What I like most about the Tarot succession (second half of the Major Arcana) is that it speaks of multiple stages of spiritual development, not just one jump to a higher consciousness. There is no reason to think that only one more jump will take us all the way to the Omega point.
The sequence starts with some seemingly negative steps: The Hanged Man, Death, The Devil, and The Tower. (I am omitting for the moment Justice and Temperance.) This is the Vale of Despond that the Pilgrim Soul must pass through. Yet in the higher sense they are not negative at all, but a necessary preparation for what is to follow. They signify conversion, transfiguration, overcoming of temptation, and non-attachment to material goods. They are like the temptations of Christ, like initiation rites, like discipleship, like the two faces of crisis. They represent the turbulent transition to a higher state of being, to the Order that lies beyond Chaos.
They are followed by more serene, obviously positive signs: Star, Moon, Sun, Last Judgment, and The World. These represent, respectively, Enlightenment, Initiation, Liberation, Awakening, and Nirvana. Let us take these up rather literally.
First, light emerges out of the darkness of crisis and turmoil, an understanding of what needs to be done on finn land and on the waters. (I am referring to the picture on this card, with the woman pouring water on both land and sea.) Then the soul is initiated into various arcane secrets, like those known by the Gnostics and other esoterics. This leads to the sudden possibility to do things quite easily that were difficult or impossible before, like a child riding bareback on a horse without holding on with his/her hands. (Again, this is the picture on the card.) A true liberation! This is followed by awakening from our previous (present) dream of life to a new, much more clearly perceived, hard reality. This would be like passing from sleep to full waking awareness, only that this would be a further step beyond our ordinary waking awareness. Finally we perceive the interconnectedness of the whole Universe in the eternal dance of Shiva.
Like the six Kohlberg stages of moral development (only more so), few people reach the highest rungs of spiritual development. Perhaps more will in the future, and that will lead to social transformation when some critical number of people do it. At this time, we should at least try to reach the Enlightenment stage — reach for the Star.