…The city’s foundation having been adorned with every precious stone: the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh hyacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls—each one of the gates made from a single pearl—and the street of the city pure gold, like transparent glass. And in her I saw no sanctuary, for the Lord God the Almighty is her sanctuary, as well as the suckling lamb. And the city has no need of the sun or the moon—that they should shine in her—for the glory of God illuminated her, and her lantern is the suckling lamb. And the gentiles will walk about by her light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory [and worth] into her.
In our work with the Major Arcana, we experienced the journey from the Magician to the World as a journey from conception, to birth, to death, and finally to the Saturn sphere. With the Minor Arcana, we have been imagining them as the journey back into incarnation: the Numbered Coins as the realm of Midnight Hour; the Court Coins as the Saturn sphere; the Numbered Swords as the Jupiter sphere; the Court Swords as the Mars sphere; the Numbered Cups as the Sun sphere; the Court Cups as the Venus sphere; and the Numbered Batons as the Mercury Sphere. We have been considering this journey of the soul into incarnation in relation to the musical pieces selected for the Sophia Grail Circle of the same name. With the Knave of Batons, we enter into the Moon sphere on the path of incarnation. The music selected by Robert Powell to express this experience of the Moon sphere is the first movement of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”:
The Unknown Friends 