Llewellyn's Complete Book of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot
Page 22
The difference is felt in small and large ways—clothes don’t feel right, the house feels ill at ease. Things that used to bring joy leave you blank. New qualities fill your life with pleasure. The trumpet’s song is a true calling, a wake-up sign, the right song coming on the radio at the right time, just when you needed to hear it. Our personal evolution impacts the people around us. A single shining truth echoes from this card. It is unaltered in the infinite definitions and understandings of Judgement. It whispers, screams, and sings the message, “There is no going back.”
Waite says yes, the card reflects the literal image of biblical judgment: “Last Judgment and resurrection of the physical body.” The archangel blows his horn and the dead rise. He says if you want to use the biblical interpretation of judgment, feel free. But he also asks “those who have inward eyes” to look deeper. Those with “eyes” will discover this card can be compared to Temperance’s divine fusion of energies.
He asks point-blank, “What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response—almost in a moment, almost in a twinkling of the eye?” He asks, in his thick sentence, where is the calling inside yourself? Does it come from art, nature, poetry? From where does it stem? What is loud enough for the “lower nature” or the material and earthbound selves to hear the call of the Divine? He suggests it happens in a flash, in a moment, before cognition occurs. Danger is often felt before it is seen. The body
knows you’ve fallen in love before the mind realizes it. Knowledge and truth arrive to us from unknowable places.
Ultimately, it is “the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal.” In other words, it is more than the physical body rising and responding to the call of the Supernal (god). It is the entire earth rising to the call of the Supernal. Remember, “as above, so below.” You are the world and the world is you. You bring the earthly world with you as you rise to embrace the nature of divinity. You transform not only yourself but the entire world along with you.
Symbolic
Esoteric Function: No function
Hebrew Letter: Shin
Element: Fire
Archangel Michael, the angel of protection, faith, and will, sounds his trumpet above the figures below. Pamela’s card is symbolic of the Last Judgment in the biblical sense. It can be read using all of its metaphors and allegories. The Last Judgment has been painted the world over by artists, from Michelangelo to William Blake. Dozens of films and works of literature mark the end of the world. Judgement’s iconic use, whether comical, serious, or biblical, always marks the ending on the known world.
The figures’ nudity expresses vulnerability. The children reflect innocence. Families represent unity. The mother, father, and child represent the trinity. Upward-facing and open arms suggest an invitation and opening. Fire and the Hebrew letter Shin are associated with this card. Shin is the first letter in the Hebrew word meaning “heaven” or “sky.” Fire is reflected in the red wings of Michael and the red cross on his banner. The cross exemplifies the axis mundi, the center point of the universe where heaven and earth meet. The red and yellow flames of Michael’s hair also suggest the element of fire. The angel appears out of clouds, like all of the ace cards. Coffins represent death. The distant mountain peaks reflect spiritual heights, as always, yet these mountains are covered in white snow, suggesting great altitude, pristine understanding, and clarity.
Profane
Judgement is an official wake-up call. Your life must change. Old ways of doing things slip by the wayside. Your family is affected by personal actions. You stand as an example for others, demonstrating what is possible. An opportunity is staring you straight in the face. Will you heed the call? Judgement reflects the truth rising to the surface. You are asked to interview for an important, life-changing job. You are expected to deliver a result. You are required to rise to the challenge. In a yes-no question, the answer is yes, if you take the highest road possible.
Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Change of position, renewal, outcome. Another account specifies total loss through a lawsuit.
Reversed: Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity; also deliberation, decision, sentence.
Asana
Judgement aligns with yoga’s warrior I pose, or virabhadrasana. The yogi reaches toward the sky in an physical imitation of the mythological Hindu warrior Virabhadra, who rose from the earth with two swords, one in each hand. The Judgement card is illustrated with bodies emerging from floating coffins. They rise from the grave in the ultimate act of reanimation and rebirth, just like Virabhadra.
Transformation, evolution, and growth results in a more fully realized version of yourself. It creates more of you for the world to enjoy and absorb. Just as teenage hormones did the work of transforming our bodies, we become stewards of internal transformation by fostering an open, curious, and attentive attitude to the world around us. We place our attention, our most powerful asset, on things mattering to us. We don’t avoid fear but choose to move through it. Transformation occurs in fits and starts, all at once or slowly. Sometimes we feel the internal rotation and gears of change; other times we are oblivious. Certain yogic poses, like some tarot cards, channel acute attention and energy toward transformation. They can be used to power up, jumpstart, and infuse growth. Warrior I pose and the Judgement card both require you to stand up, pay attention, and heed the call. The fire, fury, and effort of the card and the pose is akin to a birthing mother’s final push. It is you who is reborn. Are you ready to greet a new world entirely of your own making? What are you waiting for? Will you leap into paradise?
The World
Learn from everything, see everything, and above all feel everything!
Pamela Colman Smith54
Sacred
The World card reflects you as the World dancer moving in a state of sheer perfection. The nature of the universe is now embodied inside your skin and bones, in your actions and gestures, your thoughts and feelings. Opposing qualities are integrated. Self-consciousness is cast aside. Complete trust is formed. You are the dazzling essence of who you are meant to be. Your talents, qualities, and sensitivities infuse every action. A glorious moment of completion. Beauty and brilliance are as profound as the possibility that was birthed in the Fool. Your pattern is forever altered. Salutation occurs. You are the universe. You are the most creative and magical act you will ever partake in.
The loss of self-consciousness as foreshadowed by the Star is no loss but a gesture toward complete immersion. All psychic energy is infused and given in the form of love, attention, and focus in the World card. The individual becomes what they focus on. Sublime transcendence occurs as complete intention moves past experience of a thing and into the embodiment. The ego dissolves. Deep time is experienced. Clock time vanishes. The major arcana’s grand finale is foreshadowed in the Wheel of Fortune card. The wheel spins like the World’s wreath, four creatures mark the corners of the card, clouds fill the blue sky.
Divinity craves your attention at all times. Divinity is the lover who never tires of your gaze. How do you create a devotional space? How do you let divinity know you see it? Do you focus on what moves your soul? How do you embody love and compassion in the simplicity of day-to-day life? Implicit trust in the blueprint inside you brings you to the World card repeatedly. Move past the ego; ground yourself in the present. Trust the soul’s desire and deep intuition. The true magic of the universe will be unleashed inside and outside of you.
According to Waite, the World is “the state of the restored world when the law of manifestation shall have been carried to the highest degree of natural perfection.” The Magician succeeds in his spell. His will is aligned in the true manifestation of the divinity. Yet, Waite tosses this idea aside and challenges us to move higher: “It represents the perfection and end of the Cosmos” as well as “referring t
o that day when all was declared good, when the morning
stars sang together.” Waite links the end of the cosmos or the universe to the primordial myth. Doing so, he evokes the endless circle of life.
Waite says the World card is “the rapture of the universe when it understands itself in God.” The Judgement card depicts biblical judgment and the resurrection of the dead. The occultist and thereby the earth (as above, so below—human is the earth, the earth is human) has raptured itself to the heavens. To Waite’s point, it is now the universe’s turn. The universe mirrors and responds to your awareness. The universe raptures itself back to you. The connective and energizing force is love/god/deity. It is the supernal triad and the essence of trinity.
Lovers mirror each other; parents and children reflect each other; friends, muses, and colleagues inspire one another. Out of all these interactions, new possibilities occur. The center activating agent is love (divinity). Spiritual trinity: earth, universe, divine; the supernal triad; father, son, holy ghost; maiden, mother, crone; past, present, future; the threefold world of upper, middle, and lower expand in unison. Everything sees each other. The Sun (you) rises to embrace the Judgement card (the universe). The universe (divinity) sees you seeing it. Divinity responds when it is recognized. Divinity wants to be noticed. It wants to be “seen.” Divinity craves your attention as much as the client wants her tarot reader to “see” her. It is the reason the infinite universe will never stop expanding. It is why you enjoy unlimited potential in every second of your life. Divine response occurs as you recognize it and rise up to greet it. Divinity, once embraced and acknowledged, is embodied in the World card. The World card is the universe’s response to being seen. Perfect. Complete. New. Fresh. Unlimited. It is the big bang. It radiates orgasmic consciousness.
Symbolic
Esoteric Functions: Power and Servitude
Hebrew Letter: Tav
Astrological Association: Saturn
The World dancer’s naked body reflects complete trust and vulnerability. Her posture, foreshadowed by the Hanged Man’s inverted body, echoes Saturn’s planetary symbol, the cross in the circle. Occult interpretations suggest the scarf warping around her body conceals male genitalia. The World dancer as a hermaphrodite exemplifies a perfected union of masculine and feminine energy. The four corner figures are tetramorphs, a biblical reference to the first chapter of Ezekiel, reflecting a man, lion, ox, and eagle. The four creatures represent the four corners/directions (north, south, east, west) and the four suits of tarot (wands, cups, swords, pentacles). Her green wreath is oval and in the shape of a zero, the number of the Fool, who rises to meet her. The oval also suggests the female birth canal through which new life moves. The wreath’s oval shape is used by the Golden Dawn’s tattva tradition, which uses symbols and invocations while rising through initiatory grades. This shape is the akasha tattva, also assigned to Saturn and the Hebrew letter Tav, meaning “mark.” The bluish-violet color of the scarf is associated with the letter Tav.
The World dancer holds dual magic wands in opposition to the Magician, who holds a single wand. The Magician opens and directs the flow of spiritual energy. This essence flows through the entire deck like a humming stream and is reflected in tarot’s rivers. The World holds two wands and in doing so allows the energy to move through her uninterrupted. She acts as a human energetic clearing house, capturing the energy, as symbolized by the green wreath around her. She infuses this energy and knowledge into every action, movement, and thought. She discards what is not needed without hesitation, free to meet each moment fresh. The World card is the ideal state of grace and complex alignment between the soul and the universe. The World is the ultimate integration as the left and right pillar fall away and become a circle. She perfectly integrates all aspects of the personality, both male and female, becoming the idealized center pillar. Additionally, she walks in each world, sacred and profane, spiritual and material. She is the ultimate integration of all things, all qualities, and all truths.
Profane
The World card reflects living in the moment. It is success, euphoria, and completion. The end of a cycle. Travel, movement, and excitement beckon. Your goals are achieved. You enjoy the freedom of movement and expansion of life. Laughter, pleasure, and contentment are yours. You are free to bask in the glory of all your hard work. You make plans for a trip. You reap success in love and at work. You enjoy sound mind and a supple, healthy body. In a yes-no question, the answer is yes, as long as you stay true to yourself.
Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place.
Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.
Asana
The World card aligns with yoga’s down dog pose, or adho mukha svanasana. Down dog is often the first pose taught to the beginning yogi. It may seem counterintuitive to align a seemingly basic yoga pose to the World card, the most highly esteemed card of tarot, yet World card delights, like down dog, are repeatedly available to us. World card properties are not reserved for a chosen few or the most enlightened but infuse every moment of our life. The World card, like down dog pose, offers the integration of the highest and lowest, expansive and introspective, and every infinite space in between. It’s right before your eyes. Can you feel it? Do you seDo you want it? Claim it.
[contents]
32. “Made Veteran Humorist Laugh.”
33. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 417.
34. Smith, “Pictures in Music,” 635.
35. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 419.
36. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 417.
37. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 419.
38. Dell, The Occult, Witchcraft and Magic.
39. Smith, “Pictures in Music,” 635.
40. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 419.
41. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 418.
42. Smith, “Alone,” 9.
43. Smith, Annancy Stories, 51.
44. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 417.
45. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 419.
46. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 419.
47. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 418.
48. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 418.
49. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 419.
50. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 418.
51. Smith, “Pictures in Music,” 635.
52. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 418.
53. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 419.
54. Smith, “Should the Art Student Think?” 417.
chapter seven
Netzach (Victory)
The Minor Arcana
RWS Suits
Tarot’s four suits offer an extraordinary way for the individual to understand themselves and the world around them. Waite and Pamela illustrated their suits to align with the Golden Dawn’s Kabbalistic interpretations.
The RWS is the first tarot since the Sola Busca deck to illustrate the minor arcana. The minor arcana of older decks employed only symbol and number. The Six of Swords in an older deck would likely contain six swords, the Five of Swords would reflect five swords, and so forth. Pamela was the first modern illustrator to fill the minors with scenes. The cards became like moving pictures. Anyone could look at the cards and create a story from them. They became easy to interpret. The cards could now be shuffled, read, and retold with infinite outcomes and possibilities. The Six of Swords became an evocative image. A mysterious boatman ferries two souls across a river. The Five of Swords became a battlefield with clear winners an
d losers. Pamela’s images are beguiling and ambiguous. They are moving pieces of a story that can be told and retold each time the reader shuffles.
Suits reflect earth’s four elements and directions:
Pentacles
Earth
West
The place of manifestation and growth
Swords
Air
North
The place of clear thinking
Wands
Fire
South
The place of heat
Cups
Water
East
The place of new beginnings
The elements reflect you.
Pentacles/Earth
Everything you can see, smell, feel, taste and touch (material world)—this is your physical body, dog, car, mom, boyfriend, dinner, money, closet full of clothes, garden, airplanes, family. Pentacles are your flesh, bones, blood, and DNA. It is everything in the material world.
Pentacles and earth are represented by the quality of loamy, fecund earth, dirt, soil, matter and compost, tectonic plates, mountains—earth.