The Seer is lost in wonder, which is Peace.
Aleister Crowley – Liber XXX (The Vision and the Voice – The Cry of the 9th Aethyr)
The Universe (The World) is the last of the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana. A complement to the The Fool it reminds us that though all things begin with the chaos of seemingly random events we remain bound up in the patterns of existence as maintained by universal laws. The creation story that plays out through the Major Arcana though is not the type most would recognise as it is not the creation of the world but the creation of the self.
I consider myself a student of what I like to call Higher Consciousness Occultism. The idea being that discovering our true self or our true will is the only path to lasting happiness. We all of us have the potential to be a better version of ourselves and if we act in accordance with our divine will we become them. The path is riddled with synchronicity and mirrors what Jung called individuation.
I began to understand that the goal of psychic development is the self. There is no linear evolution; there is only a circumambulation of the self.
C. G. Jung – Memories, Deams, and Reflections.
It is the higher consciousness of existence that The Universe expresses rather than its physicality. Crowley explains that the line building seen at the bottom of the image represents the blueprints of matter – indeed the line image itself is depiction of the then (very limited) periodic table. As a result the appearance of the card often relates to how one is placed in the universe relative to their true path through it. The Universe – The Great Work Completed. Are you heading toward it, or away?
The card fell upon me heavy with significance today. Recent events saw me lose something which I was holding in increasing value and The Universe is a cold comfort as it whispers that no matter the value lost what was lost was not truly my desire. The path to happiness or enlightenment is not always joyous. We cling to things we think will make us happy but letting those things go is often the only way to truly find peace in the self.
Be the first to comment