Masonic Tarot Deck
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Masonic Tarot Deck
The Masonic Tarot Deck (a.k.a. the classic tarot deck) is a deck of 78 images based on an Italian deck of cards. The Masonic Tarot Deck was created by Freemasons during the industrial revolution in order to help lubricate the transition of power from Feudal to Capitalist hands.[1] The Tarot contains a reworked and "modernized" version of the Zoroastrian Narrative which we might call the Fool's Narrative because it revolves around The Fool Archetype.
Syncretic Terms
Related LP Terms
Masonic Tarot > Archetype Deck, Old Energy Archetype, Triumph of Spirit Archetype System, Zoroastrian Narrative
Non-LP Related Terms
Creation Template > Archaeological Research, Big Questions, Creative Framework, Ideology, Indoctrination, Interpellation, Magic, Old Energy Creation Template, Sacred Drama, Sacrilization
List of Old Energy Archetypes from the Masonic Tarot
Chariot, Death (archetype), Duality, Hermit, Hierophant, High Priestess, Judgement, Justice, Star, Strength, Sun (archetype), Temperance, The Devil, The Emperor, The Empress, The Fool, The Hanged Man, The Lovers, The Magician, The Moon, The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The World (old energy)
Notes
The western Tarot is often presented as a tool that can help the "fool" successfully navigate life's lessons. For example, Rachel Pollack says "Today, we see the Tarot as a kind of path, a way to personal growth through understanding of ourselves and life. To some the Tarot's origin remains a vital question; for others it only matters that meanings have accrued to the cards over the years."[2]
The Tarot was designed by Freemasons throughout the 18th and 19th centuries to serve an elite agenda (Sosteric, 2014; Decker, Depaulis, & Dummett, 1996). Freemasons obscured the elite ideology and agenda by successfully presenting their work as reflective of ancient spiritual wisdom. The presentation of the Tarot as something other than a reflection of elite ideas about management and control prompted Decker, Depaulis & Dummett[3] to suggest that the Masonic Tarot was the...
...most successful propaganda campaign ever launched: not by a very long way the most important, but the most completely successful. An entire false history, and false interpretation, of the Tarot pack was concocted by the occultists; and it is all but universally believed.
The ideological function of the tarot system is obscured by efforts to present the cards as "sacred" in some way. This original effort was conducted by Freemasons who attempted to link the tarot archetypes o ancient Egyptian wisdom. In modern times, it is innocently perpetuated by tarot aficionados. One popular tarot website informs us that the “seventy-eight Tarot cards, the archetype cards, teach us “what we need to learn and master to live an inspired life.”[4]
There are two parts of a Masonic Tarot deck, the Major Arcana or "trump" cards, and the minor arcana. The twenty-two major arcana are Archetypes. Taken together the twenty-two Masonic archetypes form an Old Energy Creation Template.
Many commentators try to read in progressive spiritual and political elements, where none exist. We call this an attempt to "recover" authenticity. For example, "The Tarot, however, is a path of liberation. The fear that Jahweh expresses, that human beings 'will become like us' , is precisely the Tarot's purpose - to fully bring out the divine spark in us and unite it with our conscious selves, to end the duality of God and human and make them one. Therefore, though it keeps much of the same symbolism as Genesis, the Rider pack Lovers subtly reverses the meaning." [5]
The Western Tarot deck is a relatively complete reflection of the Western Creation Template. The Western Tarot is a recollection of twenty-two major "arcana" (really archetypes) and fifty-six minor elaborations on those archetypes.
The ideology of the tarot, the tarot archetypes, occupy a contested space. Even though most authors adopt and retransmit Masonic tropes, there is modification as authors attempt to bring psychological, emotional, or spiritual authenticity to the system. You can find examples of this under the "Recovery" heading in the tarot card entries (see below).
The Triumph of Spirit Archetype System (TOSAS) provides a complete break with masonic, old energy archetypes.
The Archetypes
The Masonic Tarot contains the following twenty-two Old Energy Archetypes.
Chariot, Death (archetype), Duality, Hermit, Hierophant, High Priestess, Judgement, Justice, Star, Strength, Sun (archetype), Temperance, The Devil, The Emperor, The Empress, The Fool, The Hanged Man, The Lovers, The Magician, The Moon, The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The World (old energy)
The Masonic teachings contain two components, a Book of Power component and a Book of Slavery component. The Book of Power comprises the esoteric teachings, taught in private and kept largely secret, while the Book of Slavery comprises the exoteric teachings, which are spread widely in order to control the thinking of the masses.
Citation and Legal
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Footnotes
- ↑ Sosteric, Mike. “A Sociology of Tarot.” Canadian Journal of Sociology 39, no. 3 (2014). https://www.academia.edu/25055505/.
- ↑ Pollack, Rachel. Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom. Harper Collins, 1980. p. 6.
- ↑ Ronald Decker, Thierry Depaulis, and Michael Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards: The Origins of the Occult Tarot (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1996). p. 27
- ↑ https://www.biddytarot.com/learn-tarot/
- ↑ Pollack, Rachel. Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom. Harper Collins, 1980. p. 62.