The 22 cards which are called the Major Arcana of the Tarot are a series of images which portray the different stages of a journey. This journey is one which is familiar from many myths, legends and fairy tales, as well as from the worlds great religious teachings. It is the journey of life which all human beings must make, from birth through childhood and the power and influence of the parents, through adolescence with its loves and conflicts and rebellions, through maturity with its worldly trials and ethical and moral challenges, through loss and crisis, despair and transformation and the awakening of new hope, toward eventual victory and achievement of the goal - which in turn leads to yet another journey. This cycle is not only a cycle of chronological age, but also a cycle which occurs many times within one life, for everything that happens to us has a beginning, a middle and an end. Thus the journey portrayed by the Major Arcana is archetypal. No matter what the specific details of an individual life, might be - long or short, banal or dramatic, good or evil - certain stages of psychological development await us all. This archetypal journey of life is really an inner journey and occurs on many different levels. Inner changes precipitate external events, and external events foster inner changes. It is sometimes hard to say whether a love affair has caused a burst of creative energy and new insight, or whether new insights and a more creative way of looking at life have drawn us into a love affair. It s difficult to say whether a business failure instills bitterness and suspicion of others, or whether an innate suspicion and mistrust precipitates a business failure through alienation of colleagues. So the images of the Major Arcana describe both the inner state of the individual at a particular point in life, and the kind of experiences the individual is likely to encounter in outer life. Inner and outer go together because the same individual is at the core of both |
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