“More than the sum of ITS parts!”

Paraphrasing of Aristotle’s Axiom of the Universe 

Symbol and Colors

• Background Image: Explosion of color spectrum from the Singularity. A vibrant and omnidirectional exploration of light.
• Border Color: White – All Colors prior to differentiation. TAO is all there is and undifferentiated.
• Diamonds: Expression Axis
• Clubs: Action Axis
• Hearts: Inspiration Axis
• Spade: Assimilation Axis

Implications of Upright Position or Positive Pole

When the TAO Card appears, you stand before the entirety of creation as both a creation, witness to the creation, and if you seize the opportunities of life: A CREATOR! The open pages of the Book of Life depicting the Logos – the Grand Cosmic Design of the TAO. Within Christianity, the Logos is the Word of God. The Logos contains all that is possible and is represented by the symbols Greek term Alpha (the first or beginning or capital letter “A”; and the Greek symbol Omega, the end – finality), shown as printed on the pages of the book. Within the range of Alpha through Omega, all things exist (matter) and are possible (interactions). These symbolize that every idea is available to you if you are only able to grasp the meaning behind it. You need not possess anything but rather to float amongst the infinite possibilities, like clouds which are forever changing form, position and state. It is the panopticon: a place where something can be viewed at all viewpoints at once. If you think that sounds circular, consider that all systems and cycles never really terminate, they merely evolve into a new form. Alpha and Omega = you coexisting with all things…and at that moment, know it and embrace it.

+ Positive or Illuminated Pole

+ Presence

(Numinous, Infinity, Eternal, Universality, Logos, Perfection, Atman, Vastness, Nirvana, Oneness, Indivisible, holon, fountainhead, noosphere, morph0genic field, source, namaste, axis mundi, pneuma)

1. “You are of the Universe. You are made of God stuff and are connected to everything. Living in the Now, is to know this perfection. From this perspective can you understand that nothing you do is wrong?
2. Nothing you do is wasted. You can’t see all possibilities. Release into faith.
3. God is the only judge! Get off of your own case or that of someone else.”
4. “This is the state of perfect presence. Use whatever comes to mind. You are being guided.”
5. Sometimes we are not privy to “why.” Things just are, until all is said and done. But just to let you know…things are on track!
6. Live in the Now. The past is over and the future isn’t here yet. Be grateful and be alert!
7. The TAO is the source of all things regardless of its metaphysical attributes, divinity or mechanistic supremacy. Tap into new creation and birth a new dream.
8. From this perspective can you understand that nothing you do is wrong? It all is TAO constructing interactions to have a multitude of experiences with itself.”
9. In the immense scale of the Universe, nothing is wasted and everything is utilized. Let the supreme intelligence of the self-organizing principle do its work. Force is not necessary here.
10. No matter if you believe in a “higher power” or not, act as if one is within you. Use it and be magnificent. May the Force be with you.
11. TAO does not require your belief for it to exist. IT IS as YOU ARE. Remember how the biblical YHWY defined itself “I AM THAT, I AM”. Whatever form is being radiated (AM’ed) that too is part of TAO. Are you amazed by it or horrified by it? The first is heaven the second is hell. Your supreme power may be nothing more than a profound change in perspective.
12. Whatever ‘higher power’ is, accept the fact that forces greater than you are
    at work. You might relax, forgive, and follow the obvious trends, rather than falsely believing you create it all.
13. Connect with Spirit. Whatever that means to you.
14. You are of the Universe, and contain it in is your unique Soloverse. Expand your perspective to the broadest possible panorama. From there even a giant problem will appear as an ant when viewed from a distance. Get some space on the issue.
15. The source is abundant right now. It might take a leap of faith into an unknown but there will be energy there for you. Take the leap!
16. No matter if you believe in a “higher power” or not, act as if one is within you. Use it and be magnificent in your presentation and excellent in your actions.
17. TAO is the Original Motivation, not Original sin. Only curiosity, not disobedience moves action. Get off of your own case or that of someone else.
18. You don’t have to believe in a God, or know the story of the Universe, scientific or religious, to feel the immensity of all the processes going on around you. The more you can track, the more you can surf the wave.

Quotations that illustrate this idea:

• “The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God.” Spinoza
• “I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.” Albert Einstein
• “Where love is, there God is also.”  Mohandas Gandhi
• “Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.” Thomas Jefferson

The Void – Reversed Position or Negative Pole

The Void is the first experience of separation into duality. “And God separated the light from the darkness[1].” It is TAO’s knowledge of Presence and Void of Presence; of Illumination and of Shadow. Like the Fool in traditional Tarot, the TAO Card begins this deck as it reminds us of the Infinite Source. Led as the Zero “0” card, it is, as in mathematics, a placeholder for the undefined and uncontained; substance without known limits or ends. The idea of such a core figure is center to our psychological sense of Self. Religious views of God are not required for a discussion of boundless possibility. Indeed, it is our modern scientific quest for the eternal Holy Grail of not merely how creation happened, but for us to occupy the seat of the Almighty and become THE Creator ourselves.

The Void is not negative. The void is not evil. The void is not dark in the sense of dangerous or mysterious. The void is a zone of emptiness. It is the place we might call NON[2]. To reach it is be willing to feel emptiness for what it is; and not, as we are prone to do when all our familiar anchors are absent, go into fear. Because this expanse is as limitless as its illuminated counterpart of presence, its endlessness can open up the mind to a feeling of suspension, of floating in borderless nothingness, sensory deprivation, devoid of all reference one uses to identify oneself. Nested in the dualistic reflectiveness of the human mind, the void can be eerie and whatever is within comes projecting outward to compensate for the loss of orientation. That is why the void is thought of as hell for some, but the gateway to heaven for others. Since what is within one’s mind that emanates out to fill the vacuum is a projection to make something real. It is from the Void that MAYA (Card 69) is born.

[1] Genesis 1:4 – The Story of Creation

[2] A term barrowed from a novel by Michaelene McElroy, author of The Last Supper Catering Company

– Negative or Shadow Pole

 – Void

(Nothingness, nihilism, oblivion, vacuum, nullification)

1. For some, experiencing the Void is like being in a state of oblivion. Disconnected from everything that seemed stable and real to you may feel distant, uncaring or noncommittal. Your awareness has becomes numb and leaves little enjoyment of flavor or color in your life. Taste and smell something, ground into your oldest senses.
2. In the Void, no point of reference is available. Allow yourself to be even though it might feel extremely disconcerting. Those who can experience total peace within it have reached Nirvana.
3. The Void is an absence of space-time. While it may feel disorienting, know that when you enter it, you are in touch with the creative force. Nothing is certain. Ask for what you want. Act “as-if” you already have it.
4. The Void is what some experience as emptiness and isolation. If you are comfortable in your own skin, the experience is ultimately perceiving your own individuality: it’s only you in there! No matter what, remember your thought or personal LOGOS (principles) are enough to base your choices.
5. Your life force energy has been emptied and nothing satisfies. Numbed to life’s abundance you feel devoid of hope and forsaken.
6. You are in a shamans’ descent into the Void. Entering into the nothingness and bring forward new understanding. But in doing so you will be stripped of all illusions i.e. MAYA (Card 69). For some time, things might seem without direction or even bleak. Don’t despair.
7. For God sake, get off of your own case or that of someone else.
8. Hell isn’t a place, it is a state of separation and fear. Stop damming yourself or someone else and you will rise again.
9. You are struggling for point of reference; none is available. You are oblivious to all around you! Stop denying and admit it! The haze begins to clear when you clear you mind of what you are hiding.
10. Everything seems at a standstill, like you have entered a void. Space and time are suspended. There is a feeling of disorientation. Perhaps it is time to reconnect or just be present with your emotions and sensations, and keep breathing! Notice what floats into your consciousness.
11. If you see nothing of synchronicity, fate, providence nor simple consequence, then you are a-voiding a great part of what is available. Look for things that have gone unnoticed.
12. No point of reference is available when in the void. Any answer comes only from within you since at that moment, there is nothing else. Have faith that you are not alone.
13. Ever heard of Death Valley? Many thought it was so remote and barren that it was without life? Yet, a look beneath the apparent desolation was to discover life was teaming. You think you see everything because you don’t know what to look for. Get present, pay attention, drop your preconceived notions.

Quotations that illustrate this idea:

• “Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.” Soren Kierkegaard
• “God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.” William Shakespeare
• “God is a thought who makes crooked all that is straight.” Friedrich Nietzsche
• “What terrible fear causes Man to address the Void as Thou?”~ Edna St. Vincent Millay
• “The life of a creator is not the only life nor perhaps the most interesting which a man leads. There is a time for play and a time for work, a time for creation and a time for lying fallow. And there is a time, glorious too in its own way, when one scarcely exists, when one is a complete void. I mean / when boredom seems the very stuff of life.” Henry Miller
  
• “God seldom calls us for an easier life but always calls us to know more of him and drink more deeply of his sustaining grace.” —John Piper

Relevance in The Original Michael Teaching (OMT)

In the Michael Teaching, TAO is only 5% portion of the totality of all that is, in the Universe. The TAO is both the WAY (or innate process) but it is also the source material for souls. For those familiar with Talmudic Judaism might know of the Guf, the place where souls are created and housed until placed in a body. When a “spark” takes flight from the totality that is the source of all things, individuality is its desired path of exploration. It is the Original Motivation, not sin. But the byproduct of separation from total unity, total love, total involvement that is TAO, may result in sense of isolation as much as it was invested in pursuing Selfhood. Paradoxically perhaps, a dual motivation emerges, for the Soul to once again reunite with the Creator; the TAO itself. The progression of steps or the journey of the soul, if you prefer, is to advance through all the stages of awareness that are otherwise surrendered when becoming an unique expression of the TAO.

The two cosmological processes described in the Michael Teaching regarding this passage are the Planes of Existence and Soul Age Evolution. As an Essence spark (soul) moves through these cycles, it gathers experiences of power, love, betrayal, friendship, manifestation, being in a body, and all of the sensations and stations of existence that attend that condition. Here the TAO imbues the new Essence with one of its seven ray characteristics that are designated as the Roles.

Commentary

I feel the TUG of something larger, more spacious, indefinable an unending vastness that teases my senses but cannot fully grasp. My estimation of living, that interconnected series of events so persistent to which the word, life – my life, is the only placeholder that readily fits that composition. The TUG has been the force, the way, the carrot, the stick, the ever present background of my perceptions. TAO – Universe – GOD (TUG) is omnipresent and requires nothing from us, since it began, remains, and forever will be no-thing. Yet, TUG is the perfect sentence. God as subject creator, TAO as verb – the way and process, and the Universe – the object and output of the two prior. We then, as a part of a dynamic universe, represent the “testing agents” to the durability and variability of this design. It is present in my brain, the generator of this consciousness, but not its originator. The TUG is within me, therefore, all these aspects comprise the Soloverse of who I AM.

These descriptors may certainly be understood as the attempt of one organism to organize the vastness of the nearly uncountable array of experiences. meanings, objects, and relationships that comprise that subject specific alchemy which one might call Self. Divinity of source is irrelevant to only but the Ego. Insecurity about our place in the Universe and the safety to exist without fear creates an imbalance which gives need to formulate a band-aid to compensate for the fear. A fear that when put into words might be verbalized as “I am not good enough, worthy enough, strong enough, as I AM.” The resulting fix to an inferior sense of Self is a Superior representation: GOD the Perfect. So creation begins. But sanctification of ones own existence requires something “better than” me. The nature of God gets marked as inscrutable yet with some terrific irony, human beings seem to add whatever qualities or acts that they deem fit to God. Does anyone wonder why those who claim to act with God’s sanction often carry out acts of horrible brutality motivated by a sacramental justification for their hatred? To be cute, remember: the pious have bias!…and usually against forgiveness!

Archetype and its Cultural Significance

Eastern and Western cultures alike, whether they recognize one God or many, or none at all, cannot deny the presence of a Universe so vast as to only be glimpsed through the lenses of most sensitive telescopes. Divinity is often ascribed inferring perfection so complete as to render unerring infallibility. Unlike the Taoism of China, we use the term TAO to signify a noun as well as the attribution “The Way”. The TAO is the both the Yin and Yang or Masculine and Feminine.

How to detect the Presence of TAO

All Essences, having been spawn or “cast” from the TAO are hence of its make-up. As a Universe of One, or Soloverse™, your individual space possesses a microcosm of all that is. However, the path of Soul Evolution may have rendered awareness of that greater truth invisible to your waking personality. When all your attention is completely fixed, because of total fascination which engrosses all sensory input on the event at hand or totally captures it in moments of terror, at those moments the TAO is present with you.

The TAO Set

• “And in the beginning, light was separated out of the darkness…” Genesis 1:4
• “God, to me, it seems is a verb, not a noun, proper or improper.” R. Bucky Fuller
• “TAO is the Alpha and Omega of Creation. It is both Masculine and Feminine.”  Consortium

The TAO Set is the deck’s “container”. These two Cards begin and end the deck, acting as its bookends. Cards 0 – TAO and Card 77 – Nexus are the Alpha and Omega and encapsulate the other 76 Card qualities of motivation defined in this deck. Everything that happens is part of the TAO.

The TAO Set represents the ultimate paradox of human existence: the constancy of eternal presence weighed against dynamic forces of continual change. The total interconnectedness of existence is contrasted by infinite variation. Whether or not a complete metaphysical description of the Universe can ever be fully realized, let alone proved (i.e. the meaning of life, nature of God, higher purpose, a hereafter,
etc.); we are reminded every day that change is the only constant. A vast milieu of possibilities that lies between these two concepts extends our horizons for imagination and broadens our requirement for understanding. No Need to Believe – It is just the Way of things.

If you choose either of these cards, IT IS A BIG DEAL! It conveys the added feature that all motivational energies are available to you now. You are being alerted to realign yourself and prepare anew. Either of these cards can be viewed as grace; even in the negative poles, since they are imbuing your reading with qualities where anything is possible. A sense of mystery and whimsy may arise in you or it may usher in a sense of overwhelm. That should alert you to your relationship with these concepts and the ideas you hold about them. Yet, the most important message is to be here now! You don’t have to do anything to prepare or be ready, but focus your attention on what is happening in the present moment. That experience of total presence cannot be observed in the now, because to witness it would mean your attention would have to be split between actor and observer (Card 35). Where an observer is engaged and lurking, the process is self-examination, not total immersion. One can only recall later the feeling of presence. It is often in hindsight, after realizing that nothing else was distracting your awareness can you understand why presence is so important. Some combinations to consider: if both Cards appear in a reading, everything is up for grabs! Nothing you do except to reach inward and find the deepest need or desire you have as the point to move toward in your personal horizon. Yet, when you draw either of these – it can be illuminating and instructive to pick another card consider it a further specification of meaning. Another fascinating and potent combination would be if the Time Card (Card 70) appeared in your Spread with one or both of these. As the Deck’s 3rd most influential aspect, you are alerted that something you are doing has a time limit or window of opportunity. Do not freak out whether you have enough time, but do face the issue right now and begin motion in that direction. The last addition to be aware of is when one of the Role Cards (other Exalted Arcana members) appears. A person of that Role may figure prominently or qualities of that Role are the attitudes and behaviors you should look to for your assistance or answers.

by Stephen Cocconi © 2011 & Revised 2024

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