A journey through the Tarot cards is primarily a journey into our own depths. Whatever we encounter along the way, is an aspect of our own deepest, and highest, self. For the Tarot cards, originating as they did at a time when the mysterious and irrational had more reality than they do today, bring us an effective bridge to the ancestral wisdom of our inner most selves. And new wisdom is the great need of our time - wisdom to solve our own personal problems and wisdom to find creative answers to the universal questions which confront us all.
The major Arcana (also called the Trumps), which are the cards that will be the landmarks of our journey, comprise a set of twenty-two picture cards which do not belong to any of the four suits (the court cards, or Minor Arcana). Each of these cards bears an intriguing name (The Magician, The Empress, The Lover, Justice, The Hanged Man, The Tower, and so forth), and the cards are numbered. Arranged in sequence, the Trumps seem to tell a picture story.
Major Arcana can be viewed as a silent picture text representing the typical experiences encountered along the age-old path to self-realization. Theories about the origin of this Fool and his twenty-one companion Trumps are various and fanciful. Some thinks these cards represent the secret stages of initiation in an esoteric Egyptian cult; others maintain, and this with more historical probablity, that the Major Arcana are of Western European origin. Actually very little is known about the history of the Tarot cards or about the origin and evolution of the suit designations and the symbolism of the twenty-two cards of Major Arcana. But the many imaginative hypotheses as to the cards' inception, and the numerous visions and revisions inspired by their pictorial symbology attest to their universal appeal and demonstrate their power to activate the human imagination.
If the Tarot cards were devised as illustrations for certain verbal concepts rather than that the cards erupted spontaneously and the text was inspired by them, as a result, the personalities and objects pictured in these cards seem more allegorical in character than symbolic. The pictures appear to illustrate verbalised concept rather than suggesting feelings and insights wholly beyond the reach of words.
To our way of thinking, it is the difference between reading an illustrated book and walking into an art gallery. The effect on us is very different, the illustrated book stimulates intellect and empathy, connecting us with the insights and feelings of others, while the art gallery stimulates imagination, forcing us to dip down into our own creativity and experience for amplification and understanding.
The pictures on the Tarot (Trumps) Major Arcana tells a symbolic story. Like our dreams, they come to us from a level beyond the reach of consciousness and far removed from our intellectual understanding. Since all symbolic material derives from a level of human experience which is common to all mankind, it is, of course, we can connect with their meaning through analogy with myths, fairy tales, drama, paintings, events in history, or any other material with similar motifs which universally evoke clusters of feelings, intuitions, thoughts, or sensations. Therefore, it seems appropriate to behave toward these Tarot characters pretty much as we would if they had appeared to us in a series of dreams picturing a distant unknown land inhabited by strange creatures.
Like paintings, the cards of Major Arcana, are so-called projection holders, meaning simply that they are hooks to catch the imagination.
Speaking psychologically, projection is an unconscious, autonomous process whereby we first see in the persons, objects, and happenings in our environment those tendencies, characteristics, potentials, and shortcomings that really belong to us. In another words, its like our exterior world with the witches and princesses, devils and heroes we perceived as a character or a meaning buried in our own depths.
Projecting our inner world onto the outer one is not a thing we do on purpose. It is simply the way the psyche functions. In fact, projection happens so continuously and so unconsciously that we are usually totally unaware it is taking places. Nevertheless these projections are useful tools toward gaining self-knowledge. By viewing the images that we cast onto outer reality as mirror reflections of inner reality, we come to know ourselves.
In our journey through the Major Arcana, we shall be using the cards as projection holders. These cards are ideal for this purpose because they represent symbolically those instinctual forces operating autonomously in the depths of the human psyche which Jung has called the 'archetypes'.
These archetypes function in the psyche in much the same way as the instincts function in the body. Something we all experience them in our dreams, visions, and waking thoughts where they appear as images. The archetypes of Mother, Father, Lover, Hero, Magician, Fool, Devil, Old wise man etc. being dreamed or sung of all ages and cultures.
All of us react differently to different cards. Some cards attract us; some repel us. Some cards remind us of people we know or have known in the past. Some are like figures in dreams or in fantasies. Others bring us entire dramatic episodes. Perhaps the most importantly is that when we really focus on a Tarot card and then follow as the card itself leads, we will then become open to new and exciting experiences.
The Major Arcana cards are best studied in sequence. Their numerical order creates a pattern both throughout the deck and within ourselves. And to follow that pattern, our imagination will provide the passport. It is a good idea to study each card directly before you read anything specific about that card, and then jot down "off the top of your head" any reactions, ideas, memories, and associations (or even four-letter words) that come to mind. These notes are for your eyes only, so let the pen fly. Don't censor anything, however farfetched it seems, for it may connect you with important insights later on, since first impressions are often more significant than they appear at the time, jot down everything verbatim. At this stage, there is no need to attempt to analyse, evaluate, or label whatever you have wriiten. Just file it away for future consideration.
Each must discover his own way into the nonverbal world of the Tarot. The cards themselves, as we have seen, are not signs; but symbols. No precise definitions can be given to them. They are pictorial expressions which point beyond themselves to forces no human being ever completely understands. Today, man is at least beginning to realise that the more he remains unconscious of archetypal forces, the more power they have to rule his life.
So let us contemplate the symbols. Let us watch them move, connecting us with the deepest roots of our history and with the seeds of our undiscovered selves.
