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  The Ace of Discs is concerned with roots: the new beginnings attested to in establishing new roots, building a home, a family, a business, moving to new areas, perhaps even emigrating to set new roots in a new land. It is also the card of the seeking of roots, of family trees, inheritance, of what has been passed down and built on over the ages. It is a card, too, of history in a far wider aspect: the history of a country. In this it connects with Thoth, the Magician, as keeper of the archives and patron of history.

  As the card of earth and of the kingdom, the Ace of Discs emphasizes that we are a living part of our world, and are responsible to it. Living in a particular country, our lives are involved with that country in a very immediate way, for we are a part of its ongoing history and are affected by whatever the current stages of that history happen to be. The Ace of Discs is the external realties we find ourselves caught up in. It signifies the impingement of external forces, be they social, political, economic, and so forth, on our lives.

  These are factors which may affect a whole nation, but which affect us also as individuals within that nation and which must be borne in mind in any forthcoming personal projects.

  As part of the real world we find ourselves in, the Ace of Discs emphasizes our responsibilities and commitments, but most of all it emphasizes our involvement. As the Malkuth of Kether, it is the first manifest sign of the involvement of the Active intelligence in the workings of the divine plan. It is the completion of the first stage of the realisation of cosmic forces, the outpouring of energy extending from the unity of Kether into the duality of Chokmah, a movement from detachment into participation. For us, the Ace of Discs is the card of active participation in our own history: when this card appears in a spread we cannot be content to be merely onlookers; we must become directly involved, taking an active role in whatever issues are our current concern. Here we must be prepared to take chances, and not be afraid of getting our hands dirty in the bounty of mother earth.

  The outer rim of the disc is the wheel of the self, with ourselves at the centre. It is, thus, our own roots, our own evolving history. The kingdom then becomes our own aims, dreams, ambitions, what we ourselves already have, and can yet achieve, through active involvement in striving for our goals. Building on past achievements, this Ace is a card of infinite vistas, of diverse opportunities which will present themselves to us, but which we must grasp and, perhaps strenuously, hold on to, if we want to make them firmly our own. It is a card of completions, of awards, recognition, material success, and of projects reaching maturity. It may represent retirement or a pension. But it is also a card of new beginnings. There is still much waiting to be done.

  The earth of the discs is the body of the goddess, the manifest form of the wisdom of the holy-spirit throughout creation. As such, the Ace of the suit connects us forward, through the wisdom of the High Priestess, to the Empress in Binah, herself the superior mother, and then to Malkuth, the inferior mother. As the acorn contains the oak, so the Ace of Discs comprehends the completion of the manifest goal of the journey. Such completion which is Malkuth is yet a long way off, yet it is predicted in the image of Malkuth in Kether, and in this Tarot Ace.

  Cognate with the Thoth/Hermes face of the Magician as master of revelation, the Ace of Discs indicates divining ability. Yet, with its roots in the penetrating intelligence of the Magician, it is a card, too, of foresight and of practical ability in the querent to plan ahead.

  This Ace proclaims good fortune, material and spiritual prosperity, and monetary gain. The Ace of Discs, or coins, with its roots in the element of earth, represents the wealth of the material world, and the riches of the earth: gold, gems, but also our more basic wealth, such as rocks, minerals, oil or coal. Metaphorically the rocks can represent growth through firm foundations, building on the initiative of the Ace of Wands. Yet the rocks can also be very literal, for this card is knowledge of the depths of earth.

  Again the historical aspect arises here, in the history read in the rock strata, in tree-rings, in fossils, or in the bones of ancestors. In this aspect the Ace of Discs connects with mining, farming, archaeology, forestry, gardening - in short, any endeavor maintaining direct contact with the land. It points also to a factor previously witnessed by the card of the Magician: our responsibility to the earth and to the preservation of its natural resources.

  The Ace of Discs is a card of natural forces, and of natural laws. It purports the necessity of growth and of accomplishment. Imbued with the dynamic energy of the Strength card, it is solar power, the dynamic energy giving zeal to life, the power to do. It is also, mundanely, that other power which ‘makes the world go round’: money. It is the reaping of a good harvest.

  Yet finally, like the Ace of Swords, this Ace can, in the appropriate combination, represent another natural law: the peaceful passing back to the womb of mother earth at the ending of a long and fulfilled life. The power of this Ace is tacere, to be silent, and ultimately this silence is the silence of the earth concerning its deepest mysteries. It is the knowledge that was sought in the Eleusinian mysteries with the great earth-mother figure of Demeter and her daughter, queen of death’s kingdom. These mysteries we shall meet again with the High Priestess in Chokmah, as the pouring forth of the Ace of Discs, as the last stage of Kether, leads us on to participation in the evolving journey down the tree of life.

  Chapter Two: The High Priestess in Chokmah

  Of darkness visible, so much be lent,

  As half to show, half veil, the deep intent.

  (Pope, Dunciad, Bk.IV)

  ‘Say to Wisdom: “You are my sister,” And call Understanding a kinswoman.’

  (Proverbs 7:4)

  A basic tenet of qabbalistic philosophy is the principle of polarity – the teaching that all manifestation is based upon the tension created by duality. This tension, this constant state of stress, is made manifest throughout the tree of life glyph, most obviously so in the one-into-three triumvirate of the pillars of manifestation. Referring to the three ways in which force can manifest: active, passive and equalibrized, these three vertical pillars are arranged to form the body of the tree like the two pans and middle balancing axis of the scales of Justice we shall meet in card eight, or like the two pillars arranged on either side of the High Priestess, with the High Priestess herself as the middle, balancing pillar, the pillar of equilibrium, modifying both positive and negative forces within herself as the middle way.

  The High Priestess is the first of seven such sibling cards within the Tarot related to this issue. For the Tarot too is deeply concerned with the tensions arising from polarity. It is not simply the individual cards, but the tensions and relationships between the cards in a given spread that give rise to a balanced reading.

  Underlying both systems, then, is the concept of balance. Right control is balance. The High Priestess is assigned the numeral two, which signifies the dual nature of man. Two is the number of the relativeness of opposites and of their interplay in a finely tuned ritual of antagonism and harmony, of conflict and stability. It is also the number of the alternative, of counterpoise, and of reflection.

  Chokmah is the ‘Second Glory.’ It is the radiance and reflection of Kether. It is, too, the ‘Illuminating Intelligence.’ For Chokmah means wisdom.

  The Greek analogue of Chokmah is Sophia.[‡] The journey of Sophia, or Wisdom, is as relevant to early Qabbalah as it is to Gnosticism and to Tarot. In Qabbalah, the unfolding of the tree of life is the unfoldment of the journey through the thirty-two paths of Sophia. In Tarot, Sophia’s journey to find herself, the soul’s journey to wisdom, is the journey of the Fool.

  As in Gnosticism, Qabbalah distinguishes between two Sophia, or more precisely, one Sophia divided into two. While the upper Sophia remains on high (in Chokmah), the lower Sophia begins the divine drama of exile. For Wisdom is ‘the beginning of the paths of God.’[29]

  The role of Sophia is the role of the High Priestess in Tarot. She too is the illuminating intelligence. Wit
h her numeral: two reflecting the Roman 11 of Strength, she shows us that she is, like Strength, an image of the Anima Mundi or World Soul, but she is the World Soul who has descended from the unity of Kether into duality. The place of the High Priestess in Qabbalah, therefore, belongs most comfortably with the second sefirah of Chokmah: Wisdom. For the High Priestess unravels the mysteries of the soul. Hers is the face of the goddess who remains on high while simultaneously descending to the depths. She is herself Wisdom, or the goddess of wisdom: Isis, Inanna, or Sophia.

  It is Sophia’s praises we hear sung in the bible by Solomon, the archetypal wiseman, who tells us: ‘She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.’[30] The two pillars the High Priestess sits enthroned between, usually coloured either black and white or red and blue, are the twin pillars of the temple of Solomon, known as Jachin and Boaz.

  Jachin, so the rabbis taught, meant ‘he shall establish,’ while the meaning of Boaz was ‘in it Strength.’ Together they represented the moon and the sun. In Tarot we can see the connection immediately with the respective meanings of the Magician and Strength cards. Thus it is the Magician and Strength, the creative poles of the yin and yang energy of Kether, that we see positioned on either side of the High Priestess, who acts as the counterpoise between them.

  The High Priestess then, like Chokmah, can be described as the radiance of unity. For she is not sided with either yin or yang; she is not tied to either pole but is herself the middle way between the opposites, the Taoist ‘way of heaven.’ She both unites the opposites, and yet is apart from them. For, as the goddess who descends and reascends, she has mastered their mysteries. It is these that she will unfold.

  In qabbalistic tradition, there are said to be two Chokmah: one male and one female. Alternatively Chokmah is said to be female in respect of Kether and male in respect of Binah. For Wisdom contains within her both the left and the right. The Chokmah that separates from the King/Godhead and goes into exile is, however, female. She is both the daughter and little sister who, becoming greater and greater will eventually become the spouse of the King, and she is the second of the three supernal mothers: the supernal feminine triad which comes before the triune father. This is the tradition encapsulated in Tarot with the supernal feminine triad of Strength, the High Priestess and the Empress, and with the High Priestess as the daughter or little sister who leads us into exile only to unfold the path that leads back to the source.

  The head-dress of the High Priestess is in the form of a triple tiara, revealing rulership of the three worlds. The High Priestess is thereby shown as preserving the mysteries of the threefold goddess who both was and ruled sky, earth and underworld. Such was Inanna or Isis. It would appear to be a more recent, yet equally appropriate tradition, for the head-dress of the High Priestess to be formed from the disc of the sun set between the horns of the moon.

  This is the head-dress of radiance and sorrow. It is the head-dress of Isis, or more specifically of Mert-sekert, ‘the lover of silence.’ Mert-sekert is the name of Isis in her aspect of queen of the underworld. It is a name which was mirrored in the nomenclature of the Gnostics who prayed to Sophia as the ‘mystical eternal Silence.’

  The mythologies of the descent are, primarily, lunar based, with light descending into and reappearing, reborn, from its own darkness. Yet the descent is also in pursuit of the creative light force that guarantees regeneration - the sun which has sunk into darkness. The lunar goddess charters the descent to find in the darkness of the soul the midnight sun, as in the story of the Golden Ass. Here Lucius (whose name means light), an initiate of the moon-goddess Isis, finds, after long trials, the hidden inner light of his own true nature finally revealed and transformed when ‘the sun shone at midnight.’ Hence the sun’s disc between the moon horns of the head-dress represents the transformative power of the creative life energy within, the lunar power wombing and giving birth to the solar god. Mythically this is the missing son/lover died and reborn. Psychologically it is the creative light of consciousness awakening in the darkness of the unconscious depths.

  The myths most appropriate to the card of the High Priestess are, then, those appertaining to knowledge of the mastery of the way through the underworld. The High Priestess personifies the mythic goddesses, such as Sophia, Psyche, Persephone, or Inanna, whose descent into the underworld brings them experiential knowledge of all levels of creation. ‘Alone I made a circuit of the sky and traversed the depth of the abyss’ proclaims Sophia.[31]

  The descent into the ‘underworld’ is both a descent into the psychic realms of the unconscious, and a descent into the world of experience. In either case, in the rich terms of mythic symbolism, we must navigate our way down the streams of Lethe: forgetfulness.

  The descent begins with the journey beautifully described in the Gnostic poem: ‘The Song of the Pearl.’[§] This symbolizes the deliberate journey down the tree, beginning in the duality of Chokmah, to seek the pearl of wisdom. It is the journey of Sophia, the soul’s journey from the God-centre or the unity of Kether into creation, where it ‘falls asleep’ (or having slipped into the waters of Lethe it falls into forgetfulness) and becomes unconscious of its divine origins. In the words of Dr. Stephen Hoeller:

  The unitary primal nature of the psyche differentiates and descends into ever-deeper conditions of alienation from its original source of light and power. At the psychological level, this alienating differentiation is at the heart of the dark mystery of the fall of Sophia.[32]

  Sophia descends to the very depths of creation before reawaking and reascending in her newly initiated state. Yet Sophia’s origins are in Chokmah, the sefirah at the head of the pillar of mercy.

  Thus it is that, in the very act of ascending, her empathy remains with the plight of humanity sunk in ignorance. Her voluntary response, therefore, is to wish to bring illumination to all that sleep, much as, in Akkadian myth, Ishtar goes in search of Tammuz to awaken him from his sleep in the underworld.

  In the early mystery traditions the descent of the World Soul is a familiar theme, one aspect being the quest to unite consciousness of the soul with the body. The awakening of the god or divine soul from the deathly slumber in the realms of unconsciousness was likewise part of the ritual of the descent myths. The tragedy of the ‘fall’ in the mythic stream becomes, therefore, not the descent into the knowledge of experience of the more empirical realms. For this is necessary, just as the descent of the Shekinah (Sophia) is necessary for the fulfillment of Kether in the body of Malkuth. The tragedy is the fall into the sleep of forgetfulness or unconsciousness and the consequent loss of awareness of the inner light after the descent has been made. Liberation becomes correspondingly the awakening to Kether-consciousness while yet in the empirical temple of Malkuth. In this way are the two opposite poles of the tree, the first and the last, themselves conjoined in unity. Such is the basis of the mystery of the High Priestess, and that of her analogue down the tree in Malkuth: Temperance.

  There is a powerful inter-relationship between the cards of the High Priestess and Temperance, as there is between Chokmah and Malkuth. In Tarot these two cards are the first and the last in the series of balance cards: those cards which are able to control and unite the opposites. As Malkuth, the second Chokmah, is the lower Sophia, so Temperance is the High Priestess at a lower level.

  From the primordial light of the higher Sophia emanates the lower Sophia, bringing the light of the above to the below. The lower Sophia descends to Malkuth: the Kingdom, to fulfil her destiny. For her destiny is to reign in the lower world. Hers is the kingdom. Through ‘her deeds the world becomes luminous.’[33]

  In Tarot the descended Sophia, illuminating the world with her deeds, is the role of Temperance, reigning over the Wheel of Fortune. For Temperance, the lower face of the High Priestess, is the daughter of balance. However, as daughter, bride and little mother, Temperance is, too, the pendulum swinging between the High Priestess and the Em
press.

  Just as it is almost impossible to isolate wisdom from understanding, so the bond between the High Priestess and the Empress is as intimate as that between Chokmah and Binah: wisdom and understanding. Indeed, in some early qabbalistic works the same attributes, for example ‘treasure house of Sophia’ or ‘primordial light’ are applied to both Chokmah and Binah, making it difficult at times to be sure which is actually meant. The overlapping bond between the High Priestess and the Empress is likewise as strong, making it equally difficult to isolate and deal separately with each. For, like Demeter and Persephone, mother and daughter of the mysteries, the Empress and the High Priestess are parallel aspects of the one mystical journey of the goddess within.

  The High Priestess is the gateway to the arcane mysteries leading to spiritual awareness and inner illumination. She is the inner goddess who unfolds the paths to the hidden dimensions of the psyche, leading us down into the darkened womb of our own birthing. Inaugurating a new state of being which reconciles both the light and dark of the moon’s phases, she is the Lady of the Mysteries, Inanna, Sophia - or Egyptian Isis, initiated into the rite of the Black (Perfection).

  In Arabic the word for Egypt (fehm) is also the word for black (fehm). Egyptian Isis is therefore Black Isis. Furthermore, the same word is, in Arabic, homonymous with the word for wisdom or understanding (fehm). Thus the black Art is the Egyptian Art: the Art of Understanding, while the black virgins are equivalent to the wise virgins due to the similarity of the Arabic words for black and wise. In Islamic hermeneutics the colours of black and white, the colours usually of the pillars of the High Priestess, together represent the illumination of the soul. The black light symbolizes divinity before creation. It is the hidden treasure which will be revealed. The white light of understanding is, by contrast, the light of the revealed treasure.