Twinning in the “Mythic Tarot”:

For last Sunday’s session, we didn’t get into too much of a discussion of the inner archetypes of the Twins, because there was a steady stream of visitors who were interested in the Spinning Basket divination. However, we did have a small group who stayed after, put the question, “How does the energy of the Sacred Twins function in my life?” and then did the card search technique of going through their respective Tarot decks until they came to the first Major card with images of twinning or doubling.

I’ve had after-thoughts about one reading, where a male participant used “The Mythic Tarot” by Juliet Sharman-Burke. His central card was the Knight of Swords, which although not a Major Arcana card, features a picture of the Dioscuri, the young male twins that the Greeks and Romans associated with the sign of Gemini. The figures in this card ride together on a single horse, and they are moving to the right. This would suggest that the querent has got two masculine-identified twin selves harmonized and working in tandem as he goes into the future. I don’t recall what the right flanking card was, but the left flanking card was the Page of Wands, which features an illustration of Phrixus, the boy who rode a magical golden ram, (it could fly), to Colchis. In this card, the figures are moving toward the left. Interestingly, there are subtle references to doubling in this card. When a person rides an animal such as a horse, ram, or whatever in the Dream World of Tarot, that animal can be seen as a twin-self, a side of that person which is more in touch with the Animal Powers. In the original story, Phrixus had a sister, Helle [light], from whom he was parted when she fell off the ram as it was flying over the ocean. He subsequently also parted with the ram, which was sacrificed and became the golden fleece, (which became the subject of a quest).

In this case, there seem to be inner re-alignments involving the pairing and unpairing of different facets of the Self, with a progression toward somewhat more mature masculine energies, because Phrixus and Helle were children, while the Dioscuri were young men—and the energy of Gemini, generally, has an inquisitive, experimental “teenage” quality. Separating from the younger and feminine aspects may well have involved a certain sense of loss, and the sacrifice of the golden fleece may pertain to a diminishment of that youthful sense of inflation, that high flying exuberance of golden youth. Nevertheless, the energies being experienced are still fairly youthful, (though in the Mythic Tarot, these are expressed through the Knight of Swords warrior mode). In a middle-aged person, this could mean re-experiencing the intellectual life of youth, (which for some of us was in the Hippie era). The third card, which I can’t recall, may have indicated where these re-aligned energies are being directed.

Note that there is also a lot of Zodiac symbolism, as the ram applies to Aries, the Dioscuri to Gemini, and the horse they are riding on could apply to Sagittarius. (Last Sunday, the full moon was in Sagittarius, in opposition to the Gemini sun). This could mean that areas in this person’s life that are governed by Aries are currently becoming less of a focus, while he has got matters in the opposing signs of Gemini and Sagittarius working in tandem. There might also be a timeline involved, moving from Spring (Aries) to Summer (Gemini).