Victory over the challenge of the previous card THE MOON (Card XVIII) is gloriously celebrated in the rebirth, regeneration and spiritual renewal of the SELF shown here in THE SUN (Card XIX). This card portrays the emerging birth of your triumphant inner-child, a joyful being now totally rejuvenated and born anew within the energy and perfected SOLAR CONSCIOUSNESS of The Creator. 

  In THE MOON your determination, resolve and commitment (to blend the wildness of the subconscious mind with the more controlled self-conscious) was being tested.  Life wanted to see if you (the crayfish) were finally ready to walk the spiritual path between the wolf (your reactive subconscious) and the domesticated dog (your rational self-conscious).  If you finally accepted the challenge and didn't retreat back into the pool of the "great deep" or Universal mind-stuff (as we all have through many lifetimes), then your victorious passage between the two canines would magically sweep you along the path to THE SUN card. It's here you emerge transformed, integrated and reborn... willing and ready to live and act in a balanced way (within the equilibrium of these two minds). 

  Your continuing challenge, however, is to celebrate this rebirth through a life of right action.  This is possible as long as you allow the intuitive guidance of God to filter through your subconscious as it confers with your self-conscious; never allowing one mind to overrule or censor the other. They must become partners in life, cooperating through agreement and consensus.

  At this point I think it might be helpful for us to take a quick walk back through the Tarot to the very start of our journey as THE FOOL (our soul's earthly beginning) on to this present card THE SUN (our spiritual rebirth in perfected body). 

  Essentially, with our arrival at THE SUN card, we have reached the end of our weary odyssey.  We have surmounted countless tests, learned of the forces of life on the material plane, given our physical essence over to cellular death and now are reborn to the fruits of human spiritual renewal.  By walking through the lessons of each card, it may better illustrate the sequential plan and visionary dream our Ancient Teachers intended for each of us (to use each card's archetypal energy as a guide/stepping stone to the heights of human-spiritual perfection).

  Millions of years ago your Divine Spark (Soul) left the far-reaches of Cosmic Space and descended in vibration to earth's 3rd dimension (The Fool).  As it experienced the strange and funky energy swings of earth's polarized force fields, it became aware that to attain spiritual perfection while in physical form, its cellular flesh had to be purified.  It realized that this purging and transmutation could occur only by allowing pure Solar Light energies to electrify its being (The Magician).

  Its first assignment was to appear before the guardian of The Universal Mind.  There it promised to keep her secrets and correctly utilize the cosmic processes/forces which she (The High Priestess) was about to reveal.  With her blessing, your soul decided to test its new powers by manifesting abundance. 

  Using the laws of visualization and emotional passion it produced and manifested material bounty through the conscious agency of Mother Nature (The Empress).  Surrounded on all sides by the continuing and unending growth it produced, it learned that as a gardener prunes its trees, so it must now apply the laws of structure, form and limitation to the growth channels it set in motion (The Emperor). 

  With Nature's growth subdued and controlled, The Creator advised your soul that it must open itself to further Divine instruction (The Hierophant).   Essentially, the soul's new instruction explained that in its quest for perfection it must attempt to access The Universal Mind for more guidance. To do this, it must first balance and blend its internal electricities, both positive and negative, conscious and unconscious (The Lovers).  From here it reaches this material balance (The Chariot).  It then learns to exercise balance and control over its untamed subconscious (Strength).  Learns to go within to seek guidance from its Higher Self (The Hermit) and applies this guidance to the tests of everyday living and their random experiences (The Wheel of Fortune). 

  It then appears before The Lord of Karma to confess its karmic transgressions (Justice).  Serves its Karmic sentence for the commission of these errors (The Hanged Man).  Freed, is then stripped of all former flesh (to its skeleton) to vanquish all former thoughts and habits (Death).  Builds a new body as it learns to balance the energies of the material and spiritual worlds (Temperance).  Falls prey again to negative subconscious desires (The Devil).  In this misguided consciousness seals itself from the truths of the world, only to be toppled and awakened by God's lightning (The Tower).  Learning much from the fall, becomes whole once again (The Star). Tested one last time to see if it can balance, control and blend its two minds (The Moon).  Having succeeded, is reborn as a small child into the wonder and glory of perfected living.

  We should all cheer the child (your reborn soul) as it rides away from the wall of its former pain, suffering and containment.  It waves the red banner of truth, has a red feather of knowledge in its hair and is cheered on by jubilant Sun Flowers that are sealing its past, protecting its future growth and crowning its head with the Solar Light of consciousness.

copyright 2006, Joe Ivory, all rights reserved