Pentacles
King

The figure calls for no special description the face is rather dark, suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency. The bull’s head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this suit is represented throughout as engraved or blazoned with the pentagram, typifying the correspondence of the four elements in human nature and that by which they may be governed. In many old Tarot packs this suit stood for current coin, money, deniers. I have not invented the substitution of pentacles and I have no special cause to sustain in respect of the alternative. But the consensus of divinatory meanings is on the side of some change, because the cards do not happen to deal especially with questions of money.

Divinatory Meanings: Valour,
realizing intelligence, business and normal intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and
attainments of this kind; success in these paths.

Reversed: Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity,
corruption, peril.

Pentacles
Queen

The face suggests that of a dark woman, whose qualities might be summed up in the idea of greatness of soul; she has also the serious cast of intelligence; she contemplates her symbol and may see worlds therein.

Divinatory Meanings: Opulence, generosity, magnificence, security,
liberty.

Reversed: Evil, suspicion, suspense, fear, mistrust.

Pentacles
Knight

He rides a slow, enduring, heavy horse, to which his own aspect corresponds. He exhibits his symbol, but does not look therein.

Divinatory Meanings: Utility, serviceableness, interest, responsibility, rectitude-all on the normal and external plane.

Reversed: inertia, idleness, repose of that kind, stagnation; also placidity, discouragement, carelessness.

Pentacles
Page

A youthful figure, looking intently at the pentacle which hovers over his raised hands. He moves slowly, insensible of that which is about him.

Divinatory Meanings: Application, study, scholarship, reflection another reading says news, messages and the bringer thereof; also rule, management.

Reversed: Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury; unfavourable news.

Pentacles
Ten

A man and woman beneath an archway which gives entrance to a house and domain. They are accompanied by a child, who looks curiously at two dogs accosting an ancient personage seated in the foreground. The child’s hand is on one of them.

Divinatory Meanings: Gain, riches; family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family.

Reversed: Chance, fatality, loss, robbery,
games of hazard; sometimes gift, dowry, pension.

Pentacles

Nine

A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being.

Divinatory Meanings: Prudence, safety, success, accomplishment, certitude, discernment.

Reversed: Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.

Read by Leisa ReFalo

Leisa ReFalo combines her background in software engineering with a deep and abiding interest in all things Tarot. She is the author of two Tarot decks: the Tarot of Color (an attribution deck that shows the depth of correspondences), and the Kaleidoscope Tarot (an abstract deck where a card is represented by a single color and symbol), and the genius behind the programing for:

• English Qabalah Calculators
• Birth Card Calculator for the Tarot School
• Tarot of the Name Site
• Tarot of Color Free Readings

Leisa is a professional Tarot reader, and co-founder of the Portland Tarot Society. Her work can be seen at: www.tarotconnection.net, www.tarotjourney.net, www.tarotofcolor.com, and www.portlandtarot.org

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

An artist in stone at his work, which he exhibits in the form of trophies.

Divinatory Meanings: Work, employment, commission, craftsmanship, skill in craft and business, perhaps in the preparatory stage.

Reversed: Voided ambition, vanity, cupidity, exaction, usury. It may also signify the possession of skill, in the sense of the ingenious mind turned to cunning and intrigue.

A young man, leaning on his staff, looks intently at seven pentacles attached to a clump of greenery on his right; one would say that these were his treasures and that his heart was there.

Divinatory Meanings: These are exceedingly contradictory; in the main, it is a card of money, business, barter; but one reading gives altercation, quarrels–and another innocence, ingenuity, purgation.

Reversed: Cause for anxiety regarding money which it may be proposed to lend.

Pentacles
Six

A person in the guise of a merchant weighs money in a pair of scales and distributes it to the needy and distressed. It is a testimony to his own success in life, as well as to his goodness of heart.

Divinatory Meanings: Presents, gifts, gratification another account says attention, vigilance now is
the accepted time, present prosperity, etc.

Reversed: Desire, cupidity, envy, jealousy, illusion.

Pentacles
Five

Two mendicants in a snow-storm pass a lighted casement.

Divinatory Meanings: The card foretells
material trouble above all, whether in the form illustrated–that is, destitution–or otherwise. For some cartomancists, it is a card of love and lovers-wife, husband, friend, mistress; also concordance, affinities. These alternatives cannot be harmonized.

Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin, discord, profligacy.

Read by Dan Pelletier

Dan Pelletier lives north of Seattle Washington with his wife of 22 years, Jan, his two cats, Spook and Pookha, and 32 rosebushes. He has been reading Tarot for himself and others for over thirty years.

Dan is also co-owner of The Tarot Garden, a highly respected resource for tarot decks and related information on the Internet. He has written articles appearing on the Tarot for Life website newsletter, Seeker’s Journey, and Tarot Passages; and has published interviews with deck creators on the tarotgarden.com website library.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Pentacles
Four

A crowned figure, having a pentacle over his crown, clasps another with hands and arms; two pentacles are under his feet. He holds to that which he has.

Divinatory Meanings: The surety of possessions, cleaving to that which one has, gift, legacy, inheritance.

Reversed: Suspense, delay, opposition.

Read by ??

Bio goes here

Download or Listen to the Card

Pentacles
Three

A sculptor at his work in a monastery. Compare the design which illustrates the Eight of Pentacles. The apprentice or amateur therein has received his reward and is now at work in earnest.

Divinatory Meanings: Métier, trade, skilled labour; usually, however, regarded as a card of
nobility, aristocracy, renown, glory.

Reversed: Mediocrity, in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness.

Pentacles
Two

A young man, in the act of dancing, has a pentacle in either hand, and they are joined by that endless cord which is like the number 8 reversed.

Divinatory Meanings: On the one hand it is represented as a card of gaiety, recreation and its connexions, which is the subject of the design; but it is read also as news and messages in writing, as obstacles, agitation, trouble, embroilment.

Reversed: Enforced gaiety, simulated enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting, composition, letters of exchange.

Pentacles
Ace

A hand–issuing, as usual, from a cloud–holds up a pentacle.

Divinatory Meanings: Perfect
contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also speedy intelligence; gold.

Reversed: The evil side of wealth,
bad intelligence; also great riches. In any case it shews prosperity, comfortable material
conditions, but whether these are of advantage to the possessor will depend on whether the card is reversed or not.

Swords
KingHe sits in judgment, holding the unsheathed sign of his suit. He recalls, of course, the conventional
Symbol of justice in the Trumps Major, and he may represent this virtue, but he is rather the power
of life and death, in virtue of his office. Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever arises out of the idea of
judgment and all its connexions-power, command, authority, militant intelligence, law, offices of
the crown, and so forth. Reversed: Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.

Swords
QueensHer right hand raises the weapon vertically and the hilt rests on an arm of her royal chair the left
hand is extended, the arm raised her countenance is severe but chastened; it suggests familiarity
with sorrow. It does not represent mercy, and, her sword notwithstanding, she is scarcely a symbol
of power. Divinatory Meanings: Widowhood, female sadness and embarrassment, absence,
sterility, mourning, privation, separation. Reversed: Malice, bigotry, artifice, prudery, bale, deceit.

Swords
KnightHe is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies. In the design he is really a prototypical hero
of romantic chivalry. He might almost be Galahad, whose sword is swift and sure because he is
clean of heart. Divinatory Meanings: Skill, bravery, capacity, defence, address, enmity, wrath, war,
destruction, opposition, resistance, ruin. There is therefore a sense in which the card signifies
death, but it carries this meaning only in its proximity to other cards of fatality. Reversed:
Imprudence, incapacity, extravagance.

Swords
PageA lithe, active figure holds a sword upright in both hands, while in the act of swift walking. He is
passing over rugged land, and about his way the clouds are collocated wildly. He is alert and lithe,
looking this way and that, as if an expected enemy might appear at any moment. Divinatory
Meanings: Authority, overseeing, secret service, vigilance, spying, examination, and the qualities
thereto belonging. Reversed: More evil side of these qualities; what is unforeseen, unprepared
state; sickness is also intimated.

Swords
TenA prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card. Divinatory Meanings:
Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not
especially a card of violent death. Reversed: Advantage, profit, success, favour, but none of these
are permanent; also power and authority.

Swords
NineOne seated on her couch in lamentation, with the swords over her. She is as one who knows no
sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a card of utter desolation. Divinatory Meanings: Death, failure,
miscarriage, delay, deception, disappointment, despair. Reversed: Imprisonment, suspicion, doubt,
reasonable fear, shame.

Swords
EightA woman, bound and hoodwinked, with the swords of the card about her. Yet it is rather a card of
temporary durance than of irretrievable bondage. Divinatory Meanings: Bad news, violent chagrin,
crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny; also sickness. Reversed: Disquiet, difficulty,
opposition, accident, treachery; what is unforeseen; fatality.

Swords
Seven

A man in the act of carrying away five swords rapidly; the two others of the card remain stuck in the ground. A camp is close at hand.

Divinatory Meanings: Design, attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also quarrelling, a plan that may fail, annoyance. The design is uncertain in its import, because the significations are widely at variance with each other.

Reversed: Good advice, counsel, instruction, slander, babbling.

Swords
Six

A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore. The course is smooth, and seeing that the freight is light, it may be noted that the work is not beyond his strength.

Divinatory Meanings: journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.

Reversed: Declaration, confession, publicity; one account says that it is a proposal of love.

Read by Dan Pelletier

Dan Pelletier lives north of Seattle Washington with his wife of 22 years, Jan, his two cats, Spook and Pookha, and 32 rosebushes. He has been reading Tarot for himself and others for over thirty years.

Dan is also co-owner of The Tarot Garden, a highly respected resource for tarot decks and related information on the Internet. He has written articles appearing on the Tarot for Life website newsletter, Seeker’s Journey, and Tarot Passages; and has published interviews with deck creators on the tarotgarden.com website library.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Swords
FiveA disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground.
He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He
is the master in possession of the field. Divinatory Meanings: Degradation, destruction, revocation,
infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these. Reversed: The same; burial and
obsequies.

Swords
Four

The effigy of a knight in the attitude of prayer, at full length upon his tomb.

Divinatory Meanings:Vigilance, retreat, solitude, hermit’s repose, exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last that have
suggested the design.

Reversed: Wise administration, circumspection, economy, avarice, precaution, testament.

Read by Paul ReFalo

Paul ReFalo is a Forensics Scientist for the State of Oregon.

He brought meditation training to the Oregon prison systems. He is the director of the Portland Shambhala Meditation Center.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Swords
ThreeThree swords piercing a heart; cloud and rain behind. Divinatory Meanings: Removal, absence,
delay, division, rupture, dispersion, and all that the design signifies naturally, being too simple and
obvious to call for specific enumeration. Reversed: Mental alienation, error, loss, distraction,
disorder, confusion.

Swords
TwoA hoodwinked female figure balances two swords upon her shoulders. Divinatory Meanings:
Conformity and the equipoise which it suggests, courage, friendship, concord in a state of arms;
another reading gives tenderness, affection, intimacy. The suggestion of harmony and other
favourable readings must be considered in a qualified manner, as Swords generally are not
symbolical of beneficent forces in human affairs. Reversed: Imposture, falsehood, duplicity,
disloyalty.

Swords
Ace

A hand issues from a cloud, grasping as word, the point of which is encircled by a crown.

Divinatory Meanings: Triumph, the excessive degree in everything, conquest, triumph of force. It is a card of great force, in love as well as in hatred. The crown may carry a much higher significance than comes usually within the sphere of fortune-telling.

Reversed: The same, but the results are disastrous; another account says–conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.

Cups
King
He holds a short sceptre in his left hand and a great cup in his right; his throne is set upon the sea;
on one side a ship is riding and on the other a dolphin is leaping. The implicit is that the Sign of
the Cup naturally refers to water, which appears in all the court cards. Divinatory Meanings: Fair
man, man of business, law, or divinity; responsible, disposed to oblige the Querent; also equity, art
and science, including those who profess science, law and art; creative intelligence. Reversed:
Dishonest, double-dealing man; roguery, exaction, injustice, vice, scandal, pillage, considerable
loss.

Cups
Queen

Beautiful, fair, dreamy–as one who sees visions in a cup. This is, however, only one of her aspects; she sees, but she also acts, and her activity feeds her dream.

Divinatory Meanings: Good, fair woman; honest, devoted woman, who will do service to the Querent; loving intelligence, and hence the gift of vision; success, happiness, pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a perfect spouse and a good mother.

Reversed: The accounts vary; good woman; otherwise, distinguished woman but onenot to be trusted; perverse woman; vice, dishonour, depravity.

Read by Dena DeCastro

A professional astrologer in the Portland area for several years, Dena has appeared on local radio shows, taught workshops, and given lectures on topics in Evolutionary Astrology. The evolutionary perspective is that our souls progress from lifetime to lifetime. The focus of Dena’s readings is upon your chart as the dynamic representation of your highest potential, and the guide toward achieving it. Dena hosts the podcast Evolutions of Astrology featuring interviews with astrologers and other readers, as well as discussing various topics of astrology and chart interpretation.

To subscribe to “Evolutions of Astrology” via iTunes, click here.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Cups
Knight

Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterize this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision.

Divinatory Meanings: Arrival, approach–sometimes that of a messenger; advances, proposition, demeanour, invitation, incitement.

Reversed: Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.

Read by Brad Thomsen

Brad Thomsen has enjoyed expressing himself creatively in both musical and theatrical pursuits.

A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he has also been a part of several theater projects. He now resides in Portland, OR.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Cups
Page
A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate page, of studious and intent aspect, contemplates a fish
rising from a cup to look at him. It is the pictures of the mind taking form. Divinatory Meanings:
Fair young man, one impelled to render service and with whom the Querent will be connected; a
studious youth; news, message; application, reflection, meditation; also these things directed to
business. Reversed: Taste, inclination, attachment, seduction, deception, artifice.

Cups
Ten

Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstacy by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is about her; his left is raised upward; she raises her right arm. The two children dancing near them have not observed the prodigy but are happy after their own manner. There is a home-scene beyond.

Divinatory Meanings: Contentment, repose of the entire heart; the perfection of that state; also perfection of human love and friendship; if with several picture-cards, a person who is taking charge of the Querent’s interests; also the town, village or country inhabited by the Querent.

Reversed: Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence.

Read by Dena DeCastro

A professional astrologer in the Portland area for several years, Dena has appeared on local radio shows, taught workshops, and given lectures on topics in Evolutionary Astrology. The evolutionary perspective is that our souls progress from lifetime to lifetime. The focus of Dena’s readings is upon your chart as the dynamic representation of your highest potential, and the guide toward achieving it. Dena hosts the podcast Evolutions of Astrology featuring interviews with astrologers and other readers, as well as discussing various topics of astrology and chart interpretation.

To subscribe to “Evolutions of Astrology” via iTunes, click here.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Cups
Nine
A goodly personage has feasted to his heart’s content, and abundant refreshment of wine is on the arched counter behind him, seeming to indicate that the future is also assured. The picture offers the material side only, but there are other aspects. Divinatory Meanings: Concord, contentment, physical bien-être; also victory, success, advantage; satisfaction for the Querent or person for whom the consultation is made. Reversed: Truth, loyalty, liberty; but the readings vary and include
mistakes, imperfections, etc.

Cups
Eight
A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous
concern. Divinatory Meanings: The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are
entirely antithetical–giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty. In practice, it is usually
found that the card shews the decline of a matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be
important is really of slight consequence–either for good or evil. Reversed: Great joy, happiness,
feasting.

Read by Bill Vincent

Bill Vincent is a media and music producer living in the Nashville, TN area.

Visit myspace.com/ILoveRustyJ to hear some of the new stuff I’m working on. The album will be available on iTunes soon as well.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Cups
Seven

Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit.

Divinatory Meanings: Fairy favours, images of reflection, sentiment, imagination, things seen in the glass of contemplation; some attainment in these degrees, but nothing permanent or substantial is suggested.

Reversed: Desire, will, determination, project.

Read by Leisa ReFalo

Leisa ReFalo combines her background in software engineering with a deep and abiding interest in all things Tarot. She is the author of two Tarot decks: the Tarot of Color (an attribution deck that shows the depth of correspondences), and the Kaleidoscope Tarot (an abstract deck where a card is represented by a single color and symbol), and the genius behind the programing for:

• English Qabalah Calculators
• Birth Card Calculator for the Tarot School
• Tarot of the Name Site
• Tarot of Color Free Readings

Leisa is a professional Tarot reader, and co-founder of the Portland Tarot Society. Her work can be seen at: www.tarotconnection.net, www.tarotjourney.net, www.tarotofcolor.com, and www.portlandtarot.org

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Cups
Six

Children in an old garden, their cups filled with flowers.

Divinatory Meanings: A card of the past and of memories, looking back, as–for example–on childhood; happiness, enjoyment, but coming rather from the past; things that have vanished. Another reading reverses this, giving new relations, new knowledge, new environment, and then the children are disporting in an unfamiliar precinct.

Reversed: The future, renewal, that which will come to pass presently.

Read by Paul ReFalo

Paul ReFalo is a Forensics Scientist for the State of Oregon.

He brought meditation training to the Oregon prison systems. He is the director of the Portland Shambhala Meditation Center.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Cups
Five

A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups two others stand upright behind him; a bridge is in the background, leading to a small keep or holding.

Divanatory Meanings: It is a card of loss, but something remains over; three have been taken, but two are left; it is a card of inheritance, patrimony, transmission, but not corresponding to expectations; with some interpreters it is a card of marriage, but not without bitterness or frustration.

Reversed: News, alliances, affinity, consanguinity, ancestry, return, false projects.

Read by Dan Pelletier

Dan Pelletier lives north of Seattle Washington with his wife of 22 years, Jan, his two cats, Spook and Pookha, and 32 rosebushes. He has been reading Tarot for himself and others for over thirty years.

Dan is also co-owner of The Tarot Garden, a highly respected resource for tarot decks and related information on the Internet. He has written articles appearing on the Tarot for Life website newsletter, Seeker’s Journey, and Tarot Passages; and has published interviews with deck creators on the tarotgarden.com website library.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Cups
Four

A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment.
Divinatory Meanings: Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary
vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure.
Reversed: Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.

Cups
Three

Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.

Divinatory Meanings: The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing,

Reversed: Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the pleasures of the senses.

Read by Brad Thomsen

Brad Thomsen has enjoyed expressing himself creatively in both musical and theatrical pursuits.

A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he has also been a part of several theater projects. He now resides in Portland, OR.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Cups
Two

A youth and maiden are pledging one another, and above their cups rises the Caduceus of Hermes, between the great wings of which there appears a lion’s head. It is a variant of a sign which is found in a few old examples of this card. Some curious emblematical meanings are attached to it, but they do not concern us in this place.
Divinatory Meanings: Love, passion, friendship, affinity,
union, concord, sympathy, the interrelation of the sexes, and–as a suggestion apart from all offices of divination–that desire which is not in Nature, but by which Nature is sanctified.

Cups
Ace

The waters are beneath, and thereon are water-lilies; the hand issues from the cloud, holding in its palm the cup, from which four streams are pouring; a dove, bearing in its bill a cross-marked Host, descends to place the Wafer in the Cup; the dew of water is falling on all sides. It is an intimation of that which may lie behind the Lesser Arcana.

Divinatory Meanings: House of the true heart, joy, content, abode, nourishment, abundance, fertility; Holy Table, felicity hereof.

Reversed: House of the false heart, mutation, instability, revolution.

Read by Dena DeCastro

A professional astrologer in the Portland area for several years, Dena has appeared on local radio shows, taught workshops, and given lectures on topics in Evolutionary Astrology. The evolutionary perspective is that our souls progress from lifetime to lifetime. The focus of Dena’s readings is upon your chart as the dynamic representation of your highest potential, and the guide toward achieving it. Dena hosts the podcast Evolutions of Astrology featuring interviews with astrologers and other readers, as well as discussing various topics of astrology and chart interpretation.

To subscribe to “Evolutions of Astrology” via iTunes, click here.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Wands
Queen

The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and animation. Emotionally
and otherwise, the Queen’s personality corresponds to that of the King, but is more magnetic.
Divinatory Meanings: A dark woman, countrywoman, friendly, chaste, loving, honourable. If the
card beside her signifies a man, she is well disposed towards him; if a woman, she is interested in
the Querent. Also, love of money, or a certain success in business. Reversed: Good, economical,
obliging, serviceable. Signifies also–but in certain positions and in the neighbourhood of other
cards tending in such directions–opposition, jealousy, even deceit and infidelity.

Wands
King

The physical and emotional nature to which this card is attributed is dark, ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned, noble. The King uplifts a flowering wand, and wears, like his three correspondences in the remaining suits, what is called a cap of maintenance beneath his crown. He connects with the symbol of the lion, which is emblazoned on the back of his throne.

Divinatory Meanings: Dark man, friendly, countryman, generally married, honest and conscientious. The card always signifies honesty, and may mean news concerning an unexpected heritage to fall in before very long.

Reversed: Good, but severe; austere, yet tolerant.

Read by Dan Pelletier

Dan Pelletier lives north of Seattle Washington with his wife of 22 years, Jan, his two cats, Spook and Pookha, and 32 rosebushes. He has been reading Tarot for himself and others for over thirty years.

Dan is also co-owner of The Tarot Garden, a highly respected resource for tarot decks and related information on the Internet. He has written articles appearing on the Tarot for Life website newsletter, Seeker’s Journey, and Tarot Passages; and has published interviews with deck creators on the tarotgarden.com website library.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Wands
Knight

He is shewn as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith.

Divinatory Meanings: Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.

Reversed: Rupture, division, interruption, discord,

Read by Paul ReFalo

Paul ReFalo is a Forensics Scientist for the State of Oregon.

He brought meditation training to the Oregon prison systems. He is the director of the Portland Shambhala Meditation Center.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Wands
Page In a scene similar to the former, a young man stands in the act of proclamation. He is unknown but
faithful, and his tidings are strange. Divinatory Meanings: Dark young man, faithful, a lover, an
envoy, a postman. Beside a man, he will bear favourable testimony concerning him. A dangerous
rival, if followed by the Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities of his suit. He may signify family
intelligence. Reversed: Anecdotes, announcements, evil news. Also indecision and the instability
which accompanies it.

Wands
TenA man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying. Divinatory Meanings: A
card of many significances, and some of the readings cannot be harmonized. I set aside that which
connects it with honour and good faith. The chief meaning is oppression simply, but it is also
fortune, gain, any kind of success, and then it is the oppression of these things. It is also a card of
false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The place which the figure is approaching may suffer from the
rods that he carries. Success is stultified if the Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a question of a
lawsuit, there will be certain loss. Reversed: Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their
analogies.

Wands
NineThe figure leans upon his staff and has an expectant look, as if awaiting an enemy. Behind are
eight other staves–erect, in orderly disposition, like a palisade. Divinatory Meanings: The card
signifies strength in opposition. If attacked, the person will meet an onslaught boldly; and his build
shews, that he may prove a formidable antagonist. With this main significance there are all its
possible adjuncts–delay, suspension, adjournment. Reversed: Obstacles, adversity, calamity.

Wands
EightThe card represents motion through the immovable-a flight of wands through an open country; but
they draw to the term of their course. That which they signify is at hand; it may be even on the
threshold. Divinatory Meanings: Activity in undertakings, the path of such activity, swiftness, as
that of an express messenger; great haste, great hope, speed towards an end which promises
assured felicity; generally, that which is on the move; also the arrows of love. Reversed: Arrows of
jealousy, internal dispute, stingings of conscience, quarrels; and domestic disputes for persons who
are married.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pktwa08.htm [13/10/2002 14:26:59]

Wands
Six

A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen with staves are at his
side. Divinatory Meanings: The card has been so designed that it can cover several significations;
on the surface, it is a victor triumphing, but it is also great news, such as might be carried in state
by the King’s courier; it is expectation crowned with its own desire, the crown of hope, and so
forth. Reversed: Apprehension, fear, as of a victorious enemy at the gate; treachery, disloyalty, as
of gates being opened to the enemy; also indefinite delay.

Pentacles
Seven
A young man on a craggy eminence brandishing a staff; six other staves are raised towards him
from below. Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of valour, for, on the surface, six are attacking one,
who has, however, the vantage position. On the intellectual plane, it signifies discussion, wordy
strife; in business–negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition. It is further a card of success, for
the combatant is on the top and his enemies may be unable to reach him. Reversed: Perplexity,
embarrassments, anxiety. It is also a caution against indecision.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pktwa07.htm [13/10/2002 14:27:04]

Wands
Five

A posse of youths, who are brandishing staves, as if in sport or strife. It is mimic warfare, and hereto correspond the

Divinatory Meanings: Imitation, as, for example, sham fight, but also the strenuous competition and struggle of the search after riches and fortune. In this sense it connects with the battle of life. Hence some attributions say that it is a card of gold, gain, opulence.

Reversed: Litigation, disputes, trickery, contradiction.

Read by Bill Vincent

Bill Vincent is a media and music producer living in the Nashville, TN area.

Visit myspace.com/ILoveRustyJ to hear some of the new stuff I’m working on. The album will be available on iTunes soon as well.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Wands
FourFrom the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great garland suspended; two female
figures uplift nosegays; at their side is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house.
Divinatory Meanings: They are for once almost on the surface–country life, haven of refuge, a
species of domestic harvest-home, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected
work of these. Reversed: The meaning remains unaltered; it is prosperity, increase, felicity, beauty,
embellishment.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pktwa04.htm [13/10/2002 14:27:17]

Wands
ThreeA calm, stately personage, with his back turned, looking from a cliff’s edge at ships passing over
the sea. Three staves are planted in the ground, and he leans slightly on one of them. Divinatory
Meanings: He symbolizes established strength, enterprise, effort, trade, commerce, discovery;
those are his ships, bearing his merchandise, which are sailing over the sea. The card also signifies
able co-operation in business, as if the successful merchant prince were looking from his side
towards yours with a view to help you. Reversed: The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of
adversity, toil and disappointment.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pktwa03.htm [13/10/2002 14:27:21]

Wands
Two

A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a globe in his right hand, while a staff in his left rests on the battlement; another is fixed in a ring. The Rose and Cross and Lily should be noticed on the left side.

Divinatory Meanings: Between the alternative readings there is no marriage possible; on the one hand, riches, fortune, magnificence; on the other, physical suffering, disease, chagrin, sadness, mortification. The design gives one suggestion; here is a lord overlooking his dominion and alternately contemplating a globe; it looks like the malady, the mortification, the sadness of Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world’s wealth.

Reversed: Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.

Read by Leisa ReFalo

Leisa ReFalo combines her background in software engineering with a deep and abiding interest in all things Tarot. She is the author of two Tarot decks: the Tarot of Color (an attribution deck that shows the depth of correspondences), and the Kaleidoscope Tarot (an abstract deck where a card is represented by a single color and symbol), and the genius behind the programing for:

• English Qabalah Calculators
• Birth Card Calculator for the Tarot School
• Tarot of the Name Site
• Tarot of Color Free Readings

Leisa is a professional Tarot reader, and co-founder of the Portland Tarot Society. Her work can be seen at: www.tarotconnection.net, www.tarotjourney.net, www.tarotofcolor.com, and www.portlandtarot.org

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

Wands
Ace
A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a stout wand or club. Divinatory Meanings: Creation,
invention, enterprise, the powers which result in these; principle, beginning, source; birth, family,
origin, and in a sense the virility which is behind them; the starting point of enterprises; according
to another account, money, fortune, inheritance. Reversed: Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, to
perish also a certain clouded joy.

XXI
The World

As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged–and indeed unchangeable–in 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.

XX
The Last Judgement

I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet, and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising from their tombs–a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned.

But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations. It should be noted that all the figures are as one in the wonder, adoration and ecstacy expressed by their attitudes. It is the
card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal–which summons is heard and answered from within. Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response–almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict,
for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.

Read by Alissa Hall

Alissa Hall first began reading Tarot over 20 years ago, and as an adult has dedicated years to learning more about various occult paths. In addition to Tarot, she also reads palms and runes, and offers her gift of karmic path (past life) advisement to her clientèle as well. Known to lecture on Tarot and palmistry, she last appeared in Las Vegas for a series of workshops and classes.

A devoted wordsmith, Alissa has published both short and long works of fiction and non-fiction on subjects ranging from Tarot to Tantra, self-help to storytelling.

A resident of New Mexico for over 2 decades, she lives in the mountains with her husband and son, and is currently expecting her second child.

• AlissaHall.com
• Alissa’s Henna Gallery
• Raven’s Perch Press

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

XVIII
The Sun

XIX. The Sun
sacred-texts Waite Index Previous Next
XIX
The Sun
The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard has been mentioned
already as the better symbolism connected with this card. It is the destiny of the Supernatural East
and the great and holy light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out
from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey home. The card signifies,
therefore, the transit from the manifest light of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth,
to the light of the world to come, which goes before aspiration and is typified by the heart of a
child.
But the last allusion is again the key to a different form or aspect of the symbolism. The sun is that
of consciousness in the spirit - the direct as the antithesis of the reflected light. The characteristic
type of humanity has become a little child therein–a child in the sense of simplicity and innocence
in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence,
he signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the consciousness
above the natural mind, that mind in its renewal leads forth the animal nature in a state of perfect
conformity.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pktar19.htm [13/10/2002 14:26:11]

XVIII
The Moon

XVIII. The Moon
sacred-texts Waite Index Previous Next
XVIII
The Moon
The distinction between this card and some of the conventional types is that the moon is increasing
on what is called the side of mercy, to the right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen
secondary rays. The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit. The path
between the towers is the issue into the unknown. The dog and wolf are the fears of the natural
mind in the presence of that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it.
The last reference is a key to another form of symbolism. The intellectual light is a reflection and
beyond it is the unknown mystery which it cannot shew forth. It illuminates our animal nature,
types of which are represented below–the dog, the wolf and that which comes up out of the deeps,
the nameless and hideous tendency which is lower than the savage beast. It strives to attain
manifestation, symbolized by crawling from the abyss of water to the land, but as a rule it sinks
back whence it came. The face of the mind directs a calm gaze upon the unrest below; the dew of
thought falls; the message is: Peace, be still; and it may be that there shall come a calm upon the
animal nature, while the abyss beneath shall cease from giving up a form.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pktar18.htm [13/10/2002 14:26:06]

XII
The Tower

Occult explanations attached to this card are meager and mostly disconcerting. It is idle to indicate that it depicts min in all its aspects, because it bears this evidence on the surface. It is said further that it contains the first allusion to a material building, but I do not conceive that the Tower is more or less material than the pillars which we have met with in three previous cases. I see nothing to warrant Papus in supposing that it is literally the fall of Adam, but there is more in favour of his alternative–that it signifies the materialization of the spiritual word. The bibliographer Christian imagines that it is the downfall of the mind, seeking to penetrate the mystery of God. I agree rather with Grand Orient that it is the ruin of the House of We, when evil has prevailed therein, and above all that it is the rending of a House of Doctrine. I understand that the reference is, however, to a House of Falsehood. It illustrates also in the most comprehensive way the old truth that “except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”

There is a sense in which the catastrophe is a reflection from the previous card, but not on the side of the symbolism which I have tried to indicate therein. It is more correctly a question of analogy; one is concerned with the fall into the material and animal state, while the other signifies destruction on the intellectual side. The Tower has been spoken of as the chastisement of pride and the intellect overwhelmed in the attempt to penetrate the Mystery of God; but in neither case do these explanations account for the two persons who are the living sufferers. The one is the literal
word made void and the other its false interpretation. In yet a deeper sense, it may signify also the end of a dispensation, but there is no possibility here for the consideration of this involved question.

Mary Pat Lynch bought her first Tarot deck when she was 18, but it mostly slept in the back of a drawer. In the last ten years, she has explored shamanic journeying and dreamwork, and is now rediscovering the world of Tarot.

XVII
The Star

XVII. The Star
sacred-texts Waite Index Previous Next
XVII
The Star
A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars–also of eight rays. The female
figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the
water. She pours Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and land. Behind her is rising
ground and on the right a shrub or tree, whereon a bird alights. The figure expresses eternal youth
and beauty. The star is l’étoile flamboyante, which appears in Masonic symbolism, but has been
confused therein. That which the figure communicates to the living scene is the substance of the
heavens and the elements. It has been said truly that the mottoes of this card are “Waters of Life
freely” and “Gifts of the Spirit.”
The summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of hope. On other planes it has
been certified as immortality and interior light. For the majority of prepared minds, the figure will
appear as the type of Truth unveiled, glorious in undying beauty, pouring on the waters of the soul
some part and measure of her priceless possession. But she is in reality the Great Mother in the
Kabalistic Sephira Binah, which is supernal Understanding, who communicates to the Sephiroth
that are below in the measure that they can receive her influx.

XV
The Devil

The design is an accommodation, mean or harmony, between several motives mentioned in the
first part. The Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings like those of a bat, is standing on an altar. At
the pit of the stomach there is the sign of Mercury. The right hand is upraised and extended, being
the reverse of that benediction which is given by the Hierophant in the fifth card. In the left hand
there is a great flaming torch, inverted towards the earth. A reversed pentagram is on the forehead.
There is a ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are carried to the necks of two figures,
male and female. These are analogous with those of the fifth card, as if Adam and Eve after the
Fall. Hereof is the chain and fatality of the material life.
The figures are tailed, to signify the animal nature, but there is human intelligence in the faces, and
he who is exalted above them is not to be their master for ever. Even now, he is also a bondsman,
sustained by the evil that is in him and blind to the liberty of service. With more than his usual
derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a master therein, Éliphas Lévi
affirms that the Baphometic figure is occult science and magic. Another commentator says that in
the Divine world it signifies predestination, but there is no correspondence in that world with the
things which below are of the brute. What it does signify is the Dweller on the Threshold without
the Mystical Garden when those are driven forth therefrom who have eaten the forbidden fruit.

XII
Temperance

XIV. Temperance
sacred-texts Waite Index Previous Next
XIV
Temperance
A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his breast the square and
triangle of the septenary. I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor
female. It is held to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one foot upon the
earth and one upon waters, thus illustrating the nature of the essences. A direct path goes up to
certain heights on the verge of the horizon, and above there is a great light, through which a crown
is seen vaguely. Hereof is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as it is possible to man in his
incarnation. All the conventional emblems are renounced herein.
So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the seasons, perpetual movement
of life and even the combination of ideas. It is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes
the genius of the sun, though it is the analogy of solar light, realized in the third part of our human
triplicity. It is called Temperance fantastically, because, when the rule of it obtains in our
consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonises the psychic and material natures. Under that
rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and whither we are going.

XII
The Death

The veil or mask of life is perpetuated in change, transformation and passage from lower to higher,and this is more fitly represented in the rectified Tarot by one of the apocalyptic visions than by the crude notion of the reaping skeleton. Behind it lies the whole world of ascent in the spirit. The mysterious horseman moves slowly, bearing a black banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life. Between two pillars on the verge of the horizon there shines the sun of immortality. The horseman carries no visible weapon, but king and child and maiden fall before him, while a prelate with clasped hands awaits his end.

There should be no need to point out that the suggestion of death which I have made in connection with the previous card is, of course, to be understood mystically, but this is not the case in the present instance. The natural transit of man to the next stage of his being either is or may be one form of his progress, but the exotic and almost unknown entrance, while still in this life, into the state of mystical death is a change in the form of consciousness and the passage into a state to which ordinary death is neither the path nor gate. The existing occult explanations of the 13th card are, on the whole, better than usual, rebirth, creation, destination, renewal, and the rest.

Read by Dena DeCastro

A professional astrologer in the Portland area for several years, Dena has appeared on local radio shows, taught workshops, and given lectures on topics in Evolutionary Astrology. The evolutionary perspective is that our souls progress from lifetime to lifetime. The focus of Dena’s readings is upon your chart as the dynamic representation of your highest potential, and the guide toward achieving it. Dena hosts the podcast Evolutions of Astrology featuring interviews with astrologers and other readers, as well as discussing various topics of astrology and chart interpretation.

To subscribe to “Evolutions of Astrology” via iTunes, click here.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

XII
The Hanged Man

The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the figure–from the position of the legs–forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted

(1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon;

(2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering;

(3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but
life and not death.

It is a card of profound significance, but all the significance is veiled. One of his
editors suggests that Éliphas Lévi did not know the meaning, which is unquestionable nor did the editor himself. It has been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card a of prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of duty; but we may exhaust all published interpretations and find only vanity.

I will say very simply on my own part that it expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe. He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening that is possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery of Death there is a glorious Mystery of Resurrection.

Read by Bill Vincent

Bill Vincent is a media and music producer living in the Nashville, TN area.

Visit myspace.com/ILoveRustyJ to hear some of the new stuff I’m working on. The album will be available on iTunes soon as well.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

XI
Justice

As this card follows the traditional symbolism and carries above all its obvious meanings, there is little to say regarding it outside the few considerations collected in the first part, to which thereader is referred.

It will be seen, however, that the figure is seated between pillars, like the High Priestess, and on
this account it seems desirable to indicate that the moral principle which deals unto every man
according to his works–while, of course, it is in strict analogy with higher things;–differs in its essence from the spiritual justice which is involved in the idea of election. The latter belongs to a mysterious order of Providence, in virtue of which it is possible for certain men to conceive the idea of dedication to the highest things. The operation of this is like the breathing of the Spirit
where it wills, and we have no canon of criticism or ground of explanation concerning it. It is analogous to the possession of the fairy gifts and the high gifts and the gracious gifts of the poet:we have them or have not, and their presence is as much a mystery as their absence. The law of Justice is not however involved by either alternative. In conclusion, the pillars of Justice open into one world and the pillars of the High Priestess into another.

Read by Alissa Hall

Alissa Hall first began reading Tarot over 20 years ago, and as an adult has dedicated years to learning more about various occult paths. In addition to Tarot, she also reads palms and runes, and offers her gift of karmic path (past life) advisement to her clientèle as well. Known to lecture on Tarot and palmistry, she last appeared in Las Vegas for a series of workshops and classes.

A devoted wordsmith, Alissa has published both short and long works of fiction and non-fiction on subjects ranging from Tarot to Tantra, self-help to storytelling.

A resident of New Mexico for over 2 decades, she lives in the mountains with her husband and son, and is currently expecting her second child.

• AlissaHall.com
• Alissa’s Henna Gallery
• Raven’s Perch Press

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

X
The Wheel of Fortune

In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Éliphas Lévi, who has furnished several
variants. It is legitimate–as I have intimated–to use Egyptian symbolism when this serves our
purpose, provided that no theory of origin is implied therein. I have, however, presented Typhon in
his serpent form. The symbolism is, of course, not exclusively Egyptian, as the four Living
Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the angles of the card, and the wheel itself follows other indications of
Lévi in respect of Ezekiel’s vision, as illustrative of the particular Tarot Key. With the French
occultist, and in the design itself, the symbolic picture stands for the perpetual motion of a fluidic
universe and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein. The transliteration
of Taro as Rota is inscribed on the wheel, counterchanged with the letters of the Divine Name–to
shew that Providence is imphed through all. But this is the Divine intention within, and the similar
intention without is exemplified by the four Living Creatures. Sometimes the sphinx is represented
couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of
stability amidst movement.
Behind the general notion expressed in the symbol there lies the denial of chance and the fatality
which is implied therein. It may be added that, from the days of Lévi onward, the occult
explanations of this card are–even for occultism itself–of a singularly fatuous kind. It has been
said to mean principle, fecundity, virile honour, ruling authority, etc. The findings of common
fortune-telling are better than this on their own plane.

IX
The Hermit

The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the lamp is not enveloped
partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of
the World It is a star which shines in the lantern. I have said that this is a card of attainment, and to
extend this conception the figure is seen holding up his beacon on an eminence. Therefore the
Hermit is not, as Court de Gebelin explained, a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he,
as a later explanation proposes, an especial example of experience. His beacon intimates that
“where I am, you also may be.”
It is further a card which is understood quite incorrectly when it is connected with the idea of
occult isolation, as the protection of personal magnetism against admixture. This is one of the
frivolous renderings which we owe to Éliphas Lévi. It has been adopted by the French Order of
Martinism and some of us have heard a great deal of the Silent and Unknown Philosophy
enveloped by his mantle from the knowledge of the profane. In true Martinism, the significance of
the term Philosophe inconnu was of another order. It did not refer to the intended concealment of
the Instituted Mysteries, much less of their substitutes, but–like the card itself–to the truth that the
Divine Mysteries secure their own protection from those who are unprepared.

VIII
Strength, or Fortitude

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 self-
confidence 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. the High Priestess into another.

Read by Alissa Hall

Alissa Hall first began reading Tarot over 20 years ago, and as an adult has dedicated years to learning more about various occult paths. In addition to Tarot, she also reads palms and runes, and offers her gift of karmic path (past life) advisement to her clientèle as well. Known to lecture on Tarot and palmistry, she last appeared in Las Vegas for a series of workshops and classes.

A devoted wordsmith, Alissa has published both short and long works of fiction and non-fiction on subjects ranging from Tarot to Tantra, self-help to storytelling.

A resident of New Mexico for over 2 decades, she lives in the mountains with her husband and son, and is currently expecting her second child.

• AlissaHall.com
• Alissa’s Henna Gallery
• Raven’s Perch Press

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

VII
The Chariot

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.

VI
The Lovers

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. Behind the
man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is
behind the woman; the serpent is twining round it. The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence
and love before it is contaminated by gross material desire. This is in all simplicity the card of
human love, here exhibited as part of the way, the truth and the life. It replaces, by recourse to first
principles, the old card of marriage, which I have described previously, and the later follies which
depicted man between vice and virtue. In a very high sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant
and Sabbath.
The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she signifies that attraction towards the sensitive
life which carries within it the idea of the Fall of Man, but she is rather the working of a Secret
Law of Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed lapse that
man shall arise ultimately, and only by her can he complete himself. The card is therefore in its
way another intimation concerning the great mystery of womanhood. The old meanings fall to
pieces of necessity with the old pictures, but even as interpretations of the latter, some of them
were of the order of commonplace and others were false in symbolism.

V
The Hierophant

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. It is noticeable in this connexion that the High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs kneel before him. He has been usually called the Pope, which is a particular application of the more general office that he symbolizes. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn power. The proper meanings of this card have suffered woeful admixture from nearly all hands. Grand Orient says truly that the Hierophant is the power of the keys, exoteric orthodox doctrine, and the outer side of the life which leads to the doctrine; but he is certainly not the prince of occult doctrine, as another commentator has suggested. He is rather the summa totius theologiæ, when it has passed into the utmost rigidity of expression; but he symbolizes also all things that are righteous and sacred on the manifest side. As such, he is the channel of grace belonging to the world of institution as distinct from that of Nature, and he is the leader of salvation for the human race at large.

He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which is the reflection of another and greater hierarchic order; but it may so happen that the pontiff forgets the significance of this his symbolic state and acts as if he contained within his proper measures all that his sign signifies or his symbol seeks to shew forth. He is not, as it has been thought, philosophy-except on the theological side; he is not inspiration; and he is not religion, although he is a mode of its expression.

Read by Bill Vincent

Bill Vincent is a media and music producer living in the Nashville, TN area.

Visit myspace.com/ILoveRustyJ to hear some of the new stuff I’m working on. The album will be available on iTunes soon as well.

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

IV
The Emperor

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. He is occasionally represented as seated on a cubic stone, which, however, confuses some of the issues. He is the virile power, to which the Empress responds, and in this sense is he who seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet she remains virgo intacta.

It should be understood that this card and that of the Empress do not precisely represent the condition of married life, though this state is implied. On the surface, as I have indicated, they stand for mundane royalty, uplifted on the seats of the mighty; but above this there is the suggestion of another presence. They signify also–and the male figure especially–the higher kingship, occupying the intellectual throne. Hereof is the lordship of thought rather than of the animal world. Both personalities, after their own manner, are “full of strange experience,” but theirs is not consciously the wisdom which draws from a higher world. The Emperor has been described as (a) will in its embodied form, but this is only one of its applications, and (b) as an expression of virtualities contained in the Absolute Being–but this is fantasy.

III
The Empress

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. She is not Regina coeli, but she is still refugium peccatorum, the fruitful mother of thousands. There are also certain aspects in which she has been correctly described as desire and the wings thereof, as the woman clothed with the sun, as Gloria Mundi and the veil of the Sanctum Sanctorum; but she is not, I may add, the soul that has attained wings, unless all the symbolism is counted up another and unusual way. She is above all things universal fecundity and the outer sense of the Word. This is obvious, because there is no direct message which has been given to man like that which is borne by woman; but she does not herself carry its interpretation.

In another order of ideas, the card of the Empress signifies the door or gate by which an entrance is obtained into this life, as into the Garden of Venus; and then the way which leads out therefrom, into that which is beyond, is the secret known to the High Priestess: it is communicated by her to the elect. Most old attributions of this card are completely wrong on the symbolism–as, for example, its identification with the Word, Divine Nature, the Triad, and so forth.

II
The High Priestess

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. It is partly covered by her mantle, to shew that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the white and black pillars–J. and B.–of the mystic Temple, and the veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palms and pomegranates. The vestments are flowing and gauzy, and the mantle suggests light–a shimmering radiance. She has been called occult Science on the threshold of the Sanctuary of Isis, but she is really the Secret Church, the House which is of God and man. She represents also the Second Marriage of the Prince who is no longer of this world; she is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is, in fine, the Queen of the borrowed light, but this is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal Mother.

In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself–that is to say, she is the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her truest and highest name in bolism is Shekinah–the co-habiting glory. According to Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the Supernal Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In the lower world it is MaIkuth–that world being, for this purpose, understood as a blessed Kingdom that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory. Mystically speaking, the Shekinah is the Spiritual Bride of the just man, and when he reads the Law she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Greater Arcana.

Read by Alissa Hall

Alissa Hall first began reading Tarot over 20 years ago, and as an adult has dedicated years to learning more about various occult paths. In addition to Tarot, she also reads palms and runes, and offers her gift of karmic path (past life) advisement to her clientèle as well. Known to lecture on Tarot and palmistry, she last appeared in Las Vegas for a series of workshops and classes.

A devoted wordsmith, Alissa has published both short and long works of fiction and non-fiction on subjects ranging from Tarot to Tantra, self-help to storytelling.

A resident of New Mexico for over 2 decades, she lives in the mountains with her husband and son, and is currently expecting her second child.

• AlissaHall.com
• Alissa’s Henna Gallery
• Raven’s Perch Press

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

I
The Magician

A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the countenance of divine Apollo, with smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position {infinity symbol}. About his waist is a serpent-cincture, the serpent appearing to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a conventional symbol of eternity, but here it indicates more especially the eternity of attainment in the spirit. In the Magician’s right hand is a wand raised towards heaven, while the left
hand is pointing to the earth. This dual sign is known in very high grades of the Instituted Mysteries; it shews the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and derived to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like counters before the adept, and he adapts them as he wills. Beneath are roses and lilies, the flos campi and lilium convallium, changed into garden flowers, to shew the culture of aspiration. This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting God, the will in the liberation of its union with that which is above. It is also the unity of individual being on all planes, and in a very high sense it is thought, in the fixation thereof. With further reference to what I have called the sign of life and its connexion with the number 8, it may be remembered that Christian Gnosticism speaks of rebirth in Christ as a change “unto the Ogdoad.” The mystic number is termed Jerusalem above, the Land flowing with Milk and Honey, the Holy Spirit and the Land of the Lord. According to Martinism, 8 is the number of Christ.

Read by XXXXX

Bio goes here

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

0
ZERO
The Fool

With light step, as if earth and its trammels had little power to restrain him, a young man in gorgeous vestments pauses at the brink of a precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue distance before him-its expanse of sky rather than the prospect below. His act of eager walking is still indicated, though he is stationary at the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge which opens on the depth has no terror; it is as if angels were waiting to uphold him, if it came about that he leaped from the height. His countenance is full of intelligence and expectant dream. He has a rose in one hand and in the other a costly wand, from which depends over his right shoulder a wallet curiously embroidered. He is a prince of the other world on his travels through this one-all amidst the morning glory, in the keen air. The sun, which shines behind him, knows whence he came, whither he is going, and how he will return by another path after many days. He is the spirit in search of experience. Many symbols of the Instituted Mysteries are summarized in this card, which reverses, under high warrants, all the confusions that have preceded it.

In his Manual of Cartomancy, Grand Orient has a curious suggestion of the office of Mystic Fool, as apart of his process in higher divination; but it might call for more than ordinary gifts to put it into operation. We shall see how the card fares according to the common arts of fortune-telling, and it will be an example, to those who can discern, of the fact, otherwise so evident, that the Trumps Major had no place originally in the arts of psychic gambling, when cards are used as the counters and pretexts. Of the circumstances under which this art arose we know, however, very little. The conventional explanations say that the Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive life, and by a peculiar satire its subsidiary name was at one time the alchemist, as depicting folly at the most insensate stage.

Read by XXXXX

Bio goes here

Ator Tarot by Robin Ator

The Ator Tarot is a light-hearted and simplified re-creation of Coleman-Smith’s designs for the Rider-Waite. It is a limited-edition deck printed in the USA and can be purchased at Glow in the Dark Pictures from the Artist.

Download or Play the Card

by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XXI.
THE WORLD.

An unexpected vision appeared to me. A circle not unlike a wreath woven from rainbow and lightnings, whirled from heaven to earth with a stupendous, velocity, blinding me by its brilliance. And amidst this light and fire I heard music and soft singing, thunderclaps and the roar of a tempest, the rumble of falling mountains and earthquakes.

The circle whirled with a terrifying noise, touching the sun and the earth, and, in the centre of it I saw the naked, dancing figure of a beautiful young woman, enveloped by a light, transparent scarf, in her hand she held a magic wand.

Presently the four apocalyptical beasts began to appear on the edges of the circle; one with the face of a lion, another with the face of a man, the third, of an eagle and
the fourth, of a bull.

The vision disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. A weird silence fell on me. “What does it mean?” I asked in wonder.

“It is the image of the world,” the voice said, “but it can be understood only after the Temple has been entered. This is a vision of the world in the circle of Time, amidst the four principles. But thou seest differently because thou seest the world outside thyself Learn to see it in thyself and thou wilt understand the infinite essence, hidden in all illusory forms. Understand that the world which thou knowest is only one of the aspects of the infinite world, and things and phenomena are merely hieroglyphics of deeper ideas.

Read by Amy Lamash

Amy Lamash is a passionate Tarot enthusiast who has been discovering Tarot for the past 5 years and loving every minute of it! She has 2 websites, hudsonvalleytarot.com and tarotcalendar.com.

She does occasional tarot parties and paid readings, but mostly tarot is a very enjoyable and facinating journey. She hopes to pass that excitement for tarot to others via my websites!

Download or Listen to the Card

by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XX.
JUDGMENT.

I saw an ice plain, and on the horizon, a chain of snowy mountains. A cloud appeared and began to grow until it covered a quarter of the sky. Two fiery wings
suddenly expanded in the cloud, and I knew that I beheld the messenger of the Empress.

He raised a trumpet and blew through it vibrant, powerful tones. The plain quivered in response to him and the mountains loudly rolled their echoes. One after another, graves opened in the plain and out of them came men and women, old and young, and children. They stretched out their arms toward the Messenger of the Empress to catch the sounds of his trumpet.

And in its tones I felt the smile of the Empress and in the opening graves I saw the opening flowers whose fragrance seemed to be wafted by the outstretched arms. Then I understood the mystery of birth in death.

Read by Brad Thomsen

Brad Thomsen has enjoyed expressing himself creatively in both musical and theatrical pursuits.

A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he has also been a part of several theater projects.  He now resides in Portland, OR.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XIX.
THE SUN.

As soon as I perceived the Sun, I understood that It, Itself, is the expression of the Fiery Word and the sign of the Emperor.

The great luminary shone with an intense heat upon the large golden heads of sun-flowers.

And I saw a naked boy, whose head was wreathed with roses, galloping on a white horse and waving a bright-red banner.

I shut my eyes for a moment and when I opened them again I saw that each ray of the Sun is the sceptre of the Emperor and bears life. And I saw how under the concentration of these rays the mystic flowers of the waters open and receive the rays into themselves and how all Nature is constantly born from the union of two principles.

Read by Roger Tobin

Roger Tobin is a Professional Tarot Reader from Portland, Oregon. He was introduced to the Tarot in the late 1980s but started serious study and practice in 2002 after encouragement from his family. He is a member of The American Tarot Association and reads for both of their Networks. Roger is also a Mentor for new readers as well as an active community volunteer. He enjoys both studying and teaching of topics in Tarot, and helps lead the Portland Tarot Study group. You can find out more about his reading practice at his website Sylvan Creek Tarot.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XVIII.
THE MOON.

A desolate plain stretched before me. A full moon looked down as if in contemplative hesitation. Under her wavering light the shadows lived their own peculiar life.

In the horizon I saw blue hills, and over them wound a path which stretched between two grey towers far away into the distance. On either side the path a wolf and dog sat and howled at the moon. I remembered that dogs believe in thieves and ghosts. A large black crab crawled out of the rivulet into the sands. A heavy, cold dew was
falling.

Dread fell upon me. I sensed the presence of a mysterious world, a world of hostile spirits, of corpses rising from graves, of wailing ghosts. In this pale moonlight I seemed to feel the presence of apparitions;

Someone watched me from behind the towers,—and I knew it was dangerous to look back.

Read by Bonnie Cheovet

Bonnie Cehovet (Washington) is a Tarot Educator, a professional Tarot reader with over ten years experience, a Reiki Master/Teacher and a writer.She currently has articles and reviews appearing in the World Tarot Network newsletter, and reviews appearing on the Meta Arts e-magazine site and on Aeclectic Tarot .

Her website is The Crystal Gate - Tarot .

• tarot.thecrystalgate.com
• BonnieCehovet.com
• BonnieCehovet.blogspot.com
• TarotConnection.net

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by P. D. Ouspensky

A strange emotion seized me. A fiery trembling ran in waves through all my body. My heart quickened its beating, tumult agitated my mind. I felt that I was surrounded by portentous mysteries. And presently shafts of Light penetrated my being and illuminated many things before in darkness, whose existence even I had never suspected. Veils vanished of which I had been before unaware. Voices spoke to me.

And suddenly all my former knowledge took a new and different meaning.
I discovered unexpected correlations in things which hitherto I had thought foreign to each other. Objects distant and different from one another appeared near and similar. The facts of the world arranged themselves before
my eyes according to a new pattern.

In the sky there appeared an enormous star surrounded by seven smaller stars. Their rays intermingled, filling space with immeasurable radiance and splendour. Then I knew I saw that Heaven of which Plotinus speaks:”Where… all things are diaphanous; and nothing is dark and resisting, but everything is apparent to every one internally and throughout. For light everywhere meets with light, since everything contains all things in itself, and again sees all things in another. So that all things are everywhere, and all is all. Each thing likewise is everything. And the splendour there is infinite. For everything there is great, since even that which is small is great.

“The sun too, which is there, is all the stars; and again each star is the sun and all the stars. In each however, a different property predominates, but at the same time all things are visible in each. Motion likewise there is pure; for motion is not confounded by a mover different from it. Permanency also suffers no change of its nature, because it is not mingled with the unstable. And the beautiful there is beautiful, because it does not subsist in beauty. Each thing, too, is there established, not as in a foreign land, but the seat of each thing is that which each thing is. …. Nor is the thing itself different from the place in which it subsists. For the subject of it is intellect, and it is itself intellect. … In this sensible region, therefore, one part is not produced by another, but each part is alone a part. But there each part always proceeds from the whole, and is at the same each time part and the whole. For it appears indeed as a part; but by him whose sight is acute, it will be seen as a whole.

Read by Susan Gold

Susan Gold holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and is a published poet. She has taught writing and literature courses at the college level and currently teaches advanced high school courses in English and Mythology. She reads at parties and events and especially enjoys teaching tarot workshops in collaboration with Evelyn Pine and Carole Pierce.

Susan is also a certified hypnotherapist and is exploring ways to combine her interests in tarot, writing, teaching, and hypnotherapy. Check out her website at www.magicians-table.com and also her blog and podcasts at tarot-table-talk.com.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XVI.
THE TOWER.

I saw a lofty tower extending from earth to heaven; its golden crowned summit reached beyond the clouds.

All round it black night reigned and thunder rumbled. Suddenly the heavens opened, a thunder-clap shook the whole earth, and lightning struck the summit of the tower and felled the golden crown. A tongue of fire shot from heaven and the whole tower became filled with fire and smoke. Then I beheld the builders of the tower fall headlong to the ground.

And the voice said:—-

“The building of the tower was begun by the disciples of the great Master in order to have a constant reminder of the Master’s teaching that the true tower must be built in one’s own soul, that in the tower built by hands there
can be no mysteries, that no one can ascend to Heaven by treading stone steps.

“The tower should warn the people not to believe in it. It should serve as a reminder of the inner Temple and as a protection against the outer; it should be as a lighthouse, in a dangerous place where men have often been wrecked and where ships should not go.

“But by and by the disciples forgot the true covenant of the Master and what the tower symbolized, and began
to believe in the tower of stone, they had built, and to teach others to so believe. They began to say that in this tower there is power, mystery and the spirit of the Master, that the tower itself is holy and that it is built for the coming Master according to His covenant and His will. And so they waited in the tower for the Master. Others did not believe this, or interpreted it differently. Then began disputes about the rights of the summit. Quarrels started, ‘Our Master, your Master,’ was said; ‘our tower, your tower.’ And the disciples ceased to understand each other. Their tongues had become confused.

You understand the meaning here? They had begun to think that this is the tower of the Master, that He builds it through them, and that it must and, indeed, can be built right up to Heaven.

“And you see how Heaven responded?”

by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XV.
THE DEVIL.

Black, awful night enveloped the earth. An ominous, red flame burned in the distance. I was approaching a fantastic figure which outlined itself before me as I came nearer to it. High above the earth appeared the repulsive red face of the Devil, with large, hairy ears, pointed beard and curved goats’ horns. A pentagram, pointing downwards, shone in phosphoric light between the horns on his forehead. Two large, grey, bat-like wings were spread behind him. He held up one arm, spreading out his bare, fat hand. In the palm I saw the sign of black magic. A burning torch held down-end in his other hand emitted black, stifling smoke. He sat on a large, black cube, gripping it with the claws of his beast-like, shaggy legs.

A man and woman were chained to the cube—the same Man and Woman I saw in the garden, but now they had horns and tails tipped with flame. And they were evidently dissatisfied in spirit, and were filled with protest and repulsion.

“This is a picture of weakness”, said the voice, “a picture of falsehood and evil. They are the same man and woman you saw in the garden, but their love ceasing to be a sacrifice, became an illusion. This man and woman forgot that their love is a link in the chain that unites them with eternity, that their love is a symbol of equilibrium and a road to Infinity.

“They forgot that It is a key to the gate of the magic world, the torch which lights the higher Path. They forgot that Love is real and immortal and they subjugated it to
the unreal and temporary. And they each made love a tool for submitting the other to himself.

“Then love became dissension and fettered them with iron chains to the black cube of matter, on which sits deceit.”

And I heard the voice of the Devil: “I am Evil”, he said, “at least so far as Evil can exist in this best of worlds. In order to see me, one must be able to see unfairly, incorrectly and narrowly. I close the triangle, the other two sides of which are Death and Time. In order to quit this triangle it is necessary to see that it does not exist.

“But how to do this is not for me to tell. For I am the Evil which men say is the cause of all evil and which they invented as an excuse for all the evil that they do.

“They call me the Prince of Falsehood, and truly I am the prince of lies, because I am the most monstrous production of human lies.”

Read by Amy Lamash

Amy Lamash is a passionate Tarot enthusiast who has been discovering Tarot for the past 5 years and loving every minute of it! She has 2 websites, hudsonvalleytarot.com and tarotcalendar.com.

She does occasional tarot parties and paid readings, but mostly tarot is a very enjoyable and facinating journey. She hopes to pass that excitement for tarot to others via my websites!

Download or Listen to the Card

Symbolism of the Tarot

by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XIV.
TIME (TEMPERANCE).
An angel in a white robe, touching earth and heaven, appeared. His wings were flame and a radiance of gold was about his head. On his breast he wore the sacred sign of the book of the Tarot—a triangle within a square, a point within the triangle; on his forehead the symbol of life and eternity, the circle.

In one hand was a cup of silver, in the other a cup of gold and there flowed between these cups a constant, glistening stream of every colour of the rainbow. But I could not tell from which cup nor into which cup the stream flowed.

In great awe I understood that I was near the ultimate mysteries from which there is no return. I looked upon the angel, upon his symbols, his cups, the rainbow stream between the cups,—and my human heart trembled with fear and my human mind shrank with anguish and lack of
understanding.

“Yes”, said the voice, “this is a mystery that is revealed at Initiation. ‘Initiation’ is simply the revealing of this mystery in the soul. The Hermit re-ceives the lantern, the cloak and the staff so that he can bear the light of this mystery.

“But you probably came here unprepared. Look then and listen and try to understand, for now understanding is your only salvation. He who approaches the mystery without complete comprehension will be lost.

“The name of the angel is Time. The circle on his forehead is the symbol of eternity and life. Each life is a circle which returns to the same point where it began. Death is the return to birth. And from one point to another on the circumference of a circle the distance is always the same, and the further it is from one point the nearer it will be to the other.

“Eternity is a serpent, pursuing its tail, never catching it. One of the cups the angel holds is the past, the other is the future. The rainbow stream between the cups is the present. You see that it flows both ways. This is Time in its most incomprehensible aspect. “Men think that all flows constantly in one direction. They do not see that everything perpetually meets and that
Time is a multitude of turning circles. Understand this mystery and learn to discern the contrary currents in the rainbow stream of the present. The symbol of the sacred book of the Tarot on the
angel’s breast is the symbol of the correlation of God, Man and the Universe.

Read by Dena DeCastro

A professional astrologer in the Portland area for several years, Dena has appeared on local radio shows, taught workshops, and given lectures on topics in Evolutionary Astrology. The evolutionary perspective is that our souls progress from lifetime to lifetime. The focus of Dena’s readings is upon your chart as the dynamic representation of your highest potential, and the guide toward achieving it. Dena hosts the podcast Evolutions of Astrology featuring interviews with astrologers and other readers, as well as discussing various topics of astrology and chart interpretation.

To subscribe to “Evolutions of Astrology” via iTunes, click here.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XIII.
DEATH.

Fatigued by the flashing of the Wheel of Life, I sank to earth and shut my eyes. But it seemed to me that the Wheel kept turning before me and that the four creatures continued sitting in the
clouds and reading their books.

Suddenly, on opening my eyes, I saw a gigantic rider on a white horse, dressed in black armour, with a black helmet and black plume. A skeleton’s face looked out from under the helmet. One bony hand held a large, black, slowly-waving banner, and the other held a black bridle ornamented with skulls and bones.

And, wherever the white horse passed, night and death followed; flowers withered, leaves drooped, the earth covered itself with a white shroud; graveyards appeared; towers, castles and cities were destroyed.
Kings in the full splendour of their fame and their power; beautiful women loved and loving; high priests invested by power from God; innocent children — when they saw the white horse all fell on their knees before him, stretched out their hands in terror and despair, and fell down to rise no more.

Afar, behind two towers, the sun sank. A deadly cold enveloped me. The heavy hoofs of the horse seemed to step on my breast, and I felt the world sink into an abyss. But all at once something familiar, but faintly seen and heard, seemed to come from the measured step of the horse. A moment more and I heard in his steps the movement of the Wheel of Life!

An illumination entered me, and, looking at the receding rider and the descending sun, I understood that the Path of Life consists of the steps of the horse of Death.

The sun sinks at one point and rises at another. Each moment of its motion is a descent at one point and an ascent at another. I understood that it rises while sinking and sinks while rising, and that life, in coming to birth, dies, and in dying, comes to birth. “Yes,” said the voice. The sun does not think of its going down and coming up. What does it know of earth, of the going and coming observed by men? It goes its own way, over its own orbit, round an unknown Centre. Life, death, rising and falling— do you not know that all these things are thoughts and dreams and fears of the Fool?

Read by Leisa ReFalo

Leisa ReFalo combines her background in software engineering with a deep and abiding interest in all things Tarot. She is the author of two Tarot decks: the Tarot of Color (an attribution deck that shows the depth of correspondences), and the Kaleidoscope Tarot (an abstract deck where a card is represented by a single color and symbol), and the genius behind the programing for:

• English Qabalah Calculators
• Birth Card Calculator for the Tarot School
• Tarot of the Name Site
• Tarot of Color Free Readings

Leisa is a professional Tarot reader, and co-founder of the Portland Tarot Society. Her work can be seen at: www.tarotconnection.net, www.tarotjourney.net, www.tarotofcolor.com, and www.portlandtarot.org.

by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XII.
THE HANGED MAN.

And then I saw a man in terrible suffering, hung by one leg, head downward, to a high tree. And I heard the voice:—

“Look! This is a man who saw Truth. Suffering awaits the man on earth, who finds the way to eternity and to the understanding of the Endless.

“He is still a man, but he already knows much of what is inaccessible even to Gods. And the incommensurableness of the small and the great in his soul constitutes his pain and his golgotha.

In his own soul appears the gallows on which he hangs in suffering, feeling that he is indeed inverted. “He chose this way himself.
“For this he went over a long road from trial to trial, from initiation to initiation, through failures and falls. “And now he has found Truth and knows himself. “He knows that it is he who stands before an altar with magic symbols, and reaches from earth to heaven; that he also walks on a dusty road under a scorching sun to a precipice where a crocodile awaits him; that he dwells with his mate in paradise under the shadow of a blessing genius; that he is chained to a black cube under the shadow of deceit; that he stands as a victor for a moment in
an illusionary chariot drawn by sphinxes; and that with a lantern in bright sunshine, he seeks for Truth in a desert. “Now he has found Her.”

Read by Brad Ingle

Bio is coming soon.

Brad is the host of Texas Tarot Podcast.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD XI.
JUSTICE.

When I possessed the keys, read the book and understood the symbols, I was permitted to lift the curtain of the Temple and enter its inner sanctum. And there I beheld a Woman with a crown of gold and a purple mantle. She held a sword in one hand and scales in the other. I trembled with awe at her appearance, which was deep and mysterious, and drew me like an abyss.

You see Truth”, said the voice. “0n these scales everything is weighed. This sword is always raised to guard justice, and nothing can escape it.
“But why do you avert your eyes from the scales and the sword? They will remove the last illusions. How could you live on earth without these illusions?

“You wished to see Truth and now you behold it! But remember what happens to the mortal who beholds a Goddess!

Read by Kevin Houchin

Kevin is a Lawyer, Teacher, Marketer, Graphic Designer, & Artist.

He has a law degree is from the University of Iowa College of Law and a a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Graphic Design from Iowa State University. He is principal of Houchin & Associates, PLLC - a copyright, trademark, arts & entertainment, business development, and branding firm located in Fort Collins, Colorado.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD X.
THE WHEEL OF CHANCE.

I walked along, absorbed in deep thought, trying to understand the vision of the Angel. And suddenly, as I lifted my head, I saw midway in the sky a huge, revolving circle covered with Kabalistic letters and symbols. The circle turned with terrible velocity, and around it, falling down and flying up, symbolic figures of the serpent and the dog revolved; above it sat an immovable sphinx. In clouds, on the four quarters of heaven, I saw the four apocalyptical beings, one with the face of a lion, another with the race of a bull, the third with a face, of an eagle, and the fourth with the face of a bull. And each of them read an open book.

And I heard the voices of Zarathustra’s beasts: -

“All go, all return,—the wheel of life ever turns. All die, all flourish again,—the year of existence runs eternally. All perish, all live again, the same house of existence is I ever building. All separate, all meet again, the ring of existence is ever true to itself. Existence begins at every moment. Round each ‘here’ rolls ‘there’. The middle is everywhere. The way of eternity is a curve.

Read by Graham Glover

Graham has been working with Tarot for the last five years. He was first introduced to it through a Wiccan Witch. He has written a command line program in Python to do Tarot readings when at work, and realized the iPhone could be easily adapted to do Tarot readings anywhere at any time. He works in technology, and his real-world business card shows him as a Mathemagician. He lives with his wife, daughter, and guinea pig in Virginia.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD IX.
THE HERMIT.

After long wanderings over a sandy, waterless desertwhere only serpents lived, I met the Hermit. He was wrapped in a long cloak, a hood thrown over his head. He held a long staff in one hand and in the other a lighted lantern, though it was broad daylight and the sun was shining.

“The lantern of Hermes Trismegistus”, said the voice, this is higher knowledge, that inner knowledge which illuminates in a new way even what appears to be already clearly known. This lantern lights up the past, the present and the future for the Hermit, and opens the souls of
people and the most intimate recesses of their hearts.

“The cloak of Apollonius is the faculty of the wise man by which he isolates himself, even amidst a noisy crowd; it is his skill in hiding his mysteries, even while expressing them, his capacity for silence and his power to act in stillness.

“The staff of the patriarchs is his inner authority, his power, his self-confidence.

The lantern, the cloak and the staff are the three symbols of initiation. They are needed to guide souls past the temptation of illusory fires by the roadside, so that they may go straight to the higher goal. He who receives these three symbols or aspires to obtain them, strives to enrich
himself with all he can acquire, not for himself, but, like God, to delight in the joy of giving.

“The giving virtue is the basis of an initiate’s life. “His soul is transformed into a spoiler of all treasures” so said Zarathustra. Initiation unites the human mind with the higher mind by a chain of analogies. This chain is the ladder leading to heaven, dreamed of by the patriarch.”

Read by Bonnie Cheovet

Bonnie Cehovet (Washington) is a Tarot Educator, a professional Tarot reader with over ten years experience, a Reiki Master/Teacher and a writer.She currently has articles and reviews appearing in the World Tarot Network newsletter, and reviews appearing on the Meta Arts e-magazine site and on Aeclectic Tarot .

Her website is The Crystal Gate - Tarot .

• tarot.thecrystalgate.com
• BonnieCehovet.com
• BonnieCehovet.blogspot.com

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD VIII.
POWER.

In the midst of a green plain, surrounded by blue hills, I saw a woman with a lion. Girdled with wreaths of roses, a symbol of infinity over her head, the woman calmly and confidently covered the lion’s mouth and the lion obediently licked her hand.

“This is a picture of power”, said the voice. “It has different meanings. First it shows the power of love. Love alone can conquer wrath. Hatred feeds hatred. Remember what Zarathustra said: “Let man be freed from vengeance; this is a bridge for me which leads to higher hope and a rainbow in heaven after long storms.”

“Then it shows power of unity. These wreaths of roses suggest a magic chain. Unity of desires, unity of aspirations creates such power that every wild, uncontrolled, unconscious force is subdued. Even two desires, if united,
are able to conquer almost the whole world.

“The picture also shows the power of infinity, that sphere of mysteries. For a consciousness that perceives the symbol of infinity above it, knows no obstacles and cannot be withstood.”

Read by Susan Gold

Susan Gold holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and is a published poet. She has taught writing and literature courses at the college level and currently teaches advanced high school courses in English and Mythology. She reads at parties and events and especially enjoys teaching tarot workshops in collaboration with Evelyn Pine and Carole Pierce. Susan is also a certified hypnotherapist and is exploring ways to combine her interests in tarot, writing, teaching, and hypnotherapy. Check out her website at www.magicians-table.com and also her blog and podcasts at tarot-table-talk.com.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD V.
THE CHARIOT.

I saw a chariot drawn by two sphinxes, one white. the other black. Four pillars supported a blue canopy, on which were scattered five-pointed stars. The Conqueror, clad in steel armour, stood under this canopy guiding the sphinxes. He held a sceptre, on the end of which were a globe, a triangle and a square. A golden pentagram sparkled in his crown. On the front of the chariot there was represented a winged sphere and beneath that the symbol of the mystical lingam, signifying the union of two principles. “Everything in this picture has a significance. Look and try to understand”, said the voice.

“This is Will armed with Knowledge. We see here, however, the wish to achieve, rather than achievement itself. The man in the chariot thought himself a conqueror before he had really conquered, and he believes that victory must come to the conqueror. There are true possibilities in this beautiful conception, but also many false ones. Illusory fires and numerous dangers are hidden here.

He controls the sphinxes by the power of a magic word, but the tension of his Will may fail and then the magic word will lose its power and he may be devoured by the sphinxes. This is indeed the Conqueror, but only for the moment; he has not yet conquered Time, and the succeeding moment is unknown to him.

This is the Conqueror, not by love, but by fire and the sword,—a conqueror against whom the conquered may arise. Do you see behind him the towers of the conquered city? Perhaps the flame of uprising burns already there. And he is unaware that the city vanquished by means of fire and the sword is the city within his own consciousness, that the magic chariot is in himself and that the blood-thirsty sphynxes, also a state of consciousness within, watch his every movement. He has externalized all these phases of his mind and sees them only outside himself. This is his fundamental error. He entered the outer court of the Temple of knowledge, but thinks he has been in the Temple itself. He regarded the rituals of the first tests as initiation, and he mistook for the goddess, the priestess who guarded the threshold. Because of this misconception great perils await him. Nevertheless it may be that even in his errors and perils the Great Conception lies concealed. He seeks to know and, perhaps, in order to attain, mistakes, dangers and even failures are necessary.

Read by Roger Tobin

Roger Tobin is a Professional Tarot Reader from Portland, Oregon. He was introduced to the Tarot in the late 1980s but started serious study and practice in 2002 after encouragement from his family. He is a member of The American Tarot Association and reads for both of their Networks. Roger is also a Mentor for new readers as well as an active community volunteer. He enjoys both studying and teaching of topics in Tarot, and helps lead the Portland Tarot Study group. You can find out more about his reading practice at his website Sylvan Creek Tarot.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD VI.
THE LOVERS.

I saw a blooming garden in a green valley, surrounded by soft blue hills.

In the garden I saw a Man and a Woman naked and beautiful. They loved each other and their Love was their service to the Great Conception, a prayer and a sacrifice; through It they communed with God, through It they received the highest revelations; in Its light the deepest truths came to them; the magic world opened its gate; elves, undines, sylphs and gnomes came openly to them; the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral, plant and animal, and the four elements—fire, water, air and earth—served them.

Through their Love they saw the mystery of the world’s equilibrium, and that they themselves were a symbol and expression of this balance. Two triangles united in them into a six-pointed star. Two magnets melted into an ellipsis. They were two. The third was the Unknown Future. The three made One.

I saw the woman looking out upon the world as though enraptured with its beauty. And from the tree on which ripened golden fruit I saw a serpent creep.

It whispered in the woman’s ear, and I saw her listening, smiling at first suspiciously, then with curiosity which merged into joy. Then I saw her speak to the man. I noticed that he seemed to admire only her and smiled with an expression of joy and sympathy at all she told him.

“This picture you see, is a picture of temptation and fall”, said the voice. “What constitutes the Fall? Do you understand its nature?

“Life is so good”, I said, “and the world so beautiful, and this man and woman wanted to believe in the reality of the world and of themselves. They wanted to forget service and take from the world what it can give. So they made a distinction between themselves and the world. They said, “We are here, the world is there.” And the world separated from them and became hostile.

“Yes”, said the Voice, this is true. “The everlasting mistake with men is that they see the fall in love. But Love is not a fall, it is a soaring above an abyss. And the higher the flight, the more beautiful and alluring appears the earth. But that wisdom, which crawls on earth, advises belief in the earth and in the present. This is the Temptation. And the man and woman yielded to it. They dropped from the eternal realms and submitted to time and death. The balance was disturbed. The fairyland was closed upon them. The elves, undines, sylphs and gnomes became invisible.

Read by Ginny Hunt

Ginny Hunt is a Professional Tarot Reader from Virginia. Her interest in the spiritual and metaphysical has been a lifelong passion.

She has been a practicing counselor, both professionally with adolescents and para-professionally as a volunteer with abused women.

She offers professional reading services through 78 Notes to Self and reads professionally through and reads professionally through Kasamba.com.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD VII.
THE HIEROPHANT.

I saw the great Master in the Temple. He was siting on a golden throne set upon a purple platform, and he wore the robe of a high priest with a golden tiara. He held a golden eight-pointed cross, and lying at his feet were two crossed keys. Two initiates bowed before him and to them he spoke:-—

“Seek the Path, do not seek attainment, Seek for the Path within yourself.

“Do not expect to hear the truth from others, nor to see it, or read it in books. Look for the truth in yourself,not without yourself.
“Aspire only after the impossible and inaccessible.
Expect only that which shall not be.

“Do not hope for Me, — do not look for Me,—do not believe—that I am outside yourself.

“Within your soul build a lofty tower by which you may ascend to Heaven. Do not believe in external miracles, expect miracles only within you. Beware of believing in a mystery of the earth, in a mystery guarded by men; for treasuries which must be guarded are empty. Do not search for a mystery that can be hidden by men. Seek the Mystery within yourself.

“Above all, avoid those towers built in order to preserve the mysteries and to make an ascent to Heaven by stone stairways. And remember that as soon as men build such a tower they begin to dispute about the summit.

“The Path is in yourself, and Truth is in yourself and Mystery is in yourself.

Read by Kevin Houchin

Kevin is a Lawyer, Teacher, Marketer, Graphic Designer, & Artist.

He has a law degree is from the University of Iowa College of Law and a a Bachelor of Fine Art degree in Graphic Design from Iowa State University. He is principal of Houchin & Associates, PLLC - a copyright, trademark, arts & entertainment, business development, and branding firm located in Fort Collins, Colorado.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD IV.
THE EMPEROR.

After I learned the first three numbers I was given to understand the Great Law of Four—the alpha and omega of all.

I saw the Emperor on a lofty stone throne, ornamented by four rams’ heads. On his forehead shone a golden helmet. His white beard fell over a purple mantle. In one hand he held a sphere, the symbol of his possession, and in the other, a sceptre in the form of an Egyptian cross— the sign of his power over birth.

“I am The Great Law,” the Emperor said. “I am the name of God. The four letters of his name are in me and I am in all.

“I am in the four principles. I am in the four elements. I am in the four seasons. I am in the four cardinal points I am in the four signs of the Tarot.

“I am the beginning; I am action; I am completion I am the result.”

“For him who knows how to see me there are no mysteries on earth.”

“I am the great Pentacle.

“As the earth encloses in itself fire, water and air; as the fourth letter of the Name encloses in itself the first three and becomes itself the first, so my sceptre encloses the complete triangle and bears in itself the seed of a new
triangle.

“I am the Logos in the full aspect and the beginning of a new Logos.”

And while the Emperor spoke, his helmet shone brighter and brighter, and his golden armour gleamed beneath his mantle. I could not bear his glory and I lowered my eyes.

When I tried to lift them again a vivid light of radiant fire was before me, and I prostrated myself and made obeisance to the Fiery Word.

Read by Paul ReFalo

Paul ReFalo is a Forensics Scientist. He brought meditation training to the Oregon prison systems. He is the director of the Portland Shambhala Meditation Center.

by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD III.
THE EMPRESS.

I felt the breath of the spring, and accompanying the fragrance of violets and lilies-of-the-valley I heard the tender singing of elves. Rivulets murmured, the tree-tops rustled, the grasses whispered, innumerable birds sang in choruses and bees hummed; everywhere I felt the breathing of joyful, living Nature.

The sun shone tenderly and softly and a little white cloud hung over the woods. In the midst of a green meadow where primroses bloomed, I saw the Empress seated on a throne covered with ivy and lilacs. A green wreath adorned her golden hair and, above her head, shone twelve stars. Behind her rose two snowy wings and in her hands she held a sceptre.

All around, beneath the sweet smile of the Empress, flowers and buds opened their dewy, green leaves. Her whole dress was covered with them as though each newly opened flower were reflected in it or had engraved itself thereon and thus become part of her garment. The sign of Venus, the goddess of love, was chiselled on her marble throne.

“Queen of life,” I said, “why is it so bright and joyful all about you? Do you not know of the grey weary autumn, of the cold, white winter? Do you not know of death and graveyards with black graves, damp and cold? How can you smile so joyfully on the opening flowers, when everything is destined to death, even that which has not yet been born?”

For answer the Empress looked on me still smiling and, under the influence of that smile, I suddenly felt a flower of some clear understanding open in my heart.

Read by Graham Glover

Graham has been working with Tarot for the last five years. He was first introduced to it through a Wiccan Witch. He has written a command line program in Python to do Tarot readings when at work, and realized the iPhone could be easily adapted to do Tarot readings anywhere at any time.

He works in technology, and his real-world business card shows him as a Mathemagician. He lives with his wife, daughter, and guinea pig in Virginia.

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CARD II.
THE HIGH PRIESTESS.

When I lifted the first veil and entered the outer court of the Temple of Initiation, I saw in half darkness the figure of a woman sitting on a high throne between two pillars of the temple, one white, and one black. Mystery emanated from her and was about her. Sacred symbols shone on her green dress; on her head was a golden tiara surmounted by a two-horned moon; on her knees she held two crossed keys and an open book. Between the two pillars behind the woman hung another veil all embroidered with green leaves and fruit of pomegranate.

And a voice said:

“To enter the Temple one must lift the second veil and pass between the two pillars. And to pass thus, one must obtain possession of the keys, read the book and understand the symbols. Are you able to do this?”

I would like to be able, ” I said.

Then the woman turned her face to me and looked into my eyes without speaking. And through me passed a thrill, mysterious and penetrating like a golden wave; tones vibrated in my brain, a flame was in my heart, and I understood that she spoke to me, saying without words:

“This is the Hall of Wisdom. No one can reveal it no one can hide it. Like a flower it must grow and bloom in thy soul. If thou wouldst plant the seed of this flower in thy soul —learn to discern the real from false. Listen only
to the Voice that is soundless… Look only on that which is invisible, and remember that in thee thyself, is the Temple and the gate to it and the mystery, and the initiation.”

Read by Dena DeCastro

A professional astrologer in the Portland area for several years, Dena has appeared on local radio shows, taught workshops, and given lectures on topics in Evolutionary Astrology. The evolutionary perspective is that our souls progress from lifetime to lifetime. The focus of Dena’s readings is upon your chart as the dynamic representation of your highest potential, and the guide toward achieving it. Dena hosts the podcast Evolutions of Astrology featuring interviews with astrologers and other readers, as well as discussing various topics of astrology and chart interpretation.

To subscribe to “Evolutions of Astrology” via iTunes, click here.

Download or Listen to the Card

by P. D. Ouspensky

CARD I.
THE MAGICIAN.

I Saw the Man.

His figure reached from earth to heaven and was clad in a purple mantle. He stood deep in foliage and flowers and his head, on which was the head-band of an initiate,
seemed to disappear mysteriously in infinity.

Before him on a cube-shaped altar were four symbols of magic—the sceptre, the cup, the sword and the pentacle. His right hand pointed to heaven, his left to earth. Under his mantle he wore a white tunic girded with a serpent swallowing its tail.

His face was luminous and serene, and, when his eyes met mine, I felt that he saw most intimate recesses of my soul. I saw myself reflected in him as in a mirror and in his eyes I seemed to look upon myself.

And I heard a voice saying: — “Look, this is the Great Magician!”

With his hands he unites heaven and earth, and the four elements that form the world are controlled by him.

The four symbols before him are the four letters of the name of God, the signs of the four elements, fire, water, air, earth.

Itrembled before the depth of the mysteries I touched… The words I heard seemed to be uttered by the Great Magician himself, and it was as though he spoke in me. I was in deep trepidation and at moments I felt there was nothing before me except the blue sky; but within me a window opened through which I could see unearthly things and hear unearthly words.

Read by Brad Thomsen

Brad Thomsen has enjoyed expressing himself creatively in both musical and theatrical pursuits.

A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he has also been a part of several theater projects. He now resides in Portland, OR.

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by P. D. Ouspensky

Card 0.
The Fool.

And I saw another man.

Tired and lame he dragged himself along the dusty road, across the deserted plain under the scorching rays of the sun. He glanced sidelong with foolish, staring eyes, a half smile, half leer on his face; he knew not where he went, but was absorbed in his chimerical dreams which ran constantly in the same circle. His fool’s cap was put on wrong side front, his garments were torn in the back; a wild lynx with glowing eyes sprang upon him from behind a rock and buried her teeth in his flesh. He stumbled, nearly fell, but continued to drag himself along, all the time holding on his shoulder a bag containing useless things, which he, in his stupidity, carried wherever he went.

Before him a crevice crossed the road and a deep precipice awaited the foolish wanderer. Then a huge crocodile with open mouth crawled out of the precipice. And I heard the voice say:—

“Look! This is the same man.”

I felt my head whirl.

“What has he in the bag?” I inquired, not knowing why I asked. And after a long silence the voice replied “The four magic symbols, the sceptre, the cup, the sword and the pentacle. The fool always carries them although he has long since forgotten what they mean Nevertheless they belong to him, even though he does not know their use. The symbols have not lost their power, they retain it in themselves.

Read by Leisa ReFalo

Leisa ReFalo combines her background in software engineering with a deep and abiding interest in all things Tarot. She is the author of two Tarot decks: the Tarot of Color (an attribution deck that shows the depth of correspondences), and the Kaleidoscope Tarot (an abstract deck where a card is represented by a single color and symbol), and behind the programing for:

• English Qabalah Calculators
• Birth Card Calculator
• Tarot of Color Readings

Leisa is a professional Tarot reader, and co-founder of the Portland Tarot Society. Her work can be seen at: www.tarotconnection.net, www.tarotjourney.net, www.tarotofcolor.com, and www.portlandtarot.org.

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