Why the Eilat Tarot Uses a Different Tree

If you know the Tree of Life used in Golden Dawn tarot, the Tree that appears on the Eilat Tarot cards may look slightly wrong. Some paths connect different sefirot. The Hebrew letters are in different places. Malkhut is connected to the rest of the Tree by a single path. These differences are deliberate.

The Tree familiar to many tarot readers descends from an arrangement published by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher in his Oedipus Aegyptiacus in 1653. It is often called the Kircher Tree. This arrangement of ten sefirot and twenty-two connecting paths was taken into Western Hermetic Qabalah and eventually became the Tree used by the Golden Dawn.

A great deal of meaning has gathered around this Tree. The High Priestess offers a good example. In the Golden Dawn system, she is associated with the Hebrew letter Gimel, traditionally understood to mean “camel,” and with the long path running from Tiferet to Keter. That path crosses the region separating the lower sefirot from the supernal triad of Keter, Ḥokhmah, and Binah. In later Hermetic interpretation, the camel became an image of the traveler able to cross the desert of the Abyss and reach the supernal realm. It is a beautiful interpretation. It also depends upon a particular Tree.

Bet from the Eilat Tarot

The Kircher Tree became the framework into which the Golden Dawn fitted its elaborate system of correspondences.

The Eilat Tarot begins somewhere else. It is an attempt to create a dialogue between Kabbalah and tarot, and more particularly between the Sefer Yetzirah and Pamela Colman Smith’s images. Because the Hebrew letters are fundamental to the Sefer Yetzirah, I wanted them to remain fundamental when they were placed on the Tree.

The Sefer Yetzirah itself contains no Tree of Life diagram. It opens with thirty-two “wondrous paths of wisdom,” then speaks of ten sefirot b’limah and twenty-two foundation letters. Kabbalists found various ways to diagram the sefirot before the Tree became the familiar form.

Jewish kabbalists began creating elaborate diagrammatic representations of the sefirot, known as ilanot, or trees, during the Middle Ages. The Ilanot Project at the University of Haifa has now documented more than seven hundred examples. There has never been only one way to draw the relationships among the sefirot.

Kircher’s Tree belongs to this much longer history, but Kircher was not preserving Jewish Kabbalah. He was a Jesuit who reshaped Jewish material within his own Christian and syncretic system. He drew upon earlier Jewish and Christian Kabbalistic sources while incorporating them into his own Christian synthesis. The Tree later inherited by Western esotericism is therefore one historical interpretation of Kabbalah, not a Tree contained in the Sefer Yetzirah itself.

The Eilat Tarot instead uses the arrangement Aryeh Kaplan calls the Natural Array in his commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah, together with the path assignments he presents according to the GR"A, the Vilna Gaon.

The reason becomes visible when we look at the Hebrew letters. The Sefer Yetzirah does not treat its twenty-two letters as a single undifferentiated alphabet. It repeatedly divides them into three groups: three Mother Letters, seven Double Letters, and twelve Simple Letters. These groups are central to the structure of the book.

The Golden Dawn retained this division. Its three Mother Letters, Alef, Mem, and Shin, are associated with Air, Water, and Fire. The seven Double Letters are associated with the seven classical planets. The twelve Simple Letters are associated with the twelve signs of the zodiac.

But the Golden Dawn did not use these three classes to determine where the letters were placed on its Tree.

On the Golden Dawn Tree, the letters proceed through the network of paths in alphabetical order. Letters appear indiscriminately on horizontal, vertical, and diagonal paths.

Something different happens in Kaplan's Natural Array. The three Mother Letters occupy the three horizontal paths of the Tree. The seven Double Letters occupy the seven vertical paths. The twelve Simple Letters occupy the twelve diagonal paths.

The Mother Letters, Alef, Mem and Shin, arranged
 on the horizontal paths of the Natural Array

Once I saw this arrangement, the name “Natural Array” made sense to me.

The letters do not have to be fitted onto the Tree without regard to the categories that structure the Sefer Yetzirah. Their placement makes those categories visible.

The Double Letters, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Reish, and Tav,
arranged on the vertical paths of the Natural Array

This is especially striking with the twelve Simple Letters. In the Gra manuscript, the Sefer Yetzirah describes them in relation to twelve “diagonal boundaries.” Kaplan understands these as the boundaries of a three-dimensional universe. On the Natural Array, there are twelve diagonal paths waiting for the twelve Simple Letters.

Both the Golden Dawn Tree and the Natural Array contain three horizontal, seven vertical, and twelve diagonal paths. The difference lies in what happens when the letters are placed upon them. Both systems preserve the 3-7-12 structure as a system of correspondences. The Natural Array used in the Eilat Tarot makes that structure visible in the Tree itself.

Hei, Vav, and Zayin on the
diagonal paths of the Natural Array

Ḥet, Tet, and Yud on the
diagonal paths of the Natural Array

Lamed, Nun, and Samekh on the
diagonal paths of the Natural Array

 

Ayin, Ẓadi, and Quf on the
diagonal paths of the Natural Array

 

There is another feature of the Natural Array that I find satisfying. Malkhut, hanging below the rest of the Tree, is joined to it by a single path through Yesod. In later Kabbalah, Yesod gathers what precedes it and transmits it into Malkhut. The diagram gives that idea a simple visual form. Malkhut receives what comes through Yesod.

None of this means that the Natural Array is the original Tree of Life, or the one correct Tree. There is no Tree of Life diagram in the Sefer Yetzirah.

Nor does the Eilat Tarot need the Golden Dawn Tree to be wrong. The Golden Dawn was creating an immense synthesis of tarot, astrology, alchemy, ceremonial magic, Hebrew letters, and other traditions. The Tree it used became a framework capable of carrying that system, and generations of tarot readers have found meaning there.

The Eilat Tarot is asking a different question: What happens when the Sefer Yetzirah and Pamela Colman Smith’s tarot images are allowed to speak to one another?

For that conversation, the Hebrew letters cannot be incidental marks placed along the paths. They are among the building blocks of creation described by the Sefer Yetzirah. The Natural Array lets us see them that way.

The images accompanying this post show the pattern one layer at a time. The first shows the three Mothers crossing the Tree horizontally. The second shows the seven Doubles running vertically. The remaining images show the twelve Simple Letters filling the diagonal paths.

Seen together, they reveal something very simple:

Three Mothers,
Seven Doubles,
Twelve Simple Letters.

The Eilat Tarot does not use the Natural Array because it claims that this is the one ancient or correct Tree of Life. It uses the Natural Array because its geometry allows one of the central structures of the Sefer Yetzirah to remain visible.

Eilat Writers Guild

The website is now up! It's an exciting milestone!

Eilat Writers Guild, L.L.C.

My favorite writing implement? The eraser!

I just deleted 10 pages of my guidebook and replaced it with a clearer introduction. Real progress!

If you're curious, the footnote says: "Throughout this guidebook, I’ve italicized Hebrew titles and terms such as Sefer Yetzirah and sefirot. Quotations from authors such as Aryeh Kaplan retain their original formatting."

Poll Time! Help Me Choose a Title for My Tarot Guidebook

Vote! Select a letter below to help me choose a title for my LWB, "little white book." 📖

I’m still deep in the writing process, maybe halfway there, but I’d love your help choosing a title. It's for a guidebook to my Eilat Tarot, a Jewish deck that draws on the Sefer Yetzirah, the Hebrew calendar, the Land of Israel, and the symbolism of numbers and letters.

Which title do you like best? Feel free to vote for more than one, or suggest your own twist!

A. The Eilat Tarot: Little White Book
B. Eilat Tarot: A Tarot of Sunlight, Stone, and Water
C. The Eilat Tarot: Numbers, Letters, and the Land

D. The World Was Created With Letters: A Jewish Tarot Companion
E. Path of the Desert Letters: A Mystical Guide of Desert, Voice, and Vision
F. Letters of Light: A Kabbalistic Tarot Guide

G. Voice in the High Places: The World Was Created With Breath and Speech
H. The Tarot of Returning: A Tarot Guide Through Soul, World, and Time

I. The Tarot of Formation
J. Letters of Formation: The Tarot of Creation According to the Sefer Yetzirah
K. Formed in Silence: A Tarot Guide Through Soul, World, and Time

Thanks for helping me shape this journey! Your feedback means a lot. 💙

I’ll post updates as the project continues!

The Aces in the Arieli Tarot

Havdallah and the Aces:

Aces in most Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) style decks show a Divine Hand dispensing gifts that are the elements of our existence in this world. The symbols of the four elements are usually a cup, a sword, a wand, and a coin (pentacle).

However, in The Jewish Tarot, the cards show a human hand engaged in the order of havdalah, a ritual that is observed at the end of Shabbat and other biblically mandated holidays. The ritual begins after sunset, when three stars are visible in the sky. Havdalah brings joy at what might seem a time of sadness: the ending of a holy day or the departure of Shabbat.

Havdalah separates, or distinguishes between sacred time and secular time. During havdalah, we engage all our senses: hearing, touch, taste, smell, and sight. The acrostic, Yavneh, can be used to recall the order of blessings during the ritual: yayin (wine), besamim (spices), ner (candle), and havdalah (the prayer of separation). Ashkenazim and Sefardim recite the same four blessings during Havdalah, but different introductory passages. (Yavneh is the town where Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai, the ריב״ז‎, began a school to preserve the Oral Tradition after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple.)

Havdalah is a reenactment of creation, of God creating light and separating it from darkness and water from water. Arieli’s Aces emphasize that humans are partners in creation and that our actions here affect the divine realm. “As below, so above.” Divine Light descended the Tree to create the universe, and in response, we strive to bring light back up the Tree, and to reunite the Divine Presence with the Holy One of Blessing. (Reflecting this, the directions associated with the elements used in the ritual are addressed in counterclockwise direction.)

In the RWS and the Arieli Tarot, the Aces are assigned to כתר, Crown, the highest sefirah on the Tree of Life. Keter is the first place on the Tree where Divine energy enters creation. As a literal crown sits upon the head, this sefirah is metaphorically above the human mind’s abilities to comprehend it. The gifts represented by the Aces are more awesome than we usually recognize.

Ace of Goblets
Element: Water
Direction: South

Arieli’s Ace of Goblets shows a human hand holding a Kiddush cup upon which are engraved, in Hebrew, words from the first blessing of Havdalah, “Who creates the fruit of the vine.” The cup is filled to overflowing, representing both our desire for abundance and the actual abundance the Divine has already provided. Oddly, the sky in this card shows that the ritual has begun during daylight.

The elemental assignment of Water to the suit of Cups also suggests a connection to an introductory prayer of the havdalah ritual. “You will draw water joyously from the wellsprings of salvation,” and references the Water Drawing Ritual that was performed during Sukkot when the Temple still stood.

Arieli assigns these meanings to his Ace of Goblets:

Upright: sensitivity, mental depth, pleasure, a source of blessing and abundance, spiritual harmony, extra-sensory perception
Reversed: an excess of emotion that may cloud the mind, lack, intoxication

The RWS Ace of Cups shows the Holy Grail and other Christian imagery. Four streams of water overflow the brim into a lily pond. Each droplet around the falling water looks like the letter yud (י), which is said to represent divine grace.

Generally, the Ace of Cups indicates the gift of emotions, emotional awareness, compassion, creativity, a new love, and healing. It can also indicate repressed emotions, the mistrust of one’s own intuition, or the need for spiritual nourishment.

The contemplated Raziel Tarot version of this card will show the silver goblet of Yosef the Diviner. (B’reisheet, Genesis, 44:1-5)

A biblical verse for this card might be: My cup runneth over. - Tehillim (Psalms) 23:5

Ace of Swords
Element: Air
Direction: East

Arieli’s Ace of Swords shows a human hand holding a fragrant myrtle branch, and a tablecloth embroidered with the words, “Who creates varieties of spices,” from the second blessing of the havdalah ritual. In the background a night sky is speckled with stars.

The elemental assignment of Air to this suit is indicated by besamim, the spices that we smell during havdalah, to revive the spirit which is saddened by the departure of the extra soul (neshama yetaira) each of us received on Shabbat, and to renew our love for this world.

The sense of smell is connected to memory and to our souls. After God created the first human from the earth, he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Tradition says that Moshiach will rely on the sense of smell to judge the fitness of the world and that he will arrive in the month of Cheshvan, which the Sefer Yetzirah associates with the sense of smell.

Arieli assigns these meanings to his Ace of Swords:

Upright: sharp mind, discernment, courage, determination, decisiveness, and powers of persuasion
Reversed: recklessness, sarcasm, cruelty

The RWS Ace of Swords shows a Divine Hand holindg a sword. A crown and garlands encircle the tip of the upraised sword and six yuds (י) hover above the griYud is the first letter of the Divine Name and represents grace.

Generally, the Ace of Swords indicates the gift of intellect, mental clarity and energy, articulate speech, idealism, spiritual strength, and victory. It can also indicate aggression, cruelty, deception, confusion, sorrow, a failure to think things through, or an awareness of the suffering of life.

The contemplated Raziel Tarot version of this card will show the Sword of David.

A biblical verse for this card might be: And he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, ‘See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. - Breisheet (Genesis) 27:27

Ace of Candles
Element: Fire
Direction: North

Against a sky still glowing brightly from sunset, a human hand holds a multi-wicked havdalah candle above a tablecloth that is embroidered with the Hebrew words, “Who creates the lights of the fire.” That is the third blessing of havdalah. The multi-wicked candle represents the letter shin (ש), which the Sefer Yetzirah associates with the element of fire.

The creation and use of fire, prohibited on Shabbat, marks the end of Shabbat. When darkness first descended in Gan Eden, Adam and Eve were afraid, but God taught them to make fire by striking two stones together. Each Motza'ei Shabbat, we are reminded of our ability to combat darkness. While we say the blessing for making fire, we gaze at our fingernails to see the reflected light of the havdalah flame, this is a reference a myth in which Adam carried light down from heaven in his fingernails. The elemental attribution of fire to this suit also suggests a connection to the introductory prayer of the havdalah ritual. “The Jews had light, happiness, joy and honor, may we have the same.”

Arieli assigns these meanings to the Ace of Candles:

Upright: desire, energy, impulsiveness, aspiration, ambition heat, joy
Reversed: irritability, pride, arrogance

In the RWS Ace of Wands, a hand emerging from a cloud, holds a staff, reminiscent of the flowering rod of Aaron, the high priest. In the distance, a river and a castle on a hill are dimly visible.

Generally, the Ace of Wands represents the gift of spirit, life force, inner strength, sexual desire, desire for growth, optimism, and inspiration. It can also indicate hesitation, setbacks, lack of motivation, not trusting your instincts or your ability to heal.

The Ace of Wands contemplated for The Raziel Tarot will show the staff of Aaron.

A biblical verse for this card might be: For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived? - Dvarim, Deuteronomy 5:22

Ace of Coins
Element: Earth
Direction: West

The Arieli Ace of Coins shows a human hand holding a large coin inscribed with a Magen David. Below is a tablecloth embroidered with the Hebrew words, “Who distinguishes between the sacred and the secular.” Light from the setting sun is discernable on the horizon.

The suit of Coins represents the element of Earth. Arieli notes that, although no coin is used in havdalah, the ritual is a transition from sacred time when work is prohibited to ordinary time. In other words, havdalah welcomes the possibility of joyfully resuming work, creativity, and earning.

Arieli assigns these meanings to the Ace of Coins:

Upright: pragmatism, realism, practical experience, material resources, patience, resilience, tradition or anything else you can rely on
Reversed: apathy, laziness, inflexibility, fixation, inflexibility

In the RWS Ace of Pentacles, a hand emerges from a cloud, holding a large disc inscribed with the Seal of Solomon. Below, a path leads from a garden through a leafy arbor to blue mountains in the distance.

Generally, the Ace of Pentacles represents the awe-inspiring gift of the physical world. The Golden Dawn changed the suit from Coins to Pentacles as a reminder of the divine within the physical realm. This card indicates prosperity and sanctuary, a new path you can choose, or a chance to plant a seed. In some way, you are responsible for creating this new opportunity. The Ace of Pentacles implies both bounty and hardship. Reversed, it may suggest ingratitude, lack of planning, or a false sense of security. Whenever a Pentacle represents money, it is important to be wary of greed and to remember: “Justice, justice, shalt thou pursue.” (Dvarim, Deuteronomy, 16:20)

In the version contemplated for The Raziel Tarot, the Ace of Wands will be Seal of Solomon.

A biblical verse for this card might be: We will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. - Micah 4:5

Deck Review: Tarot Yehudi by Betzalel Arieli

During my trip to Tel Aviv yesterday, while walking back to the train station, I stopped at my favorite store in Dizengoff Center.

The store is called Fairies Forest. It takes up two store fronts and is bursting with goodies that would, in other countries, fill four or five New Age stores. They mostly carry Lo Scarabeo decks from Italy and a few Russian decks, but I enjoy seeing what decks they have as well as browsing through fairy tchotchkes, Hebrew oracle decks, fantasy movie paraphernalia, Tolkien books (in English!), and other New Agey gifts. 

Today I saw the kind of deck I've wanted for years and, in fact, started to create: a Jewish tarot deck. It's the Tarot Yehudi by Betzalel Arieli. I was fascinated and even had the clerk take one box out of the locked cabinet. I struggled to make up my mind because tarot decks here cost more than twice what they do in the U.S. I began to walk out of the store without buying it, but then asked myself how often I get to Tel Aviv...

This morning, I explored my new deck while lounging next to the Gulf at 9Beach. Here are some of images of my unboxing:

טארוט יהודי - בצלאל אריאלי

Deck quality: The deck is thicker than I'm used to and the cards are glossy enough to slide in every direction when I remove them from the box. It looks as if the cellophane covering each card may wear off quickly, damaging the cards, if the deck is shuffled much. The figures in the cards are predominantly male; I count 21 women and two babies of indeterminate gender in the deck. (The quintessential Jewish image of a woman lighting Shabbos candles is missing from the deck; in fact, only one card, the Four of Candles, shows Shabbat candles.) However, the card images and the organization of the deck are fascinating!

The Aces show human hands holding ritual objects related to the Havdalah ritual, rather than the hand of God offering gifts to us. The Aces in Arieli's tarot show humans becoming the primary partner in creation. "As below, so above."

The Princesses (represented by the prophets Miriam, Huldah, Avigail, and Devorah) correspond with the four elements. These are the Pages of the RWS, figures that are typically shown accepting the Divine gift represented by the Ace of their suit.

The remaining Court cards are aligned with regions of the zodiac. Fire signs (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius) are the King, Queen, and Prince of Candles. Earth signs are represented by Coins, air signs by Swords, and water signs by Cups.

The numbered cards of the Minor Arcana are not clones of the Rider Waite Smith deck, in fact, they stray pretty far from it. Following are the Three of Wands, Six of Cups, Six of Swords, and Nine of Pentacles:

Printed on each numbered Minor Arcana is a month of the Hebrew year, a region of the zodiac, and a sfirah on the Tree of Life-- all the twos are Ḥokmah (חָכְמָה), all the threes are Binah (בִּינָה), and so forth down to ten and Malkhut.

The Two, Three, and Four of Candles are aligned with the zodiac sign Aries and the month of Nisan (נִיסָן), in which Jews observe the Shabbat HaChodesh, Shabbat HaGadol, Ta'anit Bechorot, Passover, and the beginning of the Counting of the Omer.

Nisan falls in the half of the year called "The Days of Sun." Nisan and the other two months of spring are represented by three Wands, three Coins, and three Swords.

The Majors are aligned, unusually, with Sfirot on the Tree of Life. The Fool card, called Divine Breath, and is number 1, so it and cards 10 (The Prophet) and 19 (The Moon) are aligned with Keter, Crown. 

Since The High Priestess card, called HaShekhinah, is aligned with Binah, the third sfirah on the Tree of Life, she is given the third letter of the alphabet, gimmel, rather than the letter beit, which I usually associate her with.

The Magician card, called The Sage, seems to reflect Christian ceremonial magic-- I don't know how much the symbols reflect actual Jewish mysticism.

None of the Majors, only the number 10 cards of the Minor suits, are aligned with Malkhut, Kingdom.

Fairies Forest had decks for sale in both Hebrew and Russian. Images on the website seem to indicate that an English language version has also been published (with quirky transliterations of the sfirot).  

YouTube video of the Major Arcana

The video says that there are references to the planets in the cards, presumably the Majors, but I haven't found them yet.

Multilingual website (just click on the Union Jack for English)

You can view the cards with Hebrew, Russian, or English titles and descriptions. The English description of the cards on the website doesn't seem to contain exactly the same information as the LWB.

The LWB is in Hebrew (without vowels), so I'm relying on Google Translate. This has yielded several good laughs-- for example, this supposed quote from Megillat Esther: "And take Asparagus to the king on the eve of his kingdom on the tenth month, the new moon, at seven."

Of course, I'll turn to the website and the LWB, but I think the fun part of learning this deck will be creating my own meanings for the cards from my Jewish knowledge and memories and from the Sefer Yetzirah and other Jewish sources.

(I've used the image of the Two of Swords here because that card leaped out of the deck when I first unboxed it.)

Following are images of a few of the Major Arcana cards. The Empress is represented by Queen Esther, The Hierophant by Aharon (Aaron), Strength by Shimshon (Samson), and The Star by Batsheva (Bathsheba).

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, 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 Sefer Yetzirah, and in Donald Tyson's revised Golden Dawn correspondences.

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)

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

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?

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

A Jewish Medicine Wheel

I recently learned that each of the sephirot in Kabbalah was originally a direction or an element. In some early depictions of the "Tree of Life," the sephirot are arranged in a circle instead of in three columns.

"Visualize up and down, east and west, water and air-- and if
you visualize them in the right place, you'll be in the Temple."
(Rabbi Kohenet Jill Hammer)

I've created the following wheel (gilgal) using correspondences found on the internet:

The stones in this image were taken from Sun Bear's Medicine wheel on this page.  Some of my Hebrew labels may be flawed; please feel free to correct me.

The Kabbalistic Wheel

Occasionally, you'll come across a depiction of the ten sephirot arranged in a circle rather than in the three columns that make up the more common image of the Tree of Life. In her audio presentation, Shekhinah as Mourner, Jill Hammer mentions that early Jewish mysticism was architectural, an attempt to figure out how the Temple could be rebuilt internally. Originally, the sephirot represented directions and elements.

This intrigues me. The Tree of Life may be a Medicine Wheel!

A quick internet search lead me to an article about the directions associated with the various sephirot:

East  Mizrach	Tiferet "Beauty"	6
South  Darom	Chesed "Kindness"	4
West  Ma'arav	Yesod "Foundation"	9
North  Tzafon	Gevurah "Strength"	5
Up  L'maalah	Netzach "Victory"	7
Down Metachat	Hod "Splendor"	8
Holy of Holies  Merkaz	Da'at "Knowledge"	0
Beginning (Fire) Reishit	Chokmah "Wisdom"	2
End (Water)  Sof	Binah "Understanding"	3
Good (Air)  Tov	Keter "Crown"	1
Evil Ra	Malkuth "Kingship"	10

One obvious difference between Kabbalah and Native American beliefs regards the sanctity of the world. The Creator Stone is in the center of Native American medicine wheels. Ayn Sof is outside of the Jewish medicine wheel. The Kabbalists posited that God contracted to make an empty space in which to create the world. While there are divine sparks in the world and there is a Divine Presence who has gone into exile with us; the sacred, in Jewish belief, is primarily transcendent, not immanent... well, except for the Shekhinah...

Clarity of Vision and Purpose

Fountain Tarot

Today's card is The Magician. Rather than discuss the imagery of the card, I am going to explore its occult significance. I will be relying on attributions put forward by Donald Tyson. This topic is new to me so I'd appreciate comments.

Most often, The Magician is associated with the Hebrew letter bet. Bet, which also means house and begins the word for blessing, would seem to belong to The High Priestess, the temple keeper. Tyson links The Magician to the letter gimel.

Tyson's attribution immediately poses a problem. In the Zohar, the letter gimel is paired with the letter dalet. So you would conclude that The Magician (associated with gimel) and The Empress (associated with dalet) must also be a pair.

This connection is unexpected since The Magician, usually described in terms of the conscious mind, is often contrasted with the unconscious represented by The Priestess. The association of The Empress with dalet is more unexpected. Gimel is called a benefactor and dalet is called poverty. This seems counter intuitive because The Empress is the card of abundance and creativity; she is the one who nurtures all life.

When the Holy One desired to create the world, each of the letters came before Him and said, may it please You to create the world with me... The letters Dalet and Gimel entered [together]... He told them also be satisfied with being with each other, because there will always be poor men on Earth, and they should be given a benefactor. The letter Dalet is poor because it is called Dalet, from poverty (Heb. dalut), and the Gimel reciprocates as a benefactor (Heb. gomelet) to Dalet. Therefore do not leave each other, and it should suffice you that you sustain one another.

Universal Waite Tarot

(Gomelet, benefactor, is feminine here. We are used to the phrase gomel chasadim tovim-- who bestows kindly goodness-- being directed to a male divinity in the first blessing of the Amidah.)

So, the Empress has no wealth of her own and requires a benefactor. If The Magician is her benefactor, from where does he acquire the abundance that he shares with her?

Perhaps he receives it from The Priestess, the card immediately preceding him. That card's letter is bet, which means house or temple. The Empress's letter, dalet, means door. The Priestess tends the supernal temple, dwelling place of the Divine, and the Empress is the door of this world. The Magician stands between them, channeling blessings from the heavens to the Earth. The Supernal Mother, not Mother Earth, is the ultimate source "from whom all blessings flow."

The lesson of The Empress may be that we possess nothing, but what is the lesson of The Magician? Does he point to the the ultimate source of all abundance? Is he a reminder that to do our best work in the world, we must allow ourselves to be channels of a higher power?

Robin Wood Tarot

Those possibilities seem to be reflected in stance of figure in the Waite deck, his arms directing energy from the heavens to Earth. In the Fountain Tarot (top of post), the infinity symbol above the suit symbols could also be interpreted in those ways, but I am captivated by the eyes of that magician. They remind me of a recent parasha in which an older Joseph's clarity of vision helped him understand dreams, recognize his brothers, and act with the knowledge that god was guiding events.

It seems that contemplating the Kabbalistic associations to interpret the cards can be fruitful, too. My limited knowledge of Kabbalah, Hebrew, and astrology will prevent me from delving deeply into this side of tarot. So relying on the imagery of the cards to stimulate my intuition will probably remain my preferred method of reading the cards, but it is fun and interesting to pull some Judaism from the depths of my memory while playing with tarot cards. 

Esoteric Tarot

I've begun studying the occult aspects of tarot. In anticipation creating my own deck, I will try to explain the tarot attributions I'll be relying on.

The association of Hebrew letters with Tarot's Major Arcana cards was made explicit by members of the Golden Dawn in the 19th century who relied on a Jewish Kabbalistic text, the Sefer Yetzirah.

In the Sefer Yetzirah the letters alef, mem, and shin are associated with celestial air, celestial water, and celestial fire. Seven of the Hebrew letters (the six begedkefet and one guttural) are associated with seven celestial bodies. The remaining letters are associated with twelve regions of the zodiac.

The Golden Dawn applied the zodiac signs (and thus, the single letters), in their natural order, to the Major Arcana cards in their numeric order. They did not do the same with the celestial bodies (and double letters) because the symbolism of the Majors in their traditional numeric order and the symbolism of the celestial bodies (in order of their apparent speed) do not align.

To place the first astrological planet, the Moon, on the first Double letter would result in the planet the Moon being linked with the Magician. The Moon is a feminine planet, whereas the Magician is a strongly masculine trump. Similarly, the second planet... Mercury, would fall on the trump the High Priestess. This also seems incorrect. Mercury is a masculine planet, and is associated with magic, but the High Priestess is a feminine trump and is associated with mystery.

So he put Mercury first and the Moon second. (He also inverted Strength and Justice to make the numeric order of the cards match the order of the zodiac signs.)

Donald Tyson found that this wasn't ideal and changed the sequence of the Major Arcana so that the celestial bodies assigned to them would be in order from fastest to slowest: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. In his system, The High Priestess is the first card after The Fool, The Magician is the second card, Temperance is the seventh card, and the Chariot is the fourteenth.

To my mind, the warlike Archer is a much more appropriate zodiac sign for a trump of war than the Crab, particularly since chariots were used as mobile platforms for archers during war. On the other hand, feminine and nurturing Cancer seems well suited to Temperance. There is a natural yin-yang balance in the glyph of Cancer itself, which resembles the symbolism on the traditional version of the trump Temperance of two vessels linked by a stream of liquid.

In the Golden Dawn system, the Wheel of Fortune is linked to Jupiter and The Sun to the sun. Tyson disagrees with those associations.

If the natural order of the planets is to be preserved, we must assign the astrological Sun to the trump the Wheel. And what could be a more perfect fit? The Sun is the great wheel of the heavens. It has been depicted in this way in the mythology of countless cultures. It is a good deal more appropriate, symbolically, than Jupiter.

When we come to the trump the Sun, which receives the astrological planet the Sun in the Golden Dawn correspondences, we must use another planet since the Sun has been linked to the Wheel of Fortune. The obvious choice is Jupiter, termed in astrology the Greater Fortune and renowned for its beneficence, and Jupiter falls here naturally in the order of planets.

Some critics may object that the most natural planet for the trump the Sun is surely the planet the Sun. Yet, if this is so, why is it that the planet the Moon is never assigned to the trump the Moon? It seems to me that either both Sun and Moon should be linked to the trumps that bear their names, or neither should be so linked. Since the astrological Moon has never been placed on the trump the Moon, I have no reluctance to associate the trump the Sun with the planet Jupiter.

Lacking any background in esoteric studies, I can only say that Tyson's system feels right.

Tyson's re-sequencing of the Majors slightly alters the "Tarot Tableau." The Tableau is an arrangement of the Majors in three rows of seven, with The Fool above. It is purported to illustrate different levels of consciousness. At one level of consciousness, you may be experiencing Temperance, but at a higher level of consciousness, you learn the lessons of The Chariot, and at a still higher level, the lessons of The World.

My meditations on the traditional Tarot Tableau have seldom yielded significant insights. Arranging the Tableau in Tyson's sequence was immediately illuminating. The Priestess, Strength, and The Devil each address the powers of the unconscious. The Magician, Hermit, and The Tower are about our world view.

The attributions in the table above are the ones I will rely on when studying the Major Arcana. Since the concepts connecting the letters and the cards are primarily astrological, I will have to learn a little about astrology at some point. Initially, however, I will focus on the meanings of the Hebrew letters.