The World - Twenty One

Tarot of Marseilles

This card shows a central figure that we might describe as Mother Nature, surrounded by symbols for the Cardinal Directions. These four quarters also represent the four suits of the Minor Arcana which are to follow. The World card is a reflection upon the third card, The Empress. This is the final card in the Major Arcana, and therefore represents the "big picture" of the cosmos as a unified being.

"The number 21 is the number of destruction or rather of universal termination, because, as 2 is separated from 1, it is necessary that it has a means of to unite there if it wants it. This number shows at the same time the command of the production of things and their end, as well in the spiritual one as in the corporal one." Claude of Saint-Martin

The destruction here is of illusion, of egocentricism. When the illusion is shattered, we wake up to the stunning reality of the universe. "21, the highest possible number of 3 in the corporal, is in relation with the spiritual and shows the quality of the renewal." Karl von Eckartshausen

What it represents is something more significant than The Empress card alone. It tells us the story of the individual who awakens to the illusion of duality, to realise himself as one with the infinite universe. This is the number of completion, and with completion comes renewal, a new way of understanding the world. This brings us back to Zero, a circle with no beginning and no end, the selfless fool who exists in a state of egolessness.

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