by Brian Clark
Mercury’s role is to guide the soul across the boundary that separates life from death and the past from the future. As guardian of the crossroads, Mercury appears to guide the soul in transition, whether it is the commercial traveler on the road, the initiate on the path of life, or the voyager into the underworld. Honoring transitional space, marking boundaries, and journeying are all part of Mercury’s domain. Helping us to become conscious of the milestones on our journey, Mercury is a multi-dimensional god: guardian of flocks, the shepherd of dreams, the messenger god, charmer, trickster, patron of commerce, healer, and guide.
As thief, trickster, and boundary-crosser, mythological Mercury is aligned with the tradition of the shaman. As master of the occult, Mercury has piloted the evolution of knowledge and wisdom from the magic-wielding seers of antiquity, through the wonder-working alchemists of the Middle Ages, on to the artificial intelligence used today. With knowledge, we inform ourselves, become conscious of our goals and masterful with our creations. This is the Magician’s role and his appearance suggests the time to take charge of our life by consciously creating something out of the possibilities surrounding us.
Astrologically, Mercury is associated with the process of learning, communicating, and the sharing of ideas. It rules two signs, Gemini and Virgo, which reflect the duality and dexterity of Mercury. Gemini represents the quicksilver ability to gather and adapt information and ideas, while Virgo digests and analyses information into a coherent formula. Along with other intellectual processes such as rationale, logic, reflection, and communication, the Magician’s skills help us to understand our motives and urges, educating us to not be solely reliant on instinctual and subjective responses. Mercury encourages the process of objectification so that separation can take place and guide us into a broader social network. His skill lies in guiding us to the right place. Therefore, the Magician’s appearance stresses the need to be objective and conscious of the path ahead. Because Mercury is never static, it is necessary to be flexible and open in order to generate the power to move forward.
Youthful Mercury beckons us. As a patron of youth he reminds us that we are filled with possibilities and the power to pursue them. On his head is his wide-brimmed traveler’s hat suggesting that we are about to embark on a journey. In his left hand is his herald’s wand. As a magician with knowledge of herbs, healing, and hypnosis, his staff is the wand used to induce a trance. His wand also heralds the possibilities that lay ahead for the traveler. His gaze draws us into his atmosphere, for when the Magician appears we feel more confident and capable of moving along the right path. This card signals the momentum of a new phase filled with youthful spirit and synchronicity. A creative process is underfoot and the god Mercury is ready to guide us across the threshold of change.
II~The High Priestess:
Inner Mysteries of the Moon
Mercury is the hermetic guide who leads us to the threshold of the inner world. At the portal to the inner realms is the High Priestess, the spirit of the Moon in Celestial Tarot. Astrological wisdom has always linked the two guiding principles of Mercury and the Moon together as co-rulers of the mind. Therefore, it is appropriate that the Moon follows Mercury’s lead. Both are lifelong guides; Mercury informs the way we communicate to the world around us, while the Moon remembers every nuance of the human experience. Mercury recalls the outer journey while the Moon records our inner biography informed by the shades and textures of our familial inheritance and emotional responses. The Moon illuminates the mysteries of what has past, what underlies the present, and what destiny lies ahead of us. As High Priestess, the Moon governs the night, the dark world whose wisdom is revealed through dreams, feelings, responses, intuitions, and visions. Her insight reaches underneath the corporeal world and extends beyond linear time.
In the astrological pantheon, the Moon is the fastest moving body, completing its first zodiacal round in 27.3 days. The Moon then returns to its natal position, having completed its journey through every zodiacal sign, house, and aspect. The first initiation of the Moon records preverbal and unconscious impressions. Due to its speed it detects the energetic life underlying consciousness. The Moon’s changing rhythm religiously records, reflects, and reveals each heartbeat, breath, and nuance of primitive life. It is the memory bank of all our senses, the barometer of our feelings, the receptacle of repressed traumas, and the touchstone of our earliest impressions, even in utero. Throughout life, the Moon absorbs the imprints of the veiled world unseen by the senses and lost in the glare and brightness of the outer world. It is the symbol of our primal needs for attachment, bonding, and nurturing. The Moon also represents our feeling memory embedded in our emotional responses, somatized in our bodies, and personified through our dreams. Encoded in our feelings and moods, our aches and pains, muscular tension, headaches, stress, through dream images and symbols, the oracle of the High Priestess reveals herself. She speaks the poetic language of the soul through image, story, myth, symbol, and metaphor, unveiling herself when we engage in mystery and uncertainty. The High Priestess honors this way of knowing through the wisdom of the body and its cycles, as well as through intuition and feeling responses.
The Celestial Tarot honors this way of knowing through Selene, the original Greek goddess of the Moon. Selene rose out of the depth of the oceans, yoked her dazzling horses to the chariot of the Moon, and drove it across the night sky mesmerizing the earth with the gentle glow of her moonlight. Bathed in soft blue hues the Goddess Selene holds the veil over herself. Is she removing the veil to reveal her knowledge of the situation, or is she covering herself to conceal what she knows? The half-veiled goddess invites us into her mysteries, responding to our urge to be engaged in her reverie and to unveil the truth. The High Priestess holds the key to the secrets of the inner life; the mysteries of the internal realm that are invisible in the bright sunlight, but are reflected in the light of the Moon. She stands on the surface of the physical Moon, the Earth’s satellite. As queen of the night sky she constantly reflects the cyclical phases of experience by appearing then disappearing. In the background of the card is the shadow of the traditional High Priestess who carries the essence of wisdom from ages past. She is the matriarch of feminine wisdom personified by a variety of cross-cultural goddesses who embody the spirit of feminine knowing.
Lunar wisdom is instinctual, born from knowing moods and cycles. Therefore, the appearance of the High Priestess encourages the individual to seek this path of knowing by being attentive and receptive. Prepare a space to invite insight by quieting the self. Dialogue with the inner world of symbol and fantasy, explore the image of the dream, and acknowledge your intuition and responses. On an oracular level, the appearance of the High Priestess invites us to be more aware of symbols and signs, feeling responses, bodily aches and pains, emotional reactions, mood swings, in general the inner life. Insight and revelations are aspects of the High Priestess and the card suggests the individual will become more aware of the right path by listening to the inner voice.
III~The Empress:
The Bountiful World of Venus
In the astrological pantheon the personal feminine is symbolized by the Moon and Venus. As archetypal symbols they personify the anima; the Moon being mother, caretaker and provider, while Venus reflects the other, sister, lover, and equal. The Moon represents first love or mother love, attachment figures and nurturers, while Venus denotes equal love, based on her desires and values. Developmentally, the Moon governs infancy and childhood, while Venus governs the transition into puberty when passions are awoken and the urge for independence flourishes. In anima development, Venus follows the Moon as attachments shift from the mother to the sister, friends, and female equals, the surrogates of Venus. Appropriately, Venus governs the Empress, the card following the lunar domain of the High Priestess. The Empress is the equal partner of the Emperor and is the feminine ruler and head of state. In traditional Tarot symbolism the High Priestess is a devot
ee to the inner world while the Empress is creatrix in the outer world. Both rule the feminine realm, the Empress being in the world embodied by a mature and passionate female force.
As goddess of love, sexuality, and beauty, Venus’ origins are rooted in the Near East. To the Greeks she was Aphrodite, whose cult of worship was brought to Cyprus by the seafaring Phoenicians. Although her cult was imported, she became uniquely Greek, a goddess who often conflicted with the emerging culture and tradition. Later, the Romans claimed Venus as their patroness, being mother to Aeneas, the ancient founder of Rome. Aphrodite’s genealogy is not consistent in our ancient sources. According to Homer, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. However, Hesiod portrays the great goddess of sexual love being fathered by the severed genitals of Uranus and brought into creation out of the womb of the sea, ostensibly a goddess without parents. Aphrodite represents a force that is not easily parented. The double origin of Aphrodite’s birth is also consistent with her dual nature. In Greece she was known as Aphrodite Urania, the ethereal and sublime one, born of heaven, who represented heavenly and spiritual love. She was also called Aphrodite Pandemos, the goddess who embodied physical and sensual love.
Her dual birth also represents the schism that occurred throughout Western development, which split the profane or instinctual from the sacred or cultured life. Astrologically, we see the duality of Venus represented by her domiciles of earthy Taurus and heavenly Libra. Taurus carries the earthy, sensual, fertile, and resourceful sides of the goddess, symbolized by her green sash. Libra reflects her heavenly sides of culture and beauty. United in her image they reflect her passion for beauty, love, and life. The Empress embraces this duality with her open arms and bare breasts—gestures of her desire to be known. Venus is skilled in the magical arts and her magic girdle represents her ability to cast love spells. Even the great goddess Hera begged to borrow this garment in order to become irresistible to her husband Zeus.
Attending the goddess is the sacred dove, messenger of peace and reconciliation. Her heavenly side inspires peace, easing differences through reconciliation and acceptance. She demands equality and desires tranquility. Also at her side is Eros, her constant companion. As her emissary, he is the force of love that bursts into our lives to change the way we relate and share ourselves. Once struck by one of his arrows nothing can ever be the same! Similarly, Venus as the Empress symbolizes an alchemical transformation through her passions and her desire to fertilize and create abundance.
Venus, as the mother of Cupid, also represents motherhood, another aspect of the Empress. When the card appears it may signify maternal urges or represent a mother figure or nurturing atmosphere. As Empress, Venus represents the spectrum of mature femininity encompassing the desire for pleasure and abundance accompanied by responsibility for what she creates. The Empress asks the question “what area of your life needs abundance, fertility, and creativity?” She reveals a relationship in the individual’s life that needs nurturing and love. On an oracular level, she predicts a phase of growth and abundance, a desire to be creative, and an urge to be involved both physically and mentally. The Empress suggests a phase of being involved with life’s creative processes.
IV~The Emperor:
Aries, Kingship and Conquest
Aries, the leading sign of the zodiac, derives its inspiration from the constellation of the ram, the archetype underpinning the Emperor. A rich mythic tradition associates the ram of Aries with supremacy and kingship.
Egyptian myths connected this constellation with their ram-god, Ammon. Later, the Greeks associated Ammon with Zeus, their kingly god and Emperor of the order of Olympian deities. Even the early Christians likened Aries to the Lamb of God, personified as Christ, the king of kings.
Aries was not always the leading sign of the zodiac. When Hipparchus systematized the tropical zodiac in the 2nd Century b.c.e., he began the zodiacal year at the vernal equinox. To the ancients the vernal equinox marked the rise of spring, fertility, and the reanimation of life. The Vernal Equinox in the stars of Aries paralleled the gradual triumph of masculine values, which culminated during the Roman Empire. The mythic founder of the Roman Empire was Romulus, the son of Mars, the ruler of Aries. Unconsciously, the powerful mythic ram had been woven into the character of the emperor, the god-like king. When the ancient Greeks assigned a myth to this zodiacal constellation they retold the story of Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece.
The Golden Fleece was the ram that had saved the two children Prixus and Helle from being sacrificed by their father. A cloud descended over the sacrificial altar and in its midst was a supernatural golden-fleeced ram which the children climbed onto and disappeared, flying northward to the Black Sea. While crossing the water, Helle fell off the ram and drowned in the sea. The motif of the lost and/or sacrificed feminine weaves itself throughout the familial story of Aries. Phrixus continued on his journey and arrived in Colchis where the Golden Ram was sacrificed to Zeus and hung on an oak tree in a sacred grove. For its service the golden ram was honored and placed in the heavens as the constellation of Aries.
As a young boy, the hero Jason was taken to Chiron’s cave to escape the wrath of Pelias, the usurper of his father’s throne. The wise centaur Chiron gave Jason his name, meaning healer. As a young man Jason ventured down the slopes of Mount Pelion to claim his right to the throne. The tyrant Pelias promised to relinquish the throne only if Jason would bring back the Golden Fleece. Ignited by the challenge, Jason and his heroic crew ventured to the farthest edge of the Black Sea to retrieve the emblem of his birthright. With the help of Medea’s magical arts, Jason succeeded. After their return to Greece, Jason betrayed Medea, who had sacrificed her home and family for him. Two mythic patterns important to note in the Arian story are the loss of the birth right of kingship and the loss and betrayal of the feminine, motifs woven into the collective psyche during the Age of Aries in the two millenniums b.c.e.
The card depicts the Emperor with the Golden Fleece around his shoulders and the symbol of Aries, the ram’s horn, on his scepter. The Emperor personifies power, authority, and leadership. With the emblematic fleece he is in touch with the archetypal hero-king, his birthright. This card suggests that a particular sphere of our lives may need control or governing. Like the mythic hero we may need to undertake a quest to reclaim this heritage. Four pillars, the number of the emperor, are on the eastern side of the temple symbolizing both the masculine sphere and the manifested world, reminding us of the need to structure and govern the outer world. They also symbolize the four elemental types of the self. However, it is the superior function that must now lead aligned with the ego and its will. The emperor’s lineage descends from the gods. He is in charge of the situation; autonomous and authoritative. The eagle on his left arm is another reminder of Zeus, the supreme god and father of Mars. The color red infuses the card with energy, force, and will; all instincts of Aries and necessary for the Emperor to remain in control. When this card appears, the unconscious is acknowledging the necessity to establish authority in the outer world by taking command of a situation needing direction.
On the path of individuation, a strong ego is necessary in order to take control of the external forces and anchor ourselves in the world. To be in charge of our destiny we need to develop our authority and leadership backed by the pillars of our own internal wisdom and unique psychological makeup. On an oracular level the card may be referring to a particular situation that needs management or control, where we may need to be more focused and authoritative. Drawing this card suggests that unconscious aspects of the present situation need to be more aligned with the ego-identity and what we want. With this card we are given permission to have dominion over the current situation and are empowered to be in control. However, like the Arian temperament, we may need to be more adventuresome, confrontational, and assertive to feel we are truly rulers of the situation.
V~The Hierophant:
The Po
wer of Taurus
The Hierophant brings the mythic pattern of Taurus to light with Zeus in the guise of a beautiful white bull, the most revered and powerful animal in Indo-European myth. Throughout Mediterranean cultures the bull was a symbol of potency, wealth, strength, and sexuality. For the Babylonians, the Great Bull of Heaven represented power and fertility. For the ancient Greeks and Egyptians it was an important sacrificial animal. Greek myths described many bulls, especially those connected to the successive generations of the dynasty of Crete.
Underneath the Cretan palace, hidden in a labyrinthine chamber, was the Minotaur, the shameful shadow of the Minoan clan. Two generations earlier Zeus had shape-shifted into a beautiful white bull to seduce the young Phoenician princess Europa. Europa had been playing in a field gathering spring flowers to make garlands when she became mesmerized by a large charismatic bull that meandered through the meadow. Zeus, the bull-god, gently beckoned Europa. Possessed with desire to know the bull, she moved closer and climbed upon him. Slowly he took her step-by-step across the meadow towards the sea and with the power of a great god, the bull strode the waves across the sea. Europa clung tightly as she rode farther and farther away from her homeland. Zeus had made his conquest. He took Europa as his lover, fathering three children by her; one was Minos, the founder of the Cretan dynasty.
King Minos claimed the throne of Crete. To bless the new dynasty, Poseidon, his divine great grandfather, lavished a sacred white bull on Minos. The bull was so regal and powerful, Minos decided not to sacrifice the bull to the gods and instead substituted another prized white bull. Outraged at the deceit, the earth-shaker Poseidon cursed the house of Minos. With the help of Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, a spell was cast on Pasiphaë, Minos’ wife, who became sexually obsessed with the beautiful god-like bull. Consumed by an uncontrollable passion for the bull, Pasiphaë schemed to find a way to mate with the creature. Pasiphaë commissioned Daedalus, the palace architect, to construct a large mechanical cow, which she could enter. In this disguise she seduced the bull, just as Zeus in the guise of a bull had seduced her mother-in-law. The majestic bull satisfied her passion. However she became pregnant and gave birth to the monstrous Minotaur, who had the head of a bull and the body of a man. Filled with shame, Minos ordered Daedalus to build a labyrinth in the depths of the palace where the monster could be hidden.