|
Tarot Card DiscussionThe Magician - Left Hand / Right Hand (cont.)Psalms 142:4 tells the faithful that it is upon the right hand that one’s protector stands. At the Last Judgment the righteous go to the right, the direction of Heaven; the damned to Hell, on the left. Thus, Western magic practices other than tarot and philosophy utilize the left-right dichotomy as a point of differentiation. The right hand is devoted to the forces of life, nature, health, and concern with fellow man, physical health, spiritual calmness, and emotional balance. The left hand is associated with individuation, transcending nature and surmounting calmness and balance. Of course this explanation is highly simplistic. However, when the first numbered tarot card evolved from Il Bagatto, to The Magician through, in good part, the auspices of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, it was not only the art of the card that was altered.
|