Sarita Armstrong - 11 Nov

The Tao

in

the Tarot

A Synthesis between the Major Arcana cards and hexagrams from

the I Ching

Written and Illustrated by

Sarita Armstrong

The Tao in the Tarot

Copyright Sarita Armstrong 2012

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the author. Sole exception is in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Unless otherwise stated all citations from the I Ching are from the translation of John Blofeld and are taken from I Ching Book of Changes by John Blofeld first published in Great Britain by George Allen & Unwin; Unwin Paperback Edition 1980

Paperback ISBN : 978-0-9572640-3-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9572640-4-5

Published by SifiPublishing

2013

info@sifipublishing.co.uk

P.V40- EB10 - J31

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Dedication

To my Mother and Father who always encouraged me in my endeavours.

With grateful thanks to

Hanne Marie Kvrndrup for her editing skills and enduring confidence in my efforts and to Simon Fraser for his enthusiastic support.

Table of Contents

Part 1

In which we weave together the threads from two remnants of antique fabric .

The Journey

Human beings in their spiritual quest are a bit like trans-continental travellers who have woken up at a caravanserai, or wayside inn, with a severe case of amnesia. We have forgotten where we have come from and have not much idea of our destination. Most of us just hang around enjoying the food and entertainment, forgetting that we ever set out on a journey in the first place. It has always seemed strange to me that we are set down here for a span of life on earth, and we have no clue as to why! Mankind is suffering from a mammoth case of disorientation and yet there are many clues as to where we should be heading. We need to hunt for those clues that may lie beneath a load of sand over which we have already travelled without recognising the footprints of those who have gone before. The Tarot and the I Ching give us some clues and some markers but it is a bit like a treasure hunt - a search for the Holy Grail !

A lifetime of journeying on both land and sea has blessed me with opportunities to expand both inner and outer horizons. The Major Arcana of the Tarot may also be seen as a journey through life a psychological or spiritual journey to enhance the physical journey on which we travel daily. Twenty years spent on sailing yachts without television or newspapers and with limited access to books fostered in me a way of thinking unfettered by the social norms of the day, so my mind expanded in what some might consider quite unusual directions. Rather than following the normal way of placing the Tarot cards, I intuitively placed the cards of the Major Arcana in an Oriental way, circular like clock patience (see ). Some of the cards definitely fell into pairs (the Empress and Emperor; Death and the Hanged Man, for example) whilst others (like Strength and Temperance) stood alone .

Back then I did not see exactly how each hexagram of the oriental divinatory work, the I Ching, connected with the Tarot, but I knew it did for the first two numbered cards of the Tarot - the Magician and the High Priestess - stood like sentinels with the first and second hexagrams of the I Ching: the Creative Principle and the Receptive-Passive Principle, whilst the ideas running through that tricky card of the Fool lead us to the fundamental principle of the Tao.

Figure 1: The Major Arcana Cards Laid out in a Circle

Simply by being placed in this way, the Tarot and the Tao (which is the essence that runs through the whole of the I Ching), came together in a most amazing way, making me believe that the Tarot itself must go back to an equally early root as Taoism - a root so early that it comes from before the development of the belief systems of the formal religions of our age. Just as geologists talk of Pangaea, the original landmass from which the great continents of the world broke away to form their individual countries and cultures, so it would appear there was an ancient source of wisdom that can be found behind all our varied religions and beliefs, the differences of which we argue about so fervently.

My connection with an Oriental way of thinking was not so unexpected, for as a teenager I had a spell of working with Tibetan refugees in the Himalayas at a school where the recognized reincarnations of wise teachers were taught foreign languages so they could disseminate the wisdom of their culture, which at that time was being systematically destroyed in their homeland. Some of them were as young as six or eight years old, and to those amazing children I was allowed to teach English. My own teacher of the Tibetan language happened to be a son of the State Oracle. If only I had known the right questions to ask back then! In the winter the whole school went on pilgrimage to the Buddhist holy places of northern India, which included an audience with the Dalai Lama and his personal blessing. Meanwhile, two Tibetan Lamas had arrived in England and were living with my parents. They went on to found the first Tibetan monastery called Samye Ling in Scotland. When I returned home from India another Lama of the Nyingmapa Sect the oldest and closest to the pre-Buddhist Bn religion was lodging with us, so he and I lived as brother and sister and I like to think a little of his inner wisdom may have rubbed off!

Fifty years ago every self-respecting hippie had a copy of the I Ching tucked away in their rucksack, and I was no exception. The I Ching or Book of Changes - a Chinese book of divination - has been a life long companion that has shown me the direction when cross-roads were reached, indicated a route when the way ahead seemed foggy, lent support when I did not know if I had the strength to continue and brought comfort when I had no other companion. Like any travelling companion the I Ching does not like to be relied upon too heavily nor bothered with chatter or inane questions. It needs long periods of silence otherwise it too becomes weary.

Taoism, one of the oldest religions of the world, which we know of in the West through the commercialisation of the Yin/Yang symbol, has the idea of movement and change as the fundamental principle of life. Tao speaks of two major forces in the world Yang and Yin the firm and the yielding, the creative and the receptive, male and female, positive and negative. Neither is inherently good or bad, instead they are described simply as the opposites seen in every form of life. Each opposite has the seed of the other in its heart; hence in the Yin/Yang symbol each contains the eye of the opposite (see Figure 2). Forever flowing between the opposites is the Tao, the force of life, of movement, of change, of flow.

Figure 2: The Yin-Yang Symbol

I could not help also noticing a correlation between the name of Taoism and the Tarot we have the TA(R)O(T) and the TAO, as well as the Jewish TORA. We also have the Egyptian TAU - the symbol for life and resurrection and their TAR RO meaning Royal Way. Surely there must be a connection! I needed to examine the warp and the weft of the fabric, as it were, to count the buttons and buttonholes of this remnant of material that we see in the Tarot cards, after which I might be able to glimpse the whole garment as worn in early days. The I Ching seems more complicated in its weave and more intricate in its fashioning for it has been better preserved with more historical continuity, yet the two come together with so many similarities in their make-up that I felt sure they must have been fashioned from the same cloth.