I've been thinking a lot about the tarot cards and the story they tell. I didn't realize originally that the 22 major tarot cards tell a story of spiritual realization in 21 stages, and that the story is directly taken from Plato's Republic. I got acquainted with tarot because of readings I got from my new age friends, just as I was writing masters degree papers on Plato, but I never made the connection. But this book by Robert Place illuminated the situation by explaining that tarot is a Renaissance creation by artists who were neo-Platonist mystics, and that the major tarot trump cards (those added to the regular card deck) tell a story in 3 stages related to Plato's 3 parts of the soul.
I've wondered for a bit about the connection to The Prisoner, because of Scott Apel's theory that The Prisoner is a 3-act play. The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan, and created in the magic years 1966-67, is the story of a spy (probably John Drake) who resigned, but was taken to The Village. The leaders of the Village want to know why he resigned, but he won't say, because they themselves won't admit which "side" they are on ("that would be telling"). The Village is a self-contained, prison society where everyone is a number (remember the theme song of Secret Agent (aka Danger Man), McGoohan's previous series: "they've given you a number, and taken 'way your name"). The Prisoner's number is 6, and according to Apel, he takes a journey of individuation, revealing Jungian themes. Also related to this is Jungian scholar Joseph Campbell's theory of the Hero's journey, which says that stories such as Plato's myth of the cave, the Buddha and Christ stories; even stories like The Odyssey, Star Wars, Jason and the Argonauts, etc, are similar accounts of phases in the journey of a person to enlightenment or victory over death. So how about The Prisoner? Is it a Campbell-related hero's journey? And is there a connection to the tarot trump cards, which reveal the same journey?
Well, there are 21 major trump cards in the tarot, with one wild card The Fool. The first bridge games were played with the early tarot deck. Tarot was originally called cards of triumphs (carta di trionfi in Italian); a deck of cards with triumphs (trumps) added. Our word trump means triumph over, and comes from tarot and from the triumph parades of Renaissance times on which tarot was based. Each costumed figure in a triumph parade was supposed to supercede the one before, and by this means the parade told a story or allegory. The trumps in the tarot are a parade of the same kind. Later bridge was played without the extra cards, and tarot became the new name to distinguish it from ordinary card decks used for bridge. So, there are 21 phases, in 3 stages, of the story told by the tarot trumps. Each trump card is numbered to specify its phase of the story. There are 17 episodes of the Prisoner, in 3 similar stages. Almost a match. My favorite organ work, Bach's Toccata in F, is also related to these things.
So here is how The Prisoner episodes (more-or-less as laid out by D. Scott Apel), and their symbols, match up with the tarot. I wonder if this is an idea for Mr. Place or another artist to create a Prisoner tarot deck! By the way, it is important to point out that, according to Apel, Patrick McGoohan himself validated Apel's episode order and said it was correct, even though the episodes are usually shown in a different, more jumbled-up order.
On Arrival in The Village the Prisoner is a The Fool (card zero) who doesn't know where he is, but meets a few guides (the Magician) who give him clues. He claims to be a person, not a number; the theme of the quest. Interestingly, The Fool, who represents the seeker on the journey itself, rather than one of the 21 stages of the journey, is often given no number, or else the number zero. The Prisoner, of course ("fool" that he may be), insists that he is not a number, and refuses to wear his number badge. The Fool and the Prisoner are both symbols of "everyman" (The Prisoner series was produced by "Everyman Films").
There is also a lost episode called The Magician, and four others (= 22 total).
In Dance of The Dead the prisoner meets the mysterious, calm and confident High Priestess (card #2) who, except for 2 other cases seen only briefly, is the only lady #2 during the whole series (#2 is the leader of the village, but changes from episode to episode; the question being "who is #1??"). People dressed in costumes and masks for a carnival in this episode might reflect the esoteric secrets concealed by the High Priestess and her rituals. And she even tries to administer the secret Law she holds on her lap in the tarot card by putting the Prisoner on trial. The Prisoner site, under "episodes," shows this scene, which looks just like the card, with the Priestess on the throne and a male and female figure on each side (equivalent to the left and right columns on the card). The two figures are even dressed in black and light colors, like the columns on the Priestess card.
In Free for All the Prisoner is coaxed into running in and winning a phony election to be #2 (The Emperor, card #4), but when he tries to rule and liberate the people, he is taken down by his own lady campaign manager, who assumes command as #2 (The Empress, card #3).
In Checkmate the Prisoner (aka #6) is placed on a human chessboard with a rook, a queen, a king and a bishop, and asks "who are the warders?" In other words, he wants to know who The Pope (Hierophant) is and who follows his religion; the Village's true believers. He gets together a group of non-believers to try to escape, and they follow him and believe in him as a new "pope," but they end up wondering whether the powerful #6 is really a warder too. The Pope or Hierophant is trump #5.
In Chimes of Big Ben #6 is betrayed by a female partner in an escape attempt, and reveals that his decision to resign "was a matter of conscience." His partner in this episode was his closest working relationship with a female during the series. Thus, this episode corresponds to The Lovers card #6, where a choice or decision (conscience) is also made between higher and lower motives. The prisoner, at the behest of #2 (Leo McKern), also makes the decision to "join in" with the activities of the village, which he will do more of in future episodes-- although for his own purposes (in this case to make a sculpture for a crafts fair which becomes a boat to escape in). Thus the prisoner has made the decision to "join" and accept the challenge of his journey of liberation within The Village, the choice presented on the Lovers card.
In Many Happy Returns the Prisoner is allowed to escape and actually travels (as in a Chariot, card #7) all the way back to London England, but is returned to The Village.
Schizoid Man could represent Strength (trump card #8), where the Prisoner discovers his own self by defeating a man the Village creates to be his double (#12); thus achieving a victory against The Village for the first time. The Lion on the card, whom the lady tames, could represent his double (#12).
The General (a computer), and the reclusive professor who created it, symbolize the quest for knowledge represented by The Hermit (card 9). The Prisoner tells the General that real knowledge is to ask why, not just facts implanted in your mind. The Prisoner thus becomes, like the Hermit, the teacher who lights the way for us to true knowledge within The Village.
A B & C represent the three figures surrounding the wheel on card #10, Wheel of Fortune. #2 tries to invade The Prisoner's dreams to find out why he resigned, but The Prisoner proves to #2 that he did not "sell out." If greed (fortune) had been the prisoner's motive to resign, then he might have sold out; but he was better than that. The series logo (the penny-farthing bike) has Wheels too, and represents blind material "progress" (or fortune), which McGoohan later said The Prisoner series protests against.
In Living in Harmony the Prisoner meets "the Judge" (Justice, card 11), who says decisively, "let justice be done." The Judge appoints the Prisoner as the sheriff of the western town of Harmony (another symbol of "justice"), and he attempts to bring justice to a woman falsely accused. But the crowd almost strings her up, as in The Hanged Man, card 12.
In Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling the Prisoner has an identity crisis, as his soul is switched into another body. The Hanged Man (#12) represents a similar identity crisis, as the seeker learns to distinguish his real self from the social self created within us by the society and social authority to which The Hanged Man is a traitor (a rebel like The Prisoner). At the end of this episode, the image of 3 souls transferred among 3 bodies reminds me of Temperance (card 14) in which liquids are poured between different cups.
It's Your Funeral is symbolized by phase 13, the Death card, as #6 prevents a retiring #2 from being assassinated. We also see the Prisoner gain Temperance (card #14) in this episode, because he is more concerned with helping the people in The Village avoid retribution for the assassination than about his own situation.
A Change of Mind represents The Devil (card 15) as the final adversary who forces the Prisoner to confront his inner demons. True to form, the #2 in this episode is ugly and menacing as he administers "the final challenge" to The Prisoner, saying his rebellion can't be tolerated anymore. #2 and his "Committee" attempt to deceive The Prisoner that he has been ostracized and given a kind of lobotomy (disabling the frontal lobes of his brain) to rid him of his aggressive impulses (or demons). The Devil is what threatens to take away our own will, and possess us. But #6 wakes up and discovers how to master himself and The Village by turning its powers against its own rulers. Interpreters of the tarot say that the chains holding the two figures on the card as captives to The Devil are loose enough so that they can free themselves whenever they realize that they can. Similarly, in A Change of Mind the Prisoner realizes after a while that "the operation was never actually performed" and thereby frees himself.
In Hammer Into Anvil the Prisoner sees a girl fall to her death from a The Tower (high hospital window; trump 16). Then he overthrows the cruel and paranoid #2 who forced it to happen, using the "aikido" technique he discovered in the previous episode, just as on the Tower card the power of the Devil is overthrown.
According to Scott Apel The Lady Who was Death represents the inner feminine, in Jungian terms. She is also the alluring Mother Nature on The Star, card 17, and The Moon (trump 18) is the tarot card symbol for the eternal feminine within us, a card that is also interpreted as representing "unforeseen perils," like the series of deadly traps the Lady sets for #6. Like the Star card, this episode is a break from the turmoil of the previous episodes, because it is a humorous spy-spoof and "a blessed fairy tale." As on the Star card, significant action takes place on both land and sea. At the end of the episode the Prisoner is forced to climb up on a ladder into the nose of a rocket to take a ride. This represents "the flight" stage in the hero's journey, which is also the same as climbing the ladder of planets represented on The Star. I don't remember if the ladder of the rocket has 7 steps, but it is a spiral staircase (like the 7 chakras)! The rocket is also a lighthouse, and at this stage in the tarot we are climbing a ladder of planets of ever-greater light.
In Once Upon a Time, The Prisoner achieves victory in a battle to the death with #2, who represents the inner male according to Apel. This is represented by The Sun (card 19), the eternal masculine, where "time" is transcended. #2 uses a children's story (Once Upon a Time) to try and convert #6 using hypnotic regression, and The Sun card features 2 children. As on the card, the victorious Prisoner, having survived "the ultimate test," leaves the enclosed space with his escort to seek even greater realization; which will take the prisoner beyond his strong, victorious individualism and his recovered conscious mind represented by The Sun, into the collective unconscious, according to Apel. By the way, the Sun rules the astrology sign Leo, and #2 who here symbolizes the Eternal Masculine (The Sun) is played by Leo McKern. Leo also rules the 5th house of "children."
In Fall Out, the most allegorical and surrealistic episode, the final stage of the journey is reached, represented by the final two tarot cards. First we see the defeated #2 from the previous episode rise from the dead, as depicted on Judgement, card #20. He sees the victorious Prisoner "enthroned at last"-- sitting on a throne, just as The World (card 21) is the "throne of God." Then, after being tempted to take over The Village as a new #2, by a group in skeleton masks assembled to judge him and two other prisoners, #6 breaks out of The Village (assisted by three people: the two other judged prisoners-- the old #2 from the previous episode (Leo McKern), and a rebel youth (#48)-- plus the Butler; which are like the 3 figures being released from their graves on the Judgement card). Everyone evacuates The Village with them too. Then he returns to London-- but ends up appearing in the very same scene with which the series began. Thus we see "the return" represented by The World card. In London we also see the Prisoner dancing, as if, having achieved his freedom, he is "three inches off the ground" and "dancing on the throne of God" (like Lady Sophia on The World card). The rebel hippie youth in this episode (The Fool, the wild card) also jumps around and dances to the song "Dry Bones," which some say is about resurrection (Judgement) (the rebel youth may also have been the resurrected "kid" who died at the end of Living in Harmony, played by the same actor)(Note that some interpreters place The Fool at the end of the sequence, and he's here too in The Prisoner). The Judgement card features Gabriel's trumpet calling souls to resurrection, and the songs "Dry Bones" and "All You Need is Love" (with its powerful trumpet sound opening), which play such a prominent role in Fall Out, represent not only the trumpets on the Judgement card, but the spiritual realization that is at the heart of the episode and the last two cards. Just before the breakout, #6 gets to meet #1, and learns in some sense that HE himself is #1-- just as The World card represents the realization that "I am God" or the universe (cosmic consciousness), and that we are all prisoners of ourselves. Thus "I" = #1. #1 may also be the resurrected double #6 from Schizoid Man. 6 + 1 = 7, the sacred number (indeed, Six of One, half a dozen of another). And in the very last (and first) scene, the Prisoner rides free in his KAR, which is a Lotus seven, just as the Tarot's card #7 is The Chariot.
Thanks for reading, and Be seeing you!
The Tarot Journey
Bach, Chakras, Tarot
The Prisoner
Six of One Prisoner fan club
Hero's Journey in 8 stages and 3 parts
Campbell's Hero's Journey summary