Jesus, behold your mother. Here is the meaning of this year’s card. The woman represents the Earth. She is the great goddess who bore the Christian’s savior whose teachings, and the doctrines they inspired are a formula which has evolved western thinking for the last two thousand years of civilization. All of our basic outlooks on man and our relationship with the world and Earth around us revolve around assumptions established in the Bible, which is perhaps the most circulated and taught work of propaganda ever written. She is the mighty Isis who witnesses the death and resurrection of Osiris and then bears Horus, the child of the new Aeon according to earlier mythology. Above her is the holy spirit placing the Hebrew letter "shin" in the midst of Tetragrammaton, (the name of G-d), which symbolizes the child in the womb on her stomach. For the letter "shin" changes the name "YAHOVA" into the name "YASHUA" which is translated through the Greek into the name "JESUS". For it was written that, "his name shall be Emanuel", which translates as "G-d with us". Jesus may be the one man (directly or indirectly) responsible for two thousand years of our psychological evolution. Jesus may be the most exalted and admired figure of western history. His life has influenced our philosophies, and basic assumptions of mysticism and government. That is the naturalistic significance of his life. The man, lion, eagle, and bull which form the pillars of the gate are the faces of the cherubim who guard the throne of G-d. The woman stands blocking the gate. For no man can know G-d the father but through the world of ideals represented by the symbols illustrated on her body. On her left leg is symbolized the Christian path of salvation in the cross and crown that represent the basic teachings of orthodox Christianity. Then through the womb "for you must be born again" (born of the Spirit). This leads down the other leg into deeper teachings represented by symbols of Alchemy, an esoteric form of Christianity. The Yin and Yang of eastern thought are also symbolized on this leg. Above all these on her upper body are the more ancient symbols that embody the basic teachings at the roots of all religions, from the earliest form of Hinduism to the Torah. They represent the deeper truths that lie beneath conscious religious thought. The Sun and Moon represent the male and female principles in creation like the G-d Father and the female Aima of Hebrew mysticism. The Pentagram represents the rule of spirit over the four elements of Tetragrammaton. The Camel symbolizes a more secret Kabalistic doctrine understood by the initiated. This gateway into the garden lies in the deserts of the Holy Land somewhere in the Middle East, where the Christian savior was born. He was the Socrates of Hebrew thought, confronting the orthodoxy and hypocrisy of the Pharisees in the same way that Socrates humiliated the philosophers of his time. This attitude of freedom from established religious thought and government, symbolized by the Pharisees and Romans in the biblical story, has inspired the creation of this country, the French Revolution, the reformation, and the last two thousand years of history. Ironically, the orthodox Christian church currently epitomizes the attitudes of the Pharisees and Romans more than that freedom taught by the example of Christ. His kingdom was not of this world, yet religion would rather take over worldly governments instead of belonging to such a heavenly kingdom. That is typical since religion is the science of gathering nations and government is the science of ruling them, and has been that way since before Jesus was born. Jesus proclaimed the individual freedom of man’s thoughts in the face of established theology and government and died at the hands of both of them. Both Jesus and Socrates were put to death for having their own opinions and not thinking like they were supposed to under the political and religious systems of their times. Around the symbols on the woman’s body lurks the serpent of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of which kills if it is eaten according to the allegorical warning at the beginning of the Bible. In other words, the moment you read this fruit you shall die, because with knowledge of good and evil you cease to live. These symbols on the woman’s body represent, to this artist, the basic teachings which establish our ideas of what is good and evil, but we must be saved from both good and evil. For this reason she blocks the gate to the Tree of Life like a door. For knowledge of good and evil produce shame, but the Tree of Life is obtained by innocence. She is surrounded by the Cherubim who guard the center of the garden with fire like the fixed constellations of the zodiac blazing around Earth. That is why flames surround the womb of the woman and the alchemical symbol of spirit is the narrow gate to salvation. Overall, the symbolism of the card alludes to spirit in man as it was written, "Christ in you, the hope of glory".