Meditation on the
Second Major Arcanum of the Tarot
THE HIGH PRIESTESS
LA PAPESSE
A SYNOPSIS
On the Inner Mirror and the Reintegration of Consciousness 29a
The Problem of the Two and Its Significance 32a
The Practical Teaching of the Second Arcanum 44a
Detailed by Paragraph
On the Inner Mirror and the Reintegration of Consciousness
29
a
Review of the first Letter, the Magician, the arcanum of the pure act of intelligence. When this act is exhausted it gives way to another act. John iii, 8
30
a
The pure act > reflection > inner representation > retained by memory > source of communication, the spoken word > fixed by writing, the book.
b
The second Arcanum, the reflection of the pure act of the first Arcanum through to becoming book. Fire and Wind become Science and Book, how Wisdom builds her house.
c
An inner mirror required. Consciousness the result of active and passive principles. Water required to know from whence the breath of the Spirit comes and goes. Conversation with Nicodemus states the absolute condition for the conscious experience of the Divine Spirit. John iii, 5. Reintegrated consciousness presupposes two renovations in the two constituent elements of consciousness – active and passive. Renovation in the active principle – Spirit must become divine Breath in place of arbitrary, personal activity.
Renovation in the passive principle – Water must become a perfect mirror of the Divine Breath no longer agitated by disturbances of the imagination, passions and personal desires. Reintegrated consciousness born in the human soul in a way analogous to the birth of the WORD. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine.
31
a
Two kinds of baptism bring about the reintegration of the two constituent elements of consciousness as such:
The aim of Christian yoga - the reestablishment of the state of consciousness prior to the Fall, "baptism from Water and the Spirit", the complete and perfect response to divine action.
By contrast Christian yoga does not have this as its aim – "radical deliverance" (mukti) – a state of consciousness without breath or reflection. The suppression of the duality (the two elements of consciousness) by a practical method inspired by the ideal of unity (advaita) leads to the extinction of consciousness not being, thus not a new birth of consciousness but a return to a pre-natal embryonic cosmic state.
b
A quotation from Plotinus on the dynamic informing the duality, the active principle and its mirror, that underlies all forms of consciousness. This Platonic conception of consciousness introduces the nocturnal conversation.
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Present/Undisturbed |
Absent/Disturbed/Broken |
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Mirror |
Mirror image produced |
Object to be imaged present but not the image |
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Soul’s mirror |
Images of thought and intellect known in a way parallel to sense perception; these accompanied by the prior knowledge that it is intellect and thought that are active. |
When the harmony of the body is upset thought and intellect operate without an image. Intellectual activity takes place without a mind-picture. |
Plotinus Ennead I.iv. 10
c
Christian yoga aspires to the unity of
two; the importance of the standpoint taken on the problem of duality and unity. Deciding between monism and dualism or a third point of view – love as the cosmic principle presupposing duality and postulates its non-substantial but essential unity. [Thus reintegrated consciousness perfectly reflects this cosmic principle.]The Problem of the Two and Its Significance
32
a
|
Monism |
Dualism |
Love |
|
Vedanta, Spinozism |
Manichaeism, certain gnostic schools |
Judaeo - Christian current |
b
Clarity, precision and greater depth brought to the problem through what de Saint-Martin says concerning the number
two. The active image of unity described – number one in our language. The account to be given of two unities – one real, the other apparent. The origin of evil.c
Duality – two centres of contemplation, one real, one apparent; illegitimate twofoldness diminishes. Is there a legitimate twofoldness that enriches?
d
Two
centres of contemplation necessarily rival? The two aspects of reality – the phenomenal and the numenal require simultaneous contemplation. We are two centres of consciousness – able to be conscious of that which is above and that which is below.33
a
Quotation from Sepher Yetzirah: The Spirit first above, then
Two the breath which comes from the Spirit, formed in the breath the twenty-two sounds.Two – divine Breath and its Reflection; world and Holy Scripture, consciousness of divine Breath and its formed letters; reintegration of consciousness.
On the Primacy of Love
b
Two
– the number of love – Lover and Loved.c
33b confirmed by St John. The Trinity of
Love.d
Discomfort concerning higher attributes of the Holy Trinity accounted for in that God, being love, admits no comparison.
Being without love – the Inferno.34
a
That
love surpasses being demonstrated by two aspects: God Incarnate and the Resurrection, which engenders and restores it.b
Plato on the problem of the primacy of
love over being.|
The Sun Provides |
The Presence of the Good Enables |
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Power for visibles to be visible |
Objects of Knowledge to be known |
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Their growth and nurture |
Their existence and essence |
Sallustius on the problem of the primacy of
love over being.|
First Cause? |
|||
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Soul |
Intelligence |
Being |
The Good |
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All animated by soul |
Everything intellectual |
In being only – therefore not participating in the Good. |
Higher than being. Fine souls despise being for the sake of virtue. |
c
Primacy of
good = the reality of love, discussed by Plotinus and Dionysius the Areopagite. Bonaventure sought to reconcile primacy of good with primacy of being. John Damascenus and Thomas Aquinas asserted the Mosaic primacy of being. Quotation from E.Gilson.35
a
Questioning the significance of adopting primacy of
being over primacy of good, or love.b
Being
– morally neutral. Experiencing the good and the beautiful unnecessary to obtain it. Experiencing the mineral realm is sufficient. Being is objective.c
An invitation to the reader to make account of the image, the subjective representation, that accompanies the idea of
being.d
Ideas of
being and love contrasted|
Being |
Love |
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Morally indifferent, naturalistic |
Not neutral or morally indifferent |
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Passive, a given or an unalterable fact |
Active, the heart itself |
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An indefinite fluid substance |
Fire and Light |
e
Thales’ and Heraclitus’ conceptions of
being and love.
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Thales |
Heraclitus |
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Water – the essence of things |
Fire – the essence of things |
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Being and its summit - God QUI EST due to conceiving of the world as a fact of Nature |
Good and its summit -Love due to conceiving of the world as a moral process |
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Objective |
Subjective |
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Only a certain degree of outward experience necessary to be able to conceive of Being |
Psychic experience absolutely necessary to be able to conceive of Love. |
36
a
Further contrasts made between these two "attitudes of soul".
|
Being |
Love |
|
Aspiring to true being one finds repose in being – being one |
Aspiring to love finds union of two separate substances in one sole essence. The substances only remain separate as long as they are bereft of love. |
|
The centre of false being is suppressed because there cannot be two true beings – suppression of the illusion of the separate existence of a separate substance of the "self". The extinction of the human personality |
The experience of the breath, the illumination and the warmth of Divine Love. The soul is set ablaze, fire meets with FIRE. |
|
One loses the capacity to cry. |
The gift of tears – a precious gift of divine grace |
b
The necessity of grasping the significance of the terms
substance and essence, which once denoted two categories of ideas, existence and consciousness.c
For Plato,
being – the fact of existence only has essence through its share in Ideas, essence – the reality of the Idea. Essence – the positive act by which being is. essentia belongs to God alone. Everything else is substance. Confirmed by a quotation from St Augustine.37
a
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Substance |
Essence |
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Reality |
Ideal |
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Being |
Love |
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He who is |
AIN-SOPH |
This distinction also the key to the Gospel according to St John: John I, 18.
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The Experience of God in the Domain of Substance |
The Vision of God in the Domain of Essence |
|
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Seized by God |
Inspired Prophets |
An encounter in which the human personality not only remains intact but becomes truly itself – such as the Thought of God has conceived it for all eternity |
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Immersed in God |
Yogis and Mystics |
|
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Seeing the Revelation of His Work |
The Contemplation of Sages and Philosophers in Antiquity |
|
Thus are the words of the Master rendered intelligible – John x. 8. Other sayings of the Master that refer to Moses, David and other prophets before him belong to the same profound mystery.
38
a, b
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Principle of Initiation before Jesus Christ |
Principle of Initiation after Jesus Christ |
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The experience of God at the expense of the human personality, depersonalisation; to be robbed of personality. |
"I have come that they (the sheep) may have life and have it abundantly". He gives life to the individual soul. |
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The highest treasure of the children of earth is surely the personality. - Goethe |
|
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They are unable to cry. |
|
c
Possession by the will-to-power does not make the personality. The Master wants the soul to live without danger and a life such as God has destined for it. The "sheep" as an image of personality!
39
a
The language of the Master is the language of Love.
b
A tribute to Saint-Yves d’Alveydre. The complete divine name and the incomplete divine name.
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Complete Divine Name |
Incomplete Divine Name |
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YOD-HE-VAU-HE |
HE-VAU-HE |
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YOD – essence – supreme hierarchical principle |
HE – substance – supreme hierarchical principle |
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Spiritualism |
Naturalism |
Saint-Yves d’Alveydre taught the subordination of love to the intellect as follows:
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YOD |
HE-VAU-HE |
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Pure intellect |
Love |
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Masculine, spiritual |
Feminine, psychical |
By contrast, the Master taught the subordination of the intellect to love.
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The Father - Masculine |
Sophia – Feminine, assists the Creator |
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Love |
Intellect – the reflection of light |
c
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Man |
Woman |
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Physically masculine |
Physically feminine |
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Psychically feminine (passive) |
Psychically masculine (active) |
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The Soul |
|
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Masculine |
Feminine |
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Imagination |
Intellect |
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Guided by the impulses of the heart the imagination fertilises the intellect. Without it the intellect remains sterile. |
|
d
The third principle, Spirit, is neither intellect nor imagination but Love-Wisdom which ought to be androgynous.
40
a
The resolution to the problem of two and its significance provides the key to the second arcanum - spontaneous activity and its reflection. Transformation of pure act> representation>memory pictures>word>book.
b
The arcanum described and what it suggests. The symbols imply the problems of revelation and tradition.
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GNOSIS – CRYSTALISATION OF THE PURE ACT |
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Decent through Three Invisible Stages |
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Reflection |
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Memory |
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Word |
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Arrival at the Fourth Visible Stage |
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Writing |
c
The arcanum is concerned with gnosis, with the descent of revelation to book, with the reflection of that which is above. Science interprets what is below: facts> laws> principles.
b The practical method of gnosis
Tiara
Book
The High Priestess is seated, she knows.
First Arcanum Revisited
c
The essence of pure mysticism described. To dare to elevate oneself beyond all created being as far as the essence of Being, the supreme Reality, when the soul is serene and the body completely relaxed.
Second Arcanum Resumed
41
a
The essence of pure gnosticism described. Higher knowledge of what takes place in mysticism.
b
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The Transformation of Mystical Experience into Knowledge |
||
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1 |
Pure reflection |
Imaginative repetition of the experience |
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2 |
Entrance into memory |
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3 |
Assimilation into thought and feeling |
Where it becomes an "inner word". |
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4 |
A communicable symbol or book |
When it is formulated |
c
First stage of pure reflection is purely movement. Consciousness is moved by the trans-subjective; an experience as certain as physical touch; "spiritual touch".
d
41c an inadequate designation, yet expresses immediate contact. Mystical experience and gnosis here are one.
e
YOD – the relationship between a) this consciousness and the stages that follow and b) the sacred name – YOD-HE-VAU-HE. [Poor translation or corrupted text] YOD corresponds to the experience of spiritual touch.
f
The virtue of spiritual touch – real relationship between the living soul and the living God. Mysticism – the source and root of all religion, the seed of gnosis – esoteric theology.
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Full Consciousness of the Sacred Name |
||
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Mysticism |
Spiritual touch |
YOD |
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Gnosis |
Gnostic sense |
HE |
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Magic |
Magical sense |
VAU |
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Hermetic philosophy |
Hermetic philosophical sense |
HE |
42
a
Hermetic epistomology – "each object of knowledge demands a method of knowledge which is proper to it". An example of what can happen when there is ignorance of this law.
b
To dare to aspire to the mystical sense develop spiritual touch.
To learn what is lived through develop the gnostic sense.
To practice what is understood from mystical experience develop magical sense.
To make all this communicable to future generations develop the Hermetic philosophical sense.
c
The transformation of mystical experience into tradition. The tradition a living organism – the union of mysticism, gnosis, magic and Hermetic philosophy. What happens when the tradition decays and dies. The misfortune of someone who has fallen victim to the spell of a philosophical system.
43
a
A Marxist’s consideration of what the author has said concerning mysticism, gnosis, magic and philosophy.
b
A Freudian’s consideration of what the author has said concerning mysticism, gnosis, magic and philosophy.
c
Any need for further examples? Hegelians, Scholastic "realists", rationalists?
d
Autonomous philosophical systems separated from the living body of tradition seize the thought, feeling and will of human beings. Physical analogy – cancer.
e
Autonomous magic degenerates at worst into sorcery. No "black magic".
f
Gnosis without mystical experience sterility. A "Universal Gnostic Church"!
g
Mysticism that has not given birth to gnosis, magic and Hermetic philosophy. Being a Spiritual drunkard.
h
A tradition cannot live unless the whole human being lives through it and for it. To believe, to understand, to be capable, to think.
The Practical Teaching of the Second Arcanum
44
a
The development of the gnostic sense.
b
Gnostic sense is the contemplative sense. Contemplation described. The new dimension in the act of knowledge – depth. The significance of truth. Listening in silence of contemplation – an act of recall in the vertical – contrasted with listening in silence to recalling something in time – the horizontal. Both require an inner mirror.
c
Horizontal and vertical memory, mythological and typological memory.
d
Bergson on horizontal memory – progress from past to present. Pure memory – a spiritual manifestation.
Empty silence plays the role of a mirror by conferring a materiality on what is presently remembered.
45
a
Plato confirms the same stages concerning vertical memory. For the immortal soul, having already acquired knowledge of all things, all learning is recollection. The transcendental Self descends to the level of the empirical self which creates the empty mirror to see again from above.
b
What is necessary to enable the reflection of what is above in what is below?
c
1.To "be seated".
2.To "be woman".
3. To "cover with a veil"
4. To "cover the head with a three-layered tiara.
5. To "have one’s eyes turned towards the open book on the knees".
46
a
These practical rules clearly indicated on the Card.
b
The gnostic sense – spiritual hearing, a consciousness analogous to the attitude of expectation and attention when one listens. Not as immediate as spiritual touch.
c
The magical sense and the Hermetic philosophical sense to be characterised.
d
The magical sense – projection. To project and then detach from the contents of the inner life.
e
The talent of the artist to project ideas and feelings so as to give them a life of their own. Magic, art and giving birth analogous. Creation ex nihilo a magical act.
f
Pantheistic, emanationist and demiurgic doctrines deprive creation of its magical sense.
47
a
The doctrine of creation ex nihilo the highest possible expression of magic, divine and cosmic magic.
b
A mystical act and a gnostic act "precede" in eternity this magical act, which is followed by the activity of formation by the demiurge, the work of the Hermetic philosophical intelligence.
c
|
Mystery of Eternal Mysticism |
AIN-SOPH, The Unlimited |
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Eternal Emanations from the womb of the Divine |
The ideas of God within God before the Creation |
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Creation ex nihilo |
Magical projection of the ideas of the plan of creation i.e. the Sephiroth |
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The Activity of Formation |
Beings of the Spiritual Hierarchies, including man, participate |
d, f, 48a
|
‘olam ha atziluth |
The World of Emanations inseparate and inseparable from God |
Pantheism |
|
‘olam ha beriah |
The World of Creation |
Theism |
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‘olam ha yetzirah |
The World of Formation |
Demiurgism |
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‘olam ha’assiah |
The World of Facts |
Naturalism |
e
Thus possible to reconcile the diverse doctrines of creation.
48
b
Establishing the hierarchic order of these doctrines leads to the Hermetic philosophic sense – the sense of synthesis, final summary, the vision of the whole.
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YOD |
||
|
HE |
The First Synthesis before Analysis |
The Reflection of the Whole in its Germinal State |
|
VAU |
||
|
HE |
The Final Summary The Second Synthesis after Analysis |
The Synthesis of the Differentiated Whole |
c
The Hermetic philosophic sense – the sense of synthesis – of the three worlds of magical experience, gnostic revelation and mystical experience – in a fourth world or plane. A synthesis operating in the vertical of the superimposed planes. Hermeticism not a science.
d
Hermeticism, unlike contemporary philosophy, aspires to summarise experience on all planes.
e
The following Arcana will give greater depth to what is being set forth. The Empress is the arcanum of magic and the Emperor is the arcanum of Hermetic philosophy.
Copyright Michael J McConville 2002