Cult of Tarot Forum

no book of the four i have spoke nothing of the rider journey, or dividing up the 36 cards into 4 elements.


let us first speak of the fools journey in the tarot ..I have no idea who first came up on with the fools journey, no mention of it in the many books i have,, which i admit i stopped gathering books couple of years ago,, so I havne't read the latest books. in the now defunct forum on le marsielles couple of years ago was the first real study it wasn't the fools journey ,, it was the bachelor (i mispelt it,, the modern day magican anyhow ).
if you look at the rider, cavalier he is moving to the right,,indicating he is on a journey.
if you look at it,, 36 is only 14 more cards..
so the rider can journey through all these cards and end up at the cross ..

the cross of 36,, in my mind I argued with myself over it about 2 days ,, as at first I thought it was the ultimate spiritual card.. however,, as the tableus go from 1 to 36 .. in orderly fashion from upright to the bottom.
I don't know about you ,
when I read the cards in a spread where there is any block, I put the spirit on top and the physical on the bottom.

if you look at the tree of life,, as I understand it,, the four worlds are
fire, spirit
air, mental
water emotional
earth, physicall

so in theory the first 9 lines of the 4 x 9 tabelu should be spirit,, the next line of the 9 should be mental, , next line water
and last line physical.
and if you look at the cross as the ultimate physical card.. it shows that we shall suffer but we must have faith in order to live.. to life with a purpose.
so for self teaching purposes the rider moves through the first 9 cards as spiritual lessons, then next card as mental , and so forth.
also using numerology ,one can say the number 3 manfiested in one of these respective worlds depending on the number.

he way I look at the fool journey is a lesson through spiritual lessons as we go to source or to incarnation.
so i just put my easy lenormand cards in order,, group them in groups of 9, and did a read to make sure that the four worlds goes from fire, to air, to water and earth. course as there is only 36 card and not 40 one can' break them into 10 sphere,, it is just a general guideline i am going to follow for this learning purpose.

the beginning of the rider journey, seen as going from spirit to physical incarnation. he is used for general as i am male

1. the rider

the spirit has just been created, and is feelings its power to move and be, it has a desire to find out he is. he is visited by many spirits who give it good messages of love and news in the world. inspired by this the spirit decides to leave the safety of light to see more of everything to see what is this news that the others are speaking of.

2. the clover

having just left the safety of the light , the rider sees how good life is,, the births, the happiness of sucess, with new born eyes, all he sees is the good things in life,,,it could be that since there is two clovers here, he is subscionsioulsy looking for a partner , or a friend.

3. the ship

inspired even more the rider leaves complete safety and starts traveling the universe.. he wants to go as far as he can, as fast as he can. he doens't see the dangers ,, just the excitmement of new opportunies,, new experiences.

4. house

watching individuals possibly on other planets from the spirit world he wonders what is this house/home,, and what is it purpose ? he has traveled so far that he feels an instinctive urge to rest,, put down a palce of refuge for himself. the rider doens't know why but it will make him feel secure ..
so he stands here pondering all he experienced and all he has seen.

5. the tree

he begins to understand tradition, and patience as he observes from where he has resting the concept of time.
that putting down strong roots is more then just building a home,,it is having a land to call its own,, to make it his..

6. the clouds

in the comos he sees solar storms,anomalites in space and begins to wonder why is this mist out there . that things dont' looks as good as they used to , for there are dark signs of storms ..

7. the snake

he begins to understand dangers of the universe , metors striking metors,, areas where there is natural dangers. like black holes. he understands there are lesser beings who are predators ,

8. the coffin

he sees death for the first time.. and cries,, why is this happening.. for him it isnt' about rebirth,, but still growth for there must be death , in order for new life forms to takes it place. the idea of extinction comes to him as he wa tches the universe, there be nothing remembered is the complete extinction.

9. the bouqet

having endured, and despairs,, he sees beauty once agian ln life,, but with new insight.. there isn't just death,, there is happiness.. one must live as strong as he can. and that is because he had helped from other spiritual friends, family to get over his grief,, his sadness..
so ends his spiriutal journey

still he left the light to experience so he knows there is more to experience.

10. the scythe

he begins to understand the concept of ego,, and cutting out lower things of his personality , traits he didnt' know he took on In his spiritual journey , or perhaps they were always there , he just wasn't aware for the spiritual world. seeing all the accients in the world and possibilities he is quick to act to cut dead wood, he is becoming ruthless. the concept of angels wo simply do their job comes to mind as he saw the avenging angels.

11. the whip

ins this new world he has been hurt,, so he first hurt those who hurt him.. but later on,, those who disrespected him by breaking his rules.. , frustrated though by this frequent whip and return whipe he breaks the rules himself and move on..

12. the birds

this conversation he has is differnt then say the messages he recieved in the original start of his journey as the rider. here the conversatin stems from the mental rules set up by all individuals be they social, or instinctive. he learns to communicate his will, his personality , and not just universal love like he would of did in the first world.

13. the child

he obersves from the mental world (which i should point out is on a closer dimensin then the spiritual world ) how species procreate and remembers the lessons of the house, and the tree.. and yearns to have an offpsring to carry on his work in the tree, and tokeep his house.
also still hurting from the lessons of the scythe and the whipe,, he wants to return to innocents.. to start over.

14. the fox

alas he cannot return to innocence for he starts to understand every thing more or less is staying true to its nature and they are striving to over come it.. so by understanding the nature of something,, he can trick it..
he learned this for he was tricked many time in his return to childlike. innocent

15. the bear

so to avoid being taken taken advantage off, he seeks power,, and wisdom.. he seeks abundance..
he also seeks to look after any offspring he took on in the child card. looking after them long term..

16. the stars

as a bear, fox,, and from his previous lessons of the tree, (not numbers just teachings ) he begins to understand the teaching of nature and reading the signs.. some stars means this ,,and some stars mean that..
so it is with the wind.. oh yes the clouds with the confusing ways from the cosmos also deep down he feels.
so he starts achieving sucess , he recieves help once again as well from those who want to see him do well.

17. the stork.

achieving a short of nest egg, he feels the pregnancy of the situatin.. the energy invovled. to release , he must move,,
this is differnt then his need in the ship to travel the cosmos.. here it is just to feel new energy,, as he doens't want to get stagnan.

18. the dog

in the spirit world he had bouqet , help from many others.. In the mental world sooner or later he had help..
these are warriors,, body guards.. who were loyal to a fault.. he doesn't realize but he to is loyal in return..
protection is key in the mental world.

19. the tower

in this emotional world , with a desire to protect himself from feeling pain , having traveled s hard at the beginning in the mental world. he builds a big tower to protect his heart. all these legal rules like
look don't touch,, touch ,, but don't taste,, taste but dont' swallow,, seems to im to be binding and confiing..
so by avoiding trouble,,he is making a house in the sky sort to speak. emotionally he feels a need to protect his family,, his clan.. by looking at things with a long view he can make better decisions he hopes.

20. the garden

this is different then his earlier experience with the birds.. there it was on the mental level , talk of protocol, mental games.
here It is emotional community, to be part of the greater whole.. and that is by aiding and seeking aid at the gardens.
and so to best achieve this,, he plans concerts,, great social gathering .. which will give him social standing, and reputation..

21.the mountain

depsite his best plans acieved at the mountain,, he get big obstacles in his way,, life can't be too easy after all.
it is a throwback to the teaching of patience.. but here it is more hard work.
why would you climb mount everest.. because it is there.. in him it is the ship and the rider,, exploring new life in him by challenging himself.

22.the crossroads

now there are so many options in front of him,, how should he travel,, what shall he do,, WHAT DOES HE REALLY WANT.
sometimes the choice is how to react..
example in john wick 2,, she knew she was going to die either by john wick hand or her own,, so she choose her hand, and john wick asked why? she said lived the way she wanted, and so would die her way.

23. the mice

emotionally he is started to get annoyed by little things.. or things he didn't know..
in rleationships it is because there is a lack of communication, so things are building to a big thing.
perhaps it is a sign how groups of people can wear you down.

24. the heart

out of nowhere, he feels love for the first time.. til now it was just friendship, respect,, thankful l ness.
butnow he is smitten with love..
and we know that sometimes love can feel like mice.. like in the kngihts tale when his friend says there she is, the object of yoru desire and he says "god how i hate her "
so it is also about majore expression of heart.

25. the ring

and with the expression of heart, we want promises, and seals of intent.
our freindship shall last forever.. this is a differnt friendship then the dog.. in the dog it was all mental trust.. here it is deeper.. on the heart level.

26. the book

so we come to emotioal wisdom, by acuiring knoweldge of others people feelings and desires..
we also write our feelings out in hopes of inspiring others.. perhaps our own loved ones when they are sad.
we hope to find out people motives b y reading what they said,, what they did.

27. the letter

in the spirit world we had friends expressing their support , In the mental world we had loyalty ..
here in the emotional world we have sharing of ideas and plans in order to make the world a better place..
or simply to keep friendships in this ever spreading world of emotiona. we look to news to be excited for ,, perhaps to inspire us.

TT&M Family

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Posted April 23
28. the gentleman

he is designing how he wants to look before he is born.. its speaks to striving to become a gentleman of good standing andhoping to avoid the lesser class, or falling short of this so he can have a decent life.
this could even speak t the rider picking his father

29. the gentlelady.

the ideal companin for the gentleman , he wonders if he will find her after he incarnates..she could be very supportative.
could be picking his mother figure..
as it is said girls look for some reflection of their father,, and boys their mothers in their relationship..

30. the lilly

picking their teachers, perhaps fine tuning by trying to pick their grandparents before born..
they are now resting before moving forward.. , perhaps they even pick their sexual teachers.

31. the sun.

he is reaching the climax of his journey,, instinctly he knows this was his goal when he first came into existence as the rider. he feels the love of the creator one last time before incarnating,, at least in this form.. he plans his success in this last part of the creator light.

32. the moon.

this is picking his appointed time of birth.. he can't be late for this period of time.
he picks his fame and fortune or lack of it.. he picks maternal figures, and those that will help him..
and perhaps even tose he may help afterwards.

33. the key.

here he picks the secrets he will learn, and those he may carry.
he picks his success in terms of actuality. ..
he also finetunes how his heart will be unlocked. eheh

34. the fish

here he picks how much abundance he will have,, realizing there is a balance to this,, depending on the events f the years he is going to incarnate and his lessons he has to learn.
he may eve decided his trade here,, fisherman, trader, sailor..as long as its brings food.

35 anchor

here he picks where he will live ..yo figure he would pick this first before parents, but It is actually the people that are mallable especially in this day and age with people being aroundi n clusters..
the environment not so much for there is only once france.. one England.
he is deciding his last life long ties, how stubborn he will be,, how flexible .

36. the cross

how can the cross be birth ? it is the immaculate conception perhaps.. perhaps itis the final agreement that he understands there will be suffering in life,, but with it is its own rewards..
it is the experience that in the grand scheme of things he was created for in the rider..
he feels the cross will be his light in order to get though this.
he hits the agree to terms and jumps into baby form. eheh.

I wrote the journey without edit (aka you see my spelling mistakes ), in one sitting..
you can do the journey backwards as well like you can do with the fools journey as well.
i will post a new thread on that when i do it.

Thank you for sharing this. I enjoy reading it !