Tarot Card Comparisons: The Thoth Tarot-key 21: THE UNIVERSE & The Barbara Walker Tarot-key 21 : THE WORLD

The  Tarot- Universe/World-Key 21-, is the last of the Major Arcana and is the Feminine Compliment to the 0-The Fool. The Universe is attributed to the Hebrew letter Tau [meaning: equal armed cross/the Tau cross] and since this card is compliment to the Fool, letter Aleph [meaning: Ox] the two together spell the word Ath, which means Essence. The Fool is the beginning and the Universe is the end, and therefore the full Essence of Mind. The consensus is that since everything came from no-thing, the end of everything is the return to no-thing.

The letter Tau also refers to the planet Saturn, the outermost and slowest of the 7 sacred planets (the Qabalah was written long before the other planets were discovered); because of its heavy slow qualities the earth was"thrust upon the symbol" . As Crowley explained, "The original three elements, Fire, Air and Water, sufficed for primitive thought; Earth and Spirit represent a latter accretion".

Neither is to be found in the original twenty-two Paths of the Sepher Yetzirah. The World of Assiah, the Material World, does not appear except as a "pendant to the Tree of Life." The moderns have updated the Qabalah accordingly which has only complimented the original. The Barbara Walker Tarot of The World, shows this slower material vibration as the ring around the womb oval.

Earth and Saturn, share certain qualities, heaviness, dullness, coldness, dryness, immobility and the like. Yet, we also find Saturn in Binah, in respect to the Dark Energy and Material of the Womb of all things, on the Queens scale of Observed Nature. Again pointing out that as soon as an end to a process is reached, it always returns to the beginning. This knowledge is often illustrated in the form of a serpent eating its own tail, which is a stylized circle of serpentine force and can even represent the "rings of matter" around Saturn.

This is a "universe of serpents", strings of energy (frequency) spiraling inside of sub-atomic particles (quantum string theory), may seem to be small and insignificant but the whole of the Universe exists because of them. Yet, the whole of the Universe shall return to strings, so the Divine Collective can assimilating data learned, for the next excursion into Self-Awareness. What may be interesting to note, is that electricity is also visible as "serpentine" light. It seems that linking Father and Idea (Male electric force) and Mother and Understanding (female Magnetic Force), which gives form to idea in formed waves of energy that "go back on themselves", shows some cohesive link from ancient to modern insight into the Universal make-up!

 

You may know that Tetragrammaton, The All/Universal Collective Unconscious, who is also called "The Soul that is the Universe", (it is recommended that the student read-The Book of Thoth, by Master Theron) is a formula of ,"The Union of the Father and Mother produces Twins, the son going forward to the daughter, the daughter returning the energy to the father;by this cycle of change the stability and eternity of the universe is assured."( From, The Book of Thoth) Please note, these are cycles of force and form and not a statement of human family life.

A blog, being basic in nature and therefore unable to "tell all", I'll direct the student to The Book of Thoth for a greater understanding of this formula, that is represented in the Tarot court cards as, Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess.

 However, deep meditation on this card is recommended. as is for all Major Arcana that reside between O-The Fool and 21-The Universe, as 20 various agents at work for the completion of the Great Work, i.e. YOU! Remember, each of us is a complete copy of the Universe, each a different perspective and each as valuable as the other!

 Again: The Tarot-key 21: The Universe or The World card, portrays the Womb of the Universe as a Maiden who is the final letter of the word Tetragrammaton (secret name of God). This is the Great Mother, Illustrated  on the Universe card as a dancing maiden, for she is the rhythmic heart beat of Life, The Kali/ Shakti. She is Binah, Cunti,  the Great Mother Ocean of Conscious, the "Will-to-Form"; She is Chronos the origin of Life's consciousness, which is represented by Saturn in the exalted Supernal Realm. She is the Fullest expression of the Great Mother, who is Personified in The Empress card, key 3, the Aima Elohim, Dinah, Saturn, and all the principles behind of what we perceive as physical matter.To European mystics she is known as "the feminine Ultimate Reality". Carl Jung, described her as the archetypal form as Lady Soul, who embodied perforce in every Mother and every beloved; an "omnipresent and ageless image, which corresponds to the deepest reality in man".[Campbell, C.M. 488]

She had " a thousand names" in the East.

Here, we have the Cosmic Dancer, the Mahadevi, who administers and activates the Elements; Shown as the four faces, at the four corners of the Card. The Oval, She is shown dancing in,  The Womb shape of the Universe showing that She is the doorway to and from Malkuth, the 10th Sephiroth (Earth Realm), and Saturn, both of whom, give life and destroy it. She is the great tester of mental and physical possibilities that arise in both life and death . When we "die", leaving behind our organic forms, we arise like the dancer, surrounded by a ring of Stars. This is because all is Mind/The World Soul; the physical and invisible are all perspectives of the One Universal Collective Unconscious Mind/The Elohim Anima.

Yet, most people have a dual conception of themselves, believing that they are body and mind. Therefore,  when they dream, have visions, or meditate, the images that come to them are considered to be divorced from the physical body. Yet, the Mysteries, (Hindu-Gnosis-Metaphysics-Qabalah etc) have stated for thousands of years, that the Cosmos is All Mind and that the distinction between mind and body is one of perception and not of actuality. The Body is but a Spiral Energy (spiritual) perception of Self-Awareness woven out of many self-reflections; A self-reflection of Self Awareness, all of which presides in the Womb- with- a- View, The Mind who is a Maiden who impregnates Herself with "Understanding" the difference between the I and the Am, therefore creating Me.

For instance, close your eyes. The first images or pictures, you see are merely a more refined, subtle form of matter, which are the images and forms of energy nearer to the physical condition. Knowing that our bodies are 99.6% space ( As physicists have explained), the difficult concept that most of the physical  world is unseen, may be easier to grasp.

The Kingdom of Mind is all around you, but we don't see it. Jesus the Christ of Western mysteries, even stated this in the Gnostic Gospels of Didymos,  Judas Thomas,  paragraph 113, when he was quoted as saying, "... the Kingdom of the father is spread out upon the Earth , and  men do not see it."  What Hermetic Qabalist's know, is that the Father, Shin (Fire), lives within the Womb-with-a view and is her dancing partner, often shown in tarot as"Lord Python", the Serpentine movement, shown as Heru-Ra-Ha of Key 19-The Sun. "The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light : these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake." This is the final form of the image of the magical formula of God, combining and transforming so many symbols that description is difficult and migratory. Hence, long-continual meditation is recommended.

The Dancing Goddess of The Universe, or the Traditional-The World Tarot card, represents the Celebration  of the Great Work accomplished; it is the "movement with in the Motion" of all energy. It is the "Aliveness" in all Living forms.  It is the passionate dance rhythm of your intercourse of "Alive" with the Divine Life.

In the four corners, of oval or square, as mentioned before, are the Kerubim images, showing the established Universe. The Thoth Universe card shows about her is an ellipse composed of seventy-two circles for the quinaries of the Zodiac, know as the Shemhamphorasch.  The skeletal plan (grid) of the building of the house of Matter, is shown at the lower center of the card. It shows the older 92 elemental table of known chemicals elements, arranged  according to their rank in the hierarchy. This is all shown as a wreath of "dots" around the dancing lady of The World.

The central wheel of Light initiates the form of the Tree of Life as the ten principle bodies of the solar system: Visible only to the pure of heart. [You'll find these principle bodies explained in the Book of Thoth, by Master Theron, on page 119.] All the symbols on the Thoth card are shown dancing in complex swirls, whorls, loops, much like the atoms dance in the Stars. The back ground color of this card is the indigo of Saturn as the midnight sky, of which the Dancing Maiden is derived. From the Dark Womb of Energy, She is the issue of Living Light. On the Traditional World Card, the blue sky of the World is her back ground.

The proper study of the Paths (Major Arcana cards) is the ascending of Understanding up the Tree of Life, as we are "below", or of a slower frequency, and need to remember the realms of Pure Spirit/High Frequency "above". The experiences on Earth, assist us in our goals of a more refined understanding of Universal patterns. Such as a microscope helps the biologist in a more refined understanding of cell- structure and bacteria. Hence, earth manifestation, with its crystalline lenses of light, (the "I sight" of our senses), helps us see/reflect deeply into the microcosm, so that we better understand the macrocosm. For Life can only see itself as "alive"!

As long as our Divine Consciousness (Soul)is functioning though a physical vehicle, we can discern thought through the filter of "personality" and therefore add to Life's Collective Awareness. This is where our serious esoteric work begins and ends.

 

Hence, The Path of Tau-Key 21-The Universe/The World, joins the crystallized world of earth, 10-Malkuth-meaning Kingdom, with the  9th Sephira, Yesod -meaning Foundation  It is the first journey out of the material condition, that leads us to a greater understanding of the Real Person that was designed by the Higher Self  (Tiphareth-The Sun) for each incarnation, before our man-made personality blinded us to our divinity.

Dr. Paul Foster Case, who wrote the text, The Thirty Two Paths to Wisdom (the number Thirty Two is the sum of the Paths and the Sephiroth) calls The Path of Tau (The Universe or The World card) the " Administrative Intelligence" because it "directs and associates in all seven planets." The "seven planets" he is referring to are the Microprosopus-Hexagram pattern of the seven planets on the Tree of Life.

The understanding of The Path of Tau (meaning "T" cross) , from Malkuth to Yesod, is rooted on the fact that all is of Mind. Tau is a  Hebrew Double-letter (Soul letter), a combination of opposites and is called power-servitude.  I know that, as we are all body oriented, we think that the Mind's realm of ideas, dreams, or thoughts, are somehow divorced from the physical. We seem to have divide mind and body and have a dual concept of ourselves as a body and mind. The Qabalah teaches that all is Mind, yes the body is "crystallized thought", a servant of the Power that is Mind and therefore, within the Universal Mind; like fish and ocean, to separate them is to eliminate them both! Taking this a step further, All is Spirit/Spiral Frequencies of One Energy and the body is "Crystallized Spirit" and/or a Self Image, of the Real Self, who is the Divine Anima. 

 

 The meaning of the word Power, is the ability to do work and the ability to weave esoteric/Pyschic work into physical material is why we-Spirit-have a physical body! We now must work from a material perspective (the "Below") to the Realms of Pure Spirit (the "Above") doing the Serious Work of the Divine [THE GREAT WORK], as long as our Divine Consciousness is functioning through a physical body. Think of the magic we are, for we are from Solar Conscious (Solar Logos), born of Suns, who as an Spiral intelligence (Spirit), have learned to not fear the death of stars, but instead, take the dead star material (physical matter) and make it Live again; Alive, but in a more empathetic, sensual, and personal way and therefore extending the life of Stars as Real Persons who created individual personalities out of microwave frequencies! Real Persons are often refereed to as Souls, personalities are a form of artificial conscious, we call self-consciousness, just as bodies are a artificial sun!

The Path of the Key 21, joins Earth (Malkuth) with the Foundation (Yesod) and is the first path out of the material condition for the personality, leading towards an understanding of the Persona forged by the Higher Self of Tiphareth (our Soul),for EACH incarnation. The Universe Card is the mandala for the"Administrative Intelligence", as Dr. Paul Foster Case described it in his text "The Thirty Two Paths of Wisdom". The Path of Tau is the "Thirty Second Path"and

Dr. Case says," it directs and associates in all their operations the seven planets."

In our discussions of the Universe, we are discussing the Material.  I have often heard people refer to themselves as "mind and body" and when they meditate or dream, they consider that the images that come to them are somehow separate from the body-physical as if the Divine marriage of Spirit and Matter has somehow became a Divine Divorce. Somehow the body is not of Mind; a type of doppelganger that exploded out of the mud of lost dreams. Before, we take a long tour on the fears of being alive, just remember; THE DIVINE CREATIVE BUILDS WHAT IT WANTS TO BE!

The Gnostic  and Qabalistic Mysteries have for generations state that ALL IS MIND. The Above- Macrocosm and the Below-Microcosm , are Cosmic Self Awareness---MIND! Therefore, the distinction between mind and body is perspective, not of actuality. Once again the perspective of "Divide and Conquer", enforced identity cultures does us mental harm. For by fearing the sensuality of the body we become as slaves who fear the lash of our master's (fear of pain/discomfort). Hence, we act as a idiot driver of a car, who fears the sensors that give information of the cars health as gauges. This stress driven- driver, would ignore the "engine warning light", because he fears it would mean discomfort, such as bills, or time in repair (hospital time) and if he "ignores it", it must go away. Finally, when broken down on the highway, the ignorant person will inevitably blame the car.  The same thing happens with the "nervous breakdowns" of those who insist the stress they are sensing, is because of "everything else", rather than their own errant perspectives. The body is a psycho-sensing device, i.e., psychosomatic  vehicle. Anyone who impeccably "drives" a vehicle, especially a "Power Tool" of such vast ability as the human body, needs Sensors and the fearless knowledge of how to read them!

When we close our eyes and see pictures, we are seeing the foundation of Matter, the most refined form of matter-Thoughts- which are the energy forms closest to the physical condition. The Physical is a Crystallization of these subtle forms brought about by the Power and mutual Servitude of  I AM ME----Force (I) and Form (AM) whom both are Power to generate offspring-Me, and who all serve each other as a Divine Psyche and power tool. We are the Figure Eight (infinity-symbol) of Force and Form. A twisting of Serpentine Force and Form flow, i.e The Image Maker. Hence, perspectives, base on how we identify ourselves, creates the dimension of "Me".

As have stated before, we are 99.6% invisible, which means that most of our identity and the Physical World is Unseen! That means, that most of us are judging the Kingdom of God (the Universe/ Earth) with less than .4% of our minds, via sensuality!  Since Malkuth is the only sensual kingdom, we must travel The Path of Tau to experience the "Seven Palaces of Assiah"(Seven planets), represented by the seven pointed star on the Thoth card.

 Since the motion of our Self- Conscious energy crystallized into form, and is downward on the Tree of Life, so it is obvious that the first path upward is the Last Key of the Major Arcana:

 To see the wonder of this .4% observation, I ask how many of us would go to a bank to change a "Twenty" into lesser denominations, and accept only .4% back as change?  Why then would you, as a Soul, accept only .4% of the Electromagnetic Spectrum of Energy, as  all that is Real and/or Reality? The Real Person, dances as a Universe!

As you can see by looking at the illustration of the Four Worlds, Assiah is Malkuth, alone, and it is described as our sphere of sensation. Yet Malkuth is symbolized by the Seven Pointed Star which is representative of the Seven Palaces of Assiah (planets) By experiencing the Path of Tau--The Universe, we are taken to the Gateway of these Seven Palaces.

On the Path of Tau, the Universal Plan (The Great Work) becomes apparent without necessarily being understood. You can enter the "Holy of Holies" and encounter them in such away that you are "in them but not of them", a product of the Divine perspective--which is where most "new age'rs"  are not at. Each of us must progress further up the Tree of Life to become above " them" (Sephira), as only through hindsight can we really see! The physical self-conscious can only realize "reflections in light", and not see the Transmitter of that reflected image (The Dark Sun)!  Now this doesn't mean you "ascend" out of Form, but that you Ascend "within" Form, for we are building theAs above, So below; not to leave the above or the below.  As The Power of Limitation, we are to expand the self-reflective light spectrum/electromagnetic flow by focusing our Psychic Power of "Will to Be",an inheritance from the Divine Creative, who began as Kether (Eheieh-"I Will BE")- into this crystallized-light dimension (Bio-protons) of I AM ME.

What is important here is that all the  Force and Form of The One Energy is present and self- balanced on this Path. The Above has condensed as the Below! This self-balance is also stated in the  Oriental Tao, as: "What is here is there, and what is there is here. If it is not here, it is not there and if it is not there, it is not here."In Qabalah, it is stated as,"All the power that ever was or will be is here now." So get it....and say, "I AM all the power that ever was or will be and I AM here now as Me!"

Therefore, this is the Path of Gnostic Initiation, where the personality is encountering itself and becoming aware of the fact that what we encounter on this Path is of our own making. This is where the physical personality, realizes it is not really "in charge of the Macrocosmic Universe" (Qabalistic-Macroprosopos) of I AM  but rather of all that is inside our heads which is a Microcosmic universe (Microprosopos) of "Me".

However, we also encounter symbols and ideas which are of a greater consciousness than our own, and begin to see how our being relates to a Universal picture. It is easy to know when one is "on this path and becomes of it", rather observing it for we become dreamy, bedazzled, a "sleeping beauty" who needs a prince to kiss us, and therefore awaken us. The self-conscious, often called ego, loves the fantasy of denial-- but not the work of doing.  In other words, "just lay back and the dreams will deliver you"--kind of thinking that doesn't understand or denies the  Psychosomatic Power that drives our Creative Power tools. This type of denial really is apparent when someone suggests to the "flighty", that to think  is not enough for you must "do the Deed" as well. The flighty self-conscious sees an enemy to its blissful denial and will use "name calling" to disabuse them while expounding on the belief system of fantasy. Utopia is such a belief for it is a phantasm based on fear of pain.

Therefore, our own Survival thinking (animal mind), must be observed on this Path in order to continue on into the Higher Self/Real Person, which is a Psyche (Soul) from the Collective Oneness and not of the divisionism and "comfort dreams" of the survival animal mind which worships "belief systems" (superstitions)  but abhors "deed-systems", i.e. the diligent personal gathering of experience and/or Knowledge.  The initiate knows that to travel the Path upward to Tiphareth (Christ light) is a "deed system". This is a Path that can only be successfully traveled by those who bring their Personalities into a balance with The Real Person "within"; a balancing of self-understanding and action. As a Real Person we no longer look for blame or worship, as we experience the phantoms-of- emotional pain that we are creating and experiencing; or by entertaining ourselves with an extended comfortable denial fantasy where all is "Sunny", which many deluded people believe is this Path. Sorry folks, but "rain falls on the just and unjust alike". So get over it, and above it!

Spirit/ "Will to Force", is not a kind of Opiate that keeps us from seeing the self-surgery that must be done! The True Seeker, must keep in mind that The Universe or The World Tarot represents a Path of  "inner" entry into the Astral (Yesod). However, the Astral "seeks to deceive", for this is the fantasy place, were the many see or channel "ascended masters" from and where the fallacy of worship has only changed colors.

Wake up! We are the dreams of I AM; a ME who is "As above, so below"; The Great Work, which simply states we came to "descend" Creative Mastery.

The Entire Tree of Life is your Real Person, often called "your spirit", and the common belief is to "seek Holy Spirit". How so? The Kether, the 1st Sephiroth, is Spirit, the first "I Will Be", and the last Sephiroth, Malkuth is "I AM Being" ....the two combined, combine the whole Divine Collective that is the "Tree of Life". Therefore, if you have a being "Here", you have one "There", therefore, YOU ALREADY ARE WHOLE SPIRIT! Unless one is blinded by the forest, this doesn't take a lot of thought, because the Divine Creative obviously has devoted a lot of time (14 billion years) to creating a Physical Universe! Will to Form-the Divine Feminine and Will to Force, the Divine Masculine, have combined to build Us as "It's" Image, because The Divine Mind Wishes "To Be!"...It was always "ascended" and has created self image in "higher and lower" frequency! As do we! I know this seems hard to get, for we came "down" the Tree of Life, and must reclaim our knowledge "left behind" because of psyche "down sizing". However, we, the Spiritual Adventures of "Here and There" Self, finally have the form we need, for the Hu (god in Mandarin)-Man (from Hindu Manas-Mind), has a brain that can store and sensually experience this information!  Right now, according to medical experts, we are using only 7 to 10% of it and "it" is only .4% of our Whole Intelligence!

In the Thoth Deck Universe and on the traditional, World Tarot Card, we see the Four Alchemical Elements as different images of heads surrounding the Oval-Womb (Will to Form) of the Great Mother which is both the entry point of Life and the exit of  Death. Her  fullest expression as Binah (Understanding) is represented as the female form "within" and is all principles that we perceive as  matter and is shown in gematria (Qabalistic numerology) as 2+1+3, the number of the Sephira-Binah.

Creation in Time requires a beginning and an end to an event, otherwise form is not conceived. So the event of the 6th Sephiroth-Tiphareth-Beauty, Force down-pouring and uprising, must have a beginning an middle and an end. Therefore, Life processes run in waves, or spirals of "alive" forms, which come back upon themselves and this process is the nature of the Akashic Fluid of Yesod. This spiral force is directed by the passive (retentive-female) and active (expressive- male) energy flow of the Psyche, each of which is a pole of a dual poled Creative.

 This return of Form into Force, is shown on the Thoth card as the serpentine masculine force of the Kundalini Ida and Pingala as the Divine Feminine's dance partner, which happens to represent the Primary sexual forces of Nature that will be experienced on the Path of Tau.

The blue background of this card represents the Great Sea of The Divine Collective Un-Consciousness (Binah-Understanding & Chokma-Sophia-Wisdom) in its most dense and difficult expression.There are many currents here, and some lead to the Light and others to the darkness of self-delusion. We must really carry the perspective of,"Everyone I see is another way of being Me" on this path so that we don't form this Akashic Fluid into phantom "enemies" and"masters" that sink our "life" boat personality into an enslaved rower of "someone's dream".  This Path of Tau, is the path of Self- Perspective-formed- images of Me, as done by the I AM.

In this new Aeon of Horus, the Goddess has arisen from the Ashes of the Patriarch and is once more as the culminating "Great Secret" (Major Arcana), flanked by symbols of the seasons, bearing the rods of power (dorjes); dancing the rhythmic dance of Life into the Alive and back again. To quote Swami Vivekananda:"One vision I see as clear as life before me, that ancient Mother has awakened once more, sitting on her throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. Proclaim her to all the world with the voice of Peace and Benediction."

When thrown in a Tarot Reading:

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