Kundalini Rising: Interpreting the Princesses of the Tarot

So this is not going to be one of my more coherent or well-thought out posts, but I was due for an update, and this has been what's on my mind lately.

In Hermetic Qabbalistic writing, we are constantly made aware of the fact that the holy Name Tetragrammaton (YHVH) "revolves," meaning that it represents a cyclical process of creation. The Yod represents the Father, who imagines the primary archetype or concept of a being; the Heh primal is the Mother, who formulates this into an actual image and gives it more definition as to what it can and cannot be; the Vav is the Son, the actual projection of this idea in space and time; and the Heh final is the Daughter, who is left oddly ambiguous. Now, these letters correspond to the four elements - Yod is fire, Heh primal is water, Vav is air, and Heh final is earth. But we are reminded by Crowley in his Book of Thoth that the only real elements upon which creation is based are the first three: fire, water, and air. This is because they correspond to the three Mother Letters in Hebrew, Shin, Mem, and Aleph respectively. Tau is attributed to the element earth and the planet Saturn simultaneously, much like Shin, which is both fire and spirit. Added to this information is the fact that each letter of the Name correspond to a sephira on the Tree of Life: Yod is Chokhmah, Heh primal is Binah, Vav is Tiphareth, and Heh final is Malkuth. This is important because we are also reminded incessantly that Malkuth is more a "pendant to the Tree of Life" than anything else. It's sort of just there for kicks, for lack of a better explanation. And lastly, in tarot, the Yod is the Knights of the court, the Heh primal the Queens, the Vav the Princes, and the Heh final the Princesses.

So then who is this "princess?" Based on these attributions I've laid out here, she seems vague and almost identity-less. She has no new letter to go with her (as she is another Heh) and she isn't considered to be that important from a Sephirotic perspective. But Crowley and others are insistent that she is the key to it all, as she is destined to sit on the throne of her mother and "awaken the Eld of the All Father." She is able to do this because she is of the same substance as her Mother supposedly, as they share the same letter (Heh); they are similar in essence. But this is ultimately not very helpful, at least in my opinion. We still cannot define this relationship.

Now, I recently stumbled upon this article: http://supertarot.co.uk/thoth/fool-pole-star.htm written by Paul Hughes-Barlow. I suggest you read it, because it raises the very interesting point that the Princesses are synonymous with the aces of the tarot (remember, they are the "thrones of the aces), and the aces apparently were connected with the constellation of Draco, who encircles the north pole. I find this to be particularly interesting because, of course, a dragon is also a kind of serpent, and we know how fond of serpent iconography Mr. Crowley was.

The primary connection between serpents and tarot, however, comes in the

form of the Lust card, atu XI. Its letter is Teth, which as a word translates into "serpent," and is associated with the sign of Leo. On the whole, it signifies the conjoining of the solar masculine sexual principle with the lunar feminine sexual principle in one rampaging, orgasmic, explosion. Additionally, while the idea of a sexual serpent immediately brings to mind the phallus, it also represents the Kundalini serpent, coiled at the base of the spine. But Kundalini is also sometimes interpreted as a goddess, a kind of offshoot of the goddess Shakti, who is the primary creative feminine deity. Sounds like the Great Mother Binah (Heh primal), right? Kundalini strives to climb up the spinal column and attain union with Shiva (in Qabbalah, this could be seen as the Ain Soph, or Chokhmah even). What does this sound like?? Exactly! The Princess who longs to arrive at the throne of her mother in order to make the All Father a very happy creative being.

So this would explain why the Princess as a representation of the body and the lower sensibilities is so powerful and miraculous! The lowest of the low is tremendously exalted in this case, for even though the Kundalini serpent begins at the lowest chakras, those associated with primal urges and desires, it possesses an unfathomable amount of energy that can rise upward and attain godhead (literally). Along the way, in its intense desire for the beloved, it has the incredible ability to break down the ego, finally eliminating it entirely upon reaching the sephira of Binah, the throne.

In this light, perhaps we can understand why the princesses have the personalities they do. The princess of wands would represent Kundalini in its purest form - the sheer will and force of it as it strives upward. This requires a sort of optimism and innocence, which is perhaps why the Fool's tiger is with her. The princess of cups would then represent the sheer ecstasy and brilliance associated with Kundalini Awakenings. Her swooning would make perfect sense, as well as the swan on her head, which supposedly represents the unity of life (OM). The princess of swords, however, is a bit tricky. Being associated with air and the mind, I would suggest that she represents the revolt of the ego against such an aggressive assault against it. The ego loves to fight back, and I'm sure that it would feel a particular urgency to do so after so fiery an attack as a Kundalini Awakening. Though, we could also simply see it as the general aggression of the Kundalini, and the general impartial destructive quality it possess. And lastly, the famous princess of disks - one of my personal favorites. We are told that she represents the sum total of womanhood and the quietude of the body. The first part mostly means that she is the full summation of Nuit, the infinite goddess of Nothing from which all this comes from. But the second part surely speaks to the ultimately calming affect Kundalini has on the body. By negating the ego, it helps bring the body into greater submission to the Divine Will, which would explain why she is impregnated. The process of coaxing the Kundalini up the spine also takes work, dedication, and purity, all of which are associated with the princess of disk.

These are all thoughts ultimately, and are not really coagulated into a coherent argument, as I said at the outset. But it is certainly an interesting way of looking at the princesses of the tarot. Please leave a comment if you have something to suggest!