JUSTICE BECOMES THE DONOR
In the Book of the Donor, the ancient symbol of Justice, her predecessor, has become the symbol of Truth and is akin to the Egyptian Ma’at. The sharp sword which has cleft illusion with one mighty stroke swings between her breast, touching but not penetrating the apple at her feet.
The apple is the whole of the Self, the former duality, joined and middled. It is middled by the sword of Truth.
“There is no judgment anywhere” … it said in the notes.
Once the baby has opened the gates to the Kingdom with his two keys and stands within it, he encounters, as in a mirror, that which he has accomplished – signified by the Donor.
The Donor means: That which is earned is given.
The alternating black and white gates of the Reacter Book are now represented by the black and white pillars which the Donor upholds in her two hands. These are the same pillars that the Mother strode. But black and white have been reversed. The Mother’s right foot was on a white pillar; her left on black. The Donor upholds a black column in her right hand; a white in her left.
The Mother was the door to two realms: spiritual and physical. Her pregnant belly was about to give birth to her son. And the star on her breast was birthing the Sun.
The Mother, in any case, means the Door. The horns of Hathor are the door (or symbolic pillars) of a stable.
The Donor has reversed the door in that she upholds it, even as she has reversed the pillars. The door is now the Door to Heaven. The Donor herself is not the Door. She is the one who balances the door to the realm.
The Donor represents the Self which now, having stepped into an entirely new consciousness, has come to its own reward, expressed as absolute Truth and freedom from illusion.
The Seeker slew more than dragons when he entered the Royal Maze, found his way to its center and quaffed the cup of fire. Reborn, after passing through the Renewer’s crown, he has earned the Kingdom into which he has come.
The way was not a lightsome one.
Much suffering lay along the way and he was forced to learn no helping hand would aid him. Warmed in winter, filled while starving, a song on his lips through tragedy and storm, the Seeker met each outer seeming knowing the Self alone was guiding him. Even when the world fell about his shoulders, he wore it as a mantle, not a shroud, and rose to his responsibility. With his heart and feelings, he cut his way through the threads of Life’s path. The ascent up the mountain was steep and perilous, but he trod every inch of it without complaining. All that he sensed lay in his own hands. He was rewarded at last by the fire-filled cup.
Now his hands are in Greater Hands, the Hands of the Self. “The hands you are in are your very own”, it stated in the notes.
It is these hands, at the top of the Donor Book, which give that which has been earned.
This is a very different concept than that which was expressed in the older card, Justice. A woman formerly meted out justice. Scales in one hand, sword in the other, she was seated between two pillars, judging as in a court of law. The sword held by Justice was the same sword as held by the Sphinx at the top of the old Wheel of Fortune. It had to do with karmic law created by Mind’s duality – his own restriction and punishment.
In the present Book, there is no concept of judgment nor of punishment.
It merely states the principle that reward is received by him who has earned it. Once in the Kingdom – and he has gotten there by his own efforts – he has come to his reward, of which the Greater Hands are a symbol.
The birth of a further realization of Being through the physical senses cannot happen overnight spontaneously. It takes place only with Singleness of Purpose. The Way-Shower pointed the way and the Seeker responded. He moved in the Right Direction. Those who lie down on the path lapse into unconsciousness and fall asleep; and those who follow the woman up the other path in the Seeker Book can never expect to enter the Kingdom or to be in a position to receive that which is given.
What is given is given freely; but it cannot be given to those who have not developed the faculties ready for its reception. No man can arrive at the flaming grail whose heart is shut, and it takes enormous resolution to open the heart and drink its fire.
The Donor’s hands give boundlessly, withholding nothing. As the new-born babe, One has stepped into the Kingdom where the Divine Milk is given. One has earned it by Beingness. And as the Sun, one must be clothed in gold – the shimmering mantle of Being.
The law is inexorable and changeless. It is impersonal fact.
Straight and narrow is the way …
And the sword of the Donor has cleft Illusion.
Absolute Truth is seen by the Self as in a mirror.
What is given? Understanding.