Путь Таро. Старшие арканы

When we eliminate the illusion of "reading the future," the Tarot becomes a psychological
tool and a tool for self-knowledge. By honestly confronting the characteristics of our
personalities that have gone off course—habits, identifications, manias, vices; narcissistic,
antisocial, schizoid, and paranoid disorders; personal delusions, crazy ideas, depressive
feelings, emotional immaturity, twisted desires, and needs imposed by the family, society, or
culture—we can attain knowledge of our real essence, in other words, what is innate in us and
not acquired. The individual can stop being what others want so that he can become who he
truly is.

If the tarologist succeeds at turning
himself into an "invisible man," who then is reading the Tarot? Using a metaphor, I say it is a
mirror. The level of the individual's consciousness is reflected by the purity of our mind. Using
his own language (if it is a child, for example, we use a childlike language), and taking on the
appearance of the other, through our own emptiness, and through our words and gestures, we
shall manage to get the individual to read his own Tarot. This reading will bring a response
that corresponds to the other's world, not our own.

The person receiving the reading confuses Consciousness (the essential Being) with the act of
becoming conscious of something. The purpose of Consciousness is to successfully become
yourself in order to offer yourself to the deity. We do not possess a complete self automatically:
we start with a seed that develops through successive mutations. Its first level is animal. The
individual lives only to satisfy his material and sexual needs. He does not control his instincts
and has no respect for others. His fear of losing makes him aggressive. The infantile level is
next. Here the individual lives a superficial life because he or she does not accept aging or
death. He or she refuses to meditate in order to know himself or herself, collects useless
objects and finds various means of distraction, without any sense of responsibility. Later the
romantic level awakens. The individual cannot control his or her emotions and is invaded by
them. As an eternal adolescent, he or she believes that meeting a man or woman to form a
couple is life's purpose. Influenced by cinema, television, and style magazines, he or she
creates an ideal of love that resembles a fairy tale. This leads to replacing being with
appearance. It is possible that after some painful setbacks, adult consciousness will develop. It
is at this level that the Other exists for the first time. The individual, who now realizes that
instead of demanding, he or she should invest and become self reliant, can fall into the
egotistical error of thirst for power. This gives birth to exploiters, tyrants, unscrupulous
businessmen, and swindlers of all sorts. The antithesis of this egotism is that of those people
who, to feel noble, spend their time helping others because they are too lazy to help
themselves. If this truly becomes aid to oneself, then the level of social consciousness opens.
This is when the individual fights for the happiness of all humanity, but also for the health of
plants, animals, and the planet. Later it will open to Cosmic Consciousness.
Nothing happens in the universe without movement and transformation. Distancing herself
from all the stubborn systems and habits that depreciate life, the responsible individual will
abandon herself just like the cosmos to constant change, knowing that she belongs to an
infinite and eternal world. She emerges from generational boundaries and prepares the terrain
for the advent of the new being. Finally she attains divine Consciousness—a level that very
few reach. In the dark core of the subconscious, there is a brilliant spot of complete lucidity, a
powerful ally that if used well, will manifest like an inner god; or, if used poorly, like an inner
demon. This is the level known by geniuses, prophets, and magi.

I compared the ornamentation of Western temples with Eastern ones. On the facade of Gothic cathedrals, for example, Notre Dame of Paris, an androgynous Jesus Christ, standing between an earthly dragon and a heavenly dragon, gives us his blessing. On the portal to his right (or to our left as spectators) stands the Virgin Mary (femininity, openness), and to his left we see a priest dominating a dragon with his staff (masculinity, activity). Conversely, in Tantric Buddhist temples, the male deities are placed facing our left side and females our right side. The explanation for this is that Buddha is not a god but a level that every human being, if he or she performs the great spiritual work, can attain. The believer ceases to be a spectator and takes a place between the male and female principles, transformed into a temple. Conversely, Christ is a god, and no believer can become him, only imitate him. Eastern saints are Buddhas. Western saints imitate their God—which is the reason cathedrals behave like mirrors.

Symbolically, the Arcana of the Tarot are a chest in which a spiritual treasure has been deposited. The opening of this chest is equivalent to a revelation. The initiatory work consists of gathering together the fragments until the original unit has been restored. You start with a pack of cards, you mix up the Arcana and display them flat, which is to say you cut the God into pieces. You interpret them and put them back together in sentences. In a sacred quest the initiate reader (Isis, the soul) puts the pieces back together. The God is resuscitated not in an immaterial dimension but in the material world. A figure, a mandala, is composed with the Tarot so that the whole thing can be seen with a single glance.

This idea that the cards were not conceived one by one—as separate symbols—but as parts of a whole did not appear to me all at once. It was a long process fueled by vague intentions, but over the course of the years I made discoveries that provided convincing proof that this “complete entity,” the Tarot, desired to create union.