THE CARDS AS A SEQUENCE   

  Most interpreters of the Major Arcana take one of two approaches:either they consider the cards as separate entities or they look atthem as a sequence. The first approach looks at each card as representing different qualities or situations of importance to a person'sspiritual development. The Empress represents the soul glorifiedin nature, the Emperor mastery of self, etc. This system considersthe numbers on the cards as part of their symbolic language. Thenumber 1 belongs to the Magician not because he comes first butbecause that number signifies ideas - unity, will power - appropriate to the concept of the Magician. 

The second approach looks upon the trumps as a progression.The Magician is 1 because his qualities form the starting point ofthe growth pattern figured in the other cards. Card number 13, say,belongs at just that point, between the Hanged Man and Temperance, and no other. Each new trump builds upon the previous oneand leads the way to the next. 

In general, I have followed the second method. While the number symbolism should not be neglected it is equally important tosee where each card fits in the overall pattern. Comparisons withother numbers can also help us to see the limitations as well as thevirtues of each card. For instance, number 7, the Chariot, is oftenspoken of as 'victory' . But what kind of victory? Is it the totalliberation of the World, or something narrower, but still of greatvalue? Looking at the card's position can answer these questions. 

The interpreters who have taken this approach have usuallylooked for some place to divide the trumps for easier comprehension. The most common choice is the Wheel of Fortune. As thenumber ten, it symbolizes a completion of one cycle and a beginning of another. Also, if you place the Fool at the beginning thisdivides the cards neatly into two groups of eleven. Most important,the idea of a turning wheel symbolizes a change of outlook, from aconcern with external things, such as success and romance, to themore inward approach depicted in such cards as Death and the Star. 

Despite the value of seeing the Major Arcana as two halves, Ihave found that the trumps divide even more organically into threeparts. Setting the Fool apart as really a separate category all by itself(and setting it apart allows us to see that it belongs everywhere andanywhere) gives us twenty-one cards - three groups of seven. 

The number seven has a long history in symbolism: the sevenplanets of classical astrology, seven as a combination of three andfour, themselves archetypal numbers, seven pillars of wisdom, theseven lower stations of the Tree of Life, seven openings in thehuman head, seven chakras, and of course, seven days in the week.Most of the meanings of seven derive from the fact that before thetelescope people could see seven 'planets' in the sky, that is, sevenmoving objects: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiterand Saturn. Though the idea of the seven-day week comes fromancient Israel, which may have got it from Babylon, the Europeannames for the days come from the planets as personified in theRoman and Norse gods.

One particular aspect of seven relates it directly to the Tarot. TheGreek letter pi stands for a ratio that exists in all circles between thecircumference and the diameter. No matter how large or small thecircle, the two will always work out to the same fraction, 22/7. Andthe Major Arcana with the Fool comes to twenty-two, just as without the Fool it reduces to seven. Also, twenty-two times sevenequals one hundred and fifty-four (154 adds up to ten, linking it tothe Wheel), and one hundred and fifty-four divided by two, for thetwo Arcana, comes to seventy-seven, the entire Tarot with the Foolagain set aside. 

Like the Kabbalistic conception of God the point is nothing, yetthe entire circle radiates from it. And the Fool's number, 0, has beenrepresented as a point as well as a circle. 

The best reasons for the division into three groups lie within theMajor Arcana itself. First, consider the picture symbolism. Look atthe first card in each line. The Magician and Strength are bothobviously cards of power, but so is the Devil. The Magician andStrength are linked by the infinity sign above their heads, while theDevil bears a reversed pentacle. If you look at the Devil's posture,one arm up, one arm down, you will see the picture is in someways a parody of the Magician, with the torch pointing downinstead of the wand pointing up. In some decks card 15 carries thetitle of 'Black Magician'. (In many decks Justice, not Strength isnumber 8. If you look at the posture of the figure in Justice youwill see an even closer resemblance to the Magician and the Devil.)The same kind of vertical correspondences apply all the waythrough the three lines. 

THE THREE AREAS OF EXPERIENCE          

  The division into three allows us to see the Major Arcana as dealing with three distinct areas of experience. Briefly, we can callthese: consciousness, the outer concerns of life in society; subconscious, or the search inward to find out who we really are; andsuperconscious, the development of a spiritual awareness and arelease of archetypal energy. The three levels are not forced categories. They derive from the cards themselves. 

The first line, with its concentration on such matters as love,social authority, and education, describes the main concerns ofsociety. In many ways the world we see mirrored in our novels,ftlms, and schools is summed up by the first seven cards of theMajor Arcana. A person can live and die and be judged a success byeveryone around him or her without ever going beyond the levelof the Chariot. Many people, in fact, do not reach that level at all. 

Modern depth psychology concerns itself with the second lineof trumps, with their symbols of a hermit-like withdrawal into self awareness followed by a symbolic Death and rebirth. The angel ofTemperance at the end represents that part of ourselves which wediscover to be essentially real after the illusions of ego, defensiveness, and rigid habits of the past are allowed to die away.

Finally, what of the last line? What can go beyond finding ourtrue selves ? To put it simply, these seven cards depict a confrontation and finally a unity with the great forces of life itself. The othercards, formerly seen as so important, become merely the preparation for the great descent into darkness, the liberation of light, andthe return of that light to the sunlit world of consciousness.To most readers the last line will seem too vague and fanciful.We can call this subject matter 'religious' or 'mythical' but thesewords too remain hard to grasp. 

The vagueness in our minds perhaps speaks more about ourselvesand our time than about the subject. Any society automaticallyteaches its people, just by the language it uses, to make certainassumptions about the world. Examples in our culture wouldinclude the value and uniqueness of individuals, the reality andoverwhelming importance of love, the necessity of freedom andsocial justice, and, more complex, but just as strong, the basicseparateness of each person. 'We are born alone and we die alone.'Our society, built upon the materialist eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies, does not merely reject the notion of 'superconsciousness'or 'universal forces', we do not really know what they mean. 

When we deal with the last line of the Major Arcana, then, wedeal with an area uncomfortable to many of us. It w ill make thetask of understanding these cards harder - and perhaps morerewarding. Working with these ancient pictures can bring usknowledge neglected in our education.