Tarot is not Kabbalah (and a brief review of The Raziel Tarot)

Many tarot decks show Hebrew letters on the Major Arcana cards. This supposedly indicates a long-standing connection between Tarot and the Jewish mystical traditions of Kabbalah. In fact, however, the tarot cards were created in Renaissance Europe, a Christian culture. It was only their continued development in the European cultural milieu that eventually led to the grafting of a faux Jewish mysticism onto the tarot.

The origins of tarot are distinct from those of Kabbalah. However, from its beginnings, Christian culture has appropriated and altered some aspects of an imagined Judaism (rather than actual Judaism). For more information about the reasons for Renaissance Europe's interest in Kabbalah, read The Rape of Jewish Mysticism by Christian Theologians by Robert Wang.

By the the mid-19th century, faux Kabbalah had become a part of Western occultism. Éliphas Lévi posited a link between the Major Arcana cards and paths on the Tree of Life. According to Donald Tyson, it was in the 1880s that Golden Dawn founder, William Wynn Westcott, attributed specific Hebrew letters to each of the Major Arcana cards of the tarot deck.

Earlier occultists had created a list of astrological correspondences to the cards. Relying on those correspondences and his own quirky translation of a 4th century, Jewish text, the Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott determined additional correspondences between those astronomical symbols and the Hebrew letters. For example, earlier tarot occultists had associated The Empress card of the Major Arcana with planet Venus, and in Westcott's translation of Sefer Yetzirah, Venus is associated with the letter dalet; so he concluded that The Empress was also connected with the letter dalet.

Jewish Kabbalah is not an intrinsic part of tarot, but today, Jewish tarot writers such as Isabel Radow-Kleigman and Rachel Pollack, are bringing authentic Jewish ideas and Jewish spirituality to the tarot. I appreciate that, and I want to explore the possibilities that connecting the two traditions might offer. So, although I am doubtful that including Hebrew letters on the cards is a meaningful exercise, I am willing to explore the idea.

The first Hebrew letter, alef (א), is often ascribed to The Fool, the first card of the Major Arcana. The last Hebrew letter, tav (ת), is ascribed to The World, the last card of the Major Arcana.

However, for nearly 100 years before Westcott compiled his Hebrew letter correspondences, tarot cards had been printed with numbers on the Major Arcana cards. (French occultist Jean-Baptiste Alliette, aka Etteilla, numbered the Major Arcana cards in his 1789 occult deck.)

To maintain the practice of numbering the cards, The World would be ḳhaf-alef (כא), 21, not tav (ת), which is the number 400. As there is no zero in the Hebrew numbering system, The Fool would be left without a Hebrew letter. However, Wescott was probably unaware of the numerical values of the Hebrew letters.

The correspondences between astrological symbols and the Major Arcana cards does seem reasonable, since astrology was a significant part of the Renaissance culture in which tarot began. However, dragging Hebrew letters into that mix is problematic. It may be a step away from the intentions of earlier tarot designers. It is certainly leagues away from the intentions of the meditation teachers who composed the Sefer Yetzirah.

Although the Sefer Yetzirah was composed during a period of intense syncretism between various Mediterranean cultures, religions, and philosophies, there is no link between that text and the much later Renaissance European culture which produced the tarot.

Rav Kohent Jill Hammer
photo from kohenet.com

Furthermore, it seems unlikely that teachers of the meditation techniques presented in the Sefer Yetzirah intended a literal connection between the letters, days, organs, planets, or other items mentioned in the text.

If literal correlation had been intended, each version of the text would link the same planets to the "double letters" (the BeGeD KeFeT letters), but in fact, different texts present different correspondences. For example, the letter dalet (ד) is linked to the Sun in one version of the text, to Mars in another, and to Venus in yet another version of the text.

Rabbi Jill Hammer teaches that the Sefer Yetzirah was intended to offer meditative practices, "not to inform." According to Rabbi Hammer, the focus of the Sefer Yetzirah is the creative power of the Hebrew language, and the goal of its meditative practices is contact with the Source of Creation.

The Sefer Yetzirah is a meditation manual. It does not teach anything about tarot cards, which were created ten centuries after the Sefer Yetzirah was composed.

There is no authentic connection between the Sefer Yetzirah, or other Jewish Kabbalistic traditions, and the tarot. So, if we do wish to place Hebrew letters on the Major Arcana, we might first consider the attributions already given the cards by European occultists.

Four versions of the Sefer Yetzirah, as well as the Christian influenced Golden Dawn, agree as to the association of the simple letters to the constellations, and to the association of the mother letters to the three celestial elements of air, water, and fire. (See chart below.) So, for now, let's accept Westcott's further association of the Hebrew simple letters and mother letters with the tarot cards he attributed to those letters.

However, a difficulty arises connecting the double letters with celestial bodies. There are several different sets of correspondences between the Hebrew double letters and the seven planets. Section 4.8 in the chart shows correspondences in the Gra-Ari Version of the Sefer Yetzirah, in the Short and Long Versions of the Sefer Yetzirah, and in Donald Tyson's work.

Summary of attributions for Mother Letters, Double Letters, and Simple Letters

In the next few paragraphs, I'll show you how correspondences based on different versions of Sefer Yetzirah radically alter the traditional progression of the tarot Majors. Then I'll show you how the amended Golden Dawn more closely maintains the traditional progression of the cards as well as the order of the Hebrew letters.

Gra-Ari Version: If we relied on the correspondences from the Gra-Ari version (influenced by the later Zohar) of the Sefer Yetzirah, the result would be the following series of cards:

1 Priestess (Moon - Bet)
2 Tower (Mars - Gimmel)
3 Wheel (Sun - Dalet)
10 Empress (Venus - Kaf)
16 Magician (Mercury - Peh)
19 World (Saturn - Reish)
21 Sun (Jupiter - Tav)

In 19th Century occult thought, the High Priestess card was connected with the moon. In the Gra-Ari version of the Sefer Yetzirah, the moon is mentioned in connection to the letter bet. Thus, according to Wescott's rationale, the Hebrew letter bet should be associated with the High Priestess card of the tarot deck.

It muddies the waters further to point out that Tav is really the 23rd letter of the Hebrew alphabet, since Šin and Śin are different letters that form different Hebrew root words. In other words, is the Judgment card Šin or Śin, and why aren't there 23 Major Arcana cards? (And what about ghayin, the lost letter, that fell out of use?)

Short and Long Versions: If we used the correspondences of the Short Version or the Long Version of the Sefer Yetzirah, the result order of the first few Major Arcana cards would be as follows:

1 World (Saturn - Bet)
2 Sun (Jupiter - Gimmel)
3 Tower (Mars - Dalet)
10 Wheel (Sun - Kaf)
16 Empress (Venus - Peh)
19 Magician (Mercury - Reish)
21 Priestess (Moon - Tav)

In these versions of the Sefer Yetzirah, Saturn is mentioned in connection to the letter bet. In 19th Century occult thought, Saturn is connected to the World card. Thus, according to Wescott's rationale, the Hebrew letter bet should be associated with the World card of the tarot deck.

However, if we rely on Donald Tyson's amended Golden Dawn attributions, which he carefully considered, we would maintain the order of the double letters and something close to the order of the tarot majors, switching only the traditional positions of The Priestess and The Magician (and, among the simple letters, the positions of The Chariot and Temperance).

1 Priestess (Moon - Bet)
2 Magician (Mercury - Gimmel)
3 Empress (Venus - Dalet)
10 Wheel (Sun - Kaf)
16 Tower (Mars - Peh)
19 Sun (Jupiter - Reish)
21 World (Saturn - Tav)

The Fool as the
Biblical Yosef,
a fool and a visionary.

Any connection between the Hebrew letters and the cards is tenuous, so I see no compelling reason to make any changes to the correspondences presented by Donald Tyson. The appendix of his book, Portable Magic: Tarot is the Only Tool You Need, contains his rationale for the changes he made to the Golden Dawn system.

Since astrology is not part of my practice, I am not at all concerned with the astrological correspondences of the cards. It would be more interesting to consider other associations from Sefer Yetzirah, such the pairs of qualities associated with Double Letters, the months and tribes associated with Simple Letters, the elements associated with the Mother Letters, as well as the meanings of the letters' names.

For example, these are meanings of the Double Letters:

• Bet - house
• Gimmel - camel
• Dalet - door
• Kaf - palm or sole
• Peh - mouth
• Reish - poverty
• Tav - sign

These are pairs of qualities associated with the Double Letters:

• Bet - Wisdom and Folly
• Gimmel - Wealth and Poverty
• Dalet - Seed and Desolation
• Kaf - Life and Death
• Peh - Dominance and Subjugation
• Reish - Peace and War
• Tav - Grace and Ugliness

The Raziel Tarot: If you are interested in obtaining a tarot deck created specifically with Jewish ideas in mind, consider obtaining the majors-only deck, The Raziel Tarot, by tarot greats, Robert Place and Rachel Pollack. (Sefer Raziel is a Jewish Kabbalistic text; some portions of it are of slightly greater antiquity than the Sefer Yetzirah.)

In the Raziel deck, Hebrew letters appear on the following Marjor Arcana cards:

• א appears on The Fool
• מ appears on The Empress
• The mother letters, אמש, appear on The Lovers and on Temperance
• the root צדק appears on Justice
• a portion of the word שָׁלוֹם appears on Strength
• the letters י and ב appear on the pillars Boaz and Yachin of The High Priestess, and the garment worn by her contains numerous letters, including some final forms

The Raziel Tarot shows only two of the mother letters: Alef (א) for air and Mem (מ) for water. Pollack and Place did not chose to include the penultimate letter, Šin/Śin (ש), which is associated with creative fire. I wonder which Major Arcana card could be linked reasonably with the third mother letter ש. What do you think?

The Empress as Miriam the Prophet, whose life
included many events associated with water.