21:   The World

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BOTA (Builders of the Adytum)

Universal Waite

1.   Completion (completeness) or integration; fulfillment. 2.   The conclusion of a long-term project.

COMMENTS:

In some decks, this card is "The Universe."

This card may show up next to the Three of Cups.

"The Dancer has one leg crossed over the other, just like the Hanged Man.   She is, in a sense, his opposite   —   the hanged man right-side-up.   As the Hanged Man saw infinitely inward, the Dancer sees infinitely outward."

If you look closely, you'll see that the four creatures in the corners of this card (the angel, the eagle, the ox, and the lion) are basically the same ones depicted on The Wheel of Fortune.

These animals are listed in Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 4:7.   They are also the traditional symbols of the Four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)   —   Matthew is represented by a human or angel; Mark by a lion; Luke by an ox; and John by an eagle.

In some of the older decks, the figure in the center was Jesus Christ.

Here's what Arthur Edward Waite says about this card (in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot): As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged--and indeed unchangeable--in respect of its design, it has been partly described already regarding its deeper sense. It represents also the perfection and end of the Cosmos, the secret which is within it, the rapture of the universe when it understands itself in God. It is further the state of the soul in the consciousness of Divine Vision, reflected from the self-knowing spirit. But these meanings are without prejudice to that which I have said concerning it on the material side. It has more than one message on the macrocosmic side and is, for example, the state of the restored world when the law of manifestation shall have been carried to the highest degree of natural perfection. But it is perhaps more especially a story of the past, referring to that day when all was declared to be good, when the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. One of the worst explanations concerning it is that the figure symbolizes the Magus when he has reached the highest degree of initiation; another account says that it represents the absolute, which is ridiculous. The figure has been said to stand for Truth, which is, however, more properly allocated to the seventeenth card. Lastly, it has been called the Crown of the Magi.