22 Hebrew Letters = 22 Major Arcana Cards .... hmmm
There are those who connect the Tarot cards to the body of Jewish Mysticism and Occult Knowledge - aka Qaballah. It is this supposed intertwining which some say can sort of satisfactorily show how Bembo's cards demand an esoteric interpretation since the Qaballah delves deeply into the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet ... and those letters are connected to the Tree Of Life ... and each given their own symbolic meanings.
Now before you sit there and say "aha, the Viscount's family was Jewish ...", let me point out the "High Priestess" card again, which is said to represent the duke's sister who was regarded in the Church as a "female Pope", or The Popess is sometimes another name this card goes by....hmm, confusing more so huh? But anyway ...
So, let me introduce you to Eliphas Levi ... the man credited, by many, to "successfully" link the Tarot to the Qaballah. *applause sign lights up for a few seconds* *Eliphas Levi emerges on the catwalk and slowly walks down it and does a turn and walks back to the podium as an announcer's voice describes him ... "Yes folks, here is Eliphas Levi wearing a typical suit from the mid-19th century and sporting a full beard but yet not a full head of hair. Though his early life is not something really recorded down - this is what we do know and that is he was born in 1810 as Alphonse Louis Constant and he was trained for the Catholic priesthood but he later opted for teaching and journalism as well as to seriously study magic and mysticism. When he began to write occult themed papers, he adopted a pen name of Eliphas Levi Zahed - which was usually shortened to Eliphas Levi. He is credited with many things ... 2 most notably being 1) the coining of the word occultism (word occult appeared back in 1514 though....he just expounded upon it), and 2) his contribution to the mysterious side or beginnings of the Tarot (the Qaballah linking), though he is also said to be known to debate (as far as both sides of the coin) if the Tarot went back to Egyptian times as far as "roots"."*
Ok, enough joking around though ... *chuckle*
Although Count de Gebelin had noticed a correspondence between the 22 trumps and the 22 Hebrew letters, this relationship he perceived to exist didn't develop into any substantial detail until Levi's insight ... which created a whole new myth for the Tarot to add to it's "history". I had hoped to locate a font for showing the Hebrew letters in this section, but I had difficulty with it "registering" I was writing mainly in English and using only 22 letters of another. *shrug* Sometimes being non-techie or not a "geek" has its drawbacks huh? Now, Levi saw the Tarot not only as a fascinating relic of some symbolic system, but also an an unparallel practical tool - a key to the wisdom of all ages. So let's look over what he came up with ....
He connected the Minor Arcana suits to the Hebrew letters forming the unpronounceable great name of God : Yod = Wands (Fire/Man), He = Cups (Water/Lion), Yau = Swords (Air/Eagle), and He = Pentacles (Earth/Bull). Now, the Major Arcana was numbered to fit into this system of thinking ... and many modern decks still follow Levi's numbering system (Curious note : most decks use Roman Numerals) and here is how he assigned them to the Hebrew alphabet :
- 1 - Magician - Aleph
- 2 - High Priestess - Beth
- 3 - Empress - Gimel
- 4 - Emperor - Daleth
- 5 - Hierophant - Heh
- 6 - Lovers - Vav
- 7 - Chariot - Zain
- 8 - Justice - Cheth
- 9 - Hermit - Teth
- 10 - Wheel Of Fortune - Yod
- 11 - Strength - Kaph
- 12 - Hanged Man - Lamed
- 13 - Death - Mem
- 14 - Temperance - Nun
- 15 - Devil - Samekh
- 16 - Tower - Ayin
- 17 - Star - Peh
- 18 - Moon - Tzaddi
- 19 - Sun - Qoph
- 20 - Judgement - Resh
- 21 - World - Shin
- 0 - Fool - Tav
- 2 - High Priestess - Beth
Now, the Qaballah also delves deeply into the the 4 (hmmm... there's that number popping up again....) letters of God's unpronounceable name "YHVH" which in turn represent : 1. the 4 worlds of creation, 2. the 4 basic elements of medieval science, 3. the 4 stages of existence, 4. the 4 methods of interpreting the Bible, and etc. (SIDE NOTE for matter of curiosity: when the regular playing deck came about, there are 4 court cards...coincidence?)
The Qaballah also works with the number 10 ... there are 10 commandments, the 10 sephiroth (stages of emanation) on each of the 4 Trees of Life (i.e. Splendor, Wisdom, Force, and Kingdom) ... and in the Tarot deck, the 4 suits have a set of cards numbered 1 thru 10. Now I haven't mastered the drawing program as of yet... so I can't show a diagram as I would like to show all this stuff on...but let me try this instead...
Readers Digest tm Version Of Condensing
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The right hand column is the Pillar of Mercy and it is the male/active/positive side. The left hand is the Pillar of Judgement and it is the feminine/passive/negative side. These opposites are reconciled in the center by The Pillar of Mildness. There are 3 groups of the sephiroth, each forming a triangle in which 2 opposing forces are balancedout by a 3rd force. At the base of the Tree is a single area - Malkuth - which represents the whole material world. the meaning of the entire Tree pours through Yesod (the spout) into Malkuth where it manifests. |
Now to continue with this mini-condensed Qaballah lesson, The lines running between the sephiroth are the 22 paths ... a formal spiral staircase of spiritual ascent leading from the Kingdom (or World of Man) at the bottom to the Crown of God at the top. Each path is assigned to a Hebrew letter and the 22 paths connecting the sephiroth have been variously assigned to the 22 Tarot trumps of the Major Arcana. Here I have listed a sampling of the most commonly associated attributes, you can find the entire listing in several books on the market:
- 0. The Fool - Kether to Hokmah
- 1. The Magician - Kether to Binah
- 2. The High Priestess - Kether to Tifereth
- 3. The Empress - Hokmah to Binah
- 4. The Emperor - Hokmah to Tifereth
- 5. The Hierophant - Hokmah to Hesod
- etc.
- 1. The Magician - Kether to Binah
(The best way to understand the relationship between the tarot trumps and the Tree of Life is to draw the paths then lay out the trump assignments on a diagram ... to get a more visual sighting of how it would look firsthand per se). This by connecting all of the 78 Tarot cards with the complex structure of the Qaballah, it seems possible to form a complete system which sort of interrelates the number, word, and image. This sort of grand synthesis had been a goal in regards to trying to understand *how* the Tarot worked ... so it is little wonder as to why Levi felt that by marrying the two together that he thought he had discovered a powerful source of knowledge and level of magick.
Like Gebelin, Levi had grasped onto something important to consider about the Tarot that has helped shape the whole course of study about it ... but still both let themselves get carried away from the heart of the matter by their enthusiasm. It is apparent that the Qaballah and the Tarot resemble one another in certain aspects ... but no evidence to suggest that the Qaballah and the Tarot were ever meant to be linked intentionally or in a dependent manner. The similarities *are* important ... but not because they attempt to indicate a common source per se, but because they reveal a certain basic esoteric concepts about both. Once a person begins to pick up the threads of thoughts that run between the Qaballah and the Tarot, it's possible to follow these same threads of thoughts to many different directions - even to astrology, religions, Taoism, etc.
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Last updated January, 1997 © Carol aka Secretive
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Lilith Silverhair