← “Röhrig Cards” deck

The World

“Röhrig Cards” deck · card #21

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"No two are alike; yet all are alike before the Almighty. How can this be? Because each is perfect in itself."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The path of the Tarot is nearing its end. The seeker has arrived at the solution to the mystery, liberation from this World. Or is it liberation into this World? Regardless of the plane on which the outcome unfolds, initiates have completed their process of initiation. Now, at the end of their long journey, they understand: the path never existed, and they have always been here.

Carlos Castaneda defined the world as "a separate reality." As long as seekers on the path perceive the world as something separate, they remain on that path. But as the veil falls from their eyes and they behold the truth of their spirit, every cell of their body instantly understands that separation never existed, and could never have existed. The seeker has always been and remains everything: mountains, rivers, trees, shrubs, animals, flying birds, even the tiny ants crawling around the seeker's feet. The wanderer is identical with all creation.

This understanding is granted to the initiate in a moment of bliss, called illumination. This sensation is so profound, so deeply shocking, that it can never be forgotten again. If the initiate is everything and has always been everything, then it becomes obvious that everything external is also part of the initiate. Alienation, the sense of separateness that caused such intense pain, disappears, and the wanderers find themselves in the midst of unity. If an ever-greater number of people were to live on earth with this incomparable experience, love and understanding would reign throughout the whole earth, since all people would recognize their own part existing within every other person. Intolerance, envy and aggression, being expressions of ignorance, would simply gradually disappear. People who know will no longer feel this way. Love, tolerance and understanding for every living creature will find a place in their hearts. Every individual will belong to the great "I AM."

The World is like a carousel, an eternal dance. Nothing stands still, because motion is the engine of the material world, and life arises from this motion. If you remain at the stage of "not knowing," you can still lose yourself in the dance and the whirl of the world. But if you have become "one who knows," you have reached the middle of the spinning world and sense eternal life.

A very expressive image on card number twenty-one depicts a woman in the midst of an infinite Universe. A serpent is coiled around her, but she no longer fears this creature and its power. Instead, she even strokes it gently, and the tamed creature bows its head in a sign of devotion and worship. Many chains surround the woman, but all of them have been broken. This shows that the woman is free of every fetter and every debt, her karma resolved, and she works willingly to help liberate the World. Her eyes are closed, but she can nonetheless feel the whole World with all its joys and its pain. She is the liberated Eve, the truth that shows itself without a veil. Behind the veil, the secret essence of all being reveals itself. To know this secret is to master universal freedom and to gain the power that results from that freedom. All of this is bestowed by perfect initiation. Admitted to the streams of divine light, human beings have risen out of their fallen state, become one with the light, and leave the Wheel of Rebirth.

The World carries out the divine plan. The heavens open their gates and bestow upon us the gift of understanding the meaning of the eternal cycle of coming into and departing from existence. Everyone strives to find their fulfillment in active participation in the great process of life.

TAV (mark, sign) is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It embodies the "sign" in the sense of a blessing — the Divine blessing upon the completion of the task.

The rune of card number twenty-one is another form of the rune GEBO which, as we saw in connection with card number nineteen, means "gift." In this card, GEBO embodies success and constructive cooperation.

Saturn is the astrological sign of this card. Saturn is the sign of limitation, slowing and restraint. But transcended Saturn signifies the end of all limitation, fetters and bonds.

The card of the World is the card of fullness, the end of the path. It is the card of the consciousness of the individual, of the divine soul in harmony with the absolute SPIRIT.

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