Upon rendering the veil of adversity, we awaken to a hitherto unknown aspect of reality. The flash in the picture of the Awakening card signifies a vision of truth, which liberates us from the sense of adversity.
The sun in the right upper corner represents the higher self. The higher self takes us into adverse experiences to awaken us to a larger truth. The purpose is enlightenment — the evolution of consciousness. Don’t think of enlightenment as something fancy. Enlightenment takes place all the time. Every day, experiences awaken us a little.
On the Tree of Life, the respective path connects the Intellect (thoughts) and Creativity (desires). Ageless wisdom assigned the epithet inciting intelligence to this path. This epithet owes its name to the fact that Creativity excites the Intellect to come up with plans on how to realize its desires.
Mrs. Creativity and Mr. Intellect are engaged in teamwork. Mrs. Creativity formulates desires. Mr. Intellect comes up with a plan and executes it, which leads to either success or failure. Mr. Intellect analyzes the karmic responses to its actions and updates Mrs. Creativity on what happened. Mrs. Creativity uses that feedback to refine her desires. Mr. Intellect tries again and gains more knowledge and insight, reports back to Mrs. Creativity, and so on.
As you can see, the exciting intelligence catalyzes the evolution of thoughts and desires. But usually, the Intellect develops faster since it engages in karmic cycles. All people develop decent intelligence, but few cultivate their desires. Too many intelligent people are still driven by greed. As you can see, intelligence does not shield us from barbarism. In fact, it can take barbarism to unprecedented levels.
Desires and thoughts may conflict, which causes stress. The psychological term for that is cognitive dissonance. For instance, the thought I need to diet and the desire for chocolate may clash. We resolve conflicts of interest by negotiating. For instance, Mrs. Creativity and Mr. Intellect may agree on eating sugarless dark chocolate.
Creativity and Intellect are on the same level, but Creativity comes first. This means that naturally, desires dominate thoughts. But ideologies and religion turn this natural hierarchy on its head and repress desires that don’t conform to their morality. Hence, an inauspicious Awakening card may indicate suppressed desires or an imminent awakening from a fixed idea.
The burning tower and the falling man and woman may also symbolize traumatizing losses. This can be the loss of a desire (woman) — that’s a disappointment, or the loss of a truth (man) — that’s a disillusionment, or the loss of a self-identification (crown). Of all losses, identity crises are the most traumatic. Mind that external losses can already trigger identity crises. Self-identification before the loss of a business: I’m a successful entrepreneur. Self-identification after: I’m a loser.
When we repress traumas, we may develop psychological complexes (chronic traumas). The lightning flash may also signify the intentional recollection of a trauma, for example, during a psychoanalytical session.
We experience little awakenings every day, but once in a while, we undergo a life-changing wake-up call. You know this as the dark night of the soul. A dark night of the soul is a severe identity crisis that calls the soul to the personality table. If you go through a dark night of the soul, cut to the chase and figure out what identity you lost. Then, think about what new identity you should add to your self-identification portfolio. The crown is the ego’s false crown. Every disillusionment, disappointment, and identity crisis knocks it down. This crown also signifies the sense of personal will, which, as we already know from the Sacrifice card, is an illusion.
The crown is the ego’s false crown. Every disillusionment, disappointment, and identity crisis knocks it down. This crown also signifies the sense of personal will, which, as we already know from the Sacrifice card, is an illusion.
The mountain peak in the picture symbolizes the sense of separation — the traumatizing illusion that we are alone in this world. An inauspicious Awakening card may indicate that the querent is suffering from the sense of separation, but that an awakening is underfoot, which will liberate her from this illusion.
An auspicious Awakening card calls for letting go of outdated desires, thoughts, traumatic memories, and self-identifications.
An auspicious Awakening card also calls for psychoanalysis — the recognition and acceptance of psychological complexes and repressed desires.
An inauspicious Awakening card may indicate that the querent harbors unreal perspectives and expectations. The querent may also be trapped in the sense of separation (the mountain peak) or suffer from pride — the illusion of personal will (crown). An inauspicious Six of Pentacles (ego) would confirm the latter.
On the Tree of Life, the path of the Awakening card forms the third and lowest horizontal path. It connects Creativity (7’s) and Intellect (8’s). The 7→8 direction stands for the control desires have over thinking processes. An inauspicious Awakening card may indicate wishful thinking and an imminent disillusionment. The 8→7 signifies intelligent feedback to desires. An inauspicious Awakening card may signify pending disappointments, the need to refine desires, or the need to end the idealistic suppression of desires.
The titles and the five core meanings of the Awakening card are:
Enlightenment Tarot title: Awakening
Traditional title: Tower
Power of consciousness: Drive
Constructive use: Ambition
Unconstructive use: Aggression
Auspicious state of mind: Awakening, liberation
Inauspicious state of mind: Upheaval
On the spiritual-intentional level, the Awakening card stands for spiritual awakening. On this level, the life force has an incinerating-purifying effect, which causes spiritual awakenings. The corresponding religious term is baptizing with spirit.
On the creative-feely level, the Awakening card may signify disappointments: the awakening from unrealistic desires. It may also indicate the awakening to the reality of one’s creative ambitions. Creativity translates the higher self’s inspirations into creative ideas. The ego’s selfish agenda (the crown) may block inspiration and give creativity a selfish twist.
On the intellectual level, an inauspicious Awakening card may indicate (imminent) disillusionment and the awakening from erroneous thoughts, concepts, and worldviews. It may also signify intellectual aggression, which may manifest as intellectual bullying and cruelty. Mind speech is attributed to this card, which is also an intellectual matter. Hence, an inauspicious Awakening card may also hint at a tendency toward rude, mean, and hurtful speech.
On the bodily-practical level, the respective power of consciousness expresses through drive. This is also the force that powers muscle movement (action), fuels sexual drive, and promotes cellular regeneration. Its emissary is adrenaline. The astrological correspondence of this card is Mars, the god of war. Unbridled, this force becomes one of the most common inner demons, which expresses through anger, violence, recklessness, obsessive compulsive disorder, and excessive ambition. On this level, people find themselves caught in an aggressive-competitive mindset (an inner demon). They’re angry because competition is a zero-sum game. When aggressive people awaken to a hitherto unknown aspect of reality, they may keep their aggressive disposition. That’s why so many woke people are confrontational. Practicing emotional and bodily distancing, as well as sublimating drive into creative energy, can help to pacify this inner demon. People who have too much of this energy are prone to ADHD, and people who have too little of this energy are prone to depression. An inauspicious Awakening card can represent the fifth stage of the Kübler-Ross model, i.e., depression, in particular, when a trauma keeps consuming emotional energy. Last but not least, an excess of this force can cause motor tics, Tourette syndrome, and coprolalia.
More Attributions:
Number: 16
Letter: Peh, meaning the mouth as an instrument of speech
Astrology: Mars
Color: red
Chakra: the chakra behind the navel