H. R. GIGER TAROT. H. R. Giger

Faust turned towards him and slowly nodded with strangely void eyes: “Yes, this comet out there is like the divine spark that destroys everything. Like the final crescendo of a Devils symphony calling itself human development. We cannot stop it. It would be blasphemy to try! But perhaps our essence will survive the doomsday if our souls strive to reach God again. Who knows!”

      Faust and M.E. Phisto announced their discovery. Their scientific calculations proved to be correct – that the cosmic messenger of the Devil would not elegantly slither past the inner planets and the Sun, but rather, that it would crash directly into the Earth. Then the world was seized by great fear and the bringer of death was called “Mephisto’s Hammer.” But horror soon gave way to stubborn despair, and the closer this tool of the Devil drew to Earth, the madder the party became. The nearer the sword of Damocles descended upon the heads of the human beings, the more they felt compelled to repress their fears. But the “Hammer” did not miss its target! With the enormous force of countless atomic bombs, it went down in the Caribbean Sea south of the Greater Antilles, annihilating all life on Earth in a single inferno.

      Interpretation

       1 The Impact (The Theme of the Crisis)

      The impact means suddenly being torn from a harmonious state. It is the destruction of a stable system of balance. It therefore represents the subject of the crisis.

       2 The Deluge (The Consequence of the Crisis)

      The impact of a comet striking the ocean triggers off enormous tidal waves all over the world; they roll towards the coasts with deathly force. The second card therefore symbolizes the aggressive destructive power of the crisis because it “surges above” its own barriers and forces its way from inner seclusion into outer, manifested experience.

       3 The Darkening of Light (Sexual Chill)

      The sun’s light is eclipsed for decades by matter stirred into the atmosphere by as a result of the impact. Temperatures plummet throughout the whole world and most animals and plants do not have the right conditions for survival because they cannot adapt quickly enough to the altered circumstances. The third card is therefore life becoming extinct or the emotional nadir: the spiritual center of the crisis.

       4 The Greenhouse Effect (Emotional Overheating)

      With the settling of the stirred-up matter, temperatures quickly begin to increase again due to the enormous quantities of carbon monoxide released through the firestorm caused by the impact of the comet. This releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide that have a greenhouse effect. The heat consumes whatever life that remains. This card is therefore an allegory for overheating within the soul or the pressure of pent-up feelings.

       5 End and Beginning (Human Beings)

      The fifth card symbolizes the renewal that is fulfilled in the resurrection of human beings. Because the light reaching us today from distant galaxies was radiated millions of years ago, each look into the universe is a view into the past. Those human beings existing a million years from now will probably have emerged from the life forms surviving the present catastrophe. Consequently, this card does not show us the steps to take to overcome the present crisis on the psychological level. Instead, it depicts the goal towards which our development will lead us after the crisis is overcome.

      VI THE NOHNS’ WHEEL

      Questions

      The thing we call “fortune” is the manifest expression of the process of transformation that we experience in our lifetime. These show us the structures concealed within the deeds, which are both cause and effect to the same degree. Therefore, we are not prisoners of the Norns’ Wheel, but wanderers upon a path that leads us through the effects of our own actions. Although this means that we do not have the power to alter our destiny, we can still change our view of things. The vital question of destiny is not what we are able to change in the current situation, but what is the meaning of our actions: the goal towards which our development is heading.

      Background (The Norns of Destiny)

      This spread is a combination of beginning and end, of the Big Bang (IV) and the Hammer of Destruction (V). It links the polarities of creation and destruction to the steady movement of the Norns’ Wheel that, because it spins eternally, is therefore between the two. The question that moves you is the point of intersection through which you focus the journey to yourself (between birth and death). You must accept that everything you experience is in turn never the actual cause but only a ripple triggered by pre-existing causes that can themselves be traced back to a basic pattern increasingly distant in time; effects following causes that can be found in your spiritual development. Everything that you experience is never just the cause but also the effect of a genealogical pattern pressing tirelessly further into the future. As the subject of your question (and the focal point of your increasing consciousness) it swings both back into the past and forward into the future. On the allegorical level the three Norns – who turn the wheel of Fortune, and therefore keep the cosmic cycles in motion – symbolize the inner laws that take effect in the actions of people.

      Interpretation

       1 The material as the basis

      The issue in question.

       2 The impact as resistance from outside

      The shadow you encounter outside yourself.

       3 The flood as a consequence of this resistance

      The physical plane, upon which the shadow manifests itself.

       4 Chaos as the primal beginning

      The first opportunity dawning on you in the fog of numinous fears (the aim).

       5 The Quark Era as creative quality

      The higher (spiritual) meaning of your action.

       6 The cooling down of the Earth as inner frustration

      Emotional resistance.

       7 The Greenhouse Effect as emotional overheating

      The inner (exaggerated) reaction to external resistance.

       8 The Hadron Era as physical assertion

      The dynamic quality of your actions.

       9 The Radiation Era as physical condensation

      The compression of your aim (hopes and fears) in time and space.

       10 The human being as the outer goal of our development

      The goal towards which your development leads.

      VII THE FIVE-RAY SPREAD

       (THE PATH OF DECISION)

      Questions

      What shall I decide to do? Should I buy a car? Resign from my job? Take a holiday? What’s going to happen if I do it? And what’s going to happen if I don’t? What’s the right path?

      Background

      This spread is only appropriate when we cannot decide in favor of