Monk Rock
since the discussions of "Meditations on the Tarot" seemed to be located here, i'll post here regarding my attempt at a continuation of the book's anonymous author's work, until directed elsewhere...
also, while the edition of the book i read had images of some version of the Marseille deck, i'm not specifically focusing on that deck. my background is rooted more with the RWS and Thoth tarots, while at the moment Kat Black's Golden Tarot is current favorite... in the work i'm doing, i'm attempting a more-or-less general approach that, hopefully, might be applicable to more than one deck... we'll see...
i read MotT about 8 years ago, so the content of the book is somewhat foggy, nonetheless, pathways it opened up for me--to consider hermeticism in an catholic context--have been extremely valuable in my subsequent spiritual meanderings. at the end of the book, the author invites the reader to continue the work of the book by exploring the minors in a similar vein...
approaches thus far:
1. to relate the suits to the elements of the Eucharist, seeing transubstantiation as an analogue to the alchemical goal of transforming lead to gold... correspondingly, the numbered cards are then seen as the stages in the process of transubstantiation. the four elements of the Eucharist also correspond to four aspects of the story of Jesus Christ as well;
2. a possible means of relating the 10 pips of a suit to the seven-fold alchemical process (or the traditional seven-stepped stairway to heaven) is through kabbalah... we have the 10 sephiroth which correspond with the 10 commanding statements of Elohim in the first chapter of Genesis, these are then grouped into the seven days of creation (i'm also incorporating the 11 statements of the Rosicrucian Pattern on the Trestleboard);
3. the seven days of creation correspond to numerous groups of sevens, but relevant to my studies are the seven miracles of Christ in John's gospel, the seven I AM statements of Christ in the same, the seven sacraments of the church, the seven services (that take place during the day) comprising the Liturgy of the Hours, the seven liturgical seasons of the church;
4. the court cards correspond to the four orders of the church: laity, deacon, priest, bishop. grouping these together can provide another metaphor for personal wholeness parallel to the Eucharist and the story of Christ...
i can diagram some of this further if anyone so desires... all this is still in a relatively early stage in development, is there any thing i might be missing? am i barking down the wrong track? any thoughts? bueller?
also, while the edition of the book i read had images of some version of the Marseille deck, i'm not specifically focusing on that deck. my background is rooted more with the RWS and Thoth tarots, while at the moment Kat Black's Golden Tarot is current favorite... in the work i'm doing, i'm attempting a more-or-less general approach that, hopefully, might be applicable to more than one deck... we'll see...
i read MotT about 8 years ago, so the content of the book is somewhat foggy, nonetheless, pathways it opened up for me--to consider hermeticism in an catholic context--have been extremely valuable in my subsequent spiritual meanderings. at the end of the book, the author invites the reader to continue the work of the book by exploring the minors in a similar vein...
approaches thus far:
1. to relate the suits to the elements of the Eucharist, seeing transubstantiation as an analogue to the alchemical goal of transforming lead to gold... correspondingly, the numbered cards are then seen as the stages in the process of transubstantiation. the four elements of the Eucharist also correspond to four aspects of the story of Jesus Christ as well;
2. a possible means of relating the 10 pips of a suit to the seven-fold alchemical process (or the traditional seven-stepped stairway to heaven) is through kabbalah... we have the 10 sephiroth which correspond with the 10 commanding statements of Elohim in the first chapter of Genesis, these are then grouped into the seven days of creation (i'm also incorporating the 11 statements of the Rosicrucian Pattern on the Trestleboard);
3. the seven days of creation correspond to numerous groups of sevens, but relevant to my studies are the seven miracles of Christ in John's gospel, the seven I AM statements of Christ in the same, the seven sacraments of the church, the seven services (that take place during the day) comprising the Liturgy of the Hours, the seven liturgical seasons of the church;
4. the court cards correspond to the four orders of the church: laity, deacon, priest, bishop. grouping these together can provide another metaphor for personal wholeness parallel to the Eucharist and the story of Christ...
i can diagram some of this further if anyone so desires... all this is still in a relatively early stage in development, is there any thing i might be missing? am i barking down the wrong track? any thoughts? bueller?
