TAROT MEM

I Initiate

Duality, Intention, Quantum Time.

The Initiate is manifest in the external world, which is expressed in the sphere of time through the senses of sight, sound, taste, and touch. Within this realm of experience, the Initiate is confronted by its inner nature of duality and subsequent separation from the Divine.

O 0ccult

Divine Mystery, Infinite Potential, Qabalistic Zero.

Previously depicted as Le Mat or Le Fol (The Fool) – the Joker or Trickster – this 0 position is symbolic of all 22 paths of the Major Arcana, just as TAROT, itself, is representative of the larger collective Universe. Progressive ideas behind the symbolism of this card reveal principles of Quantum Superposition, which opening further ideas behind problems of Quantum Gravity and Indeterminacy described a quest for a Unified Field Theory. Conjectures behind these theories are formulated on the Plank Scale, a dimension of microcosmic reality engaging the interconnectedness of mind and matter, energy and consciousness. Generated from within this field, experiential reality, manifesting itself as a substantive, tangible, material existence, is mostly indeterminate or undifferentiated and tends to exist only at theoretical junctures of spacetime.

A pale greenish-yellow positively charged space - a color said to be representative of that of the Occult - outlines a form located within negative space (dark matter?), which represents the void and the mysteries of hidden knowledge. Reconciliation of these aspects in a single, combined dimension of reality is known also as Qabalistic Zero or Aleph. Philosophically, and more so practically, the value of Qabalistic Zero, unlike the alphanumeric Zero, is never assumed to be - nothing. In its more specific use balancing potentiality and probability, Qabalistic Zero is gathered by all aspects of a priori knowledge – or that which is unable to manifest itself in a tangible reality - it remains both equal to and opposite of sciences’ concept of Absolute Zero. Despite that at most times its value is uncertain, Qabalistic Zero or Aleph is assigned a representative value of one.

The central image resembles a Ram, Goat or Ox and is representative of the Ancient Mystery Cults, Animism, and specifically - a failed attempt by modern civilization to fully reach and understand the historical significance of its own past as epitomized in the following excerpt from the 1909 Encyclopedia Britannica:

“GOAT (a common Teut. word; O. Eng. gat, Goth. gaits, Mod. Ger. Geiss, cognate with Lat. haedus, a kid), properly the name of the well-known domesticated European ruminant (Capra hircus), which has for all time been regarded as the emblem of everything that is evil…”

Great horned deities were first celebrated as gods in the earliest known civilizations of Mesopotamia. Through images of Zeus, Hathor and Bacchus, the divine aspects of men and women were depicted as the highest representations of the divine - figures of an absolute authority of nature, fertility, and procreation. The idea of evil or the idea of evil as nature would soon bring to an end the Mystery Religions, setting the stage for the battle to come - that between religion and science.

“The ram deity of Mendes was described by Herodotus in his History (Book II, 42)[Robin Waterfield translation] as being represented with the head and fleece of a goat: “...whereas anyone with a sanctuary of Mendes or who comes from the province of Mendes, will have nothing to do with (sacrificing) goats, but uses sheep as his sacrificial animals... They say that Heracles’ overriding desire was to see Zeus, but Zeus was refusing to let him do so. Eventually, as a result of Heracles’ pleading, Zeus came up with a plan. He skinned a ram and cut off his head, then he held the head in front of himself, wore the fleece, and showed himself to Heracles like that. That is why the Egyptian statues of Zeus have a ram’s head, is why rams are sacred to the Thebans, and they do not use them as sacrificial animals. However there is just one day of the year--the day of the festival of Zeus--when they chop up a single ram, skin it, dress the statue of Zeus in the way mentioned, and then bring the statue of Heracles up close to the statue of Zeus. Then everyone around the sanctuary mourns the death of the ram and finally they bury it in a sacred tomb.”(Mendes)

Exaltation of Deities:

Anu, Hathor, Bacchus, Zeus, Banebdjedet, Heryshaf

Divinatory Meaning:
The absolute necessity of departing from tradition.

MAJOR ARCANA

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review (8/25/10) by Adam McLean

INTRODUCTION
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“Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx, in the monstrous or marvelous paintings which interpret to the faithful of India the inspired pages of the Vedas, in the cryptic emblems of our old books on alchemy, in the ceremonies practiced at reception by all secret societies, there are found indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed.”

Eliphas Levi

"The future can only be anticipated in the form of an absolute danger. It is that which breaks absolutely with constituted normality and can only be proclaimed, presented, as a sort of monstrosity. For that future world and for that within it which will have put into question the values of sign, word, and writing, for that which guides our future anterior, there is as yet no exergue."

Jacques Derrida

“Then what is the true meaning, in the category of the Real, of these planets and signs? Here again one is faced with the impossibility of exact definition. Because the possibilities of research are infinite; also at any moment in any research, the one idea merges into the other and clouds the exact definition of the images. But this of course, is the objective.” [33]

Aleister Crowley