AUTHOR’S NOTE: I was going to sub-title this essay “The Importance of Fixity,” but you will get that message as you read through it and examine the graphic.

Conventional wisdom in the esoteric tarot community is that the Ace represents the creative and formative catalyst or “spark” behind the intent to manifest shown by the linear projection of the Two. It symbolizes a nascent state of potential rather than an objective reality (i.e. it doesn’t describe the physical “first step” but merely the impulse to step out). As the Pythagorean Monad and Primum Mobile (or “First Whirling”) of the Qabalists, it exists outside of time and space yet performs a vital function: that of preparation heralding the alignment and eventual advancement of its successor. It is a formless abstraction, a “seed-state,” a mathematical point that is devoid of mass, dimension and direction until “clothed in matter” and given a mission. Its position is displayed on the Golden Dawn’s Chaldean wheel of tarot correspondences in one of the four quadrants comprising the dome of space around the Celestial Pole, accompanied by the equally prefatory Princess of the same suit. (See the illustration below.) I believe it was Alejandro Jodorowsky who observed that the Princess (his Knave) waits outside the castle gate, seeking entry, and the Ace could be its “calling card.” Herein lies the mystery I’m going to explore in this essay.

Each Princess is described as the “throne of the Ace” but, given the dynamic nature of the tarot, I can’t envision this as an exalted “dais” upon which the Ace languishes, sipping tea and nattering with its consort. I think of it as the generative womb of the Princess from which the Ace is propelled outward in an act of birthing that drives it toward the rim of the wheel where the rest of the small cards and the associated court cards await its stimulus. Its arrival suggests a trigger that energizes and motivates the entire quadrant. I once created a “tweaked” graphic that shows this relationship.

It’s not accidental that the image resembles the clockwise Hindu swastika representing prosperity, good fortune and well-being, all of which are embryonic in the promise of the Ace that is nurtured to fruition by the Princess before bursting forth on an accelerated arc. If the Aces provide the fuel and the flash of ignition and the Princesses furnish the “launch-pad,” the swastika embodies the vehicle and the mode of delivery rolled into one.

I find it notable that each Ace “zeros in on” the middle decan of the Fixed sign in its quadrant: Moon in Taurus (“Success”) underscores the salutary mating of the Ace of Disks with the 6 of Disks; Jupiter in Leo (“Victory”) celebrates the convergence of the Ace of Wands and the 6 of Wands; Sun in Scorpio (“Pleasure”) attends the rapturous merger of the Ace of Cups and the 6 of Cups; and Mercury in Aquarius (“Science”- Alt: Mastery*) endorses the intellectual liaison between the Ace of Swords and the 6 of Swords. A couple of interesting things are going on here.

If the Aces are to be clothed in matter, there is no better place for that to happen than in the zodiacal signs that represent stability. This scenario reminds me of a tent-pole that props up the “fabric” of the other decans in each quadrant, an elevated position from which the Ace radiates its inseminating influence. If this were a topographical map, the Fixed Sixes would show the “peaks” and the transitions between quadrants would signify the “valleys” where the Mutable Tens give way to the Cardinal Twos (an unsettled region at best). This completes the vision of the energy venturing forth from the pinnacle of the Celestial Pole to its outpost on the lower summit, and thence to its peripheral encampments farther downhill.

The number Six is considered harmonious in both Qabalistic and esoteric number theory, and the titles given to the cards by Aleister Crowley reflect this beneficence. The Ace is the “root” of the elemental power and the Six conveys its full flowering before the energy begins to dwindle toward exhaustion; together they create a positively-charged environment that establishes an open channel or “mainline” to gratification (on the Tree of Life it’s a “straight shot” down the Middle Pillar).

The Princes receive the Aces at the other end of the pipeline by “catching” what the Princesses “pitch” and locking it in. For me, these allegories provide a compelling picture of how the decanic connections work, with the intervening trump cards serving as archetypal “lenses” that filter and color the descending energies with their overarching themes of “traditional values” (Hierophant as Taurus); “self-determination” (Strength as Leo); “profound change” (Death as Scorpio); and “hope” (Star as Aquarius).

On a lighter note, another instructive baseball metaphor suggested by the “swastika” would be that the Princess and Prince of a suit form the “battery” (pitcher-and-catcher duo), the Ace is the “baseball,” the Fixed sign houses the “batter” and the rest of the cards are the “fielders.” The cooperative interaction of the Ace and the Six could result in “getting a hit” (maybe even “hitting a home run”) when the delivery is “over the plate,” while the other two Fixed decans would signify “waiting on a pitch” leading to a “walk” (Moon, Mercury or Venus) or “swings-and-misses” culminating in a “strike-out” (Mars or Saturn) when the Princess “serves up curve-balls” outside the “strike-zone.” Getting even more fanciful, we could use the angular aspects of astrology that I discussed in a previous post about the Chaldean wheel to “spray the hits” around the playing field to see how the “fielders” handle them (all laid out in the cards, of course). Adjusted for the nature of the cards involved, favorable aspects could show “making the play” while stressful ones could mean “dropping the ball.”

In a reading, any preponderance of Ace-and-Six potency that dovetails agreeably regardless of suit is likely to have me crooning like Bing Crosby: “Nothin’ but blue skies from now on.” Fixity just makes it that much more enduring. If you want to take it further, the Fixed signs are emblematic of the four “holy living creatures” of Ezekiel that appear at the corners of the Wheel of Fortune and World cards, so they are not without cachet. In mundane terms, Fixity is prone to generate prosperity when yoked to the benevolent Six and fed by the inspiration of the Ace.

*I’ve always felt that “Science” was one of Crowley’s weaker contributions to the nomenclature of the Minor Arcana. (The Golden Dawn’s “Earned Success” doesn’t do much for me either.) There are better words to express the nature of Mercury in Aquarius. What’s wrong with “Innovation?” But I chose “Mastery” in this case as being more consonant with the tone of the other three Fixed-decan titles. It successfully synthesizes the aim of the “bright idea” card (Ace of Swords) with the experimental vigor of scientific Aquarius (6 of Swords). How about socially-responsible and not just mercenary genetic engineering or, more topically, AI development?