Tarot Major Arcana: The World, The Fool, and Minor Arcana Keys

the forgotten traditions. Elevation of healing powers and return to physical, moral and intellectual health. Liberation, freedom, separation from evils. Wise judgment of posterity. Reputation, notoriety, echo, noise, publicity, publicity, disconcerting noise. Prediction, apostolate, propaganda. Exaltation, intoxication, over-excitement, both natural or artificial, lack of balance. Dionysiac ecstasy.

The World

The twenty-first Arcanum represents a Crown that encloses a naked woman representing Truth. The Initiate is here represented at the end of his journey. In the corners of the mandorla are the four living beings: the Man, the Eagle, the Bull and the Lion. The four powers are those of the tetramorph that composes the sphinx: the flanks of the bull, the claws of the lion, the wings of the eagle and the head of man. The head, that is, the intelligence of man necessary to understand wisdom; the wings of the eagle which are his capacity to rise above the highest peaks of the spirit; the claws of the lion to make way to the kingdom and the flanks of the bull to build and produce work. This Arcanum represents total realization, the greatest possible realization in this evolutionary cycle, the assumption of the angelic state.

Meaning

Cosmos. The ordered universe. Kingdom of God. The ideal Temple concluded. Totality. Re-integration. Perfection. Integral knowledge. Sovereign spiritual power. Ecstasy. Apotheosis. Reward. Incorruptibility. Absolute integrity. Complete success. Realization. Crowning of work not abandoned. Atmosphere. Favorable antecedents to a decisive result: all or nothing, retinue. Benefit withdrawn from collectivity. Statesman, minister. Superior hostile functioning. Insurmountable external obstacle.

The Fool

This arcanum, outside the evolutionary cycle, represents the feeling that follows any failure. Here we see a blind man with a full sack, about to fall into a ravine in the jaws of a crocodile with its mouth wide open. This blind man is the symbol of man who has enslaved himself to matter. His sack is full of his errors and failures. The broken obelisk represents the ruin of his works, the crocodile is the emblem of implacable fatality and inevitable expiation, the inescapable result of his past actions.

Meaning

Parabrahm, Apsou. The bottomless Abyss. The Absolute. Infinite. Ensoph. Whatever is beyond comprehension. The irrational, the absurd. The Void, Nothingness. Cosmogonic night. Primordial substance. Disintegration, spiritual annihilation. Nirvana. Passivity, impetuosity, giving way to blind instincts, to gross desires and passions. Irresponsibility, alienation, madness. Lack of self-direction; unable to resist external influences. Agency, subject to domination, loss of free will. Slavery. The toy of occult powers. Unbalanced and easily influenced. A subject for hypnosis. Instrument of other people. Lack of consciousness. Unable to be initiated. Blindly dragged into someone's fall. The foolish person trapped by their own whims. Insensitivity, indifference. Indifference. Unable to recognize their wrong deeds and feel remorse for them.

The Key to the Minor Arcana

Transcription of the meeting of November 7, 2022. Reporter D. Corradetti.

In previous meetings we saw how Tarot constitutes "the Book of books", that is, a book that contains, for those who are capable of reading, all other books. Why? Because Tarot is a synthesis of Wisdom in its essence, a set of absolute ideas capable of containing all others. Thus, this book can be used to read everything that exists: the highest truths, as well as the most common ones. The first leads to Wisdom, the second to imprisonment in the wheel of existence.

Now, in antiquity wisdom was divided into two great Arcana or Mysteries: the Lesser and Greater Mysteries. The Lesser Arcanum refers to the spiritual origin of Man, while the Greater Arcanum refers to the descent of Divinity into Man and his ascension into God. The Lesser Arcanum is Man in his cosmic and universal aspect, the Greater Arcanum is the God-Man. Similarly, the Tarot are divided into two parts: one part is called the Major Arcana and the other is that of the Minor Arcana which is what we will talk about today.

A symbol of the lesser Mysteries was the Sphinx, this tetramorphic being that guarded the sacred city and posed a riddle to travelers. Those who were able to solve the riddle could enter the Sanctum Regnum, while others were devoured by the Sphinx itself. There are various versions of the riddle posed by the Sphinx, depending on traditions, but it can always be traced back to a riddle about the origin of Man: "Who are you? Where do you come from? Where are you going?".

Those who can answer these questions can access the Holy City, because they know their own spiritual origin, while others are devoured by the burning wheel of existence, purposeless travelers, shipwrecks of life. The solution to the Sphinx's Riddle is the Sphinx itself. This is a symbol constructed by Man to remind him of his spiritual origin, at a time when he was not yet bound to the physical body as he is now.