Greater Arcana Study Group—The Sun

Abrac

The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard has been mentioned already as the better symbolism connected with this card. It is the destiny of the Supernatural East and the great and holy light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey home. The card signifies, therefore, the transit from the manifest light of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth, to the light of the world to come, which goes before aspiration and is typified by the heart of a child.

But the last allusion is again the key to a different form or aspect of the symbolism. The sun is that of consciousness in the spirit—the direct as the antithesis of the reflected light. The characteristic type of humanity has become a little child therein—a child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence, he signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the consciousness above the natural mind, that mind in its renewal leads forth the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.
 

Abrac

“The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard has been mentioned already as the better symbolism connected with this card.”​

Waite's referring to his description of the Sun in the first part of the PKT. I think he might be talking about the Vieville Sun card.

Vieville Sun

The “Supernatural East” comes from Thomas Vaughan. Waite explains it in his chapter on Vaughan in The Doctrine and Literature of the Kabalah. He also mentions it in his paper on Vaughan found in R. A. Gilbert’s Hermetic Papers of A. E. Waite. See also the section on Thomas Vaughan in Waite's The Holy Kabbalah, Book 10. Vaughan equated the Supernatural East with Christ. The simplest summary of the whole thing is:

“The supernatural light was first manifested in the Second Person, or—literally speaking—in Christ, even as the sun is first manifested in the East, morning by morning.”​

Apparently, Vaughan's source was an obscure Kabbalistic doctrine that ascribes the Supernatural East to Chokmah.

On the Tree of Life, East is at the top. In Waite's philosophy, East represents the Center. It's the point of departure and that of return, i.e., the end goal of the mystic quest.

This card illustrates a shift from the natural mind to Spirit. The child symbolizes the self-knowing Spirit who “leads forth the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.” His head is decorated with six circular ornaments possibly symbolizing Tiphareth. The feather is the same one the Fool wears. The child is the Fool on his return home. This is the meaning of Waite’s statement:

“It is the destiny of the Supernatural East and the great and holy light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey home.”​

This recalls Waite's comment on the Fool:

"The sun, which shines behind him, knows whence he came, whither he is going, and how he will return by another path after many days."​

"Another path" probably refers to the middle path on the Tree of Life. It is the direct path of ascensions between the Worlds. It's the path that was seen in Temperance and the Moon.

I believe the red standard means victory. Waite drops a clue in his FRC Adeptus Minor Initiation [Tiphareth]. In explaining the colors of the robes worn by the three Celebrants of the ritual:

“Red—the victory of the soul, which overcomes death in love.”​

The sun itself should have 12 straight rays and 12 wavy rays representing light and heat respectively. The Roman numeral at the top prevented three rays from being drawn.

Supposedly Pamela inserted the word “Love” below her initials on this card. This would have been a good card on which to do this, but on enlarging the area it doesn’t look like it’s there. This example shows the Pam-A and the Sun from Waite’s 1909 Occult Review article “The Tarot—A Wheel of Fortune” side-by-side.
 

Samweiss

I was reading The Chaldean Oracles and this passage instantly reminded me of The Sun card from Waite's deck.

Chaldean Oracles 198. said:
"Also there is the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of Light, or also a Child, borne aloft on the shoulders of the Celestial Steed, fiery, or clothed with gold, or naked, or shooting with the bow shafts of Light, and standing on the shoulders of the horse; then if thy meditation prolongeth itself, thou shalt unite all these Symbols into the Form of a Lion."

Could have this been some sort of inspiration for the card's illustration?
 

Abrac

Waite says something interesting here I never noticed before:

"The characteristic type of humanity has become a little child therein . . ."​

and

". . . he signifies the restored world."​

It’s not just the child who has been transformed but humanity itself. The subtitle of Waite’s Azoth, or, The Star in the East is "Embracing the First Matter of the Magnum Opus, the Evolution of Aphrodite-Urania, the Supernatural Generation of the Son of the Sun, and the Alchemical Transfiguration of Humanity." Waite discusses at length his ideas about the transformation of humanity. Just as the "elect" are "tinged" by the Stone of Spirit, their influence in the social arena will cause a tinging of the rest of humanity until a critical mass is reached and all of humanity will be transformed. This seems to be part of what was intended in this illustration.

But it seems especially illustrated in the next card, Judgement. It also explains what Waite meant by:

"But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations."​

Waite’s showing by this, I believe, that it’s not just one person or one group of people who hear the call, but it’s universal and ultimately everyone will hear it. :)