The Tarot of Eli, LLC: The Starman Tarot- 0-The Sacred Clown & The Thoth Tarot- 0-The Fool

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In Davide De Angelis's own words:

"The Starman Tarot is an emergent phenomena seeded and inspired by my artistic collaborations with the iconic David Bowie. This combined with my deep desire to explore and visualize the nature of reality, has given birth to rich and complex forms of graphic art-'potent visual alchemy' as Bowie described it."

The accompanying book with this fabulous Tarot Deck, is a good read on its own. Davide De Angelis and Esther De Angelis have created one of the most exciting Tarot Decks to come out since Crowley’s and Lady Freda Harris's Thoth Tarot, with as much exoteric and esoteric information. I myself, grew up listening to David Bowie and watching his movies, loving his brave and liberating creativity. This Starman Tarot is as if David Bowie and the reader were having a deep metaphysical discussion on the reality of illusion and the illusions of reality. Here, we are reminded to "explore life through the wonder of exhilarating visions". The use of any Tarot, and the understanding of Qabalah, will transform the user into a magic being who can bring the Greater Self into this world. Revealing, what is normally hidden and also stabling magic abilities, Tarot and Qabalah, are inseparable companions. I find the Starman Tarot exceptional is revealing what is hidden, as the symbolism stimulates the chakras with new light. For light dances in the art these cards, and its ever dazzling illusion is also laid bare, revealing an arcane truth.

Qabalah, means "Receiving" and this linked with the language of the Universal Collective Unconscious- the images of Tarot, transports one's "little ego" out of its world of fear based and self-absorbed survival thinking and into the Greater Ego's world of Magic Creation. We are just remembering who we are. For our journey down the Tree of Life, has somehow cause a certain amnesia and instead of the Magic Soul/Starman who came to earth, we are now slaves of our cultures and we identify ourselves with words. Words, build nothing living. You can yell " Be grass!", to your kitchen floor all day, and night, and all you will get is a very hoarse throat and the same unchanged floor. Words lie, and they don't mean to, they just can't help themselves. Words are the monkey companion of Thoth, the inventor of words. They are tricky deceivers, as words often mean something different to the sender and the receiver. For the understanding of words, is colored by the individual and therefore, different experiences in life of the sender and the receiver color the images spoken of.

The picture that is "worth a thousand words", is the answer to language's confusion. I can show a picture to a Chinese person, who speaks no English, as I can speak no Mandarin, and we can understand each other. Tarot isn't the words, it is the images of the Greater Mind that we have inherited, but have stop using. We have become dazzled by sound, light, and the senses of the body have now become our self-conscious masters. In other words, the Starman, that is our Soul/Psyche, whose inheritance is the Universal "I AM", has become "I Am afraid" making the senses masters of our sight and we have forgotten the original "I" sight of the Divine Creative. Tarot helps us remember our true sight of " the all-seeing I" and therefore, opening up our "Mind's I" to the Universal Sight of "I AM". I find that both the Thoth and The Starman Tarot, are exemplary in their ability in bring the reality of the Inner Self into the dazzling falsehood of the outer world. I Am, is the inner world. I Am not, is the falsehood of the outer world. For, not is a word that is 0, and one must picture what they think they are not, which creates the image of something in the outer world, making "not" a denial, rather than a reality. Relearning the "I AM", the name of Creation, and its, creations, is what Qabalah and Tarot are all about.

The Starman Tarot-0-The Sacred Clown (created by Davide De Angelis and Esther De Angelis):

"I LAUGH AT THE GAME OF LIFE ".

The Traditional Lakota Heyoka, and/or Sacred Clown, understands that nothing we think is actually true. Belief, is not truly fixed as it requires no brave action, only the pusillanimity of words. To know is to do, to believe is to serve. Serving what you think is a road traveled by phantoms of the superstitious. While to know thyself, is to travel the road of the Divine Creative "I AM". There is a large gap between you and what you think you are, the trickster/Shaman combination reveals this gab by probing beneath the veil of what is normality, and thereby, revealing the astonishing and unexpected.

The Starman Tarot, reveals a Sacred Clown naked to the waist, dressed in the traditional black and white antler, with a mischievous grin and fire shooting out of his finger. Painted in and somewhat alive garish graffiti, which also appears on the walls, as something alive, morphing, moving strands of mesmerizing energy bursting colors. For, indeed, colors are vibrations/frequencies of light and the dazzling, morphing and moving frequencies of light have hidden the truth from the "I's" of the individual homo sapiens sapiens. We see the I Am of Self, in the "Inner Dark" and not in the dazzling light of the outer world. By seeking self in the outer light, we are merely a reflection, and our senses tell us that we are the reflection. Self-Value is an inner knowing not an outside "accumulation". What is interesting here, this lie of outside accumulation of self-value, is shown as the Sacred Clown standing on a path bedecked with sharp-toothed ill-gotten gold "bear-traps”, while being totally unconcerned of any injury they might cause. Behind him shines the Birth Star of his Soul, and he is totally indifferent to the world of the "survival thinker". We are all inheritor’s of our Solar Birthright, as Spirit comes from the Macrocosm of the Stars, and not the forms of the Microcosmic creation. I am a "Sun of God/The Divine Creative", says the Sacred Clown, which is represented on the Qabalistic Tree of Life as the 6th Sephiroth-Tiphareth-Beauty.

The of the Sun/Son is the Soul's position on the Tree of Life, for it is the Child of the Divine Creative- the I AM. It emits light, and is not made of it. However, we are dazzled by the light created and in being bedazzled, forget the beauty of the inner darkness. It is from the Dark Energy, that Light, it's self-reflection, comes from. "I am the beautiful darkness, that paints my self-conceptions in light", yells out the Sacred Clown, as his fire pokes holes in all that one takes seriously. The "small ego" of the brain, is an animal mind, based totally on survival thinking, a fear based self-identity of a victim who is always fearing the unknown. Even worrying about a future that "might happen" is proof of this fear of the unknown. Laughing, while walking into the darkness of "unknown", is the truth of Trusting the Soul who made you as it's "physical self-expression". The Sacred Clown reminds us that The Soul, thinks it is me, what the hell am I thinking? How about, "I AM Me", for that is good enough for Spirit, that is good enough for me. Laugh, for the demons of the mortal, are the fakers of ignorance, who believe words have judgment value of a soul, while the Majesty and Magic of I AM is our truth. Our presence proves our worth to Spirit.

The Sacred Clown is beyond the concepts of man-made "good and evil", he is touched by everything and injured by nothing for he is seeing the comic joke, the ultimate illusion, of self-reflection. Where we see limitation, pain and fear, he knows that joy and sorrow are the each a different side to the same coin. Pain, tells us what we need to heal, and/or fix while fear tells us what we don't know. Neither, are a concern to the Immortal you. They are "sensors" that all vehicles have, so that the operator of that vehicle, can control its function. Senses, are sensors, not "our feelings".

Since the homo sapiens, is totally run by imagination (I-Magi-Nation), which is the Mind of the Divine Creative, the Image-Maker, we have the freedom to imagine ourselves as we wish. Fear based wishing, is nothing but declaring that is what you want to be. I am fear, or I am joy, are all up to the Image-maker within. Also behind the Sacred Clown is seen the "Alien Calligraphy" that appears through the deck and on the back side. This is somewhat reminiscent of the "light language" that is popular nowadays. Also in gold on the dark upper background of the Sacred Clown card is an example of the sacred geometry that is also being channeled by mediums.

When reading the tarot, it behooves us to remember that the Fool or the Sacred Clown's spirit, travels each card, twisting things around, and turning them "upside down" and/or on their head.

When the Sacred Clown is thrown during a divination, it implies:

• That you should live in the eternal now, the freedom of the moment.
• You are the inventor of your Self-Awareness and therefore, not the fear and desire you are reflecting on. You are the mirror upon which all imagined-self appears and disappears.
• I, is the story you are making up. The story we are entertaining our Am's with.
• Something new awaits you on unexplored paths, so step into life fearlessly.
• The power to act rather than react.

If reversed:

• The Querent is feeling trapped by responsibilities, and burdens of the past.
• There is a danger of acting rashly, with little consideration of other people's suffering.
• It is appropriate to follow one's heart, and true calling, but it is immature to run away from one's obligations.
• Unfinished business will follow you around, so finish it before you journey onward.

Fear not. What is not real, never was and never will be.

What is real always was and cannot be destroyed.

-Bhagavad Gita

The Fool is the universal key that is associated with the state of conscious energy that is us before and after death. In other words, the conscious state that is Holy Spirit. Many of us know that we “have a spirit" but few of us know that we are Spirit and seek not spirituality but rather are Spirituality; a Spiral Vital Force that brings Whole-Conscious liberation and expansion to the self-conscious Animal Mind of Earth. Wholly Spirit, is Spirit-Mind-Body, and division of this trinity is not whole.

Rather than just being assumed as being mystical, trans-personal, transcendent, and ecstatic in its nature, the Fool represents the power of wonder and ecstasy that is so apparent in the very young (and the “enlightened” before they succumb to indoctrination and form a "cultural-word veiled identity". The cultural identity is not real so Qabalists call it "reality" which we all know as relative and subjected to the “I” of the beholder. The Real is the infinite part of ourselves that is the Dark-mirror we light-forms self-reflect on!

The Oriental symbol for fear is the tiger. In this card, fear is seen as attempting to gnaw on the leg of the fool who isn't giving any consideration to fear. He looks forward, and the tiger can't even make a dent in his perspective.

The Fool is the energetic essence of who we are---an unflappable immortal spiritual flow of energy consciousness that flows from the Infinite Source of the Universal Collective Unconscious: The I AM. This card symbolizes the creative expression that is needed to give birth to new parts of our lives and to boldly take risks that are so necessary to evolutionary development! Therefore, when this card falls in a reading it shows us that this is the moment to do what you fear and trust the spirit within!

As The Path of Aleph, THE FOOL connects Kether (Crown) with Chokmah (Wisdom). To the Qabalist, Kether is known as the Source of All, and Chokmah is known as Father God. The Path of Aleph, (The Fool) meaning OX, is about the "flowing of Life Force and creative power", showing that the SPIRIT had a beginning aim to be that of Earth and/or Sensual Being. Sometimes down is up! The ox head is also shown in the Starman Sacred Clown card, as a white light shape above the Sacred Clowns head gear.

Crowley symbolizes this "Holy Spirit" (The Spirit on every level of the Tree of Life) as a dove in the Thoth Tarot Card. Crowley also called The Letter Aleph, a phallic symbol.... but then so is the Projected Will that is THE MAGUS, and one wonders if Crowley was so besotted with the Phallus, that he was unable to see anything else; However, truth be told, by reference to the sexes and sexuality do we come to the minutest glimmering of understanding about the Universe. When we begin seeing that the Below is a mirror reflection of the Above the Divine Spirit-0- we realize that Spirit is all we know; We breathe it, we live within it, it is ourselves. Because we know this Divinity to be "the One Energy that cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed" (Psychics-Thermodynamics 1st law), we know that everything is of this One, as symbolized by THE FOOL the Path of Aleph and that death is merely life transforming itself.

In this context, Aleph is attributed to Air and means Life-Breath. Just as Spirit is from the Greek root word Spiro, which means Breath. The One Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is then the Life-Breath. This is well known in Eastern cultures, and Prana Yama (Breath yoga) are a major if not primary part of all Spiritual development. The Sanskrit Word Prana, is the Life-Breath energy; Prana meaning life and Yama meaning death. Simply, inhale and exhale. The Qabalah and I have described the Magus as relating to "Words" (vibration), the underlying sonic of patterned manifestation. However, it is the power of breath that expels the sound. Thus THE FOOL activates THE MAGUS. Kether in Hebrew is Eheieh, the sound of breath being exhaled, and means, "I Will Be". Hence, the objective of Spirit is "To be" and has nothing to do with leaving the body as a form of "Higher Enlightenment". Rather, the body is Life's Self-Magic, and life must be recycled to grow into new information and/or "eats itself to stay alive", it is form, data understood, and therefore, must have a beginning and an end. Spirit just reincarnates, to carry on with its intent-To Be. You are first and foremost, Energy. Hence, indestructible, and always transformable.

The Science of Crowley’s time, considered Air to be a vacuum, as related to THE FOOL, so did Crowley, but the Ancient Wisdom is that the Element Air is not a vacuum, as in empty of anything, but rather a No-thing who is the fertile No-thingness and egg of Spirit. The universal Egg of Spirit is known by students of the mysteries, to be the EGG OF AKASHA, the zero of THE FOOL, also represents this egg of spirit, and is the mathematical formula of one Male, minus one female= 0. Therefore, the understanding is that the Egg of Akasha, is a fertilized ovum of undefined sexuality, but having the potential for both!

On the Thoth Fool, the Tiger, "fawning about" THE FOOL'S leg, is an archetype representing the Animal Nature of Survival thinking as related to the Higher Spiritual process of I AM Love that is fearless. Again, as this cannot be said enough, the Horns on the Thoth figure represent those ancient mysteries of Dionysus Zagreus. The green clothing is that of the Celtic Green Man of Spring, the grapes at his feet are a tribute to Bacchus, the Greek God of Ecstasy, and the Crocodile (great creative energy) is “a swimming at his feet in the Nile" (Crowley quote); The Crocodile is a symbol used to represent the Egyptian god Typhon, the eater of souls. Making this 0, a complexity of subtleties and therefore, far from empty.

Images referring to the Godhead in the Thoth card, are the dove of Venus and the vulture of Maat the Dark Egyptian Goddess of Judgment, where she is the Mother of Dark Matter. Then there is the triple egg shape created by the caduceus in motion, symbolizing the Ain Soph Aur (The 3 states of No-Thing).

As you may realize, the imagery is so subjective that I haven't the words to detail it all for you. If you need more detail, and you do, I would recommend reading Crowley's BOOK OF THOTH, Robert Wang's Book: THE QABALISTIC TAROT and also investigating the Mythology of the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians and "Above all things, know thyself".

To even begin understanding THE FOOL, we must entertain a multifaceted and fluid interpretation of Force and Form and of Self and selves.

Dr. Paul Foster Case calls this Eleventh Path of Aleph, in his book THE THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM, the fiery or Scintillating Intelligence. Which makes sense as The Path of Aleph boarders on the Limitless Light (Ain Soph), which is "not" or 0. Light without limit is darkness to us who need a beginning and an end to see. Light of measurable limit is "reflected light", and it is reflected in the Dark Mirror of Eternal Energy. So here we try to explain what can't be seen as The Fiery Darkness which is the possibility of vibration or motion and the First Perception of the One having potential for activity. This would make a modern definition of “Dark Energy” as the “first I” or identity whose potential for activity is "Am".

In the context of Masculine sexuality, the Fool is the Testes, and the Magus is the Phallus, (Represented by the three flowers beneath the spread legs of THE FOOL) as He directs active first flow from the Fool rather than potentiality doing so. However, I fear that is a rather limiting concept of the ONE as the Ain Soph is 0, but then, all concepts are less than the potential for conception.

We may reason that the potential for Thought, comes from the Dark Energy as Dark Matter (The First Material). The appearance of Thought emanates Mind, which is the vessel for Thought and/or Womb of Thought Forms, i.e. The “I-magi-nation”, transcending all reason. Thus, as often is so with the Supernal Triangle, our reason leaves us with more questions than answers.

Limitlessness is a very difficult concept! To say that THE FOOL represents the initial potential for thought which transcends reason, i.e. the All Seeing I, is about the best I can do with words.

The special reality we may touch in sleep, often gives us images that do not correlate to our mundane understanding of reality. This being so, our dreams seem to be so much abstraction and are considered as nonsense to our waking condition. However, the Great Work (As above so below) involves the assimilation of The Real, not a reality conceived of mundane ideas. And the Real Concepts are from what is not making what is from Dreams of Potential- Self! To think of the Universe as God Dreaming (Darkness Dreaming it is Light) is very difficult to grasp, and the fact that you are a "Lucid" Dreamer (Image of God), who has been given the Power of Observation that changes a thing, meaning you can change the Principle that is Things, is just about as mind boggling as it gets. But I dare postulate that just such a glimmer of insight requires a more than mundane understanding of self! Thus, your Divinity is not often acknowledged by the mundane world of survival thinking. However, your Spiritual Womb, the conception of "the image of God", is the invisible Sephiroth, Daath (knowledge) seated within the abyss, and is the Child of the Goddess (Understanding) and the God (Wisdom) who are face to face (Yab Yum). This middle path of Union is known as the Path of Gimel (meaning Camel); THE PRIESTESS OR HIGH PRIEST; the Divine Androgyny.

All the Paths leading upward to Kether, THE FOOL, THE MAGUS, AND THE HIGH PRIESTESS, must be approached with a certain understanding of whimsy, as we realize that by crossing the Abyss and approaching Kether (As above, so below) means the total annihilation of Self as we perceive it. Thus, presenting us with the irony of our attempt to grasp such esoteric and refined principles from an earthly-mundane exoteric perspective.

Often, when teaching the Major Arcana and knowing what I speak, cannot truly convey what I am saying, brings a smile, if not outright laughter to my face. To me, the subjective I AM- potential is ironically displayed as a limited conception—a Me. Being a Me must never be taken too seriously, for that concept will change daily, when one enters the Higher Self, and becomes a master of subjectivity.

We begin seeing that the Below is a mirror reflection of the Above the Divine Spirit is all we know, we breathe it, we live within it, it is ourselves. Because we know this Divinity to be "the One Energy that cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed" (1st law of Thermodynamics), we know that everything is of this One, as symbolized by THE FOOL, the Tarot image of the Path of Aleph.

In the context of remembering, I dare to repeat, Aleph is attributed to Air and means Life-Breath. Just as Spirit is from the Greek root word Spiro, which means Breath. The One Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is then the Life-Breath the “one rope of Life” that we are all woven strands of. This is well known in Eastern cultures, and Prana- Yama (Breath yoga) are a major if not primary part of all Spiritual development. The Word Prana, is the Life-Breath energy and is also called the Sex force and means “life-death”. Now I have described the Magus as relating to "Words" (vibration), the underlying sonic of patterned manifestation. However, it is the power of breath that expels the sound. Thus THE FOOL activates THE MAGUS.

THE FOOL, is the very expression of the god name of Kether, Eheieh, which means" I will be". This is the essence of the Divine Child as yet unborn, who is all potential and who is our very beginning!

When THE FOOL card is thrown of both the Thoth and the Starman Tarot during a reading the querent is in or experiencing:

• A state of ecstasy and/or a state of Peek experience.

• Fearlessness. Courage.

• And is completing all motion by Faith, absolutely trusting THE SPIRIT.

• A feeling of being protected, and that everything will work out.

• Being open to what the future brings!

• Magic, amazement and desire in a relationship.

• That you should live in the eternal now, the freedom of the moment.
• You are the inventor of your Self-Awareness and therefore, not the fear and desire you are reflecting on. You are the mirror upon which all imagined-self appears and disappears.
• I, is the story you are making up. The story we are entertaining our Am's with.
• Something new awaits you on unexplored paths, so step into life fearlessly.
• The power to act rather than react.

If ill-defined by accompanying cards:

• The Fool, is then the harbinger of folly, mania, extravagance and even negligence.

Thank you for your interest, comments and supportive donations. May you live long and prosper.