Tarot & Story Structure
The Hero’s Journey is a timeless archetypal structure that is expressed in many of the myths and legends found throughout the world. Joseph Campbell popularized the term the hero’s journey in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), here he explains the basic formula:
“The standard path of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation - initiation - return: whic might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth.
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: the fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” [Pg. 23]
As tarot and the hero’s journey are both loaded with archetypes and share a similar 3-act structure they resonate well with each other. Many authors have applied this motif and attempted to explain the trump sequence as ‘the fool’s journey’ or the ‘path of the fool’. I was surprised when I read Joseph Campbell’s essay in Tarot Revelations (1979) that he didn’t go with this explanation, perhaps he was tired of his own ideas at that point? Instead, the actress Eden Gray writing in the 1950’s gets the credit for first taking us along on the fool’s journey. In the late 1988 professor Theodore Roszak would expand on this idea in his Fool's Cycle/Full Cycle: Reflections on the Great Trumps of the Tarot.
Star Wars is often upheld as a textbook example of The Hero’s Journey in action. I have sat through numerous lectures on Campbell and The Hero’s Journey and they always talk about Star Wars. Even the cover of The Hero of Thousand Faces usually features a blurb boasting how it inspired Star Wars. Now I’m sure this has probably been done before, but I thought it might be a fun thought exercise to take a look at how well the tarot pack syncs up with Star Wars. Before I actually read Tarot Revelations it was in my headcannon that Lucas had been inspired by tarot, so this concept has been kicking around for a while.
Happy May 4th! Here is my take on a Star Wars themed hero’s journey as applied to the tarot deck.
One of the first things we see is 1. The Magician’s mighty Star Destroyer. He is in pursuit of the rebellious 2. High Priestess and the stolen Death Star plans.
2. The High Priestess shows prudence to hide the stolen plans inside the 3. Empress Droid before she is captured.
She sends the 3. Empress along with the 4. Emperor down to the desert planet below in an escape pod with a mission to deliver the stolen plans to 9. The Hermit.
However, they get captured by jawas and sold to the 5. Hierophant instead, who becomes our hero.
6. The Lover’s dilemma plays out after our Heirophant hero triggers The High Priestess’s distress message while cleaning his new Empress. He now has a decision to make, to stay in his comfy life on the farm on Tatooine or to step off into the unknown and fight the empire.
This choice ends up being made for him after the empire kills his family.
He then races off to the nearest spaceport to find a 7. Chariot.
Our hero flies off in 7. The Chariot to go destroy the Death Star and obtain 8. Justice.
Sometime later, The Hero sees a vision in the snow of 9. The Hermit who had been killed by The Magician in the first film. The Hermit tells The Hero to go to the Dagobah system so that he can receive instruction in the ways of the Hermit from an even wiser Hermit. While he wants to learn the ways of the Hermit and obtain Fortitude, he is worried that his friends are in danger.
The Hero’s friends, who are on the run from the empire, have fled to 10. Fortune, a rotating city in the sky full of casinos and ruled by a gambler.
Unfortunately, The Magician arrived before they did and ambushed them.
In a desperate bid to save his friends our hero lashes out at the Magician.
However he is bested by the Magician who has much greater 11. Fortitude. (Which is Forza on the old Italian cards, literally Force)
Defeated, he falls from Fortune City and literally becomes 12. The Hanged Man. He calls out desperately through the Forza for help.
After facing near 13. Death our hero obtains 14. Temperance from a medical droid who nurses him back to health.
The path ahead still holds many challenges as 15. The Devil has enslaved two of our hero’s friends as well as frozen Han in carbonite.
Our hero sends The Devil’s criminal enterprise crashing down like 16. The Tower into the Sarlacc pit below when he blows up his sail barge.
Reunited with his friends our hero races off to destroy another 17. Death Star
Our Hero and his friends celebrate their victory with the Ewoks on the nearby 18. Forest Moon
The news over hero’s victory spreads quickly throughout the galaxy. A new day dawns as the twin 19. Suns rise over the desert world of Tatooine.
The Trumpet of the 20. Last Judgment sounds and the dead are risen from their graves.
All is right with 21. The World.
But the Fool?
If 0. The Fool is to be a character, C-3po is probably the best fit as he’s the first one you see in the trilogy and also appears in every movie. However, I really liked having Luke/Leia and R2/3PO as affinities. Sometimes sacrifices need to be made to get nonsense theories to work.