Royal Arcana

[Anthile]

Introductio

For a long time now I have been interested in tarot. I do not use it as a divination tool nor do I make any decisions based on what cards I draw. In fact, I do not even possess a tarot deck of my own. When I try to talk to people about it, it makes them nervous. "So you're one of the New Age-y guys?" they ask me, in a tone of voice that suggests, they'd like call the police if I say yes.
"No," I reply. "I do not believe." - Which usually results in awkward silence. Interestingly enough, Lenore Thomson sees this kind of behavior as typical for the INTJ, as seen in her description of that type.
The appropriate counter question at this point would be "Why do you bother if you don't believe?" The answer to that would be a shy "I don't really know" followed by a "Well, it's complicated", said with a smirk.
When I look at tarot, I do not see it as a divination tool at all. To me, there is nothing supernatural to this, nothing spiritual. As I said before, I do not believe. I'm an atheist, not a nihilist. But first and foremost, I'm an existentialist. Not that it is important who I am, I just think it's important to communicate where I'm coming from.
I have always read a lot of books about mythology and religion, always with the vague hope to find some sort of revelation. From the Egyptian Book of the Dead to the Bardo Thodol, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Kalevala. Later on, this helped a great deal when I did the bridge building from this to actual psychology, when I read the works of C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell and others. But essentially, it was just a continuation. Analytical psychology is just mythology with lab coats, if you ask me.
When I first saw the tarot, specifically, the Major Arcana, I grasped its meaning intuitively. It is the essence of human life condensed in only 22 images. A masterful work. Infinite meaning can be derived from it but only those who can read the signs can see its origin. We all are fools, we all long for the world and we all have to die to find it.
The Major Arcana is about the journey we all have to go on and what it means to be human. I think if aliens ever land on Earth and they ask for just one item to understand humanity, I'd give them a tarot deck.


Thesis

I.

What I want to talk about today is neither the Major Arcana, nor the Minor Arcana nor the 40 numbered cards of the Minor Arcana but the 16 of the Royal Arcana (which, technically, are a part of the Minor Arcana). Sixteen. You can probably guess where this is heading. Also called Court Cards, there are four different figures (Page (sometimes also called Princess), Knight (sometimes also called Prince), Queen and King), one for each of the four suits (Pentacles, Wands, Cups and Swords) of the tarot - sixteen in total. Each suit tells a story for itself, just like the Major Arcana tells the story of every human being.

Well, of course one of the things I pioneered is the idea that all of the psychological types in a given individual are carried by archetypes. Specifically, they are carried by part personalities of the total psyche, and one could actually identify a human personality with each of the eight types that makes up the completeness of one’s type profile. I have already said that the superior function has the character of a hero, and I have said that in a man the inferior function has the character of the anima – the anima being a figure of the opposite sex. The figure of the opposite sex with a certain strangeness associated to it. When we are talking about archetypes carrying the functions, I pretty much confine myself not to impersonal geometric patterns like mandalas, but to human archetypes. I believe that the archetype carrying the superior function is the hero archetype. Often in a woman, the heroine, often in a man the hero. This was a relatively easy identification to make. When I started with this work, the only identification that had been made with an archetype figure in a type was the inferior function. Jung had said somewhere that the anima carries the inferior function in a man, and that the animus carries the inferior function in a woman. There he pretty much let it rest. I said, "Well, why can’t the superior function have an archetype, too?" The more I thought about it, the more I thought that my extraverted intuition was my hero. I has a certain larger than quality and the ability to do unusual things well, and is the part of me that is capable of significant innovation. It is also the part of me that capable of inflation in the sense that being so good, it thinks it is too good. It has a tendency to work alone and to think of itself as the law unto itself, and it loves to not only cope with situations, and solve problems, and pass the kind of hero tests that the hero passes in a fairy tale, but to rise to occasions and to master situations.

Each of the sixteen Court Cards represents one of the basic sixteen archetypes of humanity. You shouldn't take that too literally. Two people carrying the same archetype can be extremely different people. I like to see people as what they can be. I can easily see the untapped potential they harbor and I like to see it awaken. I think that's what archetypes are all about: to transcend yourself you have to recognize who you are; to expand your limits, you have to know where they lie. It's all about self-discovery. People may show you the path but you have to walk it for yourself. Looking for yourself is like looking for the house you stand in. It's always there but there is no point of reference. The point is whether you choose to look for it despite of that.
In the end, choices are all that matters.

II.

Now how do we translate the cards into types? It's quite easy – once you know how. Every archetype consists of the rank and the Suit.

King: The King is highest in the hierarchy, powerful, dominant and unyielding but also a diplomat who knows how to delegate. As a ruler, he stands above all mundane matters and thus represents the air element. His part of the archetype is ExxJ.

Queen: The Queen shares the King's natural dominance but prefers to stay in the shadows as an adviser. In the court she remains rather isolated but is full of hidden depths – she represents the water element. Her part of the archetype is IxxJ.

Knight: The Knight stands for youth, boldness but also recklessness. All Knights have in common that they tend to act first and think later. His hotbloodedness makes him an ideal representative for the fire element. His part of the archetype is ExxP.

Page: The page is the youngest member of the court. She acts as a muse and a constant source of unique thoughts and acts. All Pages are dreamers and rather playful at heart, even though they may not seem that way from the outside and their inward nature represents the Earth element. Her part of the archetype is IxxP.

The people of the ancient world believed that the cosmos consists of only four elements but when we look at a modern period table, we can easily see that they were kinda off there. But what if we translate cosmos with humanity and see it the way that all of humanity consists of only four elements – four temperaments? Admittedly, that's kind of a stretch but it makes sense to me. I always saw the creation myth of various cultures, that humanity was created from clay as a metaphor for that. Water and earth mixed to form the human, fire to kiln it and air to give it breath (the Greek word 'pneuma' can mean breath as well as soul or spirit, they thought that the act of breathing is a sign for having a soul). But alas, I'm going on a tangent here.

Swords: The swords stand for the sharp and penetrating mind. The Suit of Swords deals with abstract matters, that cannot be observed with mere eyes, just like air. Their part of the archetype is xNTx.

Cups: The Cups are often seen as a symbol for the Holy Grail and just like it, they hold the waters of life. The Suit of Cups is spiritual, intense but ultimately formless, not unlike air. Their part of the archetype is xNFx.

Wands: Wands most likely represent magic wands, that were said to be mediums between the gods and humans give those divine inspiration. Thus the wands are inspirational, creative and artistic. They stand for passion, youthfulness and focus on the here-and-now. Their part of the archetype is xSFx.

Pentacles: As the counterpart to the Swords, the Pentacles stand for all that is materialistic: worldly wealth, physical health and the homestead. They also stand for clarity, responsibility and dedication as they are quite fittingly, down to earth people. Their part of the archetype is xSTx.

III.

When we make a spreadsheet out of it, it looks like this:

I wish I had better skills when it comes to making graphics because I'd like to have it show the two elements every type encompasses with pretty colors.


Conclusio

So what does that mean? Probably nothing at all. The tarot is and always will be open to interpretation and that is kind of the point. It is a well-known fact that Jung himself was greatly inspired by the structure of the tarot and I think I just demonstrated that. However, I have always been more of a fan of John Beebe's function model and I think it explains everything at a much deeper level than any other approach. My work that I have been doing for years now, admittedly on an amateur level, but still, seeks to find the point where all of this connects. In order to keep this text as short as possible, I had to cut a lot because with every passing word it's going to be less people who read it completely though that might still weed out the people who are not interested anyway. I do not seek affirmation with this, I do not seek criticism or even opinions. This is an info text. Do not reply if it is not necessary.

 

[FabricatedSerenity]

We need a 'like' function. ;p