individuation

Journey Through The Major Arcana – Part 3

Journey Through the Major Arcana explores 3×7 Theory & the Fool’s Journey in Tarot. Part 3 looks at cards 15 – 21 using the Sacred Isle Tarot.

Journey Through The Major Arcana – Part 2

3x7 theory the fool's journey header

The Fool’s Journey as 3 X 7 Theory

In my Part One 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, hence the system’s other name of the Fool’s 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).

Read moreJourney Through The Major Arcana – Part 2

Journey Through The Major Arcana – Part 1

3x7 theory header

The Fool’s Journey as 3 x 7 Theory

I think that everyone understands that the journey through the archetypes of the Major Arcana is a journey of individuation, of personal growth and enlightenment. There are several different ways in which the journey can be broken down. In the companion book to the “Universal Marseille” deck, author/Tarotist Lee Bursten discusses the 3 X 7 theory, which is based on Plato’s theory of the soul being divided into three parts:

  • The Soul of Desire
  • The Soul of Will
  • The Soul of Reason.

According to this theory:

  • Trumps I-VII represent the Soul of Desire
  • Trumps VIII-XIV represent the Soul of Will
  • Trumps XV-XXI represent the Soul of Reason.

Read moreJourney Through The Major Arcana – Part 1