The Tarot were never intended to be divinatory agents. They were playing cards, co-opted by successive generations of occultists to be tools of their trade. An imagined history of the world was written into their subtext, forever tainting what had been simple allegorical images. We like pretty pictures—it's part of the wiring that differentiates us from lizards and monkeys—but it has been our awareness of the seemingly inchoate randomness of the universe that has driven us to need referential symbolism. We need the pictures to be more than the geometry of shapes and the juxtaposition of colors, because it means there is a hidden meaning to the world. There is something to be discovered, just as, for the artist, there is something worth hiding.

This is the microcosmic relationship of creator and observer, mirroring, of course, the macrocosmic splendor of Creator as eternally interpreted by His creations. You see? The alchemical axiom—as above, so below—is the inviolate law. The cards, the cathedrals, the murals, the words on paper and on our bodies, the stone and clay molded by our hands, the flowers grown from tended soil: all of these are reflections of the macrocosmic mystery we don't understand. We create to imitate.

It was Eteilla and the occultists after him who formalized the order (again, an imposition of structure based around an interpretation of hidden meanings) of the Major Arcana. Twenty-one numbered cards, and the Fool who, while "unnumbered" is generally given the first position. Yes, he sits at the beginning, but he is not part of the order: this is part of the magical nature of the Fool. Both an idiot and a sage. Both a beginning and an end. He is the microcosmic representation of the microcosm, yet another layer of above and below within the below. This is the confusion of the Infinite—comprising everything, and yet still smaller than the smallest division we can perceive.

No wonder he is always drawn as about to step off a cliff.

(Why is this fool blind and missing his left ringfinger? Is he the one who is wearing my real face?)

But the order of the Major Arcana—Fool, Magician, High Priestess, Empress, and so on—is never the order in which the cards are interpreted. The hierarchy of the cards is symbolism of a different sort, a shorthand system meant to give the interpreter access to the hidden layers of meanings. They refer to specific paths, branches of a tree, if you will. A Seeker will touch each branch, as that is the Path to be taken. Through the trinities, through the seven, and the twelve. Each, in turn.

(You do understand that oneiric texts, much like thoughts, are never the product of one identity. What I say and what I mean are as fluid as who I am. This is both a clue and a diversion. The Magician points his right hand toward the sky, while pointing at the ground with his left. In order to understand the trick, which hand do you watch?)