The Hierophant - Meaning and Symbolism

HIEROPHANT.

I saw the great Master in the Temple. He was siting on

a golden throne set upon a purple platform, and he wore

the robe of a high priest with a golden tiara. He held a

golden eight-pointed cross, and lying at his feet were two

crossed keys. Two initiates bowed before him and to

them he spoke:-—

"Seek the Path, do not seek attainment, Seek for the

Path within yourself.

"Do not expect to hear the truth from others, nor to

see it, or read it in books. Look for the truth in yourself,

not without yourself.

"Aspire only after the impossible and inaccessible.

Expect only that which shall not be.

"Do not hope for Me, — do not look for Me,—do not

believe—that I am outside yourself.

"Within your soul build a lofty tower by which you

may ascend to Heaven. Do not believe in external

miracles, expect miracles only within you. Beware of

believing in a mystery of the earth, in a mystery guarded

by men; for treasuries which must be guarded

are empty. Do not search for a mystery that can be

hidden by men. Seek the Mystery within yourself.

"Above all, avoid those towers built in order to

preserve the mysteries and to make an ascent to Heaven

by stone stairways. And remember that as soon as men

build such a tower they begin to dispute about the

summit.

"The Path is in yourself, and Truth is in yourself and

Mystery is in yourself.

The Tower - Meaning and Symbolism

THE TOWER.

I saw a lofty tower extending from earth to heaven;

its golden crowned summit reached beyond the clouds.

All round it black night reigned and thunder rumbled.

Suddenly the heavens opened, a thunder-clap shook

the whole earth, and lightning struck the summit of the

tower and felled the golden crown. A tongue of fire shot

from heaven and the whole tower became filled with fire

and smoke. Then I beheld the builders of the tower fall

headlong to the ground.

And the voice said:—-

"The building of the tower was begun by the disciples

of the great Master in order to have a constant reminder

of the Master's teaching that the true tower must be built

in one's own soul, that in the tower built by hands there

can be no mysteries, that no one can ascend to Heaven by

treading stone steps.

"The tower should warn the people not to believe in it.

It should serve as a reminder of the inner Temple and as a

protection against the outer; it should be as a lighthouse,

in a dangerous place where men have often been wrecked

and where ships should not go.

"But by and by the disciples forgot the true covenant

of the Master and what the tower symbolized, and began

to believe in the tower of stone, they had built, and to

teach others to so believe. They began to say that in this

tower there is power, mystery and the spirit of the

Master, that the tower itself is holy and that it is built for

the coming Master according to His covenant and His

will. And so they waited in the tower for the Master.

Others did not believe this, or interpreted it differently.

Then began disputes about the rights of the summit.

Quarrels started, 'Our Master, your Master,' was said; 'our

tower, your tower.' And the disciples ceased to

understand each other. Their tongues had become

confused.

"You understand the meaning here? They had begun

to think that this is the tower of the Master, that He

builds it through them, and that it must and, indeed, can

be built right up to Heaven.

"And you see how Heaven responded?"

Strength - Meaning and Symbolism

POWER.

In the midst of a green plain, surrounded by blue hills,

I saw a woman with a lion. Girdled with wreaths of roses,

a symbol of infinity over her head, the woman calmly and

confidently covered the lion's mouth and the lion

obediently licked her hand.

"This is a picture of power", said the voice. "It has

different meanings. First it shows the power of love. Love

alone can conquer wrath. Hatred feeds hatred. Remember

what Zarathustra said: "Let man be freed from vengeance;

this is a bridge for me which leads to higher hope and a

rainbow in heaven after long storms."

"Then it shows power of unity. These wreaths of roses

suggest a magic chain. Unity of desires, unity of aspirations

creates such power that every wild, uncontrolled,

unconscious force is subdued. Even two desires, if united,

are able to conquer almost the whole world.

"The picture also shows the power of infinity, that

sphere of mysteries. For a consciousness that perceives the

symbol of infinity above it, knows no obstacles and

cannot be withstood."

The Devil - Meaning and Symbolism

THE DEVIL.

Black, awful night enveloped the earth. An ominous,

red flame burned in the distance. I was approaching a

fantastic figure which outlined itself before me as I came

nearer to it. High above the earth appeared the repulsive

red face of the Devil, with large, hairy ears, pointed beard

and curved goats' horns. 

A pentagram, pointing downwards, 

shone in phosphoric light between the horns

on his forehead. Two large, grey, bat-like wings were

spread behind him. He held up one arm, spreading out his

bare, fat hand. In the palm I saw the sign of black magic. A

burning torch held down-end in his other hand emitted

black, stifling smoke. He sat on a large, black cube,

gripping it with the claws of his beast-like, shaggy legs.

A man and woman were chained to the cube—the

same Man and Woman I saw in the garden, but now they

had horns and tails tipped with flame. And they were

evidently dissatisfied in spirit, and were filled with protest

and repulsion.

"This is a picture of weakness", said the voice, "a

picture of falsehood and evil. They are the same man and

woman you saw in the garden, but their love ceasing to be

a sacrifice, became an illusion. This man and woman forgot

that their love is a link in the chain that unites them with

eternity, that their love is a symbol of equilibrium and a

road to Infinity.

"They forgot that It is a key to the gate of the magic

world, the torch which lights the higher Path. They forgot

that Love is real and immortal and they subjugated it to

the unreal and temporary. And they each made love a tool

for submitting the other to himself.

"Then love became dissension and fettered them with

iron chains to the black cube of matter, on which sits

deceit."

And I heard the voice of the Devil: "I am Evil", he said,

"at least so far as Evil can exist in this best of worlds. In

order to see me, one must be able to see unfairly,

incorrectly and narrowly. I close the triangle, the other two

sides of which are Death and Time. In order to quit this

triangle it is necessary to see that it does not exist.

"But how to do this is not for me to tell. For I am the

Evil which men say is the cause of all evil and which they

invented as an excuse for all the evil that they do.

"They call me the Prince of Falsehood, and truly I am

the prince of lies, because I am the most monstrous

production of human lies."

The Hermit - Meaning and Symbolism

THE HERMIT.

After long wanderings over a sandy, waterless desert

where only serpents lived, I met the Hermit.

He was wrapped in a long cloak, a hood thrown over

his head. He held a long staff in one hand and in the other

a lighted lantern, though it was broad daylight and the sun

was shining.

"The lantern of Hermes Trismegistus", said the voice,

"this is higher knowledge, that inner knowledge which

illuminates in a new way even what appears to be already

clearly known. This lantern lights up the past, the present

and the future for the Hermit, and opens the souls of

people and the most intimate recesses of their hearts.

"The cloak of Apollonius is the faculty of the wise man

by which he isolates himself, even amidst a noisy crowd; it

is his skill in hiding his mysteries, even while expressing

them, his capacity for silence and his power to act in

stillness.

"The staff of the patriarchs is his inner authority, his

power, his self-confidence.

The lantern, the cloak and the staff are the three

symbols of initiation. They are needed to guide souls past

the temptation of illusory fires by the roadside, so that they

may go straight to the higher goal. He who receives these

three symbols or aspires to obtain them, strives to enrich

himself with all he can acquire, not for himself, but, like

God, to delight in the joy of giving.

"The giving virtue is the basis of an initiate's life.

"His soul is transformed into a spoiler of all treasures" so

said Zarathustra.

"Initiation unites the human mind with the higher mind

by a chain of analogies. This chain is the ladder leading to

heaven, dreamed of by the patriarch."

Temperance - Meaning and Symbolism

TIME

(TEMPERANCE).

An angel in a white robe, touching earth and heaven,

appeared. His wings were flame and a radiance of gold

was about his head. On his breast he wore the sacred sign

of the book of the Tarot—a triangle within a square, a

point within the triangle; on his forehead the symbol of

life and eternity, the circle.

In one hand was a cup of silver, in the other a cup of

gold and there flowed between these cups a constant,

glistening stream of every colour of the rainbow. But I

could not tell from which cup nor into which cup the

stream flowed.

In great awe I understood that I was near the ultimate

mysteries from which there is no return. I looked upon

the angel, upon his symbols, his cups, the rainbow stream

between the cups,—and my human heart trembled with

fear and my human mind shrank with anguish and lack of

understanding.

"Yes", said the voice, "this is a mystery that is revealed

at Initiation. 'Initiation' is simply the revealing of this

mystery in the soul. The Hermit re-

ceives the lantern, the cloak and the staff so that he can bear

the light of this mystery.

"But you probably came here unprepared. Look then and

listen and try to understand, for now understanding is your

only salvation. He who approaches the mystery without

complete comprehension will be lost.

"The name of the angel is Time. The circle on his forehead

is the symbol of eternity and life. Each life is a circle which

returns to the same point where it began. Death is the return

to birth. And from one point to another on the

circumference of a circle the distance is always the same, and

the further it is from one point the nearer it will be to the

other.

"Eternity is a serpent, pursuing its tail, never catching it.

"One of the cups the angel holds is the past, the other is

the future. The rainbow stream between the cups is the

present. You see that it flows both ways.

"This is Time in its most incomprehensible aspect.

"Men think that all flows constantly in one direction.

They do not see that everything perpetually meets and that

Time is a multitude of turning circles. Understand this

mystery and learn to discern the contrary currents in the

rainbow stream of the present.

"The symbol of the sacred book of the Tarot on the

angel's breast is the symbol of the correlation of God, Man

and the Universe.

"The triangle is God, the world of spirit, the world of

ideas. The point within the triangle is the soul of man.

The square is the visible world.

"The consciousness of man is the spark of divinity a

point within the triangle of spirit. Therefore the whole

square of the visible universe is equal to the point within

the triangle.

"The world of spirit is the triangle of the twenty-one

signs of the Tarot. The square represents fire, air, water

and earth, and thus symbolises the world.

"All this, in the form of the four symbols, is in the bag

of the Fool, who himself is a point in a triangle. Therefore

a point without dimension contains an infinite square.

Wheel of Chance - Meaning and Symbolism

THE WHEEL OF CHANCE.

I walked along, absorbed in deep thought, trying to

understand the vision of the Angel. And suddenly,

as I lifted my head, I saw midway in the sky a huge,

revolving circle covered with Kabalistic letters and

symbols. The circle turned with terrible velocity,

and around it, falling down and flying up, symbolic figures

of the serpent and the dog revolved; above it sat an

immovable sphinx.

In clouds, on the four quarters of heaven, I saw the

four apocalyptical beings, one with the face of a lion,

another with the race of a bull, the third with a face, of an

eagle, and the fourth with the face of a bull. And each of

them read an open book.

And I heard the voices of Zarathustra's beasts:—

"All go, all return,—the wheel of life ever turns. All die, all flourish

again,—the year of existence runs eternally.

"All perish, all live again, the same house of existence is I ever

building. All separate, all meet again, the ring of existence is ever true to

itself.

"Existence begins at every moment. Round each 'here' rolls 'there'.

The middle is everywhere. The way of eternity is a curve.

Death - Meaning and Symbolism

DEATH.

Fatigued by the flashing of the Wheel of Life, I

sank to earth and shut my eyes. But it seemed to

me that the Wheel kept turning before me and

that the four creatures continued sitting in the

clouds and reading their books.

Suddenly, on opening my eyes, I saw a

gigantic rider on a white horse, dressed in black

armour, with a black helmet and black plume. A

skeleton's face looked out from under the

helmet. One bony hand held a large, black,

slowly-waving banner, and the other held a black

bridle ornamented with skulls and bones.

And, wherever the white horse passed, night

and death followed; flowers withered, leaves

drooped, the earth covered itself with a white

shroud; graveyards appeared; towers, castles and

cities were destroyed.

Kings in the full splendour of their fame and

their power; beautiful women loved and loving;

high priests invested by power from God;

innocent children — when they saw the white

horse all fell on their knees before him, stretched

out their hands in terror and despair, and fell

down to rise no more.

Afar, behind two towers, the sun sank.

A deadly cold enveloped me. The heavy hoofs of the

horse seemed to step on my breast, and I felt the world

sink into an abyss.

But all at once something familiar, but faintly seen and

heard, seemed to come from the measured step of the

horse. A moment more and I heard in his steps the

movement of the Wheel of Life!

An illumination entered me, and, looking at the

receding rider and the descending sun, I understood that

the Path of Life consists of the steps of the horse of Death.

The sun sinks at one point and rises at another. Each

moment of its motion is a descent at one point and an

ascent at another. I understood that it rises while sinking

and sinks while rising, and that life, in coming to birth,

dies, and in dying, comes to birth.

"Yes," said the voice. The sun does not think of its

going down and coming up. What does it know of earth,

of the going and coming observed by men? It goes its own

way, over its own orbit, round an unknown Centre. Life,

death, rising and falling— do you not know that all these

things are thoughts and dreams and fears of the Fool?

Justice - Meaning and Symbolism

JUSTICE.

When I possessed the keys, read the book and

understood the symbols, I was permitted to lift the

curtain of the Temple and enter its inner sanctum. And

there I beheld a Woman with a crown of gold and a

purple mantle. She held a sword in one hand and scales in

the other. I trembled with awe at her appearance, which

was deep and mysterious, and drew me like an abyss.

"You see Truth", said the voice. "0n these scales

everything is weighed. This sword is always raised to

guard justice, and nothing can escape it.

"But why do you avert your eyes from the scales and

the sword? They will remove the last illusions. How

could you live on earth without these illusions?

"You wished to see Truth and now you behold it! But

remember what happens to the mortal who beholds a

Goddess!

The Hanged Man - Symbolism and Meaning

THE HANGED MAN.

And then I saw a man in terrible suffering, hung by

one leg, head downward, to a high tree. And I heard the

voice:—

"Look! This is a man who saw Truth. Suffering awaits

the man on earth, who finds the way to eternity and to

the understanding of the Endless.

"He is still a man, but he already knows much of what

is inaccessible even to Gods. 

And the incommensurableness of the small and the great in his

soul constitutes his pain and his golgotha.

"In his own soul appears the gallows on which he

hangs in suffering, feeling that he is indeed inverted.

"He chose this way himself.

"For this he went over a long road from trial to trial,

from initiation to initiation, through failures and falls.

"And now he has found Truth and knows himself.

"He knows that it is he who stands before an altar

with magic symbols, and reaches from earth to heaven;

that he also walks on a dusty road under a scorching sun

to a precipice where a crocodile awaits

him; that he dwells with his mate in paradise under the shadow

of a blessing genius; that he is chained to a black cube under

the shadow of deceit; that he stands as a victor for a moment in

an illusionary chariot drawn by sphinxes; and that with a

lantern in bright sunshine, he seeks for Truth in a desert. 

"Now he has found Her."

Reveal Your Path with Tarot

"All of us have a path to walk in order to reach our dreams, scattered with markers that help us reach our ultimate goal. That goal often includes becoming the best version of ourselves that we can. This tarot spread can help manifest that best self, and reveal the next steps to take in our life-long journey towards our dreams."

Watch the video below to see the tarot spread.

Learn more about this tarot spread: https://bit.ly/2YJnIq6 

Do you have a question about your life path? 

Get a one-on-one psychic reading: https://bit.ly/2WpvItO 


Another DIY Tarot Spread

𝟙.ℂ𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕡𝕒𝕥𝕙 - 𝑯𝒂𝒘𝒌
I’m on a path where I’m developing a keener sense of sight. In the physical realm, the spiritual and the realm of the self.

𝟚.ℂ𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 - 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒍𝒆
The intention right now is to be patient and in wait. Observing, building my arsenal, and really planning my next move. Very suitable for a new Moon.

𝟛.ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕕𝕚𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 - 𝑩𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒍𝒚
With every path there is change and transformation, and while it will be uncomfortable, there can be no progress without change.

𝟜.ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕘𝕖 - 𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒓
The challenge will be the first movements after being sedentary for so long. Waiting and waiting and then having to suddenly move will be an issue.

𝟝.𝔾𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 - 𝑴𝒐𝒕𝒉
“Life is complex, don’t just think that because someone else’s grass is greener, that yours can’t eventually also be as green.” 𝟞.ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕕𝕚𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 - 𝑺𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒚
The energy of the butterflies uncomfortable transformation leads way into the stingrays change of direction. Go forward toward the uncomfortable, or stay where it is easy.

𝟟.𝕆𝕦𝕥𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕖 - 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑬𝒈𝒈
The Black Egg follows me around, usually as the outcome card. It allows for the most authentic voice and to reconnect with the self instead of just saying what others want to hear.