World Servers Spread - August, 2009

By Christine Payne-Towler

ArkLetter 54, August 20,  2009 
World Server's Spread

For an introduction to the World Servers' Spread see ArkLetter 5 

Paul Huson is a friend of the Tarot. There is no other way to say it. Today we'll be enjoying some contact with his Dame Fortune's Wheel Tarot, which follows upon Huson's perspective-broadening book Mystical Origins of the Tarot.  

Once we hit the dog days of summer, I needed something to pull my overheated, humid brain away from the smell of apples roasting on the trees and the drone of the crickets mating in the cow pastures.  So I acted on a long-felt impulse to acquire this pack of cards and see what all the shouting was about. Wow, am I glad to have finally followed through!

If you haven't got the pack or book at hand, lovely introductions can be found at:
http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/paul-husons-tarot-world/
and
http://www.winterspells.com/2009/06/06/interview-with-tarot-historian-paul-huson/

In this book, Huson surveys the historical development of Tarot divination, from the early practice of drawing lots (basically a one-card reading method called sortilege) through the works of Etteilla in the late 1700's. In the process he presents us with every significant early convention that we know became attached to the cards (names and images mostly) before the emergence of the Waite/Smith pack.  To make the book more accessible to 21st century users, he cross-compares the Etteilla canon of divinatory meanings with those elaborated by Waite, Mathers and the Golden Dawn, which certainly adds heft to the book.  In the process, Huson demonstrates how utterly beholden the English school packs are on the Continental tradition stabilized by Etteilla a century before the OGD.  (Mary Greer amply demonstrates a similar point in her excellent comparative synthesis Tarot Reversals.) 

But for my money, the most useful aspect of this volume is the perspective it grants us on the first centuries of Tarot in the hands of its users. 

Being an artist himself, Huson has filled his book with the type of imagery that would have surrounded the first adopters of Tarot. For this reason I keep his book next to other visually-rich resources I have collected -- the first two volumes of Kaplan's Encyclopedia of Tarot; works on Tarot and esoteric art by researchers Fred Gettings, Richard Cavendish, Michael Camille and Joscelyn Godwin; Wasserman's Art and Symbols of the Occult; the historically-oriented books accompanying Brian Williams' tarots; Oswald Wirth's Tarot of the Magicians; Harold Bayley's The Lost Language of Symbolism; Stanislas de Rola's The Golden Game; and other works that bring together the rich visual tapestry of the times.  

In the Dame Fortune's Wheel Tarot, Huson's art style and color choices anchor him firmly in the present; nevertheless there is almost no sense that he is superimposing a modern point outlook   over the original models. If anything, he is very conscientiously scrubbing some of the accumulated confusion off the pack. For example, Huson's Trump #1 is restored to what many (though not all) believe is his original status; he's The Juggler, indicating a person not far elevated from the lowest man on the totem pole, The Fool. Huson's Strength image also assumes an earlier aspect, as a halo'd goddess breaking a pillar  -- a Christianized version of ancient Hecate, which we see given the name Fortitude in the E-series Mantegna images.  All four Cardinal Virtues are depicted with striking multi-pointed halos among the Trumps; Justice, Fortitude, Temperance and Prudence (here shown on the World card.)  These four ladies lend their gifts to the four suits, reminding us to practice our Virtues in the outworking of day-to-day life. I really like the potential for interpretive enrichment that can be brought into the reading as a result of these associations.  This is one of several methods Huson has employed to have the modern user a taste of antique thinking, and it's quite evocative.

 Looking further through the Trumps, Huson's Devil card is of the ancient type as well, showing the composite creature that gave its name as Legion in the Old Testament.  Interestingly enough, the Star card is shown as male, a variant that might seem counterintuitive but which Huson backs up quite convincingly. His Trump #19, The Sun, shows the Gemini twins rather than a boy/girl or man/woman couple, a point that might make a difference in the reading context.  Only the image for trump #6, Love, is a bit confusing for me, since he's evoking a courtly love pairing being blessed by a priest -- which I'm pretty sure would not have happened in the (mostly-adulterous) unions celebrated by troubadour culture.

Oh well, I may not agree with every conclusion he draws, but that doesn't decrease the value of his labor on behalf of Tarot history!  Huson's method of gathering up all the scraps of divinatory tradition that can be applied to historical Tarot and welding it all together within the conventions demonstrated by the Etteilla pips pack, equips the general student with a sturdy 'backstop' marking Tarot's first 400 years of development.  Even if a Tarot student never buys a reproduction of the Marseilles pack, a Visconti pack or any of the other famous early card sets, possession and use of this pack (and book) will provide a strong grounding in the early ideas flowing along with the imagery of Tarot.

Not only is this a vivid and lively pack to look at and study, but it is also an excellent pack to read with.  Very quickly it becomes obvious that we are working with a professional's pack, into which a vast amount of thought and feeling has been invested.  Huson is clearly a longtime Tarot savant -- listen to him explain how the Tarot works in his LWB:  "The cards are basically pegs on which to hang your intuitions regarding the consultant or the matter being inquired about.... if you are new to Tarot, then simply look up the traditional meanings of each card that appears in your reading. These printed interpretations will act as scaffolding on which to build your intuitions as and when they develop.... Every word illustrates an aspect of the card; sometimes it's simply a synonym or even a verb." 

Clearly, without Huson's lifetime of magical studies, few students of Tarot would have the intuitive reserves to connect all the dots the way that he can. So, to help the newer user visualize the suit cards, Huson went way out on a limb and created images for all the pips, according to the text that accompanies the Etteilla packs.   Etteilla never claimed that he 'created' these pips meanings, only that they were already traditional when he learned them.  Trusting his source, Huson undertook to meditate on, query into, and flesh out the 40 cards that lack traditional "faces", which came into the 20th century with little to no documentation. This was a very courageous thing for Huson to do! By dowsing and sounding out the psychological territory implied in Etteilla's writings, Huson found ways to fathom each of those 18th century divinatory descriptions, condensing each one into a snapshot-like cartoon.  True to his suggestion ("every word illustrates an aspect of the card..."), Huson has created visual scenarios that are communicative, suggestive and open-ended enough to illustrate a full circle of causes and effects, motives and strategies.  As a longtime reader and admirer of the Etteilla canon, I have to give thanks that somebody has finally stuck their neck out to this degree on behalf of our long-maligned and underestimated Tarot ancestor!  This pack is a great working deck, which I am happy to say earns my highest ranking as a "clean machine".  Bravo!

Nevertheless, between the lines, those who have 'eyes to see' will notice subtle details that are nowhere explained in print, but which can lead the eye and mind to make additional connections should the occasion warrant. I think of these things as 'Easter eggs', gifts from the Master to his best students. I'll remark upon any that appear in the spread below, but don't assume that I have seen them all yet either. Elder Brother Huson has a few tricks up his sleeve to keep even casehardened readers on their toes!

As a bonus, Huson supplies us with an all-purpose Significator card, one that carries all of the occult significance that the Magus loses in his demotion to the Juggler.  Adapting the diagram of the Melothesic man to playing card dimensions, Huson stacks the signs of the Zodiac onto to the parts of the human body they traditionally rule. This is an excellent use for one of the two extra cards that always remain after the cutting-up of a 78-card pack. I can see how, envisioned as an ever-charging magical talisman, this icon could gain tremendous charisma from being re-potentized during every Tarot procedure undertaken for as long as a deck is in use.

The spread itself

As I was shuffling, I was staring at the Significator card and thinking of you, dear reader. The words in my head were "What do we need to know? What do you want to show?" 

World position:  Seven of Cups, reversed

    Huson's LWB says "Keyword: Imagination. Meaning: Thought, soul, spirit, idea, conception, contemplation, reflection. Reversed: Project, resolution."

    When I first turned this card over, my eye landed on that green moon and the wizard pointing to the sky, and I was a little worried. Is he encouraging us to pin our hopes on a fantasy, or directing our attention away from reality to invisible subjective realms?   There is often an 'imaginal' energy around this card, as if the phantasms of one's dream life become more real than the outer world. The upright meaning often points to an "aha" moment, as if the gift of insight bestowed by Spirit leads to a breakthrough of fresh energies towards problem solving. 

This impression is furthered by the directness of the reversed meaning, which implies coming out of reverie and taking concrete action on the insight.  All in all, the instruction favors looking inward, searching the heart and the back of the mind to tease out the missing realization that can make sense of outer events.  Look for the hidden driver of events; the invisible hand that's directing the seeming chaos, and you won't be far off course.

    The Moon in this sky is certainly of the green cheese variety, so here is one of the 'winks' from Huson I mentioned above (suggesting that we resist believing absolutely everything that enters our mind).  Another hint comes from the square shape in the left hand of the philosopher  -- who is most likely an astronomer, since he takes his posture and attire from some of the old versions of the Star and Moon cards.  In the middle-eastern cultures from which this magus would most likely hail, astrological charts were square, not round.  So there's a very strong hint being made that "in due time, the signs read in the sky today will come to pass here on Earth".

Fool position:  Female Pope, reversed

    LWB says "Keyword:  Revelation. Meaning: Radical new theories. Female spirituality. Reversed: False teachings. Incorrect conclusion."

     I don't mean to be crass, and please forgive me if I offend, but as soon as this card landed I flashed on Sarah Palin and her "death panels" diatribe. Palin is only a figurehead for a certain point of view, but she certainly qualifies as a High Priestess in some people's book!  Considering that Trump #2 has for centuries signified Science as well as Wisdom, and has been seen as the guardian of the sacred library and keeper of the culture's truths, then the flip-side reversal has come to mean illogic, misleading speech and false teachings, just like Huson says.  (To be clear, I don't make it a practice of automatically envisioning reversed cards as the equal-but-opposite of the card when upright, but it's such a standard trope in relation to the Female Pope that I couldn't help but notice.)

    Several (less flippant) thoughts come up while facing this card in this position. The political implications of "a female speaking from the pulpit" can't be minimized, even to this day, and certainly not in the era that spawned the Tarot.  There are many, many people in this world whose reality is still anchored in a culture where women are constrained against speaking their minds, and lack the right to make their own choices.  The crime of rape is in many cases direct payback for refusing to behave in a servile manner, or demonstrating that one possesses one's own mind regardless of the demands of tradition.  Even the act of being intelligent and educated can be seen as a provocation if it comes in a female package. Whether subtle or blatant, there are threads of every culture that bristle in the presence of undiluted female empowerment, no matter how enlightened or modern that culture imagines itself to be. Those of us who live 21st century lives of entitlement can barely fathom how radical this Trump was for its day, nor how subversive it remains even now.

    The insidious fact of modern culture is that it warps both sexes' brains into a strict yin/yang subdivision and considers that artificial pose to be normal usage. Those who find their way to whole-brain functioning are the few and the lucky (and are often mis-classified as damaged by the 'norm setters'). This makes it almost impossible not to carry over our gender programming into our accustomed manner of thinking -- by over focusing on our logic circuits, for example, and being habitually suspicious of information from our touchy-feely side. When this card comes up reversed, I immediately take an inventory of my heart, feelings, desires and needs (all the chakras below the 3rd eye, frankly), in case there's any part of my larger being that I'm suppressing, editing or, devaluing just because it's not identified with my overdeveloped mind. It is just as easy for a woman to be "sexist" in this way as a man; anyone is equally guilty of this sin who blocks off the inner voices of intuition, sentiment and instinct that rise from our depths, despite the mind's desire to cut them off. This is the true cost of our unbalanced human culture -- we polarize so easily, and then lose so much of ourselves in reactive frenzy!

    This card in the Fool position suggests that we study our own process of thought in order to untangle ourselves from the prejudices and projections that color the collective mind-space. Even more pressing, it suggests we scrutinize the invisible mind-controls that work on us through our own imaginations, conditioning what we will allow ourselves to envision and believe. To cut to the subversive heart of this card's implications, try forcing yourself to think the unthinkable, allowing into mind every rejected thought-form that your knee-jerk reflexes are spring-loaded to eschew.  I'm not saying now go do those things, but I am saying witness what is in the back of your mind. Turn around in your aura and view these complexes that are tied up into such fierce knots in the margins of your mind. Become the fly on the wall and witness your mental doings impartially. Because without that kind of detachment and objectivity, it will be impossible to discriminate between what are your own thoughts and feelings (and therefore worth cultivating), versus those that are implants from exogenous sources (spanning from the most well-meaning to the most manipulative). This card is highlighting the need to weed the fertile fields of one's consciousness. But that assumes that you have the ability to fathom the difference between the useful ideas and the non-useful.  To boil it down: Don't be a Fool, listen to what your inner senses are telling you!

Magus position:  The Juggler (!)

    "Keyword: Cunning.  Meaning: Skill. Dexterity. Diplomacy. Reversed: Deceit.  Swindling."

    Naturally I am thrilled to see Trump #1 in this position, this time with his older title. While I was shuffling, I was gazing into this Adam Kadmon image (the classic Astral Human archetype) on the Significator card. It feels like this Juggler was called forth just to discuss the arc between these seemingly opposite versions of the Magus archetype.  On top of all the circular self-referencing, this card is also the only upright card of the three. I have a feeling that he's got a lot to share with us.

     Having written what I thought was a pretty good description of the Magus last month <<link>>, let me just pick up from there and consider how it might apply in this case. Notice the monkey sitting on the ground under this Juggler's table. He seems to be limp and dispirited, plus he's blue, blue, blue.  This makes me feel like the "animal spirits" of this card are depressed because of something going on with the manipulative mind.  Something is not quite right here, something that's within the Juggler's sphere of responsibility to adjust.

     Between the two onlookers with the clerical haircuts, I'm concerned that the fellow with the red cloak over the blue shirt doesn't have the best motive towards the Juggler, even though the fellow in green seems to be positively disposed. If the Juggler is being accused of any kind of magic or spell casting, his safety could quickly be compromised. This Juggler has to know this.  I wonder what the Juggler thinks to gain by putting himself in such an exposed position relative to his surroundings? Is there somebody he wants to be seen or "discovered" by, even as most of the crowd blows him off and sees him as a lowlife?

    The best method for someone in the Juggler's position to pass unnoticed under the eyes of critics is to reduce his profile to the point where few could guess that he has any special abilities.  Living on the road, he obscures his past associations. Hiding within the parti-colored costume of his profession, his nationality and social rank at birth can only be guessed. To most, he's just a roadside entertainer, a thimble-rigger, little better than a beggar. He's allowed to pass from town to town only so long as his influence on the locals (both his personal charisma and any teachings he might be espousing) can be kept to a minimum.  This is the exact strategy that was adopted by the surviving Templa familiers, who were driven out of Southern France only to return within a generation or two as troubadours, bards, and entertainers. Like Strider in the Trilogy of the Rings, the Juggler is probably much more interesting than he appears, though it is to his advantage to stay anonymous within his appointed role.

    In this article <<http://www.tarotarkletters.com/2006/03/magic_early_150.html#more>> I outlined the cultural tension between the Magus and the Juggler as lived by the singular individuals in the 13-1600's whose names came down through history for just these reasons.  But what about ourselves?  In what ways are we hiding our true natures in plain sight, within our roles and routines, our costumes and our camouflage?  Have we managed to provide ourselves with a unique and inviolable internal identity, or have we become lost inside the whole kit and caboodle of our outer role-play?

    Another set of associations clinging to the Juggler stems from his resemblance to the old god of the crossroads, Mercury. As we enlarge our sense of this ancient figure standing behind the Juggler <<http://www.tarotarkletters.com/2007/06/body_as_cosmos.html#more  ;  subtitle 'The Universal Caduceus">>, we can begin to gain appreciation for the immense potential and creativity that flow forth from the unbounded imagination of a self-defined individual. As a shape shifter, translator and wheeler-dealer, Mercury makes himself up anew for every transaction. My own motto, 'interpretation is destiny', is innately Mercurial.  One's personal description of events sets the tone for what can happen; outer conditions cannot define us unless we accept those conditions as relevant to our reality.

    All of these contingencies are encompassed within Huson's terse but pithy list. At this time one needs to be cunning, applying skill and diplomacy to the juggling of current probabilities. Some kind of veil needs to be drawn over the inner life in order to preserve one's freedom at a soul level.  The assumption of a culturally-sanctioned (though not particularly mainstream) role, complete with it's own panoply of tools tricks and trinkets, creates just enough distraction coupled with just enough familiarity to allow one to glide along the surfaces of mass culture without falling through and becoming enmeshed in the herd mentality.  By not clenching up our roots right now, even letting go of the ones that were cultivated in the past, one can stay quick on one's feet, able to go where the opportunities are calling.  Flexibility at every level is called for now, and a willingness to shed old identifications before they interfere with new mutations that are arising unbidden. Past experience is no longer the best determinant of future developments, so the first impressions of a finely tuned body/mind become our haven of refuge and safety net. We are being tested on our grasp of reality every day now.  Let's come awake to the forces at work in our life.

Wrapping it up

To boil this spread down, let's try using Huson's keywords to distill down both the positional meanings and the cards that have fallen there. Doing so gives us these three potent phrases:

1.   Perfection of the Imagination -- guard and cultivate the inner life, as that is the sphere where one's potential is undimmed. Identify and follow your guiding lights, because that's the only thing that gives meaning to life in the first place. Once you know what you are here to do or serve, everything else falls into perspective.

2.  Madness leads to Revelation.  We are in a time when the outer world is becoming chaotic, the old models seem to be breaking down, and leadership defaults are leaving the fabric of society full of wormholes and dead ends. In such times the self-aware individual takes possession of his or herself and stops trying to conform to external categories that bring ever-diminishing rewards. In particular, that part of the self which corresponds to our collective 'best and brightest' (the ones who at the national level ran the global economy into the ditch) needs to stand down and cede the field to the empathic and sensitive side, the bonding-and-responding, rest-and-digest functions, the part of the self that gently hunches its way into compassionate comprehension, and prioritizes healing over winning. At some point it has to become clear to each of us that there's nothing to lose and everything to gain from making this switch in our alignment and loyalties. (This is the immanent Age of the Holy Spirit, which has been prophesied since the last millennium, by the way -- not some kind of mass conversion to Goddess religion, but the ascendancy of yin in all of our hearts.)

3. Cunning hides its secrets in the town square. We should each have something common and utilitarian that we are willing to be known for, that we can use as a trade item and/or share freely with all comers. What skills have you retained from the era before computers, for example? Low tech coupled with high entertainment value is perfect. Imagine that your village was to start holding a monthly festival, and everybody was encouraged to furnish a booth showcasing their skills, crafts and hobbies. What would be on display at your booth? The Juggler (who is also a part-time shoe-repairer, herbal remedy salesman, trader, translator and moneychanger) never leaves himself at a loss for a song to sing or a coin trick to perform when it's time for the talent show. It is often the case that skills and talents we take for granted in ourselves seem miraculous to others.  This is a great moment to open your vault of 'possible selves' and manifest what your environment seems to want from you. 

Postscript: I have been practicing for several years now a more direct voice in my writing, trying to use fewer euphemisms and sink my darts closer to the bull's eye.  Having spent most of my life as a Queen of Swords/Female Pope type with a positivist turn of expression, whatever I have to say provokes a goodly wave of backlash, even when I'm not wrong.  Despite a lifetime of programming to soften my message for the sake of the receiver, it seems time to cut to the chase and quit beating around the bush.

So let me implore you, dear reader, to think very deeply about the process of self-fashioning and self-defining that has brought you to your current stance in the world. Most of us resemble Russian dolls.  The "quick" of our being, our very deepest hopes and dreams, thoughts and feelings, are boxed up and buried inside a set of nested disguises that make a near-impenetrable safe around our real selves. We can't get in, and nobody else can either. On top of this we build a superstructure of social roles, including expectations and poses, which end up carrying us far afield of our original and true natures.  This may be due to karma and/or it may be a very great blessing, but sometimes, circumstances require that we decant ourselves and get back into coherence with the tiny golden seed at the center of the assemblage.  This is one of those times.

I experience this as a very sophisticated reading, not just because of the deck it was done with, but also because the ideas being forwarded are quite bold if taken literally. I don't know who is reading these articles from month to month, but I do know that there's a lot of transformation roiling around the world right now, so much so that barely anybody is going untouched.  We live during the first time in recorded history that the breadth of humanity has been aware of itself globally, simultaneously. The global brain is now self-conscious. What will we do with it? Each of us is voting with our lives, every day.

Future Humanity is here, we are it, and together we are paving it's runway with every choice and decision we make right now. Like a boulder in the stream, we each leave a wake even if we never move.  Think of yourself as a stream of consequences instead of a stream of consciousness. What kind of an imprint do you desire to leave?  Reinvent yourself backwards, from the intended future to the present, instead of confining your life to the sum of past experience. Go through the looking glass, and look at your life to date from the flip side.  Once you have returned from this mental meander, resolve to keep only those aspects and features that showed themselves to be real and vital on both sides of the mirror.  Keep the best and release the rest!  This is how we will get ready for what's coming -- from the inside out.

ArkLetter 54
August 20, 2009
copyright christine payne-towler 2005-2009, all rights reserved

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Comments

[Birdy]

While on vacation recently a tarot card fluttered onto our balcony. I don't know anything about tarot and am hoping someone can tell me the meaning of this card. It says Le Chaos Etteilla Le Questionnant

Maybe there is no meaning to it at all, but the card fell from a higher balcony and landed right at our feet.

Thanks for your time

[Christine Payne-Towler]

Hi Birdy!

Well, though I feel sorry for the person who lost the very first card in their deck (this is the Magus, totem of the whole pack to follow), it does signify that a force of creative imagination and dexterous manipulation of circumstances was blowing past at the time.

Usually, due to the traditional male gender of this card, it refers to the man in question. However, it can also stand in for Animus energies in general. As an oracle, Id suggest that you consider suggestions like these:
starting fresh from new premises;
break the mold;
treasure your uniqueness;
trust your gut and follow your instincts;
go ahead and press your luck;
believe in yourself;
break precedent and try something new.

I hope this helps! Now go call the concierge and let him know that one of his guests has lost a card....

blessings,

Christine