keep looking up! (the deal)

Mercury

Here we meet the god Hermes, guide of travelers, patron of thieves and liars, ruler of magic and divination, and bringer of sudden good luck and changes in fortune.  He is called the Trickster because he is deceitful and ambiguous, yet he is the trusted messenger of the gods and the guide of souls into the underworld.  In Greek myth Hermes was the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and the mysterious nymph Maia, who is also called Mother Night.  Thus he is the child of both spiritual light and primordial darkness, and his colours--red and white--reflect the mixture of earthly passions and spiritual clarity which are part of his nature (21).

~The Mythic Tarot. Sharman-Burke, Greene. Fireside, New York: 1986.

"Mercury, the God of Roads, who was also know in Greek mythology as Hermes Psychopompos, which means he was known as the guide of souls, and is shown in the Hierophant (V) as the educator and guide in the outer world, and in Temperance (XIV) as the actual guide of souls through the night (191)."

~Tarot and the Journey of the Hero. Banzhaf. Samuel Weiser, York Beach, ME: 2000.

Venus

"Venus, the Goddess of Love, is reflected by The Lovers in her light aspect.  Her dark pole is shown in the passionate entanglement of The Devil (191)."

~Tarot and the Journey of the Hero.

Lucifer |ˈloōsəfər|

noun

1 another name for Satan . [ORIGIN: by association with the [son of the morning] (Isa. 14:12), believed by Christian interpreters to be a reference to Satan.]

2 poetic/literary the planet Venus when it rises in the morning.

3 ( lucifer) archaic a match struck by rubbing it on a rough surface.

ORIGIN Old English , from Latin, 'light-bringing, morning star,' from lux, luc- 'light' + -fer 'bearing.'

Mars

"Mars demonstrates his springtime power in the departure of the hero on The Chariot (VII), whereby The Tower (XVI) reflects his overturning force, but primarily his warlike and destructive aspect, which can lead to either ruin or breakthrough (191)."

~Tarot and the Journey of the Hero.

 

So, am I the only one who thinks that The Chariot on the Mythic Tarot looks like George W. Bush?  It really fascinates me and makes reality all the more tenuous.  Then consider that Mars (who is Ares, the God of War, in the Greek system, cheating w/ Aphrodite on Hepaestus) has two moons:  Phobos and Deimos.  And the meaning of those two names?  Terror and Fear.  Amazing.  The Tower is an archetype linked inextricably with George Bush.  Many wanted to call him The Devil.  Pan?  The Great All?  He is connected to the Labyrinth and the tower, but I don't think so.  Not the Devil.  He is Mars.

Here we meet the war-god Ares, who was said in myth to have been conceived by Hera, queen of the the gods, without male seed.  As god of war, Ares reveled in fighting.  His two squires, Deimos (Fear) and Phobos (Terror)--sometimes said to be his sons--accompanied him on the battlefield.  Unlike the goddess Athene, who as a war-deity represented cool strategy and foresight, Ares was in love with the heat and glory of battle itself, and with the exultant unleashing of his strength to challenge the foe.

Ares was in many ways an unappealing god because he was associated with conflict and bloodshed, and Olympian Zeus and Athene disliked him for his brute strength and lack of refinement (39).

~The Mythic Tarot.

Jupiter

 

"Here we meet great Zeus, king of the gods, whom the Greeks called All-Father, creator of the world and sovereign of both gods and men.  In myth, Zeus was the youngest son of the Titans Cronos and Rhea (27)."

~The Mythic Tarot.

"In classical antiquity, Jupiter was considered to be the highest judge over gods and human beings, in Heaven and on Earth.  This is expressed in Justice (VIII), which stands for the laws of the world, as well as The Star, the symbol of the laws and wisdom of the cosmos (191)."

~Tarot and the Journey of the Hero.

My idea of Jupiter as expressed in Justice/The Star is bound up with the American system of government in its three branches.  Zeus/Jupiter represents our systems of power as seen in both its sacred and secular authorites.  Laws of men and laws of the universe, or of God.  Think of the King (or emperor) his power to rule is sanctioned by God and by man.  I can't help but think of gangsters in regards to this.  It is the western/patriarchal view of power.

So to deconstruct this.  Firstly, It is interesting that The Magician, Hermes, is expressed in both a male and female aspect.  The Goddess, Venus, which I read as The Magician's counterpart, The High Priestess, is expressed mostly in a duality: love/[d]evol.  Jupiter is not expressed in a m/f duality. His two aspects are both feminine. Depending on my decks and sources, Justice is either Athene or Dike--Roman: Justice.  The Star is Themis, Dike's mother.  The mother represents heavenly or divine justice and her daughter corresponds to earthly justice.

I want you to know that with most things there is never a perfect 1 to 1 ratio.  Symbolic meanings are loose and shifting.  Often times I think that there is only one card and the "other" cards address its polar opposites in varying degrees.  So, in the past I have called Obama The Star.  I have also attributed The Star as the light half of one's Anima, one's guide through the underworld.  Now it is supposed to be a branch of government?  Maybe.  So let's think about this. It would make sense that the President is the leader that is expressed in two aspects, the law giving and law interpreting bodies.  That doesn't really fit with heavenly and earthly justice, but oh well.  America does lean heavily on the feminine iconography.  So Justice is blind is the Judiciary, and her "mother" is the legislative, is the star, is The Mother, is Isis located on top of the Capitol Building?  Sounds good.

I suppose the important point is to remember that Zeus/Jupiter/Yahweh is The Father.  That should probably be the title on the card.  God, The Father.  And his son is the sun, the savior, thus making The Emperor, The Godfather.  So who is the Godfather's father?

Saturn

"In its light aspect, Saturn shows himself as the wise old man in The Hermit (IX), whereby his difficult side that lets fear arise from constriction corresponds to The Moon (XVIII).  And this card represents the last test on the path (191)."

~Tarot and the Journey of the Hero

All I want to say is that I found it so very fascinating that John Locke encountered Christian Shephard holding a lantern in the episode, "This Place is Death".  John met him at the threshold, just before he pushed on the frozen donkey wheel (wheel of fortune).

"Cronos was banished, some say to the depths of the underworld, but others say to the blessed Isles where he sleeps, awaiting the beginning of a new Golden Age (52)." ~Mythic Tarot

Time to come home Dorothy!