The Greater Trumps: (27) Thought

As the Sun rises and the lights of Star and Moon fade in comparison, so also does Reason look more enlightening to people in the bright light of day. This image shows a brightly glowing and naked Titan holding Chaos at bay, or perhaps supporting the massive burden of the World. Whether Reason alone can support the World is debateable. Intuitively, it is hard for any human to accept that this might be true. But the Titan in the image is more often Prometheus - 'Forethought', and not Atlas.

What this image symbolizes is the strength of pure Reason. Many of the previous images emphasized the more nebulous or mysterious workings of the mind and soul; this one emphasizes the work that goes into building structures with the mind in such a way that others can appreciate them and build further on them. Whether the Titan that is Reason builds bridges ('pontificates'), towers ('a towering intellect'), foundations ('fundamentals') or lights ('illumination', 'enlightenment') in a dark world, the image signifies a source of productive insight which creates new things - or renews old and tired things.

Reason is not always the best option, many will say. But it is always worth considering.

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I don't often quote Shelley, and then most often from Ozymandias. But I have a special place in my heart for Prometheus Unbound, quoted in part below:

Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance -
These are the seals of that most firm assurance
Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength;
And if, with infirm hand, Eternity,
Mother of many acts and hours, should free
The serpent that would clasp her with his length,
These are the spells by which to reassume
An empire o'er the disentangled doom.

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;
To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;
To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates
From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be
Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life; Joy, Empire, and Victory!

I have long kept these words at all my places of work; they are implicit in my own mission statement. More important to me is that these lines show Reason for what it ought to be, a spectrum of approaches: Gentleness - Reason as primarily non-aggressive, firm without aiming deliberately to cause hurt, declaring only itself; Virtue - Reason as moral and compassionate, declaring what should rationally be for the best; Wisdom - Reason without arrogance, in a spirit of understanding, declaring what ought to be done; Endurance - Reason with determination, declaring its truth in all possible ways until it triumphs over the dark.

Reason isn't just logic, or linear thinking. Reason is more than that; it is the highest ability of humanity, and the most dangerous.