The Major Arcana
The Major Arcana is a collection of 22 paintings measuring 56x76cm on English
cotton paper. The theme derives from the first 22 cards of the Etteilla tarot, being
the most important or major cards of the deck, which in its entirety consists of 78
cards.
The origin of my idea to create this collection has very little to do with the tarot
itself, which I use only as a reference to explore a bigger theme, vast and complex,
and mystically bountiful. It’s the continuation of a myth turned phenomenon that
started in ancient Egypt from a little known god named Thoth.
Thoth, though not one of the most known gods in popular culture, was in fact, one of
the most hailed and important divine figures in the ancient civilization. Portrayed
having the head of an ibis, or sometimes the figure of a baboon, Thoth was the scribe
of the gods or their secretary. He is seen in hieroglyphs taking notes and
measurements, and therefore was worshipped as the god of wisdom, magic and the
occult.
When Alexander the great conquered Egypt, he embraced the culture and its people
and they welcomed him as their own son. He realized how advanced this civilization
was before his own and he took steps into merging both of them into one. In regards
to the god Thoth, he said that the Greeks had the same god. The god Hermes.
Story goes that during ancient Egyptian times, a Book of Thoth was once seen and
read. In it, all the secrets of the universe were revealed. Magic spells that bent reality
and a plethora of knowledge that decrypts everything from life, astrology and
alchemy were present. This book has never been found. But from it, an amazing
piece of Greek literature was created. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, The Corpus
Hermeticum was published. These wisdom texts were presented as a dialogue
between Hermes Trimegistus and his disciple.; discussing the divine, mind, cosmos,
nature, astrology and alchemy.
After Christianity was established, all this knowledge was lost. The church had cast a
veil of corruption and dissolution for centuries during the Middle Ages.
The human need and desire to evolve was reborn and the Renaissance dawned over
the world. For the next 3 centuries, humanity made leaping advancements in the
arts, sciences, politics and the overall beautification of human kind. The most
inspiring guide book to this enlightenment, was the rediscovery of The Corpus
Hermeticum. Suddenly, you had Boticcelli paintings pagan gods, humanity
questioning life, truths, and pushing the barriers of science. A hunger was satisfied
by the revived ancient wisdom that life is not about following scripts of watered
down religious nonsense. The illumination from ancient texts was again in focus,
sighing the feeling and intuitive pulse, that we are here to co create with the Creator
and evolve with the inner voice we’ve been so deaf to hear for so long.
The Book of Thoth and The Corpus Hermeticum has since inspired thousands of
people. Its words have brought the best of humankind, seen in the discoveries of
philosophy and science throughout the ages.
In the mid 1800’s, Antoine Court de Gebelin while playing cards in France, had an
interesting observation. Wondering what The Book of Thoth might be, he figured
that it must be a book in pictures. Or a book in hieroglyphs. So why not, a deck of
cards? And so, the tarot deck was created. No one knows if Gebelin had intended for
the tarot to be a means of fortune telling. It was only later, that a man named Jean
Babtiste Alliette commercialized the tarot as we know of it today.
As I said before, my idea to create this collection has little to do with the tarot. I
merely use it as a reference to modernize and recalibrate the concepts of what The
Book of Thoth or The Corpus Hermeticum is teaching us. I find it important that
such teachings, being that they are timeless, need to be viewed with the perspective
of each modern era. The common person is not a historian, so the message needs to
be relevant with the times that we are living in.
When I started this project I knew that I needed to research artists, philosophers,
and mathematicians that are relevant to us today., and incorporate their work in
each painting. Each piece is a collaborative work ranging from tattoo artists,
geometrists and illustrators that I adapted using my own techniques to create a quilt
of modern visual impressions that can, in my mind, translate the teachings of
Hermes by reflecting it onto modern society. The key here is the present moment.
Something non lineal. The continuous present is eternal, as these ancient teachings
are, and only here and now do we create. From this conceptual state of time, we can
appreciate the ancient teachings. Not by seeing it as it once was, but by living it and
understanding it as we create the world. The result is not necessarily a rewriting of
The Book of Thoth, but the embodiment of ‘The Corpus’ of the book in our lives.
To explain why I chose the tarot as a means to convey the message regarding The
Book of Thoth, and why only The Major Arcana, the answer is simply that I needed
help. I needed a way to anchor this idea because it’s so vast and complex to
understand it. So, the tarot is the container I found to make it manageable for me to
create and express it to you. The Major Arcana are the first 22 cards of the tarot.
These are the general pictures and stories that allow the remaining 56 pictures to be
interpreted. There are a lot of complex, more defined elucidations to be convened in
what would be ‘the whole picture’ of the ancient texts.
This is where you come in when you look at this piece of work. You can personalize
it with your own point of view and bias. Hence creating, The Minor Arcana. The
Minor Arcana, by no means does it mean that it is any less important. It means that
it is more personified for the individual. So this creates a playful interaction
between you and I when living The Corpus Hermeticum, or acknowledging its
existence, and most importantly, putting it into constant practice. A practice that
vibrates consistently and never rests; which in essence is energy that never ceases,
but only transforms.
Lastly, I wanted to point out that as a recourse to the tarot, each painting or card is
named and framed. I used Hebrew and Arabic to symbolically convey a message of
unity. An unity, that throughout history seems to constantly be broken by
misinformation and dogmatic faults. You at the same time are free to see it as plar
opposites, per se. And though valid, my intention was to neutralize the card in its
entirety, staying loyal to its French model and truthful to merely framing the
picture.
I invite you to further research the words of Hermes and the seven hermetic
principles which are:
• The Principle of Mentalism (The universe is mental)
• The Principle of Correspondence (There is always a correspondence between the
laws and phenomena of the various planes of being and life)
• The Principle of Vibration (Nothing rests, everything moves, everything vibrates)
• The Principle of Polarity (Everything is dual and has its opposites. Identical in
nature but different in degree)
• The Principle of Rhythm (Everything flows in and out. Everything has its tides.
Everything rises and falls)
• The Principle of Cause and Effect (Every cause has its effect and vice versa. Chance
is but a name for law not yet recognized)
• The Principle of Gender (Everything has its masculine and feminine principles,
manifested on all planes)
I leave you with an axiom from the Principle of Correspondence. “As above, so
below; as below, so above.” This principle is known to have tore aside the veil of Isis
to the extent that a glimpse of the face of the goddess might be caught.