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If you’ve ever played a video game or roleplaying tabletop game such as Dungeons and Dragons, you may be familiar with the idea of leveling. Characters have levels, and when they get enough experience, they level up. The Judgment arcanum is about your level. Judgment, at its core, is the real-life equivalent of leveling up. The card art depicts men, women, and children awakening from coffins to stand up and greet the Archangel Gabriel, who is blowing his trumpet because it is Judgment Day. However, the eschatological side of this is one of transformation, not a final end. Thus, the...

The Lovers have come to take on a purely romantic meaning in a lot of modern Tarot readings. It was not always this way. Once upon a time, the Lovers meant something very different. The original, primordial energy of this card lies in a duality of choices. Specifically, fulfillment against distraction along one axis, but also stagnation versus growth along another. The aim is to make the best choice to gain both fulfillment and growth, without stagnating or becoming distracted. In no place is this more evident than in romance. In romance, especially serious romance leading to marriage, this card...

We all know about the Zodiac. It's twelve star signs. Depending on when you're born, you get a star sign. That sign says things about you. You can read your horoscope in the newspapers. You can read it online. You have certain personality traits based on your sign. You have one of the four classical elements of earth, wind, water, or fire associated with your sign. And on some days, your sign is good. On other days, it's bad. But where did it come from? The answer may surprise you. Many people think that the Zodiac is a recent invention,...

The Magician is one of the most deeply symbolic cards in all of Tarot. Like the World, the Magician encompasses everything. Both the World and the Magician have the four elemental symbols present in some form. The World does this with the tetramorph of four elemental Zodiac signs, whereas the Magician has straightforward symbols on the table before him. He gestures up with one hand and down with the other, echoing the words of the Emerald Tablet: "As Above, So Below." As it is in the World, so it is in the Magician, and the Magician and the World both...

The World represents completion, first and foremost. The picture shows a naked woman. She is dancing inside of a laurel wreath, which, in some Tarot sets, may be an ouroboros. Around her are the four faces of the tetramorph: ox, lion, eagle, and man. These are the faces of the four living creatures seen by the prophet Ezekiel. They are also the four elements of earth, wind, water, and fire, and the four fixed Zodiacs that bear those elements. The woman holds a wand in each hand, similarly to the Magician. This shows that the World is a completion of...