Tarot and the Elements
For this discourse we shall make use of the commentaries of Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst extracted from his study of the Tarots. According to said author, we find ourselves before a mutus liber, or mute book, which has been transmitted across time beneath the veil of fortune telling. The actual prediction will be the empty crust of the ancient magic or prophecy the function of which, as we shall see, is to announce the Golden Age, or the future world..
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Beginning the process
Tarot and the Elements
For this discourse we shall make use of the commentaries of Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst extracted from his study of the Tarots. According to said author, we find ourselves before a mutus liber , or mute book, which has been transmitted across time beneath the veil of fortune telling. The actual prediction will be the empty crust of the ancient magic or prophecy the function of which, as we shall see, is to announce the Golden Age, or the future world. Tarot's Four suits are composed of: pentacles or gold coins, cups, swords and canes, in addition to the XXI Major Arcana or engravings that go from Card I, "The Magician", to Card XXI, "The World". "The Fool" is excluded from the order of the sacred numbers, for this reason it represents the profane man. The Tarot cards of The Marseille deck are those that have best conserved the symbolism and the principal colors: blue for the spirit, gold for the body, and red for the sense. The hieroglyphic interpretation of each one of the engravings will depend on the situation of the colors with respect to the drawing. Here all of a language is condensed, a true grammar or "art of combination" which must be learned in order to be able to read the different combinations, such as it's explained in The Message Rediscovered by Louis Cattiaux: "The mixture of elements that forms the multiple combinations of creation, is like the mixture of playing cards that forms the multiple combinations of the game; and the elements return to the mass and are then combined once more, as the playing cards return to the pack and are redistributed without real increase or decrease, for neither profit nor loss exist for the immutable that IS" ( The Message Rediscovered 23, 64).
The four suits of the Spanish deck.
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7 of 12. The Sacred Dance
The process ends with card number XXI, called "The World". In it, a young and chaste Eve dances above a golden floor. The dance has something of the divine, not in vain did Orpheus conquer the world singing and dancing. In the card also appear the four animals that in the Christian tradition symbolize the four evangelists that, in their turn, represent the four elements. In the image on the left, Christ in his majesty appears with the army of angels and surrounding, the same as the virgin of the lamina arcane, who appears in the middle of a mandorla where the symbols of the four evangelists are represented.
Card number XXI of the Marseille Tarot, "The World".
Carolingian miniature of Christ in Majesty, sacramental fragment, Metz, IX century.
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9 of 12. The Pilgrim
"The Fool" or "The Joker" is a card without a number, because creation has not yet begun for this poor idiot who walks without a goal. Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst relates it to the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10, 29), which we are going to abridge:
A man who descended from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by some thieves, who robbed him, beat him, and left him at the side of the road. Those who passed by wouldn't even look at him, till a Samaritan came, rescued him and cured him. The tablet of El Bosco represents this evangelical parable. We see that in her, as in the Tarot card, the man is attacked by a dog. The animal symbolizes the astral influences that subjugate the man when he descends to the earth and that leave him at the mercy of his passions until a Good Samaritan may come, and may cure him.
Unnumbered card called "The Fool", from the Marseille Tarot.
El Bosco, wickets of the triptych "The Hay Cart", 1500-1502. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
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10 of 12. God's Abode
"La Maison de Dieu" dominates Card number XV and, as will be seen, is a much more appropriate term than the Spanish, "The Tower", because it's actually God's House, or the athanor, that is seen in the card. Normally it is considered to be a card of destruction, when, in reality, it would be showing the fecundation of the athanor through the celestial fire, the indispensable beginning for the alchemical Work. Two characters, the teacher and the disciple, dance head down because of their happiness. In this way they can read the signs inscribed in the philosophical landscape. In the engraving to the right, the same operation is represented, but in a different language. It represents the consecration of Elisha, made by the prophet Elijah, operation which calls forth the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
Card number XV from the Marseille Tarot.
Engraving by Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi. Historia, Oppenheim, 1617-19.
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12 of 12. The Embodied Light
The golden Buddha symbolizes the end of the entire process shown by the Tarot Cards.
A sacred reality that culminates with the advent of the authentic Golden Age sung by the great poets and prophets.
Image of a Bodhisattva, III-IV century.
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