I know we are early in our journey through the Major Arcana…
We began with Learning to Read the Tarot Cards: The Fool….
and we will continue with The Mage shortly.
But let’s take a moment to look at some of the symbolism hidden throughout the tarot.
The tarot cards draw on both eastern and western symbolism. The Star of David, Yin & Yang, the Caduceus, and the Chakras are all heavily referenced by the tarot.
Symbols come into our mind-body beneath our typical level of awareness. If you take a look around, we are surrounded by symbols. Fast food signs and jingles, the American flag, and endless varieties of logos for all types of merchandise are constantly being slipped into our unconscious minds by every method advertisers can devise. Our very means of communication (at least part of it), is made up of an elaborate set of symbols… which we call the alphabet. When we see the letter ‘L’, we don’t have to think about it, we just automatically insert the ‘L’ sound. In a similar way, when we hear a fast food jingle, it is the intent of that company that we automatically think something along the lines of “Mmmm, a burger would be good right now!” And if you like burgers, have one… just make sure you consciously choose to do what you do… don’t just obey the voice on the radio.
When they are outside of our awareness, we have little or no control over symbols or their effect on us. Some people say “What they don’t know won’t hurt them!” But in the case of symbols (and unconscious influence in general), if we aren’t paying attention…
What we don’t know about can make us who we are!
When we learn to bring these symbols into our conscious awareness and decipher their meaning (in general, and for ourselves specifically) we gain power over symbols and ourselves. Part of the power of the tarot is in the symbolism which can have an effect on you even if you aren’t consciously aware of its meaning. You can, however, make its impact that much greater by studying and understanding the symbols.
One symbol in particular that appears again and again in the tarot, is The Star of David:
The Star of David is a six pointed star that is made of an upward pointing triangle, and a downward pointing triangle. The standard meaning of the Star of David and what it represents are well known. The mystical meaning is a bit more obscure.
The upward pointing triangle represents the masculine principle, while the downward pointing triangle represents the feminine principle… it shouldn’t be too challenging to decipher why. Thus, the mystical meaning of the Star of David is the union of the masculine and feminine principles. This can, but does not necessarily also relate to the physical union of man and woman. These principles are similar to Yin and Yang in eastern meditative practices.
Another aspect of this, spoken about at length by Dr. Hyatt in one of his books on Tarot, is the reversal of these two symbols. The inverted triangle is actually the masculine principle reaching down to pull the feminine principle back into balance and harmony with it. The feminine principle is actually the upward pointing triangle, which is reaching up to likewise achieve the return of balance.
The subjugation of women in our culture (and in the world at large) has been harmful for all of us. The classic image of this is a man physically abusing a woman, or socially forcing a woman into a submissive role. In actuality, this crime is being perpetrated by all of us against all of us, all of the time. Mothers attack the feminine energy in sons and daughters, and men still attack and take advantage of the feminine in other men and women.
It is no big secret that there has been quite a bit of abuse of women throughout history. Society has consistently put women in the place of second class citizens. This is tragic, but even more problematic is the subjugation of the feminine principle (or feminine energy, or the divine feminine if you like)… abuse of women is only one aspect of this. Our society at large has very little appreciation for subtlety (which makes appropriately applied subtlety even more powerful), acceptance, or yielding… which are all aspects of the feminine principle. Even though women are beginning to make headway in terms of equality, the feminine principle has made very little headway. Not surprisingly, many women today use their ‘newfound equality’ to engage in the same ignorant and unbalanced behaviors that many men do.
It is interesting that men are typically considered better at focusing on a single task, while women are typically considered better at multi tasking and dealing with change.
Focus is a function of (or just another word for) awareness!
Whereas multi tasking and dealing with change are both aspects of acceptance!
I’ve spoken about the principles of awareness and acceptance at length elsewhere… but it is important to realize that though they are both very useful alone, they are magical when combined. You can achieve and change much with awareness. You can deal much better with challenges and changes through acceptance…
When you have both, you can tap into Bliss!!!
When these two principles merge, there is peace, balance, and even exchange of energy… as is represented in the Two of Discs Card, above. This is true for the macrocosm as well as the microcosm… the large and the small. It is a pretty hefty order to expect the world to change its direction in this way… it can only take one small step at a time…
But for you, it is only a matter of choice and practice. Do you choose to respect, embrace, and exercise both masculine and feminine principles at work within you? Can you meditate and access deeper levels of awareness and acceptance?
This may seem like quite a bit of meaning for a single symbol… but as you’re learning to read the symbolism in the tarot (and in life in general), you can bring this understanding of masculine and feminine, man and woman, and awareness and acceptance back into consciousness every time you see or think of the Star of David. And if you are learning to use tarot cards for your meditation and self study, you will see it frequently!
Now take a deep breath and…
keep smiling,
Ben
-Hyatt, Christopher S. Secrets of Western Tantra. New Falcon Publications. Tempe: 1989.
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