September 3, 2011

• The Initiate’s Path, First Step

  It has been said that, “Knowledge is power.” (Sir Francis Bacon, Religious Meditations, Of Heresies, 1597.) However, one of the perennial choices a Seeker on the Path must make – usually the very first choice one must make – is between knowledge and power. 

  

  The Fool is faced with that choice but has not yet made it.
  

  

  The Fool’s image, the first Tarot Trump, represents both the beginning and the end of the Initiate’s Path – the Alpha and Omega.  He is at the still point lying both before the quest begins and at its end.

  

  Zero, empty, void, unformed, ready for anything and prepared for nothing, without expectations or preconceptions, he stands.

  

  Then, when he has realized there is a choice to be made, making his initial choice, usually an initiate chooses power.

  

  He goes suddenly from nowhere and nothing to all and everything.

  

  From having but one single choice between action and inaction, he slips instantaneously into having an infinity of options.

  

  How does he handle the situation?  Traditionally, he does it poorly.  He is often portrayed off-balance or very delicately balanced, dancing and juggling, struggling for control of forces beyond his understanding.

  

  Four symbols appear on virtually every depiction of the Magus.  They represent the four classical elements: Earth, Fire, Air and Water, or, in more contemporary terms, matter, energy, space, and time.

  

  Often, the symbols for the elements are the same as for the traditional Tarot suits: Coins or Pentacles, Rods or Staves, Swords or Blades, and Cups or Hearts.

  

   Sometimes, new symbolism is used.  Whether the symbolism is traditional or idiosyncratic, usually some esoteric or insider knowledge is needed to interpret it.

  

  In The Book of T: New Tarot for the Aquarian Age, the hooded (unknown, mysterious) eagle (power) has a strong, bloody grip (both unease and surety – It may be uncomfortable, but the power isn’t leaving you now, even if you want it to.) on his left (unconscious) shoulder.  The blank, featureless globe on which he stands (the mysterious – to him – unknown source of his new and extraordinary abilities) empowers him, through his humble (the style of his clothing) acceptance and dependance (the stance) on it, to consciously create (right hand holding flower) while he unconsciously heals (the flow of water from the left hand).  Before him on the cloth of gold (truth) lay the symbols for all things that lie within his power (matter, energy, space and time) as long as he is willing to trust the source and be the humble channel for its power.

  Any questions? …comments?

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  (Edited September 8, 2011)

  Previously on the path:  The Fool and a brief comparison between Divination and Magick.

  
  

  • 10:26 pm
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