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Tarot Card Meditation
This meditation will use the major trumps of the Jessie Burns Parke Tarot deck used by the Builders of the Adytum, and obtainable on the web through them. This way of meditating on the cards is given by Paul Case, in his book, The Tarot. I will, however, teach it from my own experience, having pursued it for probably 40 years or more.
There are 22 major trumps, beginning with The Fool and ending with The World. Each card is meditated upon for exactly 5 minutes, once a day for three days. It takes, then, 66 days to cover the entire deck, which adds up to 5½ hours of intense meditation.
The way of meditating upon them is to non-verbally regard each card intently, picking out and noting details, looking in later meditations especially for details you have missed in the past.
If you pursue this meditation through the years, you will find, after a number of decades, that you have been provided with a vocabulary of symbols, with which spiritual concepts can be manipulated. It was something that I was glad that I did.
If you do not get Paul Case’s book, which expounds upon the meaning of each card, you may start with a few basic concepts which I will give here briefly. They are intended to start you contemplating. I differ with Dr. Case in a few respects, and you are certainly encouraged to get the book if you prefer, or if you want to compare.
0. The Fool is the card of spirit. It represents basically spirit-mind, tending to the higher-than-physical, held by the little white dog of intellect. The eagle on the satchel is an alternative glyph of scorpio, which governs the generative function, and the picture clearly implies that these are under control. The white rose is purity, and the repeated circle with eight spokes is probably a reference to the eightfold path given by the Nirmanakaya Siddartha Gautama, who stated that he had rediscovered, rather than originated it. The eight folds are: right understanding, right motives, right speech, right behavior, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right contemplation. (There are notes on the eightfold path here.).
Your Tarot meditation should carry you some steps in the area of right contemplation.
1. The Magician is the card of transcendence. He is transmitting what is above to what is below. Notice that the eyelids are completely passive to what is above, while the eyes are quite commanding toward what is below. The pentacle, cup, sword, and wand symbolize, respectively, earth, water, air, and fire, and thus refer to transcendental levels of the same substance. The most direct application is to the substance of Brahman, which on the next lower level is Tao, or spirit, below that Shen, or mind, below that Chi, or higher-energy, below that Jing, or lower-energy, and below that matter, in the form of atoms and molecules. All the same substance; different vibrational levels.
2. The High Priestess represents subconscious mind. We know it as the habit-mind, but it is very complex, governing digestion, circulation, healing, etc. 90% of behavior is initiated at the subconscious level, although the conscious mind has generally the illusion that it is causing it all. The two levels work best as a team, and it is good for them to work both ways, sometimes allowing subconscious to rule, but not blindly. What if you should drape yourself over that lap? You might be surprised.
3. The Empress is what the High Priestess becomes, after she has wed the Magician, who becomes the Emperor. It is the card of creative imagination, which is a subconscious function, as she represents a modality of subconscious mind. Feminine receptivity is a major facet of the Empress.
4. The Emperor is what the Magician becomes, after wedding the High Priestess. This is the card of powerful, concentrated attention. He holds a platform on a handle, on which there is a wooden ball kept exactly in the center of the square. Imagine yourself doing that, and summoning the requisite attention. The lines on the cliffs are a reminder that there are many pathways to the summit.
5. The Hierophant refers to ordered level transcendence, as suggested both by the staff and the miter, each showing four vibrational levels, as: spirit, mind, energy, and matter. The attitudes of the acolytes are a clue about receiving from above. The draped cloth across the knees seems to show a pathway, or perhaps a road.
6. The Lovers is is one way the most basic card. It depicts the normal condition with which most people are faced. The man represents intellectual mind; the woman represents subconscious mind; the angel represents spirit-mind; and the snake represents the devil-spirit. The circle behind the angel’s head is the articulation of the incarnation by the Buddha-self in nirvana. The man cannot see the angel. The woman and the snake both see the angel, and the woman relays the messages of the angel to the man. However, the snake also relays the messages, and tries to get in there before the woman, along with his own loaded agenda. The snake becomes larger and faster, the more the man succumbs to the sin-state. If he keeps sinning, the snake eventually becomes the devil of Tarot card 15. But if the man rises, and goes in the other direction, the evolution is to Tarot card 20, Judgement. On the way, the head of the serpent is crushed beneath the heel of the woman, and she absorbs its power.
7. The Chariot. The Charioteer guides the two sphinxes (desire and fear) with invisible reins. He is equilibrated between joy and sorrow (balanced) as represented by the shoulder epaulettes. The backs of the sphynxes are ever exposed to his ferule. It is transcendental self-control.
8. Strength. The original Waite deck, on which the Parke deck is based, had the woman closing the mouth of the lion, which is better. The face of the woman is a study -- she is serene, detached, unrufflable -- perfect demeanor. The lower nature is controlled.
9. The Hermit stands alone, on the mountaintop, holding a lamp aloft for others, at some sacrifice to himself. He is performing jalandhara bhand, the neck lock, allowing more prana to flow into the higher brain centers. The staff is possibly a reference to sushumna. (I have never been able to verify the claimed effect of jalandhara bhand. There are YouTube videos giving instruction in it.)
10. The Wheel of Fortune. Our lives proceed in cycles. At the corners are the four fixed signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. The figure at the top of the wheel is ready to do battle with the world. Then comes the serpent of sensuality. Having fallen, the being begins to rise, until he is once again at the top of the cycle.
11. Justice. This is a reminder that if we do anything, we’re going to get it, in one way or another. The scales are upside-down double-domes over the knees. The circles with protrusions, at the top of the chair-posts, may be interpreted as breasts, and you may suckle at them.
12. The Hanged Man represents perfect submissiveness -- his hands are tied behind his back. He is really too tall for this; his head would be resting on the ground if it were level. Not to worry -- he has dug a hole, so that the head hangs freely. The branchlet stumps are suggestive of bumpy curved rattans -- very good for his discipliner to give him a caning on his “half-moons”.
13. Death. The stick across the knee, the water leading to the glowing dome -- often this can bring about a sort of death, especially for young people, resulting in severed heads and other parts.
14. Temperance. The lion is leo, a fire sign; the eagle scorpio, a water sign. The angel tempers the fire with water; the water with fire. One foot is on land; one is in the water.
15. The Devil. If the man in Tarot Card 6 continues to sin, the snake gains power and gets larger and larger, ultimately becoming the devil of 15. His power is compelling; look at his eyes. The figures are chained, although it is obvious that they could remove the loose chains about their necks.
16. The Tower. We make our choices in life -- this is the game. Then we receive the results of those decisions, and we learn from the consequences that ensue. The Tower depicts the results of a regrettable decision. The positions of the falling figures are interesting.
17. The Star is said to be the card of meditation. The water flowing from the two vessels came from the pool; note the concentric circles of concentration. One she pours back into the pool, the other onto the land, which breaks into five flowings -- one for each sense. It is symbolic that she is pregnant.
18. The Moon. This card shows a path between the natural (too coarse) and the cultivated (too refined), trodden by a crustacean, a creature who lives in both air and water (different vibrational levels). Again, the concentric circles suggest concentration.
19. The Sun depicts the ideal. The higher self looks on from above, while the boy and girl (intellect and subconscious) are in a condition of perfect fun-loving innocence.
20. Judgement. If the man in Tarot Card 6 refuses to sin, the snake becomes smaller and smaller, as well as less powerful. He is eventually able to make the serpent slither down the tree and over to the woman, who crushes its head beneath her heel. Doing so, she absorbs its power into her leg and becomes a sort of amazon, larger than the man. Then she puts the man over that leg, folds the lifeless snake in half, and gives him a good whippin’ with it to make him be an even better boy. This costs him some of the power of maturity, but is deemed worth it. When enough ego is out of the way, the boy becomes able to see and communicate with the angel directly. The maturity that he has forfeited has gone into the angel; note that it is now seraphic, as contrasted with the cherubic angel of 6. The angel speaks through the trumpet, the two-dimensional form of which is a higher-world self-applied paddle. The word-play ‘to-rump-it’, and the bare behind of the boy, are not accidental.
21. The World. Life is a dance, and cyclic. One spiral is involution; the other evolution. First we involve, from above; then we evolve, back to the garden. The twenty-two groups of three leaves represent the Tarot keys.
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