Sunday, June 7th, 2020
The Fool from the Rider Waite tarot deck was my gateway into the hidden mysteries.
No one knows for certain when and where the Tarot originated. Many sources site its initial popularity with the nobility of 15th century Europe. It’s roots have been linked to many points of origin: the lost continent of Atlantis, ancient Egypt, the Jewish Kabbalah, the Gnostics, the Cathars of Southern France, the Knights of Templar and the Holy Grail, the “wise women” of the European Inquisition, and the Romany Gypsies. I prefer to think of all of these sources as a mosaic of mysticism that has survived the centuries with the Tarot, despite condemnation from religious teachings.
I purchased my first Tarot deck in December 1981, weeks before leaving for Tucson, Arizona. At a small occult bookstore in Shadyside, a suburb of Pittsburgh, I was led to the Rider-Waite deck that remains with me to this day.
The night before my departure, I selected a card face-down from the deck. With dismay, I beheld the clueless young man about to step off a cliff, a dog barking a warning at his heels.
With my new Master of Social Work diploma still to be issued, I eagerly departed in my brown 1978 Chevy Monza, never to return as a Pennsylvania resident.
Coming to age in the 1970’s, I was one of a generation of women caught in a vortex of dichotomies. Raised by mothers who encouraged Gregg Shorthand as a career tool and white weddings as a necessary goal, I was immersed into the world of Betty Friedan and “The Feminine Mystique” during my college years at Penn State. From the latin mass of pre-Vatican 11 Roman Catholicism, to the Zen meditation of “The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, I tried to integrate a type of schizophrenic balance between the old and the new. I fled the steelworker town where I was raised and hoped to re-create myself, having no clear perception of who I was. Despite my initial dismay, the Fool was an appropriate mentor: We all take our baggage with us, like the Fool who jauntily sports a sack as he delves into his new adventure.
Fast forward 38 years: the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot are a spiritual journey through life, beginning with the Fool. The Justice card stands at a mid-point between the fated Wheel of Fortune and the sacrifice of the Hanged Man.
As I watch our cities implode during the George Floyd protest marches , and subsequent lootings, I am reminded of the lesson of the Justice Card. The chant of the protestors is often, “No Justice no Peace.”
The symbology of the Justice card shows a king with a sword in one hand the the scales of justice in the other. The Justice card is the great balancer. It determines readiness for the subsequent difficult lessons of “the Hanged Man”, “the Devil’, and “the Tower,”.
From the beginning of time, we have been fearful of the dark. We prefer the full moon to the dark new moon, the day to night, the clarity of light to occult knowledge. I think that this prejudice explains our societal distrust of people with dark skin and even animals with dark hair. “Blondes have more fun”, and we view Jesus as having had blue eyes and light hair, even though he was a Middle-Eastern Jew. As we evolve as a society, I believe that this ancient prejudice is being merged into the Tao symbol and the balance of the dark and the light. In bringing about Justice, we can rely, as a society, on the sword or the scales of Justice. Our power of discernment dictates which one we choose to brandish.
The policeman who killed George Floyd, and the looters, have chosen the sword. The answer is not to defund and demonize the police because mass destruction is sure to follow. The card of Justice warns us that failure to resolve our circumstances of birth with right action, for people of all races, can lead to a state of apocolytic terror. I prefer to seek the wisdom of Wayne Dwyer from his book “The Power of Intention”:
“Align your intention with your sense of purpose. Keep thoughts in harmony with your actions.”
When one reaches this point in the circle of life, the “drummer” has “learned the lessons of the other cards.” A state of self-actualization has been attained which allows a direct gateway into the next world. I am reminded of the Eastern teaching of Reincarnation. Some souls, like Gandhi, the Buddha, and children with terminal illness, reach the point of not having to return to this world in the body. They have, through many lifetimes, internalized and activated spiritual traditions like the Tarot in their choices before incarnating and on this earthly plane. The famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi best sums up this journey’s end:
“Be the Change that you wish to see in the world.”
Let us all adopt this perception as we go forward from this difficult time.
For more information, contact Donna Graves at thedifferentdrummerblog@gmail.com