The Odyssey, Tarot, & the Journey of the Soul

By Renato: Currently, here in Brazil, the film “The Odyssey,” directed by Christopher Nolan, has been receiving considerable attention in the media and on social networks.

I watched the film and, despite some concessions to political correctness and the woke movement in its casting choices, I was not disappointed.

It is not a great film, nor does it feature performances as remarkable as those in “Cleopatra” (1963), but it delivers, at a minimum, what one might expect from it. It attempts to tell the story in a way that remains relatively faithful to the spirit of the poem, without turning Homer into a spokesperson for contemporary debates that have little to do with his work.

But if it is not a masterpiece, with truly memorable performances—with the exception, in my view, of the English actress Samantha Morton, who “steals the scene” as the sorceress Circe—why is it becoming so successful?

Doesn’t that seem contradictory?

The answer may be that the appeal lies not so much in the film itself, but in the story that inspired it.

The Odyssey is not merely a story about sea monsters and one-eyed giants; it is an allegory of the journey of the human soul. Just as Odysseus sails across the Mediterranean and faces monsters, we journey through life confronting fears, illusions, pride, temptations, and loss. Each challenge is not merely an external obstacle, but also a stage in the hero’s psychological maturation.

The great narratives of humanity—from Homer’s poems to fairy tales, from Greek tragedies to films such as “The Matrix”—remain alive because they speak less about external events than about our inner experiences. Through symbols and allegories, they reveal the fears, choices, losses, and transformations that are part of the human condition.

This is why a work can cross centuries without losing its power: times change and customs change, but the human soul continues to recognise itself in these stories.

And how might we observe this in The Odyssey?

I propose that we use another symbolic language to interpret this ancient poem: the Tarot and its Major Arcana.

The sequence of the Tarot’s Major Arcana can be read as an initiatory journey similar to the Hero’s Journey described by Joseph Campbell. It portrays the transformation of consciousness and the great passages of existence, leading towards what the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung called “individuation.”

For the sake of space, we will not explore all 22 Major Arcana. Instead, we will highlight several of them to see how they correspond with the psychological wisdom represented by the Tarot.

The central idea is this:

It does not matter whether we call these symbols myths, archetypes, or Major Arcana. They all seek to represent the same fundamental reality: human life is not a straight line, but a succession of trials that force us to leave behind old versions of ourselves so that new ones may emerge.

This is not to suggest that Homer knew the Tarot, nor that the Tarot was derived from The Odyssey. What they share is a symbolic language: the representation, through different images and traditions, of the fundamental stages of human experience.

The Fool – The Departure from Troy

The leap into the unknown. Every great transformation begins when we leave familiar ground behind and accept the journey without guarantees.

The Magician – Intelligence Shapes Destiny

Odysseus’ intelligence shapes his destiny. His strategies—such as the one he uses to defeat Polyphemus—make him the archetype of the person who transforms limited resources into unexpected solutions.

The High Priestess – Athena

Athena represents silent wisdom: the kind that inspires without controlling and guides without replacing the hero’s free will.

The Empress – Penelope

Penelope represents that which nurtures, preserves, and gives meaning to the return. While Odysseus travels the world, she keeps alive the possibility that there is still a home waiting for him.

The Emperor – Reclaiming the Kingdom

The kingdom that must be reclaimed represents the restoration of legitimate order and authority, achieved not merely through power, but through the maturity gained throughout the journey.

The Hierophant – Tradition and Order

The Hierophant represents order, tradition, and fidelity to the oaths that sustain civilisation and remind the hero of who he is, even when the world around him appears to descend into chaos.

The Hermit – Initiatory Solitude

Odysseus spends years separated from his former identity. He is no longer simply the “King of Ithaca”; he is a man who has endured loss, loneliness, and the unknown.

The Hermit represents the stage at which the hero stops searching for answers in the external world and begins to discover them within himself.

Strength – Mastering Instinct

Odysseus confronts powerful instinctive forces: hunger, desire, fear, curiosity, and violence.

The difference between a hero and someone ruled by impulses is not the absence of instinct, but the ability to master it.

Temperance – Reintegration of the Self

After so many losses and excesses, Odysseus must recover his balance. The journey does not merely take him back to Ithaca; it transforms a warrior into someone capable of reintegrating the fragmented parts of his existence.

The Devil – Temptation

The Sirens, Calypso’s pleasures, and everything else that seduces, imprisons, or diverts the hero from his true purpose represent the energy of the Devil.

The Tower – The Collapse of Certainty

The Tower represents the collapse of certainty and the downfall of pride.

The mistakes made by Odysseus and his companions demonstrate that human arrogance has consequences. The Tower is the moment when we discover that we do not control destiny as completely as we once imagined.

The Moon – Illusion and the Unconscious

Circe, illusion, fear, and the descent into the unconscious.

This is the point at which the hero must confront not only dangers in the external world, but also the shadows within his own psyche.

Death – Transformation Through Loss

Every loss, every fallen companion, and every identity left behind.

No great journey ends without some old part of ourselves dying so that something new can emerge.

Judgement – Recognition

The return and the recognition of who he truly is.

After everything he has endured, Odysseus can no longer be the same man who originally departed.

The World – Ithaca

Ithaca represents not merely “arriving at the destination,” but the completion of an entire cycle of transformation.

The traveller returns to the place where the journey began, but he is no longer the same person.

Perhaps this is precisely why The Odyssey never grows old.

Ithaca was never merely an island; it is the name Homer gives to the state of consciousness of the person who returns transformed.

The true reward of the journey is not simply arriving home. It is discovering that, when we return, home may remain the same—but we are no longer the same.

Best regards,

Renato