The World

✦ Wholeness; Completion; Travel; Understanding

✦ Description

A woman holds a perfect golden sphere in her arms, content and at peace with a newfound wholeness. She is surrounded by the four elements of tarot: butterflies for air, feathers for fire, plants of the earth, and fish of water.

✦ Human Condition

Representing the facets of human knowledge, passion, physicality, and emotion respectively, they combine to represent a complete understanding of the human condition, its motivations, and its pitfalls.

✦ Major Arcana Conclusion

The last card of the Major Arcana marks the conclusion of the Fool’s journey and the abundance of insight gained. All feels right, and even the mistakes and struggles of life are accepted in a new light. She is now crowned by a victorious wreath and equipped to re-enter the circle with experience for the better.

✦ Travel

The World card may also signify a long and eye-opening opportunity for travel. At the conclusion of every journey is the start of another.

✦ Additional Artwork

Centered on the golden sphere is a map detailing the interstellar coordinates of Earth and its Solar System, a position measured in relation to 14 pulsars.

✦ Voyager 1 and 2

This drawing is etched into two Golden Records being carried by Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, each hurtling through space at 11 miles per second and 13.3 billion miles away.

✦ Contents of the Records

Along with Earth’s galactic coordinates, the records contain 115 images, sounds of wind, water, birds, and whales, spoken greetings in 55 languages, explanations of DNA and human evolution, and much more.

✦ Human Hopes

Though the chances of alien life intelligent enough to encounter and decipher the Golden Records is slim, the effort enacted by humankind speaks of two distinct hopes: that there is life in the cosmos, and that it is good.