Fwd: {Open Tarot Nexus} The Pictorial Key to the Tarot - The World

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From: msesheta <msesheta@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:02:25 -0400
Subject: {Open Tarot Nexus} The Pictorial Key to the Tarot - The World
To: Opentarot Group <OpenTarot@yahoogroups.com>, Google Opentarotnexus
<opentarotnexus@googlegroups.com>

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

Part I: The Veil and its Symbols

22. The World, the Universe, or Time. The four living creatures of the
Apocalypse and Ezekiel's vision, attributed to the evangelists in
Christian symbolism, are grouped about an elliptic garland, as if it
were a chain of flowers intended to symbolize all sensible things;
within this garland there is the figure of a woman, whom the wind has
girt about the loins with a light scarf, and this is all her vesture.
She is in the act of dancing, and has a wand in either hand. It is
eloquent as an image of the swirl of the sensitive life, of joy
attained in the body, of the soul's intoxication in the earthly
paradise, but still guarded by the Divine Watchers, as if by the
powers and the graces of the Holy Name, Tetragammaton, JVHV "those
four ineffable letters which are sometimes attributed to the mystical
beasts. Eliphas Levi calls the garland a crown, and reports that the
figure represents Truth. Dr. Papus connects it with the Absolute and
the realization of the Great Work; for yet others it is a symbol of
humanity and the eternal reward of a life that has been spent well. It
should be noted that in the four quarters of the garland there are
four flowers distinctively marked. According to P. Christian, the
garland should be formed of roses, and this is the kind of chain which
Eliphas Levi says is less easily broken than a chain of iron. Perhaps
by antithesis, but for the same reason, the iron crown of Peter may he
more lightly on the heads of sovereign pontiffs than the crown of gold
on kings.

Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil

As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged and indeed
unchangeable n respect of its design, it has been partly described
already regarding its deeper sense. It represents also the perfection
and end of the Cosmos, the secret which is within it, the rapture of
the universe when it understands itself in God. It is further the
state of the soul in the consciousness of Divine Vision, reflected
from the self-knowing spirit. But these meanings are without prejudice
to that which I have said concerning it on the material side.

It has more than one message on the macrocosmic side and is, for
example, the state of the restored world when the law of manifestation
shall have been carried to the highest degree of natural perfection.
But it is perhaps more especially a story of the past, referring to
that day when all was declared to be good, when the morning stars sang
together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. One of the worst
explanations concerning it is that the figure symbolizes the Magus
when he has reached the highest degree of initiation; another account
says that it represents the absolute, which is ridiculous. The figure
has been said to stand for Truth, which is, however, more properly
allocated to the seventeenth card. Lastly, it has been called the
Crown of the Magi.

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