THE MAJOR ARCANA AND PERSONAL GROWTH 

The first line of the Major Arcana takes us through the process ofmaturity. It shows the stages of a person's growth from a child, towhom mother is all loving and father all powerful, through education, to the point where the child becomes an independent personality. At the same time these cards deal with a much widerdevelopment, of which the individual development is a microcosm.They depict the creation of human society, out of both the archetypes of existence and the chaotic energy of nature.   

  While they set the principles for the whole deck, the Magicianand the High Priestess apply very specifically to the first line. Themovement between opposites is the basic rhythm of the materialworld. Nothing exists absolutely in nature. In the words of UrsulaLe Guin, 'Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the righthand of light.' When we move from the two principles to theEmpress we are seeing the opposites mingle together in nature toproduce the reality of the physical universe. 

The middle three cards of the line are a set. They show us a triadof nature, society, and. the Church. They also signify mother, father,and education. In ancient Egypt the godhead was often viewed as atrinity. The persons changed from place to place and through theyears, but they were usually a female and two males, with thefemale viewed as supreme. In the Tarot, nature, symbolized by the Empress, is the underlying reality, while her consorts, symbolizedby the Emperor and the Hierophant, are human constructs. 

The last two cards of the line represent the problems of the individual, love and sorrow, surrender and will. At some point each oneof us must learn to distinguish ourselves from the outer world.Before this time personality remains a vague and formless creationof parents and society. Those who never make the break becomecut off from a full life. For most people the medium by which theybreak from their parents is the emergence (Freudians and perhapsoccultists would say 're-emergence') of the sexual drive at puberty.It is no accident that children rebel from their parents in ideas,habits, and dress at the same time that their bodies grow towardsmaturity. 

The development of individuality is only a part of growth. Eachperson must find his or her personal goals and achievements. At thesame time he or she will sooner or later face sorrow, sickness, andthe general weakness of a life governed by old age and death. Onlywhen we reach a full understanding of the outer life of humanitycan we hope to reach inwards for a deeper reality.

  THE EMPRESS

As stated in the previous chapter the Empress represents the moreaccessible, more benign aspects of the female archetype. She ismotherhood, love, gentleness. At the same time she signifies sexuality, emotion and the female as mistress. Both motherhood andsex derive from feelings that are non-intellectual and basic to life.Passions rather than ideas. The High Priestess represented the mental side of the female archetype; her deep intuitive understanding.The Empress is pure emotion.   

  Like the Cunning Woman, we see her reflected in our moviesand novels as the exasperating female, who both frustrates anddelights, because her thought processes follow no rational development. Many women find this image insulting, partly because it represents values and approaches judged as negative by our patriarchalsociety, and partly because people make the error of assuming thatwomen and men should personally express these archetypal ideas.But the social images are crippling in another way as well. They aretrivial. The Empress, along with such mythological counterparts asAphrodite or Ishtar or Erzulie, represent something very grand.They signify the passionate approach to life. They give and takeexperience with uncontrolled feeling. 

Until we learn to experience the outer world completely wecannot hope to transcend it. Therefore the first step to enlightenment is sensuality. Only through passion, can we sense, from deepinside rather than through intellectual argument, the spirit that fillsall existence. 

Many people see religion as an alternative to the natural world,which they view as somehow impure or dirty. Though our cultural tradition fosters this duality it is really an illusion, and the personwho approaches spirituality with this motivation to escape willlikely never achieve a very developed understanding. The body, andthe natural world, are realities that must be integrated rather thandenied. 

In the mythology of Buddhism we find that the gods manipulated Prince Siddhartha's father into providing his son, Gautama, withevery sensual satisfaction. The father believed that pleasure wouldprevent his son from renouncing the world and becoming a Buddha. The scheme backfired, because only after he had completely experienced sensuality could the prince leave it behind. After renouncing the world Gautama joined the ascetics, the otherpole. But he reached enlightenment only when he had rejectedboth extremes for the Middle Way. Thus, we can see the Buddhain the World dancer who holds both the Magician and the HighPriestess lightly in her hands. 

    As a combination of 1 and 2 the number 3 signifies synthesis andharmony. The natural world combines the Magician and the HighPriestess in an indivisible unity of life and death, darkness and light.The idea of emotion also brings together the Magician archetypeof activeness with the High Priestess archetype of instinct.

  Consider as well the process of creation. The Magician symbolizes the energy of life, the High Priestess the possibilities of futuredevelopment. The reality of the Empress results from their combination. Recently Carl Sagan demonstrated that life on earth mighthave begun when a lightning bolt struck the primordial sea. Thusagain, from the lightning of the Magician striking the waters of theHigh Priestess, comes the natural world. 

The symbolism of the Waite-Smith Empress reflects the idea ofnature, with all its force and glory. The Empress herself, voluptuousand sensual, suggests passion. Her shield is a heart with the sign ofVenus, the Roman version of the Great Goddess. Throughout theancient world the goddess ruled, as Demeter, Astarte, Nut, until thepatriarchal invaders demoted her to wife (and finally banished heraltogether with an all-male godhead). At the Empress's feet grows afield of grain; the goddess ruled agriculture, and in North-WesternEurope was called the 'Corn Goddess'. She wears a necklace ofnine pearls, for the nine planets, while her crown contains twelvestars for the signs of the zodiac. In short, she wears the universe asher jewellery. The Great Mother is not the forms of nature, but theunderlying principle of life. The stars are six-pointed, a symbolmuch older than its current use as a social emblem for Judaism. Thesix-pointed star combines two triangles; the upwards one symbolizes fire, the downwards one water. Again, the Empress combinestrumps 1 and 2 in a new reality. 

A river flows from the trees behind her to disappear beneath herseat. This river is the force of life, running like a great currentbeneath all the separate forms of reality, and experienced most fullywhen we give ourselves to unrestrained passion. Deep in our selveswe can sense the rhythm of a river, carrying us forward throughexperience until, with death, our individual lives return to the seaof existence.  

  The river symbolizes also the unity of change and stability. Thewater in it is never the same, yet it always remains a particular river,with its own special qualities. Human beings change from day today, the cells of our bodies die and new ones take their place, yetwe always remain ourselves. 

The number 3 produced by the combination of 1 and 2 bringsout yet another idea. Just as the numbers 1 and 2 stood specificallyfor male and female, so the number 3 signifies the child producedby their joining together. The child is born as a creature of nature,unburdened with ego and personality, experiencing the universedirectly, without controls or labels. It is only as we grow older thatwe learn to put barriers between ourselves and life. It is one of thegoals of the Tarot to return us to that natural state of directly experiencing the world around us. 

But if the Empress signifies the child she also stands for themother. Motherhood is the basic means by which life continuesthroughout nature. And because the physical bond of the motherand child is so direct, mother love, in its strongest form, is purefeeling, given without intellectual or moral considerations. (This is,of course, an ideal, and in reality such love may come more fromthe male parent than the female, or sadly, not at all.) Throughouthistory people have identified motherhood with nature, so that theterm 'Great Mother' for the earth itself appears all over the world,and even today we speak vaguely of Mother Nature. 

    In readings the Empress represents a time of passion, a periodwhen we approach life through feelings and pleasure rather thanthought. The passion is sexual or motherly; either way it is deeplyexperienced, and in the right context can give great satisfaction. Inthe wrong context, when analysis is needed, the Empress can meana stubborn emotional approach, a refusal to consider the facts. Shecan indicate another problem as well: self-indulgent pleasure whenrestraint is needed. Usually, however, she indicates satisfaction andeven understanding gained through the emotions. The reversedmeanings of the cards also have their positive and negative contexts. On the one hand it can signify a retreat from feeling, eitherrejecting your emotions or attempting to suppress your desires,particularly sexual. However, just as the High Priestess, upsidedown, added the missing element of involvement, so the Empressreversed can mean a new intellectual awareness, especially the solving of some complicated emotional problem by calmly thinkingit through.

  In their right side up and reversed meanings trumps 2 and 3 aremirrors of each other. It sometimes happens that in a reading bothwill appear, upside down. This means that the person expressesboth emotional and intuitive mental aspects, but in a negative way.Rationality comes as a reaction to excessive emotional involvement,while a feeling of isolation or coldness leads to passion. If the twoaspects of the goddess can be experienced right side up the personwill achieve a more stable and rewarding balance. 

  THE EMPEROR

 For each child its parents are archetypes. Not just mother andfather, but Mother and Father. Because our mothers give us life andfeed us and shelter us we tend to see them as figures of love andmercy (and get very upset when they act harshly or coldly). But theFather, especially in traditional times when the sex roles werestricter, remained more remote, and therefore a figure of severity. Itwas the father who bore the authority and thus became the judge,the father who punished (and the mother who intervened) and thefather who taught us the rules of society and then demanded obedience. To the child the father is in many ways indistinguishablefrom society as a whole, just as the mother is nature itself. One ofthe painful moments of maturity for many people comes when theydiscover the limited humanity of their parents.   

  In Freud's scheme of mental development the father and therules of society become directly linked. The infant psyche demandsconstant satisfaction, particularly in its desires for food and physicalpleasure from the mother. (Freudians may claim the child desiresactual intercourse with its mother, but the situation holds even ifthe child seeks only the pleasure of being held against the mother'sbody.) By interfering in the child's relationship to its mother thefather arouses the child's hostility, and for the still unrepressedinfant, this means a desire to do away with the interference altogether. The urge to destroy the father, however, cannot be consummated or even recognized, and so the psyche, to relieve theterrible dilemma, identifies itself with the Father image, creating a'super-ego' as a new guide for the self (replacing the 'id' - the urgesand desires which led to such a crisis). But what form does thissuper-ego take? Precisely that of the rules of society, traditionallylearned under the father's guidance. 

Trumps 3 and 4 of the Tarot represent the parents in their archetypal roles. But just as the Empress signified the natural world, sothe Emperor carries the wider significance of the social world 'married' to nature. He symbolizes the laws of society, both good andbad, and the power that enforces them. 

In ancient times, where the Goddess reigned, the king performed a special function. New life can only come from death; therefore, each winter, the Goddess's representatives sacrificed theold king, very often dismembering him and planting the pieces inthe ground, thereby mystically fertilizing the earth. Later, when themale dominated religions took over, the king came to symbolizethe rule of law which had clamped a lid of repression on whatseemed to the patriarchs as the monstrous and chaotic darkness ofthe old order. We see this drama (much like Freud's substitution ofsuper-ego for id) in many myths; such as Marduk, national hero ofBabylon, killing Tiamat, the original mother of creation, becauseshe is giving birth to monsters. Whether or not we see the old waysas monstrous or the new as civilized, the Emperor symbolizes theabstraction of society replacing the direct experience of nature. 

In Rome, the concept of law versus chaos was carried to thepoint where stability, or 'law and order' to use the modern term,became virtues in themselves, apart from the inherent morality ofthose laws. No progress can be made in conditions of anarchy (runsthe argument); bad laws need to be changed, but first the law mustbe obeyed at all costs. Any other approach can only destroy society.Today, we see this viewpoint embodied in an abstraction we call the'system' . The Romans saw it more concretely in the personal figureof the Emperor, whom they described as the father of all his people. 

In the Emperor's best aspect he indicates the stability of a justsociety that allows its members to pursue their personal needs anddevelopment. The natural world is chaotic; without some kind ofsocial structure we could each spend all our lives fighting to survive.Society allows us both to work together and to benefit from theexperience of those who !ived before us. 

Stability allows spiritual development as well. In many countriessociety supports the churches (though whether this arrangementfurthers spirituality is arguable); in some Eastern countries monksare free to pursue their studies because laymen fill their beggarbowls. Without this social custom they would have to spend theirtime working to get bread. 

In its more negative aspects the Emperor represents the power ofunjust laws in a society where stability takes precedence over morality. Once we establish law and order as supreme then a corrupt rulerbecomes a disaster. But if the entire system is corrupt, producingonly bad rulers, then stability becomes the enemy of morality. Thevalue of the symbol of the Emperor depends a very great deal ontime and place. In an unjust society the Emperor's power hinders,rather than helps, personal development. A great many people havegone to gaol for attacking unjust laws. 

Even at its best, however, the Emperor remains limited. Over thespontaneity of the Empress he has laid a network of repression. Ifwe lose touch with our passions then life becomes cold and barren.The Rider pack Emperor (see Fig. Sa) is drawn as old and stiff,dressed in iron, representing the sterility of a life r igidly governedby rules. T he r iver which flowed so powerfully through theEmpress's garden has here become a thin stream, barely able topenetrate a lifeless desert. 

The card's other symbolism reflects its dual aspects. He holds anankh, Egyptian symbol of life, to indicate that under the law hebears the power of life and death, and will hopefully use it well.Four rams, symbols of Aries, adorn his throne while at the crown'speak he bears the sign of Aries (unfortunately resembling a propellor). Now, Aries symbolizes force, aggression and war, but as thefirst sign of the zodiac it also signifies the new life of spring, whichcan emerge from the stability of a just society. 

As the middle card of the first line of the Major Arcana theEmperor represents a crucial test. In the process of growing up it isindeed the rules of society that many people find most difficult tosurmount. We must absorb these rules, as well as our society'straditions and beliefs, then go beyond them to find a personal codeof conduct. This does not mean the attitude 'rules are made to bebroken'. People who feel compelled to flaunt all laws remain asbound to those laws as the person who follows them blindly. 

Because of the father's role in teaching us acceptably socialbehaviour, people who are trapped at the level of the Emperor areoften people who have never really accepted the ordinary humanity of their father. They may recognize it rationally but it disturbsand haunts them. Similar problems plague those people for whomthe Empress remains their mother's, rather than their own, passionsand sensuality. 

The idea of the Emperor as that of the limited values of socialstructure arises mainly from Waite and his followers. The picture onthe r ight at the start of this section, from Paul Foster Case's Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) deck drawn by Jessie Burns Parke, illustrates another tradition. Here the Emperor symbolizes the sum totalof spiritual knowledge. He is drawn in profile (this is much morecommon than the Rider pack full-face image) , linking him to theKabbalist image for God as the 'Ancient of Days', a seated king inprofile. (The Ancient's face was never visible, oruy his crown witha radiance beneath.) 

The Emperor's arms and legs form an equilateral triangle over across, the alchemical sign for fire. This figure is later reversed (inWaite as well as Case) in the Hanged Man. The BOTA Emperorsits on a cube rather than a throne. Also an esoteric symbol, thecube symbolizes both the world and the Tarot itself, as well as theHebrew alphabet and the paths of the Tree of Life. The symbolismarises from the fact that a cube contains twelve edges, six faces,three axes, and of course a centre, adding up to twenty-two, thenumber of trumps, Hebrew letters, and paths. And because theTree of Life is held to represent all creation the cube symbolizes theuniverse. 

  In readings the Emperor indicates (following the Rider packimage) the power of society, its laws and especially its authority toenforce those laws. The appearance of the trump indicates anencounter with the law. Again, the good or bad qualities depend onthe context. 

More personally the Emperor can signify a time of stability andorder in a person's life, hopefully opening up creative energy. Healso can indicate a specific person who holds great power, eitherobjective or emotional, over the subject. This is very often thefather, but it can also be a husband or lover, especially for those people who treat their lovers as substitute fathers to whom they surrender control of their lives. I have seen readings so dominated by theEmperor that all of life's possibilities become stunted and unfulfilled. 

As a card of personal qualities, the Emperor can indicate theability to defend one's territory, to create firm boundaries andvigorously maintain them. He symbolizes a rationalist approach toissues, one that values analysis and measurement over emotion andintuition. 

Like the Empress reversed, the Emperor, when upside down,receives those elements complementary to his qualities when he isthe right way up. He is, in Waite's terms, 'benevolence and compassion'; new life in a stony desert. But the pendulum can swingtoo far. The reversed Emperor can signify immaturity, and theinability to make harsh decisions and carry them through. 

  THE HIEROPHANT 

In most Tarot decks trump 5 is called either the Pope or the HighPriest, terms which connect it by name as well as picture to trump2, the archetype of inner truth. Waite wrote that he rejected 'Pope'because the title suggested a very specific example of the trump'sgeneral idea. The name 'Hierophant' belonged to the high priestof the Greek Eleusinian mysteries. Now, Waite describes his cardas symbolizing the 'outer way' of churches and dogma. But his useof the mystery term suggests another interpretation, one morefavoured by those who see the Tarot as a secret doctrine of occultpractices rather than a more general embodiment of human patterns. This interpretation is dramatically portrayed in the picture ofthe Hierophant from Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth, drawn byFrieda Harris. Here the trump signifies initiation into a secret doctrine, such as the various orders and lodges which flourished  around the turn of the century and which have undergone a revivalin England and America. The Order of the Golden Dawn, towhich Waite and Crowley at one time both belonged, possiblyoriginated the term 'Hierophant' for trump 5.

  These two meanings, 'outer way' and 'secret doctrine', appearcontradictory on the most elementary level. In reality they are verysimilar. Whether the two acolytes are being admitted to the Churchor to an occult society, they are still entering a doctrine, with a setof beliefs which they must learn and accept before they can gainentrance. There is of course a fundamental difference between say,the catechism and the rituals of the Golden Dawn. For both, however, the trump indicates an education and a tradition. Therefore,if we see the first line as describing the development of the personality then the Hierophant, coming after the natural world andsociety, indicates the intellectual tradition of the person's particularsociety, and his or her education in that tradition. 

Following Waite's interpretation (and thinking specifically of theWestern pope) we can see the Hierophant as a companion to theEmperor. The word 'pope' means 'father', and like the RomanEmperor the Pope is seen as a wise father guiding his children.Together, they share responsibility for humanity, the one providingphysical needs, the other guiding spiritual growth. In one of theearliest treatises urging separation of Church and State, Danteargued that the two functions must not be combined for fear ofcorruption. However, he never questioned the idea that the Churchis responsible for our souls. 

Today, many people do not understand the basic idea of a priesthood. Our democratic age rejects the notions of an intermediarybetween an individual and God. Note, however, that the Hierophant can also symbolize the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' or anyother elite leading the masses where they cannot go themselves.Originally the special function of the priests was evident; theyspoke to the gods through the oracles, an often terrifying practice,and most people quite happily let someone else do it for them.When Christianity rejected such graphic and immediate connection to God, the idea of the priest became, like the Emperor, moreabstract. Basically it depends on the notion that most people do notreally care much about God. The average person is happiest following worldly pursuits, money, family and politics. There are,however, certain people who, by temperament, feel very directly thespirit that runs through all our lives. Called to the priesthood bytheir own inner awareness, these people can speak to God for us.More important, they can speak to us, interpreting God's law so wemay live proper lives, and eventually, after death, receive our rewardof returning to God. Mter the resurrection we ourselves will dwellin sight of God. In life, however, we need the priests to guide us. 

So runs the argument. Even if we agree with the principle, inpractice it tends to break down. People become priests for all sortsof reasons - ambition, family pressure, etc. - while those who dofeel a genuine calling to communicate with God may show verylittle talent for communicating with people. Moreover, like thesocial institutions of the Emperor, the religious institutions of theHierophant can easily become corrupted by the authority giventhem, so that the priests see their power as an end in itself, prizingobedience above enlightenment. Obviously, the position of defending a doctrine will attract doctrinaire people. 

Perhaps, however, we reject the idea of a guiding priesthood fora more subtle reason. Ever since the Reformation a notion that hasgained greater and greater force in the West is that of the individual's ultimate responsibility for him or herself. The whole idea ofan outer doctrine, a code of rules and beliefs accepted on faith,depends on the assumption that most people prefer to have someone else tell them what to do and think. This may very well betrue. To really discover God inside yourself you must undergo someuncomfortable confrontations with your own psyche. Similarly, todecide for yourself what is the moral thing to do in all situationsmight require a constant agony of choice. Nevertheless, many people today simply cannot accept either society or a Church bearingthe ultimate responsibility for their lives. 

Perhaps the interpretation of the Hierophant as representingsecret doctrines suits our age better. For then the doctrine does nottell us what to do, but instead gives us direction to begin workingon ourselves. And the Tarot, as we saw with the Magician, sets itselfagainst all Churches by leading us to personal salvation in this life.For Crowley the Hierophant represents initiation as the meansthrough which the individual becomes united with the universe. The form and doctrine of the initiation change with each worldage; having lasted nearly two thousand years, the current PisceanAge is corning to a close, so that the Hierophant is due to change,as will all stricdy human relationships. Crowley comments that onlythe future can tell us what the new 'current of initiation' will be.But the basic quality of initiation as a merging with the cosmosalways remains the same. 

       In the BOTA version of the Hierophant (as in the Rider pack)the crossed keys at the Hierophant's feet are gold and silver, representing the outer and inner ways, the sun and moon, the Magicianand the High Priestess, which the doctrine teaches us to combine.In the Rider pack card both keys are gold, indicating that the darkside is hidden from those who follow the outer doctrine.

  In the Waite-Smith imagery no veil blocks the entrance to theChurch, as in the temple of the High Priestess. But the pillars are adull grey. Those who enter here may receive protection from personal choice, but they will not pierce the secrets of duality. Theunconscious remains closed. In many Tarot decks, the High Priestess holds not a scroll but a small book, locked. And the keys of theHierophant do not fit that tantalizing lock. 

  Still, we must not think that the outer doctrine of religion servesno purpose to the seeker. Like the general education, of which it isa particular example, it gives the individual a firm tradition inwhich to root his or her personal development. The modern Western phenomenon of a kind of eclectic mysticism, drawing inspiration from all religions, is an extremely unusual development. Thisis based, possibly, on global awareness plus the view of religion as apsychological state divorced from science and history. Thus we seereligion as an experience rather than an explanation of the universeand accept that all religious experiences are valid, whatever contradictions they show on the surface. While this idea opens greatpossibilities, many people have noted its potential shallowness. Thefact is, throughout the centuries, the great mystics have alwaysspoken from deep within a tradition. The Kabbalists were thoroughly Jewish, Thomas a Kempis a complete Christian, and theSufis bowed to Mecca with all other orthodox Muslims. In its bestaspect the Hierophant (as outer doctrine) can give us a place to startin creating a personal awareness of God. 

One further aspect of the card's symbolism deserves special attention. The position of the three people (that is, a large figure presiding over two smaller ones on either side) introduces a motif thatrepeats itself, like the two pillars of the High Priestess, throughoutthe Major Arcana, and is resolved in Judgement and the world. Thevery next two cards after trump 5 repeat the motif, with the angelover the Lovers, and the charioteer of the Chariot over the blackand white sphinxes. 

We can see this trio as an emblem of the idea of a triad, suchas the Christian trinity, or the triune picture of the mind: theid/ ego/super-ego of Freud, or the conscious/unconscious/superconscious of the three lines of the Major Arcana. To understand themeaning of the image we must return to the High Priestess. She sitsbetween two pillars symbolizing the dualities of life. She herself signifies one side, the Magician the other. The Hierophant initiatestwo acolytes into his church. We see, therefore, that the Hierophantand the Lovers and the Chariot all represent attempts to mediatebetween the opposing poles of life and find some way, not toresolve them, but simply to hold them in balance. A religious doctrine, with its moral codes and explanations for life's most basicquestions, does just that. If we surrender ourselves to a Church thecontradictions of life all become answered; but not resolved. 

In reading the card signifies Churches, doctrines, and educationin general. Psychologically it can indicate orthodoxy, conformity tosociety's ideas and codes of behaviour, as well as, more subtly, a surrender of responsibility. The Emperor symbolized the rules themselves and their official enforcers; the Hierophant indicates our owninner sense of obedience. Reversed, the card means unorthodoxy,especially mental - forming original ideas. It can also, however,mean gullibility and this idea suggests another virtue of the cardwhen it is the right way up. A society builds its intellectual tradition over hundreds of years. Those who accept that traditionreceive from it a standard by which to judge new ideas and information. Those who reject it must find their own ways and caneasily get lost in superficial ideas. There are many people who, having given up the dogma forced on them as children, fall into somenew dogma, a cult or some extremist political group, just as rigidand perhaps more shallow. Having rejected tradition they have not really rejected the Hierophant. They have not accepted the responsibility of truly finding their own way. 

  THE LOVERS 

Of the various changes Arthur Waite and Pamela Smith made intraditional Tarot designs the card of the Lovers remains the mostdramatic. Where the Tarot de Marseilles (on the right, above)shows a young man struck by Cupid's arrow and forced to choosebetween two women, the Rider pack shows a mature man and asingle woman presided over by an angel. Further, while most decksindicate only a social situation, the Rider pack image clearlysuggests the Garden of Eden, or rather, a new Garden of Eden,with the trees bringing enlightenment rather than the Fall.

  The earlier version of trump 6 sometimes bears the title 'TheChoice', and in divinatory readings means an important choicebetween two desires. Because one woman is fair and the other dark,a symbolism traditional in Europe where darkness always indicatesevil and women in general indicate temptation, the choice was seenas between something respectable but perhaps dull, and somethinggreatly desired but morally improper. The card can refer to a minor choice or even to a major crisis in a person's life. We see thisancient symbolism today in the various novels and ftlms of middleaged, middle-class men tempted to give up their loved but ratherboring wives for a younger 'wilder' woman. 

The choice can, in fact, extend to a person's whole life. Eventhose people who never question the boundaries of their middleclass respectability have made a choice as much as the life-longcriminal. And there are many people who outwardly live sociallyacceptable lives yet inwardly fight constant torments of desire,fighting urges to adultery, or violence, or simply a desire to leavehome and become a wandering tramp. 

On the esoteric level the choice between the light and darkwoman indicates the choice between the outer path (symbolized inthe Rider pack by the Hierophant), where your life is laid out foryou, and the inner path of the occultist, which can lead to a confrontation with your hidden desires. The Church labelled magiciansas devil worshippers, and in Christian allegories the dark womanusually stood for Satan. 

These meanings all see the choice between light and dark in thewidest possible terms. In the context of the first line of trumps wecan see it in a much more specific way, that of the first real choicea person makes independently of his or her parents. Until thesexual urge rouses itself most people are content to act out theirparents' expectations for them. The sexual urge, however, points uswhere it wants to go. As a result we begin to break away in otherareas as well. It is very rare that the partners our parents wouldchoose for us are the ones we would choose for ourselves. If thedifference is too extreme, or the parents too controlling, then theperson can face a painful choice. 

Paul Douglas has commented that the darkhaired woman, whoappears much older, is the boy's mother, and the choice is whetherto stay under her protection or strike out on his own. Those whobelieve, with Freud, that a boy's first desire is directed towards hismother will see here a classic Oedipal dilemma. One part of thepersonality wishes to maintain the hidden fantasy life of a unionwith the mother, while another wishes to find a true love in thereality of the boy's own generation. But we do not have to acceptthe Freudian doctrine to see the wider implications of this choice. Whether or not the boy secretly desires his mother the life livedunder the parents' protection is safe and comfortable. But he (orshe, for girls basically face the same questions, though sometimesin different forms) can never become a true individual withoutmaking a break. And nothing indicates this more strongly thansexuality. 

Therefore, the traditional version of trump 6 represents adolescence. Not only does sexuality emerge at this time but also intellectual and moral independence. Cards 3, 4 and 5 represented us asshaped by the great forces of nature, society, and parents. In card 6the individual emerges, a true personality with its own ideas andpurposes, able to make important choices based, not on parentalorders, but on its own assessment of desires and responsibilities. 

These meanings belong to the card's traditional structure. Indesigning his own version of the Lovers Waite addressed a differentquestion. What functions do sex and love ultimately serve in a person's life? And what deep meanings can we find in the powerfuldrama of two people joining their hearts and bodies? Waite calledhis picture, 'the card of human love, here exhibited as part of theway, the truth, and the life'. 

The sexual drive leads us away from isolation. It pushes us toform vital relationships with other people, and finally opens theway to love. Through love we not only achieve a unity with someone else, but we are given a glimpse of the greater meanings anddeeper significance of life. In love we give up part of that ego control which isolates us not only from other people but from life itself.Therefore the angel appears above the man's and woman's heads, avision unobtainable to each person individually, but glimpsed byboth of them together. 

Religion, philosophy, and art have always seized on the symbolism of male and female as representing duality. We have already seenthis idea reflected in the Magician and the High Priestess, as well asthe Empress and the Emperor. The symbolism here is reinforced bythe fact that the Tree of Life, with its Magician like flames, standsbehind the man, while the Tree of Knowledge, entwined with theserpent (symbol not of evil but of unconscious wisdom) standsbehind the woman. The angel unites these two principles. In traditional teachings men and women are held to contain, within their bodies, separate life principles. Through physical love these principles join together. 

Occultists, however, have always recognized both these elementswithin the self. Today we hear many people say that everyone contains both male and female qualities; usually, however, they arereferring to vague ideas of social behaviour, such as aggression andgentleness. When male and female were seen as opposite in theirdeepest natures the occultist view was much more radical. One wayof describing the goal of the Major Arcana is to say it brings outand unites the male and female principles. Therefore, in manydecks, the dancer in the World is an hermaphrodite. 

According to Kabbalists and Hermetic philosophers all humanity (and indeed, even the Deity) was originally hermaphroditic.Thus, on the outer level, each of us is only half a person and onlythrough love can we find a sense of unity.

We find this same idea in Plato, but with an interesting variation.One of the Platonic myths states that humans were originally double creatures, but of three kinds : male-female, male-male, andfemale-female. Believing that humans possessed too much powerZeus split them with a thunderbolt, and now each one of us islooking for his or her other half. In contrast to the Jewish andChristian myths Plato's story gives equal reality to homosexuals. Itreminds us of the danger in the too easy symbolism of male andfemale as ultimate opposites. The Magician and the High Priestessare mixed very subtly in each of us . And the angel can be evokedby any two lovers. It is not the roles that matter, but the reality ofthe union. 

In the usual Christian interpretation of Genesis Eve bears thegreater guilt, not only because she ate first, but because her sensuality tempted Adam to fall. Man supposedly was ruled by reasonand woman by desire. This split led some Christians to declare thatwomen had no souls. The whole myth of the Fall, however, withits emphasis on disobedience and punishment, is really meant toserve a repressive morality. Physical passions were seen as dangerousto society and therefore had to be controlled. As Joseph Campbellpoints out in The Masks of God, the ancient goddess religion ofPalestine contained the same drama of a serpent, a Tree of Life, andan apple. But in the old story the initiate was given the apple by the goddess to allow him to enter paradise, rather than it being thecause of his expulsion. The ancient Hebrews reversed the myth,partly as a way of branding the old religion as evil, but also becausethey, like the Babylonians, considered the old ways 'monstrous'. 

The Tarot, however, is a path of liberation. The fear that Jahwehexpresses, that human beings 'will become like us', is preciselythe Tarot's purpose - to fully bring out the divine spark in us andunite it with our conscious selves, to end the duality of God andhuman and make them one. Therefore, though it keeps much ofthe same symbolism as Genesis, the Rider pack Lovers subtlyreverses the meaning. 

Notice that while the man looks at the woman the woman looksat the angel. If the male is indeed reason, then rationality can onlyreach beyond its limits through the medium of passion. By itsnature reason controls and contains, while passion tends to breakdown all limits. Our tradition has set the body and the rationalmind at odds with each other. The Tarot teaches us that we mustunite them (a single mountain rises between the two lovers) andthat it is not the controlling power of reason that raises the senses toa higher level, but, rather, the other way around. 

We can see this in direct psychological terms. Most people arebound within their egos or the masks they present to the world.But if they can surrender to sexual passion, they can, at least for amoment, transcend their isolation. Those who cannot release theiregos, even for an instant, misuse sex, and are misused by it. Sexbecomes a means of gaining power over someone else, but itnever satisfies. When a person rejects the body's desire to releaseitself with another person the result is depression. The angel hasbeen denied. 

At the same time the passions alone cannot bring us to theangel. They need to be guided by the reason as much as the reasonneeds the passions to set it free. Those who simply go wherevertheir desires lead them are often thrown from one experience toanother. 

Paul Foster Case names the angel as Raphael, who presides overthe super-conscious. This brings us back to the triune mind; herewe learn that the three levels of the mind are not separate and isolated, like the three storeys of a house, but that the super-conscious is actually a product of the conscious and unconscious joinedtogether. The pathway lies through the unconscious because that iswhere we find the true energy of life. In fact, the super-consciouscan be described as the energy of the unconscious brought out andtransformed to a higher state. Part of that transformation lies inconsciousness giving the energy form, direction, and meaning. 

If in the triangular motif the two figures below represent thedualities of life, while the larger figure above symbolizes a mediating force between them, then in trump 6 the mediator is sexuallove. When we surrender to it we experience a glimpse of something greater than ourselves. Only a glimpse, and only for amoment; true liberation requires finally a great deal more than passion. But love can help us see the path, and know a little of the joythat waits for us at the end of it. A number of mystics, notably SaintTeresa, have described union with God in terms of sexual ecstasy. 

The divinatory meanings for the Waite-Smith image are straightforward. They refer to the importance of love in a person's life andto a specific lover; very often to marriage or a long relationship.The card implies that the particular relationship has been or willprove to be very valuable to the person, leading him or her to anew understanding of life. If some specific problem is being considered in the reading then the Lovers indicates help in some way,either practically through the lover's assistance, or through emotional support. But this is not always true. The Lovers, in the position of the past, especially in relation to cards indicating a refusal tolook at the present situation, can indicate a crippling nostalgia for apast love. 

The earlier cards all represented archetypes. When we reversedthem we added the missing elements. But here the individual hasadvanced and now the reversed meaning shows weakness and blocks.It is first of all a destructive love, particularly in a bad marriage. It canrefer to romantic or sexual problems that dominate a person's life,either from difficulties with a specific person, or because the personfinds love simply a great problem. Because the Waite-Smith pictureindicates a mature love, and the traditional image shows the process ofadolescent choice, either version reversed indicates romantic immaturity; the prolonged adolescence that keeps some people involved inchildish fantasies long after their bodies have fully matured. 

  THE CHARIOT 

The earlier versions of this card, which showed the Chariot pulledby two horses rather than two sphinxes, derives from a number ofhistorical and mythological sources. Primarily it comes out of theprocessions given in Rome and other places for a conquering hero,when his chariot carried him through the streets that were filledwith cheering citizens. The custom apparently answers some deeppsychic need for group participation. We still practise it today, twothousand years later, in the parades given to presidents, generals,and astronauts, with open limousines replacing the chariot.   

  The Chariot implies more than a great victory. To drive a twohorse vehicle at speed requires total control over the animals; theactivity serves as a perfect vehicle for the powerful will. Plato, in thePhaedrus, refers to the mind as a chariot drawn by a black and whitehorse, the exact image of the Tarot. 

A certain Hindu myth tells of Shiva destroying a triple city of thedemons. To do so he requires that all creation be subordinated to hiswill. The gods make a chariot for Shiva, using not only themselvesbut the heavens and the Earth as materials. The sun and moonbecome the wheels and the winds the horses. (The symbol on the front of the Tarot Chariot, like a nut and bolt, or a wheel and axle,is called the lingam and yoni, standing for Shiva, the masculine principle, and Parvati, the feminine principle, united in a single figure.)Through the myth's images we learn that spiritual victory over evilcomes when we can focus all of nature, as well as the unconsciousenergy embodied in Shiva himself, through the conscious will. 

These two fables show two different aspects of the idea ofwill.The story of Shiva speaks of a true victory, in which the spirit hasfound a focus to release its total force. But the Phaedrus gives us animage of the triumphant ego, which controls rather than resolvesthe basic conflicts of life. Those Tarot commentators who see thecards as a group of separate images, each one contributing somevital lesson to our spiritual understanding, tend to give the Chariotits wider meaning. They point out that the Kabbalistic title for thenumber 7, with all its mystic connotations, is 'Victory'. 

In many places, particularly India, the horse became associatedwith death and funerals. When the rising patriarchy abolished theritual sacrifice of the king, a horse was killed instead. The horsesacrifice became the most holy, associated with immortality. Eventoday, horses are used to pull the coffins of great leaders. (A bizarrejunction of two aspects of the Chariot was seen in the death of JohnKennedy. He was killed in his limousine during a parade, and thena horse - who rebelled against his trainer's control - pulled hiscoffin in the state funeral.) These connections suggest the idea ofthe soul's victory over mortality 

When we look at the cards sequentially we see that 7 is only thevictory of the first line of the Major Arcana. It crowns that line'sprocess of maturation, but by necessity it cannot address the greatareas of the unconscious and super-conscious. Seen this way theChariot shows us the developed ego; the lessons of the early cardshave been absorbed, the adolescent period of searching and selfcreation has been passed, and now we see the mature adult,successful in life, admired by others, confident and content withhimself, able to control feelings, and above all, to direct the will. 

Like the Magician the Charioteer carries a magic wand. Unlikethe Magician he does not raise it above his head to heaven. Hispower is subordinate to his will. His hands hold no reins. His strongcharacter alone controls the opposing forces in life. 

The lingam and yoni indicate his mature sexuality which isunder his control. Thus he is not the victim of his emotions and hissexuality contributes to a satisfying life. The glowing square on hischest, a symbol of vibrant nature, links him to the sensual world ofthe Empress, but the eight pointed star on his crown shows hismental energy directing his passions (symbolists consider the eightpointed star as halfway between the square of the material worldand the circle of the spiritual) . His chariot looms larger than thetown behind indicating that his will is more powerful than the rulesof society. However, the fact that his chariot is not in motion indicates that he is not a rebel. The wheels of the chariot rest on water,showing that he draws energy from the unconscious, though thechariot itself, resting on land, separates him from a direct contactwith that great force. 

We have mentioned the sexual symbolism of the lingam andyoni. While Hindu myth connects horses to death, Freudian dreamsymbolism connects them to the sexual energy of the libido. Bycontrolling the horses (or sphinxes) the Charioteer controls hisinstinctive desires. 

Various magic signs adorn his body. His skirt bears symbols ofceremonial magic, his belt shows the sign and planets. The twolunar faces on his shoulders are named 'Urin and Thumrnim', thesupposed shoulder plates of the High Priest in Jerusalem and whichtherefore suggest the Hierophant. At the same time the lunar platesrefer to the High Priestess. Note also that the cloth at the back ofthe chariot suggests the High Priestess's veil; he has set the mysteryof the unconscious behind him. 

We see, therefore, in the Chariot's symbolism all the previouscards of the first line. The wand and symbols indicate the Magician,the water, sphinxes, and veil symbolize the High Priestess, the starson his canopy recall the Empress's crowns, the city symbolizes theEmperor, the shoulder plates symbolize the Hierophant, and thelingam and yoni symbolize the Lovers. All these forces contributeto the outer personality. 

And yet - observe the Chariot with its stone-like qualities.Observe the charioteer himself merging into his stone vehicle. Themind that subordinates all things to conscious will runs the risk ofbecoming rigid, cut off from the very forces it has learned toontrol. Observe also that the black and white sphinxes are notreconciled to each other. They look in opposite directions. Thecharioteer's will holds them together in a tense balance. If that willshould fail, the Chariot and its rider will be torn apart. 

Paul Douglas has compared the Chariot to Jung's idea of the'persona'. As we grow up we create a kind of mask to deal with theoutside world. If we have dealt successfully with the various challenges of life, then the different aspects symbolized by the othercards will become integrated into this ego-mask. But we can tooeasily confuse this successful persona with the true self, even to thepoint that if we try to discard the mask we will fear its loss as a kindof death. This is why the second line of the Major Arcana, whichdeals precisely with the release of the self from its outer masks, bearsDeath as its next to last card. 

  So far we have considered the Chariot as an emblem of personal maturity. But the idea of human will extends beyond the individual. With its images of the mind subduing and utilizing theforces of life the Chariot is a perfect symbol for civilization, whichcreates order out of the chaos of nature by using the natural worldas the raw materials for its agriculture and cities. One of the chiefKabbalistic connotations for the card extends this idea. By its connection with the Hebrew letter 'lain' the Chariot carries the quality of 'speech'. Speech has always seemed to humans to representthe rational mind and its dominance over nature. As far as we knowonly humans possess language (though chimpanzees have shownthemselves capable of learning human sign language, and whalesand dolphins may possess developed languages of their own) and wemay say that speech separates us from the animal. Adam gainedcontrol over the beasts in Eden by speaking their names. Mostimportant, humans use language to transmit the information thatallows civilization to continue. 

However, just as the ego is limited, so is speech. First of all,speech restricts our experience of reality. By forming a descriptionof the world, by giving everything a label, we erect a barrierbetween ourselves and experience. When we look at a tree, wedo not feel the impact of a living organism; rather, we think ' tree'and move on. The label has replaced the thing itself. Also, byrelying too much on this rational quality of language we ignore experiences that cannot be expressed in words. We have alreadyseen how the High Priestess signifies intuitive wisdom beyond language. Certain experiences, especially mystical union with spirit,cannot be described. Language can only hint at them withmetaphors and fables. People who rely totally on speech have evengone so far as to insist that non-verbal experiences, or experienceswhich cannot be measured by psychological tests, do not exist. Thisis simply because they cannot be scientifically described. Such dogmatism receives its perfect symbol in the charioteer's merging withhis stone wagon.

So far we have considered every symbol in the picture except,perhaps, the most obvious one: the two sphinxes. Waite borrowedthis innovation from Eliphas Levi, the great pioneer of KabbalisticTarot. Like the two pillars of the High Priestess, or the black andwhite horses they replace, the sphinxes signify the dualities andcontradictions of life. Once again, we see the triangular motif. Herethe mediating force is will-power. 

The use of sphinxes instead of horses suggests several deepermeanings. The sphinx in Greek legend was a riddler, presenting themystery of life to the people of Thebes. The myth tells us that thesphinx seized the young men of the city and asked them the following riddle: 'What creature walks on four legs in the morning,two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?' Those who couldnot answer were devoured. Now, the answer is 'man' who crawls asa baby, walks upright as an adult, and uses a cane in old age. Theimplication is clear. If you do not understand your basic humanity,with its strengths and weaknesses, then life will destroy you. TheChariot symbolizes maturity, accepting the limits of life, plus thefaculty of speech, that is, rational understanding, which is used todefine existence and therefore to control it. 

But a further meaning lurks here. The man who answered thesphinx's riddle was Oedipus, who arrived in Thebes after killing hisfather. Freud's emphasis on incest has diverted attention from thedeeper message of the Oedipus story. Oedipus was the perfectimage of the successful man. Not only did he save Thebes froma menace and become king of the city but he did so by his understanding of life. He knew what man was. Yet he did not knowhimself. His own inner reality remained closed to him until thegods forced him to confront it. And the gods did force him. If theoracles had not spoken first to his father and then to him, Oedipuswould never have done the things he did. Therefore, though heunderstood the outer meaning of man's life he did not understandeither who he really was, or his relation to the gods who controlledhis life. And these two subjects are precisely the concerns of thesecond and third lines of the Major Arcana. In the second we gobeyond the ego to find the true self. In the third we deal openlywith the archetypal forces of existence and reach at last a fullintegration of those dualities which the charioteer was able todominate but never reconcile. 

The divinatory meanings of the Chariot derive from itspowerful will. In a reading the card signifies that the person issuccessfully controlling some situation through the force of his orher personality. The card implies that a situation contains somecontradictions and that these have not been brought together butsimply held under control. This is not to stress too highly the negative undertones of the card. When it is the right way up the Chariot basically means success; the personality in charge of the worldaround it. If it appears as the outcome in a reading dealing withproblems then it indicates victory. 

Reversed, the card's inherent contradictions gain greater force.The Chariot upside down implies that the approach of will-powerhas proven unsuccessful, and the situation has got out of control.Unless the person can find some other approach to the difficulties,he or she faces disaster. Will-power alone cannot always sustain us.Like Oedipus we must sometimes learn to give way to the gods.