0 The FoolThe Fool more than any other card contains a vast vocabulary of "meanings" that also vary from deck to deck. In most traditions, the major arcana in total is the "Fool's journey" and every other of the 21 "trumps" relate directly to the Fool. This is why he is often assigned a zero or no number at all.
Waite-Smith — I - The Magician
The Magician evolved from the "trickster" in Renaissance decks to the loftier idealistic Magus of today. The transformation generally occured around the advent of the Golden Dawn. The Magician has become synonymous with wisdom, creative energy, activity, strength of will, vitality.
Watch for our in-depth profile of The High Priestess in our weekly features.
Meanwhile, please enjoy Arthur E. Waite's own 1910 description of the High Priestess card. Both card and description are from the original 1910 publication:
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word.
Watch for our in depth analysis of The Empress in our weekly card profiles!
Meanwhile, please enjoy Arthur Edward Waite's own words on The Empress from 1910, with Pamela Colman Smith's 1910 illustration!
A stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of a daughter of heaven and earth. Her diadem is of twelve stars, gathered in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield which rests near her. A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a fall of water. The sceptre which she bears is surmounted by the globe of this world. She is the inferior Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise, all that is symbolized by the visible house of man.
Watch for our in-depth card profiles weekly! The Emperor will be covered soon. (See our Fool Card for a sample!)
Meanwhile, here are the very words of Arthur E. Waite in his 1910 Pictoral Key to the Tarot accompanied by Pixie's wonderful 1910 card illustration:
He has a form of the Crux ansata for his sceptre and a globe in his left hand. He is a crowned monarch--commanding, stately, seated on a throne, the arms of which axe fronted by rams' heads. He is executive and realization, the power of this world, here clothed with the highest of its natural attributes.
Watch for our in-depth profile of The Hierophant in coming weeks! (See our Fool Profile for a sample!)
Meanwhile, please enjoy Arthur E. Waite's own words from the 1910 Pictoral Key to the Tarot with Pamela Colman Smith's 1910 card.
He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a sceptre terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine.
Watch for our in-depth profile of The Lovers in coming issues! (See our our in-depth coverage on The Fool here.) In the meanwhile, please enjoy the words of Arthur E. Waite from his Pictoral Key to the Tarot:
The sun shines in the zenith, and beneath is a great winged figure with arms extended, pouring down influences. In the foreground are two human figures, male and female, unveiled before each other, as if Adam and Eve when they first occupied the paradise of the earthly body.
Please watch for our in-depth feature on The Chariot in future issues. (See our coverage of The Fool as an example!). Meanwhile, please enjoy Arthur E. Waite's own words:
An erect and princely figure carrying a drawn sword and corresponding, broadly speaking, to the traditional description which I have given in the first part. On the shoulders of the victorious hero are supposed to be the Urim and Thummim. He has led captivity captive; he is conquest on all planes--in the mind, in science, in progress, in certain trials of initiation. He has thus replied to the sphinx, and it is on this account that I have accepted the variation of Éliphas Lévi; two sphinxes thus draw his chariot. He is above all things triumph in the mind. It is to be understood for this reason (a) that the question of the sphinx is concerned with a Mystery of Nature and not of the world of Grace, to which the charioteer could offer no answer; (b) that the planes of his conquest are manifest or external and not within himself; (c) that the liberation which he effects may leave himself in the bondage of the logical understanding; (d) that the tests of
initiation through which he has passed in triumph are to be understood physically or rationally; and (e) that if he came to the pillars of that Temple between which the High Priestess is seated, he could not open the scroll called Tora, nor if she questioned him could he answer. He is not hereditary royalty and he is not priesthood.
The old "argument" of 8 or 11 numbering isn't as crucial as most believe. Arthur Waite renumbered Strength from the old traditional 11 position to correlate with his vision of astrological correspondences, and Aleister Crowley restored Strength to the 11 position in his Thoth deck, but renamed it LUST. Read more about this "controversial" card in upcoming issues of Wise Tarot. (See our in-depth profile of The Fool as an example).
Illustrated here is Carol Herzer's wonderous hand-painted version of Waite-Smith's Strength Card, from the Illuminated Tarot, here restored to its Renaissance position of 11.
Meanwhile please enjoy Arthur Waite's own words from the 1910 Pictoral Key to the Tarot:
A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we have seen in the card
of the Magician, is closing the jaws of a lion. The only point in which this design differs from the
conventional presentations is that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers. For reasons which satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged
with that of justice, which is usually numbered eight. As the variation carries nothing with it which will signify to the reader, there is no cause for explanation. Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the Divine Mystery of Union; the virtue, of course, operates in all planes, and hence draws on all in its symbolism. It connects also with innocentia inviolata, and with the strength which resides in contemplation. These higher meanings are, however, matters of inference, and I do not suggest that they are
transparent on the surface of the card. They are intimated in a concealed manner by the chain of flowers, which signifies, among many other things, the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing to do with selfconfidence in the ordinary sense, though this has been suggested--but it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God, who have found their refuge in Him. There is one aspect in which the lion signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation. It
has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the dragon.
1 Major Arcana