Wheel of Change Tarot — Таро Колесо Изменений

МБК значения: Wheel of Change Tarot — Таро Колесо Изменений

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A project that spans some ten years time, the Wheel of Change Tarot has been influenced by many people. First and foremost, I would like to thank Stan McDaniel, who gave me the inspiration which led me to the Tarot as an expression of my own connection with the earth. His many classes were both beautiful and enlightening. The man who taught me astrology and heavily influenced my thinking on the subject, John Wingfield Gast, the Great Reptile, also deserves credit for his theories.
Many friends were involved in the creation of these cards through our monthly women’s circle. I would like to thank all the past members of Woven Hands Circle for putting up with a monthly show and tell of the new cards. These women were always full of encouraging words and helpful advice. Particularly, I would like to mention Barbara Sikora, who was always my greatest support and was always willing to hear all the tedious news of the moment. Also deserving of mention were Sienna Fisher (and Patrick) for the Six of Cups and Pam Wilen for the Five of Wands, and Amy for being a part of the littlest circle. Members of the ‘Teflon Dragons’-Drue Banister, Lake Perry, Bev Holmes, and Carol Capria-were also of great help as I developed methods of using the cards.
Thanks also to Nancy Feehan and all of Angeles Arrien’s office staff who were so enthusiastic about the cards and insisted I meet with Angeles. Angeles was the first person in the field of Tarot who saw the cards and encouraged me to seek a publisher. Her help in reading my preliminary proposal was especially appreciated. I will never forget the time I spent in her company showing her the cards. Through her, I discovered Thalassa’s marvelous Bay Area Tarot Symposium where, pending proper caffeinization procedures, Tarot nuts get to hang out and talk shop twice a year. It was here that I finally found people who were as into the Tarot as I was. I would especially like to thank Mary Greer and Ed Buryn who suggested I approach Inner Traditions, which was the pivotal turning point for this project. I would also like to thank Gary Ross, the editor of the sometimes published Tarot Network News, with whom I have a lot in common.
At Inner Traditions I would like to thank Robin Dutcher-Bayer and Lee Wood for guiding this project through the beginning intricacies of publication. Thanks also to my editor Rowan Jacobsen, who has been so wonderful in suggesting ways to improve the written aspect of the work. Also to all the people behind the scenes at ITI who have helped to bring this into the world-thank you.
The bright sun and the falling rain contributed their energy to my power system here off the grid. Without these natural elements my computer is useless and dead and there are no lights to paint by after dark.
Of all the people who have seen this work develop from idea to reality the most important were my own family. My three children Cerrithwen, Bronwen, and Gaelen have played the Tarot tree game innumerable times and helped work out the bugs. They also managed to take care of things (dinners, housework, and the all-important treats) while mom was busy doing the Tarot thing. As representatives of the future they are a constant reminder of why I want so much for the earth to survive with all its beauty and wonder. My husband Ken is my true partner in life and it is to him that I give the final and most important thanks. Thank you for all the hours of reading when you had a million other things that needed doing. Thank you for working so hard for the family while this project was taking root and growing, and thank you especially for your true and constant love.

PREFACE
This Tarot deck is a labor of love. Many years of study and reflection gave me the will and vision to begin a project of this magnitude. The actual painting took place over ten years, during which time the images came to me sometimes slowly and at other times more quickly, with many images at once waiting to be put to paper. The written material has been over three years in process, and I hope it expresses my intentions and reverence for the Tarot. The Wheel of Change cards express the passion I feel for life, for the earth and her amazing living diversity. They are an expression of the hope I feel that we will one day be able to live immersed in the balance of the natural world. I contribute these cards with love to the positive future of our species.
You will find in this book detailed explanations for the 78 cards of the Wheel of Change Tarot, along with a new understanding of the archetypal arrangement of the 22 cards of the Major Arcana. In the written explanations you will find my own ideas and impetus behind the images. However, I want to be clear that I intend these explanations as a guide. I do not want to limit the reader’s own intuition or ideas in any way. These images are dense; they contain many symbols, and the language of symbol is undeniably complex and elusive. Let the pictures themselves be your first teacher.
The Wheel of Change Tarot is a gateway to the Temple of Wisdom. Please use the cards and the book in the spirit they were intended: to move you to action, to fire your creativity, to open your heart, to stimulate new ideas, and to free your spirit.
gnothi seauton know thyself

INTRODUCTION
The Origins, Objective, and Structure of the Wheel of Change Tarot
The traditional Tarot is a set of 78 cards consisting of four common suits (now called the Minor Arcarta), and one picture suit of 22 trump cards (now called the Major Arcana). The definitive history of the Tarot appears to be lost in the beginnings of the Italian Renaissance. The earliest surviving Tarot decks appeared during this period with the beautiful hand-painted cards of Benifacio Bembo, who painted them at the bidding of members of the ruling families of northern Italy. The cards were used during this period to play a game called tarocchi, a game that is still played in parts of Europe.
Throughout the history of Tarot cards, many people have proposed an ancient origin for their symbols and form. In France in the late 1700s, a Protestant clergyman and Freemason named Antoine Court de Gebelin saw a deck of Tarot cards and proclaimed that they were the surviving symbols of an ancient Egyptian mystery tradition. Egypt was big business then; many people traveled to its ancient sands to glimpse the ruins of a mysterious but advanced culture full of enigmatic art and symbols. In 1783 another Frenchman, Alliette (who called himself Etteilla)-a cartomancer-recognized the significance of Court de Gebelin’s work on the Tarot in an economic sense and began the fortune-telling use of these cards. He renumbered and redesigned the cards of the Major Arcana to suit his needs and popularized the use of Tarot in fortune-telling, enhancing interest in the esoteric meaning of these symbolic images. Our modern interest and use of the Tarot stems from this period, in which their true history was obscured in the mists of time, allowing a suitable story to be created in order to enhance their antiquity and thereby their claim to ancient truth and mystery.
Even though it is now recognized that the ancient origin of the Tarot is a fabrication, many have continued to promote the story and to believe it. It should be pointed out that an origin in the Renaissance creates an unusual situation in itself. This was a time in which classical mythology was heavily studied, allegory had deep relevance, astrology was a bona fide science, and numerology was current. These diverse threads were incorporated into the symbolic cards of the Tarot deck. It is no surprise to find in these cards images of ancient gods and goddesses and celestial bodies, incorporating the astrological sciences along with the ancient elemental divisions into four suits and four directions.
The two most popular decks of this century (1900s) both deserve attention, even in the briefest history of the Tarot. Both decks arose out of the context of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a mystical group that began in 1888 in England. The first of these was the Rider-Waite deck, designed by artist Pamela Coleman Smith and commissioned by Arthur E. Waite. First published in 1909, this is the most popular Tarot deck today, with good reason. The traditional symbols of the Major Arcana cards are handled in such a way as to make the symbol distinct, and in the cards of the Minors are scenes from life rendered in a way that makes interpretation easier for the Tarot beginner. The artist’s ability to convey complex emotions for which there are many subtle readings enhances the usefulness of this classic Tarot deck.
The other major contribution to the field of Tarot is the amazing and beautiful Thoth deck, created under the direction of Aleister Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris. Though the paintings were made between 1938 and 1943, and a limited edition of 200 copies made in 1944, the deck was not generally available until 1969. This is an extraordinary piece of work and it remains strikingly different, even in the face of scores of other decks that have since been published. The cards are moody and fluid, and though many would call them dark, I find them inspired. The symbols of the Major Arcana cards are-for the most part-traditional, though the images are by no means straightforward and simple. The Minor Arcana cards in this deck follow closely the ancient tradition that there should be no human figures in the simple number cards.
Since the publication of the Thoth deck, Tarot has flourished and diversified; there are now unbelievable numbers of available «Tarot» decks, some keeping closely to the original form, and many that have expanded on it and moved away from it in various ways. There are many modern decks that place the Tarot into one specific culture or another: the Egyptian Tarot, the Celtic Tarots-even a Chinese and a Japanese Tarot. It is the amazing universality of the images and basic symbols of the ancient Tarot that makes this translation possible. There are Tarot decks that reinterpret the wonderful Rider-Waite deck, and there are newer decks that take off from the ancient system, renaming suits and cards of the Major Arcana and creating new suits and new trump cards. In all of this diversity, however, I did not find a deck that folly suited my own needs.
The Wheel of Change Tarot is the result of ten years of steady work and study. My interest in mythology and symbolism goes back to my childhood as the daughter of two classics professors. My fascination with the Tarot specifically began in my college years, where I studied many esoteric systems and their symbolism. I wanted to create a new Tarot that was intellectually rigorous, yet consistent and straightforward. I wanted this new Tarot to express elements of the modern world of science and of our contemporary life, but also to relate our history and evolution. I also knew that it should be traditional; it should keep to the ancient form as much as possible without renaming cards or suits and also without the overuse of the human figure, so prevalent in today’s decks. I wanted the cards of the Major Arcana to be immediately distinguishable from the pip cards of the common deck, so I knew that there would be no human figures in the numbered cards. Overall, however, the most important thing I wanted to express in these cards was a deep reverence for nature and, in addition, the condition of humanity embedded within it. By this I mean that we are not just a simple part of the natural world as a cog in a wheel, but that we are fully one with nature, as it is within us and we are within it.
This concept is difficult for the Western mind to fully grasp. We have so long lived in a society that promotes a dualistic conception of the world that though we may know it is true that all creation is one great fabric, we still see ourselves and our actions as disconnected from the whole. This is why we continue to eat foods that are plainly not nourishing and to fill the natural world with our waste. The Wheel of Change Tarot illustrates the deep connections we are once again beginning to awaken to at the opening of the new millennium.
In this book you will find references to both the ancient creative Goddess, who birthed the world, and the ancient God of the monotheistic religions. In order for the reader to more fully understand my perspective on religion and myth, I would like to make it clear that I believe that at the very heart of the world we are all part of the fabric of nature, which forever links us together. A mythology or faith that separates a person from others (or from the natural world) for reasons of belief or deep misunderstandings of differences will only serve to create hatred and destruction. Our belief in gods and goddesses must serve our need to understand diversity and to promote creative solutions to difficult human problems. For myself, belief in an ancient creative Goddess brings a deep respect for the life-giving power of the female body and promotes a deep spiritual ecology, which we will all need to find a more natural balance in our beautiful earth. However, the ancient mythologies of the Father God are a part of our history and culture, and the influence of these ideas runs deep in our consciousness and cannot be overlooked in the context of the Tarot.
It is the interplay of the complementary forces of masculine and feminine that holds the creative power of time, and in our deepening awareness of this interplay we find both forces at play, even within one individual. In this way we recognize that outward evidence of sex as male or female is not a deterministic feature of our humanity, but that our respect for the individual as a human being, a part of the life force, is the measure of our faith and trust. In trusting each other we open to our own responsibility to the community around us and to the world. In this new Tarot I have endeavored to teach a process that allows a new vision of personal responsibility to open. Through this responsibility perhaps we will see our way to a beautiful and fully creative future.
The Structure of the Tarot
The Tarot is a set of 78 cards that incorporates an esoteric system mirroring the patterns of consciousness. These patterns can be seen in most esoteric systems, in the philosophy of Aristotle, and in the work of many modern nondualistic Western philosophers, such as John Dewey and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
In the esoteric system of Tarot there are two basic kinds of cards: the 22 trump cards of the Major Arcana and the 56 cards of the Minor Arcana. The trump cards are seen as a series and have been numbered accordingly, though the exact logic of the traditional numbering system remains obscure to me, and I have chosen not to use it. P. D. Ouspensky, in his little book called The Symbolism of the Tarot, saw the whole system of cards arranged so that the Major Arcana cards formed a triangle in the center of a square formed by the four suits of the Minor Arcana. In this arrangement the symbolism of triangle and square make clear the following: the Minor Arcana are the symbol of the manifest and ordered world, symbolized by the construct of the four-sided square, while the trump cards are the symbol of the active forces of creation, represented in the dynamism of the triangle and the active number three. This symbol of the triangle of Major Arcana cards seemed very potent to me, and as I worked with it I discovered the formal expansion that will be discussed thoroughly in the introduction to the Major Arcana.

READING THE WHEEL OF CHANGE CARDS
Many books have been written about how to use the Tarot. The following guide is meant only as an introduction. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination, and I encourage you to experiment. Suggestions for good books on the subject can be found in the bibliography; please refer to them for more information.

Principles of Tarot Reading
If you are just beginning to learn to read the cards, you may find it all a bit overwhelming. How in the world can you remember what the cards mean, let alone interpret them for a particular situation? First, it helps to be really familiar with the basic meanings of the suits and numbers and also with the 78 different images. Look through the cards a lot when you first get them, and return them to their natural order when you have finished using them.
Second, you may want to begin by writing down your impressions of a particular card before you look at the interpretations provided. Don’t be limited by the interpretations I give. By working at it on your own, without the book, you will develop your awareness of symbol and your intuition. If you feel lost, first read the descriptive information on the card, then try to interpret it without reading the given interpretation. Keep an open mind and keep at it!
The spreads I give have been selected to reflect the internal patterns of consciousness and of the Tarot system. Read through them carefully to find one that suits your situation. If need be, don’t hesitate to modify the patterns or placement meanings of the cards.
When you have selected a pattern for reading the cards, it’s good to keep in mind the following suggestions.
If you choose to use the cards frequently, every day or so, remember that fewer cards are better. The cards tend to lose their meaning when there are too many to apply to a short period of time.
Keep in mind the cycle of seasons and holidays. Often, significant readings can occur on meaningful days. Some good days to consider are solstices and equinoxes, birthdays, New Year’s Eve, and full and new moon. For women a good monthly reading might be had on the first day of the menstrual cycle or the day of ovulation.
Take out the Major Arcana cards if readings are frequent. Although many books suggest using only the Major Arcana for readings, in my experience when doing frequent readings it may help to remove these cards from the deck. Major Arcana cards tend to refer to archetypal events, not daily travails. It is a way of honoring their deep meaning to remove them when using the cards frequently.
Use only parts of the deck. Don’t forget the fact that the Tarot deck is composed of three or even five different parts that you may use for very specific types of readings. You may split the deck into majors, court cards, and pips or into the five suits. For example, in a simple two-card relationship spread I sometimes use the Cups and Disks suits to represent my partner (as he is generally the more nurturing one in the relationship) and Wands and Swords to represent myself (the intellectual, creative one). I then pull one card from each group. I have found that this method particularly helps beginners because it can focus the reading on the attributes of one suit and make interpretations smoother. Use your imagination with this-it may give you new perspectives on the 78 cards of the Tarot.
Pick a card by choice. If you are a beginner, you may want to start by spending a month or two looking through the deck, examining the images, and choosing a daily card that speaks to you in the moment. This encourages familiarity with the entire deck and allows you to discover the cards in your own way.
Keep a record of your Tarot work. It is definitely a good idea to record your readings and notes about the Tarot in a notebook of some kind. In this way you will increase your familiarity with the cards and begin to follow their meanings as they unfold in actual situations. Even people who have been «doing» Tarot for a long time can benefit from this discipline.
General Methods of Reading Cards Ritual
I believe it is important to approach Tarot reading with a certain amount of ritual. In this way you strengthen your relationship with the cards and imbue them with an added level of meaning that affects the deeper layers of your psyche. Ritual is also a good way to get to know the cards and to play with them without requiring anything of them. There are many ways to include ritual in your reading style, and the rituals you use should be personally meaningful. Therefore, it is important to create your own patterns and to develop them for yourself. For example, some of the elements I use are a short centering ritual before beginning, and a special cloth that I use for the arena of the reading. I have also made little circles which I place over the altar cloth in the colors of the four directions (blue for east and air, yellow for south and fire, red for west and water, and green for north and earth). I begin all readings with a short welcome to the directions and the center. I keep the cards in the same place in my house when not in use.

The Question
You are not required to ask a question of the cards. You may only want to gain insight on various currents in the air and just see what the cards bring to mind. When doing daily readings you will probably want to know what the energy of the day will be like and may frame a question loosely. You may use something like «What should I be focusing on today?»
When you use Tarot cards for answers to particular questions, it is important to consider the question carefully. In my experience, questions with a yes/no answer are difficult for the beginner to interpret, though some books give specific methods for such questions. I have found these methods generally trivial; when experimenting with them I’ve discovered that they clarify what I really want to do when I don’t like the answer the cards have given! I like to ask questions like «What do I need to pay attention to in my relationship with so and so?55 or «What will the outcome be if I do such and such?» If I have choices, either I use the six-card reading (hexagram) or I do two readings-one for each option-and compare the two readings carefully. Other good questions involve lessons such as «What am I supposed to learn from this?» or «What am I not seeing in this situation?» Your specific situation will help you find the right reading to do.

Shuffling
Shuffling the cards is very important, as it symbolizes mixing the elements of life as we do in day-to-day experience. It is also a symbol of releasing the old energy in the cards and filling them with your own energy. This is why it is important that the person for whom the cards are being read shuffles the cards. You may shuffle any way you choose, but remember the symbolic meaning of shuffling as you do it. Shuffle as long as you like while focusing on your question.

Cutting the Cards
When doing a reading that involves more than one card, I like to cut the deck into piles symbolically representing the possibilities of the reading.
For example, in the Magical Triangle reading I cut the deck into three piles initially, symbolizing the first three positions-self, other, and action-and I use one card from each pile. The size of the piles represents the amount of attention focused on each arena. If the «action» pile is much larger than the others, then I know that most of the energy or concern in the situation is focused on what action will be taken. After interpreting the one card Fve pulled from each pile, I put the three piles back together-minus the three cards chosen-and pull one from the whole deck representing the final outcome of the situation. Symbolically, of course, the final result is the combined energy of self, other, and action.
I use this principle with almost every reading that involves more than one card. In complex readings of many cards (12 or so), I usually begin by cutting the deck into four piles, each one representing one of the elements. It’s usually easy to figure out how to apply these methods to any reading you use. I give suggestions in my spreads when appropriate.

The Reading
Proceed slowly and with reflection. When choosing the card, you may pull the top card or go through the cards (without looking) and pick one that «feels55 right. I like to pull the cards one at a time and spend time thinking about each card before the next one is pulled. When there is an «outcome» card, I wait to pull it until all the others have been carefully examined. Of course, after pulling the final card I have the opportunity to go back over the cards to see how the outcome has colored the reading.
After all the cards have been pulled and studied, look over them and notice the variety of the cards. Is there a predominance of one suit or one number, or are they well balanced? When a certain suit prevails, you know that the energy and attributes of that suit predominate the atmosphere. With a predominance of a particular number, the symbolic associations of that number are strong. (For these numerical associations, see the introduction to the Minor Arcana.) A predominance of court cards may indicate a lot of players in the situation. Many Major Arcana cards may indicate a very important decision or plan.
You may write the reading down after you have completed it, or you may take notes as you do it. See what works best for you. I recommend writing notes even if you record your thoughts on tape. In my experience, the written record is easier to refer back to, and then all your work with the Tarot will be in one place.

More Information
If you would like to expand your knowledge about reading Tarot cards, you should immediately go out and get Mary K. Greer’s book Tarot for Your Self. This book has practically endless suggestions for ways to get to know the cards, exercises, ritual, and readings. It is simply the best book on the subject.
Dr. Irene Gad^s book Tarot and Individuation has a huge section on readings at the back. Although the book (over 400 pages) is about the Major Arcana cards exclusively, she does have a section on reading cards at the back. The readings are compiled from a variety of sources and briefly explained. It is a good quick source of ideas for creating your own reading.
More information on both these books, as well as many others, is given in the bibliography.

Spreads
Before beginning any of these readings, please read the first part of this chapter on principles and methods. Although quite a few possibilities are given here, please don’t feel limited to these spreads.

One-Card Reading
I recommend beginning your study of the Tarot (and of this deck) by pulling one card at random from the deck each day. This is a good place to begin your study of the Tarot as well as a good morning ritual to develop. Keep a good record of the cards you pull over a week or month and look it over to discern a theme.
Pulling one card as part of a morning ritual helps to awaken the intuition and special senses as you begin your work and relationships anew each day. It may help you focus on particular trends of the day and follow the changes you and others go through. It is also one of the very best ways to become familiar with the images and their symbolism, as only one card is studied at a time.

Two-Card Reading
This is a good, simple relationship spread. Pull two cards out of the deck at random. The first card represents yourself; the second, your friend, lover, co-worker, or adversary. The two cards show the divergence or similarity of thoughts and feelings on your common concern. Be sure to pay special attention to the suits here. If one person gets fiery Wands and the other watery Cups, it is quite clear that you see issues differently.

Three-Card Reading
This is probably one of the most common short readings and can be used for almost any situation. The three cards can mean a variety of different things, such as self, partner, relationship; body, mind, spirit; past, present, future; or conscious, unconscious, persona (symbolizing the sun, moon, and rising sign of the astrological chart). There are many more possibilities. Divide the deck into three piles and draw one card from each.

THE FOOL
At the Center, at the End, and at the Beginning
The Fool has a unique position in the Tarot deck, for he is both a part of it and outside it. Traditionally the Fool bears the number zero, symbolizing his special place as the very beginning of our travels through the symbols of the Tarot. It is as if he is outside of the journey we call life before consciously making the choice to begin his travels. The Fool also symbolizes the end of the journey, after we have come through all the stages and come again to the openminded unattachment symbolized by the careless Fool. When we draw the number zero we make a picture of the circle, which being round like the world symbolically contains! everything, and yet because it is empty it contains nothing. Zero symbolizes the undifferentiated and the unmanifest; yet, it is also unlimited by virtue of the fact that zero is the absence of all qualities and quantities. So while the Fool is nothing, his possibilities remain unlimited.
The Fool symbolizes the human being before he steps onto the path of self-understanding and enlightenment. The Fool is each of us as we begin life; he is open to new experience, enthusiastic, and ready to learn but carefree and without the fear of failure or the anticipation of success.
The Fool is able to truly live in the moment because of his lack of con-cern for what is to come. Without knowing it, the Fool risks all in his endeavor.
Here the Fool shows a lack of fear or presence of mind in the casual way he stands above the chasm. The drop below him is a symbol of the descent into the unconscious that leads us to self-understanding, just as Orpheus made the journey into Hades to find Eurydice, who symbolized his anima, or feminine self. The chasm is deep and appears dark; yet, in the depths of the journey we find the rising sun spreading its light into the dark places that inspire our journey. We travel to the dark lands to discover and experience what connects us to our home here on the planet earth and to each other. The chasm is the symbol of the Earth Goddess; her deep farrow leads inward, and there we find that in the darkness all is one and we have all emerged from the same deep well of the creative Goddess. CarlJung called this the collective unconscious: the place we all came from and that still lives within us. It is from this place that the archetypes of the Tarot arise. The sunrise in the canyon can be seen as a rising understanding of the archetypal figures of the Major Arcana cards.
The Fool stands upon two green plains, symbolizing that the journey begins symbolically in the spring; just as the grass issues up from the darkness of the soil to begin its journey from plant to seed. The Fool’s green clothes are also symbolic of the spring season and recall the expres-sion «he is green,» meaning someone inexperienced. The yellow in the Fool’s garment is symbolic of the sun, which is both the goal of the Fool but also the symbol of his character. For like a child he is bright, cheer-ful, glowing, and optimistic. The bells at the bottom of his robe symbol-ize frivolity and also call to us to awaken and find consciousness.
The sun appears on the Fool’s collar surrounding his head. The head and its crown are symbolic of the power and control of the mental facul-ties and the ability to reorder the body to the will. This symbolizes the Fool’s potential for development of direction, and the qualities of will are symbolized in the Tarot by the closely following Magician. The Fool’s hat, with its jaunty feather, symbolizes the crowning of the jester with the spring green of his impulsiveness. The hat protects his head and sets him apart from others. The Fool’s right leg is encased in the golden color of the sun, symbolizing the ability to step forward onto the path of life. Of course, on that foot he has no shoe with which to walk into the world. He is the Fool and to him this doesn’t matter; in fact, he probably hasn’t even noticed, as he has always thrown convention to the wind.
On the Fool’s belt is the closed pouch, a sign of his undiscovered potential and all that he has brought with him into this life. It is red to reflect the power and passions of life still dormant in him. Red is the color of will and of unbridled ambition, and in the Fool’s next act he ins look down and discover his world of possibilities. The red roses falling around him symbolize wild joy and the primitive animal natures that the Fool may embody. The rose is an ancient symbol of the Goddess, who gives birth to all potential, and thus the rose represents the unseen origin of the Fool. Red is the color of blood, symbolizing vitality and energy, which the Fool has in plenty, though he does not yet know what to do with it. 
The fox is symbolic of the animal nature of the Fool, which he must learn to control if he is to develop his innate talent. In the Middle Ages the fox was a symbol of the Devil and the base nature of the domestic dog, who was otherwise considered civilized and respectable. The Fool has not yet trained his dog, and like himself, the fox is still a free beast and lives as a part of nature. The fox is also the symbol of the trickster and the ancient symbol of the god Dionysus, with whom the Fool is associated . Dionysus was the god of intoxication, freedom, and chaos, which is what the trickster was also, for he was free of the conventions of society and did whatever he pleased.
The Fool’s guitar is a symbol of the frivolity of music. The court jester or Fool was often also a musician, for whom the music was a symbol of unrestrained gaiety and wild dancing. During the Middle Ages there were traveling songsters who resisted the settled life of their compatriots and freely traveled the countryside, performing in exchange for food and lodging. Like the Tarot Fool, these musicians were free of life’s ordinary cares such as maintaining a home and taking care of family and farm (though in truth they may have had plenty of worries).
The Fool holds in his hand a cup of wine, symbolic again of the god Dionysus. But again, the Fool does not recognize the power of the wine or even the containing purpose of the cup, unlike the Magician — the next card in the Tarot—who holds the cup closely under his heart and clearly lues its magic. The Fool lets the wine spill from the cup, and lets the fire of the suit of Wands burn in his hand, without using or even recogizing its potential. He lets the pretty roses representing the suit of Disks fall to the ground. He cannot make sense of the letters above his head that represent the mental faculties of the suit of Swords. Though the Fool possesses all these things, he cannot make use of them; all his tools remain but a possibility, something he will be able to command in the future.
The swirling stars and the solar eclipse symbolize the immediate nature of the Fool. He is always at the right place at the right time, for there is no other place or time in the world of our Fool. Just as the sun and moon (which are visually the same diameter from our vantage point on earth) can appear to be at the same place and cause the dramatic solar eclipse, so the Fool begins his journey again every day at the right place, the place where all things come together and all things exist. The spiral of stars represents the travels he must make toward the soul life and the steps he will take away from nowhere to an eventual somewhere. We can-not say in which direction the stars are moving; they may flow upward into light, life, and consciousness, or they may journey into the darkness of the earth, symbolized by dreams and death. The two possible direc-tions represent the movement toward abstraction and then the return that allows us to apply the now understood mental abstractions to the practical realm of life.

If the Fool is in your cards today you may experience the feeling of being in exactly the right place at the right time. You may be at the beginning of some new journey of life—a new career, relationship, or skill—but like the Fool you may not yet recognize what it is. You have all you need to make a success of yourself at your fingertips if you would but look for it. Perhaps you must free yourself from convention as the Fool has done, and like him, accept what comes to you. In this way you may try some-thing completely new and discover that you are rather good at it. Because he has no cares, worries, or fears the Fool is symbolic of impulsiveness and even irresponsibility and recklessness. He symbolizes freedom from convention and a new creative vitality in this less restrictive world.
The Fool’s journey takes him to all the realms—for he is never fixed to one place—so you, like the Fool, are free now to explore these places: the land of dreams and imagination and the land of the darkunconscious. Unlike the Fool, however, try to hold onto what you find and bring it back with you to enrich your life.

THE MAGICIAN
A Young Man Holds the Tools of  the  Tarot on the Portico of the Temple
                                                                              
The Magician symbolizes the power and direction of youthful energy, the will and knowledge that lead to accomplishment. The youth in this card holds the four tools of the Tarot, representing his ability to use all the parts of his being and all the resources of the world to achieve his goals. Every part is necessary to make magic happen.
The disk-wheel represents the Magician’s presence in his physical body, because any action that will be taken first requires simple existence. It also symbolizes an understanding and deep awareness of the material elements of the world: the soil and sun and the seasonal changes of the earth, required for all magic. For instance, the farmer will not set out corn plants in January; his awareness of the winter weather, the frozen soil, and the bitter winds prevents him from making the planting magic until warmer weather arrives.
The wand symbolizes the Magician’s use of his animate energy and creativity to achieve his desires. His body leaps into action with vigorous force, and he feels the power of movement in his limbs. The wand is the tool of creativity, of the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. As an example, our farmer may have to plant his field with tomatoes instead of corn if he suspects that the rainfall will not be normal during the summer.
The cup is symbolic of emotional life; it represents the ability to have passion for what we do and love for those we interact with. Holding the cup is symbolic of the awareness that in human interaction our energies must mix, as within a cauldron. The cup represents the sphere of our mutual meeting place, where our energies are contained and held so that relationship can take place. Just as the cooking pot is the meeting place for the corn and boiling water, without the pot the corn would be difficult to cook and not as tasty to eat.
The sword represents the thinking capacity and the ideas we respond to that reorder the priorities of the body and make magic possible. The sword points to the earth to imply that the mental capacity must return there and be grounded by its application to real-world situations. This means that we must consider the effect that our thoughts and ideas will have on the world. Without the initial motivation in the mind, the action taken is on the level of instinct. In this card the implied action of magic comes with exact knowledge of many intertwining factors, which places it beyond instinct. The sword also illustrates the Magician’s ability to plan ahead and foresee the future direction of events of his intentions. For example, the farmer must willingly ready the soil and plant the seed because he is able to foresee the result of his work in the harvest. Through his knowledge of what he will gain, he is ready and able to formulate complex plans and work hard, using these true qualities of the Magician.
The temple the Magician stands within was built by human hands and is the result of his vision and work; building requires the body, the will, relationship with others, and relationship with the building site, and complex planning. The temple also represents a sacred space within which the magic can unfold. Unlike the free and open sacred spaces found in nature, such as the sacred groves and power spots of very early religions, the temple represents the magical creation of sacred space by and for humankind. This is the realm of the Magician, where magic is created as a product of the human will rather than emerging directly out of nature. However, we must remember that the magic of the Magician is an evolutionary product of the earth because, as humans, we have arisen within the world of nature, and all that we do and create exists within the world and is not separate from it.
The solar red and gold columns of the temple represent the potency and strength of the masculine god and symbolize his phallus. These two pillars are wrapped with a golden vine symbolic of the enclosure of the god’s phallus within the feminine. In the ancient temple at Jerusalem the two pillars had names that meant «God makes firm» and «strength and eagerness,» obviously suggestive of their sexual connotation. The sexual act is a magical work at its essence and when seen from the male perspective becomes even more so, as the visible evidence of sexual arousal makes the phallus an obvious magical tool, the elemental wand.
The pillars are also suggestive of the emblematic wand of the god Hermes: the caduceus, a rod entwined with snakes. The snakes represent the healing energies because the snake continually sheds her skin and was therefore thought to be immortal by the ancients. The solar wand symbolizes the phallus and the joy of life, moving with the living serpents up the wand from the lower realms of existence to the highest . The caduceus illustrates the magical circumstance of life that unites the heavens (represented by thinking) and the earth (represented by the body), just as Hermes did in his role as messenger of the gods.
Twin columns were placed before many temples in the ancient world, presumably signifying the twin gods who share the rulership of the solar year between them. Examples of these twins or brothers—who abound in mythology and in folk tales—are Osiris and Set, Frey and Njord, Castor and Pollux. In the Tarot these brothers are seen on the Sun card and on the Lovers card (which, as it should, has a double meaning), but each makes an individual appearance on his own card as the Emperor, the Hanged Man, and the Devil. Four cards, including those above (the Sun, the Emperor, the Hanged Man, and the Devil), form one of the seven Tarot Tree groups and represent the story and progression of the solar year . These traditionally masculine cards have an analogy in the Magician and the Fool, who are a kind of prefigurement of the twin gods of the solar calendar. The Magician is related to the Emperor, who embodies the fixed and constructive god of the waxing year, and the Fool to the Devil, wild and indiscriminate god of the waning year.
The Magician stands at the gate to the wider world where a path leads to the highest mountain, lit by the light of the rising sun. This is symbolic of the Magician’s path in life, which is to affect the outcome of events in the wider world and to climb the mountain of achievement, The sunrise is symbolic of the initiation that is a part of the Magician card; he is the personification of the will, which is the genesis of action. The Magician’s goal is to will himself to climb through life, continually making positive transformations. Though time inevitably carries us all towards the future, the Magician will push forward and persevere with spiritual and physical advances, through the power of his will.

In interpreting this card in a reading, remember that this card refers to Hermes, who was the messenger of the gods. He had winged sandals and carried the caduceus, the wand entwined with two snakes, one climbing the wand from the right and one from the left. As the messenger, he traveled between the worlds of heaven and earth and was comfortable in both realms. Heaven was the realm of the sky gods; Zeus was its ruler; the realm of earth was ruled in ancient memory by an earth goddess, and so Hermes represents the power of communication between distant and opposing forces. This communion is expressed in the living surface of the earth and in the human will, the word of God through which masculine creative energy is expressed.
This card in its simplest form represents discipline and the implications of the will on living humanity. The power of the will is linked to the ability to predict outcomes. For example, when we head off to a job we dislike in the morning we command ourselves to go there because we know that the money we earn will allow us to eat and live a comfortable life. Consequently, pulling the Magician implies a specific knowledge of the workings of the world or perhaps a specific situation. This card implies a need for strong self-control or suggests that you are using this control in your circumstance. It calls attention to your ability to be like the god Hermes and shift between two worlds with ease, using the creative will to make changes. This card fundamentally represents the difference between simple instinct and willful planning and mental calculation. It suggests the powerful control of body and mind with the use of the symbolic tools of the Tarot so that action can be taken and changes can be made. The Magician represents decision, will, power, and strength of character with a good understanding of potential outcomes. Though the Magician card itself does not represent the moment of action, it implies understanding and immediate command in order to engage the world at hand.
Use the power of the Magician to make positive changes and decisions, remembering the sword, which speaks of a return to the simple values of the earth, and the need to act for the good of the natural world and not just for ourselves. Like Hermes, we must always return from the airy world of the sky and our thinking selves to the needs of our physical bodies and the planet earth.

THE HIGH PRIESTESS
An Old Woman Sits Between Two Willow Trees

The High Priestess is a woman whose life is fall of wisdom. To attain this wisdom she has always been observant, and she has, in her many years, attained the respect and ancient knowledge other people. She is the repository of healing wisdom, of mythology, and of the pattern that shows itself through nature. She is the one who teaches woman’s mysteries to all the young and changing girls, and encourages the menfolk to honor and to respect the women. Because she has lived through four of the five stages of woman’s life, she has learned her wisdom through practical experience, which is the surest way to learn. Through her years of experiences and through a life truly lived, she is respected by her community for the knowledge she holds and uses to help her people.
Through many years of service and learning as a priestess, this woman has gained the knowledge necessary to be elevated to this position. She is honored with the title for her attainment of advanced age in religious service. Many books on the Tarot make the High Priestess into a young woman or virgin . Because the traditional number on this card is two, directly following the Magician, she is seen as his counterpart, his mate, or his anima (a Jungian term, which refers to the feminine unconscious inside a man). I see this card as the opposite of the Magician: whereas he is a young man, she is an old woman; whereas he is just beginning to feel his power, she has lived in hers for many long years. This card represents the truth of woman’s power: that it is enduring and long-lived, coming from within and from subtle knowledge rather than from the directed, focused power and immediate action symbolized by the Magician.
Because most writers on the Tarot have been male, their perceptions of the women in the female cards are biased by their cultural view of women. They tend to see the beautiful mysterious women of fantasy rather than the real and varied women of the world. The woman they imagine as the High Priestess is the unattainable virgin goddess, beautiful and distant. In this common interpretation of the Tarot trumps, the omnipresent Triple Goddess of the ancients is represented only in her first two aspects — as virgin and mother. The crone aspect, which represents the wisdom of the feminine, is entirely missing. One reason that this card may symbolize the virgin aspect to some is its connection to virgin goddesses who possess wisdom, such as Athena or Artemis. Artemis, the new Moon Goddess, is strongly associated with Hecate, who is the dark, waning phase of the moon. The most ancient and matriarchal Artemis was in fact a title for the Triple Goddess, of whom Hecate Selene was but one part . It is important to note that the name of the card—The High Priestess—implies in simple practical terms that this is an older woman, for without age she could not have attained the position of High Priestess.
The card shows the blue-clad Priestess under the willow tree. The dark blue color of her robe connects her to the sky and especially to the night sky, in which the feminine moon is ruler. The midnight blue, along with black, is connected to the crone aspect of the Goddess because of its association with the night sky and the presumed darkness of the realm of the dead. The blue robe also symbolizes the feminine connection to water and to the creativity of the unconscious, especially in its connection to the feminine intuition, which the High Priestess represents. Water traditionally represents the feminine for several reasons: we are born out of our mother’s womb in a flood of waters, symbolizing the origin of life out of earth’s ancient oceans. Women are considered the more emotional sex, and emotion signifies tears — water that comes from the eyes. Water is deep and mysterious, symbolizing to men the enigma of women and the difficulty they often joke about in understanding a woman’s ways.
The willow tree has very ancient connections to the dark aspect of the Goddess. Because willow trees grow in watery places — by creeks and lakes — they are connected to the female and to the Goddess. The willow was sacred to the Moon Goddess, who was regarded as the bringer of the watery dew and of rain. The ancient word for willow is derived from the same root as the words witch, wicked, and wicker. Our modern image of the witch as the old and ugly crone represents the ancient connection of the moon with the willow and with the dark aspect of the Goddess. This aspect of the Goddess is full of valuable ancient knowledge, but she is also associated with death and with fear, like Persephone, who was the| queen of Hades. This card represents both the aspect of the crone that is Sophia—the goddess of wisdom—and Circe, the fearful goddess who brings death to those she captures. She inspired fear through the depth of her wisdom and magic; her understanding of herbs means that she understood poison as well as medicine. Her clear intuition brought fean to those around her, when her vision was full of imminent death and the sorrows of the world.
The willow trees are shown in their fall and winter aspects as the pillars of the aging ftigh Priestess. They represent the autumn of life and the turn inward toward the coldness of winter and hearth of the temple altar. Here, in the sanctuary of the temple, the High Priestess is the repository of the many-changing seasons she has lived through, and like a book or scroll, she gives this wisdom to the people. The willow wicker basket in the lap of the Priestess, which holds five stars, represents the ancient wisdom of writing and the invention or discovery of the alphabet, particularly of the vowels, which are especially connected to the Goddess . The five vowels, therefore, are symbolic of
the five parts of women’s lives, with A symbolizing birth, 0 the beginning of menstruation, U motherhood, E the menopause and the Crone, and death (see also the Five of Swords). This knowledge represents the complete circle of the life experience of women that the High Priestess embodies, just as Artemis personifies all phases of the moon’s journey. This card also symbolizes the knowledge contained in the written word, in sacred texts and in ancient poetry. The priestess herself, as the wise woman, represents the ancient book of wisdom, through which we all read the story of our inner truth and intuition, and the outer knowledge of ancient history and mythology, science, and literature.
The spider’s web and the owl represent connections to Athena, the goddess of wisdom and ancient knowledge. This goddess, like Artemis, had once been the Triple Goddess, though only the maiden and crone aspects survive in common story. The stories of this goddess in her orgiastic phase were transferred to Aphrodite. It is her aspect as the crone that survives in her patronage of the arts, oracles, and wisdom traditions, and in this guise she was attended by the crow and the owl. Through its night-time habits and foreseeing nature the owl became associated with Athena, and through this association the owl became the ancient symbol of woman’s wisdom. The spider is a symbol of the weaver and all the arts connected with thread. According to the story, the goddess Athena, turned bragging Arachne into a spider because of her jealousy over Arachne’s notably beautiful weaving. Some claim that this spider weaver is but another form of Athena, or it may disguise an ancient commercial rivalry between two weaving communities. In any case the spider, who weaves the web of life, then kills the hapless fly, is a symbol of the goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the thread of life.

When this card is a part of a reading, think about feminine intuition and knowledge. This is a time in which these attributes will influence your decisions. Intuition is partially a function of prior experience. We can sometimes predict the outcome of a particular situation through intimate knowledge of the participants or through understanding a similar incident in the past. This wisdom of the High Priestess is a kind of knowledge we use to move forward every day when we anticipate the outcome of our actions.
The High Priestess is the symbol of esoteric wisdom and the power of the ancient wise woman of the temple, who could see the future in signs around her. She saw all life, intertwined like the branches and roots of the willow, as a portent of the present circumstance of humankind. She saw in the flight of the owl many changes ahead, and in the flow of water the birth of the new child. She saw the subtlest changes of her Goddess and knew where they would lead.
The card also symbolizes the need to study the ancient past in an effort to understand our historic motivations and present needs. This kind of knowledge is not casually gained but takes real inquiry and commitment and is analogous to the life of the Priestess. This card symbolizes a deeply feminine and well-considered wisdom which is available to you. You feel that the root, stem, and leaves of your situation are all within your understanding and that the vision to grow new seeds is within your grasp.

THE EMPRESS 
A Pregnant Woman on an Island Offers a Halved Apple
In the lives of women we can see five distinct phases: birth, the onset of menstruation, motherhood, menopause, and death. The Empress represents the middle of this pentad; she is the nurturing mother, who is the fertile and creative queen of the world. She is the down-to-earth version of the cosmic World card, which also symbolizes the creative mother in the maiden-mother-crone triad of the Triple Goddess. The numbers five, related to the Empress, and three, related to the World, have always been connected to the ancient Goddess, and by extension, to woman .
This Empress is a pregnant woman from the fertile crescent between the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, where historic civilization came into being. Her advanced pregnancy is symbolic of the Goddess’s gift of life to us and to our planet. She is the mother of all the world; her creativity is as limitless as the stars and galaxy. Pregnancy is the ultimate symbol of creativity; the birth of a new person who embodies all of the potential of his or her parents is a fundamentally magical act, and yet it is entirely natural. This marvelous creativity and productivity is the root meaning of the Empress card.
The Empress wears red because she personifies the bleeding and fertile woman, and red is the color of her life blood. Red is a symbol of the living creature and the passions of life; it represents action that leads to creative change. The border of spirals at the hem of her garment is a symbol of the continuity of life, as it endlessly repeats its pattern through each generation. Her crown of twelve red roses also symbolizes passion for life. The red-robed Empress personifies a thirteenth rose to symbolize a lunar year of thirteen moons in one solar cycle. This symbol is repeated in the twelve stars that frame the full moon. Twelve five-pointed stars are often seen in artistic representations of important creation goddesses, including the Virgin Mary.
The ancient lunar calendar, which measured time by the thirteen moons in a solar cycle (rather than the twelve solar months in our year) was associated with goddess-centered religions that honored the moon and, by extension, with women and women’s culture and creativity. The unlucky connotation of the number thirteen arose through suspicious fear of the changeable moon and of the creativity of women in later patriarchal times. The moon, after all, was associated with mortality and with the fear that arose from facing death. You may also see death’s face in the image of the full moon of the Empress card. Death is the creative cauldron from which we all emerge; as the green plant of spring emanates from the soil made fertile by the bodies of those that went before, and as original matter was created in the fiery heart of stars and in their death, the earth has now been given life. As a part of this continuum the Mother Goddess shows us where we have come from and where we will go.
The natural throne of this Empress is an island between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The island formed by their confluence reminds us of the back of the great turtle, who appears in many creation myths . In these tales the earth is held up on the back of a huge tortoise, just as the Empress is seated on the back other turtle island. The island is an important focus for this card: imagine that you are looking down from above at the hills and river in the picture. As you can see, it is a picture of a pregnant woman about to give birth: the island and the Empress represent a crowning infant in the yoni of the Goddess Earth, the large central hill is her belly, the smaller hills represent her breasts. The river which pours forth around the little island becomes the blood of birth, which nourished the infant in its period of growing creativity inside the mother’s body. The moon above is symbolic of the woman’s head, and its shining rays form a crown, similar to that of the cow goddess Hathor. The river island was also important in ancient times as a common location for oracular shrines; its yoni-like shape and association with the water gave it an obvious connection to the Great Mother Goddess, who, as the creator and destroyer of life, knew both past and future.
The basket of eggs that rests on the little hillock is a symbol of the womb of woman filled with the diversity of the four races of humankind, which the colored eggs represent. Baskets are a common symbol of the Goddess and her protective womb. They are often woven of willow wood, a tree particularly sacred to the Goddess. The willow grows near the water, which was ruled by the changing moon, whose phases reflect the cycles of the fertile women . It was women who harvested and used the resilient willow in basket weaving, and the baskets they made are symbolic of the harvest, in which produce is gathered and taken home to nourish the children. The egg itself is a potent symbol of creativity and growth, representing the undifferentiated potential of life. The symbol of the egg reappears on the World card, where it represents birth and wholeness in its connection to motherhood.
In the hand of the Empress we see an apple cut crosswise to reveal a five-pointed star. The apple is a very ancient symbol for the Goddess. It was a nurturing fruit whose five-petaled flower also bore her representative star. The apple is an ancient symbol of fertility and love. It was often symbolic of marriage, which presumably led to children. Even in the Old Testament, the apple became the fruit of knowledge (meaning carnal knowledge), an attribute of the Mother Goddess, for whom sex has always been a gift and a sacred rite. Behind the Empress the two trees express nature’s productivity as the apple moves from blossom to fruit through the spring and summer, reflecting the changes on the hills as the seasons fade from green to harvest gold. These are her seasons: the season of fertility, of birth, and then of harvest.

In interpretation this card represents elemental creativity and the actualization of creation. It is birth and creativity in every realm of life. Thus, it represents feminine creativity, symbolized by pregnancy and birth and by growing things: flowers, eggs, and an abundant harvest. The Empress is symbolized in every good meal and happy home; she is evident in artwork and music. When this card is a part of your reading it symbolizes love and joy in life, and in the process of creativity. It symbolizes the healthful nurturing we must put into our creative actions. It is a card of being with children and in mothering or nurturing them and the joy we feel in their independent creativity. It makes a good time to focus on projects that require creative solutions. Projects that are begun under the tutelage of the fertile Empress are likely to succeed, just as she bears fruit out of her own body.

THE EMPEROR
The Solar King on His Oaken Throne
The Emperor is the second card in the solar four-card series, which tells the ancient story of the life of the solar king and his twin, brother, or companion. The Irish call this person tanist, which means second in rank and excellence; he was elected during the lifetime of the chief and was his strongest adult relative. The first card in this group is the Sun, which shows the two kings together at the birth of the year. The fair-haired child, who is the king of the rising half of the year (the period between winter solstice and summer solstice) is represented in his glory by the Emperor, whose solar station is the spring equinox. He is symbolized by the astrological sign that begins the moment the sun crosses the ecliptic at the spring equinox: Aries, the ram, whose carved heads stand on the doorway behind the Emperor.
The ancient story of the solar king appears in virtually all ancient mythologies. Born to the Goddess at midwinter solstice, he becomes his mother’s lover and impregnates her. He is ritually slaughtered on midsummer day (at summer solstice), and his twin, the dark child in the Sun card, rules from midsummer day to the winter solstice, his solar station being the autumn equinox. The pregnancy of the Goddess, which began on the spring equinox, results nine months later in the birth at the winter solstice of the Emperor and his twin, which repeats the yearly cycle.
The Emperor represents the strength of the growing light of the sun and its potent effect on ripening grain as we look toward summer. In Christianity the Emperor is symbolized in the person of Christ, the good and just king who allowed himself to be sacrificed on the cross. Like Christ he is strong and sure of himself, and like the Roman emperor he wears royal purple as the symbol of his kingship. He also wears rich green, the color of Aries, indicating the strength of the life force that moves through him and through the earth in spring. He holds in his hand two symbols of his kingship, which he acquired from his mother and lover and slayer, the great Triple Goddess, in whose name he has accepted rulership. These two symbols are the masculine rod, which gives him the power to hand out judgments, and the feminine globe, the territory over which he has been given power.
His throne is framed and built by man to contrast with the natural earthen throne of his partner, the Empress. She is the queen of all nature, while he is the king of the «civilized» empire of human creation. His throne is made of the strong oak, the tree of kingship. Because the oak tree is said to attract lightning, many of the ancient European thunder gods are associated with it, and it is their kingship that is symbolized by the Emperor card . The oak pillars also surround his throne and hold the golden ball of the Sun King and the silver ball of the Moon Goddess. Behind him is the door, with which the oak has always been associated:
the ancient word for oak, duir, is the root of many Indo-European words for door including our own. Oak was used to make the strongest doors, so as the symbol of the door and of openings it represented the masculine gods, whose power opened the year and began with the birth of the sun.
The door is a symbol of the turning of the year, which opens in January (named for Janus, the Roman god who looks both ways) with the birth of the new year’s king. It also symbolizes the equality of day and night at the spring equinox; the door is halfway open, and we are at equal distance from winter solstice to summer solstice. The hinges on which the door must swing are symbolic of the Goddess because the birth of the solar king is the swinging point of the year . The hinges join the hanging door to its frame and to the house, just as the Goddess plays the role of joiner in all the threads and elements of our lives.
Behind the opening door the rising sun is seen. The sunrise is symbolic of the spring equinox through the analogy of the year to the day. Midnight symbolizes midwinter and the darkest day, sunrise represents the first of spring when night and day are equal, noon is analogous to midsummer with its longest day, and sunset represents the autumn equinox, with equal nights and days that move again toward the dark night of midwinter. The increasing strength of the sun is the natural essence of the Emperor card. The fire around the door, representing the fire sign Aries and the fiery strength of the solar king, is also the prefig-urement of his coming demise at midsummer, for it is also true that whatever is strong today must wither in the future.
The Emperor is associated with the symbol of the square and the cube. The square, which partakes of the meanings and symbols associated with the number four, is a symbol of completion and therefore of structure and solidity. In this card the tiles of the floor are squares in the two colors of the Emperor, and his belt buckle is in the form of a square. The throne of the King is in the cubic form, as are the pillars that support the sun and moon globes. The Emperor is the representative of the law, order, and structure of society, and his direction provides structure for those around him.
The Emperor is a lawgiver, and the hierarchical structure of society gives him the power to dispense his law. He believes that this is the only structure of human society that will preserve order and will bring growth. His law is the law of the land, and he is a strict disciplinarian. He is the father in a family whose just rule must be obeyed; he believes that freedom given to individuals results in chaos, so under his rule people will be more secure if they do not think for themselves. He will think for everyone, and we will be like children under him.
 
When this card is a part of your reading, you are dealing with issues of kingship. It may be that you are getting brighter like the sunrise and that heat is rising in you like the spring sap. You are becoming a leader to be reckoned with, your ideas provide direction to others, and you hold the power to direct those around you. It may also be that you are dealing with another person who has taken on these qualities, and you cannot express your ideas because you are being squashed by this leader. Perhaps your father or a strict mother is interfering in your life, or you have never been able to resolve their place in your life. The issue of power over another is at hand in some way and must be resolved.                         
Examine your relation to power and control. The positive aspects of this card revolve around personal power, which, when it does not interfere in the freedom of others, is creative and gratifying and can signal a step in growth and maturity If you are a parent, it may be time to look at your relationship with your children; they must as they grow take the responsibility of making their own decisions and to take the power of the Emperor into themselves. Recognizing the times when your control and power must be applied and when to give up is the secret of the balance between the kingship of the Emperor and his tanist: the carefree, anarchistic Devil.

THE HIEROPHANT
A Golden Idol Recewes the Oblations
This image represents the power in belief. It shows us that whatever we choose to believe in, especially the commonly held beliefs of our culture, will create reality for us. We make gods in our own image, and we then use them to justify whatever we want to do. The people in this card have created an idol, a bright and golden god, for whom they burn incense and bring sacrifices of food and wine. The perceived needs of their god are the same as their own desires because he represents their own ideal image.
Gold is the color of the sun; it is the light of the world and the glorious visible sign of divinity. In life, we symbolically journey toward the unity that the solar light gives forth; we each express the vitality of life as the many-rayed sun spreads its goodwill and life-giving heat and light toward us. In the Hierophant, the gold color of the idol is an expression of the sun’s gifts imparted by the good teacher in his word and deed. Gold is also the metal that alchemically personifies the self, and so it illustrates the fact that we are our own best teacher; everything that we master really emanates from the self and from our individual experience.
The god idol holds in his hand the powers of kingship — the rod and the circle — to show that the power of one’s own faith is as strong as the power of the king. It also shows us that our own elected rulers fall under the power of the gods they have created or the faith they inherit from their culture. Because the religions we create serve our own collective needs, we end up with moral precepts that guide us into doing the very things that serve our own ends. This is why the power behind one’s faith may be one of our deepest and most stubborn needs. We use our faith to justify almost every decision we make, thus creating our own reality  
We examine the ancient texts of our religions, represented on the red archway Accepting what we find there as literal truth, we make moral judgments that determine right from wrong. We argue endlessly among ourselves about the various moralities of the world’s faiths. We make determinations from the tops of our moral towers about the faiths ofl obviously «primitive» cultures and then send in missionaries to make them see the errors of their ways. We do these things because the God we created has required it of us, and we have faith in him. Our faith can make it right to kill, to make holy war on the infidel, to buy and sell in the free market, to determine that abortion is right or wrong. Whatever we have faith in, we have the strength to make real for us. We create faith with power over our actions.
In the card we see that the commonality of faith in a culture creates certain results—especially conformity We are taught in all our years of growing up that the most important thing is to conform to certain cultural standards. We learn from those in power, our parents and teachers, to grow up to be just like them. This card, therefore, symbolizes the profound effect our elders have on us as children, and conversely the effect we have on the younger people under our tutelage. Just as we make our gods in our own image, we want our children to follow in the very same pattern. This results in the creation of hierarchical societies in which a powerful elite determines the common good for those under them. An influential priesthood is the beginning of this process because it is up to this priesthood to create the image of God. In a way, each of us supports the stair-step nature of our culture, symbolized in the card both by the raised dais for the idol and by the ziggurat forms surrounding the archway. We look to those self-appointed experts for answers to all our petty problems as well as our more complex needs. We ask them to provide an image of what we want and need, just as the priests in the card provide for their idol.
We are trying to remember what a common faith did for us. We look to the past, to eras of great faith when people could accomplish great things through their trust in religion. Great buildings were built — pyramids, Stonehenge, cathedrals — through a powerful hierarchy, which created the vision and the profound faith necessary to carry it through. We see that true faith in ourselves and the vision we create will be the only way to achieve our dreams. The recognition of the power in faith is what the Hierophant card is about.

When this card is a part of your reading, look carefully at what part your faith plays in your life. What do you put your faith in: your work, your religion, your children, your self, a particular teacher, or the future? Do you have any faith in your life? The Hierophant is all these things. It is important to examine the object of your faith: is your teacher just, honest, and caring? Are you able to act independently and to recognize the difference between you and your teacher? Does your faith in yourself extend only to certain areas of life? The question becomes important because through our faith we gain the hope necessary to move forward with the more difficult of life’s tasks.
The second part of the interpretation of this card is to examine the possibly negative aspects of one’s faith. We must be aware that the dogma we acquire through various religions and attitudes can be used to justify—without examination—all manner of behaviors. We must look carefully at how our rights and wrongs are determined and whether they arise out of a true sense of the common good or out of a need to require conformity to a narrow dogma. This kind of examination is particularly difficult because it requires a temporary suspension of one’s most stubbornly held beliefs in order to determine their ultimate effect. Then, we must look at what we teach and how we pass along the various teachings to the next generations, and be aware that religious teachings can bring a sense of the superiority of one set of beliefs over others. Ultimately, a personal faith in self, or in something beyond, should guide you to reach for goals that will include respect for the rights of others, who must hold their own beliefs and pursue — through faith — goals of their own.

THE LOVERS
The Sun and Moon Joined by Light

In the Lovers we see a personification of the sun and the moon, joined together in a partnership that defines their roles in the cosmos. Each of the great lights makes its way through the sky in a prescribed path that demands certain interaction. The sun is visible only during the day, rising and setting in a certain yearly pattern, while the quicker moon flirts with the sun and sees both night and day as its more complex pattern defines the month. Their equal size as seen from earth creates eclipses and further reveals the dynamics of the two great heavenly lights. Against the unchanging backdrop of their repeating pattern, the people of earth define the characteristics of sun and moon and the passage of time.
The Lovers card is the Tarot representation that the whole world can be seen as the duality of self and other than self. The recognition of this duality leads the human being to consciousness through the realization that he or she is a unique individual in the context of the world, just as the sun recognizes its face in the moon and the moon finds its light in the glow of the sun. Therefore, the Lovers card is the symbol of dawning consciousness and the immediate need for relationship in order to discover the self. For only in relationship do we find the mirror, allowing us to truly see the self and discover our purpose in the world.
Love is the relationship of trust and collaboration that leads us to understanding the nature of our individuality. In a positive, trusting relationship we have the ability to explore what we are and what we are not. We find in our friendships both argument and agreement, which helps us to clarify our own feelings and thoughts. In the Lovers card we see the individuality of the sun and the moon in the colors they wear. The sun, in bright warm colors, complements the moon’s cool blues and purples. Together they create and mirror the whole spectrum, symbolized in the rainbow light of the shining star above the figures, to acknowledge the colorful diversity of the human world. At the bottom of their cloaks are small symbols of cross and spiral, symbolizing once again the complementary nature of innate opposition. Each of the figures wears a twining ivy wreath, symbolizing their natural bond to each other as partners in the process of creation. This is a manifestation of our bond to the earth — which we see as other and outside of the self — in just such a creative partnership through which we live our lives.
Behind the lovers are two oak trees, symbolizing the ancient polarity of the twin children of the Great Goddess. In some stories these twins are a boy and a girl, as Apollo and Artemis were, but most often they were twin boys like Castor and Pollux. The Lovers card also symbolizes this relationship, as the twins journey down the path of the hero in ancient mythologies. Each of them was traditionally associated with the two different varieties of oak that grow throughout Europe and North Africa. These were the deciduous oaks, which we all recognize, and the live oak called the evergreen scarlet oak (Quercus coccifera), which hosts a small insect from which the royal red dye was made. The two trees are clearly related because they both make acorns, which associated them with the virile male gods of nature because of their obvious masculine shape.
Trees are a symbol of the intimate relationship between the sky and sun (as air and fire) with the earth and its oceans (as earth and water). They are the rod that connects the two in their spreading form, both above the earth as branches and below the earth as roots. Lightning will often strike the tree as a conduit for its sky-born energy, seeking its complement in the darkness of the earth. Again, the twining ivy represents the bond between these complimentary forces: the masculine rod of the tree entwined by the feminine spiral of the ivy.
The roses are a symbol of the love we feel in friendship and partner-ship when both people’s needs are fulfilled in a happy union. The rose is a symbol of life, as it is a beautiful flower that bears sharp thorns, and| therefore an apt symbol of the true human partnership: full of beauty, but | also full of work.

When the Lovers card appears in your reading, it indicates recognition of what is self and what is other in the context of relationship. The card is a symbol of partnership and collaboration, but also of the division and isolation we sometimes feel in relationship. This is also part of the consciousness of duality symbolized by the Lovers. The Lovers represents any relationship in which the parties to the action are partially or wholly defined in the context of their interaction. For example, a buyer and seller can exist only in the relationship they form by their interaction; one cannot exist without the other, and the terms of sale become meaningless. 
The Lovers card, which shows the duality of the human condition, is closely related to the Temperance card, which shows the relationship developing into action that will bring a new realization ofrelatedness. In the Lovers, however, we deal with the primary opposition and discovery of self and other. It could also symbolize internal parts of the individual, such as mind and body or feeling and spirit. This is the dawning of human consciousness and discovery, as we mirror the elements of our selves against the backdrop of the world and our human partners. It is a time in which you may see clearly what is a part of you and what is a part of the world outside. This will help you to discover the delights and travails of friendship and love.

THE CHARIOT
A Simple Stone Gircle Mirrors Cosmic Wheels Within Wheels
Traditionally, the Chariot is a card of control and victory, associated with the planet of aggression and war, Mars . It symbolizes the mastery of our bodies and our environment and mental control over the natural world. The Tarot Chariot has represented a need to prove oneself in the arena of human relationship as the master of one’s feelings yet independent from them. It is traditionally the symbol of self-control and mental power gathered in a relentless pursuit of goals. As the card of victory and conquest, the Chariot is often seen as an ego-centered card that says «My victory is dependent on your loss,» or, at the least, «I needn’t worry about your situation while I work toward my goals.» In the Wheel of Change Tarot this card has been liberated from the idea of ego power and control in order to acknowledge that true and ultimate victory is the power that comes from within, and that allows people to discover their own inner strength, so that everyone may be a winner. This relationship is particularly important when we think about the ultimate effects of mastery over the earth and the environment. Human victory over the earth ultimately proves to be our profound loss.
Here, understanding the Chariot begins with a reflection on the larger patterns of time, the ultimate arena in which we may actively move toward our goals. As we travel around our sun and it travels around our galaxy in an endless pattern of repetition we use our will to pursue our needs. We measure our earthly time by means of the natural cycle of the sun and moon. Their paths trace the wheels of the galactic chariot, which move together in an intricate pattern that drives the chariot of time into the future. Time is the great changer in our lives; we see the transformation of our own bodies and the realization or failure of our goals through its passage. When we measure time we are, in a sense, mapping out a sequence of expected changes. We expect the sun to rise tomorrow, we expect to grow older, we expect the seasons to change in their prescribed order, and we expect the fulfillment of our ambitions.
This Chariot speaks to us about the supremacy of the underlying! cycles in the universe. Every planet has a cyclical relationship to the star it revolves around, and each star maintains a relationship to the center of the galaxy These are the multiple wheels of the galactic chariot. On planets in other star systems the seasonal changes may progress differently than on ours, but the nature of the cycle is still analogous to ours, and this cycle will inevitably measure the passage of time in that world. These changes define the nature of the time-space in which we may act and achieve in life; like the shifting seasons, we move with purpose toward our goals.
Our division of the year into twelve months is shown in the image as the spokes of the solar wheel and also in the wheel of ancient standing stones. The measuring markers of the year—our months, weeks, and days—also help determine the patterns of our lives and the cyclical nature of our internal drive to accomplish our goals. For each of us traveling on the chariot of the earth, the patterns of the seasons and weeks create these changes. Again, like the myriad of stars, the changes are different, depending on the pattern of the individual life. Your life is affected by the seasonal changes of the region in which you live, by the pattern of your job, and by the patterns of others with whom you interact. These changes define the pattern of your life and the passage of time for you; they form the chariot wheels of your own life. Like the earth and sun, we revolve and rotate through our lives; each of us is bound to others, and the relationships we create are like the relationships between planets and stars.
The particular relevance of the Chariot is the analogy between the larger heavenly cycles and the smaller wheels we each create as we orbit through our lives and interact with the people around us in the pursuit of our goals. Each of us is creating a pattern of our own making that is in relation to the wheels of others, just as the different stars in the Chariot create their own patterns in relation to the common center. Together, we create the Chariot that moves our civilization forward. As we grow from childhood we learn from our personal interactions that we cannot always be at the center but that we move with relation to a common center. Our own goals must be balanced with the pursuits of others; together we work toward a common victory. In this way we truly master our feelings and ego needs so that we may more happily live in community with others; we learn that the best victory is the one in which everybody wins. This relationship is represented in the Chariot by the varied cyclic patterns of stars, which show the diversity of individual lives and the ability to see the importance of another’s unique pattern against the backdrop of the world. Thus, we learn to respect our differences and to learn from others through relationship, pursuing goals that elevate the condition of all.

When this card is drawn in a reading, you are reminded of the underlying patterns of your life and how these patterns will affect the pursuit of goals. Pay attention to the unfolding rhythms of your body: your heartbeat, breath, and menstrual cycle (if you have one) and also the rhythms of your emotional, intellectual, and spiritual life. See how these wheels interact and line up together; you will find it easier to achieve your goals when the wheels of your own chariot of the body are in alignment.
You are also asked to remember that you are in constant relation to others, and your fortunes are tied together with theirs. When your needs work at cross purposes, and victory requires loss for another, it is up to you and the other person to find a way to create a more positive common victory. The Chariot encourages you to examine carefully what your achievements require of others or of the world and planet. For example, in a big corporation a CEO may make millions a year by «downsizing» the company; he fails to examine what his personal achievement is costing the community and the world.
The Chariot is a card of fortune in relationship. Its appearance generally suggests that you are attaining your goals through discipline and active participation but that you may need to examine more carefully the effect of your power on others. Or perhaps you have made achievements that were in the common good and you are experiencing a collective victory The Chariot card impels us to discover the power within ourselves, not by steamrolling those around us but by using our vital energy toward solutions that are inclusive, productive, and sustainable. These solutions drive the chariot of time to a more beautiful world where respect, love, and the natural rhythms of life help us find equitable resolutions of human problems. Remember that we are all a part of the fabric of time and space, and whatever we create affects the whole. When we are winning and others are losing, we may find later that our present fortune created future loss. 

STRENGTH
Riding the Lion                 
Strength is the second card in the group of five cards that represent the stages in a woman’s life. She is the symbol of menarche and the new woman’s journey from adolescence to motherhood. She is growing vitality, evidenced in the new and powerful life force in the girl-child’s ability to create new life out other own body.
In our culture, girls often seem to lose their inner vision and strength at this point in their lives. They have difficulty in accepting their new creative power, and they find themselves in the midst of terrible choices with low self-confidence. Because we live in a patriarchal and hierarchical society, young girls innately recognize when they reach adolescence that their lives will be different from those of the boys they have grown up with. They will face challenges and fears that are difficult for young men to understand. In Strength we see the image of the power, joy, beauty, and pride young women should feel when they begin to menstruate. At this important moment in their lives they move forward with the power of life growing within them, and they hold the future of all humanity in their sacred cycle.
The strong, beautiful woman of the Strength card rides forward on the lion, holding a flag that proclaims the source of her power. She is naked because she feels pride in her womanly body; she is completely comfortable in the world just as she is. She feels no need to hide her power beneath clothing or to play a role by wearing a particular costume. The spirals painted on her body tell of the cyclic nature of all life and give expression to her own menstrual cycle. She wears amber beads that proclaim her relationship to the sun, since she is like the rising sun, both in her newfound power and the heat other passion. The ancient word for amber was «electrum»—from which the word electricity was derived, because rubbing amber produces a static charge.
The snake spirals up her leg, and the woman is not afraid of it but recognizes the snake as the ally of women’s power. The serpent has always been a representative of the Goddess because she sheds her old skin and I is continually reborn. The ancients believed that the snake was immortal because of this process: the old skin of a snake was like the wrinkled and dry skin of old age, and as the snake crawled out of its skin it left death behind. Like the adolescent woman who is beginning her life as an independent person, the snake was able to renew its power and begin again. Serpents were even connected with the renewing life blood of menstruation, which was shed just as the snake shed its skin and was renewed. Women were said to begin their menstruation after copulation with a great serpent. The snake opened the young woman, made her fertile, and allowed the creative spirit of the Goddess to enter her .
The lion is a symbol of royal power and strength. The lioness is the huntress and queen of the lion pride, and it is she who supports her family, providing food for both her mate and her children. The lion represents the power of the shining sun because of its golden color and intense courage. The young woman of the Strength card heads into the solar period — or noontime — other life, when she will control her destiny and make her own choices. The lion is also a symbol of the passion and animal desires, and the joy of new sexuality which the woman now discovers. This lioness chases the tail of the male lion before her, representing the will of the woman to get what she desires, both sexually and materially. The lioness runs to symbolize the quick-moving strength of adolescence.
The lion was an attribute of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, a counterpart of the Greek Aphrodite, the goddess associated with sexuality.
Cvbele’s other totem was the queen bee, who, like the lioness, assures the continuity other kind. Cybele was an independent goddess who did not need men to provide for her or to define her role. Her sexuality was a part other power and was wholly her own, and she bestowed her favors only on her own initiative. Adolescent women today — who define themselves against the backdrop of the patriarchical culture — have difficulty being independent like the goddess Cybele and often are forced to ffive their bodies for food, for shelter, or even to save their lives. The Strength card is both a reminder of the true role and power of women and a call to our society to respect, honor, and support young women who try, against the tide, to hold on to their sexual power.
Above the head of the young woman are the representative bees of the goddess Cybele. They form the figure-eight symbol of infinity, which, like the never-ending circle, represents eternity. But the infinity symbol, with its two circles joined together — one moving clockwise (deosil) and the other counterclockwise (widdershins) — symbolizes much more. The clockwise movement of the sun from sunup to sundown symbolizes the masculine force, while the moon’s more subtle motion over several nights as it appears to move counterclockwise represents feminine energies. Therefore, this symbol represents the relationship between opposites and the relationship between women and men. It is a symbol of the dualism of the world; yet, it shows that these separate things are forever bound together and dependent on one another.
The bee itself is a potent symbol of feminine power. The society of bees is an all-female one in which the drones are only momentarily useful to fertilize the eggs of the queen and all the worker bees are sisters. The bee symbolizes the sweetness of life because it produces honey, which is symbolic of the sweet fruit of sexuality. Ancient priestesses of the bee goddess were called melissae (melissa is Greek for honey bee) and served the goddess in her nymph (or sexual) form, and the men who came to the cult of the bee goddess castrated themselves in order to serve her truly .
The bee was also the symbol of spring and was associated with the blooming gorse, a variety of broom that turned the hillsides all over the Mediterranean region bright yellow as soon as the sun’s light increased.
The bees began to journey out of the hive to gather its pollen as soon as it appeared. Both the sunny yellow color of the blossom and its springtime blooming are linked with the period of adolescence and the flowering of womanhood. The broom was connected with the letter 0, the vowel that represents the second part of the five-part Goddess (see also the Five of Swords) and is connected with menarche . The letter 0 represents the womb of the woman not yet opened in childbirth.
The woman of the Strength card holds a flag high; as a wand it is her symbol of accomplishment and power. Her flag is really two flags: the golden solar flag and the white flag of the moon. Because she is a woman, the flag depicting the moon is above the sun’s flag. It is the symbol other intimate connection with the moon’s cycle, as evidenced in her monthly menstruation (from the Latin word for month, mensis). The full cycle of the moon is shown on her flag in its four phases. These four icons, added to the symbol of the sun, make five emblems on the flags, symbolizing the fivefold nature of women’s lives.
The road is a symbol of the journey of life, and the gateway up ahead represents the gate into motherhood, the next road marker in this woman’s life. The lake is the feminine water of life and the fruitful womb. The mountains symbolize the challenges of living and the far-off goal. They are also another reference to Cybele, who was a mountain goddess and the queen of Phrygia’s Mount Ida. The midsummer fire on the hill in the background represents movement from spring to summer, which the Strength card personifies. The fire also represents the burning passion of adolescence, to move forward into the world and to leave childhood behind.

When this card comes up in your reading, pay attention to what you have passion for and use this passion to further your life. This is a card of enormous courage, vitality, and power to achieve anything within your imagining. The power you have is not a power over others but a power from within, a strength you have that is really your own. You do not need to hold it over others, but if you use this inner strength calmly, many others, by example, may discover this most powerful strength.
This is also a card of initiation; just as the new woman is initiated into womanhood when her menstruation comes, you are initiated into something new and special when this card comes up in your reading. It is a good time to begin something new that you love and have a passion for. Like the blooming gorse, you will blossom into something bright and lovely.
It is a special time for love and sexuality or for the passions that arise from anything truly moving. You are moving away from the control of others and can make your own decisions. This card of women’s freedom and power is a particularly powerful card for women. If you have been letting others make decisions for you, now is a good time to take this power and, like the woman of Strength, ride the lion!

THE HERMIT
The Light and Meat of a Lamp Light the Way for an Old Man 
A hermit leaves the community and retires to a solitary place for religious reasons. In leaving the common society, the Hermit believes he will find his own individual truth within himself and in the natural environment he inhabits. Stories of hermits show them living in caves or simple huts with minimal supplies and Rlain food. They live off the land working in a small garden, keeping goats, and gathering from nature other small foodstuffs while they study the world of nature and the inner self. The Hermit gives up luxury and comfort for peace and self-sufficiency, and in this simple life he finds the light within himself and an inner wisdom which grows and develops as he ages.
The Hermit of the Tarot personifies the archetype of the wise old man who represents meaning and understanding . The wise old man is the light inside us that points to meaning and helps us to find our own deep truths. In the Tarot the Hermit is the counterpart of the High Priestess, for both represent the wisdom of age and experience. They hold within them the knowledge of time and understand that inevitable change is the consequence of its passage. The Hermit withdraws from society, both so that he may learn these things and so that he may live them as an example for the world at large. The High Priestess lives completely within her community, learning from experience about human interaction and the natural world, and returns the experience to her people in service as the priestess. These two contrasting ways of learning and living symbolize the inner and outer religious life, and the broad and diverse wisdom of age.
The most important symbol in this card is the lamp the Hermit carries. A light enables us to function in the dark and make use of the hours of the night. The light expands the day and gives us more time to be creative and productive in the short time we live here on the earth. Symbolically, it lights up what is obscure and in darkness, and lets us see the fearsome creatures of the darkness to dispel our fear. Metaphorically, the lamp shines within us to illuminate our inner motives and feelings so that we may understand ourselves better.
The rays of the lamp indicate the brilliance of inner truth and the joy and vivacity we feel when we really believe we have found it. A ray also indicates direction. As it travels away from the lamp in a stream of waves moving together it mirrors the constancy of the life of the Hermit. The conscious choice of the Hermit to live a life of solitude limits his direction to one path, just as the light of the ray travels forever in a single direction. The many rays symbolize the life knowledge of humankind. They symbolize the diversity of our experience, and for the Hermit they symbolize his deep understanding of the variation in nature and in human life. This variety provides for us a mirror and a tool for understanding the world and ourselves.
The Hermit lives alone in nature in a way that allows him to develop his senses. Without the distraction of community he must listen to the quieter sounds of a simple life. Without community, he relies on what he alone sees. He tastes and appreciates his simple food, and what he touches clearly shows his single influence. He uses his keen powers of observation to apprehend the world and with the telescope and the microscope he can see things that are beyond his ordinary vision. This is a symbol of the intense power of his insight and his reliance on what he alone sees without trusting others to deliver to him some outer truth.
The special vision we gain from tools that look beyond our normal sight is analogous to deeper understanding of all immaterial things, such as thoughts, feelings, and inner motivations.
The large planet Jupiter appears in this card as a symbol of the hermit as teacher. Through his simple life and by following his inner truth, the Hermit’s example is a strong and powerful teaching. Jupiter is associated through rulership with the astrological sign Sagittarius, which is the teacher’s sign. Often the Hermit card is associated with the sign Virgo, because it is symbolic of order and simplification through good organization and the rigorous aspects of study and learning. Jupiter is exalted in the zodiacal sign of Virgo because it will bring out the most positive aspects of this planet. Jupiter, as the largest of the solar system’s planets, is thought of as the planet of excess and extravagance, while Virgo helps to focus the excesses of Jupiter and to bring practical restraint and dedication to its far-flung enthusiasm. Jupiter is also the only planet that gives out more radiant energy than it takes in from the sun, probably because it is still contracting and therefore, like the Hermit and his lamp, shines with an inner light.
Jupiter’s moon lo, above the Hermit, is also an interesting planetary body. lo is the most volcanic object in the solar system. This moon of Jupiter, the same size as our own moon, is in perennial change, with many active volcanoes erupting constantly. This little world is also shining with an inner fire that heats it and warms it. lo, like the Hermit, is boiling on the inside, and where its calmer hardened crust breaks we see the inner light and fire of an active world. The Hermit’s outer life of simplicity reveals beneath the surface a warm truth and active life of contemplation and exciting study.
The Hermit is an inner teacher, and in each of us the need for solitude and retreat from the complexities of our modern life finds some expression. We may simply close our eyes and shut out the larger world for a moment each day, trying to listen to an inner voice. Or we may actively seek time alone to renew our inner voice and sense of direction. The Hermit’s eyes are closed as he seeks his own inner wisdom.
As the inner teacher he reminds us that our truest beliefs come from within and, even if presented to us by an external teacher (the Hierophant), are right for us only if they resonate with our inner truth. Moral practices imposed by an established religion are difficult to sustain (note the number of American Catholics who practice birth control). Most of us will believe only what we want to believe, and this is the job of the Hermit. He turns us inward to examine carefully all of the external world, so that we may formulate a genuine story for ourselves—a story that helps us live and grow.

When the Hermit is a part of your Tarot spread, you will want to consult your inner truth for answers. The card is a reminder that what is really true and right for you is within you waiting to be noticed. A good way to set in touch with inner thoughts and your inner teacher is to spend some quiet time alone and in nature. The card may be present to remind you that you simply need more retreat time.
Like the Hermit, you must shine a light into the darkness and illuminate what needs to be seen. The Hermit is a card of keen introspection and observation and reminds us that to be truly alive to the world we must have time to open to all that surrounds us. We need to rely on our senses to see, hear, feel, taste, touch, and experience for ourselves the totality of the world. When we can really do this as the Hermit does, we will find our own inner wisdom and begin to live the myth we believe. In this way we become the Hermit and an example to others, who will then be inspired to turn inward so that they might learn from their own inner wisdom what is right and true for themselves. Like the Hermit’s beacon of light, the truth comes from inside and calls to us; we only need to pay attention.

THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
The Wheel of Our Solar System Defines the Pattern of Life
Two cards in the Tarot deal with the notion of life as a journey: the Wheel of Fortune and the Chariot. These cards speak to our experience either as a series of events particular to our! own life or as an understanding that the events of our time — and indeed of our whole world — are mirrored in all of us. The simple wheel is a small part of the larger Chariot, which describes the interaction of many wheels moving together. The Wheel of Fortune is symbolic of the individual life and the fates, fortunes, and pattern of change in one isolated life. For all of us there are constants; we must first be born, and we must journey forward through time to meet our death. The individual events in each life will differ. Some people make a short journey and find themselves at death’s door as children; some journey a long time and find themselves meeting death in old age. These differences are the varied fortunes of life. We travel around the sun, and each trip we make, each year, brings us closer to our own meeting with the death we must face alone.
We can never reliably predict the course of future events; from where we stand we see only the hazy past and live in the moment, which endlessly passes and moves us forward into those future events. And so we wonder, How will niy fortunes change? Will I have a long, productive life? Will I die young? The Wheel of Fortune was traditionally a card that symbolized simple fortune or good luck and wealth. When this card was drawn it heralded a change in one’s fortunes, usually for the better. The traditional picture showed the turning of the wheel, with the fortunate pictured on the top and the poorer rabble on the bottom, to show that the fortunes of those on the bottom could only improve as the wheel turned, while the future of the king on the top was likely to bring him down. In truth, we are all subject to varied futures with both bad and good, rising and falling on the wheel of fortune.
In order to predict the future or to secure clues to the course of events in our lives, we often turn to various fortune-telling devices that mirror the pattern of the world. The Wheel of Fortune is the symbol of these devices. We use mystical pseudosciences like astrology, Tarot, and the I Ching as well as other peculiar «sciences» such as the stock market and the index of leading economic indicators. By using these oracular tools we discover that the larger, outside world does affect our individual life and that what is above and beyond us is a mirror for what is below and inside us. The symbolic use of oracular tools helps us to see that the natural (and human) world around us is within us, as well in the analogies we make between the complete world of nature and our total selves: body, mind, and spirit.
In this version of the Wheel we see the planets of our solar system, with inner planets separated from outer by the band of the wheel. The inner rocky planets represent all that is internal to us—our bodies, feelings, and perceptions—and the outer planets embody the spirit and what is external to us: our common ground such as religion and the law. The sun in the center is symbolic of the individual will and ego. Because we mirror nature we are like the sun and like each of the solar system’s familiar planets. We symbolically rise and fall with them. Astrologers believe that in some synchronous way our lives unfold with the pattern of the planets and stars on the night of our birth. The astrological chart is a personal wheel of fortune for the individual and serves as a mirror of the outer world to light the inner one.
The traditional planet associated with the Wheel of Fortune is the solar system’s largest: Jupiter. In astrology it represents expansiveness and higher learning and is said to bring good fortune to the individual when favorably placed in the chart. Jupiter is shown at the top of this card (and in its natural ninth-house position), showing that its influence over the wheel is supreme. The influence of Saturn falling at the bottom of the wheel shows us the judgments we make about value and intrinsic worth in the world. Saturn is a symbol of our limited vision of our individual role in creating a new vision of the future. The nine planets and the moon can signify differing types of people whose fortunes rise and fall, just as the original card had kings and serfs tied to the rim of the wheel. The planets are also symbolic of the different parts of a single person, each part on a particular part of the wheel. Perhaps fortunes in your love life seem to be rising while you have just been notified that you have lost your job. The Wheel indicates that situations are constantly moving and turning away from the present circumstance and into new and different ones.                                                         
The Wheel of Fortune with its twelve spokes shows that through the measured passage of time measurable change is inevitable. The spokes of the Wheel represent the twelve months of the solar year and the astrological signs. The zodiac begins with Aries in the spring, symbolized by the dark green color for the new spring growth and its emergence from the dark earth.                                                
The letters spelling TARO are placed in the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius) to indicate the symbolic importance of these signs. Traditionally, the fixed signs symbolized the essence of their particular season, because this month was in the middle of the season and somehow represented its most «fixed» or constant qualities. The fixed; signs also were mirrored in the symbols for the four New Testament evangelists: Luke was the bull, or Taurus; Mark was the lion, Leo; John was the eagle, a higher form of the scorpion; and Matthew was the angel, or Aquarius (see also the appendix). The number four is a symbol of completion and wholeness, and the four letters TARO represent the Tarot as a whole system. The symbol of the wheel is a prefigurement of the wholeness represented in the World card, which also traditionally showed the symbols of the four fixed signs. The Wheel card represents the focus on self and its relation to the outer whole, while the World represents the ultimate integration of self and other.
When the Wheel appears in a reading, it symbolizes a change in one’s individual fortunes. This is the simplest meaning of this card. Beyond this, the card indicates a time when your concerns are with yourself and your own fortunes and future. You are in a period of selfish development when your needs are primary, and you find it easier to fulfill your own needs than to cater to others. The Wheel of Fortune indicates that you find yourself drawn to practices that help you see the outer world of nature mirrored inside yourself, such as the Tarot and astrology. The Wheel of Fortune indicates an opportunity for self-understanding and self-growth through the mirror of the outer world. This self-development will often lead to a greater success in the outer world because of the greater confidence gained through understanding. The warning that comes with this card is that you must reflect on how your actions affect others. The Wheel tends to indicate a kind of self-absorption that makes one’s focus narrow and selfish. We often fall into our own egos at the start of a spiritual growth process, and while we see our own selves more clearly we forget others around us. It is a time to enjoy your changing fortunes and to step onto the road that leads to integration.

JUSTICE
The Balance of Earth, Air, and Sunshine
This is a card of balance. Justice requires a new leveling of the playing field so that every species is given the value it demands. As a species totally out of balance with the planet that has given us birth, we are reminded by the card to consider carefully our relationship to the earth and its living body. We seem to have forgotten the intimate relationship between ourselves and the planet and its other living species.
What is it in our history that ultimately created the rift between us and our planet? Originally, as we diverged from the monkey and began our own individual future, nothing set us apart from the world around us. Somehow, through the use of tools and the enslavement of other species to our use, we began to believe in our ultimate superiority. What originally set us apart from the rest of the life on the earth was our mental capacity. Eventually, with the rising power of our minds and the complexities of our inventive capacity, our simple bodies got lefr behind. We believed that we were above and beyond the physical world we saw around us and that the mind and its landscape were vastly more important than our bodies. We forgot how to connect with our physical selves and with the creatures and natural functions of the earth. We began to hide our sexuality and our human bodily functions with polite names and general feigned disinterest. We lived within the framework of a terrible dualism, and a seemingly unbridgeable gap was created between mind and body, between God and humanity, which only a supreme power could heal.
The division we feel between our minds and our bodies is ancient and destructive, and its implications are far reaching. We are incredibly abusive of the planet’s resources and do not recognize the ways our wasteful-ness creates further destruction of the earth we depend on. We have no respect for the lives of the creatures around us, except those that service us and even then we abuse them. We are unaware of our own bodies and abuse ourselves and others in the simplest ways. We feed ourselves poison and pump toxic waste into the waters. We cannot grasp the complexity around us, and we cannot seem to break the terrible cycle.
Justice symbolizes the ability to feel — with certainty — the oneness of life. In this profound feeling, we immediately comprehend that true justice demands a balanced relationship of the mind and body to achieve equilibrium in the outer world. We must restore our original nature by recognizing that mind and body, God and humankind, are all one, and, like stages of a continuum, they are in deep and constant relation to each other. By healing the split within ourselves we will go a long way toward healing the earth around us. If we can feel the oneness of body and mind we will also feel the oneness of nature and humanity.
In the card we see the balance of the ancient elements: earth, air, water, and fire (symbolized by the sun). The creatures of the air are balanced with those of the waters and the earth.The goddess Justice stands at the intersection of the elements; she is the very balance we imagine we can feel. Even with her eyes closed she feels the life around her. She knows that the rain is balanced with the sun, the earth is partly water, the water part earth. The creatures of the land, sea, and sky around her are in balance; the predator is balanced with its prey.
We are all one kind of life on the earth, and we must learn to be like die Goddess who, with eyes closed, can see the equality of life. We must not judge by color, size, value, or beauty but must learn to see with the attributes of blind Justice. For in her hand she holds the scale where our hearts and souls will be measured against the feather of truth, and we may know in our lives the effects of our actions.

When this card appears in your reading, you are at a point of balance and are trying to create a sense of equality around you. You feel as though you can see clearly all sides of the issues around you, and you seem to know how to take steps to put things in balance. All the elements of the Tarot are pictured in this card, and this represents the ability to balance the aspects of life that the ancient elements symbolize: body for earth, spirit for fire, emotions for water, mind for air. You have the insight to represent this balance to others in the way you choose to live your life.      
When this card is pulled, it is essential to keep in mind the ultimate difficulty for any one of us to truly live in balance, given the environmental horror around us. The power to change the situation lies with the ability to live as an example to others, because the purity of actions as a  teaching tool cannot be underestimated. As more and more of us recognize the importance of the earth as our life-giving mother, our ability to alter the terrible imbalance around us will increase.

THE HANGED MAN
The Sacrifice of the Sun King
Four of the Major Arcana cards represent the four stations of the sun on its yearly path. The Sun symbolizes the birth of the new king at the winter solstice. The spring equinox is represented by the enthroned king, the Emperor. The Hanged Man symbolizes the turning of the sun at summer solstice. And the final card is the Devil, who symbolizes the dark king of the autumn equinox.
The image of the Hanged Man shows the solar king turned on his head, ready to begin the journey back to the darkness he has come from. Eventually, he will repeat the journey again at the winter solstice, having been born once more as the new year’s king. Frequently in ancient mythologies two gods share the year between them; they are the sons of the all-powerful Triple Goddess. Ancient stories recount tales of how the sacrifice of the god, king, or hero would take place at midsummer and how the new king, his brother, would begin his rule with the harvest parties of late summer. This new king gained his exalted status by marrying the goddess, queen, or priestess, who held the power behind the hero god. In many cultures this yearly ritual, described in mythology, was played out in the kingship rights of the people, and the sacrifice of the chosen king was ritually enacted in various ways .       
The Hanged Man symbolizes the sacrifice of the sun’s light at midsummer, when the long hours of daylight are beginning to slip away. On June 21 or thereabouts, the midsummer festival would be celebrated, but during the previous month, temples would be ritually cleansed and statues washed in preparation for the event. In ancient Ireland, people gave away their old clothes and hung them on trees to personally connect with the symbolic sacrifice. The Hanged Man has left his rich clothing on the tree; he knows he will not need it again in the land he travels to. These are symbols of surrender; life could not go on uninterrupted without the acknowledgement of the needs of the gods of earth and sky and their turning wheel of the year. The Hanged Man’s sacrifice is but a natural part of the yearly cycle; he freely lets the summer go, and winter follows on its heels.                                                        
The oak tree has represented the twin gods of the solar cycle because of its strength and the practical usefulness of the wood. The oak is the symbol of potency and protection, and it was the icon of the ancient sky and thunder gods. Two basic varieties of oak grow in Europe and the Middle East; a deciduous tree, which bore the sacred mistletoe, and a live oak, home to an insect whose crushed body produced the red dye used for royalty Both oaks make acoms—which bear a visual resemblance to the glans of the penis, and were considered the matched trees of the solar twins. The two trees appear in the cards of the Emperor and the Hanged Man to symbolize their connection with the sun, the sky, and the fructifying power of lightning, which often seeks the oak’s high branches.
The solar wheel behind the Hanged Man is the symbol of the ancient eight-year term of the solar king. As the power of kingship increased—as patriarchal rule rose in the area — his term also increased. Instead of dying with every year, he was spared and another was killed in his stead to give fertility to the land through the fructifying power of his life’s blood. Every eight years the cycles of the sun and the moon intersect and the new moon occurs close to the solstice, and it was in these years that the Goddess called her king back to the ancient earth. Between the emblems of the sun on the Hanged Man’s wheel are the tiny symbols of the new moons that have occurred between the important solar festivals—counting the time between the sacrifices of the Sun King. The wheel also represents the passage of time and the inevitability of having to let go of the things we cling to in life.
When the ancient king was sacrificed he was held in the fivefold bond that held his legs, arms, and neck together. This Hanged Man shows the symbol of the fivefold bond in the ribbons that are tied around his legs, arms, and neck. The ribbons, in shades of white, red, and black, represent the Goddess as pentad, who brought the king to birth and who will finally carry him off to death.

When interpreting this card in a reading, think first about the aspect of reversal in the card. The sun has turned the corner and is beginning the downhill part of his travels. You may have reached a turning point in your life or in one particular aspect of it. However, the appearance of this card in a reading does not mean that you are «over the hill.» It does imply that the next part of the journey will lead you back to a new beginning or to something familiar. For instance, if your business is now failing, perhaps after a period of good fortune, the appearance of the Hanged Man may mean you have reached the peak in the negative cycle and will be returning to the period of success.
After examining this aspect of the card, look also at the sacrifice required to make the turning, for no transformation will occur without this sacrifice. Examine the nature of sacrifice in your life: what kinds of sacrifices have you made of your own time or energy in order to make changes? Perhaps by giving up something at this time you may be able to take the downhill path toward the change you have been wanting. This card implies such a crossroads; you are at a point of change, but you must let go of something or this change will not take you to the returning path. Focus clearly on the turning point; the journey and the sacrifice will seem like a clear and unavoidable choice.

DEATH
Death Dances Through Roses As the Sun Set on the Living
This fearful card, the symbol of endings, represents the final journey of life. We cross the river into the land of the dark as we travel into the underworld and back to the forgotten land of our beginnings. We are born out of the soil of the earth, and to this soil we will return as our bodies and souls depart the plain of earthly life. At every death and in every funerary practice the elements that make up the living body are returned in some way to the world from which they arose.
We are but one expression of nature’s elemental forces. In the crucible of the fiery star, which can be seen as the engine of elemental creation, simple hydrogen is transformed into all the heavier elements that formed the earth and every living thing that inhabits it. To this furnace the elemental matter of our individual bodies will be finally returned, eventually to be reformed into yet another expression of creation.
This card strips what we see down to the elemental structure of the world, symbolized by the skeleton. The framework of our bones is the underlying structure on which we depend. The whole body depends on the frame of the skeleton to give it strength and form. We cannot directly touch this deep part of our bodies. Within us, the structure of things is obscured, a hidden truth overlaid by the flesh of the world. Yet, the form of the flesh betrays the form that is hidden deep within it. The physicist examines the visible, experiential world to find the underlying structure of the universe and to reveal its original form at the beginning of time. The form of Death’s skeleton suggests our attempt and need to find the beginnings of existence and the eternal forms that unfold in continual creation. We «strip things to the bone» or find «the bare bones of the matter» as a way of revealing basic truths.
Death’s scythe is the tool we use to cut to the heart of the matter and to strip off the flesh so that we may reveal the internal structure. The scythe cuts away what is unnecessary and simplifies matters so that we can grasp them. The frightening aspect of Death’s scythe is that its action is beyond our personal control. When death enters our lives it takes away someone or something and the loss is difficult for us to bear. But loss, by its very nature, is a kind of simplification — one less thing or person to which we are bound. It brings freedom from attachments, even though it is difficult for us to integrate the place left by death. Like the suit of Swords, this scythe is the symbol of the mental break and deep cut we must make when dealing with death or loss. Of course, this break takes time and is never as clean as we would like, but the scythe tells us that this is a new period in our lives and is a distinct break with the past.
The scythe is the tool of the harvest; we reap the wheat and grain with this tool. Like John Barleycorn in the folk song — «Then they sent men with scythes so sharp and cut him off at the knee … they served him most barb’rously» — the harvest is the symbol of the death of the barley god. The new grain is planted in the early spring and cut down at harvest with great joy and anticipation of Barleycorn’s rebirth in the beer mug. After the barley is cut it is then processed to find the kernel, again cutting to the bone: «they hired men with the crabtree sticks to cut him skin from bone» to prepare the grain to be used in the making of the beer. Barleycorn then experiences resurrection when he becomes a substance of joy and a nourishing food, which transforms his death in the fields into life in the glass and within your body. John Barleycorn’s story is the celebration of the cycle of life and death, in which death is the natural consequence of life, as life springs up anew from death.
Death’s pure white shroud spiraling upward represents the free spirit as it is released from earthly existence. White is the symbol of purity and of absence. The spiral is also the symbol of freedom, as it is not an enclosed, contained figure but can be drawn forever. The spiral is also connected with death and rebirth, as it describes a journey out from the center and then returns inward . The shroud as the winding sheet of the dead is bound around the body, also forming a spiral.
Death’s own shroud is trimmed with embroidery, which pictures branches of the yew tree. Sacred to Hecate (the dark aspect of the moon) in ancient Italy and Greece, the yew was the tree of death in ancient Europe and was planted in graveyards and churchyards all over England and the Celtic countries. The berry of the yew is bright red and gelatinous — like blood — and it seems to drip off the tree. The branches provide dense cover and seem dark and forbidding to the viewer. The yew tree was used to make bows, and it also carries a poison with which arrows were smeared, which gave it yet another association with death. The Latin word for the yew, taxus, is connected with Greek toxicon, meaning «poison»; specifically, the poison smeared on arrows .  Today, a relative of the European yew, Taxus brevifolia, provides a cancer medication called taxol and so, interestingly, a chance for life is emerging out of the tree of death.
Beyond the figure of Death and his magic scythe the sun is setting. As the sun sets in the western sky the life of the day ends, and to the ancients sunset was the symbolic death of the sun as it returned into the sea or into the earth, whence it would be reborn anew each morning. The dramatic sunset in this card calls attention to this part of the day and to the drama of the sun’s daily story. The story of the sun is an-analogy for our own lives. Like the sun, we are born out of the earth or sea (both connected with the feminine); we climb the sky as the sun does and reach our zenith in middle age; we then travel downward in the sky toward death as we sink back into the ocean or are returned to the earth. The colors of this sunset, reflected in the clouds, reveal the drama of death. The clouds signify the tears we shed when we experience loss.
In the landscape around Death the grass grows green as the manifestation of life growing from the dead; last year’s old grass has died, providing rich soil to support the next generation. The rose is a symbol of the totality of life, with its sharp thorns symbolic of life’s troubles and beautiful, fragrant flowers representing joy, love, and happiness. The five petals of the rose flower are symbolic of the pentagram and are therefore sacred to the Goddess in her fivefold aspect. At the foot of Death, beans spiral upward, reflecting the beliefs of the Romans, who thought that the souls of the dead lived within the bean. Romans used beans as charms connected with the dead. They threw beans behind their backs for ghosts, hoping to insure the families’ redemption in the next world, and also spit beans at ghosts as a charm against them. The connection of the bean to the realm of ghosts seems to be that it grows in a spiral and that its white flowers were symbolic of the purity of the bleached bones of death. Because breath is the evidence of life, the eating of the bean and the flatulence it causes were thought to be proof that the living souls of the dead were inside the lowly bean. The Latin word for soul and breath were the same: anima .
The river is a symbol of time and of the stages of life, as the water that passes us in the flowing river will never return again. The legendary River Styx was the border of the land of the dead in ancient myth, and souls were ferried across it by Charon, the boatman of death. The stream of the river—like the scythe—cuts across the landscape, causing a deep division symbolic of the break between the past and the present and future.
 
When this card is a part of a reading, reflect first on the skeleton, or framework, of the issues you are dealing with. Try to see the elemental nature of your situation by stripping away the outer layers of the problem or situation. Get at the bones of the matter. When you have done this, you may recognize parts of the situation that can be pared away or given up in order to facilitate growth. These things will symbolically die, thereby fertilizing the soil of the present situation so that new circumstances can arise. When you complete one thing you are given room to try something new.
This is a card of endings, completions, letting go. All these things imply a loss, but the loss may be of something old that you are finished with anyway and that you just need to cut out of your life pattern. When this card arises, you may be experiencing the fear of losing something that you don’t want to give up or something comfortable that you are afraid to do without. The Death card implies a big change, with the result that you must give up life in the way that you know it. Every moment of our lives is a moment of death, as we give up the past to step into the present. This is the manifestation of the spiral path of life, on which we walk into and out of death in every moment.
The sunset is the symbol of the fading light of the present circumstance and the dramatic response we are likely to project into the loss of the light. The sun fades away from our sight, just as the exact circumstances of the past fade from our view. We mourn for our lost youth because we form tight attachments to particular objects and persons who are lost during the journey to the future. This card serves to suggest to us that our attachments are in the mind, as we can see in Death’s scythe, reminding us of the suit of Swords. We get attached to people, things, and outcomes, and the Death card advises us about our attachments. Death wants to show us that we will mourn over the loss of all that we hold dear, as the world is not frozen in time but moves like the river into the future while constantly destroying the past. The character of Death suggests that we nurture the quality of acceptance. We must remember the rose, whose flowers we love, but the flowers fade and the winter comes and the thorns hurt us before spring comes again.

TEMPERANCE
Water and Fire, Rain and Sun, Blood and Milk Are Brought Together
Temperance is a card of magic. In the Thoth Tarot (Aleister Crowley’s deck) this card was renamed Art, to clarify this meaning and to separate it from the commonplace meaning of the word temperance. The magic the card speaks of is the simple magic of everyday life that we perform in every action. It is the magic of combining two opposite materials in order to create something new. When we eat we combine the food with our bodies through the action of eating. When we read we integrate the information in the written word with our mind. When we converse with our friends our lives are entwined through our emotional understanding.
In the card this combining of opposites is shown in many ways. First, the opposing fire and water are poured from the hands of the Goddess and intermingle under her feet. It is the relationship between the the fiery sun and the watery earth that creates the life of the planet. Water, usually associated with the moon, here flows from a bowl made from the sun’s metal, gold. The solar fire drops also from its bowl of silver, the moon’s metal. In itself, this represents the combining of opposites and symbolizes the magical properties of containment. Containment provides us the opportunity to recognize something as unique and to separate it from its surroundings, making it available for practical use. Once in a bowl, a material may again be combined — through magic — with other things, and we can make more magic — bread, cookies, clay, whatever.
From the breasts of the Goddess flow the fluids of life: blood and milk. Their combination in the large vessel symbolizes the greatest creation we participate in: the making of a new life. In the sexual act, as the woman and the man come together with the essence of the magic of opposites, his part and hers are merged. Then the magical recombinant DNA goes to work inside the woman, to be nourished first with her blood and then with her milk, as a new and separate life grows free and learns to make its own independent decisions and in turn its own magic. The vessel is the physical representation of the magical containment of the elements that allow us to act upon them, permitting growth and change, as the womb protects and contains the fetus as it grows and the bowl allows the bread dough to rise.
The circle in which the Temperance goddess stands illustrates the special place where the magic of the natural world is visible. The intermingling of the elements of sun and rainwater create the magic of the rainbow, present only when the two elements are actually observed together. Even when they are not seen together, their interplay over time provides the nourishment that supports the grass and trees whose growth is the action that combines the sun and rain, made visible on the material plane.
The mystical meaning of the Temperance card is contained in the simple magic of action. The card symbolizes the apex of the Magical Triangle, a precept in most mystical texts, which represents the combination of two things, represented by the two bottom points of the triangle, while at the apex is the action that mixes them (see the appendix). Of course, the real magic is the result of the action, symbolized by a dot or arrow emanating from the center of the triangle. Temperance, however, symbolizes the active part of the triangular relationship. It is one of two cards that represent the Magical Triangle; the other card, which represents the bottom points of the triangle, is the Lovers. Aleister Crowley, in his book on the Tarot, says, «This card [Art] is the complement and fulfillment of Atu IV, Gemini [The Lovers].»  He also states that these two cards are the «most obscure and difficult» of the Major Arcana.t The difficulty they represent is the most fundamental teaching of magic, which is that the world and all we know and see is governed by the relationships expressed in the Magical Triangle. What develops from this knowledge is the certainty that all things are linked together in a series of these symbolic triangles and that this is the fabric of the world. If we are all linked in such a way, then it follows that any notion of god as ultimately separate and distant from us must be a symptom of our dualistic notions of the world, and that any true God must be one with us and within all of us.

When Temperance appears in a reading, it is a symbol of the magic you experience in your life. Temperance is a card of integration; it points to the action required to actually create something new. You must be willing to stand like the goddess in this card, who physically combines the opposites, and like her you must take action. This action will place you in direct relationship with what has appeared to be separate and outside of you until now. Through the action of this important card you will find yourself involved in the dynamic part of this new relationship.
The other important symbol of the Temperance card is the vessel where the combining takes place. Part of your job is to create a symbolic bowl, a space, so that the action you must take will be nurtured and will create the desired result—the point inside the triangle—just as a pregnant woman must clean her body by eating healthy food and must stop drinking or smoking in order for the child to grow in health. This is a magical and special card; it is—as Crowley says—a card of great power and importance, for the ability to act in the world is the essential quality of life.

THE DEVIL
A Young Man Invites You to the Forest Drumming
The Devil is the final card in the four-card series that represents the solar stations of the year. He is the wild king of the autumn equinox, when the light of the year is fading and the bounty of the harvest has arrived. His are the unrestrained pleasures of life, when wine and beer are made and when people retreat from their outdoor life and return to the harvest home and the joy of the September bounty. The Emperor — who believes in the supreme authority of the ruler and the infallibility of his direction — now gives way to the Devil, who believes in anarchy and complete individual freedom. This is the contrast between the organized community work of the late winter and spring, ploughing and planting, and the chaos of the harvest festival, when the produce is brought inside and the kitchen is busy with the smells of food. The family now prepares to retreat to the inner life of the home and more hours of darkness for the pleasures of the bed. The Devil’s autumn world is one of amazing commotion, freedom, and uninhibited sexuality in the concealment of autumn’s shadows.
In the card the eyes of the Devil draw you into his world, the world of nature with its wildness, diversity, and sometimes frightening darkness. The trees in the card are bound with ivy, just as a woman and man entwine in the sexual act. Yet the ivy will, in nature’s time, be the cause of the trees’ downfall. This is akin to the powerful goddess of nature, who aives us birth and then cuts us down in death. The Devil embraces all of nature; he is comfortable with its destructive qualities as well as its pleasurable ones. He revels in the death of the rabbit as the hawk snatches it from the field; he watches with glee when the bucks bloody each other over the doe. Then, he takes intimate pleasure in the buck’s mounting of the doe, and beats the drum in the rhythm of his thrusting. The drum symbolizes the heartbeat and the rhythm of nature; it is the repetition of cycles through time. Although we seldom recognize it, we too are in tune with the rhythm of nature because we are a part of it. Our bodies pulse with the beating of our hearts; we are born and then die in rhythm with the world of nature around us .
Autumn is the season of harvest, and yet, as the bounty of produce is stored and processed, the darkness of the season increases and the cold creeps in. These are the natural processes that the Devil responds to; the extremes of the year are both represented in the fall: its joy and sorrow, strength and fear. The Devil symbolizes our attachment to the emotional experience of extremes. As a culture we are drawn to the darkest tales of human depravity for the emotional ride they give us. We are also drawn to the storybook fairy-tale happy ending as the other extreme of this. The Devil is the fulfillment of our desires, the attachment we have to our lives, and the drowning in the pain and pleasure of the senses. He revels in the experience of drunkenness with the vine and the mushroom. He loves the sexual experience and will be just as inquisitive there, for it is his desire to experience the full range of human possibility.
In recent Christian times the experience of nature as primitive, sexual, and dark was opposed to the creation of the pure idea world of God. Attachment to the pleasures of the body was a sin to be mortified, and these sins were associated with the Devil, God’s fallen angel, who was opposed to Christ in every way. Christ is the Christian incarnation of the Emperor, the lawgiving king of the light half of the year; he represents the human world of mind. The Devil is the king of the growing darkness and the wild world of nature and the body. In ancient times the Devil was called Pan or Dionysus, and his revels drew hordes to enjoy the experiences of excess and the pleasures of the body.
The negative meanings of the Devil are obvious. Overattachment to intense experience can bring tragedy into one’s life as drug abuse, alcoholism, or even horrible criminal acts that hurt others. Anything that brings with it emotional ecstasy or its opposite is an experience of the Devil card. The key to insight is that we recognize the difference between use and abuse and learn not to let our own excesses hurt others around us.

When the Devil is a part of your reading, you are in the midst of an intense situation. Perhaps you are experiencing (possibly in excess) the pleasures and pains of living, in yourself or in those around you. Possibly, when you draw the Devil, the situation calls for more emotional engagement. Maybe it is a time to examine your attachments and learn the lesson of moderation. Look around you and really see the part you play in the natural world. Learn to feel a part of it and recognize the rhythms of life in your body and the world around you. In recognizing the natural rhythms you will find that the times for excess and the times for abstinence are a part of the natural world. Whatever else it is, the Devil is first and foremost the symbol of the pleasures of life. In these things we are called on to recognize that our emotions are the measure of our living, and the Devil is the symbol of the authentic experience.

THE TOWER
An Earthquake Strikes a Desolate Land, Destroying the Work of Man
This is a card of despair and destruction. The Tower is the symbol of a world without order, without governance, and without protection. It shows the people running for their lives from the power of nature, expressed in the stormy clouds and the explosive volcano. These represent both the frightening powers of the realm of Heaven and the destructive forces of the solid earth. Here, both rise against humankind and overpower our world, showing us that though we are powerful and creative, we may still fall before the power of the natural world. This is the simplest meaning of the Tower: that our lives are sometimes at the mercy of nature and the power of others around us, who wage war and rain destruction down upon the world. As unrelated individuals we have no control over these things, and no power to change the outcome of events. The Tower represents impotence in the face of larger events around us; it illustrates personal loss of control and authority.
Originally this card illustrated the tale of the Tower of Babel in the book of Genesis . The people of Babel all spoke a common language, which enabled them to execute complex plans requiring huge numbers of people. In their arrogance they began to build a tower that would reach into God’s kingdom of Heaven. According to the story, God thought humankind had reached a critical point where they had the power and will to accomplish anything within their imagination. He must have believed that his exalted position in Heaven was threatened and that mankind’s will would make a heaven full of gods. He didn’t approve of the arrogance and pride of people who felt they could enter his realm without his countenance. Therefore, before they reached the heavenly realm, he struck them down, scattered the people over the land, and separated them further by giving them all new and different languages.
This illustrates that a large measure of the power of humankind is in our ability to communicate with others. Language gives us the opportunity to to accomplish our needs and our desires with the help and the encouragement of others. The Tower symbolizes a terrible breakdown in our ability to communicate, symbolized in nature by an earthquake or hurricane that disrupts our communication systems. In the human realm, a breakdown in communication can be as simple as not listening and not hearing the needs of another person, thereby isolating ourselves. The Tower is symbolic of any breakdown in communication, when we are misunderstood or isolated in a symbolic tower.
The Tower in this case is a prison of our own making, where we have isolated ourselves or have been cut off by others for views that are out of the mainstream or ideologically rigid. We build these symbolic towers, with information that supports our world view, using these bits of knowledge as bricks to protect and remove ourselves from the true and complex nature of the world . Afraid and alone, we then become isolated in «ivory towers» and are unable to connect with anyone. The Tower card illustrates our feelings of dreadful isolation and terror prior to a major breakthrough. Like the people pictured in this card, we run away from the confrontation and try to avoid the terrible storm we know is coming.
In the illustration the tower is built of single bricks, expressing the concept that whatever we accomplish is made up of many smaller parts.
On the tower door is a crown, with three points, symbolizing the threefold nature of the action that brings about any human creation. That is, first we have an idea, second we take action, and finally we return to the original idea with the enriched knowledge that the action has helped us attain. On this card these three steps are physically represented by the tower itself. First it existed as an idea in the mind, then, through action, it was built, and finally the real, existing tower was entered and occupied. Although this applies to things that require physical action, building towers we can touch and feel, it also represents the aforementioned towers of the mind and the structures we build there. So the Tower card represents the breakdown and collapse of these ideas and the fall of pride that accompanies the collapse.
We build towering ideas, and in our arrogance we believe that we are right and that our version of the world works for everyone. In pride and arrogance we cannot communicate our view clearly or hear the views of others. We feel cut off and isolated in our world view. This is when the lightning may strike us, and as we realize our folly we fall and our ideas fall around us, leaving us to create a new world with—one hopes—more possibilities.
In Eastern thought the world we live in is all an illusion, and the ultimate perfection and reality is the nothingness that preceded and follows this world of illusion. Everything that exists is a manifestation of the illusion and is therefore removed from the perfection that is nothingness. Perfection will be attained only when the ultimate destruction of this dream world is complete, symbolized by the Tower. In this sense it is a card of purification by fire and is associated with any fiery sacrifice or cleansing. For example, when we lose our possessions in a fire we are given the opportunity to recreate our lives, remodel old structures, and in a sense recreate our selves. The fire removes the old appendages and strips us bare to our soul, where our creativity will be the only thing that can restructure our lives. In this way the Tower is related to the suit of Wands and is the ultimate fire card of the Tarot.
There is also an underlying sexual symbol in the Tower card. It is the symbol of the phallus, erect and ejaculating. It is a symbol of the dissolution and loss of self we experience in the intensity of orgasm. The French call orgasm the «little death,» by which they mean that in this moment we are close to death because of the profound experience of the loss of self in the moment of our pleasure.

In a reading, this card represents a loss of structure—perhaps a straightforward physical loss, such as losing one’s job or home, or a more complex emotional loss, such as a feeling of being misplaced or terribly wrong. It can represent a world in which you feel out of control, a world where others determine your future with no regard for your needs. A worst-case example is a world at war.
The Tower can represent ineffective communication, either by yourself or by others toward you, perhaps in the context of an important relationship. This may leave you feeling isolated and remote, as if you were physically ensconced within an ivory tower. Your only way out is to break the spell of the distance you feel and to admit your pride and arrogance in order to resolve the impasse. The action of the Tower card is to help you to see and break down the structure you have built that keeps you safe and isolated in this tower; where you will not be hurt but where you also do not experience any closeness or love and will remain alone and closed in.
The appearance of the Tower in your reading indicates that while the world may seem to crumble around you, perhaps this is the way that balance and harmony will be restored. The feelings you experience during a true titanic crisis will strip you to your soul, and through this kind of experience you may undergo a purification that will help you to find the creativity to go on.

THE STAR
A Galaxy Swirls Around Its Creative Center
The Star is symbolic of a feeling of inner confidence and creativity that manifests in the world with ease. In the Tarot Tree groups the Star represents the virgin aspect of the Triple Goddess. In myth she is Artemis, Athena, Blodeuwedd, and other young, powerful, and independent goddesses. During this phase of life we gain the confidence to step away from the world of our parents and craft our own life in the outer world. This change requires our creative participation. We must take control and be able to creatively manage the new and wide variety of demands set upon us by society. We feel as if our life is at the center of everything; the world revolves around our needs and our experiences. This is the feeling of being the Star.
In modern times the Star, shining with the power of its own light, has a more complex meaning than it did long ago. In the Renaissance the Star may have symbolized the planet Venus as the beautiful morning and evening star with which this card has been associated. When the Tarot came into being, the actual nature of the stars and distant planets could not have been guessed at; only in modern times have we begun to understand their real nature. Even so, there is much we do not understand about the variety and diversity of the lives of the stars. As the Star represents the myriad of stars in the galaxy, she symbolizes the diversity of humankind. The symbol for this variety and infinite diversity is represented by the rainbow that emanates from the small star. Visible white light that is given out by the stars is divided in a prism, and through this method, scientists can study the spectrum of the stars and begin to understand their complex variety. The Star, which in the past was a small shining light sparkling in the heavens, has become a sun in its own right, with individual characteristics and unique value.
The sun in astrology is the symbol for the ego and the will. The Star, now understood as a sun in its own right, represents a similar concept: the beginning of the consciousness of self manifested in the world. Because it is the feminine representation of ego and confidence it also strongly symbolizes the forces of creative power represented by the life-giving ability of the female. Here, the Star—the young woman who has just entered this phase in her life—has harnessed her creative power to create the galaxy that swirls around her; as she pours the stars out of the crescent-shaped cup in her left hand, her right hand pours the creative, fiery star power back into her heart. Thus, through her own creative power she nourishes her own self and shines ever more brightly.
The Star is strongly associated with the pattern of the spiral. The spiral is symbolic of a widening sphere of influence and the expansion of consciousness into more and more complexity over time. At the center the spiral begins with a point, and because it is the simplest of forms, it represents the beginning—the spark of potential—with the ability to develop into anything. As the spiral develops it covers a wider and wider sphere, representing development into a more complex form. Time is an integral aspect of the spiral, for it is never closed but has the ability to expand forever. It forms the space we require for the creative development into responsible adulthood. In order to expand the spiral of our own lives into the world, to create influence and to make creative changes, we operate in the world of expanding space and time. This is in analogy to the expanding universe of the big bang, just as the Star uses her developing creativity and confidence to step into the world, with a voice and an expanding sense of her own power to change herself and to change the world.

In a reading this powerful card symbolizes creative potential and the ability to shine out and radiate confidence in its application. You have the opportunity to stand out in the crowd and to present yourself and your ideas in ways that influence the outcome of the situation. Confidence flows through you, and you feel as if your creativity and potential for expansion amplify the power of your ideas. The expanding spiral of your influence begins with a creative spark—and indeed, you are at the center of the galaxy. Every idea and creative impulse gives us the potential to shine for others, and through the diversity of our experience and the variety of our ideas we all are able to be the central star.

THE MOON
A Gateway Frames the River of Moon Blood
The moon is the primary night light of the skies, illuminating the land brightly on the nights of the full moon and receding again to the mystery of complete darkness at the new moon. This ancient enigma of constant regular appearance, growth, and subsequent disappearance is a visible symbol of life, death, and then rebirth with the appearance of the new moon. The changing moon is particularly associated with women because its regular twenty-eight day cycle so closely matches the cycle of menstruation. Our English words for month (derived from Anglo-Saxon monath, akin to mono, «moon») and for menses (from the Latin mensis, «month») are related to ancient words for moon because of their close association with the cycles of women’s bleeding. Therefore, the moon’s identification with blood was deep and incontrovertible. The moon was thought to be the source of menstrual blood, which was the blood of creation when it coagulated within the woman and formed the child inside her.
Ancient peoples measured time by the regular cycle of the moon rather than the cycle of the sun. The solar markers—solstices and equinoxes—were not accurately measured but were originally celebrated on the closest full or new moon. In a solar year of 364 days there are thirteen lunations of twenty-eight days, so the year was originally divided into thirteen equal months. The number thirteen acquired its unlucky connotation because the symbolic death of the sun occurred with the last moon’s disappearance at the winter solstice. Even after the exact length of the solar year was measured (3641: days), the ancient power of the lunar cycle continued so that months were still the common division of the solar years. In the Tarot the Moon is symbolic of the precise measurement of time and its passage.
To the ancients, the moon was the more mysterious and powerful of the luminaries of the sky because it appears in the blue day sky as well as in the dome of the dark night, whereas the sun appears only in the day. The moon’s association with the unlucky thirteen also gave it a menac-ing, suspicious power, and its light frightened people. Therefore, the moon was a great power and had an enormous religious significance, as its changes defined the calendar and the holy days of ancient peoples.
Because its visible cycles mirrored the life of woman, the ancients believed that the moon was the representative of the Triple Goddess. Her three incarnations of maiden, mother, and crone were closely matched with the lunar phases of new, full, and old; therefore, the complete triad of goddesses is symbolized in the changing face of the moon. But because she holds within her the totality of the feminine experience, she is most closely associated with the old and wise (or old and fearful) crone. The old woman has lived through her girlhood and has been a mother, and now contains within her the wisdom and the experience of all the parts of woman’s life. Like the moon, whose phases repeat and repeat, the final phase contains the knowledge of the others before it. Therefore, the moon’s connection with superstition and fear of the dark is but a reflection of the dark old crone who can foretell death and whose age makes her both venerated and feared.
Her venerable age also is symbolic of the moon’s connection to time and its measure. In our own modern New Year’s revels we represent the dying year as an old man and the coming year as a naked baby. The crone, symbolized by the Moon, represents this aspect of time, for she is the symbol of ancient history and all that has gone before our time. This is represented in the card as the river of blood moving from the ancient past toward the future, where it pours off the edge of the world and denotes certain death—the immediate future of the old.
The gate in the foreground of this card is the passageway of death, guarded by hounds who howl at the light of the moon in the dark night. These dogs are traditional in many mythologies, where they are associated with death and frequently also with the moon. They represent Cerberus, the three-headed dog of the Greek underworld who guarded the shore of the river Styx. In Celtic tradition the hounds ofAnnwn (the land of the dead) hunted souls, and in Norse myth the dogs were the lunar wolves who belonged to the goddess Hel, the queen of the land of the dead . The dog at the gate is a symbol of the foreshadowing and fear of death.
The Moon card represents all forms of fear and superstition; it foretells dark times and the passage of time leading to a completion. When the moon is new and the night is black and dark, mystery and creative imagination—in which fear is nourished—are at a peak, and fear of the unknown is high. The light of the moon grows during the coming nights, illuminating more and more of the night. When the full moon rises at sunset and sets at dawn, it is a beacon in the sky throughout the whole night. The enlarging moon is a symbol of the light we must bring to fearful aspects of life in order that we may grow past these unknown, dark, fearful things. After full moon, the moon now races to catch up with the sun again, and in its journey it shrinks to a small crescent and travels into the daylight sky. This part of the moon’s path is symbolic of the great fear overcome at the full moon, beginning to develop into an integrated part of consciousness. As the moon reaches the sun again it represents the total illumination and reduction of our terrible fear by its appearance as a small thin crescent. As the full moon is the symbol of a victory over fear, so the return to new moon symbolizes the acceptance of the dark aspects of our shadow nature and their full integration. The Moon represents a dynamic developmental process, like the changeable nature of the moon.
As a mirror that reflects the light of the sun, the moon represents the shadow side of the sun’s light. The Moon reflects the mystery and fear within our souls. It reflects to us all that we cannot see inside ourselves because we cannot look directly at the brilliant sun. We look to the moon to see our face, just as we look into the mirror to see ourselves because we can never directly look at our own face. The mirror of the moon illuminates both the darkness of the night, our shadow part, and the blue day sky, our conscious selves.

When this card is a part of your reading you are experiencing a kind of foreshadowing: an intuition, suspicion, and fear of what is to come. The dogs have howled their warning, and you are on the river of blood that leads to the final gateway. This is not to be taken literally but represents a particular circumstance or phase in your life about which fear, mystery, superstition, and perhaps creative imagination have grown within you. These qualities have arisen because of the history of this situation in your life; the ancient threads of this fear are traceable and visible as a part of your past. You now have the opportunity to bring these matters into the light of day, just as the moon travels into the sunlit sky. If this can be accomplished, then all the darkness, confusion, and mystery you feel will be lifted; the sun which shines and lights the moon will rise, and rebirth will come, just as the moon is renewed each month.
This card signifies a time in which shadow aspects of your personality or things that are hidden in darkness are developing a life of their own. Sometimes these things are positive, creative aspects of the personality and lead us to a deep appreciation of our talents and our humanity. Whatever is at work in the darkness, it is time to pay attention, as the opportunity for real growth is present. Follow the cycle of the moon and try to recognize its development from new to full and its return to full. Watch how it becomes visible in the daylight hours and use its phases to help you illuminate your own situation. The Moon card represents inner process, and these processes work well with the help of symbols; the moon’s changeability is just such a transformative process and a visual tool for growth and change.

THE SUN
Two Boys Stand Together on the Solar Wheel
The Sun is the card of the winter solstice; it symbolizes the birth of the sun at midwinter. The Sun is born from the dark womb of the darkest night in the year, and on that very day the hours of sunlight begin to lengthen, and the power and strength of the sun grow. The Sun is the initial card in the solar stations sequence and is followed by the Emperor (spring equinox), the Hanged Man (summer solstice), and finally the Devil (autumn equinox). The Sun card shows the children of the Great Goddess, twins who are born at midwinter and grow to become kings. They become the consorts of the Goddess, and from her they have the power ofrulership.
The Sun represents the independence we receive at the moment of birth with the severance of the direct physical ties with our mothers. The male children heighten the theme of separation, for daughters are forever connected to their mothers in the recurring biology of birth. We all feel the separation, however, and come to recognize our individuality. Just as the sun in astrology represents the ego, the Sun card in the Tarot represents the recognition of individuality.
The two boys who share the rulership of the year are as different as they can be. In myth you will see their differences highlighted in various ways; often one is the son of a god and the other mortal, like Castor and Pollux. We recognize that the truth of individuality lies in the differences between us. We use one another as mirrors, against which we define ourselves as different or similar, and thus we define our character as we grow.
In the hands of the boys is the symbol of self: the globe or ball, which like the sun itself represents the «ultimate wholeness of man.»  Here the four races are represented, for the balls are the traditional colors of the sun, red and gold, and with the two boys these are the colors of humankind. This is in further recognition of our ultimate individuality. The sphere of the sun, having the colors of the twelve astrological signs around it, also represents the unique qualities that .we all have and that we depend on to recognize the differences between us. These astrological variations are also under the feet of the children in an expression of the principle that what is above is also below. As the earth journeys around the sun, on the path represented by the twisted strand of blue and silver ribbon, we who ride on planet earth make a yearly journey through the twelve signs. The sign of Capricorn at the winter solstice is uppermost in the card, symbolized by the black rays of the sun. The darkness of the winter season is reflected in the color representing Capricorn, and as the sun grows stronger it moves into lighter colors, peaking at summer solstice with the white light of the sign Cancer.
The flowers surrounding the boys symbolize the life-giving qualities of the sun; they are round and golden, and they mirror the sun’s form with their petals spreading like the light and heat of the sun. They seem to worship the sun in the way they turn to stare at it. They are an earthly representation of the axiom stated previously (as above, so below), and as such they also symbolize everything that the sun does and perhaps more. Through their stems and roots they are the connection between earth and sky, serving to remind us that though our individuality is important, we are not independent from our origins in the planet, our mother. A magical mixture of light and heat gives us the moist and fertile earth, which brings forth all living things.
When you have drawn this card in your reading, it is a time of recognition for you. You have just been able to see the independence of something against the complex background of the world. Perhaps this is something inside of you, but it need not be. Maybe you are recognizing that in your relationship with your mate your expectation that you would satisfy all of each other’s needs is an illusion. You realize this because you are now able to see that the individuality of all people is the issue and that any relationship is between two separate individuals. We are each traveling our own path and experiencing a brief moment called life. It is a learning journey, and the light of the sun is the light within each of us that grows brighter and then dimmer as we travel. The Sun is the metaphor for the recognition of individuality, both our own and others’. It will be a good time to experience your differentness—to reflect on it and rejoice in it.
As an inception card the Sun also indicates a good time to start projects and to bring something new to birth. Your creations will help you gain an understanding of yourself because they are a reflection of your individuality, and the essence of your uniqueness is in your work. When the Sun is part of your reading, it is a time of new beginnings, and like the winter solstice it is a time when the warm light within you will grow stronger.

JUDGMENT
Awakening to a New and Brilliant Day
The Judgment card is connected closely with the Empress, which it resembles. Both cards are linked to the principle of creativity and birth, and together they represent mother and child and the cycle of fertility. The painting shows a child emerging from the soil of a beautiful flower garden in a land shaped like a woman’s body. The earth and soil symbolize the fertility of the feminine principle and its ability to give birth to new forms and new life in every moment. The child who emerges from the body of the ancient mother is a symbol of birth and awakening.
The dark soil of the earth is analogous to the womb. Just as we emerge from the darkness of our mother’s womb, a seed will emerge from the dark world of the soil under our feet. The creative principle dwells in the secret darkness. When we experience creativity it seems to emerge from the dark inner world of the unconscious. Usually we have no idea where this creative spark has come from; it seems to arise unbidden. Many creative ideas come to us as revelations in dreams in the darkness of sleep. The naked child represents these ideas, feelings, and thoughts, emerging from the fertile soil of our selves unencumbered by preconceived ideas, just as the newborn child is free from judgments about the world. Each new feeling and idea awakens us to a new possibility and with it a new moment and a changed, moving world.
The protected flower garden, representing the genital triangle of the woman, symbolizes the protective, nurturing qualities of the Great Goddess. The garden is fenced and planted with a tangled web of brightly colored flowers, just as the generative pubic area is protected and concealed by the hair that grows there. The varied flowers themselves represent the abundance of the fruitful mother and the blossoming other creativity. The flower is the womb of the plant and produces the new seed that ensures continuity and endurance. Because the flower itself lives only briefly, as it opens during the day and turns to face the sun—which it mirrors in form—it represents life, awakening, and consciousness. This is the meaning of the Judgment card. It is a symbol of genuine consciousness in the moment, of awakening to present experience free from our outmoded assumptions and judgments.
The sun rises between the breasts of Mother Earth, symbolizing both the head and the heart, which, when they are in proper balance, create appropriate judgment. The sun’s rays symbolize the outstretched arms of the awakening person who is beginning to achieve proper balance in the world. The key to right judgment is the realization of the true nature of the self. When mind and body are balanced and work together, we become aware that we are not separate from the earth and universe from which we were born, but that we are always one with it and with all things that exist. When we can enter this awareness we awaken to every new moment, open to all possibilities and with no preconceived notions or fixed ideas of how this present experience «should» be. This allows us to be free from expectations that lead to disappointment and to be free from compulsions that lead to conflicts. In this way, every moment is a creative development, new and different. We awaken anew to every possibility. Our judgment is open, free, and balanced.
When Judgment is a part of your reading, it serves to remind you to let go of your negative judgments and criticisms of yourself and others. These opinions are based on your preconceived ideas of how the world should be, and they trap you into a narrow vision of the world. Judgment is a reminder that only you are responsible for your choices and actions. It is a symbol of a new awakening and awareness that allows you to begin a^ain with freedom in every moment. It is the representation of a new sunrise and a new light being born from the creative darkness of the inner life. Judgment symbolizes the birth of something original and the recognition of the newness and special qualities of each moment.
Judgment is the symbol of the constant birth of the present out of the past, and the awareness of these changes and the constant creative movement of the world. In these continuous changes we must maintain a stream of awareness while still allowing each moment to be truly new and unique. When you have this awareness you can be one with the world and at the same time free from disappointments, expectations, and negative judgments that limit your experience of the world. This kind of awareness requires a deep personal responsibility. You must be able to let go of expectations—especially as they concern others—and take responsibility only for your own actions and feelings. Expectations require you to live in the future, which has not been born. They cause us to be never fully present in the moment because we are anxious about the future and often living in the past. Many times we criticize others and blame them when our expectations are not fulfilled without seeing clearly where the troubles lie. This card reminds us that we can be responsible only for and to ourselves in every new moment, and that when we can truly do this we begin to live in harmony and freedom.

THE WORLD
The Beautiful Planet Born Anew from the Robin’s Egg
The World, traditionally the last card of the Major Arcana, represents the principle of wholeness and unity. In this card the earth itself is personified as a goddess, full with the life of the world. The blue color of the Goddess’s skin, which reflects the beautiful blue of the earth, is a symbol of eternity and truth as the color of the infinite sky, and therefore the color of the heavenly realm of the angels and the truth and wholeness of God. She is crowned with the sun and holds the moon in her hand because she is the embodiment of both of their separate and complementary energies. The energy of the sun warms her and gives the light necessary to feed her living skin, and the wandering moon stirs the waters of the planet and represents the changing movement of life and the inevitable passage of time.
In the right hand of the Earth Goddess is a comet representing the influence of the outer world on the life of the planet. Comets falling to the earth may have brought the original ingredients of life to the planet in the beginning of her creation. They are a symbol of our dependence on the larger world of the universe as well as of our need to explore and understand where we have come from and where we travel to in this journey called life.
Our galaxy—the island universe that is home to the sun, moon, and earth—is represented behind the figure of the world. In ancient times the Milky Way was imagined to be the milk of the Mother Goddess, Rhea, which Zeus sprayed into the heavens as he grabbed his mother’s breast. The spiral form is a symbol of continuity and of the journey of life, from the gateway of birth to the door of death and return. Each star in the galaxy—as we now understand—goes through these gates; it is born out of the clouds of gas and dust of interstellar space and finally returns to this sea, leaving its material for the formation of a new generation of stars. In this cycle of star birth and death and return is the expression of fundamental unity and wholeness. All the material of this world was originally born out of the depths of ancient stars, as in their active lives they created the fundamental building blocks of the earth and of all her living things.
The World card is representative of the fertile Mother Goddess,
pregnant and giving birth and nurturing her young all at once. Her living body is the source of all life; she is their protector and shield. The round body of the planet is a symbol of wholeness and perfection, and it shares this symbolism with the blue robin’s egg from which the Earth Goddess emerges. The egg is the symbol of the perfect and undifferentiated whole and the unlimited potential of the earth and all it contains. The egg is the expression of the Goddess’s creative potential and her endlessly creative womb from which we emerge, just as the little robin will emerge from her shell. The World embodies at once the creative mother and her perfect child, combined in the unity of the unlimited expression of life.
Around this singular representation are the divided symbols of the elements linked together with an unbroken rainbow-colored ribbon. The ribbon carries beads symbolizing the twelve signs of the zodiac. The rainbow colors and the zodiacal signs symbolize totality and unity in the variety of life’s expression. The four rings on the ribbon in the colors of the fixed signs—Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius—carry within them representations of the four ancient elements and the Tarot symbols associated with them.. Earth, air, fire, and water were considered the elementary building blocks of matter. Everything was seen as a combination of these four native elements, so together they are the expression of the unity of all creation.
Four is considered the number of completion, representing the four seasons, the four sides of the square, the directions, and so on. Four is the symbol of the manifested world, the visible creation of the Triple Goddess, just as the idea offour-ness» is born out of the number three. The Triple Goddess is fully depicted in the World card as maiden, mother, and crone, first as the symbol of the earth, the personified mother of all as the World itself. The moon in her hand symbolizes the ancient crone, and the sun framing her head represents the Star or the virgin goddess. These three cards—the Star, the World, and the Moon— represent the third row of the Tarot Tree and symbolize the cosmic nature of the powerful goddess of birth, life, and death.

When the World is a part of your reading, it is a symbol of spiritual unity and attainment, a recognition of the unlimited potential of life and the ability to make use of it. Often, she tells you that you have all you need to move forward and to make a complete assessment of the present situation. She symbolizes the ability to give form to the nebulous and to free the potential you feel within.
The World card symbolizes the return to a deep understanding of unity after a great and laborious assessment of the fragmentary nature of creation, as represented by the other twenty trump cards (we are here excluding the Fool). The World is the embodiment of wisdom and knowledge; perfection, completion, and fulfillment. She is both the mother and the mothered revealed and a symbol of the ultimate unity of self with world. As such she represents the direct realization of enlightenment and the fulfillment of right living.

WANDS

KNIGHT OF WANDS
A Tibetan Buddhist Monk Meditates with a Dorje
Meditative practice is a primary part of the Buddhist -tradition. In meditation the mind is stilled so that we begin to see ourselves not as a separate and distinct ego but as the world as a whole. We learn that the division we experience between ourselves and all that is outside us is only an illusion because we are truly made up of all that we see and do. If we wish to meditate within the Buddhist tradition we must surrender our intellect and mental will to a sense of calm, because only without the burden of our analytical mind can we merge with the power and energy of the world. To translate this into the language of the Tarot, we would say that the power of the suit of Swords (the intellect) can separate or cut us away from the growing, creative, generative power of the natural world represented by the suit of Wands.
The monk in the Knight of Wands is concentrating his meditation on the dorje and the dorje bell. The dorje (vajra in Sanskrit) is the scepter of Indra, the Hindu thunder god, and it represents his bolt of lightning. Lightning and thunder, the symbols of the temporal power of the god, are represented bound together in the vajra. Together, they personify the
life-giving power of the rain and the death-wielding potential of the lightning. These opposing and complementary functions are bound together in the center of the dorje by the bindu or seed of the universe, from which these extremes emanate. Each end of the vajra is the mirror image of the other to symbolize that the world above is analogous to the world below, just as the inner world of thought and spirit can be correlated with the outer world of objects.
Lightning is also a symbol of the power that connects earth and sky. Though lightning was the supreme symbol of the powerful sky gods and beyond the reach of humankind, it was also our road to the power of heaven when we «stole» it from the gods in ancient lightning strikes. Lightning is the power of illumination; when it strikes in the dark we see all that surrounds us symbolizing the spiritual illumination of a sudden insight.
In Tibetan Buddhism the vajra has become much more than the simple symbol of the lightning of the god. The Tibetan dorje is the symbol of the supreme and invincible spiritual power. Unbreakable and unstainable, the dorje is likened to the diamond, which cuts all but cannot be cut . In the hands of the Knight of Wands, the dorje is the «diamond scepter» and represents the spirit power of Wands moving toward the power of the suit of Swords, which represents the discriminating principle. Like lightning, which cuts the sky, the diamond has the power to cut the earth. The two symbols are, in effect, the two sides of the mirrored dorje.
The dorje in Tibetan Fuddhism is the power of universal compassion, which cuts through all things and is unbreakable like the diamond and powerful like Indra’s thunderbolt. Traditionally held in the right hand, it reminds the monk of the supreme power of love and compassion in the enlightened world.
The dorje bell with the half dorje as the stem of the pure sounding bell reminds the person who holds the bell in his left hand of the perfect wisdom that he will attain in enlightenment. The bell is used to call the believer to practice and to ward off evil influences. It is a symbol of the active spiritual power represented by the suit of Wands, in the stem and clapper of the bell contained and made useful in the world by the cup of the bell. The bell is a symbol of calling and awakening.
The small shrine (stupa) behind the monk is a monument commonly built all over the Tibetan landscape to enshrine the relics of honored ones who have attained buddhahood. It symbolizes the presence of the buddha nature throughout the substance of the whole world. The stupa is the symbol of the connective principle and whatever it is that makes us all one and allows us to dissolve the boundaries between our own selves and the exterior world. The stupa does this by being formed in the shape of the realms of human life according to the precepts of Buddhism. On the bottom is the square symbolizing the earth. Above it is the circle that represents water, then the triangle for the element fire, the half circle for the element air, then the form of the flame drop representing the ether that moves between and joins the different realms. The stupa itself is a wand ascending into the heavens to carry earth’s energy skyward and then returning to carry the heavenly energy earthward toward manifestation.
Prayer flags symbolize the wishes and blessings of the people made manifest in the world as a prayer of enlightenment. Prayers in Buddhist thought are intended not to force a deity to intervene on one’s behalf but to voice a person’s desires so that the universe and all its parts will align in a harmonious and synchronistic way to fulfill a person’s true needs.

This is a card of spiritual attainment, symbolizing the will and the joy of living with a goal of truth and enlightenment. The monk accepts a spiritual practice and follows the middle way of right thought and right action. He lives without deprivation and without excess by learning to let go of his attachments to the forms of this life. The monk’s truth is the truth of growth through all the realms of life as symbolized by the stupa. But like the stupa, the monk returns the knowledge and spiritual enlightenment to work on the simple plane of worldly life. Here he works with compassion and understanding so that the world will be a better place.
In your life the Knight of Wands is a symbol of a spiritual or growth-oriented creative practice. Perhaps, like the monk, you will take up meditation or something different like learning to play the piano. Whatever you take up is meant—like the dorje and the stupa—to connect you to the heavens as well as to the earth. You will grow skyward in the learning of this important practice, but you will also return the joyful energy to the earth and change your surroundings in a positive way Fill your home and world with calm, or fill it with your music or paintings. Like the Knight, experience the truth of the illuminating lightning; see the world as it really is, and see yourself as an intimate part of all that is and all that will be.

QUEEN OF WANDS
The Music Comes to Life Around the Flautist
Here is the queen of music and the queen of sound. Music is symbolic of all sound and of the original creation of the world through sound. In many world mythologies, sound was the first thing in the world to be created, and with light it was instrumental in the creation of the visible and auditory world of our common experience . Music therefore links us to the beginning of time and also represents a new creation that is undertaken by the musician, who will in the moments of the music become a god who makes the world anew with each note.
Written music, with its black notes on white paper — like the light and dark of the yin/yang — represents the duality of the world bound together in the symbol of the written notes. When the music is played it mirrors this duality by combining spaces of silence (the white paper) broken with the music in the dark written note. The five lines of the staff represent the variations of the world, and the distinct notes represent the manifestation of these variations. Each separate note represents the uniqueness of individuals and things of the world; we are all different yet all made up of the same stuff and part of the same music.
In the Queen of Wands the woman plays but a part of a larger, famous piece of music. She is part of an orchestra, where the flute is only a small part of the whole. This is a symbol of the ultimate cooperation in life: the ability to create something that one person alone could never make. When we join forces and creatively play the role that best suits us in a cooperative enterprise, we are like gods in our abilities. We can create the pyramids or medieval cathedrals, which last through ages, or the sounds involved in great music, which is created in moving time and is especially ephemeral.
The ephemeral nature of music is especially symbolic of the ever-changing nature of the world. Nothing we see or hear will stay the same, and the only law is that everything is transitory and impermanent. Following the music as it changes over time is analogous to following the changes that happen in the world. We make sense of the music through our magical ability to live in more than one moment at the same time. That is, when we move from the past into the future with a piece of music, we are consciously able to move with the sound, recalling what has passed and joining it with what is now to find a continuity in our experience of the sound. If we could hear only the one note of the present moment, the music would make no sense to us at all.
The musician in the orchestra wears simple black and white; she mirrors the written music on the page. The musician has symbolically become the music. The staid appearance of her clothing belies the complex nature other feelings and her thoughts as she participates in the living music. The fiery notes symbolize her wild response to the music; she is a participant in a magical experience, and the fire is the expression of this. Musicians describe the spiritual experience of their participation as wildly joyful and transformative; they have the feeling of merging with both the music and all the other participants in something that is bigger than any of them.
The phallus-shaped flute can be seen as a symbol of the masculine creative power, but the flute’s significance is quite complex because the sound that it makes is liquid and seems so clearly feminine. The flute is commonly made from the metal of the moon, silver, and this connects it to the feminine nature and to water. The sound of the flute has been likened to the world of water and to the flowing world of the emotive realms. Therefore, this is a card of passionate transformation and creativity, as the masculine nature of the suit of Wands is expressed in the Queen, which is the watery element in the court cards.

Allow your creativity to carry you into the future with a sense of continuity. Like the musician, hold on to what has passed so that you can make sense of what is now. Experience the world as a flowing piece of music. Making a creative plan could be a positive part of this process. Just as a member of an orchestra must follow through with others to create the piece of music, so the plan will help you align the varied parts of your life so that the creative part of it will be fulfilling.
The Queen of Wands is a symbol of passionate participation in a complex creative enterprise. This creative endeavor may involve coordination of a vast number of people (or possibly realms of activity: mind, body, emotions) who are all working for a common pattern or goal. This will involve recognition of the responsibilities of each person and a willingness to work for a common goal by surrendering to one’s role. For example, perhaps you and your family are about to build a house. It is a complex undertaking, and you have decided that one person will be responsible for all of the research involved in the design, while the other finds the materials at a reasonable cost. These roles are difficult and time-consuming. The process will be much smoother if you agree to trust each other’s work so as not to duplicate the effort. Just as the Queen of Wands plays the flute’s music and trusts the cellos to play their part, you must find your role and play it creatively.

PRINCE OF WANDS
A Young Man Sees a Dark Raven and a Long Journey 
This card is about the analogy between physical travel and the spiritual journey of life. The young man has gone to the top of the mountains to receive his personal vision, on which he will begin to act. The spirit of his vision, in the form of the dark raven, tells him to set out on the path of life. Through his ritual use of the pipe of peace he connects with the Great Spirit, channeling the energy of the spirit through the smoke into his own body. In this way the ancient natural patterns of the world parallel the forces he perceives in his own life that carry him forward toward truth, understanding, and deep spiritual awareness.
He is obligated to actively set his foot to the path and to participate in life by making choices. The choices he makes will determine the pattern of his life. The ancient spirit of Raven reveals a journey in the symbol of the Haida totem pole and the long path through the mountains. On this path our Prince will learn about himself through his new understanding of the world. The world is the mirror of the self, reflecting what is within, and through the things we see we learn to see ourselves. A long journey through unfamiliar lands is one way to broaden the personality and make the reflection in the mirror richer and more complete. Our individual lives are the product of a rich ancestry in which our people traveled through many lands to come eventually to the land we now occupy. The history and prehistory of all of our people involved many long journeys, which took them through the lands of other people, often creating terrible tensions but also resulting in rich stories and cross-cultural philosophies.
The concept of the vision quest has become a popular and meaningful way to achieve a sense of perspective and direction in one’s life and to connect with the ancient energy of the earth. To the young man in this image, the vision is a direct connection with the natural world and an attempt to clarify his particular place in it. The animals of nature were the visible powers of the spirits and they embodied special supernatural powers. Raven represents the power of the sky as well as the power of the darkness through his black feathers; in his daytime appearance he integrates the day and night. He was the hero who brought light to the original darkness of the world. He is a noisy bird and both outspoken and wise while telling his meaningful stories to the people. Because Raven is so willing to talk to the people, he brings to them secrets of the ancient and supernatural powers of the spirit world. The young man receives Raven’s secrets, so now this spirit bird becomes his ally and a symbol of his own power. Raven tells the man of a long journey into the distant west in which he will learn his personal secrets and grow into his strengths.
The west represents the power of introspection and dreams. In the Native American tradition the teachings of the west include the wisdom that total introspection requires movement beyond the circle of our own lives and selves in order to see a clearer picture of the circle of the west . This young man’s journey to the far western land will allow him a clearer picture of his own family and the traditions of his own people. His travels to the west will take him through the lands of many different tribes and through unfamiliar land, bearing different animals and different plants. These new things become a part of his life and therefore a part of him. He can assimilate the powers of these new animals and herbs for the later benefit of his own people.
The Prince of Wands will reach the lands of the northwestern peoples: the Haida, the Tlingit, and the other varied tribes of the Pacific Coast. Life here is quite different than in his home lands, with much milder weather, ample food in the sea and land, and easily found building materials for large, comfortable homes. With so rich a world, their culture is oriented towards wealth. In the native plains of this Prince, food is scarce and often hard to track down and kill, the diversity of the plant life is not as great, and there are many fewer trees. For his nomadic people, possessions—though symbols of status—are difficult to carry and keep. It requires great wealth in dogs to carry material possessions on travois from place to place. The unfamiliarity of this settled wealth will demand the young man to observe carefully the established life of these northwest coast peoples. Their different customs and values are unfamiliar to him. It will puzzle him that they are a matrilineal people: the leader’s sister’s son, rather than his own child, will inherit. It will amaze him that they were able to fish the immense ocean for fish larger than he had ever seen. His careful observation would lead to new technologies and a richly expanded understanding of the natural world. The Prince will learn that for all the cultural differences, many things remain the same.
Though the structure of these northwestern societies and the land they lived on were quite different from those of the plains culture, the ultimate truth of their spiritual beliefs were quite similar. In the mythology of the northwestern tribes, Raven was a god who brought land out of the sea and who sacrificed himself to give knowledge to the people of the earth, just as Raven was the hero of the Prince’s world, bringing light to the people and creating the diverse animal kingdom. The natural world still ruled the peoples’ imaginations, and the overwhelming power of nature was the ultimate source of fear and trust for all people. From this we learn that though we are different, we are also ultimately much the same.

The root meaning of the Princes in the Tarot is a masculine approach to learning, growth, and service. The Prince symbolizes a time in life when we must find our own way and live independently, away from the family. This requires much learning and growth. It implies the ability to act independently for the good of the self and the larger society by learning through community service. In the fiery suit of Wands, movement away from the family requires action and creative will. This Prince finds his own creative path in the vision quest, and through it he learns about the living spirit of the land so that he may awaken his own inner strength and return to become an active participant in his own community.
You, or perhaps someone close to you, may be sensing the need to connect deeply with nature so that the experience of the natural world will be an authentic part of your modern life, as it was for the native peoples in this land. You may feel that you are on a spiritual journey and that the world has a message for you in the animals, trees, and plants you see. You may have begun an actual journey in which what you learn will awaken a special sense of yourself as a real part of what you see. This is a time to pay attention to the natural world and see it as a mirror in which the truth of your spirit is seen. When the unfamiliar aspects of the natural world become a part of your inner spirit, your life will be lived as a part of the rhythm of all that surrounds you. You will experience the journey of life as a journey in which learning about yourself and about others will lead you to a fuller and richer life.

PRINCESS OF WANDS
Dancing with the Spirit of Fire
The Princess in the Tarot is the symbol of learning that takes place in young persons, allowing them to take on adult tasks and to live in the adult world. The Princess of Wands learns to use her creative spirit to attain her desires so that she may begin to help the tribe and village move forward with its creative fulfillment of needs. She uses the wand to direct her will to bring the creative energy of night and day together in the dance of life.
This Princess is about rhythm. She grows up in a culture dependent on the rhythm of the seasons and the rivers in the sub-Saharan region of West Africa. There, where water is honored and the fire of the sun is hot, the people respect the rhythms of the earth and live within them. They use ritual to connect with the natural cycle, to help them cope with its more radical changes, and to use their creative spirit to influence and change the will of the gods. Ritual also involves rhythm: the rhythm of the music and the dance that drives the will of the people to influence the gods and weather.
The rhythm of the year brings the millet to harvest, ready to be dried on its stem and then pounded into flour. Millet is a staple food of the people of this area. Grains are considered sacred the world over as a staple food crop and as one of the first plants to be grown by human beings. Agricultural ritual surrounding the planting and harvest of the grain recognizes the spirit of the god that lives within it. This is the corn god, who sacrifices himself to feed the people and whose life is seen in the seasons of the grain.
As a growing plant, the seed stem of the grain is a representative of the suit of Wands. Plants symbolize the original life force evolving from the simple mineral kingdom, and their ability to propagate a new generation is a manifestation of the energetic suit of Wands. The seed stem of the grain, its «wand,» bears the creative potential of the plant in its seeds, which are also a nurturing food and sustain the life force within the people.
The Princess recognizes the extraordinary energy of the grain that sustains the continuation of life within her own body and in her tribe. If the rhythm of planting and ritual is performed correctly, the harvest will be especially good and the life force of the people will be strong. These are the things she must learn as she grows into a woman. What is the correct time to plant? What is the time to dance for rain? How does she learn to find the right time? She learns these important things from the world around her and from the people who have already walked this path. She learns from observation and from her intuition. She creatively employs all these aspects other life to choose the time, the right time, for the dance of life.
The wand is a symbol of directed energy. The Princess directs the wand into the vessel, and from this the millet flour emerges. She is directing her will to a task in order to make something new. The pounding wand represents the masculine force; the vessel for the grain is the containing feminine energy. As the Princess turns the wand into the sky to express the power of her body, she directs her will and her creative power into the air. As she reaches for the world of air, the masculine energy of direction and force is turned loose, and the sun and sky of day are whirled into night. Recognizing the rhythm of night and day in the simple power to distinguish between them gives the Princess a power over their changes. She is unafraid. She combines the sun (as fire) and the air (as thought) and thereby ignites the spirit in her dance to gain power over night and day or combine the symbolic powers of dark (as creativity) and light (as understanding).
The Princess wears bright clothing to express her creativity and the intense life force within her. The colors of the fire of the sun and its world of the sky are in her garment. Under her dress she wears a skirt printed with the leaves of plants, symbolic of the living energy of the world of Wands. In red and green they represent the natural colors of the green and growing plant and the red of pure energy and fiery life that the plant expresses.
The Princess does her dance in the confined area of her village. A fenced-in area is symbolic of the incarnate life and of sacred space. It represents a sphere of influence and a protected area in which one can perform the work of life . The Princess has influence in her defined world, for that is the world she sees and understands. She cannot change what she does not recognize.

When the Princess is a part of your reading, it is a good time to recognize your spark of creativity and learn to develop it. The Princess lives within the natural world, and her creative output is determined by the season. In your life, perhaps it is your age that determines your creative output; young people will be building their homes and perhaps raising children, while older people may now have the time to learn something entirely new. Whatever it is, consider the time and the skills you have and live within your own natural rhythm. This is a card of physical energy, and it indicates a good time to do something that requires using your body and your enthusiasm for new learning.
You have the power and direction to move with grace and skill into the world and to have some influence over your surroundings. You could be dancing the dance of life and joyously participating in everything around you—or perhaps someone else leads you into the dance. This is also a card of fearlessness. Jump into living, direct your creative energy, and live life to the fullest.

TEN OF WANDS
Nine Flags Are United in the Flag of the Earth
The number ten is the symbol of culmination and actualization in the Tarot. It represents the goal of living and the attainment of a creative and active life as the final numbered card in the suit of Wands. Of course, the ten in no way symbolizes a final and static outcome; an ultimate spiritual objective is never finally attained because we continue to grow and develop throughout our lives. Even someone like the Dalai Lama changes, learns, and grows.
The Ten of Wands is first a card of individual patriotism and pride. Patriotism is defined as love and support of one’s country and its authority. The wand is a symbol of the power of the king, whose scepter is the emblem of his royal authority. The flag is the scepter of the country and represents the country’s unique qualities and its sovereign status. The flag, as the standard of the country, is an icon of the authority of its laws and form of government. In the Ten of Wands this «patriotism» may be for your family, friends, or even for your own work.
The word patriot is from the Greek patriotes meaning «of one’s fathers,» and symbolizes the institution of territories belonging to a people. This idea of possession of land—rather than stewardship of land that belongs to itself and to a Great Mother Goddess —arose with the patriarchal conquest of the southern part of the European continent beginning in the fifth millennium B.C.E.  After these strong and warlike people invaded the peaceful southern lands with their horses and hierarchical religious and social structure, the whole of Europe (and indeed the world) changed. Tribes defended their valuable and precious lands; they built hilltop fortifications to defend their people against invasions from the outside, and they created standing armies to fight and to defend the borders against foreign laws and foreign customs. The flag was the symbol of the fighting man; it was the standard that unified the army and helped the soldier identify his people in the chaos of the battlefield.
In the Ten of Wands the symbols of various types of governments and customs are seen rising together toward unity in the flag of the united earth. Each flag contains the history of its people, their religious beliefs, or their uniqueness against the background of the countries around them.
The flag of the United States contains its history: the red and white stripes symbolizing the thirteen original colonies and fifty stars the individual states, bound together in union on a blue field. The flag of Brazil, with its beautiful starry globe of the heavens, represents the vastness of the territory of Brazil. The celestial globe puts emphasis on the stars of the southern sky—as Brazil is a country of the Southern Hemisphere— and each star is symbolic of the 21 states and capital of Brazil. The green and gold of the background symbolize the country’s vast Amazon forests and its mineral wealth.
Each flag contains this kind of simple representative meaning but also a mystical reading. The flag itself is a symbol of victory and conquest and as such is an icon of self-assertion. Flags are placed at the tops of tall poles, showing their spiritual significance as the standard of conquest and mastery. The figure on the flag is exalted to represent its special significance as an emblem of pride and victory.
The symbolisms of these ten flags embody various truths. The flag of Zaire shows the undifferentiated flaming wand, a symbol of the principal significance of the suit of Wands. It expresses the living qualities of the animate being and the creative will of humankind. The flag of Australia with its red, white, and blue Union Jack symbolizes the red and white eight-rayed sun, with its power expressed as the red rays lined with white for clarity and brilliancy, against the deep blue sky behind it. The seven-pointed stars are symbolic of the energies of earth and heaven united as three plus four. The flag of India, with its green field representing the power of the earth, and orange the power of the sun and heavens, is united in the symbol of the turning wheel of life and time.
China’s flag has five golden stars representing the fivefold nature of the Great Goddess; the red and yellow of the flag symbolizes the sun and its warmth and power. The United States flag could symbolize the sun and moon in the red and white stripes and the pairing of opposites, and its fifty white stars could symbolize ancient colleges of priestesses (whose number was usually fifty) dedicated to a goddess or god. These priesthoods were dedicated to their temple, just as citizens of a country are bound to their land. The flag of Switzerland symbolizes the four directions and the opposites of sky and earth bound together in the horizontal and vertical elements. Red and white symbolize sun and moon together.
Brazil’s flag symbolizes the totality of the universe represented in the heavens. In this flag the green and gold represent the land and the mineral soil or the earth and the sun. The flag of Kazakhstan represents the blue sky and the sun with its emblem of the solar eagle. The border on this flag is symbolic of continuity and the repetition of the cycle of time. The flag of Israel has a six-pointed star, symbolic of the union of opposites. Each of the triangles is interlaced with the other, representing their dependence on each other.
All of these symbols serve to illuminate different ways of seeing the world and our relationship to it. They represent the unique and wonderful connection between a people and their land; they are a symbol of the landscape and the way the human habitants have lived as a part of it. For example, Kazakhstan is a high desert land and the sky is the predominate feature of the land. Israeli people are bound to their land like a man to a woman, as are the Palestinians, with whom they share it. Together the two peoples themselves personify the opposites bound together in the two triangles, who must find together a way of peace.
The tenth flag, the flag of our blue planet, which rises above the others, is the special symbol of a new level of understanding in our relation ship to the earth. It is the true flag we must unite under: the flag of our certain «matriotism.» We are the first generations of human beings to see the blue ball of our planet as one whole and undivided world, as the defining image for our time. It is the symbol of our dawning recognition of our island world as a home to all of us and of our ultimate oneness— even in the midst of our petty wars and squabbles — as we continue to hold on to our individual identities as expressed in the national flags. This flag represents our ultimate unification as individuals, tribes, nations, and earthlings.
The rising sun on the horizon behind the flags is a symbol of the rising surge of pride we feel when we accomplish something. Sunrise is symbolic of awakening and therefore represents our awakening to a new understanding of the world and a rising to a new level of vision and clarity about our place in the natural world.

When this card is a part of your reading, think about some of the things you are patriotic about or proud of. How would you describe your relationship to your family and home? What about your place of work or the beauty of the landscape or city you live in? Are you proud of them or do you have special bonded feelings toward them? How do you express your feelings about them? When you are proud of your child, do you arrogantly compare his work to the work of another, or do you simply express pride in your child^s work as an expression of his own accomplishments? Whenever you are so proud of your work that you want to run up the flag so people notice you, watch that you do not send out the army to put down the work of others.
We need to establish a new relationship to pride and victory that allows us to claim our own power but does not crush the strength of others in the process. We cannot make ourselves better at the expense of others. Only when we compete against ourselves to learn to do better than we have done before, and encourage others to do the same without humiliating comparisons, will we make the world a place without hatred. For it is in our desire to elevate ourselves that we put the other down.
Find something of your very own to be proud of, and claim a victory in the accomplishment of difficult new things. Respect your own creative output by saying encouraging things about your handiwork. Do not put yourself down, or put others down to make yourself look better. Develop power within yourself rather than power over others.
Having honest pride in our own work will help us to see the work and talents of others without jealousy Doing this will allow us all to use our many skills together to make real and tangible improvements in the world. Working together, we become as one world under the flag of the blue earth. When whole countries discover the ability to stop comparing what they do and have with what others do and have, we may have the ability to reach out without jealousy, hatred, and bad intent to other countries in order to help build a more perfect, beautiful, united world— a world in which our unique strengths are recognized but in which we all acknowledge our ultimate responsibility to the earth.
This card impels you to discover how you might join together with others to create something you may all be proud of together. The individual flags represent the creative pride of the self, whereas the flag of earth shows the ultimate discovery that the rewards of community creativity will enhance our lives and change the future.

NINE OF WANDS
Ancient Petroglyphs and Aboriginal Didjeridus of the Dreamtime
The original inhabitants of ancient Australia probably traveled there from Indonesia at least 50,000 years ago. The culture of the Aborigines is the oldest continuous culture in the world. The people of this separated continent tell ancient tales of its divergence from the rest of the world and of the unusual animals and plants that evolved to fill the niches of this separate and unique land. Isolated from the rest of the world, it still grew rich with its own forms of life, from the strangeness of the platypus to the ancient beauty of its flower forms.
In this land live a tribal people, the Aborigines, whose ancient connections to the spirit of the land is especially deep. In their Dreamtime stories, one may glimpse their spiritual connections through the sacred sites and animals that carry their history and their future. The Dreaming stories tell of the ancient creation of the world by ancestor spirits and of the responsibility of humankind to care for the created world and preserve it. The Dreamtime is the connective power of the universe, which keeps the natural world in balance, and also the ancient time before tribal memory when the world and its people were formed. In this ancient time we were all part of the same creative spark, so the Dreamtime is what joins all of the universe together and binds us to one another. During ritual, in which these great creation myths are acted out, the people become one with their ancient past and so inhabit the Dreamtime and keep the natural world in balance.
The Dreaming stories that involve the didjeridu tell of its creation in the ancient past. In one story, the didjeridu was inspired by the penis of a malicious giant who was killed by hunters after searching for the two beautiful girls he had kidnapped to be his wives. As he lay dying he curled up like a spiny anteater and blew on his penis, creating an amazing sound. The hunters liked the sound and tried to imitate it but couldn’t. They then found a log that had been hollowed out by white ants (termites) and made the first didjeridu.
According to another story, three men were out camping on a cold night. The fire was going out, and as one man reached behind him to get a new log he noticed how light the wood was. Looking at it more closely, he discovered that it was covered with termites. Not wanting to kill the little insects, he carefully gathered them up, placed them in the hollow log, and blew them out and into the sky, where they became the stars. As he blew he made an intense and pleasing droning sound, creating the didjeridu.
The hunter Yidaki was also said to be the creator of the instrument, and like the man in the story above he discovered the power of the hollow log when he tried to blow the termites out of a branch he had found. He taught his people to make the didjeridu, and when he died his spirit lived on in the instrument.
The didjeridu has always been connected strongly with masculine fertility and power. It was an obvious phallic symbol, and in many places in Australia, a woman may not play it. If a woman does play a didjeridu she will give birth to twins — an unlucky chance in this hunter-gatherer society. Even here, in its traditional restrictions, the instrument shows its fertile power.
Through its long, serpentine form the didjeridu has also been linked to one of the Aborigines5 most powerful and important creator ancestors. Yurlunggur was the Rainbow Serpent, who created the riverbeds as he moved across the landscape, and in important ceremonies he is represented as an especially long (2.5-meter) didjeridu. The riverbed formed by Rainbow Serpent is hinted at in this card by the cliffside on which ancient ancestress spirits are remembered in painted rock art. In the Nine of Wands the riverbed is a symbol of the continuity of the Dreaming and its constant flowing movement through life.
The didjeridus in the Nine of Wands are painted with the spirits of the Dreaming. Particular animals were the spirit dreamings of individual people, and their personal relationship with this animal was special. Aboriginal laws and traditions prescribed precise ceremonies and practices for every circumstance. People looked after the animals of their dreaming and could not eat certain animals because of these prohibitions. In this way the ecological balance of the land was looked after by the people who lived within it. These people knew that their existence depended on the harmony of the Dreamtime connections and the interweaving of all life.
Paintings were made using the red and yellow ochers of the earth, black charcoal, and white kaolin. These were mixed with resins from plants, egg yolk, or wax and then painted onto the rock, the didjeridu, or the human body with twigs and brushes made of human hair. Each color held special significance to the people; for example, red became the blood of the ancestors, and white—the color of death and rebirth representing the fertility of the male—was the color used as body paint in circumcision rituals. Painting was considered an especially spiritual activity that connected humans with their land, the past with the future, and the earthly with the supernatural—in short, an activity of the Dreaming.
In the card the termite mound is a symbol of the entire universe, for in its dark interior are the white insects that became the stars of the nighttime sky in Aboriginal legend. It was the termites, as a part of ancient nature, that truly created the didjeridu as they ate out the branches of the stringybark tree and created the hollow vessel of the drone pipe. Termites are a symbol of decomposition, death, and eventual rebirth, especially in the northern part of Australia, where there are no earthworms. Like maggots, which eat animal corpses, the ghostly white termites work away on the plant kingdom’s dead, recycling the nutrients to the soil for a new generation of trees and grass. The termite mound was also a phallic symbol, emerging from the general flatness of the Australian landscape. The termites signaled their potent fertility in the strength and height of their homes.
In North Australia there are generally two recognized seasons: dry and wet. The Aboriginal inhabitants recognized six seasons of subtle changes and used these changes to know when a particular food would be available. They burned off the brush so that the bright green grass would grow rich again when the rains came. The fire enriched the land by bringing special fertility and potency to the next generation of plant life, in turn feeding the animals upon it.
The kangaroo seems to us the symbol of Australia and its strange marsupial population. Their odd gait and their long thick tails and body outline are a virtual stand-in for «Australian.» Kangaroos and wallabies begin life as tiny bean-sized babies, and some species grow seven feet tall. They are therefore the expression of dynamic growth and change in the stable landscape. Kangaroos use their heavy tails for balance and because of them cannot move backward but must always move ahead into the world of the future. They symbolize the delicate balance of life and the true nature of time, always progressing into tomorrow. Aboriginal people respect the kangaroo and appreciate it as a source of nourishing food.
Hiding in the foreground, a frilled lizard reminds us to respect the natural law. In Aboriginal legend this beast was given his peculiar appearance for disobeying the complex customs, rituals, and traditions of the land. He opens his mouth to speak to us about the cycles, rhythms, and balance necessary in the environment and suggests to us that we may be punished by the natural world for our foolishness within it.

For those of us in the north and west, this is a card of a foreign world. It represents coming to understand something particularly important (as is the spiritual teaching of the Aborigines) that at first seems to be completely outside our experience and beyond our awareness. It may represent a journey into something you have never done in which you will find connections you never knew were there.
More generally, the card is the symbol of the spiritual bonds we feel through deeply moving experience as embodied in the otherworldly music of the didjeridu. It is the living spiritual message we get from dreams and from the deep places of the unconscious, symbolized by the cliff and the drop into the canyon that is painted with symbols from the Dreamtime. These dark places are also symbolized by the termite, who crawls into the dark wood and transforms it into something new and magical. The termite is also the symbol of a special kind of creativity; it shows us that when we work together in a creative way we will become a potent force and contribute to the future through our actions.
The Nine of Wands represents ardent, effective power in the realm of creativity and spiritual growth, possibly through the intensity of ritual. You may have now, or will discover soon, an ability to sense the deepest possible connections between people—even people who are very different from yourself. You may feel this bond through a creative act, just as painting connects an Aborigine to the Dreamtime. Because you are in touch with this deeply spiritual energy that connects us all, you feel the responsibility to keep the world in balance through your actions as the Aboriginal law requires. You grasp the importance of the delicate balance and the web of connection in nature, and you recognize the importance of these truths to our future.

EIGHT OF WANDS
Tools of the: Artist Bring the Painting to Life
Eight, the number of solar increase and the number of reduplication (two times two times two), symbolizes expansion and growth. The solar wheel has eight spokes to represent the radiation of heat and light from the sun and the increase of growth on the earth . The warmth of the sun brings crops to productivity, and its growing light brings increase to the herd.
The solar wheel represents the stations of the year: the solstices, the equinoxes, and the cross-quarter days halfway between them — Brigid, May Day (Beltane), Lamass (Lughnasad), and Halloween. The repeating progress of the seasons is illustrated in the turning color wheel, which represents the apparent path of the sun through the year. The cycle of colors is analogous to the seasonal changes, which show their effects in the color of the landscape. The execution and painting of the emblematic wheel indicates human awareness of the changes of the earth and its similarity to the changes that take place in us as we travel the solar road around and around. When we are able to understand the passage of time, we understand the final consequences of the turning wheel: aging and eventual death. This allows us to take advantage of the warm moment called life and to appreciate our individual experience. We also come to understand the outcomes of our own actions as an example of the turning wheel of time. We begin to take responsibility for what we do, connecting events of the past with the present and the future.
The act of first drawing and then painting the fiery wheel implies the act of creation itself. The template illustrates the order and geometry involved in the layout of the work. This is a symbol of planning, ideas, and the mobilization of the idea gained in the suit of Swords. The idea is first developed in the realm of thought; then it moves to the sphere of feeling and into the suit of Wands as human action. The circle of the template and the illustrated wheel represent the self because the circle is a symbol of wholeness and indivisibility. In astrology, for example, the round wheel of the chart symbolizes the whole person as the round sun placed within it is the symbol of the ego-self. Each of us embodies the archetypal solar king and victor when we use our will to act on our ideas and create change in our lives and in the world. This natural creative impulse is symbolized by the pencils and paintbrushes in the Eight of Wands. Just as God was said to have created us in his image, we continue to awaken our ideas through active participation and new inspiration.
The wand itself is a symbol of directed power and symbolizes the force of will. The scepter of the king is a symbol of his power to alter the path of the future and to impose his will on others. The rod of the king or god signifies his life force and vitality. It is the tool that directs the transmission of his phallic fertility to the land under his dominion, just as the paintbrush transfers paint to the paper to transform it. The directed will of creativity is an attribute of the suit of Wands. The connection between Wands and the sun is quite clear; Wands is associated with fire and with the south where the sun attains its exalted daily height.

When the Eight of Wands appears in your reading, it symbolizes the creative power of the sun and the directed force of the sun’s heat and light. You are able to take control and to create for yourself a future. You are able to see and plan for what is to happen because you grasp the concept of the turning solar wheel and understand the consequences of individual actions. You understand the changing seasons and the analogy of the seasonal change to work and life. Spring is a time of growth and expansion, summer a time for fruitfulness, autumn a time to harvest and then pull back and winter a time to plan for the return of spring. In all things we make and do, these seasons are evident. Planning for these phases of our work and energy helps us secure a positive outcome. For example, we must not make a plan that requires us to sustain endless spring-type energy without seeing a fruitful outcome. We often end up feeling frustrated and inadequate when we do not work within the natural rhythms of creative energy.
This is an excellent time to form and implement a plan for the future, as it is a symbol of idea transformed into action. As the painter of the solar wheel first draws the lines in pencil, using tools of the artist’s trade—rulers and templates—you must form your plan with confidence and use the tools of your trade. For instance, if you are looking for employment, perhaps you should create a perfect resume as a tool to find the right job. Having and using the right tools assures that the outcome will be as you desire. Like the king who directs his will and the painter who directs his brush, you must direct your life, take responsibility, and secure your future through the power of creative understanding.

SEVEN OF WANDS
A Juggler’s Wands Fall Below Exploding Fireworks
A juggler is symbolic of a trickster or clown. He is the fool or jester who is able to mislead people into seeing and believing what he wants them to see and believe. He distracts you from the illusion and calls your focus to another action in order to deceive you. We speak of «juggling figures» in a ledger to indicate deception. Usually a juggler is an expert, and through his expertise he is able to entertain and to deceive the eye. We also speak of juggling as an ability to manage many things at
once, as in «he juggles two careers and his Little League coaching.» The Seven of Wands shows only the objects being juggled in the air above the juggler. They are symbolic of the separate and distinct parts of one’s life and especially the creative aspects of these endeavors. The card also represents the ability to use deception in order to maintain an illusion. The implication is that in order to hold all the parts of a complicated life together, we deceive ourselves and others by focusing elsewhere, on simpler things, when we are trying to hide the illusion and deception in a confusing part of our lives.
Each of the wands’ handles is a different color, symbolizing that though the varied parts of life are very different from one another, the skills required in the performance of these things is analogous. The fire that emanates from the wands, symbolizing the energy we use in action, is blown different ways depending on the way the wand falls. This represents the many kinds of energy expended in the tasks of living, and also the ability to feel the movement in the goal or task, and to predict, in a sense, the outcome, just as the juggler senses the falling wand in order to catch it.
The roller coaster and the carnival rides symbolize fun, fear, and the many different patterns our lives may follow. We have all felt as if our lives were roller coasters when we have had high moments followed by extreme lows. The carousel is symbolic of a different pattern, when life is a series of repetitions and we follow a marked pattern that is repeated in daily or weekly cycles. This card reminds us that in all these situations it is our ability to juggle the various aspects of our lives that keep the wands in the air and in movement. This means that creativity is the available resource that will make the life on the roller coaster work, and it is creativity that brings interest to the life of repetition and regularity.
Above this scene are the awesome fireworks of a celebration. Invented in China about a thousand years ago, fireworks are a bundle of chemical powders of differing types with a charge of gunpowder. This invention, which was uniquely Chinese, has now become a universal expression of festivity. It has traveled the world and represents the ability to learn from others and to transfer our creative knowledge. Fireworks are both stunningly beautiful and very noisy. The sound calls our attention to the sky, making us look up into the heavens. We see there the fire of our own creative spirit in the fire flowers of the fireworks5 colorful glow. The most common pattern in fireworks is the chrysanthemum, a flower that symbolizes royalty. Flowers themselves are a symbol of the suit of Wands because of their bright colors and because they express the plant’s creative future in the form of seeds.
Because the colors in fireworks derive from an understanding of chemistry, fireworks represent creative invention and experimentation. They are a symbol of the creative impulse inside us that moves us to achieve ever more impressive results. Just as a flower calls attention to itself, the fiery explosions represent bragging, pride, and the need to call attention to ourselves through our most colorful ways of expression.
Perhaps we use this to distract ourselves from the parts of life where we have less confidence.

To interpret this card in a reading, look at the separate parts of your life: your job and social life and your relationships at home. Notice the value that you place on each of these parts of your life. Perhaps you are avoiding difficult issues in your home life by focusing intensely on the big pile of work at the office, evading the more personal troubles of your primary relationships. Perhaps you do this by diverting everyone’s attention to the responsibilities of your work situation, thereby increasing its importance in the eyes of those around you. Or, you may avoid your responsibilities to the outside world, retreating to the simple repetitive tasks of life at home. In order to feel completely alive, we must find a way to juggle these different parts of life. This requires a real focus on the present, on living in the moment. If you get too far ahead and think about the wands that remain in the air, you may not catch the next one. This style of living requires creativity and a special kind of movement and grace— qualities that are suggested by the fiery suit of Wands. The needed elements are a passion for life and a strong spirit that can focus easily on the here and now. In essence, this means having fun and valuing every experience as a part of the journey called life.
Another aspect of the Seven of Wands is the childlike effort we all make to call attention to our accomplishments. When this card is a part of your reading, it is important to give yourself great credit and praise for the things you admire in yourself and in others. As humans we all need acknowledgment for our efforts. This encourages us to help, love, and respect each other and the many great and simple things we do that foster deep connections between us.

SIX OF WANDS
The Maze of a Refinery Against a Dramatic Sky
The disturbing image of the oil refinery has a place in the modern world, and the symbols we use should incorporate some of our modern necessities. The refinery represents, at some level, the ancient alchemical process of turning lead to gold. We pull the crude oil out of the ground and through many complex steps make it into a precious resource. Even the equipment reminds us of the retorts and vessels of the alchemical laboratory. The process can represent the journey into the soul to find there dark material that we bring into the light, thereby turning lead (the symbol of Saturn) into gold (the symbol of the sun). Each complex part of the process, with its own set of axioms, describes a part of the journey toward wholeness. The oil is dark, black, and sticky; it is found underground or even under the ocean; it becomes a symbol for the digging we do to understand our inner selves and for what we find there. Bringing it to the surface takes time and requires delicate extracting procedures. When we have retrieved the sticky oil from deep within, we must then refine it. In psychological terms, we must try to see in the «oil» the pieces of our inner puzzles, the things we have buried in our psyches
that return to haunt us or to fire our creative process. Just like the fossils in fossil fuel, these things are buried, but instead of going away they change and remain deep within us.
But what are the results of the refining process? We get the precious oil and gas that fuel our culture and allow us to speed through our lives as if we were running from the inner fears we released. When the oil is refined we are careless and let the less valuable parts escape into the environment without examining the negative effects of our actions. Just as we do this in the physical realm, we do it in our spiritual quest as well. We dig within, find the parts we can deal with easily, use them as creative energy, and then run from the rest. We end up releasing anger and all sorts of other demons, often directing them at the wrong people and hurting them and ourselves in the process, just as we hurt the earth in the refining process. This card reminds us of the responsibility we bear when we make the commitment to take the journey toward wholeness.
Our wanton use of the world’s resources looks dark and dirty in comparison with the display of energy that the sun and earth create in the northern lights above the refinery. This is the pure energy of being in tune with the world and living as a part of it. When we as a species can resolve some of our internal problems, our ability to tap into cleaner resources—such as the pure energy of the sun—will come to us more naturally. It is because, in our narrow vision, we cannot see that our actions affect the whole of the earth that we continue to pollute it. As a culture, we believe that our minds and souls are separate from our bodies; therefore, we fail to see the connections between ourselves and our planet. Humanity has become the noble mind, and the earth is our base body, which we continually try to sublimate to the wishes of the higher mind.

When this card is a part of a reading, it is time to actively examine your own psychological journey. It is a warning that some darkness of the inner psyche threatens you on the path ahead. Oil is thick and sticky and is the fossil remains of the dimly lit past. You gain power and energy and creative expression through clear examination of your past experiences, but you must be sure to approach this analysis of what has gone before with grace. To avoid negative consequences, you must be truly open and honest in what you will be dealing with in order to assimilate the dark and creative energy from deep within. What we fear in the dark is only what we do not know and cannot see. Remember that we do not gain wholeness without the journey into the darkness, but the work is difficult and full of responsibility. The refinery is a complex maze of passages and pipelines, and you must enter it and find your way.
The card speaks of vast wells of driving energy, which you may use to fire your creativity; it only reminds you that you must be careful what you make with your new-found energy. This may be a time in which you have the drive for accomplishment but waste it in ineffectual ways. Or you may be involved in large projects that do create some positive results but also have some limiting restrictions like the deleterious effects of the refining process. While your creative process is clearly firing you, it may be creating ill will with friends and family because of your attitudes, methods, or timing.
Six is a number of action; the action required now is to use your internal energy, like oil in the earth, to move forward on the personal journey. If you do this with grace, you will achieve a measure of wholeness. You will find it easier to live in tune with the earth and find that you have more energy, will, and spirit to accomplish further goals.

FIVE OF WANDS
Candles Burn on the Altar Honoring the Directions
Five is the number of the ancient Goddess, as she is the goddess of womenkind whose five phases of life she honors. Women’s lives can be divided into five parts that recognize the changes a baby girl goes through during her life: birth, menarche, motherhood, menopause, and death. The five-pointed star is the ancient symbol of human life, as our form, with legs and arms outstretched, mirrors its five points.
Today, worship of the beautiful and terrible Goddess is returning through small circles of women and men who meet to honor nature and to help us find our place within it through ritual. The altar (from the Latin altus, meaning «high») is set to help us remember and recognize our boundaries on the earth. We place four candles on the altar in acknowledgment of the four directions that define these boundaries. This represents the complete circle of life all around us and acknowledges the wide variation in the manifest Goddess Earth.
The four directions are illuminated by candles of different colors, which symbolize the qualities of the directions. The colors represent the astrological fixed signs. Because these signs occur in the middle of their respective seasons, effectively anchored there by the cardinal sign that begins the season and the mutable sign that ends it, each represents the unchangeable qualities of the season and element.
In the east is the blue candle representing the element air, the Tarot suit of Swords, the season of spring, the sun’s rising, and the fixed sign Aquarius. The south is represented by the golden candle of the element fire, the suit of Wands, summer, the sun at noon, and the sign Leo. The red candle of the west symbolizes the element water (the color of blood as the water of the human body), the suit of Cups, autumn, sunset, and the sign Scorpio. The green candle of the north symbolizes the earth element, the suit of Disks, winter, midnight, and the sign of Taurus. The fifth candle, in the middle of the altar, is white, the combination of all colors, representing the unity of all things.
Candles are a symbol of ritual the world over. Their faint and enchanting light adds an aura of mystery to any room. The candle is light filling darkness, an emblem of the power of the sun to shed its light on life. It represents illumination and the brightness of new insight. The candle embodies the human life and spirit, its light spark burning down to nothing as the life force is extinguished.
Directly under the candles are four ribbons running from north to south and from east to west. These are in the colors of the four tribes of humankind: black and white in the south and north; red and yellow in the west and east. This symbol of human diversity meets in the center of the circle to represent the ultimate unity of humanity. The ribbons trail off outside the altar, forming the clockwise (deosil) swastika, which was an ancient solar emblem. If you look carefully into the card you will see there the human shape outlined in stars, showing its fivefold nature.
The altar cloth is blue and white to represent the planet earth with its swirling cloud cover. The spiral form of the white clouds symbolizes our journey from birth to death and back again into life. Many ancient shrines are decorated with spirals on doors and gateways, symbolizing that the temple was the gate to a different world, a world of ritual. Modern witches similarly use the incantation «We are between the worlds, beyond the bounds of time»  to create the sacred space for their rituals. The golden fringe represents the rays of the sun, its warmth and life-giving light that we live in. The sun and earth together represent the united opposites that create life. The sun is the symbol of fire and air, the masculine elements of the sky which are the complements of water and earth, the feminine elements of our planet.
As this card is a part of the suit of Wands, the candle of the element fire is placed in the foreground and is honored with the branches of the laurel tree, which was used to make the victor’s crown in ancient competitions. It is symbolic of strength, leadership, and power—all qualities associated with the suit of Wands.

The Five of Wands is a card of ritual. Think about the rituals in your life and respect them. Formalize these rituals and use them to grow. Consider what ritual is. Ritual helps us experience life more fully. We create a safe space in which to let go of conventions, sing, be silly, act and cry, and through this we can find new power and recognize our strengths. Ritual gives us a way to communicate with the unconscious because it will hear and see the ritual form and learn from it. Rituals are a way to acknowledge the family, the past, and our traditions, which help us understand the passage of time and our role in it. In ritual we learn to align our simple human selves with everything that is beyond us. This gives us the inner power to change ourselves and to work for positive change in the world.
Find a way to use ritual to connect with everything that seems outside and foreign to you now. Find parts of yourself in each of the four directions, possibly by writing about them and how the element or season affects you. Then stand at the center of your writings and imagine them all combined within you. You exist at the center of the ritual wheel defining the directions and elements in your life, just as the white candle stands at the center of the altar. See this as your power; use it to grow beyond the bounds of your present circumstances. Find a ritual space and use it to achieve your goals.

FOUR OF WANDS
The Ba Bird Flies Above a Sacrificial Fire Amidst Temple Obelisks
The number four signifies completion and is symbolic of endings. It represents the result of the first Magical Triangle symbolized by the first three numbers in the Tarot, one being the self, two the not-self, three the action uniting them, and four the ultimate result. Four is the number of death and of finality because the eventual result of living is always death. Four is symbolic of order and culmination, exemplified in the fact that so many things are complete as groups of four: the four seasons, the four directions, the four suits of Tarot, and the four elements. Four takes the form of the square, which symbolizes the ordered world, the foundation of the visible world of the ancient Earth Goddess and the completeness of her creative act.
In the Four of Wands the Egyptian Ba bird symbolizes the soul, freed from the body at death and able to wander the earth. In Egyptian mythology the Ba was one of several parts of the individual. It embodied the person’s physical vitality, which left the living body at death. In the tombs of the wealthy the Ba was provided with passages through which it could fly to escape the darkness of the tomb and to explore the world, often returning to home, family, and former life, though invisible to the living.
In many ancient and modern religions the bird is a symbol for the soul. A bird’s ability to take to the skies and to fly through the air gives it an otherworldly quality. The air, as the thinnest of the four ancient elements, is a symbol of what is beyond life and represents the mythical land of Heaven, where angels with birdlike wings sit on clouds playing harps. In Christian mythology the Holy Spirit, one of the three persons of God, was portrayed in art as a dove. The bird is also frequently seen as a messenger of God and has the ability to connect Heaven and earth. The Ba is an example of such a symbol; as the spirit of the dead that can explore the land of the living, the Ba connects death with life. In this way the Ba bird represents the completion of the number four. The Ba becomes the result of the connective principle that links the world of the physically vital, symbolized by the wand, to the silent land of the dead.
The obelisk was said to be the phallus of the earth god Geb, who reached into Heaven to impregnate Nut, the sky goddess . From these obelisks you can see Geb’s semen streaming upward and creating the stars through his union with Nut. The pillar unites Heaven and earth, by extending from earth into the sky, and also divides them, holding the sky above the earth so that we may recognize their individuality. The pillar represents the active principle (three), which joins the two opposites (one and two) in the Magical Triangle and symbolizes the appearance of the issue of their cosmic union, symbolized here by the Ba. Four pillars were said to represent the cardinal points and symbolize the boundaries of the earth and the solid, visible manifestation of the world. The obelisk is a four-sided pillar and therefore doubly represents the world in its entirety.
The straight road on which the obelisks stand represents creative, determinate masculine power, as opposed to the circular infinite power of the feminine. It is a symbol of direction and movement toward a known goal, here represented as a temple, which stands behind us as we look toward these obelisks. The four-sided paving stones of the road represent a microcosm of the four-cornered world. They also symbolize the individual and his or her place in the natural order, as well as a part of the common direction of the decisions of humankind, which propel us on the road of time.
The altar on which the sacred fire eternally burns is the symbol of the undying creativity of the universe and its ability to constantly make new forms that carry the power of the creative Goddess within them. In many ancient cultures the sacred fire was kindled and allowed to burn for a year, then ritually extinguished and lit again. The newly kindled fire was the symbol of the sun’s rebirth at the midwinter festival. It represented the undying power of the sun to return again to its glory in the central vault of the sky, where, like the Ba, it will be able to see all that transpires on the earth.

When this card appears in a reading, it symbolizes a creative completion and ending that can give you a new perspective. The ending of this part of your life, which manifests in the completion of the physical or creative task at hand, has given you the ability, like the Ba, to transcend the normal, simple way of seeing the world and get a broader perspective. It is a moment of revelation, and through your ability to finish this creative task you are given a chance for growth and change through the ability to see yourself from this new perspective. Look carefully at your own creative projects; perhaps through them you are given the ability to see the world anew, just as art itself provides a new way to see the world. In your new perspective, you will be able to see elements that will fuel a new creativity and a new sense of physical being, vitality, and growth. These new elements, symbolized by the four obelisks—will be the source of new energy, and like Geb’s semen will result in new and rising creative impulses.
This card also calls on you to examine how your completed creative act contributes to the structure of your community and world. Like the road of paving stones, each of us forms a part of the structure of community, and we contribute our part through the fertility of our own creative spirit. Like the Ba bird, we have been freed in order to gain a new perspective on the creative process and to see our place in the formation of community.

THREE OF WANDS
A Fire Burns Electric Guitars
Electricity is a fundamental force of nature. It is powerful and magical. Its force holds matter together. Our word electricity comes from the Greek word elektron meaning «amber,» which exhibits the peculiar quality of static electricity when rubbed with a cloth, attracting feathers and thread. Because we see the results of electricity but cannot see the actual electric current, it seems — even to us — quite magical. Most people do not really understand its action, and yet they use electricity every day. Electricity, in its most basic form, has to do with the attractive forces inside the atom, which is the fundamental building block of nature. The elementary particles of electricity are the positively charged proton and the negatively charged electron. The atom is held together by the attraction between them. We use electricity when it is in a moving form called electrical current, which is the movement of the electron along pathways drawn by the completion of an electric circuit, and a force to push the electrons.
The magic of electricity has to do with the relation between the two charged particles of matter. Friction between opposites is the creative force in nature. Electricity is an example of this creative power in the friction of opposites; another example is the important relation of electricity to magnetism. Every form of radiation, from light to radio and x-rays, is created through the interplay of electricity and magnetism, so we call the various forms of radiation electromagnetic.
This card is about the power and creative potential of electricity. Today we use electricity to accomplish many tasks: it powers the lamp we use to extend the day, and allows us to hear the voices of people in faraway places through radio. It is also the power that amplifies the sound from a guitar. The loud sound of the electric guitar represents the power of individual creativity. Its noise demands our immediate attention and participation; it calls us to the dance.
The electric guitar is the instrument of a new generation and a symbol of modern times, of freedom and individuality. It exemplifies the creative potential of electricity and the power it has given us. This power represents adolescence and the energy we feel in this part of our lives. We are moving away from the home and the family but rely on the support we receive from our parents. This is our adolescence as a species: we move away from the natural cycles of the earth, extending the day far into the night through the power of electric light. We now use the power of electricity, which is an elemental force of nature, to move us away from our childhood on the earth. We feel powerful through the use of this force, like the adolescent child who has left home feeling that he has been given control of his life with the skills he learned in childhood and from his parents. We must still rely on the skills of our early years on the planet; yet, we now move away from its simple rhythms and harness its powers toward our own goals.

This card, when it appears in a reading, symbolizes the power to grow and change through the power of your own will. Perhaps the elements in the card indicate a need for this kind of powerful change and growth, or the card could represent the way you are acting in a particular situation. This card is symbolic of the feeling of strength, independence, and certainty we feel in our adolescence. It represents many aspects of these difficult years — years in which we may be defiant and reject the traditional ways of doing things.
This card indicates a kind of electrical power—a power that is noticed and cannot be ignored. This is the creative and inventive part of the Three of Wands. It indicates a time in which creative energy is powerful and stirs you to movement—a movement that leads away from traditional slower, quieter ways of doing things. This is a card of ample power and of creativity, power that denies death and focuses only on the moment. When this card comes up in your reading, try to look beyond the moment to see the consequences of the forceful power you feel. The personal goal is to use your creative power in ways that enhance your own life and the lives of others. The larger goal is to harness the energy of your creativity and then find a way to move on to adulthood, in which you can use the useful power of the electromagnetic spectrum in ways that are healthy for you and for the planet earth.

TWO OF WANDS
Saalamanders Travel Over Fallen Autumn Leaves
Wands is the suit of fire and is associated with the vital spirit and therefore with the spark of life that animates living things. The Latin word anima, from which we derive both the words animal and animate, means soul or spirit and can mean courage and high spirits. The suit of fire represents the qualities of movement, vitality, and creativity.
Primitive living things such as these salamanders—who are without the capacity for complex feeling (Cups) and thinking (Swords)—are connected with the power of fire because the spirit and the breath of life is within them. Their little bodies (Disks) have been made more than the simple lump of matter by something that is difficult to define and to describe. They are animate beings whose capacity for movement is the obvious sign of the dynamic life force within them.
In ancient times salamanders were thought to be born in fire. In fact, the class of elemental spirits ruled by the element fire is called salamanders. Perhaps this legend exists because salamanders made their homes in firewood and when the wood was kindled an occasional salamander crawled out to escape the blaze. Or perhaps it was because salamanders are often seen in the autumn, when the bright fire-colored leaves fall to earth, and the ancient people who saw them were reminded of the orange and yellow flames of the hearth. To us, the idea of salamanders born out of fire seems an odd contradiction; it is a puzzling contrast to their true nature as water creatures. In this way the salamander and the fiery leaves of fall symbolize the duality inherent in the number two. The Two of Wands is a symbol of the division and opposition of fire and water.
The interplay of opposites, as we have seen in the Two of Disks, is the beginning place of new creation. Here, in the suit of Wands, it is an interplay of the spirit of living things. The active interplay of fire and water creates steam, which is a symbol of the transcendence of the spirit. Steam is an ethereal form of water; it has transcended its need for a container to hold it just as the spirit of the living creature can transcend the body to directly experience the life force it shares with others. This is the spirit in which primitive creatures live. They cannot experience their own individuality, but the instinctual vitality of their kind runs through them. As humans we yearn for this experience: to join with another and in interplay to lose ourselves in the experience of unity. When this rare gift comes to us we call it a spiritual experience.
The dark color of these newts is symbolic of the earth they have evolved from. Their bright bellies, which are fiery orange, symbolize the vital energy and their intimate connection with the fiery suit. They combine in their tiny bodies the two first suits and are symbolic of the development of the suit of Disks into Wands. Animals represent potent creativity—one of the primary meanings of Wands—because unlike the mineral world, they actively complete the sexual act, which biologically expresses the fundamental creativity of life. When an animal recreates its own kind it performs the act through its own urgency to fulfill the pro-creative needs of the animal world.
Behind the autumn leaves, instead of the dark earth, is the starry sky. In very ancient times the stars were thought to be the hearth fires of the spirits in their world beyond the sky. The earth was the final resting place of most ancient people, whose eventual bed was a hole in the darkness of the soil. The nutrients released by the decomposition of the flesh was the source of the rich green life of the plants that grow above the burial pit. The spark of new life, symbolized by the stars, represents the spirits of the dead that speak to us about life. The stars symbolize the seeds of the grasses and other plants that will be born in the spring through the decomposition of leaves that cover and protect them in the soil. Or, perhaps they symbolize the spirit essence of living beings, as the ancients believed. Their multiplicity symbolizes the variety of paths and unique ways of being in the dance of the spirit.
The autumn leaves symbolize the spirit of life as it returns to the earth, from which the vital power originally flowed into the trees. Trees were widely worshiped all over the ancient world for their long life and strength. The living spirit of the great forests of ancient Europe permeated the lives of the ancients. The trees were symbolic of their forest God, who was the lover of the Great Earth Goddess, from whom all life flowed. His life force was manifested in the trees and was especially recognized as the long straight trunks—symbolic of the God’s mighty phallus—and the leaves, his semen. As the leaves fell back to the ground they provided the needed spark for the fertile earth. The autumn leaves also imply a return to the inner life, just as people return to the home when the cold weather and long nights advance, and the sun retreats to its winter path.

In interpretation, this card symbolizes growth of the spirit and its yearning for unification with its opposite and with others of its kind. We often need to connect with that which is different from ourselves to grow and to change. The steam that arises from the combination of fire and water is symbolic of the action that joins opposing forces. This is the development the Two of Wands suggests; that the interaction of opposites will lead to a higher order and a higher level of development. The fallen and fertile leaves may suggest that in order for the spark of this new development to take, something must be let go. The meeting of opposites in compromise may be the beginning of unity.
The Two of Wands implies traveling — or journeying — of the spirit, as the salamander travels toward the water when autumn arrives. It may be an inner journey because in the fall, when the leaves are bright and fiery, we turn toward the hearth and the home for the nurturing and growth of the spirit. This card is about that kind of growth and change. When we set out on a journey of the spirit, we turn inward first and then reach out to our loved ones, with whom we have experienced an inner merging.

ACE OF WANDS
The Ribbons of the Maypole Are Ready for the Dance
The maypole is the descendant of an ancient nature-based religion in which tree spirits were believed to have fantastic powers. The trees carried the energy of the green earth skyward to their branches and returned the energy of the sun and sky into the soil through their roots. They were the symbol of the relationship between the Goddess and her virile forest God partner. These ancient forests of Europe, represented at the base of the maypole, covered vast tracts of the land. The people lived in among these great woods and used the trees as building materials and in some cases as medicines. The trees were the oldest living things to be seen in the natural world and they were seemingly unchanging through season after season, losing leaves and regrowing them in an endless cycle. The trees of the forest embodied the tribe’s aspirations for long life and continuity. The old European pagans worshiped their nature gods in the sacred groves because they felt the ongoing fertile spirit of the earth in the midst of the ancient forest. The destruction of the sacred groves by the Christian priesthood did a great deal to destroy these ancient religions.
The ritual of the medieval maypole was symbolically linked to the fertile principle of the forest God. A young sapling full of the fertile energy of the green woods was chosen and cut. The maypole was brought into the center of the village and decorated by young maidens with flowers and greenery. Ribbons were attached, and people intertwined the ribbons around the pole in the maypole dance. In the traditional dance, young women took the ribbons that moved widdershins (counterclockwise), and young men facing them moved deosil (clockwise). The dance was a visual reminder of the fertility of spring, symbolizing the favorite part of the May Eve or May Day ritual: the «mad merry marriages under the greenwood tree.»  These marriages were celebrated by a night spent in the wood with a chosen partner, celebrating the gift of pleasure given by the forest God and his Goddess lover. May is the fertile time of the year, when flowers bloom in field and tree, birds sing their songs of love, and the fertile time of small animals is awakened. Because human beings are a part of the natural world and imbued with its rhythms, we are also drawn together in «spring fever.» The ritual of the maypole celebrates sex as a part of life, acknowledging the power of our need and joy in its expression.
No one knows how old these rituals are, but there is ancient evidence all through Europe of the story of the forest God and the Goddess in her maiden form, who are joined in the sacred marriage around the first of May and who produce a child born at the winter solstice with the sun. This God, the god of fertility, was bonded to the forest animals, who enjoyed the power of the rut; thus, he was pictured with goat hooves and horns or with the antlers of the deer. He was celebrated by the remaining pagans and witches of the Middle Ages for the sexual joy and power he represented, which was reviled by the Catholic church hierarchy, who modeled their Devil on him.
The May first ritual of Beltane was one of the great fire festivals of medieval times; its activities included the late evening bonfire over which lovers would jump with hands intertwined . The element fire is associated with the suit of Wands. It symbolizes the energy within the living plant, best represented by flowing sap and the bursting leaves of spring growth. The wand has often been represented by a sprouting branch or club of wood, whose strength and power are expressed in modern playing cards by the stylized tree in the suit of Clubs .
The wooden rod of the maypole represented the phallus of the forest God, and its power was revealed as the fuel for the sacred fires of Beltane. Wood kept the people warm; it cooked their food and symbolized the spirit of the God who dwelt within the wood. He gave his potent and creative spirit, alive in his semen, to the fertile earth to ensure its productivity. The wand became the symbol of the living spirit and creativity of humanity, as expressed in our skill and artistic invention. Fire was also connected with the passion involved in lovemaking. Our uncontrollable desires sustain the creative spirit of the planet as they bring pregnancy and the birth of a new potentially creative being. This creative aspect of the suit of Wands, developed out of the suit of Disks, creates the family represented in the following suit, Cups, which will symbolize emotion and family bonding.
The ribbons of the maypole are the colors of the twelve signs of the zodiac (see the appendix) and they symbolize the multiple outcomes of creativity. They are symbolic of the semen of the God as it streams out of the wand and the enclosing Goddess that will wrap and enclose the phallic totem. The golden ball representing the sun symbolizes the potential for selfhood that comes from the creative exertion of the God on Beltane. The sun represents the self and the unity of personality, and this is the creative goal of the suit of Wands.
 
When the Ace of Wands is drawn as a part of a reading, look at the creative, passionate spirit of the issue you are dealing with. Remember the connection with the forest God and his worship in the ancient groves, where the people celebrated the power of their physical bodies (Disks) expressed through creative action and passion (Wands). This celebration of the creative power of our biology translates into the joy we feel when we find creative ways of living. We need to create new things and use our hands and bodies in order to lead full and valued lives. Just as the spirit of the forest God lived in the trees, our creative spirit lives in whatever we create. The act of creation and the passion we feel expand our spirit and make us happier. This is a card of creative potential. It shows us the creative possibilities in the colors of the maypole ribbons. The act of creation is like the dance itself; it is joyful and helps us recognize the ways in which we are bound to the varied life around us, as what we create reflects the world we see. Use creative solutions; use your physical energy to create and expand your life and to express your spirit in creative ways. Like the solar sphere at the top of the maypole, you are a unique individual with a creative spirit and the infinite potential of the sun to radiate warmth, light, and creative growth.

CUPS

KNIGHT OF CUPS
Reaching out to Help the Poor
When I was a child in Chicago the Christmas season was a time when the people of the neighborhood, often separated by their different experiences, would come together. People were more friendly when they passed on the streets, and there was a feeling of celebration in the air. At Christmas, many people worked the streets with bells and musical instruments, raising money so that the poor would be warm and fed in the cold winter season. Christmas brought lights and beauty to the dull overwhelming gray of the big-city downtown area.
Christmas is the season of the return of light as the sun is born at the winter solstice. It is no accident that December 25 was chosen as the day of Jesus5 birth. As St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, said in the third century, «How wonderfully acted divine providence that on the day that the sun was born, Christ should be born.» In the ancient calendar the five days after the solstice were held apart and dedicated to the festival of the sun’s return. The solar year was 360 days plus five left over for the celebrations. These five days ftom solstice on December 20 ended on December 25, the day chosen for the birth of the Christian Sun King, who is called the «son» of God.
Today we still celebrate this supposedly Christian holy day with the trappings of truly pagan traditions. Trees and buildings are trimmed with lights in honor of the king of the sun. Candles are lit in special candle holders that spin round and round, representing the cycles of time that we measure with the sun’s passage. The evergreen that never dies is sacrificed, symbolizing the ritual cutting down of the greenwood king, the ancient harvest god of freedom and sexuality (our Tarot Devil), who shares the year with his upright brother (the Emperor). The tree is brought inside and decorated with shiny glass balls symbolizing the sun, which now begins to rise in the sky again. We make wreaths from the ancient plants that symbolized the Triple Goddess: holly, ivy, and ancient mistletoe, which the Catholic church banned because of its association with sexuality. We sing and dance with frivolous jollity. And, of course, we eat special food like flaming plum pudding and yule logs, which commemorate an ancient ritual, and we feast into the late hours in honor of the rising light.
Even in ancient winter solstice rites it was considered proper to dissolve the boundaries between the wealthy and the poor, at least to some extent. Roman Saturnalia, the feast of old Saturn, was a time of chaos when masters waited on slaves—for they were not required to work and a party atmosphere filled the streets—as for a moment in the year all were equal and free. In ancient Europe the town fool was crowned king for a day, and his word was law in the villages. Today, especially with the Christian emphasis on helping the poor, we do this by trying to make up for our lack of care the rest of the year.
In this card the symbol of the cup is seen in the red collection vessel holding money that will be converted to emotional caring for others. The cup is represented by the gifts under the tree, which are a symbol of our love for the recipient. The stockings that are hung by the fire are cups to be filled with sweet symbols of a parent’s love for her child. The coal bucket is a cup filled with potential heat, a symbol of the warmth of the hearth and the family gathered at home in the winter. The tiny birds’ nests that decorate the tree are a symbol of family, home, and love. The cup-like saxophone with its fluid sound is a symbol of the power of music to inspire deep feeling.
Here, in the softly falling snow, a black man plays his soulful music, donating his time to help to feed his brothers and sisters who struggle through the year on the streets of the city without a home. This is the symbol of the man of cups who truly loves his fellow human beings as he loves himself. He doesn’t need to know them personally in order to care for them, he selflessly gives his time and talent in the season of family, friends, and bright warm homes to bring a little of this spirit to those who are less fortunate.
In the process of helping others he also brings the community and celebratory spirit of the solstice season to the city streets. Hearing music on the crowded streets brings a feeling of joy and love to the cold cement walls and towering unfriendliness of the city. The flowing music serves to connect us all through the common sound we all hear as it moves through us. Music is known to engage our human capacity for deep emotion and feelings of love and connection. It moves us and speaks to us about the deep places in the human soul, reminding us of our universal relationship to one another. In this place we find the collective unconscious where all of us experience one music as profoundly sad and another music as joyful. We journey as Orpheus did to the dark places of the underworld in the flowing tones of music. And once there we may regain—as Orpheus might have done, had he been more careful not to look on the face of his beloved—our caring and feeling nature. The Knight of Cups is the embodiment of these feelings of connection, love, and support to the larger world outside family and friends, for he recognizes that we are all ultimately one family and one people.

When this card is a part of your reading, it represents someone close to you filled with a selfless love that frees his community spirit. This feeling allows a person to work toward real change in order to better the conditions of others. As the sun rises again in the darkness of winter this card is a symbol of the spirit of light reborn in the heart at the darkest moments of life that unite us all as brothers and sisters. The card speaks of your ability to use your own unique talents, as this man has, to pull others up to join in the community and become a part of the family of humankind.

QUEEN OF CUPS
Living in the World of Water and Ice
The northern world of the Arctic with its long seasons of light and dark represents the limits of our planet. Life in this world by necessity revolves around the seasonal changes of the long spring and the long winter. Summer never really arrives when the sun is always low on the horizon and the plant life is forced to hurry along from flower to seed before the long night returns to the poles. The people who have made a home in the Arctic are strong and resourceful, living life to the fullest and in direct
relation to their dramatic landscape and weather. They are required to be inventive and practical, for the environment is limited and restricted. There is little wood and little vegetation in these tundra lands, but the vast sea is full of life and provides for the people of the Arctic in its rich diversity.
The suit of Cups is connected with the ties to our ancestors and to our family that provide the emotional, feeling connections to the human world around us. The Queen of Cups is a symbol of the family woman. She is the mother who loves and nurtures her children, giving them the emotional security that enables them to grow into respectful, contributing members of the larger society. The Queen of Cups—certain of her emotional strength and solid in her love—is the link to an emotionally stable and secure next generation. As children we rely on our mother (and father too) for sustenance and emotional security. When we are tiny babies our mother defines our whole world and we bond to her, recognizing our dependence on her love and security for our safety. As we grow we learn about the world while in the comfortable security of the deep bond we have with the nurturing mother. Slowly we transfer the bond from the mother to the world at large, and we become comfortable, secure, and able in the larger world of our community and later the world . This is the process reflected in the Queen of Cups.
In Inuit life, family ties and friendships are especially important because of the requirements of the harsh environment. It takes the support of a wide extended family to sustain life in this area. People cement their ties to others through blood relations and through ritualistic relationships that tie them to the support of other families and even other villages. In really difficult times the people would travel to sometimes distant settlements where the people were bound, through kinship ties, to offer support. Arctic peoples often increased their family ties through spouse exchange, where by mutual agreement a partner was exchanged with another for a season or two. The children of the two unions were considered siblings forever. Women’s relationships were particularly close and supportive in the Inuit life. Women spent the long winters sewing and gossiping together in the warm light of the little underground house. Sometimes passageways were built between houses so that visiting was easy even in the hardest storms.
The Inuit dependence on the watery world of the ocean was central to their existence. In a land without vegetative growth, the people were especially respectful of the abundant and varied sea life. In one tale that is told all over the Arctic, a father throws his daughter out of a boat in order to appease the spirits of a fierce storm. As she holds on to the side of the boat he cuts off her fingers and she drowns. Her lost fingers become the animals of the sea, and she becomes the Woman Who Lives at the Bottom of the Sea. To some tribes she is «the ever copulating one»—a name that reveals her importance to the people .
There was great respect for the whales, seals, and walrus that were a large part of the Arctic diet. Many careful rituals were enacted before a hunt to ensure that the spirit of the animal who was taken would return to the sea happy and alive. In the Queen of Cups the seals surround her and frame her head. Their watery ocean world has been elevated so that it appears over the snowbound earth and starry sky. This symbolizes the honor and deep respect for the sea that was part of the Arctic life, as well as the ascendancy of water in the suit of Cups. The three seals also represent the family, and their placement at the top of the card indicates the paramount importance of one’s human relationships and community.
The sun may be seen as rising and represents the warmth that love brings to the family and community. To the Inuit the east—the land of the rising sun—was the realm of the creator gods who brought the world to birth. Alternatively, the sun may be seen as the setting sun that will bring the long dark winter to the Arctic. It then represents the return to the indoor life and the hearth of the family and to the inner life of feelings and intuition that develop in the tight closed spaces of the winter home. The snowy hills of the landscape illuminated by the sun remind us of the breasts of a nursing woman. The white snow, as pure and clean as the milk of the mother, is a symbol of her care blanketing the land, covering it as a mother snuggles her nursing infant.
The warm clothes protect the woman from the cold outside temperatures and symbolize the ability of the Queen of Cups to remain warm and caring, even in the presence of difficulties. Because she is so certain of her own feelings and of her love for the world, she can remain selfless in the face of negative feelings and conditions around her. She will overcome difficult relationships through the power of love. Just as the child has grown to trust his world, the power of the Queen of Cups lies in her ability to genuinely feel the deep connections to family, friends, and the world she lives in. This Queen carries deep empathy for all the creatures of the earth and for the earth itself.

As a court card, this card may represent yourself in your reading or may indicate someone else who is involved in your situation. The card may indicate deep feeling or the need for nurtuance in a difficult situation. It can also indicate a need to honestly and confidently discuss your feelings in order to develop important relationships. The appearance of the Queen of Cups symbolizes a person who gives direct emotional support and love in order to help others achieve the uniting emotion of deep empathic love for the world and for others. Reach out to people with love and respect, as this woman must do in the small restricted space of her winter home.

PRINCE OF CUPS
Learning to Steer by the Stars
The ancient Polynesians sailed across the Pacific Ocean and colonized the many little lands they found there. The unified culture of Polynesia covers a broad triangle of islands, extending from New Zealand in the southeast to Easter Island in the southwest and up to the Hawaiian Islands in the north. It is believed that the original Polynesians sailed from Indonesia to Micronesia, mixed with the people there about 2,500 years ago, and then set out in small boats to travel and colonize the unknown islands of the Pacific.
The Polynesian people passed their traditions orally to the next generation through storytelling and myth making. These tales reflected their immense knowledge of the sea and sky, which guided them in the vast-ness of the open ocean. These remarkable people could recognize subtle differences in the moods of the water that helped them guide their tiny canoes to safe harbor at the next landfall. This knowledge of the sea helped them, just as an understanding of the complexities of relationships and human feelings can help us.
In this card the Prince learns to guide his boat back to the island of his family so that he may take on the duties of an adult in his society. He must learn to recognize the changeable face of the water and the unchanging dome of the sky, represented in the shining star that tells the Prince his latitude. He sees subtle differences in the color of the ocean water, its rising and falling waves moving in shifting directions, the colors of the clouds that tell him when land is near, and the presence of the trade winds that carry his little boat to landfall in a distant world. Through this wisdom, passed through the knowledge of those who have made the journey before, the Polynesian is at home in the vastness of the great ocean.
The people of the Pacific islands invented complex tools to help them find and return to their small homes in the sea. One of these was a magic calabash, a large gourd with its top cut off level, having four holes drilled in it at a prescribed distance from its rim. Water was poured into the calabash in order to level it, and then the north star (Hoku-paa) was sighted at a position above the rim. Each instrument was set for a particular latitude and was, in effect, a combined compass and sextant . The use of such sophisticated tools enabled these Stone Age peoples to spread their advanced and complex culture throughout the widely scattered islands and enabled them to acquire a direct and magical experience of the sea.
In their movements and migrations, the Polynesian people were care-mi to pass on the lineage of their families and the stories of their long journeys to the next generation. In these stories were their long and elaborate histories and their records of lineage from the gods of the Polynesian culture. The common language provided a universal link for these people in their later wanderings throughout the islands. Stories from one island show up only slightly modified on islands a thousand miles away. Heroes who invented helpful tools are known on all the islands, and descent from a person of particular status was an important element in one’s own story. Much of the mythology of the Polynesians is concerned with complex lineages of tribal chieftains, who were considered magical and were believed to have direct access to the will of the gods.
The suit of Cups is associated with the family through the element water. Through its fluid nature, water connects us with the ancient past and the coming future through the stories of our parents and grandparents and the birth of our children and children’s children. In scattered Polynesia, these connections were of paramount importance in keeping complex traditions alive and in passing the necessary and extensive knowledge of sea and sky to the children who would someday set out in their own little boats to work with the sea and find a land they had heard about only in legend.

When this card is a part of your reading, you or someone close to you may be preparing for an emotional journey by gathering understanding of the complex realm of human relationships. The Prince of Cups is the symbol of intention, planning, and anticipation in the realm of sensation and feelings. Just as this young man sets out from his island home prepared with the knowledge, food, and water he will need, we set out on the journey of relationship—symbolized by the ocean water—prepared by the love our parents gave us and the care and understanding we have gained from past experiences. As with this Prince, however, every journey we make helps us to gather more information that supports us when we take up the sail again.
The nurturing support that you received in childhood and adolescence is analogous to the skills and lessons this young man inherited from his elders, which now allow him to set off on a journey with the confidence that he will return to his home, bearing tales that will continue the process of learning and growth. His knowledge and preparation are symbolized by the containers of fish and water stored in his outrigger canoe and by the star that will guide him on his journey. The net, extended into the ocean, is the symbol of the web of watery, emotional experience that joins you to others—your family, friends, and world. The net is the symbol of an ability to find and catch what you need in life that will make you comfortable and happy. The colorful fish represent varied experience and creative initiative in friendships and love. The boat is the symbol of directed will in the emotional arena and of the adventure of life. Your journey on this sea will be a voyage into the realm of feelings and relationships that provide connections to help you develop into a more confident, loving, secure person.

PRINCESS OF CUPS
Serving Ale to the Great River of the Galaxy
The Prince and the Princess in the Tarot represent the learning process that happens especially as we grow toward adulthood but also throughout our lives as we gain wisdom from our new experience. In the suit of Cups we learn from our own emotions and from the feelings of our friends and families. Cups is the suit of the heart; therefore, its Princess learns how to balance her emotional needs, the needs of others, and those of the world. She learns through service, through caring and through being present. She honors others’ needs and satisfies her own, as represented by the star that shines behind her head.
The Princess serves ale to the swirling galaxy. Beer was considered a sacred drink, full of meaning and ceremony in its journey from barley to cup. The God and Goddess have both been personified as corn spirits whose birth, life, death, and subsequent resurrection make up the cycle of the year. Dionysus, Osiris, and Adonis are some of the gods associated with the life of the grain.
The best-known story, however, is probably the story of the goddess of grain, Demeter, and her daughter, Persephone. Demeter’s daughter, first called Kore, is stolen away by Hades, and her mother’s mourning causes all the plants to die, bringing winter to the land. This story conceals the agricultural rites of ancient Greece. In the winter, a corn dolly was buried underground; it was probably made of the last of the harvest and symbolized the spirit of the Goddess who lived in the grain. In spring, when the dolly was recovered and found to be sprouting, the Goddess was manifestly reborn and lived anew as the fields were planted and the grain flourished . These rites were no doubt full of revelry and drinking, as similar harvest festivals practiced across Europe in later times required gallons of ale and brandy for the harvesters to share. Germany’s Oktoberfest continues this tradition: in this harvest fair, the mayor of Munich taps the first barrel of new beer and gives the first pint to the Bavarian State Government Premier in the ritualized opening festivities.
This Princess represents Kore, the maiden, the first aspect of the Triple Goddess, whose second part is her mother Demeter and the third part is transformed Persephone («she who brings destruction»), who becomes the Queen of Hades. In spring the maiden is born, and in the fall at harvest she is cut down so that she may be reborn in the ale and in the seed for next year’s sowing. On the apron of the Princess we see the grain from which the ale is made and from which our new harvest of next year will be made. Around the rim of her blue skirt are scarlet poppies, representing the flowers Kore picked in Demeter’s corn field, where Hades found and abducted her. The flowers Kore picked were most likely poppies, because they are commonly seen growing in the cornfield and because they have an ancient connection with sleep (because of the opium poppy) and through sleep with death—the dark land Kore must journey to. The poppy’s ability to intoxicate is also connected with the ale that was also used to enhance ritual meaning in ancient Europe.
In ancient Britain the goddess who turned the wheel at the center of the sky was Arianrhod («silver wheel») . In her spiral castle at the back of the north wind (presumably in the constellation of Corona Borealis), she turned the wheels on which the sun and moon and all the sky would revolve. It was to this castle that great heroes returned at their deaths. In the Princess of Cups the silver wheel of the goddess Arianrhod is pictured as our spiral galaxy, the Milky Way (created by Cretan Zeus as he squeezed his mother’s breast and her milk shot off into the heavens). The Greek word galaktos, from which our word galaxy is directly borrowed, means «milk.» Today, we can see distant galaxies whose stunning spiral form reminds us of the spiral castle of this ancient goddess, whose very name of «silver wheel» becomes uncanny in its accuracy.
The turning wheel of the spiral castle is poetically referred to in myth as the millstone of the universe, and the Goddess resides at the axle of the mill. She is the Great Miller, whose job it is to grind the stars to dust to feed the galaxy and to bring new stars to birth. The frictional action of the turning mill is analogous to the Goddess’s own creation of the universe. Through the mill the grain is passed before it is mulled to bring forth beer. The froth of the beer is analogous to the milk of the Goddess, which is sprayed into the sky. The white froth of the beer is like the bubbles of space modern physics has proposed for the shape of space itself.
In the popular British folk song «John Barleycorn,» the spirit of the grain is planted, grown, harvested, milled, and cut down «with the scythe so sharp» only to be reborn as the liquor in the glass. The last verse runs:
It’s little Sir John in the nut brown bowl
And brandy in the glass.
It’s little Sir John in the nut brown bowl
Proved the stronger man at last.
For the huntsman he can’t hunt the fox
Or loudly blow the horn;
The tinker he can’t mend his kettle or his pots Without a little John Barleycorn.
This resurrection tale of the barley god is strongly associated with the revelry of the harvest season and with the story of the god’s journey to the underworld and his ultimate birth as the winter solstice sun brought forth from the Goddess’s own spiral castle.
As the Princess steps into the river of the whirling Milky Way she brings with her the beer representing resurrection, celebration, and creation itself. Alcohol not only contained the ancient spirit of the sacrificed god but was also thought to contain the essence of the opposing elements of fire and water, and was therefore a potent symbol of the active force that joined God and Goddess. The symbolism of ancient European festivals and the ritual use of the sacrament of alcohol is an integral part of the meaning of the Princess, for it is she who, as the priestess in service to her community, will offer her emotional support and direction for those who come in search of growth and change.
 
In a reading, this card symbolizes the giving or getting of serious support for emotional growth and change. The Princess of Cups is about the journey we take in search of ourselves and the strength we find when we face our shadow as Kore did in the underworld. The suit of Cups, representing the emotional life, requires us to travel in the direction of human wholeness through deep feeling and through the empathic connections we make with others. Through learning, which the Princess symbolizes, we awaken to the human condition, and then we may work to improve it through our own relationships.
The Princess can represent a moment of emotional awakening and depth, or the sense of wholeness we feel when we have made a breakthrough in the emotional realm. Just as the harvest festival is a moment of freedom from the conventional life, the Princess signifies liberty as she returns from the journey to the underworld. The Princess of Cups personifies the awakening balance between the needs of the self and the needs of others and the balance of these needs in community and family. Her ability to juggle so many pints of ale represents the ability to feel the needs of others, but the star that frames her like a halo keeps her aware of her own needs so that she can maintain the precarious balance as she rushes to fulfill her role.

TEN OF CUPS
A River Delta Divides Anciewt Ceramic Pots
In this card we are dealing with all the gifts as well as the problems that we have inherited from our ancestors. The river, which symbolizes the flow of time and the path that people have followed through the ages, has divided. The great river delta dividing into its many paths symbolizes the present time in which we see society through the eyes of many differing individuals. When we look into the distant past, we see not the individual but the remains of the whole culture, represented in this card by the singularity of the river at its ancient beginnings. The stream joins the river in our distant past, representing the convergence of cultures through various methods of assimilation, such as war, migration, and intermarriage. We also notice that like human culture, the river finds its own path and creates its own valley just as we collectively form and shape the path of our society.
We learn about our past through the examination of its artifacts. Archaeological digs beside the river reveal to us the cultural traits of our ancestors, many of which we hold onto to this day. In the Ten of Cups we are asked to remember that in all ways we are the product of our forbears» achievements and their failures. We dig into our past just as we dig into our selves in order to understand our inner motivations and our place in life and in the larger world picture.
The tools we use to understand these diggings include tools for measuring, tools that do the actual digging, and tools that carefully sweep away the debris and allow us to see clearly what is left of the life of the ancients. Because of the ravages of time, when we look into the past we see only fragments of their ancient lives and must complete the story through educated guesswork. We must also be extremely careful not to disturb the pieces we find in the past; we try to retrieve as many of them as possible so that we may reconstruct the ancient puzzle. When we look deeply into ourselves, we find that we use tools to help us measure our own motivations against those of others. Various forms of self-analysis, psychotherapy, and counseling are tools that help us dig deeper, even into our deep friendships, and enable us to see ourselves in a new light. We must also be careful to interpret the fragments we find within so that the puzzle of our own lives will form a coherent picture.
The suit of Cups is associated with families because it is in families that we form our deepest emotional attachments. The ten, as the final numbered card of the suit, shows us the full scope of the human family and reveals that although we are separate individuals, our relationships carry back into our common past. We are compelled to reexamine our individuality in the light of our common ancestry and to remember our deep emotional connections with all peoples. The differences that we see externally, represented in the variety of pots, are but differing interpretations of a common theme that goes back to a less complex common time. In the card, the pots represent the changing and increasing cultural developments through time. They show how we may build on the simpler forms of the past by using ancient skills—represented in the simplest bowl at the river’s first division—and incorporating new and modern methods, which lead to the greater complexity, diversity, and specialization seen in the bottom rows of pots. This serves to remind us that we are all unique individuals whose skills and talents continue to diversify and contribute to the richness of our culture. These always changing patterns will be important for our distant future. This final numbered card in the suit of Cups incorporates both past and future in the emotional ties we make with others in the human

  family and our effect upon them.
Because the Ten of Cups is a symbol of our uniqueness as a function of the development of specialization it symbolizes the importance of each individual’s distinct feelings. The first pots were generic; they were simple and were made to hold anything, just as our most ancient ancestors held all the skills needed to survive: butchering and building, cooking and gathering. Like these early, simple pots, our most primitive relations of the distant past carried universally shared, less complex feelings. As we move further in time, the pots take on specific purposes, such as a pitcher, a serving bowl, or a bowl to mix and bake food in. These differences mirror the growing complexity of our ever-changing world. The varied pots are the manifestation of our emotional differences, which contribute to the woven threads of the society, and yet they remind us that we all share in the connection to the ancient world.

When interpreting this card in a reading, look for the common threads of your current situation with situations in the past that affected your parents or their parents to see whether they might provide an answer. We often repeat their stories with minor differences, and sometimes their hardest lessons are repeated. We may be able to avoid the worst of these lessons if we can look carefully at our lives for the common emotional patterns that are symbolized by the flowing river. If the circumstance appears totally new to you, look then for its commonality with situations in a more distant time and try to reconstruct a pattern that will help illuminate the situation for you. This is a good time for you to remember your own past and to dig a little deeper in order to understand your inner motivations better.
We are called on to remember our unique effect on others, because in this time of sudden changes and complexity we easily forget that we can have any impact at all. This card points to the importance of everyone’s feelings and unique perspective and reminds us of our responsibility to reach for balance in our decisions that will fulfill the needs of all people. We need to remember that against the backdrop of our culture, our collective actions determine the future. In your relations with your family especially, your responsibility to create positive emotional patterns will help your children or even your parents create a new and more positive world. The waters of the river delta will widen once again and flow on and on, carrying your reality to distant future generations.

NINE OF CUPS
Ancient Amphorae and Other Vessels Shipwrecked under the Sea
The Nine of Cups represents significant growth in the understanding of our emotions and their origins. As the next to last numbered card in the suit of Cups, it indicates the completion of our growth in this aspect of our humanity. We must travel to the depths of the sea in order to find our deepest feelings and recover them. Here we will find the deep unconscious feelings and motivations that connect us to our fellow human beings, both past and present. These underlying aspects of our emotions may be connected with the Jungian concept of the collective unconscious, and their discovery may lead you to an understanding of the archetypes we all share.
These pots were lost in a shipwreck and have found their rest in the deep sea. Originally they would have been filled with valuable trading items—olive oil and wine—and they would have been loaded on a boat along with the copper ingots that rest behind them for transport to the other side of the Mediterranean. These trading routes connected the people of one culture with those in another. Bonds were formed between differing cultures so that their mythologies became intertwined and their lives intermingled. This created a richer fabric from which many of us emerged with a common cultural past, even though we may come from widely separated places on the globe.
These vessels, deep in the sea, did not make it to the end of their journey but are now called upon to deliver to us the secrets of the past that we can read in the trade routes that lie mapped at the bottom of the sea. Now we are able to connect with the past and the ancient people who bring it alive; we can imagine their lives and their motivations, and in a sense, we can make them breathe and live again in us. This is symbolic of delving into our own past to discover the emotions we might have left behind in childhood. By finding in the ocean of our unconscious parts of ourselves that we have left behind or forgotten, we begin to sense our own motivations and to make better sense of the pattern of our lives. But we should remember that the once pure and valuable contents will have been changed by their long interment in the salt water of the sea. Nothing can be retrieved in its pure state from the waters of the unconscious, and an appropriate interpretation of the retrieved images is crucial to the eventual integration of the contents as memories.
The anchor shows us that the connection to the deep feelings has been maintained. At some level we still know how to reach the buried part of ourselves and others so that we may all share in a future where we are valued for what is unique in our individual perspectives. We wonder whether the deep emotions in our unconscious are in themselves the anchor of our lives, keeping us rooted and centered. Or perhaps the anchor ties us down so that we do not have the freedom we need to explore the world but find that we are bound by it to our own view of the world. The anchor symbolizes the personal filters we place on the world through which all events pass. By understanding our own perspective, we free ourselves so that we may also see the world through the eyes of others.
 
When this card appears in your reading, try to connect with your deep memories to see whether they will lead to an understanding of the present situation. Perhaps something from the deeply buried past motivates you now. Something in the undercurrent of the situation is meaningful and must be pulled into the light. You are bound by ties to the past until you can discover them. In an important reading, such as one done on your birthday, this card can symbolize the need to really delve into your unconscious so that your growth as an individual can continue. It may speak to work you are engaged in now, learning about your past and your childhood, which may seem quite distant from you now. The path you will travel leads you to a deeper understanding of your feelings and of how these feelings motivate your decisions.
Remember that there can be many interpretations of your inner secrets that may lead you to very different conclusions. In a serious study of the darker parts of ourselves, great care must be taken to discover the truth to the best of our ability. It is easy to be led astray and to reach conclusions that may make our stories more dramatic and more exceptional, but we must make sure that truth is our guide. Just as the archaeologists who come upon the ancient shipwreck must carefully interpret what they find there so as not to make false assumptions about the past, we must always seek the truth.
When we do find the ocean within us, we discover the common bond we have with all people and the deepest parts of our unconscious, where our stories are the same and the mythology we share is still within us. The Nine of Cups is a card of empathy and the ability to understand each other at the deepest levels of feeling. From this understanding, this card brings a sense of common vision and motivation with a deep connection to your feelings and the feelings of others.

EIGHT OF CUPS
Lotus Flowers Spring Up in a Stormy Sea
The Chinese believe in two interacting forces that unite to create the entire natural world. Yang, the positive, masculine force that we see in sunshine and warmth, is hard, procreative, and stable and is represented by the white half of the circle. Tin, the force of darkness, is cold, wet and soft; it is changeable and mysterious and is represented by the dark half of the circle. In Western religions, the two forces (good and evil, generally) struggle continuously with each other for power
over the created world, but in the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang, the world exists precisely because of the interaction of the two complementary forces. This idea comes from direct observation of the world of nature, where the opposites always create between them the richest environments in which life may flourish. On this planet, the opposition of earth and water (yin) to air and sun (yang) creates the living skin of the planet. On the shore of the sea where the dry earth (yang) meets the water (yin), we find Ac richest sea life in the tidal pools. This is the vital power of friction between complementaries.
The yin/yang is drawn so that there is a spot of white yang in the black force of the yin and a black spot ofyin in the whiteness of the yang. This shows that there is always some light in the darkness and some dark in the power of the light. Each force shares in the nature of the other, and even in their opposition they cannot ever really be separated. There is always a bridge between them. In the example above, the yin water of the ocean meets the dry yang earth, creating the life of the shore. Although, earth is generally seen as the dark force of the yin (not the yang) power, here, in relation to the yin water, it becomes yang, taking the role of the unchanging, dry masculine force.
This is an important concept when we talk about the roles of gender so often in the study of the Tarot. What is it that creates the role of masculine and feminine in a relationship? It isn’t always dependent on our sex. We all play many roles; sometimes we give light and warmth and at other times we are dark and mysterious. The obvious physical characteristics of our sex do not limit us to one particular role or one particular kind of partner, for like the yin/yang we all share the qualities of both.
In the Eight of Cups, the quality of the light within the darkness and darkness within the light is exemplified by the lines of the eight trigrams of the I Ching inscribed on the tea cups. The I Ching is a complex divination system of changing lines based on the two forces ofyin and yang. A solid line representing yang and a broken line representing yin are combined into trigrams of three lines, and the eight resulting trigrams are further combined to form sixty-four hexagrams that describe the totality of the natural world. They are given poetic names such as «Youthful Folly» and «Gathering Together.» The trigrams all have names in which they are seen as the symbolic members of a family: a mother and a father (being the three fixed lines ofyin and yang), three sons (with the lines moving toward increasing light), and three daughters (lines moving toward increasing darkness). The important concept is the changes that the lines represent, not their fixed qualities. They are seen in relation to the world, where the action or change creates something new and moves the world forward.
In the Eight of Cups, the yin/yang tray and the tea cups represent the interplay and connections between the opposites, represented externally by the calm and beautiful lotus flowers and the wild and stormy sea. The trigrams represent iconographically what is seen in the world around them. The fresh water of the calm lake where the lotus grows is in opposition to the salty water of the blustery sea. The lotus, rising from the muddy waters under the lake toward the fiery light, represents the blossoming of the human spirit. The lotus is considered quite magical, for it at once produces both fruit and flower and symbolizes beginning and end all at the same time. It is the symbol of the rising light of the yang force, and yet it shares in the yin through its feminine quality of mystery. The stormy sea is dark, mysterious, clouded, and wet; it represents the yin, yet it too shares in the yang through the forceful quality of the lightning and the solidity of the stone that steadily takes the force of the waves.
 
When this card is a part of your reading, it is a symbol of the roles you play in relationships with those you love. We are always called on in our relationships to play specific roles depending on our expertise. In some relationships we may be like the father or mother directing the situation, but in other circumstances we may need to learn from others and find that they direct us. For example, I am never called on to lead singing, for I am no expert. However, when it is time to interpret a symbol or make a good salad dressing, I can easily take the leading role and then become like the flowering lotus in my unfolding strength. When we are challenged in areas in which we believe we have some expertise, we often feel terribly uncomfortable, like the stormy sea. This is when we need to pay particular attention to the changes, because these are the moments of greatest tension; they can either create new learning or wind up as a difficult argument with a lot of anger and frustration.
The I Ching has us focus on the interaction of the opposing forces rather than their differences. In the eight, which is the number of solar expansion, these changes move us forward toward growth and increase. As we follow our changing roles as a daughter, son, father, or mother in the varied experiences of life we learn about all the aspects of our selves. Remember that you are never fixed to a particular role through your physical sex; your growing knowledge and experience enable you to play all parts.

SEVEN OF CUPS
Offerings to the Fire Goids of Flores
The Indonesian Island of Flores, in the chain of islands stretching from Bali in the west to Timor in the east, is a mountainous and volcanic land. In the central portion of the long island is Mount Mutu, from which the image of these amazing many-colored lakes is borrowed. The people of Flores are largely ani-mists; they believe that the tangled world of nature is inhabited by good and evil spirits who dwell in the rocks, plants, mountains, flowers, and everything that exists. The evil spirits must be appeased by special actions and sacrifices that will frighten them away so that the good spirits will help the people prosper. All over Indonesia the mixture of the ancient animistic beliefs coexist with the Hinduism and Buddhism that arrived here from India. Hundreds of deities and demons are recognized, some with many manifestations and appearances. This mixture and blending of religions—like the wildness and diversity of nature that exists in the Indonesian islands— reflect the complexity of our interwoven world.
In an effort to find order in the chaos of the world, the Indonesian calendar year is full of religious festivals honoring or appeasing the gods and demons. The people make extensive offerings to restore the balance of nature, which they may have upset by their passions, obsessions, and actions. When the gods of nature are upset, the people believe that terrible things will happen. In this volcanic land it is easy to imagine terrible disasters that might literally change the face of the natural world.
The people of Flores believe that the colored lakes of Mount Mutu hold the souls of the dead: the souls of those who have transgressed in life are in the lake of burgundy waters, the souls of those who died young are in the greenish pool, and the souls of the elderly are in the milky blue pool. Therefore, in this belief system, what you do in this life determines your place in the next life; your earthly actions, feelings, and thoughts determine the shape of the world to come. In order to ensure the survival of your family, you must examine the actions you take, for they have a direct and lasting effect on the world your descendants inherit from you.
The volcano is a symbol of the creative and destructive power of the earth. It is a powerful destroyer, and yet its ash is the source of fertile soil. A volcano can create a new land, as Hawaii was created when the islands moved away from the undersea vent of the powerful volcanic goddess Pele. The volcano is the symbol of human creative power that always destroys something in the process: when I painted this card I destroyed the clean white page of my watercolor pad, and when this deck of cards was printed it destroyed living trees and new paper. In the suit of Cups this becomes a symbol of our emotional creativity and passions. We are creative when we deeply love or hate; we think of ways to express our feelings, some of which are blatantly destructive and some which favor the creative. We, like the volcano, spew our feelings into the world with force or in a calm trickle, changing the world around us with each action.
The mountain is always a symbol of the attainment of spiritual powers that take us higher into the spirit realms. The volcano as a mountain has this connotation, but it also has the power to return us very quickly through the gate of death to the beginning of our path where we must be reborn to travel again up the mountain of life. On the island of Bali the people believe that their volcanic mountain, Gunung Agung, is the navel of the world and that through the cord of birth we are all connected to the mountain to return again and again to the fertile cauldron of birth.
The Indonesians offer sacrifices to their gods, praying that they will expel the evil spirits and the passions that cause destruction. This card impels us to ask what we offer to our own internal creative and destructive forces that will help us to keep them in balance. Here the people have offered the power of fire, as a symbol of passion, and the nutritive and aesthetic value of food. This is a reminder to properly nourish your emotional needs so that your life—and by extension, the world—will remain in balance. This elaborate ritual sacrifice to the mountain will later be consumed by the people who have offered it. Their proper nourishment at the end of the celebration is a symbol of the feeding of the human spirit through ritual, which allows the people to exist in balance with the world of nature and may help to prevent the unhappy passions that get them into trouble. Though food may not satisfy our emotional needs, we often use it to fulfill our desires, sometimes stuffing ourselves to satisfy a hunger and sometimes withholding nourishment to punish our transgressions. This card reminds us to look carefully at our desires and to try to fulfill them through proper nourishment, love, and balance.
Seven combines the structured force of the number four with the dynamic energy of three. It symbolizes the real creative balance of the masculine and the feminine that grows out of the choices presented in the action of the numeral six. Seven is the true number of the spiritual partnership and balance of energies that allows us to find an equilibrium where our creative work builds more than it destroys and changes the world for the better.

In interpretation, this is a card of emotional balance in a partnership or within one’s self as symbolized by the number seven. This is the balance of the creative and destructive forces of the volcano and the structured life of the human being who finds order in the chaos of nature. In the suit of Cups, this represents the balance between chaotic passion and determined goals. Both of these are important to a happy and creative life, and their ideal balance brings dreams and visions of a more perfect and balanced future and the fulfillment of desires. When we find this balance, our goals seem attainable. Perhaps you are still looking for this balance, or maybe you have found it and strive to keep it.
If you are searching for positive ways to find this needed balance between structure and passion, find ways to connect with your needs and desires that are creative, fulfilling, and positive and that do not cause destructive passions to surface with force and power. For example, this card can symbolize he passion of anger, which may explode within us like the force of the volcano. Perhaps if you can recognize and respect your deep feelings of resentment before they explode, you may be able to put that powerful energy to better use, for example, in artwork that expresses your feelings or in ritual that diffuses the terrible power of anger. You may be able to discuss your feelings with others and work out equitable solutions without hurting anyone. The Seven of Cups reminds us to focus on ways to diffuse our natural anger before it builds up into a destructive force. It reminds us that every action, no matter how insignificant, influences the course of the world. The Seven of Cups teaches us to channel our emotional passions and obsessions into endeavors that will satisfy us and enhance the world and that will have the ultimate effect of balance and creativity with constant growth, change, and enthusiasm.

SIX OF CUPS
Broken Pueblo Pots in the Rain
The number six embodies the combined energies of two groups of three, and as such it is usually represented as a Star of David. In this star, two triangles interlock—one pointing up and the other down—but the pen must be lifted from the paper to complete this form. Because the pattern cannot be completed with one stroke, the number six implies a duality and separation between two opposing energies. The substances of the two opposing triangles are perfectly balanced and are in competition for victory in the coming resolution represented by the number seven. The two energies can be seen as the rivalry between good and evil or male and female, and therefore the number six sometimes indicates choices. Six is often seen as the perfect numeral in which the two opposing forces are locked in eternal balance, with neither attaining the upper hand. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, six is the number of God’s days of creation and is seen as a perfect number. Six is the number of the directions when up and down or past and future are included, and therefore the number six can be used in a coordinate system to define one’s exact position.
In the Six of Cups, the combined energies represented are the energies of creation and destruction, engaged in an eternal struggle through time. The interaction of these energies represents the precarious balance of life, which is neither wholly perfect nor wholly evil. Just as we live between the boundary of the solid earth and the emptiness of space, we also live at the boundary of positive and negative energies. The energy of creation is represented in the corn seeds and the new corn plants that are returning to the land, and also in the clearing sky seen behind the storm. The destructive energy is seen in the broken pots and in the lightning of the storm. The rain, reaching from the heavens to the land, represents the result of their combined energies and connects them.
The cultures of the Pueblo people are in decline through the destructive influence of a society so unlike their own that it is in fundamental opposition to it. The energy of the white man’s world has interfered in the natural rhythms of the Pueblo with the destructive influences of TV, alcohol, and horrible violence toward their way of life.
The devastating clash of these cultures is represented by the fragmented energy of the broken pots. Yet, one can still see the patterns in the images on the pots; they represent the energy of the deer and the corn and the rhythms of nature. As befits the suit of Cups, these natural images mirror the native peoples’ feelings of belonging in the world of nature and their belief that the deer and the corn were part of their ancestor world. The corn was a symbol of fertility, as a seed that fed the people and ensured their continuity. Therefore, the corn connected the people not only with their ancient ancestors but also with their future and with their own immortality as the ancestors of future generations. The growing corn that sprouts around the pots represents the continued connection we all feel for our children, our parents, and our ancestors and descendants on both sides of the present moment. Through the connections we feel with those who have gone before us, we are reminded that the ancient wisdom of all the past is still with us. We can live what is remembered of the past and help bring to life both the suffering and the joy that were a part of these suppressed cultures. Their wisdom and passion are never truly lost but survive in any work or expression of the beliefs of the people who lived in the space between earth and sky.
The earthen pueblo represents home and family and all that gives us a sense of place in our community. The pueblo is constructed out of the very dirt of the earth and symbolizes, along with the corn, our intense emotional bond to the earth and its ability to provide both food and shelter for us.
The rain is symbolic of the connection between Heaven and earth and symbolizes the movement toward the number seven, in which the tension of balance is upset and new creation and connection takes place. The rain represents both returning fertility and the tears of Heaven for the dissolution of the culture. In the southwest the rain is particularly important, for it is a life-giving substance in the desert environment.
In Zuni mythology, six men who gambled and lost to the Kachinas, and then were discovered to be the sources of mist and fog, were called Rain Priests. They were connected to the six directions, where they now live by lakes and oceans . The rain was a sign to migrating native peoples that their wandering should end and that they should settle under the falling rain. The rain signaled to them that the land was blessed by the connections between the sky and the earth and that the people would be blessed also in the relationship and interaction of the Sky God and Earth Goddess. Here in the fertile land, blessed by the rain, the balance of the number six is given a fruitful outcome, which gives rise to the number seven.
Six is the expression of the creative and destructive force of God, who created the world we know through the destruction of his solitude during the six biblical days. This is the mythical beginning of time, which we measure by the constant change that occurs in the world. Time is the creator and the destroyer of all things, and it gives rise to the eternal balance of life and death. The passage of time brings a society and a culture to its end or brings a new society to birth. In every culture, the balance of good and «evil is embodied in the people and in their mythology.

The Six of Cups symbolizes sadness and difficulty. The card represents the emotional difficulty of accepting change and the sadness we feel when we must move on. We are continually drawn into the future and required to give up the past. Even when our past has been difficult, it has the advantage of being comfortably familiar to us. This familiarity represents a link with our ancestors, who were deeply familiar with and comfortable in the natural world. This is part of the loss we mourn as we move into unfamiliar territory.
This card is also symbolic of two powers pulling you: the power of destruction, which brings this change and loss on you, and the power of creation, like the fertile corn, which brings something of what is lost, into the future to enrich your present life. Nothing we have been or done is ever truly lost, as our ability to remember it brings it to life once more. What you have lost you will be using to create a new future and new emotional security, as the pueblo symbolizes. The card reminds us that our link to the natural world must be a part of what we resurrect from the past to enrich our present lives. Every moment in time is a moment of destructive loss and creative gain. These two forces, like the upward- and downward-pointing triangles, determine our place in time and in space at the pivotal place between life and death.

FIVE OF CUPS
Abalone Shells in a Shallow Living Tidal Pool
The number five is associated with the Goddess because of her connection to the lives of women and the five phases of women’s lives: birth, men-arche, motherhood, menopause, and death. The ocean is also symbolically related to the Great Mother, as all life on the earth seems to have evolved from simple beginnings in the great watery world of primordial earth. The oceans are the original womb of the planet. The salty sea water is its blood and therefore the blood of the universal mother, whose blood flows now in us, salty and red.
This undersea scene shows the relationship between our present lives and our distant origins. Because the suit of Cups embodies our emotions and feelings, this card also represents the important romantic and inspirational relationship we have with the sea. The sea brings us closer to our feelings. It can arouse our deep fears—fears of drowning or of being swallowed in the depths or by whales like Jonah in the Bible or Geppetto in Pinocchio. These fears connect us with our primitive origins and with the darkness of the womb, or with the other extreme: the finality of death, which we fear and avoid in our culture. Notice in the card that the beautiful abalone shells become cups only because the creatures that lived within them have died, leaving behind the external pattern of their lives in this hard shell. When we look into the sea we are forced to look on the face of the Goddess to see her as both the beginning and the end of our lives.
Although the abalone are dead, the rich and complex life under the sea goes on. The creatures and plants in this scene are representatives of our primitive beginnings; they are creatures without backbones whose external armor protects them from the wild world around them. They represent our spinelessness when we are confronted with powerful feelings that threaten the balance of our lives, and also symbolize the way we create thick but unseen armor to protect ourselves from dissolution in these primitive emotions, just as our most primeval relations create defensive shells. Some of us create spiny shells like the sea urchin; we are ready to hurt others in order to avoid pain ourselves. Some of us, like the starfish, merely become impenetrable to avoid confrontation with others. Others, like the snails, have only one way in and are comfortable only in one kind of relationship. The abalone seem to confirm our worst fears in this regard; they are snails, but with so much of their weak undersides exposed that they have fallen prey to the world around them. We seem to remember this lesson only too well—that any weakness will be our downfall—and so we spend our energies protecting, covering, and hiding in the cracks that the rocks provide.
The positive focus of the Five of Cups is that life in the sea must be able to pull oxygen right out of the water to breathe. Because the element air in the Tarot symbolizes thought, we can see this as an ability to find reason in our fears and emotions to thoroughly analyze them, understand their origins, and find peace with this. Just as air is the symbol of tran-scendence and clarity, so our emotional fears are subject to the rhythmical intake of our breath to calm and disperse them.
The small area of the tidal pool symbolizes the arena of your life and the influences that you experience in day-to-day changes. The starfish at the center is a symbol of the person whose head, arms, and legs outstretched form the five-pointed star. Like the starfish clinging to the rock, the individual clings to the outward trappings of his or her life. All around you are the numerous encounters that threaten change through their influence.

The Five of Cups is primarily a card of fear and loss. When interpreting this card, look carefully at your deepest fears and try to see clearly where you close yourself off from relationships with others because of these fears. We must remember that when we block our deep emotions we only end up in isolation from others. This isolation prevents us from any real understanding of ourselves or others, and in the end we lose both. This causes our society deep problems because it manifests as a profound lack of compassion for others and even for ourselves and our families.
It would be helpful for you to look very carefully at the ways you prevent yourself from feeling. In other words, what armor do you put on when faced with deep or difficult feelings? Try to come up with a way you can shed your armor in order to begin to recognize these deep feelings as a real and important part of who you are, and to understand their deep origins. Your fears and emotions will connect you to the deep and powerful sea, the origin of all earthly life. Then you may feel deep union with all life. It is the underlying fabric of diverse and complex life that supports us and for which we must feel compassion if we are to survive and continue to love and live on the watery planet earth.

FOUR OF CUPS
A Simple Potter’s Studio Filled with the Sun’s Light
Four is the number of completion and success. It symbolizes the result of action taken in the world where two different things are combined or put into relation through action that results in a final and fourth thing. For instance: you (one) and the ideas expressed in this text (two) are combined in the act of reading (three) to result in a deeper understanding of the symbol of the Four of Cups (four). This is the essence of magic and the fabric of the world. Magical triangles like this are formed whenever an action is taking place. As you begin to watch yourself and others in their daily activities you will find these woven patterns everywhere, for this is the fundamental web of our existence.
In the Four of Cups we see a bowl of earthen clay on a black pillar and a bowl of water on a white pillar. These symbolize the two unlike things that will be combined into something new and different. The clay is symbolized by the dark pillar because of the darkness of the soil from which it comes and the association of earth with the suit of Disks—midnight and midwinter. The water is on the white pillar to symbolize its clarity and the complementary relationship of clay and water that allows the formation of useful objects created from clay. The light of the sun coming through the window illuminates and connects the two vessels to show their important relationship.
On the shelf above the potter’s wheel is the ideal of the completed bowl, beautifully finished and ready to be a serviceable addition to human life. This vessel is the embodiment of the idea of bowl. The potter can create a new bowl only if she can visualize from her experience the bowl she wants to create. She must «see» the form, and it must be a part other own inner being so that she can make anew one. Therefore, the finished bowl is the symbol of the ideal, dependent on reflection and experience, that has enriched human life.
The bowl on the potter’s wheel is the direct symbol of experience in action. The potter has embraced the form «bowl,» and she proceeds through time to create a new and different bowl—one she has never before seen. As the new bowl takes shape the potter returns the ideal of the bowl carried within her to the real world in a practical, creative act. This is learning. Life is enriched when the knowledge of experience is returned to the world in usable form. The potter has stretched from her general idea of «pot» to an experience of a specific pot through the action of turning the bowl on the potter’s wheel.
The unfinished bowl on the wheel may also represent the action that combines the dry clay on the black pillar with the water on the white pillar to create the ideal, finished bowl shown on the shelf above.
The potter’s wheel is a symbol of time and development. As with any wheel, its turning represents movement—the first quality of the passage of time. Movement, which is change, is the measuring stick by which we describe time. The movement of the sun, moon, and planets helped humans create calendars, and their dance on the cosmic wheel of the heavens seemingly creates our physical universe. The potter’s wheel is also a symbol of original creation in the simple human realm of time and space that transforms simple red clay—the primordial material of earth— into the new bowl. The potter becomes, therefore, the symbol of the Great Goddess (or God) who formed the first people out of the body of earth and breathed life into them.
The windows above the potter’s studio let in the light of the sun in the form of a triangle, which illuminates the four parts of any interaction. This illustrates the necessity of understanding our dynamic role in creative human association, which helps us to realize our effect upon the world. We can see that every positive and creative action we take helps to turn the wheel of the world and form the chalice that enfolds the world. With this knowledge we can claim our power to change the direction of the world and to paint a more beautiful pattern into the glaze of the vessel that we experience as the living universe.

When the Four of Cups is a part of your reading, this creative action is applied most directly to your human interactions. In the example of a happy and creative partnership, two people (symbolized by the clay and water) have created a vision of their relationship and what it will be (symbolized by the finished bowl). Perhaps they have visualized the way they will live in the manner in which they will handle outside relationships, the amount of trust and honesty in their relationship, and their needs, passions, and desires. If they can find a way to truly live within their ideals, which they may form slowly in the course of their growing love, they will create for themselves a happy, creative, nurturing relationship as represented by the pot on the wheel. This unfinished pot—symbolizing the ongoing relationship, turning and forming in the wheel of time—is created from the partners’ own ideals, which they have created together with love and trust.
Alternatively, perhaps you have been able to help bridge a gap between two friends who are having a difficult time. You may have helped them form a picture of the unique qualities that they bring together in relationship that could lead them to happiness and love.
The Four of Cups is a signal of completed work. It speaks of learning something new and important, especially in the realm of human feelings, that you are now able to apply with confidence in the world of experience. Perhaps your ideals have proved strong and your relationship is flourishing. Perhaps you have learned that true love involves real trust, and you are now able to give your mate the freedom to explore his or her external needs. Like the sunlight streaming in through the window, your relationships are living in the light and filled with honest exploration.

THREE OF CUPS
An Alabaster Vase and Three Nile Lotuses
The Nile is one of the world’s greatest and most important rivers. In ancient Egypt there were three important things: the pharaoh, the afterlife, and the river Nile . Of these, the Nile was the most important, for it flowed through the desert sands and brought with its annual flood the fertile soil in which the people could farm the dry land and live prosperously. The Nile was the symbol of order and time in Egyptian mythology, and through its predictable seasons the Egyptians regulated their lives. The god Hapi was the personification of the great river, and the Egyptians sang hymns to his praise. The Egyptians were dependent on the flow of the living river to nourish them with plentiful fish, to water their crops, and to restore the sandy soil. In the years that the river did not flood, the people suffered terribly and offered extensive prayers to ensure the regular annual flooding of the river, sacrificing to the gods so that life could continue.
The lotus flower, the symbol of Upper Egypt, grew during the annual flood. Its growth is suggestive of spiritual attainment, as it grows up from the muck of the river bottom and journeys through the water to rise into the light with its beauty. In Egypt it was a symbol of the sun because of its wheel-like form and because it opened with the sun in the morning and closed at sunset in the evening. It was also connected with the moon because its cup-like form was symbolic of the containing feminine principle, and it grew in the water, which was believed to come from the moon. The lotus represented the union of the four ancient elements, as it grew in the earth at the river bottom, rose through the water, smelled sweet in the air, and responded to the fiery sun.
The most important symbolic meaning of the lotus was its clear connection with feminine generative power and sexuality. The lotus cup was a symbol of the Goddess’s great gateway into life; many solar heroes all through world mythology take their birth in the lotus. In Egypt, the pharaohs were sexually united with the lotus flower so that they would be reborn in the afterlife. The lotus with its purple color reminded all who saw it of sex and particularly of female genitalia. It is possible that one way of joining with the lotus and to taste of its sweet fruit was to practice cunnilingus. Odysseus, on his journey home from Troy, visits the land of the lotus-eaters and finds there a sensuous land from which his sailors cannot be pulled away having tasted of its fruit .
The fish is a symbol also of the sexuality of the feminine, and the symbol known as the vesica piscis (vessel of fishes) was a stand-in for the great Goddess’s yoni, perhaps because the genitals of the woman have often been considered to smell fishy . The fish, which is born out of the ancient waters of the Goddess, is a symbol of her fertility and her sexual desire. In Egyptian mythology, all the pieces of the dismembered Osiris were found by Isis except for his phallus, for it had been consumed by a fish—a symbol of the goddess herself. Thus the fish became a symbol of the phallus, which when combined with its original meaning made it the symbol of fecundity. Isis swallowed the phallus and later gave birth to Horus, who was the reincarnation of his father, Osiris. Horus’s icon was the lotus, from which he was symbolically born.
The alabaster cup was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun and is a symbol of the god-king’s rebirth in the land of the dead. It has been called the wishing cup by its finder and represents the single bloom of the white lotus, adorned with an inscription to Tutankhamun reading «May you spend millions of years, you who love Thebes, sitting with your face to the North wind, your two eyes beholding happiness.» The figures on the handles represent the god of eternity, Heh, who holds the symbol of life, the ankh. Alabaster, a form of translucent gypsum, is a white or yellow stone that is easily carved. In its translucence it represents the ability to recognize form clearly and to bring order and form out of simple matter.
Palms and papyrus grow at the river’s edge. The papyrus was the symbol of the land of Lower Egypt close to the Mediterranean sea, and was important as the source of paper. The Egyptians peeled, cut, and then pounded the papyrus to form strong sheets for drawing and writing. The invention of papyrus paper spread the religious stories, philosophy, and culture of the Egyptians and then of the Greeks and even the Romans until cheaper pulp paper from China came to the region. Papyrus was used to weave strong baskets such as the one in which the infant Moses was found. The palm, which grew on the banks of the fertile waters of the Nile and the sea, was a symbol of victory, exultation, and fame; it was also a tree of virility because of its strong phallic shape. Its trunk represented the erect phallus, and the leaves were seen as the potent semen flowing from it. The palm was associated with orgiastic goddesses all over the Mediterranean world because it grows by her briny sea, and many of these goddesses were also associated with the primordial waters of the ocean.

The Three of Cups is a symbol of fertility and emotional openness and desire. This is a card of potent emotional creativity and action. As the card that follows the marriage card it represents sexual action and the emotional power of sexuality to bind two people together. This can be represented by any action that connects you emotionally to another person, for example, communication. This is a good time to deepen your relationship through actions that unite you, and to find the hidden ties that have bound you to your partner or family member, just as the hidden lotus rises from the alabaster cup.
The water that dominates this scene—as the Nile dominates the land of Egypt—is symbolic of the depth of emotion you are able to feel. Like the lotus, you draw power out of the dark soil at the river’s bottom and bring it up into the light. You may find hidden emotional strength to use in your relationships. Like the flooding of the Nile, these feelings can overwhelm you, but they are an integral part of your fertile creativity and you should not try to dam the flow, as it is what inspires you to new emotional heights.

TWO OF CUPS
Flowers of Joy Celebrate the Connections of Partnership
The number two represents the first division of energy into «this» and «that»; it is the symbol of the initial separation that brings about recognition of self and other. In the feeling suit of Cups, it stands for the relationship of human pairing and represents the emotional need for partnership. This is a card of romance and attraction that shows community celebration in the bonding of love.
The Two of Cups is a representation of emotional commitment in the presence of one’s community, shown in the card by the intricate pattern of the crocheted tablecloth. The cloth, knotted in an elaborate pattern made of interlocking slip knots, symbolizes the relationship of the larger community to the individual and to the couple. The community is the underlying fabric of all our relationships; it supports us by framing our roles and joining all of us together through interrelationship. Yet, like the easily unraveled crochet, our common community can be quite fragile and easily unwound when disagreements arise.
The web of community strictly defines our role in relation to each other through traditions and cultural mores, and any small tear or infraction in these relationships causes a weakening of the web and a dissolution of community support. The interconnectedness of this web of community describes our responsibility to our society, its basic and fundamental ethics and values that make us better people, such as honesty, compassion, and the respect and trust involved in a true and loving partnership. These are the significant and constructive requirements for a true partnership between any two loving people. A marriage or partnership between individuals will always involve the customs of the culture, either in accepting these traditions or in challenging them. No matter which, it always means taking up the new societal responsibilities of caring for your lover in times of sickness and giving support in times of trouble. A bonded partnership between two loving people is a symbolic beginning of adulthood and an emotional right of passage.
The flowers, the champagne, the strawberries are all ways of expressing the joyful nature of the celebration that often goes with marriage. Flowers are a traditional symbol of romance. They express the beauty of true love and represent the flowering of desire and the future fertility of the partnership, either in children or in creative contributions to the community. Strawberries, in the shape of little red hearts, represent the essence of love and our active sexuality, and in their sweetness they represent the fulfillment of our desires. The champagne is an obvious symbol of the exuberant celebration surrounding marriage in our culture. The crystal glasses show us the ideal of clarity and vision we must have when we enter into a deep relationship with another person. The blue ribbons remind us of the expanse of the limitless blue sky, which expresses the ideal ofendlessness and continuity in the trust of true love. They are knotted around the glasses, expressing the bonding of lives in marriage.
The water under the table is a reminder that all life is united in the fluidity of time and in our ancient origins and that our human responsibility is to respect all life. We must enter seriously into a compassionate relationship with each being as a representation of the bonding between self and other in order to maintain the fabric of the world we inhabit. Just as dolphins manage to communicate over large distances to preserve their social fabric, we must learn to sense this connection with life over great distances and expand our sense of community into the larger world.
This is a card of deep love and positive partnership. It may symbolize a very special, loving connection with someone outside yourself. You may have found support for this relationship in the community, or this may be one of the issues you face in an unconventional relationship. Remember that the most important factors are your feelings of love for each other and your ability to contribute through the strength of your love to the larger world.
The card may also refer to the disparate parts of the individual. You may be able to achieve a special integration with elements of your being at this time and to feel as if thoughts and feelings, for example, are in healthy relationship. This may occur because of the support of the larger community, who has come to see you as an important person with a unique role to play in the larger world. There is a sense of celebration in the air when this card is a part of the reading. This joyfulness honors a new recognition that all elements of the world are interrelated and bound together in the fabric of life.
When this card is drawn, it indicates a time to reflect on your responsibilities to your own loved ones with whom you have an intimate -connection. You might also want to remind them of their responsibilities to the relationship. It is important to be completely honest and to trust the other person with your feelings. Only when we flow like the water around each other and really open to each other’s love can the intense trust develop that gives us all the freedom to be who we really are. With this kind of honesty we can have the energy and support we need to take up our responsibility to the greater whole. We will have the strength and power within us to enter into relation with the earth and with each other creatures and to become, through this relationship, a more joyful person who celebrates life as a great gift.

ACE OF CUPS
The Chalice of Love and the Sea of Depth
The cup is a potent symbol of containment, protection, and enclosure. It is a vessel of magic, allowing us to control liquids that would otherwise escape our practical use. Imagine making soup without a pot, or serving wine without a cup! In the Tarot the suit of Cups represents the element water and the realm of the emotions, habits, and family—feelings that are held in the human being. The cup or chalice is also associated with the original container of lire, the womb. The ancients believed that the menstrual blood, which is held back during pregnancy, created the new life of the child through a miraculous magical process. Just as the womb held the blood of creation, the chalice held dark wine, the symbol of the red blood of life.
The Ace of Cups is the most elemental and original expression of the water element, and as such it symbolizes the awakening of the feeling-sense in the individual. On earth, the ocean is the basic elemental expression of water. AJ1 life originally evolved in the primordial womb of the sea. It was the dark, concealing, protective mother, where life was cradled before it emerged and crawled to land. The ocean is shown in cross section to make clear its cup-like nature and to express its nurturing function in the form of a woman’s breasts. Between these deeper seas, flowing from the ocean floor, is a plume in the form of a heart, symbolizing the love of the mother for her child. This plume wells up from the deepest places of the earth, symbolic of the depth of the mother’s passion and love. The child receives her first sustenance as she rests between her mother’s breasts, next to her beating heart. She is nurtured by the heart’s love of her mother and by the original vessel of her nourishment, the breasts of her mother.
Turning the card upside down, you will see that another cup is formed in the dark center of the earth. The earth’s mantle and crust form the container for the hot liquid magma that escapes at the mid-ocean ridge. Here, under the pressure of water at unbelievable depths, these hot spots have proved to be the incubators of new life. This cup of liquid rock and fire represents the range of human feeling, from anger, passion, and obsession to love and the nurturing emotions of parenting. The explosive burning magma is a symbol of any emotion that overwhelms us and any feeling we cannot seem to control. It is like a force that wells up deep inside us, and when it escapes it both destroys and creates in its wake, just as the passion of sexual feeling running wild within us drives us to encounters that result in the explosive feelings of orgasm.
The central cup in this Ace is the Ardagh Chalice, one of the finest examples of early Christian Celtic art, crafted in Ireland in the early eighth century. Ireland is a mystical land of water and of feeling. The mist of the island and its green fields represent the fertile Goddess and her mystery, which lives so deep in the hearts of the Irish people. Passions and feelings run strong in the country of Ireland, and this chalice is the symbol of the initiation of emotion and the awakening of passion. It represents the journey of the soul toward the setting sun in the western lands (the direction associated with the suit of Cups) and the land of darkness, the land of the shadow. Here we discover our deepest passions and make connections with others that transcend our own limitations.
The chalice itself is laden with symbolic meaning. It is made of silver, the metal connected with the moon. The moon, of course, is connected with the watery element through its action on the tides and its connection with the courses of women, whose twenty-eight-day cycle is influenced by the moon’s changes. The moon also rules the initiating (cardinal) water sign Cancer. The cross on the front of the chalice reflects its maker’s new-found Christian beliefs, but we may see it also as an example of more ancient fourfold symbols; representing the four directions, the four seasons, the four elements, and the four suits of the Tarot. Four is a number of order and totality, like the four walls of the completed house; it symbolizes a complete cycle of the year and the manifestation of the wholeness of the world through the four elements. The association of the Ace with the number four is therefore a symbol of the potential in unity for subsequent development and growth.
The chalice is also laden with spirals, a common form in many pre-Christian cultures, illustrating first the natural forms of the vine, the shell, and the spiral of seeds found in the pine cone and sunflower. The spiral takes us to a link with the myths of many great goddesses whose stories and symbols included the spiral: Ariadne of Crete and the Labyrinth, and Arianrhod of Wales, who lived at Spiral Castle. In this regard the spiral has been connected with the path of birth, life, and death and back again to rebirth . This path leads us back through the womb of our mother—the primal cup of life — through which we awaken to the feeling of connection with the family of the Goddess and her creation of which we are a part.
Each of the Aces in this Tarot is surrounded by a border to symbolize the original element contained at the commencement of its power and the unity of the initial number 1. The border of the Ace of Cups is full of watery sea life and is shaped in the form of the vesica piscis (Latin, «vessel of the fish»). The fish, an ancient symbol of female sexuality , is also symbolic of the yoni, the woman’s vulva and gateway of life.
The border is full of sea creatures appropriate to the feminine watery element such as the sea star, a wonderful reminder of the five phases of women’s lives: birth, menarche, motherhood, menopause, and death (see also the Five of Cups and Five of Swords). The border also holds pearls formed in the oyster’s cup, symbolizing the embryo, the moon, and the feminine power of water. » The open mussel at the bottom of the border, which mirrors the shape of the heart, symbolizes the connection of the suit of Cups to love, to family, and to the suit of Hearts, which Cups parallel in modern playing cards. Around it all entwine the spiral forms of Celtic knotwork, representing the complexity of our human relationships, here with an ocean theme formed from the blue-green and brown algae of the sea.

When this card appears in your reading, it signifies the initiation of a journey into the feeling realm. The appearance of an Ace always indicates a consolidation or beginning of the activities of that suit; in the case of Cups they will be matters of the heart and family. This card can indicate an elemental experience of feeling, a state of being in which feelings overwhelm you and it is difficult to separate from them. One manifestation of this could be the experience of nurturing love a baby receives in its mother’s arms. Feelings and deep emotions may awaken in you so that you feel you are surrounded by the salty sea of the mother ocean. You may find yourself submerged in these deep feelings as if you were a child experiencing them for the first time.
The Ace represents emotion in an undivided state, a type of feeling we rarely experience as we grow older and learn to stand back from our feelings so that we may interpret and analyze them. This tends to keep us from a pure experience of feelings and allows our mental faculties (represented by the suit of Swords) to become a filter for our emotions, distancing us emotionally from those we love and care for. The Ace gives you a chance to return to a pure feeling and experience its totality, even if it is negative anger or jealousy. This connects us to the dark side of our nature and to the power that lies hidden there in the passion we filter out through thought. In this power is the strength to begin or continue the journey that takes you to the western darkness to face your shadow and lead it to the daylight.

SWORDS

KNIGHT OF SWORDS
A Scientist in His Lab with His Tools
The Knight is the final male card in the suit of Swords, representing the element air and symbolizing the achievements and values of human thought as expressed in a masculine way. As a scientist, this Knight’s goal is to understand the natural world through the actions of observation and experimentation. He brings into the Tarot the modern respect for scientific truth and our need to understand our own effect on the natural world in order to ensure survival. Although this kind of
thinking may seem cold and calculating and without respect for feelings, in good science the goal is to improve people’s lives. When a scientist uses logic and his own good moral standards to investigate a natural mystery, his motivation is compassion and he uses the attributes of the other suits in the Tarot in pursuit of this goal. In other words, the mind is capable of reordering our feelings, our energy, and our physical bodies in the single-minded pursuit of a valuable goal. Therefore, this card represents the kind of thinking that is goal directed and harnesses all a person’s talents to achieve something worthwhile.
The scientist holds in his hand a sharp scalpel, an instrument symbolizing keen thinking and the ability to penetrate material with clear, precise thought. The material he will penetrate is the human brain, the seat of our thought and feelings. He is ready to record his observations in his scientific journal. The pencil represents his ability to record his views and then return to them even when the moment of observation has passed. His white lab coat is a symbol of his integrity of thought, unsullied by the cluttering ideas of others.
The open notebook and the tools of science on the table represent the various methods of analytical thinking. The knives and scissors represent thought and its ability to cut through external, trivial, and unnecessary aspects of a problem or dissect an issue to reach the underlying basic truth. The chemistry equipment symbolizes the ability to process experimental observations through the action of thought, by blending together various results of experimentation in order to reach a reasonable conclusion. Because science involves imagination that believes in answers and new solutions, the steam that rises from the flasks is full of stars, recalling the limitless infinity of the sky. The computer on the table is symbolic of the inventiveness involved in science and the necessity of specialized tools in the achievement of practical science.
The window symbolizes an open mind, one that easily embraces new opinions and new ideas. Just as a scientist waits to make conclusions until he finds observational proof for his theory, the window represents the ideal of an accepting person who is without bias and judgment until he reaches true understanding of the complexities of the issues. The birds outside the window represent the free flight of thought and the need to exchange with others in order to clarify one’s own views, hence the impression that the two birds are playing together in flight. The cloud is at once the symbol of the condensation of thought and its return to earth in a practical application—which would be symbolized by the appearance of rain—and the introduction of the scientist’s ethical values, representing water and the feeling suit of Cups.
The prism, rainbow, and laser represent the focusing of thought on the separate and distinct parts of every puzzle so that understanding can be complete. In the laser all the waves of light are moving at the same wavelength, symbolizing the ability to create a clear focus for one’s work, to stick with it, and to line up all the parts of one’s life to achieve the goal. In the card the scientist directs our attention to the rainbow and the light that comes in at the window, emphasizing the power of the light and its meaning. This represents the mystical part of science, the part that connects science with religion and with our ultimate search for greater understanding. The light symbolizes enlightenment, learning, and the understanding of higher and more translucent things. It brings love, warmth, and compassion into the cold and calculating outward appearance of science. The Knight reminds us that otherwise, science isn’t useful because it gets stuck in the airy thought realms with no useful application to the human concerns on earth.

When this card appears in a reading it can mean several things. Sometimes, like the numbered cards, it represents a need for clear, scientific thinking that can be applied directly to your life and will lead to improvement in your circumstance. The Knight of Swords is a symbol of applied thought that brings direct and visible change. It represents hypothesis and theory resolved into accepted fact.
Because it is also a face card, it can represent an actual person in your life, one who embodies this kind of scientific vision, whose importance in an aspect of your life either is clear now or will be in the near future. Keep in mind that pure science will not advance your life unless you realize its application to the real world. Pure science in an ordinary life can mean a retreat to intellectual pursuits, symbolized in the card by the cold marble and white bricks. These remind us that we must not cut our mind off from our bodies, but must integrate the two in order to lead more satisfactory and complete lives. We are also reminded that the freedom of our thoughts and the ability to remain open-minded will lead to closer relationships with others who are unlike us. Through acceptance and understanding of our differences, we will all live in a more perfect world. Thoughts and opinions that create hatred and misunderstanding must be examined logically, with understanding and compassion, in order that truth without negative judgment may bring us all together.

QUEEN OF SWORDS
Flights of the Mind in Folded Paper
The Queen of Swords is the matriarch of the Tarot royalty. Swords is the final suit in the Tarot, and its Queen represents the pinnacle of woman’s wisdom and intellect. In this way the Queen of Swords is linked to the powerful High Priestess. Tarot Queens traditionally represent the water element. Therefore, the Queen of Swords personifies the watery part of air, just as the willow tree of the High Priestess card embodies both the intellectual wisdom of woman and the watery emotional world of intuition and love. The Queen of Swords represents the perfection of the idea and the reflections of a balanced natural mind. She combines great mental capacity with superb feminine intuition gained in her life experience. She is a symbol of the power of memory to take us on journeys to the past and to the future, through her innate ability to catch each moment and preserve it. She is the symbol of calm reflection and meditative thought.
In this card the old woman sits comfortably on the floor because she is firmly connected to the earth and to the patterns of the natural world. These patterns are seen in the paper snowflakes she cuts and the folded cranes that symbolize health and long life. The ancient Japanese tradition of Shinto emphasizes the beauty, bounty, and fertility of nature and its intimate connections to the ordinary lives of its human inhabitants. Naturally beautiful places in the landscape are worshiped as kami and regarded as places where people can easily merge with the nature around them. Although kami is often defined as a spirit or god, to the Japanese it can be just a place or thing that inspires a sense of awe, beauty, and deep and reverent connection with the universe.
Some important kami are gods and goddesses, the most important being Amaterasu, the bright Sun Goddess represented on the rising sun flag of Japan. Just as women give birth to the next generation of children, the sun continually gives birth to the new day. Amaterasu was the creatrix of the eight major islands of Japan and the ancestress of the emperors of Japan. In very ancient Japanese culture, women were the priestesses and shamans, who understood the world of the kami and could translate the wisdom of nature to the people. Like Amaterasu, the wisdom of the priestess fell like warm rays on the people of Japan. On New Year’s Day the Sun Goddess reappeared from the darkness of the cave symbolic of winter nights, enticed by a bright strand of beads offered to her by the other gods, who missed her warmth and light. Her renewed brightness is observed in the lighted lamp in the little winter garden outside the old woman’s paper screen door.
Winter is the traditional symbol of old age. In winter the trees have lost their leaves, and the warm growth of nature is invisible beneath the blanket of snow. In Asian countries old age is a venerable time of life, when wisdom has been deepened by experience. In Japan the natural cycle of the seasons is of supreme importance; it is the underlying rhythm of life, and winter is a respected part of the cycle. In Japan the winter brings New Year’s Day, one of the mosit^important Japanese holidays. New Year’s is a symbol of rebirth, and one traditional way of celebrating it is to wake early on the morning of the new year to watch the sun rise over the shore, a symbol of the awakening of the year, of the rebirth of light after darkness, and of the impermanence of death.
In Japan, fortunes written on little slips of paper are tied to the bare tree branches for good luck in the coming year. These fluttering messages to the spirit realm may represent the coming flowers of spring and the subsequent fruit of the flowering tree as a physical representation of good fortune.
The crane passing above the tree is a symbol of many things in Japan. As a bird it is connected with the qualities of the air and becomes a messenger of the gods to the world of humankind. The air is a natural metaphor for the freedom of the soul at death and the idea of freedom of the human spirit even in life. To this old woman, it is a symbol of her intuitive awareness of the spirit world she will enter at death, for it is the crane that carries the souls of the dead to the western paradise. The large white birds are also the symbol of longevity, prosperity, and happiness. The crane is considered the bird of fidelity because it mates for life and mourns when its chosen mate dies. Cranes are protective, caring parents, and they symbolize devotion to family. The crane becomes the symbol of mind and heart as combined in the Queen of Swords.
The living tree decorated with origami cranes is a symbol of the diversity of our appreciation of nature. Origami is the art of finding form in a simple piece of paper by folding it into patterns that mirror the world. Folding paper cranes is an action of particular significance: the person who folds them acquires the blessings of the gods. Each crane is a different color to symbolize the rainbow, which in turn combines the magic of air, light, and water. The rainbow can represent the intimate relationship between feelings and thoughts and the ability to take creative action based on deep understanding of both. Hung on the little evergreen tree, the cranes represent the ever-expanding insight we acquire as we grow toward old age.
The sword is a symbol of courage and strength, as well as of discernment and the powers of the intellect. In Buddhist thought, the sword was the symbol of discrimination that penetrated the deepest recesses of philosophy in order to find truth . The sword inside the box represents the intellect, contained and protected as a treasure within the feminine enclosure. It represents wisdofil from the deepest places of the human spirit and also from the deepest places in nature.
In this card the old woman spends her time in a simple meditative activity to calm the mind. The birds on her kimono are a symbol of the mind, its thoughts wandering and free like the wind in the tree outside. Cutting and folding paper, she allows space for the quiet contemplation that balances the mind, body, and feelings. She allows mundane household concerns to clear from her mind in order to contemplate deeply the intimate beauty of the natural world and her very real connection to it. She is the representation of nature becoming conscious of itself. It is part of this woman’s duty to exemplify this in her life by her awareness of the beauty and magic of nature. Because she is a part of nature, she is duty bound to be a part of its beauty in every action, no matter how insignificant and small. This is the basic principle of the Shinto philosophy:
bound to nature, we must strive always to mirror the beauty and purity of the natural world.
 
When this card is a part of your reading, it often represents someone old or someone whose life experience has been extensive. This card is the symbol of balanced, ordered thought and an ability to use intuition as well. The Queen of Swords represents fluidity of thought, as symbolized in the little stream outside the door. Therefore, she is not associated with the actualization of ideas, as the Knight is, but more with the manifestation of actual thinking and the journey that thought provides. Her thoughts are clear, and her actions reflect this simple clarity as she goes about her normal and simple life. She is the symbol of nature made conscious in living human form and therefore of simple good sense, practicality, and the efficiency that is evident in nature in its repetition of form and function. She is like the memory of nature for these forms; they unfold naturally through her as if there were no other way.
The Queen of Swords, as we saw above, is connected with the High Priestess, and she is also connected to Justice, who is frequently shown with the sword also. Justice is always represented as a woman, frequently blind or blindfolded, symbolizing her ability to disregard appearances as a quality for judgment. This feminine use of the sword for justice, rather than for violence and retribution, marks it as an instrument of balance and associates it with a strict code of behavior requiring personal responsibility. The Queen of Swords has such a code in her Shinto beliefs, which require her to reflect on nature’s balanced beauty through clear thinking and deep understanding of her place in it.

PRINCE OF SWORDS
A Young Man Learns Balance and Grace with a Sword
The Prince and the Princess in the Tarot represent the young person who is learning to use the skills and qualities of the suit to lead a more fulfilling life. As we learn throughout our lives we all will reflect the qualities of the Prince and the Princess at some point. The Prince of Swords is learning a sword dance. The dance involves careful movement, balance, and control and requires concentrated effort and practice. He is learning to focus his mind on the task at hand and to bend his will so that he can learn a new and difficult skill. He must forget about other things while he practices, and he must devote much time to the task so it will become second nature to him.
He begins with an intellectual understanding of what he wants to learn, symbolized by the books at his feet, and then he transforms his body to do the will of the mind. Just as a ballet dancer must suffer in order to learn to dance on her toes, this young Prince must sacrifice and suffer to acquire a new skill. As with a child who is learning to play an instrument, practice is the key, and the child must often give up play time in order to learn. These commitments are sometimes very difficult to make. Sometimes we are not in the mood to practice, and sometimes we are too busy to fit the practice in.
The ancient Arabic people were well known for their intellectual pursuits. An Arab saying shows us how they valued knowledge above all:
«The ink of scholars is more precious than the blood of martyrs.»  Their studies of medicine, mathematics, and astronomy dominated the ancient world for several centuries. Our word algebra is from the Arabic Aljabr, meaning «reunion of broken parts.» The Arab scientists used geometry (from Greek geo, meaning «earth,» and meter, meaning «measure») to accurately calculate the earth’s circumference; they understood the relation of the moon to the tides, and they perfected the astrolabe so that they could accurately measure the latitudes of their many trading stops throughout the Indian Ocean. Moslem universities in Spain were important in transmitting the intellectual work of Greece and India to the European world during the otherwise Dark Ages.
An understanding of complex geometry is obvious in the amazing decorative work of the Arab artisans. Their elaborate colored tile work on mosques and their lovely calligraphy are both examples of careful mathematical work. Restricted to patterns by their religious precepts, the artist portrayed the infinite variety of the work of Allah through repetitive abstract forms that we now call arabesques. These complex interwoven works are a symbol of the world’s diversity, the infinite power of God, and numerical infinity.
These patterns surround the Prince of Swords, from his flowing clothes to the rug on the floor, in the many-colored tiles of his room and the zigzag patterns on the spire outside his open door. To the Prince, these patterns represent the routine of practice that results in learning; he must repeat the form of the dance over and over again until it becomes an internalized pattern. A good example of this in our day-to-day lives is learning to drive. At first we must be quite conscious of our movements as we operate the car, remembering our feet and hands and the brake, clutch, and steering wheel. But over time, it all becomes second nature to us, and we no longer need to focus on the individual parts of the operation because we have become one with it; our body is extended to the boundaries of the automobile. This is the effect of practice and learning: to internalize information so that our effect on the world may be expanded by our larger consciousness of its diversity.
The rainbow appearing in the open doorway symbolizes the recognition of diversity and the ability to see the differing parts of a particular thing through the combined power of intellect (air), energy (sun), and feeling (water). The doorway symbolizes the open mind and the ability to see the world in its true form without veils. The spire reminds us of the search for the spirit of God within all things and the human ability to bring this spirit into form, through the acquisition of complex skills that reflect our creative impulse. The Prince’s blue head covering represents his spiritual quest and yearning for understanding. His green pants reflect his growing skill and remind us of our deep natural connection to the earth. The sword is the symbol of skill and discrimination, curved to indicate the need to flow easily with the circle of life.
 
When the Prince of Swords appears in your cards, it may represent a person who is in the process of learning a new skill, either yourself or someone involved in your situation. It may simply represent the need for clear and reflective thought that follows a complex but repeated pattern, perhaps a pattern of behavior you repeat again and again. Generally, however, this card illuminates a need for practice and patience in the acquisition of a new and complex skill. Remembering that plans are a form of repeated patterning, you may find that you need to plan your time better so that you will make a space for this practice. The practice itself should be regarded as a spiritual path to enlightenment and deep growth. Like the Prince, if you follow the steps to learning carefully, your world will be expanded and your awareness of diversity will grow. In effect, with proper study and an open mind, you will become all that you see and do and expand your options in the world.

PRINCESS OF SWORDS
A Young Woman Prepares Her Hides and Herbs
The young Princess of Swords is helping her people by preparing the hides and gathered herbs for later use. She will also prepare the fat little grouse that hangs on the tree for dinner. She practices her skills in, the face of radical changes that have come to her people, in the form of the white man who is now sailing to her shores. The traditional life of the native people has not yet been overrun, so this young woman is still a part of the natural world that surrounds her. Though she has accepted some of the white man’s trappings—the iron knife, the wool blanket on the neat little bed, and the horse—she still learns and uses her traditional family skills. She lives in a little thatched house, tans hides in the old way, and gathers the herbs her grandmother also gathered.
Arising from the world of nature, the ancestors of our Princess have through time acquired intimate knowledge of the plant and animal life that inhabits these rich eastern woodlands. Using their innate skills of thinking, they developed tools that made life easier and more satisfying. Among all the animals in the woodland, only humans have the capacity to grow beyond their instinctual animal ways. They have learned to recognize herbs and flowers of the fields that help them when they are ill and make their food more interesting and varied. They have invented complex methods of storage for their foodstuffs that allow them to stay well nourished, even in the cold winter months.
The Princess’s use of these skills reflects her connection with both the natural world and the world other traditions. In the Tarot the Princess is the personification of the earthy element that connects us to our original ancestress—Mother Earth—and to our ancient roots in the world of nature. In her actions she bridges the gap between the ancient and the present, between the world of the thinking animal and the world of nature. As the earthy part of air, the Princess of Swords is the symbol of earthy, practical learning and the skills that have developed in us through our evolution from the earth.
We learn the ways of the past as children at our parents’ feet; as we grow and see how they do things we often find ourselves imitating their ways. In this woman’s culture, traditions arise directly from her natural environment. Many times, however, we face new challenges and new problems that our parents never had to face, and we have no tradition to guide us. We then use the amazing adaptive power of the mind and our practical, common sense to guide us.
This Princess faces the challenge of a radically different culture about to descend upon her world, for she will face the coming of the white man’s world whether she wants to or not. Today, as the world changes faster and faster we are always facing new challenges for which tradition holds no answers. For example: What is the traditional role of mass media in our culture, and how will we incorporate its influence? What is the role of the mass media in a «primitive» tribal culture? How will the Princess be forced to adapt to the influence of another culture’s tools, health problems, religion, and ethics? At the root of the conflicts posed in this card is this question: What are the ethical standards today for two interacting cultures, and what should be preserved in the face of constant change?
For the time being, the Princess will accept the tools that make her life easier: the sharp metal of the knife makes the job of cutting the birch bark easier, the woolen blankets keep her warm in the dark of winter, and the horse is a true marvel, as it allows her an amazing range of space where she can gather the necessities of life. These are the pragmatic and adaptive skills of the Princess of Swords. As she is still learning, she is able to easily incorporate new things into her life, just as our children seem undaunted by the new skills of the computer world while some of us struggled at first with them.
The birch tree was used extensively by the Indians of the northeastern woods. Because of its versatility and because it is one of the first trees to put out leaves in the spring, the birch was regarded as the tree of life and was accorded a great respect in the tales of the various tribes. It was used to make canoes and containers, to cover houses, and for delicate artwork.
Among the Ojibwa and the people of the Great Lakes area, birch bark scrolls were inscribed with characters telling the stories of their most important ceremony, the Midewiwin («mystic doings»). The Midewiwin was also a religious society for men and women to be trained and initiated through eight degrees of knowledge in herbal medicine and ethics that promoted right living and a long life. Chief among their ethical precepts were respect for women and strict injunctions against alcoholism, lying, and stealing . Old people, who would have attained high degrees in the Midewiwin, were therefore respected greatly, as long life was direct evidence of their right living.
In the Princess card, the herbs that were the basis of the medicine society are laid out just behind her. She understands the complexity of the knowledge that will be given to her in the Midewiwin ceremony. This diversity is represented in the card by the rainbow of herbs; their many colors exemplify the variety of herbal lore recognized by the society. Many who have studied the mnemonic birch bark scrolls of the Midewiwin believe that this was the beginning of the development of a true written language that would have been able to record the oral history of the people, had the white man not invaded their lands and unduly influenced their culture.
The willow tree connects the Princess of Swords with the High Priestess. The willow is the tree of the moon, through its connection with water, and it represents women’s ancient wisdom. This Princess, who works hard to be accepted for her people’s religious training, is stepping onto the path that will lead her to a role as the High Priestess. With the knowledge of her written language, the knowledge of the herbs, and the ethical training she will receive in the Midewiwin, she will be able to guide others in the path to vision and enlightenment.
 
In simple terms, this card symbolizes the ability to learn from nature, the past, and the future and to weave these threads together into a new and unique life. The Princess recognizes the diversity of her choices and is beginning to develop the ability to make positive judgments for herself between diverging paths. When the Princess of Swords appears in your reading, it may indicate a conflict posed by the struggle between tradition and invention. You may want to take a new and individual path, but the patterns of your past are holding you back. This card speaks of the struggle within us for courage to take the future into our hands and to step onto the road with the tools we need, tools from both past and present, to change the outcome of history in any small way that we can. Unlike the people that sailed across the sea to the land this Princess called home, we must examine carefully and with an open mind what we carry from the past that has intrinsic value, what is hurtful to us and to the earth, and what is right and good from the present. We can then decide what to carry into the future to help us live with balance on the earth.

TEN OF SWORDS
A Garden Shed Opens and Reveals the Planet Uranus
The Ten of Swords is the last numbered card in the Tarot. It symbolizes old age and the wisdom we have gained through living. The brick path represents the journey of life and the structures we have created along the way. The tools and objects surrounding it are the events and needs we have in life. The little garden shed is the arena of our life, and at the end of our journey we look through the door into death. The final sword in our life is the sickle of death, which we trip over as we leave the security of the house of life.
Everything we need to grow through life is here in the shed: water from the can, soil in the burlap bag, stakes to make us stand tall and strong, and tools to keep us properly pruned. Our lives are analogous to the plants in a garden, and like them we grow and thrive with proper care. With this kind of thoughtful care we will become wise and knowing in our old age. When we take the time to learn a discipline like gardening, we learn how to care for ourselves as well. However, because this kind of lifetime pursuit is complex, we cannot expect to know everything about it when we die. It is important to understand that we can never expect to understand everything about life. As in the expression «the more you know the more there is you don’t know» life gets more and more complex. In this final numbered image of the Tarot, each of the gardening tools serves a different purpose to symbolize an appreciation of this amazing complexity. The Ten of Swords shows us a time in life when we have collected the various tools of living and can call on them to serve our needs in every moment.
All the tools of life surround us and are within us: Disks in the hanging garlic and spiders5 webs, Cups in the planting pots, Wands in the broom and planting stakes, and Swords in the cutting tools of the garden. Through our awareness of these tools we now know when we must speak or stay silent and when we must use our energy or save it. The wisdom we gain through living teaches us, and our actions become tuned to the world around us. Gardening requires this kind of sense, for we must know when it is time to dig the soil and begin planting and when we should take our clippers to the roses. Like the tools in the shed, everything we do has its place and time. When the sage plant gets too large for its pot, we move it to the garden beds; we give it a larger world to live in so that it may grow and expand. The plant is like the child who leaves home to take on the bigger world, marching through one of the gateways of his life. But when the ivy—an ancient symbol of resurrection—creeps in at the door, we are drawn away from the arena of life, and our minds and spirits seem to wander among the distant planets.

In a Tarot reading, this card is symbolic of completion and of a sense that you have the tools and knowledge to finish the tasks at hand. The card reminds you that using the right tool for any job accomplishes the best result. Sometimes the plant needs water; other times it needs fertilizer or a new and bigger pot. Keep in mind, also, the constant need for learning, so that your judgment about what you need to grow and change becomes better and better. When you draw this card, think about all the various aspects of your situation carefully; its components are like the objects in the shed, each having its own place and time and effects. What can you call upon to nurture your growth and wisdom? Carefully consider how each new perspective has led you to make new and more knowledgeable decisions about your future challenges. This is how you learn in life. If you notice that the results of your actions were not helpful to you or to others, you can use this information to act differently in the future. Then you will find that your actions will more often be in line with the natural world of changing seasons and growing plants.
Each action you take and each thought you have symbolizes the death of the moment as it passes into what has been and will never be again. The garden shed symbolizes the moment that has passed as you step through the door into the unknown. The Ten of Swords represents the finality of each moment and is a reminder that every one of life’s experiences will teach you something new and bring realization, both for yourself and for those with whom you have relationships.

NINE OF SWORDS
The Blades of Windmills Turn in the Breeze
Nine is a number of action. This action will bring us to the creation of the numeral ten, the final number in the Minor Arcana cards. The action of the blowing wind and the singing blades of these windmills bring us a new way of fulfilling our energy needs. The original enabling action that created power from the wind was thought, which allowed the proper placement of the windmill. In order to generate the highest energy output, the engineer requires specific knowledge of the wind patterns in this area. This means understanding something unseen and complex through diligent observation. Time itself is invisible, in that you cannot now see exactly what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow. The ability to record observations, retrieve the information, and make sophisticated use of it at a later time allows us to make complex arrangements that serve our future needs.
The windmill makes use of the frictional relationship between the earth and the sky. It is placed where the friction is high: in a narrow windy pass or at the top of a windswept hill. Here, the resultant motion of earth meeting air creates a constant wind that turns the blades of the windmill. The product of the blades’ motion is electricity. The windmill literally takes energy directly out of the air and stores it in the earth for our later use.
We use our bodies in the service of our minds when we build something like a windmill. Our minds organize the actions we need to take in order to create this helpful structure, which serves specific needs we have foreseen. This ability shows the human capacity for planning—something we are able to do with a high degree of complexity. This card is meant to show a rational use of this ability when positive and negative future consequences are equally considered. This means the consideration of all environmental effects and the ability to live within the means of our limited planet. This is the kind of thinking we need to develop, now and in the future.
The green hills are a symbol of the fertility of our minds and the ability to grow new things. They embody our capacity to find new and innovative ways of doing things, like creating electricity when the need arises. Grass grows new and green each year, a fitting symbol to remind us that we are never trapped in our current situation but can always begin again with a fertile creative spirit and new untried ideas. In the sky are the high cirrus clouds that signify a change in the weather. Here they are a symbol of the coming change toward a more ecological future that must take place if we are to survive. The radiant pattern of the clouds is a symbol of our common origins and the similarity of all life, even in our amazing diversity.
 
When the Nine of Swords appears in a reading, you are working with clear and considered thought. You are able to take into account the various consequences of your actions in order to make positive judgments that will create goodwill. The card shows your ability to gather all the information needed to make these considered decisions. Like the data gathered for the placement of the windmill, the obvious and the subtle are visible to you—both the high green hills and the unseen winds that pass over them. This translates into the ability to read others’ thoughts and emotions so that the decisions you make will take these meaningful factors into account.
The windy scene in the card implies that thoughts move quickly through you and that there is no need to hold on to them as if they defined your character. The winds make the windmills move just as your thoughts keep you in action. The card represents action at hand—action based on clear, deliberative thinking. It defines the outcome as providing new energy and positive consequences in the world around you.

EIGHT OF SWORDS
A Baseball Shatters the Window
A transparent window is a symbol of the clear mind. The house is a symbol of the individual and the body, represented by one’s personal space and possessions, while the windows are symbolic of the eyes and all they take in. Windows represent a clear picture, an unsullied view, and a clear and open mind. The bright sunny sky behind the broken window is the symbol of this kind of lucid thinking. In the Eight of Swords the window has been shattered, symbolizing loss of clarity or a disturbance in one’s mental tasks. This interference is brought on by a baseball, symbolic of the suit of Disks, and represents any physical condition that interrupts one’s mental clarity or space. This may be something as simple as a dirty house or an inconvenience such as a missing favorite pen or a ringing telephone. It may also represent more complex problems with physical space.
Baseball is an intricate, competitive game, and in this context it may represent physical struggle for a quiet space and the complexities of people’s physical needs in their own space. When you share a home with family, you must balance your own needs with theirs. Often these needs conflict; you come home tired and need to rest, but your children are energetic and want to play and have some special time with you. When your children are loud and physical in your space, competing for your attention or competing against each other, your mental clarity can be shattered. The loud noise of the baseball breaking the window symbolizes the way we feel when we are suddenly interrupted. We lose our train of thought and feel fragmented and frequently quite angry, just as we would if the window really were broken.
The ball itself is a symbol of wholeness and perfection. The sphere represents unified totality and all the possibilities of the world. The sphere is a symbol of the ultimate irrelevance of time, as it contains everything that was, everything that is, and everything that will be. The baseball, with its sewn band curving around and around and never ending, represents the infinite stream of time that connects past to future and joins all of us in the moment. This is the ultimate reality that we have been called upon to recognize. All things are one; all things are bound together. What we see as «our space» is ultimately the space of all of us. The world is getting more crowded, and interruptions of other people into our space will become more and more frequent. It is our responsibility to be accommodating to others’ needs while still looking out for our own. It is a measure of the Golden Rule: «do unto others as you would have them do unto you.»
In the foreground is our needed reminder of the calm and centered mind. The chamomile plant represents the ability to focus and stay centered, even in the face of chaos. Chamomile is a well-known herb given for nervous complaints and has been used since history was recorded and probably as long as humans have gathered plants. It is good for headache and for relaxation, and it is a common component in remedies for neuralgia. It is cultivated here on the window sill in order to restore balance to the shattered nerves of the occupants. They know they can turn to nature to help them in dealing with the limitations of space and the unpredictable events surrounding them, perhaps by taking a walk in the country and then relaxing with a cup of chamomile tea.

The Eight of Swords is a card of distraction and loss of focus. You may be struggling to remember what it was you were working toward or you may be so distracted by physical events that you have no mental focus. The Eight of Swords in your reading shows a need to balance the life of the mind with the physical world of things. Perhaps you lack a defined work space for your mental life, or maybe you have no sense of balance in these two realms so that you cannot accomplish goals on either plain. You may have many incomplete projects because you cannot maintain focus. This may lead to a feeling of being scattered, your energy fractured like the shattered glass. Remember that the number eight is the symbol of the sun’s rays, and recognize that although the sun scatters its rays to all the earth, it takes time to spread its light around. The sun focuses first on one side of the planet and then on the other. You may need to limit your focus for a while in order to follow things through to their completion.
Perhaps you are feeling crowded; you may feel that your needs are not being respected in your physical space. This might be a good time to try to arrange things differently and set up your space so that you can focus more easily. Perhaps other people in your life do not respect your needs either, and you need to be clear with them about their interruptions. Or perhaps you have particular trouble living in the chaos of your family or work life and just need to relax and recognize that you will have to learn to focus in the confusion of ordinary life.
It would be good to seek out some quiet time and space in which to think about what would help you find clarity. Think about practices that could restore the balance for you so that you don’t end up feeling so fragmented. Think about the round ball; it is a symbol of wholeness in the experience of all that surrounds you. Think also about the pot of chamomile and try to emulate its calm steady growth.

SEVen OF SWORDS
The Makin of the Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta stone was found in Egypt in 1799 during the construction of a fort by the occupying Napoleonic forces of the French army. Through the relative enlightenment of the army officer in charge, its importance was recognized and the stone was saved rather than being incorporated into the stone walls of the fort. The Seven of Swords shows us the Rosetta stone in the moments of its creation. The craftsperson who is chiseling the demotic script into the stone will sit on the woven mat to finish the message in Greek, and this message will come down through the ages and provide the key to our understanding of a distant and foreign tongue. The Rosetta stone was instrumental in understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics because the same inscription appears in Egyptian demotic, a form of cursive hieroglyphics for the average citizen to read; and ancient Greek, a language that has survived into the present; and in the formal hieroglyphics seen at the top of the card.
The meaning of this card is communication and understanding. The message of the Rosetta stone comes to us from a remote past; carved in 196 B.C.E., it contains the story of kings and queens of the period. Because it gave us the entirety of the ancient Egyptian language in both its written forms, its individual meaning is greatly enhanced. From this original key we have been able to read the Egyptian Book of the Dead and all the stories of Egyptian mythology. Because of the Rosetta stone, the life of the ancient Egyptian people—their culture, their art, their daily existence—is illuminated.
The importance of the communication pictured in this card is the great distance through which the message has come in order to have such a very great effect on its readers. The symbolic meaning of the Rosetta stone is greater because of its importance as the key to an ancient age. This is a symbol of information, bearing complex thoughts and ideas over a long time and a great distance. Because of the difficult journey of this important stone through time, it represents any difficulty in the communication of a thought or idea. It indicates that the message will be intelligible to others, even though the difficulties seem enormous in the moment.
The rock and hammer used to inscribe the message represent the force of the communication. They symbolize the motivation behind voice or any other method of communication, and they represent the directed nature of any message over space and time. The makers of the Rosetta stone presumably wanted this message to be conveyed into the future to have inscribed it on solid stone. The artisans used sharp chisels so that the message would remain clear and legible over time. This is a symbol of the need for clarity in communication. In our dealings with others we reach understanding when the meaning of the spoken or written word is clear and thoughtful.
The woven mat symbolizes the interchange of thoughts and the complexity of our communication. Our spoken and written impressions are interwoven with the thoughts and ideas of other people. In conversation we use thoughts like threads to draw out the thoughts and ideas of others, and it is often impossible for us to untangle the threads of our ideas after the conversation is over. We use expressions such as the «fabric» of society and the «weaving» of a plot to symbolize the intricate nature of discourse. Our lives and actions form an invisible thread, which is interwoven with the threads of all the other people who interact with us. We literally weave the fabric of our own lives. The Rosetta stone, like many other objects from the ancient past, was woven into our culture through the value of its overall message: to bring alive the culture of ancient Egypt. The fabric of our society is like a woven sheet of many colors and textures, and it is within our power to understand and communicate with others even though they may be vastly different from ourselves, just as we are different from those who carved the stone.
 
When this card is a part of your Tarot reading, examine the messages you are communicating to others or the messages that are being given to you. The Rosetta stone can represent communication that flows only one way: from the past into the future. This can be a symbol of difficulties in real understanding. Make your own message clear, and communicate with enough energy to ensure that your meaning is received. Then be aware of another difficulty in communication: we often fail to really listen to other people because either we think we know what they will say or we don’t want to hear them. Examine whether you are really hearing the messages that come to you. One way to be sure you have heard is to repeat the essence of the spoken words before you respond to their meaning. This exercise helps the other person to feel understood.
Because seven is the number of true partnership, combining the creative three with the structured four, this card is a symbol of the importance of interactive communication as symbolized by the woven mat. See your life as a fabric, and cultivate an understanding that communication is the interaction of the thread of your own life with the threads of other lives. The fabric of your life becomes stronger when it is woven together tightly with others. When people feel very distant from each other, it is the power of communication that will bring them together; communication is the active principle that can unite very differing points of view in order to make the fabric of life whole and complete.

SIX OF SWORDS
A Fallen Caribou Gives Its Life to Feed the People
The Six of Swords is a symbol of practical planning and action that leads to a certain goal. Six is the number of active choice and division; formed of two interlocking triangles, it points both to the earth and to the sky, symbolic of diverging options and plans. In the cold north the life force is precious, and for the people who lived in this environment the practical issues of eating through the winter months were particularly challenging. Without enough food the people die; to feed the people the caribou must die. These choices represent the two divergent courses of action represented by the numeral six.
In order to survive, the people plan the hunt carefully. Living with the animals over many years and following their habits closely enables the hunter to understand the choice he must make in an intimate way. He is sure to single out the weaker members of the herd because the continuing presence of vast numbers of caribou is crucial to his life. This study of the animal is a special application of the mental faculties represented by the suit of Swords. The understanding of very complex interactive ecological systems requires focus and discrimination. The hunter must recognize the route of the migration and the subtle variations of the season—such as a shift in the light or a particular plant that signals change— that bring the migrating herds to his area. Then, in watching the movement of the animals as they travel, the hunter must recognize subtle differences in their movements that signal age, health, and breeding status. With this information he can make a choice and bring down the animal that his gods have chosen for him. He will honor the beast for giving its life to feed him and his family through the winter months, and he will free its spirit to the gods who gave it life.
The tools of the hunter also reflect his skill and careful planning. In order to skin the caribou he must use a particular knife; to cut the flesh and sinew he needs yet another. When he leaves for the hunt he carefully considers what he will need, and through experience he packs his tool kit with exactly what he will use. The tracker’s capacity for learning and for using tools is his defining characteristic as a powerful and feared hunter. The toolmaker also has learned a skill that enables him to perform complex tasks. Stone tools are a symbol of creating form out of chaos. Out of the original earthy form of the stone, the artisan creates a useful tool through his skill and knowledge. The toolmaker has found within the stone the form of the tool and has released its hidden potential.
The sunset represents the coming of darkness, symbolic of the winter and the retreat to the inner life of the mind. It also represents the dying caribou and the sunset of its life. With the recognition of the sun’s demise, the hunter has prepared to survive by storing the things he needs: foodstuffs to help his family survive, furs to make new clothes, and bones to make new tools. He will spend the time making these new things and turning his ideas to real and useful products. Like the falling sun, the flying geese are a symbol of autumn. They also symbolize planning, for just as the hunter notices subtle changes that signal the movement of the caribou, the geese take to the wing to travel to the warmer climates for the bitter winter.
Planning requires a selective sacrifice. When we make plans to work toward a particular goal—say, buying a house—we sacrifice other things we may want in order to save enough money to complete our plans. We choose one path over another and focus our minds on the goal, eliminating or ignoring other paths we may have taken. The sacrifice of these other possibilities and the narrowing of our vision is represented in the death of the animal and its spilled blood. This is the symbol of what we must give up in order to reach our goals.

When the Six of Swords is a part of your reading, you have a good opportunity to make plans that require sacrifice and time. Like the hunter, you must gather up your resources to tide you over until your plan can be enacted. Use your skills and tools to help you achieve your goals. Any sacrifice you make is for the good of the whole, as making plans and following through with them leads to growth and success. It is important to do your homework, just as the caribou hunter has done, so that you will know what to expect and then understand the consequences of your actions.
Complex plans require choices that are sometimes very difficult, and this card reflects the sadness and the loss that can come from your decisions. Sometimes this card indicates a simple letting go of things in order to manage your new reality. The sunset reminds you that the sun will rise again, even though night must come first. In the darkness you will have a chance to repair your tools and strengthen your resolve. Remember that this is a time to move forward and to try to break free of the momentary struggle of the choice given in the Six of Swords.

FIVE OF SWORDS
Sacred Sickles Cut Mistleto from the Oak
These sickle knives were used by the druids when they cut the sacred mistletoe at the important solar festivals of midsummer and midwinter (summer and winter solstices). The mistletoe was considered an especially sacred plant because it had no roots to connect it directly to Mother Earth. The ancients didn’t understand the parasitic nature of mistletoe, so they explained its existence as a sort of counter-spirit to the oak trees, on which the mistletoe grew. The sacred oak tree, which lost its leaves in the winter, somehow deposited its strength and life in the mistletoe, which lived on in winter to make its viscous white berries (which seemed very like semen to the druids) in the naked branches of the mighty oak. The mistletoe, suspended between heaven and earth and therefore a part of neither realm, was considered an especially safe hiding place for the oak spirit during the dangerous dark winter months.
The oak itself was especially sacred; it was the tree of the supreme gods of the sky, thunder and lightning gods such as Zeus, Thor, and Balder. The oak flowers at midsummer, whereas its spirit, the mistletoe, flowers at midwinter. Thus they became as twins: the oak king of the new year (beginning at winter solstice) and the mistletoe king of the old year (beginning at midsummer). In the Major Arcana these two kings, who represent the dual aspects of the Goddess’s son, are shown as the Emperor (oak) and the Devil (mistletoe). The mistletoe was cut from the sacred tree at the solar festivals to symbolize the death of the one king and the ascension of the other at the time of year when the sun reversed its direction.
The special moon-shaped sickle knife was used by the priestess to cut the mistletoe, which must then never be allowed to touch the ground, in order that the magic quality it embodied from outside both earth and heaven would be preserved. The priestess was required to cut the mistletoe with her moon knife because she was a representative of the Moon Goddess, who was the mother of both oak gods but who was also, in her terrible guise, their slayer as she returned them to the earth. It was always the Great Goddess who both gave and took away life.
The yearly cycle from planting to harvest—beginning at the increasing light as the returning winter solstice sun begins to climb once again toward its death, celebrated in the cutting of the mistletoe—is an analogy to the life of each of us. The solar division of the year into four parts at the solstices and equinoxes represents the life of the God—son and lover of the Goddess. The representative number four of the Sun God delivers us again to the natural five of the Great Goddess and to women whose lives are divided by their bleeding cycles into five parts. The five crescent moon sickles represent these five divisions. The first sickle, tied with a white ribbon, represents birth; the second, with a pink ribbon, symbolizes the onset of menstruation; the third, motherhood with its bright red ribbon; the fourth, menopause with a maroon ribbon, and the final black ribbon, death.
On each knife handle is one of the five sacred vowels, believed by the ancient Celtic peoples to be linked to the Goddess, who had originally given people the alphabet . The alphabet was considered a magical tool, and those who learned it were clearly the chosen of the gods. These learned ones, the sages and prophets of their people, used the letters and alphabet to contain the secret teachings of their people. The consonants were the common letters; each was associated with a special tree and month of the year, symbolizing the manifest world that was the province of the son of the Great Mother Goddess. The vowels, however, symbolized the stations of the year and in themselves, through the process of yearly growth, repeated the connections to the five phases of woman’s life and hence were especially connected to the Goddess herself.
Each of the five sacred vowels had a holy tree whose name began with that vowel. A was for ailm: the silver fir, the birth tree, which began the year. Its shape is like the genital triangle out of which we are born, and so it is the symbol of birth itself. 0 was for onn: the furze, with its bright yellow flowers; it symbolized the spring equinox and the fertility of the earth, just as a girl who is beginning to bleed begins her fertile time; it also represents the womb before it is impregnated by the man and before it is open for the passage of the child. U was for ura, the heather that blooms red in the summer. Its open form represents the productive womb and the flowing blood of birth. E was for eadha: white poplar, the tree of the autumn equinox, which is a tree of old age. In its form the letter E symbolizes the three parts of the Triple Goddess, combined in the wisdom of one person who now has in her memories the experience of maiden, mother, and crone. Finally, the last tree, the tree of death, was the yew, idho, which was sacred to Hecate in ancient Greece. Its letter I represents the body at death in a coffin, ready to be placed in the ground. The yew’s station was the last day of the year before the winter solstice, so it represented the darkest day of the year and the death of the sun. Therefore, the yew tree stood back-to-back with the silver fir, which it resembles, just as life is reborn from death .
The cutting of the mistletoe is symbolic of a special kind of understanding that involves the recognition of the seasonal cycle and its effect on our lives. Because the mistletoe was to be cut only at the proper times, it involved the development of methods of determining when these times were. This is the process that the suit of Swords symbolizes: the intellectual capacity for finding a way to solve a problem. This card involves understanding the nature of the cycle of thought—from the initial idea that seems to arise in the darkness of our unconscious to the creation of a new thing by movement down through the symbolic suits of the Tarot through feelings and actions into tangible manifestation.
In the card, the star symbolizes the central idea as it is born in the darkness inside of us, arising to shine brightly within us. As the idea begins to take shape it radiates light into the darkness and takes on a life of its own. Moving outward, we begin to actively work on our plans and ideas. This active phase of the plan is represented by the sickle knives that harvest the sacred mistletoe, a symbol of the sky gods who embody the airy realm of idea. The moon-shaped knives symbolize the cycle of the moon’s phases from crescent to crescent, illustrating that to harvest the fruits of our ideas we must wait for time to carry the process forward. The silver crescent knives also represent the watery process involved in initiating our powerful ideas. The oak tree is the symbol of strength, conserved in the midwinter darkness for the coming spring, when life will burst forth from the limbs of the tree once more and your plans will come to fruition.
This card is also a symbol of intellectual understanding and involvement. The numeral five represents the five senses, and by an analogy to the intellect, it may symbolize the capacity for comprehension through a varied process, including reading, reflection, and conversation.
 
When this card has come up in your reading, it represents the need for careful analysis and understanding in order to complete the tasks at hand. The Five of Swords requires you to look at your ideas carefully as a series with a proper beginning, middle, and end and to honor the totality of this cycle. You are asked to remember that each part of your process has a proper time and that the life of the project must be conducted in the right order and time. And, like the mistletoe, your idea or project will become a sacred symbol suspended between Heaven and earth with a magical life of its own. It will be as if you are the strong oak tree that harbors the mistletoe, representing your project, which contains the essence of your life spirit. In time you will harvest the mistletoe in its proper season.

FOUR OF SWORDS
The Sarcophagus of the Pharaoh Death and His Canopic Jars
The number four is the symbol of completion and wholeness. It follows the action manifested in the number three and symbolizes a new beginning. Four is symbolic of the wholeness of the world as in the four seasons, the four directions, and the four elements. Because the number four, representing the solid form of the square, is the manifestation of culmination it is also symbolic of death as the final stage of living.
In the Four of Swords, the suit of air, four represents a complete idea, one that has been processed and is completed through intellect. The sword is the symbol of the mind in action and represents severance and division. When we think, we divide the world by forming discrete images and by differentiating thoughts from one another. Words form mental pictures of discrete objects, and this division allows a complete thought.
The sword is a symbol of the independent hero who chooses a courageous journey that often leads him to the underworld and a symbolic death. It represents his sacrifice and his separation from the world while he endures his fate. Ancient peoples of the Mediterranean believed that the sacrificial death of their king at the solstice symbolized a return to the earth, which brought fertility and balance. His death restored the life of the sun and returned the people, through his sacrifice, to a state of primordial unity before creation was divided . This sacrifice mirrors the meaning of the numeral four; it is the symbol of death but also of the new beginning that grows out of death. In the Four of Swords the pharaoh, representing the solar hero, has died and his body has been placed in a coffin for his coming journey to the underworld.
The sarcophagus of the pharaoh is made of common wood, symbolizing the «prime matter» of the east, out of which were carved our cradle at birth and our coffin at death . This is a protective symbol representing the body of the earth whence we have come and to which we must return. We will make our return to the dust of the earth protected in a womb-like enclosure that enables us to find rebirth in the darkness of the other world.
The existence of a rich afterlife was a prime tenet of the Egyptian faith. In order for the dead to realize rebirth in the other world, the body, as the house of the soul, must be preserved for the spirit to return to. This was achieved by mummification, which preserved the muscular and skeletal systems while internal organs were withdrawn from the body in order to retard decay.
Mummification was originally reserved for royalty and especially for kings, whose royal status identified them with the great god Osiris, who was also resurrected in the afterlife. The king, as the earthly representative of this important god, carried Osirian symbols with him to the afterlife. The crook and flail, the tools of Osiris, are seen across the chest of the sarcophagus. The crook was symbolic of the original shepherd king and represented the care of the shepherd over his flock.
The four sons ofHorus held up the pillars of the heavens, and as gods of the dead they watched over and protected the body of the deceased. These gods bore the heads of four creatures: Mesti in the north wore the head of a man, Hapi in the south the head of a baboon, Tuamutef in the east the head of a jackal, and Qebhsennuf in the west the head of a falcon . The sons of Horus protected the important internal organs of the dead, and each was responsible for a particular organ that the ancient Egyptians considered important to life. The organs were placed in special canopic jars to preserve them so that the resurrected dead would be able to access and make use of their human qualities in the other world. In Mesti’s jar the embalmers placed the liver, in Hapi’s jar were the lungs, in Tuamutefs jar was the stomach, and in falcon-headed Qebhsenufs jar were the intestines. These organs plus the heart, which was dealt with separately, were the ones the Egyptians considered crucial to human life. Curiously, the brain was considered useless and was withdrawn through the nostrils and discarded.
The canopic jars are symbolic of the nearly universal division of the physical world into four directions. They symbolize the completeness of any collection of four things, and in this case they represent the four suits of the Tarot. Each of the sons of Horus might personify the four elements of the Tarot, and the four internal organs symbolize the wholeness in diversity. This is the final four—the fourth four in the Tarot—and it thereby embodies each of the other fours in the deck. This symbolizes the ability to draw on one’s mental faculties with ideas that encourage completion of things in all spheres of human activity.
The Egyptians believed that the seat of wisdom and thinking was the heart and that the heart’s blood gave life and created new human beings in the womb. In the Four of Swords the ceremonial knives are aimed at the heart, which explodes with electricity and energy, symbolic of just and balanced mental power and the awakening of new life. The electricity of the heart center may also symbolize a journey that begins on one side of the bright lightning, moves through the present, symbolized by the heart, and then continues into the unknown future. The daggers surrounding this symbolic journey of life represent quickness, change, and dynamism.
As the only numbered Minor Arcana card showing the form of a man, this card most nearly defines the consciousness of humankind. With its reference to the other suits and its use of the four as a symbol of completeness and form, this card symbolizes humankind with body, spirit, emotion, and the mental faculty that is represented by the suit of Swords.

When this card is a part of your reading, it symbolizes achievement and completion. Just as the pharaoh has had to sacrifice his life, you may have had to give up a lot to finish your work. You have used all of your internal physical, spiritual, and emotional resources, represented by the organs placed in the canopic jars, in order to achieve this result. Like the pharaoh, you have become the human representative of the god Osiris in your effort, and with the crook and flail you have had the power to delegate responsibly and use your energy and available resources wisely.
The four daggers represent the balance achieved in a newly finished project. When the creative energy of the three has been earthed by the four, the energy is said to be grounded. This card represents a return of mental energy after a long and active output. The background is full of five-pointed stars, symbolic of movement toward the next number, five, and the beginning of a new stage and new energy.

THREE OF SWORDS
Three Blades in the Falling Forest
Three is the number of action and change; it is symbolic of the initiating principle of God the creator or creatrix. The Three of Swords, in the airy suit of the intellect, symbolizes the power of God in man to take all of creation as his own and use it to create his will. As the book of Genesis says, «God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.»  The Hebrew God commands us to have power over the four elements—first earth, then water, air, and fire in the living spirit of the earthy creatures. This is the beginning of the scientific yearning to master the living earth, to bend it to our will through knowledge.
In order to successfully use a species you must first understand that it is a separate living thing and understand the particular qualities that make it useful. The fir and the redwood have distinctive traits that distinguish them as living beings. As lumber, redwood is water resistant and good for outside uses, such as decks, but fir is best in framing a house, as it is a stronger wood. We differentiate between the two and recognize their useful qualities, often before we see truly the distinct qualities of the totality of the living organism. We yearn to see species separately; we give them complex, distinguishing names and thereby fail to see the bonds that connect the tree and the bird, the fish and the forest. Through our mind’s discriminating action we become as gods, and through our relentless will to re-form earth in our own image we destroy the original creation of the Goddess.
The tree saw symbolizes the action of cutting through natural elements to build anew, creating from a living tree a home, a chair, or a beautiful wooden sculpture. The action of the saw—back and forth, back and forth—symbolizes the rhythmical motion involved in the cycle of living and dying. It symbolizes the creation of new things from death. These tree saws, used before the advent of the gasoline-powered chain saw, required the effort of two strong people to operate. Vast amounts of human energy were required in the felling of the big old trees. The teamwork required represents the new cooperation we must forge with nature so that the forests will continue to live. Now, we take out trees easily with our fossil-fuel-powered saws, thinking little of the time it took the tree to attain its status as a giant of the forest. We haven’t the time to reflect on the qualities of the tree—its height, girth, position in the forest—as we once did when we cut it slowly back and forth, back and forth. Our terrible haste allows us to forget what we do to the forests and rivers in our logging practices. We must learn to review the lumber we use carefully, wasting little to preserve our resources. We must remember the connections between the forest and its smaller living things, represented by the woodpecker, that depend on big trees to support their lives.
The fallen tree with its exposed rings symbolizes the dependent layers of life on earth, as each species depends on those «below» for its support through the food chain. It symbolizes the body of the earth and our own bodies as a symbol of the suit of Disks. This card is symbolic of the relationship between the active mind and body. In its fallen state the tree mirrors the fragility of the web of life in the face of the power of human desires and the chain of resources.
Near the fallen tree, a new little fir springs up to illustrate the earth’s ability to heal herself in the face of our destructive technology. The little tree is a manifestation of the immense creative impulse of the earth. It teaches us that when we use the resources of the land we must remember to account for the time that nature needs to recover, and then begin to match our use of those resources to account for the slow healing of the land.
In the distance the clear-cut land reminds us of what happens when we overstep our bounds and use the earth beyond its ability to return to a productive state. New trees grow only under the productive cover of the older forest. Without thinking through the consequences, we have taken the power of our action too far and now cannot return to repair the damage. This interference in the natural order symbolizes the destruction we may leave behind us when we overstep our natural limits. In the human realm of relationships this may be symbolized in expressions like «cutting off your nose to spite your face» or «burning one’s bridges.» We may find ourselves deserted by friends, in deep trouble and depressed.

When the Three of Swords is a part of your reading, you must find the ability to distinguish carefully the way your own internal resources are allocated by using the proper energy for the proper task. For instance, argument may be one response to criticism, but perhaps a more considered response would be reflection; argument may be called for later if you have been told to do something you consider stupid or truly wrong. This discriminating ability will serve you well, but you must strive to see the totality of a situation—even to see it from the opposite point of view—to understand the multiple threads that weave occurrences together. Like the natural world, full of complex ecosystems, things do not happen in isolation but are the result of woven threads—like trails—of our actions.
Symbolically, the Three of Swords reminds you to focus on your uses and abuses of your own natural resources: your physical self and body as earth, your emotional self as water, your mental energy as air, your energy and creativity as fire. Your resources are symbolized by the forest, their use by the fallen tree. Now it is up to you to balance them so that you do not wind up clear-cutting your own power to regenerate. When you find yourself out of balance, you are reminded to follow the earth’s natural rhythms and use them as a mirror to find your own.
You may be experiencing a situation in which your actions, especially in regard to your communication, ideas, or thoughts, have overstepped prevailing limits. This card reminds you about your impulses to speak or act out of turn, imposing your ideas on others without thoughtful consideration. The Three of Swords may also warn you of the reverse: you may be unable to hear what knowledgeable people are telling you about using your own limited resources. You must learn to hear what others say to you, to consider all options, and to study a subject thoroughly before acting, just as the responsible logger will carefully consider before cutting. If we, as humans, continue to truly believe in our power over all the earth we will never be able to live within our natural limits. We will destroy more than we create, and all that we create will be open to destruction through the vast power of the creative and destructive forces of the universe.

TWO OF SWORDS
Scissors Cut a Paper Snow flake
Swords, the symbol of division and cutting, is the suit of mental activity and thinking because it is the mind that divides us from the world and makes each of us an individual, separate from our surroundings. Our mental faculties also help us to cut through external influence and seek innovative solutions to complex problems. Modern images are particularly appropriate for the suit of Swords because we live in a world dominated by the power of the mind, which gives less regard to feelings (Cups) and the earth (Disks). The scissors represent the mind at work, separating one thought from another to reflect a final formed idea, represented by the snowflake. The mind has determined what the goal is and what needs to be cut away to form the completed pattern. A pair of scissors also shows how two sw-ords can work together for a common goal: each blade needs the other m order to make the cutting operation work. The opposition of the scissor blades allow-s this tool to work as it does, and this profound act of simple magic is seldom recognized. Two blades are combined in opposition, using an action to create something new through the activity of the mind. The new form, cut from paper, is the model of a crystalline snowflake, representing the cold and beautiful solid state of water. This symbolizes the ability to crystallize thoughts or emotions (liquid w^ater) and to make them ordered, symmetrical, and clear through active thinking. The coldness represents detachment and distance from one’s feelings. The snowflake has six points, represented by two triangles linked together but intertwined in such a way so that you cannot draw the six-pointed star without removing your pencil from the paper. This again symbolizes two differing, separate approaches to a problem and the attainment of mental clarity about a choice you may need to make.
The bits of paper falling away form the image of the heart, a reference to the emotions and their effect on the thinking capacity of human beings. The heart also shows us that our need for another person, who will be able to reflect our own thoughts and ideas, is an important factor in our ability to gain clear focus. Just as the snowflake is made of two triangles, and just as the blades of the scissors work together to create something new, you must work by reflecting your thoughts off another’s to find the important kernels of truth, which bring reflective change.
At the center of the snowflake is a shining light illustrating the ability to center on one thought after careful consideration. This is the ultimate outcome of clear thinking and shows our ability to pare away the unnecessary bits to reach a final decision. When we decide on a course of action, other avenues immediately close and we find ourselves limited to the one path we have taken. The Two of Swords represents the moment of choice—the tools, the options, and the goal.
 
In interpretation, then, this card indicates that a decision is important at this time and that something in your life must be cut away. This is a card of sharp, clear, detached, and cold thinking, often about one’s general emotional state. It show^s the ability to be cold and calculating and to ignore or even repress the emotions that arise in your thoughts, even while they may be the subject under analysis. You are able to see your choices as clear and separate paths and to make decisions with clarity. There can be a tendency toward callousness and disregard for another’s (or even your own) feelings in the querent’s ability to coldly cut emotion from the situation in order to make a clear-cut decision.
The negative aspects of the appearance of the Two of Swords in the reading may be an inability to connect with your feelings, or a sense that emotion has become difficult to experience in your daily life. You may be feeling cold and distant from others, as if your heart is frozen in your body and only your mind is active. You may find that in really opening your thoughts to others and reflecting your ideas off them you can find your lost feelings in the exchange. Your ability for clear and discriminate thinking, which seems to remove emotion from your life, may be just the tool you need to find the feelings that will help you become a whole and balanced individual. The card reminds us that by relating and sharing our inner thoughts we can effect the desired change on our own characters, on our friends, and in the world.

ACE OF SWORDS
A Sword Rises from an Electric Sky
The Ace of Swords is the initial card of the suit of air, symbolizing the intellect. Swords represents the division between the intangible, sky-bound realm of thought and the lower realms bound to earth. The sword points upward into the realm of Heaven, where an all-powerful God was said to dwell. In the beginning it was the logos, or word of God, that divided Heaven from earth and light from darkness, creating the tangible world we know. The suit of Swords represents the original idea or thought that begins the creative process. The Ace represents the true origin or awakening of thought in the life of the person. It is the beginning of reflective introspection and understanding.
This Ace shows the original division of the light from the darkness coming from the realm of the ancient sky gods. Light emanates from the sun and greets us through the realm of the air, which is penetrated by it. We understand today, through the power of scientific insight, that light is but one part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Although we cannot see beyond what we define as visible light, we now know of the existence of infrared and ultraviolet light, represented in the card by the long red and short purple waves beyond the rainbow spectrum. It is our new ability to see radiation in all spectrums that enables us to derive information from distant stars and galaxies. The electromagnetic spectrum, which includes visible light, is equivalent to information. This understanding of things we cannot directly see helps us analyze and comprehend our world and universe; it helps us know ourselves. This interpretation of the invisible realms reminds us of thought, which we also cannot see, although we do know that it has an effect in the world.
Scientific understanding is a way of interpreting the world through the action of the mind. We can make a theory based on what we think must be the explanation for things we see, then through careful observation we decide whether the direct evidence matches our hypothesis. Writing on the philosophy of science, John Dewey wrote, «the vine of pendant theory is attached at both ends to the pillars of observed subject matter.»  Our experience, on which our theories are based, is a deep part of the natural world and allows us to comprehend the world completely and wholly as we live within it. Investigative science, when it serves to bind us more fully with the world of nature, is a valid and important way of understanding the world. The Ace of Swords is the symbol of the scientific world view and the mind’s ability to return us to a perspective of inclusive belonging in the world of nature.
The active gods of the sky are personified in the Ace of Swords by lightning—the symbol of all the most powerful masculine sky gods and an icon of their powerful deterministic will. Through the thoughts and desires of the gods, the earth’s landscapes were dramatically changed. Lightning is a symbol of spiritual illumination and enlightenment, of the power of truth to illuminate the darkness and the inseminating masculine power that moved from Heaven to earth with life-giving rain. Lightning was also a symbol of destructive dominance, as well as the positive fertilizing power, and symbolized the idea of power over others, as the gods had power over us. Lightning illustrates a need for the direction of power and keen understanding of control when we wield power over others.
The lightning of the Ace of Swords represents a true scientific awakening in which we can begin to see how our superstitious beliefs hold us back from a true experience of the natural world. God’s command to man to have dominion over the beast of the field and every green thing in it should not mean that we have his direct permission to use up all of earth’s precious resources. We may now see this text as part of an ancient mythology, not a true commandment from a supreme being. Through careful science we gain a richer understanding of the complexities of life around us, which allows us to see ecological systems that we cannot directly observe. Understanding these complex systems allows us to balance the needs of human beings with the needs of other creatures and create a richer, more beautiful world, full of the diversity symbolized in the many-colored rainbow.
As with each of the aces, the central image is surrounded by a frame or border to show that it is the initiation of a unified and contained energy. Here, the frame extends and expands skyward, opening to the patterns of the airy realms. The rainbow colors represent the varied thought and careful observation that lead to recognition of diversity. The rainbow is a symbol of the open mind that leads to productive thinking.

When the Ace of Swords is a part of your Tarot reading, it represents awakening and enlightenment. It shows a new understanding of what you observe in your day-to-day life and the ability to learn from it. When this reasoning has taken place, you may go back to daily life with a richer understanding of your place in it. This is a card of positive and directed mental energy. You have the ability to analyze things that you cannot directly see, just as the scientist can interpret the infrared and ultraviolet rays. Thought patterns become clear to you, and complex patterns seem relevant and open to your understanding. You are able to keep an open mind, to be unswayed by popular opinions and superstitions, and to allow the most logical and helpful theories to guide your decisions.

DISKS

KNIGHT OF DISKS
A Proud Aztec Man Reflects on the Cycle of Time
The ancient Aztecs settled on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco in the early 1300s. They were a powerful people, and as their power over the area increased so did the wealth of their city, Tenochtitlan. They built this city of ten square kilometers using rock imported from off the island, as a network of canals and boats delivered the materials to the growing city. Modern Mexico City was built over the remains of Tenochtitlan, and its cathedral is built in the sacred precinct of the Aztec city. The Aztecs were the last in a series of ancient peoples to live in this area, occupying it when Cortes arrived from Spain in 1519. The Toltecs had lived there before them, and the beliefs of the Aztec people seem to have developed directly from Toltec practices.
The Aztecs believed that the gods had to be appeased with human blood to keep them from destroying the world, so they relied on human sacrifice to keep time from stopping. The Aztec creation story tells us about the goddess Tialteutii, who was set upon by the two great gods Quetzalcoati and Tezcatlipoca. They decided to create the world out of this goddess. Turning themselves into serpents, they came at her, tearing her apart. They comforted her by telling her that everything people needed to live would come from her. From her hair came the trees and plants, from her eyes springs and lakes. Her mouth would form the rivers, her nose the valleys, and her great shoulders the tall mountains. But the goddess wept and wept, for she desired nothing but the human heart to eat, and she would not bear fruit until she was satisfied .
In order to have enough victims to appease this hungry goddess, the Aztecs and their neighbors were always at war to secure captives for their sacrifices. The wars were staged as if they were theater and warriors gave their lives willingly that the whole might continue. This Aztec warrior, in his flowery finery, knows that the gods control his world and believes that the sacrifices ensure its continuity. He is aware of the great calendar that describes the end of the four other worlds that the gods created, and he expects this age, the fifth, to be the last.
The massive basalt «Stone of the Fifth Sun» was an image of the entire Aztec cosmos. Though it is not entirely understood, some of its symbolism does seem clear. Each of the Aztec creations was called a sun, and the four past suns were depicted at the center of the stone surrounding an image of the sun (or perhaps earth) god. Around this central motif (not shown on the card) were the figures representing the cycle of Aztec time: animals and figures for whom years were named. The blue lizard on the stone is a part of this circle. The previous creations were destroyed by jaguars, and the fifth creation, the one the Aztecs lived in, which had begun in 13 reed (1011 C.E.), was expected to be destroyed during a cycle of «four movement,» which came around every fifty-two years.
The stone symbolizes the deep understanding of the cycles of time, including the planet Venus, whose apparitions as morning and evening star figured heavily in the Aztec calendar. Each day was part of meshing week-like, month-like, and year-like cycles. The three different wheels that turned together in this intricate system meant that no particular name and number combination recurred for fifty-two years.
This calendar is one of the most complex and accurate devised by ancient peoples. Its cycles took into account the heavenly movements on such a large scale that it was beyond the life of any single individual. The Knight of Disks understands this complex cycle, and his broad perspecfive of time allows him to give his life, if necessary, to his gods so that the wheels of time will continue to spin. His casual attitude toward his own life seems foreign to us; we cannot imagine a sacrifice like this. Someone who truly believed that his death ensured the continuity of his family, his children, and his impressive culture was willing to sacrifice his puny life. Suddenly his life would take on a special importance in the moment of his death as the savior of his civilization.
The eagle and the jaguar represented the two powers of light and darkness. The jaguar was a totem of the rain god Tialoc, whose temple was the largest in the Aztec world and was aligned with the deep power of the dark and the underworld. In Aztec reasoning, the dark gave birth to the light just as the seedling emerged from the darkness of the soil.
The jaguar was a symbol of nobility and of honor; he was a strong and competent figure moving in the darkness. The jaguar was also the emblem of the god Tezcatlipoca, Lord of the Smoking Mirror, who was a god of fire and of wizards. It was in the service of this god that societies of warriors who wore his emblems and colors into battle fought to secure the future.
The temples of the Aztec gods were elaborate pyramids where human sacrifice would be performed close to the sky so that the ghosts of the dead could be set free. The hearts of the victims were presented to the gods high in the sky so the sacrifice would be visible to them. There, in the heights of the temple, the next morning’s sunrise was assured. The Knight sees the coming dawn, to which the jaguar’s dark world has given birth, rising above the temple. His awareness of the patterns of his Aztec world give him the confidence to rely on the morning sunrise. His gods have given him this new day to live and rejoice in life.
The beans on the shield of the warrior and on his colorful clothing represent the power of agriculture and the ability of people to feed themselves. The knowledge of Aztec agriculturists allowed them to build a vast and successful empire full of beautiful goods and luxuries, represented in the Tarot by the suit of Disks. This high-ranking warrior could certainly avail himself of the abundance of his culture. He had access to wonderful and varied food (including chocolate), beautiful textiles, baskets, clay storage pots, and all that made life comfortable and secure.
The Knight is the symbol of giving yourself to secure your future. The appearance of this card may mean that you have already done this Perhaps you have devoted a great deal of time and energy to guarantee that you will have money and housing into the future. This has been a sacrifice for you, just like the one the Knight of Disks may be required to make. You may have missed the time your children were growing to be at work, devoting yourself to the comforts of the future. You do this because, like the Knight, you see the passage of time over a much longer span than many others do.
This Knight is a card of financial planning and security for the future. It marks a good time to consider retirement issues and issues of inheritance. These are long-term questions, and it takes a vision of the future world to deal successfully with them. You may have to face the fact that the world will someday go on without you. This ability to see beyond the self and into the future, of both your family and indeed the human race, is the mark of the Knight of Disks.
On the larger scale, look for ways you can sacrifice that will help people survive into the mture. Use your assets wisely to purchase things that do no harm to the planet. Think carefully about your monetary power Each purchase we make changes the world, and our individual and collective awakening will secure the future of our children.

QUEEN OF DISKS
Weaving Baskets in a Village of Plenty
The Queen is the symbol of the highest ability attainable in feminine suit. She has achieved the complete confidence possible in the skills and qualities of this particular suit and, as a result, is shown seated because she is the «seat» of this power and skill. Her achievements come from having participated in the activities associated with the suit and element over a long time. This path of participation is shown through the other court cards of the suit: the Prince is learning a trade and, as a farmer and wheelwright, helps provide services for his community; the Princess serves food to workers in the field and also symbolizes the skills needed to help nurture the body; the Knight has achieved a power and understands the cycle of time that influences the cycle of agriculture. The Queen has completed all these tasks and is now preparing to store her harvest, give out nurturing food in her society, and run the home and family in order for physical growth to occur.
Like the Knight, the Queen understands the local cycle of seasons, as represented by the view of earth from a distance. Her ability to view the earth from this perspective, to understand the cycle of the cosmic disks in the heavens, allows her to provide for those around her. The cycles of the earth and its seasons of rain and sun determine planting times as well as the fertility cycles of animals. These are the basic elements in such a life on the land, where a mother’s job is to provide the basic necessities for her family. Her creative implementation of her many skills determines the success of the family.
The cycle of the moon determines her own monthly cycle, and through watching it and keeping track of the changing face she understands herself and her body and its physical changes that are analogous to the moon’s phases. Here, the full moon represents the fullness of the Queen’s power and the light she brings to her family. When we see the full moon it means the sun is on the opposite side of the earth, symbolizing the broad range of skills needed to parent effectively, covering the whole sky, or whole spectrum, of needs for the family.
The dome-like homes represent worldly possessions and a sense of being settled and comfortable, sure and secure about one’s future. When the basic need for shelter is taken care of, a person is able to pursue the more complex (but not more valuable) human needs for creativity, friendship, and intellectual development. The shelter provided here is very simple, and this woman’s ability to create, for herself, this home and storage building gives her confidence. Most of us do not attain this kind of self-assurance, as we do not possess the ability to build our own shelter. Learning and understanding the mechanics of building or participating in the process of building is an activity appropriate to the Queen of Disks.
The Queen’s menagerie, her chickens and cattle, represent command of the natural world of animals. It shows her innate connection to the land and her instinctual ability to provide for her needs and the needs of her children until they achieve adulthood. Her natural talent for seeing the world and seeing the value in a particular type of grass or tree is what gives her the creative power to provide shelter, find plants that help to treat medical conditions, cultivate the watermelon, and raise animals to provide for her community’s needs.
Basket weaving is a traditional skill and also represents this supreme ability to provide for others. A basket is a storage container and enables the weaver to store the harvest, or the gathered plants for weaving and dyeing, or decorative beads. Just as the home is a container for people, the basket nurtures, protects, and makes useful the contained substance.
The Queen herself provides this holding, containing, and nurturing for her family. Through her nurturing she makes connections in the world that deepen her human relationships and allow her to care about others. Through this care and love the Queen of Disks begins the process that leads to the altruistic instincts of humanity to love one another, to care for those less fortunate, and to reach out beyond the family with love.

The Queen of Disks indicates the attainment of physical goals. Its appearance indicates that you have opened to loving nurturance and that you are providing it to others or receiving what you need from others. The card indicates the ability to care for yourself, to provide for others, and to create physical wealth and a happy home and family. When this card is a part of your reading, it indicates a time when home life is of great importance or when you need the kind of nurturing a happy home provides. It indicates the importance of truly nurturing meals—those that nurture the body and the soul. Your confidence in your ability to nurture yourself and others is growing stronger, and you are feeling confident in your ability to handle physical needs. The Queen of Disks indicates that you are managing your physical realities of home, money, and food in a mature and confident way.

PRINCE OF DISKS
The Young Wheelwright at Work
The Court Cards of the Tarot personify differing types of people and illustrate these archetypal ways of being within the world. The Princes and Princesses represent the young, developing energy of their suit. The Prince of Disks is developing understanding of responsibility and work in the context of his family and community. He has recognized that it is time to learn to do something productive that contributes to the well-being of the people around him. He is the embodiment of the need to travel outward from the family into the world. In the outer world he learns to provide for himself and for a young family of his own. This Prince struggles with his new responsibility and looks over his work carefully as he learns to do his work well. When we learn to do something very well we learn that practice really does have rewards and that having pride in one’s work builds character.
The Prince of Disks is a wheelwright. He learns to make something with a simple but profound practical value. The wheel is the symbol of totality and wholeness because it represents the turning wheel of the cosmos, which carries the planets and the zodiac along it. The wheel contains everything, including the whole of time, which is represented by the physical motion of the wheel. The spokes of the wheel represent the periods of measurement: hours, days, months, years, or tens of years. The wheel’s spokes are also analogous to the rays of the sun and symbolize the emanation of the world and the variations of physical existence.
The red wheel symbolizes the active attributes of the learning process and the simple action of fulfilling work. Red is the color of the planet Mars and symbolizes the physical body in motion with drive and passion in learning a new physical skill. The small golden triangles represent the rays of the sun moving outward from the center of the wheel. The center is dark, symbolizing that in youth there is still much to be illuminated about the self. It represents the journey into the darkness of the unconscious at the center of the self.
The Prince supports the wheel for inspection on a tripod stool, representing the Triple Goddess and her support of the visible world. In ancient times the priestess of the oracular shrine sat on a tripod stool to announce her vision of the world. The wheel here is a stand-in for the priestess. Just as she would illumine hidden aspects of self and world, the wheel in its circular perfection is a symbol of the complete person, including the dark and hidden qualities. The tripod was also used as an altar in outdoor ceremonies because it stood firmly on uneven ground .
The young man himself is wearing simple, practical clothes; he is comfortable within his body. His green shirt represents the energy of the green world, growing and changing with the turning wheel. The apron is a symbol of protection and craftsmanship.
The Prince works in a simple shop. The heavy post-and-beam construction was one of the earliest forms in architecture. It represents solidity and structure and is a symbol of protection. He can contain within the shop his tools in a useful array that makes his work easier, especially if he remembers to put the tools away where they belong. This is one of the first lessons in practical working life — tools are only useful if you can find them. The spider’s web represents this ordered tangle of working life; the tools, supplies, and actions of the worker form a complex web that mirrors the symbol of the wheel.
Outside, the wagon is prepared to take the produce to market. The wagon contains and protects the pumpkins on their way. The donkey, as a beast of burden, symbolizes the practical work we all do in order to make our lives run smoothly. We must all live in service: cooking, cleaning, and doing the simple practical things that keep life ordered. The fruit of the autumn harvest being taken to market symbolizes the potential harvest of the Prince’s new-found skill as he creates a way to support himself and his family in service to his community.
The planet Mercury graces the sky above the Prince of Disks. Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, wheels around it at great speed like an energetic youth. In astrology Mercury symbolizes the simple intellect. This is the practical side of thinking—relating to the Prince as the airy (thinking) part of the suit of Disks. Mercury personifies the ability to learn something practical, and to learn to do it well.

This is a card of practical skill developing in yourself or in someone around you. Apply yourself to what you do, and learn to do it well. Find in your recent accomplishments new confidence, and with that confidence learn something new and difficult that you have always wanted to do. Take the time to examine your work carefully to see what you could do better—try always to do your best. Value the time that it takes to do something to the best of your ability. See yourself then as a part of the wheel of the Goddess’s creation, and then see also the wheel of self within what you have created.

PRINCESS OF DISKS
A Young Rajasthani Girl Offers Chapati
The Princess of Disks is a symbol of the young woman of the land, aware of the natural seasons and of the timing of planting and harvest. As the Queen of Disks is the representative of the successful harvest, the young Princess is the particular representative of the planting season with its qualities of new growth and change.
Rajasthan, part of the Indian subcontinent, is mostly desert. The people there plant carefully, waiting for the annual life-giving monsoon to wet the dry land and make it fruitful. In the Princess of Disks the clouds have arrived, curved to show the round shape of the earth, and it is time to put the seed into the ground and bless it to insure a good harvest. The people take no chances and put all they have toward ensuring that the harvest will be bountiful. The ground has been carefully prepared to receive the seed, with manure from the sheep and sacred cows; it has been lifted and turned to bring air to the soil, and straight furrows have been cut so the water will run to the growing plants.
The Princess is the symbol of preparation. She is being prepared in all life’s tasks to be the mother of a family and to work hard to bring grain and foodstuffs up from the ground. She has been learning through observation, and now she learns through doing. Flowers and fruits, symbolizing the sacred nature of the virgin aspect of the Goddess and the sacred mystery of the planting, are placed at her feet. Here, the flower and fruit are the embodiment of the future and of the path the Princess has taken into it. The spilled vermilion powder—made from cinnabar (native mercury sulfide)—is offered to the gods as a symbol of honor and of life, as it is an analogy to blood, which carries the life force within the body.
The Princess’s bright clothing, typical of Rajasthan, expresses joy in life and an understanding of the power of vital energy. It is a symbol of the opportunity to use our energy to provide for ourselves and live a successful life. The gold patterns of her skirt are symbolic of the seed and flower and of the sun that makes them grow. On her shirt are paisley patterns in green and yellow, representing the sprouted seed as the tiny plant emerges from it. The Princess’s braided hair, the symbol other strength, is bound to represent her harnessing of this strength to use in her journey to adulthood.
The Princess offers chapatis, round flat breads, either to the workers who prepare the soil or to the soil itself. She honors the work it takes to achieve her desires by feeding that which works for her. The chapatis are round and golden like the sun and symbolize the self. The disk-shaped basket holds and protects the chapatis and makes it easy to offer them to others.
In the background the Princess’s home signifies her place in her community and her center. The house is a symbol of protection and enclosure. It has protected and nurtured the Princess during her early growth, just as the dark soil nurtures the sprouting seed.
The cow is a sacred beast in India, and its flesh is not used for food. The animals in this card symbolize the productivity of the earth—its fruitfulness and plenty. Cows are a symbol of fertility and procreation and represent the Great Goddess as the mother of all things. Hathor and Nut, two important Egyptian goddesses, are associated with the cow. In Hindu myth the cow Nandini fulfills wishes and gives an elixir made of milk. The four legs of the cow symbolize the four Indian castes and therefore the totality of human existence . Many moon goddesses have the cow as their totem, probably because the pointed horns of the cow mirror the form of the crescent moon. The light and dark cows are a symbol of the opposites united and bound together in the yoke.

When the Princess comes up in your reading, it is a symbol of preparation and planting. Work hard to honor the preparation as much as the planting. Seeds are kernels of ideas that can take root and grow and become fruit or flower. The Princess is the symbol of the beginning of this process; she is ready to take direction and plant the seeds herself. Remember the cycle of preparation, planting, growth, and harvest, and don’t get ahead of yourself. And while you work toward your goals, feed yourself with what you need: music, friends, and happy living. Working hard doesn’t mean deprivation. While you prepare, remember the pure joy and spirit in life and celebrate the inner strength you must show in order to succeed.

TEN OF DISKS
Drums of Many Cultures in the Summer Sun
The drum is a symbol of the rhythm of nature all around us. Early hominids were surrounded by the sounds of the earth, from the sweet noises of birds to the awesome sounds of wild storms and powerful volcanoes. As people moved through the world they created noises of their own, and as they began to make tools they struck the rocks with other rocks and heard the sounds they made. They listened to their own heartbeats and breaths. The sounds they heard and the sounds they made were the rhythm of nature and the rhythm of their own lives. By beating out these rhythms on their bodies or on the earth, they must have felt as powerful as the sky around them, which brought forth rain and sun and wind, and the earth under their feet, which brought forth the living animals.
We hear the pounding drum and we are moved to dance and respond to its sound. The power of the rhythm overwhelms us and we must participate in its sound, clapping our hands and tapping our feet. When we dance with others we feel joined together in an ecstatic communion with the energy of life. We are called to participate fully in the rhythm of life. All of nature has a rhythm as everything moves and changes, from the smallest atom to the planets, stars, and galaxies. In modern scientific thought we call the beginning of the universe the big bang, describing the moment that matter began to differentiate in the emptiness of the universe. The name big bang describes a loud sound and implies that creation itself is the result of noise. As we imitate the noise of creation we reenact the creative power of our gods when they formed the original universe. The drum and all percussion instruments arise out of our need to connect with the rhythms of the sky and earth that we perceive all around us. Rhythm instruments are used in ritual and celebration among tribal peoples all over the world to express their deep connection with the earth and its changing cycles .
The world is full of varied and beautiful percussion instruments — drums and their beaters, gongs, rattles — and though they take these different forms, they serve similar purposes in their cultures. The rhythm we beat out on our drum connects us to the specific habitat we live in and helps us merge with the power of our local nature spirits and energies. The drum itself embodies the physical locale of its people because it has been made with the sticks and wood of local trees and the skins of local animals that were food for the people. Other percussion instruments are made of metal mined from the living body of the earth and express her deepest rhythms. It is easy to see why indigenous people believe that the spirits of the tree and of the animal live on within the instrument and that the drum is the voice of the tree and the beast, now free again with the beat of the drum.
The noise of the drum is made by striking it. This obvious fact reveals the basic magic of creative will: that a new thing is created when two different things are combined through action. The drums and the gong in the Ten of Disks represent the call to active participation in the will to create a new world where the rhythms of nature are heard and honored by all of us.
The sound of the metal percussion instruments, bells and gongs, calls us to a more meditative experience. They especially require our atten-tiveness; the pure ringing sound of the metal calls us to a spiritual, higher place . This sound symbolizes the movement to a higher level, which is the deep meaning of the number ten. Ten represents the new «one» — a return to a beginning place — that now includes the knowledge gained in the symbolic journey we made from one to nine. The Ten of Disks is representative of achievement on a physical level and of a deep understanding of the interdependence of the rhythms of the natural world with the rhythms of one’s own body. In the interaction of your life and physical body with the life of the earth, new sounds are made and a new dance is the result.

This card indicates a feeling of real alignment in your life. It is symbolic of the rhythm of the whole earth represented by the many different kinds of drums pictured in this card beating together for you. This means that the varied physical elements of your life are all beginning to fall into a common pattern and rhythm. It may symbolize that you have recognized the necessity of getting your life into this kind of rhythmic entrainment in order for you to achieve your goals. This card is symbolic of the dance of nature of which you are a part. It calls you to feel the pulse within your body and the pulse of the living world around you so that you may feel the deep connectedness of these rhythms. Then it wakens you to hear the gong, above the sound of the drum, which arouses a new spiritual awareness of the power of the dance and the voice of the earth embodied in it.

NINE OF DISKS
Meteors in the Atmosphere above a Cross Section of the Planet of the Planet Earth
The body of our planet has a particular structure — a form and a pattern — that is analogous to the pattern of the creatures that make the earth their home. On the outside of the planet, above the surface, are the layers of the earth’s atmosphere. The upper atmosphere contains gas molecules, which are electrically charged by cosmic rays from space and from the sun’s rays. This is the part of the atmosphere where the northern lights are created by streams of solar particles. The earth is a magnet, and the poles attract these particles, forming the auroras. The outer atmosphere is analogous to humans’ interactive space. We talk about the «atmosphere» at a party, by which we mean the nature of the interactions between the people and the character of the outer surroundings. These things are a function of our bodies and are determined by our personality and our desire for relationship with others. Like the auroras that form in this outer layer, we sometimes experience magical reactions, as when two people are drawn «magnetically» together. The aurora is just such a special kind of interaction between the sun and earth.
Also in the atmosphere are bits of burning rock and dust: shooting stars, or meteors. Here they represent the information that whirls all around us, some of which we see and understand and some of which goes unnoticed. The hot meteor is particularly symbolic of valued information that fuels our creativity because it resembles a wand from the active suit of fire. We also see a comet coming close to the planet. Comets are small bits of ice, rock, and dust that were formed at the edge of the solar system while the planets were being formed. A comet looks like a fuzzy patch in the sky with a tail. It maintains approximately the same position over the night relative to the stars and is seen to move over several nights, much like the moon. The comet is representative of events in our lives that last a fairly brief time but affect us greatly—perhaps a person who has briefly affected us, the death of a close friend or loved one, or a brief and passionate love affair.
The surface of the earth is the living skin of the planet. On this skin, where the friction between the atmosphere and the hard, dense, rocky, watery surface of the earth occurs, complex life forms arise. These living things, from one-celled organisms to larger animals and plants, represent a more complex arrangement of the elements of nature. The outer crust of our planet is symbolic of the skin of the individual person; it is through this layer of our living bodies that we experience and relate to the world. The skin is the largest of the body’s organs and it serves to contain—and in some sense define—the individual because it is what we immediately see and experience in interactions with fellow human beings. In this way it is the living interactive skin that is the most alive in the world, just as the crust of the earth is its most living component.
Under the skin of the planet earth is the mantle—which is of a greater density and is semifluid—represented in the card by the bright red layer under the surface of the crust. The volcanic magma arises from this inner part of the earth. The magma and fluid mantle symbolize our blood and circulatory system; like the earth, we will erupt when a hole forms in our outer skin (see also the Tower card).
Under the molten layer are the denser part of the mantle and the layers of the earth’s core. These are the layers of the planet about which we know little, as we are not yet directly able to explore these regions. This is analogous to the early understanding of the internal organs of the body; even though humans dissected people and animals, at first they had very little idea what part these organs played in the functioning of our bodies. Even today we do not fully understand the inner workings of the body.
We believe that the deeper mantle of the earth is made up of silicate rocks of iron and magnesium. The deep core of the earth is hotter and denser, with the outer core made up of molten iron, while the innermost part of the planet is a solid iron ball. This rocky layer might be seen as the inner organs of the body, or as the bones, which support the living tissue around them. Inside the bone is the marrow, which is the body’s factory for making blood, symbolized by the molten outer core. The solid inner core can be seen as the cell or of the primitive building block of the universe: the atom.

When this card is a part of your Tarot reading, it may prompt you to look into the underlying structures around you and the atmosphere you live in. You may want to apply the card literally as a reference to your own body and its health and structure. But you may also apply it to the community and its collective «body.» In this way you will find the central issues and discover that each layer of any situation is dependent on the preceding one. The new process or layer will have characteristics in common with each successive layer, and all the layers will function together. The interdependence of the various levels of any operation or project is crucial. For instance, in building a house it is necessary to build the foundation first, then the floor and the walls. This is the kind of thing you should look for in your life. Are you proceeding from the ground up, or are your castles in the air? Look carefully at the inner workings of the current situation. Are the people involved each performing their function relative to the whole? Are they able to complete their individual parts in order for progress to be made? Make sure the atmosphere is right and communication is open and direct. Last, be observant: watch the sky for those symbolic shooting stars so that you will have all the information available for the best possible outcome.

EIGHT OF DISKS
Spiders Weave Their Webs in the Branches of a Weathered Tree
The spider is an ancient symbol of the Triple Goddess, who spins, measures, and then cuts the thread of life. In ancient Greece these duties were the prerogative of the Fates, who were three goddesses clothed in white as representatives of the moon. Each member of the Mo-reae had her role: Clotho («the spinner») spun the thread on her spindle, Lachesis («the measurer») measured the thread against her staff, and the dreadful Atropos («she who cannot be avoided») cut the thread of life with her sharpened shears. It was said that not even King Zeus could avoid their claim on him .
The spider is particularly associated with the crone and the dark goddess of death, for the spider will sometimes devour her mate after he has performed his role. In many world mythologies the spider is the creator of the world. It was she who wove the web of creation, but she will be its destroyer as well, just as the spider must destroy her web and reweave it. In some stories the spider trapped us in her web; in others she created us as a part other web of existence. The spider begins to weave us into her web at the very beginning of our lives; for it is she who weaves the umbilical cord that gives us life within the womb .
The best known story of the spider in Greek mythology is the story of Arachne (which means «spider» in Greek). Arachne was a brilliant weaver and bragged that she could weave better than the goddess Athena, who was the Olympian patron of the weaving and thread arts. Athena was so angered by Arachne’s bragging that she disguised herself as a mortal woman and challenged Arachne to a contest. Arachne wove so beautifully that when she was done the goddess could indeed find no fault with her work. In anger she tore the beautiful weaving to pieces. Arachne was so despondent that she hung herself from a tree, and Athena turned her into a spider hanging from its thread. We remember Arachne to this day; all spiders are in the biological class called Arachnida.
The spider’s web is symbolic of the manifest world. The web, in the pattern of the radiating sun, symbolizes the wheel of life and all its various manifestations. Each thread of the web radiating from the center represents a different part of creation, and the threads that connect them from the center outward in a spiral represent the thread of time. When we apply this concept to an individual life, we see that each of the spokes of the spider’s wheel represents the differing aspects of our own lives. For instance; the threads may represent job, home, children, or individual friends; each aspect is represented as a different spoke of the spider’s wheel. The connective threads represent the physical pattern of our lives as we weave the aspects together, continually changing our focus and our location on the web that we weave with steadfast will.
The web represents strong connections. It symbolizes any network of people and things working together to build something. Each person pulls the thread along and, in his or her interactions, knots it together with the threads of others, building the interpersonal web that makes up a life. The web of your life is made up of all the people, places, and things you interact with.
The spider web is also a tool for trapping food. It is the spider’s snare. Every few days the web’s silk loses its sticky quality and must be replaced.
The spider feels the prey in its web, captures it, and moves it to the center of the web or off to a corner to eat it. The web as a trap represents the plans we make in order to secure a particular future. We go to school for years to increase our chances of securing a specific job, or we set up a schedule that we know will bring us into contact with a special attractive person to increase our chances of being noticed. This is the human interactive web.
Each of the red and black spiders has an image of one of the eight changes of the moon on its back. The eight phases show the cycle of lunar time by which the ancients measured the moon’s passage. Lunar time is still used in China and in other places where the holidays are based on the moon’s phases. The Christian celebration of Easter (which seems to have been the original holiday of the goddess Ostara, the Teutonic goddess of the spring) is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Lunar time is symbolic of woman, as the moon was the light of the feminine power and the sun was the light of the masculine. The menstrual cycle of women is in alignment with the moon, and from the point of view of men, women are the more mysterious sex, just as the moon’s path through the heavens is more mysterious and changeable than the sun’s.
The spider is often a representative of the Moon Goddess. Just as the three Fates who spin, measure, and cut the thread of life are under the protection of the moon, so in many other mythologies the moon has tutelage over the spider’s realm. In Hopi stories Spider Woman spins her moon of white cotton and sets it in the sky . The spider is one of the emblems of the goddess Ishtar, who was the goddess of the heavens and of the sun and moon.
In the foreground of the card, a backstrap loom mirrors the spider’s weaving. It was the spider that taught weaving to humans, giving them her skill with threads. When humans recognized that they could use the sheep’s wool without killing the animal, and when they learned to gather and grow cotton and flax for fiber, they stepped into a new world—the world of woven fabrics. In this world people easily differentiated themselves from others, and tribal markings in clothing became more and more complex. Colors expanded, patterns exploded, styles diverged, and the art of costume emerged.
In Guatemala all the villages—even villages that are quite close—have different woven patterns for their huipils, the shirts that women wear. The pattern that the shirts are made from is very simple—a long cloth rectangle with a hole for the head—but the woven patterns are dazzling. Each distinctive pattern lets everyone know where the person is from; it is both a mark of belonging and a symbol of individuality.
The weaving in progress on the backstrap loom shows brightly colored flowers that contrast with the barren tree and its fallen leaves. The simple loom uses the grounding energy of the body to create the tension needed for successful weaving. The woven flowers are linked by vines twining them together, mirroring the symbol of the woven webs of the spiders. The flowers are all woven in differing colors as an illustration of individuality. Flowers embody the energy and meaning of the sun in their round shape with their bright petals representing the sun’s rays as they turn toward its light. The weaving captures the energy of spring, as the spiders and their webs are meant to represent fall. The two seasons stand in balance to each other and represent the totality of the year between them. The bright weaving also shows that human beings are made up of an infinitely varied experience.

This is a card of recognition. It guides you to a vision of your life as a tracery of patterns. Follow the threads as they take you to work, shopping, all over town, and back home. This is the physical pattern of your life. Make a detailed illustration of the pattern, including names of friends, shops, and all the places you travel to. Draw the spokes of the wheel first, then link them with lines representing travel and time. Try to make a simple one for the day and a more complex version showing the lunar month. Recognize this as the web of your life. Try to imagine what you catch in this web. Does it energize you or make you tired? Do parts of the web seem separated from other parts, as if you have two different lives? Does this help you catch what you need and want, or does it weaken the web? Perhaps you have been caught in the web you made and now find the life you may have wanted quite difficult. The web is a symbol of this entrapment in life’s challenges. Its answer is the cycle of time represented by the changing moon.
This is also a card of individuality. Like the bright flowers, each one different, you are the only person whose pattern looks like the one you just made. You are literally made up of these experiences, which don’t just happen to you but actually are a large part of who you are. Eight is the number of reduplication (two times two times two) and therefore the number of the sun. When this card is a part of your reading, consider the rays you emanate into the world, like the image of the radiating spider’s web, and use that energy to shine upon others and bring them joy like the bright flowers of spring.

SEVEN OF DISKS
Grains from Around the World
Seven is the product of three and four, and it therefore symbolizes the combination of the solar four with the lunar three. Seven is the number of synthesis and the number of the macrocosm because of its relation to the seven ancient planetary bodies for whom the days of the week are named. Seven was the number of Athena, the virgin goddess of practical woman’s knowledge, and in the Pythagorean system it was considered the number of wisdom .
The heavenly sphere in which the seven planetary bodies moved was often thought of by the ancients as the heavenly corn mill. In Greek and Norse mythology there was a great goddess at the center of the cosmic millstone turning this cosmic wheel . Its continual turning was like the action of the mill; as it revolved again and again the Great Wheel created time while the earthly grain mill turned the grain to flour for bread.
Grain is symbolic of the total life of the plant. It embodies all forms of the Triple Goddess within it, for it is the death of the plant and embodies the crone, it is the edible fruit of the the nurturing mother, and it is the new seed and is symbolic of the virgin, not yet planted . Grain was a child of the Great Goddess and embodied her son as the universal grain god, who was sacrificed yearly and returned in the form of nourishing food and sacred beer. In Native American myth, Corn Woman was killed and dragged around a field, and where her blood spilled the first corn plants grew.
The grain embodies the soul of a people because life is dependent on it as the staple food of all. The sacrifice of the corn god symbolizes the cutting and harvest of something valued and sacred. The harvest is made with ceremony so as not to offend the spirit of the corn and to insure that the next harvest will be bountiful. In every culture the grain is honored; it is planted, reaped, milled, and used with respect for the spirit that lives within it. In cultures where alcohol is made from the grain — beer and whiskey from barley, sake from rice, and vodka from rye — the potent spirit of the god lived within the alcohol and entered you when you drank of his resurrected body.
In the Seven of Disks both the grain itself and the plate or basket are apt symbols for the disk. Any foodstuff may represent the suit of Disks, for food nourishes us and helps the physical body grow. The plate offers the food to us, frames the food, and keeps it from the ground; it is a way of distinguishing the food as sacred.
These seven grains from around the world—corn, wheat, oats, millet, barley, rye, and rice—show that although we all come from different cultures we are, in essence, the same. We all need grain to survive, and we all cultivate and honor the food we grow, investing it with symbolic value so that its nourishment is complete. This is a mirror of our unique qualities within the framework of humanity. People have such a strong relationship to their cultural grain that we automatically associate rice with China, oatcakes with Scotland, and corn with the native people of the Western Hemisphere.
The addition of the mouse and grasshopper is a reminder of the smaller creatures of the earth and their needs. The grasshopper is a summer pest and sometimes arrives in great swarms as the locust and destroys the grain crop. He is a symbol of chance and of the unpredictable nature of the world. He is the reminder that we are not the only species here and that nature is beyond our control. The grasshopper’s ownership of the land and its grasses is supreme, and we borrow the land from him.
The grain-loving mouse is a representative of the god Apollo, who originally had oracular shrines of mouse priestesses under the title Apollo Smintheus («Mouse Apollo»). The mouse, bringer of disease, in sympathetic magic also brought its cure, and Apollo was credited as the god of medicine. Apollo was the god of the most famous oracular shrine at Delphi, which he got by challenging and defeating the goddess Python. To this day the snake perpetually chases the mouse, hoping for the return other oracular shrine .
By classical times the little mouse god who ate the summer grain grew in importance and was associated with the sun as his twin sister Artemis was with the moon. Apollo was the lord of all that was bright: art, music, poetry, and the dance, and he was called Phoebus Apollo («Shining Apollo»). Apollo was associated also with the Egyptian Horus (the son of the sun), and through these associations, in later classical times, Apollo was the personification of the sun. Apollo’s sun shines on the tablecloth beneath the plates as a symbol of the yearly course of the sun in the planting and harvesting of the grain. The sun is also like the grain in that its representative hero undergoes the sacrifice symbolized in the harvest of the grain. The life of the sun and the life of the grain are analogous, for many grains are planted in the dark of the year—buried in the darkness of the earth near the solstice — grow while the sun’s power grows, and are cut down as the sun reaches its peak in summer. The potent energy of the shining sun lives within the grain.

When this card is a part of your reading, be aware of people’s unique qualities; just as rice is different from millet, so you are different from others. In doing this, see the golden sun within them and be sure to discover it within yourself as well. Recognize the little creatures and do them honor by seeing them as part of the web of life. When others need what you have, help them to provide for themselves by teaching them and showing the way.
This is also a card of personal nourishment, reminding you that you need nurturance both on the simple level of the physical and on the more complex levels as well. This is the macrocosmic view demanded by the seven. Find what feeds your soul: read, dance, write poetry, paint, eat well. Remember to honor that which feeds you, by ritual or with simple respect, treating whatever you use well: the paper you draw and write on, the instrument you play—and respect yourself. Live in the Apollonian mode of rational creativity. Like those who planted the grain and could see the yearly cycle, remember the cycles of time and honor them.

SIX OF DISKS
Ancient Cowrie Shells, Paper Money, and Coins Lie on a Zebra Skin
The number six is represented in the form of the six-pointed star, which is made up of two interlocking triangles. Because the lines of the two triangles do not connect, the six-pointed star symbolizes an inner dualism — two ways of perceiving a situation that facilitate change and learning.
In the suit of Disks, we discover our relationship with the physical world and with our possessions and bodies. This relationship reflects the primary requirements for existence: food and housing. As a living body we must eat and stay warm and protected in order for growth to occur. In simpler times we gathered what we needed as an individual or as a family directly off the land. We were immersed in the fabric of that world in simple and directly visible ways: we ate the greens that sprang unbidden from the forest, and we killed and processed the animals of the land, directly experiencing their death as a part of the ongoing continuity of nature around us. As trade and specialization grew and became an institution, the fabric of life became more intricate and many-colored. This meant that as an individual your role was defined and separated from the roles of others. A person’s experience of the totality of life was acquired through relationship with people in the other trades. For example, a potter who trades his pots for meat and flour is no longer directly connected to the farming cycle or to the death of the animal that becomes food.
This is a very large change and it defines the character of civilization, because through it, the remarkable diversity that we experience today became possible. As modern people we are offered not just one bakery trading its wares but thousands, offering endless variety in the categories of bread and cookies. Our experience of bread is forever altered by the act of purchasing it. Many of us are no longer in touch with the rising action of yeast and the chemical magic of bread dough.
The symbolic meaning of the money pictured in this card is the intricate relationship between the buyer and the particular item she exchanges for it. We have grown so far away from the actual creation of the goods we purchase that we rarely see the total picture involved in their creation. A good example is the purchase of gasoline, which we tend to take completely for granted. We never, or rarely, consider the effort that is required in getting it into our cars and the terrible toll on the environment in its refinement. This lack of connection to the totality of our actions is symbolized by the paper money and coins in the card. Paper money, in particular, is already a symbol because the paper and ink are actually worthless, acquiring meaning only through the institution of modern banking.
The cowrie shells remind us of a simpler time when the trade of beautiful objects was a way of gaining access to needed goods. For obvious reasons, the cowrie was also symbolic of a woman’s genitals. This symbolizes a relationship with the feminine earth that brings us closer to the real objects of our experience. Barter returns us to a time when trade was based on the simple value of the object to its maker, giving us a direct experience other knowledge and expertise. Such trade would put us in a position to understand that the results of our smallest choices really are important and really do alter the fabric of the world we live in.
These two ways of relating to our possessions represent the inner dualism of the Six of Disks. One way points downward, returning us to the values of the land we live in and protecting the earth through ethical choices. The other points upward, into the sky, toward consumption that fulfills our desires. This forms the challenge for all of us on the planet: to learn the difference between needs and wants. When the fulfilled wants are out of line with the simpler needs, we are out of balance, and suffering will occur—perhaps not to us immediately, but in the world as a whole. Our excesses in the living standards of the middle and upper classes in North America and in the Western world cause suffering in other lands. We need to limit our consumption, to provide incentive to feed the others whose lives are disastrously affected by a lack of fulfilled needs.

This card in a reading may herald a time of simple increase and good material fortune. Along with this fortune comes the challenge to divide the needs from the wants in your life. The message of the Six of Disks is that any simplification that returns you to a feeling of the connection between your actions and their results will help you achieve balance in your life. The balance you achieve will help to bring a larger balance in the totality of the world. The appearance of this card means that now especially is a time when you must look at your situation carefully.
Try to uncover the complex results of your actions, especially in the financial world, but symbolically extended to anything you do that influences the future. The important thing is to discover the true needs and the difference between needs and wants, things you do not need but desire. Examine closely the effect of your desires on the world around you. Does what you want take away from the needs of others? Does it affect others physically or emotionally in a negative way? If you desire grapes to eat in the middle of winter, you may want to think about the lives of those who grow grapes in the southern countries that produce them for the U.S. winter market. Do they use more of the pesticides illegal in this country, and are the field workers affected by this? Then examine the amount of energy required to get those grapes to your location; maybe you would be happier and others would be happier if you ate an orange, a winter fruit, or some raisins. These are the kinds of connections we must think about every day in order to change the values of the prevailing economy. These simple things reconnect us to the fabric of the natural world, and we begin to live within the natural patterns. Through this effort we can gain respect for the simple work of others and for beautiful things created by human hands.

FIVE OF DISKS
A Snake is Coiled Around EGYPTIAN MIRRORS
This is a card about authentic beauty and about seeing yourself clearly. Five, the number of the feminine, symbolizes the five parts of women’s lives: birth, men-arche, motherhood, menopause, and death. Through the phases of our lives our response to beauty and our concerns about our own beauty are constantly changing. As our physical appearance changes with age we will revise the importance of beauty in our lives. This necessitates the ability to see ourselves clearly even in the changes time requires of us. In this time, as in many before it, concerns about beauty are primarily a feminine issue, and women are the consumers of vast quantities of «beauty aids.»
In ancient Egypt there was a great concern with beauty; women who could afford it wore dark wigs, perfumed and oiled, which made their hair black and shiny. They wore quantities of makeup — dark kohl to make the eyes look larger and ground red ocher mixed with perfumed oils to redden the lips and cheeks. There were beauty formulas involving fats from obscure animals that would make the hair grow, and tweezers and razors to remove hair. Egyptian culture valued beauty highly, especially among women, who were expected to make themselves beautiful to please their mates. Cosmetics were made from the ground stones of the earth; kohl was prepared from galena and stibnite, and plants like henna and myrrh were used as beauty aids and scent. Even aged women tried to make themselves younger and more beautiful. In Egypt the value of beauty extended even to men who regularly perfumed their bodies and wore kohl around their eyes.
Kohl, pictured in the black pot, was made from the chief ore of antimony (stibnite) or from the chief ore of lead (galena). In alchemy, antimony and lead both represented the «nigredo,» which in turn represented the beginning place, or «prima materia.» The alchemist’s original matter, from which the journey to purest gold was begun, represented the dark chthonic earth. Here, the soul began its journey traveling through many stages to reach perfection in the circular form represented by the golden ring around the top of the jar. This symbolizes our birth from earthy darkness and the journey of life toward individuation: the golden form we were meant to be—a form of perfection or perfect beauty. This is not meant to be superficial physical beauty but the true beauty of our souls and beings when we have journeyed on the path of our bliss.
The Egyptian people were fascinated by beauty and by their physical bodies; they believed that the body was the house of the eternal soul. They were interested in a long life, and to achieve this they cared for the body as though it were a temple. The temple was washed and perfumed just as the body was cleaned and oiled. The value of the body extended beyond life; as the house of the soul its perfect preservation was crucial to the eternal afterlife.
Vitality was the prerogative of the sun through its obvious life-renewing properties. The Egyptian mirror was always made in the shape of the solar disk with a slightly flattened circle symbolic of the sun’s appearance in the early morning and the evening. One of the Egyptian words for mirror was life  The reflected image of one’s face in the mirror was thought to contain a piece of the living soul. Because of this, the mirror became a part of funerary rituals; by viewing the body’s image, the soul of the dead was wakened through recognition of the body as its physical home.
The handles of these mirrors in the Five of Disks represent the goddess Hathor, who wears the disk of the sun between the horns other cow-horn crown, and the gods of vegetation and death, Osiris and Set. In earliest Egyptian times, these two gods represented the two sons of the Great Mother Goddess who were rivals and whose rule over the sun was divided into night and day, winter and summer. Osiris was also associated with the grain, whose cycle of life and death was evident in the planting and harvest of this important crop . The five figures in the handles of the mirrors represent the whole of human life: the three women to symbolize the Triple Goddess and the life of woman, and the two gods to represent the life of man in its two parts of childhood and adulthood.
The snake, a symbol of transformation and of death and rebirth, represents the new life the Egyptians believed awaited them on the other side of this life. The snake was believed to be immortal through its ability to shed its skin and renew its life in an eternal cycle. The shed skin was seen as the wrinkled skin of old age, which the snake cast off at will, renewing its youth. The snake was the embodied power of life and the Goddess, and she was associated with woman and with women’s wisdom. Although many people would not consider the snake a beautiful creature, its associations are all with the powerful life-giving attributes of the Goddess: vitality, sexuality, and powerful knowledge. The snake was even represented on the crowns of Egyptian pharaohs to connect the ruler with the power of the female deity who ruled the heavens. The snake is the symbol of the recognition of beauty and power of the living body.

When this card is pulled as part of a reading, it indicates a time to look in the mirror for your soul and find beauty in what you discover there, to unmask and symbolically take off the layers of makeup to honor the simple truth of the real and aging person under the mask. The card represents acceptance of the loss of your youth and, by extension, acceptance of inevitable change. See yourself as a part of the continuum of life by remembering that all life must change. The ‘»symptoms» of old age — wrinkles and gray hairs—are part of the natural plan of life, and you will not escape them. When we treat old age like a disease to be medicated, we lose out because we will not accept ourselves or truly look into the mirror. Perhaps you feel that you have lost a part of your spirit or left it behind in your youth. Looking honestly into the mirror may help you find the continuity of life there.
The spirit of the individual does indeed live within the whole of the living body; it dwells within every cell and in all we make and see. This important recognition helps us to care for and love our physical body, to respect it and honor it. In our culture, one that regards the spirit as separate from the body and that sees the body as just a vehicle of the spirit, we are encouraged to treat the body as an extraneous part of our being. We cover the natural aging process with cosmetics and surgery; we desire the beauty of the young; we want to remain ageless, denying the living process of life and the connections of the aging spirit with the aging body This is what we need to recognize in the mirror: that we are but one part of the living God or Goddess and that like the snake we are renewed through the graceful acceptance of our new skin as we shed the old one and live on in the new.

FOUR OF DISKS
Blossom to Fruit in the Apple Tree
The apple is a universal symbol of fertility and fruitfulness. It is a symbol of wholeness and life because it is round and perfect (unlike the fragmented pomegranate, with which it is frequently contrasted) and a universally practical foodstuff. But the apple also has a darker side as a symbol of death and deceitfulness, especially in Christian myth, where it is the symbol of humanity’s fall from grace and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The yearly cycle of the apple from beautiful spring blossom to harvest-time fruit and winter bareness and then to flower again is a universal symbol of life and rebirth.
The five-petaled apple blossom and the sweet fruit, which reveals the pentacle of the Goddess when cut crosswise, reinforces the symbolic nature of the apple. The pentacle is the ancient symbol of the Goddess and of her human children because it represents the five phases of women’s life (birth, menarche, motherhood, menopause, and death) and the five points of the human figure with head, arms, and legs outstretched. The apple was particularly sacred to the goddess Venus (the Greek Aphrodite) because the halves of the cut apple revealed stars representing the planet Venus as the morning and evening star. Aphrodite helped Paris to win the beautiful Helen after he awarded the apple to Aphrodite in a contest between goddesses that led to the Trojan War .
The dark side of the apple — its connection to death — is in the mystery of the five-pointed star hidden within the smooth and perfect apple. The Goddess has concealed inside the apple the truth of our existence, which is that we must return to her again in death. The pagan religions saw this as an inevitable part of life and were inclined to enjoy the Goddess’s given pleasures of sexuality, with which the apple was also associated. The apple’s lovely blossoms attracted bees in spring, when all the animals were in heat and young women and men were drawn together for pleasure in sex.
Christian clerics also contributed to the darker symbolism of the apple. In the Bible, as Eve eats the fruit of knowledge of good and evil she gains the wisdom of God and understands what she has become. She deceives Adam with the beauty of the fruit and tempts him. She has disobeyed the command of God and she has discovered the joy of temptation. It is a symbol for the awakening of consciousness and with this the awakening of sexual desire and pleasure in the context of something other than procreation.
While Jews believed that sex was good and a part of God’s creation, at least when it led to conception and an increase of the tribes, in Christianity sexuality has been a difficult subject. Although the evidence is contradictory, Jesus may have believed that the kingdom of God would arrive if only we no longer engaged in sex but devoted our lives to God. Paul urged Christians to remain celibate even in the context of marriage . Even today the Roman Catholic Church has a narrow idea of what constitutes moral sexuality. In Christian countries the subject of sex has become taboo; we seldom reveal our thoughts about it or reveal the nature of our sexual relations to others, even to our closest friends.
The sex, death, and rebirth aspect of the Four of Disks is also a component in the symbolism of the number four. Four signifies completion; it is the number of the directions, seasons, ancient (Western) elements, and many other things. Four embodies the totality of creation because it symbolizes the result of sexual union (or any active exchange) in the Magical Triangle (see the appendix). In its simplest and most archetypal example this is the union of a woman (one) with a man (two) in sexual intercourse (three), which results in the birth of the new child (four).
The apple tree is the embodiment of the Magical Triangle. Its blossoms (one) attract the bee (two) which pollinates the flower (three) and forms the apple (four). It also embodies this in its four seasons, which are a visible reminder of the outcome of the magic: the apple we eat. The apple’s four seasons are depicted on the hill below the halved apples. They illustrate the cycle of life, the cycle of completion, and the role of time in the journey from pollination to fruit.
As the number four grows naturally from the number three, so the number five directly springs from four. The growth of the number five is symbolized by the light at the center of the apple mandala as well as by the five-pointed stars in the center of the apples and the five-petaled blossoms. This card reflects the role of physical growth in the changing world. Three grows to four and four to five just as the apple grows from blossom to fuzzy fruit and then to a big, smooth, sweet apple.

This is a card of fruitful increase over time. It could symbolize a fortunate harvest; for instance, a raise or a windfall. It could represent the joy you feel in gathering your productive harvest and exploring your growth. It is also a card of joyful sexuality and of expanded sexual experience. The opened apple is a symbol of opening to your inner desires and discovering true freedom there. Open your desires and initiate a deep and truthful conversation about your passion and sexuality with your partner. Remember that «all acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals» according to the pagan tradition.
As a symbol of the goddess Venus, the apple represents beauty and joy. This card is an encouragement to you to do what brings you a feeling of joy and wholeness. The card is a symbol of finding great joy in life, especially because you recognize that life is short and that the Goddess will bring you again to death. As a part of your awareness of the limited span of life and because the apple is a symbol of well-being, the card signifies health, awareness, and vitality.
The apple is also the symbol of awakening consciousness, and as such the card brings you an awakening of desire and the ability to achieve it. As the bee is drawn to the flower, you will find your desire, experience joy, and eat of the apple of life.

THREE OF DISKS
Fossilized Ammonites Are Uncovered by the Work of Ants
Because the number three symbolizes the action involved in the integration of two unlike things, the Three of Disks is a card of work. The easiest way to explain the Magical Triangle is to give an example: two unlike things — an animal and its food—are made one through the action of eating. On the physical level, represented in the Tarot by the suit of Disks, the fundamental action is work — the quintessential action required in the creation of anything new.
Ants are known to work hard together and prepare for the next season. They are industrious and symbolize for us our own ability to be busy and efficient and to work hard and plan for the future. The ants in this card work to create their home and gather food. Their common dream, expressed through instinct, is to create comfort and serve a common good; to raise new generations throughout time. This collective dream is symbolically represented in the structure of the spiral galaxy that appears in the ants’ dark tunnels. The spiral is an ancient symbol of the journey of life to death and then to rebirth and again into life as an endlessly repeating pattern. To us it speaks of being in step with the order of the universe and our ability to work in rhythm with our bodies and with nature.
While these ants are working they have uncovered three fossil ammonites whose spiral form mirrors that of the galaxy. These beautiful stones are the fossils of cephalopods, familiar to us as the chambered nautilus. Cephalopods have lived on earth since the Paleozoic era, some six hundred million years ago. Their continued existence shows that they have lived in tune with the overall design of nature’s plan. As an example of evolutionary success, they symbolize our ability to get beyond our troubled present existence to a future that is in harmony with the universal pattern.
The ammonites represented here have been transformed through chemical action and turned to stone. Even through this radical transformation they have retained their spiral pattern and brought us a message from the past. The process of nature involved in this change from creature to fossil represents a skill we can use to make new forms from old ones. The original cephalopod dies, but through this magical alchemy it is crystallized as a beautiful fossil. Humans create new forms by seeing a new way to use materials: trees become lumber, clay becomes a pot, and paper becomes a book, all through our capacity for work.
Fossilized ammonites were once used by Native Americans as money. They were universally recognized among Western tribes as special and magical objects. They were called «life within the seed, seed within the shell»—an appropriate name for these uncommon stones. Because they were used in barter they are appropriate symbols for the suit of Disks, which has sometimes been called the suit of money. Money is a compensation for work, and in our culture it has come to represent the most valuable of resources. We trade work for money and money for work in endless cycles, creating jobs and employment opportunities. This work is the fabric of our society and holds countries and corporations together. This is the essential meaning of the Three of Disks; hard work will bring valued compensation either with money or in the simple beauty or usefulness of the created object as the reward.

When you pull the Three of Disks card, it will indicate a time for work, a time to look over your plans and see clearly what work you may now undertake in order to make them become reality. Ask yourself; «What small step can I take to make my dreams come true?» It is important to follow through and work hard at this time in order to create an atmosphere of movement and change. Through these small steps momentum will be created, and the possibility of living in harmony with the larger order of things becomes more real.
This is a time to really examine your work in order to make it more fulfilling and bring it into alignment with the rest of your life and with the needs of our planet. Each of us must take responsibility for what we do so that we may build a common dream for the future of a balanced life and a positive, living world. Only when each of us is willing to undertake this kind of critical examination of what we do to earn money can we, as a species, expect to live in harmony with the larger order like the industrious ants in the Three of Disks.

TWO OF DISKS
The Earth and Sun Together
The number two, which represents the interplay between opposites, is expressed in the suit of Disks by the physical relationship between the earth and the sun. It is in the interplay between their opposing and complementary qualities that life comes into being in the nurturing darkness of space. The sun acts with its light and heat upon the fertile soil and oceans of earth, and in this magical relationship life is created and flourishes. Their interaction is like the relationship between female and male; the action of the sun upon the earth fertilizes the rich possibilities inherent within the earth and gives the gift of life.
The life that is brought forth in the interplay of sun and earth exists only in the narrow veil of the surface of the planet, because that is where friction between opposites enables the magic of creation to take place. The friction of the solar radiation on our oceans and earth takes place in the verge between the two, or where the sun’s light meets the earth. Examples of this frictional relationship are universal because it takes place in every interchange. The friction in lovemaking brings orgasm, and in the male brings forth semen. When the baby sucks at its mother’s breast, its frictional action brings forth the nourishing milk. The ocean meets the shore, and the friction there creates the rich sea life and the sea foam that gave the goddess Aphrodite her birth. What is important in these situations is understanding that the physical interplay between two unlike things always creates friction, and through this friction something new will come into being.
In the interplay of unlike things, the relationship between them defines their respective masculine and feminine roles. For example, the sun’s action on the oceans makes sunlight «male» in relation to the feminine ocean. But when the waves lap against the shore, their action becomes «male» in interplay with the earth; and it is here in the tide pools that ocean and earth combined bring forth their greatest diversity of life. In all the variety of our relations with other people and things, our roles as «masculine» or «feminine» constantly shift as we fulfill the needs of the specific interplay.
The relationship between the sun and the earth also involves the equation of time. Our lives are defined by time, and its effects on us are profound. It could be said that time itself is the creation of the intense friction involved in the big bang. We often take time for granted without really considering that it is what gives us the space to live in. Without time there is nothing. The time we keep on the earth is measured by our relationship to the sun and, to a lesser extent, to the moon. We measure days by the rotation of the planet with respect to the sun. We measure months by the moon’s journey around the earth. We define years by earth’s complete revolution around the sun. These measured times define the basic structure of our lives and have been internalized as a part of who we are.
The yearly relationship is incorporated into the card in the analemma, the yellow figure-eight shape on the earth’s surface. This figure shows the path of the sun as observed from earth for a period of one year, with the sun’s position at summer solstice at the top of the figure and its winter solstice position at the bottom. In other words, if you set up a camera outside and, without advancing the film, took a picture of the patch of sky containing the sun every day at the same time and from the exact same location, the pattern of the sun’s movement would form the figure-eight shape; the analemma. This symbol expresses the infinity of time in that the path is followed endlessly, round and round.
When this card is a part of your reading, take the time to reflect on your relationships with objects as well as people. Try to see the component parts of your relationships; perhaps you are having difficulty in some relationships because both persons are trying to fill the same role. We often have this kind of trouble in new relationships because in the process of getting to know someone we are not clear about our roles. For instance, you may have difficulty defining who will take the active, goal-oriented role, especially in areas of life where you both have some expertise or in areas you are both unfamiliar with. These spheres of action then will lead to argument or to friction that produces tension rather than a new, more positive outcome. Actually, in any argument or any difficulty in your life you can see this pattern. You will get into trouble when the patterns in the relationship are less clearly defined. Therefore, now is the time to define your role in relation to everything around you and to think about the interplay between opposing and complementary forces. Remember that your physical sex does not define your role; your knowledge and expertise are the defining factors in whether you will play the active (dynamic) or receptive (nurturing) part in any interchange. For instance, I am playing the active role in this interchange as the writer of this material, and you are receptively reading and assimilating it. You are also the active participant as the reader, and the book itself is the passive information you assimilate. Notice how both these things are true and possible at the same time.
Take time out for a moment to reflect on the magic of time. Look at how it orders your life and sets the balance between active and passive time (day and night, summer and winter). Let the rhythm of it flow through you, and try to become more aware of its magic in your life.

ACE OF DISKS
The Planet Earth Surrounded by Emblems of the Seasons
The suit of Disks symbolizes material things such as our bodies, our homes, the food we eat, and all the things around us that are real and tangible. The planet earth is our most basic requirement for life, our only home. The Ace of Disks represents this beginning place; it is a card of inception. As the first of the Disk cards, it represents the primary sustenance that the earth gives us at our beginnings, both as individuals and as a species. The earth is our first mother; out other magnificent body we have taken life. We now live in a time of ecological upheaval and change caused primarily by our actions. It is up to us to remember the importance of our Mother Earth and begin to treat her as a living body. Without the earth we are nothing.
As with each of the Aces, a border appears around the primary image. This represents its elemental and contained nature, as the beginning point or seed of its energy (disks, in this case, being the realm of the physical). The elaborate nature of this border has great significance. Disks are considered the initial suit of the Tarot because the body is the primary requirement for life. This makes the Ace of Disks the first card in the
Minor Arcana. It both foreshadows the cards to come and is the objective manifestation of the last of the Major Arcana cards: the World. After all, the earth alone contains all elements of the Tarot: earth, air, fire, and water all exist here.
Within the border is a necklace of colored beads. Linked beads represent the continuity of the universe because a string of beads has no end. The beads are colored for the four fixed signs: pale green for Taurus, gold for Leo, red for Scorpio, and blue for Aquarius. The fixed signs occur in the middle of each of the four seasons, and each is therefore «stuck» to its season and trapped in the midst of two other signs. These four signs represent the truest characteristics of their season because of their tenacity. This is why they are so commonly seen in symbolic art in the form of animals: bull for Taurus, lion for Leo, eagle for Scorpio, angel for Aquarius . Interestingly, these animals also represent the four evangelists in Christian symbolism. By using these four signs we symbolically present the entirety of the seasonal cycle. The number four is a symbol of wholeness and of manifestation. We see four in the elements and directions, the four tools of the Tarot, and the four walls of the house. Four is a development of the one and symbolizes the return to the original unity of wholeness after the first recognition of the other and the action that unites like and unlike. This concept is the basis of magic and is fully explained in the appendix.
Behind the beads is a slab of black marble streaked with white quartz. Marble is a hardened limestone symbolic of the ancient earth, yet it is capable of taking shape in the sculptor’s hands and becoming transformed into a smooth, beautiful work of art. It is a symbol of the original material of the alchemist, black and unformed at the beginning but full of magical potential.
The seasonal cycle is also shown more directly in the four smaller emblems around the border. This ever-changing rhythm is a dominant feature of our planet; it helps us measure our year, and this way of marking time allows us to plant crops or breed our animals in proper relation to the yearly changes. This gives order to our lives and determines our relationship with, and deep connection to, this planet. Surrounding the beads are twisted gold and silver threads, which represent the paths of the sun and moon as they appear to move around us.
On the outside, beyond the border, the cycle of night and day is depicted. This is the other major physical cycle of the planet that helps us regulate our lives. The top part of the painting, the daytime half, shows a comfortable homestead where fruits and vegetables are grown. This is the fundamental sustenance that the suit of Disks represents, signifying the ability to make a home and provide for basic needs. It also means adapting to or understanding the earth’s varied environments, as represented on the nighttime half of the card. This desert land is also a part of our world and is home to many creatures whose lives are bound to it.

In interpretation, this is the card that most represents the idea of grounding, or being centered in one’s body without letting thoughts or feelings distract or divert attention. This card is the symbol of physically having what is needed in order to begin and is also the seed card for new projects and possibilities, especially in the realm of work or in creating physical things. It implies a kind of comfort with the body and with work, essential elements of a positive outcome in a new project. The analogy can be made to the way a new baby feels in her body as she nurses to satisfy her hunger and to grow. The earth is the seed for our creation, and this card is a seed for our new work. Just as the seasons are shown as an endlessly repeating cycle, this card symbolizes our ability to complete our new projects and begin again with the Ace of Disks in endless creation.

Copyright © Alexandra Genetti