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    Studies on Mystical Tarot: The Court Cards
    Studies on Mystical Tarot: The Court Cards
    Studies on Mystical Tarot: The Court Cards
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    Studies on Mystical Tarot: The Court Cards

    By Yolanda Robinson II

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    About this ebook

    At last we have a book that presents the Court cards of Tarot within the Qabalah tradition of the Golden Dawn and Builders of the Adytum. Dr. Yolanda Robinson has been studying Tarot for over thirty years and teaches transformational psychology using Tarot as a tool for personal transformation. This is a succinct and powerful book that deserves a place in every Hermetic library. Tarot here becomes the mirror through which we begin the long process of Know Thyself using the lenses of alchemy of soul and Christian Qabalah.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherYolanda Robinson II
    Release dateJun 21, 2013
    ISBN9780989263702
    Studies on Mystical Tarot: The Court Cards
    Author

    Yolanda Robinson II

    Professor of transformational psychology at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, CA. Graduate from and member of Builders of the Adytum(BOTA); Ph.D. UCLA, and MS from University of Philosophical Research. Have been studying Qabalah and Rosicrucian tradition for more than thirty years. Retired U.S. diplomat.

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      Book preview

      Studies on Mystical Tarot - Yolanda Robinson II

      A STUDY GUIDE TO THE COURT CARDS IN THE ROSICRUCIAN TRADITION

      Introduction

      Tarot is a mystery to me. It will always be. What started as an intellectual curiosity in my mid-twenties slowly became a method of self-inquiry, and an often intrusive friend. Once we step outside the box of gathered expectations stemming from superstitious gypsy tales, exploitation movies, and carnie psychic fairs, we realize that Tarot is more than just another fortunetelling device. There is something alluring, mysterious about this pack of seventy-eight cards. We need to access their wisdom carefully, allow the cards to speak to us and connect to soul. Every single card in Tarot can act as a Gate for us to discover a hidden part of our own self. But this is a process that requires time, patience, and humility.

      I started this study guide as a workbook for students at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, California, but soon realized that I needed to expand the work beyond the scope of a particular course and directly address the cards from a mystical and esoteric perspective. I make no excuses; this is the way that Tarot works for me. Older traditions find their way into our everyday life in order to help us understand that the many challenges we face are usually archetypal. Archetypes are neutral forces; they might change names and garments, but in essence they are defined by the behavioral patterns that they bring forth in all of us. And we are the ones who give archetypes their form as they constellate in our psyche and personality.

      We live in an ever-increasing complex world. Yet, our ability to understand the world around us depends on how we understand ourselves. Self-awareness leads to self-knowledge. Self-knowledge helps us understand others better. We are all in this together. And, you might be asking by now, how would sixteen court cards, out of seventy-eight cards in a deck, make a difference in my life? You might be amazed.

      Welcome to the kingdom of the Courts. These sixteen cards are one of the three basic structures of a regular deck of Tarot cards: twenty-two Major Arcana and fifty-six Minor Arcana divided into four elements with ten numbered cards and four court cards each. The Courts, however, escape the mere designation of minor or lesser arcana because they represent an independent structure: a quaternary structure that links Majors and Minors while displaying for us a hierarchy of energies that can become useful tools for self-inquiry. The Courts in the system we are here studying are displayed as individuals, yet they can assume any other form because these are independent energies, principles and qualities that relate to each other in some kind of hierarchy or special order, depending on the message that their creator/artist wishes to convey.

      The more we work with a good, solid deck the more that each section of the pack speaks to us directly, revealing their individual as well as group structure. Observe carefully, because each part is conveying its own interpretation of Law, its own way of expressing how cosmic forces and universal principles help us connect with our Higher Self. Hermetic work is all about personal transformation, about alignment with cosmic forces and about connecting with our own divinity.

      What I like to call traditional tarot stems from the Renaissance and evolved through the centuries to become a mystical, esoteric and hermetic tool adopted by secret guilds and mystery schools of the western tradition. By hermetic I mean all the various influences that have shaped the western mind, including pre-Socratic traditions, Gnosticism, magic, Cabala, alchemy, astrology, Neoplatonism, Romanticism, and other important social and cultural trends.

      Tarot is an offspring of playing cards introduced to the Hispanic Peninsula and southern Italy by the Moors. Returning Crusaders and traders also contributed to the incredible explosion of cultural exchanges between East and West that characterized the Middle Ages and gave form to the Renaissance. It is essential to keep a historical perspective when delving into Tarot, because the product that we have today, the thousands of decks available to us now, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Tarot as an esoteric tool might be a product of the XVIII and XIX centuries, but as we trace their pedigree from the late Middle Ages through the Neoplatonic schools in Florence (in particular), and in Bologna, to the royal courts in Milan and other parts of northern Italy, as well as to the Hispanic Peninsula, we cannot lose sight of the strong pedagogical and mystical overtones present in the decks from their inception.

      We also need to keep in mind the vast domain covered by the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, and the cultural impact that both Jewish and Muslim traditions had for several centuries in these areas and other parts of Europe. Serious academic study of Tarot is just beginning and it is revealing to us the influence exerted by hieroglyphic, emblematic and miniature art; the role played by Cabala, the Art of Memory, the Picaresque novel, Troubadors and Chansons de Geste, to name just a few. Literature begets literature, art begets art and human consciousness expands and adapts and adopts accordingly. Nothing is ever forgotten; it is all in the reservoir of the collective unconscious.

      Why a Workbook on Court Cards?

      This book is meant for students who are interested in understanding Tarot within the Rosicrucian tradition, as defined by the Golden Dawn and Builders of the Adytum.

      The workbook does not cover the Marseilles-style decks per se, although many of the observations and interpretive techniques found here could easily be applied to Marseilles decks as well as to many other decks available today.

      The Courts exude a life of their own. They offer us a hierarchy with special energies contained among themselves, like a family or community or tribe. As much as we try to define them within certain given parameters (like we will attempt to do in this study), you will find them eluding our scrutiny, demanding more amplitude. The courts were part of playing cards before the Trumps or Major Arcana existed, before a fifth suit was added to the trionfi cards that later became known as tarocchi. At first, there were usually three royalty figures. The so-called Mamluck deck included three court cards alluding to ranks of roy (rey, king) and two vice-roys (naib; naibi). Eventually, human figures replaced the abstract royalty, a queen was added, and at one point a few more court figures and categories were included in some early decks. These royal figures walked in and out of the decks’

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