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“It’s the story of the development of the soul,” Miss Portinari was saying at that moment, spreading out the twenty-two trumps of that very ancient deck. “We call it a book, and it’s the most important book in the world.”
“The order was deliberately reversed,” Miss P. went on. “Not by the true sages, but by the false Illuminati, and by all the others who didn’t really understand the truth and therefore wanted to hide the part of it they did understand. They felt themselves threatened; the real sage is never threatened. They spoke in symbols and paradoxes, like the real sages, but for a different reason. They didn’t know what the symbols and paradoxes meant. Instead of following the finger that points to the moon, they say down and worshipped the finger itself. Instead of following the map, they thought it was the territory and tried to live in it. Instead of reading the menu, they tried to eat it. Dig? They had the levels confused. And they tried to confuse any independent searcher by drawing more veils and paradoxes across the path. Finally, in the 1920s, some real left-handed monkey wrenches in one of these mystic lodges recruited Adolph Hitler, and he not only read the book backward, like all of them, but insisted on believing it was the story of the exterior, physical universe.
“Here, let me show you. The last card, Trump 21, is really the first. It’s where we all start from.” She held up the card known as the World. “This is the Abyss of Hallucinations. This is where out attention is usually focused. It is entirely constructed by our senses and our projected emotions, as modern psychology and ancient Buddhism both testify – but it is what most people call ‘Reality.’ They are conditioned to accept it, and not to inquire further, because only in this dream-walking state can they be governed by those who wish to govern.”
Miss P. held up the next card, the Last Judgment. “Trump 20. It’s actually second. This is the nightmare to which the soul awakes if it begins, even in the slightest, to question reality as defined by society. When you discover, for instance, that you’re not heterosexual but heterosexual-homosexual, not obedient but obedient-rebellious, not loving but loving-hating. And that society is not wise, orderly, just, and decent but wise-stupid, orderly-chaotic, just-unjust, and decent-indecent. This is an internal discovery – this whole trip is an internal voyage – and this is really the second stage. But if one thinks the order is reversed, this comes as the penultimate Armageddon with Trump 21, the World, being the Kingdom of Saints.
“The next card is the Sun, which really means Osiris Risen – or, in terms of the offshoot of the Osirian Religion most popular in the last two millenniums, Jesus Risen. This is what happens if you survive the Last Judgment, or Dark Night of the Soul, without becoming some kind of fanatic or lunatic. Eventually, if you miss those attractive and pernicious alternatives, the redemptive force appears: the internal Sun. Once again, if you project this outward and think that the Sun in the sky, or some Sun-like divine man, has redeemed you, you can lapse into lunacy or fanaticism. Those who do not confuse the levels realize it’s the redemptive force within themselves and pass on to Key 18, the Moon. . .”
“Finally,” Miss P. said firmly, “is the Fool, Trump 0. He walks over the edge of the cliff, careless of the danger. ‘The wind blows wither it will; even so are all they that are reborn of the Spirit.’ In short, he has conquered Death. Nothing can frighten him, and he can never be enslaved. It’s the end of the trip, and keeping humanity from getting there is the chief business of every governing group.”
“And that’s it,” Joe said. .Twenty-two stages. Not twenty-three. Thank God we got away from Simon’s Magic Number for a while.”
“No,” Miss P. said, “Tarot is an anagram on rota, remember? The extra t reminds you that the Wheel turns back to rejoin itself. There is a twenty-third step, and it’s right where you started, only now you face it without fear.” She held up the World again. “At first, mountains are mountains. Then mountains are no longer mountains. Finally mountains are mountains again. Only the name of the voyager has changed to preserve his Innocence.” She pushed the cards together and stacked them neatly. “There are a million other holy books, in words, pictures, and even in music, and they all tell the same story. The most important lesson of all, the one that explains all the horrors and miseries of the world, is that you can get off the Wheel at any point and declare the trip is over. That’s okay for any given man or woman, if their ambitions are modest. The trouble starts when, out of fear of further movement – out of fear of growth, fear of change, fear of Death, any kind of Fear – such a person tries to stop the Wheel literally, by stopping everybody else. That’s when the two great bum trips begin: Religion and Government. The only religion consistent with the whole Wheel is private and personal; the only government consistent with it is self-government. Whoever tries to lay his trip on others is acting from terror, and will soon resort to terror as a weapon if the others won’t accept the trip through persuasion. Nobody who understands the whole Wheel will do that, however, for such people understand that every man and every woman and every child is the Self-Begotten One.”
And in case you are one of those folks who puts faith in Blogthings, here ya go:
Your Birthdate: March 1
You are a natural born leader, even if those leadership talents haven't been developed yet.
You have the power and self confidence to succeed in life, and your power grows daily.
Besides power, you also have a great deal of creativity that enables you to innovate instead of fail.
You are a visionary, seeing the big picture instead of all of the trivial little details.
Your strength: Your supreme genius
Your weakness: Your inappropriate sensitivity
Your power color: Chrome
Your power symbol: pyramid
Your power month: January