I think I have shown that in every case the tarot trumps have alchemical equivalents, and that comparing the two at least gives us associations and interpretations that might not otherwise have been aware of.
However now one can justifiably ask, So what? How does the realizatin of these parallels contribute to our understanding of life and of a wisdom that can be accessed in the tarot trumps? So I will express the parallel elements in more psycho-social-spiritual terms.
In general, the process begins with the ingestion of the rejuvenating substance in its primitive state, where it is combined with harmful ingredients. This is the castration of Saturn, where Saturn is a god who ensures good crops and abundant animals but at a cost of human sacrifice, as in the pre-Olympian religions practiced by the pre-Roman Celts and other pre-literate peoples. But this ingestion, while it brings death to the one who eats, as happens in the myth of the Garden of Eden, yet succeeds in bringing the divine spark into humanity. And there is a corresponding liberation from human sacrifice: Jupiter's castration of Saturn is also the substitution of animal sacrifice for human sacrifice. However the divine element still exists in impure form, even though it is within humanity. For that a succession of deaths and rebirths will be necessary. Each death is preceded by an integration of something that was outside one.
In the first coniunctio, the Lover card, there is the internalization of the masculine by the feminine and vice versa. However it is perceived as outside oneself. More generally, within a framework common to two people, there is the internalization of that which is undeveloped in oneself and recognized in the other. So I would call it an unconscious integration, throgh projection, of what is undeveloped and unrecognized in one's being.
The result is a significant increase in energy, as one accesses powers hithertolargely inaccessible. So we have the rise of the soul into the clouds, as pictured in the Rosarium series. This is also the transcendence of matter into spirit, a separation from the body, in the Chariot card. But again ithe separation is perceived as outside oneself: one has left evil matter for pure mind. On an interpersonal level, it is the recognition that bad as well as good comes with the other. It is a separation that puts evil in others and good in onself. There is not yet the realization that the evil is primarily within and has been merely projected outward.
That realization comes with the Hanged Man and is communicated by the Hermit. The result is a dismemberment of the previous ego and a recognition of one's own evil, in pain and suffering, a stifling recognition of one's own evil nature, as in the Devil card, and of one's own limits, as in the negative example of the Tower. What is required is the use of that recognition in gentle, slow meditation and repair.
There is no easy fix. But eventually one can be cleansed, through proper practice, and annointed, in the sense of being prepared for another coniunctio-the solar eclipse shown in the Moon card . This one leads one to a recognition of one's divine spark within, which can be obtained through withstanding one's fears. The result is a new being, the red stage, which also must die and be replaced by the androgyne, which can regenerate others, the stage of Multiplicatio.
To see the whole in another form, I give here a short summary of the main alchemical associations to the tarot trumps, following the order as given by the "Marseille" style cards.
0. The Fool: bringing down the spiritual fruit. “Every fixation of the Volatile (the maiden chased by the monster) is followed by a volatilization of the Fixed” (De Rola, Golden Game p. 180).
1. The Magician: the one with objects that work magic.
2. The Popess: the female adept, Maria Prophetess, initiator, guide, feminine Mercury, and Juno. “She [Juno] is the Queen of the gods, because she controls, dissolves, joins, separates, and constrains the metals, which are named after the various gods.” (Conti Mythologies p. 81, ed. DiMatteo).
3. The Empress: Eve/Venus, fertile one, Sulphur in natural Salt, Empress-to-be.
4. The Emperor. Adam/Mars, potent one. Sulphur in natural form. Emperor-to-be.
5. The Pope: male adept, initiator, guide, masculine Mercury, Hermes Trismegistus/Imhotep, Jove.
6. Love: Mars and Venus united by Juno; Juno and Jove. “She [Juno, oil of Mercury] is in charge of marriages because she is the means for conjoining the sulphuric vapors, Venus and Mars, and because before the distilling process, she is joined with Jove, and the two together engender the alchemical sun, hence being called the wife of Jove” (Conti Mythologies p. 81).
7. The Chariot: the alchemical Sun Apollo and the son of the Sun, Phaeton.
8. Justice: sword and balance, the alchemist’s tools for weighing, cutting, balancing
9. The Hermit: student and teacher of the Art, Saturn, one who has taken the path to the light.
10. The Wheel of Fortune: the circulation in the apparatus, up and down.
11. Fortitude or Strength: the Lion as fire and as strong emotion; its transmutation into higher and gentler forms.
12. The Hanged Man: wanting to go up but going down. Inscriptions around alchemical images of men hanging upside down: “This knowledge requires a true Philosopher, not a foolish one.” “It is not for Man’s industry alone, but in God’s hands, to will and encompass All in All” (from Mylius, translated by de Rola, Golden Game, p.152).
13. Death: death, dismemberment, entering the darkness. Michael Maier Atalanta Fugiens 44: “Typhon slays Osiris and scatters his limbs abroad, but majestic Isis reassembles them.” Lambspring, Emblem 13: “But when the Son entered the Father’s house, the Father took him to his heart, and swallowed him with excessive joy...”
14. Temperance: circulation of fluids from above to below; avoidance of extremes. Rosarium: “The upper fume descends to the lower fume and one fume conceives by the other fume” (Fabricius p. 129).
15. The Devil: confined inside the oven with much heat. From the Rosarium Philosophorum: “Know that the head of the art is the raven that flies without wings in the blackness of the night and the brightness of the day; in the bitterness that is in its throat the coloring will be found.”
16. The Tower: negative example, what should not come next. Maier, Symbola Aurea Mensae Emblem 3, “Take that which is trodden underfoot in the dunghill, for if thou dost not, thou wilt fall on thine head when thou wouldst climb without steps” The man stuck in the dunghill is like the small figures on the Devil card. The man climbing without steps is one who hasn't taken some of the dung with him, to provide gentle heat. Taking some of the dung enables one to truly transform instead of merely repeating. The Tower card is the negative example to be avoided. The Star card shows the positive result..
17. The Star: washing and anointing, dissolving and regenerating, forgetting (separating from) sins and remembering (uniting with) good deeds, lunar and solar. Triumph over the seven eagles of death. The seven eagles are the "colors" of the "peacock's tail." II Samuel 12:20: “Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshiped...”
18. The Moon: lunar medicine, Corsican wolf and Armenian bitch fighting to the death and being transformed. Tarot version: solar eclipse, enabling one to see the jewel in the depths and get it from the water monster,
19. The Sun: solar medicine. “Bring fire to fire, and Mercury to Mercury, and that will suffice thee.” “Our Mercury is the green lion devouring the sun.".
20. Judgment: multiplication of the Stone; uniting with the guide, uniting the two into one and having many divine progeny.
21. The World: the middle figure as Jesus (of the three), Mary (of the four), and as the hermaphrodite in the egg (the quintessence). Splendor Solis, 5th Parable: “These are the four elements, constituting the Quintessence.”..”In the middle of the Yoke there is a fifth element, out of which the young chicken bursts and grows.”
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