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anarfeaOkay so I promised to talk about the minor arcana, the 56 tarot cards that resemble a regular deck of playing cards with an additional court card. But before we can do this we need to back up and talk about the Qabalah, which influenced The Golden Dawn and Crowley heavily. Notes here that I am not Jewish, and I'm talking here about the hermetic Qabalah, which draws on the Jewish Kabbalah but also looks to Roman and Egyptian mythology, Christianity, and other sources, and is by no means a "pure" Kabbalah but of course owes a great deal to it.
So, let's start by talking about the tetragrammaton, the sacred Jewish name for god, written as YHVH (יהוה) and pronounced, well, no one is exactly sure because biblical Hebrew doesn't have written vowels, and meditating on the possible pronunciations of the name of God is something that practitioners of Judaism hold sacred, but it's usually transcribed as Jehovah or Yaweh. Now, you will note that there are four letters in the tetragrammaton, and the number four is really important in Qabalistic thought. There are four worlds (planes of existence) and four parts of the soul in Qabalistic belief, and this corresponds to the four elements and, you guessed it--the four suits of the minor arcana and the four court cards.
So, let's start with י
That's the Hebrew letter Yod, and it stands for the Archetypal World, or Atzilut. This is the most abstract of the worlds, associated with pure divine consciousness. This world's element is Fire. The part of the soul is the Chiah (life force). It's associated with the suit of Wands and with the King (in the Thoth tarot, Knight) court cards.
Next comes ה. That's the Hebrew letter He, and it stands for the Creative World, or Beriah. This is the world of the archangels. The part of the soul is the Neshamah, or part of the soul able to sense divine intuition. This world's element is Water. It's associated with the suit of Cups and with the Queen court cards.
Next comes ו.That's the Hebrew letter Vau, and it stands for the Formative World, or Yetzirah. This world's element is Air. The part of the soul is the rauch, or intellect (also the part of the soul able to distinguish between good and evil). This is the world where concepts of things exist. It's associated with the suit of Swords and with the Prince (sometimes Knight) court cards.
Finally, we have the second ה. It stands for the Material World, or Assiah. This is our physical plane of existence. The part of the soul is the Nephesh, or animal soul (instinct). This world's element is Earth. It's associated with the suit of Pentacles and with the Princess (sometimes Page) court cards.
Now, lets move on to the rest of the small cards. These are best understood if we look at the Tree of Life, which is super important for understanding the tarot.
So the Tree of Life, like our Rose Cross of Manifestation, is about the origin of the Universe. Light descending into matter. God becoming us. Or, as Lon Milo DuQuette calls it, "the real fall of man."
So, according to the Sephir Yetzirah (Book of Formation), an important Kabbalistic text, God created the universe using the sacred Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters and 32 paths. You can see these paths on the Tree of Life, which show the name of each Hebrew letter which corresponds to the paths of the 10 Sephirot. I know I'm meant to be talking about the minor arcana, but I will digress a bit to mention that there are 22 Trumps and 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. Each letter corresponds to one Trump, and they each have their place on the Tree of Life. (The Trumps correspond to the letters in sequence, with the exception of Tzaddi and He, which are switched, much like Justice/Adjustment and Strength/Lust are switched, and for basically the same reason but it's complex and has to do with twisting the zodiac and I won't get into it here).
For the purposes of understanding the minor arcana, though, we are more interested in the 10 Sephirot. These neatly align to the ten numbered cards in each suit. Let's talk about each of the Sephirot:
Kether (Crown): Sphere of the Premium mobile. Divine consciousness. The union of Chokmah and Binah. Represented by the aces.
Chokmah (Wisdom): Sphere of the zodiac. Supreme male concept. Represented by the twos. Also the Kings.
Binah (Understanding): Sphere of Saturn. Supreme female concept. Represented by the threes. Also the Queens.
Chesed (Mercy): Sphere of Jupiter. Ruled by the Demiurge. Materialization. Rule of law. Represented by the fours
Geburah (Strength/Severity): Sphere of Mars. Movement, strife, stress. Represented by the fives
Tiphareth (Beauty): Sphere of the Sun: Energy in its complete balanced manifestation. Represented by the sixes. Also the Princes.
Netzach (Victory): Sphere of Venus: Masculine female (unbalanced). Represented by the sevens.
Hod (Splendor): Sphere of Mercury: Feminine male (unbalanced). Represented by the eights.
Yesod (Foundation): Sphere of the Moon: Crystallization of energy. Represented by the nines.
Malkuth (Kingdom): Sphere of Earth: The end of all energy. The physical plane. Represented by the tens. Also the Princesses.
The first three Sephirot are arranged like a crown and are above a line called "the abyss." Here in the top, we are still in touch with the divine, and the meanings of the minor cards are the most abstract. Aces are beginnings, the pure form of their suit. Also they contain the court cards within them (Kings are the fiery parts of their suit, Queens are the watery parts of their suit, Princes are the airy parts of their suit, Princesses are the earthy parts of their suit). Twos are balanced. Threes are the epitome of the suit.
Once we get into the fours, we cross the abyss. Chessed is ruled by something called the Demiurge, which is to say, the Demigod, as opposed to the Supreme God (Elohim). This God (Jupiter, Jehovah, etc) believes it created the universe and can't think of a power higher than itself. Thus the fours all think they are the aces of their suit. These also tend to be balanced and somewhat rigid. Geburah represents strife and stress, which means the fives suck. This is true across all suits. Sixes, on the other hand, are wonderful. They represent Tiphareth, or beauty, and are all balanced, and are some of the best cards in the deck.
Sevens (Netzach/Victory) are unbalanced and suck. Eights (Hod/Splendor) aren't that great either, but they are also running out of energy. Nines are balanced but again, running out of energy. By the time we get to the tens we have the culmination of each suit, where it reaches the end of it's journey.
Since we have a four part world (YHVH), we actually have four Trees of Life, one for each world. When we get to the bottom of one tree, we start at the top of the other. And when we get to the bottom of the last tree, the Princess of Pentacles/Disks, we go all the way up to the top of the tarot again. This is made possible by a bunch of mercurial energy and the card of the Magus which carries the Princess of Disks up to The Fool, but that's a subject for another essay.
Whew. That was a lot. But now you understand a lot about the Qabalah. And the small cards. But there are other forces acting on the small cards aside from their place on the Tree of Life. And those are the signs of the zodiac and the planets. But that's the topic of my next post.
All of the information here comes from Lon Milo DuQuette's books Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot and The Chicken Qabalah.
So, let's start by talking about the tetragrammaton, the sacred Jewish name for god, written as YHVH (יהוה) and pronounced, well, no one is exactly sure because biblical Hebrew doesn't have written vowels, and meditating on the possible pronunciations of the name of God is something that practitioners of Judaism hold sacred, but it's usually transcribed as Jehovah or Yaweh. Now, you will note that there are four letters in the tetragrammaton, and the number four is really important in Qabalistic thought. There are four worlds (planes of existence) and four parts of the soul in Qabalistic belief, and this corresponds to the four elements and, you guessed it--the four suits of the minor arcana and the four court cards.
So, let's start with י
That's the Hebrew letter Yod, and it stands for the Archetypal World, or Atzilut. This is the most abstract of the worlds, associated with pure divine consciousness. This world's element is Fire. The part of the soul is the Chiah (life force). It's associated with the suit of Wands and with the King (in the Thoth tarot, Knight) court cards.
Next comes ה. That's the Hebrew letter He, and it stands for the Creative World, or Beriah. This is the world of the archangels. The part of the soul is the Neshamah, or part of the soul able to sense divine intuition. This world's element is Water. It's associated with the suit of Cups and with the Queen court cards.
Next comes ו.That's the Hebrew letter Vau, and it stands for the Formative World, or Yetzirah. This world's element is Air. The part of the soul is the rauch, or intellect (also the part of the soul able to distinguish between good and evil). This is the world where concepts of things exist. It's associated with the suit of Swords and with the Prince (sometimes Knight) court cards.
Finally, we have the second ה. It stands for the Material World, or Assiah. This is our physical plane of existence. The part of the soul is the Nephesh, or animal soul (instinct). This world's element is Earth. It's associated with the suit of Pentacles and with the Princess (sometimes Page) court cards.
Now, lets move on to the rest of the small cards. These are best understood if we look at the Tree of Life, which is super important for understanding the tarot.
So the Tree of Life, like our Rose Cross of Manifestation, is about the origin of the Universe. Light descending into matter. God becoming us. Or, as Lon Milo DuQuette calls it, "the real fall of man."
So, according to the Sephir Yetzirah (Book of Formation), an important Kabbalistic text, God created the universe using the sacred Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters and 32 paths. You can see these paths on the Tree of Life, which show the name of each Hebrew letter which corresponds to the paths of the 10 Sephirot. I know I'm meant to be talking about the minor arcana, but I will digress a bit to mention that there are 22 Trumps and 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. Each letter corresponds to one Trump, and they each have their place on the Tree of Life. (The Trumps correspond to the letters in sequence, with the exception of Tzaddi and He, which are switched, much like Justice/Adjustment and Strength/Lust are switched, and for basically the same reason but it's complex and has to do with twisting the zodiac and I won't get into it here).
For the purposes of understanding the minor arcana, though, we are more interested in the 10 Sephirot. These neatly align to the ten numbered cards in each suit. Let's talk about each of the Sephirot:
Kether (Crown): Sphere of the Premium mobile. Divine consciousness. The union of Chokmah and Binah. Represented by the aces.
Chokmah (Wisdom): Sphere of the zodiac. Supreme male concept. Represented by the twos. Also the Kings.
Binah (Understanding): Sphere of Saturn. Supreme female concept. Represented by the threes. Also the Queens.
Chesed (Mercy): Sphere of Jupiter. Ruled by the Demiurge. Materialization. Rule of law. Represented by the fours
Geburah (Strength/Severity): Sphere of Mars. Movement, strife, stress. Represented by the fives
Tiphareth (Beauty): Sphere of the Sun: Energy in its complete balanced manifestation. Represented by the sixes. Also the Princes.
Netzach (Victory): Sphere of Venus: Masculine female (unbalanced). Represented by the sevens.
Hod (Splendor): Sphere of Mercury: Feminine male (unbalanced). Represented by the eights.
Yesod (Foundation): Sphere of the Moon: Crystallization of energy. Represented by the nines.
Malkuth (Kingdom): Sphere of Earth: The end of all energy. The physical plane. Represented by the tens. Also the Princesses.
The first three Sephirot are arranged like a crown and are above a line called "the abyss." Here in the top, we are still in touch with the divine, and the meanings of the minor cards are the most abstract. Aces are beginnings, the pure form of their suit. Also they contain the court cards within them (Kings are the fiery parts of their suit, Queens are the watery parts of their suit, Princes are the airy parts of their suit, Princesses are the earthy parts of their suit). Twos are balanced. Threes are the epitome of the suit.
Once we get into the fours, we cross the abyss. Chessed is ruled by something called the Demiurge, which is to say, the Demigod, as opposed to the Supreme God (Elohim). This God (Jupiter, Jehovah, etc) believes it created the universe and can't think of a power higher than itself. Thus the fours all think they are the aces of their suit. These also tend to be balanced and somewhat rigid. Geburah represents strife and stress, which means the fives suck. This is true across all suits. Sixes, on the other hand, are wonderful. They represent Tiphareth, or beauty, and are all balanced, and are some of the best cards in the deck.
Sevens (Netzach/Victory) are unbalanced and suck. Eights (Hod/Splendor) aren't that great either, but they are also running out of energy. Nines are balanced but again, running out of energy. By the time we get to the tens we have the culmination of each suit, where it reaches the end of it's journey.
Since we have a four part world (YHVH), we actually have four Trees of Life, one for each world. When we get to the bottom of one tree, we start at the top of the other. And when we get to the bottom of the last tree, the Princess of Pentacles/Disks, we go all the way up to the top of the tarot again. This is made possible by a bunch of mercurial energy and the card of the Magus which carries the Princess of Disks up to The Fool, but that's a subject for another essay.
Whew. That was a lot. But now you understand a lot about the Qabalah. And the small cards. But there are other forces acting on the small cards aside from their place on the Tree of Life. And those are the signs of the zodiac and the planets. But that's the topic of my next post.
All of the information here comes from Lon Milo DuQuette's books Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot and The Chicken Qabalah.
