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Occultist Aleister Crowley, on the other hand, writes that innocence is empty; instead, he exhorts his readers to seek ecstasy, the bliss of the unencumbered sensual experience of this present moment, as the path to enlightenment. Imagine the pure, unadulterated wonder of a child and puppy playing in abandon, or else those brief moments of orgasmic rapture when you merge with both your partner and the entire universe. Both innocence and ecstasy are the gifts of the Major Arcana’s Fool; faculties which, if we but follow the Fool’s lead, we can each use to awaken to the truth, that impossibly out-of-reach elixir of life sought by so many in this modern world of pretense.
Yet many of us, jaded and wearied by this pursuit, do not even know what truth is anymore. Generally puzzled and plagued by this quandary throughout history (and herstory), humanity has invested considerable resources to discover the truth—from lie detectors and the courtroom, to multitudinous religious and philosophical traditions, to vast systems of research and education. According to the dictionary, there are two substantively divergent interpretations to the meaning of the word truth: initially, truth focuses on our day-to-day experience of reality, defined as conformity to fact or actuality, a statement proven to be or accepted as true. In other words, this type of truth is actually based upon the agreement of a particular group of people who decide, together, that something is so. We each have our own reality or interpretation of what we see, regardless of how clear or obscured our vision, and if others agree with our version of reality, we call this “truth.”
One of my favorite Buddhist stories regards three blind men who have never encountered an elephant before; each has the opportunity to discover the nature of an elephant through the faculty of touch. The first touches the elephant’s trunk, concluding that elephants are long and serpentine, made mostly of wind. The second feels the belly of the elephant, determining that elephants are mighty and round like the earth itself. The third feels the elephant’s legs and decides that elephants are mighty pillars spiraling up into heaven. All of them have correctly based their “truth” of the elephant on their own experiences, yet none of them grasps the entirety of “elephant”. They have each perceived a different layer of truth. |
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Imagine, if you will, that each man decided to form a religion or philosophy based upon his personal knowledge of the elephant. The first might found “The Church of the Mighty Serpent”, the second might call his organization “The Foundation of the Great Earth”, and the last might establish “The School of the Heavenly Pillars.” Soon others would join, sacred books would be written, all based upon a different layer of truth. Eventually, one group might even fight with another over the “truth of the elephant.” Each group has a different interpretation of what is real. From a linguistic standpoint, the very word “real” looks like “re-all”, meaning the experiences that the collective has decided shall persist again and again. Reality can actually be seen as one massive loop of existence that all of us are constantly re-creating to be so.
Conversely, the second type of truth (perhaps it would be better to call it “Truth with a capitol T”) is defined as that which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence; this Truth is actual, regardless of our own world view, personal experiences, or the agreements about reality held by a particular people group. (After all, regardless of what we say or write about it, the elephant in its entirety actually exists.) I have often heard this Truth referred to as Absolute Truth, which by definition would be unconditional, pure, complete, and perfect; however, often attached to this absolutism is the erroneous (and demonstrably dangerous) concept of One Truth, that elusive conviction that has haunted man throughout history, at the root of so much of our civilized lunacies and inhumanities.
Quantum physics inserts a delightful snafu into this concept of Truth, by proving that, at least at the quantum level of existence, matter is not solid or real, but is actually a wave of infinite possibility until we, the observer, focus our attention upon it, making it a momentary particle of reality. From this mind-bending perspective, each individual as both observer and participant plays a role in creating both truth and Truth.
The Kingdom Within Tarot encompasses both definitions of truth. It is a tool to help regain our innate faculties of innocence and ecstasy, for the truth is everywhere—we need only open our eyes to see it. There is no need to seek outside oneself for truth, for playing the game of the search for truth is really a game of hide and seek with oneself. In fact, whether we seek outside or inside, we are the truth, we are surrounded by the truth, and we meet the truth every day.
Osho, the modern self-proclaimed “irreverent mystic”, affirmed this fact when he spoke the following words: “…striving towards truth is nothing but creating more confusion. The truth has not to be achieved. It cannot be achieved, it is already the case. Only the lie has to be dropped. All aims and ends and ideals and goals and ideologies, religions and systems of improvement and betterment, are lies. Beware of them. Recognize the fact that, as you are, you are a lie. Manipulated, cultivated by others. Striving after truth is a distraction and a postponement. It is the lie’s way to hide. See the lie, look deep into the lie of your personality. Because to see the lie is to cease to lie….In the seeing of the lie it disappears, and what is left is the truth.” (This Very Body the Buddha, Chapter 6)
Seeing the truth forms the foundation of the ancient Eastern practice of yoga—a fairly recent trend in the West—which is one of six spiritual systems of Indian thought known as darśana, derived from the Sanskrit root drś, which means to see. According to the Indian sage Patańjali, we are lost in avidyā, which is best translated as incorrect comprehension. Because of the presence of avidyā in our lives, we either act incorrectly because we do not see clearly, or else we do not act correctly because we doubt our ability to see. Avidyā is the consequence of the amassed layers of unconscious programming, habits, and actions that have become hidden to us throughout our own existence. The dilemma with clearing the film of avidyā from our lives is its concealed nature—once we have begun the downward spiral of not seeing, we lose the awareness that we do not see. Thus the perpetual predicament: if we cannot see our own avidyā, then how do we know it is there? By recognizing the four fruits of its existence in our lives: asmitā (ego: I am right, special, and more important), rāga (attachment: I must keep what I have and get more of what I want), dvesa (refusal: I reject any experience in this present moment that is either unknown to me or else has brought me pain in the past), and abhiniveśa (fear: I worry about loss, uncertainty, and ending). These four branches of avidyā blur our awareness, preventing us from vidyā, or correct comprehension (which leads to knowledge). |