This card has two figures, hand in hand, taking their leap of faith.
Imagine you are an underwater creature entombed by the pressurised world of liquid; there is no above, only the world below. At one point these two looked up and dared to believe there was something more than the material world they swim in. Once through the barrier, they now see there is another world of Air. Another way to breathe, to feel, to look at the world. One that isn’t so restrictive.
Their new lungs are filled with the possibility of something fresh and exciting.
This is the moment when you wake up for the first time and realise that your first breath of the day was not inhaled to enable you to slave away for material possessions. Possessions that impress other people who slave away for material possessions. There is something more to life than just ‘being.’
We think we are more advanced than animals. This is because we think animals live a life of need. I need food, I need sleep, I need to procreate, I need to kill in order to…, I need to obtain in order to… I need.
A repeating cycle, day after day. How silly to live like that. We are clearly more advanced.
That life sounds very human though, doesn’t it? If you listen to how people talk. Most conversation, problems, plans, suffering… all evolve around the concept of ‘need.’
That is still living like a primal animal.
There is a story Joseph Campbell recalls about Vishnu creating a demon to eat another demon. The demon is created with a desire to devour, because another demon is trying to steal Parvati from him. On seeing this new demon, the other begs for mercy and Vishnu is merciful. The new demon is now upset, “I am ravenously hungry, you have just taken my purpose away from me!” Vishnu thinks for a bit and replies “eat yourself!” So, he does. Upon seeing this, Vishnu starts laughing with tears and all, as never before had he seen such a perfect representation of humanity.
The moment you stop thinking about want and start thinking about why you are here, you have opened your eyes and escaped the primal.
Most people do not even know what they believe. They will say ‘I believe in science’ (materialism.)
‘Materialism—the view that nature is fundamentally constituted by matter outside and independent of mind—is metaphysics, in that it makes statements about what nature essentially is. As such, it is also a theoretical inference: we cannot empirically observe matter outside and independent of mind, for we are forever locked in mind. All we can observe are the contents of perception, which are inherently mental. Even the output of measurement instruments is only accessible to us insofar as it is mentally perceived.’ -Bernardo Kastrup, Dutch computer scientist and philosopher
Science is a useful tool for fact-finding, gathering evidence for things. Religious people use it just as much as atheists. It does not tell you what to believe in, it just reaffirms what you want to believe.
This is difficult to do if you don’t know what you believe in.
‘…Unlike philosophy, which depends somewhat on certain subjective values and one’s own sense of plausibility to settle questions, science poses questions directly to nature, in the form of experiments. Nature then answers by displaying certain behaviors, so questions can be settled objectively.
This is both science’s strength and its Achilles’ heel: experiments only tell us how nature behaves, not what it essentially is. Many different hypotheses about nature’s essence are consistent with its manifest behaviors. So although such behaviors are informative, they can’t settle questions of being, which philosophers call ‘metaphysics.’ Understanding nature’s essence is fundamentally beyond the scientific method, which leaves us with the—different—methods of philosophy. These, somewhat subjective as they may be, are our only path to figuring out what is going on.’ -Bernardo Kastrup, Dutch computer scientist and philosopher
I am not saying that science is not valid, I’m saying science is now being used like a dogmatic religion so that people don’t have to think about what they actually believe in outside of the status quo. Science is an evolution of thought, an examination of the possibility of anything. The answers can always change. There is usually more than just one answer.
If you start using science as a dogmatic system, you are no longer thinking for yourself – like any dogmatic system. You are placing your belief in someone else’s opinion. As the excerpt suggests maybe a little philosophy with your science may help with some realization.
Which is exactly what this image is about, that feeling of needing something more, realizing you are more than just a meat sack of body fluid, a happy accident with the power of thought but not knowing what to do with it.
Why look at the world through one window when you can see it through many?
Once you realise there’s a bigger picture, it’s hard to unknow it. The feeling sticks.
You can’t just dive back under and pretend there is nothing there. So, you are stuck in a liminal position – half in, half out. Unchained but not knowing where to go, like a puppy that’s desperate to escape the backyard, only to realise the other side of the fence is far scarier and bigger than it ever imagined.
In sacred geometry, this is the start. The point. The dot. Space, never ending. In our image we have the three spaces: the cave underwater, the cave that surrounds the water and the unseen space that is around the cave, illuminated by a hole in the cave roof. This is referring to the three states of no-thing.
Ain Soph Aur, the cosmic womb. www.luminati.com delivers this definition:
‘The outer most is Ain:
Veil of NOTHINGNESS. This is literally “no-thing”, the Nothingness of Infinity. It is the Emptiness of life, the potential source of energy from which Divine Consciousness is constructed.
The Second layer is AIN SOPH :
Veil of EVERYTHING. This is literally “every-thing”, where the Limitless seeds of life exist forming a sort of cosmic soup of dust and particles. It is Infinite Light Without End. And from the Darkness, God created Light.
The inner most layer is AIN SOPH AUR:
Veil of DARKNESS & LIGHT. This is where the seeds of life form the seemingly opposing forces of Radiant Darkness and Limitless Light. At this point, both exist together. Here is where duality is born, which then threads its way through the tree creating the Polarity of all Divine Life.’
These energies are in an area called Tzim Tzum, the concealed realm. Like the spirit world, the spirit then comes down through ‘the creator’ and is birthed into creation. Just as The Fool realises the path and is born on a new spiritual adventure.
Duality is a recurring theme through these images.
You can view it how you will – as two equal parts making a whole. As two separate beings working together for the greater good. Or as one being with both aspects of duality within them.
I would also like to note that this is indeed a cosmic womb. The beginning of all of this starts in the womb. Before there is direction, before there is the point, before there is an egg, before there’s a big bang – there is a space where it all has to happen, the womb. Therefore, the divine creating force and source is the goddess, the divine mother. Everything that transpires in the cosmic womb is a part of her creation, as she is the source that creates the space, energy, light and vibration for the bubble/egg to exist in the first place. Some say the point/dot (that is the beginning point) is masculine/androgyne/god as it is the entry point of the masculine will. The friction of that creates all energy in the universe. We have learnt however that the womb is unavailable unless the vagina allows entry through a system of electrical gates, so to speak. The goddess must be receptive to allowing the masculine force to enter. As a pair in unity the magic of creation can proceed.
Even masculine based societies in the ancient world still held on to the concept of the sacred mother, as it is more logical to imagine a female deity giving birth than a male creating everything. It was an ideology that claimed that women had to be taken up with creating and nature and all the ‘issues’ that come with it so that it could enable the males to focus on more mental activities.
So women or femininity have always been symbolically associated with the concept of creation, nurture and nature.
This connects the idea of creation to the nurturing ideas of nature. In order to appreciate and understand creation we need to recognize our role in nature and that we are a part of it, instead of separating ourselves from nature and possessing it.
It is through that creative union we can find our true selves and appreciate the wonder that is life.
ALPHA:
A definition of ἄλφα was ‘arising above.’ The letter A being the shape of a mountain with a waterline or horizon line across it. The concept of ‘arising’ is at the essence of divinity, immortality and illumination. The river Styx was the bloodstream from the Earth’s vagina, which also has been referred to as Alpha. Everything was born from the waters of Mother Gaia and all life returned to the waters, through the Styx. The Greeks conceptualised reincarnation by observing nature, seeing life arising from death is as natural as a dying plant’s seeds falling to the ground and sprouting into new plants. The idea of mountains rising above is also linked to all the Celtic Indo-European cultures. They were almost other realms by themselves, where the ‘Sky Gods’ would dwell. The ‘mother nature’ goddess was also commonly depicted in artwork as a body of mountains.
The process of purity in alchemy required the alchemist to extract the essence through a process of boiling and evaporation, where the liquid arises as steam and then re-solidifies in its purest form.
The concept of arising as the first step of recognition is like that of an infant; it arises by recognising it is.
Arising from the darkness to realise it is alive. From primal to mental.
Rising above it.
This is a message of divine unity that by being whole, self-assured and confident in ourselves we can arise from the depths of self-doubt, depression and anxiety to live a more fulfilled life. It is like climbing a mountain to get a better perspective of the world, getting some fresh air to clarify your thoughts. Arising from the ashes as a purified spirit, reborn.
Lotus Flowers:
The Lotus flowers are a reference to a story. When you reach Nirvana, you have a choice before letting go of ego and obtaining your permanent death. You sit upon a lotus, in a sea of lotus flowers covering a great lake that is a doorway between worlds. You can at any point dive back into Samsara to learn that which can only be learned in the experience of life.
This is the never-ending cycle of birth death and rebirth… Samsara.
The Buddha or the Dalai Lama would choose to come back in order to help us reach enlightenment, for example. Another story that is similar can be found in is The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, where there are little ponds that you can dive into to reach other realms or dimensions.
The point is that your whole being is ready for change.
Open to the possibilities of a new life, a new way of living, a new way of being.
AIR:
Air is the element assigned to the Fool; it is the first breath of new life. It is the element of thought.
It represents the mind and all its intellectual mental faculties. Without oxygen our blood does not pump, and our brain cannot think. It is essential. As the mind is essential in determining our reality, our perception of existence in this illusion we call life.
0:
Zero is the beginning of the never-ending cycle of realisation. The no-thing, the spirit, infinity. All and nothing. You begin as The Fool, die as The Fool and begin again as The Fool. At the center of everything is nothing, the speck that can explode into unlimited potential. The blackness that is absent of light; the realm in which ideas and dreams are born. The black hole, the black Sun, dark matter, the cloud that devours in The Neverending Story. Whatever your nothing is, it begins and ends everything – it is the Ether.
Uranus:
On the heads of our Fool image there is a tattoo of the Uranus symbol. This is symbolic of the beginning and a long journey. This is due to the planet being on the outer orbit, circling the sun slower than those on the inner orbits. Being on the outside gives one the freedom to roam the path of experience, expansion and learning. The beginning of freedom in other areas like intellectual, sexual, and personal pursuits of self-discovery. Not having to conform.
The circle is spirit, the arrow is action. You know you want to; you now need direction.
Next up is the Witch (Magician) your will directed.
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