What are the Veil and Its Symbol in Tarot Cards?

Learn all you can about the mysterious Greater Arcana and their meanings! Check out this section for more details.

The Four Suits - The Lessor Arcana

The resources of interpretation have been lavished, if not exhausted, on the twenty-two Trumps Major, the symbolism of which is unquestionable. There remain the four suits, being Wands or Scepters—ex hypothesi, in the archaeology of the sub­ject, the antecedents of Diamonds in modern cards: Cups, cor­responding to Hearts; Swords, which answer to Clubs as the weapon of chivalry is in relation to the peasant's quarter-staff or the Alsatian bludgeon; and, finally, (Pentacles—called also Deniers and Money—which are the prototypes of Spades. In the old as in the new suits, there are ten numbered cards, Cut in the Tarot there are four Court Cards allocated to each suit, or a Knight in addition to King, Queen and Knave.

The Tarot embodies symbolical presentations of universal ideas, behind which lie all the implicits of the human mind, and it is in this sense that they contain secret doctrine, which is the realization by the few of truths imbedded in the consciousness of all, though they have not passed into express recognition by ordinary men.

A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the
countenance of divine Apollo, with smile of confidence and
shining eyes. Above his head is the mysterious sign of the
Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an endless cord, forming
the figure 8 in a horizontal position 8. About his waist is
a serpent-cincture, the serpent appearing to devour its own
tail. This is familiar to most as a conventional symbol of
eternity, but here it indicates more especially the eternity
of attainment in the spirit.

 

She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some1 spoken. She is seated between the white and black pillars-J. and B.-of the mystic Temple and the veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palms and pomegranates.

 

For a long time since when I was a teenager I had long heard of the amazing and colorful stories of tarot cards and tarot reading. Just over a year ago, I was being presented with the challenge of having have to make a very difficult decision in my life. Fear of the unknown, and fear of the future and what was to come made me feel frustrated with life and with what life was throwing at me during that moment of my life.

It was during this difficult period that I was being introduced to this English tarot reading master. I was hesitant about tarot reading and what tarot reading can do for me. I decided, there and then, that I had no choice.

 

In respect of their usual presentation, the bridge between
the Greater and Lesser Arcana is supplied by the court
cards-King, Queen, Knight and Squire or Page; but their
utter distinction from the Trumps Major is shown by their
conventional character. Let the reader compare them with
symbols like the Fool, the High Priestess, the Hierophant,
or-almost without exception- with any in the previous
sequence, and he will discern my meaning. Read more ...

 

There has been no attempt in the previous tabulation to
present the symbolism in what is called the three worlds-
that of Divinity, of the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. A
large volume would be required for developments of this
kind. I have taken the cards on the high plane of their more
direct significance to man, who-in material life-is on the
quest of eternal things. Read more ...

Death

The veil or mask of life is perpetuated in change,
transformation and passage from lower to higher, and this is
more fitly represented in the rectified Tarot by one of the
apocalyptic visions than by the crude notion of the reaping
skeleton. Read more ...