Fabio Listrani
The Spirit of Ether
Similarities:
A traveller, Innocent, walking blindly down a path unknown. With a pack over his shoulder of worldly possessions, he realises his world doesn’t fit anymore, and feels the material is not enough. He has stripped down to the bare essentials and is ready for a new journey.
Night Sun Tarot beckons you to ask yourself…
“What must I free myself of while travelling along my path, so that I can channel my energies more effectively?”
The dog at the heels of The Fool –
as this deck is inspired by the Thoth system, it is not a cute friendly lil’ companion, rather a ferocious Brown Hound (Tiger-dog) representing animal nature, survival mind. The Hound chases The Fool; attacking, scaring, driving the fool from complacency. Moving him forward with a ferocious drive. This is force rather than suggestion.
0 :
Zero is the beginning of the never-ending cycle of realistation. The no-thing, the spirit, infinity. All and nothing. You begin as The Fool, die as The Fool and begin again as The Fool. At the centre of everything is nothing, the speck that can explode into unlimited potential. The blackness that is absent of light; the realm in which ideas and dreams are born. The black hole, the black Sun, dark matter, The cloud that devours in the Neverending story. Whatever your nothing is, it begins and ends everything – it is the Ether.
This is a bit of a side-track but check out this cool video by Theoria Apophasis with the Ether, sacred Geometry and the Kabbalah in mind. This will become more relevant further down the post.
The symbol on the top left, translates to Oxen, yoke, learn, strength, power, leader. It is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
When two Oxen are put together (yoked) to plough a field, the more experienced one teaches the inexperienced.
This symbol was also used to identify a young King (young bull) a powerful leader whose symbolic possessions were a scepter/staff- the tool of a Shepard, and a crown – horns of a bull- authority.
Air:
Is for intellect, thought. In this case, opening one’s eyes to the possibility of new ideas.
Specifics:
The Chaos symbol appears on this card twice, as an emblem and as a collar. The symbol itself represents the chaos of nature; the random, the unforeseen forces working in and around the universe. As an emblem it could possibly refer to the principles of Chaos Magick. A chaos magician believes that belief is a tool, in and of itself. One uses a magickal paradigm or system, and changes it periodically to gain different results or manifestations. Hence all the many directions of possibility represented in the collar. It could also refer to the many dimensions of belief and existence one could have within the chaos of the astral. On the other hand, the collar could represent blindness and confusion about how to direct his energies within the chaos he finds himself in or creating due to naivete or inexperience.
Needless to say. with the many magical sigils and seals that appear within this deck, one could assume that working ritual magic may have been in mind with its creation. Something I would love an opinion on.
The Black Egg:
In The Fool’s hand is a black egg; a possible reference to the Orphic Egg. The Orphic Egg is from the Ancient Greek Orphic tradition. It is the cosmic egg the primordial hermaphroditic deity Phanes emerged from. He then created all the gods.This concept is about spirit awaiting to be manifested. The egg lies with the potential of creation. It just needs fertilising, impregnation with an idea. The Fool has always had this ability but never knew it, had no comprehension about how to manifest anything. Let alone have an idea. One could say that he carries an egg that is rotten from neglect. It is glowing with potential.
This egg could also represent the Akashic Egg, the 5th element, spirit. A realm of infinite space and sound. The astral realm where the Akashic records preside and manifestation begins.
The black colour of the egg could also just refer to the negative creation, creating unwittingly or willy-nilly. The Fool can be careless… think Mickey Mouse as the magician’s apprentice!
The Circles, Triangle in a circle and Rays: Binah and the Black Sun:
Behind the Fool is a large set of circles with a triangle in it flowing over this is a series of Black rays. This is Kabbalah and Sacred Geometry. . This is a massive subject that I’m only beginning to understand, so for a better explanation visit: lsmerchantile.com
Binah is the third black sephirah on the sephiroth, Tree Of Life in the Kabbalah.
The tree of life
Binah is feminine, the higher mother, creator Goddesses, The Empress. It is also like The High Priestess, intuition, she that through which all understanding flows.
It is understanding, the intellect that gives shape to an idea; the womb that gives shape to the spirit. A quarry or mine that is carved out by the wisdom of the light.
There is a story of Isis creating the world with the golden ratio because she understands the light of Sirius. Sirius is a binary star system.
Isis brought a spiralling, resonant harmony to the Earth. This brought time and the Golden Ratio (divine proportion). This is the natural manifestation of perfection on earth.
Which is also the story of sacred Geometry and many other creation stories.
This is a possible connection to the circles and the circle with the triangle inside it behind the Fool. The Fool’s placement is at the centre of the circles. The Fool is being reborn in the womb. spiritually.
When thinking about this, recall the video above which was about nothing being at the centre of all (the Ether)
www.luminati.com delivers this definition:
‘The outer most is Ain:
Veil of NOTHINGNESS. This is literally “no-thing”, the Nothingness of Infinity. It is the Emptiness of life, the potential source of energy from which Divine Consciousness is constructed.
The Second layer is AIN SOPH :
Veil of EVERYTHING. This is literally “every-thing”, where the Limitless seeds of life exist forming a sort of cosmic soup of dust and particles. It is Infinite Light Without End. And from the Darkness, God created Light.
The inner most layer is AIN SOPH AUR:
Veil of DARKNESS & LIGHT. This is where the seeds of life form the seemingly opposing forces of Radiant Darkness and Limitless Light. At this point, both exist together. Here is where duality is born, which then threads its way through the tree creating the Polarity of all Divine Life.’
These energies are in an area called Tzim Tzum, the concealed realm. Like the spirit world, the spirit then comes down through ‘the creator’ and is birthed into creation. Just as The Fool realises the path and is born on a new spiritual adventure. Could this be what the other circles outside of the first circle could be referencing, the realm of Tzim Tzum?
it is possible that, in this deck, The Fool is Faceless because it is Sexless and undefined, The Fool has the potential to be anything, either sexes, any gender. Much like a foetus in the womb, the identity is not yet realised.
Earlier I referenced the story of Isis bringing the divine ratio. In sacred Geometry the story is the same only explained with mathematic shapes instead of gods. The Triangle in the circle is very much like the stage of harmony and sound. A triangle inside a circle means triune, the world of forms, enclosed within eternity, a circle. A triangle facing up is male energy. The triangle is the first cosmic form, emerged from the chaos that preceded creation. The Three dimensions.
This shape in particular is, I think, also a reference to a tetrahedron. This shape is how the music of Geometry was discovered. Within this shape you can find all the measurements of the harmonic systems of music.
You could literally find a shape for every song!
In Hermetic belief Sound or vibration is one of the 7 steps of understanding. That all things begin with sound. I won’t talk too much about this as it’s a huge theme in the magician card.
The only reason I can think of this shape being here is that either like in the hermetic belief the first step is to self realise, realise that you are in order to realise what you are. Like the Fool does, or that the shape is there in it’s pure form as the triune, The holy trinity of the universe we live in. The Beginning, the middle and the end, eternal. The materialisation of sound and matter in the womb…
Back to Binah now, it can also be interpreted as the eye with which the soul can view the outer realms, much like The High Priestess.
Binah represents processed wisdom. Binah is associated in the soul with the power of conceptual analysis and reasoning, the ability to examine the degree of truth or falsehood, inherent in a particular idea. A more figurative way of looking at it can be found in this example: the light of the sun blinds us from the truth, romances us with the material, making us forget the spiritual and tempt us with materialism.
This is where the Black Sun/Night Sun reference comes in.
Even the Sun has a dark self, witnessed during an eclipse.
In alchemy, the Black Sun, or “Sol Niger,” represents the dark, destructive aspects of the sun.
If we think of The High Priestess being the oracle and keeper of the veil between two worlds and Binah being an eye. with the understanding of the concept of no-thing, let’s use this example:
The pupil is a hole located in the centre of the iris of the eye. It allows light to strike the retina. It appears black because light rays entering the pupil are absorbed by the tissues inside the eye, directly. This is also like a Black Hole. A hole in space that dematerialises matter, which at the centre has an absence of light. A Black Hole is also known as the Black Sun, the gateway between two worlds. The Beginning and the End.
In Jungian psychology, there is an aspect called the Shadow Self. This is the dark side of one’s personality. The part of yourself that you (your conscious ego) does not identify or see in one’s self.
It’s all the stuff that you are blind to or can’t/won’t deal with.
The Night Sun deck is a shadow work deck, designed for self-analysis. You cannot become more spiritually enlightened if you have bags of crap weighing you to the ground!
This is the dark side of your psyche, the eclipse of the sun, the shadow. As The Fool, you need help to gain access to this. So, you will go on a journey – the hero’s tale. On this path, you will meet The High Priestess. It is she that grants you permission to enter through intuition.
The whole point of this deck is that one premise. Gaining entry to the subconscious, the abyss or the spiritual.
In this deck, the reminder of the Shadow/Night Sun is symbolized by dark rays streaming across the card.
To end on a light note, in a lot of decks The Fool carries a white rose of purity. I was thinking about the connection to an image of a rose taken in a different light spectrum. This light spectrum acts just like the dark light of illumination that is referred to by the Kabbalah. This is called Kirlian Photography – a photo that captures electrical coronal discharges. The pure energy of a being.
Some call this the ‘aura.’ An interesting idea – check it out for yourself!
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