OCCULT VIEW

What is the secret in the Tarot?  To clearly understand the original Tarot, I like to view most of the cards in two, the top half and bottom half.  The bottom half symbolizes the physical world we live in.  The characters in the bottom half are ourselves, the viewer.  The top half represents a state of mind or spiritual condition…the influences that shape the physical world in the lower half.  It is in line with the central occult idea, “as it is above, so it is below”.

There are geninue spiritual connections between what is above (spirit) and what is below (matter).  The most common approach to this nowadays is the Law of Attraction.  The Law of Attraction, as popularized by “The Secret” is that we attract to our lives what we think.  If we think positively, then we attract positive results.  The opposite is also true, if we dwell in negativity, then we attract negative results.  This is all very true.

What is interesting about the Tarot is that it’s almost about the Law of Attraction.  The upper half of the Tarot symbolizes our state of mind.  The bottom half symbolizes the result of this state of mind.  We can pick and choose our condition, the Tarot says.  Are we the Fool card, wandering around in ignorance?  Or are we the clever Juggler card, who understands his condition and masters it?  I have created two examples to illustrate my point.  Lets look at them.

First is the “Lovers” card which I split top from bottom. In the bottom is a man faced with a choice between two women, an older woman to his left, a younger to his right.  I think the card is about choosing between different paths.  In the upper half of the card, a spiritual force (cupid) attempts to direct the man’s attention towards one choice, away from another (cupid’s arrow is aimed at the young lady).  I believe the cupid symbolizes our conscience, our spirituality.  Do we listen to our conscience?  Are we open to our spiritual side?  Or are we closed off to it?  If we lose our connection with our spiritual side…we might become what is the next card to consider…the Devil.

HereThen we have the Devil card.  The bottom half of the Devil card shows two enslaved semi-human beings.  They symbolize those of us who are in spiritual blindness, enslaved by our lusts, doubts, prejudices, negativity.   What is curious is that what ties them down are loose ropes around their necks…they can easily escape if they wish…but don’t!  They remain trapped by their own choice.  Their semi-human nature shows they retain a measure of their humanity, and have the capacity to take another path.  We are trapped by our own thoughts and little else.  The Devil does not force anybody to do anything.  Nobody is kidnapped.  The Devil in the upper half symbolizes the concept of being cut off from our spiritual side.  We only listen to our lower material self, our ego.  The Devil is not a literal Devil, but our own ego at work.  When we lose contact with our spiritual side, we are lost.

In my next post I will examine some more cards from the “split perspective”.