Margo9023
closrapexra
Hi Closrapexra! Thank you for joining in! I will read this and have to think about it. : )
Coming off the Hanged Man's wagon here (having studied it for several months, though ultimately being somewhat unsuccessful) maybe I can chime in. Strap yourselves in, this might get long.
The Bible codified the term "t`shuka" תשוקה meaning "desire." A desire is considered more powerful than a simple need or want, since it denotes not actually needing anything, but wanting it all the same. There are four types of desires:
1. The desire of Eve toward Adam: In Biblical tradition, Eve was born as a result of a rib taken from Adam. When a man "takes" a wife, he needs her, as he is in essence taking back the rib he lost. Eve, on the other hand, was born a perfect being, and so does not need Adam at all, yet desires for him anyway.
2. The desire of Cain's "evil inclination" towards him: I wrote about this at length on a thread about the Lovers http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=192337&highlight=cain but in short, Cain's urge to kill Abel "desires" him, yet for slightly more sophisticated reasons we won't get into, it does not need him.
3. God's desire for humanity: According to the Bible, God is perfection, the perfect unity, the All. He does not need, obviously, mere mortals like us, but He desires our existence, if only to brag about how nice a creation was created (this last, of course, is the base for Kabbalah, quite simplified).
4. The desire of rain for earth: The rain can exist quite well without earth, yet it desires it, as without earth to enjoy the rain and bring forth life, rain would have no meaning, and would be pointless.
The last is particularly important for us, as it, in a way, explains the idea of sacrifice mentioned earlier. Let's say I am a lowly sperm cell, the seed of all human existence. witin me I hold great potential, yet that is all I hold. Without the egg to swim to, I am worthless, since I have no real purpose. However, once I enter the egg, all that I have known and have been in my short life are gone, for all intents and purposes, I am dead. However, I am not dead, I have merely transformed and lost myself in the loving embrace of my destiny. According to #3, unity has no choice but to become duality (it isn't for me, of course, to say God has no meaning in unity, but again, there it is) while #4 shows us that duality has no choice but to fulfill its desire and become unity. It is this constant interplay between opposites that perpetuates the universe.
This also, incidentally, gives us clues as to the Lovers. After all, what is the difference between the Two of Cups and the Lovers? I don't know! But I can make a guess, and probably won't be rated PG. Well, the Lovers can be thought of as the abstract energy of the marriage of dualities, omnipresent everywhere. On the other hand, the Two of Cups is the recognition of the fact that a marriage has taken place. The suit of Wands is the first phallus, the straight line creating the space around it in order to create the suit of cups. Now, the Ace of Cups is the vessel into which the Wand has been thrust (sorry!) yet the vessel is in a state of unity, it is a cup that holds the fire. The Two of Cups is where the female says "Oh! How did that get there! It's not bad!" This is where the love story really begins, and from here out, nothing will be the same again.
Even in dualistic Christianity, there is unity. The thought that the Devil could actually and really rebel against God is patently absurd, and Milton expressed this idea quite well in Paradise Lost, between the lines (in his portrayal of Satan as a tragic, "human" figure). Even in the Silmarillion, Eru Iluvatar said that although Morgoth imagined himself in rebellion against him, his actions were still a reflection of all that was planned in the first and original Song of the Ainur.
Hi Closrapexra! Thank you for joining in! I will read this and have to think about it. : )