panem et vinum, erat enim sacerdos Dei
Altissimi, benedixit ei, et ait:
Benedictus Abram Deo excelso ... et
benedictus Deus excelsus...
(Genesis xiv, 18-20)
(And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out
bread and wine; he was priest of God
Most High. And he blessed him and said:
Blessed be Abram by God Most High ...
and blessed be God Most High. . .)
Ego sum via et veritas et vita: nemo
venit ad Patrem, nisi per me.
(John xiv, 6)
(I am the way, and the truth, and the life:
no one comes to the Father, but by me.)
De cetero nemo mihi molestus sit: ego
enim stigmata Domini Jesu in corpore
meo porto.
(Galatians vi, 17)
(Henceforth let no man trouble me:
for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.)
Dear Unknown Friend,
The Card "The Pope" puts us in the presence of the act of benediction. It Is essential to have this in mind when one undertakes the interpretation not only of the structure of the whole Card but also of each of its particular elements. One should therefore never lose from sight that in the first place it is a matter of benediction and everything associated with it — no matter who the Pope may be or who the acolytes kneeling before him are, and no matter what the two columns behind the Pope signify, and no matter what his tiara and the triple cross he is holding symbolise. What is benediction? What is its source and its effect? Who has the authority to bestow benediction? What role does it play in the spiritual life of humanity?
Now, benediction is more than a simple good wish made for others; it is also more than a magical impress of personal thought and will upon others. It is the putting into action of divine power transcending the individual thought and will of the one who is blessed as well as the one who is pronouncing the blessing. In other words it is an essentially sacerdotal act.
The Cabbala compares the role of prayer and benediction to a double movement, ascending and descending, similar to the circulation of the blood. The prayers of humanity rise towards God and, after having been divinely "oxidised", are transformed into benedictions which descend below from above. This is why one of the acolytes of the Card has his left hand raised and the other has his right hand lowered. The two blue columns behind the Pope symbolise in the first place this twofold current — rising and descending — of prayers and benedictions. At the same time the Pope himself holds aloft a triple cross on the side with the "column of prayer" and the praying acolyte, whilst his right hand — on the side with the "column of benediction" and the acolyte receiving (or "Inspiring") benediction — makes the gesture of benediction.
The two sides of the Cabbala — the "right" side and the "left" side — and the two columns of the Sephiroth Tree, the pillar of Mercy and that of Severity, and similarly the two pillars of the Temple of Solomon, Jachin and Boaz, correspond exactly to the two columns of prayer and benediction on this Card. Because it is Severity which stimulates prayer and it is Mercy which blesses. The venous "blue blood" of Boaz ascends and the arterial oxidised "red blood" of Jachin descends. The "red blood" bears the vivifying benediction of oxygen; the "blue blood" rids the organism of the "severity" of carbonic acid. It is the same in the spiritual life. Spiritual asphyxia menaces he who does not practise some form of prayer; he who practises it receives vivifying benediction in some form. The two columns therefore have an essentially practical significance — as practical spiritually as respiration is for the life of the organism.
Thus, the first practical teaching — for the Major Arcana of the Tarot are spiritual exercises — of the fifth Arcanum relates to spiritual respiration.
There are two kinds of respiration: horizontal respiration which takes place between "outside" and "Inside", and vertical respiration which takes place between above" and "below" The "sting of death" or the essential crisis of the supreme agony is the abrupt passage from horizontal to vertical respiration. Yet he who has learnt vertical respiration whilst living will be spared from this "sting of death" ' For him the passage from the one form of respiration to the other will not be of the nature of a right angle but rather the arc of a circle. The transition not be abrupt but gradual, and curved instead of rectangular.
Now, the essence of vertical respiration is the alternation between prayer and benediction or grace. These two elements of vertical respiration manifest themselves in all domains of the inner life — mind, heart and will. Thus a relevant problem for the mind, which is not due to curiosity or intellectual collectionism, but rather to the thirst for truth, is fundamentally a prayer. And the illumination by which it may be followed is the corresponding benediction or grace. True suffering, also,
is fundamentally always a prayer. And the consolation, peace and joy which can follow are the effects of the benediction or grace corresponding to it.
True effort of the will, i.e. one hundred percent effort, true work, is also a prayer. When it is intellectual work, it is prayer: Hallowed be thy name. When it is creative effort, it is prayer: Thy kingdom come. When it is work with a view to supplying for the material needs of life, it is prayer: Give us this day our daily bread. And all these forms of prayer in the language of work have their corresponding benedictions or graces.
The law of correspondence between the column of prayer (problems, suffering, effort) and that of benediction (illumination, consolation, fruits) is found expressed by the Master in the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. The nine (for there are nine, and not eight) beatitudes can thus be understood as the formula of vertical respiration. They teach it to us.
This respiration is the state of soul that the apostle Paul designated as "freedom in God". It is a new way of breathing. One freely breathes the divine breath, which is freedom.
The Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
(II Corinthians iii, 17)
The spiritual counterpart to horizontal respiration is the alternation from "extroversion" to "introversion" or from attention to the objective external life to the subjective inner life. The law of horizontal respiration is: "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Luke x, 27). There is the equilibrium between these two directions of attention.
With respect to vertical respiration, its law is: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew xxii, 37). There is the relationship between prayer and benediction or grace.
There are three levels of horizontal respiration, just as there are three stages of vertical respiration.
The three levels of horizontal respiration are:
love of Nature;
love of one's neighbour;
love of the beings of the spiritual hierarchies (Angels, etc.).
The three stages of vertical respiration are:
purification (by divine breath);
illumination (by divine light);
mystical union (in divine fire).
This is why the Pope holds aloft the triple cross. The triple cross has three cross pieces which divide the vertical line into three parts. It is the cross of complete and perfect spiritual respiration, horizontal and vertical. It is the cross of triple love of neighbour (lower neighbour = Nature, equal neighbour = man, higher neighbour = beings of the hierarchies) and triple love of God (breath or faith, light or hope, fire or love).
Top Back Home