Excerpt from Meditation on the

Seventeenth Major Arcanum of the Tarot

THE STAR

______________

L’ ÉTOILE

The righteous flourish like the palm tree,

And grow like a cedar in Lebanon...

They still bring forth fruit in old age,

They are ever full of sap and green...

(Psalm 92, 12-14)

Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe...

the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.

(Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason; trsl. L .W. Beck, Chicago, 1949, p. 258)

Dear Unknown Friend,

The sixteenth Major Arcanum of the Tarot presented us with the alternative Of two ways — that of construction and that of growth; and it portrayed the dangers of the way of construction by presenting-the law of the tower of Babel to out hearts and minds. Having understood this, one is led to decide upon the way of growth.

Now, the seventeenth Major Arcanum of the Tarot — "The Star" — Is the Arcanum of growth, )just as the sixteenth Arcanum is that of construction. Therefore, it is a matter now of a spiritual exercise devoted to growth, i.e. it is time for us to concentrate on the problem of growth and to meditate on its essential aspects with a view to arriving at a contemplation of its kernel or its mystical-gnostic-magical-metaphysical essence — in a word: at its Hermetic essence. Let us therefore apply ourselves to this threefold task.

A tower is built; a tree grows. The two processes have this in common: that they present a gradual increase in volume with a pronounced tendency upwards. But there is at the same time the difference that the tower rises by leaps and bounds, whilst the tree shows a continuous elevation. This is because bricks or hewn stones are put one on top of the other in the process of building the tower, whilst the microscopic "bricks" — the cells — of a tree multiply through division and growth in volume. It is the sap in the tree, rising from the roots into the trunk and branches, which renders growth of the tree possible and which makes it shoot up through the multiplication and growth in volume of its cells. Whilst the tower is dry, the tree is filled with sap in movement, which underlies both the division of its cells and their growth — in a word, it underlies the process of growth.

Growth is flowing, whilst construction proceeds by leaps and bounds. And what is true of the artificial and the natural in the physical domain is also true in the psychic and spiritual domain. "The righteous flourish like the palm tree ... they are ever full of sap and green. . ." (Psalm 92), but a down cast spirit dries up the bones. . ." (Proverbs xviii, 22).

Here we are in the presence of a theme of the same significance as that of the astral "magical agent", the link between consciousness and action, which so much is made of in occult literature — namely the theme of the universal sap of life, which is the theme of the seventeenth Arcanum, the Arcanum of growth. For just as there is a mysterious intermediary agent which effects the passage from imagination to reality, so there is also a no-less mysterious agent which effects the passage from the potential state of a seed to that of maturity, i.e. the passage from what is only potential to its realisation. This is the agent of transformation from the ideal to the real.

Just as an intermediary force enters into play in the process which transforms imagination into action, i.e. into an objective event, so does the play of an unknown force take place in the process of becoming — where either an acorn becomes a branched oak, or a crying infant becomes a St. Augustine, or lastly a world in the state of "primordial mist" becomes a planetary system with forms of living beings, ensouled beings and intelligent beings. Whatever it is In question — it does not matter whether it is the growth of an organism, the development of an individual from birth to death, or cosmic evolution — it is necessary to postulate the existence of an active agent which effects the passage from the state of that which is only potential to one of reality. For something has acted during the time in which an acorn becomes an oak, or a fertilised egg becomes a mature man, or a primordial cosmic mist becomes a planetary system (including our globe inhabited by mankind). I know quite well that this reasoning Is not in accordance with the rules of the game fixed by the natural sciences, but there are other rules — above all those of natural reasoning, with which this here is not only in agreement but which also is categorically demanded by them. Categorically... this means to say that ne must either resign oneself to silence of thought with regard to problems of this order, or else reason in a way that conforms to the nature — to the structural exigencies — of the reasoning that is the rule of the game in Hermeticism. It Is necessary, therefore, to postulate a structural "agent of growth", just as it is necessary to postulate a "magical agent" acting as intermediary between consciousness and events, if one decides to think about it.

What is the intrinsic difference between the "magical agent" and the "agent of growth"? It is as follows:

The magical agent is of an electrical nature — either terrestrial or celestial. It I of a nature to act through discharges, through the emission of sparks or flashes. It is dry and warm — of the nature of fire. The "blasted tower" of the sixteenth Arcanum is in fact only the meeting of two "drynesses" — that of the tower below and that of the thunderbolt from above; and the Arcanum "The Devil" (Arcanum XV) is essentially that of "warmth" — moreover two "warmths": that of evil and that of good. The Arcana XV and XVI are therefore those offer, whilst the Arcana XIV and XVII are those of water. For Angelic inspiration and the agent of growth have this in common that they flow — that they do not act through shocks and discharges, but in a continuous way. Continuous transformation is the essential manifestation of the agent of growth, just as creative lightning is that of the magical agent.

These two agents manifest themselves everywhere, including the domain of human intellectuality. There are minds who have sided with "water", and it is to them that we owe the ideas of "transformism": evolution, progress, education, natural therapy, living tradition, etc.; and there are others who have sided with "fire", to whom we owe the ideas of "creationism": creation ex nihilo, invention, election, surgery and prosthesis, revolution, etc. Thales (ca. 625-547 B.C.) believed that it is the agent of growth or water which plays the principal role in the world, whilst Heraclitus of Ephesus (flourished ca. 500 B.C.) attributed it to the magical agent or fire.

Goethe in the "classical Walpurgis night" scene in part II of Faust, has Anaxagoras, a partisan of fire, discuss with Thales, a partisan of water, the theme of the priority of creative lightning or continuous transformation in Nature — a discussion which leads to the dramatic result of Anaxagoras' magical evocation of the threefold moon (Diana, Luna and Hecate), which he regrets. Thus he throws himself down, face to the ground, imploring the flashing forces, which threaten irreparable catastrophe, to calm down. With respect to Thales, he invites Homunculus to a joyous maritime festival (zum heitern Meeresfeste) — the festival of metamorphoses, the "ball" of transformism — where Thales cries out:

It is not to be wondered at that Goethe, although he admits the reality of the magical agent or fire, ranges himself on the side of the agent of growth or water — for he was the author of four works on metamorphosis, the principal theme of his life, namely on the metamorphosis of light or colour (Farbenlehre), on the metamorphosis of plants (Metamorphose der Pflanzen), on the metamorphosis of animals (Metamorphose der Tiere), and on the-metamorphosis of man (Faust), which is his principal work. His faith was that of transformism, evolution, the tradition of cultural progress without revolution — in a word, Goethe believed in and attached value to all that flows, all that grows without leaps and bounds. He ranged himself on the side of the principle of continuity.