The Tao in the Tarot

by Sarita Armstrong

  The card of the World Dancer shows one who has become completely aware of the cosmic nature of the Earth and the planets and all that lives on the earth; aware too of the rhythmic movement of all that is in our universe, from the outer reaches of space to the inner molecules of cells.

  Spiralling Onwards

  We have reached the point at which the Enlightened and the World Dancer have returned to a position close to where we started with the Magician and the High Priestess (Figure 1, Figure 4 and Figure 6). We have come full circle and learnt all we can on this round. As the Elite Traveller waking up at the caravanserai we have remembered from whence we came and to where we are going. Although we are back where we started we are in a higher gear. As we move on to the higher level of the spiral, we have a different viewpoint. The spiral continues but we cannot see further than these first few steps on the new level.

  The Enlightened - our Bodhisattva - who has received the cup of compassion through his Sun-Moon experience with the Holy Grail cannot now leave the rest of humanity to its fate so returns as the Enlightened Emperor able to guide his people in a truly enlightened way. We thought the Emperor was pretty clever before, but now he has been enlightened with the compassion of Kuan Yin who weeps for the sorrows of mankind, so he is able to guide his realm in a way that combines compassion and right understanding. The Enlightened Emperor represents a new world order – a very much more enlightened one.

  Similarly, the World Dancer becomes the Dancing Empress: the same Empress in a more light-hearted form. The original Empress was concerned that all harvests should be productive and her job was a serious one. But now on the new level of the spiral, the Dancing Empress knows that all is well with the world and there is no concern because harvests will be productive without her intervention. Therefore, she is able to pay more attention to the steps of the world dance and to her own rhythm. She works in the same way as before but with a greater awareness of the reason for it all and with greater joy in her existence.

  The Enlightened Emperor is still in charge of his realm and the Dancing Empress is still in control of her world, but the Fool is a single dance-step beyond. Like a faint figure in the distance we can still catch a glimpse of him as the Integrated Hierophant, in the form of an as yet unrealised new archetype.

  “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

  And next year’s words await another voice.”1

  We cannot as yet conceive of the Fool as the Integrated Hierophant because we have not yet appreciated the real concept of the Tarot Fool within the world. The Fool represents mankind as a whole as well as each and every one of us individually. It is actually the offspring of the Magician and the High Priestess. On an esoteric level the Creative Spirit, God, Aliens – whatever way you see it –fecundated the Receptive Spirit of Earth, of Gaia, and created mankind: the Fool. The Creative Spirit operates through the Magician as he embraces the pure beauty and compassion of Gaia: the High Priestess.

  Like Mr. Spock in the TV series Star Trek, the Creative Spirit does not understand emotion or the feeling of love, and so it is fascinated by this totally non-understandable ability to give without asking in return. It does not understand that the very ability of not asking, not desiring nor requiring, creates the vacuum which must be filled. It cannot understand how such fullness can be acquired, or how - with such giving - it is continually replenished! And so the Creative Spirit with it’s incessant desire to know, to expand and to grow, has an inconsolable desire for Gaia, and when the two come together the offspring represented by the Fool as the Innocent evolves. Mankind is created. When each of us accepts the totality of both aspects of our parentage, the Creative Spirit and our Earthly Inheritance, we become the Fool as Integer: the integrated person (with no corpus collosum to separate his left-brain from his right-brain) who is able, like the Fool in the Tarot card, to step out of the circle into the great Beyond. As he steps forth he makes more space for more creation of the Creative Spirit on Earth.

  But there is a problem because mankind as a whole is not doing that. At the turning point on the circle where Balance or Justice lies, he is not turning back towards his origins as would be the natural course of events in harmony with the Tao. Instead he is continuing on the same materialistic way in what he hopes will be an outward course in an ever larger and larger arc. With mankind’s emphasis on the Creative Spirit at the expense of Gaia, with the emphasis on technology at the expense of beauty, with the emphasis on the intellect at the expense of the intuitive, with the emphasis on the left-brain at the expense of the right-brain, the creative spirit in mankind expands and expands until there is no more space left for it. When we reach the point of balance on the circle of life, represented by Justice/Balance in the Tarot, too many of us do not take the return route but continue on in what is hoped will be an ever-expanding outward journey even though this has to be within the confines of the world. Populations explode, for no-one is moving on. No-one is leaving, for we have lost the map for the return route. We want to change Change for what we see as our own benefit – in other words, we fight against the Tao to relentlessly expand what we see as our own individuality - and we will continue to do so until Gaia the Beloved is dead.

  What is the essence of Gaia that is so appealing to the Creative Spirit? It lies in the scent of a wild rose scarcely discernable in passing. It is in the flash of colour in the kingfisher’s darting flight. It is in the scent of dry earth when the first rains come, and the smell of leaf-mould beneath disturbed moss. But we must think back further than this to the beauty known only by the High Priestess in her cavernous depths of ocean: to the softly waving tendrils of the sea anemone, to the stillness of the sea-horse amidst the tug and push of undercurrents, to the colour and formation of corals. But it is not just this soft gentleness of Gaia that is the attraction to the Creative Spirit. It is also the drumbeat of elephants’ feet pounding the earth; the hard rhythm of the mustang’s hooves on the dry savannah; the relentless padding of camels’ feet scuffing the desert sands. It is the lion’s roar and the eagle’s cry; the thunderous clouds when lightening crashes on the mountains; the surf tugging on the seashore, rattling the round pebbles down into its depths. But it is even more than that. It is also the velvet on the horns of the stag in rut. The tiger cub’s first sip from the mother’s waiting teat. The polar bear’s gentle cuff to its young and the intimate touch of the cat’s paw with claws retracted. It is the stoic male penguin nursing one egg and the endless flight of the albatross encircling the globe. It is the crash of melting ice caps, the burst of spring sunshine, the colour of autumn leaves; the pattern of ice crystals. It is the eternal fascinating computation of form and pattern, of give and take, of flow and reduction, of spiralling interaction. Like a kaleidoscope forever evolving and revolving, it catches the eye of the Creative Spirit.

  So what has gone wrong? Why or how has the Creative Spirit fallen out of love with Gaia? As always it is partly the fault of the children for they never grow up as one expects. They never do what you want them to - they won’t obey! Their playing gets out of hand. They turn into something other than what was expected. Mankind is that child, that ‘Foolish Child’. It was fine when he was just a foolish Innocent in tune with nature, not wanting for much more than playing in ‘the Garden’ - Creative Spirit and Gaia could laugh indulgently. But now mankind has grown up and taken life into his own hands - even to the extent of believing he can create Life himself. But worse than that, he has raped his mother!

  Like a vicious lover he has punched and kicked her then looked at her bruises and thought, “Well, she’s not so pretty after all!” And of course he is right, considering the state he has left her in. He has gouged holes in her flesh and obscured her bruises with his own hard manufactured skin. He has drilled into her depths to extract her vital juices with which he has polluted her breath. In his mad frenzy for more and ever more he has not heard her cries of agony and through eyes glazed over with desire he has not seen her dyin
g spasms.

  The essence of Gaia is the harmony of our planet before mankind arrived on the scene, before even the Creative Spirit arrived on the scene. The Magician represents that point at which the Creative Spirit enters the World, and the High Priestess represents that point at which the Earth is waiting to receive it. Mankind has the unenviable task of keeping his two parents in harmony with each other and in balance. The harmony of Gaia must be allowed to come through; otherwise the Creative Spirit will also die. God needs mankind for his own survival and mankind needs the Earth for humankind’s survival. If the Earth does not survive we all go down with it when it goes. We are truly fools, and perhaps Bembo was aware of it when he called the most important card ‘The Fool’, because we have not seen for thousands of years the necessity of being in harmony; in allowing the Music of the Spheres to play to us so that we can truly dance – not the mad ecstatic dance of the fool – but the measured rhythmic Dance of the Ages, the Cosmic Dance of Planets, the Dance of Life.

  The Magician sets the metronome but it is the High Priestess who knows the tune.

  Appendix 1

  Figure10 The Movement of the I Ching Hexagrams around the Spiral of Tarot Cards.

  When one consults the I Ching by throwing the yarrow stalks or the coins, the answer provided may or may not contain moving lines. One reads the basic hexagram and then pays particular attention to the line that is moving, for this is the part being affected by that inexorable quality of Time. The hexagram that the moving line creates is then read. The primary hexagram provides the basic answer; the moving line is especially important in describing the quality that is of particular concern at the time of asking the question. The second hexagram gives the outcome of that moving line and should be read as either a situation that is evolving or as a modification of the first hexagram (depending on the type of question). There may be more than one moving line and there is even the possibility of every line being a moving line.

  The lines of the hexagrams are always read from the bottom upwards; therefore line 1 is the bottom line, whilst line 6 is the top line; line 3 being the third line from the bottom. A straight forward Yang line is written like this: ________ and when it is moving it is written like this: _____o______ and is understood to be moving to become a Yin line, i.e. __­___ _____. A straightforward Yin line is written like this: _­____ __­­___ and a moving Yin line is written like this: _____ x _____ and is understood to be moving to become a Yang line, i.e. ________. Whilst this sounds complicated, it becomes obvious when one looks at the hexagrams themselves.

  For the movement to go forward in a correct way from one associated Tarot card to the next, the moving lines of the hexagrams must necessarily be considered to be good or propitious lines, though in some cases the interpretation may be biased or problematical. For the first two hexagrams I have incorporated the moving lines and the method of working into the main text of Part 2, but in order to keep the body of the work relatively simple I have included the details of the moving lines for the other hexagrams in this Appendix, for those who would like to look in more detail at my method for moving from one hexagram to another. My choice of hexagrams to match the Tarot cards was in no way simple, and as a final check-up I went through the hexagrams looking at the way they had moved from one to the next, paying particular attention to the moving lines involved.

  At the beginning and towards the end of the circle the moving Yang line(s) in a hexagram influences the following Yang hexagram, and similarly in the Yin hexagrams for the Yin lines, rather than following through directly in numerical order (as one might expect), and it was this that created the spiral. This exercise helped me to co-ordinate and in some instances amend my previous selection. In doing this Figure 9 evolved and confirmed my premise that the cards formed a spiral rather than a circle. I must emphasise that this was not a construct of my own making but was realised in looking at the details of the progression. In the middle section both the Yin and Yang hexagrams are influenced directly by the hexagrams belonging to the previous combination cards.

  In Hexagram 1, The Creative Principle (The Magician) line 5 is moving to create Hexagram 14, The Great Possessor (The Emperor).

  Line 5 of Hex. 1 reads:

  The dragon wings across the sky; it is advantageous to visit a great man. What does this signify? THE WÊN YEN COMMENTARY … musical instruments which emit identical notes vibrate in response to each other. People of the same disposition seek each other out. Water flows where wetness lies; fire burns where things are parched.

  This is different from the usual idea of Taoism where opposites attract, and in this instance it is the way the Tao operates in the world that gives us this like-to-like attitude, which we know to be so realistic. (Kind thoughts and deeds create a good atmosphere in which more kind deeds and thoughts are likely to occur; similarly hate creates more hate in the world – hate never creates love).

  Like clouds trailing behind dragons and the wind which follows in a tiger’s wake, all creatures follow with their gaze the advent of a holy sage. Whatever is of celestial origin feels affinity with what lies above; things of terrestrial origin feel their affinity with what lies below. [Yang follows Yang around the circle of life, and Yin follows Yin. The Yang eventually returns to its celestial origins whilst the Yin follows its inner spiral below and within]. Thus all things follow their own kind. FURTHER COMMENTRIES (a) This passage presages the emergence of a being who is truly great. [This will be the Emperor] (b) It also symbolises the supreme position of the ruler. (c) It exemplifies accord with heaven’s virtue. (d) The Superior Man (or ‘great man’ of the text) [this is the Elite Traveller of my own text] is one whose virtues bring him into accord with heaven and earth; his clarity of mind resembles that of the sun and moon; his actions are as well-ordered as the unfolding of the seasons; his joys and sorrows make him the equal of gods and demons. When he acts in advance of heaven’s decree, heaven will surely support his action; if he awaits that decree and then acts, he follows the heaven-ordained sequence. Yes, even heaven grants him full support – then how much more so men and how very much more so gods and demons!

  This is the Creative Force of the Magician moving forward into the worldly sphere to become the Emperor epitomised by Hexagram 14 entitled ‘The Great Possessor’.

  In Hexagram 2, The Receptive-Passive Principle (The High Priestess) line 2 is moving to create Hexagram 7, The Army (The Empress).

  Line 2 of Hex. 2 reads:

  Straight and of broad capacity, though we do nothing, all our affairs prosper. THE WÊN YEN COMMENTARY Straightness denotes rectitude. Broadness denotes a capacity for righteousness. The Superior Man [in this case Superior Woman] is reverent and thereby strengthens his [her] inner self; his [her] righteousness enables him [her] to deal justly with the external world. With reference and righteousness established in our hearts, we shall never depart from moral excellence. Straight, of broad capacity and great – whatever we undertake is sure to prosper; no longer need we doubt the successful outcome of our affairs. THE MAIN COMMENTARY [The moving line] in this place indicates a straightforward movement to occupy a spacious area. Though nothing is done, everything prospers – this is a glorious characteristic of the terrestrial forces.

  This is the Receptive-Passive Principle moving into the worldly sphere. With the correct attitude of Tao in her heart she need take no specific action in order for all her affairs to prosper.

  Hexagram 11, Peace (The Hierophant) is made up of the two trigrams with no moving lines in the previous two hexagrams i.e. the lower trigram of Hex.14 and the upper trigram of Hex.7 Here, for the first time the opposites truly unite.

  In Hexagram 11, Peace (The Hierophant) line 3 is a moving line, forming Hexagram 19, Approach (The Lover/Beloved).

  Line 3 of Hex. 11 reads:

  Every plain is followed by a slope; every going forth is followed by a return. Persistence under difficulty will not lead to error. Do not lose faith, for an eclipse is sometimes a blessing. COMMENTARY �
��Every going forth is followed by a return’ is a law of the universe.

  The return refers to return to earth, and eclipse refers also to the inward turning of Yin. There is no error in this movement.

  In Hexagram 14, The Great Possessor (The Emperor) line 6 is moving to create Hexagram 34, The Power of the Great (The Charioteer). This Yang card’s hexagram receives its inheritance from the previous Yang card, The Emperor, rather than from Hex. 11, Peace, (The Hierophant).

  Line 6 of Hex. 14 reads:

  Those under heaven’s protection enjoy good fortune and success in everything.

  It is the creative principle of heaven that is working through the Emperor to create the Charioteer.

  COMMENTARY The great good fortune presaged by this line is that of being specially protected by heaven.

  This specifically points to the inheritance of this hexagram through Hex. 14 and Hex. 1 (heaven – the Creative Principle).

  Hexagram 51, Arousing Thunder (Strength) is made up of the upper trigram from Hexagram 34, The Power of the Great, doubled. From here on, all the combination (Yin/Yang) Tarot cards are represented by hexagrams made up of double trigrams. Hexagram 51 is made up of the lower trigram ‘arousing thunder’ and the upper trigram ‘arousing thunder’, hence a very powerful hexagram. It could also come from a movement in Hexagram 19, Approach (The Beloved) of lines 2 (& 4) although we do not need line 4 to move, as we have already taken the upper trigram from Hex. 34. The addition of the movement on the Yin side, Hexagram 19, Approach, gives added meaning to the card Strength to include the idea of courage rather than out-and-out Strength. One can be strong and foolhardy, but courage comes when you are strong enough in the face of known difficulties. This is what is added by the moving line.