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RE: Three Paths the Fool can take: Action, Mission, Passion (Dividing the Major Arcana)
Interesting. I'd be tempted to correlate these with the Tria Prima. Action would equal Sulphur, which corresponds to the 'cardinal' signs in astrology. Mission would equal Mercury, which corresponds to the 'mutable' signs. Passion would be Salt, and the Fixed signs.
Thank you, I thought this was interesting too. I tried to look at it the same way, and we agree that Action would be Sulphur. I am still looking deeper into this though and find it hard to decide which of the two remaining paths would be Mercury (Mutable) and which would be Salt (Fixed). With so many Earthly and Saturnian energies in the Passion path I can see why you would want to attribute it to Salt, but I'm not sure how "Fixed" it is, since most of the Fixed cards (corresponding to the Fixed signs in Astrology) are in the middle row (Taurus, Leo, Aquarius).
And then I'm preparing to write another article on this which confuses the matter even further. I was looking at this and noticed how The Fool might have to go through all three paths, the first path being the path of Virility, where he battles his way through the mundane with Spiritual Awakening at the end, symbolized by the Sun. The second path the path of Virtue which is the path of initiation, where he becomes an initiate in XX Judgement (The Aeon). And the third path is the path of Vice or the path of liberation, where in XXI The World/The Universe true freedom is attained.
I specifically want to focus on The Cardinal Virtues: Fortitude, Justice and Temperance, in the middle row. And based on this spread, I want to propose a new Key for Prudence, which up until now has mostly been taken to be either II The High Priestess, IX The Hermit and XII The Hanged Man by various different people at different times. This should become interesting.
Thank you for the upvote.
Indeed. My tria prima attributions were a quick attempt. Mainly based on a superficial reading of the imagery in the concluding cards of the Sun, Judgement and the World. I can see how the final row could be seen as mutable however. This would also put the progression in the same order as astrology, which starts with cardinal (Aries), progresses to fixed (Taurus) and then Mutable (Gemini).