Friday, December 5, 2008

Coming Out via the Tarot




I was talking to my friend Pema yesterday about the whole Coming Out issue with Polyamory. She compared the experience with the Journey of the Tarot.
You start this adventure as the Fool:

The Fool represents the beginning of a journey. It is our spirit yearning for experience, our quest for knowledge. She is clever and childlike and in touch with her divine nature. She owns very little possessions and her needs are simple. She appreciates beauty and simply living in the world. The fool possesses a childlike naivete and is unconcerned with what some may see as an apparent precipice she is about to step off. The number 0 represents the Fool as the perfect starting place. Zero can become anything, whatever the destination. Zero plus anything equals the same thing.

Thus the journey and adventures of the Fool begin and we move through the Major Arcana (Trump Cards) of the Tarot--a set of twenty-two archetypes numbered zero to twenty-one. The journey through the tarot describes the progression through a particular phase of our life (the issues of living a polyamorous life for instance that eventually lead to coming out to family, friends, co-workers etc. ) and help us to understand the challenges we meet as sacred elements of living a holy life. What can be holier than truth and love, family and friends, being in relationship with self, others and God?

Major Arcana
0 Fool
1 Magician
2 High Priestess
3 Empress
4 Emperor
5 Hierophant (both my life card and my soul card)
6 The Lovers
7 The Chariot
8 Strength
9 The Hermit
10 The Wheel
11 Justice
12 The Hanged Man
13 Death
14 Temperance
15 The Devil
16 The Tower
17 The Star
18 The Moon
19 The Sun
20 Judgment
21 The World

The World turns and the Fool completes her journey. The World represents an ending of one cycle in life. The completion of a story and for one eternal moment there is no separation of male and female, the profane and sacred, above and below, heaven and earth. As Rumi says, "Beyond the right and wrong, there is a field. I'll meet you there." This is the place of the World, a place in life before the next big cycle beginning with the fool.



2 comments:

Bx said...

Did we already discuss the fact that the hierophant is also my card?! If so, I don't remember, but that is another interesting connection...

I AM ANOTHER said...

Yes Bx, when I was writing that I remembered that about you and I. It's the same with my best friend Pema.