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, the two traditions are distinct and arose in different cultures and periods.
Tarot emerged in fifteenth-century Christian Europe as a set of playing cards, which only later took on esoteric meanings. Kabbalah, by contrast, is an ancient and still-evolving Jewish mystical tradition.
There is no historical connection between Kabbalah and the creation of the tarot. The relationship was constructed centuries later by European occultists who grafted superficial elements of Jewish mysticism onto the tarot.
From its beginnings, Christian culture has appropriated and altered some aspects of Judaism. For more information about the origins of European interest in Kabbalah, read The Rape of Jewish Mysticism by Christian Theologians by Robert Wang.
By the the mid-nineteenth-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. Other occultists had created sets of astrological correspondences to the cards. Relying on those correspondences and their own quirky translation of the Sefer Yetzirah, the Golden Dawn developed their own system of tarot correspondences.
However, the Golden Dawn adopted planetary correspondences for the Double Letters that differ from those found in the Gra-Ari version of Sefer Yetzirah. For example, the Golden Dawn associated the Hebrew letter Dalet with Venus and The Empress, while the Gra-Ari version associates Dalet with the Sun. The Sefer Yetzirah, of course, makes no mention of tarot cards, which had not yet been created when that text was composed.
Jewish mysticism 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.
French occultist Jean-Baptiste Alliette, aka Etteilla, numbered the Major Arcana cards in his 1789 occult deck 100 years before the Golden Dawn systematized Hebrew letter correspondences. The Golden Dawn ascribed first Hebrew letter,
Alef (א), to The Fool, the first card of the Major Arcana. and the last Hebrew letter,
Tav (ת), to The World, the last card of the Major Arcana.
When I first encountered these correspondences, they seemed arbitrary to me.
Tav has a numerical value of 400, not 21, and Hebrew has no letter representing zero for The Fool. While I understand that the letters were intended symbolically rather than as Hebrew numerals, I remain unconvinced that placing them on the cards adds anything meaningful to the tarot.
Since astrology was a significant part of the Renaissance culture in which tarot began, the development of correspondences between astrological symbols and the Major Arcana cards of tarot does seem reasonable. However, the fact that the Hebrew letters are also associated with planets and regions of the zodiac is not a good reason to slap the Hebrew letters onto the cards. It is a step away from the intentions of earlier tarot designers. It is certainly leagues away from the intentions of the authors of the
Sefer Yetzirah, a work Aryeh Kaplan interprets as a manual of meditative practice.
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.
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. They were describing a mystical vision of creation in which breath and language allowed divine unity to become the multiplicity within the cosmos.
If literal correlation had been intended, each version of the text would link the same planets to the Double Letters. In fact, different recensions of the text list different correspondences. For example,
Dalet is linked to the Sun in the Gra-Ari version and to Mars in three other versions of the
Sefer Yetzirah. The Golden Dawn later associated
Dalet with Venus in order to retain the traditional order of the tarot Majors and the order of the planets from fastest to slowest.
The
Sefer Yetzirah does not teach anything about tarot cards, which were created centuries after the
Sefer Yetzirah was composed.
There is no demonstrable connection between the
Sefer Yetzirah, or other Jewish mystical traditions, and the tarot. So if we do wish to place Hebrew letters on the Major Arcana, we might first examine the attributions developed by European occultists.
Four versions of the
Sefer Yetzirah, as well as the Christian-influenced Golden Dawn, agree on the associations of the Simple Letters with the regions of the zodiac and of the Mother Letters with the three celestial elements of Air, Water, and Fire. (See the chart below.) For now, then, let us accept the Golden Dawn’s further association of those letters with particular tarot cards.
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 names in the Gra-Ari Version of the
Sefer Yetzirah, in the Short and Long Versions of the S
efer Yetzirah, and in Donald Tyson's revised Golden Dawn correspondences.
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| 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 system 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 of the Sefer Yetzirah, the result would be the following series of cards with planetary correspondences:
Priestess (Moon - Bet)
Tower (Mars - Gimmel)
Wheel (Sun - Dalet)
Empress (Venus - Kaf)
Magician (Mercury - Peh)
World (Saturn - Reish)
Sun (Jupiter - Tav)
In nineteenth-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 the Golden Dawn's rationale, the Hebrew letter Bet should be associated with the High Priestess card of the tarot deck.
Short and Long Versions: If we used the correspondences of the Short Version or the Long Version of the Sefer Yetzirah, the resulting order of the planetary cards would be as follows:
World (Saturn - Bet)
Sun (Jupiter - Gimmel)
Tower (Mars - Dalet)
Wheel (Sun - Kaf)
Empress (Venus - Peh)
Magician (Mercury - Reish)
Priestess (Moon - Tav)
In these versions of the Sefer Yetzirah, Saturn is linked to the letter Bet. In nineteenth-century occult thought, Saturn is connected to the World card. Thus, according to the Golden Dawn's rationale, the Hebrew letter Bet should be associated with the World card of the tarot deck.
Tyson’s revised Golden Dawn system keeps the Double Letters in Hebrew alphabetical order while preserving most of the familiar progression of the Major Arcana. Among the planetary cards, it exchanges The High Priestess and The Magician, corresponding to the Moon and Mercury. Tyson also exchanges Temperance and The Chariot, corresponding to Cancer and Sagittarius.
Priestess (Moon - Bet)
Magician (Mercury - Gimmel)
Empress (Venus - Dalet)
Wheel (Sun - Kaf)
Tower (Mars - Peh)
Sun (Jupiter - Reish)
World (Saturn - Tav)
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The Fool as the
Biblical Yosef,
a fool and a visionary. |
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Since the connection between the Hebrew letters and the cards is tenuous, I see no compelling reason to make any changes to the letter attributions presented by Donald Tyson in his book,
Portable Magic: Tarot is the Only Tool You Need.
Astrology is not part of my practice, so I am not concerned with the astrological correspondences of the cards. It would be more interesting to consider other associations from
Sefer Yetzirah, such as the pairs of qualities associated with Double Letters, the months and tribes associated with Simple Letters, and the celestial elements associated with the Mother Letters.
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 medieval Jewish magical and kabbalistic text that incorporates materials from several earlier traditions.
In the Raziel deck, Hebrew letters appear on the following Major Arcana cards:
- א appears on The Fool
- מ appears on The Empress (the Golden Dawn placed it on The Hanged Man)
- 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 choose 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?
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The Empress as Miriam the Prophet, whose life
included many events associated with water.
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