Tag: The Hero’s Journey

The Fool’s Journey Through the Tarot Major Arcana: SunFest 2016: The World

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

I’m here to give some advice to a bunch of Fools who are starting a journey to enlightenment. And I know I’m in the right place, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more perfect bunch of Fools. I’m here to tell you that you don’t need to go wandering around in the woods to find enlightenment. It’s right here. All the beauty and perfection of the Multiverse is right here and right now. All you have to do is be still… and reach for it. But because you’re a bunch of Fools, you won’t listen to me. You’ll go running around looking for something you already have. So here’s some advice. If you’re going to be Fools, at least be divine Fools. Let go of the cares and worries and responsibilities of your everyday world. Because you’re not there anymore. You’re here, between the worlds, searching for something that’s right under your nose. Only a madman would do that—so be divinely mad. Forget… Read More »

The Sun, Part II: The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey

Posted C. LaVielle4 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

Resh is the Hebrew letter that corresponds to The Sun. It means head, chief, total, and first. These are all things that we associate with The Sun. But resh also means grieved, poor, poverty, afraid, and last. These are not bright, strong sun words, What are they doing here? The quick and easy answer is that the Hebrew letters have many other uses besides tarot correspondence and we shouldn’t expect perfect matches all the time. However, resh is the only Hebrew letter that has such strong dual meanings, and I think this is a clue. The Sun is all about unifying dualities into a functional, integrated whole (see The Sun I). Like, what is between the first thing and the last thing? Everything, that’s what. Even the symbol of the Sun suggests wholeness and unity. When I was growing up, whenever my expectations were too high my mother would accuse me of “wanting the world with a fence around it.” That image always comes to… Read More »

The Major Arcana and the Hero’s Journey: The Hanged Man, Part III

Posted C. LaVielle3 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

Water is a mysterious substance. It expands when it becomes solid instead of contracting like any other self-respecting compound, and it contracts instead of expanding when it liquefies. It flows easily into any shape you choose, but no matter how hard you compress it, it won’t get any smaller. Without it life as we know it would be impossible, yet everything will eventually dissolve in its persistent caress, especially if you add a bit of salt and turn it to tears. It can be as gentle and refreshing as a warm summer rain or as dangerous and cruel as a raging sea. It is everywhere. 90 to 94 percent of the human body is water, and it covers two thirds of the earth. Swirling with opposites and contradictions, it is The Hanged Man’s element. Neptune, the planet of mysticism, spirituality, deception, and illusion, is also associated with The Hanged Man. Its Hebrew letter is Mem, which means water. In this case it refers to the… Read More »

The Major Arcana and the Hero’s Journey, The Hermit: Part I

Posted C. LaVielle12 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

A bearded man in gray robes stands on a snowy mountaintop holding up a lantern and gazing down at the rest of humanity below. Have you ever held a lantern at eye level on a dark night? That dude can’t see a thing. As Manfred Mann would say: He’s “Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce*, another runner in the night”. The light that is blinding him is a six pointed star, the symbol of the union of that which is above with that which is below; of plugging into the universal life force described by the Strength card and becoming one with it. In The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, Paul Foster Case compares this experience to intensely satisfying sex, and defends his statement as follows: “Prudes may quarrel with this comparison. Let them read the Song of Solomon, the mystical poetry of Persian Sufis, or some of the narratives of Christian mystical experience, and they will learn… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: The Chariot, Part I

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This is the card of victory and success. The chariot was the transportation of choice for kings and emperors. In the Roman Empire, victorious generals rode them through Rome in huge parades to celebrate their victories abroad. All the top gods rode in chariots. Thor had a chariot pulled by two goats, Jupiter (Greek:Zeus) rode in a chariot pulled by eagles, and Indra, the head of the Hindu pantheon, had a chariot. But most impressive of all, Freya, the Norse Great Mother, but also goddess of love, beauty, fertility and war, traveled in a chariot pulled by two black cats. Getting two cats to go in the same direction, let alone pull a chariot is a feat worthy of a goddess. Phaeton talked his father, Helios, the Titan solar diety, into letting him drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens. He wasn’t up to the job. The horses ran out of control and Phaeton crashed and burned. And then there was Boudicca, the… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: The Hierophant

Posted C. LaVielleLeave a commentPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

This is the key that pushes all my buttons. It’s the “I’m right because God told me so” card. It’s definitely a picture of a pope. There’s the three tiered papal crown and the triple cross, which symbolizes his influence in all three worlds—formative, creative, and material. He sits between the pillars of duality and gives God’s blessing or benediction to the two priests kneeling before him. But the history of key five, The Hierophant or The Pope, goes way back, centuries before Jesus was even a gleam in Jehovah’s eye. Way back in the day, Zeus/Jupiter, the great father god of the Mediterranean world, was the only god who could release someone who had committed a great sacrilege from the torment of Furies that pursued him. But that person couldn’t just do the rites and ask Zeus for mercy himself, he had to find someone to do the rites for him, hopefully someone knowledgeable. Because the Furies were old gods, and the new Hellenistic… Read More »

The Tarot Major Arcana and the Hero’s Journey: The Empress

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The year is just a smidgen of the way past Fall Equinox, The Harvest Festival. The farmer’s markets are bursting with fresh, local apples, pears, Italian plums, winter squashes of all shapes and colors, piles of bright orange pumpkins, tomatoes (finally), corn, wild crafted mushrooms, and golden, raw honey. For such a chilly summer, the northwest harvest has been bountiful—except for tomatoes. If the weather holds, even the grape harvest should be excellent, but late. What better time to talk about The Empress? She is The Great Mother, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, the nurturer; the one who showers us with beauty and bounty and reminds us that, yes indeed, there is plenty to go around if we’d all just behave ourselves and share. She lounges in the midst of a beautiful garden of ripe wheat, the universal symbol of nourishment. The waterfall behind her reminds us of her counterpart, The High Priestess, the ever virgin, mysterious guardian of the secrets behind the veil. But there… Read More »

The Tarot Major Arcana and the Hero’s Journey: The High Priestess

Posted C. LaVielle1 CommentPosted in Tarot, The Hero's Journey

What’s behind the curtain? That’s the whole point of this card. The front of the curtain, the part we can see, is alive with green palm trees and crimson pomegranates. It represents our world and all the things we know about it. Everything Else lies behind it, on the Other Side. This is the realm of the subconscious, the hidden memories of things past, present, and future; dark secrets; dangerous knowledge; those umpteen other dimensions mathematicians keep talking about, and all the things that inhabit them and “go bump in the night.” The High Priestess guards the veil between this world and our everyday world. She has the power to give or withhold access to it and all the hidden wisdom it contains. The scroll in her hands suggests that this wisdom is at her fingertips. Gimel is the Hebrew letter associated with The High Priestess card, and the camel is one of its meanings. To cultures in arid parts of Asia, the Middle East… Read More »

The Search for the Seal-point Siamese

Posted C. LaVielle5 CommentsPosted in Synchronicity

So last week, while I was in the middle of writing The Magician blog, this voice in my head said, “You need to start looking for your kitten—right now!” There are a limited number of things that I know for sure, and one of them is that it is always a good idea to pay attention to the voices in my head. It was time to start “The Search” to replace the Siamese we lost last spring. This is the fourth time in my life I’ve had to do this and it’s almost as stressful for me as job hunting—because not just any kitten will do. We love seal-point Siamese and they are difficult to find. So I googled “seal-point Siamese kittens, Portland, Oregon.” and checked out the local catteries. It looked like they might have a few kittens—if we were willing to pay $350-$600. Prices had gone up. I called one cattery and the phone was picked up and then immediately disconnected. Unusual etiquette… Read More »

The Hero’s Journey and the Tarot Major Arcana: The Magician

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Aleister Crowley was a wickedly brilliant early twentieth century magician. One of his less mentioned books, Magick in Theory and Practice, was first published, as far as I can tell, in 1929. As with all of Crowley’s work, it aims to shock and is a bit heavy handed for my taste. But the introduction should be required reading for every magician. It defines magick as “the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will…..Every intentional act is a Magical Act.” By this definition, every time we cause change to occur we are doing magic. But notice that capital “W” in will. The Will that Crowley is talking about is not merely the act of wanting and acting on those desires, it is our True Will, the will of our higher self which is in touch with the power of the universe. He continues: “A Man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his strength. He cannot… Read More »