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The Tarot of Eli: Major Arcana-New Orleans Voodoo Tarot- Key 18- Magic Mirror & Thoth Tarot- ATU 18-The Moon

Western Qabalistic Tarot Card Comparisons.

The New Orleans Voodoo Tarot- Key 18-Magick Mirror, in voodoo, the magic mirror is used to thin the lines dividing the worlds. To use the mirror is to walk upon a tenuous crust in the revolving mists while the worlds meet and join hands, left to right and right to left. The Astral waters have risen above the heavens and fallen below the earth, to rest in an illusion of solidity. Therefore, the Mirror is these Astral Waters frozen in time. The Astral is known to be deceptive. Hence, deception and true sight play upon its surface, and the loa/lwa reach out from its depths. In Western Magic and Voodoo, the mirror is a magic weapon par excellence, equally able to trap the user or that which is summoned from its misty depths.

Mirror magic is an ancient belief that has been made strong by its longevity. When many thousands believe it, the power of concentrated souls, empowers it. Therefore, the skrying of a dark mirror is where worlds of the conscious and unconscious meet. The Waters of the Universal Collective UNconscious are where "ideas" begin swirling the liquid light of the Astral into forms, one can often get advice from an ancestor from such a skrying. Here, the Waters of the Unconscious flow in opposite directions on either side of the mirror and upon the surface of the mirror is where the 2 opposites meet. I have also used the mirror to see into the Akasha of the Soul, and view the many persona's the Soul has created. Many call this "past life viewing". It is spooky to watch your face change to that of another person from times long past, but it is also fun to scroll through the "image library" of the Soul. The tension made by the contact of 2 opposites, makes the illusion of solidity; a solidity easily broken by the touch of the sorcerer's will. All of us are "from the Source"; hence, sorcerer's by inheritance. The Will is the Power of Creation, and once it disturbs the equilibrium of the 2 opposites, the Waters surge forth or push inward with a tremendous force. Remember, All is Mind and Water is the Universal Element of Consciousness and Energy-in-motion (emotion) and as currents in vast ocean, the waters can be used to carry an expedition through the protections of another sorcerer but if control is lost, their force can turn and carry the same malevolent powers into the spellworker's heart. So it is best, to use the mirror for skrying the many "lives" of the Soul, or as a spiritual "skype" to talk to benevolent spirits such as ancestors etc. Malevolence, can only hurt the caster more than the subject of the casting.

It is a common practice for Voodooists to mirror on other's actions in the performance of rites; Rites that have different significance in different contexts. used in exchanging gestures of greeting and recognition , the mirroring may constitute a show of unity. Ego's who believe in the show of "magical"strength, often use the mirror rituals as a contest of strength, in which 2 powerful practitioners compete through a performance of mirrored, complex, ritual gestures. A strong magical charge then builds up and is exchanged through the performance of these gestures, and then the concentration of one usually vacillates and breaks. This need to prove power, is a very deeply imbedded "survival thinking" of the animal kingdom and is not a process of thought that is in the Soul. The Soul respects the right of others, to be alive in their own time, progress and path. Each of us is on a different timeline, as we are all different and/or individual frequencies of energy; we carry our own light. Some may seem more advanced than others, not because of being superior in anyway, but because of timelines, some have been longer on the path of "the Alive" than others.As proven by astrophysics, new galaxies are born every second, each a "big bang " of its own and so are new soul's born everyday. Some of us are "old souls" which means we made a lot more mistakes than the new one's and hopefully have learned from them, as Wisdom is 50% error and 50% correction. That experience is often why one may recoil in shock by the rampant errors done by the "younger" souls, but they to have to experience error in order to become wise. As my old master teacher told me, "Everyone has a right to their disease".Therefore, we can't "heal" everyone, and only help those who ask assistance while helping themselves. This goes along as the old folk axiom of , " It's better to teach a man to fish, than give him one". For if we go around trying to "correct" everyone, we aren't allowing them to gain wisdom, and often we generate only jealousy, hatred and anger. Part of Wisdom, is to let everyone be and go on being you.Now I know this will ruin the coffee or tea clatch, where gossip and criticism are viewed as entertainment, but then these only burden the speaker's with the "timelines" of others and soon their personality will break under the burden of so much emotional "baggage".

There is a 3rd context of mirror magic, that is more pervasive while also being more obscure. Here, the mirroring serves to acknowledge and ritualistically invoke the double nature of visible existence and the invisible spirits that is aptly displayed as the Marassa twins, the Anima and Anima of the Soul.

Let me tell you form personal experience, when one looks into the mirror and calls upon their opposite , if male his anima, and if female, her animus, to experience the "doubling" that is the "Twins of the Soul", is to have the underpinnings of one's "reality" shorn through. My anima, Elizabeth,(my muse)has often straightened me out, as the male ego tries to conquer the world. She implored me to leave the World alone, above all things be thyself through the process of "Above all things, know thyself". We have purpose, only as ourselves, for that is what we are created to be. You, by being present, correct an error or even error's in the ecology of the Universal Collective Unconscious; Hence, in Life. You have been Approved into being, as understood Self-Data, you can be no better than being you.However, you are not now present, for you are being the word-programed identity made by the Rulers/Patriarch. Rulers, are those who control definition, and therefore, your definition is controlled by culture not by your Soul. You are under a dark and depressing demonic possession of the Group Slavery Soul made by "the few who wish to rule the many", and that rule begins in religions. Religion is not god, for religion is man-made, and "the gods are the creation of the created". The Divine Creative, is the One Mind,the I AM, and you, each and everyone, are a Self-Image of that One-I Am on your own timeline.  Each a power unto yourself. I AM Spirit, Mind and Body.

A bird like form hovers in the right hand corner of the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot-key 18. The African Oracle , Ifa, identified the bird as:"Work of hands, wings shall despoil-such be our intentions" (Gleason, 1973. p. 133). Therefore, a primary attribute of this card is symmetry where like meets like in an opposite stance upon the mirror's surface. Duality is the domain of magic.

When the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot- Key 18-Magick Mirror is thrown in divination, it implies:

  • Magic and sorcery.
  • Occult power.
  • Deception (manipulation of"smoke and mirrors".)

Suggested contemplation: Look into the mirror until your image moves, while you are still. Here magic begins.

THE MOON, which is the 18th Key of the Major Arcana or Trump, is called the Path of Qoph--meaning, back of head or ear. Connecting Netzach (Victory) with Malkuth (Kingdom) the Path of Qoph is described as the "Victory of the Material World" and/or the "deceptive effect of the apparent power of the Material World". This path, is also known as the "Threshold to life”: a spiritual birth that may be considered on two levels. On one level, it is the course of incarnation where the soul organizes the physical body of which it will inhabit. It is a kind of sleep (physical consciousness not yet formed), a kind of pre-consciousness, that differentiates into mater from the collective unconscious of Netzach on another level, where the student is advancing spiritual awareness up the Tree of Life, it is a path of conquest of the phantoms of their "man-made" personality which are creations of the created.

The path is a probationary path, where the student must face the emotional phantoms hid in the dark recesses of their own self-conscious, as well as those of the race. The moon symbolizes the “Self –reflection” that goes on with the inner Solar Logos/Soul and our consciousness. Our consciousness is the Moon of “self-reflection”.The Path of Qoph be disturbing to those of weak moral fiber, and can pose real dangers to one's emotional stability. On the other hand, those strong enough to tread this Path and slay the monsters "within" our sleep-consciousness and understand their mechanisms, gain the capacity to manipulate those qualities in ourselves and those of others. Mastery of Illusion is a product of this path.

As stated,the meaning of the Hebrew letter, Qoph,is also the back of the head, behind the head itself, is the Sum-Resh. The Moon symbolizes the anterior to the bright intellect of the Sun. The Moon, the Path of Qoph, only reflects the light of the Sun. Thus the central path of the card goes from the dark side of the Moon, towards the light side that reflects direct Sunlight. This rising act of direct Sunlight is show as the Egyptian Scarab symbol of the God Kephera (khepera), pushing the Sun towards the Moon. Basically, the Moon -Key-18, symbolizes the rebirth of light out of hideous darkness; bright intellect overcoming the dark denizens of our subconscious, i.e. the illusions of emotional fears.

In Thoth Tarot, THE PRIESTESS, is a source of pure, crystal clear waters (consciousness) emerging from the Godhead-The Father, to God the Sun/Son. The Same waters of consciousness are seen here on The Moon card, but they are polluted with the dark subconscious fears of mortality, that physical manifestation bestows on consciousness. However, as I have stated before, the traveling up the Path of Qoph, towards the "Sun Consciousness”, notably changes the body physiology, as the Bright Beautiful Light Intellect of the Son/(Tiphareth) descends into it. When traveling up the Path of Qoph, the Personality becomes increasingly aware of the Higher Self and less control by the dark fears of the body are felt.

Dr.Paul Foster Case called The Moon, the "Corporeal Intelligence" which means the "body consciousness". Also in Hebrew the word "corporeal" means "to rain upon", which is why we see the symbols of Yods raining down from the central orb of the card. Since this is a Watery Card, some of a more poetic bent, say that these Yod symbols are "tears of the Moon- Goddess" raining down and filling the Nile. What we all agree on is that something descends from the Moon to the Earth on the Path of Qoph, which is represented as raining Yods.

The path of Qoph is that of primitive instincts, of nature red in "both tooth and claw" which emerges uncontrolled by moral or ethical reasoning. The traveler of this Path will face aspects of themselves that our culture forces them to repress but are indeed integral and undeniable parts of our predatory human form. This is the Survival Mind, where the "law of the jungle" resides in the dark pools of violence and conquest. This can be a very cruel path to endure, until the student is able to fear not these internal demons which removes the veils of darkness, allowing in the Bright Intellect of the Son who applies beautiful reason to our consciousness.

The simple Hebrewletter of Qoph, translates into the English word, sleep .Thus we have a conscious relationship with the Moon, The bright Sun reflecting side, our waking consciousness and the dark sunless side of the "sleeping" sub consciousness. As the Moon has cycles, so does our consciousness, as during the cyclic phase of conscious withdrawal from the physical (Sleep) many of us still act upon the fantasies and information closely related to the body’s survival based experiences. Their dreaming is filled with phantoms produced by the body’s fear of pain and/or death which once consciously transcended, is the successful completion of the Path of The Moon.

The initiate, finds that birth, death, and resurrection are pivotal concepts on the Path of the Moon. These biological processes occur in the light and dark of our sensual perceptions. The two figures of Anubis, the jackal -headed gate keepers, symbolize this cyclic process (Spiral energy) as the god Anubis was the Egyptian god of light and darkness, death and resurrection. The "As above, so below" is shown as a pattern on this card also reinforces this meaning.

The Moon, symbolizes the process that consciousness goes through, when energy proceeds from order to disorder (2nd law of Thermodynamics), from organized flesh to death. To understand the Path of Qoph--The Moon, is to understand the partnership of our personality-consciousness to the physical vehicle, which the Soul Purposely builds for each manifestation. Since most people perceive themselves as having existence only through their bodies, this is often a most difficult undertaking.

The Moon was often seen as a Goddess of Life (White Goddess of Light and a Goddess of Death (Dark Goddess) at once praised and then feared. It is the physical vehicles fear of dying that hounds our consciousness in many subtle ways, producing phantoms who manifest as phobias, obsessions, and mental - emotional disorders. Our consciousness comes from the immortal Soul, and is unused to such thoughts of fear filled ending. We recycle, our consciousness, which is a "reflection" of the Soul Conscious-Personality. Bodies forget, that they are a recycled part of the Whole Organic Organism that we know as the Super Organism of Organic matter. Like I have often said," You came from cranberries and to cranberries you shall return..." which is a slightly dark humor that I use to give the brain pause from its attempts at survival thinking.

We are not a physical brain (Wet-ware); We are Spirit/Photon Energy That powers it, and are to ad to the brain-wet-ware the Soul's own software: A personality for the purpose of experiencing the discernment of being a "living thing". Thoughts can no longer be indiscriminate mental ramblings of an a fevered self-conscious. They now must support life, and expand and liberate the "living" from the of death- based fearful thoughts of the slave programing we are told to incorporate as our identity.

The Immortal-Psyche's are here to redesign the "survival mind" of the animal body. We are the Suns of Living Creative Conscious Energy, who must reflect upon a world of Matter in order to "know itself", a self -reflection which for generations was symbolized by the Moon. For as we all know, this is the realm of "Reflected light" which is less than one percent of the total electromagnetic spectrum that is the medium of our “personality-consciousness , that medium being the Photon Energy of a Star that is "self-aware" , that on the Path of the Moon, the Souls learns to run the physical vehicle by expanding the brain's perspectives beyond that of life and death, into the knowledge of personality-resurrection.

"Know ye not, that ye are stars?"

When the Moon card is thrown during a reading:

  • · The querent is experiencing dissatisfaction and voluntary change is on the horizon.
  • · The querent is experiencing choice and authenticity over old illusions and delusions.
  • · A call to enter into the darkness of the unconscious and to come to grips with one's fantasy made demons.
  • · Within 18 weeks or 18 months the querent must take control of the survival mind and expand it beyond its fear based perspectives.
  • One is on the erie path to the Soul.
  • Confrontation with the night. 
  • Encounters with fears. 
  • A journey into the underworld.
  • Deepest self-knowledge.

If ill defined by surrounding cards:

  • Illusions. 
  • Hysteria.
  • Persecution complex.
  • Hallucinations.
  • Drug abuse.
  • Fear.
  • Flight from reality.


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