21. The World
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Card Title: The World
Esoteric Title: The Great One of the Night of Time
Astrological Atttribution: Saturn
Elemental Attribution: Earth (cold, dry)
Dates & Timing: 30 Years
Hebrew Letter: Tau Mark 400
Color: Blue-Violet or Indigo
Intelligence: Administrative Intelligence
Esoteric Function: Power & Servitude
Qabalistic Path: Path 32: 9 Yesod to 10 Malkuth
Translation of Path: The Foundation of Kingdom
Keywords: Cosmic Consciousness, Success, Bodywork, Global Issues, Travel, World Shaking Events, Change, Sports, Physical Concerns, Karmic Completion, Reward, Success, Liberation, Integration, Accomplishment, Involvement, Fulfillment. Kerubs
Ill-Dignified:Inertia, stagnation, obligations, obstacles, lack of vision, distractions, unfinished work, something missing, Limited Understanding, Lack of Vision, Insecure, Afraid of change.
Interpretation: Divine forces combine to make their mark in the world. Triumph of completion. Realization of personal gifts. Individual Freedom. Being at the right place at the right time. Law of Cyclicity. Understanding your reason for being. Triumph in all undertakings. Learned your lessons and are read for higher level. You will be triumphant in any undertaking. Power in not Power Over. I am one with the Universe. Fulfillment of all desires. What are you ready to be free of. Discovering life’s’ purpose. Fullness of being.
Reversed Interpretation: Reward Delayed and is less than hoped for. Lost of position. Cycle is almost complete. Gathering all of the pieces. Concern with the past is holding you back. Can’t quite liberate your self from limitation and lack. Negative attitudes and confrontations. Refusal to explore new horizons. Lack of personal development & vision. Success is delayed. Fear of change in home or profession.
Rider-Waite Imagery
A blonde woman dances in the middle of a Aureole Wreath. She is nude and wrapped in a violet banner. She holds a pair of white wands, one in each hand. The Wreath is tied with a red cross. The background is blue and filled with clouds. The Cherubim are in the corners (man, eagle, ox, lion) and form a square which is the geometeric shape that represents the earth.
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)
Part I: The Veil and its Symbols
22. The World, the Universe, or Time. The four living creatures of the Apocalypse and Ezekiel’s vision, attributed to the evangelists in Christian symbolism, are grouped about an elliptic garland, as if it were a chain of flowers intended to symbolize all sensible things; within this garland there is the figure of a woman, whom the wind has girt about the loins with a light scarf, and this is all her vesture. She is in the act of dancing, and has a wand in either hand. It is eloquent as an image of the swirl of the sensitive life, of joy attained in the body, of the soul’s intoxication in the earthly paradise, but still guarded by the Divine Watchers, as if by the powers and the graces of the Holy Name, Tetragammaton, JVHV–those four ineffable letters which are sometimes attributed to the mystical beasts. Éliphas Lévi calls the garland a crown, and reports that the figure represents Truth. Dr. Papus connects it with the Absolute and the realization of the Great Work; for yet others it is a symbol of humanity and the eternal reward of a life that has been spent well. It should be noted that in the four quarters of the garland there are four flowers distinctively marked. According to P. Christian, the garland should be formed of roses, and this is the kind of chain which Éliphas Lévi says is less easily broken than a chain of iron. Perhaps by antithesis, but for the same reason, the iron crown of Peter may he more lightly on the heads of sovereign pontiffs than the crown of gold on kings.
Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil
As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged–and indeed unchangeable–in respect of its design, it has been partly described already regarding its deeper sense. It represents also the perfection and end of the Cosmos, the secret which is within it, the rapture of the universe when it understands itself in God. It is further the state of the soul in the consciousness of Divine Vision, reflected from the self-knowing spirit. But these meanings are without prejudice to that which I have said concerning it on the material side.
It has more than one message on the macrocosmic side and is, for example, the state of the restored world when the law of manifestation shall have been carried to the highest degree of natural perfection. But it is perhaps more especially a story of the past, referring to that day when all was declared to be good, when the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. One of the worst explanations concerning it is that the figure symbolizes the Magus when he has reached the highest degree of initiation; another account says that it represents the absolute, which is ridiculous. The figure has been said to stand for Truth, which is, however, more properly allocated to the seventeenth card. Lastly, it has been called the Crown of the Magi.
The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]
Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot 22. ת 22nd Hebrew letter (Tau).ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CARD OF THE TAROT.The Tau has the same hieroglyphic meaning as the Daleth (fourth card), the womb; but it is chiefly the sign of reciprocity, the image of all that is mutual and reciprocal. It is the sign of signs, for to the abundance of the letter Daleth ד (fourth card), and by dint of the resistance and protection of the letter Teth, ט (ninth card), it adds the idea of PERFECTION, of which it is the symbol. In the primitive Hebrew alphabet the Teth was represented by a cross (+). This letter is double, and in astronomy it represents the Sun.TWENTY-FIRST CARD OF THE TAROT. The World.
A nude female figure, holding a wand in each hand, is placed in the centre of an ellipsis, her legs crossed (like those of the Hanged Man in the twelfth card). At the four angles of the card we find the four animals of the Apocalypse, and the four forms of the Sphinx: the Man, the Lion, the Bull, and the Eagle. This symbol represents Macrocosm and Microcosm, that is to say, God and the Creation, or the Law of the Absolute. The four figures placed at the four corners represent the four letters of the sacred name, or the four great symbols of the Tarot.
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The Sceptre |
or yod |
= Fire. |
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The Cup |
or he |
= Water. |
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The Sword |
or vau |
= Earth. |
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The Pentacle |
or 2nd he |
= Air. |
These affinities can be represented thus–
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Sceptre |
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Pentacle |
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Cup |
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Sword |
Between the sacred word that signifies GOD and the centre of the figure is a circle or an ellipsis, representing NATURE and her regular and fatal course. From this comes the name of Rota, wheel, given to it by Guillaume Postel.Lastly, the centre of the figure represents humanity, ADAM-EVE, the third term of the great series of the Absolute, which is thus constructed:– The impenetrable Absolute, the EN SOPH of the Kabbalists, the PARABRAHM of the Hindus–
| The impenetrable Absolute or God | 1st septenary. |
| The soul of the Absolute or Man | 2nd septenary. |
| The body of the Absolute or the Universe | 3rd septenary. |
T
his twenty-first card of the Tarot therefore contains in itself a recapitulation of all our work, and proves to us the truth of our deductions.
A simple figure will sum up what we have said.
This symbol gives us an exact figure of the construction of the Tarot itself, if we notice that the figure in the centre represents a triangle (a head and two extended arms) surmounting a cross (the legs), that is to say, the figure of the septenary thus formed 
.
The four corners therefore reproduce the four great symbols of the Tarot. The centre represents the action of these symbols between themselves, represented by the ten numbers of the minor arcana, and the twenty-two letters of the major arcana. Lastly, the centre reproduces the septenary law of the major arcana themselves. As this septenary is in the centre of three circles, representing the three worlds, we see that the sense of the twenty-one arcana is once more determined (3 x 7 = 21).
The following figure indicates the application of the twenty-first card to the Tarot itself.
We shall also see that this card of the Tarot gives the key of all our applications of the pack to the Year, to Philosophy, to the Kabbalah, etc., etc.
Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View
22. The Universe signifies ASSURED SUCCESS.
0. The Judgment signifies CHANGE OF POSITION.
The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]
Symbolism of Each Key
21. The Universe. Within a flowery wreath is a female figure nude save for a light scarf. She represents Nature and the Divine Presence therein. In each hand she should bear a wand. At the four angles of the card are the four cherubic animals of the Apocalypse. Above, the Eagle and the Man; below, the Lion and the Bull. It represents Completion, Reward.
Meanings of the Cards
21. The Universe.–Completion, Good Reward; R. Evil Reward, or Recompense.
The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]
What is the Tarot? Card XXI.–”World”.
Nature. The World as it is. Nature in its noumenal aspect. Esoteric side of nature. That which is made known in esoterism. Inner reality of things. Human consciousness in the circle of time between the four elements.
CARD XXI.THE WORLD.
An unexpected vision appeared to me. A circle not unlike a wreath woven from rainbow and lightnings, whirled from heaven to earth with a stupendous, velocity, blinding me by its brilliance. And amidst this light and fire I heard music and soft singing, thunderclaps and the roar of a tempest, the rumble of falling mountains and earthquakes.
The circle whirled with a terrifying noise, touching the sun and the earth, and, in the centre of it I saw the naked, dancing figure of a beautiful young woman, enveloped by a light, transparent scarf, in her hand she held a magic wand.
Presently the four apocalyptical beasts began to appear on the edges of the circle; one with the face of a lion, another with the face of a man, the third, of an eagle and the fourth, of a bull.
The vision disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. A weird silence fell on me. “What does it mean?” I asked in wonder.
“It is the image of the world,” the voice said, “but it can be understood only after the Temple has been entered. This is a vision of the world in the circle of Time, amidst the four principles. But thou seest differently because thou seest the world outside thyself. Learn to see it in thyself and thou wilt understand the infinite essence, hidden in all illusory forms. Understand that the world which thou knowest is only one of the aspects of the infinite world, and things and phenomena are merely hierolgyphics of deeper ideas.”
The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.
XXI. THE UNIVERSE
Observe that this represents not the World but the Universe. It should be remembered that to the ancients, Saturn represented the confines of the Solar system. They had no means of measuring either Uranus or Neptune. To them, therefore, Saturn passing through the spiral path of the Zodiac, marked at its cardinal points by the symbols of the Kerubim forming the Cross, was a comprehensive glyph of the whole.
Thus, in this card, we find a synthesis of the whole Taro or Rota. The central figure should be taken as Hathor, Athor, or Ator, rather than Isis, thus indicating the hidden anagram which may perhaps be translated thus: ORAT – man prays, ATOR – to the Great Mother, TARO – who turns, ROTA – the wheel of Life and Death.
The colors like those of the Wheel of Fortune include the colors of the Spectrum and those of the elements, but they are placed against the indigo and black of a Saturn, with the white gleam of the Stars shining in the darkness and the misty figure of the Aimah Elohim in the midst. In the practical Tarot, this card is taken to signify the matter in hand, that is the subject of any question that has been asked.
Book “T” The Tarot
Brief Meanings of Twenty-Two Keys
22. The matter itself. Synthesis, world, kingdom. Usually denotes actual subject of question, and therefore depends entirely on accompanying cards.
