Tarot Orat Rota Tora by Edgar T Portisch (2001).pdf

Tarot Orat Rota Tora

www.tarot-origins.net

www.tarot-rota.net

Tarot Orat Rota Tora , © Edgar T. Portisch

Chapter 1

TAROT: ORAT, ROTA, TORA

YEAR OF THE IRON SERPENT

2001 A.D.

Tarot has the meaning of speaking, the wheel and the law, as shown in its letters. The

Orator unveils and lays bare the hidden meaning. The Wheel is the wheel of life, fate and

evolution, changing in time, pointing to the stars, naming the astrologic age and turning from

life to death to life as the Universal Law, the Hebrew Thora, Buddhist Dhamma, Amero-

Indian Medicine-Wheel, the Zodiac, and Hindu Samsara.

The Tarot have an extremely old origin. In their youngest manifestation they appear

as the Book of Wisdom, attributed to the Egyptian God Thoth. Thoth is the God of Wisdom,

said to have reigned as king of Egypt during the “First Time” – Zep Tepi – 52.000 years ago.

Foreseeing the major cataclysm that befell the planet about 10.500 B.C. – known in legends

from all over the world as the flood, the deluge -, Thoth is said to have hidden and protected

the “most secret knowledge”, in the interior and layout of the three pyramids of Gizeh. The

Tarot are the hieroglyphic pictures created by the survivors of the cataclysm in Egypt, whence

all occidental, historic western heritage has its roots. Other survivors in the east are known

through the Nacaal Mystery Schools. There, a similar knowledge-system was developed,

wherefrom the I Ching in China and the Indo-Aryan Astrology of India are the most well-

known examples. Still other survivors of the cataclysm arrived in the Americas, wherefrom

stem their particular astronomic and astrologic calendars, oracles of the Earth and of the

Moon, highly developed astronomy, and a system of transcendent medicine which also

functions as a spiritual teaching.

To Thoth, also known by his later Greek name Hermes Trismegistos, are attributed all

systems of Magic, Alchemy, the very invention of the written Word, Music, Medicine, and the

Egyptian variant of Astrology. His famous “Tabula Smaragdina”, the “Emerald Tablet”, is the

basic text of all western, occult, initiatory, “hermetic” knowledge, the corner-stone of the

Rosicrucian temple, integral part of the legacy left by “religious” orders as the Templars,

Knights of Jerusalem and their later off-shoots. Thoth, as the ancient God of Wisdom, figures

as the teacher of the great Gods Isis and Osiris, and the later God Horus, their son, owes him

worship and respect.

Tarot Orat Rota Tora , © Edgar T. Portisch

The last transmutation of the word Tarot, Ator, signifies “adoration of the Divine”. As

“Ator = Adore”, it stems from the newer Goddess Hathor, as the latest reflection of the

previous “Time of the Gods”.

Largely predating the pharao-kings known as “Followers of Horus”, these divine

figures stand out in the mists of time before the flood, before the building of the pyramids, in

a world-cycle during which the cosmic wheel’s spokes pointed to the pole-star Vega, brightest

of all “circumpolar stars”, and a constellation predating the age of Leo. As a last vestige of

that time the Sphinx at Gizeh, also known as “the silent guardian of the secrets”, looked due

East, towards the rising of the constellation of the Lion at the spring equinox.

Thoth, whose legacy lies in the 78 cards of wisdom, and in the system that later

became known as the Quabbala, resembles the mythical creator of the I Ching, Fu Hsi (Fu

Hxi), and indeed both systems mirror each other.

In a comparison between the most ancient oracular “wisdom-systems” we find, in the

West – the Occident – 78 Tarot cards, divided into 22 cards of Major Arcana or Trumps, and

56 Minor Arcana, divided into four suits representing 4 elements. Also, we find the system of

the Quabbala with its “Tree of Life”, a glyph or picture containing 10 “Sephirot”- “power-

spots”, focuses of divine radiation, an equivalent of the Eastern system of “Chakras”. The

mystical Jewish tradition of the Quabbala, a variant of the hermetic Egyptian Quabbala, has

accorded the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet to the 22 Trumps and given Hebrew names to

the Sephirot on the Tree of Life. Sumerian, Chaldäan, Babylonian, Phoenician and, later,

Greek and Roman Astrology has added the signs and names of the Zodiac and the 7 “old”

planets to the Tarot and the Quabbala. Hebrew and Greek became the “lingua franca” among

the scholars of the occidental systems.

Arabic, as also “occidental” in a way, has accorded its own “symbol equals number”

philosophic system towards an interpretation of the Tarot. This should be observed, for not

only the Hebrews integrated the ancient Egyptian numeric codes; serious scholars of the

Koran actually accord more importance to the numbers than to the written words. In fact,

today the Arabic number-symbols, from 1 to 9, have supplanted all previous systems of

counting.

In the East – the Orient – we find the already mentioned Chakras, normally 7 in

number (yet expandable to 12 and 13), which reflect the Sephirot on the Tree of Life and are

Tarot Orat Rota Tora , © Edgar T. Portisch

practically used in Hindu medicine, Ayurveda, and in Chinese Acupuncture (as the main

relays of the “meridians” and subtle energies of the body). Of course the 7 Chakras have their

correspondences with the 7 planets. The Hindu Yoga and also medicine employ the Nadis,

the subtle channels of ethereal energies, whose numbers follow the harmonious path of 1, 4,

8, 12, 16, corresponding to the Wheel of Dharma, from Brahma to Creation.

The Orient has developed various oracular systems, of which the I Ching is the most

famous. The I Ching are composed of two forces or “basic attributes”, Yin and Yang, united in

Polarity, as tangible manifestations of all-pervading, transcendent Tao. Combined into

Trigrams, Yin and Yang give rise to 8 “elements”, the Trigrams grouped into 64 Hexagrams

are the Chinese equivalent of the 78 cards of Tarot. Ancient Hindu and later Indo-Aryan

elements have been integrated in what is today the huge body of Sino-Tibetan Buddhism

(just as Hebrew and Greek, and finally Arabic, were integrated in Quabbala and Tarot): the

five elements of Sanskrit, the Tattwas, and certain aspects of Astrology.

Chinese, Hindu and Tibetan “Holy Science”- such as eastern medicine, Zen, Ch’an,

and all initiatory methods of meditation – is the equivalent (albeit somehow more profound

and more practical) of the hermetic western “Holy Science ” – Alchemy, Magic, Greek and

Celtic-Druid “initiation-stages”- which has led to Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry and all

modern practical “science”. Yet the Hebrew and Greek influences, with all their “hermetic”

symbolism, have also effectively barred the way for a total integration of the complete

occidental heritage, which would necessarily include the science of the Druids, the Germanic

Runes and all their special symbolism, and the large and interestingly overlapping, mutually

according heritage of the Celts and American Indians. Were all these pieces of wisdom

integrated, all the East with all the West – whereby Polynesian, Australian, Inner-Asian and

African traditions would prove to fit nicely into the grooves of the “universal wheel”- , then

the original, wholly unfolded Book of Thoth would lay exposed and all secrecy, doubt and

ignorance as to its content dispersed in the light of truth.

Both the Tarot and the I Ching, as also Astrology, owe their survival through the

turbulences of time to their oracular functions, which Man, even in the midst of book-

burning and Vandalism, did not want to renounce.

As the Tarot lack any integrated statements as the I Ching have to offer, the uniting

motto of both may be found in a Chinese commentary to I Ching-sign number 43, Kuai (also

called “Overthrow of Evil”):

“ The strong disperse the weak ;

Kuai teaches so.

Prospers the good man’s way ;

To grief all small men go.”

(I Ching, James Legge translation)

The Tarot, having passed from Egypt to Central Asia, and later returned to the Near

East, reappeared with an adjunct of Hebrew connotations, and it is this mingling of Tarot

with Hebrew elements that gave rise to the Quabbala as it has appeared in published form. As

will be demonstrated later, all ancient wisdom is the same all over the world, only the modes

of symbolism vary with time and place. With the quabbalist interpretation in view, it should

be pointed out that the “Tree of Life” is reported to have consisted of 8 “Sephirot” in the

oldest times, i.e. the topmost Sephirah, “Kether”, was removed to form a circle around the

whole configuration (God encompasses all Creation), and “Malkuth” and “Yesod” (Earth and

Moon) formed one symbol only. In this way the quabbalist symbolism is wholly integrated

with all known traditions of the ancient and new World, based upon the holy number 8.

Tree of Life in

traditional form.

Kether to Malkuth, with

Da’ath indicated (subtle

circle).

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