The Seventeenth Arcanum is associated with the Hebrew letter PHE, which has the numerical value of 80. Phe is connected with speech, which differentiates man, who was made in the image of God, from animals. Phe is also connected with the oral law of Judaism, known as the Talmud. Mouni Sadhu asks, “What actually is the SPEECH of the Archetype? It is the language of HOPE, understandable for those who listen to it. Even then, when apparently everything around us is silent, and when everything forecasts only peril for us, HOPE acts, and radiates its rays throughout the darkest corners of our consciousness”. He gives as the ternary titles for this Arcanum, Hope-Intuition-Natural Divination. This trump is called The Star.
Mouni Sadhu adds, “The card for this Arcanum is rather simple in its meaning and design. High in the sky there hangs a large eight-pointed star, surrounded by seven similar, but smaller ones. Beneath them on the earth there is a naked girl, watering the dry soil and the adjacent pond from two vessels, a gold one and a silver one. Behind her we see a colored butterfly sitting on a rose. Her right foot is half submerged in the small pond.”
He explains Hope in this way, “In a metaphysical drought of contemplation of men growing indifferent, we may be regenerated through the new freshness of expectancy of the High influx (silver vessel, passive pole) and through faith in ourselves (gold vessel, active pole). This is the deep symbolism of the Seventeenth Arcanum’s card.”
Much of the lessons given on this Arcanum by Mouni Sadhu deal with different areas of divination of natural elements, such as palm reading, dreams etc. Instead, I will be wandering down the path of exploring PHE, the seventeenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The pictograph for PHE is a mouth representing the “capacity for speech as self expression”. Again, I refer the reader to the internet site called Hebrew4Christians, as the author of this blog is always insightful. He says that Phe “alludes to Oral Law (Talmud)”.
Now this fact is interesting in that Jesus Christ in the New Testament rebuked these traditions of the elders, as making the commandment of God of none effect. And whereas Mouni Sadhu claims that the Hope of this card is hope in one’s self, the hope of the Christian is in Jesus Christ as Messiah. In most cases where Phe is referred to, I have found that Exodus 4:10 is quoted regarding Mose’s protest to the LORD that he is not eloquent, but slow of speech. The LORD reproves Moses, as God made the mouth and promises the he will be with his mouth and will teach him what he should say to Pharaoh. We see the promise in the New Testament that when a Christian stands before a ruler or a council (the Sanhedrin), the Holy Spirit will instruct him what to answer.
The eight-pointed star which Mouni Sadhu illustrates on his card as the Great Star, also shows eight emanations behind the star, thus totaling 16 rays. So whereas other tarot cards only show eight rays, we learn from the subtilty of our author that this great star may actually be a sixteen pointed star, similar to the star of the CIA. Some regard this star as the Star of Hope, the Dog Star, or Sirius, of Freemasonry, or the Star of the Magi.
Regarding Speech, Jesus Christ asks the Pharisees, in John 8:43 “Why do ye not understand my speech?” He answers his own question in the following verses, “Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.”
Arcanum Fifteen is The Devil, Sixteen is The Tower hit by judgment, and Seventeen is The Star of hope for the occultist, which is himself. So the Devil rules, and the pinnacle of his guile is revealed and judged, and the only hope which remains for the occultist is the speech of the father of lies who continues to make the words of God of none effect.
Jeremiah 15:15-21 speaks on this wise about the PHE of the LORD: O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know, that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke. Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?”
“Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou wilt return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.”
MOUNI SADHU UNMASKED 