Ancient Tarot Secrets: A Path to Enlightenment

By Dennis J. Wilson

A spiritual path to enlightenment is analogous to climbing a mountain where the goal is to reach the top. Enlightenment can be considered as the top of the mountain. There are as many ways to the top of the mountain as there are individuals who climb it. The end goal for each is the same. However, the action of the climb is the only way to achieve the goal of enlightenment.
The spiritual knowledge hidden in the Major Arcana of the Tarot provides a basis for any individual’s path to enlightenment. It is not the only path to enlightenment, but it has endured from ancient times and is available to any individual who is willing to learn the knowledge and apply it to their daily life. The spiritual knowledge that was hidden in the Tarot is a map to the gate that leads to life. It is the gate that is spoken of by Christ, that is, the narrow and the hard way, and those who find it are few. The Tarot shows the way to be one of the few!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664168138

Dennis J. Wilson

Dennis Wilson is a student of the ways of the world’s spiritual sages of all cultures both historical and modern. At an early age, he took to heart the teaching “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” He became a spiritual seeker, and this book is the third progress report on the results of that effort.

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Copyright © 2023 by Dennis J. Wilson. 816328

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Xlibris

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy

Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version).

First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic

Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan

Corporation.

Library of Congress Control Number:     2021907220

Rev. date:   01/24/2023

This book is dedicated to my beautiful wife, Mary, whose loving

patience and encouragement made it possible.

Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

THE SEEKER (THE FOOL)

TREE OF LIFE—SEVENTH LEVEL

HUMANITY (THE WORLD)

THE AWAKENING (JUDGMENT)

MATERIALISM (THE DEVIL)

TREE OF LIFE—SIXTH LEVEL

THE OPTIONS (THE MOON)

THE TRUTH (THE STARS)

THE FOUNDATION (THE TOWER)

TREE OF LIFE—FIFTH LEVEL

TEMPERANCE

THE HERMIT

THE TRANSFORMATION (DEATH)

TREE OF LIFE—FOURTH LEVEL

THE COMMITMENT (THE HANGED MAN)

FORTITUDE (STRENGTH)

THE THREAD OF LIFE (THE SUN)

TREE OF LIFE—THIRD LEVEL

THE LIFE CYCLES (THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE)

THE ORIGIN OF REALITY (THE CHARIOT)

JUSTICE

TREE OF LIFE—SECOND LEVEL

CREATING REALITY (THE EMPEROR)

THE TEACHER (THE HIEROPHANT)

PRUDENCE (THE LOVERS)

TREE OF LIFE—FIRST LEVEL

UNCONDITIONAL DIVINE LOVE (THE EMPRESS)

INTUITION

THE SOURCE (THE MAGICIAN)

EPILOG

References

Illustrations

FIGURE 1. TREE OF LIFE

FIGURE 2. THREE-PHASE POWER GRAPH

FIGURE 3. THE SEEKER

FIGURE 4. HUMANITY

FIGURE 5. THE AWAKENING

FIGURE 6. MATERIALISM

FIGURE 7. THE OPTIONS

FIGURE 8. THE TRUTH

FIGURE 9. THE FOUNDATION

FIGURE 10. TEMPERANCE

FIGURE 11. THE HERMIT

FIGURE 12. THE TRANSFORMATION

FIGURE 13. THE COMMITMENT

FIGURE 14. FORTITUDE

FIGURE 15. THE THREAD OF LIFE

FIGURE 16. THE LIFE CYCLES

FIGURE 17. THE ORIGIN OF REALITY

FIGURE 18. JUSTICE

FIGURE 19. CREATING REALITY

FIGURE 20. THE TEACHER

FIGURE 21. PRUDENCE

FIGURE 22. UNCONDITIONAL DIVINE LOVE

FIGURE 23. INTUITION

FIGURE 24. THE SOURCE

PREFACE

There is no reason why any individual cannot make substantial spiritual growth on their path of life; however, most people will not. The key to growing spiritually is knowledge and action.

Throughout history, the secret of how to grow spiritually has been suppressed by organized religions and governments, typically working in conjunction with each other, in order to exercise control over their general populations. As a result, enlightened individuals hid their knowledge and shared it only with trusted and interested students in secret schools or societies.

There is a plethora of historical evidence of secret schools and societies being suppressed and their members killed for what in the West was commonly called heresy. By heresy, the authorities meant any spiritual ideas, thought, or expressions that did not agree with the official dogma or doctrine. It wasn’t until recent times, with modern communication, that orthodoxy was exposed for what it is and its true purpose of keeping the people mired in spiritual ignorance.

The purpose of life is for each manifestation of the Divine, in the form of a person, to become spiritually awake and aware and to once again become united with the Divine.

In ancient Egypt, the enlightened priests would pass on their spiritual knowledge to interested and worthy students. However, as their society sunk into materialism and there resulted a danger that their spiritual knowledge would be lost, they sought a way to preserve that knowledge.

This resulted in the creation of twenty-two illustrations that contained, in symbolic form, everything that they knew and what God wanted to reveal to man that man could understand. They recognized that those twenty-two illustrations that were done were not sufficient to survive. Therefore, they created an additional fifty-six illustrations to make a deck of cards that could be used for games that the common people could play. The twenty-two illustrations are called the Major Arcana, and the fifty-six cards are called the Minor Arcana of the Tarot.

This is the way that I believe that the Tarot deck came into being. The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana hold the symbolic message of the ancient secret knowledge.

I undertook the challenge of trying to find the message hidden in the Major Arcana. First, I read innumerable books written on the meaning of the Tarot cards. To the greatest extent, those books discussed the Tarot in terms of divination. However, within many of those discussions, there was a small gem of knowledge, a piece of the puzzle, as it were. I took note of the fact that each card of the Major Arcana was associated with a letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. That suggested that there was a link between the Major Arcana and the Hebrew Alphabet. In addition, I also noted that in the King James Version of the Bible, each set of verses in Psalm 119 was also associated with a Hebrew letter. Psalm 119 is an acrostic i.e., in Hebrew, each line in a set of verses begins with the same Hebrew letter). Finally, as I investigated further, I noted that in the Kabbalah, there is a relationship between the Major Arcana and the Tree of Life.

Insofar as there appeared to me to be a relationship between the hidden ancient spiritual knowledge contained in the Major Arcana of the Tarot and the Hebrew Alphabet, Psalm 119, and the Tree of Life, the challenge became one of finding the true relationships and hidden spiritual knowledge contained therein. That was the purpose of my investigation and the reason for writing down the results to share in this book.

INTRODUCTION

The true origin of the Tarot is unknown. Theories abound as to where it originated and its true purpose. The theories about its source are as varied as the authors who write about it. Some say that it was brought from Atlantis by Thoth and its secrets taught to the Egyptians. Others say that it was brought from China and India to Egypt and from there was taught to the Greeks. Yet others say that it originated with the Gypsies and was introduced to Europe by them. Still, others say that it was discovered in the Holy Land and brought to Europe by the Knights Templar. And some say that it was created by monks in the Middle Ages.

One of the more interesting points that I have noticed is that virtually every theory suggests that ancient spiritual secrets were included in the images of the Major Arcana of the Tarot in order to ensure that they were preserved and passed on to later generations. The significance of this symbology is mentioned in the book Egyptian Mysteries attributed to Iamblichus, where it states:

These pictures contain, in symbolic form, everything we know. Everything the Gods wished to reveal, everything we mortals can understand is contained in them.

These pictures, which we call the Book of Thoth, and which reflect a summary of the forty Books of Thoth, the God of Wisdom we serve, of the world and its creation, and the path humanity will follow. In this way they reveal the natural laws to which art, society, science and the entire universe are subject . . .

Carlyle A. Pushong mirrors Iamblichus, where he wrote:

The symbols in the Tarot cards of the Major Arcana have been identified with paintings found on the four walls in ancient Egyptian temples . . . Though the mnemonic Tarot symbols are stereotypes, they are also timeless prototypes depicting perennial human traits with an endless variety of mutations and flux in the life of Man the Earth-traveler. The Kingly Way indeed, to man’s eternal quest to find a place in the Spiritual Sun.

This intrigued me mainly because if that were true, the use of the Tarot for divination would, in my opinion, be a perversion of its purpose. I think that way because any true enlightened spiritual master would know that divination and other occult powers are obstacles to spiritual development and are meant for those interested in the material world. And by being indifferent to all the occult powers, one gains liberation. As an example, when the Master, Jesus Christ, was asked by the Pharisees and Sadducees for a sign from heaven, he refused. Certainly they would have considered divination a sign from heaven; however, knowing their materialist orientation, he would not provide a further obstacle to their spiritual development.

The question that I was confronted with was, if it is true that there are spiritual secrets hidden in the symbols of the Tarot, what are those secrets? I believe that those secrets show by symbols the spiritual path that man is destined to undertake to achieve spiritual enlightenment. All symbols are but keys to doors leading to truths, and many times the key seems so great that the things that are beyond it are not visible. If it is understood that all keys, all material symbols are manifestations and are but extensions of a great law and truth, then we will begin to develop the vision that will enable us to penetrate beyond the veil. Hence, I believe that the message is very simple and self-evident for those with the eyes to see.

As a starting point, I began to study the Major Arcana symbols in the various Tarot card decks. Each card had a number, and that number was associated with a particular Hebrew letter. Also, the symbol on a given numbered card was generally consistent in the basic images on those various cards. For example, the card representing the Fool was always numbered zero and always