The Universe

A dancing maiden, the daughter of the Great Work, wraps a serpent around her within an oval of stars; the eye of the Creator opens at the top; the four kerubic beasts hold the corners, and beneath her stands the skeletal house of the chemical elements, the building blocks of matter.

Tau, the cross or mark, on path 32 from Yesod to Malkuth: the last path, the descent of the foundation into the kingdom, and the first step of every return. Tau is Saturn and Earth together: time and matter, the end that seals the work.

Saturn, the greater malefic and the great teacher: time, limit, structure, the boundary of the old cosmos. Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius, is exalted in Libra, and is the planet of Binah. The card also carries the element Earth, the condensation of the other three.

Twenty-one, and Tau's value 400. Twenty-one is the sum of 1 to 6, the perfected hexagram; 400 is the largest single-letter value, the whole alphabet fulfilled. The Universe is the Fool's zero seen from the other side.

The mandala of the completed Self: wholeness, the reconciliation of the four functions (the kerubim) around the dancing centre. Jung's unus mundus and the completion of individuation are read here, always provisionally, because the dance continues.

Waite's dancer holds two wands within a wreath; Crowley's holds a serpent, the wreath becomes the oval of the stars, and the house of chemical elements at the base ties the card to the material universe as science knows it.