A Royal Maze story for the 50th anniversary of John’s passing
Tepoztlán, 1976. The village where John Starr Cooke had gone seeking peace and quiet for the last turn of his life’s path. He knew the road was ending — the film was to be his legacy to the people of earth, for he knew he was soon to die — and so, in the way of a man who had never once done the expected thing, he decided to give a direct Tarot card reading from the New Tarot for the Aquarian Age. Not a reading for a person. A reading for humanity.
The camera found him as his friends always had: magnetic, mischievous, utterly present. He laid out the Royal Maze mandala — the labyrinth that signifies destiny, with five stations pointing the way like the five fingers of a hand: unconscious, body, conscious, ego, persona — and extended an invitation across time itself: “Give me your hands and let us enter the Royal Maze together.”
Then the cards fell, and each one blazed with promise. The Reacter first: not an evil omen like the old Moon trump, but a child newly born, holding two keys, opening the black and white doors simultaneously, without effort — humanity itself, being reborn. Then Unity, where man and woman move together as a unit in the Aquarian Age, each discovering the other’s nature within themselves. The Renewer next — Death’s card, drawn by a dying man, and he read it laughing at fear: “the only fear to fear is fear itself.” John refused the doom-prophets outright: he did not believe two thirds of the world would be wiped out; a new, creative consciousness of death was coming in.
The Citadel told him the six great religions must join like beads on a single string, and that the only true revolution comes from within: “You are your own Citadel. Be it.” Then the Reverser — the key card of the whole Carmel dictation — and the Feeler, the empress of the universe reaching out of the night with compassion. And the out-card, waiting where every maze ends: the Virgin, Beingness in perpetual motion, whose ribbons will never fall.
He gathered it all into a blessing that still rings fifty years on: “This reading for the future is indeed full of promise… Love, for the future is in your own hands. Understanding is given. We are Legion.”
He never saw the finished film. He died at 11:20 p.m. on August 21, 1976 — and left the future, quite literally, in our hands.
Watch the film or read the transcript here:
TRANSCRIPT: https://www.royalmaze.com/transcript-prophecy-of-the…
ONE IS IN MOTION!
For more on the story of John Starr Cooke and the Book of T, check out Mark Walker’s YouTube series, The Time of Telling, at https://www.youtube.com/@TimeofTelling.