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The Chariot: Cancer

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ALLIES OF CANCER

   "Look, Mr. M! Two sphinxes are pulling a chariot!"

   "This path has two different meanings, depending on whether the charioteer is a warrior moving toward Severity, or a knight on a quest for the holy grail, heading towards Understanding. The knight wears armor as if going into battle and appears to be moving away from the enclosure of a fort or a city, but the path contains several oddities. First of all, the animals pulling the chariot are, as you mentioned, sphinxes, representing the combined elements. One is white, one black, suggesting the polarity of the two pillars of the Tree of Life. And the sphinxes are resting, not pulling the chariot. The knight is standing in a cube of gray stone, which symbolizes physical manifestation. Also, the reins are invisible. The emphasis is again on balance: the knight’s shoulder guards are moons with masks of human faces, one smiling, one grimacing. In the knight’s crown is an eight-pointed star, which represents the conscious awareness of the higher self as we saw in the path called 'The Star.'”
   “Why is the star in the knight’s crown, Mr. M?" 

   “That star suggests an awareness of the divine spark, and depending which way the knight is moving on the path, he or she is either carrying that knowledge into manifestation or awakening that knowledge by moving toward greater spiritual enlightenment in what the Qabalists call the Neshamah. 

  “On the path of ‘The Chariot,’ you are at the end of a cycle related to the higher self and are about to begin a new cycle related to the essence of the self, the divine core. The 18th path is the key to understanding one of the most basic divisions of the Tree of Life. In one division, the four lower Emanations--Victory, Splendor, the Foundation, and the Kingdom--represent the lower, incarnated personality. The three Emanations above, Mercy, Severity, and Beauty, known as the Ethical Triangle, represent the higher self, or Individuality, which contains the essence of the soul's experiences within incarnation.

   “In the first cycle, you purify and dedicate yourself to the Great Work, attaining a heightened awareness of the higher self. In the second cycle, you pass through the veil, experiencing the kind of rebirth necessary to live in the higher self. In the third cycle, you experience reintegration of the psyche and achieve harmony and balance. In the last cycle, you move through one of the highest veils, known as the Abyss, to the core of your being, the divine spark around which the individual soul has evolved, a state that transcends brain consciousness. In fact, you experience the supernal triad of The Crown, Wisdom, and Understanding primarily through intuition since they remain beyond the planes of form.”
   “That sounds kind of scary, Mr. M.”
   “It is perhaps one of the most daunting challenges of all. When you reach this point, you are moving along the edge of a frontier that very few have explored. 

   "Another way of looking at the Tree of Life also exists. Roughly, the divine Self is divided into three supernal Emanations, the conscious self into five Emanations, and the physical self into two Emanations. Starting at the bottom of the Tree, you have the physical body, the aspect of the individual known in Hebrew as the ‘Guph,’ the shell that contains the self. The second part, known as ‘Nephesh,’ corresponds to the etheric body, the subtle matrix of energy that is the foundation of the physical body. As you rise on the Tree, you find the different aspects of the conscious self known as the Ruach, associated with Splendor, Victory, Beauty, Severity, and Mercy. Beyond that is Knowledge, or Daath, which is not technically an Emanation but a bridge to the divine core. Then you find the three Emanations that correspond to the True Self: Understanding, known also as Neshamah and corresponding to the intuitions of the spirit; Wisdom, also known as Chia and corresponding to the Divine Will; and the Crown, also known as Yechidah, which is the spiritual essence of the individual unified with ultimate Reality.”
   “So does this path connect the conscious self with the essence of the Self, Mr. M?”
   “Yes, very good, and the 18th path on one level helps you to understand form, especially in its relation to force, as you move to Understanding, which on the Tree of Life contains the abstract principle of form. Again, the Hebrew letter, the astrological sign, and the God name bear this out. First of all, the Hebrew letter Cheth, which means ‘fence,’ or ‘enclosure,’ is associated with the path of The Chariot. When ownership of animals was a primary source of wealth, the fence was extremely important in establishing the boundaries of what a person considered valuable in terms of belongings, suggesting the boundaries of the self. Also, of course, an enclosure is associated with a type of form. Cancer, the astrological sign, also relates to form in the sense of a shell encasing the body of a crab, the way that the armor encases the knight, or the way the body encloses the soul. The God name for this path is EL, formed by the Hebrew letters Aleph and Lamed, and is associated, like the sign of Cancer, with the element of Water. Aleph, as you know, means ‘ox,’ and is associated with the great strength and potency of the life force, whereas Lamed means ‘ox-goad,’ and suggests the ability to channel that great power for particular uses.”

   “Is the God name more associated with force than form?”
   “Remember that this path connects Understanding, the sphere of the root of form, with Severity, the sphere of great discipline and limitation, on the Pillar of Severity, revealing how force is focused and channeled through form, force being like the combustion within an engine that causes a machine to move. Without the discipline of form, force would remain free-moving and uncontained, its potential unmanifested and unrealized.
   “The 18th path is the connection of the Ruach with the Neshamah and as such channels the spiritual intuition into the conscious mind. Notice again, the association with Cancer, a Water sign, which suggests that each individual, like our friend the knight, is like a crab in a shell in a vast ocean of manifestation, the forms, in another sense, like waves that incessantly rise and fall and rise again. Understanding, is associated with the great celestial Goddess and is also associated with the ocean and the moon with its forever changing phases. You see, our friend the knight is not really moving, but is attentive to the spiritual dimension and the voice of intuition while maintaining spiritual balance in a changing world.”
   “Can you always trust your intuition, Mr. M?”
   “That depends. If a person has not attained the consciousness of Beauty, intuition consists mainly of vague images and whisperings. Occasionally, you’ll think of a friend and that person will call you. But once you’ve opened up that higher awareness, you also eventually open up a channel with the Neshamah, which gives you strong, reliable intuitions.
   “The knight might be moving down the path to Severity, going to war, which suggests on one level that the conscious self within manifestation might contain conflicts that need to be harmonized for the highest good. Or the knight might be heading up to Understanding on a quest for the holy grail, the cup holding extremely high spiritual energies. Either way, the knight on this path is feeling the influence of the True Self and is letting his or her star shine bright through the facets of manifestation.”

Two of Cups: Venus in Cancer

   "Mr. M, why is the head of a lion floating above those two people?"

   "We see a man and a woman, both holding a golden cup. They face each other while they reach over to touch each other tenderly.  The magnetism they feel draws them together, and the energy they generate rises above them, symbolized by the red lion’s winged head above golden, intertwined serpents.  The snakes reveal an occult, or “hidden,” philosophy of love.  The bodies of the snakes join and move apart at different levels of being, the physical at the bottom, up into the astral, the mental, and the spiritual levels.  Your allies are, in other words, “mated," in tune with each other at each of these levels.  Moreover, your allies, who are in the second Emanation on the Tree of Life, also reveal the energy of polarity in equilibrium and expansion, which is characteristic of the life-force in its unobstructed, natural state.  The most primal expansion in terms of the Tree of Life was the first cosmic act of creation within manifestation, with the Crown, the Source, emanating Wisdom, the second sphere, or state of being, establishing equilibrium and then expanding again to give rise to the third Emanation, the state known as Understanding.  This process occurs naturally also within the individual at different levels of his or her being.  The intertwined serpents suggest the caduceus, the ancient symbol of optimal health that reveals the open and balanced channels, both masculine and feminine, of the life-force in the aura.  The red lion reveals the fiery expansion of the kundalini, which is the life-force thrilling through every level of the psyche--physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual--when nothing is obstructing it.  But the kundalini is not pure expansiveness--it is expansion that occurs in its optimal state in balanced equilibrium, as suggested by the entwined serpents.  The powerful energy of the life-force, to be more than just blinding fireworks, needs to be firmly grounded in order to provide stability for love to flourish, which is suggested by the home in the background."

   "I like them very much, Mr. M. They remind me of my parents."

Three of Cups: Mercury in Cancer

   "What lovely dancers, Mr. M!"

   "Our friends who dance before us are like the Three Graces, Goddesses of harmony, splendor and abundance who preside over banquets, dances, and other pleasurable events, bringing joy and goodwill to both Gods and mortals alike. They dance and sing with Apollo, and like the Muses they inspire artists to create stunning works of art. In this dance, you feel the influence of both Cancer and Mercury. For appreciation of the arts--or beauty in general--the subtle senses must be open while the emotions, as well as the sympathetic imagination, are engaged. The influence of Cancer stimulates the subtle senses and the imagination, manifesting as an active and abundant internal life that includes a love of the arts. When the subtle senses are open, a person is more psychic, more open to an abundance of spiritual influences as well. The influence of Mercury, the messenger of the Gods, is necessarily linked to harmony and abundance, a state which cannot manifest without a conscious pursuit of beauty, the inspirations for which are often communicated from the depths of the psyche. As your allies lift their golden cups, you can feel the emotional, mental, and spiritual inebriation of the inspired life."

   "I can feel that, Mr. M! I want to dance with them!"

Four of Cups: Moon in Cancer

   "That man is very quiet, Mr. M," Claire whispers.

   "Our friend sits at the foot of a tree in a posture of meditation, recalling the Buddha who sat under a Bodhi tree until he attained enlightenment.  Your ally is having a vision:  an ethereal hand extending from a cloud offers him a golden cup.  His eyes appear to be open, but he is in deep concentration, perceiving the cups before him with the psychic third eye.  As many who meditate know, visions of archetypes and symbols sometimes appear as real as anything in conscious, waking vision.  Your ally is under the influence of Cancer, which stimulates psychic powers as well as powers of sympathetic imagination.  The Moon, associated with psychism and the subconscious mind, is also a powerful influence.  Even though your ally may give the impression of being down-to-earth, common, even simple, in this state influenced by the Moon and Cancer, he can experience great insights that reveal the magnificence, harmony and abundance of the spirit, characteristic of Jupiter, even possibly, like the Buddha, inspiring generations with his wisdom."

   "I think I'd like to sit under a tree right now, Mr. M. Would you mind?"

   Mr. M chuckled. "Not at all."   

Go on a different adventure with Mr. M.