The Fool's Pilgrimage Quotes

“The Tree of Life may also be said to reveal four great laws of universal being that apply as well to the human soul: (1) the Law of Emanation, which declares that all things are the successively emanated portions of the same divine essence; (2) the Law of Balance and Equilibrium, which states that life and growth imply balance, while imbalance leads to death and/or stagnation; (3) the Law of Unity in Diversity, reconciling the multiple emanations of the Tree with the monotheistic concept by stating that the essence is one, while its outpourings are many; and (4) the Law of the Ability to Return, according to which any manifestation of the emanated essence is capable of ascending to its own original source by climbing the paths and traversing the emanational centers (sephiroth) of the Tree. Kabbalistic meditation consists of effectively traveling along the branches of the Tree, up to and perhaps beyond the highest or crowning emanational center, the Sephira Kether.”
― Stephan A. Hoeller, The Fool's Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot

“Divination is not mere fortune-telling or superstition. Rather, it is an exceedingly subtle psychological technique whereby the secrets of the unconscious can be discovered, its powers (extrasensory and others) can be made accessible, and guidance for our confused and disordered lives can be obtained. The most important fact to fix in one’s mind is that there is nothing haphazard or accidental in the universe, and that external events—no matter how seemingly trivial—are intimately related to happenings within the human psyche. Thus, if we learn the art of discovering and interpreting the external signs, we may thereby gain access to the world of inward realities in our own souls and in the soul of the cosmos. The magic of Tarot divination is not in the cards but in ourselves. The cards can and do act as instrumentalities whereby the subjective reality within the unconscious becomes able to project a portion of itself into objective existence. Through this projection, a meaningful and useful relationship or a creative dialogue between the subjective and objective sides of our lives may be established, which is a great accomplishment. Thus divi­nation by means of the Tarot may be defined as a practical way in which a bridge is built between the temporal world of physical events, on the one hand, and the timeless world of the archetypes of the collective unconscious, on the other. It may be useful to recall that divination was considered an important part of the cur­riculum of certain mystery schools, not primarily in order to teach how to foretell the future, but in order to construct a psychic mechanism within the initiate whereby a source of guidance and insight might be made accessible to his conscious self.”
― Stephan A. Hoeller, The Fool's Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot

“From the mysterious point of original and final unity, sym­bolized by the zero card, or the Fool, there proceed three streams, or spokes, each consisting of seven cards of the Major Arcana, together adding up to twenty-one. The first of these (one through seven, or from Magician to Chariot) stands for the area of creative powers, or of causes within the collective unconscious. The sec­ ond septenary (eight through fourteen, or Strength through Temperance) consists of representations of the laws by which the primordial powers of the first septenary are channeled toward manifestation. Third, the last septenary (fifteen through twenty- one, or Devil through World) symbolizes the results or finalized concrete manifestations of the first seven powers, as they appear in their actualized or differentiated condition.”
― Stephan A. Hoeller, The Fool's Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot

“From the vantage point of the spirit, all earthly gain is of no account; the road to earthly attainment leads nowhere, means nothing, and ends in nothing. The wisdom of the world is foolish­ ness in the sight of the gods, and, conversely, the Divine Wisdom appears as foolishness in the sight of men, who, having become for­getful of their own divine heritage, have become mere men, instead of sons of the gods. It is quite easy to comprehend why to the uninitiated the Fool, or original spiritual potency, would appear as the embodiment of uselessness, silliness, and stupidity. All appearance is deception, and only at the center of the great circular dance of creation, where the Fool stands in still, motionless serenity, do we find that which no longer deceives by appearances, because it no longer appears, but is.”
― Stephan A. Hoeller, The Fool's Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot