In Number 4, The Emperor, we experience the conflict that the mind might encounter as it learns to harmonise the many diffi-culties of the task of realising the concept ‘as above, so below’. This is the role of mankind; what a responsibility! We have to watch out truthfully for these archetypes, from martyr to saviour, from servant to saint and so on. We need to find them in ourselves and dissolve their potent energies, thus releasing life from erro neous mindsets and structures. In the 4 we saw that the emotional, romantic aspect of love had to be transmuted into the cold light of reason, so that the action of mind on matter is for the greater good. What has to be done is for the best in the long term. We are all equal and brothers in the eyes of love/wisdom so we fight unfairness, but when we look at a situation we thought unfair and see the greater picture, we realise that it helped us to inter nalise and rise.
If you are a surgeon, there are times when it may be necessary to cut off a limb, so you would have to be completely insensitive to the pain that would be caused otherwise you couldn’t do it. If you have a bad tooth you go to the dentist and he pulls it out; he knows it hurts but it is his job and he is helping you. He won’t be thinking “Poor thing, I am going to hurt her, shall I do it?” he just does it. If we realise we have called somebody a name because we were cross, and understand that this came from our personality, not from Soul-Spirit, we have to have enough humility in us to forgive ourselves and know that the other person can do that as well, as can everybody else. If we are really hurt from the personality point of view, we bite back; then we can see and understand that reaction, so absolve and transmute it. That is fine and means that next time we might react from Soul with a similar effect, without even questioning it.
It is about being human in the best possible way and that means that boundaries and discipline are completely understood. The structure of a healthy, intelligent society is formulated to be good, for it stops complete degeneration and destruction. For an aver age human being to accept and follow the discipline of function ing within the boundaries of society is good, but at the same time Ancient Wisdom is teaching people to be able to see through the structure and recognise it. It is not brainwashing or persuading peo ple; in fact it is the complete opposite. It is putting another picture next to the standard one, so as to allow people to think for them selves and bridge the gap between their Heaven and Earth.
When we put our hand up in blessing that gives a spiritual/ Soul content to whatever we are in front of, whether it is plant, human or object. Then when we completely align the instrument, Soul and Spirit, we have only peace, love and truth in our hands so spiritual healing comes automatically. The harmonious vibra tion from the love/wisdom energy creates patterns that inspire a response within the receiver, so that a space for healing is cre ated. For example, just by smiling we will help others to smile. The problem is that society has given us norms of harmony and beauty that are so limited and deformed. In the eyes of the disci ple or would-be initiate the world is too small, mean, or just not good enough. He might ask “Am I dreaming? Is this really planet Earth? Is this really who I am?” This is the pain of the disciple. He has had his eyes full of starlight and gold dust, he has drunk the milk of Heaven and then comes back and denies himself every five minutes. He will have to relive the experiences with the full light of truth on to them, so that he doesn’t leave some dark corners of festering emotions in the cup. The peace of mind that he has to achieve will serve him when he is uncoiling the memories that are locked in the organic cells of his body.
We need to depersonalise what we see as ourselves. The sensa tions of pleasure, guilt, or pain are so addictive that we keep going for more drama or disgust. The perception has to shift from “This is me” to “This is the job that I, the Soul, have to do”. We need to see it in the context of the process of life and keep witnessing with com passion, for we are here to help people. Artistically, if we can bring something higher out of the dilemma of being human by using the senses at a higher level than self-gratification and then express what we feel, we are doing just right. This is what most people don’t do enough. They would express the first thought of what they feel, but if the will to be completely honest is not there, they don’t go to what is important behind the thought; for ninety-nine percent of the time that first thought is an intellectual cover-up.
We have to use the senses, so we are being fed excitement and it is important to go on expressing it outwardly so as to show other people the effect; then eventually it sublimates itself. We should give out everything that we are, until we feel there is nothing else to give; this applies to all the services and the sciences. While we feel we have more to express, then we should do it. We are the expres sion of the God we live in and we have to bring out truth from the depths of our feeling and be moved. It is a ‘good citizen’ syndrome to be afraid of being moved and afraid of saying “Look I’m weak”. If we are moving in the waters, whether it is the deep subconscious waters or the higher waters, or the ones in between, that is what we have to express. When we are silent we are learning to discrimin ate inside and are checking our own honesty. After that it is a crime against humanity if we don’t express our own humanity, for we have to demonstrate to others that it is possible to be at peace with it. How is an aspirant even going to be able to start taking a pen to draw a circle if we haven’t expressed ours in many ways before?
The primary religion is about knowing that God is within us. Once we have understood that, all the other gods are elementals even if they are cosmic. The one having the experience is the God of the system in us and on behalf of that inner God we are expressing the Solar System. We cultivate endurance through pain, until one day we smile and say “What is next?” for the spiritual uplift is mov ing us on. If we do the experience of our addiction (and we are all addicted to life otherwise we would not be here), then it passes, it goes. If we do it humbly, with love in our hearts then we are doing well, but it is not a recipe for doing it forever, it must move on. We all carry our potential as a higher consciousness within us and also the action-reaction of our personal karmic biology.
The Pope is simple and beautiful. In Number 5, the five-pointed star is a symbol of the Christ. He is the true human, the biological being who is completely responding to and is at the service of the God within; that is what The Pope represents and in the card he’s not meant to be the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The Tarot at its peak was drawn during the middle Ages, when the powerful in the land were the kings, Popes and emperors, so this is why those names are in the Tarot. The name that represents the highest possible authority on Earth of a spiritual order is The Pope, depicted in the fifth card.
The Pope of the Tarot, like Christ or Krishna, is the highest possible achievement of light and matter coming together in the service of God towards humanity. This quality of mind gives rise to wisdom, which is then made perfect in action. This is a description of a human being that has done everything and who comes back completely denuded of personal intent. The only thing that they come back for is to try and save the ones that are lost; this is the Christ or the Bodhisattva. It takes very little for us to be lost and in humanity today we are at a point of crisis, so a lot of people are lost. We need the courage to represent the life that is within. Some of us will have to go beyond recognised ideas and systems to remove some worn out veils of corruption, so that the new understanding can actually reveal a simpler truth.
The flow of energy through the Tarot has arrived at Number 5, which is half-way through to the perfect 10. However, even to reach the perfection of the 5 we have to go all the way to 22 and back, many, many times. The Pope concludes the first five cards, coming just at that time when the true birth of the Christ within can take place; the higher mind of the soul and the love wisdom of the heart fuse. The Tarot describes the journey of the Soul on its initiatic path. From the beginning we are presented with the tools, the goal and the qualities of mind required to complete the journey. The Pope and the Hanged Man represent an achieved state, like grace or humility. We can’t work at becoming a Pope; it is a state we arrive at, just as we can’t work at becoming humble. To be as near as possible to that state is what is required, so that we can carry on through the next seventeen