THE TREE OF LIFE

In Renaissance Italy
Amidst an emerging
Scientific Enlightenment
Tarot cards became placeholders
At the heart of the Old World
Of Enchantment.

Ancient Truths
Distilled to their
Essence were
Encoded in the Deck
Providing Meditations
On the Hermetic Tradition. 

First Card:
The Magician
Symbolizing the Transposition
Of Consciousness From the Skull
To the Thoracic Cavity
Where thoughts are Silenced. 

In the quenching of Desires
Of Preoccupations, of Memory
Of Imagination
Of Discursive Thought
Is born Mystical Concentration 
Without Effort.

Second Card:
The High Priestess
Symbolizing a Contemplation
That uncovers 
The Profundity
of Gnosis:

Where Memory 
Serves not the Past 
But renders Consciousness
As a Mirror
To Reflect
That which is Above. 

Pure Memory
Is a Manifestation
Of this Sacred Duality:
Revealed to the empirical self
From the Domain 
Of the Transcendent. 

Third Card:
The Empress
Is the Arcanum of Sacred Magic
The instrument of Divine power.
She demonstrates the sublimation
Of Nature. 

Sacred Magic
Is the Tree of Life
Regenerative and Eternal
Rooted in the Above
Its fruit manifested
In Harmony Below.

Nature is Wounded
Not Destroyed.
The Tree of Life
Is its Synthesis
Of Consciousness
Force and Matter. 

It is Implicit to Life
Contrary to its Dissection
And Domination
Implicit in Science.

It is Celestial Light
Not Darkness.