Working with multiple trees

La'al quiet fella

Beggar and fountain

Does anyone know of any basis for 2 missing paths/cards to be titled the beggar and the fountain? They would cross from chesed, through daath, to binah?

Thanks
 

smw

Does anyone know of any basis for 2 missing paths/cards to be titled the beggar and the fountain? They would cross from chesed, through daath, to binah?

Thanks

There seems to be reference to them in Alan Moore's Promethea. The beggar is the lost tarot card when entering Daa'th and leads from Chesed. The fountain for when leaving D'aath and leads up to Binah.

Found this here -:

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/eroomnala/CI.html

Elsewhere it was mentioned from the novel that in it, 'Austin Osman Spare explains to them what the Tree was like before the fall, and how Daath was a Sephirah in its own right, with Paths leading to and from it-- The Beggar (Chesed-Daath) and The Fountain (Daath-Binah)'.

Maybe Austin Osman Spare is a possible source? Apparently he created his own tarot deck which was identified in 2013 and has been compiled in to a book for sale early 2016. Some editions have already been sold out.

http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/lost-envoy/
 

Aeon418

Food for thought .............. at least in theory .....
Jim Eshelman said:
"Secret Paths" is probably not the best word... but there are what are called "Hidden Paths" which, basically, are connections between any two sephiroth where there isn't already a known Path or where you aren't tracing over another.

So, the 16 Hidden Paths are:
10-5, 10-4, 10-3, 10-2
9-5, 9-4, 9-3, 9-2
8-2, 8-1, 7-3, 7-1
5-2, 5-1, 4-3, 4-1

Notice that, in the path of advancement (the course of initiation), these aren't at all relevant until 6=5 (Geburah), because the first one is the opening of Malkuth to Geburah.

Why are these hidden? One has to speculate. My view is that the 22 Paths identified to us (and matching the 22 Hebrew letters) were the specific ones identified as relevant to humanity, the structure of its psyche, and the path of its evolution at the present stage of our development. Nonetheless, those who have attained Geburah and higher have sometimes reported an increasing relevance of such "Hidden Paths," or at least of the theory behind them.
 

La'al quiet fella

Thank you

I had only come across the idea of secret paths as SMW says in Promethea and figured there would be more to it.

Thank you both very much for sharing your knowledge, it opens many doors for further exploration of the tree.

Hugely appreciated. Thank you.
 

smw

Food for thought .............. at least in theory .....

I was just thinking it would make a complicated, if not messy looking tree if the missing paths were included. As it is Tiphareth looks like the heart of the tree, being the only one to have direct paths to all the Sephira, (apart from Malkuth).

eta ( I guess that is pretty obvious ... slow here :laugh:)
 

Hythlodaeus

I'm running into this exact same problem: which Tree's attributions make the most sense to me. Or, rather, which ones resonate most deeply.

I started with the Golden Dawn and, because of the time I've invested in it, seem to come back to it again and again.

When I experiment with a system, the weakest link for me is a card's assignment to a path, followed by its connection to a letter. For example, I find the beautiful and terrifying descriptions of the Priestess on the path between Tiphareth and Kether quite compelling; however, others like Justice/Libra on the diagonal path between Gevurah and Tiphareth are more of a mental stretch. Similarly, while the Hierophant as Vav/the Nail that binds the Above to the Below adds additional depth to the card's meaning, I struggle with the connection between Aiyn/Eye and the Devil, or Peh/Mouth and The Tower.

I've also experimented with Levi's "Continental" attributions. Again, while the connection between Zayin/Sword and the Chariot makes perfect sense, Justice as Cheth/Cancer makes a lot less sense than Justice as Lamed/Libra in the GD scheme.

In terms of the letters on the paths themselves, I am drawn to the symmetry/logic of models like the Gra/Unfallen Tree where the 3 Mother letters are assigned to the 3 horizontal paths, the 7 Double letters go on the 7 vertical paths, and the 12 Simples fall on the 12 diagonal paths.

There is also the "Restored" Tree in Frater Achad's Egyptian Revival, where the trumps are assigned according to their relationship with the Sephiroth and follow a logical and convincing overarching theme. I don't see a lot of references to this scheme and wondered about others' experience with it...

Anyway, as several other posters have pointed out, I think a system's value depends on its power to deepen one's spiritual development. As of now, I'm experimenting with multiple Trees and "systems" as a way to deepen my understanding of the cards and peel away the layers that conceal the archetype buried within.
 

JackofWands

Interesting thoughts! These days, I'm working pretty much with the Gra Tree--a symmetrical (oh, God, I nearly misspelled that word and it looked disastrous) structure that doesn't show the "fall" of Daath to Malkuth or the presence of the Abyss. I have the twelve zodiacal cards assigned to the twelve diagonal paths, the planetary cards on the vertical paths, and the elementary cards on the horizontal paths. There are still some problems (the High priestess falls on the path between Chokmah and Chesed, which is perhaps less than perfect), but because I can see an underlying structure to all of it, I have an easier time working with it when I do run up against a wall.

I still use the Kircher Tree whenever I'm making public reference to "Tarot's Kabbalistic correspondences", though. The Gra Tree is just for my own personal use. In that sense, I still have two trees: one public and one private. (Luria, on the other hand, has sort of fallen by the wayside. The structure of his Tree is interesting enough, but I haven't been able to get much out of it.)
 

Hythlodaeus

Yes, that sounds like the same Gra Tree I am working with! I do love the symmetry of the letter/path assignments...
I also like the idea of the public vs. private Trees.

When you use this Tree, do you stick with the GD Trump/Letter attributions (i.e. Aleph = The Fool)?
And have you ever looked at Frater Achad's "Restored" Tree?
 

JackofWands

I do keep the GD's letter attributions, because the letters (through the Sepher Yetzirah, which probably isn't all that great as foundational Kabbalistic texts go, but which is the one I always end up referring back to) are so intimately bound up with the astrological correspondences of the cards. Why is Death Scorpio? Well, because it's Nun. Why is the Emperor Aries? Because he's Heh. And so on (even though the GD did invent their own order for the planets, which I finally just stopped whinging about and memorized).

It's also worth noting that a lot of the Kabbalistic stuff isn't just a symbolic system that's overlaid on top of esoteric Tarot, but actually went into the latter's formation. For that reason, it's difficult to pull away from the GD way of doing things too much, because the GD made Tarot what it is today. (Etteila's deck is almost unrecognizable as a Tarot to modern eyes.) Retooling the organization of the Tree of Life for personal use is one thing, but I'm very careful about throwing out too much--which is the same reason that I still revert to the Kircher Tree in public discussion where consensus matters.
 

Hythlodaeus

Have you ever looked at the "Continental"/Levi attributions where Aleph = The Magician, and basically pushes each card one place back in the assignment of trumps to letters of the alphabet (i.e. Priestess = Beth, Empress = Gimmel)?
I am most familiar with the GD system but have been experimenting with the continental one more lately. I really like some of the correspondences like The Chariot = Zayin = Sword/Armour. However, others like Justice = Cheth = Cancer just don't make as much sense as the GD attribution of Justice = Lamed = Libra (the scales).
I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater so to speak, but I've really started to interrogate the correspondences.