The Fool’s Journey as 3 X 7 Theory
In my Part Two of Journey Through the Major Arcana, I talked about Rachel Pollack’s presentation (in Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom) of the Major Arcana Trumps as a sequence, or progression, of an individual’s journey to individuation and enlightenment.
The Trumps (minus the Fool, who represents the individual taking the journey) are divided into three lines:
- Cards I-VII are seen as consciousness (the outer concerns of life in society)
- Cards VIII-XIV are seen as subconscious (our inward search to find who we really are)
- Cards XV-XXI are seen as superconscious (development of a spiritual awareness and a release of archetypal energy).
Darkness and light are the duality that is expressed through the Tarot. Where there is one, you will find the other. The darkness is expressed through our unconsciousness and is accessed through our intuitive self (as represented by the High Priestess and the Moon). To truly understand ourselves, we need to move into our deepest core. It is within the line of the superconscious that we develop our spiritual awareness, and open up the archetypal energy of the cards and our lives.