Category: Major arcana

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 Hanged Man, Part II

Posted C. LaVielle18 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot

The Hanged Man is in search of enlightenment. But notice that he’s not having a cup of tea with Great Aunt Ethel. The knowledge he seeks can only be given to him by the gods, or for those with a more secular viewpoint, by his subconscious. This sort of knowledge is available to everyone; all we need to do is ask. It’s attainment is the selling point of the major religions and meditation techniques. The part that they sometimes don’t mention is that to receive the answer, you must go to a place where you can actually hear it, and then you must be very still.  It isn’t a physical place.  It exists where the world as we know it and the realm of the “other world” intersect.  It’s that ethereal, dusky place between the dark and the daylight.  Psychologist call it “liminal space” and define it as a place where borders meet and soften and become neither one nor the… Read More »

The Strength-Justice Tarot Controversy

Posted C. LaVielle13 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot

Some of my best friends read with decks in which Strength is numbered 11 instead of 8 and Justice is 8 instead of 11. In fact, I own eight tarot decks and five of them use this numbering system. Horrors! How can this be? The first tarot cards we know of, The Visconti-Sforza decks, were painted in Italy in the 15th century and didn’t number the major arcana cards. At least the ones I’ve found on line didn’t. Most subsequent decks did number them, but their order has been constantly switched and different cards, such as the virtues Faith, Hope, and Charity have been added and subtracted to accommodate various metaphysical theories. In The Devil’s Picture Book, Paul Huson mentions a 15th century manuscript with a marginal note that gives a number to each major arcana key. In this system, Strength is 9 and Justice is 20. The French Marseilles decks (1600-1700’s) were the first to use the Strength 11, Justice 8 numbering system. They… Read More »

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

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

Justice, key XI and the Wheel of Fortune, key X sit at the balance point of the Major Arcana. Ten cards precede them and ten cards come after them. Together chance and karma create the fulcrum around which the hero’s journey turns. If we consider the Wheel of Fortune to be the mechanism of manifestation, then Justice is the force within the cosmos that brings balance to the wheel. The wisdom of the tarot matches the Egyptian concept that it is Justice that brings balance to the universe. Libra, the scales, is the astrological sign attributed to Justice. It sits smack dab in the middle of the zodiacal year at Fall Equinox and it’s all about balance, harmony, and beauty. The Hebrew letter Lamed corresponds to Justice. As a verb it means “to teach or instruct” and as a noun it means an ox goad. The meaning of the letter Aleph is ox, and Aleph corresponds to The Fool who signifies pure cosmic energy. And… Read More »

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

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

The Ancient Greeks’ concept of Justice was more pragmatic than the Egyptians’. According to Egyptian mythology it was Maat, or Justice that set order to the universe at the moment of creation, and so Justice is the primary force of their world. (see Justice, Part I) The Greeks claim that it was Ananke, the primordial goddess of compulsion, inevitability, and necessity, that set everything to order. She emerged fully formed at the very beginning of time, a serpentine spirit intertwined with her mate, Khronos, or Time. Together, Time and Necessity hold the egg of the universe fast in their powerful coil. She is the mother of the Fates, or Moirae and although even mighty Zeus defers to her, she’s not a popular or commonly worshiped goddess. Nobody, except perhaps a politician, enjoys bowing to her. As far as we know, only one temple to Ananke ever existed. It was in Corinth, and this most powerful of all goddesses had to share it with Bia, meaning… Read More »

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

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

Maat is the Egyptian goddess of truth, justice, balance, and harmony. She regulates the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the deities and set the order of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation. She is a most ancient goddess; archeologist have found depictions of her from the middle of the Old Kingdom, c. 2600 BCE. To the ancient Egyptians, she was not just the goddess of truth and justice, she was truth and justice. The early kings described themselves as “Lords of Maat” who spoke aloud the Maat they conceived in their hearts. The Pharaoh’s Vizier, who was a combination of Prime Minister, Chief Security Officer, and Chief Judge, was the High Priest of Maat. Paul Doherty’s fascinating ancient Egyptian mystery series features Chief Judge Amerotke as its sleuth. He not only invoked Maat everyday before he entered the courtroom but also had a very rich and fulfilling relationship with her. In the underworld, Anubis weighs the deceased’s heart… Read More »

Major Arcana, The Hero’s Adventure: Wheel of Fortune: Epilogue

Posted C. LaVielle14 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Synchronicity, Tarot, The Hero's Journey, Uncategorized

The Wheel turned for us today. I was fixing breakfast when my husband walked into the kitchen and handed me the phone. “This man is saying Paris (our cat) is dead. Talk to him, I’m going up to get dressed.” “Where are you?” I asked the caller. He was right outside the house. Two of the utility guys that were putting in a gas line at a neighbor’s house met me as I came running out. Their faces were grim with concern and sympathy as they handed me Paris’s collar. “We were over there working and when we looked up he was laying in the street. He was up on our rig earlier saying hello. Really nice cat.” “Where is he?” “He’s just over there ma’am,” One of them said. He put his arms around me when I started to cry and patted me gently on the back. “If you let me know where you want me to put him, I’ll take him there for… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: Wheel of Fortune, Part III

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

The Wheel of Fortune’s number is 10 which puts it as close to the center of the major arcana cards as you can get, assuming The Fool, 0, is at the beginning, so it signifies a turning point or balance point. The number 10 is also the beginning of the next series of digits after 0-9 (The Fool through The Hermit), so it can be seen as the beginning of a new cycle. This cycle can be either “better” or “worse” than the one before it, but it is always a step up in complexity and challenge. Jupiter is the planet assigned to the Wheel of Fortune. As the largest planet in the solar system, it is the planet of expansion, which is what the Wheel does—it expands not only our outlook, but our options. Astrologers also call it the Greater Benefic, or bringer of good fortune, with Venus, The Empress, being the Lesser Benefic. Kaph, or Kaf, is its Hebrew letter. Its symbol is… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: Wheel of Fortune, Part II

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

Ixion was king of the Lapiths, a tribe in ancient Thessaly, and to my mind, one of the most notorious men in Greek mythology. He lived back in the day when gods and mortals still socialized and when possibly mortals were a bit immortal, since gods and mortals interbred with gusto. Depending on who you are reading, Ixion’s lineage goes back to Gaia herself, or he may have been a son of Ares, or he may have been a mere mortal. At any rate, he murdered his father-in-law, who was a guest in his house, thus becoming both the first kin-slayer and a violator of xenia, the Greek concept of guest-friendship. Because no one had ever slain a family member before, his neighbors had no idea how to perform the rituals that would cleanse him of his guilt. Ixion went mad and roamed the land as an outlaw. Zeus took pity on him, released him from his guilt, and brought him up to Mount Olympus.… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: The Wheel of Fortune, Part I

Posted C. LaVielle5 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey, Uncategorized

Whether it’s Vanna White that spins the wheel, The Greek Moirae, The Norse Norns, or Shakespeare’s Weird Sisters, this card is about Fate, i.e., Luck. And as you can see, Luck is always a Lady, and she’s usually not real pretty. Like the Three Fates, there is a remorseless inevitability about this card, and I have never understood why most readers regard it as benefic. Fortune is not the same thing as fortunate. Seven days after a child is born, The Three Moirae, come to the infant’s hearth and determine the babe’s fate. Clotho spins the life thread, Lachesis measures it, and Atropos cuts it off. They are remorseless and powerful. Even Zeus bows to their authority. Once a destiny has been spun, measured, and cut there is no changing it. But who wants to surrender their free will to three cantankerous old ladies? We live in a time when marvelous advances in medicine and technology have given us the illusion that we are actually… Read More »