Philosophical Imaginatrix: The Magical Tarot Cards

Tarot are mysterious cards. The cards of magic and divination. There is no known origin of the 'Tarot' cards. The tarot consists of 78 cards, which is divided into 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana. The 56 minor arcana are divided into 4 suits. The 4 suits in the modern cards also come from the 'Tarot' system. Simply put, the modern cards are derived from the 'tarot' cards. The 'Tarot' cards represent the human anatomy, the solar system and the structure of universe. The 'Tarot' cards are believed to have inherited the mysteries of 'Thoth' and 'The Book of Enoch'. One must look at the cards and observe these cards with the thought of mystery and magic in mind. That way the cards work. The cards consist of the way to magic and mystery.

According to Antoine Court de Gébelin, the word 'Tarot' is derived from Egyptian word Tar and Ro. Tar means the royal and rod means the road. The word tarot hence means the royal road to wisdom. Tarot should not be just treated as play cards. We must view them as:

1. Hieroglyphs consisting the mysteries and laws of Universe and Nature. 

2. Consist properties to produce distinct action and reaction. 

3. Made of deeper alphabetical symbols. 

Today we don't use symbols as a way of learning and unfolding but ancients heavily used symbols to understand and explain the laws of universe. Symbols were also used in ceremonial magics. Tarots are symbols of philosophy and magic. Tarots are the tools of visualizing and imagining the world and the universe. Also, Tarots are the tools of divination and self discovery. A way to connect our consciousness with the unconscious self. 

I feel Charles Williams, one of the prominent member of the Oxford Literary Group 'Inklings' has explained the essence of 'Tarot' in the best way possible. He says-

“It’s said that the shuffling of the cards is the earth, and the pattering of the cards is the rain, and the beating of the cards is the wind, and the pointing of the cards is the fire. That’s of the four suits. But the Greater Trumps, it’s said, are the meaning of all process and the measure of the everlasting dance.”

As mentioned above there are 4 suits in the minor arcana. There four suits are equivalent to the 4 elements. Which can imagine them also as four corners of creation. We can also imagine them to be the 'Tetragrammaton', the four letter Hebrew word for Jehovah (IHVH). The four suits are the cups, swords, coins and rods. 

The cups are priesthood.
The swords are military.
The coins are tradesman.
The rods are farming class. 

These four suits are similar to the caste system of the vedic religion. Which are Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. Which is also almost similar to the concept of priesthood, military, tradesman and farming class. According to Antoine Court de Gébelin the suits represent the political geography of the world. Where cups are the northern countries, the swords are the orient , coins are the occident and the rods are the southern countries. 

Each suit is further divided into 14 cards. Of which the initial 10 are small cards. And the rest 4 cards are major cards which are King, Queen, Prince and Princess. These 4 cards from the 4 suits makes 16 court cards. 

 The 22 major arcana are thought to be 22 Hebrew letter. Which are attributed as:

1. the three Mother letters, Shin, Mem and Aleph (the three active elements)

2. the seven so-called double letters, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Peh, Resh and Tau (the seven sacred planets)

3. the remaining twelve letters Heh, Van, Zain, Cheth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh, A’ain, Tzaddi and Qoph (the Signs of the Zodiac)

The 22 Major Arcana in the Tarot cards starts from 0. The first 0'th card is the Fool. Which is followed by chronological number system 1-21. And the cards are: the Magician, the High Priestess, the Empress, the Emperor, the Hierophant, the Lovers, the Chariot, Strength, the Hermit, the Wheel of Fortune, Justice, the Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, the Devil, the Tower, the Star, the Moon, the Sun, Judgement and the World.  

Today's modern cards are a simpler forms of minor arcana. Of which a card is eliminated making it 13 cards in each suit. These 13 cards in each suit makes 52 total cards. The cards have two unit colors: red and black. These two colors represents the sun when it's in the north of the equator and south in the quarter. While the four suits are the seasons. Or the vedic system of the Yugas (aeons). Which are Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapar Yuga and Kali Yuga. 52 total cards represent the 52 weeks in the year. While, 13 card in each suit are the 13 lunar month. The last 3 cards (11th, 12th and 13th ) are the jacks, queens and kings. When 3 is multiplied by 52, we get 364. When we add one more joker to 364, it becomes 365 days ( the number of days in the year). 

According to Milton Pottenger-

The United States of America was laid out according to the conventional deck of playing cards, and that the government will ultimately consist of 52 States administered by a 53rd undenominated division, the District of Columbia.

Furthermore 16 court cards represents 4 elements and 4 sub elements in deeper levels. Which can be divided into 16 groups. Which according to Aleister Crowley are:

Knight (king) of Cups, Water of Fire

Queen of Cups, Water of Water

Prince of Cups, Air of Water 

Princess of Cups, Earth of Water

Knight (king) of Swords, Fire of Air

Queen of Swords, Water of Air

Prince of Swords, Air of Air 

Princess of Swords, Earth of Air

Knight (king) of Coins, Fire of Earth

Queen of Coins, Water of Earth

Prince of Coins, Air of Earth 

Princess of Coins, Earth of Earth

Knight (king) of Rods, Fire of Fire

Queen of Rods, Water of Fire

Prince of Rods, Air of Fire

Princess of Rods, Earth of Fire

The mysticism of Tarot goes deep. As you think we understand the the mystery of tarots, it unfold into deeper levels. And each level is genuinely profound. The first card of the major arcana is the fool. Which represents the number 0. The universe at the beginning is the fool, with no sense of right or wrong. In silence the universe evolves. 

We as seeker must draw a card with a small invocation or ritual. In stillness and meditativeness. Draw the card with energy of the human epicenter. The card must be drawn always from the left hand. Because the left hand represents the unconscious and intuitive nature of human mind. If we are using it for divination purposes, one must ask the question of the being from the intuitive nature of mind. That way the unconscious mirrors the cards. And the seeker reaches a union of understanding. You don't pick up the card, rather let your intuition seek the card. Trust the instinct in you. Flow in the spontaneous reaction. Here the seeker reacher a universal synchronicity. The concept that was a part of the archetypal imagery and symbol. Let the synchronous energy rule. 

Now reading a card needs a deeper understanding and wisdom. Which must be an individual journey. Very less people reach a level of wisdom needed to read the Tarot cards. It can also be said the 'TAROT' decides the reader (the knower). Tarot reads you. Rather than you are reading the tarot. 

We don't trust the meaningless and abstract. We want simplicity and concrete nature. But the essence of nature is in the mystery of abstract. For example 10 + 15 = 25. This is simple, and we call it concrete. But what is more profound and deeper is: X²Y²=(X +Y) (X-Y). Which is way more relatable and scientific. One needs to understand it, to understand the nature of life. 

I have always loved the abstract. The mysterious. The complex. Because that is the way of the universe. In that, the universe is simple. Simplicity is the core of mysterious and complex. This way 'Tarot' is as simple as possible and as complex as possible, just like the UNIVERSUM. 

To lucid-
that lead synthetic obscurity
of high towering
authenticated blindness
to the harmonization
of definitive
LOGOS.  

TAROTS 

Some major quotes about Tarot:

1. The Tarot embodies symbolical presentations of universal ideas, behind which lie all the implicits of the human mind, and it is in this sense that they contain secret doctrine, which is the realization by the few of truths imbedded in the consciousness of all, though they have not passed into express recognition by ordinary men. - A.E. Waite 

2. The first part of our study of the Tarot, full of numbers, of Hebrew letters, and abstract deductions, is not calculated to attract the attention of ladies. But if women enjoy mystery and idealism, prefer and excuse the flights of a vivid imagination, men exact precision and method in studies of this kind, and I have therefore built this arsenal of technical arguments for them, confining imagination in the narrow limits of deduction; so that, if she has sometimes escaped and scattered the brilliant gems of illusion over the course of my work, the escape was only made with great trouble, and in spite of my efforts to retain her. It is, however, traditional that the future can be read through the Tarot, and our feminine readers will never forgive me if I ignore their natural curiosity on this point.- Papus 

3. The Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language and offers no other signs. - A.E. Waite 

4. At the basis of Creation are the Four Cosmic Elements, as they were symbolically mentioned by visionaries such as Ezechiel and St. John of Patmos, and taught by astrology of old. It requires no extraordinary intuition of the occult student to recognise in the four colours of our playing-cards or the four suits of the Tarot's Lesser Arcana those four basic Elements: Fire, Earth, Air and Water. The question remains however: Which is which?

There must have been a time when knowledge about these matters was nearer at hand than is the case nowadays; the symbols speak for it. A student of Occultism has to pay attention to symbols above all.  - A.E. Thierens