#tarotqabalahthothelitarotstrickingly.com
New Orleans Voodoo Tarot- Key 14- Ti Bon Ange
The New Orleans Voodoo Tarot- Key 14- Ti Bon Ange, is about will. The Ti Bon Ange, is the "small good angel" which is clothed in light. The angel stands above the Abyss, where is casts its light over the dark waters of the Universal Collective Unconscious. The light of this Ti Bon Ange, beckons one's personality homeward to the soul. Here one is asked to remember themselves by remembering the Great Oath taken when naught-0 became two-8 and/or the lemniscate of Western Qabalah, known as 0=2. Here you must turn and return, for there is where your name dances on tongues of flame from the Solar Self and/or Sun/Soul.
Over time this Ti Bon Ange has a voice that has been likened to conscience and a person's individuality is defined by the choices, roads, or paths, they have chosen. The ability to make choices emanates from the "small angel", the core element of the individual. It is the Persona the Soul has generated and not the man-made personality that has possessed the individual's brain that is "born" of the Patriarch. The Ti Bon Ange, is born of the union between the Soul and the Great Creatrix/Gail.
The Ti Bon Ange can be given shelter in a canari, a small clay jar, which is entrusted to a priestess or priest and may be retrieved at any time. This is believed to provide a measure of protection from malevolent magic and vagrancies of chance. Sorcerer's of the New World, practiced something similar when they entrusted a talisman of their essence to a loved one before they went on a dangerous etheric/astral journey. However, if your man-made persona has been exorcised from your brain and the Solar You/Soul/Sun/Son of The Divine Creative is all that possesses the body, your body is the "clay jar" that your original personality is safe at home in. Hence, the Cauldron of Kaput, that is on the art card. Kaput is German for "dead", meaning the golden cauldron is your body, when the Spirit and Soul combine in it under the baptism of the combined water and fire of self.
Depicted on the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot- Key 14, is a woman walking from her hut carrying a clay jar on her head, while the Ti Bon Ange is diving into the jar hands first. This jar can be likened to the Cauldron on the Thoth Art card. When your True Self is present in the body. Then your presence is enough.
When thrown in a divination, the Key 14-Ti Bon Ange implies:
- A call to action based on who you are and your place in the world.
- Assertion of Self.
- Discovery of the True Self (Greater Self).
- An overcoming of obstacles to the expression of the True Self.
- Your presence is enough.
thoth- atu14-Art
In many traditional Tarot decks-key 14 is called Temperance, which implies the heating and cooling of forged steel to make a keen, flexible blade or the slow cooling down process of tempering glass. And in a way, this process is the Art Card's Path of Samekh (meaning -Prop), as it is attributed to the restriction and control over the forces of existence. Master Theron, however, in his book 777, he made this comment on the letter Samekh, the path of the Art Card: Art is the term used to describe alchemy.
Art is "The Womb preserving Life. Self-control and Self-sacrifice govern the Wheel."
Leading from Yesod (foundation) to Tiphareth (beauty), the Path of Samekh is as from Moon (Self-reflection) to Sun (Solar Source), from the "small ego" and/or personality to the Higher Self.
On this very difficult Path, the very enormity of the Great Work (As above, so below) will be experienced. On this path, the initiate may experience going through a long dark tunnel, believing (not knowing) there is Light at the end of it.
This Path of Samekh, the Art card, has been called one of the Paths of "the dark night of the Soul", verifying that this is a Path of trial and temptation. Samekh, is the Intelligence of Probation, as Dr. Paul Foster Case labels it in his text, THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM. In various Gnostic texts, it is also called, "Daughter of the Reconcilers, the Bringer Forth of Life." All of these phrases lead us right to the very idea behind this card, The Great Mother and/or Creatrix Binah. Thus, the central figure of this card, is Female. Also, the ruling sign of the Path of Samekh, is Sagittarius, the Archer, who is also Diana the Huntress, goddess of the Moon. All of which repeats the principle that with the exception of the FOOL (0), all the figures of the Tarot are Mother Binah (Understanding) and Father Chokma (Wisdom) in different states of Force and Form.
Another helpful reference book, VOICE OF ISIS- by Harriette and Homer Curtis describes the Universal Mother (The Womb with a View) as the "power of bringing forth in humanity the Divine Child or the Christ." This bearing of the Child is us reborn and achieved by conquering the Path of Samekh or The Art. We are not only to be the Moon’s reflections of a worldly personality, but also the Solar Personality, that is the Divine Child.
It is to be understood, the Art card demonstrates how the experience of rebirth is brought about; which is to say, through the exchange and equilibrium of opposites which can only be symbolically described can this experience be shown, but it does not demonstrate the birth itself.Thus, the symbolism here is not to demonstrate a "deep Mystery", rather this symbolism demonstrates how limited and inadequate is our language to describe the process. That is why the Qabalistic Tarot Reader, is not one who thinks that by memorizing descriptions and numbers of the cards they are a Tarot Reader. Rather, it is by skrying, and subjectively "walking the Paths", turning subjective into objective sensation, i.e. the process of actual experience ....one begins to understand the Tarot.
The Art Card is not nearly as symbolic as some believe, it symbolizes the Alchemical Art where Fire becomes Water and Water becomes Fire (...."When the male is no longer male and the female, female.” (Gnostic Gospel of Thomas). This process is describing an actual event/process that happens in the initiate’s material body, i.e. an actual physical transformation. Thus we have illustrated on this card an Androgynous figure, combining the Water (consciousness with Lightning (Fiery Spirit) creating in the Golden Cistern (the Human body) what is known as the Living Water and/or consciousness vivified by merging with Fiery Spirit. By bringing Spirit into the body, Spirits fiery nature not only tempers the consciousness, one also tempers the Spirit with consciousness, thus forming "something more than the sum of its parts." A union of Master and Masterpiece!
This alchemical process is often describe by Qabalists as a personal application of the Yod (fire) and Heh (water) uniting in the body to produce Vau (Air) within the individual crucible of form which is Heh-final and Earth. This is described as a "Spiritual Orgasm" or "The Ecstasy" which is a process demanding inner manipulation of sexual forces (He-She) and is shown as an golden energy (in the shape of a stylized arrow) firing upward and across the shoulders of the Divine figure in the Art Card. Even the often flesh-o-phobic Christian iconography, has accepted this Spiritual Orgasm. For instance, the ecstasy of the 16th century mystic, Saint Theresa which was described as an angel thrusting a flaming arrow into her heart .
The symbolical of the piecing arrow that brings ecstatic enlightenment is actually an archetypal, and mufti-cultural accepted description of a real process of physiological transformation! What happens after the inner pain of the Dark Night of the Soul, is a rhythmic, pleasuring motion of inner energy, and ebb and flow that is confined (shown as the figure eight/lemiscate associate with the Magus) in very specific perimeters (oval or womb shaped) but which is taken in either direction at will. The Magus, knows that by changing the vibration of inner energy, one raises or lowers the level of consciousness, moving from Chakra to Chakra or Path to Path. Simply stated: the Kundalini (sexual energy) acting upon consciousness produces astral images, the pictures that form our minds.
At first, many students find the symbolism of the Major Arcana complicated; however, the principle of the Path of Samekh or Art, is to produce a consciously controlled vision that is limited by will. The purpose of Hermetic, Qabalistic, and Gnostic symbols is to furnish descriptions that most anyone can relate to. If you focus on one symbol at a time they are not remote or really complicated, In fact most of the symbolic language of the Mysteries, has been superseded by the language of Carl Jung and other psychologists. To Carl Jung, this ability to consciously control Visions, would be called "lucid dreaming", which is known to help the individual correct personality disorders.
Robert Wang goes on to explain, in his test book: THE QABALISTIC TAROT,
"It should be added that the Metals described in Alchemical literature are the same as the Seven Chakras of the Hindus, the Seven Planets and the Sephiroth of the Microprosopus [lower seven on the Tree of Life.]. These words have been used as codes over the centuries, meaning seven distinct levels of objective consciousness. Thus when one speaks of a Planet ruling a sign of the Zodiac, what is meant in the relationship of a Sign to a given center of energy both in the Greater Universe and in the Human body." (The brackets are my own explanation).
The Art of awakening these Paths in the Human Body, is the Qabalistic initiates goal. "To Know Thyself" is to know the "As above and so below" nature of our Whole Self.
The Art Card, is the sign of Sagittarius, which is ruled by the planet Jupiter, meaning the 4th Sephiroth, Chesed (Mercy). Here, we should remember that Chesed is the architect of all manifestation, working with the "will to form “and/or "potential to form" of Binah (Understanding).
As explained before, Art-Key 14- The Path of Samekh, is an actual physical process, known for centuries by the Gnostic, Mystics, Tantrics, Alchemists, and Qabalists. And is a willed process of directing the communion or interchange of opposite forces. The beginning of this process is begun by the Higher Self-; a process which is instituted in the 4th Sephiroth- Chesed, the most refined, point of Microprosopus, to which the Higher Self is central. Chesed is the enacting force (phallus) of the Great Mother Binah's process of “will to form". (Womb). Until the initiate accomplices this process of the Path of Samekh, the Higher Self (Shown as an androgynous figure on the card) cannot be known to the personality. Thus the Art of "Spiritual Alchemy" describes this Card and the whole process as a preparation of the personality and/or "small ego" for exorcism from its physical vehicle, bring in the True Self/Sun of the Soul, to deal with the Solar Forces (influx of Light) which would devastate a "normal" system. This is an ongoing process of measuring and testing, instigated by the Higher Self, to see how much of the small personality is left and the physical body can bear. When properly tempered, and the body can handle the stress of such Greater Energy, the arrow is released (Kundalini rises). Once contacted on the Path of Samekh, the Higher Self will regulate the flow, so the individual isn't harmed; A great jolt of energy, will tell the individual to "back off', and relax. Because this is a Passion so overwhelming, it is often described as Divine Anger, which is apt if we realize that anger is for self-motivation; to get off of one's butt and do something. It could be said that Divine Anger is the motivation for Sagittarius to launch his arrow.
All in all, the Art Card key 14, is the consummation of the Divine Marriage, depicted on the Lovers card Key 6, here the Orgasm of Spirit has been reached. There is a perfect interchange of forces, as the Red Lion has become white, and the White lion has become Red. The Art card shows Water being poured on Fire, and Fire is merged with Water, all within the purified physical vehicle, shown as the Golden Cauldron, i.e. the Master's body. We know this to be the cauldron to be the body, because it is engraved with the kaput symbol of raven and skull, meaning the part of us that dies. Also the behind the figure shines a great sun with the inscription: VISTA INTERIORA TERRAE RECTIFICANDO INVENFIES OCCULTUM LAPIDEM- Meaning: Visit the interior parts of earth; by rectification you shall find the hidden stone. (Philosopher's stone).
Get and read the Textbook, The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang, The Crowley Tarot-handbook to the cards by Akro.Hajo Banzhaf and/or the Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley for further explanation of this coded process.
When the Art card is thrown during a reading:
- The reunification of that which was been dissolved on a new level.
- The querent is experiencing or will soon experience, a combination of forces affecting realization and action.
- A blending of all circumstances in order to achieve balance.
- Trials and tribulations that lead to the "middle path", arriving at a profound realization.
- A balance of peace, achieved by care and healing.
- One has set out on the goal of the Philosopher's stone.
- One is searching for the innermost core of being.
If ill defined by surrounding cards:
- Excess (conflicts and dissipation) .
- Tendency towards extremes.
Thank you for your interest, comments and supportive donations. May you live long and prosper.
helping people become more magic and less tragic since 2010
