Llewellyn's Complete Book of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

by Sasha Graham

  The Emperor’s esoteric function is sight. Sight makes the world visible; each individual holds a specific view of the world. No one else on the planet sees what you see. No one else carries your unique viewpoint. No one experiences this particular moment as you do. The sounds tickling your ears, the light entering your eyes, your perception and inner voice reading my words inside the inner recess of your mind. My fingers fly across the keyboard behind you, in the past. I’m whispering, writing this book into your consciousness, but it is you in the present who hears it, interprets it, and sorts it in your own unique way. Life, although a shared experience, is ultimately an individual experience.

  The Hebrew letter Heh is assigned to the Emperor, and it means “window.” Our eyes are the window to our world. It is through this window that each of us is our own Emperor. We create and destroy habits, patterns, and thoughts. We create the kingdom of our life just as the Emperor does. We court, flirt, and engage creativity. We decide where it begins and ends. Life occurs through the shifting sands of the boundaries we erect. Our actions construct our world. Our perception is our window, and each of us is the monarch of our life.

  Profane

  The Emperor acts as our habits and strategies. He reflects all order and stability, from paying monthly bills on time to our cleaning habits. The Emperor often reflects the type A personality, a domineering personality, or a father figure. He is the authority who allows or prevents possibilities. He is ultimate control. Domination. Asserting boundaries. Taking the lead in any situation. Establishing rules and regulations. Knowledge in ability. Self-possession. Self-control. Fatherhood. Intense discipline. If a yes-no question: yes, you wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will.

  Reversed: Benevolence, compassion, credit; also confusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity.

  Asana

  The Emperor aligns with yoga’s chaturanga dandasana pose. Chaturanga means four limbs and danda means staff. The Emperor is assigned the number four, and he traditionally holds a staff. The dynamic pose requires strength, control, and agility, which are Emperor qualities emblematic in his suit of armor. Chaturanga builds the stability needed for a demanding physical practice, and stability is the hallmark of the Emperor. Chataranga poses often repeat, linking several sequences together in a practice. Like the Emperor, they reflect foundation, habit, dynamism, and ultimate power.

  The Hierophant

  I have heard it said that half the world has nothing to say. Perhaps the other half has, but it is afraid to speak it.

  Pamela Colman Smith37

  Sacred

  The Hierophant teaches the secrets behind the world the Emperor and Empress create. He is the pope, priest, cleric, shaman, yogi, guru, and rabbi. The Hierophant exists as an opening to the mystery of life. He reflects humankind’s historical attempt to explain and understand the deep and spiritual subtleties. The Hierophant quantifies, explains, and concedes the mystery of existence. Hierophant figures are found in all religions and spiritual systems. He is the exterior symbol of organized religion, recognizable to all.

  Religion, the supernatural, and magic are irrevocably linked. Religion and magic each ascertain, explore, and interact with an unseen world. Religion and magic are each grounded in ritual. “While religion is exoteric (intended for the many), magic is esoteric (directed at the few).”38 The Hierophant is a symbol of the exoteric and stands as a culture’s religious identification. He is all forms of religion and laws in regular life. He is the holy books, the psalms, and the sermons. He is the outer form of church, temple, and ritualistic meeting place. The Hierophant’s container holds all acts of human sacred behavior done in the name of the spiritual world of any culture.

  Children do not differentiate between real and “unreal,” mystery and “non-mystery.” They accept all things at face value. Maturity and learning, while essential for a child’s growth, usually separate the seen from the unseen. The Hierophant stands before its culture as the gateway or harbinger of mystery and religious experience. Spirituality is ultimately a personal experience, different for everyone. Regardless of an individual’s inner state, the Hierophant stands up before the public as an archetype of spiritual guidance. He is the generic and societally “approved” symbol who stands as the doorway to the holy.

  The Hierophant bears multiple visual similarities to the High Priestess. He is a graphic representation of the Tree of Life who sits between two pillars. He too wears a triple crown. She wears the triple moon crown; he wears a triple gold crown. Waite says the pillars “are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess.” Waite marks the distinction between the two, telling us the Hierophant is “the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn power.” This remarkable distinction informs us the High Priestess marks inner, individual worlds. She is what we know, feel, and intuit about ourselves, our spiritual relationships, and everything around us. The Hierophant is the external billboard aspect of religious and spiritual tradition. He is scripture, sutra, dogma, temple, candle, incense, hymn. The Hierophant requires disciples, followers, and a congregation to exist. The High Priestess needs only herself.

  Waite says the Hierophant is “summa totius theologiæ,” which is a classical book of philosophy and religion. It was written by Thomas Aquinas as an instructional book for Christian theologians. The book describes a cycle of divinity. Divinity sparks and appears, creation follows, man exists, Christ emerges, the sacraments appear, and then it circles back to divinity. Waite moves further, saying the Hierophant acts as a channel for those unable to see or detect the spiritual truths behind reality, for “he is the channel of grace belonging to the world of institution as distinct from that of Nature.” Nature is distinct and separated because nature is sacred in and of itself. The sanctity of nature requires no definition or explanation. Nature exists independent of man. The Hierophant is a channel of grace for those without eyes to see the garden for what it really is. As such, the Hierophant is every form of manifested religion and dogma.

  Symbolic

  Esoteric Function: Hearing

  Hebrew Letter: Vau

  Astrological Association: Taurus

  The Hierophant is assigned the Hebrew letter Vau. It looks like the letter Y. This shape is hidden on the card. It is placed across the chest of the Hierophant and across the backs of his monks’ garments. The Golden Dawn translates the letter Vau into the English letters of U, V, and W. The U appears in the two pillars next to the Hierophant, next to his head. V is located within the Roman numeral five at the top of the card and is also reflected in the shape of the dual keys at the bottom of the card. W is placed on the Hierophant’s crown. W additionally stands for Waite’s initial. The Taurus symbol, a circle with a crescent moon shape above it, is hidden on the Hierophant’s throne. A circle with a dot in the center is seen on each side of the Hierophant’s head. This is the alchemical symbol of gold.

  The supernal triad and holy trinity are created by the placement of the three figures on the card. The Hierophant’s monks’ heads are shaved in the practice of tonsure, the act of shaving one’s head to display religious devotion. It was a popular practice in medieval Christianity. The Three of Pentacles also includes a monk with a tonsure. The card’s right monk displays white lilies on his clothing. The left monk displays red roses, which are also found in the Magician card. The symbol of crossed keys unlocks dogmatic secrets. It reminds us tarot is a key for unlocking mysteries and secrets. Remember, Waite’s own book is titled The Pictorial Key. A symbol is a key to a door. A door marks a threshold. A threshold marks a new reality, and so forth. Traditional Catholicism uses the key symbol to reflect the keys to heaven, derived from St. Peter in the Roman Catholic tradition. The Hierophant makes the sign of benediction,
a blessing, with his right hand. This gesture is also made by the Devil and the fallen figure inside the Ten of Swords.

  The Hierophant card contains multiple crosses. Three vertical crosses mark the center of his robe and reflect the Christian cross, and the number three reflects the trinity. The trinity of crosses is repeated on the triple staff seen in the Hierophant’s left hand. The staff is reserved for popes and spiritual leaders and contains three crosses laid on top of one another. The trinity is further alluded to in his threefold crown. The High Priestess wears a triple lunar crown while the Hierophant’s golden tiered crown is crafted with the solar properties of the sun. The holy trinity is cemented with the use of three figures inside the card.

  Profane

  Religious dogma. External spirituality and all things that signify the holy life. Spiritual figures in your life and procession. Teachers and students. Mentorship. Doorways to sacred secrets. Religious systems used to control rather than empower. Spiritual tools like candles, incense, music, etc. Outer tools enhancing the inner experience.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse.

  Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over kindness, weakness.

  Asana

  The Hierophant card aligns with pyramid pose with reverse prayer or utthitta parsvottanasana. This eloquent, devotional posture echoes gratitude in the presence of divine holiness. Universally, a prayer is a symbolic gesture uniting polarities with the left and right palms coming together. Bowing is an act of ultimate reverence. The reverse prayer reflects duality, opposition, a coming and going, yin and yang, and the balance and harmony of the heart. The triangular shape of the legs and ultimately the entire body echoes the graphic trinity of the Hierophant between his two pillars, the trinity of his crown and staff, and the trinity implied between himself and his monks.

  The Lovers

  There is a garden that I often see, with moonlight glistening on the vine-leaves, and drooping roses with pale petals fluttering down, tall, misty trees and purple sky, and lovers wandering there.

  Pamela Colman Smith39

  Sacred

  The Lovers card is the source of manifestation and the point of human existence. As the ultimate form of creativity, love is what we are here to experience. Love is the source of all life. The Emperor sets up physical boundaries. The Hierophant exerts external “authority” of all things spiritual and dogmatic. The Lovers card rescues every last one of us. The Lovers card is a metaphysical reminder that we are not confined to our physical body. Love and lust are natural drugs. The Lovers evokes the most potent force known in the universe. Our physical, biological, and spiritual goals are expressed in the Lovers card. It reflects how we are sunlike, full of fire, fury, and passion, when engaged in the act of love.

  Sex is a transcendental, occult, and metaphysical experience. The self is lost. Acts of love between consenting adults achieve the same results as transcendental meditation and magic. Love and passion come on like a freight train when pierced by Cupid’s arrows. It heightens our senses and tears at our emotions. Love opens channels of communication where no words exist. Sexual experience and psychedelic drugs are similar. Love and drugs light up the same parts of the brain. Love and psychedelics make you feel as if you’ve ascended the highest point of a mountain peak. Your view is expanded. The world is altered. You see and feel farther than you ever had before. Just as a yogi seeks to condition the body and expand consciousness, passionate love expands every sliver of our experience of the world.

  Erotic, passionate love is transcendent yet fleeting. Few experiences in life equal the first few weeks and months of romantic love. Extreme passion teaches us about states of pure love. Once the individual experiences this overwhelming, soul-shaking state of being, we need not mourn it as it slips away or transforms into something different. It is up to each and every one of us to infuse passionate love, affection, and attention into every aspect of our life and relationships long after the flame has flickered. Cultivating this state is a worthy and pleasurable pursuit even when external factors do not push us there. Passion reveals what is possible, not what is sustainable. The Lovers’ intensity reminds us of this valuable lesson.

  Waite explains in no uncertain terms that the Lovers’ picture illustrates the biblical “Adam and Eve when they first occupied the paradise of the earthly body.” He tells us the tree behind the man is the Tree of Life and the tree behind the woman is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil along with its famous snake. Each tree is part of the Adam and Eve story and each is described by the book of Genesis. The apple is the symbol of the fruit of temptation, though the book of Genesis does not explicitly state it. Waite tells us, “The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence and love before it is contaminated by gross material desire.” Waite equates desires of the flesh with the attachment to material things. It includes seeking to control another or imbalance due to jealousy, anger, or boredom. The Lovers reflects an “ideal” state of innocent love.

  Waite switches to a different meaning when he says “this is in all simplicity the card of human love.” He speaks to a pure love uncomplicated by sex. He states, “In a very high sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant and Sabbath.” A covenant is an agreement between God and humans, while the Sabbath is a time for rest.

  Waite describes his female figure not as being a temptress but as “working of a Secret Law of Providence.” Providence is the name for God’s intervention in the world. He assigns woman aspects of divinity, yet he suggests her “imputed lapse” or her “error” is being the thing which “man shall arise” and “only by her can he complete himself.” In this sense, the woman is akin to the state of the natural world, complete in herself yet required by man. Waite says the card is “concerning the great mystery of womanhood.” This mystery may be defined in many ways. Waite has already claimed the Empress is the gateway to the Divine, yet the Emperor never takes full possession of her; she remains a virgin. The Lovers card is illustrated prior to sexual union. Waite says it is the divine nature of the female that makes man complete. The great mystery of womanhood is the full intentional integration of masculine and feminine energies, the nature of divinity. The power of life and birth are secure inside the female. It is the core, the “mystery” of woman, that man has grappled with for centuries. The man gazes at the woman inside the Lovers card. Rather than meet his gaze, she looks above to the angel as she completes the cycle of spiritual trinity.

  Symbolic

  Esoteric Function: Smell

  Hebrew Letter: Zain

  Astrological Association: Gemini

  Waite describes “a great winged figure pouring down influences.” Forty-five sun rays spring from archangel Raphael. Raphael is the angel of healing. His presence dispenses the healing properties of love to the couple below. Love carries restorative properties. His hair is aflame, as fiery as the sun behind him and the flaming tree below. Fire elements express momentum and sexual desire.

  Waite admits he had thrown out a previous incarnation of the card that typically bore two women and one man (as in the Marseille Tarot). Waite favors a card with two figures who align with the Golden Dawn’s astrological assignment of Gemini. The previous version of a man between two women gave the card the divinatory meaning of choice. The RWS card offers a trinity as seen between the three figures echoing the supernal triad. The snake behind the woman is a dual symbol. It is temptation and also reflects the occultist moving up the Tree of Life. Distant mountain peaks foreshadow the occultist’s spiritual ascent expressed in later cards. Clouds appear below the angel, expressing divine manifestation, as seen in all four aces.

  Lessons of ecstatic spiritual divine love are encoded in the card. The male figure looks toward the female, while the female’s eyes are focused on the angel above her. This subtle hint w
hispers a secret. It tells us our human experience of transcendental love is a mere fraction of the love and passion felt by the force creating us. Ecstatic love is what bore us. Ecstatic love is what we will return to. This radiant love is at hand. It is with us in this life, in our experience and encased inside the present moment for those who seek it.

  Profane

  Sex. Love. Passion. Ecstasy. Romance blossoms. Attraction. Eros in action. Sensuality. Electricity of love. Spiritual ascension. Making a choice. Choosing a mate. Soul mates. If a yes-no question, the answer is yes.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.

  Reversed: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds.

  Asana

  The Lovers aligns with yoga’s camel pose, or ustrasana. The yogi balances on her knees, reaches back for her feet, and offers her heart to the sky in this exquisite heart-opening pose. It is a gesture of extreme vulnerability and tenderness. The Lovers card reflects how we offer ourselves to another when we engage in acts of love and creativity. Camel pose evokes the trust of love and giving as the yogi offers her heart to the world around her.

  The Chariot

  “High over cap” on a fairy horse—ride on your Quest—for what we are all seeking.

  Pamela Colman Smith40

  Sacred

  The cards preceding the Chariot reflect humanity’s unfolding conscious realization. It is the individual’s sense of self as a sentient and sensual being. The Chariot gathers these lessons, places them in his vehicle, and forges ahead. Historical chariots are imbued with military impact and suggest power and domination over the material world. The Chariot tarot card fosters the ability to spread personal gifts, intentions, and passions. Self-determination rather than military domination issues forth as you take control over your life. Your hands grasp leather reins and you are the master of your destiny through personal thoughts, choices, and actions. The Chariot appears as you forge ahead, demonstrating motivation, daring, and movement.