Tarot First · Lesson 24 of 24

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Cosmic Consciousness

The last card of the major Tarot Keys, The World, symbolizes Cosmic Consciousness, or Nirvana.

The central fact of this experience is that he to whom it comes has first-hand knowledge that he is identical with the One Power which is, so to say, the Pivot and the Source of the whole cosmos. He knows also that through him the governing and directing power of the universe flows out into manifestation.

Words fail to give any adequate idea of this seventh stage of spiritual unfoldment. I shall leave it to your intuition to combine the suggestions of the picture with the meaning of the letter Tau, which is assigned to this Key. Here is a picture of what you really are, and of what the cosmos really is. The universe is the Dance of Life. The inmost, immortal, central Self of you – THAT is the Eternal Dancer.

The number 21 is the sum of the numbers from 0 to 6, so that as a Key number in Tarot it suggests the completion, or extension, of the power of the principles represented by Keys 0 to 6. That is to say, what is shown in Key 21 is really the result of the perfect and balanced combination of the principles explained by the first seven Keys of Tarot.

Thus there is a close affinity between Key 21 and Key 7, for as 21 is the consequence of adding the digits from 0 to 6, so 7 follows 6 in the numeral series. Furthermore Saturn is the seventh of the ancient planets, and from this Hebrew name ShBThAI we have the word Sabbath, the day of rest or inertia, and the seventh day of the week. And in Tarot, you see the 21st Key placed in the Tableau immediately below the 14th (twice 7) Key, and the 14th immediately below Key 7.

Thus the principle at work in Key 21 is that which is presented by Key 7, and the secret of Key 7 is nowhere better explained that all may understand than in the following words:

“Stand aside in the coming battle, and though thou fightest be not thou the warrior.

“Look for the warrior and let him fight in thee.

“Take his orders for battle and obey them.

“Obey him not as though he were a general, but as though he were thyself, and his spoken words were the utterance of thy secret desires; for he is thyself, yet infinitely wiser and stronger than thyself. Look for him, else in the fever and hurry of the fight thou mayest pass him; and he will not know thee unless thou knowest him. If thy cry reach his listening ear then he will fight in thee and fill the dull void within. And if this is so then canst thou go through the fight cool and unwearied, standing aside and letting him battle for thee. Then it will be impossible for thee to strike one blow amiss. But if thou look not for him, if thou pass him by, then there is no safeguard for thee. Thy brain will reel, thy heart grows uncertain, and in the dust of the battlefield thy sight and senses will fail, and thou wilt not know thy friends from thine enemies.

“He is thyself, yet thou art but finite and liable to error. He is eternal and is sure. He is eternal truth. When once he has entered thee and become thy warrior, he will never utterly desert thee, and at the day of the great peace he will become one with thee.” — Light on the Path. Part II: 1 - 4.

“He is thyself.” The quest is for the Self. The goal is the Self. The knowledge of Self-knowledge; the power is in the infinite and eternal power of the Self. The Self is the ONE, working through the mysterious, glamorous power of reflection and duality. And all this is plainly shown in the very number 21.

The Hebrew letter Tau means “signature” or “mark,” but the mark is the cross. The Egyptian Tau is said to have been a tally for measuring the depth of the Nile, also a square for measuring right angles. Among the Hebrews it was a sign of salvation (Ezekiel 1X, 4). Thus it is “a symbol of salvation from death, and of eternal life.” As representing a signature, this letter implies security, guaranty, pledge, and so on. A signature is what makes all business instruments valid. It therefore indicates the final seal and witness to the completion of the Great Work of liberation.

The title, the World, suggests “world-consciousness.” One who attains to this state finds himself in tune with the whole universe, and discovers that the center of conscious energy at the heart of his own life is one with the power which rules the universe. In this consciousness, the whole universe becomes the body of the I AM, and one is aware that the directive CENTER of the entire field of cosmic activity is identical with the innermost SELF.

The four corners of the Key are occupied by the same mystical figures that appear in Key 10. But here there is a difference. The face of the Bull in Key 10 is, in our version, looking toward the Lion; but in Key 21 it is turned away from the Lion, and thus also away from the central figure of the Key.

This is intentional, and follows a very ancient tradition, which is followed in all earlier versions of the Tarot.

The Bull represents the element of Earth, or that which gives form. In Key 10 this is turned toward the Lion, and toward the center of the Key, where the symbol of Spirit is at the heart of the Wheel, because the mental activity pictured in Key 10 is one which turns the mind away from form to the consideration of energy, away from body to the consideration of spirit. The comprehension of the Law of Cycles (Key 10) is an act of mental abstraction in which our attention is turned away from the forms of things to their fiery essence (the Lion).

In Key 21, on the contrary, all the emphasis is toward concrete manifestation. That is the reason for attributing Saturn to this Key. And therefore the Bull is facing away from the Lion, and away from the center of the Key, in order to indicate that the movement here shown is INTO CONCRETE MANIFESTATION.

The goal of the Great Work is not abstraction. It is demonstration, manifestation, the orderly procession of energy into suitable forms, the adornment of the Life Power with suitable garments.

For the other meanings of the four animals, see the explanations in Key 10 (Lesson 13). The general idea is that they represent the four elements, and the four letters of IHVH, so that everything shown in this design is shown as occurring WITHIN the eternal limits of the GREAT NAME.

The wreath is an ellipse. Its longer axis is exactly eight units, and its shorter axis exactly five units. Thus a rectangle which would exactly contain it would be 5 x 8, the same as the dimensions of any one of the seven sides of the Vault of Brother C.R. described in the Fama Fraternitatis.

This rectangle of 5 x 8, which has a perimeter or boundary line of 26 units (IHVH again), is known to students of dynamic symmetry as the “Rectangle of the Whirling Square,” which is the basis of the logarithmic spiral, concerning which Claude Bragdon says:

“Now the generic or archetypal form of everything in the universe is naturally not other than the form of the universe itself. Our stellar universe is now thought by astronomers to be a spiral nebula; and the spiral nebulae we see in the heavens, stellar systems like our own. The geometric equivalent of the nebula form is the logarithmic spiral. This is therefore the unit form of the universe, the form of all forms.”

Thus the wreath represents the NAME (IHVH) as the FUNDEMENTAL PRINCIPAL OF FORM, of which the entire cosmos is the presentation and manifestation.

This wreath is formed of twenty-two triads of leaves. Each triad corresponds to a Hebrew letter or to one of the twenty-two aspects of Intelligent Energy represented by these letters, and also by the Tarot Keys. Each mode of the Life Power has three kinds of expression: 1. Integrative; 2. Disintegrative; 3. Equilibrating. The third is the balance between the other two.

But a wreath is a work of man. Nature provides the leaves. Man weaves them into a chaplet for the victor. And at top and bottom the wreath is fastened with bands similar in form to the horizontal figure 8 over the head of the Magician. But it should be noticed that all that is visible of this band is that portion which makes a form of the letter X, which is the Hebrew Tau. This intimates that the power represented by Tau is what binds the wreath at top and bottom, and also intimates that the X form of Tau is but an imperfect representation of what is more accurately shown as the horizontal 8, figure of mathematical infinity, and symbol of the truth that OPPOSITE EFFECTS ARE PRODUCED BY IDENTICAL CAUSES.

The wreath rests on the Bull and on the Lion, because man’s power of giving form (Bull) to the formless fiery Essential Energy (Lion) is what enables him to weave together the twenty-two modes of force derived from the One Energy.

But there is more than this to be said of the wreath. Its outline is the outline of the Zero symbol. The ellipse of manifestation, woven by man from the forces that play through him, is NO-THING. It has just as much power over him as he gives it, and not a whit more. It does not really bind him, when he understands what it really is. The world of the Master is a wreath of victory.

The central figure appears to be feminine, but has been so drawn that the legs have a more masculine than womanly appearance. The World-Dancer is the Celestial Androgyne. She is veiled by a purple veil which in our version of Tarot is like that in the ancient Keys – in the form of a letter Kaph. And because Kaph is the letter represented in Tarot by Key 10, the intimation here is this: The mechanistic appearance assumed by natural phenomena is really but a veil for their true character. The cosmos seems to be system of wheels within wheels. It presents itself to our consciousness as a machine. Effect and cause seem to be rigidly and unalterably related.

THIS IS ONLY RELATIVELY TRUE. The Life Power is the author and therefore the master of the law of Cause and Consequence, as truly as of any other law. All “laws” are part and parcel of the drama of manifestation. No law binds the SELF. The World-Dancer is perfectly FREE. And that state of freedom is NOW.

Therefore the Dancer stands on nothing. She is self-supported. She herself is the PERFECT EQUILIBRIUM.

In her right hand is a spiral, turning toward the right, and in her left hand a spiral turning in the opposite direction. These spirals represent integration and disintegration. They are complements, and they are turning simultaneously.

In the picture each spiral has a definite end and a definite beginning, but this is simply a limitation due to the impossibility of picturing the infinite. You must understand each spiral as being without beginning or end.

Each spiral has exactly eleven loops, so that here is another reference to the twenty-two modes of conscious energy represented by the twenty-two letters and Tarot Keys.

Conclusion

Walt Whitman thus described his illumination:

“An intuition of the absolute balance, in time and space, of the whole of this multifariousness, this revel of fools, and incredible make-believe and general unsettledness we call the world; a soul-sight of that divine clue and unseen thread which holds the whole congeries of things, all history and time, and all events, however trivial, however momentous, like a leashed dog in the hand of the hunter.”

Leashed, but ready to be let loose, and ready to do the hunter’s bidding. For the point of the Key is that when the SELF is known, it is known as the Master of the Show of Illusion called the World. And the name of the Master is AHIH, “I AM.”

This week try to realize, at least emotionally, mentally and intuitively, the significance of Cosmic Consciousness. It is essentially the realization of the ONENESS of the whole existence. Read descriptions of this state in Dr. Richard Maurice Buck’s Cosmic Consciousness, Ali Nomad’s book of the same title, Ouspensky’s Tertium Organum, Boehme’s Supersensual Life, William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, and the writing of Swami Vivekananda.

Dear Fellow-Builder:

The first section of the Tarot Instruction has put into your hands the fundamental knowledge necessary for your further progress. You have had your introduction to the Tarot. You know enough about each Key to enable you to grasp easily all the instruction that follows in the other sections of the course. Yet you need to become very much better acquainted with Tarot in order to make it serve you as it should. In the hands of experts it is a powerful instrument for self-transformation and mastery of circumstance. You will become skilled in using it by continuing with the subsequent sections of this instruction.

Do not make the mistake of trying to review the first section. You don’t repeat the formula of introduction every time you meet a new acquaintance. No, you watch his behavior, every time you see him, under a different set of circumstances. You get to know him better by hearing what he says, and seeing what he does. So it is with Tarot. The best way to deepen and broaden your knowledge of it is to see it from as many different points of view as possible.

Remember that you can arrange these twenty-two Keys (using them all in each arrangement) no less than two hundred forty-four quintillion ways. The actual number of combinations is 244,342,483,843,215,680,000. There are also innumerable other groupings, of which that given on in Lesson 2, is one.

Every combination has its own special meaning. Every combination calls forth a particular subconscious response. Every combination brings to the surface of your mind a fresh perception of relationships between ideas and things. Thus every combination helps you to organize your mind, enables you to knit more closely the fabric of your thought.

In the following pages you will find twenty-four combinations. Use one each day, six days a week, beginning that Monday after you receive this instruction. Do not work on Sundays, except the recitation of the Pattern.

Begin by picking out the Keys selected for the day. Put them before you. Study them carefully in relation to each other. Then read aloud the meditation I have written for the combination. The meditations are in the first person, so that each is a positive auto-suggestion. Every meditation is completed by the key-sentence for the day, written in capitals. Write this on a slip of paper, and carry it with you during the day. Repeat it at least three times as the day passes.

Look at the combination of Keys at least three times before going to bed. See if it suggests any ideas to you other than those in the meditation. Make a note of them in your occult diary. Then read the meditation again, recite the Pattern, and go to sleep.

By carrying out this instruction carefully you will accomplish several desirable results. You will charge your subconsciousness daily with seeds of creative thought. You will also review the entire series of Tarot Keys, from a fresh point of view. You will begin to understand, from actual experience, what a wonderful aid the Tarot can be to living the liberated life.

After you have completed this four weeks of preparation you will be ready to take up the work of the Second Section. In every lesson of that section practical work with the Keys is the principal consideration.

The tools are now in your hands. In Section First you have been told what they are. You now begin to do the work which will enable you to be what you want to be, do what you want to do, and have everything requisite to that being and doing. From now on you are beginning to LIVE your daily life in accordance with the principles and laws represented by the Tarot Keys. You feet are firmly planted on the Way to Freedom.

FIRST DAY: Keys 0 & 1

Life limitless flows through me to complete its perfect work. The power which guides all things finds in me an open channel of expression. Receiving that power freely, I freely give it to all things and creatures in the field of existence which surrounds me. THROUGH ME LIFE ETERNAL TRANSFORMS ALL THINGS INTO ITS LIKENESS.

SECOND DAY: Keys 2 & 3

The law of truth is written in my heart: all my members are ruled by it. Through my sub-consciousness I am united to the source of all wisdom, and its light banishes every shadow of ignorance and fear, I share the perfect memory of the Universal mind, and have free access to its treasures of knowledge and wisdom. THE PEACE OF THE ETERNAL AND THE LIGHT OF ITS PRESENCE ARE WITH ME NOW.

THIRD DAY: Keys 4 & 5

The Mind that frames the worlds is ruler of my thoughts: I listen for its instruction. Through me the One Life sets its house in order, and makes known the hidden meaning of its ways and works. It arms me against all appearances of hostility, and by its revelation of truth I meet and solve the problems of this day. DIVINE REASON GUIDES MY THOUGHT AND DIRECTS MY ACTION THROUGH THE INSTRUCTION OF THE VOICE OF INTUITION.

FOURTH DAY: Keys 6 & 7

The healing radiance of the One Life descends upon me: it fills the field of my personal existence with the heavenly influences of strength and peace. All the forces of my being are rightly dispensed, for I yield myself utterly to the sure guidance of the One Will which governs all things. I see things in their true relationships and proportions, and my words, expressing this clear vision, are words of power. THIS DAY I THINK AND ACT WITH TRUE DISCRIMINATION, FOR MY PERSONALITY IS THE VEHICLE OF THE LORD OF LIFE.

FIFTH DAY: Keys 8 & 9

My strength is established, and I rejoice, for I am one with the single source of all power. Nothing is, or can be, my antagonist, for I am a perfectly responsive instrument through which the Primal Will finds free expression. All the subtle vibrations of cosmic energy work together for my liberation, and even now the Hand of the Eternal leads me step by step along the way to freedom. ALL THE FORCES OF THE UNIVERSE ARE OBEDIENT SERVANTS TO THE ONE IDENTITY, MY OWN TRUE SELF.

SIXTH DAY: Keys 10 & 11

One power spins electrons around the nucleus of an atom, whirls planets around the suns, expresses itself in all the cycles of universal activity, yet remains ever itself, and perpetually maintains its equilibrium. The sum-total of the revolutions of the great universe, including all activities, is inseparable from the successive transformations of energy which constitute my life-history. Every detail of my daily experience is some part of a cosmic cycle of transformation and adjustment. THE WHIRLING FORCE WHICH MOVES THE WORLDS IS THE MOTIVE POWER IN ALL MY PERSONAL ACTIVITIES.

Seventh Day:

Use the Pattern only today.

EIGHTH DAY: Keys 12 & 13

I do nothing of myself: these thoughts and words and deeds are but the ripening of the seeds of past activities. Every phase of my personal existence depends utterly upon the motion of the One Life; therefore I am free from fate, free from accident, free even from death, since what I truly am can suffer neither decay nor change. By knowledge of the truth I reverse all former pain-bearing errors, and as the darkness of ignorance passes away, the light of a new understanding is dawning in my heart. I SUSPEND THE ERROR OF PERSONAL ACTION, AND THUS DISSOLVE THE LIE OF SEPARATION.

NINTH DAY: Keys 14 & 15

Recognizing every detail of my life-experience to be the operation of the One Life, I perceive that every appearance of adversity must be in truth but a mask worn by that same Life, to test my power to know it, even through the most forbidding veils. Like a wise teacher the One Life sends me problems that in the solutions I may receive renewed proofs that nothing whatsoever may be excluded from the perfect order of the Great Plan. THAT WHICH WAS AND IS AND WILL BE IS THE ONLY REALITY: THIS DAY I SEE THE FACE OF THE BELOVED BEHIND EVERY MASK OF ADVERSITY.

TENTH DAY: Keys 16 & 17

I am awakened from the nightmare of delusion, and know the truth that God, Man and Universe are but three names for the One Identity that reveals itself to me. Fear makes men build themselves prisons which they call places of safety, but he who has seen the vision of the Beloved has no room in his heart for fear. I NEED NO BARRIERS OF PROTECTION, FOR THE LIFE OF ALL CREATURES IS MY TRUEST FRIEND.

ELEVENTH DAY: Keys 18 & 19

My feet are set upon the path of liberation, which shall lead me far from the limits of the world of sense-illusion. I follow the Way of Return, as a child turns its face homeward at the end of the day. I do not see the end of the road, for it goes beyond the boundaries of my present vision; but I know the sun shines there, and that joy is there, for I have heard the messages of encouragement sent back by those who have gone on ahead. MY EYES ARE TURNED TOWARD THE HEIGHTS: I PRESS ON TOWARD THE NEW LIFE OF A NEW DAY.

TWELFTH DAY: Keys 20 & 21

The life of the heavens is manifested by me, here on earth. The fire of right knowledge burns away the bonds of illusion; the light of right understanding transforms the face of the world. Through me the Perpetual Intelligence which governs all things administers its perfect law. MINE IS THE LIFE ETERNAL, TREADING THE JOYOUS MEASURES OF THE DANCE OF MANIFESTATION.

THIRTEENTH DAY: Keys 0, 1, 2

This “self-consciousness” of mine is the means whereby the cultural power of the One Life may be directed to the field of subconscious activity. Its primary function is that of alert attention. As I watch closely the sequence of this day’s events, their true meaning will be transmitted to my sub-consciousness, there to germinate in forms of right knowledge and right desire. TODAY I AM ON THE ALERT.

Fourteenth Day:

Use the Pattern only today.

FIFTEENTH DAY: Keys 3, 4, 5

My personal world is as I see it. If the images arising from my sub-consciousness are consequences of my faulty perceptions of other days, the new knowledge I have gained will help me to detect and destroy them. By being thus ever on the watch I shall set my world in order. Thus, too, shall I make ready to hear the Voice of Intuition, which will enable me to solve my problems when I am confronted with appearances of disorder which my reasoning will not set straight. I SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE.

SIXTEENTH DAY: Keys 6, 7, 8

Consciousness and sub-consciousness work together in my life as harmoniously balanced counterparts. I yield my whole personality to the directive and protective influx of the One Life. All the mighty forces of vibration below the level of my self-consciousness are purified and adjusted by the Master Power of which I am the receptive vehicle. HARMONY, PEACE AND STRENGTH ARE MINE.

SEVENTEENTH DAY: Keys 9, 10, 11

The Will of the Eternal guides me to perfect union with the One Identity. Every detail of my daily experience is in truth a revolution of that Will through the cycles of its expression. What I do now is inseparable from the cosmic sequences of manifestation which establish the reign of justice throughout creation. THE ONE POWER, MANIFESTING THE PERFECT ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE, KEEPS ME POISED THROUGH ALL CHANGES.

EIGHTEENTH DAY: Keys 12, 13, 14

Every detail of my personal activity is really some part of the operation of the cosmic life. Today I reap the fruits of the thoughts and words and deeds of other days, and pass on to better things. I am guided, moment by moment, by the overshadowing presence of the ONE IDENTITY. MY PERSONALITY DOES NOTHING OF ITSELF, PASSING FROM STAGE TO STAGE OF ITS GROWTH BY THE POWER OF THE ONE LIFE, TOWARD THE GOAL OF FREEDOM.

NINETEENTH DAY: Keys 15, 16, 17

Every appearance of adversity and antagonism is but an evidence of my faulty vision. Let me be freed today from the delusions of separateness. Let my eyes be opened to the radiant splendor of the Truth of Being. I REJOICE IN MY PROBLEMS, FOR THEY STIMULATE MY CONSCIOUSNESS TO OVERCOME ERROR, THAT I MAY SEE THE BEAUTY OF THE DIVINE PERFECTION.

TWENTIETH DAY: Keys 18, 19, 20

Every cell of my body is animated by the cosmic urge to freedom. I turn my back upon the limitations of the past, and face courageously toward the new way which opens before me. I live now in eternity. MY VERY FLESH IS THE SEED-GROUND FOR A NEW LIFE, FREE FROM THE BONDAGE OF TIME AND SPACE.

Twenty-first Day:

Use the Pattern only today.

TWENTY-SECOND DAY: Keys 1, 2, 3

I am not deceived by the manifold illusions of sensation. For I continually remember that all these appearances are but reflections of a single Reality. By its power of deductive reasoning, my sub-consciousness develops the seed of right observation into a rich harvest of wisdom. ALERT AND CONCENTRATED, I SEE CLEARLY, MAKE CLEAR AND DEFINITE MEMORY RECORDS OF EXPERIENCE, AND THUS COLLECT MATERIAL FOR THE GROWTH OF RIGHT UNDERSTANDING.

TWENTY-THIRD DAY: Keys 4, 5, 6

The empire of Universal Order includes the little province of my personal existence. All experience teaches me the perfection of the Great Plan. Consciously and subconsciously I respond to the perfect Wisdom which rules all creation. THROUGH ME THE ONE LIFE ESTABLISHES ORDER, REVEALS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EVERY PHASE OF MANIFESTATION, RIGHTLY DISPOSES OF ALL THINGS.

TWENTY-FOURTH DAY: Keys 7, 8, 9

The One Life lives through me. Its vital fire pervades my being. Its unfailing Will sustains me continually. THE MASTER PRINCIPLE OF THE UNIVERSE, DWELLING IN MY HEART, PURIFIES AND PERFECTS ME TO THE HEIGHTS OF UNION WITH ITSELF.

TWENTY-FIFTH DAY: Keys 10, 11, 12

The revolutions of circumstance in the outer world are manifestations of the One Power seated in my heart. That Power maintains its perfect equilibrium through all these sequences of cause and effect. My personal activities have no existence apart from that Power, because all manifestation depends upon it. THE WHEEL OF LIFE REVOLVES AROUND THE CENTER OF PURE SPIRIT, PRESENT EVERYWHERE AND THEREFORE CENTERED IN MY HEART. THIS UNMOVED MOVER OF ALL CREATION IS MY IS UNFAILING STAY.

TWENTY-SIXTH DAY: Keys 13, 14, 15

Out of the darkness of the unknown comes the power which sets me free. The way of liberation stands open before me. I face this day’s tests with a joyful heart. AS I DIE TO THE OLD PERSONALITY, FULL OF DELUSION, AND FACE THE UNKNOWN FUTURE BRAVELY, CONFIDENT OF SUPPLY FOR EVERY NEED, MY FEARS DISSOLVE IN THE CLEAR SUNLIGHT OF RIGHT UNDERSTANDING.

TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY: Keys 16, 17, 18

Let others imprison themselves in their towers of false knowledge: I will be free. Let others dread the workings of our Mother Nature: I will love all her ways. Let others be the servants of the body which they hate, because they are its slaves: I will make it my servant, and love it for its faithful responsiveness. RENOUNCING EVERY ERROR, I SEEK TO GROW IN KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH, AND WORK TO MAKE MY FLESH AND BLOOD THE GLORIOUS EMBODIMENT OF LIFE ETERNAL.

Twenty-eighth Day:

Use the Pattern only today.

When you have finished these exercises you will be rightly prepared for the intensely interesting and practical lessons of Section Second. If you have not yet sent in your subscription, do it now, so that there may be no break in your work after the completion of this series of practices.

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Lesson 1 - The Hidden Force