THE ELEMENTS OF THE TAROT

Dec 5, 2020

Greetings to all you Sun and Moon patrons!

I recognize you might not all be tarot experts, so I thought I would share some basic information about the tarot along with these scans from my nerdy tarot journal...

THE 4 ELEMENTS

The tarot is a melting pot of premodern memes and systems of understanding the cosmos. The four classical elements from ancient greece: fire, air, water and earth, play a major role in the archetypal foundations of the tarot; they are also the basis of the 4 tarot suits: wands, swords, cups and coins. 

In most tarot decks the 4 suits are introduced via the Magician card. I like how Sara explained the Magician at our 2019 Sunstone presentation. She said something like this (but probably more eloquent): "After the fool says 'yes' to the universe and takes the great leap, the Magician—representing the universe—appears to the fool with a "yes!" in response." 

The four suits are presented to the fool and will help or guide her/him on the journey ahead. In the MT the suits will be loosely represented by the four sacred objects found in the stone box on Hill Cumorah: the Urim & Thummim, The Liahona, The Sword of Laban and the Gold Plates.

THE TAROT JOURNAL

Before I was able to make any sketches for the MT, I spent several years studying the tarot and all the esoteric ideas and symbols that have gradually, over the centuries, accumulated in it's imagery. As I was gathering ideas from mulitple sources I began creating a notebook to help aggregate and visually organize the information that seemed most relevent. The image above represents 4 pages from my tarot journal about the elements... 

I'll be sharing more entries from my tarot journal in the future. I hope they're not too difficult to read and decipher! I had a blast creating them and hope they help you learn a bit more about the world of tarot.

Before ending this little note, I just want to thank you for your generous support of the MT project! 

Best,

Josh Baird