Man hath weav’d out a net and this net thrown, Upon the Heavens, and now they are his own - John Donne (Anatomie of the World)

Tarot, Astrology, Kabala and Numerology are sister disciplines. They are not meant to be studied, taught or practiced separately, as is all too common today.

Those who wish to practice these Arts esoterically, must use the four together. However, the secret of how this is performed is not of interest to most exoteric practitioners. The “glue,” so to speak, that holds the four great Arts together has been ignored and largely forgotten. Fortunately it has been re-discovered and explained in the Taroscopic System. In this regard, the Taroscopic System signals a major revision of what we presently know about the Hermetic Arts of Divination.

How important are the Divination Arts? Well, on the subject of astrology many great sages have spoken. Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung accurately wrote:

...astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity

In The Secret Doctrine, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky emphasizes astrology's ancient origins:

Whether the origin of the zodiac is Aryan or Egyptian, it is still of immense antiquity. Simplicius (sixth century AD) writes that he had always heard that the Egyptians had kept astronomical observations and records for at least 630,000 years...Diogenes Laertius carried back the astronomical calculations of the Egyptians to 48,863 years before Alexander the Great. Maritanus Capella corroborates the same by telling posterity that the Egyptians had secretly studied astronomy for over 40,000 years before they imparted their knowledge to the world

Of the many differences between Taroscopic and conventional astrology, that of greatest import concerns what I refer to as the "Inner Zodiac." Contrary to what is believed by exoteric practitioners of the ancient "Round Art," the zodiac is not merely an external phenomenon. On the contrary, it is a psychic apparatus. It is an enfolded attribute of the psyche; an ancestral image embedded within the so-called race memory. In Jungian parlance, it is an constellation of archetypes projected by consciousness onto the external world.

A man’s destiny, they say, is written in the stars. All he’ll ever do, all he’ll ever love, all he’ll ever be…If this be true, as I now suppose it must, only one question remains: who does the writing? - (Introduction: The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, Curtis Signature Collection)

As seasoned students know, the study of astrology and its sister Divination Arts reveals the secret connections between psychic and physical energy.

Irish Druids, Egyptian Amenists, Native American Shaman, and members of the Stellar Cults of the ancient world, understood the subtle relationship between mental processes and physical events. Long before the advent of the modern age - before Quantum Science and Holographic Theory - sages of old knew about the so-called “Implicate Order” and deep relationship between consciousness and matter. They knew there was no essential difference between microcosm and macrocosm.

After the great Stellar Cults fell from power, two changes occurred which had negative consequences for existence. Firstly, in the astrological canon, the sun replaced the stars as the dominant principle - or in other words, sun gods such as Amen Ra, Horus and Aton, gained supremacy over ancient stellar deities such as Set, Thoth and Taurt - and, secondly, the ego became the center of the psyche. Consequently the antique precepts of astrological divination were gradually ignored. Knowledge of the Inner Zodiac was lost and men began believing the fallacy that consciousness and destiny are affected, in some undefined manner, by distant rocks floating in space. This "magic rays" nonsense continues to be promulgated and accepted by exoteric practitioners of the so-called New Age Movement. Regrettably, the prevalence of this fallacy means scientifically-minded men remain contemptuously dismissive of astrology. They turn from arcane metascience which might otherwise receive positive attention.

The word zodiac - from the Greek zoon - means "living creatures" or "living beings." This emphasizes that the zodiac is a living phenomenon. If the signs of the zodiac are discovered in the heavens, they got there by way of the psyche's strange but scientifically acknowledged capacities of projection and inflation. In short, the famous horoscope of twelve signs exists above us as a omnidirectional cinema-like projection of the innate twelvefold divisions of consciousness. As the twelve disciples of Jesus represented aspects of his own consciousness, so do the twelve signs of the celestial zodiac represent the twelve archetypal facets of the psyche. Hermetic Arts not founded on this fundamental precept are inauthentic. Astrology not based upon this precept is, in our opinion, not true astrological divination.

Know that the philosopher has power over the stars, and not the stars over him - Paracelsus

It is an erroneous interpretation of astrology to opine that special forces emanate from the planets and the stars - R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz (Sacred Science)

The collective unconscious appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images, for which reason the myths of all nations are its real exponents. In fact the whole of mythology could be taken as a sort of projection of the collective unconscious. We can see this most clearly if we look at the heavenly constellations, whose originally chaotic forms are organized through the projection of images. This explains the influence of the stars as asserted by astrologers. These influences are nothing but unconscious introspective perceptions of the collective unconscious - Carl Jung

As we all know science began with the stars, and mankind discovered in them the dominants of the unconscious, the “gods,” as well as the curious psychological qualities of the Zodiac: a complete projected theory of human character - ibid

The idea is to demonstrate that the zodiac is an archetype, not only within the collective unconscious, but within the fabric of reality itself...as a ground plan of creation. This archetype has not been invented. It exists, and knowledge of it has been developed in step with evolving human consciousness - Denis Elwell

Another important difference between Taroscopic and conventional astrological systems concerns the connections between astrology and Tarot. Indeed, we can go so far as to say that Tarot is the most precious Hermetic Art. This is because it alone makes use of a rich palate of archetypal images that resonate with deeper dimensions of consciousness. Sadly, as in the case of astrology, the Tarot has also long been misunderstood and misrepresented. It was not created by Gypsies; is not expressly for the use of fortune-tellers; and not merely a pastime for those who enjoy card games.

...the Alphabet of Thoth can be dimly traced in the modern Tarot which can be had at almost every bookseller in Paris. As for it being understood or utilized, the many fortune-tellers in Paris, who make a professional living by it, are sad specimens of failures of attempts at reading, let alone correctly interpreting the symbolism of the Tarot without a preliminary philosophical study of the Science - Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

The medieval packs are hopelessly corrupt or otherwise far from presenting the Ancient Truth of the Book in a coherent system or shape of lucid beauty - Aleister Crowley (The Book of Thoth)

We emphasize that each man is his own priest and each woman her own priestess. This doctrine was taught to adepts in ancient times, before the rise of orthodox religions and oppressive political and educational institutions. Ancient elders emphasized the need for independent moral and spiritual development. The purpose of the Hermetic Arts is to aid men on their journey toward psychic hygiene and wholeness, or as Carl Jung expressed it, toward Individuation.

Self-Realization is necessary before God-Realization - Vedic Adage

Know Thyself - Inscription at Delphi

He who knows himself knows god – Clement of Alexandria

 

The most excellent and important among all forms of knowledge is therefore self-knowledge; for if one knows himself he can also know God – Clement of Alexandria

 

Jesus said: If you have gained this within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have this in you, what you do not have in you will kill you – Gospel of Thomas

 

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within - Socrates

 

According to Bishop Epiphanius, the Krist is the spiritual self within each person - Tony Bushby (The Bible Fraud)

 

The Egyptians had no vicarious atonement, no imputed righteousness, no second-hand salvation. No initiate in the Osirian mysteries could possibly have rested his hope of reaching heaven on the Galilean line of glory. His was the more crucial way of Amenta...to tread with the guidance of the word, that step by step and act by act he must himself make true - Gerald Massey (Ancient Egypt: Light of the World)

 

The Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans, had no word in their language for sin: the Israelites introduced both the word and the concept into the stream of Western civilization and by doing so diverted it - Leonard Shlain (The Alphabet Versus the Goddess)

Clement of Alexandria said enlightenment was possible "when the two shall be one, the outside as the inside, and the male and the female neither male nor female." This strange statement refers to an Alchemical process known as Hieros Gamos or Chemycal Wedding. It was a process of central importance to the elders who conceived the magical arts. It was of paramount importance to the creators of Tarot. In fact, if we study Arcanum I - The Magician - we see four symbols united, as it were, on a single table top. That's right, the Magician is in the process of transmuting Fourness into Oneness.

The four objects on his table - the Wand, Cup, Sword and Disk - symbolize the four suits of the Tarot, and also the four elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth. They also symbolize the four hemispheres of consciousness: Intuition, Emotion, Intellect and Sensation. One might say they symbolize the four great Arts of Tarot, Astrology, Kabala and Numerology which must be harmonized if the Great Work is to proceed successfully.

That we are right to speak of Tarot's connection to consciousness is confirmed by a study of the Magician's peculiar table. We notice it has a square top and three legs. This is because the card represents, among many things, the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The Pyramid has sides of three and a base of four. The Magician's table has three legs and square top. The letter associated with the card is "B," known in Hebrew as Beth. This term means "house" and connotes the "House of God." In Egypt, the Pyramid was considered the House of God, as was the human body. So we understand the double meaning of the letter associated with Arcanum I. Of course numerically speaking, three times four equals twelve, the number of the zodiac. So, the Magician's table can be regarded as an allusion to the twelve signs of the zodiac, which incidentally are divided into divisions of three and four. In short, Arcanum I emphasizes that the Divination Arts must be combined if consciousness is to be unified. Consciousness is fourfold and so are the Hermetic Arts. When the tools are harmonized, consciousness attains the fifth stage or Quintessence.

When thou hast made the quadrangle round, Then is all the secret found - George Ripley (Alchemist, 1490)

Through circumrotation, or a circular philosophical revolving of the quaternity, it is brought back to the highest and purest simplicity of the monad. Out of the gross and impure One there cometh an exceeding pure and subtile Monad - Heinrich Khunrath (Alchemist, 1597)

…the Kabalists hold that these four principles penetrate and create everything. Therefore, when the man finds these four principles in things and phenomena of quite different categories (where before he had not seen similarity), he begins to see analogy between these phenomena. And, gradually, he becomes convinced that the whole world is built according to one and the same law, on one and the same plan. The richness and growth of his intellect consists in the widening of his faculty for finding analogies. Therefore the study of the law of the four letters, or the name of Jehovah presents a powerful means for widening consciousness - P. D. Ouspensky

The Major Arcana has esoteric correspondences to the Egyptian, Hebrew, Irish and English magical alphabets, Kabalistic Tree of Life, chakra system, alchemical process, Precession of the Equinoxes, process of Individuation, yearly maturation of a human being, personality types, sequential movement of historical centuries (from the first to the twenty first), periodic table of elements, and several other esoteric and exoteric phenomena.

It for good reason sages referred to the Tarot as the “Book of Life.” In fact, when students of Alchemy pontificate about the mysterious “Emerald Tablets of Hermes,” they fail to realize they refer to the seventy-eight cards of the Tarot.

The antiquity of this book is lost in the night of time...And goes back to an epoch long before Moses…It was written upon detached leaves, which at the first were of fine gold and precious metals…It is symbolical, and its combinations adapt themselves to all the wonders of the Spirit. Altered by its passage across the Ages, it is nevertheless preserved - thanks to the ignorance of the curious - Eliphas Levi

As an erudite Kabalistic book, all combinations of which reveal the harmonies preexisting between signs, letters and numbers, the practical value of the Tarot is truly and above all marvelous. A prisoner devoid of books, had he only a Tarot of which he knew how to make use, could in a few years acquire a universal science, and converse with an unequalled doctrine and inexhaustible eloquence - ibid

The Tarot embodies symbolical presentations of universal ideas, behind which lie all the implicits of the human mind, and it is in this sense that they contain secret doctrine, which is the realization by the few of truths embedded in the consciousness of all - A. E. Waite (The Key to the Tarot, Part II)

The Tarot can be considered one chapter, so to speak, in the greater Book of Symbolism. Its seventy-eight enigmatic pages of images, together with their geometrical, numerological and Astro-Theological motifs assist the adept to open the doors to his inner Wisdom Body or “Living Oracle.”

The means of entering into dialogue with the Living Oracle involves the correct usage of, and meditation upon, iconic images such as those in the Major Arcana. The images are figurative representations of our archetypal intelligence not normally accessible to the ego. This intelligence emanates from deeper hemispheres of consciousness.

As atoms are to matter, archetypes are to consciousness. The archetypes, as Alchemists of old understood, express themselves via images, colors, numbers, geometric shapes and musical harmonics. This fact was rediscovered and reiterated by Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung, and recently re-emphasized by  Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, Leonard Shlain and Bruce Lipton.

Technically speaking, it is the so-called "right-hemisphere" of the brain that houses the ancestral intelligence or Living Oracle. This field of intelligence was referred to by William Blake as the “Imagination.” Its natural flow is, however, blocked shortly after we are born. It must be unblocked and communed with if life is to have meaning and enlightenment is to be attained.

Each card is, in a sense, a living being and its relation with its neighbors are what one might call diplomatic. It is for the student to build these living stones into his living temple - Aleister Crowley (The Book of Thoth)

If the great arts were good enough for Pythagoras and Egyptian sages who constructed the pyramids and temples of the Nile Valley, they are obviously good enough for modern man. Unfortunately, due to generations of indoctrination and persecution, inhabitants of the modern world suffer from “symbolic illiteracy.” Western man certainly excels at verbal communication. However, words prove less useful when we attempt to commune with deeper hemispheres of consciousness. They cannot open the way to the Living Oracle. That task is accomplished by symbols.

Scientists know verbal communication is a phylogenetically recent phenomenon. Moreover, as we said, it is only the smallest part of consciousness that expresses itself through language. It has recently been discovered that the human brain contains over 240,000 neural threads, enough to stretch from the earth to the moon. On each micrometer of these threads data is stored as pictograms or composite images, not words.

With the advent of verbal and written communication, humankind experienced a cognitive shift from a polyphrenic, holarchic mindset to the monophrenic, hierarchic mindset known today. The mythographers responsible for the rise of Judeo-Christianity saw to it that the Word of God replaced the more antique Image of God. In the Commandments we have the prohibition against “graven images,” that is, against symbols of divinity. Interesting that this particular prohibition comes before that against murder.