A deeper meaning of the tarot

[icymist]

By Jaime Licauco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:09:00 03/10/2008


MANILA, Philippines—Interest in knowing one’s future has always been part of human nature. But such fore knowledge has always been elusive. And therefore man has either discovered or devised means of somehow predicting what is to come. And those who are able to see the future have always been regarded with awe, if not with fear, by certain people.

One of the earliest and most mysterious of these devices for telling the future is a deck of tarot cards, whose real origin or history is almost completely unknown. The earliest mention of it is in the 14th century, but other commentators consider it to be of more ancient origin.

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My interest in the tarot was triggered by a Russian mathematician and mystic named P.D. Ouspensky who wrote a very intriguing and thought-provoking commentary on the tarot in his book “A New Model of the Universe” which I read way back in 1976. P.D. Ouspensky was a follower of Gurdjieff, a man of great wisdom and mystery who developed a good following among the intellectuals and wealthy people of Europe at the turn of the 20th century.

According to Ouspensky, “Outwardly the tarot is a pack of cards but in its inner meaning, it is something altogether different. It is a ‘book’ of philosophical and psychological content, which can be read in many different ways.”

Being the mathematician that he was, Ouspensky could not help observing the relationship between the tarot and mathematics. He continues: “The system of the tarot, in its deeper, wider and more varied sense, stands in the same relation to metaphysics and mysticism as a system of notation, decimal or other, stands in relation to mathematics.”

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[truedelphi]

1. Ouspensky was one heavy heavy dude.

And the tarot is a miraculous way to delve into understanding.

[Viva_Daddy]

2. Tarot a symbolic representation of Hermitic sciences

Whatever the "true" origin of the Tarot, it is a masterful symbolic representation of the ancient Hermetic sciences including astrology, harmony, mathematics, alchemy, etc. Check out BOTA (Builders of the Adytum) if you want to get into a lengthy study of this subject.