The Tao of Tarot

[Michael Sternbach]

Hi Bums,

As some of you know, I just love comparing the metaphysical systems of different times and cultures with one another. Frequently, I find that they have central ideas in common. Thus a comparative approach tells us more about the Collective Unconscious, shared by all of humanity. Looking at an Archetypes from a variety of different perspectives serves to illuminate and amplify it further.

Chapter 50 of the Daodejing seems to be a good example for what I mean.

From Robert Henricks' translation:
 

We come out into life and go back into death.
The companions of life are thirteen;
The companions of death are thirteen;
And yet people, because they regard life as LIFE,
In all of their actions move towards the thirteen that belong to the realm of death.

Now, the Death card in Tarot is the thirteenth of the Major Arcana. The traveller who comes out into life and goes back into death is The Fool. He stands both at the beginning and the end of the series of the Major Arcana, so he can be attributed with both the numbers 0 and 22.

Cards that share the same checksum are seen as related with each other, like Death and The Fool, since they can both be reduced to the number 4. The fourth of the Major Arcana which is The Emperor. He is another important Archetype in Daoism, but we will safe him for later and stay with The Fool.

The Fool is the eternal spiritual seeker, the original Tarot Bum undertaking the adventure of Individuation. He represents our childlike and spontaneous nature that we start out and hope to end up with. He is the wandering Daoist sage so prevalent in both Lao Tzu's and Chuang Tzu's writings. Ideally, he in fact attains (a kind of) immortality.

 

Chapter 50 of the Daodejing continues:

 

Now, why is this so?
It's because they regard life as LIFE.
You've no doubt heard of those who are good at holding on to life:
When walking through hills, they don't avoid rhinos and tigers;
When they go into battle, they don't put on armor or shields;
The rhino has no place to probe with its horn;
The tiger finds no place to put its claws.
And weapons find no place to hold their blades.
Now, why is this so?
Because there is no place for death in them.

As we see above, the tiger indeed cannot injure The Fool. He is protected by his spiritual "innocence" or state of wu wei.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Michael Sternbach

[Fate]

Have to say that its interesting that translations can differ so much.

 

Jonathan Star's passage reads as such:

 

Again and again

Men come in with birth

 and go out with death

One in three are followers of life

One in three are followers of death

And those just passing from life to death

     also number one in three

But they all die in the end

Why is this so?
Because they clutch to life

   and cling to this passing world

 

I heart that one who lives by his own truth

      is not like this

He walks without making footprints in this world

Going about, he does not fear the rhinoceros or tiger

Entering a battlefield, he does not fear sharp weapons

For in him the rhino has no place to pitch its horns

The tiger no place to fix its claw

The soldier has no place to thrust his blade

Why is this so?

Because he dwells in that place

     where death cannot enter.

 

The overall theme of the Fool and the immortality he gains through spiritual innocence is the same, but its not arrived at through numerology since 13 isn't mentioned in this translation.

 

Anyone fluent with the Chinese version have a better take on it?

Edited April 10, 2016 by Fate

[Michael Sternbach]

Have to say that its interesting that translations can differ so much.

 

Jonathan Star's passage reads as such:

 

 

 

The overall theme of the Fool and the immortality he gains through spiritual innocence is the same, but its not arrived at through numerology since 13 isn't mentioned in this translation.

 

Anyone fluent with the Chinese version have a better take on it?

 

It isn't easy to decide for anyone, let alone prove, which of the two versions Lao Tzu had in mind. You can find an elaborate discussion of the pros and cons for either version here:

 

http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/19370-ttc-study-chapter-50-of-the-tao-teh-ching/

 

If anybody wishes to pursue the topic further, please do so on that thread, where it belongs.

[LAOLONG]

In the archaeological manuscript of dao de chוng , the de chapters are prior to the dao chapters ( de dao ching). So today chapter 50 ,is chapter 13 in the ancient version.

[Boundlesscostfairy]

The fool is most aparent in the tao of tarot.. his is the only card that we dont have to capture, contain and explain.. we need to just let him loose.. like letting a coiled string turn into a straight line.. progressing from 0 to 22.. is is the acquiesce of the nature of potential..