This essay presumes acquaintance with the ideas presented in The Triadic Structure of the Tarot.
The first two triads of the tarot provide all that is really necessary for a person to function as a part of society. Two ways of relating to material existence (Fool and Juggler) are synthesized in the Papess, and two ways of working within the social order (Empress and Emperor) are synthesized in the Pope, who embodies the collective wisdom of the culture. What more is needed?
The neat self-containment of the human world is only apparent. It is frequently disrupted by experiences that pull us (sometimes kicking and screaming) beyond the confines of our accustomed roles. For our ancestors, these events were evidence of gods, angels, or demons at work. There was a great cosmos rolling above the head of the Pope, even as he sits at the pinnacle of worldly life.
The tarot trumps VI and VII represent the two most proximate routine-shattering forces: love and war. Love is the goddess Venus (represented by her son Cupid); War is the god Mars, riding in his triumphal chariot. The dividing line we have crossed is a clear one. The Pope is the apex of the "estates of man" (as in the Tarocchi of Mantegna), and in the very next card (Lovers) there appears the first supernatural being in the sequence: Cupid with his bow, flying in a glowing cloud above his helpless human victims. We are getting our first taste of the supernatural, in the form of the irresistible power of love, to which even the highest authorities of human society are not immune.
The loss of self that accompanies falling in love is well known, so once again we have a powerful passive principle as the first card of the triad. Love inspires self-sacrifice, dedication of oneself to the other, and the feeling that life itself is contingent on the fancies of the beloved. The victim of love also experiences a rush of creativity, the feeling of being a vessel for a limitless creative power.
Prior to such an experience, a person may live a life that is strictly habitual. There is nothing in the lower trumps that suggests uncertainty, soul-searching, or hard choices. The Fool, Juggler, Papess, Empress, Emperor, and Pope all live according to their natures, each in his or her own niche. But the lover finds the world turned upside down, and finds himself placeless, floating in limbo. Giving in to love means forsaking the clear, narrow life role defined by society. It may even involve breaking religious law, which urges responsibility, chastity, and conformity. Love threatens the status quo. The choice is depicted explicitly in the Tarot of Marseilles, in which the victim of Love stands between his seductive beloved and his critical chaperone . . . a classic scene of choice between good and evil. The direction of Cupid's arrow shows that the die is already cast. Love defeats propriety, just as trump VI defeats trump V.
Venus's complement is Mars, the god of war. Whence comes the passion to destroy? There is perhaps a premonition of it in the Emperor's insistence on principle over compassion. But the Emperor's real interest is in a lawful, orderly society. He takes no pleasure in meting out punishment, and certainly no thrill in unrestrained violence. Yet for Mars, carnage is the road to glory and victory. The war god is depicted not in battle, but riding in a victory parade. This, perhaps, is the clue to the seductive power of war: the image of right prevailing, of the world being saved from evil, of the hero who had the courage to do what no one else could. There is a passionate idealism in the Chariot, the image of the warrior driven to wage war in service of a higher cause.
The Lovers and the Chariot equally violate the social norms. As the familiar cliché puts it, "all's fair in love and war".
Two great forces have now been unleashed, threatening to topple the stable, cohesive structure established by the Papess and Pope. How is equilibrium to be restored? The third card in the triad is Justice. In a sense, the Pope was concerned with justice too, as his religious dictums helped mediate the conflicting demands of law and mercy. His solution, though, was communal and traditional; it tells us how to steer safely between the demands of feminine and masculine authority, but once the "cat is out of the bag" and those poles become charged with the supernatural energies of Mars and Venus, he is out of his league. Justice is higher than custom; she knows the idealism engendered by the gods of love and war, and uses it to restore order. For Justice is also an ideal, an abstract principle, not simply the voice of a human institution as the Pope is. Even those who care not for the expectations of society will respect the ideal of impartial judgment, weighing right and wrong, not by social standards but by universal morality.
Justice lacks the power to actually prevent the gods from finding their victims among humanity, but she can keep the effects of their interventions from spiraling out of control and toppling the social order. If the Pope is the soul of society, Justice is its conscience. After the passions pass, Justice remains to put things back in order and help us regain perspective. In addition to this social function, Justice provides a personal function as well. The person who has been captured by an amorous or martial form of idealism will not easily return to a life of unexamined habits. Justice is an ideal that can sustain and inspire one's moral life even after social and religious conventions have been cast into doubt.
Each synthesis is also a transcendence. What new level of consciousness does Justice open up? Justice operates as third intervening deity, helping to clean up after the others. In doing so, she suggests the possibility of actually achieving a position of mastery over them. She thus paves the way for the work to be done by her sister (Strength) in the fourth triad.
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Copyright © 1999 Tom Tadfor Little