PSYCHOLOGICAL
IMPLICATIONS
"Then
Judas (not the Iscariot), said, Behold, Lord, we see that everything
here is like the Signs of the Heaven and that the nature of man is both
hidden and revealed. . . Jesus answered, It is very hard to perceive
the Soul because it does not continue in the same fashion or shape or
emotion.” -
Gospel of the Egyptians
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On pages 11 and 12 of this study, we revealed the meaning of the
four Minor suites in the Tarot cards: the Staff, the Sword, the
Pentacle and the Cup. We must now give some consideration as to
why there are ten numbered cards in each suite followed by a Page,
a Knight, a Queen and a King, also belonging to each suite. On
this page, I have laid out the ten of Staves (or Clubs) and the
ten of Pentacles. These two cards alone display the skill and
understanding possessed by Dr. Arthur Waite (1857-1942) and Miss
Pamela Smith of the original Tarot cards, as they produced this
series.
Anyone who has ever studied the Cabala will recognize the arrangement
of the ten Pentacles as making up the glyph of the Tree of Life
here displayed. The Torah consisted of the law
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and
the written teachings of Moses, while the Cabala is made up of the secret
oral teachings which Moses delivered to the Seventy-two Elders of Israel.
But the fact that there are ten Pentacles pictured here does not explain
why there are ten numbered cards in each suite under the King and Queen,
etc. Since I do not have space to comment on the meaning of each card,
I will simply comment on certain ones.
The ten of Pentacles shows an aged man, surrounded by wealth,
having come to his old age in the enjoyment of not only his children
but also his grand children. The ten of Staves shows us a man
departing this lifetime carrying little with him but the hard
won lessons of this life time. When he dies, he will have many
memories to take with him into his next life, but he will depart
as a victor nonetheless. Whereas the man displayed on the ten
of Swords is a defeated man.
In our study of the Sword, we saw that it represented mental development.
And we also saw that too much left-brained activity without right-brain
balance leads to illness, disease and even death. We all know
individuals who are brilliant in some ways but foolish in other
ways.
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What is sadly lacking in too many of our lives is an even balance between
the physical, mental, emotional (signified by the Cup), and spiritual
aspects of our lives.
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The
monk living in a cave cannot develop all of these various aspects
equally, because one must interact with society to learn virtue
and temperance. It is by the interaction and tension of rubbing
elbows; the give and take of struggle between man and wife, family
and career, privacy and duty to country, that true character is
built. Not in sequestering oneself in a monastery. Do not misunderstand
me, I believe in monastic situations for certain kinds of work but
not for producing character.
The picture on the ten of Cups, shows a happily married couple
living in a cottage, in the country with their children playing
merrily. It is true that a happily married couple must work to
achieve happiness. It doesn’t just happen
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automatically.
The ten numbered cards show us the lives of ordinary men and women who
did not achieve Perfection, but who may have appeared to be successful.
In contrast with these are the Kings and Queens.
Now, I suppose that some will reason that because the original
Tarot cards were drawn up during the Medieval Ages when feudal
society still regarded chivalry and knight-hood and royalty with
great admiration, that that accounts for why we have the Page,
the Knight, the Queen and the King. That would certainly be true
on the surface but we also know that the Cathars were looking
forward to the overthrow of feudal society; especially the Roman
version of Papacy and Royalty. This can easily be seen in the
Major Arcana card called, The Tower, where we see both king and
pope being cast to the ground from a high tower. In esoteric circles
there were four grades of existence above that of the average,
albeit successful, happily married individual and those were the:
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THE
ASPIRANT, THE APPRENTICE, THE COMPANION AND THE MASTER
Throughout the years, schools of higher Wisdom have generally
used four names or their equivalent to establish the four levels
or grades in their schools. Generally, the Aspirant is considered
to be one who sincerely desires to enter the brotherhood. He may
be accepted only on very limited terms. He may be required to
study for a couple years and to perform menial chores for the
brotherhood. He then becomes an Apprentice or worker inside the
brotherhood but the higher truths are held in abeyance until he
has established himself and proven his integrity. Eventually he
becomes a Companion, with greater responsibilities and finally,
he becomes a Master. The blessed Jesus can be seen classifying
his disciples in this manner:
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“Thomas then spoke to the Lord saying, ‘I beg you to explain something
to me. I’ve heard you speak of hidden things, so I will ask you something
about them, since it is obvious to me that the truth is difficult to
perform before men.’ Jesus answered him, ‘If the things that are Visible
to you are obscure, how can you hear about the things that are Invisible.
And if it is hard for you to perform the works of those truths that
are Visible in this world, how shall you perform those deeds that pertain
to the Exalted Height and to the Pleroma, which are not visible? And
how will you be called ‘Laborers’? In this respect, you are only Apprentices
and have not received the height of Perfection.” - Book of Thomas,
the Contender1
The
Gospel of John reports Jesus as saying, “If I
have spoken to you about earthly things and you do not believe, how
will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?2
Another passage in John has Jesus saying: “”You
are my Friends, if you do what I command you [to do]. From hence forth,
I will no longer call you Laborers because a servant doesn't know what
his Lord does but I shall call you Friends (Companions) because I have
made known to you everything that I heard from my Father.”3
The Greek word here translated as ‘friends’ or ‘companions’ is the Greek
word philos which literally means ‘princes’ or those standing around
the throne. 4 Another term used in the New Testament is ‘Master’.
Jesus was called a master on various occasions and others accepted that
designation.5
THE
TREE OF LIFE GLYPH |
So,
when the designers of the Tarot cards label some as Page, Knight,
Queen or King, they were actually pointing to these grades within
their order, as follows:
Page
————Aspirant
Knight———-Apprentice
Queen———-Companion
King————-Master
The
Sufis still employ terms very analogous to those used in ancient
times.
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An
‘Aspirant’ is one who seeks to be initiated but has to wait to
be accepted by a spiritual teacher. A ‘Mutasawwif’ is one who
is a ‘novice’ or a ‘poor one’. He does follow a teacher. An ‘Arif’
is a ‘knower’ or Gnostic, who has experienced the reality of the Tawhid.
And a ‘Shaykh’ is a spiritual guide or teacher.
Now the Cathars only recognized two authorities above the level
of a King and those were the ‘Emperor’ and ‘Hierophant’, which
corresponds to the Sufi ‘Wali’ or saint, who possesses
the direct reality of God and is able to express this through
miracles and spiritual knowledge, and the ‘Al-Insan al-Kamil’
or the Perfect Man, who is the great spiritual teacher of the
age.
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THE
POSITION OF THE NINE PLANETS WITH REGARD TO THE SPIRAL AND THE TWELVE
MUSICAL NOTES
On page 22 of this study, I published a diagram showing the relation
of the orbits of the nine Planets within a cone. Since a cone is a spiral,
I am now showing the nine Planets with reference to the action of a
Spiral. The placement of their orbits along the line of the Spiral just
happens to coincide with the locations of our twelve music notes. Note
for instance the Asteroid Belt just happens to correspond to the F-sharp
note - a note that should not be used in music. Mercury corresponds
to the C-sharp note, Venus to the D and Earth to the D-sharp, while
Mars corresponds to the E note. I will leave you to ruminate on these
tidbits. God bless you and yours. Jeffrey Brackeen
1.
The Book of Thomas the Contender, Chapter 8, Vs 174-177, The Complete
Gospel of Jesus Christ, Edited by Jeffrey Brackeen, Koinonia Comm. 1994
2.
John 3:12
3.
John 15:14, 15
4.
See the Septuagint in Esther 2:18, Gen. 32:28; Isa. 56:4,5
5.
See Mk. 12:14, Jn. 3:10, Jam. 3:1
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