The Tarot Cards
The Card Groups
The Tarot cards are arranged in groups. Each group provides a different function with respect to the journey. Follow along with the map for reference. Click on the image of any card or its title to go to its detail page.
The Hell cards
These four cards describe the world as it is today, and how it got that way. They define what can be called the Consensus Reality Ontological Domain (CROD, pronounced "crowd," pun intended). It is the mundane world; the outer world of appearances. This world is not an illusion; that idea sprang from a misunderstanding of the Sanskrit term "maya." It's real, all right, but only from the state of consciousness we usually operate in. If we change our consciousness - the goal of the Fool's Journey - then our reality also changes. In this way it's possible to become consciously aware of the divine realms, a word that originally just meant "non-physical," away from the CROD, as it were. In the New Testament, "wilderness" is a code word for a divine realm, apart from the ordinary world.
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| The Wheel of Fortune | The Hanging Man | The Devil |
The Fool
This card represents you - the person starting or continuing on the journey.
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| The Fool |
The Cards of the Eye
These cards, from left to right in the diagram, describe the seven stages of the journey. You must strive for mastery at each stage, so that subsequent stages will be successful.
The four Transcendentalcards - Awakening, The Chariot, Transference and The Lovers - represent "helpers" and facilitators of the journey. They are forces and agencies outside the consciousness of the Fool, and exist apart from the physical world. Without them, the journey will fail.
| Stage 1 - Portal | ||||
 The Sun |
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| Stage 2 - Inner Knowledge | ||||
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 Awakening |
 The Hierophant |
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| Stage 3 - The Warrior | ||||
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 The Emperor |
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| Stage 4 - Conjunction | ||||
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 Chariot |
 Transference |
 The Hermit |
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| Stage 5 - Sacrifice | ||||
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| Stage 6 - Emergence | ||||
 The Lovers |
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| Stage 7 - Self-Realization | ||||
 The Magician |
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The World
The last card is both the culmination of the journey and the facilitator of it. The mystery of this card cannot be explained in words; it must be experienced.
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| The World |