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Michelle Gates

What is eminent, yet unanticipated where all is the same Before time's birth all is infinitely hot, infinitely dense. The primordial universe is a writhing vacuum of nothingness, filled with a frothing quantum foam.[1] Quantum fluctuations fuel the seething foam within this infinitely small vacuum. These fluctuations occur as virtual particle and antiparticle pairs pop in and out of existence for a fraction of the smallest time unit used by physicists. [2]       Time zero is the state of the universe just before the big bang created space and time. During this period, the universe was very small and only quantum processes acted within it. The location of time zero is somewhat uncertain. It could be placed anywhere before time existed,[3] and during this primeval period, there are few distinct conditions to serve as guideposts.       This elemental domain is beyond the reach of classical physics to explain or explore. Quantum physics can probe it with theory, but as of yet, no threads of evidence have looped back to support any of these outposts of thought. These theories are frameworks of mental structure, built and rebuilt in the torrential squall born of the collision between objective existence and the unknown.       Time Zero's landscape is governed by its own rules, and often pays no homage to the way things are supposed to be. Traditionally, this tarot card is called The Fool. In some decks, The Fool carries a small rucksack that can be seen to represent his freedom from rules of the world at large. The original quantum state is likewise free from laws that govern the world of the large, the realm of classical physics that, from the vantage point of this card, has yet to be created.       The Fool of the Rider-Waite deck, oblivious of the cliff before him, is in his own world. The Fool's world is similar to the embryonic quantum universe, incredible and intricate in its own right, but small. The Fool has yet to permeate the world or be permeated by it, just as, during time zero, the universe has not yet been unfolded.       When the early cosmos was infinitely hot and dense, all particles had zero mass, meaning all forces and matter known today were indistinguishable from each other. This original unity, when all matter forces[4] were symmetric,is what those fabricating a Unified Theory hope to describe. The beautiful simplicity this theory would embody speaks of The Fool's childlike innocence, a time when the self is not solidly distinguished from the world, just as the particles and antiparticles during time zero have not yet expanded away from each other to enable creation of the larger world.       Because the particles and antiparticles seething within the void are so close together, almost immediately after they pop into existence, they annihilate each other, canceling each other out. Like Adam and Eve before they separated good from evil, before they were separated from the garden, time zero embodies a state of undivided unity. The violently fluctuating primordial vacuum balances itself. Eventually, however, it took only a small, quantum fluctuation to push this balanced state over the edge.       Imagination can only blindly feel the amount of time it took for the tiny, quantum fluctuation to happen that, with a cascade of effects, would transform the vacuum to create time and space. The Fool, oblivious of the cliff a step away, is like the quantum vacuum, delicately perched in its balanced state. It could have taken an eternity in which all other possibilities that could happen, happened, but eventually, in one of the possible outcomes, The Fool stepped off the cliff, and this small, quantum step set time and space, with all its myriad forms and polarities, tumbling into motion. Possible associations: Before a beginning, seeds of what is to come. Undivided. Unbound, but not expanded. Childlike innocence. Original unification. Primordial, timeless, enigmatic. A delicate balance. [1] The term "quantum foam" was coined by John Wheeler and refers to distances of and below 10-35 cm and time periods of 10-45 seconds and smaller. Within these minuscule increments, quantum effects dominate the fabric of spacetime to create the quantum foam. [2] This is called Plank time and is 10-43 seconds. This is the time it takes to traverse one Plank length. Below this temporal limit, the concept of time breaks down. [3] Some quantum physical theories explain time zero as a transitional phase when the universe was rebounding from a state of negative expansion. According to these theories, this phase would be endowed with negative time, like negative numbers on a number line. Within these theories, time zero would have fewer, yet still only vaguely demarcated parameters. [4] These are the electromagnetic force, the strong and weak nuclear forces, and the gravitational force. The Unified Theory seeks to describe all of these forces in one theory. Copyright©2005 Michelle Gates

Within cosmic mist emptiness energy moves, joining opposites. This exotic energy is not akin to any familiar particles, and, unlike the energy of matter and radiation, Dark Energy is invisible.       The High Priestess associated with this card embodies hidden knowledge and the subconscious. Dark Energy is, by nature, illusive to direct observation, but is perceived through indirect means.[1] Although it is the most prevalent type of energy in the universe,[2] without knowledge of the unapparent, quantum aspects of our world, we would not know of its existence.       Like the receptive High Priestess and the Yin whose power is in emptiness, Dark Energy is the power within the vacuum of space. This energy of emptiness propels the expansion of the cosmos. She pushes forth the matter conceived in the void by the Magus, by the process of spontaneous symmetry breaking. She does not create or destroy, yet the evolution of galaxy clusters and the ultimate fate of the universe depends upon Dark Energy.[3]       She is enigmatic. Gravity usually pulls inward, but Dark Energy pushes, and yet Dark Energy is a gravitational force. Because gravity is the missing link between the classical theory of general relativity and quantum theory, an understanding of Dark Energy would yield an understanding of the relationship between these two opposites.[4] Describing Dark Energy would join the theory of the world we perceive to the theory of the unseen, quantum realm.       Despite being the most pervasive kind of energy in the Universe, Dark Energy is also the most mysterious. While its precise nature is unknown, Dark Energy is believed to be connected to the Higgs field,[5] which spawned the creation of ordinary matter through the process of spontaneous symmetry breaking.       Dark Energy could be associated with Einstein's cosmological constant. Or, like the moon, which is traditionally linked to this card, some physicists believe Dark Energy could be prone to fluctuation, varying with space and time. The fluctuating energy of this theory is called quintessence, hearkening back to the alchemical concept of the fifth element, the incorruptible, ethereal essence underlying the entire universe. Possible associations: Power, strength of receptivity, emptiness. The ability to bridge opposites. Subconscious, hidden knowledge, mystery, intuition, the moon. That which is pervasive, yet illusive and unapparent. [1]The effects of dark energy can be detected upon astronomical entities and in laboratory experiments, such as that demonstrating the Casimir effect. [2]Seventy percent of all energy in the universe is dark energy. [3]Whether cosmic expansion will slow down or continue its brisk pace to create a cold, desolate universe depends upon the nature of dark energy. [4]General relativity cannot describe how the gravitational force works at quantum levels. A theory that can describe how gravity works on this small scale would join the classical general relativity with quantum physics to yield a unified theory. [5]The Higgs field changed as the universe cooled, causing some particles to interact with the field differently. This process is called spontaneous symmetry breaking and is responsible for the creation of different kinds of matter/energy. The particles are different because their various interactions with the Higgs field endows them with different masses. Copyright©2005 Michelle Gates

Murmurs roll to land, all we are, all that could be, flows within the deep. Here we see the intercourse between two worlds, viewed from the vantage of the watery depths of consciousness, from the mixed state of the wavefunction[1] where all possibilities waft together. This is the grey fog from which the Hermit emerges. It is the nebulous quantum realm that seems to collapse when two systems interact and a single path of certainty appears.       These mists of the unconscious are ruled by the ever-changing moon, compelling the water that ebbs about us, hearkening to the depths of the archetypal feminine. Within this primordial womb abides the seeds of all human creativity, the living archetypes, and its threshold is the travail of the creative process.       Practitioners of physics strive to penetrate the mysteries of the mixed state. It is impossible to determine the location of a particle within these deeps. Physicists can only calculate the relative probabilities that the particle will be found in various locations. However, when the particle comes into contact with anything else, such as a measuring devise, the mixed state disappears, and what remains is one answer, representing the location in which the particle was found.       This beguiling realm of wafting probabilities is the dream world of the unconscious, where all is possible. Drawing from Jung, Banzhaf reminds us, "...the encounter with the powers of the unconscious can be dangerous, and only a strongly developed consciousness has enough strength to avoid being swallowed by the unconscious. The danger of the descent into the underworld ...is great because...the actual, real world is neglected and forgotten since the flood of images from the unconscious is so intoxicating, so much more beautiful..." [2] This is why Banzhaf tells us we must remember our "true name," that which is peculiar to ourselves, which we learned at the Hermit card, to accomplish the treacherous return from this domain. The intoxicating possibilities of the mixed state disappear at the threshold of the water, where the wavefunction seems to collapse and the solid land of consciousness emerges. The Hermit walks on the single path that is the result of "wavefunction collapse" [3] when the single, definite location of the particle is discovered.       In the mixed state, however, we inhabit an imprecise location. Within the waves, who can designate a single one and mark its path, separate from the others? Concrete specificity has no context here. This absence of solidity, the stability we are accustomed to associate with "truth" and "reality," is, perhaps, responsible for this card's traditional association with deception and the danger of beguilement it accompanies. But we must not be tempted to interpret this card from the sunlit perspective of consciousness. Here, we abide within the moonlit waves. Within the quantum, is it not the fixed appearance of the material that can be most deceiving? Not only does all apparently solid matter, at its innermost core, quiver with quantum uncertainty, but when matter/energy in the mixed state contacts other particles, the alternative possibilities of the wavefunction that do not come to pass disappear. Unnoticed are the undercurrents that have contributed to our perception of the single outcome. Within the water, we may not stand on solid ground, but we are also not led to believe we can separate one wave as the only possible answer.       The dualities that "truth" is often forced within in order to walk upon land can also be deceiving. Yin is dark, wet and receptive, like the water responsive to the moon of the mixed state, and the darkness akin to the unknown breathed by its expanse. But the mixed state contains all that is possible, not just that which possesses Yin attributes.[4] Physicists believe the particle in a mixed state is in every location, yet in no specific one, like the eternal Tao that cannot be told, because it is everything and "no thing." It is not completely described between the dualities of dark and light, wet and dry, female and male.       Physicists prefer to describe the universe by way of precise quantities, but they cannot circumscribe the mixed state. It withdraws as they approach with their instruments of objective measurement. Quandaries like this led the preeminent physicist, Niels Bohr, to reevaluate the role of physics, saying, "it is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature." [5] What we can say about nature skirts the boundaries of this "deeper level of physical reality," the unconscious depths of the mixed state.       Just as the mixed state embodies all possibilities, and in the dream world of the unconscious all is possible, Jungian philosophy contends that within the underworld of consciousness abides the source of all meaning, a psychic organ shared by all humanity: the collective unconscious. From these deeps all creativity and expression is drawn. The words, colors, shapes and sounds of our multifarious expression use symbols and archetypes to point to this deeper level of meaning. Erich Neumann, a student of Jung's, described archetypes as ways "in which the unconscious presents itself to the ego, or which the ego constellates out of the unconscious." [6] He explained that symbol groups, with their "partly contradictory analogies" allow that which inhabits the unconscious to ascend to consciousness. It is this interplay between worlds, seen in this card as the threshold between the water and land, that is the creative process. From the mixed state of all possibility, the wavefunction collapses resulting in creation.       Creation, the attainment of "the treasure hard to find,"while sometimes painlessly spontaneous, is most often a struggle, if not a challenging and tumultuous affair. Tennyson wrote of the birth and death of the mythical King Arthur, "From the great deep to the great deep he goes." Baby Arthur was born ashore from a winged dragon ship upon a tidal wave which, "gathering half the deep/And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged/Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame..." Baby Arthur washed ashore at Merlin's feet; Merlin exclaimed that the baby was an heir for King Uther. "And the fringe/Of that great breaker, sweeping up the strand,/Lash'd at the wizard as he spake the word,/And all at once all round him rose in fire..." [7] With dangers and difficulty the pearls of the underworld are brought forth. Then, at his death, Arthur rides the waves again on the barge of the three queens, and, like all myths and archetypes, returns to the deeps to abide with all meaning, all possibilities. Possible associations: The depths of truth or physical reality where all truths intermingle and all possible states exist at once. Submergence, partial or complete, within the unknown, the eternal, the creative unconscious. Exchange between the conscious and unconscious, viewed from the depths in which the living archetypes abide. Trials of the creative process. Struggle to attain "the treasure hard to find." Navigation of the last perilous threshold of the underworld. [1] Whether wavefunctions are "real" or merely a mathematical convention that describes reality is a matter of debate among physicists, but wavefunctions mathematically illustrate the movement of a particle's, or group of particle's, wave through space and time. [2] Banzhaf, Tarot and the Journey of the Hero, p. 194. [3] What happens when the nebulous mixed state disappears when the particle is measured and subsequently found to be in one location, is called the "quantum measurement problem," and represents one of the big quandaries of quantum physics. Some physicists believe that the wavefunction does not "collapse" at all, but at the juncture of measurement, universes split off into an infinite number of "multiverses," one universe for each possible location of the particle. [4] As Jung explains, the unconscious is like the Chinese water dragon, the Yang surrounded by the Yin. The mixed state is similar in that it is feminine in character, archetypally speaking, yet contains all, masculine and feminine. [5] As quoted in "The Philosophy of Niels Bohr," by Aage Petersen, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (September 1963). [6] Erich Neumann, Origins and History of Consciousness, p. 263, Princeton University Press, 1954, Princeton, N.J. [7] Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King, p. 23, New American Library, 1961, New York, New York. Copyright©2007 Michelle Gates

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