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Spiritual Evolution Or From The Fool To The Hermit Part 1

I asked Suzzan if I might introduce this third part of the thesis because of its crucial nature in understanding spiritual evolution and because as the layman of the two of us, I might use that perspective which she has far surpassed, to share some helpful hints in its digestion. The information that follows is condensed learning spanning 13 years of study to act like a quick reference and therefore some methods have been incorporated that hopefully make the reading easier. Diagrams have been included (I suggest you refer to them often) and some unconventional use of (parentheses) denoting associations between aspects and objects so that information flow may be less encumbered. This is not light reading and is best digested slowly in study…let me hand you over to Suzzan.
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(Thesis-3rd Quarter) SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION Or From The Fool to The Hermit Part One

I asked Suzzan if I might introduce this thesis because of its crucial nature in understanding Spiritual Evolution and because as the layman of the two of us, I might use that perspective which she has far surpassed to share some helpful hints about the format that might seem peculiar to the reader at first. The information that follows is learning spanning 13 years of study condensed into the following exposé, which is fast moving and packed with possibly unfamiliar correlations. Diagrams have been included (I suggest you refer to them often) and some unconventional use of (parentheses) denoting associations between aspects and objects so that information flow may be less encumbered. This is not light reading and is best digested slowly in study; with that said however, we feel just one read will leave you with possible new insights.

Over the years I have often wondered about the terms of Spirit, Soul and Higher Self. The definitions of the first two had been answered when I understood that the Spirit is from God and the Soul is from the Astrological powers, but what of the Higher Self? My first question was is the Higher Self the Soul or the Spirit? I learned that the answer to that is neither. My second question was, does all life on Earth contain a Higher Self? I learned that this answer was a little more complicated, as it all depends on consciousness. All life on Earth does contain a Higher Self, but in lower consciousnesses it is still developing. For instance, although the Animal Kingdom is the first time the Higher Self becomes active, because animals are the first level of individual consciousness they can only react to stimuli and display emotion. Consequently, as they are not self aware, the animal Higher Self in most cases remains dormant. It doesn’t become fully activated until it reaches the human stage. First though, I needed to determine what the Higher Self is and more especially what is its function. From the very beginning I had been confused over the expressions Higher Self, Spirit, Life Principle and Spark of God. At first I had tried to understand the Higher Self from the Hindu esoteric concept of the seven principles or the seven main chakras, but this system assigns the highest to the crown or top of the head and I’d been clearly shown that now the heart is the highest level. The most amazing thing I discovered was that there are three levels to the Higher Self.

Foremost, it was necessary for me to realize that Spiritual Evolution, like physical evolution is dynamic and although it can remain in what appears as a static state for eons, it is also capable of making huge leaps or advances in a relatively short period of time. This is such a time.

(Note: I should state that the information I’m discussing here was reserved for the initiates of secret mystery schools. Now, as most of the Human Race is capable of grasping deeper concepts, it is time to openly reveal it to all. True a familiarity with the 22 Major Arcana cards of the Tarot and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life is beneficial, but it is not obligatory. The only necessary requirement is an open mind to the possibility of the Tarot being so much more than a tool for defining your fortune. I endeavor to explain each term in detail; so don’t be overwhelmed if the terms I use are unfamiliar to you at first. If you bear with me, it will become clear.)

God told me that Spiritual Revelation is like a rose bud. At first we only sense the beauty inside, but gradually as the Sun’s rays warm the petals it slowly opens each precious petal, revealing the glory and wonder of the flower. It is then that the rose attracts the butterfly or bee to pollinate it and transform the rose into a new rose-bush. This is exemplified in the development of Islamic Sufism. Nonetheless, every religion has gone through this process. Christianity, through Mysticism; Greek Philosophy and Gnosticism through the Egyptian and Eleusian mysteries; Judaism, through Kabbalism, Greek Mystery schools and Chaldean Zoroastrianism; Buddhism through incorporating Taoism and Confucianism and last but by no means least Hinduism, through Eastern Mysticism and Esotericism. I came to understand that to learn what the Higher Self is and spiritually evolve we need to unite them All. This is exemplified through the ancient Wisdom Religion, which is the secret teaching behind all religions and philosophies.

To fully grasp this, I needed to return to the beginning of my journey. Outside Jerusalem April 4th 1994 I heard, “Today is the unification of All Religions.” Like so many times, I didn’t understand how this would happen until much later. In fact it wasn’t until I read Reza Aslan’s No god but God and really saw the contribution the Islamic Sufis made to spiritual Truth that the clouds, (metaphorically speaking) began to disperse. Still, I wasn’t going to truly understand until the morning of New Years Day 2007. Then God showed me what I needed to incorporate in this thesis. In addition I learned that the key to understanding the Higher Self is through mysticism, which is hidden in the mystical side of several major religions and the philosophers and alchemist’s teaching on the Philosophers’ Stone. The mystical side of Judaism is the Kabbalistic Tree of Life or Sephirot. For the Christian religion it is the Gnostic Valentinian teachings on Sophia. The Taoist teaching on the elements and the Buddhist concept of detachment from suffering are essential; as are the Islamic Sufi teachings on self-annihilation and union with the Divine.

I must reiterate that all the World’s religions are involved; especially those designated as Pagan. This is because the “pagans” understood the natural forces, particularly as they react with astrology and the seasons. Still, as many of the above are either offshoots or successors of their “pagan ancestors,” I ask your forgiveness if I don’t mention every spiritual or religious sect in unlocking the main teaching.

What absolutely amazed me was that the Kabbalistic Tarot holds nearly all the information we need to understand the definition and purpose of the Higher Self in our Spiritual Evolution. Considering the Church’s condemnation of the Tarot, with one of the many designations being “the Devil’s tool,” at first I found this astounding. In fact I can remember thinking when I first read The Rabbi’s Tarot by Daphna Moore that assigning notes and colors to the cards seemed pointless. That was before I received the Hidden Codes of Life, which are the means to unlock everyone’s spiritual potential. Let me explain. I was shown that by using seven disciplines of Astrology, Numerology, Tarot, Color, Stones, Symbols and Notes, in respect to a person’s birth date and present name, reveals the Hidden Codes of his or her life, which helps to unmask his or her spiritual purpose on Earth. It is through the twenty-two Major Arcana cards that the Codes are deciphered.

Several writers have tried to tackle the Tarot from a spiritual perspective, but the one God led me to and the one I found most helpful was Daphna Moore. I have quoted from her The Rabbi’s Tarot extensively throughout both this book and The True Philosophers’ Stone, and again here I am going to use her descriptions for the Major Arcana to determine what the Higher Self is. She equates the Higher Self with the Hierophant, but that is the 6th card in the Major Arcana, (although it is numbered 5 in the Tarot); five cards have gone before; what are they? We start with card 0, The Fool.

The Fool according to Daphna Moore represents the Hebrew letter Aleph, meaning ox, the element Air, bright pale yellow and the planet Uranus. Most people, including Daphna Moore believe that The Fool represents on the human level, the pre-incarnate spirit. I’d also discovered in my studies that Paracelsus, the famous alchemist believed that the body came from the earth: the soul from the stars and the spirit from God. If Paracelsus were taken literally then he would appear to be saying that the Spirit and Soul are from different places.

However, I’d been shown how both Paracelsus and Daphna Moore could be correct. It involves understanding that the Spirit is within the Soul. The Spirit or Spark of God is immersed in the Life Principle of the Earth, which includes all life, but the Spirit only becomes available through the Spiritual Soul. The Fool gazing up at a White Sun in the card is carrying this information. According to Ms. Moore apart from the Spiritual Plane, this can also represent the Abstract or Archetypal Plane. Consequently I see The Fool representing on the human level, the Spiritual Soul, which equates to the 6th principle/chakra or buddhi in Hindu/Buddhist teachings.

Traditionally there are four planes on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life incorporating the ten Sephirot. With respect to creation, God showed me that Kether or Crown denotes the Union of the Christ and Sophia before the creation of the universe. So I take it to mean that the Spiritual Soul (The Fool) is the potential Super-Consciousness or Christ-Consciousness, hidden within a human being. If you think of the Archetypal plane as representing the spark of an idea; the Creative as bringing that idea into consciousness; the Formative as bringing forth the image and finally, the Active as bringing that idea to fruition. See Diagram 1 below:

Diagram I The traditional Tree of Life

 The Magician according to Daphna Moore represents the Hebrew letter Beth, meaning house, air, Yellow and the planet Mercury. The Magician isn’t as easy to categorize as The Fool. Ms. Moore describes it as representing the Will, the Self-Conscious and Intellect. In thinking about this, I was reminded that the ego is connected to the self, so The Magician is also the source of the lower ego or counterfeit spirit.

What is really interesting is that both The Fool and The Magician represent the element air and the color yellow. Plus the planet Mercury is associated with both cards, because The Magician represents the planet Mercury, whereas The Fool’s planet is Uranus, which is the higher octave of Mercury. The color yellow, the planet Mercury and the element air in esoteric teaching denote anything of the mind or mental plane. This means the ego/counterfeit spirit resides in the mind. This is because; the Will (The Magician) is dual, with one side being of the Divine and the other of the ego/counterfeit spirit. Which side rules you is determined by the Intellect, which sits between the two and is the interface with the personality/body through the brain. Traditionally, on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, Mercury is assigned to Hod or Splendor, the eighth Sephirot, but on a higher level, The Magician as Divine Will is best represented by the second Sephirot Chokmah or Wisdom. Chokmah denotes the planetoid Chiron and the Christ separated from Sophia, but this is still before the creation of the universe. The Magician is only Hod at its lower level or the human Will, unpurified. (I will return to this later.)

All of the great teachers have taught that in order to change the world we first have to change ourselves. To give us a visual aid, the ancient teachers divided the twenty-two Major Arcana of the Tarot into what is referred to as a Tarot Tableau consisting of three rows of seven cards, with The Fool presiding over the tableau. Daphna Moore says that the first row, consisting of The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers and The Chariot represents THE CHIEF PRINCIPLES OF CONSCIOUSNESS. The second row, consisting of Strength, The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man, Death and Temperance represent THE CHIEF LAWS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND OF THE UNIVERSE. The third row, consisting of, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgment and The World represent THE CONSEQUENCE OF YOUR USING THOSE LAWS, AND WHAT YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED.1 Another significant point is the division of the twenty-two cards into Mother, Double and Simple Hebrew letters. There are three Mother letters, which represent the elements of Air, Water and Fire. Seven cards are assigned to Double letters, which represent the Seven Sacred Planets of Mercury, The Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, The Sun and Saturn. The remaining twelve cards are allocated to twelve simple letters, which represent the twelve sun-signs of the Zodiac. The relevance of the different Hebrew letters will become apparent as we proceed, but for now it will help to familiarize yourself with the Tarot Tableau, which is produced below.

Major Arcana - Rider-Waite © US Games

Through the first seven cards we are shown the conscious evolution of the human race. Still, if we look at The Magician and Strength card we can observe the symbol for infinity over both of the figures heads. This symbol is also associated with the axiom AS ABOVE SO BELOW, AS BELOW SO ABOVE.

Ancient wisdom taught the cards/trumps 0,1,2 and 3 related to the macrocosm as well as the microcosm. The Will represented by The Magician, applies to the Creator’s Will as well as the personal Will. Others have said that The Magician also symbolizes the Logos or Word. This could be seen as when an individual brings his or her personal Will into alignment with the Creator’s Will, he or she participates as a true co-creator, with the result of bringing to reality the paradise the world is capable of being. Unfortunately because a large number of individuals are using their personal wills for the lower self or ego, the result is chaos.

Card number two, The High Priestess according to Daphna Moore represents the Hebrew letter Gimel, meaning camel, water, light blue and the Moon. From the macrocosmic perspective, The High Priestess introduces the Universal Subconscious. Ms. Moore equates The High Priestess with Cosmic memory. In esoteric terms the color blue, water and the Moon denote emotion.

Remembering that Sophia’s emotions of fear, grief, ignorance and confusion became our four elements shows how The High Priestess can represent Sophia. Also God had shown me that although the Moon is assigned to Yesod - Foundation, which is the ninth Sephirot, as the representation of Sophia, she is also associated with Daath. However, as this incorporates both the macrocosm and the microcosm, I will return to The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) or Sophia as Daath later.

Traditionally, The High Priestess has been thought to represent the third Sephirot Binah, this Sephirot is neither masculine nor feminine, he/she is androgynous, incorporating both active and passive elements into his/her makeup. I didn’t understand this aspect of The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) until God showed me the role of Christ and Sophia. In the chapter Whence the Origin of Evil I related that before Sophia could return to the Pleroma, the emotions she experienced during her separation from her partner, (What has been Willed) were expelled from Sophia’s being. This is where things became tricky. Due to the elements being outside the Pleroma and containing Sophia’s essence, they were of a dual nature, spiritual and material. They also contained elements from the Ogdoad, intelligence from Nous or Mind and the Life Principle from Life. And so to redeem her residue, after The Christ joined her, they brought forth the Demiurge. The Gnostics called the Demiurge Ialdaboath, who was the Creator and God of the Old Testament and worshiped throughout the world under various names.
Many Kabbalists associate the Demiurge with the planet Saturn, which they assign to the third Sephirot, Binah. This is interesting because the Jewish Sabbath is held on Saturn’s Day or Saturday. Binah is also associated with the Egyptian goddess Isis as this Sephirot is also known as the Great Mother. Furthermore, Binah is also believed by many Kabbalists to be the Creator of the universe. I can almost see the male Jewish High Priests pulling their hair out. Still the problem arises when we think of the creative forces in terms of gender as in gods and goddesses. If instead we adopt the Valentinian’s teaching of the active/masculine and passive/feminine for the creative forces we don’t run into so much trouble.

After the creation of the universe, The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) from the microcosmic perspective represents your subconscious memory helplessly recording every hope and desire. She cannot influence you to change, but if you give her consistent images she can assist you to fulfill your goals. At the macrocosmic level The High Priestess represents Divine Wisdom, or Sophia before her fall and redemption. She holds the potential that becomes realized in union with The Magician (Self Conscious/Will) becoming blended into The Empress.

Bringing in the Valentinians and Gnosticism we can apply it to gain further understanding about the reunion of The Magician (Logos/Christ) and The High Priestess (Sophia) after creation. The Good News: An Alternate Theory reported that the Gnostic Pleroma was waiting for the human race to develop intellect in order to rescue Sophia’s emotions. To recap: Sophia united with the Christ transforming her fear into water, her grief into air, her confusion into earth and her ignorance into fire. These four elements were then used to create everything in the universe. With the employment of the energies from card 3 - The Empress, (Individual Subconscious) which occurs through the union of cards 1 – The Magician and 2 – The High Priestess, the images of The Magician can be manifested on the physical or material plane.

To return to The High Priestess as Daath; many depictions of the Tree of Life include Daath, meaning knowledge as a vaguely defined broken-lined-circle, which is not included as a Sephirot. Normally this is placed in the center directly beneath Kether or Crown. However, God showed me that an aspect of Daath/Knowledge also represents Sophia before the creation of the universe. Consequently, she could also be placed in the highest Sephirot on the left-hand pillar of severity in the place of Binah or Understanding.

Whether or not The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) is Daath depends on whether we were talking about before creation or after. This was a little confusing for me; so let me tell you how I sorted it out. After Sophia left the Pleroma she joined with the Christ to turn her emotions into the elements. Then she separated from him to become an aspect of Daath. Then Christ as Chokmah and Sophia as Daath brought forth the Demiurge or Creator. After the Big Bang Sophia became united with the Christ again, guiding the Creator and creation. At this time Sophia is The High Priestess in the form of Binah. Daath remains within Binah in a dormant state.

Daphna Moore also equates The High Priestess with the Holy Ghost.2 I will deal with this later, but for now let us move on. After The High Priestess, (Universal Subconscious), which incidentally is the only time she appears by herself, we come to the next card, card 3 - The Empress representing according to Ms. Moore the Hebrew letter Daleth, meaning door, earth, Venus, the Creative Imagination and the Individual Subconscious. The number and color of this card is the means to understanding its importance.

First the number three is the combination of the three previous cards; 0+1+2=3, which incorporates the entire macrocosm and second the color green is the combination of yellow, The Fool (Spiritual Soul) and The Magician (Self-conscious) and blue The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious). Ms. Moore relates that the female figure, in card number 3 appears throughout the Major Arcana Tableau. She appears with The High Priestess in The Hierophant; The Magician in The Lovers; with a lion in Strength, combined with The High Priestess in Justice and again combined with The High Priestess in The Star. Ms. Moore goes on to explain that “The root of the self-conscious mind is THE MAGICIAN; the root of the subconscious mind is THE EMPRESS. THE MAGICIAN perfected, united with the Higher Self, and THE EMPRESS perfected, united with THE HIGH PRIESTESS, are the two aspects of the super-conscious in us.”3

Without going into this too deeply, as I will try to explain the different levels later, The Empress (Creative Imagination) on a macrocosmic level represents Nature or all material creation. Remembering the four Kabbalistic planes, this would be in the Assiah or Active plane. At one level higher, or in the Yesod or Formative Plane, The Empress represents Sophia operating in the Soul Plane. From the microcosmic or human consciousness level, Daphna’s statement about the union of The High Priestess and The Empress in The Star, could be interpreted as saying when you unite your High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) with your Empress (Individual Subconscious) she, The Empress can materialize your Magician’s (Intellect/Will) images. To put into an even more basic way, if you unite both aspects of the subconscious, your Creative Imagination will materialize your Self-conscious’ dreams or visions. This is where Daath comes in again.

Dion Fortune the author of The Mystical Qabalah4 was born during the Age of enlightenment and like H.P. Blavatsky saw that Christianity needed to be reunited with its mystical roots in the Qabalah.

(Note: Something needs to be said about Dion Fortune’s book, before I continue. It is important to keep in mind that she wrote her book between WWI and WWII and it is predominantly a manual on using the Sephirotic Tree of Life for magic. This is crucial because this was before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. In her book Ms Fortune advocates invoking outside powers to assist you. When she wrote the book there were safeguards in place to protect the unaware of being influenced or worse possessed by anything, unless deliberately sought. In the chapter Origin of Evil, I related that with the dropping of the atom bombs, we reversed creation. Now those safeguards are gone and the uninitiated can cause real harm to both themselves and others. Having said that, Ms Fortune’s book can be invaluable to those seeking answers to spiritual questions and as long as you don’t engage in any magic or ceremony you are perfectly safe.)

In reading her masterpiece, The Mystical Qabalah, both Craig and I were surprised that we didn’t read anything written by her until the beginning of 2007. Still, neither Craig nor I determined what books we read, let alone the order they were read in. However, after reading Ms, Fortune’s book I understood why we hadn’t read it until after I’d written the outline for this thesis. More importantly we read the new edition, which wasn’t published until 2000.

The most startling thing I gleaned from Ms. Fortune’s book was that each Sephirot conceals a miniaturized Tree of Life within it, which includes a Daath. She related “So by virtue of the great Wisdom and Realization that it holds, Daath embraces the Sphere of Justice: Justice at the supreme level, the absolute balancing point of the smallest atom in relationship with furthest and largest sun…”5

At first in reading this, I wasn’t sure whether The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) or The Empress (Individual Subconscious) represented Daath. That is because, although card 11 - Justice is the union of card 2 - The High Priestess and card 3 - The Empress, both the color and its corresponding planet, Venus indicates the predominance of card 3 - The Empress. Yet the number 11, which is the number of Justice reduces to 2 and therefore associates it with The High Priestess. I learned that the answer is concealed in the Hebrew letters of the name Daath with respect to the Tarot.

Daath is the combination of the Hebrew letters Daleth, Ayin and Tau. In the Tarot, card 3 - The Empress is assigned to Daleth, card 15 - The Devil is assigned to Ayin and card 21 - The World is assigned to Tau. Both The Devil and The World contain the energy of Saturn and Saturn was thought to represent Binah, which is also associated with the goddess Isis. Nonetheless, the planet most associated with Isis is Venus. So the strongest planetary vibration for Daath is Venus. This is because The Empress has Daleth meaning door as its Hebrew letter, and The Empress at the highest level represents The Holy Spirit.

The planet Venus rules two sun-signs, Taurus and Libra. Card 11 - Justice is assigned to Libra, which is the quintessential symbol for justice. However, it is The Empress (Individual Subconscious or Creative Imagination) as Venus united with The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious or Memory) that constitutes Justice. Remembering that Daath is “Justice at the supreme level” does this mean card 11 – Justice represents Daath? The logical conclusion would be yes, but this is where the different Hebrew letters come in. Card 11 – Justice is only assigned the simple letter Lamed, whereas The Empress is assigned to the double letter Daleth. Consequently, because The Empress represents the planet Venus and not just a sun-sign the planet rules, “she” is the strongest influence for the planet, rather than Justice. Still, The High Priestess is also assigned to a double letter, the Hebrew double letter Gimel, but instead of the planet Venus, the planet The High Priestess represents is The Moon. As a result, it is The Empress that represents Daath.

Irrespective of the above information, for now I am describing Spiritual Evolution at the microcosmic level and at that level, the above information shows clearly that the two aspects of the subconscious become united. It is from this point on that The High Priestess isn’t mentioned alone again. Having said that; we spiritually evolve by uniting not only the two forms of the sub-conscious, but also uniting the Universal Sub-conscious (Memory) with the Self-conscious, which leads to the development of Creative Imagination. The uniting of the three consciousnesses results in the development of both inductive and deductive reasoning, which leads me to the next card.

In the Tarot the male counterpart to The Empress (Individual Subconscious or Creative Imagination) is her consort, The Emperor. Ms. Moore has this card representing the Hebrew letter Heh, meaning window, sight, fire, the color red and the sun sign Aries, which is ruled by the planet Mars. This is the first time the color red and the element fire is introduced in the Tarot. Red epitomizes action and passion and is a valuable key to unlocking Spiritual Evolution.

Moreover, in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, Mars represents the fifth Sephirot, Geburah meaning Severity or Strength. Interestingly, Geburah isn’t the head of the pillar of Severity, Binah is.

The picture of The Emperor conjures up images of a creative God like Zeus. But Zeus wasn’t Mars; he was Jupiter. It is in the element the two planets represent that this dilemma is solved. Both Jupiter and Mars are of the Fire element, but whereas Mars is on the Pillar of Severity, Jupiter is on the Pillar of Mercy. In this way, the Kabbalists were saying that the Creator incorporated both judgment and mercy.

As both of these Sephirot fall in the Creative Plane of the Tree of Life, at the macrocosmic level The Emperor represents two Sephirot, Geburah and Chesed or Severity and Mercy. Also, because they both represent the element fire and as the scientific consensus is that creation began in fire, it seems appropriate to assign the active side of the Creator of the universe to The Emperor and both Jupiter and Mars.

Yod Heh Vav Heh, the Hebrew spelling of the Creator has two Heh’s. Ms. Moore says that one Heh represents inductive reasoning, whilst the other Heh represents deductive reasoning. I wasn’t sure what the difference was so I looked up the two meanings in Webster’s. In a nutshell, inductive reasoning is taking in from observation of the exterior, whereas, deductive is dissecting that information from within to ascertain a conclusion. In other words from an evolutionary perspective, the two aspects of Reason or The Emperor united is of both the self-conscious and subconscious.

And so we come to the card number five, The Hierophant, which represents the Higher Self, intuition, Venus, the Hebrew letter Vav, meaning nail and the color Red-Orange. Daphna Moore says The Hierophant shows how your two aspects of the subconscious The High Priestess and The Empress learn to listen to the Higher Self,6 but I said there were three aspects to the Higher Self, which one is The Hierophant?

It is the color, sun-sign and symbol assigned to The Hierophant that identifies it as an aspect of the Higher Self. First the sun-sign assigned is Taurus, whose symbol is the bull. Remember the meaning of the Hebrew letter Aleph assigned to The Fool (Spiritual Soul) is the ox. The ox is the domesticated bull that cooperates with humanity, whereas the bull epitomizes self-will or stubbornness. The message here is that it is humanity’s purpose to tame the will. How is that done? Here the color assigned to the card gives the answer. Red-Orange is produced by two parts red/fire and one part yellow/air. Ms. Moore uses the symbol for Vav, nail and the Tetragrammaton (Yod Heh Vav Heh) to show the purpose of The Hierophant. She writes, “In the word Yod Heh Vav Heh you see at once that the Vav connects the two Heh’s…”7 Vav or The Hierophant represents the Will or The Magician on a higher level connecting both inductive and deductive reasoning, the two Heh’s.

As I’ve already said, Heh is assigned to The Emperor (Reason) but it is the addition of the color yellow and the symbol of the ox that shows who The Hierophant is; it is the higher aspect of The Magician (Self-conscious).

The Hierophant or (Higher Self) is depicted as a masculine figure in the card. This is surprising because there is an overwhelming feminine or passive aspect to The Hierophant. First, the sun-sign assigned to card 5 – The Hierophant is Taurus, which is ruled by Venus; second the card represents intuition, which is normally associated with the feminine. Lastly as I said, Daphna Moore says The Hierophant shows how your two aspects of the subconscious The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) and The Empress (Individual Subconscious), both feminine, learn to listen to the Higher Self (The Hierophant). Ultimately, The Hierophant’s message is saying that it is by uniting your Magician (Self-conscious), with both The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) and The Empress (Individual Subconscious) and The Emperor (Reason), The Magician or Will becomes the first level of the Higher Self, The Hierophant.
It is through the use of the two aspects (inductive and deductive) of your reason, (The Emperor), that you reach your Intuition, (The Hierophant). By turning your personal Will (The Magician) into the Divine Will, The Magician (Will) becomes The Hierophant (Higher Self) teaching both aspects of the subconscious (The High Priestess and The Empress) to listen to the angel depicted in the next card, The Lovers. This is when the second level of the Higher Self begins to emerge. Depending on how well you listen to your internal angel or conscience, determines whether you progress or fall.

In card 6 - The Lovers, the Individual Subconscious, (The Empress) is the one who is listening to the angel, while the self-conscious, (The Magician) seems distracted by her. How can that be? Didn’t The Magician become The Hierophant teaching the two aspects of the subconscious? The key here is in understanding that The Magician represents the Will, Intellect and Self-Conscious. So far I had deduced that the emergence of the Higher Self (The Hierophant) is when a person unites both aspects of the subconscious (The High Priestess and The Empress) and reason (The Emperor) with the self-conscious (The Magician). But even though the Higher Self has begun to emerge, the ego or counterfeit spirit is still present at this time. This is where the teachings on the Sacred marriage or Union come in. It will take the union of the self-conscious, (The Magician) and the individual subconscious (The Empress) to deal with the ego/counterfeit spirit. However, The Magician, like the Higher Self has three aspects, or levels; Divine Will, lower will or ego/counterfeit spirit and Intellect. The aspect of The Magician that joins with the universal subconscious (The High Priestess) is the Intellect, which results in the development of Creative Imagination (The Empress). So as I said, Sophia has now become Venus immersed in the Soul Plane in order to transmute the elements/emotions. Nonetheless, the key to the importance of The Empress is in that she represents Creative Imagination. This is because the development of Creative Imagination is when the consciousness as the human being first becomes a co-creator.

At the emergence of the first level of the Higher Self (The Hierophant); comes the first opportunity to begin the transmutation of Sophia’s emotions. This is because the Higher Self is the source of all emotion. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but let me share with you how it was explained to me in a vision. The vision was in the form of an analogy. First I saw the Higher Self as the tiny spring at the head of a river. Then as the clear stream flowed down it divided into two streams, becoming a fork in the river. One stream remained clear flowing quickly. The other stream became polluted and cloudy and slowed down. I understand this, as the original spring is the Higher Self, which originates within the Spirit, which knows only Love, Joy and Compassion. As the stream (emotions) flows (grows) it becomes divided, dependant on what part or aspect of the consciousness is directing the emotions. The stream that becomes polluted and cloudy is depicting the emotions governed by the counterfeit spirit or lower ego, whereas the stream that remains clear is demonstrating the emotions that are controlled by the Spiritual Soul.

After that digression, let’s get back to the Major Arcana. The Kabbalists only consider three elements, air, fire and water. Earth is considered a compound of all three elements. Taurus, the sun-sign that represents The Hierophant, which is ruled by Venus, is an earth sign. Remember the element of earth was made from Sophia’s confusion. However, it isn’t The Hierophant that begins the transmutation of the elements, but the next card, The Lovers.

The Lovers demonstrate how Sophia as Venus or The Empress, your Creative Imagination starts the process of transmuting the emotions/elements. Daphna Moore says The Lovers represent the Hebrew letter Zain, meaning sword, air, the color orange and the planet Mercury through the sun-sign Gemini. As stated, one of the figures, the man in the card is the Self-Conscious or The Magician and the other figure; the woman is the Individual Subconscious or The Empress.

They are standing in front of an Angel, and the woman is staring intently at the Angel, whereas, the man is staring at the woman. Ms. Moore explains, “It is the subconscious which hears the voice of the Angel and it is the subconscious which raises us up to the superhuman level; but it cannot do it unless the self-conscious initiates the process and keeps it going. The subconscious is then enabled to raise us to the Angel.”8

I was shown through the Hidden Codes of Life how the Hebrew letter Zain, the symbol of the sword, the sun-sign Gemini and the color orange held a deeper message of The Lovers. Zain is a combination of a Yod, which is the 10th Hebrew letter assigned to The Hermit, and Vav, which is the 6th Hebrew letter assigned to The Hierophant. It is the Hebrew letter Zain, which connects The Lovers both to The Hermit and The Hierophant. The message of The Lovers card is that spiritual progress is achieved by consistently using your discernment to choose the high road or narrow path. It is then The Hierophant becomes a more spiritual aspect, or second level of the Higher Self, portrayed by the Angel in the card/trump, The Lovers. The Angel/Hierophant now also represents a higher level of the Spiritual Soul, represented by The Fool. Moreover it is through the Angel/Hierophant who is teaching the Individual Subconscious, (The Empress) that you can become aware of the Spiritual Soul/Angel in you and choose to control your personal appetites, instincts and emotions and give reign to the highest aspect, or third level of the Higher Self represented by the Charioteer in card 7 - The Chariot.

What happens if the ego succeeds in diverting our attention to focusing on the physical? In examining the Tarot Tableau, I was struck by the similarity between card 6 - The Lovers and card 15 - The Devil. As Daphna Moore said, it is through The Lovers that we learn to listen to the Angel, but if we don’t hear the Angel then we are in danger of hearing the Devil instead.

 

God showed me this process by reminding me of the board game, Snakes & Ladders that I played as a little girl. I understand that there is a similar game in America called Chutes & Ladders.

If like Craig you are unfamiliar with either game, and as I am in America let me give you a brief description of Chutes & Ladders.

Players take turns in throwing dice, then starting at the bottom far left, which is the position of card 15 - The Devil in the Tarot Tableau, they move their counter/piece along a path to the finish, which is the top far left, or the position of card 1 - The Magician in the Tableau. Along the way the players encounter chutes and ladders. If a player lands on a square where the top of a chute is, they have to slide their counter down the chute back down the path. On the other hand if a player lands on a square with the bottom of a ladder then they climb it to the top, advancing along the path.

God showed me a vision to apply this to the Tarot Tableau and Spiritual Evolution. Showing me the tableau, I saw my version of the game of Snakes and Ladders being superimposed onto it throughout, only my “board” didn’t fit with my concept of the board game, there were several anomalies; such as ladders defying gravity by going downwards between cards 6 - The Lovers and 19 - The Sun and 14 - Temperance and 21 - The World. More especially horizontal ladders running between cards 7 - The Chariot and 1 - The Magician and between cards 15 - The Devil and 21 - The World. (If you are wondering how I knew which direction the ladder went, each ladder was wider at the bottom.) The apparent reversal of the ladders really baffled me, until God told me I was having a problem because I was looking at the Tarot Tableau from only two planes, vertical and horizontal and evolution is always multi-planed. In other words what appears up and down in a two-dimensional world can appear to be from down to up, side to side or out to in from another perspective.

To assist me in thinking in a multidimensional way, God told me that the overall message of the Tarot Tableau is that once the emotions are released we need to be balanced, which is epitomized by the center square, 11 - Justice. In the multi-dimensional Tableau board game of Snakes & Ladders, the finish is at the center square card 11 - Justice. It helped me to imagine the center square rising upwards or rather inwards as the end point of a multidimensional spiral.

So if we don’t listen to the Angel, then as I said we are in danger of hearing from the devil, which is depicted by sliding down the snake/chute from square 6 - The Lovers to square 15 - The Devil. But before I discuss The Devil, I need to address the purpose of the colors in the Tarot. First the cards consist of white and black and the three primary colors yellow, blue and red. I can remember being surprised that The High Priestess is assigned both the color light blue and the Moon. This is because traditionally light blue represents the 5th chakra of communication and the Moon represented the 6th chakra or Third eye chakra, which is indigo.

Traditionally, the planet Saturn, the ruler of card 15 - The Devil represents the base chakra not the Third eye chakra. Understanding came for me when I learned that Ayin, the Hebrew letter assigned to The Devil translates as “eye.” What is more, the color of The Devil is Indigo, which is the accepted color for the 6th or Third eye chakra. Still, because The Devil represents the sun-sign Capricorn, the planet that rules it is Saturn not the Moon. Remembering that the Tarot Tableau consists of the three primary colors plus white and black can explain this quandary. First as I said The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious or Cosmic Memory) is light blue, meaning that blue is combined with white. Remember that the color white for this purpose represents the Archetypal Plane. Furthermore, as I said, The High Priestess represents Sophia before the creation of the universe. Archetypally it could also be seen to represent the dark side of the Moon. Archetypally, The High Priestess could be seen to represent the bright side of The Moon.

 

Now, looking at The Devil card I am struck by the similarity between the figure in card 15 – The Devil and the mysterious figure that Eliphas Levi drew of Baphomet, who was worshiped by the Knights Templars. I discussed in The True Philosophers’ Stone the theory that Baphomet was code for Sophia. Mixing blue with black creates the color indigo. So it seems the cards, through color are telling us that the Devil/Baphomet is another aspect of Sophia or the Universal Subconscious in us.

Baphomet        

Remember the Universal Subconscious helps us to get what we want, whether it aids us spiritually or not. I discovered that both card 15 – The Devil and Eliphas Levi’s figure of Baphomet are concealing a valuable secret. It concerns the color black. Despite card 15 – The Devil being assigned to the color indigo, the predominant color of the card, like the image of Baphomet is black.

Daphna Moore’s The Rabbi’s Tarot uncovers a deeper meaning for the use of the color black. She relates that the color black in the Tarot has two distinct meanings, one lower and one higher. She says, “The lower is IGNORANCE and the higher is MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE.”9 I was reminded that Daath on the Tree of Life, which is one of the Sephirot assigned to Sophia, represents knowledge. The information seemed to be saying that the Knights Templar worshiped Divine Wisdom or Sophia as Baphomet. Again, Archetypally from the above The Devil could bee seen as representing the dark-side of The Moon.

The Devil evokes strong feelings, usually negative; nonetheless, from an occult perspective The Devil has a valuable lesson to teach. Firstly I should state that in card 15 - The Devil represents what St. Paul called the natural body. The tails on the figures of the man and woman, signifying their animal natures, demonstrates this. The occult The Devil evokes strong feelings, usually negative; nonetheless, from an occult perspective The Devil has a valuable lesson to teach. Firstly I should state that in card 15 - The Devil represents what St. Paul called the natural body. The tails on the figures of the man and woman, signifying their animal natures, demonstrates this.

The occult message of card 15 - The Devil is, according to Daphna Moore that it is through the use of the body for physical sensation that an individual learns spirituality.

 Ms. Moore writes, “The number of THE DEVIL card is 15, which indicates THE HIEROPHANT or 5, working through THE MAGICIAN, or 1… THE HIEROPHANT teaches man through the urges of the body for sensation until man has learned, by subduing his instincts, to listen to THE HIEROPHANT on a higher level than mere sensation. That higher level, at its perfection, is shown in card 6, THE LOVERS, and 1 plus 5=6.”10

This is where the Tarot Tableau/board game comes in again. The ladder from 15 to 21 is a short cut for those who are ready to unite all opposites and transmute the emotions. Card 21 - The World is also assigned the color indigo, but it represents the planet Saturn on a higher level. Some Hebrew mystics have the planet Saturn appearing twice in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, representing both the 3rd Sephirot - Binah and the 10th Sephirot - Malkuth. It is important to remember that Malkuth translates Kingdom, and is seen as symbolizing the Earth. Earlier I said the goddess Isis was connected to Binah, but Isis is also connected to Malkuth. This is seen through one of the titles for Isis being Earth Mother.

To be honest, this was a little hard to understand until I was reminded that according to Pistis Sophia, Sophia had to repent thirteen times before she was restored to the Pleroma. In fact whether Daphna Moore knows it or not she is relating this in respect to The High Priestess when she relates the difference between The High Priestess and The Empress. She relates that it is The Empress (Individual Subconscious) who is subservient to The Magician (Will). The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious) is only “…subservient to the Laws of Nature…” Moreover, The Empress can “…either lift you up or drag you down.”11 Of course, this is determined by the kind of images you send your Empress (Individual Subconscious). From a macrocosmic level, both The High Priestess and The Empress represent Sophia before her redemption. However, The High Priestess is the higher level of Sophia. As a result, from this perspective, The High Priestess has a greater affiliation with Binah than The Empress.

Looking at the board game/Tarot Tableau, I was struck by the apparent multiple paths available. God told me that Spiritual Evolution is like my converted “board game,” with multiple doors and trap doors. Reminding me that Jesus said that the path to the kingdom of God is very narrow, I saw a labyrinth begin to appear over the tableau, with a very narrow path meandering backwards and forwards and up and down, twisting and turning with multiple dead ends. I was given to understand through many incarnations we learn to navigate the narrow path around the pitfalls (snakes/chutes) and taking advantages of the leg ups (ladders). In this way the individual is asked to choose between the path of the ego/counterfeit spirit and the path of guidance by the Higher Self.

Examples of Labyrinths

What if we don’t learn enough to take the short cut from card 15 - The Devil to card 21 - The World? When a person has had enough of self-gratification, then he or she can move onto the next square 16 - The Tower. This is where he or she has the opportunity to begin to annihilate the ego by destroying the tower of false pride. As I said the Islamic Sufis teaching of self-annihilation is the best way to understand this.

Concerning the Tower, when you see yourself as acting alone and not needing Divine help you will experience a jolt to help you remember why you are here. The lightning bolt striking the tower and dislodging the occupants, The Magician (Self-conscious) and The Empress (Individual Subconscious), symbolizes this. In essence the message of the card is that whenever self-pride or egotism tries to set itself up as lord and master of its castle, the castle of false pride will be destroyed with the light of truth. According to William F Mann in his book The Labyrinth Of The Grail,12 the Tower is a representation of the overwhelming illumination of “truth.” According to Mr. Mann, the Buddhist’s taught that the lightning flash is “a symbol of the overpowering light of truth in which all falsehood and ultimately all duality is destroyed.” He also related, “According to occult lore, it is the flash of inner illumination that brings the freedom of enlightenment.”13

Another way we transmute the elements or emotions of Sophia is by uniting all opposites and we do this by transforming the heart, which is accomplished through the Sacred Marriage or Union. No other card in the Major Arcana symbolizes this as much as card 6 - The Lovers. The ancient Kabbalists hid secret information, by assigning a secret value to certain cards. Card 6 - The Lovers has a secret number of sixteen. Because this card represents the choice between the physical and the spiritual, Daphna Moore says that if we listen to the Higher Self, symbolized by the woman listening to the Angel in the card, we will walk the spiritual path. Also both the planets Mercury (Magician) and Venus (Empress) represent this card, this is because the zodiacal sign assigned to it is Gemini - the twins.

 I didn’t realize the importance of this until Craig was reading from a book that mentioned the connection between Aphrodite (Venus) and Hermes (Mercury). It was then that the word “hermaphrodite,” meaning both male and female, popped into my head. To spiritually evolve and bring forth the Angel we need to reunite The Lovers. The origin of evil is in separation, as in the advent of duality. Consequently, the real fall of humanity was when the masculine or active principle was separated from the feminine or passive principle. This is signified allegorically in Genesis with “Eve” being taken from “Adam.”

To return to the secret number for The Lovers Hebrew letter, Zain. Ancient Wisdom often concealed a deeper message by assigning secret values to certain Hebrew letters; case in point, the secret value of 16 for the letter Zain. Assigning the number to a combination of two Hebrew letters hid the key to the message. In the case of Zain’s secret number of 16, it was a combination of Yod (10) and Vav (6). Consequently by the ancients assigning the Hebrew letter Zain the secret value of sixteen, they secretly linked card 9 – The Hermit’s Hebrew letter Yod (10) to card 5 – The Hierophant’s letter Vav (6). With this connection, the Kabbalists were saying The Higher Self was connected to The Spirit. Still, it is through card 19 - the Sun, both the namesake of the solar body and the representation of the Sun-Christ that we discover why this is so important.

In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the Sun represents the 6th Sephirot, Tiphareth meaning Beauty. Is it a coincidence that the Greek sun god, Apollo, was known for his beauty? I was shown that this Sephirot represents The Sun-Christ, which is the perfect symbol of the Higher Self. As the ruler of the Soul Plane, it made sense to place the Christ in the center of the Tree of Life. However, in card 19 - The Sun, the Christ is depicted as a child not a man. Remembering that card 6 - The Lovers is connected to card 19 - The Sun can help unravel the mystery.

I discussed earlier the importance of the letters and that color holds vital information in the Tarot. However, Astrology also conceals great secrets. Using the color first we learn that both The Lovers and The Sun are assigned the color orange. As for astrology, The Lovers represent the sun sign Gemini and the planet Mercury or (The Magician). At first I failed to see the connection that is until God reminded me of the picture of card 19 - The Sun in the book Tarot Awareness: Exploring the Spiritual Path15 by Stephen Walter Sterling. This was key to my understanding.

In Sterling’s book, The Sun card has two children standing before the Sun.16 I do not think there could be a more fitting image for Gemini’s twins. Also, as stated the planet Uranus (The Fool) was associated with the Christ and Uranus is a higher octave of Mercury (The Magician). What this showed me is that the Angel in the Lovers represents the pre-incarnate Christ consciousness and the child in card 19 - The Sun represents the infant Christ consciousness in us. In addition, through the color orange we can learn how the Christ consciousness grows and matures. The next card, card 7 - the Chariot is orange-yellow. After the Angel awakens as the Christ consciousness or the inner child in us, through Spiritual Evolution it grows into the Charioteer of card 7 - The Chariot.

The Chariot is the last card of the first row of the Tarot Tableau. It represents the sun sign Cancer, which is ruled by the Moon. The Hebrew letter assigned to The Chariot is Cheth and the Kabbalists also assigned a secret number to this letter. Cheth, the letter assigned to The Chariot is a combination of Daleth, which is assigned to card 3 - The Empress and Vav, which is assigned to card 5 - The Hierophant.

From the secret number 16, we know that The Lovers is linked to both the 1st level of The Higher Self and The Spirit, meaning that The Higher Self is the key to The Spirit. Through the secret numbers, the Kabbalists were saying that all three levels of the Higher Self were connected to the nucleus of the Sacred Flame Alphabet, which is Spirit. Or Yod.

To sum up, if the second level of the Higher Self is represented by the Angel in The Lovers, the connection to card 19 – The Sun is relating the child on the white horse is a slightly higher aspect of the disincarnate Angel in The Lovers. This is because the Spiritual Soul (The Fool) begins its incarnation, or begins its journey through life first as a child, which of course is depicted by the child riding the white horse in the card.

Contemplating the three levels of the Higher Self, I was reminded of the ladder running between The Chariot and The Magician in my Snakes & Ladders/Tarot Tableau board game. This is also reflected in the color orange-yellow of card 7 – The Chariot. The Chariot on a conscious level represents self-control and as it is the third level of the Higher Self leads to the higher level of the Self-conscious – card 1 – The Magician.

Contemplating the three levels of the Higher Self, I was reminded of the ladder running between The Chariot and The Magician in my Snakes & Ladders/Tarot Tableau board game. This is also reflected in the color orange-yellow of card 7 – The Chariot. The Chariot on a conscious level represents self-control and as it is the third level of the Higher Self leads to the higher level of the Self-conscious – card 1 – The Magician.

After the integration of all three levels of the Higher Self, the next step in Spiritual Evolution is the transformation of the mind. The result is the individual changing the way he or she thinks.

The Sun also conjures up images of a creative God like Zeus. It is in card 19 - The Sun that the first stirring of the Spark of God is felt in the heart. Orange is as I said created by the combination of red and yellow. Recalling that I said that passion is a valuable key to unlocking Spiritual Evolution; could the color orange be showing us the way?

Also, the color of card 19 - The Sun is orange, the same color assigned to The Lovers and half of the color of The Hierophant and The Chariot. This again strengthens the connection of the four cards to Spirit.

Daphna Moore emphasizes this further when she relates that the color orange represents the Super-Consciousness.14 An alternative term for Super-Consciousness is Christ Consciousness.

One of the most important pieces of information for deciphering a person’s codes was the ratio of color in the codes. A way to consider the relevance of color is to look at it in everyday life.

First scientists equate the signals they receive from space at the red end of the spectrum as evidence of the universe expanding, whereas the blue end would indicate that the universe was contracting. It is curious that the political parties have chosen to be represented by either end of the color spectrum. Using the Major Arcana, we could learn that the extreme of the red spectrum could indicate fanaticism and selfishness. Conversely, the extreme blue end could denote sentimentality, which could lead to the disempowerment of individuals.
By blending both the red and blue we achieve violet, which is the color assigned to The Wheel of Fortune. At the macrocosmic level, this card represents cycles of evolution, but on the microcosmic level indicates the cycle of the political arena, through Republican/Conservative (red) to Democratic/Liberal (blue). However, this can evolve into a sort of vicious circle, where there is continual change, but no progress; this isn’t the goal of Spiritual Evolution.

The way to achieve spiritual growth can be found by using the colors of the Major Arcana. However, it isn’t through the color violet that we grow. If we remember that Justice or balance is at the center of the Tarot Tableau, which is green, we can see the deeper message of color. Spiritual progress is about uniting the emotions (blue) with the mind (yellow), which bring forth your Creative Imagination (green). You do this by using both aspects of your reason (red), which transforms into the Super or Christ consciousness (orange).

Chart 2. Table of correspondences between colors and notes of the musical scale
and the Major Arcana

How does a person put the above into practical living? That is where the teachings of Gautama Buddha help. To repeat what we wrote in The Good News:

Gautama Buddha taught that suffering releases the soul from samsara, or the cycle of rebirth/reincarnation. This statement has generally been thought to mean that life on Earth was meant to be painful. It was only when a soul had learned all the lessons and become disincarnate that the individual could cease experiencing physical life…

As the majority of people’s lives were a constant struggle, this gave them hope that their suffering would eventually end. Even so, when we remember that the universe consists of Sophia’s emotions a deeper meaning of Gautama’s teachings is revealed. The Life Principle of the Solar system was chosen as the way to redeem the lost essence or Divine sparks. Redemption is achieved through the Life Principle in the form of humanity transmuting their emotions, it isn’t the suffering that releases the Spirit or Divine sparks, but the emotions the suffering generates. Whenever a person transmutes their emotions, they help change the world and bring paradise or Nirvana, Heaven, or Devachan to Earth.17

Another one of the ways the secret truth of Spiritual Evolution was handed down was subliminally through language. Case in point, children are taught to memorize the musical scale by a simple phrase. The crotchets (lines) and quavers (spaces) in a musical scale could be remembered by memorizing the first letter of the phrase Every Good Boy Does Fine for crotchets and the letters in the word F A C E for quavers. Of course the quavers were to be placed between the lines, making the scale, E F G A B C D E F. It is through the Tarot trumps that we discover our personal notes.

            

                            

                           

                          

Tarot Spread showing the 22 Major Arcana cards, according to the musical scale
Rider-Waite © US Games

Daphna Moore relates the Kabbalists assigned a specific note to each major arcana card; however, several cards are assigned the same note. Placing the Tarot trumps in order according to musical notes reveals a surprising symmetry in the color scale. At first, I only involved the first seven notes, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, leaving out the high E and F. However, when I checked the colors designated for the cards Strength and the Hermit, what was shown indicated all nine notes should be included.

Both Strength and The Hermit are a combination of yellow and green and are connected to cards 0 – The Fool, 1 – The Magician and 3 – The Empress. However, The Fool and The Magician are designated only the color yellow and The Empress is only designated the color green.

Moving Strength to high E and The Hermit to high F makes the last card The Hermit, which is represented by the Hebrew letter Yod, which means Spirit.

 

 

Using the Kabbalistic formula related by Daphna Moore, the notes, chakras, colors and planets don’t fit either the traditional or updated charts exactly. It was then that God showed me how to arrange them incorporating note, chakra, color and planet. The new chart arrayed thus: C-Base-red & Mars; D-Sacral-orange & the Sun; E-Solar Plexus-yellow & Mercury; F-Heart-green & Venus; G-Throat-blue & the Moon; A-3rd Eye-indigo & Saturn and A#-Crown - violet & Jupiter.

 

Chart 3 showing new arrangement in respect to Spiritual Evolution

I learned that the notes signify color; i.e., E=Yellow; F=Green; G=Blue; C=Red and D=Orange. You may have observed that I did not include the colors Violet and Indigo and the note A. This is because; both Violet and Indigo are represented by the note (A), A-Sharp for Violet and A-Natural for Indigo. When a note is sharp it signifies the feminine or passive and when it is natural it represents the active or masculine. In addition, I left out the note (B), which only appears once in the Tarot Tableau. The color assigned to it is crimson or Violet-Red.

Diagram 2 - showing traditional and updated chakra assignments –
From The Relevance of the Doctrine of Rounds and Root-Races Today

Looking at the new chart, I observed several anomalies. For example, the note (A) appeared twice, once natural and once sharp. Moreover, Saturn, the Sun, Mercury and the Moon were not placed in either the traditional or updated versions of the chakra system God explained that because this is the Fullness of Time and we have spiritually evolved, we are now ready to discover the secret of the Philosophers’ Stone. I will return to this shortly.

What also fascinated me was the correlation between the colors, planets, notes and elements. As I said, the Kabbalistic Tarot only considered three elements, Air, Water and Fire, which they assigned to three Hebrew Mother Letters and Cards; Air - Aleph - The Fool; Water - Mem - The Hanged Man and finally Fire – Shin - Judgment.

Interestingly Taoism divides the traditional four elements into five, Wood; Fire; Earth; Metal and Water. Again interestingly, Taoists do not include the element Air and add the elements Wood and Metal, one natural, the other man made.

According to Gail Reichstein, the author of Wood becomes Water: Chinese Medicine in Everyday Life,18 “…the cycle of the Five Elements integrates human activity with the natural rhythms of the universe. The cycle has been used to map time like a calendar, space like a compass, the movements of the heavens…”19 She also says, “From its beginnings, the Five Element cycle connected various aspects of experience to its individual elements, Seasons, body organ, emotions, sounds, colors, directions…”20

Throughout my study, I came to understand that I needed to see the elements as other than the physical elements. The Kabbalistic Tree of Life helped immensely in this process. I think it may help if I briefly repeat the nuts and bolts of the Tree of Life.

As I said the Tree of Life is divided into four planes. The first level is called Atziluth, which represents the (Archetypal world). The Kabbalists assigned three Sephirot to this level Kether-Crown, Chokmah-Wisdom and Binah-Understanding. The next level they designated as Briah, which represented the (Creative world). Again three Sephirot were assigned to this level, Chesed-Mercy, Geburah-Severity or Strength and Tiphareth-Beauty. Level three they designated Yetzirah, which they thought represented the (Formative world). The three Sephirot assigned to this level were Netzach-Victory, Hod-Splendor and Yesod-Foundation. Only one Sephirot is assigned to the last level, which the Kabbalists call Assiah, meaning (Active world). This Sephirot is Malkuth-Kingdom.

 

 

Although this is the traditional teaching, God told me that I needed to update it. With this I was shown it is best if you think of the four levels in terms of the four elements and the designation for the four suits of the Tarot in the Minor Arcana, wands=fire; swords=air; cups=water and pentacles=earth.

    Ace-Wands/Fire     --     Ace-Swords/Air   --   Ace-Cups/Water   --   Ace-Pentacles/Earth

In this way The Archetypal Plane or Atziluth represents fire or the unmanifested dynamic active principle of the soul. The Creative Plane or Briah represents air, which is manifested through the mind. The Formative Plane or Yetzirah represents the water element, which manifests itself through the emotions. Finally, the Active Plane or Assiah represents the physical material, operating on the objective plane. Also the Seven Sacred Planets can be utilized here. The Kabbalists thought of Binah associated to Saturn; Chesed to Jupiter, Geburah to Mars, Tiphareth to the Sun, Netzach to Venus, Hod to Mercury and Yesod to the Moon. You may have noticed that three of the ten Sephirot are not included, however, I was shown that Chokmah should represent Chiron. This leaves the first, Kether and last Malkuth representing the Alpha and Omega of evolution. However, with Daath being connected to both Saturn and Sophia before creation and after, both Binah and Malkuth represent Saturn. What this all reveals is that the twenty-two Tarot cards are showing first the separation of the universal elements and then through the Sacred Marriage or Union, their reunification. This is most clearly depicted in the colors of the elements, red for fire, yellow for air, blue for water and green for earth.

Nevertheless, as stated, the Taoist has Five Elements. The colors of these elements are green, red, yellow/brown, white and black/blue. How did I unite these with either the traditional four elements or the Kabbalistic three elements? First I needed to remove the colors not representing the Tarot cards - brown, white and black. This left me with green, red, yellow and blue, which coincided with the traditional four elements. In removing white, I had removed the element of metal. Taking the three Kabbalistic colors and elements left me with the three primary colors yellow, red and blue. These three colors equate to earth, fire and water. My board game of Snakes & Ladders and the Tarot Tableau made the goal of evolution as Justice, which is green. In the Taoist Five Elements, green represents the element wood, which is also the beginning of the cycle. So was I to deduce from this that we were to go back to the beginning? No, progress has always been about building on previous knowledge and experience. Consequently the goal of Spiritual Evolution is to unite the mind and emotions to transmute and grow into a new being, which in turn transforms reality.

The Major Arcana translates as the Greater Mystery, because the 22 trumps carry the secret to Spiritual Evolution. We have looked at the most obvious and touched on the deeper meaning through color. However, remember how I said that we must combine ALL the spiritual teachings to discover the means to spiritually evolve. Combining color, sound and the elements reveals the deepest mysteries. To do this we need to return to the Major Arcana.

We left off at card 6 - The Lovers, which is the 2nd level of the Higher Self, but this card is tied to the two cards on either side of it, card 5 - The Hierophant and 1st level of the Higher Self and card 7 - The Chariot and 3rd level of the Higher Self. We know this because of the color assigned to the cards; red-orange = The Hierophant; orange = The Lovers and orange-yellow = The Chariot.

Daphna Moore gives us a deeper message by connecting The Lovers with The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious or Cosmic memory). She does this by relating that The Lovers’ secret number 16 for the letter Zain is also the secret number the Hebrew letter Gimel, which is assigned to The High Priestess. In other words although the figures in The Lovers are The Magician (Self-conscious) and The Empress (Individual Subconscious or Creative Imagination), because of the secret value of Zain, The High Priestess is also represented. What does this mean?

On the microcosmic level this card literally holds the secret of the beginning of Spiritual Evolution. However, on the macrocosmic level connecting The High Priestess and The Lovers is alluding to the angel in The Lovers as representing The Holy Ghost. To return to the microcosmic message of The Lovers, the message began in the previous card, The Hierophant, (Level one of the Higher Self) which as I said Ms. Moore equates to the Higher Self and intuition. Furthermore she tells us The Lovers represent Disposing Intelligence. Some of the synonyms for dispose are arrange, order, assemble etc. Alternatively, she says The Devil represents Renewing Intelligence. She explains this as a form of temptation, “that which tempts you to use your body wrongly opens the door, when you use it rightly to True Wisdom.”21

I understand it as, with the emergence of the first level of the Higher Self, we have access to all the emotions and must choose to listen to the Angel or the devil. If we avoid pain and choose pleasure then we fall under the control of what Saint Paul refers to as the “natural man.” On the other hand if we face our demons, so to speak then we spiritually evolve. It is then that the Angel joins its twin the infant Christ consciousness to awaken the Spark of God. This is one of the secrets of The Lovers.

As informative as The Lovers (2nd level of the Higher Self) have been, the card has an even deeper mystery yet to be revealed. It is concealed in the Hebrew letter Zain and the sun-sign assigned to the card. Zain means sword and the sun-sign Gemini is ruled by Mercury (Magician). Both represent the mental plane. Interestingly, as I said, in the Minor Arcana of the Tarot, the suit of swords stands for the element air. This is the key to the start of Spiritual Evolution and the most valuable secret of The Lovers.
Looking at the suit of swords, I was struck by the imagery of the cards. Most of the suit depicts mental anguish and emotional pain and this is vital information. It is through the color of the cards that we can understand the importance. In general the suit consists of yellow and blue, which means that the cards predominantly represent both emotions and the mind. One of the most important things I learned was that the key to the Mysteries is hidden in the English language. It is interesting that we associate the intellect to sharpness and describe a critical person as sharp-tongued. We even say that we have been “cut to the quick.” when we are emotionally wounded.

Chart 4, showing the three stages of the division of the elements -
From the three Kabbalistic, through the traditional four to the Taoist five

Remembering that the five elements of Taoism exclude the element air reveals even more. (See chart 5) In the Taoist elements, the element of Air is replaced with Wood and Metal, in effect dividing the element of Air in two, why? Could the message be that the mind or mental plane has become divided? Wood is natural, whereas Metal is extracted or created. Applying the Kabbalistic Tarot to this enigma, we can learn a great secret. In fact, from the colors of the elements on either side of Wood and Metal, we can learn how to use the Philosophers’ Stone. First, the colors on either side of Wood are black/blue/ (indigo) and red. I’ve already shown the connection between indigo and The High Priestess/Sophia, having dropped the color black again we will just use the primary color of blue. Removing black we are left with blue and red, which at the macrocosmic level equates to The High Priestess (Universal Subconscious or Cosmic Memory) and The Emperor (Reason). In the Tarot, as stated, at the macrocosmic level, The Empress (Creative Imagination or Individual Subconscious) represents Nature, which is epitomized by the color green. The Taoist element of Wood as shown above is green. From this I would deduce that card 3 - The Empress or Nature represents the element Wood.

As for Metal, the colors on either side of it are again black/blue and yellow/brown. If we drop the non-primary colors of black and brown, we are left with blue and yellow, which equates to The High Priestess and The Magician (Self-conscious). We have already seen that The High Priestess and the Magician united become The Empress (Individual Subconscious or Creative Imagination) and The Emperor (Reason) is the Empress’ consort. It seems that like the Tarot, the Taoist Five Elements are also pointing to The Empress or Nature as a focal point. In other words the color green or Wood is the key element.

God told me the Philosophers’ Stone could be incorporated into this. When I asked how? He reminded me that Strength, which symbolizes The Empress transformed, represents the sun sign Leo, which is ruled by the Sun. The color of Strength is greenish-yellow.

Traditionally, it was thought the Alchemists’ purpose for the Philosophers’ Stone was to turn lead into gold, but they had a much deeper meaningful purpose for it; namely the spiritualization of matter. To unlock the secret we need to incorporate Astrology, the Major Arcana in the Tarot and the traditional chakra system. In the traditional chakra system, Lead equates to Saturn and the base chakra; whereas Gold equates to the Sun and the heart chakra. The Saturn card is 21 - The World and the Sun is assigned to card 19 - The Sun. But card 19 is orange, which correlates to the second chakra. However, yellow, the color of gold represents the third chakra or solar plexus. How do we resolve this? The answer is in the note assigned to The Magician. As I said E-natural represents three cards, The Fool, (Spiritual Soul) The Magician (Will) and Strength (Transformed Heart). The key to revealing the Philosophers’ Stone is in the Sacred Marriage or Union.

The open or exoteric meaning of the Sacred Marriage is the sex union between a man and woman, but there is a far more spiritual meaning. The deeper meaning is in transforming the heart through raising the sex force to the head.

According to Daphna Moore, the Kabbalists believed that to progress spiritually a person needed to change the use of the sex force from the physical into the mental. This was achieved through celibacy, fasting and meditation. However, very few ever achieved their goal, simply because it wasn’t time; Humanity hadn’t evolved enough.

I can remember having problems when Craig and I read about raising the sex-force in The Rabbi’s Tarot. The reason was it was equated with the planet Mars. Considering that Mars represents the passions on one level this had made sense to us. Nonetheless, everything we’d read about spiritual transformation, referred to raising the Kundalini energy. Despite Ms. Moore relating that the Mars energy is in all three lower chakras, to us the Kundalini was always shown as a coiled serpent in the base chakra. As depicted above, Mars represented the Sacral chakra in the traditional and the Solar Plexus in the updated, hence my confusion.

God reminded me of the final spiral diagram reproduced in The Relevance of the Doctrine of Rounds and Root-Races Today. In the book Wheels of Life A User’s Guide To The Chakra System by Anodea Judith, from which the spiral diagram is inspired, she superimposes the spiral over a human being. The fact that the note B-Natural, which is assigned to card 18 – The Moon is associated with the color Violet-Red is the key. I had learned that a critical mass of humanity is at this level and whether they realize it or not are ready to take the next step in their Spiritual Evolution. Now we can incorporate the colors, planets, notes and chakras. This is achieved by dividing the color Violet-Red into two, making the Violet above the head and the Red in the base chakra position. We first have to understand that the violet above the head is ultra-violet because enough human beings have spiritually evolved to raise the Kundalini or sex-force to transform the mind. When this happens, the Kundalini rises past the traditional violet crown chakra to the mysterious eighth chakra above the head. However, the goal of Spiritual Evolution isn’t to leave the body through the crown chakra, but to go within to the heart and merge with the true ruler of the body, the Spirit. The diagram below depicts the process now taking place. However, it needs to be viewed as spiraling inwards. In this way, the ultra-violet level is the highest level a human being can reach before he or she is ready to evolve into the superhuman. From the eighth chakra, the Life Principle reenters this plane in an anticlockwise direction to the base chakra, which as I said has transmuted into a bright blood red. From the base-red we circle anticlockwise to the violet- crown chakra; then to the sacral-orange. From the sacral chakra, we spiral inwards to the indigo-3rd eye then in to the yellow-solar plexus. Finally, we spiral to the blue-throat chakra, before spiraling into the green heart, the location of the Spirit

Diagram 3 showing spiral through the chakras into the heart

To reiterate, this can only occur when Humanity reaches the point of transmuting the sex-force from physical gratification into a mental vibration, which transforms the heart. Card 8 - Strength according to Daphna Moore represents the transformed heart and as I said its color is greenish Yellow. So the Philosophers’ Stone is the transformed heart and we attain it through the Sacred Marriage or Union.

Returning to my metaphorical board game, it showed me there are several paths through Spiritual Evolution. One path is through the union of the first row in the Tarot Tableau. These seven cards represent Will, Universal Subconscious/Memory, Creative Imagination, Reason, Discernment and Restraint or Self-Control. In uniting them we can then transform the heart, symbolized by card 8 - Strength, which depicts The Empress (Individual Subconscious or Creative Imagination) calming the lion (passions).

After we have transformed our heart then we can access the true ruler, the Spirit or Divine spark, denoted by card 9 - The Hermit. The Hermit and its Hebrew letter are paramount to Spiritual Evolution. Daphna Moore says the Hebrew letter Yod looks like a flame and therefore is the heart of the Sacred Flame alphabet. Moreover, she tells us that Yod represents the Spirit. Despite The Hermit being portrayed as a man, The Hermit is assigned the sun-sign Virgo, whose symbol is the virgin or maiden. From this symbol we can learn that the deeper message of the card is that it is through balancing the masculine and feminine that we access the Spirit.

Maurice Cotterell, the author of JESUS, KING ARTHUR AND THE JOURNEY OF THE GRAIL said the ancients left messages to teach us to turn 666 into 999. I also reported that Mr. Cotterell thinks that the number 666 represents the makeup of the element carbon. However, I was surprised to learn that number 9 on the periodic table is Fluorine, which is described as a yellow-green gas. Is it a coincidence that card number 9, the Hermit is yellowish green?

Returning to the Tree of Life, as I said the 6th Sephirot is Tiphareth, which represents the Sun, whereas the 9th Sephirot is Yesod representing the Moon. It is important to remember that these two are the quintessential symbols for masculine and feminine, or active and passive. Daphna Moore says that in order to transform the heart, we need to “change the heart from an involuntary or feminine organ to a volitional or masculine.”22

What really interested me was how The Tarot tableau displays how Sophia and the universe are redeemed. Ultimately card 21 - the World depicts this. The dancing figure is The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress and The Emperor united as one. This union finally brings into balance all opposites, represented by the central card 11 - Justice, or Sophia fully united with “What has been Willed” and restored into the fullness of the Pleroma.

Could this be what changing the 6 into a 9 is saying? Is the means for transformation as simple as turning the 6 and 9 upside down, making the feminine masculine and the masculine feminine? Perhaps that is what is being depicted by the androgynous dancing figure in card 21 - The World.

As my “board game” depicted, there are two paths to advance from card 15 - The Devil, one of the paths is to card 21 - The World. I understand this as meaning, when we understand the higher aspects of card 15 - The Devil we can move to card 21 – The World and unite the opposites. Then we can move diagonally across the board to the highest aspect of The Magician, or Divine Will which leads to Strength and the spiritualization of matter or the turning of lead, the body into gold, through the transformed heart. The other path concerns astrology.

In Astrology, the Devil is assigned to Capricorn. Moreover, the symbol for the sun sign Capricorn is the goat, which is also a key symbol for The Devil. Finally, we celebrate the birth of Christ at the beginning of Capricorn. To understand the deeper meaning of the connection between Capricorn and card 15 – The Devil, we need to look at this from another perspective or level. I’d learned that the pagan festival of the Winter Solstice or birth of the Sun was adapted into Christmas in order to accommodate the “pagans.”

Another level can be determined through the Tarot Tableau. Diagonally opposite The Devil is card 7 - the Chariot, which is assigned to the sun sign Cancer. The Summer Solstice is in Cancer.

 

 As I mentioned, The Fool can be seen as representing the pre-incarnate Spiritual Soul. But I learned The Fool hides a much more esoteric or hidden reason, which concerns the element Air. It involves the incorporation of Gnosticism, to recap: Sophia’s emotions were turned into the four elements; Ignorance into Fire; Fear into Water; Confusion into Earth and Grief into Air. Interestingly I learned that the early Church fathers believed that grief was the source of evil.

How can that be? The answer is in how we create and how we can transform the world. As I said, the Tree of Life is divided into four levels; Archetypal, Creative, Formative and Active. Each level is assigned an element; Fire for Archetypal, Air for Creative, Water for Formative and Earth for the Active. This means that Air is associated with Creation. Therefore it is also associated with grief. Remember how I said that Gautama Buddha said that suffering was how a person was released from the cycle of necessity, but his teaching on this had a deeper meaning. The Buddha’s deeper message was that suffering can serve a far greater purpose than just releasing the individual from samsara. At the macrocosmic level it helps in the overall Spiritual Evolution of the Life Principle. This is because suffering causes grief, which causes people to transmute the emotion of grief in order to move on. In other words, when understood from a universal perspective suffering or rather Grief can literally change the world.

So have I answered my question on the make up and purpose of the Higher Self? Let’s recap:

• The Higher Self is in fact three levels, the first level is The Hierophant, the second is the Angel in The Lovers, which leads to its twin, the Christ Consciousness in The Sun, which in turn leads to the third level, the Charioteer in The Chariot.
• The Higher Self incorporates all human emotions and that it is the union of the Self-Conscious, Universal Subconscious, Creative Imagination or Individual Subconscious and Reason in us.
• When this union is achieved and the new personality has learned to listen to the Angel, the Christ Consciousness emerges first as a child, depicted in Card 19 - The Sun, then as the Charioteer and finally as Divine Will, the highest aspect of The Magician.
• The final stage is the transformation of the heart, depicted in card 8 - Strength, which finally accesses the Spirit, or card 9 - The Hermit and transforms both the world and ourselves.

Apart from assigning the 22 cards and their corresponding Hebrew letters trumps, colors, planets, elements and notes, Daphna Moore allocates six main directions to represent the 7 Sacred Planets. The 12 cards that represent the 12 signs of the Zodiac are directions of East – The Empress, West – The Wheel of Fortune, North – The Tower, and South –The Sun. Above is The Magician, Below – The High Priestess and Center – The World. I show these correspondences in Chart 6 on the last page:

                                     
    East               West            North            South           Above           Below          Center 

At first I had wondered what purpose the directions held, but after seeing the Cube of Space featuring all twenty-two Tarot cards, depicted below, I understood how the Tarot Tableau was three-dimensional. (See diagram 4 below) Moreover, one of the titles for Malkuth is a double cube.

 

Diagram 4 – Cube of Space showing the positions of the 22 Tarot Cards

 

 

So is this the end of our journey? The answer is that learning the meaning of the Tarot Tableau is one of the goals, but it is by no means the end to Spiritual Evolution. The next step depends on if you want to rest or change the world. To appreciate what is entailed concerns the axiom, “As above so below; As below so above.”
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