The Tao in the Tarot

by Sarita Armstrong

  The firm penetrates and grows. Joyous and devoted. The firm is in the middle and finds correspondence.

  But we have also been told:

  However, when the eighth month is reached, misfortune will befall.

  The eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar corresponds approximately to September in our solar calendar, which is the time of harvest when the plant must give up its ripened fruit and the seed is scattered to the wind. Similarly, after gestation (around the 8th/9th month) when the foetus has grown large in the fertile womb, it finally comes to term through the painful act of giving birth. After the fullness of time there is dispersal, a scattering, an emptying. In the Greek myths this finds a correspondence with Persephone being abducted to the underworld by her lover, Pluto, after which winter came to the earth, signifying the barren time of year that follows after the harvest.

  Card 7: The Chariot/Charioteer (Yang)

  The card for the Chariot represents the male sexual energy used in its highest sense. I prefer to call it the Charioteer for it is the person rather than the object that is the important part of the card. He is the Lover of the Beloved represented in the previous card. In my image, the front of his carriage is in the form of the lingam and he is being drawn along behind it by his two mythical unicorns, those lovely, energetic horses with their phallic horns. As he is pulled along with all that energy, ethereal wings of light designating the base energy transformed into spiritual energy appear like the wind on either side of him. Taoism as well as Hinduism developed a whole branch of spiritual practice, the tantric yoga, to enhance the correct use and control of sexual energy.

  The Charioteer has inherited his sexual prowess with some magic power from the Magician and the knowledge of how to use it from the Emperor, just as the waiting Beloved has inherited her eagerness from the receptivity of the High Priestess and the fecundity of the Empress.

  The important thing for the man is to be in control of his tremendously powerful force; hence he is shown holding firm to the reins of the two mythical unicorns that pull his chariot along at breakneck speed. Without this control he may be drawn down and lost in that dark all enveloping aspect of the female Yin. Or he may be sucked into a mire of dark forces that will control him instead: the shadow-land of the sexual sadist or the paedophile. If he can succeed in the perfect control of the gift he owns, he will be inexorably led into the next phase of his spiritual growth.

  Persephone’s lover, Pluto of the Underworld, like the Charioteer, is often shown in a chariot drawn by two horses. According to Plato he was the giver of spiritual wealth, emphasising the true nature of making love, in which the man releases his inner essence because he reaches the point of overflowing with the need to give, increase, and regenerate, and in so doing he replenishes the needs of his own soul.

  Another Greek myth associated with this card and that of the Lovers might be the story of Psyche and Eros (Cupid). Eros is the spent lover resting in the complete openness and receptivity that he has absorbed from the Yin of his lover, whilst she, like so many anxious women, lies worrying in her head about the true nature of her lover. She is named Psyche for the mental activity of the Yang that spoils her situation (but nevertheless leads to future happiness), and Eros - who is really the creative spirit of the Light - is named for the all-loving Yin receptivity of the female. Each has absorbed the essence of the other through the sexual act. When Eros and Psyche made love, the Earth moved!

  On a cosmic scale, the act of the setting sun was envisioned by early man as entering the earth when it fell below the horizon, impregnating and making all things fruitful. So long as that state of affairs continued unquestioned, all was right in the cosmos. Early man enacted this cosmic event at the Neolithic sanctuary of Newgrange in Ireland, where the mid-winter sun shines directly into the long tunnel reaching to the inner chamber of the sacred place.

  The Exhortation: Use your abilities wisely!

  The Charioteer is twinned with

  Hexagram 34 Ta Chuang: The Power of the Great

  Upper Trigram: Chên: thunder, to arouse, shock. Eldest Son; Lesser Yin. Spring.

  Lower Trigram: Ch'ien: heaven, male, creative, (sky, cold, light). Father; Larger Yang.

  SYMBOL This hexagram symbolizes thunder in the sky. The Superior Man [Elite Traveller] never takes a step involving impropriety

  To arrive at the Power of the Great, a second Yin line has entered the otherwise Yang hexagram though - as the name suggests - this is a powerfully masculine hexagram and one is reminded that the Superior Man never takes a step involving impropriety.

  … great and right are (in this context) synonymous. Righteousness and greatness combined lead to understanding of the inner nature of everything in heaven and earth.

  The component trigrams symbolise heaven and the creative spirit combined with thunder, which has the ability to sprout seeds and quicken into life.

  Wilhelm tells us:

  Strength makes it possible to master the egotism of the sensual drives; movement makes it possible to execute the firm decision of the will. In this way all things can be attained. This is the foundation upon which power rests … without rightness there is no greatness.1

  Here is the strong man with his ability, need, and desire to procreate life, to increase and benefit all around him. His number is the sacred seven which alone can do nothing. But the act has been performed and the thunder (the upper trigram) that germinates seeds and brings forth life has joined with the creative spirit (lower trigram) to produce a tremendously powerful situation.

  When the creative spirit gives of its energy it loses nothing but is regenerated in itself, just as by truly giving something the giver loses nothing but instead gains in many different ways. Hence the hexagram is full of creative energy, which leads from greatness to strength.

  Card 8: Strength/Courage (Yang/Yin)

  In the Waite image for this card we have a woman wrestling with a lion. The image has the idea of Beauty and the Beast or - as on the old fashioned Golden Syrup tins - ‘the sweet shall overcome the strong’. The traditional card of the tarot gives the sense of a strong person overcoming their darker side, like Saint George killing his dragon, or Hercules completing his tasks, but in my image the woman and the lion sit harmoniously together, back to back, the lion supporting the woman who relaxes with confident ease, whilst the lion yawns lazily. The animal-instincts need to be transformed rather than beaten down, and this is a very important distinction. It is the difference between repressing one’s basic instincts or transforming something inherent in our nature to make us larger and better people. Human beings are a strange amalgamation between the animals of this planet and something ‘from above’ in whatever form you take that to be. But that does not give us the right to overcome our animal side by demeaning it, nor to make use of animals as we do all the time. We need to be aware of our true position in this world and of our own true nature.

  One might say of this combination Yang/Yin card that the female in the Lovers has taken the reins, whilst the male in the Charioteer has surrendered, but it has nothing to do with the feminism of a homosexual, nor with the domineering attitude of a ‘liberated’ woman. Instead, both male and female have grown in stature and strength by becoming a part of the other, which can only happen in a situation of unconditional giving and accepting. Male and female are united, energy and subtlety combined. In Jungian terms the woman is in complete harmony with her animus, whilst the man is in complete harmony with his anima. In both cases this makes for a much broader personality.

  The first five cards of the Major Arcana are specific archetypes and through the experience of the last two cards, the Charioteer and Beloved, we can appreciate that we contain the germ of all the archetypes within ourselves. Inside every man there is an element even of the High Priestess and the Empress, and inside every woman lies the seed of the Magician and the Emperor. For sure we all have the capability of being ‘a Hierophant’. This subliminal appreciation creates great inner
strength in a person. He is sound – he rings true. He has integrity. A murderer may have the strength to perform his act, but the nature of the deed imbues him with guilt and fear, which makes him weak and very wobbly! Inner strength comes from inner confidence that what you are doing is right and proper. Just as the Fool is innocent of his integrity, so the person with inner strength is unaware that he has it.

  Strength is an important combination card because it lies at the transition between the Material and Psychological Sequences. One cannot go on for ever in the phase of the Beloved and Charioteer with all the Strength produced by this combination. Time and movement has to take place whether we like it or not. If we remain on the First Octave in a material phase, the Beloved inevitably becomes a mother, a housewife, or a shrew. The Charioteer, even with the best of intentions, will become the drinker at the pub, the philanderer, or the hardworking but bitter and downtrodden provider for the family. In order to progress from this state of affairs, we need to look at life from a different level - we need to step onto the Second Octave, and we now have the inner strength to do so.

  Michael Hayes in his book The Infinite Harmony on the difference between the octaves explains:

  “All the vibrations of the first seven notes in a scale are contained within the eighth note. This note therefore has the ability to transpose itself into the next octave. The second note ‘do’ vibrates twice as fast as the one before it.”1

  If we have learnt all the lessons in the first seven cards of the Major Arcana we have gained the Strength to move on to the next octave of which Strength - or Courage - is again the first note.

  With the combination of the Beloved and the Charioteer, Strength has arisen: the strength to rise out of the purely material level and enter a deeper - or higher - mode of living one's life. Now we have the peace of mind to proceed with an inner search of the sub-conscious. We have gained the strength to move forward on our journey into the psychological phase of the Tarot, and the strength has come not by repression or rejection of underlying guilt but by acceptance of what we really are. In this way we have gained the strength to enter the Psychological Sequence without fear of being overcome by whatever we may find hidden beneath the covers.

  The Exhortation: You have strength, take courage!

  Strength is twinned with

  Hexagram 51 Chên: Arousing Thunder

  Upper Trigram: Chên: thunder, to arouse, shock. Eldest Son; Lesser Yin. Spring.

  Lower Trigram: Chên: thunder, to arouse, shock. Eldest Son; Lesser Yin. Spring.

  SYMBOL This hexagram symbolizes continuous thunder. The Superior Man [Elite Traveller] in fear and trembling seeks to improve himself.

  This and all the following combination cards are represented by double hexagrams where the lower trigram is the same as the upper trigram, and in Hexagram 51 we have the trigram for thunder doubled. There is no thunder without lightening - they are inextricably connected. The flash of the light has happened in the previous cards and here we see the thunderous result.

  The attribute represented here is the strength required for a new undertaking; for a new way of life. The arousing of the thunder is the awakening that first occurs before a new venture. Our new venture is into the realms of the mind, a psychological journey, and this hexagram also represents one who is not easily frightened by the supernormal.

  Blofeld's translation beautifully describes the awesome but wonderful power involved:

  Thunder - success! Thunder comes with a terrible noise, laughing and shouting in awesome glee and frightening people for a hundred miles around. The sacrificial wine is not spilt.

  Confucius' Commentary:

  Thunder indicates success; it’s terrible roar is frightening, but this leads to happiness … That the sacrificial wine is not spilt indicates that someone now appears who is capable of guarding the temple of the ancestors and the shrines of the harvest gods, one qualified to be the leader of the sacrifices.

  This person is the Elite Traveller himself - in this case, the person moving from the first octave into the second octave, for he has gained the strength (through the uniting of the Charioteer and the Beloved) to undertake the next phase of his spiritual journey in the correct manner: as one qualified to be the leader of his own sacrifices.

  The trigrams are named for ‘the eldest son’, of whom Wilhelm tells us:

  Among the custodians of the sacred vessels the eldest son stands first…1

  Shock brings success

  The shock terrifies for a hundred miles,

  And he does not let fall the sacrificial spoon and chalice…2

  This hexagram represents the strength required for new life to emerge, and the strength is combined with joy and happiness. Terrific strength is required when a mother gives birth to her baby but this too is combined with joy and happiness. Thunder and lightening have the power to quicken life - to turn a dry seed into a young plant after which awesome strength is required by the seed following germination to push its way up through the dry soil when the season is right. If you have seen the sprout from a seed pushing aside the soil to reach the sun, or delicate white mushrooms forcing cracks in the earth in order to get to the light of day, you will have been inspired to see that such a tiny object can have such strength. The tarot card Strength is actually the offspring (the seedling) of the union of the Beloved and the Charioteer.

  Arousing Thunder represents this need for the seed in the soil and the seed in the soul to germinate and grow. But a seedling can only flourish if the time of its sprouting is right, if the season is correct - and at this point of transition between the Material Sequence and the Psychological Sequence, between the First Octave and the Second Octave, the timing is definitely correct (see Figure 8:). It is in harmony with the Tao.

  The Second Octave - The Psychological Sequence

  Here we move away from the physical and deal more with the mental aspects of the two opposites: hence Yang on a psychological level represents the intellectual, and Yin represents the intuitive.

  The card Strength appears again as the first card of this Second Octave, the Psychological Sequence, and whereas on the level of the First Octave it referred to the strength gained from the union of male and female and the correct understanding of it, here we see Strength as the necessary requisite for undertaking the search into the inner workings of our minds.

  Courage might be a better word, for it includes the idea of enthusiasm and joyful anticipation together with strength. We can make ourselves strong, but we cannot force courage on ourselves. We either have it or we don’t, and if we do not have the courage for the task ahead we have not properly understood or absorbed the lessons of the First Octave.

  Card 9: The Hermit (Yin)

  Although we have the courage for the journey ahead, there is a reaction, a turning away, a turning inward. The real meaning of the card is a very positive inner resuscitation that can only occur by withdrawing from the distractions of the world. It is only natural that we have to turn away from the material world, if only for a time, so that we can return to it with a renewed attitude. Before we proceed with our first effort at understanding the material world in which we may have become mired, together with a look at a possible way forward out of it, we need time to withdraw and take stock. To really begin to understand oneself, it is necessary to throw off the trappings of the world and retreat in solitude to give one's full attention to the necessary study and contemplation. Only after this can one return to the world with renewed insight.

  My image shows a cloaked figure with a small concealed light in a darkened world. A cave in the mountain where one presumes the Hermit lives glows with light: an exact image of the connected hexagram signifying light hidden within the earth.

  The first step taken by the prince Siddhartha before he became the Buddha was to retreat from all his worldly wealth and retire in solitude and poverty in order to meditate on the fundamental questions of existence. Jesus too retired to the wilderness where he pondered th
e mysteries of life, and it was in the wilderness that he received his baptism from John the Baptist. The symbol of the Hermit as both saint and teacher is one that we find in every religion of the world. This is an essentially Yin card because of its inward-turning, inward-looking, intuitive aspect. In the Celtic tradition hermits were often women, who later were persecuted as witches.

  The situation of this card as the first in the Second Octave is abundantly clear in stressing the need for withdrawal and a certain amount of - shall we say 'discretion' rather than secrecy - at this point on the spiritual journey. This would have been more important in the early days of the transmission of the Tarot teachings than it is today, when one is more liable to be persecuted for political beliefs, whilst religious ones may merely arouse ridicule. This is actually the start of our spiritual journey, but the first steps are to understand ourselves, hence it is the psychological phase.

  On a different theme, one can see that from earliest times man has worshipped in caves or underground. During the Neolithic age purposefully sited caves were created to catch the rays of the sun at specific times of year. Newgrange in Ireland is such a place, where the mid-winter sun enters a purposefully aligned sixty-foot shaft-like passageway to strike a certain stone within the cave at the end. This specific symbol of the creative sunlight entering the receptive earth is echoed here in the card of the Hermit with its light within the earth. Standing as the first card in the psychological phase, this symbolises the germination of the embryo of a new way of thinking, a way that recognises the synthesis of the opposites, of the creative light and the receptive dark reproducing a greater enlightenment.