Along the Tarot Path

A human being, on one level, is recognizable as human by possessing a human body, as distinct and identifiable as the body of any other creature. And one human being is distinguishable from another by equally concrete, physical, means. Creatures of every kind and level demonstrate the same type of discrimination.

But human beings fancy themselves, perhaps correctly, unique among living creatures in possessing the invisible quality of self-awareness, a quality enigmatic by definition, a mystery far more defining than the physical shape that contains it. But self-awareness, too, seeks concrete manifestations to know itself by. It is for this reason that humanity creates symbols. By means of symbols, self-awareness becomes visible and thus knowable, and self-knowledge becomes the final and defining task of every human being.

Among symbolic constructs, tarot is one of the most powerful and versatile and is capable of reflecting self-awareness with great depth and precision. And this is accomplished with a great economy of means. In small mirrors made of tarot symbols, each differently constructed, the varying shapes, shades and levels of self-awareness can be clearly seen.

One such mirror is made of the four Aces. A rich symbolic universe, complete in itself, it can both reflect and explain the durable sub-stratum on which and from which individual personalities are built. And personality, with all its attendant complexities, is the form of self-awareness which commands the lion’s share of our attention. It is in the mirror of the four Aces that personality, the individual human face of self-awareness, begins to reveal itself in tarot.

The Mirror of the Four Aces

Tarot is simple. The personality is not. Yet the personality can be seen reflected in the symbols and structures of tarot.

This reflection is simple. To understand it is not. Yet this understanding is attainable through the systems and practices of tarot.

The symbols of tarot are complex. Its structures are not. Yet these structures contain the symbols and become a body of systems and practices.

These systems and practices are complex. Their results are not. Yet their results lead to the understanding that unravels the complexities of personality.

Finally, everything is simple. In the end there is no confusion. Personality, and the symbols, structures, systems and practices needed to understand it, becomes clear as glass.

This is an affirmation, a truth that is more believed in than experienced. What follows are a structure, a system and a practice called The Mirror of the Four Aces, in which is reflected a tantalizing experience of the simplicity of personality.

– Wald Amberstone

Filed under: Tarot Musings, A Cup Full of Tarot on June 16th, 2007