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Organisation of Pictish society – 01 Introduction
Identifier
026472
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Pictish society appears to have been organised around the roles described in the Tarot deck, so first we need to understand what the Tarot was intended to do.
The Tarot cards are not cards that were intended for divination or prophesy or even for games, but their original use when they appeared in the Middle Ages, was to symbolically describe spiritual truths at a time when the institutional religions were persecuting those who followed the mystic or spiritual path. So the need for secrecy was paramount and the Tarot deck – looking like a game and entirely pictorial was ideal for hiding the truths. Every card in the Tarot has a spiritual meaning.
The Tarot was based on the concept of an ideal mystic society with its hero/knights, and roles such as The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress and Emperor, The Hierophant, The Hermit, The Hanged Man [mystic or saint], and The Fool.
The order of the Tarot pack is important, some of the cards symbolise the stages or roles one has to go through on the spiritual path. Thus it can also be looked on as a mapping of the stages one has to go through on each reincarnation too, as having been a ‘Hermit', say, on the next reincarnation you may be a ‘Magus’.
Along with the major roles described above, there are 'virtues' and basic truths, things one must be or know before one can progress spiritually. There are described by a series of allegorical cards. The Chariot, Strength, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, Temperance, The Tower, The Star, The Moon and the Sun, Judgement and The World
There are also a series of cards describing events on the path, for example, The Devil [the dive to your subconscious] The Lovers [chemical wedding] and Death [annihilation]. The Star, The Moon, and The Sun have a duel role here.
Finally, in what is called the Minor Arcana , or the lesser secrets, there are some links with the feudal hierarchy although this is a degradation of the actual meaning, which showed the levels one had to go though on the spiritual path of ascension - the stages. The court cards are the King and Queen, Knight ,and Prince or Princess, in each of the four tarot suits. All these relate to the lesser and thus lower stages of the spiritual path – if indeed the spiritual path is being followed at all. All these will result in reincarnation. Princes and princesses are aspiring Kings and Queens – the pawns in chess. In the Wheel they are to be found round the rim.