Tarot Cards for Sexuality by Paul Hughes- Barlow
The Tarot for sexuality
The Major Arcana are the best for exploring sexuality, particularly when combined with several courts who may represent the client and the person they are interested in.
As in every tarot reading, context is paramount. For some women, knowing that they are going to meet a ‘gentleman friend’ is as far as the reader needs to go. Others want more details – these are the ones that push for information. I remember a woman in a new relationship asking about her lover. Most prominent was the Devil, so I casually mentioned bondage… her eyes lit up and misted over in reverie of her expectations.
This list is not exhaustive, nor is it guaranteed right in every situation. Some of the practices are illegal depending on where you live. It is not the purpose of the tarot reader to advocate any of these practices either.
The list is created entirely without any reference to the Tree of Life, using my imagination. I have not used all the suggestions in a reading. I have not defined the divinatory meanings in terms of reversals – it is up to you to decide if you need reversals to fine tune your interpretation.
If you have any suggestions or enhancements, please contact me.
Fool
Remember how the ToL came about? It was a sixteenth century invention to diagrammatically represent information found in the Sepher Yetsirah. It took centuries for someone to come up that, and it has been modified since to the version we have today. The Golden Dawn version is the most copied, but it is still a version (others are available). Looking at the diagram of the ten sephiroth and 22 paths does not explain it. The Tree of Life is the microcosm of the Universe, a small, pale imitation of life and the cosmos.
Re-assessing the ToL forces me to rethink Liber 777, the Golden Dawn book written by McGregor Mathers and other GD adepts, including Aleister Crowley as a Bible for all their magical rituals. I have a soft spot for this book, but you have to be ruthless. Continual questioning of what you know and what you don’t know is vital for healthy growth.
A bit of double-think has to go on in all of this because I still have to communicate in the language of the Tree to other people. I liken the adherents of the ToL to tarot and magic as in a goldfish bowl. I can step into the goldfish bowl, but equally i can stay out, and I am free to go elsewhere and explore.
Students think you have to ascribe and attribute everything to the ToL, but this is a false notion, especially when there is no truth that the Tree is a correct model of the universe.
Re-assessing the ToL also means that I have to totally rethink the way I look at my favourite deck, Crowley’s Book of Thoth. I will endeavour to take no prisoners.
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Losing virginity. A new lover who takes you to new levels of sexuality and spirituality. Going beyond one’s sexual experience into new areas.
New or original sexual experiences. An exciting or unpredictable lover.
Magus
Reading or writing about sex. Letters, email, texting a lover. Telephone sex.
Bisexuality. Publishing a book on sexuality.
High Priestess
Fluctuations in sexual energy. Travelling long distance to meet a sexual partner.
Using intercourse to explore spirituality. Renunciation of sex. Practising abstinence.
The Empress
Passionate indulgence. Sex for procreation, creativity, or with a married or status woman. Pregnancy.
The Emperor
Sex with an older partner, an employer, politician, military person or status individual or that involves domination or strict rules.
Dressing up in uniform. Sexuality to gain promotion. Laying down the law, or strict rules on sexuality. Parental advice
Hierophant
Sex within marriage or teaching an inexperienced partner, or a religious person, priest, etc.
Conventional, unadventurous, perfunctory or passionless sex. Proposal of marriage. Wife swapping. Religious advice on love and sexuality.
The Lovers
Exploring between lovers. Lovers who are very similar in outlook, interests. Lovers who are neighbours.
Writing letters, emails, texting or phoning a lover. Love between siblings. News about a lover.
Chariot
Dominating or controlling. Sex on some form of transport – the ‘Mile High Club’. Sexual obsession with a parent. Dogging.
Lust
A passionate love affair. Bestiality. Sex magick, with royalty or to raise one’s status. Taking risks. An orgy
The Hermit
I have to admit I lost the desire to look at all the heat and very little light generated by this argument years ago, for it is a lot to do with one’s views on life, and nothing to do with the Tarot. In this series of posts I am considering what the benefits of the absence of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life would be.
For a start the order of the Major Arcana is fundamentally based upon the Sepher Yetsirah and its attributions to the Hebrew letters. By definition we maintain the order of the Hebrew alphabet, so it is up to us to place attributions, and the problem is that there are many different versions of the astrological attributions which all contradict themselves. Trying to create meaning from the sequence is a pointless exercise. If we ignore the Tree of Life we do not have a problem, for the sequence is essential to maintaining the hierarchy of Masonic and quasi-Masonic Orders, such as the infinite varieties of the True Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and proliferation into the O.T.O. et al.
I am not bothered by whether the Fool is zero or not, for the argument only arose when the Indian concept of zero arrived into Europe via the Arabs.
The only attributions worth keeping are astrological – the 12 signs of the zodiac and the seven planets, and this brings out the inherent limitations of the Hebrew alphabet, for there are only three cards left for the four elements. In truth it would be better if the lunar nodes were included.
There is no point in reinventing the wheel by having the Fool as Aries, then The Magician as Taurus and so on, and then the 13th card would be one of the planets, with the final three attributed to Air, Water and Fire, not necessarily in that order.
My order of the Major Arcana
My primary concern is with the astrological attributions, and not the Tree of Life, so for example, I could not care less that the High Priestess connects Kether to Tipareth through Daath on the Tree of Life. However, I know it is very important to some people, so I always maintain awareness of those views but I attach no significance to them. The attribution I keep for the High Priestess is of course the Moon." data-blogger-escaped-data-image-meta="[]" data-blogger-escaped-data-image-title="Ordering the Major Arcana" data-blogger-escaped-data-large-file="" data-blogger-escaped-data-medium-file="" data-blogger-escaped-data-orig-file="" data-blogger-escaped-data-orig-size="" data-blogger-escaped-data-permalink="https://paulhughesbarlow.com/ordering-the-major-arcana/" data-blogger-escaped-style="border-style: none; box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 0px 0px 8px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" height="113" src="https://i0.wp.com/supertarot.co.uk/c75d/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/9-The-Hermit-187x300.jpg?resize=70%2C113" style="border-style: none; box-shadow: rgb(255 , 255 , 255) 0px 0px 0px 8px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="70">
A secret lover. Masturbation. Renunciation.
A secret passion or obsession for someone – secrets. Feeling alone. Affair with a work colleague. Counselling.
Fortune
Sex for political gain – with or between politicians or a wealthy or powerful person.
A change in partner. A whirlwind romance.
Adjustment
A legal marriage. Looking for an aesthetically pleasing or beautiful playmate.
Sex with a lawyer, solicitor, judge, older partner or foreigner. The legal aspects of sexuality. Divorce. Demanding conjugal rights. Finding a lover at a wedding or legal establishment.
The Hanged Man
Suffering in silence. An abusive relationship.
Making sacrifices for a partner.
Fruitless waiting for the desired person to come into one’s life. Loss. Death of a partner. Abortion.
Death
Death of a partner An intense relationship.
Sex for money or in secret places. Sexual disease. Discovering secrets.
Art or Temperance
Seeing sex as a higher or spiritual calling or with a Guru. Holiday romances, or a foreign partner. Complicated sexual relationships involving several people.
The inability to manage or cope with a relationship. Filming or photographing pornography.
The Tower
A dominating, violent, oppressive, abusive or disintegrating relationship. Sex with someone in the military. Discovering shocking aspects to a partner’s sexuality.
Realising a partner is not faithful. Scandal in high places.
The Devil
An intense or suffocating relationship. Bondage. A corporate or business love affair. The sex industry. A brothel. Desire for domination or subjugation. Being tied up. Obsession with one’s boss or superior.
The Star
- Title and Numbers printed on tarot cards
- Hebrew Letters
- Numerical Value
- Key scale
The convolutions that can take place are seen in the Adjustment card, which is 9th, numbered 8, with Lamed 30. This connects it to the Hermit card (8) and the Sun 30 on the Key Scale.
When we look at the big picture of this table, there is something striking, for tarot students believe that attributing the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet to the cards is primary, but only the first column is in numerical order – the Numerical Value and Key Sc ales show a rather more random pattern. Although this table is in Crowley’s Book of Thoth, it is derived from Liber 777 used by the Golden Dawn Adepts, including A.E. Waite. As an example, while Crowley transposed the Emperor and the Star card he did not change them in the sequence – it is OK to change the alphabetical attributions but not the order.
Of course, that did not stop the Golden Dawn from transposing Adjustment (Justice) and Lust (Strength), and notice Crowley felt the need for renaming them both.
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Aspirational sex. Seeing someone as a friend and not a lover. Desiring a love affair with a friend or acquaintance. Cybersex. Unconventional relationships. Flirting.
Finding a lover at a social event. An orgy. Homosexuality. People with a similar sexual outlook. Fetishists. Fetish party
The Sun
Sex with a rich or famous person for publicity and fame.
The Moon
Sexual fantasies or phobias. Confusion about relationships. Infidelity. Ambiguous sexuality. Sex-magic.
Judgement or Aeon
Making a decisions on a relationship.
Inability to deal with issues in a relationship.
Universe or World
End of a love affair. Meeting one’s desire.
The object of one’s obsession. Anal-sex.
Love affair on holiday or a foreign country.
The object of one’s obsession. Anal-sex.
Love affair on holiday or a foreign country.
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