A French Cross Experiment: The Summer Solstice and the Birthday Boy

Since the Summer Solstice is also my birthday, I decided to experiment with the French Cross spread ( tirage en croix) that I just learned a few things about. Because both of these events are kind of a “big deal” (one globally — or at least in the Northern Hemisphere — and the other personally) I chose to use only the trump cards. Here is my brief interpretation that looks at the period from now until the Winter Solstice (the nadir of my personal year). All images are from Kris Hadar’s Le Veritable Tarot de Marseille, published by Editions de Mortagne. Boucherville, Quebec, Canada.

Sun in the “Pros” (or “Thesis”) position: Bask in the moment (hey, it’s summer!)

Death in the “Cons” (or “Antithesis”) position: But be ever aware of the lurking alternative. (I’m 75 this year.)

Emperor in the “Situation” or “Advice” position: Well-situated and calling the shots.

Temperance in the “Outcome” position: I consider this a card of great finesse. Some writers (such as Jodorowsky) relate the “IIII” in the title to the “IIII” of the Emperor, suggesting that Temperance could be the “agent of my success” over the next six months. I’m seeing it as remaining flexible and keeping my options open.

The “Synthesis” card is interesting. If I derive it by “casting out nines” I get a doubling of Temperance, which seems to be revelatory. If I use “Theosophical addition” I come up with the Pope. Because my favorite oxymoron is that I’m “devoutly non-religious,” the Pope doesn’t resonate with me on any level. The Pope is the spiritual counterpart of the secular Emperor, so it could be cautionary, advising not to get too enamored of my mundane self-importance. Since the Pope and Temperance are connected numerologically, I see some lessons forthcoming in their combination , but nothing particularly rigorous.

Note that when I use the quintessence card I tend to see it not as positional but as an elaboration of the outcome, perhaps making a step-change in significance (but it’s not always clear whether it represents an intensification or dilution of that significance.) For this reason, I examined the Pope in connection with Temperance but not the other three, although I certainly could have with some justification. It strikes me that the populated French Cross should look “3-D” like the second image, with the quintessence floating above the other four. In the thesis/antithesis/synthesis approach to reading the French Cross, the Hegelian Dialectic (which could just as well be called “Fichte’s Dialectic” since Johann Gottlieb Fichte first used the terms), thesis and antithesis are extremes of an argument and synthesis is a compromise position that is intended to reconcile them at a higher level of understanding; so too with the quintessence card. This concept reminds me of learning to ride a bicycle: first you wobble one way, then the other, and finally you achieve dynamic balance. Anyway, from his gaze and gesture it looks like the Pope is about to give the Angel of Death a prostate exam.

Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on June 22, 2023.