21. THE WORLD: THE SPIRIT SOARS!

By Judy Jennings © Copyright 2013

It's been quite a journey for our Happy Traveler, this trek along the path from Magician to The World!  The trail has led through lands of free will, followed by regions that are clearly beyond personal control. Constantly weaving between conscious and subconscious worlds, growing wiser with every step, the Traveler must navigate the domain of the 20th triumph as the final challenge.  It is this soul-changing journey through Judgement, a realm that strips away the last vestiges of ego, that finally admits the Traveler to the state of liberation and fulfillment found in The World.

Imagine the personality as an eggshell.  Inside this shell resides the higher nature of a person, protected until the Spirit is ready to soar.  All of the preceding triumphs merge into The World, where the qualities discovered along each step of the way find perfect harmony, releasing the cosmic Dancer in all of us.  The forces found in The World are the real focus of meditation, and the ultimate outcome of concentration.

The positive state of mind found in The World is also very much a celebration of time and the wisdom that it brings.  Only through the passage of time are self-created illusions torn down, allowing us to reach completion.  In this state hypocrisy is eliminated, desire becomes crystallized, and truth is revealed.  To the person who seeks to be of service, this process is a blessing. 

Metaphysically, The World embodies Nirvana, a transcendent state where suffering and sense of self no longer exist.  The energies at work in the 21st triumph are those through which a person gives up the misconceptions that prevent true inner freedom.

Whenever it appears in a reading The World is an auspicious card that suggests triumph and great success.  A door may be opening, possibly onto career opportunities or international travel.  The World promises rewards, fulfillment and freedom in one's life.  Expanding horizons are strongly indicated.  In some cases the success represented may be of a particularly spiritual nature.  there is a strong connection to the world community, as well as with the workings of cosmic forces.  A person represented by The World has the ability to create happiness around them.  This is a wise person, possibly a teacher or elder who has great positive influence.  This person has honorable intentions and works for the greater good, rather than personal advancement.

The ancient Greeks had two words for time, kairos and kronos.  It is Kronos we know as the proverbial Father Time, symbolic of an inevitable tide that eventually washes away all mortality.  Kairos is a different sense of time altogether.  When we experience kairos we are a part of time, rather than its subject.  It is the total absorption of being in love and the transcendence of meditation.  Kairos is in play anytime we are completely engaged in something so deeply that we lose track of time, so to speak.  

The energies of both kairos and kronos are strongtly engaged in the 21st triumph.  Kronos leads us to the state found in The World, where we are lifted by kairos as the ego loses attachment to the world of the material and the superficial.  The Fool becomes the Dancer in The World, as time becomes timelessness and the cycle readies to begin all over again.