"There is One only. You are that One... Each droplet of the ocean is totally individual from all others, yet they make one body of water. Each is the ocean. You are the ocean. Even in the depths, there are no levels... That which appears to be a diminishing of the Self is in reality a greater realization of the Self. The ocean has been dumped into one who says 'I have been thrown into the sea.' Thus speaks the Nameless One, a voice from the deep. Such messages from the depths of Self have come through the hypnotized Edgar Cayce and the entranced Jane Roberts, and others. If such a message agrees with mystical experience and other such messages, I call it a "revelation," with no religious implications. This one was delivered by homemade Ouija boards to a group led by John Starr Cooke and Rosalind Sharpe in the winter of 1962-1963 in the Carmel Highlands. I was not part of this group. The entire set of sessions is called The Word of One. A small part of these sessions is devoted to the description of 22 new major arcana, each being the evolved form of its corresponding card in the old tarot. The source refers to each of these cards as a "book," and indeed they are. There is a world of information relevant to the emergence of a new era in each book, which I shall extract, although much will remain mysterious. Anyone who has done mandalas has likely produced some with the same grand and universal themes as these 22 books of symbolic messages from the collective unconscious. The 22 books of the Nameless One are about the "coming of the Sun," implying that we are presently in some kind of dark age. An excellent background for these ideas could be found in the works of Jung and Toynbee, Paramahansa Yogananda and Shafica Karagulla, Black Elk and Richard Bucke, Orientalists, psychical researchers, symbolists, Way-Showers, Seekers, and mystics. Despite the opposition of the universities and the distortion by media, a new synthesis is bubbling. To give a name to it, this is the seventh way, the Way of the Sun. The revelation of the Nameless One is in the plain and universal language of dreams and fairy tales, a language known to the Maya and the ancient Egyptians. Today, it is an unknown language, even to those who received the original material, so I've had to translate it and give illustrations of the major themes. This is the language of the wholy, not the expert. It is a language of pictures, which happen to be available on a deck of cards, known as a tarot. A tarot is a deck of symbolic cards. There are 40 minor arcana, 22 major arcana and 16 face cards in a tarot deck. The minor arcana have four suits and ten numbered cards in each suit, while the face cards are the king, queen, knight and page, almost like a playing card deck. The 22 major arcana have names, such as Fool, Empress, Justice, Death. A tarot is used for symbolic communications with the depths of Self, which is divinity, and therefore the process is called divination. However, one can still be very interested in the New Tarot while being skeptical about fortune-telling. Indeed, I have primarily used them as books of wisdom, stated in purely symbolic form. The source did not deliver a set of minor arcana, nor the face cards, but it does show us the new symbols for the four suits, spread out before the Mage (Changer). John Starr Cooke (not a very good artist) drew the 22 revealed Majors, invented the 16 face cards, and left the 40 minor arcana as pips. The resulting tarot was published as a deck of cards known as the Book of T, initially in 1968, and then reprinted about 1990 or so by John Starr Cooke's son. Most of the time, they are out of print. In the following chapters, you will find my modified forms of Cooke's paintings. I have modified them only to make the symbolic elements visible. If you do wish to do divination or magick with the New Tarot, I will show you how to put together two identical decks of playing cards, marked up with sharpies, to create a deck which may be shuffled and dealt out. I arrived at my own minor arcana by doing mandalas. I am no artist either. I have continued to use the 16 Royal Cards or face cards (though they have no faces!) invented by John Starr Cooke. It would be nice if some real artist came along and re-did this deck! I will also give you my ideas about doing ceremonial magick with your homemade deck. In the BOOK OF T, we find the sequence in which the major arcana were delivered, though the Nameless One says "The Arrangement is different for each." When we made our own crude version of the new tarot (incorporating new minor arcana), we discovered a different sequence which made more sense to us. Thus, the sequence of the Books here is not the same as in the Book of T. In our sequence, the first 15 books describe the Way of the Sun. There are then 2 books on the meaning of life, three on obstacles in our path, and 2 on ultimate questions on the nature of the world and of time. You may imagine that anyone can interpret the symbolism in their own way. Perhaps... but only if they begin with the facts and end with a synthesis. Every detail given by the Nameless One is significant. It makes a difference whether something is on the left or on the right, or has five parts or three parts, or is colored purple rather than blue, and any alternative interpretation must make a single coherent theme out of all the details. Those who speak of a private language of symbols merely delude themselves. Not every dream is symbolic; not every scribble or doodle is a mandala, and it is possible for a layout of cards to be nothing more than a random collection of cards. But if something is symbolic, that means it speaks a universal language of the deeps, something it takes time and effort to learn. Once you've learned the language of symbolism, you can read the myths and legends and sacred arts of every time and place. Dictionaries of symbols are useless. They correspond to dictionaries of sentences, and one can write an entire book without ever using the same sentence twice. What is possible is an alphabet of symbolic elements. So if you want to learn the language of symbolism, it is best to begin with the alphabet. The content of this revelation cannot really be summarized. Nevertheless, there are certain recurring themes, such as the coming of the Sun, the use of the "T" symbol, and the repeated denunciations of prophets and prophecies. "Over all lies a mantle of fog through which the sun is coming- -the son is coming." The coming of the Sun... what is it? It may refer to an individual, a culture hero comparable to Yehoshua or Gautama. We should not discount that possibility. But we should not wait for it, or rely upon it. We are told "the missing element, so-called is not a shepherd- - - its quality, however." "The breath of life is in your hands, the spark of death, also. Quicken the new birth and fan the spark that the passing past is laid at rest. Desire above all things the Sun." The coming of the Sun is the coming of tools of experience, rather than credos, gurus, authorities, hierarchies or bibles. No second-hand god. No taking it on faith. To be Solar is to put your trust in the light of experience. The coming of the Sun is the awakening of consciousness. We have been asleep, and we have been bewitched by a stage show of illusion and indoctrination. The new tarot which contains this revelation is called the Book of T because nearly all the figures in it make the "T" gesture, opening their arms to all that life has to offer, both good and bad, painful and joyful, the building up and the tearing down. Without high obstacles, we would never learn to climb. Without hard stone, we would never be able to strike a spark of divine creativity. The Solar way is to avoid the easy path, which ever leads downhill, and to welcome these challenges. They are not too great. We have chosen them. Following the Way of the Saints means being glad of challenges. This is not a religion. There is no organization. There is nothing to join. It is not a business. There is nothing to buy. The coming of the Sun burns away the undergrowth, allowing light on the seven ways which underlie every religion, institution, and cultural form all over the globe. Everything under the Sun is by definition "Solar." Everybody is learning from the light of experience, and is somewhere on the path, though they know it not. There are few shortcuts. We must enter the blind alleys of the Royal Maze and beat our heads against the wall for ourselves. No one can do it for us. All religions and institutions and beliefs and rituals are vehicles along the way, and all partake both of Light and Shadow. Everything creative is of the Light, and so is everything derived from experience, everything free and spontaneous. Everything comes from the light, but gradually solidifies into a definite created thing, first as a tool, then as a rule, then as an obstacle, and finally deadwood for the fire. We honor the Light, and resist the Shadow, and seek the Unity underlying the opposites. The coming of the Sun refers to the dawn of a new day. But in what does this new day consist? It is not written. It will be your creation, and mine. "Should a prophet appear among you, heed not his directions. He knows the way, but none knows the way of another. The way you go, you well know. You have founded the points and chartered the course." Vehicles for traveling the path will arise; belief systems and styles of art and forms of community must inevitably result from the coming of the Sun. Never let them obscure the path. Everybody under the Sun is Solar in varying degrees. Even the deepest darkness is chosen. We are all learning the hard way, growing to Self, twisting and turning, never totally lost, never wholly found; being more than we realize, instinctively feeling more than we know. |