21 The Universe – Crowley Thoth Tarot (artist Lady Frieda Harris)

(4) TAROT

“I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died” – Steve Wright

Ironically, Tarot cards appear to have originated as just that – a more mundane medium for playing card games – but subsequently acquired their mystique as a means for divination, often in popular culture with dire portents Wright played on for his joke.

Of course it helps that they were designed with or evolved such vivid and on occasions violent imagery. It is striking how many cards have death or underworld imagery, such as the generally sorrowful suit of Swords, but of course also in the Major Arcana – above all its well-known Death card. Their rich visual symbolism has been a source of tarot motifs or even themed decks in popular culture. And it has been hugely influential for me personally, comparable to my god-tier mythologies or books of mythology, such if you were to peel back the layers of my psyche you’d find a pack of Tarot cards deep within it, although I don’t believe in it (or anything else) as a source of magic divination.

And yes – I have special mention entries for the Tarot for both my Top 10 Mythology Books and my Top 10 Mythologies. The former is for the various Tarot card decks, the latter is for the mythos of the Tarot itself and its cards. Indeed, I could do (and will) Tarot top tens for both decks and cards.

Not bad for a late medieval or Renaissance version of poker, although the more correct analogy might perhaps be games of trumps such as five hundred (my personal childhood favorite – which may also account for my love of the Tarot at the same time).

And as for the mythos of the Tarot, it arises from its modern esoteric mystique (in turn reconstructed from other European mythic art or symbolism), particularly that of the Major Arcana or “trumps”, which popular culture tends to usually or even exclusively view as the Tarot. Not surprisingly, since the Minor Arcana more closely resemble modern mundane playing cards – similarly four suits of cards numbered from ones (aces) to tens with four court cards, generally with knights as well as the three modern court cards of kings, queens and jacks (or pages or princesses).

Anyway, while the mythos of the Tarot lacks a pantheon of gods as such, it does have the archetypal images or titles of the Major Arcana which substitutes for it, perhaps not unlike the nameless titled deities (or aspects of deity) in the Game of Thrones known as the Seven – the Mother, the Stranger and so on. And in its modern form, the Major Arcana even has its own mythic narrative, essentially a version of the archetypal hero’s journey, with the Fool (traditionally numbered zero) as its hero.

So here goes, by numbered cards of the Arcana (although there are some variations in numbering and titles between decks):

0 – The Fool sets out on his quest, innocence in search of experience, poised to fall or fly. But first, he is initiated by various figures:
1 – The Magician, ‘male’ archetype of magic or knowledge, “the achieve of, the mastery of the thing” (or brother figure)
2 – The High Priestess, ‘female’ archetype of magic or mystery (or sister figure)
3 – The Empress, ‘female’ archetype of power and nature (or mother figure)
4 and 5 – The Emperor and Hierophant, ‘male’ archetypes of worldly and otherworldly power (or father figures)
6 – The Lovers. The Fool encounters or falls in love and faces choices
7 – The Chariot. The Fool goes to war or wins worldly victory
8 – Justice (traditionally, although often swapped with Strength, but each works in either location). The Fool has the first of a number of visions, in this case of the ideal of justice and apex of the Fool’s worldly quest. It is now time for the Fool’s otherworldly – or underworldly – quest
9 – The Hermit. It is time for the Fool to become or encounter The Hermit in a quest for otherworldly visions and voices
10 – The Wheel of Fortune. The Fool sees a mystical vision of the world, the wheel of fortune on which all rise and fall
11 – Strength. The Fool has a vision of strength, in triumph over bestial nature – which will be sorely needed as it is time for the Fool to descend into the underworld
12 – The Hanged Man. “Who are these coming to the sacrifice?”. The Fool encounters or becomes the self-sacrificial Hanged Man
13 – Death. And now it is time for the Fool to die and go down into the underworld
14 – Temperance. With the still, small voice and vision of Temperance as guide, Virgil to the Fool’s Dante
15 – The Devil. And now the Fool comes naked to the very heart of hell itself, with its terrible choices and temptations that echo that of the Lovers
16 – The Tower Struck by Lightning. The Fool harrows hell and breaks free, toppling the Tower and rising through ever increasing light to be reborn, at first the illuminating flash of lightning in darkness
17 – The Star. The Fool rises through or the light of the hopeful Star
18 – The Moon. Not quite out of the woods yet, as the Fool rises through the light of the surreal Moon full of madness and wild dreams
19 – The Sun. The Fool finally is reborn into the full blazing light of the Sun (or with it as child of the Sun)
20 – Judgement. The Fool has a vision of cosmic or divine eons or ‘judgement’
21 – The World. And the Fool has a final vision of the World as it truly is, cosmic dance and dancer, before beginning over again as…the Fool

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

Free ‘divine gallery’ sample art from OldWorldGods

(3) ZEN

I believe in the god of doubt –
the sound of one hand clapping,
a tree falling in a forest,
a finger pointing at the moon,
your face before you were born,
the goose in a bottle,
and three pounds of flax.

Along with paganism and shamanism, the third of my holy trinity of mythic worlds – the mythos that I playfully refer to as my zen catholicism.

And along with paganism and shamanism, as much my ethos as mythos – “you wake up in the morning and the world is so beautiful you can hardly stand it”

And yes, again like paganism and shamanism, I know zen is not a mythology as such. One could even argue for it as non-mythic or anti-mythic, particularly given its non-theistic nature. (I say non-theistic – it might be described as atheistic, but zen has always struck me as having an agnostic and complete lack of concern as to the existence or effect of gods in our lives).

And yes I know it is an active contemporary religion – or more precisely a ‘school’ or sect within the contemporary (and historical) religion of Buddhism.

However, I occasionally use mythology in a broader sense, even for a religion in which the focus is practice or experience and insight into the nature of things rather than belief. And for a religion that eschews mythology (or theology), it can resemble a mythology but of Zen masters rather than gods or heroes, the pursuit of enlightenment rather than quests or battles, and parables or the proverbial mind-bending Zen koans rather than epic adventures – from its legendary origin in the Buddha’s flower sermon onwards.

My horns won’t fit through the door!

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT KOAN-TIER?)

Free “divine gallery” art sample – OldWorldGods

(2) SHAMANISM

I am a shaman in the tribe of catholicism –

a voice crying for a vision,

animal powers and spirit guides,

true names and song lines,

second sight and third eye.

After paganism, the second of my holy trinity of mythic worlds – the mythos that I playfully refer to as my shaman catholicism.

Also like paganism, as much my ethos as mythos – “but then the awesome mysterious world will open its mouth for you, as it will open for every one of us, and then you will realise that your sure ways were not sure at all”.

And yes – again like paganism, I know shamanism is not so much an individual mythology or religion, but rather an amorphous agglomeration of mythologies or religions, but on on an even potentially larger scale in space and time.

Strictly speaking, shamanism refers to the indigenous religions of Siberia and neighbouring parts of Asia, with the word shaman itself orginating from the language there.

But where’s the fun in speaking strictly? And so shamanism has been used in a very broad sense, arguably the broadest sense of any mythology or religion – ranging through space to tribal religions on every (populated) continent, and even more broadly in time, through so-called deep history to prehistoric or primal religion.

Peter Watson in The Great Divide hypothesizes that the pre-Columbian Americas was essentially shamanic, having remained the most so (since crossing into the Americas from Siberia) and certainly more so than Eurasia, not least because of the high concentration of psychedelic or psychotropic plants.

While Weston La Barre in The Ghost Dance hypothesizes that all religion is essentially shamanic in nature – and all religions are ghost dances at heart.

As for shamanism itself, animism is often asserted as its defining feature – and there is certainly something appealing in an animistic view of the world. Perhaps its primary definitive feature is its focus on states of altered consciousness – archetypally through psychedelic or psychotropic substances – as thresholds to the spirit world or otherworld.

And again, like paganism, I have a soft spot for the nomenclature of paleoshamanism and neoshamanism – with paleoshamanism as the original forms of shamanism, potentially very paleo indeed back to the Paleolithic, and neoshamanism as modern reconstructions.

“When a vision comes into the world…it comes into the world with terror like a thunderstorm…if the vision was true and mighty, I know it is true and mighty yet, for such things are of the spirit and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost”.

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT GREAT SPIRIT TIER?)

Free “divine gallery” art sample – OldWorldGods

(1) PAGANISM

I believe in all the gods –
especially the goddesses

The mythos I call home – which I playfully refer to as my pagan catholicism.

Also the ethos I call home – that classical Greek pagan ethos encapsulated by Weston La Barre, “live valiantly, gloriously and joyously in the world”.

Let’s face it – it’s my mythos, ethos, eros and hieros gamos.
For mine is the passion play, grail quest, ghost dance and mojo rising.

And yes – I know paganism is not in itself a mythology or religion, but rather a loose amorphous agglomeration of mythologies or religions, usually identified with ‘pre-Christian’ Europe, whether prior to the advent of Christianity or their conversion to it.

And not even that to start with –
“It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century, people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised. The notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others…as such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense”.

Pagan apparently originated from Latin paganus – essentially to connote rural (as opposed to the more Christianised urban population of the later Roman empire), or civilian by the Roman army and hence adopted by Christians to distinguish themselves as “soldiers of Christ” (although I seem to recall the Roman army was big on Mithras until late in the piece).

“The adoption of paganus by the Latin Christians as an all-embracing, pejorative term for polytheists represents an unforeseen and singularly long-lasting victory, within a religious group, of a word of Latin slang originally devoid of religious meaning. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church”.

Apparently elsewhere and at other times, “Hellene or gentile remained the word for pagan; and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace”.

Which suits me as my paganism is essentially a fusion of Hellenism (alternating with Romanitas) and humanism, with Dionysianism thrown in for the fun of it.

“Owing to the history of its nomenclature, paganism traditionally encompasses the collective pre- and non-Christian cultures in and around the classical world; including those of the Greco-Roman, Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic tribes” – with those of Germanic tribes of course being best known through Norse mythology.

Although I think that overlooks the sphere of Roman Empire beyond Europe, notably in the near East – because I’m determined to get those funky animal-headed Egyptian deities and slinky goddesses in there as well.

“However, modern parlance of folklorists and contemporary pagans in particular has extended the original four millennia scope used by early Christians to include similar religious traditions stretching far into prehistory.”

And some would argue also well beyond Europe, pretty much to all mythologies or religions outside of Christianity, Judaism, Islam or variants of those – with Hinduism, Taoism, Shinto, native American and African diaspora religions looming large in such arguments.

I have a soft spot for the nomenclature of paleopaganism and neopaganism (by neo-pagan Isaac Bonewits), although they are also somewhat amorphous (even more so for his mesopaganism, which largely overlaps with the argument for extending paganism throughout non-Abrahamic mythologies or religions of the world).

Paleopaganism essentially refers to the original ‘paganism’ prior to Christianity – largely unknowable as religious practice, although we come closest with classical Greco-Roman paganism due to the surviving texts.

Neopaganism refers to the modern reconstruction of paganism, which arguably has led to its own distinctive mythology (or synthesis of mythology) – and in the opinion of Ronald Hutton, a distinctively modern religion “and the only religion England has ever given the world” (at least for Wicca or modern ‘witchcraft’, the predominant form of neo-paganism).

I also have a soft spot for polytheism, often asserted as the defining feature of paganism. Monotheism is monopoly! Let the marketplace of gods – and goddesses – decide! A polytheistic view of the world just seems more cheerful and easy-going, where gods can rub shoulders – or other parts – together.

Although paganism is more complex than a straightforward matter of polytheism versus monotheism. Paganism essentially had as many different philosophical variants as Hinduism – including monotheistic or at least henotheistic variants, as well as more outright atheistic, agnostic or humanist variants.

The more popular variants of modern paganism or neopaganism tend more towards either a duotheism of overarching female and male deities, or a goddess monotheism of an overarching sacred feminine or divine female figure. With the emphasis on figure in some cases – but I’m down with that. She is the goddess and this is her body.

I believe in L.A Woman & Mr Mojo Risin’.

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT GODDESS-TIER?)