Anant
i. The Nutshell
Arthur Wang’s True Black Tarot is not your average deck in my opinion. It has a strong masculine energy and is a deeper, no holds barred examination of the shadow and substance designed to annihilate any light-hearted fluff with unvarnished direction. Arthur Wang created True Black to explore the gritty undercurrents beneath archetypes, focusing on the cycles and continuities that shape our hidden landscapes. I’ve been working with this deck since its Kickstarter origins and the content contained in this worksheet is based on my opinion, is independent of the deck creator, and expands on the short book definition.
The Anant card, born from the author’s fascination with infinity and the eternal loop, embodies this ethos perfectly. Unlike the common view of Tarot as offering tidy beginnings and endings, Anant - an extra Major Arcana card - reflects a deeper infinity than even the Wheel of Fortune, Death, Tower, or the World. It is the connection between The World and The Fool, symbolising the endless and timeless. As energetic beings, humorously called ‘electric skeletons’, we engage in a journey of growth and evolution beyond logical or scientific boundaries, where the concept of infinity is the strong force linking spiritual traditions.
In True Black, Anant represents determination amid cycles of life, confronting challenges with bravery and aligning with the deck's goal of uncovering difficult truths that lurk in the darkness. The following breaks down the differences I’ve felt when working with this card, between Upright and Reversed.
Upright
Anant asks you to lean into the grand, unbroken flow of existence, i.e. where everything returns, renews, and rewrites itself in infinite permutations. The path is a spiral. It’s the universe’s way of saying you’re part of a far bigger story than this moment’s Helter Skelter ride, and you’re going to get through it without your mat getting stuck on a bend. Anant wants you to trust the process of unfolding and is the paradox of infinite return; you return to the same lessons - but changed each time.
In relationships, the upright Anant signifies strong, lasting growth between two souls. It represents a strong connection that endures challenges, based on something eternal that goes beyond the boundaries or labels our ego tries to understand. This connection involves a cycle of breaking and mending that deepens emotional closeness and soul bonds. Challenges and soul lessons evolve across lifetimes, and discussions revisit past themes with fresh insights, synchronicities and deja vu. Everything changes in a meaningful way, but nothing is lost, and every ending leads to a new beginning and is part of the larger whole.
Anant is the thread that weaves the story together. It refuses the tidy closure most decks offer. Cycles bind us and patterns shape us. Anant is not a destination but a continuous state; holding tension that sits between both flow and fracture, harmony and dissonance. Infinity can sustain or entrap depending on our perspective.
Keywords: Eternal cycles, endless, soul family, life path, exemption, new era, infinite continuity, spiritual renewal, profound growth
Translation: Every return deepens you; love evolves, and whilst closure is a myth - connection isn’t.
Reversed
Growth feels like a myth you once believed in. The wheel catches. Patterns repeat. Reversed Anant feels disconnecting with a loop that doesn’t quite close. The eternal becomes exhausting and your path feels like a treadmill. It's a cycle of empty spiritual phrases, repeating relationship patterns with different people, and rituals that feel like routines. This is the moment you realise you’ve been dancing alone, in circles, to a stuck needle.
In relationships, this card signals karmic patterns of mismatched growth snaking without resolution - despite effort. Conversations may be happening, but not landing. The connection exists, but the current doesn't flow. It’s a call to stop romanticising the connection and start questioning the small print of the soul contract - what is it actually requiring you both to do? It could also signify that the person you felt a connection with, was for a reason or season, but not infinite lifetimes. Reversed Anant wants presence, awareness, perspective and a pattern-interrupt.
Keywords: Disconnection, repetition without growth, karmic fatigue, spiritual stagnation, imbalance, loop-fatigue
Translation: If it’s meant to be, why does it feel like déjà vu with a hangover?
ii. Illus-traits
The Eternal Loop of Becoming: A symbolic glance at the Anant in True Black deck, based on the guidebook definition:
Fetus - This concept represents the significant bridge between the end and the beginning of the major arcana, symbolising the endless cycle of eternity and the continuous nature of life itself. It encapsulates the potential for growth, new beginnings, and the perpetual movement through various stages of existence.
Anant-Shesha — In Sanskrit, Anant - also known as Shesha - means the remainder of what endures when all else falls away. Depicted as a coiled serpent with five, seven or a thousand heads, Shesha supports the universe atop his body. In Hindu cosmology, he sustains existence until its end, when he manifests eleven Rudras - storm gods who dissolve the old world so a new one can take its place. Anant is the force that holds, ends, and begins all things.
Field of Stars — The background of the Anant card is speckled with an endless field of stars, except for the space occupied by the fetus and Shesha. This void is Barnard 68, a dark nebula near the constellation Ophiuchus. To the naked eye, it appears as a black patch in the sky, but its darkness comes from an extreme concentration of cosmic dust - the raw material of future stars. This dust is so dense it blocks visible light entirely, though infrared imaging reveals nearly 1,000 hidden stars behind it. Barnard 68 is believed to be on the verge of gravitational collapse, a slow process that will eventually ignite a new star in roughly 200,000 years - cosmic gestation captured mid-breath.
iii. Influences
Planetary
Anant is governed by planetary forces that lie beyond the personal and speak to transpersonal transformation and cyclical evolution.
Uranus represents disruption as a necessary function of growth. It breaks continuity to reveal new patterns of being.
Neptune represents dissolution of fixed identity. It challenges the distinction between real and imagined, self and other.
Pluto represents the inevitability of transformation. It strips down to essence and rebuilds from what remains.
The Moon represents emotional memory, especially that which is unconscious or inherited.
Natal House(s)
Anant works with the four main points of the birth chart, which guide our life direction. Anant is not just one point, but the shifting energy between them - the change from one state of being to another. Anant engages these houses as part of the dynamic developmental axis between IC and MC - the movement from internal roots and private history (IC) to external manifestation and legacy (MC). This axis shows the soul's growth journey: blending inherited traits while actively guiding life's purpose in the world, balancing personal development with public progress. These houses address the structures that shape a life from the inside out and the outside in; what we inherit, release, aspire to, and transcend.
The 4th House (IC) roots us in history, familial systems, and psychological foundations. It represents our private inner world, ancestral inheritance, and subconscious patterns carried across lifetimes. This is the karmic cellar where unresolved past-life energies reside.
The 8th House concerns transformation through intimacy, shared resources, and loss. It reflects deep energetic exchange and soul-level contracts, including death and rebirth cycles that occur across incarnations.
The 10th House (Midheaven) reflects social visibility, legacy, and evolving public roles. It represents the conscious manifestation of purpose in this life (dual purpose if relationship-relevant), integrating lessons from past lives into the individual’s, joint, or collective contribution.
The 12th House concerns dissolution, collective memory, and the return to source. It allows for letting go of ego and connects to spiritual realms, where soul memories and past lives can be accessed and understood.
Astrological Sign(s)
Anant’s energy connects with the signs that influence areas of soul inheritance, change, life purpose, and spiritual growth. These signs represent the soul's ongoing journey through karma and reincarnation. Anant represents the soul's cycle of inheritance, transformation, purpose, and transcendence as seen in the significant signs related to important areas of life.
4th House / IC - Cancer
Cancer grounds Anant in ancestral roots and subconscious patterns. It represents the emotional and karmic foundation from past lives, where unresolved energies reside and form the soil for ongoing growth.8th House - Scorpio
Scorpio channels Anant’s power of deep transformation and rebirth. It ignites soul contracts and the intense processes of release and regeneration essential to the infinite cycles Anant symbolises.10th House / MC - Capricorn
Capricorn reflects Anant’s expression of conscious purpose and legacy. It integrates past-life lessons into the role the soul plays in the world; highlighting discipline and long-term evolution as part of the karmic path.12th House - Pisces
Pisces links Anant to a higher state and symbolises a space where ego fades, enabling the soul to tap into shared memories and renewal through different lives.
Numerologically
As the 23rd Major Arcana card, Anant sits beyond the traditional structure. The number 23 blends the intuitive partnership of 2 (High Priestess) with the dynamic creativity of 3 (Empress), suggesting growth through relational experience and the integration of duality into something new. Reducing to 5 (Hierophant), it carries the essence of change, freedom, a mid-cycle point, and evolution - hallmarks of spiritual adaptability. Five doesn’t settle; it moves, tests, and transforms. Anant, likewise, marks the point where knowledge becomes wisdom that is only gleaned from deeper understanding through change and experience.
As the 79th card in the full deck, Anant numerologically reduces to 16/7, which could take into consideration the essence of the Tower and Chariot cards. The number 7 points to spiritual insight, introspection, and initiation which also mirrors the 5 of the Hierophant. It is the seeker’s number, resonating with the mysteries beyond the visible and the evolution that occurs through harmony.
Together, 5 and 7 represent Anant as a symbol of transition: a stage where understanding grows through repeated experiences and changes. It signifies an infinite journey of growth and elevation.
Elements
Anant is linked to all four elements and goes beyond them to represent the fifth element, known as Aether or Spirit - a hypothetical substance or fifth element believed to fill the space beyond the terrestrial sphere. It acts as a connection between the physical and the intangible, holding the cycle of existence together without being tied to any single form. Aether is the space where all elements change and reshape. It symbolises the continuous flow between ends and beginnings. Anant teaches us that the reality of the elements is not fixed; it is dynamic, cyclical, and reshaped over time, similar to the journey of the soul.
Earth in Anant speaks to inherited structures, cycles of decay and renewal, and the embodiment of timeless truths.
Water reflects emotional memory, karmic tides, and the soul’s continuity through feeling and intuition.
Fire expresses transformation, release, and the will to evolve across lifetimes.
Air carries pattern recognition, ancestral thought-forms, and the intelligence of symbolic return.
Aether holds the cyclical field in which all elements move. It represents continuity without form, the unseen framework of reincarnation, and the infinite container of soul experience.
iv. A Day in the Life of Anant
Well That Escalated Quickly
You wake up with quantum lag. Something feels off, everyone’s suddenly triggering your unresolved abandonment issues before breakfast and there’s a cameo from your South Node making coffee. Your ex texts, your boss projects, your mother’s voice echoes in your head from something you thought you’d healed in 2009. You’re going through another karmic rinse cycle again, note the soul contracts calling and want to ghost them if only they didn’t have cosmic read receipts.
Adjusting the Knobs
You’re still waking in Groundhog Day but the nightly experiences are improving. Telepathic tune-ins and coded dreams start feeling like messages from another reality pulling your socks up. You know the ‘dreams’ are visits to a different plane of existence trying to get your attention but you refer to them as dreams to avoid the white coats. The same doubts and conflicts cycle, but you’re reading the fine print on your soul contracts and have started to learn Tarot.
Unsubscribed from Self-Sabotage
Interactions with your soul family feel more meaningful now. What once seemed random carries weight as part of a shared purpose. Life's patterns reveal insights you previously missed. You embrace your individuality whilst recognising your connection to someone special. Each exchange clarifies your awakening and the unifying purpose of your soul family. You're not alone anymore; you're part of a unfolding collective. Plus, you've become skilled at Tarot with your own guide from real experiences, eliminating the need to rely on others for emotional support.
Writing the TED Talk
You've moved beyond confusion and resistance, flowing with the infinite cycle where beginnings and endings are illusions. Your relationships become timeless soul connections, turning challenges into growth opportunities. You embrace the paradox of renewal in endings, trusting the unfolding process and the eternal spiral. Your life is intertwined with your soul family, awakened to the unbroken story of existence while healing ancestral trauma aligned with your soul's purpose. Your intuition is spot on and you’re now teaching Tarot.
v. Working with these Energies
Anant encourages you to look beyond staying busy and making superficial progress. It questions whether you are moving forward with clear intentions or going in circles. Real progress is being in tune with your soul purpose and legacy. Anant reminds you that while the journey is endless, your path should be intentional in this lifetime: moving with awareness, purpose, reciprocation, trust and an openness to sacrifice and grow.
Check Your Bearings
– What is the true aim behind your actions, and does it still resonate?
– Are you advancing toward something bigger than your current focus?
– What fears have you clung to so tightly they limit your emotional fulfillment?Align Effort with Meaning
– Where are you expending energy out of obligation or old habits?
– Which areas of your life feel disciplined yet disconnected from your essence?
– Are your daily choices propelling you toward your souls goals?Honour Intuition and Emotional Wisdom
– Are you listening to subtle instinctual signals or overriding them with logic?
– Where do emotions offer clarity and where are you being true to your heart?
– Are you focusing on your inner peace, or trying to control others' thoughts and actions?Move with Conscious Will
– What commitments can you make with clarity and intention based on considered feeling?
– Where can uniting with a soul family member transcend logic, yet align with your inner knowing and higher purpose?
– Where in your life does it feel like a mandala rather than a straight line, and are you willing to move without needing control?Sense the Field
– What or who are quietly persistent in your life that refuse to leave your heart and soul’s knowing?
– Where do you feel pulled without logical explanation?
– How do you feel and behave when you're not chasing, fixing, proving or improving?Let the Pattern Speak
– What or who has always been with you, quietly shaping your choices?
– What emotional or relationship themes or synchronicities keep coming back to you with new meaning?
– What part of you already knows without needing to be convinced?
vi. Building Skills
Anant teaches that there’s no final fix - only deeper participation to stay present in the space between. Working with this card means learning to hold both sides of experience without rushing to resolve them: pain and purpose, longing and peace, doubt and knowing all coexist here. Aether, as the fifth element, offers continuity as a medium through which you stay present, porous, and willing to be remade by the very things, or soul contracts, you once tried to outrun.
Wholeness Doesn’t Mean Comfort
If you want to feel connected, you’ll have to risk feeling everything. Aether doesn’t numb; it expands your capacity. Avoiding pain shrinks you. Staying present deepens you.Ask the Real Questions
Who would you have to become to never feel hurt again - and would that version of you still feel real, or just comfortably disconnected?Let the Opposites Breathe
Integration isn’t about fixing contradictions; it’s about staying with them long enough to understand how they connect.
Practical Grounding: Anchoring Presence Amid Otherworldly Experiences
When you feel pulled out of your body or caught between realities - which is a common ripple in Anant’s energy - try this brief ACT-based exercise to stay present without resistance. It’s designed to help you hold the tension between the otherworldly and the earthly, expansion and grounding, in alignment with Anant’s invitation to deepen presence without escape.
Notice and Name: Quietly observe what’s happening. Label the experience non judgmentally: “I’m noticing this sensation of floating,” or “Here is a feeling of detachment.” Naming reduces fusion with distress.
Engage Your Senses: Ground yourself by feeling your feet on the floor, noticing the weight of your body in the chair, or tuning into sounds around you. Anchor your awareness in the here and now.
Open to Experience: Allow the sensations and thoughts to be present without trying to push them away or resolve them. Remember, these are passing phenomena, not threats.
Connect to Values: Ask yourself what matters most to you in this moment. What is worth your attention beyond the experience? Reorient toward your guiding purpose or intention.
vii. Embodiment
This is when the infinite becomes real and fills your body with meaning.
Scent
What does timelessness smell like? Maybe it’s aftershave or perfume drifting through a wide open field - no one around, yet the scent arrives clear and intentional, as if someone unseen is reminding you they’re still close. Let it pull you into presence - this isn’t your first time here.
Body
Where in your body does a previous existence feel familiar? Your heart centre? Your pelvis? Your stomach? The back of your neck? Let that assure you.
Soundtrack
Choose something that loops with flow. Something ambient, expansive and atmospheric. Let your cells remember what repetition with variation feels like.
Action
Honour the return. Light a candle. Name the pattern. Archive the insight. Witness it with awareness.
Nature Cue
Stand at the edge of something vast: a shoreline, a cliff, a field that disappears into sky. Breathe. You’re not separate.
viii. Your Impressions
Look at the Anant card in your True Black Tarot deck, or the image above. Let your impressions be personal, philosophical, or mystifying:
Where does your eye go first? Is it the fetus, suspended in the in-between? The serpent coiled in calm? Take note of what holds your focus as the voice of your entry point.
Does the background feel empty or full? Is the starless void absence - or a cradle of unborn stars? How does that affect your sense of timing or readiness? What within you feels hidden… but gathering?
What’s your sense of movement? Does the scene feel paused, held, or on the cusp of motion? If this card mirrors your state, what might you be incubating - voluntarily or otherwise?
What endures when all else fades? Anant is what’s left when stories collapse, identities dissolve, and the self reverts to essence. When you look at this card, does it feel like something ending… or something beginning?
ix. Intuitive Meaning
If Anant keeps surfacing in your readings, it's a transmission. Something ancient wants your attention.
Ask yourself:
Where am I stuck on the loading screen of rebirth, pretending I haven’t already been here before?
What karmic pattern am I re-enacting because I haven’t admitted I’ve outgrown it?
Which soul contracts am I beginning to now read instead of blindly signing again?
What truth is emerging in my dreams or otherworldly experiences, and how would I change if I embraced it?
Applied Insight: A Three-Card Spread for Navigating the In-Between
Where am I mistaking stagnation for being suspended between an ending and a beginning?
What soul connection or repeating theme is surfacing to help me remember?
What inner knowing is ready to guide me even if I can’t explain it yet?
Pull or shuffle-fling cards and let Anant guide you beyond the visible, revealing the unseen threads that connect your past, present, and future. Write three you words that echo your lived experience of the Anant:
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x. Closing Reflection: Track Your Evolving Lens
Your relationship with each card will grow over time because it’s meant to shaped by your life. Consider the prompts below to revisit and reflect.
What I thought this card meant when I first pulled it: —————————————————
A recent experience that changed how I see it: —————————————————
How I feel about it now, in my body or life: —————————————————
What surprised me as this card kept showing up: —————————————————
One way this card is living in my life right now: —————————————————
If this card visited me today as a guide, what would it want me to remember? —————————————————
Revisit these after a week, a moon phase, or a meaningful moment. Let the card evolve as you do.
If you feel a quiet sense of recognition, curiosity and want to explore it, browse the sessions page for what feels right.