Writing Part One has been both a joy and an obsession. It has taken me longer than I expected, and Part Two will likely take at least nine months (or possibly years). But for now, I’m grateful to pause, share this chapter, and mark the milestone before continuing.
Chapter 6
A Note about the Tree of Life Glyph:
Before turning to the meanings of the individual cards, a final note on the Tree of Life may help orient us. The familiar glyph of ten sefirot linked by twenty-two netivot is a later convention unknown to the writers of the Sefer Yetzirah.
In the Eilat Tarot, these elements come alive through the structure of the deck itself. The ten sefirot are embodied in the Number Cards. The twenty-two netivot (paths) appear as the Letter Cards. The four Worlds mapped onto the Tree are reflected in the Image Cards.
Each card type reveals a distinct layer of meaning: Letter Cards trace the path ahead; Number Cards offer places to pause and absorb; Image Cards frame each experience within a spiritual world. The Eilat Tarot does not treat the Tree as a structure to memorize, but as a compass for “running and returning.”
Over centuries the Tree has been variously drawn as a series of ladders, a group of nested spheres, or a cosmic body, and even imagined as a kind of “medicine wheel.” The wheel symbolism in particular may help us orient ourselves in space, but two older Jewish images guide me more strongly: Mount Sinai and the Temple.
Like Sinai, the Tree can be read as a graded approach to holiness: boundaries that protect the sacred, terraces of effort, switchbacks of awe. Some people ascend a little, some farther, and a few step into cloud and thunder. The paths become routes of reverence.
Like the Temple, the glyph suggests a sanctified architecture and choreography: gates, thresholds, and courts, each crossed with intention by those permitted to enter. Movement inward becomes intimacy; movement outward, a blessing carried back into the world.
Beyond Mount Sinai and the Temple, prophetic imagery suggests that we can meet God anywhere. Ezekiel saw the divine chariot by a river among the exiles; Enoch walked the heavenly palaces and approached the Throne. These apocalyptic visions remind us that holiness may appear in unexpected places, like manna, scattered across the wilderness. The Tree of Life echoes this truth: it marks the many paths of ascent and return, open to any soul prepared through study, prayer, and purity of heart.
The Eilat Tarot treats the Tree not as a structure to memorize, but as a map to walk with. The cards transform the glyph into a living compass. Whether we picture the slopes of Sinai, the courts of the Temple, or the gifts of the wilderness, the Tree of Life teaches us to journey with reverence. In the Eilat Tarot, the cards are not just images to be studied but steps to be walked.
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