Despite the more commonly encountered interpretations of the Tarot as they are used in divination, there is a little something else that seems to be asserting itself though the Ryder Tarot by A.E. Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith that concerns our involvement with The Old Ways and Green themes...
The Six of Cups
Here, we see a five petalled flower. This feature is found in almost every example of plants which used in various ways in evoking Far-Memory (Past-Life Recall) ; accordingly, many of out known agents come from the works of Gurudas where they are recommended as homeopathics, suitable considering that the five pointed or five petalled flower would be common on plants that could be otherwise extremely dangerous to ingest otherwise, the many of the Nightshade family for example.
It is interesting that this signature or correspondence of the five-petalled flower, associating it with memory, also evokes the five pointed star or pentacle. As a symbol of "the Devil", who seems to be a later derivation of the Horned God, associable at times with Chronos (Saturn)or the Horned God, through various attributes and the timing of various festivities, so too is it Wise to consider that these very agents which are not though safe to ingest with any assurance whatsoever, many be traditionally in the domain of Preists of Chronos, or Preistesses of an appropriate counterpart, such as Hecate...
Since there types traditionally and correctly might be Capricorn, or correctly affilitated with the proper energies, attitudes and behaviors: of knowing the uses of questionable things, but tending to apply the very precise and learned skill necessary to handle them safely, and typically using them conservatively, with great reservation. Typically, this may be an older person, and someone adept at using roles or characters purposefully, such as the village wise woman who might michieviously play up her role as a witch in ways that keep curious children at a safer distance from the toxics in her garden and her pantry.
Of all the things Magicians might weild their powers toward, here is a fundamental one; surrounded by lush vegetation, and in the act of doing something, one gets an interesting sense quite easily that the magician is the Cause of this lush vegetation, that through whatever means available to him, he is the Stewart and Caretaker of the Earth, the Fisher King; we also see that it seems to be tradition that as he endeavors to keep all sort of living things healthy upon the Earth, he Has Magick at his disposal, as if he is rightly Well aware of such Magick as the glowing shining stories of Plant Miracles or Vegetation Miracles that are within our Craft.
Death
We are always told by the Wise that the true meaning of the Death card is not Death, but that it symbolises the end of something, or completion.
To look at the Green side of this card, it's connection to the earth, however, the card and its meaning move to the very opposite possible pole of meaning, for it has all the appearances of containing formularies for elixirs of life or for
resurrection from ashes (Palingenics or Palingenesy) , or both, in alchemic symbolism, replete with a banner displaying a Rose, as if the very Rose that symbolises these great feats as they are known to the Rosicrucians, amongst many others.
Perhaps, like the deceptive appearance of the card, which seems to show death where it in fact may edify eternal life and immortality, a Signature or Correspondence is found in the thorned bush which outwardly seems unkind and yet bears forth a great loving boon, that it is chosen as this symbol amongst others that could have been used.
Our glimspes of the following cards will make a rather more concrete statement for a botanical knowledge and intent in the Tarot designs of once head of the Golden Dawn, Mr. Arthur Edward Waite.
Temperance
Rarely asserted, the angel here, ironic within the "coincidence" of words between "Temperance" and The Women's Temperance Movement, whose anti-alcoholic sentiments and efforts led to the prohibition of alcohol in the early 1900's, seems to be tending bar. While this sounds to anyone at first preposterous, careful consideration of this card and this matter may yeild impressive insight.
Modern science and alternative health, now understand better the biochemistry of alcoholism, and so too, that the amino acid l-glutamine, sold in health food stores, is helpful in preventing damage to the human body from alcohol. This prevention extends to the hangovers that can cause a vicious cycle of "curing" a hangover with more alcohol.
Of the botanicals in this case, we see at the feet of the angel what appears to be the fleur-de-lys, or more modernly, an Iris.
Chemical analysis of the genus Iris has revealed that in many species there are notable compounds made of glutamine and other amino acids, glutamyl peptides . While the safety and effectiveness of these and other contents of the Iris are highly questionable- most sources regard parts of the Iris in general as considerably poisonous, this is a remarkable occurance that is likely to go beyond coincidence.
As remote from this as the Kalawaya herbalists of Peru, the Iris is used Physically, so that the hair-like pollen organs that densely form a strip down the petals inside the stomach, in addition to any alcohol which is consumed, will together cause an irritation that will prevent the person from keeping the alcohol down- perhaps a saner but similar approach to the drug "Antabuse"; furthermore, chemicals which resemble this drug may also be found in some Irises.
There are substitutes for the Iris, certainly, that are more sensible... alternately, there are instances that are exceptions to the toxicity rule. At certain times in certain places, Iris seeds correctly prepared have been used as a coffee substitute.
It is also the amongst the most obscure of ancient herbal references- perhaps it has somehow avoided the indices of the appropriate work- that the ancient Romans used the seeds of Iris, perhas again carefully and skillfully prepared in a certain fashion, added to wine to prevent hangover .
Thus the picture that unfolds is that while the oppressive and Draconian prohibition of alcohol, no matter how good the intentions of its instigators, is a veritable model of counterproductiveness, and yet to apply a sincere mind toward the occurance of remedies in nature, continues to be genuinely fruitful.
To put it a certain way, therefore, we could attribute our bearing the weight of an untold amount of suffering and death due to alcohol in the last hundred years to any reason that this rather thinly encoded "secret" may have been overlooked- the ignorance of the ancient medical botanists, the ignorance of the herbalistic prowess of notable High Magickians, and perhaps most of all, the contemptable attitude that the Tarot is "the tool of the Devil and that there is no good that can come from them"- even when Waite himself within the very pages of the book that is to accompany the Ryder Tarot, like Christ, admonished the telling of fortunes.
Certainly realizing the common intent in obtaining the cards, Waite is likely to be overstating to compensate- neither Waite nor Christ may have objection to the use of the cards as an aid to prophesying where the decree of the teller does not compromise or antagonize Deity-given Free Will to affect change in the matters of what is probable- and yet he has not failed his responsibility to blatantly encourage the seeker that there is something else happening on other levels within the cards and their symbols.
For the student of the Doctorine of Signatures or Correspondences, though, this botanical is but the tip of the iceberg. To follow a correspondence between the shape of the pod of the Iris, and its familiar occurance in the Watermelon, we find that the Watermelon is notable for the occurance of glutamine and or related, sometimes precursory compounds, such as Ornithine-cycle amino acids- citrulline, arginine, et al.
From here we might follow the Watermelon's symbolism as a sign of fertility, and pregnancy (it is remarkably common to have told children that pregnancy was the result of "having swallowed a watermelon seed")and begin to look at research that considers the role of glutamine in forming significant anti-oxidant compounds that may be critical during pregnancy.
Thus, the question that should have been asked long ago, "if these agents will protect a woman from the ravages of alcohol, can it protect the unborn child within her?". Certainly this cannot be reasonably considered a substitute for abstinence, and yet remains potentially applicable with great merit in the most stubborn cases of alcoholism during pregnancy.
So, too, is this use implied, for one of the significanes of the streamside is that in days of old, it may have been preferable to birth near a streamside for the abundance of fresh water, thus it itself should an icon of maternity.
Hence, we may be able to cite the effect on unborn children brought to bear by the pugnacious closed-minded attitudes purveyed by fundamentalists of certain faiths.
I am aware of another related occurance, one which was televised on a cable program concerning near-death experiences. One of the terribly stiking and rare negative or unpleasant experiences that is reported happened to a man who was dying of an ulcer, fatally aggravated by his alcoholism, in a foriegn hospital, and apparently suffered great delay in his treatment, allegedly due to the language barrier, and died there.
His experience was of having gone to hell, where there was a vast pit teeming with demons, which were trying to eat his flesh (a rather peculiar event for a soul or spiritual body, really, to be still bearing such concerns of the flesh). Presiding over this, according to his drawing, at the very pinnacle, was a great triangle, which was never explained.
Eventually, he cried out for help, and a luminous being came and lifted him out of the pit, and he return to life. Convinced this being was Jesus Christ, he devoted his life to a Fundamentalist ministry.
The person in question seems blissfully unaware not only of the ideosyncracies of his experience, but of the occurance of the symbolism of the triangle in this vision may be the one which adorns the breast of this angel. Far from a demonic symbol, it is an achelmist's symbol for sulfur. Treated as ordinary, chemical sulfur, it may represent the sulfur that is notable in chemicals which are like the drug "Antabuse", the sulfur whose sulfate radicals may serve to neutralize the terrible excess of stomach acidity antagonizing the ulcer, and the sulfur required to form antibodies to fight the bacteria now recognized to be responsible for a vast number of ulcers, Helicobacter pylori .
Expanding on this, the "flesh-eating demons" very easily symbolize the bacteria itself which is literally eating the flesh of the inside of his stomach.
So too, does this phosphoresent savior stand to indicate the phosophorus, as phosphate, which may ultimately have both neutralized the unbearable acidity, and powered his resuccitation.
What is remarkable here, then, beside being an occurance of a shamanic diagnostic vision happening to a patient, and that it is cutting across the boundaries of belief systems, is how common of an icon quitely appeared in this experience.
Furthermore, this instance can serve as a precent for looking at other extraordinary experiences- some out of body experiences, near death experiences, and particularly alien visitations.
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