by Brian Clark
Copyright “ 2019, 2006 U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
All rights reserved. The illustrations, cover design, and contents are protected by copyright. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine or newspaper.
Published by
U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
179 Ludlow Street
Stamford, CT 06902 USA
www.usgamesinc.com
Celestial Tarot
by Brian Clark
For all the innocents, especially:
Chloe,
Ohana,
Lisette,
Hayley,
Alexander,
Abby,
Nikolai,
Luke,
James,
Jack,
Issha,
Hugh,
Lauren,
Holly,
Shanti,
Marcus,
Michaela,
Alexa,
Christina,
and Trinity.
Contents
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION: A Modern Tarot on Ancient Skies
THE MAJOR ARCANA: The Greater Mysteries
THE COURT CARDS OF CELESTIAL TAROT
WANDS: The Quest for Fire
PENTACLES: Embodying Life
SWORDS: The Breath of Life
CUPS: Waters of the Heart
THE CELESTIAL TAROT ORACLE Consulting the Cards
Reading the Cards
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
APPENDIX
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PREFACE
On March 12, 2003 Kay Steventon, well known for her beautifully illustrated Spiral Tarot, asked if I would write the accompanying book for a new tarot deck she had recently completed painting. Astrologically, the date was highly significant, as Uranus had just entered Pisces for the first time in its current cycle, suggesting to me, an awakening of the imagination. Uranus, the agent of awakening, crossing into the sea sign of Pisces, further suggested a current of images from the depths of the imagination to re-inspire creative and magical thinking. When Kay showed me some original artwork from Celestial Tarot I witnessed this flood of imagination reflected by her canvases. I had no hesitation in agreeing to write the book. Uranus in Pisces also suggests that new insights will emerge from ancient sources. With Celestial Tarot, Kay ventures deeper into the ancient arts of astronomy and astral divination, inspiriting the cards with deeper meaning.
Celestial Tarot explores the stellar landscape onto which the ancients projected their imaginations, allowing the astrology, mythology and symbolism of the planets and constellations to breathe new meaning into the cards. Celestial Tarot makes a great impact as it not only amplifies and widens the meaning of the contemporary cards, but also offers oracular insights, as it utilizes one of the oldest forms of divination, astral divination.
The Celestial Tarot deck is imbued with symmetry. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana utilize the twelve zodiacal constellations and the ten planets of contemporary astrology. Each minor suit resonates with one of the astrological elements: fire, earth, air, and water. The cards utilize the traditional division of the zodiac into decanates, adding more insight and symbolism to each card. Astrology and astronomy are the foundation stones that underpin the deck; mythology and symbolism are also woven throughout the 78 cards. The Minor Arcana cards stand out, not only on their own, but also as part of the developmental process of the suit.
Using Celestial Tarot will awaken your inspiration and reconnect you to the ancient images of the sky that inspired our ancestors to tell their mythic stories. As you work with Celestial Tarot, it will constellate the myths and reveal their mysteries.
Guided by tarot traditions, the works of C.C. Zain and Raphael Binding, as well as her own creative impulses, Kay Steventon has created a tarot deck for a new age—one engaging the tarot enthusiast with the ancient tradition of astral divination. For astrologers, it offers alternate ways to invest the planets, signs, and constellations with new images and perceptions.
—Brian Clark
INTRODUCTION: A Modern Tarot on Ancient Skies
Embedded in our night sky are archetypal images, symbols, and stories that have enchanted the human soul for eons. Onto the sanctuary of the sky the ancients projected their imagination using star-patterns to animate their myths, thus creating a skyscape that immortalized their deities and heroes. Since the pre-historical period the screen of the heavens has reflected the archetypal experiences and yearnings of the human psyche, serving as a storybook for countless generations.
Tarot offers another form of archetypal imagery that has captured the human imagination since early times. The cards are continuously recreated to introduce the tarot to contemporary generations. Celestial Tarot embraces the ancient traditions of astrology, astronomy, and mythology to re-imagine the cards. Projecting the Tarot onto the wide canvas of the heavens allows the planets and constellations to imbue the cards through astrological wisdom, one of the oldest forms of divination.
In the Celestial Tarot deck, the 22 cards of the Major Arcana are represented by the twelve zodiacal constellations and the ten planets of contemporary astrology. The visual images of astrological and mythological symbols awaken insight and, for astrologers, offer an exciting alternative way to engage with the constellations and planets. As with ancient traditions, the Tarot has two mystery initiations. The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana represent the Greater Mysteries; our encounters with the archetypal forces that form the foundation of life, while the fifty-six cards of the Minor Arcana reveal the more personal dimensions of our lives. The zodiacal signs and planets, including the Sun and the Moon, symbolize the stages of the journey through the Major Arcana. Each card may have profound meaning to an individual at a significant time. A combination of cards reveals the dominant energies influencing the life currently. However, when viewed in a sequence, the Major Arcana cards also depict the soul’s development through a series of identifiable archetypal initiations.
The Minor Arcana are inspired by additional zodiacal constellations that were catalogued in the ancient world. These constellations were invested with mythic images of queens and heroes, shamans and tricksters, monsters, and fabulous animals, creating the seminal compilation of myths. The court cards are illuminated by the spirit of the seasons and the zodiacal signs that mark the stages of each season of the year. In these cards we experience the lesser mysteries of the human experience, which reveal more personal and intimate meaning in our lives.
Astrological symbols have been used as a means of divination for well over three millennia. Each astrological symbol sparks the imagination to see reason and order in the chaos of everyday life. Celestial Tarot merges together the ancient art of astral divination with the revelatory process of the Tarot to create a contemporary oracular tool. Using the cards invites the individual into the ancient mysteries while simultaneously offering spiritual revelations, personal guidance, and psychological insight. The mythic threads of Celestial Tarot reveal the mysteries to those who openly petition the cards. One of the most effective ways to use the cards is to honor them, as an ancient pilgrim would have revered the oracle.
Celestial Tarot invites you to participate in the mystery of the subconscious where linear time evaporates and the past, present, and future are fused together to allow greater meaning and understanding. As you embrace the cards, the contact with the inner world will offer clarity o
n the outer situation.
THE MAJOR ARCANA: The Greater Mysteries
Similar to ancient traditions, the Tarot has two mystery initiations. The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana represent the Greater Mysteries, or the encounters with the archetypal forces that underpin all of life. The twelve signs of the zodiac and the ten planets of the astrological pantheon preside over each card, representing a particular archetypal stage of the journey. Each card is personified by the astral myth that underpins the planets or the sign. Other symbols depicted on the Major Arcana cards are listed in the following table. For a description of the symbols on the cards, please refer to the Appendix.
The Archetypal Journey
The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana reveal stages of an archetypal journey familiar to all human beings. The sequence of cards represents the stages encountered by each individual on their life path. Whether we experience the stages directly, or through others, their archetypal essence suggests that the cards characterize aspects of our own psychic makeup. Each of these cards may also be essentially transforming by nature, as they invoke the life affirming qualities of the human psyche. Joseph Campbell described the heroic journey as a “monomyth”, as each soul’s journey has familiar stages and similar initiatory rites of passage. Since the hero is as an archetypal reality, the journey portrayed is the path of being human.
The hero of the Major Arcana is the Fool. The Fool is the soul’s surrogate who travels the path of the Major Arcana. As a pilgrim, the Fool is the embodiment of the incarnate soul facing the test and trials of life. Throughout the 22 cards of the Major Arcana, the Fool personifies the encounters with the archetypal forces that help shape character and influence destiny. Each card denotes a rite of passage, a life stage or change familiar to all travelers on the path of individuation. The Major Arcana brings these passages to consciousness through its 22 illustrations, equaling the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet’s 22 paths of wisdom, as well as the 22 astrological archetypes of the planets and signs. The Tarot not only helps to identify these paths of initiation, but also offers its occult wisdom to recognize and deal with each stage of the quest.
As you journey through the Major Arcana you may feel inclined to meditate on a particular card or sit quietly contemplating each one. As you hold the card in your mind, its guiding spirit or daimon will be activated, allowing more insight and familiarity with this aspect of your life. You may be instinctually drawn to a card or set of cards. If so, let their images and symbols inspire a new understanding for you. With the added dimension of the astrological images the Tarot journey awakens the imagination to bring greater clarity to your situation.
0~The Fool:
Uranus, Herald of Change
Innocent and unaware of the initiations and lessons lying ahead, the Fool is poised to step into the unknown—ready to follow a dream, a hunch, or a sign wherever it may lead him. His card is numbered zero, as he is outside the ‘pack’, marginal to the incarnate world of form and substance, still spirit with unlimited potential and endless possibilities. Not yet encumbered with possessions or weighed down by earthly attachments, the fool is free to explore the new world in front of him. He exists in a void, the opening through which creative possibilities can be channeled.
In myth, this opening is known as Chaos, the primeval void through whose agency creation emerges. Prior to creation, a dark and formless void gestates new life. Psychologically, Chaos symbolizes the moment prior to conceptualizing a new project or conceiving a new life plan. Before fire ignites the vision quest, Chaos exists as the realm of all possibilities. Raw and undifferentiated Chaos is the vessel for creation and represents the beginning. Her surrogate, the Fool, demarcates the emergence of this spirited path toward being.
Chaos in Greek cosmogony (creation theory) is the ‘gaping void’ through which Gaia, the Earth, and four other primal entities emerged to mark the beginning of the world. Gaia then produced Uranus, the spirit of the Fool in Celestial Tarot. Uranus was the first god of the starry heavens who fathered numerous monstrous children with Gaia, the earth. However, Uranus was not pleased with his creations and pushed his children back into the dark womb of Earth. Gaia’s pain was so great she conspired with her last-born son, Cronus, to destroy the sky-god and end his ceaseless impregnations. Together they plotted to overthrow Uranus forever. As night approached and Uranus began to cover the Earth, her son Cronus, wielding a great scythe, dismembered his father’s genitals and cast them down into the seas below. Disempowered Uranus fell from his heavenly throne into the dark underworld dungeons of Tartarus. Uranus symbolizes the initial phase of creation with his boundless creative energy. However, when this abundant seminal energy is undifferentiated and undirected it smothers what it creates. The myth underlying the Fool marks the emergence of a new path out of the chaotic and unfocused energies of the past. The Fool is the incarnating spirit, be it an idea, a project, a relationship or a journey. However, as both the card and the myth suggest, the new path begins with a fall away from spirit into reality. Like Alice who fell into a wonderland, the Fool is destined to step out into an exciting new world.
The cosmic power that guides the Fool is sudden and unexpected, disembodied and future-directed, uprooting the past to make way for progress. Preferring spiritual ideals and altruistic principles Uranus inspires the individual to take a risk and rebel against the status quo. Uranian energy disengages from attachments seeking a world of perfection, possibility, and utopia. Seeking freedom in his encounters and space in his environment, the Uranian individual is often perceived as disconnected. Separation is a hallmark of this archetype as its urge to progress and willingness to jump into new adventures is far greater than its need to remain static.
Attachments, routines, and possessions may feel suffocating. While this need to separate is motivated by the urge to discover the self, it may be experienced by others as pushing away, disengaging, cutting off, distancing or acting aloof. Uranian separation does not necessarily entail literal separation from a person, a place, or a career, but may mean discarding old habits and programs, past thought patterns, or ways of being. Generally, this is experienced as a relief, since it liberates time and energy to pursue new paths. When Uranus unexpectedly bursts into our life it significantly alters our everyday reality. While the journey may often feel like a roller coaster ride, the path that unfolds leads to greater self-awareness and authenticity.
Until the late 18th century, Saturn marked the boundary of our solar system. In 1781, amidst an atmosphere of revolution, discovery of the planet Uranus heralded a new order of science, industry, and technology. Like the Fool, Uranus was marginal to the pack of visible planets and its discovery heralded a new political ethos. Tyranny and suppression were overthrown liberating the individual and marking the emergence of a new social order. Uranus ushers in the New Age, whose ideals are devoted to equality and freedom for all, as well as the liberation of human rights and truths.
When the Fool appears it suggests movement, unexpected change, and a fresh start with challenges lying ahead. The atmosphere is charged with the electricity of excitement and the thrill of adventure. Anything is possible. The card suggests the most effective way to meet the challenge is with open arms, faith, innocence, and the willingness to be in the moment and led in any direction. On a divinatory level the card symbolizes a spontaneous approach to life, a leap of faith, and the courage to let things happen by letting go of all forms of control. On an oracular level the appearance of the Fool suggests a turning point and a new beginning. A redemptive aspect of ourselves is urging us to change and become more authentic by stepping into the spiral path of individuation.
I~The Magician:
The Mercurial Guide
Following the Fool in the sequence of the Major Arcana is the Magician. Traditionally, this card evolved from earlier depictions of a juggler and conjurer, then later into images of a magus or shaman, two extremes of t
he archetype governed by Mercury, the quicksilver messenger of the gods. In Celestial Tarot we meet youthful Mercury ready to guide us through the labyrinthine path ahead.
Astronomically, Mercury is the fastest moving planet, completing its orbit in three months. Because of its speed the ancients likened it to fleet-footed Mercury. Alchemists similarly named the eponymous element known for its quickness of movement. Astrologically, the planet Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, and both govern the intellect and its powers. However, Mercury’s sphere is not as altruistic, and is often fraught with trickery, mischief, and sleight of hand. Mercury is the surrogate of Uranus initiating the Fool into the game of life by endowing him with the skills necessary not only to play but also to outwit his opponents. The Magician reflects the ability to be in control of the situation and direct it energetically in the appropriate direction. At hand are Mercury’s numerous gifts to help navigate the new territory.
When the Magician is drawn we need to be conscious of our goals as well as the will, ingenuity, and intellect needed to pursue them. In myth, Mercury was aware of this ambition from the beginning. From the hour of his birth, Mercury crossed sacred boundaries, determined to claim a place amongst the prestigious Olympians. In his endeavors to gain his father, Jupiter’s favor, he perceived his older brother, Apollo, as the obstacle and main rival. Mercury was not yet a day old when he plotted to steal his brother’s sacred cattle and become noticed. Mercury’s will, desire, and trickery, all vital aspects of the God’s intelligence, are clearly evident early in his youth. Amused at his youngest son’s sleight of hand and masterful deception, Jupiter honored Mercury by bringing him into the Olympian pantheon and promoting him as the official guide to the underworld.