We have seen the different stages of human life, as we are told by the Tarot de Marseille. The Tarot of the warrior, the unnamed Arcana XIII, the Tower and the Star, the Moon, the Sun.
A long race have been ran since you are free. Like nudity, duality began in the Arcana XIII, with the cut head of the young king responding to that of the girl. From this arcanum, the integration of the other sex has become the new rule. The steps are still numerous, yet all the following mysteries insist on the number two, addition of the double and the similar, gradual junction of masculine and feminine:
Arcana XIIII Temperance, the woman makes circulate a fluid between two pitchers. Arcana XV, the Devil, man and woman chained carry the antennas of shamans. Arcana XVI the Tower, two characters walk on their hands. A man and a woman? Hard to say. Arcana XVII the Star, we find back the two pitchers of Temperance. Arcana XVIII, two dogs under the Moon. And in the arcanum XVIIII, two children under the Sun.
Arcana XX The Judgment
Once we must quit the warmth of the Sun, time has come for the Judgment.
“In the garden of toddlers
Joy gave appetite
But when the sun is gone
I realized that I grew up
I did not say anything
I forgot my paradise “
Arcana XX presents, in its number as in its image, the perfect duality man-woman, subject of the Judgment. An angel with a trumpet is in the sky. Before an old man and a woman, a being goes out of the grave. This is an androgyne almost achieved. Hide half his body and find out he is half feminine and half masculine!
Arcana XXI The World
When comes the time of arcana XXI the World , the celestial androgyne is perfect. It is found in the center of the image, in a mandorla or celestial vulva, symbol of his ultimate rise to the world, as Vezelay’s Christ in Majesty . Like Christ yet, the being of the World is surrounded by the four symbols of the evangelists, the Eagle, the Lion, the Bull and the Angel. The celestial androgyne holds in his left hand a wand, phallic symbol, and in his right hand, a shell, vulvar symbol. In its nakedness, quite simply, the perfect being reigns over the World: this is the last stage of this plan.
Mandorla is the Occitan word for almond. This form of vertical eye or heavenly vulva, was used in the Middle Ages to show the character’s realization. As can be seen below in the narthex of the Basilica of Vezelay, Christ in Majesty welcomes the world. He himself is in a mandorla, heavenly vulva like a fully realized being.
It is the same for the celestial androgynous of arcana XXI The World. Open, welcoming, his omnipotence lies in his sweet tenderness. Nude as a baby, in all simplicity, the perfect being rules the world: this is the last available step in this plane of reality …
Kindness to ourselves helps us be kind to others.
No Number Arcana: The Fool
What about the Fool, do you wonder. As we have said, The Fool has no number. Those who play tarot game know that the excuse can not leave the hand of the one who received it in his game. He uses it to pass his turn, the excuse does not allow to win any trick. Now the excuse is the modern name of the Fool. In French we say Le Mat – which comes from English word mad. This is the “wisdom of the fools, madness of the wise,” of the Sufis, the “crazy thought” of the Druids, the favorite place of consciousness of the shaman, also known as the alpha wave.
We find this wordi.e.Mat in French in “checkmate”,
which means that everything is played.
Nothing surpasses the Fool. Privilege of the craziest, the Fool can intervene at any arcanum, as the excuse at any time during the game. Look at him go without worry. The Fool is already out of the world, already he no longer feels the claws of beasts.
The path he is following is his only master, his last stay on this earth, all is said and all is good. Arcana XVI the Tower had filled him with light, the arcanum without number the Fool has made a clean sweep. Gateway to emptiness. At any time, the Fool may decide to leave this plane. He will not die, he will turn into light and take flight in this immensity out there. He will not leave any trace in this world that a black spot smoke on the floor of his kitchen.
The Awakening of the Tower had opened the door to the infinite worlds, the ultimate realization of the Fool provides the ultimate power, not that of the ancient challengers of Death, but that of Nuevos Videntes, that of the Escapers of the Eagle, that of the Warriors of total Freedom.
“And the Eagle will let me pass, serene and detached, to Freedom.”
I walk on the path which is no longer the path but the walk.