Un-grounded Intuition Leads to Paranoia

Every aspect of our human journey and experience is comprised of light and dark components. For example, The Empress and Devil Cards teach us that sensuality without love becomes usury. Cups reveal that ungrounded intuition can lead to paranoia and vain imaginings. Learning to read reversals teaches us that there is a dark side to every light and a light to every dark. In The Sun we can mistakenly presume that this card represents only the light, but in truth every light casts a shadow. In Egyptian sacred texts the sun God Ra was revered for bringing the warmth and life giving force of sunlight, and was also feared for His unrelenting burning that could dry a human to a crisp in the desert at noon.

Notions of the Sacred Must be Inclusive

All aspects of our humanity must be in masculine and feminine balance. The leadership qualities revealed in The Emperor must be balanced with the empathy and nurturance of the Empress; the stress caused by the dramatic changes wrought in the Tower must be alleviated with the cleansing and peaceful reflection of the Star; our notions of the sacred need to be holistic and inclusive of both the masculine and feminine as symbolized by the High Priestess and the Hierophant.

Spirit in Matter

Our life journey continually moves us towards wholeness. Our process of learning and growing throughout this human journey ultimately leads to an acceptance of ourselves, our limitations and potentials. This is encapsulated in the The World card and a study of the four essential elements represented in the four suits. For example, when one of the elements is over-represented in a reading, we are guided to re-balance by bringing more of its opposite into our lives.

The human experience is an expression of spirit in matter. When our spirit is brought into matter, there will be irresistible temptations from both the unseen and seen worlds. The High Priestess calls to us with promises of startling insight, spiritual riches, and knowledge beyond our wildest dreams. Following her call can lure us away from our bodies and our day to day concerns for survival. Someone with too much High Priestess may have difficulty acknowledging the needs of our bodies to eat and express sexual passion (eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa exemplifies this pathology).

The Empress is the riches of the Goddess made manifest. She beckons us with promises of a generous harvest, physical pleasure, and the blessings of birthing. With too much Empress we may struggle to remember we are spirits manifested and get lost in the illusion of idealized materialism (motherhood has it’s tribulations as many are surprised to discover during a devastating bout of post-partum depression).

The Emperor highlights the dangers of assigning full credit to our successes to our own specialness, and forgetting to be thankful to the sacred for all gifts lovingly bestowed from the unseen world. The Devil Card symbolizes the lesson of becoming “trapped” in physical desire which will mean a relinquishing of our heart and soul’s freedom to fulfill itself no matter what the cost on the physical plane.

Fateful Events

There is such a thing as “fateful” events and it is how we manage the trials and challenges of life that will “pre-determine” our future.

Our journey to wholeness will mean sacrifice and death, as revealed through the Hanged One and the Death cards. Ultimately we must learn to relinquish our ego’s mythology of total control to discover the riches of self actualization. True psychological health is reflected in our ability to sacrifice our egotistic needs to be recognized and admired at the alter of what supports the greater good and truth.

Balance is the key to emotional/spiritual maturity. Awareness of our spiritual power must lead to prudence, responsibility and beneficence or we will reap the ultimate backlash from the unseen world of sickness, despair and alienation. Pride always comes before the fall and the Major Arcana offers this lesson several times along the Fool’s journey.

The Magician, right at the beginning of the Fool’s journey, demonstrates the power of discovering our ability to manifest all that holds potential in the unseen world, and High Priestess quickly appears on the Magician’s heels to remind us of where we came from. The Devil reminds us to be cognizant of the trappings of success offered to us in the material world and the danger of losing the freedom and joy truly only available from the spiritual plane. The Tower finally rips down all vestiges of egotism and Judgment promises us an opportunity to “atone” for our lapses into egotism and be awarded a grace of rebirth.

In The World card, finally whole, we embrace true joy, which is a full awareness of our purpose in life. We are spiritual beings in a physical body, here to do the work of the sacred. Our trials, challenges and losses are regarded from a perspective of wisdom, acceptance and generosity. We humbly acknowledge that it is only in this very moment that we can experience fulfillment, all else is illusion.