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.