoid face is reaching
Tavaglione’s fully realized image portrays the out for, and locking eyes with, a man who has
magical, theurgical formula for harnessing and a viola on his shoulder, his bow ready to play.
transmuting primal and obsessive emotions The musician is walking briskly into the
into energy toward enlightenment. As a part of melee, but looks back at the touch of the
the Gnostic message of Tarot, this frightening demon. A wailing woman with her arms in the
but awesome passion and power must be air flees something she sees behind the door,
reintegrated into the personality to fuel the oblivious to everything else around her. The
soul’s passage from mortal to immortal. Rothschild Tarot or Minchiate cards from the
late fifteenth or early sixteenth century show a
Tower pile of broken bodies before the door of the
The Tower image, like that of the Devil, has Tower, with another person ready to jump off
not survived through history as well as the the ramparts. Flames are licking out from all
other Arcana from the oldest Tarots. This the windows. No demon is present to compli-
could be a side effect of cate matters.
the Church persecutions
of all things occult or The early seventeenth century anonymous
Gnostic. Then again, it Parisian Tarot shows a very disturbing image.
may just be because the Little is made of the Tower, but smoke and
royalty who commis- flames are everywhere. One nude woman
sioned the earliest crouches with her arms over her head, another
Tarots didn’t want to be runs screaming through the devastation. A
confronted with images gray faced demon with a man’s body raises a
of themselves in physi- red club, perhaps to dispatch the crouching
cal or political danger, person. Another dwarfish demon with what
or pursued by demons looks like a horn growing backward from his
from the pits of Hell. head appears to be straddling and/or embrac-
Nevertheless, some ing several amorphous flesh-colored forms
THE TOWER
ideas can be derived slanting away from the top of the card. Every-
CATELIN GEOFFROY
from looking at the thing is falling and askew, an impression
earliest versions that we do possess. increased by the sloppy coloring job. The
Mitelli Lightning card (1664) is a revelation of
A massive Tower is the only subject of the clarity by comparison, dispensing entirely
Charles VI Tarot (mid-1400s). Its front is with the tower and showing a single man
shown intact, but the backside is cracking, being struck by a zigzag bolt of fire.
dropping pieces and revealing flames licking
from between the bricks. By the time of the Two other images emerge in the pivotal 1660s,
Catelin Geoffrey Tarot (1557) we see only the one of which becomes the Marseilles standard
door of the Tower, at ground level, with gray called the House of God, seen on the Jean
smoke and yellow flames belching out the Noblet Tarot circa 1660 (Kaplan’s Encyclope-
windows. Three beings are crossing paths at dia Volume 2, p. 309). This shows the familiar
this stone archway; a gray, chicken-legged crowned Tower being hit with a bolt of light-
 30

ning from the sun, releasing a shower of us that “according to the Bibliothèque
falling sparks, knocking the top of the Tower Nationale, [this image] may have once been
right off, and plunging its two occupants to The Star, portraying one of the shepherds on
their deaths. Stuart Kaplan retells the the night of the Nativity of Christ, with the
Arthurian legend of the “Dolorous Stroke” as star of Bethlehem blazing and sheep at the
a possible subtext for foot of the tree.” This is a far cry from our
this image (on p.174 of original images from the 1400s, and never
Volume 2 of his Ency- caught on with the majority despite its Gnostic
clopedia), as well as evocativeness.
cites the biblical story
of the Tower of Babel, a In the majority of these images, disaster is
traditional connection. striking or has just struck. The demons of
We can assume there madness and despair are released from ancient
were other well known hiding places, and Nature conspires with
correspondences to this human evil to destabilize the people. One
Arcana even in the unwritten subtitle of this card is “The Act of
1600s, however. God” because the upheaval is collective,
impersonal. Yet let us remember the patrons
THE TOWER Not only do we have for whom these images were created—nobles
VIEVILLE TAROT the demonic images on and clergy, the educated rich—and we realize
the earliest Tower cards just who will lose altitude fastest should the
to factor in, but the Jacques Vieville Tarot, towers start to fall. In that sense, lightning is a
chronological and physical partner to the fitting karmic response to the guilt of those
Noblet Tarot, shows another version of whose fortunes come from abuse of the land
Arcanum No. 16, one which becomes the and its residents. A more fitting modern
norm for the subsequent Flemish Tarots. In subtitle could thus be “Revolution from
this version a young man expresses wonder at Below,” indicating drastic enough change that
the sight of a large tree under a cloud contain- a poor person has new cause for hope of better
ing the sun. Drops of something white or times. Although the Tower comes packaged as
transparent fall through the sky, and neither a a classic crash and burn experience, it also
tower nor lightning are apparent. This image levels the playing field for everyone, provid-
is named “Lightning” but evades entirely any ing all who survive with a fresh start as
of the ramifications that have to do with the equals.
House of God.
Star
Perhaps the awestruck young man is contem- The Visconti-Sforza Tarot (1475) shows a
plating the amazing powers of Nature at work long-haired blond woman wearing a blue
in the landscape. Or could this be Adam, dress embellished with golden stars, covered
rediscovering the Tree of Life after winning by a red robe lined with green. She is looking
his way free from the depredations of the up and reaching out with her left hand to touch
Devil? In his caption for the pictures of the a star in the heavens. The Charles VI pack
Adam de Hautot Tarot (1728–48), Kaplan tells (mid-1400s) shows two mature men in robes,
 31

one with a star map in his hand, pointing up at stars and one very bright one, all with six
a brilliant gold star with eight points in the points, lighting his way. Another variation
heavens above them. emerges with the Tarocco Siciliano cards from
These men epitomize Italy in 1750. Here a man on horseback
the two earliest balances a giant sphere or covered hoop
representations of sporting the design of an eight-pointed star, of
this concept: the which we see the bottom half. There is a
astrologer who carnival or Triumphi feel to this picture,
charts the Star, or the entirely at odds with the quiet, contemplative,
Spirit of the Star, and meditative trend of the other Star cards con-
bridges the gap sidered. This formulation, like Mitelli’s, did
between heaven and not catch on with the larger marketplace.
earth.
The form that did catch on and become stan-
The Rothschild Tarot dard is the young, nude woman by the bank of
or Minchiate cards the water, pouring from two vessels into the
from the late 1400s water and onto the earth. The Marseilles, the
to early 1500s now Falconnier and the Waite image all align with
THE STAR at the Louvre in this form of the Arcana, as does the Knapp-
VISCONTE-SFORZA Paris show us a Hall Tarot, Oswald Wirth’s Tarot, and El Gran
fascinating image. Tarot Esoterico. We see this as the traditional
Figures much like the Emperor and the Pope image now, but it is in actuality one of many
carry an elaborate crown between them. They that have been named
bump into a Fool-like person who hails them the Star.
with open arms, as if he is a long-lost brother.
An eight-pointed star hangs overhead. Are Despite the changes
these unlikely three about to become the Three from deck to deck, the
Wise Men? The suggestion is that each of overall idea of the Star is
them is being led by the Star. the reconnecting of
one’s soul with a larger
The anonymous Parisian Tarot from the early frame of reference
1600s shows a learned professor in mortar- outside of personality,
board hat sitting at his drafting table with community or worldly
protractor in hand, looking up at an eight- accomplishments. The
pointed star in the upper left corner of the soul (always shown as
card, partially obscured by the border. female in Tarot) is
responding to forces
The Mitelli Tarot of 1664 uses an interesting affecting it from outside THE STAR
variant of the Star. A man with a heavy load this world, forces that R OTHSCHILD TAROT

slung from the staff over his shoulder carries a provide the personality with such sureness and
lit lantern through the night. His head is down orientation that it can ignore what anyone else
and his stride is long. Overhead are six small thinks. Remembering the Gnostic myth of the
 32

soul’s descent from on high, the Star card “who measure the conjunctions of the stars
implies a new remembrance of our exalted and planets” (Stuart Kaplan’s Encyclopedia
origins and attraction to the path of return. An Volume 1, p. 115). The Rothschild Tarot or
alternate title for this card is “Celestial Man- Minchiate cards (late fifteenth or early six-
date” in that it refers us back to our reason for teenth century) show two philosophers
being, our mission in this lifetime. This crowned in laurel,
Arcanum reminds us that each of us is a secret the one on the left
agent enacting Divine Will through our mo- with a sophisticated
ment to moment lives. If we let go of the idea astrolabe sculpture
that we are supposed to be in control of our in hand. Each also
lives every minute, we can study and reflect holds a caliper or
upon the synchronicities that are constantly angle measuring
nudging us through our days. Thus we become tool, and the person
conscious of the invisible help focused on us, on the right points
and we understand our place within and value to the moon above.
to the larger cosmos in a new way. There are no conno-
tations of lunacy or
Moon disorientation here.
In the Visconti-Sforza Tarot of 1450, a long-
haired blond woman wears a red slip over a One early seven-
blue dress bound with a silver cord for a belt. teenth century
Her right hand grasps the moon in the sky anonymous Parisian THE MOON
while the left hand tries to control the belt Tarot propounds a ANONYMOUS PARISIAN
ends, which are flap- different idea for
ping in the breeze. She this card entirely. A nude woman in a tall
stands at cliff side but tower lets down her hair and exposes her back
looks at the moon. In for the man with a harp seated in the garden
the Charles VI pack below. We see the archway and door he could
(mid-1400s) we see an enter to reach her, yet he stays and makes
older magus with a music. A full moon looks down benignly from
white beard, seated at above. In contrast to the Lovers from this
his desk, with a zodia- Tarot described above, this card shows some
cal globe of the heavens restraint and an aesthetic sensibility. It could
on a stand behind him. be referring to the growing tradition of courtly
He is using a compass love saturating Renaissance culture at this
to erect a chart of the time. Another idealistic Moon card is seen in
Moon, whose image the Mitelli Tarot (1664), where a young
NO. 18 THE from the heavens is woman standing with a hound at her feet leans
MOON reflected in the paper on her staff and looks into the heavens; she is
under his hands. The crowned by a crescent moon. She seems to be
Gringonneur Tarot (mid-1400s) shows not one making a reference to Diana or Artemis,
but two magi, with compasses and sky map, goddess of the purity and natural sacredness of
 33

wild places. modeled from the Fratres Lucis manuscript (or

its prototype) purportedly circulating in
The Tarocco Siciliano from 1750 gives us Europe since the Middle Ages. The difference
another variation. A man is asleep under a is that in the Alexandrian-style version, called
tree, and a woman stands over him making the Twilight, the towers are pyramids. In truth,
gestures as if to point out his limp state. these two Moon cards are more similar to each
Kaplan refers to the cloud around the moon as other than to any earlier images in the stream.
being ominous and the face on the orb as
diffident, uninterested. Is she sad? Mad? Is he The Moon Arcanum always refers to our
sick? Under the deepest body-mind states, the ones where,
influence? The within a protective cocoon of deep relaxation,
card does not we are brought to the finest pitch of sensitivity
specify. But we and imaginative impression-ability. Here we
know that the dream and trance, have visions and receive
Moon Arcanum insights, wash in and out with the psychic
has often been tides and experience deep mystical and/or
used to symbol- terrifying realities beyond our ordinary senses.
ize special The full moon and/or eclipse charted by the
shamanic states magi (as in some of the earliest Moon images)
of mind, such as imply one mechanism that Nature uses to
those reached dilate the soul. The variants of the courtly
through dreams lovers (representing right use of the sex force)
or deep trance or the man “sleeping it off” under the tree (use
work, so there of drugs to alter consciousness) are also
are multiple traditional avenues for touching the primal
possibilities body/mind outside our conditioning. The
THE MOON about what is human curiosity for knowledge of “higher
IBIS TAROT going on in this states” has propelled us to the frontiers of
image. consciousness, where we cannot always
control what happens. This Arcanum repre-
The Marseilles Tarot decks, which were sents the ultimate test of a soul’s integrity,
emerging as a separate style in the late 1600s, where the barrier is removed between the self
show us the now-familiar Two Towers image and the unknown, and the drop reenters the
in which the path rises from a pool containing ocean of being. What transpires next is be-
a crawfish or crab at the base of the card. The tween the soul and its Maker.
moon emanates an otherworldly glow to the
tune of two baying dogs who stand at the base Sun
of the towers, between which the path runs to One of the earliest images of the Sun Arcanum
the horizon. Although this may seem to is the one on the Gringonneur cards (agreed to
represent a departure from previous Tarots that be from the mid 1400s). A young and beautiful
we have evidence of, a similar Arcanum No. woman with fair hair is shown with a staff and
18 image appears on the Alexandrian Tarots drop-spindle, walking through an Eden-like
 34

landscape, complementing its beauty with her

own. The sun looks down impassively from The early seventeenth century anonymous
above. An uncut sheet of Minchiate cards, Parisian Tarot takes a different tack, putting a
circa late fifteenth or early sixteenth century blue ape in the image, which appears to startle
(Volume 1, p. 128, a woman who was combing her hair. It is
Kaplan’s Encyclope- unclear to me what the ape is holding up
dia) shows a seated between itself and the woman, but Gareth
version of the same Knight says it is a looking glass. A radiant Sun
spinning woman, shines down upon the scene impassively. On
although the Sun has the other hand, the Mitelli Tarot, another
a decidedly stern unique pack from later in the same century,
face in this card. The shows the Greek god Apollo with his lyre,
Charles VI Tarot haloed in golden light, his purple cloak tied
from 1470–80 loosely around him. Perhaps these two are
displays this theme mirroring each other, the truly beautiful and
as well. harmonious Apollo contrasted with the false
This image did not beauty and glamour of vanity, truly the “ape”
become the standard of our higher values.
form, however,
giving way (or The Tarocco Siciliano cards from 1750 seem
THE SUN giving birth?) to to continue the innovative trend in this image,
CHARLES VI other formulations showing the Cain and Abel murder being
within only a few enacted under an “omi-
decades. In the Visconti-Sforza Tarot of 1450, nous cloud” that sur-
a muscular cherub on a leaden-green cloud rounds the impassive
holds up the red and radiant face of the Sun, Sun. This image reflects
which beams aggressively over the landscape in human terms the
below. Gareth Knight, in his book A Treasure- dismal characteristics
House of Images, mentions that this particular that guarantee our con-
version “is an image that has resonance with tinuing estrangement
the Mysteries of Orpheus and the Holy Grail, from Eden, damning
ancient Celtic Mysteries, and the esoteric humankind to genera-
Christianity associated with Salome and John tions of strife and fight-
the Baptist” (p. 72). I do wish he had ex- ing. It is here that “origi-
plained that line of thought further! nal sin” becomes per-
THE SUN
sonal.
IBIS TAROT
Alternately, the Ercole d’Este cards (1475–
80) shows an old man sitting on the edge of a The Marseilles image which became the
huge overturned wine keg and carrying on a standard by the early 1700s shows us two
discourse with a man who is standing and toddlers protected from wild Nature by a brick
facing him. A large gold Sun with silver wall that stands protectively between them
emanations shines in the dark sky above. and the greensward. Being “back to Eden”
 35

after the global reconciliation to come is Within.

implied. This reconciliation, sacred to all the
Old Testament believers from antiquity, Because The Sun Arcanum personifies the
resolves the tension between all opposites goal of self cultivation and self initiation in
(symbolized by the two children, ambiguous the classical scheme, the overall theme of this
in both gender and age). card is “back to Eden” or “reversal of the fall
from grace.” It is here that one’s original
The Alexandrian model of Arcanum No. 19, nature or preconditioned being can be encoun-
exemplified on this CD in the Ibis Tarot, is tered in health and safety. The limitations of
called “Love” in the Falconnier version and time and space are stripped away; the soul
“The Beaming Light” in the Fatidic Egyptian rests and is refreshed, protected from the
Tarot from 1901. This image shows the two chaos outside the garden walls. Life reassumes
children grown, of opposite genders, holding its primordial goodness, truth and beauty. If
hands within a circle of greenery. A symbol of one person is portrayed, it is usually shown as
sexual union hangs in the sky above them. If a human incarnation of the Divine. When two
these two Sun cards were made in respect of humans are shown, they are usually designed
each other, the Marseilles version represents a to express a resolution of the tension between
naive approach to the resolution of the oppo- opposites on all levels. It is for this reason that
sites compared to the one portrayed on the this card is read in a spread as saying “you can
Egyptian-style decks! do no wrong.”

Etteilla chose the mixed image called “En- Judgment

lightenment.” The bottom half of the picture Called the Angel in the Cary-Yale Visconti,
shows two naked infants playing around what winged spirits blowing long trumpets hang in
looks like a sepulcher or monument in a the blue firmament while below the earth is
woodsy setting. Perhaps their new lives parting to release the souls of the dead into
represent the victory of life over death. In a their resurrection. Most emerge naked, but one
sort of split-screen effect, the upper end of this is emerging in full eccle-
image is a scene in deep space, at the birth of siastical regalia. The
a star. He might be trying to say that when we Visconti-Sforza Angel
become conscious of our true cosmic identi- image, from 1450, shows
ties, we are no longer so tied to birth and a third entity in heaven
death. with the trumpeting
angels, this one a grand
When his time came to represent esoteric fatherly patriarch with
Tarot for the twentieth century, Waite chose to blue robe, flowing white
hark back to the earliest versions showing a beard, red gloves, and an
cherub, only this time riding a horse and upright sword in his right
carrying a banner, seen against the walled hand. Another patriarch
backdrop of the Marseilles image. We could emerges from the tomb
infer that in this formulation, the opposites are between two nude maid- JUDGEMENT
united within the self, in the Divine Child ens who are also emerg- VISCONTE SFORZA
 36

ing. The Charles VI pack shows two angels the last three centuries of Tarot, which seems
with trumpets blowing a blast that raises seven to mirror the concern amongst most world
nude men and women from their graves (mid- religions: that believers be assured that this
1400s). life, this body, this personality and gender, are
not all there is to look forward to.
Luckily the trend toward greater population on
this Arcanum ended here. Catelin Geoffrey’s This Arcanum, called Judgment but usually
Tarot (1557) scales it back to one trumpeting picturing the Resurrection, represents the great
angel and three resurrected souls—two reunion that the ancients believed would
women and one man—all nude. Mitelli (1664) happen once every world age, when the group
is so minimalist that he only presents the of souls who had been reincarnating together
trumpeting angel, and viewers are left to come is gathered up and taken “home” to the place
to their own conclusions about the results. of origin outside the solar system. Then the
World is seeded with a batch of new souls and
The Tarocco Siciliano cards from Modiano, the process starts over. In this great reunion,
Italy (1750) changes the Angel image into an every personality you have ever been and
image of Jove, and it is numbered to be the every soul you have done deep work with
last card in the Major Arcana sequence in this comes back together to consciously complete
family of Tarots. He sits on a throne with an the process. In personal terms, this portrays
eagle at his feet, his you as becoming so spiritually transparent, so
upraised hand full of clear a channel, that the buried talents and
descending thunder- gifts of past incarnations bloom through you
bolts. The robe in this lifetime. You can afford to open your-
wrapped casually self trustingly because what emerges is of
around him reveals consistently high quality. You effortlessly
his strength and manifest as a multi-talented, multi-dimen-
vigor. This could be sional being, and you assist in evoking that
seen as a very response in others.
patriarchal image,
implying continuing World
JUDGEMENT punishment for This Cary-Yale Visconti Arcanum from 1445
TARROCO SICILIANO fallen humanity centers on a portrait of a Renaissance village,
rather than the complete with little lake, people fishing from
reconciliation of opposites which often in- the bank and a knight errant riding by. We see
forms this Arcanum. the Goddess in the firmament above, rising
from a crown whose headband hangs high
The Marseilles image is now our classic above the scene. She presides over her World
reference for this card, and there is very little serenely, a thin wand in her right hand and the
substantial difference between this and the orb of sovereignty in her left, an upper-case
Alexandrian version, the Etteilla versions, and Empress.
the versions of Papus and Wirth. A settled In the Charles VI pack (mid-1400s) a similar
consensus seems to inhabit this card through globe or world-ball showing towns and vil-
 37

lages in the folds of a hilly landscape lies trated though often mentioned by early
under the feet of a blond woman looking Kabbalists. This idea can be related to the Ain-
much like the Strength, Fortitude and Temper- Soph-Aur or “triple-veiled nothing” of the
ance figures from the same deck. She holds a Kabbalists. This self-complete being strides
golden wand in her right hand, a golden ball in across a globe that seems to contain the sun,
her left. The Italian tarocchi cards of the early the planets and the signs, and which has the
sixteenth century, which are divided between classic band-and-raised-cross trimming that is
the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the usually seen on the globe in the hand of the
Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, also show this Empress or Emperor. Stylized faces in the
configuration on its World Arcanum. The clouds blow upon the globe, presumably to
imagery appears to have started out feminine, keep its contents rotating.
pointing to a Gnostic inspiration.
A bit later in the
In 1450 the Visconti-Sforza Tarot portrays two seventeenth century
muscular male cherubs holding up a globe that Mitelli shows the
shows a walled city on an island surrounded World as a huge stone
by a turbulent sea. The Ercole d’Este image which a burly naked
again contains the rolling landscape with man struggles to lift
towns and trees dotting the hills. This time a from a kneeling posi-
chubby cherub with green wings sits above, tion. This could be
and a golden eagle with outstretched wings Hercules or Sisyphus
holds up the ball from below. The Eagle has performing monumen-
had esoteric connections since biblical times, tal labors to defend
and has also served as a totem of the Empress humans from the
and her family. judgment of the gods.
The Tarocco Siciliano
The late fifteenth or early sixteenth century (1750) echoes this THE WORLD
Minchiate cards in the Bibliothèque de l’Ecole image, but the boulder CARY-YALE VISCONTI
Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts shows, is banded with the
in Kaplan’s words, “a mythological god or glyphs of the zodiac signs, like a giant calen-
warrior atop an ornate stone wheel” (Vol. 1, p. dar-stone.
128). His winged helmet has Hermetic asso-
ciations. His right hand holds a wand topped The Marseilles image, most familiar of all, is
with a winged, gold-trimmed orb and the left of a woman, haloed man, or androgyne danc-
holds another orb, with the t-cross inscribed ing or standing in space, surrounded by an
on it and surmounted by an equal-armed cross. oval wreath of leaves. Usually the image is
The anonymous Parisian Tarot from the early unambiguously feminine, but the Vieville
seventeenth century uses an androgynous World card from the early 1660s de-empha-
figure covering itself with the drapery of a sizes the breasts and gives it a halo, like the
curtain held up on a rod behind it. This sym- familiar Christian images of Christ Trium-
bol, the “veil of the Mysteries,” is an ancient phant. Stuart Kaplan reveals a wealth of detail
Hebrew concept which is not usually illus- about ways in which the Marseilles image
 38

resembles religious pictures of the Last Judg- by the creatures of the four elements. The
ment (Encyclopedia, Volume 2, p. 179), and woman plays upon a three-stringed harp, each
he also includes the Christ Triumphant image string representing one aspect of the human
rendered on a beautiful piece of carved ivory endowment—body, mind and soul.
from the eleventh century which could double
as the World Arcanum without changing a We cannot see this detail on the Falconnier or
detail. Kaplan also introduces the idea that the the Fatidic Egyptian Tarots published between
earliest female World cards might have been 1896–1901 because Kaplan left those Arcana
intended to represent a female Christ, which out when he photocopied those Tarots for his
indicates a distinctly Gnostic mentality. Encyclopedia. But the Ibis, the St. Germaine
Tarot, and the Sacred Tarot from the Brother-
Another Marseilles variant, the modern El hood of Light all
Gran Tarot Esoterico, which with its corre- record this detail, so I
spondences refers us back to the very ancient feel safe to assume
Hebrew versions of the Sephir Yetzirah, the older ones do too.
portrays a divine person with both breasts and If the Alexandrian-
male genitalia within a blossoming wreath, style Arcana do prove
surrounded by the “four beasts of the Apoca- to have had an
lypse,” a popular formulation of this Arcanum. impact upon the
This Tarot may be chronologically modern, Marseilles images of
but the reference is to the same themes that the late 1600s, this
Kaplan details in the slow slide of this card would have to
Arcanum through both male and female forms be cited as a
over the centuries. counterargument.
Perhaps the tension
The Etteilla Tarots feature a substantially created by a female THE WORLD
similar image, although the gender of the image appearing on DE HAUTOT TAROT
figure may be either male or female, depend- the World Arcanum,
ing upon the edition. When it is female, she is after several centuries of Christ-centered
usually accompanied by two tall, narrow iconography, was too great to allow a return to
pyramids on either side. The image is called the older, Sophianic conception of the earliest
“Voyage,” perhaps implying traveling around Tarots.
the world.
Most of the images in our modern Tarots,
This Arcanum is called The Crown of the made at the turn of the twentieth century,
Magi in the Alexandrian Arcana, which follow the Goddess-oriented line of thought
resembles the Falconnier Tarot and is drawn from the earliest versions of the card. Oswald
from the Fratres Lucis manuscript purported Wirth, Manly P. Hall and A.E. Waite all give
to be from the Middle Ages. It shows a regal us virtually the same idea. Interestingly
woman seated under the heavens. The skies enough, Hall’s World card rearranges the suit
are filled with a winged lingam and yoni symbols held by the four angels/animals of the
symbol within a floating wreath, accompanied elements in an intriguing and unexplained
 39

way. Perhaps the fact that his Tarot shows a

strong leaning toward the Spanish style gives
us the hint we need to further examine his
elemental attributions, because the Spanish
Tarots are the only ones that switch the ele-
ments on the suit symbols in their Tarots.

The predominating idea of the World Arcanum

is the presiding intelligence, called Sophia or
Wisdom, that upholds the platform for life on
this and all worlds through infinity. A more
accurate title would be “Soul of the World”
because the (usually female) figure who has
become our standard World image originates
in Hebrew, Gnostic and alchemical lore. She
stands between heaven and earth as the Cos-
mic Mother of Souls, the Wife of God who
protects us from the karmic forces we have set
loose on Earth in our immaturity and igno-
rance. Where the Empress secures and fertil-
izes our terrestrial lives, The World Arcanum’s
Goddess invites us into cosmic citizenship
once we have come to know our soul’s poten-
tial for it. Just as the Chariot (No. 7) stands for
success in achieving a separate self, and the
Temperance (No. 14) represents achievement
of mental and moral health in the cauldron of
culture, The World (No. 21) announces the
stabilization of the soul’s Immortal Being,
accomplished without the necessity of dying.
Hence this card, like the Sun, is reputed to
have no negative meaning no matter where or
how it appears. If the Hermetic axiom is
“know thyself,” this image represents what
becomes known when the true nature of self is
followed to its uttermost end.
This chapter is excerpted from Christine
Payne-Towler’s forthcoming book, The
Underground Stream: Esoteric Tarot Re-
vealed. To order copies of this book, or to
reach Christine for private consultation call
1-800-981-3582.