The Fool's Journey Read online

  The ‘powerful one’ accompanying Ptah, the power of Shiva or the Strength of the Magician, all follow the same line of tradition. Completing the circle, and thereby bringing us back to the lion, Sekhmet, the ‘Powerful’, lion-goddess wife of Ptah, (and eye of Ra), was the personification of the burning heat of the sun, and as such was usually depicted with the head of a lion surmounted by the sun’s disk.

  Another wife of Ptah, Bast, though later a cat goddess (the lion tamed?), was originally a lioness-goddess who, contrary to Sekhmet, personified the fertilising and gently fructifying heat of the sun. Both aspects are conjoined in the Tarot card of Strength with both figures representing both aspects: the caring female holding the playfully gentle lion is simultaneously the awesome combination of tremulous power restrained by the softest touch.

  As Strength is associated with the sun while Thoth as lunar divinity connects the Magician with the moon, the Magician and Strength together form the much sought for alchemical meeting of the sun and moon, which is to say they are the partners of the mystical marriage of Self-union within. In alchemy the philosopher’s stone was deemed to be attained only through the conjunction of sol and luna in the sign of Leo.

  The magical image of Kether is an ancient bearded king, shown only in profile. We cannot see the magical image full face for that which is over-shadowed by the Unmanifest is concealed from us. Together the profile and concealed visage represent that which can reside in consciousness and that which dwells in the fathomless depths of the unconscious: terrifying and arcane. Similarly Strength too, standing one step behind the Magician, points to the hidden mysteries of the unconscious. The lion is one of the most archaic images of the terrible creative and destructive forces of the goddess, and it is the battle, or eternal tension, between the forces of conscious and unconscious we can see represented here with the goddess of nature and the king of the wilderness at her side: the original inspiration of beauty and the beast.

  Mirroring the paradoxical nature of the Magician, the lion is both the guardian of the treasure of the tree of life, and yet simultaneously is himself the treasure hard to attain: the creative energy, the divinity within waiting to be transformed through the human touch of the soul. Yet heroical courage is needed if we are to wrest this ‘treasure hard to attain’ from the fearsome depths of the unmanifest. For, following the precepts of Jungian psychology, in keeping with the awesome nature of the unconscious dynamism, the divine treasure appears first in hostile form. In such form it must be encountered and won over.

  This ongoing battle between manifest and unmanifest, conscious and unconscious, is itself the source of all creativity; for it calls forth all man’s creative powers - the full potential of the Magician - to wrestle against the stultifying power of the unconscious and survive. Whoso ‘is near me is near the fire,’ yet whoso ‘is far from me, is far from the kingdom.’[13] The card of Strength shows the transformative result of the victorious defence of our humanity against the animal nature of the divine power - it does not show the confrontation itself.

  For this continued confrontation between conscious and unconsciousness, which in itself is the source of creativity and of life, is in fact the journey down the tree and back again. The confrontation is, quite simply, the journey to become.

  Locating the origins of Strength in Kether at the crown of the undertaking highlights both the divine nature - and the dangers - of the journey. Allocated the number one, the Magician takes the foreground. Strength, however, (in Arabic numerals - 11- the number 1 extended by its own reflection) is the supportive, protective power standing behind, or underlying, the illusions and machinations of the Magician. Situated one step beyond the Magician, Strength is nearer to the dark, incomprehensible side of Kether, and thereby to the veils of Negative Existence, the Unmanifest from whence the power or force of her card is ultimately derived.

  As Kether is the crystallisation of supreme energy through the third veil of limitless light, so Strength too represents supreme energy. She is, to use the Chaldean terms for the divine mother; ‘the Energizer and Forth-giver of Life-bringing Fire.’[14] In her we find the immense sweeping power of the ‘blind’ forces of nature, and the inter-relatedness of all creation. Here too are the life-giving forces of the sun, symbolised by the lion and controlled by the mediating will of the Strength figure to be tamed and transformed into the Magician’s imaginative play.

  In human terms, Strength is the inner guide who will lead us through the dark primordial reaches of the unconscious and teach us how to tame, and make allies of the instinctive, ultimately transforming forces we encounter there.

  The lion is, as libido, the creative power of our own soul, which, uncontrolled, can lead blindly to self-destruction. His is the ambivalent power of the sun, life-giving and destroying, for he is, in fact, the central sun of our inner landscapes: the inner instinctive realms of the psyche. Here he is king. The female, on the other hand, the soul figure, is the mediating influence, she who can teach us the spiritual strengths necessary to overcome our fear of, and come to terms with, the darkness within. Strength emphasizes the need to harness and control, and thereby to transform and be transformed by the vital energy of our innermost depths, so that it is able to manifest constructively and not destructively against ourselves. ‘Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man,’ warns the Gospel of Thomas.[15]

  Whether we self-destruct or whether we realise our highest potential and attain eventually to the mystic marriage - harnessing and uniting the forces of Strength and the Magician, depends on how we undertake the journey. Understanding the relationship of Strength to the Magician by seeing their united origins in Kether underlines the exhilaration of the possibilities that become open to us through our contact with our own potential. Hence the quotation from Blake at the heading of this chapter: energy is eternal delight.

  The Magician speaks himself into being – his is a card of free will and of self-becoming, where what we say and do determines what we are. ‘Abra Kadabra’, the magical phrase associated with the magus, can be interpreted literally as ‘I will create as I speak.’[16] The first of the Tarot majors is concerned with what we make of ourselves and with taking responsibility for our own decisions, actions, and ultimately our destination. Yet the will of the Magician needs the power of Strength: together they form the self-will which is the determinant of our Self-becoming.

  The Strength card, then, is a card of spiritual force and of moral courage. It emphasizes the need to have faith in one’s inner resources to carry one through the difficulties of life. It portends victory though disciplined, sustained effort, and through perseverance in long-term issues, heralding a time for activity, a time when there is an abundance of energy to be used positively and determinedly.

  The energy, or life-force, also makes of this a card of tremendous healing power, with the natural forces of the psyche released to flow into the troubled areas, be they physical or mental. Intimated here, too, is the need to maintain a balance between mind and body, highlighting the importance of sustaining the well-being of the body as well as the person within.

  Yet the healing can also be of a different order. For the card can indicate the need to patch up one’s quarrels and differences, so that those perceived as personal enemies can be re-embraced as friends.

  Acceptance of others, not as you want them to be, but for what they are and can be within themselves, is also an acceptance of oneself for what one is and can be independent of others. The process of self-discovery is also a process of mutual discovery, through the journeying powers of acceptance, and of love.

  The female figure making an ally of the king of the beasts shows the fusion of conscious and unconscious, nature and humanity, the world and the self. With courage, conviction and absolute self-control, the combined wisdom and love of both female and lion harness the blind instinctive forces of nature to prevent an imbalance on either side
resulting in the one harming the other through the ignorance of fear and mistrust. It is thus that they, or we, can attain that ‘wholeness which is both God and animal, not merely the empirical man, but the totality of his being, which is rooted in his animal nature and reaches beyond the merely human towards the divine.’[17]

  As with Kether balanced at the summit of the pillar of equilibrium, such ‘wholeness implies a tremendous tension of opposites paradoxically at one with themselves.’[18] Such is the tension inherent in the control of the figure of Strength over the force of Strength - the strength of the lion balanced by the strength of the female. Both, in turn, together equalize the control embodied by the Magician with his mastery over the four elemental powers of nature, the fours suits of the Tarot. In terms of the symbols of Kether, the Magician’s control of the elements is represented by the swastika, the emblem of the equal-armed cross of the elements in motion. (Reversed, the swastika heralds chaos.)

  Upholding a tremulous balance, the Magician and Strength, the two initiating cards of the Tarot, are united in that remarkable figure that, mythically, posed the riddle of man: the sphinx.

  As Malkuth, the tenth and final sefirah, situated at the opposite pole of the tree, is the culmination of Kether in manifestation, so it is that in the Wheel of Fortune, the tenth card of the Tarot situated appropriately in Malkuth, we find the manifestation of the united forces of Strength and the Magician. Appropriately, in later Tarot, the sphinx is found often in card ten, perched tantalisingly as the crown of the wheel of life.

  In Egyptian myth the human-headed, lion-bodied sphinx symbolised Ptah’s son by Sekhmet. Because the sphinx is a representation of the four elements, the four powers of the magus corresponding to the four elements are also sometimes called the four powers of the sphinx. These four powers are: to know – noscere (element: air); to dare - audere (element: water); to will – velle (element: fire); and to be silent – tacere (element: earth). By extension the four powers apply equally to the minor suits of the Tarot, shown in the Magician’s card by the signifier of each suit on the Magician’s show-table. Equally, the four powers are posited independently in Kether by the four seeds, or Aces of the Tarot pack. Yet before we turn to the Aces, we must deal with the one remaining figure: the King of Wands.

  The King of Wands

  As with the Magician and Strength, in some Tarot packs the King of Wands is depicted wearing a broad brimmed hat resembling the horizontal figure eight. In this way the connection between the three cards becomes immediately evident. Under the sign of the infinite, the rhythm of eternity, the King of Wands, too, has his rightful association with Kether, as well as with the world of Atziluth which has a natural affinity to the Wands suit of the Tarot pack and with the element of fire.

  There is a very strong religious or spiritual influence at work in the King of Wands. For this king is concerned with sustaining that which is really important and meaningful in our lives. The King of Wands is a mediator between the divinity of the archetypes of the unconscious and the humanity of the conscious ego. He acts as a communicator, translating and modifying the influences flowing from the depths of Strength and the Magician to the recognisable seams of the psyche, so that forces otherwise too powerful become within the grasp of our attaining.

  Belonging to the Wands suit, this card partakes, like Strength, of the dynamic dimension of the element of fire. Yet as communicator, bringing new ideas to the fore, the King of Wands partakes, too, of the meaning of the Magician. The wand here corresponds to the Magician’s baton, waved to initiate proceedings. For the staff in the King’s hand is the image of the baton that the Magician carries. It is the Rod of Power.

  The wand and rod have been used as symbols of authority from the times of the priest-kings and magician-healers of antiquity. The King of Wands is both priest-king and magician-healer. He bears his wand both as a sceptre of kingship, showing that he too indicates the way of the royal road of the self to the Self, and yet the wand is also, like the caduceus of Hermes, the staff of office of a herald or emissary. For this king is the emissary of both Strength and the Magician. He is the messenger carrying to consciousness by means of intuition the gnosis of our inner being.

  The ancient myths of the divine tree at the centre of the garden of paradise reinforce the position of the King of Wands qabbalistically in Kether, at the head of the tree of life. Mythically this tree was tended by the primordial man-king as the deity’s representative and gardener - the precursor of Adam as first man and gardener. In this context, the gardener or sacral king was anointed with oil of the sacred tree and, most importantly, was given a rod or sceptre of its branches.

  The symbol of a branch of the sacred tree can be seen engraved on cylinder seals, or in relief on vases and bowls from very old finds. The symbol invested in the King of Wands is, then, of extreme antiquity. This is in keeping with his place at the apex of the tree. For, preserving the branches of collective archetypal symbolism, the King of Wands fulfils his role at the head of the psyche by maintaining the gardens of the soul.

  The rod of the King of Wands is itself a branch of the sacred tree, for he is the gardener and caretaker of the tree, hence his placement in the soil of Kether. He is the gardener who can communicate to us the life of the garden in a language we can comprehend. Nurturing the inner truths, he makes the potential of the seeds flower in our imagination, inspiring vision and engendering hope of the great things to be. This king makes available to us the knowledge of that ‘philosophical garden, wherein our Sun rises and sets’, which is, so Philalethes informs us, yet another synonym for Mercurius.[19]

  The magical wand of the Magician in Kether is a baton of the divine mysteries of creativity, and the King of Wands, via his own ameliorating wand, conveys to us the word of the Magician in a language to suit our level of understanding, guiding us like children through the gardens of the soul.

  The continuity of the theme of the staff from ancient myth to Jewish lore is established with the magical rod of Aaron, or Moses, which appears like a branch of the sacred tree, and is said by rabbinic legend to have been ‘in the hand of every king of Israel until the Temple was destroyed, when it was hidden away...destined to be in the hand of the King Messiah.’[20]

  Interestingly, as Aaron’s rod, referred to as the ‘rod of God’, is described as a branch of almond (Num. 17:8), it has been argued[21] that the original mythological tree was probably conceived of as an almond. The definitive biblical name of the almond tree was Shaqed, literally the Watchful or Hastener. The role of gardener or caretaker has also been rendered as King of the Watchtower, with the four Tarot kings each being appointed to one of the four watch towers, the four secret temples of adeptship.

  Caretaker of the royal road, king of the watch tower, gardener of the soul, the King of Wands is all these things. Inheriting the baton of the Magician as priest, teacher and higher authority, he communicates from the temple of adeptship the vista of possibilities that become our dreams of the future and inspire us with the fire of intent.

  Mundanely the King of Wands signifies an independent and powerful position or disposition. His is the strength which comes from being true to oneself, one’s own inner values and dreams. The warmth and enthusiasm engendered by the energy of inventive and creative imagination is here manifested in mature, potentially viable undertakings.

  The card may represent a skilled craftsman or an accomplished professional well-respected in the chosen line of work. More simply, it may signify a mature person, or more frequently the wisdom and influence of maturity – one’s own or that of others. One cannot expect, with this card, immediate results. For this king is the gardener who watches over the growth of the tree from seed to maturity, from acorn to oak, and who, over vast stretches of time, nurtures with his patient wisdom the well-being of our soul.

  The Aces

  Situated in Kether, the Tarot Aces of the minor arcana partake, too, of the essence of both Strength and the Magician. Imbibing and transfusi
ng, they serve as links to transmit the power of the majors on a more formative level. As the virtue assigned to the first sefirah is attainment and completion of the great work, so the Aces are concerned alike with origins and beginnings, and with the attainment which is the fulfillment of the potential promised in the beginning. In Qabbalah Kether is intimately connected with Malkuth, the sefirah in which its aim is fulfilled. Equally in Tarot the Aces relate to the number one of the Magician in their concern with origins, and yet they too connect to the fulfillment in Malkuth. - For the Aces find their fulfillment in the Tens at the opposite pole. More particularly, they point to the end which is followed by the beginning, the ten plus one which becomes the 11 of the Strength card: the attainment of the knowledge of Kether in Malkuth.

  Kether is pure energy. Likewise, as the root of the element of fire, the Ace of Wands relates to the meaning of the Strength card as the continuous dynamic stream of energy, the force of pure heat awakening and transforming the seeds of becoming. Like Kether, this card indicates the first swirlings, the setting in perpetual motion of the dynamic creative round of transformative energy.

  As the instigating wand at the head of the central pillar of equilibrium, the Ace of Wands is fused by the united input of both Strength and the Magician, radiating their potential in contagious ebullience. With its powerful reverberations, this card indicates the main point of focus of any situation. Among the minors, it is that which comes before the rest in terms of influence, having a head-on effect on any other matter in its vicinity. It needs therefore to be weighed in consideration in making any decision, for its hastening influence will make a difference to the outcome.

  Qabbalistically the Ace of Wands represents the first manifestation of the powers of God the Father, the first revelation of power, will or strength. Synthesising the dominant creative powers of Strength and the Magician, it is the first comprehensible manifestation of the powers of the life-force. Its influence is decisive.