Creation and Destruction: The Tarot Trumps and Taoist Alchemy

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is the next installment in my series of essays on syncretism between the European tarot and Chinese esoteric tradition.

In I Ching, the Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes, Benebell Wen presents two diagrams, the Cycle of Creation (“To support and fortify”) and the Cycle of Destruction (“To defeat and subdue”), that together depict the basis of Taoist alchemy. The former runs clockwise in an endless circle of evolution starting at the top (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and back to Wood) while the latter displays a rotating pentagram (five-pointed star) of declension that also moves clockwise in biquintile (144-degree) “jumps” from the top: Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, Metal and back to Wood, with each agent of change “breaking down” the following one. (In Hermetic ceremonial magic, tracing this pattern creates the “Banishing Pentagram of Spirit”). Each of these cycles has the two-lobed “Taiji” (yin/yang) symbol at its center, one with yang uppermost and the other with yin at the top, resulting in seven critical factors that serve my purpose here. With a little creative tailoring, I’ve incorporated these images into the tarot-card arrays shown below. (All cards shown are from the Thoth Tarot, copyright of US Games Systems Inc, Stamford, CT.)

As a way to map these universal principles onto an individualized model, I decided to attempt aligning them with the seven classical planets of Ptolemy — five personal and two social — and their associated “planetary” tarot trumps.

For Wood I chose Mars because it brackets the Vernal Equinox in the Golden Dawn’s Aries-rising “Chaldean” zodiac and Wen describes Wood as the “sprouting force” that stimulates growth in the plant kingdom; thus, Mars signifies the generative impulse of Spring. Its associated planetary trump card is the Tower (by way of justification, see Aleister Crowley’s explanation of the sperm having to invade and destroy the egg to propagate new life, or any description of “slash-and-burn” farming, a type of agriculture that prepares the fields for new planting, although with diminishing returns).

Without warmth the seed won’t germinate but will instead rot (take it from one who has historically planted his garden too early in the season), so the Sun is the obvious choice to represent Fire, along with its eponymous trump card.

Venus provides the fertile soil for gestation of the new plant, and the earthy Empress (the trump card of Venus) fulfills this requirement.

Mercury by another name is “quicksilver” so I’m enlisting it as alchemical “Metal,” thus providing the genetic “blueprint” for the adult organism as well as the means of propagation and cultivation to “work the plan.” The Magician is its trump card..

The Moon is the quintessential “Water” planet; not only does it provide irrigation to promote an abundant yield but — upon the reflux of Water into Wood — it also participates in moisture-transfer (“transpiration”) in the mature plant. The Priestess is the mistress of the Moon.

Jupiter is the planet of expansion, so in Wen’s model I’ve placed its trump card, the Wheel of Fortune, in the white (yang) lobe of the taiji symbol.

Saturn is the planet of restriction, so its trump card, the Universe (aka World), dwells in the black (yin) lobe of the glyph.

In the Cycle of Creation, Wood (Mars), Fire (Sun) and Earth (Venus) collaborate to quicken the seed, while Metal (Mercury) suggests systematic nurture through “propagation and cultivation,” Water (the Moon) provides “irrigation and transpiration,” Jupiter contributes to “acceleration of growth” and Saturn introduces “moderation” of its intensity. Jupiter surmounts Saturn in this cycle such that development progresses rapidly with the bedrock of the Universe as a firm foundation and springboard.

In the Cycle of Destruction, Wood is “broken down” by Earth through enervation and decay; Earth is of course emblematic of vessels and channels, but it also restricts Water’s fluidity of expression, inviting stagnation; in traditional Hermetics, Water is the enemy of Fire and extinguishes its flame; Fire as the nemesis of Metal reminds me of the astrological phenomenon of “combustion” in which Mercury is hidden in the Sun’s glare and loses its individuality; Metal opposed to Wood gives me the fanciful notion that Metal is the ax.wielding, timber-harvesting “Lumberjack” of the Tao. In this sequence, Saturn overrides Jupiter such that its footing is uncertain (think “top-heavy”) and advancement is imperiled.

So what will I do with this? It might be interesting to use these patterns as templates on which to lay randomly-drawn cards in the same sequence, including reversals, for a “best-case/worst-case” analysis. If the fixed and random cards in the Cycle of Creation are harmonious by nature and aligned by orientation, a speedy and generally favorable outcome can be anticipated, whereas if they are mixed or entirely discordant by nature or misalignment, the conclusion could be less optimistic or delayed in developing. Regarding the Cycle of Destruction, if the pairs are well-dignified the effects of the “breaking down” might be magnified “for good or ill” from the standpoint of the cards so enhanced, while if they are poorly-dignified the impact could be blunted or deflected. This will take a good deal of experimentation to arrive at a sound working model.

Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on May 16, 2024.