DW 78: The Cards as a Sequence, Chapter 2

Thank you, Jeannette, for advising me of my mistake.

I'm so very sorry that I made an error in the introduction. I saw the Justice card in the center, but became disoriented or had a mental lapse or something. I was unable to get back into the forum since I kept getting the "Internal Server Error".

Justice, with the right hand holding a sword and the left hand holding the scales, is supposed to be particularly significant in the middle position since the scales represent the balance of past and future. Also, taking responsibility for our past actions and moving forward.

Again, I sincerely apologize.

Hi all! Like Kiama I found that the vertical rows made more sense when working with my deck although my take is just a bit different than hers. I used the Cosmic Tribe, and Balance (Justice) is 8 so I did not have the strength/justice placing dilema.

THE CARDS AS A SEQUENCE: To me, this particular decks (Cosmic Tribe) Major Arcana seemed to be designed as separate entities in terms of the 3 horizontal rows of 7 cards. Each Major Arcana in this deck shows each card representing a different quality. I do not see the natural progression on horizontal lines as I do with the Robin Wood or Raider Waite for example. Sure you can make the correlation based on previous knowledge, but at first glance I would not make the connection. HOWEVER, in looking at the 7 vertical columns of 3 cards each I do see their connection and progression regarding levels of experience and development.

LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE: Based on the book, and the loud messages I was getting from the deck at the time I did this exercise, I have named the 7 columns as follows:

THE COLUMN OF THE WILL (Magician (1), Balance (8), Devil (15)): The Magician is manifesting his will, Balance is evaluating and directing the will from an inward perspective, and the challenges you in what you will do with your will. Will you hold fast or sucumb to temptation even when you know the consequences? The Devil places the will against your choices.

THE COLUMN OF PERSONAL INTEGRATION (HP (2), Hermit (9), Tower (16): This line focuses on the integration and understanding of the self and gaining wisdom. The HP takes us through the journey of spiritual discovery and enlightenment; the Hermit processes what we learned in our HP experience and who we are giving us wisdom; the Tower is the honest recognition and acceptance of who we are based on this wisdom. This honesty can lead us to facing the aspects of self that we do not like or are not trully real about ourselves, and to make changes within that will more fully integrate us spiritually and personally. This can be a very painful process and to others who believe the "know us" as they may see us changing when what we are doing is integrating.

THE COLUMN OF COMPLETENESS (Empress (3), Wheel (10), Star (17): After completing our personal integration phase, we can now see where we fit into the cosmic puzzle. The Empress is the nurturing and connection to earth; the Wheel our connection to one and other as well as the cycles of life-death-rebirth, the ups and downs of life, etc.; the Star is our connection to the collective unconscious (or Akashik records) ... the pool of cosmic knowledge each of us leaves during each life time.

Continued from above:

THE COLUMN OF POWER (Emperor (4), Strength (11), Moon (18)): With the Emperor we see earthly power; with Strength our inner power or strength; with the Moon our spiritual power. All aspects where we draw power or strength from.

THE COLUMN OF REALIZATION: (Heirophant (5), Hanged Man (12), Sun (19)): The Heirophant teaches us the ways of the societies into which we are born ... values, norms, traditions; the Hanged Man is our questioning of these values, norms and traditions and finding and acting on what these mean to us ... this is a period of experimentation and limbo ... a time of finding what works for us; Once we have come to terms, accepted and rejected and gained confidence in who we are and how we feel, like the Sun we rise with our convictions and beliefs and trully start our lives and with greater appreciation than before.

THE COLUMN OF EMOTION (Lovers (6), Death (13), Emergence (20)): The Lovers looks at human relationships in all aspects (romantic love, partnerships, choices); Death looks at the turmoils we go through with change in these relationships, not only change but also endings, how our souls cry out in (fear, dispair, sadness, loss) until released and then emerge stroger due to the experience. The Emergence card is our emergence from the situation with greater wisdom and knowledge and the new peace we find in ourselves. The descent in this column takes us to a higher emotional level.

THE COLUMN OF MASTERY (Chariot (7), Art (14), Universe (21)): This column is the summary of personal and spiritual achievement and mastery. The Chariot shows how we have mastered our living in this world; Art shows how we have overcome joyful and painful transitions, passed initiations and made specific decisions that free our souls; The Universe shows our harmony with all that was, is, and ever well be. We are one with the Universe at all 3 levels, conscious, unconscious and superconscious.

Just moving this to the top. For some reason I cannot retrieve threads once they go past 30 days and I was not sure if I am the only with that problem so I am moving this post up as I think we might have some new people joining in.

Bumping up

Hope y'all don't mind me bumping this thread back "up". Thought I would since several of us have started going through the book quite recently and want to do these excercises ourselves.... Looking forward to reading (and posting) some new thoughts.

Thanks ArizonaGirl for starting this chapter for us.

The excercise using the Röhrig Tarot

First: Arizonagirl - it's alright that you made a little mistake in your original post... it proves your human.

Using the Röhrig deck I didn't really get the same visual connections that Ms. Pollack shows between The Magician, Strength and The Devil. (For instance the link between the infinity symbol over the heads of Magician and Strength with the pentagram above the Devil's head - these symbols do not appear as a major part of the cards in the Röhrig deck.) However, the 3 paths represented by the 3 lines of 7 cards is evident in this deck (the Conscious, Sub-conscious and Super-conscious). I also noticed a few, I thought, interesting relations across these lines as I studied each of the 3-card verticle groups. These relations appeared to me to picture kind of a "beginning - advancement - completion" step through several phases of experience. (Many of the ideas and words I use are found on the cards themselves.)

Line 1 - Magus - Strength - Devil: These seem to all relate to phases of learning our personal power. The Magus relating to communication, genius, the power of thought. Strength showing the our power over ourselves. The Devil appears to me to relate to our awareness of powers beyond ourselves.

Line 2 - High Priestess - The Hermit - The Tower: These relate to our journey through self awareness. High Priestess as the beginnings of our awareness and learning. Through The Hermit who is finding himself and beginning to lead others. Ending with the Tower which has to do with the complete overthrow of our old ideas and ideals.

Line 3 - Empress - Wheel of Fortune - The Star: Emotional Growth. Empress shows fertility (of thought), creativity. Wheel of Fortune, perhaps again showing the middle of the journey with self realization. The Star having to do with inspiration, self-confidence - crystalization of our ideas.

Line 4 - Emperor - Justice - Moon: This is our movement through life. The Emperor recognizing the boundaries and restrictions of Society. Justice - adjusting to and/or achieving a balance in the world. The Moon - the coming of awareness of our own sub-conscious and the super-conscious.

Line 5 - Heirophant - Hanged Man - Sun: These relate to our spiritual journey. The Heirophant showing the ways, the rituals of organized religion. The Hanged Man representing a release from these structures - new ways of looking at things. The Sun showing us our revelry of our new spirituality.

Line 6 - The Lovers - Death - The Judgement: This is the path of learning love. The Lovers representing physical love. Death showing change, re-birth. Then The Judgement showing an awakening - to spiritual love.

Line 7 - The Chariot - Temperence - The World: These appear to also relate to our spiritual journey. The Chariot having to do with victory - reaching a goal - the end of a race (as indicated by the checkered flag reflected in the charioteer's helmet). Temperence is showing alchemy, transformation - how we will be uniting the opposites of life - nature/spirit for instance. Then The World shows us reaching our full enlightenment.

Well - that's my take on it anyway...

I find it interesting to see how many of us actually related best to the 7 rows of 3 than the 3 rows of 7. I also find it interesting how the positioning of strength and justice work within the sequences. Up until doing this exercise I really had no preference in the position of strength and justice, although I was more comfortable with strength in position VIII. After working through the exercise I walked away with a definete preferance for justice in position VIII.

arizonagirl said:

Examine the cards you’ve laid out before you. Tell us what you see. Do they fit with her approach? Do they not correspond? What do you see in the first and last cards of each line? What do they mean to you? Do the second cards in each sequence relate to each other? Do the third cards? What does the Wheel of Fortune in the exact middle mean to you?

Click to expand...

Im using merryday, all cards can be seen at www.merrydaytarot.com

The cards in her approach fit rather nicely, especially with some of her renaming. Cards lik Apprentice (Magician), Mentor (Hierophant), and Student (chariot) are all on the first worldly line.

Some of the cards on the secons line are a bit harder to understand when relating to turning inwards, namely teacher (hermit) and journeyman (hanged man) but when you see the teacher as you giving yourself to others as opposed to learning (like student and mentor) and journeyman as learning what is in yourself they fit. The hardest of all to get is the last card, Time Lord (Temperance). The MerryDay book says "his job is to raise knowledge from the subconscience to conscience awareness" With that in mind its a fitting car to be the transit from turning inward to the great journey.

The great journey is done really well. It starts at the tempter (devil) card, which is much like any other devil card in looks. The tower is a self awaking, theres is a long winding road to the top, on top stands a man with his arms and legs outstretched infused with power, a hand holds 3 lighning bolts in the sky behind him, on the other side theres a great dragon, you can see someone else starting up the path at the bottom. Its a sign of true release. Then the star card, in which a woman and hawk see their dark reflection in an arch. both images have one foot n water the other on land, and the plant that grows around the arch has itself wound around the leg of each image. This is the facing of our shadow self, and once faced we can delve into the mysteries of the moon, after fully exploring the mysteries of the shadow side in the moon we can become whole he can progress, like a newborn, into the light of the sun.. Judgements a bit different, here the merfolk are escaping the Judgment of the world to be truly free. The the world synthesizes everything.

The first card in each line have to do with power, but they dont have the symbolism pollack mentions. Apprentice is external power, strength is internal power, and tempter is (attempted) power over others.

The last cards in each line have to do with a realization. The student realizes he has a lot to learn, the Time Lord brings subconscience knowledge to the conscience, and the World integrates all lessons learned.

The second cards teach of the self. The Oracle teaches ancient knowledge of self and how self works, the teacher the more personal aspects of self, and the tower the true place of self (which can be a shock)

(continued)

The third row is a cycle of enlightenment. It starts with the empress, where we are creative and feel we can control everything, then Lady Destiny (wheel) comes along and shows us we arent in as much control as we thought, but in the star we meet our shadowself, and again regain much of the control because we know who we are.

The fourth row is the row of thw whole of self, the Emperor represents body, he is solid and earthy, Justice represents mind, the brain has 2 halfs, the intuitive side and the logical side. The moon represents the Spirit, the mysteries of life and what is at our true center

the fifth row is the education of self on different levels nd how to use the tools of the different levels. The mentor teaches us the worldly things and how to use the tools of the world to hlp us. The journeyman teaches us the inner worlds and the internal tools we can use, and the Sun teaches the joy of the transcended world and the tools we can use with the knowledge it brings

The sixth row is all about interaction. In the Lovers we interact with another human in a worldly sense, in metamorphosis (death) we interact within ourself to bring about change, and in Judgement we interact with he Higher Powers to transcend beyond.

Justice in the middle shows a lot, at the top of the card are rainbow radiating rays that point up to the worldly experience row, showing we gain our "color" from our worldly experiences.. In the bottom left of the card is a dark abyss filled with a spiderweb, this points to the dark half of the line journey line (tempter tower star and moon) the bottom right is filled with see and a manta ray that points to the more enlightened half of the journey line, with water being symbolic of the sunbconscience it is fitting. Justice stands on a globe (the world being the center is also fitting) with her arms straigh out, weach hand holding a cup that steams. This shows the balance of all

Jewel said:

I find it interesting to see how many of us actually related best to the 7 rows of 3 than the 3 rows of 7. I also find it interesting how the positioning of strength and justice work within the sequences. Up until doing this exercise I really had no preference in the position of strength and justice, although I was more comfortable with strength in position VIII. After working through the exercise I walked away with a definete preferance for justice in position VIII.

Click to expand...

Actually Jewel... I had kind of gathered from the book that this was kind of what the excercise was about. Looking downward across these 3 rows of 7 cards to see how each verticle line relates. At least that was how Ms. Pollack had us look at the beginning of each row of 7.

As for the positioning of Strength and Justice - my preference is still with Strength as VIII and Justice at XI. I think this is mostly due to my experience with the Tarot of Marseilles when I was first beginning to learn Tarot. This deck just did not work for me and it has Justice at VIII. But the Rider-Waite deck did work well for me with Strength at VIII.

This was a great excercise though in any case and has spawned some very good discussion of the Major Arcana and how they relate to one another. Even though I focused on the verticle lines, while I was studying them, I "got" the horizontal relationships as well.