Maps of the Royal Art cosmos. The diagrams, charts, cosmographs, symbolic wheels, initiatory maps, and sacred geometries by which the opus can be seen at a glance.
This page gathers the major visual systems of the Royal Art: maps of the soul, maps of the cosmos, maps of initiation, maps of sacred history, and maps of the Tale of the Exiled Prince.
Master Maps
The Map of the Soul
The Ptolemaic-Hermetic cosmos.
Earth Moon Mercury Venus Sun Mars Jupiter Saturn Fixed Stars Primum Mobile Empyrean
Purpose: to map the ascent of the soul through the planetary heavens.
The initiatory sequence of the seven classical planets.
Moon — purification, imagination, dream Mercury — language, mind, transmission Venus — beauty, desire, love Sun — heart, kingship, illumination Mars — courage, conflict, discipline Jupiter — wisdom, law, expansion Saturn — limitation, death, mastery
Purpose: to show the soul passing through planetary trials and attainments.
The Map of the Royal Art
The total system in one diagram.
The Map of the Tale
The narrative geography of the Tale of the Exiled Prince.
See also: The Map.
Major regions: The Kingdom Camelot The Wasteland The Enchanted Forest The Grail Castle The Dark Tower The Holy Mountain The Dragon’s Lair The King’s Road The River of Forgetting The River of Memory Avalon The Underworld The New Jerusalem
Purpose: to show the story as sacred geography.
The Kingdom Map
The Royal Art as castle, court, realm, and living estate.
See also: The Kingdom & Its Domains.
Major domains: Throne Room King’s Chambers Bridal Chamber Oratory Chapel Treasury Crypt Well Wizard’s Tower Library Scriptorium Great Hall Council Chamber Forge Armory Gatehouse Garden Forest River Mountain Grail Castle Wasteland
Purpose: to show the opus as a habitable inner Kingdom.
The Atlas of Realms
The complete index of sacred geographies, mythic realms, symbolic places, and initiatory spaces.
See also: Atlas of Realms & Places.
Purpose: to collect all places from the Tale, the Royal Art, and the Western Mystery Tradition into one reference geography.
Cosmological Diagrams
The Tree of Life
The central cosmological diagram of the Work.
See also: The Tree of Life.
Ten Sephiroth: Kether Chokmah Binah Chesed Geburah Tiphereth Netzach Hod Yesod Malkuth
Three pillars: Pillar of Mercy Pillar of Severity Middle Pillar
Purpose: to map consciousness, creation, initiation, ascent, descent, balance, and restoration.
The Four Worlds
The Kabbalistic map of emanation from divine source to embodied world.
Atziluth — Emanation Beriah — Creation Yetzirah — Formation Assiah — Action
Purpose: to show how spirit becomes world, and how the initiate ascends back through the levels of being.
Jacob’s Ladder
The extended Tree of Life across the Four Worlds.
Purpose: to show the same Tree repeated through descending orders of reality — divine, archangelic, angelic, psychic, elemental, material.
The Zodiacal Wheel
The twelvefold circle of lessons, virtues, seasons, and archetypal trials.
Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces
Purpose: to map the year, the soul’s development, and the twelvefold curriculum of the Work.
The Great Chain of Being
The vertical hierarchy of existence.
God Angelic orders Celestial spheres Human soul Animal life Plant life Mineral kingdom Elements Chaos / prima materia
Purpose: to show the ordered cosmos as hierarchy, participation, and descent of being.
The World Axis
The Axis Mundi.
Heaven Mountain Temple Tree Kingdom Underworld
Purpose: to show the vertical line connecting above, middle, and below.
Tarot and Letter Diagrams
The Tarot
The pictorial Book of Wisdom.
Major Arcana: the 22 paths of initiation. Minor Arcana: the four elemental worlds of action. Court Cards: modes of maturity, sovereignty, and embodiment.
Purpose: to map the soul’s journey from Fool to World, exile to completion.
The Fool’s Journey
The 22 Major Arcana as the path of the seeker.
The Fool begins in innocence and exile. The Magician and High Priestess open the gates of polarity. The Chariot begins the heroic Quest. Death, Devil, Tower, and Moon mark descent and shadow. Sun, Judgment, and World mark resurrection, awakening, and completion.
Purpose: to show the initiatory arc through images.
The Tarot on the Tree of Life
The 22 Major Arcana mapped to the 22 paths between the Sephiroth.
Purpose: to integrate Tarot, Hebrew letters, Kabbalah, and initiation into one diagram.
The Hebrew Alphabet
The 22 letters as creative powers.
Three Mother Letters Seven Double Letters Twelve Simple Letters
Purpose: to show creation as language, vibration, number, and form.
The Cube of Space
The Hebrew letters and Tarot trumps arranged as a three-dimensional sacred structure.
Six directions Twelve edges Three interior axes Center point
Purpose: to show the cosmos as a cube of orientation, path, direction, and embodied space.
The Tetragrammaton
YHVH as the fourfold structure of manifestation.
Yod — fire, seed, father, will Heh — water, mother, form Vav — air, son, mediation Heh-final — earth, daughter, manifestation
Purpose: to map the divine name into elements, worlds, suits, court cards, and stages of creation.
Alchemical Diagrams
The Alchemical Mountain
The ascent of the Work as a mountain.
Base: prima materia Caves: descent, mining, Nigredo Furnaces: purification and trial Middle terraces: illumination and conjunction Summit: Stone, Crown, revelation
Purpose: to show the Work as ascent through matter, fire, and revelation.
The Laboratory Diagram
The inner laboratory of transformation.
Athanor Crucible Vessel Retort Alembic Pelican Furnace Materia Stone
Purpose: to show the operative symbols of alchemy as inner processes.
The Rosarium / Alchemical Wedding Sequence
The marriage of opposites.
King and Queen Bath Union Death Separation Ascent of the soul Return Resurrection Coronation
Purpose: to show the Sacred Marriage as death, union, and rebirth.
The Ouroboros
The serpent eating its own tail.
Purpose: to show cyclicality, self-consumption, return, eternity, and the closed vessel of transformation.
Initiatory Maps
The Arc of the Prince
The complete 0 + 12 stage initiatory arc.
0 — Creation 1 — Fall 2 — Exile 3 — Call 4 — Departure 5 — Trials 6 — Descent 7 — Initiation 8 — Marriage 9 — Crucifixion 10 — Resurrection 11 — Atonement 12 — Kingdom
Purpose: to map the entire spiritual drama from origin to restoration.