The Tarot Card Number X

The Tarot Card Number X

From our friend, Benjamin Y.

This post offers a glimpse into the esoteric wisdom from the school or tradition that developed the Tarot deck. In a classical deck, there are twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. The true function of Tarot cards is to serve as a map to higher centers.

The origin of the Tarot is shrouded in mystery. In 1913, P.D. Ouspensky authored an essay entitled, “The Symbolism of the Tarot,” which contained a brief passage on its origin:

“The history of the Tarot is a great puzzle. During the Middle Ages, when it first appeared historically, there existed a tendency to build up synthetic symbolical or logical systems of the same sort as Ars Magna by Raymond Lully. But productions similar to the Tarot exist in India and China, so that we cannot possibly think it one of those systems created during the Middle Ages in Europe, it is also evidently connected with the Ancient Mysteries and the Egyptian Initiations. Although its origin is in oblivion and the aim of its author or authors quite unknown, there is no doubt whatever that it is the most complete code of Hermetic symbolism we possess.”

Card number X is called the “Wheel of Fortune.” Ironically though, it is the wheel of misfortune, since it depicts the mechanical nature of man’s lot from birth to death. Because we have one body and one name, we believe that we are unified, that we are a single I. However, there is a mob living within each of us, and at any given moment, any member of that mob will have temporary rule over the rest. This wheel is an accurate description of most men and women whom Ouspensky called living in the second state of consciousness.

Each creature on this wheel represents just one of the many ‘I’s that Ouspensky wrote about in his work, The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution. The creature on top with the crown and scepter represents the current ‘I’ that is dominating the rest. The temporary nature of this ‘I’ is shown in the creature on the left with its tail in the air indicating that it is falling. This creature was, a few seconds ago, the dominating ‘I.’ The creature on the right is another ‘I’ that is about to usurp the current ‘I.’ The bitter truth is that, without outside help, we are fated to go through life, from one ‘I’ to another, never realizing that higher states of consciousness are available.

The School of the Tarot is but one of many Wisdom Schools from the past that contained Objective Knowledge. Each school has had the responsibility of leaving their knowledge to posterity, cloaked in art forms that could only be deciphered by those possessing a permanent state of higher consciousness.

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Tarot Card X, Wheel of Fortune