Tarot connections to the ancient Vedas of India

MerynPriestess

Well, I tried to post this before, but my phone froze, so here I am trying to articulate my thoughts again in front of my computer...

I am new to tarot, and in order to better understand the Major Arcana, I have been studying the story of the Fool's Journey. I really like the story; it's interesting, and it's thought-provoking and entertaining. Because I follow an Eastern path in my personal spirituality/religion/faith, I found some interesting correlations popped into my head during my studies:

The Fool submits himself to the Hierophant, desperate, when he fears that he may lose the valuables he has gained. The Heirophant makes it clear that his valuables are material; he shows the Fool that inner intuition already has the answer. He shows the Fool that his relationships and his knowledge, which are abstract and spiritual, are more valuable than material possessions.

For me, this really resonated with the soul's journey as told in many Vedic scriptures. The soul surrenders himself to a guru, often obtaining a new name at this time. Sometimes surrender means time spent in the ashram of the guru, away from family and friends; sometimes it means spending time and energy serving the guru. Often it does involve studying literature, which the High Priestess has the Fool do, even before he goes to the Hierophant. So the Fool's submission to the Hierophant and the lessons therein made me think of this guru-disciple relationship.

Also, the Fool gets blessings from the motherly empress before meeting the Hierophant, or guru. In the Ramayana, warrior-prince Rama gets blessings from his father before he goes to travel - for the first time ever - away from home, with his guru, to learn the magic of controlling celestial weaponry. I felt like the motherly nature of the empress reflects that scene of the Ramayana story. Also, it's sortof the Fool's leaving the nest, because after the Empress he doesn't get a lot of coddling, struggles more, loses and gains a lot, learns a lot. Similarly, after Rama leaves homes, lots of crazy stuff happens.

There is a system of living in the Vedas called Varnashrama dharma. It translates sortof to, the duty system that a person goes through in life, in tiers, according to their age and wisdom. The individual begins as a celibate student who studies the scriptures and life under the guidance of his guru. This is like the tarot cards of High Priestess, Hierophant, etc. Then the student may get married, have a family - like the Lovers. But he has the choice to remain a celibate student of spiritual life - just as the Lovers has the crossroads and is really about choice.

Then, the Fool later in life becomes a Hermit, and learns about balancing spiritual and material in The Hanged Man, Temperance, etc. Similarly in Varnashrama Dharma, after family life when the kids are all grown up, the man and woman separate to learn more about spiritual life. They grow even more as people. The purpose of this separation, at age 50 or 60, is to get deeply intuitive and in-tune with one's soul, and the spiritual ways, to prepare for an auspicious death.

And so Varnashrama Dharma reminds me of the cards The Hermit, Death, etc., in the Fool's Journey.

Anyway it's just all super interesting. I wanted to share that, and didn't see any similar threads on here. I haven't seen a lot of connection yet between Tarot and India. Can someone tell me more?

Sorry for such a lengthy post! I do ramble on...