Category: Tarot

The Major Arcana and the Hero’s Journey: The Emperor

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This is Big Daddy, Big Business, Big Government, The Pentagon, and Science and Industry. All the things we love to hate, but still count on to keep us safe from foreign invasion and common criminals, bring food to our tables, solve problems, distribute Social Security and Medicare, and fix the potholes in the streets. The Emporer is the quintessential macho man; the fertile, tough, authority/father figure; The Magician on a double dose of testosterone. He stands for law and order, assertiveness, fairness, strong leadership, use of practical intelligence to guide and support creativity, protection of the weak, and all round studliness. A super hero, you might say. But think again. Super heroes swoop in and right wrongs, uphold law and order, out wit the bad guys, and slap them around. But then they leave. The Emporer stays and deals with the consequences of his actions and takes the flack if he bungles it. That, of course, is the only way to create an empire, rule… Read More »

The Virgin Mary, Isis, The High Priestess, and the Empress

Posted C. LaVielle11 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, Uncategorized

It seems like a huge patriarchal rip-off that neither the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, nor the Russian Orthodox Church considers the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ, to be divine. They caution their flocks that they may honor and venerate Mary, but they must not worship her. In all fairness, she was a mortal. By all accounts, a nice Jewish girl that would have made a good wife for any doting mother’s son—until voila! The Immaculate Conception. This move is not without precedent. Seducing mortal women was one of Zeus’s favorite pastimes. But the key word here is seduced. At least Leda got to enjoy it. God didn’t seduce Mary. He didn’t even offer polite conversation. All she got was a visit from his messenger, the Archangel Gabriel, who said, “Honey, you’re pregnant. In nine months you will bear God’s son. Take good care of him so that he can grow up and be crucified.” She did. And he did. Mary… 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 »

Moon Magic and the High Priestess

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot

Several years ago, a group of fabulous women organized a Moon Magic weekend and invited a bunch of their feminine type friends. I was lucky enough to be included. All the attendees, either singly or in groups, had to present a workshop relating to the Moon. Everyone in the study group I belonged to at the time was going, so we decided to do a workshop together. The thing we happened to be studying was the tarot major arcana. One of the techniques we used to understand each of the cards was to place ourselves in the position of the figure on the key we were studying and meditate for a few minutes, noticing how the pose made us feel and where our train of thought went. The results were most instructive and really helped us get in tune with the message of each card. So we decided to bring all the stuff in the High Priestess card, which is ruled by the moon, and,… Read More »

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

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

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

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 »

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

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I met him once. I was doing a guided meditation on The Fool, and  had just stepped into the card. I was high in the mountains at the edge of a cliff, and I wasn’t thrilled to be there—I don’t do well with heights. The Fool appeared out of nowhere, laughing maniacally. I gazed into his insane, Gene Wilder eyes, shivered, and turned to run. I wasn’t fast enough. He grabbed me up, and jumped off the cliff. The Fool is the wild card, the Joker, and the divine androgyne. It’s number is zero. Paul Foster Case has this to say about zero: “An ellipse, representing the Cosmic Egg….Zero is a symbol of absence of quality, quantity, or mass. Thus it denotes absolute freedom from every limitation whatever. It is a sign of the infinite and eternal Conscious Energy, itself No-Thing, though manifested in everything…. Boundless, infinite potential, living light, it is the rootless root of all things…..” It’s Hebrew letter is Aleph, which sounds… Read More »

The Hero’s Journey and the Tarot Major Arcana—Part 5

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The Shapeshifter, The Shadow, The Ally, The Trickster The Shapeshifter Everyone “…contain(s) multitudes” as Walt Whitman said, and shapeshifter characters dramatize this. From a baffling lover that is constantly changing moods and convictions, to a villain who does something nice, to a wimpy guy who morphs into a superhero, the shapeshifter’s purpose is to provide excitement, tension, and suspense. The Shadow The dark side, things hidden or rejected, anything we don’t like about ourselves. The shadow lurks in every character, but it sings in the villain. And the villain is really the most important character in the story. Think about it, without the villain there wouldn’t even be a story. Therefore, the villain must be crafted as carefully as the hero. She can’t be just bad, she must be terribly, hauntingly, and soul searingly bad. She must resonate with the shadow in all of us. The Ally Don Quixote’s Sancho Panza, The Lone Ranger’s Tonto, Bambi’s Thumper, Captain Kirk’s Spock, Frodo’s Sam. Dorothy’s Scarecrow, Tin… Read More »

The Hero’s Journey and the Tarot Major Arcana—Part 4

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The Hero, the Mentor, the Herald, and the Threshold Guardian The Hero This is the person that makes the most things happen. He may or may not change. He can be anyone, but he can’t be just a hero. He can be a trickster like Brer Rabbit, Or a shapeshifter like Spiderman and Superman. He may be thwarted in love or orphaned or both—Spiderman again. Many are tormented by a shadow side of their nature. The Mentor Without a Mentor, many heroes would be dead before they even really get started. This is the person who teaches our hero what he needs to know to succeed in his quest and often provides essential equipment. In Greek mythology, Mentor was a friend of Odysseus and advisor to Telemachus. He often embodied Athena, the goddess of wisdom, who does lots of mentoring. Before he went off to kill Medusa, Athena gave Perseus a polished shield to catch the Gorgon’s reflection, because if he looked at her directly… Read More »

The Hero’s Journey and the Tarot Major Arcana

Posted C. LaVielle6 CommentsPosted in Tarot

Christopher Vogler literally wrote the book on the Hero’s Journey—with lots of help from the Myths of several cultures and Joseph Campbell. The Writer’s Journey gives the recipe for recreating this universal and timeless tale. His ingredients are a list of stages in the journey (pieces that must appear in the plot line) and a list of archetypes (character types that are necessary to drive the plot). Put ‘em together and, “bippity, boppity, boo”, you’ve got a story! The Stages of the Hero’s Journey 1. The Ordinary World 2. The Call to Adventure 3. Refusal of the Call 4. Meeting with the Mentor 5. Crossing the First Threshold 6. Tests, Allies, Enemies 7. Approach to the Inmost Cave 8. Ordeal 9. Reward (Seizing the sword) 10. The Road Back 11. Resurrection 12. Return with the Elixer The Archetypes Hero Mentor Threshold Guardian Herald Shapeshifter Shadow Ally Trickster So, I got about this far in telling my Nearest and Dearest what the next blog was going… Read More »