|
THE
MANTIC ARTS | TAROT
INTRODUCTION | TEXTS
ON TAROT | LINKS | BOOKS
|
MEDITATIONS
MEDITATIONS
ON THE TAROT
Part
I / II
/ III / IV
The
Hanged Man
Suspended
by a structure that is supported by two poles that
refer to the fiery suit of Wands, our Compost
stands immobilized while he receives the moderate
heat of an invisible Sun and of twelve flaming branches.
He is encircled by his supposed gibbet as by a closed
pan. His feet exhibit the red colour proper of
hermetic lacquering, indicating that our Egg is hermetically
sealed.
His
clothes show a good colour balance of Mercury's Blue,
of Sulphur's Red and of the Yellow that is typical
of the Compost in this period or regimen of Mercury.
The Arcanum charitably gives us through these colours
the approximate proportions of the Work's two principles,
and his legs draw the Quaternary just as his jacket
is quartered.
Hanging
by the foot, the Hanged Man symbolizes our Egg that
must not directly touch any of the walls of its Nest,
receiving in this manner as Aurach recommends an uniform
heat that is transmmited by the surrounding air. His blond
and long loose hair refer to the tenuous fire at the
Athanor's base. At the Arcanum's inferior corners Green
flames are situated inside the two hillocks, indicating that,
through natural heat or fire, the secret vegetative fire
of our Matter is excited in this phase.
It
is a moment of passivity and waiting, and any
abrupt movement made by the Hanged Man could compromise or
retard the Work's progress. From which derives the necessity
of our Egg's most complete physical immobility.
back
Arcanum
XIII, or Death
A
Death that is unnamed for it is not final, our horrifying
Saturn (who is not exactly a skeleton but a
corpse in an advanced stage of putrefaction)
reaps on the Dark Earth the heads of the
King and Queen. He handles for this task a scythe,
which is a traditional emblem of both the god and Death.
One sees some scattered severed hands and feet,
besides some bones and a scarce vegetation. Alternatively,
one can understand this earth as a black mud and the
human figures as submerged and dissolving in
its bosom.
Contrary
to the common people, Philosophers rejoice as they
see the black Crow of Saturn, for they know that it
is the positive sign that their Work progresses.
As it reaps and dissolves our Philosophical Mercury and Sulphur,
Queen and King of this microcosm, into this
black and putrefied mass, the regimen of Saturn
ritually kills our Rebis or Compost (re-bis:
double thing) in order to resuscitate it purified and
initiated into the mysteries of Hermes. For there is no elevation
or glorification without prior putrefaction.
Despite
the apparent desolation, a scarce vegetation
tells us that this Earth is alive and under the influence
of a tenuous internal fire. Similarly, in this manner
is indicated the adequate thermal regimen for this
period: a vegetative heat.
back
Temperance
A
blonde woman with angel wings and clothes perfectly balanced
with Sulphurous Red and Mercurial Blue, Temperance
adds water to wine. She stands on a whitening
Earth that has some vegetation. Her gaze is compassively
directed to the severed heads of the King and Queen at her
left. It is a look of wisdom for she knows that the
dark torture inflicted on the Rebis is but temporary.
A
Jupiterian Lady for her imposing height, she represents
curing Time as opposed to the killing Time of
the preceding Arcanum. The kabbalistical sum of her cipher
sends us to the Arcanum of the Pope, the latter's energy being
equally Jupiterian and of a healing nature. She symbolizes
our regimen of Jupiter, where indeed the black
Saturnine mass gradually clarifies like wine by the
addition of water.
It
is an Arcanum that evokes again the patience that is
necessary to the Work, for it indicates slow and gradual
processes. It is the Operator's task to keep the vegetative
life of the Compost, controlling with temperance the
natural fire that is applied to it. This heat level must be
kept until the end of the following regimen, as the
Cosmopolitan Adept well indicates in chapter VII of the Treatise
on Salt of his New Chemical Light.
back
The
Devil
Androginous
Templar Baphomet with an insatiable belly and
the horns of the Horned God adorning his lascivious
head, our Devil holds like Prometheus the sulphurous
Fire stolen from the Olympic gods. His bat's wings
are equally sulphurous and fetid and form a
contrast with his predominantly Mercurial body. However, the
hue of Blue employed in the latter is lighter than
the Mercurial Blue of the other Arcana, which is a detail
to be meditated upon and decyphered by the student.
Observe how the Arcanum's soil is black and
seems to be submerged in water. The couple of demons
can be seen as the two principles of the Work in
potency and therefore not yet pictorically plainly human,
besides representing two natural elements that must
be dissociated.
As
the Inferior Eros, the Devil passionately and
carnally unites the couple of demons at the base of
the Arcanum. The rope that binds the latter seems to
discreetly continue through their tails, suggesting a much
wider and collective imprisonment of natural created
beings. Contrary to what it seems, the work of this Arcanum
lies in separating quite tenacious natural bindings.
As
holder and Initiator of the Metallurgical Mysteries
of the Sacred Fire, our Devil represents Prometheus, the rebel
Titan who was a friend of Humanity. In this Arcanum and the
following two (The Tower and The Star) there is an interpolation
of Ways that relates to the Arcanum of the Chariot. These
four Arcana deal of a Dry Way based upon the obtainment
of the Starry Martial Regulus (indicated by the Chariot),
a Way that will demand an intense metallurgical Fire
(symbolized by the Devil) and that will involve the canonical
breaking of the Egg after the Cooking (The Tower) in order
to give us our Pearl (The Star).
For
the Maritime Way followed by the majority of the Arcana,
this intermezzo can be understood as a warning
regarding the handling of the Fire, for if the latter becomes
exceedingly intense (The Devil) there is a real risk of explosion
(The Tower).
On
a more meaningful key for us, the Arcanum of the Devil
symbolizes the fetid process for the obtainment of our Dry
Water, The Tower symbolizes the dry process for
the obtainment of our Philosophical Sulphur, and The
Star indicates the procedure for the obtainment through crystallization
of our Philosophical Mercury. In this manner the Tarot
provides us with information that in the natural order should
have come after The Fool and before The Magician.
A good parallel to the Arcanum of the Devil will be found
in the ninth emblem of J. D. Mylius' Philosophia
Reformata (Frankfurt, 1622).
back
The
Tower
On
a general and moral sense, the Arcanum of the Tower is an
alusion to the Tower of Babel and to the subsequent
divine punishment of human hubris. It represents thus
the destruction and the impossiblity of a human project
aiming at rationally and completely knowing the Cosmos.
Still on a moral register, it represents the inevitable
disaster of plans and courses of action that are impelled
by the exacerbated passions of the previous Arcanum.
However,
at the Initiatic level that concerns us the Tower symbolizes
the classic Athanor, with an entrance at its base for
a vegetative heat of ashes and with a removable top for the
control of the Egg in its Nest. Our Tower is thus indeed the
House of God, for it is inside of it that our Divine
Ruby is generated.
Similarly
to the bas-relief sculptured at the Portal of Judgement
of Notre-Dame de Paris Church, The Tower represents the dangers
of exposing our Work to direct Solar rays or to flashes of
lightning. However, contrary to the bas-relief there
is no Knight-Alchemist here to protect his Athanor
against external influences, from which derives the
disaster pictured by the Arcanum. The mentioned bas-relief
may be seen in Plate V of The Mystery of the Cathedrals,
which was the first published work of the Adept Fulcanelli.
As
already seen, The Tower also stands for the real danger of
explosion in the case of excessive external heat, besides
symbolizing the canonical breaking of the Egg at the
end of the Dry Way. However, to the Way that the Tarot
essentially deals, it symbolizes the dry procedure
that is employed in order to obtain our Philosophical Sulphur.
back
|
