Tag: Major Arcana

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

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

When he appears in a tarot spread The Hermit, true to his Virgo associations, can give the reader a wealth of information. If the querent draws this card as a significator or its position in the spread suggests that The Hermit is the querent, the most obvious interpretation is solitude. When this will happen depends on its placement. Whether it will be a voluntary, pleasant, and productive solitude, or an aching loneliness that withers the soul and warps the spirit, or something in between depends on whether the card is upright or reversed, and what the cards around it say. It could also mean that this person is, was, or will be a seeker, the possessor of arcane knowledge, a teacher and guide for others, and/or ecstatically reunited with the Life Force. It may indicate the appearance of a teacher or someone with advice or a piece of information. If the card falls in the past, check the cards around it to see if 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 »

Strength, Part II

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

A young woman closes the mouth of a lion that looks capable of tearing her limb from limb. The lion is, of course, shorthand for the Lion Serpent Sun energy I’ve been talking about. In some decks he’s even colored bright red to make the connection inescapably obvious. The woman has a figure eight above her head the same as The Magician, which is a broad hint that she shares many of his talents. She is the yin to the lion’s yang, and between the two of them, they create a functional whole. The esoteric meaning of Strength should now be clear: It is possible to consciously influence and call upon the vast forces of the universe. As evidenced by the relaxed gentleness of the maiden, this card is not about physical strength. The fact that it is a woman who closes (or, in some decks, opens) the lion’s mouth tells the reader that the key to these forces is the subconscious. This is the… Read More »

The Earth Serpent

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Synchronicity, Tarot

My husband is a geologist and a geotechnical engineer. Every day we sit together at our computers. I’m writing blogs and books and also bills for his consulting business. He’s writing reports and doing “research”. As he works, I hear the occasional mutter about “test boring 1” or “shear strain” or “pore pressure”. But the other day I heard “Amazing!” and “Just like a huge serpent moving through the earth!” “What?!” I yelped. I’d just finished the Lion Serpent Sun blog and had snakes on the brain. The Geomancer elucidated, and I will paraphrase his words: The Cascadia Subduction Zone runs offshore along the coasts of Northern Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver Island. It’s where the Pacific tectonic plate dives under the continental plate and causes earthquakes. No surprises here. Every first year geology student understands plate tectonics. Seismologists in the US and Canada have come together to form the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). They’ve installed a vast array of sensors from northern California through… Read More »

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

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

I once met a man named Lion Serpent Sun. He lived in Victoria, BC and was a good friend’s Wiccan High Priest. Len Olsen, a Pentecostal Preacher, appeared on a 1984 Victoria talk show called “100 Huntley Street” and claimed that Lion had attempted to sacrifice him and his wife in a Satanic ritual. Big Mistake. Lion sued Olsen and the talk show host all the way to the Supreme Court of British Columbia and won. “100 Huntley Street” wisely settled out of court. Don’t ever mess with a man named Lion Serpent Sun. The Lion, The Serpent, and The Sun are the three symbols of the Strength card. Leo is the astrological sign attributed to Strength. Everyone knows that The Lion is charismatic, powerful, egotistical, and loves to be in control. Leo is ruled by the Sun, the center of our solar system and the source of all its energy. The planets move around it like dancers around a campfire on a chilly night.… Read More »

The Groundhog and His Hierophants

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, Wheel of the Year

I came upon this picture and an article streamed by National Geographic and couldn’t resist. The men in the top hats are Punxsutawney Phil’s Inner Circle. Every February 2nd, as soon as the sun is up far enough to cast a shadow, they proceed to Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and yank Phil out of his hollow stump. If he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. I knew all this, but I didn’t know that, according to this article, these men speak with Phil and get his official prognostication, which they then deliver to the waiting multitude. In case you missed it, this year they said that he said there would be an early spring.

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey, The Chariot, Part III

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

Paul Huson, in The Devil’s Picture Book , mentions in passing that the “mysterious Merkabah….of the medieval Cabalists” fits in perfectly with the symbolism of The Chariot. The Merkabah, the throne/chariot of God, is mentioned 44 times in the Old Testament. It is a four-wheeled vehicle driven by “the likeness of a man” who is surrounded by four living creatures, each of which has four wings and the four faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle. It is further surrounded by several other layers or angels. This was the vehicle Jewish scholars assume Ezekiel saw in his famous wheels within wheels vision, although the word merkabah isn’t mentioned in that particular text. Rabbis typically forbid the study and discussion of Ezekiel 1 and the merkabah to all but the most advanced Jewish scholars because it can be so easily misinterpreted. (Wikipedia, Merkabah entry). Hasidic philosophy is more relaxed about the issue and explains that the Merkaba is “a multi-layered analogy that offers insight into… Read More »

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

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

Whenever I look at key VII, I can hear Rod Stewart’s voice rasping, “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?” This picture definitely tells a story, if you pay attention to what’s actually there and read all the symbols. First, look at the chariot on the tarot card, and then compare it to the chariots pictured in the previous blog. The tarot card chariot would seem to be useless. It has wheels, but they won’t work because the body of the chariot is resting on the ground and is made of what looks like a block of stone. The two sphinxes that are supposed to be pulling it look as unlikely to be up to the job as Freya’s cats. They are lolling serenely in front of the chariot, playing with their tails. One is black and the other is white, which suggest that one has a yin temperament and the other is yang—not an ideal pairing for two steeds that are supposed to pull… Read More »

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

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

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 Lovers, Part I

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

Welcome to The Lovers! Like romance itself, this card is portrayed in a bewildering parade of images. The traditional Rider-Waite-Smith card is pictured above. But it can also look like this: Or this: I think that all of the above are valid, insightful ways of portraying this card, but IMHO, some others aren’t as successful. They get part of it right, but they don’t convey the whole message. Like its associated sign, Gemini, the card contains multitudes and is very hard to pin down to one simple meaning. It has layers, like an onion or an ogre. To get a grip on this tricksy card, let’s begin with its astrological and Hebrew letter attributions. The astrological sign, Gemini, the twins, is attributed to The Lovers. Its element is air, so it’s a mental, logical, verbal sign whose key words are “I think.” Since Gemini is the sign of the twins, it means duality; and since it’s ruled by Mercury, the trickster, it can mean duplicity.… Read More »