The Seven Stages of Spiritual Unfoldment

The map to Cosmic Consciousness can be found in this Major Arcana spread

This image represents B.O.T.A.’s “Tableau of the Tarot”, which features the Major Arcana cards placed in three rows of seven columns with the Fool positioned above the tableau. The pattern, read in a particular way, is said to represent the Seven Stages of Spiritual Unfoldment.

A Note on My Sources

The following information comes primarily from the teachings of my first occult teacher J. Owen Swift who was largely informed by Paul Foster Case and Ann Davies. Case founded the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.) and Davies took over where Case left off as an extraordinary adept in the school of Ageless Wisdom.

This essay is far from comprehensive and is closer to a summary of the Seven Stages. I am currently writing a more detailed series of essays dedicated to each one of the stages. Stay tuned for the first installment to be posted in the near future.

How to Navigate the Tableau

The Fool is placed atop the three-tiered rows because the Fool is the Zero Key and does not represent a single number or step along the path. Rather, the Fool represents the Life-Power, or the “Spiritus” (in Latin), the “Ruach” (in Hebrew), the “Pneuma” (in Greek), the “Prana” (in Sanskrit), the “Qi” (in Mandarin/Chinese).

In other words, the Fool is unformed, raw, energy that is given specific expression within the archetypal avatars of the other twenty-one Major Arcana figures. In this regard, the…