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Above all things, know thyself!

If it is here, it is there. If it is there, it is here. If it is not here, it is not there and if it is not there, it is not here. 

[Zen-Koan]

The Universe resounds with the joyful cry I AM.

-Scriabin

"The proper study of the Paths—represented by the Major Arcana—is both a descent from the Solar Logos, the Divine Creative Source, and an ascent of awakened Understanding through the microcosmic Tree of Life. This ascent follows the Serpent Path of return, tracing upward from matter to Spirit, from the dense world of Malkuth to the radiant center of Tiphareth and beyond. As embodied beings ‘below,’ we are charged with the sacred task of remembering, realigning, and reuniting with the realms ‘above’—the Spirit and Mind that are our original estate.

Our true identity began in the Plasmic Fires of Evolution—what may be called the Astral-Solar genesis ‘Above.’ From this Source, we descended the Tree via the Lightning Path of involution, a deliberate act of Self-becoming through contraction and manifestation. This descent was not a fall, but a sacred sacrament of embodiment—a sacrificial compression of the vast ‘I AM’ into a vehicle of experience and becoming.

Through this descent, the Soul—our Psyche or Solar Self—has clothed itself in increasingly dense and delineated forms. It has undergone successive veils of limitation so that we might explore Selfhood in time and form. At each stage, Spirit takes on deeper layers of concealment in order to eventually unveil Itself through the work of conscious reintegration.

In the passage from Tiphareth to Malkuth, the Mind itself was forced to compartmentalize. The Soul, originally a unified hermaphroditic intelligence (both active and receptive, both animus and anima), was divided. This primal androgyny, the image of the original Divine Human, was split for the sake of experience and reflection. The physical manifestation of this separation appears neurologically in the bi-hemispheric brain: the left hemisphere aligning with the active, analytical, solar-masculine force; the right with the intuitive, receptive, lunar-feminine force.

Thus, the Major Arcana are not merely psychological archetypes but glyphs of cosmic circuitry. They chart the alchemical journey of the Soul as it descends into matter and then remembers its way back into radiant unity—the fusion of the Above and the Below, the solar and the lunar, the individual and the universal.

To walk the Paths consciously is to activate this sacred remembrance. We are not merely becoming—we are re-becoming that which we have always been Children of the Sun, born of Light, who dared to forget ourselves in order to know ourselves anew.

Then the instinctual planetary mind (subconscious) of the animal (body cellular collective) had to be adopted by our Solar Self, (Psyche) to operate a physical-sensual body that is so necessary for Divine information to become the Sun of the Divine Creative's intimate form.

We have implanted our star/solar seed (individual Plasmic frequency) at the base of the spine, known as the 'root chakra' or 'Muladhara chakra,' coiled up (serpentine) and ready to ascend when the true identity of the Soul/Psyche establishes contact with the body, resonating in a harmonious melody of vibrations from the Celestial Spirit-Mind connection.

This rising sun of the Solar Self then completely awakes all the genetics of the "God Molecule"(DNA) and/or "Tree of Life" within the body. Everything is quantumly connected and each of us is a song of a multiverse of vibration and frequency that many call "the Soul/Solar Self" that radiates from the Galactic Core.

The embodied experience on Earth serves as a divine instrument for refining our comprehension of universal informational patterns. Just as a microscope enables the biologist to penetrate the mysteries of cellular structure, protein chains, and microbial life, so too does incarnation allow consciousness to focus with crystalline precision upon the patterns of existence.

Through the Earth-being—this body formed of minerals, waters, breath, and starlight—we are equipped with lenses of crystalline perception and the mirror of reflective awareness. These sensory faculties, what might be called the "I-sight" of the senses, allow us to explore the microcosmic intricacies of the Natural Mind. In doing so, we begin to realize the vast continuum between our individuated being and the infinite Being of the Cosmos.

This realization is the awakening of the Macrocosmic/Microcosmic Self—the union of 'I AM' with 'ME.' A knowing that the observer is not separate from the observed. For ultimately, Self is all there is. What we perceive is always colored, shifted, and shaped by who we believe ourselves to be. Even observation collapses into identity. What we observe becomes what we think we are looking at.

And so, the eternal task unfolds: to understand Self, for that is all we shall ever truly know. In every atom, in every galaxy, in every mirror—we meet the Infinite variations of the One I AM.

🌌 The Universe: Starlight Made Flesh

“Therefore, we are not merely planetary creatures—we are the Energy and Intelligence of Starlight.”

Atu 21, The Universe, is the sacred glyph of completion and cosmic embodiment. It is the final path on the Tree of Life, the Path of Tau, connecting Yesod (the Foundation, the Moon, the subconscious matrix) to Malkuth (the Kingdom, Earth, the manifest realm). In Western Hermetic Qabalah, this is the path where Spirit finally touches the veil of matter—and realizes it was never separate.

This card reveals the exalted paradox: we are both the observer and the observed. The starlight of our Soul, the intelligence of the I AM, has poured itself into this final stage of material condensation—not to become trapped, but to become aware of itself in form.

Thus, we are not of the planets; we move through them. We are starlight clothed in crystallized light—the body. As such, it is essential to understand both the planetary mental structures that condition form, and the Divine Creative Intelligence that forms archetypes through the inner light-imaging power of imagination. In the descent of light through the Sephiroth, this faculty of image-making (the creative womb of the Divine Mind) has become sensual—anchored in sensation, desire, form, and beauty.

Earth, far from being a prison, is a focusing lens. It allows the Soul to study itself in high definition. Just as the microscope enables the biologist to examine the inner workings of cellular structure, Earth-life enables the Soul to examine the DNA of consciousness. Through incarnation, we dissect and decode the patterns of thought, identity, fear, hope, and divinity—embedded in the biological and psychic material of this world.

We perceive this world through crystalline lenses—the literal and metaphorical eyes—where light is bent, reflected, and interpreted into what we call “I-sight.” This mirroring, this reflected starlight, reveals not just the world, but the structure of our own Soul. Earth teaches us to see the Self—not in abstraction, but in nuance, in shadow, in complexity.

Here we come to the secret of The Universe card: that the Macrocosmic Self is ever-present in the Microcosm. The body is a star. The mind is a constellation. The psyche is the dance of nebulae collapsing into identity.

Self is all there is.
Even the act of observation alters what is observed. Quantum physics calls this the observer effect, but the ancients knew it too: the Universe is not external—it is participatory. We are the Universe, learning to know itself through the artifice of separateness.

The Path of Tau is the path of closing the loop. When we understand that our Self is the lens and the light both, we embody the wisdom of the Fool in full-circle realization. Tau is the first and last step—the gate in and out of the Garden. The Universe is not the end—it is the beginning of conscious return.

In truth, you are not enclosed in the body any more than the Ocean is enclosed in a fish. You are not a body, you are the Pranic force that operates it. The Greek word "spiro" is the root word of the English word for Spirit. Spiro means "to breathe" and/or "Breath". The body lives because you are the Universal breath/I AM- (Ocean of breath/Prana) that established itself around and through the body. Now, the Plasmic Being can experience itself in an intimate microcosmic way by animating a planetary source of being.

✨ I-Dentity as the Key to Celestial DNA Activation

In the Hermetic tradition, all begins with a Word—the Divine Fiat—I AM. This primal utterance is the first act of awareness, the first ripple in the Infinite Stillness. From this vibration came Light, and from Light came Form. But before the Form, there was the Will to Be.

Likewise, in the microcosm, the “I-dentity” one chooses to embody becomes the vitalizing force that activates or silences the genetic architecture of the Self. Identity is not merely a label—it is a frequency of awareness. When one aligns with the conscious declaration of “I AM,” one vibrates sympathetically with the original Divine Creative utterance. This activates latent energetic patterns—chromosomal pathways that have remained dormant, awaiting the resonance of remembered divinity.

Modern geneticists are now confronting a curious mystery: that human DNA appears far older than the Earth itself. While terrestrial life is estimated at approximately 3.8 billion years, recent theoretical insights propose that the molecular complexity of human DNA suggests an origin stretching trillions of years into the galactic past. This aligns with the Hermetic teaching that the Soul did not originate on Earth but rather descended through stars, shaped by aeons of cosmic memory.

This concept echoes the theory of panspermia—that life, and even the blueprint of human intelligence, was seeded on Earth from beyond. Thus, our DNA is a stellar archive—a crystalline memory structure encoded with the celestial story of I AM.

However, this archive does not unlock itself automatically. The keys are psychic and vibrational. When the mind constantly repeats the mantra of “I ain’t,” or "I am not enough," "I can’t," "I’ll never," the corresponding energetic circuits of growth, inspiration, and evolution begin to dim. Genes that could express brilliance remain silenced, waiting for the spark of self-authorization.

On the other hand, the moment you begin to live from “I AM”—I am Light, I am Knowing, I am Becoming—you awaken these ancient genetic songs. This is not metaphor. This is epigenetic magick: the environment of thought, feeling, and belief writes instructions to the cells.

And what is Spirit, if not Spiral Intelligence—the winding fire of Light in motion, embedding itself into DNA’s double helix, twining through time? Your Spirit did not begin in a womb or in a body—it began as a radiant exhalation from the Central Sun, the Cosmic Logos. It began when Light spoke itself aloud in the galactic silence: “I AM!”

This first word is the true Word made flesh. The Logos is not just sound—it is genetic resonance. The vibration of identity shapes the very latticework of your becoming.

The Universe resounds with the joyful cry I AM.

-Scriabin

If our Divine Consciousness is functioning though a physical vehicle, this is where our serious esoteric and exoteric work begins and ends only to begin again. Because of the intimacy that the senses give us, we tend to forget we began in the Macrocosm as a Spiritual Being (Plasmic spiral energy forming into an electromagnetic sphere of experience), long before we became owners of measured form.

The body sensuality makes us think we are trying to ascend beyond our bodies; this is upside down thinking, for we descended from the Stars to become planets; to unite the planetary and Solar aspects of I AM. Now I AM has become Me!

As souls, we know that without sensual memory of the subtle dimensions of the multiverse we would be unable to turn information into experience, which creates knowledge. Due to the indoctrination and dogma of the "few who wish to rule the many" we have forgotten our Celestial roots and the great purpose for our dreams of self by increasingly become more condensed.

🜂 Hermetic Insight:

In the Tree of Life, this activation aligns with Tiphareth, the Solar Self, who speaks from the heart of radiant identity. The declaration "I AM" resounds from Tiphareth outward into all lower Sephiroth. When identity is clear and solar, it informs Hod (thought), Netzach (desire), Yesod (emotion), and finally Malkuth (form). When "I AM" is distorted into "I am not," the energy collapses downward in shadow and inertia.

The Universe (Thoth Atu 21) is not simply a symbol of finality—it is the living seal of synthesis. It represents the absorption of all prior experience into a unified whole, the compression of countless impressions into the one-pointed realization of Being. It is the “last” card in the Major Arcana sequence, yet paradoxically, it marks the beginning of a new cycle, encoded with all the data of the past now transmuted into Wisdom.

Just as in the cosmos, so in the microcosm of the Self. Astrophysics now confirms what ancient

Hermeticists knew through gnosis: that the Big Bang was not the absolute beginning, but rather the explosive transformation of one Universe into another. There are many Big Bangs—many Universes birthing and dying, simultaneously, outside our current galactic horizon. Creation is not a one-time event. It is a perpetual act of Solve et Coagula on a cosmic scale.

In the same spirit, the adepts of old proclaimed:
"I die daily."
 

This is not morbid—it is the sacred act of self-renewal. Each night we surrender the mask of the personality, letting it dissolve into the waters of dream and deep analysis. We enter the inner death of sleep to restructure the psyche with new impressions, symbols, and integrations.

This daily death is alchemical. The ego, the construct of the day, must be dissolved (solve) so that the Higher Self may reconsolidate it (coagula) in better alignment with truth, soul, and spirit. The Universe card is the Great Coagula, but only after the Tower, the Moon, and the Sun have performed their transformative work.

In this way, The Universe is the Philosopher’s Stone in motion. It is the Dance of the Aeons: a step forward, a spiral inward, and a leap into the Unknown.

The Path of Tau-ATU/Key 21-The Universe, joins the crystallized world of earth, Malkuth-Meaning Kingdom, with the 9th Sephiroth- Yesod -meaning Foundation. This Intellectual Path is the first step in a journey out of the material condition that leads us to a greater understanding of the Personality that was designed by the Soul/Solar Self (Tiphareth) for each incarnation; long before our man-made personality / false-ego and divided sexual identity, blinded us to our original Identity of Divinity; The I AM.

The brain is a chaos of words and errant association. Our eye-dentity (identity) was never manmade nor is it now! We all are the coagulated intelligence of the "suns" of the Universe and/or the Solar Divine Creative Self Identity often called the Celestial I Am.

The God Name for Self is I AM.

Time to clear your "I" of ruler made words.

Dr. Paul Foster Case, the founder of B.O.T.A. who wrote the class text: The Thirty-Two Paths to Wisdom (the number Thirty-Two is the sum of the Paths and the Sephiroth) calls the Path of Tau (The Universe card) the “Administrative Intelligence" because it "directs and associates in all seven planets." The "seven planets" he is referring to are the Macroprosopus-Hexagram pattern of the seven planets on the Tree of Life and the seven major chakras of the human body.

Symbolically this path connects the earth to the Microcosm (Microprosopus- in The Sepher Yetzirah-Qabalistic text) represented by the Hexagram as the symbolic Seven Chakras on the Tree of Life. Therefore, the Path of Tau is both power and servitude as ascribed to the Palace of Holiness that sustains all things. That Palace, being the associated seven planets, which are the symbols for the seven chakras and the human body and/or Spirit-Mind-Body. The Path of Tau that connects the Universal Self to Earth-Self.

🜂 The Universe Card: The Gate Where 0 = 2

From the Western Hermetic Qabalistic perspective, Atu 21 – The Universe is not merely the “end” of the Tarot—it is the apex of Self-realization and, paradoxically, the true beginning of the Great Work. It may well be the most important card in the deck, for here we begin the conscious process of inner exploration—the descent into the self-made labyrinth of the psyche in order to marry the Macrocosmic Self (Spirit) with the Microcosmic Self (the incarnate "me").

In this sacred moment, the formula 0 = 2 reveals its initiatory truth.

The Fool (Atu 0) and The Universe (Atu 21) are mirror gates. The Fool is the unmanifest, the infinite potential unpolarized. The Universe is the completion of polarization, the return to Unity through experience. And in this return, the illusion of separateness collapses—the Two become One, and One reveals Itself as Zero again.

On this path—the Path of Tau, the final path on the Tree of Life—we confront the scaffolding of the false self: the constructed personality, which has mistaken its indoctrinated roles, beliefs, and borrowed emotions for “truth.” This personality is not grounded in reality, but rather lives as code within the mental matrix, a tangled lattice of tribal thought, societal programming, and inherited dogma.

It is, in essence, a simulation of self, projected inside the skull yet disconnected from the body’s gnosis, the spirit’s intelligence, and the soul’s memory. This is the shell Qabalistically known as the Qliphothic distortion—a house of mirrors that passes for identity in a world enchanted by surface.

Here, we also encounter what may be rightly called the mind virus of “evil”—not some external demonic force, but the subtle inversion of live into evil, a reversal of divine flow. It is the psyche infected with fear, shame, and separation, turning the living light of I AM inward into shadow and paralysis.

The Universe card, then, is the antidote to this virus. It is the act of re-membering—putting back together what was fragmented by fear. It is the card of re-integration, where the spiral of Spirit re-enters the dance, uncoils from matter, and says: I AM not this mask—I AM the Dancer within the circle of the stars.

🜁 Qabalistic Insight:

On the Tree of Life, the Path of Tau (ת) links Yesod (the foundation of the subconscious) with Malkuth (the world of the body and physical manifestation). It is here that the Astral is grounded and the Image becomes Flesh. But what image? Whose projection? Whose dream?

To walk this path is to unmask the dreamer. Hence, it is not enough to read the descriptions of Tarot cards, you must scry them by using a reflected image in a dark mirror.

🜄 Practice: The Mirror Rite of Tau

1. Card Placement: Set The Universe card before a mirror.

2. Chant:
   “I AM the Whole of Myself.
   What was divided shall be joined.
   What was infected shall be cleansed.
   What was programmed shall be rewritten by the Flame of the Solar Self.”

3. Gaze: Look into your own eyes in the mirror until you feel the difference between the coded mask and the Cosmic “I” behind it.

4. Seal: Draw the Hebrew letter Tau (ת) over your heart with your finger or wand, affirming the marriage of the Below with the Above.

🜃 Closing Thought:

The Great Work is not to become something other—it is to remember what you have always been. The Universe card is your cosmic fingerprint—the moment you realize that the Kingdom is within, and the gates were never locked, only forgotten.

🌍Medieval Feathers Tarot-The World – Key 21 – The Cosmic Birth of the Solar Self

Though this Key 21 uses the traditional title and structure of The World card, its visual narrative is anything but conventional. Here, we witness the Great Creatrix mid-labor—birthing the next Cosmic Self from the womb of existence. This sacred moment is not merely symbolic of completion—it is the living expression of the Hermetic formula: Solve et Coagula.

From dissolution comes recombination; from death, new life. The Creatrix contains within Herself the full archive of all that has come before—and now, through her, a new Solar Child emerges: radiant, luminous, filled with the breath of divine purpose. This image aligns deeply with the Qabalistic understanding that the Universe is not a machine, but a Mother—the final vessel of the Macrocosmic Will giving birth to individualized divine presence within form.

🜂 The Breath of Divine Intervention

Two angelic beings flank the Creatrix, blowing the Universal Breath into her being. This is the Breath of the Divine Name—I AM—the eternal sound that animates all creation. These angels act as guardians of sacred continuity, ensuring that the new Self is born not into chaos, but into purposeful order.

If any event, egregore, or destructive current attempts to profane the sanctity of this labor, Divine Intervention is triggered. For the establishment of identity in organic matter—the anchoring of the Soul into the world of form—is a holy task that must not be sabotaged.

Here, the pheasant’s feather—rich in Earthy elegance—acts as a symbol of inspired continuity. It is the sign of Grace through Intention, that the Solar Child’s purpose shall not only survive, but thrive. The feather whispers: This is your birthright—to complete what you began among the stars.

🌱 The Message: The Work Is Sacred—and Not Yet Done

This card celebrates your completion of a long labor. You have put in the time, the soul, the devotion. Now the Universe acknowledges this. It is time to rest, to enjoy the fruits of your labor, to understand that effort was not in vain.

However, The World is never a full stop—it is a threshold. In Hermetic understanding, every end is a doorway to a higher spiral. The completion of one task immediately prepares the field for the next, only now you work not from exhaustion, but from realization.

You now know that effort yields result. That reality listens. That dreams incarnate when given breath, body, and focused will.

So rest, yes. Celebrate, yes. But do not become stagnant.
The Creatrix is still breathing.
The Solar Child still shines with tasks to fulfill.
And you—you are still building the Temple of the Self.

🜁 Meditation Prompt:

Place the World card before you and speak:

“I am born again of the Great Mother.
I AM the result of sacred labor.
I AM the breath of the Divine in form.
And I AM not finished.
I am here to build anew—
to inspire, to heal, and to remember.”

The Hebrew letter Tau (ת), assigned to The Universe card (Atu 21) and the Path from Malkuth to Yesod on the Tree of Life, carries immense esoteric gravity. Tau means "cross", the ancient symbol of completion, convergence, and sacrifice—where Spirit and Matter intersect.

On the Path of Tau, we begin the conscious return from the dense, outer veil of the physical world (Malkuth) into the reflective foundation of the subconscious (Yesod). This journey is not just one of ascension, but of reconciliation—of dissolving the illusion that body and mind are separate.

We moderns, so sensually tethered to the body, have been conditioned to view the world of thought, dreams, and imagination as somehow less “real” than matter. But this perception is itself a product of fragmentation—a forgetting of our Qabalistic birthright: that all is Mind, and that Mind is Self-aware Spirit in motion.

🜄 The Great Dark Sea of Binah

Space—what we call “emptiness” or the unseen—is not empty at all. It is the Womb of all Being, the Great Dark Sea (See) of Binah, the Divine Mother, She who is Understanding and Form-Giver. This Sea is the Universal Collective Unconscious, the matrix of potential from which all thought arises and into which all form dissolves.

Within this Sea, every thought, image, and symbol lives as real as stone or star—sometimes more so. What we call “reality” is but the crystallization of thought, the dream made dense, the coagulation of pure Mind into experience. As the Qabalah teaches, the body is not separate from the Mind—it is crystallized idea, a dense lattice of self-reflective Will, sculpted through aeons of cosmic evolution.

Thus, Life is not of the body—it is of the Mind.
And Mind is not merely intellect—it is Spirit, Will, and Imagination in union.

🜂 Crystallized Will: The Body as Thought Made Flesh

To take this a step further: all is the Spiritual Will of I AM—the primal self-declaring Light that said “Let there be” and became “I AM.” This One Energy—conscious, infinite, and luminous—became information. That information willed itself into form. That form became the body.

In this view, the body is not a prison—it is a prism. A living projection of Willed Awareness. Every cell, bone, and breath is a living glyph of the Self seeking to know itself. The universe does not happen to you—it unfolds through you, as you.

You are crystallized Spirit. A geometric dream, folded in skin, walking through itself.

🜁 Hermetic Realization:

On the Path of Tau, you are not leaving the body behind—you are learning to see the Mind within it. You begin to realize that matter is not dead—it is slowed-down Light. And that your life, your story, your form, are the result of Self-awareness choosing to see itself from a point of view.

You are the Will of the Stars
made into flesh
to remember that you are still Light.

In the Mysteries, the distinction of Mind and Body is one of perception (brought on by senses), not an actuality. The Spirit and Body are as connected as the dreamer is with their dream. The pictures we see when we close our eyes are a more refined form of matter (liquid mind) they are the images and energy forms which are closest to the physical condition: a condition that the soul is dreaming as itself.

"Above all things, know thyself."
This ancient axiom is more than philosophical—it is the cornerstone of the Hermetic Path. It calls us to a deeper realization of the "I AM", the eternal spark of Divine Consciousness clothed in form. Reading the Tarot as the alphabet of the Soul is not a hobby, nor a passive art—it is a sacred journey, one that begins with curiosity but never truly ends.

This is why I offer Western Hermetic Thoth Tarot Master Classes, taught one-on-one, in two-hour intensive sessions once per week. While 6 to 8 weeks is recommended for foundational embodiment, the Aspirant decides the duration, as the Work is always personal and sovereign.

Each of us is a unique Star—a Celestial expression of the I AM energy. If you are truly ready to become the Celestial Self you came here to embody, then forming a direct, intense connection with a Magus-Mentor is not optional—it is essential. This is the step that breaks the chains of the backwards-facing social egregore, freeing you to face forward into your own destiny.

It is not enough to simply see the Tarot cards.
You must become them.
For the Tarot is not a deck. It is you—laid bare, in symbols.
And when rightly read, it does not tell the future.
It awakens the One who writes it.

"Alpha and Omega-the creation is all things at once, the grand knowing in expression, light patterns of the Divine dance in divine orchestration and choreography, connection with the whole, the divine dancer dances before us, the heavens are mirroring itself in light made manifest".

-The Multiverse-Grace Sequoia-2023

Both the Thoth Universe and the Lost Soul Tarot ATU/Key 21-, are the key to individuality, totality, and wholeness. To those of Eastern culture, this is the image of Shiva and Shakti; to the Christian, this is the image of the Virgin Mary with her foot on the head of the serpent. To the Western Hermetic Qabalist, this is Lilith dancing with Lord Python, the First Wife and the First Husband whose dance spins the Atoms into universes of Self as a rhythmic heartbeat. To Western magic and metaphysicians, the Abyssal Womb starts to twirl and dance within herself, ever increasing her spin, creating the first Huband, her "other", her most beloved as Fire/Light/Waves of energy. Hence, the images of the Sun and Moon as lovers.

The Universe resounds with the joyful cry I AM.

-Scriabin

Let the seeker seek, until he becomes troubled by learning they were what they sought all along. When they realize this, they become astonished and know that they are ruler over the All.

Many errantly think that the term "Ascension" means we are here to learn limited knowledge from experience and then go back to the "heavens" (stars) we came from. The truth is, we create forms from our own data of Self -thought (Psyche), to experience that information as in-form-action. When information becomes in-form-action, it is now turned into Knowledge and the Knowledge of Self is progressive and/or an infinite journey of I AM Life.

Hence, Souls have manifested forms of I AM Me on many other worlds/ planets, and after earth is exhausted, we shall manifest I AM Me on many more for we are the Suns of the Divine and carry the "God Molecule" to planets to manifest the Hermaphrodite Archetype of Adam Khadmon, the Universal/Archetypal "Image of the Heavenly Human".

As Carl Jung states: "To experience Self means that we are always conscious of our own identity. We then know that we can never be anything other than our Self, that we will never lose our Self, and that we can never be estranged from our Self. This is so, because we realize that Self is indestructible, that it is always One and the Same, that it cannot be dissolved or exchanged for something else. The Self enables us to remain the same under all circumstances of our life."

The Universe resounds with the joyful cry I AM.

-Scriabin

The Qabalist knows, that Self is all we will ever know, and that SELF, (some call it God), created all images as "Self-Information" to be experienced and cataloged in the Universal Unconsciousness as variations of Self-Awareness.

🜂 The Universe Card: The Divine Hermaphrodite and the Dance of Becoming

Thoth Tarot – Atu 21 – The Path of Tau

Regardless of cultural lens or mythic overlay, ATU 21 – The Universe eternally symbolizes the Divine Hermaphrodite—the perfectly balanced fusion of opposites, the sacred marriage of Force and Form, of I and AM. Here we behold the ecstatic polarity of the cosmos in equilibrium: the dynamic and magnetic forces of creation entwined in the eternal Dance of Manifestation.

On the Thoth Universe card, this sacred polarity is portrayed through the mythic archetypes of The First Wife (Lilith) and The First Husband (Python). These are not merely figures from myth, but deep glyphs of cosmic principles: Lilith as the Dark Matrix of receptive intelligence—the primal Womb of Form—and Python as the Serpentine Flow of Light, the sinuous waves of Divine Force that impregnate her.

In the Hermetic Mysteries, the Serpent of Light—Python—is known as the “First Husband”, the undulating motion of photonic Will. He does not pierce the darkness violently; rather, he dances within it, stirring it into awareness. He is the radiant curvature of intention, whose waves of energy impregnate the magnetic sea of dark matter. It is this sacred motion that gives rise to manifest Self.

🜁 The Creatrix as Magnetitrix

The Creatrix, as depicted here, is not merely the passive womb. She is the Magnetitrix—a conscious agent of attraction and enclosure. She is Dark Mater, not merely “matter,” but the Mother-Womb of all form, rich with potential. She encases Light in Form through the dance of Electro-Magnetic polarity. Light becomes electric (male); Space becomes magnetic (female)—and within their union arises the holographic domain we call “reality.”

From her Abyssal Womb of Imagination, the Divine Feminine molds these interactions into symbolic structure. Thus, the Universe card is not an image of conclusion, but of cosmic insemination: the Idea becoming Self through the art of enclosure.

Here, within the card, the Hermaphrodite dances—Lilith and Python in one motion, ecstatically twining through the vesica piscis of becoming. All Tarot cards prior to this have led to this unveiling. The Universe card is the Coagula of all Solve—the moment where polarity no longer implies conflict, but generative wholeness.

🜃 Hermetic Realization:

• Lilith = Binah, Understanding, the Womb of Form

• Python = Chokmah, Wisdom, the Serpent of Light

• The Universe = Da’ath revealed, when abyss becomes birth canal

This is not mythology—it is your anatomy of Soul.

You, too, are the Hermaphrodite.
You are the child of your own polarized forces.
You are the Willed Idea that has stepped into Form.

Before I go on with further explanation of the Universe- Key/ATU-21, it would be appropriate here to tell you how to mentally "Walk" the Path of Tau. This mental walk is called ​Scrying. Scrying is simple really, all one must do is focus on a card that is reflected in a dark mirror (symbolizes "the other side of the Mirror and the Dark Mater"), allowing impressions to form from the "other side of Light" or even imagine themselves entering it as the Self who is reflected. This is like lucid dreaming, where you enter the dream and control the events.

Here, one is projecting themselves into an inner vision using a "daydream", projecting oneself into the Vision of the Card which is full of occult secrets. Some may breathe deep and easy, relaxed in body, and light 2 candles (the flickering of candlelight is essential) in the periphery and mentally project themselves into the Key Vision of the card. Others, as do I, like traveling into a tunnel, imagine themselves entering Visions, as the card grows ever bigger until entry and thereby, becoming a threshold to another dimension.

At first, boredom may take over, but soon the diligent aspirant discovers that what they experience in this lucid scrying is not of their own making. They often are astonished at the vitality, energy, and spontaneous images that these Tarot Card "mandalas" of Self invoke. As a Qabalist I know that all 78 Tarot Cards represent aspects of the One- Self (The Fool), of whom we all represent as manifested Self-Awareness, and the Dark mirror represents the "Dark Sea of the Great Mother Binah" and/or the Wisdom of Sophia.

* NOTE: To make a dark mirror is to remove the glass and paint the back of the mirror black. Return it to its frame and you have a dark mirror. The candles make a gentle light, so that the reflected image of the card which is presented face to face with the dark mirror, is muted but bright enough to see and reverses the illusion effect of reflected light of this realm into a flickering dance, so that one sees the "truth behind the reflection" and/or the "other side of the mirror". Therefore, the flickering of candlelight also simulates the dance of energy that is 0 that equals 2 and/or the dance of Electric (Male) and Magnetic (Female) forces that make the electromagnetic spectrum of light and therefore, the visible Universe.

In the Forces of the Path of Tau, is the information, the data, of all the accumulated ideas that went into the making of our world (s) of Malkuth. There is much to experience and remember here so discernment is recommended, as we journey back into our Divine heritage, we must educate our "I's" to perceive our "I AM Spirit", and/or our Whole Golden Self. The Path of Tau begins the process of knowing ourselves as we have been known into existence; an existence so dutifully produced by our Divine Creative’s Lucid Dream of United Motion and/or the serpentine Dance of microwaves. In fact, if the student of Tarot/Qabalah, doesn't scry these cards, they may as well be a deck of playing cards or be a charlatan who preys on superstitious false ego's for only monetary gain.

On this Path of Tau, we experience our own personality consciousness, which is of our own cultural egregore making, a reality that can be both frightening and gratifying as we realize that the false ego/personality (the brain) isn't nor ever has been ourselves.

Yes, we make our own reality (mindscape), and the Universe card helps us to travel beyond the self-absorbed sensual reality of our man-made personalities, into the Higher Self reality that created our consciousness of I Am Energy in the Beginning. Freedom of Choice defines our "End"; an end produced by the composite pattern of perspectives that often form our personalities. That "freedom of Choice" has been covered up with a falsehood of indoctrination, dogma, and an infectious "mind virus" of self-destructive tendencies of divisionism, causing one to be an automaton of those few who rule the many (media-controlled word hypnosis) and/or a "robot of the Military Industrial Complex".

Reclaiming our freedom to choose begins in the Path of Tau, the World card path.

The purpose of Tarot is to help you see, as you are seen by your Creator/Creatrix and wonder of wonders, you are not condemned but loved without condition! Your mental choices are Universally supported! This is both magic and tragic, depending on how you perceive yourself.

Again, one of the most important lessons of the Universe/World card is that of Discernment, a process that can only be learned in the earthly realm of Malkuth. This gateway to the Astral-fluid levels of Cosmic-Mind, is the Path of Tau, and the Astral is the place of “Fluid thoughts", ideas, dreams, and/or theories, before they crystallize into manifestation. It is as if light were liquid, as if the mirror of your mind is not yet solidified, reflecting you in liquid light on a dark moon pool.

There is deception in the Astral, such as Fantasies, and Phantoms that may never make it into manifestation, and some you never want to, so be discerning, even though only through divination can we enter the "Administrative Intelligence" that balances an action. This active balance is shown on the Universe Card by depiction of the Dancing Woman draped with the Caph/Kaf-shaped scarf (the blue fabric) while being surrounded by the animal symbols of the Four Elements of Alchemy.

The Hebrew letter Kaf/Caph, means "Palm", as in palm of the hand and therefore implies containment. The Vesica Pisces (Abyssal Womb), is the oval shape behind her, that holds within it a Torus, a multidimensional figure. The Serpent is "Microwaves" of energy, the grid around her is the Universal Matrix of stars that we are from. Also in her hand is a very important symbol in Western Hermetic Mysteries shown as a fishhook.

In Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, the Universe card (corresponding to the World card in other Tarot decks) features a figure often referred to as the Creatrix, representing the culmination of the Great Work and the integration of all opposites. One of the more enigmatic symbols in this card is the fishhook held in her right hand. Here is an elucidation of this symbol:

1. The Hebrew Letter Tav and the Fishhook

• The Universe card is attributed to the Hebrew letter Tav (ת), whose ancient pictorial form resembles a mark or cross, but some interpretations connect it symbolically to a fishhook.
• Tav represents completion, truth, and cosmic structure, tying into the idea of the hook as a tool for "catching" or anchoring something ephemeral, like divine truth or spiritual realization.

2. The Fishhook as a Tool of Creation and Connection

• The Creatrix is the active force weaving the fabric of the cosmos. The fishhook symbolizes her ability to reach into the infinite, formless waters of the Abyss (Binah) and draw forth life and structure, bringing the spiritual into the material.
• In a metaphysical sense, the fishhook is a tool for fishing the soul, pulling higher consciousness into embodied existence, reflecting the interplay of divine and physical realms.

3. Mythological and Alchemical Associations

• The fishhook has connections to mythological and mystical traditions, where fishing often represents the soul's quest for enlightenment or truth. In Crowley's system, it reflects the work of the initiate "catching" the final realization of unity.
• In alchemy, the fishhook may symbolize a tool of transformation, the ability to extract the "essence" or spirit from the formless waters of prima materia.

4. Astrological Symbolism of Saturn

• The Universe card is linked to Saturn, the planet of structure, boundaries, and time. The fishhook mirrors Saturn’s influence by representing the effort to anchor the eternal and the infinite into the finite framework of space-time.
• The hook is both a restrictive and liberating tool, as it allows the Creatrix to direct and control the boundless creative forces of the cosmos.

5. Connection to the Right Hand

• The right hand is traditionally associated with active power, action, and conscious will. The fishhook in her right hand emphasizes the active role of the divine feminine in creation—not passively allowing but actively shaping the universe.
• This placement suggests mastery and deliberate direction of spiritual energy toward manifestation.

6. The Fishhook as a Hermetic Symbol

• The fishhook also resonates with Hermetic ideas of drawing the hidden into the light—a key theme of the Great Work. The Creatrix, holding the fishhook, reflects the act of pulling latent spiritual truths into awareness, completing the cycle of integration and manifestation symbolized by the Universe card.

7. Catching the Infinite

• The Universe card represents the final step in the Fool’s journey, where all potential (Aleph, the breath of the Fool) is realized. The fishhook acts as the tool to "catch" this infinite potential and solidify it into the perfected cosmic order.

In essence, the fishhook held by the Creatrix in the Universe card symbolizes the active, deliberate process of drawing down divine inspiration, anchoring spiritual truths into material reality, and completing the work of creation. It encapsulates the card’s themes of unity, completion, and mastery over the infinite forces of the cosmos.

Of course, energy frequency, ideas and Mind are inseparable, just as electricity and data coding in your computer are inseparable. Thus, another axiom is attributed to the Tree, and Spirit which is "The Know is in the Flow of Breath". That is why, when we mentally journey a Path, we often use pranayama breathing techniques, to help gather knowledge at the same time we encounter higher mental frequency; mentally piecing the membrane boundaries of frequency, allowing increased information flow. Diligently scrying is more than just a moment of silent contemplation, it is also a gathering of I AM information through slow-deep solar plexus breathing.

I have discussed the "Will-To-Form” of the Great Mother Binah (3rd Sephiroth on the Tree of Life) who is the Life and Mother of Conscious and which is Saturn in the exalted Supernal Realm of Atziluth. She is completely expressed on the Path of Tau, key 21-The Universe/World. The female figure of the " Cosmic Dancer" of the Universe, is the fullest expression of this Life-Consciousness and has been called Isis, the Anima Elohim, Scarlet Woman, Lilith as well as, Saturn who gives life and destroys it and/or the Great Mother Binah.

Know ye not that ye are gods- John 10:34; Psalm 82:6 .

Psalm 82 vs 6: I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.. John 10 vs 34: Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?. Genesis 1 vs.27 … So God created human beings in his own image.In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them

Hence, you carry the "God Molecule" to planets. From the Star frequencies of Universal breath that you are!

To some people, the Tarot is about prophecy and seeing into the future but to Qabalists, the Tarot is about developing psychic abilities (Divya Siddhis, in Sanskrit which means: Magic abilities) by linking the multi levels of Spiritual-Self, Mental-Self, to Physical-Self. The more a reader uses the cards to find answers to given questions, the more that reader taps into the unseen currents of subtle energy/conscious that forms the Whole Self that is all around us, in us and as us.

Over time, as I will attest, the cards may seem to be redundancies; However, this isn't so since the answers are always deeply felt by the Unseen Tarot within. But again, our brain "thinks" by association and the Tarot Cards help us correspond to the Divine Images of creation.

Note*-This is a 2-dimensional rendition of a very multidimensional molecule. Robert Wang attempted to get this idea of multidimensional Sephirotic "God Molecule" on his cover art of his book-The Qabalistic Tarot.

When the Universe/World card is thrown in a layout the querent is:

• Casting the circle which means they are mastering in some way the three planes of mind, body and emotions.
• End of a phase, a completion of some work and expanding toward another.
• It means synthesis, the matter itself, world, and Kingdom.
• More than any other card, The Universe depends on the accompanying cards, as it usually denotes the subject of the question.
• Wholeness.
• Completion.
• Paradise regained.
• Resolution of restraints.
• Conclusion of Karma.
• The wayfarer in front of the throne of the Divine Creative.
• Recovery from illness.

If ill defined by the surrounding cards, it implies:

• The street to nowhere.
• The deceptive world of appearances.
• Endogenous depressions.
• Lack of willpower.

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🜃 Final Words:

You are not here to read the cards.
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The Fool walks. The Magus speaks. The Star remembers.
It is time to live the Tarot—and unlock the Divine Name within.

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