The World: a dancer in the wreath

Wreath and four corners: the picture is a closed circle

Waite says that this final message of the major trumps is unchanged, and indeed unchangeable, in respect of its design, so its deeper sense has already been partly described. Part II does not go through the picture item by item.

Open the full-size diagram

The World as BaZiFlow drew it: a dancer in the wreath.

Set beside the Rider-Waite-Smith original: XXI at the top; an oval wreath of green leaves with a red ribbon crossed at the top and the bottom; inside it a dancer, nearly nude, a purple scarf wound around her, one foot lifted, a short white wand in each hand; and in the four corners a cloud holding, in turn, a human face, an eagle, an ox and a lion.

Under the Wheel of Fortune Waite writes that the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the angles of that card. He does not repeat this under the World; reading these four figures the same way borrows from that entry.

The list: two words of result, then five of movement

Waite’s divinatory meanings are: assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place.

Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place.

The first two words say what is gained, and the last five say where one goes. That split is this article’s own; Waite gives them as one continuous list.

Who the dancer is: four readings Waite comments on

Part II is almost entirely about meaning. Waite says the card represents the perfection and end of the cosmos, the rapture of the universe when it understands itself in God; also the state of the soul in the consciousness of Divine Vision. These meanings are, he says, without prejudice to what he has said on the material side. It is also the state of the restored world, and perhaps more especially a story of the past, the day when all was declared good, when the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy.

Of the dancer herself he lists several accounts and comments on each:

How to read it: a round-trip ride, draw the loop, set four points, write what “done” means

The World’s picture is a closed circle with a fixed figure at each corner. Use that shape to plan a Sunday ride around a lake: about 40 kilometers, starting at the station on the east shore and coming back to it.

1. 1

   Draw one closed loop

   Trace the whole circuit on the map and write down the total length and the rough climbing. Start and finish are the same place, and that is what closes the loop.

2. 2

   Put a point in each corner

   Start and finish, a supply stop, a rest stop and a turn-back point, each with one place and one time. The four corner figures are visible in the picture; reading them as four points is a borrowed teaching use.

3. 3

   Write what counts as done

   Waite’s list opens with “assured success”. Give “success” a definition written before you set out, for example: back at the start before dark, the whole ride in under eight hours.

Reversed and neighboring cards: inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence

Waite’s reversed line is: inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence. Read through, the four words all land on “not moving”, exactly opposite the five words of movement in the upright list.

Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence.